Life
being manifested by growth: being daily transformed as His kids, His friends…
RYAN PENA / GOD IS GOOD; JESUS IS THE MODEL
Redefining deliverance, principalities and powers, strongholds and spiritual warfare, revival, intercession, prayer, worship, the prophetic, the fall, and sin, all in the context of union; in this conversation, Ryan and the guys talk about the unchangeable goodness and love of the Father, grace, union, purpose, and connection. The guys discuss how, as we grow sure in love, and as we journey further into grace, we continue to find more expansive language for union.
A Family Story 2023 / To The Jacks Of All Trades
“A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”
What? I thought as the whole story illuminated my soul. Deep within me, I sensed my heavenly Father’s laughter—as though He plays the long game. We are rich in love.
I ran inside to find my wife and read the whole story. She grinned like she does when she’s right. It’s stunning…
ROBIN & STEVE SMIT / FREE TO GIVE
In this podcast, Steve and Robin Smit share about the publishing company. TWS, and a new book, “Free To Give.” In a world where the act of giving is often burdened by expectations and legalistic constraints, “Free to Give” emerges as a guiding light of grace and liberation. If you’ve ever been shackled by the weight of ritualistic and obligatory giving or the oppressive thoughts of giving to meet performance standards, this book is your path to freedom.
TROY MCLAUGHLIN / THIS UNDIVIDED LIFE
Troy McLaughlin, host of This Undivided Life Podcast, and the guys talked about wholeness. Derek and Jason shared about their journeys and the inception of Rethinking God with Tacos. The guys talked about Jesus as perfect theology, de-reconstruction, an Emmaus Road Jesus, revelation, the resurrected Christ, the burning heart, waking up to wonder, a father’s love, the incarnation, our humanity, sufficient grace, a God who never leaves, and an undivided life.
Miriam / Chapter Seven: The Stranger
The current of the Nile River was strong at some points. But Miriam’s mother had chosen a section of the river that was calm. Even so, Miriam’s breath caught each time the basket bumped into a log or bobbed about in the current.
BRAD JERSAK / AND HE SEARCHED UNTIL HE FOUND THEM
A throughline of trust, the cross and cruciform love, the Church & Eastern Orthodoxy, Deconstruction and liberation from false constructs, leaving and finding Jesus, reorientation, faith, communion, miracles, suffering, loss, and the infinite healing love of god, abandonment and a God who never leaves, a Christocentric hermeneutic, penal substitution, eternal conscious torment and the nature of repentance, in this conversation Brad and Jason dive into Brad’s book, Out of the Embers: Faith After the Great Deconstruction.
DAVID HEWITT / RECONSTRUCTING ECCLESIA
In this conversation, David Hewitt and the guys discuss Church and deconstruction without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.’ David shares his story as a pastor as he rediscovers the ecclesia through a grace-orientated, Trinitarian lens.
MAKE ROOM WITH DEREK TURNER & JASON CLARK
Derek and Jason highlighted the connections being made on the Rethinking God with Tacos Facebook Group. The guys also discussed Derek’s new book, Make Room, a 21-day journey through the Gospel of John. Derek wrote this devotional to help strengthen our trust in our God’s unconditional love, melt fear from our hearts, and help us see ourselves through the eyes of our Father.
The conversation also touched on inerrancy and infallibility, seeing Jesus as the perfect theology, love being our guiding principle, worship songs that emphasize the finished work, and spiritual maturity.
CATHY LITTLE & MELINDA WILSON / FACE TO FACE
Face-to-face encounter, the Emanuel Approach to heart healing, the Celtic way of evangelism, mirror neurons, discipleship, transformation, belonging and becoming, renewing our minds, discovering the connection of all things, establishing identity, meditation and changing neural pathways; in this conversation, Melinda and Cathy talked about how to actually experience deep heart connection with God and each other.
MIKE ZENKER / UNDERSTANDING FORGIVENESS
“Forgiveness is an event and a process… Forgiveness came to me…” Christ, within you the hope of glory, the journey of union, discovering our identity, speaking to light within people, no us and them, no hierarchy in love, embracing mystery and asking questions, hope, forgiveness, authentic restoration, and the eternal nature of reconciliation, in this podcast the guys talk about their rethinking journey in the context of pastoring, and Mike shares his powerful story of healing and the journey of forgiveness and a hope that won’t disappoint.
RANDALL WORLEY / WHEN THE CHURCH WAS YOUNG
Theology and methodology, communal learning, asking questions and discussing false narratives, theodicy, rethinking atonement theories, the stages of faith – simplicity, complexity, perplexity, harmony (Brian McLaren), deconstruction, liturgy, the lectionary, spiral dynamics, and first-tier thinking, the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, and letting God tell our story; in this podcast, Randall and the guys talk about a theology of love as revealed through the incarnation.
PETE SCHELLER / DANCING WITH WISDOM
“For too long the image and understanding of God, the One Jesus called “Abba”, has been hidden from view or distorted beyond recognition. The unspoken cry of sons and daughters all over the world is ‘Give us our Dad back!’”
A renewed mind, western wisdom vs. God’s wisdom, theology in relational terms, and above all, a Father who doesn’t just love us, He really likes us; in this conversation, Pete Scheller shares from his new book, Dancing with Wisdom. The guys dive deep into the Father nature of God and laugh along the way.
RUSTY & ERIN PLEUNE / CREATING A CULTURE OF CONNECTION IN MARRIAGE
Hope, healing, intimacy, unconditional love, and acceptance; in this conversation, Rusty and Erin Pleune talk about the intentional steps they took to create a culture of connection in their marriage and how they now help couples do the same. They also dove into their journey of discovering community and deeper faith as they lean into the goodness of God.
The Slave/Master Paradigm Within The Church
Sadly, much of the church is full of behavior-focused, sin-counting, Older Brothers—slaving servants waxing eloquent on the master’s thoughts and plans while participating in dualism, nationalism, liberalism, moralism, wokeism, and a thousand other obligations outside of friendship.
SCHLYCE JIMENEZ / THE PATH
God to Schlyce: “You never rebelled from me; you rebelled from a version of me that was never me…” Identity, the illusion of separation, trauma triggers and healing, how to hear the voice of God, experiencing the joy and wonder of continual fellowship with God; in this conversation, Schlyce Jimenez shares about her faith journey and her book, The Path. The Path helps readers discover how their life would be different if they could know the Father like Jesus did.
With grace and humor, Jason juxtaposes an inclusive, reconciling, self-giving view of God’s love against an excluding, hierarchal, punishment-focused view of God’s love.
Based on scripture, studies, personal and shared stories, church history, and Jason’s experience as a pastor and relational theologian, Leaving and finding Jesus encourages readers to leave the broken foundations of a transactional view of God, and instead, embrace the reconciliation and self-giving love that truly transforms our lives and our world.
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Equality As Jesus Revealed It
I’m describing equality as Jesus revealed it. It’s not “equals” based on measurements; it has nothing to do with finite thinking or microscopes. I’m writing about an equality revealed by Greater Love laying down His life for His friends. Self-giving, other-centered love is the birthplace of true equality and is discovered in union.
The End Of Hierarchy In The Church
But the Brian Simmons Passion Translation of that verse is my favorite, and I think it’s infinitely more accurate—not based on my academic prowess but on what I know about love.
It reads, “I have never called you ‘servants’… But I call you my most intimate friends….”
The Church and Her Hierarchy of Exclusion
Exclusion is often the fruit of a retributive, or penal substitutionary atonement, view of the cross—as though the Father looked away, as though Jesus only died to save some, as though Greater Love didn’t reconcile all creation, as though what was lost in Adam wasn’t fully restored in Christ, as though at the cross there was a delineation between Jew or Gentile, black or white, lost or found, sinner or saint, gay or straight, republican or democrat, capitalist or socialist, Christian or Muslim…woman and ministry—as though there is still a veil that separates some from His all-inclusive, measurelessly reconciling love.
The Church and Her Inclusively Transformative Nature
You see, as I’ve left every Jesus that isn’t reconciling. I’ve also left every idea of church that isn’t built upon the Cornerstone of Greater Love. I’ve left every aspect of the church that practices us or them, in or out, for or against; and when I find I haven’t, I repent…
The Price Is Too Steep
I was heartsick and disturbed by the theological certainty he placed in the punishing nature of God—a certainty that was clearly crushing him. He was tormented over whether he’d “evangelized” enough. He wondered aloud if a prayer said in the horror of a violent car crash would be enough.
“What am I still lacking?” That was the cruel and punishing road my pastor friend traveled. He seemed to believe God counted his dad’s sins against him—and his dad had come up lacking.
My pastor friend’s pain was real, traumatizing, and tragically unnecessary.
You see, what he described to me wasn’t Christian hope. It was fatalism.
Trust Is My Throughline
Trust is the central theme of life here on earth. Trust is our throughline and the evidence of heaven coming to earth. Trust is eternal life in the ever-present now. Trust is a Triune God perfectly revealed in the God-Man, Jesus. Trust is discovered in Jesus’ prayer that we would know union as He did—first with Him, our heavenly Father, and the Holy Spirit; then with each other.
Karen Wouldn’t Say “Obey”
Control is the antithesis of intimacy and oneness. A hierarchal understanding of submission is what’s wrong with this world.
FELICIA MURRELL / EMPATHY; THE TREASURE OF THE INCARNATION
“The Spirit said to me, ‘I want you to hand to me everything that you believe to be true about God and let me hand back to you everything that is true.’”
Racism, deconstruction, shame, guilt, certainty, empathy, infinite mercy, grace, healing, and other-centered, self-giving love, in this amazing conversation, Felecia and Jason visit fear and prejudice while leaning into the AND of God’s always present, empathetic, reconciling love.
THE POLAR EXPRESS WITH JASON CLARK
“It’s Christmas Eve, and instead of dreaming of the best day of the year, the boy is in his bedroom agonizing over the universal question: Does God…sorry, I mean Santa Claus, really exist?”
In this final podcast of 2022 and season three, Jason shares a story from his first book about the Polar Express, and faith. Whether you’re tired or wide awake, full or empty, lost or found, sick or whole, you are loved by Triune God who walks beside you, will never leave you, and invites you to awaken to His affection and love. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, and goodwill toward men!”
JASON GRIMSLEY / CROSS STITCHED
“Whether I’m high or low, in heaven or hell, nothing can ever separate me from God’s love.” Jason dives into a memoir he helped his friend, baseball legend, Jason Grimsley, write. They guys talk about Jason’s wild and unbelievable life. This conversation is part storytelling, part revelation, and all testimony of the love of God.
Jason shares about several hardships he’s faced, including a botched suicide attempt and the near destruction of his marriage. The guys shared insights and wisdom for the highs and lows of life. And all along the way, they highlighted the message of the book. Cross Stitched displays the very real and present love of God and the abundant life He offers us when we surrender to Him.
Panic In The Backseat
When Karen was five, she had her first and only panic attack. It was on a Sunday, after church. She had a tummy ache and, with it, a sudden terror. What if she died? She began to hyperventilate. So, dad and mom put her in the car, where she sat in the back seat between her grandmothers. And they raced to the hospital.
In that moment of paralyzing fear, when five-year-old Karen thought she was dying, she told her grandmothers she wanted to ask Jesus into her heart.
And she did.
The Adventures of a Dyslexic Map Reader
Everything in this next story is true, metaphorically…
One day I summited a mountain. While taking in the stunning view, I discovered a systematic friend had also just arrived and was enjoying the same vista. We embraced and then, filled with wonder, reveled in our shared awe of the landscape – it was Revelation.