5 Challenges Facing the Church

What do the issues of power, justice, culture, and Jesus have in common? They are all things that church needs to figure out how to relate to! Professors David Fitch and Geoff Holsclaw talk about the 5 Challenges Facing the church as a sneak preview of the upcoming “Theology and Mission Lectures” with Stanley Hauerwas (WHICH YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS).
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Episode 025: Rob Bell LOVES The Bible

Sean and John sit down with best-selling author, provocateur, and Christian thinker, Rob Bell. More than talking about Rob’s newest book, WHAT IS THE BIBLE?, Sean, John, and Rob talk ministry in the 21st-Century, what happens when you grow in your understanding of God, burning down the house, wearing the same clothes on tour, the nature of truth, and much much more.
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Seminary Dropout 157- Tish Harrison Warren & Jonathan Warren: A Biblical, Historical, and Pastoral Defense of Women in Ministry

*Originally Posted at MissioAlliance.org Our sponsor: Compassion International Check out the new(ish) podcast OnRamp Tish Harrison Warren & Jonathan Warren talking about women in ministry and ordination. William Witt’s articles on women and holy orders: http://willgwitt.org/category/theology/womens-ordination William Webb, Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals John Stackhouse, Finally Feminist Ben Witherington, Women in the Earliest Christian Churches NT Wright’s essay on women in holy orders: http://ntwrightpage.com/2016/07/12/womens-service-in-the-church-the-biblical-basis/ Kevin Madigan, Ordained Women in the Early Church Gary Macy’s Hidden History of Women’s Ordination Gordon Hugenberger’s ‘Women in Church Office’ essay.
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Jesus’ Death: What Kind of Substitution?

Is Jesus’ death a substitute for our penalty? Or does his substitution work in a different way? After David Fitch gets a little coffee (he needed it so bad he was stuttering), he and Geoff Holsclaw about the death of Jesus, the different ways of understanding it as a substitute, and what it means for the gospel.  
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What is the Benedict Option?

Should Christians withdraw from a hostile culture? David Fitch and Geoff Holsclaw discuss Rod Dreher’s “Benedict Option” as a Christian response to American culture. While appreciative, Dave and Geoff offer points of concern and criticism.
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Against Antagonisms?

Can we find peace in a polarizing world? Can we cultivate true dialogue in a defensive world? David Fitch and Geoff Holsclaw talk about living on the thin line between stoking and reenforcing the cultural and political antagonisms of our day, and the need for staying alert to injustices in the world.
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Returning to Joy in a Troubled World

  How is joy a source of strength? Why was it joy for Jesus to endure the cross? Is joy just happy-clappy sentimentality? Mandy Smith and Scott Jones join Geoff Holsclaw to talk about the need to return to joy.
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Episode 021: Race in America

Sean and John, in partnership with The Lookout Magazine, talk race relations in America. Recorded specifically for The Lookout, this is a primer for those interested in where we are in terms of race in America and around the world and the church’s role.
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Episode 20: The Tension of Trump

Only half of eligible American voters opted-in during the 2016 election. Half of those people elected Donald Trump the 45th President of the United States. That means only 25% of Americans choose, through direct action, for Trump to be President. 
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Not So Black & White 018: Liturgy! Who Needs It?

What’s the deal with Advent? When does Christmas actually begin? What’s Lent for? What’s Ordinary Time? Isn’t the Liturgical Calendar just a leftover vestige of Catholicism and Christendom? Many folks who grow up in “free church traditions” don’t understand the liturgical calendar or why anyone would bother with it.
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Episode 017: Election Aftermath

So how are you feeling after Donald Trump’s electoral victory? Ready to call him “President-Elect” or does the thought of it make you want to curl into the fetal position? Are you happy or stung by the fact that 81% of “evangelicals” (whatever that means) supported Trump?
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Aliens and Exiles (with Dennis Edwards)

Do you need a 1st Century Church Planting Manual? Or, What does 1 Peter teach us about being faithful to Jesus? David Fitch and Geoff Holsclaw talk with Dennis Edwards, a pastor and scholar, about exiles, the vocation of the church, and submitting to all human institutions (and what that might mean).
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A Lot Has Been Going On

A lot has been going on. Sometimes the best thing to do is listen. With so much going on in America, Geoff Holsclaw and David Fitch slow down and talk with two area ministers, Juliet Liu Waite and Greg Armstrong, about what they are seeing, feeling, and experiencing, and how the future of the church is multiracial leadership.
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A Thanksgiving Survival Guide

This Thanksgiving, what are you to do when your only relationship with someone is that they are your relative? David Fitch and Geoff Holsclaw offer three quick tips on how to bring Jesus into every Thanksgiving situation without being all religious.
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Seminary Dropout 147: Shane Claiborne Talks “Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why it’s Killing Us”

Shane Claiborne graduated from Eastern University and did graduate work at Princeton Seminary. In 2010, he received an Honorary Doctorate from Eastern. His adventures have taken him from the streets of Calcutta where he worked with Mother Teresa to the wealthy suburbs of Chicago where he served at the influential mega-church Willow Creek.
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Converts Or Proselytes? The Change Jesus Makes

Does Jesus seek Proselytes or Converts? And what is the difference? David Fitch and Geoff Holsclaw discuss why the Apostle Paul was so angry with the Galatians, and whether we are called to renounce one cultural identity in favor of a new one (Proselyte Model) and or called to take up the same identity in a new way (Conversion Model).
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Seminary Dropout 143: Ann Voskamp on her new book “The Broken Way: A Daring Path Into the Abundant Life”

Ann Voskamp’s the wife of one fine, down-to-earth farmer; a book-reading mama to a posse of seven; and the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Greatest Gift and Unwrapping the Greatest Gift, and the sixty-week New York Times bestseller One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are, which has sold more than one million copies and has been translated into more than eighteen languages.
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Seminary Dropout 141: Brandon Hatmaker, Author of “A Mile Wide”

Brandon is an author, biker, humanitarian, and a huge fan of the underdog. After more than 20 years of working in the local church, He co-founded and is now the Managing Partner of The Legacy Collective (www.legacycollective.org) and The Legacy Investor Group LLC which focuses on partnering, pioneering, and funding sustainable solutions to systemic social issues.
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3 Ways (Not) to Start Your Theology

Does systematic theology have a future? And if so, where should it begin? And what does it matter? Geoff Holsclaw and regular guest Scott Jones (because Fitch is big-timing it in Pasadena) discuss the three major critiques of systematic theology and then talk about three possible ways to begin theology and how we need them all.
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3 Evangelical Off-Ramps

Are we all just reacting to various Fundamentalisms here in America? Is there a doctrinal identity or a practical mission at the center of American Evangelicalism? Is there a hidden affinity between conservative and progressive Evangelicals? 
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Seminary Dropout 139: Todd Adkins, Host of “5 Leadership Questions”

Todd Adkins is the Director of Leadership at Lifeway Christian Resources. He is passionate about the development of leaders, especially within the church. Todd served in student ministry and as an executive pastor for several years before joining the leadership at Lifeway to head up Ministry Grid, Lifeway’s dynamic new leadership development platform featuring over 3,700 videos and a fully customizable learning management system for churches.
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Pastoral Tip: Policing Facts = Failure

Why does it seem that more information does not lead to better transformation? Why does correcting false facts always seem to backfire on us? From political conflicts to pastoral care, we must dig deeper in every conversation.
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Science and Scripture, a Search for Purity

What has authority for you? Where do you find answers to your deepest questions? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE AND WRITE US A REVIEW TO HELP SPREAD THE WORD. Too often Science and Scripture are pitted against each other as people swing from one “pure and uncorrupted” authority to another, from Scripture to Science.
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