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In an earlier episode in this series, we named that "Christian" nationalism presents a challenge for the contemporary American church, both over the confusion about what it means, and for the ways it can lose sight of Jesus' call to serve in the midst of pursuing power and influence. So... what do we do about it? How do we in our own settings deal with the challenges that "Christian" nationalism presents, and what resources do we have for responding to it? Join us for this conversation on Crazy Faith Talk!

In a culture where everything is for sale and everyone is a customer, how can Christianity offer itself as an alternative? What happens when the Christian faith gets reduced to a product, or our churches are seen as competing "brands" angling for "market share"? How could we be different? That's what we'll explore in this episode of our series exploring some of the greatest hurdles facing the church in the 21st century.

Somewhere along the way, many people came to see the Christian faith as primarily "head" knowledge--the things you know and believe about God--as opposed to a way of life that includes our hands and hearts. And from there it's easy to think that the "point" of Christianity is simply to get people to learn enough correct information about God to "get into heaven." But it's about so much more--it's about following Jesus, being shaped by his kind of character, and becoming more and more Christ-like, which turns out to make us more fully alive even now. How did we miss that, and how does the lost notion of discipleship speak to our situation today?

In the not too distant past, many church folks assumed their congregation would always have a full-time pastor attending to their spiritual needs, and that they could expect the same in any church they ever attended anywhere in the world. Of course, in many places today, that's not the case any longer. Many congregations cannot afford to support a full-time pastor, and many pastors of an earlier generation are retiring without the same number of new pastors being trained to step into those roles. How do we face an era in the church in which there seems to be a shortage of pastoral leaders, and what can we gain from the history of the church to put today's situation in perspective? Join us on this week's episode looking at another "hurdle" facing the contemporary church, here on Crazy Faith Talk!

In a new series for this fall, we'll be exploring some of the biggest issues and challenges that we see as hurdles for the church in the 21st century. In this first episode, we'll explore the challenge of "Christian nationalism," including what it even means, how we can love our country as Christians without building religious empires or theocracies, and why it can be so tempting to wed Christianity to political power. Join us for an important conversation about a real issue in our lives today!

In the midst of the COVID pandemic, many churches scrambled to offer an online way of staying connected to the congregations for worship, often with whatever resources, skills, and technology they had. In the wake of that experience, many congregations are still continuing to offer online streaming versions of their Sunday services, even though the immediate needs of a pandemic are no longer pressing. So in this post-COVID world, what is the purpose of online worship, how does it work, what are its limits, and how do we still speak of the need for gathering in person with one another as God's people? Join us for this concluding episode of our Worship Matters Q & A series!

So many things feel like they have changed in recent decades about our common public life: we don't read newspapers like we used to, watch movies and television as earlier generations did. Many people have online components to their work or schooling, and even many friendships are made online rather in in person. In the midst of all that change, what is worship for in the 21st century? Has it changed from earlier eras? Is it the same for all times? Why do Christians keep gathering, and what do we think is happening when we do?

Can you believe it? It's our 500th episode of Crazy Faith Talk! For this week's episode, we're continuing our series looking at big questions on worship matters, and this week, we're exploring the question, "How do you (or should you) address current events in the world in congregational worship?" When a disaster strikes on Saturday and everyone has heard the news by Sunday morning, does it affect our sermon? Show up in our prayers? Change the direction of what we sing or say or hear? And for more complex situations, do we need to have answers right away, or should we take the time to "preach from our scars, rather than from our wounds" as the saying goes? All these questions are up for discussion in this week's episode of Crazy Faith Talk!

The church is a community that includes people of all nations, languages, and cultures across time and space, and so our worship will include songs, prayers, and ways of speaking that come from many places and cultures. At the same time, in any given congregation, we always have limits to how well we can sing in another language, or musical style, or tradition. So how do we hold these two together at once? How can our worship be both authentic to OUR time and place while also being connected to the many cultures, languages, and approaches of Christians all over the world?

Which readings from the Scriptures do we hear on Sundays, and how are they chosen? What are the advantages of having a set schedule of readings determined long in advance, and what are the advantages of having the preacher or worship leaders select texts? How do we keep ourselves honest and hear the whole of Scripture, while also hearing things in their contexts? These are the kinds of questions four preachers are exploring in this week's Worship Matters Q&A.

Some church folks have grown up memorizing older forms of English in prayer and scripture, like the "thy" and "thine" of an earlier era in the Lord's Prayer, and others are more used to modern translations and wording, whether in translations, prayers, or songs. So how do we decide when to use one version of a text and when to use another? Is older always better, or should we always embrace the latest iteration of something? And how do we make those choices? Join us for this conversation here on Crazy Faith Talk!

In a new series here on Crazy Faith Talk, we're going to take a look questions related to our ways and patterns of worship--how and why we do things in our various traditions, how we consider frequently asked questions, and what the pros and cons of different choices are in our worship life. In this first episode, we'll take a look at whether categories like "traditional," "contemporary," or "blended" are helpful or not, and how we also make considerations for worship that accommodates the needs of people with limited hearing, with neurodivergent needs, or other kinds of needs. Join us for all of it here in our Worship Q&A series!

The apostle Paul mentions struggling with something he calls "a thorn in the flesh" and also a "messenger of Satan." But when he had prayed repeatedly for it to be taken away, God's response was "My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness." So what is Paul talking about, and how do we make sense of this story--and the times in our lives where we struggle and the sources of our struggle don't seem to be taken away? Join us for this final episode of our series, "Bible Stories We Wish We Had."

In a particularly puzzling story from the book of First Samuel, King Saul consults a medium in the hopes of conjuring the spirit of the dead prophet Samuel for advice before a battle, even though he had just recently outlawed such magic-related practices himself! What is this story trying to tell us--is magic real? Is this really supposed to be the ghost of Samuel? What happens to us when we stop listening to God and miss the connection we once had with God? Join us to explore this strange story and all it leaves hanging for us on this week's episode!

The book of Genesis tells the difficult story of Abraham nearly sacrificing his son Isaac to God, and yet we are left to guess how Isaac felt about all of this. How old was he in the story? Did he understand what was happening? How did this incident affect his understanding of God, or his relationship with his father? And what are we supposed to do with a story like this? Join us for another episode in our series, "Bible Stories We Wish We Had" to explore this tale!