After all the rabbit holes and deep dives of this series on "last things" and apocalyptic literature, what does it all mean--and is there any good news? YES! The bottom line is this: the Christian story doesn't imagine God saying, "Good luck for now with all the trouble, because you're on your own until I pluck the lucky few up from earth and meet you in heaven," but rather ours is the God who goes with us through it all, in the lions' den and the fiery furnace, through the valley of the shadow ...
Jul 08, 2025•20 min
You don't need to be a Bible scholar to have heard of "the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" or to be nervous about the number 666. Many people have heard of those concepts without knowing where they came from, much less what they mean. So in this week's episode of Crazy Faith Talk, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve do a deep dive into some of these well-known but poorly-understood figures from the Book of Revelation to explore what they mean in their original context. Check it out...
Jul 01, 2025•47 min
One of the most difficult books to understand in the New Testament is the one we call "Revelation." It's full of strange creatures, jarring imagery, musical numbers (seriously!) that feel like a Broadway show, and a handful of letters from Jesus, too. Trying to make sense of this book on our own can feel like navigating a wilderness without a guide. So this week on Crazy Faith Talk, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve offer a brief guided tour for making sense of this book. Join us ...
Jun 24, 2025•26 min
Many of the biblical books that seem to focus on the "end times" use strange symbols, outlandish images, and repeated patterns. It turns out they are written in a genre of literature that was deliberately figurative, highly coded, and like a lot of 20th century sci-fi or dystopia, written with a view toward what was going on in the writers' current times. Understanding how "apocalyptic literature" works makes it a great deal easier to make sense of books like Revelation. Find out more here on th...
Jun 17, 2025•26 min
In our new series, "Back to the Future: A Hopeful Look at Last Things," colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve are taking a closer look at a theology of the end times. Last week, we introduced the claim that the teaching of a secret "rapture" wasn't biblical, but actually only goes back about 200 years in Christian history. So what about those passages that sound like they are describing a rapture where some go to "meet the Lord in the air" and others are "left behind"? Join us for a d...
Jun 10, 2025•35 min
For many people, both inside and outside the church, their picture of "the end times" comes from pop culture books and movies rather than a careful reading of Scripture. Meanwhile, many Christians don't know much at all about "last things" because nobody has ever talked or preached about it as a subject, so they assume that what they've heard on TV must be their belief, too. In this new series on Crazy Faith Talk, Sarah, Natalie, and Steve will explore what the Bible does--and doesn't--say about...
Jun 03, 2025•25 min
In this concluding episode of our series on kid-friendly media that either connects explicitly with our faith or fits compatibly with it, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve look at movies that offer "the gospel in disguise"--that is, movies that might not retell Bible stories, but which give us modern parables of self-giving love, sacrificial compassion, forgiveness and restoration, or found family and reconciliation. Join us for a whirlwind that will touch on new movies like The W...
May 27, 2025•25 min
As we look at media aimed intended for kids that connects with our faith--or is at least compatible with our faith--colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve look at long-form media like movies. We'll explore how the movies we watch (or show to our kids) impact the way we picture Bible stories and last in our memories for even decades to come, and how movies can spark deeper conversations later as kids grow older. Check out the conversation this week on Crazy Faith Talk!
May 20, 2025•20 min
Beyond children's Bibles or retellings of the stories of Jesus, there are lots of good children's resources that are compatible with our faith without being explicitly about Christian themes. This time on Crazy Faith Talk, Natalie, Sarah, and Steve explore some of their favorites from children's picture books to good reads for coming of age stories to graphic-novel format books that explore deeper topics. We'll share some recent works as well as modern classics from voices like C.S. Lewis and Ma...
May 13, 2025•19 min
There are a LOT of children's books out there that are intended to teach the Christian faith or Bible stories to kids--so where would we even begin? This time on Crazy Faith Talk, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve share some favorites among recent children's books that help kids to learn, ask questions, and get a grounding in the God who loves them. Listen in here for a discussion and some ideas for good and faithful children's books here!
May 06, 2025•26 min
While we may well want to offer good programming to our children that directly speaks of our faith or essential Bible stories, we also want our children to learn how to live well in the world among neighbors, nature, and issues of the day. So in this episode, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve take a look at children's TV programs that aren't explicitly "Christian" but can be compatible with raising children with good social and emotional understanding, knowledge of the world, and ...
Apr 29, 2025•20 min
In a new series for Eastertide, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve are looking at media that explore theme of faith or are compatible with faith for children--from TV and movies to books and other resources. We start taking a look at some classic faithful TV and video resources, exploring how faith formation includes not only Bible stories but also discipleship and how we teach our children to live out their faith as well. Listen in here for our newest episode of Crazy Faith Talk!...
Apr 22, 2025•25 min
Surprises, reversals, and plot twists aren't just the random exception to the flow of Scripture: it's at the heart of the central event of the Christian faith! In the events of Holy Week, and most centrally, in the death and resurrection of Jesus, we have God's upside-down victory over the powers of death by dying , and the revealing of how "the stone that was rejected has become the chief cornerstone." Join us for this Holy Week episode and the conclusion of our series this Lent of "When the Bi...
Apr 15, 2025•22 min
It's one of the most dramatic reversals in the whole Bible: the zealous persecutor of the church who is called by the risen Jesus to bring the Good News to the whole world as "apostle to the Gentiles." Saul's story is full of drama and twists, not only for his own change of perspective, but for the early church that had to decide if it would welcome someone who had so clearly been an enemy to become one of the family. It's a story about God's transforming power and the challenge to love our enem...
Apr 08, 2025•29 min
As Luke's Gospel tells it, Jesus begins his public ministry going back to his hometown to give a sermon in the synagogue, and at first is welcomed home warmly by the congregation. But the moment he starts talking about God's grace being shown to outsiders and even-- gasp! --enemies, the friendly crowd turns hostile. What's going on in this story from the Bible, and what does it mean for our lives? Listen in and find out here on this week's episode of Crazy Faith Talk!
Apr 01, 2025•22 min
Many kids in Sunday School remember the character of Jonah as simply "the guy who got swallowed by a whale." But the point of the whole story of Jonah isn't reducible to merely, "Don't disobey God or you'll be eaten by a fish." In fact, when the enemy people to whom Jonah was sent actually listened to his message and turned away from their violence, injustice, and rottenness, Jonah got mad because he didn't want God to show them mercy--and he has to learn about God's forgiveness in a way he wasn...
Mar 25, 2025•29 min
Conventional wisdom has it that God is on the "side" of the powerful, the mightiest, and the ones with the biggest numbers, but the Bible gives us a recurring theme of God's choice to lift up the lowly and come to the aid of the weak. That's part of the unexpected reversal in the story of scrawny young David against the towering professional enemy soldier Goliath. And at the same time, for folks who know this classic of Sunday School and flannel board storytelling, it can be easy to think that G...
Mar 18, 2025•32 min
The favored son ends up enslaved and then imprisoned, only to end up using his God-given ability to rise to prominence in Pharaoh's Egypt and save his family when famine strikes. It's the story of Joseph, and it's another story from the Bible that is not only full of dramatic reversals, but also that forces us to rethink what it means to have God at work in our lives. In this episode of Crazy Faith Talk, colleagues in ministry Steve and Natalie explore this story and how it challenges a lot of p...
Mar 11, 2025•33 min
This Lent, join colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve as they look at God's habit of reversing expectations and turning tables in a new series we're calling "When the Bible Flips the Script"! In this first episode, we'll explore the biblical figure of Jacob, the sneaky schemer who burns bridges with his family members and then comes face to face with God and finds himself blessed and broken at the same time--and is given a new name and identity along the way. Listen in as we explore s...
Mar 04, 2025•21 min
All through this series we have looked at more-or-less well known figures as examples of people who lived out their faith. From former presidents to pioneers of children's television to theologians of earlier centuries, we have looked at numerous ways people have taken their Christian discipleship into their lives, work, and witness. In this concluding episode we'll tell some personal stories of folks we have known in our own lives, and the ways they lived out their faith that have become living...
Feb 25, 2025•34 min
Although the names of reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Wesley are pretty well known, the witness, theology, and work for unity done by Katharina Schutz Zell is lesser known. In this episode as we continue our series looking at people who lived out their faith in different ways, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve look at the life and work of this figure from Reformation history, and what her witness means for us in the age of social media and fragmented Christian ...
Feb 18, 2025•30 min
As our series highlighting the stories of people who lived out their faith continues, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve explore the life of a medieval polymath, Hildegard of Bingen, who was a composer, philosopher, mystic, healer, theologian, and advocate of creation care! We'll explore how Hildegard communicated theology through her music, how her perspective held together natural science and profound faith, and what her story might mean for us in the 21st century. Listen in here...
Feb 11, 2025•17 min•Season 1Ep. 418
She was a 20th century American Catholic radical, working for the well-being of the poor, offering hospitality to the homeless, advocating for peace, and calling fellow Christians to live out their faith in concrete ways. Dorothy Day is one of those complex figures who challenges us, provokes us, and inspires us. And in this episode of Crazy Faith Talk, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve explore some of her life and faith as one more example of a life-story that sought to live out ...
Feb 04, 2025•26 min•Season 1Ep. 417
In this episode of our series looking at people who lived out their faith in various ways, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve explore the faith and legacy of Fred Rogers, beloved creator of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. We'll take a look at how his work in children's public television was a form of his ministry as an ordained Presbyterian pastor, as well as his practical theology of neighborliness and unconditional love. We'll also look at the ways Fred Rogers' unique voice found wi...
Jan 31, 2025•32 min•Season 1Ep. 416
As we continue a new series for 2025 on people who lived out their faith, colleagues in ministry Natalie, Sarah, and Steve explore the life and legacy of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. From his life experience during and after the apartheid era in South Africa to his deep faith and accessible but profound theology, there is a great deal that the contemporary American church can learn from Tutu's witness today. In this conversation we'll explore the nature of the Truth and Reconcilation Commission in S...
Jan 21, 2025•19 min
A new series is starting here on Crazy Faith Talk, as we take a look at different life stories who embodied their faith in different ways, different settings, and different times. Rather than being exhaustive biographies of these people, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve will touch on the dimensions of these lives that speak to our faith and how they sought to live out their own faith, while our colleague Erica takes a step back for a season to deal with some health issues. As we ...
Jan 14, 2025•20 min
As the second half our mini-series on thelogies of giving and receiving, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Erica, Natalie, and Steve take a look at what it means, from a faith perspective, to be receivers of gifts--both from God and from others. How can we get over our need to "get even" or "pay people back," especially when some gifts are simply given unconditionally? How might we see others' need to give what they have to offer as a reason for us to make room for their contributions by being willi...
Jan 07, 2025•21 min
In this final episode of our Advent series for 2024, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Erica, Natalie, and Steve explore one more dimension of the biblical notion of exile. This time we'll look at how the New Testament writers see all of our present life right now as a sort of exile-within-the-world, and how each of us are aliens in the world who also care for the good and well-being of the world where we live. We'll explore how the early Christians saw themselves as outsiders even in their home cou...
Dec 24, 2024•24 min
As we continue exploring the theme of hope in the face of exile this Advent, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Erica, Natalie, and Steve zoom out to creation itself, and to God's promise to make all creation new and to dwell with us. Rather than just wishing for freedom from one empire or another--like Babylon in the history of Judah, or Rome in the time of Jesus--Christian hope is ultimately for all of creation to be renewed. And in a sense, because of the ways human sin alienates us from one anoth...
Dec 17, 2024•23 min
This Advent, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, Erica, and Steve are exploring the biblical theme of hope in times of exile as a way of better understanding what the coming of Christ meant for people in the first century, as well as for us today. In this episode we explore the meaning of the Empire's presence in and around the backdrop of the birth of Jesus, and how traumatic it would have been in daily life to have foreign occupation constantly present for Jesus' family and the people longi...
Dec 10, 2024•20 min
