Even in a high-tech, non-stop age like ours--or maybe especially in such times--we need wise voices who can point us to spiritual truth from the flies and the honeybees, and who can call us to simplicity of lifestyle and of faith. That's a least part of what led one of our Crazy Faith Talk conversation partners to highlight the perspective and wisdom of Paisios of Mount Athos, remembered as a saint in the Orthodox tradition, who lived in the 20th century. As we continue to lift up helpful voices...
Jun 22, 2021•38 min
In this new series, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve each highlight voices from the Christian family from traditions other than their own. Since Christianity spans two millennia, numerous spiritual traditions, theological perspectives, and denominational histories from around the world, there are a lot of people we can learn from, even while we own and claim our own traditions and heritages. In this first episode, Erica shares with us the work and witness of Richard Foster, who comes from the Qua...
Jun 15, 2021•32 min
The ability to bring out the best in someone else--that's a gift of God! The capacity to manage and organize without making yourself the center of attention--that's a gift as well! Same with the ability to help someone make sense of their situation in light of the stories and images of Scripture, or the ability to be generous in just the right ways someone else needs--these are all gifts from God! And maybe, like the familiar notion of "love languages" that each of us communicate with, spiritual...
Jun 08, 2021•39 min
Something amazing happened on the day of Pentecost, mere weeks after Jesus' resurrection--a band of former fishermen and tax collectors started speaking about Jesus, and they could be heard and understood in languages they did not know, as the Holy Spirit gave them the ability. Since then, the community of Jesus' followers has experience the Spirit's presence in ways that have to do with language--often in powerful, astounding ways that make it clear that something unusual was happening. But wha...
Jun 01, 2021•39 min
Say the word "prophet," and a lot of folks assume you're talking about Nostrodamus-type soothsayers or the oracles of ancient Greek mythology who would utter esoteric predictions about the future. But honestly, the people we call "prophets" in the biblical witness were more often people called by God to speak to their present times and situations, to speak truth to power, to call whole societies to be reoriented around the justice and mercy of God, to warn people about the consequences of the tr...
May 25, 2021•35 min
Some folks are certain they have witnessed a supernatural healing in their presence, and some folks are skeptical about anything that can't be explained by current science. And somewhere in between is the tension between healthy questioning and an openness to a God who is beyond our comprehension. In their series exploring spiritual gifts, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve find themselves looking at how to make sense of the New Testament's talk about people performing miraculous healings, how we t...
May 18, 2021•32 min
While our wider culture may think of knowledge primarily in terms of facts to be memorized or diplomas on your wall, the followers of Jesus dare to believe that there is another kind of insight that is brought forth by the Spirit and isn't reducible to collections of data or even years of life experience. It's the spiritual wisdom that comes from centering your life around the character and priorities of God, and letting that shape everything else in your life--our choices, our words, our though...
May 11, 2021•37 min
When people talk about their "spiritual gifts," it can sometimes sound like astrology signs or personality types, or just a religious-sounding way of talking about talents. But when the biblical writers like Paul talk about spiritual gifts, they see something given by God to one person for the sake of the whole community. There is a beautiful diversity of gifts, but they also exist for the benefit of all. And even if I can't see how your gift contributes yet, or how it meshes with mine, from God...
May 04, 2021•31 min
If you've ever been moved to tears by a hymn or song of faith, or been stirred up to live your faith out by a powerful sermon, or encouraged through a difficult time by someone who gave you strength with their presence, you know what it's like to be touched by someone else's spiritual gifts. And if you've ever had someone come up to you and say, "You're really great at building up a group to work as a team," or "You have a way of giving your time and resources that inspires me, too!" then maybe ...
Apr 27, 2021•40 min
In this final episode of their short series on the meaning and power of Easter hymns, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve explore a more recent hymn, entitled, "The Risen Christ," which casts Jesus less as a conquering king but as the wounded, living One who comes behind our locked doors, meets us in our fears, and still walks through the darkened places of the world bringing healing, life, and restoration. Once the jelly beans are all gone and the Easter lilies have started to droop, what good news...
Apr 20, 2021•17 min
In their new series for the weeks following Easter, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve are looking at songs that help us celebrate and share the news of Jesus' resurrection. And one of the most well-known in a lot of American churches of all sorts of stripes is a famous hymn of Charles Wesley's known as "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today." In today's conversation, we'll look at how our songs of faith help us understand our place in God's great story of redemption, and how resurrection helps offer a ne...
Apr 13, 2021•21 min
Easter is usually the time for the loudest and brightest-sounding songs in the hymnal, right? We break out the trumpets and choirs, and we sing in boisterous, barn-burning major-key melodies, usually. But sometimes we need a song that speaks the good news of resurrection and also names the reality of the cross at the same time, so we might just need to dare to sing an Easter song in a minor key. So as we begin a new series on some of our favorite Easter hymns and songs, pastors Sarah, Erica, and...
Apr 06, 2021•21 min
If you think about it, the central story in the Christian faith is about a transition--from death to resurrection--that rearranges everything else around it. And as much as we know the story of Easter is a joyful one, it also brings with it bittersweetness, and the anxiety of learning a "new normal." So as we conclude this series on transition in life and in ministry, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve look at how Jesus' own transition--from being with the disciples in person all the time to the ab...
Mar 30, 2021•34 min
The important work of leaving well is an art, not a science. There's no formula for getting it all right, and no one-size-fits-all approach. But there are some ideas, practices, and mindsets that can be helpful, both in a congregational setting and in the other goodbye moments of our lives, that can help us to say our "Farewell and Godspeed" in ways that are healthy. As they near the end of this Lenten series on transition in ministry and life, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve look at their own e...
Mar 23, 2021•38 min
Whehter talking about pastors serving in congregational ministry, changes in jobs, moves across country, or transitions in our relationships (coming together or parting ways), how do you know "it's time"? How do we do the difficult work of discerning where we need to be, how we need to use our gifts, and what we need to do with our time? How do we hold our sense of "where God is leading me" together with immediately practical matters like, "how I will make a living and feed my family"--and how m...
Mar 16, 2021•39 min
Children of the 1990s know the lyric from the band Semisonic's song, "Closing Time," which goes, "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." And Fleetwood Mac sang honestly to an earlier generation, "I've been afraid of changing 'cause I built my life around you." That's the challenge about being human--everything in in constant flux, and we are often afraid of change when it comes. In today's episode of "Crazy Faith Talk," pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve have an open an honest ...
Mar 09, 2021•32 min
What do congregations wish their new pastors would do or say as they begin serving together? What do pastors wish their congregations knew about welcoming a new pastor into their midst? As they continue their series on transitions in ministry, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve look at their own experiences at the beginnings of pastoral calls and appointments, as well as the stories and wisdom of others for how to make the transition of a new ministry partnership work well. From first impressions t...
Mar 02, 2021•40 min
How do pastors come to be in the congregations where they serve? How do they end up in new church settings? And how do human processes, denominational structures and traditions, and the Holy Spirit all come together in the process? As they start a new series this Lent, pastors Sarah, Erica, and Steve look together at transitions in ministry, and how each of our stories and church traditions have led us to where we are... and where we are going. As we prepare for Pastor Sarah to start a new call ...
Feb 23, 2021•36 min
Today we're getting personal--well, a little bit. Over the course of this series, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve have offered an overview of basics of different kinds of spiritual practices and disciplines, almost like an appetizer sampler platter at a restaurant. But what are each of our hosts' favorite main courses for their own spiritual lives? Hear from all three today with some personal thoughts and learnings, in a conversation that includes foreign language tattoos, spiritual writing, and...
Feb 16, 2021•31 min
Why feed a hungry neighbor, or give clothing to someone without? Why welcome a homeless family in your church building or bring soup over to someone recovering from surgery? Obviously (we hope) just because these neighbors have the need, and we are called to love our neighbors. But something else happens to us when we deliberately look for ways to serve neighbors--we are shaped, so that we become more generous people, like daily jogging will improve your body's physical endurance. And we also di...
Feb 09, 2021•32 min
We need each other--that's part of what it means to be human! We are made for relationships with one another, and that's certainly true in our spiritua lives as well. So as we continue our series looking at spiritual practices for a new(ish) year, we invite you to look at how it can be helpful to have some kind of trusted accountabilty group, spiritual director, or other soul-friendships who can encourage, challenge, stretch, and support us. In this episode, pastors Sarah, Erica, and Steve offer...
Feb 02, 2021•40 min
The practice of fasting is an odd duck--on the one hand, it might not seem like much fun to go without eating (or some other thing in our lives), no matter how long or short the fast might endure. But on the other hand, fasting is an ancient practice used and known across religious traditions, and is one part of personal piety that Jesus assumes his followers will be doing in some form. The Old and New Testament actually offer a wide variety of perspectives on fasting, from how it can be helpful...
Jan 26, 2021•26 min
In this new series for the new year, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve take a look at practices for deepening your own faith life in a sort of sampler-platter approach, introducing us to different practices and traditions and inviting us to try them on our own. Today, we'll look at different ways we can make prayer a part of our daily and weekly lives, in all kinds of circumstances--with others and alone, when we have words on our hearts and when we have no words, and when we need to be recentered...
Jan 19, 2021•38 min
Like any relationships in our lives, our connection with God can be strenghtened by intentional, habitual choices to spend time connecting and recentering on the God with whom we are in relationship. Just like you might choose to set aside time to talk with someone who is important to you, or to re-read their letters or old emails to you, or to make the time to listen to their concerns, there are practices we can take on, not with the thought of "impressing" God (or anybody else), but in the hop...
Jan 12, 2021•36 min
For nearly seventeen centuries, the "official" position of Christianity has been to say that Jesus Christ is both fully divine and fully human--but how did that get decided, and why does it matter? In today's conversation, Pastors Sarah, Erica, and Steve explore some of the story behind what is now usually called the Nicene Creed (or, to be a bit fancier, the Nicene-Constantinapolitan Creed, if it includes the article about the Holy Spirit), how it came to be, what the different positions were g...
Jan 05, 2021•34 min
It's funny--in our Bibles, Luke's Gospel starts the "origin story" of Jesus with the start of his mother Mary's pregnancy, and Matthew traces his story back to the beginning of the people of Israel. But John's Gospel goes all the way back to "in the beginning"--to the very creation of the universe! In this very special Christmas episode of Crazy Faith Talk, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve look at the opening of John's Gospel--often called the Prologue--to see how this poetic passage works, and w...
Dec 29, 2020•30 min
In this last episode of their Advent exploration of pop culture that connects to the season, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve explore the 2007 movie, "The Nativity Story," and the challenges movie-makers have in bringing a Bible story to life. What details do you need to hold onto, and what other details can be shared with images that simply aren't there in a written text? How do we bring together Matthew's version and Luke's version of the story? Where do we use our "faithful imaginations" for g...
Dec 22, 2020•41 min
Okay, so there's not really a talking donkey with comically long ears in the Bible, but maybe the fictional story of Nestor (a sort of biblical cousin to the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) has something truly important to tell us about the table-turning ways of God. So this week in our Advent series looking at bits of pop culture that come to mind in the Christmas season, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve explore this 1977 stop-action animated story and look at how very much the story, n...
Dec 15, 2020•27 min
Good news for people who like big round numbers--it's the 200th episode of "Crazy Faith Talk"! And today around the microphone, our trio of conversation partners looks at the various versions of the story we know as Dr. Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", both for its lessons about what we do (and don't) need for Christmas to happen, and as a way of thinking about how the gospels in our Bibles give us different versions of the story of Jesus, too, and how each version has something to tell ...
Dec 08, 2020•28 min
Like the little doors you open to count down the days until Christmas on your home Advent calendar, this season we've got a countdown of seasonal pop culture tidbits that help us to think about our faith in new ways. So instead of little bits of chocolate or tiny toys to get each day, we're inviting you to join us this Advent for a series that will introduce you (or re-introduce you) to some pop culture of the season that has been important to each of the friends around the microphone. And today...
Dec 01, 2020•29 min
