When we read our Bibles without regard to whether the passage we're reading resides in the Old Covenant or the New Covenant, we're mis-reading it. It's common today to give little or no consideration to a New Covenant/Old Covenant context and by doing so, we end up flattening out all of scripture as though every verse or passage is of equal weight and that all of it applies to us today. This is a big mistake that blurs the lines between law and grace and ends up mixing the two and grace becomes ...
May 28, 2023•20 min•Ep. 83
The recently released movie, The Jesus Revolution , brought back many memories for us of the early days of our lives as Jesus People because we were both there to experience some of it. Mike came to Jesus in January of 1973 in the Calvary Chapel tent at a Saturday night concert and Susan met Jesus in the summer of 1973 at an ocean baptism in Pirate's Cove. If you've seen the movie, or if you were there too, you know of these places. We didn't know each other at that time but after we married in ...
Mar 12, 2023•30 min•Ep. 82
What has centuries of pastor-centered practices done to the body of Christ? Why is the institutional church so pastor-centered? How has pastor-centrality contributed to the crippling of the body of Christ? Do pastor-centered practices enhance or hinder the functioning of the body of Christ? Is pastor-centrality what Jesus has in mind for his people? Who put pastors in charge? The answer might shock you: Other pastors. Here's a link to the episode I mentioned. I hope you'll take the time to liste...
Feb 04, 2023•15 min•Ep. 81
the Judaizers in Paul's day insisted that the Old Covenant law of Moses had to be obeyed in addition to faith in Jesus. They mixed law with gospel. Unfortunately, there are modern-day Judaizers who do the same thing to varying degrees with the same outcome: by adding law to grace, they have fallen from grace. Let's talk. Other Places You’ll Find Me The Grace Cafe Podcast: https://www.gracecafepodcast.com TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@unsunday.mike Instagram https://www.instagram.com/unsundaysho...
Jan 24, 2023•16 min•Ep. 80
What is spiritual growth? What does that term mean? More often than not, it's a term that gets weaponized to force conformity to a preset standard of rules or activities. But is there such a thing as spiritual growth in the New Covenant scriptures? If so, how is it gauged? What's the standard and how do I know if I'm doing it or doing it right? Let's talk. Other Places You’ll Find Me The Grace Cafe Podcast: https://www.gracecafepodcast.com TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@unsunday.mike Instagram h...
Jan 17, 2023•9 min•Ep. 79
Religion diminishes who we are in Jesus by adding layers of obligations on top of the finished work of Jesus on the cross and in his resurrection. There is no rest in religion but in Jesus, rest is part of our new identity. Much like oil and water, religion and rest don't mix. I want to give a much overdue shoutout to Joel Brueseke at the Growing in Grace podcast. He was kind enough to have me on his podcast for 2 episodes several months ago. In fact, it was last year! We had a fantastic convers...
Jan 10, 2023•15 min•Ep. 78
My wife Susan joins me in this episode to talk about five regrets of a former pastor's wife. These speak to the damage done as a direct result of having spent years in institutional church leadership. Grab your favorite beverage, pull up a chair, and listen in. Here they are in the order we talked about them: Being Silent and Not Speaking Up How Much it Cost Me and My Family Driven to Being Liked and Accepted Compliance to Misogyny and Patriarchy Stuffing My Anger Other Places You’ll Find Me The...
Sep 11, 2022•35 min•Ep. 77
The UnSunday Show podcast website has received a major makeover and there are new features and tools there now that make it easier for us to communicate. Among the new tools, there's now a voice mail feature that enables you leave me a voice message up to 2 minutes long. You can use this to ask questions, leave comments, suggest new topics, etc. Just be nice. This episode is also available in video. You can find the video on YouTube at https://youtu.be/jlDUX4SKJLw Other Places You’ll Find Me The...
Sep 08, 2022•7 min•Ep. 76
This episode sprang from a conversation Susan and I had about the impact Christian nationalism has had on the body of Christ throughout its history. The use of military jargon within institutional religion has given us a military-style pecking order of top-down authority in the body of Christ. A quote I share in this episode is a clear illustration of this where the pastor is said to be the Company Commander who gets his or her orders directly from the Commander-in-Chief (Jesus) and we're obliga...
Aug 08, 2022•25 min•Ep. 75
James: "You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone." ( James 2:24 ) Paul: "For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law." ( Romans 3:28 ) Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke from the Growing in Grace podcast join me in this episode as we examine the topic of justification. Is our justification by faith alone as Paul said or is it a combination of faith and works as James said? Did James and Paul disagree on this important subject of justification? List...
Jul 28, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 74
I lost all my drive and passion to write following my crash and burn in 2009. As a pastor who spent years in performance-based Christianity, I hit a wall of performance in 2009 and I went from full-on to full-stop overnight. Relationships were lost, friendships were lost, and in the process my passion for writing and speaking evaporated. Recently, that passion has returned. There's a lot more to that story but perhaps another time. Today, I'm announcing the launch of my new blog, the UnSunday Bl...
Jul 04, 2022•5 min•Ep. 73
In this episode I talk through some additional thoughts and recap some topics from last week's episode with Joel Brueseke on the law abolished. In addition to what I talk about in this episode, my biggest question concerning this issue of the law is simply "Why?" Why do we tend to think the law, defined in scripture as "weak and useless", and given only to a specific people group in another obsolete covenant, is in some way binding on us today in the New Covenant? Some theological traditions sli...
Jun 26, 2022•29 min•Ep. 72
Joel Brueseke of the Growing in Crace Podcast joins me in this episode for a conversation about the Law of Moses, as we explore the important question, "Has the Law of Moses been abolished in addition to being fulfilled?". While most within the grace community would agree that it has been fulfilled by Jesus, not all agree that it has been abolished. Grab your favorite beverage and press Play as we explore this important question together. Our conversation led us to passages like Matthew 5:17-18,...
Jun 19, 2022•50 min•Ep. 71
If there's one thing reading church history has shown me, it's that we're swimming (or drowning) in 2,000+ years of religious traditions that we've been told are a necessary to stay in a good place or in good standing with God. But the problem of religious tradition has been around longer than that. Jesus confronted this issue with religious Pharisees of his day when they question why his followers didn't observe their religious traditions: "Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusale...
Jun 06, 2022•30 min•Ep. 70
Did you know that at least 3 times in the Old Testament book of Joshua, we're told that under Joshua's leadership, the Israelites rested in the Promised Land? But when we come to the New Testament letter to the Hebrews, we're told he didn't give them rest. So what gives? Why does Joshua tell us they experienced rest but Hebrews tells us they didn't, but that the promise of rest is still pending? Let's see if we can't untangle that a little bit in this episode. Links I mention in this episode: A ...
May 15, 2022•28 min•Ep. 69
The New Covenant, the cross, Jesus, church, grace, faith, a believer's identity, false ideas about the Bible and God's view of us, Matt's new podcast and YouTube channel, and Matt's story are some of the topics Matt and I talk about in this episode. This episode is packed with content that I hope encourages you and challenges you as Matt and I explore these topics that are so foundational to knowing who we are in Jesus and what we've been freely given. So grab your favorite beverage, get comfort...
May 01, 2022•46 min•Ep. 68
A friend reached out to me recently asking about what's commonly called once saved, always saved. The mixed messages we hear in institutional religious settings can cast doubt on the sufficiency of Christ's once-for-all-time sacrifice for sins and the permanence of our salvation. In my experience, religion does this in two primary ways: By making performance-based Christianity the litmus test for spirituality. By convincing its followers that sin or failure to conform to the institution's rules ...
Apr 20, 2022•27 min•Ep. 67
This episode is the last of five episodes exploring William Tyndale’s use of five words in his translation of the Greek New Testament into English, that resulted in his death at the hands of church leaders. In this series I’ve been concentrating more on the meaning of the words and their intent, than I have been about the religious climate of the day. The five words are: Elder instead of Priest Congregation instead of Church Repent instead of Do Penance Acknowledge instead of Confess Love instea...
Mar 13, 2022•14 min•Ep. 66
This episode is the fourth of five episodes exploring William Tyndale’s use of five words in his translation of the Greek New Testament into English, that resulted in his death at the hands of church leaders. In this series I’m concentrating more on the meaning of the words and their intent, than I am about the religious climate of the day. The five words are: Elder instead of Priest Congregation instead of Church Repent instead of Do Penance Acknowledge instead of Confess Love instead of Acts o...
Mar 06, 2022•23 min•Ep. 65
This episode is the third of five episodes exploring William Tyndale’s use of five words in his translation of the Greek New Testament into English, that resulted in his death at the hands of church leaders. In this series I’m concentrating more on the meaning of the words and their intent, than I am about the religious climate of the day. The five words are: Elder instead of Priest Congregation instead of Church Repent instead of Do Penance Acknowledge instead of Confess Love instead of Acts of...
Feb 27, 2022•19 min•Ep. 64
This episode is the second of five episodes exploring William Tyndale’s use of five words in his translation of the Greek New Testament into English, that resulted in his death at the hands of church leaders. In this series I'm concentrating more on the meaning of the words and their intent, than I am about the religious climate of the day. The five words are: Elder instead of Priest Congregation instead of Church Repent instead of Do Penance Acknowledge instead of Confess Love instead of Acts o...
Feb 20, 2022•25 min•Ep. 63
This episode is the first of five episodes exploring William Tyndale's use of five words in his translation of the Greek New Testament into English, that resulted in his death at the hands of church leaders. The five words are: Elder instead of Priest Congregation instead of Church Repent instead of Do Penance Acknowledge instead of Confess Love instead of Acts of Charity Tyndale (1494-1536) was murdered by church officials for refusing to translate these five words the way the church wanted the...
Feb 13, 2022•14 min•Ep. 62
How did we get to where we are today in an institutional church culture so firmly planted in the centrality of the pastor? This episode is a look at a few key moments in the history of institutional Christianity that have brought us to where we are today - into a church culture of top-down authority where the pastor has been handed all authority and cannot be questioned. Links I mention: UnSunday Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unsundayshow/ UnSunday TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@unsunday...
Jan 16, 2022•33 min•Ep. 61
Greetings everyone! This last-day-of-2021 episode is an unscripted rambling by yours truly about the dawn of a new year, what is ours in the New Covenant, the importance of having an Old Covenant/New Covenant distinction when reading Scripture, and how much gospel is actually in the gospels? Push Play to join in! Links I mention in this episode: My Interview on The Resolute Warrior podcast: https://bit.ly/3g7IJ5C The UnSunday Show on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@unsunday.mike? The UnSunday Sh...
Dec 31, 2021•23 min•Ep. 60
My wife Susan joined me on this episode as we delved into our thoughts together about institutional Christianity and institutional religion and the effects and impact it leaves on people. Our view of institutional Christianity isn't neutral. Our view of God is directly impacted by our view of institutional Christianity in so many ways. This conversation explores some of the ways this happens, whether overtly, or covertly. -Enjoy! Other Places You’ll Find Me The Grace Cafe Podcast: https://www.gr...
Dec 20, 2021•39 min•Ep. 59
This is the concluding part of what I introduced last week concerning how modern institutional religion requires pastors to be something we don't see in the New Covenant scriptures. Church tradition tells us that Timothy was a pastor, carrying out the duties we see modern institutional church pastors doing. They insist that Paul's directive to Timothy to "preach the word" is one indication that Timothy was a pastor, meaning that like modern institutional religion, Timothy got behind a pulpit wee...
Sep 19, 2021•19 min•Ep. 58
I received a note from David, one of the listeners to this podcast, who asked for my take on Timothy as a pastor and how the function of modern church pastors differs from the function of their New Testament counterparts. I flipped the order of this to talk about the differences first and then next week, I'll be taking a look at Timothy while continuing to build on the differences. Comparing the differences between how modern institutional church pastors function and the function of pastors in t...
Sep 13, 2021•29 min•Ep. 57
Let's talk about institutional church and the ekklesia because one of these is not like the other. Did you know Jesus never used the word church? And yet the word church is all over our New Testaments. How did it get there and what does it imply? This episode is a bit of a rant as I talk about a couple of differences between church and the body of Christ, the ekklesia. -Enjoy! Other Places You’ll Find Me The Grace Cafe Podcast: https://www.gracecafepodcast.com TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@unsu...
Sep 05, 2021•24 min•Ep. 56
Let's talk about obedience. Doesn't that sound fun? I've found it to be true that in almost every institutional church setting, the topic of Christian obedience in one form or another, dominates the landscape. It's peppered throughout sermons to varying degrees (most of the time, overtly), it's written into our church membership contracts (yes, those are contracts), it's presented as the final solution in counseling sessions, it's used as an enforcement tactic when church leaders threaten you wi...
Aug 25, 2021•18 min•Ep. 55
Let's continue talking about pulpits and institutional religion's obsession with the pulpit and how it's been elevated to such a place of prominence in institutional Christianity. Charles Spurgeon said this concerning pulpits: "The moment the church of God shall despise the pulpit, God will despise her." This quote is one example of several that I share in this episode to show how the system of religion has elevated the pulpit, and the person behind it to a harmful status at the expense of a hea...
Jul 25, 2021•23 min•Ep. 54
