Through Stained Glass
11 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 4 ratingsA word about the title of this podcast – Through Stained Glass. We have these beautiful stained glass windows in our sanctuary that tell the gospel story. Scene by scene. The birth of Jesus Christ. His miraculous life. His death, resurrection and ascension into heaven… A stained glass window is different from a painting. You look at a painting. But you look thru a window. So, the church looks out at world through stained glass – that is, as defined by the true depiction of reality in the window. The windows are portals into reality through which we see everything else… So, this podcast is an attempt to engage with things going on in the culture through the greater reality of God – in the hope that we might live lives that are profoundly shaped by the gospel story and not the dominant cultural narratives and liturgies that make up what the Bible calls “the world.”
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Episodes
One Meal With Others
August 26, 2021 22:08 - 58 minutes - 53.2 MBWe were made to eat, so the table must be our center of gravity. The habit of making time for one communal meal each day forces us to reorient our schedules and our space around food and each other. The more the table becomes our center of gravity, the more it draws our neighbors into gospel community.
Kneeling Prayer Three Times A Day
July 21, 2021 19:42 - 57 minutes - 52.7 MBThe world is made of words. Even small, repeated words have power. Regular, carefully placed prayer is one of the keystone habits of spiritual formation and is the beginning of building the trellis of habit. By framing our day in the words of prayer, we frame the day of love.
Scripture Before Phone
July 15, 2021 19:45 - 44 minutes - 41 MBRefusing to check the phone until after reading a passage of Scripture is a way of replacing the question "What do I need to do today?" with a better one, "Who am I and who am I becoming?" We have no stable identity outside of Jesus. Daily immersion in the Scriptures resists the anxiety of emails, the anger of the news, and the envy of social media. Instead it forms us daily in our true identity as children of the King, dearly loved.
Social Media
December 10, 2020 22:33 - 46 minutes - 42.5 MBIt seems impossible to talk about our current cultural and political divide without mentioning social media. In this episode we will look at a number of ways that social media is dangerous while also looking at how to steward our use of it wisely.
The Fractured Republic
December 10, 2020 20:29 - 46 minutes - 42.6 MBThe political struggle in America is between two opposite visions. However, these are not opposite ends of the political spectrum but actually two sides of the same coin. They co-exist and reinforce one another. What has gotten lost are the institutions and relationships that make up the middle layer of society. The places where people actually see one another face to face.
Speaking the Truth to Love
December 10, 2020 20:27 - 22 minutes - 20.9 MBWhat the world needs is not people who are on the right side of an issue telling the other side how wrong they are. The world needs people with the right disposition. We've lost the collective disposition that has united us in the past despite our differences. That's always been the goal. Not to be united in what we believe. But to be united despite our different beliefs.
A United Church for a Divided Country
November 05, 2020 16:51 - 33 minutes - 31 MBA divided country needs a united church. We must acknowledge, however, that a divided church already exists and has helped to keep the nation divided. What does it look like for the church to come together - across denominational and ideological lines - for the sake of unity.
Fight for "And"
October 28, 2020 18:09 - 25 minutes - 23.5 MBWe have become so polarized. We're becoming increasingly tribal and at odds with one another. The church ought to be the one place where we can be on opposite sides but still love. More and more we are only given either/or, black/white, and right/wrong options. These positions result in sides and eventually an us vs them battle. Therefore, we need to be people that can and will fight for "and."
Loving Your Enemies
October 22, 2020 01:59 - 32 minutes - 29.8 MBJesus' command to love our enemies goes completely against our instincts. But his way works. Thoughtfully loving an enemy breaks the cycle of retaliation and transforms our enemies as well as ourselves.
Certainty and Humility
October 14, 2020 04:00 - 35 minutes - 32.7 MBThe first Christian priority that often exits the stage of debate is love. The second priority that is often lacking in our debate is humility. Connected to both love and humility is the church’s call to unity, which, like the prior two, often falls by the wayside in our theological and cultural debates. Because Jesus prays for the visible unity of the church, we are obliged to prioritize the pursuit of unity as we attempt to disagree well.
How to Disagree Well
October 01, 2020 21:45 - 25 minutes - 22.9 MBThere is a divide in our country. One of the best ways that Christians can serve the world is by modeling how to disagree well. To show that it's possible to be on opposites sides of important issues and to still be friends and to still be for one another.