Theology.fm | Theology Centered on Jesus

In this discussion with Ed Underwood, we talk about church ministry, the gospel, and what Recentered.Life is all about.

I was recently interviewed by Tom Walter for his Life Uncut Podcast. This is a replay of Part 1 of that podcast. Subscribe to his podcast to also listen to Part 2.

In this interview, I had the privilege of being interviewed by Thom Schultz, CEO of Group Publishing, and host of The Holy Soup Podcast, about the so-called epidemic of biblical illiteracy in the church today.

In this episode, Kathy Escobar and Karl Wheeler discuss their experiences in church planting, and discuss the 8 mistakes they made in their 10 years of pastoral ministry. If you are involved in church leadership, this humorous and insightful discussion will be helpful to you.

Many of our churches are little more than places where spiritual and religious abuse is heaped upon people week in and week out. People are manipulated and controlled in the name of God to act a certain way, think certain things, and live a certain way. This documentary called Jesus Camp shows what sometimes happens to adults as well.

It’s important to know, because if we are unaware of how God created this universe to function, and we try to go against the grain that God built into the universe, life will be more difficult for us. If we are trying to live life with God, then life with God is so much easier and more enjoyable if we are going with the flow that God built into life. So are you curious to know what God’s guiding principle is? Do you want to know how you can go with the flow in God’s kingdom? In this episode, Brian Zahnd tells us more.

Listen to this interview to get all your questions answered about following Jesus outside of institutional Christianity.

You likely have strong feelings about gay marriage, and you likely know that there are people who have opposite opinions. How can we love each other through these differences? This episode of Theology.fm discusses some ways.

In this episode of Theology.fm, I interview Adam Erickson about Mimetic Theory. If you want to better understand Scripture, theology, God, yourself, politics, culture, and pretty much everything else, listen to this podcast episode.

I firmly believe that since Christians are uncomfortable talking about sex, this leads to shame and fear abotu sex, which in turns leads to why there are so many problems with sexual issues in the church today. If we cannot talk about sexual issues out in the open, then sexual issues and temptations can never be dealt with in an open and honest manner.

God is with you in your pain. He is present in your suffering. Just like Jesus, God is acquainted with grief and sorrow. Lots of theologians are uncomfortable with this idea, but I believe it is a truth which helps us relate to God like never before.

Lots of people have a view of God which makes them think God will only love them as long as they obey Him and do what He says. If they mess up, God will hate them, and potentially send them to suffer in hell for eternity. But as Greg Boyd shows in this sermon, God is not like that at all.

I recently caught up with Kathy Escobar and I interviewed here for the Theology.fm podcast about her life and ministry. Listen in and learn!

Darin and Hans want to start a Sunday morning church service to help people see that they do not need a Sunday morning church service. They want to plant a church to help people see that we do not need to attend church because we are the church.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son has been an endless source of fascination and interest for me. It seems like every year I learn something new about this parable that causes me to see the parable in a whole new way.

With Valentines Day just around the corner, I though it would be appropriate to share a message on love from Jonathan Martin.

In this sermon, Brian Zahnd shows us that taking care of the environment, of the animals, the plants, the oceans, and the air, is the very first vocation given by God to mankind, is the vocation redeemed by Jesus in His resurrection, and is also the vocation to which we are all called as members of the Kingdom of God.

Lots of people think that those who leave the Sunday morning gathering of the church have abandoned God, left Jesus, and started down the slippery slope into apostasy. This interview between Wayne Jacobsen and Jeff Herr shows that such ideas are not true.

Why do you love people? Why do you minister to people? Why do you reach out to others? If it is out of obedience to God, or duty to some religious requirement to share your faith, or a sense of obligation to save souls from hell, or maybe to invite people to your church so they can hear the gospel, or maybe to fix their lives and free them from sin, let me invite you to just stop.

In this podcast, Greg Boyd argues that the violence of God is actually the shadow of God, and we must not confuse the God as revealed in Jesus with the shadow of God in the Old Testament. In this way, he says the violent portrayals of God point beyond Himself to something better, which is what is revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

When you look at the cross of Jesus, what is it that comes to mind about God? Do you see Jesus rescuing us from the wrath of God so that God’s anger about sin falls on Jesus instead of us? Or do you see God and Jesus working together, with one mind and one purpose, not to rescue us form God’s wrath, but rather to rescue us from the destruction caused by sin?

I recently spent several hours discussing life and theology with people who have left traditional church and are seeking to follow Jesus in new ways. This episode of Theology.fm looks at some of the things we talked about, and how you too might be asking similar questions about how to follow Jesus in a more relational way.

If you believe that God truly is violent, I have a question for you as well which you could answer in the comment section. The question is this: How is it that Jesus can fully reveal God to His disciples (and to us), but never exhibit any murderous or retaliatory violence toward others?

Lots of Christians completely misunderstand who Jesus actually was, what He came to do, and how we learn about both from the Gospels. In this episode of Theology.fm, we learn from leading New Testament scholar, N.T. Wright about the Jesus of myth and history. In this message. N.T. Wright helps us separate popular false conceptions about Jesus from who Jesus truly was (and is).

When you think of Genesis 1, what do you think of? Do you think it is a scientifically accurate account of how God created the world in six twenty-four hour periods? Or do you think it is a terribly misguided and backward myth from thousands of years ago which has been completely debunked by modern science, so that anyone who believes in what Genesis 1 says is like those who still believe the earth is flat? If you hold one of those views, this Theology.fm show is for you.

In this episode, Darin and Hans discuss a quote from Brandon Armstrong. It was this: If you read the Bible without the Holy Spirit, it is as valuable as reading the Sunday newspaper; if you read the Bible with the Holy Spirit, it is as valuable as reading Harry Potter with the Holy Spirit. That is a challenging thought! In this episode, Darin and Hans discuss this idea more.

Do you enjoy reading, studying, and learning about theology, or is it more of a cuss-word for you? I imagine that if you are listening to a podcast from Theology.fm, that you are part of the former group. You are someone who enjoys theology. If so, do you know anyone who does not like theology? I invite you to recognize that they have probably been burned and damaged by theologians in the past, and to not judge or condemn them for staying clear of theological pursuits.

This show is from Brian Zahnd, and he shows this same truth. He explains that if we want to know God’s attitude toward us, all we need to do is look at Jesus. Why? Because God is like Jesus and Jesus reveals God to us—not just how God acts, but also how God thinks and feels about you and me.

In this first episode of Theology.fm, Jeremy Myers not only explains why theology is so important, but also that the most important thing to remember about theology is that we must not take ourselves too seriously.