Church and Main

Or how to share your faith without being an .

Mention the word, "evangelism" and people get nervous. People might have images of an angry preacher yelling at people. I understand and in this solo episode, I share an experience with a gentleman who was not sharing the good news of Jesus Christ even if he thought he was. Even though people like this man give evangelism a bad name it is still important to share our faith with others by looking to Jesus himself.

‘An undercurrent of growth’ Making a church of disciples in a secular age-Anglican Journal

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The Evangelical Covenant Church is a denomination with roots in the pietist movement with Lutheran roots with about 200,000 members in the United States and Canada.  While it was founded by Swedish immigrants, it is a very diverse denomination.  At the 2019 Annual Meeting in Omaha, the church did something that had never been in done before: it expelled one of the oldest churches in the church, First Covenant Church in Minneapolis for its affirming stance on LGBTQ issues.  History might repeat itself later this year when two other churches could be expelled, one in the Twin Cities and another in Seattle. 

I chatted with historian Chris Gehrz on this important issue.  Gehrz is a professor of history at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota.  Chris has written three books on pietism including the Pietist Option: Hope for the Renewal of Christianity, which he co-wrote with Mark Pattie.  We talk about the history of the Evangelical Covenant Church, the 2019 decision to expel First Covenant in Minneapolis, why the LGBTQ issue is so intractable and what might happen in 2023.

Show Notes:

Freedom in Christ- An Article written by Gehrz on the LGBTQ issue

What is Pietism- Previous Episode with Gehrz

Amy Grant conquered Christian music. That was just her first act.

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In this solo episode, Dennis shares another video from October of this year where he asks what it means to be a "progressive" or "conservative" congregation and what should really matter to followers of Jesus. Stick around to listen to Dennis add some additional comments and also ask the audience for help in finding a future guest.

Thoughtful. Independent. Moderate? by Chris Gehrz

Am I A Progressive? by Amar Peterman

Video Version

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We might not want to admit it, but faith lies at the heart of so many of the issues facing our modern world. That’s why Church and Main exists, to talk about the main ways faith and modern life intersect and how the two inform the other. Join me in the journey to be people of faith in a very modern world.

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In this solo episode, I talk about how the church doesn't protect us from the evils of the world.

In the audio version of a video Dennis did back in October for his congregation, he talks about how the world can invade the church. Events like the mass shooting in churches in Texas and South Carolina show the church can’t be walled off from the evils of the world. However, Christians go out from our churches and bring God's reality into the world.

The original video:

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A frequent guest returns to talk about the ordination of women in the Southern Baptist Convention and more.

This is the last interview for 2022 and I’m ending it with one of my favorite people to interview: Andrew Donaldson.  Donaldson hosts the Heard Tell Podcast and is also a prolific writer for Young Voices and Ordinary Times.  I usually have Andrew on to talk about evangelicalism and the Southern Baptists and that’s what we did in this episode.  He provides an update on the investigation of the SBC following an explosive report on sexual abuse, and the move to punish congregations that ordain women among other things.  We didn’t get to talk as long as I would have liked due to our busy schedules, which just means I will have him back on in the new year. 

Heard Tell Podcast

Andrew’s Bio on YoungVoices

Andrew on Ordinary Times

Andrew on Twitter

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A Minneapolis Pastor sees the world around his church differently when he got on his bike.

My guest today is someone that is also interested in transportation, but he’s taken his interest one step further making it an issue of discipleship.

Travis Norvell is the pastor of Judson Baptist Church in Minneapolis and a decade ago he decided to put his money where his mouth is by giving up his car and getting around Minneapolis via bike, public transportation or on foot.  When he did this he started to see the world around his congregation in a very different way.  Travis has become an advocate in helping Christians get out of their cars once in a while and move around their world in a different mode of transportation to see what they might be missing. Tarvis is the author of A Church on the Move: A Practical Guide for Ministry in the Community where he talks about his story and how you can become more familiar with the neighborhood around your church.

Judson Baptist Church-Minneapolis

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There's a difference between patriotism and nationalism.

As I said in a prior episode, I’ve been doing these videos of about 5-7 minutes called the Weekly Check-in.  I have no idea if people are really interested in them, but I like doing them and I wanted to share a few for the podcast.  This is one I did in early October about Christian Nationalism

Talk about Christian Nationalism has risen considerably after the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.  There are a number of laypersons, pastors, theologians, and others that have arisen to talk about what they see as the goodness of Christian Nationalism.  I did a video responding to one prominent nationalist whose tweet seemed to drift into xenophobia.  I talk about how nationalism is different from patriotism, a difference that is sometimes lost in the debate.  

What Christian About Christian Nationalism Video

Christian Nationalism Episode with Jack Jenkins

Evangelicalism and Trump Episode with Napp Nazworth

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So, I’ve been doing these videos of about 5-7 minutes called the Weekly Check-in.  I have no idea if people are really interested in them, but I like doing them and I wanted to share a few for the podcast.  I want to set up this episode which is called Church in the time of TikTok.

As you know I’ve been the pastor of a small church and one of the things that has been hard over the last year or so is how hard it has been to be church in the aftermath of COVID.  People have left the church and I can remember one person telling me he thought the church didn’t have much of a future so he was going to move on.  There’s always this feeling that being a pastor means that it’s all on you and it feels so much that to be a successful church is to be a “special” church.  I think especially in mainline Protestant churches, you feel that you have to be this big social justice church or basically the Democrats in prayer.  And sometimes what I want is a church where we gather for prayer and worship and reading of scripture.  I want to be a normie church.  

That’s the setup for what you are going to hear.  Let let me know what you think of these short talks.  I will also put the link to the video in the show notes and there will be other episodes like this in the future.

Church in the Time of TikTok Video

First Christian Church of St. Paul

How the Christian Reformed Church is handling LGBTQ inclusion.

Over the last 20 years or so most of the mainline Protestant denominations have ended their controversies on the role of LGBTQ people in the life of the church.  The arguments usually ended with the denominations voting in favor of clergy and allowing for marriages and conservatives in each denomination leaving to form their own denominations.  The two latest are the Reformed Church in America where conservative churches left to create the Alliance of Reformed Churches and the United Methodist Church where conservatives are creating the Global Methodist Church.  

It’s easy to think that more conservative and evangelical churches aren’t dealing with LGBTQ issues, but that is not true. The Christian Reformed Church has also been dealing with LGBTQ issues and last summer’s Synod shows it is still not resolved.  Today, I talk with Paul VanderKlay about what’s going on the denomination and what it says really about the larger culture and how the church deals with such fraught issues.

Paul’s Twitter Page

Paul’s Substack

Paul’s YouTube Channel