Down to Earth Podcast

This episode is the second in a three-part series on suffering. It’s important to prepare for suffering so we’re not surprised when it happens, because everyone suffers at some point in life. Our North American approach to suffering is escaping until we’re forced to deal with it. We value prosperity, accolade, and success and above all self. But Jesus doesn’t call us to focus on ourselves. Today we’re taking this idea further and exploring what it means to suffer for Jesus or as participants in the mission of God in the world. Is there a call to Christians to suffer? Does God invite us in some way?

This episode is the first in a three-part series on suffering. Today we're focusing on answering the question, what is a healthy theology of suffering?

We all face suffering and loss at some point. Some of us are prepared for it but for most the bottom drops out of our lives when hard times hit.

North American culture treats suffering with denial and escapism. Because our audience is predominately North American, this is an issue we need to discuss in a first-world context.

This episode is the first in a three-part series on suffering. Today we’re focusing on answering the question, what is a healthy theology of suffering? We all face suffering and loss at some point. Some of us are prepared for it but for most the bottom drops out of our lives when hard times hit. North American culture treats suffering with denial and escapism. Because our audience is predominately North American, this is an issue we need to discuss in a first-world context.

A few episodes back we talked about hospitality and how it's a lost art in our modern church. Today we're talking a topic that goes hand-in-hand with hospitality—communion. There's something about the table of Jesus that's central to our understanding of salvation. The playing field is levelled, we're made aware of our need for God, and then experience the immensity of God's provision through His Son.

Christians have different ways of interpreting communion and its meaning. We'll unpack that in today's episode.

A few episodes back we talked about hospitality and how it’s a lost art in our modern church. Today we’re talking a topic that goes hand-in-hand with hospitality—communion. There’s something about the table of Jesus that’s central to our understanding of salvation. The playing field is levelled, we’re made aware of our need for God, and then experience the immensity of God’s provision through His Son. Christians have different ways of interpreting communion and its meaning. We’ll unpack that in today’s episode.

In our last episode we talked about bringing worship in song as an effective way to engage our hearts. Today we're talking about how we can authentically worship in healthy and communal ways. We tend to prefer happy over sad and see happiness as the highest life goal. But what happens when you're sad? And why are there books like Lamentations in the Bible? We can't always be happy clappy.

This discussion is a continued exploration of worship gatherings focused on the biblical importance of lament as part of our worship.

In our last episode we talked about bringing worship in song as an effective way to engage our hearts. Today we’re talking about how we can authentically worship in healthy and communal ways. We tend to prefer happy over sad and see happiness as the highest life goal. But what happens when you’re sad? And why are there books like Lamentations in the Bible? We can’t always be happy clappy. This discussion is a continued exploration of worship gatherings focused on the biblical importance of lament as part of our worship.

Do you have questions about church and why we do certain things in the church? Today we're talking about why we sing in church as well as the bigger, arching idea of worship. Music isn't used in North American culture like it was in Bible times, or in many other cultures. Our thinking patterns are Greek in nature—more about logic, less about heart-feelings. But throughout Scripture there's an emphasis on singing to the Lord.

There's a lot of good thought going into why we do things in the church, which we'll unpack in this episode.

Do you have questions about church and why we do certain things in the church? Today we’re talking about why we sing in church as well as the bigger, arching idea of worship. Music isn’t used in North American culture like it was in Bible times, or in many other cultures. Our thinking patterns are Greek in nature—more about logic, less about heart-feelings. But throughout Scripture there’s an emphasis on singing to the Lord. There’s a lot of good thought going into why we do things in the church, which we’ll unpack in this episode.

Why does church exist? Why do we gather? Continuing the discussion from our last episode, we're talking about church and looking in particular today at the worship gathering—the structure, why we gather, and where it comes from. Last time we talked about how the emergent church movement and how there was great deconstruct in the worship gathering. After, there came an altogether resistance to the worship gathering with people asking, "What's the point?"

Our goal in this episode is to show that worship—the worship of God—is rooted in the story of God and His people.