Expanding Your Faith

Expanding Your Faith | Season 15, Episode 3

Some Christians lock the doors and turn off the porch light on October 31. Some host harvest festivals or run “hell houses,” and some go all in on costumes and candy. This episode asks where the holiday actually comes from and how people of faith can decide for themselves what to do with it.

The panel starts with the name itself. “Halloween” is a contraction of “All Hallows’ Eve,” the evening before the Feast of All Saints. They look at how that feast came to be observed on November 1, how All Souls’ Day followed, and why the claim that the Church simply replaced the Celtic festival of Samhain is more disputed among scholars than the popular version suggests. Along the way they cover soul cakes, carved turnips, and how the customs traveled to North America.

From there the conversation turns to the saints and the dead. The hosts discuss what a saint is across different traditions, the cloud of witnesses in Hebrews, why prayers for the departed matter to many Christians, and how Día de los Muertos blends Indigenous and Catholic remembrance.

The panel then takes up the devil. The red suit and pitchfork are not in the Bible, and the text itself tells a different story: “the satan” as accuser in Job, a defeated adversary in the New Testament, and a steady message of “do not be afraid” instead of “be very afraid.” They also look at the Bible’s warnings about the occult, the legacy of hell houses and the Satanic Panic, and Paul’s counsel in Romans 14 on disputable matters.

The episode ends with practical thoughts: treating trick-or-treat night as an opportunity for neighborly hospitality, choosing costumes thoughtfully, and finding ways a church community can mark the season, including All Saints and All Souls.

Expanding Your Faith is live every Saturday at 8:00 PM ET on YouNow.com/BishopGreg and TikTok @expandingyourfaith. Past episodes are available at podcasts.myocci.social and Apple Podcasts.

Expanding Your Faith | Season 15, Episode 1

Season 15 opens with a question most churches handle badly. Faith communities tend to fall into one of two patterns around elections: total silence, as though faith has nothing to say about public life, or thinly veiled partisan endorsement dressed up as a sermon. This episode takes a third path. It is not about who to vote for. It is about how to think, pray, and discern as you decide for yourself.

Bishop Greer, Rev. Marc Trimm, and Bishop Ben Williams begin with why civic participation is a spiritual question at all, from Joseph, Daniel, and Esther to Jeremiah’s instruction to the exiles to seek the peace of the city. They also explain why this show draws a hard line at endorsement, connecting back to last season’s conversation on Christian nationalism: when a platform tells people exactly how to vote, it collapses the difference between the Kingdom of God and a particular political order.

The panel then looks at what Scripture says about power, justice, and the common good. They cover Micah’s call to do justice and love mercy, the prophets’ concern for unjust laws, the limits of Romans 13 alongside Acts 5:29, and the greatest commandment as a practical question to pray through: how does this policy or leader affect my neighbor, especially the one with the least power?

The second half turns practical. The hosts discuss praying over a ballot before filling it out, doing the actual homework on candidates and ballot measures, weighing issues rather than defaulting to party loyalty, and remembering that voting is one act of discipleship among many, not the whole of it. The episode closes on staying in relationship across political disagreement, so that a congregation can hold real differences without treating them as tests of faith.

Expanding Your Faith is live every Saturday at 8:00 PM ET on YouNow.com/BishopGreg and TikTok @expandingyourfaith. Past episodes are available at podcasts.myocci.social and Apple Podcasts.

Expanding Your Faith | Season 14, Episode 12

The Sermon on the Mount may be the most quoted and least practiced block of teaching in the entire Bible. Christians can recite the Beatitudes by heart and, in the same breath, build lives, churches, and even national politics on principles that directly contradict them. This episode makes the case that Matthew 5 through 7 was never meant to be admired from a safe distance -- it is a specific, practical, and genuinely livable ethical manifesto, and Jesus says so himself at the very end of it.

Bishop Greer Godsey, Rev. Marc Trimm, and Bishop Ben Williams walk through the sermon's structure and setting -- delivered on a mountain deliberately echoing Moses at Sinai, closing with a parable about a wise builder who hears these words and acts on them, and a foolish one who doesn't. From there, the panel unpacks the upside-down value system of the Beatitudes, the specific and uncomfortable commands that follow -- reconciliation before religious ritual, loving enemies instead of retaliating, treasure in heaven instead of on earth, self-examination before judging others -- and closes with the Golden Rule Jesus names as the summary of the entire Law and Prophets.

The conversation draws direct lines to earlier episodes this season: the sermon's teaching on enemy-love and nonviolence set against Christian nationalism's fusion of faith and military strength, and its warning against serving both God and money set against the false teaching examined in "False Prophets and the Gospel of Greed." The panel makes the case that the sermon's difficulty isn't a problem to interpret away -- it's the actual shape of costly discipleship, the same conviction that shaped Dietrich Bonhoeffer's witness discussed in an earlier episode with Father Ricardo Romero.

This is a call to actually practice the text, not just admire it -- and the panel challenges listeners to pick one command from the sermon and live it out this week.

Expanding Your Faith is live every Saturday at 8:00 PM ET on YouNow.com/BishopGreg and TikTok @expandingyourfaith. Past episodes are available at podcasts.myocci.social and Apple Podcasts.

Expanding Your Faith | Season 14, Episode 11

The Church has a long, painful history of putting leaders on pedestals -- and an equally long history of watching those pedestals collapse, often taking a lot of people's faith down with them. This episode is not an argument against honoring people. Scripture commands honor for those who lead and teach well. The real question the panel takes on is where honor ends and idolization begins -- and why the Church needs to relearn that difference.

Bishop Greer Godsey, Rev. Marc Trimm, and Bishop Ben Williams trace a consistent biblical pattern: Peter refusing worship the instant Cornelius falls at his feet, Paul and Barnabas tearing their clothes in horror when a crowd tries to offer them sacrifices, and Scripture's refusal to sanitize even its greatest figures -- David, Moses, and Peter are all shown with their flaws fully intact. The Bible's honesty about its own heroes, the panel argues, is itself a theological statement: God works through real, flawed people, not manufactured icons.

The conversation turns to how pedestals actually get built -- charisma mistaken for character, congregations who find it easier to trust a polished image than wrestle with hard questions themselves, and platforms that insulate leaders from the kind of close accountability a small circle of honest friends can provide. The panel revisits Troy Perry and Bishop William Brothers from an earlier season, modeling what it looks like to hold real gratitude for someone's legacy without pretending they were beyond question, and draws a direct line back to the show's "False Prophets and the Gospel of Greed" episode -- naming how unquestioned platforms are exactly what let harmful teaching go unchecked for so long.

The episode closes with practical self-examination: a simple test for whether admiration for any pastor, author, or public voice of faith -- including this very show -- has quietly become something no longer open to correction.

Expanding Your Faith is live every Saturday at 8:00 PM ET on YouNow.com/BishopGreg and TikTok @expandingyourfaith. Past episodes are available at podcasts.myocci.social and Apple Podcasts.

"Loneliness Is a Spiritual Crisis, Not Just a Social One"

People today are more digitally connected than any generation in history -- and more lonely than ever. In this episode, Bishop Greer is joined by Bishop Ben Williams (Rev. Marc Trimm is away this week) to make the case that this disconnect is not just a social inconvenience, but a genuine spiritual crisis Scripture has been naming since its opening pages.

The conversation starts in Genesis, where the very first thing God calls "not good" in all of creation is a human being alone -- before sin, before the fall, before anything has gone wrong. From there, Bishop Greer traces community through the early church's shared life in Acts, the writer of Hebrews' warning against abandoning gathered fellowship, and even Jesus himself, who in his most agonizing hour in Gethsemane asked his closest friends to simply stay near him.

The episode also looks honestly at the scope of the crisis right now -- loneliness's documented toll on physical and mental health, the paradox of rising isolation in an increasingly connected digital world, and who is most at risk: the elderly, young adults, people estranged from family, and even clergy and caregivers who pour out care constantly while receiving little in return.

Bishop Greer and Bishop Ben don't let the Church off the hook either, naming ways congregational culture can quietly reinforce isolation -- centering programming around families and couples, mistaking Sunday attendance for genuine belonging, and letting shame keep lonely people silent in the one place that's supposed to be safe enough to say "I'm struggling."

The episode closes with a practical, hopeful turn: what a faithful response to loneliness actually looks like, grounded in ordinary presence over new programs, actively seeking out who's missing rather than waiting to be asked, and naming loneliness from the pulpit without shame so people feel safe enough to say "me too."

Expanding Your Faith is live every Saturday at 8:00 PM ET on YouNow.com/BishopGreg and TikTok @expandingyourfaith. Past episodes are available at podcasts.myocci.social and Apple Podcasts.

Every driver has passed one: a church marquee with a pun so corny it's almost impressive, or a message so theologically off it makes you do a double take at a red light. This week, the panel takes a lighter turn and dives into church sign culture -- the good, the bad, and the accidentally profound.

Bishop Greer, Rev. Marc Trimm, and Bishop Ben Williams share and roast some of the funniest and strangest church signs they've come across, from harmless wordplay to messaging that veers into works-based salvation, fear-based hellfire theology, or lines that are more likely to wound a hurting stranger than welcome one. But underneath the laughs is a real question: a church sign might be the only sermon some passerby ever hears from that congregation, so what makes one actually good?

The panel lands on a few simple tests -- does the sign invite people in or does it accuse them before they've even arrived? Is it actually biblically true, or just catchy? Would it comfort someone on the worst day of their life, or does it just sound clever to a committee? Along the way, they also celebrate the signs that get it exactly right -- short, warm, and theologically sound in eight words or less.

This is a fun, easy-listening episode after a run of heavier topics this season -- and a good one to share with anyone who's ever slowed down to read (or wince at) a church marquee.

Expanding Your Faith is live every Saturday at 8:00 PM ET on YouNow.com/BishopGreg and TikTok @expandingyourfaith. Past episodes are available at podcasts.myocci.social and Apple Podcasts.

"False Prophets and the Gospel of Greed: Naming the Prosperity Preachers"

Some of the most-watched religious broadcasters in the country are teaching something that stands in direct, provable contradiction to the words of Jesus -- and calling it the Gospel while they do it. This episode names names.

Bishop Greer, Rev. Marc Trimm, and Bishop Ben Williams take on the prosperity gospel directly, starting with what Scripture itself says about false prophets and false teachers. Jesus' own test in Matthew 7 -- "by their fruits you shall know them" -- along with Paul's warning to Timothy about those who suppose "gain to be piety," and Peter's warning about teachers who "with fabricated words will exploit you," frame a conversation that stays anchored in the text throughout.

The panel then examines specific, documented teachings from two of prosperity theology's most prominent voices. Paula White's well-known "seed offering" theology -- including a 2016 sermon asking congregants to sow $1,144 as a "resurrection seed" -- is set directly against Jesus' own teaching on giving in Luke and Matthew. Mike Murdock's "58 blessings" seed-faith framework, and his documented public statement that "God has never responded to pain," is measured against a God who declares in Exodus, "I have seen the affliction of my people... and I know their sorrow."

This is not a takedown for its own sake. The panel is direct about the real cost of this theology: it reverses the Beatitudes, blames the suffering for their suffering, and financially exploits people in genuine crisis who are told their hardship is a faith problem rather than a systemic or human one. The episode closes by reclaiming what healthy, biblical generosity and stewardship actually look like -- giving that expects nothing in return, wealth understood as stewardship rather than reward, and practical markers to watch for in evaluating any ministry's teaching and practices.

Expanding Your Faith is live every Saturday at 8:00 PM ET on YouNow.com/BishopGreg and TikTok @expandingyourfaith. Past episodes are available at podcasts.myocci.social and Apple Podcasts.

"The Five Pillars of the Veritas Manifesto"

Father Ricardo Romero, Director of OCCI's Office of Faith, Justice, and Humanitarian Efforts, returns to the show to lay out the full framework of the Veritas Manifesto -- "veritas" being the Latin word for truthfulness -- ahead of the launch of its companion initiative, the Nazareth Manifest, a 42-day campaign beginning August 1st and culminating September 11th in a live public webinar.

The conversation opens by naming what Father Ricardo calls the first lie the project exists to counter: the term "illegal immigrant" itself. He walks through how U.S. immigration matters are handled administratively through the Department of Justice rather than through criminal courts, and how being present without documentation functions closer to a civil infraction than a criminal offense. He traces how immigration enforcement was folded into the Department of Homeland Security after 9/11 -- despite that attack having been carried out by individuals present on visas, not by undocumented immigrants -- and challenges common claims about immigrants and public benefits, crime rates, and border security with firsthand experience from decades of ministry and activism near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Father Ricardo then unpacks the five pillars at the heart of the Veritas Manifesto: uniting leadership across parishes and jurisdictions; building shared understanding through analysis and strategy; connecting decentralized, grassroots activist networks; citizen engagement through know-your-rights training and practical workshops (including how to establish power of attorney to protect children if a parent is detained); and effective messaging that builds intergenerational solidarity between citizens and immigrant communities.

Throughout, Father Ricardo frames this work not as a political stance but as a response to what he calls institutionalized sin -- language he draws in direct comparison to how slavery was once normalized within American institutions. He closes with a personal account of decades spent being profiled and detained near Phoenix as a U.S. citizen, and describes his and his wife's daily reality living near the border today under constant ICE patrol.

The full Veritas Manifesto document is available at the Office of Faith, Justice, and Humanitarian Efforts blog, at https://ofjhe.myocci.org, for anyone who wants to read the complete five-pillar framework and get involved at the parish level.

Expanding Your Faith is live every Saturday at 8:00 PM ET on YouNow.com/BishopGreg and TikTok @expandingyourfaith. Past episodes are available at podcasts.myocci.social and Apple Podcasts.

After a run of heavier topics this season, the panel takes a breath with a warmer, more personal conversation. Bishop Greer Godsey, Rev. Marc Trimm, and Bishop Ben Williams each share the comfort food that feels like home to them, and the stories behind it -- family memories, ministry moments, and the meals that have shaped who they are.

Along the way, the conversation turns naturally toward something the show doesn't always slow down to notice: how often God shows up around a table throughout Scripture. Manna in the wilderness. The wedding at Cana. The feeding of the five thousand. The Last Supper. The risen Christ cooking breakfast on the beach for his disciples. Food and hospitality aren't a footnote to faith -- they're woven through it.

Expect real talk about street ministry hospitality on Greene Street, MCC Augusta's tradition of chosen-family fellowship meals, and a little friendly ribbing between hosts about their favorite (and least healthy) go-to comfort dishes. This is a lighter episode, built for listeners who want a warm, easy conversation before the show returns to heavier topics next week.

Expanding Your Faith is live every Saturday at 8:00 PM ET on YouNow.com/BishopGreg and TikTok @expandingyourfaith. Past episodes are available at podcasts.myocci.social and Apple Podcasts.

Ask most people what the Book of Revelation is about, and they will describe the Rapture, the Antichrist, the Mark of the Beast, and a countdown to the end of the world. That picture is not what Revelation is. It is not what its first readers understood it to be. And it is not what serious biblical scholarship, across Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions, holds today.

Bishop Greer Godsey and Bishop Ben Williams take on what may be the most misused book in the entire Bible, with Bishop Ben Williams joining the conversation throughout. Together they recover what kind of book Revelation actually is -- a blend of apocalyptic vision, Old Testament-style prophecy, and, most surprisingly to many listeners, an actual first-century letter, addressed to seven real, struggling churches in Asia Minor living under real pressure from the Roman Empire.

The episode traces, in detail, where the popular end-times mythology most Americans assume is ancient Christian doctrine actually comes from -- a documented, traceable path running from 19th-century British minister John Nelson Darby's invention of dispensationalism and the Rapture in the 1830s, through the Scofield Reference Bible that embedded his system directly into the pages of millions of American Bibles in 1909, to Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth in 1970 and the Left Behind novels of the 1990s and 2000s. What most people picture when they think of Revelation is not first-century Christian theology. It is a relatively recent American theological invention.

More importantly, the episode asks what Revelation actually offers people living under empire, oppression, and injustice right now. Rather than a coded prediction manual, Revelation emerges as a pastoral letter of resistance -- naming Rome as "Babylon," refusing ultimate allegiance to any empire's claims on human loyalty, and declaring that the slain Lamb, not Caesar, sits on the throne. For immigrant communities, LGBTQ+ people, and anyone living inside a system that claims more authority than it deserves, Revelation's original message lands as urgently now as it did in the first century.

Expanding Your Faith is live every Saturday at 8:00 PM ET on YouNow.com/BishopGreg and TikTok @expandingyourfaith. Past episodes are available at podcasts.myocci.social and Apple Podcasts.