Expedition 44

By Expedition 44Religion & Spirituality Christianity

Expedition 44 episodes

October 03, 2023 Reimagining Community (The Church part 22)
Reimagining Community
Acts 2:42-47
Communion
Frank Viola (Pagan Christianity):
The Lord’s Supper, when separated from its proper context of a full meal, turns into a strange, pagan-like rite. The Supper has become an empty ritual officiated by a clergyman, rather than a shared-life experience enjoyed by the church. It has become a morbid religious exercise, rather than a joyous festival— stale individualistic ceremony, rather than a meaningful corporate event. As one scholar put it, “It is not in doubt that the Lord’s Supper began as a family meal or a meal of friends in a private house . . . the Lord’s Supper moved from being a real meal into being a symbolic meal . . . the Lord’s Supper moved from bare simplicity to elaborate splendor . . . the celebration of the Lord’s Supper moved from being a lay function to a priestly function. In the New Testament itself, there is no indication that it was the special privilege or duty of anyone to lead the worshipping fellowship in the Lord’s Supper.” When Israel had departed from God’s original thought, the prophet cried: “Thus says the LORD, ‘Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls’” (Jeremiah 6:16, NASB). In the same way, can we shun the vain traditions of men and return to the ancient paths . . . those holy traditions that were given to us by Jesus Christ and His apostles?
 In the early church this was called the love (agape) feast. It was a full meal and not a thimble of juice and a cracker. What would that look like today?
 Communion was a celebration and not a somber event. What would that look like today in our churches? (Yes, there is a remembrance aspect of the crucifixion but the concentration is on the victory not the torture)
 Communion emphasized unity. What if we make peace and reconcile before partaking in the meal? Actually, to not do so is defiling the meal. Who do we need to reconcile with in our church family?
 Communion is also about equality- there should be no seating arrangements (hierarchy and status). This also defiles the meal. What can we do to bring more equality to our community?
 Communion is also about meeting needs. How can we make the Lord’s table about serving each other?
For questions and comments please email us at [email protected] or [email protected]
1 hr 12 min
September 19, 2023 Reimagining the Body: Gifts of the Spirit (The Church Part 21)
During our 5-fold episodes we never really gave a history of the 5-fold office thinking so we’ll begin with that today and recap those 4 episodes before we look at the other gifts and how we should look at the church as a body of many gifts working together and not a hierarchical system with 5 gifts on the top.
X44 Article written last March:
Most of the Pentecostal world believes in the 5 fold ministry, and as I don’t disagree with most anything said or taught about the 5 fold gifts specifically, I can also see how this term has become controversial and often thought of as divisive within the body of Christ towards the other gifts. I also Theologically cringe any time a doctrine or movement seems to be derived in large part by a singular text. (In this way the use of Ephesians to frame the 5 fold ministry as a doctrine has often been claimed as a “proof text.”)
One of the first things to consider is that Paul gave us two other lists elsewhere in his epistles. The lists vary from this one significantly. This list in Ephesians wasn’t intended to be a doctrinal model; if it was the NT or Paul sure didn’t do a very good job of articulating that. If the intention was to present the list as a model of hierarchy in the church, I would think it would have been presented much differently. In other words, the laws of hermeneutics simply don’t allow a scholar reader to interpret this way. To my point, 1 Corinthians 12 would speak to an 8 fold ministry where the order is different. In the same way Romans 12 presents yet another list. This Seven Fold list moves leadership to the very bottom, just ahead of showing mercy, and it moves service, teaching and encouragement to the top. It takes some theological gymnastics to make a doctrine out of the list in Ephesians. We will get into this a bit more in depth later in the film.

OVERVIEW
• 5-fold gifts and the other lists (7 and 8-fold?) are not about hierarchy but about building up the body of Christ.
• The church is a body- a mutual and co-equal body- that reflects Jesus. There is no hierarchy in giftings.
• These giftings don’t lead to an office though some might lead or administrate in their gifting better than others based on maturity and humility- we should all mutually submit to each other.
• Faith, Hope, and Love are the foundation for exercising our gifts. It should all be done in edification and grace towards each other. Be incarnational!
• There should be a recognition and celebration of people’s gifts- especially the behind the scenes and “on the street” type that aren’t in front of people.
• Order- we need to use our gift in an order. It is not about self-elevation but about building up the body.
o Serving Christ is the purpose in the gathering. When the gifts are displayed people are built up, Christ is displayed and glorified, and the church is discipled.
• Identify your gift and use it- the body of Christ is counting on you and suffers when you don’t.
For questions and comments please email us at [email protected] or [email protected].
1 hr 13 min
August 18, 2023 Why the Gospel?: Interview with Dr. Matthew Bates
Dr. Will Ryan and Dr. Matt interview Dr. Matthew Bates about his new book "Why the Gospel". They cover topics such as malformed gospels, easy-believism, glory, the "nones", and a better way to discipleship.
Matthew W. Bates (Ph.D., Notre Dame) is Professor of Theology at Quincy University in Quincy, Illinois. Bates is a Protestant who enjoys the challenge of teaching in a Catholic context. Bates’s research interests include the Apostle Paul, Jesus, soteriology, early Christology, the Trinity, the use of the Old Testament in the New, theological interpretation of Scripture, and Justin Martyr. He enjoys hiking, baseball, and chasing around his seven children.He is a co-founded and co-hosts the popular OnScript podcast. His books include Gospel Allegiance (Brazos, 2019) the award-winning Salvation by Allegiance Alone (Baker Academic, 2017), The Birth of the Trinity (Oxford University Press, 2015), and The Hermeneutics of the Apostolic Proclamation (Baylor University Press, 2012).
https://matthewwbates.com
55 min
August 15, 2023 The Church and Deconstruction: Interview with Brian Zahnd (Part 20)
Dr. Will Ryan and Dr. Matt talk with Brian Zahnd about his story of transformation and leading a church through theological changes. We also cover topics such as deconstruction, ecumenicalism, and the future of the church.
Brian Zahnd is the founder and lead pastor of Word of Life Church, a non-denominational Christian congregation in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Brian and his wife, Peri, founded the church in 1981. Brian is also the author of several books, including, Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God, Water to Wine, A Farewell To Mars, Beauty Will Save the World, and Unconditional?: The Call of Jesus to Radical Forgiveness.
https://brianzahnd.com
https://wolc.com

1 hr 14 min
August 01, 2023 The Church: Shepherd/Teacher (Part 19)
Doc Ryan & Dr. Matt with Expedition 44 discuss the “5-fold gift” of the shepherd-teacher.
At the end of this episode we were joined by Dr. Steve Cassell and Pastor Ryan Smith of Beloved church to talk about how they live out this gifting in their community
Shepherding/Teaching
o Cares for and develops the people of God by leading, nurturing, protecting, and discipling them
o The teaching aspect clarifies the mind and will of God as found in the Bible so that people can gain wisdom and understanding in following Jesus as a disciple.
Focus/Tasks
o Cultivate a loving and spiritually mature network of relationships and community
o Discern
o Guide
o Help the faith community to explore and seek to understand the mind of God
o Disciple
Impact when Shepherding is a monopolized gift
o Closed, non-missional community
o Co-dependency between the church and pastor (hierarchy/CEO mentality- messiah complex)
o Don’t rock the boat approach to organization
o Too passive and insider focused
Impact when Teaching is a monopolized gift
o Theological dogmatism
o Christian Gnosticism (saved by knowledge)
o Bible and Theology replaces the Holy Spirit
o Control through ideas (Pharisaism- is it lawful?)
Summary
o Jesus is the Shepherd. Pastor is not an office or position in the Bible but a function
o The chief task of the shepherds/teachers was to help the church in times of personal crisis (shepherding) and to enlighten and cultivate the church’s spiritual life by revealing Christ through the exposition of Scripture (teaching).
o One must learn before they teach
o Those who function in shepherding are to be mature believers (“elders”).
o Teaching and shepherding are gifts for the unity and building up of the body to reflect Jesus Christ.
o Shepherding is about service and discipleship and not rule or authority.
2 hr 21 min
July 22, 2023 CTS Dissertations and Matt’s ThD Journey
Dr. Ryan and Dr. Matt discuss Matt's doctoral studies journey and the dissertation process at Covenant Theological Seminary for THD and PHD degrees.
57 min
July 18, 2023 The Church: Evangelist (Part 18)
Note: We are testing out some new equipment in this episode so please forgive some of the audio and video issue at the beginning. The audio clears up around 28:00. Thanks!
Dr. Will Ryan and Dr. Matt are joined by their friend Sam D'Alie, a CTS student, in this episode to talk about evangelism in the 5 fold giftings.
Eph 4:11-13
Recap
• These are functions and not offices. They are gifts not “roles”
• The scope of this text is about the equipping of the body. It is zoomed in on gifts that equip but not elevating them over others.
• Everyone has an aspect of all these gifts within them but most are strong in one of these areas.
• The goal is for the body of Christ to be whole and mature, to be united in faith, and full of the knowledge of God.
• This entire chapter focuses on unity in the body of Christ.
The gift of evangelism.
• The evangelical church gets this one right in some respects. They don’t see it as an office where some see other parts of the 5-fold as an office (pastor and teacher, sometimes apostle). Why do we pick and choose which are offices and which are not here? In reality they are all giftings.
• Also all are plural in the text, so we should have many operating in all of these in every church body. The evangelical church gets this right in that it expresses that the church at large should evangelize… yet it wants a single senior pastor.
What is an evangelist?
o Essentially the recruiter, carrier, and communicator/storytellers of the gospel message (Jesus is king)
o The truth teller to unbelievers
o They call for a response to Jesus’ kingship
Their focus/core tasks
o Concern for those outside the kingdom
o Making clear the offer to come into the kingdom so people can respond in allegiance
o Recruit for the cause/“brand ambassadors” for the kingdom
Impact on the body when Evangelism is “the main thing” (monopolization and imbalance)
o When the gift of evangelism is the central thing in the church there tends to be a narrow vision
o Lack of communal heath with the focus on the outside rather than care on the inside of the church
o Narrow perspective of faith (lack of discipleship- AKA simple gospel views)
Overview
o The great commission connects preaching the gospel (evangelism) with the necessity of discipleship- we can’t divorce the two. The 4 American gospel we looked at all divorce evangelism and discipleship but they are 2 sides of the same coin.
o OT Evangelism was communal (if there even was evangelism to the nations)- the community evangelizes by their life together that reflects Jesus. This was mainly evangelism/discipleship of each other. We don’t see evangelists sent out to the nations in the OT but rather that the nations would flow into Zion by their “light”.
o NT Evangelism always resulted in community and discipleship as well. Jesus called people to “follow him”. The Apostles planted churches and formed Jesus cultures for the evangelist to invite people into and experience the life of Jesus. What is being offered in the NT is not an “eternal destination” but a community around Jesus.
o “Conversion” doesn’t result from saying a prayer but that could be the start. It is costly according to Jesus. Not some simple statement but a pledge of allegiance to a way of life that could lead to your martyrdom. Most evangelism today leaves people still connected to the ways and systems of the world and makes it “easy” by front loading benefits and downplaying the commitment to the cross and the way of Jesus.
o Evangelize through relationship- who will you invite to your table/community?
1 hr 51 min
June 27, 2023 Being God’s Image: Interview with Dr. Carmen Imes
Dr. Will Ryan and Dr. Matt Mouzakis interview Dr. Carmen Imes on her new book Being God's Image: Why Creation Still Matters.
Follow Dr. Imes: https://www.youtube.com/@CarmenJoyImesPhD/videos
56 min
June 22, 2023 Women in Ministry?: A Conversation with Matthew Stevenson (Lakeview Assembly of God)
Pastor Matthew Stevenson and Dr Matt Mouzakis Language of Complementarian
See https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2015/03/02/revisionist-history-on-the-term-complementarian/ and https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/genesis-confusion/ for a summary of the history of the language surrounding this issue.
1 Tim 2:11-14
Matt M. misspoke about the parsing of the greek tense of epitrepo (I do not permit). The tense is present active indicative. The reason behind the interpretation of “at this time” is due to the use of epitrepo in the rest of scripture where it is always in the context of a local situation. “At this time” is based on the context and this grammatical information. See https://margmowczko.com/1-timothy-212-and-1-corinthians-1434-epitrepo/. Scholars such as Philip Payne (Man and Women one in Christ), Craig Keener (IVP Bible Background Commentary, Paul and Women), Scot McKnight (Blue Parakeet), Andrew Bartlett (Men and Women in Christ), and more come to this same conclusion based on this grammatical construction, seeing it as a time bound event just for a certain period for the church in Ephesus. It is addressed to certain women in that church in the first century.
1 Tim 3
John Chrysostom Homily 11.1 on 1 Tim 3:
“The women likewise”.
Paul meant the [women] deacons [τας διακονους]. There are those who think he was talking about women in general. No, that is not the case. It would have made no sense to have inserted here something about women in general. He was referring to those having the dignity of the diaconate [της διακονιας].
“Let deacons be the husband of one wife.”
This is also appropriately said of women deacons [γυναικων διακονων], for this [monogamy] is necessary, useful and proper to the highest degree in the Church.
1 Corinthians 11
Wayne Grudem makes arguments against the “source” interpretation and certain metaphorical meanings of head (kephele) saying it never meant source and has a meaning of authority. Many scholars have push back on his article on this in 1985 showing that a literal head or source are the most prominent interpretations and there is a possibility for “authority” being a gloss of this term, though a minority one. Yet, Philip Payne argues that “source” is the most used metaphor for kephele (see Payne, Man and Women: One in Christ, 113-139). See https://www.pbpayne.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/what-about-headship-ch7.pdf
Here is a history of the debate: https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/meta-study-debate-over-meaning-head-kephale-pauls-writings/
The interpretation of kephele (head) as “authority over” is based on a cherry-picking of Greek lexicons. Witt specifically calls out complementarian Wayne Grudem, who argues for this meaning based on six Greek lexicons, while Philip Payne provides nineteen Greek lexicons where “authority” is not listed as a meaning for kephale. (Witt, Icons of Christ, 128). See an overview of Witt’s work on kephele in this article: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/fleshofmyflesh/2023/01/headship-in-1-corinthians-a-source-of-misunderstanding/
The Septuagint uses the Hebrew word for “head” (rosh), meaning a literal head, when the translators invariably translated rosh into kephalē. However in Hebrew, like in English, “head” can also mean a leader or ruler. In the instances where rosh meant a leader the translators did not use the word kephalē in their translation; instead, they typically used the Greek word archōn, which does mean ruler or leader. It seems that most of the translators of the LXX knew that kephalē does not usually mean leader, ruler, or person in authority.
Ephesians 5:21-33
Originally there was no verb in Ephesians 5:22. The earliest manuscripts of Ephesians 5:22 do not include the verb “submit.” Jerome even writes that in Greek manuscripts verse 22 never repeats the verb “submit” from verse 21.
For more on women ordination in the early church see https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/ordained-women-patristic-era/
1 hr 35 min
April 06, 2023 The Church: Prophet (Part 17)
Foretelling or Forthtelling?
Foretelling
·      This is the common wester view of prophecy. It’s usually about predicting the future. It’s all about telling future events.
o   Even when dealing with future events, often it was about what would happen if Israel didn’t turn back to God. Much of forthtelling conditional.
·      When we examine the prophetic writings in scripture we see that the vast majority of all prophecy is directed at the present and not at the future… It’s not foretelling- it’s forthtelling
o   Obviously there’s some foretelling in the prophets of the future- Of Jesus
o   How much of prophetic ministry today is about the future if Jesus has come?
Forthtelling (Or exhortation)
·      This is simply speaking forth God’s word and encouraging others to follow it.
·      This is different from teaching/preaching as it is revelation from God into present situations. It is not exposition of the scripture but the exhortation should never contradict scripture. In the OT the prophets were mainly covenant enforcers rather than ones who looked into a crystal ball and saw the future (divination?)
·      The main point of OT prophecy was about calling God’s people back into covenant faithfulness and the same is true for those today who have the gift of prophecy. Revelation 19:10b- For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
·      The spirit of prophecy today should be about bring the church back into the way of Jesus and reflect his testimony as the faithful witness- PROPHECY ALWAYS POINTS TO JESUS
Prophetic ministry in the OT
The main things the OT prophets were concerned with was righteousness and justice in their forthtelling. Right relationships with God and others with is both about the moral, spiritual, and social aspects of life. They were covenant enforcers and the covenant framed the social and spiritual life of the community. Prophetic ministry in the NTJohn the baptist was not only calling for righteousness and holiness but he’s calling people to justice. This is reminiscent of the OT prophets. He’s preparing the hearts and lives of the people for Jesus.
Philip’s Daughters
In Acts 21:8-9 we see that Philip the evangelist (one of the 7 deacons from Acts 6) had 4 unmarried daughters who were prophetess’.
Agabus
Acts 11:28-30 and 21:10-11
He was one who listened to God’s voice through the Holy Spirit. Did Agabus get the prophecy right? Later in Acts 21 Paul is at the temple and the Jews start a mob against him and try to kill him. The Romans step in to break it up and arrest Paul. So, Agabus was technically wrong in the details but right in the results.
Prophecy in Corinth
1 Cor 14:1-5, 29-33
Jesus as Prophet
·      Jesus come to break the power of sin and the devil but also to render justice and righteousness. See Luke 4:14-20 when he kicks off his ministry and defines his kingdom in the way Isaiah did above with justice for the powerless.
o   Mary prophecies of Jesus bringing down thrones and exalting the humble
·      Moses was considered a prophet and similarly Jesus delivers the kingdom charter on a mountain (Sermon on the mount) as the way to walk as God’s people.
·      Jesus did speak truth to power (in love), he cared about righteousness and justice in the community and called us through example to live in covenant faithfulness to the Father.
·      Jesus suffered and was martyredSummary
·      Prophets exhort God’s people into Covenant faithfulness (covenant enforcers)
·      They listen to God’s voice and communicate it to the people
·      They are concerned with justice, righteousness, and holiness
·      They often suffer for challenging the status quo.
·      They need to be careful about being a jerk or overly offensive and much of their message is corrective. (often need to watch their tone and make sure to walk in love)
·      Most of all they are concerned with God’s heart and lovingly bringing the community into those things.
1 hr 44 min