Holy Joys Podcast

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In this special episode of the Holy Joys Podcast, Johnathan Arnold talks through his article "How Often Should We Receive the Lord's Supper?"

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David Fry and Johnathan Arnold discuss the Sunday Service and how they prepare for weekly worship.

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In this special episode of the Holy Joys Podcast, Johnathan Arnold teaches through an early draft of the New Methodist Catechism in preparation for a baptism and church membership class at Redeemer Wesleyan Church, where he serves as Senior Pastor.

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Johnathan and David discuss some of their favorite online resources.

Johnathan’s list:

1. ccel.org — a wealth of free Christian books; allows you to make an account so that you can save notes and highlights
2. newadvent.org — especially newadvent.org/fathers, which has the full text of many patristic works
3. stepbible.org — Step Bible by Tyndale House, my favorite online Bible
4. wesley.nnu.edu — Wesley Center Online with the full text of Wesley’s sermons, Notes on the Bible, etc.
5. bestcommentaries.com — commentary recommendations on each book of the Bible
6. thevcs.org — Christian art in conversation with Scripture
7. bibleproject.com — a wealth of free Bible study resources (e.g., animated video overviews of each book of the Bible)
8. bcponline.org — the Book of Common Prayer online
9. lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu — the Revised Common Lectionary with readings and other liturgical resources
10. biblehub.com — some free commentaries (e.g., Calvin’s Commentary) in an easy-to-read format

David's list:

1. The Wesley Center Online (free)

• A database of Wesleyan and holiness materials created by Northwest Nazarene University.
• I like it because it has some hard-to-get resources.

2. Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL.org)

• Searchable
• Includes Schaff’s 38-volume Church Father’s series
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• Works of Arminius (3 Vol. Nichols ed.)
• No page numbers

3. NewAdvent.org (free)

• Similar to CCEL
• More readable in my opinion

4. The Revised Common Lectionary (lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu)

5. Papalencyclicals.net (free)

• Every important document ever put out by the Roman Catholic Church
• The search feature is difficult to use because titles are often only in Latin.

6. Perlego.com ($18/month)

• This would be in my top two or three if it still had the daily subscription option.
• Tons of contemporary books.

7. Wesley Scholar (wesleyscholar.com) (free)

• An independent collection of Wesleyan-Methodist and early Christian works. 
• Contains articles as well as original works.

8. Open Access Digital Theological Library (libguides.thedtl.org) 

• Contains some free material
• Contains PhD dissertations

9. Books.Google.com 

• Used to be able to download as PDFs.
• Gives all the information about a book including the nearest library or where to get it online.

10. Gutenberg.org (free)

• Over 70,000 of free ebooks
• Christian and secular books
• Several different formats including actual facsimiles of pages
• Everything is public domain
• Searchable

Honorable Mentions:

JSTOR.org (fee)

• Usually accessible through a student library account
• Not really affordable for individuals.

Academia.edu (fee and free)

• Up-to-date scholarship
• Pay by subscription or by item

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David Fry and Johnathan Arnold discuss their experience at the recent Holy Joys Healthy Church Conference in Frankfort, IN. Visit holyjoys.org/conference for more info about the conference and next year's dates.

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Joey Ratcliff joins Johnathan Arnold and David Fry to discuss restoration assessment—what to do if someone's sin comes to light in the local church.

Since this podcast was recorded, Joey Ratcliff is now Lead Pastor at The Way Community Church in Muncie, IN. He is a graduate of Wesley Biblical Seminary (MDiv, 2023) and God's Bible School (B.A. MinEd, 2008).

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Visit holyjoys.org/books-pastor-library to see David and Johnathan's lists.

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In this episode, Johnathan Arnold and David Fry discuss the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers and its practical implications for the life of the church, especially keeping and restoring one another from sin.

Quotes from Fry:

• Our authority as pastors is a derived authority. We are acting on behalf of Christ and his church.
• In our leadership-focused, hierarchical society, when you talk about rulership or dominion, immediately images of domination come to mind, instead of servant-leadership or service.
• Taking someone away from the local church and having a baptism is problematic. This is something that is to be taking place within the local body.

Quotes from Arnold:

• Christians are united with Christ and so share in his anointing as priests to God.
• When it comes to something as basic as dealing with sin in our lives, the priesthood of all believers does not mean that I just go to my prayer closet and sort out all of my sin issues with Jesus. I also need to go to others in the congregation and we need to serve one another as priests. I need to say, "I'm not okay, I need help, will you pray with me?"
• It's not about "every one of us is a priest," it's about "we are all priests to one another."

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In this special episode of the Holy Joys Podcast, Johnathan Arnold teaches through an early draft of the New Methodist Catechism in preparation for a baptism and church membership class at Redeemer Wesleyan Church, where he serves as Senior Pastor.

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David Fry and Johnathan Arnold discuss the relationship between the church and theology, using John 21:17* as a starting place and drawing from William Burt Pope's Compendium on "Theology in the Church."

*In the discussion, the verse was accidentally cited as John 21:21. 

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