A lecture given at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

Nov 12

Ben Keyes

"What's He Building in There?" : The Music of Tom Waits.

Tom Waits has been making original music since the late 1960s and has many devoted followers. Very little is known about him personally, but his songs are rich, complex, funny and disturbing. While his music is at times a challenge both lyrically and sonically, there is much to appreciate about his writing and musicianship. In this talk we will explore some of Waits' music and ask the question - do we make room in the kingdom of God for the eccentric and the strange?

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. ©Southborough L'Abri 2021

A lecture given at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

Nov 5

Kelly Koon

"Let them see the farm, and let them see faith!" : Reflections on Christianity from those who work on and with the land.

Within this lecture we will cultivate a richer understanding of rural agricultural Christianity, engaging with the deeply grounded faith that comes from working close to the earth. There is much to learn about who God is and how faith relates to daily life when we leave urban areas and enter into places where one's business, personal spirituality, community connection, environmental care, and family lifestyle are all bound tightly into a holistic definition of sustainability.

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. ©Southborough L'Abri 2021

A lecture given at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

Oct 29

Esther Dalton

"Fellow Passengers to the Grave" : Learning Love of Neighbor with Charles Dickens

What does the Good Samaritan have to do with a prolific and sometimes preachy Victorian novelist? This lecture will explore this question by looking at how reading Dickens' stories can help us think in fresh, and perhaps deeper, ways about what loving our neighbors as ourselves looks like in real life.

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. ©Southborough L'Abri 2021

A lecture given at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

Oct 22

Joshua Chestnut

The Apostle Paul, a Friend to the Poor?

It is not uncommon to hear that while Jesus cares for the poor and the least, Paul only cares about the pagan and the lost. Many readings of Paul seem to make his theological preoccupations center, and any concern for the poor marginal. This lecture will take another look at the Apostle Paul to see how his letters evidence a ministry of deep and abiding concern for the least.

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. ©Southborough L'Abri 2021

A lecture given at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

Oct 15

Sarah Chestnut

Am I Following Jesus on Purpose, Or Just Riding My Parent's Coat Tails?

Question your faith down to its foundation. Even deconstruct it. But live in a state of demolition? In this lecture, we will reflect on what it means to grow up in a Christian home, explore how to take doubts and questions seriously, and gather some tools to help reconstruct a more mature (and maturing) life of faith.

Optional pre-lecture reading - After Doubt: How to Question Your Faith Without Losing It, by A.J. Swoboda.

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. ©Southborough L'Abri 2021

A lecture given at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

Sept 24

Ben Keyes

The Gift Comes First: The Essential Chronology of the Gospel.

Christianity is a religion of grace, but what does this mean? In this lecture we will examine the ways in which the Christian life is a response to a gift already given - an invitation to 'strive from approval.' Why is it difficult to grasp this central belief? What are the implications of this for how we live? 

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. ©Southborough L'Abri 2021

A lecture given at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

Sept 17

Joshua Chestnut

The Apostle Paul, and Finding a Pattern for our Prayers.

Though he offers little by way of direction instruction on the matter of how to pray, as one reads the letters of the Apostle Paul we often find him at prayer.  This lecture will consider some of his prayers to see what sort of model or pattern they might offer those of us learning what it means to pray.  

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. ©Southborough L'Abri 2021

A lecture given by Sarah Chestnut at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts on July 16th, 2021. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

The image of a master potter's hands on clay spinning on the potter's wheel is an image and metaphor used by the Old Testament prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, and it is an image and metaphor drawn on again by the apostle Paul in Romans (quoting Isaiah) and 2 Corinthians (treasure in jars of clay).  Job, too, uses the language of being clay.  In this lecture we will aim to better understand how the biblical writers were using the metaphor and what it has to teach us about what God is like and how we should understand what it means to be human.  Additionally, we will consider what the potter's foundational discipline of centering clay has to teach us about prayer.

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. ©Southborough L'Abri 2021

“Plato, the Professor and the Real Narnia”

A lecture given by Jim Paul at L’Abri Fellowship (via zoom) in Southborough, Massachusetts on July 9th, 2021. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

In ’The Last Battle’, the final book in CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, the children witness the end of Narnia before walking through a door between worlds into a land of "warm daylight' and "blue sky, with flowers at their feet”. They eventually come to see that this ’new’ land is the real Narnia, “which has always been here and always will be”, and that the old Narnia was only its shadow or copy. Digory Kirke (the Professor in ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’) comments by way of explanation that “It’s all in Plato, all in Plato." What did Lewis mean by this and how does Plato help us understand the relationship of creation to new creation?

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. ©Southborough L'Abri 2021

A lecture given by Mardi Keyes at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts on July 2nd, 2021. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

THE LONG BATTLE FOR WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE IN THE UNITED STATES

Winning the right to vote was one of many goals articulated at the first American Women’s Rights Convention, held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York.  It took 72 years to achieve.  On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Federal Constitution was adopted.  It read, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”  Of all the women present at Seneca Falls, only nineteen-year-old Charlotte Woodward lived to cast her vote in the 1920 presidential election. Such a long campaign toward one goal, is unique in American History and could not have succeeded without political acumen and doggedness.  In telling the story, we will consider some of the black and white women, whose courage and determination brought about this legislative victory.  We will also consider why the opposition to women’s suffrage was so strong.

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. ©Southborough L'Abri 2021