Life Over Coffee

One of the most important questions when looking for a new church is how the pastor leads the local church. In larger churches, it’s a unified body of pastors. It would be an excellent thought experiment to answer a few questions about those who lead your church. What best describes your pastor? How does he affect those around him? Can he care for your soul? Finding a good shepherd is a tedious process that can even be daunting. Ensuring the proper leader leads the community well is paramount because he determines everything that flows from that local body.

Read Here: https://lifeovercoffee.com/what-do-you-look-for-in-a-pastor/

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Shows Main Idea – What would you do if Mark Driscoll was your pastor? You decide to stay in the church, but you’re opposed to the language, bullying, manipulation, and narcissism. How would you respond? Would you self-censor? Would you seek to be part of a redemptive effort to make a difference? Responding the right way to authoritarians is the topic of this episode from the Christianity Today podcast series, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.

Show Notes: https://rickthomas.net/podcast/ep-362-response-to-the-rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill-episode-10/

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Shows Main Idea – Mike Cosper opened this episode by talking about the Cottingley Fairies found in five photographs taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths in 1918. In 1984, Elsie said the photos were fake, and Frances said people wanted to believe in them. This Christianity Today podcast episode about The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill discusses our need to believe in someone and a leader’s sinful desire to get us to believe in him.

Show Notes: https://rickthomas.net/podcast/ep-361-response-to-the-rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill-episode-9/

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Shows Main Idea – This episode of the Christianity Today (CT) podcast series, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, is an interview with Josh Harris, the former “Christian” who wrote I Kissed Dating Goodbye. It’s an odd digression from the straight line Christianity Today had been running about what went wrong with Mars Hill.

Show Notes: https://rickthomas.net/podcast/ep-360-response-to-the-rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill-episode-8/

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Shows Main Idea – In this episode of The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill from Christianity Today, the primary talking point is the church’s leadership. Should you have a group of leaders or one man at the top. In the case of Mars Hill, they began with a plurality that led them to its heights only to morph into the lead guy, which began the descent and ultimate fall of Mars Hill Church.

Show Notes: https://rickthomas.net/podcast/ep-359-response-to-the-rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill-episode-7/

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Shows Main Idea – This sixth edition of Christianity Today’s podcast series, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, discusses the brand and how to promote yourself to become somebody. Then Mike Cosper shared how Mark Driscoll associated himself with the gospel community to spread his fame globally. Mark had a gifted team who knew how to build an analytically smart, algorithmic, cyber-preacher. And once they established his fame in the stratosphere, the Christian celebrities and organizations would not ignore him.

Show Notes: https://rickthomas.net/podcast/ep-358-response-to-the-rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill-episode-6/

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All of us are victims. Adam dealt us a death blow. And to complicate matters, we’re also blameworthy. We are guilty victims or victim sinners. It’s not a comfortable thought, but it’s an accurate one. Everyone practically possesses these two polarizing truths. The more significant issue is not what we have done wrong, but what will we do about it? If you’re ready to focus on how you can change, I have some terrific news for you: it can happen today! Here are a few thoughts for the serious-minded person who wants to change their lives.

Read Article: https://rickthomas.net/how-a-teen-can-react-when-stuck-in-the-cyclic-effect-of-victimhood/

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Shows Main Idea – This review of episode five in The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast series begins with a warning similar to the last episode about prescreening it before listening to it with others. This episode is not just gross, but it could cause a woman to lapse to a horrible time in her past if she has gone through a manipulating and inappropriately physical interaction with a man. Please use caution before you recommend this episode.

Show Notes: https://rickthomas.net/podcast/ep-357-response-to-the-rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill-episode-5/

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Shows Main Idea – This review is of episode four in the Christianity Today series, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. CT warns the listeners that you may want to prescreen this episode due to the sexual nature and language. It is a gross episode—the first half—that may leave you feeling dirty after hearing it. The key idea is, why was the message so popular when the messenger was so flawed?

Show Notes: https://rickthomas.net/podcast/ep-356-response-to-the-rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill-episode-4/

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Shows Main Idea – In this podcast, I’m reviewing the third episode in the series from Christianity Today called, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, the church planted and led by Mark Driscoll. The title of this episode is “You Read Your Bible, Ringo?” My purpose in these reviews is not to restate what CT said about Mars Hill or Mark Driscoll but to learn from those things to be a better Christian.

Show Notes: https://rickthomas.net/podcast/ep-355-response-to-the-rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill-episode-3/

Will you help us so we can continue to provide free content to the world? You can become a supporting member here rickthomas.net/recurring-membership/ Or you can make a one-time or recurring donation(s) here https://rickthomas.net/donations/