We are kicking off a brand new summer series called Let’s Be Honest, a thoughtful, humble exploration of what it truly means to navigate faith, culture, and big intellectual questions in today's world. Host Matt Summers sits down with Menlo Church Lead Pastor Phil EuBank to lay the groundwork for this series. Together, they tackle how to hold honesty and conviction together, ensuring we can explore what Christianity teaches without becoming dismissive, simplistic, or unfair toward other world views. Phil even shares a deeply personal look into his own story, opening up about how his mother was a first-generation Russian Jew whose discovery of Jesus as the Messiah completely reshaped how he reads and understands the biblical text.

To start things off, the discussion begins with the historical and biblical foundations of Judaism under the episode title, "The Burden of the Law." While many view religious rules as a ladder to climb up to God or a checklist to prove they are a "good person," Phil breaks down why the Law was actually intended to function as a mirror rather than a ladder. The conversation dives deep into the central promise that changes everything: Jesus didn’t come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it perfectly in our place.

Whether you are a long-time churchgoer evaluating if you've drifted into trying to earn a gift that is already free, or a curious listener trying to sort through different religious ideas, this episode offers an honest look at why we can stop trying to measure up.

Honesty Over Caricature: Setting the tone for the new series and discussing how to "steel-man" other belief systems with profound respect, intellectual clarity, and curiosity.

A Personal Legacy: Phil shares how growing up in a home with a Jewish heritage gave him a unique, second-nature perspective on reading the New Testament through a Jewish lens.

The Law as a Thermometer: Moving past the idea of the Law as an oppressive checklist to see how it functions like a thermometer—it tells you the temperature of the soul, but lacks the power of a thermostat to change it.

Grace vs. Performance: A challenging look at why even regular churchgoers can accidentally treat faith like a ladder, and how Jesus' fulfillment of the Law sets us free from the burden of performance.

Are you currently living with the assumption that you need to be good enough, do enough, or measure up to be okay, or are you actively resting in the grace that has already been given to you?

#MenloChurch #MenloMidweek #TheBurdenOfTheLaw #LetsBeHonest #Judaism #MenloMidweekPodcast

Over the next several weeks, we’re taking an honest, respectful look at different worldviews and traditions—check out the full series schedule below:

June 28: Judaism (Available Now)

July 5: Islam

July 12: Buddhism

July 19: Mormonism

July 26: Catholicism

August 2: The Nones / Agnostics

August 9: It is Finished (The Gospel)

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Watch this episode on our website: http://menlo.church/podcasts 

Watch the accompanying weekend sermon: https://www.menlo.church/sermons/the-burden-of-the-law-judaism  

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Many people believe that if they just follow the "rules" (The Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule), they will be right with God. We look at the rich history of Judaism and the 613 laws intended to guide God's people. However, the Law was never meant to be a ladder to heaven; it was meant to be a mirror showing us we can't get there on our own. 

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Father’s Day in the church can often feel like a strange, high-stakes tension—usually landing somewhere between a heavy guilt trip and a shallow Hallmark greeting card. In this Father's Day episode, Matt Summers and Tommy Lum sit down to unpack a weekend message that intentionally tried to be neither. Instead, the conversation centers on Joseph, perhaps the quietest major character in the entire New Testament, and how his life offers us an incredibly honest, generous, and grounding picture of what faithful presence actually looks like in our lives today.

The discussion dives into the powerful, counter-cultural reality of Joseph’s story: he never gives a single speech, he never argues with God, and he never demands to explain himself to the culture around him. Instead, he simply wakes up and does exactly what he is told to do, over and over again, in the midst of wild, scandalous circumstances that would easily unravel most of us. 

The conversation holds space for every kind of father, father figure, and family dynamic in the room, ending with a deeply hopeful look at why Joseph’s quiet disappearance before Jesus' public ministry might just be the most encouraging thing we can say to anyone showing up and doing the hard work for someone else right now.

📍 In This Episode:

**Beyond the Greeting Card:** Tearing down the traditional, often exhausting cultural stereotypes around Father's Day to look at a healthier, more sustainable framework for men, fathers, and families.

**The Quietest Major Character:** Examining the unique biblical narrative of Joseph, a man of zero recorded words whose radical obedience was defined by steady action rather than a microphone.

**Faithful Presence Under Pressure:** How Joseph navigated deeply complex, confusing, and high-stakes life circumstances by simply waking up and taking the next right step of obedience every morning.

**The Grace of Disappearing:** Unpacking the profound, hopeful truth behind Joseph fading into the background of the New Testament, and what that teaches us about legacy, humility, and pouring into the next generation.

 💬 Discussion Question:

When you think about the people who have impacted your life or faith the most, how did their quiet, consistent presence shape who you are today?

**#MenloChurch #MenloMidweek #FathersDay #StrengthDoesntHaveToBeLoud**

The most faithful people in the room are often the ones nobody's talking about. Joseph shows us that strength doesn't require volume; it requires presence, obedience, and the willingness to play a long game you'll never see completed.

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We have reached the finale of our Glitch series, a month-long conversation about what it truly means to be human in a machine world. After exploring awe, agency, and identity, host Matt Summers sits down with teaching pastor Phil EuBank to tackle the final, most vulnerable layer of this cultural moment: intimacy. Reflecting on the real-time feedback from the Menlo Church lobby over the last few weeks, Matt and Phil unpack how living in a hyper-optimized, digital environment has quietly exposed a profound undercurrent of loneliness and exhaustion in our community.

This episode dives deep into the weekend message, "Going Offline," moving past abstract fears of AI companions to look at the immediate reality of how technology is actively retraining us. When we become accustomed to frictionless, digital interactions, our tolerance for real-world relational messiness plummets. Phil challenges us to consider a sobering reality: relationships that never push and pull only take and never give. By looking at Jesus' invitation in Matthew 11 and Paul's words on being "fully known" in 1 Corinthians 13, this conversation serves as a beautiful, practical roadmap for recovering our humanity through the slow, messy, and restorative work of real community.

📍 In This Episode:

The Push and Pull of Intimacy: A breakdown of why authentic relationships require vulnerability, inconvenience, and the willingness to be stretched rather than simply mirrored or tracked.

The True Definition of A.I.: Unpacking the double meaning behind the entire series—how the modern world constantly offers us artificial awe, artificial agency, artificial identity, and artificial intimacy.

The Cross-Shaped Human: Exploring the beautiful imagery of the four directions of humanity (awe up, agency out, intimacy across, identity within) and how the cross forms the true shape of a whole, thriving human being.

💬 Discussion Question:

#MenloChurch #MenloMidweek #GoingOffline #Glitch

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The ultimate result of the machine world is isolation. We are connected to everyone but known by no one. The series concludes by inviting people to "Go Offline" to find a real connection. We move from "Self-Optimization" to "Community Formation." Jesus invites us into the "unforced rhythms of grace," a pace of life that feels like a glitch to the world but feels like home to the soul.

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Welcome back to the Menlo Midweek Podcast! We are in Week 3 of our series, "GLITCH: Being Human in a Machine World." This week, host Matt Summers and Phil EuBank are joined by a special guest: Paul, co-founder of Faith Work and Tech.

In an episode titled "Hardware Crash," the three of them dive into the very real, physical nature of burnout. Living and working in the Bay Area, it’s incredibly easy to operate as if we are just a "brain in a jar," ignoring our hardware (our physical bodies) to constantly serve our software (our productivity, careers, and output). But as we see in the story of the prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 19, when you crash hard, God doesn't send a software update or a productivity hack. Sometimes, the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap and eat a snack.

📍 In This Episode:

Faith in a High-Tech World: Paul shares his unique perspective on navigating an industry designed around constant connectivity and how we can faithfully set boundaries when our jobs demand endless output.

Elijah’s Broom Tree Moment: A look at how God met one of the most powerful prophets in history at his lowest point with deep physical care and compassion, rather than a new assignment.

High Tech / Deep Touch: Why living in a highly digitized, screen-heavy world requires us to be intentional about physical restoration—addressing how our bodies hold onto stress and why we need physical healing, not just spiritual ideas.

💬 Discussion Question:

Need Prayer or Have Questions? Text us at (650) 600-0402.

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Burnout is what happens when biology rebels against technology. We ignore our hardware (bodies) to serve the software (productivity). We revisit Elijah under the broom tree, a prophet who crashed hard. God didn’t send a software update; He sent a nap and a snack. We will address trauma, the body keeping the score, and the "High Tech / Deep Touch" reality that we need physical restoration, not just spiritual ideas.

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Welcome back to the Menlo Midweek Podcast! This week, host Brett Koerton sits down with Phil EuBank to dive into Week 2 of our GLITCH series. In an episode titled "Infinite Loop," they tackle the exhausting reality of anxiety and why relying on our intellect to solve our emotional struggles often leaves us stuck buffering.

In the Silicon Valley, we naturally prize "processing power," leading us to believe we can logic our way out of fear. But as Brett and Phil discuss, you simply can’t out-think a broken feeling.

📍 In This Episode:

Processing Power vs. Present Peace: A candid conversation about how we try to use "Algorithms" (predictive anxiety) to control our lives, and why the peace of God isn't a logical conclusion, but a spiritual download.

Renewing the Mind: We take a deep dive into Romans 12:1-2 and 2 Corinthians 10:5. What does it actually look like to take a spiraling thought captive in real time?

Algorithm to Spirit: Practical steps for shifting your operating system from the exhausting loop of "what-ifs" to the grounding reality of the Holy Spirit.

💬 Discussion Question:

Next Steps

Need Prayer or Have Questions? Text us at (650) 600-0402.

Support Hope for Everyone

Listen to Menlo Midweek Podcast

Get Connected

Stay Connected with Menlo Church

Instagram: @menlo.church

Anxiety is the mind stuck in a buffering loop. In the Valley, we prize "processing power," so we try to logic our way out of fear. But the peace of God isn't a logical conclusion; it's a spiritual download. We will look at the neurology of the "looping thought" and Paul’s command to "renew the mind." This is about moving from "Algorithm" (predictive anxiety) to "Spirit" (present peace).

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