Mid-faith Crisis

We explore the role of imagination in prayer, and how that can help us with a real relationship with God. Also why disputes might help us, whether worship song writers should go to sea, and whether there is such a thing as 'the great commission'.

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Mentioned in this episode:

• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
• Downton Abbey: A New Era
• Paul Merson - A Walk Through My Life
• BBC young dancer 2022
• The Atlantic: Why The Past 10 Years Of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid

We think about why, throughout history, people have moved massive boulders in the name of religion. What boulders of doctrine or belief are we pushing uphill? And what are we building with them? Also Nick is conflicted about social media and we think about the possibility of multiple choice worship song lyrics.

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Mentioned in this episode:

• Nick Page: The joy of the mid-faith crisis
• BBC - Living with the Gods
• Living with the Gods Talk
• Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now
• Buckminster Fuller
• Stonehenge
• Newgrange

Lots of questions this week. Why do we sing things we don't agree with? Have we misunderstood the writings of Paul? How do we know that God is love? What behaviour have we a right to expect from leaders? And will Nick ever remember the second point he was going to make?

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• The Mid-Faith Crisis week at Lee Abbey - Book Now!

Mentioned in this episode:

• Moon Knight
• Rebecca Solnit, Men Explain Things To Me
• The Shires
• I stand amazed
• Episode 175: An interview with Matt Hyam
• Steve Chalke, The Lost Message of Paul

A bit of a catch-up. Joe is back from holiday and Nick's been preaching over Easter. We chat about looking for the living among the dead, the discipline of hope and whether having one foot in the grave means that you're getting in or climbing out.

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Mentioned in this episode:

• Enneagram Type Five
• Resurrection of Christ
• Serenity Prayer

Joe is on holiday, recording (a) via some flaky internet and (b) on the world’s worst mic, so apologies for that. But consider this is a little bonus episode. We have a chat about how we feel about Easter this year and how our celebrations of Christian festivals always reflect our emotional state.

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Mentioned in this episode:

• Brant Hanson, Unoffendable
• Kathy Escobar, Faith Shift

This week a really crucial question: what does God actually do? If he's just love, what good is that? We talk about finding joy and power through our relationship with God. We talk about how metaphors create reality and, especially, how the metaphor of the church as Christ's body might be a bit more than metaphorical. It's been a sad week, so there are tears. But there are also elephants. So that's good.

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Mentioned in this episode:

• Mary Oliver, Wild Geese
• Compton Verney
• Grayson's Art Club!

We explore the idea of taking responsibility for God's believability. If God is not going to intervene in a miraculous way, is it up to us? Also, we discuss the importance of enjoying joy whenever and wherever you find it. Not to mention the annoying nature of nostalgia (and, indeed, the annoying nature of Nick) and whether Vanilla Ice was a minor prophet.

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• The Mid-Faith Crisis week at Lee Abbey - Book Now!

Mentioned in this episode:

• onetreeplanted.org
• Chuckle Brothers
• Etty Hillesum
• Etty Hillesum, Sunday morning prayer
• Rowan Williams, Tokens of Trust
• Fun Boy Three. It Ain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It).
• Mary Oliver, Don’t Hesitate

More follow up this week on how to respond to peoples' prayer requests. How are we supposed to discuss our spiritual journey without feeling superior? Do we need 'get out' phrases to avoid controversy? And is it OK to feel like we need a break when the world is on fire? Also Joe has had a computer related trauma and Nick has a cake-related ethical question about fasting. Turns out that life is complicated.

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Mentioned in this episode:

• The Duke
• Ash Wednesday
• Prayer, Joy Cowley

It's been a worrying week. How do we respond to big events? Can we get the balance right between ignorant bliss and doomscrolling despair? Also, we have great emails about the sovereignty of God and whether it's OK to ask people to pray in ways we wouldn’t. And, most importantly, we discuss why we really need new wristbands.

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• The Mid-Faith Crisis week at Lee Abbey - Book Now!

Mentioned in this episode:

• Episode 104: Strength to walk the journey
• Episode 169: A deep desire to pray

After a deluge of theological cocktail suggestions - and some new TV shows as well - we turn our attention to outrage. Every day we are invited to get outraged about something - but is that healthy? Can outrage be a positive force? Also we talk more about attention, collaborating with God, 360 degree feedback for discipleship, and Death in the Nile by Kevin Branagh.

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• Contact the podcast through your email machine
• The Mid-Faith Crisis week at Lee Abbey - Book Now!

Mentioned in this episode:

• David Baddiel, Jews Don't Count
• Death on the Nile