Welcome back to Ten Foot Pole Podcast with Season 5!  We are diving back into the Gospel of Luke until our Advent special series starts!  Join Pastor Allison Johnson and Pastor A.J. in talking about prayer.  Jesus tells a parable about a couple of guys praying.  Is one better than the other? Who? Is anyone’s prayers “better”? Let’s talk it out.  Luke 18:9-14 for Sunday, October 26, 2025, not Reformation. 

Discussion Questions:

1. How do you view the two praying in the temple?

2. What is the fault of the Pharisee? What is the fault of the tax collector?

3. When do you feel like the tax collector and when do you feel like the Pharisee?

4. Who do you think goes home justified?

5. What does this tell us about God and prayer?

Season 4 finale! The pastors talk about a sort of “part 2” to last week’s episode.  What are we to set our eyes on? Do we pay attention to Jesus in our midst? Dive in with us on Luke 12:32-40 for Sunday, August 10, 2025.

Discussion Questions:

1. What theology have you been taught around “where your treasure is there your heart will be also?”

2. How do you feel about the imagery of Jesus being “the robber?”

3. How do you respond to the “ministry of interruptions?”

4. What does it mean for you to live in both realms and be faithful to the gospel and set boundaries?

5. What does this tell us about God?

Oh, here we go… the most unpopular topic out there: money.  Jesus has some strong opinions about wealth, but there may be more to it than we’ve ever heard in the prosperity gospel or a good stewardship Sunday sermon. Join Pastor A.J. and Pastor Sarah Locke in talking about Luke 12:13-21 for Sunday, August 3, 2025.

Discussion Questions:

1. Why do you think Jesus tells this parable in response to the man’s question?

2. What is your working theology of Jesus’ teachings on wealth?

3. What do you think Jesus is saying about saving and preparing for the future?

4. What is your working theology about wealth disparity and economic balance?

5. What does this tell us about God?

Today we dive into prayer.  What does it mean and how does God respond? We look at the language for prayer that Jesus shares with his disciples in Luke.  There are lots of different ways to pray and we find meaning in prayer in all sorts of different ways.  What does your prayer journey look like?  We look at Luke 11:1-13 for Sunday, July 27, 2025.

Discussion Questions:

1. How do you formulate your prayers?

2. How do you pray when the world feels heavy around you?

3. What for you is the purpose of prayer?

4. When was a time where you felt God didn’t answer your prayers?

5. What does this tell us about God?

We’ve all heard the Parable of the Good Samaritan, right? Pastor Becca and Pastor Jon help us get some deeper insight into what each person’s role is in this story.  Maybe the Levite and the Priest weren’t so awful? Let’s dive deeper into this classic parable that Jesus shares to talk about loving our neighbors.  This episode is on Luke 10:25-37 for Sunday, July 13, 2025.

Discussion Questions:

1. What do you think the significance of the person who stopped being from Samaria is?

2. Who do you see yourself as in this parable?

3. Would you accept help from an enemy?

4. What do you think of the innkeeper’s role?

5. What does this tell us about God?

In this episode we dive into what good apostles look like, what evangelicalism is and is not.  We share stories of accompaniment as a model for mission. This episode talks about Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 for Sunday. July 6, 2025.

Discussion Questions:

1.  When have you been a guest of others’ hospitality?

2.  What experiences with mission work do you have?

3.  What does accompaniment mean to you?

4.  What do you feel like is good evangelicalism?

5. What does this tell us about God?

In this episode Pastor A.J. is joined by a great panel of guests to share their faith stories and journey with the church through a perilous time. This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Delaware-Maryland Synod Assembly in Westminster, Maryland.  Tune in to hear their stories!

In our last installment of our Revelation study, we look to the end of the story where we find the grand finale of God’s love being poured out for all and the doors of Heaven being thrown open wide for all to come. We talk about the supposed 144,000 that enter Heaven, aka this great multitude, and the books that will be opened to share God’s grand love. Thank you to all who participated in this study!

Discussion Questions:

1. What is your working theology of the gates of heaven?  What was new to you in this reading of Revelation?

2. How have you understood the Book of Life before? How has this discussion changed your views?

3. What do you think that God wants from us in our covenant with God?

4. Bishop Kevin says “Because loves you so much, you need not do….”, what is your working theology of Law and Gospel?

5. Pastor A.J. says, “We are the workers in the warehouse of God’s love. Our job isn’t to know who gets it or what it looks like. Our job is just to love.”  How do we understand our call as followers of Christ in the gray area of life?

6. Overall, how has your theology changed because of this study? 

Pastor A.J. and Pastor Tuhina talk about the thousand year reign and Satan being put in a cage… then let out.  This episode may ask more questions than give answers.  What does this mean for our theology to have God have these powers and allow Satan to have a say? Dive in to help us unpack Revelation 20:1-10 for the 4th part in our Revelation study.

Discussion Questions

1. Pastor A.J.’s big question: Why do you think Satan needed to be let out for a little bit?

2. Why allow evil to remain in this world at all?

3. What is your working anthropology? And how does “evil” or “sin” fit in it?

4. Pastor Tuhina says, “It’s about the systems and the structures that are privy to evil. That’s for me what the book of Revelation is really about.” What do you make of this?

5. This big question: why did God make us with this capacity for sin and evil?

6. What does this all tell us about God?

The number of the beast: 666 has been ascribed to many over the course of history.  Pastor Eric and Pastor A.J. dive into talking about the two new beasts introduced in Revelation 13, as well as, some gematria and how these numbers have been calculated over the centuries.  Who would the author have been originally talking about and why would he have written in code? Join us as we unpack some of these big mysteries!

Discussion Questions:

1. Why would John of Patmos pull imagery about the beasts from Daniel? What is the case that the author is making in this?

2. Who have you heard was ascribed to the number of the beast?

3. What can we take away from the number crunching in Revelation?

4. Who do you think the author would have been writing about in code? And why?

5. What is the most surprising thing you have learned about Revelation so far?

6. What does this tell us about God?