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The Apprenticeship Way with Marc Alan Schelske
The Apprenticeship Way with Marc Alan Schelske episodes
- Your Purity & Piety Will Get You Nowhere (TAW043)Episode 043 – Your Purity & Piety Will Get You Nowhere
You want to grow as a person. You want a sense of intimate connection with the Divine. You believe or suspect that the way of Jesus has something to say about this. That’s why you’re here. That’s why I write.
But in order to grow in the way of Jesus, we have to unpack some ideas we have about the spiritual life, so we can clear away some of the garbage that’s getting in our way. One obstacle to growing spiritually is the picture we have in our minds about what a really spiritual person looks like. Yea. Our expectation of spirituality can be an obstacle to encountering Jesus.
Show Notes- Do you have either of these ideas internalized?
- “If we want to know and experience God, we must deal with sin in our lives. Intimacy with God and spiritual growth is tied to our purity.”
- “If we want to know and experience God, we have to really, really want it and demonstrate commitment through an investment of time and effort. Intimacy with God and spiritual growth is tied to our piety.”
- If you’re not sure, try this quick test. What is your immediate gut response to the question, “How are you doing spiritually?” If your answer is tied to dealing with sin or spending more time in spiritual practice, then one of these ideas has taken root in your heart.
- We often compare ourselves to an imaginary ideal holy person in our minds. Whatever this holy person looks like will shape how we feel about ourselves and what we think we need to do to have an encounter with God.
- Consider a different narrative about encounter with God:
- Reflect on the story of Jacob. (Read it for yourself in Genesis 32)
- Jacob encounters God while wrestling in the dark. He doesn’t recognize God. He didn’t go into the dark to be spiritual. He was at the end of his rope. Do we feel like God isn’t present in our lives because we are expecting God’s presence to be something we recognize?
- Jacob has to tell the truth about himself. The stranger asked for Jacob’s name. In his culture a person’s name represented their character. Jacob’s name was “Heal Grabber,” a conniver, a cheater, a betrayer. God gave him a new name and a new story, but before that he had to admit the truth of who he was. Do we miss God’s presence because we are clinging to justifications and lies about who we are?
- Jacob wouldn’t let go. Even though he had lost the fight, he would not let go until he received a blessing. Do we sometimes feel like God isn’t present because after we have prayed a little while, we don’t feel like we’ve gotten an answer or a sense of God’s presence, and we give up?
You can also watch and share the video version on Youtube.
RESOURCES & OTHER LINKSToday’s Sponsor- My Youtube Channel – I’m working this year to build my Youtube channel. Why? Isn’t this a podcast? Aren’t podcasts audio? It’s really simple. Youtube is one of the largest search engine when you count the number of searches. When people want to learn how to do something, Youtube is the first place they go. My whole purpose with this podcast is to help people develop a healthy, inner life following the way of Jesus. A bunch of those people are never going to search “Christian Podcasts” in a podcast app. But they do come to Youtube and search for practical spiritual insight. I want to meet them there, and you can help. Head over to my channel and subscribe. Every time you like, comment and share a Youtube video, the algorithm assumes that people like you would like that video. That’s how the algorithm knows who to recommend videos to.
Find My Stuff- Get The Anchor Prayer: A Prayer and Process for Remaining Grounded in a Chaotic World – This little book is free for you by opting in to my email list.
- The Wisdom of Your Heart: Discovering the God-given Purpose and Power of Your Emotions.
- Untangle Workbook: A guided journaling process for untangling emotions and finding wisdom.
- Untangled Heart Course Online.
- Discovering your Authentic Core Values: A Step-by-step Guide
- Subscribe to my Email List. You’ll get a free copy of a little book called The Anchor Prayer: A Prayer & Process for Remaining Grounded in a Chaotic World.
- Subscribe to The Apprenticeship Way on iTunes and all other podcasting apps.
- Find a video version on my Youtube Channel.
24 min - Can You Imagine Jesus Demanding Sex? – Interview with Sheila Wray Gregoire (TAW042)Episode 042 – Can You Imagine Jesus Demanding Sex? – Interview with Sheila Wray Gregoire.
Christian teachers notoriously have lots of opinions about sex. Sometimes they even claim those opinions are God’s will. But what if some of those teachings are hurting people and wrecking marriages?
In this interview with Sheila Wray Gregoire we talk about the stunning findings from her survey of 20,000 Christian women about their sex lives, beliefs, and what they were taught in church about sex. This is a crucial conversation if the church is going to be healthy, life-giving community.
Show NotesCONTENT ADVISORY: We’re going talk frankly about sex, body parts, sex acts, and porn. Sexual abuse, rape, and marital rape will be mentioned.
- Meet Sheila: Sheila Wray Gregoire is passionate about changing the evangelical conversation about sex! A popular speaker, marriage blogger, and award-winning author of nine books, including The Good Girl’s Guide to Great Sex, she wants to challenge Christians to go beyond pat answers on marriage to reach real intimacy. Sheila believes in authenticity, and gives real solutions to the very real and messy problems women, and couples, can face. She and her husband Keith spend a lot of their time touring North America in an RV, speaking at marriage conferences, hiking, and birdwatching. The parents to two adult daughters, you can usually find her in Belleville, Ontario, where she’s either knitting, blogging, or taking her grandson out for a walk.
- Gregoire’s study evaluated the impact of the following beliefs taught many in Fundamentalist or Evangelical churches:
- “Boys will want to push girl’s sexual boundaries.”
- “All men struggle with lust. It is every man’s battle.”
- “If you have sex before you are married, that means you have less of yourself to give your future spouse because a part of you will always belong to someone else.”
- “The only Biblical reason for divorce is an affair.”
- “It is a man’s God-given role to provide for his family and a woman’s God-given role to stay home raising her children.”
- “Women should have frequent sex with their husbands to keep them from cheating or watching porn.”
- “A wife is obligated to give her husband sex when he wants it.”
- Interesting Comments
- In regard to the belief about lust being every man’s battle: “We are conflating sexual attraction with sin.” Sexual attraction is normal and healthy. Lust is objectification that turns people into objects for our pleasure.
- In regard to the belief that wives are obligated to provide sex to their husbands on demand. One of the consequences of this belief is physical pain. “Evangelical women have twice the rate of sexual pain as the general population.” This is on par with the rates for women who experienced childhood abuse. This belief is abusive.
- “Consent is the conversation that is missing in our resources.” Almost all of the Christian books on marriage and sex reviewed in this study did not mention consent at all!
- Gregoire’s Rubric for evaluating Christian Sex & Marriage Books
- See the questions used to evaluate the sex & marriage books mentioned.
- Finding more from Sheila Wray Gregoire:
- Website: tolovehonorandvacuum.com
- Instagram
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Get the Book:
- Amazon
- All other vendors
You can also watch and share the video version on Youtube.
RESOURCES & OTHER LINKSToday’s Sponsor- The Untangled Heart Online Course – An online workshop to help you learn to sit with your emotions, identify them, and discern wisdom in what you learn from them.
Find My Stuff- Get The Anchor Prayer: A Prayer and Process for Remaining Grounded in a Chaotic World – This little book is free for you by opting in to my email list.
- Discovering your Authentic Core Values: A Step-by-step Guide
- Untangle Workbook: A guided journaling process for untangling emotions and finding wisdom.
- Subscribe to my Email List. You’ll get a free copy of a little book called The Anchor Prayer: A Prayer & Process for Remaining Grounded in a Chaotic World.
- Subscribe to The Apprenticeship Way on iTunes and all other podcasting apps.
- Find a video version on my Youtube Channel.
45 min - Trust Your Instinct About the Church – Interview with Fr. Kenneth Tanner (TAW041)Episode 041 – Trust Your Instinct About the Church – Interview with Fr. Kenneth Tanner.
After everything that’s happened in the past year, are you wondering about whether there’s a place for you in the church? Are you asking questions like “Where do I fit? What I’m seeing around me doesn’t look like Jesus. What do I do? I love Jesus. I want to follow Jesus, but if these other Christians are any indication, I don’t even know if I’m Christian anymore.”
Have you had those thoughts? Well, I can tell you from my own experience, and stacks of emails in my inbox, that you are not alone. In this interview with Father Kenneth Tanner, we’ll talk about steps you can take.
Show Notes- What should we say to people asking these questions?
- “Yes. This doesn’t look good.”
- “You are not alone.”
- “If you’re alarmed by what you see in the church in America, you have good spiritual intuition.”
- How do we fix this problem of feeling alienated?
- Admit we have a problem. Our Christian movements and leaders have to admit there is a problem if we want to fix it.
- Face our amnesia. Most of us have no attachment to the history of Christianity, and some of us have forgotten the testimony of folks who encountered Jesus throughout history. (Not just Biblical history) The historical church in Africa, Asia Minor, and Ireland for instance have much to teach us. If we forget our history, we won’t really know our identity.
- Listen to the words of our Lord in Matthew 25. Instead of looking to the institution, go to the margins. Jesus says that He will meet us there among the poor, the sick, the hungry, and those who are oppressed. By talking with, being in relationship with, we will be changed and encounter Jesus. Historically, Christians were the most impactful when they went to the margins and served people. This is where we’re off track, trying to amass influence and power for our team.
- We need the grand reorientation of our minds and hearts to begin to see the world and other human beings the way the Human God does.
And then Fr. Tanner just started preaching the gospel. Here’s some quotes:
“God loves the world. God made the world in love. It’s because God loves the world that he doesn’t seek to escape the world. He enters the world. He decided to become human, forever identifying himself with every human person.” – Fr. Kenneth Tanner.
“Christians must fundamentally begin with the revelation of God that we have in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the one who reveals the Father.” – Fr. Kenneth Tanner.
“Jesus always only brings life. He never brings death. He only always brings healing and not disease. He only always brings liberty and not oppression.” – Fr. Kenneth Tanner.
“We only come to the point where realize we’re ready to embrace the judgement of God when we understand his character. Perfect love casts out all fear.” – Fr. Kenneth Tanner.
- Where can we find hope?
- By looking to the broader tradition of Christian history. Listen to faithful Christians from every tradition. In order to see the full picture of Jesus, we must listen to the broad range of traditions—particularly the Christian East of the first 800 years of Christianity.
And much more including thoughts on God’s wrath & Judgement, cancel culture, spiritual intuition, the controversies around how to respond to COVID-19
You can also watch and share the video version on Youtube.
RESOURCES & OTHER LINKSToday’s Sponsor- Discovering Your Authentic Core Values – Life presents us with way too many options. We’re surrounded by potential opportunities, obligations, and distractions. On top of that, our time is limited. We can’t do everything. A meaningful life that is not stretched thin comes from learning when to say no and when to say yes. In Discovering Your Authentic Core Values, I walk you thought a simple, step-by-step process that will help you clearly identify a compass for your life that is unique to you. More than a thousand people have have used this process and many of them have found it deeply helpful. Maybe you will too.
Find My Stuff- Get The Anchor Prayer: A Prayer and Process for Remaining Grounded in a Chaotic World – This little book is free for you by opting in to my email list.
- Discovering your Authentic Core Values: A Step-by-step Guide
- Untangle Workbook: A guided journaling process for untangling emotions and finding wisdom.
- Untangled Heart Course Online.
- Subscribe to my Email List. You’ll get a free copy of a little book called The Anchor Prayer: A Prayer & Process for Remaining Grounded in a Chaotic World.
- Subscribe to The Apprenticeship Way on iTunes and all other podcasting apps.
- Find a video version on my Youtube Channel.
38 min - This IS Us. We Need To Own It. (TAW040)Episode 040 – This IS Us. We Need To Own It.
“This isn’t us. This isn’t America. We are better than this.” Have you heard—or said—those words recently? Well, you may not want to hear this, but the only way forward is to let those words go.
Show Notes- On January 6th, 2021 there was a historic and unprecedented event where people who had gathered in Washington D.C. to protest the certifying of the results of the presidential election turned into a violent mob that stormed the capital building. While details about exactly who was involved and what happened are still coming out at this time, one thing is clear. The majority of the participants were white, and many of them were Christian.
- Saying “This isn’t us. This isn’t how real Americans behave” or “No real Christian would do this,” is a form of denial, meant to shield us from facing difficult truth.
- Spiritual maturity requires naming the lies we’ve accepted and choosing to repent of them and change our ways.
- Name the lie. Renounce the lie. Repent of your participation in the lie. Then, only then, can there be healing, and growth.
- If we want a more free and equal country, we need to stop denying our difficult past and the ways that past still shapes our life together.
- If we want more Christlike and impactful churches, we need to stop denying the ways we use power to get what we want, and follow the way of Jesus which means laying down our power and privilege to serve others.
- For another viewpoint on the issue of saying “This isn’t us,” read this article by Soraya Nadia McDonald. Let her viewpoint challenge you.
- Verifying ownership for Vurbl: https://vurbl.com/station/3lwZx96NSx1/
You can also watch and share the video version on Youtube.
RESOURCES & OTHER LINKSToday’s Sponsor- The Writers Advance – A Weekend for Writers to Write – This is the perfect weekend for writers who are serious about getting their project moved forward. This is not a weekend to learn from experts or do networking. This is a weekend where you will write in an inspiring venue, where you’ll have great food, lots of space, and just enough structure and encouragement to get those words out. The next Writers Advance is in April of 2021.
Find My Stuff- Get The Anchor Prayer: A Prayer and Process for Remaining Grounded in a Chaotic World – This little book is free for you by opting in to my email list.
- Discovering your Authentic Core Values: A Step-by-step Guide
- Untangle Workbook: A guided journaling process for untangling emotions and finding wisdom.
- Untangled Heart Course Online.
- Subscribe to my Email List. You’ll get a free copy of a little book called The Anchor Prayer: A Prayer & Process for Remaining Grounded in a Chaotic World.
- Subscribe to The Apprenticeship Way on iTunes and all other podcasting apps.
- Find a video version on my Youtube Channel.
23 min - You Need an Architecture of Grief (TAW039)I grew up in a church community where finding out God’s will was a big deal. Imagine the horror of living your whole life and then discovering you had missed God’s will? So, we spent a lot of time and energy trying to get clear on God’s will for us. I don’t think our urgency was warranted. Today I want to share with you my stress-free guide for finding God’s will.30 min
- Would Jesus call you (or your church) Satan? (TAW038)Episode 038 – Would Jesus call you (or your church) Satan?
“Get behind me, Satan!” Those are the words Jesus said to Peter. Yikes! But as I survey the current landscape of Christianity, I wonder if Jesus is saying this to us, or to our churches. In this episode, I reflect on what Jesus meant when he said these words to his friend, and what they might mean for us.
Show Notes- Read the scripture passages for yourself.
- The story: Matthew 16:21-28
- The background of Peter’s declaration. Matthew 16:13-20
- Paul’s eloquent description of the Christian attitude toward power: Phil 2:3-11
- The Hebrew root and meaning for the word Satan.
May you Have the courage to let go of power, to use what you’ve been given to serve others, to use your privilege to bring more people to the table, to use your vote to speak for those who our society considers least. May you follow the peaceful path of Jesus into other-centered co-suffering love.
You can also watch and share the video version on Youtube.
RESOURCES & OTHER LINKSToday’s Sponsor- The Wisdom of Your Heart: Discovering the God-Given Purpose and Power of Your Emotions. You can’t grow spiritually if you’re not growing emotionally. Explore the vital importance of emotional wellness and growth in your discipleship. The Wisdom of Your Heart tackles some of the myths Christians have learned about emotions, looks at emotions in scripture, what we understand about emotions in the body and the brain, and offers a process for sitting with and understanding our emotions. Available in Paperback, ebook, and Audible audiobook.
Find My Stuff- Get The Anchor Prayer: A Prayer and Process for Remaining Grounded in a Chaotic World – This little book is free for you by opting in to my email list.
- Discovering your Authentic Core Values: A Step-by-step Guide
- Untangle Workbook: A guided journaling process for untangling emotions and finding wisdom.
- Untangled Heart Course Online.
- Subscribe to my Email List. You’ll get a free copy of a little book called The Anchor Prayer: A Prayer & Process for Remaining Grounded in a Chaotic World.
- Subscribe to The Apprenticeship Way on iTunes and all other podcasting apps.
- Find a video version on my Youtube Channel.
21 min - Looking for God in all the wrong places – Interview with Paul J. Pastor (TAW037)Episode 037 – Looking for God in All the Wrong Places – Interview with Paul J. Pastor
Do you sometimes feel like your spiritual life is supposed to be in color, but you can only see it in black & white? Do you worry that we might be numb to God’s presence? Are you looking for a goose-bump moment and overlooking God in the process?
In this episode, I ask Paul J. Pastor about this. Paul’s the author of The Face of The Deep: Experiencing the Beautiful Mystery of Life with the Holy Spirit, a book that tackles the mysterious sacredness of God’s presence.
Show Notes- More from our guest:
- Check out Paul’s website: www.PaulJPastor.com
- Pick up The Face of the Deep. It’s available in paper, ebook, and an amazing audiobook with an original score.
- Paul also has written two of the very best daily devotionals I’ve ever read, The Listening Day, Volume 1 and Volume 2.
- Note: Those links are Amazon Affiliate links. If you buy a book through those links I will receive an infintesimal kickback that I promise to spend on good books and frivolous electronics. More info here
You can also watch and share the video version on Youtube.
Other Links Mentioned- Get The Anchor Prayer: A Prayer and Process for Remaining Grounded in a Chaotic World – This little book is free for you by opting in to my email list.
Find My Stuff- The Wisdom of Your Heart: Discovering the God-Given Purpose and Power of Your Emotions.
- Discovering your Authentic Core Values: A Step-by-step Guide
- Untangle Workbook: A guided journaling process for untangling emotions and finding wisdom.
- Untangled Heart Course Online.
- Subscribe to my Email List.
- Subscribe to The Apprenticeship Way on iTunes and all other podcasting apps.
- Find a video version on my Youtube Channel.
40 min - Don’t Avoid Starting Over (TAW036)I grew up in a church community where finding out God’s will was a big deal. Imagine the horror of living your whole life and then discovering you had missed God’s will? So, we spent a lot of time and energy trying to get clear on God’s will for us. I don’t think our urgency was warranted. Today I want to share with you my stress-free guide for finding God’s will.17 min
- Your Values are Showing! (TAW035)I grew up in a church community where finding out God’s will was a big deal. Imagine the horror of living your whole life and then discovering you had missed God’s will? So, we spent a lot of time and energy trying to get clear on God’s will for us. I don’t think our urgency was warranted. Today I want to share with you my stress-free guide for finding God’s will.39 min
- The 5 Stages of Pandemic Grief (TAW034)I grew up in a church community where finding out God’s will was a big deal. Imagine the horror of living your whole life and then discovering you had missed God’s will? So, we spent a lot of time and energy trying to get clear on God’s will for us. I don’t think our urgency was warranted. Today I want to share with you my stress-free guide for finding God’s will.40 min
About The Apprenticeship Way with Marc Alan Schelske
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Spiritual vitality following the Jesus way.