Mentioned in this episode:

Mindset, a new podcast from Worldview Academy

As “good things run wild” at Grace, we’re faced with some welcome challenges, including the need to be good stewards of growth. In this episode, Cameron quizzes Mark about the vision of Grace and its practical application when it comes to finding solutions to our need for more space to worship. While we cannot always realize our vision immediately, it helps to have the end in mind as we figure out strategies to get there.

In this episode, Mark is joined by Rev. Luke Le Duc for a discussion of Grace’s Ash Wednesday liturgy. They also talk about the different between Advent longing and the “bright sadness” of the season of Lent. We hope this conversation will make for a helpful start to the season.

Picking up from last week’s discussion of parables, this episode takes on the question of narrative, storytelling, and fiction. Does the fact that Jesus teaches in parables tell us anything about the value of literature? Should we avoid reading made-up stories in favor of factual books, or are there truths that can only be grasped by way of fiction? Mark and Cameron tackle these questions and more.

Mentioned in this episode:

Cameron refers to Eugene Vodolaskin’s 2012 novel Laurus and Zane Grey’s classic western Riders of the Purple Sage (1912). He also mentions Wendell Berry. Mark cites Flannery O’Connor, Graham Greene, and Walker Percy. He also throws in James Lee Burke and Georges Simenon.

The parables of Jesus are often cited in contemporary discussions about storytelling, narrative theology, and even learning styles. But when the disciples ask Jesus in Matthew 13 why he teaches this way, his explanation takes us in a very different direction. In this episode, Mark and Cameron lay a foundation for interpreting the parables of Matthew 13 in light of the rationale Jesus gives.

Throughout the history of the Church, there has been a tension between the life of the mind and the life of action, between people focused on knowing the truth deeply and people focused on practicing it. In this episode, Cameron and Mark explore the limits of knowledge and ask whether knowing too much can become an obstacle to faith.

In this episode, Mark and Cameron take on a difficult topic: literal hell. The Bible says less about heaven and hell than you might expect — and a lot of what it teaches comes to us in the form of analogy, where things that are too wonderful (or too terrible) for the human mind are revealed through comparison to what we do understand. But if we’re going to pass down the faith once for all delivered to the saints, the Bible’s teaching about final judgment is something we need to address.

“In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and in all things, charity.” This famous saying has been attributed to various Church figures, including Augustine of Hippo — who did not say it. Whatever the source, it’s become a popular sentiment in the modern church. There’s just one problem, though: the Bible doesn’t flag its essential and non-essential teachings for us. That’s up to the interpreter … and one person’s essential may be another’s non-essential, and vice versa. In this episode, Mark and Cameron interrogate this hierarchy of doctrine and ask whether applying the ‘non-essential’ label to anything in Scripture is really such a good idea.