The Eikon Podcast

In this episode we look at some ancient Jewish and modern misunderstandings of the kingdom of God. We will consider what do we need to know about "time travel" to understand the kingdom, why the kingdom is not the same thing as the church, and begin to discuss how that all impacts how we approach the topics of justice and political engagement.

Special guest Tom A. Jones joins the podcast today to talk about all things kingdom of God. Tom is the author of a trilogy of books on the Kingdom of God as well as popular and important books like The Prideful Soul's Guide to Humility (co-authored), The Baptized Life, and many others. 

How great would it be if Jesus could be our president? Or what if he could be the king of the whole world? That might sound great, yet, whenever he was given opportunities to be the king or ruler, he rejected it and instead chose the way of the cross and the kingdom. Knowing why that was, is vital to understanding how we can interact and engage with the world today.

Christians are called to be salt and light to the world but so many people simply see us as judgmental jerks. Join Jason Alexander and I as we talk about what it means to be the prophetic community and how to embrace a role that critiques the systems of the world with hope rather than just criticizes everything about the world and come off like a bunch of jerks.

Christians are given the task to be image bearers of God and are told that we will one day co-rule creation with God but does that mean that we should rule the world right now? Jason Alexander and Michael continue the discussion of how disciples of Jesus are to interact with the world.

What does it mean that human beings were made in God's image and given the vocation of image bearers? Were we created to rule over the creation, and if so, what went wrong? What importance does the theme of image bearing have on the biblical narrative and in our lives today? We will start to consider these important questions and more in this episode with biblical teacher Jason Alexander.

Welcome to Season 2. We begin a this new season looking at the topics of the kingdom of God and how it relates to contemporary politics and the need for justice in the world. In this episode we will consider why we need to talk about these topics that can so easily devolve into conflict and why it should not be that for the people of God, but also why we must talk about such difficult topics. We'll look at what the early Christians like Paul were teaching that was considered so politically controversial and even treasonous and how the picture of a married young man can help us understand the need for allegiance to God's kingdom.

In this episode, we look at the challenges of changing a church's culture in pursuit of cultural humility and the quest of being all things to all people. We look at best practices to help a church community remain focused on their biblical goals of being the people of the kingdom and how to stay motivated during the hard work of being flexible and humble for the benefit of others.

This is a special episode you will not want to miss. Join me for this interview with the founders of the group, Disciples Working to Abolish the New Jim Crow, a group seeking to bring an end to unfair mass incarceration tactics and mistreatment of those convicted of crimes in the United States. 

A Church can be diverse but not culturally humble or inclusive. In this episode we consider what a church needs to pursue cultural humility and continue to grow in being all things to all people.