The Laymens Lounge

“Eastern Orthodoxy is perceived as an exotic and picturesque remnant from an alien past”

-Bartholomew I (the 270th and current archbishop of Constantinople)

“It is the stability of thought in Orthodox theology that has generated the greatest interest from my Protestant students, primarily because of their often-new realization that there still exists a “predenominational” and Apostolic Christian worldview that is largely unaffected by the polemical debates of the Reformation. In fact, many of the doctrines and dogmas of Eastern Orthodoxy can certainly be embraced by those outside the Orthodox Church, such as its trinitarian theology and its conciliar approach to leadership and administration.”

-Eve Tibbs

Dr. Eve Tibbs (Affiliate Associate Professor of Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary) and author of “A Basic Guide to Eastern Orthodox Theology: Introducing Beliefs and Practices” (Baker Academic). Join us as we try to get a big picture of what Eastern Orthodoxy is, especially as it is contextualized to Protestants, Lutherans, Reformed, Kuyperians, etc. In this episode we ask Dr. Tibbs questions like:

- What is the chief end of man for Eastern Orthodoxy?

- Why didn’t Luther just become Eastern Orthodox since he thought they hadn’t veered like Roman Catholic? Was Eastern Orthodoxy an option for him?

- What steps did Melanchthon and other Lutherans take to discuss being united with East?

- Who/what defines orthodoxy? Creeds? Confession? What do Orthodox folks gather around?

- What does ultimate piety look like for Eastern Orthodoxy?

- Why the beards and black garb?

- What is the function of the sign of the cross?

Fuel for Ethics from WWJD? Fake it ‘til You Make it? “Kingdom”? Gratitude? Imitation? or Creation?

“As Bavinck works out the concrete content of his ethics in this volume (Reformed Ethics Volume 2), he joins the long tradition of Reformed ethicists and turns to the Decalogue and the notion of duty. That move could be disconcerting for some who have recently turned to the “kingdom ethics” of union with and imitation of Christ because that emphasis is seen as a counter to the role of law and duty in Christian living.” – John Bolt

Listen in as we sit down with Dr. John Bolt (editor of Herman Bavinck’s 4 volume “Reformed Dogmatics” as well as Bavinck’s “Reformed Ethics Volume 1”, and the forthcoming “Reformed Ethics Volume 2: The Duties of the Christian Life”) and have a compelling discussion on WHY we Christians live ethically and what our MOTIVATION for ethical living springs from.

BAVINCK “REFORMED ETHICS VOL. 2” BOOK GIVEAWAY:

· Thanks to Baker Academic, were giving away a copy of Bavinck’s “Reformed Dogmatics Volume 2” and thanks to us - a Herman Bavinck sticker (as well as an Abraham Kuyper sticker). To enter, join the “Theology Applied” Facebook page (link here), and simply join the conversation (this a place for butchers, bakers and candlestick makers as well as failures, know-it-alls and jerks to discuss Theology as it applies to our lived lives).

To pre-order the book please reach out to the pillars of kindness and customer service, the beacons of hope for the brick-and-mortar bookstores, the good people of Hearts & Minds Books. Please reach out to them, they will take care of you. 

A glimpse into “Holy Worldliness” across the globe

“Through the making of culture, as opposed to simply criticizing it, Christian architects, entrepreneurs, farmers, and city planners offer their neighbors new ways of living and being in the public square.”

“The flourishing of one individual requires the flourishing of schools and families, courts and businesses, artist guilds and sports teams, newspapers and unions, churches and sewer systems. Public theologians therefore refuse to narrow their theological conception of flourishing to just the political, the economic, the spiritual, or the aesthetic. Instead, they aim to further the manifold flourishing of public life.”

“Public theologians endeavor to serve as translators and bridge builders across worlds long divided. When they do speak, public theologians tend to engage in two primary forms of discourse: public persuasion and public critique.”

Join us we sit down with Dr. Matthew Kaemingk and discuss “Reformed Public Theology A Global Vision for Life in the World” – a book that celebrates Richard Mouw and seeks to continue his legacy that encourages a “holy worldliness”, a truly “Reformed public theology”.

A Practical Guide to Raise Sons of Consequence

"We need to have a vision of the day our sons will leave our homes and work backward from that day with a plan to help them gain the knowledge, skills, character, and experiences they need. This will enable them to move into the world as confident and healthy men. That’s when the questions will start pouring into your mind. What have I given him? What wisdom, what love, what lessons is he carrying into the world? What brokenness is he bearing? What is my legacy to him?"

"Formation happens day by day; distortion happens day by day. We are either helping our sons move into adulthood or joining the culture’s attempt to trap them in an extended adolescence."

“Somebody is going to disciple your son. Somebody is going to give your son wisdom on how to live, and it’s either going to be you and a community of godly men or it’s going to be the world. Your son is going to become someone—he is going to grow up. His character will be formed by someone.”

Hence forth, may their richest experiences be ones we curated and planned for them intentionally, not just random, traumatic events that lead to brokenness.

Listen in as we sit down with Jon Tyson, author of book “The Intentional Father: A Practical Guide to Raise Sons of Courage and Character”, and get in the nitty gritty of raising our sons with intentionality rather than shooting from the hip.

Self-initiation is killing our young men. Without strong mentors, boys are walking alone into a wilderness of conflicting messages about who they should be as men. It's no wonder that our sons are confused about what the world expects from them and what they should expect of themselves.

The Intentional Father is the antidote. This concise book is filled with practical steps to help men raise sons of consequence--young men who know what they believe, know who they are, and will stand up against the negative cultural trends of our day. Jon Tyson lays out a clear path for fathers and sons that includes specific activities, rites of passage, and significant "marking moments" that can be customized to fit any family.

It's not enough to hope our sons will become good men. We need them to be good at being men. This book shows how fathers, grandfathers, and other male mentors can lead the way.

You can buy the book from the machine that is Amazon here, or you can support the saints who run Hearts & Minds Bookstore by emailing them here.

Listen in, because the Gospel is not just “true”, but it is actually truly wonderfully good news – and not just in theory but in lived-reality. Dr. Gene Veith, author of “The Spirituality of the Cross: The Way of the First Evangelicals” (Concordia Publishing House), serves us up what the ingredients for true joy and true rest in Christ and his finished work.

“You don’t use your job as an excuse to evangelize, but you treat people as full human beings – and part of being a human being is you have spirituality, and they may not even be a Christian, but they are still a spiritual person, and they have spiritual needs." - J. Richard Middleton

"The proper way to exercise dromion is through love and generosity and in a world of evil that will inevitably involve suffering. That’s what happened with Jesus – He is manifesting what it means to be human” - J. Richard Middleton

Listen in as we sit down with Dr. J. Richard Middleton to discuss the forest and the trees of being image-bearers, God's purpose for the world, God's generosity, the great change that took place the moment God resolved to create humanity and good Jamaican and world reggae for your listening pleasure.

Christ infuses purpose into every facet of the ordinary.

Folding laundry. Weeding the garden. Cooking dinner. Changing diapers. Work in the home can seem so ordinary. Does any of it matter? Is there meaning in our most mundane moments at home? When the work of the home fills our days, it is easy to get disillusioned and miss God’s grand purpose for our work. As image bearers of the Creator who made us to work, we contribute to society, bringing order out of chaos and loving God through loving others—meaning there’s glory in every moment. Join us as we sit down with Courtney Reissig, author of “Glory in the Ordinary: Why Your Work in the Home Matters to God” as she combats the common misconceptions about the value of at-home work—thus helping us see how Christ infuses purpose into every facet of the ordinary.

We’re giving away two copies of the book, share this interview and tag us to be entered.

Before the Fall, we were all artists and poets

“Can our churches be beautiful again, and not just promote goodness and truth?... It’s one thing to make our work, our business, our arts and our political endeavors good and even ‘successful.’ It’s another to aspire to make them beautiful. It’s one thing to try educate and raise our children to be good and ‘successful,’ but it’s another to try to raise them to be beautiful.”

Listen in as we sit down with Makoto Fujimura, author of, “Art + Faith: A Theology of Making” and discuss the living-and-beautiful reality of God and His image-bearers. Makoto gives no quarter for mere Theology-as-a-hobby or for a truncated Gospel (or “plumbing theology”). In sitting down with Makoto we don’t get novel and new, rather, we get original telos and tangibles implications of creation and new creation. This interview is for humans seeking full humanity.

“The Bible became alive to Him, it was not as some Elizabethan artifact but as a living book, appropriate for the gritty lives of butchers, cement layers, radio-preaching mothers, and the drunks who lounged in the alley behind his father’s Butcher shop.

People around the world were picking up books with his name on it--picking them up and sensing they’d found a voice that spoke their language. Vast numbers of readers recognized in Eugene’s words a hunger they’d forgotten, a craving for an authentic encounter with God. They were hungry for a vision calling them into the wondrous expanse of a life that honored what it meant to be a beloved (yet finite) human living under the mercy of God. They found all this in the words of Eugene Peterson.”

Join us as we sit down with Winn Collier, the authorized biographer of Eugene Peterson, and discuss his book “A Burning in My Bones: The Authorized Biography of Eugene H. Peterson”.

“His life and work had been more like tracing a scent than following a map. Discovery, not direction.” – Winn Collier

“I keep a stack of cards of people that Im supposed to call on my desk and whenever I get tired of seminary and begin to get that dusty, mink-like perspective, I grab some cards, jump on the subway and presto!-Im back in a real world again.” – Eugene Peterson

“Ive grown to detest the dry, unreal academic life. If there is anything I don’t want to be it is a tiresome, tedious, cold exacting seminary professor.” – Eugene Peterson

Listen in as we sit down with Dr. Bruce Pass and discuss his book “The Heart of Dogmatics: Christology and Christocentrism in Herman Bavinck”. Here we are guided by the hand of Bavinck and Dr. Pass into a Theology that is no mere academic hobby but where Theology is a living-being animated by true religion. Like a heart this living-being pumps blood and life to the needed areas in the body. Dr. Pass shows us how Bavinck’s though that, much like the Universe is the center of the solar “system”, Christ is the center of the Christian theological system.