The Shock Absorber

After a short absence from the pod, Tim rejoins Joel to rejoice in young people learning about Jesus and how different music scenes have impacted culture. It leads to the question, could numerous grassroots Christian scenes have an effect on culture? For the action to be in the church, we cannot just copy culture, but it must costly to us.

00:00 Intro
01:05 Where's Tim been?
17:11 Music scenes
29:00 Pop culture has become an oligopoly
40:47 Hardship is what brings value
57:55 Copying culture = less effort
1:08:33 Committing to the action being in the church

DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE

Ben Pakula's music
Youthworks Square One
Tooth & Nail Records
MxPx
The O.C. Supertones
Limp Bizkit
Slipknot
The Darkness
Led Zeppelin
Pop Culture Has Become an Oligopoly
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, by Neil Postman
Metallica's latest tour
Rage Against the Machine

CONTACT US

Shock Absorber Email: [email protected]
Shock Absorber Website: shockabsorber.com.au
Soul Revival Shop: soulrevival.shop

Check out what else Soul Revival is up to here

Joel and Stu sit down to break down some statistics from the NCLS and McCrindle. What results is a discussion around church growth, church planting, trust in institutions and why copying culture may not be the ideal church growth strategy.

DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE

The Hunt for Red October
Sean Connery
Infernal Affairs
The Departed
Reach Australia/Geneva Push
Acts 29
Menai Anglican Church
Growth, decline, and planting by Australian churches (report by NCLS)
Where Australians place their trust (report by McCrindle)

CONTACT US

Shock Absorber Email: [email protected]
Shock Absorber Website: shockabsorber.com.au
Soul Revival Shop: soulrevival.shop

Check out what else Soul Revival is up to here

Both Stu and Joey return to the podcast to discuss Soul Revival's partnership with Miranda Congregational Church before talking about discipleship differences and how it can be harnessed to create something new together, especially in church planting. They round off the episode with a chat about how it's important as Christians to create cultural goods that have impact on the world.

00:00 Intro
00:56 Content we're into
06:12 Partnership with Miranda Congregational Church
11:48 Working out new ideas in church planting
20:57 Differing discipleship styles
33:14 Creating something new together
38:21 Bonhoeffer's costly discipleship and our current culture
49:39 Create Christian culture at grassroots level

DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE

FIDE Grand Swiss Championship
Isle of Man TT
The Heart is the Target: Preaching Practical Application From Every Text, by Murray Capill
Last Stop Larrimah
Miranda Congregational Church
Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles
Lou Crawshaw's Chip Lunch podcast
Life Together, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Cost of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Culture Making, by Andy Crouch

CONTACT US

Shock Absorber Email: [email protected]
Shock Absorber Website: shockabsorber.com.au
Soul Revival Shop: soulrevival.shop

Check out what else Soul Revival is up to here

Tim and Joel are joined by college student and expert on Japan - Lewis, to chat about Soul Revival's Planning Day and including young people in church strategy. Later, a discussion about church growth turns into a dialogue on measuring the success of a church leader.

00:00 Intro and Japan
12:40 Why Lewis went to Bible college so soon after becoming a Christian
15:30 After Soul Revival Church's 2023 Planning Day
29:08 Church strategy that includes young people
36:55 What does success look like as a minister of God?

DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE

Boss Coffee
The Fugitive
Tommy Lee Jones in Boss Coffee Commercials
Lewis on Chip Lunch (1st time)
Lewis on Chip Lunch (2nd time)
Are Churches Growing Or Are Christians Just Shifting? by Dr. Steven McCready

CONTACT US

Shock Absorber Email
Shock Absorber Website
Soul Revival Shop

Check out what else Soul Revival is up to here: https://linktr.ee/JesusChangesEverything

Stu, Tim and Joel re-visit a previous episode to get Stu's thoughts on the importance of church. They discuss the impact of Descartes' "I think therefore I am" on indvidulism, society and the church at large as well as the tension we must hold between individual faith and collective worship. Church is about both/and rather than either/or and could it go from daggy to dangerous to desirable to delightful?

00:00 Intro and Cultural Artefact
07:05 I think therefore I am and it's correctives
17:42 Holding individual faith and collective worship in tension
23:48 The individual v the collective
45:14 Church is (both/and) not (either/or)
53:44 What is church for?

DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE

Let There Be Rock
The Hives Live at AB
Limp Bizkit - Break Stuff, live at Woodstock '99 (language warning)
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Fire, live at Woodstock '99
Metallica - Live in Moscow (Tushino Airfield)
When the Church was a Family, by Joesph Hellerman
Rene Descartes
Church Is Life Together or Not at All, by Myles Werntz
Life Together, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We Are Re-Paganizing, by Louise Perry

CONTACT US

Shock Absorber Email: [email protected]
Shock Absorber Website: shockabsorber.com.au
Soul Revival Shop: soulrevival.shop

Check out what else Soul Revival is up to here: https://linktr.ee/JesusChangesEverything

In the first ever episode outdoor AND not recorded in the Third Space Studio, the guys discuss plans for Soul Revival Church's upcoming 2023 Planning Day. Last year was about 2030 goals, this year will be about implementing them.

They look at a number of frameworks that will structure the day and the big picture ideas they created including: communicating ideas clearly, empowering church members to serve and what they're hoping to see come out of the planning day.

01:36 Why planning for the planning day?
08:28 CULTURAL ARTEFACT: Movie montages on team building
11:20 Framework 1: Theology, Strategy, Practice
21:47 Growth in Membership to Growth in God's Kingdom
32:02 Framework 2 & 3: Service Teams & Gathering Teams
36:18 Communicating ideas clearly at a planning day
47:45 Empowering church members to serve
59:26 What Tim would love to see at the planning day

DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE

The Replacements
Ocean's Eleven
Ocean's Twelve
The Italian Job
Mighty Ducks
Memphis Belle
Saving Private Ryan
Rogue Heroes
Peaky Blinders

CONTACT US

Shock Absorber Email: [email protected]
Shock Absorber Website: shockabsorber.com.au
Soul Revival Shop: soulrevival.shop

Check out what else Soul Revival is up to here: https://linktr.ee/JesusChangesEverything

Brayden and Tim are on the podcast this week to discuss a question that Brayden was posed at Bible college - Why is it important to go to church? In Australia, a churchgoer is considered regular when they attend once every four weeks.

When we are able to attend church regularly and work together in a community, everyone benefits. It may also be an attractive proposition to those who don't go church. As the guys discuss, if we understand what is for, then we are much more likely to be there.

Do we miss church when we can't make it? Does it cost us? How embedded into the community are you, and what stops us from being amongst the community?

00:00 Intro
02:05 Cultural Artefacts
07:03 We don't want to be alone. We seek community
14:45 Are we ok with the increase in loneliness?
23:41 Sub-cultures and pseudo-communities
31:37 Why we need to be in community
39:07 Characteristics of a true community
46:41 Community as an attractive alternative
56:48 How to know if you're in a community

DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Angel
Breaking Bad
Better Call Saul
The Incredibles
Fantastic 4
The Godfather
The Sopranos
Donnie Brasco
Goodfellas

The Friendship Recession
Third Place Theory
“Third places” as community builders
Dr. Diana R. Garland
Does Sydney have ‘third places’? Probably more than you think
McDonald's: you can sneer, but it's the glue that holds communities together
Church and U2 concerts: exploring what ‘family’ means for the local church, by Tim Beilharz

CONTACT US:

Shock Absorber Email: [email protected]
Shock Absorber Website: shockabsorber.com.au
Soul Revival Shop: soulrevival.shop

Check out what else Soul Revival is up to here: https://linktr.ee/JesusChangesEverything

After talking through cultural instances of old and young working together, Stu, Tim and Joel get into why it would be great to recapture the intergenerational elements of pre-Industrial Revolution village life and how generations since have experienced various forms of dislocation. They discuss its impact on the church and then how ageless friendships amongst the generations can be forged and bring glory to God.

00:00 Intro and Cultural Artefact: Old People's Home for 4 Year Olds
08:38 Recapturing a healthy village
16:55 Dislocation of generations
26:43 Forging ageless friendships
40:26 STU'S IDEA: Creating friendships with other churches
43:11 Younger age groups in ageless friendships
51:55 Older age groups in ageless friendships
1:00:18 Aiming to bring glory to God

DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE

Old People's Home for 4 Year Olds
Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones
Jean Piaget
Jan Gehl
Generation Gap, by Hoodoo Gurus
Rebel Without a Cause

CONTACT US

Shock Absorber Email: [email protected]
Shock Absorber Website: shockabsorber.com.au
Soul Revival Shop: soulrevival.shop

Check out what else Soul Revival is up to here: https://linktr.ee/JesusChangesEverything

After a quick dip into Night Bombers and Culture Making, Stu and Joel talk about how Christians impact culture by expressing their identity in Christ. They touch on church networking, youth ministry, leadership structure, band night and creating action within the church and how it all brings glory to God.

00:00 Intro and Night Bombers
07:26 Christians influencing culture
21:51 Networking amongst churches
36:24 Fast track towards building a friendship group
51:22 Do you need to copy culture?

DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE

Night Bombers
Praxis
Culture Making, by Andy Crouch
George Marsden (author)
House Conference
Jesus Revolution movie

CONTACT US

Shock Absorber Email: [email protected]
Shock Absorber Website: shockabsorber.com.au
Soul Revival Shop: soulrevival.shop

Check out what else Soul Revival is up to here: https://linktr.ee/JesusChangesEverything

Tim and Joel engage in a wide-ranging and thoughtful chat on a wide variety of topics that includes, the Reformation, how we can make more space in our lives for God to make himself known, to discipling emotions, good reasons gone wrong and Tim's research paper.

Some questions to think about:
• God is gratuitous in his love and we must be attentive to it
• Which of how habits are helping us grow closer to God, or push him further away?
• How can we helpfully disciple the strong emotions of children?
• Does the way we do children's ministry show that we think they aren't ready to be Christians yet?
• How can our children imbibe the beliefs, patterns and practices of a Christian community?

00:00 Intro
06:09 The Reformation and it's impact
23:40 Our Christian habits
54:40 Discipling emotions
01:12:43 Tim's published paper

DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE

Chick-fil-a
Deeper, by Dane C. Ortlund
Rescuing the Gospel, by Erwin Lutzer
Atomic Habits
The Gulag Archipelago, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Barbara Rogoff
School is Not Enough, by Simon Sarrin

CONTACT US

Shock Absorber Email: [email protected]
Shock Absorber Website: shockabsorber.com.au
Soul Revival Shop: soulrevival.shop