This episode is available in video format here: https://youtu.be/vHH8tYyzNIE

Maybe the reason you don't fit in church… is because you were never meant to. In Part 1: Church and Ekklesia, I talk about the core reason there is tension between institutional religion and the living, breathing community Jesus called ekklesia. If you've ever wondered why church isn't a good fit for you anymore, and you find yourself not fitting in, this conversation will hit home.

This isn't about walking away from the faith. It's about rediscovering what authentic community looks like outside the walls of religion. Let's talk about what happens when we discover that belonging to Christ doesn't mean belonging to a system.

Amber Stephens (https://www.youtube.com/@breathin.godsgrace247) joined me live on Sunday, November 9th as we explored the topic of living life in a guilt-driven faith. Here's the Grace Cafe link to our conversation with Amber about her story. https://www.podpage.com/the-grace-cafe-podcast/breaking-point-with-amber-stephens-015/

Here's the link to the video version: https://youtube.com/live/PcyU3kdgvZU

Joel Brueseke from the Growing in Grace podcast joined me for this YouTube livestream as we talked about the strongholds of church and religion that have a grip on us and are so much a part of us and our thinking after spending decades in that environment. You can watch the video here:

https://www.youtube.com/live/_Rt43IYBkPE?si=2zeJADzG2B0FQ2-t

When church leaders ascended and became prominent in the assembly, the body of Christ suffered and continues to suffer. This episode takes a look at how institutional leadership reshaped gatherings that were once spontaneous, relational, and Spirit-led.

The video version of this episode is available on the UnSunday YouTube page at https://youtu.be/LuZuQbrp8ck and was recorded outside.

Amber Stephens joins me in this episode of The UnSunday Show as we ask the question, "Is the gospel enough?" Does the gospel need our help? Why do we think it does and why do we add things to it that actually diminish it? Additionally, why do we get sidetracked from it become preoccupied with pet doctrines and teachings that have nothing to do with it? Let's explore that in this episode.

You'll find Amber here:

• Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/breathin.godsgrace/
• YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@breathin.godsgrace247
• On The Web at https://www.thegateofgrace.com/

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Other Places You'll Find Me:

• The Grace Cafe Podcast: https://www.gracecafepodcast.com
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@unsunday.mike
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unsundayshow/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grace.podcasts

Leave Me a Rating/Review: https://www.unsunday.com/reviews/new/

Four believers (Joel Brueseke, Amber Stephens, Mike Kapler, and Mike Adams) sit down for a powerful and honest conversation about grace, the New Covenant, and why mixing Law with performance is hurting people in the church. No titles, no pulpits, no sermons—just real talk about what it means to live in the finished work of Christ. We talk about:

• Grace apart from works
• The difference between the Old and New Covenants
• How churches occasionally preach grace but expect performance
• What it really means to live in freedom

Our four talking points are:

• Grace Without Mixture Is the Only Gospel
• The New Covenant is a Relationship, not a Contract
• What the Church ignores: The simplicity of the gospel
• What Does it Mean to You to Live in Freedom?

Join the roundtable and be part of a conversation that challenges, refreshes, and reminds us what the gospel is really about. This episode is available in video format at https://youtu.be/gfoZic6bz5w

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Other Places You'll Find Me:

• The Grace Cafe Podcast: https://www.gracecafepodcast.com
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@unsunday.mike
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unsundayshow/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grace.podcasts

Leave Me a Rating/Review: https://www.unsunday.com/reviews/new/

Is signing a formal church membership contract a necessary expression of loyalty? Has the institutional church traded the freedom of life in Christ for institutional control? In this episode I explore how formal membership contracts — often loaded with behavioral clauses, doctrinal checkpoints, and institutional loyalty — distort the gospel of grace and reduce free flowing community to a legal transaction with rewards for compliance and punishments for non-compliance. Jesus brought us into a relationship, not a system. So why have countless churches made belonging conditional on paperwork?

This episode is from a livestream on the UnSunday YouTube page. If you prefer to watch the full video, it's available at https://www.youtube.com/live/l8rXJSo1Cl4?si=VKichdClrUhBPyUp and at https://www.unsunday.com/community-without-roll-call-exchanging-freedom-for-a-contract

Other Places You'll Find Me The Grace Cafe Podcast: https://www.gracecafepodcast.com TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@unsunday.mike Instagram https://www.instagram.com/unsundayshow YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/TheUnSundayShow Leave Me a Rating/Review

What happens when church becomes a breeding ground for control, fear, and manipulation? This episode of The UnSunday Show exposes the patterns of church bullying, from toxic leadership to spiritual abuse that often occurs when the institutional church abandons the New Covenant gospel of grace in favor of a mixed-covenant version of a gospel of their own making. This mixed covenant gospel is no gospel at all.

I'm excited to have Jeremiah Ryan join me as we explore the topic of church bullying, what it is, how to recognize it, and what to expect when it happens to you. You can find Jeremiah at The Way Ministries using these links: - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmMf-GnkloFWO1CUqNnFP6w - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088074741276 - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_wayministries This episode is also available as video. You can view it by visiting https://www.youtube.com/@unsundayshow

Other Places You'll Find Me The Grace Cafe Podcast: https://www.gracecafepodcast.com TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@unsunday.mike Instagram https://www.instagram.com/unsundayshow YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/TheUnSundayShow Leave Me a Rating/Review

I'm continuing the topic of women in the church and how historically, the church's view of woman has been harmful and abusive. It's not a good track record. This is the fourth of four episodes that I brought over from our Grace Cafe podcast to share with you here. In this episode we talk about headship and submission. We use 1 Corinthians 11 and Ephesians 5 as the backdrop for our conversation and why we believe Paul's use of the word "head" (κεφαλὴ) wouldn't have meant authority or leader to the readers of his day. Here are a couple of online articles that you might want to take a look at. The second one is more detailed and contains a lot of good references. Inclusion here doesn't imply our agreement with everything in the articles, but they are a good thought-provoking read.

• 'Head' Does Not Mean 'Leader' in 1 Cor 11.3, by Ian Paul - https://www.psephizo.com/biblical-studies/head-does-not-mean-leader-in-1-cor-11-3/
• What About the Word Kephale ("head") in the New Testament?, by Laurie Fasullo - https://www.searchingtogether.org/kephale.htm

Enjoy!

Other Places You'll Find Me The Grace Cafe Podcast: https://www.gracecafepodcast.com TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@unsunday.mike Instagram https://www.instagram.com/unsundayshow YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/TheUnSundayShow Leave Me a Rating/Review

This is part 3 of a 4-part series I'm doing on Women in the church that originally aired on the Grace Cafe podcast in 2023. In this episode we're going to take a careful look at 1 Corinthians 14:34-40. It's here that the passage says the law commanded women to be silent, therefore, women should not be allowed to speak when the body of Christ is assembled. The problem is, the law doesn't say that and even if it did, we (and the people Paul was writing to) are not under the law, so why does that matter even if it were true? We think there's something else going on here that needs to be talked about, so let's talk.

I'm continuing with the topic of women in the church that I started back in episode 108. More specifically, how the institutional church has weaponized certain verses in the New Covenant scriptures and used them against women without fully considering the historical and cultural context. This has resulted in needlessly silencing half of the body of Christ and opened the door wide for abuse of every kind.

Other Places You'll Find Me The Grace Cafe Podcast: https://www.gracecafepodcast.com TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@unsunday.mike Instagram https://www.instagram.com/unsundayshow YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/TheUnSundayShow Leave Me a Rating/Review