A bonus episode! And an actual conversation!

Here, I (Avery) sit down with Pastor Josh to speak to him about liturgy and the place it has in our church.

Originally, it was supposed to fit in episode 6 of our church basics podcast. However, it ended up being almost 40 minutes long (!) and plenty helpful on its own. We hope you enjoy!

Also, apologies for the poor audio quality at the beginning. It shapes up about 6 minutes in if you'd like to skip ahead.

In Episode 5, we talk about the two offices of the church - elders and deacons.

We begin by overviewing why we have these two specific offices, what the qualifications are, and what the roles of these offices are.

We hope you'll enjoy listening!

In this episode, Pastor Avery talks about congregationalism, the doctrine that says that the government of the church is in the hands of the congregation. He talks about the biblical-theological rationale for congregationalism, as well as some of the marks of congregationalism.

As mentioned at the end of the podcast, you can find TCATC By-Laws here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gt6Tpixx9DmSk4gWDZCb32Ho38REf2t8/view?usp=sharing

Here, we dive into three general branches of church government types: episcopal, presbyterian, and congregational.

To help us understand the diversity in approaches, we review the scarcity in command language regarding church structure in the New Testament and how these traditions adapt to that.

Also, listen to the first few minutes to hear a riveting tale of bureaucratic incompetence from Avery in the opening few minutes.

In episode 2 of church basics, Pastor Avery overviews church membership. Is church membership a biblical and wise practice?

What is Trace's process for membership? Why do we have these processes? What value does membership bring?

All these questions will be answered for you!

LINK TO OUR MEMBERSHIP COMMITMENTS: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XOruIs-9iePpk-Wabr9pgxofcsoR3QgWINn05w1cys4/edit?usp=sharing

This is the first episode of church basics, where we review some of the things that make the church a church.

In this series, we will try to answer three questions: 1. What is a church? 2. Who leads the church? 3. What does a church do?

In episode 1, we set the path for the rest of the series, and we define some basic things about the church - the difference in the local and universal church and the Scriptural definitions of the church.

In this final episode of Grieving Well, James calls us to seek that which is lost in those who pass on without us in the Lord who is always constant.

James' walk with us through A Grief Observed is almost complete! As such, he discusses what it looks like to begin to round the corner and return to a sense of normalcy, as much as that is possible.

"You should never feel guilty... in the midst of the loss of anything, for feeling joy."

We hope you'll benefit from this new episode, and that it'll be a benefit to any of you currently struggling with grief.

Have you been curious about why we celebrate Advent or what the difference between Advent and Christmas is? Here, we explain the basics behind Advent. We hope you enjoy!

Intro/Outro Music Credits:

We Wish You a Merry Christmas by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/

In lieu of a regular sermon recap, Avery, Josh, and Mathew sat down over the fire, s'mores in hand, to reflect on a challenging, but good semester.

Each of them share two highlights from the semester. It was a sweet time of fellowship and optimism that we think you'd love to hear.

P.S. Apologies for the sub-par audio quality and white noise. Our deepest condolences for you audiophiles.