Wide Awake to Deep Meaningful Life in Christ - A Redemption Church Podcast

It's Christmas! In this bonus episode, Chris, Jeff, Audra, and Chace talk about how Christmas can easily turn into a season where we try to brush the hard things under the rug and fill the season with all sorts of sentimentality. But, if we slow down and are honest about the brokenness in our lives and world, Christmas can actually be a season that offers us profound hope that goes much deeper than bright lights and Christmas trees.

Acts 7 contains a powerful story of Stephen's martyrdom and how, while being stoned, God opens a window to heaven and Stephen sees Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. This story captures a difficult tension in the Christian life: we know there's a God, a spiritual realm, and eternity with him, but we aren't always aware of those things on a daily basis. This episode explores what it means for us that Jesus is standing at the right hand of the Father and how that should impact our daily lives.

Changes are a normal part of life but they can be challenging to process and work through. This episode will help you think about how you process change and will point to the life of Jesus as a foundation for how we live in the midst of the challenges that change brings. Ultimately, change is challenging, but it can also be a great opportunity for growth and to be a witness for Christ. 

The doctrine of adoption is probably one of the most misunderstood Christian doctrines in our context. But it's such an important component of the Christian faith that, if properly understood, would radically change the way we live by unlocking a tremendous amount of freedom, joy, and boldness in our lives. This episode unpacks the doctrine of adoption and why it matters for our daily lives

We all experience hardships and setbacks in life and everyone responds to those experiences in different ways. In this episode, Jeff, Chris, and Chace unpack how spiritual friendships are critical to endurance, faithfulness, and boldness in the midst of those difficult life circumstances. This conversation will encourage your desire for a community of spiritual friends that worship, pray, and live on mission together.

During this episode, Jeff references a story from a book called A God-Sized Vision by Collin Hansen and John Woodbridge.

The title of our podcast is Wide Awake to Deep Meaningful Life in Christ so this week we wanted to ask the question, How are people doing when it comes to experiencing deep, meaningful life on a daily basis? Jeff is out of town, so Chris, Audra, and Chace sit down to answer this question and discuss what people are searching for in life and what barriers exist to experiencing deep, meaningful life on a daily basis.

As Christians, we're called to be a life-giving presence and live on mission everywhere we go, but oftentimes it's easier to either love someone by serving them but never point them to Jesus or to share Jesus boldly with people but fail to love them as a friend at the same time. Chris, Jeff, and Chace sit down to talk about how the example of Jesus is that he did both. This episode will both encourage and challenge you to be a life-giving presence who loves people by doing good to them and also loves people by telling them about Jesus.  

 Community sounds like a good idea to most of us, but our experience of community is often far less than what we desire. In this episode, Chace and Chris join Jeff for a honest conversation about the all-too-common disconnect between the beautiful picture of community in Acts 2 and our experience of community today, and they challenge Christians to continue to fight for biblical community in their own lives.

Audra Swindell, Minster of Equipping and Women at Redemption Church, joins Chris and Jeff to talk about what it looks like to live day by day with the Holy Spirit. They address the differences between Christians when it comes to the gifts of the Spirit and talk honestly about the fact that there seems to be a tension between the obviously powerful works of the Spirit in the book of Acts and our everyday experience.  This episode will help answer hard questions, but more importantly it will help deepen your relationship with the Spirit of God.

Because of how Christians are called to live they ought to be noticeably different from those around them.  Being noticeably different might lead some people to think Christians are weird, but it will also be attractive to others who will ask why Christians choose to live differently. In this episode, Chris and Chace sit down with Jeff to consider how Christians can be honest and passionate about their beliefs in a genuine way that leads others to want to know more.