Word of Life Church Podcast

The dreams of the prophets and the nightmares of empires are one in the same. What the people of God hope for the most, is what the empires of man fear the most—that the reign of God will at last be seen on the earth, bringing justice to all people.

Jesus speaks the words “O you of little faith” several times to the disciples, pointing them to the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. As we take a fresh look at the Genesis 1 creation account, freeing ourselves from the culture war surrounding this topic, we also are reminded in times of worry and anxiety to take rest in the reality that God is at work.

The Book of Daniel addresses this problem: How do you live as a Jew in a culture that doesn't want you to be Jewish? To understand the stories of Daniel is easy and safe. What is difficult and dangerous is to take the imaginative leap and apply these stories to our own context. American Christians need to ask this question: How do you live a a Christian in a culture that either doesn't want you to be a Christian or wants to conscript Christianity for its own purposes?

Peter’s “walking on the water” experience wasn’t about Peter learning a cool trick.  It was to teach him that living life linked up with Jesus was a completely different way of living.  Peri Zahnd shares stories from years of pastoring and watching ordinary people sometimes do extraordinary things, empowered by the Spirit of God.

The book of Daniel was designed to teach ancient Jews how to live as faithful exiles in the midst of a pagan empire. The book of Revelation did much the same for the early Christians living in the Roman Empire. These books are extremely relevant for American Christians, who face the challenge of engaging in a responsible way with American society, while living faithfully under the reign of Christ.

Jesus prayed for the unity of the church. Paul wrote in each of his letters a passionate plea for the church to remain unified, because if the church, the body of Christ, is divided then Christ himself is divided. Today as we survey the landscape of the church it is easy to see how we have become divided into our tribes, but there is hope. Jesus looks at his divided, tribal church and says, "Love one another." As we choose to walk a path of humility, keeping Jesus first and primary, we can find a way to come together in real, authentic relational unity.

Taking its cues from the scientism of a bygone era, Western Christianity has tried for too long to make the gospel a kind of scientific formula—a pseudo-science of Biblical facts, atonement theories, and sinner’s prayers—when it’s more like a song, a symphony, a poem, a painting, a drama, a dance, and, yes, a mystery. The Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century saw the artisan replaced with conveyer-belted, smoke-belching factories. Things would no longer be handcrafted, they would now be mass-produced. Christianity followed suit. The revivalism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries sought to “industrialize” evangelism. While Henry Ford was mass-producing cars, Billy Sunday was mass-producing converts. Except it doesn’t work that way.

We never went to church
Just get on with work
And sometimes things’ll hurt
But it’s hit me since you left us
And it’s so hard not to search
–The Streets

Churchless Christianity is an illusion. You might be some kind of Christian without the church, but your children probably won’t be Christians, and your grandchildren definitely won’t be Christians. Christianity doesn’t long survive outside the matrix of the church.