Bridgetown Audio Podcast

Trinity & Hospitality

Part 4 from the series "Community", as part of Practicing the Way. We are relational beings because we are created in the image of a relational God. As we look at how God Father, Son, and Spirit relate to one another we learn about how true community is marked by hospitality. 

A Community of Honor in a Culture of Contempt

Part 3 from the series "Community", as part of Practicing the Way. For most Westerners, honor is a foreign concept. Ours is a culture of sarcasm, irreverence, ungrateful entitlement, of “othering” – a culture of contempt. In this teaching we explore Paul’s command to “honor one another above yourselves,” and just how life-changing (and life-bringing) it could be for our community.

One of Jesus’ Most Radical Ideas: Family

Part 2 from the series "Community", as part of Practicing the Way. Jesus likened his community to a family. At first this sounds nice and even sentimental, but this was actually one of Jesus’ most radical ideas, one that got him killed. It was radical in the first century, and it’s just as radical in the 21st century. In this teaching we discover why.

Jesus' Call to Community

Part 1 from the series "Community", as part of Practicing the Way. We kick off our summer practice with a teaching on the fallout of individualism in the Western world – loneliness, and its dark twin: tribalism. Is there a practice from the way of Jesus that would set us up to live in a rich web of relationships where we grow and mature into Christlikeness? Yes, it’s community, Jesus’ school of love.

The Inevitability of Rejection

When Jesus returns to the familiarity of his home and his family he is met not with a celebratory welcome, but with skepticism and rejection. The divisive nature of Jesus’ person and teachings serves as both warning and encouragement for all who would follow in his footsteps: Rejection is inevitable.

The Wheat & the Weed Wackers

Throngs of people crowded around Jesus on a lakeshore. The question on their minds was, “what is the coming Kingdom going to be like?” Jesus’ answer is surprising, frustrating, and seemingly foolish: God’s rule is like good people and bad people growing together.

The Four Soils

Matthew 13 begins a series of teachings of parables. These common stories are meant to surprise us and invite us to re-evaluate our lives from the ground up. Jesus begins his parabolic teachings with a story about a farmer sowing seed, encouraging his audience to think and re-think whether or not they have truly heard the message of the kingdom.

Case Study: Rachel & Leah

Part 10 from the series "Naming Your Stage of Apprenticeship" as part of Practicing the Way. We end our spring practice on stage theory with a case study from the story of Rachel and Leah. At first glance, it’s just a story about patriarchy and sex and power dynamics in family, but upon closer inspection, we realize it’s actually story about the ideas from the last two months of teaching – first and second half of life, the wall, the dark night, and the tragedy of what happens when people don’t make the transition to maturity, as well as the invitation and hope for those who do.

The Dark Night of the Soul Pt. 2

Part 9 from the series, "Naming Your Stage of Apprenticeship", as part of Practicing the Way. In this follow up teaching on the dark night of the soul, we explore St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila’s paradigm of the “dark night of the senses” and the “dark night of the spirit,” and they fit into the ancient stage theory paradigm of the “three ways.” Whether you agree with their view or not, and regardless of whether you’re in a dark night, or a season of the felt-presence of God, the spiritual journey is always one from attachment and anxiety to freedom to love, and into a growing sense of union with God.  

The Dark Night of the Soul

Part 8 from the series, "Naming Your Stage of Apprenticeship", as part of Practicing the Way. At some point in the spiritual journey, we come to what St. John of the Cross called “the dark night of the soul” – a season in which our experience of God feels more like absence than presence. God intentionally withdraws the felt-sense of his presence to do a work of purgation and preparation for a deeper intimacy. But few of us have a category of this, so we misdiagnosis the phenomena and often run aground in our journey. In part one of a two-part teaching on the dark night, we explore Jesus’ invitations to us in seasons of darkness and dryness.