June 1, 2015 Podcast

Show open and episode lineup

• What not to say to someone who has been hurt by church: six misguided responses to spiritual abuse?

The hosts open the show from the Path Road studios in Johnston with their usual premise of honest faith, fierce grace, and donkeys, and lay out the night's lineup: holdover pope-style advice, an article on what not to say to people hurt by church, an article asking whether dinner with friends counts as church, and Dear LFTP letters. They plug last week's in-studio interview with musician Stevie Seitz about his album The Witness Stand, and note that only 37 minutes of the previous week's roughly 80-minute live show survived in the YouTube archive.

Dear LFTP: is dinner with friends my church?

• Is it okay to have church in my home, since I experience God better over dinner with friends?

A host reads a Dear LFTP letter from Mark, who feels God moving him toward a home-church vibe and asks whether having church at home is okay, since he experiences God better over dinner with friends. The hosts agree no gathering size is inherently wrong; the decisive question is motivation, whether Mark is running from accountability and fellowship or genuinely following God's leading. They argue both megachurches and tiny home groups carry risks, that hiding is possible in a crowd of 5,000 or a living room of five, and that the first-century church met in homes, large groups, and everything in between.

The secular answer to the home-church question

A host reads aloud the column's long 'secular answer' to Mark's letter, a humorous response quoting a church-distribution director named Chad Turnbull on church as identity and relationship rather than location. The hosts riff on the answer's jokes: the 'church of the holy dinner party' food test, the 'I am = us for them' slogan, Tom Hanks stranded on the Cast Away island, and exhorting one's own mirror. They land on the serious point underneath: 'you are the church,' even at the grocery store, without making it weird for fellow shoppers.

Pope-style advice: drop your expectations of God

• If I must drop my expectations of how God will act, how should I pray and what can I expect from God?

Ben delivers the night's pope-style advice, a holdover topic from the previous week, with admitted hesitation: drop your expectations about how God will act in your life, while holding God fully to his character. He argues frustration with God usually comes from dictating the method: the Pharisees believed God's promises yet missed Jesus because he did not arrive the way they expected. He closes by asking listeners to pray it through with him, naming the tension it creates for how we petition God in prayer.

How do we know and trust God at all?

The hosts wrestle with the advice's implications: if we drop expectations of method, how do we know we are encountering God at all rather than just hoping we trust him; one host says he simply wants to know it is God 'pushing the button.' They offer the toaster analogy, trust grows from dependable interaction, not from treating God as a genie in a magic lamp, and the trusted-mediator idea: we learn to trust God the way the disciples did, through Jesus and through people who already know him, plus Scripture and the witness of God's work in other people's lives. The conversation closes on the Sermon on the Mount: we do not obey its radical calls on money and forgiveness because we misunderstand them, but because we do not truly believe they are the best program, which is a failure of trust.

Sponsor reads and farm-animal banter

The hosts read sponsor spots for Bob Eisenlauer's real-estate team and Westfield Veterinary Hospital, wrapped in extended banter. One host reveals he greased his pig to treat dry skin, another keeps volunteering to eat the animals and gets uninvited from the house, and a third describes rehoming an aggressive goat that was menacing his wife at the chicken coop. The segment doubles as a pitch asking listeners to thank the sponsors and inviting prospective sponsors to get in touch.

The Charlie Charlie challenge

• What is the Charlie Charlie challenge and should Christians mess with it?

At a host's request, the host addressed in the audio as 'Booba' explains the viral Charlie Charlie challenge for Mike, who had not heard of it: two balanced pencils over a paper grid supposedly move to answer yes-or-no questions, frightening participants over a supposed Mexican demon named Charlie. The hosts mock the premise, Charlie's unimpressive demonic resume of moving pencils and God's imagined face-palm over wide-ruled paper, but land on a serious discernment point: do not go sniffing around that stuff; curiosity about the spiritual realm should go straight to Jesus, not low-level internet demons.

Radio sign-off and podcast-only business

Closing the radio hour, the hosts re-thank sponsors Bob Eisenlauer and Westfield Veterinary Hospital and give the signature sign-off, be faithful in the means and God will handle the ends, then continue for the podcast audience with shop talk. They say they need more listeners, one host was flabbergasted to meet a real listener who recognized his voice, not just Pete, the show's one known listener, and they trade Charlie Charlie callback jokes.

Dear LFTP: the husband who visits his mother every day

• How can I get my husband to understand how I feel about his daily visits to his negative mother without hurting her feelings?

A host reads a Dear LFTP letter from a woman married just over a year whose husband visits his negative mother almost daily, twenty minutes away, leaving the wife agitated; she asks how to make her husband understand without hurting his mother's feelings. The hosts judge the core issue to be the husband's priorities rather than the mother's negativity: one proposes a deliberately awkward 'naked and feel no shame' Genesis 2 framing to rattle the husband's perspective, and they agree the wife should address time together with her husband rather than litigate the mother's behavior. The secular answer advises she need not accompany him more than a couple times a week, which the hosts mock as a blatant lie to his mother.

Dear LFTP: Connie and the towel

• Is Connie walking around in only a towel socially acceptable, or is it me, and what should I say or do next year?

A host reads a Dear LFTP letter from a woman whose boyfriend joins a fifteen-year-standing diving group in New Mexico; sharing a condo, another woman named Connie walks out of the shared bathroom in only a towel and chats with the boyfriend on the deck, and the writer asks whether she is overreacting and what to say or do next year. The hosts put the onus on the boyfriend to set the boundary out of respect for the relationship, suggest jealousy may be in play, and note a towel covers more than the bikinis the group has worn diving for fifteen years. The secular answer agrees: get to know Connie, and if she still feels threatened, talk to her boyfriend.

Dear LFTP: a teenager who wants a baby with Jared

• I am a teenager who wants to grow up fast and have a baby with my boyfriend Jared; what should I do and say?

A host reads a Dear LFTP letter from a teenager who wants to grow up fast and have a baby with her serious boyfriend Jared, but fears she cannot provide for the child and has grown distant; she asks what to do and say. Dan asks whether the couple is already sexually active, drawing 'guidance counselor' ribbing from the other hosts. The hosts converge on the heart issue, having a child does not make you an adult, it is being a child with a child, while affirming that her hesitation about providing is itself adult-level thinking she should keep following. The secular answer warns practically that a baby slows everything down and that she should at least finish high school first.

Show close

The hosts close the episode: find them during the week at livefromthepath.org, follow on Twitter, which they prefer over Facebook for direct contact, and share the show with friends. They riff on the sign-off with 'be faithful to memes,' note a couple of suspicious Twitter followers, and thank listeners for hanging out.