August 3, 2015 Podcast

Cold open: holding down the fort without Boova

The hosts open from the Pathway studios in Johnston and lament that John Boova III (named in the audio) is overseas doing ministry work, joking that the room lacks energy without him, then tease the night's lineup.

Tonight's docket and an InPursuit study plug

A host lays out the night: finishing the second half of the '10 toxic Christians in the church today' article, the Gortz Haus 1,000-billboard story and Dave Herrick's reaction to it, Dear LFTP advice, and possibly the 'sexy Christianity' article. He plugs Dave Herrick's free discipleship study at inpursuitstudy.com.

Toxic Christian #6: culture is evil and scary

• How should Christians relate to the surrounding culture: withdraw from it or engage it?

A host reads article entry #6: Christians who withdraw from culture like Old Testament Israelites avoiding a slippery slope. The hosts push back that Jesus engaged rather than withdrew, citing the Essenes as a cautionary example; one recounts an anecdote that John the Baptist may have been kicked out of the Essenes for wearing camel's hair, and another recounts being harangued after the Super Bowl by church members insisting Christians couldn't watch it because the Illuminati was involved.

Toxic Christian #7: love Jesus but not the church

• What should someone who has been hurt by the church do: leave or stay?

Article entry #7: faith worked out in isolation. The hosts argue the church posturing as holier-than-thou breeds disappointment, that community is God's design ('never the bride of Christ plus Frank'), and that leaving because people hurt you misunderstands salvation as individual rather than covenantal and kingdom-shaped.

Toxic Christian #8: God doesn't work that way

• Can personal experience legitimately define how God works?

Article entry #8: Christians who compress God into formulas drawn from their own experience. The hosts warn that building theology from personal experience - e.g. whether 'God chose me or I chose God' - is hubristic, since what God has revealed to any one of them is not the whole picture.

Toxic Christian #9: loves to pick a fight

• Is winning a theological argument the same thing as pointing someone to God?

Article entry #9: the morality-police Christian who mistakes winning arguments for pointing people to God. The hosts counter that Jesus did win arguments, but his motive was revealing the Father, not himself; they riff on Facebook outrage culture as throwing meat in the water to attract wolves, and detour into debating whether the Oompa Loompas smiled in the old movie or the new one.

Toxic Christian #10: you can't talk about that in church

• Are there topics the church should avoid because they make people uncomfortable?

Article entry #10: Christians who filter truth so nobody gets uncomfortable. The hosts argue that if God speaks on it the church can't be squeamish: one recalls saying 'booby' in a sermon (a family left the church), another got in trouble for saying 'crap' from the pulpit, and they discuss preaching on pornography and tithing. They close with the article's summation and admit they have each been several of the ten.

Gortz Haus and the 1,000-billboard campaign

• Do the 1,000 marriage billboards point anyone to Jesus?

A host reads the Des Moines Register story: the Gortz Haus venue in Grimes, Iowa closed after refusing to host a same-sex wedding; owners Richard and Betty Odgaard (transcript renders 'Odegaard') launched the God's Original Design ministry to erect 1,000 traditional-marriage billboards nationwide, the first outside Durant, Oklahoma.

Billboards don't point anyone to Jesus

The hosts read the ministry's website ('advance Christian teachings, biblical ordinances, and natural laws') and its John 3:14 quote about the serpent lifted up. A co-host interrupts Ben by name to press the fear that a billboard could nudge someone into self-earned righteousness without Christ; they conclude morality without Jesus is 'a really terrible life' and that the campaign gets the order of the boxes wrong.

Pharisees, policies, and controlling God

The hosts compare the billboard campaign to Pharisees tithing dill and mint while missing the weightier matters of the law. A host argues that reducing God to a set of policies gives the illusion of control and lets a person 'remove God from your life' while still obeying the rules.

Did God send prophets to non-Israelites?

• Did God ever send a prophet to pronounce judgment on people who were not God's people?

A host poses the question: did God ever send a prophet to pronounce judgment on people who weren't God's people? Jonah went to Nineveh. The hosts diagnose the deeper American-church error - believing America is the new Israel, so Christians must be prophets calling the nation back - when the kingdom of God has no physical borders.

Truth without love is just noise

Carrying the right message without love makes you a clanging cymbal: truth plus no love is noise. Jesus engaged people in relationship rather than transcribing a rulebook from the sky; the kingdom is a people business, and even in the Old Testament God pleaded in love while pronouncing judgment.

Radio sign-off and sponsor read

Sign-off for the Truth Network 99.3 FM audience with a sponsor read for Bob Eisenlauer (transcript renders 'Eisenhower') of the Eisenlauer realty team and the invitation to send complaints to info@lifefromthepath.org; podcast listeners continue after the break.

Mallets, bigots, and trusting Jesus' tactics

• Do you trust Jesus' way of handling conflict in every circumstance?

Back from the break the hosts keep wrestling: using a 'mallet' to beat people toward Christ; the hypothetical of being accused of bigotry as a stage to prove otherwise; advice for a friend asked to be best man at a gay wedding ('I can love you, I can't celebrate it'); and the honest question of whether they truly trust Jesus' way of handling conflict - even, by their own admission, in something like World War II. The segment closes with a pivot: asked what about Christ gives him joy, a host answers that Jesus sees every bit of him and still says, 'hey, son.'

Dear LFTP: the 50th reunion treasurer

• 280 of 550 classmates have not responded to reunion invitations: should the treasurer keep chasing them?

A listener, treasurer of a 550-person class's 50th reunion, is frustrated that 280 classmates haven't responded to emails. The hosts say the bar is too high (a quarter may be dead, they're nearly 70), then read the 'Secular says' answer: only plan for confirmed RSVPs and buy plates for those coming.

Dear LFTP: the cat-sitting kleptomaniac

• Should a listener keep ignoring a trusted, key-holding relative who appears to be stealing small household items?

A listener suspects a trusted, key-holding relative who watches her cats is stealing small items - her distinctive seashells surfaced in the relative's fish tank. The hosts riff: one suggests the relative may need Alzheimer's testing, another that the writer may be misremembering ('Steve the cat lady'); then the 'Secular says' answer: possibly kleptomania or entitlement - take the key back or change the locks.

Close: website, sponsor, tagline

Closing plugs for livefromthepath.org and past clips, a final Bob Eisenlauer sponsor read, and the sign-off tagline: 'Be faithful in the means. God will handle the ends.'