October 5, 2015 Podcast

Show open and tonight's rundown

• What can the church learn from geek culture?
• Can a group of Christians be a church without a designated leader?

The show opens live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston. Ben previews the night: a Relevant Magazine article on what the church can learn from geek culture, a blog article by someone Mike and Ben went to school with on being a Christian who doesn't go to church, Dear LFTP advice, and a check-in on Boova's online dating trial.

Boova's online dating trial check-in

Boova reports he is at the end of his two-week online dating trial and will extend it another two weeks after a couple of dates and some messages. The hosts rib him about perpetually renewing two-week subscriptions instead of admitting it isn't working.

Geek culture article, part 1: conventions and Christian video games

• What can the church learn from geek culture?

Ben starts reading the Relevant Magazine article on what the church can learn from geek culture: the author's Gen Con trip, the Christianity-and-gaming panel by Geekdom House. The hosts riff on Christian video games — the Noah Nintendo game where losing means the Lord drowns you, the broken Bible Man game, a Nehemiah game about getting people to hate you, the Enoch walking game, and an Elijah game for summoning she-bears.

Why don't Christians geek out over Jesus?

• Why don't Christians talk about Jesus with the passion that geeks bring to their fandoms?

The article's first point: geeks are immensely passionate about what they love, and Christians rarely geek out over Jesus that way. Andrew tells of trying to get his Christian-college friends to talk four hours about Jesus the way they talked about the Flash and Firefly. One host counters that he, Pants, and Dave Herrick spent two hours geeking out over Jesus in the prayer room that morning — the star over Bethlehem, Christ in Daniel and Revelation.

Paul carries the theology, John carries the love

The Jesus geek-out continues: Ben speculates the naked fugitive in Mark ran to the Garden of Gethsemane because the soldiers went to John Mark's mother's house first, then argues the burden of theology falls almost entirely on Paul while John refuses to do theological heavy lifting and just talks about big Jesus. The others push back that John's view is itself deeply informed, and both gifts are needed like a left and right shoe.

Planning BibleCon

Running gag segment: the hosts plan BibleCon — cosplay as Leviathan, the Holy Land Experience in Orlando as the venue (described as a televangelist's suit designing a theme park), the Creation Museum, and fifteen terminals running the Noah Nintendo game.

Do geeks do Acts 2 better than churches?

• Do geeks do Acts 2 community better than churches do?

The article's second point: geeks do Acts 2 better than many churches because gaming friendships cross age, gender, and marital-status lines. Mike pushes back hard: playing checkers with a guy isn't Acts 2 — what happens when his mom dies? Others argue passion makes those bonds real, while Dan calls the church-vs-gamers framing a false comparison to superficial Sunday mornings rather than real church relationships.

Geeks don't crucify one another

The article's third point: geeks don't crucify one another — Christians draw lines over evolution, Obama, immigration, pacifism, and infant baptism. The Star Wars vs. Star Trek nerd war is held up as respectful debate, and Paul's plea to the Philippians to set aside squabbles and be united in Christ is cited.

Motorcycle gangs and the shared-passion takeaway

Wrapping the article: the hosts compare geek community to motorcycle gangs — loyalty, traveling in packs, remembering names years later — and conclude it all roots back to shared passion. If passion for Jesus were the center, the barriers would fall the same way.

Reading: On Being a Christian Who Doesn't Go to Church

Ben reads the full blog article 'On Being a Christian Who Doesn't Go to Church' by Tessie: her journey from a church with a sexist pastor, to a bar church with vulnerable cardboard-testimony services, to refusing fog machines, us-vs-them politics, and piousness — closing that she loves Jesus but finds it hard to love Christians.

Red flags in the church article: politics, exclusion, piousness

Dave Herrick asks Ben what his red flags were. Ben works through them: refusing to talk where God talks on politics is a flag; Christ is exclusionary (sheep and goats) even if we aren't the judges; piousness is loaded but 2 Timothy still calls believers to pursue righteousness; and the Pharisee-and-tax-collector parable is the better frame for her point about performative righteousness.

Giving to the church vs. giving to the community

Ben continues: the bar church urging giving to community organizations rather than the church is fine, but giving to a church doing valuable Jesus things — lights, heat, a building people meet in — is not implicitly wrong. The church is the body of believers, not the building, and being separate from the body is a non sequitur since Christ marries one bride.

God hates things too — the shopping-list critique

The group tackles the article's claim about what God hates: true love must hate what threatens the object of desire, so a God who loves everything is a pastel portrait indifferent to everything. Dan's counter is that the author brings her own shopping list of hates while condemning others' lists — the same self-righteousness on the other side of the spectrum.

Stay or leave? The missional-vs-refreshed debate and radio break

• Should you leave a church that isn't following Jesus, or stay and try to influence it?
• Does gathering on Sunday mornings in a building matter for being the church?

The central unresolved debate: is Sunday morning for being refreshed by the body or for mission, and can you fault someone for bailing on a church that wasn't teaching Christ? Mike argues you can't call someone a jerk for leaving a non-body; Ben lands on distinguishing churches attempting to follow Jesus and missing the mark from ones simply not following Jesus. Radio break follows: sponsor read for Bob Eisenlauer of the Eisenhower Team, 993 The Truth Network sign-off, and a podcast plug.

The Holy Spirit column: where is the line?

Back for the podcast-only portion: Ben admits he doesn't know where the line is between 'not following Jesus' and 'not doing things the way I want' and puts it in the Holy Spirit column. He wonders whether the temple-centered feasts God designed still say something about the value of gathered worship, praising the bar church's community giving while cautioning against judging either form.

Every church size has risks: the homeschooling analogy

Ben draws the homeschooling analogy: like home churches and megachurches, homeschooling is not implicitly wrong but runs the risk of insular community, so his family builds in integration with others. Mike pushes back that the instinct to list ten ways a small community will fail ignores why people gathered in the first place. They land on 'God excels at bad strategy' — God can use the low-odds encounter too.

Bloviating, blindness vs. willfulness, and I can't quit you

Extended wrap: the hosts admit they bloviated for 45 minutes and agree it's probably fine. Dan's point stands — the show itself is guilty of not treating God's people with the grace it expects toward outsiders. Ben distinguishes blindness from willfulness in misleading Christians. Herrick's warning is isolation: without community you end up worshiping a mirror. Ben closes with Hosea-or-Micah's 'I can't quit you' — he can't call it quits on a struggling church where God wouldn't.

Article wrap: the closed-church test and preach Jesus

Lightning round to close the article: thanks to Tessie, Mike's favorite line (if your church closed, would anyone notice?), Ben's Saul-to-Paul BibleCon costume story from Yellow Banks, the strip-bar church-service joke, and Ben's preaching standard — teach Jesus so purely that disagreement becomes the listener's problem with Christ, not with the preacher. Politicians swipe Bible issues first; don't let them steal them.

Dear LFTP: the windfall and the typed letter

• How should I tell my financial adviser that I spent 75% of a windfall from a relative's accident?

Dear LFTP: a listener came into a large sum from a relative's accident a year ago, spent 75% on family purchases and debt, and dreads telling her financial adviser — she's considering a typed letter. Mike reads the letter. The hosts' counsel: the adviser works for you, the guilt is really toward yourself, stop being a coward and have the conversation; the money is spent, talk present and future. Closes with the prodigal-son email joke.

The secular answer and show close

The secular answer is read: the writer is thinking like a guilty child rather than the adult she is; a typed letter is her privilege but a phone call is quicker; the adviser isn't her father and his advice isn't parental scolding. The show closes with thanks to Bob Eisenlauer of the Eisenhower Team and the benediction: be faithful in the means, God will handle the ends.