September 27 2011

Show open and studio chaos

The live open comes from the Pathway Studios in Johnston: a host introduces himself as Ben Foose and another voice introduces himself as Mike, while Dan is already on-site and takes the blame for a broken TV. The hosts preview tonight's lineup: a church that gave offering money back to parishioners, Francis Chan's line that worry and stress reek of arrogance, and a favorite-non-biblical-book question for the table.

Tonight's topics teaser

• A church gave its offering money back to parishioners instead of taking it — is there biblical foundation for that?
• What non-biblical book would you consider your favorite, and why?

The hosts tease the night's stories: a church that passed the plate in reverse, handing cash-filled envelopes to congregants, and they promise to test whether the stunt has any biblical foundation. They also tee up a Crazy Love reading by Francis Chan and ask what non-biblical book each person would call their favorite, joking that a non-Jesus answer gets judged with the left eye only.

Reading banter and the Weekly World News

The favorite-book question stalls when one host admits he is not much of a reader. The crew riffs on tabloid magazines, especially the Weekly World News with its bat-boy covers and absurd headlines like flying saucers landing in Idaho. They note that the Men in Black films treat the tabloid as the aliens' actual news source.

Mike's drive home: a church sign and a highway goat

Mike recounts driving back from Atlantic, where he stopped to look at Dan's old church, the First Church of Christ, and teased Dan about designing its brown-and-yellow sign. On the interstate he came across a live white goat sitting in the middle of the road with traffic swerving around it. The hosts debate whether anyone would stop to move a live goat and how exactly one hauls a goat off the highway.

A husband's car-maintenance guilt trip

A host recounts a small-group night where a man said any responsible husband keeps his wife's car in great shape, tires and brakes included. He realizes his own wife is driving on a bald tire with recently replaced brakes, and the crew debates whether husbands owe their wives that level of practical handiness. The exchange includes a running plug joking about a five-CD sermon set from Dan Hudson at danhudson.com.

The taillight stranger and a crooked headlight

The crew trades car-trouble stories: a stranger at a stoplight enthusiastically flagging a dead taillight, and one host's own headlight that an oil-change shop installed crooked months ago and that now shines into other drivers' eyes. He confesses he has been too lazy to take it back, and the others turn the confession into a roast of his handiness and manhood. They close the bit by agreeing they are all in good company as losers.

Safe-house window stars and DARE signs

A workplace conversation about creepy window decorations leads the hosts back to childhood 'safe house' star decals. One host admits that as a kid he thought the stars marked Jewish homes, and another recalls confusing Jews with the French dip sandwich. They conclude that self-declared safe-house signs are easily manipulated since no governing body exists, lumping DARE stickers into the same category.

Oil changes, wipers, and the podcast plug

Car talk continues with oil changes — one host used to run an oil-change place and distrusts the upsell — and the misery of installing windshield wiper blades. Mike's wife predicted he would say the wrong thing on air, and he owes her five dollars for it. The segment closes with the podcast signup plug at lifeinthepath.org.

Boycotts, part 1: MediaCom, Disney, and The Last Temptation

• Have you ever boycotted anything, personally or as part of a group?

The hosts take up boycotts, starting with one host's two separate boycotts of the cable company MediaCom: once over cheesy advertising, and again after a two-hour hold and a dishonest phone rep during a dispute over the local Fox station KDSM. They cover the Christian boycott of The Last Temptation of Christ, a Jesus Christ Superstar picket, current boycotts of Home Depot and Ford, and one host's father boycotting Starbucks for Caribou and Sears over support for the troops.

Boycotts, part 2: protest doesn't convert people

The group lands on skepticism of group boycotts: nobody can name a protest that ever converted anyone, and picketing a Metallica concert or an NC-17 movie is judged the worst witness tactic imaginable. One host argues the real work is talking to one person about Jesus Christ rather than screaming at car or movie companies, since businesses only sell what people buy. They cite the book of Acts, where the apostle Paul's preaching hurt the idol market without any organized protest, while conceding that even that cultural shift did not last.

Israel's lazy cycle and the smarmy Kings writers

The discussion drifts into the Old Testament: the nation of Israel's cycle of turning to God and away again, which one host attributes to laziness and self-centeredness rather than deliberate rebellion, noting modern believers are just as susceptible. Another host vents about the writers of 1 and 2 Kings, who close nearly every chapter by pointing readers to the annals of the kings instead of telling the story. He retells the 2 Kings sign where a king's shadow runs backward up the stairs, which he calls the coolest test of God ever.

Gossip, defamation, and the tongue

A host confesses his biggest gap as a follower of Christ: mocking foolish behavior in other people instead of looking on them with love. He admits defaming a co-host on the show and landing on his Thursday-morning confessional list in his LTG, and the crew recalls spending fifteen minutes impersonating Francis Chan's soft voice. They close with the catchphrase: get the 'fierce grease' — come to church and pray through the pain.

Article read: the New Jersey church that gave away the offering

A host reads a news article: a non-denominational New Jersey church, whose three congregations meet in hotels and a middle school, gave away its entire weekly offering — $30,000 in cash-filled envelopes of tens, twenties, and fifties. Congregants were told to invest the money or use it charitably, including for recent New Jersey flood recovery, with proceeds meant to help rebuild a homeless shelter. The article notes the ten-year-old church claims more than 2,000 weekend attendees.

Tithe debate: is giving the offering back propaganda?

The hosts argue the stunt misrepresents tithing: a tithe is firstfruits given to God for the church's spiritual leadership to direct, not a charitable donation recycled back to the givers, and one host calls it propaganda for Jesus. One compares it to putting money in a child's savings account and congratulating the child for saving. During the debate a host reads Malachi 3:6-10 from his phone — 'will a man rob God' — and shares his own story of tithing into four months of financial strain, concluding that obedience does not guarantee an easy month. A daughter's children's-Bible story about Jesus cleansing the temple and her claim to have seen Jesus as a baby closes the personal thread.

Does church outreach evangelize, or just comfort the comfortable?

Returning to the story, the hosts doubt church outreach campaigns do real evangelism, calling most of them cheesy, self-serving 'ego massages' for comfortable believers. One argues a church that truly had Christ in its heart would not need constant pampering and would go find more people for Christ. A Colorado megachurch anecdote from the 1990s shows the same giveaway idea has been tried before, and the consensus is that the motive may be pure but the point being taught is wrong.

Dan's plan: buy Porky's bar for an east-side campus

Dan pitches buying or leasing Porky's, a closed bar on Northeast 14th, as an east-side Saturday-night campus, concert venue, and youth-group spot, partly funded by hot-dog and soda sales. The others roast the idea as an undersized half-million-dollar vanity project when the current congregation is already bursting out of its rented school space. They float alternatives instead: a movie theater, a bowling alley, a skating rink, or the old elementary school the Experience Church already bought near Altoona.

Does worry and stress reek of arrogance?

• Is worry and stress evidence of arrogance — of not turning things over to God?

The hosts take up Francis Chan's line from Crazy Love that 'worry and stress reek of arrogance.' One host defends it: stress means trying to solve problems yourself instead of handing them to God. Another counters that stress over drifting from God feels like humility, not arrogance, and they role-play counseling a man who feels a million miles from God, landing on radical honesty — tell God directly that you feel far apart. The consensus: worry is bad when it trusts self over God, and the fix is surrender, not more worrying.

Job, suffering, and Louie Giglio's 'megaphone of hope'

A host argues God's will is only ever clear in hindsight, and the group uses Job as the extreme example: suffering permitted by God that deepened him, with blessing visible only when looking back. One host cites speaker Louie Giglio's phrase 'megaphone of hope' — suffering believers broadcast hope louder than comfortable ones — paired with Hebrews' 'anchor of hope.' The others mock the phrase as cheesy and joke about buying Troy a literal megaphone for Christmas.

Porky's part 2: stewardship, the Enron church, and mom's birthday

The bar-campus debate resumes with critics calling it a serious misallocation of the Lord's money and predicting a congregational mutiny, while Dan insists a building committee should not shut down what God might want. The roast escalates to the 'Enron church' — crystal cathedrals, chandeliers, and million-dollar schemes run by 'ego-massaging boys.' A host shares that his deceased mother's birthday reminder still fires on his phone, and he cannot bring himself to delete her number.

Sign-off: helicopters, megaphones, and next week

The show signs off with helicopter and megaphone-of-hope jokes, a 'Rock and Repent' east-side campus, and Mike raising money for a crystal cathedral. The hosts give the station ID and the livefromthepath.org plug, promising they may or may not be back next week.