April 29 2012

Show open: Mike introduces Troy Engelinger and Pants

The theme song plays and Mike opens the show, introducing Troy Engelinger and Pants. He explains that Ben and Dan are out of town at a church planting conference in Florida, so the remaining crew is running the show.

24-7 prayer room recap; a father prays with his daughter Grace

Pants recaps Pathway Church's two-week 24-7 prayer room, estimating he spent 20-plus hours there. Mike describes taking his whole family, including a talk with his four-year-old daughter Grace in the room with the cross, praying for her forgiveness after she got in trouble and marveling at childlike faith. They note the room was set up with a symbolic holy of holies this time.

Phony Christian talk and the spiritual rut; Dan's Ephesians 5:1 sermon

• How do you get out of a spiritual rut when you know better but don't really care at the moment?

Mike vents his frustration with phony Christian talk — people who spout Jesus language with no change in their lives — and admits he has been in a spiritual funk for about a month, pushing God away without knowing why. He summarizes Dan's Sunday sermon on Ephesians 5:1 ('be imitators of God') as the way out of that rut. The hosts wrestle with how to reach people who claim Christ but act like they can take or leave what he says.

'No Jesus, no peace' and self-approved moral codes

Mike questions the 'no Jesus, no peace' platitude as hard to grab onto, and Pants describes a female friend involved with a soon-to-be-married man who rejects any talk of Jesus. They discuss how people invent personal moral codes ('I approve this moral code') and shift the rules to fit their lifestyle, and whether it is easier to talk to someone on different moral ground than to a professing Christian who never changes.

Repetitive sin and the God-sized life vs. the Mike-sized life

• How different would your life look if you actually followed Christ instead of your repetitive patterns of sin?

Mike distinguishes between falling into sin and defiant, repetitive patterns of disobedience — 'giving God the finger' while asking forgiveness — and asks how different his life would look if he cut those patterns out. He argues God does not run on a merit system: God blesses when God blesses, but God can only accomplish God-sized things through people who surrender, versus the small 'Mike-sized life' built by working hard without listening. He closes wanting to feel God's authority instead of casually putting his 'cheek on the throne.'

Ephesians 5:1 read aloud; the smoking-habit story

Mike reads Ephesians 5:1 — 'Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children' — unpacking it as beloved children first, then imitators of God, and calls that the way out of the funk. He tells the story of throwing a pack of cigarettes out the car window declaring 'you will be my master no more,' then whining for them two hours later, as an picture of addiction becoming a master. He also confesses lying to his boss on the phone as an example of the drivel God hears in prayer.

Nathaniel joins; Walgreens banter and the Renaissance Festival

Nathaniel arrives with news-desk stories and reports on a busy shift at Walgreens, including a customer in a dragon-eating-a-knight 'canned food' shirt. The crew riffs on the Renaissance Festival — buy-your-own costumes, giant turkey legs, a foam-sword battle where one fighter whacked another in the face and declared 'your skills have improved, Dwayne' — and debates what 'blue joke' means.

Preview; 'God never shuts one door without opening another' debated

Mike previews Dear LFTP and a coming debate over Facebook theology, then the hosts take apart the saying 'God never shuts one door without opening another.' Troy defends it with a paraphrase of Revelation's open-and-shut door (which he cannot cite exactly), while Mike argues it is a secular-sounding proverb people use to attribute every bad event to God's will — sometimes you got fired because you stink at your job. They land on God doing whatever God wants, not micromanaging doors.

News: the Facebook cake-bragging church ladies

From the news desk: a woman's church group is angered by a member who posts elaborate cake photos and happy-family updates, using their anger as a daily gauge of their walk with God. The hosts debate whether Facebook's tone is bragging, whether public 'I love my wife' posts are phony, and whether being irritated by trivia signals distance from God or just a funk. A tangent tries and fails to settle the 'one bad apple' proverb.

News: the Carman and Kirk Franklin 'Glory B' duet that never released

From the news desk: producer Mike Davis paired Carman and Kirk Franklin for an 'Ebony and Ivory'-style duet that instead became an unreleased underground oddity called 'Glory B' — mostly silence, random hallelujahs, and Carman rapping while Franklin answers 'praise the Lord.' The hosts joke they could pull it off themselves, riffing Jesus phrases over dead air.

News: megachurch cuts non-essential members; the freeloading Christian debate

• When is it right to stop pouring time and resources into someone who keeps saying yes to Jesus but never changes?

From the news desk: Faith Community of Winston-Salem sent letters asking non-participating members to volunteer, tithe, and join a small group or worship elsewhere — a story the hosts debate at length. Troy is on the fence, Mike is against it, and Nathaniel is for it. They argue over fruits of the Spirit as evidence of faith, whether a church can judge participation without becoming the judge, and when a person should stop pouring into someone who keeps saying yes to Jesus but never changes. Troy's closer: plant the seed; you can bring a horse to water but you can't make him drink (jokingly attributed to Philippians, then corrected).

News: the man over-familiar with the Holy Spirit; is God friend or father?

• Is God my buddy and friend, or is he my Father — and does casual prayer language show disrespect?

From the news desk: a story about 'Mike Thomas, 23,' who is 'too familiar' with the Holy Spirit — 'me and the HS,' 'hanging with the ghost,' 'you are the ghostest with the mostest.' This launches the episode's biggest debate: Troy defends a buddy-friendship prayer language ('what up, dog') as personal relationship, while Mike insists God named himself Father, never buddy, and casual familiarity kicks God off his throne. The chat weighs in that it is a perception-of-God issue, and they land near: a father is a friend plus authority — father always trumps friend.

Promos and the church-planting conference callback

The hosts run the promos — livefromthepath.org, the YouTube channel, the Pathway podcast — joke about a Bob Ross photo Ben fixed before leaving town, and note the irony of Ben and Dan being at a church planting conference in Florida while the crew discusses kicking people out of church.

Dear LFTP: parents, law-school debt, and letting go

• Should 50-year-old parents who already funded college bail out their daughter's $100,000-plus law-school debt at the cost of their own retirement?

Dear LFTP letter: 50-year-old parents who funded both daughters' college educations regret promising to pay daughter Lena's $100,000-plus law-school debt, since she and her medical-student husband spend frivolously; they need to rebuild retirement. The hosts advise he misspoke and should walk it back with a deal that teaches financial responsibility — Nathaniel shares how paying his own way through school after failing out turned his grades around. The secular answer: review retirement with a financial advisor first, then tell Lena.

Dear LFTP: the cousin who started her own travel agency

• My cousin started her own travel agency behind our backs instead of joining ours — can the relationship be saved?

Dear LFTP letter: a woman and her mother, travel agents for 15 years, are hurt that their cousin — who repeatedly asked to join their business — went behind their backs and started her own agency. The hosts side mostly with the cousin: she has every right to start her own business, nobody should be guilted into working somewhere they don't want to, and the relationship is built on material terms. The secular answer agrees the cousin should have been forthright but the relationship can be fixed.

Dear LFTP: honest friendship, Melody, and 'love yourself'

• Do you have to love yourself before someone else can love you?
• Was I wrong to be honest with my friend Melody about her dating life?

Dear LFTP letter: a woman told her best friend Melody — separated, dating losers, posting a skimpy bikini dating profile — that she needs to love herself and change the photo; Melody stopped speaking to her. The hosts agree honesty was right: she asked for truth and got defensive because she wanted comfort, not change. This sparks a long Troy-vs-Mike debate on whether you must love yourself before others can love you, with Troy arguing it is unfair to ask love of someone who can't love themselves and Mike countering that none of us deserve love — that's the point.

Sign-off

The hosts close out: the show airs Monday nights 10 to midnight on livefromthepath.org, with the YouTube channel linked, and they will see the audience next Monday.