Queer Insights on God & Faith - Rebecca Janvrin, Vince Brackett, Kyle Hanawalt

In honor of the weekend many would have been participating in Chicago’s Pride Parade if not for COVID-19, Rebecca Janvrin joins Vince & Kyle to discuss queer insights on God and faith. This kicks off our new series of discussion: God of the Oppressed. We’ll be immersing ourselves, one at a time, in various different marginalized perspectives on Jesus and faith and the Bible. Really, we can’t come to a proper theology and understanding of Jesus at all if we’re not trying to do that from marginalized perspectives, because Jesus was a marginalized person.

Acts, Psalms, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, GenesisVincent BrackettJune 30, 2020God of the OppressedComment

Anti-racism, quarantine, & listening for God's guidance - Kyle Hanawalt, Christina Culver, & Vince Brackett

What are your personal next steps toward anti-racism? Should you expand your quarantine circle? For our individualized questions when there is no one-size-fits-all wisdom, we’re big believers in listening to God for in-the-moment guidance. But, often in religious settings, glib or unexamined references to “hearing God” make many feel deficient (when they’re really not) or feel like “that’s for other people but not me”. Kyle, Vince, and Christina try to cut through that…

JohnVincent BrackettJune 16, 2020 Comments

5 Anti-Racism Commitments - Vince Brackett & Kyle Hanawalt

If we use oral health & hygiene as an analogy, becoming anti-racist isn’t taking your tonsils out, it’s brushing your teeth — we have to commit to ongoing, everyday work.

Luke, Mark, Matthew, JohnVincent BrackettJune 9, 2020Comment

How do we do community right now? - Hayley Larson, Vince Brackett, Kyle Hanawalt

Hayley, Kyle, and Vince discuss “shoulds” and false “right” pictures of community, American metaphors vs New Testament metaphors for community, practical ways to do community right now in the midst of shelter-in-place, and obscure references from the show Friends.

1 Corinthians, John, MatthewVincent BrackettMay 26, 2020Comment

Become all you're meant to (Wk 4: Healing Un-Dealt With Pain) - Vince Brackett

Continuing his series on becoming all we’re meant to, Vince shares how embracing the risks of journeying through Jesus’ Kingdom of God brings healing to our un-dealt with pain by unpacking the theology of the movie Moana, how Moana is a Christ figure, and how we are all Te Ka.

John, Luke, Mark, MatthewVincent BrackettFebruary 18, 2020Become all you're meant toComment

Become all you're meant to (Wk 1) - Vince Brackett

Just like our favorite fantasy stories and myths, Jesus’ message of the “Kingdom of God” is an invitation to us to leave our ordinary worlds, and step into a bigger reality that is outside our comfort zone and includes threats and danger, BUT will transform us into all we’re meant to be if we stay the course.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, HebrewsVincent BrackettJanuary 7, 2020Become all you're meant to Comments

Jesus Can Help You Navigate the Family You Come From - Kyle Hanawalt

Kyle takes us to some familial conflict from the life of Jesus, and suggests some ways we can learn from and experience healing from the God who knows what it's like to come from a family.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, JohnVincent BrackettNovember 26, 2019Comment

You have to know where you've come from to change where you're going - Kyle Hanawalt

Because Jesus understood in a deep way where he came from, he was able to be creative about where he was going - incorporating the good of his tradition and also departing from or reimagining his tradition when it ran counter to what he knew of God's heart for humanity. Kyle reflects on how Jesus has led him in his own version of such a journey.

JohnVincent BrackettSeptember 17, 2019Comment

Centered-Set Faith - Vince Brackett

Even though he didn’t grow up spiritual, Vince found himself experiencing faith in a powerful way as he reached college age. But he slowly started to feel like a cultural outsider in churches. That led to some tension… until he discovered a new way to think about faith.

Galatians, Matthew, JohnVincent BrackettAugust 27, 2019Comment

Power Inversion - Kyle Hanawalt

What is our assumed picture of God? Powerful? Glorious? Up in the clouds? With a quiver of lightning bolts? The picture of God that Jesus shows humanity is an inversion of this. What should our assumed picture of God be? One who lays down power to benefit others. That’s particularly hard for Americans to digest, but when we try, it can change us profoundly.

John, MatthewVincent BrackettApril 9, 2019Lent 2019Comment