The Central Peninsula Church Podcast

Episode 43: Trust Issues

Listen in as Kevin and Brandon talk about life between the trees and our trust issues.

Episode Transcript

Episode 42: Storm

Episode 41: Miracles

Episode Transcript

General Info

• Release Date: November 18th, 2022
• Hosts: Brandon, Kevin, and Rachel
• Episode # and title: Episode 41 - Miracles

If you could have one thing in your life unlimited, what would it be? Imagine that it’s a miracle beyond your wildest dreams. From the human perspective, Jesus’ coming was supposed to feel exactly like that: grand, triumphant, and miraculous. But what if the miracle of Jesus looks a little different? Kevin, Rachel, and Brandon talk through Christ’s return, how he was actually received, and share a different perspective on the miraculous.

Highlights

Talkin’ Bout a Revolution - 3:51

• Rome and Heaven: how Mark paints the picture of two kingdoms.
• Power made perfect in weakness.

Radical Love in the Day to Day - 17:54

• Loving and sacrificing for the guy who cuts you off on the freeway.
• Becoming a new tipe of people

The Blessing and Breaking of Jesus - Time Marker

• Forgiveness in real time

 

Resources & References

• Luke 4:14 - Jesus rejected at Nazereth
• 2 Corinthians 12:9

 

Episode 40: Sent

Brandon, Kevin, and Dan dive back into the Gospel of Mark and talk about how we are all sent into the world to serve.

Episode Transcript

General Info:

• Release Date: Nov 11th
• Hosts: Brandon, Kevin, and Dan
• Episode # and title: Consider Yourself Sent

 

Podcast Summary:

As Christians, we’re called to replicate Jesus’ ministry & invite people into a relationship with God. But what would you say to someone who is unsure of their ability to do that? Dan, Kevin, and Brandon talk through that question and so much more as they look back at Dan’s sermon from the weekend.

Highlights 

 

Learning and Doing - 7:39

• Apprenticing under Jesus
• The high calling of authority in Jesus

 

The Importance of Hospitality - 27:12

• Hospitality as a way to evangelize
• Practical hospitality in the Peninsula.
• Consider yourself sent.

Episode 39: Solitude

Kevin Sneed and Brandon Pasion dive into silence! Check out the "Silent Sermon at this link!

Episode 38: Ruth Haley Barton

This week, author and spiritual director Ruth Haley Barton sat down with Brandon, Kevin, Rachel, and Liz (one of our volunteers) to have a conversation around silence, solitude, and navigating spiritual disciplines. Ruth opens up about her journey through spiritual direction into solitude and silence and offers practical tips around how to engage with God’s invitation into that discipline. Ruth also shared about her new book, Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest: From Sabbath to Sabbatical and Back Again. 

 

If you’re interested in diving a little deeper into the practice of silence and solitude, you can join us for a four week Practice Lab on October 30 from 1:30-3:00 pm. You can register here.

 

Guest Bio 

Ruth Haley Barton (Doctor of Divinity, Northern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the founder of the Transforming Center, a ministry dedicated to strengthening the souls of pastors, Christian leaders, and the congregations and organizations they serve. A sought-after teacher, retreat leader, and trained spiritual director, Ruth is the author of numerous books and articles on spiritual life.

Educated at Northern Seminary, the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation, and Loyola University Chicago Institute for Pastoral Studies, she has served on the pastoral staff of several churches including Willow Creek Community Church, and is a Professor of Spiritual Transformation at Northern Seminary.

 

Highlights

 

Introducing: Ruth Haley Barton - 3:06

• How Ruth Haley Barton cultivated the practice of silence and solitude in her own life.
• Moving towards becoming an author and spiritual director.
• The invitation to silence and solitude.

A structure for intimacy - 19:26

• Navigating the push-pull phenomenon of integrating the spiritual disciplines.
• What engaging with silence and solitude can look like across different life stages.
• Talking through preconceived notions around silence and solitude.

Silence and Solitude in real-time - 37:00

• Processing the counterbalance of mountain and valley experiences in our own faith journeys.
• The reimagined definition of productivity and success.
• Ruth shares a little about her new book.
• Practical applications to try out in your own time (including a guided minute of silence)
• Kevin, Brandon, Rachel, and Liz debrief about their conversation.

 

Resources

• Ruth Haley Barton’s Website
• The Transforming Center
• Invitation to Silence and Solitude by Ruth Haley Barton
• 1 Kings 19 - The Story of Elijiah
• Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest: From Sabbath to Sabbatical and Back Again by Ruth Haley Barton
• The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13)

 

Quotes

• “...whatever we're experiencing in the early parts of our journey into solitude and silence, it's pretty normal. And that it's not a quick fix: discipline, solitude, and silence are not the quick fix. It is a long obedience in the same direction. And then we begin to see the results eventually.” - Ruth Haley Barton
• “If you're feeling the push-pull, then you know you wanna press through. And it's not so much about should, as much as it's about touching the deepest desire of your heart, which is to have a real relationship with this person and to keep doing the things that help you to cultivate a real relationship. So you wanna drop down to the deepest desire that you have in this relationship and towards this person. You're not gonna press through because of "ought and should", you're gonna press through because you know it's gonna be good for your relationship if you go ahead and push through. And that's really different than odds and shoulds.” - Ruth Haley Barton

 

Episode 37: Silence

Listen in as Brandon and Rachel dive deep into practicing silence.

Episode 36: Presence

Listen in as Kevin and Brandon talk about practicing presence with God

Episode 35: Remain

Join Kevin, Brandon, and Rachel on the podcast as they revisit last week’s sermon and process what it means to remain. They also talk through the importance of slowing down and letting go of the overreliance on efficiency in our fast-paced world.

 

Highlights

 

There’s no shortcut for the formation of the soul - 8:33

• The myth of easy everywhere.
• The god of efficiency.

Remaining - 16:47

• Mutual indwelling with Christ
• What it means to remain in him.

How do we know if we’re abiding? - 26:40

• Discipline joins desire.
• Practicing the presence of God.
• Digging into the Rule of Life.

 

Quotables 

“Some things are worth work, are worth effort that are harder to get to. I think that transition statement I used in there was just like,there's no way to short circuit the formation of our souls. And when we map that myth of technology onto spiritual formation, we come up drastically short. But it just takes time. Like there's just, there's no shortcut for the formation of a soul.”

 

Resources & References

• Last week’s sermon at CPC
• A Turkish sausage dish (for anyone wanting to try one)
• Tech Wise Family by Andy Crouch
• Amana Colonies - Amana, IA
• John 15:5
• The Cultivated Life by Susan S. Philips
• Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence

Episode 34: Community

When you hear the word community, what do you think of? The popular TV show? Your neighborhood? Your church? This week, Dan is back on the podcast as he expands on Sunday’s message, and explores what a community in Christ looks like with Kevin and Brandon.

 

Highlights

Exclusion & Inclusion - 2:27

• Kevin and Brandon look back on middle school.
• The Apostle Paul’s take on inclusion
• Examining the dynamic of early Jews and Gentiles.

 

Breaking down the walls of hostility - 13:53

• Where is our identity coming from?
• How the TV show Lost illustrates our identity shift.
• Discovering your uniqueness in Christ.

 

Looking at community through the lens of new creation - 29:44

• Why do we sometimes resist community?
• Discipling from a private faith towards faith in community.
• A new family in Christ, and why we should ‘lean in’.

 

Quotables

• “I think Paul is trying to say that you're gonna always have this hostility and this separation, and as many good intentioned people, secular people who are trying to, you know, tear down those walls. It's the gospel that tears down those walls. That's where the unity is found under Christ…” - Dan
• “The gospel allows a way to work through all layers of sin. The individual that needs that transformation uproot the ways in which we base our identity on walls of hostility…” - Kevin
• “…Jesus comes in and he creates a new humanity. I think sometimes we think we have to completely get rid of who we were. You know, we use some of Paul's language, you know, the old self we're like, ‘Oh no, I'm not that person anymore’. But in reality, like what you guys are talking about, this is us bringing who God created us to be, those pieces of, of who we are and bringing them into alignment with God's new humanity”. - Brandon
• “…what we're being discipled toward here with this becoming the people of God, is that it isn't private. It's public, it's community. We cannot grow, uh, unless we are in community.” - Dan

Resources & References

• Ephesians 2:11-13
• 1 Samuel 8 - Israel asks for a King
• Lost (TV Show)
• Alone (TV Show)
• Seinfeld (TV Show)
• M*A*S*H (TV Show)
• S.H.A.P.E Test (example)
• Philippians 2