Church and Main

Episode 130: He Gets Us, Asbury Revival and Progressive Christian Criticism with Loren Richmond Jr.

The “He Gets Us” advertisements in the Superbowl and the revival taking place at Asbury University in Kentucky have drawn a fair amount of criticism from Mainline Protestant/Progressive Christians and that has left this podcast and guest Loren Richmond perplexed.Why was there such animosity towards these two events? What does it say about Progressive Christianity that it can’t view these two events with some nuance?Join us in the discussion.Show notes:Future Christian Podcast (Loren’s Podcast)He Gets Us websiteShane Clairborne’s Video on Asbury with participantsMy Video on He Gets Us and Asbury RevivalFollow Church and Main:FacebookInstagramTwitterChurch and Main is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

Faith After the Pandemic With Daniel Cox | Episode 129

America becomes more religiously polarized.The United States has always been somewhat of an outlier among highly developed nations.  Unlike Canada or Europe, America has had a strong tradition of attending a faith community if not every week, on a higher average than their Canadian or European counterpart.  For good or for ill, religion has had an impact on American society.  The abolition of slavery and the Civil Right movement would not have advanced if not for people of religious conviction.Today, fewer Americans attend a faith community regularly. In 2021 Gallup released a poll that showed in 2020 the number of people who belonged to a house of worship fell below 50% for the first time since Gallup started taking the survey in 1937. A recent survey did see how the pandemic affected organized religion and the findings are troubling.  The American Enterprise Institute’s Survey Center on American Life in conjunction with NORC at the University of Chicago conducted a survey to see who regularly attends a house of worship and they released the findings in early January.  The findings show that there is a growing gap between those that attend a faith community on a regular basis and those that don’t and that has significant implications for American society.In today’s episode, I talk to one of the researchers, Daniel Cox. Daniel is the Director of the Survey Center on American Life and a senior fellow in polling and public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), in public opinion and survey research, religious change and measurement, as well as social capital, and youth politics. Before joining AEI, he was the research director at PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute), which he co-founded and where he led the organization’s qualitative and quantitative research program.Show Notes: Faith After the Pandemic: How COVID-19 Changed American Religion (full report)American Storylines (Daniel Cox’s Substack)Breaking Faith (a 2017 article by Peter Beinart)Episode 110: The Church After COVID w/Sean ChowFollow Church and Main:FacebookInstagramTwitterChurch and Main is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 128: Who Would Jesus Vote For?

In this solo episode, Dennis shares two videos from his Weekly Check-in video series: one recorded in November after the midterms and the other in mid-January. In both Dennis looks at what it means to be political and also claim that Jesus is Lord in our politically polarized culture.Follow Church and Main:FacebookInstagramTwitterWeekly Check-in VideosChurch and Main is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Thank you for reading Church and Main. This post is public so feel free to share it. Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

Am I A Progressive? with Amar Peterman | Episode 127

Can Christians in the United States break out of the left-right binary?In the late summer of 2022, a young Christian public theologian penned a document where he asked the question: Am I Progressive?  That young man was theologian Amar Peterman who wrote this essay where he shared why he didn’t consider himself a progressive Christian. “The conservative-progressive spectrum, I believe, is a false binary used to categorize and make assumptions about those around us,” he wrote in that essay. “Both “conservative” and “progressive” are handcuffs that align us with an in-group and ultimately distract us from thinking and acting with charity, nuance, and love. When we take on these identities as our own, we allow them to form our imagination of faith, our world, and the ideological “other.” We also place ourselves within the social commitments that these labels hold which limit our ability to speak truth in love.”In this episode, Amar shares what it means to be a Christian in such a politically polarized era and how the Christian faith must break out of the false binary.  Lest you think he is advocating a mushy middle, Amar is aiming for a faith that is not captured by the political definitions of our day while speaking prophetically to the challenges our society faces today.Show Notes:Am I Progressive? by Amar PetermanHow My Conservative Christian College Made Me A Leftist by Josiah Daniels (the article Amar is responding to in his essay)Why I Changed My Mind About Law and Marriage Again by David FrenchMake a One-Time Donation to Church and MainFollow Church and Main:FacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeChurch and Main is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 126: How NOT to do Evangelism

Or how to share your faith without being an .Mention the word, "evangelism" and people get nervous. People might have images of an angry preacher yelling at people. I understand and in this solo episode, I share an experience with a gentleman who was not sharing the good news of Jesus Christ even if he thought he was. Even though people like this man give evangelism a bad name it is still important to share our faith with others by looking to Jesus himself.‘An undercurrent of growth’ Making a church of disciples in a secular age-Anglican JournalVideo Version:Follow Church and Main:Follow Church and Main:FacebookInstagramTwitterChurch and Main is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Thank you for reading Church and Main. This post is public so feel free to share it. Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

LGBTQ Issues in the Evangelical Covenant Church with Chris Gehrz | Episode 125

The Evangelical Covenant Church is a denomination with roots in the pietist movement with Lutheran roots with about 200,000 members in the United States and Canada.  While it was founded by Swedish immigrants, it is a very diverse denomination.  At the 2019 Annual Meeting in Omaha, the church did something that had never been in done before: it expelled one of the oldest churches in the church, First Covenant Church in Minneapolis for its affirming stance on LGBTQ issues.  History might repeat itself later this year when two other churches could be expelled, one in the Twin Cities and another in Seattle. I chatted with historian Chris Gehrz on this important issue.  Gehrz is a professor of history at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota.  Chris has written three books on pietism including the Pietist Option: Hope for the Renewal of Christianity, which he co-wrote with Mark Pattie.  We talk about the history of the Evangelical Covenant Church, the 2019 decision to expel First Covenant in Minneapolis, why the LGBTQ issue is so intractable and what might happen in 2023.Show Notes:Freedom in Christ- An Article written by Gehrz on the LGBTQ issueWhat is Pietism- Previous Episode with GehrzAmy Grant conquered Christian music. That was just her first act.Follow Church and Main:FacebookInstagramTwitterChurch and Main is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 124: What Is A ”Progressive Christian?”

In this solo episode, Dennis shares another video from October of this year where he asks what it means to be a "progressive" or "conservative" congregation and what should really matter to followers of Jesus. Stick around to listen to Dennis add some additional comments and also ask the audience for help in finding a future guest.Thoughtful. Independent. Moderate? by Chris GehrzAm I A Progressive? by Amar PetermanVideo VersionChurch and Main is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

Trailer: This is Church and Main.

We might not want to admit it, but faith lies at the heart of so many of the issues facing our modern world. That’s why Church and Main exists, to talk about the main ways faith and modern life intersect and how the two inform the other. Join me in the journey to be people of faith in a very modern world.Church and Main is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 123: Church Isn’t Safe.

In this solo episode, I talk about how the church doesn't protect us from the evils of the world.In the audio version of a video Dennis did back in October for his congregation, he talks about how the world can invade the church. Events like the mass shooting in churches in Texas and South Carolina show the church can’t be walled off from the evils of the world. However, Christians go out from our churches and bring God's reality into the world.The original video:Church and Main is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

Andrew Donaldson on Ordaining Women in the SBC | Episode 122

A frequent guest returns to talk about the ordination of women in the Southern Baptist Convention and more.This is the last interview for 2022 and I’m ending it with one of my favorite people to interview: Andrew Donaldson.  Donaldson hosts the Heard Tell Podcast and is also a prolific writer for Young Voices and Ordinary Times.  I usually have Andrew on to talk about evangelicalism and the Southern Baptists and that’s what we did in this episode.  He provides an update on the investigation of the SBC following an explosive report on sexual abuse, and the move to punish congregations that ordain women among other things.  We didn’t get to talk as long as I would have liked due to our busy schedules, which just means I will have him back on in the new year.  Heard Tell PodcastAndrew’s Bio on YoungVoicesAndrew on Ordinary TimesAndrew on TwitterChurch and Main TwitterChurch and Main FacebookChurch and Main InstagramThanks for reading Church and Main! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe