That Don’t Fit

In this episode we try to get a handle on how we get our news and how we make sense of what we get. This isn’t a ‘hot takes’ debate. It is two guys who want to stay up to date with what’s going on, but who don’t want to be buried under an avalanche of information and opinions in the process.

In this episode we interview Jorge Pardo, a man from Puerto Rico of Spanish and Cuban descent. Jorge talks about his cultural heritage and being a Latino in non-Latino spaces, and how he navigates that experience as a follower of Christ.

JT and Andy talk about crying - why we do it and what it does for us. This isn’t a conversation about sorrow or grief - it’s a conversation about the crazy ways our bodies work that produces the experience of crying. Paradoxically, we laugh a lot in this episode.

JT and Andy catch up after a break in recording episodes to talk about what they've been doing, what they are currently listening to and reading, and they drop into a conversation about the value of friendship for those who are in ministry.

Andy and JT discuss the practice, challenges and glories of prayer and how they have been inspired to pray by the experience and words of others. Quotes: C. S. Lewis: "Well, let’s now at any rate come clean. Prayer is irksome. An excuse to omit it is never unwelcome. When it is over, this casts a feeling of relief and holiday over the rest of the day. We are reluctant to begin. We are delighted to finish. While we are at prayer, but not while we are reading a novel or solving a cross-word puzzle, any trifle is enough to distract us." Tim Kerr: “To pray in the Spirit is to pray when the Spirit moves in our hearts and helps us to desire and seek God’s will. It is the Spirit imparting the heart of God to us in the moment. When we pray in the Spirit, as John Owen says so compellingly, ‘we see a sight of God as on a throne of grace’ and we know He welcomes our prayers to Him.” Corrie Ten Boom: ”Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden." E.M. Bounds: "Prayer….is simply making known our requests to God for things agreeable to His will in the name of Christ….Prayer is infinite ignorance trusting to the wisdom of God." Timothy Chester: "Here is the test of whether you have grasped the radical simplicity of the gospel. Do you think your prayers are more likely to be answered if you are living a more godly life or if you are also fasting or if you bind demons in your prayer or if you pray for two hours rather than one hour? If we are inclined to answer yes to any of these questions then we have not grasped the sufficiency of Christ’s mediatorial role." Timothy Chester: "It is sometimes said that good private prayer is the foundation of good corporate prayer, but it may be more biblical to say that that corporate prayer is the foundation of private prayer. Our experience of God in Christ is corporate. Western individualism has made the individual alone with God the centre of spirituality. For the people of the Bible it is the relationship between God and his people that is central. Personal prayer revolves around this common experience-not the other way around." Charles Spurgeon: “The throne to which we are called is the throne of grace. It is a throne set up on purpose for the dispensation of grace and from which every utterance is an utterance of grace. The scepter that is stretched out from it is the silver scepter of grace. The decrees proclaimed from it are purposes of grace. The gifts that are scattered down its golden steps are gifts of grace, and he who sits upon the throne is grace Himself”. "I find it wise to sprinkle a few words of prayer between everything I do" - Charles Spurgeon "I find this a tremendous truth and a rather uncomfortable challenge ,my prayers, whether I pray, how much I pray, about what I pray—reveal my priorities, and they reveal how much I really think I need God, or whether I am—deep down, in fact self-assured and self-righteous. If Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God knew that he needed to bow my knees before the Father, what of us? If Jesus Christ, the greatest teacher in the world followed up his instruction by prayer what of us, if Jesus Christ who was sent on a mission that changed not just world history but all of eternity, knew that he needed to pray—what of us?" - Alistair Begg "Then came the reading of the scripture, that was time enough no hurry, how those English people did love the word of God. The second prayer followed. that was my prayer because it was everybody’s cry. His prayer was greater to me than his sermon. In his sermon, he talked with men, in his prayer, he communed with God. When he described the coming of Christ to the soul it seemed to me I saw for the first time I saw the King in his beauty—the suppliant was forgiven, with his face streaming with tears and his tone so full and rich that it swept through every heart —as a breath of perfumed air flows through the halls of a palace....

Recently we had a chance to sit down with pastor, author and urban entrepreneur John Onwuchekwa for a conversation about building healthy church communities in urban areas and a bunch of other things that came up.

This is the second part of our interview with Eric McAllister, Director of Music and Liturgy at High Point Baptist Church in Austin Texas. In this episode, Eric walks us through his vision for creativity and theological depth as we gather to worship as the church.

In the next two episodes we interview Eric McAllister, Director of Music and Liturgy at High Point Baptist Church in Austin Texas. Through his ministry Sunday Morning Songs, Eric is also creating modern hymnody to help churches experience richly theological and culturally diverse congregational singing as the gathered church.

We’re going to be jumping into a little bit of a mini-series in our next few episodes on celebrating ethnic diversity in worship in the church. We’ve got a special guest joining us in the series but want to kick off with a message Andy did on appreciating the cultural and musical styles that come to us as a worshipping church.

We had another conversation ready to drop this week but we felt this January 15 message on Ethnic harmony from Acts 1 was so helpful, so we’re going with it. We’ve also included some elements from the service in celebration of Ethnic Harmony in the church. Enjoy and be inspired!

Foundations message by JT on the beauty of ethnic diversity in the church.

In this episode, JT interviews Andy on his new book "Ordinary Greatness: A Life of Elias Boudinot". They talk about Elias, his character, his faith and what we can learn from a man who stood strong amid hard times. The book is available now! You can buy the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Greatness-Life-Elias-Boudinot/dp/1585163902

In this episode, JT and Andy discuss the topic of self awareness and how it's both a positive and negative thing in society.

In this episode, Andy gives a helpful sermon on what critical race theory is and what it means for us as Christians attempting to walk in harmony. Sermon quotes used: Voices on Critical Race Theory Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic: What do critical race theorists believe? Probably not every member would subscribe to every tenet set out in this book, but many would agree on the following propositions. First, that racism is ordinary, not aberrational...—“normal science,” the usual way society does business, the common, everyday experience of most people of color in this country. Second, most would agree that our system of white-over-color ascendancy serves important purposes, both psychic and material... Because racism advances the interests of both white elites (materially) and working-class people (psychically), large segments of society have little incentive to eradicate it... A third theme of critical race theory, the “social construction” thesis, holds that race and races are products of social thought and relations. Not objective, inherent, or fixed, they correspond to no biological or genetic reality; rather, races are categories that society invents, manipulates, or retires when convenient... A final element concerns the notion of a unique voice of color. Coexisting in somewhat uneasy tension with anti-essentialism, the voice-of-color thesis holds that because of their different histories and experiences with oppression, black, Indian, Asian, and Latino/a writers and thinkers may be able to communicate to their white counterparts matters that the whites are unlikely to know. Minority status, in other words, brings with it a presumed competence to speak about race and racism. (Critical Race Theory - An Introduction. 6-9 Janel George: CRT is not a diversity and inclusion “training” but a practice of interrogating the role of race and racism in society that emerged in the legal academy and spread to other fields of scholarship. (Kimberlé) Crenshaw—who coined the term “CRT”—notes that CRT is not a noun, but a verb. It cannot be confined to a static and narrow definition but is considered to be an evolving and malleable practice. It critiques how the social construction of race and institutionalized racism perpetuate a racial caste system that relegates people of color to the bottom tiers. CRT also recognizes that race intersects with other identities, including sexuality, gender identity, and others. CRT recognizes that racism is not a bygone relic of the past. Instead, it acknowledges that the legacy of slavery, segregation, and the imposition of second- class citizenship on Black Americans and other people of color continue to permeate the social fabric of this nation. (https:// www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/civil-rights-reimagining-policing/a-lesson-on-critical-race- theory/) Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer on essential elements of Critical Theory: 1. Our identity as individuals is inseparable from our group identity and, in particular, whether we are members of a dominant, ‘oppressor’ group or a subordinate, ‘oppressed’ group. 2. Oppressor groups subjugate oppressed groups by dictating and maintaining society’s norms, traditions, expectations, and ideologies. 3. Our fundamental moral duty as human beings is to work for the liberation of oppressed groups. 4. To these core commitments, critical theorists often add several corollaries: • Subjective, ‘lived experience’ is more important than objective evidence and reason in understanding oppression. • Privileged groups promote their own agenda under the guise of objectivity. • Individuals who are part of more than one oppressed group experience ‘intersectionality;’ their oppression is qualitatively distinct from the oppression of the separate groups to which they belong. https://freethinkingministries.com/critical-theory-christianity/ Samuel Kronen and Nate Hochman: (CRT’s) core claims are that racism, whether overt or...

In this episode, JT and Andy discuss the value of having relationships with people who think differently than you.

In this episode, Andy and JT discuss how difficult it is to find balance in the things we are passionate in. Christopher Ash's book "Zeal Without Burnout" is referenced as a helpful resource in this category.

In this episode, Andy and JT dissect the book "The Heart of Anger: How The Bible Transforms Anger In Our Understanding And Experience" by Christopher Ash and Steve Midgley. They also thank you for the kind comments and reviews!

In this episode, JT and Andy take on a list of trigger words that are easily misunderstood and they work to define them and categorize them. Hopefully, this can be a resource for you as you hear these commonly used words/phrases. Please send us trigger words that you'd like us to talk about on facebook/instagram/twitter @ThatDontFit

In this episode, JT and Andy break down the topic of justice and the scriptures we need to consider when thinking about it.

Today we welcome a new friend to the podcast, Isaac Adams! He is the author of a book coming out in January called Talking About Race: Gospel Hope for Hard Conversations which we encourage you to pre-order now. Isaac is also the founder of United? We Pray which is a ministry devoted to praying amidst racial strife. Listen as Isaac and your hosts talk about his ministry and book in depth and why we should be more active in prayer as we approach this topic.