Rethinking God with Tacos PODCAST

John Crowder, a speaker and author known for his exploration of Trinitarian theology and mystical Christianity, delves into profound topics. He critiques traditional Western atonement theories as demonic, advocating for a more intimate and relational understanding of God. The conversation emphasizes the significance of contemplative practices and the transformative power of experiencing God’s love. Crowder encourages embracing mystery and connection, challenging listeners to rethink their faith through grace, union, and a Christ-centered perspective.

This conversation with Jason Clark was hosted by Brent Lokker on his youtube channel Vibrant Life. This podcast begins with two dads sharing stories about helping their children encounter God as a loving Father. The guys dive into obedience in the context of union and friendship, learning to trust the unchanging nature of our Father, not as retributive, punishing, or abandoning, but as the tenderhearted one who accepts us, loves us, and is always good! They discussed what it looks like to live as God's friend, not as a servant. Why Jesus cried out on the cross, "My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?" Knowing and trusting the Father who was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Dreaming with a good Father. The positive side of the deconstruction movement. Reconstructing our lives on the cornerstone of the real Jesus. To learn more or to support this podcast go to www.afamilystory.org Please rate, review, share, and subscribe!

Karen Swallow Prior is a Reader, Writer, and Professor in that order, which was discussed in this conversation along with the power of language, the Word becoming flesh, the connection of imagination with logic and reason, empathy, trauma, the theodicy of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and love being the center of our conversations. Karen also shares about getting hit by a literal bus and how she grew in her understanding that her life is in God’s hands. QUOTES “We express our sense of ourselves and our experience through language and even before we express it, we understand it that way.” “Language helps us interpret our experiences…what stories we tell ourselves or what we tell other people about what happened to us. It's an interpretive frame for the rest of our lives.” Regarding the Word became flesh: “To think about words as symbols and even that idea is also a metaphor but also literal… I can’t even understand it on a literal level but the possibilities and the implications are endless and it should shape everything that we think and we do.” “What I’m trying to understand better about God… is how we relate to God through the church and in the church that is so imperfect and fallen…” To learn more or to support this podcast go to www.afamilystory.org Please rate, review, share, and subscribe!

Scott Crowder is a pastor, singer-songwriter, and one of Jason’s closest friends. The guys dive into their love for the church, about learning how to be present with God, ourselves, each other, and our community. Scott talks about creating church cultures that practice the fruits of the Spirit, learning to lead ourselves and others in seasons of joy and sorrow, that “success” isn’t about numbers, cool fads, or being 'front runners,' it’s discovered in community. QUOTES “'Success,’ in a word is, ‘presence.’ I don’t mean that in the school of ‘the glory cloud came.’ I mean, I can be present to you, as you are present to me, as we are present to this moment, as we can be present to where we live, and we are not stuck in a dream of an ideal community that we never can become.” “When you’re present, you’re present to pain. When you’re present as a servant, as a leader, you’re present when you can do nothing for that person or they can do nothing for you.” “How many faithful people did we (the church) overlook…faithful movements did we overlook because they didn’t bear the fruit that we thought kingdom-building looked like. They didn’t promote themselves (but) they’ve been here the whole time.” “I am a witness or witnesses, I’m part of the church at large, whether I want to be or not. So, I’m learning to value those voices and people who have gone before me.” To learn more or to support this podcast go to www.afamilystory.org Please rate, review, share, and subscribe!

Thomas Jay Oord shares about open relational theology; how it connects with the way we live and matches our deepest intuitions. The guys talked about a relational God who is genuinely loving, looks like Jesus, and walks through each day with us, impacting and impacted by our friendship. Thomas describes an uncontrolling, loving God, that harmonizes with scripture. In this podcast, he dives into the subjects of hell, prayer, and evangelism all through the lens of open relational theology. To learn more or to support this podcast go to www.afamilystory.orgPlease rate, review, share, and subscribe!

Daniel Grothe and the guys discuss his new book, The Power of Place, which speaks to the sense of loneliness that many feel in today's age of hypermobility and noncommittal wandering, reminding us of the ancient vow of stability and teaching us how we can lead a richer life of friendship, community, and purpose. They also touch on the deconstruction movement within the church, how authoritarian leadership has wounded and undermined trust, and how healing and connection are available only where we practice the long game of family. To learn more or to support this podcast go to www.afamilystory.org Please rate, review, share, and subscribe!

The goodness of God but hell, atonement but hell, reformation but hell, scripture but hell, Calvinism but hell; in this podcast Peter Hiett describes hell as “Satan's big but.” In this conversation Peter walks us through the story of our own creation, the goodness of God’s reconciling love, the relational kindness of a God who encounters, sets free and transforms. Peter describes a God who delights in His creation, a God destroys what is evil, creates what is good, and invites us to observe our own creation in Christ Jesus. QUOTES Regarding relentless love and hell “At that point I was simply saying I want to hope this is true. And they said, “you can hope it, but you can’t believe it’s possible.” “Knowledge of evil is believing I have to justify myself.” “It's really not very complicated at all. If you take out the middle point of (Calvinism’s) limited atonement, you're left with a beautiful picture of this God who is raising his children and creating them in His image and He does it through His atonement and His atonement won't fail…”  “When you announce good news, you don’t say, “Now this is what you need to do about it, you just tell people, and the news changes folks.” "But if you’re a part of the institution, you want people to give to the budget, you want them to go on the church retreat, you want them to come help pull weeds in the garden. So, you’re always tempted to say, “believe this or…something.” Well, hell is a huge “or something.” “The good news, the Word, it carries the power within itself, you don’t need to con anyone into obedience.” “His goodness is beyond anything we’ve understood.” "Regarding Romans 5 “As in Adam all die, so in Christ, all will be made alive, and it’s the best most beautiful news.” “That sloppy universalism that just says ‘Oh God feels great about everybody and it doesn’t matter what you do.” It leaves everybody feeling empty because we all know something is really wrong with humanity and really wrong with me and my neighbor. I think scripture reveals that, yeah, were half made, were not finished yet. God is gonna destroy what is evil and create what’s good and you’re observing your own creation in Christ Jesus. And in the end, absolutely everything is a gift of your Father and you can’t even begin to comprehend how much He delights in you.” To learn more or to support this podcast go to www.afamilystory.orgPlease rate, review, share, and subscribe!

How to experience God, confession, faith, fear, freedom, our true identity, and cruciform, others-focused, self-emptying, unconditional love barely scratches the surface of this packed conversation on the goodness of God. Jamie and Donna Winship share how we can discover our true identity through a relationship with God and each other. QUOTES “So, we lose the great commandment and pick up the great commission, we’re exchanging love for conflict.” Jamie “Most people aren’t even aware that they are living separate from who they really are.” Donna “Your true identity is the essence of who you are at your core and it’s something to be discovered through your lifetime and worked out in relationship. You cannot set apart your identity from relationship with God and relationship with other people.” Donna “I think it’s important to note that your identity is not your gender, not your sexual preference, not your job, not your political party, not your religion…” Donna “You can study business ethics all day long but if you’re in a scarcity model its always gonna come up to not enough.” Jamie “You’re in a world that’s every day says “there’s not enough.” It’s the lie that we live in. But there is an alternative world view.” Jamie “You can’t intellectually have faith. Faith comes from experience and experiential relationship.” Donna “All identities we discover about ourselves are identities of Jesus in one form or another.” Donna To learn more or to support this podcast go to www.afamilystory.org Please rate, review, share, and subscribe!

Union, a Triune God, mutual indwelling others-centered love (perichoresis) approaching scripture to discover Jesus, and communion are some of the themes Rod Williams dives into. What if “all” means "all" and God isn’t distant? There is no distance, no separation in God and this conversation is a beautiful invitation to awaken to that discovery and our union with Him. QUOTES "To build the kingdom of God you need a clear picture of Jesus that you communicate in love." "If you’re believing in a little stick figure Jesus that you walk on to get to the real God, you're not believing in the real Jesus, you're believing in something we manufactured to build our empires." "Still, today you'll hear people say ‘Well God is love but God is fear,’ which comes from our Greek dualism… the reality is God is not two conflicting things. We invented conflict, God is not in conflict.” "No one comes to the Father but by me. We make that an exclusive statement but it's not, He’s saying 'I am here,' and this is why you can come to the Father." “Here’s the deal, we can have a Father who can’t be in the presence of sin, or we can have Jesus be God, but we can’t have both.” “Beholding is more important than explaining most of the time.” "He does nothing as a judge he wouldn’t do as a father,” George McDonald "God bless some of the movements we’ve been a part of because they talked about the Father Heart of God. But they didn’t go back and fix their theology." “We can’t talk about union as a kinder gentler Arianism or a slightly more practical Gnosticism, we have to look at it as, 'This is LIFE.'” “So many of the race problems and identity politics and all that stuff will just fade away as we begin to see we all have the same origin.” “We were made to have ecstatic experiences in the mystical union with God.” To learn more or to support this podcast go to www.afamilystory.orgPlease rate, review, share, and subscribe!

Co-Author of A Church Called TOV, Scot McKnight talks about his new book written in response to the abuses of power, sexual abuse, and spiritual abuse within the leadership of Willow Creek, Harvest, and sadly churches of all shapes and sizes. We talked about TOV (which means goodness) and how when we practice empathy, compassion, extending grace, putting people first, telling the truth, promoting justice, and serving others, TOV emerges in the culture and we all become more Christlike. To learn more or to support this podcast go to www.afamilystory.orgPlease rate, review, share, and subscribe!