Revolution Church

Jay is back and refreshed and hits us with a great talk about Redemption. The talk is a bit of a follow up to a social media poll he put out asking for different thoughts, stories, or examples of redemption. He discusses how sometimes we have the thought of redemption pretty backwards–sometimes it’s not about us redeeming others, but it’s about them redeeming us, or us redeeming ourselves. About how sometimes enough time goes by that the truth starts to show itself. This leads him into a pretty deep dive into the redemption of Sinead O’Connor and what truth the passing of time has shown us about her life and actions. He discusses the difference between ‘restoration’ and ‘redemption’…is there a difference? Jay also dives into 3 examples of redemption as shown in the Bible looking at the books of Luke, Acts, and Romans–is grace and redemption for everyone? How did Paul go from killing Christians and upholding the law to wanting to do away with the law? Is the law cursed? Is Sinead O’Connor a perfect example of redemption? And where does the fictional prison of Shawshank fit into all of this?This talk was given on November 13, 2022 in Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“The Truth of Fiction” This talk is kind of hard to sum up…so I’m not going to even try. A choose your own adventure! Is this a review of the Tammy Faye musical? Is it just a talk? Is it a sermon? Is it all of the above? You choose! But whatever you find this talk to be it still has it’s roots in grace, love, a perseverance. In revolution.This talk was given on October 30, 2022 in Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jay is getting ready to head to London to see the musical Elton John wrote about Tammy Faye. What a strange life this is. But before he heads across the pond, he gives a lively talk about……grace, obviously! This is Revolution we’re talking about. In this talk Jay reflects a bit on being ‘haunted by God’ and how it’s what pulls him to continue his work and to love a religion that has caused him and his family so much pain. “Someone needs to save religion from the harm it’s done.” Enough with the punishment talk and the judgement talk. Enough of Christianity being defined based on all of the things it’s against. Grace is real and it’s something to talk about. Jay also dives into a bit of a philosophical quandary–Grace is a free gift…but what if it is an unwanted gift? What if people don’t want grace for themselves or to give it to others. What if they don’t want to argue well? It’s a question that’s worth diving into. To ask ourselves how a religion based on faith, hope and love and of grace and forgiveness is now the opposite of that. How a belief structure of unconditional love has so many conditions now. It’s a slippery slope because to whom much is given…much is required. And we’ve been given much much grace. So there has to be more than just preaching to the choir! What good does that do? There has to be disagreements and learning in order to grow. So, let’s be ready to give an answer, but let’s make sure it’s covered with love and grace.This talk was given on October 23, 2022 in Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jay starts this talk with the heart-breaking news that Steve Pieters has Stage 4 cancer. It’s scary. It’s sad. And we’re giving all of our love and prayers to Steve. If you pray, please pray for Steve. If you don’t pray and praying just feels like talking to the ceiling, please talk to the ceiling for Steve. All prayers and everything you can muster. We love you Steve!! The rest of the talk Jay focuses on Jesus and how he turned everything upside down. Unorganized Religion. Jesus turned the world on its head with the things he said, the love he showed, and the company he kept. He tore the division between us and God. If there is no curtain separating us from God, then why are we forcing naivety onto ourselves and onto others? Shouldn’t we be the least naïve? But if we build a Christianity of naivety–to the point where we can’t think for ourselves–we fall into group think and our convictions stop being our own. If Jesus tore the curtain that separated us from God, why are we so eager to add separation back? How can we separate ourselves from others and cut them off and call it love? God is love! The church isn’t a building, it’s not a tradition. It’s us! The people. If our faith is built around buildings and big communities and traditions, is it really faith? Is it really something that is infinite? If the church is keeping you from loving people…then leave! Go some place where you can love and love radically!This talk was given on October 16, 2022 in Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s talk Jay asks us to make the decision to risk! To not toe the line. To think differently. To challenge ourselves. The world is a different place now. We’re not the same church found in Acts, found in the New Testament–so where does that leave us? Is it time for a change? To look at things differently, to not be so polarized. Jay dives into the book of 1 John. A book that he wrestles with a bit, and shares some of that with us. But he wanted to toy with the aspect of limiting our magical thinking when it comes to God and Jesus. Not fully, but just to see what is left when we shift the focus. To do this so we don’t get so bogged down in legalism. To test the spirit. To question thing and make sure it all holds up. To live life on life’s terms and see the Bible through that lens. To explore the concept of love and what happens when we love others and when we are loved. To explore Jesus’s message and to see if it was more about what he was against…or was his message about hope? Is our love real or is it counterfeit love? God is love and love gets passed on. As followers of these teachings do we provide a place where love is felt or fear is felt? Can love cast out fear? If we’re in the presence of love are we also in the presence of the infinite? We have to remember that whenever the Bible talks about love, it’s talking about a love we understand and have already experienced in our lives. Let’s focus on that. Let’s share that. And while we do that it couldn’t hurt to also discuss Sinead O’Connor a bit as well!This talk was given on October 02, 2022 in Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Still coming to grips with the passing of our friend Caleb, Jay gives a talk that isn’t really anything new. The talk is more of an echo of a lot of other talks he’s given. At Revolution we want to not only disagree well but listen well too. So, if we listen better than we can disagree better. What if we stripped Christianity down to its core, to its basics? What if we took the idolatry out of Christianity? Christianity has been reshaped. It’s almost unrecognizable. It has gone from a religion of love back to a religion of law–and this legalism is causing strife and grief and it’s causing us to other the others in our lives. Have we gotten to a place where we care more about being right than we care about others? Do we need to stop and reevaluate? Let’s look inward. What are the doubts we have that we never share with people? What are the quiet questions we ask ourselves at night? How can we get back to love? How can we bring Christianity back into a practice of love? Right now, we’re not known for our love, as Jesus said we would be. Instead, we’re known for who we don’t love. We need to fix this. We need to ask the hard questions. We need to dive deep. And we need to find the narrow road. It's not easy but it’s worth it.This talk was given on September 25, 2022 in Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"May we all be beautifully broken in this world, and may we all have the grace to allow each other to be that also." No write up this week. No long-winded descriptions or witty jokes. There's really nothing to be said. This week's talk is a rough one as Jay shares fond and honest memories of our friend Caleb. We are all heartbroken and will miss Caleb very much. He was a great guy and a great friend and he touched us all and changed our lives. We love him very much. You'll be missed Caleb.Love your friends and love them well. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Outrage culture, humanity, and division. Do these things go together? Today’s speaker, Joshua Murray, tries to pull the threads to see if they connect. In talking about humanity, Josh knew he had to go to the source–he had to go to the best place he could think of to discuss this topic, so he picked up his tablet that has his study bible with its notations and footnotes….and ignored that and instead used his tablet to reread some issues of Swamp Thing. More specifically Alan Moore’s run of Swamp Thing. What can we learn from this ‘monster’ when it comes to humanity? What can he teach us about how we see each other and ourselves? What makes us human? It’s hard to summarize all the nuance and complications of Swamp Thing, but we try! Can this comic book tie into the teachings of Jesus, or how about Paul? What’s it mean to be a servant of all? Why is Paul building tents to make money and survive when he doesn’t need to? What’s it mean to become all things to all people? And why is Jesus talking about circumcision during a festival? And most importantly what are the steps we need to take in ourselves to rise past outrage culture? What are the steps we need to take in ourselves to bridge the divisions in us? If you were standing by the Ark of the Covenant and it started to fall would you try to catch it?This talk was given on September 11, 2022 on Long Island, New York.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we’re gonna talk about what we always talk about. As usual, we’re gonna beat a dead horse. But it’s a message that bears repeating. A message of love, a message of showing grace. A message of not scapegoating. But it’s getting harder and harder to live this as times get more and more troubling. Is there a guide in our faith to navigate these current times and the binary way of thinking that is thrust on us? Life is full of nuances, why aren’t we allowed to see them anymore? It seems that in the U.S. politics have completely taken priority over our faith and religion these days. Where we aren’t divided by theological differences or biblical scholarship, but rather it’s all about if we’re progressive or conservative. It seems like we are being influenced to be afraid of each other. We keep creating enemies that divide us and keep us divided. Is Christianity a failed religion? It used to be something that kicked against the pricks. Are we recognized by our love? Christianity doesn’t seem to be about faith anymore, or about loving people. But more so it’s about whose side you are on. We have to remember that Love is the only force capable of turning an enemy into a friend. It’s not about politics, it’s not about theology. It’s about Love.This talk was given on September 04, 2022 in Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The original plan was to have another talk with Peter Rollins, but it didn’t quite pan out. So, Jay is back in Seattle and hits us with a really great talk. This talk centers around ideas that are not foreign to Revolution: showing grace, having good conversation, not scapegoating. Jay dives into the Gospel of Luke to focus on three of Jesus’s parables–The Lost Sheep, The Lost Coin, and The Prodigal Son. How can we apply the principles of these stories into our lives? To do so so that we have life before death. To figure out how to reclaim Christianity. To be followers of Christ. Jay talks about how Jesus was always seen as hanging out with the wrong crowd, but where else should He be? Shouldn’t we be with the wrong crowd? Shouldn’t we be building bridges? We live in an unfair world, and forgiveness often seems unfair when grace is involved. But sadly, Christians don’t seem to be known for their grace or their love or their compassion anymore. The things Jesus teaches in these parables, and Paul later expands on–they are all wasted if we don’t care for the lost sheep, if we don’t search for that one coin. Can we be the father, the prodigal son, and the brother all at the same time? Have we ever felt like each one of these characters at some point? Jesus tried to share these lessons with the religious people of the time, to teach them the importance of love. Let’s learn these lessons. Let’s be known for our grace and our love again. Let’s stop focusing on looking like we are in God’s favor and let’s actually be in Their favor by living what we were taught.This talk was given on August 28, 2022 in Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.