Revolution Church

Ever wonder why tigers have those white spots behind their ears? Can we learn grace from a seagull? What do pool balls and fish have in common? What happens if we put an ox and a donkey together on the same plow? We’re not sure, but we know if anyone can tie these disparate ideas together with some weird mysticism it’s today’s speaker, Joshua Murray. Once again, Josh visits the one topic he cares the most about – Bridging the Division. The country and world are so divided. All the time. About everything. Always. But why? Is it possible that we all have more in common than we think? What if we started to see ourselves in others, rather than just seeing ‘an other’? A big stumbling block in our path of grace, Josh feels, stems from the law and the tight literal and legalistic hold we have on the Bible – and it’s too much to bear for any of us, and it always has been. So how can we get from this unbearable, crushing yoke of the law to one that is easy and light? Who knows!! But Josh has a few ideas he’d like the share on it.This talk was given on February 27, 2022 in 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.

“Here is the confession: Galatians 4 has always been a bore to me…but I realize now it’s not.” That’s one way to introduce the next chapter in the series, but he wasn’t lying, the new stuff Jay discovered in this chapter is important and indeed not boring. Paul was very sick when he was in Galatia, and it was his time there that he was able to teach and share his message of Grace. He was expressing gratitude to them, and reminding them of how hospitable their community was…now in this letter he’s asking What happened to that Galatia I knew? Jay acknowledges that this letter is harsh, it’s understandable why people, especially in this current political climate, might be scared of Paul and the things he says – but this is also the best letter written on Grace, and without Paul we miss a deeper level of Grace. Jay poses the question: can we fully learn who Christ was or what he was doing if we don’t read Paul? Because we can see Christ in a much deeper way with Paul. Paul is asking us to live in a community and do the hard work – the hard work of loving our neighbors and enemies. He doesn’t want us to go our separate ways, to just take our toys and go home. Revolution is that community, it isn’t a safe place, but it is a place full of Grace and communication and disagreeing well so that we can build up something that is stronger than ourselves.This talk was given on February 20, 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.

This week we have a Revolution first! Jay is taking a break from continuing forward with the Galatians series so that we can revisit the first three chapters. Some might call it beating a dead horse, we call it an overview! Or a recap. Regardless of what it’s called, it’s important to revisit before moving forward again. The reason it is important is because we have to remember just how timely this letter to the Galatians is – Paul is trying to save a community. A community that is dividing itself rather than uniting. A community that is creating a different gospel by becoming disciplinarians and Kingdom Monitors and gatekeepers. A community that forgot how we’re all the same - that we are all flawed and fall short. Sadly, these themes are still just as present today as they were back when Paul first wrote this. It’s this mindset and division that takes the Good News and makes it not very good at all. That through our legalistic and disciplinarian mindsets we are caught up in another gospel - not a gospel that unifies us through Christ’s teachings. Paul isn’t asking us to do anything he’s not doing himself, he is doing his best to lead by example. We need to see that we can show Grace to each other even if we’re not on the same side. Even if we don’t agree. Going to war over these differences will leave us with nothing left. In Jesus’s time, Rome knew what they were doing – they found ways to divide the community so that they could continue to rule. Keeping the people divided and distracted and fighting amongst themselves so that there was nothing left of them…Yikes, thank goodness that’s not happening anymore, right? Thankfully that is a thing of the past - could you even imagine if that was happening today…This talk was given on February 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.

Jay is back! And he’s here to drink Diet Coke and talk Galatians…and he’s all out of Diet Coke. Well actually, he’s quitting Diet Coke, and we wish him luck – but all the same that just leaves us with Galatians. Who has bewitched you? Do you believe what you’ve heard? These are questions Paul asks right up front in the next installment of Galatians. Paul and Jay pick up right where they left off, with the same themes that weaves its way through this letter from Paul and sets the foundations for Revolution: Doubt, Faith, Contradiction, and Grace. Is doubt the opposite of faith? Or is it an element of faith? If there is no hierarchy and we give up our identity, what does that mean for us today? What do we hold onto after that? What if someone does something great or helpful, but then you learn they aren’t perfect? Does that change what they did? If we all fall short, how can we have room to judge? Are we so focused on our identities and traditions that they’ve become more important than the other people we deal with? Can exploring these questions lead to a higher truth? A God beyond God? We believe it can. These are some tough conversations, but let’s learn to have them. Let’s learn to see that it’s okay to disagree, as long as we disagree well. Jay dives into all of this and more before the caffeine wears off since iced tea can only do so much. This is the part in Paul’s letter where things begin to get a little more dicey, but it’s okay, because we’re not scared of the tough conversations. (Maybe we are, but we do them anyway!)This talk was given on February 6, 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.

Due to a last-minute hiccup with daycare for the kiddos, Jay wasn’t able to speak, so we have a guest speaker! This week Joshua Murray gives us a talk about depression, legalism, engaged-Christianity, old school country western songs, Midnight Mass and male pattern baldness. In the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon goes on a long depressive rant about the meaningless of life and wisdom, in doing so, however, he stumbles upon some deep truths that Paul later uses as the foundation of his work. We are the same. There is no hierarchy. This is the core realization that leads to Grace, and more importantly anarchist Grace, and maybe even a God beyond God. Josh also discusses the dangers of legalism and how taking the Bible as literal or as law really handcuffs us more than it frees us. And maybe Jesus warns us that we’ll be hated, not because we are Christians, but because people don’t understand Grace, and hate what they don’t understand. Also, what is a miracle? Are we capable of them? What if we are, but they just aren’t what we’re led to believe they are. And can we learn anything about our lives from the army of warriors that served King David? Also, why is a shaved head so freeing? Especially in the day and age of virtual meetings??   This talk was given on January 30, 2022 in 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.

After a slew of technical difficulties, we’re back! Jay’s back at it with Galatians Chapter 2. How can such a harsh letter be about grace? Do your convictions cause fear in others? How do we take each other along this journey? How can radical compromise and radical contradiction make us a better community? How do we work through division? These are all questions that keep popping up when studying Galatians and the Gospels and learning about Grace. Chapter 2 of Galatians is where the rubber starts to hit the road, so let’s buckle up and head on this journey. Jay might pose more questions than he answers in his studies of Galatians, but maybe we’ll find some of the answers together in this series. Imagine, Jesus calls you the rock on which he will build his church…then Paul, a former persecutor, corrects your behavior, how would you take that? This brings up the idea of our issues today with cancel culture, and how our convictions and sacred cows can cause us to separate each other or feel better than each other – but God doesn’t have favorites, he doesn’t prefer any of us over each other. The issues found in this letter to the Galatians are just as relevant today as when Paul first wrote it – a letter written to a divided community back then echoes with us today because Galatians is a book that grows and evolves with us. These concepts are not easy, change is tough and scary. To all of us! To have to question our lifelong beliefs and traditions – It’s really hard, but Jay shows us in this talk that we’re all in this together!This talk was given on January 23, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Achtung Baby!! Every year at this time Jay takes us on a deep dive into the Book of Galatians. An on-going series about Paul’s letter the Galatians, which might be more timely than ever. Written to a community that was dangerously divided, which is something hitting a bit too close to home these days. Division is everywhere, in religion, in politics, social media, friends, family, pandemics, vaccinations – you name it and we're divided on it these days. People often call the Bible timeless, but Jay teaches how he feels that this letter in particular is more timely than it is timeless. Paul’s letter to the Galatians is the glue at the center of Jay’s talks and at the center of Revolution Gathering itself. It inspired the Reformation and defines the concept of Grace better than any other writing. It teaches us that ‘compromise’ isn’t a bad word, and it helps us get to a place beyond our comfort zones and beyond ourselves. It teaches us that two things that don’t agree with each can often bring together a higher truth! It teaches Grace and the reality of accepting ourselves where we are at and accepting that we are accepted. Grace is willing to lay all the cards on the table and have the hard talks. Not everything in this letter is comfortable, and some concepts will lead to some pretty hard talks. But they are talks worth having, and that’s why Jay dedicates a whole study to it at the start of every year.This talk was given on January 9, 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.

After saying “I never do holiday themed talks,” Jay does just that for us this week…sort of, as he lives that contradiction by giving a holiday talk like no other. The subject of this talk? Contradiction and Divine Humiliation. As an unofficial sequel to last weeks talk, Jay dives back into McGowan and Hegel to discuss the contradictions of Christianity and how this contradiction can lead to something higher than truth. It can lead to an essence truth – a God beyond God. So, hold on to your socks as Jay dives into the infinite to show us how the infinite is also finite. To show us a humiliated God and what that means or us. He discusses how Christianity is full of contradictions…but is contradiction bad? Or can it lead to a Higher Truth?This talk was given on December 26, 2021 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 Hegel’s hands, Christianity becomes the most revolutionary religion ever conceived.” Todd McGowan writes that in his book ‘Emancipation After Hegel’ – Bouncing back in stark contrast to last week’s discussion, Jay brings us a talk that is more focused on philosophy and theology. This week he is diving into a verse and an idea that we struggle with, and that is the verse in Matthew when Jesus talks about fulfilling the law. Leaning on readings from McGowan, along with interpretations of Hegel, and verses from Jesus and Paul, Jay dives into the concept of love and explores if the fulfilling of the law is referring to loving each other. Loving each other as we love ourselves creates an equality among us. A way to all be equally human. Love is the foundation of this faith – it’s what changes this faith from the others. And Grace is a tough thing that allows us to love in a deeper and different way. But it’s hard work. It’s a complicated idea that splits us into being both ourselves and the other at the same time. We know that Grace is Anarchy…but is love also anarchy?This talk was given on December 19, 2021 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.

“I guess today what I wanted to do is come to you and say: ‘These are the things I’m thinking about.’” – Today’s talk is a bit different from Jay’s other talks in many ways, more abstract, but as always it is filled with grace and love and honesty. Jay approaches this talk acknowledging that we are all working with different traumas in our lives that lead us each to learning different lessons, so there is an amount of absurdity in the thought that we should all be on the same page. We don’t have to agree with the other perspective, but the idea is that we get a fuller picture of reality when we come together and learn, even in our disagreements. Jay shares some raw and heartfelt thoughts with us, and lays his own sufferings on the table because there is no hierarchy of pain and suffering – we’re all in this together. And being honest and finding ways to help ourselves also helps others. Helping others is what makes us a church/gathering. Jay reminds us that Revolution Gathering does not take place in the hour that he is giving his talk, but in the 6 days and 23 hours in-between talks. Suffering and hardships make us into people we never thought we could be – but if you’re listening to this talk and reading this description then you’ve already survived everything so far! Keep going. There isn’t always a magical Bible verse to help get us through – but that is why we have each other.This talk was given on December 12, 2021 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.