Episode Transcript
Carey Griffel: Welcome to Genesis Marks the Spot where we raid the ivory tower of biblical theology without ransacking our faith. My name is Carey Griffel, and today I thought I would do a bit of a different episode, and I'm going to tell you what I'm up to and why I'm up to it, and I'm going to invite you to join me on this.
[00:00:31] I feel like what I'm doing now is an extension of what we do already here on Genesis Marks the Spot and what has driven me into doing podcasting and even getting into deep Bible study to begin with. I know that you share a passion for Scripture with me. You also share a passion for discipleship and for honest exploration, I think, and I think that these are things that can bring us together and make good things happen.
[00:01:02] Do you feel stuck between what you've had before and what you want? Well, that's not necessarily a fantastic place to be like, you know, it feels frustrating and it feels really complicated, but I'm gonna suggest it's not necessarily that bad of a thing because it's going to push us together into doing something good.
[00:01:27] At least that's my theory, that's my goal and my desire, and I think it happens in the church already. And I think there's already a lot going on that we can participate in. I'm not trying to suggest that I have an easy answer or that really I have an answer at all. The answer is in Scripture and the church historically.
[00:01:52] But anyway, I'm gonna tell you about my biblical theology community. Now, if you listen to podcasts, then you probably already know that a lot of podcasters will create a space that is like their own community. And I've thought about doing that quite a bit, in fact, and I think it's fantastic that people do this.
[00:02:15] But in the back of my mind, I thought, it's not really quite enough for me. I already have a platform. I already have a Facebook group. I already have a lot of connections and relationships with people and all of that is amazing and it's really great. I'm gonna keep doing all of that and growing all of that.
[00:02:37] But then I see that all of these other podcasters and all of these other content creators and all of these other areas of deep discipleship and desire to learn about the text in context, they're all out here. And aside from social media sites, well there's really no place to get together. And that kind of bothers me. I don't really want to just create a Genesis Marks the Spot place or community because as widened scope as I sometimes do get here on the podcast, we really need to get even wider when we're talking about the application of biblical theology.
[00:03:21] And so that's kind of my idea here. My idea is for cross pollination of platforms and communities to come together in a biblical theology community. And it's broader than the divine council worldview. It's broader than any one person's platform. I really do think that there is a need and a desire for people to come together to really study Scripture deeply and not just leave it at study, but rather figure out how we integrate this into our lives.
[00:03:59] I talk to pastors about the Divine Council worldview and the struggles of teaching that to people and all of these unique things that we have to deal with in a congregation that maybe they don't have any teachers who do in-depth study.
[00:04:17] Maybe you don't have a pastor who is really passionate about getting into the original languages, but you still want that, and you don't wanna do it alone because Bible study isn't meant to be done by ourselves. It's why we are a church. It's why we are built in community. But it's frustrating when you don't have anybody around who shares your interest.
[00:04:44] And yes, you absolutely can go onto Facebook and you can find groups. You can find people and friends. I know. I know you can do that because I've done it myself, but it's not really a place that everyone loves. And social media platforms like Facebook are well distracting. It's very distracting to get on to Facebook and I mean, sometimes that distraction's okay, right? I mean, look, I wanna see the pictures and videos of the baby ponies and the baby skunks and the baby kittens just as much as the next person. But baby ponies and kittens are not very conductive to Bible study, unfortunately.
[00:05:30] Like even though I have a Facebook group and it's a great Facebook group, I know. I am absolutely certain that there is no way I could conduct a book study on Facebook. It's just too distracting to people. It's not a place where people go to focus on Bible study, even though they're gonna get Bible study as they watch the kitten videos. Right. At least I do. I don't know about you. Everybody's mileage is going to vary.
[00:06:01] So at any rate, part of my vision is just to bring people together in a distraction free zone that is specifically designed for deep Bible study, but not only the deep Bible study, but also working that out for how we're gonna live it. It's really hard. For every ministry out there. There are unique challenges.
[00:06:23] But here's the amazing thing about the church and about community and about communal learning together. If you have a problem, there's somebody out there who has either worked through the problem themselves, or they can think of a solution for you, that's going to be helpful.
[00:06:42] The world of creative thinking and innovation happens best when you have input from other people and you live in a wider world. And that's why you have like technology that just grows exponentially, right? Because you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time you do something.
[00:07:02] So let me get into the actual content of my platform. What we've done, and I say we, because my husband is an integral part of this going forward because there's no way I can do this all by myself. I am not a technical person, even though I do a podcast. Doing a podcast honestly pretty much pushes my limits. So even though this platform that we've acquired is fairly easy to run and set up, there's still no way I could do it without my husband. So everybody can thank Jared for his help and his insistence that we do this.
[00:07:41] I wanna talk to you about what I'm doing and why I hope you're going to join me in this venture.
[00:07:47] We have named our new platform On this Rock. Now, of course, the straight out version of on this rock.com was already taken by somebody, so in order to get to the platform, you have to put hyphens in between all of the words. So it's on- this- rock.com. That's still fairly easy to remember, right? We named it that, of course, because of Matthew 16. This is Jesus and Peter in the District of Cesarea Philippi.
[00:08:25] " And Jesus asks his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist. Others say Elijah and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter. And on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
[00:09:07] Now, of course there are plenty of options of what Jesus is referring to about this rock and what it is.
[00:09:16] Part of the reason we chose this name is because it does have divine council worldview connotations, right. Jesus is talking on We have echoes of Mount Hermon. We have echoes of Genesis six. And we have the whole idea of the harrowing of hell in Jesus's work, right?
[00:09:37] And so this passage means a lot of things to a lot of different people. And of course, we tend to want to kind of gravitate toward the one thing that we want it to be about, which is fine. Just like with many things, I would suggest that there are multiple layers here and that means it doesn't have to be the case that only one person is right about it.
[00:10:00] But the thing that brings us all together in Christianity is Jesus, and it is Jesus's work either directly through what he did in the incarnation and his death and resurrection and exaltation, or whether that means what he's doing in the church. There's different layers here, and it seems to me that this should be a unifying passage for us. Do we not all have this goal here? Do we not all have some sense that it is Jesus and also the church that is involved?
[00:10:39] Whatever you think, whether Peter has something to do with the Bishop of Rome or whether this is primarily about cosmic geography. What I think we can all determine is that Christ is the cornerstone, and that even if you ascribe to a systematic theology or a denomination or a tradition. Or a particular hermeneutic. We are called Christians because we follow Christ and because he is our center.
[00:11:09] And so the name is to affirm that we have one foundation, but it also invites us to dig deeper into the layers beneath what that means.
[00:11:20] The focus and the purpose of biblical theology is not to move away from Jesus or to just get more information. The hope is to draw closer and to see the whole story that Jesus came to fulfill. And that story extends from Scripture into salvation history itself, even to today and past today.
[00:11:45] you know, I grew up in the LDS church. As part of the LDS church, one of the foundations of my beliefs was that there was kind of a distinction between faith and evidence. Now, of course, the LDS church, just like everybody else will bring up evidence for its truthfulness, but there was always a sort of tension that I lived between the idea of faith, meaning, you just trust that even if you don't see the reality there, it's kinda like blind faith versus evidence and things like that.
[00:12:27] But I will submit to you that faith has always been based on evidence, even when we can't see it fully. Of course, there is historical testimony and there is just the simple fact of God acting in history. We have divine interventions all the time, but there's also that sustaining of creation. There's the incarnation of Jesus himself. There is a reason why the body of believers is called the body of Christ.
[00:12:59] And the sad thing for many of us is how fragmented it is. Now, some of us might be okay with that because you know, we want to draw the boundary lines and say, we are Christians and you're not. We're followers of Christ and you're not.
[00:13:17] And you know, there's something to be said for solid doctrine, for knowing God, for having this serious attitude that what we believe and what we think actually matters. But pretty much everyone will go down this evidence-based approach.
[00:13:34] One Corinthians 15, Paul says, "For I have delivered to you as of first importance. What I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas then to the 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time. Most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me."
[00:14:14] So Paul is showing us an evidence-based faith.
[00:14:18] Deuteronomy four versus 32 through 39 says, quote, "For ask now of the days that are passed, which were before you since the day that God created man on the earth and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire as you have heard and still live? Or has any god ever admitted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation? By trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war. By a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes. To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord is God. There is no other besides him. Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire. And you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance as it is this day. Know therefore today, and lay it to your heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath, there is no other." End quote.
[00:15:56] And now of course a lot of us are going to call upon our personal experience and our faith as evidence of that, right? And yes, absolutely. We trust Jesus because of those personal experiences, but we also trust him because he fulfilled a long track record of God's action in the world. And that matters. And guess what? It's still going on.
[00:16:23] If you know me and if you know this podcast, you know that I am a fan of critical thinking. I don't think asking questions is a problem. I don't think exploring options is a problem. I do think there are certain bounds and certain things that we need to keep in mind for that though.
[00:16:42] But there's a certain freedom in order to explore those questions with a focus on Jesus, the canon of Scripture, and with the historical church. I think we need all of those things. It allows us to look at weird passages without going to weird things about it. I think that's why a lot of us loved Dr. Heiser. He was such a master at things like that.
[00:17:11] and Jesus himself tells us how he intersects with Scripture. in luke 24 7, he said, " And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself."
[00:17:27] Hebrews one, one through two says that "Long ago at many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world."
[00:17:48] So whatever we learn about Scripture, we can trust that it's going to reveal Christ to us. We don't need to be afraid of the Bible's strange corners and looking into those weird things, especially in context like the way that people at the time would be thinking. None of that has to lead us away from Jesus. Instead, it should lead us toward his mystery and his majesty.
[00:18:15] So because Jesus fulfills the law and the prophets and the writings, rather than replaces them, those. Are things we should dig into. And as disciples of Jesus, that makes us disciples of that text and disciples of each other because we are the body of Christ.
[00:18:35] I would suggest that discipleship requires context and continuity. And how we're going to get those two things together is kind of tough, though, right? Because we've got all of these different answers and people over here will say that you have to do it this way. People over there will say, no, no, no. You have to do it the way that we think that you have to do it. And personally, I say, let's look at all of the options and struggle with it together.
[00:19:06] In Matthew 13, verses 51 through 52, he asks the people, " Have you understood all these things? And they say to him, Yes. And he said to them, therefore, every scribe who has been trained for the Kingdom of Heaven is like a master of a house who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old."
[00:19:31] I think that if we want to understand Jesus fully, we need to understand the story he lives in and the story that he completes. There is a new, and there is an old. And the old is not to be discarded. It is to be understood.
[00:19:47] We talk a lot about John 17 and unity in the church, but we see that the church is fractured. Now we have a whole lot of ideas of how to fix that depending on who you're asking.
[00:20:01] Some people will say, well, yes, of course we have the visible church that's fractured, but there's still an invisible church that is united. I'm not gonna disagree with that, but I will still say that we should not pretend that unity exists when it doesn't. And I think it's kind of okay. It's a problem that we can actually start looking at.
[00:20:25] And that's not gonna happen unless we actually come together and talk about it though, right? Unless we come to the same table to discuss these things, we're not gonna be able to work anything out. I think that the Bible presents the table as a point of reconciliation, actually.
[00:20:45] So maybe instead of arguing about this communion and that Eucharist, what if talking together is the first form of communion? I know that's shocking, but if we can't eat together, can we at least talk together? Can we at least listen to one another? Can we study together and can we learn in humility?
[00:21:12] Now, look, I think that doctrine and correct ideas about God and the Bible and humanity are pretty darn important. I think they're vital, in fact, but there's a problem when it prevents us from coming together and talking to one another.
[00:21:29] And I know that I have no grand vision that my little community is going to heal the world or anything. That's not the point. The point is I do think that in every sector of the visible body of Christ unites is a place of healing. And in whatever schisms we have, in whatever differences we have, whether those are large or whether those are small, the first step is simply seeing each other. But in whatever conversations we have, whether those are very big disjunctive differences, or whether they're kind of more minor, if we only focus on the things that divide, we can only remain divided.
[00:22:14] Let me go ahead and read the whole of Romans chapter 14. But before I do, I wanna say that, look, this is not about relativism. I'm just going to be reading Scripture to you, and this is a chapter I don't really see trotted out a whole lot of times. Sometimes, in fact, it's used in a weaponized fashion, rather than being this unity thing.
[00:22:40] Romans 14 says, quote, "As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats, despise the one who abstains and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
[00:23:19] " One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day observes it in honor of the Lord The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.
[00:23:44] " For none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord. And if we die, we die to the Lord. So then whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end, Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord, both of the dead and of the living.
[00:24:06] " Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
[00:24:27] " Therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer. But rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
[00:24:36] " I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.
[00:24:55] " So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil for the Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual up building.
[00:25:16] " Do not for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed it is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin." End quote.
[00:25:52] There's a few different options of how you could actually read this and understand it. You know, it sounds like Paul is saying do not judge and just let everybody do anything, but obviously we have all of Paul's other letters and there is a very strict teaching of gospel. There is this idea of keeping within doctrine and all of these things, right?
[00:26:17] We have to take in the full council. We can't just read this chapter and say, well, there we go. Everybody is saved, right? Because of Romans 14. But listen, I think that we do this black and white, either or thinking all the time.
[00:26:33] What can we pull from Romans 14 that's going to be really useful to us when we're thinking about working together, when we're thinking about doctrine and all of these things, right? Because, you know, I have very firm ideas on certain things, and you know, here it says that we should all be convinced in our minds.
[00:26:55] So it's okay to have those firm ideas. It's obviously okay to talk about false doctrine and false gospels and to warn people about those things. Because Paul elsewhere talks about that. Those are very stringent concerns. You know when Paul talks about coming together with the Lord's table, it's kind of a dangerous thing if you don't do it right.
[00:27:21] So it's reasonable that people in the church will see these ideas of doctrine and practice and we will want to create the boundaries. That's fair enough. I'm not saying that we can't do that, but this is one reason I love the vision of the table. And that the table cannot be replaced by another kind of object or idea because the table has the aspect of sustaining.
[00:27:51] You know, the whole idea of the table. I'll just eat over here my own little thing, and you eat over there. We're not really gonna talk together. We're not really going to interact. Is that the picture that we have here?
[00:28:04] No. Paul is presenting the table and the idea of communion together as one that is supposed to be unifying. And if it's not, somehow we're doing it wrong.
[00:28:17] And call me crazy, but I really do think that if we can come together and find the things that we can agree on, then guess what? We will at least have found things we agree on. And no, I'm not talking about compromise. I'm not talking about loosening up any principles. I'm just talking about things that we can agree upon because it's just too often the case that we only focus on that which we disagree on.
[00:28:49] Now, what does all of this have to do with a biblical theology community? Because, well, first of all, what is biblical theology? And second of all, what does that have to do with the body of Christ and coming together?
[00:29:04] Well, one of my big passions is critical thinking. Another major passion I have is discipleship. And I have this really strange idea that we can take critical thinking and discipleship and use those together. Almost as if that's what we're supposed to do.
[00:29:25] I mean, we see this in Scripture. In Acts 17, people were receiving the word, they were examining the Scriptures. We have a lot of places in Scripture where people are wrestling with God, sometimes literally, right?
[00:29:41] Another reason why I'm talking about the church and biblical theology in one breath, even though sometimes we see a bit of a distinction or a line drawn in the sand between biblical theology and church history.
[00:29:57] And I can understand that because if biblical theology is about understanding Scripture in context, well what do we have when we look into the early church and sometimes we see a distinctive difference between the context in Scripture and the early church. Because they're in a different situation. They're moving into a global church. They're dealing with global problems. Some of the cosmic geography of the promised land is now missing in the thought of the church because these people are not all living in the promised land.
[00:30:36] They're not all living around Jerusalem. They have no idea of the geography of the area. They don't know everything about the history of the Old Testament. So there is this disconnect where you have early church fathers talking about things in Scripture that are very different from the context of Scripture.
[00:30:58] Now, is that a problem? Well, I think it's something we need to deal with directly because we don't have a strict disconnect between the Bible and the church. Because if we did, then the church wouldn't be arising out of Scripture. Most of us also will talk about doctrine in ways that is not talked about in Scripture. And I think it's reasonable and should be expected that we start working on bridging those gaps.
[00:31:29] I mean, it didn't used to be the case that we even understood all that much about biblical context in a lot of ways. There's a reason why the church was the way it was. Now we have a lot of archeological evidence. We have a lot of linguistic evidence. We have a whole lot of information about the culture and the time that people in the past didn't have. We could just say, well, you know, it's different and that ancient context is really helpful for us in some ways, but it doesn't really have to color our practice today. I know some people will go down that path and will say that.
[00:32:09] And then you have the other side of the equation where we have people in certain traditions who will say, well, obviously it's all one piece and you just have to follow my tradition. And by the way, I'm not just talking about Catholics and Orthodox people here. I've heard many Protestants say similar things to that. So is it the case, we just have to find the right tradition? The one that is true?
[00:32:37] Well, that was what I used to believe when I was in the LDS church. And I know a lot of Christians really do believe that. Maybe they're right, but how are we gonna know that they're right if we can't really meet together in the middle and talk about it? How are we gonna understand how tradition comes from the Bible and its context unless we work through these things together?
[00:33:03] You know, I think a lot of times we're so very focused on doctrine and theology that we forget that there is a history here. And no matter who you are, there is some sort of a disconnect. It may be large, it may be small, but there is a disconnect or a progression we might say, instead of a disconnect, if you don't like that word. There's things that happen in history and nobody today is living life the same way as they did in the New Testament church. And there's no little secret enclave out there who's kept the secrets for all time.
[00:33:43] I'm going to suggest to you that discipleship is a group project. You know, this is kind of interesting. I have always homeschooled my children, and one of the things I have learned for myself in that is how much children learn from modeled behavior, whether that's playing with their peers and their siblings and their friends, or watching their parents or other adults, kids learn through modeled behavior and active play as well.
[00:34:16] There's this communal aspect to learning for children and for adults, but we don't always admit that. And so if we are disciples of Jesus, we can just say, oh, it's just me and Jesus, or me and my Bible, and those are essential elements to this. But why can't it be you and Jesus and the Bible and the church? And not only the church around you, the church that you're in, but the historical church as well.
[00:34:48] I mean again, coming back to the image of the table is supposed to be this leveling presence where we come together in spite of our differences.
[00:34:59] And so the reason I want to connect the Bible and biblical theology and its context with what we're doing today and the historical church is because I think we can learn not just from each other directly today with people who are living. But we can learn from people in the past.
[00:35:20] We can learn from the biblical context. We can take all of these things and look at them all together as one thing. Now, are there going to be differences there? Absolutely. There's gonna be major differences. Will there be similarities? Of course there will be. Are we gonna have somebody who's right and somebody who's wrong?
[00:35:45] Well, probably. How do we determine that? Well, that's the question, isn't it? How do we determine that if we're not looking at all of the available evidence? That means theology, that means practiced living. That means different churches. That means comparing all of that with the text.
[00:36:06] Here's another thing that people don't talk about enough. I'm also going to bring up the Spirit, the active Spirit of God in the church, the third person of the Trinity. And the whole description of the Holy Spirit is really an interesting one. The idea of spirit in general in Scripture, it's not just about spiritual power, it's about unity and this shared experience.
[00:36:35] And when you consider that the Spirit is indwelling both the individual believer as well as the wider church, then we see these elements of sacred space, discipleship, learning, community, and all of that can happen not just boots on the ground right in front of you in your church today, but also through history.
[00:37:01] There's a lot more to learn about and it's a little bit sad that the Spirit gets kind of ignored in a lot of theology and a lot of church teaching. That's something that we could fix. The Spirit is not just some impersonal force, and he is a person who forms a connective tissue just like Jesus and the Father do.
[00:37:24] So my initiative here with the community, it's not just about learning. It's not just about the people. It's about the active Spirit of God in the world. And I do think he's active and I do think things are happening. And I'm not saying that it's only going to happen in my little corner, but I want my little corner to be active with the Spirit. And that is my hope and my prayer. In fact, I would ask for prayers and wisdom and guidance in everything that I am doing.
[00:37:58] And I think that the Spirit works through us together. Sometimes you'll hear that, well, I can just read my Bible and understand it. And I actually think that's true. I think you can do that. And I think the Spirit does teach us individually like that.
[00:38:15] But I think the Spirit works within the church itself as well. That means speaking and acting in community. So sometimes the Spirit will be something I feel or maybe almost hear in my prayer life or my Scripture life, and sometimes the Spirit will speak through another member of the body of Christ.
[00:38:38] So that's why I say this is such an important concept to get together, whether we're doing it here on my platform or somewhere else.
[00:38:49] So I hope that that helps to kind of flesh out this idea and let you know what I'm trying to participate in.
[00:38:56] Again, I think that God is active and living in the world. I think he shows up in all kinds of places, and even though we might lament about certain things in our experience and our faith lives, I don't think that means that God isn't acting because I think he is.
[00:39:14] But then the next step there is to ask ourselves, where am I in that and how do I participate? And so this is just a call for you to go to God in prayer, to go to the Scriptures and search those and to go to other members of the body of Christ who can give you guidance and input as well. All of those things, I think, are ways that we get truth from God.
[00:39:40] It doesn't just happen in one place. It doesn't just happen because somebody decides it will happen, but it can happen anywhere where we have the body of Christ. So I'm not starting a church. I'm not starting a denomination. I'm not even really starting a school or anything like that.
[00:39:59] You can kind of think of it as me inviting you to my online home. Even though I'm far too much of an introvert for that. We now live in a world that has a global church. I don't think online participation should take the place of in-person participation, but sometimes that's just kind of what we have. Plus the fact that if we're online anyway, we might as well be online together in the body of Christ in some form, right?
[00:40:31] At any rate, let me tell you a little bit about my community and how it's structured and what you might find there.
[00:40:39] First of all, I would ask you, what do you need from a community like this? I have some ideas. I know what some people need, but you probably have unique needs yourself. So part of the idea of forming a community is that you can let people know what your needs are and invite other people to help you with them.
[00:41:03] For a lot of people, that might seem really forward and strange and a little bit out there. I get it. I really am a complete and total introvert, so I totally understand those things. But God keeps pulling me towards the idea of community and discipleship with other people. That's exhausting for me sometimes.
[00:41:26] It can be really hard. And I personally find it very, very difficult to tell people what I need, but at the same time, there's different ways you can go about that. It's not like you have to come here and then tell everybody all of the details of your life.
[00:41:44] But you can ask a related question to something that you need. You can ask for some anonymous prayer. My hope is that this will be a place of participation, but I can't do that by myself. So I'm gonna ask you, what do you want to build? Because this only works if you want to participate. And like I said, that can look all kinds of ways.
[00:42:11] Now let me talk about what the community is and what it isn't. This is a biblical theology community that is rooted in Christ. It's meant to be a space of curiosity, of clarity, and christlikeness.
[00:42:28] My desire is to blend theological learning, discipleship, spiritual formation, and ministry development, whatever that means for you. Part of my goal and inspiration for this actually is Redemption Seminary's model. I don't know if you're familiar with that, but I really enjoy their model. Like a lot of seminaries, Redemption really wants to be focused on how they can help you with your own personal ministry.
[00:42:59] That's not unique to Redemption by any means, but the personal one-on-one aspect of what they're doing with redemption is something that feels like a homeschool community in some ways where you're getting personal input, and hopefully having that modeled for you with the course development. There is a marriage of Scripture and learning and finding out how that works for you in your own context.
[00:43:27] That's not something that can just happen in a cookie cutter situation, right? If you're in a class with 20 or 30 or 40 or 60 other people, there's no focus on how you get the learning into your own life. And so part of this is not just this top down funnel of information, but rather a situation where we learn to learn from each other and as important as scholarship and academic resources are, I think that what we need to also focus on is the fact that sometimes we are each other's best resources.
[00:44:07] I'm not trying to create a replacement for the local church. I'm also not forming a debate club. And it's certainly not meant to be an echo chamber.
[00:44:19] I don't know if you're familiar with Facebook and Facebook groups and some of the drama that can happen in those places, but my vision for the community is that it is a place where, yes, you can engage and interact in the ways that is really going to fit your style, your position, your tradition, but that you can engage and do that in a safe place where it's not combative.
[00:44:47] That's one of the hard things about some community platforms and some Facebook groups is that sometimes they get pretty clique-ish. Sometimes it's about us and them. Humble listening is just really hard to do.
[00:45:04] Okay, so what is this community platform like?
[00:45:07] Well, it's designed a little bit like Facebook in some ways. You have things called spaces here at On This Rock, and a space is a little bit like a Facebook group, although not entirely. There's a general space that I've currently named Living Stones, and that is the place where everybody who joins can be a part of that. There isn't a paywall to access that. You just sign up and you have access to it.
[00:45:40] You also have access to a prayer space and also some topical or content spaces. I have a space for my podcast. Genesis Marks the Spot. I also currently have spaces for Answers to Giant Questions, for Leviticus is Fun, for the Two Trees, for Tending our Nets and for Trauma-informed Church Kid. So if you're familiar with any of those, come on over because there is a space there.
[00:46:11] Some of them are not quite so set up or active as others, but we're still here at the beginning.
[00:46:18] By the way, there is a place to come and talk about paranormal stuff from a Christian perspective as well. Oh, and great apologies to Geoff. There is the Store room of Scripture. So lots of things to explore. You can post about your own research projects and crowdsource ideas. I'm actually doing that in Leviticus is Fun. I'm trying to crowdsource ideas about substitution in Scripture.
[00:46:47] At On This Rock, we also have monthly themes. My vision for those is that they will be designed to help you get deeper into Bible study or help you learn better or help you be more efficient with your time, or just generally help you with certain problems that I know people often have.
[00:47:07] Now, there is a paid tier at On This Rock. It's $5 a month and we just put out an annual plan so you can sign up and be a paid supporter for only $50 a year. And what that does is, first of all, to be honest, it supports the content and platform sustainability. Currently, this is something we're paying for, and quite frankly, we are very far from breaking even on our costs here.
[00:47:40] So if you want to support me and what I'm doing in general, you can donate through Patreon or through PayPal. You can also sign up at On This Rock and support the paid tier, but it's not like you don't get anything out of that. Again, it's only $5 a month. You'll get access to any mini courses that I put in there. You'll get additional material about the monthly themes. I can give you project feedback there. I will be hosting Zoom events and I really highly encourage you to participate in some challenges that I will be presenting there as well.
[00:48:20] Not to mention the fact that that is where you can find my most up to date information and all of the stuff that I'm doing with frame semantics.
[00:48:30] So please do consider coming onto the paid tier to get some of these extra resources and ideas and participation.
[00:48:40] Along with all of that, I am working on creating paid courses. These courses may not have much that's new and unique if you are a longtime listener of Genesis Marks the Spot, but they will be focused and condensed and easier to teach from and perhaps easier to use in your own ministry as well.
[00:49:04] So again, to kind of let you know what I'm doing here, it is absolutely vital to me to have this free tier for you just to join if you just wanna come and join. I'm not trying to hide anything behind paywalls, but at the same time, I am producing content and I'm trying to give you something of value.
[00:49:25] So. If you support the paid tier, you will be getting extra things You will be accessing a lot more about frame semantics and all of that will probably end up as some form of publication. So if you wanna get in on that now, you can. Frankly, it's gonna be a lot more beneficial and useful to people the more feedback I get.
[00:49:49] But also, I really want to be able to target this and focus this for you. I know that you are in a position that is unique, whether you're pastoring, whether you're a parent, whether you're just trying to get together with friends and do deep dive Bible studies. Maybe you have some creative project that we can help you with.
[00:50:12] One of the things that has really struck me deeply in my study of the Bible in context is just how practical things in Scripture are, how much there is this idea of participation and living out our faith.
[00:50:27] It is just my deep heart goal to participate and be useful in that, whatever that might look like. I really enjoy doing this podcast. Not gonna stop doing the podcast. But at the same time, I don't want what I do to just be this passive learning experience. I wanna be part of God living and active in the world, and I want to invite you with me.
[00:50:55] So please consider supporting me. And it's not even just about supporting me, it's about building things together. It's about helping each other and really living out the Christian life Now, I hope you're doing that individually in your local areas and communities. Obviously there's always a great need for that, but the online church, the online community, all of this information we're able to access, all of that should be supporting you in what you're doing and where you are.
[00:51:29] I really think that's the case, and I'm not saying I have all of the answers, or that what I'm producing is the latest, greatest, most amazing thing compared to other things, but there is a lot of content out there and it's hard to get through on your own. It's hard to structure it by yourself. It's hard to even know what the next step should be because again, there's just so much out there. And one of the greatest things for me in figuring out the direction I should go or figuring out the next thing I should learn, the best thing I've ever had is just talking to other people and getting their ideas.
[00:52:11] And since currently there is no single place for that kind of contextual conversation, well, that's what I'm offering here and I'd really love to have you join me. And it's only gonna be as good as the people who are going to be there actually active and doing things. So I, at this point, it's kind of out of my hands.
[00:52:37] I'm offering the things I can, but the idea isn't just for more top-down content, but to help make the content really and truly usable for you. That's why I'm going down all of the rabbit trails for frame semantics. Why do these deep dives into methodology and themes of Scripture to see what we can pull out for practical use because what good is it if it's only some interesting material?
[00:53:05] And that's the thing I've heard over and over again. Oh, well that's interesting, but what good is it? How do we make it practical? How do we actually make this part of living out our Christian lives? What matters? How do we do it together? And most of all, how do we do it with a vision that is Christ centered, Scripture drenched, Spirit led, and community shaped?
[00:53:34] That's my heart at least. I have no idea how any of this is going to work out. I didn't do any deep studies into what people were exactly interested in and I didn't write out a business plan. I'm just kinda winging it here.
[00:53:51] So anyway, I would love to hear any kind of feedback you guys have. I know that I always say that, but I really do mean it. I wanna know what you think, what you're struggling with. And I know that there's other people out there who also think that, who would also love to help you with whatever it is you're struggling with.
[00:54:13] I have seen the outpouring of love in the community here, the adjacent communities as well. I know there's a lot of passion, there's a lot of drive. There is a heck of a lot of talent and I just want to help build that.
[00:54:29] Okay, so all of that being said, I know that's a lot of information, might be a bit of an overload. If you are now wondering what you can do and how you can take advantage of this to help develop your own ministry and your own personal growth, here's the different things you can do. First of all, I just invite you to join On This Rock. come and sign up. Sign up for the paid tier if you can. If you just wanna come check it out first, that's okay too.
[00:55:01] Again, I'm only asking $5 a month, Now, I will say also, if you're already a Patreon supporter and you have signed up, please make sure I see that you're there and I can get you the paid access, even though you're a Patreon member. ' cause you're already a supporter of mine. So I'm happy to give you that access.
[00:55:22] Once you're there, the things you can do are just conversation. In the vast majority of the spaces, there are chats. So just jump in, introduce yourself, let us know who you are, what you're dealing with, what you're interested in. This is again, a community platform and we want to get to know you.
[00:55:45] In most of the spaces there is a feed, which is kind of like what you see in a Facebook group. Feel free to participate in that. Post your own posts. Ask your own questions. Create polls. Let us know what you're learning about and tell us about it. Let us know what problems we can workshop with you. Remember, there is a prayer corner. We would love to pray with you.
[00:56:13] Don't forget to check out the monthly theme and those monthly themes are set up like a course. So because they're set up like a course, sometimes there's buttons and things you can click through to unlock new content.
[00:56:28] I realize that a new platform is a new experience. It can be overwhelming but even though there are different spaces, and there might be a place to ask a question or to participate in one thing or another, I also would encourage you not to overthink it. Just find a place and jump in, ask your questions. Let us know how we can support you. Let us know what you're interested in learning about. What questions you have.
[00:56:58] And also keep in mind that this is a new venture and I don't really know what it's gonna end up looking like if we get participation. Maybe in a few weeks or a few months it will have evolved to a point that is just beyond what I'm even thinking about right now. Honestly, that would be pretty cool. I'm rather hoping that it is that much of an organic thing that will grow and develop with people's use.
[00:57:28] Now let me go ahead and tell you about my first monthly theme. Actually, our first theme was my lecture with the Two Trees called Eden's Eucharist, and that content is still up there for you in the monthly theme. You can watch my lecture, download my study guide, watch the round table discussion and watch my q and a live stream. So there's all of that.
[00:57:55] And now for August 2025, I have a theme centered on a book called How to Read a Book. Yes, I know. Cue all of the puns for the name of this book, but it is a classic. Maybe you've already read it, maybe you already know all of the content and you've got it mastered, but I hope you'll come and check out the theme that I have set up.
[00:58:21] This month we're zooming in on the idea of inspectional reading. And it kind of seems like an easy idea once you hear about it. But believe me, it takes some work to get it into practice, especially habitually and especially if you want to be really efficient at pulling out the necessary information in a book.
[00:58:43] If you're wondering how to read more, how to get through that whole pile of unread books, well, this should actually help you with that. So come dive in. Even if you don't have a copy of this book, you can still participate and I will present some challenges and more material as the month goes on. If you're a member of the paid tier, there will be some additional material as well.
[00:59:08] Alright, I'm gonna go ahead and start wrapping up here. This was, to be honest with you, a bit of a hard episode for me to get through and to talk about. I know I was pretty rambly and this is a lot of information. If it feels overwhelming, just come check it out. See what it's all about. I've kind of thrown myself into this whole thing, and it's new for me as well.
[00:59:33] But I do have high hopes for it. So if you would pray for me, if you would pray for wisdom and guidance and just alignment in God's will, I'd really appreciate your prayers. I appreciate all of the ways that you guys support me, and I appreciate your curiosity.
[00:59:54] If you guys have any questions or any input. If you guys have any desire for particular courses, feel free to let me know.
[01:00:04] Again, my desire here is to be helpful, to be useful, and to grow with the body of Christ.
[01:00:13] All right. I'm gonna go ahead and wrap up. I will put the link to the community in the show notes, so it's easy to find. Next week I will be talking about J Harvey Walton's dissertation. Finally getting into the meat of that, which is both interesting and also very strange. So I hope you're looking forward to that. At any rate, I wish you all a blessed week and we will see you later.
