Community
185 conversations where the hosts get into community.
185 conversations
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Do accountability partners actually work?
- Do accountability partners actually do anything?
Mike raises his accountability-partners question: the standard dude-circle advice to get a buddy to hold you accountable for Bible reading, porn, church attendance, and drinking.
From No. 598 · Emphasis | Accountability, Worship and Praying with Strangers
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Dear LFTP 2: the neighbors' piling newspapers
- Dear LFTP: at what point can we pick up our out-of-town neighbors' piling newspapers and recycle them?
Mike reads the second letter: new neighbors have been out of town for weeks and their newspapers are piling up — at what point may the writer recycle them?
From No. 595 · Trust But Verify
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Local pastors, mutual refinement, and the 'pods' joke
- What word comes after "community"?
The best pastor for you is the person in your life who can look you in the eyeballs; walk into every room expecting the other person might refine you — that only works locally.
From No. 590 · Theodore Franco
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Dear LFTP: Martha, John, and Jerry
- How should a woman in love with her ex's brother tell friends, family, and his parents?
A host reads the first Dear LFTP letter: Martha dated John for two years, then he kept living with her six months after the breakup; John is an emotionally and verbally abusive alcoholic who burned every bridge.
From No. 584 · When Vanek Was Here | Cambodia Testimony, Church Mission, Josiah Queen
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Dear LFTP: the inheritance and the controlling husband
- Should a mother leave an inheritance to a daughter whose controlling husband will control it?
The second letter comes from a mother whose daughter married a controlling, rude husband; she wonders whether to leave a sizable inheritance knowing he will control it.
From No. 584 · When Vanek Was Here | Cambodia Testimony, Church Mission, Josiah Queen
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Dear LFTP: the retired couple and the widow's dinner
- Is it rude to decline a neighbor's dinner invitation, and is there a more polite way than an excuse?
Mike reads a Dear LFTP letter from a retired couple befriended by a widowed neighbor: invited to dinner with her sister and brother-in-law, the wife, an introvert with anxiety, does not want to go and considers blaming her husband as an excuse.
From No. 539 · Birdcage
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Dear LFTP: the man who wants her hand but not a relationship
- Is the man who wants to hold her hand but won't date her playing hard to get?
Mike (speaker-0) reads the second letter: a 54-year-old woman met a man who asked her to coffee, then said he isn't marriage- or dating-minded — and then asked to hold her hand.
From No. 533 · You Can Buy Me Phalanges
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Dear LFTP: friends burned by the church
- How do I approach friends who have been burned by the church?
Mike reads a listener question: multiple friends were burned by the church — how do you approach them about coming back?
From No. 507 · What’s in a Name
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Bear Grylls' church critique, prayer, and discipleship
- Is Bear Grylls right that Jesus would struggle with 99% of churches, and would you stay if the production were stripped away?
- How do you practice real one-on-one discipleship instead of relying on church programs?
The hosts discuss Bear Grylls' Christian Post interview: he is unabashedly open about his faith but says Jesus would struggle with 99% of churches today, urging people to stay…
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Why kids stay connected to Jesus, factor one: family dinner
- What keeps 18-to-29-year-olds who grew up in church connected to Jesus?
The hosts take up a statistic that 75 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds who grew up in church walk away, and shift to an infographic's five factors that kept the remaining 25 percent connected.
From No. 463 · Getting Kids to Stick With Jesus
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Jim Palmer's 25 mistakes: putting church over community
- Is putting church over community a real mistake or a false dichotomy?
A host reads Jim Palmer's list of '25 mistakes I made' as a pastor of a large North American church, and the hosts decide to walk through the list one critique at a time.
From No. 458 · 12 to 13 Mistakes From Wildin
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Grace for deconstruction: separating church culture from the faith
- Has anyone ever approached you about deconstruction and asked for help?
A host admits the word 'deconstruction' irritates him but offers a grace-filled reading: many who use the term come from large celebrity-pastor church cultures where the culture…
From No. 450 · Good News of Narrow Focus
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Twelve stumbling blocks, part eight: triumphalism and authenticity
- In the New Testament do we see triumphant, conquest-style posturing in the spreading of the good news?
Numbers eleven and twelve: triumphalism — prayers about 'taking cities back for God' sound like conquest, and the hosts contrast 'we're gonna tear this town up for Jesus' with…
From No. 444 · Fake Persecution and Tripping Millennials
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The church at Sardis and what makes a church great
- How would you know if you were in a dead church?
A host who has been preaching through Revelation 2-3 raises the church at Sardis, which has a reputation of being alive but is dead, and wonders how anyone would know they were in a dead church.
From No. 442 · Christians Don’t Understand Christianity
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Dear LFTP: the meddling in-laws and the deficient spouse
- My husband complains about me to his parents, who trash me — what do I do about the meddling in-laws?
A Dear LFTP letter from a wife whose husband of twenty years complains about her to his parents; she has found messages where the in-laws called her 'a bad mother, terrible person, crazy evil, the devil.'
From No. 426 · Confidence in the Holy Spirit
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Would you follow Christ alone?
- Would you follow Christ on your own if your church community were taken away?
Mike asks whether listeners would follow Christ on their own if community were stripped away, no Zoom church, no classes, picturing Moses herding sheep alone in the desert and a shepherd living three months in a distant field.
From No. 402 · It’s OK to Stay Home
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Hoarding vs. generosity: the Sermon on the Mount on control
- What should the kingdom of Christ be doing in this trying time?
A host contrasts the political philosophy of wanting to help the needy with the first reaction to fear: hoarding for ourselves.
From No. 398 · Thus It Begins…COVID
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Confession, the temple, and public sin
- Is it okay to put up proper fences, like accountability structures, given human fallibility?
- If public confession were the road to repentance, would you do it anyway despite what others think?
The conversation turns to public confession and the hosts' discomfort with it, then to how public the temple sacrifices were: everyone watched who walked up with which animal.
From No. 387 · Renewing Deuces and Fearing God
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Dear LFTP: loud phones and videos in public
- Is there a reasonable way to handle people who play phones, music, or videos loudly in public places?
A listener asks how to handle people blasting speakerphone calls and videos in restaurants and at the apartment pool.
From No. 383 · Trigger Me This
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Dear LFTP: the 34-year-old living with his father
- How should a 34-year-old living with his verbally abusive father handle his building rage?
A host reads a Dear LFTP letter from a 34-year-old unemployed man living with his verbally abusive 76-year-old father, whose building rage makes him want to tell his dad off.
From No. 356 · Hide It Under A Bush
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Dear LFTP: advice for a woman who wants a divorce
- Where can a non-religious woman with no community turn for help ending her marriage?
A Dear LFTP letter is read from a self-sufficient, non-religious woman who grew up in an abusive household, moved out at 16, and now wants a divorce; her husband agrees to give up parental rights, so the legal side is seen as straightforward (mediation, no trial).
From No. 318 · Five Easter Sermon Errors
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New believer question: denominations and identity
- How important is it for a new believer to understand denominations, and which one should they choose?
Boova brings questions from a new believer about how important it is to understand denominations (Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic) and which one to choose; the hosts answer that…
From No. 303 · Live From The Path w/ Jacey
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Dear LFTP: the over-hugger in the athletic community
- Am I odd to not want this man's hug, and would I be wrong to tell him I prefer a handshake?
A letter-writer who hugs often but politely asks whether she's wrong to want one aggressive hugger (lifts people off the ground, overrides a handshake) to stop.
From No. 276 · What Makes a Christian?
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Dear LFTP: should I attend church if I don't believe?
- Should I attend church when I do not share the beliefs?
A letter from someone raised by pastor parents who left the faith asks whether it is dishonest to attend church for the community and ritual while not believing.
From No. 266 · Letters and Kings