Known & Loved Podcast (formerly Chief Sinner Podca

Welcome to episode 82 of The Known & Loved Podcast! The rumors are true - we've launched a brand new podcast! The Grace Cafe Podcast is up and running and has become our new podcast/blog home. This is the last episode of The Known & Loved Podcast and we will be podcasting at The Grace Cafe from this point forward. We hope you'll make your way over to the new Grace Cafe and join us there as this journey in grace continues. This Known & Loved Podcast will remain available for now on both the web and iTunes, but after this episode, no more will be added. All of our future podcasting will be at The Grace Cafe. Here are the links to The Grace Cafe: iTunes Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-grace-cafe-podcast/id1292824736  Web Link: http://www.gracepodcast.cafe/  We hope to see you at the Cafe! Mike & Susan

We've all experienced it. Tribal doctrine. It's what divides us and keeps us apart, separated into tribal camps. It's the insignificant distinctions that unless we embrace, we can't be a part of the group espousing it. It's teachings and beliefs that at the end of the day, count for nothing except fodder to win an argument and be right in our own interpretation of truth. It's the insignificant beliefs that keep group A from having anything to do with group B, or church A from having anything to do with church B. Both groups and both churches may know the same God and embrace what scripture tells us about him, but without gospel centrality, our petty differences become paramount and keep us apart. It's tribal doctrine and we wanted to say a few things about it. Also in this episode, we revisit a few points from previous episodes and tie up some loose ends. Thanks for following our podcast. If you think this episode would be an encouragement to someone in your life, please share it with them. And if you would like to, feel free to leave us a review in iTunes. Here's a link to the show in iTunes to make it easier. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-known-loved-podcast/id1027160963  Enjoy!

Welcome to episode 80 of the Known & Loved Podcast. Our friends Jim and Karen join us for this conversation as we talk about parenting and our adult children. This discussion was sparked by something Jim said in one of our Wednesday night gatherings about how our adult children may view our journey different than we do. I asked Jim and Karen to join us in hopes of furthering that conversation (because I think it's needed) and bring it to you. The four of us are empty nesters, meaning that our children are all grown and have moved out of the house. In this episode, the four of us take a look back at our parenting, the regrets, successes, failures, and do-overs. The legalistic tendencies of our youthful parenting left an impression on our children of what we were like, that they may still carry and view us in that way. But when our journey suddenly changes and grace intrudes into our lives, giving us a fresh understanding of the gospel and changing us from what we used to be, uptight legalists, into the people we currently are, it's not always understood. Join us as our conversation unfolds and we talk about When Parenting Backfires.

Welcome to episode 79 of the Known & Loved Podcast! Let's take a few minutes to talk about repentance, sin, and forgiveness. These are topics that touch us all in many ways every day. Even though the Bible has plenty to say about these topics, we can get weird ideas about them. What is repentance? Sometimes we confuse repentance with grovelling or doing penance. But those things are a powerless attempt to clean ourselves up to some degree before we approach God in all of our messiness. In short, they are works. On occasion, we have spoken with some who are dissatisfied with another's repentance and thought they should have taken longer, spent more time at the bottom, and groveled more. In short, someone's repentance didn't measure up to their standard of how they viewed repentance. But repentance, when it does occur, is immediate. It's a change of mind on the part of the person repenting and it's something that originates from outside of us as the Holy Spirit softens our hearts (2 Tim 2:25-26).  The flip side of repentance is forgiveness in our horizontal relationships. Sin has its consequences, not with God, that relationship is forever restored, but with others around us. Sometimes we're told that forgiveness for a wrong done against has to be immediate and there has to be a restoration of the relationship. But is that true? We've seen on several occasions, someone who's been wronged or sinned against, pressured to immediately forgive and work toward restoration and if they can't, they are labeled as unforgiving and looked upon with suspicion. Sin gets messy and we complicate things with our wrong ideas about repentance and forgiveness. We mention a blog post that Susan wrote entitled, Forgiveness, Trust, and Social Closeness that pairs nicely with this episode, like a good wine pairs with satisfying meal. You may want to read it before listening to this episode. You can find it at: http://www.knownandlovedblog.com/2016/11/forgiveness-trust-and-social-closeness.html. Enjoy!

"We were on a break!" If you're a fan of the old TV series Friends, you'll remember those infamous words spoken by the character Ross Geller, played by David Schwimmer. We were on a different kind of break - the summer kind - but break's over and it's back to reality for us. One thing that makes reality a joy for us is that we get to return to podcasting. We love doing this in case you haven't picked up on that. Welcome to Episode 78 of The Known & Loved Podcast! Summer's over and we're back in the podcast booth, geared up and ready to go. This welcome back episode is a conversation about how our summer went and a look ahead at some future goals. Gospel, gospel, gospel. We don't ever want to lose our focus on the gospel. One goal of this podcast is to keep the gospel at the center of our conversations. Christ in you is the hope of glory. Without the gospel, we lose hope, but hope founded on Jesus never disappoints. In this first episode of the fall of 2017, Susan and I enjoy a relaxed conversation about keeping the first thing first. At the end of any day, the only thing that matters is faith, working itself out in love. Join us as we look back at our summer and look forward to the hope that is ours in Jesus. Like we talked about in the show, be sure to check out Mike's Ekklesia podcast at http://apple.co/2vDvkZ2  Techie Stuff: Mike and Susan's microphones for this episode are Shure SM7B mics routed through Cloud Lifter to a Zoom H6 multi-track recorder using separate tracks, mixed in Audacity with final production via Auphonic's desktop Leveler App. The final MP3 is sampled at 64kb/s mono. The Auphonics website is located at https://auphonic.com/  Enjoy!

Welcome to another episode of the Known & Loved Podcast! Let's talk about changes. Change is inevitable but for some who are of the opinion that the Christian life is one of sameness, any talk of change is uncomfortable. Many hold to the idea that things like our theology and/or belief system should never change, as though we've plateaued in our rightness and there is nothing left to explore. But what if the path the Lord has us on leads us to a more freeing reality? A reality where sameness is slavery and cookie-cutter Christianity leaves us longing for a more authentic intimacy with the Father and with one another? In a church made up of every tribe, nation, and language, is sameness even on the radar? Some believe it is and that sameness is the norm. We used to but over the years and through some deep trials, we've changed.  We recorded this conversation in the mountains. It's a podcast in the pines. We escaped the 120 degree heat of the desert and escaped to the mountains of Arizona, where we enjoyed a picnic and recorded this podcast. We mention in this episode that we're talking a break for the summer and will pick things up again in September. We also announced a new podcast Mike launched. It's called the UnSunday Podcast and it's available now on iTunes or on the web at http://www.unsunday.com. 

Welcome to another episode of The Known & Loved Podcast! After more than a month away from the microphones, we're back with a fresh episode. In this episode we talk about finding rest in Jesus. As Christians, the books are closed on our sin. But that doesn't stop some from re-opening those same books and becoming preoccupied with policing the sine of others.  We introduce a new word in this episode: policism. It's one more "ism" to add to the already too large list of "isms." We also talk about the Kia Soul and 120 degree weather that's coming our way. Visit us online at http://knownandlovedpodcast.com Enjoy! -Mike

Welcome to episode 75 of The Known & Loved Podcast! While our friends from The Simple Gospel Podcast were here a few weeks ago, we recorded two podcasts together. This episode is the second of those two. If you missed the first one, it's one episode ago, so check it out when you can. After dinner was finished we cleared off the table and started recording the conversations. In addition to Susan, me, Chris and Josh from the Simple Gospel Podcast, our good friends Joe and Deirdre were here. Our conversations centered around several topics but all of them came back to one truth: one thing is necessary. And that one thing is the centrality of Jesus and constant reminders of the "It is finished" message of the gospel. True rest is found there only. We hope you enjoy our conversation as much as we did! Thanks for giving us a listen. We would love to hear from you! -Enjoy

Welcome to episode 74 of the Known & Loved Podcast! Some real gospel magic happened here this week as Chris Stapleton and Joshua Scott, from the Simple Gospel Podcast and Relevant Church in Chattanooga Tennessee came to spend 4 days with us. We had such a great time getting to know them better. The conversations were great and of course, we couldn't have them in our home and not record a podcast or two with them. That would be disgraceful! So that's what we did. We roped them into recording two podcasts with us. This episode is number one of two. A listener wrote us and asked us if in our journey, we had ever been angry with God and if so, how did (do) we deal with it. Chris and Josh join us, four introverts, in this conversation we're calling A Time For Anger.  -Enjoy!

Welcome to episode 73 of The Known & Loved Podcast! We invited our friends Greg & Kim Mcinturff over one afternoon to talk about how we reconnected at a local coffee shop after years of having lost touch. This episode is our conversation with Greg & Kim about our history together and our reconnection. While the details of our separate journeys are different, the destination was the same. When our paths converged at the coffee shop that day, the first few moments were awkward as we each anticipated the dreaded question, "Where do you go to church?" not knowing that our paths were parallel regarding our views of what the Church is and our participation in the institutional church.  In this episode, we talk also about our take on The Shack. Grab your favorite beverage and join us as we remember our coffee shop encounter and where that encounter has taken us. -Mike

Welcome to episode 72 of the Known & Loved podcast! In this episode we talk about how we're so addicted to projecting our false selves through a pretend, false spirituality. We're good at faking it. The trouble with the "fake it till you make it" Christianity is that we never make it, so we keep faking it. In this episode, we talk about how we wear masks to cover up and hide our true selves from others, most of whom are doing the same thing.  But God loves our true selves. The self with all the baggage. He knows us fully and loves us perfectly just as we are, not as we should be. Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair as we talk about projecting the illusion of the false self. Enjoy!

Welcome to episode 71 of the Known & Loved Podcast! We're calling this episode Table Talk because we wanted to capture our conversation around the table with four of our friends and share it with you. As dinner progressed, the conversation deepened. This is the church gathered. Once dinner ended, we cleared off a spot for a recorder and pushed record as the conversation continued. We talked together about a number of topics in this episode as the conversation continued to flow. We hope you're encouraged by what you hear. If so, please leave us a comment on our website at http://knownandlovedpodcast.com. We would love to hear from you! -Enjoy

Welcome to episode 70 of the Known & Loved Podcast. Let's talk about obedience. The Bible is full of commands. Commands of what to do and what not to do and commands of what to be like and what not to be like. What do we do with those? What happens when we fail to perform or when we disobey? Is God waiting to crush us when we fail or does he meet our failures with new mercies? Does a preoccupation with obedience produce better obedience of does it just make us hard to be around? Is my obligation as a Christian to a moral code or to a Person? Grab your favorite beverage and join us for a conversation about obedience in light of the mercies extended to us in the gospel. Visit us on-line at http://www.knownandlovedpodcast.com/ Enjoy!

Welcome to episode 69 of the Known & Loved Podcast! Paul told Timothy to preach the word. We take that to mean verse-by-verse expository preaching of the Bible, but is that what Paul meant? We don't think so. 2,000 years of church history has given us the belief that Paul was saying expository verse-by-verse teaching of the Bible is to be central in the church. Far from cultivating unity in the church, such a belief has created an "us and them" mentality and further fanned into flame our need to always be right at the expense of unity. Was Paul telling Timothy that verse-by-verse expository preaching was to be central in the church, or is that a concept that has been transmitted to us by church history? What does it mean to "preach the word?" When the New Testament uses the phrase "the word of God," is it a reference to the Bible? Are we incorrect in thinking references to the word of God as they appear in the New Testament are a reference to the canon of Scripture? Why does that matter? Grab your favorite beverage and join us as we explore this topic and more. Visit us on-line at http://www.knownandlovedpodcast.com/  Enjoy!

"Don't be who they made you" has become a favorite line of ours from the latest X-Men movie Logan. Our friends Joe & Deirdre join us in this episode as we talk about the truth behind that phrase, especially as it applies to life inside religious institutions. The expectations of others for "sameness" inside our different groups makes breaking away from that sameness painful when the Holy Spirit starts to show us a different reality we can live in where we find the freedom to take off the masks we've been wearing and be our true selves. When we discover that kind of freedom to be real, it is most often accompanied by loss of relationships we thought were closest to us. In this episode we interact with two blog posts that came our way. The first one is entitled Is Reformed Evangelicalism a Place for the Traumatized? and the second one is a blog post written by our friend Maria entitled A {Not So} Quiet Dreamer. The links to both blog posts are below. Grab your favorite beverage, put your feet up and join the four of us as we talk about "Don't Be Who They Made You." LINKS: Is Reformed Evangelicalism a Place for the Traumatized? A {Not So} Quiet Dreamer Visit us on-line at: http://www.knownandlovedpodcast.com/ Enjoy!

Welcome to episode 67 of the Known & Loved Podcast! We're the podcast formerly known as the Chief Sinner Podcast. Were glad you're here. This episode is dedicated to the Dones. You may be scratching your head and wondering who or what the Dones are. Be of good cheer! They're nothing to fear. The Dones is a term that has come to describe those leaving the institutional church. Their reasons for leaving vary, but they are leaving it nonetheless. Josh Packard describes them this way: “While everyone’s story is unique, there are some common tensions that emerge among the dechurched. • They wanted community . . . and got judgment. • They wanted to affect the life of the church . . . and got bureaucracy. • They wanted conversation . . . and got doctrine. • They wanted meaningful engagement with the world . . . and got moral prescription.” - from Packard's book, Church Refugees. All of the Dones I've encountered have left the institutional church not because they're walking away from Jesus, but because they feel the institutional church has to varying degrees. If you count yourself among the Dones, or just want to know more about what's going on, pull up a chair and your favorite beverage. This episode is for you. Visit us on-line at http://www.knownandlovedpodcast.com/ Enjoy!

Welcome to episode 66 of the Known & Loved Podcast. In this episode, our conversation centers around knowing God as opposed to knowing about God. Doctrine vs relationship and how the Holy Spirit preaches the gospel to our hearts, refreshing our souls and reminding us that the Father isn't disappointed in us. It's one thing to know about God and quite another to experience Him in the fullness of His kindness, compassion, and mercy. You can contact us on-line at http://knownandlovedpodcast.com We would love to hear from you. -Enjoy!

Welcome to episode 65 of the Known & Loved Podcast! In this episode we explore the truth that the Father loves the true us - the us behind the masks we like to wear. He loves us as we are, not as we should be. He loves us now, not a future version of us. His affection for you is perfect and unending. Christian, nothing can separate you from his love, not even you. You didn't work your way into the Father's family and you can't sin your way out of it. It is finished! There is no condemnation for those in Jesus. Pull up your favorite chair and beverage and join our conversation. Visit us on-line at http://www.knownandlovedpodcast.com/  Enjoy!

Welcome to episode 64 of the Known & Loved Podcast! In this episode we talk about servanthood and quietness. Those are two things that are hard to keep in perspective in a culture of instant information, loud social media, and the constant pressure to conform to rules. Sometimes, you just have to turn it off. Jesus' church isn't built around a top-down authority structure. Far from it. It's built on servanthood. Jesus himself said he came not to be served, but to serve, leaving us an example. Peter said to pray for those in civil authority so we could live a quiet and peaceful life. That's the normal Christian life. We have a comment line in place now. You can use it to leave us a comment via voice mail or you can use it to shoot us a text message. The number is 559-715-6833 or 559-71LOVED. Visit us on-line at http://www.knownandlovedpodcast.com/ Enjoy!

Welcome to episode 63 of the Known & Loved Podcast! Our conversation continues as we talk about our journey and the place of love and acceptance in the Christian life.We're so quick to police each other and judge one another or as Jesus put it, to ignore the log in our own eye, while trying to get the speck out of someone else's. If someone's not doing what we think they should be doing, believing what we think they should be believing, or not performing to our superficial standards, we are quick to crush them with the Law or ditch them altogether. But Scripture tells us Jesus was already crushed in our place. Why do we feel the need to crush each other all over again with rules and shame? A greater than Moses has come. Hear Him. -Enjoy Visit us on-line at http://www.knownandlovedpodcast.com/