Suffering Servants: Conversations of the Unspoken
Christianity has a lot of unspoken suffering and challenges. Suffering Servants is our attempt to bring these every day struggles into the modern context by reading books, articles, and conversing about the ever changing culture and the Church's response to such change. We also have conversations with other "suffering servants" about their sufferings in life and what God has revealed to them through those sufferings. Ultimately, no matter how awful things get for us here on earth, we know that Christ Jesus, the ultimate Suffering Servant, is not only with us in it but has also promised to redeem in all in His return to make all things new.
Episodes
58 episodes
Catching Up and The City of God (Augustine)
It's been a while since we've chatted! On this episode, Pastors Tyler, Nick, and Jim get caught up on all the happenings at our churches and lives and then we take a look at an article about Augustine's City of God. While it was w...
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58:03
Summer Podblast
We're taking a break this week from some serious things to have a little fun! Together we take a look at a "Top 30" list of things to do during the summer in Michigan. We hope you enjoy and maybe laugh a little bit.
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1:02:25
Cultural Christianity - Dawkins
On this episode, we read an article about Richard Dawkins' claim that he is a "cultural Christian." What the heck does that mean in our society today? Can one truly be a cultural Christian? How does that impact our walks with Jesus and our inte...
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58:16
The Great Dechurching Will Hurt Poor People
On today's episode we explore a very recent article about the decline of "mainline" churches and what are the implications of that for the marginalized, if any at all. Why are our churches declining when some preach to the "itching ears"? Do we...
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54:56
The Cost Of Discipleship - RC Sproul
Today we explore a thought provoking sermon from RC Sproul on counting the cost to follow Jesus. Can we truly count the cost? Do we even understand what the cost is? None the less, Jesus says to us, "follow me."Follies are back this wee...
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1:05:07
Hearers But Not Doers, Deceive Themselves - Walther
After a big transition for the pastors, we are BACK! In the beginning of our sermons we often pray, "Lord, help us to become more than just hearers of the Word, but doers of it as well. Amen." Today we talk about what that means. Church Father ...
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1:03:18
The Prosperity Gospel: Your Best Life Now?
We're back with another heresy today. We all know about the loud and obvious prosperity Gospel...but what about the subtle prosperity Gospel of positivity, optimism, and speaking blessings? How can we tell if what we are hearing is the prosperi...
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1:03:21
Curious Cases - with Pastor Mark Renner
Pastor Tyler is joined this week by Pastor Mark Renner to talk about Pastor Mark's new book, "Curious Cases: A Series of Short Pastor Case Studies." In this book, Pastor Mark explores different situations that have arisen in the church, or that...
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1:06:16
Gnosticism and the Mystical God
What about the mysteries of God? Can we be in the dark about some of God's ways and works? Today we talk about an ancient heresy called "Gnosticism" that continues to rear its ugly head in 2024. A belief that pits the physical against the spiri...
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1:04:00
God Is Not Your Therapist
Pastor Nick joins us again as we talk about a heresy that we all may have heard, subscribed to, and even believed in at some point: the sneaky "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism." The temptation for many Christians is to worship God and ask God to f...
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51:43
The Ash Wednesday Ritual
This episode was recorded on Ash Wednesday, so naturally we talked about the significance of the ashes we receive on our foreheads and how that has been taken for granted in the Church.Follies include Canada (obviously) and Super Bowl t...
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1:00:28
Family Ministry and ADHD - with Josh Kittleman
Joining me on this week's episode is my dear brother in Christ, Josh Kittleman, the Director of Christian Family Formation at Christ Our Savior in Livonia. Together we talk through his journey from small parish ministry, to the University level...
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57:21
Pelagianism & Suffering Sacrificial Co-Laborers of Christ
Pastor Nick joins in on the fun as FollyFest continues this week with the idolatry and attachment of Scripture to sports, removing God's Word from churches, the wokeness of Christian Universities, and pro-life activists being sentenced to priso...
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1:00:50
Folly Fest & Nestorianism
Lots to catch up on today. On this episode we talk through a couple of follies that are hitting our culture - the remaking of classic movies, the stupidity of Christians, and a GenZ Bible to name a few. We then take a constructive turn to begin...
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1:05:52
Pastoral Apostasy and the Learned Lutherans
In this frigid episode, we talk about the impact of the cold on our ministry. We then pick up the conversation where we left off last week about apostasy, but this time with a bit of a stronger emphasis on the pastor. We also take a look at an ...
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1:08:21
Apostasy, Mystery, and The Means of Grace
We don't talk about apostasy much in the church. "Falling away" is a very real thing that is plaguing the church and people don't even realize it. Scripture speaks of warnings many times and we would do well to heed to these warnings. In this e...
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1:05:33
What About Christian Charity?
We are kicking off 2024 with a bang, talking about Christian charity and what is our response to the love that Christ Jesus has shown to us. In this episode we review Christmas, both personally and at the Family of God (the good, bad, and ugly)...
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1:10:07
Christmas, Christmas, Christmas! - with Rev. Nick Gapski, Rev. Dean Davenport, and Rev. Joel Werner
It's the first Christmas episode for the Suffering Servants podcast! We are joined by two familiar voices (Nick and Joel) and a new voice (Dean) on the show today where we talk about a ton of Christmas happenings. Has Christmas become "too secu...
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1:21:18
Recovery and Community - with Ron Hughes
Today, as Pastor Hill finishes his vacation, Tyler is joined by a dear friend of the Family of God. Ron Hughes has been serving with us for over ten years and has become an intricate part of the ministry. Our people love him and gravitate towar...
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1:33:35
Faith in the Face of Tyranny - The Bethel Confession
We are back this week with an intriguing read: Faith in the Face of T...
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1:04:19
Suffering in the NICU - with Shelby Cooper
"This episode is incredibly special to me. To sit and chat with one of my favorite people in the whole world truly is such a gift. I pray that you hear my sister's story of her multiple trips to the NICU with her son, Beckham, and with her, tru...
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1:23:02
The God Who Values Suffering
On today's episode, Pastor Nick joins us as we continue our discussion on Pastor Bradley Gray's book,
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1:05:07
Finding God In The Darkness
On this week's episode, we digest Halloween and all the happenings from the week. Then we take a turn and look at chapter one of Pastor Bradley Gray's "Finding God in the Darkness." Pastor Gray is writing from a personal traumatic experience fr...
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1:11:46
The One Who Stands Alone Falls - with Pastor Joel A. Werner
"He who stands alone falls." Pastor Hill drops a great thought about men and women in the ministry who try to be "hero" servants and serve a great mission, but do it alone. This person has made themselves a prime target for the enemy to pick th...
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1:23:34