Amity Podcast with Jono & Lauren

In this episode we talk through the question of whether Christianity is a religion or a relationship. Folks will more often lean to the relationship side and describe themselves as "spiritual but not religious" or having a relationship with Jesus but no need of the religion. We chat through these view points and look at portions of James 1, Acts 11, and more. 

We discuss this famous spoken word YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAhDGYlpqY

Jono has preached on this topic from Acts 11 here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ILjId7qGo0

Our Instagram page can be found here https://www.instagram.com/amitypodcast/ 

Sometimes we don't have a topic at hand in order to do a deep dive, but we're always reading, thinking and talking. So this is the first episode in an irregular series where we just open our front door as it were, and allow you a glimpse into our conversations. 

We talk about reading fiction, preparing to study and preach sermons, and more! We then spend quite a lot of time discussing the topic of "common grace" and end by talking about some of Jono's reading on authoritarianism, power and abuse in the church. 

Thanks for listening!! If you have any topic suggestions, comments or questions, contact us via our instagram @amitypodcast 

Check out the Kaisis podcast series on Common Grace https://kaisis.buzzsprout.com/1660195/8640216-the-kingdom-of-god-and-common-grace

We recommend Dr. Diane Langberg's book "Redeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the Church."

We're back! Or at least we hope we're back. And we're talking through the topic of knowing God's will. This is a topic Jono has preached on several times but we find it's a frequent question on people's minds. We hope this episode can encourage you as you walk in the grace and freedom God has blessed you with. 

We recommend checking out the Kaisis podcast' especially their episodes on Common Grace https://kaisis.buzzsprout.com/1660195/8640216-the-kingdom-of-god-and-common-grace

Kevin DeYoung's book :Just Do Something" is also a helpful resource on this issue.

While the word "lament" is a common one and widely used in even secular contexts, we think it's a discipline that's not practiced as much within the church as we need it to be. Lament is biblical, helpful and even necessary for our journey through the trials of this world. We hope you are encouraged as we talk through Psalm 13 and the issue of how we bring our distress and complaints to the Lord. 

We mention the book "Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy" by Mark Vroegop and the book "Gentle and Lowly" by Dane Ortlund. 

We also recommend listening to the Theology Gals episode on grief http://theologygals.com/2020/06/grief/

And these podcast interviews with Tish Harrison Warren https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/podcasts/cultivated/tish-harrison-warren-how-grief-is-our-companion-in-christia.html   and   https://thelaymenslounge.com/tish-harrison-warren-real-talk-on-prayer-in-everyday-life/

Pre-marital counseling has become quite the norm for churched couples seeking to get married. But is it truly essential? Is it actually helpful? We discuss why pre-marital maybe a good idea and how we walk through it with couples, a bit of our own experience with pre-marital, and why relationship, mentoring and even counseling AFTER the wedding is really the most helpful. While there's no perfect marriage book, we do recommend "The Meaning of Marriage" by Tim and Kathy Keller. 

We began this episode planning to get to our topic, but we ended up just talking. So 7 minutes in we decided to just go for it! Here's a taste of what we talk about. We do share some big news for our family, Jono goes on a bit of a rant and we discuss the book "The Great Sex Rescue" by Sheila Gregoire. 

Listen to the interview Theology Gals did with Sheila Gregoire here http://theologygals.com/2021/05/the-great-sex-rescue-with-sheila-gregoire/

And check out Sheila's podcast here https://tolovehonorandvacuum.com/category/snippets/podcasts/

In this 2nd part covering Lauren's testimony of growing in faith and doctrine, we try not to get too bogged down in details like the first episode. So consider this a super condensed version of the last 10+ years. We tried to focus on the hope and joy Reformed doctrine has brought as our understanding of the Gospel, grace, the church, and God's character have both expanded and deepened. The Lord has used His church, His word, the blessing of being married to one another, and even the trials we've faced together to grow our faith and deepen our love. Let us know via our instagram if you have any further questions or would like clarification! And in the coming weeks we'll be delving into Jono's edition too so stay tuned!

We're going to delve into our Christian testimonies and our trajectories of doctrine and life as believers. In this first episode, Lauren talks through her childhood up through her first year at Bible College. This is a mix of personal story and how struggles with sin and lack of assurance played a role as growing up. You'll hear bits of specific doctrines mentioned, but over the next several episodes as we each share our stories, we'll fill in some missing gaps and explain more where we are now, together. If youve listened through some of the earlier episodes you'll have a pretty good idea where we are, but here's a bit more about where we've come from. 

*A fun extra episode* We've gotten a couple questions about how/why we made the decision a year and a half ago to move out of town and get a "lifestyle block" or little "homestead." This is just a little chat on the process of buying our property, how we wrestled through some of the pushback, and what we enjoy about living the rural lifestyle (the animals!)

If you like pictures of animals, scenic views, and want to keep up to date with our homesteading adventures, feel free to follow along on instagram @upthefarlane 

We put Jono a little out of his comfort zone and ask him to tell his story of hearing loss from childhood. If you know Jono as an adult you might not realize the extent of his deafness, or know the full story. So have a listen and hear him discuss what happened and how it shaped his childhood and his adult life, his attitude about it all, and his perspective about it as a Christian. 

It's Jono's turn to discuss the good, the bad and the ugly...pieces of advice that is! Our conversation journeys through talks of pastoral platform building, common sense lessons when you want to learn something new, and then a more personal delve into one of the hardest decisions he's ever made. Once again, it's ministry and marriage; two of our very favourite topics to talk through together!

In this episode, we (mostly Jono) discuss our church's recent decision to change the Statement of Faith. Yes, this was a requested episode! 

Jono explains what the change was, and then we talk about the pastoral, missional, doctrinal and personal reasons this change was made. While these podcast episodes are largely informal, there were years of study, prayer and discussion before this decision was reached and obviously a more formal process of bringing it before our church and working it out as members with the elders. All of that process would be impossible to condense into one episode, but we hope we've hit some of the main points here. We don't have any specific recommendations to mention in this episode, but feel free to reach out with questions on our Instagram page.

We look back on this past Sunday's sermon from Matthew 7:15-23.  This is a sobering and heavy topic, and we get a bit worked up as we talk about wolves, false teaching, and predators within the church.  We touch on the horrific details that have come out of the investigations into the late Ravi Zacharias' life and ministry, and though we went longer than we'd planned, we hope you can wrestle through some of these heavy issues alongside us. 

Watch the full sermon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4TZDcqUXJU

Statement from the RZIM board https://www.rzim.org/read/rzim-updates/board-statement

More on the RZ investigation https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/february/ravi-zacharias-rzim-investigation-sexual-abuse-sexting-rape.html

We begin our weekly mini-series called 'Sermon Look Back' where we take the time to talk through some of the previous week's sermon. This gives Jono the opportunity to deep dive into some points that maybe he didn't get to cover as much as he would've liked, or discuss some questions/objections.

Here we look back on the sermon entitled "Enter by the Narrow Gate" from Matthew 7:13-14

You may here some audio disruption thanks to a child opening a door, and the dog bursting through the cat door.... it's real life, and we're just a couple of parents sitting at our kitchen table! 

We finish the episode by reading a lengthy quote from the great Dr. R.C.Sproul. Excerpt from "Reason To Believe" pages 41-43

Watch the sermon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma60_FdCBUA