J.s. Park - The Way Everlasting Podcast

Mark 16:13-19. The church can be crazy: but she is still God's idea to be a force for good in the world. "That very nervous moment when you bring a friend to church and you see the weirdness of Sunday service,  how I reply when someone tells me that the church is full of hypocrites, how the friction of colliding with our disagreements can turn us into fully polished people, that time a church lady hit my car in the parking lot and ran, and my very first pastor loving me from hateful atheism to unexpected faith." 8-17-14

Jeremiah 29:11. When God says He won't harm you, that's a weird way to start a promise. "Finding Jesus for three easy payments of $9.99, the mathematical impossibility of soulmates, the surprising difficulty of planning for a wedding, fighting against our natural inclination to fight against God, how martial arts teaches us about reacting to the trials of life, and how every Unresolved Tension will meet Happily Ever After." 4-25-14

An audio preview of my book "Mad About God: When We Over-Spiritualize Pain and Turn Tragedy Into a Lesson," about persevering through pain and suffering.Preface 1 - I Don't Have It All Figured Out, and That's OkayPreface 2 - Perpetually Skeptical: Screaming Through The Red SeaPreface 1 is about our crazy need to connect pain with a lesson.Preface 2 is about the constant, uncomfortable doubts about the existence and goodness of God.http://www.amazon.com/Mad-About-God/dp/0692390472/

1 Kings 18-19. Series: Snapshots: Men & Women of the Bible. Part 1. Facing the up-and-down craziness of life. "That one time I went to audition for a show on Nickelodeon when I was seven, that discouraging word that sticks in your brain all week, those giddy midnight conversations when you expose your crazy self (and regret it in the morning), preparing a speech in case your marriage proposal is answered with 'no,' when all you really need is a nap, and the mind-blowing reveal that someone has been praying for you the whole time." 5-25-14

Genesis 37-50. Series: Snapshots: Men & Women of the Bible. Part 7. Persevering through pain. "How to read a book in ten seconds (by turning to the first and last page of the book), how painful moments always become the best stories but never in the moment, that time my dad was nearly executed by firing squad in the Vietnam War, the awful cliches that spiritualize pain into lessons, the vivid wild wonderfully heartbreaking tale of Joseph and his brothers, the single linchpin verse that brings together the whole Bible, and how to put down the baggage of an old hurt in your next season of life." 8-8-14

Judges 6-7. Series: Snapshots: Men & Women of the Bible. Part 5. God calls you who you could be, into greatness by His grace. "Outlandish auction bids for celebrity-owned items including Justin Bieber's hair, my brother the totally unsuspecting MMA jujitsu fighter, the anxious fear of small-town gossip when you try to step it up, tough advice for my future daughter, how the church ought to be like a bunch of cheerleaders, my first pre-marriage counseling, and the words that you've secretly wanted to hear your whole life." 7-13-14

Matthew 28:18-20. Preached in Huntsville, Alabama. Making disciples is messy. "When Jesus uppercuts drug addicts, the hyper-spiritual attitude in the awkward Bible study, that time I was Baker Act'ed and put in the mental hospital, and what separates the church from every other place in the world." 5-12-13

Psalm 42:1-5. Guest sermon at Refuge Full Gospel. How to handle the constant loop of your inner-voice. "My ultimate social fantasy daydream when I run for political office, growing up in the same town with the same labels, imagining that back room of rumors about you, the epidemic called Main Character Syndrome, when you crush someone with a false hologram version of them, and when God replaces your lungs." 11-15-13

John 15. We tend to do Christian things around God but not with Him. "When the preacher says 'don’t be like' that one evil terrible guy Bill, how to know for sure you've instantly encountered the face-melting presence of God, how I found Jesus at a homeless ministry, and the icky moment after you confess all your weird stuff to your friend." 12-20-13

1 John 3. That impossible itch of trying to be better than we are. "When you get older and your body stops listening to your brain, when you think you've made spiritual progress but then you cuss out someone in traffic, that slobbery screaming moment on the phone when you vent everything, how far you'd go for a million dollars, and the crazy anxious fear of raising a human baby." 11-19-13

  Psalm 73, Joshua 24:15. To be a countercultural force for the common good. "The increasingly halfway lazy sloppiness of cutting corners in our non-committed culture, playing around with the numbers on our tax returns, when it looks like cheaters and troublemakers are more successful than honest upstanding citizens, fighting against the mob mentality of gossip, and the 3% rule of changing the world." 3-7-14

An interview with Sam Won of Pusuit NYC while I was in NJ to speak at a revival. We talk about finding a safe space of honesty in the church, the journey from atheism to faith, the pitfalls of blogging & going viral, how to toil behind the scenes, and how I’ve been connecting with God lately.

A seminar on dating and relationships given to a wonderful ministry of college students and young adults in Gainesville FL. Some of the content is from my new book on relationships called The Christianese Dating Culture. Some things I talk about are: The romantic theology of Taylor Swift, that time I overheard a girlfriend catching her boyfriend with another woman, two soldiers at war gossiping about the Kardashians, the best Christian pick-up line ever, the gritty raw painful sweaty work of theater actors and ballerinas, the difference between "Saving Private Ryan" and "The Hurt Locker," three directions that every relationship takes, if my fiancé gained 200 lbs, the scary anxious fear of marriage proposal and possibly hearing "Nope," and a Q&A Session including the truth about "wives submitting" and how to find "The One."  

1 Corinthians 13, Mark 15. The difficult gut-wrencing power of grace. "That one time I saw a cop chasing a half-naked man in the middle of the street at night, the icky feeling of constantly defending yourself around nitpicky people, the one tiny innocuous statement your pastor makes in a sermon that makes you leave the church, that awful stomach sickness when you know someone hates your guts, and how God sees two tiny people on earth finally reconciling." 5-23-14  

John 3:30. Breaking down the phrase glorifying God, and why it's the most important thing we could do with our lives. "Our Christianese church-language that we never question, when you walk into a crowded room and you suddenly hear the desperate clawing fight for validation, the Main Character Syndrome when we treat everyone like supporting props for the Movie of Me, the insane frothing monster we become in rush hour traffic, the overarching meta-narrative of the Bible in one rushing swoop, how to anonymously donate a kidney, and when Jesus finally returns with 100 million angels at the final conclusion of the universe." 8-10-14

1 Kings 11:1-13. Series: Life of David. Part 7. Idolatry, addiction, and freedom. "The unfortunate trashy creepiness of singing competitions, when Asians hate other Asians of a different Asian nation, Four Types of Idols that enslave us, when I find out someone doesn't like me, that moment the preacher tells you to throw away all your stuff, and the only true heart surgery that breaks free of addiction into victory." 2-23-14

1 Kings 2:1-12. Series: Life of David. Part 6. Staying faithful in the everyday ordinary grind of life. "The last secret technique of a dying karate master on his deathbed, when a gigantic six-foot twelve-year-old jock protected me in sixth grade, how Barney the dinosaur saved my next door neighbors, how Chaos Theory and the butterfly effect reveals the tapestry of God's Story in the world, and how a mean internet comment drove me to a slobbery broken down mess." 2-16-14

2 Samuel 11-12. Series: Life of David. Part 5. Breaking free requires an ugly honesty. "Getting stabbed without knowing it, exposing rigged carnival games, that one time I was cured by Cuban food, when a girl is convinced she really loves that guy, and creating a culture of slobbery honesty in church." 2-9-14

1 Samuel 24, 26. Series: Life of David. Part 4. Your small everyday decisions preach a bigger story. "How a man with cancer will stay in touch with her daughter through her lunchbox, what you think of when you hear Steve Jobs, Adolf Hitler, and Superman, the best movie quote of all time from Gladiator, David's bedtime stories with Solomon, and when someone seems like they're succeeding without God." 2-2-14

1 Samuel 23. Series: Life of David. Part 3. What God says about friendship. "When your friend plays a song for you right in front of you with all the awkward eye contact, Four Cornerstones of a Foundation for Friendship, spreading false rumors about an itchy butt, when your friend tells a story again for the fiftieth time, and punching jealousy in the face." 1-26-14