The 180 Church Podcast with Dr. Sammy and Friends

Why Faith is A Long and Winding Road

The story of Christ’s resurrection captures a tale of skepticism turned to belief; a story that finds both seeker and believer where they are on Easter Sunday. The narrative we share with Christ offers the beginnings of faith that take root from the seeds of doubt and nurtured by both existential and empirical bases. Christ does not ask us to come and believe, but to come and see, an invitation for us to know the Father, the Son and the Spirit on the long winding journey of faith.

Lent: The Light of God

Dr. Leighton Ford, founder and president of Leighton Ford Ministries, gives a message on how we can share and reflect the light of Christ with others amidst the darkness that may hover over our lives. By walking in the light with the Father, we enlighten our minds with truth, illuminate our eyes with beauty, and pour out light from within through the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s through God’s story and the light of his son Jesus that we find ourselves sharing in a story of hope, redemption, and promise.

Day in the Sun: At the Foot of the Cross

When analyzing the widening income gap and the increased xenophobia against Asian Americans, it is necessary to take a critical view of human nature. Though these tragedies surprise us when they happen, Scripture reminds us that our society's errors are sin manifested as greed and fear of the unfamiliar. We created cancel culture as a response to any threatening opinions in order to feel safe, even at the expense of breeding further division and ignorance. But rather than “canceling” each other, our transcending calling is to be more like Jesus, whose response to greed and fear was to redeem his friends and enemies, teaching us that we are all in need of grace.

Lent: A Time for Beauty and A Time for Battle

Dr. Onorio Chaparro is the Director of the Maturity Division at Christian Cultural Center, which seeks to transform local communities through the gospel and mission of Christ. The season of Lent, as Dr. Chaparro reminds us, is an opportunity to remember reliance on the Father and to invite the power of the Holy Spirit to work in us and cultivate growth in our lives. The purpose of fasting worldly dependencies is not just to re-learn God’s sovereignty over our lives, but also to make space within ourselves for God's word and empowerment. With the spiritual wisdom gained during Lent, God renews our identity in Him and forms from our brokenness a heart that reflects the beautiful and everlasting image of Christ.

Lent: The Gift of the Valley

This week's episode features a conversation about why the seasons we share in the "Valley" can be embraced as gifts that propel us in empathy for those who share a broken reality. Empathy is an important and powerful expression of love that reciprocates the hospitality, comfort, and healing we receive and can share in knowing that Christ understands our fragility, loneliness, and despair. What we can glean from Jesus' Lenten experience is that he empathizes with our sorrow and pain, understands our story, and enables us to empathize and love others as he had done for us.

Lent: Relearning a Complete Reliance on Abba

This week's episode features an explorative dive into the spiritual reality that every person resides in, an enemy with an agenda of sabotage, and the role that the Lent season plays in offering us the way to develop spiritual discernment to make sense of the seemingly inexplicable truth. Lent offers believers and non-believers who are pursuing Christ the eyes and ears to discern the truth and help us identify and untether the material things that occupy our hearts and minds. Ultimately, we learn that what we need are not the things we've come to know from the world but to deepen our reliance on the Father, protect ourselves and our loved ones from resistance that can seem overwhelming on our own, and work together to advance the mission of God in our flourishing and growth.

Identity: Who Am I Really?

Dr. Calvin Brown serves as a co-pastor for Destiny Church and a leadership partner for Arrow leadership, an organization dedicated to the global development of Christian leadership in a multitude of societal sectors. Though we live in a meritocracy where our value is determined by what we do, Dr. Brown challenges us to return to God in order to remind ourselves of our true identity. Through how we can relate to God as sons/daughters through Jesus's humanity, we find that the question of identity is settled by God's unconditional love for who we are and our beautiful inheritance as part of God's family.

Reimagining Revival

In this episode, Pastor Lydia and Joe conclude the "Breaking Our Spiritual Bubbles" series in a conversation about the true biblical precedent of gospel renewal. Revivals are often associated with gatherings and meetings of believers, but the question remains for what end - for just the sake of our own spiritual growth or does revival point to a fullness of even greater magnitude for the kingdom? This conversation explores how renewal unfolds through mission rather than spiritual hoarding, some hurdles and pitfalls that Christian's can fall into in their discipleship, and how this season of lent offers us the opportunity to experience fullness that is found through sharing the good news with the people that we and the Father love.

How We Can Resist Our Spiritual Bubbles (Part 3)

In part three of our "Spiritual Bubbles" series, Pastor Lydia and Joe talk through how believers can discern the power and "charismata" of the Holy Spirit and use these gifts in line with conviction, truth, and the word for their true purpose in mission. Biblically, it is evident that the miraculous signs in the gospel and mission work hand-in-hand, but for the church that is swept in the "charismania" of spirituality, we find ourselves short-sighted of the role that spiritual gifts have in the reciprocity of the gospel. This episode considers how we can keep the focus on mission in our conversations with God, restructuring our biblical literacy, and examining our mission by fruit.

Reflect and Reset

Dr. Steve A. Brown is the president of Arrow Leadership, an organization dedicated to the global development of Christian leadership within a multitude of societal sectors. With the chapter on 2020 closed, and with the new year before us, Dr. Brown extends a biblical invitation to a practice of reflecting on the circumstances and sources of grief we hope to put to rest from a highly tumultuous year. Through reflection and prayer, we are able to evoke a reminder of and thankfulness for who God is -- His character, promises, and faithfulness in our grapples with the grief, difficulties, and troubles that were faced in 2020.