Manbuns and Jesus: Recent Episodes
Joshua LeBorious, Ben Oelshlaeger
We‘re two pastors who came up through Seminary together. We‘ve been called harbingers of chaos, but we don’t want to brag. We talk about whatever we feel like for each given episode. Buckle up.
Now streaming Season 6, with the same hosts, new topics, more guests, and actual planning!
Jesus went to hell for you. And the more you think about it, the more meaningful we realize His sacrifice was.
The presidential election is tomorrow, so Ben and Josh take on this audacious question.
The Law is a good gift that serves as our guide, but that isn't all it does.
Also, here is the link for the book Josh shamelessly plugs during the episode.
In the church, we're called to deal with sin. Excommunication is one of the tools we use to do it. Big name, scary name, but ultimately a process driven by compassion and a desire for reconciliation.
Feeling angry, frustrated, sad, or tired about politics right now?
Well we've got a show for you.
There have been some things said lately and it seems fair to weigh in on them from the perspective of the Book of Concord.
It's really more of an episode about vocation, but we want the titles for the season to be consistent.
And yes, I know I could just say "Concerning Vocation" but that didn't occur to me until I was writing the description and I'd have to actually click back on the Title box instead of just using the Tab key - not on your life!
An episode about something that used to be a major point of contention that still has some wisdom for us today.
Ben and Josh talk about whether or not we should genuinely consider that there might be people out there making deals with the devil.
Can we declare ourselves patron saints of chicanery and tomfoolery? Probably not.
Did we do it anyway? What do you think?
There are a bunch of reasons to do good works, to earn your salvation isn't one of them.
Also, we have a new theme song!
Do you have free will? Does it matter? Is this too philosophical for Manbuns and Jesus?
Yeah, we're not sure either.
How can/should Christians interact with politics and the government? We give answering that question our best shot.
Forgiveness and reconciliation with God is at the core of what Christianity is, so don't skip this one!
What is the church? Who is the church? When is the church?
. . . does anyone actually need these descriptions?
We should do good things and avoid doing bad things, but the way we arrive at that conclusion matters.
What are the core objectives of preaching and what actually makes a good sermon? Questions that Ben and Josh wrestle with regularly, now recorded for your podcasting pleasure!
This is one of those areas where we know the truth, but understanding the "how" and "why" is beyond us. That never stopped us from talking about it before though, so here's an episode!
Also, Ben committed Josh to putting a link in the show notes for a book he referenced. So here's the link and a salty comment about Ben committing Josh to remember things without advance notice. (For those listening in a place where that hyperlink was disabled, here's the raw link https://a.co/d/65Ws9Cj)
There was never any hope for us, not after the Fall.
And it's cheery ideas like that at the center of what Ben and Josh have to discuss in this episode.
In this episode, Ben and Josh start to get into the substance of the season with a discussion about who God is and why that matters to us so much.
In the sixth season of Manbuns and Jesus, Ben and Josh are planning to dive into the Book of Concord.
What is it?
Why should you care?
How are these fools still recording podcasts?
Some of these questions and more will be answered in the premier of M&J Season 6!
In the final episode of season 5, Ben and Josh talk about the golden calf Israel makes at Mount Sinai.
Josh was absent (like a slacker) but Ben carried on through Exodus with Brenden to talk about the organized worship in Israel.
Ben and Josh take a step out of Exodus to talk about the different celebrations that happen during Holy Week. This week's topic: Good Friday.
Ben and Josh take a step out of Exodus to talk about the different celebrations that happen during Holy Week. This week's topic: Maundy Thursday.
Ben and Josh talk about the Ten Commandments and how Christians should interact with laws in the Old Testament.
Listen in to what the Call process looks like for your pastor and to hear how Ben and Josh plan on approaching it in their own ministries.
Ben and Josh dive into Exodus 16-17 and talk about what it means (and doesn't mean) for God to provide for us.
As we get into the Season of Lent, Ben and Josh take some time to talk about what it actually looks like to adopt an attitude of penitence.
Ben and Josh have Dr. Jim Marriott on again to discuss the praise of Moses and the Israelites after crossing the Red Sea.
Ben and Josh continue through Exodus, talking about the Passover and how that impacts our view of Jesus' sacrifice.
Of the plagues of Egypt, all of them impacted humanity to some degree. The first several plagues; however, seem to have their most direct impact on creation itself. Listen in to hear Ben, Josh, and Ryan consider this and sin's impact on creation in general.
Not all of us get a burning bush.
In fact, most of us don't get a burning bush. That doesn't mean you're not called to be somewhere though!
Manbuns and Jesus starts of Season 5 where we're diving into the book of Exodus with you. We start with this episode about a baby on a river.
Stay humble.
Yes, I recognize that I'm mixing references - and neither of them have much to do with the actual podcast.
The professional church workers in your lives love you, they'll do whatever they can to support you, but they cannot be Christians for you.
The machines are coming for us!!!!
Not right now, but AI is something people are talking about right now.
To be clear, we aren't claiming to be professionals. Solomon knew what he was talking about though, advantages of divine gifts of wisdom.
Full disclosure, this one has a few rabbit trails . . . including the intro. If you feel the need to, real content starts somewhere around the five minute mark.
Summary: Constantly look for different ways to keep engaging your faith and take an attitude of submission in the you-God relationship, because after all, who do you think you are?
"There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers." Proverbs 6:16-19
This is why you should subscribe, because then when we release a Fourth of July episode on the Fourth of July you can actually listen to it on the Fourth of July.
Also . . . MURICA!
Revealing the mysteries of God, one five . . . ten . . . fifteen . . . thirty minute message at a time.
Also, reach out to Ben and Josh if you'd like to send Caleb a congratulatory Dr. Pepper.
Listen in with John Karolus as a guest host as we welcome the Chief Operating Officer of the PSD to talk about giving to the larger church and tithing. Yeah, we think it's suspicious that Ben was on vacation for this episode too.
Also, check out the work highlighted in the PSD at psd-lcms.org/god-at-work
Most of the time Ben is just a pineapple-steak guy, but sometimes he's a Holy Spirit empowered pineapple-steak guy.
Yeah, we might be overthinking spiritual gifts.
What does it take to become a pastor in the LCMS and why do we collectively put so much effort into it?
I know during the episode Ben told me to use something for a title, but I didn't feel like it so now there's a boring title. Not that I think the title really matters, or the description for that matter. I mean, how many of you who listen to the podcast read the description before listening?
But I digress, here's an episode about orderly worship and the driving purpose behind what we do together on Sunday mornings.
Ben and Josh talk about the different roles that people in the church take on, and how important it can be that they aren't all the same.
Ben and Josh dive back into 1 Corinthians to talk about the Lord's Supper AKA Holy Communion AKA the Sacrament of the Altar AKA the Eucharist.
In response to a request, and accidently as a follow-up to Josh's sermon last weekend, here's a podcast on answered prayers and how we should respond to God's answers.
Dr. Chad Lakies of Lutheran Hour Ministries joins Josh and Ben for a great conversation on modern "foods sacrificed to idols" and how Christians ought to conduct themselves. Below are some of the resources mentioned during the episode.
Seculosity by David Zahl
Lutheran Hour Ministries
Paul ended up the Rome and shared the Gospel in inhospitable places. That Gospel was powerful enough to draw people in. Listen in to see what Ben and Josh think that means for us!
Humility is truly counting others as important enough to give yourself up for them. Ben and Josh dive into 1 Corinthians 9 in this episode.
Today we're talking about what Paul has to say about marriage . . . well, some of what Paul has to say about marriage.
This rounds out our discussion of all of the controversy surrounding the Large Catechism.
When should you bring someone to court? When should you not? When should you enter trial by combat? When should you not?
Okay, you probably should never be in a situation where you'll enter trial by combat, but we'll talk about the rest on this episode!
Lately in the LCMS there has been some "controversy" about some things in a new publication by @ConcordiaPublishing . Naturally, Ben and Josh want to talk about it on their podcast. This week we're talking about self-defense.
And yes, we think the thumbnail really portrays the episode well.
Lately in the LCMS there has been some "controversy" about some things in a new publication by @ConcordiaPublishing . Naturally, Ben and Josh want to talk about it on their podcast. This week we're talking about sexuality - so happy Valentine's Day we guess.
And yes, we think the thumbnail really portrays the episode well.
Ben and Josh bring on a guest who's much wiser than either of them to talk about 1 Corinthians 5, what it means for the church, and how we deal with the different realities our society faces today.
We're talking about mysteries and you expected the description to actually be descriptive? That's on you buddy!
Join Josh, Ben, and Ryan to talk about bringing everything back to the Gospel and always focusing on Jesus!
Join Josh, Ben, and Father Ted to talk about what 1 Corinthians 1 has to say about divisions in the church!
Ben and Josh got together and planned stuff out, that's the radical change that happened with Season 3! Listen in to hear a little about what we'll be doing.
Did last week's episode on gratitude put you to sleep? Well here's one to grind some gears!
Thanksgiving is just a couple days away, so Ben and Josh took the opportunity to just say thank you.
We warned you. Like, a bunch of times. You can't tell us what to do, and we talk about whatever we want.
What actually is the difference between 'worship' music and 'regular' music? Can Josh rap in service?
No, the answer the the second question is no.
Not entirely sure what happened here . . . but we talked to Hayden Lukas, a doctoral student at Concordia Seminary St. Louis about beautiful things - including his upcoming album with 1517.
The episode was pretty good, we talked about what it means for a church to be successful and how we measure that. But the ending, it's a work of art.
We know that this has the potential to upset a lot of people, but it's still a conversation worth having.
High church? Low church? Medium church?
Whatever you prefer, we've got an episode for you.
In this episode, Ben and Josh talk with Dr. Joel Bierman about the theology of two realms. Don't know what that is? Listen in for a definition!
If you listened to our last episode, we referenced a story of preworkout gone wrong.
This is that story.
This topic was submitted by a listener who wants to know what a faithful stance on weed is.
Go forth and make disciples . . . but maybe don't just go door to door asking awkward questions.
. . . it's a little suspicious. We should probably talk about numbers and symbols and superstitions and rituals.
You know when the best time to talk about VBS is? When you are actively exhausted from doing a VBS!
. . . right?
This isn't a Hot Take (the name of the bonus content for Manbuns and Jesus) but it's definitely a hot button issue. That's never stopped us before, but we do ask that if you're going to tune in - listen to the entire episode.
This week we invited one of Josh's brothers on the show to talk about Aragorn from Lord of the Rings as a Christ figure. Did we get it right?
Today Josh and Ben invite Brenden on the podcast to talk about Biblical lament, being angry with God, and how we can faithfully deal with all of it.
And also something about pigeons flying around to help with internet connectivity.
You know what, we're going to make you watch to find out what this episode is about, because we both know that the title isn't helpful at all.
What does the Bible actually say about judgement? Are we right to point out sins that others are struggling with or are we sinners for even thinking about it?
I mean, we are sinners, that kinda goes without saying I guess. Anyway, check out the latest podcast.
This one admittedly has more tangents than usual, but we didn't have a guest to keep us focused - also you're not our supervisor. We mostly talked about apologetics - the defense of the faith.
Recommendations from the episode:
Books: Mere Christianity, The Explicit Gospel, and God's Not Dead
Video: Apologetics by Joel Biermann
This week Josh and Ben brought on a special guest, Pete LeBorious, to talk about youth ministry. If you're paying close attention, you'll notice that Pete and Josh share a last name. That is because Pete is Josh's dad who has done youth ministry for longer than Josh or Ben has been alive.
This week we're talking to Ryan Maser about agriculture, farming, and being connected to creation. We also debut our new theme music, courtesy of Joël Held.
In the first release of special content for podcast subscribers, Ben and Josh talk about their favorite Star Wars content on May the 4th.
In this episode, Ben and Josh sit down with Ted Kober from Ambassadors of Reconciliation and Dr. Mark Rockenbach from Concordia Seminary to talk about Christian forgiveness and the idea of "forgive and forget."
In this episode, Ben and Josh do their best to have an honest, faithful conversation about sexual ethics and how the church should (and shouldn't) handle them.
Disclaimer: This episode contains content relevant to the title that may not be appropriate for the younger kids.
So they say you're not supposed to talk about religion and politics, but we feel like you're probably not supposed to talk about money either.
Then again, we regularly talk about religion and politics, so why would we not talk about money?
This episode has Ben and Josh talking about hobbies.
And to quote Josh, "if you want to play Destiny together, step one - get good, I don't play with scrubs, and step two send me a friend invite"
That's not really a critical point of the podcast, but he wanted to put it in the description.
This week on Manbuns and Jesus, Ben and Josh are talking about a topic that a lot of people have really strong feelings about. This episode comes with a pair of special requests.
- Listen to the whole thing
- Don't take us out of context
Turns out both Ben and Josh are big fans of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. This was discovered as we discussed what it means to be a man, especially what it means to be a Christian man.
And if you're not a man, this podcast is still worth your time - at least as much as any of our podcasts are worth your time.
In light of the current events, Ben and Josh talked about how Christians should think about war and conflict.
Today we take on a perfectly safe, not risky at all topic that we're confident no one could ever get upset about.
How should Christians interact with governmental authority?
. . . well, we had fun with it anyway.
If you've ever wondered about the larger church we're a part of, this is the episode for you. Josh and Ben talk how it works, why it matters, and how you can get involved.
How far along the chain are you responsible for? Are you guilty because you bought a shirt sown with needles made with metal that was used in a murder 1000 years ago? Ben and Josh discuss.
Also, Josh expresses a desire for a secret church currency . . . for some reason.
Ben and Josh talk a little bit about what it means, and what it doesn't mean, to be a called and ordained servant of the Word.
It feels a little weird talking about pastors when you are one, but we managed to power through it!
The guys share their frustration with inconsistency between speech and action. More Josh than Ben though, Ben's one cool cucumber.
What does our faith say about getting swole? What does it mean to get swole? How much can Josh bench press? We answer some of these questions in this installment of Manbuns and Jesus!
What does the faith we profess have to say about flipping burgers, arguing lawsuits, or tailoring fine suits? Listen in to find out!
The good, the bad, and the ugly of Christmas Movies. Mostly the good though.
. . . Die Hard is a Christmas Movie!
Full disclosure: this episode actually has very little to do with punching heretics, but it comes up enough times that we have an excuse to use it in the title. We're actually talking about the different ways we celebrate Christmas.
This week, Ben and Josh take on the heavier subject of tragedy. How do we deal with it as Christians? How do we respond? How do we support our friends and family? Let's talk about it.
It's a trailer, do you really need a description for the trailer? That would just be a description of a description. Such a thing seems really redundant to me. But if you've made it this far into the description I guess I could oblige, this trailer describes what the show is about. It also gives you a window into our personalities, as does this description.
Is this the longest description of any of the episodes? Probably.
Do we recognize the irony of a description largely about the futility of itself being the longest for the podcast? Also probably.
How do sports and Christianity intersect? What does a faithful Christian look like as a sports fan? To be totally honest, this one might be more tangent than podcast, but we welcome our first guest host to the show to make up for it!
Happy Thanksgiving! Probably?
What do Ben and Josh have to say about the most famous holiday in November? Listen to the podcast to find out!
Most people wouldn't say the world revolves around them, but is that still how we operate on a daily basis?