Let’s Talk: Recent Episodes
Carrie Lloyd Shaw
With the rise of social media and the massive reach of online platforms, anyone can become someone, with something to say and an audience to hear it. The ability to curate a popular (but often artificial) public persona, within the reach of millions, is available through a simple tap of the keyboard. However, this platform is often devoid of personal proximity or systems of accountability and runs the risk of reducing the gospel to merely a vehicle for global Christian consumerism.
https://carrielloydshaw.com/without-the-applause-examining-celebrity-culture-in-the-church/
It can be tempting to view the early first century church in rather glowing terms – a ‘golden age’ of church history when the believers were all-in, the church totally had it together, and the believers shared all things in common. I’ve heard Act 2:42 touted as somewhat of a touchstone for church authenticity, with a revival of these (implied: blissful, albeit persecuted) glory days being the true mark of genuine Christian living.
Yet only a generation removed from the greatest event the world had ever seen and yet even these churches already showed the extremes that would characterise the Christian identity for centuries afterwards.
https://carrielloydshaw.com/lessons-from-the-seven-churches/
It seemed to me, as a 12-year-old, that excommunication was the most awful thing that could ever happen to a person, worse than death; an all-encompassing, church-wide determination that a person had failed to 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘩 and had become a heretic or, 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦, an 𝘢𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦.
To experience it myself, then, many years later was shocking. It implied I had not measured up to the expectation of Christian living, and this judgment sits uncomfortably with me. I had no glaring moral issue or unrepented sin that would give cause for such action. And yet, I felt like Hester Prynne, with the letter 'A' (for 𝘢𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦, in my case) painted in bold, vivid red on my back for all to see.
The seeming dismissal of the authenticity of my faith was and still is painful and difficult to understand. I wondered silently, 𝘩𝘢𝘥 I failed to 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘩?
https://carrielloydshaw.com/keeping-the-faith/
While hierarchy, in some instances, makes sense as a means of classification, does scripture teach that such a hierarchy exists between the genders? Does a disproportionate ranking of power and importance really exist between men and women? Is this God-ordained and God-sanctioned?
Does scripture teach that men are more important, more powerful, or have more authority simply because they are men? Is this really what God designed for humanity from the beginning?
Links:
Women In Ministry (Mike Winger): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HQSlQLYQsE
Kingdom Roots Podcast (Scot McKnight): https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/kingdom-roots-with-scot-mcknight/id1078739516
Navigating Gender Bias And Addressing Abuse (Scot McKnight): https://podcasts.apple.com/no/podcast/navigating-gender-bias-addressing-abuse-questions-on/id1078739516?i=1000513514333&l=nb
There are things in my life that I look back on and still blush over. There are things said and unsaid in my past that still cause me regret when I recall them today. There’s definitely a sense, at times, that if only I could go back and do that thing over, things would be different.
But do you know what? Things probably wouldn’t be any different. Because that was then and this is now. I’m not the same person I was yesterday or the day before that. Life is changing me.
And perhaps I shouldn’t wish to change the past. Maybe I should be learning to make peace with it. Maybe I should be more thankful for yesterday’s mistakes, as strange as that seems, because of the valuable lessons I learned, not just about life but also about myself.
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/yesterday-today-tomorrow/
When we become Christians, we don’t stop being 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯, but we’re well on our way to becoming 𝘢 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯. Made spiritually alive in Christ, God sends His Spirit into our hearts as both a seal and promise of His commitment to renew and transform us. We continue to live in the world but we’re no longer of it in quite the same way, belonging now to Heaven’s country.
It’s often a difficult tension to navigate, the halfway space between 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 and 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦. How, in practical terms, do we ensure our primary allegiance as people who look for a city whose builder and maker is God? Yet how are we also to be salt and light, to fulfill our Christian commission, among the communities and people with whom we live and work?
How exactly are we to be in the world but not of it?
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/dual-citizens/
I recently wrote about my separation from the religious community I grew up in and the overwhelming response to my article was both encouraging and thought-provoking.
Many people wrote to me to let me know that the article had deeply resonated with them. Others wrote expressing their distress at my experience (regardless of whether it had been theirs or not) and offering their blessing on my continued journey.
Others expressed dismay that I was no longer part of the community; how would I receive nurture and support? With whom would I now fellowship? Couldn’t I have just stayed to change the culture?
Others still were less complimentary in their feedback, deeming my article slanderous and inaccurate, and my questions nothing but excuses.
Here are my thoughts, in response, about life beyond the pale...
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/beyond-the-pale/
Links On Changing Cultures: https://www.torbenrick.eu/blog/culture/why-is-organizational-culture-change-difficult/
We will make many crossings in our life, and live several lives throughout adulthood, each one connected to the last by moments and memories, intersecting and joining together like the gossamer thread of a spider’s web. Sometimes we will recognise the echoes of ourselves from another time, another place, but in other moments, our glances backward will both bewilder and astonish; who is that stranger that carries our face?
We will perhaps begin to understand, too, that all of this life, this experience that humans share, is another kind of crossing, a change from this to that.
Yet it is also a journey through a world that, at its core, will fail to satisfy us, deep within our soul.
We realise we were always meant to change, it’s in our DNA. But into what we wonder. Is all of this life meant for something more? Who am I really meant to become?
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/crossing-over/
Music excerpt: C S Lewis Song (Brooke Fraser)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4RzmlWZ5fU
The glory of the Lord returns to dwell among His people. But this time it was wrapped in a perishable, temporary covering of flesh and bone.
All the narratives of the Old Testament had been simply shadows and markers, one-dimensional illustrations intended to point the world to the real story God had been writing all along, to the reality that God had intended from the beginning. God would dwell, as He has always intended, among people, in people; in a kingdom of priests ransomed to Him by the precious blood of the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.” | John 1:14 (MSG) https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/when-god-moved-into-the-neighbourhood/
The resurrection of Jesus is one of the great theological truths of the Christian faith taught by the early church and written into the earliest Christian creeds. Resurrection underpins the entire gospel narrative, without which all of Christian life is rendered futile.
As author Craig Blomberg comments, “As wonderful as Jesus’ life and teachings and miracles were, they were meaningless if it were not historically factual that Christ died and was raised from the dead and that this provided atonement, or forgiveness, of the sins of humanity.”
At Easter, Christians all around the world remember and give thanks for what Jesus has done and the abundant life that has been won through his death and resurrection.
Here's a fresh retelling of a tale that began long, long ago...
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/an-easter-tale/
I want to talk about something that’s been on my mind for a while. Some time ago, I watched a commentary by a ‘Christian pastor’ (link in show notes) that totally shocked me. In fact, I haven’t really stopped thinking about it since.
I found it disturbing; equal parts ridiculous and horrifying, and I really couldn’t believe it was being presented under the guise of legitimate Christianity.
For me, it highlighted a disturbing and, frankly, heartbreaking direction that modern Christianity, or at least a part of it, has taken; a wild trip sideways down the labyrinth-like rabbit hole of progressive Christianity. And I believe this pervasive ideology, left unchecked, could signal the death knell of the church as we know it.
I think the church is facing one of her greatest challenges yet; not through external persecution as in times past, but through subtle, internal perversion. There is a desperate need for discernment and a deep commitment to the gospel of the Bible, in doctrine and practice.
Will progressive Christianity destroy the church?
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/will-progressive-christianity-destroy-the-church/
Show Notes:
YouTube commentary by Brandan Robertson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbP7oMte9sk
https://www.bethelbeaverton.org/progressive-christianity
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/05/progressive-christians-abortion-jes-kast/590293/
When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us.
Yet, writes John the Apostle, if anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.”
John tackles this sensitive yet important area of Christian discipleship, showing the connection between our professed love of God and our love for our Christian family. "First we were loved, now we love", he says, pressing into the realities of what a grace-shaped life should look like.
Grace, perhaps one of the easiest concepts to speak about in the enthusiastic language of a born-again believer is, in reality, one of the hardest virtues to assimilate into our Christian lives. John's letter directs our gaze inward, at our own hearts, where, he says, 'faith, expressed through love' must abide and flourish.
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/john-writes-a-letter/
The Apostle Paul’s influence, passion, and commitment enabled the gospel of Jesus Christ to take root and flourish throughout Asia Minor, and its spread continued long after his death, reaching even to the ends of the earth.
Paul wrote several letters, one of which was the letter to the church at Rome. In chapters 5 and 6 of Romans, he covers some significant theological territory by dealing with the themes of death, life, and resurrection, which came about, he states, ‘by one man’…
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/by-one-man/
(A large part of the inspiration for this article came from the worship song ‘This My Soul’ By The Gray Havens (link below). This song captures Paul’s sentiments from Romans 5 and 6 perfectly and is one of my personal favourites).
Paul the Apostle was a champion for the need for a grace-led, faith-full life. He had been converted from a life steeped in religious tradition and law, a life in which a man could become ‘more righteous’ before God than his fellow man, simply by achieving greater adherence to law. Yet Paul learned that right standing with God was not to be achieved through law-keeping – and in fact was impossible to be achieved this way – but by faith; personal belief in God’s promises.
What are we to make then of the words of Paul’s contemporary, James, who writes “As you can see, a man is justified by his deeds and not by faith alone.”
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/the-faith-works-conundrum/
Abraham, originally named Abram, was born (c 2000 BCE) and lived in the city of Ur, in what is now modern-day Iraq. Abraham was the son of Terah, ninth in descent from Noah, who was the main character in the Great Flood narrative found in Genesis 6-9.
Ur was an important Sumerian city-state in ancient Mesopotamia. It was a wealthy, prosperous and advanced city, with culture, religion, and social statras firmly established. This cradle of civilisation was also the seat of a vigorous polytheism, chief of whom was Nanna, the Sumero-Akkadian moon god.
It is with this rich and complex background that Abraham is introduced to us in Genesis 12. God appears to Abraham, telling him to leave all that was familiar and travel to an unknown place. Hebrews 11, the great dissertation on faith, expands further, noting that it was “by an act of faith, [that] Abraham said yes to God’s call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left, he had no idea where he was going”.
Abraham left everything he had ever known, all on the word and promise of God. He demonstrated that having faith or believing isn’t measured by an exhaustive list of facts we say we agree with but rather the act of entrusting our lives to God and acting and living in a way that shows we believe His promise to be true.
Abraham chose to enter into God’s story and this choice was the turning point in his life...
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/abraham/
Leaving is never because of just one thing. Not really.
It’s the result of a thousand, inconsequential 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 that all converge in a single moment of sudden, irreconcilable difference.
For me, the eventual leaving of the religious community I grew up in began as a tiny question fluttering at the back of my mind.
Back then, it was just one thing. It stood alone in its irregularity and I let it sit, like a bothersome pebble in my shoe, not fitting, never resolved. This question wasn’t the explosion, merely the spark; but when I cast my mind back to all the 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 that finally resulted in my departure, I get no further back than this question... https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/leaving/
I penned the thoughts I’m sharing in this episode in response to some really tough circumstances I was aware someone was going through recently. I was thinking specifically of their situation when I wrote those words but it's funny how many times since then that I’ve reread those words and felt that God was speaking to me too.
Several times I’ve come back to these thoughts and found peace settling over my heart as I bring to mind the place called ‘home’; the place where God will walk with us again. I hope these words bless and encourage your heart too.
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/come-walk-with-me/
Just as Jesus was sent into the world, to witness to the eternal life and light of God, so each Christian has been commissioned and sent as an ambassador for Christ. They have been authorised, by virtue of his saving work, to represent his kingdom and to carry the great treasure of the good message in their fragile, imperfect lives of clay.
Jesus lives in and through them and God has placed each one of them like a city on a hill, to bring light to the whole world. They are to glow – with their open houses and generous lives – like homecoming beacons, drawing all humanity to the light that comes from Him, that in this, ‘His name is glorified’.
The reality is that every. single. Christian. is a missionary and every. single. church. is missional. It’s the very nature of our Christianity and an intrinsic part of our identity as people of the kingdom.
And we don’t need to be anywhere else apart from where we are right now to run on mission.
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/christianity-missional-living/
The early Christians faced many challenges in their new life of faith in Jesus. The gospel boldly sought to realign humanity according to the values of a true and impartial God. Differences based on race or social status found no place in this new religion.
Jews who thought of themselves as God’s unique and chosen people were now to consider Gentiles as family, loved by the same God.
Slave owners, rich in property and persons, weren’t to consider their slaves as possessions but as part of God’s family, and it is this status that dominates their new relationship.
Importantly for many women, men were to consider and treat women as equals in the purpose and plan of God for humanity; directly challenging a long and complex history of patriarchy.
The women who followed Jesus assumed ministry in the earliest Christian communities alongside men. Women were the last disciples to be found at the foot of the cross (Luke 23:55-56) and the first at the empty tomb, witnesses to the truth of the risen Christ (Luke 24:9-11).
The reality of their significant involvement is shown throughout Paul’s letters, in the Acts of the Apostles, and other early Christian writings.
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/women-church-ministry/
Read More about 1 Timothy 2:11-12:
https://bit.ly/2wMnDXk, https://bit.ly/3dGijp9 and https://bit.ly/39z4Ufm
Read more about 1 Corinthians 14:34-36:
https://bit.ly/3arPNp2 and https://bit.ly/2wD2G15
Read more about 1 Corinthians 11:1-16:
https://bit.ly/2QVZa8I and https://bit.ly/3auVuCP
Read more about Peter’s letter here: https://www.cbeinternational.org/sites/default/files/pp213_ss.pdf
Read more about ‘reader-added marginal gloss’ and ‘distigme’ here:
https://bit.ly/3arPNp2
There’s a troubling trend arising in our postmodern age, an era that has also given rise to ‘post-truth'.
We’re seeing more and more, in the media, in public conversation, in our schools and communities, the push for a redefining of what is meant by ‘gender’ – to the point where facts and provable science relating to human biology are being discounted or ignored.
New information platforms, social upheaval, and the overabundance of global communication networks are giving this idea traction and we’re seeing it take root and grow, with potentially devastating consequences.
This is the generation that has unequivocally waged war on gender.
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/the-war-on-gender/
Legalism takes different forms at different times and is often hard to pin down, manifesting itself in subtle ways.
There is much that can be said about legalism and the hypocrisy that arises from it. An emphasis on externals makes it very easy to fake what is really going inside.
Right now, the world is being sharply delineated. Nearly as quickly as the virus has spread, so too has the chatter and the differing opinions about both the cause and the cure.
However, the most disturbing aspect of all this is the noticeable polarisation of people into two opposing groups; them and us. And the church is not unaffected in this.
The focus of this episode, particularly in light of the global pandemic, is another issue that I believe arises from a spirit of legalism. This is the issue of extremism; when we begin majoring in the minors instead of majoring in the majors.
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/majors-and-minors/
The area of Asia Minor was a huge melting pot of ethnicities and also one of the first areas to flourish with converts to the new religion of Christianity. It was also part of the expansive Roman Empire, at the height of its glory, and was therefore subject to Roman law and Roman customs.
Living in the shadow of the Empire would prove a difficult tension for Christians to navigate. No longer giving allegiance to Caesar as ‘Lord of the earth’ but instead confessing that this title belonged to Jesus Christ, how were they to behave as people in the world but not of it?
As citizens of heaven, did the laws of Rome no longer apply to them?
And, as people of the kingdom, how were they to live out the values of the kingdom in the society around them? Were they justified in using force to make the kingdoms of this world the kingdom of the Lord and Christ?
These are all important questions, not just for those in the first-century church but for every generation of Christians who have come after them.
How should Christians conduct themselves, living in the shadow of the Empire?
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/in-the-shadow-of-the-empire/
What’s beneath the skin of our collective Christian identity?
Has Christianity lost touch with its original radical and beating heart? Are we so enamoured with the power and prestige of this present world that we have forgotten our own history?
Are we, the church, so entertained by the lights and sounds, by the choreographed music, by the dimly lit stages and almond-milk-lattes-after-service that we’ve forgotten the ancient truths our early Christian brethren lived and died for?
Have we become mere spectators to our own Christian faith?
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/beneath-the-skin/
The room was filled with the pungent aroma of bitter herbs, the freshly baked scent of Matzah, the rich meaty smell of roasted lamb, and the earthy sweetness of the wine.
Everything on the table represented something. Everything eaten with the humble dinnerware told a story.
Gathering now with his disciples to celebrate Passover once again, Jesus understood, as no one else did, the true significance of what was symbolised by this festival and what kind of deliverance God had always had in mind. Turning to his disciples, his voice warm with feeling, Jesus said “I have earnestly desired to eat this with you before I suffer.”
It was the night before tomorrow and this was to be his last Passover.
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/the-night-before-tomorrow/
Jesus was both the son of a human mother and the son of a divine Father; the human and the divine embodied within the one individual. He was born specifically and uniquely, after centuries of human failure, that, in him, the Creator might redeem His creation.
He was God-With-Us – the ‘one and only of his kind’; a man, but not merely a man and in him, ‘the entire fullness (completeness) of God’s nature dwells bodily’ (Colossians 2:9).
To know God is to know Jesus, whom He sent (John 17:3) and, therefore, the true starting point of our theology as Christians is looking to Jesus and, fundamentally, to God, in Jesus, crucified.
It is in this that we see the extent to which God was prepared to go in order to rescue and redeem us and why Jesus, and Jesus alone, truly human and truly divine, was the hope of the world.
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/jesus-the-hope-of-the-world/
When Jesus arrived on the scene, he began preaching, saying “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Jesus demonstrated the power and reality of the kingdom of heaven, through the miraculous – evidence that he was Lord of all. He qualified what the kingdom of heaven looked like; a kingdom defined by mercy and love, failure and forgiveness, exile and homecoming. He stated plainly the way to this kingdom; by believing in him and being born again of water and of spirit.
And he taught that the kingdom was not in some far-off place, out of sight, but here, right now, in their midst. Now, but not yet...
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/the-kingdom-now-but-not-yet/
Centered and rooted in the goodness of God, fidelity is a crucial element to friendships built in a culture of goodness.
Friendships built on either utility or pleasure aren’t innately wrong in and of themselves. But they are both transient and short-lived, simply because one’s needs and pleasures are apt to change over time.
Yet, as humans, and particularly as Christians, we’re encouraged to go deeper in our friendships. Our relationships are intended to be built on something far more permanent and meaningful than simply passing transactions of utility or pleasure.
The Bible offers life-changing wisdom on how we’re to approach friendships and what a friendship of fidelity, built in a culture of goodness, looks like.
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/fidelity-friendship/
Walking with God is sometimes equated to simply ‘living a moral life’, but I believe this misses the point. Walking with God is about a life spent alongside God and, as a result of that choice, producing the kind of faith that is real and pleasing to God.
It isn’t an intellectual exercise – knowing things about God – but a choice of the heart, intimately knowing God. It’s about relationship.
“He has told you, O human, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” | Micah 6:8 NAS 1977
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/walking-with-god/
The last few years have been an unsettling and disruptive time for millions of people around the globe. The impact of COVID-19 on our ordinary routines and daily habits has been, in many cases, bewildering.
It has also brought to light just how busy and frantic normal actually was and, for many Christians, the welcome relief at the inability to ‘go to church’ has uncovered a hidden reality; one we perhaps don't talk enough about: the reality of church burnout.
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/avoiding-church-burnout/
The New Testament writers, particularly the Apostle Paul, encouraged believers to think of the church as a woman, a mighty woman of valour, whose very life and existence were framed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Echoing the story of creation, it is through this man’s death and sacrifice, she is created and at his resurrection, she becomes a living creature.
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/the-church-a-woman-of-valour/
Paul the Apostle takes the issue the church at Galatia is dealing with very seriously. When a life of grace and rest is replaced with a life of imposed works, spirituality has morphed into a faith that's become toxic.
Toxic faith is a destructive and dangerous relationship with a religious system, not with God, that allows this system to control a person’s life in the name of God. It is a system where another gospel is preached – not one of freedom and liberty and acceptance through grace, but one, in reality, of enslavement to rituals and rules.
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/toxic-faith/