Karl Vaters talks through some helpful guidelines with Dave Ripper about how to read, meditate, and teach from the Bible in a richer, deeper way.

Dave is the lead pastor of Crossway Christian Church, a multicongregational church in southern New Hampshire, focused on spiritual formation, and is the author of Experiencing Scripture as a Disciple of Jesus: Reading the Bible like Dallas Willard.

Karl and Dave explore who Dallas Willard was, and what his way of reading the Bible can do for us, including:

1. Willard’s four steps on how to read the Bible
2. A five-step outline for meditating on a text
3. The IMMERSE method
4. Preaching out of the overflow
5. How to let God speak to the church instead imposing your ideas into the text or onto the congregation

Links:

1. Experiencing Scripture as a Disciple of Jesus: Reading the Bible like Dallas Willard, by Dave Ripper
2. The Dallas Willard podcast
3. DaveRipper.com
4. Deeper Experiences with God Podcast, with Dave Ripper
5. Dave Ripper on Instagram
6. Dave Ripper on Facebook
7. Contact Dave Ripper

Bonus video summary

Three Warnings from Dallas Willard about How Not to Read the Bible, with Dave Ripper

In this subscriber-only bonus material, Karl Vaters talks with pastor Dave Ripper, the author of Experiencing Scripture as a Disciple of Jesus: Reading the Bible like Dallas Willard, about why Bible readers should stay away from:

1. Bible roulette
2. The “It’s all in the Bible” View
3. Bible deism

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Have you ever gone to a church growth conference and been told “all healthy things grow?”

Karl Vaters talks with Jeff Hoglen about what’s happening behind that idea, and why it can be a problem for a lot of pastors and churches. The conversation is based on an article Jeff wrote, called “The Church Growth Lie No One Talks About.”

Karl and Jeff talk about what that lie is, why we keep believing it, and what to do, instead.

They also discuss alternative ways to look at church health and growth, including:

1. How growth feels more like farming than fireworks
2. How most real growth is slow, often invisible, and always hard
3. How the slow seasons don’t have to discourage you
4. How to deepen before you broaden
5. How to pursue health over hype
6. The importance of celebrating the small stuff

And more.

Links:

1. The Church Growth Lie No One Talks About
2. ChurchPlanting.com
3. Canva
4. ChatGPT

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Karl Vaters talks with Brad Edwards about the shift that’s happened over the last decade or so in how people perceive institutions, especially the institutional church.

In this conversation they talk about how the rise of radical individualism has replaced once-trusted institutions, why a distrust in institutions is problematic, and why institutions—especially the church—still matter.

Brad is a church planter and pastor of The Table Church in Lafayette, CO. He’s also the author of, The Reason for Church: Why the Body of Christ Still Matters in an Age of Anxiety, Division, and Radical Individualism. This conversation also includes an overview of the reasons behind the loss of institutionalism, and especially five Church Defeaters:

• Church Defeater 1: Spiritual Pragmatism
• Church Defeater 2: The Sacred Self
• Church Defeater 3: Counterfeit Institutions
• Church Defeater 4: (Un)Civil religions
• Church Defeater 5: Virtuous Victimhood

(CONGRATULATIONS to Brad on his book being named Book of the Year by Christianity Today magazine!)

Links:

• The Reason for Church: Why the Body of Christ Still Matters in an Age of Anxiety, Division, and Radical Individualism
• Mere Orthodoxy

BONUS TALK

Our Role in the Grand Narrative of Scripture, with Brad Edwards

Karl Vaters talks with Brad Edwards about the importance of understanding the metanarrative of scripture as a foundational teaching for life and faith.

In particular, their conversation addresses two storytelling terms. First, Main Character Syndrome, which helps us understand and clarify the dangers of the hyper-individualism of our current age. Second, the MacGuffin, a term coined by movie director Alfred Hitchcock that helps us see what our role in God’s story really is.

Links:

• The Reason for Church: Why the Body of Christ Still Matters in an Age of Anxiety, Division, and Radical Individualism

To get Bonus Content every week, click here to become a Financial Partner, or here to subscribe to the Free Weekly Newsletter.