Shows / The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
The Loft is a progressive Christian community that is unapologetically inclusive. If you're curious about what a socially and politically progressive Christianity looks like, this podcast is for you. This podcast features edited audio from our weekly Sunday gathering of people interested in following Jesus' spiritual path of radical compassion. Regardless of your race, gender, class, sexuality, or where you fall on the spectrum of belief or unbelief, you are welcome at The Loft. Their are four…
Episodes
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
What If the Trinity Is God's Answer to Binary Thinking?
What If the Trinity Is God's Answer to Oppositional and Binary Thinking? For those searching "The Trinity explained," this sermon helps us see how the Trinity…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Disability and the Church: Deconstructing Lies & Why We Need to Do Better
What if the thing you were taught to be ashamed of about your body was never true? In John 9, the disciples ask Jesus who sinned to cause a man's blindness —…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
What Happens To Our Faith When We Suppress Our Feelings?
Christian emotional healing begins when we can be with what we feel. So, if you were taught that crying is weakness and emotional numbness is the answer — this…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Unlearning Shame: What Jesus Taught Us About Our Bodies
What if the shame you carry about your body is not something Jesus ever asked you to carry? In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus pushes back on all the lies that…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
What If the Shame You Feel About Your Body Was Never From God?
What if the shame you carry about your body was never something God asked you to carry? Christian shame about the body runs deep, but we find freedom when we…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
What Does It Mean to Love God?
Both the writers of the Hebrew Bible and Jesus taught, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your mind, and with…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Reconstructing Salvation: Transforming the Heart
Salvation is most often associated with what we must do (or believe) to go to heaven. As a result, most Christian theologies of salvation focus on what happens…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Born Again: A New Heart & The Heart of Justice
The phrase “born again” carries A LOT of theological baggage. Yet the New Testament suggests that if being “born again” leads to judgmentalism…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Jesus: The Heartbeat of God
Christianity is unique among world religions because God is not revealed to us through a text but through Jesus, the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
God: The Heartbeat of Reality & The Mystery of Evil
As Christians, we believe that God is the heartbeat of reality, a life-giving and sustaining presence. All Christians can affirm this claim. However, as we…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Scripture: The Heart of our Tradition
To be Christian is to be centered in the God of the Bible. For us, the Bible is our sacred scripture and sacred story. Yet the Bible is also one reason many…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Faith - The Way of the Heart
Most people would define Christian faith as believing a set of Christian beliefs to be true. In some parts of the world, the word "believer" is a synonym for…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
After Deconstruction: New Wine & New Wineskins
What are we to do when the tradition that taught us to ask "what would Jesus do?" no longer reflects what Jesus showed us in his life and teachings?…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
God Doesn't Have Favorites
Join guest preacher Everest Harvey in The Loft as we wrap up our sermon series on hospitality and explore what it means to create home for every person in…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Making A Place for Hospitality
Because we practice hospitality as a core part of our faith, we work to make the our spaces more welcoming. This requires us to pay attention to how people…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Hospitality With God
How does greed or emptiness get in the way of offering hospitality to God? And what can we do? We welcome Rev. Dr. Diana Holbert, our Minister of Care, to The…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
We Are Strangers Who Welcome Strangers
Throughout his teaching and ministry, we encounter Jesus as a vulnerable guest, a needy stranger, and a gracious host. Jesus both welcomes and needs to be…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Hospitality As Spiritual Practice
In ancient times, hospitality was regarded as a pillar on which the world's moral structure rested. It is an important theme in scripture, central to the…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Queer Callings & Responses
The Song of Mary and the Song of Hannah remind us that God's call to prophecy, service, and leadership is not limited to cisgender men. The songs of Elsa, a…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Baptized Into A Found Family
The Bible tells us that when Jesus was baptized, he heard a voice from heaven declare, "This is my Son whom I dearly love." In the story of Jesus' baptism and…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Drew Back the Curtain
Even before he was immortalized in musical theater for his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (TM), Joseph's story has so many points of connection with the…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Now You See Me
The way we read the Bible is filtered through the lens of our experience. Our interpretive lens determines what we do and what we do not see. This Sunday, we…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Challenges and Hopes: After 70 Years of Women's Ordination
Join us for a special Loft conversation with clergy women who have been connected to Westwood, including Bishop Dottie Escobedo-Frank, Bishop Mary Ann Swenson…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Growing In Christ-likeness
What does it mean for us to grow in Christ-likeness? It is Pentecost Sunday, and we will end our series on the Holy Spirit by examining the third function of…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Called: The Holy Spirit & Vocation
The Holy Spirit is the implanted hope that continually moves us to live the Christian life, the Way of Jesus. In addition to reconciliation, a section function…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
(W)Holy Restoration
The Holy Spirit is the implanted hope that continuously moves us to practice living the Christian life, the Way of Jesus. One function of this movement towards…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
The Breath of Life
As Christians, we believe in one God who has revealed Godself to us in three distinct persons - the Creator, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. While the concept of…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
How Do We Pray?
The gospel accounts tell us that Jesus spent roughly three years with his disciples during his earthly ministry. Interestingly, the only thing the disciples…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Why Do We Pray?
Last week, I suggested that the purpose of prayer is to deepen our relationship with God so that we are transformed by centering in Divine presence, and that…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Sermon Series on Prayer - Charting Our Inward Sea
What is prayer, and what is its purpose? In this first week of our three-week series on prayer, we explore some answers to these questions by reflecting on the…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Jesus & The Resurrection Journey
During his ministry, Jesus reminded his disciples that following his Way meant accepting that they would have to take up their own cross. The Jewish community…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
The Way of Jesus is a Way of Resistance
The Bible is both personal and political, and thus, the way of Jesus is both personal and political. The Way is a path towards personal transformation and…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
The Mysticism of Jesus
The majority of Christians would probably not use the term "mystic" to describe Jesus. Many Christians, especially those of us in the West, think of mysticism…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Jesus & His Neighbors
From the outset of his public ministry, Jesus included disciples within his inner circle whom his Jewish contemporaries believed did not deserve a seat at the…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
The Way of Jesus is The Way of Love
Like other wisdom teachers, Jesus spoke of two ways. There is a common way, the one followed by most people, and an alternative way, a path of transformation…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Jesus & The Imperial World
The context surrounding Jesus' life was complicated by an imperial domination system. The central features of Roman colonial power were its political…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Who Do You Say That I Am?
After having spent time in his community preaching and teaching, Jesus asks his disciples, "Who do the people say that I am?" For those of us who grew up…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
The Gospel of Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus's disciples. The Gospels say she traveled with him, was present at his crucifixion, and was the first to see him after his…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Hagar: The Woman Who God Named
When most Christians read the story of Abram, Sarai, Hagar, and Ishmael, Hagar is seen as having a small role in a story that ultimately is not about her…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Listening For Sophia: Finding Wisdom In Places It Has Always Been
In Jewish and Christian traditions, the voice of wisdom has long been personified as Sophia, a woman. It is a sad irony that the voices of women and other…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Breaking Patriarchy: Queen Vashti & The Holy No
The book of Esther was written to help Jewish believers live faithfully in a world that is often unfaithful and sometimes openly hostile. Although she only…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Women Who Dare to Tell the Truth
As we continue in the sermon series inspired by women of the Hebrew Bible and Claire McKeever-Burgett's book, In the Beginning Were the Women, we turn this…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Miriam: Mystic, Liberator, Savior
From the moment we are born, the stories we learn help us make meaning out of our lives. They become the sources of knowledge we draw from when our own…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Fear Doesn't Stop Us
On Epiphany, churches often focus on mysterious and joyful arrival of the magi, a jovial tale about three royal kings bringing the baby Jesus finely-wrapped…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Fear Moves Us
After Jesus' birth, fear and oppression continue to pervade the lives of the Holy Family. Due to Herod's persecution, we are promptly reminded that even with…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Step Into Your Calling
What does it mean to be "called" to do something? There are many stories of prophets and leaders in the Christian tradition who say they were called to be in…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Even In The Silence, God Is At Work
After his encounter with the angel Gabriel, Zechariah is compelled into a period of silence, during which he grapples with faith, doubt, and hope. Similarly…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
In A Time of Nationalism, We Must Not Give In To Fear
When Zechariah encounters an angel of the Lord, the angel tells him not to be afraid because his prayers have been heard. As an elderly priest, Zechariah had…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
A Chorus of Generosity: Justice & Compassion
Our newly adopted mission statement reflects our core values of justice and compassion, which represent our public and private commitments to Christ-like acts…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Liturgies for Resisting Empire: Seeking Community, Belonging, and Peace in a Dehumanizing World
This Sunday, we welcome guest preacher Kat Armas. Kat Armas is a Cuban American writer, speaker, and theologian from Miami, FL. She holds a ThM from Vanderbilt…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
You Can't Love Yourself Without Accepting Yourself
During the fourth and final week of The Seasons of Origins, we are invited to imagine together a more just church and a way forward toward such a church…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
You Can't Have Redemption Without Confession
During the third week of The Season of Origins, we are invited to seek to repair past harms through justice-focused actions. Few harms have affected Christian…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
You Can't Have Authority Without Accountability
During the second week of The Season of Origins, we are invited to name and lament the atrocities of the past and examine the role Christian theology played in…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Just Because It's In The Bible Doesn't Make It Christian
Accounts of violence in the Bible, like the story of Joshua's conquest of Canaan, have been used by Christians to theologically justify violence, genocide, and…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
How Conversation Leads to Coalition Building
Conversation is at the heart of our gatherings in The Loft; it's how we worship. On this final Sunday of our Loft 101 series, we focus on a well-known story…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Practicing Self-Compassion
Compassion was fundamental to Jesus' ministry and the primary lens through which he engaged his community. At The Loft, we strive to follow Jesus' spiritual…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Longing to Belong
In a world that rewards individualism, how valuable is community? At The Loft, we believe there is significant value in creating a culture of belongingness…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Imagination & Reorder: Energizing The Prophetic Community
While the dismantling of the old order began with Moses, and the prophets guided his people through their deconstruction and disorder, Jesus energized his…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Compassion As Prophetic Criticism
Jesus inherited and practiced his prophetic ministry from Moses, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, among others. Similar to his forerunners, he used prophetic criticism to…
- The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
From Despair to Hope: Isaiah & Prophetic Energizing Description
Order - Disorder - Reorder. As our community navigates a time of disorder, the task of prophetic imagination and ministry is to cut through despair and to…