A Conversation With Keith Smith

07/03/22 • 64 min

Our Teaching Pastor Paul Walker sits down with Pastor Keith to discuss the implications of Acts 15 as it relates to the gospel, race, polarization, and the third way of Jesus. Keith shares his own experience of walking through the polarization of USA political landscape and the racial tensions that ensued.

Previous Episode

Give All You Can | Carolyn Klassen | Earn Save Give

Generosity is at the heart of the character of God. As the famous Bible passage says, “For God so loved the world that he GAVE....” (John 3:16) When we give, we emulate the very generosity of God towards us. Being generous with our money now forms our character in a Christ-like direction and there are inherent rewards that result from it. As the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 9:6-8, “what we reap is what we sow”. Yet so often walking in generosity confronts our fears about security, and worth. We can hold back because of the hold money can have on us. But God wants to break the power that money has over us, we need only offer him our open hands and God will direct us. This will change us. Think about what generosity could do for you! Think about the person you can become because of generosity. Giving is a chance to ask “who am I in relationship to money?” This is not a question of how much we give in comparison to others. The widow in giving two copper coins in the offering gave more than everyone else. (Mk 12) Jesus sees her heart and knows that she gave more than anyone else in giving all she had. In the same way, how might our practices of generosity form us in the image of our generous God?

Next Episode

Our Unity of Difference | Paul Walker | To the Ends of the Earth pt. 3

A cultural and theological crisis was brewing in the early church. Some Jewish followers
of the Messiah were insisting that Gentiles must be circumcised in order to receive
salvation. (15.1) Others— like Paul and Barnabas—- believe that Gentile believers are
welcomed into the church as Gentiles. The resulting discussion leads to the Jerusalem
Council where important questions are being raised around salvation, ethnicity, culture,
Torah, and how the church will be faithful on its mission into the Gentile world. In 2022
we may not struggle with the idea of Gentile inclusion, but the question of how the
church can be unified through our differences has not gone away. So... how can we
experience unity in diversity? How can the church make space for a unity that
transcends and includes our differences? How can we make possible the vision of unity
that includes every tribe, tongue, and nation?