Mid-faith Crisis – Details, episodes & analysis

Yes! The brothers have reconciled and the podcast band is back together. So, in this week's show we talk about redeeming the word 'religion', what it is that we can give to the church, whether Jesus was a bit smitey (again) and in the words of one contributor, the 'ready brek feeling of the warmth that Jesus can bring with that desire to be a better human being'. Also, we touch on the dangers of satire and we start to discuss some aspects of a twenty-first century faith. Phew!

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• Mid-faith Crisis Facebook Page
• Nick's Blog

Mentioned in this episode:

• Sam's very long email on a twenty-first century faith
• Martin Buber

This week's episode is all about money. Why are we so embarrassed by it? Why do we fear dealing with it? Is ethical investing worth it? And do we really have to tithe? Thanks to Sian MacInnes FPFS for her great input on today's show.

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• Contact the podcast through your email machine
• Mid-faith Crisis Facebook Page
• Nick's Blog

Mentioned in this episode:

• eccr.org.uk (now the Just Money Movement)
• VouchedFor

We carry on our discussion about churches and church leadership. Do churches need visible locations? How do we preserve their communal identity without creating barriers that keep others out? And, crucially, when Jesus said 'where two are three are gathered' does that include rabbits? Also, we reflect more on bad behaviour in the church – but in this case on how many clergy are on the receiving end of bullying by church members. Which is why we have declared this Sunday to be the international 'Be Kind to Clergy' day!

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Mentioned in this episode:

• Nick Page at St Andrews Literature Festival 22 June 2024, Great Missenden, Bucks
• Rowan Williams, Being Christian - Baptism, Bible, Eucharist, Prayer

We explore the role of imagination in prayer, and how that can help us with a real relationship with God. Also why disputes might help us, whether worship song writers should go to sea, and whether there is such a thing as 'the great commission'.

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• The Mid-Faith Crisis week at Lee Abbey - Book Now!

Mentioned in this episode:

• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
• Downton Abbey: A New Era
• Paul Merson - A Walk Through My Life
• BBC young dancer 2022
• The Atlantic: Why The Past 10 Years Of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid

We think about why, throughout history, people have moved massive boulders in the name of religion. What boulders of doctrine or belief are we pushing uphill? And what are we building with them? Also Nick is conflicted about social media and we think about the possibility of multiple choice worship song lyrics.

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• The Mid-Faith Crisis week at Lee Abbey - Book Now!

Mentioned in this episode:

• Nick Page: The joy of the mid-faith crisis
• BBC - Living with the Gods
• Living with the Gods Talk
• Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now
• Buckminster Fuller
• Stonehenge
• Newgrange

Lots of questions this week. Why do we sing things we don't agree with? Have we misunderstood the writings of Paul? How do we know that God is love? What behaviour have we a right to expect from leaders? And will Nick ever remember the second point he was going to make?

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• The Mid-Faith Crisis week at Lee Abbey - Book Now!

Mentioned in this episode:

• Moon Knight
• Rebecca Solnit, Men Explain Things To Me
• The Shires
• I stand amazed
• Episode 175: An interview with Matt Hyam
• Steve Chalke, The Lost Message of Paul

A bit of a catch-up. Joe is back from holiday and Nick's been preaching over Easter. We chat about looking for the living among the dead, the discipline of hope and whether having one foot in the grave means that you're getting in or climbing out.

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• The Mid-Faith Crisis week at Lee Abbey - Book Now!

Mentioned in this episode:

• Enneagram Type Five
• Resurrection of Christ
• Serenity Prayer

Joe is on holiday, recording (a) via some flaky internet and (b) on the world’s worst mic, so apologies for that. But consider this is a little bonus episode. We have a chat about how we feel about Easter this year and how our celebrations of Christian festivals always reflect our emotional state.

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• The Mid-Faith Crisis week at Lee Abbey - Book Now!

Mentioned in this episode:

• Brant Hanson, Unoffendable
• Kathy Escobar, Faith Shift

This week a really crucial question: what does God actually do? If he's just love, what good is that? We talk about finding joy and power through our relationship with God. We talk about how metaphors create reality and, especially, how the metaphor of the church as Christ's body might be a bit more than metaphorical. It's been a sad week, so there are tears. But there are also elephants. So that's good.

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• The Mid-Faith Crisis week at Lee Abbey - Book Now!

Mentioned in this episode:

• Mary Oliver, Wild Geese
• Compton Verney
• Grayson's Art Club!

We explore the idea of taking responsibility for God's believability. If God is not going to intervene in a miraculous way, is it up to us? Also, we discuss the importance of enjoying joy whenever and wherever you find it. Not to mention the annoying nature of nostalgia (and, indeed, the annoying nature of Nick) and whether Vanilla Ice was a minor prophet.

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• Contact the podcast through your email machine
• The Mid-Faith Crisis week at Lee Abbey - Book Now!

Mentioned in this episode:

• onetreeplanted.org
• Chuckle Brothers
• Etty Hillesum
• Etty Hillesum, Sunday morning prayer
• Rowan Williams, Tokens of Trust
• Fun Boy Three. It Ain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It).
• Mary Oliver, Don’t Hesitate