Most Recent Podcasts #1
Episodes You Might Have Missed.
This is a special newsletter where I wanted to share some of my most recent podcasts. I hope you will listen to them and then share them with others.
The Death and Resurrection of Peace Lutheran Church
I first heard about Peace Lutheran Church in Lauderdale, MN from the now-defunct City Pages newspaper which had a story about this small congregation that was on the verge of closure but decided to offer home improvement services in their neighborhood. I won’t go as far as saying that what they did save the church, but it did give this congregation renewed focus and placed it at a much better place than it was. In this episode, I spoke to their Pastor Dave Greenlund about the story of Peace. The story of Peace is a familiar one not just in mainline Protestantism, but in American Christianity in general. As Christianity is decentered in our culture, how to do churches adapt? How do pastors adapt?
We Have Some Healing To Do (Rewind)
This is a solo episode I did back in March that I shared again for Thanksgiving. In our ever more polarized culture where politics is everything, there are a bevy of articles out there about how to talk to your Trump-loving uncle. Politics has become such an idol in our society that even the holidays are not free from polarization. I share a story from my past of two women at a church in Washington, DC who disagreed on a major issue of the day and yet remained friends. It’s a lesson for today, but also an elegy for things past.
As an addendum, here’s an SNL skit on the same issue in the form or a Target “ad:”
The Last of the Lutherans?
I may have shared this in a past issue, but I wanted to share it again because it’s a good podcast based on a good article. Dwight Zscheilie, a professor at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN (my alma mater) argued in a 2019 article that if things stayed the same, the Evangelical Lutheran Church would be down to 16,000 worshipping each Sunday denomination-wide, with extinction to come soon afterward. We talked about what got the ELCA and other mainline denominations to this point and what can be done about it.
What Christians Don‘t Get About Economics and Racism
This podcast is from early November. Christians sometimes don’t understand certain disciplines. If conservative Christians seem to have a problem with science, liberals seem to have a problem with economics. I spoke to Michael Kruse who is an economist and talks about how mainline Protestantism just doesn’t understand the economy and business and why this all matters. We finish off with why evangelicals are having such a hard time understanding racism.
Who Killed Sears and Kmart?
This podcast hails from the summer, but it’s an important episode right now. CNN reports that this truly might be the last Christmas we will see Sears and Kmart as more and more store locations are closed. The death of these two retailers is partly because of bad decisions on their part, but it’s also about how a hedge fund manager ran the combined company. I chatted with Warren Shoulberg, a retail journalist about how Sears is meeting its inevitable demise. This matters because finance in the form of hedge funds and private equity is causing a number of chains to go out of business. Please listen to this episode and then share it with others.
One final thing. Right now I have three reviews of the podcast on Apple Podcasts/iTunes. I’ve been asking and asking for folks to go and write a review and I need to say it again. The reason I ask it so much is that when people leave a review or rating makes it possible for others to find this podcast. I’d love to see more and more people get a chance to hear these episodes and you can help make that happen. I can make it easy for you by using the following link. It will allow you to go to your favorite platform and to write your review. Thank you so much in advance.
Watch this space for more articles soon. If you haven’t subscribed to Church and Main, consider doing it now. Happy Saturday!