Revolution Church

We’re back!...and we’re still in Galatians 4! Can you believe it? Out of any chapter, we’re still here. It’s been quite the journey from a section of the letter that we used to rush through to now being a part of the letter that we are enjoying enough to devote a few weeks to it—We’ll finish it up today so that next week we can start on Chapter 5! In today’s talk Jay spends some time talking about the importance of context when it comes to Biblical scholarship--Knowing when things were written, to whom, why was it written, and what the cultural dynamics of the time were. We live in different times now. Or course this doesn’t mean everything Paul said was okay. We have to remember that it is okay to disagree with Paul! Agreeing or disagreeing, it doesn’t change the fact that context is important. What does Paul mean when he says to die to our flesh, and to pick up our cross? Did it mean something different back then than it does today? Is salvation a miracle? Does who we are play any role in our salvation? This talk addresses these and more! This year our Galatians series has really been cooking, and we’re so very excited about it!This talk was given on April 7, 2024 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s Palm Sunday and we’re still on Galatians. Still in Chapter 4, even! This is something new for Revolution because this was a chapter that Jay always rushed through in the past. But even now, with decades of studying Galatians under his belt, Jay is still learning more and more about this letter that Paul wrote. And this year Jay saw this chapter in a whole new light—so it’s worth talking about for a few weeks! That’s why having good scholarship so important, because there is always something new to learn, and deeper depths to dive to, when it comes to the Bible. Because context matters. And learning all of that context helps us better understand scripture—especially when it comes to the letters of the New Testament. In order to have proper theology, we need to have proper scholarship. And if we want to make changes to the system, we need to learn the system better than the people teaching us. That’s how change is made, and old systems are broken. This talk is proof of that because spending two weeks on Galatians 4 isn’t something Jay ever saw coming, and yet here we are!This talk was given on March 24, 2024 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jay has been battling a cold, but all the same he’s excited to get back into Galatians! Revolution has always tried to be a place to help those who’ve fallen between the cracks—We’re excited with the work Revolution has done so far, and we’re inspired to continue to try and be Peace Makers. We finally made it to Galatians Chapter 4! It might have taken us the longest to do this year, but it’s our most in-depth study so far. The main take away of this talk and Paul’s whole letter to the Galatians was that everyone is included. He was trying to bring the community together. He wanted them to see that they are all one. And you can almost see Paul’s frustration in some of the writing in this letter. We’ve all been adopted into Grace, it’s for us all, no asterisk. Sometimes it feels like exclusion makes people feel powerful. To be on the inside of the in-crowd. To be separate. Maybe that’s why it happens, because people would rather exclude others instead of seeing all humanity as precious. It seems like somewhere along the way we lost sight of the real message of grace, but instead have stayed under the law—treating Christianity more like sin management, rather than loving one another, friends and enemies alike. We’re all guilty of it, and will fail at it again, and again after that. But soon, we’ll see each other as one, we’ll include others. And we’ll see just how precious it all is. This talk was given on March 17, 2024 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No Galatians today. Instead, Jay has been inspired to talk about peace and about making peace. We need to be aware of what we put out there. What we are quick to fire off in a comment, a DM, or a text. In arguments and off-the-cuff comments. Because not every victory means we’re winning, is fighting the good fight any good if we’re not changing hearts? How do we move on from things without destroying them as we leave? Why is there so much anger in Christianity? Are we walking the second mile that Jesus tells us to? And if we do, what’s our motivation behind it? Today Jay looks at a few places throughout the Bible. Both Old and New Testament. It takes a combination of both for us to come close to understanding what it means to have a peace that transcends understanding. Because anger and violence very rarely brings about any growth or any peace…or any understanding. But it’s more than that, there needs to be self-reflection in all of us too. We need to look inward and make sure the things we do and say don’t contain violence, because sometimes they do and we just don’t realize it. And when enough people are doing that all at once, not realizing it, well, that’s how we end up where we are today, and why we need talks like this. This talk was given on March 10, 2024 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It is tricky on whether to treat this as a stand-alone talk, or part of the Galatians series because it can easily be both. And it sort of is. You’ll get what we mean when you listen. This talk focuses mostly on just one verse in Galatians—Galatians 2.38. We feel it’s a good verse for how divided we are now. In this talk Jay discusses how it trying to bring people together takes patience. We have to let go of the feeling to want instant gratification, and brace for a longer haul. Patience and persistence. We have to ask ourselves who we love when we love God. In this talk Jay calls contradiction a beautiful truth. And he’s not wrong. Diversity is also a beautiful truth in that regard too. Unity through diversity seems like a contradiction, but really diversity is what is needed to have unity. Diversity of people, and diversity of the mind. Compromise and Tolerance are not bad words. They are strength and they are love. And it is all of these things together that tell us what fights are worth having, and how to fight them with what’s left after we die to ourselves. This talk was given on March 5, 2024 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here we are back in Galatians...sort of. If last week was Part 5 maybe we should call this one 5.1 or 5a because it is a bit of a curve ball. It fits together with the end of Galatians 3 where things get a bit more uncomfortable, but stick with us. It feels important that we talk about peace these days. It feels really really important. Because as Jay puts it in this talk we all seem to be stuck in a state of monologues, preaching to our own personal echo chambers and stating our views and then being done with it. But how can we switch from monologues to dialogues? How do we build a community? How do we disagree well? Today Jay brings in ideas from John Hume and MLK and what they did for civil rights and sort of applies it to what Paul writes about here in the end of this chapter. We want to try and heal, but all heal together. We want to die to ourselves and our own identities and see others as worthy of being human, just like us. Sometimes it feels like we're all a long way off from that reality, but we can't stop believing that it's possible, because we really do think it is. We can do it and do it together.  This talk was given on February 25, 2024 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’re back in Galatians again for the next in the series. We’re in chapter 3 today! This is the longest we’ve taken to go through this study—and we’re excited about that! Context is important. We like to really dive in, go over it with a fine-tooth comb. We love seeing all the ways that the people Paul was writing to were just like us, having the same struggles with faith, grace, and humanity. But we also see how much we’ve grown and evolved since then. An interesting thing about this chapter is how it shows us that people debating grace vs. law vs. works is nothing new. It was seemingly happening back then the same as it is now. So, in a lot of ways maybe we haven’t grown and evolved. Or maybe it’s a bit of both. This talk and study have been bringing up a lot of interesting discussions—is faith a gift, or something we earn? Does good scholarship lead to heresy? Is grace a slippery slope? What is counterfeit law? What is counterfeit love? This book and this study have been opening up a lot of new avenues for understanding Paul’s writing more and more. We know he’s not always the most popular guy in some Christian circles these days, but we think understanding the context of Paul as a person, and the time he lived in, can help clear up a lot of those misunderstandings. This talk was given on February 18, 2024 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our Galatians study has been so in-depth this year, and so jam-packed with new scholarship, that we’re taking a break this week. This way the other talks can settle, and Jay can get back to studying. But even though we’re taking a break from Galatians, that doesn’t me that Paul won’t still be present all throughout this talk. Today Jay is actually going to go through some scripture and verses that he just straight up does not like. Verses that that rub him the wrong way, or we at Revolution feel have been misrepresented. Mostly it’s scripture about conformity and nonconformity and what that means. What does “sober judgement” mean? What does Paul mean when he’s warning us about being self-important? Do we need to be part of groupthink in order to be part of that group? Does our misunderstanding of these passages accidentally make Jesus’s death in vain? What this world needs more than anything is love, and more love on top of that. But how can we make sure the love is real and not counterfeit love? Here at Revolution, aside from our love of Galatians, we feel strongly that the shift in a lot of todays culture gives Paul a bad rap. When he’s held to today’s rules and standards, he can seem problematic, for sure. But what happens when we add context and nuance back into it. What happens if we just let Paul be Paul. Is it too late to reclaim him? Because things are getting out of hand. We need to be the voices calling out in the wilderness if we want to see real change. We need to stop making our politicians into gods and we need to stop building our spiritual beliefs based on a certain party and their stance. Because that’s been the way of things for too long now, and society seems to have gotten to a place where we know more about what the church is against, rather that what it is for. And…well, that’s not very good news at all. How can we fix this?This talk was given on February 11, 2024 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the longest we’ve ever taken to get through the first 2 chapters of Galatians! That’s because Jay has learned so much new scholarship, and it unlocked all sorts of nuance and context and a deeper understanding for all of us. So, let’s get right into it! Today we’ll be talking about some pretty uncomfortable stuff at times, mainly the idea of Nationalism. This was something Paul was dealing with in his time just as we are dealing with it now. Just another example of how Galatians is just as relevant today as it’s ever been. We spend a lot of time today dissecting Paul’s rebuke of Peter. What was the whole story? Why does he do it? Did him and Peter have issues in the past? Was Paul just making a name for himself? Or was there something deeper than all of that that we aren’t aware of. Jay also discusses the idea, and dangers, of taking the Bible at face value. Something so many of us were taught to do—but can that lead to trouble, separation, and even hatred? Paul seems to be very uninterested in the life of Christ, putting more focus on the fruits of Jesus’s death and how it unites all of us. Makes us one. How his death stopped making us each others “other.” Jay also shares a great story about the moment Revolution Gathering was born thirty years ago. This is a real good one, folks!This talk was given on February 04, 2024 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here we are with more Galatians study! We have a lot to go through today. Jay’s continued studying and research really makes this study stand apart from other years, bringing a fresh take to our annual study. Paul gets a bad rap these days, mostly because when held up to the standards of today’s way of thinking he often feels problematic—but was Paul more progressive and ahead of his time than he gets credit for? Is he one of the most misunderstood authors of the New Testament? Is Paul’s humanity something we can be inspired by? In this chapter Paul calls out Peter about his behavior and his view of others. Calling into question Peter’s exclusivity and how what he was preaching didn’t fit with how he was living. What does Paul have to say about “important” people and social hierarchy? Is social hierarchy an issue we still struggle with today? Have politicians become gods? Is Grace out the door now? Do we only have room for judgement and division? How does thinking like that stake up with the idea of ‘taking up our cross?’—Like I said, this year’s study is something different and is uncovering a whole new set of questions. It’s exciting stuff!! We mean it when we say that we have a lot to go through today!This talk was given on January 28, 2024 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jay is back from Sundance Film Festival where they premiered the new documentary he worked on about his mom Tammy Faye. Jay shares with us some stories about Sundance and the people he met and which celebrities he had some close encounters with. He also takes some time to reflect on some of the friends we lost last year and how this documentary brough up some of that pain. The best way to help with that pain is to dive right into the Book of Galatians! A book of love and grace! This is part 2 of the Galatians series. Jay’s never broken up the first chapter into multiple talks like he has this year, but we want something new, and he’s been learning all sorts of new and interesting stuff about this letter to the Galatians—so this study is not like the previous years. While Jay was interacting with the Hollywood crowd in Sundance, he observed their exclusivity too and it struck him that Christianity gets a reputation for being exclusive, but humanity as a whole is pretty exclusive. So it is up to us to change that and to be inclusive. This is some of the stuff Paul talks about in his writings as well. Before his conversion on the road to Damascus, Paul wasn’t the best person out there. In his religious zeal he hurt people, destroyed communities, sown discourse—what makes this letter very interesting is see how Paul learned from his own past and changed. And now he’s writing to a divided community to try and stop them from doing what he was once responsible for doing himself. It really adds a whole new layer to this study.This talk was given on January 21, 2024 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s a new year, so we’re back at it with our annual Galatians study to kick it off! This year Jay brings new study materials and new scholarship — continuing to unlock more and more that this letter has to offer. There is something unsettling that the issues addressed in this letter by Paul are still so relevant to us today. But that makes it just as timely and just as helpful as ever. The Galatians study continues to teach us more and more about grace, while still asking some really important questions. Is there such a thing as grace, or is it just a scam to justify and excuse our own sins? Is the Bible perfect? What was God’s role in the process of writing and assembling it? Is doubt the opposite of faith? Is doubt an aspect of faith? This letter was written to a community that was completely divided, and it was Paul’s way of reaching out to try and help repair it. That’s why we continue to study it because we still need the help. And each year we learn more and more, helping us all grow more and more. It’s a really great thing.Note: Apologies for the lower audio quality this week. Even though it’s not too bad, we’re still not sure what happened, and we were unable to fix it. We’re going to try our hardest to pinpoint the problem and hopefully keep it from happening again.This talk was given on January 7, 2024 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Apologies for the brief delay on this week’s talk. Josh has been fighting with Covid all week which made editing the video not the easiest feat. But it’s here now and what a way to close out the year. For the last talk of 2023 Jay is going into the book of James! I know, we couldn’t believe it either. But he is and he knocks it out of the park. James is a tricky book, not really because what it says, but a lot of because of how it’s taught and used. Have almost 100% of pastors—including Jay—gotten this book wrong? Today Jay dives into this particular book to talk about the dangers of showing partiality. Are the rich treated differently? By everyone? Are we just as guilty? The Bible, especially the Gospels, talk about loving people equally…but do we do that? Can we do that? How do we love people the best we can? What we tend to know the most about the book of James is when it talks about ‘faith without works,’ but what does that mean? Do the themes of James and the themes of punk rock share similar roots? Is Ian MacKaye a modern-day Paul? And most importantly, can we make life a little bit less of a hell for people by simply focusing on life before death, before we worry about life after death. I’m telling you, this is a great talk. No better way to finish out the year, and no better talk to lead into our 2024 Galatians Study!!This talk was given on December 31, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s Christmas Eve and Jay has a great one for us today. This talk is a pretty positive one too, go figure! Our talks don’t always have this much of a positive spin on them, so when it does happen, we try to take full advantage of them. And Jay is excited about this one. Today’s talk is about looking at the difference between arguing well and disagreeing well. What does each of those mean. We used to treat them as being pretty similar but maybe they aren’t. Does learning how to disagree well need to come before learning how to argue well? Is it harder to argue well or disagree well? Maybe learning to disagree well should be our starting point. Jay also gets into the topic of love and the different kinds of love mentioned in the Bible. Have things changed to a point where we find our friends loving us more as family, and family as friends? Is it harder to argue/disagree well with people we love than it is with strangers? How important is learning to let go in the practice of disagreeing well? Jay talks about all of this stuff and more. If I was to write out every gem he hits on in this talk, this description would go on for pages and pages. Enjoy the talk and happy holidays!!This talk was given on December 24, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Revolution is coming up on its 30th year!! So Jay reflects a little bit on that, and shares some good news as we catch up on what’s been going on with him. Then he dives into the talk, and Jay is back and more inspired!! So, with feeling so inspired after 30 years, Jay’s talk today is about…inspiration! Has Christianity lost its inspiration? What inspires us to do what we do? How do we inspire others to argue well? Can we even inspire others? Do we use more fear than inspiration? Jesus tried to inspire us to almost live in a different world, to behave differently and to love in a different way and it’s not always easy. The Bible isn’t very often teaching us many easy lessons. The Bible is something we have to wrestle with and negotiate with, something we have to engage with actively. Especially if we want to use it for love and inspiration.This talk was given on December 17, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s talk isn’t really a sequel the “The Hell Talk” series that started a few weeks back, but it’s pretty darn close. Today Jay talks a lot about Radical Honesty. Radical Honesty is something we need if we want to have Radical Grace—the two go hand in hand. The church as a whole stopped the practice of Selling Indulgences, but Jay sometimes wonders if the church still it does, but it’s just hidden better. Maybe it takes a different form? But is it all the same? Does our theology have us accidentally creating monsters by how we treat and relate to each other? Jay asks us to look at ourselves and ask: What Have We Become? Is grace amazing? Or have we made it only semi-amazing? Are we showing radical grace to people? Are we relating to them with radical honesty? If we could pluck someone from the tortures of Hell, would we? And if so…does that open up a very messy can of worms for our theology? Today’s talk is a good one! It has some people divided, but that’s okay. We don’t want to push anyone away—but we want the type of hard, honest conversations where sometimes that is unavoidable. Those conversations can be rough, but it’s where the change happens. It’s where the magic happens.This talk was given on December 3, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s talk is about honesty! About what honesty means in Christianity. What honesty is like when you grow up in the church. Do we have a low regard for honesty? Have we compromised the Truth so we can continue to believe what we believe and to stay comfortable? Would we rather have certainty over honesty? That is at the heart of this talk. All of that. But Jay also shares memories and stories of the impact that his friend Carlton Pearson had on his life. And how Carlton helped Jay see the Fruits of the Spirit even in the midst of extreme darkness. And isn’t that the whole point of it? The whole point of everything? To help us see that. To help us learn that tradition and theology don’t count for much of anything if there are people out there suffering—friends, strangers, and enemies alike. And isn’t that the true point of Christianity? To help those who are in need. To help those who are suffering? Revolution isn’t that concerned with the afterlife. We want to focus on life before death. Because there is a whole lot of living that that needs to be done before we can think of any life beyond it. This talk was given on November 26, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We have a lot to get into today! Yes, today’s talk brings into question a lot of issues with the late stage of capitalism we find ourselves in now, but there is more to it than just that. Today we’re learning more about contradictions, and we’re learning about growth. We all change and grow, and we should! But let’s not be too quick to forget our old selves, because empathy really comes into play when we remember what we used to be like and how we used to think—and we use that memory and the person we were, and we add that to who we are now. That is how we start having good conversations! Today’s talk also deals with both how we “other” people, but also how we tend to “other” ourselves with labels and identities. This talk isn’t real clear cut, it’s about having a nonbinary way of thinking. Seeing more than just our side of an argument or discussion. Because while we’re fighting each other, the whole system is crushing us! But we outnumber the bullies. Together we can do this! It’s our hope that today’s talk will be a good step in starting to liberate us from bondage, liberate us from hate, and liberate us from “othering.”  We hope this talk helps us find the Tammy Faye in all of us. We’re all going through enough, we don’t need to keep hurting ourselves or each other on top of it. This talk was given on November 19, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The world is a pretty horrible place right now, so today’s talk going to be a heavy one. And there is almost no Bible in this talk. Today Jay will be talking about love, more specifically Agape Love. Agape Love is a term that makes some of us cringe, we’ve heard it used and abused. So it’s not the most comfortable topic to dive into. Are Love and Grace siblings? What is Agape Love and how is it different than the love we know? Does Love outweigh scripture? Can we love our enemy and still have them remain our enemy? So, as you can see, it is an interesting topic to discuss especially in these times. It’s going to be a tough one and if you don’t want a deep dive into this topic, or if you want to have an asterisk next to Grace then this might not be a talk for you this week, and that’s okay…but we hope you do listen. This talk was given on November 5, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The other parts of Jay’s Hell Talk are still being developed and researched, so this week we’re taking a bit of a break from the Hell series and just hear some stuff that has been weighing heavy on Jay recently. No sermon, he’s just sharing his humanity this week. Critics often help feed us, here at Revolution. They fuel us a lot. But the stuff they say still hurts and still sucks. Jay shares some of his experience with that. He reminds us that when we attack people, we hurt people. Plain and simple as that. We can’t forget that we’re all just human beings. Jay also talks about distraction and division, and questions if religion has become too dangerous. He asks us to question why we don’t allow ourselves to hear and to listen. Why are we scared of communication? What is the essence of humanity? And if Jesus was here today, what would he say?This talk was given on October 29, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We got the start of something real interesting going here! A multi-part in-depth study on Hell. Yes, the Hell. But it’s not the study you think. It’s a study where we really dive into the concept, origin, and histories of Hell. Growing up in church, very often asking questions is discouraged. But now we can ask questions, and we should ask questions, and not be afraid to! None of Paul’s writings mention Hell and they were written closer to Jesus’s time than the Gospels were. That offers up some very interesting questions to us, and questions are okay—What does Jesus talk about when he talks about Hell? Jay dives into a little bit of that today as well. Does the concept of Hell fly in the face of the Beatitudes? What do we love when we love God? Is the suffering we witness today Hell on Earth? Why is Hell defended and championed so much? Why does everyone want to send everyone else to Hell all the time? It’s time to reexamine some of the things and theology we’ve turned into golden calves. Revolution has always tried to focus on living before death and living well, more then it ever did on the thought of an After Life. But this is a topic well worth diving into, and that’s what we’re going to do.Please note: Today’s talk is just the basics. It’s just setting the foundations for the series as a whole and some of the concepts that will be talked about in the future. We’re not going that in-depth today. We understand this is a very complex topic. This talk is just the base work. Some of it may sound too over simplified, we get that, but this is just part 1!This talk was given on October 22, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alright folks, let’s hit this. Today’s description is going to be short. Why? Because the talk says it all and says it better than I can paraphrase it. Terrible things are happening in the world. We try to encourage people to talk and discuss and even disagree but to do that well. And we get A LOT of pushback for it. We seem to be stuck in a world of binary thinking, where every topic only has two answers or two ways of looking at it. There is no room for complications or nuance. But people are complicated and nuanced. It’s rough. Jay is just letting it rip today, a controlled, but honest and passionate talk. About life, about Revolution, about hurt and trauma, about arguing and disagreeing. Jay lays all the cards out on the table. He covers so much here and it’s really great. Enjoy this talk and embrace the honesty of it. Embrace the rawness of it. And embrace the grace in it.This talk was given on October 15, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It was too hard to swing service last week, but we’re back! And this week Jay has a great talk about love. About perfect love, which we can never achieve, but if we try, truly try, we’ll all be better for it. It’s impossible to talk about love and not reference Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. Yes, it’s not just for weddings! But the focus today isn’t on the wedding ceremony or love that we feel at the beginning of a relationship—but rather the love we have for family members…that really, really, difficult love. The love that takes effort and patience and preparation and breathing. Because THAT is a lot closer to what love is. At least that’s how it seems. But the thing about that sort of love, is that Paul says that if we don’t have it, if we don’t try, then everything else we do is useless. Is that true? Are we useless without love? Can we achieve perfect love as human beings? This is where it gets hard to navigate. The anger we have for others, even people we truly care about, we won’t carry around forever—it feels like it, but we won’t always be angry…so how do we navigate these relationships and interactions while we are still stuck in that anger? Can we still feel and practice love in those moments? And everyone, we get it, we do. We know it is a BIG ask when we say to disagree well and to love others. It’s super hard. It’s hard for us just as much as it is for you. It’s a big ask…but that is why we ask it. Because with loving others—and not hating others—the effort is important. Because we will fail, and we’ll kick ourselves and be hard on ourselves. But trying is such a big part. Effort is such a big part. This sort of love isn’t naturally felt, at least we don’t think so. Remember, it's progress, not perfection. Let’s focus on that. Let’s have faith in that. Let’s put our hope in that. Because faith, hope, and love endure.This talk was given on October 8, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jay is back from a brief trip to L.A. for the celebration of life memorial for Steve Pieters. He shares some stories about the trip and the service and gives us some extra looks into the life of such an extraordinary person! After that Jay jumps into the topic this week – Reformation! The talk connects to his last talk and we revisit Jesus’s words in the book of Matthew and why the simple phrase of “you’ve heard it said…” is such a big deal. Jay tells us, also, what he feels is vital for a reformation through the church: Grace (always, of course), Biblical Scholarship, Philosophy, and Psychology. This is the space that Revolution Gathering tries to settle in. A cross-section of all of those things. We have a lot of ideas that we think can really help lead to a reformation, and that is what makes us press on! But it’s not always as easy as all that. Grace will, at some point, always piss us off. Why? Because it applies to everyone across the board. Even the people we don’t want it too, just as it covers us when they don’t want it to. Jay dives into a bit of Hegel and discusses, among other things, what do our enemies look like? What does it mean to have enemies? Doesn’t it often seem that when we pull off the mask of our enemy that they usually just turn out to be some variation of ourselves? Is that why we struggle with them? Because they often reflect ourselves back to us? Does this realization change the conditions of our fights and arguments? What is contradiction? Is contradiction the basic fact of all beings? Jay explores these things, and more, through Todd McGowan, who explores these things, and more, through Hegel—and it makes it a lot more accessible to us. Let’s bring these ideas together and go to some place new!This talk was given on September 24, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we have a special guest speaker, Zoë! And the talk sure is a good one! Jay is in L.A. this week attending the memorial service for our dear friend Steve Pieters. Zoë was able to step up and help us out! Zoë starts their talk by sharing some memories and stories about Steve and the person he was and the legacy he leaves. Zoë then dives into the topic of Biblical Scholarship—expanding on some of Jay’s most recent talks. What does it mean to look at Biblical Scholarship? What does it mean to think differently about the Bible? What does it mean to consider ourselves a Christian while being willing to look at the Bible or the dogmas of Christianity with a critical eye? Zoë goes onto discuss how the same Bible has been used to both justify, and fight against, various injustices in the world—how can the Bible do both at the same time? Does the Bible speak in one voice? What does it mean to renegotiate? Can we learn challenging things and still be able to walk in our faith? Then Zoë goes on to tell us some parables! To try and sum the stories up seems to defeat the purpose, so I’ll end this here so you all can go listen! Thank you Zoë for a great talk!This talk was given on September 17, 2023 from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Seems like recently Jay’s talks have been inspired by memes…and this week is no different. This week a quote from Gary Oldman sparked some online discussion and that discussion sparked this talk. Today Jay addresses our inability to argue well, and our inability to disagree without hating each other. We always want an asterisk when it comes to grace—who it’s for and who it’s not. But what if the people that don’t see us, the people that don’t agree, what if they are the people we should be talking to. What would have happened if someone like Dr. King didn’t talk to people that refused to see his humanity. The Beatitudes talk about a peacemaker. What is the peacemaker’s role in the beatitudes? There is no conflict avoidance for the peacemaker. We need to talk to people we don’t agree with. We need to figure out nuance and boundaries and the doors in those boundaries for communication later on down the road. Because why is it the only thing that brings conservatives and liberals together is an inability to talk to each other and their ability to scapegoat each other? Have we gone crazy? Are we insane?This talk was given on September 10, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s talk is a real good one. A bit off the beaten path, maybe—but it’s a discussion worth having. Today Jay really focuses in on statistics. Statistics vs. The Individual. We know maybe “statistics” isn’t the right word, but it’s the best fitting one we could think of. Jay discusses how society, as a whole, seems to want us boiled down to being a number, a statistic. They don’t see anything past that. They want to group us by gender or non-gender, by race, by religion. But we need to go deeper than that. We need to be more than numbers. We need to be diverse in all ways. More nuanced ways. Not just boiled down to some category made so everyone fits into the same molds. The reality that we’re living in is tough, but that’s where the diversity of thought can help. We all don’t have to agree, we all don’t have to see eye to eye. We just need to get to a place where we know that just because someone disagrees with us, they don’t need to be our enemy. Revolution loves nuance and wants to help give everyone, including ourselves, the tools needed to think and to change and to grow. Revolution is compelled by grace—despite success or failure. Let’s go deeper and find what helps us not feel like a statistic! Let’s go deeper!This talk was given on September 3, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here at Revolution we are always trying to do our best to live life on life’s terms, but sometimes it’s just tough. We’re feeling weary these days. But we’re honest about our struggles and how it gets hard to keep the faith, how it gets harder to love our neighbors. We still press on, though. And we hope us sharing our struggles might help others to know they aren’t alone. That, together, we can encourage each other to love one another. Even though it seems bleak, and it seems like we’re all getting crushed by impossible standards, and a broken system, we try to keep our focus on seeing everyone as human. To live together as human beings! Isn’t that the simplest form of Christianity? To see each other has human and to care about each other?This talk was given on August 27, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s another week where we just jump right into it! Today Jay’s talk is inspired by two memes he saw on Instagram. When you’ve gotten to a place where memes inspire your talks, is that a good thing or a bad thing? We’re not sure but we went for it anyway! The memes referenced the ideas of love and legalism in Christianity. The two things that cause most of the problems, if not all of them. Have we gotten to a place where politicians effect our theology more than theologians and scholarship? Have we veered too far off course as the Church—Capital C Church. Is reformation possible? Can we stop the us/them mentality and scapegoating? We think a modern day reformation is possible—a way to live in the friction. It won’t be easy and it’s a lot of hard work and tough conversations and setting boundaries…but boundaries with doors built into them. A way to disengage but keep the channels open. We need to embrace critical thinking! It’s easier to throw someone away, but we don’t want that. We want love and we want grace. We want to focus on scholarship. Good scholarship is transformative. It's time to destroy our idols and get back to a place of love and acceptance! This talk was given on August 13, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sorry for the delay with this week’s episode, I [Josh] had some pressing family matters that needed to be attended to, and that slowed down me getting this out to everyone, but here we are! And it’s a good one, worth the wait for sure! This week Jay gets right into it! And this week he’s talking about Hegel! Hegel thought that Christianity offered a philosophical insight that other religions did not—mostly due to the idea of a Divine Humiliation. What is Divine Humiliation? What is the difference between humility and humiliation? Can humiliation do anything for us? Help us in anyway? These are some of the issues Jay discusses this week. He also dives into the different ideas of Christian focus, weighing the idea of the Crucified Christ vs the idea of the Risen Christ. This opens up some very interesting avenues of thought—Does only focusing on the Risen Christ take away some of the essence of Christianity? What is the importance of Jesus’ scars? What does it mean for the infinite to show itself to be finite? How can God’s loss on the cross, God’s willing to be divided and humiliated, and the idea of Jesus feeling forsaken help us in our lives and struggles and our will to keep driving forward? Does it help us relate to Jesus more? Jay and Hegel don’t have all the answers—they might not even have most—but together they pose questions that really give us food for thought. Full serving, hefty portions of food for thought. Of course there is always some discomfort in these questions and ideas, but that is okay. It’s okay to feel uncertain, or uncomfortable. That is all part of the journey. Let’s try not to pull back from it, but dive into it and see what helps us. Find what gives us hope and strength in our lives. We can’t get to that point if we’re too scared to venture out of our comfort zone. This talk shows us it’s okay to have questions and a desire to learn more. It’s a good one! This talk was given on August 6, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hard times recently. Hard times. Each talk for the last few weeks, shortly before the talk is given, something big happens that derails it and leaves us bewildered and confused and tired. We had the passing of Steve, and the anniversary of Tammy Faye’s passing. We have the death of Sinead O’Connor, followed up by the death of Paul Rubens. All of these people have had a huge huge role in both Jay’s life and work. And the merging of the two. It’s no wonder that the first words Jay wrote for this talk were ‘Burnt Out.’ Because that is how it feels. Rough week after rough week. That feeling of ‘it’s just one of those weeks,’ but…forever. It’s hard to power through sometimes. But the slight sliver of a silver lining in all of this chaos and tragedy is that it forces us to reflect on the time we have left and how to use it wisely. To look at our behavior and the behavior of those around us and question what fruit it bears. To question if the rat race is worth it. To take the time and figure out our passions and our callings and find what brings us life! Finding our purpose. Grace isn’t an easy thing and just because we try and practice it, doesn’t mean it will be shown to us. But let’s do everything we can to not let that lead us into biting and devouring each other. Of biting back twice as hard as we got bit. Because we ALL fall short. ALL OF US. It’s equal footing—they’re bad, you’re bad, and we’re bad. So let’s try to be humble, let’s try to unlearn and relearn. And let’s try to live and behave with a purpose. A purpose that bears fruit. Fruits of grace and love. If we all fall short, that means we’re all in this together. Let’s keep helping each other. This talk was given on July 31, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week’s talk wasn’t really planned, but that’s how things go sometimes. With the loss of Steve and the world getting worse and driving all of us a little insane, if not more than a little, Jay got to thinking about his mom and about her favorite verses. Then add on the 16th anniversary of her passing and there was no way Jay could focus on anything else but her, and boy was it needed. It’s great to see some of the innerworkings of the verses and attitude and mindset that drove her to become who she was, and how that made her legacy still continue on to this day. And in revisiting some old notes left by Tammy Faye, we get to see her still encouraging Jay (and all of us) all these years later. Because we could all use a little Tammy in our lives now. Remember, it’s no small thing to be staying afloat in these times, as the world just seems to keep crumbling and getting worse. And everyone is so angry and mean. We need love and grace, and a kind voice to remind us of these things. Jay reads some of Tammy’s favorite verses from some of Paul’s letters and also reminds us that it’s okay to rest in the beauty of the simplicity of these things. We don’t always need to be deconstructing or knocking down everything all the time. Somethings are beautiful and some things are simple. And some things are just beautifully simple. And it’s okay to just rest in that from time to time. This talk was given on July 23, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We lost a good man. Last week we got the news that our dear friend Steve Pieters passed away. Jay wasn’t able to speak that week, so this week he comes with the talk about the life and legacy of Steve. He talks about who Steve was as a person. Who he was as a pastor. Who he was for his community. And who Steve was as a friend. Jay takes us on a bit of a journey through time and we learn about some of the way Jay never felt normal and never felt like himself. How he had struggles embracing his differences, and how in the midst of all this his mom had an interview with a man back in 1985 when Jay was only 9 years old and not only did that interview change Jay’s life but in many many ways it changed the world. That is the way that Steve Pieters ends up in Jay’s life, where he would remain for close to 40 years. A man that was a friend, a parent, a grandparent and a teacher. A man that showed that there exists a love that is beyond fear. There is so much to say about Steve and about this talk, but instead of rambling on and on, let’s let the talk do all of the talking this time. Thank you for everything Steve. You are beyond loved and beyond missed. This talk was given on July 16, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did you know that the Gospels all tell the same story as each other, and they aren’t 4 parts of a bigger story? Maybe you did, but a lot of people don’t know that. And that’s what gave Josh the idea for today’s talk of going over the basics of the Bible. It occurred to him just how much he took for granted is common knowledge and what isn’t when it comes to the Bible. So this morning we take some time to really dive in. How many books are there in the Bible, how are they broken down, how are they read, what are all these numbers, what are the different categories of writing. What is the Bible? Is it closer to Game of Thrones than it is to being a book of laws and judgement? What does any of this have to do with 30 Rock and the Rocky movies? This talk might be rudimentary to some but hopefully it’s intriguing and interesting to all. That’s the hope at least. The talk is a little on the longer side today as we spend a few minutes before service starts to talk about the passing of our dear dear dear dear friend Steven Pieters. It was a rough way to wake up to news of that. He was great beyond words and his legacy will far outlive us all. A great man who did great things and helped so many people. To say he’ll be missed is such a tremendous understatement. All of our love to his family and each other. So heartbreaking. It was comforting to be able to talk a bit about him and his impact on our lives and community. Let’s never stop talking about that. Thank you always, Steve. This talk was given on July 9, 2023 from Long Island, New York.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Apologies for the delay everyone! Holidays get like that sometimes. But here it is, and it’s a good one! Some people might claim we are overstating this, but sincerely this talk feels like it can be Revolutionary. Or at least close to it. Maybe even the start of something. This talk might make some people uncomfortable, but that is not the intention. If it makes you feel uneasy, please just sit with it a bit. Think on it. And if you still are uncomfortable, please please dive into some scholarship and some studies, and please let us know where we might have missed the mark or help us understand something we might have overlooked or misunderstood. Please try not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Because Revolution Gathering wants to be a place for different ideas, different studies. It’s why we don’t call ourselves a church anymore, or Jay a pastor—because often times, especially recently it seems, Christians have been acting like a bunch of jerks. Judgmental and scapegoating. We don’t want to be a part of that. Today Jay discusses the book of Revelation. Oh man that’s a rough book, but Jay was up to the challenge. Jay is wondering if maybe the expectations the people had at the time of the coming Messiah were not met. They wanted a more physical, conquering king. A zealot that would overthrow the government and help rise up against their oppressors…but instead they get a man telling them to love and forgive. To treat enemies like friends. Who wants to hear that? I know that sounds like a joke, but seriously, when you’re being crushed by an oppressor who wants to hear that? Especially when you’ve been waiting for a Deliverer. So Jay is looking at the Book of Revelation and trying to find how it lines up with the Christ of the New Testament. It certainly feels like the Old Testament God full of fire and wrath comes back at the end of the New Testament, but is this the case? Is this book a prophecy? Is it a revenge fantasy? Is it a misunderstanding of who God is? Is it wishful writing of how the people of the time wished the Messiah would had acted? What is real? Does the book of Revelation make it harder to love each other? Does it give more fear than love? It’s a struggle, and maybe we’ll never know. But let’s remember to be patient and kind. Let’s remember that some of the more legalistic aspects people hold so tight are things they’ve been taught their whole lives, and that isn’t the easiest to unlearn. It takes time. And it is scary. Remember there is a lot of humanity in our faith! We can’t lose sight of that. Let’s remember what Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “People are not our enemy. Misinformation is our enemy.”This talk was given on July 3, 2023 from Seattle, WA.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we just kick right into the talk, no real monologue or catch-up. Jay picks up where the last talk ended…sort of. An unofficial continuation. Today Jay uses the idea from last week of Kierkegaard’s philosophy of the individual and how if we judge people only on the fraction of their lives and personalities that we see then we are in dangerous territory. Judging brings about more judgement. Judging others opens us up for people to judge us based on the fractions of our personalities. Jay then dives into Jesus’s discussion on specks and logs. How we often focus on the splinter in someone else’s eye and ignore the big plank sticking out of our own. We ignore the fraction in our own eye. Love covers a multitude of sins, but does it cover a multitude of specks? A multitude of fractions? Is that what grace really is? Hate is easy. Judging is easy. This is the hard work. This is the going against the grain. To look past these specks in their eye and see the person in front of us, the human being in front of us. It’s very punk rock to love everyone and to show everyone grace. And if you know anything about Revolution you know we love punk rock, so let’s do the hard work.This talk was given on June 25, 2023 from Seattle, WA.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We have a bit of a delayed talk this week. It was a real busy few days with wrapping up some of the loose ends with the big move, Father’s Day, and Juneteenth—but hey, better late than never! Today’s talk is a bit off the beaten path. Today Jay talks a lot about Kierkegaard and what it means to think and act as individuals, rather than fall into scary groupthink. Jay discusses the strange truths we have, and how often we have an assumption that anyone, or any thought, that is in the majority is automatically true. But is that always the case? Can there be a fear or an agenda in the majority that infects its way through the crowd. Is a crowd the untruth? Jay also takes Kierkegaard’s ideas and takes a look at some of Jesus’ teachings, as well as Paul, to see what they say about the individual. Because groupthink keeps us from living our best lives in so many ways. A lot of the division we have these days is because of focusing on whole groups of people, rather than individuals. It can be hard to love a crowd, it’s real easy to hate a crowd. But it’s a bit easier to love an individual. To not turn the individual into a fraction of who they are. Obviously, a group or community can be a very beautiful thing. Very beautiful. But let us remember too that a crowd is composed of individuals. So let’s not turn other people in fractions of who they are. Or as Jay puts it Let’s live a life that confuses the algorithm.This talk was given on June 20, 2023 from Seattle, WA.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jay is all moved and back at it! It was a hell of a move and full of ups and downs…probably mostly downs. But it’s done and it’s good! A sad reality of life is that sometimes life just sucks and sometimes you just have to talk about it. Due to moving around a lot as a kid, moving brings up a lot of past feelings for Jay. Add on today’s current climate and…we’ll it’s been a bit rough recently. Today’s talk has a lot to do with disagreeing well and with arguing well. Grace doesn’t come with an asterisk, but maybe disagreeing/arguing well does. It’s often easier to argue well with a stranger than it is with someone you know and someone you love—a friend or family member. Jay is having his ‘practice what you preach’ skills tested to their limits these last few weeks. Today he talks a bit about a phone call he had with his dad! A call 4-years in the making! Jay talks about other tough conversations he’s had recently as well. He reflects on those conversations and tries to grade himself on how he did. Did he argue well? Did he show grace? Jay also touches on the passing of Pat Robertson and the feelings that brought up in him as well. It’s a high energy, very raw discussion today. Sometimes that’s just needed.This talk was given on June 11, 2023 from Seattle, WA.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jay is up to his eyeballs with his big move, so rather than having to find a way to come up with a talk, Josh is filling in so Jay has room to breathe for a bit! Today’s talk is inspired by a line from Elton John’s song Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. It’s about going back to a simpler time. An easier time. The strange thing about Christianity, though, is that we’ve gotten to a place where ‘progress’ is actually further behind us. It’s back back. Back to Jesus and Peter and Paul talking about grace and equality. So, the way we go forward at Revolution is to go backwards. Back to a time before the corruption set in. To a time where the belief structure was just about loving and accepting people and being aware that the old laws of the Bible are crushing us—just like it crushed everyone that came before us. To help demonstrate the dangers of taking the Bible literally and living in the way of legalism, we take a strange journey to show the complicated path the Bible took to be written in English. And how many links in the chain there were between that and getting the Bible to America. This doesn’t diminish anything, and it doesn’t take away from the Bible. All it shows is how it makes no real sense to take it so literally. There were too many cooks in the kitchen for thousands of years, including misprints and plenty of people being burned at the stake. The Bible is incredible, and we lose a lot of that when we force it to be literal and we force legalism into our lives. Today we also talk about Elijah, Elisha, Shawn Michaels, Final Fantasy 7, and the movie The Darjeeling Limited. It’s a fun one!This talk was given on June 4, 2023 from Long Island, NY.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The world is kind of screwy and we’re gonna head there a bit today. The bulk of Jay’s talk today explores some passages in 1 John. Because, besides all of the confusion and anxiety of life these days with politics and hate and fear and war—Jay is adding moving to a new apartment on top of all of that! And in the end, it seems despite our effort and drive to power through, life still seems pointless more often than not. And because of that apathy sneaks its way in more than we’d ever care for it. Today Jay’s real question is “What are we doing to get through this everyday?” That’s why a focus on 1 John today is really helpful. Because it talks a lot of how true love casts out fear and it casts out hate. We learn that to truly love God, we can’t hate our neighbor. It just doesn’t work. So when we’re all in a bit of darkness and we’re all struggling…and our leaders have become so petty and pathetic with each other, things just do not feel safe. It all feels so dark and overwhelming. But if we all help each other, lean on each other, love each other. Then that lets a lot of light into our really dark world.This talk was given on May 21, 2023 from Seattle, WA.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy Mother’s Day everyone! Today’s talk is a little weird but that’s okay because Jay’s gotta be Jay. After a brief continuation and further thoughts/developments of last week’s talk, Jay jumps into what our focus is with Revolution—learning to have the tough conversations. Trying to stop ‘othering’ others. We say ‘trying’ because it’s not easy, we all struggle. But sometimes trying goes a lot further than we think. So let’s keep trying. Let’s try to overcome binary thinking. Let’s try to come together. Revolution is trying to bring people together while our politicians and social media try to manipulate and divide. Giving this immense pressure to be something we’re not. It seems that even people who want us to be different and unique…want us to be different and unique just like them—hate who they hate, love who they love, hold sacred what they hold sacred. But we’re all human. And humans are nuanced. When did we lose the nuance? When did we become so legalistic? It’s important to set boundaries, but maybe our boundaries come with a door or window, something that helps us mend relationships in the future. But, hey, let’s not forget it’s Mother’s Day! Let’s see what Tammy Faye has to say about it! Jay reads an excerpt from I Gotta Be Me, and it sums up everything perfectly—as only Tammy Faye can. Happy Mother’s Day! This talk was given on May 14, 2023 from Seattle, WA.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Like so many of our talks recently, this one wasn’t the one that was planned. But our original plans got derailed once again by a national tragedy. And that tragedy almost always seems to be another mass shooting in America. We are so sick of it. We’re sick and we’re heartbroken. We’re in danger everywhere we go. Jay’s talk this week is short. And it’s raw. Because enough is enough! These shooters don’t care about our politics, at all. They don’t only kill liberals, or adults, or people of color. We’re all equal in our danger. So when all of this is happening, how do we love our neighbor? How does that fit into this? If the book of James says that ‘faith without works is dead,’ then where does only offering up thoughts and prayers fit in? Something more needs to be done. We need to choose people over religion. We need to love each other and not let religion get in the way. We need something, because this can’t go on. This talk is raw and uncensored. Normally, I (Josh) take time to edit out any or the harsher words that might slip out in emotion or frustration. It didn’t seem right with this one. Enough is enough. This talk was given on May 7, 2023 from Seattle, WA.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Todays talk is a bit heady and philosophy heavy, but it’s a good one! After studying and listening to some Todd McGowan, Jay starts to really break down the idea of separation and what Paul means when he talks about “…for all have sinned.” Often times we’ve heard that as a way to make us feel bad, or to emphasize how much we rely on salvation, but what Jay discusses is: What if what it means is we’re all equal? Similar to what Paul says in Galatians about there being no Jew nor gentile. If sin is separation, and grace is reunion – then by saying ‘for all have sinned,’ really we can look at it that we’re all just as separated. We’re all coming from the same place. We’re all starting on a level playing field. That we’re all outcasts! Together! It gives us a common ground, together. And that’s a start to getting rid of the concept of ‘other.’ If we see that nobody belongs, then it stops us from fighting about who belongs. When Jesus is sharing a meal with Matthew and is questioned about the company he kept, he told them that he came to help the sick, not those who think they aren’t. He came to help the separated, not those who feel they aren’t. Let’s live in the imperfection and the contradiction of it all! And realize that that’s the meat of living.This talk was given on April 30, 2023 from Seattle, WA.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jay gets a little serious this week and shares with us his first personal experience with Christianity and how that led him to where we are today and what Revolution is trying to be as a community. Feeling inspired by a punk rock show to stay true to himself, Jay discusses how the Christian legalism he encountered at a young age–the hurt it caused and how it pushed him away from God almost altogether. But eventually that all led him to discovering grace and acceptance and loving radically. How the more he dove into studying and reading, Jay came across the idea that Christianity isn’t the faith of being rigid. Or at least it shouldn’t be. As a society we spend so much time looking for things that separate us, but we have so much in common. And the most important thing we have in common is our humanity. Let’s have a love that reconciles. A love that Jesus said we would be known by. Let us be driven by love and not rules, not separation. Because we’re not different–we’re just people.This talk was given on April 23, 2023 from Seattle, WA.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When it comes to certain topics, such as grace, and having tough conversations, and disagreeing well, we know we can be a bit of a broken record here at Revolution. But then we look at the news, or social media, or society, and we realize we can’t be broken record enough! How has it gotten so bad that we can’t even stand the news we agree with? So, here we are again turning out the hits! Humanity! Grace! Jay has been feeling tired and frustrated lately–trying to live in a world like what we have today, gun violence, politicians, cruelty. It’s too much. Too much suffering and too much negativity. Jay looks a bit into Paul’s letter to the Romans, today, and a bit into James and even dips a toe into Psalms for this talk. Because today’s talk is about endurance, and how suffering, in a strange way, builds the endurance that will eventually lead us to hope! So, let’s learn to be human again. Try and learn how to humanize others, as well–to see the humanity in someone that doesn’t think like we do! To push ourselves to have those difficult conversations, to show grace. To accept others, and accept ourselves!This talk was given on April 16, 2023 from Seattle, WA.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s Easter Sunday and this week’s talk is a little off the beaten path. This week, Josh gives a talk that focuses on not only our ability to slay the giants that loom in front of us–but to also remember how many we dealt with along the way. It’s not always the easiest to find good things to talk about when discussing King David, but there is also a lot we can learn from him. A lot about grace and mercy, forgiveness, and hard conversations. How could a man who has done so much wrong be called ‘a man after God’s own heart’? We also talk about music and movies, of course, and about crossing through the valley and the abyss. We’ve all made it this far and we will keep on going! Happy Easter!This talk was given on April 9, 2023 from Long Island, New York.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This talk is a bit of an emotional one. Emotional more in the sense of frustration being an emotion. Jay talks about the struggles we encounter when we live (or try our hardest to live) the practice of disagreeing and arguing well. It’s getting harder to stay the course as more shootings happen and politicians do nothing, division grows and it seems like no one is helping–or even cares. Politics seems to be more about theatrics than it is about leadership these days. But we have to try to keep focused, we have to speak truth to both sides. We need to realize when we’re being lied to, even by our ‘own side.’ Because so much of Jesus’ life and teaching is about how no one is ever ‘the other’ and Paul understood this. He had a very different way of seeing Jesus. Seeing him more for His accomplishment of the cross. Jay discusses this and looks at passages from Mark and John, because Jesus wasn’t killed by Rome because of his exclusivity, but because of his inclusion of everyone, with no ‘othering.’ Sharing meals, showing humanity. We can’t let politics and politicians to become idols. We need to get back to the basics with Jesus–we need to have less enemies. We need to be bigger than our identities. Be bigger than our politics. To have empathy. To show and see humanity. And above all, to love. We can do this!This talk was given on April 2, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we have a special treat! After finishing up the study of Paul Tillich's sermon "You Are Accepted" we wanted to do something different. A way to double down on our love for this talk and what it means and the impact it's had on Revolution. So here we are, the original sermon, in full! And to add on to all of this--the sermon is read by philosopher and storyteller (and Jay's best mate) Peter Rollins!Enjoy!Here is a link to Paul Tillich’s “You Are Accepted”https://wedgeblade.net/files/archives_assets/20810.pdfwww.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here we are, week 2 and the conclusion of Paul Tillich’s talk You Are Accepted. This week Jay finishes his study on this Tillich sermon. As Jay says a few times in this talk ‘let’s not take these words lightly.’ Last week we talked a bit about sin, but this week we’re onto all the good stuff about grace. Do we know what it means to be struck by grace? Does being struck by grace mean we suddenly believe God exists? Or that Jesus is the savior? Or even that the bible contains the truth? Or is getting struck by grace something different that that? Is it better to refuse God and Jesus in the bible, or to accept them without grace? These are heavy thoughts, tricky to wrap our heads around. Because grace is bigger than we understand. As Tillich teaches, moral progress may be a fruit of grace, but it is not grace itself. And sometimes it can actually prevent us from receiving grace. Both Paul Tillich’s original sermon, and Jay’s discussion of it can really help us navigate such a tricky and complex topic. Helping us learn what grace is and accept it. And ourselves. And others. To not create God in the image of other Christians or people from church. To not become all of the things we hate. And maybe, just maybe, these discussions can help us on our fall into grace and what it means to be struck by it.Here is a link to Paul Tillich’s “You Are Accepted”. Revolution is sticking around and there are some great things to come.https://wedgeblade.net/files/archives_assets/20810.pdfThis talk was given on March 19, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We made it through Galatians! And while we’re always a bit bummed to finish up that study, this year we’re immediately moving onto something just as great. Paul Tillich’s talk You Are Accepted. In this first week of the study, Jay dives into some backstory onto who Tillich is and walks us through some of his credentials. Then we go right on in! There isn’t much to say in this write-up because it’s all in the talk today. It’s all about learning what Tillich has to say on grace, and also try to sort out what ideas we might need to reject in order to better understand it. Because grace isn’t always the easiest thing to explain. In fact, Tillich argues that it is just as hard to describe as sin is. It’s a great talk that really pushes for a diversity of thought and the dangers of Christianity becoming more of a separator rather than a unifier. But, hey, nobody’s perfect, we’re all human and we’re all flawed–we’re working on it though! So, thank goodness for Paul TillichHere is a link to Paul Tillich’s “You Are Accepted”. Revolution is sticking around and there are some great things to come.https://wedgeblade.net/files/archives_assets/20810.pdfThis talk was given on March 12, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.