The Apprenticeship Way with Marc Alan Schelske
Spiritual vitality following the Jesus way.
Episodes
August 7, 2025 • 27 mins
Episode 061 - Six Weeks to Grow? Yes, Please!
Journaling for Spiritual Growth, my book that teaches you a sustainable practice for spiritual and emotional growth, comes out this week. This is the 2nd edition, published with Whitaker House. Let's browse through the book together!
Show Notes
In this episode, Marc discusses his new book, Journaling for Spiritual Growth (2nd ed.), exploring its themes, structure, and the t...
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June 19, 2025 • 46 mins
Episode 060 - Navigating Toward LGBTQ Affirmation (or How I became an Affirming Pastor)
My journey from the Traditionalist view to becoming a fully Affirming pastor, with a perspective on a Gospel path to full Inclusion. This is a recorded version of the same presentation I gave at the Open Table Conference School of Theology in Sunriver in June of 2025.
Show Notes
In this episode, Marc Alan Schelske explores the compl...
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May 20, 2025 • 50 mins
Episode 059 - How the Beatitudes Could Save the World and Us. (With Dr. Bradley Jersak)
An offhand comment by Dr. Jersak prompted this conversation. "We’re pushing back against the construction of a Christianity that’s the opposite of the Beatitudes. For those who don’t want to be susceptible to the lure of power-over Christianity, I recommend praying the Beatitudes every day . . . it is a furnace of discernment like none other....
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Episode 058 - Following Jesus in the Face of Political Panic, Christian Supremacy, and Creeping Fascism. (With Susan Carson, Bradley Jersak, and Brian Zahnd.)
We stand in a dire historical moment, and one of the questions that is swirling for many of us is about what it means to be a Christian right now. There are folks wearing the label Christian, many in good faith, who are endorsing things that seem so plainly unlike Christ. ...
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February 6, 2025 • 39 mins
Episode 057 - Empathy Isn't a Sin; It's Holy Dynamite (With Felicia Murrell)
Once again, influential Christian leaders are declaring empathy a sin. One influential Reformed theologian calls empathy "Counterfeit compassion" and names it "the greatest rhetorical tool of manipulation in the 21st century." For people whose central ethic is to love the neighbor as we love ourselves, this seems an odd hill to die on. Why is this happe...
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November 25, 2024 • 50 mins
Episode 056 - When the Marginalized Are Our Prophets (With Jenai Auman)
The person who truly understands "what's going on" in any room is often not the one in charge. Instead, it's usually those on the margins—individuals whose lives and survival depend on recognizing the hidden structures of power—who see things most clearly. In her new book, Jenai Auman shares her experiences as a Filipina-American woman in the Evangelical chu...
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September 18, 2024 • 70 mins
Episode 054 - A Better Place Than Here (With Jennifer Knapp)
What would you learn if you had the opportunity to go back and revisit your spiritual journey of twenty-five years ago? What if that experience happened in community, with folks who were there with you, when it happened? What would you learn? How are you different? What losses and what growth would you notice? The release of Kansas 25, a re-recording of her award-winni...
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October 11, 2023 • 53 mins
Episode 054 - Knowing the Past to Make a Better Future (With Sarah Sanderson)
Do you know the hidden history of the place where you live? If we want to be part of God’s work of bringing restoration and liberation, we can’t ignore what’s happened in the past. Telling this truth is the only way to get to healing.
Show Notes
Get Sarah's book:
The Place We Make: Breaking the Legacy of Legalized Hate
Other Books Me...
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September 8, 2023 • 43 mins
Episode 053 - What if the Bible isn't perfect? (With Zach Hunt)
There are many debates and disagreements within Christianity. Behind most of these, you’ll find one very significant issue. How we read the Bible. The way we read the Bible and what we believe about how the Bible came to be directly gets at what we believe about God. Can Christianity work if the Bible isn't perfect?
Show Notes
Get Zach's books:
Godbreath...
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June 23, 2023 • 50 mins
Episode 052 - Childlike Faith vs. Childish Faith (With Pastor Mandy Smith)
Often the church seems in a panic to avoid the influence of culture, but what if the church is already fully bought into the assumptions of culture? Western culture assumes that strength, leadership, and being right are the way of success. Does the way of Jesus calls us to something different?.
Show Notes
Get Mandy's books:
The Vulnerable Pas...
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May 9, 2023 • 48 mins
Episode 051 - Faith when you don't Feel Faithful (With Ben Stenke & Matt Tebbe)
The life of a follower of Jesus is not about assent to an idea, or rigorous attention to a life of religious activity. Matt Tebbe says, "There aren't two things: faith and action. There's just one thing: Faithful Action." We discuss.
Show Notes
Get the book: Having the Mind of Christ
Gravity Leadership's Excellent Podcast: The Gravity L...
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October 4, 2022 • 31 mins
Episode 050 - Letting God Change Our Minds —or, A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Devotional (With Jonathan Puddle)
What do you do with an opportunity that comes your way that isn't right for you? That happened for Jonathan Puddle, and he turned into something beautiful.
Show Notes
Jonathan's new devotional: Mornings With God: Daily Bible Devotional for Men
Jonathan's first devotional: You are Enough: Learni...
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July 25, 2022 • 44 mins
Episode 049 - Church, Stop Acting Like a Hot Topic—or, Building a Church People Actually Want To Go To (With Kevin Makins)
Why would anyone bother to go to church? I don't mean why would Christians bother. I mean, if someone outside of the church was thinking about getting involved, why would they? What might it look like to build a church that people attend because it's meaningful to them, not out of obligation or habit? What w...
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May 22, 2022 • 39 mins
Episode 048 - Empathy Is Not a Sin (With Becky Castle Miller)
Recently a number of Christian leaders and teachers have been making waves saying that empathy is a sin--or at least something that good Christians need to be very careful with. Why would they say this? What do they get out of it? And why should you be concerned if you hear this line of thinking?
Show Notes
Following King Jesus by Scot McKnight and Becky Ca...
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February 2, 2022 • 40 mins
Episode 047 - Don't Choose Shallow Formation (With Rich Vellodas)
Does our faith enable us to be “a good gift” to our neighbors, even the neighbors we disagree with? Many Christians, it seems, are living in ways that contradict the core ethic of our faith loving our neighbors as ourselves. What is going on? It seems like we are witnessing a mass failure of discipleship. Why is this happening and what can be done about it?
...
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October 15, 2021 • 43 mins
Episode 046 - A More Beautiful Deconstruction (With Dr. Bradley Jersak)
Deconstruction is everywhere. People are doing it. Some leaders are fighting it. Some people are excited by it. Some people are terrified of it. Is it just a trendy new word for leaving the church? No. It's a process that's necessary for spiritual maturity--and how we think about it matters.
Show Notes
A More Christlike God: A More Beautiful Gospe...
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September 17, 2021 • 41 mins
Episode 045 - Let's Normalize Being Wrong (With Matt Tebbe)
I grew up in a faith tradition where being right was essential. It's what kept us in community. It's what we thought honored God. For many other reasons--temperament, trauma, and even privilege--being right became an identity issue for me. Then I heard Matt Tebbe suggest that we need to normalize being wrong. For some of us this is the medicine we need.
Show Note...
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May 14, 2021 • 38 mins
Episode 044 - Your Suffering is Sacred (With K.J. Ramsey)
Are you allergic to happy clappy Christianity? There’s a good reason for thats. Churches that ignore suffering are ignoring Jesus. Many churches are not good at holding suffering. People who find themselves in extended suffering — maybe living with depression or anxiety, other mental health issues, or even invisible chronic illness — sometimes find there’s not a place for...
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April 19, 2021 • 23 mins
Episode 043 - Your Purity & Piety Will Get You Nowhere
You want to grow as a person. You want a sense of intimate connection with the Divine. You believe or suspect that the way of Jesus has something to say about this. That’s why you’re here. That’s why I write.
But in order to grow in the way of Jesus, we have to unpack some ideas we have about the spiritual life, so we can clear away some of the garbage that’s getting in o...
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March 17, 2021 • 44 mins
Episode 042 - Can You Imagine Jesus Demanding Sex? - Interview with Sheila Wray Gregoire.
Christian teachers notoriously have lots of opinions about sex. Sometimes they even claim those opinions are God’s will. But what if some of those teachings are hurting people and wrecking marriages?
In this interview with Sheila Wray Gregoire we talk about the stunning findings from her survey of 20,000 Christian women about their sex l...
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