Lo-fi Faith

In this episode, Mike and James continue their conversation on religious trauma, exploring how harmful leadership dynamics take root, why they persist, and how churches can shift toward being trauma-informed, fostering environments of safety, awareness, and genuine care.

In this episode, Mike and James discuss what happens when church becomes a place of harm instead of healing. They explore religious trauma, spiritual abuse, fear-based religion, and the ways people can be deeply wounded by systems that claim to speak for God.

The gospel changes hearts—but does it also challenge systems? 

In this episode, Mike and James discuss how the message of Jesus intersects with justice, culture, and power, and whether following him should naturally lead us to engage with the broken structures around us.

After exploring the role preconceptions play in forming our theology, Mike and James now put those ideas into practice using a real-world example from their own experience: the idea that vegetarianism represents a spiritual ideal that all Christians must aim for. Looking at passages like Genesis 1 and Daniel 1, they ask a bigger question—where does the Bible actually speak, and where might tradition be speaking for it?

In this episode, Mike and James continue their discussion on belief and interpretation by looking at how we can begin to uncover the preconceptions that silently shape our understanding. They explore a few simple but powerful questions aimed at exposing blindspots, and wrestle with the challenge of separating what’s actually in the text from what we may have inherited through tradition.

Same Bible. Same God. Very different conclusions.

What's going on?

In this episode, Mike and James explore the gap between reading Scripture and forming belief. They examine how preconceptions influence understanding, why certainty can be misleading, and why the idea of "taking the Bible as it reads" isn't as simple as it sounds.

In this episode, Mike and James respond to a recent semi-viral video pushing back on one of Mike’s sermons. They break down the video, the comments, and point out how quickly theological disagreement can slide into character assassination, motive-reading, and public shaming. Their conversation also raises a deeper question—can a system built on perfect performance live up to its own standards?

Continuing their conversation on spiritual bypassing, James and Mike examine how Christian culture can unintentionally reward performance while neglecting inner health. From prayer and Bible study to service and leadership, they ask an uncomfortable question: what if the things we praise most are sometimes the very things that help us avoid the work we actually need to do?

In part one of this conversation, James and Mike discuss the idea of spiritual bypassing—when Christian language is used as a means of avoiding responsibility and action. Phrases like “I’ll pray about it” or “God’s in control” can sound deeply spiritual...but sometimes they function as a way of stepping back from hard decisions, uncomfortable emotions, or the work we’re actually being invited to do.

Evangelism isn’t supposed to be toxic—but sometimes it is. Mike and James unpack how evangelism can drift into manipulation when it’s more about convincing, counting, or controlling than actually loving people. They also take aim at “friendship evangelism,” the version that pretends to be relational but drops people the moment they don’t convert.

Mike and James take a look at the “avoid anything pagan” impulse in some Christian circles. They examine why this approach quickly becomes inconsistent, burdensome, and divisive, and how it shifts focus away from what genuinely deserves attention. They also consider Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 8, which challenges the idea that a thing’s origins automatically determine its moral value.

Is every choice we make a moral one? In this episode, Mike and James explore the tension between cultural conviction and moral absolutes, asking whether everything — from music styles to diet to dress — really carries moral weight. They unpack why some Christians see the world in black and white, and discuss whether the Bible allows for a category of things that are simply neutral.

Churches love to say “everyone’s welcome” — but what happens when “everyone” includes people who make others feel unsafe? In this episode, Mike and James unpack the paradox of inclusion: how the desire to make church a safe place for all can sometimes invite the very dynamics that destroy that safety.

Is harmony in the church realistic, or just good marketing? In this episode, Mike and James confront the issue of conflict in faith communities, how it so often turns toxic, and explore why we find it hard to see past our differences.

In this episode, Mike and James confront the often unspoken pressure in churches to be upbeat, positive, and happy under all circumstances—sometimes called "toxic positivity". They explore how this mindset can unintentionally silence genuine struggle, cause people to feel that their faith is lacking, and distort the way we relate to God and one another.

In part two of their conversation on Last Generation Theology, Mike and James dive deeper into the biblical meaning of perfection and how LGT misrepresents it. They highlight one of the movement’s biggest flaws, and talk about how its heavy focus on human performance distorts the gospel and strips away the freedom Christ offers.

In this episode, Mike and James dive into Last Generation Theology—the belief that a final, sinless generation must arise before Jesus returns. At the heart of the discussion lies an important question: is the idea of moral perfection as a necessity a faithful expression of the gospel, or a departure from it?

Sabbath was meant to be a gift, but many have experienced it as a heavy burden. In this conversation, Mike and James explore how too often the day of rest has been distorted into a symbol of human striving—and how Scripture reclaims it as a sign that God alone saves.