Resident Strangers

Resident Strangers is BACK! 🎉 And so is Sarah Schalow, from maternity leave. The whole crew is together again! After a full summer run of episodes, the team took a short breather, but you can now expect new episodes to drop regularly back into your feed.

Today kicks off the first in a 3-part series on church polity. We start at the beginning: what exactly is a denomination? Rich explains it as a formal organizational structure that...

Does anyone really love change? It’s uncomfortable and often hard but necessary for growth. Churches especially can struggle with it. The world is always shifting, so how can the church stay anchored in truth while adapting to culture?

Steve emphasizes that churches must stay mission-minded, and Rich puts it this way: if every Christian is a missionary, then every Christian should also be a student of culture. And when you study cul...

Just like people, churches go through life cycles and if you’re part of a church, you’re living in one right now. Steve shares a sobering statistic: in the U.S., 8,000–10,000 churches close every year. Drawing from his work as an executive on the board of Venture Church Network, he takes us behind the scenes to explore why churches close and how understanding a church’s life cycle can reveal its overall health.

One key factor stands...

It’s Tuesday, and that means another great conversation is ready for you! Today, Hailey, Steve, and Rich dive into the topic of churches and their philosophy of ministry, the driving force behind a church’s health and longevity. The church doesn’t belong to “us”; it belongs to Jesus. When that focus shifts, things can quickly go off track.

They explore the many different approaches churches can take (there’s not always a clear right...

It’s a new episode of Resident Strangers! Be honest — have you ever withheld the truth from someone because you didn’t think they could handle it? Or have you joked around with your friends but made one sarcastic comment that went too far? Maybe you’ve been caught up in gossiping. Whatever the case may be, we all have misused the power of our words. What we say has the power to affect people. God knows this, and He knows our sinful...

Welcome back to Resident Strangers! This episode covers how to read and interpret the Old Testament and the New Testament. We should read both parts of the Bible a bit differently since they have different purposes. The team explains these purposes and the nuances with how we should interpret and apply certain scripture to our lives. In the Sabbath episode (linked below), we mentioned the Old Covenant or the law, so we further disc...

Welcome back to Resident Strangers! Today, we are expanding on a topic we’ve mentioned a lot on this podcast, and that is taking verses out of context. We dive into some of the most-used verses out of context and break them down to understand what they actually mean. As Steve says, context is king when it comes to understanding scripture. It’s important to study the context and original audience of bible passages so we aren’t misun...

Welcome back to Resident Strangers! This episode is all about living on mission! How do we obey the Great Commission? What does it mean to be a missionary? Living on mission means sharing the gospel and making disciples, which is living like Jesus. When we think of living on mission or being a missionary, we typically think of being a missionary overseas. These trips are important and effective, but we are also called to live on mi...

Today’s episode of Resident Strangers is all about evangelism! Evangelism is the act of sharing the gospel with people who aren’t Christians. We as Christians are called to share Jesus through the way we live AND through verbally sharing the gospel. If we do one but not the other, it can be an ineffective witness and confuse non-believers. With whatever we do or say, we should always point back to Jesus. The team shares useful tips...

It’s a new episode of Resident Strangers! In case you missed last week, Sarah is officially on maternity leave and Hailey Keller is filling in while she’s away. Steve, Rich, and Hailey talk all about oikos – not the Greek yogurt, but the biblical word meaning family, community, the people you do life with. Most people come to faith through hearing the gospel from these personal relationships, not just an invitation to church. Becau...

Welcome back to Resident Strangers!  In this week’s conversation, we welcome a new voice to the table—Hailey Keller—and say “see you later” to our amazing co-host Sarah as she begins maternity leave.

This episode dives deep into a powerful topic: the Sabbath – how we should navigate and honor it in our own context. In Exodus, God commands us to remember the Sabbath day, the seventh day of the week, and keep it holy. He set an exampl...

Welcome back to Resident Strangers! In this episode, we dive into what it means to parent through a Christian lens. With so many voices telling our culture how parenting should be, we can look to God’s Word, like Ephesians 6 and Deuteronomy 6, to guide us. And we have the Holy Spirit working in us to become more like Christ. Part of being a godly parent is teaching your kids to obey authority, so that they will obey God as He is th...

It’s almost Father’s Day, so we are here with a special episode about fatherhood! Steve and Rich share their experience as fathers as well as the importance of fathers. Father’s Day can be a difficult time for some, especially if you have a negative relationship with your dad. God is the perfect Father. He never fails and is always faithful. As, Christians, fathers should reflect God and model His character to their kids. The role ...

Today is the last episode of our long-awaited predestination series — for now! To wrap up this topic, we cover works and faith. Is faith a work? If it is, how do you know if you’re truly saved? The Bible says that it is by grace we are saved, through faith, and it is not a result of works. What does that mean in terms of predestination? So many believers feel insecure about their salvation, but do they have grounds to feel that way...

We are so excited to be back with you today on Resident Strangers! Steve, Sarah, and Rich are continuing the conversation about the Calvinist view of predestination, specifically the order of salvation. Have you ever thought about the process of how people are saved? Does God call us to respond to the gospel message and be made alive by the Holy Spirit first, because we cannot do it on our own? This idea is known as total depravity...

Welcome back to part 4 in our predestination series! Today, the team breaks down the meaning of the sovereignty of God and compares it to the determinist belief. As Christians, we often hear phrases like “God is sovereign” or “God is in control,” but how should we understand those statements in light of what Scripture teaches? Is God's sovereignty the same as determinism? Determinism is the idea that every single detail of our...

Welcome to Part 3 of the Predestination series! Before you listen, make sure you are caught up with the rest of the episodes! Last week, Steve and Rich dove into the context of verses commonly used in the discussion of predestination. Today, they discuss what election is, analyzing Romans 9 to provide us with context. The traditional Calvinist view holds that God elects Jacob, not Esau, for salvation. But Steve and Rich bring up an...

This week, the long-anticipated series on predestination continues as Steve and Rich take a deep dive into some of the most debated passages surrounding this complex topic. If you missed last week’s episode, we highly recommend going back to listen or watch as it lays essential groundwork for what’s to come. Rich emphasizes how deeply our presuppositions can shape the way we interpret scripture, and predestination is a prime exampl...

Welcome back listeners! Join Sarah, Steve, and Rich in this long-awaited series covering the topic of predestination! Predestination is the idea that God preordained for people to be saved. Although predestination is a secondary issue in Christianity that our salvation doesn’t hinge on, it is a very controversial topic amongst many Christians. While Christians do not all agree on this issue, that doesn’t mean there should be divisi...