March 11, 2022 • 15 mins
The Finchwood Discipleship Podcast is made up of "conversations for people who want to be more like Jesus." Our goal is to explore what biblical Christianity looks like while being open to questions in the spirit of honest and respectful dialogue, and to live out our faith in the real world of relationships and communities that we each inhabit.
Chapters: 00:00 - Welcome to Finchwood 02:30 - The Story Behind the Name 04:03 - About Me 08:07 - Foundational Principles 13:11 - The Format
Additional Resources: "Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Thanks for listening!
Questions or comments? Say something: Email: matthew@finchwood.media YouTube: @FinchwoodDiscipleshipPodcast Website formerly known as Twitter: @Mr_Finchwood All other socials: @FinchwoodPodcast
Please consider supporting us via Patreon.
Opening and closing music excerpted from A Long Cold - Riot (CC)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You're listening to the Finch Wood Discipleship podcast.
My name is Matthew and as your host,
my mission is to help you discover who God is and what it means to live as a citizen of his kingdom.
A lot of people have questions about God or about what the Bible says or just what it means to be a Christian.
(00:22):
Some of those people are seekers or skeptics and that makes a lot of sense.
But I find that a lot more of them are Christians who either don't know where to start or who feel for whatever reason like they cannot or even should not ask those kinds of questions.
The subtitle of the Finch Wood podcast says that it's conversations for people who want to be more like Jesus.
(00:46):
If that describes you in any way,
then Finch Wood is for you.
Now,
you might be brand new at this whole faith thing or maybe you've been a solid believer for decades and you still want to go deeper.
Of course,
most of us fall somewhere in between those two extremes and those are all great places to be so long as we're all moving in the same direction.
(01:08):
Becoming more like Jesus.
The basic premise of this podcast is that even if you have no knowledge whatsoever about Christ or the Bible,
you should be able to grow in your faith by progressing from one episode to the next,
particularly in the beginning.
We'll start small by covering the basics of Christianity.
(01:28):
But as the show goes on,
we'll move deeper and deeper building on what's already been covered and hopefully getting closer to God in the process before we go any further,
I should say that if you're not sure about Jesus yet,
then I would especially invite you to stay with me through episode two where I'm going to walk through what it means to be a follower and whether you decide to follow him or not,
(01:50):
is your choice.
Either way,
please feel free to keep listening.
But just so that my intentions are perfectly clear.
Finch Wood is primarily designed for those listeners who have decided to become Christians.
A few people have already asked me,
why is it called Finch Wood?
First,
let's get something straight here.
(02:11):
Finch Wood is not my last name.
I'm sure some people are gonna think that.
But no,
the name Finch Wood is actually a reference to the life of one of my heroes in the faith.
A man named Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
He was a German theologian and pastor during the early 20th century.
Today.
He's mostly known for his teaching on the cost of discipleship as well as his resistance against the Nazis,
(02:33):
which ultimately cost him his life.
In 1935 Bon Hofer started a training school for young pastors at a place called Finken Walde,
which is located in present day Poland there.
He gathered a small group of students together and they structured their daily lives around actually living out the teachings of the Bible as a community.
(02:55):
By the time the government shut the school down in September of 37 that experience of living out their faith together in an intentional relational context had transformed the lives and hearts of both the teacher and his students.
Bon Hofer even wrote a book about all the lessons he learned at Finken Walde.
He called it Life Together.
(03:16):
And today,
it's widely considered the classic volume on Christian Relationships and community.
It's actually a pretty short read and I wholeheartedly recommend getting a copy.
One of the many lessons I take away from Bon Hofer's life is that you cannot and will not become more like Jesus by yourself in a vacuum.
(03:37):
You need people who will go on the journey with you to encourage and to challenge you when necessary people that you can trust and who depend on you.
In return.
I firmly believe that personal growth as a Christian is primarily meant to happen in that kind of deeply interpersonal relational context.
And thats why I named the podcast Finch Wood,
(03:59):
which is what Finken Walde roughly translates to from German to English.
As you heard in the intro.
My name is Matthew and as the host of this podcast,
I have the honor of serving as a sort of tour guide on this journey into following Jesus.
At this point.
You may be wondering why you should listen to me,
what makes me a subject matter expert in the area of Christian discipleship.
(04:23):
And that's a really fair question in terms of my education.
I do have a Master of Divinity degree from Regent University where my studies focused on what's called missional discipleship.
I also have a decade or two of real world ministry experience,
mostly working with teenagers and young adults,
but maybe the best qualification I have is I've been following Jesus for a while.
(04:46):
So I do have a lot of practical experience under my belt,
knowing what it's like to start out and to grow as a Christian.
A little bit about me where I'm coming from is that I've been a Christian for most of my life.
In fact,
one of my earliest childhood memories is that I was digging in my parents' backyard out behind an old shed that we had.
I remember I had my little red plastic shovel in my hand and I was having a great time getting dirt all over myself and all over the nice clothes I was wearing.
(05:15):
And the thing is that my parents had specifically told me not to do that something clicked that day in my heart and I knew that I needed forgiveness.
So I prayed,
I ask Jesus to come into my heart and to forgive me for sinning against him and against my parents.
And that was the start of our relationship,
God and me,
I knew him as a friend from a very early age.
(05:39):
Now,
at some point in my teenage years,
my life became more about following a set of rules and striving to measure up to what I thought was God's standard rather than being about my actual relationship with God.
To put it bluntly,
I became a religious hypocrite.
I started holding others to the same unattainable standard that I failed to hold myself to.
(06:01):
And I was usually a jerk about it around that same time,
I became one of those people who loves to argue the finest points of theology,
not in the interests of discovering actual truth,
but because I wanted to prove them wrong in order to make myself feel intellectually superior in every way,
(06:22):
I was becoming one of those Christians who make other people pretty sure that they don't want to be Christians.
That is until one day when I was 21 years old,
I was working for this landscaping company.
And as I was working on the lawn of one of our regular customers,
I had what can be best described as an encounter with God.
(06:45):
The only way I can explain what happened that day is that the Holy Spirit just showed up.
There was no light show,
there was no explosion.
He didn't come and condemn me for the way I was living.
In fact,
he didn't say anything.
All he did was show me his goodness for a split second.
(07:06):
I saw just how kind and gentle and gracious he is in that light.
I also saw myself for what I really was,
what I had become.
And honestly,
it wrecked me.
It changed me.
And since then I've been doing my best to love him,
to love other people and to teach others to do the same.
(07:28):
Fast forwarding to the present.
My wife and I currently live in Virginia Beach and we're both members of an assemblies of God Church in this area with that said,
over the past 36 years,
I've been a Southern Baptist and a Methodist.
I was educated for a while by Presbyterians and I've had significant friendships with Roman Catholics,
Anglicans,
(07:48):
Messianic,
Jews,
Mennonites,
Greek Orthodox.
In short,
I've tried to expose myself to a large number of different perspectives within the faith because my goal is to present the core of Christianity to you,
not just the narrow point of view that you would get from a single denominational tradition.
(08:10):
I have a few ground rules or foundational principles that I'd like to bring into the creation of this podcast.
The first is that I'm going to be presenting biblical Christianity there are a lot of alternative views out there,
whether it's various Christian traditions or even other religions entirely.
I do plan to be respectful to those points of view and when it's relevant I'll do my best to explain what other groups believe on a given topic.
(08:35):
But at the end of the day,
my job is to teach what the book says and how it can be applied today.
Rule number two is,
please ask questions.
I really do want to form a conversation here.
So I would love your input,
especially if I say anything that you don't understand.
This podcast is supposed to serve as an on ramp for inexperienced believers to be able to grow in their faith.
(09:01):
So if I haven't explained something very well,
or if you don't know what a particular word means,
or even if you're just wondering about something that hasn't been covered yet,
you're probably not the only one so speak up,
say something.
I would love to address those points.
The other situation where I especially want your feedback is if you disagree,
(09:22):
I only ask that if you do disagree,
then try your best to tell me why.
And then let's talk about it.
Even outside those two scenarios,
I can't say enough that any questions,
comments,
rebuttals,
any feedback at all that you have is welcome.
The third rule is that no topic is out of bounds.
(09:44):
If the God of the Bible exists as I believe he does.
Then the implications of that truth can and should inform every other aspect of our existence from relationships to science and everything in between.
I'm coming from the position that for the most part,
faith should make sense that it should be logically and practically consistent.
(10:06):
Now,
that doesn't always mean that I'll have a fully formed position at every point with two Bible verses and three application points all wrapped up in a nice little saying that you can stick to the bumper of your car.
There are plenty of subjects that the Bible is silent about and there are a whole lot more that will take some nuance to explore safely.
One of my core values as a person is that I'm more comfortable saying I don't know than I am just making up an answer to sound smart.
(10:34):
Either way we can at least take a look and I for one am willing to apply whatever we do find to my life to the best of my ability.
Rule number four is please be kind we're going to be talking about some really important existence level stuff here and it would be perfectly natural and understandable for that to stir up some emotional responses just so that we are clear,
(11:00):
there's a huge difference between healthy conversation or even debate on the one hand and abusive language on the other.
I do not tolerate bullying from myself or from any guest speaker that I may have on this show at a later date.
And I hope that same rule can also apply to any discussions that you have amongst yourselves as the audience.
(11:21):
We all have to form our own conclusions here.
And ultimately,
all I can do is tell you what I believe and why,
like I said,
near the beginning of the episode,
whether you choose to believe it and apply it to your life is up to you fifth and finally,
Finch Wood is not your church.
And for that matter,
I'm not your pastor.
(11:42):
None of this is intended to be a substitute for participation in a real life congregation or a small group community.
And on that note,
I would actually recommend that you should include both structured and unstructured community as integral parts of your faith.
On the other hand,
Finch Wood is a resource you could use to grow further as a disciple of Jesus Christ,
(12:04):
whether it's by yourself or with other people.
And look,
I'll be the first to admit that it seems paradoxical for a podcast from some guy you've probably never met to go on and on about the value of face to face relationships,
life together and community because podcasting can be such an incredibly impersonal medium,
(12:26):
but I believe it doesn't have to be.
Yes,
that means I'm looking for any feedback that you,
the audience may have for me.
And I'd love for some of this discussion to play out over the many websites and social media outlets where people talk about stuff.
But even more than that,
let me suggest that the ideal way to listen to this podcast might be together with the people you're already connected to so that you can talk about what's said here and process it and walk through life together following Jesus with your friends and family as a community.
(13:02):
That's the real focus here.
And I'm excited to be a part of it.
As I wrap up this introductory episode,
I do have a couple of points I need to cover regarding the format.
One is that I don't think I can promise a consistent length of a specific number of minutes per episode.
I know some podcasters go for that kind of thing.
But here,
(13:23):
the length of an episode will really depend on the topic.
I'm sure some things will take five minutes while others might take an hour or even longer.
Whatever the topic is,
my goal is to cover the material thoroughly but not quite exhaustively.
I want to equip you with all the information you need without wasting your time as listeners as far as the release schedule goes.
(13:46):
My goal is to make one episode every week which will probably be released on Fridays,
Finch wood Fridays.
I'd also like to specifically mention the show notes along with each episode.
I will do my best to provide notes that include a summary of the topic at hand.
And the major bullet points along with some references.
(14:06):
Sometimes I might recommend external resources like a book or a video during an episode.
And I'll include links for those in the notes as well that about covers the introductory material.
And this has been fun.
I really enjoyed making this first episode and I hope you'll join me in the next one as we start to dig into what it means to follow Jesus and how you're invited to follow him too.
(14:33):
Meanwhile,
thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening.
And above all,
welcome to Finch Wood.
You've been listening to the Finch Wood discipleship podcast conversations for people who want to be more like Jesus.
If you enjoyed this episode,
(14:53):
then please subscribe now and consider sharing it with your friends for more information about this episode's topic or to continue the discussion,
please consult the show notes.
See you next time.
You're listening to the Finch Wood Discipleship podcast.
My name is Matthew and as your host,
my mission is to help you discover who God is and what it means to live as a citizen of his kingdom.
A lot of people have questions about God or about what the Bible says or just what it means to be a Christian.
(00:22):
Some of those people are seekers or skeptics and that makes a lot of sense.
But I find that a lot more of them are Christians who either don't know where to start or who feel for whatever reason like they cannot or even should not ask those kinds of questions.
The subtitle of the Finch Wood podcast says that it's conversations for people who want to be more like Jesus.
(00:46):
If that describes you in any way,
then Finch Wood is for you.
Now,
you might be brand new at this whole faith thing or maybe you've been a solid believer for decades and you still want to go deeper.
Of course,
most of us fall somewhere in between those two extremes and those are all great places to be so long as we're all moving in the same direction.
(01:08):
Becoming more like Jesus.
The basic premise of this podcast is that even if you have no knowledge whatsoever about Christ or the Bible,
you should be able to grow in your faith by progressing from one episode to the next,
particularly in the beginning.
We'll start small by covering the basics of Christianity.
(01:28):
But as the show goes on,
we'll move deeper and deeper building on what's already been covered and hopefully getting closer to God in the process before we go any further,
I should say that if you're not sure about Jesus yet,
then I would especially invite you to stay with me through episode two where I'm going to walk through what it means to be a follower and whether you decide to follow him or not,
(01:50):
is your choice.
Either way,
please feel free to keep listening.
But just so that my intentions are perfectly clear.
Finch Wood is primarily designed for those listeners who have decided to become Christians.
A few people have already asked me,
why is it called Finch Wood?
First,
let's get something straight here.
(02:11):
Finch Wood is not my last name.
I'm sure some people are gonna think that.
But no,
the name Finch Wood is actually a reference to the life of one of my heroes in the faith.
A man named Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
He was a German theologian and pastor during the early 20th century.
Today.
He's mostly known for his teaching on the cost of discipleship as well as his resistance against the Nazis,
(02:33):
which ultimately cost him his life.
In 1935 Bon Hofer started a training school for young pastors at a place called Finken Walde,
which is located in present day Poland there.
He gathered a small group of students together and they structured their daily lives around actually living out the teachings of the Bible as a community.
(02:55):
By the time the government shut the school down in September of 37 that experience of living out their faith together in an intentional relational context had transformed the lives and hearts of both the teacher and his students.
Bon Hofer even wrote a book about all the lessons he learned at Finken Walde.
He called it Life Together.
(03:16):
And today,
it's widely considered the classic volume on Christian Relationships and community.
It's actually a pretty short read and I wholeheartedly recommend getting a copy.
One of the many lessons I take away from Bon Hofer's life is that you cannot and will not become more like Jesus by yourself in a vacuum.
(03:37):
You need people who will go on the journey with you to encourage and to challenge you when necessary people that you can trust and who depend on you.
In return.
I firmly believe that personal growth as a Christian is primarily meant to happen in that kind of deeply interpersonal relational context.
And thats why I named the podcast Finch Wood,
(03:59):
which is what Finken Walde roughly translates to from German to English.
As you heard in the intro.
My name is Matthew and as the host of this podcast,
I have the honor of serving as a sort of tour guide on this journey into following Jesus.
At this point.
You may be wondering why you should listen to me,
what makes me a subject matter expert in the area of Christian discipleship.
(04:23):
And that's a really fair question in terms of my education.
I do have a Master of Divinity degree from Regent University where my studies focused on what's called missional discipleship.
I also have a decade or two of real world ministry experience,
mostly working with teenagers and young adults,
but maybe the best qualification I have is I've been following Jesus for a while.
(04:46):
So I do have a lot of practical experience under my belt,
knowing what it's like to start out and to grow as a Christian.
A little bit about me where I'm coming from is that I've been a Christian for most of my life.
In fact,
one of my earliest childhood memories is that I was digging in my parents' backyard out behind an old shed that we had.
I remember I had my little red plastic shovel in my hand and I was having a great time getting dirt all over myself and all over the nice clothes I was wearing.
(05:15):
And the thing is that my parents had specifically told me not to do that something clicked that day in my heart and I knew that I needed forgiveness.
So I prayed,
I ask Jesus to come into my heart and to forgive me for sinning against him and against my parents.
And that was the start of our relationship,
God and me,
I knew him as a friend from a very early age.
(05:39):
Now,
at some point in my teenage years,
my life became more about following a set of rules and striving to measure up to what I thought was God's standard rather than being about my actual relationship with God.
To put it bluntly,
I became a religious hypocrite.
I started holding others to the same unattainable standard that I failed to hold myself to.
(06:01):
And I was usually a jerk about it around that same time,
I became one of those people who loves to argue the finest points of theology,
not in the interests of discovering actual truth,
but because I wanted to prove them wrong in order to make myself feel intellectually superior in every way,
(06:22):
I was becoming one of those Christians who make other people pretty sure that they don't want to be Christians.
That is until one day when I was 21 years old,
I was working for this landscaping company.
And as I was working on the lawn of one of our regular customers,
I had what can be best described as an encounter with God.
(06:45):
The only way I can explain what happened that day is that the Holy Spirit just showed up.
There was no light show,
there was no explosion.
He didn't come and condemn me for the way I was living.
In fact,
he didn't say anything.
All he did was show me his goodness for a split second.
(07:06):
I saw just how kind and gentle and gracious he is in that light.
I also saw myself for what I really was,
what I had become.
And honestly,
it wrecked me.
It changed me.
And since then I've been doing my best to love him,
to love other people and to teach others to do the same.
(07:28):
Fast forwarding to the present.
My wife and I currently live in Virginia Beach and we're both members of an assemblies of God Church in this area with that said,
over the past 36 years,
I've been a Southern Baptist and a Methodist.
I was educated for a while by Presbyterians and I've had significant friendships with Roman Catholics,
Anglicans,
(07:48):
Messianic,
Jews,
Mennonites,
Greek Orthodox.
In short,
I've tried to expose myself to a large number of different perspectives within the faith because my goal is to present the core of Christianity to you,
not just the narrow point of view that you would get from a single denominational tradition.
(08:10):
I have a few ground rules or foundational principles that I'd like to bring into the creation of this podcast.
The first is that I'm going to be presenting biblical Christianity there are a lot of alternative views out there,
whether it's various Christian traditions or even other religions entirely.
I do plan to be respectful to those points of view and when it's relevant I'll do my best to explain what other groups believe on a given topic.
(08:35):
But at the end of the day,
my job is to teach what the book says and how it can be applied today.
Rule number two is,
please ask questions.
I really do want to form a conversation here.
So I would love your input,
especially if I say anything that you don't understand.
This podcast is supposed to serve as an on ramp for inexperienced believers to be able to grow in their faith.
(09:01):
So if I haven't explained something very well,
or if you don't know what a particular word means,
or even if you're just wondering about something that hasn't been covered yet,
you're probably not the only one so speak up,
say something.
I would love to address those points.
The other situation where I especially want your feedback is if you disagree,
(09:22):
I only ask that if you do disagree,
then try your best to tell me why.
And then let's talk about it.
Even outside those two scenarios,
I can't say enough that any questions,
comments,
rebuttals,
any feedback at all that you have is welcome.
The third rule is that no topic is out of bounds.
(09:44):
If the God of the Bible exists as I believe he does.
Then the implications of that truth can and should inform every other aspect of our existence from relationships to science and everything in between.
I'm coming from the position that for the most part,
faith should make sense that it should be logically and practically consistent.
(10:06):
Now,
that doesn't always mean that I'll have a fully formed position at every point with two Bible verses and three application points all wrapped up in a nice little saying that you can stick to the bumper of your car.
There are plenty of subjects that the Bible is silent about and there are a whole lot more that will take some nuance to explore safely.
One of my core values as a person is that I'm more comfortable saying I don't know than I am just making up an answer to sound smart.
(10:34):
Either way we can at least take a look and I for one am willing to apply whatever we do find to my life to the best of my ability.
Rule number four is please be kind we're going to be talking about some really important existence level stuff here and it would be perfectly natural and understandable for that to stir up some emotional responses just so that we are clear,
(11:00):
there's a huge difference between healthy conversation or even debate on the one hand and abusive language on the other.
I do not tolerate bullying from myself or from any guest speaker that I may have on this show at a later date.
And I hope that same rule can also apply to any discussions that you have amongst yourselves as the audience.
(11:21):
We all have to form our own conclusions here.
And ultimately,
all I can do is tell you what I believe and why,
like I said,
near the beginning of the episode,
whether you choose to believe it and apply it to your life is up to you fifth and finally,
Finch Wood is not your church.
And for that matter,
I'm not your pastor.
(11:42):
None of this is intended to be a substitute for participation in a real life congregation or a small group community.
And on that note,
I would actually recommend that you should include both structured and unstructured community as integral parts of your faith.
On the other hand,
Finch Wood is a resource you could use to grow further as a disciple of Jesus Christ,
(12:04):
whether it's by yourself or with other people.
And look,
I'll be the first to admit that it seems paradoxical for a podcast from some guy you've probably never met to go on and on about the value of face to face relationships,
life together and community because podcasting can be such an incredibly impersonal medium,
(12:26):
but I believe it doesn't have to be.
Yes,
that means I'm looking for any feedback that you,
the audience may have for me.
And I'd love for some of this discussion to play out over the many websites and social media outlets where people talk about stuff.
But even more than that,
let me suggest that the ideal way to listen to this podcast might be together with the people you're already connected to so that you can talk about what's said here and process it and walk through life together following Jesus with your friends and family as a community.
(13:02):
That's the real focus here.
And I'm excited to be a part of it.
As I wrap up this introductory episode,
I do have a couple of points I need to cover regarding the format.
One is that I don't think I can promise a consistent length of a specific number of minutes per episode.
I know some podcasters go for that kind of thing.
But here,
(13:23):
the length of an episode will really depend on the topic.
I'm sure some things will take five minutes while others might take an hour or even longer.
Whatever the topic is,
my goal is to cover the material thoroughly but not quite exhaustively.
I want to equip you with all the information you need without wasting your time as listeners as far as the release schedule goes.
(13:46):
My goal is to make one episode every week which will probably be released on Fridays,
Finch wood Fridays.
I'd also like to specifically mention the show notes along with each episode.
I will do my best to provide notes that include a summary of the topic at hand.
And the major bullet points along with some references.
(14:06):
Sometimes I might recommend external resources like a book or a video during an episode.
And I'll include links for those in the notes as well that about covers the introductory material.
And this has been fun.
I really enjoyed making this first episode and I hope you'll join me in the next one as we start to dig into what it means to follow Jesus and how you're invited to follow him too.
(14:33):
Meanwhile,
thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening.
And above all,
welcome to Finch Wood.
You've been listening to the Finch Wood discipleship podcast conversations for people who want to be more like Jesus.
If you enjoyed this episode,
(14:53):
then please subscribe now and consider sharing it with your friends for more information about this episode's topic or to continue the discussion,
please consult the show notes.
See you next time.
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