Music, Hope, Word, Prayer

Would you cast your net again if you had already been fishing for hours with nothing to show? That’s a question that might make one think deeply about the habits in our everyday lives. This week John brings us into the story of Peter, who continued to cast his net though he had caught nothing all night long. John acknowledges in this week’s episode that much like Peter, we also encounter moments where we feel our nets are empty. Ho...

If you could give your faith life a “tune up,” what would you focus on? What would you hope to strengthen or improve?

Ash Wednesday has historically been seen as the beginning of 40 days of deprivation - of giving up - chocolate, wine, choice words, social media. In today's episode, Pastor John Hilley asks what you might take on rather than give up this Lenten season. Music director Nate Strasser plays "Come Thou Fount of ...

It’s a new year so it’s fitting that today Pastor John is discussing what rituals and habits we hope to establish in 2024. Rituals mark sacred turning points in our lives. They can help us make meaning of celebrations, losses, and transitions. 

So let's evaluate our lives, make plans and goals, and live this new year with biblical diligence, remembering that, "The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage" (Prove...

When was the last time you were truly amazed? Amazement and awe are often precursors for joy. Pastor John has been thinking about how we can incite more joy in our lives and what are the needed practices. For starters, it helps to pay attention, which he wasn’t doing when Pastor John first met Major General (Ret. Marines) Charles F. Bolden, former astronaut and NASA Administrator. In this episode, John shares some awesome life less...

How easy is it for us to seek our isolation or seclusion in response to the presence of an event that makes us feel weary? No need to worry,  Luke 1:24-45 provides a clear picture of what that looked like for Elizabeth, as she had been unable to bring forth a child into the world.

Check out this week’s episode of Music, Hope, Word, and Prayer with John Hilley as he dives into seclusion as a response to weary seasons. There are many ...

“Can joy and pain coexist?” Is the question asked as we approach the 2nd Sunday in Advent. 

On this week’s episode of Music, Hope, Word, & Prayer, John Hilley invites Coordinator of Faith Formation, Ajené Holmes, into discussion surrounding the coexistence of joy with pain. 

As the 2nd Sunday in Advent approaches during a season characterized by joy but also pain for many, how do we maintain our connections to joy? Check it out o...

“Jesus in a new light,” is how some might describe the representation of Jesus in Matthew 25:31-46. 

On this week’s episode of Music, Hope, Word, & Prayer, John Hilley invites Coordinator of Faith Formation, Ajené Holmes, into a discussion around Jesus’ requirement of us to do unto the ‘least’ of us as we would do unto him. As the first Sunday in Advent approaches during a season characterized by giving, how can we meet the requ...

the eye within the eye” was advice given to John Muir, famous naturalist and early advocate for wilderness preservation upon hearing the news of his temporary blindness at the age of 28. Thanks to my friend Ken Kovacs for pointing me to James Hunt’s book on John Muir (Restless Fires) and for making a connection between young Muir’s religious experience and All Saints Day which the church celebrates the first week in November when i...

Music, Word, Hope and Prayer welcomes The Rev. Dr. Mike Gregg to talk about generosity. Mike is a pastor in the Baptist Alliance and now a therapist at The Pastoral Center for Healing on the campus of East Brentwood. This episode is a broadcast of his talk “Rich Towards God” based on Luke 12:13-21 about the man who tore down his barns to build bigger barns. We know how to build bigger and bigger storage units to hold all of our stu...

Every once in a while we come across terrible stories in Scripture. Matthew 22:1-14 is one such story. Jesus tells a story about a wedding banquet that went awry and of a King who has hardened his heart with violence and expulsion. All too often, we hear traumatic stories of humans causing tremendous violence. In this episode Pastor John visits this hard to stomach passage from Matthew’s Gospel and does so against the recent terror...

In this podcast, Rev. John Hilley explores Luke 24:13-27. It is there in verse 20 when the disciples said: “we had hoped he would be the one to redeem Israel.”  There’s a crucial line in there that’s easy to miss. Will Willimon pointed it out. “We had hoped.” 

In this passage, Jesus seems to be coming at the disciples. We had hoped. Is Jesus anti-hope? No, but in the exchange the risen Jesus has with his disciples it is good to look...

We would like to think that the church can be a safe space. Many want, and with good reason, call into question whether it can be such a place – a place that is safe. After all, its history is uneven. It has a history of the gifts and leadership of some being celebrated denying others. Such as women. This episode affirms there should be no gender bias in the church when it comes to recognizing the contributions and leadership of wo...

We’ve been thinking a lot about this space we call “Church” and what makes it a welcoming place; an interesting place; a safe space. And that has meant asking ourselves can it be? Because it seems a lot of our church cousins are more interested in being anti- than pro- in their dialing up anger against the LGBTQIA+ community. That has been an extremely hard and painful pill to swallow for people who are gay AND Christian. People li...

Can the Church be a “safe space?” From the looks and sounds of it, the church can come across as more anti- than pro- (…anti-women, anti-science, anti-LGBTQIA+) and more judgmental and more hypocritical. Yep, we can be judgemental and hypocritical because the church is made up of individuals who are imperfect. But that is not all we all the church is. We can be places of welcome and open doors and we can show up at doors when there...

“Is the mic on?” is how Dr. David Dark begins his soon to be released book We Become What We Normalize. This episode builds upon an interview Pastor John did during a recent Sunday morning church service (9/3/2023) on the themes of bravery and truthfulness and accountability touched upon in his book, on whether the church can be a “safe space”, and on his being a featured speaker at the Greenbelt Festival in the UK. https://www.gre...

We like to think that the church is a “safe space.” We want it to be. But for many, there are too many traumas associated with church. And yet, we are hungry for safe spaces of connection, belonging, and growth. In this episode, Pastor John invites Tyler Spaid, a member at EBPC, to tell his and his family’s story (17 minute interview). Then John reflects on what it would be to gazes of grace rather than gazes of judgment. Nate Stra...

Episode Description: I think we can all agree parenting is getting harder all the time. Children are experiencing things we never imagined. How do we guide them? In the Bible it is written “When your children ask you why do you live the way you do, you are to tell them what matters to you” (Deuteronomy 6:20-25). 

We explore the assumption in this episode that if a child is going to become a grown up in this confusing world and lead ...