Stop & Listen

One bonus to sitting in Buckie for four hours with nothing to do this morning, was managing to finally finish up the above podcast.  I'm not a podcast - or even radio or music - listener in general. In fact, the summer before last, when I was painting the bathroom after we had the window replaced, was the first time I'd ever listened to a podcast - The Michelle Obama Podcast - and I'll admit it was a great way to pass time while painting.

Anyway, I'd heard folks talk about this one ever since it first came out in the summer, though I'd never had any notion to make the time to listen to it.  But since I knew I had a good few days of painting to do when we bought the old dresser, I figured I'd start.  And despite two and a half solid days of painting and listening, I still had at least three episodes left - and some of them were long episodes.

But I finally finished it this morning.  And each and every episode has been really fascinating, and sparked fascinating conversations with people too.  We lived and grew our family in Texas; were taught and involved in a church where conservative Christianity was strong and clear family roles and relationships were encouraged.  And now we're part of a large multi-site church; people come as they are and branding and visuals are slick, and people are passionate about being and speaking the good news to the world and planting churches.  I can related to Mars Hill and its congregation through both of these churches, and the friends and connections and teaching and experiences at both of them I feel definitely helped me understand where people were coming from in the story and why they gave their heart and soul to that church. But there are also so many lessons to learn from listening to the conversations and hearing about the history - and warnings to heed for every church - and altogether, like I said, it's a really fascinating listen and in turn encourages fascinating conversation.