Dear St. Lukers,
Until this summer I had never listened to a podcast. My kids were always trying to get me to listen to different things they listen to regularly, but I resisted. My vocation involves a lot of talking and I don’t have a long commute.
Podcasts just weren’t on my radar until a new one began with the female stars of a popular 90’s teen drama that I refuse to mention but secretly LOVE! I was actually hooked. It was in 20-minute chunks so I could listen for fun for a while, to get my mind off of the Delta variant, numbers, theologians, etc. I also found it’s a GREAT way for my brain to keep busy while I’m doing something else I don’t particularly enjoy – like folding laundry or putting away the dishes. Kind of like a multi-tasking tonic!
So when more of our staff, especially new staff members began asking if we were ever going to create a podcast, I was a little more open to the idea. As we put together a rhythm of a weekly routine for St. Lukers (Learn, Live, Love, and Lead) we realized the pandemic has taught us the more tools we can get in St. Lukers hands (Zoom, videos, livestream worship, and…podcasts) the more opportunities we would have to be connected in St. Lukers’ lives throughout the week.
Two weeks ago, our very first podcast, “Your Week with St. Luke’s,” launched and it’s now available for download wherever you get your podcasts (Apple, Spotify, Google, YouTube, Podbean, and more). It’s already been downloaded over 475 times in 3 countries! Not too shabby!!
Weekly episodes include the Scripture teaching from our Sunday night online Bible Study that I co-lead with Dr. Ryan Bonfiglio from Emory University – Candler School of Theology. More than 120 St. Lukers and friends join us LIVE on Zoom each week for this study and now even more disciples can grow their faith through our podcast. After a little commercial break, the next 20 minutes is our “Office Hours Conversations” between the professors and a couple of your clergy talking about the Scripture both more deeply and more practically.
To find our weekly episodes:
- Look for St. Luke’s UMC on your favorite podcast platform
- Follow Your Week with St. Luke’s
If you like what you hear, share our podcast with friends and family and be sure to leave a rating and a review.
Even if you can’t join us live for the Sunday Night Bible Study, the video of the class that includes the Lecture and the “Office Hours Conversation” is available for on-demand viewing on Monday mornings on our website and on YouTube. These videos can be used for your own personal devotion and as resources for your small groups. This is just one more tool we want to offer you to help you be a student of Jesus. Want the recording delivered directly to your email inbox each week? Sign up for the class here to get the class recording.
We also have a GREAT study guide you can use all through the week with questions, a place for your notes from class/the sermon, and a graph that helps you consider the characters in your own life. We will use that graph each sermon series this fall to help you write YOUR story and see how God is working with you. You can pick up a paper copy at the church or download a copy here.
Take the next step after you LEARN the stories and LIVE them in community. Spending time in community with others allows us safe space to practice how what we LEARN connects to our everyday living. It’s also how we build new community with other St. Lukers and make a big church feel smaller. Wednesdays there’s room for U in a St. Luke’s Life Together group in person or with the pastors online and additional groups meet online throughout the week.
Join us on campus or online for Sunday worship as we bring the focus of David and his antagonizers, Goliath and Saul, to a close. As we Love God and put Christ first through worship, we are going to focus on five stones to help us find some peace with our antagonizers. Defeat may look a little different than how the world views it because God always turns our expectations upside down.
We hope to see you in worship because it’s just not St. Luke’s without U.
Jenn.