Aaron
Salvato

The last 18 months seemed to tear everything apart. The normal structures of our lives, our work, and our relationships seems to have fallen completely apart. For many of us, this has created a sense of loss. The things we trusted in let us down and now we don’t fully know where to turn. We’re not sure what we can or should trust in anymore. For others, this has led to a strong desire to rebuild. Rather than wallow in the sadness of loss, we want to simply put our heads down and remake the world we feel we’ve lost. In this episode, Justin Thomas, Pastor at Calvary: The Hill, lays out a different option. Rather than just trying to rebuild what we had, we need to let the chaos of the last 18 months teach us important lessons. Were we approaching church and faith and discipleship the way we should have? Are we sure our old structures were the right structures? What if God is giving us an opportunity to rebuild so we can do better this time? Aaron and Brian talk with Justin about all this and much more as they try to think through what a church would need to look like to be 2020-proof, able to withstand the division and hostility our cultural moment thrives on.

In all of the insanity, confusion, and cultural upheaval of the early 2020s, there's been a growing resurgence of the term “social justice” that has taken the world by storm, especially in the wake of George Floyd's death. However, like many issues today, Christians are divided on the term social justice. To some, it represents a Biblical form of restorative justice that reflects our responsibility to honor, love, and serve all humans as made in the image of God, and to Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. To others, it represents a flawed and broken political idealogy that has been corrupted by secular humanists beyond repair. For this reason, these Christian leaders are urging their followers to completely reject the usage of the phrase "social justice." To discuss this divide and how we can think critically about it as followers of The Way, Aaron has invited a guy he really looks up to: Dave Lomas, lead pastor of reality San Francisco. Dave recently taught a sermon at Evan Wickham’s church all about what it means to "do social justice" as a follower of Christ. In the message it was noted that "while there are many ways the world does social justice that Christians should NOT be about", Dave made the case that there is a way to do it that is both biblical and Christ honoring. Dave believes that while the term can be employed, it must be properly contextualized within the framework of the Christian faith, not the lens of culture. Voddie Baucham disagrees, and is a vocal critic of this position who raises some valid concerns. Dave and Aaron take some time to examine the arguments of Voddie and see what wisdom can be found, and where differences of philosophy of ministry can be found as well. I'm so glad you could join us for this conversation. You're listening to the GoodLion Podcast!

Deconstruction is a growing trend in religious and philosophical circles. While many Christians have begun to address deconstruction, we don’t often engage with deconstructionist ideas directly. In this episode, Aaron and Brian are joined by Dominic Done, author of When Faith Fails: Finding God In the Shadow of Doubt and founder of a ministry to skeptics and doubters called Pursuing Faith. Aaron, Brian, and Dominic respond directly to deconstructionists memes to answer questions coming directly from people wrestling with deconstruction. Throughout this conversation, Aaron, Brian, and Dominic seek to find the valuable elements of deconstruction without it leading to abandoning the fundamentals of Christianity. We hope this episode encourages you to think critically and respond lovingly to deconstructionist concepts.

In this episode Ry talks with Aaron about balancing marriage and ministry. They discuss potential pitfalls of not balancing the two, sabbaticals, habits and more.

Send us your questions! - GoodLion returns in 2 weeks! Hey everyone! We are enjoying the break, and excited to come back soon with a great set of new interviews and episodes. We'd absolutely love to get some fresh questions for upcoming Q&A Episodes! Check the links below for ways to submit. http://goodlion.io/questions - submit questions and upvote which ones you want us to tackle on the show! If you are on spotify, use the new commenting feature to submit a question or topic directly in the comment section of the episode! See you all soon!

As Aaron and Brian get ready to go on an official break, they reflect on the importance of rest, the pitfalls of workaholism in ministry, and the call of Jesus to ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives and embrace a lifestyle of resting in Christ as we live and serve with Him.

In today's world, many of us are afraid of confrontation. Confrontation is uncomfortable. None of us like to be in a disagreement with someone, especially if we believe we need to tell them that they're wrong about something. We are currently living in an age of postmodern thought, causing us to question the very foundation of truth. But confrontation is an essential part of helping someone see Jesus. Jesus was the one that came to us and not only showed us our sin and our wrongness but also welcomed us into a relationship with Him despite our wrongness. Whatever your cultural background or political identification, Jesus has something to confront in your way of thinking to draw you out of your own worldly thought patterns and into the truth. In today's episode, we're going to talk about confrontation and how we can disagree with people in a helpful way that shows them the Way of Jesus in the age of postmodernism.

In this episode, Aaron and Brian explore the way that postmodern thinking is currently effecting young people. As two former youth pastors, we have a huge heart for young people. They aren’t just the future of the church, they are the present. If you’re a young person between the middle school and college age listening to this, we appreciate you, and we are glad you are here. One of the biggest problems we’ve been seeing about postmodern philosophy is it’s assault on the concept of objective truth. The assertion that everyone can have their own truth, no matter what it is, as long as it doesn’t harm anyone. But that’s the problem. Lies do harm people. If you’re handed a glass of poison and told it’s water, that is a lie that will hurt you. As people who believe in both the concept of God-given morality and the problem of sin, we understand that it’s important to discuss how the concept of truth is deteriorating in our postmodern society. Today on the show we are going to watch some clips from a video from 2017 where a guy is on college campuses trying to see how far young people have slipped into postmodern thinking. Then we are going to talk about what it means for the church. We hope this conversation challenges you in your thinking and helps you consider other points of view.

We've got a special treat for you guys: Aaron has asked his old friend Mike Winger to come on and chat about the power and potential of doing ministry work online. Mike started out as a youth and assistant pastor at a local church, before God started leading him to a new mission field: the internet. Mike runs the theology and apologetics youtube ministry, Bible Thinker. For anyone looking to find ways to reach people for the Kingdom online, we know this episode will help encourage you as you work towards that goal!

Postmodernism may be today’s common thinking, but is that a good thing? In this episode, Brian and Aaron push past the facade of freedom postmodernism offers to explore some of its dangers. The second episode of this new miniseries begins with a quick recap on what postmodern thinking actually is, something that is not always easy to define. With that definition in mind, Aaron and Brian highlight the fact that some of postmodernism’s conclusions lead to scary places for Jesus followers and non-believers alike. We hope this episode puts words to things you may have felt before about postmodernism and helps you talk about it in a compassionate, helpful, Jesus-loving way!