marksayers

More than Me

marksayers — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:28:16 +0000

In this podcast we look at the story of ‘legion’ from the gospel of Mark, we explore the concept of trying to become more like Jesus, and ask a dangerous question ‘What is it to live a life of sanity in an insane culture?’

The Other Side of Repentence

marksayers — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:42:33 +0000

This talk is the third part of our series on the concept of the sacred and its disappearance from our culture. In this episode we discuss the nitty gritty of cultivating a life of sacredness. We discuss how the believer is called to both destroy the sacred cows of our culture, and to also bring the sacred into the everyday. Plus we also contrast the worldview of 80’s cult TV show Monkey and the biblical imagination.

New Podcast: The Other Side of Repentance 2. The Sacred

marksayers — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:19:53 +0000

In part two of our series The Other Side of Repentance we examine the Sacred. What makes something sacred? How can we go back to the source of the sacred? How have false images of Christ contributed to us losing the idea of the sacred? Plus we discuss how we can cultivate a life of sacredness that is in contrast to so much of the narcissistic spirituality that we see today.

The Other Side of Repentence

marksayers — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:43:39 +0000

This week at Red we began a new series entitled the other side of repentance. Our culture has removed any notion of the sacred. There is viritually nothing that cannot be mocked or ridiculed in our culture anymore. How has this effected how we view God? How we worship? How we do Church? How we live as disciples? Has the buddy Jesus image of God prevelant in contemporary Christianity created a lapsadisical approach to faith?

Do this and live: Discipling the Heart

marksayers — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:45:47 +0000

In this final installement of our series, we look at the heart. That strange life centre of the human being. We examine how we can disciple this mysterious part of us. We also look at the ethical problem of invisibility, Pslam 1, how the way that we enter a room describes our will and to top things off we confuse Ellijah Wood with Elliot Gould.

Do this and live 3: Discipling your gut

marksayers — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:09:35 +0000

This week is part three of our current series. This week we look at our guts, that is our feelings, emotions and sensations. Our culture has idolised ‘feelings’, we expect a life of positive emotions and amazing experiences. But what is the right way of ordering our feelings, what is a biblical perspective on emotions. All this and more in this weeks podcast.

Do This and live 2: Discipling the Body

marksayers — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:32:00 +0000

This week is part two of our series Do This and You Will Live: Following God with Your Mind, Heart, Guts and Heart. This week we examine what it is to Disciple the body. Our culture is at war with their bodies, veering from body obsession to body hatred. In this talk we explore the idea of discipling our bodies, plus we also discover how I survived a road rage incident with a Ric Flair lookalike.

Do this and live

marksayers — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 07:54:48 +0000

This week at Red we have begun a new series focusing on what it is to be a complete human and disciple of Christ. The series was inspired by a couple of books Dallas Willard’s Renovation of the Heart and Rodney Clapp’s Tortured Wonders. The series sprang out of a thought that I had the other week in which I realized that in our culture today almost all of us can operate a car, or use a pc or a mac. Yet so few of us understand or can use or let alone master the parts of us namely our hearts, minds, guts and bodies which make us human. This podcast introduces the whole series and gives and overview of holistic Christian discipleship.

Do this and live

marksayers — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 07:53:33 +0000

On The Road this Palm Sunday

marksayers — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 04:01:26 +0000

This week’s episode features a talk that I did which focuses on Palm Sunday and which explores the social and spiritual lessons of the life of American writer Jack Kerouac. I make the case that Kerouac unwittingly was the architect of contemporary young adult culture. However a closer examination of his life leads us through some facinating truths that end at the Cross.

Michael Jackson, The Peter Pan Syndrome and Discipleship

marksayers — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 09:59:47 +0000

In this talk I link the Easter Journey of Christ, Michael Jackons’ life story and why the Peter Pan syndrome is destroying discipleship.

What Paris Hilton Taught Me About Training Leaders pt 2

marksayers — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:28:12 +0000

This podcast is the second part of a series on training young adult leaders today. In this episode, I talk about the way we view God today, this view I call the post-Christianity trinity, which is a kind of mutant form of the trinity in which consumerism becomes a folk religion, radical individualism is our god, and God is a kind of fuzzy entity something akin to the force from Star Wars, or a benevolent old butler. I discuss how understanding this view point helps us as leaders, but also acts as a warning to how our view of God can be compromised.

How Paris Hilton Made Me a Better Trainer of Young Leaders pt 1

marksayers — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 03:01:20 +0000

This is the first episode in a series that I will be doing on training young leaders in their twenties, using my book the Trouble with Paris as a guide. In this episode i discuss the reason why so many young leaders encounter difficulties in their twenties and I discuss how understanding how our culture has influenced our expectations of life is crucial to leadership development. I also of course talk about Paris Hilton and how watching TV for seven months straight almost sent me insane.

So Sexy it Hurts

marksayers — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 04:03:01 +0000

This podcast is from a talk that I gave at the So Sexy it Hurts Event held at Mayfield Baptist Church in Newcastle a couple of weeks ago. Sorry, but the final couple of minutes are missing. In this talk I discuss the way in which we view ourselves has radicaly changed, the origins of the myspace shot, how everything is now porn, why everyone is a personal PR firm, why ’sexy’ has become the 21st century adjective of choice and why the image of God is so important to life today. (Those with a keen ear for regional Australian accents will note how with my Melbourne accent I mispronounce Newcastle, thus offending the locals throughout my talk.)

Painful Beauty

marksayers — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 03:02:51 +0000

In this episode, I meander along discussing spiritual expereinces amongst the unchurched, why we often feel dislocated in our lives, connecting with God’s pathos, evangelism as explaining the human condition, our inner longings, and just how far you can see from my office.

The Time Machine

marksayers — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:47:48 +0000

Contemporary culture has changed how we view time. This in turn affects our expectations from life. In this episode I discuss how MTV changed how we all view time, the symbolism behind Lot’s Wife turning to salt, and how to create a small media circus at your local mall. Listen if you have time.

Choice Anxiety and Faith

marksayers — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 04:18:03 +0000

In this episode I discuss the effect that Choice Anxiety is having on all of us. I also discuss the choice between Romantic Comedies and staring and the headrest in front of you on longhaul flights. I also discuss how washing powder makes you freak out in the supermarket isle, why the idea of marriage is so scary to so many and other such wonders of the modern age. Of course the discussion leads to the place of biblical faith in an age of Choice anxiety

Facebook and Faith

marksayers — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:35:37 +0000

Can you use facebook without creating a hyperreal version of yourself? To what extent can you let your facebook page define your identity? Does facebook create a new age of radical accountability or a new arena for showing off? How does facebook affect our faith? All this and more in today’s podcast. (If you listen really carefully you might hear a safeway truck backing up and dropping off a shipment of ham in the loading bay behind my office.)

Talk to Salvation Army Youth Workers

marksayers — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 05:14:44 +0000

This is a talk that I did this week at a Salvation Army Conference for youth workers from all over Australia and New Zealand. In this talk I discuss the post-Christian trinity, Abraham, Youth Culture and the incredibly short distance that I had to travel to this event.

Consumerism as Spirituality

marksayers — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:08:46 +0000

This episode features a radio interview that I did in which I discussed the way that consumerism operates as a religion in our culture today.