Advent episode 2!  Our hosts sit down to talk about the missional side of advent and how folks can take a few steps deeper into the tradition. We also talk about favorite traditions around Christmas both at home and in the church. 

Episode Content includes:

• When ministry gets intense.
• Advent Calendars.
• Lego Advent calendars.
• Christmas mouse.
• Calling out Matt Stout.
• Anticipation and Advent.
• Entry point into Advent.
• Drew's Mom voice.
• Johnny Matthis Christmas album.
• Stories of hope. 
• Eschatology.
• Why we need to anticipate.
• Jesus coming back. 
• This isn't how it's going to be. 
• If it can't bring light...then it isn't as good as we say it is. 
• O little town of Alleppo.
• Rescue and redemption.
• He can save us. Even us. 
• Being present and not losing hope. 
• The presence and the future. 

The Threshing Floor Gift Guide for Procrastinators. 

• Amazon gift cards
• Tools of Titans -Tim Ferris
• American Buffalo - Steve Rinella
• The John Wesley Collection
• Mono remaster of Pet Sounds
• Sturgill Simpson a Sailor's Guide to Earth.
• Joshua wants the entire collection of Florida-Georgia Line albums. 

It's Advent! #mostwonderfultimeoftheyear.

Each year in December, the Threshing Floor plans out special Advent conversations. These are typically our most popular episodes each year. We are excited about this year!

In this episode you hear about:

• We laugh at the beginning.
• radagascar.
• Lord of the Rings.
• Tetherball.
• sports designed for bullies.
• Advent.
• decorating and hope.
• What are your advent essentials?
• God's silence that we need to recognize.
• What does it mean to die waiting?
• Advent as reclaiming.
• Advent as completeness.
• What it means to wait

Advent Episode History

Advent 2013 | Prepare the Way
Advent 2014 | Christmas Traditions
Advent 2015 | Solid Country Gold, Advent, and JD Walt

Happy Thanksgiving!

In this episode, the Threshing Floor talks all about Thanksgiving. We share traditions, memories and do a deep dive into the Biblical idea of the concept of Thanksgiving. Plus, plenty more great conversations from the thunderous three. 

We talk about:

• Kids Snacks.
• Why coffee is better overseas.
• Son-In-Law.
• Bio-dome.
• Pauly Shore.
• Pauly Shore as a sociological concept.
• Squirrel Brains.
• Board Games.
• Fried Moon Pies.
• What we love about thanksgiving.
• TTF gets thanksgiving.
• The Old Testament idea of thanksgiving.
• The power of acknowledgment.
• Thanksgiving as offering.
• The New Testament shift towards gratitude.
• Thankfulness in different cultures.
• Sentimentality as tradition.
• Someone doing something for you that you can't do yourself.
• Acknowledging powerlessness. 
• Thankfulness NOT entitlement. 
• Sentimentality without deep revelation
• Learning to be a thankful people.
• Twitter feedback.
• Tract as a verb. (tracted?)
• Do you use a rosary or prayer beads?

Today's episode of The Threshing Floor takes you back to the golden era of door-to-door evangelism and talks about handing out gospel tracts. We also talk about Joshua's odd eating habits and jump into some listener feedback. 

Our conversations include:

• Bed Times.
• The Hashbrown Bowl at Waffle House.
• Why we need to record an episode at Waffle House.
• Joshua is a ghostbuster.
• #makewafflesgreatagain.
• Food Hacks.
• Milk and Cereal or Cereal and Milk?
• G-Love's early 2000's hit about breakfast food.
• Jack Chick's death.
• Soul-winning.
• Revelation 21:8
• Chad bails on evangelism and goes to a tattoo parlor.
• Facebook as the modern tract.
• There are things about this mode of evangelism with good intention.
• does it require people to be convinced?
• The message of the gospel is meant to be translated by transformed people. 
• If we don't have active transformation-evangelism is hollow. 
• Discipleship and evangelism. 
• Thanksgiving
• The sanctification suitcase episode
• The best Mario game ever. 

Mentioned links

R.I.P Jack Chick, comics scaremonger (AV Club)

Jack Chick is Dead (New Republic) 

From Four Laws to Four Circles (Christianity Today) 

Get ready. We will only say it once.

Get ready.

In today's episode, our hosts sit down with the infamous theologian Tom Fuerst to talk about theology and his latest book Underdogs and Outsiders. And many other fantastic topics.

These conversations include:

• Chicago Hot Dogs
• The Threshing Floor's best episode ever
• Chad went to Chicago
• Chicago pizza culture
• Leonard Ravenhill (of course)
• Why Tom eats chicken fingers (almost exclusively)
• God creating our emotions
• Why theology matters and needs to be creative
• The job of the preacher
• Why we need to develop an ethos with preaching
• Jesus is not sitting at the right hand of God to coddle us
• Why preaching should be rough
• The word of God should destroy us
• twitter feedback
• What we are reading right now
• AW Tozer's overalls
• Criss cross applesauce
• Joshua's new podcast

Mentioned

Tom on Twitter @Thom1st

Tom1st.com

Underdogs and Outsiders (Cokesbury)

Welcome to the Thunderdome!

Not really. But we are trying out a new segment called "The Suitcase." This week, Drew pits Joshua and Chad against each other as they explain sanctification. 

We also talk about:

• Meeting listeners at New Room.
• How the New Room Conference has changed.
• what it means to practice a revival approach to Wesleyanism instead of justifying a revival approach to Wesleyanism.
• The Squire.
• How Joshua eats on the show.
• Kevin from the office.
• The path of discipleship vs. the path of grace.
• The best mario game ever made.
• Joe Dongell on love (Sola Sancta Caritas link).
• The Suitcase.
• Free of willful sin. (Baptist)
• Encountering a Risen Lord (EO and Pentecostal)
• A street definition of sanctification.
• 3 Graces
• Kalistos Ware

Thanks for listening! 

What happens when the fabulous three meet up with the tremendous two? 

Episode 71 of The Threshing Floor. 

At the 2016 New Room Conference, our hosts gather around the microphones of two of our favorite people. We fired up the mics and let the Holy Spirit roll. What happened was a fascinating conversation about ministry. 

We talked about many different things, including;

• The role of power and Christlikeness.
• The role of power and women in ministry.
• How we are called to sociological imagination.
• What it means to not use power for the self, but for others.
• The role of race and privilege.
• Being a good neighbor.
• The role of power in healing ministry and relationships
• Listening first to what Jesus says.
• Fear.
• How do we act around fear.
• When we become a poor servant rather than something awesome.
• Performance.
• When we have a crisis in the gap.
• Learning that ourself is enough.
• Healing and the true self.
• Listening loosely.
• Why "God using us" is janky.
• How we distort the image of God in our language of call.
• The temptation of performance.
• Not taking yourself too seriously.
• What's more powerful than giving your own power away.

We also want to congratulate the winner of our Isaiah Epic of Eden giveaway!

We recorded a fantastic conversation about Fundamentalism and Orthodoxy. We had some audio problems, mainly outside noise from a recording feed. However, the content was great. 

We let a few listeners in on the audio, they loved it...so we are releasing this as an unadvertised, non-counted episode. 

Enjoy. 

In the 70th episode of The Threshing Floor, Chad and Drew talk about Joshua's dangerous and deadly podcasting setup. We also reflect on over 3 years of The Threshing Floor and talk about some shifts and changes we want to take. Our big conversation is about game changer gatherings and what it means to come together with other people.

Our conversation includes:

• Segments on segments
• Adventures in contextualization
• How faith podcasting has changed
• Passion One Day
• summer camps
• mission trips
• How we are excited about New Room
• What are we expecting?

In this Threshing Floor, Drew and Chad talk about our typical shade thrown to missing hosts. So we have decided that Joshua is at a desert monastic retreat center in the suburbs of Atlanta. Besides that, we focus our main conversation on the transition in ministry roles we each have gone through in the last 10 years.

Our conversation includes:

• Gravel Pits
• Joshua is a monk
• cesspools
• Salute Your Shorts
• Rights of passage
• Hog Hunting
• Arm breaks
• Cast warfare
• BBQ sauce
• 10 years ago we thought we would be doing...
• 2nd chair leadership
• Clarity of call
• Being pigeon-holed in ministry
• Clear distinct steps
• God can call out of a deep revival movement
• We have Master's degrees. We can make up words
• Who we are in worship is rooted in our active call.
• twitter questions
• Our current favorite worship records

In this episode, Drew sits down with his D.Min cohort leader, Michael Frost, and has a conversation about missional leadership. They dig deep into the power of stories and the realm of mission. 

Other conversations include; 

So what were you expecting to happen?

In this episode, our main conversation centers around Holy Spirit expectation. More specifically, what does it mean to develop a culture in your life and church. 

We also talk about plenty of other great things. 

Nicknames for Chest Hair
Taco Bell Crunchwrap sponsorship
Bigfoot costume
Chuck Knows Church
Christian Mingle (again)
Clueless
Babylon Bee
The Nutty Professor
John Mark McMillian or Tupac

Main Conversation
What does it mean for us to load the deck for the Holy Spirit to come?
Language creates culture
We have to talk about what it means to be the church
What does it mean to go to church expecting to meet with God
I didn't expect the Holy Spirit...I expected trouble
We expect God to come, sadly it's because we want him to do what WE want him to do
Limitation
Liturgy of Faithfulness
So how do we foster this?
What if our expectation and preparation is the beginning?
Priest and prophet as opposed to preachers and pastors
We must welcome people into this reality

In yet another rousing episode of the Threshing Floor your hosts have a conversation about what it means to practice good self-care in ministry. We also have an extended conversation about what it means to grow old and homemade hair remedies. 

Our conversation includes (but is not limited to):

• Willie Nelson's birthday cake
• Getting old
• Make Joshua's hair great again
• Redneck mustard gas
• Going grey
• Oversize coveralls
• Kingdom Week at Asbury
• If you don't order your time...someone else will
• Vocational ministry expectations
• Learning to say no
• The things that burn you out are usually not central to your own call and Passion
• Everyone has chores
• Chores vs. Passions
• Learning to Develop Leaders
• Huddle House vs. Waffle House

What happens when you mix Netflix and Christian dating? Well, you get a great movie to talk about and Joshua puts his dating life in the hands of Drew and Chad. This and more in the latest Threshing Floor!

Our primary conversation surrounds Christendom and the theology of infant baptism. We started our conversation with this article written by Jason Micheli called "Infant Baptisms Malignant Assumption."

Our topics include:

• snoop dog greeting
• preacher techno/sermon jams
• Richter Giveaway 
• Waffle House
• Gas Station Breakfast
• Joshua is a karaoke legend
• Lionel Richie
• Christian Mingle
• Can Drew and Chad run start and run Joshua a Christian Mingle account?
• Baptism
• Christendom and the Water
• baptism as a commitment to kingdom living
• our bar for what it means to be a follower of Jesus is low
• Baptism and to become more...

In this episode of The Threshing Floor, Joshua and Chad sit down and have an amazing conversation with Dr. Sandra Richter. Dr. Richter is the author of the Epic of Eden and several other studies on Seedbed.com. Currently, Dr. Richter is a professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College. 

This episode you can hear us talk about:

• Is Chad dead?
• Holding fish.
• Joshua goes on a spiritual retreat.
• Do we always need our phone?
• What we rely on shows our coping mechanisms.
• Unplugging and getting away. 
• John 15. 
• How are we giving room for the Holy Spirit to work?
• Joshua bought a bonsai.
• The karate kid
• How Joshua bootlegged seminary
• Does the Old Testament make God look like a monster?
• Star Wars.
• God's original blueprint. 
• The fact that God loves us. 
• The law. 
• The Old Testament is a survey of a missionary God who loves his people. 
• Other choices than striking us dead. 
• The Threshing Floor is like iCarly.
• Taylor Swift and Song of Songs
• Who would win in a fight? Esther or Rahab?
• Epic of Eden study.
• information to transformation
• Looking through scripture to where we see Jesus. 
• Reading scripture without the Old Testament (and the impossibility).
  
  
  

We are stoked to give away a free set of Dr. Richter's latest Isaiah OneBook study. It will be released at New Room this year. To win you need to do these two things. 

1. Sign up for the New Room Conference. You can do that at

http://newroom.seedbed.com/. 

2. At checkout, use the code TTF in the box. That will enter you for the drawing. 

---

If you are already registered for new room, just shoot us an email at threshingfloorpodcast@gmail.com and let us know. We will make sure your name gets in the drawing. 

The Threshing Floor is rounding the corner with the last few of our New Room Conference conversations. In this episode. Joshua and Chad sit down with the Rev. Dr. Timothy Tennent, president of Asbury Theological Seminary. We have a conversation about church planting, post-Christendom and the broader scope of worldwide Christianity.

Our larger conversation consists of:

• Joshua's Jazz Intro
• How we plan TTF
• Rebecca Black
• Editing the last episode
• Why we make Andrew Dragos work more
• The Warriors
• The Church and global context
• The center of global Christianity
• Where does the church stand in relation to the world?
• Living in post-Christendom
• Post-Christendom doesn't assume having a voice.
• Build it and they don't care

The Threshing Floor is back! In this episode, our hosts sit down to talk about TONS of different things. Our larger conversation focuses on itinerancy and church leadership tenure. We also break down into conversations about Swedish Christian death metal, bowel health and Drew's guest appearance on the Parent Pastor Podcast.

We talk about

• Flannel Lined Blue Jeans
• Selling Bibles
• Chad worked in Christian Retail
• Sweden is metal only
• LORDI 
• Joshua's bathroom
• squatty potty
• Parent Pastor Episode with Drew (link)
• Kids Television
• Wildkratts
• Giving Yourself to the City
• Tenure length in different traditions
• Giving yourself to your city
• Joshua's use of Peace Out. 

The Threshing Floor can almost get discount coffee at McDonald's! We are excited about our 61st episode. We have tons of great content geared up and ready for you. Our main discussion centers around some twitter conversations we have been having about missional priorities and how they can drive the decisions we make in church, leadership and worship. 

We also talk about;

• our eligibility for sr. citizen discounts
• Grey Beards
• The Hair Club for Anglicans
• Allan leather Bible's
• Merle Haggard's death
• Sturgill Simpson's new record
• Joshua sings
• Convoy
• Having a clear sense of calling
• What faithfulness means
• Highway of Holiness
• Are short term mission trips good?
• who is God calling you to be?
• The decisions that we make speak to the priorities that we have. 

We have a guest this week. The Threshing Floor sits down with Padre Dean Simmer. Dean is an Anglican priest, IT specialist and soccer enthusiast in Detroit, Michigan. We talk about the power of embedding yourself in a localized culture and serving as a witness to the presence of Jesus. You can get more from dean at @mojodean and deanpsimmer.com. 

In this episode, you can hear about;

• Joe Dongell's briefcase
• Bigfoot calls
• The Legend of Boggy Creek
• Paris Hilton
• Motley Crue vs. The Newsboys
• God's Not Dead II
• NES Duck Hunt
• Professional Soccer
• Detroit football
• Ordination to a community
• pastoring places and people
• The Northern Guard
• Church vs. Relationships
• Plato's cave
• Depression and openness
• Vulnerability

We also share more about our friends at the Parent Pastor Podcast, Mark Swayze and the dead grandma game and The Art of the Sermon's recent interview with Rob Bell

Happy Easter(tide). The Threshing Floor is super excited to talk about Easter today. We gathered together all of our crazy easter stories, favorite candy and plenty of other things to create a jaw-dropping, life-changing Easter episode for 2016.

Here is what we talk about:

• Mini-Horses
• Joshua's new ringtone
• Periscope (the app, not viewing device)
• Favorite breakfast cereal
• favorite Easter candy
• Easter puns
• Easter traditions
• Joshua sings (surprise)
• Jesus getting into a light-saber fight
• Willow the Movie
• Crazy Easter Stories
• Why Easter matters
• Is Easter all about atonement? (Link to our episode on why atonement matters)
• Preaching resurrection

Joshua's new ringtown link (Thanks to listener Matt Stout).

Remember to review and rate on iTunes! 

Back at New Room of 2015, Joshua and Chad sat down with Mark Swayze. Mark is the Charles Wesley of the New Room movement. We talk about contemporary worship and worship songwriting. Here's our full rundown of conversation topics.

• Periscope and Twitter
• BBQ Deathbed Confessions
• Canceling Church
• Is it worship if the sacrament isn't there?
• Parent Pastor Podcast
• Metallica plays with an orchestra
• What does it mean to lead worship with JD Walt?
• Leading horrible worship songs
• Working with Ed Cash
• Theologically complex worship
• The rest of the gospel is the best of the gospel
• Worship songs written for the local church
• Worship that ISN'T Pre-Salvific
• What Wesleyan songwriting looks like. 
• Why worship leaders need to write music
• Local expression of worship songwriting
• CCLI Top 100 Songs for United Methodists
• Chad rants. a lot. Seriously. A LOT.

The Three Horsemen of the cheap steak buffet are back with another award-winning episode of the Threshing Floor. In this episode we have a conversation about the role of adult conversion in the Christian Church. Specifically, we talk about the conversation about conversion inside of an infant baptism tradition. Joshua also spits out some serious knowledge he is learning in his ThM program at Candler School of Theology. 

Our conversation includes

• Joshua's legendary "High-Ho Cherry-O" intro
• Everyone's Dad like McDonalds coffee
• Crocs
• The Tedeschi-Trucks Band
• Homestar Runner Lil'Brudder
• Songs we won't get out of the car for
• Chad learned the term "throwing shade"
• What we mean by conversion
• we've got to get used to the idea that people aren't Christian
• the role baptism plays
• The role "following up" plays in articulating the sacraments
• head knowledge vs. heart knowledge

The Threshing Floor is back with another hot episode. Our hosts talk about;

• Snakes
• G.I. Joe
• The Serial Podcast
• Donuts and donut burgers
• Donuts and BBQ
• Lent
• What it means to die to yourself
• more G.I. Joe 
• What it means to cancel church

 It's Ash Wednesday...wednesday, Wednesday, WEDNESDAY. 

In this episode we talk about...

• Louisiana culture and Mardi Gras
• Fat Tuesday vs. Shrove Tuesday
• Fried fish dinners
• Monster Truck rallies as great first dates
• Joshua's families records against the Dralle brothers in Chicago area demolition derbies. 
• The #selfie fascination with Ash Wednesday
• Ash Wednesday as a cultural entry point into the church calendar
• What Big Event strategies look like in ministry
• Why we have a bad view of death (and how Ash Wednesday helps)

We are giving away 5 copies of seedbed.com's new Lent Soundtrack resource. Tweet #ttfsoundtrack to enter. 

The Threshing Floor would LOVE to get Dr. James K. A. Smith on the show (he is our favorite Calvinist). Would you help us with this? Tweet to @james_ka_smith to help us out...and tell him how much he NEEDS to be on The Threshing Floor?

Threshing Floor. Live from New Room 2015. 

Chad and Joshua sit down with the Rev. Dr. Andrew Thompson, senior pastor of First United Methodist in Springdale, Arkansas. Andrew also holds a doctorate of Theology from Duke University. He has spent time in college ministry, local church ministry, teaching in seminary and is now the pastor of a large, vital congregation in Arkansas. 

Chad and Joshua have a conversation with Andrew about what it means to be a pastoral theologian and why it matters to carry your education into the pulpit. We also have a raucous good time with another Southern boy at the expense of Joshua. 

Andrew is also part of the podcast Behind the Sermon. It is an experiment in public theology in reference to the weekly preaching event. Make sure to check it out here. 

In this episode of The Threshing Floor, our hosts sit down and talk about 2015. They share their favorite music and movies and then get into some more serious questions. They speak about what they are looking forward to, how they feel God leading them in 2016 and what ministry and leadership will be. 

We also share our excitement for the regional New Room gatherings. You can find more information out here.