This is the first in a series meant to let the Christian tradition speak for itself, the way it has carried Christians through long winters, confusion, and joy for centuries.

Who Made Who. In this episode, Gillespie takes the wheel and steers us into tradition, liturgy, worship styles, and the various “-isms” that have sprung up within the churches over the centuries. What’s the purpose of the Divine Service? What is the fundamental meaning of Christian meaning? Have we jettisoned mystery for sensible explanations that find no seat pulled out for them in God’s house? Is Christian worship, polity, and piety about what we know, experience, feel, or conformity to specific doctrines? Why is the old magic not welcome amongst sensible worshippers? What’s the place of hymns, prayers, preaching, and Scripture in Christian worship? Is liturgy a delivery mechanism or a tool?

Singing is one of the most recognizable parts of Christian worship. But why do Christians sing hymns?

Weekend Edition for August 23-24, 2025

Little Plastic Castles. In this episode, we read the first Inkling, Owen Barfield, as he defends the use of old words, old stories, and old ways of expressing what’s good, beautiful, and true against modern proponents that argued for more modern “scientific” ways of judging language, esp., poetics and myth, as well as religion and culture.

Liturgy Amongst the Rubble. In this episode, we read poems by W.H. Auden about pulp fiction, ancient myths, conversion, liturgy, poetics, and how industrialization and corporatism build a new Babel inside and around the churches.

When you step into the Lord’s house, he gives you a liturgical imagination to see with eyes of faith all of his goodness and grace.

What I was missing—what so many are missing—is a Church that doesn’t just speak about Christ, but delivers him.

“The fear of the Lord” is our heart’s awakening to and recognition of God’s outrageous goodness.

How intentional will we be about utilizing gospel spaces that already inescapably communicate?

Today on the Christian History Almanac, we pause to remember the beginning of the “Lenten” season (and this year, with the East and the West together!)

In episode THREE HUNDRED AND TWELVE, Mike, Jason, and Wade discuss the Protestant fear of formalism, or ritualism?