Author: Rev. Christopher Gillespie

Rev. Christopher Gillespie is a strange brew of husband & father; Lutheran pastor (St. John Ev. Lutheran Church - Sherman Center, Random Lake WI); media producer (gillespie.media); specialty coffee roaster (gillespie.coffee).

HT Simulcast

Episode 73: Confirmation, Catechesis, & Pentecost

Post author By Rev. Christopher Gillespie
Post date May 30, 2017

This week, it’s only Riley and Gillespie with another pastor roundtable. They discuss the weirdness that is confirmation, catechesis, and the gift of Pentecost. It’s a shorter albeit meandering conversation but worth the ride.

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Questions? Comments? Show Ideas? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact, leave them on The HT SimulCast Facebook page, or via Twitter @HTSimulCast.

Please rate and review the show in Apple Podcasts, via https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/simulcast/id1037828387?mt=2.

To subscribe Apple Podcasts, please go to: pcast://feeds.feedburner.com/higherthings-simulcast
To subscribe directly, please paste the following link into your podcast player of choice: http://feeds.feedburner.com/higherthings-simulcast

And as always, don’t forget Pr. Gillespie’s coffee, Coffee by Gillespie, for your caffeination needs.

HT Simulcast

Episode 72: Amazing Grace… A Christian Hymn?

Post author By Rev. Christopher Gillespie
Post date May 19, 2017

This week, the Simulcasters discuss the hymn Amazing Grace. They follow Pastor Riley’s system of ranking hymns from bad to good to great. Amazing Grace is an excellent example of a poor hymn because it does not explicitly preach the Gospel of Christ crucified. Kate and Pastor Riley discuss why we want to sing good and great hymns and why we try to avoid singing bad hymns. It is important to discern between these categories because the hymns we sing reflect, strengthen, and proclaim our confession of faith.

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Questions? Comments? Show Ideas? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact, leave them on The HT SimulCast Facebook page, or via Twitter @HTSimulCast.

Please rate and review the show in Apple Podcasts, via https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/simulcast/id1037828387?mt=2.

And as always, don’t forget Pr. Gillespie’s coffee, Coffee by Gillespie, for your caffeination needs.

HT Simulcast

Episode 71: Modalism Versus the Triplicity of God

Post author By Rev. Christopher Gillespie
Post date May 9, 2017

This week, Kate, Pastor Riley and Pastor Gillespie learn all about modalism and the third century heretic Sibelius on the new segment, Theological Term You Should Know! Modalism teaches that God is one person with different masks that he wears at different times in history. Though this heresy was formally taught by the ancient heretic, there are many forms of it floating around Christianity today. Not surprisingly, this heresy comes back to our desire to be our own god and reject Christ as our true God and Savior

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Questions? Comments? Show Ideas? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact, leave them on The HT SimulCast Facebook page, or via Twitter @HTSimulCast.

Please rate and review the show in Apple Podcasts, via https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/simulcast/id1037828387?mt=2.

And as always, don’t forget Pr. Gillespie’s coffee, Coffee by Gillespie, for your caffeination needs.

HT Simulcast

Episode 70: Pastoral Pitfalls and Other Rambling Pastoral Comedy

Post author By Rev. Christopher Gillespie
Post date May 2, 2017

On this week’s show, Kate and Sandra are away leaving the boys to fend for themselves. Pr. Riley along with your usual silent partner, Pr. Gillespie, open up the hood on the pastoral ministry. Come with us on a journey magical and fantastical, as we delve deep into what makes the pastor tick. We’d love to give you a summary of what was discussed but that would have required one of us to be taking notes. Bonus points to the listener who can figure it all out. Extra bonus points if you can summarize it in 500 words or less.

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Questions? Comments? Show Ideas? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact, leave them on The HT SimulCast Facebook page, or via Twitter @HTSimulCast.

Please rate and review the show in Apple Podcasts, via https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/simulcast/id1037828387?mt=2.

And as always, don’t forget Pr. Gillespie’s coffee, Coffee by Gillespie, for your caffeination needs.

HT Simulcast

Episode 69: Lutherans You Should Know – Philipp Nicolai

Post author By Rev. Christopher Gillespie
Post date April 25, 2017

On this week’s segment of “Lutherans You Should Know”, Pastor Riley relates the story of Philipp Nicolai, a German Lutheran pastor and hymnodist who wrote hymns and served as pastor in the midst of a plague and other hardships. Surrounded by death, Nicolai demonstrated the need for Christ, not just on Sunday, not just once a month or two or three times a year, but every single day. There is a tendency in our culture to not think about death, to avoid it and to hide those who are sick and dying. But where does one turn when death confronts us on every side, like it did Nicolai as he buried his parishioners daily? There is only place we can turn, only one Savior from death, Christ Jesus our Lord.

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Questions? Comments? Show Ideas? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact, leave them on The HT SimulCast Facebook page, or via Twitter @HTSimulCast.

Please rate and review the show in Apple Podcasts, via https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/simulcast/id1037828387?mt=2.

And as always, don’t forget Coffee by Gillespie for your caffeination needs.

HT Simulcast

Episode 68: Death Lies in Christ Jesus’s Strong Bands

Post author By Rev. Christopher Gillespie
Post date April 18, 2017

This week, the four Simulcasters focus on Martin Luther’s beautiful Easter hymn Christ Jesus Lay in Death’s Strong Bands (LSB 458). Singing hymns is an activity very different from what we normally do in our everyday life, at least it seems that way when we look at our American culture. Hymns that personify death and show us a mighty Savior who conquers him are even more strange to us. These hymns are necessary for our lives as Christians and human beings because death does come for us all and without Christ, we are still enslaved to it and to our sin. Have your hymnals and bibles ready as we discuss the hymn and the Bible passages that provided Luther the inspiration for the lyrics: Acts 2:24, 1 Corinthians 15:54-57, Hosea 13:14, and 2 Timothy 1:10.

And if you would like to hear this hymn sung by a thousand youth, check it out on the HT YouTube page: https://youtube.com/watch?v=nKx2J4Llcso .

[ download ]

Questions? Comments? Show Ideas? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact, leave them on The HT SimulCast Facebook page, or via Twitter @HTSimulCast.

Please rate and review the show in iTunes, via https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/simulcast/id1037828387?mt=2.

To subscribe via iTunes, please go to: pcast://feeds.feedburner.com/higherthings-simulcast
To subscribe directly, please paste the following link into your podcast player of choice: http://feeds.feedburner.com/higherthings-simulcast

And as always, don’t forget Coffee by Gillespie for your caffeination needs.

HT Simulcast

Episode 67: XYZ is for End Times

Post author By Rev. Christopher Gillespie
Post date March 22, 2017

This week, the fantastic four discuss the end of the world and what that means for believers, non-believers, and the world. How does election and predestination fit into Judgement day? Do Lutheran believe that everyone is predestined to go to heaven or hell? Jesus said that when He was lifted up, He would draw all people to Himself, but what about those who haven’t heard about Jesus and those who have but reject Him? Are we all dogs just begging for crumbs from the master’s table?

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Questions? Comments? Show Ideas? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact, leave them on The HT SimulCast Facebook page, or via Twitter @HTSimulCast.

Please rate and review the show in iTunes, via https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/simulcast/id1037828387?mt=2.

And as always, don’t forget Coffee by Gillespie for your caffeination needs.

HT Simulcast

Episode 66: W is for Wake

Post author By Rev. Christopher Gillespie
Post date March 14, 2017

This week, the pastors, Sandra, and Kate discuss death and funerals. During the season of Lent, as we remember that we are dust, it is fitting to contemplate our own demise and that of our loved ones. Why do we still die, despite Christ’s victory over death? How do we participate in Christ’s own death and resurrection as Christians? Paul says in Romans that we are baptized into Christ’s death so that we too can be raised from the dead. In that way, death and resurrection is the mechanism of our salvation.

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Questions? Comments? Show Ideas? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact, leave them on The HT SimulCast Facebook page, or via Twitter @HTSimulCast.

Please rate and review the show in iTunes, via https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/simulcast/id1037828387?mt=2.

And as always, don’t forget Coffee by Gillespie for your caffeination needs.

HT Simulcast

Episode 65: V is for Volumizer

Post author By Rev. Christopher Gillespie
Post date March 7, 2017

This week, the fearless four discuss the season of Lent. What is the purpose of Lent, since we are to repent of our sins daily? Why do we give up pleasures and specific sins during Lent? What is the purpose of fasting? What is our focus during this holy season? Fasting and bodily preparation are indeed fine outward training, but our faith is in Christ. Ultimately it is the gift of faith in Christ, the gift to believe despite our unbelief in the forgiveness freely offered to us in Jesus that is our focus during Lent. And while that is our weekly and daily focus throughout the year, Lent provides an amplified concentration on our Savior and His specific work of salvation for us sinners.

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Questions? Comments? Show Ideas? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact, leave them on The HT SimulCast Facebook page, or via Twitter @HTSimulCast.

Please rate and review the show in iTunes, via https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/simulcast/id1037828387?mt=2.

And as always, don’t forget Coffee by Gillespie for your caffeination needs.

HT Simulcast

Episode 64: U is for Uncomfortable

Post author By Rev. Christopher Gillespie
Post date February 28, 2017

This week, the phenomenal four discuss what happens when we become too comfortable at church. Tradition within the church is good in many respects, but sometimes we allow certain traditions to prevent us from focusing on Christ and serving our neighbor. We often need to be reminded of our sin and be made uncomfortable by the free forgiveness offered to us in Christ Jesus. This might mean the pastor has to alter certain parts of the service that we are used to or adjust the nature of our social gatherings. And while we should feel safe and loved at our own church, is it also important that we are challenged to examine our faith and confession more closely both as individuals and as a community?

[ download ]

Questions? Comments? Show Ideas? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact, leave them on The HT SimulCast Facebook page, or via Twitter @HTSimulCast.

Please rate and review the show in iTunes, via https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/simulcast/id1037828387?mt=2.

And as always, don’t forget Coffee by Gillespie for your caffeination needs.