All Episodes
Displaying episodes 1 - 30 of 37 in total
Episode 37 - Modern Mentorship and the Church's Need for Humility
Our Guest this week is Jim Buske of Lighthouse Youth Ministry and he relayed a story he asked a man in the predominantly African American Garden Homes neighborhood of ...
Episode 36 - The What and Why of Voting in Church
Voting is a significant topic in American culture, especially in an election year. But what does the "right to vote" really mean? While it seems straightforward, the r...
Episode 35 - Does God Love Me or My Behavior?
Have you ever wondered if God seems to care more about how we behave than who we are? It's honestly not fair of us to see the God of the Bible, the God of the cross an...
Episode 34 - The Value and Importance of the Creeds
Why Lutherans Use Creeds in ChurchCreeds are a statement of belief that help Christians express the basic truths that they believe, as both an individual or as a corpo...
Episode 33 - When Jesus Went To Hell
Understanding Jesus Descent into HellThe Apostles Creed is a simple summary of the Biblical, Christian faith through the use of several statements that have rich theol...
Episode 32 - Do You Have $80?
Three Thoughts on what God Has Already Given YouIn a sermon from a few weeks earlier, Pastor Pete shared an illustration that involved $80 as he helped the congregatio...
Episode 31 - Aha's of Holy Week
Biblical Observations from the Passion Story. One of the benefits of reading the Bible over and over is that we all mature through experiences. Wisdom comes from the...
Episode 30 - The Value and Challenge of Bible Translations
How different does this sound?"Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."and“If anyone wants to follow me, let a pers...
Episode 29 - Taking Up Your Cross - What Does This Even Mean?
In Luke 9:23 Jesus makes this comment "23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. ...
Episode 28 - When Men and Dads Feel Unqualified
The impact of Godly men can be profound on children, families and society. A force for good as they live out their roles as Christian men of God. When men and dads don...
Episode 27 - A Helpful Talk About Sex - For Christian Families, Singles and Married Couples
In Today's episode we are joined by Pastor Brad Snyder who is also the chairman of "Conquerors Through Christ" a ministry dedicated to helping Christians Resist-Reject...
Episode 26 - When Family Sports and Church Collide
We want our kids to grow up in community. To be challenged, share in responsibility, grow friendships and relationships and sports is a great way to connect our kids t...
Episode 25 - Learning Some Lessons for Life
Every years the staff at St. Paul's/The Bridge takes in the Global Leadership Summit, a conference that gives those leading families, organizations, and churches train...
Episode 24 - Can a Parent Really Be a Pastor?
The big C church, the one on the corner that people go to worship God and be part of a congregation, really finds it's foundation in the home. When a Christian man and...
Episode 23 - The Family Church and Combating Loneliness
Loneliness is an epidemic in our society today. Recent studies show that 58% of the general population struggle with a deeper level of aloneness while up to 78% of ou...
Episode 22 - Is God Serious About How I Lead? - Lessons in Leadership Part 2
Mike Westendorf, Arica Drezdzon and Paul Schuessler continue the conversation on simple leadership lessons. If leadership is influence, then we all have influence so w...
Episode 21 - How do we grow as leaders? Thoughts on Leading Well, Part 1
"Everybody Wins when the leader gets better" “Leadership is influence and everyone has influence.” “A humble leader can learn from anyone.” How do you respond to these...
Episode 20 - Disappointment, Community and a Christian Witness
Disappointment shows up in a very real, tangible, physical and emotional way when the gap between our expectation and the result is wide. We've all experienced it and...
Episode 19 - Will We Recognize Each Other in Heaven?
Our listeners have been asking some good questions of late and we have had a few iterations of this kind of question over the past year or two. When the Christian dies...
Episode 18 - Is Being Engaged the Same as Being Married In God's Eyes?
In earlier generations when people talked about becoming engaged it was often assumed in the church that engagement was tantamount to being married in God's eyes. Mik...
Episode 17 - The Importance of Language and Context and the Training of Pastors in the WELS
Not everyone loves language and history is both exciting to some and boring to other. But why are these topics important for Lutheran Pastors in the Wisconsin Evangeli...
Episode 16 - An Interview with Author Hannah Schermerhorn
In this week's podcast, GQGC host Mike Westendorf sits down with Christian author Hannah Schermerhorn to talk about some of the themes in her new book "Only a Single L...
Episode 15 - Understanding Communion Better
The bread and wine, the Body and Blood of Jesus... this is often a tough sacrament and church tradition for people to understand. Is there power in it? Is there a dang...
Episode 14 - The Problem with Baptism
Baptism in the Lutheran church is one of the key tools that God uses to tell humanity about his forgiveness and to work faith in the hearts of people. It is to be pure...
Episode 13 - What's in a Name? Describing the Christian God
What is in a name? Everyone uses the word "god" for some reason or another. Whether it's a casual swear or play on the word or assigning religious or spiritual value...
Episode 12 - How Do I Forgive... Myself?
When our communities, families or are lives are broken, where does healing come from? Forgiveness is the key, but what is it and why is it so necessary? It seems to be...
Episode 11 - The Why and What of Forgiveness
We have a chance to sit down with professional counselor, Pastor Jeffrey Bonack, to talk the challenges to forgiving others. Can we forgive and forget? The reality is ...
Episode 10 - Why Forgiveness is So Important
The 5th petition says "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us". Jesus taught us to pray these words. So what does that mean exactly and are there c...
Episode 9 - Forgiveness, Discipline and Discipleship
Thanks for joining us this week. We do a dive into the question about "who can forgive sin?" Is it Pastors, churchy people... who? We'll also talk about the challenge ...
Episode 8 - How Should We "Fear" God?
What does it mean to "Fear" God? This is often one of the challenges to people as they dig deeper into the Bible. Are we supposed to be afraid of God? That is the h...