Hey! I'm Steve! Here's a bit about me...
Personal History: I currently live in Colorado with my wife, Kristi, and 2 fabulous kids: Hannah & Noah. Kristi and I have been ridiculously happily married 23 years. She's my rock. I grew up in Fort Collins, CO (lovely place) and later got my degree in Biblical Studies & Missions from Oklahoma Christian University. In 2005, Kristi & I (with Hannah in tow) moved to Dresden, Germany to work with a small church there. We planned to be there forever but moved back to the USA in 2009 (long story). I ended up working as a UX designer, then a manager of designers, and now a manager of designers and software engineers – and I love it! On the downside, I was diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson's Disease in 2017, then with Multiple Sclerosis in 2019. It's rough living with those 2 neurological conditions, but I'm learning to look for the positives.
Faith History: I come from a long line of Church of Christ ministers and missionaries who taught me to love God and follow Him no matter what. Strangely, that's led me away from the "Church of Christ" as it exists now and to try follow God in a new way. Kind of like my own, personal, Restoration Movement, really. My "deconstruction" begain while we were in Germany as missionaries, but really hit high-gear during the COVID pandemic. The forced distance from things really gave me the space I needed to take a new look at my faith and I realized how it was more tied to the "church" than it was to God, himself. I decided to do something about that, and here we are, with me talking about my spiritual struggles for the world to hear, and you listening. Hello - welcome to the journey :-)
Steve has hosted 68 Episodes.
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Book Club Announcement - "Flying, Falling, Catching" by Henri Nouwen & Carolyn Whitney-Brown
March 30th, 2022 | 1 min 6 secs
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47: Data > Dogma: A conversation with biblical scholar Dan McClellan
March 23rd, 2022 | 1 hr 14 mins
Bible nerds unite! Nathan & Steve got to have a wonderful conversation with TikTok-famous Bible scholar Dan McClellan. Topics include the cognitive science of religion, the problem with univocality, the development of inerrancy, and… does God look like a cow?
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46: The In-Between: How Daniel Wheat's music is entwined with his faith
March 16th, 2022 | 1 hr 43 mins
Daniel Wheat has been the official Following the Fire troubadour since day one. He's working on a new album and talks to Nathan and Steve about how the progression of his music and the development of his faith are so closely bound together.
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45: Book Club: Heavy Burdens - Bridget Eileen Rivera
March 9th, 2022 | 57 mins 33 secs
Author Bridget Eileen Rivera joins us to talk about her new book "Heavy Burdens: Seven Ways LGBTQ Christians Experience Harm in the Church"
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44: Not a White Man: Discussion Group Q&R pt2
March 2nd, 2022 | 1 hr 5 mins
In which Nathan & Steve discuss Gen Z lingo and more questions posed in the Following the Fire Facebook discussion group. Topics include: Why does God allow us to relive trauma? Can we get rid of institutional racism? Where's the Mother in all this!? Is it "XKCD" or "SMBC"? And more!
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43: Twist Ending: Discussion Group Q&R pt1
February 23rd, 2022 | 1 hr 3 mins
In which Nathan & Steve respond to (because actual "Answers" are lacking) questions posed in the Following the Fire Facebook discussion group. Topics include: the goal of deconstruction, God’s role in it, untangling culture and faith, and more.
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42: J. Crum: the man, his music, his faith, and his journey
February 16th, 2022 | 1 hr 6 mins
J. Crum is a legend. His song "Clarity" struck a nerve last year with so many people going through deconstruction, and his path has taken him to some unexpected places. We were honored to get to spend time talking with J. Crum about his music, his faith, how they intersect, and where he's going from here.
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41: Deconstruction Everywhere: Disney+ shows and films with themes of deconstruction
February 12th, 2022 | 49 mins 43 secs
Nathan and Steve catch up after a month off and they discuss the theme of deconstruction in tons of shows and movies (mostly) on Disney+. Seems like it's absolutely everywhere!
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Rebroadcast: "Why We Can't Wait" by Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 17th, 2022 | 1 hr 27 mins
We're joined by Nicole Magliore to discuss the book "Why We Can't Wait" by Martin Luther King, Jr. – Not only do we discuss the book, but what white Christians can do to make a difference in a country that is still so stuck in white supremacy and systemic racism. This, my friends, is a fantastic episode.
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40: Book Club: Faith After Doubt - by Brian McLaren
December 22nd, 2021 | 1 hr 34 mins
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39: Spiritual Nomads: When deconstruction leads to wandering, where do we find comfort and safety?
December 15th, 2021 | 1 hr 20 mins
Rethinking your faith often leads to leaving your faith community to look for something else. Something more. Something real. And while that move was probably for the best, there’s still a loss of the comfort that the old group gave you, and a loss of certainty that came with it. Either way, it doesn’t make wandering the spiritual wilderness any easier. So, among the questions we won’t properly answer today: Should we try to replace the comfort we lost? Should we go back to the certainty group we left? And, how can gratitude help us find something more ultimate than certainty?
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38: Embracing Discomfort: How cognitive biases contribute to church problems and deconstruction
December 8th, 2021 | 1 hr 44 mins
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37: Hidden Gems: How deconstruction can help us find deeper meaning
November 17th, 2021 | 1 hr 17 mins
For most churches these days, the Old Testament is a collection of exciting and shocking stories for kids’ Bible class. When we’re older, we assume we’ve learned what the stories have to teach us and we hardly ever revisit them from an adult perspective! An unexpected upside of deconstruction can be that, when we DO re-think these OT stories, there are layers upon layers of meaning.
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36: Breaking the Belief Box: How the protective walls we’ve built can hurt more than help
November 10th, 2021 | 1 hr 20 mins
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35: Sermons We Hear: What are American Christians hearing from the pulpit?
November 3rd, 2021 | 1 hr 12 mins
We discuss a recent study about the content, length, and focus of sermons preached in American churches these days. Which churches talk about what? What does that say about them? What can we learn from the various types of sermon?
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34: Who Wrote It?: Digging into false claims of authorship in the Bible with Trevor Thompson
October 27th, 2021 | 1 hr 10 mins
New Testament scholar Trevor Thompson joins us to discuss pseudepigraphic texts in the Bible. We talk about what they are, how they're determined, and we talk a lot about what that means for our faith in scripture and in God.