Revolution Church

Jay is up to his eyeballs with his big move, so rather than having to find a way to come up with a talk, Josh is filling in so Jay has room to breathe for a bit! Today’s talk is inspired by a line from Elton John’s song Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. It’s about going back to a simpler time. An easier time. The strange thing about Christianity, though, is that we’ve gotten to a place where ‘progress’ is actually further behind us. It’s back back. Back to Jesus and Peter and Paul talking about grace and equality. So, the way we go forward at Revolution is to go backwards. Back to a time before the corruption set in. To a time where the belief structure was just about loving and accepting people and being aware that the old laws of the Bible are crushing us—just like it crushed everyone that came before us. To help demonstrate the dangers of taking the Bible literally and living in the way of legalism, we take a strange journey to show the complicated path the Bible took to be written in English. And how many links in the chain there were between that and getting the Bible to America. This doesn’t diminish anything, and it doesn’t take away from the Bible. All it shows is how it makes no real sense to take it so literally. There were too many cooks in the kitchen for thousands of years, including misprints and plenty of people being burned at the stake. The Bible is incredible, and we lose a lot of that when we force it to be literal and we force legalism into our lives. Today we also talk about Elijah, Elisha, Shawn Michaels, Final Fantasy 7, and the movie The Darjeeling Limited. It’s a fun one!This talk was given on June 4, 2023 from Long Island, NY.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94

The world is kind of screwy and we’re gonna head there a bit today. The bulk of Jay’s talk today explores some passages in 1 John. Because, besides all of the confusion and anxiety of life these days with politics and hate and fear and war—Jay is adding moving to a new apartment on top of all of that! And in the end, it seems despite our effort and drive to power through, life still seems pointless more often than not. And because of that apathy sneaks its way in more than we’d ever care for it. Today Jay’s real question is “What are we doing to get through this everyday?” That’s why a focus on 1 John today is really helpful. Because it talks a lot of how true love casts out fear and it casts out hate. We learn that to truly love God, we can’t hate our neighbor. It just doesn’t work. So when we’re all in a bit of darkness and we’re all struggling…and our leaders have become so petty and pathetic with each other, things just do not feel safe. It all feels so dark and overwhelming. But if we all help each other, lean on each other, love each other. Then that lets a lot of light into our really dark world.This talk was given on May 21, 2023 from Seattle, WA.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94

Happy Mother’s Day everyone! Today’s talk is a little weird but that’s okay because Jay’s gotta be Jay. After a brief continuation and further thoughts/developments of last week’s talk, Jay jumps into what our focus is with Revolution—learning to have the tough conversations. Trying to stop ‘othering’ others. We say ‘trying’ because it’s not easy, we all struggle. But sometimes trying goes a lot further than we think. So let’s keep trying. Let’s try to overcome binary thinking. Let’s try to come together. Revolution is trying to bring people together while our politicians and social media try to manipulate and divide. Giving this immense pressure to be something we’re not. It seems that even people who want us to be different and unique…want us to be different and unique just like them—hate who they hate, love who they love, hold sacred what they hold sacred. But we’re all human. And humans are nuanced. When did we lose the nuance? When did we become so legalistic? It’s important to set boundaries, but maybe our boundaries come with a door or window, something that helps us mend relationships in the future. But, hey, let’s not forget it’s Mother’s Day! Let’s see what Tammy Faye has to say about it! Jay reads an excerpt from I Gotta Be Me, and it sums up everything perfectly—as only Tammy Faye can. Happy Mother’s Day! This talk was given on May 14, 2023 from Seattle, WA.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94

Like so many of our talks recently, this one wasn’t the one that was planned. But our original plans got derailed once again by a national tragedy. And that tragedy almost always seems to be another mass shooting in America. We are so sick of it. We’re sick and we’re heartbroken. We’re in danger everywhere we go. Jay’s talk this week is short. And it’s raw. Because enough is enough! These shooters don’t care about our politics, at all. They don’t only kill liberals, or adults, or people of color. We’re all equal in our danger. So when all of this is happening, how do we love our neighbor? How does that fit into this? If the book of James says that ‘faith without works is dead,’ then where does only offering up thoughts and prayers fit in? Something more needs to be done. We need to choose people over religion. We need to love each other and not let religion get in the way. We need something, because this can’t go on. This talk is raw and uncensored. Normally, I (Josh) take time to edit out any or the harsher words that might slip out in emotion or frustration. It didn’t seem right with this one. Enough is enough. This talk was given on May 7, 2023 from Seattle, WA.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94

Todays talk is a bit heady and philosophy heavy, but it’s a good one! After studying and listening to some Todd McGowan, Jay starts to really break down the idea of separation and what Paul means when he talks about “…for all have sinned.” Often times we’ve heard that as a way to make us feel bad, or to emphasize how much we rely on salvation, but what Jay discusses is: What if what it means is we’re all equal? Similar to what Paul says in Galatians about there being no Jew nor gentile. If sin is separation, and grace is reunion – then by saying ‘for all have sinned,’ really we can look at it that we’re all just as separated. We’re all coming from the same place. We’re all starting on a level playing field. That we’re all outcasts! Together! It gives us a common ground, together. And that’s a start to getting rid of the concept of ‘other.’ If we see that nobody belongs, then it stops us from fighting about who belongs. When Jesus is sharing a meal with Matthew and is questioned about the company he kept, he told them that he came to help the sick, not those who think they aren’t. He came to help the separated, not those who feel they aren’t. Let’s live in the imperfection and the contradiction of it all! And realize that that’s the meat of living.This talk was given on April 30, 2023 from Seattle, WA.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94

Jay gets a little serious this week and shares with us his first personal experience with Christianity and how that led him to where we are today and what Revolution is trying to be as a community. Feeling inspired by a punk rock show to stay true to himself, Jay discusses how the Christian legalism he encountered at a young age–the hurt it caused and how it pushed him away from God almost altogether. But eventually that all led him to discovering grace and acceptance and loving radically. How the more he dove into studying and reading, Jay came across the idea that Christianity isn’t the faith of being rigid. Or at least it shouldn’t be. As a society we spend so much time looking for things that separate us, but we have so much in common. And the most important thing we have in common is our humanity. Let’s have a love that reconciles. A love that Jesus said we would be known by. Let us be driven by love and not rules, not separation. Because we’re not different–we’re just people.This talk was given on April 23, 2023 from Seattle, WA.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94

When it comes to certain topics, such as grace, and having tough conversations, and disagreeing well, we know we can be a bit of a broken record here at Revolution. But then we look at the news, or social media, or society, and we realize we can’t be broken record enough! How has it gotten so bad that we can’t even stand the news we agree with? So, here we are again turning out the hits! Humanity! Grace! Jay has been feeling tired and frustrated lately–trying to live in a world like what we have today, gun violence, politicians, cruelty. It’s too much. Too much suffering and too much negativity. Jay looks a bit into Paul’s letter to the Romans, today, and a bit into James and even dips a toe into Psalms for this talk. Because today’s talk is about endurance, and how suffering, in a strange way, builds the endurance that will eventually lead us to hope! So, let’s learn to be human again. Try and learn how to humanize others, as well–to see the humanity in someone that doesn’t think like we do! To push ourselves to have those difficult conversations, to show grace. To accept others, and accept ourselves!This talk was given on April 16, 2023 from Seattle, WA.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94

It’s Easter Sunday and this week’s talk is a little off the beaten path. This week, Josh gives a talk that focuses on not only our ability to slay the giants that loom in front of us–but to also remember how many we dealt with along the way. It’s not always the easiest to find good things to talk about when discussing King David, but there is also a lot we can learn from him. A lot about grace and mercy, forgiveness, and hard conversations. How could a man who has done so much wrong be called ‘a man after God’s own heart’? We also talk about music and movies, of course, and about crossing through the valley and the abyss. We’ve all made it this far and we will keep on going! Happy Easter!This talk was given on April 9, 2023 from Long Island, New York.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94

This talk is a bit of an emotional one. Emotional more in the sense of frustration being an emotion. Jay talks about the struggles we encounter when we live (or try our hardest to live) the practice of disagreeing and arguing well. It’s getting harder to stay the course as more shootings happen and politicians do nothing, division grows and it seems like no one is helping–or even cares. Politics seems to be more about theatrics than it is about leadership these days. But we have to try to keep focused, we have to speak truth to both sides. We need to realize when we’re being lied to, even by our ‘own side.’ Because so much of Jesus’ life and teaching is about how no one is ever ‘the other’ and Paul understood this. He had a very different way of seeing Jesus. Seeing him more for His accomplishment of the cross. Jay discusses this and looks at passages from Mark and John, because Jesus wasn’t killed by Rome because of his exclusivity, but because of his inclusion of everyone, with no ‘othering.’ Sharing meals, showing humanity. We can’t let politics and politicians to become idols. We need to get back to the basics with Jesus–we need to have less enemies. We need to be bigger than our identities. Be bigger than our politics. To have empathy. To show and see humanity. And above all, to love. We can do this!This talk was given on April 2, 2023 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94