Grounded Podcast with Chuck Quinley: ReJesus Everything!

Learn to be rock solid even if the world around you is not
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Millions are walking away from church but not from Jesus. Over 25 episodes, author and missionary Chuck Quinley diagnoses what's gone wrong with global Christianity and offers a radical solution: ReJesus everything. Restore the central authority of Jesus alone as chief theologian and leader of the mission. Strip away 2,000 years of accumulated traditions and return to the simple, powerful path of following Jesus himself—his words, his practices, his mission. www.quinley.com

  1. 4D AGO

    Question & Response #2

    Hi! Hope you’re having a great week! Since our last episode, we’ve got more great questions. I will answer three of them in this episode. The first one is: “What if someone has suffered so deeply in abuse from a church that they have difficulty separating Jesus from the abuse?” I will address this directly and offer to anyone wounded by their experience in a church or Christian organization the only path to healing I have ever discovered. We’re into a really great discussion, and I hope you’ll join us inside this week’s grounded podcast question and response session. If you send me your questions and comments, I will do my best to respond to each of them. Every Blessing! Chuck PS: I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, but our Substack has this really cool feature so that if there’s even a sentence or paragraph that you like in a newsletter like this, you can highlight it and then right-click to share. It will create a really cool looking way for your friend to receive your message. Please help us grow the reach of this newsletter. No algorithm pushes it out. It depends on the people who read it to share it with their friends. Thanks so much! Get full access to Grounded Podcast at www.quinley.com/subscribe

    17 min

  2. APR 7

    How Do You Even Define Christianity Anymore?

    Writer’s note: I want to give my personal thanks to the 20 of you who recently signed up as paid subscribers. I really appreciate your support. It’s encouraging to know that people find value in the work, and it helps me build the team I need to continue and grow the podcast. Thanks again! Hi Friend! The hardest thing in discussing how to fix dysfunctional elements within Christianity is simply determining what Christianity even is today. What even is Christianity? It’s a question that sounds simple until you try to answer it. Most people assume the answer is straightforward. “Christianity is the religion about Jesus.” That seems clear enough. But when you begin to look closely at the actual landscape of Christianity, the answer becomes far more complicated. Christianity today is not just a religion, it’s also a cultural identity, a global movement, a massive institutional network, a political influence, and a sprawling economic ecosystem. It contains sincere discipleship movements, centuries-old traditions, humanitarian organizations, political activism, and millions of business ventures, to name a few elements. Let’s unpack this. The Warehouse In my upcoming book ReJesus Everything, I describe Christianity as a giant warehouse. Picture the largest warehouse on earth — a building stretching miles in every direction. Inside are countless aisles, stacked floor to ceiling with everything associated with Christianity. Yes, Christianity is a Family of Religions If you walk into the section labeled Religions, you will find an astonishing number of shelves. Scholars estimate that there are roughly 47,000 distinct Christianities around the world. Walk the aisles and you’ll pass * Roman Catholicism * Eastern Orthodoxy * Greek Orthodoxy * Ethiopian Orthodoxy * Coptic Christianity * Lutheranism * Calvinism * Methodism * Presbyterianism * The Mennonites * Baptist denominations in every variety * Pentecostalism * non-denominational Christianity * Prosperity gospel churches * Liberation theology * Christian nationalism * Progressive Christianity * House church movements * Emerging church movements, and many more Then you hit the fringe religion section (which grows every year): Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science, Seventh-day Adventism, Christian UFOlogy, and hundreds of radical cult groups that claim Jesus while holding beliefs most traditional Christians would flatly reject. (Heaven’s Gate and Jonestown mass suicide cults had a Christian theology as their base). And if you keep walking, you’ll run into ancient Christian spiritual systems like Gnosticism, which portrayed Jesus as a messenger from the gods revealing a radically different version of the biblical story where the serpent is the good guy, the creator is not to be trusted, and Jesus is sent by the gods to be the one who reveals all this to us and delivers secret knowledge that helps us ascend to join the sky gods as spirit beings freed from our human shell. This group almost took over early Christianity. It’s still out there. All of this sits inside one section of the warehouse labeled Religions where * Every group claims the name of Jesus. * They read the same Bible. * All believe their understanding is correct. Christianity as a National Identity Christianity is more than a religion. For hundreds of millions of people, Christianity is a national and cultural identity that has nothing to do with personal faith. This is the case in Europe. Those with a Christian cultural identity may have never prayed directly to God and only attend church for funerals and weddings. But they live in a historically Christian nation, and that makes them Christian in the same way it makes someone Iranian or Greek. Many nations enshrine this idea in their constitutions with the naming of a state religion. The King of Great Britain is authorized to rule by the Anglican Church. This is Christianity as ethnicity and civilization. To draw a parallel from largely agnostic modern Israel, Naor Narkis says, “What defines us (Jews) is our language, and our heritage, but doesn’t involve faith in a god.” 3.5 Million Parachurch Organizations Then there’s the parachurch universe. According to research from Gordon-Conwell University, there are 3.5 million Christian agencies worldwide — organizations addressing everything from lack of access to the gospel, to clean water, to inclusion of LGBTQ in clergy, to homelessness, drug addiction, human trafficking, orphan care, right to life, legal reform, and political action. It’s an industry. It’s hard to know where to draw the line on what is and is not part of Christianity. For example, is an orphanage run by Christians part of Christianity? Sure. How about the non-profit that runs the fundraising that runs the orphanage? Okay, that also. How about the Christian credit card processor that serves churches and non-profits so they can receive donations? Is that Christianity? How about the Christian investment company that oversees the retirement fund for the missionaries who run the orphanage? How about the funds they invest in? It’s hard to see the exact line. Then, There’s Christianity, Inc. There are millions of corporations and profit-driven businesses generating billions of dollars in revenue directly or indirectly attached to Christianity. The fish sticker business alone is a blood sport. There’s big bucks in fish stickers. Millions have been sold. It’s a contact sport. When Evolution Designs released “the Darwin fish” with feet (as a mockery of those who don’t believe in evolution), 3D Witness Enterprises responded with their Jesus fish eating the Darwin fish. Glorious. In the United States alone, 350,000 Christian communities are legally incorporated. They own billions of dollars of real estate and receive billions in cash flow annually with very little reporting. Add to that hundreds of universities, publishing houses, retreat centers, music labels, television networks, hospital systems, Christian law firms, sound and lights companies, church security companies, and companies making those tiny communion wafer packets that are generally impossible to open. You want more? * Christian safari companies in South Africa. You can do a mission trip and also bag a rhino. * Clerical clothing manufacturers (You won’t find backward collars at Macy’s) * Companies making hand-cranked transistor radios for underground churches. * And of course, Chick-fil-A — which some call, “God’s fast food”. (Shout out to Chick-fil-A—how about some gift cards?) We’ve got * Christian T-shirt companies * Agents handling only Christian comedians & ventriloquists * Christian Greeting Card companies like Precious Moments * Christian dating sites * Christian cruises with the Gaithers, etc. etc. There’s Christian Tourism: Branson, MO, the “Christian Las Vegas”. Entire industries revolve around pilgrimage destinations in Israel, Turkey, and other historically significant locations, with busses, tour guides, olive-wood carving companies, relic makers, anointing oil bottlers, museums, etc. The best analogy I have is this: imagine McDonald’s with no rules. Anyone, anywhere in the world can put up the golden arches and call it McDonald’s — and they can do whatever they want inside the building. Make it a skating rink, a day spa, a hardware store, or serve food of any type. No quality control. No governing body. No one to call for permission. Anyone anywhere in the world can start any enterprise they want and attach it to the Christian cause through their branding and activities. That’s Christianity today. Some parts of the Christian Enterprise are sincere and beautiful. Some have gone badly off track. Some started faithfully but then unraveled as they went along, maybe at the peak of their visible success. This is not a new problem. The church has wrestled with the tension between the institutional and the spiritual since its earliest days. But the scale of it today is genuinely unprecedented. Humans Organize Things Over the centuries, human beings did what human beings always do. We organized the movement. First, it was a movement, and then it was a governmentally empowered church system which spawned those trades that were attached to supporting Christian causes like builders, stone masons, weavers, candle-makers, etc. Over the past two millennia things just kept mushrooming in every direction as people got one great idea after another. None of this was malicious. Organizing is simply how humans handle ideas they care about deeply. But over time the headless structure grew unbounded and lost its focus. And today Christianity has long overwhelmed the boundaries of any known religion. Grounded Podcast is a 100% reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work please join us as a free or paid subscriber. My Working Definition of Christianity So here is my honest, eyes-open definition of Christianity: “Religion, culture, businesses, initiatives, and assorted enterprises somehow related to the story and person of Jesus of Nazareth.” Not inspiring, I know. I’m just trying to be accurate so we can begin to discuss Christianity intelligently. Now you might think that all this crazy human chaos is rubbish and we should all repudiate it and walk away, but here’s what’s ironic…. Astonishingly, through these ungoverned, unplanned, random, and sometimes corrupt human creations — God has done extraordinary things anyway. Do you think I’m overstating? I’m not just talking about small good deeds scattered around the edges of history. I mean that there’s a mystery in this mess. Yes, mistakes have been made, and people within this enterprise have gotten a million miles off course. Yet somehow this headless enterprise has created things that fundamentally reshaped life on this planet for everyone, including people who want n

    21 min

  3. MAR 31

    Special Question and Response Episode

    Well, we are almost ten episodes into season two of the Grounded Podcast. By now I’ve been getting a lot of questions, both privately and in the comments sections. I wanted to take time and have a special episode in which to respond to two or three questions. Grounded Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. One of our main objectives is to create a context for a healthy discussion about where we’re at as Christian people and how we can take our movement into greater alignment with Jesus. An aligned church is a healthy church, and that’s what we all want. I hope you enjoy this episode. Please share it with your friends. Please send me your comments and questions. I really want to know what you’re thinking about and how I could be helpful to you in your own journey with Jesus. Thanks again for everything, and thanks to all of you who have converted from free members to paid members. You are helping fuel this initiative, and we thank you deeply. If anyone wants to know more about Emerge Missions, you can check our website at emergemissions.org. Every Blessing, Chuck & Sherry Get full access to Grounded Podcast at www.quinley.com/subscribe

    22 min

  4. MAR 24

    Our Malleable Messiah. How Christianity has customized Jesus

    Writer’s note: As I mentioned last time, the newsletter version of this podcast will no longer be a straight transcript. I will summarize it in about a thousand words for those who prefer to read. There’s a lot more content in the video, so I hope you’ll enjoy that version also. We are gaining traction, but we still have not broken the thousand subscriber mark, so please share this episode with your friends to help us reach a broader audience. Thanks!!! From Lord to logo When I was a child growing up in Georgia (the state, not the country), our family had a Bible that sat on the coffee table more as symbol than book. It was a way of declaring that we were a Christian family. On the cover was a romanticized painting of Jesus — The colors were muted and earth tone. Jesus was tanned, lovely, serene, and glowing with golden light. If I had grown up in Africa, the cover would have shown a different Jesus. Latin America or China, yet another. Jesus, you see, is customizable in Christianity. The problem is so extreme that a few years ago, MacLean’s magazine ran a cover story showing a traditional image of Christ surrounded by labels ranging from “revolutionary” to “”a mad priest” to vengeful prophet” to “ordinary guy.” (These are the various ways different forms of Christianity and scholarly coverage characterize Jesus.) The headline declared, “Jesus has an identity crisis.” That headline captures something real. Because across 2,000 years of Christian history, in every culture and every century, the very person of Jesus has been edited so he will match our cultural expectation. A History of Customization After Emperor Constantine converted in 312 AD and the Roman church stepped into the power vacuum left by a crumbling empire, Jesus appeared in paintings wearing ecclesiastical robes, his hand raised in the pose of priestly benediction. He was the divine endorser of hierarchy — the one whose authority legitimized bishops, kings, and popes. That Jesus served the system. He didn’t challenge it. During the colonial era, Jesus was presented to enslaved Africans as the one who taught, “Slaves, obey your masters.” But something remarkable happened: when those same enslaved people learned to read the Gospels for themselves, they found a completely different Jesus. They found the brown liberator, the fulfillment of the Exodus story, the one who came to set captives free. Same Gospels. Same person. Two opposite Jesuses — because each group encountered him through the lens of what they desperately needed him to be. In Latin America, Jesus became the face of Communist liberation theology in some places and a pro-establishment, anti-communist figure in others — sometimes within the same country. In America, he’s been recruited by both political parties. For one side, he’s pro-military, anti-abortion and anti-tax. For the other, he’s woke, empathetic, pro-environment, and pro-immigration. How can the same person endorse completely contradictory agendas? Honestly, he can’t. But a logo can. Somewhere along the way, in culture after culture, Jesus as become more logo than Lord. A Lineup of Compromised Customized Christs Every version of Jesus that Christianity has produced contains something real, a genuine aspect of who he is. That’s what makes each one so convincing. The problem isn’t that people found something true about him. The problem is that they stopped there, and in stopping there, lost the rest of him. Prosperity Jesus is wealthy and wants you to be wealthy too. He preaches abundant life and his most devoted representatives fly private jets to demonstrate the blessings available to the faithful. Is it true that Jesus cares about our wellbeing? Yes. Does he promise abundant life? He does. But the abundant life he describes in the Gospels looks nothing like a private jet. It looks like a cross. That part gets quietly left out. Warrior Jesus is fierce and powerful, commanding authority over darkness and promising socioeconomic victory to those who follow him. Jesus is the one who will fight the devil so you can rise in society. Is it true that Jesus has authority over evil? Absolutely, but Jesus used his power to deliver others, not just to win a position on the top of the pile for himself. Friendly Neighbor Jesus wears jeans and a hoodie and drops by with golden nuggets of wisdom to make your week a little better. He’s warm, encouraging, and never says anything uncomfortable for more than thirty seconds. Is it true that Jesus is approachable? Yes — children ran to him. But this is also the man who took a whip to the bankers and kicked their tables over in the temple yard. That part tends to get softened. Therapeutic Jesus is your personal life coach and heavenly encourager. He meets you right where you are and never asks you to go anywhere else. He validates your feelings, affirms your worth, and ensures you leave every encounter feeling good. Is it true that Jesus heals and restores? Deeply. But Bible Jesus also said, “Forgive everyone for everything they’ve ever done to you. Move on past it and start obeying God.” Emotional healing was never the destination, just a step along the way to being strong and mature. The Bible’s Jesus makes us grow up. Political Jesus is as liberal or conservative as the situation demands. He endorses whatever power structure invites him in. Is it true that Jesus has something to say about justice and governmental power? Profoundly. But the Jesus of the Gospels made both sides of the political aisle deeply uncomfortable. He still does — when we actually let him. That we dare to edit the very person of Jesus in these ways is an indication of how little authority we truly give Christ over our cultures, our nations, and our local versions of Christianity. What We Lose When We Edit Jesus The problem with these customized Christs is that they are, in their own way, much more comfortable than the real one. OK, comfort is not nothing. We all need a Jesus who meets us in our exhaustion and fear and pain. But when we edit him down to only the comfortable parts we lose the sharp edge of God that shapes us into everything we were made to become. Jesus is Our Sculptor—let him cut A sculptor doesn’t just caress the marble — he cuts it. He removes what doesn’t belong. He works against the resistance of the stone to reveal the form hidden inside all along. The cutting isn’t cruelty. It’s the whole point. Without it, there is no way for the hidden destiny of the statue to rise forth. Otherwise, a block of marble that never becomes what it was meant to be. Jesus is Our Husbandman—let him prune us Jesus described the Father as a vine dresser who prunes the branches — not to harm them, but so they bear more fruit. He said he came to earth to start a refiner’s fire. He’s the Word of God and the Bible says that the word of God is sharper than a double-edged sword, penetrating to the division of soul and spirit. The true Jesus of the Gospels is not a Jesus who exists just to make us feel better about ourselves. He is a Jesus who loves us too much to leave us as broken as we are. He is bringing “many sons and daughters to glory.” Moving from glory to glory is exhilarating but it’s a strenuous, challenging, paradigm-smashing process too. The heart of the gospel is the premise of change. A Jesus we have edited cannot edit us. And that is the real cost of the Malleable Messiah — not just theological inaccuracy, but forfeiting our transformation and the chance to fulfill our purpose in life. Back to the Source: The Jesus of the Gospels The real Jesus has the integrity to challenge us. He’s tender enough to receive and heal us, and powerful enough to transform us. You will find him in original form in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I made a decision during our time in the Philippines that I would study and preach from the Gospels alone for 10 years. This decision was one of the most important things to ever happen in my life as a disciple. I encourage you to also follow this practice. Master Jesuses’ words. I determined to build my core doctrine upon his words alone and to let him explain himself and not make his words fit into some other doctrine that just needed his endorsement. “Jesus is Lord” was the core doctrine of the New Testament church and I want it to be that way in my life also. The real Jesus will make you do things you don’t want to do. He will call you out on your selfishness and need for the approval of others. He’ll call for you to go the extra mile, give away your stuff, sacrifice for others and do good works in secret. But in doing this he will also offer you himself and the extraordinary possibility of becoming, through his forceful shaping work, the person you were born to be. And that is worth everything. Let’s ReJesus everything this year! Every Blessing, Chuck PS: Thanks again for all those who converted from free to paid memberships. Your support helps us continue this ministry. We’re grateful! Discussion Question: Which customized Christ hits closest to home? Prosperity Jesus, Warrior Jesus, Friendly Neighbor Jesus, Therapeutic Jesus, Political Jesus — which version have you been most tempted to settle for, and why is it so appealing? Thanks for reading Grounded Podcast! Please share it with as many people as possible to help us grow our impact. Get full access to Grounded Podcast at www.quinley.com/subscribe

    26 min
  5. Doctrinal Chaos: How Theology Replaced Jesus

    MAR 17

    Doctrinal Chaos: How Theology Replaced Jesus

    AUTHOR’S NOTE: I want to say thanks again to everyone who has been sharing our posts with your friends and relatives. These are important discussions, and entering into them in a spirit of humility will help churches in many places. Please share the content and help us break the 1,000 subscribers mark. I deeply appreciate it. So, someone comes to me — usually a young person, and they say, “I’m confused. I’ve been reading the Bible seriously, and I’m getting completely different answers depending on who I ask. My church says one thing. My friend’s church says the opposite. I found a theologian online who says something else entirely. And they’re all quoting Scripture. How is that possible?” My answer is always the same: “Welcome to Christianity.” Christians disagree on almost everything that matters. And they don’t disagree quietly. The Bible Battlefield Let’s run through the list. Salvation — are you saved by faith alone, or does obedience matter? Can you lose your salvation? Is it available to everyone, or only those God predestined? Baptism — infant or adult? Immersion, sprinkling, or pouring? Does it save you, or is it just a symbol? The role of women — can they preach, pastor, teach men, serve as elders? Politics — is Jesus conservative or progressive? Should the church be involved at all? The nature of Scripture — is every word literally and historically accurate? How do we handle the parts of the Old Testament that seem morally troubling? The mission of the church — is it to save souls, transform society, care for the poor, make disciples, or plant more churches? On every single one of these questions, sincere, Bible-believing Christians who love Jesus and take scripture seriously arrive at completely opposite conclusions. They fight about it. They split churches over it. They declare each other heretics over it. Throughout history, people have literally died over it — tens of thousands of lives lost in the name of theological conviction. This is doctrinal chaos, theological anarchy. And it didn’t happen by accident. Jesus Doesn’t Divide Us After 45 years in ministry, I’ve come to a conclusion that the doctrines that divide us do so because they are built on the work of theologians other than Christ himself. Practically nobody argues about what Jesus meant with his words. The issues that have fractured Christianity into 47,000 denominations: predestination, free will, baptism, the role of women, the proper church governance system, etc. are not primarily arguments about what Jesus said. They’re arguments about what Paul said, what Augustine concluded, what Calvin systematized, what Luther insisted. These are brilliant men. Serious men. Men who loved God and gave their best efforts to understanding him. But they are not Jesus. Jesus spoke in what you might call bumper stickers. “Follow me.” “Love your enemies.” “Seek first the kingdom of God.” “The greatest among you will be your servant.” Christ made no effort to create neat theological packages tying together everything about life and God. He didn’t produce a systematic theology. He didn’t deliver a creed to memorize or five pillars to observe though he was clearly competent to do so. He gave us a life to follow. Jesus Was Not a Theologian — On Purpose The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were professional theologians. The Pharisees and Sadducees were deeply divided in their theological positions, and they constantly tried to bait Jesus into their endless sparring — about the law, about divorce, about Roman authority, about resurrection. They wanted him to pick a side. Which side did Jesus join? He refused. His only concern with their disputes seemed to be showing them how foolish it was to spend their energy warring over words while neglecting their personal actions and their walk with God. He wasn’t interested in the debate. He was interested in alignment with God. Jesus understood something that centuries of theologians have worked hard to obscure: human beings don’t need more correct thinking. They need a different way of living. The ways and teachings of Jesus are primarily concerned with human actions, not human thinking — because human actions are the cause of everything beautiful and horrible on earth. We are our planet’s greatest problem. We are also its only hope. Becoming a Child. Consider how children learn. They don’t learn to walk by reading biomechanics textbooks. They don’t learn to love by studying psychology. They learn by watching. By imitating. By following. Jesus trained his disciples exactly the same way — not with a systematic theology, but with a life. “Come and see.” “Follow me.” He showed them how to pray, how to serve, how to forgive, how to face opposition, how to die. Then he said, “Go and do likewise.” That’s the entire curriculum. Follow the Father’s ways every day. As Jesus put it: “I only do whatever I see the Father doing.” Three People Paying the Price When a faith fractures into doctrinal chaos, real people get hurt. Three kinds in particular. The first is the confused believer — the person who genuinely wants to follow Jesus but can’t figure out which version of Christianity is correct. They’ve read the Bible. They’ve sat under teachers. They’ve attended different churches. And they’re more confused than when they started. They don’t know what to believe or who to trust. They’re exhausted by the contradictions. Some give up entirely — not because they’ve rejected Jesus, but because they can’t navigate the theological maze his followers have built around him. The second is the tribal warrior — the person who has chosen a theological camp and now spends their energy defending it against all comers. They’ve confused their tribe’s doctrines with the gospel itself. They’ve made secondary issues into primary ones. They’ve decided that anyone who disagrees with their theological system is either ignorant or apostate (probably apostate). They win their arguments and lose their relationships with other Christians, with seekers, and with the manner Jesus himself manifested toward those sincerely seeking to do right with God. The third is the seeker who walks away. They were drawn to Jesus — his life, his teachings, his character. But when they looked at the church, they saw a thousand contradictory imitations of him. They heard Christians fighting bitterly over issues that seemed to have nothing to do with love, grace, or transformation. And they concluded that Christianity wasn’t worth their time. They walk away from the chaos surrounding him — and miss a chance to know him. That’s the greatest tragedy of all. All three casualties share the same root cause: a faith built on the work of theologians rather than the words of Jesus. The 40,000 Words The Bible contains 783,137 words. Only 40,000 of them were spoken by Jesus himself. Those 40,000 words are the foundation for everything that matters — the way he came to establish, the community he founded, the path away from sin and into the kingdom of God. No other human being has access to greater revelation than Jesus possessed as the Word of God in flesh. The apostles’ words are valuable — deeply so — but they are supplementary to his, not alternatives equal to or surpassing his own. The solution to doctrinal chaos is not more theology. It is less theology and more Jesus. When Christ’s words, his practices, and his example become the standard against which everything else is measured, the chaos begins to quiet. Not because all questions are answered, but because the right questions are finally being asked. Not “What did Calvin say?” but “What did Jesus say?” Not “What does John Piper teach?” but “What did Jesus teach?” Not “What do Catholics believe?” but “What did Jesus believe and how did he live?” The divisions that have splintered Christianity for centuries were not inevitable. They are the predictable result of building a faith on secondary voices while treating the primary voice as one among many. We elevated the commentators above the author. Jesus didn’t say “Study this system.” He didn’t say “Master this theology.” He said two words that contain everything: Follow me. That’s still the way out. Grounded Podcast is a reader-supported publication. I’ll send you posts directly if you’ll simply become a free subscriber. If you appreciate my efforts and would like to support my work, please become a paid subscriber. Thanks!! For Discussion The 40,000 words. If you committed to building your core theology on that which is clearly taught by Jesus Christ alone in the Gospels, the book of Acts, and the Revelation (this is where all the red letter quotations in the Bible come from)…What's one belief or practice in your current faith life that might need a second look? Get full access to Grounded Podcast at www.quinley.com/subscribe

    20 min

  6. MAR 9

    The Everything Religion

    Writer’s Note: Starting with this episode, the newsletter version will be a summary of the video, not a transcript. There’s lots more in the video. Feel free to listen to it at 1.5 speed if your time is short. (That’s what I always do with podcasts.) Please help us grow this podcast. The crisis facing our faith is a crucial issue, and we’ve got to build a better church going forward. The Everything Religion: Christianity’s Crisis of No Center Imagine walking into a restaurant and being handed a 200-page menu with 847-items — breakfast, sushi, tacos, French cuisine, barbecue, Moroccan, African, and Chinese cuisine. Maybe you’d love it, or maybe you’d turn around and walk out. A kitchen that tries to make everything usually does nothing well. There’s no identity, no specialty, no standard of excellence. Just an overwhelming array of options designed to keep everyone happy. Would you trust it? Probably not. That’s what Christianity has become. It is the world’s largest spiritual buffet. Walk in and take whatever you like — grace without repentance, heaven without hell, Jesus without the cross, community without commitment. You can construct a Jesus who endorses your politics, blesses your lifestyle, and never once asks you to change. And nobody, anywhere, is in charge of the kitchen. A City Without a Government In my book, ReJesusEverything which is coming out in about a month, I describe Christianity this way: if Christianity were a city, it would be Tokyo. If you’ve ever been to Tokyo, you know it’s overwhelming. It’s the largest metropolitan area on the planet — 40 million people. Ancient Shinto temples sit in the shadows of glass skyscrapers. Buddhist monks in robes walk past businessmen in suits. Robots clean floors while women serve tea in traditional kimonos. It’s simultaneously ancient and futuristic, orderly and chaotic, beautiful and bewildering. Christianity is like that. Christianity holds one-third of all humans on earth. It’s richer in money and history than most nations. Long ago it overwhelmed the boundaries of being a religion and became something else entirely — a global enterprise, a civilization, a culture, a political force, a business ecosystem. But here’s the critical difference: Tokyo has a government. Christianity doesn’t. Tokyo has a mayor, a city council, laws, courts, and enforcement mechanisms. When disputes arise, there is a system to resolve them. Christianity has none of that. There is no global authority. No universal council. No mechanism to resolve disputes or enforce standards. And the result is that Christianity has become whatever anyone wants it to be. Whatever You Practice Is a Minority Position Here’s something that may surprise you: whatever version of Christianity you practice is followed by no more than 25% of the world’s 2.4 billion Christians. Think about that. If you’re a Pentecostal, your understanding of baptism, salvation, church governance, and spiritual gifts is shared by a small minority of global Christians. The same is true if you’re Catholic, Baptist, Reformed, Eastern Orthodox, or Non-denominational. There is no majority position. There is no standard version. Simply said, there are many Christian faiths — all using the same name, all claiming the same founder, all reading the same Bible — and all arriving at dramatically different conclusions. Christianity today encompasses every denomination you can name, plus seventh-day Adventism, Universalism, Christian Science, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and dozens of other groups that claim the name of Jesus while holding beliefs traditional Christianity would consider heretical. Is Jesus the chairman of the board of all of this? Honestly, no. He’s the logo on the letterhead, but he’s not running the organization — because there is no organization. There aren’t two or three Christianities. There are 47,000, and they contradict each other in doctrine and lifestyle, even on foundational questions like: how does a person come into a right relationship with God? The Buffet Problem The buffet metaphor cuts deeper than it first appears. A buffet feels like freedom. It feels like you’re being respected, like your preferences matter, like you’re not being forced into a box. But what it actually produces is a faith with no spine. A Christianity constructed from a buffet line can’t challenge you, because you’ve already pre-selected everything that confirms what you already believe. It gives you a Jesus who endorses your existing lifestyle rather than calling you into transformation. The Apostle Paul warned Timothy that a time would come when people would not endure sound teaching, but would accumulate teachers to suit their own passions and turn away from truth. That time has arrived. Most people standing in the buffet line don’t realize what they’re doing. They think they’re being discerning. They think they’re following their conscience. But they are actually constructing a customized religion that costs nothing and demands nothing — and therefore produces nothing. The Symptoms Are Everywhere When I was a kid the churches we attended were normal except for one curious item. In these simple, humble buildings, filled with working-class people hungry for God — one thing was nearly universal: the pastor’s chair. Not just any chair. A throne. Velvet fabric. Elevated on the platform. No one else permitted to sit in it. Who thought this up? I never knew, but they were pretty much universal. Spend one hour reading the Gospels and you know Jesus would have hurled those chairs out of the building. He spent his ministry turning upside down every system that elevated the powerful over the humble, especially within Judaism. And yet the chairs were everywhere, unchallenged, for decades — because there was no center to measure them against. The chairs eventually got moved when churches built massive performance stages and the thrones no longer fit the aesthetic. But it shouldn’t have taken a stage redesign. It should have taken Jesus. The Way Back The early church had a simple doctrine: Jesus is Lord. That was enough. Everything else had to fit inside that one conviction. Jesus held all authority. His word was final. That was the center, and everything else orbited around it. We’ve lost that center. And without it, we have no compass, no magnetic north, no authoritative voice to settle disputes or call us back when we drift. The way forward is not finding the right denomination, the right pastor, or the right theological system. The way forward is returning to the source — to the Jesus of the Gospels, to his own words, his actual practice, his mission. Hitting the Bullseye Think of it as a bullseye. Jesus at the center. Everything else — traditions, theologies, denominations — existing in concentric circles around that center. They have value. They carry wisdom. But they are never the center. When Jesus is the center, you have your magnetic north. You have a standard against which everything else can be measured. You have an authority that can speak into the noise and be heard. After 45 years in ministry, one thing has become clear: the doctrines that divide Christians almost always divide because they are built on the work of theologians other than Christ himself. Practically nobody argues about what Jesus actually said. That’s worth sitting with. “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Not to the thousand opinions. Not to the buffet. Not to the theological systems built by brilliant men who died 500 years ago. To him. That’s the only way out of the Everything Religion. Let’s ReJesus Everything! Every Blessing, Chuck Here is the discussion question for the week. “In this episode, I pointed out that whatever Christianity you follow, it’s a minority position, held by no more than 25% of Christians. How does that change — or not change — your confidence in what you believe knowing that three out of four sincere Christians globally see things differently and are just as certain they are correct?” Get full access to Grounded Podcast at www.quinley.com/subscribe

    18 min
  7. How Jesus Got Demoted in His Own Religion

    MAR 3

    How Jesus Got Demoted in His Own Religion

    What’s in this Newsletter:Christianity is fracturing under the weight of 40,000 denominations, burned-out leaders, and mass exodus — and most diagnoses focus on the symptoms while missing the root cause. In this episode, I’ll make the case that the real crisis is a stolen microphone: Jesus, the founder and only true authority of the faith, has been systematically subordinated by 2,000 years of brilliant but competing voices. If you've ever sensed that something is deeply off in modern Christianity but couldn't name it, this episode will give you the diagnosis — and point toward the only cure. There’s a moment in the Gospels that should settle forever the position Jesus should have in our lives. Jesus is on the Mount of Transfiguration, radiating the glory of God. Moses and Elijah appear beside Him. And Peter—good old Peter—starts nervously yammering about building shrines for these holy men, trying to make sense of what he’s seeing. And then the Father interrupts. A voice from heaven shouts: “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” Not “Listen to Moses.” Not “Listen to Elijah.” Not “Listen to the prophets” or “Listen to the religious leaders.” “Listen to Him.” To Jesus. Alone. But here’s what’s happened over the last 2,000 years: we’ve stopped listening to Him alone. We’ve added other voices. Lots of other voices. Important voices. Brilliant voices. Voices that have shaped Christianity for centuries. The Apostles. Paul. The Church Fathers. Medieval theologians. The Reformers. Denominational founders. Celebrity pastors. Theologians. Authors. Podcasters. And in listening to all that noise, Jesus has been reduced from THE voice to ONE voice among many. He’s become an elective rather than the core curriculum. A consultant rather than the CEO. One opinion among thousands. And that’s the root of our crisis. Today, we’re beginning Act II: The Noise. My goal is that we will start paying attention to the noise. We will notice the noise and decide to silence it. We start here: with how Jesus went from being the singular teaching authority to being subordinated by a chorus of competing voices. Jesus has been subordinated. Despite all of our songs and nice words about him, he’s no longer the central authority of Christianity. He’s one voice among many. And when there are multiple voices claiming authority, you get chaos which leads to fracturing. Today we have 40,000 versions of Christianity. Let’s trace how this happened. In the Beginning, There Was One Voice When Jesus walked the earth, there was no confusion about who had authority. Jesus spoke, and people listened. He didn’t quote other rabbis to establish His credibility. He didn’t build elaborate theological systems. He didn’t defer to the religious authorities of His day. He simply said, “You have heard it said... but I say to you.” That phrase—”but I say to you”—was revolutionary. It was scandalous. Because Jesus was claiming authority above all other voices, an authority that belonged to God alone. The religious leaders noticed this. They said, “Who does this man think he is? By what authority does he say these things?” And Jesus’ answer was clear: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Not some authority. Not shared authority. All authority. When Jesus taught, He spoke with clarity and simplicity: - “Follow me.” - “Love your enemies.” - “Seek first the kingdom of God.” - “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” - “If you love me, you will obey my commands.” There was no theological maze. No complex systematized theology. No endless debates about predestination or free will or the role of women, or the nature of the atonement. Just Jesus. One voice. Clear. Authoritative. Uncluttered. His sheep hear His voice. And for a brief moment in history, that’s all there was: * Jesus and His disciples. * The Teacher and His students. * The Shepherd and His sheep. But then Jesus ascended. And other voices began to speak. The first of the new voices belong to the Apostles. Peter, James, John, and others were personally trained and discipled by Jesus himself for almost four years. He empowered them to extend the movement that he had founded so we expect and deeply need their voices. Jesus was a speaker, not a writer, so it was left to the apostles to record his words for us in the gospels and Acts. (Imagine what Christianity might be today if we had absolutely no written records of the life of Jesus!) After Jesus ascended, the apostles took on the role of spreading His message. And they were crystal clear about their secondary role. They were disciples of Jesus, not His colleagues. They traveled around repeating Jesus’ words, describing His practices and lifestyle, and calling people to repent and follow Him as Earth’s rightful King. As the faith spread, their role included sharing what they felt Jesus’ position would be on contemporary issues. But here’s the key: they weren’t unquestionable in these judgments. Their reliability depended on how much they could push aside their biases and cultural expectations and apply what they knew of Jesus’ heart to the matters before them. To an apostle, Jesus was the hermeneutic. You use the totality of Him to interpret everything’s meaning and find the way forward. You see this in Acts when the apostles gather to discuss under what conditions Gentiles could enter the community. They have differences of opinion on this. They debate. They pray. They seek to discern what Jesus would say about this matter. You see this also in the writings of Paul, John, Peter, Jude, and Hebrews. They did their best to apply Jesus’ teachings, lifestyle, and stated mission to the ongoing experience of the discipleship community as it spread culture to culture. The Bible contains 783,137 words. We have poems, letters, historical accounts, and tons and tons of stories written by over 40 different authors. It’s an anthology of sacred literature that took over 2,000 years to come together. But of all these words, 40,000 are words spoken by Jesus Himself. If he is the word of God in the flesh, those 40,000 words are the foundation for all core knowledge about the new Kingdom of God. In these words Jesus reveals what he has come to establish, the community He is building, and the one true path that will take us away from sin and Satan into family of God. No other human has a path to greater revelation than Jesus possessed as the Word of God in flesh. Even the apostles’ words must be seen as commentary supplementary to His, not as alternative ways of thinking equal to or superior to His own. The Mighty Voice of Paul Paul of Tarsus, unlike the others, was not personally discipled by Jesus. In fact, he never met him, physically. Never heard him teach. Never saw him do miracles or debate the scholars. He had a mystical encounter with him and had access to the living apostles for many, many years to hear their first-hand accounts. Ironically, though he did not know Jesus while he walked the earth, Paul has, by far, greater influence over today’s Christianity than any of the original apostles simply because he was a prolific writer. Had Paul never picked up a pen, we would have a radically different Christianity today. Paul’s voice lives on because while others taught in person, he used his times in prison to put his thoughts in writing. And writing wins over speaking in the battle against time. The books in the Bible I wish we had I thank God for all that Paul has written, and I have studied his letters all my Christian life. I really wish the apostles had written more. I wish we had an eyewitness recording of what Jesus taught them in the six weeks after His resurrection. Maybe all of this once existed but has been lost to us through time. We have the Bible we have. It’s a miracle that we have the Bible at all. We should all cherish the privilege of owning one for ourselves and reading it any time we want. Only in the last two hundred years have Christians had this ability. After the apostles and their contemporaries (Paul and whoever wrote Hebrews) died, the next generation of Christian leaders began to interpret and systematize the faith. And with each generation, more voices were added. That’s where things got complicated. The “Church Fathers” First there’s a group we call The Church Fathers (100-500 AD) Men like Augustine, Origen, Jerome, and Athanasius wrote extensively about theology, doctrine, and practice. Their writings became foundational for later Christian thought about things like the nature of the Incarnation. These were brilliant men, deeply committed to Christ. But they also brought their own philosophical frameworks, cultural assumptions, and personal biases. Augustine’s theology was shaped by his background in Neoplatonism. Origen’s was influenced by Greek philosophy. And their voices began to shape how Christians understood Jesus—sometimes clarifying, sometimes obscuring. The Medieval Theologians After the fathers came the medieval theologians (500-1500 AD)—Thomas Aquinas, Anselm—who built massive theological systems. They asked questions Jesus never asked and gave answers Jesus never gave. They debated the nature of the atonement, the mechanics of salvation, the relationship between faith and works, the role of the sacraments. They created elaborate doctrines that required years of study to understand. More and more, Jesus’ simple, clear voice became buried under layers of theological complexity. The Reformers Then came the Reformation. Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, and others challenged the corruption of the Catholic Church. They were heroes in many ways—calling the church back to Scripture, to grace, to faith. But they also created new complex theological systems. Calvin’s five points. Luther’s do

    21 min

  8. FEB 24

    The Privilege and Pain of Having Convictions

    There’s a reason heroes always pay a price. They have convictions. It is the primary thing that sets them apart. All heroes, in order to be heroes, have to have convictions they’re willing to sacrifice and maybe even to die for. To have convictions is one of the highest and most noble things a human can do. It is evidence that we are not just animals, but that we are indeed made in the image of God Himself. We do moral reasoning, not just answering a question about which thing is more efficient or which thing gets us the better result, but which thing is right. Convictions acknowledge that we find ourselves not just in a physical universe but a world made by a righteous God who has given us a conscience that perceives our existence in moral and ethical terms as well. It is the highest and most godlike level of our existence. We sit enthroned as the lord of our own value system, Master of our actions, controller of our own free will thinking about what we believe and what we don’t believe, and what we are going to allow ourselves to do and what we must never do. The meaning of the word “Conviction.” The word comes from the Latin convincere—”to overcome, to prove wrong, to conquer.” There’s something inherently victorious about a conviction. A conviction isn’t just a belief you hold casually; it’s a belief that has conquered your doubts, that has overcome alternatives. You arrive at convictions through some kind of inner struggle—a contest— and those convictions emerge triumphant. It’s beautiful. To have convictions is both a privilege and a burden. It’s a privilege because its completely up to you and me to have convictions or not. It’s our choice. If we choose to have convictions, we are blessed with drive, meaning, purpose, and direction. Today we’re talking about the privilege and the burden of having convictions. We’re going to talk about what it means to have convictions in a world that doesn’t want you to. We’ll explore why conviction is both a gift and a cost. And we’ll ask the question: Is it worth it? Recap If you missed the past three newsletters, we’ve been exploring the pain at the heart of the current faith crisis: - Episode 1: The quiet exodus—40 million Americans leaving the church - Episode 2: The paradox—being drawn to Jesus while repelled by Christianity - Episode 3: The slow erosion of energy—ministry burnout and exhaustion With this newsletter, we’re completing Act I: The Pain by talking about the privilege and pain of having convictions. It’s important in our discussion because—if you’re questioning, deconstructing, reconstructing, searching for authentic faith—it’s, hopefully, because you have convictions. You believe something deeply. You’re not willing to settle for a version of Christianity that doesn’t align with Jesus. You’re not willing to just go along with the crowd. And that conviction is both a gift and a burden, it is privilege and it is pain. So let’s talk about it. Here’s what I’ve learned over four decades of ministry: the only people who bring change are the people who have convictions and are willing to pay the price for them. The Legacy of Convictions We honor Martin Luther King Jr today because he had convictions about justice and equality and he was willing to sacrifice for these convictions. Mother Teresa had convictions about the level at which we are called to serve the poor and she was willing to endure the tension her proposals created with the catholic hierarchy. William Tyndale had a conviction that every human has a right to read the Bible in their language. It cost him his life. What’s the difference in a conviction and an opinion? A conviction is not the same as an opinion. An opinion is something flexible—you can and should change your opinion as you get new information. A conviction is your inner foundation, a core belief, a value. Convictions are the non-negotiable. They’re the hills you’re willing to die on. They’re the truths you won’t compromise, even when it’s uncomfortable, even when it costs you something. So why is having convictions a privilege? What convictions give us: 1. Meaning Key to having a life of meaning and purpose is knowing the reason for your existence. You cannot know your purpose until you know your “Why?” and then live by it. This is the only way to a life that has meaning and purpose. So if you are floundering in your life. This is where you start. Find your central convictions. They give us our center so we can focus our energies and build our life around them. We find our purpose in that for which we are willing to sacrifice ourselves. Knowing our convictions and then following up by sacrificing our short life for them gives us the spine of our life. Without convictions, we may survive, but we don’t really live as a human. We just react as the animals do, moving from impulse to impulse, avoiding pressure, seeking comfort. Our life can’t have a spine without convictions. They let us live toward something that demands something of us. We invest our energies and burn our days toward these ends. At the end of our life, our convictions, if we live them out, will define us and create the message we leave behind with our life. When you believe something deeply, your life has purpose. You’re not just drifting through life, reacting to circumstances. You’re living intentionally, guided by principles that matter to you. You are choosing. You are driving your life according to a higher set of noble principles. You are reflecting the nobility that God has given to mankind. You are living as the image of God. Your convictions give you a reason to get up in the morning, a reason to keep going when things get hard. 2. Direction Convictions are our life’s compass. When you’re faced with a decision, your convictions help you know which way to go. Should I take this job? Should I stay in this relationship? Should I speak up or stay silent? It’s your convictions that provide clarity in a confusing world of endless choices. If you repeatedly follow your convictions, it gives your life direction. Your convictions are the shaft in the arrow of your life. When you know what you believe, you are no longer paralyzed by confusion and indecision. You can move forward with confidence, ignoring endless options and choosing only the ones that match your convictions. 3. Identity Your convictions shape who you are. There’s a coherence and a predictability that settles into who you are as a person. This predictable pattern eventually is the definition of who you are to yourself, and also to others. They’re like an unyielding blade that shapes who you are, how you live, and what you make yourself do and forbid yourself to do. They’re not just beliefs you hold—they’re part of your identity. When you say, “I’m a follower of Jesus,” you’re not just stating a fact—you’re declaring your identity. Your convictions define you. 4. Community Convictions connect you to others who share them. When you find people who believe what you believe, who value what you value, who are willing to sacrifice for what you’re willing to sacrifice—you’ve found your tribe. They empower you to stand firm with your community in difficult circumstances. When you believe deeply in something, you can endure opposition, criticism, and hardship because you’re rooted in principles that matter to you more than comfort or social approval. 5. Legacy When you live by your convictions, you leave a mark on the world. You don’t just pass through life—you shape it. You influence the next generation. You change the world because your life has been grounded in something transcendent, and you have moral authority. Your convictions outlive you. This is the privilege of having convictions. It’s a gift. It’s what makes life worth living. But, like everything valuable, it also comes at a cost. So what’s the cost? But…convictions cost us To have convictions is to pay a price. Here’s what it costs: 1. Comfort Convictions always demand something of you. Convictions create an obligation in you. Once you know what is right, you are responsible to act on it—although it is going to be inconvenient, costly, and uncomfortable. They introduce friction, and they make your life harder. Once you believe something, you are no longer free to do whatever is easiest or safest. Your convictions disturb your comfort by putting you in tension. You have to constantly navigate a world that is indifferent to or disagreeable with your convictions. Part of this discomfort is having to deal with the gap that always exists between what we believe and how we actually live. This gap is painful because our convictions won’t let us hide from ourselves. 2. Social Cost Convictions costs us socially. When you have convictions, not everyone is going to like you. Some people will think you’re too rigid, too judgmental, too extreme. They’ll say you’re “making everything about religion” or “taking things too seriously.” You’ll lose friends. You’ll be misunderstood. When you stand for something, you inevitably stand apart from someone else. For creatures wired for belonging, that really hurts. 3. Your Life Throughout history, people with convictions have suffered the loss of reputation, the loss of relationships, the loss of comfort and security. Followers of Jesus have often paid the ultimate price. Stephen was stoned to death. Peter was crucified upside down. Paul was beheaded. Millions of Christians in the last century have been martyred for their faith. And even today, in many parts of the world, following Jesus can cost you your life. And here’s the question: Is it worth it? Let me tell you a story that might help answer that question. I want to tell you about a woman I’ll call Maryam. She lives in Iran, where converting from Islam to Christianity is i

    26 min
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Millions are walking away from church but not from Jesus. Over 25 episodes, author and missionary Chuck Quinley diagnoses what's gone wrong with global Christianity and offers a radical solution: ReJesus everything. Restore the central authority of Jesus alone as chief theologian and leader of the mission. Strip away 2,000 years of accumulated traditions and return to the simple, powerful path of following Jesus himself—his words, his practices, his mission. www.quinley.com

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