Who Made Who. In this episode, Gillespie takes the wheel and steers us into tradition, liturgy, worship styles, and the various “-isms” that have sprung up within the churches over the centuries. What’s the purpose of the Divine Service? What is the fundamental meaning of Christian meaning? Have we jettisoned mystery for sensible explanations that find no seat pulled out for them in God’s house? Is Christian worship, polity, and piety about what we know, experience, feel, or conformity to specific doctrines? Why is the old magic not welcome amongst sensible worshippers? What’s the place of hymns, prayers, preaching, and Scripture in Christian worship? Is liturgy a delivery mechanism or a tool?

Little Plastic Castles. In this episode, we read the first Inkling, Owen Barfield, as he defends the use of old words, old stories, and old ways of expressing what’s good, beautiful, and true against modern proponents that argued for more modern “scientific” ways of judging language, esp., poetics and myth, as well as religion and culture.

Liturgy Amongst the Rubble. In this episode, we read poems by W.H. Auden about pulp fiction, ancient myths, conversion, liturgy, poetics, and how industrialization and corporatism build a new Babel inside and around the churches.

Runnin’ Down A Dream. In this episode, we dig deeper into liturgy and “action”—who’s doing what and why in Christian worship? How did the ancient pagans worship their gods, and why? What did the 16th-century Reformers teach about worship? Why should we moderns care? Mimesis, anamnesis, liturgical action, ritual, myth, sacrifices, and sacraments—we’ve got it all this week.

The Chairman’s Intent. In this episode of Banned Books, we converse about the Gospel, ritual, and how and why God embodies his grace while reading John Kleinig’s article, Rituals and the Enactment of the Gospel.

And Your Bird Can Sing! Gillespie and Riley conclude their discussion of hymnody with Chad Bird’s hymn, The Infant Priest Was Holy Born. Again, they focus on pastoral care, comfort for Christians, and what happens when the church ignores the reality of sin, death, and Satan.

Do You Have a Great Hymn This Week? Go Fish! This week, Gillespie and Riley discuss Thomas Chisholm’s poem turned hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness. More discussion of hymnody, church music, and how what we sing can help or hinder pastoral care.

Jesus joins us in our weirdness. In this episode, Gillespie and Riley continue their discussion of how to judge a hymn with Joseph Scriverner’s classic hymn, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus."

Pump the hate brakes, Riley! This week, Gillespie and Riley begin a four-episode discussion on how to judge a hymn. In the first installment, they look at Amazing Grace and ask: "Is this a great, good, or bad hymn?" What makes a Christian hymn great? What should a church do with bad hymns?

This week, we read from Bo Giertz’s novel, “The Hammer of God,” and discuss belief, revivalism versus liturgy, and what happens when Jesus alone is the focus of all our attention.

In this episode, Gillespie and Riley read and discuss Billy Graham’s sermon, and the consequences of preaching law after the Gospel, adverbs, and the importance of staying away from God where He isn’t preached, revealed, and worshipped in Christ Jesus.