PODCAST · religion
thinking out loud
by Christ Community Church of the South Hills
We are a community of Christ followers in Pittsburgh, PA – men and women, boys and girls – committed to living by faith, serving as a voice of hope in our world, and growing in our love for God and others.
Episodes
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Kingdom Come (5): Invitation
Richie Reeder teaches from Matthew 22 and Jesus' parable of the wedding banquet, showing that the kingdom of God is a kingdom of gracious invitation. He explains both the generosity and seriousness of God's invitation, emphasizing that we must receive it on the King's terms rather than our own.…
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Kingdom Come (4): The Feast
Terry Timm reflects on Isaiah 25 and Revelation 7 to describe God's coming kingdom as a great feast where all peoples are welcomed, death is defeated, and every tear is wiped away. Connecting this vision to World Communion Sunday, he reminds the church that God's table is global, inclusive, and...
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Kingdom Come (2): Generousity
In the second message of the series, *Kingdom Come*, Terry Timm explores Jesus' parable of the workers in the vineyard from Matthew 20. He shows how the kingdom of God is not built on what we earn or deserve, but on the generous character of a God who keeps coming, sees the overlooked, and gives...
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Kingdom Come (1): Forgiveness
In the first message of the "Kingdom Come" series, Richie Reeder introduces the "already but not yet" reality of the kingdom of God and what it means to live under the reign of King Jesus here and now. Focusing on Matthew 18 and the parable of the unmerciful servant, he explores how deeply…
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The Work of Our Hands
In this Labor Day message from Terry Timm, he frames work as a God-given calling to "cultivate and care" for the places and people entrusted to us. Acknowledging that because of the fall, work is often marked by frustration, toil, and distorted identity, our true worth is found in being beloved...
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Presence Over Performance
In this message, Richie Reeder reflects on Jesus' invitation to choose presence over performance through the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10. In a culture marked by busyness, striving, and distraction, this talk invites us to slow down, sit at the feet of Jesus, and rediscover the gift of...
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Blessed & Broken (12): The Unseen Promise
In this message, Terry Timm brings the "Blessed and Broken" series to a close by reflecting on the deaths of Jacob and Joseph in Genesis 49–50. He shows how Scripture makes room for grief, names brokenness honestly, and reminds us that evil is never the final word in God's story. Through Joseph's...
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Blessed & Broken (11): Who Tells Your Story?
In this message, Terry Timm continues the "Blessed and Broken" series by exploring Joseph's story in Genesis 45. Using the question from the musical, "Hamilton"—"Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?"—he invites us to consider how Joseph interprets his painful past through the lens of God's...
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Blessed & Broken (10): A Hidden God
In this message, Terry Timm continues the "Blessed and Broken" series by turning to Genesis 37 and the beginning of Joseph's story. He explores how God's promise moves through a deeply fractured family, a mysterious dream, and circumstances where God seems hidden. Through Joseph's journey, Terry...
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Blessed & Broken (9): The Struggle Is Real
Terry Timm explores Genesis 32 and Jacob's wrestling with God, showing how God meets us at the end of our strength and forms us through struggle. He highlights Jacob's new identity as Israel, reminding us that wrestling with God is not failure but part of a faithful relationship with Him. The...
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Blessed & Broken (8): When the Deceiver is Deceived
Richie Reeder explores Genesis 29 and the story of Jacob, Leah, Rachel, and Laban, honestly naming the discomfort of patriarchal polygamy, deception, family dysfunction, and cultural brokenness. He shows how Jacob, the deceiver, becomes deceived, revealing the blind spots, unhealthy patterns, and...
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Blessed & Broken (7): When Hard Places Become Holy Ground
In this message, Richie Reeder walks through Jacob's encounter with God in Genesis 28, where a fugitive with a stone for a pillow discovers that heaven is far closer than he imagined. Richie shows how God meets us not after we get our lives together, but right in the wilderness of our fear…
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Blessed & Broken (6): The Trades We Make
In this message, Terry Timm explores the story of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 25 to show how the everyday "trades" we make reveal what we truly value and shape who we are becoming. He contrasts Esau's impulsive surrender of his birthright for a bowl of stew and Jacob's grasping for what God had...
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Blessed & Broken (5): Blessings Despite Brokenness
In this message, Katherine Sikma Wadsworth reflects on the story of Rebekah and Isaac in Genesis 24, framing God as the true "matchmaker" who guides Abraham's servant to Rebekah in the midst of a deeply patriarchal and broken system. She highlights Rebekah's extraordinary generosity, courage, and...
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Blessed & Broken (4): The God Who Provides
In the fourth message of our "Blessed and Broken: God's Promise Through Imperfect People" series, Terry Timm explores the story of God testing Abraham in Genesis 22. He unpacks how this difficult and weighty text reveals God's provision, Abraham's radical trust, and the foreshadowing of Jesus as...
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Blessed & Broken (3): The God Who Sees the Outcast
In this message, Richie Reeder preaches from Genesis 21 on the story of Hagar and Ishmael, showing how God sees, hears, and provides for those who have been pushed to the margins. He explores themes of broken families, rejection, and being an outcast, connecting the biblical narrative to the...
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Blessed & Broken (2): Laughing at the Promise
In this second message of our "Blessed and Broken" series, Terry Timm explores the story of Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 18, where God brings an impossible promise close to an aging, imperfect couple. He shows how their initial laughter of disbelief is transformed into joy as God proves that...
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Blessed & Broken (1): Into the Unknown
This first message in the "Blessed & Broken" series explores the call of Abram and Sarai in Genesis 12, showing how God's promise moves through imperfect, unfinished people. It contrasts the human impulse to "make a name" for ourselves with Abram's shift to calling on the name of the Lord,...
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Our Personal Disciple-Making MISSION
In this message, Richie Reeder unpacks the Great Commission in Matthew 28, emphasizing that the mission of the church is to make disciples through everyday relationships rather than expert-level knowledge or formal programs. He highlights how discipleship invites us beyond our comfort zones,...
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The Superpower of Pentecost
In this Pentecost message, Terry Timm reflects on why the Holy Spirit's first gift to the church was language, exploring Acts 2 as God's radical move toward all peoples, cultures, and dialects with the "wonders of God." He contrasts Pentecost with the Tower of Babel and with modern tendencies to...
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Living Easter - Embodying Easter
In this message, Katherine Sikma Wadsworth explores the holiness of the human body, challenging dualistic theology that elevates the soul while sidelining or shaming our physical selves. Moving through creation, incarnation, resurrection, and ascension, she shows how Scripture affirms that God...
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Living Easter - The True Friend Who Stays
This message by Terry Timm reflects on our deep human longing not to be abandoned, using the Still Face Experiment and the image of spiritual "orphanhood" to name our fears of being alone. Teaching from John 14, Terry shows how Jesus answers that fear by sending the Holy Spirit—the Paraclete, or...
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Living Easter - The Way of Jesus
In this message, Terry Timm reflects on Jesus' words in John 14 to people with "troubled hearts," inviting listeners to move from mere belief to deep trust in Christ amid stress, grief, and uncertainty. He unpacks Jesus' promise of the Father's house and the many rooms as a picture of God's...
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Living Easter - Listening to the Shepherd's Voice
In this message, Richie Reeder teaches from John 10 about Jesus as the Good Shepherd and the gate for the sheep, emphasizing that our primary role as disciples is to listen for and follow His voice. He contrasts Jesus' heavy responsibility as Shepherd with our simple but challenging call to...
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Living Easter: Lunar Spirituality & the Risen Christ
In this message, Katherine Sikma Wadsworth explores "lunar spirituality," where faith waxes and wanes like the moon, yet the risen Christ remains constant and present. Walking through John 20, she highlights Jesus' gentle response to the disciples' fear and Thomas' doubt, showing how he meets...
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Easter Begins in the Dark
In this message, Terry Timm teaches that Easter "begins in the dark," in real spaces of grief and confusion, just as Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb expecting death and misreads what she sees. When Jesus simply speaks her name, Mary discovers that resurrection is first a personal, transforming...
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Wisdom in the Desert (7): Lessons from The Desert
On this final Sunday in Lent, Richie Reeder reflects on both Palm Sunday and the church's "Lessons of the Desert" series, inviting listeners to consider how practices from the wilderness—prayer, testing, silence and solitude, self-denial, wisdom, and humility—might shape their lives beyond the...
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Wisdom in the Desert (6): Choosing the Way of Humility
In this message, Terry Timm invites us into the wisdom of the desert by reflecting on the life of Moses the Strong, a man transformed from violent outlaw to humble saint. Drawing on Pete Greig's video "Hero of the Desert: Moses," the message explores how Moses' story challenges our culture of...
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Wisdom in the Desert (5): The Desert As a Place of Revelation
In this message, Katherine Sikma Wadsworth reflects on how silence, solitude, and "desert" practices create space to hear God's wisdom amid the noise of our information-saturated age. Drawing on Proverbs, James, the stories of St. Hilda and St. Patrick, she contrasts mere knowledge with true,...
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Wisdom in the Desert (4): The Freedom through Renunciation
In this message, Terry Timm reflects on "freedom through renunciation," drawing from the stories of the rich young ruler, the desert mothers and fathers (especially Syncleticia of Alexandria), and Jesus' teachings on treasure and the soul. He explores how possessions, comfort, and security can...
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Wisdom in the Desert (3): Solitude & Silence
In this message, Terry Timm teaches that solitude is not an escape from the world but a sacred space with God where we are reshaped in love so we can return to the world with kindness. Drawing from the life of Jesus, the desert mothers and fathers, and biblical figures like Moses, Elijah, and...
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Wisdom in the Desert (2): Intensifying Our Hunger for Holiness
In this message, Richie Reeder invites the church into a sober but hopeful look at sin—not just as bad behavior to stop, but as an opportunity for Spirit-empowered transformation into Christlikeness. Drawing from Genesis 4, the image of sin "crouching at your door," and the wisdom of the desert...
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Wisdom in the Desert 1 - Welcome to the Wilderness
In this message, Terry Timm reflects on Jesus' temptations in the wilderness as a paradigm for our own Lenten journey, highlighting the temptations to be relevant, spectacular, and powerful. Drawing on Henri Nouwen and the desert mothers and fathers, he invites listeners to practices of...
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Neurobiology Comes to Church (6) - Good to the Holy Spirit and to Us
In this message, Terry Timm explores how the early church in Acts 15 navigated deep conflict without fragmentation, modeling a non-reactive, Spirit-led way forward. Drawing on both Scripture and neurobiology, he shows how the "mind of Christ" can regulate the body of Christ, creating space for...
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Neurobiology Comes to Church (5)- Putting Our Stories Together
In this message, Katherine Sikma Wadsworth reflects on the Emmaus road story in Luke 24 through the lens of neurobiology, exploring how our brains respond when our life story falls apart. She explains concepts like bilateral stimulation, co-regulation, and the reshaping of neural pathways to show...
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Neurobiology Comes to Church (4) - Out of One, Many
In this message, Terry Timm explores the concept of "E Pluribus Unum," highlighting the persistent tension in both society and the church between unity and diversity. Drawing from Ephesians 4 and integrating insights from neuroscience, he emphasizes how unity in diversity reflects the triune…
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Neurobiology Comes to Church 3 - Cultivating Community: Mirror Neurons at Work
In this message, Richie Reeder explores how the concept of mirror neurons deepens our understanding of empathy and connection within the body of Christ. Reflecting on Romans 12:3-8, he encourages each member to recognize and activate their unique spiritual gifts for the flourishing of the church...
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Neurobiology Comes to Church 2 - Presence & Peace
In this message, Terry Timm explores the intersection of faith and neurobiology, emphasizing how God has hardwired us for resilience in the face of life's storms. Using Rembrandt's painting and four biblical texts, he illustrates how peace, provided through Jesus and mediated by the Holy Spirit,...
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Neurobiology Comes to Church 1 - The Body of Christ
In this message, Terry Timm explores the concept of the church, emphasizing that it is not merely a building or institution but a dynamic, living community of believers journeying together with God. He introduces the theme of "neurobiology comes to church," highlighting how scientific insights…
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Epiphany - Let There Be Light
In this message, Terry Timm explores the theme of light as a foundational element in the Biblical narrative, beginning with God's command "Let there be light" in Genesis. He reflects on how this divine illumination is not only a physical phenomenon but also a metaphor for revelation, presence…
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The Body is Like Mary
In this Christmas message, Terry Timm reflects on the metaphor of the body being like Mary, suggesting that each person carries the presence of Christ within, just as Mary carried Jesus. By drawing on Rumi's poetry and the Apostle Paul's writings, this message emphasizes the transformative power…
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The Way of the Promise - Love
In her talk, Katherine Sikma Wadsworth explores the contrast between romanticized portrayals of love, as seen in Hallmark movies, and the profound, sometimes messy love embodied by the incarnation of Jesus Christ. She emphasizes the importance of presence and vulnerability, encouraging listeners…
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The Way of the Promise - Joy
In this talk, Richie Reeder explores the theme of joy during the third week of Advent, drawing from the personal experiences of his daughter's early health challenges to illustrate the depth and complexity of true joy. He delves into the biblical story of Mary in Luke chapter 1, highlighting her...
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The Way of the Promise - Peace
In this message, Terry Timm delves into the pervasive issue of anxiety in our modern world, drawing connections to the pressures faced by Generation Z. He references Jonathan Haidt's book, "The Anxious Generation," to frame a discussion on how societal changes have contributed to rising levels of...
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The Way of the Prophet: Jesus & Jubilee
In this message, Katherine Sikma Wadsworth explores Jesus' first sermon, which led to an attempted execution due to its radical message that God's love and liberation extend beyond traditional borders. She explores the concept of the "year of the Lord's favor," also known as the year of Jubilee,...
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The Way of the Prophet: Prophecy in the Church
In this message, Terry Timm explores the concept of prophecy as the Spirit-empowered communication of God's heart and perspective, intended to strengthen, encourage, and comfort the body of Christ. He discusses the historical role of prophets, from Moses in the Old Testament to Jesus as the...
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The Way of the Prophet: Joel
In this message, Richie Reeder paints a vivid picture of the daunting yet humorous role of a biblical prophet, likening it to an unconventional job description that few would eagerly pursue. Richie draws parallels between the desolation caused by locust swarms in the book of Joel and the personal...
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The Way of the Prophet: Ezekiel - A Heart of Flesh
In this message, Katherine Sikma Wadsworth explores Ezekiel 36, highlighting God's promise to transform the hardened hearts of the Israelites into hearts of flesh, symbolizing a fresh start and renewed relationship with God. She discusses the balance between divine intervention and free will,...
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The Way of the Prophet: Isaiah - Idolatry
In this message Terry Timm, we explore the words of the prophet Isaiah, which encourage us to remember our true identity and relationship with God rather than placing trust in materialistic or superficial idols. By examining modern-day prophets like Walter Brueggemann, Beth Moore, and Mako...
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The Way of the Prophet: Micah
In his message, Richie Reeder explores the question, "What does God really want from us?" by drawing on the words of the prophet Micah. Reeder emphasizes that God desires not grand gestures but hearts and lives shaped by justice, mercy, and humility, urging listeners to embody these qualities in...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
We are a community of Christ followers in Pittsburgh, PA – men and women, boys and girls – committed to living by faith, serving as a voice of hope in our world, and growing in our love for God and others.
HOSTED BY
Christ Community Church of the South Hills
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thinking out loud currently has 1000 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is thinking out loud about?
We are a community of Christ followers in Pittsburgh, PA – men and women, boys and girls – committed to living by faith, serving as a voice of hope in our world, and growing in our love for God and others.
How often does thinking out loud release new episodes?
thinking out loud releases new episodes frequently with a large back catalog of 1000 episodes. Check the episode list for recent publication dates.
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Who hosts thinking out loud?
thinking out loud is created and hosted by Christ Community Church of the South Hills.
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