Central Lutheran Church - Elk River Podcast Por Central Lutheran Church arte de portada

Central Lutheran Church - Elk River

Central Lutheran Church - Elk River

De: Central Lutheran Church
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Weekly sermons from our Central Lutheran Church preaching team plus quick reflections from Pastor Ryan Braley.


Real talk, ancient wisdom, and honest questions — all designed to help you learn, grow, and find encouragement when you need it most.


At Central, our mission is simple: FOLLOW Jesus together, be a community where you BELONG, and LOVE our neighbors across the street and around the world.


Think deeper. Live freer. Share an episode with a friend and visit us in person anytime — you’re always welcome here in Elk River, MN.

© 2026 Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Cristianismo Espiritualidad Ministerio y Evangelismo
Episodios
  • #122 - Finding The Third Way {Reflections}
    Jan 28 2026

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    Stuck between two bad choices that both feel wrong? We’ve been there too. Today we talk about the subtle art of finding a third way—an approach modeled by Jesus that refuses shallow binaries and restores nuance, courage, and care for people. Instead of choosing between silence or shouting, canceling or condoning, we slow down and study two famous Gospel moments where a trap demanded a yes or no, and wisdom answered with something better.

    First, we unpack the “taxes to Caesar” showdown. A simple coin becomes a lesson in proportion and allegiance: what bears Caesar’s image can go back to Caesar, but what bears God’s image—people, conscience, devotion—belongs to God alone. That shift helps us engage civic life without making politics our religion. Then we turn to the woman caught in adultery, where a public spectacle dares Jesus to pick punishment or permissiveness. His answer—“Let the one without sin cast the first stone”—reframes justice as self-examination before accusation, exposing hypocrisy while honoring dignity and aiming for restoration.

    Along the way, we offer practical tools you can use when conversations turn combative: ask better questions that surface values, refuse manufactured urgency, protect image-bearing people over talking points, and seek outcomes that heal rather than humiliate. If you’re tired of hot takes and hardened camps, this conversation will help you practice wisdom that is firm, compassionate, and unshakeably human. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s navigating tough conversations, and tell us: where do you need a third way right now?

    Join us! Facebook | Instagram | www.clcelkriver.org


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    10 m
  • And Dash Them Against the Rocks with Pastor Ryan Braley
    Jan 26 2026

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    Faith gets brittle when we pretend. This week we lean into a braver way: arguing with Scripture as an act of honor and bringing our full selves to God without a filter. We open the Psalms not as tidy theology, but as a school of prayer where the human heart learns to speak truth—joy, sorrow, rage, and all.

    Together we walk through Psalm 137, set in the ashes of exile. Judah hangs up its harps by Babylon’s rivers, too devastated to sing, and the psalm breaks open with a line that makes modern readers recoil. We don’t sanitize it; we face the history and the horror. What happens when the oppressed name their suffering with gut-level honesty? How does a violent verse function as a cry for justice, not a command for revenge? We place that tension next to Jesus’ refusal of retaliation and his cry, “Father, forgive them,” and ask what it means to hand judgment back to God in a world full of fresh wounds.

    This conversation is both pastoral and practical. We challenge the myth that “good Christians” hide anger, and we explore why the imprecatory psalms are preserved: so the powerless can pray without pretending and so anger doesn’t become action. You’ll hear the backstory of Babylon’s atrocities, why ending a generation meant ending an empire, and how the early church’s vision of mercy reshaped the value of life. Then we turn to practice: write a personal psalm, name your grief and your complicity, and bring it to the cross. Let God receive the truth you’ve been carrying and do what only God can do.

    If this conversation stirred something in you, share it with a friend who needs permission to pray honestly. And if our work helps you wrestle well, subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: what would your psalm say today?

    Join us! Facebook | Instagram | www.clcelkriver.org


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    34 m
  • #121 - Generational Curses {Reflections}
    Jan 22 2026

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    The phrase “generational curses” can feel like a verdict you didn’t choose. We take that fear head-on, unpacking what those Old Testament passages actually communicate and why Ezekiel’s voice reframes the conversation around personal responsibility, practical hope, and real change. Rather than a mystical hex, we explore how family systems, trauma, and learned behaviors create momentum that can be redirected with clarity, support, and grace.

    We share lived stories of anger, addiction, money missteps, and relational rupture to show how patterns repeat when no one models an alternative—and how they shift when someone does. Along the way, we connect Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy’s warnings about multigenerational consequences with Ezekiel’s insistence that the child does not carry the parent’s guilt. That tension becomes an invitation: acknowledge what you inherited, refuse fatalism, and choose practices that write a different line for the future.

    You’ll hear simple, grounded ways to interrupt the cycle: naming what you absorbed, seeking therapy or wise counsel, building new skills around communication and finances, setting boundaries without bitterness, and letting grace do what effort alone cannot. The heart of our conversation is empowerment and mercy—seeing your past clearly while believing that your next step can be different from your last one. If you’ve ever wondered whether your family history defines you, this is a compassionate, practical roadmap toward freedom.

    If this resonated, share it with a friend who might need courage today, and subscribe so you don’t miss what’s next. Leave a review with one pattern you’re choosing to end—what new story will you pass on?

    Join us! Facebook | Instagram | www.clcelkriver.org


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    10 m
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