Learn about our ministry initiative called Deepening Roots and Growing Branches through in-depth discussion, personal stories, and creative application for everyday life.
Episode 155 - The Orchard Home Education Co-op - Part 2
Continuing from our previous episode, Terry & Heidi Szymanski go into more detail about their family’s home education journey and offer an inside look at how our church’s co-op was founded, how it’s run, and how others can get involved, whether exploring the benefits of homeschooling their own children or looking for ways to volunteer. The Szymanskis offer decades’ worth of wisdom they’ve learned, practiced, and are passing along, and they with Pastor Paul encourage all listeners who profess saving faith in Christ to consider ways to bless children (as Jesus taught us to do—Mark 10:13-16) and encourage life-long learning with Christ as our sure foundation. Pastor Paul ends with a benediction from Deut. 6:4-9 regarding the comprehensive ways we’re to raise the next generation in the love, fear, and instruction of the Lord and His Word.
31 Oct 2026
Episode 154 - The Orchard Home Education Co-op - Part 1
Pastor Paul sits down with New Life leaders Terry & Heidi Szymanski for the first of a two-part interview. In addition to Terry serving on our Elder Team and Heidi as our Bookkeeper, both are committed Kids Church teachers, and Heidi directs The Orchard Co-op founded in 2024 as a ministry of our church. This episode focuses on Terry & Heidi’s respective (and shared) backgrounds from high school through the present, including the process by which they moved from devoted Catholicism to Evangelical Christianity in their 20’s and 30’s followed by their journey of homeschooling their three now-adult children. Pastor Paul begins with a light-hearted litany of the things he and Terry have in common, setting the tone for a conversation glorifying the Lord for using every part of one’s life to connect with one another, grow in Christ, and disciple the next generation. Pastor Paul ends with 3 John 4, an apt life verse for anyone raising children and/or discipling them in all manner of settings and strategies.
26 Oct 2026
Episode 153 - Political Engagement
With a week to go before the mid-terms for local, state, and national elections, Pastors Brent and Paul recap the recent elective class taught by the former based largely on the book How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age (https://a.co/d/00ZhCNsm) by Jonathan Leeman. Amidst their typical banter, cultural references, and use of Scripture, the pastoral pair discuss Pastor Brent’s written outline highlighting “Going Deeper: Values vs. Policies”; “Mapping the Political Landscape: Progressive/Conservative, Left/Right” (which approaches political convictions in four quadrants rather than merely left/right); and “Take-Aways: Faithful witness in the public square”. Voting is the minimum level of engagement for Christians in our nation, but whatever the outcome and our level of further engagement, we’re to be good stewards of our earthly citizenship while remembering that we’re ultimately citizens of the kingdom of Christ. Pastor Paul ends with a benediction from 2 Cor. 5:20-21 connects our role as ambassadors in this world/nation/state/locality with the heart of the matter: urging everyone to be reconciled to God through the free gift of salvation in Christ. Our salvation then has implications for how we live, love, hope, and vote.
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