Do You Need Church to Find God? - with Curtis Childs

·56 min·5 clips

Curtis Childs asks what you feel when you hear 'church,' revealing its mixed brand and personal impact.

Curtis Childs hosts this episode of New Church Live, titled 'Do You Need Church to Find God?' He begins by asking listeners about their personal associations with church, noting its mixed brand. Childs then zooms out to define the church as a worldwide entity comprising anyone who lives rightly according to their religious beliefs, citing Matthew 6:10 and New Church theology. He emphasizes that this global perspective fosters humility and connection across differences. Next, Childs zooms in to describe the church as fractal, with the fundamental unit being the individual, where love and faith must rule internally. He discusses the New Church specifically, noting it lacks 'killer apps' like automatic or exclusive salvation, instead requiring personal spiritual growth and self-driven belief. Childs argues that the New Church, though small, has had a profound cultural impact, influencing figures like Helen Keller and movements such as Alcoholics Anonymous and environmentalism. He shares personal anecdotes, including how New Church teachings helped him and others, such as a man who found God after his father's suicide. The episode includes a musical interlude and a donation appeal, which Childs ties to the church's soul and body. He concludes by reciting the Lord's Prayer, framing it as a request for the church to manifest within individuals and globally, with the New Church serving as a useful guide rather than a prerequisite.

As heard by us

A playful console analogy opens into a grounded reflection on church, salvation, and the work of becoming more loving.

Church carries a complicated charge here, and Curtis Childs meets that tension with a light touch. He begins with ordinary associations around the word, lets his daughter's judgment of his coolness soften the room, and then turns a video-game "killer app" into a way of asking…

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Why you'd press play

If church feels like a brand with too many promises, press play for a grounded rethink of what it can and cannot offer.

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