Preston Minster Podcast

Preston Minster Podcast collects the talks given at Preston Minster, a church that speaks to its home city by name. In the Easter Sunday talk, Tim Roberts compares the women searching for the body of Jesus to people in Preston right now, who are, he says, all looking for something: meaning, purpose, acceptance, love. Recent episode titles carry several different speakers' names, among them Tim Roberts, David Owens, Bethan Spencer and Mark Pickett. That rotation gives the feed range. Talks are grouped into series, and speakers mention each other's earlier talks as a series goes on. Priceless is about money. In it, the parable of the pearl merchant who sells everything for a single pearl becomes a way of asking what Jesus is worth, and Bethan Spencer turns to 2 Corinthians to talk about what she has gained from giving. She makes a point of saying there is no shame in the room about anyone's relationship with money. In another Priceless talk, David Owens turns to Psalm 23 and its line about lacking nothing. He notes that the verse turns up at baptisms, weddings and funerals and was set to music for the opening titles of a well-known BBC series. Fuel The Fire starts from the premise that God is doing something across the nation and the city, and asks how a church joins in. Worship and an emerging generation are both named as part of that series. Through The Spirit is set to run until Pentecost, fifty days after Easter, with the aim of understanding who the Holy Spirit is and what he does. Mark Pickett's talk 'Through The Spirit - Adopted' is about identity. At its peak comes a string of reversals: no longer sinner but saint, no longer under wrath but under grace, no longer in Adam but in Christ. It ends with an invitation to stop living in fear. The Palm Sunday talk from David Owens tells how a curious colleague drew his faith out of private and into public. It lands on the line that faith can be deeply personal but is never private. He then presses on surrender, on the dark corners people hold back instead of enthroning Jesus there. The register throughout is conversational and warm. Speakers make small jokes about an hour less in bed, about dating programs, and about what an edit can do to a video. The Easter talk makes a point of welcoming anyone there for the first time. Several talks begin with a spoken prayer, and at least one closes by asking the room to stand. Listening feels close to sitting in the room for the talk: the jokes are aimed at the people there, and the teaching stays close to scripture and ordinary life.