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Jeffrey Koperski's avatar

To be a bit too honest, there was way too much inside baseball stuff here. I don’t know about the recent scandals except for Anaheim. I have no idea what Doug’s church has been going through. If you guys are going to keep doing this, it’s got to be less fluffy.

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The Sacramental Charismatic's avatar

“The Vineyardists” is definitely “inside baseball” that is particularly for those in the Vineyard movement (particularly vineyard pastors / leaders).

Doug is at the Duluth Vineyard. Google will expose the challenges. It’s been a tough season.

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Jeffrey Koperski's avatar

Okay, I would still say there’s too much shooting the sh*t. Maybe this is for people who know you three personally and want that. I was hoping for a discussion that would give me some sense of the Vineyard today.

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The Sacramental Charismatic's avatar

I mean… I can’t really promise the episodes in this series won’t be three friends doing a lot of shooting and a lot of insider stuff. And it’s kind of hard to generalize the Vineyard now that there are thousands of them. So you might just hate these… and that’s ok.

But that’s why I do the other content. This is the “Protect Our Parks” of Joe Rogan except on the Sacramental Charismatic channel.

I’m still trying to figure out the Vineyard and I’ve been in it for most of my life 😂

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Jeffrey Koperski's avatar

I understand. I’m a philosopher with former ties to the Columbus Vineyard. We left when I got a tenure track job. I thought perhaps I would have been part of the target audience for this. If not, then please ignore my comment.

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The Sacramental Charismatic's avatar

Tenure is awesome! Good for you!

We might someday get to having a target but that would be assuming we have a plan hahaha!

We used to do these podcasts like 7 or 8 years ago and it was VERY much for vineyard leaders.

Where are you teaching now? And what area of philosophy are you mostly focused on? I’m interested in THAT! And what was it like being a philosopher in a Vineyard church? THAT sounds interesting!

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Jeffrey Koperski's avatar

First, we left Columbus over 25 years ago. I’m closer to Doug’s age than yours. I’m a former student of JP Moreland, although I discovered the Vineyard before he did. I teach at Saginaw Valley State University (with a new side gig in Palm Beach Atlantic’s M.A. program in philosophy of religion). I’m primarily a philosopher of science and do a lot science and religion stuff. I was still a graduate student when we were at Vineyard Columbus, coming out of a noncharismatic evangelical background, so I was learning their stuff more than contributing. I had hoped to stay connected with the Vineyard but had to settle for Rich’s sermons, back then on cassette tapes. I found you on Twitter a couple of years ago.

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Jeffrey Koperski's avatar

I’ve done a few podcasts and have a few talks on YouTube, but it’s not something I’ve actively pursued. Didn’t find the VUSA podcast that interesting. I was involved for a while with the Vineyard Scholars group, but never went to any of the meetings. There didn’t seem to be much of a place there for a philosopher who was no longer going to a Vineyard church. I’ve become less “adjacent” as time has passed. Still interested though.

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The Sacramental Charismatic's avatar

Oh man… you should have gone. I think most of the philosophers I met at SVS weren’t attending Vineyard churches but were interested in the vineyard (for a variety of reasons).

We should do an episode. Now I’m very interested!

I’ve always thought we would be attractive to philosophers if we could actually articulate ourselves better. Haha. And I’ve always thought philosophers could help us do that.

In other words… HELP!!!!!!!!

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Jeffrey Koperski's avatar

I’m not one turn down an invitation, although I’m overcommitted at the moment. New book due to Routledge by the end of the month. But I’d be happy to help, if you can provide some ways to do it. Email me: koperski@svsu.edu

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thepeoplestheologian's avatar

I know I need to listen to this

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thepeoplestheologian's avatar

Good episode and handled very well. Especially in light of all the drama of the last 2-3 years

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