We are kicking off week two of our summer series, Let’s Be Honest, a thoughtful, humble exploration of what it truly means to navigate faith, culture, and big intellectual questions in today's world. Host Matt Summers sits down with Menlo Church Lead Pastor Phil EuBank to take an honest, respectful look at Islam. Together, they discuss the critical importance of engaging with other worldviews on their own terms—seeking to understand the strongest, most intelligent form of what another faith actually teaches rather than knocking down weak, uncharitable caricatures. Phil pulls back the curtain on his own inbox to share the raw, tension-filled feedback he receives from both sides of the conversation, using it to highlight how difficult yet vital it is to thread the needle of truth and love in our local communities. The conversation dives deep into the heart of the weekend message, contrasting two fundamentally different documents: the "report card" of performance versus the "birth certificate" of identity. While the five pillars of Islam demand an admirable, rigorous level of human effort, discipline, and devotion, they ultimately leave even their greatest prophets facing a ledger of profound spiritual uncertainty. Matt and Phil explore how the radical promise of Jesus completely upends the scales of behavior modification. Instead of offering a manual or an oppressive checklist to measure up, the Gospel offers an invitation to abide daily in a living relationship with a Savior who already overcame the grave to secure who we are.

Welcome to the Menlo Midweek Podcast! We are kicking off a brand new summer series called Let’s Be Honest, a thoughtful, humble exploration of what it truly means to navigate faith, culture, and big intellectual questions in today's world. Host Matt Summers sits down with Menlo Church Lead Pastor Phil EuBank to lay the groundwork for this series. Together, they tackle how to hold honesty and conviction together, ensuring we can explore what Christianity teaches without becoming dismissive, simplistic, or unfair toward other world views. Phil even shares a deeply personal look into his own story, opening up about how his mother was a first-generation Russian Jew whose discovery of Jesus as the Messiah completely reshaped how he reads and understands the biblical text. To start things off, the discussion begins with the historical and biblical foundations of Judaism under the episode title, "The Burden of the Law." While many view religious rules as a ladder to climb up to God or a checklist to prove they are a "good person," Phil breaks down why the Law was actually intended to function as a mirror rather than a ladder. The conversation dives deep into the central promise that changes everything: Jesus didn’t come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it perfectly in our place. Whether you are a long-time churchgoer evaluating if you've drifted into trying to earn a gift that is already free, or a curious listener trying to sort through different religious ideas, this episode offers an honest look at why we can stop trying to measure up. 📍 In This Episode: Honesty Over Caricature: Setting the tone for the new series and discussing how to "steel-man" other belief systems with profound respect, intellectual clarity, and curiosity. A Personal Legacy: Phil shares how growing up in a home with a Jewish heritage gave him a unique, second-nature perspective on reading the New Testament through a Jewish lens. The Law as a Thermometer: Moving past the idea of the Law as an oppressive checklist to see how it functions like a thermometer—it tells you the temperature of the soul, but lacks the power of a thermostat to change it. Grace vs. Performance: A challenging look at why even regular churchgoers can accidentally treat faith like a ladder, and how Jesus' fulfillment of the Law sets us free from the burden of performance. 💬 Discussion Question: Are you currently living with the assumption that you need to be good enough, do enough, or measure up to be okay, or are you actively resting in the grace that has already been given to you? #MenloChurch #MenloMidweek #TheBurdenOfTheLaw #LetsBeHonest #Judaism #MenloMidweekPodcast 📅 Series Schedule: Over the next several weeks, we’re taking an honest, respectful look at different worldviews and traditions—check out the full series schedule below: June 28: Judaism (Available Now) July 5: Islam July 12: Buddhism July 19: Mormonism July 26: Catholicism August 2: The Nones / Agnostics August 9: It is Finished (The Gospel) Next Steps Looking to take your faith journey deeper? Here are some great next steps: Watch or Catch Up Watch this episode on our website: http://menlo.church/podcasts Watch the accompanying weekend sermon: https://www.menlo.church/sermons/the-burden-of-the-law-judaism Need Prayer or Have Questions? Text us at (650) 600-0402 Support Hope for Everyone Thank you for your generosity! Support Menlo Church’s mission to reach 3% of the Bay Area with the message of hope in Jesus. Learn more or give at: http://www.menlo.church/hope. Get Connected We’d love to connect with you and help you find your place at Menlo Church. Visit http://menlo.church/connect and fill out a quick form so we can reach out. Stay Connected with Menlo Church Kids (Preschool–Grade 5): https://menlo.church/kids Students (Grade 6–12): https://menlo.church/students Explore All Ministries: https://www.menlo.church/ministries Follow Us on Social Media Instagram: @menlo.church Facebook: Menlo Church Website: http://www.menlo.church Musicbed Sync ID: (MB014RCECFXJCWL) Musicbed Sync ID: (MB01EKBUICB4NLC)

Father’s Day in the church can often feel like a strange, high-stakes tension—usually landing somewhere between a heavy guilt trip and a shallow Hallmark greeting card. In this Father's Day episode, Matt Summers and Tommy Lum sit down to unpack a weekend message that intentionally tried to be neither. Instead, the conversation centers on Joseph, perhaps the quietest major character in the entire New Testament, and how his life offers us an incredibly honest, generous, and grounding picture of what faithful presence actually looks like in our lives today. The discussion dives into the powerful, counter-cultural reality of Joseph’s story: he never gives a single speech, he never argues with God, and he never demands to explain himself to the culture around him. Instead, he simply wakes up and does exactly what he is told to do, over and over again, in the midst of wild, scandalous circumstances that would easily unravel most of us. The conversation holds space for every kind of father, father figure, and family dynamic in the room, ending with a deeply hopeful look at why Joseph’s quiet disappearance before Jesus' public ministry might just be the most encouraging thing we can say to anyone showing up and doing the hard work for someone else right now. 📍 In This Episode: **Beyond the Greeting Card:** Tearing down the traditional, often exhausting cultural stereotypes around Father's Day to look at a healthier, more sustainable framework for men, fathers, and families. **The Quietest Major Character:** Examining the unique biblical narrative of Joseph, a man of zero recorded words whose radical obedience was defined by steady action rather than a microphone. **Faithful Presence Under Pressure:** How Joseph navigated deeply complex, confusing, and high-stakes life circumstances by simply waking up and taking the next right step of obedience every morning. **The Grace of Disappearing:** Unpacking the profound, hopeful truth behind Joseph fading into the background of the New Testament, and what that teaches us about legacy, humility, and pouring into the next generation.

Welcome back to the Menlo Midweek Podcast! We are in Week 4—the final movement—of our series, "GLITCH: Being Human in a Machine World." This week, host Matt Summers sits down with Phil EuBank for the series finale, "Going Offline." Over the last few weeks, we’ve explored what it means to protect our awe, agency, and identity in a deeply digitized world. This past weekend, we landed on the final pillar: intimacy. Living in a culture surrounded by tech, artificial intelligence isn't just replacing some of our relationships; it is actively retraining us inside the relationships we still have. When we grow accustomed to tech that mirrors and tracks us without demanding anything in return, our tolerance for real-world relationship friction shrinks. But as Matt and Phil discuss, relationships that never push and pull only take and never give. True intimacy requires the vulnerability of being fully known by real people, letting real relationship do the slow, messy, and beautiful work of spiritual formation again. 📍 In This Episode: The Double Meaning of A.I.: We look back at the entire GLITCH series and unpack how technology tries to substitute reality with artificial awe, artificial agency, artificial artificial identity, and artificial intimacy. The Counter-Cultural Power of Jesus: A deep dive into Matthew 11. While AI's power works by extracting our information and agency, Jesus' power works by giving His away, inviting us to take up a yoke that brings true rest. Fully Known vs. Fully Tracked: Exploring 1 Corinthians 13 and why real intimacy is passive before it is active. The ultimate grounding truth of the human experience is not what we know, but that we are deeply known by a real God and real people. The Cross-Shaped Life: Phil breaks down the four directions of whole humanity—agency out, awe up, intimacy across, identity within—and how the cross serves as the ultimate template for being human. Practical Steps to Go Offline: What happens to our souls when we practice ordinary resistance? We discuss two simple, life-altering challenges for the week: leaving phones off the table for one meal with someone, and physically showing up for someone going through a hard season.

Welcome back to the Menlo Midweek Podcast! We are in Week 3 of our series, "GLITCH: Being Human in a Machine World." This week, host Matt Summers and Phil EuBank are joined by a special guest: Paul, co-founder of Faith Work and Tech. In an episode titled "Hardware Crash," the three of them dive into the very real, physical nature of burnout. Living and working in the Bay Area, it’s incredibly easy to operate as if we are just a "brain in a jar," ignoring our hardware (our physical bodies) to constantly serve our software (our productivity, careers, and output). But as we see in the story of the prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 19, when you crash hard, God doesn't send a software update or a productivity hack. Sometimes, the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap and eat a snack. 📍 In This Episode: Dust and Breath: We discuss why burnout is ultimately what happens when our biology finally rebels against the pace of our technology. Faith in a High-Tech World: Paul shares his unique perspective on navigating an industry designed around constant connectivity and how we can faithfully set boundaries when our jobs demand endless output. Elijah’s Broom Tree Moment: A look at how God met one of the most powerful prophets in history at his lowest point with deep physical care and compassion, rather than a new assignment. High Tech / Deep Touch: Why living in a highly digitized, screen-heavy world requires us to be intentional about physical restoration—addressing how our bodies hold onto stress and why we need physical healing, not just spiritual ideas.

Welcome back to the Menlo Midweek Podcast! This week, host Brett Koerton sits down with Phil EuBank to dive into Week 2 of our GLITCH series. In an episode titled "Infinite Loop," they tackle the exhausting reality of anxiety and why relying on our intellect to solve our emotional struggles often leaves us stuck buffering. In the Silicon Valley, we naturally prize "processing power," leading us to believe we can logic our way out of fear. But as Brett and Phil discuss, you simply can’t out-think a broken feeling. 📍 In This Episode: The Buffering Mind: We explore the neurology of the "looping thought" and why anxiety so often feels like a program we can't force-quit. Processing Power vs. Present Peace: A candid conversation about how we try to use "Algorithms" (predictive anxiety) to control our lives, and why the peace of God isn't a logical conclusion, but a spiritual download. Renewing the Mind: We take a deep dive into Romans 12:1-2 and 2 Corinthians 10:5. What does it actually look like to take a spiraling thought captive in real time? Algorithm to Spirit: Practical steps for shifting your operating system from the exhausting loop of "what-ifs" to the grounding reality of the Holy Spirit.