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PODCAST

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress

Gary Allison Furr

Stories and tales from a guitar-picking writer, theologian, speaker, blogger and entertainer. From small town quirks to the bizarre realities of family, whacky church life and slightly damaged kinfolk, insights from a reluctant son of the South takes you along. Never know where it’ll end up but it’s sure to be worth the trip.

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All Episodes

16:54

Reading the Bible Amid the Culture Wars: In His...

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress ·

2026/02/12

Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," asked Senator Charles Sumner to come to the aid of a needy citizen. When Sumner turned her down with the excuse that he had grown too busy to concern himself with individuals, Howe replied, "Charles, that's remarkable. Even God hasn't reached that stage yet." The problem with our sense of “where the problem is” is that we are like the people of Gadara. When you ask, “Where is evil?” they would point to “that man o...

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25:19

Reading the Bible Amid the Culture Wars: In His...

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress ·

2026/02/07

The problem with our sense of “where the problem is” is that we are like the people of Gadara. When you ask, “Where is evil?” they would point to “that man over there.” We’re pretty sure the problem is “out there” somewhere—bad people, bad institutions, bad laws, bad luck. But Jesus in the gospels knew the truth—if evil lives out through our social structures, it is birthed in the human heart. Evil, as Walter Wink puts it, has no existence apart from dwelling within an...

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15:13

Squanto's Kindness

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress ·

2025/11/28

It is rather peculiar that a holiday so connected with abundance and the numbering of blessings would have begun as gratitude for bare survival, but fitting. Thanksgiving is the recognition of our dependence on God, not the congratulating of ourselves. We are blessed, but not deservedly. Life is a gift from Someone, not something to which we are entitled. It is a time to stop, take stock, and celebrate in the spirit of those early survivors. Transcript can be fou...

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16:06

Embracing Your Humanity

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress ·

2025/11/04

Years ago, I spoke to a group of young ministers recently out of seminary. I shared a list of learnings to help them. Number 5 went, "Church people are sinners, but, hey, imagine what they used to be like. If you want honesty in advertising, then here’s a church slogan for you: “We’re old, we’re dull, but hey, you ain’t no prize yourself.” Support the show

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15:17

Strangers and Orphans

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress ·

2025/10/04

Immigration is both a continual theme of the American story and a recurring point of conflict. The deep divisions of the current moment are echoes of the past the we ignore and repeat. Support the show

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14:09

Chaplain of the Day

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress ·

2025/10/01

A dead battery, a cussing mechanic, and an invitation to give a devotion to the Georgia Senate. Just another lesson in maturity in spite of myself. Support the show

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9:28

Shadow Prayers, Then and Now

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress ·

2025/08/29

I wrote to reflect not just on what was lost, but on what was revealed to me, even in the worst of times—about faith, about love, about fear, about my worries that all our efforts to stay alive as the church wouldn’t be enough, only to discover on the other side that what held these precious, human, imperfect souls in my charge together wasn’t me or the staff, or the building after all. It was the fragile threads of faith and the mystery of God that binds us, even when it seems completely abs...

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16:54

Love One Another part 3

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress ·

2025/08/21

When we love our neighbor this way, forgetting ourselves in love for another, we connect with the powerful love that is at the heart of all things. It is life-giving. It is also impossible unless God helps us to love. And yet we know, from those moments in life where we see it clearly, that this is what we were made for. So why don’t we love each other this way, if it is what we were made for? Support the show

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13:33

Love Your Neighbor--Part 2

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress ·

2025/08/10

...This can be stated as a truism: You will love others as you love yourself. That is, your own self-perception becomes a filter through which you view everyone else. Support the show

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10:30

Love Your Neighbor--Part 1

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress ·

2025/07/22

Being like ancient Babylon rings a bit hollow, but the power movers seem to say, “Oh, you’ll be a lot happier. Just don’t be the one under the bus. Be a thrower.” Well, that’s one way to do it, I suppose. The historical record is fairly bleak about oppression, cruelty and rage as a long-term strategy. So, what else can there be? Support the show

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15:38

The Gift of Doubt

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress ·

2025/06/10

It may surprise you to know this is quite common. Among every writing by the most important and influential Christian thinkers and theologians and leaders, there are stories and journals of paralyzing doubts and fears. It's part of the whole journey to spiritual maturity. Support the show

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9:39

Easter

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress ·

2025/04/30

The pastor preached a gospel sermon of hope and resurrection. The worship was inspiring. AsI left, I felt something in my chest, a familiar and indescribable twinge, as though I had accidentally walked into a beautiful hidden room full of old treasures from an earlier life. It was hope. Support the show

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10:34

Glimmers of Hope

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress ·

2025/03/21

We are in a profoundly toxic public moment. But I will remind us that down on the ground, there is far more hope and light than you’d think from watching your preferred media. I’d suggest we let our children and teachers remind us again of who we are. Support the show

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19:04

Thoughts in Solitude

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress ·

2025/03/05

As Lent begins today, reflections on the life and words of Thomas Merton. Amid the chaos of ultranationalism and disruption, we need to grow deeper, not more distracted. Elton Trueblood told us, "We shall never have a better world until we have better persons in it." In the insanity of this present moment, finding inner peace is not an escape, nor a contradiction. It is essential, to be able to hear thaT inner voice that will enable us to sift wheat from chaff, sense from nonsense, and hear t...

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13:30

The Price of Admission

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress ·

2025/01/18

An unforgettable day. But I was most touched by something his daughter said that night. She told us a little-known fact—that part of his childhood was spent in a children’s home. His family was disconnected by life. She said one of the reasons he loved sports teams so much was that family life had been hard for him. At the park, though, no matter who you were, or even what you had done, as long as you had the price of admission, you could get in. Support the show

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12:35

Jimmy Carter's Vision

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress ·

2025/01/09

In other words, unity of heart, spirit and love can exist even though we must have differences that will take longer to resolve. We begin with this willingness to know a fellow Christian’s heart and build upon the possibility of fellowship. It does not mean give up our convictions. But we must begin with the hardest and highest call Jesus gave to us—to love one another as He loved us. That is not what we do once we have worked out all our disagreements, our differences...

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17:50

The Visit of the Magi

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress ·

2024/12/21

I want you to consider this: three astrologers came from Persia, without knowing anything about who they were dealing with in Herod. The salvation of the world lay innocently in the arms of his mother, nothing to protect him from the power of the state. His fate depended on these strangers and what they were to make of a dream they had that likely woke one of them up in the middle of the night with an uneasy feeling. Support the show

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23:17

Christmas Cards

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress ·

2024/12/10

Cryptic and mysterious messages begin coming through the unlikeliest of messengers: an elderly woman in a nursing home. Crowds flock to see her, and experts try to determine what causes it. The local ministers are perplexed. Is it the medication? Dementia? Wishful thinking? Support the show

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9:52

The Stories of Christmas

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress ·

2024/12/04

It was a desperate time. You might even say the worst of times. And the story plainly says that while we were still lost in the tragedy called sin,God showed up, as Forrest Gump once said. Support the show

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17:35

When the Vote is Over

The Flatpicking Pilgrim"s Progress ·

2024/11/06

Since America is still sorting out the end of yesterday's tribal war, with one group acting like they won the Iron Bowl and the other looking for an immigration application to Canada, maybe it would be better to tell a story about something else. A church vote and a lesson in winning and losing. Support the show

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