Hey everybody, I'm Tim Mackie, and this is my podcast, exploring my strange Bible. I am a card-carrying

Bible history and language nerd who thinks that Jesus of Nazareth is utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you

have. On this podcast, I'm putting together the last 20 years worth of lectures and sermons where I've

been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites us into the mission

of Jesus and the journey of faith.

And I hope this can all be helpful for you too.

I also help start this thing called the Bible Project.

We make animated videos and podcasts and classes about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology.

You can find all those resources at Bibleproject.com.

With all that said, let's dive into the episode for this week.

Okay, well, this is the first of a three-part series that represent teachings. I did a number of

years ago on key practices that have marked the lives of followers of Jesus throughout history

and also in all different traditions of the church. And that's because these are life habits

and practices that we find advocated and practiced by Jesus and the apostles going back to the

earliest roots of the Christian movement.

And so this life habit, the teaching is called solitude and community.

Most people are familiar with the practice of, if I'm a follower of Jesus, that's

important that I should be connected to a group of people who are also trying to follow Jesus.

It's called church or community.

But also in the New Testament, we find advocated a commitment both to being with other people in a church community,

but also it's opposite to regular rhythms of being alone and having times of solitude. So what is

that practice all about? And why is it?

...