Marty Solomon: Unfiltered Faith and a Theology of Love

In this episode of The Pivot, Andrew sits down with Marty Solomon, president of Impact Campus Ministries and the co-creator, executive producer, and cohost of The BEMA Podcast. Marty discusses his passion for working with college students and how diverse academic perspectives helped him construct a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of the Bible that is true to its origins. He also explores what an unfiltered version of Christianity entails and emphasizes the importance of building personal theology around the principle of loving others.

Thought-Provoking Quotes:

“If you are a college kid or you’ve been in your early twenties, you know what it’s like to be in this place of, What am I going to do with my life? What am I going to do next? Who am I? And the truth is, I’m still asking those questions at forty-six. I’m asking them in a different way. I have a lot more responsibility.” - Andrew Osenga

“One day I was just like, God, I just want to pursue this discipleship stuff. I need people who are old enough that they’re not at home, so their parents can’t tell them no. I want to do this without permission slips, but I also need somebody who doesn’t have a mortgage and a marriage and three children and a career. And I just realized, Oh man, there’s a window there, and it’s college students. That’s when I jumped into campus ministry.” - Marty Solomon

“I’m a teacher by trade, I’m a teacher by giftedness. I’m going to approach ministry as a teacher/preacher.” - Marty Solomon

“We’re looking at the Bible through a historically informed lens. I want to ask the question, ‘What did the author mean when they wrote this? What did the audience hear when they heard it?’ I believe that’s the inspired conversation. That’s where the good stuff is.” - Marty Solomon

“We’re probably used to a Christianity that’s been pulled through about twenty different filters. Not that it’s changed it or bastardized it beyond recognition, but it has definitely colored it and shaped it and probably twisted it in ways you’ve found confusing, hurtful, convoluted, distasteful, uncompelling.” - Marty Solomon

“We are wounded and we are wary and we want something more than these crazy, in depth, complex, classical systems we’ve been handed.” - Marty Solomon

“We’re going to learn in 400 years how we were wrong about half of it. We’re doing the best job we can, stewarding what we’ve dug out of the dirt.” - Marty Solomon

“God asks us to be known for our love and we are not. We think we are, but we know we’re not. The reason we’re not loving people is because our theology does not facilitate loving other people. We’ve got to go back to the source and go, Are we reading our Bible correctly? Because if we’re not, maybe we should have built a different theology.” - Marty Solomon

Links, Products, and Resources Mentioned:

The BEMA Podcast

The Pivot episode with Pete Enns

Impact Campus Ministries

Caedmon’s Call

Andrew Peterson

University of Idaho

Washington State University

Ray Vander Laan

The Gospel of Being Human by Marty Solomon

*Watch this interview on Andrew’s YouTube channel!

*All episode music is by Andrew Osenga.

Guest’s Links:

Marty Solomon’s website

Marty Solomon’s Facebook

Marty Solomon’s X

Marty Solomon’s Instagram

Marty Solomon’s YouTube

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How to Remember by Andrew Osenga

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*The Pivot is produced in conjunction with Four Eyes Media.