Episode Details

🎙 14: Better Ways to Read the Bible — with Pastor Zach Lambert

This week, Alexis Rice welcomes Pastor Zach W. Lambert (@zachwlambert), founding pastor of Restore Austin and author of Better Ways to Read the Bible: Transforming a Weapon of Harm into a Tool of Healing.

Zach’s work calls us to examine the lenses we bring to Scripture. He argues that the Bible itself isn’t the problem—it’s the harmful interpretations that have been weaponized to silence women, justify racism, and marginalize LGBTQ+ people. Instead, he invites us to reclaim Scripture through the lens of flourishing, grounded in Jesus’ mission statement from John 10:10: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

Together, Alexis and Zach explore:

• Why flourishing, not fear, should guide biblical interpretation (Luke 4, Matthew 25, John 10:10)
• How to walk through deconstruction and reconstruction faithfully—like Jesus with the disciples on the road to Emmaus
• Raising kids in faith with curiosity and honesty, rather than dogma
• The urgent need for progressive Christians to reclaim Scripture and faith language from those who distort it

Zach also shares his personal journey from college athlete to pastor, the founding of Restore Austin, and why he believes pastors must speak out against the weaponization of faith while building spaces of love, joy, and hope.

💡 Key Takeaways

• The Bible is not inherently harmful—our interpretive lenses matter
• Deconstruction is not abandonment of faith but a biblical, ongoing process
• Progressive Christians must reclaim Scripture, faith, and even patriotism from harmful ideologies
• Healthy discipleship nurtures curiosity in both adults and children
• Our role as Christians is to create communities of flourishing that naturally critique cruelty and injustice

⛪ About Our Guest
 Pastor Zach W. Lambert (@zachwlambert) is the founding pastor of Restore Austin, co-founder of the Post-Evangelical Collective, and a doctoral student at Duke Divinity School. A graduate of Fuller Seminary, Zach has been a faithful pastoral voice for those deconstructing harmful versions of Christianity. His writing appears on Substack, and his sermons and resources can be found at restoreaustin.org.

📚 Resources Mentioned

• Better Ways to Read the Bible by Zach W. Lambert — @zachwlambert
• Inspired and Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans — @rachelheldevans (legacy account)
• The Bible for Normal People podcast by Pete Enns & Jared Byas — @thebiblefornormalpeople, @peteenns, @jaredbyas

Go in peace, friends

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