The Coffee Hour — Friends for Life Crossover, Episode 4: Hard Questions About Loving Our Neighbors

What are the hard questions that affect how we love our neighbors? In this crossover series with the Friends for Life podcast, we’re exploring “loving your neighbor” from a variety of perspectives! In the first half of Episode 4, Rev. Dr. Joel Biermann (Professor of Systematic Theology at Concordia Seminary St. Louis) joins Andy, Sarah, and guest co-host Steph Neugebauer (host, Friends for Life podcast) to talk about whether loving your neighbor is always law-abiding, if we should take risks to love our neighbor, why these risks are often the small things right in front of us, and the things that challenge us about loving our neighbors. In the second half, the Rev. Bryan Wolfmueller (pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church and Jesus Church of the Deaf in Austin, TX) joins Sarah and guest co-host Steph Neugebauer to talk about how love is often described and defined on social media, how a biblical understanding of loving your neighbor compares to modern social definitions of love, how we can talk with our kids about being loving in a social media age, and how we live in the tension between love and happiness.

Find the Friends for Life podcast at kfuo.org/friendsforlife.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer: amazon.com/dp/0684815001
Day 7: For Work, Rest, or Play by Joel Biermann: cph.org/day-7-for-work-rest-or-play
The Quiet Ambition by Ryan Tinetti: ivpress.com/the-quiet-ambition
{The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge} Book Club Wrap Up: The Quiet Ambition – kfuo.org/2026/07/24/lutheran-ladies-lounge-episode-356-book-club-wrap-up-the-quiet-ambition
{The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge} Kitchen Table Talk: The Quiet Ambition with Dr. Ryan Tinetti (Book Club Bonus!) – kfuo.org/2026/08/07/lutheran-ladies-lounge-episode-358-kitchen-table-talk-the-quiet-ambition-with-dr-ryan-tinetti-book-club-bonus

As you grab your morning coffee (and pastry, let’s be honest), join hosts Andy Bates and Sarah Gulseth as they bring you stories of the intersection of Lutheran life and a secular world. Catch real-life stories of mercy work of the LCMS and partners, updates from missionaries across the ocean, and practical talk about how to live boldly Lutheran. Have a topic you’d like to hear about on The Coffee Hour? Contact us at: listener@kfuo.org.

Today’s episode of The Coffee Hour is underwritten in part by Concordia University Wisconsin and Ann Arbor. You can learn more about Concordia University Wisconsin at cuw.edu and Concordia University Ann Arbor at cuaa.edu. Live Uncommon.

Sarah Gulseth

A proud Michigan native and fan of anything with the Mitten State on it, Digital Media Manager Sarah Gulseth is also a lover of historical war movies and anything with the label PBS Masterpiece. An avid bicyclist and women’s biking advocate, she rides her bike to work year-round and has the massive bike clothing and accessory collection to prove it. If it’s the weekend, she and her husband Luther are probably out riding bikes, or finding the next awesome coffee shop to frequent, or rehearsing for the next choir concert. You may also find her down a new rabbit hole on Google, researching the latest random fact she found on social media, while eating an unhealthy amount of apples (Macintosh from Michigan, of course) and raw almond butter.