This week I get to talk to two good friends, Mat and Micah, about what it means to be a father, what it means to have a father, and what it means for God to be our father.

Mat: Church of the Affirmation.

Micah: The Word in Black and Red.

Friends, welcome back to All Things Made New. This week, I'm talking about some personal changes that are going on with my relations to Christianity, Jesus, and myself.

Aaron J. Smith is a poet, a spiritual director, and a post-Christian theologian. He lives in the pacific Northwest with his wife, two kids, and he loves cheesecake.

Aaronjsmith.net

The Cluttered Mouth

The Book of Common Words

This week, we are talking to our new friend, Mae Forrest Barnes.

A former United Methodist pastor and now Episcopalian laity lady, Mae is a worker, a writer, and a PhD candidate at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.  In her precious spare time, Mae writes on her blog about theology, culture, politics, and anything that captures her attention, really. With a bachelor’s in English, a master's degree in divinity, she hopes to one day make her desire to teach in a university a reality, but in the mean time, podcasting and blogging will do quite nicely. 

Socials:Substack: https://maeforrestbarnes.substack.com/
BlueSky: @dr-maeforrest
X.com: @dr_maeforrest
Instagram: junebug_writer
Threads: @junebug_writer

This week, we are talking to long time podcaster Tripp Fuller.

Tripp recently moved back to North Carolina and started as Visiting Professor of Theology at Luther Theological Seminary after three years as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Theology & Science at the University of Edinburgh. He recently released Divine Self-Investment: a Constructive Open and Relational Christology, the first book in the Studies in Open and Relational Theology series. For over 15 years Tripp has been doing the Homebrewed Christianity podcast (think on-demand internet radio) where he interviews different scholars about their work so you can get nerdy in traffic, on the treadmill, or doing the dishes. Last year it had over 4 million downloads. It also inspired a book series with Fortress Press called the Homebrewed Christianity Guides to... topics like God, Jesus, Spirit, Church History, etc. Tripp is a very committed and (some of his friends think overly) engaged Lakers fan and takes Star Wars and Lord of the Rings very seriously.

This week we are talking to our friend Marc Alan Schelske about the second edition of his book Journaling for Spiritual Growth.

Marc is a thinker and speaker who has served as a full-time pastor since 1995 and is currently the teaching elder of Bridge City Community Church in Portland, Oregon. He also hosts The Apprenticeship Way podcast and is the author of The Wisdom of Your Heart and Discovering Your Authentic Core Values. “In my writing, I focus on what it takes to nurture a healthy inner life, something found at the intersection of grace and growth,” Marc says. “I write and speak to help people find belonging, redemption, and growth as they discover the life God has designed for them.”

https://marcalanschelske.com/

Friends, welcome once again.

This week, we're talking to Elle Dowd.

Elle Dowd (she/they) is an author, activist, and pastor.She is currently PhD student at the Chicago Theological Seminary, and an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. 

Elle has pieces of their heart in Sierra Leone, where their two children were born, and in St. Louis where they learned from the radical, queer, Black leadership during the Ferguson Uprising. 

She was formerly a co-conspirator with the movement to #decolonizeLutheranism and served as a board member of the Euro-Descent Lutheran Association for Racial Justice, does community organizing in her city as a board member of SOUL, serves on the Clergy Advocacy Board for Planned Parenthood, and facilitates workshops in both secular conferences and Christian spaces. In 2021 she published a book with Broadleaf, Baptized in Teargas, about her conversion from a white moderate to an abolitionist is available now in print, e-book, or audiobook. 

To get in touch with Elle and to keep up with updates,  you can visit their website www.elledowd.com and subscribe to their newsletter.

You can also see her online ministry via Facebook.com/elledowdministry 

or follow her on Twitter/SnapChat/Insta @hownowbrowndowd 

or on TikTok @elledowdministry and @ELCAYoungAdults 

And order their book Baptized in Teargas: From White Moderate to Abolitionist  here  https://bit.ly/2YICjBf

Or download the audiobook here https://christianaudio.com/baptized-tear-gas-elle-dowd-audiobook-download

Hello friends!

This week, we are talking to a new friend, Ell.

Ell is a co-host for The Word in Black and Red podcast, a member of the IWW, and a board member at her church. She was raised Presbyterian, sent to catholic school as an atheist, and then graduated with a BA in anthropology and classics. She’s worked in various industries and is a passionate advocate of intersectional workers rights and building community solidarity.TWIBAR

Hello Friends.

This time, we are talking to Adam Ericksen.

Adam Ericksen is....The Pastor Clackamas United Church of Christ in Milwaukie, Oregon who is always posting provocative church signs calling out injustice, rebuking police brutality, standing up for rights of refugees, the humanity of Muslims, and the dignity of trans people...you know, like Jesus would.Bluesky: Pastor Adam

Instagram: Adam Ericksen

This week we get to meet a new friend, Char Mansfield.

Char Mansfield, co-founder of the public theology podcast Barefoot to Emmaus, is a Princeton Seminary MDiv and soon to be Rutgers University MSW. They plan to use the two master's to pursue a bivocational ministry of pastoral leadership and psychotherapy. Char is an anarchist in the style of the first church, with their deepest convictions surrounding the centrality of interdependent community and renunciation of private property to the Christian calling. 

https://barefoot2emmaus.weebly.com/

https://www.instagram.com/barefoot2emmaus/

[email protected]