Anita Lustrea

Amy Julia Becker joins me on the podcast this week to talk about privilege through the vehicle of her book, White Picket Fences: Turning Toward Love In a World Divided by Privilege. The word privilege is one that provokes strong reactions. People often become defensive. Amy Julia Becker talks about how we can engage in fruitful conversations about privilege even while looking at the wounds of privilege.

Michelle Van Loon, besides being a great writer, is a wonderful conversationalist. On this week's podcast we take a look at character, how it's developed, how we teach it to our children, and how the Church needs to engage with this topic.

We also look at the book of Ecclesiastes. Michelle is co-teaching a class on that book and she has some interesting observations for how we might live our lives without guilt.

And we take a look at International travel and all we can learn from it.

Daniel Hill has spent decades working and investing in the city of Chicago. He is the founding pastor of River City Community Church, a multicultural church community in the Humboldt Park neighborhood and author of White Awake, a book chronicling his own journey into understanding and embracing his white cultural identity.

This edition of Faith Conversations focuses on a variety of posts on Daniel's Facebook page. I asked Daniel for a partial list of books he would recommend for reading on issues of race and justice.

Aaron Niequist joins me on the podcast this week. He is an influential worship leader who combines ancient and modern Christian spiritual practices to help people who might feel stuck on their spiritual journey. This is part of Aaron's own story which led him to launch a service called "The Practice," which is all about a practice-based faith—a Christian faith that embraces tradition while recognizing that belief alone isn't enough. He has recently written The Eternal Current: How a Practice-Based Faith Can Save Us From Drowning.

I'm excited to have one of my pastors, Dr. Stephen McConnell, on Faith Conversations this week. He is the Senior Pastor of Church of the Palms in Sarasota, Florida. Our conversation was really an opportunity for me to get to know more of his story while I introduced him to my podcast audience. He is a 4th generation Presbyterian pastor, and I think you will enjoy his story as pieces of it unfold on the podcast.

Parker Palmer joins me on the podcast this week. I asked Mike to co-host and we had an incredible conversation with this nearly 80-year-old Statesman. Parker is founder and senior partner emeritus of the Center for Courage & Renewal and the author of ten books, including his latest, On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity & Getting Old. This book, as well as much of our conversation, settles on "reframing aging as a passage of discovery and engagement, not decline and inaction." How inviting is that?

On the podcast this week, Mike and John join me as we tackle the question, "What is God compelling us to respond to in the world around us as we see injustice unfold?" We also talk about the posture we need to take doing that as well as take a look at what we might be resisting and why.

John starts us off with an experience he had that made him think more deeply about how we engage with the world, and I wrap up our time talking about an experience I had that has me researching where I might volunteer.

Suzanne Stabile is an internationally recognized Enneagram master teacher. I've been greatly anticipating her follow-up book to The Road Back to You for a while now. The Path Between Us is more than I'd hoped for as it talks about an Enneagram journey to healthy relationships.

Michelle Van Loon is one of my favorite conversation partners. This week she responds to a listener email, talks about The Perennial Gen Workshop coming up, and talks about her brand new book, Born to Wander. What happens when we are uprooted or displaced? And what does it look like to recover the value of our pilgrim identity? Michelle talks about all of that on this edition of Faith Conversations.

Do you ever feel guilty when you rock the boat? Are you ever afraid to fail? How about having a high tolerance for crap? Check out this week's podcast with Margo Tirado, a psychotherapist with over 25 years of clinical experience. She has spent approximately 40,000 hours observing the human spirit and with those hours has come insights that empower women, especially, to appreciate and honor the power of their voices. Struggling to uncover your authentic voice? This week's message is just for you!