Call It Good

At this stage in our exploration of Genesis 1 in our Call It Good series, it felt important to sit down with Pete Peterson, someone who sits at an important nexus in relation to calling it good. As the Creative Director of The Rabbit Room, Pete is tasked with shaping a creative community whose mission is to "cultivate and curate stories, music, and art to nourish Christ-centered communities for the life of the world." As an author and playwright, Pete knows and feels firsthand the tension that comes with serving the work and seeing it all the way through to its release.

Are we allowed to reflect on what we've made and call it good, too? If so, then why does the sharing of what we've created feel so awkward? And how can community play a role in making all of this a healthier process? We spoke to Pete about his own creative pursuits, as well as the mission of The Rabbit Room, to gain a better foothold on this part of serving the work and what it means to see it through to its end.

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From host Matt Conner:

"If you've followed along with Carolyn's career over the 25 years since, you'll likely agree with me that you've learned to trust her work and her voice. She's released more than a dozen albums in the last quarter decade, along with three acclaimed books. In addition to her work as a creative practitioner, she has also taken up the mantle of Director of Education for Renovaré, a position that allows her to encourage and strengthen the spiritual formation of others.

If you've been along on this journey with us on the Call It Good podcast, you'll know we're seeking to best understand what it means to create in the image of a Creator. How does Genesis 1 actually apply to us? And what does it mean to rest and reflect after we've actually made something?

Because of Carolyn's ability to speak to these topics with experience and grace from multiple angles, I knew that she'd be an ideal guest for the podcast. On this episode of Call It Good, she provides us with a wealth of wisdom from her experience as a multi-discipline practitioner and her perspective as an educator."

Transcripts are available at RabbitRoom.com/podcast.

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From host Matt Conner:

"Beyond his substantive and compelling work in the arts, Propaganda also just released a new book Terraform, a series of thoughtful essays about this subject of building a better world.

On this episode of Call it Good, Propaganda sat down to tell me about the wrestling he's done over time when it comes to reflecting on his own art. The battle, he says, has been about identity and making sure that the work doesn't reflect his worth. It's a joy and freedom to participate in this act of building a better world, and that ability to call it good can be corrupted if we allow it."

Transcripts available at RabbitRoom.com/podcast.

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For author and singer-songwriter (and so many other things) Andrew Peterson, the last year or more certainly presented some challenges as it did for everyone. But it was also an unexpected respite after a quarter-century of creative work, leaning into his considerable musical and literary gifts to release album after album and book after book.

As Andrew explains in this episode, the pandemic provided him his first year at home in his entire adult life. It gave him a chance to reflect upon his own creative work, the mission of The Rabbit Room, and what Sabbath even means for him and his family.

As something typically overlooked, ignored, or even treated as a hurdle, Sabbath is actually a beautiful rest intended for our benefit as creators made in the image of the Creator. We hope this honest and heartening conversation with Andrew encourages you in your own journey ahead to figure out what Sabbath means and how you can enter into it.

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From host Matt Conner:

"

If you've hung around The Rabbit Room over the years, then you'll likely recognize the name and wonderful work of writer and speaker Helena Sorensen. She's a frequent contributor to The Rabbit Room site as well as a presenter at Hutchmoot. She's often featured with our friends at the Story Warren as well. As the author of the Shiloh series as well as The Door on Half-Bald Hill, perhaps her meaningful prose has found a home on your shelves, too.

After charting a theological course with Thomas McKenzie (which you shouldn't miss in our first episode), I wanted to continue the conversation with Helena because I had been privileged enough to see her creative journey up close. I knew that she'd become a fountain of wisdom about this whole process.

When I first met Helena, she was a disciplined writer who was obedient to her craft and devoted to excellence. But she was also completely in the closet. Over the years, it's been so heartening to watch the ways in which she's grown to find an audience, and then to serve that audience with encouragement, coaching, and the authentic sharing of her own story. I've watched Helena walk through this very process of partnering with the Spirit to bring something to the world. And I've watched her offer it with open hands.

On this episode, I asked Helena about her journey to date and what she thinks about the idea of chasing excellence, finding her worth in what matters, and this whole idea of calling it good in the first place."

Audio engineering & theme music by Asher Peterson. Find transcripts for Call It Good at RabbitRoom.com/podcast.

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From host Matt Conner:

"Talking to Russ Ramsey made sense from every angle.

As a practitioner, Russ is an excellent author and writer who just released his fifth book, Rembrandt Is In the Wind. As a pastor, he not only shapes sermons each week for his Presbyterian church plant in Cool Springs, which is just south of Nashville, but he also shepherds his congregation toward those same sorts of endeavors that we're interested in discussing.

Even more than that, Russ has a lifelong passion for art and beauty. And if you follow him on social media you know exactly what I'm talking about. For quite some time, Russ has been publishing Art Wednesdays, as he calls it, a simple infusion of beauty into our social feeds in the form of hourly posts that showcase meaningful works and their context. That's also the subject of Rembrandt Is In the Wind, by the way.

On this episode of Call It Good, Russ reminds us how some of history's greatest artists struggled with their own work and how he's learned to apply the idea of creating in the image of a Creator to his own life, work, and congregation."

Audio engineering & theme music by Asher Peterson. Find transcripts for Call It Good at RabbitRoom.com/podcast.

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From host Matt Conner:

"We can't venture very far into our exploration of Genesis 1 without contending with the form in which it's been given to us. The creation narrative isn't something to analyze and apply like a textbook. Instead, there's cadence and meter, there's rhythm, repetition. It's a poem after all.

It was clear to me fairly early on that I wanted to discuss the creation narrative—imbued as it is with themes of creating in the image of a Creator, rest and reflection, and participating in the Spirit-led recreation of all things—with someone who could approach it for the poem that it is. And I knew of no one better suited for that task than Malcolm Guite.

To be quite honest, I was very nervous to sit down with Malcolm, although that's not anything to do with his own posture. Rather, as a man so well versed in poetry and literature, a captivating author and speaker, I knew all my insecurities would rise to the surface. And then the idea of having those permanently imprinted on a podcast episode just made me feel a little ill. However, I also knew he would be the perfect interview subject to carry us further, to help illuminate the action of calling it good.

Talking to Malcolm about Genesis 1 turned out to be like drinking from a firehose. Even in our pre-interview banner before we started recording, he was quoting off the top of his head Shakespeare, Keats, Wendell Berry, and George Herbert.

Malcolm is a poet and priest, author, and chaplain of Girton College at the University of Cambridge. He's written several books on theology and the arts and several more of his own poetry anthologies. In short, we needed a poet to appreciate the poem. And that's exactly what you'll find on this episode with the wonderful Malcolm Guite."

Audio engineering & theme music by Asher Peterson. Find transcripts for Call It Good at RabbitRoom.com/podcast.

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From host Matt Conner:

"From the moment I had the idea for this podcast, I knew I needed to sit down with my friend Thomas McKenzie as the cornerstone conversation. Thematically speaking, as a podcast exploring what it means to create in the image of a Creator, it felt very important for me to begin with some theological guard rails in place, so to speak.

After all, if we're talking about the image of God, inspiration from God, and our interaction with God, then we've got to establish some theological norms pretty quickly. What made Thomas the ideal interview subject was easy: I trusted him. Not only was he a longtime friend but he was also my pastor at Church of the Redeemer for the years that my family lived in Nashville, Tennessee.

And while I knew he was beloved by so many, it wasn't until his recent funeral after a horrific car accident that claimed both his life and the life of his daughter, Charlie, that I learned just how many others had trusted Thomas the same way I had.

Listening back to this interview stirs so many emotions in me. But one of those is certainly gratitude. He was always filled with so much wisdom and love when speaking on matters of the spirit. Thomas was such a beautiful co-creator with the Spirit and was a man who understood Genesis 1 as an invitation to join in the same process of calling forth beauty from chaos.

Even now, it's a gift to hear his voice and receive his words in this episode. And I'm so glad we were able to carve out the time to make this happen last summer. We certainly hope it's helpful for you too, as we begin to explore what it means as Christians to call it good."

Audio engineering & theme music by Asher Peterson. Find transcripts for Call It Good at RabbitRoom.com/podcast.

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Welcome to Call It Good, a series of conversations with authors, artists, and pastors about creative confidence and the invitation before us to join with the Spirit in the act of re-creating the world.

In this introduction, host Matt Conner tells us about Call It Good by way of two contrasting anecdotes.

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