Season: Someone Asked

Speaker: Gwen White

Location: 2212 S. Broad St.

About Talk: Dr. Gwen White answers the questions "Why do we share with MCC?" and "Why care about anywhere but here?" Gwen White is the Board Chair of the Mennonite Central Committee U.S. and a teaching pastor with Circle of Hope.

Season: Someone Asked

Speaker: Kristen Snow

Location: 2007 Frankford Ave.

About Talk: Kristen Snow talks about how nature teaches us something about how to treat it and ourselves. She is part of our Watershed Discipleship Team.

Season: Someone Asked

Speaker: Julie Hoke

Location: 29 West Tulpehocken St

About Talk: You might have gotten the message that being angry is not acceptable for a Christian—much less being angry with God. There are so many things to explore behind this question: the problem of suffering and evil, the nature of God’s will, the nature of free will of human beings and spiritual ones. Even as we sort through the big questions, what about our hearts? When it seems God is nowhere to be found, working through our anger can help us to locate God again, perhaps in surprising ways. Being honest about our anger can help us sort out where to locate the mystery of why the world is so unfair and seemingly arbitrary.

Season: Someone Asked

Speaker: Rachel Sensenig

Location: 2212 S. Broad St.

About Talk: "Rosa Parks sat on the wrong seat of the bus and triggered a revolution. Others may have tried the same thing before and got arrested, beaten, or worse. Should I risk similar things? Putting my family at risk with me?" The Civil Rights Movement was an expression of the gospel of Jesus in tune with our Anabaptist ancestors in faith. We should not be surprised if the call of Jesus requires resistance and rebellion from the values of the State. We should do whatever we’re called to do to bear witness to suffering with nonviolent direct action, like Rosa, because it expresses the work of the cross that embodies the Lordship of Jesus. This is why we organize ourselves together as a church in cells, with a common fund, and in many other direct avenues of change through our compassion teams. We can be encouraged that our citizenship is in heaven, and we are bringing a kingdom that cannot be shaken here now. (Hebrews 12)

Season: Someone Asked

Speaker: Julie Hoke

Location: 29 West Tulpehocken St.

About Talk: Circle of Hope comes from a long line of believers who understood that freedom doesn’t come through the state but through the grace of God in Jesus. They followed Jesus with radical allegiance to his teachings and his actions. We explore what it means to be a proactive peacemaker.

Season: Someone Asked

Speaker: Julie Hoke

Location: 29 West Tulpehocken St

About Talk: Julie talks about discerning truth in love in the midst of a culture that is calling out injustices wherever they're found.

Season: Someone Asked

Speaker: Ben White

Location: 3800 Marlton Pike

About Talk: "When, if ever, is a Christian free of obligation? How is obligation linked to freedom?" Short answer: we are never obligated to do anything; we do what we do out of love. But love could easily feel like an obligation. What do we do? We must live by the Spirit. Every situation is different, and we are different in every situation. We need to be in step with each other and with the Spirit (Galatians 5) to figure it out. We pray, we do what feels right and we talk about it. Repeat.

Season: Someone Asked

Speaker: Jonny Rashid

Location: 2007 Frankford Ave.

About Talk: So is Christianity fundamentally colonial? No. But it is not formless enough to not influence the cultures that it enters—but it is not a culture unto itself so as to replace the cultures that it touches. We need to learn those differences so that we don’t impose our faith violently, but also so that have enough substance to be able to make a disciple.

Season: Someone Asked:

Speaker: Jonny Rashid

Location: 2007 Frankford Ave

About Talk: The extent of our life diminishment ranges from the socio-economic to the political to the ecological but also intimately to our relationships, our marriages, our lives together. Our capacity to diminish life is extensive. We even diminish life in an effort to alleviate sin! Our condemnation, and perhaps quickness to do it, is as sinful as that which we are trying to end.

The solution here is to give life and join Jesus in sustaining it. Call out the best in each other, even when we are at our worst. Lift each other up. Tell us we can do better and you believe in us. Remind us that Jesus conquered the grave and we can overcome our own despair and life-diminishment and join him in waking up the rest of the world. That’s the work we are engaged in. Let’s be life-giver, not life-takers.

Season: Someone Asked

Speaker: Ben White

Location: 3800 Marlton Pike

About Talk: It's not as distinct as we may want it to be and that's ok. The diversity of experience of the gift of discernment (which is really what we are talking about) is present in the New Testament too. We have some tools for how to do it in community. It starts with running the bases.