Failing Boldly

My guest for this week’s podcast is Pastor Rudy Rasmus. From his previous life of owning and operating a “borderline bordello,” today Rudy co-pastors the St. John’s United Methodist Church located in Downtown Houston with his wife Juanita that began with 9 existing members in 1992. St. John’s has grown to over 9,000 members (30% were formerly homeless) and is one of the most culturally diverse congregations in the country where every week people of every social and economic background and ethnicity share the same pew.

Rudy is truly a rennaissance pastor. In addition to pastoring, he has a weekly show on Sirius XM, is author of several books and a former columnist in O Magazine, and he just opened a coffee shop. And if you Google his name, it won’t take long before you also see that he’s known as Beyonce’s pastor.

K.C. Johnson has been a sports reporter for the Chicago Tribune since 1990 and has covered the Chicago Bulls for most of that time. In this podcast, K.C. talks about the ups and downs of covering the Bulls and the time when a journalistic decision he made became national news.

Brian McLaren is one of the most influential Christian voices in the faith world today. In addition to his numerous books, he was at one time a church planter and pastor and reflects on his failures in those worlds, but he also talks about how the church is failing in our world today by not using its collective voice more effectively.

His website is www.brianmclaren.net.

Alicia is the founding executive director of Chicago Run, an influential nonprofit in Chicago whose mission is to promote the health and wellness of Chicago children through innovative, engaging, and sustainable running programs. Currently, Chicago Run is in 43 schools throughout the city and 17,500 students participate in the program. Alicia has won numerous awards for her work including the 2016 President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, & Nutrition Community Leadership Award. In this podcast, Alicia shares some really interesting stories about what it takes to start a non-profit, what her response was when Chicago Public Schools closed several of the schools she worked with, and the connection between social justice and childhood obesity.

My guest in this podcast is one of the most notable leaders in The United Methodist Church. Adam Hamilton is the founder and senior pastor of The Church of the Resurrection located in the Kansas City area. COR is the largest UMC in the U.S. and Adam’s many books and his own leadership have had a profound impact on our denomination. In this podcast, Adam shares from his own successes and failures in ministry and also reflects on the future of The United Methodist Church.

Reflections on what the Gospel really means and using John 3:14-21 and Romans 1:16-17

The story of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-21) gives us a model of how a group of individuals can use the Holy Spirit overcome the cloak of failure and live into a new thing.

Hearing that we are loved may be old news, but it's a foundational truth that helps us in times of failure. I reflect on this as we look at Luke 3:15-22.

Links I mention:

The scene from "Good Will Hunting": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQht2yOX9Js

A link to buy my book: http://bookstore.upperroom.org/Products/DR878/failing-boldly.aspx

The Urban Village podcast page: https://uvchurch.podbean.com/

When (not if) we fail in our lives, the temptation is to obsess about the failure and believe that we're the only one who has failed in this particular way. That, of course, isn't true and Luke 17:11-19 shows us that Jesus offers a way to respond to perceived failures.

If you'd like to preorder my book, you can do so here: http://bookstore.upperroom.org/Products/DR878/failing-boldly.aspx

To learn more about Mike Baughman and the Union ministry: http://www.uniondallas.org/

And here's where my sermon podcasts will be exclusively, beginning in a couple weeks: https://uvchurch.podbean.com/

There are days when we may feel great about our bodies and celebrate them and there are also days when we wonder if we can return our bodies for a refund, especially those who combat disease or struggle with illness. What do we do if our bodies feel broken? Some thoughts on this using Mark 5:35-44.