Mike McHargue is a fascinating figure. He was born and raised Southern Baptist, but along the way stuff happened. Questions came. Doubts crept—well, actually—raced in. Marriage and children came and church involvement expanded to the role of Deacon. How do you live as a Southern Baptist Deacon and an atheist? Check out the podcast, and for the deeper story, read Mike’s book Finding God in the Waves.

If Mike McHargue is a new name to you, you’ll want to check out his podcasts. Ask Science Mike is one and The Liturgists Podcast is the other. They’ve both attracted a curious following of Christians and spiritually interested folks. If you can catch him speaking in your area, I highly recommend doing what you can to attend. Otherwise, besides Finding God in the Waves, you can find his writing in these places: Storyline blog, Sojourners and Relevant magazines.

Erin Loechner is a former HGTV.com personality and before the age of 30 had built a fan base of one million women worldwide through her blog Design for Mankind. She’d also earned the title “The Nicest Girl Online.” She had it all with more knocking on her door.

What happened next surprised everyone. She decided to trade it in for the slow life. Lots of reasons led to that decision, all of which she talks about in her book Chasing Slow. We focus on aspects of her journey on Faith Conversations in an engaging dialog that you won’t want to miss.

Erin Straza is managing editor of Christ and Pop Culture Digital Magazine, host of Persuasion podcast, and author of Comfort Detox: Finding Freedom From Habits That Bind You. You might guess that she is a thoughtful woman with great outlets for her creativity and thought at her disposal. You’d be right. As we focused on her new book Comfort Detox, you’d also be right to say that she has had to fight with her own areas of life where she’s run for false instead of true comfort, just like the rest of us. Over the course of the podcast, Erin offered some really helpful thoughts on how we might detox and move closer to the true comfort God offers.

This is a great resource to work your way through during Lent. It might even be better to do in a small group setting—from 2 – 6 others I’m thinking—so you can talk through the end of chapter, “Comfort Cleanse,” that Erin suggests.

As always, if you have a question about the podcast, or a suggestion for a guest, or something you’d like Mike Murphy and me to answer on the podcast, email me at [email protected].

To support the podcast, you can give via PayPal to this email address: [email protected], or send a check to Anita Lustrea, 8 White Oak Terrace, Sarasota, FL 34237.

Happy Listening!

My husband Mike Murphy joins me this week on Faith Conversations. We talk about a variety of things including Lent, important self-reflective questions, and lying.

Here is the Lenten devotional Mike and I subscribe to and are really enjoying. It is a product of Biola University and their Center for Christianity, Culture and the Arts. We think it’s really well done.

At the Sarasota Seafood & Music Festival, January 2017

If you want to ‘friend’ Mike on Facebook so you can see his weekly Rumblings, the link is here.

Here is the list of reflective questions/statements Mike posed on this week’s podcast:

Suanne Camfield had a dream, a God-given dream, that took years to come to fruition. Most of us have some kind of dream fermenting in us, but wonder if it will ever be realized. In her book The Sound of a Million Dreams, a memoir, she talks about what it feels like to have a dream stirring deep inside.

How do we develop the courage to step into the places of our most vulnerable longing and not just do the work of God, but become the person God most wants us to be?

Check out this week’s Faith Conversations to find out.

Leslie Leyland Fields is not only an award-winning author of ten books, but also a commercial fisherwoman for four decades working with her husband and six children in a salmon fishing operation on their won island off the coast of Kodiak Island, Alaska.

So when someone like Leslie writes about the storms that might come and looks at the gospel stories of the disciples with Jesus out on the Sea of Galilee, she just might know what she is talking about. In her book, Crossing the Waters, she writes about following Jesus through the storms, the fish, the doubt, and the seas. I won’t give it away, but she shares a life-threatening story on the podcast that brings us both to tears.

If you are in the middle of a stormy time, give Faith Conversations a listen this week!

Steven Curtis Chapman is synonymous with Christian music. His career has spanned 30 years and is still going. He has mentored countless young, up-and-coming artists including those under his own roof.

His sons Will Franklin and Caleb have now made their own mark as Colony House. Will’s wife, Jillian Edwards, has her own mainstream career and, in the words of Steven Curtis and others, sings like an angel.

Throwback photo of Steven Curtis Chapman and me

On this episode of Faith Conversations I dive into the life of Steven Curtis Chapman after reading his autobiography, Between Heaven & the Real World, a book I recommend for anyone remotely acquainted with Christian music over the past 30 years. And it’s a must-read for fans of SCC! Steven gets personal in his book and on the podcast talking about his highest highs and his lowest lows.

Dale Hanson Bourke wrote Immigration: Tough Questions, Direct Answers (The Skeptic’s Guide), which makes her the perfect person to help me understand immigration and refugees. On the podcast, Dale talks about how people immigrate to the United States and how refugees come to live in this country. She also spends time on the process that each goes through.

Dale also talked about several organizations where you can donate to help the Syrian refugee crisis. Here are a couple that she mentioned:

She wrote an article for Christianity Today covering some of what we talked about on the podcast and giving even more links than what I’ve provided here. Here is a link to that article.

I hope you take this opportunity to learn more about these issues that are currently front page news.

Tara Owens is senior editor for Conversations Journal. She also provides spiritual direction through Anam Cara Ministries and is a part-time instructor for the Benedictine Spiritual Formation Program at Benet Hill Monastery. She, along with her husband and daughter, make their home in Colorado Springs.

Tara focuses on a much neglected topic in her book Embracing the Body. The title says it all and in the evangelical church the body has been much neglected. It has been split off from the soul and basically labeled as less important. That could not be further from the truth. Tara says that our bodies teach us about God, and God communicates to us through our bodies. If you’ve had an on-again, off-again relationship with your own body, this is a must listen to podcast and you might want to pick up a copy of Tara’s book to work through with a friend.

You can find Tara at her website or the Anam Cara Facebook page of which I’m a fan.

Follow Tara on Twitter @anamcarato.

My husband, Mike Murphy, joins me again as we continue our series on how to move forward when we are stuck. We look at some of the stages of grief and talk about how to refocus our lives after loss. We also open up the Faith Conversations mailbag and answer one of the recent questions we’ve received via email. If you’d like us to tackle a question on the podcast you can email me at [email protected].

Also, I’ve made it into the 21st century and you can now give donations to Faith Conversations via PayPal. Use [email protected] as the email to Send it to. If you’d rather do it via check and regular mail, send to Anita Lustrea, 8 White Oak Terrace, Sarasota, FL 34237.

Thanks!