In this episode, I talk with Pastor Dave Rohrer about practicing presence and to do that, we actually dive into our own relationship with each other and the larger context of the church community we used to be a part of. Our conversation is a lot of thinking out loud together about what happened and some of the social factors that were at play for us during a very difficult season.

Dave is the pastor of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in Bothell, Washington.

I invite you to reflect on and be curious about your relationships and what it means to be together with care and consideration for both ourselves and the other.

• Epcbothell.org

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I’m Annie Mesaros: a theologian, writer, spiritual guide, and host of this podcast. I offer coaching and facilitation for individuals and groups that are working to transform the world for good. 

Learn more, contact me, and stream the full archive of God Help Us at anniemesaros.com. 

From our families to our workplaces to our global communities, we are shaped and influenced by the systems in which we live and work and play, so to unpack these complex and influential dynamics, I talk with Derek McNeil about systems theory, thoughtful engagement, and gritty work that is deeply meaningful.

Derek is president of The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology and has his Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary and a PhD in counseling psychology from Northwestern University.

• Immunity to Change
• Anything by Meg Wheatley

• Text.Soul.Culture podcast

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I’m Annie Mesaros: a theologian, writer, spiritual guide, and host of this podcast. I offer coaching and facilitation for individuals and groups that are working to transform the world for good. 

Learn more, contact me, and stream the full archive of God Help Us at anniemesaros.com. 

In this episode, I talk with Matthias Roberts, writer, podcaster, theologian, and therapist, about shame - what it is, how it functions interpersonally, and how we might work with our own shame to seek resilience and healing in order to stop putting it on other people.

• The Power of Vulnerability

• Matthiasroberts.com
• Instagram
• Queerology podcast

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I’m Annie Mesaros: a theologian, writer, spiritual guide, and host of this podcast. I offer coaching and facilitation for individuals and groups that are working to transform the world for good. 

Learn more, contact me, and stream the full archive of God Help Us at anniemesaros.com. 

In season 3 episode 2 of the Serial podcast, they profile Judge Gaul and his court, providing an excellent example of the white savior complex. My friend Aileen is a public defender in the juvenile court system and she’s here to talk about troubling beliefs that pervade our country’s criminal justice system.

You may want to listen to the above episode of Serial before diving in to this one.

• Washington Defender Association
• National Association for Public Defense
• Let's Get Free
• The New Jim Crow
• Just Mercy

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I’m Annie Mesaros: a theologian, writer, spiritual guide, and host of this podcast. I offer coaching and facilitation for individuals and groups that are working to transform the world for good. 

Learn more, contact me, and stream the full archive of God Help Us at anniemesaros.com. 

This episode was recorded during Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation proceedings, prior to his and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s hearings. To tackle the problematic issue of women who “ruin” men’s lives and get in the way of their aspirations, I talk with Jennie Spohr who is currently writing a historical novel about Jezebel - our favorite scapegoat.

Jennie is a preacher and author.

This episode is dedicated to Dr. Blasey Ford and the thousands of women who have come forward in the past year of #MeToo to bravely tell their stories privately and publicly. Thank you for your courage. No matter what happens in the coming days, in the telling of your story, you have made room for women to tap into their strength, find their voice, and change our collective narrative.

We believe you and we stand with you.

• Womenandthechurch.org
• The Red Tent
• The Secret Chord
• Octavia Butler
• Alice Walker

• Jennielspohr.com
• Facebook
• Twitter

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I’m Annie Mesaros: a theologian, writer, spiritual guide, and host of this podcast. I offer coaching and facilitation for individuals and groups that are working to transform the world for good. 

Learn more, contact me, and stream the full archive of God Help Us at anniemesaros.com. 

When justifying family separation at the border, then-US attorney general Jeff Sessions paraphrased a verse from Romans 13 in the Bible, saying, “Obey the laws of the government, because God has ordained the government for his purposes.”

I turned to Dr. Angela Parker, a womanist new testament scholar, to help me unpack Sessions’ words and put them in the context of the new testament world under the Roman Empire and the prevalence of toxic masculinity of our US Empire today.

Angela is assistant professor of new testament and Greek at the McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University in Georgia. She has a PhD in Bible, Culture, and Hermeneutics with an emphasis on the New Testament. 

• Racializing Jesus
• Postcolonial Feminist Interpretations of the Bible
• Podcasts Angela has recorded with Dan Allender, such as this one on power and hierarchy in biblical Corinth
• "Can't Stop the Feelings: Anger and Identity in Mark 6:17-29"

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I’m Annie Mesaros: a theologian, writer, spiritual guide, and host of this podcast. I offer coaching and facilitation for individuals and groups that are working to transform the world for good. 

Learn more, contact me, and stream the full archive of God Help Us at anniemesaros.com. 

In this era of deeply divided and divisive politics, Tim Burgess is an advocate for working toward the common good, so he’s here to talk with me about what that means in local as well as national politics.

Tim is a business owner and former Seattle City Council member (and was briefly acting mayor) of Seattle.

• The Death of Democracy
• Costly Grace

• Timburgess.com
• Twitter

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I’m Annie Mesaros: a theologian, writer, spiritual guide, and host of this podcast. I offer coaching and facilitation for individuals and groups that are working to transform the world for good. 

Learn more, contact me, and stream the full archive of God Help Us at anniemesaros.com. 

Christianity is (supposedly) all about love and acceptance, yet some of the loudest homophobic groups in our political arena are Christian. To unpack some of what that’s about, I talked with Heather Juul, a Christian lesbian woman, about her experiences growing up, coming out, and being Christian.

Heather has her Master of Divinity from Seattle Pacific Seminary and is an artist, woman, Christian, and wife to her wife.

• “Nanette”

• #IWillInstagramYourCat
• #IWillInstagramYourDog

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I’m Annie Mesaros: a theologian, writer, spiritual guide, and host of this podcast. I offer coaching and facilitation for individuals and groups that are working to transform the world for good. 

Learn more, contact me, and stream the full archive of God Help Us at anniemesaros.com. 

In the intro episode of God Help Us with Carissa Leone, I realized I needed a clearer understanding of what it means to be Evangelical - in both the political and theological sense. So I invited Pastor Dave Rohrer, my favorite evangelical, to help me unpack this issue.

Dave is the pastor of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in Bothell, Washington.

• Stumbling on God

• Epcbothell.org

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I’m Annie Mesaros: a theologian, writer, spiritual guide, and host of this podcast. I offer coaching and facilitation for individuals and groups that are working to transform the world for good. 

Learn more, contact me, and stream the full archive of God Help Us at anniemesaros.com. 

In this introductory episode, I talk with my friend Carissa Leone - writer, comedian, feminist and cat mom. We talk about who I am as a theologian, and what her questions are for me as a liberal, non-religious, person who is politically active and curious about people who believe differently than she does.

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I’m Annie Mesaros: a theologian, writer, spiritual guide, and I hosted God Help us from 2018 to 2020. I offer coaching and facilitation for individuals and groups that are working to transform the world for good. 

Learn more, contact me, and stream the full archive of God Help Us at anniemesaros.com.