Father Richard Rohr has said that "all great spirituality is somehow about letting go." But what does that mean, and how does it actually work? How is this "letting go" different from not caring? Kevin Sweeney joins us to talk about this dynamic, which is the theme of his new book The Joy of Letting Go: How One Thing Has the Power to Change Everything.

Kevin Sweeney was co-founder and lead pastor of Imagine Church—an urban church in Honolulu—for the past decade. He recently closed down this community. He is the host of podcast The Church Needs Therapy and is the author of the books, The Making of a Mystic: My Journey with Mushrooms, My Life as a Pastor, and Why It’s Okay For Everyone to Relax, and The Joy of Letting Go. He lives In Honolulu with his wife and co-founder of Imagine, Christine, and their two kids, True and Mikayla.

Show notes:

• Having the Mind of Christ Discipleship Workshop - Chesterton, IN - Jan 27-28

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Lots of Christians have a complicated relationship with the Old Testament. It can seem arcane and boring, and even offensive in its depictions of God. Eric Seibert joins us to talk about an approach to reading the Old Testament that helps us actually enjoy it.

His most recent book is Enjoying the Old Testament: A Creative Guide to Encountering Scripture.

Dr. Eric Seibert is a professor of OT at Messiah Univ and has served as the president of the Eastern Great Lakes Biblical Society. His most recent books are The Violence of Scripture: Overcoming the OT's Troubling Legacy and Disarming the Church: Why Christians Must Forsake Violence to Follow Jesus and Change the World.

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Sociologist Lisa Weaver Swartz joins us to talk how gender and power work in American evangelicalism, beyond the level of policies, theological positions, and aspirations. Her book Stained Glass Ceilings: How Evangelicals Do Gender and Practice Power explores this dynamic by examining the formation of evangelical leaders in two seminary communities, one complementarian (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) and one egalitarian (Asbury Theological Seminary).

Lisa Weaver Swartz holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame. She lives in the bluegrass region of Kentucky where she teaches sociology and writes about gender and religion. You can connect with her via her website.

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What can we do to combat the misinformation that's impacting the people we care about and dividing our communities? Life and politics in the US are suffering from a raging knowledge crisis, and the church is no exception. Experienced journalist and author Bonnie Kristian helps us unpack this crisis and explore ways to combat it in our own lives, families, and church communities.

These are the themes of Bonnie's new book Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community. Drawing from her extensive experience in journalism and her training as a theologian, Kristian explores social media, political and digital culture, online paranoia, and the press itself. She explains factors that contribute to our confusion and helps Christians pay attention to how we consume content and think about truth. Finally, she provides specific ways to take action, empowering readers to avoid succumbing to or fueling the knowledge crisis.

Bonnie Kristian is an experienced journalist and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). She writes and edits opinion pieces on foreign policy, religion, criminal justice, urbanism, civil liberties, electoral politics, and more. Her column, "The Lesser Kingdom," appears in print and online at Christianity Today. A graduate of Bethel Seminary, Bonnie lives in Pittsburgh with her husband and twin sons.

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Christy, Matt, and Ben look back on 2022 and reflect on breakthroughs, challenges, learning, growth, and their favorite podcast episodes, as well as look to what 2023 will bring for their lives and the podcast. Ben and Matt also open a Christmas gift from Christy.

Podcast episodes mentioned:

• David Ford: A Fresh Encounter with Jesus Through John’s Gospel
• Marc Alan Schelske: Cultivating Spiritual Growth Through Journaling
• Deconstructing Spiritual Practices, Embracing New Paradigms (Book series beginning)
• KJ Ramsey: Stepping Through Fear Toward the Voice of Love
• Melissa Florer-Bixler: How to Have An Enemy
• Brandon O’Brien: How We Misread Scripture With Western Eyes

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Many American Christians have good intentions, working hard to welcome immigrants with hospitality and solidarity. But how can we do that in a way that empowers our immigrant neighbors rather than pushing them to the fringes of white-dominant culture and keeping them as outsiders? We talk with Karen González about these questions, which are the themes of her new book Beyond Welcome: Centering Immigrants in Our Christian Response to Immigration.

A Guatemalan immigrant, González draws from the Bible and her own experiences to examine why the traditional approach to immigration ministries and activism is at best incomplete and at worst harmful. By advocating for putting immigrants in the center of the conversation, González helps readers grow in discipleship and recognize themselves in their immigrant neighbors. Accessible to any Christian who is called to serve immigrants, this book equips readers to take action to dismantle white supremacy and xenophobia in the church. They will emerge with new insight into our shared humanity and need for belonging and liberation.

Karen González is a speaker, writer, storyteller, and immigrant advocate, who herself immigrated from Guatemala as a child. Karen is a former public school teacher and attended Fuller Theological Seminary, where she studied theology and missiology. For the last 13 years, she has been a non-profit professional, working for organizations that serve refugees and other immigrants. She wrote a book about her own immigration story and some of the immigrants found in the Bible: The God Who Sees: Immigrants:The Bible, and the Journey to Belong. Her second book is Beyond Welcome: Centering Immigrants in our Christian Response to Immigration. She also has bylines in Sojourners, Christianity Today, The Christian Century, and others. She is also the co-host of the Latina-focused podcast Cafe with Comadres. You can reach her via her website Karen-Gonzalez.com or on social media at @_karenjgonzalez.

You can connect with Karen on her website, Twitter, or Instagram.

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We talk with Dr. David Cramer and Dr. Myles Werntz about Christian nonviolence, which is not a settled position but rather a vibrant and living tradition. In their book A Field Guide to Christian Nonviolence: Key Thinkers, Activists, and Movements for the Gospel of Peace, they offer a concise introduction to diverse approaches to, proponents of, and resources for Christian nonviolence.

Dr. David Cramer is managing editor at the Institute of Mennonite Studies, sessional lecturer at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, and a teaching pastor at Keller Park Church in South Bend, IN.

Dr. Myles Werntz is associate professor of theology and director of Baptist studies at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, TX. He is the author or editor of several books, including Bodies of Peace.

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Get ready for your understanding of Genesis 22 to be turned upside down by J. Richard Middleton. While we normally think of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son as proof of his love for God, the exact opposite might be true: Is it possible that a careful reading of Genesis 22 could reveal that God was not pleased with Abraham's silent obedience?

That's the theme of Middleton's book Abraham's Silence: The Binding of Isaac, The Suffering of Job, and How to Talk Back to God, which we discuss with him on today's episode.

J. Richard Middleton is professor of biblical worldview and exegesis at Northeastern Seminary at Roberts Wesleyan University and author of The Liberating Image and A New Heaven and a New Earth as well as co-author of Truth is Stranger than It Used to Be and The Transforming Vision.

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Willie Dwayne Francois III joins us to talk about the practicalities of anti-racism. Specifically, we discuss the prevalence in US society of what he calls "white noise": the racist speech, ideas, and policies that lull us into inaction on racial justice, which is the theme of his book Silencing White Noise: Six Practices to Overcome Our Inaction on Race.

Willie Dwayne Francois III is senior pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Pleasantville, NJ, and president of the Black Church Center for Justice and Equality. He serves as assistant professor of liberation theology at NY Theological Seminary and directs a master's degree program at Sing Correctional Facility. He created the Public Love Organizing and Training (PLOT) Project and has served in various orgs engaging racial justice issues, including the Atlantic City chapter of Black Lives Matter, the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, and the NJ Dept of State's MLK Jr. Commission. He's an active speaker and has written for HuffPost, Sojourners, The Hill, the Christian Century, and Religion Dispatches. 

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Marc Alan Schelske join us (again!) to talk about journaling: what it is, why it works, and how to do it. No matter what your history is with journaling, Marc's method (outlined in his new book Journaling for Spiritual Growth: Six Weeks to Build a Habit that Fosters Spiritual and Emotional Maturity) is eminently practical and powerfully effective for fostering spiritual formation. 

Marc is a reader, a thinker, a writer, and speaker. He's the teaching elder at Bridge City Community Church in Milwaukie, Oregon, where he gets to inviting people into a life of following Jesus more and more. You can connect with Marc and learn more about his work on his website marcalanschelske.com.

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