Imladris Podcast

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Soma Games earns a small percentage from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you, but all of our recommendations and opinions are our own.

Welcome to the Soma SoulWorks Podcast! This podcast serves to help people, particularly those who may label themselves as "creatives," to seek wholeness and calling so they are ready to embrace the mission God has for them. Consider this podcast a rogue harmony of professional development and self-care, hosted by John Bergquist and Chris Skaggs.

What’s covered in this episode: 

• Soma Games started in 2005, there was more at stake than just breaking into the videogame industry. “God started a game company, but didn’t start with games,” says Chris Skaggs. 
• Since then, God has opened doors. First with a mobile game, then the opportunity to work with Redwall, and soon the studio was turning heads. 2018 marked the release of Lost Legends of Redwall: Act I, and a chance to pause and think about the vision of Soma Games itself. This realization led to the 2019 Vision Quest. 
• What caught the public’s attention was not the game itself, but the people. John Dale, friend of Soma, made the observation once that, “all of your God stories are not about your product. They’re about the people. They’re about the influence that you had on people. That’s what God has gifted you with.” 
• From the beginning, the response to Soma Games has been overwhelming. People are encouraged by the fact that this kind of studio exists, and as potential game developers, they think, “if you exist, maybe I can do it too.” 
• The Vision Quest really helped to solidify this mission: To be culturally aware and build culture in the entertainment space, as opposed to building products. 
• This mission manifests itself in ways like Soma SoulWorks, the umbrella for our various ministry efforts outside of direct game development. It’s a message that mainly serves those in the “Warrior-Poet Phase” as Chris calls them. Young adult adventurers discovering life and their purpose in a time that offers plenty of questions and few answers. 
• Soma SoulWorks aims to equip followers with a firm foundation to balance creativity, honor, and faith, and feed their hunger to make the world a better place. 
• Mark Söderwall, a veteran in the gaming industry, says that Soma Games is different from most studios out there. The focus is on the people. “Once you know what motivates someone and what drives their heart,” he says, “you can help them feel more seen and heard, and give them momentum. Most companies are very much interested in the professional, and not the person.” 
• The purpose behind Soma Games is that it’s not enough to create a Christian game company, we need to create a mindset and give people the tools they need to have a good foundation and find their calling. “It’s not a leader, it’s not a company, it’s not a product. It’s an ethos.” - Chris Skaggs

Resources mentioned:

• Soma Mission and Vision Statement
• The Origin Story of Soma Games
• Sign up for the Tempus Divum newsletter 

Email us ideas, questions or suggestions at [email protected]

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Soma Games earns a small percentage from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you, but all of our recommendations and opinions are our own.

Welcome to the Soma SoulWorks Podcast! This podcast serves to help people, particularly those who may label themselves as "creatives," to seek wholeness and calling so they are ready to embrace the mission God has for them. Consider this podcast a rogue harmony of professional development and self-care, hosted by John Bergquist and Chris Skaggs.

What’s covered in this episode: 

• In this interview with Aaron McHugh, author of Fire Your Boss, we look into the workplace and how we can change our mindsets to help improve our role in them.
• The idea that every employee is an interchangeable cog is prevalent in the workplace. There is an emphasis on the service and resources an employee brings, rather than on the human being themselves; this is expected and normalized in the workplace. “We’ve outsourced our happiness and contentment to other people,” Aaron says. “It’s a fundamentally flawed system...There is a spirit of slavery over the workplace.” 
• Aaron describes watching his grandfather work at Disneyland in its early years. Seeing the joy his grandfather had there helped him articulate something he wanted in his own work-life: Work is supposed to matter, make a difference, and be purposeful. 
• The fundamental question Aaron asks here and in his book, Fire Your Boss, is, “What would it look like to bring all of yourself in an honoring and godly way to your work environment? How do I move from fear, being compartmentalized, and being complicit as a victim to living out freedom, wholeheartedness, and being empowered enough to hold myself responsible and accountable wherever I am?”
• Like in the serenity prayer, Aaron puts an emphasis that we should be seeking God’s input to understand what we can change internally and externally—that we can discern when we need to be adaptable vs. when we need to remove ourselves from a situation that’s causing us suffering. 
• The good change comes with a shift in your mindset. Rather than waiting for an ideal opportunity to do your work well, you should be bringing patience, dignity, honor, spirituality, forgiveness, grace, and love to whatever job you’re doing. That’s the way you get promoted. “That’s the way of the kingdom.” Aaron says, “Wherever you are, you can become the kind of person who learns to thrive.”
• “Always believe that you are uniquely qualified to make a lasting contribution to the future of work.” - Aaron McHugh

Resources mentioned:

• Fire Your Boss: A Manifesto to Rethink How You Think About Work by Aaron McHugh
• Work, Life, Play Podcast
• Aaron’s Blog
• Serenity Prayer
• Sign up for the Tempus Divum newsletter 

Email us ideas, questions or suggestions at [email protected]

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Soma Games earns a small percentage from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you, but all of our recommendations and opinions are our own.

Welcome to the Soma SoulWorks Podcast! This podcast serves to help people, particularly those who may label themselves as "creatives," to seek wholeness and calling so they are ready to embrace the mission God has for them. Consider this podcast a rogue harmony of professional development and self-care, hosted by John Bergquist and Chris Skaggs.

What’s covered in this episode: 

• What does the Performance Stronghold look like? 
  • Coming into something—an event, a job, etc.—and already feeling unworthy.
  • Imposter syndrome: “I’m a fraud and I don’t deserve this.” 
  • Comparison
  • “I’m not enough, so I have to really work at this.”
• The Enemy will use strongholds like these to take artists out. In any creative culture, there’s the 24/7 work-pressure that eats artists up. Mark describes it feeling like, “you’ve got a barcode on the back of your neck.” It’s this fear of being replaced that you compensate by overworking yourself.
• It comes back to identity. Having full awareness of who you are in Christ—that you aren’t alone, and that he co-labors with you—means you’ll be able to take pretty much anything that comes at you because your wellness is founded in The Kingdom, and not in the validation of your peers. Then, you’ll be prepared to respond out of love rather than defense.
• It’s not about the paychecks, comparison, or the promotion. Invite the Holy Spirit into your work, and have a dialogue with him about it. Ask him what you’re constructed to do. 
• Mark describes a time when he began working for LucasArts as an art director for “Battlefront”. He felt the stronghold of oppression and imposter syndrome walking into his office for the first time. “I’m six feet, but I felt like I was 6 inches.” He said he asked himself, out loud, “What do I have to offer this place?” And he felt the Holy Spirit warm his heart and dispel the fear. It can be challenging not to put on a stronghold of comparison when you’re working in a building with skilled specialists, but at this point your choices are either to break down, or to break through and grow. 
• There will be people who are horrible to you. When you feel those strongholds, turn to prayer. “Hey, you knitted this person together. You know their heart, I don’t. What would you like me as a vessel to speak into this person?” Submit back to The Father. Adapt to the situation, and bless the people you interact with. 
• There were times when Jesus had to go into the wilderness and seek His Father’s voice. We need that rest, and the patience to wait for God’s voice. Many times there isn’t an answer right away. It’s about a posture of submission to him. 
• Take off the pressure that we have to be the best to have influence. Instead, you just need to show up, show love, and share your story.

Resources mentioned:

• The Power of Vulnerability TED Talk by Brené Brown
• Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action by Simon Sinek
• War of Art by Steven Pressfield
• Seth Godin
• On Moral Fiction by John Gardner
• On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft by Stephen King
• Sign up for the Tempus Divum newsletter 

Email us ideas, questions or suggestions at [email protected]

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Soma Games earns a small percentage from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you, but all of our recommendations and opinions are our own.

Welcome to the Soma SoulWorks Podcast! This podcast serves to help people, particularly those who may label themselves as "creatives," to seek wholeness and calling so they are ready to embrace the mission God has for them. Consider this podcast a rogue harmony of professional development and self-care, hosted by John Bergquist and Chris Skaggs.

What’s covered in this episode: 

• The Stronghold of Warfare doesn’t have a margin for how spiritual warfare affects your daily life. The lies behind it sound like some variation of, "Everything that happens is a result either of yourself or the people around you. The spiritual stuff isn’t real."
• There is no gauge for the spiritual war or even the existence of an enemy.
• “You may not know why you were created, but God does, and so does the enemy," says Gavin
• This all begins with an inciting event: You’re wounded, emotionally or spiritually, but you may not be aware there’s another voice in the conversation—a voice that isn’t God’s or yours. The enemy’s entire goal is to steal, kill, and destroy. He wants to rob us of our passions and joy, and this eventually kills our hearts, Chris says. 
• How does this manifest in an artist’s life? As John “JB” shares, every kid starts out as an artist. They only stop when someone tells them they can’t draw. Perfectionism—or paralysis by analysis—has stopped many artists from becoming artists. Jason says, “Actually going and doing art is warfare.” Awareness of this attack on our art is vital to the process, otherwise we’re vulnerable to the paralyzation that follows. Art is a form of worship, and when we worship, the enemy has to shut up and listen. 
• How to combat it:
  • Identify the area of warfare. “I want to know what the enemy was going after. I want to know why he thinks it’s dangerous, because I want to make it more dangerous.” Gavin
  • Think about what triggers you, look into the root cause. 
  • Undo the stronghold, and replace the lie with the scriptural truth. 

Resources mentioned:

• The Matrix
• Bootcamp Northwest
• The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives by Dallas Willard
• The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
• Sign up for the Tempus Divum newsletter 

Email us ideas, questions or suggestions at [email protected]

Dear Soma SoulWorks Followers,

I am deeply saddened to share that John "JB" Bergquist, the dreamer and co-creator of this podcast, passed away on Sunday.

On Sunday, July 26th, JB and his wife and daughter were traveling home from camping and were hit by another driver in the wrong lane. JB was killed nearly instantly. His wife, Kristine, and daughter, Natalie, were taken to the hospital with injuries. Both will be physically okay. Kristine is recovering from broken ribs and Natalie from a broken femur. August, JB's son, was at work and not in the accident.

As you might imagine, this is a really, really hard time for his family, his coworkers, and the hundreds of friends that JB had. JB was one of those guys who had 500+ social media connections and actually knew each person.

For our Soma team, JB was more than a Marketing Director and more than a manager. He was a friend and mentor to most of our team and played a pastoral role in many of our lives. His passing leaves a sizable gap in our daily rhythms. Understandably, our team is grieving. This week, we are re-sharing the episode on Holy Grieving because that's what's real and authentic for us right now.

Soma SoulWorks & Soma SoulWorks Podcast will continue -- it's what JB would want. However, we may need a couple weeks of bereavement. If you have any questions or comments, please email [email protected] and we'll direct your email to the appropriate person.

To help the family, please check out the Go Fund Me or Meal Train links below:

Bergquist Family Go Fund Me

Bergquist Family Meal Train (includes option for takeout gift cards)

Welcome to the Soma SoulWorks Podcast! This podcast serves to help people, particularly those who may label themselves as "creatives," to seek wholeness and calling so they are ready to embrace the mission God has for them. Consider this podcast a rogue harmony of professional development and self-care, hosted by John Bergquist and Chris Skaggs.
 
What’s covered in this episode: 

• This episode covers the stronghold of busyness. Chris defines a stronghold as a “habit of thought." This isn’t just having a full schedule -- it’s going from task to task with no margin for self-care, relationships, or time with God.
• The goal for this series is that we learn to recognize unhelpful strongholds, so we can replace them with healthy strongholds. 
• Symptoms of a busyness stronghold: 
  • A need for the calendar to be full
  • Unstructured time feels luxurious
  • A pressure to be productive
  • Guilt in saying “no”
  • No margins to create, breathe, or rest
• The lies that perpetrate this way of thinking: 
  • Margin is wasteful or frivolous
  • The subtle pressure that busyness is holy
• There is a cultural suggestion that busyness equals value. However, taking time to rest is deeply biblical (check out Psalm 37:7, Genesis 2:2, Exodus 14:14, Isaiah 32:17). One of the ten commandments is that we take a day of sabbath. 
• Rest is the antidote to our mindsets of busyness.
  • Make a habit of it
  • Start small
  • Being in nature is especially helpful
  • Recognize transitions in your day
  • Connect with God
• When you’re feeling the familiar tension of busyness, bring it to Christ. As you do this you’ll regain your ability to wait patiently. Over time, your resilience will increase.
• Jesus exemplified this in the gospels. He made it a regular, deliberate habit to get away from everything and be still with God. 

Resources mentioned:

• The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World by John Mark Comer
• One Minute Pause App by Wild At Heart
• Get Your Life Back: Everyday Practices for a World Gone Mad by John Eldredge
• Fire Your Boss: Discover Work You Love Without Quitting Your Job by Aaron McHugh
• “The Connector Recharged” by John “JB” Bergquist
• The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr
• Beautiful Outlaw: Experiencing the Playful, Disruptive, Extravagant Personality of Jesus by John Eldredge
• Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You by John Ortberg
• Sign up for the Tempus Divum newsletter

Email us ideas, questions or suggestions at [email protected]

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Soma Games earns a small percentage from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you, but all of our recommendations and opinions are our own.

Welcome to the Soma SoulWorks Podcast! This podcast serves to help people, particularly those who may label themselves as "creatives," to seek wholeness and calling so they are ready to embrace the mission God has for them. Consider this podcast a rogue harmony of professional development and self-care, hosted by John Bergquist and Chris Skaggs.

What’s covered in this episode: 

• Power isn’t inherently evil; it’s a tool and its nature lies in how humans purpose it. In Genesis 1:28, God blesses Adam and Eve and gives them the responsibility to "subdue" and replenish the earth. There, we see an example of holy and good power. Chris says, "Power was actually on purpose, and a part of the original design for us."
• The Enemy’s twisted version of power manifests in these two strongholds: either an overemphasis on power or a total rejection of it.
• The underlying lie Satan gives us is that God is holding out on us -- that God doesn’t know what he’s doing. This has been Satan’s belief since the beginning, when he tried to overthrow God as Lucifer. 
• Where is the hope? What’s the story that God has said about power? Let’s look at the Hebrew word tov. It represents power, holiness, and goodness; therefore, the fruits of good power are abundance, creativity, innovation, and thriving - everything that embodies tov. As you practice looking for it you can begin to distinguish what qualifies as good or bad power. 
• What are we called to do in regards to power?
  • Wait. As counter-cultural as this is, the Bible emphasizes this again and again. Society teaches us to value instant gratification and to cling to power. But the scriptures take a different approach: "But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.Take the lowest seat at the table," Luke 14:10 (ESV). Adam and Eve were in a holy state when they were tempted to eat from The Tree; they weren’t "fallen" yet. "The downfall wasn’t in greed, but in haste," Chris observes. Patience is the antidote to clinging power.
• We have to understand that power is a burden and a responsibility -- not that there isn’t joy in it, but that it isn’t easy. Prince Caspian didn’t want to take on the power Aslan gave him, but Aslan explained to him that that was exactly why he was qualified. Your power isn’t for you. It’s for the people around you. 
• John ‘JB’ says, "Our world is ripe for good rulers. God is moving on your heart, right now. If God is calling you up, if God is saying it’s time, do not ignore that call." Chris adds, "I’m sure there are ‘rulers’ out there who have been holding onto power and need to let it go. The nature of power is to train up younger people and give them opportunity."

Resources mentioned:

• Derailed: Five Lessons Learned from Catastrophic Failures of Leadership by Tim Irwin
• Seven Deadly Sins; Seven Lively Virtues with Fr. Robert Barron
• And Sons article, "Tov: an Explosive Word" by Scott Morin & Mandy Nelson
• No Little People by Francis Shaefer 
• Me, Myself and Bob: A True Story About Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables by Phil Vischer

Email us ideas, questions or suggestions at [email protected]

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Soma Games earns a small percentage from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you, but all of our recommendations and opinions are our own.

Welcome to the Soma SoulWorks Podcast! This podcast serves to help people, particularly those who may label themselves as "creatives," to seek wholeness and calling so they are ready to embrace the mission God has for them. Consider this podcast a rogue harmony of professional development and self-care, hosted by John Bergquist and Chris Skaggs.

--

Today’s podcast format is unique. We start by introducing Soma’s Creative Director, Mark Söderwall, who will be integral to today’s discussion. Next, we invite you to an audio recording of a recent Jesus Time (Soma’s in-shop version of Tempus Divum). After the recorded message is complete, Chris, JB, and Mark will debrief. All the audio has been seamed together by our Sound Designer, James Marantette, so you only need to click on the episode to listen. Thanks for tuning in today.

What's covered in this episode: 

• Grieving is not commonplace in North American culture, but people in the Bible are not foreign to grieving, so it’s something we should learn how to do, and do it well.
• Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Sabrina Walters (who happens to be JB’s sister) joins to discuss her perspective on what “holy grieving” means. For a more in-depth look at her talk, please see Tempus Divum Episode 15 on Holy Grieving. 
• Grieving is difficult. However, grieving does NOT make you less than a whole person. And, according to Mark, “God is a gentleman,” by which he means that God won’t force you to grieve, or to grieve with him. If you want God to be a part of that process, he’ll likely need to be invited. As Mark recently started to identify losses in his life that had never been grieved and started to invite God into that healing process, he’s experienced a “surge” of creativity and innovation.
• JB shares that when two family members and role models in his early teenage years died, he let his creativity slip because he didn’t grieve the losses. He’s spent the last 30+ years on a journey to re-embrace creativity. 
• Soma Games largely caters to a creative workforce. Chris shares that by asking hard, unexpected, or unconventional questions, Soma’s leadership offers space for their workers and contractors to wrestle with soul stuff that they may have never realized needed healing.

Grief and acceptance. (an endnote from Sabina)
When we think of the process of grief, the end isn’t that everything goes back to normal, or that we are able to “accept” that which will NEVER be acceptable! It simply means your brain has been able to gain flexibility again. When we are deeply grieving, our brain becomes rigid, much like when we are in fight or flight mode. We can’t really think straight. We often just react (anger, bargaining, depression). We are stuck. To reach a place of acceptance means your brain is able to think outside the box of grief again. It becomes flexible and not stuck in a depressed or as John stated earlier, less creative mode. You are once again able to think creatively, problem-solve, and truly live again. It doesn’t mean that you will be able to ever be the same as you were before the loss. No. You will always be changed, but your brain will allow you to be able to think more clearly and move you forward in new ways (and some old ways too), but you will no longer be stuck. 

Resources: 

• Verses:
  • John 10:10
  • Mark 10:13-16 (JB meant to

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Soma Games earns a small percentage from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you, but all of our recommendations and opinions are our own.

Welcome to the Soma SoulWorks Podcast! This podcast serves to help people, particularly those who may label themselves as "creatives, and innovators in arts and entertainment" to seek wholeness and calling so they are ready to embrace the mission God has for them. Consider this podcast a rogue harmony of professional development and self-care, hosted by John Bergquist and Chris Skaggs.

What’s covered in this episode:

This episode includes our first interview, with Amri Rigby. Amri is currently working as a Fulbright Scholar in Kampala, Uganda. While his time in Uganda is developing him in his career as a storyteller and filmmaker, the theme of the last ten months is God developing Amri's understanding of sonship and what it means to be a child of God. For Amri, being a child of God means releasing personal and cultural pressures; in doing so, he experiences more joy. In John 1:9-13 the bible says "The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God."

Resources mentioned:

Become Good Soil website
Becoming a King by Morgan Snyder
Boot Camp Northwest website
Hearing God by Dallas Willard

Check out more about Amri’s filmmaker journey here.  

Email us ideas, questions or suggestions at [email protected]

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Soma Games earns a small percentage from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you, but all of our recommendations and opinions are our own.

Welcome to the Soma SoulWorks Podcast! This podcast serves to help people, particularly those who may label themselves as "creatives," to seek wholeness and calling so they are ready to embrace the mission God has for them. Consider this podcast a rogue harmony of professional development and self-care, hosted by John Bergquist and Chris Skaggs.

What’s covered in this episode: 

• Strongholds, by which we mean spiritual strongholds, are referenced in 2 Corinthians 10:3-4, “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds,” (ESV).
• According to Chris, strongholds are, “A battle for the mind.”
• John “JB” says, “We live in a broken world, and we don’t come in or go out without a wound, without losing our identity, and that place we’re supposed to live in Christ.” We need to find the negative strongholds and replace them with the mindset of Christ.
• Unrecognized or unexamined strongholds can have a toxic hold on one’s life. Often, addictions and bad habits are rooted in strongholds, and the unwanted behavior is the symptom. Attempting to eliminate the symptoms may help, but it won’t solve or cure the underlying stronghold. 
  • Producer’s Note: Addictions of any kind should not be treated lightly. Please seek professional (medical and/or pastoral) help if embarking on a journey to resolve an addiction. 
• Satan will lie to us because that’s his job. It’s common for him to share or reinforce a lie during painful times. When someone is experiencing pain or deep emotion, those feelings are so real the lie can slip in and seem real too. 
  • John 8:44: (esv)
• Good strongholds do exist, and produce good symptoms. Good symptoms are more commonly referred to as “fruit.” Galatians 5:22-23
• We learn to identify strongholds by first seeking to understand what you find hurtful or irritating. Identifying the underlying cause of these issues can reveal the stronghold. Another reaction to consider is defensiveness, as it is natural to defend our strongholds.
• Don’t choose complacency. Satan is going to lie; no one is immune to strongholds. Chris says, “Going after strongholds is next-level stuff for the Christian walk. It’s hard. When we go after strongholds we are attacking the enemy’s fortified position. We are picking a fight.”
• Next, examine the message of the stronghold. For example, envy's message is "I not just want what someone else wants, I don't want them to have it either".
• After identifying these we turn to God's truth in scripture and find out what it says about the stronghold as well as how to live differently.

Resources mentioned:

• Danny Silk -- Seek to understand rather than convince
• Bethel Pastor Eric Johnson’s sermon -- Don’t get distracted and lose sight of what God is doing.
• Sign up for the Tempus Divum newsletter 
• Bootcampnw.com
• Killing Kryptonite: Destroy What Steals Your Strength by John Bevere
• Free to Live: The Utter Relief of Holiness by John Eldredge

Email us ideas, questions or suggestions at [email protected]