Love in a Dangerous Time

This show was supposedto be released on October 23, but my computer has been completely out of commission for three days, and here I am, publishing this very important program (and it really is an important one) a week late on October 30. My apologies to all who have been waiting for it. I do believe my tech is in order, and I’ll be back on schedule but….. you know.

TODAY’S EPISODE

Speaking of joining God in Saving the World, today’s episode is a perfect example. We have all been appalled and angered to see the boisterous rise of neo-Nazi, KKK, and general white nationalism popping up all over the US. The whole thing is scary and it reminds us of the years of build-up of the Nazi party in Germany in the thirties & forties.  In 1934, a group of progressive Christians, led by Karl Barth, put out the “Theological Declaration of Barmen,” which denounced Nazism in strong theological language. It is in that spirit that several of our country’s most active progressive Christian leaders created “Theological Declaration on Christian Faith and White Supremacy.”

In this episode I’ll talk with the Declaration’s instigator, Rev. Trey Lyon, of Atlanta, and author/activist, Lisa Sharon Harper about the writing and the powerful content of this important organizing tool.

Again – please go to the Love in a Dangerous Time Community page on Facebook, and drop your thinking on the important problems this document addresses so all the Lovers can discuss it.

LINKS:

The Declaration – https://www.thedeclaration.net

Barmen Declaration: http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/barmen.htm

Contact Lisa –  Websites:  LisaSharonHarper.com, FreedomRoad.us (coming mid-November)

Contact Trey – Twitter: @Rev. Trey Lyon, [email protected]

BIOS:

Trey Lyon

Trey Lyon is a pastor, writer and activist from Atlanta, Georgia. Trey has helped start after school programs and free summer literacy camps, urban mission immersion programs through Lydia’s House and works on a variety of social justice issues on the local and state levels with the goal of building the Beloved Community in our time. Trey also serves as one of six pastors of Park Avenue Baptist Church, a bold, inclusive, creative congregation that models non-hierarchical, collaborative leadership. He is married to another pastor at Park Avenue, Jen and they have two kids–Gabe and Taylor.

Lisa Sharon Harper

From Ferguson to New York to Germany and South Africa Ms. Harper leads trainings and helps mobilize clergy and community leaders around shared values for the common good. A prolific speaker, writer and activist, Ms. Harper is the founder and president of FreedomRoad.us (launching online Fall 2017), a consulting group dedicated to shrinking the narrative gap in our nation by convening forums and experiences that bring common understanding, common commitment, and common action toward a just world. Ms. Harper is the author of several books, including: Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican…or Democrat (The New Press, 2008), Left Right and Christ: Evangelical Faith in Politics (Elevate, 2011), Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith (Zondervan, 2014), and the critically acclaimed, The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong can be Made Right (Waterbrook, a division of Penguin Random House, 2016). The Very Good Gospel, recognized as the “2016 Book of the Year” by Englewood Review of Books, explores God’s intent for the wholeness of all relationships in light of today’s headlines.

When a Christian truly feels that God want her to do something in particular, like become a minister, start a homeless shelter, become a tutor, paint a mural on the church playground wall, or read the Bible cover-to-cover, we say that we are “Called.” The idea is that we want to help God recreate the world in the way that God has in mind by doing our part. It’s kind of like the draft, only a lot more wholesome.

A serious Christian will be on the lookout for ways to do some kind of work that will really bring safety, joy and justice to people. So calling is a very good thing.

Today, co-host Kristen Leigh and Russ discuss the whole idea of calling, which is a big part of a class that Kristen is teaching with Rev. Frank Dew (Love in a Dangerous Time #92).

In the course of the class, Kristen has decided to refocus herself back to true and wonderful calling to be a musician and writer of powerfully inspiring songs. Remember Love in a Dangerous Time’s first interview with her was about her songwriting (episode #54).

So this program will be Kristen’s final episode as co-host. The good side is we’ll be hearing more songs from her as she refocuses, and she was around long enough to get the bug, so she will be returning from time to time as the first official Love in a Dangerous Time Correspondent.

This episode ends with a song of Kristen’s called “Gratitude.” It’s sort of Russ’ way of expressing his gratitude, and a way for the Lovers to be reminded just how talented and skillful she is at her true calling.

(Be sure to listen to the end. After the song, Kristen adds some important observations.)

Links:

Love in a Dangerous Time episodes featuring Kristen

As the interviewee: 89, 87 and 54

As the interviewer: 94, 93, 92 and 90

Album: Making Friends With Ghosts, features Gratitude

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/kristenleigh

http://www.kristenleighmusic.com/

Facebook @KristenLeighMusic

Our guests today are Rick Ufford-Chase, the author of Faithful Resistance: Gospel Visions

for the Church in a Time of Empire (interviewed in episode 76 of  Love in a Dangerous Time) and Brian McLaren, most recently the author of The Great Spiritual Migration: How the World’s Largest Religion Is Seeking a Better Way to Be Christian (interviewed in episode 42, which was reprised in episode 72). Russ had a chance to bring them together, after months of scheduling and rescheduling, to talk about the future of Christian church communities, building on the insights in these two books.

The discussion was very, very rich. Rick’s background includes years of denominational- based activism and experience as the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 2004-5 (the highest elected office). He now serves, with his wife, Kitty, as the co-director of the Stony Point retreat center in New York State. With his deep involvement in the denominational side of Christianity, he came out of that experience with a highly critical view of the state (and the value) of the church today. He is now part of an intentional multi-faith community as well as a local Presbyterian Church.

Brian McLaren is known to most Lovers as the author of many of the books that have defined the Emergent movement and the current progressive explosion in mainline and Evangelical churches. The Great Spiritual Migration is also very critical of the present-day church’s apparent disinterest in creating a future of justice and equality.

Russ says: I’ve been wanting to get these two thinkers together to talk about this topic for a long time. And I think this most thought provoking exchange is an important step in all of us understanding what our “job description,” as Christians who resonate with this sentence in Brian’s book: “Could it be that the Spirit of God is calling the church to stop trying to save itself, and instead to join God in saving the world.”

This program is part of Love in a Dangerous Time’s  special series, #Church2Be

RELATED LINKS:

www.BrianMcLaren.net

Brian’s Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.to/2y8VFD1

Way of Life Leader’s Kit for The Great Spiritual Awakening: https://www.cokesbury.com/product/9781501858642/way-of-life-kit/

Brian’s Twitter: @BrianMcLaren

Rick’s early blog: http://www.rickuffordchase.com/

Presbyterian Peace Fellowship: http://www.presbypeacefellowship.org/ 

Rick’s Twitter: @RickUffordChase

There’s a lot of church planting going on these days. And many of these plants are flourishing as alternative worshiping communities, made up of people who usually wouldn’t be caught dead in church. Kristen spoke with  the two leaders of this experiment.

An unlikely partnership in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood, where development-fueled gentrification is driving out the Latinx residents, artists and other alternative folk who for years have given the neighborhood it’s character. In a time when many stay away from organized religion, saying that it is “lame,” this small congregation is flourishing. It’s all made possible by a collaboration between Rev. Vince Anderson, former pastor of Revolution Church, and Rev. Nell Archer, vicar of Iglesia de Santa Cruz, a primarily Dominican congregation. Vince is a powerhouse Blues & R&B singer with a calling to minister to people who are “left out.” Nell is a creative and visionary vicar, willing to experiment in order to build a community that embodies the Gospel.

Believe me. Bushwick Abbey is anything but lame!

Nell’s Facebook page: facebook.com/nell.archer

Vince’s Facebook lage: facebook.com/Rev-Vince-Anderson-and-his-Love-Choir-74494194069/

Bushwick Abbey website: bushwickabbey.org

Blog: bushwickabbey.wordpress.com/

Facebook: facebook.com/BushwickAbbey/

Twitter: @BushwickAbbey

For the first time, Lovers, we have been invited onto another podcast. Our good friends, Charles Bretan and Chris Henson (the very Jew and Gentile who walked into that Bar …. Mitzvah) invited Kristin and me onto their podcast to have a rich and exploratory conversation about the biblical question: Is there a difference between your neighbor and the stranger, and how this applies to the huge immigration issues plaguing the world today. We had a great time discussing this serious topic, and we had a ball kidding around with these two. Both podcasts are publishing the discussion this week.

To make it even more fun (at least for Russ. Kristen doesn’t smoke) Chris and Charles are thorough cigar nerds, so the discussion of tobacco wrappers, humidores and all was a real bonus.

You can find A Jew and A Gentile Walked Into a Bar …. Mitzvah at :  www.CharlesAndChris.net. They have the show notes for this and all of their episodes, and also this is where each of them blogs. So it’s pretty good.

and on Faceook:   facebook.com/ajewandagentile

In 1985, Rev. Frank Dew planted a small Presbyterian church in Greensboro, NC called “New Creation” that focused on relationships, community, and social justice.  For over 30 years, this diverse group of people has come together to discuss the Scriptures, break bread, and share a meal together, much like the early Christians in Acts. This was one of the earliest manifestations of an “emerging church,” before anybody really knew what the “emerging church” was.  It was genuine, it was prophetic, and it was rooted in the Gospel.

In this interview, retired pastor Frank Dew shares with us some of the wisdom and perspective he gained after decades of doing this work. Frank also worked for 22 years as chaplain at Greensboro Urban Ministry, and he is the author of a book entitled Improving Our Acoustics for Hearing the Gospel, which describes how the experience of worshipping and working alongside poor and marginalized people has given him “ears to hear” the Gospel of Jesus Christ in whole new ways.

New Creation’s Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/New-Creation-Community-Presbyterian-Church-321694024520412/

This episode has no agenda other than to talk through some of the big issues that arose this week with the emergence of organized and armed racists folk in Charlottesville, VA. Neo-Nazis, The Klan, The Alt-Right – lots of racists – lots of anti-semites – lots of anger – lots of weapons. It was a big eye-opener for many of us who look for a world where racism is a thing of thepast.

Russ speaks with Nkosi Anderson, a Ph.D. candidate at Union Seminary, who is not only a brilliant scholar, but a committed activist. The idea was to just think it through a little bit, together. They got a pretty good start on a conversation that will doubtless go on for the rest of all our lives.

We should all start having these conversation. Stay up all night with a couple of friends and really be honest about your fears, confusions, insights and commitments.

In the talk, they mentioned a couple of other podcasts that Lovers may be interested in:

Crackers and Grape Juice Podcast – https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/teer-hardy/crackers-grape-juice/e/51153397

Criminal – Episode 43: “39 Shots”

http://thisiscriminal.com/episode-43-39-shots-in-greensboro-5-19-2016/Greensboro 1979

This week, with the violence and terror that has descended on Charlottesville, VA, we are reminded of the importance of continuing the work of dismantling systemic oppression by effectively engaging systems of power through nonviolent forms of resistance wherever we are – whether we are marching in the streets or having a conversation with a family member, or a co-worker, or a stranger at the grocery store.

Our guest today is Dr. Ruth D. Anderson, Director of a program based in Greensboro, NC that has become a hub for ecumenical community and activism by seeking to empower and encourage individuals from every denomination and walk of life to live their inner and outer lives in accordance with the core values of the Gospel. Their 2-year curriculum leads people through a process of inward reflection and self-awareness that helps folks begin to identify unhealthy power dynamics, not only in our culture but in ourselves, making us more effective leaders and healers of this world.

Ruth is an author, teacher, facilitator, and community activist. She taught for 15 years as a tenured professor, and then worked as Vice President for an international corporation, so she knows well the inner workings (and failings) of traditional models for leadership and institutional power. She has found her own sense of call in helping others begin to step out of that paradigm, and into a more “Kingdom-based” model for relating to themselves and others.

To learn more, check out their website at www.servantleadergreensboro.org

For the past year or so, we’ve occasionally done an interview series called “Conversion(s)”, in which very active people of faith tell their stories about how they got there. The idea is that there are many moments of conversion in each of our lives, when we have “growth spurts’’ toward understanding and faith coupled with big changes in how we do the work that comes with these new levels of growth.

Today’s guest is our new co-host, Kristen Leigh. Russ conducted an interview with Kristen back in February of 2016 (episode # LDT054), during which Kristen – a terrific singer-songwriter – focused on her music and her theological study of the relationship between the arts, creativity, and a life of faith.

In today’s episode, Kristen tells the story of her conversions in life, from a cynical “seeker” who thought Christianity was a silly religion, to a seminary graduate who now works for the church in various capacities (and now co-hosting a ‘religious podcast’).

It’s a very heartfelt story, full of bewilderment and insight.

www.facebook.com/kristenleighmusic

www.kristenleighmusic.com