In this episode I speak to Tony Golsby-Smith. Tony is the co-founder and chairman of Second Road, a strategy and innovation firm. He is also behind Gospel Conversations, a theological discussion group behind various events and with numerous online resources .

This conversation is a dense one, as we cover Tony’s journey through teaching into consulting, and then the relationship between Jesus, knowledge and reality. We talk about some of the inadequacies of some current evangelical theology and the nature of God’s work in the world. This is a challenging conversation but hopefully a stretching one too. I really enjoyed this conversation, and really appreciate the way Tony is searching for a theology that speaks to all of life. I’ve got a link for the Gospel Conversations website in below - it’s really worth getting involved with! He mentions an event with John Behr, which has already happened, but there’s video resource on the website that is well worth checking out.

https://www.gospelconversations.com

https://2nd-road.webflow.io

We kick off this new season with a return guest, the godfather of Christian education himself, David I. Smith. David is probably best known for his book, On Christian Teaching, and he’s just released a follow up to this, called Everyday Christian Teaching. This book is a more practical exploration of some of the concepts of the former book, and is full of suggestions for practices for the classroom, as well as powerful stories and reflection questions. CEN will be using his resources in a few different ways.

https://calvin.edu/everyday-christian-teaching

This episode is a bit different! A little while ago I got to speak with Tenielle Neda, a Christian singer songwriter from Western Australia. Tenielle has just released her new album, The Way of Love.

This chat is a chance to showcase some of her new music, but also talk about some of her journey, from appearing on Australian Idol, to making the music she does now. We talk through some of the songs, and talk about the role of worship music in context of the wider genre.

Check out her album here: https://open.spotify.com/album/27B6xYGSZ31DjV0XXqeerp?si=a7hjuXahR5KvNPf6R2ZKIw

https://www.tenielleneda.com

This week I get to speak to Dr Chris Marshall, a pioneering scholar working in the intersection of biblical theology and restorative justice. Chris has worked as a New Testament lecturer and lecturer in religious studies. He’s also worked with those involved in the criminal justice system and is the author of 7 books.

In this conversation we talk about restorative justice, shame, and atonement theology. A key point we hone in on, is that there is a variety of language and metaphors that get used in the New Testament to explain what was achieved on the cross, but often we can get stuck only using the judicial language of punishment, rather than all the other language like adoption or new birth. When we focus only on this language it can perpetuate cycles of shame.

This week I got to have a conversation with Mark Barnard, an Anglican priest and educator from Auckland, New Zealand. Alongside his church leadership role, Mark is also employed by the Karuwhā Trust, an educational organisation focusing on telling New Zealand’s bicultural story.

This is an important conversation that explores engaging in indigenous thought well, addressing different ways of seeing the world and approaching spirituality. This is a conversation about thinking this through in a New Zealand context, but perhaps that allows for more scope of thought rather than feeling like we’re being prescriptive. There are a couple of words that Mark uses quite a bit that might be helpful to know for the conversation- "Te Reo" refers to the Māori language, "tangata whenua" means “people of the land” and refers to Māori people, and "Pākehā" is the Māori word for those of European descent.

In this episode, we speak with Dr Christa McKirland. Christa is the dean of faculty at Carey Baptist College in NZ, where she also lectures in systematic theology. She obtained her PHD at the University of St Andrews and she has a wide range of published academic work.

In this quite dense conversation we talk through a theology of authority and power, tracking closely with the new testament's conviction that it's not about having power over others. We chat about what we mean by systematic theology, apostleship and take a close look at women in leadership and the key text in 2 timothy. This is a fascinating and challenging discussion.

In this episode I got to speak with Grafton Tanner. Grafton is an American author and academic. His work focuses on Big Tech, nostalgia, neo-liberalism, and education. He is the author of books, Babbling Corpse, The Circle of the Snake, The Hours Have lost their clock, and more recently, Foreverism. In this conversation we chat about our culture's current obsession with nostalgia in media, politics and literature. We talk about how our current cultural mood is one that doesn't want to look a the future and so plunders the past and tries to expand the present. We touch on the internet, "retrobaiting", time and a concept at the heart of his new book, Foreverism.

In this episode I get to speak with Dr. Lynn Swaner. Lyn is the President of Cardus, a think tank in the states to dedicated to strengthening institutions for the common good. She is the editor or lead author of numerous books, including Future Ready, MindShift, and Flourishing Together. She holds a doctorate in organizational leadership and is a good friend of CEN, having spoken at a number of our conferences.

We covered a lot of ground in this conversation, from a Christian understanding of flourishing to innovation and the place of research. We also talk about what it means for a Christian school to be distinctive and a core question that she talks about to help them stay on mission: what does love require?

Michael is an Australian biblical scholar, Anglican priest, and the Deputy Principal of Ridley College in Melbourne. He is the author of over thirty books including his latest one, Jesus and the Powers, cowritten with N.T. Wright. In this conversation, we continue in our discussion around difference by unpacking his new book, exploring nationalism, current cultural tensions, power, and veggie tales ethics.

In this episode I ask Kara Martin questions based on her book, "Keeping Faith: How Christian organizations can stay true to the way of Jesus." We talk about power, mission drift, leadership beyond niceness, risky faithfulness and how organisations can meaningfully enact grace, forgiveness and confession. There is a lot here for school leaders to mull over, so it could be a good one to share!

Here's a link to the book:

https://amzn.asia/d/3IUV5gz