Melanie Penn’s career has led her from Classical music to Broadway to her current work as a singer songwriter. We talk about what it’s like to make a pivot in your career, about making art as an adult, and about how 9/11 and Tim Keller led her back to Jesus. Follow Melanie on Instagram for updates about her new record and meditations on the Christmas story at https://www.instagram.com/melaniepenn/?hl=en This episode was produced by Mike Cosper It was edited by TJ Hester It was mixed by Mark Owens Our music today is by Melanie Penn. Our Theme Song is by Roman Candle. Special thanks to John and Jenna Starke for letting me turn their kitchen into a recording studio.
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Melanie Penn

Cultivated, hosted by Mike Cosper, is a conversational podcast that explores the connection between vocation and faith in the lives of individuals who are working to shape and influence the world around them. Guests range include artists, athletes, writers, academics, entrepreneurs, and business leaders.

Arts

Literature

Performing Arts

Design

Food

Fashion & Beauty

Visual Arts

Religion & Spirituality

Other

Spirituality

Christianity

Buddhism

Hinduism

Judaism

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Promised Land is a limited series exploring the moral, spiritual, and political challenges presented by the Israel-Hamas War. Host Mike Cosper (The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill) takes listeners with him to locations across the U.S., Israel, and Palestine, bringing you into the homes, lives, and stories of people for whom this conflict is their everyday experience.
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Trailer: Promised Land

When Mars Hill Church was planted in Seattle in 1996, few would have imagined where it would lead. But in the next 18 years, it would become one of the largest, fastest-growing, and most influential churches in the United States. Controversy plagued the church, though, due in no small part to the lightning-rod personality at its helm: Mark Driscoll.
By 2014, the church had grown to 15,000 people in 15 locations. But before the year was over, the church collapsed. On January 1, 2015, Mars Hill was gone.
Produced by Cultivated host Mike Cosper, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill explores the inside story of this church, its charismatic leader, and the conflicts and troubles that brought about its end. You’ll hear from insiders and experts, tracing the threads of this story to so many others that shape the church today.
Listen to the trailer and subscribe today. The full series launches on June 22.
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Coming Soon: The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill

Jen Pollock Michel is a writer based in Toronto, CA. She’s the author of several books, including  Surprised by Paradox and A Habit Called Faith, which is releasing this week. On the podcast, she describes the road that led her to writing, the relationship between her vocations as a writer and a mother, and the place women writers occupy in Christian publishing.
She also talks about A Habit Called Faith, a book that invites seekers, skeptics, and Christians alike to explore a deeper experience of Christianity through a 40-day experience in the book of John and the book of Deuteronomy.
If you have feedback for us, you can email us at podcasts@christianitytoday.com
Subscribe to our show, and if you can – leave us a rating and review in iTunes.
Cultivated is produced and hosted by Mike Cosper
It’s edited by Mark Owens
Our music is by Dan Phelps
Our theme song is “Eden Was A Garden” by Roman Candle.
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Jen Pollock Michel on Vocation, Writing, and Habit

Doug Logan was running a barbershop in Patterson, New Jersey when he met Jesus. Doug, who is black, quickly married his girlfriend Angel, who is white. Within days, he was preaching on the streets to the homeless.
In the twenty-five years since, their interracial marriage has been a kind of proving ground for the experience of racial tensions that have come along with being black and Reformed, both in majority white and in majority non-white contexts. That included serving at a historic, majority-white Presbyterian church in Philadelphia and planting a church in Camden, New Jersey.
Now, Doug serves as the Associate Director of Acts 29 and the president of Grimké Seminary, where he hopes to equip more pastors like him to bring new expressions of Reformed theology to the urban context.
Listen in as he shares his story, his passion for the gospel, and his vision for racial reconciliation at the foot of the cross.

Produced by Mike Cosper
Edited by Mark Owens
Theme Song “Eden Was a Garden” by Roman Candle
Music by Roman Candle and Dan Phelps
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Doug Logan: Reformed Theology in the Urban Context

We’re often unprepared or unwilling to face experiences of loss and suffering. But in fact, they are opportunities for deep encounters with the presence and mercy of God.
Tish Harrison Warren is a writer and a priest in the Anglican Church in North America. Her book Liturgy of the Ordinary was Christianity Today’s 2018 book of the year, and she just released Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep a few weeks ago.
This episode ends up being a deep-dive into the subject of suffering, grief, and lament, exploring the various ways North American culture both inside and outside the church have taught us to avoid them. And while the conversation is weighty, it’s not without hope. At its heart, the Christian faith has its roots in the knowledge that our God not only meets us in suffering, but as Tish puts it, he got there first. His presence with us is our hope for both life and death.

Cultivated is a production of Christianity Today.
It was produced by Mike Cosper.
It was edited by Mark Owens.
Our theme song is “Eden Was A Garden” by Roman Candle.
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Melanie Penn

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