Morning Mike Check

I took an opportunity to do some live scripting with Mike during this episode in order to prepare for an upcoming meeting where I would like to establish confidence with my leadership. This is unrehearsed and may be helpful to listeners to experience a bit of what it’s like to script out a conversation ahead of time with Mike.

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I grew up learning there was good stress and there was bad stress. Life’s recipe calls for a bit of both but that imagery, when coupled with things like “work/life balance”, isn’t the most helpful frame to live life by. Today we find ourselves often discussing our increased levels of anxiety. Why is that so common, particularly in the church and what can we do about it? In this episode Mike sheds light on a different frame and how a better path forward is an embodied one.

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Sadness seems to be something we attempt to escape today. As I’ve spent time with Mike, I’ve questioned whether or not we ought to escape it. In this episode Mike and I discuss how opening our bodies to sadness is actually rooted in our faith tradition.

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You may find yourself noticing trigger warnings these days. Mike helps connect the dots on the relationship between “being triggered” and conscience and how we ought to be mindful of the idols we’re likely blind to.

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There are many out there who are suspicious of the COVID-19 vaccine but this connects to a much larger trend: the overarching suspicion of authority. In this episode, Mike sheds some light on why this suspicion exists and how it’s only a recent manifestation of a much older characteristic of western civilization.

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I used to view my faith as an overflowing bucket with the point being to go to places and let my faith spill over. More recently I’ve realized the image in my head is more of a sponge, absorbing the pain and suffering around me. Mike provides some good feedback on this take and its connection to spiritual formation, knowledge, and discipleship.

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Once unheard of, unionization has become a novel trend in the tech world. On this episode, Mike and I discuss some of the history of unions, how “returning authority” is a truer naming than “empowerment”, and how one might go about institutionalizing a return of authority.

Mike’s mentioned a few times now, he’s doing this all for his grandchildren. In this episode we talk about why and what he hopes for them as they grow up in the faith.

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If you haven’t read Mike’s post on good bones, you may want to start there. In this conversation we go a bit deeper into Mike’s faith background, what makes for good bones in a church, and what we ought to put our hope in moving forward.

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In a previous conversation, Mike said once you codify a mission statement, it dies. In this episode I ask what he meant by this and how we ought to make sense of corporate mission statements and values.

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