Sprinkle, pour, dunk. In episode 9 of the One Thing More podcast, Jamalyn and Kim kick off a month-long hosting gig with a conversation centered around the sacrament of baptism. What’s a sacrament? What’s baptism? You’re in the right place!

This week’s One Thing More conversation also led to some BONUS content. In response to the mass shooting at a Fedex facility in Indianapolis on April 17, 2021, Jamalyn and Kim spend some time in a conversation centered around prayer and mental wellness. You can find that conversation here: https://youtu.be/u2ioEoObJ0Q

The wilderness is a common setting in the stories of the Bible, but we find that people’s experience of the wilderness is different and even seemingly contradictory at times. 

It was a place of danger and vulnerability for the Israelites, and yet it was also a place of protection and safety, the place where King David fled for refuge when he was personally under attack.

For some in the Bible, the wilderness was a place of isolation, a place they are cast off to, as it was for Hagar or for the prophet Elijah, and yet it is also the place where God so often shows up, revealing himself to people, as in the case of Moses tending sheep in the wilderness of Midian. 

It was a place of loneliness, but one which some would go looking for solitude, as we find in the Psalms.

Even in Jesus’ experience of the wilderness, it was both a place of trial and temptation, where the devil sought to lead him astray, but was also a place of preparation that God used to prepare him for his public ministry.

The examples are numerous, but in each the wilderness is not a neutral place. It is a formative place, but how it forms you depends on how you respond to it. And can’t we say the same for our last year?

Can a week at Disney really be considered “the wilderness?” In episode 8, join Jamalyn and Dave as they reflect on their past trip to Disney, how moments of wilderness living can shape our faith, and how they have experienced God’s care in the wilderness of this COVID era.

Mary comes to the garden on Easter morning. She doesn’t come to Jesus’ tomb to anoint Jesus’ body but to grieve the one she loves. This act tells us something about the garden - it’s not a place of beauty or peace. This garden is a place of sadness and loss. If you have known that kind of garden, it’s not too hard to visit that place in your heart or memories. Think about all the losses that have piled up over this past year alone—losses that have mounted so high that we hardly know how to take it in anymore. Maybe your heart goes to a loss that you’ve carried for a long, long time.

That’s the kind of garden where Easter begins. That’s the kind of garden that Mary goes to. A place to remember, and to weep. A place where hopes and dreams are buried. A place where we must face the finality of death. Or is it…?

In episode 7, join Jamalyn and Ashlea as they talk through Jesus’ resurrection proclamation to us that the story is not yet finished, a new creation is still possible, and indeed that new creation is present and unfolding already in our midst.

While some may be content to hunker down under the protective bubble of the Christian subculture until a time when Jesus “beams us up”, the Scriptures speak of something quite different with regard to the final chapter in God’s story. We await the return of Jesus, not because it provides a chance to be whisked away from the evils of the world, but because it promises the redemption of God’s broken creation. Evil will be judged, and truth will be vindicated. History will end in the embrace of loving community.

In episode 6, join Seth and Hunter as they talk through what it means to let our vision of the end influence how we live today.

During our time together on Sunday mornings at Zionsville United Methodist Church in Zionsville, Indiana, there is only so much time to cover only so much. One Thing More is our chance to go a little deeper, unpack, and share more about Sunday's message. Join hosts Dave and Jamalyn Williamson as they share conversations with pastors and leaders from our congregation and community.

The fifth movement in God’s plot line is about a gift with the power to transform ordinary fisherman, plumbers, and gym teachers into new people - the gift of the Holy Spirit. Through the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, the Jesus community is empowered to reach out to a world that does not know Jesus. As believers, we are blown by God’s spirit toward a more loving and generous existence. While being part of God’s family used to involve an ethnic and national identity, now there is but one stipulation: allegiance to King Jesus.

In episode 5, join Dave and Seth as they work through what it means to be part of a mission-focused church and what it means to serve others who are already part of circles of influence.

In most cultures, the gods were but monstrous amplifications of human power, violence, and vindictiveness. Yet in a Galilean Jew, dimity becomes small and humble. He is the true Israel, the Suffering Servant, the true representative of all humanity. He is the Second Adam, and he must do what God’s people could not do alone. Through the broken-and-resurrected body of Jesus, God wins the decisive victory over sin, death, and the devil. In episode 4, join Dave Williamson and Perry Montgomery as they talk about what happens when the author of the story steps into the story.

In episode 3, Seth Neckers and Ashlea Barnett join together to talk about God’s decision to do something unexpected to bring about redemption. God chooses a dysfunctional family and marries himself to them through a covenant and call. But this family is just like us and spends centuries repeating the pattern of exile and return; penalty and repentance. The family called to bring the solution has become the problem and needs rescuing.

In episode 2, Jamalyn Peigh Williamson is joined by Kim King to talk about what happens when we push back against the boundaries set up for us by God. We take a deeper look at that moment of our faith story when Adam and Eve attempt to hide their shame and guilt from God. Is it even possible? Jamalyn and Kim also try and shift the focus away from viewing The Fall through the lens of a legalistic school master, punishing his pupils. Instead, what might happen if we looked at The Fall through the lens of opportunity? God’s command about the tree and the fruit is not a pointless bit of religious legalism, but an opportunity for humanity to crush the head of evil before it worms its way into everything.

In episode 1, Dave Williamson is joined by Chanon Ross. Chanon, is a program director at Lilly Endowment Inc. Before that, he was the director of the Institute for Youth Ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary. Having served in youth ministry for more than 15 years, he is passionate about supporting youth ministry and equipping youth ministers. His articles have appeared in The Christian Century, the Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics, and Liturgy Journal. He is the author of "Gifts Glittering and Poisoned" (Cascade Books, 2014). Join Dave and Chanon as they explore the ideas of story, creation, science and how they tell us how God feels about us.