People Who See

On her 31st birthday, Whitney Simpson had a stroke, and she experienced God in an MRI machine. In this conversation, Whitney shares how that moment led her into a deeply embodied spirituality. Her story invites you to use your body to listen for God - to know how your body and your spirit intertwine. She teaches you how to be present to yourself so that you can be present with God. Her gentle reminder is that it is impossible to be connected to your spirit and disconnected from your body. Today, as a spiritual director and yoga teacher Whitney invites you to use your whole self to listen for God.

Connect with Whitney on Instagram @whitneyrsimpson or at exploringpeace.com or whitneyrsimpson.com. 

 As humans we are driven by the fundamental need to connect. In this interview, Krispin Mayfield, author and licensed professional counselor, uses attachment science as a framework to understand how that need to connect impacts the ways you interact with God. He describes the three attachment styles - Anxious, Shutdown, and Shame-based - and offers practical tools to heal your attachment with God. If you are longing to not only know that God loves you, but feel and experience that love, attachment science can offer a way forward. 

Buy his book here!

Today Esther sits down with Danielle Shroyer - spiritual director, author, speaker, and former pastor. We chat about her most recent book Original Blessing: Putting Sin in its Rightful Place and dig into questions like…

What would it look like if you decided you wanted to let go of the idea of original sin?
Can you believe in original goodness and still be an orthodox Christian?
What does Genesis 3 mean if it doesn’t mean you are fundamentally broken?
Why did Jesus come into the world if it wasn’t to pay the price for your total depravity?
How might you live differently if you were rooted in Belovedness?

You can find her at danielleshroyer.com, and @DanielleShroyer on Twitter and Instagram. Buy the book here!

Today we bring you our conversation with Kristin Barnett, Operations Director of the non-profit Neighborly. Neighborly is a relationship-based poverty relief organization advocating for biblical justice. Their mission is to deinstitutionalize charity by helping you become friends with those at a disadvantage.

Kristen shares the story of Neighborly and how it has grown and evolved by humbly listening to the needs of its people. She teaches you about Neighborly’s fundamental belief that helping work is not simply about meeting a need, but rather an invitation to enter into the messiness of relationships. She offers suggestions on how to shift your mindset away from one-time help and toward relationship-based models of helping that blur the lines between “us,” and “them.” 

Connect with Neighborly here!

BIO: Kristin Barnett is a follower of Jesus originally hailing from Washington D.C., now living in Tallahassee, Florida. She and her husband James are raising two young sons, 14 chickens, and are respite foster parents. She is currently the Operations Director of the nonprofit Neighborly, overseeing the day-to-day tasks as well as all refugee initiatives. Kristin is passionate about inviting believers into a deeper understanding of who God is and how he cares for His people, particularly the foreigner and those in the margins. 

What does it look like for indigenous people to worship God with the fullness of who they are? In this interview, Dr. Kenny Wallace shares his story as an African-American Choctaw Pawnee who is living out his Christian faith in the way that was gifted to him as an indigenous person. Dr. Kenny helps us explore what it means for indigenous people to worship God in ways that honor their culture and identity. Dr. Kenny graciously answers our questions as we dive into the messiness of exploring racism, cultural appropriation, and the ways in which we have become too comfortable worshiping God only in white, Western ways. Join us as we begin to unravel our biases and learn that the way we’ve always experienced Christianity might not be the only way.

Learn more about NAIITS here!

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/sonda/your-own-world

License code: 1WX6GFMRRZEGMYVC

Today we sit down with Dr. Vince Bantu, Assistant Professor of Church History and Black Church Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary. Dr. Vince shares his story of growing up in racially segregated St. Louis with the idea that he needed to leave his culture and context behind in order to truly follow Jesus. He helps us unpack the ways whiteness has overtaken our understanding of what it means to be Christian. Dr. Vince powerfully reminds us that there is no way of following Jesus that is uncultural because God sees and intends each person to follow Jesus according to their own culture. He shows us the necessity of unraveling white culture from our theology and honoring and embracing other ways of knowing and following God. We explore the ways that we as white Christians can surrender our power and submit to people of color to teach us about what it means to be Christian. 

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/sonda/your-own-world

License code: 1WX6GFMRRZEGMYVC

 Today Beth and Esther sit down with one of their favorite seminary professors Dr. Larry Caldwell to talk about how we can interpret the Bible in culturally relevant ways. Whether you’re a person in ministry wondering how to make the gospel relevant in your context or a person who’s always been intimidated by biblical interpretation because you’re never sure if you’re “doing it right,” this conversation is for you! Dr. Larry helps us unpack questions like how do we honor and value the way other people view and experience the world even if it’s not the way we view or experience the world? And how can our biblical interpretation honor those views and experiences? What does the gospel look like to someone who views the world differently than we do, and how can we help them to follow Jesus in a way that’s meaningful to them? Dr. Larry reminds us to slow down, embrace the discomfort of the unfamiliar, and do the hard work of understanding what our people actually need from biblical interpretation.

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/sonda/your-own-world
License code: 1WX6GFMRRZEGMYVC

Does God’s call to love our enemies apply even to our theological enemies? In this conversation, Dr. David Williams, president of Taylor Seminary, helps us to expand our notion of hospitality to include welcoming the theological stranger. How do we, as Christians, display the reality of God’s kingdom in the way we treat each other? How do we earn the right to speak the truth by listening well? Does our listening show our love, or our desire to win the theological argument? And what is at stake if we don’t learn to listen and love well? 

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/sonda/your-own-world

License code: 1WX6GFMRRZEGMYVC

 In this episode, co hosts Esther and Melissa sit down to talk about People Who See’s Beloved Cohort. Esther shares the story of how she designed the cohort and what it has meant to her to begin to see herself as the Beloved of God. She shares who she designed the cohort for, and how she believes beginning to see oneself through Eyes of Love changes everything. Melissa shares her experience of being a part of the Beloved cohort, and how finding an identity rooted in Belovedness has helped her experience healing from toxic theologies of self.

To learn more about the Beloved cohort, or sign up to be a part of a Beloved cohort, visit our website here.

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/sonda/your-own-world

License code: 1WX6GFMRRZEGMYVC 

If you are wondering how to remain Christian after Evangelicalism, this interview is for you. Today we sit down with renowned author and Christian ethicist Dr. David P. Gushee as he shares his story of being forcibly propelled from Evangelicalism after calling for LGBTQ+ inclusion. Through his book After Evangelicalism, Dr. Gushee helps us to expand our vision of what Christianity can be, and charts a theological course for those of us wondering what’s left after evangelicalism. 

You can connect with Dr. Gushee and subscribe to his newsletter at davidpgushee.com or @dpgushee on social media. 

Buy the book here!