This week John gets an update from Dr. Marc Boom on the current state of Covid cases in Houston. John and Matt discuss some of the data points from the Texas Medical Center and their personal thoughts on the resurgence of positive Covid cases. 

Today we are joined by Donna Wotkyns! 

Donna has worked with CIS for 19 years, serving students on high school campuses for many years before becoming Director of Development. She attended Southern Methodist University for her undergraduate studies and then graduated with her master’s from the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. Donna’s dedication to CIS comes from her love of kids, and she enjoys spending time with her four fabulous granddaughters, counseling, and swimming.

https://www.cishouston.org

Bishop Janice Riggle Huie is a retired Bishop of The United Methodist Church. She is a former president of the Council of Bishops.

She serves with the Texas Methodist Foundation in the area of Leadership Formation, following twenty years as a bishop of the United Methodist Church. Previously, she served as bishop of the Texas Annual Conference and the Arkansas Conference.

This week the guys talk with Bishop Huie about her recent article, Reservoirs Of Resilience. They talk about the state of the church and what Bishop Huie is up to in her retirement. 

https://tmf-fdn.org/podcasts/reservoirs-of-resilience

This week we invited kids to come up with their toughest questions for John and Matt! The guys discuss ways we can debrief the pandemic with our children and some helpful questions we can ask each other. 

https://www.grwhealth.com/post/debriefing-the-pandemic-with-your-kids-how-to-approach-the-new-normal

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/joyful-parenting/202103/simple-ways-debrief-the-pandemic-children

Rudy Rasmus is a pastor, author, and humanitarian. He co-pastors the St. John’s United Methodist Church located in Downtown Houston with his wife Juanita. St. John's began with 9 members in 1992, and is now one of the most culturally diverse congregations in the country. Today's podcast comes to you from Rudy's coffee shop, Throughgood Coffee, located in the Heights. 

Rudy and the guys discuss his roots in the Houston community and how Throughgood Coffee began. They discuss issues within the Methodist Church and ways The Church can better minister to a changing world.

Matt Miofsky is the Lead Pastor of The Gathering in St. Louis, Missouri. Since Matt founded The Gathering in 2006, it has grown into a thriving multi-site congregation with three locations scattered throughout St. Louis and a vibrant online presence. The Gathering was recently named the 3rd fastest growing United Methodist Church in the U.S. 

The guys talk to Matt about vulnerability, how he has led The Gathering through COVID and what we can take with us into the post-pandemic church world.

Robert Hilliker, LCSW-S, LCDC received his Master’s degree from the University of Houston’s Graduate College of Social Work. Following graduation Robert pursued additional training working as a Post-Graduate Social Work Fellow at The Menninger Clinic. He then completed a two-year fellowship at the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies. Currently, Robert is a doctoral candidate at the Institute for Clinical Social Work in Chicago, IL.

In April 2014, Robert co-founded and became the Managing Partner for The Lovett Center LLC with his business partner, Will Davis.

At The Lovett Center, Robert works with patients in private practice and serves as the Clinical Director for Pathos. Pathos offers intensive outpatient, supportive outpatient, and aftercare programming for people struggling with addiction and co-occurring mental health issues. Robert’s private practice focuses on work with professionals, addictive disorders, shame resiliency, and behavioral health issues. He provides individual, couples, family, and group psychotherapy.

Matt and Robert discuss post-pandemic mental health and some of the current work that Robert is pursuing around men and emotional issues. 

Melanie Russell was a victim of domestic abuse for many years before she encountered an organization called Care Net in Waco, Texas. Our paths crossed with Melanie's recently and she immediately began to tell us about Care Net and how God has radically transformed her life. In this conversation she explains how God spoke to her through an unexpected source and how she escaped her abusive relationship. 

Care Net seeks to assist new or expectant mothers that are motivated to attain independence who are homeless or facing homelessness. 

www.pregnancycare.org

We kick off season 3 with a special episode on location in Waco, Texas. John and Matt are joined by the new Director of Student Ministry at Chapelwood. We talk about the work that Chapelwood is doing in Waco, pastoring youth in 2021 and some special moments from the Summit missions trip. 

This week John and Matt talk about the ladder of inference and leaps of abstraction. First proposed by Chris Argyris, way back in 1970, the ladder of inference is a way of describing how you move from a piece of data (a comment made to you, or something that you have observed to happen), through a series of mental processes to a conclusion. We discuss how this method can be used in our culture to gain empathy and understanding for those who may not agree with our point of view.