Odds are, you probably know someone who struggles with chronic illness or pain. Often nicknamed "invisible disability," chronic illness and pain are a hidden struggle that countless people deal with on a daily basis, and this constant battle puts a strain on every aspect of a person's life including their faith and spirituality. My guest on this episode is no stranger to the daily battle that comes with chronic illness. Shannon Cramer has lived with debilitating health complications for the past thirteen years, and during that time, her faith and trust in God have been stretched and tested to its limits. Her recently published book, How To Keep Believing When You're Suffering, is a labor of love resulting from her journey with God through the difficulties of chronic illness and our conversation in this episode illustrates the beautiful hope, faith, and strength that radiates from her because of God's transformative love in her life.

You can see and purchase Shannon's book on Amazon or on her website at www.shannoncramerwrites.com/book

Many protestant Christians like myself are very familiar with the idea of God transforming us from the inside out, but is it possible for something like the Lord's Prayer to actually change and transform us from the outside in? Tune in to this episode of Reframing the Gospel to hear from Rev. Marotta, author of the book Liturgy in the Wilderness, about how the Lord's Prayer and other liturgical practices can do just that - serve as God's tools to transform us from the outside in.

Liturgy in the Wilderness: How the Lord's Prayer Shapes the Imagination of the Church in a Secular Age by D.J. Marotta - https://www.amazon.com/Liturgy-Wilderness-Prayer-Imagination-Secular/dp/0802428568

Many modern protestant churches in the United States will tell you that they are community-oriented, and while it may not be false that many churches believe this to be true, it still often feels difficult to find the type of community we often long for and crave. The type of community in which you see and interact with those you do life with more than once a week, and where you have the chance to see and be seen by people who love you deeply instead of just shooting the breeze for a few minutes.

My guest on this episode is a classmate and fellow seminary student, Lakshmi Piette, who possesses a deep love and longing for rich and intentional Christian community. During this episode, you'll get to hear about her experience in these types of Christian communities and why she finds them so valuable and important.

To follow Lakshmi and learn more about Intentional Christian Community, check out her podcast and substack here: https://lakshmipiette.substack.com/s/dwelling-place

When it comes to good news, the idea of someone I love - or anyone at all for that matter - suffering in hell forever doesn't make it very high up on the list...It's been many years now since I decided that the notion of eternal conscious torment in hell didn't line up with the God I knew and saw in Jesus. However, it took me a long time to figure out how to reconcile that conviction with an intellectually honest and culturally conscious reading of scripture. In this special episode of Reframing the Gospel, I'm not going to dive into Biblical interpretation, but instead tell the story of my journey to finding a more life-giving understanding of who God is and the outcome I believe God desires and will achieve for every individual created in his image.

Burn out from overworking and overcommitting ourselves is so common these days that I sometimes wonder if we even recognize it half the time. Is this life of endlessly increasing productivity really the life that God is calling us to live? Or might God be calling us to something different? Something a bit slower? Join me on this episode as I reflect on this idea of slowing down and why it might not only be something good for us but something that God desires for us as well.

As modern-day Americans, we live in a world that often operates at a break-neck pace where productivity is king. This reality even and perhaps especially invades the world of ministry work. But whatever career you may find yourself in, I think we can all agree that it's tough to slow down...but what if the seasons of life when productivity is low and cut back are actually a gift? This is the topic that Christy Foldenauer addresses in her recent book, Shear Gifts, and the focus of our conversation during this episode.

In last week's episode, I had the opportunity to talk with author Zachary Wagner about what it means to develop a nontoxic, resurrected vision of Christian masculinity. Join me in this episode as I reflect on the ways that masculinity, purity culture, and sexual abuse in the church are connected and how we can work to build a more restorative Christian Community where the vulnerable are safe and those in authority are held accountable.

In a day and age where what it means to be a man is changing more rapidly than ever, it's important that we - as followers of Jesus and the body of Christ - seriously consider how we're contributing to the way that men in our society are being formed. In his book, Nontoxic Masculinity, Zach Wagner writes about this and other important aspects of how and why it's important to embody maleness in a healthy, holistic, and Christlike way. In this episode, I have the opportunity to ask Zach some questions about his book and hear some of his insights about why a nontoxic vision of masculinity is very good news.

In this short, reflective episode, I take a few minutes to reflect on the negative impacts of slavery and racism in our country. It's (hopefully) obvious to the average American that slavery had an extremely negative impact on the African Americans who experienced it. I believe it's also clear to many of us that these negative impacts of slavery and racism are still experienced in many ways by people of color today. Perhaps less obvious is the negative impact incurred by white American Christians because of their complicity in the evils of slavery. This negative impact is what author Widell Berry calls "the hidden wound," and in this episode, I try to unpack this idea and why I think it's an important component of addressing and healing from the harm done to people of color in this country by slavery and racism.

In this episode of Reframing the Gospel, you'll hear my conversation with the founder and Chief Vision Officer of Arrabon, David Bailey. I've known David for about four years now, and I've loved seeing and hearing about all of the great work he and his team at Arrabon do to help Christian communities across the country grow into communities marked by reconciliation and transformation. Tune in to learn more about David, Arrabon, and what it means to be a reconciling community!