Restlessness is a Gift

This week on the podcast we talk with documentarian and justice worker Nikole Lim about the work she has done (and is doing) to liberate girls who are victims of sexual assault & oppression in Africa and around the world. We focus on her Chinese heritage, her own struggles in justice work, and the heartbreaking but empowering stories in her new book, Liberation Is Here: Women Uncovering Hope in a Broken World.

Nikole Lim is a speaker, educator, and consultant on leveraging dignity through the restorative art of storytelling. She is the founder and international director of Freely In Hope, a nonprofit organization dedicated to equipping survivors and advocates to lead in ending sexual violence through their rewritten stories.

Nikole graduated with a degree in film production from Loyola Marymount University and is currently pursuing a masters in global leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary. Nikole consults regularly with international organizations including The Salvation Army, International Justice Mission, and Hope International. She is a native of the Bay Area and can often be found buying African fabric on the streets of Nairobi.

Freely in Hope equips survivors and advocates to lead in ending the cycle of sexual violence. Join in building a world free of sexual violence by becoming a monthly donor here: http://freelyinhope.org/hopecircle

You can buy an autographed copy of Liberation is Here: http://bulk.liberationishere.com/ or download the free discussion guide for Liberation is Here: http://freelyinhope.org/free

Music by Robert Ebbens

Artwork by Eric Wright/Metamora Design

In our official “Pre-Election Day” conversation we talk with author and historian Kristin Kobes DuMez about the history of white evangelicalism and how John Wayne - who wasn’t an evangelical - set the template for American evangelical power & politics. This discussion comes from her recent book, Jesus & John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation.

Kristin Kobes Du Mez is a professor of History and Gender Studies at Calvin University. She holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame and her research focuses on the intersection of gender, religion, and politics. She has written for the Washington Post, Religion News Service, Christianity Today, Christian Century, The Daily Beast, and Religion & Politics, and has been interviewed on NPR’s Morning Edition, CTV, the BBC, the CBC, and by CNN, the New York Times, the Economist, the Christian Post, PBS News Hour, and the AP, among other outlets. She blogs at Patheos’s Anxious Bench.

We also mentioned the following authors & works:

Howard Thurman

James Cone

Willie James Jennings

John Fea, Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump

Music By Robert Ebbens

Artwork by Eric Wright/Metamora Design

This week we return with a conversation about the “glory and honor” of theology from other traditions. Our guest is Robert Chao Romero, author of the beautiful book Brown Church: Five Centuries of Latina/o Social Justice, Theology, and Identity.

This conversation is essential to those of us searching for theological voices from places other than the typical white European influences that are deeply woven into many churches and traditions.

Robert Chao Romero (PhD, University of California at Los Angeles; JD, University of California at Berkeley) is associate professor in the Departments of Chicana/o Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles. He is the author of the award-winning The Chinese in Mexico, 1882-1940, Jesus for Revolutionaries: An Introduction to Race, Social Justice, and Christianity, and Mixed Race Student Politics.

Music by Robert Ebbens

Artwork by Eric Wright/Metamora Design

Today we talk with writer and activist D.L. Mayfield. We talk about her life in Portland, the truth about loving our neighbors, as well as some of our thoughts about sin that are essentially unhelpful. Much of what we talk about comes from D.L.’s book, The Myth of the American Dream: Reflections on Affluence, Autonomy, Safety, and Power.

D. L. Mayfield is a writer and activist who has spent over a decade working with refugee communities in the United States. Her work has been published in McSweeney's, The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Christian Century, Sojourners, Vox, and the Englewood Review of Books. She is also the author of Assimilate or Go Home: Notes from a Failed Missionary on Rediscovering Faith. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and two children.

Some other books we mentioned:

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, The Wisdom of Stability: Rooting Faith in a Mobile Culture

Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination

Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be An Antiracist

Michael O. Emerson & Christian Smith, Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America

Music by Robert Ebbens

Art by Eric Wright/Metamora Design

This week we talk with author and editor Cindy Bunch about the various spiritual practices that make up what she calls “self-kindness.” Her new book, Be Kind to Yourself: Releasing Frustrations and Embracing Joy releases today (July 28)!

In a time when we are struggling with stress, pressure, anxiety, and uncertainty the practices of self-kindness aren’t ways of “turning in” and away from others. Instead, to be kind to ourselves is a way of loving others, as Jesus teaches us to love our neighbor “AS ourselves.” (Matthew 22:38-39)

Cindy Bunch is associate publisher and director of editorial at InterVarsity Press, where she has worked for more than thirty years. She acquires and develops for the Formatio line of spiritual formation books. She is the author of Be Kind to Yourself as well as several Bible study guides in IVP's LifeGuide® Bible Studies series.

Cindy holds an MA in theological studies from Northern Seminary and completed her spiritual direction training at North Park Seminary. She and her husband live in the Chicago suburbs.

We talked about several resources in today’s episode:

Knowing God by J.I. Packer

Grieving A Suicide by Al Hsu

Paying Attention to God by William Barry, SJ

A Failure of Nerve: Leadership In The Age of the Quick Fix by Edwin Friedman

Father Michael Sparaogh’s adaptation of the Ignatian practice of Examen

The work of Christine Valters Paintner and the Abbey of the Arts

Music by Robert Ebbens

Art by Eric Wright/Metamora Design

This week, we talk with Jay Kim about ecclesiology - the theology of the church - in the light of advances in digital technology. Specifically we talk about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the thoughts he offers in his book, Analog Church: Why We Need Real People, Places, And Things In the Digital Age.

Jay brings humor, humility, and his experience as pastor of Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, California to a discussion that needs nuance and creativity in order to be helpful.

Jay Y. Kim is pastor of teaching and leadership at Vintage Faith Church. He also serves on the core leadership team of the ReGeneration Project and cohosts the ReGeneration Podcast. He lives in Silicon Valley with his wife and two children.

Music by Robert Ebbens

Art by Eric Wright/Metamora Design

In this episode we talk with writer Marlena Graves about her new book, The Way Up is Down: Becoming Yourself by Forgetting Yourself. In this honest and prophetic conversation, Marlena brings together Scriptural imagination, her experiences as a Puerto Rican living in America, and an honest appraisal of the church and individuals in this present cultural moment.

Marlena Graves is a writer and adjunct professor. Marlena holds an MDiv from Northeastern Seminary in Rochester, New York, and is a graduate of the Renovaré Institute. She has been a bylined writer for Christianity Today, (in)courage, womenleaders.com, and Our Daily Bread, and she is also the author of A Beautiful Disaster. She lives with her husband and three daughters in Toledo, Ohio.

We also talked about Robert Chao-Romero’s book Brown Church: Five Centuries of Latina/o Social Justice, Theology, and Identity.

Music by Robert Ebbens

Art by Eric Wright/Metamora Design

Today we get to chat with my our dear friend Austin Martin. Austin helps us understand how Christian faith often excludes its own history. He also helps point us toward the insights from the ancient writer John Cassian regarding how God is in everything.

Austin is the Lead Pastor at Chaparral Church in Scottsdale, AZ. He holds a Bachelors in Biblical Literature from Ozark Christian College and a MA in Church History/Historical Theology from Lincoln Christian Seminary.

Austin is married to Rachel with 3 kids, no pets, and an old off-brand Toyota.

Some of the many references from the podcast:

C.S. Lewis’ introduction to Athanasius’ On The Incarnation

The British monk Pelagius historically condemned as a heretic by the Western church

Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary

John Cassian’s Conferences and Institutes

The Philokalia which Austin recommends as a good starting point for digging into the wisdom of ancient spirituality.

Music by Robert Ebbens

Art by Eric Wright/Metamora Design

This week we talk with Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil, a fiery and prophetic voice on the way followers of Jesus must engage in racial reconciliation. We draw on her books A Credible Witness as well as her newest book, Roadmap to Reconciliation 2.0 which is an update of her previous book of the same name.

Dr. Brenda is is a dynamic speaker, author, professor, and thought-leader with over 30 years of experience in the ministry of reconciliation. Her mission is to inspire, equip and empower emerging Christian leaders to be practitioners of reconciliation in their various spheres of influence around the world. She is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church and serves as a member of the pastoral staff of Quest Church in Seattle, WA.

Music by Robert Ebbens

Art by Eric Wright/Metamora Design

Today’s conversation is a very honest and realistic discussion of how transformation actually happens within our suffering. Our guest, KJ Ramsey, brings insight from a decade plus of dealing with AS (ankylosing spondylitis) and the limitations and suffering that come with a long-term chronic illness. Through that insight, she gives us a fresh approach to wisely encountering any type of suffering in our lives.

KJ Ramsey is a therapist, writer, and recovering idealist who believes sorrow and joy are necessary friends. Her writings has appeared in Christianity Today, RELEVANT, The Huffington Post, Health Central, Fathom Magazine, The Mighty, and Introvert, Dear. You can find out more about KJ on her website

 Her book This Too Shall Last: Finding Grace When Suffering Lingers released last week and is available now.

Music by Robert Ebbens

Art by Eric Wright/Metamora Design