Restlessness is a Gift

Today we take a dive into the deep end to talk about neurotheology and transformation that comes when we realize that the most powerful love we can experience comes through the people with whom we form attachments. Jim’s recent book Renovated: God, Dallas Willard, and the Church That Transforms brings the teachings of Dallas Willard together with contemporary neuroscience and the result is something Jim and Dallas referred to as a “soteriology of attachment.”

The result is a change in the way we see our frustration with spiritual transformation, the way we engage in spiritual practices, and ultimately a new understanding of what it means to truly change our minds.

Dr. Jim Wilder is a neurotheologian who has trained leaders and counselors for nearly 30 years on five continents. The founder of Life Model Works, he is an expert on the intersection of theology and brain science. He is coauthor of Rare Leadership and Living from the Heart Jesus Gave You.

Music by Robert Ebbens

Artwork by Eric Wright/Metamora Design

This week we talk with spiritual director Barbara Peacock about her new book Soul Care in African American Practice.

In our conversation, Barbara draws us in to the deep stream of spiritual direction and soul care flowing through the words of “ancestors” such as Frederick Douglas, Rosa Parks, Renita Weems, and Howard Thurman. Through her kindness, patience, and tenacity Barbara details the history of spiritual direction in the African-American tradition and the wisdom we can find when we explore the voices of those who suffered injustice and hate but pressed on in their formation with grace.

Barbara L. Peacock (DMin, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) is a spiritual director, author, teacher, and preacher. She is the founder of Barbara L. Peacock Ministries, a ministry committed to developing disciples through prayer, spiritual direction, soul care, mentoring, and teaching.

You can find more information about Barbara’s work here.

Music by Robert Ebbens

Artwork by Eric Wright/Metamora Design

This week we talk with author Leslie Leyland Fields about the journey of finding, writing, and also living the brutal but beautiful stories within each of us.

Leslie’s new book Your Story Matters: Finding, Writing and Living The Truth of Your Life released this week. In the book she weaves together masterful writing, personal commentary, and practical advice for the spiritual journey of uncovering the story within each of us.

Leslie Leyland Fields is the multi-award winning author/editor of eleven books, including The Wonder Years: 40 Women Over 40 on Aging, Faith, Beauty and Strength and Crossing the Waters: Following Jesus through the Storms, the Fish, the Doubt and the Seas, which won Christianity Today's 2017 Book Award in Christian Living.

She is also the editor of The Spirit of Food: 34 Writers on Feasting and Fasting Towards God, which is one of our favorites. Leslie and her family live in Alaska, and you can connect with more of her work here.

Music by Robert Ebbens

Artwork by Eric Wright/Metamora Design

Today we talk with author Gena Thomas, about the story behind her book Separated By the Border: A Birth Mother, A Foster Mother, and a Migrant Child’s 3,000 Mile Journey.

Gena’s compassion and vulnerability gives us a closer view of what happens to mothers and children' trying to escape darkness and death in Mexico and Central America. In what could be a politically polarizing moment, the wisdom Gena brings (both in the book and in our conversation) helps us see our neighbors fleeing death and despair in an entirely new light.

Gena Thomas is a writer, a faith wrestler, a wife, and a mom. She and her husband, Andrew, have been married for 11 years and they have two children, an 8-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl. She has written for several Christian publications, and published her first book, A Smoldering Wick: Igniting Missions Work with Sustainable Practices in 2016. You can find out more about Gena on her website.

Music by Robert Ebbens

Artwork by Eric Wright/Metamora Design

After some time away due to deadlines and then the “great pause” of preparing for quarantine due to COVID-19, we’re back with a new episode.

This week we talk with Chuck DeGroat, professor of Pastoral Care and Christian Spirituality at Western Seminary, about his brand new book When Narcissism Comes To Church: Healing Your Community from Emotional and Spiritual Abuse.

With a gentle pastoral spirit and the heart of a trained counselor, Chuck helps us understand narcissism and the damage it can cause to the people and the witness of any local church.

Chuck DeGroat (LPC, PhD) is professor of pastoral care and Christian spirituality at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, and senior fellow at Newbigin House of Studies in San Francisco. He served as a pastor at churches in Orlando and San Francisco and founded two church-based counseling centers. He is a licensed therapist, spiritual director, and the author of two other books: Toughest People to Love and Wholeheartedness.

Music by Robert Ebbens

Artwork by Eric Wright/Metamora Design

After a week of “self-quarantine,” my wife Holley and I did a little review of the week gone by. We turned on the mics and headed to the basement because we thought, perhaps, it would be helpful.

Enjoy a little bonus - and hopefully encouraging - conversation for your weekend!

Music by Robert Ebbens

Artwork by Eric Wright/Metamora Design

Today’s episode is a brief - but hopefully helpful - discussion about 3 specific questions that help us check in on the health of our soul. The point of this episode is to give you a resource that can be used on a weekly basis to stop, ask some critical questions, and gain perspective on God, yourself, and others.

The questions we deal with are:

What story are you telling yourself today?

What has your body been telling you?

What invitation do you sense God giving you today?

We also reference the book As I Recall: Discovering the Place of Memories in Our Spiritual Life, if you are interested in further reading on how our stories shape our days.

If you are interested in the Master of Arts in Spiritual Formation program that I mention in the episode, you can find more information here.

Music by Robert Ebbens

Art by Eric Wright/Metamora Design

This week we talk with the author, speaker, and yoga teacher Kathy Khang. Our conversation dives into the realities of growing up with a white image of God or Jesus and how that changes who we (white Christians) become and what we see. We talk about her recent book Raise Your Voice: Why We Stay Silent and How To Speak Up, as well as what it means to be Korean-American in the context of American Christianity.

This conversation challenges us not only to listen to the Christian story through the filters of other races & ethnicities. It also invites us to raise our awareness of wise voices that get drowned out because they don’t tell the story of faith we’re used to hearing.

Kathy is a speaker, journalist, and activist. She has worked in campus ministry for more than twenty years, with expertise in issues of gender, ethnicity, justice, and leadership development. She is a columnist for Sojourners magazine, a writer for Faith & Leadership, and a coauthor of More Than Serving Tea: Asian American Women on Expectations, Relationships, Leadership and Faith. You can find out more about Kathy on her website

Music by Robert Ebbens

Art by Eric Wright/Metamora Design

This episode is deeply personal as our guest, Andrew Hendrixson, has been a friend for some time. Andrew is a visual artist and poet, as well as a beautiful human being seeking ways to talk about God when we don’t have words.

We talk about the vocation of the artist, what a poem or painting “is trying to say,” and how all art is following some sort of agitation. In Andrew’s words, “I don’t know how else I would understand God other than poetically or via metaphors.”

Andrew has studied art and philosophy in multiple universities, the most recent being Yale University. He taught art at our alma mater, Mount Vernon Nazarene University. You can find his artwork here and you can connect with Andrew’s work on Instagram: @andrewhendrixsonstudio

Music by Robert Ebbens

Artwork by Eric Wright/Metamora Design

Is it possible that prisons are built after examining the stats on SECOND and THIRD grade students’ reading scores?

Today’s episode is a bit longer but WELL WORTH IT. We talk with pastor and writer Dominique Dubois Gilliard about the often-ignored statistics about who is in our prison systems, how they got there, and the implications for Christians in knowing the truth about incarceration.

HIs book, Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice That Restores is a nuanced and helpful dive into the reality of our prisons today and how we can begin to rethink criminal justice in the light of the elimination of racial disparities and the true rehabilitation of criminals as ones created in the image of God.

Dominique has even provided a video curriculum for groups or individuals to explore his book and the issues around the prison industrial complex. You can access that curriculum here.

Dominique DuBois Gilliard is the Director of Racial Righteousness and Reconciliation for the Love Mercy Do Justice (LMDJ) initiative of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). Gilliard also serves on the board of directors for the Christian Community Development Association and Evangelicals for Justice. In 2015, he was selected as one of the ECC’s “40 Under 40” leaders to watch, and the Huffington Post named him one of the “Black Christian Leaders Changing the World.”

You can find out more information on Dominique via his website.

Podcast music by Robert EbbensArtwork by Eric Wright/Metamora Design