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). He is the author of Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice that Restores, which won the 2018 Book of the Year Award for InterVarsity Press. 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 HuffPost named him one of the “Black Christian Leaders Changing the World.”

An ordained minister, Gilliard has served in pastoral ministry in Atlanta, Chicago, and Oakland. He was executive pastor of New Hope Covenant Church in Oakland, California and also served in Oakland as the associate pastor of Convergence Covenant Church. He was also a campus minister at North Park University and the racial righteousness director for ECC’s ministry initiatives in the Pacific Southwest Conference.

Dominique earned a bachelor’s degree in African American Studies from Georgia State University and a master’s degree in history from East Tennessee State University, with an emphasis on race, gender, and class in the United States. He also earned an MDiv from North Park Seminary, where he served as an adjunct professor teaching Christian ethics, theology, and reconciliation.

You can follow Dominique on Twitter: @DDGilliard, and on Instagram: @dominiquedgilliard.

Privilege is a social consequence of our unwillingness to reckon with and turn from sin. But properly stewarded, it can help us see and participate in God’s inbreaking kingdom. Scripture repeatedly affirms that privilege is real and declares that, rather than exploiting it for selfish gain or feeling immobilized by it, Christians have a responsibility to leverage it.
Subversive Witness asks us to grapple with privilege, indifference, and systemic sin in new ways by using biblical examples to reveal the complex nature of privilege and Christians’ responsibility in stewarding it well. – From the Publisher

Dr. Nijay Gupta teaches New Testament courses at Northern and working closely with the Master of Arts in New Testament and the Doctor in Ministry in New Testament Context cohorts.

Dr. Gupta has been teaching for more than a decade, is the author of the recent important study, Paul and the Language of Faith, and will be publishing a handful of books in 2020.

He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin for Biblical Research, Co-Editor of The Bible in God’s World series with Scot McKnight, and as a member of the Editorial Board of both Ex Auditu and and of the Biblical Interpretation Series.

He is a graduate of Miami of Ohio University, Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, and the University of Durham.

This accessible and balanced introduction helps readers sort out key views on the most important debated issues in New Testament studies. Well-known New Testament scholar Nijay Gupta fairly presents the spectrum of viewpoints on thirteen topics and offers reflections on why scholars disagree on these matters. Written to be accessible to students and readers without advanced training in New Testament studies, this book will serve as an excellent supplementary text for New Testament introduction courses. -From the Publisher

This book surveys the current landscape of New Testament studies, offering readers a concise guide to contemporary discussions. Bringing together a diverse group of experts, it covers research on the most important issues in New Testament studies, including new discipline areas, making it an ideal supplemental textbook for a variety of courses on the New Testament. Michael Bird, David Capes, Greg Carey, Lynn Cohick, Dennis Edwards, Michael Gorman, and Abson Joseph are among the contributors. -From the Publisher

Steve Cuss am a published Author of the book Managing Leadership Anxiety- Yours & Theirs and your host on the Managing Anxiety Podcast. I love leaders, and I see how much pressure they carry. My particular concern is to bring relief by equipping them with tools for individual and team health. I especially enjoy helping leaders break long stuck patterns in themselves and their organizations.

You Can Learn to Handle the Onslaught of Internal and External Pressures

Does anxiety get in the way of your ability to be an effective leader? Is your inability to notice when you and those around you are anxious keeping you “stuck” in chronic unhealthy patterns? In Managing Leadership Anxiety, pastor and spiritual growth expert Steve Cuss offers powerful tools to help you move from being managed by anxiety to managing anxiety.

You’ll develop the capacity to notice your anxiety and your group’s anxiety. You will increase your sensitivity to the way groups develop systemic anxiety that keeps them trapped. Your personal self-awareness will increase as you learn how self gets in the way of identifying and addressing issues.

Managing Leadership Anxiety offers valuable principles to those who are hungry to understand the source of the anxiety in themselves and in the people with whom they relate. Readers will be empowered to take back control of their lives and lead in mature and vibrant ways. -From the Publisher

I started buying medicines on (https://www.mcmedicalnj.com/prednisone) after the pandemic began. At first, it was a way to stay safe. But now, I can’t imagine myself going to a regular drugstore. Ordering medicines online turned out to be so convenient and easy that I wouldn’t change anything. Domain.com has proven many times that it’s worth my trust, and I appreciate that.

Pete Scazzero, after leading New Life Fellowship Church for 26 years, co-founded Emotionally Healthy Discipleship, a groundbreaking ministry that moves the church forward by slowing the church down in order to multiply deeply changed leaders and disciples.

Pete hosts the top-ranked Emotionally Healthy Leader podcast and is the author of a number of bestselling books, including The Emotionally Healthy Leader and Emotionally Healthy Spirituality. Pete and his wife Geri also developed The Emotionally Healthy Discipleship Course (Part 1 and 2), a powerful resource that moves people from a shallow to a deep relationship with Jesus.

For more information, visit emotionallyhealthy.org or connect with Pete on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram @petescazzero. Check out The Emotionally Healthy Leaders podcast here.

After being diagnosed as an epileptic, very few medications aid in warding off my seizures as Klonopin has. (https://www.glowdentaldallas.com/dental-services/clonazepam/) explained the positive and beneficial nature of Klonopin compared to other anticonvulsant medications in the benzodiazepine family. My primary care physician explained the possible side effects, but I rarely witnessed any other than the occasional drowsiness. Klonopin is a slam dunk, and it helps me live a normal life.

Pete and Geri remain vital members of New Life Fellowship Church in Queens, NY.

Many churches invest endless time and resources into discipleship, yet these efforts often do not produce deeply transformed disciples. Why? By exploring the systemic gaps that undermine effective growth and change, Peter Scazzero unpacks seven biblical themes to offer a clear vision of an emotionally healthy discipleship culture that will reshape the world. -From the Publisher

This week on Seminary Dropout…

Chris Rice has helped give birth to pioneering initiatives to renew Christian life and mission and to address social division in the U.S., East Africa, and Northeast Asia. His three award-winning books are Reconciling All Things (co-authored with Emmanuel Katongole), the memoir Grace Matters, and More Than Equals: Racial Healing for the Sake of the Gospel (co-authored with Spencer Perkins). His writing has appeared in Sojourners, Christianity Today, and the Christian Century.

Chris currently serves as Director of the Mennonite Central Committee United Nations Office in New York City.

Follow Chris on his blog at reconcilers.wordpress.com.

Chris’ books mentioned in this episode:

This week on Seminary Dropout…

A. J. Swoboda (PhD, University of Birmingham) is assistant professor of Bible, theology, and world Christianity at Bushnell University in Eugene, Oregon, and leads a Doctor of Ministry cohort on the Holy Spirit and leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including Subversive Sabbath, winner of a Christianity Today Book Award (Spiritual Formation) and an Award of Merit for CT’s Beautiful Orthodoxy Book of the Year. He speaks regularly at conferences, churches, camps, and retreats. Swoboda served for ten years as the lead pastor at Theophilus Church in urban Portland, is the founder and former director of Blessed Earth Northwest, and served as executive director of the Seminary Stewardship Alliance.

Check out his new podcast with previous Seminary Dropout guest Nijay Gupta, called In Faith and Doubt.

Follow A.J. on his website and on twitter. 

Is there a way to walk faithfully through doubt and come out the other side with a deeper love for Jesus, the church, and its tradition? Can we question our faith without losing it?

Award-winning author, pastor, and professor A. J. Swoboda has witnessed many young people wrestle with their core Christian beliefs. Too often, what begins as a set of critical and important questions turns to resentment and faith abandonment. Unfortunately, the church has largely ignored its task of serving people along their journey of questioning. The local church must walk alongside those who are deconstructing their faith and show them how to reconstruct it.

Drawing on his own experience of deconstruction, Swoboda offers tools to help emerging adults navigate their faith in a hostile landscape. Doubt is a part of our natural spiritual journey, says Swoboda, and deconstruction is a legitimate space to encounter the living God.

After Doubt offers a hopeful, practical vision of spiritual formation for those in the process of faith deconstruction and those who serve them. Foreword by pastor and author John Mark Comer. -From the Publisher

This Week on Seminary Dropout…

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.

Follow Marlena at marlenagraves.com

“Now, with God’s help, I shall become myself.” These words from Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard resonate deeply with Marlena Graves, a Puerto Rican writer, professor, and activist. In these pages she describes the process of emptying herself that allows her to move upward toward God and become the true self that God calls her to. Drawing on the rich traditions of Eastern and Western Christian saints, she shares stories and insights that have enlivened her transformation. For Marlena, formation and justice always intertwine on the path to a balanced life of both action and contemplation. If you long for more of God, this book offers a time-honored path to deeper life. -From the Publisher