space for faith with mike goldsworthy

AJ Sherrill is the Lead Pastor at St Peter's Church in Charleston, South Carolina. He's the author of The Enneagram for Spiritual Formation and the upcoming Being With God. 

AJ and I talk about the Enneagram and spiritual disciplines, seeing the whole of life as available to be a part of our process of formation, contemplative practices, neurology, moving from the reactive brain, how to start dipping our toes in contemplative practices and how pastors could start allowing space for awkwardness in the church experience in order to to create space for a contemplative journey. 

Find AJ and his upcoming Instagram Lives that he mentions in the episode at @aj_sherrill

Steve Wiens is a spiritual teacher, writer, and pastor who loves helping people reconstruct their faith after their theological foundations have crumbled. His ecumenical and imaginative approach to spiritual development encourages people to let their deep questions lead the way into new and expansive understandings of God, themselves, and the world in which they live.

We have a great conversation about why he doesn't want to be my friend, deconstruction, and reconstruction of faith, and why our practices matter in that process, Meister Eckhart's pathless path, contemplative spirituality, and being able to hold non-defensive conversations. Steve's a gift and I think you're going to really appreciate him. 

• Get Steve's book Shining Like the Sun here

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Check out information about the gathering of Post-Evangelical Pastors and Leaders in October here

Dr. Richard Beck joins us to talk about his latest book, Hunting Magic Eels, which I have been regularly recommending to folks.

If you're not familiar with Beck, he is an Experimental Psychologist who often writes in a way that intersects psychology (and particularly existential psychology) and theology. His books have been profoundly meaningful for me. 

We talk about recapturing enchantment in our faith, viewing science through the lens of mysticism, belief as an issue of attention, and leaning into the traditions of the liturgical, contemplative, charismatic and celtic. 

Follow Richard's Blog 

Buy Hunting Magic Eels

Find More Information about the Post-Evangelical Pastor and Leader Gathering Mentioned At the Top of the Podcast

Winn Collier was the founding pastor of All Souls Charlottesville in Virginia. He now directs the Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination at Western Theological Seminary in Michigan. Winn’s newest book, a biography on Eugene Peterson, called “A Burning in My Bones” comes out on March 23. 

Winn and I talk about how Eugene moved from being a competitive pastor to a contemplative one, how theology can’t be separated from geography, creating space to not have the clarity that we often want, and recapturing imagination.  

One of the people I regret I never got to spend time with before they passed was Eugene Peterson. His wisdom, the way he lived his life, the way he pastored have all significantly affected me, especially in the past decade. I was so glad to get a bit more of a picture of who Eugene was and how he lived from Winn’s book. I seriously can’t wait for you to be able to get your hands on it

Books mentioned:

A Burning in My Bones by Winn Collier

Run With The Horses by Eugene Peterson

Reversed Thunder by Eugene Peterson

Take and Read - Eugene Peterson’s Annotated Biography

Jonathan Merritt joins us on the podcast to talk about a myriad of things. We spend time reflecting on his Tiny Diary readings, a healthier engagement with social media, the Post-Evangelical Church, a faith that moves from closed to open, engaging with others who seem to be living in a different reality now, and why I want to become best friends with Beth Moore. 

Jonathan is one of America’s most trusted and popular writers on religion, culture, and politics. He is an award-winning contributor for The Atlantic, a contributing editor for The Week, and is author of several critically-acclaimed books including Learning to Speak God from Scratch: Why Sacred Words are Vanishing - and How We Can Revive Them.  He’s also one of my favorite people to talk to and learn from.

Find Jonathan at

His website

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

Good Shepherd New York

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If you’re a church leader or pastor who feels ecclesiologically  homeless and want to connect, I’d love to get to know you. Please shoot me a note at [email protected]

If you’d like to contribute with a tax deductible donation to the work I’m doing, particularly with the Post-Evangelical Church, you can make a check out to “WE Ministries”

And mail it to:

Mike Goldsworthy

Today, Michael Hidalgo, the patriarch of the post-evangelical church joins us as we talk about his faith journey, Dallas Willard, being mentored by Ed Dobson, a posture of curiosity, creating true unity in the church in the midst of tension and the cohorts that he and I will be helping to lead next year for those who find themselves ecclesiologically homeless.

A few links mentioned:

Michael Hidalgo

Denver Community Church

The Changing Faith Podcast

If you're a church leader or pastor who feels ecclesiologically  homeless and want to connect, I'd love to get to know you. Please shoot me a note at [email protected] 

At the end of the podcast I share again briefly about my work with Post Evangelical Churches, and how I’m currently raising half of my salary and expenses for the next two years in order to help connect, resource and catalyze what’s happening in this movement.

If you’d want to talk about what I’m doing, you can reach out to [email protected]

If you’d like to contribute with a tax deductible donation, you can make a check out to “WE Ministries”

And mail it to:

Mike Goldsworthy

Today we get to hear from Justin Morgan who leads Church on Morgan (which, I promise is not named after him). 

We talk about how the church calendar helped to ground him, the ways they're thinking about growing the church smaller rather than bigger and being a church that wakes people up to the beauty of God and each other.

Check out Church on Morgan on their Instagram or join their service online on Sundays

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At the end of the podcast I share again briefly about my work with Post Evangelical Churches, and how I’m currently raising half of my salary and expenses for the next two years in order to help connect, resource and catalyze what’s happening in this movement.

If you’d want to talk about what I’m doing, you can reach out to [email protected]

If you’d like to contribute with a tax deductible donation, you can make a check out to “WE Ministries”

And mail it to:

Mike Goldsworthy