That Sounds Fun with Annie F. Downs

We’re going to keep talking about fasting today with my friend, Dr. Derwin Gray. He is the co-founding and Lead Pastor of Transformation Church, just outside of Charlotte, NC. 

We also talking about memorizing Scripture and what grace really looks like as we prepare for Holy Week. Head over to spirituallystronger.com after you listen because he also mentions “virtue ethics” today and I want us to talk about this some more and how it relates to spiritual disciplines. I’m really curious what you think.

View the show notes here

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NYTimes bestselling Christian author, speaker, and host of popular Christian podcast, That Sounds Fun Podcast, Annie F. Downs shares with you some of her favorite things: new books, faith conversations, entertainers not to miss, and interviews with friends.

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Today on the show, Eddie and I get to keep talking about the Winter Olympics (mountaineering is wild!), the latest wild west movie I’ve watched, snow skiing stories, the difference in weighing things vs measuring them, and what makes a good biscuit... and of course we're just adding to the list of what we want The Buddies Tour to look like! 

Plus, you’re not ready to hear Eddie’s new way of saying, “I have to use the restroom.” Things get a bit unhinged today. 

Have you gotten your tickets to The Buddies tour yet?! Eddie and I are coming to:

Keller (Fort Worth), Texas on Friday, May 15th

Colorado Springs, Colorado on Saturday, May 16th

Orlando, Florida on Friday, June 5th

Charlotte, North Carolina on Sunday, June 7th

Trussville (Birmingham), Alabama on Friday, June 12th

Nashville, TN on Saturday, June 13th

Y’all, this is going to be an actual blast. I hope these nights are just pure fun. Tickets are selling QUICKLY! Go to thebuddiestour.com We cannot wait to see you there!

IF YOU MAKE SOAP, please come tell us over on instagram at @thatsoundsfunpodcast or shoot us an email at [email protected].

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⁠Find the show notes here⁠

Want to watch this episode? Watch on your Spotify App, or head on over to our YouTube Channel and be sure to like and subscribe! 

We have a Substack now! Find it at spirituallystronger.com.

Sign up to receive the AFD Week In Review email and ask questions to future guests!

. . . . .

Thank you to our sponsors!

NYTimes bestselling Christian author, speaker, and host of popular Christian podcast, That Sounds Fun Podcast, Annie F. Downs shares with you some of her favorite things: new books, faith conversations, entertainers not to miss, and interviews with friends.

#thatsoundsfunpodcast

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It’s time to talk about fasting. Lisa Bevere is a spiritual mom to a lot of us and was the exact right person to help us kick off this conversation.

What I love about this conversation is how Lisa reframes fasting not as punishment or performance — but as invitation. As a way of intentionally making space for God to move in us and through us.

We talk about what fasting actually is — and what it isn’t. We talk about motives, about hunger (the physical and the spiritual kind), and about how fasting, when paired with prayer, can sharpen our awareness of God’s presence in everyday life. It’s practical and deeply spiritual at the same time. If fasting is something you’ve been curious about but never tried, we talk about some simple ways to start.

Head over to spirituallystronger.com after you listen as we process this together and give some questions to think through this week. Remember, this year we’re saying give us one hour a week listening to this episode and 10 minutes a day going through the Substack questions. We have loved this rhythm and love reading your comments each week!

Find the show notes here

. . . .

Thank you to our sponsors!

NYTimes bestselling Christian author, speaker, and host of popular Christian podcast, That Sounds Fun Podcast, Annie F. Downs shares with you some of her favorite things: new books, faith conversations, entertainers not to miss, and interviews with friends.

Sign up to receive the AFD Week In Review email and ask questions to future guests!

#thatsoundsfunpodcast

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My friend Jen Lilley is joining us today. She’s an actress, producer, storyteller, and just a total delight of a human. You may know her from Days of Our Lives, General Hospital, or Hallmark and Great American Family movies. But here’s what I really love about her: behind the film sets is a woman with a deep, vibrant, anchored faith. So, while we thought we were taking a break from our theme this week, what you’ll hear is a friend who is indeed Spiritually Strong.

Jen has written a 365-day devotional called Wake Up Your Faith that you absolutely want a copy of and in this conversation we get to beautifully usher in next week’s introduction to our next spiritual discipline: fasting.

Join us on Substack at spirituallystronger.com! 

Find the show notes here

. . . . 

Thank you to our sponsors!

NYTimes bestselling Christian author, speaker, and host of popular Christian podcast, That Sounds Fun Podcast, Annie F. Downs shares with you some of her favorite things: new books, faith conversations, entertainers not to miss, and interviews with friends.

Sign up to receive the AFD Week In Review email and ask questions to future guests!

#thatsoundsfunpodcast

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Matt Smallbone is the pastor of Church of the City’s downtown campus here in Nashville, and we’re continuing with a bit of a theme today as we talk again this week about The Lord’s Prayer. Every time we talk about it during this prayer series though, I feel like there’s something new to see and something deeper to understand. It’s wild how a prayer so familiar, so memorized, so repeated, can still surprise us.

Matt has written a brand new book called The Prayer Experiment that comes out in April and you’re going to love.

We're unpacking all of this over on spirituallystronger.com too, so please come join us as we process together over there!

Find the show notes here

. . . .

Thank you to our sponsors!

NYTimes bestselling Christian author, speaker, and host of popular Christian podcast, That Sounds Fun Podcast, Annie F. Downs shares with you some of her favorite things: new books, faith conversations, entertainers not to miss, and interviews with friends.

Sign up to receive the AFD Week In Review email and ask questions to future guests!

#thatsoundsfunpodcast

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Today Eddie and I get to keep talking about how much is going on in the world right now and just how hard it is for all of us to wrestle with it. We also talk about my ceiling falling in during the ice storm in Nashville! Our "7 minutes of serious" turned into closer to 47!

But don’t worry, we of course had to wrap things up by chatting for a bit about Oscar nominations, Zootopia 2, and the first movie we ever remember seeing.

Also...

THE BUDDIES TOUR DATES AND CITIES HAVE NOW BEEN ANNOUNCED!

We’re coming to:

And maybe more…stay tuned!

You can find the dates and details at thebuddiestour.com and because you’re a podcast listener you get pre-sale access to tickets TODAY!!! Just use the code BUDDIES and get your tickets at thebuddiestour.com. We cannot wait to see you there!

. . . . .

Find the show notes here

Want to watch this episode? Watch on your Spotify App, or head on over to our YouTube Channel and be sure to like and subscribe! 

We have a Substack now! Find it at spirituallystronger.com.

Sign up to receive the AFD Week In Review email and ask questions to future guests!

. . . . .

Thank you to our sponsors!

NYTimes bestselling Christian author, speaker, and host of popular Christian podcast, That Sounds Fun Podcast, Annie F. Downs shares with you some of her favorite things: new books, faith conversations, entertainers not to miss, and interviews with friends.

#thatsoundsfunpodcast

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you’ve ever felt stuck and don’t have the words to pray, or you’ve felt so discouraged or disoriented that you don’t know where to start, this conversation is for you. Brad Gray and Brad Nelson are both with the organization Walking the Text, where they help people understand the original meaning and context of Scripture. They’ve been friends for 25 years and have now gotten to work on a documentary, TV series, and book all around The Lord’s Prayer. Their depth of knowledge around Scripture is incredible and they’re helping us figure out how to use the Lord’s prayer in our daily rhythms with God. There are some really practical ways to do this that we talk about at the end and I think you’re going to want to get your note-taking pages ready.

We’re unpacking all of this over on spirituallystronger.com too, so please come join us!

Go grab your copy of Bringing Heaven Here and go watch The Lord’s Prayer! We have a free link: angel.com/annie OR you can find all of their resources at thelordsprayer.com.

Find the show notes here

. . . . .

Thank you to our sponsors!

NYTimes bestselling Christian author, speaker, and host of popular Christian podcast, That Sounds Fun Podcast, Annie F. Downs shares with you some of her favorite things: new books, faith conversations, entertainers not to miss, and interviews with friends.

Sign up to receive the AFD Week In Review email and ask questions to future guests!

#thatsoundsfunpodcast

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Y'all are going to LOVE this episode with my old friend Tim Timmons and my new friend, Milo Ventimiglia. You may know Milo from Gilmore Girls or This is Us, but he’s playing Tim Timmons in the brand new movie, I Can Only Imagine 2, which comes out TOMORROW! Go get your tickets, you’ve got to see this movie. 

Tim toured with Bart Millard and MercyMe, and this movie tells the story of how Tim unknowingly brought renewed gratitude to Bart’s life through their friendship—and the powerful lessons of grief and gratitude we learn through Tim’s journey with terminal cancer.

You’re also going to hear the incredible new but lifelong friendship that’s been created between Milo and Tim as Milo researched his life and got to know him in order to play this role. It’s really incredible to see.

Tim also has a book coming out on March 3 called Waking Up Again, so preorder your copy so you have it the day it comes out!

Find the show notes here

. . . .

Thank you to our sponsors!

NYTimes bestselling Christian author, speaker, and host of popular Christian podcast, That Sounds Fun Podcast, Annie F. Downs shares with you some of her favorite things: new books, faith conversations, entertainers not to miss, and interviews with friends.

Sign up to receive the AFD Week In Review email and ask questions to future guests!

#thatsoundsfunpodcast

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Lauren Tomlin is a PRAYER WARRIOR which is why I called her for this series, because I wanted a friend to sit down with me and really talk about how to pray. 

If you’ve ever wondered if God actually hears you when you pray or if you can trust what you hear from God when you pray, this conversation is for you.

If you feel overwhelmed by all of the hard happening around us, we’re going to talk about how to pray. If you’ve wondered how to discern what God’s telling you, we’re going there too. And if you just need a minute to sit with God, Lauren’s going to lead us through a guided prayer at the very end. I don’t want you to miss it.

Find the show notes here

 . . . .

Thank you to our sponsors!

NYTimes bestselling Christian author, speaker, and host of popular Christian podcast, That Sounds Fun Podcast, Annie F. Downs shares with you some of her favorite things: new books, faith conversations, entertainers not to miss, and interviews with friends.

Sign up to receive the AFD Week In Review email and ask questions to future guests!

#thatsoundsfunpodcast

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Here is PART 2 of our episode with Lauren and Thomas Rhett Akins. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to part 1, go back and do that first before you listen to this episode. I want you to get the full story of what God’s been doing in their lives over the last year.

They continue the story of moving their family to Uganda for 6 weeks. They were obedient in saying yes to God, and yet it was not the perfect trip tied up with a bow. There are still questions they have for God they may never get answers to, but I hope you’ll listen for the thread of God’s nearness through it all. You may not be sent to Africa for 6 weeks, but where do you see God continuing to ask you to trust Him even when it doesn’t make sense? Where have you experienced His nearness when everything around you felt hard?

Don’t miss the conversation and processing we’re going over on Substack this week either. I think the questions we’re asking each day this week will really help you look for the places God’s asking for obedience in your own life. You can find all of that spirituallystronger.com.

If you have any questions from this episode drop them in the Q&A box on your Spotify app if you’re a Spotify listener, or send them to us on instagram at @thatsoundsfunpodcast and we’ll try to answer them there!

Find the show notes here

 . . . .

Thank you to our sponsors!

NYTimes bestselling Christian author, speaker, and host of popular Christian podcast, That Sounds Fun Podcast, Annie F. Downs shares with you some of her favorite things: new books, faith conversations, entertainers not to miss, and interviews with friends.

Sign up to receive the AFD Week In Review email and ask questions to future guests!

#thatsoundsfunpodcast

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