The Distillery

In this episode, Angela talks with Sushama Austin-Connor about her research on joy and her book The Gravity of Joy: A Story of Being Lost and Found. They consider how we can study joy with a theological lens, how our emotions are always teaching us something, and how joy is a realization of relatedness and connection.

Dr. Angela Williams Gorrell is an ordained pastor and assistant professor of practical theology at Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary. Prior to joining the faculty at Baylor, she was an Associate Research Scholar at the Yale Center for Faith & Culture, working on the Theology of Joy and the Good Life Project, and a lecturer in Divinity and Humanities at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. She received both her Ph.D. in Practical Theology and MDiv at Fuller Theological Seminary, and her BA in Youth Ministry at Azusa Pacific University. She is the author of a new book, The Gravity of Joy: A Story of Being Lost and Found, which shares findings of the joy project while addressing America’s opioid and suicide crises. 

Joni Sancken is an assistant professor of homiletics at United Theological Seminary, and author of Words That Heal: Preaching Hope to Wounded Souls. In this episode, Sushama Austin-Connor talks with Joni about her expertise in preaching and her personal experience of trauma, sharing ways for the Church to become a place that welcomes expressions of trauma and offers love, care, and healing to survivors.

Joni Sancken is an ordained pastor with Mennonite Church USA and has served as a pastor in Mennonite congregations in Indiana and Pennsylvania. Her credentials are currently held by Virginia Conference. She received her PhD from Toronto School of Theology (2009), MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary (2004), and BA from Goshen College (1998). Prior to joining the faculty at United, she served as Assistant Professor of Preaching and Practical Theology at Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Harrisonburg, VA, where she also served as the director of their Preaching Institute. Joni also served as a sessional faculty member at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary and Candler School of Theology as a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University.

Tim Soerens is a pastor and author of the new book Everywhere You Look: Discovering the Church Right Where You Are.  In this episode, hear Tim talk with Dayle Rounds about why he feels hopeful about the American church and what he thinks the church might be called to do in this particular season of the pandemic. They discuss how the church might come to see its purpose not as creating God’s mission but joining it.

Tim Soerens is the co-founding director of the Parish Collective, a growing network and global movement of Christians reimagining what it means to be the Church in, with, and for the neighborhood.  His latest book is called “Everywhere You Look: Discovering the Church, Right Where You Are”.  His co-authored first book “The New Parish: How Neighborhood Churches Transform Mission, Discipleship, and Community (Intervarsity Press, 2014) won multiple awards, including Christianity Today’s award of merit. Tim has launched multiple sold-out conferences including the Inhabit Conference, New Parish Conference UK, Conspire Gathering, and Neighborhood Economics Conference. He also co-founded Neighborhood Economics to catalyze entrepreneurship as a path to wealth for marginalized communities which has helped to raise over 3 million dollars. A popular speaker, Tim has spoken to a broad cross-section of organizations and denominations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Closer to home, he and his wife are helping to start South Park Neighborhood Church and are co-founding owners of Resistencia Coffee, a neighborhood coffee shop, as well as the South Park Idea Lab. He lives in Seattle, WA with his wife Coté and their sons Lukas and Joaquín.

Annie Lockhart-Gilroy speaks on how we can nurture a “sanctified imagination.” In this episode, you will hear Shari Oosting talk with Annie about her book, Nurturing the Sanctified Imagination of Urban Youth. They discuss what it looks like to do ministry in an urban setting and how we might prepare urban youth for a future that is designed in partnership with God.

Rev. Annie A. Lockhart-Gilroy, Ph.D. is a scholar in Christian education and practical theology with a focus on youth ministry and emancipatory pedagogy.  She has taught students on many levels from middle school to doctoral students. She has worked with youth as a teacher, coach, youth minister, and Christian educator for almost two decades. She earned her PhD. in Christian Education and Congregational Studies from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and her M.Div. (’05) from Princeton Theological Seminary. Her teaching and research interests include: womanist approaches to working with Black girls, emancipatory pedagogy, faith and developmental theories, and ministry to, with, and for, youth and young adults. She is currently assistant professor of Christian education and practical theology at Phillips Theological Seminary, and author of Nurturing the Sanctified Imagination in Urban Youth (Urban Loft Publishing). 

In Season 5 we’ll consider the relationship between despair and joy, hear the story of one man's life of ministry working to free those who are wrongly imprisoned, and learn to spark hope and possibility in the future of urban youth and their communities by creating space for sanctified imagination. We'll explore why congregations feel pressure from the speed of change in contemporary life, discuss the Church's calling to join God's redemptive mission and to discover how preaching can help people be agents of redemptive interruption. 

The first episode of the season will air on Friday, May 7, 2021. We hope you'll join us!

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Creative expression can be a powerful aid in helping to move across differences. In this episode, Lakisha Lockhart shares how modes of play can be used as a pedagogical resource for theological education and how engaging in embodied experiences and cultural expressions are seen and valued.

The Distillery is a podcast that explores the essential ingredients of book and research projects with experts in their field of study. Learn what motivates their work and why it matters for Christian theology and ministry.   

GUEST: Lakisha Lockhart

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