The Faith & Work Podcast

SUMMARY 

Author Bruce Feiler claims that people experience 30 to 40 disruptors in their lives, which is about one every 12 to 18 months (Source). In todays conversation, we hear from authors Lisa Pratt Slayton and Michaela O'Donnell, PhD on the fluctuating aspects of life and how we can more mindfully and faithfully navigate change. Whether you're in a change in your life, just getting out of one or preparing to be in one, their new book Life In Flux is an essential resource for you as a faithful worker and leader which will prepare you with a set of navigational skills for the inner work that helps us be at home in flux.

HIGHLIGHTS 

On Waking Up Moments:

"There comes a moment… in which somewhere inside of us we realize: ‘What got us here is not going to get us to where we want to go on the way forward.’ That’s what waking up sounds like. ‘I don't want to keep doing this. I want to do it differently.’ These waking up moments, we are very prime to have them when life is in flux.”

On Using Your Navigational Skills:

“That’s the knee jerk [reaction], right? Is to just start running in circles. But if we stop and cut the engine, and listen and invite maybe a couple of people to listen with us, we start to see the signs and see the things and pay attention to what’s going on so that we can begin to make very small incremental steps. And that’s the work.”

• Life in Flux by Michaela O’Donnell and Lisa Pratt Slayton 

• Companion Resource: Navigating Change with the Enneagram

• Learn More about Lisa Pratt Slayton

• Learn More about Michaela O’Donnell

• In this episode, Lisa mentions “PLF” which stands for Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation

Summary 

On this episode of the Faith & Work Podcast, we learn about cultivating creativity and imagination from cartoonist Mike Maihack. Mike is best known for his series Cleopatra in Space, originally published by Scholastic and later adapted by Dreamworks into an animated show. Through our conversation, Mike shares some of the ways he views his creative work in light of the gospel, shares how he has navigated public criticism of content creation and recounts some of his own personal journey with being a cartoonist.

Highlights

On Superheroes and the Gospel:

“What I love about superheroes... is that there's these characters that have these immense abilities, these things that we can't even imagine being able do ourselves. And yet, instead of using these abilities for selfish purposes... They use it to do things that Jesus would do. They would help the poor. They would make sure they're saving those that cannot save themselves, they're sacrificing themselves. They're always looking at the greater good despite maybe the hurt that causes them. They're always looking at every single other person that they're around is a much greater person than themselves, despite them having these abilities."

On Making Beauty:

“My spiritual drive is God, he's a working God. He spent all this time creating us, creating the world. He is still working on it, and I want to please Him by cultivating that as much as I can. Really trying to contribute to that world, mak[ing] sure that world stays beautiful because I think that's the ultimate end goal right there, is to make sure this world is ready when a heavenly realm appears. And it is we're putting things in this world that he wants to see. And so that's sort of spiritually how I approach my work."

Resources

Download the episode transcript

• Instagram @mikemaihack

• Mike’s Website 

• Mike’s Graphic Novel Recommendations: 

  • Infinity Gauntlet 

  • Bone 

• Called To Create By Jordan Raynor

This episode concludes our AI Series on the intersection of AI and faith, theology and work. This episodes guest, Andy Crouch, is a partner for theology and culture at Praxis, a venture-building ecosystem advancing redemptive entrepreneurship. His writing explores faith, culture, and the image of God in the domains of technology, power, leadership, and the arts. He is the author of five books including, The Life We're Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World. Andy and Jeff discuss how AI can be used for redemptive purposes, and reflect on some best practices as the increased use of AI will impact our future.

Artificial Intelligence is here to stay, but will it ever be sophisticated enough to replace the human? What does it mean to be human?

Welcome to part two of our three-part AI Series on the intersection of AI and faith, theology and work. In this conversation we explore what it means to be human and how that definition challenges and interacts with Artificial Intelligence technology. Please enjoy this multi-faceted dialogue among host Jeff Hoffmeyer, speaker and writer in science and faith, Greg Cootsona, and Reuter professor and computer scientist Noreen Herzfeld, PhD.

Artificial Intelligence is inescapable in todays workforce and is impacting both the marketplace and the church in significant ways.

We begin this three-part series on the intersection of AI and faith, theology and work with a conversation between host Jeff Hoffmeyer and Stephen Presley. Stephen is an author, professor and senior fellow for Religion and Public Life at the Center for Religion Culture and Democracy. Together they discuss the importance of considering how AI is impacting our lives and our souls.

On efficiency and formation:

“One of my concerns is if we’re just trying to get better and better and better, what is it that we are trying to become? What kind of person, or what kind of people, is scripture calling us to be? Efficient is not the only virtue that scriptures are calling us to be.”

On how technology asks us to improvise:

"So our institutions are facing remodeling through a whole variety of technological advances, and that improvisation is built on the assumption, like I use the image of a jazz player, where only someone who is skilled in jazz can know how to pick up an instrument and just go. If I were to do it, it would not sound. Well, the assumption there is that it is Christian virtue, Christian mores, Christian assumptions that are guiding the performance. So I think the same needs to apply to any new technology, particularly the implementation of any sort of AI, AI programming or any of that that underneath it, you're still dealing with questions of virtue, questions of morality, questions of spiritual formation."

Download the episode transcript.

"Is AI Changing the Work of Pastors?" article in Common Good

More from Stephen Presley

• Stephen Presley's Website

• @sopresley on X

• @stopresley on Instagram

Recommended Further Reading

• The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

• Alone Together by Sherry Turkle

• Slow Productivity by Cal Newport 

• Stephen Presleys Recommended Readings

What are limiting beliefs and how do they affect my work? In this episode, Joanna Meyer talks with Charlena Ortiz, a life & business coach, writer, and the founder of Grit & Virtue. Together they discuss the importance of who we are as workers but also who we are as sons and daughters of Christ.

On limiting beliefs:

"I would say that limiting beliefs are our biggest enemy. Limiting beliefs often paralyze us from becoming who God has created us to be and from doing what God has created us to do."

On starting the process of identifying limiting beliefs:

"...it requires self-awareness. Sometimes we hear self-awareness just thrown out, but really, I would encourage every person listening to really peel back the layers of what it means to be self-aware. For me, journaling has been a great tool to help me become more self-aware of what's going on in my inner world. "

On choosing behaviors that lead to freedom:

"...when we can operate out of freedom and choose the behaviors and decisions out of our true identity, then we're able to move forward from that place [of limiting beliefs] and really know that freedom is something that is transformative and can only come from the father."

Learn more about Grit & Virtue and The Manifesto. You can also download our free Study on Calling. 

Download the episode transcript.

Summer is a great time to rest, enjoy the nice weather, and listen to your favorite podcasts. Tune into the Faith & Work Podcast as we kick off a four-part summer series featuring some of our best content filled with practical takeaways and great insights.

For our third encore episode this summer, we explore key questions about calling. How do we discover our calling? What's the difference between our occupation and our vocation? Can they even be the same thing?

This interview was recorded at one of Denver Institute's earliest events where author, educator, and organizational leader Steven Garber, joins us to talk about a broader vision for vocation.

Highlights

On exploring my calling:

"This question of 'my calling before God and service to the world' has to be marked by a deep honest sense of humility."

On vocation and occupation:

"I make a distinction between vocation and occupation: vocation is the deeper, longer word that makes sense of your life and mine. It's the deeper reality. It's the deeper story that makes sense of who you are, that makes sense of why you are different than your brother and your father and your best friend and your wife and your neighbor...Occupation is a word that gets at what I do day-by-day." 

On the tension of work:

"Everybody, everywhere has some sense of tension between what I think I was meant to do, what I really want to do, and what I have to do."

Resources

Download the episode transcript.

Denver Institute's FREE Downloadable Resource - “A Study On Calling”

More by Steve Garber:

Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good 

The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love and Learning, Worship and Work

Summer is a great time to rest, enjoy the nice weather, and listen to your favorite podcasts. Tune into the Faith & Work Podcast as we kick off a four-part summer series. In these episodes we will be featuring some of our best content filled with practical takeaways and great insights.

For our second conversation we hear from scholar and nonprofit leader Amy Sherman. Amy is a senior fellow at the Sagamore Institute, where she directs the Center for Faith in Communities. She is also the author of the book Agents of Flourishing: Pursuing Shalom in Every Corner of Society.

Summer is a great time to rest, enjoy the nice weather, and listen to your favorite podcasts. Tune into the Faith & Work Podcast as we kick off a four-part summer series. In these episodes we will be featuring some of our best content filled with practical takeaways and great insights.

To kickoff this series we will hear from Shundrawn Thomas, founder and managing partner of The Copia Group, a bespoke investing firm based in Chicago, IL. At the time of the interview, he served as the president and CEO of Northern Trust, a trillion-dollar global investment management business. He is also the author of the book Discovering Joy in Work: Transforming Your Occupation into your Vocation.

What bearing does our work have in light of eternity? How does our theology of heaven shape the way we show up to the needs of the world in the here and now?

Tune in to hear an honest and eye opening conversation with Jordan Raynor, author, speaker, and Executive Chairman of Threshold 360. In this conversation we discuss 'The Great Commission', Heaven, and Jordan's most recent book The Sacredness of Secular Work: 4 Ways Your Work Matters for Eternity (Even When You're Not Sharing The Gospel).

Resources:

Continue your learning, check out "The Gospel for Our Work" by Ryan Tafilowski.

Episode Note: Jordan Raynor referred to the "Romans Road" throughout this episode, which may not be familiar to all listeners. It is an evangelism method developed in 1970 by Dr. Jack Hyles that uses verses from the book of Romans to walk a person through the process of salvation. Learn more about the Romans Road today.