The Next Step Podcast

In this episode of the Next Step Podcast, Conrad Gempf joins Justin Rossow to talk about Chapter 9: Joy to the World from the resource Light in the Darkness: A Hymn Journal for Advent & Christmas.

After a brief introduction and an opening prayer, you'll hear Conrad and Justin read the selected Scripture 87. As part of the ensuing discussion, Justin will read the devotion "Nor Thorns Infest the Ground" on page 88.

After we listen to the Brooke and Brenan arrangement of this chapter's featured hymn, Conrad and Justin will discuss the hymn text and the theology of Jesus' first Advent in light of His second Advent.

Two recent blogs from The Next Step Community continue the theme of today's discussion:

When Joy to the World Comes True, and

If you enjoyed hearing Conrad today, you might want to check out the free audio recording of his book Jesus Asked: What He Wanted to Know at http://gempf.com/wp/jesus-asked-the-podcast/.

Conrad has also appeared in podcast episodes for the last two hymn journals from Next Step Press: 

Ride On, Ride On in Majesty and I Am Trusting Thee, Lord Jesus.

This podcast is designed especially to go with the Light in the Darkness Facebook learning community sponsored by Next Step Press. Join us at https://www.facebook.com/groups/AdventHymnJournal.

This episode of the Next Step Podcast was supported in part by the generosity of Next Step Patrons.  Please consider becoming a Next Step Patron for 2021. To see different options for support, visit https://www.patreon.com/findmynextstep, or email [email protected] to make a one-time gift. Thank you to all of our Patrons! Patrons make it possible.

The intro and outro music for Season 3: Light in the Darkness was arranged and performed by Brendan Knorp. The music included in the podcast was written and performed by Brooke and Brendan. All rights reserved.

The A Light in the Darkness CD from Brooke and Brendan is now available on your favorite streaming services as well as on YouTube.

In this episode of the Next Step Podcast, Pastor Jeff Meyer joins author Justin Rossow to talk about Chapter 7: Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence  from the resource Light in the Darkness: A Hymn Journal for Advent & Christmas.

After a brief introduction and an opening prayer, you'll hear Justin pray and Jeff read the Isaiah 6 passage on page 67. After exploring those verses further, Justin will read the devotion "Veil Their Faces to the Presence" on page 68.

After we listen to the Brooke and Brenan arrangement of this chapter's featured hymn, Jeff and Justin will discuss the hymn text and then turn to the  faith experiment on page 70. In the course of that conversation, you'll hear Jeff cite Zechariah's song in Luke 1:

"...that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days."

As part of that discussion, you'll hear the motto of Jeff's Dream Accelerator: "Move Forward Anyway." You can learn more at www.jeffmeyer.org. Justin also refer to Jeff's book, Fear Not, Dream Big, & Execute as the two talk what next step Jesus might be inviting them to take in the new year.

If you would like to read (and hear) more about Isaiah 6 and the Holy, Holy, Holy (or "Sanctus") that we sing during the communion liturgy, check out this post from justinrossow.com: The Sanctus and Metaphor Theory.

Jeff Meyer also appeared on a recent episode of the Next Step Podcast that looked more in-depth at providing unifying congregational leadership from the pulpit: Direction, Alignment, and Your Preaching Ministry Post-Covid.

This podcast is designed especially to go with the Light in the Darkness Facebook learning community sponsored by Next Step Press. Join us at https://www.facebook.com/groups/AdventHymnJournal.

Getting ready for Christmas and the New Year is a great time for you to make a commitment to the mission of resourcing next step discipleship. Please consider becoming a Next Step Patron today. To see different options for support, visit https://www.patreon.com/findmynextstep. Patrons make it possible.

The intro and outro music for Season 3: Light in the Darkness was arranged and performed by Brendan Knorp. The music included in the podcast was written and performed by Brooke and Brendan. All rights reserved.

The A Light in the Darkness CD from Brooke and Brendan is now available on your favorite streaming services as well as on YouTube.

In this episode of the Next Step Podcast, artist Deanna Rossow and author Heidi Goehmann join Justin Rossow to talk about the text, and the art, and the "Wrapping Up Feat" faith experiment in Chapter 5: Noel from the resource Light in the Darkness: A Hymn Journal for Advent & Christmas.

After a brief introduction and an opening prayer, Deanna will read the Luke passages on page 47 of the hymn journal. After thinking through these stories of Good News and fear, Justin will read the devotion on page 48.

The featured song for this chapter is "Noel," performed by Brooke and Brendan. Once we have listen to the first two verses and heard the phrase, "Peace fall on you," in the lyrics, Justin and Deanna discuss the "Peace fall on you" illustration on page 45.

As the podcast turns to the Wrapping Up Fear Prayer Experiment that begins on page 50, Justin welcomes our second guest. Heide Goehmann from heidigoehmann.com is an author, deaconess, and licensed clinical social worker. Her forthcoming book is called Finding Hope: From Brokenness to Restoration.

Heidi and Justin talk about the kinds of emotions you might feel around the holidays, the complicated mix of comfortable and uncomfortable feelings. They talk about the Payer Experiment and the concept of acknowledging your emotions and entrusting them to Jesus.

Once we have heard from Heidi about processing our emotions, we get to hear more from the illustrator about what she was thinking when she put this prayer experiment down on paper.

You may recognize page 51 as a modified version of a Secret Code Prayer, with a slightly different focus and function. Justin mentions an article on visual prayer by Katie Helmreich as part of the inspiration for this faith experiment. Katie tells the story of her young daughter imaginatively "trapping" the monsters or bugs she sketches by circling them on her piece of pager. Visual prayer can help you do something like that with the prayer requests that seem difficult to corral.

Getting ready for Christmas and the New Year is a great time for you to make a commitment to the mission of resourcing next step discipleship. Please consider becoming a Next Step Patron today. To see different options for support, visit https://www.patreon.com/findmynextstep. Patrons make it possible.

The A Light in the Darkness CD from Brooke and Brendan is now available on your favorite streaming services as well as on YouTube.

In this episode of the Next Step Podcast, musician Brendan Knorp and Visual Faith™ Ministry Artist Ann Gillaspie join author Justin Rossow to talk about the text, the music, and the art in Chapter 3: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel from the resource Light in the Darkness: A Hymn Journal for Advent & Christmas.

Before this episode gets quite off the ground, Justin gets to ask Brendan about the origins of the A Light in the Darkness CD, now available on your favorite streaming services as well as on YouTube. It turns out, Brooke and Brendan have been making Advent music together for years!

As part of that introduction, you'll also hear Brendan talk about his role in formatting the hymn and songs for the Hymn Journal series from Next Step Press and how meaningful it was to see his work on music layout become the backdrop for artwork in our online community.

After that opening discussion, Justin will pray and Brendan will read the Zephaniah 3 passage on page 25 of the hymn journal. Zephaniah 3 is a key verse for Chapter 7 of the book Delight! Discipleship as the Adventure of Loving and Being Loved by Justin Rossow. You can hear the author read that chapter, titled "He Will Rejoice Over You With Singing," beginning with the podcast Songs of Belonging.

Ann, Brendan, and Justin will highlight some of their take-aways from that Zephaniah 3 reading before Justin turns the page to the devotion, titled "Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel."

After we listen to the first two verses of the song "Emmanuel" from Brooke and Brendan, Justin gets to ask some more specific questions about the development of this song and it's unique guitar accompaniment.  Brendan mentions the unique guitar tuning required by the piece (available here for those interested) and talks a little but about how the song evolved over the years, mentioning a recent video of Emmanuel.

After we hear the last verse of the song, Justin and Ann explore about the O Antiphon Bible Margins project starting on page 29 of the hymn journal. This isn't the first time Ann has brought her gift for Bible Margins to a hymn journal. You can read more about how you might use or adapt this faith practice in Ann's blog, "Bible Margin Art: Comfort in the Midst of Crisis."

To see different options for support, visit https://www.patreon.com/findmynextstep. Patrons make it possible.

In this episode of the Next Step Podcast, singer/songwriter Brooke Orozco and Visual Faith™ Ministry Artist Katie Helmreich join author Justin Rossow to talk about the text, the music, and the art in Chapter 1: To Us from the resource Light in the Darkness: A Hymn Journal for Advent & Christmas.

After a brief introduction, Justin will pray and Katie and Brooke will read the Isaiah 9 passage on page 5 of the book. After discussing those verses, Justin will read the devotion on page 6, and we'll hear the first two verses of the song "To Us" performed by Brooke Orozco and Brendan Knorp.

Brooke will then talk a little bit about the song and the process that moved from the biblical text to the song lyrics. We'll listen to the rest of the song before talking to Katie Helmreich about her illustrations on page 9 and the process that led her from the biblical text to the art on page 3.

Along the way, the guests talk about the Jesse Tree project from Visual Faith™ Ministry. You can download that resource here or watch an interview with Katie and Valerie Matyas, two of our Ponder Anew illustrators who created the Jesse Tree project.

They also mention the book Delight! Discipleship as the Adventure of Loving and Being Loved. The song "To Us" is part of the album A Light in the Darkness available on your favorite streaming services as well as on YouTube.

Before the podcast ends, you will hear our guest consider what next step Jesus is inviting them to take as they walk toward the Nativity of Our Lord.

This podcast is designed especially to go with the Light in the Darkness Facebook learning community sponsored by Next Step Press. Join us at https://www.facebook.com/groups/AdventHymnJournal.

Getting ready for Christmas and the New Year is a great time for you to make a commitment to the mission of resourcing next step discipleship. Please consider becoming a Next Step Patron today. To see different options for support, visit https://www.patreon.com/findmynextstep. Patrons make it possible.

The intro and outro music for Season 3: Light in the Darkness was arranged and performed by Brendan Knorp. The music included in the podcast was written by Brooke Orozco and performed by Brooke and Brendan. All rights reserved.

This special episode of the Next Step Podcast captures a conversation between Rev. Sam Fink, Associate Pastor at St. John's Lutheran Church in Orchard Park, New York and Rev. Justin Rossow, founder of Next Step Press.

These two preachers will discuss how to live out the ideas in a recent blog about taking some of your sermon content and putting it out into various communication channels during the week. You preach a shorter Sunday sermon, but get more chances to see the Word active Monday through Saturday. It's the difference between trying to load up on a Sunday buffet and making a meal plan for the whole week.

Sam will talk about some of the changes their congregation went through because of Covid and share some of the experiments their staff is running, and hoping to run, when it comes to getting the Word into their community beyond Sunday.

This podcast is one example of hitting multiple communication streams with content that is thematically related. You can see some of the Taking Worship Into Your Week resources Justin mentions at https://community.findmynextstep.org/tag/table-talk/.  

You can read the whole blog series and listen to other, related podcasts, beginning with https://community.findmynextstep.org/weekly-meal-plan-not-sunday-buffet/.

This recording was made possible in part by the generous support of Next Step Patrons. If now is the right time for you to make a commitment to the mission of resourcing next step discipleship, please consider becoming a Next Step Patron today. To see different options for support, visit https://www.patreon.com/findmynextstep.

Welcome to Season 3 of the Next Step Podcast, where we help you take a next step! Season 3 is dedicated to exploring the resource Light in the Darkness: A Hymn Journal for Advent & Christmas from Next Step Press.

In this episode, lead illustrator Valerie Matyas joins author Justin Rossow to give an overview of Light in the Darkness and a closer look at the introduction. You’ll hear Justin read the Author’s Note on page ii, and you’ll hear Valerie read part of her introduction that begins on page iii. The two discuss the Advent and Christmas calendars included in the book and how these devotional tools can help you keep your eyes open for what Jesus is doing in your life as you journey toward Christmas and into the New Year.

You can see a version of that introduction, including a free download of the Advent calendar, on the Next Step Community blog at https://community.findmynextstep.org/advent2020/.

Along the way you will also get to hear Brooke Orozco and Brendan Knorp perform the title song from the hymn journal, “Light in the Darkness.” Brooke and Brendan have recorded modern arrangements of all of the hymns and carols in this hymn journal, and even added three new compositions to the mix.

Before they are through, you’ll hear Justin give a brief description of “Advent” and “Epiphany,” and Valerie give her best advice for getting the most out of your hymn journal.

This podcast is designed especially to go with the Light in the Darkness Facebook learning community sponsored by Next Step Press. Join us at https://www.facebook.com/groups/AdventHymnJournal.

Getting ready for Christmas and the New Year is a great time for you to make a commitment to the mission of resourcing next step discipleship. Please consider becoming a Next Step Patron today. To see different options for support, visit https://www.patreon.com/findmynextstep. Patrons make it possible.

The intro and outro music for Season 3: Light in the Darkness was arranged and performed by Brendan Knorp. The music included in the podcast was written by Brooke Orozco and performed by Brooke and Brendan. All rights reserved.

This special episode of the Next Step Podcast captures a conversation between Rev. Jeff Meyer, pastor, author, coach, and consultant, and Rev. Justin Rossow, the founder of Next Step Press.

These two preachers will discuss how to live out the ideas in a recent blog about using your preaching ministry as a compass to set direction rather than adding just one more paddle to a canoe. How can you add freedom and energy by measuring more than activity and bring alignment to your ministry areas?

You'll hear Justin refer to Jeff's book, Fear Not, Dream Big, & Execute as the two talk about mission creep and the power of measuring more than just activity. You can learn more about setting a clear direction for your congregation at www.jeffmeyer.org.

This podcast is one example of hitting multiple communication streams with content that is thematically related. Read the whole blog series, below.

Episode 24, Season 4 of the Next Step podcast covers the rest of the last chapter, "Living With Delight" from the book Delight! Discipleship as the Adventure of Loving and Being Loved by Justin Rossow.

How do you take a small next step in the right direction when you live in a performance-driven culture? How do you trad in your Spiritual GPA for a Spiritual GPS?

Thanks so much for taking this journey of discovery with us. Please share your best words of insight, encouragement, or advice: https://www.videoask.com/fc14pikzh.

You can see all of the readings from Delight! on the Next Step Community Facebook page. Find out more about the book or get a copy for yourself or for a friend (use this link to support Next Step Press): https://amzn.to/2ZuVC1E.

If you already have a copy of the book and would like to add a five star rating or add your own review, you can go directly to Amazon's review page for Delight! You can find other books by author Justin Rossow at his Amazon author's page.

Support the mission of resourcing next step discipleship by becoming a Next Step Patron today. To see different options for support, visit https://www.patreon.com/findmynextstep.

We follow Jesus better when we follow Him together, so we invite you to join The Next Step Community Facebook group and share your experience with the Delight! book. We'd love to hear from you at Next Step Press.

The newest addition to the Next Step Press suite of resource, Light in the Darkness, has become the #1 New Release in the Amazon category of Christian Hymns and Hymnals. Discover more at the  Light in the Darkness page.

Episode 23, Season 4 of the Next Step podcast covers the first half of the last chapter, "Living With Delight" from the book Delight! Discipleship as the Adventure of Loving and Being Loved by Justin Rossow.

Delight is one of the most vulnerable emotions; and vulnerability is the birthplace of joy, belonging, and delight. How do you live with the healthy vulnerability that leads to a faith life characterized by delight?

You can see all of the readings from Delight! on the Next Step Community Facebook page. Find out more about the book or get a copy for yourself or for a friend (use this link to support Next Step Press): https://amzn.to/2ZuVC1E.

If you already have a copy of the book and would like to add a five star rating or add your own review, you can go directly to Amazon's review page for Delight! You can find other books by author Justin Rossow at his Amazon author's page.

Support the mission of resourcing next step discipleship by becoming a Next Step Patron today. To see different options for support, visit https://www.patreon.com/findmynextstep.

We follow Jesus better when we follow Him together, so we invite you to join The Next Step Community Facebook group and share your experience with the Delight! book. We'd love to hear from you at Next Step Press.

The newest addition to the Next Step Press suite of resource, Light in the Darkness, has become the #1 New Release in the Amazon category of Christian Hymns and Hymnals. Discover more at the  Light in the Darkness page.