The Pocket Contemplative

The Pocket Contemplative

By [email protected] (Dave Schmelzer)Religion & Spirituality
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The Pocket Contemplative episodes

  • Episode 122: A Renewed Evangelicalism (with Doug Pagitt)

    Doug Pagitt just finished a remarkable, pre-midterms bus tour--that was covered by the New York Times and the USA Today and other media outlets--called Vote Common Good. His idea? To tour red states in order to call his fellow evangelicals back to their faith and away from the madness of--for, they say, religious reasons--supporting Donald Trump and his candidates. Doug talks passionately with Ryan Bauers and Dave Schmelzer about the need for faithful progressive evangelicals to get their voice into the public sphere. 

    Mentioned in Today's Podcast:

    What I'm Into:
    "Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War" by Paul Simon
    59 min
  • Episode 121: Ken Wilber's Take on Trump and Liberals

    Ken Wilber is a popular theorist for some in the post-evangelical crowd. He has a fascinating theory of the evolution of consciousness that has overlap with the Stage Theory we talk about here. And he wrote a book called Trump and a Post-Truth World where he applies his theory of consciousness to how we got to a Trump, post-truth presidency. (Spoiler: He lays a good deal of the blame on liberals and offers a clarion call to liberals about what leadership might look like.) It makes for a dynamic conversation between Ryan Bauers and Dave Schmelzer.

    Mentioned in Today's Podcast:

    • Blue Ocean Faith's "Giving Tuesday"
  • Trump and a Post-Truth World, by Ken Wilber

    • What I'm Into:

    • The Borowitz Report
    38 min
  • Encore Episode: On Being Single in Churches
    Being single and being a regular churchgoer has famous challenges--for just one example, married pastors and leaders sometimes forget that you also exist within the church. In this Thanksgiving week encore podcast, Dave Schmelzer, Val Snekvik and Tom Wassink are joined by Arianne Graham and Colin Leydon to talk about an America that has just recently tipped so that more than half of adults are single.
    50 min
  • Episode 120: Francine Kiefer on the Midterms

    Francine Kiefer, the congressional correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor, has been our unofficial political pastor over the life of this podcast. On this, her fourth visit with us, she gives Dave Schmelzer and Ryan Bauers political and cultural perspective even as she dances a victory dance that her previous prediction that we could trust democracy to work seems to be bearing out.

    Mentioned in Today's Podcast:

     

    • Blue Ocean Faith's "Giving Tuesday"
  • Francine Kiefer at The Christian Science Monitor

    •  

    38 min
  • Episode 119 - Experiencing Jesus in Threatening Territories
    Blue Ocean Faith published perspectives several years back as a way of helping people understand its vibe, one of which was "We've found Jesus to be a particularly helpful North Star." Ryan Bauers, Dave Schmelzer and Christina Roberts talk about how a focus on Jesus might play out in the sometimes unsettling places that accompany an ongoing, often uncertain life of faith. 
     
    Mentioned in Today's Podcast
    • Carl Meaderis
    28 min
  • Episode 118: As We Change and Grow, Does the Bible?

    Christina Roberts, Ryan Bauers and Dave Schmelzer have all changed and grown in their experience of faith. The Bible was a fixed anchor of a certain sort earlier in their journey. What sort of benefits and challenges does it offer further down the road?

    Mentioned in Today's Podcast 

    Books:

    • Peter Enns: The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It
  • Jesus and Empire: The Kingdom of God and the New World Disorder
  • Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels

    • Podcasts:

    • The Pete Enns Podcast

    What I'm Into:

    • Netflix: The Haunting of Hill House

     

    44 min
  • Episode 117: Riskiness as Your Path to Joy
    A key part of Blue Ocean Faith's perspective on life is that, like Abraham in the Hebrew Bible, our most direct path to what our life is meant to be about comes through a "hero's journey." But it feels risky! Or it feels hard to figure out what it might look like on an ordinary day! Christina Roberts, Ryan Bauers and Dave Schmelzer explore this in a lively conversation. 
     
    Mentioned in Today's Podcast:
     
    • The Hero's Journey and a Fresh Christianity, Part 1
  • The Hero's Journey and a Fresh Christianity, Part 2
  • The Hero's Journey and a Fresh Christianity, Part 3
  • The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling, by Stephen Cope

    • What I'm Into

    • A Scary Time, by Lynzy Lab
     
     
    35 min
  • Episode 116: A Torrent of Fresh Ideas for Churches
    A recent survey suggested that, worldwide, participation in churches and other civic organizations--like parent meetings at schools--has dramatically dropped. Marlin Watling, an innovative faith and business leader from Germany, joins Christina Roberts, Ryan Bauers and Dave Schmelzer to detail some fascinating responses to this new reality. 
     
    Mentioned in Today's Podcast:
     
    Marling Watling
    • Website - http://spark-network.org/
  • Instagram -  https://www.instagram.com/spark_europe/

    • What I'm Into: 

    • Strengthsfinder
    38 min
  • Episode 115: "Spiritual Tourism" Gives Hope in Disorienting Times

    It feels like America's cultural and political life has never been more fragmented and jarring--but a little reflection will suggest that 50 years ago was even crazier, with assassinations and rioting and lies from the White House. In 1965, young Roger Dewey took a spiritual and cultural journey through Latin America that he wrote about in his book The Hitchhiking Diaries. It transformed both his faith and his social conscience. Fifty years later, he and his wife, Claire, revisited the experience and came back with fresh perspective for hopeful faith in this time of craziness. 

     

     

    Mentioned in Today's Podcast

     

    Books

    • The Hitchhiking Diaries: A Young Man's Adventure Through Latin America in 1965  | Roger Dewey

     

    What I'm Into

     

    • The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective | Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert.
  • Won't You Be My Neighbor Documentary
    • 47 min
  • God's To-Do List: Doing Good Stuff for You

    "God's goodness" is a pretty basic religious teaching. But in Blue Ocean Faith, they've found that this truth triggers surprising, unexpected ways to the life we all want. Christina Roberts, Ryan Bauers and Dave Schmelzer explore the key ways this truth makes it possible to suffer and nonetheless find a great, transcendent world.

    Mentioned in Today's Podcast: 

    The Unity of the Bible: Unfolding God's Plan for Humanity | By Daniel P. Fuller

    29 min

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