The Puddcast

The one and only Sarah Bessey joined me on the Puddcast this week. We had a rich and tender dialogue on pain, grief, the tension between where we’ve come from, where we are, and where we’re going… and how to find safety along that road. We talked about making room for the stories that don’t get told as well as how to honour the legacy of Rachel Held Evans while being faithful to our own callings as well. Listen and share today.

Resources mentioned:

Support me and my work at patreon.com/jonathanpuddle
Order Miracles and Other Reasonable Things: A Story of Unlearning and Relearning God, by Sarah Bessey.
Find Sarah at an event near you at sarahbessey.com
Follow Sarah on Instagram and Twitter

Cara Meredith, author of The Color of Life, joined me on the show this week to talk about the unique role white people can play in racial justice and reconciliation work. Cara is a former high school English teacher and used to work in the non-profit outreach sector before focusing on speaking and writing. We talked all about how to have our eyes and ears opened to the realities of injustice and how to start feeling the pain of it ourselves, as a way to enter the conversation holistically and with integrity.

Resources mentioned:

Support my work at patreon.com/jonathanpuddle
Order The Color of Life: A Journey toward Love and Racial Justice, by Cara Meredith.
Read Cara’s blog and other writing at carameredith.com
Follow Cara on Instagram and Twitter

My guest this week is Pastor Gricel Medina. Serving in the Evangelical Covenant Church, Gricel has been involved in planting and mentoring multi-ethnic church congregations and has served on a number of boards and committees for racial gender equity, among many other things. She shared her powerful life story and we discussed the problems of a white-centric and male-centric church leadership culture. Get ready!

Resources mentioned:

Support my work at patreon.com/jonathanpuddle
Order The God Who Sees, by Karen González.
Learn more about the Reverend Dr. Elizabeth Conde-Frazier
Find out more about Sandra van Opstal at sandravanopstal.com
Read Gricel’s writing at EzerRising.com
Follow Gricel on Instagram and Twitter

Gena Thomas joined me on The Puddcast to talk about immigration, family separation, border issues, language, power, foster care, and being Christ to others while also seeing Christ in others. We discussed some of the stories told in her new book, Separated by the Border, all about her family’s journey to return a young girl to her mother, after she was separated from her family at the border. Get your tissues ready.

Resources mentioned:

Support my work at patreon.com/jonathanpuddle
Order Separated by the Border: A Birth Mother, a Foster Mother, and a Migrant Child's 3,000-Mile Journey, by Gena Thomas.
Article in local news about the reunification.
Visit genathomas.com to join her mailing list.
Follow Gena on Instagram and Twitter

Jefferson Bethke (along with his wife Alyssa) is a popular YouTuber, as well as an author and speaker. You know him from the spoken word video Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus. Jeff & Alyssa have an amazing set of training and encouraging videos for your marriage, your parenting and more, and now Jeff has a new book out on hustle culture and the importance of slow, quiet, spiritual rhythms. We discussed a whole bunch of things, from social media to Sabbath. Listen below or anywhere you find podcasts.

Resources mentioned:

Support my work at patreon.com/jonathanpuddle
Donate to my GoFundMe for my trip to South Africa.
Order To Hell With the Hustle: Reclaiming Your Life in an Overworked, Overspent, and Overconnected World, by Jefferson Bethke.
Visit jeffandalyssa.com or homeroomonline.com
Follow Jeff on Instagram and Twitter

Jaye Thomas is a world-renowned worship leader and songwriter from Kansas City and a good friend of mine. Jaye and his wife Nayomi recently left the staff of IHOP to focus on their ministry, Song of Hope. With three primary pillars: Bible study, community discipleship and worship for people in prison, Jaye and Nayomi are actively ministering the love of God to people in church and out of church. Jaye and I discussed freedom, hope, self-righteousness and seeing Jesus in people we don’t expect to find him in.

Resources mentioned:

Support my work at patreon.com/jonathanpuddle
Video of Botham Jean’s brother reaching out to Amber Guyger
songofhopeministries.org
jayethomas.com
Jaye’s worship mentoring
Follow Jaye on Instagram and Twitter.

Gary Thomas, the bestselling author of Sacred Marriage, Sacred Search and close to 20 other books joined me this week to turn my whole world upside down. His latest book, When To Walk Away: Finding Freedom from Toxic People hit me square between the eyes and so we talked about difficult relationships, protecting our identity and mission, and knowing when to call it a day. Gary covers toxicity in the context of church, workplace relationships, parents, marriages and more. Order the book below and have a listen to this important discussion.

Resources mentioned:

Support my work at patreon.com/jonathanpuddle
Order When To Walk Away: Finding Freedom from Toxic People by Gary Thomas
Visit Gary at garythomas.com

Shane Pruitt is a blogger and evangelist, who, along with his wife Kasi have 5 kids—3 through adoption. Kasi oversees the Adoption & Foster Care Ministry at Lake Pointe church, and Shane, who is also the Director of Evangelism for The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, joined me for a broad ranging discussion on authenticity, personal hardship, adoption, God’s sovereignty, and rethinking God’s will for your life. We also discussed his book, “9 Common Lies Christians Believe - And Why God’s Truth is Infinitely Better,” which he explained was the fruit of hearing too many bad Christian clichés during some of the hardest times of their life.

Resources mentioned:

Support my work at patreon.com/jonathanpuddle
Order 9 Common Lies Christians Believe - And Why God’s Truth is Infinitely Better, by Shane Pruitt
Video of the Pruitts bringing their daughter home which went viral
Lake Pointe church’s adoption ministry
Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO)
Visit Shane at shanepruitt.com

Natalie Frisk oversees the curriculum development for kids from birth to high school at The Meeting House (think Bruxy Cavey). She joined me on The Puddcast to talk about parenting and discipleship of children, especially in a context of deconstruction. How do you raise kids to care about faith when you’re busy cleaning up the junk in your own spiritual life? Natalie had many amazing and insightful things to share. You should definitely order her book at the link below and enter a draw to win another copy as well.

Resources mentioned:

Support my work at patreon.com/jonathanpuddle
Read or watch my memorial to Jarrid Wilson
Natalie’s ReKnew blog post: Born Disciples: On Raising Kids to Follow Jesus
Order Raising Disciples: How to Make Faith Matter for Our Kids by Natalie Frisk
Win a free, signed copy of Natalie’s book by entering my giveaway.
Visit Natalie online at nataliefrisk.com
Download a free copy of The Meeting House kids’ church curriculum at curriculum.church

This week Max Lucado joined me to discuss happiness, that elusive joyous emotion we all want to feel all the time. Max’s latest book is called How Happiness Happens: Finding Joy in a World of Comparison, Disappointment and Unmet Expectations, so we riffed on that subject for a while and also talked about writing, pastoral ministry and a few other things. Hit the links to order his book or enter my giveaway to win yourself a copy!

Resources mentioned:

Support my work at patreon.com/jonathanpuddle
Order How Happiness Happens: Finding Joy in a World of Comparison, Disappointment and Unmet Expectations, by Max Lucado
Order Just In Case You Ever Wonder, by Max Lucado
Win a free copy of the book by entering my giveaway.
Listen to Carey Nieuwhof’s interview with Max about his writing method.

For pastors and ministry leaders: book some free conversation and encouragement.