The Slow Work with Sandra McCracken

Trauma may be a buzzword today, but it’s no simple concept to untangle. For many who experience abuse or trauma at the hands of church leaders, their pain becomes the breeding ground for doubt, deconstruction, and despair. Thankfully, God’s Spirit persists in bringing new life from the ashes of our suffering.

Sandra McCracken talks with trauma-informed counselor Colleen Ramser about the intersection between theology and therapy on this episode of The Slow Work. Ramser participates in perhaps the slowest work of all, helping clients unravel painful stories and delicately reweave new, healthier narratives. This conversation captures her wise and gentle insights about the long process of healing, the importance of community, and the small deposits of grace that enable us to rebuild a hopeful future. 

Special Guest:

Colleen Ramser is a licensed therapist and spiritual formation coach who has been journeying with women for nearly 15 years. She specializes in trauma, spiritual abuse, domestic abuse and women’s issues. She regularly trains pastors and other therapists on trauma-informed care and ministry as well as domestic abuse and spiritual abuse.

Resources Referenced:

Mary, Untier of Knots by Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner

The Slow Work is a production of Christianity Today

Executive Producer: Mike Cosper

Host: Sandra McCracken

Producers: Luke Brawner and Azurae Phelps

Additional Recording: Evan Redwine

Editor and Mix Engineer: Dan Phelps

Music: Tyler Chester

Graphic Design: Chris Bennett

Social Media: Kate Lucky

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Singer-songwriter Sara Groves knows a thing or two about storytelling. However, in the experience of these recent years, Sara realized she still had much to learn about the narratives that shape us.

In this episode of The Slow Work, host Sandra McCracken welcomes Sara for a thoughtful, honest conversation about the stories we tell and how we tell them. The two explore how to tend the slow fires of creativity and how to bear witness to the hard stories within and around us. From songwriting sessions to the redemptive voice of activism, McCracken and Groves discuss how to produce generative work in a world that often obscures the truth and marginalizes the vulnerable.

Special Guest:

Sara Groves is a 20+ year veteran singer/songwriter and recording artist with a passion for justice. Since 2005 she has been an artist advocate with International Justice Mission, a global organization that works to protect the poor from violence. At home in MN, Sara and her husband Troy run a unique community art center, Art House North, out of a 110 year old church where Sara has recorded her last two of 15 albums - Abide With Me, a collection of hymns, and Joy of Every Longing Heart (Christmas). 

Resources Referenced:

The Fold

Chronicles: Volume One by Bob Dylan

“My Dream” by Sara Groves

Get Low

The Slow Work is a production of Christianity Today

Executive Producer: Mike Cosper

Host: Sandra McCracken

Producers: Luke Brawner and Azurae Phelps

Additional Recording: Evan Redwine

Editor and Mix Engineer: Dan Phelps

Music: Tyler Chester

Graphic Design: Chris Bennett

Social Media: Kate Lucky

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this first episode of The Slow Work, host Sandra McCracken sits down with husband and wife team, Makoto and Haejin Shim Fujimura, to discuss commitment, kintsugi, and creative justice. Learn how a unique marital commitment has focused the Fujimuras’ professional ambitions and how building in the midst of brokenness has the power to redeem generational pain. If you’ve been striving or struggling and need a better way, this conversation promises a deep dose of release and hope. Listen in as Mako encourages that sometimes “it’s okay to just behold.”

Special Guests:

Makoto Fujimura is one of the most unique and significant artists of our time, a painter whose work explores a combination of contemporary American abstract expressionism and traditional Japanese art of Nihonga. Born in the U.S. and educated both in Japan and in the U.S., he has had over one hundred and forty exhibits in New York , Japan, Santa Fe and around the world. He formed the International Arts Movement and in 2003 was appointed by the President to the National Council on the Arts.

Haejin Shim Fujimura serves as Embers International’s CEO where she leads the strategy and engagement that fuels Embers’ growth and vision. Haejin is also the founder and managing partner of Shim & Associates, P.C. and an experienced lawyer. She founded her law firm with the vision of cultural renewal for the legal industry and has its offices in New York and New Jersey. In addition, Haejin is the President of Academy Kintsugi, and with her husband Makoto Fujimura, leads the movement of “Beauty + Justice.” She also serves as the Team Leader of NYC Advocacy & Mobilization Team of International Justice Mission, the largest anti-slavery organization in the world. She has served on the board of a number of nonprofit organizations.

Resources Referenced:

Art + Faith: A Theology of Making by Makoto Fujimura

Culture Care Creative

“Longing for an Internet Cleanse” by David Brooks

Goldenwood

Embers International

The Slow Work is a production of Christianity Today

Executive Producer: Mike Cosper

Host: Sandra McCracken

Producers: Luke Brawner and Azurae Phelps

Additional Recording: Evan Redwine

Editor and Mix Engineer: Dan Phelps

Music: Tyler Chester

Graphic Design: Chris Bennett

Social Media: Kate Lucky

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are all creatives at heart, no matter what career or calling we find ourselves in. Inspiration can happen in a second, but the work of creativity only happens when we are patient enough to stay with it. It takes grit to see it through. 

Enjoy this short preview of The Slow Work with songwriter and host Sandra McCracken launching January 5, 2023. Subscribe today!

The Slow Work is a production of Christianity Today

Executive Producer: Mike Cosper

Host: Sandra McCracken

Producers: Luke Brawner and Azurae Phelps

Additional Recording: Evan Redwine

Editor and Mix Engineer: Dan Phelps

Music: Tyler Chester

Graphic Design: Chris Bennett

Social Media: Kate Lucky

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Slow Work is a podcast connecting the creative process and spirituality. Join songwriter and host Sandra McCracken along with a talented array of guests as they explore the pursuit of beauty, grace and justice. Launching January 5, 2023. Subscribe today!

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This finale episode of Steadfast season two features Bob Goff and latest book Dream Big. Bob is a best-selling author, storyteller, speaker, coach, and lawyer. Through this book and in his own life, Goff draws upon our ability to be patient and steadfast in all circumstances, holding tightly to a bright hope for the future.

Steadfast is a production of Sandra McCracken in partnership with Christianity Today.

Produced by Sandra McCracken, Leslie Eiler Thompson

Written by Leslie Eiler Thompson

Edited by Andrew Osenga

Mixed and Mastered by Mike Cosper

Music by Sandra McCracken

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Dr. Curt Thompson is a therapist, speaker, and the author of The Anatomy of the Soul and The Soul of Shame. As a psychiatrist, Curt’s work in recent years has helped others develop authentic relationships through interpersonal neurobiology and the Christian worldview. While Thompson comes to the table with scientific research and knowledge of how God designed our brains to function, his perspective on patience carries the inflection of a pastor.

Steadfast is a production of Sandra McCracken in partnership with Christianity Today.

Produced by Sandra McCracken, Leslie Eiler Thompson

Written by Leslie Eiler Thompson

Edited by Andrew Osenga

Mixed and Mastered by Mike Cosper

Music by Sandra McCracken

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Goldenwood, a ministry that seeks to cultivate a new vision of faith and work, is the creation of Dr. David Kim and Amilee Watkins. Goldenwood offers quarterly reflective retreats, daily practice, and listening prayer exercises in community. Kim and Watkins join Sandra to discuss renewal and patience in a world that demands immediate gratification. This episode emphasizes seeing God’s work played out over time.

Steadfast is a production of Sandra McCracken in partnership with Christianity Today.

Produced by Sandra McCracken, Leslie Eiler Thompson

Written by Leslie Eiler Thompson

Edited by Andrew Osenga

Mixed and Mastered by Mike Cosper

Music by Sandra McCracken

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

One of the areas hardest-hit by COVID was the restaurant industry. This episode features a conversation with Mark Canlis, whose family restaurant has been a longtime favorite in Seattle. In order to survive, Canlis tried many different creative solutions over the last year. Mark and his wife, Anne Marie, joined Sandra to talk about patience—in their work as restaurant owners, in parenthood, in hospitality, and in leaning toward the good in times of great uncertainty.

Steadfast is a production of Sandra McCracken in partnership with Christianity Today.

Produced by Sandra McCracken, Leslie Eiler Thompson

Written by Leslie Eiler Thompson

Edited by Andrew Osenga

Mastered by Mike Cosper

Music by Sandra McCracken

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This season has been a difficult one for many, and particularly those who make their living in and around music and performance. Matthew Perryman Jones has been writing songs for over twenty years and this season of slow taught him a great deal about patience. Sandra and Matthew met in her backyard to record this episode, and talked about how patience showed itself through the difficulties of 2020. 

Steadfast is a production of Sandra McCracken in partnership with Christianity Today.

Produced by Sandra McCracken, Leslie Eiler Thompson

Written by Leslie Eiler Thompson

Edited by Andrew Osenga

Mixed and Mastered by Mark Owens

Music by Sandra McCracken

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices