The Weight

DESCRIPTION:
Kenda Creasy Dean returns to The Weight. A United Methodist minister, longtime professor of youth, church, and culture at Princeton Theological Seminary, and author of Almost Christian and Innovating for Love, Kenda joins Chris and Eddie to talk about what happens when the institutions that formed us start to erode. She shares what she’s learning from the Polaris Young Adult Leadership Network — young adults who lead with their faith in law, government, and nonprofits rather than in pulpits, and who increasingly experience church as something embedded in daily life rather than a destination. The conversation turns to senior leaders: why so many arrive discouraged, what it looks like to take up the work of “eldering,” and why releasing an institution’s accumulated resources — handing over the keys — may be the most faithful thing a leader can do. Along the way: forests that regenerate after fire, why Kenda is tired of the word “innovation,” the difference between life-giving and life-sucking leadership, and a garage wood shop that became the one church activity a young adult wasn’t embarrassed to invite friends to.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:
• Almost Christian — Kenda Creasy Dean
• Innovating for Love — Kenda Creasy Dean (subject of her previous visit to the show)
• The Godbearing Life — Kenda Creasy Dean (co-authored; verify co-author credit before listing)
• Polaris Young Adult Leadership Network — Princeton Theological Seminary
• Leadership and the New Science — Margaret Wheatley (transcript says “Leadership in the New Science”)
• Refugia Faith — Debra Rienstra (transcript says “Refugee of Faith”)
• Comment magazine and Anne Snyder — The Understory gathering at Washington National Cathedral
• Leroy Barber — source of the “eldering” language Kenda credits, through his work with the Texas Methodist Foundation
• “Being With” — an Anglican curriculum Kenda mentions (title/publisher not confirmed)
• Birmingham-Southern College — Chris’s alma mater, now closed

GUEST LINKS:
• Faculty page, Princeton Theological Seminary: https://ptsem.edu/people/kenda-creasy-dean
• Polaris Young Adult Leadership Network: https://ptsem.edu/academics/centers/polaris-young-adult-leadership/
• Refugia Faith (Fortress Press): https://www.fortresspress.com/store/product/9781506473796/Refugia-Faith
• The Understory (Comment): https://understory.comment.org/2026
• Previous episode — “1000 Small Experiments” with Kenda Dean (Feb 2022): pull link from Buzzsprout /
theweightpodcast.com

Show Notes:

Dr. Stephen Trzeciak, physician-scientist, ICU intensivist, and Chief of Medicine at Cooper University Health Care, joins Chris and Eddie to talk about the hard science behind three things doctors don't usually get research funding to study:  compassion, service, and hope. Steve walks through the peer-reviewed evidence behind his books Compassionomics and Wonder Drug, including a Johns Hopkins study showing that as little as forty seconds of compassionate communication measurably reduces a cancer patient's anxiety, and newer research showing that caring more — not less — is the antidote to burnout, not its cause. The conversation turns personal as Steve describes his own burnout and recovery, then moves into a preview of his forthcoming book The Hope Effect, unpacking hope as a trainable, three-part skill (goal power, way power, and willpower) rather than wishful thinking. It's a rare conversation where clinical research and pastoral instinct land in exactly the same place.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

• Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence That Caring Makes a Difference (Trzeciak & Mazzarelli, 2019) —

Steve's first book, cited throughout• Wonder Drug: 7 Scientifically Proven Ways That Serving Others Is the Best Medicine for Yourself (Trzeciak & Mazzarelli, 2022)

• The Hope Effect: The Science of Healing, Achieving, and Breaking Through (Trzeciak & Mazzarelli) — forthcoming, January 2027

• The Hope Effect Substack — Eddie references reading articles here ahead of the book's release

• Johns Hopkins University study on a brief “enhanced compassion intervention” for breast cancer patients (referenced in conversation; not named by title on air)

• Becca Levy (Yale University) research on “positive age beliefs” and longevity among seniors (referenced)

• Rick Snyder's Hope Theory — the psychological framework (goal / way / willpower) The Hope Effect draws on

GUEST LINKS

• Compassionomics (book site): https://www.compassionomics.com/

• Wonder Drug (book site): https://www.wonderdrugbook.com/

• The Hope Effect (Substack): https://thehopeeffect.substack.com/

• Cooper University Health Care bio: https://www.cooperhealth.org/doctors/stephen-trzeciak-md

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephentrzeciak

• X / Twitter — @StephenTrzeciak: https://x.com/stephentrzeciak

Show Notes:

United Methodist pastors Matt Rawle and Rachel Billups — co-founders of the Hub for Innovation and co-authors of Dream, Dare, Disrupt — join Chris and Eddie to talk about what ministry looks like on the other side of COVID. Matt traces how something as basic as a funeral changed (Saturday mornings became Thursday afternoons, live-streamed on Facebook), and the two walk through the four-movement framework from their book: curiosity, leadership, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Along the way: a metaverse prayer experiment that outlived its Oculus headsets, Matt's idea of "prevenient technology," what happens when you actually ask kids how they'd rather light the acolyte candle, and why Rachel and Matt both insist that endings — not just beginnings — are a feature of healthy ministry, not a bug. They close on their working definition of innovation: not gadgets, but creativity meeting utility — illustrated by a community garden that grew its ministry by simply adding chairs.

Resources & Links:

Dream, Dare, Disrupt: How Experiments, Risk, and Embracing Failure Can Build Life-Giving Ministry — Matt Rawle & Rachel Billups (Friendship Press): https://www.friendshippress.org/products/dream-dare-disrupt-how-experiments-risk-and-embracing-failure-can-build-world-changing-ministry

The Sandbox: Playing Toward What's Next in Your Ministry — companion workbook, Rawle & Billups

Hub for Innovation: https://www.hub4innovation.org

Matt Rawle: https://www.mattrawle.com

Rachel Billups: https://www.rachelbillups.com

Philosopher Meghan Sullivan, the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy at Notre Dame and director of the university's Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, joins Chris and Eddie for a conversation that starts with Socrates and ends up in a conference room at an AI company. Meghan traces her own path from an intentionally obscure grad-school dissertation on the nature of time to teaching "God and the Good Life," one of Notre Dame's most popular courses. From there the conversation turns to her current work on AI and human dignity, built around a framework she calls DELTA — Dignity, Embodiment, Love, Transcendence, Agency. Along the way: a thought experiment about an all-knowing "Guru app," a visit with Anthropic's engineering team, and her case for why she thinks this disruptive AI moment is exactly the moment the Christian tradition was built for.

Resources & Links:

The Good Life Method — Meghan Sullivan & Paul Blaschko (Penguin Press, 2022)
Time Biases — Meghan Sullivan (Oxford University Press, 2018)
The Human Delta (Meghan's Substack on AI and human dignity): https://aidelta.substack.com/
Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and the Common Good: https://ethics.nd.edu/people/meghan-sullivan/
Pope Leo XIV's encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, referenced in the conversation: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html

SHOW NOTES:

Nashville hit songwriter Craig Wiseman (350+ cuts, 29 #1s, NSAI's Songwriter of the Decade) joins Eddie Rester — with Cody Hickman sitting in for Chris McAlilly — for a wide-ranging, funny, and often moving conversation. Wiseman talks about his late mother Evelyn Wiseman, the faith that shaped both her life and his songwriting, and what it means to stay so absorbed in your calling that you stop worrying about how you look doing it. Along the way: rice-and-butter poverty in early Nashville, a song about butter beans, a stewardship sermon that stuck with him, and the case for “long ball” patience in work and in faith.


RESOURCES:
• Craig Wiseman — Big Loud Publishing bio: https://bigloud.com/publishing/craig-wiseman/

Show Notes:

Dr. Bryan Stone has spent roughly a decade researching a single question: what does horror cinema reveal about Christianity? Watching hundreds of films across several sub-genres — ghosts, witches, vampires, zombies, nature horror, the demonic, and psychological horror — he built a case that the monsters of Western horror aren't random. They're the monsters Christianity is responsible for: reflections of centuries of Christian anxiety about bodies, nature, and sin. He's Dean of Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University and author of Christianity and Horror Cinema(Routledge, 2025).

Chris and Eddie sit down with Stone for a conversation that starts with horror movies and doesn't stay there. They talk about leading a seminary in a post-Christendom culture, where a generation is walking into church for the first time in their mid-20s. And they dig into what AI is already doing to theological education — term papers no detector can catch, a discipline forced to rethink what it means to know anything, and what can't be automated out of ministry.

In this episode:

• Why Western horror is shaped by Christian theology — and why that pattern doesn't hold in Asian cinema
• What changed in horror after Night of the Living Dead (1968)
• Leading a seminary in a post-Christendom culture
• The growing role of chaplaincy in theological education
• AI, term papers, and what ministry can't outsource

Guest: 

Dr. Bryan Stone, Dean of Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University 

Book: Christianity and Horror Cinema (Routledge, 2025) — https://www.routledge.com/Christianity-and-Horror-Cinema/Stone/p/book/9781032968407

Perkins School of Theology: https://www.smu.edu/perkins

Mentioned in this episode — DELTA: Human Formation in the Age of AI, a faith-based AI ethics framework from Notre Dame's Institute for Ethics and the Common Good — https://ethics.nd.edu/programs/delta/

Listen/watch and subscribe: 

theweightpodcast.com 

https://youtu.be/hdlPzZ1ckBQ

Show Notes:

Rev. Dr. Bankole Akinbinu, senior pastor of Baptist Grove Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, has a wealth of experience in nurturing a vibrant community of faith. In this episode, he shares his journey, the challenges he faced, and the vital principles that have shaped his ministry. 

Rev. Akinbinu emphasizes that a vibrant ministry is rooted in community. He notes that the African American church tradition values relational aspects, where connections among members foster growth. He believes that building strong relationships within the church helps create a supportive environment where individuals can share their stories and grow in faith together. He believes that people grow better in circles rather than rows, highlighting the need for small groups and community involvement.

Akinbinu outlines three key pillars that guide his ministry:

1. **Living in Faith**: This pillar emphasizes the importance of anchoring church activities in the Word of God, ensuring members know and obey biblical truths.

2. **Living in Fellowship**: Akinbinu stresses the significance of loving all people as image bearers and creating a strong community among church members. This approach fosters a sense of belonging and encourages individuals to support one another.

3. **Living to Serve**: Discovering and using one's gifts for God's mission is crucial. Akinbinu encourages church members to participate actively in the mission of God, utilizing their talents to serve the community.

Show Notes:

In this episode, Reverend Dr. Kevin Muriel shares his journey from Mississippi to Atlanta, his insights on racial reconciliation, leadership in the church, and the future of the United Methodist Church. A rich conversation on history, culture, and innovative leadership in faith communities.


Resources:

Cascade United Methodist Church - https://cascadeumc.org/
Candler School of Theology - https://candler.emory.edu/
Duke Divinity School - https://divinity.duke.edu/
Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church - https://www.umcmission.org/
James Lawson and the Nashville Civil Rights Movement - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lawson
Twitter - https://twitter.com/KevinMuriel
Cascade UMC - https://cascadeumc.org/

Did you know that The Weight now features a video format? You can watch every new episode on YouTube!

Show Notes:

In this conversation, Jason Moore discusses the intersection of artificial intelligence and the church, exploring the historical context of technology in ministry, the ethical considerations of AI, and its practical applications. He emphasizes the importance of embracing technology while exercising restraint and maintaining human agency in the creative process. The discussion also highlights the potential benefits and challenges of AI in ministry, encouraging a thoughtful approach to its integration.


Resources:

Web - https://www.aiandthechurch.ai/

Instagram - @midnightoilprod

Season 7 of The Weight will be coming soon! 

We have been hard at work preparing a studio for a new video format of the podcast. While we won't have weekly episodes with this new format, we will still be bringing you the highest quality guests and conversations. Make sure you like and subscribe on YouTube so that you're notified when a new episode drops!

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