The Weight

It’s hard to believe that we’re wrapping up three seasons of The Weight, but here we are! Eddie and Chris are joined by producer Cody Hickman to talk about some of the highlight episodes for each of them this year--including conversations with Mac McAnally, Alice Matagora, and Austin Carty. This season, we’ve listened to conversations about music, mental health, parenting, faith, and history. We’ve heard a hopeful word about the future of the Church, and we’ve been given moments for reflection and contemplation.

So thank you--to every guest on the podcast, to every listener, to everyone who has reached out to Chris or Eddie with thoughts and ideas. We could not have these conversations without you, and we can’t wait do it again next season!  

Mississippi’s history with slavery, segregation, and racism has deep roots, and has caused--and continues to cause--immense turmoil and violence. We like to think we’ve moved past it, but we haven’t. There is still work to do, and we can begin that work by looking to the leaders of the past, and take to heart what Jesus has tried, over and over again, to teach us.

Today’s guest helps us grapple with that history, and shares the story of a group of Methodist ministers who took a stand against racism and segregation in the 1960s. Joe Reiff, retired professor of religion at Emory & Henry College and ordained United Methodist minister, is the author of Born of Conviction: White Methodists and Mississippi’s Closed Society. This book tells the story of 28 white Methodist pastors who wrote a letter in response to white resistance to the civil rights movement in Mississippi. Their action against racism in the Mississippi Methodist church held consequences for them, as well as for white and Black Methodists in the state. 

The signers of Born of Conviction were:

Jerry Furr
Maxie D. Dunnam
Jim L. Waits
O. Gerald Trigg
James B. Nicholson
Buford A. Dickinson
James S. Conner
J. W. Holston
James P. Rush
Edward W. McRae
Joseph C. Way
Wallace E. Roberts
Summer Walters
Bill Lampton
Marvin Moody
Keith Tonkel
John Ed Thomas
Inman Moore, Jr.
Denson Napier
Rod Entrekin
Harold Ryker
N. A. Dickson
Ned Kellar
Powell Hall
Elton Brown
Bufkin Oliver
Jack Troutman
Wilton Carter

The full Born of Conviction statement can be found here.

Buy a copy of Born of Conviction: White Methodists and Mississippi’s Closed Society here.

Follow Joe on Facebook.

How do churches adapt to the world we’re in today? How do institutions with inherited traditions of membership and specific roles to play in a community change to actually fit their current context? Today’s guest, Lisa Greenwood, has a few ideas. Even if you’re not a pastor, this episode provides some thoughtful ways to engage the people around you and to help you better serve your community.

Lisa is an ordained elder in the North Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church. She currently serves as Vice President of Leadership Ministry at Texas Methodist Foundation and Wesleyan Investive. She is also the Executive Director of the National Association of United Methodist Foundations. These organizations offer financial services--loans, investments, endowments, donor advised funds, and grants--while also working with leaders across the country to help churches live out their mission and calling in their local communities.

Resources:

Texas Methodist Foundation

Wesleyan Investive

Suggestions from Lisa:

Gil Rendle, “Jacob’s Bones”

Kate Bowler’s podcast, “Everything Happens”

Anne Snyder’s “Comment”

Our world is increasingly polarized, and public discourse often leads to anger. The Church used to be at the center of these conversations, but Scott Black Johnston sees the church as becoming more decentered: stepping to the side, offering critique--or praise--and adding to the conversation. He talks about the current pervasiveness of anger with gentleness and grace, and challenges everyone to take a step towards temperance--being calm and encouraging, listening, and valuing each other.

Scott is the senior pastor at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. He is an author of several books. His most recent book is Elusive Grace: Loving Your Enemies while Striving for God’s Justice. 

Resources:

Scott Black Johnston’s website

Elusive Grace

Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church on YouTube

Mickenzie Vought is the Editorial and Community Director at Onsite Workshops in Cumberland Furnace, Tennessee. Onsite is an emotional wellness company that focuses on enhanced emotional health through retreats, intensives, residential trauma care, and digital resources. 

In her role at Onsite, Mickenzie is the producer and cohost of the Living Centered podcast and is the host of Onsite’s emotional wellness webinars. Although she is not a therapist, she is an advocate for mental health and dealing with and working through trauma, because trauma is something everyone experiences, and it affects us mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically.

In this episode, Mickenzie offers practical advice as well as websites, books, authors, and podcasts for starting--or continuing--your mental health journey:

Dr. Nadine Burke Harris’s ACEs TED Talk

Warmlines

To Write Love On Her Arms

Onsite Workshop’s For Immediate Support Page

Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? by Dr. Julie Smith

Living Centered podcast on Spotify and Apple

You can learn more about Onsite and the work they do for emotional wellbeing here.

Follow Mickenzie on Instagram

Shownotes:

Parenting is hard. Parenting through a pandemic is even harder, but David Thomas and Sissy Goff are here to provide help and support. Sissy and David work at Daystar Counseling Ministries in Nashville, Tennessee. Sissy is the Director of Child and Adolescent Counseling and David is the Director of Family Counseling. When they aren’t counseling and ministering to kids and parents alike, they find time to write, travel and speak, and produce their own podcast, Raising Boys and Girls.

In this episode, David and Sissy offer encouragement, resources, and hope to parents dealing with all the challenges and joys of raising boys and girls, including how to write your family’s own mission statement and books and authors who have guided them in their counseling ministries.

If you are in or near Oxford and would like to hear Sissy and David speak, register for the Parent Conference, November 4-5, at Oxford University United Methodist Church. The conference is $35.

Resources:

Raising Boys and Girls

Instagram

Facebook

Podcast

Books by David Thomas and Sissy Goff are available for purchase at https://www.raisingboysandgirls.com/store.

Resources mentioned in the episode:

How Children Raise Parents by Dan Allender

The Whole-Brain Child by Tina Payne Bryson & Dan Siegel

Best Friends, Worst Enemies by Michael Thompson

Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Lives of Boys by Dan Klindon & Michael Thompson

Birds & Bees

Shownotes:

Eddie and Chris join music legend Mac McAnally in a delightful conversation about music, making your mark, and leaving the world a better place than you found it. Mac is a native of Belmont, Mississippi, but he’s better known as a country music singer, songwriter, session musician, and record producer. He is an award-winning talent who has worked with country stars Kenny Chesney and Sawyer Brown, and he is a long-time member of Jimmy Buffett’s band, The Coral Reefers.

Mac’s career started at just 13 years old, when his parents allowed him to play piano in a honky tonk bar in Iron City, Tennessee. He left high school in the 11th grade to pursue his music career (which, even though it worked out for him down the line, he wouldn’t encourage anyone else to do). He sees his role in the music industry as being “Johnny Musicseed,” carrying the responsibility of helping up-and-coming artists realize their dreams.

Resources:

Find Mac online and on social media: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, and Spotify

Find his latest album, “Once in a Lifetime,” here.

Today’s episode covers some heavy topics--suicide, depression, mental health and physical health issues--with hope. Our guest, Jacob Armstrong, is the author of Breaking Open: How Your Pain Becomes the Path to Living Again. As a pastor and a person, Jacob has firsthand experience not only with his own pain and suffering, but those of the people around him--his family, his friends, and his congregation. All these experiences led Jacob to the idea of breaking open, not just breaking down or breaking in, but allowing real Christian hope and God’s joy and delight to find you in those dark places.

Jacob and his wife Racel helped found Providence Church in Mt. Juliet, TN, in 2008. He is an author and a pastor. He and Rachel have three daughters, Mary, Lydia, and Phoebe.

Resources:

Find Jacob online and on social media:
Website: http://www.jacob-armstrong.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/provpastor

Breaking Open

Website: www.breakingopenbook.com
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0785258329?tag=hcads-20

Eddie and Chris are joined by a previous guest on The Weight, Kevin Watson, for a discussion about Christian perfection, or the Wesleyan doctrine of entire sanctification--that Christians can live without sin. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, believed that the grace of God is available to all who hear the gospel, repent, and believe. The Christian life of faith means opening yourself to being fully holy through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In Kevin Watson’s book, Perfect Love: Recovering Entire Sanctification—the Lost Power of the Methodist Movement, he offers an in-depth explanation of entire sanctification and helps Christians pursue a life of thriving in the love of Christ.

Kevin is Associate Pastor at First Methodist Church of Waco, Texas. He is also an Affiliate Research Professor at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary. He is an author, teacher, and speaker, and previously served Associate Professor of Wesley and Methodist Studies at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology.

Resources:
Buy books by Kevin on  Amazon

Find Kevin on social media:

Twitter
Website

How do we as Christians have hope in a world that is more secular than ever? With decreasing church attendance, fracturing denominations, and new scandals coming out all the time, what does the future of the Church look like? Today’s guest on The Weight, Dr. Cornelius Plantinga, shares some good news with Eddie and Chris--hopeful, bright news that God isn’t done moving and shaping the world.

Dr. Plantinga is a Senior Research Fellow at the Calving Institute of Christian Worship and the president emeritus of Calvin Theological Seminary. He is an author, a speaker, and a preacher, and his 50-year career has given him a thoughtful, hopeful perspective: while we live in a broken, hurting world, there is a rich history of the church doing good amidst that brokenness, and this period of decline is not the last word.

Resources:
Find books authored by Dr. Plantinga on Amazon