Truth Trauma Theology

By Kyle SpearsHealth & Fitness Mental Health

Truth Trauma Theology episodes

October 12, 2023 How can music help us heal? A Conversation with Brian Craig
Brian is best known for some of the songs he's written that are sung by those in International Churches of Christ around the world -- songs like "Be with Me, Lord," "I Need Your Love," "Great Among the Nations," and “Anchor for the Soul.” Having written songs in the alternate rock genre for a long time he set out to write some really simple, easy-to-sing songs that could replace some of the ones he'd gotten tired of singing in church. Over time those songs caught on and are now favorites.
Of course now he's tired of those songs so he's always writing new ones. Like spiritual therapy his soul is renewed by the act of writing songs that express themes of devotion, heartache, exuberance, fellowship, and a desire to change the world. Brian has released several albums over the years and is currently working in the studio on recording his next release.
Brian has a Masters degree in Ministry from Pepperdine University and is currently serving in the LA Church of Christ as an evangelist, teacher, and minister of worship and media. He has a beautiful wife and three kids he's crazy about. He blogs at jbriancraig.wordpress.com and uploads videos to youtube.com/jbriancraig
1. We wanted to connect last year on your album Wait for the Lord My Soul and its relevance to mental health. Tell us about the journey you’ve been on with your health.
2. How would you describe the connection between art/music, worship and mental health? 3. What can you share about dealing with loss, faith, and surrender?
4. How does this relate to where we are as a church and where we need to mature?
5. What are you working on now?
1 hr 8 min
September 29, 2023 Can releasing trauma save my marriage? A conversation with Becky Aste
Becky Aste is a trauma-informed marriage coach and the host of “Your Breakthrough Blueprint”, a top 10% globally ranked podcast. She is the CEO and creator of “I Do Breakthrough”, a company dedicated to equipping highly ambitious wives to repair thriving connection in their marriage by moving trauma out of the body.
After spending a decade researching and going through every mainstream modality of healing to save her own marriage, she found herself 2 kids later, separated from her husband and on the verge of divorce.
At the final hour, she stumbled upon the unconventional game-changer of somatic work that took her marriage from dying to thriving in less than a year and has made it her mission to get this into the hands of every woman possible ever since.
To contact Becky visit https://www.idobreakthrough.com
1. Tell us a little bit about your journey and why you started your podcast?
2. As a Trauma-Informed Executive Marriage Coach, how do you approach the challenges of trauma? How do you involve the body?
3. You specialize in healing marriages, what are some factors to lead to emotional separation?
4. On your website you mention the idea of “How You Can Save Your Marriage Without Your Husband Being On Board”, how do you do this?
5. What advice do you have for those in churches who are on the brink of divorce?
55 min
September 21, 2023Reclaiming the Story of Who You Were Created to Be with Karrie Garcia
In her latest book, Free and Fully Alive: Reclaiming the Story of Who You Were Created to Be, popular faith-leader, speaker, and certified life coach Karrie Garcia shares something most Christians can identify: “I was taught that God wants us to live freely, but I never understood what that kind of freedom meant or felt like. It seemed like a good idea in theory, but elusive—I had no idea how to grab hold of it.” In Free and Fully Alive, Karrie draws on her own experiences and expertise to create a dynamic, practical guide for readers to learn how to embrace their past and discover a deeper connection to themselves, God, and others.
What is the difference between being free versus being free AND fully alive?

What’s the first step someone needs to take to embrace his/her story – and why is it so crucial?

How does understanding trauma help us understand sin and brokenness?

Why do we need to lament our places of wounding?

Though it’s difficult—as you note—why is it necessary to talk about the Enemy? How does he use isolation, doubt, and chaos to trap us?

How can you determine if you’re caught in a “cycle of false freedom”? What’s the harm in these often benign behaviors?

What are some biblical references that underscore the power of invitation?
1 hr 1 min
September 14, 2023Creating a Tov Culture with Dr. Scot McKnight
After the release of their groundbreaking book, A Church Called Tov, which recorded the stories of abuse and toxic church cultures at some of the most prominent churches in the United States, New Testament scholar and blogger for Christianity Today Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer heard from a flood of people who had experienced similar instances of abuse. After all they’ve seen and heard, they still believe it’s possible for church cultures to be transformed from toxic to tov—from oppressive to good.
In Pivot, Scot and Laura help churches to implement practices,establish priorities, and cultivate the Kingdom Gospel-centered qualities that form goodness cultures. Readers will find answers to the four most common questions people have about culture transformation: How can I transform the culture in my church or organization to make it tov?
I believe my workplace has unhealthy values. How do I initiate change? How do I unleash a culture of goodness in my ministry?

I’m not in a position of church leadership. What are some red flags that indicate a toxic culture, and what can I do if I see them? Pivot also includes the following practical features:

The “Tov tool,” a survey to help you discern your organization’s culture and to promote spiritual conversations

A “getting to work” section at the end of each chapter with questions and next steps for application Transformation is never easy. But for the sake of the next generation, we must do it.
Scot McKnight (PhD, University of Nottingham) is a world-renowned speaker, writer, professor, and equipper of the Church. He is a recognized authority on the historical Jesus, early Christianity, and the New Testament. His books have been translated into Chinese, Korean, Russian, and Portuguese. He is the author of The Jesus Creed, The Blue Parakeet, The King Jesus Gospel, Revelation for the Rest of Us, numerous commentaries, and is now writing a sixteen-volume series of reflections called The Everyday Bible Study.
53 min
September 07, 2023 QAnon Chaos & the Cross: Christianity & Conspiracy Theories with Dr. Michael Austin & Dr. Gregory L. Bock
Although Christians are followers of the Truth, many find themselves tempted by the alternate “truths” offered by conspiracy theories. Christianity and conspiracy theories have had a long, complicated relationship. But today conspiracy theories are bringing our already polarized society to the brink of chaos. QAnon, the Big Lie, and anti-vaccination theories thrive online, disrupting faith communities. This timely essay collection explores the allure of conspiracy theories and their consequences—and ultimately offers gospel-based paths forward.
Michael W. Austin is professor of philosophy at Eastern Kentucky University and senior fellow at the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute. He has published twelve books, including Being Good: Christian Virtues for Everyday Life (Eerdmans, 2012), Humility and Human Flourishing (Oxford University Press, 2018), and his latest, God and Guns in America (Eerdmans, 2020).
Gregory L. Bock is assistant professor of philosophy and religion and program director for the philosophy, religion studies, and Asian studies at the University of Texas at Tyler. He also serves as director for UT Tyler's Center for Ethics. He is editor of volumes 3 and 4 of The Philosophy of Forgiveness (Vernon, 2018, 2019) and coeditor of Righteous Indignation: Christian Philosophical and Theological Perspectives on Anger (Fortress, 2021).
Tell us about your background and why you decided to write this book?
Let’s start out with the basic definition of a conspiracy theory?
In what ways are Christians susceptible to conspiracy?
You mention the demographic of the white evangelical several times in the book, let’s start out with a basic definition of evangelical?
What are some themes that you observe within evangelical circles?
You have a chapter on reasonableness. You mention that the conviction dial is on max strength.
Can you describe Teflon hermeneutics?
What makes racism so challenging to accept?
1 hr 15 min
August 31, 2023 Faith & Fake News with Rachel Wightman
Most Christians have encountered phony posts on our feeds meant to rile us up. But not everything we see on social media is so obviously absurd. As online spaces increase in importance, we urgently need to consider how to love our neighbors on the internet—and this includes sharing the truth.
Rachel I. Wightman is a librarian, an educator, and a believer in finding the integration of faith and fact-checking. She is the associate director for instruction and outreach at Concordia University, St. Paul. Prior to moving to Minnesota in 2012, she spent two years as librarian and missionary in Kampala, Uganda.
1. Tell us about your background and why you decided to write this book?
2. The last handful of years have been challenging with the pandemic, politics, and racial tension. What are some observations you have noticed about how people educate themselves on these matters?
-You mention that algorithms influence us in Chapter 1.
-In Chapter 2 you mention paywalls that myth of free information.
3. In Chapter 4 you cover “noticing our emotions”, why is this important?
-In chapter 3 you mentioned that if a comment is removed we can become mistrustful or we label something as fake news out of frustration. Why do we respond this way?
4. In Chapter 5 “learning to evaluate” you talk about lateral reading. Give us an overview of what a healthy information gathering process looks like?
-People have become quite cynical towards supposed “experts”, what might you want people to consider? (It seems like people see themselves as the experts!)
5. As Christians, how do we balance God’s word with the realities of the culture around us?
-Sometimes people can become aloof or culturally out of touch in the name of being separate from the world. This can lead to being insensitive towards those who are hurting or different. How can we balance being not of the world and being all things to all people?
1 hr 3 min
August 24, 2023Why Gen Z is losing hope with Dr. Amy McLaughlin-Sheasby
This is the second installment of the interview with Amy that discusses the grief of the next generation. Amy shares from her presentation from the Telios Conference in February which specifically addresses the various losses GenZ has experienced.
How has the securitization of schools affected the next gen?

How the challenges of the pandemic has stripped their hopefulness about the future.

How can we incorporate practices that help Gen Z become more hopeful?
38 min
August 17, 2023 How Trauma Wires our Theological Imagination with Dr. Amy McLaughlin-Sheasby
In this conversation we discuss the impact of trauma on our theological imagination. Amy discusses her doctoral research from a theoretical trauma studies perspective. Amy describes the impact of suffering on our theological imagination and preaching. She discusses what she calls an "Enfleshed homiletic" where she describes the relationship between the body and the sermon.
Dr. Amy McLaughlin-Sheasby is a professor in the College of Biblical Studies at Abilene Christian University, where she specializes in practical theology, homiletics, and wisdom literature. Her scholarship has been published in the peer-reviewed journals Interpretation, Homiletic, and The International Journal of Homiletics, with a forthcoming article to be published in Religions. Her most recent scholarship focuses on the impact of suffering on theological imagination and discourse. Amy and her husband, Nathan, currently live in Abilene, Texas, and are members of Highland Church of Christ.
1 hr 8 min
August 04, 2023 How do we partner with the Holy Spirit? A conversation with Matt Anjilivelil
In this conversation we discuss the various ways that we can partner with the Spirit to help us transform into the image of Christ.
1. You have written a series called Drawing Near to God. What made you create this study series?
2. How long did it take you? What have you learned from writing this series? What is different?
3. You talk about how the way you teach can impact someone’s thinking, perspectives, etc. How do you see that playing out?
4. Do you want to give a quick overview of your series?
5. This is by far the first complete study about the Holy Spirit in a series. What were your thoughts when you included this in your series? Can you share more about the Spiritual Formation group that you mentioned earlier.
6. I am sure you have used the series to study the Bible with someone. How has that been?
Matt Anjilivelil (pronounced an-jili-vel) has been a Christian for almost 37 years, baptized in the campus ministry. He has served in secular ministry roles in Boston, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Denver. He was part of the mission team to Amman Jordan in 1990 and then in 1999, he along with his wife Sandy and two kids moved to Kuwait to start the church. He led the church for 7 years, while holding a fulltime job. He has worked in the supply chain space for 30+ years. He has been married to Sandy for almost 29 years and they have three adult children including their son-in-law. They have served as shepherds for the campus ministry and young professionals for many years.
For more information on the study series email Matt at [email protected]
1 hr 9 min
July 27, 2023 Forgiveness & Church Hurts | A Conversation with Andrew Kitchen
In this episode we ask some though questions about forgiveness in the church. We know that we are commanded to forgive, but is forgiveness also a process? Andrew wrote a paper that has received criticism due to his perspective on forgiveness. I invited him onto the channel to discuss his perspective and the criticism he has received.
1 hr 14 min

About Truth Trauma Theology

From the publisher's feed

My podcast is about the intersect between Trauma and Theology. Contemporary discussions have to involve a balance of biblical truth and current research studies. Topics will expand upon the content…