The Watershed Podcast: Recent Episodes
Watershed Charlotte
Watershed is a progressive, fully-inclusive, welcoming community of faith in the heart of the city of Charlotte, NC. Each week, we share the talks from our teaching team here on our podcast.
Recommended Reading: Becoming Kin, Patti Krawec Native, Kaitlin Curtice Unsettling Truths, Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer
The interview with Courtney referenced in the intro can be found here: https://youtu.be/uGywaQsj0aE
The Reverend Rob Lee IV joins us today for the second week of our series called The Divine and Me. Rob does a great job at discussing the nuances of divinity and humanity and why it matters to have conversations about the divine today in 2023.
Teaching Pastor Cedric Lundy flexes his perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe as he opens Watershed’s new series on reclaiming ideas from our spiritual past called The Divine and Me. Cedric uses the metaphor of his process for creating the perfect chocolate chip cookies to explore the importance of deconstructing and reconstructing – of reclaming – our spiritual lives in beautiful and intentional ways.
As we wrap up our annual relationship series for another year, David and Kim share some final thoughts on relationships, love, learning to value your self within the context of relationships and answer several of your questions.
On February 19, 2023, three members of the Watershed Community who are also mental health therapists joined David on stage for a revealing and informational conversation sharing topics related to relationships, trauma, spirituality, and how all of these things impact how we see ourselves and others.
Teaching pastor David Roberts shares an exploration of the importance of paying attention to and developing a relationship with The Self, through the lens of Paul and Sigmund Freud. David talks about the his awareness of his own sense of self and delves into our ability to be in relationship with others as being dependent on our own self-concept.
Teaching Team members Kim Honeycutt and Shawn Bowers Buxton share in conversation about their own family-of-origin experiences, how it shaped them, and how they learned to honor their parents by setting boundaries and limits. They share from their own histories, discuss what forgiveness is and what it isn't, and offer us a path to healing from these childhood wounds to engage in deeper, meaningful relationships.This episode was originally recorded on Feb 5, 2023.
Recorded on Jan 29, 2023 at Watershed Charlotte, teaching team member and resident psychotherapist Kim Honeycutt shares a deeply personal and therapeutic talk about emotional regression, and how it affects our relationships with others and our relationship with the Divine. Kim also gives us some practical tools and knowledge to help establish patterns in our relationships that move us towards maturity, compassion, and health.
Matt shares a profound talk that gets into the ways that we – in the Church – have historically defined relationships in harmful ways, and how through a process of reclamation and liberation, we’re disrupting our understandings and celebrating all relationships when love is present.
Teaching Pastor Shawn Bowers Buxton shares a deeply heartfelt exploration of grief, grieving, and how to love those who are no longer with us. She explores how the divine shows up in those moments of loss and how transformation is unavoidable.
Teaching Pastor Cedric Lundy kicks off our annual relationship series by exploring the use of non-violent communication in our relationships. Further, Cedric argues that when we adopt a belief in a God who engages with us using judgmental, shaming, or belittling language, we begin to internalize those same tendencies towards ourselves.
Teaching Pastor Shawn Bowers-Buxton shares a heart felt message about the profound impact of the iconography of the Black Madonna and how this has impacted her own understanding of her life, her faith, and the Christmas season.
Teaching Pastor Kim Honeycutt shares a deeply personal talk in our If Not for a Woman series that speaks about the many women in her life and throughout scripture that have been unnamed, unseen, and need to be celebrated and honored.
Jennifer Garcia Bashaw teaches New Testament and Christian Ministry at Campbell University in North Carolina. She received her B.A. from Baylor University (1999) and her M.Div. from Truett Theological Seminary (2002). She earned a Ph.D. in New Testament from Fuller Theological Seminary in 2012. Dr. Bashaw is an ordained American Baptist minister and has served in churches across the United States for the last 20 years. She has a passion for teaching the Bible and for training and supporting pastors. Her research and writing spans several fields: Gospels studies, Girardian interpretation, hermeneutics, homiletics, and practical theology.
Pastor David Roberts concludes our series based on Brené Brown's Atlas of the Heart with a conversation about the places we go when words fail.
Teaching Pastor Kim Honeycutt continues our series based on the work of Dr. Brené Brown in Atlas of the Heart by sharing humor and perspective on her story as well as some transformational stories from scripture.
Lead Pastor Matt O'Neil continues our series inspired by Atlas of the Heart and Dr. Brené Brown and speaks about the deeply spiritual practice of curiosity.
Watershed is a progressive, fully affirming church where urban lives intersect the Divine; where conversation, creativity, & compassion coalesce; where it’s safe to be an inquirer; where transformation is our mantra; where relationships go beyond surface level; where justice is our heartbeat; where you can come as you are and where kids are viewed as our greatest investment in the future. watershedcharlotte.com
Teaching Pastor Kim Honeycutt shares from her experience as a therapist as well as her personal life to describe the connection between our faith and our connection with others, exploring attachment theory, near and far enemies, and so much more.
Teaching Pastor Cedric Lundy continues our series based on Brené Brown's Atlas of the Heart by sharing some of the places we go when we're angry.
Teaching Pastor Cedric Lundy continues our series based on Brené Brown's Atlas of the Heart by sharing some of the places we go when we're angry.
Shawn kicks off our new series based on the work of Brene Brown by helping make the case for becoming familiar with our emotions and how that familiarity can help us communicate with others and understand our who we are in the eyes of God.
Shawn kicks off our new series based on the work of Brene Brown by helping make the case for becoming familiar with our emotions and how that familiarity can help us communicate with others and understand our who we are in the eyes of God.
The Watershed Teaching Team shares perspective on how we've been influenced as an organization and as individuals by the model of Jesus' disciples.
Teaching Pastor Kim Honeycutt shares a deeply personal talk describing how we all change and grow as we seek the transformational message of Christ.
Teaching Pastor Cedric Lundy shares some provocative thoughts about how pastors have been influential in positive and not so positive ways.
Pastor Matt O'Neil kicks off our new reclamation series, Somebody I Used to Know, with a talk about the Community I used to Know.
Family Pastor Blair Gore looks at the connections between scripture, spirituality, and providing loving parenting support to the kiddos.
Teaching pastor Kim Honeycutt shares about the Greatest Commandment from the intersection of theology and psychotherapy.
Teaching pastor Kim Honeycutt shares about the Greatest Commandment from the intersection of theology and psychotherapy.
David reimagines the concept of Satan and spiritual warfare by opening up Ephesians 6. He provides some framework for rethinking evil and how we can continue to process the reality of evil without worrying that there are demons waiting to pounce.
Teaching pastor Shawn brings us through a new perspective on the story of Job, with this prayer: "If nothing else, I want you to hear this: it is okay to lay your questions and frustrations at God’s doorstep. And while it may be deeply uncomfortable, it is okay to sit in the mystery and silence of unanswered questions. God offers stability that is rooted in faith, a peace unshakable despite the maelstrom we might find ourselves in. Peace exists even in the midst of intense suffering. God is in the whirlwind. "
David continues our Textuality series by walking us through the Romans road. No, seriously. We aren't joking. That's what he told us to say he's talking about. So whether you know what the Romans road is - and thus find this insight landing somewhere between intriguing and unsettling - or you have no idea what we're talking about, we hope that this talk will help you rethink Salvation and find a little peace.
Pastor Matt O'Neil shares about his history with prayer, from his evangelical understandings to how he is learning to engage with prayer in new ways.
Guest speaking Bishop Tonyia Rawls shares from her heart about her own experiences of Justice and Peace as well as the compelling ways in which she leads power community here in Charlotte, NC.
Pastor Matt O'Neil and long-time justice partner Thanglal Haokip explore the long relationship between Watershed and Thanglal's ministry in India, as well as the complexities of ministering across religious, socioeconomic, and caste lines.
Teaching Team member David Roberts shares in the second week of our Tipping Toward Love series (highlight Watershed's justice partnerships) about Launchpad Partners and explores why choosing church is still a decision that matters.
Long time Watershed Community member and Justice Partner, Tommy Allgood, leads his chosen family through a number of thoughts and experiences that foster radical community, solidarity, and mutual aid.
Watershed Co-Pastor and Teaching Team member Matt O'Neil closes our Gold Leaf series and leads our community in communion.
Long time Watershed member and guest speaker Mark Smith shares a deeply personal talk on the first Sunday of Pride month about the importance of the impressions that we make on the people around us and how those impressions can have lasting impact.
Resource for Download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ROucvaO5DTWw3S0-2mnTiz6szba6olEN/view
Cedric brings a message that captures nuances of the how people of color – both within the church and the broader culture – experience fractures that require compassion and intentionality to repair.
Kim Honeycutt shares from a therapeutic perspective on the formation of the ego, a dash of spiral dynamics, and a deeply moving and personal story from addiction to awakened self.
David kicks off our Gold Leaf series talking about the wonder of words, the grace of gaps, and the generative power of God’s failure.
Pastor Scott Hofert finishes our ecological series with a discussion about how we can show divine love not beyond simply to each other. When we hear the words, "For God so loved the world," maybe we can begin to think that God's posture is one of loving the entire world; beyond the human race, to all of the nature around us.
Dr. Robyn Henderson-Espinoza is joined on stage for a dialogue with Rev Anna Golladay at Watershed Charlotte to talk about ideas from Dr. Robyn's new book, Body Becoming: A Path to Liberation.
“Easter does not expel suffering.” - Shawn Bowers Buxton
Teaching Pastor Shawn Bowers Buxton shares an Easter message focused on what a renewed relationship with the resurrection of Jesus and with the land around us.
Join us this Sunday as we continue to look at how nature reveals the sacred to us specifically when it comes to rest and connecting that to our own rhythms of “sabbath”.
Theme’s of life, death, and resurrection are built into the very fabric of our reality. In our past versions of Christian traditions we’ve grown accustomed to speaking about transformation, spirituality and the divine disassociated from the creation narrative or the creative order itself. Yet, in the pages of the scriptures, there are ongoing references of how creation itself is animated by the same divine presence that animates us all. As we engage this spring, as we engage a season that begets and embodies resurrection, we do so with an ecological mindset. We do so with theology inclusive of and rooted in nature, creation, the soil, the environment, all of creation. We do so expectant that what we see or observe will invite us become more human, more alive, more full of hope and courage.
David wraps up our “This Old Soul” series with the same sort of Sunday experience that inspired it: a morning of answering your questions. David answers as many questions about faith, the Bible, God, and justice and we can during the morning.
Teaching Pastor Cedric Lundy shares thoughts about reclaiming the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. What if this passage has been used for years to justify a theological position that is so far off-base that it's caused damage to all of us?
In our reconstruction series entitled This Old Soul, Scott explores ideas related to the control that God exerts on the world and their creation. Is God really in control in the way we often think about control or is something even more amazing happening here?
Shawn visits the idea of what it means to reclaim the liturgical seasons, including Lent and offers this Lenten prayer: Lent reminds us that you, dear Jesus suffered and felt despair. Meet us in this darkness, when we are overwhelmed or lost in grief or lost at sea and can’t see the sight of land. Meet us in the mundane ordinary, in the maintenance of the every day and point out the miracles to us. Remind us that time weaves around making space, creating margins, and circles back to the beginning. Ashes to ashes, Dust to dust. Amen
Blair kicks off our new series, This Old Soul, with a great talk. The goal of being holy is a pretty popular command of the church. What does that mean? From where did it come? And what value does it have moving forward? Join us for our first week of answering your questions and reclaiming parts of this spiritual organism we call the church.
On Sunday, February 13, 2022, three speakers took the stage to discuss their own experiences with faith through lenses informed by the LGBTQIA+ experience. The conversation is both deeply personal and provocative and affirming for the sacredness of all of us!
Teaching Pastor Cedric Lundy shares during Watershed's relationship series, Queen of Hearts, on Black Love and how ideas like racism, white supremacy, and dogma leads to black self hatred. Cedric shares that it's possible to find the redemptive power of black self love.
Co-Pastor Matt O'Neil engages in a conversation with two couples from the Watershed Community to learn from their experiences about navigating love in the 21st century. The conversation was guided by the following statement:
Regardless of our relational season, every one of us shows up as deeply complex individuals, a beautiful array of experiences, growth, emotions, beliefs. There are also intersectional realities or power dynamics that play into how we function with ourselves and others. In some instances, we're fully aware of these dynamics and in other instances, not so much. We trust that hearing what this looks like in a more intimate fashion for real people in real places and time is an opportunity for Watershed, an opportunity for us to reflect and grow both individually and collectively as a community. In becoming familiar with those we may not have yet met or who may live outside the perceived normal of our lives, we are presented with potential - the potential for our empathy, our awareness and our love to expand. And this also presents the invitation to observe our own stories and beliefs about our relational selves. So in one sense, we begin to know our community at a deeper level, but we also become more in touch with ourselves in the process.
In a deeply personal talk, Teaching Pastor Shawn Bowers Buxton discusses the impact that the faith of her childhood, purity culture, and systems of power based on race and gender have played in her posture toward her self-concept as a sexual being. Shawn takes these ideas and weaves them to encourage all of us to pursue self-acceptance as we deconstruct and decolonize those systems in our own experience that have left us feeling shame in the past.
Pastor Blair Gore shares during the second week of our relationship series, Queen of Hearts, about how patriarchal systems that we live and move in have robbed us of our ability to truly connect and form deep, meaningful relationships with others. Blair starts with a new understanding of the story of the Samaritan woman at the well with Jesus and moves into discussing how systems and experiences shape us to be self-protective rather than intimate with those we care about.
Co-Pastor Matt O'Neil kicks off our relationship series, Queen of Hearts, by discussing how the capitalist economic system we live in is so powerful that it distorts and infects the way we see love, relationships, and each other. Matt gives some thoughts on how some of the tenets of capitalism make really bad foundations for love and how we can collectively counter this with community and imagination.
This advent season we wait for good news made manifest in the birth of a child. Dwell for a moment on that Jesus, vulnerable and defenseless. That child who needed Mother Mary to survive. Perhaps one of the traits that makes us most human is our vulnerability. And often vulnerability is thing we shy away from showing. But Jesus met us in his human stage completely vulnerable. The baby Jesus came into being as Hope personified. I feel we’re supposed to pay attention to that. If we are to glean clues about how to live better, more authentic lives, I think the birth of Jesus points clearly to a life imbued with vulnerability and hope.
Teaching Pastor Shawn Bowers Buxton shares about the hope inherent in the advent season and how we can live lives that dwell expectantly in hope.
David Roberts begins Watershed's Christmas series by sharing some ideas about how the advent season necessitates a number of endings and how real salvation - reclamation, transformation, and liberation - can only come when previous aspects of our lives end. David quotes sources ranging from Semisonic to John Chapter 3 and mentions the work of Rev Lynice Pinkard related to Revolutionary Suicide.
"Those new beginnings will be scary, almost necessarily so by definition, but with each new beginning is an opportunity, a sort of freedom shedding those things that we lean upon, shedding those things that we cling to in order to save us."
Teaching pastor Cedric concludes our Loose Blocks series by examining the idea of hell, of whether a loving God would send people to hell, and about the long held Christian ideas, recently popularized by Rob Bell's book, Love Wins, that God might actually have a plan that no one would experience hell.
What if there are more ways to think of God than just the old man in the sky who doles out blessings and punishments based on his own set of laws? Co-pastor Scott Hofert shares four of the ways that we can think about, speak about, and understand the characteristics of a God who is non-binary, loving, compassionate, justice oriented, and with us.