Gravity Leadership Podcast: Recent Episodes
Gravity Leadership
We talked with spiritual director Deb Gregory about the profoundly reorienting practice of walking and praying: a multisensory journey that integrates mind, body, and spirit as we notice God's gentle leading, one step at a time. In her new book Spiritual Wayfinding, Deb has created thirty-three unique walking meditations exploring the core questions Where am I? and Where am I going? Each experience in this easy-to-use guide offers a creative approach to walking, specific prompts for reflection and prayer, and Ignatian contemplation of Scripture.
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We talked with spiritual director and author Susan Carson about how neuroscience and mystical theology intersect to inform a way of being together with God and one another that heals our trauma and alienation, which she explores in her new book A Kenotic Way of Contemplative Healing: Julian of Norwich, Neuroscience and the Centrality of Safety in Healing Trauma. Find her podcast, blog, and more at www.susancarson.net.
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We talked with pastor Steve Watson about shedding forms of Christianity that have disappointed us and constructing and embracing a faith that makes us "larger, freer, and more loving," in the famous words of James Baldwin. His new book All Flesh Shalom dissects some of white Western Christianity’s most narrow and misguided readings of the life and teaching of Jesus, and in conversation with leading open and relational and postcolonial, liberation theologians, explores ways we can engage major themes in the gospels in the service of a larger, freer, more loving faith.
You can connect with Steve and his work on Substack: https://allfleshshalom.substack.com
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We talked with Professor Victor Counted about how the attachment framework can help us explore how we develop and sustain psychological bonds with God, and how, when those bonds are eroded, it can lead to a crisis of faith. His book Bonded With God navigates questions of identity, meaning, and purpose, and the role of faith in offering support and guidance as we examine our connection with God.
Victor Counted is associate professor of psychology, director of the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, and director of the Abundant Life Flourishing Program at Regent University. He is a faculty affiliate of Harvard University's Human Flourishing Program and associate editor of The Journal of Positive Psychology. You can connect with him and his work on his website https://vcounted.com/
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We talked with Rob Dixon about his new book, Allies in Ministry,which provides a practical, research-based pathway for men who desire to support women in ministry but may feel uncertain about how to act or worried about doing the wrong thing, because for women and men to thrive equally in ministry, the church needs male allies who are committed to supporting women in their callings.
Rob Dixon (DIS, Fuller Theological Seminary) is the author of Together in Ministry: Women and Men in Flourishing Partnerships and the coauthor with his wife, Amy, of the picture book Penny Preaches. In addition to serving on InterVarsity Christian Fellowship staff for almost thirty years, he teaches at Fuller Theological Seminary and Fresno Pacific University."
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We talked with professor and author James McGrath about how the process of deconstruction can be a starting point for something new, and lead to building a more expansive faith, which is what he addresses in his book Beyond Deconstruction: Building a More Expansive Faith. You can connect with James on his blog: https://patheos.com/blogs/religionprof.
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We talked with musician, composer, and liturgical theologian Richard Bruxvoort Colligan about the rich, complicated life reflected in the Psalms of the Hebrew Bible—150 stories from a people passionate and honest about the complexities of human experience, and how we can be transformed by reengaging with the Psalms on their own terms. Richard is the author of Dangerous Songs: The Psalms and a Gloriously Disrupted Life.
Richard Bruxvoort Colligan is a musician and a student of the Psalms. He has an MA in theology and the arts from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities and a DMin in grief work from Eden Seminary. An indie musician for over 30 years, he has composed and published 100s of songs for the wider church, including community songs for all the psalms. He lives in Strawberry Point, Iowa, and serves as director of spiritual formation at Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Rochester, MN.
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We talked with pastor and author Tomy Cummins about what to do when someone you love admits that they're drowning in anxiety, depression, or thoughts of suicide. Most of us care deeply but feel unprepared, afraid of saying the wrong thing or making things worse. His new book Shepherds of The Mind: Caring Like Christ in an age of Silent Sufferingequips ordinary people to respond with compassion, gentleness, and hope.
Tomy A. Cummins is a pastor, communicator, author, and mental health advocate. With over two decades of ministry experience, his work integrates scripture with evidence-based practices, shaped by training in Youth and Teen Mental Health First Aid, safeTALK, ASIST, Soul Shop, and QPRT suicide risk detection. Tomy is passionate about helping everyday followers of Jesus become a healing presence rooted in a life deeply connected to the Good Shepherd. He lives in Colorado with his wife Mendy, their two children (Laney and Judah), and an extremely affectionate golden doodle named Sir Chester Chauntavious Chewingston Esquire—Chewie for short. Tomy enjoys spending time with his family, reading, cycling, disc golf, birdwatching, smoking briskets, and cheering for the Oklahoma City Thunder like they can hear him from 600 miles away. You can connect with Tomy and his work on his website https://www.tomycummins.com/
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What is “Ordinary Time” in the Christian calendar, and why is it called “ordinary” if it’s still spiritually significant? How can we practice rhythms of faith and stay spiritually grounded during the quieter seasons of life? Christy, Ben, and Matt discuss.
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What is Pentecost, and why is it such an important moment in Christianity? What was the significance of the disciples speaking in different languages in Acts 2? How do different Christian traditions and cultures celebrate Pentecost today? Ben, Christy, and Matt discuss these questions and more!
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What is the Ascension of Jesus, and how does the theology of the ascension matter? How did the Ascension change the disciples’ understanding of Jesus and their mission? Join Matt, Ben, and Christy to hear their answers to these questions and more.
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Ben and Christy welcome Matt back to the podcast after the sabbatical; Matt reflects on his time away.
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We’re continuing our mini-series with Dr. Paul Penley about his book, What Jesus Meant: How Ancient Conversations Redefine Jesus’ Message. In this series, we talk about how we often misunderstand what Jesus meant because we don’t realize that he was participating in and responding to ancient conversations we don’t have immediate access to. Today’s topic: Jesus versus the Greek Gods.
Dr. Paul Penley is a New Testament scholar and former Bible professor at the college and seminary level. Paul writes books to share academic research insights which redefine our understanding of the Bible, but normally get lost in technical journals at graduate libraries. He loves seeing readers freed from the misdirection and disillusionment caused by bad Bible interpretation. Dr. Penley studied Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic on his journey to better understanding Scripture in undergraduate and post-graduate degrees. He studied biblical history on site in Israel, Egypt, Turkey and Greece and then picked up German and French while completing a Ph.D. from Trinity’s Divinity School. He has presented his original biblical and historical research in college courses and national scholars’ meetings, at Shabbat school and church retreats, at Bible conference centers and small groups.
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We’re continuing our mini-series with Dr. Paul Penley about his book, What Jesus Meant: How Ancient Conversations Redefine Jesus’ Message. In this series, we talk about how we often misunderstand what Jesus meant because we don’t realize that he was participating in and responding to ancient conversations we don’t have immediate access to. Today’s topic: Jesus versus the Apocalyptics.
Dr. Paul Penley is a New Testament scholar and former Bible professor at the college and seminary level. Paul writes books to share academic research insights which redefine our understanding of the Bible, but normally get lost in technical journals at graduate libraries. He loves seeing readers freed from the misdirection and disillusionment caused by bad Bible interpretation. Dr. Penley studied Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic on his journey to better understanding Scripture in undergraduate and post-graduate degrees. He studied biblical history on site in Israel, Egypt, Turkey and Greece and then picked up German and French while completing a Ph.D. from Trinity’s Divinity School. He has presented his original biblical and historical research in college courses and national scholars’ meetings, at Shabbat school and church retreats, at Bible conference centers and small groups.
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We talked with BEMA Podcast host Marty Solomon about what it means to be human. Many of us have inherited a theology that says being human is our main problem, something for us to overcome, but what if being human is actually the point of the gospel? What if God is inviting us to see our humanity as, in fact, very good news? In The Gospel of Being Human, Marty Solomon and Reed Dent invite you on a journey of curiosity, attention, and wonder--asking better questions about who we really are and what Scripture actually says about our identity.
Marty Solomon is a theologian, president and director of discipleship for Impact Campus Ministries, and the creator and executive producer of the BEMA Podcast. He and his wife Rebekah live in Cincinnati with their two children. Marty's previous book was titled Asking Better Questions of the Bible: A Guide for the Wounded, Wary & Longing for More. Find out more about Marty at www.martysolomon.com.
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We’re continuing our mini-series with Dr. Paul Penley about his book, What Jesus Meant: How Ancient Conversations Redefine Jesus’ Message. In this series, we talk about how we often misunderstand what Jesus meant because we don’t realize that he was participating in and responding to ancient conversations we don’t have immediate access to. Today’s topic: Jesus versus the temple.
Dr. Paul Penley is a New Testament scholar and former Bible professor at the college and seminary level. Paul writes books to share academic research insights which redefine our understanding of the Bible, but normally get lost in technical journals at graduate libraries. He loves seeing readers freed from the misdirection and disillusionment caused by bad Bible interpretation. Dr. Penley studied Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic on his journey to better understanding Scripture in undergraduate and post-graduate degrees. He studied biblical history on site in Israel, Egypt, Turkey and Greece and then picked up German and French while completing a Ph.D. from Trinity’s Divinity School. He has presented his original biblical and historical research in college courses and national scholars’ meetings, at Shabbat school and church retreats, at Bible conference centers and small groups.
Connect with Gravity Commons:
- Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we’ll answer it on a future episode.
- Join the Gravity Community to interact with other listeners, and get our list of curated links each week to all things edifying and interesting.
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Ben and Christy talk about St. Patrick's Day and how to celebrate it.
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This week on the podcast, we continue our mini-series with Dr. Paul Penley about his book, What Jesus Meant: How Ancient Conversations Redefine Jesus’ Message. In this series, we talk about how we often misunderstand what Jesus meant because we don’t realize that he was participating in and responding to ancient conversations we don’t have immediate access to. Today’s topic: Jesus versus the revolutionaries.
Dr. Paul Penley is a New Testament scholar and former Bible professor at the college and seminary level. Paul writes books to share academic research insights which redefine our understanding of the Bible, but normally get lost in technical journals at graduate libraries. He loves seeing readers freed from the misdirection and disillusionment caused by bad Bible interpretation. Dr. Penley studied Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic on his journey to better understanding Scripture in undergraduate and post-graduate degrees. He studied biblical history on site in Israel, Egypt, Turkey and Greece and then picked up German and French while completing a Ph.D. from Trinity’s Divinity School. He has presented his original biblical and historical research in college courses and national scholars’ meetings, at Shabbat school and church retreats, at Bible conference centers and small groups.
Connect with Gravity Commons:
- Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.
- Join the Gravity Community to interact with other listeners, and get our list of curated links each week to all things edifying and interesting.
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We’re continuing our mini-series with Dr. Paul Penley about his book, What Jesus Meant: How Ancient Conversations Redefine Jesus’ Message. In this series, we talk about how we often misunderstand what Jesus meant because we don’t realize that he was participating in and responding to ancient conversations we don’t have immediate access to. Today’s topic: Jesus versus the separatists.
Dr. Paul Penley is a New Testament scholar and former Bible professor at the college and seminary level. Paul writes books to share academic research insights which redefine our understanding of the Bible, but normally get lost in technical journals at graduate libraries. He loves seeing readers freed from the misdirection and disillusionment caused by bad Bible interpretation. Dr. Penley studied Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic on his journey to better understanding Scripture in undergraduate and post-graduate degrees. He studied biblical history on site in Israel, Egypt, Turkey and Greece and then picked up German and French while completing a Ph.D. from Trinity’s Divinity School. He has presented his original biblical and historical research in college courses and national scholars’ meetings, at Shabbat school and church retreats, at Bible conference centers and small groups.
Connect with Gravity Commons:
- Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we’ll answer it on a future episode.
- Join the Gravity Community to interact with other listeners, and get our list of curated links each week to all things edifying and interesting.
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We’re continuing our mini-series with Dr. Paul Penley about his book, What Jesus Meant: How Ancient Conversations Redefine Jesus’ Message, where we talk about how we often misunderstand what Jesus meant because we don’t realize that he was participating in and responding to ancient conversations we don’t have immediate access to. Today’s topic: Jesus versus the wealthy.
Dr. Paul Penley is a New Testament scholar and former Bible professor at the college and seminary level. Paul writes books to share academic research insights which redefine our understanding of the Bible, but normally get lost in technical journals at graduate libraries. He loves seeing readers freed from the misdirection and disillusionment caused by bad Bible interpretation. Dr. Penley studied Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic on his journey to better understanding Scripture in undergraduate and post-graduate degrees. He studied biblical history on site in Israel, Egypt, Turkey and Greece and then picked up German and French while completing a Ph.D. from Trinity’s Divinity School. He has presented his original biblical and historical research in college courses and national scholars’ meetings, at Shabbat school and church retreats, at Bible conference centers and small groups.
Connect with Gravity Commons:
- Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we’ll answer it on a future episode.
- Join the Gravity Community to interact with other listeners, and get our list of curated links each week to all things edifying and interesting.
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Ben and Christy talk about Lent: what Lent is, what fasting is for, and how to create more space for Grace to meet us.
SHOW NOTES:
The article Ben referenced about Lent and fasting: gravitycommons.com/how-to-fast-for-lent/
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Timothy McCain is back on the podcast to talk about his new book Jesus Can't Fix Racism, where he argues that racism has survived in the Church not because Christians failed to pray, but because they refuse to change.
Timothy McCain is an author, speaker, and entrepreneur with over two decades of experience in leading and developing initiatives across various sectors. He is the founder and CEO of TMM Publishing, which focuses on helping professionals and through leaders turn ideas into books and scalable platforms, emphasizing ownership and sustainability. McCain's work includes consulting, coaching, and public speaking, guiding individuals and organizations from vision to implementation.
SHOW NOTES:
Good Lord Rose Kickstarter campaign: http://kck.st/4qavaUB
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We're starting a new mini-series with Dr. Paul Penley (yes, Christy's husband!) about his book, What Jesus Meant: How Ancient Conversations Redefine Jesus’ Message. In this episode, we talk about how we often misunderstand what Jesus meant because we don't realize that he was participating in and responding to ancient conversations we don't have immediate access to. Today's topic: Jesus Vs. the Rabbis.
Dr. Paul Penley is a New Testament scholar and former Bible professor at the college and seminary level. Paul writes books to share academic research insights which redefine our understanding of the Bible, but normally get lost in technical journals at graduate libraries. He loves seeing readers freed from the misdirection and disillusionment caused by bad Bible interpretation. Dr. Penley studied Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic on his journey to better understanding Scripture in undergraduate and post-graduate degrees. He studied biblical history on site in Israel, Egypt, Turkey and Greece and then picked up German and French while completing a Ph.D. from Trinity’s Divinity School. He has presented his original biblical and historical research in college courses and national scholars’ meetings, at Shabbat school and church retreats, at Bible conference centers and small groups.
Connect with Gravity Commons:
- Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.
- Join the Gravity Community to interact with other listeners, and get our list of curated links each week to all things edifying and interesting.
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We talked with philosophy professor Michael W. Austin about how Christian nationalism is contrary to Christian virtues AND American values, and offers us a better form of civic engagement. In his book American Christian Nationalism: Neither American Nor Christian, Michael accessibly explains the meaning and history behind nationalism and systematically shows how the ideology contradicts American values like liberty, equality, and justice as well as Christian virtues like humility, faith, hope, and love. Ultimately, he argues that the Beloved Community, first developed by Martin Luther King Jr. and others, offers a better model for an authentically Christian and American community.
Michael W. Austin is Foundation Professor of Philosophy at Eastern Kentucky University and Bonhoeffer Senior Fellow of the Miller Center for Interreligious Learning and Leadership of Hebrew College. He has published 12 books, including Humility: Rediscovering the Way of Love and Life in Christ and QAnon, Chaos, and the Cross: Christianity and Conspiracy Theories.
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We talked with pastor and author David Swanson about the work he and his church have done in Chicago to respond to the presence of ICE in their neighborhoods: bearing witness to violence and terror, calling for repentance, and seeking to nonviolently resist physical attacks on Christians and clergy, the lawlessness of federal agents, MAGA's politics of death, and the overt racism of our president's mass deportation agenda.
David Swanson is the founding pastor of New Community Covenant Church and the founder and CEO of New Community Outreach, a non-profit organization dedicated to healing community trauma through restorative practices. He has written Rediscipling the White Church: From Cheap Diversity to True Solidarity and Plundered: The Tangled Roots of Racial and Environmental Injustice. David lives with his family on the South Side of Chicago. He keeps track of what he’s reading here and on most Tuesday mornings you’ll find him wandering around Jackson Park looking for birds.
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We talked with Dr. Yolanda Pierce about what we do with our wounds - our own, others', and a nation's? In her book The Wounds Are the Witness, Pierce weaves together her own memories, vignettes from Black life, and scenes from scripture, especially the passion of Christ to create an indelible meditation on Black faith, suffering, hope, and the healing possibilities of justice.
Yolanda Pierce is a professor and Dean of Vanderbilt University Divinity School. She is a scholar of African American religious history, womanist theology, and religion and literature, as well as a public theologian, columnist, and activist. She is the author of the books Hell Without Fires, In My Grandmother's House, and The Wounds Are the Witness.You can connect with Yolanda on her website: yolandapierce.com.
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Christy and Ben talk about all things Epiphany: how it fits in the liturgical calendar, what it means, and a few ways you can celebrate: chalking your door, making a king cake, and turning your Christmas tree into a cross.
Show notes & links:
- Door chalking liturgy
- King Cake recipe
- Photo of Christmas tree cross
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As the year draws to a close, Christy, Ben, and Matt reflect on the year, Christmas traditions, gifts, and more.
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Matt, Ben, & Christy take a look at what Gravity Commons has done over the past year and share what's coming in 2026, including Matt's sabbatical, what we are doing well, what we need to do differently, and why we need your support.
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We talked with pastor Zach Lambert about how to read the Bible in ways that lead to healing and wholeness, because the Bible has been weaponized to subjugate women, justify racism, bash LGBTQ+ people, cover up abuse, and exclude people who speak out against these injustices. Zach's new book Better Ways to Read the Bible: Transforming a Weapon of Harm Into a Tool of Healingoffers a path forward to reclaim the Bible's life-giving message. You can connect with Zach and his work on his website zachwlambert.org.
Zach Lambert is the lead pastor and founder of Restore Austin, a church in Austin, Texas. Under his leadership, restore has grown from a launch team of five people in 2015 to more than 1000 members today. He has a Master of Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary and is pursuing his doctorate at Duke Divinity School. Zach is the cofounder of the Post-Evangelical Collective and serves on the boards of Restore Houston, Hub Garage (a nonprofit for single moms), the Austin Church-Planting Network, and the Multi-Faith Neighbors Network. He lives in Austin with his wife and their two sons.
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We talked with Kelsey McGinnis and Marissa Burt about the history and ideological underpinnings of popular Christian parenting literature for those trying to "grow kids God's way," and how these resources offered promises built on invisible beliefs, assumptions, and separatist impulses. Their book The Myth of Good Christian Parenting: How False Promises Failed a Generation of Evangelicalsoffers lots of insight into the history of Christian parenting advice, and hope for parents looking for a new way forward.
Kelsey Kramer McGinnis, PhD (University of Iowa) is a musicologist, educator, and correspondent for Christianity Today, writing on worship practices and Christian subculture. She is an adjunct professor at Grandview University in Des Moines and previously worked at the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights.
Marisa Franks Burt has an MA in Theological Studies and is a novelist, editor, teacher, and cohost of the At Home with the Lectionary podcast. She lives in a small town in the greater Seattle area with her husband, six children, and heaps of books.
You can connect with Kelsey on her website, Substack, and Instagram.
You can connect with Marissa on her website, Substack, and Instagram.
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We talked with Ronald Pierce and Karen Keen about a different way to approach the disagreement over LGBTQ affirmation and inclusion in the church. In their book Christlike Acceptance across Deep Difference, they bring together a broad range of contributors--scholarly and pastoral; affirming and traditionalist; evangelical, mainline, and Catholic--who demonstrate a more constructive response to LGBTQ concerns. Despite their differences, the contributors unite in their commitment to biblical authority and Christlike love of neighbor. They invite the church to join them in this new and better way.
Karen R. Keen (ThM, Duke Divinity School) is a biblical scholar and spiritual care provider at the Redwood Center for Spiritual Care and Education. Her books include Scripture, Ethics, and the Possibility of Same-Sex Relationships and The Word of a Humble God.
Ronald W. Pierce (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) taught theology at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, for over forty years. He is the author of Partners in Marriage and Ministry and the coeditor of Discovering Biblical Equality.
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White boys and men are dangerous, AND white boys and men are struggling. By far, most large-scale mass shooters are white men, AND white men also die by suicide more often than any other demographic. We talked about this issue with journalist, mother, and pastor Angela Denker, who wrote Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood, a sensitive, searing, and unsparing look at the rise in radicalization among young white men in America, especially focused on the role of right-wing Christianity in the increase of religious-based hatred and violence.
Rev. Angela Denker is a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and a veteran journalist. Her first book, Red State Christians, was the silver winner in political and social sciences for the 2019 Foreword Indies Book of the Year awards. She is a columnist for the Minnesota Star Tribune and has written for many publications, including Sports Illustrated, the Washington Post, and Fortune magazine. She has also appeared on CNN, BBC, SkyNews, and NPR. Pastor Denker lives with her husband, Ben, and two sons in Minneapolis, where she is a sought-after speaker on Christian nationalism and its theological and cultural roots.
You can connect with Angela and her work at her website: angeladenker.com.
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We talked with author and essayist Philip Christman about how, if we take the Sermon on the Mount seriously as a call to solidarity, being a Christian and being a leftist go hand-in-hand. In his book Why Christians Should Be Leftists, Christman asks believers who are already uncomfortable with how political leaders on the right leverage sexism, racism, and homophobia to take a fresh look at their own politics and "keep going" to apply their moral discernment to capitalism as they seek to follow Jesus in the 21st century.
Philip Christman teaches first-year English at the University of Michigan. He is the author of Why Christians Should Be Leftists, Midwest Futures, and How to Be Normal, as well as many reviews and essays. He writes a weekly newsletter at philipchristman.substack.com.
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We talked with Dr. Paul T. Sloan about a common misunderstanding about how Jesus related to the Law of Moses - namely that the Law is bad and Jesus comes to save us from it. Instead, Sloan argues that Jesus was announcing a restoration of the covenant, not its nullification. His book is Jesus and the Law of Moses.
Paul T. Sloan is Associate Professor of Early Christianity at Houston Christian University in Houston, TX. He is the author of Mark 13 and the Return of the Shepherd and the coeditor of several books, including Son of God: Divine Sonship in Jewish and Christian Antiquity. Paul joins us today to talk about Jesus and the Law of Moses: The Gospels and the Restoration of Israel within First Century Judaism.
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We talked with Liz Theoharis and Charon Hribar about how prayers, rituals, and liturgies help to sustain movements for social change. Their book We Pray Freedom is full of prayers, resources, and stories that grew out of communities committed to abolishing poverty.
Dr. Charon Hribar (Cha-Ron Reebar) is a visionary leader, musician, and scholar. She serves as the Director of Cultural Strategies for the Kairos Center and Co-Director of Theomusicology and Movement Arts for the Poor People's Campaign. With over two decades of experience, she empowers leaders and integrates rituals and arts into organizing efforts.
Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis is the Executive Director of the Kairos Center for Religion, Rights and Social Justice and co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. She teaches at educational institutions across the country, including Union Theological Seminary in New York City, Episcopal Divinity School in Austin, Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and more.
SHOW NOTES:
We mentioned Liz Theoharis's book Always With Us? What Jesus Really Said About the Poor.
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We talked with theologian Hanna Reichel about their book For Such a Time as This: An Emergency Devotional, which is a guide for ordinary Christians seeking to live faithfully in our era of political polarization, eroding democratic norms, and rising authoritarianism. It is a timely resource for believers seeking spiritual grounding amid societal upheaval.
Hanna Reichel is Charles Hodge Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. Raised an ecumenical Lutheran, Reichel serves as a ruling Elder in the PC(USA) and on the Theology Working Group of the World Communion of Reformed Churches. Their work has won academic honors, including the Lautenschläger Award for Theological Promise and the Ernst Wolf award.
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We talked (again!) with psychologist Hillary McBride, this time about religious trauma, spiritual abuse, and how faith-based wounds can leave lasting scars that impact every aspect of our lives. In her new book Holy Hurt: Understanding Spiritual Trauma and the Process of Healing, McBride delivers a profound message: spiritual trauma is real, widespread, and has far-reaching consequences. More importantly, she provides hope and practical guidance for those seeking healing from religious trauma and spiritual abuse. You can connect with Hillary and her work on her website hillarylmcbride.com.
Hillary McBride has a PhD from the University of British Columbia and is a registered psychologist and award-winning researcher who has hosted Other People's Problems and Holy/Hurt podcasts. She has a private practice in Victoria, BC and is the author of The Wisdom of Your Body, Practices for Embodied Living, and Mothers, Daughters, and Body Image. Her work has been recognized by the American Psychological Association and the Canadian Psychological Association.
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We talked with author Michelle Van Loon about why evangelical Christianity needs to shed the baggage that gets in the way of authentic faith. Her book Downsizing: Letting Go of Evangelicalism's Nonessentials encourages readers to reflect on their own experience with evangelicalism, evaluate the movement's legacy, and participate in shaping its future. You can connect with Michelle and her work at michellevanloon.com
Michelle Van Loon has been a regular contributor to Christianity Today and In Touch Magazine. Her previous books include Becoming Sage: Cultivating Meaning, Purpose, and Spirituality in Midlife; Moments and Days: How our Holy Celebrations Shape our Faith; and If Only: Letting Go of Regret, which won an award of merit in the 2015 Christianity Today Book of the Year awards.
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We talked with Episcopal priest Ben Wyatt about his book Christ and the Council: Conflict, Politics, Theology, and the Outrageous, Extraordinary Story of the Church's First Creed, which is about the complex story of how the Nicene Creed came to be, how Christians decide what is true, and what it can teach us about today's church conflicts.
Ben Wyatt is an Episcopal priest, psychotherapy resident, and author. He is the writer and host of the podcasts The Road to Nicea and In Simeon's Wake, which explore the world of ancient Christianity in fresh, accessible language. He holds an M.Div. and S.T.M. from Yale Divinity School, as well as an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Christian Theological Seminary. He is an excellent napper, a mediocre hiker, and an avid gamer.
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As a pastor's wife for twenty-five years, Beth Allison Barr has lived with assumptions about what she should do and who she should be. We talked with her about her book Becoming the Pastor's Wife: How Marriage Replaced Ordination as a Woman's Path to Ministry, where she draws on that experience and her academic expertise to trace the history of the role of the pastor's wife, showing how it both helped and hurt women in conservative Protestant traditions. While they gained an important leadership role, it came at a deep cost: losing independent church leadership opportunities that existed throughout most of church history and strengthening a gender hierarchy that prioritized male careers.
Beth Allison Barr is the James Vardman Endowed Chair of History at Baylor University in Waco, TX, where she specializes in medieval history, women's history, and church history. She is the author of the USA Today bestseller, The Making of Biblical Womanhood, and her work has been featured by NPR and the New Yorker; in addition she's written for Christianity Today, the Washington Post, the Dallas Morning News, Sojourners, and Baptist News Global. Barr lives in Texas with her husband-- a Baptist pastor-- and their two children.
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We talked with Licensed Clinical Social Worker Will Harrison, Jr. about living with Moebius Syndrome, a rare disability that affects his facial expressions and speech, and about what he has learned at the intersection of disability, faith, and deconstruction. Will reflects on his upbringing in a Southern Baptist church, the challenges he faced in pursuing a career in youth ministry, and his eventual transition to social work. Will discusses the stark differences in how his disability was perceived in the church compared to the secular world, and how his faith journey has evolved. He emphasizes the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in both church and community settings and the transformative power of relationships across differences.
Will Harrison, Jr. is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. He is married with six kids. He enjoys hiking, reading, and coffee. Over the past few years Will has been working through what it looks like to be post-evangelical, navigating faith and reality.
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We talked with author and activist Regina Cates about how to have brave and thoughtful conversations about difficult topics like sexual abuse, racism, religious and political corruption, abortion, and sexual orientation. Her book The Real Conversation Jesus Wants Us to Have is part memoir, part social commentary, and part call to action, and it invites all people of good faith to more fully embody Jesus's message by taking up his call to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Regina V. Cates is an author, activist, podcaster, and founder of "Romancing Your Soul," an organization that helps people develop lives of love, compassion, and purpose. Her first internationally bestselling book, Lead with Your Heart, continues to be an inspiration to people who desire a more fulfilled life. You can connect with Regina at her website, reginavcates.com.
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We talked with pastor and author Isaac Villegas about his on-the-ground justice activism for immigrants. His book Migrant God: A Christian Vision for Immigrant Justicecuts a new path through worn-out talking points and bears witness to loving solidarity among Christians--both with and without US citizenship--and offers a theologically astute and politically rich vision of beloved community. You can connect with Isaac and his work on his website isaacvillegas.com.
Isaac Samuel Villegas served as the pastor of Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship for sixteen years and served on the governing board of the NC Council of Churches for over a decade. He writes regularly as a columnist for The Christian Century and Anabaptist World magazines, and his writing has also appeared in many other publications including Commonweal, Sojourners, and Faith & Leadership.
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Marc Alan Schelske joins us once again to talk (once again) about journaling: what it is, why it works, and how to do it in a way that facilitates spiritual growth. Marc also shared personally and vulnerably about his own spiritual journey. No matter what your history is with journaling, Marc's method (outlined in his recently re-released book Journaling for Spiritual Growth: Six Weeks to Build a Habit that Fosters Spiritual and Emotional Maturity) is eminently practical and powerfully effective for fostering spiritual formation.
Marc Alan Schelske is a thinker and speaker who has served as a full-time pastor since 1995 and is currently the teaching elder of Bridge City Community Church in Portland, Oregon. He also hosts The Apprenticeship Way podcast and is the author of The Wisdom of Your Heart and Discovering Your Authentic Core Values, as well as the book we're talking about today: Journaling for Spiritual Growth. "In my writing, I focus on what it takes to nurture a healthy inner life, something found at the intersection of grace and growth," Marc says. "I write and speak to help people find belonging, redemption, and growth as they discover the life God has designed for them."
SHOW NOTES:
We lost Ben to an unstable internet connection shortly after starting this podcast recording. Please respect our privacy during this difficult time.
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We talked with Presbyterian minister and author Benjamin Perry about what happens to us when we cry... and when we don't. Weeping often opens a door to connection and transformation, but many of us have been taught to suppress our emotions and hide our tears. Benjamin's book Learning to Cry: Why Our Tears Matter is the result of an experiment he undertook: to cry every day.
Benjamin Perry is a Presbyterian minister and an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in outlets like The Washington Post, Slate, Sojouners, and Bustle. With a degree in psychology from SUNY Geneseo and an MDiv from Union Theological Seminary, Perry has worked as an organizer with the New York chapter of the Poor People's Campaign and as an editor at Time, Inc. Perry has appeared on MSNBC, Al Jazeera, and NY1, and is the editor of the Queer Faith photojournalism series. He and his spouse, Erin Mayer, live in Maine.
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In this episode of the Gravity Commons podcast, we explore the complexities of anger as an emotion, discussing its role in personal relationships, power dynamics, and social justice. We reflect on personal experiences with anger, the importance of navigating it with compassion, and the implications of policing anger in various contexts. Our conversation also touches on the privilege of being able to disengage from anger and the necessity of understanding its roots in injustice.
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We talked with Rick Pidcock about the role of anger in an allegation of abuse he wrote about in a progressive Christian organization, the need for self-awareness and humility, how social location affects how anger works, and the need to reform harmful hierarchies.
Rick Pidcock writes for Baptist News Global. He has a master of arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary. He is also the host of the Baptist News Global podcast “Highest Power: Church + State.” And he is a stay-at-home dad.
Links to resources mentioned in this episode:
- "Allegations against Tim Whitaker and The New Evangelicals show how hierarchy transfers to progressive ministries" by Rick Pidcock
- "That time I got an angry call from the subject of an article about anger and abuse" by Rick Pidcock
- "Comment from BNG’s editor on our coverage of The New Evangelicals" by Mark Wingfield
- TNE Reckoning, a site advocating for accountability, where you can download the full GRACE report.
- Exiles in Christendom - Rick's Substack newsletter
- The Highest Power: Church and State - Rick's podcast
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Anger is a wily beast: easily misused, often harmful, yet also sometimes holy and good. Over the coming weeks, we'll be examining anger and the cost and benefits of being more acquainted with our anger and the anger in the world. In this episode, Christy Penley talks us through how anger could be a flag that's waving itself as an opportunity to grow in greater intimacy with God.
Dr. Christy Penley is married to her husband Paul, a mom of 6, and pastor at Pulpit Rock Church in Colorado. She has spent her professional career teaching the Bible to kids, students and adults, and recently received a DMin from Denver Seminary. Christy is a facilitator for Gravity's Formation Course and offers one-on-one coaching for both pastors and lay people.
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We talked with Dr. Paul Penley (yes, Christy's husband!) about how we often misunderstand what Jesus meant because we don't realize that he was participating in and responding to ancient conversations we don't have immediate access to. Paul's book What Jesus Meant: How Ancient Conversations Redefine Jesus’ Message helps us understand that Jesus was not just making points; he was making counterpoints, and this makes all the difference for how we interpret his words.
Dr. Paul Penley is a New Testament scholar and former Bible professor at the college and seminary level. Paul writes books to share academic research insights which redefine our understanding of the Bible, but normally get lost in technical journals at graduate libraries. He loves seeing readers freed from the misdirection and disillusionment caused by bad Bible interpretation. Dr. Penley studied Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic on his journey to better understanding Scripture in undergraduate and post-graduate degrees. He studied biblical history on site in Israel, Egypt, Turkey and Greece and then picked up German and French while completing a Ph.D. from Trinity's Divinity School. He has presented his original biblical and historical research in college courses and national scholars' meetings, at Shabbat school and church retreats, at Bible conference centers and small groups.
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Many of us embarked on our spiritual journeys filled with hope and certainty, only to find ourselves questioning the very foundation of our beliefs as life unfolded. The faith that once seemed unshakeable may falter in the face of broken trust, unanswered prayers, and the harsh realities of worldly suffering. But Catherine McNiel and Jason Hague - authors of Mid-Faith Crisis: Finding a Path Through Doubt, Disillusionment, and Dead Ends - help us understand that we're not alone in this experience.Mid-faith crises are a shared human experience that can feel isolating yet are a crucial part of our spiritual journey.
Catherine McNiel is a chaplain, author, editor, and speaker. She lives in the Chicagoland area with her husband, three children, and one enormous garden. Her previous books include Fearing Bravely, All Shall Be Well, and Long Days of Small Things, which was an ECPA finalist for New Author.
Jason Hague is the associate pastor of Christ's Center Church near Eugene, Oregon, and the author of Aching Joy: Following God Through the Land of Unanswered Prayer. His writing has appeared in Christianity Today, Focus on the Family, and Fathom. He and his wife have five children.
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We talked with theologian, writer, and ordained priest Shannon Kearns about his new book, No One Taught Me How to be A Man: What a Trans Man's Experience Reveals About Masculinity.
Shannon T.L. Kearns is a transgender man who believes in the transformative power of story. He is an ordained priest, writer, and theologian whose work revolves around making meaning. He is also a sought-after speaker on transgender issues and religion, as well as a skilled workshop facilitator. Kearns' work with Brian G. Murphy at QueerTheology.com, which he co-founded, has reached more than a million people all over the world through videos, articles, and online courses.
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We talked with theologian and professor Lee C. Camp about his podcast No Small Endeavor, and what it means to live "the good life."
Lee C. Camp is an award-winning teacher and Professor of Theology & Ethics at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. Lee is also the host of No Small Endeavor – an acclaimed podcast series exploring the habits, practices, and dispositions that facilitate human flourishing, a.k.a. the good life. He is the author of several books, including Scandalous Witness: A Little Political Manifesto for Christians.
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We talked with Palestinian pastor and theologian Munther Isaac about his book Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza, which challenges USAmerican Christians' uncritical embrace of the modern State of Israel. Speaking from his unique vantage point as a Christian pastor on the ground in Bethlehem, he reveals how Israel's campaign to eliminate the Palestinian people is a continuation of a colonial project with nineteenth-century roots that has, since 1948, established systems of entrenched discrimination and segregation worse than South Africa's apartheid regime. In this powerful conversation, he calls on Christians to repent of their complicity in the destruction of the Palestinian people, and challenges them to realign their beliefs and actions with Christ--who can be found not among perpetrators of violence, but with victims buried under the rubble of war.
Additional notes:
- The Kairos Palestine document (creative non-violent resistance)
- Munther Isaac on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
- Christ at the Checkpoint (Youtube channel)
- Across the Divide Podcast
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We talked with professor and author Andrew Root about the ironic reality that our modern pursuit of happiness has made us stressed, anxious, lonely, and depressed, and what evangelism and outreach might look like in this age of despair.
Andrew Root is the Carrie Olson Baalson Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary. He is the author of more than 20 books and hosts the influential When Church Stops Working podcast.
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We talked with Anglican priest and spiritual director D.T. (Danny) Bryant about his book Unless a Seed Falls to the Ground: Welcoming the Death of the Whiteness Gospel, where he shares the wounds and rewards of being a native son of the puritanical way of life called "whiteness," and offers the hope of inviting us into a season of "hospice spirituality" that allows the church rooted in the whiteness gospel to die with dignity.
D.T. (Danny) Bryant serves as a priest at St. Mary of Bethany Parish, as a Spiritual Director with The Center for Hope and Healing, and as Athletic Director at Independence Academy in middle Tennessee. He is also a co-founder of the Black Mental Health Counselor Reparations Foundation (bmhcr.org). Daniel is passionate about seeking practical, just, and merciful healing in the world and enjoys life with his wife and four children.
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We talked with Mariko Clark about conceiving, writing, and publishing a new children's Bible story book: The Book of Belonging: Bible Stories for Kind and Contemplative Kids.
Mariko Clark is a Japanese American author, mother, and storyteller on a mission to help kids embrace diversity and wonder. Her time as an editor at National Geographic Learning sharpened her ability to make complex topics accessible and engaging. She equips kids and caregivers with spiritual resources to navigate the messy middle, wrestle with tough questions, and find community in the journey. Mariko lives outside of Indianapolis with her husband and three sweet and spicy kids.
Additional notes:
- Mariko mentioned the concept of "windows, mirrors, and sliding-glass doors”' in children’s literature, originated by Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop. Here’s a short clip of Dr. Bishop explaining the importance of diversity in literature for all children, regardless of race.
- Michelle Eastman (@disabilitytheology) was the resident Disability theologian for The Book of Belonging. To learn more, Michelle recommends A Healing Homiletic by Kathy Black, The Disabled God by Nancy L. Eiesland and The Bible and Disability, ed. Melcher, Parsons, & Yong. My Body is Not a Prayer Request by Dr. Amy Kenny is a more accessible resource that touches on a lot of the same information.
- Mariko and The Book of Belonging's illustrator, Rachel Eleanor, also offer The Belonging Workshop on Substack. The Belonging Workshop is a weekly Sabbath resource that provides sacred rhythms for folks in liminal faith spaces, with offerings that are a mix of explicitly religious practices as well as mindful and somatic practices, visual resources, and a kind and curious community.
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We talked with Tom Oord again about a lot of questions that came up in light of our conversation about his book God Can’t: How to Believe in God and Love after Tragedy, Abuse, and Other Evils: If "God Can't" determine outcomes unilaterally, what can God do? What about miracles? What about the renewal of all things? Can we be confident that God's love will "win" in the end? This was another mind-stretching conversation on open and relational theology.
Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. Oord is a best-selling and award-winning author, having written or edited more than thirty books. Academic Influence ranks him among the most influential theologians in the 21st century. Oord directs doctoral programs at Northwind Theological Seminary and directs the Center for Open and Relational Theology. He is known for his research and writing on love, open and relational theology, science and religion, evil and power, and the implications of freedom and relationships for transformation.
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Content Warning: situations of sexual abuse and rape are mentioned in this podcast.
We talked with internationally recognized psychologist Diane Langberg about coming face to face with the crushing trauma of sexual abuse, trafficking, domestic abuse, and rape—and its cover-up, all tragically encountered within Christian communities and the church. In her book, When the Church Harms God’s People,Langberg unveils what she has learned about how churches cause harm and why Christian communities often foster unhealthy leaders who end up hurting rather than protecting God’s people.
Diane Langberg (PhD, Temple University) is an internationally recognized psychologist with more than 50 years of experience. She chaired the advisory board of the American Association of Christian Counselors until 2021 and cofounded the Global Trauma Recovery Institute, which trains therapists to assist trauma victims across the world. She is the founder of Langberg, Monroe and Associates, which provides counseling services in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, and consults with Christian organizations around the world. Langberg is the author of seven books, including Redeeming Power. Her books have been translated into 10 languages.
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We talked with "TikTok Pastor" Brandan Robertson about how the Bible has been weaponized to exclude LGBTQ+ individuals, despite Jesus’ radical message of inclusion. In his book Queer & Christian: Reclaiming the Bible, Our Faith, and Our Place at the Table, Robertson offers compelling, evidence-based counterarguments to the "clobber verses" often used to condemn queerness, and envisions a faith where all are unequivocally embraced.
Rev. Brandan Robertson is an author, activist, and theologian known as the "TikTok Pastor." He hosts the Faith for the Rest of Us podcast and has authored or contributed to 26 books, including the INDIES Book of the Year finalist, True Inclusion. His work appears in TIME, The Huffington Post, and The Washington Post. Named in Rolling Stone's 2021 "Hot List," he speaks at venues like The White House and Oxford University and is a champion for LGBTQ+ rights. He is pursuing a PhD in Biblical Studies at Drew University.
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We talked with former evangelical pastor Jeff Mikels about the evangelical church's embrace of cultural and political idols, and his regret of his complicity in this trend. Jeff's book Evangelical Idolatry: How Pastors Like Me Have Failed the People of God is both a confession and a call to repentance. Reflecting on his twenty-year pastoral ministry with candor and humility, Mikels acknowledges the ways he enabled parishioners to develop destructive loyalties to cultural and political idols. As he works to reform his own worldview and embrace allegiance to Christ alone, he urges evangelical pastors and laypeople to join him in reforming their faith and living out the good news of the true gospel.
Jeff Mikels holds degrees from Wheaton College and Denver Seminary. He has over 20 years of pastoral experience, leading a church in Chicago for five years before planting one in Lafayette, IN. There, he was involved in the Pastors' Alliance; he also helped establish the Greater Lafayette Gospel Association, which is a network of gospel-focused ministries, and served as its president.
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We talked with author and hospice chaplain Kevin Sweeney about his new book The Cosmic Christ and the Concrete Jesus, where he talks about how Christian mystics and the Black prophetic tradition have helped him find his footing as a Christian.
Kevin Sweeney is the author of two other books, The Making of a Mystic and The Joy of Letting Go. He is also chaplain for hospice care, and currently lives in Honolulu with his wife, Christine, and their two kids, True and Mikayla.
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We talked with trauma therapist and Licensed Clinical Social Worker Adam Young about exploring our past stories to help us make sense of where we are now and begin to imagine who we would like to become. Adam wrote Make Sense of Your Storyto help people explore their personal stories, and how they still impact us today.
Adam Young is a trauma therapist and the host of The Place We Find Ourselves podcast. He is a licensed clinical social worker with masters degrees in social work and divinity. Adam regularly speaks at conferences and currently serves as an instructor and facilitator with the Allender Center in addition to his private practice. He lives in Fort Collins, Colorado with his wife and two children. You can connect with Adam and his work at adamyoungcounseling.com.
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We talked (again!) with Sheila Wray Gregoire about dispelling the pervasive myths about what makes a happy marriage, and looking at actual evidence to understand what creates intimacy, emotional health, and connection. Sheila's new book is The Marriage You Want: Moving Beyond Stereotypes for a Relationship Built on Scripture, New Data, and Emotional Health,co-written with her husband Dr. Keith Gregoire.
Sheila Wray Gregoire is an author, podcaster, and sought-after speaker who is passionate about changing the evangelical conversation about sex and marriage to line up with kingdom principles. Sheila is the host of the Bare Marriage Podcast and has written several books including The Great Sex Rescue and She Deserves Better: Raising Girls to Resist Toxic Teachings on Sex, Self, and Speaking Up. Sheila and her husband Keith live in Ontario, Canada.
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This week, we spoke with Dr. Emily Hunter McGowin about reimagining the definition of a "biblical" family and the ways that family can embody the work of the Kingdom. Her new book is Households of Faith: Practicing Family in the Kingdom of God.
Dr. Emily Hunter McGowin is Associate Professor of Theology at Wheaton College. She is the author of Quivering Families (2018), Christmas (2023), and Households of Faith: Practicing Family in the Kingdom of God(2025), a practical theology of family framed by the church and the kingdom of God. Dr. McGowin and her husband, Ron, also a priest, live in Chicago with their three children.
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We talked with theologian Stephen Morrison about the anti-mammon witness of the Early Church and its relevance for today, which Stephen argues points toward anti-capitalism. Stephen explores these ideas in his new book All Riches Come from Injustice.
Stephen D. Morrison is a prolific American writer probably best known for his ongoing, mulit-volume "in Plain English" Series (as in: Karl Barth in Plain English). He's an ecumenical theologian drawing inspiration from Karl Barth, T. F. Torrance, Jürgen Moltmann, and James Cone among others. Recently he's been writing about political theology and joins us to day to talk about his book All Riches Come From Injustice: The Anti-Mammon Witness of the Early Church & Its Anti-capitalist Relevance.
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We talked with Tom Oord about open and relational theology and how it can help us trust God after tragedy, abuse, and evil. We talked about the ideas and implications of his book God Can't: How to Believe in God and Love after Tragedy, Abuse, and Other Evils.
Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. Oord is a best-selling and award-winning author, having written or edited more than thirty books. Academic Influence ranks him among the most influential theologians in the 21st century. Oord directs doctoral programs at Northwind Theological Seminary and directs the Center for Open and Relational Theology. He is known for his research and writing on love, open and relational theology, science and religion, evil and power, and the implications of freedom and relationships for transformation.
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We talk with author and mediator Cheryl Miller about how restorative justice practices can transform the lives of survivors of sexual violence. In her book Enough Silence: Creating Sacred Space for Survivors of Sexual Assault Through Restorative Justice, Cheryl outlines of these practices and offers a road map for implementing victim-offender dialogue, surrogate dialogue, circles, and more. Her book is a call to pastors, clergy, nonprofit professionals, and other leaders to dismantle patriarchal systems that perpetuate rape culture. By embracing restorative justice practices, faith communities can imitate Christ in ministering to survivors and those who love them.
Cheryl Miller has worked in mediation, restorative justice, and community development for over two decades. An experienced nonprofit leader, she is also the founder of Quantum Circles Consulting and Training, an organization that equips community groups to address homelessness, economic development, restoration, and reconciliation. You can connect with Cheryl and her work on her website.
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We talked with Dr. Andrew Bauman about the preponderance of sexism and abuse in the church, and what we can do to counteract and guard against it, which are the themes of his book Safe Church: How to Guard Against Sexism and Abuse in Christian Communities.
Dr. Andrew J. Bauman is the founder and director of the Christian Counseling Center: For Sexual Health & Trauma (CCC) and a licensed mental health counselor. A former pastor, Andrew now works with men and women to bring healing and wholeness to their sexual and spiritual lives. His mission is to use his unique position to elevate women's voices and expose a disease that desperately needs to be removed from the church's body. you can connect with Andrew and his work on his website.
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We talked with pastor and historian Malcolm Foley about the not-well-known-enough truth that racism is NOT about hate and ignorance; it's about greed. And it always has been.
Foley's new book The Anti-Greed Gospel: Why the Love of Money Is the Root of Racism and How the Church Can Create a New Way Forwardexplores how the desire for power and money causes violence and exploitation, rooted in racial ideology as its justification.
Malcom Foley is a pastor, historian, and speaker who serves as special adviser to the president for equity and campus engagement at Baylor University. He has written for Christianity Today, The Anxious Bench, and Mere Orthodoxy. Foley co-pastors Mosaic Waco, a multicultural church in Waco, TX, where he lives with his wife Desiree.
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We talked with podcaster and author Jonathan Foster about indigo: the color of grief, his book of poems that came from processing the painful loss of his daughter.
Jonathan is the partner of one and father of three, founder of lovehaiti.org, podcaster, and award-winning author with some degrees in open and relational theology who loves to hike. You can connect with Jonathan and his work at jonathanfosteronline.com.
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We talked with pastor and author Marc Alan Schelske about the practicalities of following Jesus on the path of other-centered, so-suffering love.
Marc's new book Walking Otherwardis a forty-day devotional (just in time for Lent!) that follows the Gospel texts of Jesus' final weeks before his crucifixion. Each entry invites you to try on Jesus' attitude, setting aside self-centered, ego-defending ambition in exchange for other-centered, co-suffering love.
Marc Alan Schelske writes at the intersection of grace and growth. He hosts the Apprenticeship Way podcast and writes books about the inner life and the other-centered, co-suffering way of Jesus. He serves as the pastor of Bridge City Community Church and lives in Portland, Oregon. You can find out more about him and his work at marcalanschelske.com.
We've talked with Marc a couple times before on the podcast:
- Cultivating Spiritual Growth Through Journaling
- What Emotions Are For in the Life of the Leader
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Essayist Liz Charlotte seeks to “read life” into the Bible, a text long limited by rigid evangelical notions of biblical inerrancy. In her book Knock at the Sky: Seeking God in Genesis after Losing Faith in the Bible, rshe draws on a broad range of sources to unpack the first 32 chapters of Genesis in a remarkably fresh way.
Liz Charlotte Grantis an award-winning writer whose work has been published in The Revealer, Sojourners, Brevity, Christian Century, Christianity Today, Hippocampus, Religion News Service, US Catholic, Huffington Post, and elsewhere. Her essays have twice won a Jacques Maritain Nonfiction Prize. She also writes The Empathy List, a popular newsletter that has been nominated for a Webby two years running and garnered an honorable mention from the Associated Church Press Awards in 2023. Knock at the Sky: Seeking God in Genesis after Losing Faith in the Bible is her first book.
You can connect with Liz and her work on her website, and subscribe to her newsletter The Empathy List here.
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Matt and Ben continue reflecting on the process of leaving the white evangelical spaces they both came to faith in.
Show notes:
- Mako Nagasawa: Thinking More Clearly About Abortion
- On How I Left White Evangelicalism and How it Left Me
- Redefining the History and Historiography on American Evangelicalism in the Era of the Religious Right
- My Comments Last Night at the "Evangelicals for Harris" Online Event
- Trump has changed what it means to be evangelical
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Matt and Ben continue reflecting on the process of leaving the white evangelical spaces they both came to faith in.
Show notes:
- Mako Nagasawa: Thinking More Clearly About Abortion
- On How I Left White Evangelicalism and How it Left Me
- Redefining the History and Historiography on American Evangelicalism in the Era of the Religious Right
- My Comments Last Night at the "Evangelicals for Harris" Online Event
- Trump has changed what it means to be evangelical
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Matt and Ben reflect on the process of leaving the white evangelical spaces they both came to faith in.
Show notes:
- On How I Left White Evangelicalism and How it Left Me
- Redefining the History and Historiography on American Evangelicalism in the Era of the Religious Right
- My Comments Last Night at the "Evangelicals for Harris" Online Event
- Trump has changed what it means to be evangelical
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We talk with pastor (and Gravity Commons Podcast co-host!) Christy Penley about how our emotions relate to living faithfully as disciples of Jesus (the subject of her doctoral dissertation).
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On the cusp of a new year, Christy talks with Ben and Matt about what it means to create a "rule of life" that is helpful and freeing, rather than burdensome.
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As the year draws to a close, Christy, Ben, and Matt open some Christmas gifts and talk about some of the "gifts" of 2024. Merry Christmas, everyone!
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Ben, Matt, and Christy continue their discussion from last week of a few post-election commitments that are crystalizing for them as they contemplate what it means to live as followers of Jesus in the coming season. Here are the commitments we discuss in this episode (listen to Part 1 for the ones at the beginning of the list):
- Stay awake. Don’t numb your longing for the world to be made right.
- Keep caring for one another.
- Keep telling the truth about systems of injustice and evil.
- Refuse contempt - don't let them get you to hate them.
- Learn from the great cloud of witnesses.
- Learn to organize in solidarity with the marginalized.
- Learn to notice God at work in your ordinary life.
- Get as healthy as you can so you’re not triggered into harmful ways of relating.
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Ben, Matt, and Christy discuss a few post-election commitments that are crystalizing for them as they contemplate what it means to live as followers of Jesus in the coming season. Here are the commitments we discuss in this episode (more coming in Part 2):
- Stay awake. Don’t numb your longing for the world to be made right.
- Keep caring for one another.
- Keep telling the truth about systems of injustice and evil.
- Refuse contempt - don't let them get you to hate them.
- Learn from the great cloud of witnesses.
- Learn to organize in solidarity with the marginalized.
- Learn to notice God at work in your ordinary life.
- Get as healthy as you can so you’re not triggered into harmful ways of relating.
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Matt and Ben reflect on a practical question from a listener on how to resist the power of Mammon in a specific situation.
Show Notes:
- Matt Tebbe on the Liminal Living Podcast
- Sheryllin Ifill's article on practical ways to respond to the election.
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Christy, Matt, and Ben discuss what they're learning about navigating difficult relationships during the holidays post-election.
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Christy, Matt, and Ben discuss the virtues of participating in book clubs, and some of the goodness that has emerged from the new Gravity Book Club. (We are selecting our next book right now, by the way!) Let us know what you think we should read and discuss together.
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We talked with Dr. Thomas J. Oord about the recent heresy trial he underwent in his denomination for LGBTQ+ affirmation, what led him to fully affirm LGBTQ+ people, and many of the issues and questions that come up when discussing human sexuality.
Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. Oord is a best-selling and award-winning author, having written or edited more than thirty books. Academic Influence ranks him among the most influential theologians in the 21st century. Oord directs doctoral programs at Northwind Theological Seminary and directs the Center for Open and Relational Theology. He is known for his research and writing on love, open and relational theology, science and religion, evil and power, and the implications of freedom and relationships for transformation. You can connect with Tom and his work on his website.
Show notes:
The name of the person we couldn't think of at the end of the podcast is Bridget Eileen Rivera, who wrote Heavy Burdens: Seven Ways LGBTQ Christians Experience Harm in the Church. We interviewed her in 2021.
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In this impromptu bonus episode, Matt Tebbe convenes a panel of pastors to discuss the spiritual, emotional and social implications of a second Donald Trump presidency. They explore personal reflections on identity, the challenges of fostering unity in diverse communities, and the importance of recognizing and addressing systemic issues such as racism and immigration. The discussion emphasizes the need for authentic dialogue, the complexities of caregiving in times of crisis, and the practical steps communities can take to respond to political turmoil.
Matt is joined by:
- Juliet Liu, pastor at Life on the Vine Christian Community Long Grove, IL
- Timothy McCain, pastor and evangelist based in Deltona, FL
- Mac McCarthy, pastor at Crosspoint Communty Church in Oconomowoc, WI
- Seth Richardson, Director of Resurrection Little Rock, a contemplative community in Little Rock, AR
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We talk with Pastor Timothy McCain about how to have healthy, honest conversations with those different from us.
Timothy's new book is Honest Conversations: Talking to Understand; Not to Win, which explores how to have conversations across differences in culture, experience, and lifestyle. Whether you want to learn more about someone's culture as you share a meal or have a more intense conversation about racism and other injustices, this book will give you tools to help.
Pastor Timothy McCain is a sought out evangelist, mentor, motivational speaker, life coach, and author of Crowns are Greater than Trophies, This Is Your Chance Book, and Use Your Jab. You can connect with Timothy and his work on his website.
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We talk with Hebrew Bible scholar Jacob L. Wright about why no other ancient society produced anything like the Bible: a testimony of survival, but also an unparalleled achievement in human history. Wright's book Why the Bible Began: An Alternative History of Scripture and Its Origins was on The New Yorkers BEST OF 2023 list, as well as one of the best five books on religion according to Publishers Weekly. It was also the winner of the PROSE Award from the Association of American Publishers.
Jacob L. Wright is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University. His first book, Rebuilding Identity: The Nehemiah Memoir and its Earliest Readers (de Gruyter, 2004), won the 2008 Templeton prize for a first book in the field of religion. He is also the author of David, King of Israel, and Caleb in Biblical Memory (Cambridge University Press, 2014), which won The Nancy Lapp Popular Book Award from the American Schools of Oriental Research, and most recently, War, Memory, and National Identity in the Hebrew Bible (Cambridge University Press, 2020).
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Pastor and writer Joel A. Bowman, Sr. joins us for a wide-ranging discussion on thinking about and practicing politics through the lens of Christian faith. We touch on the upcoming presidential election, the history and theology of the Black church tradition, and the culture war.
Rev. Joel A. Bowman, Sr. is a native of Detroit, Michigan, and has been in ministry for 29 years. He is the founder and senior pastor of the Temple of Faith Baptist Church, in Louisville, Kentucky, and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, working with military veterans.Currently, Joel is a therapist with the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), providing mental health treatment to America’s military Veterans.
Joel is a seminar facilitator, freelance writer, poet, and thought leader in the areas of racism and racial trauma. His work has been published in numerous places, including the Louisville Courier-Journal, The Front Porch, The Witness, Three-Fifths Magazine, and Baptist News Global. Joel is married to Nannette Mitchell Bowman, and they have 3 children: Kayla, Katie, and Joel, Jr.
It should be noted that all perspectives expressed herein are Joel’s and do not reflect, in any way, the views of any other organization or federal entity.
You can connect with Joel and his work on his website.
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Spiritual director, podcast host, and author Emily P. Freeman joins us to talk about what to do when you start to feel a shift and must decide if it's time to make a change, and how to know when the time is right.
Emily's book How to Walk Into a Room: The Art of Knowing When to Stay and When to Walk Awayhelps us begin to uncover the silent, nuanced, and hidden arrows for anyone asking questions like: How do I know if it's time to move on? What if I stay and nothing changes? What if I leave and everything falls apart? How to Walk into a Room is one of the best five books on religion according to Publishers Weekly, on the New Yorker's Best of 2023 list, and the Winner of the PROSE Award from the Association of American Publishers.
Emily P. Freeman is the Wall St. Journal bestselling author of 5 books, including The Next Right Thing. As a spiritual director, workshop leader, and host of The Next Right Thing podcast, her most important work is to help create soul space and offer spiritual companionship and discernment for anyone struggling with decision fatigue. Emily holds a master's degree in spiritual formation and leadership from Friends University.
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We talked with Chuck DeGroat about how to heal from the hidden hurt of what's happened to us that we couldn't control. His new book Healing What’s Within: Coming Home to Yourself—and to God—When You're Wounded, Weary, and Wandering is available today.
Chuck DeGroat is a professor of pastoral care and Christian spirituality at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, where he also serves as the founding executive director of the clinical mental health counseling program. He is a licensed therapist, spiritual director, author, retreat leader speaker, and faculty member with the Soul Care Institute. As a therapist, he specializes in navigating issues of abuse and trauma, pastoral (and leadership) health, and doubt and dark nights on the faith journey. He trains clergy in handling issues of abuse and trauma, conducts pastor and planter assessments, and facilitates church consultations and investigations of abuse. Before transitioning to training and forming pastors, Chuck served as a pastor in Orlando and San Francisco. He and his wife, Sara, have been married for 30 years and have two adult daughters.
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Professor Grace Ji-Sun Kim join us to talk about the historical origins and theological implications of how the olive-skinned Jesus "became white" and how the invisible, infinite God became a white male. In her book When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity, she outlines how the myth of the white male God has had a devastating effect as it enabled Christianity to have a profoundly colonialist posture across the globe.
Grace Ji-Sun Kim (PhD, University of Toronto) is professor of theology at Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana. She is the host of the Madang podcast and has published in TIME, Huffington Post, US Catholic, and The Nation. She is an ordained PC(USA) minister and enjoys being a guest preacher on most Sundays. Her many books include Invisible, Reimagining Spirit, and Healing Our Broken Humanity. She and her spouse, Perry, have three young adult children and live in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
You can connect with Grace and her work on her website, her podcast Madang, and her Substack newsletter.
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Author and mental health advocate Chris Morris has battled depression and suicidality his entire adult life: the grief of unrelenting illness, the shame of struggling, and the pain of poor guidance. In his book Resilient and Redeemed: Lessons about Suicidality and Depression from the Psych Ward, he shares how he has dealt with these challenges--and invites you to do the same, no matter your diagnosis
Chris Morris is a writer and an advocate for the mental health community who is passionate about redefining normal and building hope in the face of chronic illness and special needs. He is the author of three books, and his articles have appeared in numerous media outlets, including Fathom magazine, Stigma Fighters, Crosswalk, and The Mighty. Learn more at ChrisMorrisWrites.com.
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Professor David Gushee is back on the podcast to talk about how the moral teachings of Jesus can help those who feel the old version of their faith is no longer working to cultivate a more examined and robust faith. In Gushee's new book, The Moral Teachings of Jesus: Radical Instruction in the Will of God, he examines forty teachings of Jesus, drawn from all four New Testament Gospels, to clarify exactly what Jesus said about the moral life.
Rev. Dr. David P. Gushee is Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University, and Chair of Christian Social Ethics at Vrije Universiteit (“Free University”) Amsterdam, and Senior Research Fellow, International Baptist Theological Study Centre.
Gushee is the elected Past-President of both the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Christian Ethics, signaling his role as one of America's leading Christian ethicists. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of more than 28 books, and has had a global impact in the field of Christian ethics. A leader in the growing post-evangelical movement, he has also put feet to his faith in several activist campaigns.
David and his wife Jeanie live in Atlanta. He is a classic novel reader, world traveler, and tennis player, and awaits a call from his beloved Atlanta Braves to resume the baseball career he abandoned in college.
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We talked with podcaster, theology nerd, and former pastor Josh Patterson about leaving the pastorate, starting his (Re)thinking Faith podcast, working a "secular" job, and why he's looking forward to Theology Beer Camp (Oct 17-19 in Denver - join us and register using our code GRAVITYHOBBIT to get $50 off registration!).
Joshua Patterson is the founder and host of the (Re)thinking Faith Podcast. He is an independent theologian with a love for Process-Relational thought, Radical Theology, and the Mystics. When not reading or podcasting, Josh enjoys playing ice hockey and spending time with his friends and family.
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We continue our series with Jon DePue (co-author of Beyond Justification: Liberating Paul’s Gospel) about how to interpret specific scripture passages and theological ideas in the new "liberated" way he outlines in the book.
Today we talk about "faith" - what does Paul actually mean when he talks about faith? What does it mean for us to have faith?
Jon DePue is a graduate of Duke Divinity School and has served churches as director of Christian education for several years. He currently works as a learning community support specialist for Indianapolis Public Schools.
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We talked with podcaster and theology nerd Tripp Fuller about the history, mistakes, and legacy of the emerging church movement of the early 2000s, the state of the church and theology right now, and why he's excited about Theology Beer Camp this fall (Oct 17-19 in Denver).
Tripp Fuller likes the LA Lakers, beer camps, Illia Delio, the Church, philosophy, Battlestar Galactica and LOTR, podcasting, writing, and Jesus, most likely not but maybe in that order. He's the host of the acclaimed podcast Homebrewed Christianity, and uses his PhD in Philosophy, Religion and Theology at Luther Seminary where he's a visiting professor of theology.
Join us at Theology Beer Camp Oct 17-19, 2024
Matt and Ben will be in Denver Oct 17-19, 2024 for THEOLOGY BEER CAMP, and they'd love to see you there, too! Register using our code GRAVITYHOBBIT to get $50 off registration. Keynote speakers include Brian McLaren, Ilia Delio, and Diana Butler Bass. Register at this link, and make sure to use our code GRAVITYHOBBIT to get $50 off.
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Khristi Lauren Adams's faith was first shaped by her experiences as a Black girl--learning about Scripture from her grandmother, Mama Hattie; "playing church" with her seven cousins over summer vacation; and grieving the murder of her sixteen-year-old friend when she was just fifteen. In Womanish Theology: Discovering God Through the Lens of Black Girlhood, Adams reflects on those experiences, inviting readers to learn from a new perspective and guiding them to a deeper understanding of their own spirituality.
Khristi Lauren Adams is an author, speaker, and youth advocate. Khristi works as Dean of Spiritual Life & Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at the Hill School and is an instructor of Religious Studies. She is a graduate of Temple University and Princeton Theological Seminary where she obtained a Master of Divinity degree. Khristi is the former founder and director of the Becoming Conference, designed to empower, educate, and inspire Black girls between the ages of 12-16. She currently sits on the Board of Advisors for Leadership LINKS, Inc, a leadership education organization that equips Black girls to become changemakers. She is a 2017 graduate of “Lead New Jersey”, a select group of thought-leaders from the public, social, and private sectors of NJ and the surrounding communities. She also currently serves as a mentor for The Garden Initiative for Black Women’s Religious Activism, a nine-month peer-to-peer and intergenerational mentorship program for black women leaders across religious traditions in the United States.
You can connect with Khristi and her work on her website: khristilaurenadams.com.
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Registered psychologist and award-winning researcher Hillary McBride joins us to talk about all things embodied. In her latest book Practices for Embodied Living: Experiencing the Wisdom of Your Body, McBride offers an experiential guide--centered on prompts, activities, and opportunities for reflection--to support readers who want to practice embodiment.
Dr. Hillary McBride is a registered psychologist, a researcher, and podcastor, with expertise that includes working with trauma and trauma therapies, embodiment, at the intersection of spirituality and mental health. Her first book, Mothers, Daughters, and Body Image: Learning to Love Ourselves as We Are, was published in 2017; she was the senior editor of the textbook Embodiment and Eating Disorders: Theory, Research, Prevention, and Treatment, which was published in 2018. Her bestselling book The Wisdom of Your Body: Finding wholeness, healing and connection through embodied living came out in the fall of 2021, and in January she released Practices for Embodied Living. Her next book Holy Hurt: understanding and healing from spiritual trauma, comes out April 2025. She has been recognized by the American Psychological Association, and the Canadian Psychological Association for her research and clinical work. In addition to being a teaching faculty at Trinity Western University, she is an ambassador for Sanctuary Mental Health, and the host of CBC's award winning podcast Other People's Problems. Hillary makes her home in the pacific northwest in British Columbia, Canada.
You can connect with Hillary and her work via her website: www.hillarylmcbride.com. You can also find her on Instagram.
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We talk with writer and artist Jenai Auman about the experience of being left out or pushed out of the church, and how to find spiritual rest and belonging in a God who loves, restores, and blesses the outcast and the marginalized. In her book Othered: Finding Belonging with the God Who Pursues the Hurt, Harmed, and Marginalized, Jenai draws on her experience growing up as a biracial kid in the American South as well as working within toxic ministry environments to reveal a hopeful, trauma-informed way forward.
Jenai Auman is a Filipina American writer and artist. She draws from her years in church leadership as well as her trauma-informed training to write on healing, hope, and the way forward. She is passionate about providing language so readers can find a faith that frees. She received her bachelor's degree in behavioral health science and is currently pursuing a master's in spiritual formation at Northeastern Seminary. Jenai lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband, Tyler, and their sons, Quinn and Graham.
You can connect with Jenai and find out more about her work on her website.
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Today we start a new regular series on the podcast, based on our conversation a couple months ago with Jon DePue about Liberating the Gospel from Mere Justification. The paradigm shift in Beyond Justification: Liberating Paul’s Gospel (the book Jon co-authored with Douglas Campbell) is such a big one for most of us that we thought it'd be helpful to talk regularly with Jon about how to interpret specific scripture passages and theological ideas in this new "liberated" way.
Today we talk about the "wrath of God," especially at it appears in Romans. What does Paul mean when he talks about the "wrath of God" and how does it function in his theology and proclamation of the gospel of Jesus? How can we recover from the wrong uses of God's wrath? How should we think and talk and preach about "the wrath of God" today?
Jon DePue is a graduate of Duke Divinity School and has served churches as director of Christian education for several years. He currently works as a learning community support specialist for Indianapolis Public Schools.
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After twenty years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, a global pandemic, protests against racial violence, and frequent shootings, more Americans than ever are living with the effects of trauma.
Our conversation with Army veteran and Episcopal priest David Peters helps us see the good news that Jesus was born and died in a traumatized world, and his story speaks forever to wounded people worldwide.
Peters' book Post-Traumatic Jesus: Reading the Gospel with the Woundedexplores Jesus' life story through the post-traumatic lens with which the Gospel writers first wrote it--as people who had seen their leader executed by the same oppressive government that had already shrouded their whole lives in anxiety and fear. Meeting the post-traumatic Jesus--the only Jesus the world has ever known--can be a balm to the wounds of modern Christians and spiritual seekers.
David W. Peters served as an enlisted Marine and Army Chaplain, who deployed to Iraq in 2005. He is the author of several books, notably Death Letter: God, Sex and War and Post-Traumatic God: How the Church Cares for People Who Have Been to Hell and Back, and Post-Traumatic Jesus: Reading the Gospel with the Wounded. Today he serves as the vicar of St. Joan of Arc Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas.
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Matt and Ben respond to a listener question about finding a place in the body of Christ after clergy sexual abuse.
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In the face of the rising threat of Christian Nationalism to both church and democracy, Beau Underwood joins us to talk about how some of the hidden undercurrents are present not just among evangelical Christians, but in the mainline church, which is the theme of the book he co-wrote with Brian Kaylor, Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism.
Beau Underwood is the senior minister at Allisonville Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Indianapolis, a contributing editor for Word&Way, and is pursuing a doctorate in public affairs. He has graduate degrees from the University of Chicago in both religion and public policy. His writing as appeared in Sojourners, The Christian Century, and Religion and Politics.
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We're starting a Book Club, and you're invited! We talk about why we wanted to do this, how you can be involved, and the first book we'll discuss: The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, by journalist Tim Alberta.
The Book Club will be a weekly discussion on Fridays at 12pm ET starting August 2, 2024 (recordings available to all members). To participate, get yourself a paid membership to the Gravity Community.
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Though evangelicals emphasize fidelity to the gospel above all else, many have fallen in step with "a different gospel" of Christian nationalism. Analyzing Scripture, church history, and current events in the United States and Russia, Joel Looper offers evangelicals a theological rationale for resisting Christian nationalism.
Joel Looper teaches at Baylor University where he serves as coordinator for Shalom Mission Communities, a network of international Christian communities. He's the author of Bonhoeffer's America: A Land Without Reformation and the book we talked about on this episode Another Gospel: Christian Nationalism and the Crisis of Evangelical Identity.
Show notes:
- The article we referenced about the Texas school board member who disavowed the far-right platform she campaigned on: "A GOP Texas school board member campaigned against schools indoctrinating kids. Then she read the curriculum."
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There is no such thing as substitutionary death sacrifice in the Torah, which changes everything we thought we knew about Jesus's death. The consistent message throughout the entire NT is not that Jesus died instead of us, rather, Jesus dies ahead of us so that we can unite with him and be conformed the image of his death. It's not about substitution, it's about participation, and Andrew Rillera helps us see this in his book Lamb of the Free: Recovering the Varied Sacrificial Understandings of Jesus’s Death.
Andrew Rillera is Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies and Theology at The King's University in Edmonton, Alberta, in Canada.
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What if obedience is not the goal of Christian parenting? What if it's our job as parents to instead help our kids get to know God and discover that God can be trusted? In her book Woven: Nurturing a Faith Your Kid Doesn't Have to Heal From, pastor and parent Meredith Miller helps families nurture the kind of faith that can flex and grow, be broken and repaired. The kind of faith that can stand up to the life a child will live, the doubts they will encounter, and the questions that will come up along the way.
Meredith Miller is a pastor and a parent who has spent most of the past twenty years helping families follow Jesus. She has been involved with Fuller Youth Institute since 2007 and from 2014-2019 she was Curriculum Director for the children's ministry at Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago, Illinois. Meredith holds a Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary, as well as a B.A. in Religious Studies and Spanish Language & Literature from Westmont College. She is pastor of Pomona Valley Church and calls Southern California home.
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Men today are starved for sexual formation. They've been failed by parents, churches, and culture alike, leading to widespread shame, confusion, and brokenness in the area of sexuality. We talked with therapist Sam Jolman about helping men reconnect their God-given sexuality with innocence, awe, and joy, and shows readers how to celebrate--instead of struggle against--the gift of sexual desire. Sam is the author of The Sex Talk You Never Got: Reclaiming the Heart of Masculine Sexuality.
Sam Jolman is a professional therapist with over 20 years of experience specializing in men’s issues and sexual trauma recovery. He seeks to help men and women heal, know their stories and find greater sexual wholeness and aliveness. He received his master’s in counseling from Reformed Theological Seminary and was future trained in Narrative Trauma car through the Allender Center at the Seattle School of Theology and psychology. Sam lives in Colorado with his wife an three sons. Together they enjoy exploring the best camping spots in a pop-up camper. Sam goes to therapy, loves fly fishing and can often be found trying to catch his breath on the floor of his local CrossFit Gym.
You can connect with Sam's work by subscribing to his Substack newsletter, and you can get his free e-book on how to give a sex talk by ordering his book and connecting on his website.
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Lee C. Camp joins us (again!) for a wide-ranging conversation about human flourishing, habits, ethics, politics, philosophy, and faith. This is Lee's second time on the podcast - we talked with him in 2020 about his book Scandalous Witness: A Little Political Manifesto for Christians.
Lee C. Camp is an award-winning teacher and Professor of Theology & Ethics at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. Lee is also the host of No Small Endeavor - an acclaimed podcast series exploring the habits, practices, and dispositions that facilitate human flourishing, a.k.a. the good life.
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In a world experiencing turbulent change, we need people who are resilient, kind, open, generous, and brave. How do we become those kinds of people? In Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times, popular podcaster Elizabeth Oldfield uses the seven deadly sins as a framework to explore this question.
Elizabeth Oldfield hosts The Sacred, a podcast about our deepest values, the stories that shape us, and how we can build empathy and understanding between people who are very different. She has a regular column for UnHerd and has appeared on BBC One, Radio 5Live, Radio 4, and The World Service. Her work has appeared in The Financial Times, Prospect, The Times, CNN, The Guardian, and beyond. Oldfield is also a contributing editor at Comment magazine, a guest lecturer at the University of Birmingham, and former director and now senior fellow at Theos, the UK's leading religion and society think tank. She lives in London, England.
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We talk with spiritual director Terra McDaniel about how to rediscover the lost practice of lament, so we can heal and hope again. Most people don't know how to process personal or communal mourning and instead struggle to honor our tears, vulnerability, and the full weight of these disillusioning times. But tending our grief is exactly what we need to reimagine a way forward.
Terra's book Hopeful Lament: Tending Our Grief Through Spiritual Practices makes space for the powerful act of crying out before a loving God and offers provoking reflection questions, embodied practices, and applications for families with children. Learn how to journey gently through suffering.
Terra McDaniel is a spiritual director for adults and children. She spent two decades as a pastor and ministry leader and earned her MDiv at Portland Seminary. McDaniel wrote More Than Ordinary with Doug Sherman and is a regular contributor to the Companioning Center blog. She lives with her husband in Austin, Texas, with her twin grandchildren nearby.
You can connect with her and her work on her website.
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Matt posted something on Facebook recently about people who attempt to "police" those going through deconstruction, who seem to:
- equate deconstruction with de-conversion,
- say people deconstruct so they can sin,
- say people deconstruct to 'be cool or hip or trendy or for street cred',
- criticize 'giving up' on the local church, and
- blame deconstruction on bad teaching.
Matt received a response from Aaron Gardner, a friend who is right in the middle of a painful deconstruction process, and we decided to record a podcast conversation about what it's actually like to be right in the middle of deconstruction.
You can connect with Aaron on his Facebook page for further conversation.
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In their new book Beyond Justification: Liberating Paul’s Gospel, Douglas Campbell and Jon Depue address a growing frustration among many Christians of how to understand what seems to be contradictory messages from Paul about the Gospel.
On one hand, Paul usually talks about a participatory, transformational good news full of freedom, resurrection, love, and being ‘in Christ’. On the other hand, about 10% of the time Paul’s language speaks of retribution, punitive justice, and a conditional transaction at the cross. What to make of this disjunction in Paul’s thought?
Jon Depue joins us for a provocative conversation seeking a way through this quagmire that has consistently confounded Christians for many years. Making use of historical backgrounds and utilizing a close reading of Paul’s rhetoric and argument in the book of Romans, Doug and Jon propose a compelling and unifying way forward to a clear articulation of Paul’s Gospel.
Jon DePue is a graduate of Duke Divinity School and has served churches as director of Christian education for several years. He currently works as a learning community support specialist for Indianapolis Public Schools.
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The fact that "good evangelical Christians are Republican" seems obvious means the propaganda is working.
Professor and author Scott Coley helps us understand how evangelicalism became fused with right-wing politics and now presses evangelical theology into the service of authoritarian politics, which he outlines in his new book Ministers of Propaganda: Truth, Power, and the Ideology of the Religious Right.
Scott M. Coley is a lecturer in philosophy at Mount St. Mary's University. His research interests include philosophy of religion, moral epistemology, and political philosophy.
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A dramatic misinterpretation of the Jewish tradition has shaped the history of the West: Christianity is the religion of love, and Judaism the religion of law. In the face of centuries of this widespread misrepresentation, Rabbi Shai Held, in his book Judaism Is about Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life, recovers the heart of the Jewish tradition, offering the radical and moving argument that love belongs as much to Judaism as it does to Christianity.
Rabbi Shai Held--philosopher, theologian, and Bible scholar--is President and Dean at the Hadar Institute. He received the prestigious Covenant Award for Excellence in Jewish Education, and has been named multiple times by Newsweek as one of the fifty most influential rabbis in America and by the Jewish Daily Forward as one of the fifty most prominent Jews in the world. Rabbi Held is the author of several books, and is the host of Hadar's newest podcast, Answers WithHeld.
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In her book Forgiveness After Trauma: A Path to Find Healing and Empowerment, Christian minister and scholar Susannah Griffith explores what the Bible says--and doesn't say--about the biblical call to forgive. She helps readers understand a "trauma-informed forgiveness" that is healing and restorative, framing forgiveness within broader concerns around lament, anger, accountability, release and rebirth, and reconciliation.
Susannah Griffith (PhD, Vanderbilt University) is an independent scholar whose work focuses on the intersection of biblical studies and trauma. She is also a licensed minister of the Mennonite Church USA, a role she embodies to advocate and care for the marginalized outside the walls of the church. Her first book, Leaving Silence, was a Christianity Today Book Award finalist for Christian discipleship. Griffith resides in Northern Indiana with her husband and three young daughters.
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American history has profoundly shaped, and been shaped by, Christianity. In her book Turning Points in American Church History: How Pivotal Events Shaped a Nation and a Faith, Dr. Elesha Coffman tells the story of Christianity in the United States by focusing on 13 key events over four centuries of history. Elesha helps us understand our faith and the landscape of American religion.
Elesha J. Coffman (PhD, Duke University) is associate professor of history at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She previously served as the editor of Christian History magazine and has taught at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary. She spent a year as a fellow at the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University. Coffman is the author of The Christian Century and the Rise of the Protestant Mainline, Margaret Mead: A Twentieth-Century Faith, and numerous articles on American religious history.
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The Beatitudes are some of the most-quoted and least-understood words of Jesus. Pastor and author Ryan Post helps us hear the Beatitudes anew as good news to form us into Christlikeness.
Ryan Post is the lead pastor of Village Church in Burbank, CA and the author of Healthy Prayer: Integrating Structure, Silence, and Spontaneity and the book we talked about in this converastion, Jesus People: Communities Formed by The Beatitudes.
You can connect with Ryan and his work at ryanpost.com.
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Many Christians and churches are rediscovering that God cares deeply about justice, but opinions abound as to what an approach to biblical justice might look like in contemporary society. We talk with biblical scholar Michael Rhodes about justice-oriented discipleship that is critical for the formation of God's people, which is the theme of his new book Just Discipleship: Biblical Justice in an Unjust World.
JUST DISCIPLESHIP BOOK GIVEAWAY: In partnership with IVP, we are giving away two copies of Michael Rhodes' book Just Discipleship. Go to gravitycommons.com/justdiscipleship to register.
Michael J. Rhodes (PhD, Trinity College/University of Aberdeen) is the lecturer in Old Testament at Carey Baptist College. He is the author of Formative Feasting: Practices and Virtue Ethics in Deuteronomy's Tithe Meal and the Corinthian Lord's Supper; Practicing the King's Economy: Honoring Jesus in the Way We Work, Earn, Spend, Save, and Give (with Brian Fikkert and Robby Holt); and numerous articles in popular outlets such as Christianity Today and The Biblical Mind. Rhodes has spent more than fourteen years involved in community development and urban ministry work, and is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. He currently lives in Auckland, New Zealand with his wife, Rebecca, and their four children.
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Children are marginalized in our churches, dismissed into Sunday school or silenced for lengthy sermons aimed at adults. Ryan Stollar has spent his career advocating for the rights of children, and in his book The Kingdom of Children: A Liberation Theology, he proposes a liberation theology of the child, whereby we can avoid stunting their spiritual growth and passing on trauma.
Ryan Stollar is a child-liberation theologian and an advocate for children and abuse survivors. He holds an MHS in child protection from Nova Southeastern University and an MA in Eastern classics from St. John's College.
You can connect with Ryan and his work on his website rlstollar.com.
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Pastor, podcaster, and public theologian Trey Ferguson knows that faith can get messy. In his book Theologizin' Bigger: Homilies on Living Freely and Loving Wholly, he encourages us to re-engage our imaginations and construct theologies that speak to our current contexts. Our conversation covers topics like how we read the Bible, our inherited traditions, accountability, our value, and what the gospel is.
Trey Ferguson is a minister, writer, and speaker, with an M.Div from the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University. You can find him podcasting on Three Black Men: Theology, Culture, and the world around us and New Living Treyslation, writing in The Son Do Move newsletter and Substack, and tweeting (@pastortrey05 on the social media platform formally known as Twitter). He lives in South FL with his wife and three children.
You can connect with him and his work on his website pastortrey05.com.
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We talked with biblical scholar Pete Enns about how the Bible actually works, what to do when your faith takes turns you never saw coming, and lots more. This is kind of a mashup conclusion for our past series on the Bible and our series on deconstruction.
Pete Enns is the Abram S. Clemens Professor of Biblical Studies at Eastern University, and the host of The Bible for Normal People podcast. He is the author of The Sin of Certainty, The Bible Tells Me So, Inspiration and Incarnation, and the book we're mostly chatting about two of his latest books today today, How the Bible Actually Works and Curveball: When Your Faith Takes Turns You never Saw Coming.
You can connect with Pete and his work at thebiblefornormalpeople.com.
Show Notes:
- Resident Alien (TV Series)
- How to Practice Digital Minimalism
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As a Black autistic pastor and disability scholar, Lamar Hardwick lives at the intersection of disability, race, and religion. He wrote How Ableism Fuels Racism: Dismantling the Hierarchy of Bodies in the Churchto help Christian communities engage in critical conversations about race by addressing issues of ableism.
Lamar Hardwick is the lead pastor of Tri-Cities Church in ATL, GA, and the author of Disability in the Church: A Vision for Diversity and Inclusion. He is a grad of Yale Divinity School Clergy Scholar Program and a 2017 grad of Georgia Forward's Young Gamechangers program. He's written for the Huffington Post and BioLogos, regularly writing and speaking on disability inclusion in the church.
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There are lots of misconceptions about "deconstruction" (i.e. it's the "easy way out" or a way to avoid accountability). But Angela Herrington, in her new book Deconstructing Your Faith Without Losing Yourself, defines it as healing from religious trauma by releasing harmful beliefs, and accompanies people on that journey in her work.
Angela Herrington is a Lark's Song Certified Life Coach and hods a BA in biblical studies from Indiana Weslyan and an MA in leadership from Wesley Seminary. She helps those deconstructing their faith heal from their religious trauma and cultivate healthy spirituality.
You can connect with Angela and her work on her website: angelajherrington.com.
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Many First Nations tribes communicate with the cultural and linguistic thought patterns found in their original tongues. Terry Wildman joins us to talk about The First Nations Version (FNV), his indigenous translation of the New Testament, which recounts the Creator’s Story—the Christian Scriptures—following the tradition of Native storytellers’ oral cultures. This way of speaking, with its simple yet profound beauty and rich cultural idioms, still resonates in the hearts of First Nations people.
Terry M. Wildman (Ojibwe and Yaqui) is the lead translator, general editor, and project manager of the First Nations Version. He serves as the director of spiritual growth and leadership development for Native InterVarsity. He is also the founder of Rain Ministries and has previously served as a pastor and worship leader. He and his wife, Darlene, live in Arizona.
Show Notes:
- How to Fast For Lent: A Practical Guide
- "Rooted in Abundance": article that refers to the First Nations Version
- Sign up for Terry's newsletter at firstnationsversion.com
- First Nations Version Project Facebook page
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Jon Ward's life is divided in half: two decades inside the evangelical Christian bubble and two decades outside of it.
In his book Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation, Wardtells the engaging story of his upbringing in, and eventual break from, an influential evangelical church in the 1980s and 1990s. Ward sheds light on the evangelical movement's troubling political and cultural dimensions, tracing the ways in which the Jesus People movement was seduced by materialism and other factors to become politically captive rather than prophetic.
Jon Ward is the chief national correspondent for Yahoo News. He has covered American politics and culture for two decades, including as a white House correspondent traveling aboard Air Force One and as a national affairs correspondent writing about two presidential campaigns. He is the author of Camelot's End: Kennedy vs. Carter and the Fight that Broke the Democratic Party and hosts The Long Game podcast. Ward has written for the Washington Post, the New Republic, Politico, Vanity Fair, HuffPost, and the Washington Times, and lives in D.C.
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What does it look like to love someone you disagree with? In Loving Disagreement: Fighting for Community through the Fruit of the Spirit, Kathy Khang and Matt Mikalatos share how the fruit of the Spirit informs our ability to engage in profound difference and conflict with love.
Kathy Khang is a writer, speaker, and yoga teacher. She's contributed to More than Serving Tea and Voices of Lament, as well as the author of Raise Your Voice.
Matt Mikalatos is an author, screenwriter, and speaker. He's the author of Journey to Love and the YA fantasy series The Sunlit Lands. He has written for Today.com, TIME Magazine, Relevant, Nature, Writer's Digest, and Daily Science Fiction.
Kathy and Matt co-host The Fascinating Podcast together.
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Most of us assume that all shame is toxic shame (feeling bad for the person I am). But can shame be "good"? In this episode we continue a conversation we started a few episodes ago in our Christmas episode, where we wondered about the way Jesus seems to leverage shame to seek repentance and restitution from oppressors. We received some excellent reflections from Naomi, a member of the Gravity Community, and we wanted to address some of what she said.
Show notes:
Here are Naomi's comments in full:
"Hey all - I’m just in the middle of the Christmas episode and the shame chat. I’ve done so much thinking about shame in the past 18mths or so. I also agree there is a form of shame that is healthy, which is different to guilt. I think guilt is linked to rules - I did something wrong that broke a societal rule. You can feel guilt outside of a relational context, because it is about our social rules. But shame is about broken relationships. Toxic shame says, “I am a bad person and am worthy of being expelled from the group, if people saw the true me they would reject me.” Healthy shame is about recognising that my actions can break relationships and hurt people, and therefore (hopefully) keeps me from doing those things. Part of our problem, I think, is that we haven’t learnt how to repair damage we do to others, so we fear our shame will lead to permanently broken relationships. My understanding is that in honour shame cultures this is more codified, so there are clear ways to restore honour if relationships are damaged. Thoughts?
"Eg. I feel guilty that I ate an extra cookie. I broke a perceived rule, but no one else is hurt. I may also feel some (toxic) shame about my weight because I believe it makes me somehow unacceptable and an object of judgement from others. I feel a combo of (healthy) shame and guilt when I yell at my kids, because it both breaks one of my parenting rules but I also see that as an abuse of my power and damaging to our relationship, but I know how to repair it. If I didn’t (yet) understand that, a friend may need to help me recognise my actions as “shameful”, hopefully without exiling me from the community. But if it was severe and I was unrepentant, then that may be necessary for the safety of others.
"Also, if my yelling at my kids is unchecked, they are likely to internalise toxic shame. I think often our toxic shame comes from someone else being shameless, and the shame therefore ends up on the wrong person (ie on the one with less power). Because it wasn’t theirs in the first place, there is no way back for them, other than putting the shame back to me, it’s rightful 'owner'."
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We started Gravity in 2015, and up until recently the official name of the organization was Gravity Leadership. But we recently changed our name to Gravity Commons. Why?
Show notes:
- Read the article online: Why We Changed Our Name to Gravity Commons
- Join the Gravity Community.
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In her book Eve Isn't Evil: Feminist Readings of the Bible to Upend Our Assumptions, the Rev. Dr. Julie Faith Parker reads biblical texts through a feminist lens, discussing how vital our readings of the Bible can be as a source of strength, guidance, and joyful defiance.
Julie Faith Parker lives in NYC where she is a visiting scholar at Union Theological Seminary and biblical scholar in residence at Marble Collegiate Church. She has taught biblical studies at General Theological Seminary, Trinity Lutheran Seminary, and also at NY Theological Seminary, where her students were incarcerated in Sing Sing Prison.
Show notes:
Here's the article we mentioned in the introduction (Chris Green, prompted by a conversation between Bono and Franklin Graham, posts a conversation between Rowan Williams and Philip Pullman on what makes art art and what makes art Christian:
You Can't Actually Show the Resurrection
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We talk with pastor and professor Cheryl Bridges Johns about why our reading of the Bible needs to be "re-enchanted" for us to encounter it as God's Word. She is the author of Re-Enchanting the Text: Discovering the Bible as Sacred, Dangerous, and Mysterious.
Cheryl Bridges Johns is a pastor and theologian who has taught collee and seminary students for over 40 years. She is visiting professor and director of the Pentecostal House of Studies at United Theological Seminary and previously taught at Pentecostal Theological Seminary and is past president of the Society for Pentecostal Studies.
You can connect with her and her work on her bio page.
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Christy, Matt, and Ben spend some time reflecting on the past year: what they're learning and hoping for in the new year (and opening Christmas presents!).
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As part of our series on how to understand and read the Bible, we talk with New Testament scholar Robyn Whitaker about why and how to read the Bible on its own terms (instead of trying to make it into something it's not).
Robyn Whitaker is Associate Professor of New Testament Studies at Pilgrim Theological College and the University of Divinity in Melbourne Australia.
She co-hosts the By the Well podcast, and is the author of the book we talked with her about, Even the Devil Quotes Scripture: Reading the Bible on Its Own Terms.
You can connect with Robyn and her work on her website.
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We talk with Rev. Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre about his book Reading the Bible From the Margins and how learning to read from the perspective of the poor, oppressed, and marginalized can enrich our perspective on what Scripture means and does.
Rev. Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre, Professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. He has served as the elected 2012 President of the Society of Christian Ethics and served as the Executive Officer for the Society of Race, Ethnicity and Religion (2012-17). Dr. De La Torre is a recognized international Fulbright scholar who has taught courses and lectured around the world. In 2020, the American Academy of Religion bestowed on him the Excellence in Teaching Award. The following year, 2021, the American Academy also conferred upon him the Martin E. Marty Public Understanding of Religion Award. De La Torre is the first scholar to receive the two most prestigious awards presented by his guild and the first Latinx to receive either one of them.
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We talk with New Testament scholar Scot McKnight about his new translation of the New Testament, entitled The Second Testament: A New Translation, and why encountering the strangeness of the Bible can help us to read it anew.
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What if the imperfections and contradictions in Scripture aren't an accident? What if they were allowed to be there by the Holy Spirit in order to draw us beyond the literal words on the page and deeper into the spiritual truth God is trying to teach us? As provocative or unorthodox as that might sound, it is in fact a very ancient way of understanding what it means for the Bible to be divinely inspired.
We talk with Zack Hunt about these topics, which he covers in his book Godbreathed: What It Really Means For the Bible To Be Inspired.
Zack Hunt graduated from Trevecca Nazarene University with an undergraduate double major in Religion and History. He also holds a graduate degree in Theology as well as an additional graduate degree in Christian History from Yale Divinity School. He's appeared in Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, Huff Post, and wrote a book narrating his faith deconstruction vis a vis the book of Revelation entitled Unraptured. He's interested in the intersection of faith and politics, and smoking BBQ.
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In response to our conversation with Chris Green, we've received a couple questions asking for examples of how this "new/old" way of interpreting the Scriptures works. So we used a recent sermon from Matt on 2 Samuel 21:1-14 (David avenging the Gibeonites) as an example and talked about the implications.
Here's a link to Matt's original sermon, if you'd like to listen:
Rizpah, David, And The Good Work Of Shame To Oppose Injustice
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As part of our series on the Bible, we talk with Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg about Jewish interpretation of Scripture, repentance and forgiveness, and some of the commons things Christians miss in the Hebrew Scriptures (aka the Old Testament).
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg is author of numerous books, including On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World--winner of the National Jewish Book Award, and American Library Association's Honor Medal, and hailed by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley as “A must read for anyone navigating the work of justice and healing.” She serves as Scholar in Residence at National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW).
You can subscribe to her Substack newsletter here.
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“Scripture is a spring of life-giving, life-altering truth, but when we don’t understand how and why it came to us, we end up misusing it.”
Karen Keen joins us to talk about how we got the Bible, why that matters, and how history shows us that Scripture can be used for both life-giving and destructive purposes. Karen's book The Word of a Humble God: The Origins, Inspiration, and Interpretation of Scripture, helps readers to discover the Bible’s origins, which makes all the difference for fostering redemptive interpretation of Scripture.
Karen R. Keen is a biblical scholar, author, and spiritual care provider. She has taught biblical and theological studies in both academic and church settings. Keen is passionate about making scholarship accessible in ways that positively impact everyday life. Founder of the Redwood Center for Spiritual Care and Education, she works to advance spiritual wellness and Christian formation. Keen earned her M.S. in education (counseling) from Western Oregon University, M.A. in exegetical theology from Western Seminary, and Th.M. in biblical studies from Duke Divinity School.
You can find Karen online at karenkeen.com and redwoodspiritualcare.com.
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As part of our series on reading and interpreting the Bible, we talk with pastor Melissa Florer-Bixler about how to find God in the Old Testament, reading it as a Christian without succumbing to the pitfalls of antisemitism and supercessionism. She wrote about these issues in her book Fire by Night: Finding God in the Pages of the Old Testament.
Melissa is the pastor of Raleigh Mennonite Church, and a graduate of Duke University and Princeton Theological Seminary. She spent times studying in Israel/Palestine, Kenya, and England. Much of her formation took place in the L'Arche community of Portland, OR. Now she prefers the Eno River and her garden in Raleigh, NC. She is the chair of L'Arche North Carolina and a steering committee member in broad-based organizing in her county. Melissa's writing has appeared in Christian Century, Sojourners, Geez, Anabaptist Witness, The Bias, Faith&Leadership, and Anabaptist Vision.
You can connect with Melissa and her work by subscribing to her Substack newsletter.
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To kick off our series on reading and interpreting the Bible, we talk with pastor and professor Chris Green about how his reading of the Bible has changed over the years from his upbringing in pentecostal holiness to his recent consecration as an Anglican bishop. We touch on how to read disturbing texts, as well as other elements of his book Sanctifying Interpretation: Vocation, Holiness and Scripture.
Chris Green is Professor of Public Theology at Southeastern University (Lakeland, FL), Bishop of the Diocese of St Anthony (CEEC), and Director for St Anthony Institute of Theology, Philosophy, and Liturgics. He is the author and editor of a number of books, including most recently All Things Beautiful: An Aesthetic Christology.
You can connect with Chris and his work on his website.
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Critical race theory (CRT) has become a lightning rod in contemporary American politics and evangelical Christianity. In this interview, Dr, Robert Chao Romero and Dr. Jeff Liou offer a critical but constructive and sympathetic introduction to CRT written from a perspective rooted in Scripture and Christian theology, moving us beyond caricatures and misinformation to consider how critical race theory can be an analytical tool to help us understand persistent inequality and injustice--and to see how Christians and churches working for racial justice can engage it in faithful and constructive ways. These themes are covered in their book Christianity and Critical Race Theory: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation
Dr. Robert Chao Romero is associate professor in the UCLA dept of Chicana/o, Central American, and Asian American Studies; director of the Brown Church Initiative, Fuller Theological Seminary; an attorney; and author of the award-winning book Brown Church: Five Centuries of Latina/O Social Justice, Theology, and Identity. You can connect with him and find out more about his work on his website.
Dr. Jeff M. Liou is national director of theological formation for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA and adjunct assistant professor of Christian ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He cofounded the Asian American Christian Collaborative and writes on race and justice, Asian American Christianity, theological ethics, and political theology. Ordained in the Christian Reformed Church, Liou has served as a campus minister, pastor, and university chaplain.
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CW: Domestic violence and abuse.
On any given Sunday morning, a pastor can look over the 100 members of the congregation and see 25 women and 14 men who have been crippled by domestic violence and trauma--no matter the race or socio-economic group. The church is more than a hospital for sinners, it is also an emergency room for those who have been sinned against. But emergency rooms are not the place for long-term care. More is needed.
Dr. Christy Gunter wrote Survivor Care: What Religious Professionals Need to Know about Healing Trauma especially for this purpose. She writes for Christian mental health professionals and students, counselors, therapists, psychologists, and pastors, laying out a framework and shows why issues related to violence and abuse continue to plague our society.
Dr. Christy Gunter is the director of Client Services at an agency that serves families of Domestic and Family Violence in DFW. She's the author of "Survivor Care: What Religious Professionals Need to Know about Healing Trauma" and has her doctorate in Global Health and Wellness, a M. Div., and a Master of Social Work with over 500 additional hours of specialized training in violence, assault, trauma-informed care, and other related topics.
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That love does not control seems obvious to many people. And yet the temptation to control—often with good motives — is strong. The long-term results of yielding to this temptation damage everyone.
Thomas Oord and Christy Gunter join us to talk about uncontrolling love from a theological and therapeutic perspective. They are both contributers to Love Does Not Control: Therapists, Psychologists, and Counselors Explore Uncontrolling Love.
Dr. Christy Gunter is the director of Client Services at an agency that serves families of Domestic and Family Violence in DFW. She's the author of "Survivor Care: What Religious Professionals Need to Know about Healing Trauma" and has her doctorate in Global Health and Wellness, a M. Div., and a Master of Social Work with over 500 additional hours of specialized training in violence, assault, trauma-informed care, and other related topics.
Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. Oord is a best-selling and award-winning author, having written or edited more than twenty-five books. Academic Influence ranks him among the most influential theologians in the 21st century. Oord directs a doctoral program at Northwind Theological Seminary and directs the Center for Open and Relational Theology. He is known for his research and writing on love, open and relational theology, science and religion, evil and power, and the implications of freedom and relationships for transformation.
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We talk with Dr. Janyne McConnaughey about her book Trauma in the Pews: The Impact on Faith and Spiritual Practices, which is a practical and compassionate roadmap for spiritual leaders to effectively minister to those struggling with the effects of trauma.
Janyne McConnaughey, PhD is a trauma survivor who draws from her life-long involvement in church ministries to train teachers and ministry workers at colleges and universities and serves on the Board for the Attachment & Trauma Network (ATN) and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tabor College.
You can connect with Janyne and learn more about her work on her website janyne.org.
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Religious trauma is something that happens far more often than most people realize. In When Religion Hurts You, Dr. Laura Anderson takes an honest look at a side of religion that few like to talk about. Drawing from her own life and therapy practice, she helps readers understand what religious trauma is and isn't, and how high-control churches can be harmful and abusive, often resulting in trauma. She shows how elements of fundamentalist church life--such as fear of hell, purity culture, corporal punishment, and authoritarian leaders--can cause psychological, relational, physical, and spiritual damage.
Dr. Laura Anderson is a psychotherapist, trauma resolution coach and consultant, writer and educator specializing in complex and developmental trauma, dynamics of power and control and religious trauma based out of Nashville, TN.
You can connect with her work on her website drlauraeanderson.com.
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What does it look like to live a flourishing, messy, wonderful life together with our kids? As parents, we’re tasked with nurturing and guiding our children, even as we navigate our own wonderings about faith. In the overwhelm and constant demands of life, is it possible to tend to our own souls and to our family’s flourishing?
Kayla Craig's book Every Season Sacred is a weekly invitation to grow spiritually alongside our children. Blending thoughtful musings and practical resources, author Kayla Craig meets parents right where they are.
Kayla Craig is a former journalist who brings deep curiosity and care to her writing. She's the author of Every Season Sacred and To Light Their Way. With a poetic, prophetic voice, she created the popular Liturgies for Parents Instagram account, which Christianity Today named an "essential parenting resource." She also hosts the Liturgies for Parents podcast. Kayla's nuanced and accessible reflections, essays, and prayers are featured in various books, devotionals, and Bible studies. Kayla lives in a 115-year-old former convent in her Iowa hometown, where she hopes to create spaces of welcome alongside her four children, two dogs, and pastor-husband, Jonny.
Connect with Kayla:
- Visit Kayla Craig's website
- Kayla on Substack
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- Liturgies for Parents Podcast
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- Follow Kayla Craig on Twitter
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- Follow Kayla Craig and Liturgies for Parents on Instagram
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Pastor and discipler E. K. Strawser shows that when discipleship becomes central to your leadership and community, then discipleship becomes central to congregational mission and cultural renewal. Her new book Centering Discipleship is a practice-based guidebook for leaders who are doing the hard work of re-imagining and re-structuring their churches and communities to turn spectators into missional, mature followers of Jesus.
Eun K. Strawser (she/her) is the co-vocational lead pastor of Ma Ke Alo o (which means "Presence" in Hawaiian), non-denominational missional communities multiplying in Honolulu, HI, a community physician at Ke Ola Pono, and an executive leader at the V3 Movement, the church planting arm of the BGAV. Prior to transitioning to Hawaii, she served as adjunct professor of medicine at the Philadelphia College of Medicine and of African Studies at her alma mater the University of Pennsylvania (where she and her husband served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship) after finishing her Fulbright Scholarship at the University of Dar es Salaam. She and Steve have three, seriously, amazing children.
You can connect with her work on her website centeringdiscipleship.com.
Also, you can help Strawser and her church community (Ma Ke Alo o) in their commitment to respond long-term to the devastation of the Hawaii wildfires by donating using the link below:
https://impactmissionsmovement.org/hawaii-wildfires/
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We talked with Rev. Fran Tilton Shelton about the complex nature of grief, and what it looks like to walk through grief with God. Fran expounds on these themes in her book The Spirituality of Grief: Ten Practices for Those Who Remain.
Fran is a founder of Faith & Grief Ministries, and leads bereavement workshops and spiritual retreats. She is a preacher and a keynote speaker at conferences.
For twenty years, Fran served PC(USA) congregations in Texas, primarily in pastoral care and was affectionately called “Funeral Fran” by the love of her life and last husband, Bob. She has the courage to take deep finesses in duplicate bridge, stamina to be a member of four book clubs and a spirit for life that sparks contagious laughter.
You can reach out to Fran and find out more about her work on her website frantiltonshelton.com.
Show notes:
Here's Ryan Flanigan's poem that he read in the introduction to this episode:
Taking Sides or “On the Side of Good”
Too long have I had to live;
among the enemies of peace.
I am on the side of peace,
but when I speak of it, they are for war.
- Psalm 120:6-7
Moderacy says don’t take a side—
Neither side is good in everything—
But the thing I’ve noticed in these times
Is, more times than not, one side is vile.
Now, the vile are clear to those who know
Peace, which no one sees with violent heart,
But the heart that seeks to bless instead
Is the steady one who stands with God.
One with God can love an enemy;
As for me, my gut goes after war,
‘Til my warring spirit finds that I
Am the iron-fisted one again.
Then, to gain the favor of the world—
Yea, the world that God the Good so loved—
My belov’d, self-seeking, vengeful hand
Must unhand the weapon that I bear.
For to bear the burden of a friend
Puts a friendly spin on what they see,
But to see a foe through God’s own eyes
Realizes them as one of us.
Furious as I am at your sin,
On my sin I heap much more contempt.
When I’m tempted to abandon love,
Still God’s love demands that I forgive.
So, I give my life to follow Christ
In the Christian act of making peace.
If two pieces cannot reconcile,
May I silo on the side of Good.
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This is a follow-up to our interview with Andrew Whitehead to chat about what the "kingdom antidotes" are for the fear, self-interested power, and violence that animate Christian Nationalism.
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Power. Fear. Violence. These three idols of Christian nationalism are corrupting American Christianity.
Andrew Whitehead is a leading scholar on Christian nationalism in America and speaks widely on its effects within Christian communities. In this book, he shares his journey andreveals how Christian nationalism threatens the spiritual lives of American Christians and the church.
Whitehead shows how Christians harm their neighbors when they embrace the idols of power, fear, and violence. He uses two key examples--racism and xenophobia--to demonstrate that these idols violate core Christian beliefs. Through stories, he illuminates expressions of Christianity that confront Christian nationalism and offer a faithful path forward.
American Idolatryencourages further conversation about what Christian nationalism threatens, how to face it, and why it is vitally important to do so. It will help identify Christian nationalism and build a framework that makes sense of the relationship between faith and the current political and cultural context.
Andrew L. Whitehead (PhD, Baylor University) is associate professor of sociology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, where he codirects the Association of Religion Data Archives at the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture. He is the coauthor of Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, which won the 2021 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. Whitehead has written for the Washington Post, NBC News, Time, and Religion News Service and speaks frequently about Christian nationalism.
Connect with Andrew on Twitter or Instagram.
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Immersed in his physics studies at Cornell, Tom Rudelius never thought much about God until his brother, a new convert to Christianity, challenged him to explore faith. To placate his twin, he reluctantly began exploring the Bible and the life of Jesus. Seeking proof of God's existence, he found himself in a world of uncertainty, faced with plenty of reasons for both faith and doubt.
In Chasing Proof, Finding Faith, Tom, now a rising young theoretical physicist, traces his journey to unexpected faith, through subsequent doubt and anxiety, and ultimately to a firmer, life-transforming allegiance to Jesus.
Tom Rudelius completed his undergraduate work at Cornell, earned a doctorate in physics at Harvard, and has conducted postdoctoral research at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Currently a postdoctoral researcher in theoretical physics at the University of California, Berkeley, Tom will begin a faculty position at Durham University (UK) in the fall of 2023. His research focuses on string theory, quantum field theory, and early universe cosmology. A man of faith and an avid sports fan, he is frequently requested to speak on topics related to science and faith. He is also on the board of the Mamelodi Initiative, a tutoring organization based in Mamelodi, South Africa.
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We are re-posting our 4-part series with Dr. Nathan Cartagena on Critical Race Theory (CRT) from a couple years ago. This is Part 4, where we talk we talk about why this all matters for the church.
Dr. Cartagena is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Wheaton College (IL), where he teach courses on race, justice, and political philosophy. He also serves as the faculty advisor for Unidad Cristiana, a student group working to enhance Christian unity and celebrate Latina/o cultures. Connect with Dr. Cartagena at his website or on Twitter.
More info on critical race theory:
- Sojo article: Why Nathan Cartagena Teaches Critical Race Theory to Evangelicals
- What is Critical Race Theory? by Nathan Cartagena Part 1
- What is Critical Race Theory? by Nathan Cartagena Part 2
- What is Critical Race Theory? by Nathan Cartagena Part 3
- What is Critical Race Theory? by Nathan Cartagena Part 4
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We are re-posting our 4-part series with Dr. Nathan Cartagena on Critical Race Theory (CRT) from a couple years ago. This is Part 3, where Dr. Cartagena continues to outline a brief history of white supremacy in the United States (using lots of original sources). It's REALLY eye-opening.
Dr. Cartagena is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Wheaton College (IL), where he teach courses on race, justice, and political philosophy. He also serves as the faculty advisor for Unidad Cristiana, a student group working to enhance Christian unity and celebrate Latina/o cultures. Connect with Dr. Cartagena at his website or on Twitter.
More info on critical race theory:
- Sojo article: Why Nathan Cartagena Teaches Critical Race Theory to Evangelicals
- What is Critical Race Theory? by Nathan Cartagena Part 1
- What is Critical Race Theory? by Nathan Cartagena Part 2
- What is Critical Race Theory? by Nathan Cartagena Part 3
- What is Critical Race Theory? by Nathan Cartagena Part 4
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We are re-posting our 4-part series with Dr. Nathan Cartagena on Critical Race Theory (CRT) from a couple years ago. This is Part 2, where Dr. Cartagena outlines a brief history of white supremacy in the United States (using lots of original sources). It's REALLY eye-opening (and will be continued in the next part).
Dr. Cartagena is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Wheaton College (IL), where he teach courses on race, justice, and political philosophy. He also serves as the faculty advisor for Unidad Cristiana, a student group working to enhance Christian unity and celebrate Latina/o cultures. Connect with Dr. Cartagena at his website or on Twitter.
More info on critical race theory:
- Sojo article: Why Nathan Cartagena Teaches Critical Race Theory to Evangelicals
- What is Critical Race Theory? by Nathan Cartagena Part 1
- What is Critical Race Theory? by Nathan Cartagena Part 2
- What is Critical Race Theory? by Nathan Cartagena Part 3
- What is Critical Race Theory? by Nathan Cartagena Part 4
Connect with Gravity Leadership
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Over the next few weeks, we are re-posting our 4-part series with Dr. Nathan Cartagena on Critical Race Theory (CRT) from a couple years ago. Back in 2021, people were claiming that critical race theory was a grave threat to the gospel. But what in the world IS critical race theory, anyway?
In this first episode, Dr. Cartagena helps us understand what we're actually talking about. In Parts 2 and 3, Dr. Cartagena will give us a brief history of white supremacy in the United States (using lots of original sources), and part 4 will be an episode on why this all matters for the church. Buckle up, because this is a master class on critical race theory.
Dr. Cartagena is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Wheaton College (IL), where he teach courses on race, justice, and political philosophy. He also serves as the faculty advisor for Unidad Cristiana, a student group working to enhance Christian unity and celebrate Latina/o cultures. Connect with Dr. Cartagena at his website or on Twitter.
More info on critical race theory:
- Sojo article: Why Nathan Cartagena Teaches Critical Race Theory to Evangelicals
- What is Critical Race Theory? by Nathan Cartagena Part 1
- What is Critical Race Theory? by Nathan Cartagena Part 2
- What is Critical Race Theory? by Nathan Cartagena Part 3
- What is Critical Race Theory? by Nathan Cartagena Part 4
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Light as Air: Practicing Authenticity, Depth, and Purpose in a World of Empty Promises. offers readers freedom from unmet desires, a way to disrupt broken systems, and an invitation into a life of depth and creative action. How? By exploring the story of Jesus and the way his kingdom engages our dissatisfaction and invites us into the life we were made for. Jesus' kingdom is a political reality that overthrows broken systems, cultivates meaningful connection, and empowers us for creative action. Light as Air shows us how to live into and out of Jesus' kingdom in a way that gives hope to a dissatisfied world.
Jonny Morrison is a church planter, pastor, and writer known for his integration of creativity, spirituality, and culture. Jonny and his wife, Tory, live in Salt Lake City, where he co-pastors Missio Dei SLC church. Jonny graduated from Western Seminary with an MA in biblical and theological studies and received his doctorate of contextual theology from Northern Seminary. You can find more of Jonny's work at jonnyis.com.
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Seems like everyone's talking about Amazon's new docuseries Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets, so we wanted to host a discussion about it, and the issues it brings up. We invited Rebekah Mui and Dr. Laura Robinson to join us for this very wide-ranging, longer-than-usual discussion. Have fun!
Rebekah Mui is a PhD Student in political, social, ethical and cultural thought (ASPECT) at Virginia Tech and researches postcolonial political theology, Christian anarcho-pacifism and Anabaptism. She is the editor of the Kingdom Outpost (http://kingdomoutpost.org) and publishes personal essays on http://medium.com/@rebekahmui and can be found on Twitter at @rebekahmui.
Dr. Laura Robinson (PhD, Duke) is the co-host the New Testament Review Podcast. You can follow her writings on her excellent Substack newsletter.
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Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer's book A Church Called Tov, readers wrote in with stories of abuse and practical questions, such as:
- 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?
These questions are answered in their new book Pivot: The Priorities, Practices, and Powers That Can Transform Your Church into a Tov Culture.
We talked with Scot and Laura about how churches can implement practices, establish priorities, and cultivate the Kingdom Gospel-centered qualities that resist abuse and cultivate goodness cultures.
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Learning to hear God's voice can be a difficult and confusing experience for many. But if we can start with getting real about what's happening in our hearts, we can begin to untangle the mess of our thoughts and feelings and create a stillness that makes it easier to hear what God is saying to us and sense what God is doing in us.
Megan Nilsen wrote Untangled Faith: How Honest Conversations with God Lead to Deeper Connections, Clarity, and Peace and created the "Beautiful Exchange Journaling" method to give people a safe, intentional space to sort out our thoughts through honest conversations with God. Megan is a speaker, author, life coach, and founder of the Beautiful Exchange Community. She offers Christ-centered coaching for those seeking kingdom alignment and strategy during a transitional season in faith, relationships, or vocational calling. She loves discovering what God put in the hearts of women that will help them walk in greater confidence, fulfillment, and purpose.
Show notes / links:
- Megan's website and podcast
- Discerning God's voice bookmark (free download)
- Megan's social media: Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn
- Megan's books
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A few days ago Gravity Podcast co-host Matt Tebbe wrote an article about 2 kinds of anger: the legitimate anger of the oppressed that tells the truth about injustice, and the illegitimate anger of the powerful who seek to maintain their own privilege at the expense of others.
If we can’t discern the difference, we lump all expressions of anger together, and anger itself seems to be our main problem (we often call it “polarization”). We develop an allergy to anger that serves to hide injustice.
We wanted to talk in more depth about this issue, so we invited Jonny Rashid to join us to talk about anger, power, and the unavoidable political facets of the gospel.
Jonny Rashid is pastor of West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship, an Mennonite Church USA congregation in Philadelphia. He blogs at jonnyrashid.com. His book, Jesus Takes a Side, was published by Herald Press in 2022.
Show notes:
- Jonny's Substack
- Matt's Substack
- Ben's Substack
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For over fifteen years, writer Jeff Crosby has been searching for a language of the soul--a way to articulate our deepest longings. Through his book The Language of the Soul: Meeting God in the Longings of Our Hearts, he gifts us with those so-often-untranslatable desires of our hearts, guiding us to finally find the words and luminous insights for our own longings for home, for friendship, for forgiveness, and for transformation--and how God meets us in the midst of these longings.
Jeff Crosby is an organizational leader in the world of words, ideas, and book publishing. Currently president and CEO of a trade association of publishers, he has served in various executive roles, including as vice president at Ingram Book Company, and at IVP, a publisher in the Chicago area. He combines a background in journalism, leadership studies, and business with a love of language and insight from several fields in exploring faith and spirituality in light of applied practice. He and his wife of more than forty years, Cindy, have two grown children and six grandchildren.
Show notes
- Sign up for Ben's new Substack newsletter.
- Sign up for Matt's Substack newsletter, too.
- A Bright Sadness: Making Space for Grief and Joy (Aug 31 - Sep 2)
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A few weeks ago we talked about 7 common parenting pitfalls and we wanted to follow it up with a list of parenting "pro-tips" (even though none of us are "professional" parents lol), and make a list of 8 (one more than our list of pitfalls):
- Reparent yourself first.
- Cultivate natural consequences.
- Normalize being wrong and apologizing.
- Delight in the diversity of your kids.
- Define your family values.
- Focus on heart transformation, not behavior modification.
- Spend more time with your kids.
- Get other adults involved in your kids' lives.
Show notes:
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Christian spiritual formation resources and teachings have primarily come from Western spiritual traditions, which implicitly communicates that the white experience of God is the norm.
In Our Unforming: De-Westernizing Spiritual Formation, Cindy Lee proposes that, in our increasingly diverse contexts, we need new, non-Western cultural ways of being formed--turning from linear to cyclical, from cerebral to experiential, and from individual to collective.
Cindy S. Lee is a spiritual director and aspiring mystic and proudly Taiwanese-American. She leads retreats in the areas of Christian mysticism and BIPOC centered spirituality. She completed a PhD in Practical Theology in the area of Spiritual Formation from Claremont School of Theology. She teaches as an adjunct professor in the areas of Christian Spirituality and Spiritual Direction. In her free time, she enjoys street art, coffee, and exploring the city.
You can connect with Cindy on Instagram.
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After listening carefully to stories from people who suffered misogynistic, racist, or homophobic abuse at the hands of the church, Charles Kiser and Dr. Elaine Heath bring those stories into conversation with the death and resurrection of Jesus, and find in the gospel a God who shares the experience of the traumatized.
The result is their book Trauma-Informed Evangelism: Cultivating Communities of Wounded Healers, where they propose a new kind of evangelism—one based not on fear and coercion but on witnessing the unconditional love of God.
Charles Kiser is a pastor and theologian with Storyline Christian Community in Dallas, Texas, a network of missional communities he helped to form. He is passionate about creative expressions of Christian community, contemplative spirituality, and healing spiritual trauma. Kiser has a DMin in Contextual Theology from Northern Seminary and serves as a faculty member of Neighborhood Seminary.
Elaine Heath is the author of eleven books and numerous articles, the most recent books being Loving the Hell Out of Ourselves (and Others) (Birch & Alder, 2021), coauthored with her sister, Jeanine Heath-McGlinn. She formerly served as Dean of the Divinity School at Duke University, where she was also professor of missional and pastoral theology, and the McCreless Professor of Evangelism at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. Heath cofounded two nonprofits: Missional Wisdom Foundation, and Neighborhood Seminary, a contextualized model of missional theological education for laity. Heath is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and served in pastoral ministry prior to her academic ministry. She currently lives with her husband at Spring Forest, an intentional Christian community and farm in rural North Carolina where she serves as abbess. You can connect with Elaine's work at elaineaheath.org.
Show notes
- The retreat we talk about in the intro: A Bright Sadness - making space for grief and joy Aug 31-Sep 2.
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A few weeks ago we released an episode ("5 Signs of a Toxic Leadership Culture") that garnered more response from listeners than we've ever received! So we wanted to record a follow-up episode reflecting on those responses and offering signs of a healthy, non-toxic leadership culture.
Here are the 5 signs, along with their toxic analogues:
- From power flowing up & in to power flowing down & out.
- From reality distortion to "reality is complicated."
- From loyalty culture to love culture.
- From "unable to have a Kairos" to celebrating and honoring learning.
- From conflict being mishandled to conflict being addressed in a trauma informed way.
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We chat through 7 common parenting pitfalls that Christy compiled from her experience as a mother and a pastor. Take a deep breath and cultivate some compassion for yourself, and let's go! Here's the list:
- Talk parenting
- Bribe parenting
- Excuse parenting
- Shame parenting
- Hover parenting
- Blind parenting
- Backwards parenting
Show notes:
- Eric Minton: What our Pain Reveals About the Anxious Pursuit of the Good Life (podcast episode)
- It's Not You, It's Everything: What Our Pain Reveals about the Anxious Pursuit of the Good Life (book by Eric Minton)
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Spiritual director Casey Tygrett joins us to challenge the notion that restlessness is a sign that we must move up, move on, or move out, and instead helps us explore some of our deepest questions: Where do I belong? What am I here for? Is there enough? Casey helps us begin to create a spirituality sturdy enough for our unsettled seasons.
Casey's new book is The Gift of Restlessness: A Spirituality For Unsettled Seasons.
You can connect with Casey's writing and work at caseytygrett.com.
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Rev. Joel Bowman joins Matt to chat about the recent rash of mass shootings and how they are grappling with how to understand and respond. This conversation is more personal and raw than most of our podcasts.
Rev. Joel A. Bowman, Sr. is a native of Detroit, Michigan, and has been in ministry for 28 years. He is the founder and senior pastor of the Temple of Faith Baptist Church, in Louisville, Kentucky, and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, working with military veterans. Joel is a seminar facilitator, freelance writer, poet, and thought leader in the areas of racism and racial trauma. His work has been published in numerous places, including the Louisville Courier-Journal, The Front Porch, The Witness, Three-Fifths Magazine, and Baptist News Global. Joel is married to Nannette Mitchell Bowman, and they have 3 children: Kayla, Katie, and Joel, Jr.
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Sheila Gregoire joins us (again!) to talk about how to raise girls to resist the all-too-prevalent toxic teachings of purity culture. She shares how we can raise girls instead to become strong, resilient young women who know who they are, use their voices, and confidently step into their lives.
Sheila's new book is She Deserves Better: Raising Girls to Resist Toxic Teachings on Sex, Self, and Speaking Up.
You can connect with all of Sheila's work on her website.
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Why do we find it difficult to find a healthy rhythm of work and rest? Author, storyteller, and songwriter Justin McRoberts talks about this as a journey from the false self to the true self, discovering that growth and maturity take root in the knowledge of our belovedness in Christ.
Justin's new book Sacred Strides: The Journey to Belovedness in Work and Rest helps us learn that we are not tools in God's tool belt, valued only for our gifts and talents. Nor are we ascetics called to abandon "daily life" to find God in the desert. We are beloved by the One who holds all things together... including our need to work and our need to rest.
Justin McRoberts is an author, coach, speaker, and songwriter. For over 20 years, Justin has helped artists, ministers, and entrepreneurs find their way. From the stage, through his stories in books or during coaching sessions, he leans on his years of work and expertise as a minister and artist to help individuals and teams solve problems in their creative processes. When he’s not writing, speaking, or coaching, you can find him as the host of the At Sea Podcast. He lives in the East San Francisco Bay Area.
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In our experience, leadership cultures that hinder human flourishing have several common overlapping aspects. If we can learn to see these signs of toxic leadership cultures, we can
Here are the 5 signs of a toxic leadership culture we talk about in this episode:
- Reality distortion
- Loyalty culture
- Unable to have a Kairos
- Power flows up/in rather than down/out
- Conflict is mishandled
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There are several major social issues affecting the church today. Not only are they causing confusion, but they are also often hidden beneath the surface, shaping the life of a congregation in ways that are difficult to recognize. But transformation is possible if we'll face these issues directly, seeking to notice how God is at work in the midst of these issues to renew life.
We can face these issues by understanding our local context, listening and learning from a variety of voices, telling the truth about ourselves, and taking action in solidarity with those who are suffering.
The five challenges we talk about in this episode are:
- Racism in the church and in the world
- Sexism and patriarchy
- Christian nationalism
- Gender and sexual diversity
- Religious trauma and spiritual abuse
Show notes
- The article we reference and discuss on today's episode: How to Address the Challenges the Church Faces Today
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It's common to hear Christians say things like "Christianity is neither right nor left, but a completely different kind of thing," and "Both the far-right and far-left are two sides of the same coin: fundamentalist extremes with different beliefs," and "“The problem is polarization."
These phrases are often employed toward a Christian "third way" politics that seeks to affirm the truth that the church is not bound by the left/right binary of US politics, but this way of talking about how the church relates to politics doesn't actually work on the ground, and usually ends up being a kind of "centrism" that serves to keep the status quo in place.
Pastors Melissa Florer-Bixler and Shawn McCain Tirres join us to talk about why Christian centrism is attractive, and unpack the problems of pursuing Christian centrist/third way politics, and we discuss more helpful ways of framing the church's relationship to politics and living our faithful lives of discipleship to Jesus in the world.
Melissa Florer-Bixler is the pastor of Raleigh Mennonite Church, and a graduate of Duke University and Princeton Theological Seminary. She spent times studying in Israel/Palestine, Kenya, and England. Much of her formation took place in the L'Arche community of Portland, OR and she now the chair of L'Arche North Carolina and a steering committee member in broad-based organizing in her county. Melissa's writing has appeared in Christian Century, Sojourners, Geez, Anabaptist Witness, The Bias, Faith&Leadership, and Anabaptist Vision. She's the author of Fire by Night: Finding God in the Pages of the Old Testament, and How to Have an Enemy: Righteous Anger and the Work of Peace, which we've talked about with her on this podcast.
Shawn McCain Tirres is the founding rector of Resurrection Anglican Church in South Austin, Texas. Before that he helped plant Redeemer Anglican Church in Santa Cruz, California. His doctoral work focused on a practical sacramental missiology, and he currently serves on the Revelation 7:9 Task Force for Justice and Inclusion for the Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others.
Show notes
- The Adam Joyce article we reference: If there is a “third way”, this isn’t it: How Christian centrists acquiesce to America’s broken political system
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We finish (for now) our series on Mental Health and the Church with some reflections and questions we have about how faith and therapy relate: how they overlap and intersect, how they differ, and how to hold onto both.
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We continue our series on Mental Health and the Church with our own stories and experiences with therapy and mental health: good, bad and ugly.
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We continue our series on Mental Health and the Church with a few MORE myths you sent us in response to last week's episode, plus a conversation with some practical tips on how to be a "resonating witness" for others in conversations about mental health.
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Today we start a new series on Mental Health and the Church. Christianity in the US has had an uneasy history with the topic of mental health and illness, and we'd like to learn to integrate our faith with the best of what we're learning about mental health.
This first episode deals with 5 common Christian myths about mental illness that need to be exposed and rejected if we're going to make any progress. Here are the myths we talk about:
- Christians Can’t Be Mentally Ill
- The Cure for Mental Illness Is Prayer
- Depressed or Anxious Christians Are Sinful
- Spiritually Healthy Christians Are Mentally Healthy
- Mentally Ill Christians Just Need Biblical Counseling*
Show Notes:
- Our article that lists the 5 myths we discussed on today's episode: Mental Health & the Church
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Deconstruction: is it just a trendy brand name for falling away from belief in God? Or a process essential to authentic faith? Is it liberation or trauma? Prison break or exile? Well, Bradley Jersak joins us again to say... it's complicated (just like you!). We talk with Bradley about the themes of his latest book Out of the Embers: Faith After the Great Deconstruction, which explores the necessity, perils, and possibilities of "The Great Deconstruction."
Bradley Jersak is the Dean of Theology & Culture, a graduate studies program at St. Stephen's University in New Brunswick, Canada. He also serves as an editor at CWRmagazine and Clarion-Journal.com. Bradley and his wife, Eden, have lived in the Abbotsford area of British Columbia since 1988, where they served as pastors and church planters for twenty years. Bradley is the author of a number of nonfiction and fiction books, including A More Christlike Word, A More Christlike God, A More Christlike Way, Her Gates Will Never Be Shut, Can You Hear Me?: Tuning in to the God Who Speaks, and The Pastor: A Crisis.
You can connect with Bradley and see what he's up to on his website: bradjersak.com.
Show Notes:
- We mentioned Bradley's article "The Meeting Place: Facilitating Encounters with God".
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Throughout Holy Week, two competing approaches to peacemaking collide: the way of Jesus and the way of the religious and political elite. What if we're investing our lives in the wrong approach? What if—despite clinging to the cross of Christ for our salvation—we’ve actually embraced a different approach to peacemaking? One that justifies killing enemies. One whose methods include nailing criminals to crosses.
Jason Porterfield joins us to talk about these questions, which are central to his book Fight Like Jesus: How Jesus Waged Peace throughout Holy Week, a day-by-day walk through Jesus’ final week that helps readers discover anew why he is called the Prince of Peace.
Jason Porterfield holds a masters in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary and has worked in Indonesia and Vancouver, CA with Servants, an international network of Christian communities living and ministering among the urban poor. His previous work includes the ebook 100 Early Christian Quotes on Not Killing which you can get a free copy of directly from his website JasonPorterfield.com.
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Father Richard Rohr has said that "all great spirituality is somehow about letting go." But what does that mean, and how does it actually work? How is this "letting go" different from not caring? Kevin Sweeney joins us to talk about this dynamic, which is the theme of his new book The Joy of Letting Go: How One Thing Has the Power to Change Everything.
Kevin Sweeney was co-founder and lead pastor of Imagine Church—an urban church in Honolulu—for the past decade. He recently closed down this community. He is the host of podcast The Church Needs Therapy and is the author of the books, The Making of a Mystic: My Journey with Mushrooms, My Life as a Pastor, and Why It’s Okay For Everyone to Relax, and The Joy of Letting Go. He lives In Honolulu with his wife and co-founder of Imagine, Christine, and their two kids, True and Mikayla.
Show notes:
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Lots of Christians have a complicated relationship with the Old Testament. It can seem arcane and boring, and even offensive in its depictions of God. Eric Seibert joins us to talk about an approach to reading the Old Testament that helps us actually enjoy it.
His most recent book is Enjoying the Old Testament: A Creative Guide to Encountering Scripture.
Dr. Eric Seibert is a professor of OT at Messiah Univ and has served as the president of the Eastern Great Lakes Biblical Society. His most recent books are The Violence of Scripture: Overcoming the OT's Troubling Legacy and Disarming the Church: Why Christians Must Forsake Violence to Follow Jesus and Change the World.
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Sociologist Lisa Weaver Swartz joins us to talk how gender and power work in American evangelicalism, beyond the level of policies, theological positions, and aspirations. Her book Stained Glass Ceilings: How Evangelicals Do Gender and Practice Power explores this dynamic by examining the formation of evangelical leaders in two seminary communities, one complementarian (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) and one egalitarian (Asbury Theological Seminary).
Lisa Weaver Swartz holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame. She lives in the bluegrass region of Kentucky where she teaches sociology and writes about gender and religion. You can connect with her via her website.
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What can we do to combat the misinformation that's impacting the people we care about and dividing our communities? Life and politics in the US are suffering from a raging knowledge crisis, and the church is no exception. Experienced journalist and author Bonnie Kristian helps us unpack this crisis and explore ways to combat it in our own lives, families, and church communities.
These are the themes of Bonnie's new book Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community. Drawing from her extensive experience in journalism and her training as a theologian, Kristian explores social media, political and digital culture, online paranoia, and the press itself. She explains factors that contribute to our confusion and helps Christians pay attention to how we consume content and think about truth. Finally, she provides specific ways to take action, empowering readers to avoid succumbing to or fueling the knowledge crisis.
Bonnie Kristian is an experienced journalist and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). She writes and edits opinion pieces on foreign policy, religion, criminal justice, urbanism, civil liberties, electoral politics, and more. Her column, "The Lesser Kingdom," appears in print and online at Christianity Today. A graduate of Bethel Seminary, Bonnie lives in Pittsburgh with her husband and twin sons.
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Christy, Matt, and Ben look back on 2022 and reflect on breakthroughs, challenges, learning, growth, and their favorite podcast episodes, as well as look to what 2023 will bring for their lives and the podcast. Ben and Matt also open a Christmas gift from Christy.
Podcast episodes mentioned:
- David Ford: A Fresh Encounter with Jesus Through John’s Gospel
- Marc Alan Schelske: Cultivating Spiritual Growth Through Journaling
- Deconstructing Spiritual Practices, Embracing New Paradigms (Book series beginning)
- KJ Ramsey: Stepping Through Fear Toward the Voice of Love
- Melissa Florer-Bixler: How to Have An Enemy
- Brandon O’Brien: How We Misread Scripture With Western Eyes
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- Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Leadership Podcast? Contact Gino Curcuruto at gino@gravityleadership.com.
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Many American Christians have good intentions, working hard to welcome immigrants with hospitality and solidarity. But how can we do that in a way that empowers our immigrant neighbors rather than pushing them to the fringes of white-dominant culture and keeping them as outsiders? We talk with Karen González about these questions, which are the themes of her new book Beyond Welcome: Centering Immigrants in Our Christian Response to Immigration.
A Guatemalan immigrant, González draws from the Bible and her own experiences to examine why the traditional approach to immigration ministries and activism is at best incomplete and at worst harmful. By advocating for putting immigrants in the center of the conversation, González helps readers grow in discipleship and recognize themselves in their immigrant neighbors. Accessible to any Christian who is called to serve immigrants, this book equips readers to take action to dismantle white supremacy and xenophobia in the church. They will emerge with new insight into our shared humanity and need for belonging and liberation.
Karen González is a speaker, writer, storyteller, and immigrant advocate, who herself immigrated from Guatemala as a child. Karen is a former public school teacher and attended Fuller Theological Seminary, where she studied theology and missiology. For the last 13 years, she has been a non-profit professional, working for organizations that serve refugees and other immigrants. She wrote a book about her own immigration story and some of the immigrants found in the Bible: The God Who Sees: Immigrants:The Bible, and the Journey to Belong. Her second book is Beyond Welcome: Centering Immigrants in our Christian Response to Immigration. She also has bylines in Sojourners, Christianity Today, The Christian Century, and others. She is also the co-host of the Latina-focused podcast Cafe with Comadres. You can reach her via her website Karen-Gonzalez.com or on social media at @\_karenjgonzalez.
You can connect with Karen on her website, Twitter, or Instagram.
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We talk with Dr. David Cramer and Dr. Myles Werntz about Christian nonviolence, which is not a settled position but rather a vibrant and living tradition. In their book A Field Guide to Christian Nonviolence: Key Thinkers, Activists, and Movements for the Gospel of Peace, they offer a concise introduction to diverse approaches to, proponents of, and resources for Christian nonviolence.
Dr. David Cramer is managing editor at the Institute of Mennonite Studies, sessional lecturer at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, and a teaching pastor at Keller Park Church in South Bend, IN.
Dr. Myles Werntz is associate professor of theology and director of Baptist studies at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, TX. He is the author or editor of several books, including Bodies of Peace.
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Get ready for your understanding of Genesis 22 to be turned upside down by J. Richard Middleton. While we normally think of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son as proof of his love for God, the exact opposite might be true: Is it possible that a careful reading of Genesis 22 could reveal that God was not pleased with Abraham's silent obedience?
That's the theme of Middleton's book Abraham's Silence: The Binding of Isaac, The Suffering of Job, and How to Talk Back to God, which we discuss with him on today's episode.
J. Richard Middleton is professor of biblical worldview and exegesis at Northeastern Seminary at Roberts Wesleyan University and author of The Liberating Image and A New Heaven and a New Earth as well as co-author of Truth is Stranger than It Used to Be and The Transforming Vision.
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Willie Dwayne Francois III joins us to talk about the practicalities of anti-racism. Specifically, we discuss the prevalence in US society of what he calls "white noise": the racist speech, ideas, and policies that lull us into inaction on racial justice, which is the theme of his book Silencing White Noise: Six Practices to Overcome Our Inaction on Race.
Willie Dwayne Francois III is senior pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Pleasantville, NJ, and president of the Black Church Center for Justice and Equality. He serves as assistant professor of liberation theology at NY Theological Seminary and directs a master's degree program at Sing Correctional Facility. He created the Public Love Organizing and Training (PLOT) Project and has served in various orgs engaging racial justice issues, including the Atlantic City chapter of Black Lives Matter, the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, and the NJ Dept of State's MLK Jr. Commission. He's an active speaker and has written for HuffPost, Sojourners, The Hill, the Christian Century, and Religion Dispatches.
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Marc Alan Schelske join us (again!) to talk about journaling: what it is, why it works, and how to do it. No matter what your history is with journaling, Marc's method (outlined in his new book Journaling for Spiritual Growth: Six Weeks to Build a Habit that Fosters Spiritual and Emotional Maturity) is eminently practical and powerfully effective for fostering spiritual formation.
Marc is a reader, a thinker, a writer, and speaker. He's the teaching elder at Bridge City Community Church in Milwaukie, Oregon, where he gets to inviting people into a life of following Jesus more and more. You can connect with Marc and learn more about his work on his website marcalanschelske.com.
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How does the Christian faith relate to a world stuck in ideological captivity? What happens when vast numbers of people abandon faith for pre-packaged sets of ideas they received from podcasts, videos, and online personalities? Those are the themes of Chris Nye's new book A Captive Mind: Christianity, Ideologies, and Staying Sane in a World Gone Mad, and the topic of our conversation in this episode.
We talk about how Christianity is not an idea in the first place, and therefore confuses, disrupts, and corrects any cultural ideology. The gospel doesn't just give us a new philosophy, but a new mind and a new life.
Chris Nye is a doctoral student at Duke University’s Divinity School and the author of Distant God (2016) and Less of More (2019). For fifteen years, he has served as a local church pastor and is currently on a sabbatical. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Christianity Today, and various other publications. He lives with his wife and son in Portland, Oregon.
You can connect with Chris and learn more about his work on his website: chrisnye.co.
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We talked with Craig Greenfield about the profound difference it makes to shift our "missional posture" from providers / hosts / insiders to receivers / guests / outsiders. This is what his new book Subversive Mission: Serving as Outsiders in a World of Need is all about.
Craig Greenfield is the founder and director of Alongsiders International, a grassroots movement of young Christians reaching the world's poorest children. Originally from New Zealand, he has lived and worked for more than two decades in marginalized communities in Asia and North America. He is the author of The Urban Halo, Subversive Jesus, and Subversive Mission: Serving as Outsiders in a World of Need.
You can connect with Craig and learn more about his work on his website craiggreenfield.com.
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Drew Hart and Jarrod McKenna co-host the Inverse Podcast, which for people who are dissatisfied with the Bible being used to justify hatred (yeah!). We talk about the work they're doing together and separately, what it means to "decolonize" our faith, and where they see their work heading in the future.
Dr. Drew Hart hails from Philly, and now lives in Harrisburg. He's the author of Trouble I've Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism and Who Will Be a Witness: Igniting Activism for God's Justice, Love, and Deliverance. He's a Professor of Theology at Messiah University where he's the program director for Thriving Together: Congregations for Racial Justice.
Jarrod McKenna is an expert in nonviolent social change. He's the Founding CEO of Common Grace, a movement of people seeking Jesus and justice, and the former Director for Nonviolent Social Change for World Vision in the Middle East/Eastern Europe.
Connect with Gravity Leadership Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode. * Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies. * Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community. * Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture. * Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Leadership Podcast?* Contact Gino Curcuruto at gino@gravityleadership.com.
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We talk with Sarah Bessey about themes from her bestselling collaborative book A Rhythm of Prayer: A Collection of Meditations for Renewal, which celebrates and gives voice to traditions of prayer for people like us: overworked, overpressured, and edging burnout.
Sarah Bessey is the author of the best-selling and critically acclaimed books Jesus Feminist (2013); Out of Sorts: Making Peace with an Evolving Faith (2015); and Miracles and Other Reasonable Things (2019).
Along with her friends, the late Rachel Held Evans and Jim Chaffee, Sarah co-founded Evolving Faith. She now co-leads the community and conference alongside Jeff Chu. Sarah is also the co-host of The Evolving Faith Podcast and also serves as chair of the board for Heartline Ministries in Haiti. Based in Port au Prince, Heartline is committed to empowering Haitian families through complete maternal and infant health care, education, vocational training, and economic development.
Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, The High Calling, Conversations Journal, ChurchLeaders.com, CT Women: Christianity Today’s Blog for Women, Today’s Christian Woman.
Sarah lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with her husband of twenty years have four children. She’s a pseudo-hermit bookworm, an enthusiastic knitter, tea-drinker, hockey fan, total hugger, endlessly fascinated with Jesus, an embarrassing fan-girl for the TV programmes Doctor Who and Schitt’s Creek.
Her latest collaborative book, The New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly, and Globe and Mail Bestseller A Rhythm of Prayer: A Collection of Meditations for Renewal.
You can connect with Sarah and learn more about her work on her website sarahbessey.com.
Connect with Gravity Leadership Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode. * Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies. * Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community. * Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture. * Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Leadership Podcast?* Contact Gino Curcuruto at gino@gravityleadership.com.
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What if our exhaustion, burnout, and pain are an invitation into a more vibrant faith? We talk with Andrew Arndt about how Christianity got co-opted by power and privilege, and how we can find our way back to the radical way of Jesus by learning from the desert fathers and mothers, who needed to learn the same things we do: to live radically, humanly, and beautifully in a spiritually desolate and confusing time.
Andrew's most recent book is Streams in the Wasteland: Finding Spiritual Renewal with the Desert Fathers & Mothers.
Andrew Arndt is the lead pastor of New Life East, one of seven congregations of New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Prior to joining New Life’s team, he served as the lead pastor of Bloom Church, a network of house churches in Denver. He is the host of the Essential Church podcast, a weekly conversation designed to strengthen the thinking of church and ministry leaders. Andrew received his MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and is currently working on his DMin with Western Theological Seminary. He has written for Missio Alliance, Patheos, The Other Journal, and Mere Orthodoxy. He is the author of Streams in the Wasteland and All Flame. Andrew lives in Colorado Springs with his wife, Mandi, and their four kids.
Connect with Gravity Leadership Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode. * Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies. * Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community. * Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture. * Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Leadership Podcast?* Contact Gino Curcuruto at gino@gravityleadership.com.
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We talk with Angie Ward about a new book in a series she is the general editor for. Kingdom and Country: Following Jesus in the Land That You Love is a collection of leading Christian thinkers and practitioners take a holistic approach to considering the questions of patriotism, nationalism, and where our ultimate loyalties must lie.
Angie Ward is a leadership author and teacher with nearly thirty years of experience in church, parachurch, and Christian higher education ministry. Angie is known for her genuine love for those in ministry, her down-to-earth style, and her unique ability to see and explain complex concepts and systems. Angie is an award-winning regular contributor to Christianity Today leadership publications and holds a PhD in Ministry Leadership from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. She currently serves as assistant director of the Doctor of Ministry program at Denver Seminary.
Connect with Gravity Leadership Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode. * Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies. * Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community. * Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture. * Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Leadership Podcast?* Contact Gino Curcuruto at gino@gravityleadership.com.
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How can we cultivate courage when fear overshadows our lives? How do we hear the Voice of Love when hate and harm shout loud?
Through sharing her own wilderness experience of spiritual abuse and religious trauma, therapist and author K.J. Ramsey helps us explore the landscape of fear, trauma, and faith by walking through Psalm 23 phrase by phrase in her new book The Lord is My Courage: Stepping Through the Shadows of Fear Toward the Voice of Love. K.J. helps us see that courage is not the absence of anxiety but the practice of trusting we will be held and loved no matter what.
K.J. Ramsey is a trauma-informed licensed professional counselor and author whose work offers space to see every part of our souls and stories as sacred. She holds degrees from Covenant College and Denver Seminary, and writes at the intersection of theology, psychology, and spiritual formation to guide us in recovering the rhythm of resilience through nervous system regulation and the wonder of communion with God. She and her husband Ryan, along with their two exceptionally cuddly dogs, Merton and Resa, live near Denver, Colorado.
You can connect with K.J. on her website, and on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
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From our sponsor (that's us!)* Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community. * Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture.
Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Leadership Podcast? Contact Gino Curcuruto at gino@gravityleadership.com.
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We talked with Joel Bowman about themes from a recent article of his, on what white Christians can do to address racism: lament, repent, and dissent.
Rev. Joel A. Bowman, Sr. is a native of Detroit, Michigan, and has been in ministry for 28 years. For the past 21 years, he has served as the founder and senior pastor of the Temple of Faith Baptist Church, in Louisville, Kentucky.
A Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Joel has 30 years of experience in the mental health field. Joel maintains a full-time practice, providing therapy to America’s military Veterans. Joel is a seminar facilitator, freelance writer, poet, and thought leader in the areas of racism and racial trauma. His work has been published in numerous places, including the Louisville Courier-Journal, The Front Porch, The Witness, Three-Fifths Magazine, and Baptist News Global.
Joel is married to Nannette Mitchell Bowman, and they have 3 children: Kayla, Katie, and Joel, Jr.
Show notes/links* Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode. * Join our online community for free!
From our sponsor (that's us!)* Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community. * Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture.
Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Leadership Podcast? Contact Gino Curcuruto at gino@gravityleadership.com.
Connect with Gravity LeadershipJoin our online community (FREE) to get a curated list of interesting and edifying articles each week, plus free resources for leading like Jesus, living on mission, and making disciples. Head to https://gravityleadership.com/join to join us.
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In his book God Speaks Through Wombs: Poems on God’s Unexpected Coming, Drew Jackson explores the first eight chapters of Luke’s Gospel in a new poetic register. From the Magnificat (“That girl can sing! . . . She has a voice / That can shatter shackles”) to the baptism of Christ (“I stepped in / […] The post Drew Jackson: Recovering the Voices of the Marginalized Through Poetry appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
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Wade Mullen shares how to identify and heal from abusive people and systems. Wade helps us get clarity on what abuse is, how to recognize it in our relationships and churches, and what we can do to heal and recover. Wade is a trustworthy voice and it was a joy to learn from him in […] The post Wade Mullen: Decoding the Hidden Tactics of Abusive People and Systems appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
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Eric Minton joined us for our Gravity Commons Live conversation this past June. He’s an author, therapist, and ordained Baptist minister who has a unique perspective on our societies infatuation with happiness: What if there’s nothing wrong with us? What if anxiety and depression and listless spiritual life are actually telling us the truth about […] The post Eric Minton: What our Pain Reveals About the Anxious Pursuit of the Good Life appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Today we finish our series on Ben and Matt’s book Having the Mind of Christ: Eight Axioms for Cultivating a Robust Faith. Ben, Matt, Gino, and Christy discuss how they’ve practically worked out the principles and practices in the book in their lives and leadership over the past several years. Today we talk about the […] The post Experimenting With Grace By Acting As If It’s True appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series focused on Ben and Matt’s book Having the Mind of Christ: Eight Axioms for Cultivating a Robust Faith. Ben, Matt, Gino, and Christy discuss how they’ve practically worked out the principles and practices in the book in their lives and leadership over the past several years. Today we talk about Axiom […] The post Why Our Bodies Are Essential For Transformation in Grace appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series focused on Ben and Matt’s book Having the Mind of Christ: Eight Axioms for Cultivating a Robust Faith. Ben, Matt, Gino, and Christy discuss how they’ve practically worked out the principles and practices in the book in their lives and leadership over the past several years. Today we talk about Axiom […] The post How God’s Love Recognizes and Reckons With Power Dynamics appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series focused on Ben and Matt’s forthcoming book Having the Mind of Christ: Eight Axioms for Cultivating a Robust Faith. Ben, Matt, Gino, and Christy discuss how they’ve practically worked out the principles and practices in the book in their lives and leadership over the past several years. Today we talk about […] The post Why it Matters That God Does the Same Work In Us and Through Us appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series focused on Ben and Matt’s forthcoming book Having the Mind of Christ: Eight Axioms for Cultivating a Robust Faith. Ben, Matt, Gino, and Christy discuss how they’ve practically worked out the principles and practices in the book in their lives and leadership over the past several years. Today we talk about […] The post Does God Care About All of (Gestures Wildly) More Than We Do? appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series focused on Ben and Matt’s forthcoming book Having the Mind of Christ: Eight Axioms for Cultivating a Robust Faith. Ben, Matt, Gino, and Christy discuss how they’ve practically worked out the principles and practices in the book in their lives and leadership over the past several years. Today we talk about […] The post How God Meets Us Right in the Middle of the Mess appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series focused on Ben and Matt’s forthcoming book Having the Mind of Christ: Eight Axioms for Cultivating a Robust Faith. Ben, Matt, Gino, and Christy discuss how they’ve practically worked out the principles and practices in the book in their lives and leadership over the past several years. Today we talk about […] The post Why We Need a God Like Jesus appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series focused on Ben and Matt’s forthcoming book Having the Mind of Christ: Eight Axioms for Cultivating a Robust Faith. Ben, Matt, Gino, and Christy discuss how they’ve practically worked out the principles and practices in the book in their lives and leadership over the past several years. Today we talk about […] The post What if God was Always Present and At Work? appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series focused on Ben and Matt’s forthcoming book Having the Mind of Christ: Eight Axioms for Cultivating a Robust Faith. Ben, Matt, Gino, and Christy discuss how they’ve practically worked out the principles and practices in the book in their lives and leadership over the past several years. Today we talk about […] The post All You Need is Love: Reclaiming Love as the Center of Christian Faith appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We start a new series today focused on Ben and Matt’s forthcoming book Having the Mind of Christ: Eight Axioms for Cultivating a Robust Faith. Ben, Matt, Gino, and Christy will respond to each chapter over the next few weeks, discussing how they’ve practically worked out the principles and practices in the book in their […] The post Deconstructing Spiritual Practices, Embracing New Paradigms appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We reconnected with our friend Kevin Sweeney to chat about his new book, The Making of a Mystic: My Journey With Mushrooms, My Life as a Pastor, and Why It’s Okay for Everyone to Relax. We talked about psychedelics, closing his church, learning to love and lead in the way of contemplation and mysticism. Kevin […] The post Kevin Sweeney: The Making of a Mystic appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
What was clear to the original readers of Scripture is not always clear to us. Because of the cultural distance between the biblical world and our contemporary setting, we often bring modern Western biases to the text. Ten years ago Brandon O’Brien co-wrote a book on this topic that we have recommended more than any […] The post Brandon O’Brien: How We Misread Scripture With Western Eyes appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Nationally recognized speaker and church leader Jay Augustine joins us to offer a prophetic call to pastors, church leaders, and students to recover reconciliation as the heart of the church’s message to a divided world. Jay’s book Called to Reconciliation: How the Church Can Model Justice, Diversity, and Inclusion examines the intersection of the salvific, […] The post Jay Augustine: Modeling Justice, Diversity, and Inclusion as the Church appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We talk with Gravity Leadership Community Liaison Gino Curcuruto about 5 important lessons he's learned in ministry so far. This is part of an ongoing series called "5 Things I've Learned." We want to hear from you! Let us know what you wish you knew when you started out in ministry. Email us at podcast@gravityleadership.com […] The post Gino Curcuruto: 5 Lessons I’ve Learned in 20 Years of Ministry appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Women and men are designed to work together in fulfilling God’s mission on earth. Yet God’s original intent for equal partnership has been so distorted that churches and organizations continually struggle to foster healthy mixed-gender ministry collaboration. Is it even possible to return to the Genesis ideal of co-laborers in today’s contexts? Longtime ministry leader […] The post Rob Dixon: Women and Men Flourishing Together appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Shane Blackshear had the privilege of forming a friendship with his long-time hero: civil rights leader and minister, John Perkins. Over a series of years John became a mentor, and they had numerous conversations as Shane wanted to know from John what leading a life faithful to Jesus Christ actually looked like. What followed was […] The post Shane Blackshear on John Perkins: Peacemaking and Transformation appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We talk with Idelette McVicker about her journey out of whiteness and reckoning with her Apartheid past as an Afrikaner woman. In her book Recovering Racists: Dismantling White Supremacy and Reclaiming Our Humanity she shares 20 practices or “Stations of Liberation” that can help white people recover from the racism we have inherited, from acknowledgment […] The post Idelette McVicker: Reclaiming Our Humanity By Recovering From Racism appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Dominique DuBois Gilliard is back to talk about how power works in systems and structures, and how we can leverage privilege in subversive ways on behalf the the marginalized and oppressed in faithfulness to Scripture. These are the themes of Dominique's new book Subversive Witness: Scripture’s Call to Leverage Privilege. This was a Gravity Commons […] The post Dominique Dubois Gilliard: Leveraging Privilege for Kingdom Justice appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Dr. Christina Edmondson joins us to talk about how to faithfully oppose and resist the pernicious power of racism as Christians and churches. Her book (co-authored with Chad Brennan) is Faithful Antiracism: Moving Past Talk to Systemic Change (use promo code GL22 for 30% off and free shipping through May 3!). We talk about what […] The post Christina Edmondson: Practicing Faithful Antiracism For Systemic Change appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
David Ford joins us for a Gravity Commons LIVE discussion about his new commentary The Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary. We explore the themes in John’s Gospel that make it a distinct witness among the Gospels in the New Testament, and through David’s exuberant engagement with this text, are invited into a fresh, profound […] The post David Ford: A Fresh Encounter with Jesus Through John’s Gospel appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Instead of loving neighbors, strangers, and enemies, many Christians are taught to fear them. Author and speaker Catherine McNiel talks about her book Fearing Bravely: Risking Love for our Neighbors, Strangers, and Enemies, helping us see how love can drive out our fear, and reclaim the transformative power of love for the sake of our […] The post Catherine McNiel: Confessing our Fear and Loving our Enemies appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Leadership coach and author Karen Hardwick shares seven practices for leaders to cultivate a deeper connection with themselves, their spiritual purpose, and others. Her book is The Connected Leader: 7 Strategies to Empower Your True Self and Others. You can connect with Karen on her website, on Instagram, and Linkedin. From our sponsor Check out our […] The post Karen J Hardwick: Becoming a Connected Leader appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Many church leaders are facing a liminal moment, wrestling with how to navigate complex theological and cultural terrain and lead the church into a faithful witness of the Gospel in turbulent times. We talk with Seth Richardson, Director of our new initiative (Gravity Congregational Transformation), about how careful and hopeful noticing can shift our perspective […] The post How to Turn Church Challenges Into Transformational Opportunities appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
In divided times, how do we work for justice and make real peace? Melissa Florer-Bixler joins us to discuss her prophetic book, How to Have an Enemy: Righteous Anger and the Work of Peace to get at these very questions. Melissa draws from the Scriptures and her work among those contending for justice to give […] The post Melissa Florer-Bixler: How to Have An Enemy appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
“Phil from Philly” emailed us with a question about some of the specifics about what it looks like to love enemies. In this episode we reflect on his question, along with issues of power, abuse, conflict, justice, and love. Show notes / links: Join us for an Enneagram Transformation Workshop in Fredericktown, Missouri on March […] The post On Loving Enemies: A Question From a Listener appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
CONTENT WARNING: domestic abuse, pornography, rape. Sheila Gregoire and Sarah McDugal discuss some of the harmful myths about sex and marriage that are perpetuated by Christians, especially those under the moniker “purity culture,” and ways toward a more healthy and holistic view of bodies, sex. and marriage. This was a liberating Gravity Commons LIVE conversation […] The post Sheila Gregoire & Sarah McDugal: The Harm that Purity Culture Causes appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We talk with Gravity Leadership Podcast co-founder Ben Sternke about 5 important things he’s learned in ministry so far. This is part of an ongoing series called "5 Things I've Learned." We want to hear from you! Let us know what you wish you knew when you started out in ministry. Email us at podcast@gravityleadership.com […] The post Ben Sternke: 5 Lessons I’ve Learned in 20 Years of Ministry appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We talk with Gravity Leadership Podcast co-host Christy Penley about 5 important things she’s learned in ministry so far. This is part of an ongoing series called "5 Things I've Learned." Two things are fun about this conversation: 1) Christy actually shares 6 things instead of 5, which is very on-brand for her, and 2) […] The post Christy Penley: 5 Lessons I’ve Learned in 20 Years of Ministry appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Many have listened with great interest to the Christianity Today podcast The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill,exposing the leadership abuses of Mark Driscoll and the fallout among the members of his church. On this episode we will take a closer look at how the podcast itself functions in the same cultural and theological world […] The post What’s Missing From the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill Podcast? appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Allyson McKinney Timm and Meghan Tschanz (from Justice Revival) join us to discuss the ongoing struggle for women to have constitutionally protected equality, and why this is a fundamentally Christian concern. Justice Revival provides churches and seminaries with innovative, quality education that explores the importance of human rights to a Christian understanding of justice. Links: […] The post Allyson McKinney Timm & Meghan Tschanz: Christian Advocacy for Women’s Rights appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
In our first Gravity Commons LIVE conversation (with our Gravity Commons community), we talked with David Gushee about his upcoming book Introducing Christian Ethics: Core Convictions for Christians Today. David has taken his many years of teaching and experience to offer a fresh vision of the Christian moral life for today’s turbulent world. This unique […] The post David Gushee: Christian Ethics in a Pluralistic World appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Author and communicator Carlene Hill Byron helps us understand the mounting dilemmas that pastors and churches face around mental health, and how the church can become a healing community for its members in pain. Her book is Not Quite Fine: Mental Health, Faith, and Showing Up for One Another. Carlene Hill Byron is a fundraiser […] The post Carlene Hill Byron: Covid, Mental Health, Faith, and Community appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Leading activist and author Lisa Sharon Harper spent three decades researching ten generations of her family history through DNA research, oral histories, interviews and genealogy, and in her new book, Fortune: How Race Broke My Family and the World--and How to Repair It All, Harper draws on her lifelong journey to know her family's history […] The post Lisa Sharon Harper: How Racism Broke the World, and How to Repair It appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Clinical psychologist Rod Wilson explains how three “sacred sayings” can transform our leadership and the world. In his book Thank you. I’m Sorry. Tell Me More, he offers three practices--gratitude, remorse, and care--as pathways to real human communication, connection, and reconciliation, and provides a practical, inclusive, and relationally-focused resource for those want to become better […] The post Rod Wilson: 3 Leadership Sayings that Can Change the World appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Tara Beth Leach joined us to talk about her new book, Radiant Church: Restoring the Credibility of Our Witness. Tara Beth also shared about her tumultuous personal and professional life over the last two years. Tara Beth Leach is a pastor, preacher of the Word, and writer. She speaks widely at conferences, retreats, and universities […] The post Tara Beth Leach: Restoring the Credibility of the Church’s Witness appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Gravity Co-founder Matt Tebbe shared his most crucial learnings in his first 20 years of ministry. This is the first of an ongoing series we’re starting called “5 Things I’ve Learned.” We want to hear from you! Let us know what you wish you knew when you started out in ministry. Email us at podcast@gravityleadership.com […] The post Matt Tebbe: 5 Things I’ve Learned in 20 Years of Ministry appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We talked with Curt Thompson about his new book The Soul of Desire: Discovering the Neuroscience of Longing, Beauty, and Community, which suggests that underneath all our longings is the desire to be seen and known. Curt integrates interpersonal neurobiology, Christian spirituality, and theology to help us reckon with what it means to be human, […] The post Curt Thompson: How Naming Desire Leads to Transformation appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Many of us have a complicated relationship with our body. Some of us feel ashamed of our bodies. Some of our bodies are riddled with stress, pain, and trauma. Racism, sexism, ableism, ageism, etc. have told some of us that we don’t have the right kind of body. Psychologist and researcher Hillary McBride join us […] The post Hillary McBride: Learning to Listen to the Wisdom of Your Body appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Prolific New Testament scholar Craig Keener joins us to talk about modern miracles. Through numerous stories, his new book, Miracles Today: The Supernatural Work of God in the Modern World, demonstrates the miraculous works of God, which have been part of the experience of the church around the world since Christianity began, continue into the […] The post Craig Keener: God’s Supernatural Work in the World Today appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
What is the role of emotions in Christian discipleship? Many of us have learned to mistrust or ignore our emotions, but this creates a constricted and rigid spirituality. Becky Castle Miller helps us understand what emotions are and aren’t, how Jesus embodies human emotion, and why naming and working with our emotions is central to […] The post Becky Castle Miller on the Role of Emotions in Christian Discipleship appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Contemplative prayer is nice, sure, but is it really necessary? Pastor AJ Sherrill thinks so (we do, too). In his new book Being with God: The Absurdity, Necessity, and Neurology of Contemplative Prayer, AJ shows us how contemplative prayer is crucial not only for spiritual growth in the modern world, but also contributes to our […] The post AJ Sherrill on the Necessity and Neurology of Contemplative Prayer appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
What do you do when it seems like everybody else is getting their dreams and you’re not? Heather Thompson Day helps us know what we can do to shape ourselves while waiting, so we are ready when it’s our turn. We had a fun, wide-ranging conversation with Heather about the themes from her new book […] The post Heather Day: What to Do When It’s Not Your Turn appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Dr. Angie Ward joins us to discuss her new project, When the Universe Cracks: Living as God’s People in Times of Crisis. We chatted about the need in our present cultural moment to navigate crisis faithfully, and how to draw on our Scriptures, tradition, and church history to do so. Dr. Angie Ward brings three […] The post Dr. Angie Ward: Living as God’s People in Times of Crisis appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Meghan Tschanz talks with us about her journey of befriending oppressed and exploited women across the globe, and how she noticed a connection between the worst kinds of abuse of women and the systems her childhood church had taught. (Trigger warning: sexual assault.) Meghan’s book Women Rising: Learning to Listen, Reclaiming Our Voice is her […] The post Meghan Tschanz: Resisting Oppression By Listening to Women appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Many LGBTQ people face overwhelming challenges in navigating faith, gender, and sexuality. Author and speaker Bridget Eileen Rivera joins us to talk about the harm and pain that LGBTQ Christians have experienced in the church, and how churches can develop a better pastoral approach. Bridget’s book is Heavy Burdens: Seven Ways LGBTQ Christians Experience Harm […] The post Bridget Eileen Rivera: How the Church Harms LGBTQ Christians appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
What if some of our greatest theologians aren’t normally recognized as theologians at all? Second-generation Cuban American Kat Armas joins us to talk about how marginalized and overlooked voices–mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and daughters–have more to teach us about following God than we realize. Kat’s book is Abuelita Faith: What Women on the Margins Teach Us […] The post Kat Armas: What Women on the Margins Teach Us About Faith appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Nearly everyone knows someone on the autism spectrum, yet most of what people think they know about autism is wrong. Author, poet, and professor Daniel Bowman Jr. joins us for a conversation on how autism and other neurodiversities interact with our faith and relationships, and how neurodiversity can be received as a gift to ourselves […] The post Daniel Bowman Jr. on Autism, Faith, and the Gifts of Neurodiversity appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Bethany Dearborn Hiser joins us to talk about the importance of soul care for pastors, therapists, chaplains, and others who work closely with the suffering of others, how soul care is different from “pampering” yourself (which often requires affluence), and how to pay closer attention to the health of our souls as we seek to […] The post Bethany Dearborn Hiser: Soul Care For Wounded Healers appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Longtime friend of Gravity Brian Zahnd returns to chat about his new book, When Everything’s on Fire: Faith Forged from the Ashes. As is usual with Brian, we got into some unexpected territory and loved every second of it. Brian Zahnd is the founder and lead pastor of Word of Life Church, a non-denominational Christian […] The post Brian Zahnd Deconstructs Deconstruction appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Spiritual companion and podcast host Lisa Colón DeLay joins us to talk about the lifelong journey of cultivating wholeness in the “wild places” of our hearts through intentional spiritual practice. Through specific spiritual practices from early desert monastics, as well as Latinx, Black, and Indigenous contemplatives, along with the insights of neuroscience and trauma-informed therapy, […] The post Lisa Colón DeLay: Cultivating Wholeness Through Spiritual Practice appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We spoke with our friend A.J. Swoboda about his new book After Doubt: How to Question Your Faith Without Losing It. A.J. challenged us to think through the theological and cultural challenges surrounding our current moment. We talked about the complexities of church hurt and abuse and how that influences people who question their faith. […] The post A.J. Swoboda: Deconstructing Without Losing your Faith appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We talked with Dr. Jeff McGee about his book, One Human Race: Five Stages to Empower Transformative Change. Dr. McGee shared with us his Cross-Cultural Model of Collaboration, which provides a theoretical method for Christian leaders to dismantle systemic racism within their churches and organizations. Dr. Jeff McGee is a published author and thought leader […] The post Jeff McGee: How to Foster Cross-Cultural Collaboration appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
After recording our last podcast episode with MelindaJoy Mingo, she suggested that we have a subsequent conversation where she could ask us some questions to get to know us better. We suggested recording it as a bonus podcast episode so people could hear MelindaJoy model the kind of listening and learning in conversation that she […] The post BONUS: MelindaJoy Mingo Models Listening and Learning in Conversation appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
MelindaJoy Mingo talks with us about the importance of making friends across difference, in the midst of all the forces that seek to keep us at odds with each other, and some of the practices necessary to facilitate the deep healing and deep reconciliation we all need. MelindaJoy writes about all of this in her […] The post MelindaJoy Mingo: Connecting With Each Other Across Difference appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Mark Scandrette joins us to chat about his new book The Ninefold Path of Jesus: Hidden Wisdom of the Beatitudes, a modern contextualization of Jesus’s beatitudes in Matthew 5. Mark is the executive director of Reimagine: A Center for Integral Christian Practice and has created resources for churches to use his new book in groups. […] The post Mark Scandrette: The Beatitudes For Today appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
(Note: the original version of this podcast episode had an audio error. This is the corrected version of the episode.) Do you feel at ease with God? Or do you anxiously try to keep closeness? Do you lean more on academic theology than real connection? Do you worry about being judged or punished? Do you […] The post Krispin Mayfield: Understanding Spiritual Attachment Styles (CORRECTED) appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Do you feel at ease with God? Or do you anxiously try to keep closeness? Do you lean more on academic theology than real connection? Do you worry about being judged or punished? Do you feel unworthy of God's love? Therapist and author Krispin Mayfield helps us understand “spiritual attachment styles,” and shares on what […] The post Krispin Mayfield: Understanding Spiritual Attachment Styles appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
David Eaton talks with us about the challenges and opportunities of cultivating ongoing, life-giving connections and conversations with parents and teens about faith and culture. David co-founded Axis, an organization that provides resources for parents who want to better connect with the teenagers. You can find more resources and info from Axis on their website. […] The post David Eaton: Connecting Parents and Teens in a Disconnected World appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Pastor and professor Jin S. Kim talks with us about the vital but difficult work of decolonizing Christian leadership and theological education, a prophetic task he embodies through his work with Church of All Nations and Underground Seminary in Minneapolis. Dr. Kim is the founding Pastor of Church of All Nations and chief cultural architect […] The post Jin S. Kim: Decolonizing Christian Leadership & Theological Education appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Our friend Geoff Holsclaw joins us to chat about the intersection of neuroscience and discipleship. We zero in on Attachment Theory as a helpful tool to assess our relationships with God and others. Our ability to love God and love others is greatly enhanced by secure attachments, and a sober reckoning of our dominant (insecure) […] The post Geoff Holsclaw: How Attachment Theory Helps Us Live Our Faith appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
For many of us, for too long, Christianity has been unhelpfully entangled with Western culture. Pastor and author Mandy Smith teaches us that the way forward is to embrace childlike faith again. In her new book Unfettered: Imagining a Childlike Faith Beyond the Baggage of Western Culture, she lays out a model of learning that […] The post Mandy Smith: Childlike Faith Beyond the Baggage of Western Culture appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Every ministry leader needs consistent soul care, even when there’s NOT a global pandemic disrupting our lives. Matt Alexander shares why soul care is so important, along with the 6 vital aspects of any good soul care practice. Matt is also starting new Soul Care Cohorts this fall. To find out more, fill out the […] The post Matt Alexander: Why Every Ministry Leader Needs Regular Soul Care appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
The church doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to dealing with suicide in a healthy, helpful way. We talk with David Galvan, Director of Education for a Lifetime, about how Christians can learn to talk openly about suicide and mental illness without fear or shame. David has been teaching, training, and facilitating […] The post David Galvan: How (Not) to Talk About Suicide in the Church appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We chatted with Mike about his journey away from church ministry as a young man to tend to his own brokenness and healing, as well as his long, slow move back into church ministry. Along the way we talked about his podcast, a conference idea, and the need for authenticity and vulnerability in leadership. Mike […] The post Mike Erre: Leaving Church Ministry to Heal appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
The Covid-19 pandemic was the first culturally disruptive moment Millennials and Gen Z lived through. We talk with pastor, writer, and speaker Benjamin Windle about pastoring Millennials and Gen Z through the pandemic and beyond. Benjamin pioneered and pastors LifePlace Church in Brisbane, Australia. His work helping churches develop Generational Intelligence in reaching Millennials and […] The post Benjamin Windle: Ministry to Milliennials & Gen Z in a Pandemic and Beyond appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We talked with Duke Kwon and Greg Thompson about their new book Reparations: A Christian Call to Repentance and Repair, which explores reparations from a biblical/Christian perspective. Duke L. Kwon (MDiv, ThM, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) is the lead pastor at Grace Meridian Hill, a neighborhood congregation in the Grace DC Network committed to building cross-cultural […] The post Duke Kwon & Greg Thompson: The Case for Race Reparations appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We talked with Dr. Matt Jantzen about his excellent book, God, Race, and Providence: Liberating Providence. Matt is the the faculty director of the Emmaus Scholars Program, a living-learning community at Hope College that combines the practices of intentional Christian community with academic and practical explorations of the relationship between faith and justice in contemporary […] The post Matt Jantzen: How the Doctrine of God’s Providence was Shaped by Whiteness appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
This special episode is a conversation among Gravity Leadership’s three co-founders (Ben Hardman, Ben Sternke, and Matt Tebbe) to announce the bittersweet news that Ben Hardman is leaving Gravity to spin off some of our consulting work into a new venture called Kingdom Dreams Initiative (while also continuing to serve as lead pastor of Grace […] The post Special Announcement: A Transition at Gravity Leadership appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
The final episode of a 4-part mini-series on Critical Race Theory (CRT) with scholar Dr. Nathan Cartagena. In Part 1, we defined CRT. In Parts 2 and 3, Dr. Cartagena gave a master class on the history of white supremacy in the United States (using lots of original sources). In this final part, we talk […] The post Critical Race Theory with Nathan Cartagena, Pt 4: Why it Matters For the Church appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Part 3 of a 4-part mini-series on Critical Race Theory (CRT) with scholar Dr. Nathan Cartagena. In this episode, Dr. Cartagena continues outlining (from the last episode) a brief history of white supremacy in the United States (using lots of original sources). It’s REALLY eye-opening. Part 4 will be an episode on why this all […] The post Critical Race Theory with Nathan Cartagena, Pt 3: White Supremacy in the US, cont. appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Part 2 of a 4-part mini-series on Critical Race Theory (CRT) with scholar Dr. Nathan Cartagena. In this episode and the next, Dr. Cartagena outlines a brief history of white supremacy in the United States (using lots of original sources). It’s REALLY eye-opening. Part 4 will be an episode on why this all matters for […] The post Critical Race Theory with Nathan Cartagena, Pt 2: White Supremacy in the US appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Critical Race Theory (CRT): If you’re on social media, you’ve probably heard the phrase thrown around. Some people claim that critical race theory is a grave threat to the gospel. But what in the world IS critical race theory, anyway? This is the first part of a 4-part mini-series on Critical Race Theory with scholar […] The post Critical Race Theory with Nathan Cartagena, Pt 1: What IS it, Actually? appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We talked with pastor, professor, and longtime friend David Fitch about how to contend for justice and truth faithfully in public, in the midst of all the divisions and antagonisms of our day. How can Christians leaders learn to navigate so many complex cultural and theological issues, many of which we received no training for? […] The post David Fitch: How to Tell Divisive Antagonsim From Holy Conflict appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Our friend Mako Nagasawa joins us again, this time to talk about abortion in Christian politics and theology. Mako gives us a history of how and why abortion become the “single-issue” it has become and maybe some ways forward of how to think about abortion theologically and socially. Mako is the Founder and Executive Director […] The post Mako Nagasawa: Thinking More Clearly About Abortion appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We talked with Sheila Gregoire about the common lies we believe about sex, and how to move toward sex that is mutual, intimate, and pleasurable, for both women and men. Sheila is passionate about changing the evangelical conversation about sex. A popular speaker, marriage blogger, and award-winning author of seven books, including The Great Sex […] The post Sheila Gregoire: Exposing the Lies We Believe About Sex appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Gino Curcuruto joins us to reflect on the outpouring of heartbreaking stories of spiritual abuse that came from our previous podcast episode where he shared his own story of spiritual abuse and trauma. Gino is is our Community Liaison at Gravity Leadership, a chiropractor, and a co-vocational church planter in Philadelphia (The Table Philly), where […] The post Gino Curcuruto: Reflecting on Prevalence of Spiritual Abuse in the Church appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Beth Allison Barr joins us to chat about the idea of “biblical womanhood” and how it was created in the modern era. Drawing upon her research and expertise in medieval women’s church history, she introduces us to her latest book, The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth. Beth is […] The post Beth Allison Barr: How and Why Biblical Womanhood Was Invented appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We talk with Dr. Kristin Kobes Du Mez about one of our top books of 2020, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. (Whew that subtitle!) Kristin reflects on how the book was conceived, why it was so hard to write, why it took her 15 years to […] The post Kristin Kobes Du Mez: How White Evangelicals Embraced Toxic Masculinity appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry co-wrote Taking Back America for God on the growing presence of Christian Nationalism in the United States. Orienting their research around the “unholy trinity” of Power, Boundaries, and Order, Andrew and Sam chat with us about how to identify Christian Nationalism, their observations about the Capitol insurrection on January 6th, […] The post Andrew Whitehead & Samuel Perry: Christian Nationalism in the USA appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We talked with Dawson Vosburg about how his experience with the poor and those who suffer injustice, and his searching of the Scriptures, led him to question the prevailing assumption in the USA that capitalism is the most just and humane economic system. We had a wide-ranging, provocative discussion that helps us think more clearly […] The post Dawson Vosburg: Capitalism, Socialism, and What Scripture Has to Say appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We talked with Juanita Campbell Rasmus about her journey of understanding her depression and meeting God in that darkness. Her book, Learning to Be:Finding Your Center After the Bottom Falls Out is a travelogue of how to navigate those dark places in our lives to mine out God’s treasures. Juanita is a pastor, spiritual director, and […] The post Juanita Campbell Rasmus: Learning to BE in the Midst of Chaos appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Church planter Gino Curcuruto tells his story of spiritual abuse and trauma in the church, which unfortunately mirrors so many other stories we’ve heard. If you’ve experienced spiritual abuse, you’re not alone. Gino is is our Community Liaison at Gravity Leadership, a chiropractor, and a co-vocational church planter in Philadelphia (The Table Philly), where he […] The post Walking Through Spiritual Abuse and Trauma with Gino Curcuruto appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series on race, gender, and power in the church with Dr. Diane Langberg. Dr. Langberg joined us on the podcast to talk about her new book, Redeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the Church. She framed the systemic sin of power abuse in biblical categories, reclaiming a helpful theological framework for […] The post Dr. Diane Langberg: Naming Abuse and Redeeming Power in the Church appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Our series on Race, Gender, and Power in the Church continues with a conversation with Aimee Byrd to discuss her book Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Aimee shared the story that led up to her writing the book, and, upon the release of the book, the fallout she experienced from those whom she critiqued. […] The post Aimee Byrd: Recovering From Biblical Manhood and Womanhood appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
In this episode we talked to Dr. Scot McKnight about the book he co-authored with his daughter, Laura Barringer, entitled, A Church Called Tov: Forming a Goodness Culture That Resists Abuses of Power and Promotes Healing. Our conversation is a part of our series on race, gender, and power in the local church. Scot has […] The post Scot McKnight: Church Abuse and Where We Go From Here appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We talked with Dennae about her involvement in multi-ethnic church planting in Phoenix, AZ, the turbulent season for her church before and right after the 2016 election, and how the last four years have led them to a much deeper solidarity together. She’s written a book, Healing Prayers and Meditations to Resist a Violent World, […] The post Dennae Pierre: Learning to Lead and Pray in the Midst of Racial Injustice appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Today we introduce Christy Penley, who will be helping us as a new co-host on the Gravity Leadership Podcast! Christy is a Gravity veteran who has led many people through our discipleship process in her local context. We’ve known Christy for a long time, we trust her, and we’ve asked her to bring her voice […] The post A New Co-Host For the Gravity Leadership Podcast: Christy Penley appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Timothy and Madai McCain are evangelists who travel and proclaim the gospel all over the world. We spoke with them about their experiences being a Black man and Latina woman in mostly white church spaces as a part of our series on power and how race and gender contribute to dynamics many of us cannot […] The post Timothy and Madai McCain: People of Color Preaching in White Spaces appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We start a new series today on Power, Race, and Gender in the Church. If you’ve kept track of the news for the past few weeks, you’ll know that we Christians have some big problems in these areas, and this series is a way for us to explore together how to repent and respond in […] The post Esau McCaulley: How the Black Church Helps Us Read the Bible Better appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Pastor and author Andrew Arndt joins us to talk about the enthralling vision we receive from the ancient church fathers and mothers: a life fully immersed in the life of the Holy Trinity. Andrew shares how we can follow their wisdom today and learn to participate more fully in God's life. Andrew is a Lead […] The post Andrew Arndt: Learning to Live in the Trinity With the Ancient Church appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Most of us have inherited a vision of leadership that looks at emotion with suspicion. Writer and speaker Marc Alan Schelske joins us to talk about why that is a mistake, and to highlight the vital role of emotions in the life of the leader. Marc is a writer, speaker, hobbyist theologian, recovering fundamentalist, tea […] The post What Emotions Are For in the Life of the Leader with Marc Alan Schelske appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Recorded back when the pandemic first hit, this conversation with Tod Bolsinger on learning to lead “off the map” of the known and familiar is more needed now than ever, and still so applicable 9 months into the pandemic. Tod Bolsinger is the Senior Congregational Strategist and Associate Professor of Leadership Formation at Fuller Seminary. […] The post Learning to Lead in Uncharted Territory with Tod Bolsinger appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Marcus Warner joins us for an invigorating and illuminating conversation about the intersection of leadership and neuroscience, which is what his latest book is all about (co-authored with Jim Wilder): Rare Leadership:4 Uncommon Habits For Increasing Trust, Joy, and Engagement in the People You Lead. Dr. Marcus Warner has served as president of Deeper Walk […] The post What Brain Science Teaches Us About Leadership with Marcus Warner appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Recorded back when the pandemic first hit us, this conversation with Jim Herrington on leading in the midst of anxiety and uncertainty is rich, and still so applicable 9 months into the pandemic. Jim Herrington has been a pastor for 45 years. He has served as a denominational executive and pastor to pastors since 1989 where he […] The post Leading in Times of Anxiety and Uncertainty with Jim Herrington appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Susan Carson is the founder and director of Roots&Branches Network, a citywide listening and healing prayer ministry in Cincinnati, Ohio. She authored the spiritual guidebook, rooted (IN): Thriving in Connection with God, Yourself, and Others. (Which you can now buy 1 and get 1 free to gift as a part of her holiday promotion on her […] The post Living and Leading From Rootedness with Susan Carson appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Pastor, author, and Gravity coach Kristan Dooley joins us on the podcast to talk about walking through desert seasons, taking “left turns,” and the deep refinement of character that can come from these times in our lives. Kristan encourages us to embrace the identity and alignment work that comes with following Jesus into the unknown. […] The post Following Jesus Off the Beaten Path With Kristan Dooley appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
The Bible has problems, but is this a problem? Or a feature? Greg Boyd thinks the Bible’s imperfections actually enhance its authority as Scripture, which is what we talk with him about in this episode. This is the topic of his book Inspired Imperfection: How the Bible’s Problems Enhance Its Divine Authority. Greg Boyd is […] The post Greg Boyd on How the Bible’s Problems Enhance Its Authority appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Writer and Bible teacher Traci Rhoades shares some of her journey of abandoning the search for the “perfect” church and instead exploring the many ways believers worship Jesus, and what she learned along the way. Traci’s website is tracesoffaith.com. You can follower her on Twitter or connect via Facebook and Instagram. Check out her book […] The post Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost with Traci Rhoades appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Marlena Graves talks with us about the upside-down way of the kingdom of God (the way up is the way down, you save your life by losing your life, you become yourself by forgetting yourself), and how this helps us connect spiritual formation to justice. Marlena is a writer, deep thinker, and speaker who is […] The post Becoming Yourself By Forgetting Yourself with Marlena Graves appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Matt, Ben, and Ben conclude our Being a Christian in America series with an Election Day discussion about what we’ve learned in this series, and about what’s more clear now to us about being a Christian in America, and what’s less clear. Connect with Gravity Leadership Want to stay connected with us? Here are a […] The post Election Day Series Recap: Being a Christian in America appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Okay we jammed one more episode into our Being Christian in America series! This conversation with Justin Wallace, a Gravity coach and pastor in North Carolina, was originally only going to go out to our Patreon supporters, but it fit really well into our current series, so here it is. Justin and Matt have […] The post A Pastor’s Struggle With Whether to Vote and Who to Vote For appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
In this bonus episode of our series Being a Christian in America, we talk with Joel Halldorf, a Swedish evangelical, who gives us some outside/inside perspective on American evangelicalism. Joel Halldorf is currently an associate professor of church history at Uppsala University. He works as a senior lecturer at the Stockholm University of Theology, and […] The post A Swedish Evangelical’s Perspective on American Evangelicalism appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Attorney and political strategist Justin Giboney joins us for a conversation in our series on Being a Christian in America, on how faithful political engagement for followers of Jesus must be filled with both compassion AND conviction. Justin Giboney is the Co-Founder and President of the And Campaign, which is a coalition of urban Christians […] The post Justin Giboney on Maintaining Compassion AND Conviction in Political Engagement appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Our series on Being a Christian in America continues with a discussion about how the church that Ben Sternke and Matt Tebbe co-pastor (The Table in Indianapolis) is speaking about our current cultural moment: by preaching through the Sermon on the Mount, not as pie-in-the-sky idealism or private moral instruction, but as Jesus’ political manifesto. […] The post The Sermon on the Mount as Jesus’s Political Manifesto appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Professor and author Lee Camp helps us continue our series on Being a Christian in the USA with a generous and honest discussion around the themes of his new book Scandalous Witness: A Little Political Manfiesto For Christians. Lee talks about the ditches Christians fall into when trying to live out their faith in public: […] The post Lee Camp on How the Politics of Jesus Disrupt Partisan America appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Our series on Being a Christian in the USA continues with an invigorating conversation with pastor and author David Swanson about how many white Christians across America, when waking up to the deep-rooted racial injustice in our society, insinctively scramble to add diversity to our churches. But David argues that before white churches can pursue […] The post David Swanson on Rediscipling the White Church appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Our series on Being a Christian in the USA continues! We talk with author and professor Alan Noble about the difficulties of speaking truthfully and graciously in a “secular age” where ultimate things are so easily pigeon-holed as consumer preferences. This is the topic of his book Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age. […] The post Alan Noble on Speaking Disruptive Truth to Distracted People appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Why does “speaking the truth in love” so seldom lead to the life Jesus modeled for us? Biblical scholar and popular podcast host of The Bible for Normal People, Jared Byas talks with us about a vision for the Christian life that’s built not on having all the answers, but on the risk of love […] The post Jared Byas: Why We Don’t Have to Choose Between Truth and Love appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
In this installment of our Being a Christian in the USA series, we talk with D.L. Mayfield about the ways we have conflated the values of God’s kingdom with the values of America, and how Christianity actually challenges much of the “American Dream.” This is the topic of her book The Myth of the American […] The post D.L. Mayfield on How Christianity Challenges the American Dream appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
In this installment of our Being a Christian in the USA series, we talk with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove about reclaiming a Christian faith that is public and political, without being subject to the partisan ideologies of the American political binary, which is the subject of his most recent book Revolution of Values: Reclaiming Public Faith for […] The post Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove on Reclaiming a Public Christian Faith appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Today we start a new series called Being a Christian in the USA: Pitfalls and Possibilities. In this introductory episode, we discuss how it’s become more complicated than ever to follow Jesus as an American, and our conviction that taking Jesus seriously doesn’t mean finding a “midway point” on the left/right political spectrum as it […] The post New Series – Being a Christian in the USA: Pitfalls and Possibilities appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
In our efforts to be a people of justice, how do we go beyond merely posting rants on social media? Mae Cannon helps us see how to move beyond #hashtag activism and become people of holistic, biblical justice. Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon is the executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace. She is […] The post Moving Beyond Hashtag Activism with Mae Elise Cannon appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Dr. Heather Davediuk Gingrich talks with us about how trauma works, how it affects our bodies, and how it presents unique challenges for pastors seeking to help people grow in discipleship. Her book Restoring the Shattered Self: A Christian Counselor’s Guide to Complex Trauma provides an overview of the symptoms and struggles that traumatized people […] The post How to Disciple People With Trauma with Heather Davediuk Gingrich appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
In the midst of increasing political polarization and antagonism, gentleness doesn’t seem like a good tool to “get the job done,” but pastor and author Scott Sauls begs to differ. As does Jesus, of course, and the whole biblical witness, which is what Scott’s recent book is all about: A Gentle Answer: Our ‘Secret Weapon’ […] The post How Gentleness Overcomes Antagonism with Scott Sauls appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Because of the pandemic, we’ve been dealing with more digital technology than before in an effort to stay connected to each other. But we’re also discovering that digital technology only goes so far. Pastor and author Jay Kim wrote about the limitation of digital technology before the pandemic hit, and we talk with him about […] The post How Digital Technology is Deforming the Church with Jay Kim appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We finish our series on spiritual formation with a bonus episode this week that also hearkens back to our Desert Stories series. David Funk, a pastor in Canada, shares with us the story of the death of his two young children, and the faith crisis that ensued in the aftermath. The painting David talks about […] The post Suffering as the Way of the Cross: A Desert Story with David Funk appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series on spiritual formation by talking with K.J. Ramsey about how to find grace and transformation in the midst of suffering that won’t go away. K.J. is a therapist and the author of This Too Shall Last: Finding Grace When Suffering Lingers, . You can find out more about K.J. and her […] The post Finding Grace When Suffering Lingers with K.J. Ramsey appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series on spiritual formation by talking with Jim Wilder about how to cultivate a community of transformation by developing loving attachment to God together. Jim is the author of Renovated: God, Dallas Willard, and the Church That Transforms, and the founder and chief “neurotheologian” of Life Model Works, an organization that links […] The post Transformation By Loving Attachment to God with Jim Wilder appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Continuing our series on spiritual formation, and we talked with Fr. Albert Haase on becoming an “ordinary mystic”. Fr. Albert (pronouced “Al-bear”) is a Franciscan priest and author of Becoming an Ordinary Mystic: Spirituality For the Rest of Us. He is the chaplain at Cedarbrake Catholic Retreat Center in Temple, Texas, and leads virtual “at-home” […] The post Becoming an Ordinary Mystic with Fr. Albert Haase appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We are starting a new series on spiritual formation, and we kick it off by talking with Gem and Alan Fadling on what it looks like to meet God in your actual everyday life. The Fadlings are spiritual directors and run a ministry called Unhurried Living. We talked with them about their recent book What […] The post Meeting God in Your Actual Life with Gem and Alan Fadling appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Matt and Ben interview Dr. Amy Brown Hughes on how Christian women influenced the shape of the church in its formative centuries. Women were preachers and philosophers, martyrs and empresses, virgins and mothers, faced wild beasts in the arena, and governed the Roman empire itself. Dr. Hughes helps us see the massive role women played […] The post Amy Brown Hughes on Amazing Ancient Christian Women appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Matt and Ben discuss the complexities of navigating social media as a leader. Quite a few issues are presented, many questions are asked, and only a few provisional conclusions are reached. It could all change at any moment, kind of like social media. Become a patron Gravity Leadership is a community of leaders who […] The post Navigating Social Media as a Leader appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Pastor, author, and spiritual director Jared Boyd joins us for this final episode of our mini-series on parenting. Jared wrote a remarkable book called Imaginative Prayer: A Yearlong Guide for Your Child’s Spiritual Formation that’s part catechism, part imaginative prayer exercises, part spiritual direction! Links from this episode Our Parenting in Grace and Truth Workshop […] The post Leading Kids in Imaginative Prayer with Jared Boyd appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Dr. Beth Felker Jones joins us in the final podcast in our mini-series on the coronavirus pandemic (remember that’s still happening?). We discuss why so many of us are finding it difficult to pray right now, and Beth talks about her own experience of praying in this time, which led to her collecting prayers in […] The post How to Pray During a Pandemic With Beth Felker Jones appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Mark and Lisa Scandrette join us in our podcast series on parenting to discuss what they’ve learned about creating a thriving family culture of “belonging and becoming” (which sounds a lot like “grace and truth” which is probably why we resonate so much with them!). The Scandrettes are great because they share more than just […] The post Creating a Thriving Family Culture with Mark and Lisa Scandrette appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
N.T. Wright (!!) joins us for our mini-series on the coronavirus pandemic to talk about his new book God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and Its Aftermath. We had a lively and illuminating conversation about the Christian response to the pandemic, as well as the recent protests against police brutality and […] The post N.T. Wright on the Christian Response to the Pandemic (and Racism) appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Lacy Finn Borgo joins us in our series on parenting to talk about how to have spiritual conversations with children. Often we as parents are scared to try and have spiritual conversations with our kids, but Lacy shows us how. Lacy teaches and provides spiritual direction for the Renovaré Institute as well as the Doctor […] The post How to Have Spiritual Conversations With Children with Lacy Finn Borgo appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Keirsh Cochran is a cop, and a Christian, and is the youngest active police chief in the country. Keirsh has been seeking to reform the way policing is done since he became a police officer, and he joins us to give us his perspective as a Christian (and a cop) on police brutality, the protests, […] The post A Cop’s Perspective on Police Brutality and the Protests appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We are starting an extra mini-series this month focused on the church’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. In this first episode we interview Mike Frost on what the pandemic is revealing about us. Mike teaches at Morling College in Sydney, Australia. He is an internationally recognized missiologist and one of the leading voices in the […] The post Mike Frost on What the Pandemic is Revealing About Us appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
This is the second episode in our series on parenting, and it’s all about the pitfalls and potential of youth ministry. We talk with Andrew Root, Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary, and author of The End of Youth Ministry: Why Parents Don’t Really Care About Youth Groups and What Youth Workers […] The post The End of Youth Ministry with Andrew Root appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We are starting a new series today on parenting. You don’t have to be a parent to benefit from this series, either. There are a lot of connections and parallels between leadership in general and parenting in particular that we are confident there will be good insights for everyone in this series. To kick things off, […] The post How to Make Faith Matter For Our Kids with Natalie Frisk appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
So often the reason that nonviolence doesn’t feel like a viable option for Christians is that we simply have never seen what nonviolent action looks like, and because of this lack of imagination, nonviolence seems unrealistic or naïve. That’s why we were excited to talk with Ron Sider about his book Nonviolent Action: What Christian Ethics […] The post Cultivating an Imagination for Nonviolent Action with Ron Sider appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
What does it actually look like to walk in the way of the Christlike God? To become human as God is human? Author and patristic scholar Brad Jersak walks us through the 7 elements of the “more beautiful way” that results from believing the “more beautiful gospel” that God is just like Jesus. Links from […] The post Brad Jersak on Learning to Become Human Like Jesus appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our Desert Stories series, interviewing John Stallsmith, pastor of Grace Snellville, part of the Grace Family of Churches in the Atlanta area. Part of John’s story is how he needed to confront his own brokenness in the midst of walking through a season of difficulty and loss. Links from this episode The Enneagram […] The post Facing Your Own Brokenness: A Desert Story With John Stallsmith appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Many states are talking about “opening up” and churches are confronted with the question of WHEN and HOW to start gathering again. On Wednesday, May 6, 2020, we gathered a few pastors from the Gravity community on Facebook Live for a discussion focusing on the following questions: When and how are you planning to gather? […] The post Reopening Church? A Pastors Panel appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our Desert Stories series, interviewing Angie Ward, author, teacher, learner, and thinker. Angie recently wrote I Am A Leader: When Women Discover the Joy of Their Calling, and we talked with her about the journey of discovering her calling to lead as a woman. Links from this episode The Enneagram and Stress: Transformation […] The post Leading As a Woman: A Desert Story with Angie Ward appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our Desert Stories series, interviewing Jason Raitz, pastor of Thrive Church in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, about the pressures of church planting, depression, and almost burning down Bill Hybels’ house (yes you read that right). Links from this episode The Enneagram and Stress: Transformation Through Crisis, an online workshop May 9, 2020 Parenting in […] The post Depression and Church Planting: A Desert Story with Jason Raitz appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our Desert Stories series by interviewing Dan Deeble, founder of Lost Ball Consulting, and former lead and teaching pastor of Heartland Community Church in the Kansas City area. Links from this episode The Enneagram and Stress: Transformation Through Crisis, an online workshop May 9, 2020 Parenting in a Pandemic: Grace and Truth in […] The post Fasting From Preaching: A Desert Story With Dan Deeble appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
The devastation and suffering brought on by the coronavirus pandemic has raised a perennial question: “Where is God in the midst of all this?” We interviewed Geoff Holsclaw and Michael Gonzalez, who have both recently written helpfully on this subject. We tackle some of the “go to” phrases we often reach for (like “God is […] The post Where is God in the Coronavirus Pandemic? appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We start a new series today called Desert Stories, focusing on how God works in our lives through “wilderness” seasons; times of suffering and struggle, times of grief and loss. In this first episode, Ben, Matt, and Ben share some of their own desert stories to kick off the series. Links from this episode Our […] The post Desert Stories: A New Series on How God Shapes Us in Suffering appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We’re a few weeks into the coronavirus pandemic. What is happening now and what are we learning? On Thursday, April 2, 2020, we gathered a few pastors for a COVID-19 / Coronavirus Panel focusing on the following questions: How are you handling care structures? What are you doing for Easter? How are you talking about […] The post Coronavirus a Few Weeks In: Now What? (Pastors Panel) appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
The practice of contemplation is sometimes viewed with suspicion by Christians, but in this interview Kyle Strobel shows us how it is firmly rooted in Scripture and Christian tradition. It’s also a profoundly helpful and powerful practice for spiritual formation. Kyle is a teacher, writer and preacher. He is the associate professor of Spiritual Theology […] The post Reclaiming Contemplation as a Christian Practice with Kyle Strobel appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Certified Non-coronavirus Content! Ben and Matt respond to a listener question, who wonders: “If God really does care about it more than we do, then I don’t need to control outcomes or manage results. But if that’s true, how can I cast vision and do strategic planning?” Links from this episode Check out (and join!) […] The post How to Plan Strategically Without Trying to Control Outcomes appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Another quick episode (that we broadcast live as a webinar) about what we’re learning about leading in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. This time it’s about the the oft-used phrase in times like these: “God is in control.” Become a patron Gravity Leadership is a community of leaders who are learning to lead like […] The post Comfort During Coronavirus: God is in Control? appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Another quick episode (that we broadcast live as a webinar) about what we’re learning about leading in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. This time it’s about the disorientation many of us feel as leaders. Become a patron Gravity Leadership is a community of leaders who are learning to lead like Jesus, live on mission, […] The post Leadership Disorientation in the Coronavirus Pandemic appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Another quick episode (that we broadcast live as a webinar) about how to be the church in the time of coronavirus: what we’re learning as pastors real time! Become a patron Gravity Leadership is a community of leaders who are learning to lead like Jesus, live on mission, and make disciples in the post-Christendom world. […] The post Being the Church in the Time of Coronavirus: Imagination and Possibility appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series on walking through deconstruction without losing your faith, interviewing Dr. Dennis Edwards about learning to read and understand Scripture after you've deconstructed a naïve, "magical" picture of the Bible. Dennis holds an M.Div. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and has done post-graduate studies in Theology at Fordham University. He holds a […] The post What Even IS the Bible, Anyway? with Dennis Edwards appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
A conversation for Christian leaders about what we’re (real time!) learning about how to lead faithfully in the midst of the global coronavirus/COVID pandemic. Links from the podcast Sign up for our weekly curated links Andy Crouch’s excellent guide for Christian leaders: Love in the Time of Coronavirus Lyman Stone’s guide for how to meet […] The post Leading in the Midst of the Coronavirus Pandemic appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series on walking through deconstruction without losing our faith by deconstructing the “love” depicted in Shel Silverstein’s popular book The Giving Tree. Is this what the love of God revealed in Christ is like? Or does our definition of love need to be deconstructed? Links from the podcast Sign up for a […] The post Deconstructing the “Love” of the Giving Tree in the Light of Christ appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series on how to walk through deconstruction without losing your faith by interviewing Preston Sprinkle on sexuality, gender, and the missional task of the church to navigate our increasingly complicated cultural landscape. Preston Sprinkle is a biblical scholar, international speaker and best selling author. He is the founder of The Center For […] The post Preston Sprinkle on Deconstructing Gender for the Sake of Mission appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Tai French joins Ben and Matt in this episode to share about a journey of deconstruction in leaving a church and making a home. What we think we are searching for often doesn’t show up in the way we think it will. God knows our desires, he sees and hear us and makes a way […] The post Leaving a Church and Making a Home with Tai French appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
The only way to grow is to fail, so let’s talk about fasting! In this episode Ben and Matt share some concepts around fasting for Lent, which starts on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 26th this year. Could it be that we need to put ourselves in the way of weakness and need so we can meet […] The post Why and How to Fast For Lent appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
In this episode, Matt and Ben respond t0 and reflect on a question submitted by a listener about how to help children understand the “allegiance gospel” we’ve talked about on the podcast before. We used to have the “Romans Road,” but are their tools for explaining a bigger gospel to kids? A few links from […] The post How to Teach Kids the Kingdom Gospel appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
If your view of the atonement and the gospel is being deconstructed, this episode is for you. We continue our series on how to walk through deconstruction without losing your faith, interviewing Mako Nagasawa (again!) to help us reconstruct atonement and the gospel on firmer ground. Mako is the founder and executive director of The […] The post Deconstructing and Reconstructing the Atonement with Mako Nagasawa appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We’ve gotten all kinds of feedback from our new series on walking through deconstruction without losing your faith. Most of it has been very positive, but a little bit of push-back, too. In this (bonus) episode, we take some time to reflect on why these kinds of conversations are so difficult to have. Become a […] The post Why is it So Hard to Talk About Deconstruction appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series on how to walk through deconstruction without losing your faith by talking with our friends Dave and Beth Booram about the relationship between deconstruction and spiritual direction. The Boorams operate Fall Creek Abbey, a retreat house and spiritual direction training ministry in Indianapolis. Their website is full of resources, blog posts […] The post Spiritual Direction and Deconstruction with Dave and Beth Booram appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series on How to Walk Through Deconstruction Without Losing Your Faith, talking with Brian Zahnd about deconstructing four big topics in the church nowadays: the Bible, Hell, Politics and Sexuality. Brian is the founder and lead pastor of Word of Life Church, a non-denominational Christian congregation in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Brian and […] The post Brian Zahnd on Deconstructing the Bible, Hell, Politics, and Sexuality appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series on How to Walk Through Deconstruction Without Losing Your Faith, talking with Brandon O’Brien about deconstructing how we read Scripture. Brandon is the Director of Content Development and Distribution for Redeemer City to City, an organization that supports church planting in global cities. A few links from today’s episode: Get the […] The post Deconstructing How We Read Scripture with Brandon O’Brien appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series on how to walk through deconstruction without losing your faith. Today we talk with pastors Geoff and Cyd Holsclaw about how to navigate the painful and disorienting experience of deconstruction. A few links from today’s episode: Enneagram Transformation Workshop | Carmel, IN | Jan 24-25 Parenting in Grace and Truth Workshop […] The post Navigating Deconstruction with Geoff and Cyd Holsclaw appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We are starting a new series on how to walk through deconstruction without losing your faith. Many people are asking questions about long-held assumptions in the faith they inherited, and it’s easy to assume that this means we are “losing” our faith. But there’s another way to walk through deconstruction: one that tenaciously holds onto […] The post Skye Jethani on Reconstructing Faith After Deconstruction appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
For our final episodes of the year, we are reflecting on and re-publishing 3 of our favorite interviews from our archive of 90+ episodes (!!). Today’s “redux” is Episode 59 (April 2019), an interview with Mako Nagasawa on the history of racism and how it’s all about power (not just bias or prejudice). Mako founded […] The post Redux: Mako Nagasawa on How Power Works in Racism appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
For our final episodes of the year, we are reflecting on and re-publishing 3 of our favorite interviews from our archive of 90+ episodes (!!). Today’s “redux” is Episode 19 (July 2018), an interview with Mandy Smith on vulnerability in leadership. Mandy wrote a book called The Vulnerable Pastor: How Human Limitations Empower Our Ministry, […] The post Redux: Mandy Smith on Leading in Vulnerability appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
For our final episodes of the year, we are reflecting on and re-publishing 3 of our favorite interviews from our archive of 90+ episodes (!!). Today’s “redux” is Episode 35 back in October of 2018, an interview with Brad Jersak where we explore whether we can trust that God is love 100% of the time. […] The post Redux: Brad Jersak on Learning to Trust That God is Love appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We answer a listener question who, after hearing us talk about “grace and truth,” wonders if there is room for “tough love” or advocating for victims of abuse or injustice in it. We talk practically and theologically about how the love of Jesus gets worked out in real-life situations, and why our imaginations for love […] The post Is There Room For “Tough Love” in Grace and Truth? appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We are in the midst of a mini-series on the Enneagram and how it can be helpful for spiritual formation and discipleship. Today we talk today with professor and counselor Chuck DeGroat on the ways that narcissism shows up for each Enneagram type. We typically think of narcissism manifesting itself as big, loud, overtly arrogant, […] The post Chuck DeGroat on How Narcissism Shows Up For Each Enneagram Type appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
In the midst of a mini-series on the Enneagram, today we talk with pastor and author AJ Sherrill, who leads workshops and has written on the Enneagram. The post The Enneagram and Spiritual Practices with AJ Sherrill appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
The Enneagram has become quite popular recently in Christian circles. Some people think it’s the best thing ever, and others have expressed concerns about its origins and the supposed dangers of using it. In this episode, we talk about how the Enneagram has been helpful for us in our own spiritual formation. We’ve found the […] The post How the Enneagram Can Catalyze Spiritual Formation appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
For Christian leaders, the gospel is kind of a big deal. But most of us have it wrong. Matthew Bates helps us see what the gospel is, and why it matters. The post Matthew Bates on How We Get the Gospel Wrong appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
One of our foundational axioms is that God is Always Present and At Work. If you believe this and act as if it’s true, you have a sacramental worldview, whether you’d call it that or not. Pastor and author Glenn Packiam joins us on the podcast today to talk about why this kind of sacramental […] The post Why a Sacramental Worldview Matters with Glenn Packiam appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Is nonviolence an integral part of following Jesus? Or can Christians keep violence in their “back pocket” as a last resort? Ron Sider has a very compelling argument about why Christians need to leave violence behind and learn to practice active nonviolence. (And he has some great answers to all the normal objections to nonviolence.) […] The post Stoking an Imagination For Nonviolence with Ron Sider appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
As a woman of color, Kathy Khang learned to find her voice and speak up, even in the midst of difficult circumstances and toxic leadership. Kathy Khang is a writer, speaker, and yoga teacher. She spent more than 20 years in parachurch ministry working with college students and training organizational and church leaders. Before that she was […] The post Finding Your Voice, Daring to Speak with Kathy Khang appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Discipleship should be simple, but often we manage to over-complicate it. Derek Vreeland helps us keep discipleship simple, practical, and transformative. The post Keeping Discipleship Simple with Derek Vreeland appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
In this BONUS episode, we interview Sylvia Keesmaat and Brian Walsh, who have written an “uncommentary” on the book of Romans, and live in community on a sustainable farm in Canada. A fun conversation about how our social locations affect how we read Scripture. Links from this episode: Pick up their book: Romans Disarmed: Resisting […] The post Resisting Empire with Sylvia Keesmaat and Brian Walsh appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We often want our ministries to move fast and grow quickly, but José Humphreys would rather see a leaders learn how to show up, be present, and stay put. The post José Humphreys on Leading By Showing Up and Staying Put appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Absolutely every leader experiences anxiety. It's not a question of how to get rid of leadership anxiety, but recognizing and managing leadership anxiety. The post Managing Leadership Anxiety with Steve Cuss appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We don't often think about spiritual formation in terms of curiosity and memory, but we should, according to Casey Tygrett. This was a fun podcast episode! The post Curiosity and Memory in Spiritual Formation with Casey Tygrett appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
In today's highly charged social and political environment, we often don't know how to talk well with other people-especially with people whose backgrounds differ from our own. In this episode we talk with writer, editor, and community developer Chris Smith about: why conversation has become such a challenge in the 21st century, why conversation is […] The post How to Have Hard Conversations in Church with Chris Smith appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We talk with pastor and author Chris Nye about our addiction to accumulation, how it harms our souls, and how to pursue true spiritual abundance instead. The post Questioning our Addiction to Accumulation with Chris Nye appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
In this episode, we talk with Dan and Amanda Sadlier about the unique challenges and opportunities of planting a church and doing ministry in New York City (with 6 kids!). Dan and Amanda share some their story, what they’ve learned and experienced, and what it’s like to live in a church planting culture. The Sadliers […] The post Church Planting in New York City with Dan and Amanda Sadlier appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We talk about our new Membership Community on Patreon in this episode! (We also tell a few dad jokes.) Lots of our podcast listeners and coaching clients have been asking us about ways to stay connected to the Gravity Leadership Community and participate more deeply in the ongoing learning we’re all engaged in as we […] The post A New Way to Connect and Partner with Gravity Leadership appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Have you ever wondered how “mindfulness” intersects with historic Christian faith and living? Many people shun the practices of mindfulness for fear of being led astray from their faith. Turns out, though, that this fear is completely unfounded. Mindfulness merges quite well with the history of Christian faith and spiritual formation. This week we chat […] The post Mindfulness and Christian Faith with Charles Stone appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
So far in our power series, we’ve focused on power abuse in institutional or church settings, but some of the most damaging power abuse show up in our most intimate relationships, and more often than you might imagine. In this episode we interview Jaclyn Houston-Kolnik, who is a community psychologist with over eight years of experience […] The post Power Abuse in Intimate Relationships w Jaclyn Houston-Kolnik appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Going on a short-term mission trip used to be an unquestioned “good thing to do” with your summer vacation, but we are now realizing that some kinds of short-term mission trips do more harm than good. So do short-term mission trips make sense any more? Is there a different theological framework we can use to […] The post Rethinking Short-term Mission Trips with Rob Haynes appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Matthew Bates joins Matt and Ben in this episode to talk about what it means that we’re saved by allegiance alone. What we often think of as “the gospel” isn’t really the gospel, it’s just a reconfiguration of salvation-related facts (“justification by faith,” for example). What is the actual gospel? Bates suggests it’s 1) Jesus’ […] The post Salvation By Allegiance Alone with Matthew Bates appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Is it true that you are either confident or humble, that the two are opposite of each other? Or is it possible to be both confident AND humble? In this episode Matt talks with Dan Kent, author, editor, speaker whose new book Confident Humility: Becoming Your Full Self Without Becoming Full of Yourself was just released. Dan was […] The post Can Confidence and Humility Go Together? (With Dan Kent) appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Why is changing a culture so &!%*# hard? It’s one of the most important elements of transformational leadership, but it so rarely happens! In this episode, we use our own experiences as pastors and coaches to discuss 3 reasons why changing a culture is so difficult, and what we can do to give ourselves the best […] The post Why Culture Change is So Dang Difficult appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series on Power in the Church by interviewing pastor and author Dan White Jr about what it looks like practically to really love our enemies. Imagine that, in today’s relational and political climate! Dan co-planted Axiom Church in Syracuse, New York with a commitment to tight-knit community, locally-rooted presence, and life-forming discipleship. He recently wrote […] The post How to Actually Love Your Enemies with Dan White appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our Power in the Church series with an interview with a white police officer who is intentionally working for racial justice. Keirsh Cochran actually became a police officer to work for racial justice after he saw the unrest in Ferguson after the death of Michael Brown and realized that not everyone sees cops as […] The post How a White Police Officer is Working For Racial Justice appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
How important is it to talk about power dynamics when talking about the gospel and discipleship? Are power dynamics vital to this conversation or are they more peripheral? We continue our series on Power in the Church hosting a discussion with with Glenn Packiam and Seth Richardson, who both recently wrote articles on power dynamics, from different […] The post Power Dynamics and the Gospel with Glenn Packiam & Seth Richardson appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
What does it look like for leaders to embody power in the same way Jesus does? We continue our series on Power in the Church by talking with Rich Villodas, pastor of New Life Fellowship in Queens. We talk with Rich about what it looks like to embody cruciform power in the way of Jesus, and […] The post Rich Villodas on Cruciform Power and the Contemplative Life appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Why do we seem to be attracted to narcissistic leaders? Even with all the writing lately about how harmful narcissistic leaders are to organizations, we don’t seem to be able to shake their allure. More disturbingly, would we know how to detect narcissism within ourselves? We continue our series on Power in the Church by […] The post Chuck DeGroat on Why We Love Narcissistic Leaders appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our ongoing series on Power in the Church, interviewing Timothy Isaiah Cho about what he’s learning about healing from spiritual abuse. We talk about how to know if you’re experiencing spiritual abuse, five signs of spiritual abuse, and some of the harmful ways spiritual abuse affects our ability to trust God in the long […] The post Healing From Spiritual Abuse with Timothy Isaiah Cho appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
What does it actually look like to empower others like Jesus did? How can we practice cruciform leadership? We continue our series on Power in the Church, interviewing Greg Boyd, a theologian, pastor, and author of several books which you can check out here. You can also follow him on Twitter. In this episode, we […] The post Greg Boyd on Practicing Cruciform Leadership appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series on Power in the Church, interviewing Brian Zahnd on how easy it is to succumb to the power of empire, and how to subvert it instead. The post Brian Zahnd on Subverting the Power of Empire appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
What’s the goal of justice? To punish the offender as payment for wrongdoing or to restore the offender to community? We continue our series on power by talking with Dominique DuBois Gilliard about how our anemic vision of justice has created a very broken incarceration system in the United States. Dominique helps us see that even […] The post Rethinking Incarceration with Dominique DuBois Gilliard appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series on power and in this episode we have a fascinating conversation Keith Giles about his experience in breaking cultural power norms by using a house church model that allows people to “bring what they have” and challenges the normal “person in charge” mentality. Keith Giles is a former pastor who left […] The post How Power Distorts the Body of Christ With Keith Giles appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
What is mutual submission? How does it actually work? And how can it be practiced to subvert the worldly power games we keep getting sucked into in the church? We continue our discussion of POWER in the church, and our guest is David Fitch, a pastor at Peace of Christ Church in Westmont, Illinois, and a […] The post David Fitch on How Mutual Submission Subverts Coercive Power appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series on how we get POWER wrong in the church by interviewing Mako Nagasawa about how racism is completely rooted in power (not just prejudice). Mako founded New Humanity Institute, and his experience as a teacher and trainer in Christian restorative justice and healing atonement theology brings a fresh perspective and a deep knowledge […] The post It’s All About Power: Mako Nagasawa on Racism, Past and Present appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
How does our conception of power affect the way we perceive and practice justice? We continue our series on power by talking with author and activist Adam Gustine about power, identity, bias, perspective, wokeness, justice, and all kinds of other stuff! Adam leads CovEnterprises, a social enterprise intitative of Love Mercy, Do Justice, for the […] The post How Power Subverts Our Justice Efforts with Adam Gustine appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We continue our series on power by talking with author and pastor Nate Pyle about how our inherited misconceptions about power distort our vision of masculinity. Our vision of masculinity is wrapped up in loads of inherited misconceptions about power, and in this episode we talk with about it. Much of what the evangelical church has […] The post How Power Distorts Our Vision of Masculinity with Nate Pyle appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
What is the difference between “worldly power” and the power of God? Matt and Ben talk with Thomas Horrocks from the Sinnergists Podcast about how power corrupts our ability to lead like Jesus when we don’t lead from a place of servanthood. We talk about cults, the military, pacifism, the idolatry of “effectiveness”, and a whole bunch […] The post How Power Corrupts our Leadership with Thomas Horrocks appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Most of us think of power as control. The ability to “make things happen”. Then we project this onto God, thinking he is the most able to “make things happen”. But what if God’s power was more characterized by love than control? Is love powerful? This is Part 2 of our series on power in […] The post How We Get Power Wrong: Control Vs Love appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Abuse of power in the church has been exposed more in the last few years that ever before, but what does this have to do with us “normal” leaders who haven’t abused power egregiously like the leaders we see in the news? On our 1-year podcast anniversary, we start a new series on power in the […] The post Power in the Church, Pt 1: We Have a Problem With Power appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Many of us associate Lent with eating fish on Fridays… but what is Lent? And why would someone want to practice it, especially if it isn’t part of your tradition? In this episode, Ben and Matt chat with Aaron Damiani, who wrote a book on why and how to practice Lent: The Good of Giving Up: […] The post Why and How to Practice Lent with Aaron Damiani appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
What’s the difference between self-care and self-indulgence? How can you tell if you’re practicing healthy rest or unhealthy indulgence? In this episode, Ben, Matt and Ben discuss this issue based on some of their recent personal kairos moments. Is there such a thing as healthy ambition? Do we make our resting into “work?” Ben H. also […] The post 052 – Self-care or Self-indulgence? How to Tell the Difference appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
In this episode Ben, Matt and Ben answer a recent email that questions the balance between managing and micromanaging. Some of the topics we cover are: self-leadership comes before leading others paying attention to our own anxiety in the midst of leading how to invite change in others (parenting tip!) how do we leverage everything […] The post 051 – Practicing Directive Leadership Without Micromanaging appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
In this episode Ben and Matt talk with Bonnie Kristian about how faith and flexibility go together. We often think of them as opposites, but in fact we need some flexibility for our faith to grow. Topics in this episode: In seasons of disillusionment, how can we let our faith be flexible without losing our faith […] The post 050 – Bonnie Kristian on (Faithfully) Practicing a Flexible Faith appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We interview Hannah Anderson on the (alleged) idolatry of the family. We wanted to talk with her after we saw a Twitter thread she posted awhile back on family idolatry. She is insightful and has an important, nuanced message about this that we got to talk with her about. It was a GREAT conversation. Resources to […] The post 049 – Hannah Anderson on the (Alleged) Idolatry of the Family appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We interview Aaron Niequist about his new book The Eternal Current: How a Practice-Based Faith Can Save Us from Drowning. Links and resources: Pick up Aaron’s new book: The Eternal Current: How a Practice-Based Faith Can Save Us from Drowning Connect with Aaron on Twitter Aaron’s website Gravity Leadership Academy | we’re always starting new cohorts! If […] The post 048 – Aaron Niequist on Embracing a Practice-Based Faith appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We interview Luke Norsworthy about his new book God Over Good: Saving Your Faith By Losing Your Expectations of God. Links and resources: Luke’s podcast: Newsworthy with Norsworthy Connect with Luke on Twitter. Gravity Leadership Academy | we’re always starting new cohorts! If you found this episode of the Gravity Leadership Podcast helpful, please let us […] The post 047 – Luke Norsworthy on Choosing God Over “Good” appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We interview Carlos Rodriguez of Happy Sonship and Happy Givers NPO about the dynamics of following Jesus in an increasingly polarized world, and how his work in Puerto Rico among the poor and marginalized has informed his perspective. It was a really fun, helpful conversation! Links and resources: Connect with Carlos on Twitter. Support Carlos’ work […] The post 046 – Carlos Rodriguez on Following Jesus in a Polarized World appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Chris Moerman is our guest on the podcast today. Chris is the pastor of Grace Capital City in Washington, D.C. We talk specifically about his insight into discipling and leading millennials (a.k.a. young people), and quite a few other things! Links and resources: Grace Capital City We talked about N.T. Wright’s book Simply Christian: Why […] The post 045 – Discipling and Leading Millennials with Chris Moerman appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
A very special Christmas episode, in which we simply proclaim a Christmas sermon from St. Gregory of Nazianzus. And it’s only 6 minutes long. Glory to God in the highest! Links and resources: Who was St. Gregory of Nazianzus? We found the sermon on the Laughing Bird Liturgical Resources site (an awesome resource!) Gravity Leadership […] The post 044 – St. Gregory of Nazianzus on the Glory of Christmas appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
What does the gospel have to do with “social justice?” Despite some recent public statements, it turns out that the gospel has a LOT to do with social justice! Jeff Hancock of International Justice Mission joins us to talk about the connection between the gospel, the church, and justice for the poor. Links and resources: […] The post 043 – What Does the Gospel Have To Do With Justice? appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
“People don’t abandon faith because they have doubts. People abandon faith because they think they’re not allowed to have doubts.” Austin Fischer is a pastor who almost stopped believing in God a few years ago because of his doubts. He documented his journey and his discoveries about doubt in his book Faith in the Shadows: Finding […] The post 042 – Austin Fischer on Finding Christ in the Midst of Doubt appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
When we start believing that Jesus shows us what God is really like, it sets off a theological revolution for most of us. All kinds of old frameworks and scripts have to be jettisoned, and it’s often a scary experience. Chris Green joins us to talk about what this shift has looked like in his life, […] The post 041 – Rediscovering God in the Face of Christ with Chris Green appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Church funding has been declining for 30 years, and most of us have no idea why it’s happening or what to do about it. Josh Schuler of Newfire Giving joins us to talk about the history of funding churches (it’s way different than we thought), the difference between “tithing” and giving, and share some best practices for […] The post 040 – Why the Church is Facing a Funding Crisis appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Jim Lyon is the general director of Church of God Ministries in Anderson, Indiana. We’ve partnered with the Church of God for a couple years now to provide coaching, consulting, and training opportunities to their pastors and churches. We had a great discussion with Jim about leading change without becoming a coercive, manipulative leader. In essence: […] The post 039 – Jim Lyon on Leading Change Without Coercion appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Advent is just around the corner: December 2nd is the first Sunday of Advent. But what is Advent? And why would anyone celebrate it? Is this just some hipster nonsense, or is there something important here to pay attention to? Our friend Shawn McCain joins us for this episode. Shawn is an Anglican priest in Austin, Texas, […] The post 038 – Advent: Why, What, and How with Shawn McCain appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Leading like Jesus means moving from a posture of being an expert and answerer to being a learner and a listener. In this episode, Ben Sternke and Matt Tebbe talk about how a “dust-up” about racism on Matt’s Facebook page reveals some of the essential posture shifts necessary for leading and living like Jesus. Specifically, how […] The post 037 – Leading By Learning and Listening appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
A few days ago we hosted our first ever National Gathering, and we had a few reflections on what we’re learning. We thought we’d share them with you. Links and resources: Gravity Leadership Academy | we’re always starting new cohorts! Gravity Consulting | Bring us out to do a workshop or team consultation If you found […] The post BONUS Episode: Reflections on Our First National Gathering appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
How do you know if it’s time to quit? Pastors and ministry leaders get a lot of advice on how to keep going and persevere through difficult times, but not much advice on how to end a ministry well. When to close a church instead of find a way to keep it running. In this […] The post 036 – Know When To Fold ‘Em: On Closing a Church Plant appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
"God is love" sounds nice, but is it really, 100%, all the time true?? Or does God "balance" his love with wrath? In this episode, we interview Brad Jersak about the unique experiential way he learned to trust that God really is love, and that his love has the power to forgive and redeem the worst of […] The post 035 – Brad Jersak on Learning to Trust that God is Love appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Aaron Keyes is a songwriter, worship pastor, and founder of Ten Thousand Fathers Worship School. In this episode, we interview Aaron about the difference between a song leader and a worship pastor, what’s broken about worship in the church, and how investing your whole life in others is really the only way to make disciples in the […] The post 034 – Aaron Keyes on Investing Your Whole Life in Others appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
The 9th and final part of our series on what we’re learning about women and men leading together in the church. We ask Becky Dunn and Deb Sternke to comprise a roundtable with us to recap and reflect on the series together, sharing what we’re learning as we’ve participated in the podcast series. Becky and […] The post 033 – Women & Men Leading Together, Pt 9: Learning As We Go appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Part 8 of our series on what we’re learning about women and men leading together in the church. We interview Amber Haines and Seth Richardson again (we interviewed them for Part 3, too), who work together at Christ the King Anglican Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Amber and Seth share with us a new theological model they’ve […] The post 032 – Women & Men Leading Together, Pt 8: A New Model appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Part 7 of our series on what we’re learning about women and men leading together in the church. We interview Geoff and Cyd Holsclaw, who recently moved to Grand Rapids to serve as Pastors of Family and Youth at Vineyard North after spending 15 years serving at Life on the Vine Christian Community in Chicagoland. […] The post 031 – Women & Men Leading Together, Pt 7: Geoff & Cyd appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Part 6 of our series on what we’re learning about women and men leading together in the church. We interview Derek Radney, a friend of ours and a Presbyterian pastor in North Carolina who sees things a little differently from us on this issue, but we had a generous and generative conversation about what we’re […] The post 030 – Women & Men Leading Together, Pt 6: Derek Radney appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Part 5 of our series on what we’re learning about women and men leading together in the church. We take a break from our interviews to zoom out just a bit and talk about why we’re talking about this “issue” in the first place. For us, it’s not an minor theological quibble, it’s a front-and-center issue […] The post 029 – Women & Men Leading Together, Pt 5: 3 Reasons Why appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Part 4 of our series on women and men leading together in the church. We interview married Anglican priests Emily and Ron McGowin on how they lead together. The post 028 – Women & Men Leading Together, Pt 4: Emily and Ron appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Part 3 of our series on what we're learning about women and men leading together in the church. We interview Amber and Seth, who work together in a church. The post 027 – Women & Men Leading Together, Pt 3: Amber and Seth appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Part 2 of our series on women and men leading together in the church, where we explore in more depth the related Scriptures and our interpretation of them. The post 026 – Women & Men Leading Together, Pt 2: Scripture appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We start a new series on what we're learning about women and men leading together, sharing some of our journeys into where they're at today. The post 025 – Women & Men Leading Together, Pt 1: Our Stories appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We respond to a listener question about the difference between discipling and developing others in their unique gifting and calling and just trying to clone yourself to get more work done. We talk about the need to be aware of how we are uniquely wired, and also how those we are investing in are uniquely […] The post 024 – Disciple and Develop People, Don’t Clone Yourself appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
This week Gravity Leadership co-founders Ben Hardman, Matt Tebbe, and Ben Sternke check-in on what’s going on their local church ministries, and end up discussing a common tension in ministry: continuing to invest in a culture of development while feeling the demands of a growing church. We talk about the the typical solutions most of us […] The post 023 – Creating a Culture of Development, Not Excellence appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
This week we talk with Douglas Tappin, a playwright, composer, lyricist, librettist, and dramatist living in Marietta, Georgia who attends Ben Hardman’s church. We talk with Douglas about discovering what God is doing in your life by paying attention to your life as you go (not getting a big vision all at once). Douglas went from […] The post 022 – Paying Attention to Your Life (with Douglas Tappin) appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
This week we talk with Adam Gustine, Director of Ministry Initiatives for Love Mercy, Do Justice, an initiative of the Evangelical Covenant Church, whose mission it is to "Join God in making things right in our broken world." Adam is also a good friend. We talk about white privilege, power dynamics, and some of the pitfalls […] The post 021 – White Privilege, Power, and Justice with Adam Gustine appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
This week we talk with Becky Dunn (a member of Matt and Ben’s local church) about meeting God in our doubts and dark places. We talk about not only how to personally meet God in dark times, but how to create a church culture where people feel safe to meet God in the midst of […] The post 020 – Meeting God in Our Doubts and Dark Places appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
This week we talk with Mandy Smith about vulnerability in leadership. Mandy wrote a book called The Vulnerable Pastor: How Human Limitations Empower Our Ministry, and a big part of her journey as a leader has been learning to lead from a place of vulnerability. This episode was a bit longer than we normally go, […] The post 019 – Mandy Smith on Leading in Vulnerability appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
This week we talk with Tara Beth Leach about her book Emboldened: A Vision for Empowering Women in Ministry. Tara Beth is the senior pastor of First Church of the Nazarene of Pasadena (affectionately known as “PazNaz“). She shares with us some of the challenges of being a woman in leadership, and how to create a […] The post 018 – Tara Beth Leach on Empowering Women For Leadership appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
This week we talk with David Fitch about his book Seven Practices for the Church on Mission. The post 017 – David Fitch on 7 Practices For the Church On Mission appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Cofounders Ben Sternke, Matt Tebbe, and Ben Hardman talk about navigating exhaustion and conflict in ministry, responding to a listener email. The post 016 – Navigating Exhaustion and Conflict in Ministry appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Ben Sternke, Ben Hardman, and Justin Wallace share stories about navigating theological disorientation and reorientation while leading in ministry. The post 015 – Navigating Disorientation and Reorientation in Ministry appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Brian Zahnd joins us to talk about how to go through theological paradigm shifts without shipwrecking your life or burning down your church. The post 014 – Brian Zahnd on Going Through Theological Paradigm Shifts appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
In this second part to our recap of our initial podcast series on our 7 missional theology axioms, we talk about the specific “Christendom assumptions” that the axioms confront. The work these axioms do is to untangle us from the Christendom assumptions that trip us up in ministry without us even realizing it. Here are the […] The post 013 – Confronting Our Christendom Assumptions appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We recap our 7 missional theology axioms and talk about why we have them in the first place. Why are they important? What do they accomplish for us? The post 012 – Why Even Have These Missional Theology Axioms? appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We added a 7th missional theology axiom because that’s what we do: change things as we go. It has to do with how we learn and grow. If the goal of our discipleship is divine union in love, the way we grow into love isn’t by getting more information about it, but by directly participating […] The post Episode 11 – We Learn Love Through Embodied Participation appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Part 2 of our sixth missional theology axiom, which is that the goal of our discipleship is not moral perfection or cognitive certitude. The goal of discipleship is divine union. In this episode, we talk specifically about this axiom affects not just our personal discipleship, but our entire leadership philosophy and practice, including the discipleship […] The post Episode 10: The Goal of Discipleship Is Divine Union (Part 2) appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Our sixth missional theology axiom is that the goal of our discipleship is not moral perfection or cognitive certitude. The goal of discipleship is divine union. Airtight theological systems nor perfect behavior are the goal of our salvation. Salvation is being invited to participate in the life of the Trinity, and thus our growth in […] The post Episode 9: The Goal of Discipleship is Divine Union (Part 1) appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Brian Zahnd is our guest on this episode. He’s is the founder and lead pastor of Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri, author of several books, and has started leading “Prayer Schools” across the world. We are hosting two Prayer Schools with Brian Zahnd this year (Atlanta and New York), and on this episode […] The post Episode 8: Brian Zahnd on Learning to Pray appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
What do you do when you realize you’re a better preacher than you are a person? That’s the story that starts this podcast on our 5th missional theology axiom: Whatever God does through you he always also does in you. As leaders, we are always full participants in any transformation we help to bring about. We don’t […] The post Episode 7: What God Does Through You He Also Does In You appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
In this episode, we look back on the 4 missional theology axioms we’ve covered so far. We do some review and some riffing, offering a few extra thoughts about how they work and why they’re important for living a truly integrated missional life. We surf from trinitarian theology, to yelling at our kids, to how we’re […] The post Episode 6: Reviewing and Riffing on Missional Theology Axioms appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
God cares more your discipleship and growth than you do. In this podcast, we talk about why trusting the truth this axiom is so vital for our discipleship. The post Episode 5: God Cares More About (All Of) It Than You Do appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
God doesn't meet us where we should be, or where we wish we were, but right where we really are. This is profoundly good news for our life and leadership. The post Episode 4: God Meets Us Where We Really Are appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
God is just like Jesus is the 2nd missional theology axiom we use in our coaching. In this episode, Matt Tebbe and Ben Sternke talk about why that changes everything that there is “no unchristlikeness” in God at all. Here are links to previous podcasts in this series: Axiom 1: God is Always Present and At […] The post Episode 3: Why It Changes Everything if God is Just Like Jesus appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
We start a series on the missional theology axioms we work through in our coaching. Matt Tebbe and Ben Sternke share a few thoughts on the first axiom: God is always present and at work… something most Christians would affirm, but we don’t often live as if it’s true. The post Episode 2: God is Always Present and At Work, and Why That Matters appeared first on Gravity Leadership.
Welcome to the first episode of the Gravity Leadership Podcast! In this inaugural episode, Gravity Leadership cofounders Matt Tebbe, Ben Hardman, and Ben Sternke share some of their stories of frustration and failure in Christian leadership, why that led to starting Gravity Leadership, and why they wanted to start this podcast. The post Episode 1: Frustration and Failure in Christian Leadership appeared first on Gravity Leadership.