Always We Begin Again: Recent Episodes
Adam Nelson
This is a formational podcast for those who want to practice and discern ways to deepen and broaden our spiritual journey through guided practices, enlivening conversations, and engaging with ancient and modern wisdom. Join us as we invite one another into new ways of seeing, listening, and growing. As the title suggests, we are a work in progress. However you‘ve arrived here, you and we can begin again. We will attempt to balance formation and information; theory with practice.
Always We Begin Again is hosted by Adam Nelson, a Christ-imitator, a liturgist, a dreamer, a creative from the suburbs of Chicago, but will draw on many voices.
Mission and service and living out our faith in context is often considered active faith, while formation is considered passive. Join Pastor Lauren Gully and me as we unpack a bit why that sets us up to have a very narrow and transactional approach to serving, and how paying attention to formation can help us to reorient our thinking to a relational mindset. Grateful for Lauren and her heart, drop us a message about how you've seen this toxic missional mindset do damage, or a healthier, holistic way of serving helps people to flourish. What did you see as the differences in how people were formed or equipped for that?
Follow the podcast on Instagram @alwayswebeginagainpodcast for episode updates and occasional prayers and words of wisdom. Follow @laurenggully or @adamtothenelson for the hosts of this episode. Share as you are able in person and on social media, let us find other sojourners to partner with.
Music by Adam Nelson
Artwork by Mark DesJardins, https://www.dawntreaderdesign.com/
Join us as we take a look at the formative power in our stories and journey with God. We need to learn to tell the story honestly, with all its curves and edges to be able to be authentic in our pursuit of Christ. Dr. Agard has been a guide and mentor in my own journey with spiritual disciples and practices, so I was very grateful she agreed to sit down and talk! In a lot of ways, this episode may help to connect some of the dots of both our practice-oriented episodes and our conversations that may seem to come from different spaces. Hoping it is as life-giving to you as it was to me!
Follow the podcast on Instagram @alwayswebeginagainpodcast for episode updates and occasional prayers and words of wisdom. Share as you are able in person and on social media, let us find other sojourners to partner with.
Music by Adam Nelson
Artwork by Mark DesJardins, https://www.dawntreaderdesign.com/
In this conversation episode, we take a look at deconstruction as it pertains to faith, church history, western history, and our understanding of God. Matt Wilson is a Professor and Pastor in San Diego and has walked with many high school and college students in their questions and doubts and anger and frustration. Both he and I see the freedom and grace to ask questions and express doubts as a crucial piece of formative work in our personal lives and our communal understanding of our role in this world. There is a beauty, almost a sigh of relief, when we understand our God is one of questions and mystery and we are invited into that journey of pruning and cultivating, leaving behind, and taking up. Join us and as you have questions, reach out on Instagram or podbean or email Adam at adamtothenelson@gmail.com
Follow the podcast on Instagram @alwayswebeginagainpodcast for episode updates and occasional prayers and words of wisdom.
Music by Adam Nelson
Artwork by Mark DesJardins, https://www.dawntreaderdesign.com/
I'm joined on this episode by Jerry Akin an elder in the United Methodist Church. We explore story, narrative, songwriting, journaling, and the ways we seek to work through our place in this world. If we are seeking to be formed, it helps to practice ways of understanding where we are, where we've been, and where we are headed. Grab a journal, something to drink, and join us as we take a look at some of the ways these practices can transform us personally and in our communities.
For more of Jerry's Music:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2v9zW9XdKcclSaq5YHcpZG
Follow the podcast on Instagram @alwayswebeginagainpodcast for episode updates and occasional prayers and words of wisdom.
Music by Adam Nelson and Jerry Akin
Artwork by Mark DesJardins, https://www.dawntreaderdesign.com/
It has been a bit since we explored Examen, but Lent feels like the perfect time for a reflective practice. As we lean into the ways God has made us and the patterns of our lives, we can begin to notice healthy and unhealthy rhythms. The beauty is that both the times we feel drained, far from God, the extra weight of sins, and the times we feel in sync with the Spirit, living out Christ-likeness - each of these has the potential to draw us closer to God. Let us examine the things we need to leave behind and the things we need to cultivate and take up in this season of sharing in Christ's suffering and anticipating God's powerful action at work in the world.
Follow the podcast on Instagram @alwayswebeginagainpodcast for episode updates and occasional prayers and words of wisdom.
Music by Adam Nelson
Artwork by Mark DesJardins, https://www.dawntreaderdesign.com/
Join in a contemplative reading of Matthew 11:25-30. During Lent, we have an opportunity not to just check a box and follow a pattern but submit to a journey of taking up and leaving behind. Pruning. Examining. Reorienting. I know I need it, and it won't happen if my patterns of life remain unchanged. Hopefully, this prayerful time in Matthew 11 reminds us that the yoke, the teachings and patterns of life we are called to follow, embody and emulate, is light. Not easy, but light because of who shares the load with us. By the Spirit let it be so.
Follow the podcast on Instagram @alwayswebeginagainpodcast for episode updates and occasional prayers and words of wisdom.
Music by Adam Nelson
Artwork by Mark DesJardins, https://www.dawntreaderdesign.com/
Join Reverend British and me as we explore some of the ways we see formation happening on college campuses, somewhat due to the unique nature of these focused transformative areas. British has a tremendous heart for walking with students in the large questions and real struggles they are grappling with and I think we can all learn ways to imagine a community that invites questions rather than shy away from them. Where have you felt like your mind or heart was "ripe" for change and a deepening of your faith journey or understanding of God at work? Where have you wished you had someone to walk with you into your doubts and fears and questions? What season of your life have you found to be most formative? Drop us a message about these seasons you've experienced.
Reverend British works at North Carolina Central University, a HBCU in Durham, NC.
Follow us on Instagram @alwayswebeginagainpodcast for episode updates, occasional prayers, and words of wisdom.
Music by Adam Nelson
Artwork by Mark DesJardins, https://www.dawntreaderdesign.com/
In our first practice-oriented episode in a while, we reset and recenter around the breath prayer "In Christ Alone...My Soul Finds Rest" then allow the Word from Ephesians 6:10-20 to speak to us. In savoring the Word instead of consuming the Word, we form a relational space to practice our loving attentiveness to our God. Find a space to allow the Spirit to speak, be that a loud coffee shop or a quiet car ride, and let us join together in practicing habits we trust are forming us to be like Christ.
Follow the podcast on Instagram @alwayswebeginagainpodcast for episode updates and occasional prayers and words of wisdom.
Music by Adam Nelson
Artwork by Mark DesJardins, https://www.dawntreaderdesign.com/
Sparked by some of the ways improv comedy at its best can function, Scott, Nick, and I explore some connections these skills have to community building and collaboration. Through a longer conversation, we are able to learn from Scott and Nick's expertise from within improv communities, but also the ways they see that impacting their jobs and life as a whole.
Resources:
Samual Well's book, Improvisation deals with the impact these listening skills, group mindset, and yes/and can relate to ethics and ethical living.
Music by Adam Nelson, Drums by Zach Robertson
Artwork by Mark DesJardins, https://www.dawntreaderdesign.com/
In our last episode for the year, we lean into the hope and the promise in Isaiah 9 as a practice of listening to the Spirit of God and worship through O Holy Night. Spend some time this week reflecting on the imagery and depth in those two sets of text, and Invite God to show you ways God is continuing to break in. Merry Christmas, looking forward to the journey continuing in the new year.
Hymn: O Holy Night
Scripture: Isaiah 9:1-7, NIV
Music by Adam Nelson
Artwork by Mark DesJardins, https://www.dawntreaderdesign.com/
As we continue in the Advent season, we jump into a reflective reading of Luke 1:39-55 when Mary and Elizabeth meet, inviting us to envision and imagine God working in and through bodies and voices that are often ignored or marginalized. This week, perhaps ponder who you and I have failed to hear or see and ask God to help us see and hear with God's eyes.
Music by Adam Nelson
Reflection artwork in tandem with this episode or as a reminder: Having Babees - Joel Schoon Tanis https://joelschoontanisgallery.com/pages/40-the-gospels-full-gallery
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus - Public Domain
Podcast Artwork by Mark DesJardins www.dawntreaderdesign.com
In this episode, we explore the season of Advent and the deeper ways marking your weekly, monthly, or yearly rhythms can be a re-orienting and formative practice. Talking more broadly about the church calendar and surrendering to a different rhythm of life and a different pattern of expectations in how we believe God to work and how we expect God to continue to come, to break in, to reveal God's self.
Hymn: O Come, O Come Emmanuel
Scripture: Luke 17:20-21, NRSV
Music by Adam Nelson
Artwork by Mark DesJardins, https://www.dawntreaderdesign.com/
In a culture that often seeks ways to make us compare, desire, envy, and seek the next best thing, the practice of gratitude can shape us. By leaning into a season that seems to live in the tension of thanksgiving and consumption, we take a look at some small ways we can build our grateful "muscles" so we can stay rooted in what matters and live out of that lens in all seasons.
Resources: Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Calhoun
Music by Adam Nelson
Artwork by Mark DesJardins, https://www.dawntreaderdesign.com/
In this episode, we take a look at a "core" spiritual discipline, Centering Prayer. This provides a foundation, the soil for many other practices to begin to flourish. The concepts of apophatic and cataphatic styles of prayer and mentioned without naming them as such, but if you'd desire to learn more about centering prayer this is a good place to start.
Music by Adam Nelson
Resources: Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening Cynthia Bourgeault
In our first conversation episode Joel Schoon-Tanis, a friend and artist from Holland, Michigan, joins me to explore art, imagination, and breathing life into the stories of God. He will be in person for a gallery opening, artist talk, and Q&A on Nov 20th from 3-6pm at South Park Church in Park Ridge, IL. For more info on Joel and to get a feel for his amazing work, head to www.joelschoontanisart.com
Resources: Walter Brueggemann's The Prophetic Imagination and/or The Practice of Prophetic Imagination
Placemaking and the Arts by Jennifer Allen Craft
The Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts is a partnership between Duke Divinity School and The University of St. Andrews in Scotland and has excellent scholarship and creativity come out of it.
The Brehm Center for the arts at Fuller Theological Seminary is a wonderful resource.
CIVA - Christians in the Visual Arts
On this episode, we revisit Welcoming Prayer as a way to give us language and grace to enter into Healing prayer. This practice invites reflective processing of pain, trauma, and shame in ways that invite healing so we don't transmit that pain into our narrative of ourselves and into our actions and attitudes towards others in our life.
Some resources:
Healing Care, Healing Prayer by Terry Wardell; Forgive Us by Mae Elise Cannon, Lisa Sharon Harper, Soong-Chan Rah, Troy Jackson; Emotional Intelligence for Religious Leaders by John Lee West, Roy M. Oswald, Nadyne Guzmán; Spiritual Rhythms of the Enneagram by Adele and Doug Calhoun, Clare and Scott Loughrige
In this episode we revisit some ideas around habit formation, practicing presence and awareness, the concepts of consolation, and desolation, and finally, learn the practice of Examen. This discipline can grow our capacity to be reflective, growing humans, acknowledging the lows and highs as having the capacity to grow us. We are not finished, we are always beginning again in some sense and examen can help us to highlight habits, parts of our life, and moments that give life and drain it.
Music is by Adam Nelson
New Resource: The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything by James Martin, SJ
In this episode, we talk a bit about habit formation, the slow nature of reorienting that we are embarking on, and some of the dreams for the future of the podcast. We expand on the concept and practice of breath prayer to include Welcoming Prayer and practice Imaginative Prayer.
Music is by Adam Nelson, with credit to Brad Kilman
Resources:
Spiritual Disciplines by Adele Calhoun, Into the Silent Land by Martin Laird, and The Covenant Book of Worship
In our first ever episode we begin a series balancing learning and guided spiritual liturgy. Adam Nelson hosts and guides through breath prayer, a way to grow in our awareness of God's presence, and Lectio Divina, a way to savor and listen to scripture's word for us.