Podcasts about Spiritual formation

How can we  address the problem of violence against the poor? International Justice Mission exists to answer this question with protecting and rescuing victims, bringing criminals to justice, restoring survivors to safety and strength, and helping local law enforcement build a safe future that lasts. In this episode, International Justice Mission's founder and CEO, Gary Haugen, joins Mark Labberton to reflect on almost three decades of IJM's fight against violence and slavery worldwide—and the spiritual formation that sustains it. Haugen shares the origins of IJM in response to systemic violence against the poor, the evolution from individual rescues to transforming justice systems, and the remarkable rise of survivor leaders transforming their own nations. Together they reflect on courage, joy, and faith amid immense risk—bearing witness to God's power to bring justice and healing through ordinary people. Episode Highlights “Protecting the poor from violence is God's weight, but it's our work, and we're gonna seek to do it Jesus's way.” ”In this era, I just think what the world is aching to see is the followers of Jesus who have a incandescent freedom from fear and a life-giving joy.” “Most of this violence will go away if government does just even a decent job of enforcing the law.” “Our first commitment is to help each other become more like Jesus—and from that strength, to do justice.” “The greatest miracle of IJM is not only the results—it's the freedom from fear and the joy with which they've done it.” “God saw them in their darkness, and they now testify to the goodness of an almighty God who loved them.” Helpful Links and Resources International Justice Mission – https://www.ijm.org Gary Haugen, The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence – https://www.amazon.com/Locust-Effect-Poverty-Requires-Violence/dp/0199937877 Gary Haugen, Just Courage: God's Great Expedition for the Restless Christian – https://www.amazon.com/Just-Courage-Expedition-Restless-Christian-ebook/dp/B001PSEQR4 Riverside Church Sermon by Martin Luther King Jr., “Beyond Vietnam” — https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/beyond-vietnam William Lloyd Garrison biography – https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Lloyd-Garrison Rwanda Genocide Investigation (UN Historical Overview) – https://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda About Gary Haugen Gary Haugen is the founder and CEO of International Justice Mission (IJM), the world's largest international anti-slavery organization. Before founding IJM in 1997, he served as the Director of the United Nations' investigation into the Rwandan genocide and previously worked at the U.S. Department of Justice, focusing on police misconduct. A graduate of Harvard University and the University of Chicago Law School, Haugen has dedicated his life to ending violence against the poor and mobilizing the global church for justice. Show Notes The founding of IJM in 1997 as a Christian response to violence against the poor Gary Haugen's formative experience directing the UN's genocide investigation in Rwanda Realization that hunger and disease were being addressed—but violence was not Early cases in the Philippines, South Asia, and Peru exposing police-run brothels and child slavery IJM 1.0: rescuing individuals from slavery and abuse, case by case IJM 2.0: strengthening local justice systems to prevent violence before it happens Martin Luther King Jr.'s “Jericho Road” as a model for systemic transformation Formation of small multidisciplinary teams—lawyers, investigators, social workers IJM's evolution from rescue operations to building sustainable justice infrastructure Twenty-year celebration: Liberate conference and the global IJM staff retreat IJM's culture of spiritual formation: daily solitude, prayer, and community rhythms A Christian order of justice rooted in prayer, silence, and shared joy Spiritual formation as the foundation for sustainable justice work Experiments in Cambodia, the Philippines, and South Asia reducing violence by up to 85% Replication of IJM's model across 46 regions to protect 500 million vulnerable people Goal by 2030: one million freed from slavery, 300 million living under protection Empowering survivor leaders: from victims to advocates and elected officials Stories of transformation like Pama in South Asia leading the Release Bonded Laborers Association The Kenyan case of Willie Kimani—murdered IJM lawyer whose legacy reformed police accountability IJM's resilience: pursuing justice for six years until conviction of perpetrators Theological grounding: justice as God's work, pursued in Jesus's way Haugen on resilience: “It's a marathon, not a sprint” Joy and freedom from fear as hallmarks of IJM's culture How IJM balances global crisis fatigue with focused mission clarity Future challenges: technology-driven oppression—live-stream child abuse and forced scamming Global body of Christ as the essential network for courage and joy Sustainability and local leadership as the future of global justice movements Spiritual communities as the seedbed for future justice leaders Production Credits Conversing is produced and distributed in partnership with Comment Magazine and Fuller Seminary.  

On this podcast I seek to redefine beauty as “the life of God at work in us and all around us.” In today's episode, Courtney Ellis helps us experience the life of God at work in nature, specifically among birds. Courtney Ellis is an author, speaker, pastor, and host of The Thing with Feathers Podcast. She holds a master's degree in English literature from Loyola University, a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, and alongside her husband, she pastors Presbyterian Church of the Master in Orange County, California.In my time with Courtney, we discuss her latest book, Looking Up: A Birder's Guide to Hope Through Grief. Courtney shares how birding can be a gateway to a deepening awareness of beauty in the world, how it can lead us to hope, and why she sees birding as a spiritual practice. In short, Courtney helps us see that birds remind us that God is at work all around us and that He is with us; all we have to do is look up.Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.

Ever feel like you're writing for God but not with Him? In this episode, I sit down with author and pastor Rich Villodas to talk about how writing can become an act of worship—a way to slow down, listen, and experience God's presence in the creative process. We also discuss our upcoming Advent devotional and how writing can shape us into the image of Christ. Hi! I'm Will Parker Anderson and I'm an editor and writing coach, here to help you get the message burning in your heart onto the page and into the world. At Writers Circle, there's no cool kids—just fellow learners. We exist to make writing feel a little less lonely and a lot more doable. Welcome to our circle. Email Will: hello@writerscircle.co Rich's new book: Waiting for Jesus Will's proposal course: https://www.writerscircle.co/course Join Will's newsletter: writerscircle.co Substack: https://willparkeranderson.substack.com/ Instagram: @willparkeranderson

Episode Overview:“Our primary problem...is not that we lack self-worth. It's that we lack awe.”In this episode, Lisa and Dan unpack the Happiness Trap: the belief that your purpose is tied to feeling good or curating the perfect life. But true vocation often forms us in the slow, hidden work of faithfulness, not fleeting emotional highs. Tune in to escape the trap, rediscover joy, and move forward with a deeper sense of vocation.Up Next:The Hero Trap – Learn how to pursue your calling without trying to "save the world" or carry more than God has asked you to.Helpful Resources: Download your FREE Vocation Trap Tracker: https://soul-makers.kit.com/traptracker Discover Your Artist Archetype → Take the Free Quiz at soulmakers.org Download the Full Artist Archetypes Guide for deeper insight: www.soulmakers.org/bemakedo Read Samuel Wells' book, Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics Read the article, Vocation's Unbroken Chain: Biblical Call Stories and theExperience of Vocation by Chris Keeton Read the article, Understanding Vocation: Discerning and Responding to God's Call by Don Thompson Read the Blog Post by Jen Wilken, Trading Self-Worth for Awe and WonderConnect & Share: Subscribe to Be. Make. Do. to keep following the Vocation Traps series Share this episode with a fellow artist or spiritual seeker Join the conversation on social using #VocationTrapsPodcast Join our brand new Instagram Broadcast Channel!

We live in what Heath Hardesty calls the age of disintegration - a world marked by fragmentation, distraction, and disconnection. I feel that deeply. So many of us are trying to hold our lives together in a culture that constantly pulls us apart. In this conversation, Heath joins me to talk about how apprenticeship to Jesus offers another way - a way toward coherence, union, and wholeness. Heath is a pastor in the Bay Area and the author of All Things Together: How Apprenticeship to Jesus Is the Way of Flourishing in a Fragmented World. We talk about what it means to move beyond simply knowing about Jesus to actually living with Him - to abide, obey, and become people who image His love in a fractured world. We explore practices like unhurried presence and compassionate gentleness, and how they reveal a kind of power that's rooted not in control, but in love. If you've felt scattered, weary, or disoriented in your faith, this episode is an invitation to slow down, breathe, and remember that in Christ, all things hold together.Heath Hardesty is the author of All Things Together: How Apprenticeship to Jesus is the Way of Flourishing in a Fragmented World (WaterBrook; on sale 10/14/25) and he serves as the lead pastor of Valley Community Church and is the founder of Inklings Coffee & Tea in the heart of downtown Pleasanton, California. Heath grew up in a blue-collar home and was a plumber's apprentice in Colorado before becoming a pastor on the edge of Silicon Valley where he, his wife, and four kids now reside. He holds degrees in literature, leadership, biblical studies, and theology from the University of Colorado Boulder and Western Seminary in Portland. Visit him on IG@heathhardestyHeath's Book:All Things TogetherHeath's Recommendations:God is On Your SideThe Poems of Seamus HeaneyGerard Manley HopkinsSubscribe to Our Substack: Shifting CultureConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.comGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTubeConsider Giving to the podcast and to the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Contact me to advertise: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com Support the show

BIO:The Reverend Dr. Starlette Thomas is a poet, practical theologian, and itinerant prophet for a coming undivided “kin-dom.” She is the director of The Raceless Gospel Initiative, named for her work and witness and an associate editor at Good Faith Media. Starlette regularly writes on the sociopolitical construct of race and its longstanding membership in the North American church. Her writings have been featured in Sojourners, Red Letter Christians, Free Black Thought, Word & Way, Plough, Baptist News Global and Nurturing Faith Journal among others. She is a frequent guest on podcasts and has her own. The Raceless Gospel podcast takes her listeners to a virtual church service where she and her guests tackle that taboo trinity— race, religion, and politics. Starlette is also an activist who bears witness against police brutality and most recently the cultural erasure of the Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C. It was erected in memory of the 2020 protests that brought the world together through this shared declaration of somebodiness after the gruesome murder of George Perry Floyd, Jr. Her act of resistance caught the attention of the Associated Press. An image of her reclaiming the rubble went viral and in May, she was featured in a CNN article.Starlette has spoken before the World Council of Churches North America and the United Methodist Church's Council of Bishops on the color- coded caste system of race and its abolition. She has also authored and presented papers to the members of the Baptist World Alliance in Zurich, Switzerland and Nassau, Bahamas to this end. She has cast a vision for the future of religion at the National Museum of African American History and Culture's “Forward Conference: Religions Envisioning Change.” Her paper was titled “Press Forward: A Raceless Gospel for Ex- Colored People Who Have Lost Faith in White Supremacy.” She has lectured at The Queen's Foundation in Birmingham, U.K. on a baptismal pedagogy for antiracist theological education, leadership and ministries. Starlette's research interests have been supported by the Louisville Institute and the Lilly Foundation. Examining the work of the Reverend Dr. Clarence Jordan, whose farm turned “demonstration plot” in Americus, Georgia refused to agree to the social arrangements of segregation because of his Christian convictions, Starlette now takes this dirt to the church. Her thesis is titled, “Afraid of Koinonia: How life on this farm reveals the fear of Christian community.” A full circle moment, she was recently invited to write the introduction to Jordan's newest collection of writings, The Inconvenient Gospel: A Southern Prophet Tackles War, Wealth, Race and Religion.Starlette is a member of the Christian Community Development Association, the Peace & Justice Studies Association, and the Koinonia Advisory Council. A womanist in ministry, she has served as a pastor as well as a denominational leader. An unrepentant academician and bibliophile, Starlette holds degrees from Buffalo State College, Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School and Wesley Theological Seminary. Last year, she was awarded an honorary doctorate in Sacred Theology for her work and witness as a public theologian from Wayland Baptist Theological Seminary. She is the author of "Take Me to the Water": The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church and a contributing author of the book Faith Forward: A Dialogue on Children, Youth & a New Kind of Christianity.  JennyI was just saying that I've been thinking a lot about the distinction between Christianity and Christian supremacy and Christian nationalism, and I have been researching Christian nationalism for probably about five or six years now. And one of my introductions to the concept of it was a book that's based on a documentary that's based on a book called Constantine Sword. And it talked about how prior to Constantine, Christians had the image of fish and life and fertility, and that is what they lived by. And then Constantine supposedly had this vision of a cross and it said, with this sign, you shall reign. And he married the church and the state. And ever since then, there's been this snowball effect of Christian empire through the Crusades, through manifest destiny, through all of these things that we're seeing play out in the United States now that aren't new. But I think there's something new about how it's playing out right now.Danielle (02:15):I was thinking about the doctrine of discovery and how that was the creation of that legal framework and ideology to justify the seizure of indigenous lands and the subjugation of indigenous peoples. And just how part of that doctrine you have to necessarily make the quote, humans that exist there, you have to make them vacant. Or even though they're a body, you have to see them as internally maybe empty or lacking or less. And that really becomes this frame. Well, a repeated frame.Jenny (03:08):Yep. Yeah. Yeah. And it feels like that's so much source to that when that dehumanization is ordained by God. If God is saying these people who we're not even going to look at as people, we're going to look at as objects, how do we get out of that?Danielle (03:39):I don't know. Well, definitely still in it. You can hear folks like Charlie Kirk talk about it and unabashedly, unashamedly turning point USA talk about doctrine of discovery brings me currently to these fishing boats that have been jetting around Venezuela. And regardless of what they're doing, the idea that you could just kill them regardless of international law, regardless of the United States law, which supposedly we have the right to a process, the right to due process, the right to show up in a court and we're presumed innocent. But this doctrine applies to people manifest destiny, this doctrine of discovery. It applies to others that we don't see as human and therefore can snuff out life. And I think now they're saying on that first boat, I think they've blown up four boats total. And on the first boat, one of the ladies is speaking out, saying they were out fishing and the size of the boat. I think that's where you get into reality. The size of the boat doesn't indicate a large drug seizure anyway. It's outside reality. And again, what do you do if they're smuggling humans? Did you just destroy all that human life? Or maybe they're just fishing. So I guess that doctrine and that destiny, it covers all of these immoral acts, it kind of washes them clean. And I guess that talking about Constantine, it feels like the empire needed a way to do that, to absolve themselves.Danielle (05:40):I know it gives me both comfort and makes me feel depressed when I think about people in 300 ad being, they're freaking throwing people into the lion's den again and people are cheering. And I have to believe that there were humans at that time that saw the barbarism for what it was. And that gives me hope that there have always been a few people in a system of tyranny and oppression that are like, what the heck is going on? And it makes me feel like, ugh. When does that get to be more than just the few people in a society kind of society? Or what does a society need to not need such violence? Because I think it's so baked in now to these white and Christian supremacy, and I don't know, in my mind, I don't think I can separate white supremacy from Christian supremacy because even before White was used as a legal term to own people and be able to vote, the legal term was Christian. And then when enslaved folks started converting to Christianity, they pivoted and said, well, no, not all Christians. It has to be white Christians. And so I think white supremacy was birthed out of a long history of Christian supremacy.Danielle (07:21):Yeah, it's weird. I remember growing up, and maybe you had this experience too, I remember when Schindler's List hit the theaters and you were probably too young, but Schindler's listed the theaters, and I remember sitting in a living room and having to convince my parents of why I wanted to see it. And I think I was 16, I don't remember. I was young and it was rated R and of course that was against our values to see rated R movies. But I really wanted to see this movie. And I talked and talked and talked and got to see this movie if anybody's watched Schindler's List, it's a story of a man who is out to make money, sees this opportunity to get free labor basically as part of the Nazi regime. And so he starts making trades to access free labor, meanwhile, still has women, enjoys a fine life, goes to church, has a pseudo faith, and as time goes along, I'm shortening the story, but he gets this accountant who he discovers he loves because his accountant makes him rich. He makes him rich off the labor. But the accountant is thinking, how do I save more lives and get them into this business with Schindler? Well, eventually they get captured, they get found out. All these things happen, right, that we know. And it becomes clear to Schindler that they're exterminating, they're wiping out an entire population.(09:01):I guess I come to that and just think about, as a young child, I remember watching that thinking, there's no way this would ever happen again because there's film, there's documentation. At the time, there were people alive from the Great war, the greatest generation like my grandfather who fought in World War ii. There were other people, we had the live stories. But now just a decade, 12, 13 years removed, it hasn't actually been that long. And the memory of watching a movie like Schindler's List, the impact of seeing what it costs a soul to take the life of other souls like that, that feels so far removed now. And that's what the malaise of the doctrine of Discovery and manifest destiny, I think have been doing since Constantine and Christianity. They've been able to wipe the memory, the historical memory of the evil done with their blessing.(10:06):And I feel like even this huge thing like the Holocaust, the memories being wiped, you can almost feel it. And in fact, people are saying, I don't know if they actually did that. I don't know if they killed all these Jewish peoples. Now you hear more denial even of the Holocaust now that those storytellers aren't passed on to the next life. So I think we are watching in real time how Christianity and Constantine were able to just wipe use empire to wipe the memory of the people so they can continue to gain riches or continue to commit atrocities without impunity just at any level. I guess that's what comes to mind.Jenny (10:55):Yeah, it makes me think of, I saw this video yesterday and I can't remember what representative it was in a hearing and she had written down a long speech or something that she was going to give, and then she heard during the trial the case what was happening was someone shared that there have been children whose parents have been abducted and disappeared because the children were asked at school, are your parents undocumented? And she said, I can't share what I had prepared because I'm caught with that because my grandfather was killed in the Holocaust because his children were asked at school, are your parents Jewish?(11:53):And my aunt took that guilt with her to her grave. And the amount of intergenerational transgenerational trauma that is happening right now, that never again is now what we are doing to families, what we are doing to people, what we are doing to children, the atrocities that are taking place in our country. Yeah, it's here. And I think it's that malaise has come over not only the past, but even current. I think people don't even know how to sit with the reality of the horror of what's happening. And so they just dissociate and they just check out and they don't engage the substance of what's happening.Danielle (13:08):Yeah. I tell a friend sometimes when I talk to her, I just say, I need you to tap in. Can you just tap in? Can you just carry the conversation or can you just understand? And I don't mean understand, believe a story. I mean feel the story. It's one thing to say the words, but it's another thing to feel them. And I think Constantine is a brilliant guy. He took a peaceful religion. He took a peaceful faith practice, people that literally the prior guy was throwing to the lions for sport. He took a people that had been mocked, a religious group that had been mocked, and he elevated them and then reunified them with that sword that you're talking about. And so what did those Christians have to give up then to marry themselves to empire? I don't know, but it seems like they kind of effed us over for eternity, right?Jenny (14:12):Yeah. Well, and I think that that's part of it. I think part of the malaise is the infatuation with eternity and with heaven. And I know for myself, when I was a missionary for many years, I didn't care about my body because this body, this light and momentary suffering paled in comparison to what was awaiting me. And so no matter what happened, it was a means to an end to spend eternity with Jesus. And so I think of empathy as us being able to feel something of ourselves in someone else. If I don't have grief and joy and sorrow and value for this body, I'm certainly not going to have it for other bodies. And I think the disembodiment of white Christian supremacy is what enables bodies to just tolerate and not consider the brutality of what we're seeing in the United States. What we're seeing in Congo, what we're seeing in Palestine, what we're seeing everywhere is still this sense of, oh, the ends are going to justify the means we're all going to, at least I'll be in heaven and everyone else can kind of figure out what they're going to do.I don't know, man. Yeah, maybe. I guess when you think about Christian nationalism versus maybe a more authentic faith, what separates them for youAbiding by the example that Jesus gave or not. I mean, Jesus was killed by the state because he had some very unpopular things to say about the state and the way in which he lived was very much like, how do I see those who are most oppressed and align myself with them? Whereas Christian nationalism is how do I see those who have the most power and align myselves with them?(16:48):And I think it is a question of alignment and orientation. And at the end of the day, who am I going to stand with even knowing and probably knowing that that may be to the detriment of my own body, but I do that not out of a sense of martyrdom, but out of a sense of integrity. I refuse. I think I really believe Jesus' words when he said, what good is it for a man to gain the world and lose his soul? And at the end of the day, what I'm fighting for is my own soul, and I don't want to give that up.Danielle (17:31):Hey, starlet, we're on to not giving up our souls to power.The Reverend Dr.Rev. Dr. Starlette (17:47):I'm sorry I'm jumping from one call to the next. I do apologize for my tardiness now, where were we?Danielle (17:53):We got on the subject of Constantine and how he married the sword with Christianity when it had been fish and fertile ground and et cetera, et cetera. Yeah, that's where we started. Yeah, that's where we started.Starlette (18:12):I'm going to get in where I fit in. Y'all keep going.Danielle (18:14):You get in. Yeah, you get in. I guess Jenny, for me and for you, starlet, the deep erasure of any sort of resemblance of I have to look back and I have to be willing to interrogate, I think, which is what a lot of people don't want to do. I grew up in a really conservative evangelical family and a household, and I have to interrogate, well, one, why did my mom get into that? Because Mexican, and number two, I watched so slowly as there was a celebration. I think it was after Bill Clinton had this Monica Lewinsky thing and all of this stuff happened. My Latino relatives were like, wait a minute, we don't like that. We don't like that. That doesn't match our values. And I remember this celebration of maybe now they're going to become Christians. I remember thinking that as a child, because for them to be a Democrat in my household and for them to hold different values around social issues meant that they weren't necessarily saved in my house and my way because they hadn't fully bought into empire in the way I know Jenny muted herself.(19:31):They hadn't fully bought into empire. And I slowly watched those family members in California kind of give way to conservatism the things that beckoned it. And honestly, a lot of it was married to religion and to what is going on today and not standing up for justice, not standing up for civil rights. I watched the movement go over, and it feels like at the expense of the memory of my grandfather and my great-grandfather who despised religion in some ways, my grandfather did not like going to church because he thought people were fake. He didn't believe them, and he didn't see what church had to do with being saved anyway. And so I think about him a lot and I think, oh, I got to hold onto that a little bit in the face of empire. But yeah, my mind just went off on that rabbit trail.Starlette (20:38):Oh, it's quite all right. My grandfather had similar convictions. My grandmother took the children to church with her and he stayed back. And after a while, the children were to decide that they didn't want to go anymore. And I remember him saying, that's enough. That's enough. You've done enough. They've heard enough. Don't make them go. But I think he drew some of the same conclusions, and I hold those as well, but I didn't grow up in a household where politics was even discussed. Folks were rapture ready, as they say, because they were kingdom minded is what they say now. And so there was no discussion of what was going on on the ground. They were really out of touch with, I'm sending right now. They were out of touch with reality. I have on pants, I have on full makeup, I have on earrings. I'm not dressed modestly in any way, shape, fashion or form.(21:23):It was a very externalized, visible, able to be observed kind of spirituality. And so I enter the spaces back at home and it's like going into a different world. I had to step back a bit and oftentimes I just don't say anything. I just let the room have it because you can't, in my experience, you can't talk 'em out of it. They have this future orientation where they live with their feet off the ground because Jesus is just around the corner. He's right in that next cloud. He's coming, and so none of this matters. And so that affected their political participation and discussion. There was certainly very minor activism, so I wasn't prepared by family members to show up in the streets like I do now. I feel sincerely called. I feel like it's a work of the spirit that I know where to put my feet at all, but I certainly resonate with what you would call a rant that led you down to a rabbit hole because it led me to a story about my grandfather, so I thank you for that. They were both right by the way,Danielle (22:23):I think so he had it right. He would sit in the very back of church sometimes to please my grandmother and to please my family, and he didn't have a cell phone, but he would sit there and go to sleep. He would take a nap. And I have to think of that now as resistance. And as a kid I was like, why does he do that? But his body didn't want to take it in.Starlette (22:47):That's rest as resistance from the Nat Bishop, Trisha Hersey, rest as act of defiance, rest as reparations and taking back my time that you're stealing from me by having me sit in the service. I see that.Danielle (23:02):I mean, Jenny, it seems like Constantine, he knew what to do. He gets Christians on his side, they knew how to gather organically. He then gets this mass megaphone for whatever he wants, right?Jenny (23:21):Yeah. I think about Adrian Marie Brown talks a lot about fractals and how what happens on a smaller scale is going to be replicated on larger scales. And so even though there's some sense of disjoint with denominations, I think generally in the United States, there is some common threads of that manifest destiny that have still found its way into these places of congregating. And so you're having these training wheels really even within to break it down into the nuclear family that James Dobson wanted everyone to focus on was a very, very narrow white, patriarchal Christian family. And so if you rehearse this on these smaller scales, then you can rehearse it in your community, then you can rehearse it, and it just bubbles and bubbles and balloons out into what we're seeing happen, I think.Yeah, the nuclear family and then the youth movements, let us, give us your youth, give us your kids. Send us your kids and your youth to our camps.Jenny (24:46):Great. I grew up in Colorado and I was probably 10 or 11 when the Columbine shooting happened, and I remember that very viscerally. And the immediate conversation was not how do we protect kids in school? It was glorifying this one girl that maybe or maybe did not say yes when the shooters asked, do you still believe in God? And within a year her mom published a book about it. And that was the thing was let's use this to glorify martyrdom. And I think it is different. These were victims in school and I think any victim of the shooting is horrifying. And I think we're seeing a similar level of that martyrdom frenzy with Charlie Kirk right now. And what we're not talking about is how do we create a safer society? What we're talking about, I'm saying, but I dunno. What I'm hearing of the white Christian communities is how are we glorifying Charlie Kirk as a martyr and what power that wields when we have someone that we can call a martyr?Starlette (26:27):No, I just got triggered as soon as you said his name.(26:31):Just now. I think grieving a white supremacist is terrifying. Normalizing racist rhetoric is horrifying. And so I look online in disbelief. I unfollowed and blocked hundreds of people on social media based on their comments about what I didn't agree with. Everything he said, got a lot of that. I'm just not interested. I think they needed a martyr for the race war that they're amping for, and I would like to be delivered from the delusion that is white body supremacy. It is all exhausting. I don't want to be a part of the racial imagination that he represents. It is not a new narrative. We are not better for it. And he's not a better person because he's died. The great Biggie Smalls has a song that says you're nobody until somebody kills you. And I think it's appropriate. Most people did not know who he was. He was a podcaster. I'm also looking kind of cross-eyed at his wife because that's not, I served as a pastor for more than a decade. This is not an expression of grief. There's nothing like anything I've seen for someone who was assassinated, which I disagree with.(28:00):I've just not seen widows take the helm of organizations and given passion speeches and make veil threats to audiences days before the, as we would say in my community, before the body has cooled before there is a funeral that you'll go down and take pictures. That could be arguably photo ops. It's all very disturbing to me. This is a different measure of grief. I wrote about it. I don't know what, I've never heard of a sixth stage of grief that includes fighting. We're not fighting over anybody's dead body. We're not even supposed to do it with Jesus. And so I just find it all strange that before the man is buried, you've already concocted a story wherein opposing forces are at each other's throats. And it's all this intergalactic battle between good and bad and wrong, up and down, white and black. It's too much.(28:51):I think white body supremacy has gotten out of hand and it's incredibly theatrical. And for persons who have pulled back from who've decent whiteness, who've de racialize themselves, it's foolishness. Just nobody wants to be involved in this. It's a waste of time. White body supremacy and racism are wastes of time. Trying to prove that I'm a human being or you're looking right at is a waste of time. And people just want to do other things, which is why African-Americans have decided to go to sleep, to take a break. We're not getting ready to spin our wheels again, to defend our humanity, to march for rights that are innate, to demand a dignity that comes with being human. It's just asinine.(29:40):I think you would be giving more credence to the statements themselves by responding. And so I'd rather save my breath and do my makeup instead because trying to defend the fact that I'm a glorious human being made in the image of God is a waste of time. Look at me. My face is beat. It testifies for me. Who are you? Just tell me that I don't look good and that God didn't touch me. I'm with the finger of love as the people say, do you see this beat? Let me fall back. So you done got me started and I blame you. It's your fault for the question. So no, that's my response to things like that. African-American people have to insulate themselves with their senses of ness because he didn't have a kind word to say about African-American people, whether a African-American pilot who is racialized as black or an African-American woman calling us ignorance saying, we're incompetence. If there's no way we could have had these positions, when African-American women are the most agreed, we're the most educated, how dare you? And you think, I'm going to prove that I'm going to point to degrees. No, I'll just keep talking. It will make itself obvious and evident.(30:45):Is there a question in that? Just let's get out of that. It triggers me so bad. Like, oh, that he gets a holiday and it took, how many years did it take for Martin Luther King Junior to get a holiday? Oh, okay. So that's what I mean. The absurdity of it all. You're naming streets after him hasn't been dead a year. You have children coloring in sheets, doing reports on him. Hasn't been a few months yet. We couldn't do that for Martin Luther King. We couldn't do that for Rosa Parks. We couldn't do that for any other leader, this one in particular, and right now, find that to beI just think it just takes a whole lot of delusion and pride to keep puffing yourself up and saying, you're better than other people. Shut up, pipe down. Or to assume that everybody wants to look like you or wants to be racialized as white. No, I'm very cool in who I'm, I don't want to change as the people say in every lifetime, and they use these racialized terms, and so I'll use them and every lifetime I want to come back as black. I don't apologize for my existence. I love it here. I don't want to be racialized as white. I'm cool. That's the delusion for me that you think everyone wants to look like. You think I would trade.(32:13):You think I would trade for that, and it looks great on you. I love what it's doing for you. But as for me in my house, we believe in melanin and we keep it real cute over here. I just don't have time. I think African-Americans minoritized and otherwise, communities should invest their time in each other and in ourselves as opposed to wasting our breath, debating people. We can't debate white supremacists. Anyway, I think I've talked about that the arguments are not rooted in reason. It's rooted in your dehumanization and equating you with three fifths of a human being who's in charge of measurements, the demonizing of whiteness. It's deeply problematic for me because it puts them in a space of creator. How can you say how much of a human being that's someone? This stuff is absurd. And so I've refuse to waste my breath, waste my life arguing with somebody who doesn't have the power, the authority.(33:05):You don't have the eyesight to tell me if I'm human or not. This is stupid. We're going to do our work and part of our work is going to sleep. We're taking naps, we're taking breaks, we're putting our feet up. I'm going to take a nap after this conversation. We're giving ourselves a break. We're hitting the snooze button while staying woke. There's a play there. But I think it's important that people who are attacked by white body supremacy, not give it their energy. Don't feed into the madness. Don't feed into the machine because it'll eat you alive. And I didn't get dressed for that. I didn't get on this call. Look at how I look for that. So that's what that brings up. Okay. It brings up the violence of white body supremacy, the absurdity of supremacy at all. The delusion of the racial imagination, reading a 17th century creation onto a 21st century. It's just all absurd to me that anyone would continue to walk around and say, I'm better than you. I'm better than you. And I'll prove it by killing you, lynching you, raping your people, stealing your people, enslaving your people. Oh, aren't you great? That's pretty great,Jenny (34:30):I think. Yeah, I think it is. I had a therapist once tell me, it's like you've had the opposite of a psychotic break because when that is your world and that's all, it's so easy to justify and it makes sense. And then as soon as you step out of it, you're like, what the what? And then it makes it that much harder to understand. And this is my own, we talked about this last week, but processing what is my own path in this of liberation and how do I engage people who are still in that world, who are still related to me, who are, and in a way that isn't exhausting for I'm okay being exhausted if it's going to actually bear something, if it's just me spinning my wheels, I don't actually see value in that. And for me, what began to put cracks in that was people challenging my sense of superiority and my sense of knowing what they should do with their bodies. Because essentially, I think a lot of how I grew up was similar maybe and different from how you were sharing Danielle, where it was like always vote Republican because they're going to be against abortion and they're going to be against gay marriage. And those were the two in my world that were the things that I was supposed to vote for no matter what. And now just seeing how far that no matter what is willing to go is really terrifying.Danielle (36:25):Yeah, I agree. Jenny. I mean, again, I keep talking about him, but he's so important to me. The idea that my great grandfather to escape religious oppression would literally walk 1,950 miles and would leave an oppressive system just in an attempt to get away. That walk has to mean something to me today. You can't forget. All of my family has to remember that he did a walk like that. How many of us have walked that far? I mean, I haven't ever walked that far in just one instance to escape something. And he was poor because he couldn't even pay for his mom's burial at the Catholic church. So he said, let me get out of this. And then of course he landed with the Methodist and he was back in the fire again. But I come back to him, and that's what people will do to get out of religious oppression. They will give it an effort and when they can. And so I think it's important to remember those stories. I'm off on my tangent again now because it feels so important. It's a good one.Starlette (37:42):I think it's important to highlight the walking away from, to putting one foot in front of the other, praying with your feet(37:51):That it's its own. You answer your own prayer by getting away from it. It is to say that he was done with it, and if no one else was going to move, he was going to move himself that he didn't wait for the change in the institution. Let's just change directions and get away from it. And I hate to even imagine what he was faced with and that he had to make that decision. And what propelled him to walk that long with that kind of energy to keep momentum and to create that amount of distance. So for me, it's very telling. I ran away at 12. I had had it, so I get it. This is the last time you're going to hit me.Not going to beat me out of my sleep. I knew that at 12. This is no place for me. So I admire people who get up in the dead of night, get up without a warning, make it up in their mind and said, that's the last time, or This is not what I'm going to do. This is not the way that I want to be, and I'm leaving. I admire him. Sounds like a hero. I think we should have a holiday.Danielle (38:44):And then imagine telling that. Then you're going to tell me that people like my grandfather are just in it. This is where it leaves reality for me and leaves Christianity that he's just in it to steal someone's job. This man worked the lemon fields and then as a side job in his retired years, moved up to Sacramento, took in people off death row at Folsom Prison, took 'em to his home and nursed them until they passed. So this is the kind a person that will walk 1,950 miles. They'll do a lot of good in the world, and we're telling people that they can't come here. That's the kind of people that are walking here. That's the kind of people that are coming here. They're coming here to do whatever they can. And then they're nurturing families. They're actually living out in their families what supposed Christians are saying they want to be. Because people in these two parent households and these white families, they're actually raising the kind of people that will shoot Charlie Kirk. It's not people like my grandfather that walked almost 2000 miles to form a better life and take care of people out of prisons. Those aren't the people forming children that are, you'reStarlette (40:02):Going to email for that. The deacons will you in the parking lot for that one. You you're going to get a nasty tweet for that one. Somebody's going to jump off in the comments and straighten you out at,Danielle (40:17):I can't help it. It's true. That's the reality. Someone that will put their feet and their faith to that kind of practice is not traveling just so they can assault someone or rob someone. I mean, yes, there are people that have done that, but there's so much intentionality about moving so far. It does not carry the weight of, can you imagine? Let me walk 2000 miles to Rob my neighbor. That doesn't make any sense.Starlette (40:46):Sounds like it's own kind of pilgrimage.Jenny (40:59):I have so many thoughts, but I think whiteness has just done such a number on people. And I'm hearing each of you and I'm thinking, I don't know that I could tell one story from any of my grandparents. I think that that is part of whiteness. And it's not that I didn't know them, but it's that the ways in which Transgenerational family lines are passed down are executed for people in considered white bodies where it's like my grandmother, I guess I can't tell some stories, but she went to Polish school and in the States and was part of a Polish community. And then very quickly on polls were grafted into whiteness so that they could partake in the GI Bill. And so that Polish heritage was then lost. And that was not that long ago, but it was a severing that happened. And some of my ancestors from England, that severing happened a long time ago where it's like, we are not going to tell the stories of our ancestors because that would actually reveal that this whole white thing is made up. And we actually have so much more to us than that. And so I feel like the social privilege that has come from that, but also the visceral grief of how I would want to know those stories of my ancestors that aren't there. Because in part of the way that whiteness operates,Starlette (42:59):I'm glad you told that story. Diane de Prima, she tells about that, about her parents giving up their Italian ness, giving up their heritage and being Italian at home and being white in public. So not changing their name, shortening their name, losing their accent, or dropping the accent. I'm glad that you said that. I think that's important. But like you said though, if you tell those stories and it shakes up the power dynamic for whiteness, it's like, oh, but there are books how the Irish became White, the Making of Whiteness working for Whiteness, read all the books by David Broer on Whiteness Studies. But I'm glad that you told us. I think it's important, and I love that you named it as a severing. Why did you choose that word in particular?Jenny (43:55):I had the privilege a few years ago of going to Poland and doing an ancestry trip. And weeks before I went, an extended cousin in the States had gotten connected with our fifth cousin in Poland. We share the fifth grandparents. And this cousin of mine took us around to the church where my fifth great grandparents got married and these just very visceral places. And I had never felt the land that my ancestors know in my body. And there was something really, really powerful of that. And so I think of severing as I have been cut off from that lineage and that heritage because of whiteness. And I feel very, very grateful for the ways in which that is beginning to heal and beginning to mend. And we can tell truer stories of our ancestry and where we come from and the practices of our people. And I think it is important to acknowledge the cost and the privilege that has come from that severing in order to get a job that was not reserved for people that weren't white. My family decided, okay, well we'll just play the part. We will take on that role of whiteness because that will then give us that class privilege and that socioeconomic privilege that reveals how much of a construct whitenessStarlette (45:50):A racial contract is what Charles W. Mills calls it, that there's a deal made in a back room somewhere that you'll trade your sense of self for another. And so that it doesn't, it just unravels all the ways in which white supremacy, white body supremacy, pos itself, oh, that we're better. I think people don't say anything because it unravels those lies, those tongue twisters that persons have spun over the centuries, that it's really just an agreement that we've decided that we'll make ourselves the majority so that we can bully everybody else. And nobody wants to be called that. Nobody wants to be labeled greedy. I'm just trying to provide for my family, but at what expense? At who else's expense. But I like to live in this neighborhood and I don't want to be stopped by police. But you're willing to sacrifice other people. And I think that's why it becomes problematic and troublesome because persons have to look at themselves.(46:41):White body supremacy doesn't offer that reflection. If it did, persons would see how monstrous it is that under the belly of the beast, seeing the underside of that would be my community. We know what it costs for other people to feel really, really important because that's what whiteness demands. In order to look down your nose on somebody, you got to stand on somebody's back. Meanwhile, our communities are teaching each other to stand. We stand on the shoulders of giants. It's very communal. It's a shared identity and way of being. Whereas whiteness demands allegiance by way of violence, violent taking and grabbing it is quite the undoing. We have a lot of work to do. But I am proud of you for telling that story.Danielle (47:30):I wanted to read this quote by Gloria, I don't know if you know her. Do you know her? She writes, the struggle is inner Chicano, Indio, American Indian, Molo, Mexicano, immigrant, Latino, Anglo and power working class Anglo black, Asian. Our psyches resemble the border towns and are populated by the same people. The struggle has always been inner and has played out in outer terrains. Awareness of our situation must come before interchanges and which in turn come before changes in society. Nothing happens in the real world unless it first happens in the images in our heads.(48:16):So Jenny, when you're talking, you had some image in your head before you went to Poland, before it became reality. You had some, it didn't start with just knowing your cousin or whatever it happened before that. Or for me being confronted and having to confront things with my husband about ways we've been complicit or engaged in almost like the word comes gerrymandering our own future. That's kind of how it felt sometimes Luis and I and how to become aware of that and take away those scales off our own eyes and then just sit in the reality, oh no, we're really here and this is where we're really at. And so where are we going to go from here? And starlet, you've talked from your own position. That's just what comes to mind. It's something that happens inside. I mean, she talks about head, I think more in feelings in my chest. That's where it happens for me. But yeah, that's what comes to mind.Starlette (49:48):With. I feel like crying because of what we've done to our bodies and the bodies of other people. And we still can't see ourselves not as fully belonging to each other, not as beloved, not as holy.It's deeply saddening that for all the time that we have here together for all the time that we'll share with each other, we'll spend much of it not seeing each other at all.Danielle (50:57):My mind's going back to, I think I might've shared this right before you joined Starla, where it was like, I really believe the words of Jesus that says, what good is it for someone to gain the world and lose their soul? And that's what I hear. And what I feel is this soul loss. And I don't know how to convince other people. And I don't know if that's the point that their soul is worth it, but I think I've, not that I do it perfectly, but I think I've gotten to the place where I'm like, I believe my interiority is worth more than what it would be traded in for.(51:45):And I think that will be a lifelong journey of trying to figure out how to wrestle with a system. I will always be implicated in because I am talking to you on a device that was made from cobalt, from Congo and wearing clothes that were made in other countries. And there's no way I can make any decision other than to just off myself immediately. And I'm not saying I'm doing that, but I'm saying the part of the wrestle is that this is, everything is unresolved. And how do I, like what you said, Danielle, what did you say? Can you tune into this conversation?Jenny (52:45):Yeah. And how do I keep tapping in even when it means engaging my own implication in this violence? It's easier to be like, oh, those people over there that are doing those things. And it's like, wait, now how do I stay situated and how I'm continually perpetuating it as well, and how do I try to figure out how to untangle myself in that? And I think that will be always I,Danielle (53:29):He says, the US Mexican border as like an open wound where the third world grates against the first and bleeds. And before a scab forms it hemorrhages again, the lifeblood of two worlds. Two worlds merging to form a third country, a border culture. Borders are set up to define the places that are safe and unsafe to distinguish us from them. A border is a dividing line, a narrow strip along a steep edge. A borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary is it is in a constant state of transition. They're prohibited and forbidden arts inhabitants. And I think that as a Latina that really describes and mixed with who my father is and that side that I feel like I live like the border in me, it feels like it grates against me. So I hear you, Jenny, and I feel very like all the resonance, and I hear you star led, and I feel a lot of resonance there too. But to deny either thing would make me less human because I am human with both of those parts of me.(54:45):But also to engage them brings a lot of grief for both parts of me. And how does that mix together? It does feel like it's in a constant state of transition. And that's partly why Latinos, I think particularly Latino men bought into this lie of power and played along. And now they're getting shown that no, that part of you that's European, that part never counted at all. And so there is no way to buy into that racialized system. There's no way to put a down payment in and come out on the other side as human. As soon as we buy into it, we're less human. Yeah. Oh, Jenny has to go in a minute. Me too. But starlet, you're welcome to join us any Thursday. Okay.Speaker 1 (55:51):Afternoon. Bye. Thank you. Bye bye.Kitsap County & Washington State Crisis and Mental Health ResourcesIf you or someone else is in immediate danger, please call 911.This resource list provides crisis and mental health contacts for Kitsap County and across Washington State.Kitsap County / Local ResourcesResourceContact InfoWhat They OfferSalish Regional Crisis Line / Kitsap Mental Health 24/7 Crisis Call LinePhone: 1‑888‑910‑0416Website: https://www.kitsapmentalhealth.org/crisis-24-7-services/24/7 emotional support for suicide or mental health crises; mobile crisis outreach; connection to services.KMHS Youth Mobile Crisis Outreach TeamEmergencies via Salish Crisis Line: 1‑888‑910‑0416Website: https://sync.salishbehavioralhealth.org/youth-mobile-crisis-outreach-team/Crisis outreach for minors and youth experiencing behavioral health emergencies.Kitsap Mental Health Services (KMHS)Main: 360‑373‑5031; Toll‑free: 888‑816‑0488; TDD: 360‑478‑2715Website: https://www.kitsapmentalhealth.org/crisis-24-7-services/Outpatient, inpatient, crisis triage, substance use treatment, stabilization, behavioral health services.Kitsap County Suicide Prevention / “Need Help Now”Call the Salish Regional Crisis Line at 1‑888‑910‑0416Website: https://www.kitsap.gov/hs/Pages/Suicide-Prevention-Website.aspx24/7/365 emotional support; connects people to resources; suicide prevention assistance.Crisis Clinic of the PeninsulasPhone: 360‑479‑3033 or 1‑800‑843‑4793Website: https://www.bainbridgewa.gov/607/Mental-Health-ResourcesLocal crisis intervention services, referrals, and emotional support.NAMI Kitsap CountyWebsite: https://namikitsap.org/Peer support groups, education, and resources for individuals and families affected by mental illness.Statewide & National Crisis ResourcesResourceContact InfoWhat They Offer988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (WA‑988)Call or text 988; Website: https://wa988.org/Free, 24/7 support for suicidal thoughts, emotional distress, relationship problems, and substance concerns.Washington Recovery Help Line1‑866‑789‑1511Website: https://doh.wa.gov/you-and-your-family/injury-and-violence-prevention/suicide-prevention/hotline-text-and-chat-resourcesHelp for mental health, substance use, and problem gambling; 24/7 statewide support.WA Warm Line877‑500‑9276Website: https://www.crisisconnections.org/wa-warm-line/Peer-support line for emotional or mental health distress; support outside of crisis moments.Native & Strong Crisis LifelineDial 988 then press 4Website: https://doh.wa.gov/you-and-your-family/injury-and-violence-prevention/suicide-prevention/hotline-text-and-chat-resourcesCulturally relevant crisis counseling by Indigenous counselors.Additional Helpful Tools & Tips• Behavioral Health Services Access: Request assessments and access to outpatient, residential, or inpatient care through the Salish Behavioral Health Organization. Website: https://www.kitsap.gov/hs/Pages/SBHO-Get-Behaviroal-Health-Services.aspx• Deaf / Hard of Hearing: Use your preferred relay service (for example dial 711 then the appropriate number) to access crisis services.• Warning Signs & Risk Factors: If someone is talking about harming themselves, giving away possessions, expressing hopelessness, or showing extreme behavior changes, contact crisis resources immediately.Well, first I guess I would have to believe that there was or is an actual political dialogue taking place that I could potentially be a part of. And honestly, I'm not sure that I believe that. Well, first I guess I would have to believe that there was or is an actual political dialogue taking place that I could potentially be a part of. And honestly, I'm not sure that I believe that.

Spiritual Formation Week 2- Sam McVay by Pastor Aaron Wallace

Our world is in desperate need of bridge builders, meaning people who will reach their hand out to those who feel unseen or hurting. These days, we've narrowed our view of hospitality to HGTV and Instagram, but our hearts are more lonely than ever. During the Covid-19 pandemic, author Laura Baghdassarian Murray hosted a solitude and silence retreat via Zoom. As a result of that experience, Laura began to champion spaces where people could practice welcome and hospitality, even online. Join in for a thoughtful conversation about how you can open yourself up to letting God use you as a bridge builder to bless others.   RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE Connect with Laura on Instagram Connect with Laura on Facebook Becoming a Person of Welcome: The Spiritual Practice of Hospitality Healed Hearts are Hospitable Hearts Worksheet Visit Laura's Website Learn More about Laura's Online Retreats Here!   ABOUT OUR SPECIAL GUEST Laura Baghdassarian Murray (DMin, Fuller Seminary) is the director of spiritual engagement and innovation at Fuller Seminary's Center for Spiritual Formation. She is the author of Pray as You Are, serves on the Ministry Collaborative Advisory Board, and previously served at Highland Park Presbyterian Church as the pastor of spiritual formation. Laura is also the founder of the Digital Silent Retreat Ministry, which is rooted in the practice of hospitality to provide brave and courageous spaces for people to connect with and others (www.digitalsilentretreats.com). She lives in the Dallas area with her husband and two children.

10/5/25 Service

Thought to share? Send me a text...In this episode, we trace how confident-sounding rules and secret knowledge can pull us from the center of faith, then anchor ourselves in Colossians 2 where Paul calls us back to Jesus as the true source. We explore legalism, licentiousness, spiritual disciplines, and practical steps for discernment shaped by Scripture and the Spirit.• the pull of persuasive but inaccurate teaching• Paul's warning to the Colossians about shadows vs Christ• legalism defined and contrasted with grace• licentiousness as abusing God's grace• practices as disciplines, not requirements for worth• how to test teachings with Scripture, counsel, and conviction• the Spirit as wisdom and the church's growth from the Head• courage to resist spiritual bullying and walk in freedomIf you'd like to dive deeper into this teaching, I encourage you to download the Companion Guide Part 2. It's designed to help you ponder and discover more from God's Word. Companion Guide: https://betsymarvin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/colossians-companion-guide-without-transcripts.pdf0:03 Welcome & Purpose0:28 The Danger of Confident Misinformation2:29 False Teachers in Colossae3:55 Shadows Versus Christ5:15 True Source and Eyewitness Authority7:30 Legalism, Licentiousness, and Grace10:22 Spiritual Disciplines Without Legalism12:26 Discernment, Conviction, and Wisdom14:58 Blessing & Companion GuideTo find out more about me, or to book a speaking engagement, head to https://betsymarvin.com/For access to past podcasts and transcripts, head tohttps://betsymarvin.com/podcasts/You can follow me on Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/betsyjmarvin/and Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/betsy.marvin.98

Have you ever felt your faith start out hot and passionate, only to watch it slowly fade into something cold and distant? In this message, Ricky Ortiz shares what it takes for your faith to catch fire and stay on fire!

This week, we share a For the Journey exclusive conversation between Bill Haley and Jerome Daley, co-founder of the Vining Center. They discuss the dynamics of what some have dubbed the “evangelical exodus,” and Jerome shares about his work developing more mature Christian leaders and helping people recover from various forms of church hurt. Ultimately, they discuss their respective journeys to the contemplative tradition and how those journeys have deepened their love for and intimacy with Jesus.Learn More About Spiritual Direction through CoracleExplore Bill's Essential Christianity Book and Online Courseinthecoracle.org  |  @inthecoracleSupport the show

On Life With God this week, Nathan speaks with Andrew Ranucci, a spiritual director and mentor in the Next Frontiers program, about transitioning from pastoring a congregation to pastoring pastors. (The final day to apply for the 2026 Cohort of Next Frontiers is Friday, October 31, 2025.)Next Frontiers is a program that runs from January through November 2026, and is designed to help mid-career pastors thrive in congregational leadership during times of transition in ministry. The key features of the program include opportunities for reimagining our pastoral identity, fostering spiritual renewal and engaging in meaningful relationship with veteran ministers. The overarching purpose of this program is to provide resources that will sustain ministers in the “long obedience” of their profession. Learn more.

Michael and Phebe wrap up this season of For the Good of the Public podcast with a talk by James Catford, founding board chair for the CCPL. James shares how spiritual practice is not at odds with activism and public leadership, but rather our spiritual formation is about the very well we have to draw on for our public engagement. He shares practical wisdom to remind us to listen to the longings of the heart and remember the motivations of our service in the first place. Watch the video recording of this talk on YouTube! “Ending on this talk is hopefully something that reminds you that you are more than the work that you do. While your work is so valuable, you are a person and a human first.” -Phebe [01:43] “I think what James gets at here is a level of integration… You take your spirit with you when you protest. You take your spirit with you when you're knocking on doors or drafting that policy or having a conversation around the dinner table, around politics and civic issues.” -Michael [03:03] “Well don't leave your hunger, your longings, unsupervised. Don't allow your longings to be put to one's side. Listen to the longings of the heart. Because if you don't, you will hit what some people have called the wall.” -James [15:15] TIMESTAMPS [00:00] Intro [05:23] Who formed you? [11:32] Black and white vs Color [14:24] Listen to the longings of the heart [19:22] The importance of spiritual formation [23:02] How activists can practice spirituality [28:34] Pray with me [29:47] Outro REFERENCES For the Good of the Public Summit James Catford, founding board chair for the CCPL British Bible Society Theos Renovaré SPCK Publishing Public Life Fellowship The Colour of Time: A New History of the World, 1850-1960 by Dan Jones and Marina Amaral Richard Foster CONNECT WITH US: Website: www.ccpubliclife.org X: @CCPublicLife Facebook: Center for Christianity & Public Life Instagram: @ccpubliclife Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text God is love is more than a comforting phrase, it is God's very nature. In this Buddy Walk with Jesus episode, we unpack what Scripture means by love that starts with God, not our performance (1 John 4:7–18). We explore how His love drives out fear, secures our identity, and reshapes everyday life with Jesus. We walk through Jesus' prayer for real communion with the Father (John 17:3) and the unbreakable assurance of Romans 8:31–39, then contrast “God loves me when…” with “God loves me, therefore…”. You will hear a simple framework, Initiation, Communion, Overflow, and a few accessible practices that move love from head knowledge into lived experience. If you feel worn out, ashamed, or unsure where you stand with God, this conversation will invite you to rest, receive, and become a conduit of love to others. Support the show If you have any questions about the subjects covered in today's episode you can find us on Facebook at the links below or you can shoot me an email at joe@buddywalkwithjesus.com One Stop Shop for all the links Linktr.ee/happydeamedia

In this episode, John Comstock shares how the Discipleship Place supports the Church of the Nazarene by empowering laypeople with free courses and materials for ongoing education. Nate and John discuss the Certificate of Lay Ministry program, which covers key topics like the Old and New Testaments, John Wesley's theology, and Spiritual Formation. John also highlights new courses on mental health, digital discipleship, and addiction recovery. Additionally, he highlights their emphasis on community and relational discipleship through Zoom groups, with plans to expand their global reach by offering their website in multiple languages.   Click to watch the story of Kat Lucille: https://youtu.be/fCMjXARyL6U   To purchase Hope of All the Earth by David Gilmour, click here.   Lifelong Learning Code: 80890 Click here to learn about Lifelong Learning.

On this episode of the Built Different Podcast, we’re joined by Josh Rutledge, Vice President of Spiritual Development at Liberty University. Josh is passionate about equipping the next generation to live out authentic faith in a culture that constantly challenges it. From his leadership on campus to his preaching in Convocation and Campus Community, Josh has a unique vantage point into what God is doing in the lives of young adults today. In our conversation, Josh reflects on the sobering cultural moment we’re living in and how tragic events have stirred both grief and a renewed hunger for truth among students. He shares powerful insights on the revival and spiritual awakening taking place across college campuses, highlighting the ways students are pressing in with a genuine desire to follow Jesus. We also talk about the dangers that threaten faith formation in young adults, the importance of discipleship as a “long obedience in the same direction,” and why spiritual formation requires not just learning about Jesus but also living like Him. Josh unpacks the heart behind Liberty’s “Built Different” sermon series, emphasizing holy habits, community, mentorship, and perseverance as essential to cultivating a resilient faith. Throughout the episode, Josh reminds us that while the challenges of our culture are real, God is at work in extraordinary ways, raising up a generation committed to truth, righteousness, and the gospel. His prayer, and ours, is that students would not only encounter Christ but also embrace a life of deep, lasting formation in Him.

In this series conclusion, John and Blaine Eldredge share a three-part process for gaining clarity on what God wants to draw our attention to in this moment. The goal isn't to focus on everything all at once—or even to get answers—but to grow in intimacy with God in the places he desires to work in our lives.Show Notes: The 3 Categories discussed are 1) Contemplation2) Conversation3) Action. The book referenced is Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation, by M. Robert Mulholland Jr. Find out more about the Pause App here.Apple: One Minute Pause AppAndroid: One Minute Pause App_______________________________________________There is more.Got a question you want answered on the podcast? Ask us at Questions@WildatHeart.orgSupport the mission or find more on our website: WildAtHeart.org  or on our app.Apple: Wild At Heart AppAndroid: Wild At Heart AppWatch on YouTubeThe stock music used in the Wild at Heart podcast is titled “When Laid to Rest” by Patrick Rundblad and available here.More pauses available in the One Minute Pause app for Apple iOS and Android.Apple: One Minute Pause AppAndroid: One Minute Pause App

In our struggles is where God's sanctifying grace meets us. In this message, Dr. Clem Ferris shares 5 things grace does for us in our battles.

We don't become who we are on our own. God shapes us through the people He places in our lives—friends who encourage us, challenge us, forgive us, and help us grow. In this message, Pastor Mark Reynolds explores how authentic, grace-filled relationships draw us closer to God and to one another.Discover why Jesus calls us friends, how our love for God and others are inseparable, and why vulnerability and forgiveness are essential to spiritual growth. Learn how to move beyond surface connections into the kind of friendships where transformation happens.Because the me I want to be grows best when we live as the we God wants us to be.

Thought to share? Send me a text...Drawing on the imagery of trees and their root systems, we explore how our spiritual roots in Christ determine our strength, stability, and fruitfulness in every season of life.• Like trees that bear fruit in their season, our spiritual lives depend on unseen roots that draw strength from Christ• Paul warns against distractions and human logic that pull us away from the fullness found only in Christ• Our completeness comes from Christ alone—no person or achievement can truly complete us• Through baptism and faith, we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection, becoming new creations• Christ's apparent defeat on the cross was actually his triumph over all powers of darkness• Our identity is not defined by our accomplishments or failures, but by the One who lives within us• Growing deep spiritual roots requires continual absorption of God's truth and devotion to himDownload Companion Guide Here: https://betsymarvin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/colossians-companion-guide-without-transcripts.pdfTo find out more about me, or to book a speaking engagement, head to https://betsymarvin.com/For access to past podcasts and transcripts, head tohttps://betsymarvin.com/podcasts/You can follow me on Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/betsyjmarvin/and Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/betsy.marvin.98

On the first Sunday of the next 2 months, we will share a series of talks Rev. Bill Haley offered Christ Church Austin during a retreat they hosted entitled “Spiritual Formation for Kingdom Action.” Taken together, these talks offer a powerful invitation into an integrated and transformed Christian life. In this fourth talk, Bill offers four resources to help us bring his big-picture vision of spiritual formation down to the mundane realities of our lives.Explore Previous Keynotes:I. Contemplatives in the Heart of the WorldII. The Kingdom of God & ShalomIII. Formation Towards Spiritual Maturityinthecoracle.org  |  @inthecoracleSupport the show

In this message, Pastor Jake opens with the call to follow Jesus from Matthew 4:18 to 22, reframing “follow” not as passive observation but as an invitation to apprenticeship, a daily, personal journey of becoming like Christ and doing what He does. Jake explains that Jesus does not choose His disciples based on qualifications or perfection but on their willingness to say yes. Following Jesus means offering every part of our lives to Him, embracing self-denial, and learning to walk in step with His Spirit. It is a call that continues through every season of life, and Jake reminds us that Jesus meets us in the mundane, the messy, and the meaningful. Ryan also shares personal stories of following Jesus through marriage, parenting, and career, showing how apprenticeship to Jesus can shape every corner of ordinary life. Together, the message challenges us to ask not just what we believe, but how we live in response to the ongoing call to follow Him.

All this week we've been looking at David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock's book Faith for Exiles, and the five ministry practices churches and families must pursue to lead kids into life-long faith. The research done by Kinnaman and Matlock indicates that in order to form a lasting faith, we must curb the cultural tendency toward entitlement and self-centeredness by getting our kids engaged in counter-cultural mission. This does not mean that we need to be sure they get involved in a missions trip once or twice a year. Sure, those experiences can be valuable for our kids. But engaging in countercultural mission means living as a faithful presence wherever we are, by trusting God's power and living differently from cultural norms. This means that we bloom for God as His ambassador wherever we are planted. We need to teach our kids to play to his glory, study to his glory, conduct themselves in relationships to his glory, and live every moment to his glory. Let's pray that our kids grow to embrace and live the faith!

Emmanuel and Aaron explore the 4 S's from Intimacy with the Almighty—Simplicity, Silence, Solitude, Surrender—with practical steps you can live this week. Scripture-centered, Indigenous + Christ-focused, and honest about busyness, burnout, and learning to be still before God.

Can Our Enemies Teach Us Anything?   A.J. Swoboda joins the Good Faith podcast to unpack how cultivating a teachable spirit and practicing true discipleship means learning from enemies, strangers, and neighbors in a divided world. He emphasizes how to recognize real experts amid alternate facts and subjective “truths,” and tells how the countercultural practice of learning from anyone—regardless of agreement—fosters humility, empathy, and connection, insights drawn from his book A Teachable Spirit.   (03:11) - Cultivating a Teachable Spirit (09:38) - Reverse Prophecy and Calling Out Your Tribe (17:55) - Experts & Expertise (22:09) - Sola Scriptura vs. “Solo” Scriptura (23:27) - Jesus Would Be the Best At Anything (32:04) - Replacing Our Neighbors With Technology (45:03) - Learning From Enemies   Join The After Party   Send Campfire Stories to: info@redeemingbabel.org   Donate to Redeeming Babel   Mentioned In This Episode: A.J. Swoboda's A Teachable Spirit How John Calvin understood the Ten Commandments Erving Goffman's The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (pdf) More about Fuller Seminary's John Goldengay Roger Kneebone: The Path To Expertise and Why Experts Matter Understanding Erving Goffman's concept of Civil Inattention Dallas Willard's sermon: The Genius of Jesus, part 1 (video) Dallas Willard's Jesus the Logician (article) How Should Pastors Respond to Charlie Kirk's Assassination? (article) Scriptures Referenced: The Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5-7 (ESV) Mark 12:30-31 (ESV) Deuteronomy 10 (ESV) Hebrews 13:2 (ESV)   More From A.J. Swoboda: A.J. Swoboda and Nijay Gupta's The Slow Theology Podcast   A.J. Swoboda's Low Level Theology Substack A.J. Swoboda's The Dusty Ones: Why Wandering Deepens Your Faith  Follow Us: Good Faith on Instagram Good Faith on X (formerly Twitter) Good Faith on Facebook   Sign up: Redeeming Babel Newsletter   The Good Faith Podcast is a production of Redeeming Babel, a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan organization that does not engage in any political campaign activity to support or oppose any candidate for public office. Any views and opinions expressed by any guests on this program are solely those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Redeeming Babel.

Get a sneak peek into the 2025 Church Mental Health Summit in this special preview episode! Host Laura Howe introduces you to five powerhouse speakers—one from each of the Summit's five tracks: Community & Compassion-in-Action, Family & Students, Mental Health & Wellbeing, Healing & Recovery, and Spiritual Formation & Caregiving. With over 50 speakers lined up for this free, global event on October 10, this episode highlights key voices you won't want to miss. Hear impactful clips from Laura Barringer, Kay Warren, Rev. Wen-Pin Leow, Becky Brown, and Dr. Saru Koirala. Whether you've already registered or are just hearing about the summit, this episode will inspire you to engage more deeply in the movement to equip the Church for mental health ministry. Resources Church Mental Health Summit Connect with Hope Made Strong Website: HopeMadeStrong.org Socials: Facebook – Instagram – Twitter – YouTube

Today, on Karl and Crew, we discussed the impact of the gospel on our lives and how it literally changes everything. Rear Admiral Carey Cash joined us to discuss how the gospel impacts the men in the armed forces. Rear Adm. Carey Cash has served as a chaplain to the Marines and is currently a deputy director of Chaplains Religious Enrichment Development Operation, command chaplain to Naval Support Facility Thurmont, Camp David, Maryland; deputy command chaplain at the U.S. Naval Academy, and, most recently, commanding officer, Naval Chaplaincy School in Newport, Rhode Island. He also wrote the book, “A Table in the Presence: The Dramatic Account of How a U.S. Marine Battalion Experienced God’s Presence Amidst the Chaos of the War in Iraq.” You can access the interview with Adm. Carey Cash at the time stamp: [04:16 ]. We were then joined by several familiar faces this morning to discuss how the gospel has impacted their lives. The following guests joined us today, and you can see the timestamps listed for each guest: Phil Kwiatkowski is the President of the Pacific Garden Mission, and he is also a graduate of the Moody Bible Institute (MBI) [18:21 ] Dr. Jim Coakley is a professor of Bible at MBI and is a current elder with 180 Chicago [22:18 ] Dr. Ronnie Floyd is a speaker, author, pastor, and encourager dedicated to helping others, committed to the next generation, and empowering leaders [31:55 ] Chris Baker is the founder of INK 180, a tattoo ministry that reaches those who have been branded against their will, such as sex-trafficking victims. [40:31 ] Dr. Samuel Naaman is the professor of Intercultural Studies at MBI and the vice president of Call of Hope, which reaches muslims for Christ [49:47 ] Dr. Richard Blackaby is the president of Blackaby Ministries International [01:00:23 ] J. Warner Wallace is a Dateline featured cold-case homicide detective, popular national speaker, podcast host, and best-selling author [01:08:30 ] Arlene Pellicane is a speaker, author, and host of the Happy Home podcast [01:17:36 ] Dr. Bill Thrasher has served on the faculty of MBI since 1980 and is the lead professor in the Master’s Program in Spiritual Formation and Discipleship at MBI [01:26:04 ] Dr. Tim Kimmel is one of America’s top advocates speaking for the family today and is the founder and director of Family Matters [01:35:43 ] Greg Dempster is the Founder and Director of ChristLife ministries [01:42:30 ] You can hear the highlights of today's program on the Karl and Crew Showcast. Karl and Crew airs live weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. Central Time. Click this link for ways to listen in your area! https://www.moodyradio.org/ways-to-listen/Donate to Moody Radio: http://moodyradio.org/donateto/morningshowSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why is it that so many ministry leaders—people called to reflect Christ's love—so often end up burned out, disillusioned, or driven by power and platform instead of humility and service? It's heartbreaking when church leadership doesn't “smell like the gospel,” and instead resembles the very systems of profit and self-promotion it should prophetically resist.In this episode, Jason Jensen, Vice President of Spiritual Foundations for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and author of Formed to Lead, unpacks what true spiritual formation for leaders looks like, how to hold humility and faith in tension, and how suffering and the wilderness can become gifts in our ministry.THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Jason Jensen observes that much leadership in the church fails to reflect the gospel and often focuses on power, platform, or profit.Large numbers of Christian leaders experience burnout or moral, character, or spiritual failure, leading to disillusionment among younger generations.Jason Jensen asserts that the Gospel of Luke presents a radically different, subversive vision of leadership, centering the vulnerable and overlooked.Leadership in God's kingdom includes all people, from parents to presidents, and turns conventional power dynamics upside down.Christian leadership requires holding together the paradox of tender humility and bold faith.Jason Jensen describes the spiritual formation of a leader as a lifelong, iterative process marked by failure, repentance, and receiving the love of God.Embracing wilderness seasons—times of pain, failure, or dryness—is essential for spiritual growth and character development.Markus Watson invites Jason Jensen to share from personal experience how suffering shaped his faith and leadership, prompting stories of transformation after injury and failure.Experiencing grief, loss, and mistakes can be some of the most formative experiences for a leader's development and empathy.Depth and authenticity in leadership are formed by embracing—not bypassing—suffering and wilderness experiences.Jason Jensen highlights Steve Hayner's example of leadership, specifically his ability to listen well, include others, and help others feel loved and safe.Steve Hayner practiced “expansive discourse” and adaptive leadership, carrying pain with others and facilitating mutual learning rather than judgment.Sustainable organizational change requires time, patience, and leaders who bring everyone to the table and foster shared purpose.Offering one's life—and even one's death—as a gift to God and others represents the culmination of a spiritual journey, embodying humility, sacrifice, and openness.RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:Jason Jensen:formedtolead.comInstagramXFacebookBooks mentioned:Formed to Lead, by Jason JensenRelated episodes:244. Finding Strength in Desperation, with Mandy SmithSend me a text! I'd love to know what you're thinking!Get Becoming Leaders of Shalom for free HERE.Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

In this episode, hosts Geoff & Cyd Holsclaw talk with Bill and Kristi Gaultiere, founders of Soul Shepherding, and authors of Deeply Loved: Receiving and Reflecting God's Great Empathy for You. The conversation explores the Gaultiers' journey into psychology and ministry, their insights into empathy and emotional intelligence, and their focus on providing resources for emotional and spiritual health. The discussion also touches on fostering healthy attachment with God and others, stewarding empathy, and the importance of integrating care and guidance in ministry.And join us for the FREE Attaching to God Summit (Oct. 14-16). Register Now. FREE Attaching to God SummitBuilding Emotional & Spiritual Health by Attaching to God: Register Free NOWStay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

Episode Overview:"Those of us who find ourselves overly concerned with getting it right or being good, might find ourselves trapped in a net of other people's expectations and just getting tangled into a good old mess."Do you ever feel like your worth depends on applause, success, or being “useful” to others? You might be stuck in the Security Trap—a subtle but powerful mindset that confuses validation with vocation. If you've ever felt guilty pursuing your creative work—or unsure if it “matters”—this episode will help you untangle your calling from the need to please.Up Next:The Happiness Trap – Discover why chasing good vibes and “living your best life” can sabotage your vocation—and how to find joy beyond the high points.Resources for Artists: Download your FREE Vocation Trap Tracker: https://soul-makers.kit.com/traptracker Discover Your Artist Archetype → Take the Free Quiz at soulmakers.org Download the Full Artist Archetypes Guide for deeper insight: www.soulmakers.org/bemakedo Read Samuel Wells' book, Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics Read the article, Vocation's Unbroken Chain: Biblical Call Stories and theExperience of Vocation by Chris Keeton Read the article, Understanding Vocation: Discerning and Responding to God's Call by Don ThompsonConnect & Share: Subscribe to Be. Make. Do. to follow the full Vocation Traps series Share this episode with friends, mentors, or artists in your life Tag us and join the conversation on socials using #VocationTrapsPodcast Join our brand new Instagram Broadcast Channel!

Taylor and Jose sit down with Pastor of Spiritual Formation, Bob Maas, for an conversation on what it means to build a legacy rooted in integrity Christ.

Why do we flee silence for constant busyness? And how can beauty draw us back to God? In this episode of Power & Witness, Fr. Mark speaks with Fr. Christopher Seith, priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC and Coordinator of Spiritual Formation at St. John Paul II Seminary. Together they explore the timeless insights of Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper on acedia (spiritual sloth), wonder, leisure, and beauty—and how these themes open us to reality as a gift and draw us deeper into God's presence. If you've ever felt restless, distracted, or caught in endless activity, this conversation offers a path back to peace, joy, and authentic Christian living.

Today, on Karl and Crew, we discussed the impact of the gospel on our lives and how it literally changes everything. Rear Admiral Carey Cash joined us to discuss how the gospel impacts the men in the armed forces. Rear Adm. Carey Cash has served as a chaplain to the Marines and is currently a deputy director of Chaplains Religious Enrichment Development Operation, command chaplain to Naval Support Facility Thurmont, Camp David, Maryland; deputy command chaplain at the U.S. Naval Academy, and, most recently, commanding officer, Naval Chaplaincy School in Newport, Rhode Island. He also wrote the book, “A Table in the Presence: The Dramatic Account of How a U.S. Marine Battalion Experienced God’s Presence Amidst the Chaos of the War in Iraq.” You can access the interview with Adm. Carey Cash at the time stamp: [04:16 ]. We were then joined by several familiar faces this morning to discuss how the gospel has impacted their lives. The following guests joined us today, and you can see the timestamps listed for each guest: Phil Kwiatkowski is the President of the Pacific Garden Mission, and he is also a graduate of the Moody Bible Institute (MBI) [18:21 ] Dr. Jim Coakley is a professor of Bible at MBI and is a current elder with 180 Chicago [22:18 ] Dr. Ronnie Floyd is a speaker, author, pastor, and encourager dedicated to helping others, committed to the next generation, and empowering leaders [31:55 ] Chris Baker is the founder of INK 180, a tattoo ministry that reaches those who have been branded against their will, such as sex-trafficking victims. [40:31 ] Dr. Samuel Naaman is the professor of Intercultural Studies at MBI and the vice president of Call of Hope, which reaches muslims for Christ [49:47 ] Dr. Richard Blackaby is the president of Blackaby Ministries International [01:00:23 ] J. Warner Wallace is a Dateline featured cold-case homicide detective, popular national speaker, podcast host, and best-selling author [01:08:30 ] Arlene Pellicane is a speaker, author, and host of the Happy Home podcast [01:17:36 ] Dr. Bill Thrasher has served on the faculty of MBI since 1980 and is the lead professor in the Master’s Program in Spiritual Formation and Discipleship at MBI [01:26:04 ] Dr. Tim Kimmel is one of America’s top advocates speaking for the family today and is the founder and director of Family Matters [01:35:43 ] Greg Dempster is the Founder and Director of ChristLife ministries [01:42:30 ] You can hear the highlights of today's program on the Karl and Crew Showcast. Karl and Crew airs live weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. Central Time. Click this link for ways to listen in your area! https://www.moodyradio.org/ways-to-listen/Donate to Moody Radio: http://moodyradio.org/donateto/morningshowSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, on Karl and Crew, we discussed the impact of the gospel on our lives and how it literally changes everything. Rear Admiral Carey Cash joined us to discuss how the gospel impacts the men in the armed forces. Rear Adm. Carey Cash has served as a chaplain to the Marines and is currently a deputy director of Chaplains Religious Enrichment Development Operation, command chaplain to Naval Support Facility Thurmont, Camp David, Maryland; deputy command chaplain at the U.S. Naval Academy, and, most recently, commanding officer, Naval Chaplaincy School in Newport, Rhode Island. He also wrote the book, “A Table in the Presence: The Dramatic Account of How a U.S. Marine Battalion Experienced God’s Presence Amidst the Chaos of the War in Iraq.” You can access the interview with Adm. Carey Cash at the time stamp: [04:16 ]. We were then joined by several familiar faces this morning to discuss how the gospel has impacted their lives. The following guests joined us today, and you can see the timestamps listed for each guest: Phil Kwiatkowski is the President of the Pacific Garden Mission, and he is also a graduate of the Moody Bible Institute (MBI) [18:21 ] Dr. Jim Coakley is a professor of Bible at MBI and is a current elder with 180 Chicago [22:18 ] Dr. Ronnie Floyd is a speaker, author, pastor, and encourager dedicated to helping others, committed to the next generation, and empowering leaders [31:55 ] Chris Baker is the founder of INK 180, a tattoo ministry that reaches those who have been branded against their will, such as sex-trafficking victims. [40:31 ] Dr. Samuel Naaman is the professor of Intercultural Studies at MBI and the vice president of Call of Hope, which reaches muslims for Christ [49:47 ] Dr. Richard Blackaby is the president of Blackaby Ministries International [01:00:23 ] J. Warner Wallace is a Dateline featured cold-case homicide detective, popular national speaker, podcast host, and best-selling author [01:08:30 ] Arlene Pellicane is a speaker, author, and host of the Happy Home podcast [01:17:36 ] Dr. Bill Thrasher has served on the faculty of MBI since 1980 and is the lead professor in the Master’s Program in Spiritual Formation and Discipleship at MBI [01:26:04 ] Dr. Tim Kimmel is one of America’s top advocates speaking for the family today and is the founder and director of Family Matters [01:35:43 ] Greg Dempster is the Founder and Director of ChristLife ministries [01:42:30 ] You can hear the highlights of today's program on the Karl and Crew Showcast. Karl and Crew airs live weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. Central Time. Click this link for ways to listen in your area! https://www.moodyradio.org/ways-to-listen/Donate to Moody Radio: http://moodyradio.org/donateto/morningshowSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, on Karl and Crew, we discussed the impact of the gospel on our lives and how it literally changes everything. Rear Admiral Carey Cash joined us to discuss how the gospel impacts the men in the armed forces. Rear Adm. Carey Cash has served as a chaplain to the Marines and is currently a deputy director of Chaplains Religious Enrichment Development Operation, command chaplain to Naval Support Facility Thurmont, Camp David, Maryland; deputy command chaplain at the U.S. Naval Academy, and, most recently, commanding officer, Naval Chaplaincy School in Newport, Rhode Island. He also wrote the book, “A Table in the Presence: The Dramatic Account of How a U.S. Marine Battalion Experienced God’s Presence Amidst the Chaos of the War in Iraq.” You can access the interview with Adm. Carey Cash at the time stamp: [04:16 ]. We were then joined by several familiar faces this morning to discuss how the gospel has impacted their lives. The following guests joined us today, and you can see the timestamps listed for each guest: Phil Kwiatkowski is the President of the Pacific Garden Mission, and he is also a graduate of the Moody Bible Institute (MBI) [18:21 ] Dr. Jim Coakley is a professor of Bible at MBI and is a current elder with 180 Chicago [22:18 ] Dr. Ronnie Floyd is a speaker, author, pastor, and encourager dedicated to helping others, committed to the next generation, and empowering leaders [31:55 ] Chris Baker is the founder of INK 180, a tattoo ministry that reaches those who have been branded against their will, such as sex-trafficking victims. [40:31 ] Dr. Samuel Naaman is the professor of Intercultural Studies at MBI and the vice president of Call of Hope, which reaches muslims for Christ [49:47 ] Dr. Richard Blackaby is the president of Blackaby Ministries International [01:00:23 ] J. Warner Wallace is a Dateline featured cold-case homicide detective, popular national speaker, podcast host, and best-selling author [01:08:30 ] Arlene Pellicane is a speaker, author, and host of the Happy Home podcast [01:17:36 ] Dr. Bill Thrasher has served on the faculty of MBI since 1980 and is the lead professor in the Master’s Program in Spiritual Formation and Discipleship at MBI [01:26:04 ] Dr. Tim Kimmel is one of America’s top advocates speaking for the family today and is the founder and director of Family Matters [01:35:43 ] Greg Dempster is the Founder and Director of ChristLife ministries [01:42:30 ] You can hear the highlights of today's program on the Karl and Crew Showcast. Karl and Crew airs live weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. Central Time. Click this link for ways to listen in your area! https://www.moodyradio.org/ways-to-listen/Donate to Moody Radio: http://moodyradio.org/donateto/morningshowSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, on Karl and Crew, we discussed the impact of the gospel on our lives and how it literally changes everything. Rear Admiral Carey Cash joined us to discuss how the gospel impacts the men in the armed forces. Rear Adm. Carey Cash has served as a chaplain to the Marines and is currently a deputy director of Chaplains Religious Enrichment Development Operation, command chaplain to Naval Support Facility Thurmont, Camp David, Maryland; deputy command chaplain at the U.S. Naval Academy, and, most recently, commanding officer, Naval Chaplaincy School in Newport, Rhode Island. He also wrote the book, “A Table in the Presence: The Dramatic Account of How a U.S. Marine Battalion Experienced God’s Presence Amidst the Chaos of the War in Iraq.” You can access the interview with Adm. Carey Cash at the time stamp: [04:16 ]. We were then joined by several familiar faces this morning to discuss how the gospel has impacted their lives. The following guests joined us today, and you can see the timestamps listed for each guest: Phil Kwiatkowski is the President of the Pacific Garden Mission, and he is also a graduate of the Moody Bible Institute (MBI) [18:21 ] Dr. Jim Coakley is a professor of Bible at MBI and is a current elder with 180 Chicago [22:18 ] Dr. Ronnie Floyd is a speaker, author, pastor, and encourager dedicated to helping others, committed to the next generation, and empowering leaders [31:55 ] Chris Baker is the founder of INK 180, a tattoo ministry that reaches those who have been branded against their will, such as sex-trafficking victims. [40:31 ] Dr. Samuel Naaman is the professor of Intercultural Studies at MBI and the vice president of Call of Hope, which reaches muslims for Christ [49:47 ] Dr. Richard Blackaby is the president of Blackaby Ministries International [01:00:23 ] J. Warner Wallace is a Dateline featured cold-case homicide detective, popular national speaker, podcast host, and best-selling author [01:08:30 ] Arlene Pellicane is a speaker, author, and host of the Happy Home podcast [01:17:36 ] Dr. Bill Thrasher has served on the faculty of MBI since 1980 and is the lead professor in the Master’s Program in Spiritual Formation and Discipleship at MBI [01:26:04 ] Dr. Tim Kimmel is one of America’s top advocates speaking for the family today and is the founder and director of Family Matters [01:35:43 ] Greg Dempster is the Founder and Director of ChristLife ministries [01:42:30 ] You can hear the highlights of today's program on the Karl and Crew Showcast. Karl and Crew airs live weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. Central Time. Click this link for ways to listen in your area! https://www.moodyradio.org/ways-to-listen/Donate to Moody Radio: http://moodyradio.org/donateto/morningshowSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, on Karl and Crew, we discussed the impact of the gospel on our lives and how it literally changes everything. Rear Admiral Carey Cash joined us to discuss how the gospel impacts the men in the armed forces. Rear Adm. Carey Cash has served as a chaplain to the Marines and is currently a deputy director of Chaplains Religious Enrichment Development Operation, command chaplain to Naval Support Facility Thurmont, Camp David, Maryland; deputy command chaplain at the U.S. Naval Academy, and, most recently, commanding officer, Naval Chaplaincy School in Newport, Rhode Island. He also wrote the book, “A Table in the Presence: The Dramatic Account of How a U.S. Marine Battalion Experienced God’s Presence Amidst the Chaos of the War in Iraq.” You can access the interview with Adm. Carey Cash at the time stamp: [04:16 ]. We were then joined by several familiar faces this morning to discuss how the gospel has impacted their lives. The following guests joined us today, and you can see the timestamps listed for each guest: Phil Kwiatkowski is the President of the Pacific Garden Mission, and he is also a graduate of the Moody Bible Institute (MBI) [18:21 ] Dr. Jim Coakley is a professor of Bible at MBI and is a current elder with 180 Chicago [22:18 ] Dr. Ronnie Floyd is a speaker, author, pastor, and encourager dedicated to helping others, committed to the next generation, and empowering leaders [31:55 ] Chris Baker is the founder of INK 180, a tattoo ministry that reaches those who have been branded against their will, such as sex-trafficking victims. [40:31 ] Dr. Samuel Naaman is the professor of Intercultural Studies at MBI and the vice president of Call of Hope, which reaches muslims for Christ [49:47 ] Dr. Richard Blackaby is the president of Blackaby Ministries International [01:00:23 ] J. Warner Wallace is a Dateline featured cold-case homicide detective, popular national speaker, podcast host, and best-selling author [01:08:30 ] Arlene Pellicane is a speaker, author, and host of the Happy Home podcast [01:17:36 ] Dr. Bill Thrasher has served on the faculty of MBI since 1980 and is the lead professor in the Master’s Program in Spiritual Formation and Discipleship at MBI [01:26:04 ] Dr. Tim Kimmel is one of America’s top advocates speaking for the family today and is the founder and director of Family Matters [01:35:43 ] Greg Dempster is the Founder and Director of ChristLife ministries [01:42:30 ] You can hear the highlights of today's program on the Karl and Crew Showcast. Karl and Crew airs live weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. Central Time. Click this link for ways to listen in your area! https://www.moodyradio.org/ways-to-listen/Donate to Moody Radio: http://moodyradio.org/donateto/morningshowSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

God isn't simply interested in saving you; He wants to have a deep and intimate relationship with you and He's inviting you to experience that with Him.

With so many of our young adults graduating from high school and walking away from the faith, what can we do to lead them to embrace a lasting faith? All this week we're going to look at David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock's book Faith for Exiles, and the five ministry practices churches and families must pursue to lead kids into life-long faith. The research done by Kinnaman and Matlock indicates that in order to form a lasting faith, we must lead our kids into experiencing intimacy with Jesus. This is best done by clearing what they call the religious clutter that so easily sidetracks us. We've been complicit in presenting a Jesus to compete at the same level as our other affinities and affiliations. In addition we've expected way too little from our kids. They are more willing to be challenged than the church is willing to challenge them. And, parents must be living a life of spiritual vitality where they give everything they have and are over to Jesus. Let's lead our kids into a deep and lasting faith.

Thought to share? Send me a text...The Old Testament serves as a divine mystery thriller where God dropped clues about reconciliation with Him through a coming Messiah. In the ultimate plot twist, Jesus—not the expected political warrior-king but a shepherd-rabbi-savior—was revealed as the answer, with His indwelling presence being the great mystery now unveiled for all believers.• The mystery of how sinful humans can reconcile with a perfect God is solved through Jesus• Paul celebrates the struggles believers face as opportunities for spiritual growth• The indwelling of Christ is described as a "heavenly treasure chest of hope"• Christ's presence within us gives access to God's wisdom and knowledge• Understanding God's truth helps believers recognize deceptive arguments• Paul's purpose is that believers be encouraged, united in love, and have full understanding• Knowing Christ is having access to all treasures of wisdom and knowledge"I pray, as Paul did in verse 28 of chapter 1, may your heart awaken to his truth for you. May you all grow in the desire to understand your salvation in Christ and live into the truth."0:00  Welcome to Moments to Ponder0:34  God's Mystery Throughout Scripture2:13  Paul's Message to the Colossians5:16  Christ: Our Message and Purpose8:20  Finding Truth in a World of Lies9:49  Closing Prayer and EncouragementDownload the Companion Guide Here: https://betsymarvin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/colossians-companion-guide-without-transcripts.pdfTo find out more about me, or to book a speaking engagement, head to https://betsymarvin.com/For access to past podcasts and transcripts, head tohttps://betsymarvin.com/podcasts/You can follow me on Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/betsyjmarvin/and Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/betsy.marvin.98

This week, we share a "Space for God" devotional offered by Rev. Bill Haley (Coracle Executive Director). Bill guides us through a reflection on the secret power of our weakness once it has been turned over to God. The bulk of the time is spent in prayerful reflection and listening to "Come Again" by Elevation Worship & Maverick City. If you're feeling weak for any reason, we hope this will be a blessing to you!View Our Complete Archive of “Space for God” Prayer PracticesLearn More About Spiritual Direction through Coracleinthecoracle.org  |  @inthecoracleSupport the show

Explore the Renovaré Book Club - renovare.org/bookclub.---In episode 305 of Life With God, Nathan speaks with Stanley Hauerwas, a theologian with a wide and profound influence. Also joining the show is Tish Harrison Warren (who has written the foreword to a new book showcasing Hauerwas's core ideas) about how Stanley shaped her life and ministry. 

Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message”Ready for a battle plan to navigate today's spiritual warfare? This episode unveils Claymore, a discipleship program rooted in St. John Paul II's teachings that equips men, especially young men, to understand their identity and purpose in a confused world.Jack shares exciting developments for the Claymore apostolate, including an upcoming dedicated platform and handbook divided into 52 weekly "acts" that systematically build spiritual formation and brotherhood. This isn't just another program—it's a roadmap for answering life's fundamental questions: Who am I? What's my purpose? Why are we created male and female? How do I find authentic love?At the heart of Claymore lies the recognition that we're in a spiritual battle fought primarily on the battlefield of the human heart. The episode reviews the Claymore Battle Plan, which addresses Satan's three-pronged attack on individuals, families, and culture. You'll discover practical spiritual disciplines like the "morning solution"—beginning each day in prayer before technology—and learn how temptations can become invitations to deeper spiritual connection.Drawing on Scripture and John Paul II's teachings, Jack explains how our daily choices shape who we become through "self-determination." We don't merely receive formation passively; we co-create ourselves with God's grace through our actions. This understanding cuts through today's moral relativism and offers clarity in confusing times.Whether you're a young man searching for meaning or someone who cares about the next generation, this episode provides both inspiration and practical steps for reclaiming truth and building a culture of life. Join the Claymore journey and discover your role in God's larger story—because the future of our culture depends on warriors with the courage to stand for truth.Here are the links to Read Act 3: Substack  on X https://x.com/JP2RenewalDownload the Claymore Battle Plan https://jp2renew.org/claymore/Contact us: info@jp2renew.orgParable of the Sower and the Weeds and Wheat at Matthew 13:1-30Support the show

In this thought-provoking episode of Thinking Out Loud, Nathan Rittenhouse is joined by Pastor Mike Gehry of Communitas Church to explore the rising interest in Christianity—particularly among young adults—and the theological challenges and opportunities that come with it. Drawing from their seminary days and Mike's expertise in spiritual formation and direction, Nathan and Mike engage in a rich, biblically grounded discussion about pragmatic conversions, cultural Christianity, spiritual disciplines, and the dangers of reducing the Gospel to mere self-help. With insights into the tension between tradition and modern evangelicalism, this episode offers deep encouragement for Christians who crave substance, nuance, and clarity in their walk with Christ. Whether you're a pastor, church leader, or just someone seeking authentic spiritual growth, this conversation will challenge and inspire you to pursue Christlikeness through the power of the Holy Spirit, within the life of the Church, and grounded in Scripture.DONATE LINK: https://toltogether.com/donate BOOK A SPEAKER: https://toltogether.com/book-a-speakerJOIN TOL CONNECT: https://toltogether.com/tol-connect TOL Connect is an online forum where TOL listeners can continue the conversation begun on the podcast.

What do we do when it feels like God isn't on our side? In this episode of Shifting Culture, I talk with Joshua Ryan Butler about his new book God Is On Your Side and the ways he's wrestled with that very question through seasons of heartbreak, illness, and despair. Josh takes us into the Gospel of John, where one-on-one encounters with Jesus become mirrors for our own stories - the paralyzed man, the woman at the well, the man born blind, Lazarus in the tomb. Each scene reveals a God who sees us before we see Him, who calls us beloved, and who can turn even the hardest places into holy places. This conversation is about finding hope in the dark, learning to trust God in uncertainty, and remembering that we are never abandoned.Joshua Ryan Butler is a Teaching Pastor with the Willamette family of churches in the Portland area and the author of God is On Your Side, The Party Crasher, Beautiful Union, The Skeletons in God's Closet, and The Pursuing God. Josh loves shifting paradigms, to help people who wrestle with tough topics of the Christian faith by confronting popular caricatures and replacing them with the beauty and power of the real thing. He and his wife, Holly, along with their three children, live in Portland, Oregon. They enjoy spending time with friends over great meals and exploring the scenic beauty of the Pacific Northwest.Josh's Book:God is On Your SideJosh's Recommendations:Art of MemoirUnbrokenSubscribe to Our Substack: Shifting CultureConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.comGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTubeConsider Giving to the podcast and to the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link belowThe Balance of GrayFaith That Challenges. Conversations that Matter. Laughs included. Subscribe Now!Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the show

Doug Erickson, Thomas Lyons, & Luke Geraty are THE VINEYARDISTS and on this podcast episode, we discuss the implications of Kingdom Theology BEYOND Signs & Wonders, Ecclesiology, and the standard topics within the Vineyard. We especially discuss the Sacraments, Spiritual Formation, and a number of other connecting issues. ❇️ Recommended John Wimber Books ❇️ "Power Healing," by John Wimber (https://amzn.to/2HiA3YV) "Power Evangelism,' by John Wimber (https://amzn.to/2TP6Nyd) "Power Points," by John Wimber (https://amzn.to/31NwqSC) "Everyone Gets to Play," by John Wimber (https://amzn.to/2Z4PJdf) "The Way In is the Way On," by John Wimber (https://amzn.to/2ZdiTCg) ❇️ Recommended Books ABOUT John Wimber ❇️ "John Wimber: The Way it Was," by Carol Wimber (https://amzn.to/2HiUFQJ) "Never Trust a Leader Without a Limp: The Wit and Wisdom of John Wimber," by Glenn Schroder (https://amzn.to/3PtHvSM) "Worshiping with the Anaheim Vineyard: The Emergence of Contemporary Worship," by Andy Park, Lester Ruth, & Cindy Rethmeier (https://amzn.to/31TDm0w) "Toronto in Perspective: Papers on the New Charismatic Wave of the 1990s," edited by David Hilborn (https://amzn.to/2L3nIsP) "John Wimber: His Influence & Legacy," edited by David Pytches (https://amzn.to/2ZfgbfC) || FOLLOW US || Website: https://sacramentalcharismatic.substack.com Luke IG: https://instagram.com/lukegeraty Luke Twitter: https://twitter.com/lukegeraty Wes IG: https://www.instagram.com/wesmac5 Wes Twitter: https://twitter.com/wesmac5 SUPPORT US BY SUBSCRIBING AND CONSIDERING BECOMING A PAID SUBSCRIBER!

From silly phobias to real panic, fear shows up in parenting all the time. Adam, Chelsea, and Cassie talk about crowds, kids going missing for a minute, and the dread of what could happen when we're not there. Then they walk us into Scripture—Isaiah's “fear not,” Jesus lifting Peter out of the waves, the father begging, “help my unbelief,” and a God who literally carries His people. This one's practical, honest, and full of grace for moms and dads who need to breathe and remember: our kids—and our hearts—are in stronger hands.Resources Mentioned:Good News for Parents by Adam GriffinIsaiah 41:10Deuteronomy 1:31Matthew 14:22–33Mark 9:24 – “Help my unbelief.”Luke 15 – The Father's heart.Matthew 6:25–34Psalms of Lament (starter set) – Fear meets faith.Job (opening) Follow Us:Instagram | Facebook | WebsiteEditing and support by The Good Podcast Co. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today on the podcast, we're continuing our series on spiritual formation with a focus on prayer. For many, prayer can feel like a last resort or a quick ritual before meals. But what does it really mean to commune with God in prayer? Prayer is more than words. It's pushing back against the darkness. It shapes our hearts to look more like His, and it moves the needle in ways we can't always see. We're excited to share that Hope Bridge has some incredible prayer opportunities coming up: Prayer Night with Bishop W.C. Martin — Bishop Martin, from Possum Trot, will be joining us to lead a powerful evening of prayer for vulnerable children and families. Hope Bridge Prayer Network — By joining the Prayer Network, you become part of a movement inviting God's presence and power into the lives of children and families in need. As a prayer partner, you'll receive monthly prayer update emails with a Scripture focus, a story, and specific needs; focused prayer prompts that give you a theme each month; and, at times, urgent requests when pressing needs arise. Every prayer matters, and your voice makes a difference. If you're ready to go deeper in prayer and stand with us for vulnerable children and families, find the links for Prayer Night and the Prayer Network below. Episode Highlights:  Spiritual Formation Disciplines Prayer  Prayer Night with Bishop Martin  Join our Prayer Network   Find More on Hope Bridge: Register for Prayer Night with Bishop Martin  Join our Prayer Network  Visit Our Website  Follow us on Instagram Follow us on Facebook  Foster Our Community Instagram