Shows
Patrol Reports41 Cold War Sentinels - USS Samuel Rayburn SSBN-635The USS Sam Rayburn was built for a job no one ever wanted her to do, and that is precisely why she mattered. In the tense years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, American strategy shifted away from spectacle and toward survival. Submarines like Rayburn were designed to vanish beneath the ocean and remain there, unseen and patient, carrying consequences no adversary could ignore. She spent her early life as part of the Forty One for Freedom, conducting long deterrent patrols from the Atlantic to the Arctic, holding the line without fanfare. Then, when treaties and geopolitics reshaped the Navy...
2026-01-0605 min
Practicing Gospel PodcastResilient Agriculture Interview 3 with Dr. Laura Lengnick PGE 109This episode is my third interview with Dr. Laura Lengnick about her book, Resilient Agriculture. In my blogspot for the second interview, at the request of Dr. Lengnick, I clarified that the discussion in the second interview was recorded in June of 2024 before the impact of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina toward the end of September, 2024, and was not a response to that event. However, Dr. Lengnick agreed that at a time which allowed for recovery and healing, some reflection about Resilient Agriculture in light of the event of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina was important and a...
2025-07-281h 25Practicing Gospel PodcastBeLoved Asheville with Amy Cantrell PGE 108In this episode, Amy Cantrell returns to speak of her life’s work and calling.
Amy Cantrell lives in Asheville, North Carolina and is founder and Co-Director of BeLoved Asheville dedicated to creating home, health, equity, and opportunity for all. BeLoved is a community of people putting love into action every day. We bring people from all walks of life together to create innovative solutions to some of the most challenging problems of our time: housing and food insecurity, poverty, lack of healthcare, systemic racism, and climate change. BeLoved’s projects includes: BeLoved Villages of deeply affordable homes; r...
2025-06-021h 45Practicing Gospel PodcastPoet Luci Shaw PGE 107At the age of 96, Luci Shaw is a prolific poet, writer, and editor as well as being a photographer. With 19 volumes of poetry and one on the way, 8 books, and two children’s books, Luci has spent a lifetime sharing her gift and love of writing. Along with her first, now late, husband Harold Shaw, she was a co-founder of Harold Shaw Publishers where she was senior editor and eventually President. She has been an English stylist for the popular Biblical translations and paraphrases The Living Bible, The Message, and Today’s New International Version. Luci has been an adju...
2025-04-2159 minPracticing Gospel PodcastThe Good Neighbor Settlement House Interview PGE 106My guests for this episode introduce us to an updated version a type of organization which has been around since the late 1880s, but which most of us have never heard of or know anything about. The type of organization is a Settlement House. The updated version is modeled in a Settlement House one of my guests founded and the other has helped strengthen and sustain. It is called The Good Neighbor House and is located in Waco, Texas. As my guests will discuss, in its updated version, a Settlement House offers local communities, towns, and cities a resource...
2025-02-2457 minPracticing Gospel PodcastThe Christian Church in Nigeria with Dr. Uche Enyioha PGE 105This episode will be the first in a series that explores how the Church and the Christian faith is doing globally. In each episode I will have a guest from a different country or area to talk about the Christian experience and the Church’s challenges in the place of my guest.
My guest for this episode is Dr. Bennett Uche Enyioha. Dr. Enyioha is an experienced Baptist pastor, author, educator, and leader. He is an Associate Professor, having taught at various theological seminaries and colleges in Nigeria. For ten years he was the president of the Ba...
2024-12-2847 minPracticing Gospel PodcastResilient Agriculture Part 2 with Dr. Laura Lengnick PGE 104As I did in my spoken intro to this episode, I want to begin this blogspot with a clarification. The interviews that have made the two parts and episodes with Dr. Lengnick were done in early June. You may know that beginning September 24 the rain from Hurricane Helene began to come through the area where I live, which is in Black Mountain, North Carolina, just east of Asheville, North Carolina. The primary impact of that event occurred on the night of September 26-27. It was devastating and in many places it was catastrophic. I posted Part 1 on September 24, the...
2024-11-111h 05Practicing Gospel PodcastResilient Agriculture with Dr. Laura Lengnick Part 1 PGE 103In this episode and the next I interview Dr. Laura Lengnick about resilient agriculture. Resilient agriculture is a step beyond sustainable agriculture and is being developed as a correction to industrial agriculture and in response to climate change.
Dr. Lengnick is the author of Resilient Agriculture: Expanded and Updated Second Edition: Cultivating Foods Systems for a Changing Climate. This book will be the basis for these interviews.
Laura is the founder and principal of Cultivating Resilience which works with organizations of all kinds to integrate resilience thinking into assessment, operations and strategic planning. Trained as a...
2024-09-241h 07Practicing Gospel PodcastChoristers Guild Interview PGE 102This episode checks in with Choristers Guild. I began my ministry in church music in the late-1970s and early 1980s, and Choristers Guild was a primary source I turned to for wonderful and high-quality children’s Christian music. Back then, church music was organized around graded choirs and music ensembles. But during the mid-1970s and early 1980s, the “seeker” churches grew rapidly and with them the use of “contemporary” Christian music. During the 1990s “contemporary” Christian music became dominant. The result, often, was the loss of graded choir programs.
In its origins, Choristers Guild had a strong focus...
2024-08-301h 03Practicing Gospel PodcastDemocracy with Jeffrey Stout Part 2 PGE 101This episode is Part 2 of my interview with Jeffrey Stout on democracy.
In Part 1 Dr. Stout explained the different ways democracy has been understood throughout history, he gave us two definitions of liberty and freedom, and he spoke of the seven virtues he believes are essential for citizens to develop in order to participate in maintaining a healthy democracy.
In this episode, Dr. Stout discusses the threats that presently exist to our democracy here in the United States and then develops the roll we have as citizens to respond to these threats and to insuring...
2024-08-0259 minPracticing Gospel PodcastDemocracy with Jeffrey Stout Part 1 PGE 100This episode is Part 1 of my conversation with Professor Jeffrey Stout about our democracy.
There is a broad conviction that our democracy here in the United States is in crisis. In my mind, Dr. Stout is one of the most important scholars of democracy and also one of the best guides for us learning what we, as citizens, need to understand and do to improve our democracy and maintain its thriving.
Dr. Stout is Professor of Religion, Emeritus at Princeton University. He is a theorist and historian of democratic culture. His work is concerned with...
2024-07-1955 minPracticing Gospel PodcastJohn Mabry’s Brutally Honest Christian Music PGE 99This episode is my second interview with John Mabry. In this episode we focus specifically on his music and his newest album, No Stranger. As you will hear in the episode, John has a brain tumor that can be removed, but the result will be that it will make him deaf. So, the airing of this episode of John’s music is especially pertinent and poignant. I am deeply honored and blessed that John reached out to me as one of his last interviews before his surgery. This new album is powerful and has much to teach us about Go...
2024-06-281h 22Practicing Gospel PodcastHow Churches Are Navigating These Times With Dr. Mack Dennis PGE 98This episode is the first of what I hope will be a series of conversations with pastors about how they are leading, guiding, and navigating their churches through current times.
As the Pew Research Center has documented, Christianity in the United States is in decline. Thousands of churches each year are closing. In churches across the nation across the theological and political spectrum, congregations consist of aging members and declining numbers. Sanctuaries are filled to only one fourth to one third of the seating capacity, and much of the entire building space goes unused. The reasons for...
2024-05-311h 10Practicing Gospel PodcastNice Churchy Patriarchy with Liz Cooledge Jenkins PGE 97My guest for this episode is Liz Cooledge Jenkins. In this episode we discuss her book Nice Churchy Patriarchy: Reclaiming Women’s Humanity from Evangelicalism.
Liz is a writer, preacher, and former college campus minister who lives in the Seattle area with her husband Ken and their black cat Athena. After spending thirteen years as a young adult in evangelical communities, Liz is passionate about sorting through inadequate and harmful theologies and learning how to build faith communities that are inclusive, just, and life-giving—for women and for all people.
Liz has a BS in Sy...
2024-04-0158 minPracticing Gospel PodcastWhen Propehts Preach with Dr. Jay Augustine PGE 96In this episode I welcome back Dr. Jonathan “Jay” Augustine to discuss the sequel to his book Called to Reconciliation: How the Church Can Model Justice, Diversity, and Inclusion. You can listen to my interview with Dr. Augustine on that book in episode 89. The sequel is When Prophets Preach: Leadership and the Politics of the Pulpit.
If Called to Reconciliation is about the Church’s responsibility to fulfill its ministry of reconciliation given to it by our God, When Prophets Preach is about the leadership necessary to enable the Church to engage in and seek to achieve its minis...
2024-02-2649 minPracticing Gospel PodcastHymn Writer David Bjorlin Interview PGE 95My guest for this episode is Dr. David Bjorlin. Dr. Bjorlin is a hymn text writer. As an Assistant Professor of Worship at North Park University, David prepares his students for lives of significance and service by guiding and equipping them with practical skills centered around worship. “I believe what and how we worship forms the people we are and the way we interact with the world,” he says. As the assistant chapel coordinator at North Park and the pastor of worship and creative arts at the Resurrection Covenant Church, Bjorlin incorporates his experiences into the classroom by combining theo...
2024-01-221h 05Practicing Gospel PodcastThe Penguin Project with Lisa Jinkins PGE 94One of the things we have gotten wrong for too long has been our understanding of and, consequently, treatment of people with disabilities. Although it is not happening broadly enough or quickly enough, efforts to correct our understanding and our behavior are taking place. One of those efforts is The Penguin Project which is a nation-wide organization and effort to involve people with disabilities in musical theater. My guest for this episode is here to discuss her work with the project.
Lisa Heath Jinkins (Choreographer for Golden Isles Penguin Project in Brunswick, GA) began her...
2023-12-041h 03Practicing Gospel PodcastCenter for Conscious Living and Dying with Dr. Aditi Sethi PGE 93This episode is a continuation of my series on palliative care and end of life issues. My guest is Dr. Aditi Sethi. Dr. Sethi is a hospice and palliative care physician, end-of-life doula, and musician. Featured in the forthcoming film The Last Ecstatic Days, Aditi is an emerging and important voice for shifting our culture’s understanding and approach to dying, death, and bereavement care. Dr. Sethi is the Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Conscious Living and Dying which will formally launch in the near future. The mission of Center for Conscious Living and Dying is to...
2023-10-3028 minPracticing Gospel PodcastStoryteller Gloria Elder PGE 92The reason I feature storytelling as often as I do in this show is because of its capacity as an art form to build bridges between people and connect them, existentially and emotionally to experience the ‘world’ within the story, and thereby existentially and emotionally to experience the lives of others and The Other. Storytelling is a therapy and, as you know from my interviews with Meta Commerce and Mark Yaconelli, a medicine. And it can also be a joyful means of entertainment, fellowship, and communion. It is a way we make sense and meaning of our lives and real...
2023-09-2553 minPracticing Gospel PodcastSage-ing PGE 91There is an increasing awareness of a several things related to aging. One is the fact that modern medicine and health practices are making it possible for people to live longer so that more people are able to live to being senior adults and to do so for a long time. Another is that members of the Baby Boom generation are retiring. A third is that for many people the experience if aging is not a good experience. So, efforts are being made and practices developed to address the present circumstances related to aging. This episode will focus on...
2023-08-1459 minPracticing Gospel PodcastA Cherokee Christian Voice with Dr. Tim Ross PGE 90This episode is a part of a continuing series to enable you to hear the spectrum of American Indian/Native American/Indigenous/First Nations voices, especially in their response to Christianity and its history in the United States.
If you are interested in this interview, you may also be interested in my interview with Dr. Tink Tinker, an Osage man, in Episode 8.
My guest for this episode is The Reverend Dr. Tim Ross. Tim is a close friend of mine. Until Covid, we were in a prayer/conversation group together for over a decade.
2023-07-241h 01Practicing Gospel PodcastCalled to Reconciliation with Dr. Jay Augustine PGE 89My guest for this episode is the Reverend Dr. Jonathan C. Augustine. But that is the name that appears on his books. In his personal relationships, Dr. Augustine goes by Jay.
Dr. Augustine serves as senior pastor of St. Joseph AME Church, in Durham, NC, and as general chaplain of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. He is an accomplished author, respected academic leader, and nationally recognized social justice advocate who speaks for the equality of all human beings. Prior to Dr. Augustine’s current pastoral service, he led Historic St. James AME Church (1844), in downtown New Orleans, th...
2023-06-1955 minPracticing Gospel PodcastCartoon Animation Creator Jim Jinkins PGE 88My guest for this episode is Jim Jinkins. Jim is a progressive Christian who is an American animator, cartoonist, and children’s book author. He is most notably known for his animated character, Doug. Jim is here to tell us the story of his career and work in creating and producing children’s educational animation series and writing children’s books and to talk about how he has integrated his work and his faith.
You can learn more about Jim from his Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jinkins
His IMDB page:
2023-05-2955 minPracticing Gospel PodcastMusical Morphine with Robin Russell Gaiser PGE 87My guest for this episode is Robin Russell Gaiser. Robin is a Certified Music Practitioner who, for over sixteen years, offered live acoustic bedside music to the critically and chronically ill, elderly, and dying in hospitals, hospices, rehabs, and nursing and private homes. She gives us in-depth insight into her experiences in her wonderful book, Musical Morphine: Transforming Pain One Note at a Time which won a Best American Book award in 2017 and was the subject of a TEDx Talk in 2018.
As a Christian, Robin has understood her work as a ministry and has been shaped and g...
2023-04-1750 minPracticing Gospel PodcastStorycatcher Mark Yaconelli PGE 86My guest for this episode is Mark Yaconelli.
Mark Yaconelli is a writer, retreat leader, community builder, spiritual director, storycatcher, husband, and father. He is the founder and executive director of The Hearth. Previously, he co-founded and served as program director for the Center for Engaged Compassion where he helped develop a unique set of practices and training programs for assisting individuals, organizations, and communities in cultivating compassion.
He is the author of six books including Between the Listening and the Telling: How Stories Can Save Us (Broadleaf, 2022), which is the primary basis for this int...
2023-04-0345 minPracticing Gospel PodcastHymns of Adam Tice PGE 85In this episode my guest, Adam Tice, share with us two of his hymns and talks with us about his work.
Adam was named a Lovelace Scholar by the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada. He served as a member of the Society’s executive committee from 2007 to 2010. He was Associate Pastor of Hyattsville (Maryland) Mennonite Church from 2007 to 2012. Adam now lives with his family in Goshen, Indiana. He is text editor for the 2020 Mennonite hymnal, Voices Together. In early 2020 he joined GIA as Editor for Congregational Song. Adam also leads workshops in writing congregational so...
2023-03-2057 minPracticing Gospel PodcastLocal Economics PGE 84One of the things I have recently learned it that there isn’t just capitalism and socialism, but different kinds of capitalism and different kinds of socialism. In addition, there are alternatives to both of these approaches to economics, like ecological or steady state economics. Some forms of capitalism work better that others. Some forms of socialism work better that others.
What is clear, is that the ways we have done and are continuing to do capitalism in the United States has significant problems. So there are innovative experimentations happening in this country to provide alternative capitalisms. Am...
2023-03-0752 minPracticing Gospel PodcastHospice Care Ministry PGE 83Hospice care and palliative care are closely related and sometimes overlapping, but both of these areas of medical care still greatly misunderstood. This episode focuses on hospice care. For a better understanding of this important and vital ministry and form of care I turn to the Reverends Leah Brown, Kelly Belcher, and Jody Griffin.
Leah Brown is Associate Pastor, Pastoral Care at First Baptist Church, Asheville, North Carolina. She joined the FBCA staff in 2008 and was ordained in 2010. She coordinates and provides pastoral care for the congregation. Leah graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from UNC-Asheville. S...
2023-02-061h 01Practicing Gospel PodcastPalliative Care with Dr. Caroline Knox PGE 82In this episode, my guest, Dr. Caroline Knox, helps us understand palliative care as a developing area in medical care.
Dr. Knox is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She trained in Family Medicine at St. Mary’s Family Medicine Residency in Grand Junction, CO. She was a general practitioner in New Zealand before pursuing further training in Palliative Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. Dr. Knox has practiced palliative medicine at Mission Hospital since moving to Asheville with her family in 2014.
The intro and outro music fo...
2023-01-101h 00Practicing Gospel PodcastThe Mosley’s Music PGE 81I had interviewed Stephen and Rachel Mosley as a part of the Foundling House Interview (PGE 33) and wanted to do a full episode on their music.
Rachel and Stephen Mosley met in a freshman year high school geography class sometime late last century. Married for twenty years, they’ve just recently begun to write and perform their own earthy, soft brand of folk, and to share it beyond their own front porch. Their music is heavily influenced by whatever they’re reading – Flannery O’Connor, Wendell Berry, and G.K. Chesterton are favorites – as well by their five wild and...
2022-12-121h 06Practicing Gospel PodcastThe Writer and the Cross with Darren Middleton PGE 80A native of Nottingham, England, Dr. Darren J. N. Middleton received his Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from the University of Manchester, his Master of Philosophy in Modern Christian Doctrine from the University of Oxford, and his Ph.D. in Literature and Theology from the University of Glasgow.
After teaching five years at Rhodes College and a 24 year tenure at Texas Christian University, Dr. Middleton is now Professor of Literature and Theology at and Director of Baylor University’s Baylor Interdisciplinary Core (BIC). He is here to share with us some of the range of his wo...
2022-11-281h 25Practicing Gospel PodcastChristians in Social Work Academic Panel PGE 79This episode is the second interview with and about Christians in social work. The last episode focused upon the practitioners perspective. This episode focuses on the academic perspective. I am honored to have as my guests for this conversation Dr. Tanya Smith Brice, Dr. Jon E. Singletary, and Dr. Laine Scales.
Tanya is Vice President of Education at the Council on Social Work Education. Previously, she served as the Dean of the College of Professional Studies at Bowie State University and the Dean of the School of (Education) Health and Human Services at Benedict College.
She...
2022-11-141h 10Practicing Gospel PodcastChristians in Social Work Practitioners Panel PGE 78The teaching of Jewish and Christian scripture, and for Christians, particularly the example and teachings of Jesus, Paul, and the first writers of Christian scripture have emphasized the mandate to care for people. Some of the roots of the caring efforts of social work are in the Jewish/Christian tradition. There is much parallel and overlap between social work and Judaism and Christianity. Some of Christianity’s most important and effective ministries are done by Christians in social work.
This episode and the next seeks to give us a better understanding of social work and its relationship wi...
2022-10-311h 13Practicing Gospel PodcastPrison Chaplains Interview PGE 77In this episode I have a conversation with those who are or have been prison chaplains. They get us started into understanding the nature and experience of the prison and ministry within that context. My guests are the Reverends Carol Sasser Dalton, Nancy Hastings Sehested, and Jody Griffin.
For the past fifteen years, Carol has been and continues to be chaplain at Western (formerly Swannano) Correctional Center for Women in Swannanoa, North Carolina. Although she works within the prison system, she is employed by the nonprofit Ministry of Hope. In addition to work in the prison, Carol...
2022-10-171h 00Practicing Gospel PodcastLumbee Author and Poet Dana Lynell Lowery Interview PGE 76My guest for this episode is Lumbee author, poet, librarian, and American Indian activist Dana Lynell Lowery. Dana is the author of Poems and Hollers from a Candy Apple Indian, Strong Like Rhoda: Exploring Female Power in the Lumbee Tribe, and Lumbee Herstory. You can learn more about Dana from her website:
https://candyappleindian.com
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Port...
2022-10-031h 01Practicing Gospel PodcastBJC 3 with Jennifer Hawks PGE 75This episode is a continuation of my efforts to make you aware of issues relating to religious freedom and to the work of the BJC. I welcome back Jennifer Hawks. The cases Jennifer discusses are Ramirez vs Collier, Shurtleff vs Boston, Carson vs Makin, and Kennedy vs Bremerton. She also continues to discuss the BJC’s efforts in addressing Christian Nationalism. Jennifer speaks on the BJC’s report on the relationship between Christian Nationalism and the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Lastly, Jennifer discusses the efforts to get Congress to pass a bill relating to the preservation of Oak Flats.
To l...
2022-09-1948 minPracticing Gospel PodcastJubilee Partners with Don Mosley PGE 74My guest for this episode is Don Mosley. Don has had and continues to have an amazing and vital ministry as a peacebuilder and care giver that has made the world a better place because it has made Christians and the Church more Christ-like because of the models he, his wife, Carolyn, and those with him have provided for living faithfully as followers of our Lord Jesus Christ and as citizens of God’s kingdom.
Although not the founder, Don has had integral involvement and leadership in the development of Habitat for Humanity. He and his wife are...
2022-09-0557 minPracticing Gospel PodcastOwnership Matters with Elias Crim PGE 73My continuing interest in making you aware, my dear listeners, of alternatives to the growth economies of various free market capitalisms and state socialisms/communisms, I have focused to this point on Ecological or Steady State economics. In this episode I branch out and introduce you to the numerous efforts being called the solidarity economy. To do this, I have as my guest, Elias Crim. Elias provides a broad and general overview of many of the concepts and practices involved with this emerging economy. Hopefully, future episodes will look more in depth at specific approaches.
Elias earned...
2022-08-2255 minPracticing Gospel PodcastPoet Dr. Mischa Willett Interview PGE 72My guest for this episode is Dr. Mischa Willett.
Dr. Willett is the author of two critically-acclaimed books of poetry: The Elegy Beta and Phases, and is editor of Philip James Bailey’s epic Festus. He teaches in the English Department at Seattle Pacific University and in its MFA program in Creative Writing. He is a specialist in British Literature of the Nineteenth-Century, particularly the poetry of writers such as William Wordsworth, Percy Shelley, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, though he often teaches Shakespeare and the History of Drama as well. Recently, his interest in the aesthetic movements of...
2022-08-081h 04Practicing Gospel PodcastMeta Commerse Interview 2 Her Memoir PGE 71In this episode Meta Commerse returns as my guest to discuss her fifth book, her memoir, Womaning.
Meta Commerse is a Blues Doula. A former professor of History and English, she’s an award-winning author. Among her works are short stories, essays, poetry, numerous newspaper articles, one stage play, her story medicine novel, “The Mending Time,” and now her memoir, with more to come. She earned her MFA degree at Goddard College in Vermont. Meta is a social entrepreneur, creator of Story Medicine Worldwide, a community-based healing movement. She is a performing artist, singing jazz, blues, and gospel...
2022-07-2552 minPracticing Gospel PodcastBob Ekblad Interview PGE 70In this episode I interview Bob Ekblad about the work he and his wife, Gracie, have been and are doing and we talk about some of his books.
Bob and Gracie Ekblad are founders and co-directors of Tierra Nueva (New Earth) in Burlington, Washington. Together they minister at Tierra Nueva and at their home-based retreat center New Earth Refuge in the Skagit Valley. As Directors of Tierra Nueva, Bob and Gracie work together with a team of staff and volunteers to serve immigrants from Latin America, inmates, homeless people and people struggling with addictions. In addition to Tier...
2022-07-1155 minPracticing Gospel PodcastJanna Barber Interview PGE 69In this episode, I welcome back Janna Barber to discuss her book, Hidden in Shadow: Tales of Grief, Lamentations, and Faith, and to have her read and discuss more of her poems. Janna was a guest when in interview participants in Foundling House back in Episode 33.
Janna Barber is a teller of stories, a writer of poems, and a lifelong member of the tribe of humanity. The grown-up daughter of a Baptist preacher and his Southern Belle wife, she’s now married to a pastor and living with two of their three kids in Knoxville, Tennessee. She is...
2022-06-2754 minPracticing Gospel PodcastTraditional Chinese Medicine and Ethics with Dr. Janette Engelbrecht PGE 68Western approaches to knowledge have been called into question due to the legacies of European colonialism and white supremacy and Western conceptions of reality and the universe have been transformed by the advent or relativity and quantum physics. These challenges have influenced not only Western science in general, but Western medicine in particular. The revealed limits of Western medicine have resulted in indigenous and Eastern alternatives, once dismissed and marginalized, being given new consideration. Consequently there has been a significant growth in the practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). But with the increase...
2022-06-1348 minPracticing Gospel PodcastLena Epps Brooker Interview PGE 67In my mind, there are two major atrocities at the historical roots of our nation that created legacies with which we are still dealing to this day. One was the enslavement of African peoples and, after slavery was brought to an end, the subsequent segregation and continued oppression of black people through the Jim Crow laws. The other was the displacement, genocide, and forced assimilation of the Americas’s indigenous peoples–the Native American/American Indian peoples.
A good deal of justifiable attention has been given to understanding and addressing racism directed toward black Americans. Not enough atte...
2022-05-301h 06Practicing Gospel PodcastCritical Race Theory with Kendall Thomas PGE 66My understanding is that in order to understand Critical Race Theory accurately one should begin with the seminal work, Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement, authored and edited by Kimberlé Crenshaw, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller, and Kendall Thomas.
Especially since June of 2021, the political and Christian Right has chosen to target Critical Race Theory as harmful to the democracy and culture of the United States. Over 22 states have passed or are considering passing laws that prohibit the teaching of Critical Race Theory.
Based on what I have read from the ‘The Key...
2022-05-161h 10Practicing Gospel PodcastIrie Price Interview–Race, Culture, and Wellness PGE 65Irie Price is a writer, blogger, and stakeholder engagement consultant interested in asking questions that lead to growth. The author of the blog, WELL, Irie believes hearing other people’s stories is a powerful way of understanding our own. That is why her work and blog explore race, culture, and wellness through the power of personal narrative.
You can learn more about Irie and read her blog at her website:
https://irieprice.com/
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come...
2022-05-0250 minPracticing Gospel PodcastInterview with Lyricist Mel Bringle and Composer Sally Ann Morris PGE 64This episode is part of one of my ongoing series I call “Christian Music Not Played On Christian Radio.” The purpose of the series is heighten awareness that although traditional Christian music may no longer be the dominant music style experienced in Christian Churches in the United States, the composition of new music in the traditional forms of hymns and anthems is thriving.
In this episode we get the pleasure of experiencing the fruit of a long and wonderful partnership between lyricist, Dr. Mary Louise, ‘Mel,’ Bringle and composer Sally Ann Morris. Much of their music is intended...
2022-04-181h 17Practicing Gospel PodcastRabbi Joseph A. Edelheit Interview Peacebuilding 8 PGE 63Peacebuilding, social justice, and bridge building all overlap and interweave. My guest for this episode exemplifies the desire and quest for all three of these.
The Rabbi Dr. Joseph A. Edelheit has been a long-time activist in interfaith dialogue. He is Emeritus Professor of Religious and Jewish Studies at St. Cloud State University (St. Cloud, Minnesota) where he initiated and facilitated the transition of a Religious Studies program from a minor in the Philosophy Department to an independent college level program in the College of Liberal Arts, and worked in the surrounding communities on issues of anti-Semitism...
2022-04-041h 05Practicing Gospel PodcastJohn R. Mabry Interview PGE 62There are folks who approach faith creatively. They use their gifted intelligence and artistry to explore the Mystery, the Divine, the Sacred, God. In doing so, they often have profound encounters. When they are gracious to share with us their experiences and learnings they provide us with resources for our own journeys that enable us to understand and experience the Holy more deeply and fully. They provide insights, guidance, and wisdom that equip and empower us. One such explorer is my guest for this episode, The Reverend Dr. John R. Mabry.
John is an author, songwriter, spiritual...
2022-03-211h 02Practicing Gospel PodcastDavid Lamotte Interview Peacebuilding 7 PGE 61My guest for this episode is David LaMotte. David is an internationally know musician, speaker, writer, and peacebuilder. The best access to all that David has done and is doing–his twelve cds, his three books, the store, videos of his speaking engagements and performances, his calendar and touring information, and the means of contacting his–is his website:
https://www.davidlamotte.com/
Fuller bio information about David is here:
https://www.davidlamotte.com/about/
Two of the projects we discuss in the interview that David is involved in and helped crea...
2022-03-071h 04Practicing Gospel PodcastMedical Ethics with Mary Caldwell PGE 60When folks think about ethics common thoughts relate either to decisions about daily behaviors or to university philosophy or theology departments developing and discussion the merits of various ethical theories. There are organizations where the daily activity so regularly bears on ethical situations that they employ ethicists to help the organization navigate decisions that must be made regarding ethically infused contexts. One such type of organization is the hospital and one such context is medicine and medical ethics.
My guest today is The Reverend Mary Caldwell. Reverend Caldwell was a chaplain and clinical ethicist for thirty years...
2022-02-2159 minPracticing Gospel PodcastThe Jesus Worldview Initiative with John Pierce PGE 59In this episode, Dr. John Pierce explains the Jesus Worldview Initiative and offers it as an alternative to the ‘Biblical worldview’ as defined by Conservative evangelicals. In doing so, John is enabling those participants in the Jesus Worldview Initiative to provide a counter-voice to a position that is compatible with the growth of Christian nationalism, and to provide another means of being a passionate and faithful Christian.
Dr. Pierce is Executive Editor/Publisher for Good Faith Media — formed in 2020 by combining the resources of two nonprofits, Nurturing Faith and EthicsDaily. In this role he continues to serve as edit...
2022-02-0734 minPracticing Gospel PodcastDan Stiver on White Evangelicals and Donald Trump PGE 58The election of Donald Trump was surprising, but, once people began to explain why they voted the way the did, it became understandable. What hasn’t been understandable, however, is the subsequent devotion to him by white evangelicals. His past and continuing lifestyle is so at odds with the things white evangelicals have publicly professed to value. This devotion seems different from the type of hero status given to President Reagan or the support given to any incumbent Republican president considered the most likely to advance the Christian Republican religious and political agenda. The devotion being expressed goes beyond th...
2022-01-241h 05Practicing Gospel PodcastRacial Healing 5 with Benjamin Boswell PGE 57One of the most important lessons I have learned from Meta Commerse is the importance of white people telling their own race story. A significant part of the problem with our ability as white people to fulfill that task is due to the truth that because we are so conditioned by our white-dominated culture, we both don’t tend to think about ourselves as having a race story and don’t know how to go about telling our own race story. Gentle and wise guides like Meta have been helping us white folks learn to do that for over 25 year...
2022-01-101h 03Practicing Gospel PodcastArun Gandhi Interview Peacebuilding 6 PGE 56Mohandas (know by the honorific, ‘Mahatma,’ meaning ‘great-souled’) Gandhi is one of humanity’s great figures in making the world better. His lifestyle and teachings of nonviolence and his leadership in non-violent resistance has brought great change, especially in India. Many have followed Gandhi’s methods–The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the United States being a significant example–so that his influence is global.
What is not as well know is that Gandhi’s children and their families and his grandchildren and their families have continued his work and carried it forward. One of those grandchildre...
2021-12-2757 minPracticing Gospel PodcastNovelist Jeanine Joyner PGE 55My guest for this episode is novelist Jeanine Joyner. If you have been listening to podcast, you may remember Jeanine from my interview with the folks of Foundling House in episode 33.
Christians who are artists understand the relationship between their art and their faith in different ways and perceive the purpose of their art in different ways. Exploring this relationship between a particular Christian’s art and that Christian’s faith is a significant part of my interest in interviewing the Christians who are artists that I do.
Jeanine’s novel is Paper Dolls: Trust Your In...
2021-12-1355 minPracticing Gospel PodcastDecolonizing Worship 2 PGE 54This episode is the second in a two-part interview on decolonizing worship. My guests are again Becca Whitla, Marcell Silva Steuernagel, and Brian Hehn.
In the first episode we talked about the importance of decolonizing worship as beginning steps for Christians and churches to repent of the Church’s complicity in creating, promoting, and perpetuating colonial imperialism and white male supremacy, and also as a means of helping the church regain its relevance in an age of post-Christendom. The focus was upon understanding how the legacy of colonial imperialism and white male supremacy influences what happens each Su...
2021-11-2959 minPracticing Gospel PodcastDecolonizing Worship 1 PGE 53Among the great evils of human history has been colonial imperialism and the rise of white male supremacy. The terrible legacy of these two interwoven realities still continues. Tragically and shamefully for the Church and Christianity, is that in a twisted and perverted logic that was and is a contradiction to the Gospel, the Church has played and continues to play a fundamental role in the creation, propagation, affirmation, support, and maintenance of that legacy. The Legacy permeates all aspects of Western culture and its relationships globally.
In my mind the consequence of The Legacy has contributed...
2021-11-1559 minPracticing Gospel PodcastBeyond Hashtag Activism with Mae Elise Cannon PGE 52This episode is my second interview with The Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon. As I say in my spoken introduction, Dr. Cannon is a peacebuilder, advocate, author, and speaker. She is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Covenant Church. She has two doctorates and multiple degrees in areas as diverse as history, bioethics, business, ministry. Currently she is Executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace.
In Episode 13 of this podcast I interviewed Mae on her book, Social Justice Handbook: Small Steps to a Better World. In this episode I interview her on her latest book, Beyond...
2021-11-0149 minPracticing Gospel PodcastYouth Ministry Interview with Laura Addis PGE 51Regardless of where a church is on the theological and political spectrum, all churches have always been interested in and concerned about youth. There are many reasons for this that exist at the same time and with varying degrees of intensity. As volunteer organizations, churches know that their survival depends on the continual and prolonged inclusion of new people. Churches also know that the age-range from middle school through college is when people are most receptive to the Gospel. Churches also have the desire to provide pastoral care to all within their ministries, including young people.
However...
2021-10-181h 01Practicing Gospel PodcastChristian Futurist Thomas Bandy Interview PGE 50My guest for this episode is Dr. Thomas Bandy. Tom was part of a panel discussion on Alternative Lectionaries in PGE 21 of this podcast. At the time, Tom noted that his consideration of the usefulness of lectionaries had been modified since he published his on alternative lectionary in Introducing The Uncommon Lectionary: Opening The Bible to Seekers and Disciples. His coming to understand the significance of demographic and life-style research and adaptive ministry had created a shift in his thinking.
Tom has graciously agreed to return as a guest to help us understand the importance of these d...
2021-10-0400 minPracticing Gospel PodcastNovelist Terry Roberts Interview PGE 49I love interviewing artists and having conversations about the arts not just because I love the arts but know, despite opinions by some to the contrary, that the arts are vehicles of truth and provide the means of insights and understanding about reality, ethics, faith, worldview, beauty, the quest for meaning, and all manner of other important issues and questions. The arts have been and are an integral part of every people group and civilization I know. Of course, as a Christian, I am especially interested in the way the Christian faith and the arts interweave.
To...
2021-09-201h 00Practicing Gospel PodcastGIA Music and Social Justice PGE 48One might think that an interview with a couple of editors of a music publishing company might be an episode targeted only to a select audience, but, to the contrary, decisions made by such publishers can be worthy of national news. In my interview with the deans of three theological schools, when I asked what is going on in theological education presently, Dr. Karen Massey described the situation as a reckoning. There are several causes of that reckoning, but one of the significant causes is the need to confront and address the centuries long legacy and impact of colonial...
2021-09-061h 04Practicing Gospel PodcastMichael Budde Interview PGE 47Dr. Michael L. Budde is Professor of Catholic Studies and Political Science at DePaul University, where he also serves as Senior Research Scholar in the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology (CWCIT). His research explores the intersections of ecclesiology, political economy, and culture. Much of his contemporary research flows from the work of DePaul’s Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology, a research center focusing on Catholicism in the so-called global South and as a worldwide religious community. Mike serves the Center as a senior research professor, and, with his colleagues, hosts visiting scholars from Africa, Asia, La...
2021-08-2355 minPracticing Gospel PodcastPandemic Lessons with Guy Sayles PGE 46With the significant decline in the numbers of people calling themselves ‘Christian,’ and the closing of thousands of churches each year in the United States, a lot of us who are Christians across the theological spectrum are asking the questions, “What is God doing? How and where is God moving, especially in God’s church?”
In Amos 3:7-8, the prophet Amos declares, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?” I like the way the Americ...
2021-08-0953 minPracticing Gospel PodcastA Widow’s Tale with Donna Marie Todd PGE 45For those of you who have been listening to this podcast from its beginning, you know Donna Marie Todd as a storyteller. She was one of the first people who graciously and generously gave her time and talent to allow me to interview her or him. Donna Marie introduced us to the wonderful art of Biblical Storytelling, and that art has been an ongoing series for me as I continue to interview Biblical Storytellers. The link to that side of Donna Marie’s life can be found here:
http://www.donnamarietodd.com/
And the link to...
2021-07-2644 minPracticing Gospel PodcastPeacebuilding 5 Rob Sellers PGE 44What does it mean to be a Christian peacebuilder and peacemaker? In addition to the capacity and willingness to listen to others with caring, compassion, and respect, it also involves Christians asking themselves questions about what God wants of us and how we understand our relationship to others who are not Christian. These questions extend to further questions about the practices throughout Christian history of Christian misssions and evangelism.
It has been these sorts of questions that have occupied the spiritual journey of my guest for this episode.
Robert (Rob) P. Sellers was a teacher...
2021-07-1254 minPracticing Gospel PodcastThe State of Theological Education 2021 Part 2 PGE 43This episode is Part 2 of a conversation with Dean Emilie Townes of Vanderbilt Divinity School, Dean Kelly Brown Douglas of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary, and Associate Dean Karen Massey at Mercer University McAfee School of Theology on the state of theological education. Throughout the conversation, we have been using Willie James Jennings’s book, After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging, as a reference. Dr. Jennings is the former dean of Yale Divinity School.
In Part 1, my guests told of their own experiences in theological education and in taking on leadership responsibility for an ins...
2021-06-2858 minPracticing Gospel PodcastThe State of Theological Education 2021 Part 1 PGE 42All Christians should be interested in what is going on in institutions that train people for Christian ministry because what happens in those institutions–how people are trained and what they are taught–finds it way, for good or not, into churches.
Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s there was such dissatisfaction with theological education that the stirrings of an extensive and extended conversation about what was wrong and what needed to be done had begun. The first significant work of that conversation to appear in print was Vanderbilt theologian Edward Farley’s Theologia: The Fragme...
2021-06-2247 minPracticing Gospel PodcastNew Songs of Celebration Render with Michael Hawn PGE 41In this episode, I have invited back as my guest Dr. C. Michael Hawn. Michael is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Church Music and Adjunct Professor and Director of the Doctor of Pastoral Music Program in the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX and was one of my professors during my church music training at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
In the book he compiled, edited, and co-authored with a team of outstanding church music scholars (James Abbington, Emily R. Brink, Kathleen Harmon, Lim Swee Hong, Deborah Carlton Loftis...
2021-06-071h 06Practicing Gospel PodcastDemocracy 1 with Gary Peluso-Verdend PGE 40This episode will be the first in a new series on democracy. In the United States, democracy is the way our cities, counties, states, and nation is governed. In many faith groups democracy is the way the faith community is governed. Democracy has provided such a vision for change both in our nation and around the world, we have a hard time imagining anyone raising questions about it or its value. Yet there are different voices that still have much to say about democracy, some of it critical.
American Indian scholars argue that the lack of acknowledgement...
2021-05-2559 minPracticing Gospel PodcastUntangling the Opioid Crisis with Wayne Smith PGE 39In 2017 The United States Department of Health and Human Services declared a public health emergency concerning the epidemic of opioid addiction. That epidemic has greatly increased and, consequently, made terribly worse because of the Covid-19 Coronavirus disease pandemic. However, attention to the opioid epidemic was diverted due to the Covid-19 crisis. It is vital that we as the general public have a deeper and more expansive awareness of this disease so that we have the information and can seek the training that will help fight this epidemic.
There are few people better to help us understand this...
2021-05-101h 03Practicing Gospel PodcastBJC 2 with Jennifer Hawks PGE 38The final year of the Trump administration and the beginning of the Biden administration has seen a flurry of issues bearing on religious liberty. There were two cases before the Supreme Court, one, Tanzin vs Tanvir, upon which the court ruled and another, Fulton vs The City of Philadelphia, the ruling of which is still pending. There was a new justice, Amy Barrett, appointed to the Supreme Court after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The riot on the capital on Jan. 6th exposed a rooting in and connection with Christian Nationalism. On the first day of the Biden...
2021-04-2656 minPracticing Gospel PodcastPeacebuilding 4 Chaplain Rabia Terri Harris PGE 37Within the context of our nation at this time, our perceptions of Islam are driving our greatest fears. Islam is the subject of deep misinformation, misunderstanding, and political distortion. As the result, few of us have an accurate understanding of Islam or are aware that there are broad-based efforts and many Muslim activists in peacebuilding throughout the Muslim communities around the world. Consequently, it is vital, in my mind, that we hear often from the voices of Muslim peace workers. There is no better place to start than with my guest for this episode.
Chaplain Rabia Terri...
2021-04-1256 minPracticing Gospel PodcastTao Te Ching Translation Interview with Marc Mullinax PGE 36As. early as one hundred years after the time of Jesus and the first generations of Christians, Christian thinkers recognized that Jewish Christian Scripture was not exhaustive in its claim to knowledge and there was insight and wisdom into the way and truth of things in non-Christian sources. While there have always been objections on the part of some Christians to doing so, as Tertullian’s famous question, ‘What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?’ indicates, the predominance of Christian thinkers have drawn from, incorporated into their thinking, build upon the ideas of, and felt the need to respond to the...
2021-03-2948 minPracticing Gospel PodcastThe Hymn Society Interview 1 PGE 35From the beginning of the Church on the day of Pentecost just after our Lord ascended back to God, congregational singing and, in particular, hymns have been a part of Christian worship. Two of Christianity’s earliest documents, the New Testament letters to the Ephesians and Colossians, use the same trilogy of words to describe the music of Christian worship. Ephesians 5: 18-19 (NRSV) reads, ‘…but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts…’ Colossians 3:16 (NRSV) reads, ‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you richl...
2021-03-1556 minPracticing Gospel PodcastThe Race Relations Station PGE34Part of the outgrowth of Meta Commerse’s work in racial healing is the development of The Race Relations Station. The Race Relations Station is a community action project which has the vision of a well, diverse, and just community and has as its mission racial healing and relationship building through story.
In this episode my guests, Liz Huesemann and Father Dennis Fotinos, introduce us to The Race Relations Station, its beginnings, and its ongoing work.
As I say in the episode, healing work is a form and part of peace work. For those of us...
2021-03-0149 minPracticing Gospel PodcastThe Art of Foundling House PGE33My guests for this episode are the creators and editors of and some of the artists who participate with Foundling House. Foundling House is a website, journal, and resource, birthed in Knoxville, TN, dedicated to exploring the human truths of the Kingdom of Christ through story, art, and music.
It has been the tendency of conservative Christianity to desire and often demand answers that are certain and unquestionable. Consequently, complicated questions, hard, troubling questions are often ignored, handled superficially and inadequately, discouraged, and sometimes even rebuked. But all faiths, and especially the Christian faith, have questions, frequently...
2021-02-151h 03Practicing Gospel PodcastPeacebuilding 3 Ken Sehested Part 2 PGE 32During my interview with Ken Sehested in the previous episode, and especially as I reflected on the interview immediately afterwards, I felt there was more that need to be discussed and it shouldn’t wait until a date several months in the future as I initially planned. So, I contacted Ken and he graciously agreed to a follow-up interview. This episode, therefore, is Part 2.
What I have understood more deeply form my conversation with Ken is that peace work should be, must be, is, fundamentally, in its essence and defining character, concrete and practical. It is realized in...
2021-02-0148 minPracticing Gospel PodcastPeacebuilding 3 Ken Sehested Part 1 PGE 31As I say in the introduction to this episode, I have two goals in this ongoing series on peacebuilding. The first goal is to enable you to become aware of the extent of people active in peace work and peacebuilding efforts and to learn how each person draws resources from her or his faith or worldview perspective to do her or his peace work. The second goal is to provide for you practical resources for peace work and peacebuilding in your own life.
You may have noticed a change in my terminology. Formerly, I was using ‘peacemaking,’ beca...
2021-01-181h 03Practicing Gospel PodcastLGBTQ Christian Stories PGE 30In her extensive work with peacebuilding, Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer (Listen to PGE12 below.) stresses the importance of focusing more on the heart than the head. By this she means that building bridges of peace and relationships between people who disagree and/or are in conflict more often occurs when the people involved in the disagreement/conflict tell and listen to each other’s personal stories and life-journeys rather that when each tries to persuade the other through reasoning. Focusing on the head tends to devolve into further conflict and destructive behavior.
Meta Commerse (Listen to PGEs 24-2...
2021-01-041h 01Practicing Gospel PodcastInterview with Bill Leonard about the Church PGE 29As I say in my introduction to this interview, in her superb book, These Truths: A History of the United States, historian Jill Lepore holds a particular understanding of history. She says that history is, ‘…not merely a form of memory but also a form of investigation, to be disputed, like philosophy, its premises questioned, its evidence examined, its arguments countered (p. xvi).’ She argues that such an understanding of history-as-inquiry was central to the nation’s founding and that to study the past is to unlock the prison of the present (pp. xvi-xvii).
In my mind, such an...
2020-12-211h 01Practicing Gospel PodcastBiblical Storytelling 3 Kathy Culmer PGE 28As I say in the introduction to this episode, an article in The Lancet by Jane Davis makes the case that reading literature out loud has potential for healing and wellness. As a part of The Reader Organization, Davis says, “Our hypothesis is that reading literature aloud with others offers something uniquely valuable.” She goes on to say, It “…facilitates the creation of a series of powerful interplays: between the written text and the aural experience; between hearing the text from outside and processing it within; between one’s own experience and that of the author and characters; between the privacy...
2020-12-0757 minPracticing Gospel PodcastSteady State Economics 3 Herman Daly PGE 27The reason I am seeking to keep Steady State Economics as a subject before you, as my audience, is that few other economic options subsume economics under the ecosystem. Rather other economic options subsume the ecosystem under the economy. In addition, most other economic options growth oriented economies and assume that the ecology can be saved while still growing the economy and this does not provide solution enough to address the stress every world economy is putting on our planet. If those monitoring the changes in our planet are correct, our time to make necessary and important changes is...
2020-11-231h 01Practicing Gospel PodcastRacial Healing-Meta Commerse Interview Part 3 PGE26This episode is Part 3 of my interviews with Meta Commerse. In this episode we bring together the threads of Meta’s writing and aesthetic arts and her healing arts into the tapestry of their use in racial healing. As I say in the interview, if we are going to have a better future, especially together as people broken by prejudice, misperception, understanding, and the terrible history of hate, violence, and oppression that is the legacy of white supremacy, we have to know where we are going–a vision of the future and what it looks like– and have a way to...
2020-11-0947 minPracticing Gospel PodcastRacial Healing-Meta Commerse Interview Part 2 PGE 25This episode is the Part 2 of 3 interviews with Meta Commerse. Part 1 focused on Meta’s poetry and novel. In this episode we discuss the story/journey of Meta’s development of Story Medicine and her use of it to facilitate healing.
As Meta said in Part 1, “My work with people, it takes them to those stories, to those places that they had not told and they had not spent time with, and that they had spent a lot of energy not telling. And preparing a way, working with them, somehow, to prepare a way for them to find t...
2020-11-0355 minPracticing Gospel PodcastRacial Healing-Meta Commerse Interview Part 1 PGE24My guest for this episode is Meta Commerse. Meta is a poet, a novelist, and a healer. My initial motivation for this interview was and still is as a continuation of my series on Racial Reconciliation, because Meta offers a class through her Story Medicine Wisdom School titled, ‘Story Medicine for Racial Healing.’ But as I learned that Meta was a poet and novelist and had developed this resource she calls story medicine, I wanted to talk with her about each of those aspects–her art, her development of story medicine, and the use of her art and story medici...
2020-10-2657 minPracticing Gospel PodcastEkklesia Project Interview PGE 23The Ekklesia Project began as the result of conversations about the works of Catholic political scientist, Mike Budde, and Protestant theologian, Stanley Hauerwas. Both Budde and Hauerwas hold that the primary task of Christian churches is to live as faithful followers of Jesus Christ. Budde and Hauerwas, each in their on way, go on to claim that churches’ efforts to live faithfully to Christ in the United States have been compromised by their own self-understanding and purpose, and hindered by their accommodation to the culture of the United States. To live as faithful followers of Jesus Christ is to gi...
2020-10-1257 minPracticing Gospel PodcastReligious Liberty 1 BJC Interview Amanda Tyler PGE 22Although I have interviewed Melissa Rogers on her book, Faith in American Public Life, this episode will be the first in an ongoing conversation with The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, now called BJC.
The purpose of this series is to do two things. First it is to keep before you that there have always been certain Baptists who have, since their beginnings, argued for/advocated for/championed religious liberty for all people and the separation of church and state. These Baptists have done so because of their fundamental conviction that ‘soul freedom’ is a gift from...
2020-09-2831 minPracticing Gospel PodcastAlternative Lectionaries PGE 21The Revised Common Lectionary came about ultimately as the product of the Ecumenical Movement and the conviction that it is God’s will that the Church be united–one body–the body of Christ. Specifically, it was the product of The Consultation on Common Texts which was formed by Catholic and Protestant liturgical scholars in response to the reforms in the liturgy mandated by the Second Vatican Council, especially in the area of English texts for the liturgy and then in the dissemination of the 1969 Roman Lectionary (Ordo Lectionum Missae). In 1983, The Common Lectionary was published as the outcome of the...
2020-08-311h 02Practicing Gospel PodcastSteady State Economics 2 Brian Czech PGE20This episode is the second of what will be an ongoing series on Steady State Economics. In my mind, this approach to the economy provides the best option moving forward in light of the environmental crises developing due to approaches to the economy focused upon economic growth.
One of the things that appeals to me about this approach is that it is compatible with both capitalism and socialism, so that it is adaptable and adoptable to most of the worlds existing economies. A country does not have to switch to capitalism or socialism or deal with the...
2020-08-1743 minPracticing Gospel PodcastBiblical Storytelling 2 Drew Willard PGE19As long as Biblical Storytellers are willing to be guests for this podcast, I want to have an ongoing series that enables you to enjoy this art form. There are multiple reasons why I enjoy this art form, but one of the main reasons is that it combines two ancient practices–storytelling and the public reading of scripture.
Throughout human history storytelling has played a fundamental role in human culture. It is one of humanity’s oldest art forms. There has always been an entertainment dimension in story telling, but story has used to do so much more...
2020-08-0352 minPracticing Gospel PodcastBuilding Bridges 2 Michael Moses Interview PGE18As I say in the interview, I am always thankful for those who open me to new insights and possibilities, especially as those insights and possibilities relate to my faith and enable me more fully to experience God, even if the terms they/she/he use(s) are not the same as mine. Judaism and Christianity have always been influenced/shaped by and borrowed concepts, ideas, and practices from other peoples, creatively adopting and adapting those things, sometimes even transforming them into something new.
Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:45 says that God makes...
2020-07-1957 minPracticing Gospel PodcastChris Backert Fresh Expressions Interview PGE 17The challenge of Christianity and Christian churches in the United States and Europe is that traditional churches and denominational organizations are struggling. The gap between growth of the population as a whole and the number of those identifying themselves as Christians is increasing. In addition, attendance in ‘traditional’ denominational churches has been on the decline for over two decades. Hundreds of churches each year are closing. The result of the decline has created strain on denominational agencies. Since individual church budgets have declined because of the decline in attendance, denominational organizations, dependent upon church budgets, greatly have had to redu...
2020-07-0643 minPracticing Gospel PodcastHIV Update Interview with Wayne Smith of Samaritan Ministry PGE16Even though great progress has been made addressing the spread of Human Immunodeficiency Virus and in treating those who have been infected with it, thousands are still being infected each year and people are still dying from it. To bring us up to date on this disease and issues related to it, such as Hepatitis C and Opioid addiction, and to learn how we, as Christians, can join with those who have or are effected in some way by the disease to do ministry, I have turned to Wayne Smith. Wayne is the founder of Samaritan Ministry, which is...
2020-06-221h 04Practicing Gospel PodcastFaith in American Public Life: Melissa Rogers Interview PGE15My guest for this episode is Dr. Melissa Rogers. Dr. Rogers was Associate General Counsel then General Counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. Following this, she became Executive Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships during the Obama administration and Special Assistant to President Obama.
Questions about the place of religion in American public life are continuously being raised and debated. Confusion and misconceptions abound. A significant part of what divides us in the political and cultural situation in our nation at this time revolves around religious liberty and plurality.
2020-06-0950 minPracticing Gospel PodcastThe Music of Adam Whipple PGE14This episode is the first in my series, ‘Christian Music not Played on Christian Radio.’ Since the series was inspired in part by my guest, I thought it appropriate to have him begin the series.
My guest is Adam Whipple. I learned about and was able to connect with Adam through his pastor and my former board chair, Dr. Wade Bibb. Wade is presently pastor of Central Baptist Bearden, in Knoxville, TN. As so many churches are doing, Central Baptist Bearden is seeking to navigate the challenges that have come about with the rise of ‘contemporary’ Christian music an...
2020-05-251h 07Practicing Gospel PodcastSocial Justice Handbook: Interview with The Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon PGE13My guest for this episode is The Reverend Doctor Mae Elise Cannon. Dr. Cannon is an author of six books, a speaker, advocate, and the Executive Director of Churches for Middle East Peace.
Dr.Cannon is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). Her ministry and professional background includes serving as the Senior Director of Advocacy and Outreach for World Vision-US, the executive pastor of Hillside Covenant Church (Walnut Creek, California), Director of Development and Transformation for Extension Ministries at Willow Creek Community Church (Barrington, Illinois), and as a consultant to the Middle East for...
2020-05-1233 minPracticing Gospel PodcastPeacebuilding 2 Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer PGE12You may notice that I have changed the title of this series slightly. Formerly, I called it Peacemaking. However, I have learned from Rabbi Amy Eilberg‘s wonderful book, From Enemy to Friend: Jewish Wisdom and the Pursuit of Peace, that many extensively involved in peace efforts make a distinction in those efforts between three terms. ‘Peacekeeping’ is used to refer to military intervention for the purpose of ending violence and keeping it in check. ‘Peacemaking’ is used primarily to refer to large-group, national, and international efforts at diplomacy. ‘Peacebuilding’ however, refers to efforts on any level, but especially on the personal...
2020-04-2750 min
Overcoming Distractions-Thriving with ADHD, ADDADHD Coach Dana Rayburn on focusing on mindset and determination. Don't Give Up!Dana Rayburn is a very successful ADHD Coach and is one of the first professionals I spoke to for the book Overcoming Distractions. Dana spent years as a professional organizer and then a transition to be an ADHD Coach. In this episode, Dana talks about what it takes to develop a positive mindset when you have ADHD and how to remain determined when life doesn't go so well. You can find Dana Rayburn at: www.DanaRayburn.com And the ADHD Success Club can be found at: http://danarayburn.com/adhd-success-club/
2016-09-1932 min