I am trying to get a series finished I began last year.
You can listen HERE.
I am also on Spotify HERE. And Apple Podcasts (which take a bit for new episodes to sync in) HERE.
Or, you can click on this goofy face:
Thoughts for the week ahead:
Read moreAs I was preparing this post and then started to post, I put my title in first. I almost wrote: “Walking WITH PURPOSE into the New Year.” (Well, not all caps, but those were the words I chose to delete.)
It’s not that “with purpose” is a bad idea. It’s a bad idea to walk into a new year stumbling around. But, that phrase reminded of two more recommendations I want to make to you. I was going to focus on some podcasts to remind us all to stay focused when the political world is a rolling dumpster fire.
On to the recommendations!
Read moreThis episode came from a lot of emotion because I had another conversation with another young minister who is leaving a conservative denomination because of the current partisan climate. The nice part of me wants to apologize for that, but I won’t.
The closer we draw to the election, the more doubling down culturalized Christians are doing, leaving friends of color FAR behind. Our “George Floyd Moment” was just that… a moment. Shame on us.
What is ahead for the culturalized Church is hard and I let those emotions roll as I walked through Jeremiah 27-29. This isn’t easy or enjoyable. And it will probably be ignore. But I leave it as a witness.
I was privileged to interview two important voices in my life on the issue of racism in light of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery.
Marlena Graves is an author and activist. Her forthcoming book The Way Up is Down is a wake up call to have our eyes on the marginalized in our world.
Dennis Edwards is a professor of New Testament studies at North Park seminary. He has pastored urban churches, including Minneapolis where we met. His forthcoming book is Might from the Margins.
For the audio, go HERE.
For the video, go HERE.
I had the privilege of interviewing Jay Kim, author of Analog Church: Why we need real people, places, and things in the digital age from Intervarsity Press. I wanted to chat with him about the book coming out as the country was under a quarantine and needed to be more digital.
It was a fun conversation. Listen HERE.
My book review of Jay’s book is HERE.
In how I go forward in a politically divisive age, I continue to formulate my thoughts around the WHY and the WHO.
I listen regularly to Pass the Mic podcast because it comes from two young black Christian men. One is a historian. The other is a pastor. They bring perspective that challenges me and makes me think, especially when I disagree with them.
But this podcast summarizes well (not perfectly) how I am working on my voting process this year. I will not summarize nor will I answer questions asking me to summarize. You need to listen to their voices. I’m tired of summarizing. I need to listen more… as do each of us.
I listened to the Holy Post Podcast and this week’s discussion (beginning around 10:30.00) has a discussion on an Atlantic Monthly article by David Brooks on the “nuclear family.” It was a fascinating discussion FOLLOWED BY Part 2 of an interview with Matthew Soerens of World Relief on the subject of immigration. Both discussions were challenging and thought provoking.
The podcast is HERE.
The article by David Brooks is HERE.