"God's holiness to mend our brokenness. God's faithfulness to resolve our doubt. It was the exact reversal of Mormonism's worthiness-brings-blessings schema, and my heart sang out. I breathed a sigh of relief. I had come home." Katie Langston is the Director of Digital Strategy for Luther Seminary. Raised in a fundamentalist Mormon home, she became a Christian and was baptized not long ago. She's written a memoir of her journey from Mormonism to grace, Sealed. Check it out.
Jun 25, 2021•47 min
In a post-Christian, post-modern, post-truth society where Jesus' followers aren't often well regarded, modern evangelism approaches are eroding and increasingly ineffective. Christians often talk more than we listen, confront when we should converse, and demand that people believe before they belong. We need a compelling way to share our faith that combines the timeless practices of Jesus with timely perspectives about our post-everything era. Author and Executive Director of Alpha US Craig Spr...
Jun 18, 2021•58 min
For this week's episode, we're giving you a sneak peek at a podcast we release only for our paid subscribers to our biweekly newsletter, Crackers and Grape+. We call it the Secret Podcast and we hope you enjoy the conversations between Jason and his Padwan, David King, a rising second year at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Jun 04, 2021•44 min
Our guest for episode #310 is filmmaker Chris White about his new film, Electric Jesus. CHRIS WHITE has written and directed three micro-budget features: showbiz comedy CINEMA PURGATORIO (2014, co-writer, director, actor), and broken family dramas GET BETTER (2012, co-writer, co-director, actor) and TAKEN IN (2011, writer, director). He co-wrote the screenplay for SIX LA LOVE STORIES (2016), and has written and directed for the multi-award-winning, web series phenomenon, Star Trek Continues. Whi...
May 28, 2021•1 hr 6 min
Six months into a deep personal crisis occasioned by the unexpected end of his marriage, Jamie Howison traveled halfway across the continent to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to engage in a unique and intense five-week contemplative retreat served in the context of the chapel community of the University of King’s College. Immersed in the liturgies of the Canadian Book of Common Prayer, mentored in the writing of an Orthodox icon of Christ Pantocrator, challenged to confront the hard truths behind his bro...
May 21, 2021•53 min
This is Jason speaking... As a Christian, I've never understood the hang-up and/or obsession some Christians have regarding gay Christians. Maybe it's my age. Maybe it's because my first teacher- after my having just become a Christian- was Dr. Gene Rogers, who introduced me to Karl Barth and Thomas Aquinas and who happened to be gay. As a pastor, I'm both exhausted by the sexuality debate and heartsick over its many victims-- often anonymous, suffering in the pews. For all these reasons, it's a...
May 14, 2021•59 min
“We’ve got a list of questions, issues, stuff we’re dealing with. We want your input, your thoughts on this stuff.” Such were the origins of this little book. Two young clergy, early in their first call, imagined that I might have some useful wisdom to pass on based on my own years in ministry. Something like this was once standard preparation. Young people learned a profession like law, ministry, or medicine by apprenticing themselves to one seasoned in the practice. Not only has that way of le...
May 07, 2021•57 min
Our guest for this episode is Gerald Bray, whose new book is Anglicanism: A Reformed Catholic Tradition. Gerald Bray (DLitt, University of Paris-Sorbonne) is Research Professor at Beeson Divinity School and Director of Research for the Latimer Trust. He is a prolific writer and has authored or edited numerous books, including The Doctrine of God and Biblical Interpretation: Past and Present. What is Anglicanism? There are many associations that come to mind. Whether it is the buildings, the uniq...
Apr 30, 2021•48 min
Kurt Willems joins the pod to share his new book Echoing Hope: How the Humanity of Jesus Redeems Our Pain. None of us live free of difficulties or hardships. But how can we learn to live richly in the midst of them? And ever grow spiritually because of them? The answer is found in the hopeful humanity of Jesus. Echoing Hope reveals how understanding the humanity of Jesus can radically transform our identity and empower us to step into our pain-filled world in a new way. Combining rich theologica...
Apr 23, 2021•1 hr 4 min
For eight years, Ellie Holcomb recorded and toured full-time with her husband’s band, Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors, before stepping off the road when her first child was born. Her solo debut, As Sure As The Sun (2014), landed her a Top 10 hit at Christian radio with “The Broken Beautiful” and a GMA Dove Award for “New Artist of the Year.” Her critically-acclaimed sophomore LP, Red Sea Road, followed in 2017. In subsequent years, Holcomb has released two children’s books—each with a companion E...
Apr 16, 2021•38 min
Richard Stearns is a leader who has been tested as a CEO in both secular companies and also as the head of one of the world’s largest Christian ministries. After stints as CEO of Parker Brothers and then Lenox, Stearns accepted the invitation to leave his corporate career to become the president of World Vision US, where he became the longest serving president in their seventy-year history. During his tenure there he implemented corporate best practices, lowering overheads while tripling revenue...
Apr 09, 2021•40 min
Tim Gombis joins the pod to talk about his newest book, 'Power in Weakness: Paul’s Transformed Vision for Ministry.' Tim and Teer explore a model for church leadership as old as Paul's letter to the Romans. From the publisher: After Paul’s encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, he turned from coercion and violence to a ministry centered on the hope of Christ’s resurrection. In earthly terms, Paul had traded power for weakness. But—as he explained in his subsequent letters—this ...
Apr 02, 2021•40 min
“My vocation was supposed to be joy, and I was speaking at funerals.” Shortly after being hired by Yale University to study joy, Angela Gorrell got word that a close family member had died by suicide. Less than a month later, she lost her father to a fatal opioid addiction and her nephew, only twenty-two years old, to sudden cardiac arrest. The theoretical joy she was researching at Yale suddenly felt shallow and distant—completely unattainable in the fog of grief she now found herself in. But j...
Mar 26, 2021•56 min
Brian Zahnd is the founding pastor of Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri. He's also the author of many wonderful books, including, Water into Wine, Beauty Will Save the World, and most recently, Unvarnished Jesus. Brian was our first guest five years ago so we invited him to join us for our 300th episode. He talks about his incredibly successful Prayer School, his upcoming corollary, How I Read the Bible, and how the Church muddles through the post-Trump years.
Mar 19, 2021•51 min
Dr, De La Torre joins the podcast to talk about his latest book, 'Decolonizing Christianity: Decolonizing Christianity: Becoming Badass Believers.' In the interview, Dr. Del La Torre talks about his life in America as an immigrant, makes clear that it is not his job to fix that which White Christians have done, and even disagrees with Stanley Hauerwas. For more information on Dr. De La Torre, visit his website at: www.drmigueldelatorre.com or check out his blog at http://ourlucha.wordpress.com/ ...
Mar 12, 2021•59 min
On why a baptism "In the name of the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer" is not a valid baptism (and you should be re-baptized), the resurrection of the flesh and what it means for burial practices, and the Gospel that gives you Christ and everything that belongs to him... This special episode is a session from the Crackers & Grape Juice House of Theological Studies featuring Dr. Phillip Cary. in this special episode, we share our second session from our Luther and the Gospel class, led by Dr....
Mar 05, 2021•1 hr 9 min
Friend of the podcast and all around Gandalf to the gang, the irascible Will Willimon returns to talk about meeting the Risen Jesus, fighting in church, Karl Barth, preaching, and the new edition of his first book, The Gospel for the Person Who has Everything.
Feb 26, 2021•53 min
Our friend, Jack Levison, is back on the podcast to talk about his recent book, An Unconventional God, which examines the role of the Holy Spirit in the Gospels. Jack Levison holds the W. J. A. Power Chair of Old Testament Interpretation and Biblical Hebrew at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. Raised in a tract house in Levittown, New York, Jack left to attend Wheaton College, followed by an MA at Cambridge University. When he returned from England to pursue doctoral stu...
Feb 19, 2021•1 hr 1 min
"When I started out in seminary, I thought I was going into a helping profession, a community-organizer, a therapist, an advice-giver. And then Gerhard Forde upended all that, showing me how a pastor is one is compelled to preach the forgiveness of sins." Check out his new book! Seriously, go get it. Ken Sundet Jones, Professor of Theology and Philosophy at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, loves teaching undergrads. He was born in Heidelberg, which must be why he likes Luther so much. ...
Feb 12, 2021•1 hr 5 min
“In order to understand why these groups support Trump, it’s important to better understand their vision of the world. Evangelical beliefs are often misrepresented in popular media and in political discussions. These misunderstandings make it difficult to assess and respond to the political situation.” André Gagné is Full Professor in the Department of Theological Studies at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. He was Directeur d'études invité at l'École pratique des hautes études in Paris ...
Feb 05, 2021•1 hr 3 min
Many sincere Christians dismiss evangelism due to enduring evangelistic caricatures. This book helps readers move beyond those caricatures to consider thoughtfully and practically how they can engage in evangelism, whether it's through one-on-one conversations, social media, social justice, or the liturgy of worship services. At once biblical, theological, historical, and practical, this book by a seasoned scholar offers an engaging, well-researched, and well-organized presentation and analysis ...
Jan 29, 2021•41 min
"Q: Given demographic shifts, immigration trends, white evangelicals' end-times rhetoric, and Republicans' siege, grievance mentality, was something like Donald Trump inevitable? A: Yes. Q: Is it in the past or is it still the future? A: I don't know." Our guest for episode #292 is former Republican campaign operative and fundraiser, Gretchen Purser. Raised a conservative Baptist in Oklahoma, Gretchen retired in 2009 from a 20 year career in politics, raising over a billion dollars for the Repub...
Jan 22, 2021•59 min
A generation of young Christians are weary of the political legacy they've inherited and hungry for a better approach. They're tired of seeing their faith tied to political battles they didn't start, and they're frustrated by the failures of leaders they thought they could trust. Kaitlyn Schiess grew up in this landscape, and understands it from the inside. Spiritual formation, and particularly a focus on formative practices, are experiencing a renaissance in Christian thinking―but these ideas a...
Jan 15, 2021•58 min
"We forget...Before Hitler became our absolute fetish of evil, he was in fact just another politician. Before Hitler was Hitler, he was simply Adolf, the bumbling idiot that the German politicians and aristocracy believed they could manage and control if they allowed him to become Chancellor. Likewise, people generations from now will look back upon us and wonder what moral judgments they would've made had they been in our shoes these past four plus years." For our episode this week- a week that...
Jan 08, 2021•1 hr 31 min
Back on the podcast is my friend and former teacher, Dr. Ruben Rosario Rodriguez, to talk about abortion, diversity, and disability in relation to the Atlantic's December cover story on the Last Children of Downs Syndrome. The Rev. Dr. Rubén Rosario Rodríguez is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology in the Department of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University. His first book, Racism and God-Talk: A Latino/a Perspective (2008), won the 2011 Alpha Sigma Nu Book Award for Theology. He ha...
Dec 18, 2020•51 min
This is a special episode from the "Secret Podcast" we release every other Tuesday as part of our newsletter, Crackers and Grape+ We're making this "Secret Podcast" available so you know what you're missing by not subscribing, but also because it's awesome. Jacob Smith is a contributor to Mockingbird Ministries and is the rector of Calvary-St. George's Episcopal Church in New York City.
Dec 15, 2020•47 min
Our guest is Mandy Smith. Originally from Australia, Mandy Smith is a pastor and author of The Vulnerable Pastor: How Human Limitations Empower Our Ministry (IVP). Her next book, Unfettered: Imagining a Childlike Faith Beyond the Baggage of Western Culture (Brazos), is available for pre-order and will release in 2021. Mandy and her husband, a New Testament professor, live with their family in a little house where the teapot is always warm. Mandy is the lead pastor at University Christian Church ...
Dec 11, 2020•50 min
Christian preachers dare to talk about God. - Karl Barth Our friend, mentor, and muse, Will Willimon, is back on the podcast to talk with Dr. Johanna (she's got a crush on him), Teer, and Jason about his new book, Preachers Dare: Speaking for God. Mining Karl Barth's maxim from the Gottingen Dogmatics that "Preachers dare," Willimon offers a wily dissent from homiletics understood as a human endeavor. Plus, the book is dedicated to the team at C&GJ! Plus, the attempt at an intro from Dr. J i...
Dec 04, 2020•1 hr
Delvyn Case III is a composer, conductor, scholar, performer, concert producer, and Professor of Music at Wheaton College of Massachusetts. As a professional musician he works as a composer, conductor, and pianist, equally at home in the worlds of classical and popular music. As a church musician he's worked in virtually every context and every genre. He's conducted major works like Handel’s Messiah, led an 80-voice gospel choir, played organ at Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, and UCC churches, an...
Nov 20, 2020•1 hr 12 min
"In their language of warfare spiritual and secular, Trump’s evangelical allies have been playing with a fire that may continue to burn long after they give up this contest...History is a wasteland of religious justifications for political activism, identity, and violence. On the other hand, Christianity, and American Christianity especially, has arguably possessed more than its fair share of these unions of political thought and religious belief." Our friend Thomas Lecaque is back on the podcas...
Nov 13, 2020•1 hr 6 min
