In this episode, Brian and I have a conversation around the cross of Jesus and his latest book The Wood Between the Worlds. It’s a deep conversation around suffering and putting to shame the powers and principalities. We talk about the multi-faceted meaning of the cross and view it through a kaleidoscope, so we can uncover more and more depth of meaning. We talk about the Kingdom, galvanizing around an axis of power or an axis of love expressed in forgiveness, and the seduction of power we find ...
Feb 09, 2024•54 min•Season 1Ep. 156
In this episode, Curt Thompson and I have a great discussion around his book The Deepest Place. We talk about how secure attachment to God and others can help root and ground us in a place that enables us to move through suffering and find hope. We need to be in loving relationship with one another because we are the embodied presence of Jesus to each other. We have hope because we have a God that came incarnate in the form of Jesus and He suffered and died, so that He can be not just justify us...
Feb 06, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 155
In this episode, Peter Greer and I have a great conversation around the book Lead with Prayer. We dive into the gift that prayer is. We talk through group discernment through listening and prayer, new postures that can aid our prayer life, carrying the culture of prayer, so we can help transform others. We marvel at the joy and hope that comes through suffering and the embodied presence of Jesus with us in the midst of that suffering. Join us as we discover new tools and ways to pray, so that we...
Feb 02, 2024•51 min•Season 1Ep. 154
In this episode, Terry Crist and I have a great conversation and tell a lot of stories of engaging others in a way that brings dignity, relationship, curiosity, and hope. How can we love our enemies? How can we follow the better way of Jesus that brings hope? How can we in our fractured world have conversations of truth full of grace, seasoned with compassion? How do we pursue the way of peacemaking? How do we build bridges, not barriers? How do we have curious conversations with people? We lear...
Jan 30, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 153
In this conversation, Cameron Doolittle and I have a conversation around leading with prayer, getting organizations to not just slap on a prayer before and after a meeting as an after thought, but to actually implement a culture of prayer that produces fruit that is only possible if we abide in the vine. Because if we aren’t praying, we can’t multiply prayer because you can’t multiply by zero. We talk about listening to God, hearing His voice, and following His lead, setting appointments with Go...
Jan 26, 2024•57 min•Season 1Ep. 152
In this episode, Ingrid Faro and I try to demystify evil. Ingrid shares her harrowing story of abuse from her first husband, how the church wasn’t helpful in the midst of it, how her second husband died, how she lost everything and was even homeless for awhile. As evil invaded her life, so much so that she didn’t want to go on living, she went on a journey to discover the goodness of God? Is He good? Is He just? Why is evil happening all over the world? This journey led her to Scripture – to Gen...
Jan 23, 2024•58 min•Season 1Ep. 151
In this episode, Ryan Skoog and I have an incredible conversation about leading with prayer. As Ryan and his teams go to the toughest places on earth, they have to rely on prayer. It’s crucial. But prayer isn’t just for the people on the front lines in hard places. It’s for us all. We learn from the global church what an intentional prayer life looks like. We talk about wasting our time with Jesus in friendship, tithing our time to the Lord, the allure of chasing influence rather than obedience,...
Jan 19, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 150
In this episode, David Fitch and I reckon with power in this conversation. We talk about worldly power versus Godly power. What’s the difference? Why do we need a new relationship with power? We talk about mutual submission, engaging the table for reconciliation and justice, non-coercive evangelism. We even engage in a conversation around power dynamics and the Middle East. It’s a fantastic conversation that is much needed as we continue to encounter abuse of power in the church. So join us as w...
Jan 16, 2024•56 min•Season 1Ep. 149
In this episode, Meghan Larissa Good and I have a great discussion around themes from her latest book Divine Gravity. How can we enter into a new reformation that helps the body of Christ look more like Jesus? Jesus can lead us into this new place and time. We can disagree with each other and still have unity. We can follow the discernment of the Holy Spirit. We can have a cross-shaped power which is a power under and not a power over. We can join Jesus in the reconciliation of all things. Jesus...
Jan 09, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 148
In this episode, Blaine Eldredge and I look at the Bible in a new light, so we can see the stories come alive and we can fall in love with them once again. Blaine is a fantastic storyteller and he helps us see how we can follow Jesus in a time of decline, what we can learn from history for our time and place, and how we can eliminate the familiarity with which we read the Bible. Join us as we discover the fascinating insights the story of the Bible brings to our lives today. Blaine is a teacher ...
Jan 05, 2024•49 min•Season 1Ep. 147
In this episode, Nadya Williams and I talk through her book Cultural Christians in the Early Church. Did you know that cultural Christianity has been a problem from the beginning? Giving in to worldly power and praise, apostasy and divisions in the church, Christian Nationalism, celebrity culture. All of these things and more are problems the early church dealt with and we still deal with them today. But there is good news – The way of Jesus is possible and we even have models to follow who fait...
Jan 02, 2024•51 min•Season 1Ep. 146
It’s the best of 2023! We are going to count down the most listened to episodes of the past year and I am going to countdown my favorite books of the year. But before we dive in, I just have to say thank you – thank you to you, the listener. I have so enjoyed making this podcast and having the conversations I’m having, but without you there wouldn’t be a podcast. So keep listening. Keep spreading the word. Tell your friends, your family, even your enemies to listen to Shifting Culture. You can f...
Dec 29, 2023•56 min•Season 1Ep. 145
In this episode, Grace Hamman and I get into a really great conversation around the medieval period and how Jesus was viewed. It’s amazing to me how illuminating it is to read thinkers of the past and how it shapes my perspective in ways that are unexpected and helps me encounter Jesus in new ways. We talk about people like Thomas Aquinas and Julian of Norwich and we look at Jesus as a Knight, as Judge, as Mother, and more. Join us as we gain a fresh perspective by encountering the past and look...
Dec 26, 2023•56 min•Season 1Ep. 144
In this episode, Justin Davis and I have a great conversation. Justin shares his story of brokenness, pain, infidelity, and addiction and walks us through the importance of being real, being vulnerable, and being honest with God, so that true repentance and transformation can take place. I know you are going to get a lot of this one. So join us as we take off the masks we’ve been hiding behind, get real, and pursue transformation in Jesus. Justin is an author, speaker, and pastor who dedicated h...
Dec 19, 2023•57 min•Season 1Ep. 143
In this episode, Denise Gitsham and I talk about her latest book Politics for People Who Hate Politics: How to Engage Without Losing Your Friends or Selling Your Soul. We talk about being ambassadors of the Kingdom of God, discernment of the Holy Spirit, unity, not uniformity, among believers., loving your enemy, engaging in dialogue, asking questions, having empathy. It’s an important conversation as we in the U.S. are about to embark on a contentious political season. So join us as we engage i...
Dec 12, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 142
In this episode, Steve Bouma-Prediger and I have a great discussion on creation, earthkeeping, and our role in caring for the earth as disciples of Jesus. Since the Bible starts and ends with rivers and trees, our first mandate is to care for the earth, and our vision of the future includes the earth we are now living on, we have a role and responsibility in the way we keep the earth, care for it, and pattern our life. What are the things we can do in our every day lives to be good earth keepers...
Dec 05, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 141
In this episode, Naghmeh Panahi shares her story with us. A story that is necessary to hear, although it is difficult. Abuse by pastors, church leaders. Backlash from the Christian community. Naghmeh shares how she was able to hold on to Christ, recover her identity as a child of God, lead a house church movement, and see Muslims from around the world have dreams and visions of Jesus, start to follow Jesus and make him lord. This is a conversation that you don’t want to miss. So join us as we di...
Dec 01, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 140
In this episode, Skye Jethani and I have a fantastic conversation around what we get wrong about heaven. Spoiler alert – almost everything! How can we center Jesus in our faith and not heaven? Why is the gospel more than just going to heaven when you die? How can we taste heaven here and now? How can we be people where heaven and earth overlap? What is the new heavens and new earth? Will the earth be burned up in fire at the end? We answer these questions and more. Join us, as we get a Jesus cen...
Nov 28, 2023•56 min•Season 1Ep. 139
In this episode, Amber C. Haines, Seth Haines and I talk about their latest book The Deep Down Things, which details the story of Amber’s abuse in the church and her decision to step away. In the despair of loss, confusion, and disillusionment, a lifeline of hope was given. Seth and Amber give us practices and examples of what it looks like to find hope in the times of despair. We talk about calling out the truth of who people are, setting signs that can point to hope, attachment to Christ throu...
Nov 21, 2023•55 min•Season 1Ep. 138
Jared Boyd talks about finding freedom in the constraint of spiritual disciplines and a communal rule of life. Our leadership and mission can only go as far as our formation, so how do we engage in practices together in ways that help us look more like Jesus? At the core of our conversation is a desire to encounter the love of God through the presence of God. Join us as we seek to find practices in community that facilitate encounters of the love of God. Jared Patrick Boyd is a pastor (Vineyard ...
Nov 14, 2023•54 min•Season 1Ep. 137
In this episode, Alan Hirsch and Rob Kelly join us to talk about their book Metanoia: How God Radically Transforms, People, Churches, and Organizations from the Inside Out. We have a great conversation on repentance, movements, organizational change, unlearning, relearning, vision, future thinking, and more. This metanoia process that they take us through is really important. How do we have our minds renewed? How do we shift paradigms and have our mind’s blown? Join us as we discover how to enga...
Nov 07, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 136
In this episode, Scot McKnight talks about one of his new books – Pivot. This book is a follow up to A Church Called Tov which really hit a nerve when it debuted. In that book they wrote about toxic church culture and contrast it to tov culture, or goodness culture. Pivot is the book of implementation. What are the steps to get to a tov church? What are the things that we need to implement? We talk about Holy Spirit, Christlikeness, models, long patience, giving ownership over to the church body...
Nov 03, 2023•52 min•Season 1Ep. 135
In this episode, Jason VanRuler and I have a great conversation about our past wounds and struggles and how we can heal from them, so that we can be healthy and whole. We can find Christ in the dark places of our lives as he enters into the suffering with us and he will be there to lead us to the next step. We talk about the necessity of acknowledging where we are at, being honest with ourselves and God, asking for help, and finding friends to walk with us. Join us as we uncover the wounds of ou...
Oct 31, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 134
In this episode, JR Woodward gives examples of mimetic rivalry, true humility, emptying ourselves, and how to follow the scandalous way of Christ. He goes deep into the book of Philippians and the story of Oscar Romero to help ground us in the reality of how the powers and principalities play a part in creating scandals of leadership and how imitating Christ helps us lead in the way of the Kingdom. Join us as we look at models for us to follow, so that we can construct our identity on Christ. JR...
Oct 27, 2023•38 min•Season 1Ep. 133
In this episode, JR Woodward and I get into how the powers and principalities shape our leadership, what we can learn from the temptations of Jesus, how our desires produce our identity, and how we are all captive to imitation. Join us for part one of this two part conversation as we pursue imitating Christ because To not imitate Christ is to imitate the Devil and to experience all of the craziness when we do that. JR Woodward (PhD, University of Manchester, U.K.) has been passionately planting ...
Oct 24, 2023•38 min•Season 1Ep. 132
In this episode, Mark Yarhouse and I have a great conversation around talking to our kids about gender identity. We get into areas like what is gender, what is gender dysphoria, how language has expanded definitions of how we see ourselves, how we can be cultural ambassadors of the Kingdom of God in our conversations about gender and how we can act with convicted civility seasoned with compassion. It’s an important conversation that gives us all hand holds, so we don’t feel unbalanced. Join us a...
Oct 17, 2023•45 min•Season 1Ep. 131
In this episode, Michael Frost and I have a great conversation around his book Mission is the Shape of Water . We hear how mission has taken different shapes throughout the centuries, but the principles of mission remain the same. We hear stories about The missionaries of the first few centuries after Christ, Boniface and the Celtic movement, Zinzindorf and the Moravians, Mary Slessor, and Alice Seely Harris. We then move into how all of this history impacts our world today. What we can learn, t...
Oct 10, 2023•58 min•Season 1Ep. 130
In this episode, Shauna Pilgreen and I have a conversation around topics and themes from her latest book Translating Jesus. We talk about how to be translators and speak of Jesus in a way that culture can understand. We talk about being curious, paying attention, and being intentional to listen to the Holy Spirit and the person in front of us. She talks about three different spaces where we can encounter Jesus: the gate, the cross, and the table. Join us as we learn how we can start talking to p...
Oct 06, 2023•50 min•Season 1Ep. 129
Andy joins us for the third time! The first two conversations were great and you can go back and listen to those after you listen to this one. Andrew Root and I have a great discussion around his new book The Church in an Age of Secular Mysticisms . Because we live with an utter buffet of spiritualities and we have our choice of what we use to transform us and because we live in the age of the self in which everything has to go through the self, we are caught in tension and we have become guilt ...
Oct 03, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 128
In this episode, Andrew Whitehead and I have a conversation around Christian Nationalism. What is it? What is not not? As we deal with the idols of power, of fear, and of violence, we can root out self interest and the temptation to make it all about one group over the other. Then we can deal with these issues and disciple others to a better way: A way that looks like Jesus, that lifts up the marginalized and helps create flourishing for all people. Join us as we wrestle with fear, power, violen...
Sep 26, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 127
