In this episode, we speak with Dr. Erin Raffety (MDiv '08), PCUSA pastor and researcher, about her work with persons with disabilities in the church, and how she seeks to use her research to inform deeper, richer pastoral care and conversation within congregations. Erin's goal is to take seriously the voices, experiences, and contributions of people with disabilities in order to enable the church to connect with, learn from, and better minister to people with disabilities. Dr. Erin Raffety (she/...
Feb 25, 2022•29 min•Season 6Ep. 3
In this episode, we speak with Dr. João Chaves, Assistant Director for Programming at the Hispanic Theological Initiative at Princeton Theological Seminary, about his book, Migrational Religion: Context and Creativity in the Latinx Diaspora . We talk about his work and focus on his case study of a network formed by communities of Brazilian immigrants who formed a unique ethnic association within their host country. Listen as he shares his extensive ethnographic research, done over six years, in ...
Feb 18, 2022•36 min•Season 6Ep. 2
The Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, Senior Minister for Public Theology at Middle Collegiate Church in New York City, explores this question with host Sushama-Austin Connor while discussing her books, Fierce Love and The Pentecost Paradigm . In this episode, Dr. Lewis offers timeless lessons about what she calls a “multi-everything” ministry that offers love and inclusion to everyone. The Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis —Author, Activist, and Public Theologian—is the Senior Minister at Middle Collegiate Church, a ...
Feb 11, 2022•45 min•Season 6Ep. 1
This season you can expect deep dives into such topics as radical love, stewardship, and the changing landscape of theological education. We’ll explore ethnic denominationalism in Latinx migrational religion, learn practical ways Christian leaders can reframe their understanding of money and ministry, and discover steps to becoming a multiracial congregation. The first episode of Season 6 airs Friday, February 11. We hope you’ll listen!
Feb 04, 2022•1 min
In this episode, Jerusha Neal, assistant professor of homiletics at Duke Divinity School, explores a homiletic theology that reclaims the absence and presence of the fully human Word, offers fresh conceptions on the embodiment of Jesus in the sermon, and compares the Spirit-empowered pregnancy of Mary to the work of preaching. Jerusha Matsen Neal , assistant professor of homiletics at Duke Divinity School, is an ordained American Baptist minister. She has also served as a Global Ministries missi...
Jul 09, 2021•42 min•Season 5Ep. 10
In this episode, Andrew Root, the Carrie Olson Baalson Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary, talks with us about his recent book, The Congregation in a Secular Age: Keeping Sacred Time Against the Speed of Modern Life , the third in his series of books on ministry in the secular age, in which he engages the work of Charles Taylor and understanding congregations in contemporary life. Andy discusses how to make sense of the cross pressure of time, speed and fatigue as they rel...
Jul 02, 2021•55 min•Season 5Ep. 9
New Testament scholar Dr. Lisa Bowens takes aim at this question in her new book, African American Readings of Paul: Reception, Resistance, and Transformation . In this interview, Sushama Austin-Connor talks with Dr. Bowens about the inspiration behind this work, the “hidden figures” of African American hermeneutics, interpretations of Paul that resist white supremacy and racism, and more. Lisa Bowens , associate professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, earned a BS (cum laud...
Jun 25, 2021•50 min•Season 5Ep. 8
In this episode, Jim McCloskey, MDiv ’83, a lay minister and founder of Centurion, the first nonprofit dedicated to the vindication of the wrongly convicted, speaks to this question in his book, When Truth Is All You Have: A Memoir of Faith, Justice, and Freedom for the Wrongly Convicted. He shares his minister-turned-prisoner-advocate experience, which inspired author John Grisham’s book, The Guardians . Listen to Jim’s astonishing story of faith, justice, and liberation and how this work provi...
Jun 18, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Season 5Ep. 7
In this episode, Shari Oosting sits down with author James K.A. Smith, professor of philosophy at Calvin College, who sets out to speak to this question in his book, On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts , revealing how Augustine’s timeless wisdom speaks to the worries and struggles of contemporary life. James K. A. Smith is professor of philosophy at Calvin University, where he holds the Gary & Henrietta Byker Chair in Applied Reformed Theology and ...
Jun 11, 2021•43 min•Season 5Ep. 6
In this episode, Sally Brown, homiletician and Elizabeth M. Engle Professor of Preaching and Worship at Princeton Theological Seminary, talks about these themes and more from her new book, Sunday’s Sermon for Monday’s World: Preaching to Shape Daring Witness, in which she shares ways preachers can help spark their hearer’s sense of divine imagination. Sally A. Brown , PhD '01, is Princeton Seminary’s Elizabeth M. Engle Professor of Preaching and Worship. She earned an MDiv from Gordon-Conwell Th...
Jun 04, 2021•34 min•Season 5Ep. 5
In this episode, Angela talks with Sushama Austin-Connor about her research on joy and her book The Gravity of Joy: A Story of Being Lost and Found. They consider how we can study joy with a theological lens, how our emotions are always teaching us something, and how joy is a realization of relatedness and connection. Dr. Angela Williams Gorrell is an ordained pastor and assistant professor of practical theology at Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary. Prior to joining the faculty at B...
May 28, 2021•54 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Joni Sancken is an assistant professor of homiletics at United Theological Seminary, and author of Words That Heal: Preaching Hope to Wounded Souls . In this episode, Sushama Austin-Connor talks with Joni about her expertise in preaching and her personal experience of trauma, sharing ways for the Church to become a place that welcomes expressions of trauma and offers love, care, and healing to survivors. Joni Sancken is an ordained pastor with Mennonite Church USA and has served as a pastor in M...
May 21, 2021•52 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Tim Soerens is a pastor and author of the new book Everywhere You Look: Discovering the Church Right Where You Are. In this episode, hear Tim talk with Dayle Rounds about why he feels hopeful about the American church and what he thinks the church might be called to do in this particular season of the pandemic. They discuss how the church might come to see its purpose not as creating God’s mission but joining it. Tim Soerens is the co-founding director of the Parish Collective, a growing network...
May 14, 2021•39 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Annie Lockhart-Gilroy speaks on how we can nurture a “sanctified imagination.” In this episode, you will hear Shari Oosting talk with Annie about her book, Nurturing the Sanctified Imagination of Urban Youth. They discuss what it looks like to do ministry in an urban setting and how we might prepare urban youth for a future that is designed in partnership with God. Rev. Annie A. Lockhart-Gilroy , Ph.D. is a scholar in Christian education and practical theology with a focus on youth ministry and ...
May 07, 2021•50 min•Season 5Ep. 1
In Season 5 we’ll consider the relationship between despair and joy, hear the story of one man's life of ministry working to free those who are wrongly imprisoned, and learn to spark hope and possibility in the future of urban youth and their communities by creating space for sanctified imagination. We'll explore why congregations feel pressure from the speed of change in contemporary life, discuss the Church's calling to join God's redemptive mission and to discover how preaching can help peopl...
May 04, 2021•2 min
iTunes Episode Duration: 00:35:20
Jul 24, 2020•35 min•Season 4Ep. 10
iTunes Episode Duration: 00:32:53
Jul 17, 2020•33 min•Season 4Ep. 9
iTunes Episode Duration: 00:37:26
Jul 10, 2020•37 min•Season 4Ep. 8
iTunes Episode Duration: 00:37:27
Jul 03, 2020•37 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Creative expression can be a powerful aid in helping to move across differences. In this episode, Lakisha Lockhart shares how modes of play can be used as a pedagogical resource for theological education and how engaging in embodied experiences and cultural expressions are seen and valued. The Distillery is a podcast that explores the essential ingredients of book and research projects with experts in their field of study. Learn what motivates their work and why it matters for Christian theology...
Jun 26, 2020•35 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Khristi Adams shares her profound encounters with young black girls in her book, Parable of the Brown Girl: The Sacred Lives of Girls of Color , in which she uncovers the negative stereotypes put upon them, often limiting them from taking up space with pride and confidence. The Distillery is a podcast that explores the essential ingredients of book and research projects with experts in their field of study. Learn what motivates their work and why it matters for Christian theology and ministry. G...
Jun 19, 2020•28 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Even a small amount of faith can hold us in place as participants contributing to the mending of the world. In this episode, Cynthia Rigby discusses how various understandings of particular doctrines play out in relation to the way we live our lives, and reminds us how faith is an overflow of the unconditional love of God. The Distillery is a podcast that explores the essential ingredients of book and research projects with experts in their field of study. Learn what motivates their work and why...
Jun 12, 2020•24 min•Season 3Ep. 8
iTunes Episode Duration: 00:22:37
Jun 05, 2020•23 min•Season 3Ep. 1
iTunes Episode Duration: 00:28:02
May 29, 2020•28 min•Season 3Ep. 1
iTunes Episode Duration: 00:34:33
May 22, 2020•35 min•Season 3Ep. 1
iTunes Episode Duration: 00:02::52
May 20, 2020•3 min•Season 3Ep. 1
iTunes Episode Duration: 00:28:48
Nov 29, 2019•29 min•Season 3Ep. 12
iTunes Episode Duration: 00:30:59
Nov 22, 2019•31 min•Season 3Ep. 11
iTunes Episode Duration: 00:32:03
Nov 15, 2019•32 min•Season 3Ep. 10
iTunes Episode Duration: 00:31:35
Nov 07, 2019•32 min•Season 3Ep. 1
