Gravity Commons Podcast

That love does not control seems obvious to many people. And yet the temptation to control—often with good motives — is strong. The long-term results of yielding to this temptation damage everyone. Thomas Oord and Christy Gunter join us to talk about uncontrolling love from a theological and therapeutic perspective. They are both contributers to Love Does Not Control: Therapists, Psychologists, an...

We talk with Dr. Janyne McConnaughey about her book  Trauma in the Pews: The Impact on Faith and Spiritual Practices , which is a practical and compassionate roadmap for spiritual leaders to effectively minister to those struggling with the effects of trauma. Janyne McConnaughey, PhD is a trauma survivor who draws from her life-long involvement in church ministries to train teachers and ministry w...

Religious trauma is something that happens far more often than most people realize. In When Religion Hurts You , Dr. Laura Anderson takes an honest look at a side of religion that few like to talk about. Drawing from her own life and therapy practice, she helps readers understand what religious trauma is and isn't, and how high-control churches can be harmful and abusive, often resulting in tr...

What does it look like to live a flourishing, messy, wonderful life together with our kids? As parents, we’re tasked with nurturing and guiding our children, even as we navigate our own wonderings about faith. In the overwhelm and constant demands of life, is it possible to tend to our own souls and to our family’s flourishing? Kayla Craig's book Every Season Sacred i s a weekly invitation to...

Pastor and discipler E. K. Strawser shows that when discipleship becomes central to your leadership and community, then discipleship becomes central to congregational mission and cultural renewal. Her new book Centering Discipleship is a practice-based guidebook for leaders who are doing the hard work of re-imagining and re-structuring their churches and communities to turn spectators into mission...

We talked with Rev. Fran Tilton Shelton about the complex nature of grief, and what it looks like to walk through grief with God. Fran expounds on these themes in her book The Spirituality of Grief: Ten Practices for Those Who Remain . Fran is a founder of  Faith & Grief Ministries , and leads bereavement workshops and spiritual retreats. She is a preacher and a keynote speaker at conferences....

This is a follow-up to our interview with Andrew Whitehead to chat about what the "kingdom antidotes" are for the fear, self-interested power, and violence that animate Christian Nationalism. Connect with Gravity Leadership Leave us a message or ask a question  about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode. Join our online community  for free to get a curated...

Power. Fear. Violence. These three idols of Christian nationalism are corrupting American Christianity. Andrew Whitehead is a leading scholar on Christian nationalism in America and speaks widely on its effects within Christian communities. In this book, he shares his journey and reveals how Christian nationalism threatens the spiritual lives of American Christians and the church. Whitehead shows...

Immersed in his physics studies at Cornell, Tom Rudelius never thought much about God until his brother, a new convert to Christianity, challenged him to explore faith. To placate his twin, he reluctantly began exploring the Bible and the life of Jesus. Seeking proof of God's existence, he found himself in a world of uncertainty, faced with plenty of reasons for both faith and doubt. In Chasin...

We are re-posting our 4-part series with Dr. Nathan Cartagena on Critical Race Theory (CRT) from a couple years ago. This is Part 4, where we talk we talk about why this all matters for the church. Dr. Cartagena is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Wheaton College (IL), where he teach courses on race, justice, and political philosophy. He also serves as the faculty advisor for Unidad Cristia...

We are re-posting our 4-part series with Dr. Nathan Cartagena on Critical Race Theory (CRT) from a couple years ago. This is Part 3, where Dr. Cartagena continues to outline a brief history of white supremacy in the United States (using lots of original sources). It's REALLY eye-opening. Dr. Cartagena is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Wheaton College (IL), where he teach courses on ra...

We are re-posting our 4-part series with Dr. Nathan Cartagena on Critical Race Theory (CRT) from a couple years ago. This is Part 2, where Dr. Cartagena outlines a brief history of white supremacy in the United States (using lots of original sources). It's REALLY eye-opening (and will be continued in the next part). Dr. Cartagena is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Wheaton College (IL),...

Over the next few weeks, we are re-posting our 4-part series with Dr. Nathan Cartagena on Critical Race Theory (CRT) from a couple years ago. Back in 2021, people were claiming that critical race theory was a grave threat to the gospel. But what in the world IS critical race theory, anyway? In this first episode, Dr. Cartagena helps us understand what we're actually talking about. In Parts 2 a...

Light as Air: Practicing Authenticity, Depth, and Purpose in a World of Empty Promises . offers readers freedom from unmet desires, a way to disrupt broken systems, and an invitation into a life of depth and creative action. How? By exploring the story of Jesus and the way his kingdom engages our dissatisfaction and invites us into the life we were made for. Jesus' kingdom is a political reali...

Seems like everyone's talking about Amazon's new docuseries Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets , so we wanted to host a discussion about it, and the issues it brings up. We invited Rebekah Mui and Dr. Laura Robinson to join us for this very wide-ranging, longer-than-usual discussion. Have fun! Rebekah Mui is a PhD Student in political, social, ethical and cultural thought (ASPECT) a...

Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer's book A Church Called Tov, readers wrote in with stories of abuse and practical questions, such as: How can I transform the culture in my church or organization to make it tov? I believe my workplace has unhealthy values. How do I initiate change? How do I unleash a culture of goodness in my ministry? I’m not in a position of church leadership. What are some...

Learning to hear God's voice can be a difficult and confusing experience for many. But if we can start with getting real about what's happening in our hearts, we can begin to untangle the mess of our thoughts and feelings and create a stillness that makes it easier to hear what God is saying to us and sense what God is doing in us. Megan Nilsen wrote Untangled Faith: How Honest Conversatio...

A few days ago Gravity Podcast co-host Matt Tebbe wrote an article about 2 kinds of anger : the legitimate anger of the oppressed that tells the truth about injustice, and the illegitimate anger of the powerful who seek to maintain their own privilege at the expense of others. If we can’t discern the difference, we lump all expressions of anger together, and anger itself seems to be our main probl...

For over fifteen years, writer Jeff Crosby has been searching for a language of the soul--a way to articulate our deepest longings. Through his book The Language of the Soul: Meeting God in the Longings of Our Hearts , he gifts us with those so-often-untranslatable desires of our hearts, guiding us to finally find the words and luminous insights for our own longings for home, for friendship, for f...

A few weeks ago we talked about 7 common parenting pitfalls and we wanted to follow it up with a list of parenting "pro-tips" (even though none of us are "professional" parents lol), and make a list of 8 (one more than our list of pitfalls): Reparent yourself first. Cultivate natural consequences. Normalize being wrong and apologizing. Delight in the diversity of your kids. Define...

Christian spiritual formation resources and teachings have primarily come from Western spiritual traditions, which implicitly communicates that the white experience of God is the norm. In Our Unforming: De-Westernizing Spiritual Formation , Cindy Lee proposes that, in our increasingly diverse contexts, we need new, non-Western cultural ways of being formed--turning from linear to cyclical, from ce...

After listening carefully to stories from people who suffered misogynistic, racist, or homophobic abuse at the hands of the church, Charles Kiser and Dr. Elaine Heath bring those stories into conversation with the death and resurrection of Jesus, and find in the gospel a God who shares the experience of the traumatized. The result is their book Trauma-Informed Evangelism: Cultivating Communities o...

A few weeks ago we released an episode (" 5 Signs of a Toxic Leadership Culture ") that garnered more response from listeners than we've ever received! So we wanted to record a follow-up episode reflecting on those responses and offering signs of a healthy, non-toxic leadership culture. Here are the 5 signs, along with their toxic analogues: From power flowing up & in to power flow...

We chat through 7 common parenting pitfalls that Christy compiled from her experience as a mother and a pastor. Take a deep breath and cultivate some compassion for yourself, and let's go! Here's the list: Talk parenting Bribe parenting Excuse parenting Shame parenting Hover parenting Blind parenting Backwards parenting Show notes: Eric Minton: What our Pain Reveals About the Anxious Pursu...

Spiritual director Casey Tygrett joins us to challenge the notion that restlessness is a sign that we must move up, move on, or move out, and instead helps us explore some of our deepest questions: Where do I belong? What am I here for? Is there enough? Casey helps us begin to create a spirituality sturdy enough for our unsettled seasons. Casey's new book is The Gift of Restlessness: A Spiritu...