The Allender Center Podcast

It feels as though we've been living in a year of Lent, Dan comments, let alone the past forty days as we near the end of Holy Week. So, on this Holy Saturday, Dan and Rachael begin a timely conversation about the reality, disruption, and defiance of the resurrection. The resurrection is not meant for only sometime in the future, but for the here and now. We need to remember that though death pers...

Dr. Pam Davis again joins Dan and Rachael to continue their conversation about how to help kids in this year of pandemic and the many other global and social events our kids are exposed to. This week, she talks about how we can differentiate between normal mental health struggles in children, when we may need to seek help, and how to tell the difference. Listen and learn what steps you can take to...

Dr. Pam Davis, Associate Professor of Counseling at Gordon-Conwell Seminary and Director of the Counseling Department at Charlotte campus, joins Dan and Rachael to engage the immense difficulty of parenting in a pandemic and speak directly to those working with children. You'll hear understanding affirmations and how Dr. Davis addresses the oftentimes overwhelming challenge of needing to care for...

Following their conversation from last week about the impact of trauma on our body and our brain, Dan and Rachael turn their attention to ways we can begin to find healing in the midst of 'trauma overload.' This is not a prescriptive list of all the things you must do, but rather options available to you to start where and when you can. Ultimately, as Dan and Rachael come back to time and time aga...

We're coming up on a full year of living in the midst of not only a global pandemic, but multiple crises on a national, communal, and personal scale. So today, Dan and Rachael dive into a much-requested topic from our listeners: What is trauma, and what happens to our bodies in the midst of trauma? It's important to name and honor what you're experiencing as many of us, if we're being honest, are...

Picking up their conversation from last week, Dan and Cathy turn their attention to uncovering the roots of conflict in relationships and how we can move towards true connection. Oftentimes conflict arises because we cannot name what we truly need, or we cannot see past our own contempt—ultimately there is something keeping us from seeing the other well. Redemption is possible, but we must be will...

There is no doubt that we are living in a time that heightens levels of conflict and contention in our relationships. Having just finished a one-day conference on this topic, Dr. Dan Allender and Cathy Loerzel talk today on the podcast about their recent, personal experiences with conflict, particularly in this pandemic era. In this season, the ways we engage in and relate to conflict look differe...

"How is your Sabbath?" As he opens the conversation on this week's podcast, Dr. Dan Allender invites us to consider this question of ourselves. You'll hear him and Rachael discuss the particulars of their own Sabbath practices, the wildness and play they each experience, and how Sabbath is not bound to a certain day or strict code of conduct. A true Sabbath is meant to engage both beauty and heart...

A "day of delight" is not an easy topic to engage in the midst of this season. Nevertheless, it is a vital practice that is needed more than ever before and, as Dan surmises, is less engaged than at any other time. Listen as Dan and Rachael engage the true meaning of Sabbath, how it is meant to be a taste of the coming Kingdom of God and what we are meant for, and common misconceptions that accomp...

This week on the podcast, Wendell Moss, a Teaching Staff member of The Allender Center, hosts special guest Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil for a conversation about her work in racial reconciliation. Dr. Salter McNeil is internationally recognized for her work in reconciliation, is an Associate Professor of Reconciliation Studies at Seattle Pacific University, and is the Associate Pastor of Preaching and...

As a follow up to last week's conversation, Dr. Chuck DeGroat returns to the podcast to answer listener questions about narcissism with Dan and Rachael. How are we to engage a person who might be a parent, spouse, or spiritual leader who has narcissistic characteristics? How do we engage a narcissist with wisdom? And, on a larger scale, how do we recognize the symptoms of a narcissistic church cul...

Today on the podcast, Dr. Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen have a timely conversation with Chuck DeGroat, professor of Counseling and Christian Spirituality at Western Theological Seminary, licensed therapist, and spiritual director. He is the author of Leaving Egypt: Finding God in the Wilderness Places as well as When Narcissism Comes to Church , which serves as the primary topic of convers...

This past year was unlike any other we've experienced. Our plans, goals, resolutions, and carefully crafted calendars for 2020 were all but thrown out the window as a result of the pandemic. It's normal to look back at the year with grief  for all that was lost and not accomplished. The feeling of regret, however, can become so heavy that it pulls us down into a cycle of negative thinking, contemp...

We may be at the start of a new year, but that does not mean we leave all of what transpired in 2020 behind—this season will continue to ask much of us. As you'll hear Dan comment, it's no surprise we now find ourselves at the "intersection between dread and incredible hope." While not the typical tone that accompanies a New Year's podcast episode, Dan and Rachael instead present us with an unusua...

How do we remember a year well, particularly a year that many of us may not want to look back and reflect upon? What is there to gain in remembering 2020? In the final podcast episode of the year, Dan and Rachael have a conversation about the necessity of engaging and learning from this tumultuous year and share their answers to three, reflective questions: What haunts me? What comforts me? What t...

In the final episode about what it means to enter the Advent season at such a time as this, Rachael Clinton Chen invites her husband, the Rev. Michael S. Chen, to engage this question together on the podcast. What follows is a tender, vulnerable conversation about what it means that God came to be present with us in an embodied, vulnerable way, how we can enter into a season of expectant waiting,...

Continuing a series of conversations about how we are to live into the tension of Advent in this season, Rachael talks with Cole Arthur Riley—writer, speaker, and founder of the project Black Liturgies , "a project seeking to integrate the truths of Black dignity, lament, rage, justice, and rest into written prayers." Throughout their conversation you'll hear about the role and function of liturgy...

"How shall we live into this Advent season at such a time as this?"   Each year, the season of Advent invites us to lean into the story of God, to the tension and expectation that surrounds the birth of Jesus. This year, however, amidst a global pandemic and heightened racial tension, anticipation has become akin to a feeling of dread rather than a thing to look forward to with hope and excitement...

Though we are just now emerging from the season of Thanksgiving, tomorrow marks the first Sunday in Advent. We hold much gratitude, grief, and tension as we approach this Christmas season not only because of the anticipated flurry of gift-purchasing and gift-giving, but the coming of Jesus and the "tense, complex, wild narrative" of the Christmas story itself. Listen as Dan and Rachael enter into...

This season of Thanksgiving looks quite different than previous years, many of us not gathering  with families and loved ones around a table with one another. Acknowledging this heartache, Dan and Rachael have a weighty conversation about the necessity of engaging both grief and gratitude.

Picking up on the theme from last week, Dan and Rachael have a fiercely honest and grief-filled conversation about the influence of polarization, idolatry, and the prevalence of fear in both the United States and our own hearts. We must consider what it means for us as Christ-followers to live out the kingdom of God not only today but in each and every day that comes.

As a nation the United States is in the midst of great uncertainty, and Dan and Rachael took time to reflect together on what is a contentious and divisive election and the fear it generates for many. What does it mean, Dan asks, to live faithfully in the context of not being bound to one party or another, but to live out our calling as members of God's kingdom in the midst of this uncertainty?

"I think we radically need to rethink how we imagine leadership." -Cathy Loerzel, Executive Vice President   In their final conversation about archetypes within the kingdom of God, Dan, Cathy, and Rachael unpack what it means to be a widow or widower, and how one can become a thriving king or queen. What are the wounds that impact a king or queen, what does true leadership look like, and how does...

Continuing a conversation about what it means to live out the character of God in the context of the kingdom of God, Dan, Cathy, and Rachael engage the archetypes of stranger and prophet. You'll hear more about what it means to be a stranger who, in the redemptive process, can begin to use their sense of alienation and isolation on behalf of the kingdom as a prophet. As Dan notes, in our world tod...

"Stories are what change the human heart." - Cathy Loerzel   This week, Dan, Rachael, and Cathy take a deep dive into and further reflect on the archetype of priest. What is required for a priest to grow in their ability to do what priests are meant to do? In this episode, you'll hear our hosts and Cathy talk about the importance of archetypal thinking, how the archetype of an "orphan" relates to...