The Antioch Podcast

Rev. Ricardo Tavarez is a comissioned pastor through Madison Church and is currently the church planting pastor of En Vivo Church in the Burton Heights neighborhood of Grand Rapids, MI. In this interview, Rev. Tavarez talks about his many bi-cultural childhood, planting a bilingual multiethnic church, and approaches to bilingual worship which En Vivo Church … Continue reading Episode 14: App...

In this episode, Dr. John Lee returns to join the Antioch team around the table. to discuss the phrase “Institutional Reconciliation”. Our team invented the phrase “Institutional Reconciliation” to describe principals of governance and decision-making which stand in contrast to the often unexamined organizational processes which then keep Institutional Racism intact.  If Socrates was right …...

The staff at Madison Church regularly share articles with each other about diversity and the church. These articles shape conversations about how the church is run and how decisions are made. One article that church staff have continued to talk about ran in the May 2016 issue of Christianity Today entitled “Can People of Color … Continue reading Episode 12: Moving the Furniture in the...

Sam Salguero is a children’s worship leader at a small Spanish-speaking church in the West Michigan area.  In this interview, she shares about the multi-ethnic worship culture of her Hispanic congregation, sharing about coritos, a genera of Latin worship music, which she describes as her congregation’s musical “sense of home.”  Later, Sam describes how the … Continue reading Episode 11: Chil...

Joseph Kuilema and Christina Edmondson are scholars at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Joe is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Work, and Christina is the Dean for Intercultural Student Development at Calvin.  In January 2017, Joe and Christina co-wrote an article entitled “Confronting White Privilege” for the Banner Magazine, the … Continue reading...

Scott Huebl and Linda Naranjo-Huebl have been leading worship together since their teenage years in the Jesus People movement of the 1970’s. They came to Grand Rapids from their home in Denver at the turn of the millennium, and have continued leading worship at Madison Church’s Square, Ford, and North campuses. As a couple, they … Continue reading Episode 9: A Lifetime of Leading...

Every church has its own story, and our story at Madison Church starts in 1915.  We celebrated our centennial in 2015, and our present Senior Pastor, Pastor David Beelen (known as “Pastor Dave” to most in the church), has been leading this church for nearly one-third of Madison’s existence.  Before leaving on sabbatical, I had … Continue reading Episode 8: An Interview with...

The Antioch cast returns to talk about the unique challenges of leading a multi-ethnic congregation in the post-election season of 2016. Any group of people are sure to have a few differences, but in multi-ethnic churches, these differences of opinions sometimes run along racial or ethnic lines. This is a unique challenge as a leader in … Continue reading Episode 7: Leading Your Church in Di...

Dr. John Lee is a professor of Psychology at Michigan State University, therapist, and frequent lecturer and consultant on matters of race, ethnicity and Christian faith. In the second-part of this two-part interview, Dr. Lee concludes his discussion of the historical development of race-theory in the United States, illuminating how the western church both shaped … Continue reading Episodes...

Dr. John Lee is a professor of Psychology at Michigan State University, therapist, and frequent lecturer and consultant on matters of race, ethnicity and Christian faith.   In this two-part interview, Dr. Lee discusses the historical development of race-theory in the United States, illuminating how the western church both shaped and was shaped by these ideas. … Continue reading Episodes 5: T...

Sandra Maria Van Opstal is the author of numerous books, including The New Worship: Glorifying God in a Diverse World, which received Christianity Today’s 2017 Book of the Year Award of Merit for Church/Pastoral Leadership.  She is a second-generation Latina, and the pastor at Grace and Peace Community in Chicago.   Sandra is sought-after as a … Continue reading Episode 4: The New Wors...

Recorded live at a group discussion for the Antioch Worship Leadership Trainings at Madison Church, Shelli Fynewever and Eric Nykamp talk about the notion of creating a culturally-hospitable worship environment.  As a part of this panel discussion, Shelly and Eric  introduce the work of the pastor and activist Sandra Maria Van Opstal and the humor of … Continue reading Episode 3: Hospitality...

Members of the Antioch Podcast team gather around the microphones to share stories of their experiences leading worship outside of the worship tradition in which they were raised.  This early episode of the podcast may exhibit some of the quirks of our early attempts at podcasting and not be of the quality that later episodes … Continue reading Episode 2: Stories of Entering Another Church&#...

In this inaugural episode, the members of the Antioch team (Laura Pritchard, Attah Obande and Eric Nykamp) talk about the reason for making this podcast, as well as a bit of their personal backstories about how they each came to lead worship in the multi-ethnic congregations of Madison Church.  This episode was recorded to help answer … Continue reading Episode 1: What Is the Antioch Worship...