The Antioch Podcast

Today on the Antioch Podcast, we are going to start a three-part miniseries on Antiracism basics, we are calling “Antiracism 101.” In this series of three episodes, we will be exploring what antiracism is, what Biblical antiracism is, and conclude with an case study that looks at how Biblical antiracist principles affect an actual church … Continue reading Episode 165: Antiracism 101 –...

Authors Michelle Loyd Paige and Michelle Williams wrote their book, Diversity Playbook: Recommendations and Guidance for Christian Organizations, as a repository for their collective insights as diversity professionals who have served Christian institutions for decades. This playbook is full of practical wisdom for three distinct, but interactive audiences: – Diversity professionals – those...

Authors Michelle Loyd Paige and Michelle Williams wrote their book, Diversity Playbook: Recommendations and Guidance for Christian Organizations, as a repository for their collective insights as diversity professionals who have served Christian institutions for decades.  This playbook is full of practical wisdom for three distinct, but interactive audiences: –       Diversity professionals –...

Authors Michelle Loyd Paige and Michelle Williams wrote their book, Diversity Playbook: Recommendations and Guidance for Christian Organizations, as a repository for their collective insights as diversity professionals who have served Christian institutions for decades. This playbook is full of practical wisdom for three distinct, but interactive audiences: – Diversity professionals – those...

Authors Michelle Loyd Paige and Michelle Williams wrote their book, Diversity Playbook: Recommendations and Guidance for Christian Organizations, as a repository for their collective insights as diversity professionals who have served Christian institutions for decades.  This playbook is full of practical wisdom for three distinct, but interactive audiences: –       Diversity professionals –...

This is part 2 of our two-episode conversation called Antiracism vs. Compositional Diversity: Why seeking justice matters to have true unity in Christian spaces.  This live conversation was part of the Unlearn program offered at Calvin University through the Center for Intercultural Student Development.  During this week, students, faculty, and the community are invited to … Continue reading...

Unlearn week is a yearly program offered at Calvin University through the Center for Intercultural Student Development.  During this week, students, faculty, and the community are invited to educational events and forums to learn and have conversations designed to unlearn biases and promote Biblical antiracism.  The Antioch Podcast team was invited to participate in this … Continue reading E...

Jesus once asked his followers “Come away with me.  Let us go alone to a quiet place and rest for a while.”  Jesus knew that they needed a break from all they were learning and doing while they followed him. Everyone needs time to rest, and our team needed this as well. Our podcast has … Continue reading Episode 158: The Antioch Podcast Retreat – “What We Did, and What We Learned...

It is a commonly-repeated story about America. European Christians traveled from Europe – some fleeing persecution – crossing the Great Sea to a Promised Land where they set up a God-glorifying Christian nation from which to bless the world. This retelling of the American story substitutes white Christians for the original chosen people of God … Continue reading Episode 157: White Christian...

The good doctor Luke, writer of his self-titled gospel on the life of Jesus followed up by writing the sequel commonly referred to as the Acts of the Apostles.  Now it IS true – this book does talk a lot about those early church leaders.  But focusing on the human beings in this story misses … Continue reading Episode 156: Radical Acts – “Seeing Acts 1-12 in the Rearview Mi...

Imagine for a moment a people so afraid of their murderous, narcissistic ruler, that all his followers flatter him with praise to ensure that the people they represent in the government get what they need to sustain them. They shower him with acclaim at his speaking events that are one-part stump-speech and one-part rabble-rousing spectacle. … Continue reading Episode 155: Radical Acts &#821...

We have been working our way through the stories told in the book of Acts – a book in the New Testament which chronicles the birth of the early Christian church. For those of you who need to be brought up to speed, the early church is by this time a multiethnic group of believers … Continue reading Episode 154: Radical Acts – “Free… But Not So Free.”

The church began as a multiethnic institution. Period. Full stop. Now if you studied art history like me, you are pretty used to seeing a lot of famous images of Bible stories recreated on canvas showing a lot of white people as the characters in almost all the stories. But that isn’t what church history … Continue reading Episode 153: Radical Acts – “Antioch: The First Multiethn...

As the school year begins in the United States, parents are sending their children back to school. Schools, however, are not the only places where children learn. Our homes are places where children learn many important things that shape the rest of their lives. For example, home is the place where most Children still learn … Continue reading Episode 152: Raising Racially-Resilient Children

We are stepping away from our series to bring you a couple special episodes of the Antioch Podcast, before returning to our series on the book of Acts. Pursuing racial justice can be exhausting work. Many people have been feeling the strain in a more intense way since the shooting of Michael Brown (the anniversary … Continue reading Episode 151: Strength for the Journey – “Replen...

We are stepping away from our series to bring you this special episode of the Antioch Podcast. This is our 150th episode. At the beginning of the worldwide pandemic, we decided to record an episode a week, instead of twice per month as we had been doing. We mostly did it because all of us … Continue reading Episode 150: Hindsight 2020 – “Our Takeaways from 150 Episodes.”

In our series, Radical Acts, the birth of the multiethnic church, we pick up the story where we left off in episode 148 where Peter, a Jew, has been invited (so to speak) by a group of armed Romans to bring a message to their military commander, a Roman Centurian named Cornellius. Now I don’t … Continue reading Episode 149: Radical Acts – “From Others to Brothers.”

Have you ever been asked to eat something you thought was completely disgusting? Just the smell of it, the sight of it, or even just thinking about it makes you get that feeling in your stomach like you were going to get sick. Or maybe you’ve had the opposite experience where you were eating, and … Continue reading Episode 148: Radical Acts – “The Holy Spirit and the Yucky Yums.&...

Today we are stepping away from our series on the book of Acts to hear the story of Laura Pritchard.  Laura was one of the first African-American leaders at Madison Church, formerly known as Madison Square Church where she served first as a volunteer, and later oversaw youth ministries, outreach, and led worship.  Madison Church … Continue reading Episode 147: Laura Pritchard – “...

As we continue our antiracist reading of the book of Acts, the narrative spotlight now swings from Paul back to Peter, the disciple of Jesus leading the church in exile. We find Peter, now walking among those believed to be of lesser-importance in Jewish culture: a paralyzed man, a group of impoverished widows, a dead … Continue reading Episode 146: Radical Acts – “Named.”

We are taking a momentary break from our Radical Acts series to bring you the audio of the most recent White Work live event put on by the Antioch Podcast and the Office of Race Relations for the Christian Reformed Church of North America. In this episode, Reggie and Michelle cohost a panel of white … Continue reading Episode 145: White Work – “Understanding Whiteness and Rightne...

Have you ever had someone flip on you? You know, one day they believe something so strongly, maybe so strongly that they argue about it all the time with anyone who holds a different viewpoint? Then you don’t see that person for a bit and when they come back, they are changed. They had a … Continue reading Episode 144: Radical Acts – “Giving Saul the Side-Eye.”

Remember back a few episodes when we met this guy named Saul who held the coats of the people who wanted to murder Stephen? This episode is about him. He has been out trying to hunt down members of the Jesus Way (known as “the Way”) to kill or capture them. Not a nice guy. … Continue reading Episode 143: Radical Acts – “Brash, Blind and Brave.”

For those of you who may be new to the podcast, we are a multi-racial group of Christian friends who take an hour each episode to have a conversation about race and faith. In the past few months, we have been doing a deep dive into scripture, to look at the Biblical precedent undergirding Christian … Continue reading Episode 142 – “Breaking Barriers.”

In today’s installment of the Antioch Podcast we continue our series “Radical Acts” the story of the birth of the multiethnic church. In today’s episode, we enter the story as the followers of Jesus flee persecution from Jews. They find shelter among the “half-Jewish” residents of Samaria, whom Jews saw as a lower-caste people. These … Continue reading Episode 141: Radical Acts – &#822...