The ChurchNext Podcast

Books Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God (2014) by Frank Schaeffer Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don't Like Religion (or Atheism ) (2009) by Frank Schaeffer Follow the Red Bird (2018) by Kate Rademacher Believing Is Seeing: A Physicist Explains How Science Shattered His Atheism and Revealed the Necessity of Faith (2021) by Michael Guillen Online Frank Schaeffer's Webpage Other Churc...

Do you ever get mad at God? Anger at God can produce feelings of shame, depression, and alienation. However, as Episcopal priest Laurie Brock says, anger is neither good nor bad in itself, but rather a neutral and natural emotion created by God. In this episode, Brock calls on a lifetime of study and counseling to offer insights into what anger is, why we get angry with God, and how we might respo...

Organizations: 350.org Sunrise Movement Third Act GreenFaith InterFaith Power and Light Books: The Creation Care Bible Challenge (2022), Ed. Marek P. Zabriskie Cooler Smarter: Practical Steps for Low-Carbon Living (2012) by the Union of Concerned Scientists The End of Nature (1989; reissued ) by Bill McKibben The Comforting Whirlwind: God, Job, and the State of Creation (2004) by Bill McKibben Lov...

While the word 'Godparent' is nowhere in the Bible, it is all over Christian history. From very early on Christians began baptizing their children as a way to form healthy believers - in keeping with the admonition in the book of Proverbs which says, 'Train up a child in the way they should go and when they are old they shall not depart from it.' In this episode, writer and teacher Nancy McLaughli...

Community Change   Gloria Rose Consulting If you’re interested in learning more about community organizing, check out organizations, such as Direct Action Research and Training (D.A.R.T.) Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF)   Books: The Justice Calling: Where Passion Meets Perseverance (2016) by Bethany Hoang and Kristen D. Johnson. Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (and...

Books: Holy Grounds: The Surprising Connection Between Coffee and Faith -- From Dancing Goats to Satan's Drink (2019) by Tim Schenck Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival (2014) by Daniel Jaffee Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How it Transformed Our World (2012) by Mark Pendergrast Fair Trade: A Beginner's Guide (2007) by Jaqueline DeCarlo   Online: Episcopal...

If you’re interested in learning more about keeping the Sabbath, check out books, such as MaryAnn’s Sabbath in the Suburbs: A Family’s Experiment with Holy Time,   Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal and Delight in Our Busy Lives by Wayne Muller, and The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time by Judith Shulevitz. You might be interested in other ChurchNext classes on similar topics. Try:...

Ever have trouble settling down into prayer? Do you run into problems turning off the words or finding the words, focusing your mind or relaxing your body? Sybil MacBeth understands these problems. Like many of us, she had trouble focusing her attention on prayer -- until, through informal doodling one day, she felt herself drawn into prayer. She has developed Praying in Color as an approach to pr...

Try researching on your own. Check out the following resources: World-wide Labyrinth Locator Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Practice (2006) by Lauren Artress Walking the Labyrinth: A Place to Pray and Seek God (2014) by Travis Scholl Walking the Labyrinth: A Spiritual and Practical Guide (2010) by Sally Welch   You might also be interested in other ChurchNext cla...

Spiritual wounds span in severity from annoyance to serious debilitation and they can keep us from being open and vulnerable to ourselves and others. Carol Howard Merritt knows a lot about this. She was raised in a strict, conservative Christian home where loving and well-meaning people nonetheless harmed her. In this class, based on Carol's book, Healing Spiritual Wounds , she defines what spirit...

If you’re interested in learning more about African American Spirituals, check out books, such as Songs my Grandma Sang, by Michael Bruce Curry, Radical Welcome: Embracing God, The Other, and the Spirit of Transformation (November, 2021) by Stephanie Spellers, and the Rastafari Book of Common Prayer by Mark Bozzuti-Jones. Also check out the Spirituals Database, and the Library of Congress’ collect...

Like prayer, yoga has been used in the Hindu religion and in other religious traditions to inspire peace, awaken mindfulness, and draw people closer to the divine presence that surrounds. While many people associate yoga with Hinduism alone, Christian yoga instructor Allison LaBianca says yoga predates Hinduism and can be used by people of every faith to draw nearer to God. Through her work with H...

If you’re interested in learning more about dementia and spirituality, check out the following books:  Redeeming Dementia: Spirituality, Theology, and Science (2018) by Dorothy Linthicum and Janice Hicks.  Walking Each Other Home: Spiritual Companionship for Dementia Caregivers (2021) by Jean Denton Redeeming Dementia: Spirituality, Theology, and Science (2018) by Dorothy Linthicum and Janice Hick...

If you’re interested in learning more about the Epiphany, check out books, such as Faithful Celebrations: Making Time for God from Advent through Epiphany, edited by Sharon Ely Pearson, and Stations of the Nativity: Meditation on the Incarnation of Christ by Raymond Chapman. Scripture study on the passages detailing Epiphany are another great way to go deeper with the Word and the story and apply...

If you are interested in learning more about Suzanne's work, visit Suzanne’s blog Week by Week Beads , at http://weekbyweekbeads.com/ , which also offers access to her podcast.  If you’re interested in learning more about the Anglican rosary, check out books, such as Praying with Beads: Daily Prayers for the Christian Year (2007) by Nan Lewis Doerr and Virginia Stem Owens, which includes an introd...

If the wars of yesteryear were fought over oil, then the wars of the future will be fought over water. So says Fletcher Harper, the executive director of Greenfaith, an interfaith environmental group that has made the stewardship of water a core focus of its work. In this episode, Fletcher discusses the Christian call to conserve water and mitigate the effects of climate change. It will interest t...

Our podcasts are curated from our online learning library at churchnext.tv. Learn more about us there. If you’d like to support us, please consider a monthly subscription. That will give you access to all of our individual online classes. Your generosity helps us produce digital experiences that help shape disciples. Books We Carry the Fire: Family and Citizenship as Spiritual Calling (2021) by Ri...

Here I Stand. These are the historic words attributed to Martin Luther as he took a stand for the radical convictions that should have gotten him killed. However, Luther's strength of conviction and timing in history combined to set the stage for big changes on the European continent and beyond. Church historian and theologian Alec Ryrie knows all about this. In this episode, he describes Luther's...

If you’re interested in reading more about Martin Luther, look into Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther by Roland H. Bainton and Martin Luther: Confessor of the Faith by Robert Kolb. Online, the Project Wittenberg website has many resources by and about Martin Luther and other Lutherans, including an extensive Martin Luther page. Dr. Ryan Reeves, an Assistant of Historical Theology at Gordon-Con...

Overcoming life's challenges is the larger lesson of the famous story of David and Goliath. John Ohmer knows this well. When he was called to be the pastor of a large church recovering from turmoil, he found great comfort, and learned more than a few lessons from David's confrontation with Goliath. In today's episode, he covers the following topics: The Nature of Giants Preparing for Battle Winnin...

Lucas Mix is an Episcopal priest, author, and martial artist. He is  also a researcher at the intersection of biology, philosophy, and theology, focusing on theories of life. In the second half of 2021, he is serving as the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation researching the relationship between science and science fiction. If y...

We'd like the universe to be simple to navigate in terms of moral choices -- but in reality, many choices and events are morally confusing, complex, or ambiguous. Sometimes, people get hurt -- through accidents, morally difficult choices, and other complicated scenarios. When that happens, the people who cause the injury can experience lasting trauma related to the sense that they should somehow h...

When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor . Corbett, Steve and Fikkert, Brian. Chicago: Moody, 2012. A discussion of the problems posed by traditional charity-based outreach by religious organizations from an evangelical point of view. Corbett & Fikkert have followed this book with others in a series called When Helping Works. Helping Without Hurting in Church Benevolen...

Aren't churches in London dead? Sure, there aren't nearly the number of people going to church today as there were in the past, but things have changed a lot. In fact, the Diocese of London has been in a growth pattern for several years, as theologian and author Jason Fout explains.  In today’s episode, Jason describes what the Diocese of London is doing and why it works. He offers an overview of...

If you're interested in learning more about Spiritual Direction of finding a spiritual director, visit the Spiritual Directors International website. If you’re interested in learning more about contemplative activities and practices, check out our ChurchNext courses:   Praying in Color with Sybil MacBeth Developing a Rule of Life with Hillary Raining With Gladness: 5 Weeks of Holy Practices for Di...