The ChurchNext Podcast

What church leaders hope will be engaging and exciting often turns out to be boring and irrelevant. Musician and liturgical consultant Dent Davidson knows all about that. His advice has helped hundreds of congregations get more out of their corporate life both in the pews and beyond. In this episode he offers us four audio presentations entitled: Vesting, Sacred Cows, Prayers, and Music.

What makes mystics, mystics? Often it's their deep connection to God through prayer and ecstatic experiences. Daniel London knows a lot about that, he's taught a course on English Mystics for years, and in this course he unpacks the subject with four audio presentations entitled: What Is a Mystic Julian of Norwich The Cloud of Unknowing Praying with English Mystics This episode is perfect for thos...

Few questions have drawn people closer to God and pushed people farther away than this one: Why Suffering? The Christian faith offers many responses, but the Dean of Virginia Theological Seminary, Ian Markham, really helps frame these responses in a thoughtful and reasoned way. His four audio presentations are entitled: Origins Suffering and the Bible Suffering and Blessing Coping with Suffering T...

One in every three Americans has a diagnosable addiction. Wow. This puts the majority of us in the position of caring for loved ones who find themselves suffering under the debilitating grip of addiction. Therapist and author Jonathan Benz knows all about this. He regularly works with individuals and groups combating addiction. In this episode Jonathan offers four audio presentations: What Is Addi...

What is Christian Mission and how do we do it? As Ian Douglas explains, the focus has now changed - from the Church's mission to God's mission. In this course, Douglas unpacks this idea in four presentations: Introduction Discovering God's Mission Baptism Participating in Mission

The breathtaking awe, grandeur, and inspiration of cathedrals offer wells of insight into spiritual matters. And when that cathedral, which was sanctioned by an act of Congress and sits in the shadow of America's federal government, is opened up to us to explore, a myriad of possibility unfolds. In this episode Dean Randy Hollerith takes us on a personal tour of the 'cathedral of presidents' - the...

Our culture has tended, up until recently, to think of serious sexual harassment as characterizing a bygone era. Scenes from the television show Mad Men, for example, set in 1960s advertising firms, startle us with the blatant sexism that female characters face. A 2016 report by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on workplace harassment included the results of a random sample survey that...

A seldom-discussed but essential element in combating the racial turmoil of our age is rooting our efforts towards building racial justice in spirituality. So says Michael Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, and keynote speaker at the Trinity Institute's 2016 conference, Listen for a Change: Sacred Conversations for Racial Justice. In this episode, Bishop Curry offers four talks a...

Every 7-8 years, one million Americans are killed or injured by firearms in a country that has nearly more guns than people. There were 14 mass shootings during the Obama presidency alone and while 90% of Americans are in favor of gun control measures, state legislatures continue to make guns easier to acquire and carry. These facts are of grave concern to most Christians, including Episcopal Bish...

We live in increasingly divisive times. From politics to sports, the gift of human difference can quickly become a chasm of serious discord and division. What does it mean for good Christians to disagree? How do we do so faithfully? Should Christians protest? How should they do so? In this episode we get answers from two prominent and in many ways, opposing camps. Social activist Ed Bacon believes...

As we know, we are in the midst of what may be the most polarizing and contentious elections in recent U.S. history. Many observers note that the political rancor and rhetoric has reached all time highs, injecting unprecedented fear, division, and unease into our culture. How do we make sense of this? How do people of faith respond? How do we remain calm and centered amidst our difference and tens...