The Invitation

This is the second in a new collaborative series with the Dominican Center on the role of contemplative spirituality and spiritual direction in the context of the local church. In this public conversation hosted by the Dominican Center on Nov 13, 2019, Josh is joined by Sr Diane Zerfas and Dr Chuck DeGroat. When many are reporting the decline in church attendance, should we be alarmed? How are the...

Advent is a season many churched Christians are relatively numb to. We struggle to enter into the deeper richness of longing and waiting. In this episode, we move from the Rev. Dr. Denise Kingdom Grier's sermon on the first Sunday of Advent to a follow-up conversation on becoming poor as we wait with expectation and eagerness for the coming of our King!

This update episode is way overdue. I miss you, so I'm finally reaching out to get you caught up on all that's been happening with the Invitation. At the end of this update, I offer a brief meditation on a timely word from The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, specifically a conversation between John the Dwarf and Abba Poemen (pictured above). It's Giving Tuesday! I would sincerely appreciate your fi...

Part II of our conversation with Ruth Haley Barton is the closing Q & A session that will especially be interesting to pastors and nonprofit leaders. However, Ruth also speaks specifically to anyone who has had to go outside of her community even for a season, someone who has lost her bearings in the church not because she has lost her faith but because the Spirit is leading her to deeper surrende...

This is Part One of two episodes that document an extended conversation with author, spiritual director, teacher, and retreat leader Ruth Haley Barton. This episode also marks the beginning of a new collaboration between the Invitation and the Dominican Center, a ministry of the Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids, MI. On a snow and ice covered January 19, 2019 evening Josh and a group of church and...

Retreat leader, spiritual director, and author Sharon Garlough Brown helps us consider the spiritual disciplines that Jesus practiced by walking us through Mark 1:35-38 in prayer and meditation. Be sure to visit her site: www.sensibleshoesclub.com to learn more about what Sharon has to offer. Also, subscribe to the Invitation at www.invitationpodcast.org so that you can be updated when new materia...

This is the introductory episode in a new collaboration with The Awakening, a week-long, summer worship and arts experience for high school students. In this episode Josh engages a group of the Awakening students to consider the unique gift of a teenager's spiritual journey. In the posture of spiritual direction, we don't bring Jesus to the high school student. Instead, we join the student to disc...

Micah Matthews recently finished and MFA in fiction at Warren Wilson. This episode is his audio essay where he describes his visits to the prison with Josh. These visits cause Micah to reflect on the spiritual good of going outside of his comfort. Without permission to take microphones and cameras into the prison, this essay is the next best way for you to come inside to taste and see the movement...

In this update episode, a Hasidic tale from Heschel helps us understand the Spirit's invitation to find the treasure right here in front of ourselves, right at home. We are on the eve of #GivingTuesday. If you haven't had a chance to watch our Kickstarter video, please do. https://tinyurl.com/y9gqmnhaA We hope you can catch onto the larger vision of what the Invitation is up to as a nonprofit conn...

This conversation with Jonathan proves to be a "wild one" in the sense that Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove leads us into the wilderness of race politics in America. Josh offers a hearty introduction to this conversation encouraging you to enter into this wilderness desert for the sake of loving God with your strength for the sake of righteousness, which is justice." This episode is a challenging invita...

In this episode Josh reads a short meditation written by Jordan Bruxvoort, director of the Naomi Project in Sioux Falls, SD. This episode is a continuation of the rhythms and questions of the Summer Retreat: what is the unique gift of the seasons in our spiritual formation? This meditation resonates well with prayer exercise #25 from the guide "40 Ways to Spend Five-Minutes with God" that can be f...

In this episode Josh shares a spiritual conversation with Trevor Hudson, a Methodist minister and spiritual director based in South Africa. They especially discuss the difficult and often heartbreaking work of discerning God's will. Trevor's special area of study and teaching is the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola and the Protestant philosopher and spiritual author, Dallas Willard. In this...

This is the final movement of the Summer Retreat 2018, a retreat on loving God with all your strength. Sadly this episode does not include a conversation with our friends who have been in conversations throughout the summer. This episode uses a lectio divina format using the Message translation of Romans 12:1-2. The focus question is how does love for God in the heart, mind and soul become tangibl...

Josh meets again with a small group of young church leaders to discuss soul-spirituality in the fifth movement of the Summer Retreat 2018. These friends attempt to define the soul, describe spiritual practices that especially nourish the soul, and they consider the many layers of resistance that keep us from our souls. This intimate and candid conversation is intended to be a soul practice itself...

In part four of the Summer Retreat 2018, Josh engages five friends who have served in local churches to explore a spirituality of the mind. This episode attempts to offer you a retreat experience wherever you are in the world. We begin with the standard three readings of a lectio divia practice praying Hosea 6. In the second half of the retreat, Josh offers 10 minutes of teaching on the mind. His...

In this part three of the summer retreat 2018 Josh engages four friends who have served in local churches to explore prayers of the heart. This episode attempts to offer you a retreat experience wherever you are in the world. We begin with the standard three readings of a lectio divia practice praying Hosea 6. In the second half of the retreat, Josh offers 10 minutes of teaching on the heart, what...

This episode, Part Two of the Introduction to the Summer Retreat 2018, is a conversation with Chuck DeGroat, Professor of Pastoral Care and Christian Spirituality at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, MI. The Summer Retreat is a journey through prayers of the heart, mind, soul, and strength. These two introductory episodes first consider questions around loving God with “all,” questions of W...

Welcome to the Summer Retreat 2018 Part One. In this episode Josh describes the extended prayer experience through praying with the heart, mind, soul, and strength. The two goals of this retreat are to identify your own personal spirituality and then to stretch beyond that prayer toward wholeness, to integrate into holiness. As we prepare for this summer experience Josh guides us through praying a...

This is an update episode to invite you to go deeper with the Invitation Podcast by: 1. joining a summer-long, multi-episode retreat through the shema (Deut 6; Mark 12)of loving God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength; and 2. to become a sustaining member of the Invitation as it seeks to become a non-profit. Here Josh shares the story of how he got into spiritual direction, started this...

Nathan Foster offers this guided prayer through Psalm 131 as part of Renovaré's month on meditation through March. This retreat is a co-release with our friends over at Renovaré. To participate in their other offerings especially this month visit www.renovare.org/podcast. There you will find a tremendous amount of resources to help you in your spiritual journey. Also, be sure to subscribe to the I...

This short meditation is a response to #6 from the prayer guide, "40 Ways to Spend Five Minutes With God" that can be found on the resource page at www.invitationpodcast.org Josh borrows from a section of a conversation he recently had with writer, pastor, and activist Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove where Jonathan describes prayer as "begging." The full conversation with Jonathan is coming soon. Be sur...

Josh sits down with the two collaborators of www.undergroundministries.org, Chris Hoke and Neaners Garcia. They reflect on the strange gift of solitude, a gift even for inmates who are willing to open themselves to the healing love of Jesus. Neaners and Chris tell their story of meeting in the prison and learning how to pray inside the prison. Can people be transformed? Can I be transformed? Do I...

Josh recites a Meditation on Isaiah 9 for advent. This 5 Minute Prayer is based on #13 from the prayer guide, "40 Ways to Spend Five Minutes With God." The text of the Mediation and the prayer guide can be found on the resources page at invitaitonpodcast.org

This guided prayer retreat is a journey through lamentation to discover God in the deeper, painful, often hidden places inside of ourselves. The retreat is laid out in the structure of 'lectio divina' with three readings of the classic text of Ecclesiastes 3:2-8. Original music with help from Jared DeMeester and Josh Holicki.

Josh has a conversation with Christopher Hall, president of Renovare and one of the three lead instructors of Josh's doctorate of ministry cohort in spiritual direction, a degree program through Fuller Seminary. Chris and Josh focus on the question of inner transformation, if it is possible and whether we believe in transformation. Chris draws especially from his expertise in desert spirituality t...