The Mystic by Church Health

he team of the Mystic talks about Martin Luther King Jr. and what he might be working on if he were alive today. 

Are people more self-absorbed these days? Has the proliferation of social media, polarization, and the decline of traditional religious affiliation made it easier for people to be more self-absorbed and less interested in the possibilities and demands of sharing in community? What about self-awareness?  How can the cultivation of self-awareness help us address what seems like a self-absorption epi...

The Mystic panel shares their parent-child relationships in succinct and fabulous ways with artist Stuart Sheldon.   (b. 1963, Miami) Stuart Sheldon is a multimedia artist and podcast host best known for immersive installations and collage paintings exploring literature and social justice. Sheldon's gun-sense billboard,  How Was School Today?,  in collaboration with the artist collective,  For...

As we kick off 2024, we focus on “Grace” and specifically looking at how we use it in dealing with division. As we head into what is likely to be an incredibly polarizing election year, there is worry that we will experience living in two worlds, completely separated from those with different political and social perspectives. 

Led by Rabbi Micah Greenstein, the group will discuss change and how it affects us in our daily lives. Music by Karen Smith, Dr. Ashley Davis and Kirk Whallum

From day-to- day, to our politics, to end of life and funerals. What is the funniest thing that has happened in your role as a clergy person. How much does it matter that our next mayor has a sense of humor? What is the funniest story you can tell on yourself?

This month's Mystic  is a discussion of religious decline led by Rev. Dr. Lillian Lammers. What do you think are the primary drivers for US adults falling away from religious institutions?  What kinds of things can our religious institutions be doing differently that might slow or reverse this decline? Does the new Barbie movie offer any insight? 

How do you stay positive given the avalanche of daily tragedy, locally, nationally, and globally? No theological quick fixes. Heaven will be fine, earth is where all the problems are.  Beyond deep faith and prayer, what helps? What helps you to keep positive through the ages and stages of life?

This month, the Mystic panel discusses apologies, forgiveness, and the role of grace in our public and private lives.

If Dr. King were to be in Memphis in 2023, what would he want to do this week? I suspect he would still want to do God’s will. That of course begins with being committed to the truth—an ever-elusive thing for us to grasp. Writer Leo Tolstoy said, “Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.” For so much of what we encounter, there is a l...

Everyone in Memphis seems to be suffering from what could be labeled as “fear fatigue.” We spent the past three years with some level of fear about getting sick from COVID. So many in our community have spent the last six months being afraid of being a victim of crime. Folks seem more on edge. Add this to the everyday fears that pop-up in our lives on a regular basis and you can get a sense that f...

In this episode of The Mystic, our panel discusses how the seasons of Lent affect our mind, body and spirit. Special musical guests are Ashley Davis and Keia Johnson.

So why do we make resolutions in the first place? And are they really that helpful? The panel explores the role of resolutions at the start of a New Year and try to make sense of the deeper needs, hurts, and desires that are behind our motivation to change. This episode we're led in music by Dr. Ashley Davis and Jonny Pineda.

If indeed "There's no place like home!" then where is home for you? As we enter this holiday season, this month's Mystic tackles the idea of home by reflecting on the people, memories, and experiences that make it possible for home to be wherever we find ourselves. This intimate conversation between regular panelists Rabbi Micah Greenstein and Rev. Joshua Narcisse explores the reality that home is...

Jonny Pineda conveys musically what his perceptions are during his own storms and connects to the devastation of the current physical storms in Florida, Haiti, etc. We all share about where to hide during, how to be strong in, and how to survive storms .

John Carroll of City Leadership joins the Mystic crew to discuss philanthropy in and around our beloved city of Memphis. Also, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, begins Sunday, so we will also discuss our thoughts on forgiveness.

In Genesis, even before Adam and Eve eat the apple, Adam is sent to till the earth, not as punishment but as part of what human life is meant to be. How today do we understand work as a path to better knowing God? What does any of this mean during the great resignation and the struggles the country faces in the Labor market of today? How can work draw us closer to God?

Have you chosen the one and only path God wants for you in your life or is flexibility to God's plan a more authentic road? How do you know if you are on the right road for you? Listen for dialog and ideas.

The recent and ongoing mass shootings occurring in the US are just the tip of the iceberg of our countries gun violence crisis. 99% of gun deaths are by violence other than mass shootings. Every day there are more than 110 gun deaths.  Listen in to learn of the advocacy group Moms Demand Action and enhance your understanding of violence, suicide and how the faithful respond.

Enjoy The Mystic's Mother's Day's 2022 edition. While holding space for the reality that not everyone's experience of a mother may be equally nurturing, this discussion explores the question of what our mothers teach us about God. This may be character traits we come to appreciate more fully as adults or specific experiences that left a lasting imprint on our spiritual formation. A saying from the...

This episode probes how our individual understanding and experiences of freedom shape our responses to the ways others express their freedom. In what ways do some systems fail to regard freedom as something that should be equally distributed? What is our responsibility to one another with how we use our individual freedom? When we feel our freedom is threatened, how can we find a foothold in faith...

One hundred percent of us have failure in our stories. The meaning we add to failure—that we've been taught to add—is what holds us hostage in a society obsessed with perfection. Too often we send a curated version of ourselves into the world when what we need most is grace and gentleness toward ourselves as we discover the usefulness in struggle and imperfection. What do we lose when we don't fac...

The ongoing pandemic makes a lot of things feel fuzzy around the edges—from outright loss of life of loved ones we haven't felt free to mourn with comforting rituals to the demands of living with the contradictory nature of finding ways to deal with stress without the familiar lifelong patterns of community and activities that help us do that. How do we heal from grief when everyone around us is t...

Politics, vaccines, the pandemic, religion, culture wars—we hear a lot of talk about how divided we are, even downright angry. Sometimes the wrong people in our lives become scapegoats of anger that has nothing to do with them. It seems like these last two years of pandemic life have the whole country pent-up with anger in need of release. Normalcy fell apart, and anger has become part of the comp...

This month's episode of The Mystic explores our relationship with money—what shapes it in the first place and how we can intentionally use our giving habits to express the values we aspire to more intentionally. Whether you have modest means or a high-end income, whether you are planning as an individual or an organization, a budget is a theological document because it is a values document. Do we...