Gravity Commons Podcast

We continue our ongoing series on Power in the Church, interviewing Timothy Isaiah Cho about what he’s learning about healing from spiritual abuse. We talk about how to know if you’re experiencing spiritual abuse, five signs of spiritual abuse, and some of the harmful ways spiritual abuse affects our ability to trust God in the long […] The post Healing From Spiritual Abuse with Timothy Isaiah Cho...

What does it actually look like to empower others like Jesus did? How can we practice cruciform leadership? We continue our series on Power in the Church, interviewing Greg Boyd, a theologian, pastor, and author of several books which you can check out here. You can also follow him on Twitter. In this episode, we […] The post Greg Boyd on Practicing Cruciform Leadership appeared first on Gravity L...

We continue our series on Power in the Church, interviewing Brian Zahnd on how easy it is to succumb to the power of empire, and how to subvert it instead. The post Brian Zahnd on Subverting the Power of Empire appeared first on Gravity Leadership. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

What’s the goal of justice? To punish the offender as payment for wrongdoing or to restore the offender to community? We continue our series on power by talking with Dominique DuBois Gilliard about how our anemic vision of justice has created a very broken incarceration system in the United States. Dominique helps us see that even […] The post Rethinking Incarceration with Dominique DuBois Gilliar...

We continue our series on power and in this episode we have a fascinating conversation Keith Giles about his experience in breaking cultural power norms by using a house church model that allows people to “bring what they have” and challenges the normal “person in charge” mentality. Keith Giles is a former pastor who left […] The post How Power Distorts the Body of Christ With Keith Giles appeared...

What is mutual submission? How does it actually work? And how can it be practiced to subvert the worldly power games we keep getting sucked into in the church? We continue our discussion of POWER in the church, and our guest is David Fitch, a pastor at Peace of Christ Church in Westmont, Illinois, and a […] The post David Fitch on How Mutual Submission Subverts Coercive Power appeared first on Gra...

We continue our series on how we get POWER wrong in the church by interviewing Mako Nagasawa about how racism is completely rooted in power (not just prejudice). Mako founded New Humanity Institute, and his experience as a teacher and trainer in Christian restorative justice and healing atonement theology brings a fresh perspective and a deep knowledge […] The post It’s All About Power: Mako Nagas...

How does our conception of power affect the way we perceive and practice justice? We continue our series on power by talking with author and activist Adam Gustine about power, identity, bias, perspective, wokeness, justice, and all kinds of other stuff! Adam leads CovEnterprises, a social enterprise intitative of Love Mercy, Do Justice, for the […] The post How Power Subverts Our Justice Efforts w...

We continue our series on power by talking with author and pastor Nate Pyle about how our inherited misconceptions about power distort our vision of masculinity. Our vision of masculinity is wrapped up in loads of inherited misconceptions about power, and in this episode we talk with about it. Much of what the evangelical church has […] The post How Power Distorts Our Vision of Masculinity with Na...

What is the difference between “worldly power” and the power of God? Matt and Ben talk with Thomas Horrocks from the Sinnergists Podcast about how power corrupts our ability to lead like Jesus when we don’t lead from a place of servanthood. We talk about cults, the military, pacifism, the idolatry of “effectiveness”, and a whole bunch […] The post How Power Corrupts our Leadership with Thomas Horr...

Most of us think of power as control. The ability to “make things happen”. Then we project this onto God, thinking he is the most able to “make things happen”. But what if God’s power was more characterized by love than control? Is love powerful? This is Part 2 of our series on power in […] The post How We Get Power Wrong: Control Vs Love appeared first on Gravity Leadership. Advertising Inquiries...

Abuse of power in the church has been exposed more in the last few years that ever before, but what does this have to do with us “normal” leaders who haven’t abused power egregiously like the leaders we see in the news? On our 1-year podcast anniversary, we start a new series on power in the […] The post Power in the Church, Pt 1: We Have a Problem With Power appeared first on Gravity Leadership....

Many of us associate Lent with eating fish on Fridays… but what is Lent? And why would someone want to practice it, especially if it isn’t part of your tradition? In this episode, Ben and Matt chat with Aaron Damiani, who wrote a book on why and how to practice Lent: The Good of Giving Up: […] The post Why and How to Practice Lent with Aaron Damiani appeared first on Gravity Leadership. Advertisin...

What’s the difference between self-care and self-indulgence? How can you tell if you’re practicing healthy rest or unhealthy indulgence? In this episode, Ben, Matt and Ben discuss this issue based on some of their recent personal kairos moments. Is there such a thing as healthy ambition? Do we make our resting into “work?” Ben H. also […] The post 052 – Self-care or Self-indulgence? How to Tell th...

In this episode Ben, Matt and Ben answer a recent email that questions the balance between managing and micromanaging. Some of the topics we cover are: self-leadership comes before leading others paying attention to our own anxiety in the midst of leading how to invite change in others (parenting tip!) how do we leverage everything […] The post 051 – Practicing Directive Leadership Without Microma...

In this episode Ben and Matt talk with Bonnie Kristian about how faith and flexibility go together. We often think of them as opposites, but in fact we need some flexibility for our faith to grow. Topics in this episode: In seasons of disillusionment, how can we let our faith be flexible without losing our faith […] The post 050 – Bonnie Kristian on (Faithfully) Practicing a Flexible Faith appeare...

We interview Hannah Anderson on the (alleged) idolatry of the family. We wanted to talk with her after we saw a Twitter thread she posted awhile back on family idolatry. She is insightful and has an important, nuanced message about this that we got to talk with her about. It was a GREAT conversation. Resources to […] The post 049 – Hannah Anderson on the (Alleged) Idolatry of the Family appeared f...

We interview Aaron Niequist about his new book The Eternal Current: How a Practice-Based Faith Can Save Us from Drowning. Links and resources: Pick up Aaron’s new book: The Eternal Current: How a Practice-Based Faith Can Save Us from Drowning Connect with Aaron on Twitter Aaron’s website Gravity Leadership Academy | we’re always starting new cohorts! If […] The post 048 – Aaron Niequist on Embraci...

We interview Luke Norsworthy about his new book God Over Good: Saving Your Faith By Losing Your Expectations of God. Links and resources: Luke’s podcast: Newsworthy with Norsworthy Connect with Luke on Twitter. Gravity Leadership Academy | we’re always starting new cohorts! If you found this episode of the Gravity Leadership Podcast helpful, please let us […] The post 047 – Luke Norsworthy on Choo...

We interview Carlos Rodriguez of Happy Sonship and Happy Givers NPO about the dynamics of following Jesus in an increasingly polarized world, and how his work in Puerto Rico among the poor and marginalized has informed his perspective. It was a really fun, helpful conversation! Links and resources: Connect with Carlos on Twitter. Support Carlos’ work […] The post 046 – Carlos Rodriguez on Followin...

Chris Moerman is our guest on the podcast today. Chris is the pastor of Grace Capital City in Washington, D.C. We talk specifically about his insight into discipling and leading millennials (a.k.a. young people), and quite a few other things! Links and resources: Grace Capital City We talked about N.T. Wright’s book Simply Christian: Why […] The post 045 – Discipling and Leading Millennials with C...

A very special Christmas episode, in which we simply proclaim a Christmas sermon from St. Gregory of Nazianzus. And it’s only 6 minutes long. Glory to God in the highest! Links and resources: Who was St. Gregory of Nazianzus? We found the sermon on the Laughing Bird Liturgical Resources site (an awesome resource!) Gravity Leadership […] The post 044 – St. Gregory of Nazianzus on the Glory of Chris...

What does the gospel have to do with “social justice?” Despite some recent public statements, it turns out that the gospel has a LOT to do with social justice! Jeff Hancock of International Justice Mission joins us to talk about the connection between the gospel, the church, and justice for the poor. Links and resources: […] The post 043 – What Does the Gospel Have To Do With Justice? appeared fir...

“People don’t abandon faith because they have doubts. People abandon faith because they think they’re not allowed to have doubts.” Austin Fischer is a pastor who almost stopped believing in God a few years ago because of his doubts. He documented his journey and his discoveries about doubt in his book Faith in the Shadows: Finding […] The post 042 – Austin Fischer on Finding Christ in the Midst of...

When we start believing that Jesus shows us what God is really like, it sets off a theological revolution for most of us. All kinds of old frameworks and scripts have to be jettisoned, and it’s often a scary experience. Chris Green joins us to talk about what this shift has looked like in his life, […] The post 041 – Rediscovering God in the Face of Christ with Chris Green appeared first on Gravit...