Episode 044 – Your Suffering is Sacred (With K.J. Ramsey) Are you allergic to happy clappy Christianity? There’s a good reason for thats. Churches that ignore suffering are ignoring Jesus. Many churches are not good at holding suffering. People who find themselves in extended suffering — maybe living with depression or anxiety, other mental health […]
Your Purity & Piety Will Get You Nowhere (TAW043)
Episode 043 – Your Purity & Piety Will Get You Nowhere You want to grow as a person. You want a sense of intimate connection with the Divine. You believe or suspect that the way of Jesus has something to say about this. That’s why you’re here. That’s why I write. But in order to […]
Can You Imagine Jesus Demanding Sex? – Interview with Sheila Wray Gregoire (TAW042)
Episode 042 – Can You Imagine Jesus Demanding Sex? – Interview with Sheila Wray Gregoire. Christian teachers notoriously have lots of opinions about sex. Sometimes they even claim those opinions are God’s will. But what if some of those teachings are hurting people and wrecking marriages? In this interview with Sheila Wray Gregoire we talk […]
Trust Your Instinct About the Church – Interview with Fr. Kenneth Tanner (TAW041)
Episode 041 – Trust Your Instinct About the Church – Interview with Fr. Kenneth Tanner. After everything that’s happened in the past year, are you wondering about whether there’s a place for you in the church? Are you asking questions like “Where do I fit? What I’m seeing around me doesn’t look like Jesus. What […]
This IS Us. We Need To Own It. (TAW040)
Episode 040 – This IS Us. We Need To Own It. “This isn’t us. This isn’t America. We are better than this.” Have you heard—or said—those words recently? Well, you may not want to hear this, but the only way forward is to let those words go.
You Need an Architecture of Grief (TAW039)
Episode 039 – You Need an Architecture of Grief (Interview with James Prescott) Twenty Twenty seems to be the car wreck that just keeps going, and the result is that many of us are experiencing more and more pain and grief. How are we to deal with this? Writer James Prescott and I discuss the […]
Would Jesus call you (or your church) Satan? (TAW038)
Episode 038 – Would Jesus call you (or your church) Satan? “Get behind me, Satan!” Those are the words Jesus said to Peter. Yikes! But as I survey the current landscape of Christianity, I wonder if Jesus is saying this to us, or to our churches. In this episode, I reflect on what Jesus meant […]
Looking for God in all the wrong places – Interview with Paul J. Pastor (TAW037)
Episode 037 – Looking for God in All the Wrong Places – Interview with Paul J. Pastor Do you sometimes feel like your spiritual life is supposed to be in color, but you can only see it in black & white? Do you worry that we might be numb to God’s presence? Are you looking […]
Don’t Avoid Starting Over (TAW036)
Episode 036 – Don’t Avoid Starting Over I like knowing stuff. I like being seen as a good person. I love being an expert. Weird that I became a pastor, right? But here’s the thing. As much as I like this stuff, I’ve discovered it’s not very good for me. Turns out that being an […]
Your Values are Showing! (TAW035)
Episode 035 – Your Values are Showing! Pain is a terrible thing to waste. At least, that’s what my Trauma Therapist friend says. So, how are we using the pain of this difficult time of pandemic and protests so that we can be better people? This is part 3 of my 3 part conversation with […]
The 5 Stages of Pandemic Grief (TAW034)
Episode 034 – The 5 Stages of Pandemic Grief We are going through deep weeds right now — pandemic, protests, unemployment, so many losses — and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get better any time soon. But there’s one important factor that will determine how well we deal with all of it. We […]
Why are we feeling so crazy, and what can we do about it – Trauma response in the time of pandemic & protests (TAW033)
Episode 033 – Why are we feeling so crazy, and what can we do about it – Trauma response in the time of pandemic & protests Covid-19, Masks, Quarantine, and now protests against racial injustice and police brutality? If you’re feeling overwhelmed, or depressed, or angry, or confused, you are not alone. Why are we feeling […]
Pentecost, Breathing & George Floyd (TAW032)
Episode 032 – Pentecost, Breathing & George Floyd This is the air I breathe! My heart broke open this week as I watched the events unfold around the murder of George Floyd, and the protests and riots that followed. At the same time, I was studying the lectionary passages for Pentecost. This is an edited […]
COVID, Suffering & Jesus (TAW031)
Episode 031 – COVID, Suffering & Jesus How are you doing with this COVID-19 thing? Are you afraid? Are you angry? Are you confused by all the different information about what to do? Are you just ready for it to be over? I get it. I’ve been all those things, and my feelings change from […]
Faith Isn’t Certainty (TAW030)
Episode 030 – Faith Isn’t Certainty Faith is at the very heart of Christianity. It’s crucial. Without Faith, scripture says, it’s impossible to please God. But more than any other part of the spiritual life, faith is misunderstood. When we get this wrong, we set ourselves up for an ugly, painful crash. (And if faith […]