Deeper and Wider

In this weeks episode we will be speaking with Aaron Niequist on having A Practiced Based Faith.

Aaron is a liturgist, writer, and pastor currently living in NYC. After leading worship at Mars Hill Church and Willow Creek Church, he created A New Liturgy- a collection of modern liturgical worship recordings. Shortly after, Aaron started a discipleship-focused, formational, ecumenical, practice-based community at Willow Creek called The Practice. In 2018, he released a book about a practice-based faith called The Eternal Current: How a Practice-Based Faith Can Save Us from Drowning, and he continues to create resources to help us all flesh it out, including his podcast The Eternal Current Podcast.

To find out more about his work, follow Aaron on Facebook or on Twitter or Instagram @aaronieq. Also, check out his podcast The Eternal Current Podcast, as well as his liturgies at https://www.anewliturgy.com/

In this weeks episode we are going to be talking about a sensitive topic: we are talking about Domestic family violence. Within this topic, we will address how the church has sometimes got their response wrong, and also where the church has done the right thing, and also how the church can do better. We will also be exploring how to navigate domestic family violence in light of faith in God. I do also talk about how things like forgiveness and verses like “turn the other cheek” have been weaponised, and how we might understand such topics and verses in light of Domestic Family Violence. In exploring these questions, I had this conversation with Erica Hamence.

Erica initially trained to be a human rights lawyer, with a BA/LLB from The University of Melbourne. But she found herself drawn to express the same desire for justice within the church. This eventually led her to ministry in Sydney. She is a senior assistant minister at St. Barnabas Anglican Church, Broadway (Barneys to everyone), where she mostly works to support and raise up leaders. She is also the spokesperson for Common Grace's Domestic and Family Violence Justice Team. The team works to highlight and address the problem of domestic and family violence within the church and within Australian society, and to provide resources and support to people who have experienced domestic and family violence, and those who love them. Common Grace is a movement of about 47,000 who love Jesus and justice.

To learn more about what Common Grace does in relation to seeking domestic and family violence justice, visit https://www.commongrace.org.au/domestic_violence. Also, check out https://www.saferresource.org.au/, which is a resource to help Australian churches understand, identify, and respond to domestic and family violence.

If today’s episode has prompted you to seek help in response todays episode topic, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or call the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800 737 732.

In this weeks episode will be talking about a more beautiful Pentecostalism with Jonathan Martin. Some people have had a complicated relationship with Pentecostalism, and yet, on the far side of these Pentecostal experiences the question is: is there a Pentecostalism that’s healthy & beautiful?

Jonathan Martin is the author of two critically acclaimed books, Prototype and How to Survive a Shipwreck, with a third book on the way. He has a podcast called The Zeitcast, where he has interviewed a wide variety of guests. Jonathan’s work and words have been featured in places like the New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, Newsweek, Vox, Sojourners, The Huffington Post, and Relevant Magazine, and he has published in scholarly journals, like The Journal of Pentecostal Theology. Currently, he lives in Oklahoma City, where he serves as the Lead Pastor of The Table. Finding God at the intersections, He moves fluidly between secular and religious contexts, between the academy and the Church, and between local churches with pipe organs, B-3 organs, and electric guitars. Wherever he goes- whether it be at church’s like Elevation Church, Willow Creek Community Church, or universities like Princeton Theological Seminary- the message is always the same: no matter who you are, where you’ve been, or what you’ve done—God is at work, to bring beauty out of your brokenness.

To follow the work of Jonathan Martin follow him on either Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/jonathanmartinonline), Instagram @jonathanamartin, or Twitter @theboyonthebike. Also check out the church he pastors at https://www.thetableokc.com/ and follow his podcast “The Zeitcast”.

What does it mean to be lead by the Holy Spirit? How can we know it’s God speaking to us? How can we become aware of the Holy Spirit in us and all around us? These questions are more will be discussed today as we talk with Mark Godfrey.

Mark, alongside his wife, Belinda, are the Directors & Founders of BEYOND, A missional and prophetic ministry organisation that impacts communities both locally and overseas. BEYOND is called to be an inspirational voice to empower leaders, organisations and everyday people to live out their God designed story.

Mark holds a bachelors degree in social science, majoring in applied counselling. speaking personally, he is one of the most down to earth people I know. From what I have seen, Mark has a passion for seeing the Kingdom of God come in a holistic way- ways that include social justice, breaking down church walls, yet also seeing deeply personal transformations in people. Mark marries the two spheres of public faith and personal faith into his deep belief in the Holy Spirits intentional leading in our life and in the life of the church.

To follow Marks work, follow him on Insagram at mark.godfrey.75 and to follow the work of the ministry known as beyond, follow Beyond on either Facebook or Instagram with the handle at beyond.empower.

Part 2 of 2 of our conversation with Jarrod McKenna as we continue to tackle some of the big questions of the nonviolence of Jesus and its implications for us.

Pastor & Author Brian Zahnd says of Jarrod that “has the keen mind of a theologian, the warm heart of a pastor, and the dauntless courage of an activist. And as a skilled communicator all three of these attributes are evident as he seeks to form people in Christlike peacemaking. I have the highest respect for Jarrod McKenna and his work.“ Jarrod’s nonviolent activism has twice been awarded the Quaker’s Donald Groom Peace Fellowship. He is the Founding CEO of CommonGrace (Which is a movement of over 45,000+ Christians in Australia working for ‘beauty, generosity and justice’ in the public square), the co-initiator of #LoveMakesAWay for refugees which has become the largest faith based civil-disobedience movement in Australia’s history, is the former National Advisor for Faith and Activism for World Vision Australia, and for over 15 years has shared his home with refugees, people returning from prison and those doing it tough in the context of two neo-monastic communities including “First Home Project” which assists refugees and asylum seekers to find housing and employment.

You can follow Jarrod on facebook by finding him under his name, or on Twitter and Instagram at jarrodmckenna (all one word). Also listening to his podcast Inverse podcast- where him and his mate Drew Hart explores ways the Bible can turn the world upside down (https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/inverse-podcast/id1358332600).

We tackle some of the big questions when it comes to the nonviolence of Jesus and its implications for followers of Jesus today. In doing this, we’ll hear from my mate Jarrod McKenna as we hear his story and explore things like…

-What is non-violence, actually?

-What is non-violence trying to achieve?

-What does non-violence look like on the ground?

-What do we do with the larger questions of non-violence as it pertains to problems in our world? What are the different forms of non-violence that exist in the world?

And more!

Pastor & Author Brian Zahnd says of Jarrod that he “has the keen mind of a theologian, the warm heart of a pastor, and the dauntless courage of an activist. And as a skilled communicator all three of these attributes are evident as he seeks to form people in Christlike peacemaking. I have the highest respect for Jarrod McKenna and his work.“ Jarrod’s nonviolent activism has twice been awarded the Quaker’s Donald Groom Peace Fellowship. He is the Founding CEO of CommonGrace (Which is a movement of over 45,000+ Christians in Australia working for ‘beauty, generosity and justice’ in the public square), the co-initiator of #LoveMakesAWay for refugees which has become the largest faith based civil-disobedience movement in Australia’s history, is the former National Advisor for Faith and Activism for World Vision Australia, and for over 15 years has shared his home with refugees, people returning from prison and those doing it tough in the context of two neo-monastic communities including “First Home Project” which assists refugees and asylum seekers to find housing and employment.

You can follow Jarrod on facebook by finding him under his name, or on Twitter and Instagram at jarrodmckenna (all one word). Also listen to his podcast Inverse podcast- where him and his mate Drew Hart explores ways the Bible can turn the world upside down (https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/inverse-podcast/id1358332600).

It’s not something you notice until someone points it out, but food has a central role to play in the life of faith. So we’ll hear from baker and writer Kendall Vanderslice as we hear her story and explore questions like:

-What is the relationship between food and faith?

-What role does (and can) food play in the life of faith?

-What does church communities incorporating food in their worship look like?

-How will the church be different if we did worship over a meal?

And more!

Kendall Vanderslice is a baker and writer from Durham North Carolina, and she writes on the intersection of food and faith. She is a graduate of Wheaton College (BA Anthropology), Boston University (MLA Gastronomy), and Duke Divinity School (Master of Theological Studies). She writes for Christianity Today, Christ and Pop Culture, Religion News Service, and Faith & Leadership and is the author of We Will Feast: Rethinking Dinner, Worship, and the Community of God. Check out her website at http://kendallvanderslice.com/ and follow her on either Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter @kvslice. And get a copy of her book available on Amazon and also on Audible at https://www.amazon.com.au/We-Will-Feast-Rethinking-Community/dp/0802876307

We hear Steve’s story and we explore things like…

-What Jesus-shaped justice is

-How the justice of the Kingdom of God is different from other versions of justice

-Why we are to care about justice

-Reading the Bible through the lens of the poor

-Jesus giving us a justice that goes deeper than either end of the political spectrum

-How we can engage in justice in our everyday life

-what the church will look like if we took justice seriously

And more!

Steve McKinnon is the state manager for Prison Fellowship and the Western Australian coordinator of TEAR Australia. He has a background in youth work, pastoring, chaplaincy and community development. He believes he is called to build a bridge between the church and the streets. This means to firstly provide a Christ-like community of transformational love for marginalised people and secondly to challenge the church to reach out to the poor and marginalised and thus be transformed also.

For more information on Prison Fellowship Australia visit https://prisonfellowship.org.au/ and for more information on TEAR visit https://www.tear.org.au/