Welcome back! In this episode, Andrew and Stephen dialog on the current state of the world, the Church, and our opportunity to lean into some prophetic imagination. 

We recognize that this episode is being aired amidst incredible pain, injustice, and widespread protest of the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmad Abrey, and many others. To be clear, this conversation was recorded over 4 weeks ago, and does not contain any content relevant to these pertinent issues. That being said, we wanted to share this conversation with Bill Webb and Gordon Oeste regarding their latest book, Bloody, Brutal, Barbaric? Wrestling with Troubling War Texts. The problem of the 'God of the Old Testament' and the persistent violence throughout is a highly relevant one, and we appreciate Bill and Gord taking the time to unpack it! We'd recommend the book and hope you enjoy this conversation as a start point. Stephen and Andrew will be releasing additional episodes relevant to current national affairs in the coming days and weeks. Grace and peace.

We're thrilled to air this recent conversation with Justin Fry - Pastoral Care Pastor at Grace Midtown Church here in Atlanta. Justin is not only a spiritual leader in our immediate community but a close friend and mentor. In this episode, we dialog around a variety of relevant topics, from spiritual journey to the local church and it's role in forming us.  We hope you enjoy as much as we did! 

We are privileged to have author, theologian, teacher, and scholar Thomas Jay Oord back on the podcast. In this timely episode, we overlay Tom's open and relational framework of God with the current global pandemic that is COVID-19.  Can God stop this viral tragedy? What is God's essential nature? What part do we play as creation? What would you say to a suffering victim of this horrific  Check out our first interview with Tom here. Check out Tom's book God Can't: How to Believe in God After Tragedy, Abuse, and Other Evils here. Check out a recent essay from TJO, "God's Will and the Coronavirus" here. Grace and peace.

In November 2019, we had the privilege of interviewing orthodox theologian, David Bentley Hart, to discuss his latest book, That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation. We absolutely loved the book and would highly recommend! If you've never read or heard of Dr. Hart, we'd strongly recommend exploring his broader theological work. Two weeks ago Stephen and Andrew recorded a reflection on the interview, which makes up the first ~40min of this episode. If you'd rather skip straight to the interview, feel free! Thank you again, Dr. Hart, for coming on the show.

  We are thrilled to release this episode, featuring fellow Atlantan Terence Lester and his latest book from IVP, I See You: How Love Opens Our Eyes to Invisible People.  Terence Lester is a speaker, activist, author, and thought leader in the realm of systemic poverty. He’s known for nationwide campaigns that bring awareness to issues surrounding homelessness, poverty, and economic inequality. His awareness campaigns have been featured on MLK50, TVONE, Creative Mornings, USA Today, NBC, AJC, Black Enterprise, Rolling Out, Upworthy, and have been viewed by millions of people worldwide. In 2018, Terence led the March Against Poverty as he walked from Atlanta to Memphis (386 miles). He finished the march and spoke at the historic Lorraine Motel for the 50th Anniversary of MLK’s assassination. Terence is the founder and leader of Love Beyond Walls - check out their work in Atlanta here! Terence's website - http://terencelester.org/

Lee Hale is a reporter at KUER (NPR) based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is also the host of Preach, a new podcast about the messiness of faith. In this episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing Lee, discussing his personal faith journey and current experience as a podcast host. On Preach, Lee "sits down with people from all walks of life and all religions. You'll hear people talk honestly about their doubts and beliefs. How they wrestle with life's big questions. And the way spirituality intersects with their daily struggles and joys."  We thoroughly enjoyed hearing about Lee's upbringing in the Mormon church, working through deconstruction, and pressing ahead with curiosity and openness as we all strive to. We're sure you'll enjoy as well. Be sure to subscribe to Preach and follow Lee @leetroyhale!    

It's been a while! We're excited to release this latest episode with Ron Sider - author, theologian, professor, and significant non-violent Christian voice. In this episode we discuss his latest book, If Jesus Is Lord: Loving Our Enemies in an Age of Violence. Be sure to check out Ron's bestselling book, Rich Christians In An Age of Hunger, which we reference a few times in the show. Ron's blog can be read and followed here. Enjoy!

We're back with a new episode - a candid conversation between Stephen and Andrew, catching up on personal life, spirituality, what we're reading, where we're headed.  Life has had us a bit slow on new episodes this summer, but we're excited to ramp up in September and launch a number of new, exciting episodes over the next month. Enjoy!

Thank you, thank you to Marty Solomon for joining us in this latest episode! Marty is the co-host of the BEMA Discipleship Podcast, the President of Impact Campus Ministries, a father, husband, teacher, a disciple of Jesus. Marty is a fantastic guest, and in this episode we discuss everything from being "people of the text" to the Sabbath, campus ministry, raising a Christ-centered family, and practices for the people of God. We hope you enjoy as much as we did! Be sure to listen and subscribe to Marty's podcast as well.  

Welcome, Gemma Simmonds CJ, to the Laity Podcast! Super grateful to have Gemma on the show to discuss Ignatian Spirituality, alongside her recent book release, The Way of Ignatius: A Prayer Journey Through Lent. While it's now Easter season, this book/episode is highly relevant for anyone interested in the Jesuit tradition, contemplative prayer, St. Ignatius of Loyola - not just during Lent! Gemma is a sister of the Congregation of Jesus - a Jesuit religious order of sisters founded by Mary Ward in 1609. She is also an author, speaker, and teacher of Ignatian spirituality, based in the UK. Read Gemma's bio here.  We really enjoyed this conversation and think you will too.

We're stoked to have Adam Gustine on the podcast! Adam is the author of Becoming a Just Church - Cultivating Communities of God's Shalom. We absolutely loved this conversation and encourage everyone to listen. Adam, thank you for the time, and continue the good work. Certainly convicting and inspiring! Adam L. Gustine leads CovEnterprises, a social enterprise initiative of Love Mercy, Do Justice, for the Evangelical Covenant Church. He is also the founder of Jubilee Ventures, an enterprise incubator in South Bend, Indiana dedicated to extending opportunity, restoration and ownership to the margins. He has pastored multiple churches in a wide variety of contexts and has a doctor of ministry degree from Missio Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He and his wife, Ann, are raising three kids to seek the shalom of their city South Bend.    

Welcome to the final installment of our Open and Relational series. In this episode, we reflect on the last three guests on the podcast, refresh on the open and relational theology ecosystem, and discuss some potential gaps. If you find yourself unsure of how to put all this content together, this episode will (hopefully) shed some light on application, outstanding questions we/you may have, and what we can take away from this perspective. Enjoy!

We're stoked to have the most O.G. Christian podcaster of our day, Tripp Fuller, on the podcast with us! For those who don't know, Tripp is the host of the Homebrewed Christianity Podcast, though he is also a speaker, pastor, author, actor, and fan of all things process theology. We're excited to have his perspective in the mix during our Open and Relational Theology series. We hope you enjoy this longer-form episode as much as we did. If you want to skip the intros an get straight into the process content, feel free to skip ahead to 00:23:00 or so. Check out Tripp's film, The Road to Edmond, here! Open and Relational Theology with Tripp and Tom Oord, here!

In this special episode we are elated to share a recent conversation with Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson - Professor of Philosophy, Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at American Jewish University, speaker, podcaster, and Jewish process theologian based in Los Angeles. In this third installment of our series, Rabbi Artson provides an invaluable perspective, lending his Jewish insight into this open and relational understanding God. We're super grateful for Rabbi Artson's time and generous discussion, and we're sure you'll enjoy the conversation as much as we did!   References: Follow Rabbi Artson on his public Facebook page here Extended bio Rabbi Artson podcast page

Welcome to Part II of the Open and Relational Theology series! We're super excited to be joined by Thomas Jay Oord - author, theologian, philosopher, and Open/Relational extraordinaire. In this episode we dive into Tom's latest book, God Can't - How to Believe in God and Love After Tragedy, Abuse, and Other Evils. We really enjoyed our time with Tom, and we're sure you will too! Additional References: The Uncontrolling Love of God  Sign up for Open and Relational Theology reading group with Tom and Tripp Fuller here! Tripp Fuller live Homebrewed Podcast @ Wild Heaven Brewery (Atlanta) - Monday 2/25

Welcome to Part I of our new series, Open & Relational Theology. In the multi-part series, we'll be featuring a number of unique guests over the next month or so, so stay tuned! In this episode, Stephen and Andrew have an organic dialog around frameworks of God, ways of thinking about omnipotence, omniscience, and impassibility, how this journey has impacted us personally, and much more. We committed to 30 minutes...which of course turned into an hour or so...but we suspect you'll come along for the discussion. Hope you enjoy, and be sure to stick around for a number of fantastic interviews to be released over the next few weeks!

In this episode, we welcome Justin Lee - evangelical Christian, activist, author, and speaker - to discuss his latest book, Talking Across the Divide. We're super grateful to have Justin on to give us some of his personal story, discuss effective communication in Christian community, disagreement, strategic listening, and more. Hoping to have Justin on future episodes, so stay tuned! This episode also includes a short reflection from Stephen and Andrew following the conversation with Justin. References: Geeky Justin.com Talking Across the Divide: How to Communicate with People You Disagree with and Maybe Even Change the World

We're excited to share this recent conversation with Kate Wallace Nunneley, continuing the discussion on gender roles, the Bible, and women in the Church. Kate gives us some great insight into The Junia Project, her perspective and experience as a female pastor, and terms like "Christian feminism" and "egalitarianism." We dive into some of Paul's New Testament language around "headship," "women remaining silent," "not permitting women to teach," how this sits in an egalitarian vs. complementation framework, and much more. Hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did! Follow Kate on Twitter @KateWallace1313 and check out The Junia Project here!

With the coming of a new year, we wanted to take a dedicated episode to discuss the last year doing this podcast. In this reflective episode, we welcome Tom Lombardi (interviewing us!) to discuss highlights, breakthroughs, feedback, learning experiences, and how we're looking at Laity going into 2019. We hope you enjoy. Thank you to every listener and guest who has tuned in over the last handful of months - we couldn't do it without you! To learn more about Tom's work, see his website, Transition Perfect, which includes the Every Day A Life Podcast.