All Things

Latest Episodes:

Episode 117: The Impact of Jesus is so Pervasive We Don’t Even Notice It Apr 13, 2023

Show notes

Why do we in the west value things like equality, compassion, and freedom? These virtues are so woven into our DNA they feel automatic to us. Such virtues, however, are not a given across all time and all peoples. There’s a reason we see headlines and collectively cry out, “Consent!” Or demand, “Progress!”

These virtues are the direct result of the holiday we celebrated this past Sunday—Easter.

Our reflex to march for justice or to lift the marginalized come from somewhere. On this episode of All Things I’m talking to Glen Scrivener who wrote The Air We Breathe: How We All Came to Believe in Freedom, Kindness, Progress, and Equality. Glen points us back to what he calls the “Jesus revolution”—the way the world (and especially the west) totally changed after Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose again.

We dive into history stretching from the Roman Empire to 2023. We trace the birthplace of these virtues in Christianity and see how they impact our current moment.

Glen helps us reflect especially on the value and treatment of women. We cry “Me too” today precisely because we know women deserve to be treated well, protected, and cared for. But why do we think that? The Roman Empire certainly did not—female infanticide was practiced in the first century. Christ and his church came on the scene, valuing life, dignity, and caring for the marginalized. The Jesus revolution changed how women, and all marginalized groups, are seen and treated.

Easter was the beginning of the Jesus revolution—Christ’s life, death, and resurrection is not simply a nice story or tradition. It truly changed everything. If you uphold compassion and equality, it’s because of Jesus and his massive influence over the last 2,000 years.

Resources mentioned on this episode:

Dominion by Tom Holland: https://amzn.to/3TRbyGf

The Case Against the Sexual Revolution by Louise Perry: https://amzn.to/3nw2tXh

The Air We Breathe: How We All Came to Believe in Freedom, Kindness, Progress, and Equality by Glen Scrivener: https://us.10ofthose.com/product/9781784987497/the-air-we-breathe-paperback?affiliate=jenoshman

Follow Glen Scrivener at https://speaklife.org.uk/

Episode 116: Why We Can Believe in the Resurrection and Why it Matters Apr 06, 2023

Show notes

If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then we have no hope, no reason to gather, and no reason to celebrate Easter.

The life, death, resurrection, and second coming of Jesus are all keys to our faith, how we think, and how we live. The resurrection in particular is crucial—did it really happen and how do we know? And why does it matter 2,000 years later?

Listeners are in for a treat on today’s episode because I’ve invited Dr. Michael Kruger, one of the leading New Testament scholars of our day, to join me. Dr. Kruger is a gifted scholar and teacher—and I would know because he was my New Testament professor last semester at Reformed Theological Seminary!

Dr. Kruger and I talk about everything from philosophical foundations for faith, the historical reliability of the resurrection, and the historical reliability of the New Testament scriptures. Our conversation culminates in a worshipful contemplation of our future hope in Christ. One day we too will rise and see Jesus face to face.

He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Recommended resources:

Surviving Religion 101 by Michael Kruger: https://us.10ofthose.com/product/9781433572074/surviving-religion-101-paperback

Hope in Times of Fear: The Resurrection and the True Meaning of Easter by Timothy Keller: https://us.10ofthose.com/product/9780525560791/hope-in-times-of-fear-hardback

Is Easter Unbelievable?

Four Questions Everyone Should Ask About the Resurrection Story by Rebecca McLaughlin: https://amzn.to/3zxziGe

Episode 115: How to Extend Digital Hospitality to Others on a Self-Focused Platform Mar 30, 2023

Show notes

“I have the minimalist life. My home is beautiful. Now all I have to do is be LDS and I can be an influencer!”

It was a joke made by a friend over coffee with Elizabeth Santelmann, who you may know as Sunshine in My Nest on Instagram. Elizabeth points to that coffee date as a watershed moment when she realized Christians are missing a massive opportunity to share the light of Christ on social media.

The reality is moms and women flock to Instagram for advice on everything from home decor to raising children to homeschooling. Mormons excel at using social media to spread their message. And it dawned on Elizabeth then that the church should be embracing the same opportunity to give the gospel and grace and all kinds of goodness.

As one of my favorite apologists asks, “Would Christians be willing to do for the Truth, what Mormons are willing to do for a lie?” If we ditch social media altogether we miss out on a harvest-ripe mission field.

But can you use social media for good and not evil? Can it be a place of warmth and hospitality, rather than coldness and condemnation? Elizabeth thinks so, and I think she’s doing it really well!

Elizabeth logs onto social media asking what she can give, rather than what she can get. She enters with a hospitality frame of mind—her desire to see and serve the women on the other side of the screen. She wants them to receive the levity of grace, the freedom of the gospel, the genuine good life in Christ from her squares. She wants women to visit her profile and see compassion, beauty, and true life in Jesus.

If you want to redeem your online presence and use your social media account to love God and love others, listen to this episode for a great place to start.

Additional resources:

Extraordinary Hospitality (for Ordinary People): Seven Ways to Welcome Like Jesus by Carolyn Lacey: https://www.thegoodbook.com/extraordinary-hospitality-for-ordinary-people

Say the Right Thing: How Your Words Can Glorify God and Encourage Others by Carolyn Lacey: https://www.thegoodbook.com/say-the-right-thing

Today’s sponsor: https://www.thegoodbook.com/

Keep up with Elizabeth Santelmann here: https://www.instagram.com/sunshineinmynest/

Listen to Elizabeth Santelmann’s weekly podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sunshine-in-my-nest/id1625483086

Episode 114: Why are Women Leaving the Church? Mar 23, 2023

Show notes

For the first time ever in history, American women are leaving the church faster than men. Millions have left over the last decade, and that was even before the pandemic. Research shows they have left church but they still value their relationship with God. What’s going on?

Ericka Andersen joins us on today’s episode of All Things to discuss this issue, as well as Reasons to Return: Why Women Need the Church and the Church Needs Women—as her new book is titled.

Ericka and I ponder the reasons women have left the church. We live in an increasingly post-Christian society, and the religion of self-help is on the rise. Ericka says secular self-help gurus offer a replacement for religion—but it’s not sustainable. She thinks our attraction to self-help is going to soon run its course, as people are realizing they need more than what’s inside of them to get by.

Ericka says church is often misunderstood. She says church is relationships, friendships, a safety net, where you feel like you have people on your team, and where we learn about God. She says, “When we get together with others we see a part of God that we cannot see ourselves.” Further, “It is the church that God uses to save people—it’s through the witness of the church that people are drawn to Jesus.”

We also tackle church hurt and religious trauma. And we talk through different scenarios for conversing with our friends who’ve left. Ericka helps us imagine how we might invite a friend back to church who has left over politics or shame or sheer busyness. She says the number one reason people return to church is because someone invites them. Ericka exhorts us, “Be someone’s introduction to to Jesus by being there for them without expecting anything in return.”

One bonus element of this episode is when Ericka talks about her journey to sobriety—her transparency is such a gift!

Recommendations from this episode:

Reasons to Return: Why Women Need the Church and the Church Needs Women by Ericka Andersen

Church Forsaken: Practicing Presence in Neglected Neighborhoods by Jonathan Brooks and Sho Baraka

Welcome: Love Your Church by Making Space for Everyone by Jen Oshman

Keep in touch with Ericka at https://erickaandersen.com.

Episode 113: The World Needs Who God Made You to Be Mar 16, 2023

Show notes

Conversations around women and work are complicated, often heated, and rarely satisfying. The heart of the issue for women is: how can we thrive in our capacity for productive work as well as provide care for others (children, aging parents, and other loved ones). This conversation hit fever pitch during the pandemic and it seems we’ve been in a prolonged season of flux since then.

The conversation in the church feels tense too. There’s been a gap in discipleship regarding women and work for decades now, and trusted voices are few. Not only that, but women often endure conflict or judgment from both sides of the work vs. stay home divide. We need to be having a better conversation.

On this episode of All Things we are having that conversation! Joanna Meyer, the founder of Women, Work, & Calling (an initiative of the Denver Institute of Faith & Work), helps us think biblically and practically about the issues of work and family that women face today. She invites us to think more holistically and it’s so helpful.

We are all made for productive work, so I invite you listen for some soul-deep encouragement.

You can learn more about Joanna Meyer’s work here: https://denverinstitute.org/contributor/joanna-meyer/

You can learn more about Women, Work & Calling here: https://www.womenworkandcalling.com/

Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live): https://amzn.to/3S31jh9

Called Together: A Biblical Look at Gender in the Workplace by Joanna Meyer: https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/63855492/calledtogether-final

Women & Work: https://womenwork.net/

Episode 112: Is Time Ours to Manage or God’s to Give? Mar 09, 2023

Show notes

Do you derive your value and identity from productivity? Do you try to live beyond your limits? Do you try to live a super-human life rather than a human life that is Spirit-filled?

Most of us are constantly asking how we can get more done in the 24 hours a day we each have. We read books, go to workshops, and download apps to help us manage our to-do lists and be as productive as possible. But if we’re honest, I think we also suspect we’re missing the point. Something is off. We work hard and run fast through our day, but we’re usually exhausted and unsatisfied when we come to the end of it. This conversation with Jen Pollock Michel is so helpful in trying to understand work, productivity, and our limitations as humans.

Jen Pollock Michel and I talk about:

* How time management originated in factories with stop watches and how keeping time mechanically is altogether inhuman.

* Whether or not productivity and time management are even for our good.

* How women are often required to manage both shifts—the one at work and the one at home.

* What God’s time is like—he is from everlasting to everlasting, so how does he measure productivity?

* How the posture of time management is really just about control.

* How God is the maker and giver of time. As humans we must receive time in whatever ways God deems is for our good.

* How to confront our own frenetic energy and our idolatrous urgency to produce.

* Considering a practice of gratitude and receiving the limitations in our lives.

* The idea of a Rule of Life—developing routines and habits and practices that will help us to love God and neighbor.

Jen Pollock Michel: https://www.jenpollockmichel.com/

In Good Time, by Jen Pollock Michell: https://us.10ofthose.com/product/9781540900548/in-good-time-paperback

A Habit called Faith by Jen Pollock Michel: https://us.10ofthose.com/product/9781540900531/a-habit-called-faith-paperback/?affiliate=jenoshman

The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction by Justin Whitmel Earley: https://us.10ofthose.com/product/9780830845606/the-common-rule-paperback?affiliate=jenoshman

Episode 111: What was behind the Asbury revival? Can we trust it? Mar 02, 2023

Show notes

What was behind the Asbury revival? Can we trust it?

On this episode of All Things I am talking with my friend and theologian Missie Branch about:

- Why every woman (and human!) is actually a theologian.

- What caused revival at Asbury University to break out.

- What it looks like to struggle and depend on the Holy Spirit.

- How the Spirit moves when and where he pleases, as he is doing at Asbury.

- The desperation we see in Gen Z.

- The critical spirit we see in the church.

- How to cultivate a spirit of grace and unity in the church.

- What the church is getting wrong and right(!) in this cultural moment.

Missie is the Asst. Dean of Students to Women and Director of Graduate Life at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and also completing her graduate degree in Ethics, Theology, and Culture there. She is also Chair of the Board Trustees at Lifeway Christian Resources and co-host of the Women & Work Podcast. Missie is a wife and mom to four.

Missie Branch: https://www.missiebranch.com/ (https://www.missiebranch.com/)

The Women & Work Podcast: https://womenwork.net/podcast/ (https://womenwork.net/podcast/)

The Whole Woman: Ministering to Her Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength, with a chapter by Missie Branch: https://amzn.to/3SiKm2o (https://amzn.to/3SiKm2o)

Other recommended books and resources: https://us.10ofthose.com/partners/jenoshman (https://us.10ofthose.com/partners/jenoshman)

Episode 110: Finding Jesus in a Barber Shop and the Generations that Follow Feb 23, 2023

Show notes

You should listen to this episode just to hear how Doug Logan met Jesus. It’s a wild story involving Doug’s barber shop, the rapture, and a fire alarm at 3am—only God! Ever since Doug’s first days of faith in the barber shop, he’s become a pastor, church planter, and President of Grimke Seminary. Doug has a lot to say about the gospel of Jesus, the mission of the church, and how we can better contextualize the gospel for urban ministry. Listen in as we wrap of National Black History Month, and be encouraged by how one man’s faith can blossom into generations of church planters and Jesus followers.

On the Block by Doug Logan: https://us.10ofthose.com/product/9780802414724/on-the-block-paperback?affiliate=jenoshman

Urban Apologetics, with a chapter by Doug Logan: https://amzn.to/3kk6qx0

Grimke College: https://grimkecollege.org/

Grimke Seminary: https://grimkeseminary.org/

Episode 109: What do you do when it’s hard to love? Feb 16, 2023

Show notes

What do you do when it’s hard to love? Or forgive? Or extend patience?

Do you try harder? Vow to do better? Grab another cup of coffee?

Author, editor, and spoken word poet, Quina Aragon, answers that tough question in her third children’s book called “Love Can.” On this episode of All Things we talk about both the goodness and brokenness in all human beings. We talk about God’s provision of the Holy Spirit to help us extend love in a divisive world. Quina’s book and words on this episode will spur you on to love others, with the help of the Spirit.

Lastly, we talk about representation and why it matters in all forms of art. I love Quina’s passion for biblical, historical, and cultural truth and I know you will too!

The following book links are to Jen Oshman’s personal bookstore. All books are discounted and shipping is always only $1!

Love Can is the third book in 3-part series and can be found here for just $12.59: https://us.10ofthose.com/product/9780736974400/love-can

Also checkout Love Made here: https://us.10ofthose.com/product/9780736974363/love-made-hardback?affiliate=jenoshman

And Love Gave for JUST $5 here: https://us.10ofthose.com/product/9780736974387/love-gave-hardback?affiliate=jenoshman

Or all three Love books by Quina for $25.99 here: https://us.10ofthose.com/product/LOVEMGC3PK/love-made-gave-can-pack?affiliate=jenoshman

You can find Quina on Instagram @Quina_Aragon and at her website QuinaAragon.com.

Episode 108: God’s Word, Creativity, & Call to Unity with Portia Collins Feb 09, 2023

Show notes

Portia Collins loves God’s Word and God’s church. Both loves come through in this episode of All Things. Portia’s words and wisdom provide us with a rich backdrop for continuing our conversations through Black History Month.

Listen in to hear how God’s Word is truly sustenance for Portia’s soul and how it has driven her and her husband to make some really counter-cultural decisions where they live in the Mississippi Delta.

I love Portia’s heart for unity in the church. Her words will undoubtedly challenge you to move beyond your comfort zone, and to do hard things for the sake of God’s glory, to love your neighbor, and for you own good.

Keep up with Portia at https://www.portiacollins.com/ and https://www.sheshallbecalled.com/

Find her work in His Testimonies, My Heritage here: https://amzn.to/3HOApVw

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