Gravity Commons Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Willie Francois: Fighting the "White Noise" That Hinders Racial Justice Nov 22, 2022

Show notes

Willie Dwayne Francois III joins us to talk about the practicalities of anti-racism. Specifically, we discuss the prevalence in US society of what he calls "white noise": the racist speech, ideas, and policies that lull us into inaction on racial justice, which is the theme of his book Silencing White Noise: Six Practices to Overcome Our Inaction on Race.

Willie Dwayne Francois III is senior pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Pleasantville, NJ, and president of the Black Church Center for Justice and Equality. He serves as assistant professor of liberation theology at NY Theological Seminary and directs a master's degree program at Sing Correctional Facility. He created the Public Love Organizing and Training (PLOT) Project and has served in various orgs engaging racial justice issues, including the Atlantic City chapter of Black Lives Matter, the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, and the NJ Dept of State's MLK Jr. Commission. He's an active speaker and has written for HuffPost, Sojourners, The Hill, the Christian Century, and Religion Dispatches.

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Marc Alan Schelske: Cultivating Spiritual Growth Through Journaling Nov 15, 2022

Show notes

Marc Alan Schelske join us (again!) to talk about journaling: what it is, why it works, and how to do it. No matter what your history is with journaling, Marc's method (outlined in his new book Journaling for Spiritual Growth: Six Weeks to Build a Habit that Fosters Spiritual and Emotional Maturity) is eminently practical and powerfully effective for fostering spiritual formation.

Marc is a reader, a thinker, a writer, and speaker. He's the teaching elder at Bridge City Community Church in Milwaukie, Oregon, where he gets to inviting people into a life of following Jesus more and more. You can connect with Marc and learn more about his work on his website marcalanschelske.com.

Connect with Gravity Leadership

Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.
Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies.
Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community.
Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture.
Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Leadership Podcast? Contact Gino Curcuruto at gino@gravityleadership.com.

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Chris Nye: How to Prevent Your Faith Getting Hijacked By Ideology Nov 08, 2022

Show notes

How does the Christian faith relate to a world stuck in ideological captivity? What happens when vast numbers of people abandon faith for pre-packaged sets of ideas they received from podcasts, videos, and online personalities? Those are the themes of Chris Nye's new book A Captive Mind: Christianity, Ideologies, and Staying Sane in a World Gone Mad, and the topic of our conversation in this episode.

We talk about how Christianity is not an idea in the first place, and therefore confuses, disrupts, and corrects any cultural ideology. The gospel doesn't just give us a new philosophy, but a new mind and a new life.

Chris Nye is a doctoral student at Duke University’s Divinity School and the author of Distant God (2016) and Less of More (2019). For fifteen years, he has served as a local church pastor and is currently on a sabbatical. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Christianity Today, and various other publications. He lives with his wife and son in Portland, Oregon.

You can connect with Chris and learn more about his work on his website: chrisnye.co.

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Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies.
Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community.
Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture.
Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Leadership Podcast? Contact Gino Curcuruto at gino@gravityleadership.com.

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Craig Greenfield: Subversive Mission From the Margins Nov 01, 2022

Show notes

We talked with Craig Greenfield about the profound difference it makes to shift our "missional posture" from providers / hosts / insiders to receivers / guests / outsiders. This is what his new book Subversive Mission: Serving as Outsiders in a World of Need is all about.

Craig Greenfield is the founder and director of Alongsiders International, a grassroots movement of young Christians reaching the world's poorest children. Originally from New Zealand, he has lived and worked for more than two decades in marginalized communities in Asia and North America. He is the author of The Urban Halo, Subversive Jesus, and Subversive Mission: Serving as Outsiders in a World of Need.

You can connect with Craig and learn more about his work on his website craiggreenfield.com.

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Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies.
Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community.
Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture.
Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Leadership Podcast? Contact Gino Curcuruto at gino@gravityleadership.com.

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Drew Hart & Jarrod McKenna: Decolonizing the Bible Oct 25, 2022

Show notes

Drew Hart and Jarrod McKenna co-host the Inverse Podcast, which for people who are dissatisfied with the Bible being used to justify hatred (yeah!). We talk about the work they're doing together and separately, what it means to "decolonize" our faith, and where they see their work heading in the future.

Dr. Drew Hart hails from Philly, and now lives in Harrisburg. He's the author of Trouble I've Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism and Who Will Be a Witness: Igniting Activism for God's Justice, Love, and Deliverance. He's a Professor of Theology at Messiah University where he's the program director for Thriving Together: Congregations for Racial Justice.

Jarrod McKenna is an expert in nonviolent social change. He's the Founding CEO of Common Grace, a movement of people seeking Jesus and justice, and the former Director for Nonviolent Social Change for World Vision in the Middle East/Eastern Europe.

Connect with Gravity Leadership

Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.
Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies.
Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community.
Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture.
Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Leadership Podcast? Contact Gino Curcuruto at gino@gravityleadership.com.

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Sarah Bessey: Prayers of Renewal For Desperate People Like Us Oct 18, 2022

Show notes

We talk with Sarah Bessey about themes from her bestselling collaborative book A Rhythm of Prayer: A Collection of Meditations for Renewal, which celebrates and gives voice to traditions of prayer for people like us: overworked, overpressured, and edging burnout.

Sarah Bessey is the author of the best-selling and critically acclaimed books Jesus Feminist (2013); Out of Sorts: Making Peace with an Evolving Faith (2015); and Miracles and Other Reasonable Things (2019).

Along with her friends, the late Rachel Held Evans and Jim Chaffee, Sarah co-founded Evolving Faith. She now co-leads the community and conference alongside Jeff Chu. Sarah is also the co-host of The Evolving Faith Podcast and also serves as chair of the board for Heartline Ministries in Haiti. Based in Port au Prince, Heartline is committed to empowering Haitian families through complete maternal and infant health care, education, vocational training, and economic development.

Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, The High Calling, Conversations Journal, ChurchLeaders.com, CT Women: Christianity Today’s Blog for Women, Today’s Christian Woman.

Sarah lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with her husband of twenty years have four children. She’s a pseudo-hermit bookworm, an enthusiastic knitter, tea-drinker, hockey fan, total hugger, endlessly fascinated with Jesus, an embarrassing fan-girl for the TV programmes Doctor Who and Schitt’s Creek.

Her latest collaborative book, The New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly, and Globe and Mail Bestseller A Rhythm of Prayer: A Collection of Meditations for Renewal.

You can connect with Sarah and learn more about her work on her website sarahbessey.com.

Connect with Gravity Leadership

Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.
Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies.
Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community.
Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture.
Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Leadership Podcast? Contact Gino Curcuruto at gino@gravityleadership.com.

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Andrew Arndt: Finding Spiritual Renewal With the Desert Fathers & Mothers Oct 11, 2022

Show notes

What if our exhaustion, burnout, and pain are an invitation into a more vibrant faith? We talk with Andrew Arndt about how Christianity got co-opted by power and privilege, and how we can find our way back to the radical way of Jesus by learning from the desert fathers and mothers, who needed to learn the same things we do: to live radically, humanly, and beautifully in a spiritually desolate and confusing time.

Andrew's most recent book is Streams in the Wasteland: Finding Spiritual Renewal with the Desert Fathers & Mothers.

Andrew Arndt is the lead pastor of New Life East, one of seven congregations of New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Prior to joining New Life’s team, he served as the lead pastor of Bloom Church, a network of house churches in Denver. He is the host of the Essential Church podcast, a weekly conversation designed to strengthen the thinking of church and ministry leaders. Andrew received his MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and is currently working on his DMin with Western Theological Seminary. He has written for Missio Alliance, Patheos, The Other Journal, and Mere Orthodoxy. He is the author of Streams in the Wasteland and All Flame. Andrew lives in Colorado Springs with his wife, Mandi, and their four kids.

Connect with Gravity Leadership

Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.
Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies.
Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community.
Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture.
Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Leadership Podcast? Contact Gino Curcuruto at gino@gravityleadership.com.

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Angie Ward: Following Jesus as Citizens of Nations Oct 04, 2022

Show notes

We talk with Angie Ward about a new book in a series she is the general editor for. Kingdom and Country: Following Jesus in the Land That You Love is a collection of leading Christian thinkers and practitioners take a holistic approach to considering the questions of patriotism, nationalism, and where our ultimate loyalties must lie.

Angie Ward is a leadership author and teacher with nearly thirty years of experience in church, parachurch, and Christian higher education ministry. Angie is known for her genuine love for those in ministry, her down-to-earth style, and her unique ability to see and explain complex concepts and systems. Angie is an award-winning regular contributor to Christianity Today leadership publications and holds a PhD in Ministry Leadership from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. She currently serves as assistant director of the Doctor of Ministry program at Denver Seminary.

Connect with Gravity Leadership

Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.
Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies.
Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community.
Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture.
Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Leadership Podcast? Contact Gino Curcuruto at gino@gravityleadership.com.

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KJ Ramsey: Stepping Through Fear Toward the Voice of Love Sep 27, 2022

Show notes

How can we cultivate courage when fear overshadows our lives? How do we hear the Voice of Love when hate and harm shout loud?

Through sharing her own wilderness experience of spiritual abuse and religious trauma, therapist and author K.J. Ramsey helps us explore the landscape of fear, trauma, and faith by walking through Psalm 23 phrase by phrase in her new book The Lord is My Courage: Stepping Through the Shadows of Fear Toward the Voice of Love. K.J. helps us see that courage is not the absence of anxiety but the practice of trusting we will be held and loved no matter what.

K.J. Ramsey is a trauma-informed licensed professional counselor and author whose work offers space to see every part of our souls and stories as sacred. She holds degrees from Covenant College and Denver Seminary, and writes at the intersection of theology, psychology, and spiritual formation to guide us in recovering the rhythm of resilience through nervous system regulation and the wonder of communion with God. She and her husband Ryan, along with their two exceptionally cuddly dogs, Merton and Resa, live near Denver, Colorado.

You can connect with K.J. on her website, and on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

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Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture.

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Joel A. Bowman, Sr: Lamenting, Repenting, and Dissenting to Heal Racial Trauma Sep 20, 2022

Show notes

We talked with Joel Bowman about themes from a recent article of his, on what white Christians can do to address racism: lament, repent, and dissent.

Rev. Joel A. Bowman, Sr. is a native of Detroit, Michigan, and has been in ministry for 28 years. For the past 21 years, he has served as the founder and senior pastor of the Temple of Faith Baptist Church, in Louisville, Kentucky.

A Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Joel has 30 years of experience in the mental health field. Joel maintains a full-time practice, providing therapy to America’s military Veterans. Joel is a seminar facilitator, freelance writer, poet, and thought leader in the areas of racism and racial trauma. His work has been published in numerous places, including the Louisville Courier-Journal, The Front Porch, The Witness, Three-Fifths Magazine, and Baptist News Global.

Joel is married to Nannette Mitchell Bowman, and they have 3 children: Kayla, Katie, and Joel, Jr.

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From our sponsor (that's us!)

Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community.
Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture.

Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Leadership Podcast? Contact Gino Curcuruto at gino@gravityleadership.com.