E6//On Belonging with Marlena Graves

Today we talk with author, activist, and professor Marlena Graves about our restlessness around belonging and how racism is, at the core, a spiritual formation issue.

Marlena received her M.Div. from Northeastern Seminary in Rochester, New York, where she is now the Assistant Professor of Spiritual Formation. She is pursuing her Ph.D. in American Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, OH.

Marlena has been on the pastoral staff at several churches, worked at non-profits, been on the residence life staff at a university, and worked for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC). Since 2015, she has been an adjunct professor at Winebrenner Seminary in the areas of discipleship and spiritual formation. She has written for a wide variety of venues like Christianity Today, RELEVANT magazine, and served as a board member for the Redbud Writers Guild.

She is the author of three books including Forty Days on Being a Nine, The Way Up Is Down, and The Gospel of Peace In A Violent World.

Her new book, Bearing God: A Christ-Formed Life In Uncharted Waters comes out on September 5, 2023 but you can pre-order here.

Music by Robert Ebbens

Next week – my new book The Gift of Restlessness launches into the world on April 25, 2023. There’s still time to pre-order and get in on some of the pre-order gifts.