In this episode, Emily P. Freeman and I have a great conversation around decision making, discernment and how to know when to stay and when to go. We walk through a four step discernment process telling stories of how it works: pointing and calling, remember your path, acknowledge presence, and yield to the arrows. Our decisions are made in the moment, but our character is formed along the way, so we focus on questions and who we are becoming rather than the answer. We talk about when we are ready to enter a new space, but it’s not time yet and when we know it’s time, but we aren’t ready. It’s such a fantastic conversation. I know you’ll love this one and get a ton out of it. So join us as we discern when to stay and when to go. Emily P. Freeman is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of six books, including The Next Right Thing and How to Walk into a Room. As a spiritual director and workshop leader, her most important work is to help create soul space and offer spiritual companionship and discernment for anyone struggling with decision fatigue. Her podcast, The Next Right Thing, offers clarity and direction for anyone who wants to move beyond the pro/con list in decision-making. Emily holds a master’s degree in Christian spiritual formation and leadership from Friends University where she also serves as a residency lecturer. She lives in North Carolina with her family. Emily's Book:How to Walk Into a RoomEmily's Recommendation:Braiding SweetgrassConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@allnations.usGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Threads at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/shiftingculturepodcast/https://twitter.com/shiftingcultur2https://www.threads.net/@shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@shiftingculturepodcastConsider Giving to the podcast and to the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below.Email jjohnson@allnations.us, so we can get your creative project off the ground! "Ask Me Anything": Christmas Aftermath Welcome to Ask Me Anything, the podcast where we give you biblical answers to...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the show

Sarah Bessey's latest book is Field Notes for the Wilderness. And telling you that it is my favorite book I’ve ever read is no exaggeration. I love this book. It’s full of grace and love and welcome. I could go on and on. You need to get it. Like right now and then pull up a chair in front of the fire with a warm cup and go deep into the beauty and wonder of Sarah’s writing.In this episode, Sarah Bessey discuss her journey of evolving faith and new book "Field Notes for the Wilderness." Bessey shares her experience of faith deconstruction as disorienting but empowering, finding support through community. She emphasizes that God's love is present even in our doubts. She  explores practices for cultivating wonder in daily life through embodiment, Scripture and relationships. They discuss reclaiming repentance as a mind shift rather than shame, and peacemaking as justice work over status quo. Sarah reflects on navigating differing faith journeys in marriage through choosing each other.Ultimately, Sarah encourages listeners in the wilderness to embrace their identity and find community, even if it means leaving old spaces. She recommends embracing the invitations of the Spirit and knowing you're not alone. This conversation provides wisdom and hope for those navigating spiritual transformation and an evolving faith.Sarah Bessey is the author or editor of five books, including the New York Times bestseller A Rhythm of Prayer. She also leads Evolving Faith, a conference and online community for people who are reimagining their faith with hope. Bessey lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, with her husband and their four children. Sarah's Book:Field Notes for the WildernessSarah's Recommendations:Black Liturgies by Cole Arthur RileyHave a Beautiful, Terrible Day by Kate BowlerConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@allnations.usGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Threads at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/shiftingculturepodcast/https://twitter.com/shiftingcultur2https://www.threads.net/@shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@Email jjohnson@allnations.us, so we can get your creative project off the ground! "Ask Me Anything": Christmas Aftermath Welcome to Ask Me Anything, the podcast where we give you biblical answers to...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the show

In this episode, Lance Ford discusses the need to re-examine traditional views of Christian leadership and put Jesus back in his rightful place as head of the church. He traces the evolution of modern leadership theory and its influence on churches. Ford and host Joshua Johnson explore biblical models of servant leadership and equipping others. We emphasize distributing responsibility throughout the body of Christ rather than relying on a few individuals. This thought-provoking conversation challenges listeners to reflect on how they can organize churches to maximize the flow of wisdom from Christ as head into every member.With over three decades experience as a pastor and church planter, Lance Ford is a writer, coach, and consultant who has designed unique training systems currently being used by networks, seminaries, and leaders throughout the world. He has written many articles for Christianity Today, Outreach Magazine, Relevant, and others as well as co-founded the Sentralized Conference. His books include UnLeader, The Starfish and The Spirit, Missional Essentials, The Missional Quest, Next Door as It Is In Heaven, and others. His newest book is The Atlas Factor.Lance's Book:The Atlas FactorLance's Recommendations:The Making of Biblical WomanhoodThe Scandal of LeadershipConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@allnations.usGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Threads at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/shiftingculturepodcast/https://twitter.com/shiftingcultur2https://www.threads.net/@shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@shiftingculturepodcastConsider Giving to the podcast and to the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below.Email jjohnson@allnations.us, so we can get your creative project off the ground! "Ask Me Anything": Christmas Aftermath Welcome to Ask Me Anything, the podcast where we give you biblical answers to...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the show

In this episode, Jessica Hooten Wilson and I go deep in her ten year project of reckoning with Flannery O’Connor’s unpublished and unfinished 3rd novel Why Do the Heathen Rage? Jessica shares insights into Flannery’s writing process, themes in her fiction, her perspectives on race and social justice. She talks about reading O’Connor with charity and how that can provide new insights. We get into limitations because of Flannery’s illness that contributed to the depth and particularity of her writing. We also talk grace, sanctity and the connection between body and soul. So join us as we dig deep into the works of Flannery O’Connor. Jessica Hooten Wilson is the Fletcher Jones Endowed Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University and formerly Louise Cowan Scholar in Residence at the University of Dallas. She is the author of several books, most recently Reading for the Love of God. Her book Giving the Devil his Due: Flannery O’Connor and The Brothers Karamazov received a 2018 Christianity Today book of the year in arts and culture award and The Scandal of Holiness received a 2022 Award of Merit. In 2019 she received the Hiett Prize for Humanities from the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. Other awards include a Fulbright Fellowship to Prague, an NEH to study Dante in Florence, a Biola University sabbatical fellowship funded by the John Templeton Foundation, and the 2017 Emerging Public Intellectual Award. She is a Senior Fellow at The Trinity Forum. Jessica's Book:Flannery O'Connor's Why Do the Heathen Rage?Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@allnations.usGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Threads at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/shiftingculturepodcast/https://twitter.com/shiftingcultur2https://www.threads.net/@shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@shiftingculturepodcastConsider Giving to the podcast and to the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below.Email jjohnson@allnations.us, so we can get your creative project off the ground! Support the show

In this episode, Brian and I have a conversation around the cross of Jesus and his latest book The Wood Between the Worlds. It’s a deep conversation around suffering and putting to shame the powers and principalities. We talk about the multi-faceted meaning of the cross and view it through a kaleidoscope, so we can uncover more and more depth of meaning. We talk about the Kingdom, galvanizing around an axis of power or an axis of love expressed in forgiveness, and the seduction of power we find in the Lord of the Rings. It’s a fantastic conversation that I know you will enjoy. So join us as we look at the multi-faceted wonder of the cross. Brian Zahnd is the founder and lead pastor of Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri. Known for his theologically informed preaching and his embrace of the deep and long history of the church, Zahnd provides a forum for pastors to engage with leading theologians and is a frequent conference speaker. He is the author of several books, including When Everything's On Fire, Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God, A Farewell to Mars, and Beauty Will Save the World. Brian's Book:The Wood Between the WorldsBrian's Recommendations:Bob Dylan - Shadow KingdomMetallica - 72 SeasonsConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@allnations.usGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Threads at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/shiftingculturepodcast/https://twitter.com/shiftingcultur2https://www.threads.net/@shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@shiftingculturepodcastConsider Giving to the podcast and to the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below.Email jjohnson@allnations.us, so we can get your creative project off the ground! "Ask Me Anything": Christmas Aftermath Welcome to Ask Me Anything, the podcast where we give you biblical answers to...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the show

In this episode, Curt Thompson and I have a great discussion around his book The Deepest Place. We talk about how secure attachment to God and others can help root and ground us in a place that enables us to move through suffering and find hope. We need to be in loving relationship with one another because we are the embodied presence of Jesus to each other. We have hope because we have a God that came incarnate in the form of Jesus and He suffered and died, so that He can be not just justify us, but so that he can be with us in our suffering. Hope is an anticipated future of goodness and beauty. Join us as we walk through suffering and find hope. Curt Thompson is a Christian psychiatrist, working at the intersection of neuroscience and spiritual formation and the bestselling author of The Deepest Place (Zondervan). Inspired by deep compassion for others and informed from a Christian perspective, psychiatrist he shares fresh insights and practical applications for developing more authentic relationships and fully experiencing our deepest longing: to be known.  Through his workshops, speaking engagements, books, organizational consulting, private clinical practice, and other platforms, he helps people process their longings, grief, identity, purpose, perspective of God, and perspective of humanity, inviting them to engage more authentically with their own stories and their relationships. Only then can they feel truly known and connected and live into the meaningful reality they desire to create. Curt and his wife, Phyllis, live outside of Washington DC and have two adult children. Curt's Book:The Deepest PlaceCurt's Podcast:Being KnownCurt's Recommendations:The ChosenThe Bible ProjectDominion by Tom HollandConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@allnations.usGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Threads at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/shiftingculturepodcast/https://twitter.com/shiftingcultur2https://www.threads.net/@shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@shiftingculturepodcastConsider Giving to the podcast Email jjohnson@allnations.us, so we can get your creative project off the ground! "Ask Me Anything": Christmas Aftermath Welcome to Ask Me Anything, the podcast where we give you biblical answers to...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the show

In this episode, Peter Greer and I have a great conversation around the book Lead with Prayer. We dive into the gift that prayer is. We talk through group discernment through listening and prayer, new postures that can aid our prayer life, carrying the culture of prayer, so we can help transform others. We marvel at the joy and hope that comes through suffering and the embodied presence of Jesus with us in the midst of that suffering. Join us as we discover new tools and ways to pray, so that we can experience delight in ways that come through being with Jesus as we pray. Peter Greer is the president and CEO of HOPE International,a global Christ-centered economic development organization serving throughoutAfrica, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Under Peter’s leadership, HOPEhas expanded from working in two to over twenty countries and served over 2.5million families. Prior to joining HOPE, Peter worked in Cambodia, Zimbabwe,and Rwanda. He has co-authored 15 books, including Mission Drift, Rooting for Rivals, The Gift of Disillusionment, and The Spiritual Danger of Doing Good. His new book, Lead with Prayer is now available.Peter's Book:Lead with PrayerPeter's Recommendation:Creek StewartConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@allnations.usGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Threads at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/shiftingculturepodcast/https://twitter.com/shiftingcultur2https://www.threads.net/@shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@shiftingculturepodcastConsider Giving to the podcast and to the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below.Email jjohnson@allnations.us, so we can get your creative project off the ground! Support the show

In this episode, Terry Crist and I have a great conversation and tell a lot of stories of engaging others in a way that brings dignity, relationship, curiosity, and hope. How can we love our enemies? How can we follow the better way of Jesus that brings hope? How can we in our fractured world have conversations of truth full of grace, seasoned with compassion? How do we pursue the way of peacemaking? How do we build bridges, not barriers? How do we have curious conversations with people? We learn that our gospel is embodied and proclaimed. We learn that listening is an act of love. Join us as we discover how to listen well, engage others who are more alike us than we realize, and point us all to the way of Jesus that brings hope, reconciliation, and peace. Terry Crist is the co-lead pastor of City of Grace in Phoenix alongside his wife, Judith. He has a TH.M. and a D.Min. and has a business certificate in nonprofit management from Harvard Business School. Terry is also passionate about community transformation and promotes adoption and foster care through his work in state government. An avid outdoorsman and gifted communicator, he has adventured and preached the gospel in 65 nations. Terry and Judith have three married sons and three grandchildren. They live in Phoenix, Arizona.Terry's Book:Loving SamaritansTerry's Recommendations:Jesus the Bridegroom by Brant PitreJesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist by Brant PitreConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@allnations.usGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Threads at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/shiftingculturepodcast/https://twitter.com/shiftingcultur2https://www.threads.net/@shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@shiftingcultureEmail jjohnson@allnations.us, so we can get your creative project off the ground! "Ask Me Anything": Christmas Aftermath Welcome to Ask Me Anything, the podcast where we give you biblical answers to...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the show

In this conversation, Cameron Doolittle and I have a conversation around leading with prayer, getting organizations to not just slap on a prayer before and after a meeting as an after thought, but to actually implement a culture of prayer that produces fruit that is only possible if we abide in the vine. Because if we aren’t praying, we can’t multiply prayer because you can’t multiply by zero. We talk about listening to God, hearing His voice, and following His lead, setting appointments with God, finding rhythms of prayer that we can engage in and the link between giving and prayer. Join us as we learn how to lead with prayer and create organizations and churches that have a prayer culture.Cameron Doolittle is Co-author of the book, Lead with Prayer, senior advisor to the Maclellan Foundation, executive director of John Mark Comer’s Practicing the Way, and co-founder of Generosity Path. He previously served as an advisor to senators, congressmen, and senior executives at Fortune 500 companies through his consulting firm, since acquired by Gartner. Cameron advises high-impact givers and great ministries. He now consults with organizations that his family loves, including BibleProject, Desiring God with John Piper, Faith Driven Giver with Henry Kaestner, ECFA, Awana, Christianity Today, YoungLife, and others. He served as founding CEO of Jill’s House, a ministry for kids with intellectual disabilities. Cameron's Book:Lead with PrayerCameron's Recommendations:War and Peace by Leo TolstoyThe Relational SoulHandbook to PrayerConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@allnations.usGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Threads at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/shiftingculturepodcast/Email jjohnson@allnations.us, so we can get your creative project off the ground! "Ask Me Anything": Christmas Aftermath Welcome to Ask Me Anything, the podcast where we give you biblical answers to...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the show

In this episode, Ingrid Faro and I try to demystify evil. Ingrid shares her harrowing story of abuse from her first husband, how the church wasn’t helpful in the midst of it, how her second husband died, how she lost everything and was even homeless for awhile. As evil invaded her life, so much so that she didn’t want to go on living, she went on a journey to discover the goodness of God? Is He good? Is He just? Why is evil happening all over the world? This journey led her to Scripture – to Genesis and the fall and then the whole story of God. We talk about human causes of evil, nature run amok, evil in the unseen realm, hopelessness and despair and we find hope. Hope that there is a good God and that we can align ourselves back to the goodness of God. We find that forgiveness sets us free, so we can live a life of joy and freedom. So join us as we demystify evil and find hope in the goodness of God. Ingrid Faro, Ph.D., M.Div. is Coordinator of the MA in Old Testament program at Northern Seminary in the Chicago area. Her Ph.D. is in Theological Studies, with concentration in Old Testament and Semitic Language. Dr. Ingrid Faro is an author and international speaker on topics including deconstructing evil, abuse, forgiveness, and women in the Bible and ministry. Ingrid is the author of Demystifying Evil, Evil in Genesis, co-author of Honest Answers. Ingrid's Book:Demystifying EvilIngrid's Recommendations:Being God's Image by Carmen ImesNobody's Mother by Sandra GlahnConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@allnations.usGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Threads at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/shiftingculturepodcast/https://twitter.com/shiftingcultur2https://www.threads.net/@shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@shiftingculturepodcastConsider Giving to the podcast and to the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below.Email jjohnson@allnations.us, so we can get your creative project off the ground! "Ask Me Anything": Christmas Aftermath Welcome to Ask Me Anything, the podcast where we give you biblical answers to...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the show