The Living Church Podcast

Give to The Living ChurchGift the Magazine for $9.95Welcome podcast listeners. Today we've got an episode that will lightly leap from Advent to Christmastide. We'll revisit four conversations we've had over the years: James K. A. Smith on time and ImmanuelNovelist H.C. Cross on boarding schools and world-buildingLauren Winner on books and readingAmy Peeler and Wes Hill on Mother MaryDr. James K.A. Smith is a public philosopher and editor in chief of IMAGE journal, and author of many well-known books including You Are What You Love and How to Inhabit Time.Heather Cross is the author of two novels, Wilberforce and Grievous.The Rev. Dr. Lauren Winner is associate professor of Christian spirituality at Duke Divinity School and the author of many books, including Girl Meets God, A Cheerful and Comfortable Faith, andCharacteristic Damage.The Rev. Dr. Wesley Hill and Dr. Amy Peeler are both associate professors of New Testament, Amy at Wheaton College and Wes at Western Theological Seminary.In two weeks, we're taking a break from the podcast (Merry Christmas). In 2024 we're rolling out conversations with Stanley Hauerwas and Ephraim Radner, a book chat with John Behr, an exploration of Jesus Through Medieval Eyes, a look at neurodivergence in the classical classroom, and much more. Give to The Living ChurchGift the Magazine for $9.95Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Make an Advent donation to the Living Church.Get 84% off a gift subscription to The Living ChurchIn the beginning, creation. Millennia pass. Creatures alternately live peacefully then get it horribly wrong. Long genealogies. The rise of evil kings, good kings, battles and prophecies. A savior riding in on a white horse. And in between the exciting parts, lots and lots of waiting.Is this the Bible? The spiritual life? Or The Lord of the Rings and Middle Earth legendarium? Yes. And it's chock-full of good stuff for Advent.So is JRR Tolkien's own life. Today we'll talk with one of Tolkien's biographers, Dr. Holly Ordway. Holly is the Cardinal Francis George Professor of Faith and Culture at the Word on Fire Institute, visiting professor of apologetics at Houston Christian University, and a subject editor for the Journal of Inklings Studies. She has two books you should know about: the award-winning Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages (Word on Fire Academic, 2021) and her newest book, Tolkien’s Faith: A Spiritual Biography (Word on Fire Academic, 2023).  Advent is a thick time. Within that tapestry we find suffering and grief, waiting and faithfulness, the mysterious timing of providence -- and much to learn from Middle Earth.But we also get glimpses of what it means to live good life. Good food, a sense of humor, and divine grace are hidden inside Advent, too, if we have humble enough eyes to find them.Whether Advent is for you like a cozy Hobbit hole full of goodies, or Denethor's grim tower looking out on an uncertain future, or some trippy place in between that I cannot imagine, we hope you enjoy the conversation.Make an Advent donation to the Living Church.Get 84% off a gift subscription to The Living ChurchAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Give to support the Living Church Podcast studio!Check out No Small Endeavor, hosted by Lee C. Camp.Who knew that a Southern mother would help today's guest hone the gift of gab for the sake of others?Today you'll hear my conversation with Dr. Lee C. Camp, about the art of conversation. I'm excited to share this, especially with those who talk, listen, teach, preach, or give counsel for a living. How do we connect more meaningfully in our conversations, both on and off the clock?Lee Camp is the host of the podcast No Small Endeavor, exploring what it means to live a good life, which features best-selling authors, philosophers, scientists, artists, psychologists, theologians and politicians. I highly recommend you check out his podcast. Lee is also an award-winning teacher and professor of theology and ethics at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. He and I dig into:What we can learn from late night talk show hosts. How being funny can both help and hinder deeper connection. Why practicing prudent vulnerability is a way to help everyone, including yourself, open up to the possibilities of hearing an unexpected truth.Thanksgiving is coming up. Family gatherings can be a difficult place to keep conversation fresh and listening lively. Hopefully this will help you discover some new possibilities there as well. Finally, consider bringing a bottle of wine to the Living Church Podcast Thanksgiving table: give today to support a studio space for us. $10 a month, or any amount you choose, even a one-time gift. We are surely grateful.You can also leave a review for us on Spotify or Apple podcasts.Now, whether you like to gab or stay quiet, whether you tend toward control freak or deer in the headlights, we're all invited to learn the art of conversation, and to join every conversation the Lord brings our way. We hope you enjoy this one.Give to support the Living Church Podcast studio!Check out No Small Endeavor, hosted by Lee C. Camp.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Give to support the Living Church Podcast studio!Last chance to join us in NYC for Preaching in a Post-Christian Age.The visions of Julian of Norwich came to her 650 years ago this May. Claire Gilbert's new novel, I, Julian, is a fictional autobiography about the life and visions of Julian. We'll be discussing the book today with its author and discovering why and how she would write such a boldly imaginative book from the perspective of one of Anglicanism's most beloved figures.We'll learn a bit about the actual woman we know as Julian, and talk about what life might have looked like in her time, in an age of tight-knit community, mystery plays, and mystical texts, as well as church division, plague, and tectonic societal shifts. We'll also hear about what it's like to inhabit such a powerful voice for so many years of research and writing, and what changed in Claire's life as she wrote the book.Before I tell you a little more about Claire, I want to thank those of you who have jumped in to support a podcast studio so we can keep bringing you conversations like this at a high quality with fantastic guests. I want to personally thank three new supporters: Sharon, Roger, and John. Join the ranks of these good folks by clicking the link in the show notes and help us bring onto the podcast people like Dr. Claire Gilbert, our guest today.Claire is founding director of the Westminster Abbey Institute for ethics and public life. She has worked for the Archbishops' Council of the Church of England as policy advisor in medical ethics and environmental issues and is a lay Canon at St Paul's Cathedral. She co-founded the St Paul's Institute in 2003. She has authored many books. Her latest, the novel I, Julian (Hodder & Stoughton), is available now.If you'd like to win a free copy of the book, you can enter our TLC Book Club contest. Just go to livingchurch.org and click the popup to download a free study guide and be entered to win a free copy of I, Julian.Now hold on to your wimple. We're headed out on a beautiful and sometimes intense literary journey -- which is also a journey of the heart. We hope you enjoy the conversation.Give to support the Living Church Podcast studio!Last chance to join us in NYC for Preaching in a Post-Christian Age.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Rev. Dr. Mark Clavier, vicar of St. Mary's in Brecon, known for his warm approach and Christian ecology, shares how his parish transformed from 16 to 60 members, embracing a spirit of renewal. Liz Perry, a longtime parishioner, reflects on the congregation's hospitality and the Welsh concept of 'kutch'—a sense of warm security. They discuss their strategic vision for growth, community engagement through projects like the Tower Cafe, and how Mark’s optimistic leadership has cultivated a positive church culture.

Make a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land with the Living ChurchHelp us make the show better! Support the Living Church Podcast for $10/month.Welcome to a special coffee hour edition of the podcast. As many of you will know we have a new executive director and publisher over here at the Living Church, the Rev. Dr. Matthew Olver. We took some time to talk about how he got to TLC. Matthew is an Episcopal priest who has served widely in the Episcopal Church in diocesan, national, and international capacities. Like the eighth editor of The Living Church, H. Boone Porter, he is also a liturgical scholar who taught at Nashotah House Theological Seminary for nearly a decade (2014-23). He's currently also an assistant priest at Zion Episcopal Church in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. If you keep listening, you will hear the following:How our new executive director stays caffeinated.The recognizability of the Church across the ages and why preservation is a dynamic thing.Why a seminary professor would want to run a magazine.Why we have a blog and what it's doing.What he likes about Living Church events.And why, when tourists are snapping photos of church architecture, Matthew stands there reading Augustine.From Matthew's office in Milwaukee to Wheaton to Rome to Ravenna to Oklahoma City and back, we hope you enjoy the conversation.Make a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land with the Living ChurchHelp us make the show better! Support the Living Church Podcast for $10/month.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Make a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land with the Living ChurchSupport the Living Church Podcast.Why do we go on pilgrimage? And why do Christians go on pilgrimage to England? Today is Part 2 of an exploratory episode. Warm up your tea, study your map, and head out with us!Make a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land with the Living ChurchSupport the Living Church Podcast.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Support the Living Church Podcast.While working on Part 2 of the English Pilgrimage episode, TLC had a conversation we couldn't wait to share with you. Bonus episode!How do people in leadership, in high-performance vocations, get the spiritual and emotional care they need? Who do pastors go to for counsel, friendship, to confess, to get their most uncensored, hot off the press thoughts and feelings off their chests? Where do they go to get loving correction? And when no one is readily available, how can they care for their inner lives in the meantime? These are some of the questions we put to our guest today, the Rev. Dr. Matthew Hoskinson. Matthew is an ordained minister, a cancer survivor, a marathon runner, and a certified coach. After 15 years of pastoral ministry mostly in NYC, he now works for Redeemer City to City as the director of the City Ministry Program, a transformative urban education for the next generation of Christian leaders. He provides coaching, spiritual direction, and mentoring for leaders and ministers across the country. (And he will be one of the speakers at our preaching conference in November in New York City!)We won't even bill your insurance for this. We hope you enjoy the conversation.Support the Living Church Podcast.Join us (and Matthew) in NYC for Preaching in a Post-Christian Age. Learn more about Matthew.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Join our pilgrimage to the Holy Land.Why do we go on pilgrimage? For an educational vacation? To get in touch with the past? To walk barefoot to a shrine or encounter a saint? To ask for a miracle? And why, if Christians are going to go on pilgrimage anywhere, do they go on pilgrimage to England?Yes, it’s a magical land of meat pies, forests, fairies, and saints with a distinctly British flavor. How do our expectations of England, especially for Anglophiles, meet an answer in the actual place? To go on a pilgrimage is about expectation. In the middle ages, when pilgrims would come from all over Europe to the shrine of St. Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey, they would kneel inside a cool cavity carved out of the brilliantly-decorated stone, to get as close to Edward’s bones as they could. Before leaving they’d chip off a tiny bit of mosaic. We go on pilgrimage to stand somewhere in the broken and colorful light of Christian history, and to take away souvenirs, be they answered prayers or vintage prayer books. And we certainly bring expectations.Today’s episode is a story about expectations and souvenirs – the hoped for, and the found – on an English pilgrimage with a diverse set of American Anglicans. Anglophiles beware. You may get more than you bargained for.Join our pilgrimage to the Holy Land.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Learn more about Preaching in a Post-Christian Age.Youth group. Sunday school. Church camp. What's your reaction to these words? Do you get a nostaglic smile on your face? Do you have a mild cardiac infarction? Whether you've led a youth ministry or not, we've all been teens, and many, many of us have memories associated with teen formation in different Christian contexts. From pies in the face for Jesus, to inductive Bible studies, to folk music and popcorn prayer, there have been many ways to approach ministry to young people. Do we get really serious, down to the no-funny-business of Christian discipleship and life transformation? Or do we hang out with pizza and some games, and pray, with a lot of grace, and no pressure, that something happens, eventually, God-wise?  Turns out, ministry to teens is about sensing how to strike a wise balance, and it's a lot about our own security and maturity as a Christian adults. Today we'll talk about: the importance of the heart and feelings in teen catechesis; how to engage teens emotionally without making it all about feelings; how to invite questions that drive into the faith rather than away from it; how we can have confidence and clarity without harshness; and why we should love the Bible more than good behavior. Taking us to this magical land of youth ministry is Melina Luna Smith. Melina is executive director of Storymakers, a not-for-profit creative studio that designs imaginative resources for kids and teens, including Bible- and creed-immersive zines. She is deep in lay ministry at the Parish of Calvary St. George’s in New York City, and loves working at the intersections of design, beauty, and imagination for the good of communities and the kingdom of God.If you like this conversation, join us at Calvary St. George's for our preaching conference in New York this November, for a refresher and refreshing course in communicating God's Word. You might even get to meet Melina. (She happens to be married to the rector.)Now put on your most normal-looking mom jeans and grab your Bible. It's time to be exactly yourself with young people and share the gospel in a real and lasting way. It's possible. Maybe not even that complicated. We hope you enjoy the conversation. Check out Storymakers.Learn more about Preaching in a Post-Christian Age.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands