Attaching to God: Neuroscience-informed Spiritual Formation

What is so important about joy? The great commandment is to love God and others, but is joy even more central than that? Where does joy fit in the landscape of political outrage and cynicism, in the seriousness of life today?We're talking about it. Looking at why joy and love are so connected. (And this is really the beginning of season 4...Ignore that Geoff said it was the beginning of season 3). ANNOUNCEMENTS: — HELP SUPPORT this podcast financially by joining our Substack for only $8 a month (every little bit helps).— SOUL SPRING CLEANING, for Busy People: A 30-minute Reflection to help you clean up your SOUL-CLUTTER.— ANCHORED Learning Cohort: Launching in mid-May.  Join now and start working through the material and then join the weekly cohort LIVE meetings.— ATTACHING TO GOD Learning Cohort: Launching again in mid-June. Join us and learn to grow beyond anxious and avoidant spiritualities.FREE Attaching to God SummitBuilding Emotional & Spiritual Health by Attaching to God: Register Free NOWStay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

Did Brené Brown miss something about shame? Is it always bad, or something good? Does God save us from shame? Or might God save us through shame?If this sounds crazy, maybe it is because we thinking about shame in a Western cultural framework.  Dr. Jackson Wu talks about how honor and shame work in the Bible, and how that might help us read the scriptures and understand salvation.Check out his new books, Seeking God's Face: Practical Reflections on Honor and Shame in Scripture, and The Cross in Context: Reconsidering Biblical Metaphors for Atonement. And follow Brad on Twitter and read his blog.(This podcast was recorded before Brad stopped using his pseudonym, which he explains here).FREE Attaching to God SummitBuilding Emotional & Spiritual Health by Attaching to God: Register Free NOWStay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

How, in our churches, can we walk with those struggling with the effects of trauma? How can we create spaces for deep connection with God and authentic healing?How can we become more than trauma-informed, becoming God’s people who are truly trauma-responsive as those who follow the crucified and risen Jesus?Cyd and Geoff sit down with Janyne McConnaughey (PhD) to talk about a practical and compassionate roadmap for how churches can journey with those struggling with trauma.Janyne's New Book: Trauma in the Pews: The Impact on Faith and Spiritual Practices (affiliate)FREE Attaching to God SummitBuilding Emotional & Spiritual Health by Attaching to God: Register Free NOWStay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

Can disembodied ways of thinking and living lead to a more embodied faith? No. And that’s why we need to look at the promise and perils of faith deconstruction.Everyone's journey of deconstruction is different. But only some paths lead to a more embodied faith, while others perpetuate the very problems we are trying to deconstruct. We talk about how deconstructing faith can be good, and how it can turn bad, with Rev. Dr. Sean Davidson, rector of three parishes in New Brunswick (yeah, more Canadians). And he is a missional mentor with the Institute of Evangelism at Wycliffe College (Toronto). FREE Attaching to God SummitBuilding Emotional & Spiritual Health by Attaching to God: Register Free NOWStay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

Like Jesus, we need to overturn the tables of those peddling gender hierarchies within the temple of our bodies. Because our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, we need to overturn this harmful equation of sex and salvation with a gender hierarchy. In this episode, with Dr. Beth Felker Jones, we talk about the recent outrage over the article "Sex Won’t Save You (But It Points to the One Who Will)", its distorting and damaging theology, and point toward a better understanding of the goodness of sex, marriage, and the gospel. See also Dr. Jones' book, Faithful: A Theology of Sex, and her blog.Other resources: "Protestant bodies, Protestant bedrooms, & our furious need for a theology thereof" (more from Dr. Jones)."The Theology of the Body" (Catholic view by Christopher West)"The Fundamental Flaws in Josh Butler’s Argument" (Jackson Wu)Affiliate links included.FREE Attaching to God SummitBuilding Emotional & Spiritual Health by Attaching to God: Register Free NOWStay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

Why have we turned "your body is a temple" into a shaming mechanism? What if our bodies are the place we meet God? The place through which we glorify God? Dr. Beth Felker Jones joins Cyd and Geoff to talk about a theology of the body, and how we can lead our culture and churches into deeper freedom.Follow Dr. Jones at Church Blogmatics. FREE Attaching to God SummitBuilding Emotional & Spiritual Health by Attaching to God: Register Free NOWStay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

Shouldn't Jesus change how we see people? So why is it that Christians seem to have as many enemies as others?We talked with Jon Hand about why "enemy mode" is so prevalent in the church, and how being Jesus-centered gives us a new identity and a new perspective on others. This episode is a continuation of our interview with Jim Wilder on "How To Escape Enemy Mode." ATTACHING TO GOD Learning Cohort Waitlist: explore the gifts and shortcomings of distracted and dismissive attachment, and learn how to begin building a secure attachment with God and others.Jon is movement leadership within Jesus Collective, an international relational network of churches and leaders seeking to advance a more hopeful Christianity by seeking to keep Jesus at the center. Jon has also spent the last 10 years coaching Christian leaders across Canada, the US, and the UK in a unique year-long Soul Coaching journey that blends spiritual formation, neuroscience, and emotional integration to help leaders lead from their own transformation.FREE Attaching to God SummitBuilding Emotional & Spiritual Health by Attaching to God: Register Free NOWStay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

Chronic stress and trauma are not just emotional. They change our bodies. It affects our physical nature, causing illness. And the reverse is true. When physical remedies don’t seem to be available, our relational and spiritual lives just might be the healing we need.Rose Madrid Swetman, pastor, coach, and spiritual director, talks about her experience with a kind of heart failure and the surprising healing that she found for her body, mind, and spirit. Stay connected to The Center for Transformational Engagement.See the Self-Facilitated Retreat Guide to foster Practices of Resilience.Check out "Way of Life" for help making intentional spiritual commitments.FREE Attaching to God SummitBuilding Emotional & Spiritual Health by Attaching to God: Register Free NOWStay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

How do you escape enemy mode? When your brain and body are just against someone (and maybe you don’t even know why).  What if one brain state could explain why we stop listening to, talking with, or caring about, other people? What if this brain state reveals why we lose it on people, fall out of love, and traumatize one another?Clinical Psychologist & Neurotheologian Jim Wilder is on to talk about all this, and help us identify and overcome enemy mode.Find out about Escaping Enemy Mode and Jim's work here.Other episodes with Jim Wilder:002 The Making of a Mature Disciple031 What is a Neurotheologian? and other QuestionsFREE Attaching to God SummitBuilding Emotional & Spiritual Health by Attaching to God: Register Free NOWStay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

Loneliness and disconnection have been on the rise for a long time in our society. We long for a deep meaning to make sense of our lives, but we don't know how to find it. How can we find a Connected Life?Embodied Faith host Geoff Holsclaw (PhD) talks with professor of psychology Todd Hall (PhD) about finding "The Connected Life" through growing our relational knowledge and strong attachment bonds.See Dr. Hall's new book — The Connected Life: The Art and Science of Relational Spirituality.Related Episode: Why Psychology Can Help Our Spiritual Transformation FREE Attaching to God SummitBuilding Emotional & Spiritual Health by Attaching to God: Register Free NOWStay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).