Nomad Podcast

Elizabeth Edman believes she has learnt more from the LGBTQ community about what it means to be a Christian, than she has from the Church. Why? Well, she believes the church has forgotten what it means to be scandalous, to struggle for identity and to expand its boundaries to include the marginalised. And so the Church needs to learn from the gay community - and other marginalised groups - that have embraced these virtues. It's an insightful and challenging conversation! "Christianity was meant to be an inherently scandalous movement. Jesus entered into scandal every opportunity that he could..." - Elizabeth Edman Interview starts at 6m 16s Books, quotes, links → The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Therapeutic Reflections, and Nomad Revisited. If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug! If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here. Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group. And if you're up for sharing your own story, we regularly post reflections from listeners on our blog—all with the hope of fostering deeper understanding, connection and supportive relationships. If you'd like to share your story on the blog, contact us for more information here.

Malcolm Guite is a poet, priest and theologian. Years of inhabiting these roles has led him to the belief that we're relying far too much on reason and thought in the formation of our faith, and are overlooking the significance of the 'poetic imagination'.  He believes that we can find deep truth in the imagination and that poetry can bring our faith alive in a way that nothing else can. It's a fascinating and hope-filled conversation! "Liturgy is poetry, necessarily. Liturgy is a made and shaped thing that brings you in, takes you on a journey, transforms you and sends you out again with a new vision and that's what a poem does." - Malcolm Guite Interview begins at 6m 50s Books, quotes, links → The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Therapeutic Reflections, and Nomad Revisited. If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug! If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here. Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group. And if you're up for sharing your own story, we regularly post reflections from listeners on our blog—all with the hope of fostering deeper understanding, connection and supportive relationships. If you'd like to share your story on the blog, contact us for more information here.

I know, we only just interviewed Walter Brueggemann! But he's just brought a book out entitled Money and Possessions and we've still got unresolved questions after our chat with Justin Welby on that subject. So why not spend another hour in the digital presence of one of the great biblical scholars of our time?! And as you'd expect, it was an hour chock-full of wisdom and insight. “Money regularly morphs into an idolatry and that idolatry will lead to the commoditization of human relationships...” - Walter Brueggemann Interview started at 6m 53s Books, quotes, links → The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Therapeutic Reflections, and Nomad Revisited. If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug! If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here. Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group. And if you're up for sharing your own story, we regularly post reflections from listeners on our blog—all with the hope of fostering deeper understanding, connection and supportive relationships. If you'd like to share your story on the blog, contact us for more information here.

Walter Brueggemann is widely considered to be one of the most influential theologians of our time. So who better to help us get a handle on the idea of the Sabbath. Especially as he wrote the fascinating and insightful Sabbath as Resistance. That's right, Sabbath is so much more than simply taking a day off, it's an intentional and creative act of resistance.  “We have forgotten who we are, and we think that our life is mainly defined by production and consumption. And if that is the goal and definition of life, then one must stay at it all the time. And in that frame of reference, Sabbath becomes an inconvenience and an unwelcome interruption. So Sabbath makes no sense if we’ve put our lives down in a narrative of production and consumption. Sabbath belongs to a narrative that contradicts the scheme of production and consumption.” - Walter Brueggemann Interview starts at 10m 8s Books, quotes, links → The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Therapeutic Reflections, and Nomad Revisited. If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug! If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here. Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group. And if you're up for sharing your own story, we regularly post reflections from listeners on our blog—all with the hope of fostering deeper understanding, connection and supportive relationships. If you'd like to share your story on the blog, contact us for more information here.

Shane Claiborne has been an inspiration to many ever since his book The Irresistible Revolution came out, with its 'What if Jesus really meant what he said' message. For the last 20 years Shane has been trying to live out Jesus's message in a deprived area of Philadelphia, where he founded the new monastic community, The Simple Way. This journey has led him to a commitment to non-violence, 'from womb to tomb', which has been tested on many occasions. So tune in for a challenging and counter-cultural conversation.  "For the first few hundred years, Christians were unmistakably committed to nonviolence, in every sense of the word. They spoke out against abortion, they spoke out against the death penalty, They spoke out against militarism and war. They had a beautiful, seamless garment when it came to the ethic of life." - Shane Claiborne Interview starts at 11m 15s.  Books, quotes, links → The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Therapeutic Reflections, and Nomad Revisited. If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug! If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here. Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group. And if you're up for sharing your own story, we regularly post reflections from listeners on our blog—all with the hope of fostering deeper understanding, connection and supportive relationships. If you'd like to share your story on the blog, contact us for more information here.

It's pretty clear what Jesus was about. Love you neighbour (and if that's not challenging enough, love your enemies) was at the top of his manifesto. So why do we find it so hard to follow his example? Professor of Psychology at Abilene University, Richard Beck, doesn't think the issue is a lack of understanding. We know what we're meant to do. Instead, Richard thinks the issue is a psychological one. And it's to do with a misplaced psychology of disgust. Tune in for a truly fascinating conversation! “There’s something to offend us all in Jesus and sometimes we like to point out the parts of Jesus that offend our enemies, we like to quote those scriptures against them, but, you know, I just like to embrace those parts of Jesus that offend me. I constantly want Jesus to unsettle me!” - Richard Beck Interview starts at 6m 47s   Books, quotes, links → The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Therapeutic Reflections, and Nomad Revisited. If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug! If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here. Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group. And if you're up for sharing your own story, we regularly post reflections from listeners on our blog—all with the hope of fostering deeper understanding, connection and supportive relationships. If you'd like to share your story on the blog, contact us for more information here.

In many ways Brian Zahnd is like many of Nomad's guests in that he deconstructed (although he doesn't like that term) what he came to see as a very narrow faith, and reconstructed something much deeper and broader. The difference with Brian, though, is that he went through this process while pastoring a mega-church. So we asked him, how can you lead a church, or indeed be a member of a church, when your faith is changing and you feel like you're in a very different place from everyone else.  "I don't see the Church as a second step, as an option. I see it as the natural outgrowth of following Jesus, and Jesus immediately leads us into his community of other people doing the same thing." - Brian Zahnd Interview starts at 13m 25s Books, quotes, links → The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Therapeutic Reflections, and Nomad Revisited. If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug! If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here. Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group. And if you're up for sharing your own story, we regularly post reflections from listeners on our blog—all with the hope of fostering deeper understanding, connection and supportive relationships. If you'd like to share your story on the blog, contact us for more information here.

Every now and then we like to interview a fellow podcaster who, like us, is creating a space for an open and honest exploration of the Christian faith. And Justin Brierley is one such person. Over the last 11 years he's been producing Unbelievable?, on which he moderates conversations between Christians and people from others faiths and none. So firstly I took the opportunity to see if he suffers from the same podcaster insecurities that I do. Then we dug into whether apologetics - the rational defence of the faith - still has a place in our post-secular culture, and in a faith that seems increasingly comfortable with mystery and doubt.  “Apologetics runs the huge risk of becoming a case of moving intellectual pieces on a chess board. And that’s not the point of Christianity.” - Justin Brierley Interview starts at 6m 8s. Books, quotes, links → The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Therapeutic Reflections, and Nomad Revisited. If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug! If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here. Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group. And if you're up for sharing your own story, we regularly post reflections from listeners on our blog—all with the hope of fostering deeper understanding, connection and supportive relationships. If you'd like to share your story on the blog, contact us for more information here.

As much as we love some good old fashioned theological cut-and-thrust, we're increasingly aware that if this journey is going to be sustainable, it's got to be an holistic one. So each month we'll be producing Nomad Devotionals, through which we'll be experimenting with readings, prayers, liturgies and songs. We're making the first one free to everyone, so you can decide whether you're interested in joining us on this leg of the journey. If you are, then head over to Patreon and donate $5 or more a month to gain access to future Devotionals.  This first devotional was made with help from: Rabbi Margaret Jacobi from Birmingham’s Progressive Synagogue; theologian and urban gardener Sam Ewell; and Brian McLaren, who kindly gives the benediction. The song Hallelujah Sing Exulting was adapted from an old hymn by Martin Gensichen (1879-1965). All other music is by David Benjamin Blower (all rights reserved, and all that). The song Come Holy Spirit is Public Domain (as is Hallelujah Sing Exulting), so please help yourself. "Because the new creation is breaking in, we live in this new age. Jesus has been raised, he's the first fruits of a new creation, he’s been present with us, he leaves us with a spirit. And so what it means to be led by the spirit is, wherever we are...we get to garden with God." - David Blower Devotional begins at 14m 17s Books, quotes, links → The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Therapeutic Reflections, and Nomad Revisited. If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug! If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here. Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group. And if you're up for sharing your own story, we regularly post reflections from listeners on our blog—all with the hope of fostering deeper understanding, connection and supportive relationships. If you'd like to share your story on the blog, contact us for more information here.

Dr. Rowan Williams, a respected theologian, discusses the concept of prayer and the yearning for deeper connection. The speakers explore the transformative power of love in crisis situations and the development of a prayer life as the Archbishop of Canterbury. They also delve into the significance of carrying prayers and the impact of contemplative prayer on mindset. The importance of attentiveness and listening is emphasized, and plans for bonus content and devotional materials are announced.