Sometimes creating change means first seeing the other side of the issue. Pastor James White sits down to share his experiences of crossing the dividing lines and challenging the framework of the world he found himself in. Join us as we see James’ passion for authentically teaching Scripture and leading others to see how understanding race, culture, and diversity can help us to create systems where everyone can thrive.Guest Bio:James White has served as the Senior Pastor of Christ Our King Community Church since its inception. He is a gifted expository Bible teacher, speaker, historian, thought leader, writer, and culture creator. He is originally from Barco, North Carolina, and is a graduate of East Carolina University. After graduation, he joined the full-time staff of Cru, formally known as Campus Crusade for Christ. Through his work, life, and leadership, God has truly cultivated his calling as a grace-filled leader. As a marketplace leader, he serves as the Executive Vice President of the Center for Social Impact for the YMCA of the North in Minneapolis. In addition, he is also a Senior Fellow for The Sagamore Institute. He is a sought-after consultant, speaker, and facilitator for several organizations and companies on issues concerning cultural transformation through diversity, equity, and inclusion. James is also a contributor to The Whole Man Project, a book and video series provided by VOICES from Our Daily Bread Ministries. You can learn more about The Whole Man Project—and preorder the book—here!James’ life continues to be shaped and graced through his 36 years of covenant partnership with his wife, Cynthia, and his three adult children.Notes & Quotes: “[The realities of my racial identity and faith] were always intertwined because the Bible in many ways is a tool that provides freedom and hope.” “God often does things with unnamed, unknown people, but then He creates something. He does something . . . and the only way you could explain it is God.” “A lot of my Bible teaching came out of not wanting to distort what God is really saying and really honoring both. . . liberation, but the expectation that the gospel and Scripture really have.” “Change happens when we create systems so that all can thrive.” Links Mentioned: FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Learn more about The Whole Man Project here. Learn more about James’ work with the Equity Innovation Center of Excellence. Visit the VOICES website to sign up for emails. Get new episodes sent straight to your email.  Tell us how much you love Where Ya From? by rating us five stars and leaving us a review.  Check out VOICES from Our Daily Bread Ministries. Follow VOICES on Instagram. Verses Mentioned:Matthew 5:38-39 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Discover the journey of Toni Collier, founder of Broken Crayons Still Color, as she shares her authentic story of healing and redemption. Embrace the power of finding beauty in brokenness, the importance of surrender, and the impact of faith on resilience and empowerment. Explore how facing struggles can lead to personal growth and stronger relationships.

Guest Russell Moore shares his journey from childhood in a Mississippi church to ethical leadership. Reflects on family dynamics, faith evolution, and personal challenges. Discusses moral authority, societal racism, and intellectual curiosity shaped by FBI involvement. Explores the impact of a respected state senator on personal integrity and ministry. Highlights the journey through ministry, academia, and navigating eschatology, ethics, and societal divisions.

Like many of us, Chriscynethia Floyd questioned what made her special. And even though we know God always has a plan for us, it’s not always the easiest thing to trust. Join us as we hear Chriscynethia’s story of trusting the different journeys God led her through and explore how He remains with us in both the highest and lowest moments of life.Guest Bio:Chriscynethia Floyd is Vice President of Publishing at Our Daily Bread Publishing. Her more than twenty-year career spans both secular and Christian publishing, where she’s served as a vice president in sales, marketing, and editorial for organizations such as Simon and Schuster Publishing, HarperCollins Christian Publishers, and David C. Cook.  She leads and collaborates with a tremendously talented group of editors and publishing professionals. Together they work to fulfill the mission of Our Daily Bread Ministries: to make the Bible's life-changing wisdom understandable and accessible to all.  Chriscynethia is a classically trained singer and has traveled the world where she performed for such dignitaries as Desmond Tutu and President George Bush. When not with her ODBP team, Chriscynethia loves attending arts performances, being outdoors, watching sports, and hanging out with her English Springer Spaniel, Thelonious (Theo) Monk.Notes & Quotes: “[God is] going to find us. It's always light. You know, whether we go high or whether we go low, God is there. And God knows us.” “No matter the situation that someone might find themselves in—good, bad, or whatever, indifferent— it's important to understand that God is faithful through all of that.” “If [God] was going to take him away, I just couldn't, you know, I couldn't comprehend that. And I think the lesson from all of that was that for a girl who felt alone in her childhood, He wanted me to know that I could be loved.” “So when I think about Psalm 139, I think about folks understanding that God is always with them, and that God is always present, that God is always knowing, and that to me is a running theme through the Bible, that God is.” Links Mentioned: FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT To explore some of the books Chriscynethia has worked on, check out Our Daily Bread Publishing Visit our website to sign up for emails. Get new episodes sent straight to your email.  Tell us how much you love Where Ya From? by rating us five stars and leaving us a review.  Check out VOICES from Our Daily Bread Ministries Follow Where Ya From? on Instagram. Follow VOICES on Instagram. Verses Mentioned:Psalm 139 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the outside, it seemed like Katara Washington Patton was on track to get everything she dreamed of. Yet, when she started aligning her desires with God, her life took on a beautiful, unexpected journey. And no matter if she’s going through the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, Katara has realized that her joy in the Lord can still co-exist with the feelings of grief and struggles. See how navigating the blues and unexpected plans with God’s heart and our faith can also look like accessing the mental health tools and people He graciously brings into our lives.Guest Bio:A regular contributor to Our Daily Bread, Katara Washington Patton currently serves as the Executive Editor of the VOICES Collection by Our Daily Bread Publishing, and is the author of eight books, including her latest book, the best-selling title Navigating the Blues. After graduating summa cum laude from Dillard University in Mass Communication and English, Katara went on to complete her Master of Journalism at Northwestern University and receive her Masters of Divinity from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. She has worked in the editorial and acquisitions departments at Weekly Reader Corporation, Jet Magazine, Urban Ministries, Inc. (UMI), McGraw-Hill, The African American Pulpit, The Chicago Defender, Tyndale House Publishers, and Christian Century Magazine. In 2014, she was named Nonfiction Editor of the Year by the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association (AWSA).Katara is a native of Thibodaux, Louisiana. She and her husband, Derrick, reside on the south-side of Chicago. They have one daughter, Kayla. Katara is a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. As much as possible, she tries to enjoy a Zumba class and a competitive game of Scrabble to keep her life balanced.Notes & Quotes: “There's highs and there's lows. . . we know we pray real hard in the lows and we rejoice real high in the highs. But what happens when life is years upon, years upon years of being in the middle? How do you deal with that? “Jesus is the answer. But at the same time, Jesus gives us people. Jesus gives us medicine and technology to help us in the midst of [struggles]...in the midst of things that we cannot handle.” “I can have my Bible, I can have my faith, I can have my Jesus and I certainly can have my therapist helping me unpack some of those things.” “[God] let me know that He still had me and He still had people that He was placing in my life to fill that void.” Links Mentioned: FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Check out Katara’s best-selling book, Navigating the Blues. Visit our website to sign up for emails. Get new episodes sent straight to your email.  Tell us how much you love Where Ya From? by rating us five stars and leaving us a review.  Check out VOICES from Our Daily Bread Ministries Follow Where Ya From? on Instagram. Follow VOICES on Instagram. Verses Mentioned: Psalm 51 Psalm 22:1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vince Bantu knew God called him into ministry, but he first needed to learn a thing or two. This desire for knowledge led him on a journey of reconciling his background and culture with what he thought the Christian life was, and a passion for understanding how context, culture, and racial justice influence the way we go about sharing Christianity with others. It wasn't until he discovered early church traditions and teachings outside of Europe that he found the missing puzzle piece in the conversation.Guest Bio:Vince Bantu is the Ohene (President) of the Meachum School of Haymanot and is Assistant Professor of Church History and Black Church Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary. Vince’s assignment from the Lord is to proclaim that the Bisrat (Gospel) of Yeshua is for all nations, tribes, and tongues and to do this by teaching on the earliest history of Christianity in Africa and Asia. Vince is the author of A Multitude of All Peoples (IVP), Gospel Haymanot (UMI), and The Bisrat (Jude 3 Project). Vince is also the Ohene (President) of the Society of Gospel Haymanot (SGH), an academic society of theological Gospelism—Afro-rooted theology committed to the universal Lordship of Jesus, biblical authority, and the liberation of the oppressed. Vince also serves as the Katabi (Editor) of the publication of SGH—the Haymanot Journal. Vince, his wife Diana, and their daughters live and minister at Beloved Community Church in St. Louis and they love to travel, watch movies, and bust some spades.Notes & Quotes: “Because I grew up in a white church, I did not have any context for Black Christians. I knew Black people and I identified as a Black person, but nobody in my neighborhood went to church. Nobody in my family on that side or either side really went to church. . . it wasn't like I thought all white people were Christians, but I felt subconsciously that all Christians were white because that was my little microcosm world.” “I think that reconciliation needs to go both ways. It shouldn't just always be like people of color going into white platforms to help diversify them, but it should also be white Christians going under Black platforms or Hispanic or Asian or indigenous.” “We need to know that Christianity is not just from the West to the rest, but it's always been in Africa and Asia and taking diverse forms. And so, that was really when I just knew I had to dedicate my life to learning about that and sharing it with the world.” “The word Haymanot means faith, but it actually means a lot of things. It means theology, it means faith, it means doctrine, it means lifestyle conduct. It speaks to how in an Ethiopian mindset, action is not divorced from belief, but right belief and right action have to go together, and practice and orthodoxy go together.” Links Mentioned: FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Check out Vince’s books, A Multitude of All Peoples and Gospel Haymanot, on Amazon.  Visit our website to sign up for emails. Get new episodes sent straight to your email.  Tell us how much you love Where Ya From? by rating us five stars and leaving us a review.  Check out our VOICES Collection from Our Daily Bread Ministries Follow Where Ya From? on Instagram. Follow VOICES on Instagram. Verses Mentioned: Acts 10:9-23  Psalm 19:1-6 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Michelle Sanchez always expected perfection. Growing up, that expectation guided her to great success. Yet, God had a much greater plan for her in mind; a plan that required a journey of untangling her toxic pursuit of perfection from the racial dynamics of her past. Today, that journey has led her to become a voice for change and fueled her passion for using discipleship to help heal racial inequalities and build a beautifully diverse and beloved community with one another.Guest Bio:Michelle T. Sanchez (M.Div., Th.M.) has served in various discipleship and evangelism leadership roles for more than a decade, most recently as Executive Minister of Make and Deepen Disciples for the Evangelical Covenant Church. She’s the author of a trilogy of books that provides Christ-centered racial discipleship for all ages: Color-Courageous Discipleship, Color-Courageous Discipleship Student Edition, and the picture book, God’s Beloved Community. After studying international business at NYU, Michelle worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and ministered to international students with Cru in New York City. She has served in various capacities with the Institute for Bible Reading and the Lausanne Movement for World Evangelization. She is a frequent conference speaker, a regular columnist with Outreach Magazine, and a contributor to The Message: Women’s Devotional Bible (forthcoming).Michelle completed seminary degrees at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, spiritual direction training at Boston College, and field studies on the life and times of Jesus at Jerusalem University College. She’s thoroughly enjoyed experiencing colorful cultures in thirty-eight countries and territories worldwide—and counting! Michelle and her husband, Mickey, live with their two children in greater Chicago.Notes & Quotes: “Your coming to Jesus is just the beginning. He doesn't invite us to make converts. He invites us to make disciples who can, in turn, eventually grow and make more disciples.”  “The reality is the Bible is full of references to ethnicity, to injustices related to ethnicity, the need to heal and to mend these things. It's all over the word of God, and it's a vital need in our world today, but we don't always see it.” “The Lord created difference within us, ethnicity as a gift, as a source of joy and enrichment for humanity really, and to bring glory to himself. But the reality is that in a fallen world, things that were meant for good can become twisted. So our differences in a broken world tend to lead to disparities.” Beloved community is a phrase popularized by Martin Luther King . . . he wanted to see people both in a diverse community and an equal community, but one in which people are willing to lay down their lives for one another in the very love that God has shown to us. “When it comes to race and ethnicity, these are embodied concepts. These are embodied ideas, flesh ideas of the real flesh and blood. So, in order to transform or to have an awakening, what I have seen is it often involves some kind of real-life experience, with real-life people, in actual geographic places, so that we can see, we can experience, so we can understand.” Links Mentioned: FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Visit Michelle’s website to purchase and further explore various Color Courageous Discipleship books and resources.  Visit our website to sign up for emails. Get new episodes sent straight to your email.  Tell us how much you love Where Ya From? by rating us five stars and leaving us a review.  Check out our VOICES Collection from Our Daily Bread Ministries Follow Where Ya From? on Instagram. Follow VOICES on Instagram. Verses Mentioned: Acts 2:1-13 (Pentecost)  Acts 6:1-7 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What if, instead of being just one person, you were created to be a part of something more? Even with her past hurts, Dr. Heather Thompson Day continues to see God’s goodness through her story. In fact, it has fueled her mission of standing in the gaps so others can learn from her mistakes and build healthy relationships with one another. Discover how we are invited to be in an intentional community with one another and how that influences our understanding of our identity and faith in Christ.Guest Bio:Dr. Heather Thompson Day is an interdenominational speaker who has been a contributor for Religion News Service, Christianity Today, Newsweek, and the Barna Group. She is also the host of Viral Jesus, a podcast with Christianity Today, that is in the top 200 of all Christian podcasts in the country.Heather is an Associate Professor of Communication at Andrews University. She is passionate about supporting women and runs an online community called I’m That Wife which has over 270k followers.Heather’s writing has been featured on outlets like The Today Show and the National Communication Association. She has been interviewed by BBC Radio Live and The Wall Street Journal.She believes her calling is to stand in the gaps of our churches for young people. She is the author of 8 books; including It’s Not Your Turn, and I’ll See You Tomorrow.She resides in Michigan, with her husband, Seth Day, and their three children, London, Hudson, and Sawyer Day.Notes & Quotes: “We have to talk about things like post-traumatic growth because more people experience growth from trauma than PTSD, which if we don't say that, if we don't name it, I just think people don’t know what's possible and what's available to them.” “You will pour into a career and I think that's okay, but it cannot be where you find your worth or your fulfillment. And I've realized that the biggest picture, the most important thing to me is….the people that I've gone through life with.”  “When we have Christians who are truly living out what it means to be a relationship builder, to carry somebody else's burdens as if it's your own, you can survive the things you thought you would never be able to get through.” “So when we are able to refocus our thoughts into what we're so grateful for and shift away from what we still don't have, it can make all the difference. And actually, your brain is not able to experience stress. And I think some of the best ways that we do that is in a relationship with each other. I know my life has been held together by two to three people.”  “I texted my husband and I said, ‘Heaven is a small town.’ It is a place where when you walk in the room, people know your name and they recognize that you've come and they missed you when you weren't there. And if there's something to be done, if somebody needs something, anybody else, it doesn't even have to be my job, will get up and help you because this is ours. This is our community." Links Mentioned: FINAL TRANSCRIPT LINK Check out Heather’s website to learn more about her books and other resources Listen to Heather’s podcast, Viral Jesus, on your favorite podcast platform Visit our website to sign up for emails. Get new episodes sent straight to your email.  Tell us how much you love Where Ya From? by rating us five stars and leaving us a review.  Check out VOICES from Our Daily Bread Ministries Follow Where Ya From? on Instagram. Follow VOICES on Instagram. Verses Mentioned:Galatians 6:2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From the very beginning, Dhati Lewis had a plan; he was going to be in the NFL and that was it. Yet, when he was so close to achieving it, God gave him a different dream. Instead, he suddenly found his calling into ministry, one that inspired his mission of being the last generation to leave the urban context for sound discipleship and being God’s hands and feet in his own neighborhood.Guest Bio:Dr. Dhati Lewis serves as the Vision and Multiplication Pastor of Blueprint Church as well as the Founder and President of MyBLVD, an organization focused on helping disciples thrive where they live, work, and worship. Dhati is passionate about bringing contextualized resources to disciple-makers through coaching, consulting, cohort training, and church planting. He is married to his best friend, Angie, and they live in Atlanta, Georgia, with their children and church family. He is the author of Among Wolves: Disciple-Making in the City and Advocates: The Narrow Path to Racial Reconciliation.Notes & Quotes: “I was going to these studies and I started hearing words like evangelism and discipleship. I was like, ‘Man, I knew my friends, they loved the Lord, but they ain’t talking about this.’ You see, Christianity to them was don’t go to the club, don’t drink, don’t have sex outside of marriage, don’t join a fraternity or sorority, don’t, don’t, don’t. . . . I was just like, ‘God, I'm real clear on what not to do. I just don’t know what you’re calling me to do.’ ” “It was like either I was around people who got my context but didn’t have that same commitment to theology and mission, or I was around people who got my mission in theology, but they didn’t get my context.” “And many of us define God’s will by the path of least resistance. It is like, God, why does it feel like we are always calling Christians to easier and better? It’s never harder and worse. And I recognize that for many of us, our North Stars are comfort, and we’re addicted to our comfort.” “We wanted to establish a blueprint and we want it to be a church that’s planting other churches because we want to be a church that’s going to be the last generation to leave the urban context for sound discipleship. And so that’s what we did.” Links Mentioned: FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Check out Dhati’s books Among Wolves and Advocates on Amazon.  To learn more about Dhati’s passion and vision for urban ministry, check out MyBLVD’s website  Visit our website to sign up for emails. Get new episodes sent straight to your email.  Tell us how much you love Where Ya From? by rating us five stars and leaving us a review.  Check out VOICES from Our Daily Bread Ministries. Follow Where Ya From? on Instagram. Follow VOICES on Instagram. Verses Mentioned:Matthew 16:18 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How can we possibly see the good when it feels like the world is on fire around us? Writer, speaker, and activist Ally Henny shares how her strong faith has carried her through racial trauma and other challenging situations, and how God used all of that to prepare her life’s call of being a voice for liberation, freedom, and justice.Guest Bio:Ally Henny is a writer, speaker, advocate-minister, and vice president of The Witness: A Black Christian Collective, an organization committed to encouraging, engaging, and empowering Black Christians toward liberation from racism. Her new book is titled I Won't Shut Up: Finding Your Voice When the World Tries to Silence You. She completed her MDiv from Fuller Seminary with an emphasis in race, cultural identity, and reconciliation, and she hopes to lead a church someday. Ally has been leading conversations about race on her social media and blog, The Armchair Commentary, since 2014, and her posts reach millions each month. She is a proud Chicago Southsider.Notes & Quotes: …I recognize that the impulses that God has placed in me to do His will… a desire to make those things in my faith, those aspects of my faith, not just to be a personal, individualized, kind of thing, but for it to really be an aspect of the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of God being within me and bringing the Kingdom and the reign of God…  God didn’t want me to experience all these different traumas…God wasn’t the author of that, but I realized that God can use that. … I realized that the Lord has brought me into the work, it’s not been people. And so the Lord is the one who can also take me out of the work. And at whatever point He decides to take me out of it, okay. There were times when I wanted to give up, there were times whenever I wanted to just be like, “I’m not doing this anymore,” and the Lord was the one who kept giving me the words, who kept pushing me, who kept encouraging me.  …being able to be that source of nourishment, to be that river in the desert for some people, it’s really an assignment that I don’t take lightly because we see this every day where so many people, they’re fainting because they’re not seeing the goodness. Links Mentioned: FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT To learn more about Ally’s work with The Witness, check out their website. Check out Ally’s book, I Won’t Shut Up, on Amazon.  Visit our website to sign up for emails. Get new episodes sent straight to your email.  Tell us how much you love Where Ya From? by rating us five stars and leaving us a review.  Check out VOICES from Our Daily Bread Ministries Follow Where Ya From? on Instagram. Follow VOICES on Instagram. Verses Mentioned: Psalm 35 Matthew 13 Isaiah 40 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices