TheoDisc Podcast

In episode 33 of Theodisc, we’re thinking about ‘kingdom’ as the overarching theme of the whole biblical story - this idea that if you step back and observe the entire sweep of the Scriptural narrative, the image of God as the coming king becomes evident. Kenny had a chat with Dr Stephen Dempster, who has just written a book called ‘The Return of the Kingdom: A Biblical Theology of God’s Reign’ and we are delighted and privileged to have him on the podcast.

In episode 32 of TheoDisc Podcast, Kenny is joined by Paulus de Jong as they explore allusions from John's Gospel to the book of Exodus, and how seeing those links make us better readers of John's Gospel. Enjoy!

In this episode, Kenny speaks with Jared Patrick Boyd about the danger of seeing Spiritual formation as a mere Christian lifestyle fad, the purpose of spiritual disciplines as more than just helpful habits but to make visible our interior world, and how Spiritual Formation only fully benefits us on our journey to Christlikeness if we pursue it in community. Jared Patrick Boyd is a teacher, pastor, spiritual director, and founder of the Order of the Common Life, a missional monastic order reimagining religious vocations for the whole church for the twenty-first century. He is part of VineyardUSA and is the author of Imaginative Prayer: A Yearlong Guide to Your Child’s Spiritual Formation and the book we are talking about today: Finding Freedom in Constraint: Reimagining Spiritual Disciplines as a Communal Way of Life.  Now, here’s our conversation.

In this episode of  TheoDisc, Kenny talks with our Vice Principal and New Testament scholar Ben Blackwell about the already but not yet of the kingdom, and how God's kingdom comes with power and also through suffering. Ben’s primary teaching and research areas include New Testament and Theology, and he thoroughly enjoys interacting with students on a wide variety of topics on our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at WTC.  Enjoy!

Church planters and ministry pioneers are at the forefront of the mission to carry the good news of the Kingdom to as many places as possible. In many ways, this requires fresh and innovative thinking. But it also requires an understanding of the ways God has been working in the church throughout its history, and a commitment to thinking about church planting in a theologically robust way that underpins the practical planning, strategy and commitments required.  On this episode of TheoDisc, Kenny talks with with Alain Emerson and Roger Ellis, who teach Ecclesiology as part of WTC’s Graduate Diploma in Church Planting & Leadership. Whether you are planting a church, leading in a church, or are part of a church family, this conversation will cause you to think about the rich history of God’s people as they have allowed the Scriptures and the Spirit to deeply affect their thinking, and how this should shape our future thinking on what the church should be.

In this episode, Kenny is joined by Nigel Langford, and they go on an exploration of theological understanding and revelation of God’s character through Nigel and his wife, Nicky’s adoption story. Enjoy!

Welcome to TheoDisc episode 27! In this episode we welcome Prof Sandra Glahn of Dallas Theological Seminary. Kenny and Sandra explore her new book, Nobody’s Mother, and the implications of archaeological, cultural, historical, literary, and biblical evidence for our understanding of Paul’s letters, and in particular the passage in 1 Tim 2:15.

In this episode of TheoDisc, Kenny was in conversation with Aaron White, and they addressed these questions and more... Is it possible that the narratives, themes and words that we see in our popular culture can be avenues for God to speak? How can we engage film, literature, music and more with our ears open to the gospel of the Kingdom? And can our engagement with art help us to minister in the world more effectively? 

At WTC, we believe that theological education should be accessible to everyone, not just those in paid ministerial work. As a result, more than half of our student body aren’t in paid Christian ministry, but are working in the marketplace, education, health, trades, and other venues. Our guest on this episode, Marijke Hoek, believes that professionals should be viewed as those on kingdom mission in the world and should be supported, equipped, and learned from in their communication of the gospel. This was such an interesting and thought-provoking discussion and we hope you enjoy it.

In recent years we’ve seen a crisis of leadership in the western Evangelical world. We can all name names and shake our heads, but perhaps we ought to step back and think more widely about the models or leadership we’ve adopted and put into practice. In this episode of TheoDisc, Kenny talks with Professor Andrew Parker about the ways in which we need to re-engage with and train people in the kind of leadership modelled by Jesus - servant leadership. Enjoy. This is our 24th episode of TheoDisc, so if you haven’t heard all our previous episodes, please dig into our back catalogue. You can receive all future episodes by subscribing to TheoDisc on whatever podcast platform you use.