The Allender Center Podcast
The Allender Center
The Allender Center Podcast features Dr. Dan Allender and his team engaging topics on healing and restoration through the unique intersection of theology and psychology. Through questions submitted by listeners, stories, interviews, and conversations, we engage the deep places of heartache and hope that are rarely addressed so candidly in our culture today. Join us to gain refreshing insight into understanding your story, handling relational struggles, recovering from trauma and abuse, and more.
The mission of The Allender Center is to help people tell their stories with awareness and integrity, and to train them to listen to the stories of others with care, artistry, and skill so that they may foster redemption and healing in their lives. The Allender Center is a pioneering organization committed to boldly engaging the impact of trauma and abuse, providing healing and teaching to individuals, couples, and communities, and training professionals to listen and enter into stories in a way that facilitates transformation and hope. For information on all our programs and live events, visit theallendercenter.org
The mission of The Allender Center is to help people tell their stories with awareness and integrity, and to train them to listen to the stories of others with care, artistry, and skill so that they may foster redemption and healing in their lives. The Allender Center is a pioneering organization committed to boldly engaging the impact of trauma and abuse, providing healing and teaching to individuals, couples, and communities, and training professionals to listen and enter into stories in a way that facilitates transformation and hope. For information on all our programs and live events, visit theallendercenter.org
Episodes
Mentioned books
Feb 6, 2021 • 29min
Sabbath, Explained
A "day of delight" is not an easy topic to engage in the midst of this season. Nevertheless, it is a vital practice that is needed more than ever before and, as Dan surmises, is less engaged than at any other time. Listen as Dan and Rachael engage the true meaning of Sabbath, how it is meant to be a taste of the coming Kingdom of God and what we are meant for, and common misconceptions that accompany this day of restoration.
Jan 29, 2021 • 1h 5min
Racial Reconciliation with Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil and Wendell Moss
This week on the podcast, Wendell Moss, a Teaching Staff member of The Allender Center, hosts special guest Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil for a conversation about her work in racial reconciliation. Dr. Salter McNeil is internationally recognized for her work in reconciliation, is an Associate Professor of Reconciliation Studies at Seattle Pacific University, and is the Associate Pastor of Preaching and Reconciliation at Quest Church in Seattle. You'll hear more about Dr. Salter McNeil's background, the transformative changes she's made in her work of racial reconciliation and her exhortations to both the White evangelical church and People of Color in the church.
Jan 22, 2021 • 44min
Listener Questions about Narcissism with Chuck DeGroat
As a follow up to last week's conversation, Dr. Chuck DeGroat returns to the podcast to answer listener questions about narcissism with Dan and Rachael. How are we to engage a person who might be a parent, spouse, or spiritual leader who has narcissistic characteristics? How do we engage a narcissist with wisdom? And, on a larger scale, how do we recognize the symptoms of a narcissistic church culture? We are deeply grateful for our community, for your bravery in asking these vulnerable questions. We ask that, as you listen to this conversation, you pay attention to what it stirs in your body and give yourself the care and space you need to engage. Listener Resources: Follow Chuck DeGroat on Twitter Read Chuck's book, When Narcissism Comes to Church Learn more about Chuck and the resources he offers Listen to the first podcast episode in a series on Spiritual Abuse
Jan 15, 2021 • 52min
Narcissism and the Church with Chuck DeGroat
Today on the podcast, Dr. Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen have a timely conversation with Chuck DeGroat, professor of Counseling and Christian Spirituality at Western Theological Seminary, licensed therapist, and spiritual director. He is the author of Leaving Egypt: Finding God in the Wilderness Places as well as When Narcissism Comes to Church, which serves as the primary topic of conversation throughout this episode. In this special episode, you'll learn more about the characteristics of narcissism, how Chuck came to address narcissism in the context of the church (particularly in the realm of church planting), and the reckoning that is taking place in the church today to dismantle structures of narcissism.
Jan 8, 2021 • 26min
Engaging and Navigating Regret
This past year was unlike any other we've experienced. Our plans, goals, resolutions, and carefully crafted calendars for 2020 were all but thrown out the window as a result of the pandemic. It's normal to look back at the year with grief for all that was lost and not accomplished. The feeling of regret, however, can become so heavy that it pulls us down into a cycle of negative thinking, contempt, and judgement. How then are we to begin a new year with grace for ourselves in order to move forward into all that 2021 has to offer? Last year, Dan and Becky addressed the issue of regret, and how so often our regrets inhibit us from reflecting well on the past. To address regret, Dan says, we need to be able to acknowledge that it is a "cheap counterfeit" of what we are afraid of, which is allowing our hearts to open to what we most desire in relationship with others. Regret has the ability to open ourselves to dreams and desires, but we need to ask ourselves: Can we bless our desires, even in the midst of this sadness?
Jan 1, 2021 • 23min
Holding Hope for a New Year
We may be at the start of a new year, but that does not mean we leave all of what transpired in 2020 behind—this season will continue to ask much of us. As you'll hear Dan comment, it's no surprise we now find ourselves at the "intersection between dread and incredible hope." While not the typical tone that accompanies a New Year's podcast episode, Dan and Rachael instead present us with an unusual invitation to slow down, to be gentle with ourselves, and allow ourselves to taste something of hope.
Dec 25, 2020 • 34min
How to Remember a Year
How do we remember a year well, particularly a year that many of us may not want to look back and reflect upon? What is there to gain in remembering 2020? In the final podcast episode of the year, Dan and Rachael have a conversation about the necessity of engaging and learning from this tumultuous year and share their answers to three, reflective questions: What haunts me? What comforts me? What thrills me?
Dec 18, 2020 • 32min
Living into the Tension of Advent: Rev. Michael S. Chen
In the final episode about what it means to enter the Advent season at such a time as this, Rachael Clinton Chen invites her husband, the Rev. Michael S. Chen, to engage this question together on the podcast. What follows is a tender, vulnerable conversation about what it means that God came to be present with us in an embodied, vulnerable way, how we can enter into a season of expectant waiting, and how "God with us" meets us in our shame.
Dec 11, 2020 • 39min
Living into the Tension of Advent: Cole Arthur Riley
Continuing a series of conversations about how we are to live into the tension of Advent in this season, Rachael talks with Cole Arthur Riley—writer, speaker, and founder of the project Black Liturgies, "a project seeking to integrate the truths of Black dignity, lament, rage, justice, and rest into written prayers." Throughout their conversation you'll hear about the role and function of liturgy, the radical trust of God in a woman's body, and practical ways we can lean into embodied practices this Advent season—including a guided breath prayer towards the end of the episode. We want to hear from you! Tell us about your experience listening to the podcast by filling out this quick, 10 minute survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TACPOD
Dec 4, 2020 • 37min
Living into the Tension of Advent: Dr. J. Derek McNeil and Kate Davis
"How shall we live into this Advent season at such a time as this?" Each year, the season of Advent invites us to lean into the story of God, to the tension and expectation that surrounds the birth of Jesus. This year, however, amidst a global pandemic and heightened racial tension, anticipation has become akin to a feeling of dread rather than a thing to look forward to with hope and excitement. How then, Rachael asks, are we to live into the season of Advent in this year? As she begins a series of conversations around this very question, today you'll hear Rachael talk with Dr. J. Derek McNeil, President and Provost of The Seattle School, and Kate Davis, Director of Resilient Leaders Project, about this unique season of expectation and what it means for us to be truly embodied and co-regulated. We want to hear from you! Tell us about your experience listening to the podcast by filling out this quick, 10 minute survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TACPOD
