The Ryley Heppner Podcast

In Luke 10 Jesus encounters Mary and her sister Martha and it is a powerful picture of the distracting dangers of serving Him rather than sitting with Him.

I am joined by author and theologian, Dr. Grace Ji-Sun Kim, to talk about her new book "When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness For a More Just Christianity." In our conversation Dr. Kim describes the origins of her new book, briefly unpacks the roots of and the damage done by painting God as a white, and speaks to how the Church can begin to correct the narrative of Whiteness. Grace Ji-Sun Kim (PhD, University of Toronto) is professor of theology at Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana. She is the host of the Madang podcast and has published in TIME, Huffington Post, US Catholic, and The Nation. She is an ordained PC(USA) minister and enjoys being a guest preacher on most Sundays. She is author or editor of 24 books, including Healing Our Broken Humanity, Embracing the Other (Eerdmans, 2015), Christian Doctrines for Global Gender Justice (Pallgrave Macmillian, 2015), and Intercultural Ministry (Judson PR, 2017). She and her spouse, Perry, have three young adult children and live in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

When I was four my parents took me into my first skateboard shop and bought me my first skateboard. I tell you all that not for no reason, but because that has a lot to do with how and why I started really following Jesus and then how and why I became obsessed with His Word.

The church that does not know the purpose for which it exists will inevitably misplace its focus, misuse its resources, and miss out on so much of God intended for it. The church has got to know its primary purpose. Thankfully its in Ephesians 3, and it is truly a glorious purpose with mind blowing proportions.

What is God like toward His children? What is the extent of His goodness? How does He give us rest? Psalm 23 has something to say on it!

Before reading the genealogy in Matthew chapter 1, one might expect that it would be most boring passage in Matthew's entire book. But nothing could be further from the truth. It is simply incredible how many treasures Matthew packed into just 17 verses, and how he uses a genealogy of all things to so beautifully and poetically setup the rest of the story of Jesus.

More hard words from Jesus, but there is no getting around it. Are we the overeager disciple or the undereager? What are the things that we have not fully surrendered; the costs we have not truly counted? What are the things we use to justify the putting off of following Jesus with our whole hearts?

What is the Gospel? It seems like a simple question, yet how many of us struggle to put the gospel into words?

In our ongoing conversation about the Church, today we were joined by a good friend and brother, Reverend Austin Spry. Austin is a Priest in the Anglican Church of Canada, and as such he brings a unique experience and much needed perspective to the conversation. Our questions for Austin covered topics like liturgy, Anglican church models, children in services, centrality of the Scripture, and more.

What is the Church? How does the Bible describe the Church, and what are the marks of its gatherings?