March 2022 – UMC.org Podcasts

Faith formation in digital contexts

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“I’m being called to minister in a digital space, but seminary didn’t train me for this.” Some seminaries and divinity schools have heard the need and are responding. Dr. Emily Peck-McClain will be teaching classes on digital ministry for Wesley Seminary. She joins Pastoring in the Digital Parish to reveal how her classes might help train digital ministers in a challenging area: faith formation.

Rev. Dr. Emily A. Peck-McClain teaches in Christian Formation and works as the theological educator for the Wesley Innovation Hub, part of a Lilly Endowment Initiative for young adult ministry. She is a United Methodist elder from the New York Annual Conference. Her ministry background is concentrated on ministry with young people and urban ministry. She is teaching a class at Wesley Theological Seminary on Faith Formation in Digital Contexts.

Disrupting your anxiety through spiritual practices

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All of us encounter anxiety. Current cultural conditions have feelings of anxiety on the rise–and for many anxiety is not a fleeting feeling. It sticks with us and locks us into a spiral of depression, shame, and mental paralysis.

Rev. Jason Cusick provides a practical and pastoral approach to navigating anxiety. As he shares his story, you’ll hear a hope and compassion that is grounded in faith… and it’s a little infectious. It’s our hope that Jason’s story disrupts your possible spiral of anxiety.

Jason Cusick is lead pastor at Journey of Faith in Southern California. He previously served as a pastor of care ministries, overseeing grief, recovery, crisis, and counseling ministries, and has also worked as a board-certified hospital chaplain. He’s written a book coming out April 26 titled The Anxiety Field Guide. Which you can order right now.

Artificial intelligence uses for digital ministry

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The machines are taking over! In this session of Pastoring in the Digital Parish, we set aside fears of a future dominated by robot overlords and look at several ways we can utilize artificial intelligence right now for digital ministry success.

Much of this episode was generated by AI. It provided new content ideas and streamlined the content generation process. Looking at this process and the processes used in publicizing this episode help us creatively apply AI to our digital ministry settings.

Faithfulness: Rethink Church audiomagazine for March 2022

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In this edition, we present the latest stories from the Rethink Church website and one of our most-read articles from years past.

Throughout March of 2022, our content focused on faithfulness. And we have some great posts about what faithfulness looks like in this new age and how we personally nurture our own faith. In this edition of the audiomag, we’ll hear:

“Exploring God’s behind-the-scenes faithfulness” by Madison Myers

“Faith, life and the lessons of “git gud” at video games” by Nathan Webb

“Faith and your world-changing invitation” by Joseph Yoo

And “What makes you feel spiritually alive” by Laquaan Malachi

Let’s enter into our March 2022 edition of the Rethink Church audio magazine.

E. Stanley Jones: Gandhi’s friend, King’s mentor with John Harnish

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Time Magazine called Dr. E. Stanley Jones the most important missionary of the 20th century. Commissioned by the Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Board in 1907, Jones traveled the world, befriending Mahatma Gandhi and inspiring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to adopt non-violent methods in the Civil Rights movement. The Rev. John Harnish, a retired United Methodist pastor, details Jones’ work and messages of hope in Harnish’s new book, 30 Days with E. Stanley Jones: Global Preacher, Social Justice Prophet.

One hundred years later, discover Dr. Jones’ messages of hope that continue to inspire 21st century people of faith.

The future of ministry leadership with Jeffrey Mahan

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Our culture and our relationship with technology are changing. Jeffrey Mahan points out that these changes have noteworthy implications for the future of ministry and leadership. What will a ministerial job look like in 10 years? What skills should pastors begin to implement and refine?

Jeffrey Mahan is ordained in the Rocky Mountain Conference of the United Methodist Church, currently serving as Professor of Religion & Communication with Iliff School of Theology and on faculty of the University of Colorado. He’s written many books, including, most recently Church as Network, a helpful diagnosis for where the church stands in the midst of Western culture right now as well as an inspiring look at where both the church and the professional ministry is headed.

Dr. Mahan challenges us to think creatively about what a successful, outward-facing ministry will look like in the near future.

Diving deeper with Lent spiritual practices

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This Compass episode explores how Lent leads us into a deeper spiritual connection. Pierce Drake and Ryan Dunn discuss the meaning of Lent and how this special season in the Christian year moves us to seek a spiritual-centeredness through discipline and practice.

MyCom podcast Ep. 071: The hidden reason why you are so tired

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In part 2 of our short series on issues relating to self-care, Dan tackles why a nap might not be the answer to your sleepiness. See why emotional labor might be the culprit and some things you can try to help alleviate the grogginess.

Here is the link to the interview published in Scientific American that Dan mentioned during the podcast: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/emotional-labor-is-a-store-clerk-confronting-a-maskless-customer/

This episode is sponsored by #BeUMC: The BeUMC leader toolkit equips local churches and annual conferences by providing messaging and resources. Visit https://www.ResourceUMC.org/BeUMC

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From passion to podcast to faith community

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Pastor Mark Lutz shares the story of Lux Digital Church–a fully digital church.

Lux Digital Church is a church committed to the belief that a digital church can successfully achieve all of the core functions that mark any effective, healthy church. Mark Lutz is one of the founders of Lux Digital. Mark has been a youth pastor, a discipleship pastor in a traditional church setting. And Mark is an avid gamer who wanted to grow a spiritual community for like-minded people. That community started with a podcast. We’ll get into that story and how it led to a digital community of faith.

Performance addicted no more: ‘Learning to Be’ with Juanita Rasmus

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United Methodist pastor and author Juanita Campbell Rasmus, a self-professed performance-addicted perfectionist, shares her story of hitting bottom, an event that led her on a healing journey of learning to be still and truly coming to know God.

Discover how leaning to be still and ridding yourself of the world’s expectations can help you keep your spirit in shape.

Juanita is senior pastor at St. John’s Downtown United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas. She is the author of “Learning to Be: Finding your center after the bottom falls out” and “40 Days on Being a 1.”