Author: Ryan Dunn

The Church in the age of innovation with Andrew Root

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In a culture that is obsessed with innovation and individuality, what is the place of the Church and the spiritual? That’s what we’re getting into with Andrew Root in this culturally-context-obsessed session of Pastoring in the Digital Parish.

“The church must change or die…” These dire words get repeated about 100 times a day across the Twitterverse. We do need some creative ideas (like more digital ministries!), but  Andrew Root cautions that innovation is not explicitly our mission. Instead, we’ll seek to creatively draw people towards the ongoing mission of spiritual formation.

 Dr. Andrew Root’s most recent books are Churches and the Crisis of Decline, The Congregation in a Secular Age and the upcoming The Church after Innovation–which provided the platform for our conversation. Andy is the Carrie Olson Baalson Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary, USA. He writes and researches in areas of theology, ministry, culture and younger generations.

 

Announcing Season 4 of Pastoring in the Digital Parish

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New sessions are starting on September 6!

We’ll continue to share stories of digital ministry while we explore our changing cultural contexts and how the digital impacts the analog experience (and vice versa).

‘I am’: Jesus revealed in the Gospel of John with Matt Rawle

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Seven times in the Gospel of John, Jesus describes himself in ‘I am’ statements: I am the light of the world, I am the bread of life, and others. In this episode, we talk with the Rev. Matt Rawle about his new book ‘Jesus Revealed’ and how the ‘I am’ statements depict a beautiful mosaic that help us discover the person of Jesus and God’s narrative for our own lives.

91: When we question if we really want to Christian, with Brian McLaren

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“Do I stay Christian?” That’s the title and focus of Brian McLaren’s most recent book. It provides reasons both to depart and to stay. We’re processing through some of the lingering doubts inspired through Christian history and questions of faith with Brian on this episode of Compass.

Brian McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – one that is just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. He gained a lot of notoriety for writing several well-regarded books, including “A New Kind of Christianity” “A Generous Orthodoxy” and “Everything Must Change”.  His newest books are “Faith After Doubt” (January 2021), and “Do I Stay Christian?” (May 2022).

Missional: Rethink Church audiomagazine August 2022

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Throughout August of 2022, our content focused on being on mission. What does that mean? Well, we have some great posts about how the church moves into the world to meet people… and also how God takes the initiative to speak to us. We’re offering a double dose of articles in this edition, so we’ll hear from our authors more than once. In this edition of the audiomag, we’ll hear:

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

The Wesleys enduring message for The UMC with Ashley Boggan

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In the mid-1700s, John and Charles Wesley were known as radical dissidents who had a lot to say about the church, faith and following God. The UMC’s General Commission of Archives and History’s chief executive, Dr. Ashley Boggan, shares why the Methodist movement message shared by John and Charles Wesley remains relevant almost 300 years later.

Building an app-based ministry and online contemplative community

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Rev. Abigail Browka, founder of the Everyday Sanctuary app, provides the story of starting an app-based ministry centered on contemplative practices. She provided the unique challenges and benefits of starting a faith community in a digital space as well as some insights on thinking innovatively in ministry.

Check out the Everyday Sanctuary community: https://everydaysanctuary.com/

This episode was part of a livestreamed podcast-a-thon from United Methodist Communications.

You can learn more about Pastoring in the Digital Parish at www.resourceumc.org/digital-parish

A fresh look at radical Jesus with Damon Garcia: Compass 89

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Damon Garcia, author of “The God Who Riots”, is our fellow sojourner and seeker for this conversation on Compass.

He invites us to think about Jesus’ view of holy action and belief. It’s a bit of a disruption if you grew up with the notion of Jesus being a calm and passive presence seeking to teach people about the afterlife. Instead, Damon comes at us talking about Jesus in the here and now disrupting our acceptance of systems of harm and injustice.

Let’s meet Damon Garcia, he is a public theologian, writer and video essayist–you can find his work on YouTube and in the book “The God Who Riots: Taking back the Radical Jesus.” Damon helps people unsettle and untangle the influence of Christian teachings that have done harm in the past… things like colonialism.

The church, the state and a prophetic voice: Compass 88

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Rev. Joseph Kim shares insights on our political calling in faith and raising up a prophetic witness for justice.

In America, church and state are meant to be distinct and separate. And yet, we have to admit that church often bleeds over into matters of state and vice versa, despite the intention of separation.

So when a church explicitly says “we’re going to talk about church and state”, it raises some attention–for better and worse. Pastor Joseph Kim and his faith community at Bothell United Methodist Church have been on a bit of a personally meddlesome journey, talking about prophesy and politics and a lived out faith.. and good trouble.

For sermon series and more on Joseph Kim: www.bothellumc.org

More on the Compass podcast: www.umc.org/compass