Author: Ryan Dunn

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.

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.”

The future of the Web and digital ministry

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Mitchell Atencio discusses the implications of Web 3.0, NFTs and blockchains for digital ministry on Pastoring in the Digital Parish.

Mitchell Atencio is the assistant news editor with Sojourners–a magazine that is likely familiar to many of us. As such, the bulk of Mitchell’s work and writing centers on the magazine’s focus on social justice issues. But back in November of 2021, Mitchell wrote a really helpful article on Web 3.0 and its implications for the church. The article addressed ideas like cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens and their implications for faith communities in digital space.

Powerful peace and contemplative prayer with AJ Sherrill

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Did you know that there are daily practices you can utilize to seemingly slow down the pace of life, center yourself and cause some Divine disruptions in your perception?

AJ helps us see that contemplative prayer is for everyone, no matter where you are in your spiritual journey. If you’re breathing, you’re capable of contemplative prayer.

AJ Sherrill is the lead pastor at St. Peter’s Church in Mt Pleasant, South Carolina and has more than twenty years of experience as a pastor. He is an adjunct professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he teaches popular courses on transformational preaching and the Enneagram. AJ receives many speaking requests to lead Enneagram workshops across the country and is the author of The Enneagram for Spiritual Formation and Being with God–which is his most recent book and deals specifically with Contemplative Prayer.

Lent, madness and digital spiritual formation

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Have you heard of Lent Madness? It’s 32 saints placed into a tournament-like single elimination bracket. An online community votes to determine the victor of each matchup… of course with lots of discussion in the process. Lent Madness is over a decade old and continues to grow and inform. It succeeds in an area many of us in digital ministry feel a bit short: it succeeds in online spiritual formation.

So let’s get the story of Lent Madness with the Supreme Executive Committee: Reverends Scott Gunn and Tim Schenck.

See more about Lent Madness at www.lentmadness.org

And find more sessions of Pastoring in the Digital Parish at resourceumc.org/digital-parish

Commitment: Rethink Church audiomagazine February 2022

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This is the February 2022 edition of the Rethink Church audiomagazine presented on the Compass podcast.

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

  • “The one thing it takes to remain committed” by Joseph Yoo
  • “Making a commitment to faith in a culture of disbelief” by Madison Myers
  • “Why should church stay online? Wordle.” By Nathan Webb
  • And “John Wesley’s 22 questions of self-examination”

The Pursuit to Make Prayer Personal with Angela Chadwick

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Angela Chadwick, Global Director of Prayer for Alpha International, talks with us about prayer, what it looks like day in and day out, and how prayer is that place where God becomes personal when we show up as our authentic selves.