Gravity Leadership Podcast

After listening carefully to stories from people who suffered misogynistic, racist, or homophobic abuse at the hands of the church, Charles Kiser and Dr. Elaine Heath bring those stories into conversation with the death and resurrection of Jesus, and find in the gospel a God who shares the experience of the traumatized.The result is their book Trauma-Informed Evangelism: Cultivating Communities of Wounded Healers, where they propose a new kind of evangelism—one based not on fear and coercion but on witnessing the unconditional love of God.Charles Kiser is a pastor and theologian with Storyline Christian Community in Dallas, Texas, a network of missional communities he helped to form. He is passionate about creative expressions of Christian community, contemplative spirituality, and healing spiritual trauma. Kiser has a DMin in Contextual Theology from Northern Seminary and serves as a faculty member of Neighborhood Seminary.Elaine Heath is the author of eleven books and numerous articles, the most recent book

A few weeks ago we released an episode ("5 Signs of a Toxic Leadership Culture") that garnered more response from listeners than we've ever received! So we wanted to record a follow-up episode reflecting on those responses and offering signs of a healthy, non-toxic leadership culture.Here are the 5 signs, along with their toxic analogues:From power flowing up & in to power flowing down & out.From reality distortion to "reality is complicated."From loyalty culture to love culture.From "unable to have a Kairos" to celebrating and honoring learning.From conflict being mishandled to conflict being addressed in a trauma informed way.Connect with Gravity LeadershipLeave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies.Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in

We chat through 7 common parenting pitfalls that Christy compiled from her experience as a mother and a pastor. Take a deep breath and cultivate some compassion for yourself, and let's go! Here's the list:Talk parentingBribe parentingExcuse parentingShame parentingHover parentingBlind parentingBackwards parentingShow notes:Eric Minton: What our Pain Reveals About the Anxious Pursuit of the Good Life (podcast episode)It's Not You, It's Everything: What Our Pain Reveals about the Anxious Pursuit of the Good Life (book by Eric Minton)Connect with Gravity LeadershipLeave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies.Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community.Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who

Spiritual director Casey Tygrett joins us to challenge the notion that restlessness is a sign that we must move up, move on, or move out, and instead helps us explore some of our deepest questions: Where do I belong? What am I here for? Is there enough? Casey helps us begin to create a spirituality sturdy enough for our unsettled seasons.Casey's new book is The Gift of Restlessness: A Spirituality For Unsettled Seasons.You can connect with Casey's writing and work at caseytygrett.com.Connect with Gravity LeadershipLeave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies.Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community.Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture.Ar

Rev. Joel Bowman joins Matt to chat about the recent rash of mass shootings and how they are grappling with how to understand and respond. This conversation is more personal and raw than most of our podcasts.Rev. Joel A. Bowman, Sr. is a native of Detroit, Michigan, and has been in ministry for 28 years. He is the founder and senior pastor of the Temple of Faith Baptist Church, in Louisville, Kentucky, and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, working with military veterans. Joel is a seminar facilitator, freelance writer, poet, and thought leader in the areas of racism and racial trauma. His work has been published in numerous places, including the Louisville Courier-Journal, The Front Porch, The Witness, Three-Fifths Magazine, and Baptist News Global. Joel is married to Nannette Mitchell Bowman, and they have 3 children: Kayla, Katie, and Joel, Jr.Connect with Gravity LeadershipLeave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.Join our online commu

Sheila Gregoire joins us (again!) to talk about how to raise girls to resist the all-too-prevalent toxic teachings of purity culture. She shares how we can raise girls instead to become strong, resilient young women who know who they are, use their voices, and confidently step into their lives.Sheila's new book is She Deserves Better: Raising Girls to Resist Toxic Teachings on Sex, Self, and Speaking Up.You can connect with all of Sheila's work on her website.Connect with Gravity LeadershipLeave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies.Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community.Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture.Are you interested in adver

Why do we find it difficult to find a healthy rhythm of work and rest? Author, storyteller, and songwriter Justin McRoberts talks about this as a journey from the false self to the true self, discovering that growth and maturity take root in the knowledge of our belovedness in Christ.Justin's new book Sacred Strides: The Journey to Belovedness in Work and Rest helps us learn that we are not tools in God's tool belt, valued only for our gifts and talents. Nor are we ascetics called to abandon "daily life" to find God in the desert. We are beloved by the One who holds all things together... including our need to work and our need to rest.Justin McRoberts is an author, coach, speaker, and songwriter. For over 20 years, Justin has helped artists, ministers, and entrepreneurs find their way. From the stage, through his stories in books or during coaching sessions, he leans on his years of work and expertise as a minister and artist to help individuals and teams solve problems in their creative proc

In our experience, leadership cultures that hinder human flourishing have several common overlapping aspects. If we can learn to see these signs of toxic leadership cultures, we canHere are the 5 signs of a toxic leadership culture we talk about in this episode:Reality distortionLoyalty cultureUnable to have a KairosPower flows up/in rather than down/outConflict is mishandledConnect with Gravity LeadershipLeave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies.Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community.Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture.Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Leadership Podcast? Contact us at podcast@gravityleadership.com.Support

Too often when we come to the Bible, questions make us uncomfortable. But Marty Solomon wants to suggest that when we learn to ask better questions of the Bible, we form a new and deeper way of thinking about Scripture, understanding the Bible, and moving further into the depths of the mystery of God.Marty Solomon is a theologian, the president and director of discipleship for Impact Christian Ministries, and the creator and executive producer of The BEMA Podcast and author of Asking Better Questions of the Bible: A Guide For the Wounded, Wary, and Longing for More. He and his wife, Rebekah, live in Cincinnati with their two children. You can connect with Marty and his work on his website martysolomon.com.Connect with Gravity LeadershipLeave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies.Check out the Gravity Commons,

There are several major social issues affecting the church today. Not only are they causing confusion, but they are also often hidden beneath the surface, shaping the life of a congregation in ways that are difficult to recognize. But transformation is possible if we'll face these issues directly, seeking to notice how God is at work in the midst of these issues to renew life.We can face these issues by understanding our local context, listening and learning from a variety of voices, telling the truth about ourselves, and taking action in solidarity with those who are suffering.The five challenges we talk about in this episode are:Racism in the church and in the worldSexism and patriarchyChristian nationalismGender and sexual diversityReligious trauma and spiritual abuseShow notesThe article we reference and discuss on today's episode: How to Address the Challenges the Church Faces TodayConnect with Gravity LeadershipLeave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll a

It's common to hear Christians say things like "Christianity is neither right nor left, but a completely different kind of thing," and "Both the far-right and far-left are two sides of the same coin: fundamentalist extremes with different beliefs," and "“The problem is polarization."These phrases are often employed toward a Christian "third way" politics that seeks to affirm the truth that the church is not bound by the left/right binary of US politics, but this way of talking about how the church relates to politics doesn't actually work on the ground, and usually ends up being a kind of "centrism" that serves to keep the status quo in place.Pastors Melissa Florer-Bixler and Shawn McCain Tirres join us to talk about why Christian centrism is attractive, and unpack the problems of pursuing Christian centrist/third way politics, and we discuss more helpful ways of framing the church's relationship to politics and living our faithful lives of discipleship to J

We finish (for now) our series on Mental Health and the Church with some reflections and questions we have about how faith and therapy relate: how they overlap and intersect, how they differ, and how to hold onto both.Connect with Gravity LeadershipLeave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies.Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community.Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture.Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Leadership Podcast? Contact us at podcast@gravityleadership.com.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/gravity-leadership-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://r

We continue our series on Mental Health and the Church with our own stories and experiences with therapy and mental health: good, bad and ugly.Connect with Gravity LeadershipLeave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies.Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community.Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture.Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Leadership Podcast? Contact us at podcast@gravityleadership.com.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/gravity-leadership-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We continue our series on Mental Health and the Church with a few MORE myths you sent us in response to last week's episode, plus a conversation with some practical tips on how to be a "resonating witness" for others in conversations about mental health.Connect with Gravity LeadershipLeave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies.Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with others in the Gravity community.Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 12-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture.Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Leadership Podcast? Contact us at podcast@gravityleadership.com.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/gravity-leadership-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redc

Today we start a new series on Mental Health and the Church. Christianity in the US has had an uneasy history with the topic of mental health and illness, and we'd like to learn to integrate our faith with the best of what we're learning about mental health.This first episode deals with 5 common Christian myths about mental illness that need to be exposed and rejected if we're going to make any progress. Here are the myths we talk about:Christians Can’t Be Mentally IllThe Cure for Mental Illness Is PrayerDepressed or Anxious Christians Are SinfulSpiritually Healthy Christians Are Mentally HealthyMentally Ill Christians Just Need Biblical Counseling*Show Notes:Our article that lists the 5 myths we discussed on today's episode: Mental Health & the ChurchConnect with Gravity LeadershipLeave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each w

Deconstruction: is it just a trendy brand name for falling away from belief in God? Or a process essential to authentic faith? Is it liberation or trauma? Prison break or exile? Well, Bradley Jersak joins us again to say... it's complicated (just like you!). We talk with Bradley about the themes of his latest book Out of the Embers: Faith After the Great Deconstruction, which explores the necessity, perils, and possibilities of "The Great Deconstruction."Bradley Jersak is the Dean of Theology & Culture, a graduate studies program at St. Stephen's University in New Brunswick, Canada. He also serves as an editor at CWRmagazine and Clarion-Journal.com. Bradley and his wife, Eden, have lived in the Abbotsford area of British Columbia since 1988, where they served as pastors and church planters for twenty years. Bradley is the author of a number of nonfiction and fiction books, including A More Christlike Word,  A More Christlike God, A More Christlike Way, Her Gates Will Never Be Shut, Can You

Throughout Holy Week, two competing approaches to peacemaking collide: the way of Jesus and the way of the religious and political elite. What if we're investing our lives in the wrong approach? What if—despite clinging to the cross of Christ for our salvation—we’ve actually embraced a different approach to peacemaking? One that justifies killing enemies. One whose methods include nailing criminals to crosses.Jason Porterfield joins us to talk about these questions, which are central to his book Fight Like Jesus: How Jesus Waged Peace throughout Holy Week, a day-by-day walk through Jesus’ final week that helps readers discover anew why he is called the Prince of Peace.Jason Porterfield holds a masters in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary and has worked in Indonesia and Vancouver, CA with Servants, an international network of Christian communities living and ministering among the urban poor. His previous work includes the ebook 100 Early Christian Quotes on Not Killing which you can get a free copy

Father Richard Rohr has said that "all great spirituality is somehow about letting go." But what does that mean, and how does it actually work? How is this "letting go" different from not caring? Kevin Sweeney joins us to talk about this dynamic, which is the theme of his new book The Joy of Letting Go: How One Thing Has the Power to Change Everything.Kevin Sweeney was co-founder and lead pastor of Imagine Church—an urban church in Honolulu—for the past decade. He recently closed down this community. He is the host of podcast The Church Needs Therapy and is the author of the books, The Making of a Mystic: My Journey with Mushrooms, My Life as a Pastor, and Why It’s Okay For Everyone to Relax, and The Joy of Letting Go. He lives In Honolulu with his wife and co-founder of Imagine, Christine, and their two kids, True and Mikayla.Show notes:Having the Mind of Christ Discipleship Workshop - Chesterton, IN - Jan 27-28Connect with Gravity LeadershipLeave us a message or ask a question about this or

Lots of Christians have a complicated relationship with the Old Testament. It can seem arcane and boring, and even offensive in its depictions of God. Eric Seibert joins us to talk about an approach to reading the Old Testament that helps us actually enjoy it.His most recent book is Enjoying the Old Testament: A Creative Guide to Encountering Scripture.Dr. Eric Seibert is a professor of OT at Messiah Univ and has served as the president of the Eastern Great Lakes Biblical Society. His most recent books are The Violence of Scripture: Overcoming the OT's Troubling Legacy and Disarming the Church: Why Christians Must Forsake Violence to Follow Jesus and Change the World.Connect with Gravity LeadershipLeave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies.Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with o

Sociologist Lisa Weaver Swartz joins us to talk how gender and power work in American evangelicalism, beyond the level of policies, theological positions, and aspirations. Her book Stained Glass Ceilings: How Evangelicals Do Gender and Practice Power explores this dynamic by examining the formation of evangelical leaders in two seminary communities, one complementarian (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) and one egalitarian (Asbury Theological Seminary).Lisa Weaver Swartz holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame. She lives in the bluegrass region of Kentucky where she teaches sociology and writes about gender and religion. You can connect with her via her website.Connect with Gravity LeadershipLeave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.Join our online community for free to get a curated list of interesting and edifying links each week, plus all kinds of other goodies.Check out the Gravity Commons, a place to connect and learn with