This Good Word With Steve Wiens

Episode 225 | Moving from Conservative to Progressive Christianity with Colby Martin

Colby Martin (author of Unclobber: Rethinking our Misuse of the Bible on Homosexuality) is about to release another book, titled The Shift: Surviving and Thriving after Moving from Conservative to Progressive Christianity.

Colby is passionate about carving out a space within Christianity that includes:

• a whole-heartedly affirming posture toward LGBTQ individuals,

• a broader acceptance of other spiritual practices and religious perspectives,

• an agreeableness toward science,

• and a commitment to always growing, transforming, and trusting that the best days are yet to come.

Colby is currently partnering with other progressive Christian churches as a co-director for Launchpad Partners Inc, an organization committed to planting and resourcing similar faith communities all across the country.

You can follow Colby on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and find out more about his work on colbymartinonline.com

Episode 224 | Learning to Pray When Anxiety & Fear Takes Over

If feelings of fear and anxiety are threatening to sweep you away right now, there is a way to pray that allows you to name your feelings - as big as they are, to welcome reality as it is rather than fighting it, so that you can let those feelings go and find peace even in the midst of the storm. 

In this brief episode, I guide you through how to welcome any feeling you have, as big as it is, feeling it in your body so that you can eventually move through it and let it go. Using The Welcoming Prayer (originally written by Mary Mrozowski but adapted and widely spread by Fr. Thomas Keating), I teach the three movements of this kind of prayer: (1) Focus/sink in; (2) Welcome; (3) Let go. 

I hope this method of guided prayer will help you to find a sense of calm and peace even in the midst of so much uncertainty. 

Grace and peace, my friends. 

 

Links:

You can read more about Father Thomas Keating and the Welcoming Prayer here. 

Creative Commons Music by Jason Shaw on Audionautix.com

My new book, Shining Like the Sun: Seven Mindful Practices for Rekindling Your Faith, can be purchased here.

Episode 223 | Welcoming Reality in Times of Uncertainty

As the world struggles to come to terms with a new reality in the midst of a global pandemic, we are coming to terms with the reality that we're not as in control of life as we thought we were. In this episode, I share five practices for learning how to welcome reality - even when it's awful, scary, and painful - instead of fighting to try to control it.

Music on today's episode is courtesy of audionautix.com.

Episode 222 | Theology of the Womb with Dr. Christy Angelle-Vidrine Bauman

The following excerpt describes the journey that Dr. Christy Vidrine Bauman took that resulted in writing her fabulous book, Theology of the Womb:

"If it is true that God is a male, then His Divinity or Deity is expressed in His masculinity. Yet I am a woman, and there are parts of my body; such as my breasts, my vagina, and my womb that are telling a story about God that I have never learned or understood. This is an exploration of the significance of a womb that must shed and bleed before it can create. How will we engage our body which cyclically bleeds most of our life and can build and birth a human soul? How will we honor the living womb, that lives and sometimes dies within us?"

Theology of the Womb is a book about the theology found in the cycle of the womb, which births both life and death. Every day each one of us is invited to create, and every day we make a decision knowing that from our creation can come death or life. Women’s voices have been silenced for a long time as society and the church has quieted their bodies. Will we courageously choose to listen to the sound of your voice, the song of your womb, and speak for the world to hear?

I talked to Christy all about this book, her ideas behind a robust theology of the womb, and about her hopes for those who read it. I can't wait for you to listen to this conversation. 

Mentioned in this episode:

A Litany to Honor Women is from The Book of Common Prayer

Visit Christy's website to find out more about Story-Voice consulting. 

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Dr. Christy Vidrine Bauman is the author of three books: Theology of the Womb, A Brave Lament, and Coming Home. She is a psychotherapist, supervisor, and professor who focuses on the female body, sexuality, and theology. She lives in Seattle with her husband, Andrew and three kids: Wilder, Selah, and River. 

Episode 221 | Ali Hormann is All the Things

Maybe you haven't heard of Ali Hormann yet, but that's all about to change. She's a wedding photographer, pastor, comedian, mother of three, and writer who believes nobody has to be pigeon-holed into identifying as just one thing. We talked about body image, theology, comedy, parenting, pastoring, politics, and we could have talked for about sixteen more hours. Ali is hilarious and deep, and I loved this conversation.

Check out Ali's photography business on her website or on Instagram.

Follow Ali on Twitter and Instagram.  

And if you live in Minnesota, make sure to check out one of Ali's comedy shows - she'll be at Rick Bronson's House of Comedy at the Mall of American on March 22nd and 24th. 

AND - this is the last call for anyone who'd like to join the launch team for my new book, Shining Like the Sun. Click here to apply to be on the launch team (deadline is March 1st). 

Episode 220 | In Which I Read Excerpts from My New Book!

In this episode, I did two readings from my new book, Shining Like the Sun: Seven Mindful Practices for Rekdindling Your Faith, which releases on April 7th. I can't wait for you to listen to these excerpts and also to get your hands on your own copy.

Click here to pre-order Shining Like the Sun. 

I also invited listeners to consider joining my launch team.

The first 50 people to join the launch team will receive a final copy of Shining Like the Sun as soon as my publisher receives it in the warehouse, weeks before it is released to the public. Everyone on the launch team will get access to a pdf of the book, as well as access to a private Facebook Group in which I'll host several book readings and also lead a discussion on the contents of several chapters. 

I hope you'll consider joining my launch team. Thanks so much! 

Episode 219 | But You Live in a Snow Globe! (Surviving Your Own Copernican Shift, part 3)

This is part 3 of a four-part series called "Surviving Your Own Copernican Shift." If you're going through a faith deconstruction - or reconstruction - or both, you need help understanding a framework for spiritual development that allows questioning, expanding, and believing new things. Part One was about understanding that disruptions are the first step of growing spiritually. Part Two was about learning how to see the invitations into new beliefs that disruptions bring.

Part Three is about seeing your belief system as a snow globe - you need to get outside of it to see its limitations and also what you're missing. 

Enjoy! 

Episode 218 | Unpacking the Superbowl Halftime Show with Joanna Luehmann (Surviving Your Own Copernican Shift, Part 2)

Joanna Luehmann is a Latinx pastor and theologian who took to Twitter on Sunday night and Monday following the Superbowl to give a different perspective to the halftime show to anyone who thought it was oversexualized. She graciously agreed to talk to me with virtually zero time to prepare, and what she offered was a beautiful, challenging and timely critique to Progressive Christians like me who need to spend a little more time seeing how our own implicit biases cloud our vision. Please take some time to listen to Joanna's insightful invitation into a decolonized way of seeing the world. 

You can follow Joanna Luehmann on Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and Patreon. 

Enjoy. 

Episode 217 | How to Survive Your own Copernican Shift, Part 1: Disruption

Until the early 1500's, everybody assumed planet earth was the fixed, immovable center of the universe, the reference point for the entire universe (apparently it didn't occur to anybody how utterly convenient that was for those of us who lived there). When Copernicus discovered the earth was also orbiting around the sun, nothing actually changed - except how we see everything. 

This episode (disruption) is part one of a four-part series on the essential movements when you have your own Copernican shift, whether it's about religion or science or a relationship. Nobody likes life as we know it to be interrupted, but without disruption, we'd never expand how we think so we can see differently.

Enjoy. 

Episode 216 | Self-Contempt, Shame, and a Better Way Forward with Andrew Bauman

Andrew Bauman is the Co-Founder and Director of Christian Counseling Center: For Sexual Health and Trauma. He's a licensed mental health counselor with an M.A. in Counseling Psychology from the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. He's also the author of several books, including Floating Away, Stumbling Toward Wholeness, The Psychology of Porn, and A Brave Lament (with Christy Bauman). 

We had a fascinating conversation about why it seems so easy for Christians to see themselves as hopeless sinners, but how hard it is to see themselves as good & glorious. We talked about why we use self-contempt and shame as a way to try to crucify ourselves because we don't really believe (even though we say we do) the work of Christ is enough. 

I can't wait for you to listen. 

You can get in touch with Andrew and the many resources he provides by visiting his website, and you can also check out his work at the Christian Counseling Center: For Sexual Health and Trauma.

Other resources mentioned in this episode: 

A Brave Lament (Documentary)

Theology of the Womb: Knowing God Through the Body of a Woman by Christy Angelle Bauman