Episodi

  • No Gimmicks with Sue Ostrom

    No Gimmicks with Sue Ostrom
    Mar 25 2025
    Welcome to the season of Lent! It's a season of reflection, preparation, repentance, and renewal. It's a time set apart to help us reflect on who we are, who God is, where we belong, and what we should do. Rev. Sue Ostrom began Lent by reflecting on who Jesus says he is, and who everyone else wants him to be. We talk about why Jesus does things the hard way, why gimmicks are so tempting, and why evil keeps coming back. Welcome to Lent.

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    41 min
  • Wondering What's Next with Katie Klosterman

    Wondering What's Next with Katie Klosterman
    Mar 17 2025
    This season of the podcast finds us in a new era. Governments change and preachers are still called to proclaim the word of God. What is the word we need to hear now? Host Meredith Gudger-Raines shares some honest thoughts about reaching for the gospel in uncertain and frightening times, and talks to Rev. Katie Klosterman about what leads us forward. Pastor Katie is helping her congregation learn to wonder. Opening yourself up to wonder is a way of being hopeful and looking forward. When we look for wonder, it's like we're saying that we know God has something special for us that we haven't discovered yet, that there's more to the story, and that if we keep going in faith, we will find meaning and goodness.

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    52 min
  • Wilderness Training with Jenny Williams

    Wilderness Training with Jenny Williams
    Dec 18 2024
    If you feel like you're wandering in an unfamiliar and potentially threatening land, you're not alone. In Advent, we tell the story of John the Baptist, who went out to strange and wild places, on purpose, because that's where he sensed the Spirit of God doing a new thing. Rev. Jenny Williams works for the ACLU in West Virginia, and she's helping progressive Christians across the state prepare for ministry in a new wilderness. Instead of just charity work, Jenny says, it's time for people of faith to build new relationships and communities of mutual support. The only way we will make it through the wilderness is together.

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    50 min
  • Embodying Hope with Alissa Amestoy

    Embodying Hope with Alissa Amestoy
    Dec 13 2024
    They say experience is the best teacher. Along with a team, Rev. Alissa Amestoy is designing worship to be something not just to listen to, but to experience, a way to help people embody the stories of God's love and hope. This makes perfect sense in the season of Advent, when we tell the story of God literally embodying, well, a human body. God enters human history as a baby, showing that in God's world, hope and grace and love go way beyond what makes sense or what we can understand. We talk with Alissa about sticky feathers, creating sacred spaces, and hope on hope on hope.

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    50 min
  • Using Your Life Well with Clay Andrew

    Using Your Life Well with Clay Andrew
    Dec 6 2024
    In this episode, we use the S-word a lot. < Stewardship > Long time church folks might hear the S-word and think "It's time to raise money to fund the church budget." But Rev. Clay Andrew knows stewardship is actually about something far more important, exciting, hopeful, and empowering. Stewardship is about what we do with who we are. How do we use our time, our energy, our resources, our skills? Asking these questions might be uncomfortable, and might put us at odds with the forces of power in our world, but it also might fill us with God's grace and love, and bring healing to our communities.

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    46 min
  • Risky Hospitality with Casey Banks

    Risky Hospitality with Casey Banks
    Nov 28 2024
    Hospitality isn't just using the nice table linens and making sure everyone's glasses stay full. Hospitality means putting yourself out there for someone else's benefit, and that comes with risks. Rev. Casey Banks is helping her congregation think through the risks of being a welcoming place and people. What risks are we willing to take so that others will know that they are welcome? Pastor Casey and her church are making space for things like tree funerals, serving breakfast to high schoolers, and cleaning up pumpkin guts.

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    44 min
  • Hope Beyond Despair with Steve Garnaas-Holmes

    Hope Beyond Despair with Steve Garnaas-Holmes
    Nov 19 2024
    Not all heroes wear capes, and not all preachers use pulpits. Some use newsletters and websites, like Pastor Steve Garnaas-Holmes. Pastor Steve writes spiritual poetry for his flock, 7,000 people from all around the country and world. On the morning after the US presidential election, Pastor Steve sent out a poem that helped bring many back from the depths of fear and despair. A couple days later, we had a conversation about what keeps Pastor Steve from giving in to despair, what's holding everything together, and what we're called to do in these difficult days. I hope this conversation is a little thing that keeps hope alive in you. And just a note: like many of the best pastors our there, Pastor Steve uses a few fun words, a little bit of choice language. Seems appropriate.

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    52 min
  • Don't Be Afraid with Violet Johnicker

    Don't Be Afraid with Violet Johnicker
    Nov 5 2024
    It's election day in the United States! And we are afraid. This election has extremely high stakes, and the outcome will have significant impact on our lives. In the midst of times of fear, Jesus asks his disciples not to be afraid, not to let fear control us and take over our call to be people of love. Uh, Jesus? How do we do this? Last Sunday, Rev. Violet Johnicker reminded her congregation that, when his life was on the line, and a tense peace was about to descend into violence, Jesus told his followers, "Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid." We hope this message brings you a bit of peace and calm on a difficult day.

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    45 min