Why do many people want to talk about spirituality but not God? In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation on this question and others generated from an excerpt, see below, of Rob Bell's book Everything is Spiritual by Rob Bell.
“The form, the teaching, the truth moves you beyond the form. Like there’s an arc, or a movement, or a trajectory in the words. If you take them seriously, they take you somewhere. The forms aren’t the goal, the goal is an experience of Spirit. I began to see that you can have every form imaginable but without Spirit, without that animating, propulsive energy doing something in it, it’s just a form. Just a prayer, just a set of beliefs, just a religion, just words. We’re surrounded by forms, forms are what make the world. The invitation is to allow Spirit to transform all these forms, so that they become everything they can be, guiding us into a fuller experience of the depths of life. Aren’t we all mystics?”
Bishop Wright released these steps to take action in healing our nation on 11.9.20. In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright unpack these steps.
1. Pray for the nation; pray for President Trump and for President-elect Biden.
2. Be kind in speech and actions especially with those with whom you disagree.
3. Grant Jesus’ request to “ pray for enemies and bless those that curse you.”
4. Use your social media platforms only for positive, non- aggressive, encouraging and constructive purposes.
5. Refuse to pass along information as truth that does not bear the marks of good scholarship and fairness.
6. Reflect on and relinquish your need to feel and behave as superior to other members of the American family.
7. Schedule a conversation with a family member or co-worker who sees the world differently and be curious rather than defensive or combative.
8. Accept responsibility for making the country and the world better, kinder, healthier, safer, cleaner and more just.
9. Commit for three years to an organization whose purpose is to bring equity to the American family.
What is it about being a follower of Jesus that lends some to study the bible for their own agenda and others to imagine multiple frameworks? If you really think about it, we use our imagination when we read the bible. We transport ourselves in a time machine and enter into an ancient world full of stories written by people with imagination!
"The only way to understand scripture is to exercise imagination. You have to enter into an alternate universe. You have to embrace metaphor, poetry, and symbolical language and recognize the only way we are going to get at God is to use our imagination." - Dr. Judy Fentress-Williams - author of Holy Imagination: A Literary Theological Introduction to the Whole Bible.
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright sit down with Dr. Judy Fentress Williams and talk about imagination in the bible and the wonder we encounter when we open ourselves up to imagining the bible in a non-linear fashion. What happens when we don't use our imagination to read the bible and in owe put God into something small that fits our beliefs? God is larger than what we can comprehend and imagine! For thoughts on these questions and more, listen in
The Rev. Judy Fentress-Williams, Ph.D., is Professor of Old Testament at Virginia Theological Seminary since 2002. Her areas of expertise include Hebrew Bible, dialogic interpretation, religious studies, Afro-American studies, and literary criticism. Dr. Fentress-Williams received her Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from Yale University in 1999. Her dissertation entitled, “What Has Happened to the Son of Kish? A Dialogic Reading of Saul in I Samuel” reflects her interest in a literary approach that celebrates the multiple voices and inter-textuality of scripture. Judy is married to Kevin Williams, M.D. and they have two children, Samantha and Jacob.
Halloween is here, so what better thing to talk about than zombies. Webster's dictionary refers to a zombie as, "someone who appears to be lifeless and unresponsive to their surroundings." Strangely enough, you don't have to look far to see people claiming their love for Jesus in one breath speak malice towards other loudly in the next. Just look at how the cross shows up in public forums and events where people talk in terms that Jesus clearly condemned! The Christian Zombie Apocalypse is when we make Jesus a white, English speaking, political party member. It is happening before our very eyes!
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about the damage we have done to one another, understanding when we have a Zombie moment, and choosing the teachings of Jesus in loving neighbor.
Matthew 22:34-46
Before listening, read Bishop Rob Wright's For Faith.
Following, proclaiming, and loving like Jesus has always evoked opposition. And especially from fellow followers of Jesus! St. Paul makes it abundantly clear in his letter to the Thessalonians. St. Paul reminds his readers that the very first thing that causes opposition is speaking in a fashion of pleasing God above pleasing people. This takes real-world practice and plenty of courage.
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright share about speaking as Christians and putting Jesus before their own worldly views and their own experience where they have met opposition and the importance of gentleness as a response. Listen in for the full conversation.
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
Before listening, read Bishop Rob Wright's For Faith.
God is incredibly flexible. God is never limited in God's range of motion! And God has given us great motions for us to improve our own range of motion. These motions are compassion, generosity, and kindness. But what happens if we don't use the exercises given to us like prayer? We can lose our own range of motion as Christians.
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright talk about what it takes to keep our range of motions as followers of Jesus and what some of those exercises look like for them in their own lives. Listen in for the full conversation.
Before listening, read Bishop Rob Wright's For Faith.
Atheists is an uncomfortable word for followers of Jesus to hear. In goes against the very belief in the one, we call God that we love and loves us without limitation!
But what happens when the church chooses sides in political partnership over the love of God? Christians functionally become atheists. The Church was founded to put trust in God and not in politicians and political systems. And yet, as this country heads towards an election, what side to we stand on? The side of God or the side of a candidate's party and belief system?
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright wrestle with the tough conversation of where we are as people of faith in choosing Jesus over everything else knowing that we often fall short of voting Jesus.
Before listening, read Bishop Rob Wright's For Faith.
Some of us have got some pretty impressive resumes: schools, organizations, companies, and boards. St. Paul had a pretty impressive resume too: right family, right location, right kind of spiritual practice. He clearly commends for the Christian is a second page for our resumes - a page 2.
This page is the list of things we have lost or sacrificed solely because we choose to follow Jesus. On this page is the list of things that we thought were golden but now know are garbage in comparison to a life for God. So, what is on your page 2?
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright talk about this idea of a page 2, including their own, and what we might give up to live a life for and closer to God.
Before listening, read Bishop Rob Wright's For Faith.
If most Christians are honest, we fail to put God in the center of our lives. In many cases, people choose to themselves at the center of narratives. The old joke that God made us in God's image and we turned around and made God in our image stands true!
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright talk about centering God and when we do that we are the most human we will ever be.
Before listening, read Bishop Rob Wright's For Faith.
What is the image of God we see in our minds and how do we encounter God in this new world we are living in? If we are honest, we might find that we often fit God into a box that works with the way we view the world.
"What if people were invited to come tell what they already know of God instead of to learn what they are supposed to believe? What if they were blessed for what they are doing in the world instead of chastened for not doing more at church? What if church felt more like a way station than a destination? What if the church’s job were to move people out the door instead of trying to keep them in, by convincing them that God needed them more in the world than in the church?” - Barbara Brown Taylor
In part 2 of this 2-part discussion, Melissa and Bishop Wright talk with Barbara Brown Taylor about the Church can learn during the pandemics we face and what a new church might look like. They share their dreams for church and discuss God in the darkness we often experience in life.
Before listening, read Bishop Rob Wright's For Faith.
Barbara Brown Taylor is a best-selling author, teacher, and Episcopal priest. Her first memoir, Leaving Church, won an Author of the Year award from the Georgia Writers Association in 2006. Her next two books, An Altar in the World (2010) and Learning to Walk in the Dark (2015), earned places on the New York Times bestseller list. She has served on the faculties of Piedmont College, Columbia Theological Seminary, Candler School of Theology at Emory University, McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University, and the Certificate in Theological Studies program at Arrendale State Prison for Women in Alto, Georgia. In 2014 TIME included her on its annual list of Most Influential People; in 2015 she was named Georgia Woman of the Year; in 2016 she received the President’s Medal at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. Her fourteenth book, Holy Envy, was released by HarperOne in March 2019.
What is the image of God we see in our minds and how do we encounter God in this new world we are living in? If we are honest, we might find that we often fit God into a box that works with the way we view the world.
"The problem is many of the people in need of saving are in churches and at least part of what they need saving from is the idea that God sees the world the same way they do." - Barbara Brown Taylor
In part 1 of this 2-part discussion, Melissa and Bishop Wright talk with Barbara Brown Taylor about the changing ways we encounter and see God in the world. You can listen to part 1 now. Part 2 will be available next week.
Before listening, read Bishop Rob Wright's For Faith.
Barbara Brown Taylor is a best-selling author, teacher, and Episcopal priest. Her first memoir, Leaving Church, won an Author of the Year award from the Georgia Writers Association in 2006. Her next two books, An Altar in the World (2010) and Learning to Walk in the Dark (2015), earned places on the New York Times bestseller list. She has served on the faculties of Piedmont College, Columbia Theological Seminary, Candler School of Theology at Emory University, McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University, and the Certificate in Theological Studies program at Arrendale State Prison for Women in Alto, Georgia. In 2014 TIME included her on its annual list of Most Influential People; in 2015 she was named Georgia Woman of the Year; in 2016 she received the President’s Medal at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. Her fourteenth book, Holy Envy, was released by HarperOne in March 2019.
Sometimes as people of faith, we talk more about our own lives than God. Why is that? Our humanity wants to put us and our experiences first. What would it be like if the 3 points made by every pastor when preaching was of who God is and what God wants us to do? God can do anything we if choose to say yes!
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about what we can learn when we think of God first. We love the notion of God being with us, but the other part that we often fail to live into is that God can't be controlled, isn't domesticated, and is in favor of the poor, oppressed, the immigrant, and the imprisoned. Listen in for the full conversation.
Before listening, read Bishop Rob Wright's For Faith.
The story of Moses, the great deliverer, really begins with his delivery from faithful women. As the Pharaoh set forth a plan to murder firstborn male children, it was Moses' mother, Jochebed, and his sister Miriam that masterminded a plan to float Moses in a basket to the house of the Pharaoh and his daughter. God's great intervention began with the defiant, genius, faith of a few women.
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation of the faithful women of this bible story and the sin of treating women less than. In a patriarchal western society, let's remember the power, strength, and fierceness of women of the past and today. Listen in for the full conversation.
Before listening, read Bishop Rob Wright's For Faith.
Joseph was sold into slavery by his siblings! His own blood! And he finds it in himself to forgive, heal, and love the ones that hurt him the most.
Throughout history, there are people that and do remember that we belong to one another - that we are siblings to and in the world. Do you live today like every person you meet is your sibling? If we are honest with ourselves and God, we don't!
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about being siblings in the world and the common threads that connect us all as children of God. Listen in for the full conversation.
Before listening, read Bishop Rob Wright's For Faith.
Peter's fear sank him that long-ago morning. When he took his eyes and heart off of Jesus, it started. Fear can make faith sink. It can swallow you up. More and more we might all be feeling like that battered boat doing our best to keep the faith and make it through the night.
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about the fear people are experiencing these days and how it impacts our walk with Jesus. For this conversation and some encouragement, listen in.
Before listening, read Bishop Rob Wright's For Faith.
Charity is great, but it is a patch. Charity is what we are doing now while we are working for a more just society where everyone has enough. The overarching goal is for all of us to be filled. A society where the un-mattered matter as much as the powerful and mighty. What did Jesus teach about this? And what is the church's role?
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about these questions and take a deeper look into the church's role as justice maker to the un-mattered.
Before listening, read Bishop Rob Wright's For Faith.
Leadership is a set of behaviors available to anyone at any time to choose and use. Of course, this means there are no leaders but people that exert leadership behaviors. The leadership of Jesus is laid out perfectly for us in the Gospels. Leadership is not a crown but the cross.
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about the leadership of Jesus and how The Rev. C.T. Vivian and Congressman John R. Lewis embodied these leadership behaviors in their lives. They share the stories in our country and culture of firstness and that Jesus tells us we are enough. Listen in the for the full conversation.
Before listening, read Bishop Rob Wright's For Faith.
Visit the diocesan page dedicated to The Rev. C.T. Vivian and Congressman John R. Lewis.
Monuments and symbols are currently a point of discussion. A person may bring up why or why they shouldn't be removed and it quickly gets branded political. Many believe them a part of heritage. As Sheffield says in this episode, "heritage is history with all the bad parts left out". We stand at an inflection point where society is waking up and wanting to right its wrongs in many ways. But does that mean we simply take them all down?
In this episode, Melissa leads a conversation with Bishop Wright and Sheffield Hale on the history of monuments, understanding the context of the time they were put up, and what are the next steps forward we can take to be supportive as mature Christians. For the full conversation, listen in.
Before listening, read Bishop Rob Wright's For Faith.
Sheffield Hale is President and CEO of the Atlanta History Center. Prior to joining the Atlanta History Center in 2012 he served as Chief Counsel of the American Cancer Society, Inc. and was a Partner practicing corporate law in the firm of Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP.
Mr. Hale serves as a Trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Fox Theatre, Inc., Buckhead Coalition, Midtown Alliance, and Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. He is a Past Chair of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, the Atlanta History Center, St. Jude’s Recovery Center, Inc., and the State of Georgia’s Judicial Nominating Commission.
Where do we find health if the soul of the nation is unwell? It only makes it more challenging in the midst of 2 pandemics. One being COVID-19 and the other racism.
In this episode of For People, Melissa leads a conversation with Bishop Wright and special guest Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine and host of Soul of the Nation, exploring the narratives of 2 pandemics, COVID-19 and racism, and how fear and rage lead to hate and violence. They discuss the current state of the country and how we can use guilt, shame, and despair to turn towards a new middle – a middle where non-partisanship, conviction, and faithfulness can lead to people of faith to take up the work of difference-maker in the world lived in today.
Before listening, read Bishop Wright's For Faith.
Jim Wallis is a globally respected writer, teacher, preacher, and justice advocate who believes the gospel of Jesus must be transformed from its cultural and political captivities. He is a New York Times bestselling author, widely recognized public theologian, renowned speaker, and regular international commentator on ethics and public life. He is the Founder, President, and Editor-In-Chief of Sojourners, and is the author of 12 books, with his latest being Christ In Crisis. He served on President Obama's White House Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and has taught faith and public life courses at Harvard and Georgetown University. “Coach Jim” also served for 22 seasons as a Little League coach for his two baseball playing sons.
For more about Christ in Crisis: https://book.sojo.net/
Are those that have too much willing to sacrifice for those that don't have enough? In a country focused on individualism, how do we come together to support those in need? We see churches on so many corners, yet they struggle in many contexts to work together because of fear of giving up primacy. What can we give up to be better followers of Jesus? What can we sacrifice?
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about sacrifice, what we let go of to follow Jesus, and even a look into some of what Bishop Wright has sacrificed in his life.
Before listening, read Bishop Wright's For Faith.
All lives mattered is well-intentioned, but aspirational. Native, female, brown, black, immigrant, incarcerated, and gay lives at present do not equally matter according to our systems. And when we think of Jesus, didn't he all over Galilee matter people? Do his words and example continue to save us from the status quo? Love like Jesus is something we say, but do we mean it?
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about patriotism, why people are offended by Black Lives Matter, the deferred maintenance of the church in this work, and what allyship means moving forward. For responses to these questions and more, listen in.
Before listening, read Bishop Wright's For Faith.
Hi listeners,
You'll notice some changes to For People in this episode. Matt has accepted a call to serve as the Director of Youth Ministry and Programming for the Diocese of Southwest Florida. We are thankful for Matt and everything he did to get us off the ground.
This is Melissa Rau's first episode, the new host of For People. Melissa is from the Diocese of Pennsylvania and currently works with ECF as the Director for Partnership and New Initiatives.
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright sit down with Bishop Brian Prior, the 9th Bishop of The Episcopal Church in Minnesota, to talk about the recent events in Minneapolis, Jesus, and his politics. Jesus was often political yet he is non-partisan. Jesus stands with those marginalized. Jesus chooses love - always love.
What we see going on in the US right now points to change needed in the current systems. It points to the privilege of some, racism of others, and the inequity of people of color. It shows that now more than ever the church must remember she has a voice, and she must use that voice to proclaim the love of Jesus in a political way that he rejoices in. Listen in to hear more.
Before listening, read Bishop Rob Wright's For Faith.
As people of faith, we often talk of the way we treat neighbor. In fact, the Episcopal tradition confesses before God and one another in Sunday morning worship that "we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves". Why is neighborliness a challenge? What gets in the way?
In this episode, Matt and Bishop Wright take a look deeper look into what Jesus says about loving neighbor and the hard truth of division we feel today that is only complicated by politics, media, and the same narratives that have hurt our country this her birth. To hear the full conversation, listen in.
Before listening, read Bishop Rob Wright's For Faith.
How do we ask better questions of ourselves? In a polarizing world, what does that really mean? Jesus asks the best questions that require us to dig deep into our faith and think of how we can live into our call to serve Christ and neighbor.
In this episode, Matt and Bishop Wright take a look deeper look into themselves and an invitation for people to think about what tough questions they need to ask of themselves. This isn't a 1 size fits all model for the questions we need to be asking ourselves. It takes intentionality of ourselves. Listen in to hear more.
Before listening, read Bishop Rob Wright's For Faith.
Algebra is not a word we often associate with God. For some of us, it is a word that only brings back the pain of high school. Algebra actually means the reunion and balancing of broken parts. In this pandemic, knowing God is there if we linger long enough, we can find hope. On those zero days of algebra, we can find God's new algebra.
In this episode, Matt and Bishop Wright take a look deeper look into the brokenness we experience on our zero-days, and how we can remember the hope of God on those days. Tune in for the full conversation.
Before listening, read Bishop Rob Wright's For Faith.
