Episode 35 Drs. Justus Hunter and Phil Tallon on The Absolute Basics of the Wesleyan Way

In this week’s episode, Drs. Justus Hunter and Phil Tallon talk about their new book: Absolute Basics of the Wesleyan Way (Seedbed 2020). We focus most of our conversation on the meaning and experience of holiness of heart and life. Phil Tallon (PhD) is an Assistant Professor of Theology at Houston Baptist University. He’s the author of The Poetics of Evil (Oxford, 2012) and The Absolute Basics of the Christian Faith (Seedbed, 2016). Twitter: @philiptallon Justus Hunter (PhD) is an Assistant Professor of Church History at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. He is the author of If Adam Had Not Sinned: The Reason for the Incarnation from Anselm to Scotus.  Twitter: @JustusHunter. Resources by Hunter and Tallon: The Absolute Basics of the Wesleyan Way https://my.seedbed.com/product/the-absolute-basics-of-the-wesleyan-way/ Hunter’s books: If Adam Had Not Sinned: The Reason for the Incarnation from Anselm to Scotus https://amzn.to/2IYZm6C Tallon’s books: The Absolute Basics of the Christian Faith https://amzn.to/362KRaq The Poetics of Evil: Toward an Aesthetic Theodicy https://amzn.to/361ri2g Connect with Brian: Twitter: @briandrussell Instagram: @yourprofessorforlife Brian's Book on Missional Reading of Scripture: (re)Aligning with God: Reading Scripture for Church and World https://amzn.to/3fxatPU

Episode 24: Dr Michael Beck Contextual Intelligence, Missional Formation and Fresh Expressions of the Church

In this week's episode, Dr. Michael Beck talks about his new book "Contextual Intelligence: Unlocking the Ancient Secret to Mission on the Front Lines" (co-written with Dr. Leonard Sweet).

Buy Contextual Intelligence: Unlocking the Ancient Secret to Mission on the Front Lines https://freshexpressionsus.org/product-tag/contextual/
Connect with Michael Beck:
Michaeladambeck.com
Twitter: @reverendwild1
Connect with Dr. Russell:
Twitter: @briandrussell
IG: @yourprofessorforlife
Read Brian's book on missional interpretation: (re)Aligning with God: Reading Scripture for Church and World https://amzn.to/3k86KcN

Books that Michael Beck Recommends:
(1) Gerald Arbuckle Refounding the church: Dissent for Leadership https://amzn.to/2VdFD5e

(2) Manuel Castells The Rise of Network Society https://amzn.to/2JOZCSr

(3) Graham Cray The Mission-shaped Church https://amzn.to/2UWAIXg

(4) Alan Hirsch/Michael Frost, The Shaping of Things to Come https://amzn.to/35nA9v5

(5) Michael Moynagh Church in Life https://amzn.to/3bJDRR5
Dr. Michael Beck is South Atlantic Coordinator for Fresh Expressions US and North Central District Cultivator of Fresh Expressions for the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. He also leads the Fresh Expressions house of study at United Theological Seminary. Michael serves as senior pastor of Wildwood UMC where he directs addiction recovery programs, a jail ministry, a food pantry, and a network of fresh expressions that meet in places like tattoo parlors and burrito joints. He currently lives in Wildwood with his wife, Jill, and their blended family of 8 children.
Links to Amazon are affiliate links. Dr. Russell receives a small payment if you order resources through these links. There is no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting the podcast through your purchases.

Episode 21 Dr Elaine Heath: Contemplative Spirituality, Sanctification, and the Healing of Trauma

In this week’s episode, Dr. Elaine Heath takes us deep into contemplative spirituality, entire sanctification, and the healing of trauma. Dr. Heath draws on her expertise in Scripture, spiritual formation (rooted in contemplative spirituality), mission and the theology of Phoebe Palmer. We have a rich conversation about inner healing and holiness. 

Books by Dr. Elaine Heath:

The Healing Practice of Celebration, (Nashville: Abingdon, 2020). https://amzn.to/3iWxSuB   

Healing the Wounds of Sexual Abuse: Reading the Bible with Survivors (A revised and retitled new edition of We Were the Least of These: Reading the Bible with Survivors of Sexual Abuse) (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2019). https://amzn.to/3hdOSvY 

The Mystic Way of Evangelism: A Contemplative Vision for Christian Outreach, Revised and Updated 2nd Edition (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017). https://amzn.to/3aD90oC  

Five Means of Grace: Experiencing God’s Love the Wesleyan Way. Nashville: Abingdon, 2017. https://amzn.to/3j0jstv 

God Unbound: Wisdom from Galatians for the Anxious Church. Nashville: Upper Room, May 2016. https://amzn.to/3kZXRDf  

Missional.Monastic.Mainline. A Guide to Starting Missional Micro-Communities in Historically Mainline Traditions. Eugene: Cascade, 2014. https://amzn.to/3kWBjTQ  

The Gospel According to Twilight: Women, Sex and God. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2011. https://amzn.to/3iOi90C 

We Were the Least of These: Reading the Bible with Survivors of Sexual Abuse. Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2011. https://amzn.to/3hdOSvY 

Longing for Spring: A New Vision for Wesleyan Community, co-authored with Scott Kisker. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2010. https://amzn.to/3iWylNn 

Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer, Princeton Theological Monograph Series. Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2010. https://amzn.to/34dMJwq

The Mystic Way of Evangelism: A Contemplative Vision for Christian Outreach. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008. https://amzn.to/3aD90oC 

More Light on the Path: Daily Scripture Readings in Hebrew and Greek, co-authored with David Baker, with a Foreword by Eugene Peterson. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1999; electronic version published by Logos Bible Software, 2006.

Books Recommended by Dr. Elaine Heath:

Besser van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma https://amzn.to/3gdqB7G  

Morton Kelsey, Psychology, Medicine, and Christian Healing

Andrew Sung Park, The Wounded Heart of God: The Asian Concept of Han and the Christian Doctrine of Sin https://amzn.to/2EdhNS9  

Julian of Norwich, Showings https://amzn.to/328qy8d   

Ann Taves, Fits, Trances, and Visions: experiencing religion and explaining experience from Wesley to James https://amzn.to/34e5q3h 

Full Bio:

Elaine Heath is an author, retreat leader, speaker and consultant. Her work is interdisciplinary, weaving together the study of Scripture, theology, and Christian spirituality with the practices of ministry in ways that help the church to reach beyond its walls and into the community. She is the former Dean of Duke Divinity School as well as the former McCreless Professor of Evangelism at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. She is co-founder of Missional Wisdom Foundation, President of Neighborhood Seminary, and an Elder in the United Methodist Church. She currently lives in intentional community at Spring Forest, a farm in North Carolina, where she serve as Abbess.

Connect with Dr. Heath:

Her website is www.elaineaheath.org 

The website for Spring Forest, the intentional community, farm, and decentralized mission church that I help to lead is www.springforest.org. 

The website for Neighborhood Seminary is www.neighborhoodseminary.org. 

Links to Amazon are affiliate links. Deep Dive Spirituality Conversations gets a small fee if you purchases products through the links. This does not affect the price you pay. Thank you for supporting my podcast by ordering some of the suggested resources.

Episode #19 Dr. Amy Oden: Spiritual Formation and the Practice of Christ...

Amy Oden: Spiritual Formation and the Practice of Christian Mindfulness

In this episode, Dr. Amy Oden shares deep insights from her research in the early Church and Christian spirituality on hospitality, Christian mindfulness and the formation of Christians for God’s mission. Listeners will appreciate the engagement with John Wesley’s teaching on watchfulness and its connection to formation. The conversation centers on her recent book Right Here Right Now: The Practice of Christian Mindfulness. 

Bio: 

Born and raised on the prairies of Oklahoma, Amy has found her spiritual home under the wide-open sky. Over the last 30 years, she has been a college professor, a seminary professor and a seminary dean. Amy is committed in her scholarship to illuminating ancient voices for Christian life today, introducing spiritual practices that can ground and nourish lives of following Jesus into the world. Her most recent book is Right Here, Right Now: The Practice of Christian Mindfulness. 

Purchase a Copy of Right Here, Right Now:

https://amzn.to/3i91iVM 

Recommend Resources. I loved that she only listed classical Christian resources!

Book of Psalms and Sermon on the Mount

Augustine: On Psalms https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf108

John Chrysostom: On Hospitality; Homily on Matthew 25 https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf110

Connect with Dr. Oden:

www.amyoden.com 

Episode 17 How Scripture, Spirit, Community, and Mission Shape Our Souls...

In this week’s episode Dr. Evan Howard shares his deep knowledge and wisdom regarding the process of how God shapes our souls.
Evan B. Howard, Ph.D. is the founder and director of Spirituality Shoppe, a Center for the Study of Christian Spirituality. He is also an affiliate faculty with Fuller Theological Seminary. He is the author of The Brazos Introduction to Christian Spirituality, A Guide to Christian Spiritual Formation: How Scripture, Spirit, Community, and Mission Shape Our Souls and other books and articles. He leads workshops and seminars on Christian Spirituality and enjoys living a simple life with family and animals in rural Colorado.
websites and social media
website - spiritualityshoppe.org;
Youtube channel - www.youtube.com/channel/UCgBNf5GVUgUuqEwslXvOfQ
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/evan.b.howard

Books by Dr. Evan Howard:

Praying the Scriptures: A Field Guide for Your Spiritual Journey (IVP, 1999) https://amzn.to/32GDYdH 

The Brazos Introduction to Christian Spirituality (Brazos 2008): https://amzn.to/2CCrj0I

Discovering Lectio Divina: Bringing Scripture into Ordinary Life (IVP, 2012) https://amzn.to/30C9SFp

Guide to Christian Spiritual Formation: How Scripture, Spirit, Community, and Mission Shape Our Souls (Baker 2018) https://amzn.to/2OMwu0r 

Book Mentioned and Recommended by Dr. Howard

Toyohiko Kagawa: An Apostle of Love and Social Justice https://amzn.to/31ZGdsi 

The links to Amazon are affiliate links. Amazon pays a small royalty to Brian Russell for any materials purchased through these links (your purchase price is not affected). Thank you for supporting the Deep Dive Spirituality Conversations podcast!

Episode 12: Wesleyan Theology Counseling & the Dynamics of Forgiveness with Dr. Virginian Todd "Toddy" Holeman

In this week’s episode, Dr. Virginia Todd Holeman helps us to understand the interplay of Wesleyan theology with the practice of therapy as well as the dynamics of forgiveness and an embodied spirituality. We also talk about common blocks and blind spots to God’s grace. 

Bio: 

• B.S.Ed., Bloomsburg University, 1975

• M.A., Wheaton College, 1979
• M.A., Ashland Theological Seminary, 1986
• Ph.D., Kent State University, 1994

Dr. Virginia Todd Holeman (Toddy) is professor of Counseling. She has taught at Asbury Theological Seminary since 1995.

Dr. Holeman received a Ph.D. at Kent State University. At Asbury Seminary, she has served as associate dean of the School of Theology (1999-2004); acting dean (2004-2005); and is presently the chair of the Counseling and Pastoral Care Department. She was the 2003-2004 recipient of the seminary’s Excellence in Distance Learning Teaching Award. She is a licensed professional clinical counselor and a licensed marriage and family therapist in Kentucky. Dr. Holeman is the past president of the Kentucky Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.

She has published several books, including her most recent, Theology for Better Counseling: Trinitarian Reflections for Healing and Formation(IVP Academic, 2012), which was selected as a CAPS Book (Christian Association for Psychological Studies). Dr. Holeman’s research interests include interpersonal forgiveness, repentance and reconciliation, counselor education and supervision, and integration of psychology and counseling.

Books by Dr. Holeman:

Inside the Leader’s Head: Unravelling Personal Obstacles to Ministry (with Stephen Martyn, 2008): https://amzn.to/3fcCI58

Reconciliable Differences: Hope and Healing for Troubled Marriages (2005)  https://amzn.to/2YlLRl0

Theology for Better Counseling: Trinitarian Reflections for Healing and Formation (2012): https://amzn.to/2MNJoKU

Books Recommend by Dr. Holeman

Tolkien The Hobbit 

 and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy https://amzn.to/2AqQmCT

Miroslav Volf Exclusion and Embrace: Revised and Updated: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation https://amzn.to/3heCxrz

— Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace https://amzn.to/2ATkQxl

Questions that Transform Us (Walking and Talking Spirituality #19)

Have you ever been asked a spiritually transformative question?

What were key questions that have shaped your journey of life?

Here are some of mine:

Rev Paul George asked my 17 or 18 year old self (1986 or 1987):

Have you ever considered the ministry?

Alex McManus challenged me when I was a young professor in
2005:

What business do you have teaching in a seminary if you’ve
never planted a church?

A few years ago, my daughter asked me:

Dad, why do you work so much?

The questions we ask ourselves play a determining factor
in our growth.

Are you open or closed to “hard” questions? 

Start your morning with some empowering questions:

For what am I grateful?

What is really bothering me?

What would make today great?

End your day with: What went really well today?

Be mindful of the questions that empower you and
questions that disempower you.

What’s on your mind today? What are some of the
best questions you’ve been asked or that you ask yourself?

#spirituality #questionsthattransform #questions #growth
#change #transformation #spiritualformation #spiritualgrowth 

Centering Prayer, Deep Surrender, and the Way of Jesus

The process of surrender in centering prayer is critical to the taming of our need for control. When we pray, we commit to sitting in solitude with God. This is a form of self-denial. Recall Jesus’ summary of the essence of discipleship: “If any want to come after me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross, and continually follow me” (Matt 16:24 cf. Mark 8:34 Luke 9:27). The focus of discipleship is on consciously following Jesus. Jesus’ words in Matt 16:24 serve ably as a model for centering prayer. 

Intending the Things of God

In Matt 16:21, Jesus had laid out the necessity of his journey to Jerusalem. There Jesus would experience suffering, death, but also resurrection. In response to this revelation (16:22), Peter attempted to rebuke Jesus by saying, “May this never happen, Lord!” Jesus responded to Peter with “Get behind me Satan. For you have not set your mind on the things of God but on the things of humanity.” In other words, Peter struggled because he assumed that his plans, desires, and will should govern the actions of Jesus his Lord.

This is not to say that our goals and ideas have no value. As we live in the world, we will continually take decisions and actions. But the process of growth in grace involves removing the idolatry and injustice out of our decisions. The challenge of the spiritual life is that, when we learn about the mind of Christ, we discover that our truest humanity resides in living fully as the person whom God created us to be. The irony is that we are often the greatest impediment to our growth. Our false self attempts to block access to discovering who we are at the deepest level. 

To set our mind on the things of humanity means that it is our will and talents that remain in control of our destiny. It is the full flourishing of our flesh apart from reliance on the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 8:1–17). 

To set our minds on the things of God involves realigning continually with the will of God. Our guide is Jesus. Centering prayer allows us to practice this ongoing surrender of the will.

Invitation to Surrender

16:24 begins with an invitation: “If anyone wishes to come after me….” Jesus calls would be followers to set an intention. Decide and commit to go in the way of Jesus. Jesus calls us to a person–the Son of God. When we take the decision to sit in solitude, we are answering the call of Jesus. 

What does this intention or decision involve? It involves surrender to a new mode of being. In centering prayer we do not set the agenda. In fact there is no agenda. The moment we seek one we have gone the way of Peter and set our mind on the ways of humanity.

Centering Prayer and the Meaning of Surrender 

What does surrender look like? Jesus uses three phrases in 16:24: deny self, take up cross, and continually follow me.

Deny self. This is not merely a call to a disciplined life involving deprivation. It is more radical. To deny self means to orient fully to the way of Jesus so that the cross shapes our goals, desires, rights, and privileges. In centering prayer, this means a steadfast recognition that my stray thoughts, emotional baggage, and even brilliant insights must give way to being present with God.

Take up the cross. In the ancient world, the cross was a terrifying symbol. Crucifixion was gruesome, humiliating, and meant certain death. To take up one’s cross meant literally lifting the wood upon which one would soon die and walking under its weight to the place of your death. A person taking up the cross was a dead man or woman walking. In solitude, we come to God empty handed in the surrendered posture of one whose life is over. This frees us from both past and future in order to be with God in the moment.

Continually follow me. If the first two phrases involve a letting go of one’s rights, privileges, past, and future, Jesus’ final phrase points to the pathway for the present. Disciples follow Jesus moment by moment. This was true during Jesus’ earthly ministry. It remained true for the Christians to whom Matthew was writing in the first century. Jesus’ words are still vital for us in the 21^st century. Discipleship involves a deep ongoing relationship with Jesus. This is why Jesus came to earth. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is Immanuel “God with us” (1:23). In Matt 18:20, Jesus promises, “For where there are two or three gathered in my name, there I am in their midst.” In Matthew 28:20b, the risen Jesus declares, “Behold, I myself am with you all the days until the end of the age.”

Centering Prayer and the Practice of Surrender

In prayer, denying self and taking up the cross serve as the means of purging our rights to ourselves. Whatever thoughts, feelings, desires, dreams, goals, visions, triumphant memories, or nightmarish recollections arise in solitude, we surrender them and continually follow Jesus. This means using our prayer word to realign ourselves with our Lord. 

Imagine yourself taking a walk with Jesus. He leads you down a path. You hear birds singing so you look up for a moment. You then turn your gaze back to Jesus. Then you get an idea for a project at work followed by a worry that you don’t have enough time to accomplish your goals for the day. You catch yourself and again return to the master. A few moments later you reach a point in the path that triggers a painful memory of great loss. Yet again you turn to Jesus. Martin Luther’s dictum comes to mind in this process: “You can’t prevent a bird from landing in your tree but you don’t have to allow it to build a nest.” 

Recognize that the process of centering prayer is to continually return to the Lord. Period. Thoughts are thoughts. Feelings are feelings. Memories are memories. The call to discipleship challenges us to turn away from self and follow Jesus. This is the way of prayer too. The question is trust: Do I trust God enough to release my attachments to whatever the hamster wheel inside my head offers up?

Merton writes on the need for continual surrender, “to have a will that is always ready to fold back within itself and draw all the powers of the soul down from its deepest center to rest in silent expectancy for the coming of God, poised in tranquil and effortless concentration upon the point of my dependence on him;…” 

There is a dynamic tension between surrender and our role in the surrender. Merton’s words capture it well. It is not that our will disappears. Our will remains. Its intentions have become aligned with the divine will. The Lord’s prayer becomes reality in our inner world, “on earth [in me] as it is in heaven.”

In fact, the process of recentering is the critical discipline that opens us up to God’s presence and grace. There is no contemplative moments apart from the our conscious return to God every time that we find ourselves lost in a stream of thoughts. This is how souls are made. It is a moment by moment journey. 

© 2019 Brian D. Russell

Interested in learning more about centering prayer. Check out

Brian's YouTube Channel for a series of videos on centering 

prayer: