Instead of pretending to have it all together or insisting that you’re the problem, do you long to see more Christian leaders be honest about their own faith struggles? What benefit could there be to having a front-row seat to the moments that leaders choose to trust in God, even when it’s hard to believe?

Today we have Mandy Smith, pastor and award-winning author and speaker—and also a great friend—with us to talk about this very thing.We are talking about her newest book, Confessions of an Amateur Saint: The Christian Leader’s Journey from Self-Sufficiency to Reliance on God.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction
00:27 Mandy Smith's New Book
03:16 The Journey of Writing
05:23 The Role of Joy and Creativity in Ministry
07:59 Attachment and Dependence on God
11:48 Confessions and Vulnerability
14:54 The Importance of Connection and Openness
16:57 Spiritual Warfare and Pruning
25:41 Solidarity with Christ's Sacrifices
29:07 The Role of Vulnerability in Leadership
32:14 The Power of Shared Struggles
36:58 The Structure and Purpose of the Book
43:29 Final Thoughts and Reflections

Join Attaching to God Learning Cohort: Quieting an Anxious and Avoidant Faith.

• Starting Nov. 12 (2024), with the live calls on Tuesdays, 2:30pm-3:30pm (EST).
• Link: https://www.embodiedfaith.life/attaching-to-god-cohort

Stay Connected:

• NEED spiritual direction or coaching that aligns with this podcast? Connect with Cyd Holsclaw here.
• Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources.
• Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

In a world where mental health issues and loneliness are at an all-time high, it’s more important than ever to find ways to cultivate joy, community, and meaning in our lives. But how exactly do you do that?

Maybe we need to turn outward rather than inward for answers.

That's what we are talking about with Dr. Richard Beck.

Dr. Richard Beck is a professor of psychology at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas He is a popular blogger and speaker and the author of several books. We interviewed him a bit ago about his Hunting Magic Eels: Recovering an Enchanted Faith in a Skeptical Age (which I recommend to people all the time if there are in that space of deconstruction). And today we are talking about his newest book, The Shape of Joy: The Transformative Power of Moving Beyond Yourself.

00:00 Introduction: Exploring Joy in a Challenging World
00:37 Meet Dr. Richard Beck: A Journey into Joy
01:16 The World's Worst Commencement Address
04:00 The Shape of Joy: Turning Outward
05:55 The Wandering Mind and Mental Health
11:38 Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Beyond
15:28 Humility and Happiness: A Surprising Connection
19:13 The Power of Mattering and Transcendence
23:18 Mr. Kenneth's Story: Joy in Unexpected Places
29:34 Conclusion: Finding Joy and Staying Connected

Join Attaching to God Learning Cohort: Quieting an Anxious and Avoidant Faith.

• Starting Nov. 12 (2024), with the live calls on Tuesdays, 2:30pm-3:30pm (EST).
• Link: https://www.embodiedfaith.life/attaching-to-god-cohort

Stay Connected:

• NEED spiritual direction or coaching that aligns with this podcast? Connect with Cyd Holsclaw here.
• Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources.
• Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

Like many of us, you carry a weight of buried pain. You feel secretly fractured within. There’s a constant churn of unprocessed feelings of shame, anger, grief, or loneliness. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Chuck DeGroat is the Professor of Counseling and Christian Spirituality and Executive Director of the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program at Western Theological Seminary Holland MI. He is also a licensed and practicing therapist, a spiritual director, author of five books. He wrote When Narcissism Comes to Church and his newest book just landed in early October Healing What’s Within: Coming Home to Yourself and to God When You’re Weary, Wounded, and Wandering. (Oct. 8).

00:00 Introduction to Healing and Spiritual Formation
00:42 Meet Dr. Chuck DeGroat: Author and Therapist
01:38 The Journey from Narcissism to Healing
03:30 Understanding Trauma: Beyond the Outrage
05:19 The Power of Personal Story in Healing
15:55 Exploring the Genesis Examine
23:38 The Core Message: Healing from Within
28:09 Reflections and Future Directions

Join Attaching to God Learning Cohort: Quieting an Anxious and Avoidant Faith.

• Starting Nov. 12 (2024), with the live calls on Tuesdays, 2:30pm-3:30pm (EST).
• Link: https://www.embodiedfaith.life/attaching-to-god-cohort

Stay Connected:

• NEED spiritual direction or coaching that aligns with this podcast? Connect with Cyd Holsclaw here.
• Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources.
• Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

The first Christians were weird. Just how weird is often lost on us today. The first Christians believed unusual things, worshiped God in strange ways, and lived a unique lifestyle. Many in the ancient world saw it as bizarre, even dangerous, but some found this new religion attractive and compelling

Today we are interviewing Dr. Nijay K. Gupta. He is the Julius R. Mantey Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary. He is cohost of the Slow Theology podcast, and has written numerous books, including Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church, and recently, Strange Religion How the First Christians Were Weird, Dangerous, and Compelling.

Chapters:
00:53 Meet Nijay Gupta: Author and Scholar
01:31 Origins of 'Strange Religion'
05:19 The Concept of Believers
06:56 Roman Society and the Christian Challenge
16:39 Household of Faith: Early Christian Practices
24:35 The Radical Message of God's Love
31:55 Conclusion and Upcoming Works

Join Attaching to God Learning Cohort: Quieting an Anxious and Avoidant Faith.

• Starting Nov. 12 (2024), with the live calls on Tuesdays, 2:30pm-3:30pm (EST).
• Link: https://www.embodiedfaith.life/attaching-to-god-cohort

Stay Connected:

• NEED spiritual direction or coaching that aligns with this podcast? Connect with Cyd Holsclaw here.
• Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources.
• Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

Everyone is talking about slowing down, slow food, a slow life. I have friends who host the “Slow Theology” podcast.

But is going slow the best to understand the SOUL? (What does that even mean?)

Recently, people like Jim Wilder have been specifically accused to talking too much about the brain, and not even about the soul. So much so that some believe Jim doesn't even believe in the soul.

(And Jim is a speaker at the Attaching to God Summit, talking about "Empathy, Enemy Mode, and Engaging Gen Z"...so register for free).

We have a long conversation, attempting to set the record straight about an overly philosophical-cognitivist view of the soul (the slow soul), and how that view needs to catch up to all the really fast things God has enabled us to do—brain, body, and soul.

We also talk about how broad and wide the field of neuroscience is, the streams that we pull from (which aren't nearly as reductionistic as some), and how the Bible uses many terms to discuss the spiritual part of us.

Resources: Check Jim's New Growing a More Human Community (3-book series)

• Growing Me: Becoming a Child
• Growing Us: Becoming an Adult
• Growing We the People

Join Attaching to God Learning Cohort: Quieting an Anxious and Avoidant Faith.

• Starting Nov. 12 (2024), with the live calls on Tuesdays, 2:30pm-3:30pm (EST).
• Link: https://www.embodiedfaith.life/attaching-to-god-cohort

Stay Connected:

• NEED spiritual direction or coaching that aligns with this podcast? Connect with Cyd Holsclaw here.
• Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources.
• Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

"Freedom appears very nearly the only value about which people still agree unanimously," says Jacques Philippe in his little book, Interior Freedom. But how does freedom connect to happiness, love, and our life with God and others?

These are the questions this little firecracker of a book examines, and that we talk about in this two-part series.

We look at the difference between "freedom from" and "freedom for", the ideas of locus of control, the constraints of everyday life, and what "inner freedom" might mean, and what it doesn't mean.

Join Attaching to God Learning Cohort: Quieting an Anxious and Avoidant Faith.

• Starting Nov. 12 (2024), with the live calls on Tuesdays, 2:30pm-3:30pm (EST).
• Link: https://www.embodiedfaith.life/attaching-to-god-cohort

Stay Connected:

• NEED spiritual direction or coaching that aligns with this podcast? Connect with Cyd Holsclaw here.
• Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources.
• Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

Geoff and Cyd talk about the impact of reading Why I Believe: A Psychologist's Thoughts on Suffering, Miracles, Science, and Faith, by Dr. Henry Cloud, specifically...

• the place of miracles and healing in mental health concerns,
• how encountering God often precedes evidence for God,
• and, the power of open systems and God at work in the world.

From the book's blurb:
"World-renowned psychologist and leadership expert Henry Cloud has impacted millions of lives through his groundbreaking books and through his work coaching leaders of the most influential organizations in the world. But few people know the details of his own story and how he became one of the most beloved and respected psychologists and faith influencers in America.

In this indelibly personal and vulnerable book, Dr. Cloud leads us through his early struggles with illness and depression and the miracles that healed him and led him to his calling as a healer of others. Through masterful storytelling combined with a deeply nuanced understanding of the human mind, Dr. Cloud invites readers to inhabit the spaces of suffering and elation that make us most human and to walk alongside of him as he ponders the great questions we are so often afraid to ask but which also give life meaning."

Join Attaching to God Learning Cohort: Quieting an Anxious and Avoidant Faith.

• Starting Nov. 12 (2024), with the live calls on Tuesdays, 2:30pm-3:30pm (EST).
• Link: https://www.embodiedfaith.life/attaching-to-god-cohort

Stay Connected:

• NEED spiritual direction or coaching that aligns with this podcast? Connect with Cyd Holsclaw here.
• Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources.
• Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

Why do kids climb trees, run really fast, and spin until they fall over? What is the benefit of risky play? And what does that have to do with attaching to God and our spiritual life?

In this episode, we look at the research regarding play and how it connects to attaching to God.

Baggage Claim: Don't miss the new segment where we finish by claiming some overproductive tendencies we share.

Resources:

• The Circle of Security (website)
• "Decline in Independent Activity as a Cause of Decline in Children’s Mental Well-being" (article PDF)
• The Anxious Generation (book)

Join Attaching to God Learning Cohort: Quieting an Anxious and Avoidant Faith.

• Starting Nov. 12 (2024), with the live calls on Tuesdays, 2:30pm-3:30pm (EST).
• Link: https://www.embodiedfaith.life/attaching-to-god-cohort

Stay Connected:

• NEED spiritual direction or coaching that aligns with this podcast? Connect with Cyd Holsclaw here.
• Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources.
• Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).