I sat down with Shannon Craigo-Snell to discuss turning to theatre to ask: Why Church? We discuss what led her to this conversation, how performance as event/interaction/doubleness illuminates the nature of the church, reading Delores Williams with Bertolt Brecht and much more.
Read MoreGrace Ji-Sun Kim returns to the podcast to talk about the racism and sexism encountered presently and historically by Asian American women, before exploring what it might look like to live into a Theology of Visibility.
Read MoreI sat down with newly inducted President of the Uniting Church in Australia, Rev Sharon Hollis. We discuss her call into a role such as this, what it means for the UCA that we're entering an era when those taking roles like President, Moderator, etc. have no memory of union or experience with the uniting churches. We also discuss the issues and challenges facing the church, the state of ecumenism, and Sharon's hopes for her time in this position.
Read MoreI sat down with Brian Brock to talk about his new book, Disability: Living into the Diversity of Christ's Body (Baker, 2021). We discuss common misconceptions and assumptions that lead to unwelcome and awkwardness in churches (beginning with the common falsity that there are "no disabled people in our church"). Brian offers examples of how in noticing the diversity of the bodily experiences of the people around us, we begin to glimpse aspects of Scripture that we had previously missed. I also ask him about the issues that come from concepts like normality and inclusion, and how the confession that Christian's are - fundamentally - a people who receive can assist the task of disability theology. Finally we enter into a discussion about healing and how we've allowed a rather specific modern view of healing to shape how we read the healing narratives in the gospels.
Read MoreI spoke with Keegan Osinski about her new book: Queering Wesley, Queering the Church. We discuss what drew her to this project, her experience within the Wesleyan tradition, and how she found fertile ground for queer readings in Wesley's sermons. We then go deep on her readings of holiness, being born again, pride and humility, and pleasure.
Read MoreDr Anne Pattel-Gray, author of the Great White Flood, joins Rev. Tau’alofa Anga’aelangi, Rev Dr Katalina Tahaafe-Williams, and myself in a discussion on Black Lives Matter, the church's call to confront racist injustice, the relationship between Indigenous sovereignty and multiculturalism, where the UCA has become too timid, the ongoing lack of Indigenous theology and teaching in theological education, how her book was banned from sales in physical bookstores in Australia, the importance of being able to worship in one's own language, NAIDOC, and much more.
This episode is a re-post of most recent of the monthly Black Lives Matter and the Church in Australia panels hosted by the Uniting Church Chaplaincy at Charles Sturt University in Port Macquarie and the Social Justice Pilgrim Presbytery NT.
Read More“No good comes from the denial of enmity.” I spoke with Melissa Florer-Bixler about her new book, How To Have an Enemy. The question, she emphasises, is not whether to have enemies, but how to have the right enemy. We also talk about the myth of the Christmas Day truce, problems of 'unity', and why Melissa's job as a pastor isn't "to create a politically diverse church where people share their ideas dispassionately in an attempt towards middle ground or mutual transformation.” We end with a discussion about what the church can offer in a society riddled by inequality, dispossession, and violence and how stepping out to work against the principalities and powers of this world might require us to make ourselves enemies of the community (even the family) in which we were once so lovingly rooted.
Read MoreIn a wide ranging discussion about contextualisation, culture, the gospel, and mission John Flett and Henning Wrogemann detail what can be learnt from (predominately the mistakes) of a century of German mission theology. I was surprised by the manifold ways contemporary language around church, mission, and culture finds its roots in articulations that were developed within and embraced by German National Socialism. The conversation begins with some quick takes on common mission catchphrases and ends with the idea of mission as being - in part - about living together with the stranger.
Read MoreI sat down with Ashwin Thyssen to talk about his work at the intersections of race, sexuality and faith, what it means for him to be part of the 'reformed' movement, and the challenge of doing theology in South Africa when you were born after 1994.
Ashwin Afrikanus Thyssen is a PhD Candidate at Stellenbosch University, in Systematic Theology. His research considers the intersections of race, sexuality, and faith. At present he is also undergoing ministerial training for ordained life in the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa. In short, Ashwin identifies as ontologically black, existentially queer, and spiritually Christian.
Read MoreI sat down with Steff Fenton (they/them, she /her) to talk about church - their experiences, hopes, and call. We also discuss fostering environments where folks can celebrate and explore their sexual and gender identity in conversation with their faith, non-hierarchical leadership, the Sydney church scene, and some of the big changes they hope to see in churches and theological study in the coming years.
Read MoreI sat down with a wonderful group of guests to talk about resolutions: for our own work, for the church, for the academy, for the... a whole lot of things. It was fun.
Read MoreI sat down with David and Sarah to talk about their international jail and prison ministry: Abolition Apostles. We talk about their calling into this work, their letter-writing, advocacy, and why abolition can function as a tent-pole issue for Christians concerned with the impact of racialised capitalism.
David Brazil and Sarah Pritchard are the founding co-pastors of Apostles Fellowship, a nondenominational Christian church, as well as Abolition Apostles (abolitionapostles.org), an international jail and prison ministry based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Find them on Twitter: @AbolitionChurch
Read MoreI sat down with Sara Gillingham to talk about her experience in the church as someone born with intersex traits. We discuss her work with theologians and church leaders in developing conversations and resources, the way the diverse experiences of those born with intersex traits can sometimes be obfuscated in order to be aligned with more ‘hot-button’ church debates, and the frustration of church leaders continuing to make a meal of what are, ultimately, some rather basic hopes.
Read MoreI sat down with Kendall Vanderslice to talk about dinner church, meal based communities, and the community of God. Her excellent book, We Will Feast is out now with Eerdmans and draws on her experience and research within these communities and her own theological and gastronomical reflections.
We talk about why food needs more attention in preaching and theology, eating as delighting in the created order, what kinds of communities and relationships she has seen forged over meals, centring relationships in how we be the church, how the church can address the loneliness epidemic, and the common challenges and surprising solutions posed by these forms of community (especially in light of COVID).
Read MoreLiam sat down with Rev Charissa Suli, a National Consultant with the Uniting Church in Australia's Assembly Resourcing Unit. They discuss resourcing the church for increasingly changing times, working with and in churches that are becoming increasingly multicultural, how the UCA has lived up to its 1985 declaration "we are a multicultural church. We also talk about her work with youth and young adults in the church, what she has learnt in those encounters, and how churches might think about 'growing young.' Finally we talk about church during COVID-19 and what she hopes might stick around once we are allowed to gather again. Hint: a key to all three of these discussions is relationships.
Read MoreI sat down with Brian Brock to talk about his book Wondrously Wounded: Theology, Disability, and the Body of Christ (Baylor University Press, 2019). We discuss his motivation for writing the book, what it was like to try and ‘witness to the witness’ of his son, reclaiming wonder, pre-natal screening and how liberal societies establish norms, the need to be rescued from seeing ourselves as ‘abled’, where the doctrine of sin fits in a theology of disability, the body of Christ as a circulator of divine gifts, and going beyond charity and inclusion.
Read MoreTo celebrate 50 episodes of the Love Rinse Repeat podcast, I interviewed seven guests about Jesus' seven last words from the cross. We discuss what we hear in these words, and how Christ’s final words might speak to a church distanced, isolated, and disrupted.
Guests: Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Laura Jean Truman, Tau'alofa Anga'aelangi, David W. Congdon, Sean Winter, Lauren R.E. Larkin, and W. Travis McMaken.
Read MoreHow does one pick up a Bible and start to read it?
It’s a deceptively complex question. And in the time of COVID19 when many people are reaching for their Bibles outside of their familiar contexts of a worshipping community, shared liturgy and the proclamation of the word, it’s a question well worth considering.
To help us consider it I sat down with two wonderful pastors, authors, and friends of the podcast, Melissa Florer-Bixler and Emmy Kegler. We talk about the questions we bring to scripture and the questions scripture asks of us. I ask about resisting the urge of reading scripture to “come to something” and we discuss how to approach texts that have been used to wound. We cover how the pandemic is re-shaping their ministries and how it feels to have their books turn one.
Read MoreI sat down with Geoff Thompson to talk about his new work, Christian Doctrine: A Guide for the Perplexed (T&T Clark). We talk about the constructive and creative work of doctrine, its role in the church, its range of genres and purposes, the gift it can be in times of conflict and upheaval, the relationship of parts to the whole, and Geoff's excellent proposal of the link between doctrine and the Christian Social Imaginary.
Read MoreI sat down with Hannah Bowman to talk about the Prison Abolition movement and why Christians should get involved. Its a wide-ranging, informative, and impassioned conversation about the reality of prisons, their fundamental flaws, why reform isn't enough, better alternatives which promote responsibility and relational healing, and how churches might get to work.
Be sure to check out the Christians for the Abolition of Prisons website for loads of resources, articles, blogs, and FAQs.
Read MoreA (hopefully) fun, provocative, and encouraging site where I sharing thoughts (blog, talk, video) on faith, world, and self. My name's Liam Miller, I have studied Theology, Social Sciences, and Acting. I enjoy reading radical theology (actually all kinds of theology) and telling stories - the two tend to intertwine on this site.
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