The Shift with Colby Martin

SEASON TWO - EPISODE 24: THE SHIFT WITH COLBY MARTIN

What if faith is a dynamic evolving rather than a static arriving?

Well, it is.

And, Colby Martin shares with us just what this means and how we can SHIFT from a conservative understanding of Christianity to a progressive one and still find union with God and others. 

That has been my journey. I grew up in a conservative home, attended conservative churches and youth groups, and thought faith was about having the right answers, knowing the proper doctrine, and sharing the correct truth to others. It was a static arriving, to say the least.

Yet, what I have discovered, and found to be incredibly freeing, is a faith that is dynamic evolving not simply knowing the right doctrine.

I’m so thankful for Colby’s work and giving us the grace to pursue faith, even if it leads us from a conservative to a more progressive Christianity. If we’re honest, I think more of us are on such a journey, but are petrified of being viewed as heretics or unorthodox.

But what if the shift wasn’t heretical, but instead a way to experience a fuller faith and know God in fresh and exciting ways?

This is what Colby and I discuss in this episode of my podcast. I was so excited about this conversation as I’ve been following Colby’s work for many years. I was almost giddy, but I played it cool.

Colby is the author of Unclobber: Rethinking Our Misuse of the Bible on Homosexuality and The Shift: Surviving and Thriving After Moving from Conservative to Progressive Christianity. He also is the co-pastor, with his wife Kate, of Sojourn Grace Collective in San Diego, California as well as host the podcast, The Kate and Colby Show. Be sure to follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as well as get some free stuff on his website. 

I hope this conversation will give you the freedom to explore a shift in your faith, the permission to experience faith in a new way, and the ability to discover the Divine all around you.

As you continue to experience the Shift, one that will ultimately lead you to a dynamic evolving faith, may you have peace, may you have calm, may you have happiness.

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Meditation with Yael Shy

SEASON TWO - EPISODE 23: MEDITATION WITH YAEL SHY

The first time I meditated, tears streamed down my face the entire time.

The second time I meditate, tears again streamed down my face the entire time.

The third, fourth, and fifth time, tears continued to flow.

I turned to meditation when I was completely overwhelmed with life, ministry was unbearable, work was so stressful, and I felt like my faith was having little positive effect on my soul.

And so, with noise-canceling headphones on, I sat alone in a basement of a church building and discovered the incredible power of meditation. It was as if all the stress, anxiety, and feelings of being overwhelmed flowed out of my body through those tears.

Meditation taught me how to relax, how to find peace and calm, gave me a tool to handle anxiety, and became a foundational practice in my life.

In this episode, I have the chance to speak with Yael Shy, who I first met and heard speak at the National Association of College and University Chaplains Annual Conference. She spoke on rest as resistance and revolution, and after hearing it, I knew I needed to get her on this podcast. 

Yael is the Senior Director of NYU’s Global Spiritual Life Center, Founder and Director of MindfulNYU, which is the largest campus-wide mindfulness initiative in the country, and the author of the book, What Now? Meditation for Your Twenties and Beyond.

Available on Amazon, Powell's, or B&N.

Yael shares how meditation has revolutionized her life, rekindled her faith, and allowed her the tools to manage anxiety and stress. For both of us, meditation became a way for us to have a fuller calmer life.

One of her points that struck a deep chord with me was her definition that meditation is ending internal suffering and enhancing love externally. 

At the end of the episode, Yael guides us through a short meditation. I hope that as you meditate with her, you become more aware of any suffering within your mind, the way love can heal you, and the Divine all around you.

You can learn more about Yael on her website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Some books Yael recommends in this episode are: Tea and Cake with Demons and The Way of Tenderness. She also recommends the apps Ten Percent Happier and Journey Live.

As you let life breathe you, seeking to end suffering internally and extend love externally, may you have peace, may you have calm, may you have happiness.

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How Little We Know

In the last few years, I have been immersed in interfaith conversations and partnerships.

It has been SO good for my soul, my faith, and my life’s work.

I’ve regularly attended interfaith clergy gatherings, which are a start of a good joke: A rabbi, an imam, a priest, and a pastor are having lunch together…

Working with students coming from a wide range of religious traditions, listening to podcasts, reading authors from other faiths, and networking other university chaplains from across the country as they minister to students in our pluralistic landscape have greatly impacted every area of my life.

Recently I attended a beautiful webinar, hosted by a religiously diverse group of chaplains, where we looked at contemplative breathing and prayer exercises from different faith traditions. It was beautiful. Afterward, I tweeted:

It humbles me how much Jews, Muslims, Humanists, Buddhists, and Agnostics know about Christianity.

It disappoints me how little Christians know about Judaism, Islam, Humanism, Buddhism, and Agnosticism.

My Christian faith has become deep and expansive the more I have come to understand other traditions. My prayer life has expanded as I have come to learn prayers of other traditions. My spiritual practices have evolved and transformed as I have discovered the ancient practices of other religions.

Through it all, it has brought me a greater respect and appreciation for all religions. It has also encouraged me to hold tight to the beauty of my own religious tradition and live as, I’ve stated elsewhere, a Contemplative Ecumenical.

We Christians know so little and we have much to learn. And, when we do, our faith will thrive, our relationships will grow, and our connection with the Divine will increase.

Tear Them All Down

Take Them All Down. A Metaphor.

I keep thinking about a video of a group of anti-racism protestors who took down a statue in the town of Bristol in the U.K. After toppling the statue, the group of people dragged it down the street and dropped it into the harbor.

The statue was of a 17th-century slave trader named, Edward Colston. You can view the video here.

The statue was erected in 1895.

The statue was torn down in 2020.

For 125 years, this statue paid tribute to an individual, who according to some biographers, was a philanthropist, but who was involved in the transportation of some 84,000 enslaved African women, men, and children from West Africa to the Caribbean and the Americas.

In one interview I saw, people talked about the statue being an assault against Black people, a “kick in the face,” that it represents years of hurt and emotion, is a reminder of a painful history, and a glorification of a person that represents an outright evil reality; one in which Black people were traded and forced into slavery.

Now, I’m not going to comment here on whether such acts are vandalism or ways we can honor indiviudals from history. I simply think tearing down such statues is an apt metaphor for us.

I wish we, as white people, were known for being the ones who tear down such statues. I’ve come to believe that this is a metaphor for our work in dismantling white supremacy, white privilege, racism, and systemic injustice. We need to tear it down, drag ig across town, and throw it in the harbor.

There continue to be systems in our world, thoughts in our minds, biases in which we hold, actions that we will commit, that all stem from slavery. These systems continue to wound our Black neighbors. These systems continue to glorify the past evil of slavery.

And I think it’s time white people dismantle it. I think it’s time we, as white people, tear it all down.

Anything that honors that legacy…we need to tear it down.

A Yearly Contemplative Breakfast with Matt Nightingale

SEASON TWO - EPISODE 22: A YEARLY CONTEMPLATIVE BREAKFAST WITH MATT NIGHTINGALE

Do you have that person who you grab a drink with maybe once a year and it’s as if no time has passed at all? That’s how my friendship with Matt Nightingale has worked.

Matt and I met probably twelve years ago. I think we initially connected through Twitter and our friendship then developed at a yearly conference we attended. It became our yearly tradition where we’d always have breakfast together during the conference. Our breakfast always ended up being hours of conversation and countless cups of coffee. 

In this episode of The Why Behind the What, I have the privilege of interviewing my friend and colleague, Matt Nightingale.  He is a pastor, spiritual director, an educator, ted-talker, musician, father, and does a lot of work surrounding spirituality and sexuality. He has a profound journey and his story is incredible. He has become known for his TEDx Talk with his former wife that shares part of his painful and redemptive story of being in a mixed-oriented marriage for 23 years and coming out during his mid-forties.

In this episode we talk about the importance of contemplative spirituality, spiritual direction, the restrictive teachings of fundamentalism, and how after deconstructing beliefs we didn’t really believe we were opened to finding God in new and incredible experiences.

I hope you’ll find our conversation to be as enjoyable as I did.

You can connect with Matt on his website. You can also follow him on  Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. A few people and resources we mentioned in this podcast are: Steve Wiens, The Journey Center, Quest Novato, Eva Sullivan Knoff, Joanna Quintrell, The Christian Closet.

And, as you discover a faith that you can truly believe in, one where you journey with others through contemplative practices that can be a healing balm to your soul, may you have peace, may you have calm, may you have happiness.

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The Theological Lines

In 1951, a study was undertaken at Swarthmore College. In it, Solomon Asch tested social influence and conformity with some pretty astounding results.

The individuals taking part in the study found themselves in small groups with several people. All of them were shown a line of a certain length. Then, they were asked to match the line with three other lines. The individuals were unaware that all the other people in the room were a part of the study. The members of the study were told to give completely incorrect answers.

In the study, three-quarters of the individuals went along and agreed with the obviously false results at least once. That is, when the majority of the group had a wrong answer, they often went along with the group even though they knew the answer to be false.

Can you imagine being a part of this study? How frustrating or insane would you feel knowing that the lines in front of you were obviously the same length, yet the group kept saying it was wrong.

I couldn’t help but think about this exact study in the context of religion and theological beliefs.

There are a lot of lines that have been drawn in certain Christian circles. They pertain to particular beliefs and doctrines. Some are essential while others are non-essential. Many require agreement while others allow for disagreement.

Too often, though, I think Christians have just gone along with the majority without thinking through whether the lines actually match. Or, in their questioning of a particular theological line, they are seen as a heretic, completely unorthodox, or outright wrong.

But sometimes, the group is wrong and, in our fear of going against the group dynamics, we go along with them. We think there is no possibility that one can think differently than the group.

I recently was talking with a student on campus who had a similar experience. Being a part of the same church for her entire life, she sensed the lines did not match up even though the entire church said they did. All that she was experiencing in culture, in college, and her own faith life, things were not lining up. She said felt such shame for thinking differently about a few particular theological topics and it brought her a great sense of anxiety that she could be wrong or out of line with her local church.

In our conversation, I shared that millions of Christians, entire denominations actually, believed what she thought was an unorthodox or wrong belief.

When I told her this, you could see her breathe such relief that she wasn’t alone in her thoughts.

Somtimes, the lines match up.

And sometimes, it means we have to go against the group.

Contemplative Listening with Megan Westra

SEASON TWO - EPISODE 21: CONTEMPLATIVE LISTENING WITH MEGAN WESTRA

On this episode of the podcast, I have the privilege of interviewing Megan Westra.

Megan is a pastor in Milwaukee, WI, author of the soon-to-be-released book, Born Again and Again: Jesus’ Call to Radical Transformation, host of the Podluck Podcast, and is an advocate for the marginalized, voiceless, and those who need hope. I stumbled upon Megan’s work thanks to Twitter and have been following her and her work for a while. 

Her personal faith journey has led her from very conservative southern baptist routes to a contemplative faith that leads to action and equity. And in this episode we touch on centering prayer, lectio divina, and silence as ways to encounter God in fresh ways. 

One of the greatest insights I gained from this conversation was from a brief comment Megan made about finding God in the silence.

Now, I’ve often heard that in silence, we can hear the still small voice of the Divine. There are ancient scriptures that speak to this point. However, what Megan states in this episode is that in the silence God is.

So, silence and stillness does not necessarily mean the absence of God.

Nor does silence and stillness mean we can maybe, just maybe, hear the still small voice of God.

But it means that in the silence and stillness God is.

I don’t know about you, but that is refreshingly good news to me. It’s great to reminded that silence and stillness are not a barrier to encountering God, but are ways to encountering God.

Therefore, stillness, silence, and contemplative practices are a way to complete reorient our lives to encounter God in all places and at all times.

If you enjoy this episode, please be sure to rate and review this podcast on Apple Podcasts as it enables more people to see the podcast. As always, this podcast was recorded and edited on Monocan Land. 

As you discover the richness of lectio divina, journey to a faith that takes you places you never thought imaginable, and discover the Divine within the silence and stillness, may you have peace, may you have calm, may you have happiness.

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