The Urban Mystic Podcast: Conversation about Deconstructing Church, the Problem of Godde, and Cultivating Relational Spirituality
Episodes
Thursday Sep 15, 2022
Thursday Sep 15, 2022
In this week’s episode we take a break from our current exploration of foundational values for relational spirituality, to feature a guest, Jackie Barker. In many ways this episode reflects the kinds of conversations we have with our listeners.
Jackie is a Presbyterian minister in Johannesburg, South Africa, and runs a foster home, Omphile House, where they give a small group of children their ‘forever home’. Please support this initiative (link below) - as this family is doing amazing work and it is a cause close to both my and Tim's heart.
In this episode we spend much time teasing out the experience of “abandonment”.
How are we understanding abandonment?
Is there room for growth in relationship when we experience a stepping away?
But what if there’s been no experience of God's presence? How do we then understand that...?
Omphile House
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Thursday Sep 08, 2022
Thursday Sep 08, 2022
In this episode we dive into another of our key values: intimacy with God.
Though we can draw on a number of analogies from our human-to-human relationships these often support the idea that God is practically distant and that engagement with God constitutes a peak or mountaintop experience. This is, however, untrue as the image of intimacy is presented by God to us as the true depths of what a relationship with God can be like and what we can attain in this life. Are we perhaps selling ourselves short and substituting faith and limerance for genuine relationship? And, if so, what beginnings do we make at exploring and establishing intimacy with God as our highest and deepst value?
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Sunday Sep 04, 2022
Sunday Sep 04, 2022
When editing this episode I noted that we spoke a lot about "deep listening" which mirrors the mystics saying a tremendous amount about "silence". This sparked a conversation and Steve suggested we speak of this value as "active silence". This works really well and helps us distinguish our value for "active silence" from the priority and practice of "reflective listening" in our one-on-one sessions and "deep listening" in group sessions.
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Thursday Aug 25, 2022
Thursday Aug 25, 2022
"I want to be right there at the coal face of meaning because I think that’s the truest true: to be there in the meaning at the depths of the relationship."
– Steve Carter
In this episode we dive into one of our key values: storytelling.
Storytelling is vital to Relational Spirituality as its vital to relational depth. We all live in relation to stories, and yet we can live more in relation to stories than to the people those stories are about. And, we also often live more in relation to our own story and so can bound to it and lost within our own self.
The art of storytelling lies in self-discovery and then the sharing of this discovery with others. Through storytelling we can arrive at the true depth of living and loving and enter deeply into our relationships.
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Thursday Aug 18, 2022
Thursday Aug 18, 2022
In this episode we entertain the possibility of beginning from the ground up with the individual focusing on values which translate into priorities and practices. We also consider the introduction of processes into existing communities centred around the activities of doing church.
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Thursday Aug 11, 2022
Thursday Aug 11, 2022
We continue tackling this foundation block of preaching in this second exploration of preaching and process. Preaching is often seen as a non-negotiable when it comes to church/spiritual community practice, with a huge value placed on it’s ability to transform individuals and groups.
This episode considers the difference between preaching and process. We explore the way that trust rests in the preacher with preaching and with the participants and God with processes. We also explore how process can be added to or fit into the context of church as is, and yet that there's a need for and hope in a new paradigm centred on process and participation.
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Friday Jul 29, 2022
Friday Jul 29, 2022
We continue tackling this foundation block of preaching in this second exploration of preaching and process. Preaching is often seen as a non-negotiable when it comes to church/spiritual community practice, with a huge value placed on it’s ability to transform individuals and groups.
This episode considers the relation between preaching and the presence of God.
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Friday Jul 22, 2022
Friday Jul 22, 2022
Following the episode on the Bible, Tim and Steve tackle one of the next foundation blocks in institutional religion: preaching. It is often seen as a non-negotiable when it comes to church/spiritual community practice, with a huge value placed on it’s ability to transform individuals and groups.
- Why is it seen as the pinnacle of so much community practice?
- Why the high value attributed to it’s transformative ability?
- What are some of our personal experiences of preaching and it’s impact?
- What are some of the possible egos and agendas at play in a church dynamic that keeps preaching at the top of the practice pyramid?
This episode puts down some thinking and possibilities on which a subsequent episode can build and focus on how process and embodied relational spirituality may provide much more than preaching in both it’s transformative efficacy and self & community relational integrity.
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Friday Jul 01, 2022
Friday Jul 01, 2022
In this episode Tim and Steve take their first aim at the question of "What do you have to say about the Bible?"
This is a deeply complex subject, so this is both a stand alone episode within Season 5, but also must be understood as an introductory take on this important and multifaceted conversation.
We hope you enjoy it, and would love to hear your thoughts in response.
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Wednesday Jun 22, 2022
Wednesday Jun 22, 2022
We're sharing our own experience of God. This is by way of example of how deep and real these conversations can go.
This episode is the conversation that follows the morning after Steve shared his early experience of God with Tim.
If you'd like to explore your journey with us, contact us via the form on our website. The link is below.
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