Get Your Spirit in Shape - United Methodist Podcast United Methodist Communications
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- Religion & Spirituality
We know that exercise and good nutrition help keep us physically healthy. Unfortunately, we don’t always follow through. Our spiritual lives are similar. We know what we need to grow as Christians, but sometimes we struggle. Get Your Spirit in Shape is a free, 30-minute, monthly podcast from United Methodist Communications featuring conversations with leaders, authors, and others who offer spiritual nutrition and exercises for our everyday lives. Join us as we get—and keep—our spirits in shape.
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The path to General Conference: One delegate’s story
Jessica Vittorio is a lawyer by trade, someone who spends her workdays amid conflict and difficult settings. As a lay delegate at the upcoming General Conference, the lifelong United Methodist knows the business of the church also can be challenging at times. But what she has found while preparing for the denomination’s largest legislative gathering is that General Conference is where we can remember our connectionalism, often engaging in difficult, yet vital conversations, as we recognize our relevance in the world.
More information and a full transcript of this conversation are available here.
Stay updated on the 2020 General Conference at this link.
Have a question or comment? Email us at gysis@umcom.org
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God’s gift, our responsibility
In late 2023, the Rev. Emily Carroll from Shady Grove United Methodist Church in rural Louisiana, traveled to the United Arab Emirates to meet up with 100,000 attendees of the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Rev. Emily shares about her experience, the hopeful takeaways and what we all can do to be better stewards of God’s creation, because, as she puts it, this conversation affects all people.
More information and a full transcript of this conversation are available here.
Have a question or comment? Email us at gysis@umcom.org
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Retirement + power tools + RV = NOMADS
A nomadic life may conjure images of aimlessly traveling with no sense of destination. For lifelong United Methodists Tammy and Rodney Ripley, who have been NOMADS for several years, their lives are far from aimless and destinations are denomination-related churches, camps and other sites where the couple joins fellow retirees to offer hope in the way of construction and other general repairs.
More information and a full transcript of this conversation are available here.
Have a question or comment? Email us at gysis@umcom.org
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Discovering thin places: How to encounter God in everyday life
The phrase, “thin places,” dates back to the ancient Celts who used it to describe those times when we feel closest to the God, as if the veil between the natural world and spiritual world becomes very thin. The Rev. Jane Ellen Nickell discusses how to discover these sacred spaces in our own lives where we can encounter God in a real and near way.
More information and a full transcript of this conversation are available here.
Have a question or comment? Email us at gysis@umcom.org
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Love yourself: A fresh perspective on 1 Corinthians 13
1 Corinthians Chapter 13 often is referred to as the “love chapter.” Following the verses as a checklist of what love is, we might find that we’re better at loving others than we are at loving ourselves. But to practice the commandment that Jesus calls out as the second most important – Love your neighbor as yourself – it might be worthwhile to look at some of those verses from 1 Corinthians – “love is patient,” “Love is kind,” for the definition of self-love. Laurin Allred, a cradle United Methodist, joins us on “Get Your Spirit in Shape” for the conversation and challenges us to read the “love chapter” through a different lens.
More information and a full transcript of this conversation are available here.
Have a question or comment? Email us at gysis@umcom.org
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Meet Bishop Tom Berlin
This “Get Your Spirit in Shape” episode is part of our “Meet a bishop” series.
Bishop Tom Berlin, a lifelong United Methodist who grew up near Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, credits his local church with creating a strong sense of community in his life. Following a call when he was a summer camp counselor, the 2022 elected bishop to the Florida Conference also is a prolific author. His newest book, “The Third Day: Living the Resurrection,” examines the lives of those most impacted by Jesus’ final days and how the transformative hope they found remains available for us 2000 years later.
More information and a full transcript of this conversation are available here.
Have a question or comment? Email us at gysis@umcom.org
Connect with The United Methodist Church by visiting UMC.org.