Things Abov‪e‬ Apprentice Institute

How do we increase grace? As we learned in episode 98, grace is God’s action in our lives. James Bryan Smith explains how we can increase the grace of God in our lives through spiritual disciplines. Richard Foster was the first person to explain to James about the spiritual disciplines. The spiritual disciplines (prayer, solitude, […]

Our guest for this episode is, Fr. Richard Rohr. Richard is a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico Province. He is the founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation and academic dean of the CAC’s Living School. An internationally recognized author and spiritual leader, Fr. Richard teaches primarily on incarnational mysticism, nondual consciousness, and […]

The thought from above in this episode is: “Create Space for Grace.” James Bryan Smith continues with his key ideas that are essential to Christian spiritual formation. These last five episodes are foundational for what this podcast is all about, setting our mind on things above. Smith begins the episode by explaining the importance of […]

James Bryan Smith’s thought from above for this episode is: “say no to say yes.” James learned this thought from above while under the tutelage of Richard Foster. Richard explained to James that whenever we say yes to something, we are also saying no to other things. Foster continued to explain to Jim that typically […]

James Bryan Smith and John Mark Comer have a Things Above conversation! In this episode James and John talk about a multitude of topics including; sexuality, theology, spiritual formation and more. Smith and Comer both explain the impact and importance of spiritual practices and how we can integrate them into our daily lives. Both James […]

In this episode, James Bryan Smith’s thought from above is: “Keep it simple, saint.” We are a few weeks into the new year and many of us have a new year’s resolution. Smith points out that 95% of all new year’s resolutions are broken by the end of January. This is an alarming fact but […]