16 episodes
A Broken Hallelujah Andrew Gardener
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- Religion & Spirituality
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4.8 • 11 Ratings
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A Broken Hallelujah explores the intersect of faith and suffering, of being truly honest, vulnerable and authentic in the hardest moments of life. Hosted by Andrew Gardener, each episode features a guest who has faced significant challenges and through them has had to wrestle deeply with God. These are conversations on faith for people with a limp.
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S2: Ep3 Kate Cameron Reid - Raising Children in the Shadow of Death
In episode 3 of Season 2, I have the great honour of speaking to Kate Cameron Reid who recently lost her husband to an aggressive form of cancer and is now raising her two children as a single mother. Kate's resilience, love, and hope in the midst of great suffering is truly inspiring. In this wide ranging chat, we cover such topics as the importance of sacred spaces for healing, the role of meditation in the processing of suffering, and the power there is in a faith rooted in the practical and prophetic. We also speak about how she has helped guide her children in the processing of their father's passing, and how they keep alive his love and presence in the aftermath of his death. May Kate's inspiring way of life bring hope and fresh joy to your own.
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S2:Ep2 Dave Gotts - Death and the Goodness of God
In our second episode of season 2 we interview Dave Gotts on his journey of losing both his son and his wife to cancer. Dave speaks candidly about his wrestling with the question of whether God is truly good or not, and how he struggled deeply with a sense of trust in God's intentions and love as he faced the abject pain of watching his family suffer. Dave also connects us to his work with children with disabilities through his organisation International China Concern and how he has learnt so much about the nature of God's heart from those so often rejected by society. Through such a devastating season of life, Dave's insights give us hope, inspiration, and strength.
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S2:Ep1 Shane Claiborne - Suffering As Solidarity
In our premiere episode of Season 2, we speak to activist, author and incarnational sojourner Shane Claiborne on a life given over to living with some of the most marginalised and impoverished people in the world. Shane speaks about his time working in Calcutta with Mother Teresa, his passion for non-violence, his work with those on death row, and why he has made it his focus to speak up against gun violence in the US. Shane speaks candidly about his experience of walking with those who are constantly living in suffering and how faith plays a central role in being able to both relate and learn from those on the margins.
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Ep 13: Misty Prinsen - Pregnancy, Disability, and the Value of Life
In our 13th episode we speak with Misty Prinsen, a foster mother and family advocate based in Auckland New Zealand. A few years ago Misty discovered she was carrying a severely disabled child and doctors recommended a termination of her pregnancy. The suggestion led her into a complete re-evaluation of her concept of the value of life, children, and her faith. Misty speaks candidly and openly about an important and critical topic, wrestling with the realities of raising a child with special needs and the balance of believing for a miracle while accepting God's will regardless of the outcome. We are so grateful for her honesty and vulnerability, and know after listening you will be challenged to reconsider whether you might be drawing the boundaries of you own family too small.
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Ep 12: Mohammed Saleh - Terrorism, Refugees, A New Home
In this episode I have the great privilege of speaking with Mohammed Salah, an Egyptian who fled the Muslim Brotherhood and sought asylum as a refugee in Hong Kong. Our conversation spans the story of the Arab Spring uprising, his previous life working in the Pharmaceutical industry, the persecution and abuse that came on him during the revolution, his need to flee his country and home, and the challenges of beginning a completely new life in a foreign country. Mohammed shares openly about his Islamic upbringing, the pain of seeing his family persecuted, his commitment to integrity, the heartbreak of leaving behind his home, and yet the new hope he has discovered in his recently found Christian faith. Mohammed's story might be personal to him, but it also represents hundreds of thousands of similar stories of Asylum Seekers around the world at this time, making our conversation relevant for all of us as we consider how best to embrace the broken communities of our cities.
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Ep 11: Andy Squyres - Music, Suffering & Honesty
On our 11th episode we speak to Andy Squyres on song writing, faith, honesty, suffering and hope. Andy is a pastor and musician based in Charlotte North Carolina who writes incredibly powerful, open, raw, and honest music for those of faith seeking to find a language to their real and human experiences. Our conversation spans such diverse topics as what is currently missing from the American evangelical church, what suffering is truly like, how the murder of a friend became the basis of his first record, why his lyrics are intentionally raw and thought-provoking, and his thoughts on what the world needs from creatives in this time. You can find out more about Andy and his music on his instagram: @andysquyres
Customer Reviews
An Exceptional Podcast, Especially in Troubled Times
Suffering is not easy.
Suffering comes in many forms, wears many faces, and affects us all differently. Many treatments of suffering, from academic studies and biblical commentaries to the everyday advice we get from friends, family, and mentors, focus on how to ignore, fight through, cope with, or even resign ourselves to our afflictions. In other words, the advice we get is often focused on transcending, or getting past, the suffering we all encounter in life. Many of the shows, articles, podcasts, films, (etc.) that deal with suffering of one kind or another also seem to present the sufferings of others in ways that allow or even encourage us to consume them as entertainment.
In A Broken Hallelujah, Andrew Gardner offers us something quite different. Andrew doesn’t minimize the incredibly difficult and painful things his guests have gone through, nor does he encourage us to dwell on these ordinary and extraordinary events for their own sake. Rather, through rich conversations with people from different backgrounds and perspectives, Andrew invites us to inhabit the spaces where suffering is met with a wide variety of other forces, emotions, practices, and experiences. There’s hope in these stories that is very real, tempered by harsh and potent realities of pain, disappointment, and loss. Across the range of experiences explored so far (I write this review early in the show’s second series), an overarching message seems to be that there’s not one right way to find and wrestle with God in the midst of our struggles. Each of the guests, and the host, instead invite us to learn from their stories of being in relationship with Him in quite different ways, and how these relationships come to change through experiences of suffering, often but not always in highly unexpected ways.
These stories are rich, deep, personal, heavy, dark, beautiful, and challenging. I am thankful to Andrew and his guests for sharing them, and I hope that he and they continue to have the ability and the courage to make this inspirational programme for many years to come.