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Make a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land with the Living Church
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Why do we go on pilgrimage? And why do Christians go on pilgrimage to England? Today is Part 2 of an exploratory episode. Warm up your tea, study your map, and head out with us!
Make a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land with the Living Church
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While working on Part 2 of the English Pilgrimage episode, TLC had a conversation we couldn't wait to share with you. Bonus episode!
How do people in leadership, in high-performance vocations, get the spiritual and emotional care they need? Who do pastors go to for counsel, friendship, to confess, to get their most uncensored, hot off the press thoughts and feelings off their chests? Where do they go to get loving correction? And when no one is readily available, how can they care for their inner lives in the meantime? These are some of the questions we put to our guest today, the Rev. Dr. Matthew Hoskinson. 
Matthew is an ordained minister, a cancer survivor, a marathon runner, and a certified coach. After 15 years of pastoral ministry mostly in NYC, he now works for Redeemer City to City as the director of the City Ministry Program, a transformative urban education for the next generation of Christian leaders. He provides coaching, spiritual direction, and mentoring for leaders and ministers across the country. (And he will be one of the speakers at our preaching conference in November in New York City!)

We won't even bill your insurance for this. We hope you enjoy the conversation.

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Join us (and Matthew) in NYC for Preaching in a Post-Christian Age. 
Learn more about Matthew.

Join our pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Why do we go on pilgrimage? For an educational vacation? To get in touch with the past? To walk barefoot to a shrine or encounter a saint? To ask for a miracle? And why, if Christians are going to go on pilgrimage anywhere, do they go on pilgrimage to England?
Yes, it’s a magical land of meat pies, forests, fairies, and saints with a distinctly British flavor. How do our expectations of England, especially for Anglophiles, meet an answer in the actual place? 
To go on a pilgrimage is about expectation. In the middle ages, when pilgrims would come from all over Europe to the shrine of St. Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey, they would kneel inside a cool cavity carved out of the brilliantly-decorated stone, to get as close to Edward’s bones as they could. Before leaving they’d chip off a tiny bit of mosaic. We go on pilgrimage to stand somewhere in the broken and colorful light of Christian history, and to take away souvenirs, be they answered prayers or vintage prayer books. And we certainly bring expectations.
Today’s episode is a story about expectations and souvenirs – the hoped for, and the found – on an English pilgrimage with a diverse set of American Anglicans. Anglophiles beware. You may get more than you bargained for.
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Learn more about Preaching in a Post-Christian Age.
Youth group. Sunday school. Church camp. What's your reaction to these words? Do you get a nostaglic smile on your face? Do you have a mild cardiac infarction? Whether you've led a youth ministry or not, we've all been teens, and many, many of us have memories associated with teen formation in different Christian contexts. From pies in the face for Jesus, to inductive Bible studies, to folk music and popcorn prayer, there have been many ways to approach ministry to young people. Do we get really serious, down to the no-funny-business of Christian discipleship and life transformation? Or do we hang out with pizza and some games, and pray, with a lot of grace, and no pressure, that something happens, eventually, God-wise?  
Turns out, ministry to teens is about sensing how to strike a wise balance, and it's a lot about our own security and maturity as a Christian adults. Today we'll talk about: the importance of the heart and feelings in teen catechesis; how to engage teens emotionally without making it all about feelings; how to invite questions that drive into the faith rather than away from it; how we can have confidence and clarity without harshness; and why we should love the Bible more than good behavior. 

Taking us to this magical land of youth ministry is Melina Luna Smith. Melina is executive director of Storymakers, a not-for-profit creative studio that designs imaginative resources for kids and teens, including Bible- and creed-immersive zines. She is deep in lay ministry at the Parish of Calvary St. George’s in New York City, and loves working at the intersections of design, beauty, and imagination for the good of communities and the kingdom of God.

If you like this conversation, join us at Calvary St. George's for our preaching conference in New York this November, for a refresher and refreshing course in communicating God's Word. You might even get to meet Melina. (She happens to be married to the rector.)

Now put on your most normal-looking mom jeans and grab your Bible. It's time to be exactly yourself with young people and share the gospel in a real and lasting way. It's possible. Maybe not even that complicated. We hope you enjoy the conversation. 
Check out Storymakers.
Learn more about Preaching in a Post-Christian Age.

Can you name the five senses? Now for all five of those senses, when's the last time an experience of worship full-throttle delighted you? Was it a special service, like Christmas, a special day, like your wedding day? Was it the first time you experienced the worship tradition you now call home? Has it been awhile?
God loves our bodies, and God wants to engage us and delight us, every bit of us, in worship of him. How do we know God loves our bodies? And if Jesus' ministry was so concerned with bodies, why have Christians been so attracted to gnosticism? How can God's nonverbal communication skills help us with conflict? How do our bodies belong in worship, how do we know what to do with them? Where do we get the idea the quiet and stillness always mean reverence, and when might we need to shake that up?
We welcome the Rev. Dr. W. David O. Taylor onto the show. David is associate professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary, and has been an artist, a pastor, and a pastor to artists. As an Anglican priest, he has lectured on the arts, from Thailand to South Africa. In 2016 he produced a short film on the psalms with Bono and Eugene Peterson. You can find that film, his several books on theology, the arts, and worship, and collaborations with his artist wife, Phaedra, at wdavidotaylor.com. 
Today we'll be riffing on his work represented in his latest book, A Body of Praise: Understanding the Role of Our Physical Bodies in Worship.
And you can find a review of his book in our latest issue of the magazine, August 2023. Subscribe now at livingchurch.org to enjoy that issue digitally today. 
Register for Preaching in a Post-Christian Age. 
Learn more about David Taylor's work.

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Join us in the Holy Land in 2024
Today we are headed to the Republic of Texas to talk to the new rector of Church of the Incarnation in Dallas. He shared time with us from his new office to chat about inter-Anglican relationships and what he sees as signs of hope, how bread and butter daily ministry is both the past and future of the Church, and what gifts Anglican spirituality offers particularly to our moment. We also talk about how being influenced by other Christian traditions can shape the way we embrace our own and can help us be present as fruitful, non-anxious presences in the body of Christ.
Before becoming rector of Incarnation, the Rev. Dr. Christopher Beeley served as the Director of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies and the Jack and Barbara Bovender Professor of Theology, Anglican Studies and Ministry at Duke Divinity School. Before joining the Duke faculty, he taught for 16 years at Yale Divinity School. The author of several books, Christopher regularly consults on leadership and program development and speaks nationally and internationally on Christian theology, spirituality, and church leadership. 
Now find your biggest cowboy hat, and your copy of Julian of Norwich or Jeremy Taylor, and settle in. We hope you enjoy the conversation.
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Join us in the Holy Land in 2024