A New Short-form Advent Podcast from Custer Road United Methodist Church

Exclusive to listeners of The Story That Writes Us, here is a teaser episode from the new Advent podcast, the Audio Advent Calendar! There will be new episodes daily, Dec 1 – 24. You can go to AudioAdventCalendar.com, or look up Audio Advent Calendar in your podcast app.

Episode 19

What an incredible privilege. I’ve been wanting to tell this story for quite a while! It’s the story of a group of men who have known each other for decades. They get together for an annual getaway, and somehow, story telling has become a planned and integral part of their time together. I know this, because I’m one of those men.

Episode 18

Dave Smithey was once an engineer, running his life on the corporate treadmill. But when he got thrown off of that treadmill, it gave him a chance to re-evaluate and re-tool his life. Hear his story, and learn how his travels have impacted his faith, and how he experiences the awe of the majesty of God and leads others to do the same.

Episode 17

Heather Lundy and her husband Alex were church planters and worship leaders in the Fort Worth area. But over time and through some unique circumstances, Heather has moved into an unlikely place: the world of high fashion. And in this, the unlikeliest of places, she lives out her faith and is a light. 

 

Episode 16

“Home isn’t a place that has a door and a roof and windows. It’s where you’re welcomed as you are, welcomed unconditionally.” – Doug Nichols

Doug Nichols got off the career treadmill. “I gave up on being burned out,” he says. He now gives all of himself and all of his time towards helping to alleviate homelessness, a problem that is surprisingly common in an area of great wealth.

Episode 15

This Sunday (Jan 15, 2023) is the 14th anniversary of one of the most storied events in commercial aviation history. When an airplane lost both of its engines and had to land in the Hudson River, the nation was riveted.

Mike Kollmansberger was on that plane, and his first-person account is compelling. Mike tells not just the story of that day, but also how it has impacted his faith and perspective in the years since.

Episode 14

John Zenor is the Associated Press sports writer who covers sports in the state of Alabama. Some clips of John were used in Episode 10 of this podcast, but John and I talked about so much more. I decided to do a stand-alone episode with John, where we hear about how a sports writer works hard to find and tell stories, how he became a writer, the role his faith plays in his work, and about the powerful influence of a mentor.

Episode 13

“To become a better performer means to become a better person.” This is a guiding principle that was repeated throughout my interview with DeAnna Stone, who is a director with North Texas Performing Arts, a Dallas-area youth theater organization. DeAnna’s philosophy for theater, and the seamless way she integrates the values of her faith with theater, is something we can all learn from, whether we are active in the arts or not.

Episode 12

What possibly led Jason Huwe and his wife Michelle to leave their nice midwestern life and move to a teeny tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? And is island life all it’s cracked up to be?

Jason Huwe joins the podcast this week, telling about how they reached the decision to move, and how this decision ultimately transformed them, giving them the strength to trust God so much more in the future.

Preston Poore spent a career working in the consumer products industry, capped by more than 20 years with Coca-Cola Company.

It’s football season!

And for those of us who are fans, we’re not just watching the score. We’re following story lines, lines that are etched deep. Where does this come from? Why do we care so much? And what does this have to say about God?

A panel of experts include a super fan, a sports writer, a university athletics director, and a pastor/author.

Season 2, Episode 1

Reports don’t look good. Young people are fleeing organized religion and faith in droves. Church attendance post-Covid has not recovered. The “Rise of the Nones” – people who check “none” on forms asking for their religious affiliation – is a real thing.

So when I heard one of our church staff bragging on some of our young adults at the church, I wanted to find out where this was coming from.

In 1992, I traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine with a campus ministry. This podcast is the audio of a sermon I delivered just a few weeks ago, recounting what I saw and experienced on this trip. Photos that I reference in the sermon are below. And for the full experience, you can always watch a video of the sermon, posted below.

Can stories play a part in healing?

Trauma is a reality for many people. And we’re often unequipped to know how to respond when we see it in others.

More than 300,000 kids have been in a school when a shooting took place since Columbine. Let that sink in. There are those who may be killed or wounded by bullets, but there are hundreds of thousands who experience trauma, which affects us psychologically, physiologically, and spiritually.

Steve Hogue did what many children dream of doing: He ran off and joined the circus. And not just any circus, but The Greatest Show on Earth. He became a clown with Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus.

This podcast is about story telling in its many forms. And clowning is indeed a story telling medium. Steve’s a scholar of the history of clowns and the circus, and shares his story of becoming a clown, what makes something funny, and even the story told through the makeup a clown chooses to wear.

Darin Leonardson is an amazing chef. He has helmed the kitchens at gourmet restaurants in Seattle, ran the kitchens in 5 different buildings across Google’s campus, and now works as a consultant and menu designer for seniors.

And he loves to serve. He gets so much joy by feeding people. And I got to receive this blessing as he cooked for me at his house and talked about his background and his fath.

In a world of rapid cultural and technological change, how do we faithfully worship and share the good news of Jesus Christ?

The global pandemic brought online worship of thousands of congregations to homes and people for the first time. To build on the incredible momentum, we cannot go backwards, says my guest and friend Jason Moore.

Welcome to the second episode of this new podcast!

In this podcast, you’ll hear about Mandalorians, theologians, and children with a sense of wonder.

In this podcast, I reference N. T. Wright. I love his podcast, “Ask N. T. Wright Anything.” Listen through your podcast app, or visit the website. 

Surprised by Hope is NT Wright’s most popular work.

Welcome to the first episode of this new podcast!

In this podcast, you’ll learn about the name of the show and what it means. Then we’ll dive into an exploration of story telling, and talk about why it’s so import that for us who tell stories (spoiler alert: that’s a broader category than you might think) need to let our faith inform our stories.