vocational channels archives

Author of “On Getting Out of Bed.”

Many Christians must deal with some sort of mental or emotional suffering. While life is a good creation from a loving God, in a fallen and broken world, normal human life can be really difficult. While we have made tremendous advancements in therapy and psychiatry, the burden of living still comes down to the mundane choices that we each must make each moment, starting with the daily choice to get out of bed.

Our guest on this episode is Dr. O. Alan Noble, the author of On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden and Gift of Living (InterVarsity Press, 2023). This is a book in which Alan sits with us and puts words to our experiences of mental or emotional suffering.

There have been Christians throughout history who God has called to societal activism on behalf of the poor and oppressed. And the power in which they did so was found in their inner faith practices that connected them intimately with God through Christ and His Spirit.

Mae Elise Cannon is the author of Just Spirituality: How Faith Practices Fuel Social Action (IVPress, 2013). As both a historian and a Christian advocate for peace and justice in the Middle East, she explores the direct connection between Christians’ personal relationship with God and their outward actions of kindness, mercy, compassion and advocacy. She looks at how several notable Christian historical figures were able to engage in their societal challenges because of their spiritual practices. Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon is the executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace and an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). Here is our interview with Mae Cannon.

What would you say if you were completely honest with yourself and with God?

Jennifer Dukes Lee leads David and Bob (and you!) on a journey of telling truths, some fun and some painful, through her new book, Stuff I’d Only Tell God: A Guided Journal of Courageous Honesty, Obsessive Truth-Telling, and Beautifully Ruthless Self-Discovery (Bethany House, 2023). With daring questions, provocative lists, and quirky charts and illustrations, this journal is a place to record all the stuff you’d only tell God: ideas, beliefs, secrets, memories, wonderings, and wishes–things that might seem outlandish or outrageous to anyone else but are what make you, you. You’ll find the space and the help you need to unearth the real you, the you that is sometimes buried deep beneath a layer of self-protection.

The Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper famously said these words in a speech he gave when he opened a new university:

“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”

Jessica Joustra and Robert Joustra are the editors of a new book titled Calvinism for a Secular Age: A Twenty-First-Century Reading of Abraham Kuyper’s Stone Lectures (IVP, 2022). It’s a book that features contemporary Christian theologians, historians, scientists, and artists applying to today the concepts Kuyper introduced to America in 1898 in his famous Stone Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary. These lectures, reflecting on the role of the Christian faith in a variety of social spheres, emphasized that our Christian faith addresses every aspect of life. This book seeks to bring those concepts into the 21st Century.

Whether we know it or not, our lives are formed by invisible habits, habits that create in us anxiety, frustration, depression, and exasperation. How do we lean into the promise of the gospel when we remain addicted to our technology, scrolling through our social media feeds, streaming tv and movies at any time and in any place, all the while hurrying to get our work done with increasing demands and deadlines?

Justin Whitmel Earley is the author of two books on creating healthy habits to yoke ourselves to Jesus, The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction (InterVarsity Press, 2019) and Habits of the Household: Practicing the Story of God in Everyday Family Rhythms (Zondervan, 2021).

Everything in Western society teaches us that we belong to nobody but ourselves. This sounds great! We can create our own identities, map out our own lives, and find significance in ourselves. This means that we are entirely responsible for ourselves. But Alan Noble says this overwhelmingly burdens us to try to justify our existence and to create and express our own identities. And society is more than happy to manipulate us as we do so. There is a lot of money to be had in people who are burdened with creating, sustaining, and projecting who they are.

Alan Noble (Ph.D., Baylor University) is Associate Professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University. He is the editor-in-chief of Christ and Pop Culture, and the author of articles and books, including his latest, You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World (InterVarsity Press, 2021).

Honest doubt about what we’ve been taught is a good thing. In fact, healthy deconstruction can create great spiritual growth. But doubt can also lead someone to lose their faith. Our guest says that we can question our faith without losing it.

A. J. Swoboda (PhD, University of Birmingham) is assistant professor of Bible, theology, and world Christianity at Bushnell University. His latest book is After Doubt: How to Question Your Faith without Losing It (Brazos Press, 2021). This book is a much-needed assist to doubters and those of us who are seeking to help them. 

How do we invite God into our everyday work lives? We spend most of our time not at church or in a quiet place, but at work! How do we find God there? In a new book, Working in the Presence of God: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Work (Hendrickson Publishers in partnership with the Theology of Work Project, 2019), co-authors Denise Daniels and Shannon Vandewarker help us to create practices within our work-a-day lives to see where God is already present in our work environment. If we want to be transformed into Christ’s likeness, the great place for that to happen is where we spend so much of our time and energy: Our work.

In this episode, we interview one of the authors of this book. Denise Daniels, Ph.D., was recently appointed the Hudson T. Harrison Professor of Entrepreneurship at Wheaton College.

Our guest on this episode of the Reintegrate Podcast is Sam Van Eman, author of Disruptive Discipleship: The Power of Breaking Routine to Kickstart Your Faith (InterVarsity Press, 2017). As a specialist with the CCO’s Experiential Designs team, Sam creates disruptive and transformational experiences that are designed to jolt us and reorient people so that they can grow in discipleship to Jesus Christ. In this episode, Sam provides insights into how we can get our faith unstuck by intentionally creating space for spiritual growth.

We are blessed to have Sam Van Eman, author of Disruptive Discipleship: The Power of Breaking Routine to Kickstart Your Faith (InterVarsity Press, 2017) on for two episodes. Here, right before Christmas, Sam shares with Bob and Brendan ways we can ignite Christmas hope in the midst of hardship. How can hope be defined by adaptability so that our days are full of Christmas wonder? Sam sparks our imaginations as to how we can do things out of the ordinary for those around us.

What are we saved for?

God’s inviting us to join his mission to reconcile all things back to himself. JR Rozko helps Bob and Brendan understand the connections between salvation, discipleship, and mission. Salvation is the embodied experience of participating in what God is now doing in the world. “Discipleship is less about me trying to be like Jesus, and more about me trying to live my life as though Jesus were me.” JR is the Executive Director of The Telos Collective, a national church leadership training organization of the Anglican Church in North America.

We are experiencing disunity in ever-increasing ways. We are feeling it especially in 2020. What is God’s grand plan? “To unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth!” (Eph 1:10). Dr. Mark Roberts, the Executive Director for the Max De Pree Center for Leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary, wrote a new commentary on Ephesians. He shares with us what Ephesians says the gospel accomplishes: The gospel reintegrates all things, which includes the reintegration of the human race.