Attaching to God connects relational neuroscience and attachment theory to our life of faith so you can grow into spiritual and relational maturity. Co-host Geoff Holsclaw (PhD, pastor, and professor) and Cyd Holsclaw (PCC, spiritual director, and integrative coach) talk with practitioners, therapists, theologians, and researchers on learning to live with ourselves, others, and God. Get everything in your inbox or on the app: https://www.grassrootschristianity.org/s/embodied-faith
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Meaningful and transformative conversations about important issues facing the local church today. Hosted by Pastors Brady Boyd and Andrew Arndt of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, CO. More information can be found at TheEssential.Church
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On The Art of Stability, join host Rusty McKie and friends as they discuss navigating the instability of life and what it takes for them to stay grounded in Christ so they can go the distance in life and work.
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In a world where mental health issues and loneliness are at an all-time high, it’s more important than ever to find ways to cultivate joy, community, and meaning in our lives. But how exactly do you do that? Maybe we need to turn outward rather than inward for answers. That's what we are talking about with Dr. Richard Beck. Dr. Richard Beck is a pr…
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095 Healing What's Within (with Dr. Chuck DeGroat)
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Like many of us, you carry a weight of buried pain. You feel secretly fractured within. There’s a constant churn of unprocessed feelings of shame, anger, grief, or loneliness. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Chuck DeGroat is the Professor of Counseling and Christian Spirituality and Executive Director of the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Pr…
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094 Strange Religion and the First Believers (with Nijay Gupta)
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The first Christians were weird. Just how weird is often lost on us today. The first Christians believed unusual things, worshiped God in strange ways, and lived a unique lifestyle. Many in the ancient world saw it as bizarre, even dangerous, but some found this new religion attractive and compelling Today we are interviewing Dr. Nijay K. Gupta. He…
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093 Why You Haven't Given Up on the Soul If Speaking About the Brain (Jim Wilder)
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Everyone is talking about slowing down, slow food, a slow life. I have friends who host the “Slow Theology” podcast. But is going slow the best to understand the SOUL? (What does that even mean?) Recently, people like Jim Wilder have been specifically accused to talking too much about the brain, and not even about the soul. So much so that some bel…
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"Freedom appears very nearly the only value about which people still agree unanimously," says Jacques Philippe in his little book, Interior Freedom. But how does freedom connect to happiness, love, and our life with God and others? These are the questions this little firecracker of a book examines, and that we talk about in this two-part series. We…
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Episode 167: A Conversation with Brady Boyd
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In this episode, Brady and Andrew sit down to talk about Brady's newest book "Life-Minded," and the challenge of unity.
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091 How A Psychologist Came to Believe in Miracles…and More (Book Conversation)
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Geoff and Cyd talk about the impact of reading Why I Believe: A Psychologist's Thoughts on Suffering, Miracles, Science, and Faith, by Dr. Henry Cloud, specifically... the place of miracles and healing in mental health concerns, how encountering God often precedes evidence for God, and, the power of open systems and God at work in the world. From t…
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090 Risky Play, Fun, and the Life of Faith
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Why do kids climb trees, run really fast, and spin until they fall over? What is the benefit of risky play? And what does that have to do with attaching to God and our spiritual life? In this episode, we look at the research regarding play and how it connects to attaching to God. Baggage Claim: Don't miss the new segment where we finish by claiming…
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089: Our Attachment Wounds and God's Promise (with Summer Joy Gross)
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Emmanuel—God with us. We have heard this promise of God’s presence. But might our attachment wounds skew, distort, or hinder us from embracing this reality? Do we live as slaves to our attachment strategies rather than as beloved children of God? And how can we learn to do something different in our spiritual lives? Summer Joy Gross is an Anglican …
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088: Don't Do Nothing about Mental Health in the Church
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There is an innate need in all of us to know that there is something more beautiful than the dark places of the world we live in. After two losses within their community just prior to the 2020 pandemic, St. Andrew Methodist Church in Plano, TX discerned that God was asking them to go on the offense against the darkness of mental illness. This is th…
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Episode 166: A Conversation with Christine Westhoff
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Episode 165: A Conversation with Jared Patrick Boyd
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On this episodes hosts Andrew Arndt and Daniel Grothe have a conversation with Jared Patrick Boyd, a pastor, spiritual director, and founding director of the Order of the Common Life. In this conversation, the trio dive into Jared’s complex origin story of church and the Christian ‘story.,’ as well as the topic of Christian deconstruction — and how…
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087: Geoff's Second Half of Life "Crisis" and why the new name
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The inaugural episode of season six, and all about "Geoff's Second Half of Life 'Crisis' and why we renamed the podcast" (and note, 'crisis' is in scar quotes). Welcome to Season 6, of what is now called the Attaching to God podcast. We are going to be doing more episodes of just the two of us talking (Cyd and Geoff). But we will also have intervie…
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Episode 164: A Conversation with Ian Simkins
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Episode 163: How to Have Difficult Conversations
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Episode 162: A Conversation with Brit Windel
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On this brief episode of Essential Church, Andrew and Rory sit down with Brit Windel a pastor and church planter from Kenosha, Wisconsin. Brit shares the story of Daybreak Church, a church that is ‘making much of Jesus’ and serving the city. Brit’s story is one of faithfulness, longevity and serving. Host: Andrew Arndt Co-Host: Rory Green Guests: B…
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Episode 161: A Conversation with Kenneth Tanner
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On this week’s episode Andrew and Daniel are joined by Ken Tanner, Pastor of Church of the Holy Redeemer in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Ken takes the time to wade through his own story of life and maturity, as well as the complexities of living a life devoted to ministry(2:30). Much of Ken’s life and ministry is wrapped up in the great journey he to…
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086: Non-Toxic Masculinity (with Zachary Wagner)
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The problem of toxic masculinity is much bigger than contemporary expressions of Christianity. Mistreatment of women and men dehumanizing others is a feature of human culture fraught with sin. But the church is called to be salt and light, so how can we foster a non-toxic masculinity? Our guest today is Zachary Wagner, a writer, researcher, and min…
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085: Forming Spiritually Resilient Children (with Dr. Holly Allen)
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Many children today are growing up amid adversity, whether brought on by family difficulties or larger societal crises. All children need to be able to deal with stress, cope with challenges, and persevere through disappointments. While we cannot protect children from all hardships, we can promote healthy development that fosters resilience. Our gu…
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Episode 160: A Conversation with Greg Waybright
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Greg is a former university president and pastor, and Andrew and Daniel start a conversation around how to sustain longevity in ministry (01:18). The trio lean into a discussion around Sabbath and work, and the reciprocal relationship they hold for pastoral faithfulness (11:05). The pod wraps up with an emphasis on the pastoral relationships we nee…
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084: Mental Illness or Spiritual Issue? And how they connect (with Dr. Matthew Stanford)
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Research tells us that when people suffer from a mental health crisis, the first person they turn to for help is not a physician, a psychiatrist, or a social worker, but a pastor, a priest, or a minister. Unfortunately, many church leaders are not trained to recognize mental illness and don’t know when to refer someone to a mental health profession…
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Episode 159: A Conversation with Geoff Holsclaw
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Andrew and Geoff Holsclaw sit down to discuss how the field of neuroscience and spiritual formation intersect in the life of faith (3:43). Andrew and Geoff go on to discuss how these new fields of combined study can actually help people who are beginning to wrestle with, or even deconstruct their faith (12:45). A rabbit trail about attachment theor…
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083: Does God Hate? Or, Making Sense of God's Emotions (with David Lamb)
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Does God hate? Is God emotional? Emotions feel irrational, impulsive, and problematic for God, especially when we think about hate, jealousy, or sorrow. But the truth is the Bible is full of all sorts of stories that express God expressing emotions. This episode focuses particularly on God and the emotion of hate. Our guest is Dr. David Lamb. He is…
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082: On Getting Out of Bed; Or, on Living with Mental Anguish (with Alan Noble)
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For many people, sorrow, despair, anxiety, and mental illness are everyday experiences. And while we have tremendous advancements in therapy and psychiatry, the burden of living often comes down to some mundane choices, like "Should I still bother to get out of bed?" Dr. Alan Noble joins us to talk about life with mental anguish and his book, On Ge…
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Episode 158: A Conversation with Bri Stensrud
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Andrew Arndt and Daniel Grothe are joined by a New Life congregation member and author Bri Stensrud to talk about the complexities and challenges of what it looks like to “meet the strangers at our gates.” (01:35) The trio discuss how this issue moves far beyond simply a social or political issue, Bri helps guide a discussion around immigration and…
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081: From Therapy, to Trauma, to Attaching to Immanuel (God With Us) with Stephanie Rossing
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How do we help people get their brains back online? Can the Spirit lead us through a process of healing without triggering re-traumatization? And how can we attach more deeply with God? Guest Stephanie Rossing (Licenced Marriage and Family Therapist) talks about her own journey as a therapist, discovering and receiving training in trauma treatments…
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Is Joy Even More Central Than Love? (Thanksgiving Double Feature)
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(This and the previous episode are part of a special Thanksgiving Double Feature Rewind of past episodes that are good to revisit in the ups and downs of a holiday) What is so important about joy? The great commandment is to love God and others, but is joy even more central than that? Where does joy fit in the landscape of political outrage and cyn…
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The Psalms as a Guide to Joy, Sadness, and Anger (Thanksgiving Double Feature)
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(This and the next episode are part of a special Thanksgiving Double Feature Rewind of past episodes that are good to revisit in the ups and downs of a holiday) What if the Psalms aren't just old religious poetry, but guideposts for our everyday struggles and wounds? What if the Psalms are a pathway into the presence of God through the all too huma…
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080: Finding Freedom in Constraint—Reimagining Spiritual Disciplines with Jared Patrick Boyd
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We often think that freedom comes through casting off what controls us, and that we need to find our true selves apart from community. But what if it is the constraints of the spiritual life that set us free? What if it is focused practices in community that lead to the flourishing of individual lives? Today we are talking about finding freedom in …
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079: Being the Church in an Age of Secular Mysticisms (Dr. Andrew Root)
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When atheists want spirituality, how should the church respond? In a secular age offering a buffet of spiritualities, all focused on the self and personal transformation, how is the Christian view similar or different than these alternative pathways? When everyone is spiritual, but few are religious, what is distinctive about following Jesus? And c…
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078: Formative Spirituality, Agency in the Bible, and Being Human (Dr. Richard Middleton)
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What is spiritual formation? Is that even a very good term for life with and in Jesus? What are we being formed into anyway? Or, maybe we should ask “when” are we being formed? In this episode, we talked with Dr. Richard Middleton about formative spirituality, agency in the Bible, and being human, and how God is always looking for partners to work …
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Episode 157: A Conversation with Derek Vreeland
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Andrew and special guest, Derek Vreeland have a detailed discussion around Derek’s new book Centering Jesus: How the Lamb of God Transforms Our Communities, Ethics, and Spiritual Lives. One of the core values of Essential Church is that Jesus is at the center, and this is exactly what Derek’s book reveals — from the book of Revelation, the COVID pa…
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077: Why Humility and Hope is Essential for Therapists & Pastors (Dr. Chuck DeGroat)
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What character formation is required for soul care professionals, people like therapists, pastors, or spiritual directors? And what does this mean for everyone who follows Jesus? It is humility and hope, says Dr. Chuck DeGroat. It is doing your work, the work on yourself. Today we talk about how so often (like pastors) therapists in training receiv…
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076: Bearing God in the Storms of Death and Life (with Marlena Graves)
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Have you ever been tossed around by the storms of life and wondered where God is in all? Or have you wished Jesus would quiet the storms a little quicker and more often? Today we are talking about bearing God in the storms of life. Marlena Graves is the Assistant Professor of Spiritual Formation at Northeastern Seminary in Rochester, NY. She has wr…
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075: Being Still Amid the Distractions and Downtime (with Brian Heasley)
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Scripture tells us, “Be still and know that I am God”. But for so many of us, this is so hard. Today’s episode explores downtime, devotions, and distractions as we seek to be with God in our private and public lives. Our guest, Brian Heasley, is a long-term pioneer within the 24-7 prayer movement and serves as the International Prayer Director, he …
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Episode 156: A Conversation with Dr. Russell Moore
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Andrew and Brady take the time n this episode to sit down with author Dr. Russell Moore to discuss his book Losing Our Religion, An Alter Call for Evangelical America. Russell shares the history that created a need for such a book, but also the weight of utilizing his prophetic voice in a time of need (3:36). Dr. Moore goes on to share a few key id…
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074: Hope Is The First Dose: A Treatment Plan For Recovering From Trauma (with Dr. Lee Warren, MD)
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Is the abundant life as promised in Scripture possible for trauma survivors? Can those who suffer deep tragedy really find wholeness, or happiness, again? Today we are talking with a medical doctor who has walked with many people through trauma and tragedy even as he was walking through it himself. Dr. Lee Warren (MD) is an award-winning author, br…
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073: Be Kind To Your Attachment Strategy and Nervous System
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When reactions shoot out of us that we regret, then what do we do? Do you blame or berate yourself? Do you shame and shout at yourself? Too often we are unkind to ourselves in situations like this. But instead of this, we need to cultivate compassion (and build understanding) for the attachment strategies that have (literally) shaped our nervous sy…
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Episode 155: A Conversation with Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt
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On this episode of the Essential Church podcast Andrew Arndt is joined by Pastor Daniel Grothe for a conversation with special guest Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt. The trio ask the all-important question about the nature of prayer (00:50). Andrew then guides the interview towards a breakdown of the Lord’s Prayer and raises the question: is Jesus…
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072: How Your Attachment Style Shapes Reality (with Dr. Todd Hall)
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How can two different people experience the same event differently? Do we see, hear, and even feel the world differently? Are we filtering social and emotional information in different ways? The answer is yes. And this has to do with what Dr. Todd Hall calls attachment filters (or what attachment theory calls "attachment styles"). Dr. Todd Hall is …
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071: Resourcing the Church for Mental Health (with Laura Howe)
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The church is not immune to the growing mental health crisis, certainly not pastors and leaders. And we don’t always know where to get mental health resources for creating resilient individuals and churches. Howe guest today is passionate about bridging that gap. Laura Howe is a clinical mental health social worker, addictions counselor, and projec…
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Episode 154: Five Key Elements of Successful Preaching
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Essential Church’s Andrew Arndt is joined by Rory Green, Associate Lead Pastor at New Life East to talk all things preaching and teaching ahead of the Essential Church Learning Community on September 19th. (9:49) The duo goes on to discuss the “Five key elements of successful preaching” — Preparation, Presence, Authority, Content, and Creativity. (…
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Episode 153: The Ache for Meaning - An Interview with Tommy Brown
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In this episode we sit down with pastor and author Tommy Brown to talk about his new book The Ache for Meaning and how the temptations of Christ reveal who we are and what we are seeking.By New Life Church
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070: Exploring a Theology of the Body and Confronting Shame with Beth Felker Jones (Summer Rewind)
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(During our Summer Break we are airing important past episodes) We're tackling a topic that treads the tightrope between theology and personal acceptance - body theology and body shame. Why have we turned "your body is a temple" into a shaming mechanism? What if our bodies are the place we meet God? The place through which we glorify God? In this e…
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069: Leading with & through Emotion: Limbic Resonance, Leadership, and Spirituality with MaryKate Morse (Summer Rewind)
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(During our Summer Break we are airing important past episodes) What if the secret to impactful leadership and genuine community connection lies deep within our biological construct? Are emotions and moods contagious, between people and in groups? Why are we unconsciously drawn to certain people and repelled by others? And what does this have to do…
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068: Exploring Low Anthropology and its Impact on the Human Condition, with David Zahl (Summer Rewind)
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(During our Summer Break we are airing important past episodes) We spend our days feeling like we’re the only one with problems, when everyone else has their act together. We feel like other are achieving so much, but we aren’t living up to our potential. What if the answer wasn’t a higher self-esteem, but a lower anthropology? What if instead of e…
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067 Being God's Image: Why Creation Still Matters (with Dr. Carmen Joy Imes)
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What does it mean to be human? This timeless question proves critical as we seek to understand our purpose, identity, and significance. Amidst the many voices clamoring to shape our understanding of humanity, the Bible reveals important truths related to our human identity and vocation that are critical to the flourishing of all of creation. In thi…
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Join Cyd, Geoff, and Rusty McKie as they discuss generosity, when instability compounds, and how Jesus' joy makes us joyful people. If you or someone you know is in a lean season, Geoff and Cyd remind us that when Jesus gives us what we need that we have enough. Cyd and Geoff Holsclaw are co-founders of Embodied Faith. Cyd is also an integrative co…
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066 From Division to Connection: Escaping Enemy Mode with Jim Wilder (Summer Rewind)
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How do you escape enemy mode? When your brain and body are just against someone (and maybe you don’t even know why). What if one brain state could explain why we stop listening to, talking with, or caring about, other people? What if this brain state reveals why we lose it on people, fall out of love, and traumatize one another? Clinical Psychologi…
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065 What is Spiritual Formation? (2 Minute Explainer)
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Seems like everyone is talking about spiritual formation. But what is it exactly? In this two-minute explainer episode, Dr. Geoff Holsclaw dives into the realm of spiritual formation, and how it is a "process of being conformed to the image of Christ, within the community and trajectory of Christ, for the sake of others. And come study with Cyd and…
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