Andrew Arndt is back on the podcast today. He’s a pastor and author who's challenging how we typically understand the gospel. His new book, "A Strange and Gracious Light," explores what it means to see Jesus as a living presence that intersects with our real, complicated lives. We'll discuss how the gospel isn't just about personal salvation or afterlife insurance, but a transformative story that speaks directly into our current cultural moment - with all its complexity, pain, and potential. Andrew brings a fresh, albeit an ancient perspective on how Jesus encounters us in our everyday struggles, political tensions, and personal challenges. This conversation is about reimagining the good news of Jesus as something far more expansive and immediate than we've traditionally understood. We'll explore what it means to experience Christ's presence in a way that's both deeply personal and broadly transformative. So join us as we facilitate encounters with the living God.

Andrew Arndt is the Lead Pastor of New Life East (one of seven congregations of New Life Church in Colorado Springs), where he also hosts the Essential Church podcast, a weekly conversation designed to strengthen the thinking of church and ministry leaders. Prior to joining New Life’s team, he served as Lead Pastor of Bloom Church: a neo-monastic, charismatic, liturgical, justice-driven network of house churches in Denver. He received his MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, is working on his Doctor of Ministry at Western Theological Seminary, and has written for Missio Alliance, Patheos, The Other Journal, and Mere Orthodoxy. He lives in the Springs with his wife Mandi and their four kids.

Andrew's Book:

A Strange and Gracious Light

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A.J. Swoboda is back on the podcast for the third time. This time we are sitting down to talk about A Teachable Spirit. He hit on something that I think is sorely missing in this world today: being teachable. In a world often drawn sharply into polarized camps, where dialogue seems overshadowed by ideological extremes, cultivating a teachable spirit becomes more than a virtue, it becomes an act of quiet revolution. But what exactly does it mean to approach life, faith, and community with genuine humility and openness, even when our convictions run deep? Our conversation explores what it truly means to possess a teachable spirit, how to stand firmly in our beliefs while also actively listening to, honoring, and learning from those who are different than us. We’ll explore themes of humility, empathy, wisdom, discernment and the careful balancing act of maintaining convictions while remaining open to growth and change. This is an important conversation, so join us as we unpack the practice of discerning truth in a fragmented world, and how holding our beliefs can transform both our inner and outer worlds and enable us to have a teachable spirit.

Rev. A. J. Swoboda (Ph.D., Birmingham) is the associate professor of Bible and Theology at Bushnell University. He served as a college pastor on the University of Oregon campus for nearly ten years. For another decade, he planted and pastored an urban church in Portland, Oregon, called Theophilus, which continues to worship today. He leads a Doctor of Ministry program around Spiritual Formation and Soul Care at Friends University. He has taught at the London School of Theology, LIFE Pacific, Southeastern University, and Multnomah University. He is the author of over ten books, including Redeeming How We Talk (Moody), After Doubt (Brazos), and the award-winning Subversive Sabbath (Brazos). He hosts the Slow Theology podcast (w. Dr. Nijay Gupta) and writes the widely read Low-Level Theologian Substack. A.J. lives and works on an urban farm with his wife and son in Eugene, Oregon.

A.J.'s Book:

A Teachable Spirit

A.J.'s Substack:

The Low-Level Theologian

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Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@allnations.us

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There's a geography of limitation that exists not on any map, but in the quiet territories of our own making. Stories that whisper: this is as far as you'll go. Today, we are talking with Mary Marantz - a woman who understands that our beginnings are not our boundaries. Growing up in a single-wide trailer on the tippy top of Fenwick Mountain, she learned something profound: that grace isn't about erasing your history, but making peace with it. Imagine a young girl watching the world from that precipice, learning that survival isn't just about enduring, but reimagining. Mary's journey from that trailer to Yale Law School isn't a bootstrapping narrative of triumph, but a meditation on grace, on the way unexpected paths unfold when we listen carefully to the whispers of our own potential. How do we create space between who we were told we could be and who we are actually called to become? How do we recognize that the most revolutionary act might be showing up, day after day, for the work that won't let go of us? Mary writes about fear like an old friend - not something to vanquish, but to understand. She knows that the stories we tell ourselves are powerful, that they can either keep us small or become the very ground from which we grow. So join us as we walk through those stories together - not as a roadmap, but as an invitation. Here’s my conversation with Mary Marantz.

Mary Marantz is the bestselling author of Dirt and Underestimated, as well as the host of the popular podcast The Mary Marantz Show. She grew up in a trailer in rural West Virginia and was the first in her family to go to college before going on to Yale for law school. Her work has been featured on CNN, MSN, Business Insider, Bustle, Thrive Global, Southern Living, Hallmark Home & Family and more. She and her husband Justin live in an 1880s fixer-upper by the sea in New Haven, Connecticut, with their two very fluffy golden retrievers, Goodspeed and Atticus. Learn more at MaryMarantz.com.

Mary's Book:

Underestimated

Subscribe to Our Substack: Shifting Culture

Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@allnations.us

Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.

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