Ed Gerber joins us to share his story of becoming a pastor theologian. How can the Lord use even a significant break up to prepare someone for ministry? How can those who prepare future ministry leaders be both preachers and teachers to their students? What is the balance between head and heart for those who study theology academically? This and more on today’s episode!
For our June episode on books, we, the CPT staff, have been reading:
JD Vance, Hillbilly Elegy (2016)
Rémi Brague, Kingdom of Man: Genesis and Failure of the Modern Project, (2018)
Elizabeth Goudge, The Dean's Watch, (2012)
Today on the podcast we are joined by Rev. Dr. Michael Niebauer as he shares about his recent book, Four Mountains: Encountering God in the Bible from Eden to Zion. How can Christians encounter Jesus on every page of the Bible? What can we learn from how the earliest Christians read Scripture, and connect seemingly disparate stories in the text? What is distinct about this style of reading as opposed, for example, to 6-week Bible studies or academic study? This and more on today's episode!
Jason Meyer, lead pastor of Urban Refuge Church in Minneapolis, MN, joins the podcast today to tell us about his journey towards becoming a pastor theologian. After serving eight years as a pastor at Bethlehem Baptist, Jason shares what he learned about his own calling, and the identity of a "pastor." This and more on today's episode!
CPT board member Doug Sweeney joins the podcast today. He previews his topic for the 2025 CPT Conference, Good Shepherds: Pastoral Identity and the Future of the Church. What are good Christian pastors supposed to be like? On the other hand, what malformative models of pastoral identity are common in our culture today? Doug also tells us about his 2024 book, Substance of Our Faith: Foundations for the History of Christian Doctrine. Check it out on today's episode!
Dr. Beth Felker Jones outlines a theological vision of sexuality and gender through the lens of our created embodiment. This conference lecture was given at the CPT's 2016 theology conference on human sexuality, Beauty, Order, and Mystery: A Christian Vision of Sexuality. Dr. Jones is a professor of theology at Wheaton College.
Jeremy Treat, a member of the St. John Fellowship of the Center for Pastor Theologians, joins the podcast. Jeremy is Pastor for Preaching and Vision at Reality LA, joins our host Todd Wilson to discuss his story of church planting, pastoring, and studying theology. How does the discipline of theological study interface with youth ministry? Preaching? Contextual ministry in Los Angeles?
Joel Lawrence, a CPT Fellow, joins the podcast again to discuss the man he studied as a PhD student, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was a pastor as well as a gifted theologian from German who lived during the first half of the 20th century before he was ultimately martyred at the hands of the Third Reich in a concentration camp in 1945.
Pastor Joel Lawrence, a CPT fellow, shares his story of coming to faith, theological education, and calling to pastoral ministry. Joel serves as the Senior Pastor of the Central Baptist Church in St. Paul, MN. This is the second episode of its type, featuring interviews with CPT fellows and other pastors on their story, their call to ministry, and how they have lived into the call of pastoring as a theologian.
Part 1 of CPT President Todd Wilson's plenary address from the 2018 CPT conference on spiritual formation. How is it that pastors can so often be both godly and deeply dysfunctional? This message is entitled, "The Integrated Pastor: Towards an Embodied and Embedded Spiritual Formation." Todd Wilson served for 10 years as the Senior Pastor at Calvary Memorial Church outside Chicago before transitioning to full-time leadership of the Center for Pastor Theologians in 2018.
Part 1 of CPT President Todd Wilson's plenary address from the 2018 CPT conference on spiritual formation. How is it that pastors can so often be both godly and deeply dysfunctional? This message is entitled, "The Integrated Pastor: Towards an Embodied and Embedded Spiritual Formation." Todd Wilson served for 10 years as the Senior Pastor at Calvary Memorial Church outside Chicago before transitioning to full-time leadership of the Center for Pastor Theologians in 2018.
Part 2 of our conversation with CPT Fellow Amy Peeler. Amy is a New Testament professor at Wheaton College as well as Associate Rector at St. Mark Episcopal Church in Geneva, IL. Our second guest on this episode is Gerald Hiestand, co-founder of the CPT, and Senior Pastor at Calvary Memorial Church. On this episode we discuss the New Testament Book of Hebrews, issues with its background and interpretation, as well as some of the opportunities and challenges associated with preaching this text in the local church.
Part 1 of our conversation with CPT Fellow Amy Peeler. Amy is a New Testament professor at Wheaton College as well as Associate Rector at St. Mark Episcopal Church in Geneva, IL. Our second guest on this episode is Gerald Hiestand, co-founder of the CPT, and Senior Pastor at Calvary Memorial Church. On this episode we discuss the New Testament Book of Hebrews, issues with its background and interpretation, as well as some of the opportunities and challenges associated with preaching this text in the local church.
Part 2 of our conversation with CPT Fellow Matt O'Reilly. Matt is a United Methodist pastor at Hope Hull UMC in AL. On this episode Matt discusses ecclesial dynamics in the United Methodist Church, its recent decision at the 2019 General Conference in St. Louis, and practical and pastoral reflections for formation and discipleship related to sexual ethics in the church.
Part 1 of our conversation with CPT Fellow Matt O'Reilly. Matt is a United Methodist pastor at Hope Hull UMC in AL. On this Episode Matt discusses the history of the United Methodist Church, its recent decision at the 2019 General Conference in St. Louis, and inter-cultural dynamics between progressive, conservative, Western, and non-Western Christian in the UMC.
ARTICLE: “The Gospel Terrifies Me”
COLEMAN FORD
PODCAST: Encountering God in the Bible
MICHAEL NIEBAUER
ARTICLE: The “This Is That” Character of Pentecostal Preaching
AARON FRIESEN
NEWS: Announcing Two New Learning Cohorts
CPT NEWS UPDATE
