What is culture, and what is our relationship to it as Christians? Dennis Greeson joins the podcast today to talk about his recent book The Way of Christ in Culture: A Vision for All of Life (Lifeway 2024), coauthored with Benjamin T. Quinn. In the book, the authors provide a framework for knowing one’s time in God’s story, one’s place in creation, and following wisdom. He also shares about the Alexandrian Institute, a cohort-based model for theological education focused on engaging Scripture and confessional traditions and the wisdom of previous generations of Christians, and sending students to engage their context.
This week, James Arcadi joins the podcast to talk about his latest book, Holiness: Divine and Human (2023). He also shares about his dual calling to both pastoral ministry as a full-time Anglican rector, and to academic theology as a guest professor at Wheaton College. What is the relationship between abstract ideas and practical application? What does it mean for something to be "consecrated" or "holy"? This and more on today's podcast!
On the podcast this week, Adam Copenhaver shares with us about his early ministry caring for an older congregation, and his education and research on Colossians. He also tells us about his current pastoral context leading a church in a small, migrant farm town which had previously been led by an abusive pastor. He previews the breakout topic he will lead at the 2025 CPT Conference, Good Shepherds: Pastoral Identity and the Future of the Church. How can our churches become both helpful and welcoming to those who are suffering abuse or oppression? How can pastors identify and eliminate harmful tendencies in themselves that could lead to abuse later?
This week we are joined by CTP Fellow Ben Burkholder. Ben shares how he developed an interest in learning how people grow as disciples. Reflecting on his time as a student, Ben also shares insights about the relationship between psychology and spiritual formation. This and more on today’s podcast!
Join us this week as we get to know Eric Rivera. Eric will be a plenary speaker at the 2025 Pastor Theologians Conference, Good Shepherds: Pastoral Identity and the Future of the Church. On this episode, Eric talks about how his story shaped his interests and calling in church history and pastoral ministry. Drawing from his context as a pastor at a multi-ethnic church in the greater Chicago area, he also shares what he has learned it means to be a Good Shepherd in the 21st Century.
Our conversation with CPT fellow Dr. Edward "Mickey" Klink, Senior Pastor of Hope Evangelical Free Church in Roscoe, IL. Mickey joins the podcast to tell the story of how he transitioned from his role as a professor at Talbot Theological Seminary to the senior pastorate of a church in northern Illinois.
Owen Strachan, Professor of Christian Theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, joins the podcast to discuss his upcoming book Reenchanting Humanity: A Theology of Mankind (B&H Academic). Owen argues that the nature of human beings is and will continue to be one of the most pressing questions not only in the church but in the Western culture as a whole in the 21st century. He hopes that the book will help fill what he sees as a shortage of quality theological texts on theological anthropology. The book will release on August 1, 2019.
Gerald Hiestand, Senior Pastor of Calvary Memorial Church and Co-Founder of the CPT, joins the podcast again to discuss the inception of the CPT as an organization. What was its original vision for the organization and what is the vision for its future? What opportunities are there for those who love theological scholarship but do not have opportunity or feel called to the academy?
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.
ARTICLE: Life Is Hard, Be Humble: Thomas Aquinas on Humility
NATHAN BARCZI
PODCAST: Owned by God
JAMES ARCADI
ARTICLE: Christians and the Virtues
BENJAMIN BURKHOLDER
NEWS: Announcing Two New Learning Cohorts
CPT NEWS UPDATE
