Antioch Worship Leadership Podcast

On this episode of the Antioch Podcast, we will be exploring the rise of black youth protest in Chapter 4 of A City Within A City. For those of you just joining us, we have been looking at the black freedom struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan from the first Great Migration to the present. Grand … Continue reading Episode 50: “A City Within A City” – The Mustache Saga

This episode of the Antioch Podcast is a deep dive into how the process of redlining affected people living in Grand Rapids. Redlining, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, refers to the “red lines” drawn by the Home Owner’s Loan Corporation on Residential Security Maps indicating the desirability of neighborhoods. These … Continue reading Episode 49: “A City Within A City” – The Origins of Segregated Space

This episode is an interlude between the chapters of the City Within a City series. We will return to Chapter 3 in the next episode of the Antioch Podcast. Chapter 3 tells the story of how redlining affected people in Grand Rapids, Michigan. So before we tell this story, we will hear the stories of … Continue reading Episode 48: Jackson Beelen & Natalie Wierenga – “The City Within a City Interlude.”

This episode we will go in-depth into chapter 2 of the book City Within a City by Dr. Todd E. Robinson, entitled Citizen’s Action: Managerial Racism and Reform Politics. This chapter covers the decades of the 1940’s and 50’s when the Republican Party, city government, and local business mixed their influences in managing the city … Continue reading Episode 47: “A City Within A City” – Citizen’s Action

Racism is not, and never has been, a monolithic abstraction. It has roots, stories, and histories. Racism has a geographical signature because places shape the way racism is expressed and experienced. These signatures look different from place to place, in spite of some similar generalities. For example, racism in rural communities looked different from racism … Continue reading Episode 46: “A City Within a City” – Rowing, Not Drifting

The Antioch Podcast was initially conceived as a podcast of recorded conversations among friends and leaders at Madison Church – the multi-site church who hosts our podcast – about learning to lead in multiethnic churches. We started making these recordings in the autumn of 2016 with a team of three leaders, completely unaware of what … Continue reading Episode 45: An Antioch Roundtable – “Understanding White Supremacy Culture.”

The indigenous nations that originally populated North America now make up approximately 2% of the US population (1) and 4% of the Canadian Population (2) . Two-thirds of aboriginal Canadians remain with the Christian church despite the fraught history (3). 10% of Native-Americans in the United States call themselves Christians (4). The story of how … Continue reading Episode 44: Indigenous Christian’s Roundtable – “The Blanket Exercise.”

This is the second episode on our two-episode mini-series on Racial Identity Development. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the first episode yet, go back and listen to Episode 42. Every leader who is serious about addressing racism in the church must start with understanding his/her own racial identity. This goes deeper … Continue reading Episode 43: Stacia Hoeksema & Jevon Willis – “Racial Identity Development Part 2.”

Every leader who is serious about addressing racism in the church must start with understanding his/her own racial identity. This goes deeper than just knowing what racial categories they identify with, it is about knowing how those racial labels have affected our people groups and ourselves. The power of racism affects us all, whether we … Continue reading Episode 42:Stacia Hoeksema & Jevon Willis – “Racial Identity Development Part 1.”

I’m getting ready to leave to go on vacation. Probably some of you will also be planning some kind of trip over the summer where you won’t be at your home church. If you are fortunate enough, you might want to visit another church to see how they worship as a part of your trip. … Continue reading Episode 41: Eric Nykamp – “Vacation, Community and the Church.”

My wife and I consider ourselves to be fortunate in life because we have been well-loved by numerous people who deeply impacted our lives. Most of us long for this kind of transformative connection with people. We are fortunate when we find people whom we can relate to, people we can be unapologetically ourselves with … Continue reading Episode 40: We Talk Different – “Transformative Friendships.”

According to recent statistics by CBS News, two zip codes in Houston’s third ward are among the top areas being affected by gentrification in 2018. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/does-gentrification-help-or-hurt-our-major-cities/ This is where we find today’s guest, a missionary from Nigeria to America, Pastor John Eigege. The gentrifying of Houston’s third ward is rapidly changing the neighborhood he has … Continue reading Episode 39: Pastor John Eigege – “The Gospel of Gentrification.”

This present moment in America will likely be remembered historically for the many social justice movements springing up in response to the societal ills presently plaguing this nation. Black Lives Matter arose in response to the numerous documented incidents of police violence against people of color. The recent March for Our Lives came about as … Continue reading Episode 38: Pastor Joy Bonnema & Matt Krieg – “Resurrection Matters for Healthy Sexuality.”

I joined my multiethnic church in 1990 at the invitation of my high-school art teacher. As an angst- filled teen, she told me that her church was a “good place for hurting people.” As a result, I found a lot of healing, in particular from being mentored by a number of African-American worship leaders whose … Continue reading Episode 37: Retonia Brashier – “A Journey of Awakening.”

It is my pleasure to welcome back Rev. Ricardo Tavárez to the Antioch Podcast. Ricardo is an ordained Minister of the Word in the Christian Reformed Church of North America. He is the pastor of En Vivo Church, a growing multi-ethnic and bilingual (Spanish/English) congregation in the Burton Heights neighborhood of Grand Rapids. He was … Continue reading Episode 36: Rev. Ricardo Tavárez – “Designing Worship”

It is a great honor today to introduce today’s presenter, Laura Pritchard. Laura is presently the Director of Multicultural Living at Madison Church’s Square Campus. Among her many duties is oversight of the work of the anti-racism team, outreach to the Madison Square neighborhood, and leading worship at Madison Church’s Square Campus. She has mentored … Continue reading Episode 35: Laura Pritchard – “Hosting Well”

This latest series of the Antioch podcast is called Worshiping Diversely Together, exploring the themes of multicultural leadership in worship from Sandra Maria Van Opstal’s book “The Next Worship: Glorifying God in a Diverse World” . For those of you following this series in the book, today’s lecture is based on chapter 7, which talks … Continue reading Episode 34: Kinita Kadnar Schripsema – “Understanding Culture”

Welcome to Episode 33 of the Antioch Podcast, a podcast about learning to lead in the multiethnic church. Today we return to our series on Sandra Maria VanOpstal’s book The Next Worship: Glorifying God in a Diverse World. For those of you who have already purchased a copy of The Next Worship, you may have … Continue reading Episode 33: Rev. Shannon Jammal-Hollemans – “Food Fights: Reconciliation in Worship.”

Welcome to Episode 32 of the Antioch Podcast, a podcast about learning to lead in the multiethnic church. Today’s episode is the second in a series of lectures given at Madison Church’s Square Campus in the spring of 2017 based on the book The Next Worship, by Sandra Maria Van Opstal. This talk, called “Is … Continue reading Episode 32: Pastor James Lee – “Is PB&J Ethnic Food?”

Welcome to Episode 31 of the Antioch Podcast! This is the beginning of a six-part series of talks called “Worshiping Diversely Together” inspired by Sandra Maria Van Opstal’s recent book The Next Worship: Glorifying God in a Diverse World. Van Opstal was our first guest on the podcast, way back in Episode 4. As we’ve … Continue reading Episode 31: Rev. Reggie Smith – “Tension at the Table.”