#139: Sabbatical Reflections | "Love is Working"

After a year-long hiatus, The Puddcast is back with episode 139! Tryphena and I share some heartfelt reflections on my family’s six-month sabbatical to New Zealand, England, Greece, and Finland. I unpack some unexpected discoveries I made about identity, intuition, and the importance of family and cultural roots. We reflect on the diversity of global faith traditions, the impact of stepping outside the North American bubble, and the recognition of humanity's inherent goodness and love.

Jonathan PuddleOctober 22, 2024love, family, church, social justice, rest, life, hopeComment

#118: When all you want to do is to give up (with Christine Caine)

This week I am honoured to welcome Christine Caine to The Puddcast. Christine and her husband Nick founded the A21 Campaign, a global anti human trafficking organization, and Christine is a much sought-after speaker, writer and activist. We discussed how to keep our faith anchored in Jesus in the context of doing hard, exhausting work. When we know that the mission before us is costly and painful, and we are tempted to call it a day, how do we continue in faithfulness? Especially when we know that God still loves us if we tap out. Christine’s insights are hard-won and she explores them all in her latest book, How Did I Get Here?: Finding Your Way Back to God When Everything is Pulling You Away. This is my last episode for the next few months, as I head into my summer vacation.

#109: Why we silence women who tell the truth (with Tiffany Bluhm)

This week on The Puddcast, author, speaker and podcaster Tiffany Bluhm joins us to discuss why we silence women. She unpacked the imbalance of power exposed during sexual misconduct allegations, why men are excused for their behaviour and women are blamed for it. We explored the reasons women don’t always speak up and what often happens when they do. Tiffany explained why we don’t believe those women who do speak up.

Jonathan PuddleApril 8, 2021sexual abuse, metoo, churchtoo, patriarchy, power, women, jesus on women, social justice, race, justice (theological)Comment

#92: Religion, faith and authenticity (with Lecrae)

It’s a great honour to welcome multi Grammy award-winning, platinum-selling artist, Lecrae, to the show. We discussed his journey of learning to live authentically as his true self within a culture that didn’t celebrate him for who he was. That journey affected his relationships, his faith, his music and more. Lecrae shared vulnerably about things the evangelical church has been unwilling to discuss, to the pain and devastation of those seeking to live whole lives with robust faith. He also explained how deeply objectification is built into Christian culture. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with him and hope that you’ll check out the interview. Much more in the show notes below.

Jonathan PuddleOctober 29, 2020lecrae, race, faith, authenticity, social justice, deconstructionComment

#84: Raising a Multiracial Family (with Marc & Tryphena Gagnon)

I’m joined this week by my good friends Marc & Tryphena Gagnon, who share their story so far raising their multiracial family. Marc is of French Canadian heritage and Tryphena’s family is from India, and they have learned a lot about one another and themselves as they raise their mixed-race children to understand and own their racial identities and engage with the world around them in compassion and love.

Jonathan PuddleAugust 27, 2020covid-19, race, family, parenting, reconciliation, social justice, marriageComment

#63: Maria Gaba's story

In November last year, I spent two weeks in South Africa volunteering at a children’s home and daycare centre. Today I’m honoured to share with you the story of the centre’s founder, Maria Gaba. Maria’s story is one of overcoming traumatic childhood abuse by the power and love of God. It is honest, brutal at times, yet ultimately hope-filled. The work Maria does is nothing short of remarkable, and she gives all the glory to God. You will come away impacted, I promise you.

Jonathan PuddleJanuary 9, 2020story, testimony, child abuse, sexual abuse, poverty, social justice, forgiveness, sufferingComment

#59: Racial justice engagement for white people (with Cara Meredith)

Cara Meredith, author of The Color of Life, joined me on the show this week to talk about the unique role white people can play in racial justice and reconciliation work. Cara is a former high school English teacher and used to work in the non-profit outreach sector before focusing on speaking and writing. We talked all about how to have our eyes and ears opened to the realities of injustice and how to start feeling the pain of it ourselves, as a way to enter the conversation holistically and with integrity.

Jonathan PuddleNovember 7, 2019social justice, race, reconciliation, justice (theological)Comment

#58: Decentering whiteness (with Gricel Medina)

My guest this week is Pastor Gricel Medina. Serving in the Evangelical Covenant Church, Gricel has been involved in planting and mentoring multi-ethnic church congregations and has served on a number of boards and committees for racial gender equity, among many other things. She shared her powerful life story and we discussed the problems of a white-centric and male-centric church leadership culture. Get ready!

Jonathan PuddleOctober 31, 2019social justice, gender equality, egalitarian, patriarchy, race, justice (theological)Comment

#57: Separated by the Border (with Gena Thomas)

Gena Thomas joined me on The Puddcast to talk about immigration, family separation, border issues, language, power, foster care, and being Christ to others while also seeing Christ in others. We discussed some of the stories told in her new book, Separated by the Border, all about her family’s journey to return a young girl to her mother, after she was separated from her family at the border. Get your tissues ready.

Jonathan PuddleOctober 24, 2019social justice, foster care, family, justice (legal)Comment

#55: Worshipping with people in prison (with Jaye Thomas)

Jaye Thomas is a world-renowned worship leader and songwriter from Kansas City and a good friend of mine. Jaye and his wife Nayomi recently left the staff of IHOP to focus on their ministry, Song of Hope. With three primary pillars: Bible study, community discipleship and worship for people in prison, Jaye and Nayomi are actively ministering the love of God to people in church and out of church. Jaye and I discussed freedom, hope, self-righteousness and seeing Jesus in people we don’t expect to find him in.

Jonathan PuddleOctober 3, 2019worship, ministry, prison, jesus, social justice, justice (legal)Comment

#41: A Mission of Compassion (with Allison Alley)

Compassion is a global child development relief organization that exists to end poverty in the lives of kids and their families. I sat down with Allison Alley, the CEO of Compassion Canada to talk about her philosophy of mission as well as the church’s role in development aid.

Jonathan PuddleMay 9, 2019poverty, poor people, development, aid, social justiceComment

#40: God is a Black Woman (with Christena Cleveland)

Dr. Christena Cleveland is the Director of the Center for Justice + Renewal, and a social psychologist, public theologian, author and professor. Christena joined me on the show to discuss her exploration of the social location of God and concepts of the divine. She helped me understand the damage that the vision of God as a powerful white man has done to people of colour for centuries, and how we can repurpose metaphors to enable us to enter into forgiveness and compassion.

Jonathan PuddleMay 2, 2019theology, social justice, forgiveness, race, patriarchy, white supremacyComment

#20: Forgiving the Church (with Carol Howard Merritt)

Pastor & author Carol Howard Merritt and I had a broad ranging discussion on how the church holds up patriarchy and shames victims of abuse, forgiveness as a process, love in the face of economic injustice, and a God who offers rivers of healing and restoration to all.

Jonathan PuddleNovember 16, 2018forgiveness, healing, social justice, church, restoration, patriarchyComment

#2: Rethinking Poverty (with Laura Solberg)

It's really easy to think that poverty exists far away from us. While it's really good to acknowledge our own privilege, we also have poverty of our own that we should acknowledge. I spoke with Laura Solberg about poverty, justice and God, and what she said was really eye opening for me.

Jonathan PuddleFebruary 1, 2018poverty, poor people, social justice, justice (theological), justice (legal)Comment