Navigating Marriage Through Busy Seasons
Breaking Bread Podcast
In seasons of busyness, it can be easy for marriages to drift towards disconnection. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Kaleb Beyer encourages simple ways to maintain connection as well as a framework for thinking about marriage amid the busy. Show notes: Demands on our time and attention can ebb and flow over the calendar year. When marriage is involved, these seasons of busyness impact the marriage. If we are not vigilant, disconnection can result. Communication becomes challenging. Irritations can set in, and spouses can drift apart. Couples who wish to weather these...
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Mental Health and the Church: The AC Story
Breaking Bread Podcast
ACCFS is a mental health service that supports the Apostolic Christian Church. This unique connection between church and mental health agency has a storied history. To tell it, Ron Messner and Ted Witzig Jr are interviewed by Matt Kaufmann on this episode of Breaking Bread. Show notes: Caring for people spiritually has given way to the need to care for them mentally. This led to the following statement of belief and consequently, the carrying out of counseling services at ACCFS. Based on scripture and extensive experience, we are complex beings with three...
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The Crisis of Connection
Breaking Bread Podcast
In an era that boasts the most human connectiveness in the history of the world, we struggle with isolation and depression in epidemic proportions. Evidently not all human connections are equal. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Katie Miller and Isaac Funk take on this crisis for connection directly. Not only do they identify the problem but also provide a vision for hope. Show notes: What do we mean by human connection? Human connection at a minimum is intersecting with another human being in physical or thought space. Human connection at a...
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Escaping the Drama Trap
Breaking Bread Podcast
Drama sells in the box office, newsstands, social media feeds and more. It draws an audience because it is interesting. Yet, because drama often plays on relational conflict, it is painful. Because we are relational beings, we unfortunately find ourselves too often on drama’s stage. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Craig Stickling peels back the layers of drama and helps us escape its trap. Show Notes: Drama defined: Interesting relational or situational conflict. What is drama’s ill...
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Elroi: The God Who Sees Me
Breaking Bread Podcast
She was useful until she was not. She was a victim of abuse and mistreatment. She was an abandoned outsider of God’s covenant people. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Kaleb Beyer and Matt Kaufmann linger on Hagar’s story. At her most desperate moment, God loves her really well. So struck by the encounter, Hagar names God Elroi, the God who sees me. Show notes: In her desperation, God finds Hagar abandoned to the wilderness. He calls her by name - “Hagar.” Even though her name meant “stranger”, his use of it meant she was not a stranger to him....
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Creative Spiritual Disciplines
Breaking Bread Podcast
God has created us with the ability to connect with him. In fact, we are most satisfied when we do. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Isaac Funk explains that spiritual disciplines are ways through which we walk with God. Yet, at times, our spiritual disciplines may seem dull, flat or tired. It is in times like these that we need to think creatively about the activities we regularly engage in that train us in connecting with God and growing more into his likeness.
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Before "I do"
Breaking Bread Podcast
A lot of health for marriages lies in the prework, before the marriage happens. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Kaleb Beyer and Arlan Miller speak about the pre-contemplative, contemplative and engagement phase of marriage and the great deal of promise these stages hold. They bring to bear resources and advice for both singles and the supportive community that surrounds them. Show Notes: The health of the marriage is what individuals bring into the marriage to create it. For this reason, attention to oneself is a critical...
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The Story of Mental Health
Breaking Bread Podcast
May is Mental Health Awareness month. Like most matters that get highlighted with a month’s recognition, there is a story to be told. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Ron Messner and Ted Witzig Jr. join to tell the story. A story that has loving as Jesus loves at its center. The story of mental health can be told from two perspectives: a societal understanding of mental health and the care that comes from that understanding.
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Receiving God's Blessing
Breaking Bread Podcast
God was very thoughtful and intentional about how to bless his people. “Do it like this” he told Aaron. His blessing (captured in Numbers 6) is beautiful poetry. Not only is it beautiful to the ear, but it is also health to the heart and soul. In this episode of Breaking Bread, let’s learn together about how God chooses to bless us, how to receive His blessing and how to bless others with our Father’s words. Show Notes: We live in a world of cursing. God knows this, so he has thoughtfully chosen to bless us carefully. And when he does, he confers abundant, flourishing life on us....
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Emotional Dependency & Enmeshment
Breaking Bread Podcast
The capacity for emotion sets us apart from all things living. It gives us the capability for healthy, deep and intimate relationships. What does it look like when our relationships are too enmeshed emotionally? In this episode of Breaking Bread, Brian Sutter and Kathy Knochel teach us about enmeshment and the dangers of being too emotionally dependent on others. Show notes While we are to receive and give support to others, we are not to take ultimate responsibility for other's wellbeing. Unhealthy emotional dependency can happen when two or more individuals lose...
info_outlineWe are built for relationship. There is a yearning, need and desire within us for emotional connection with others. In the marriage relationship this can be both an asset and a liability. In this episode of Breaking Bread, marriage and family therapist Kaleb Beyer helps us understand the signs, offense and repair of emotional affairs – when emotional intimacy outside the marriage compromises the covenant of marriage.
Show notes:
Three stages of emotional affairs:
1st Emotional intimacy with another person outside of marriage.
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Deep connection at the heart and emotional level.
2nd Secrecy
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Walls are built between spouses and access to the illicit relationship is sought and protected.
3rd Sexual tension
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Physical relations may or may not be happening. However, there is growing openness to them.
Recovery from emotional affairs.
1st End the illicit relationship.
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The betraying spouse needs to cut off the illicit relationship at any cost.
2nd Boundaries are set.
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The betraying spouse takes full responsibility for the affair. Boundaries are set that will help the betrayed spouse feel safe and stable.
3rd The betrayer grieves their relationship loss.
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The betrayer closes the door on the illicit relationship emotionally. This is done through grieving the loss. This grieving process is best walked through with a friend or counselor and not his/her spouse.
4th Cultivate friendship and emotional intimacy with spouse.
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Over time, with relational repair, trust and emotional intimacy with spouse increases.
5th As a couple, reflect on the context of their marriage.
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The couple learns from the painful experience. What individual and couple dynamics provided the context for an emotional affair? Moving forward, how do we wisely live together to prevent it from happening in the future?