Episode 162 :: Dorena Williamson :: Stories of Encouraging and Honoring Children and Kingdom Community Building for God’s Glory
Release Date: 08/16/2023
Episode 174 :: Douglas McKelvey :: Stories of Leaning into Advent, Lament, and Living with Every Moment Holy
Simply Stories Podcast
Today, I have the absolute pleasure of sharing my conversation with the one and only Douglas McKelvey. Douglas is a songwriter, author, and liturgy writer extraordinaire. I have never met someone like Douglas. His gift with words and passion for Christ cultivates a visceral invitation to be more present in this life, to find your fight again as you walk this weary way, and speaks to our hope of the next life with Jesus. Douglas shares with me his story of what led him to Nashville, TN, his journey from songwriting to fiction writing and the idea of unpacking his belief that every moment...
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Episode 173 :: Carole Holiday :: Stories of Learning Who You Are Again After Loss and Living with Grief
Simply Stories Podcast
A self-proclaimed “accidental author”, Carole Holiday was living a very full life as a wife, mother, and nana, until one day, everything fell apart. Her marriage to her childhood sweetheart of over 35 years ended, followed by losing her job and ultimately filing for bankruptcy. Then she developed heart issues because of all the stress, and a continued windfall of loss, and grief in losing close loved ones, until it felt like there was absolutely nothing recognizable about the life she had known. In her book I Don’t Know Who I Am Anymore, Carole shares her story, but it...
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Episode 172 :: Mike Nappa :: Stories from the Valley of the Shadow, and Blessing Those Who Mourn
Simply Stories Podcast
Over the last several years, I don’t think there is anyone who has not been touched by loss or some kind of grief. Today's guest, author, and literary agent Mike Nappa is incredibly familiar with loss and living with grief. In 2016, he lost his beloved wife, Amy, to cancer. In his learning how to live life without her, God has shown him why grieving is such an important part of losing a loved one. As Mike says, he learned how to cry into his keyboard and produced one of the most poignant books that bears witness to grief that I have ever personally encountered. It is called ...
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Episode 171 :: Gary Miracle :: Stories of Taking Heart, Persevering in Suffering, and No More Bad Days
Simply Stories Podcast
Gary Miracle is an author and a speaker who passionately believes in the power of storytelling and how it unites us and spurs us on when life is tragically hard, and also reminds us who we are and who God made us to be. In this episode, he shares his story of growing immersed in church culture on Sunday but then suffered from an identity crisis the rest of the week as he chased perfection, and changed personas in order to be affirmed by anyone and everyone. Finally, later in his life and career, now a married man with kids, Gary reached his breaking point and reached out to his friend Bart...
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Episode 170 :: Justin & J.L. Gerhardt:: Stories of Encountering God at the Intersection of Story and Worship
Simply Stories Podcast
Justin and J.L. Gerhardt are on the podcast today, and you will love hearing from them! There is an epic retelling of their meeting and falling in love complete with 90’s Hearthrob meet cute and all. More than that, Justin and J.L. share about their journey of God leading them both into ministry with words, calling their family to travel the world, and unleashing their creativity and courage to press into new ways to encounter God and His Word. This journey has given birth to various creative outlets for the Gerhardt family, but the one we talk about the most in this episode is Justin’s...
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Episode 169 :: Nikki Anders :: Stories of The Journey to Bethlehem
Simply Stories Podcast
I am so excited to share with you a really special conversation with the incredibly talented Renaissance woman Nikki Anders. Nikki is an award-winning musician, songwriter, and music producer in the TV and film industry. She shares some of her experiences in the music industry as a solo artist and member of the music group Avalon, her and her husband Adam’s time working on “Glee” as well as many other films, and now are the creative team behind the new movie musical “The Journey to Bethlehem.” Nikki shares how the Lord closed and opened so many doors over the last seventeen...
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Episode 168 :: Travis Thompson :: Stories of Mental Health, Addiction, Faith and Healing
Simply Stories Podcast
Travis Thompson is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who practices in Middle Tennessee. He is a PhD candidate who works with clients from many backgrounds to find the deeper meaning of their struggles and embrace long-term recovery from the pains that they experienced. His work is focused on being healed from past hurt and toward future success. During our conversation, Travis shares his journey of wrestling with his own mental health as a teenager, his recovery and healing journey, and entering the world of becoming a mental health professional serving and helping others like...
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Episode 167 :: Kelly Balarie :: Stories of The Power of God’s Word and Taking Every Thought Captive
Simply Stories Podcast
I have a powerhouse on the podcast in the form of Kelly Balarie. Kelly is an author and a speaker who is passionate about Jesus and the Word of God. She is a sister in the trenches and a self-proclaimed spiritual cheerleader. Every book she has written, she writes from a place of “this is where God has been faithful to me in this season.” Or “this is what God has been teaching me,” full of authenticity, and powerful scripture-saturated insights for women who desire to walk well and be filled to the fullness of God. In our conversation today, you’ll hear about her...
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Episode 166 :: Dr. Clarence Shuler :: Stories of Finding Hope in Dark Places and Cross-Cultural Relationships that Can Heal
Simply Stories Podcast
Dr. Clarence Shuler is the President and CEO of his nonprofit BLR- which stands for Building Lasting Relationships. Their mission is to equip others for discipleship in various venues. He and his wife both speak and write about marriage, but also dealing with infidelity, and divorce, but they especially love to minister to singles in the church. Whatever it looks like, the Shulers are committed to “loving people with God’s love with no agenda and see what happens.” During our conversation today, Dr. Shuler shared his story of coming to Christ through a relationship that would impact...
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Episode 165 ::Kayla Craig :: Stories of Curiosity & Questions in Faith & Holding Every Season Sacred
Simply Stories Podcast
Today I have the absolute joy of sharing with you my conversation with Kayla Craig. Kayla is a modern liturgist as the woman behind Liturgies for Parents online. She is a Mama of 4, a supportive pastor’s wife, and just this week she released her second book Every Season Sacred. In our conversation today, you’ll get to hear Kayla’s heart as she shares about what it looks like to pursue an honest and abundant life full of wonder and work. In all the spaces she occupies, she offers an open invitation to be curious, to express our questions, doubts, or confusion as we walk out our faith...
info_outline I am so thrilled to welcome back to the podcast, the one and only Dorena Williamson! Dorena is a woman of deep faith, with a passion for building the kingdom of God and living a legacy of faith as a minister, a mama, a pastor’s wife, and a woman of impactful and instructive words. She is the author of 8 children’s books that all provide beautiful insight into the heart of God and scripture’s call to live in diversity and humility as we learn and grow together in the world. Whether that diversity is found in differing racial or ethnic communities and cultures, to others living with visible or invisible disabilities, or on the margins socioeconomically. She encourages children and the big people who love them, in every story that she writes to celebrate how God made them, and to delight in His world that He made and all those made in His image.
Her most recent book is called I Know Who I Am. It is a book of scriptural affirmations for kids. It is designed to serve as a companion to come alongside families and those that love kids with words that contain truth about them, about the Lord, and to see all of God’s image bearers represented in the pages from around the world! It gives beautiful verbiage for children to repeat over themselves and to speak over other children of all ages they encounter as they walk through the hills and valleys and changes of life. My kids absolutely loved it, and it would be a perfect addition to a morning or evening routine for kiddos that are starting back to school!
In this conversation, Dorena also shares her heart so beautifully about where God has her in her lament as a leader in her church, a Mama raising Black kids, and the world around her. She invites us to consider how all Believers can lean in to the reality of what is before communities and their daily fears and concerns and how to bear one another’s burdens together at the feet of Jesus. She offers an invitation to lean in to humility and honor towards others as we experience beauty, hope, tragedy, and all that is found on Earth this side of Heaven together. None of us are perfect, we will make mistakes, but God honors our learning, our choices to lean in and have Him show us His heart for us and for others. He has so much to show us. Always remember, you matter, and your story matters.
Just as an FYI, we recorded this episode right in the midst of our communities’ grief over the Covenant shooting in the Spring. We mention it briefly in the beginning of the episode, but we spend a little more time (around 5-7 minutes) discussing its impact on our community around 40 minutes in. If that is a tender place for you, I just want to be sensitive to that and give you that heads up. We fairly quickly transition to Dorena sharing about how to be the body of Christ in the midst of seasons of communal lament. It’s a powerful word, not solely about that tragedy, but about how to lock arms and shields of faith with others as humans made in God’s image walking this weary land together until we all go home.
Connecting with Dorena:
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Scripture References:
Psalm 136, Psalm 27:13-14,James 1:17 - God is good (plus many more verses)
Psalm 100:5 – His truth endures to all generations
John 2:1-11- Water into wine
Matthew 6:10- On Earth as it is in Heaven
Ephesians 3:14-15, Revelation 7:9- The family of God in Heaven
Isaiah 6:1-3-The Earth is full of God’s glory
Matthew 7:24-29-I build my life on Jesus who is the solid rock, vs. shifting sand
Jeremiah 29:11- You have plans for me for hope and my future
Hebrews 13:5–6; Deuteronomy 31:6–8-You will not leave me
Isaiah 40:31- Wait on the Lord, He will renew your strength
Psalm 8:5-8- Crowned with glory and God’s strength
Psalm 5:1-12, Romans 8:26- Oh Lord, with deep groanings
Exodus 1:8-14, Exodus 2:23-25- Exodus and the cries of those enslaved, and God heard them and saw their grief and He was concerned
Ephesians 1:4, 1 Corinthians 2:7, 1 Peter 1:19-20 - His plans from the foundations of the earth (futher insight here)
Exodus 6-14- The Exodus story and the plagues
Exodus 14:9-31- God parted the seas for His people
Psalm 3:3- Lift my head
Jude 1:24-25- God keeps us
Romans 8:28- God works together for the good of those that love Him
Galatians 6:2- Bear one another’s burdens
Matthew 28:18–20; Revelation 5:9–10; Revelation 7:9–10; Revelation 14:6–7 Every nation tribe and tongue in Heaven
Genesis 1:26-28- Let us make man and woman in our image
References:
Dorena’s previous episodes on the podcast (part one, part two, Advent)
The Covenant School shooting in Nashville
Loving Day and the Lovings’ Story and the Loving Act (Loving v. Virginia 1967)
Dr. Chris Williamson’s episode on the podcast
Buddy Walk - The Extra Mile - DS Association
Dr. Jemar Tisby (and our episode together!)
Target diverse Christmas line (Listen, I know the struggle with Target is real for a lot of believers right now. However. This is honoring Black people and culture in a huge way and I’m super grateful for those strides forward.)
“Wait on the Lord”- Maverick City
“Same God”- Elevation Worship
Cheerleaders shot for going to the wrong car
American Girl book The Care and Keeping of You
Juneteenth as a Federal Holiday
Notes for White Allies and how they can honor Juneteenth without centering themselves, and also here. Danielle Coke also does a fantastic job sharing about practical ways to celebrate and elevate.
Connecting with Emily and Simply Stories Podcast:
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