Potter's Inn Soul Care Conversations

Potter’s Inn Soul Care Conversations is a place where our souls meet the world. We invite you into a relevant, vulnerable, and courageous conversation with us. We’ll explore key Soul Care issues facing us in work, health, relationships, and God. In our busy lives we all need a space to reflect, be inspired, and get some needed resources to help us navigate the white water of life. This podcast is provided by Potter’s Inn, a ministry dedicated to the care of the soul for leaders in the ministry and the marketplace. Stephen W. Smith is the host and the author of 12 books and guides. The Soul Care Conversation podcast is listened to in over 80 countries and has over 275,000 downloads. Approximately 6,000+ people listen to the podcast monthly. The podcast has interviewed such guests as Ruth Haley Barton, Roger Housden, Brian McLaren, Sarah Bessy and others.

I Think I Need 100 Days Like This 02/14/2024

Blessing for the Brokenhearted 02/14/2024

Allison's Story 02/14/2024

The River of no Agenda 02/14/2024

Discernment: Finding Our Way, Part 2 10/10/2023

Discernment: Finding Our Way, Part 2 Discernment is the process of gaining clarity on finding direction for the next step of our journey. SHOW NOTES Today’s podcast is part two of a discussion between Steve and Spiritual Director Martie McMane. Martie is a retired minister, artist, and spiritual director who used a collage process with Steve & Gwen to help them make some crucial life decisions during a period of repositioning. They continue the conversation today about how the collage process can work in each of our own lives Thank you for joining us in today’s conversation! ABOUT MARTIE MCMANE Rev. Martie McMane, MA, M.Div, is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and was the Senior Minister of First Congregational Church in Boulder from 2000-2016. As a certified Enneagram teacher for 25 years, Martie has reached well over 1,000 people with her in-depth knowledge of the Enneagram and how its understanding can be transformative for our lives. In retirement, she enjoys creating pastels and mixed media, using it as a way to express the connection with the Divine as witnessed in nature and what it means to be human. Mentioned in the Podcast by Seena B. Frost by Henri Nouwen This is the Soul Collage that Steve did in the retreat with Marty. MUSIC USED IN PODCAST Music Break at 23:13 - A Gaelic Blessing: Meditation by John Rutter Music Break at 39:50 - There will be Rest by Frank Ticheli - performed by Kantorei SUPPORT THE PODCAST Please consider a gift to support our ministry. We have a few ways to make it easy for you: Use our on our Website Send by mail (Potter’s Inn, PO Box 35, Divide, Colorado 80814 - make sure you make note that your gift is for the podcast) FIND US ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM Facebook CONTACT US INTERESTED IN MORE SOUL CARE RESOURCES? Check out our , , and our . Want to experience soul care in person? Learn more about our soul care . /episode/index/show/pottersinn/id/28273919

Ep 146: Discernment: Finding our Way, Part 1 10/03/2023

Ep 146: Discernment: Finding our Way, Part 1 Discernment is the process of gaining clarity on finding direction for the next step of our journey. SHOW NOTES Last year Steve and Gwen went through a period of repositioning: changes were on the horizon but any clarity about what to do next was clouded by the realization that they were not on the same page. They reached out to a trusted Spiritual Director for help and the result was what they called a “Discernment Retreat.” They needed clarity. They needed discernment. Today’s podcast is a discussion between Steve and the Spiritual Director they called on for help, Martie McMane. A retired minister, artist, and spiritual director, Martie used a collage process that helped Steve & Gwen in making those crucial, life decisions. Today they dive deep into the process. Thank you for joining us in today’s conversation! ABOUT MARTIE MCMANE Rev. Martie McMane, MA, M.Div, is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and was the Senior Minister of First Congregational Church in Boulder from 2000-2016. As a certified Enneagram teacher for 25 years, Martie has reached well over 1,000 people with her in-depth knowledge of the Enneagram and how its understanding can be transformative for our lives. In retirement, she enjoys creating pastels and mixed media, using it as a way to express the connection with the Divine as witnessed in nature and what it means to be human. Mentioned in the Podcast by Seena B. Frost by Henri Nouwen This is the Soul Collage that Steve did in the retreat with Marty. MUSIC USED IN PODCAST Music Break at 33:22 & 36:32 - Waltz for the Broken Hearted Written and performed by Jeff Wahl. SUPPORT THE PODCAST Please consider a gift to support our ministry. We have a few ways to make it easy for you: Use our on our Website Send by mail (Potter’s Inn, PO Box 35, Divide, Colorado 80814 - make sure you make note that your gift is for the podcast) FIND US ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM Facebook CONTACT US INTERESTED IN MORE SOUL CARE RESOURCES? Check out our , , and our . Want to experience soul care in person? Learn more about our soul care . /episode/index/show/pottersinn/id/28208633

Ep 145: Walter Brueggemann's Prophetic Imagination 09/26/2023

Ep 145: Walter Brueggemann's Prophetic Imagination I am simply humbled at this stage in my career, to have the privilege to tell Walter’s story and to help amplify his amazingly relevant voice. Getting to know Walter has been a healing and restorative experience for me as a former pastor and a professor deeply committed to social justice when so much of the church and society has forgotten what the biblical text says about God’s care for the marginalized. — Conrad L. Kanagy SHOW NOTES Steve’s chats with Conrad Kanagy, the author of coming soon book Walter Brueggemann's Prophetic Imagination: A Theological Biography. (releases Oct 24, 2023) Steve and Conrad focus on the book and how it reveals the most complete portrait to date of this remarkable prophet, pastor, preacher, teacher, and friend. Thank you for joining us in today’s conversation! ABOUT CONRAD L. KANAGY Conrad L. Kanagy is professor of sociology at Elizabethtown College, Pennsylvania. He holds an undergraduate degree from Wheaton College (Illinois) and a PhD from Penn State. He is the author of eight books and numerous scholarly articles. His primary area of expertise is American and global Christianity. He hosts the podcast MENTIONED IN THE PODCAST (Releases Oct 24, 2023) Conrad’s Podcast MUSIC USED IN PODCAST Music Break at 33:00 - The Feast of St Augustine Music Break at 47:28 - Kyrie Eleison with Audrey Snyder SUPPORT THE PODCAST Please consider a gift to support our ministry. We have a few ways to make it easy for you: Use our on our Website Send by mail (Potter’s Inn, PO Box 35, Divide, Colorado 80814 - make sure you make note that your gift is for the podcast) FIND US ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM Facebook CONTACT US INTERESTED IN MORE SOUL CARE RESOURCES? Check out our , , and our . Want to experience soul care in person? Learn more about our soul care . /episode/index/show/pottersinn/id/28143305

'Kindavangelical' With Guest Pete Briscoe 09/19/2023

'Kindavangelical' With Guest Pete Briscoe I came to the conclusion that I could not stay in that role and be healthy. So I chose to be a healthy person over a megachurch pastor, and it was an incredibly hard choice. — Pete Briscoe SHOW NOTES In today’s conversation, Steve talks with Pete Briscoe about why Pete no longer calls himself an “evangelical.” You’ll hear Pete’s story, filled with pain and struggles, as he discovers more beautiful ways to live the Christian life. While you may not agree with his path, we think there’s something here to learn in his story. Thank you for joining us in today’s conversation! ABOUT PETE BRISCOE After leading Bent Tree Bible Fellowship church for nearly three decades and preaching for Telling the Truth ministry for more than a decade, God led Pete to a new season of life. With his wife Libby, they sold their home, donated most of their stuff, and bought an RV. They drove west into the sunset, took a couple of months to catch their breath, and then started to work from the road. Pete now coaches pastors and business owners/leaders in communications and self-care. He is also the host of the podcast a podcast for folks who have spent time in the evangelical culture but it isn’t working for them anymore. Learn more about Pete on his website: MENTIONED IN THE PODCAST The Christian Journey MUSIC USED IN PODCAST Music Break at 31:40 - Gratitude by Scott Lamlein. Music Break at 56:05 - Luminous Night of the Soul by Ola Gjeilo. Performed by Central Washington University Chamber Choir. SUPPORT THE PODCAST Please consider a gift to support our ministry. We have a few ways to make it easy for you: Use our on our Website Send by mail (Potter’s Inn, PO Box 35, Divide, Colorado 80814 - make sure you make note that your gift is for the podcast) FIND US ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM Facebook CONTACT US INTERESTED IN MORE SOUL CARE RESOURCES? Check out our , , and our . Want to experience soul care in person? Learn more about our soul care . /episode/index/show/pottersinn/id/28076619

Scripture & the Spiritual Journey 09/12/2023

Scripture & the Spiritual Journey I have learned to prize holy ignorance more highly than religious certainty and to seek companions who have arrived at the same place. We are a motley crew, distinguished not only by our inability to explain ourselves to those who are more certain of their beliefs than we are but in many cases by our distance from the centers of our faith communities as well. Like campers who have bonded over cook fires far from home, we remain grateful for the provisions that we have brought with us from those cupboards, but we also find them more delicious when we share them with one another under the stars. —Barbara Brown Taylor _____________________________________________________ “Bible-believing religious people often miss the gospel. Just because you believe in the Bible doesn't mean you understand it. Over and over the tax collectors, prostitutes, and the amoral come to Jesus, while the religious miss who he is.” These are the words of well known and lived Tim Keller. Steve and Brandon Cook explore how our view and opinions about the Bible ought to grow and deepen as we grow and deepen! About Brandon Cook Brandon is a husband and father and passionate about family and relationships. He is also a writer, trainer, and business/personal coach. Originally from Alabama, he attended Wheaton College (IL) and studied in Jerusalem, Israel before graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University near Boston. He also received a Master’s degree in ancient Judaism from Oxford University in the UK. After graduate school, he moved to Long Beach, California and had an incredibly rich and transformative experience for over 14 years working as a pastor, coach, and trainer. Brandon and his wife Rebecca have three amazing children and now live in Brevard, North Carolina. MUSIC Native Tongue by David Wilcox (from Into the Mystery, 2003) Ancient Words by Michael W. Smith (from Worship Again, 2002) SUPPORT THE PODCAST Please consider a gift to support our ministry. We have a few ways to make it easy for you: Use our on our Website Send by mail (Potter’s Inn, PO Box 35, Divide, Colorado 80814 - make sure you make note that your gift is for the podcast) FIND US ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM Facebook CONTACT US INTERESTED IN MORE SOUL CARE RESOURCES? Check out our , , and our . Want to experience soul care in person? Learn more about our soul care . /episode/index/show/pottersinn/id/28007157

Steve's List For Summer 2023: Ep 12 - Cultivating Daily Shalom: Using The Daily Examen 08/01/2023

Steve's List For Summer 2023: Episode 113 - Finding Jesus’ Ways To Have Jesus’ Life 07/25/2023

Steve's List For Summer 2023 - Ep 2: What is Soul Care? 07/18/2023

Steve's List For Summer 2023: Episode 5 - Three Core Questions Of Every Soul 07/11/2023

Steve's List For Summer 2023: The Welcoming Prayer 07/04/2023

Steve's List For Summer 2023: Nature And The Care Of The Soul With Belden Lane, Part 2 06/27/2023

Steve's List For Summer 2023: Nature and the Care of the Soul, Part 1 06/20/2023

Steve's List For Summer 2023: Seeking God With Trevor Hudson, Part 1 & 2 06/13/2023

Steve's List For Summer 2023: Episode 118 - Wearing The Yoke 06/06/2023

Ep 142 - Letting Go 05/16/2023

The Language of the Soul with Jeff Crosby 05/09/2023

The Language of the Soul with Jeff Crosby We carry these desires, our deepest longings, with us. It’s part of what it means to be human, and they are drivers in our lives whether or not we acknowledge them. — Jeff Crosby SHOW NOTES Today’s guest is Jeff Crosby, the author of the new book (releases May 23, 2023) Language of the Soul. For over fifteen years, Jeff has been searching for a language of the soul--a way to articulate our deepest longings. Through the years he gathered clues from within global music styles, from different cultures, from his own Christian tradition and its sacred texts--and from deep within himself. Jeff explores the ways in which God meets us in our deepest longings of the heart – our longing for home, friendship, forgiveness, spiritual transformation, and more – not by satisfying our every desire but by granting us what we genuinely need. SPECIAL GUEST JEFF CROSBY Jeff Crosby is the president and CEO of ECPA, the trade association of Christian publishing, and has spent nearly four decades working in the world of words as a bookseller, publisher, and author. His writing has appeared in numerous magazines and journals including CRUX, Conversations Journal, Books & Culture, Urban Faith, and Living Lutheran. He is the editor and compiler of " (a collection of writings by Lewis B. Smedes) and the author of which is released May 23, 2023. Crosby earned an undergraduate degree in journalism and a master's degree in leadership development, where his area of special emphasis was creating mentoring cultures in organizations. He has been married to Cindy Crosby, a writer, educator, and naturalist, for more than 40 years, and has two grown children and six grandchildren. You can find more at . MENTIONED IN PODCAST : by Jeff Crosby MUSIC USED IN PODCAST Music Break at 52:25 - Always With Me (Song for Anxiety) - IAMSON SUPPORT THE PODCAST Please consider a gift to support our ministry. We have a few ways to make it easy for you: Use our on our Website Send by mail (Potter’s Inn, PO Box 35, Divide, Colorado 80814 - make sure you make note that your gift is for the podcast) FIND US ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM Facebook CONTACT US INTERESTED IN MORE SOUL CARE RESOURCES? Check out our , , and our . Want to experience soul care in person? Learn more about our soul care . /episode/index/show/pottersinn/id/26783859

Soul Care in a Warming World 04/25/2023

Ep 139: A Sense of Home 04/18/2023

Ep 138-Poetry: The Language of the Soul, Part 2 04/04/2023

Ep 138-Poetry: The Language of the Soul, Part 2 We are continuing the conversation today with Steve and Roger Housden. It was Roger who opened the portal for Steve to get and understand poetry. Roger is a prolific writer, poet, speaker and teacher and speaks with a grace and appreciation of self-discovery and exploration . Thank you for joining us today! Our Special Guest - Roger Housden Roger Housden is an author and has been featured many times in The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. His first book was published in the U.K. in 1990, and as of 2018, he has published twenty six books, including four travel books, a novella, Chasing Love and Revelation, and the best-selling Ten Poems series, which began in 2001 with Ten Poems to Change Your Life and ended with the publication in 2018 of Ten Poems for Difficult Times. A native of England, he lives in Marin County, California, and teaches around the world. Mentioned in Podcast A Brief for the Defense by Jack Gilbert Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies are not starving someplace, they are starving somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils. But we enjoy our lives because that’s what God wants. Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women at the fountain are laughing together between the suffering they have known and the awfulness in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody in the village is very sick. There is laughter every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta, and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay. If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction, we lessen the importance of their deprivation. We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure, but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world. To make injustice the only measure of our attention is to praise the Devil. If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down, we should give thanks that the end had magnitude. We must admit there will be music despite everything. We stand at the prow again of a small ship anchored late at night in the tiny port looking over to the sleeping island: the waterfront is three shuttered cafés and one naked light burning. To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat comes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth all the years of sorrow that are to come. ————- From Collected Poems by Jack Gilbert. Copyright © 2012. Unholy Sonnet 11 by Mark Jarman Half asleep in prayer I said the right thing And felt a sudden pleasure come into The room or my own body. In the dark, Charged with a change of atmosphere, at first I couldn’t tell my body from the room. And I was wide awake, full of this feeling, Alert as though I’d heard a doorknob twist, A drawer pulled, and instead of terror knew The intrusion of an overwhelming joy. I had said thanks and this was the response. But how I said it or what I said it for I still cannot recall and I have tried All sorts of ways all hours of the night. Once was enough to be dissatisfied. —————— From Questions for Ecclesiastes by Mark Jarman. Copyright © 1997. MUSIC USED IN PODCAST Music Break at 47:35 - Armenian Tradition: Surb (Holy, Holy, Holy) - Performed by Harpa Dei. SUPPORT THE PODCAST Please consider a gift to support our ministry. We have a few ways to make it easy for you: Use our on our Website Send by mail (Potter’s Inn, PO Box 35, Divide, Colorado 80814 - make sure you make note that your gift is for the podcast) FIND US ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM Facebook CONTACT US INTERESTED IN MORE SOUL CARE RESOURCES? Check out our , , and our . Want to experience soul care in person? Learn more about our soul care . /episode/index/show/pottersinn/id/26435823

Episode 137 - Poetry: The Language of the Soul 03/28/2023

Episode 137 - Poetry: The Language of the Soul Todays podcast has very special meaning for Steve as he had the opportunity to speak with Roger Housden. It was Roger who opened the portal for Steve to get and understand poetry. He’s a prolific writer and poet and the podcast became a soul enriching experience. We pray you are enriched as well! OUR SPECIAL GUEST - ROGER HOUSDEN Roger Housden is an author and has been featured many times in The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. His first book was published in the U.K. in 1990, and as of 2018, he has published twenty six books, including four travel books, a novella, Chasing Love and Revelation, and the best-selling Ten Poems series, which began in 2001 with Ten Poems to Change Your Life and ended with the publication in 2018 of Ten Poems for Difficult Times. A native of England, he lives in Marin County, California, and teaches around the world. MUSIC USED IN PODCAST Music Break at 38:13 - Minha Alma tem Sede de Deus (My soul thirsts for God) - with Juliano Ravanello. LYRICS (in English) My soul thirsts for God And longs for the living God Pilgrim and happy walking To the house of God Amid shouts, praise and joy Of the jubilant multitude Send your light your truth They will be my guide Lead me to your holy mountain To your dwelling place Then I will go to the altars of the Lord God of my joy I will sing Your praise with the sound of the harp My Lord and my God When I shall have the joy of seeing The face of God. SUPPORT THE PODCAST Please consider a gift to support our ministry. We have a few ways to make it easy for you: Use our on our Website Send by mail (Potter’s Inn, PO Box 35, Divide, Colorado 80814 - make sure you make note that your gift is for the podcast) FIND US ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM Facebook CONTACT US INTERESTED IN MORE SOUL CARE RESOURCES? Check out our , , and our . Want to experience soul care in person? Learn more about our soul care . /episode/index/show/pottersinn/id/26363733

12 Foundations To Care For Your Soul, Part 2 03/21/2023

12 Foundations to Care for your Soul 03/14/2023

Ep 134 - A Year of Slowing Down 03/07/2023

Beauty as Oxygen, Part 2 02/28/2023

Beauty as Oxygen 02/21/2023

40 Days, 40 Miles, 40 Questions 02/14/2023

Potter's Inn Soul Care Conversations

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