You might need a snack for today’s episode.We welcome Kendall Vanderslice, baker, author, and theologian to The Weight for a discussion about the intersection of food--specifically, bread--and worship. Kendall explores the dichotomy of the simplicity and complexity of making bread and how it connects to the simplicity and complexity of a life of faith.Kendall is the author of By Bread Alone: A Baker’s Reflections on Hunger, Longing, and the Goodness of God. She is also the founder of the Edib...

The Weight might be on a brief summer break, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have anything to listen to! We’ve got five seasons of excellent conversations, and Eddie and Chris offer their recommendations for re-listening to a few from this season. (They also share some life updates and a little advice at the end.)We hope y’all have a wonderful summer, and we’ll see you in August with all new episodes of The Weight. Resources:All of our episodes can be found at theweightpodcast.com, on Sp...

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”--1 Corinthians 13.13This well-known, often quoted Bible verse is probably one you’re familiar with. But today’s guest, Dr. Luther Smith, wants to mix things up a little and get us to think like this: The greatest of these is hope.Dr. Luther Smith is Professor Emeritus of Church and Community at Candler University (and one of Chris’s former professors). He earned his Ph.D. from Saint Lewis University and his...

No matter what your age is, you’re probably caught up in the 24-hour news cycle, the internet, social media, and doom scrolling. You probably spend a lot of your day with a screen in front of you, and that affects us socially, emotionally, and mentally. Today’s guest gives Eddie and Chris some insight into what the church can offer in our media-saturated world.Dr. Angela Patterson is media psychologist, writer, and researcher with Springtide Research Institute, nonpartisan nonprofit organizat...

Dr. Scott Morris is a medical school graduate and an ordained United Methodist minister who believes that healing the sick is a vital part of the Christian faith, and he lives that belief out in a very real way in Memphis, Tennessee through Church Health. Church Health is a faith-based, not-for-profit healthcare organization that offers whole person, comprehensive health care to people facing social and economic difficulties. No one should go without critical healthcare because they can’t aff...

Dr. Corneilus Plantinga has a few words to say about gratitude, and it may just change your life--physically, spiritually, and emotionally. A habit of gratitude can lower your blood pressure and help you sleep better. But the habit of gratitude also ties us together collectively, in community and in church. When there is genuine appreciation of an act of kindness or a loving word, the memory of that “thank you” is a cushion when disagreement tries to divide us. Gratitude for God’s gifts remin...

Dana Trent is an author, professor, and preschool drug dealer, and now she’s part of the three-timers club on The Weight. She talks to Eddie and Chris about her new book, Between Two Trailers, how to live in the present with a past that continues to live with you, what it means to go home when you feel like you can’t, and how important personal connections are when you’re trying to work through trauma.Dana is a graduate of Duke Divinity School and an assistant professor in the Humanities Depa...

What can the writings, speeches, and actions of historical figures teach us? How do we actually learn from them, instead of merely idolizing and romanticizing them? Dr. Danjuma Gibson gives us some clarity on that often difficult task, with his newest book, Through the Eyes of Titans.Dr. Gibson is professor of pastoral theology, care, and counseling at Calvin Theological Seminary. He is a licensed, practicing psychotherapist, and served for 16 years as the senior pastor of a church in Chicago...

If you’re not hungry at the start of this episode, you probably will be by the end. And you’ll probably want to run down to Jackson, Mississippi to eat at Elvie’s.Hunter Evans is the owner of Elvie’s that serves seasonal dishes and highlights ingredients from local farmers. For Hunter, owning a restaurant is first about hospitality. He focuses on making connections with his patrons, and is a champion of a city in Mississippi that often gets overlooked or looked down on. He also focuses on the...

Living into a consistent ethic of life is central to the work of Kim Daniels. For Kim, that means living into a life that expands our moral imagination and puts the lives of other people front and center to whatever decision is being made, at every level in society. It means seeing people as the image of God, no matter their circumstances. It means looking out for the people on the edges, and bringing us all together to build a world that actively cares about those on the margins. Kim is...

“Politics is an essential forum in which we can love our neighbors.” Michael Wear reminds us that Christians are called to love, love of God and love of neighbor. And if you are a Christian in politics, when you go into the political sphere, what are you doing? What is the orientation of your heart? This question is for everyone to answer, not just politicians. Are you using the vast resources of the Christian tradition—scriptures, history, theology—to guide your decision making? Are you...

Shownotes: In this Holy Week episode, Chris and Eddie are joined by Kavin Rowe, author of Christianity’s Surprise: A Sure and Certain Hope. After 20 years of scriptural immersion as the George Washington Ivey Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Duke Divinity School, Rowe began to discern the growing significance of Christianity’s groundbreaking impact when it first entered the world. His book evokes the lost sense of the explosive power at the heart of Christian story, detailing the...

Humility. Through. This episode hangs on those two words, and how they relate to Christianity today. Joel Muddamalle, Director of Theology and Research for Proverbs 31 Ministries, wrote the book on humility, The Hidden Peace. He explains that true, Christian humility--living out the humble life of Jesus--will bring us to God who will get us through the hurts, the hard times, and the exhaustion of life today. We find peace in humility, in that awareness that the Lord is with us always. And...

Neil White knows how to tell a story. He told his own story in his memoir, In the Sanctuary of Outcasts, about his time in a federal prison that also served as the United States’ last leper colony. He’s written articles, essays, and plays. He’s co-written other people’s memoirs. He can tell you a story, but really what he wants is for you to tell your story. Neil talks to Eddie and Chris about the importance of storytelling. They talk about the process of writing, practical ways to get...

Traumatic events happen to us as individuals, but we also experience trauma as a community. How do we--individually and collectively--deal with trauma? How do we frame it within the narrative of our own stories and of our communities’ stories? How do we rebuild from traumatic fractures without leaning into the temptation to return to a false memory of a golden age that never existed in the first place? This conversation on The Weight is built around a heavy topic, but Dr. Kimberly Wagner...

We all know that things change. People change. Understanding changes. Ideas change. Even theological institutions change. In this episode, Chris and Eddie are joined by Dr. David F. Watson, Academic Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. David has helped change and shape the future of United, and has some ideas about how other theological institutions can move with the times. He looks to the rich history of the Christian tradition to form...

This episode of The Weight is with previous guest Dr. Andrew Root. He joined Eddie and Chris in 2021 for a discussion about the religious lives of younger generations. In today’s conversation, Andy talks about how the decline in mainline Christianity in the United States is a result of a lack of faithful imagination in a secular world. God is no longer seen as a living, breathing being still working in the world. Individual churches have muddied the waters by focusing on their own story,...

If you’re a parent or you know a parent, today’s conversation with Kayla Craig is a good word for you. But this episode also holds a lot of wisdom for everyone, in every season of life. Life is messy and chaotic and complicated, but finding time to pray doesn’t have to be. Kayla is a writer, podcaster, former journalist, and mother to four kids, ages seven to thirteen. She is the creator of the Liturgies for Parents Instagram account. Kayla offers short prayers and liturgies because she...

John T. Edge joins Chris and Eddie for a conversation that takes them all over the South. John T. is a writer, commentator, the former director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, and host of the television show True South. He is the director of the Mississippi Lab at the University of Mississippi, and his latest passion project is the Greenfield Farm Writers Residency, which will offer space for writers of all kinds to step away from the real world and put their focus and attention on their...

The wait is over... The Weight is back! (sorry for the pun) We'll see you back, right here, next week for a brand new season of The Weight.

We’ve reached that time of year again--The Weight’s yearly wrap-up episode. It’s been a year of conversations that covered a wide range of emotions: joy, hope, grief, fear, love. We talked about seeing the Holy Spirit at work, disagreeing from a place of love, the decline of mainline Protestantism, and the Methodist movement and its history of missional work. We talked to authors, pastors, researchers, and artists. We got to hear Chris get schooled by a beloved United Methodist Bishop. We got...

Esau McCaulley returns to The Weight for a discussion about his newest book, "How Far to the Promised Land.” This is a joyful conversation that covers some heavy topics, like reconciling yourself to your history while charting your own path and creating your own story. And sometimes, finding your place in the story means finding your place with God and allowing God’s grace to emerge in unexpected ways. Esau is an author and associate professor of New Testament at Wheaton College in Wheaton,...

This episode goes deep into the theological concept of atonement. You may not know what atonement is (broadly, the reconciliation of the relationship between God and people through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ), but today’s guest is here to help. Fred Anderson, author of Why Did Jesus Die and What Does That Have to Do with Me?, is pastor emeritus at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. He retired after forty-two years in ministry, but also served in the...

Don’t give up. If you take anything away from today’s episode, let it be that simple phrase: Don’t give up. Eddie and Chris talk to Nick Connolly, founder and lead pastor of Bright City Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Nick has a few good words to share with anyone facing hardships, defeat, or resistance. His new book, Don’t Give Up Just Yet, comes out in February 2024 and offers some practical ways to work through doubt, seasons of waiting, and letting life’s difficulties strengthen...

Conflict in the Middle East.  It’s a phrase that has been a part of global conversations for years. The assumption is that any ongoing issues are the result of thousands of years of disagreement and strife, but the reality is that the current violence is a much more recent problem. Today’s guest on The Weight gives us a framework and some history to think more critically about how we engage the news around Israel and Hamas. Dr. Graham Pitts is the Assistant Professor of History and Middle...