Active Faith Podcast

Monday Meditation

For Christmas I look towards the Magnificat as a message of self- care. We find a message of nurture in the lead up to Christ’s birth and comfort in his birth. While a message of action we also see care. Let us encounter the manger and our lives with the same spirit.

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Monday Meditation

This week I reflect on Psalm 126 and how our sorrow (tears) can be instrumental in the joy that we experience through God. The pain and heartache are not mitigated, but God moves in as a presence of comfort, sparking the joy of the work God can and will do.

Monday Meditation

This week we look at Psalm 85, and the journey hope can take toward peace. It is one navigated through self-care and one that can come define our relationship with God. Are you willing to enter the journey?

Monday Meditation

Join me as I reflect during this first week of Advent on Psalm 80. We enter this season, looking for God's restoration of our lives. Though where do we look? Do we look towards a future judgment to save us from this place, or do we allow God's call and promise to restore the image of God we have been created in?

Check out every Monday for a short devotion/meditation focusing on scripture and self-care.

This week I reflect on Ruth 1, and the nature of those who help to care for us along the journey.

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Check out every Monday for a short devotion/meditation focusing on scripture and self-care.

This week I reflect on Ezekiel 37:1-14, the restoring of the dry bones, and our own restoration. Continuing the theme of self-worth, and where we place our self-worth, let us look towards God.

You can find the transcript of this devotion, with the scripture by clicking here

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An offering on the Active Faith Podcast.

Check out every Monday for a short devotion/meditation focusing on scripture and self-care.

This week I reflect rest God took on the seventh day in the midst of creation.

A new offering on the Active Faith Podcast.

Check out every Monday for a short devotion/meditation focusing on scripture and self-care.

This week I reflect on the prologue in John 1:1-5 and what it means to look to the beginning as the source of our own self-worth.

Affirmations can be a helpful tool in our self-care kit. While not a way to ignore the negative happening around or within us, they can help reorient ourselves back on track as we process emotions and feelings.

In this episode, Andrew unpacks a little bit deeper into how these affirmations can be beneficial, as we develop this embedded practice of self-care. He talks about some affirmations he has heard about from others or used himself. And he talks about ways we can develop affirmations that can help us as we live out our faith and vocation.

Thank you to everyone who helped with their input on this episode, and don't forget to help with next week's episode.

Question for the next episode:

What is a community group or support system that helps in your practice of self-care?

Head on over and subscribe to Substack to leave your answers and subscribe to get all kinds of updates about the network as well as other writings that get shared there!

Boundaries play a big role in how we practice self-care. They create space and opportunity for us to do so. However, they do not just appear. Sometimes they take intentional work and lessons learned. Sometimes we need to be form and others times we need a soft handed approach. Sometimes they are done to mend relationships and other times they are done to keep relationships healthy. What kind of boundaries do you set for your self care?

In our next episode we will talk about affirmations. What is an affirmation you use in your life?

Don't forget to join our Active Faith Community on Facebook to share your journey and encourage and support others in their active journeys as well.

We all have bad days (it is an unfortunate fact of life). However, a good sense of self-care knows what we inherently need when our mental state is at its worst. Yes, it takes training and understanding to get there, but it is important to know and understand how we can respond in tough situations when we are drained, tired, or on edge.

In this episode, we look over what I call “go-to rituals” for self-care. That is where do we go when we have had a tough day? What can we do to begin to get ourselves in a better mental and emotional state as we know the need might be there to bounce back the next day?

Let me know what your rituals are, and don’t forget to help out with next week’s podcast topic:

What is a self-care boundary you maintain in your life?

Email or message me your answers/input as I unpack them in the next episode.

Also check out Active Faith Pod Network on Substack to get all the updates and even more content on self-care, mental health, and running, plus much more.

Weekends are crucial for people who work 9-5 jobs. We need that time to escape from the rigors of work and do things that fill our spirits in different ways.

In this light, whether you work a 9-5 job or a week of graveyard shifts, it is important to keep your day off sacred. With all the things happening in life and vocation we have to balance what happens between them.

In our job/vocation/career (however you wish to label it), we put in most of our effort. However, are we blocking off time away from our place of employment to do those others things we love or need to do in our lives?

In this episode I explore the importance of a day off each week, and why it is needed. We must have lives outside of our jobs, not just to accomplish things around the house, but to do things that have absolutely no relation to work whatsoever.

We also look at what other folks are doing on their days off as we go around the community. It might be a good book or cleaning the house, but what keeps us present when we are at work? What is the rest we take from something that occupies a good portion of our day?

Help out with next week’s episode! Our question is:

What is your go-to self-care ritual when you are having a bad day? (No judgment here)

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Don't forget to join our Active Faith Community on Facebook to share your journey and encourage and support others in their active journeys as well.

The show is back, and with a new format from some smaller-form discussion. Don’t worry interview episodes will be back, but in these episodes, we unpack a question, by hearing some of your responses to it, and I unpack my own reactions in relation to self-care.

In this episode, I hit the reset button and go back to the beginning, except I want to hear from you as well!

Last week I posed the question:

”What is your why?”

• In this episode, I go through some of your answers.
• I look at trends in how people express their reasons for doing what they do.
• I unpack my own why for this podcast and this community.
• explore why “why?” is a great question we can ask ourselves and others.

Next week's question: What do you do on your day off?

Don't forget to join our Active Faith Community on Facebook to share your journey and encourage and support others in their active journeys.

Brian is a 2018 graduate of Wesley Theological Seminary where he received a Master of Divinity. Following Seminary, he served as a licensed local pastor in the Virginia Annual Conference. He served churches in Albemarle County, Virginia for 14 months until coming out as gay and being forced to surrender his clergy credentials. Presently he and his husband reside in Ladysmith Virginia. Both are teachers in Spotsylvania County. Brian teaches Business Education at his alma mater, Courtland High School

Brian Lamb has had an up-and-down journey of self-care, and the more he has learned about himself, the better he has been able to focus on his own care and has enhanced his relationship with others. Join this conversation to hear about Brian's journey, where he is today, and the lessons he has learned along the way.

Find Brian on Social Media:

In the first episode of 2023, I take some time to reflect on a year and some change of podcasting and learning about self-care. There have been many lessons along the way, and many hopes and dreams that I have for this coming year

Don't forget to join our Active Faith Community on Facebook to share your journey and encourage and support others in their active journeys as well.

Another solo episode, where I am exploring the nature of consistency in our self-care practices. I explore it especially from my running journey, but I have noticed the carry-over into my self-care life as well.

Don't forget to join our Active Faith Community on Facebook to share your journey and encourage and support others in their active journeys as well.

Don't forget to join our Active Faith Community on Facebook to share your journey and encourage and support others in their active journeys as well.

After a couple of weeks off of podcasting I am back and I take some time in a shorter episode to reflect on renewal and for y'all to get some of my own ramblings.

Interview episodes back next week.

Don't forget to join our Active Faith Community on Facebook to share your journey and encourage and support others in their active journeys as well.

Mark is a speaker, professor, and author. He is married to Cheryl and they have three grown children. He and his wife live part of the year in Cochrane, Alberta and part on the West Coast of British Columbia.

Mark comes on the Active Faith Podcast to break down his book God Walk: Moving at the Speed of Your Soul. We talk about walking as a spiritual practice, but also about as a practice of wholistic self-care. We unpack the many ways walking can be used and the deep connection walking has to our mind, body, and soul. We explore how this became a passion for Mark, and what all undergirds this nature as he seeks to grow through this activity of movement.

Find Mark:

Leigh Anne Taylor walks alongside her husband Hugh and their combined 5 children and 4 grandchildren as a blessed "LaLa" and alongside the clergy and churches of the Mountain View District in south central Virginia as Director of Connecting Ministries. She loves learning about the Enneagram of the Soul and spiritual practices, a walk in the woods, being sous chef to her husband, a ride with the top down, and yoga.

Find Dr. Joseph Howell's Podcast

The difference between mental health and mental illness is something that Jamie focuses on, and in this episode we take a journey with Jamie to understand this difference. We hear about Jamie's journey and what it has looked for her to address her own mental illness, and how she has sought to be a central figure for helping persons understand more deeply about how to address mental illness, but also to care for their own mental health ( as a generalized way of caring for themselves.

Jamie brings her experience of teaching and practicing sports psychology at the collegiate level to help us understand how we can take mental health and mental illness seriously. She notes how it begins with education, and continues as we never try to fix others problems but help them to recognize they have support in the midst of their struggles.

Trigger Warning: We talk about suicide and mental illness in this episode, use self-care when listening.

Emma lives in Western NC and serves as a Hospice Chaplain. She been married for 2 years and have an 8 month old son. She likes to read, be outside, and connect with friends.

As we unpack the transitions in life, that lead to sometimes dramatic life changes we hear a bit of Emma’s story. From marriage, to moving, to giving birth, Emma has had many transitions in life in the last few years. What has she learned about herself, and how has her manner of self-care grown as she has taken on more of life and grown?

Andy Wells is the author of "Tried to Be Straight: Options for Gay Christians." He holds a Master of Arts in Christian Apologetics from Biola University. Andy’s education, coupled with his life experience struggling to reconcile his faith and sexuality, lend credibility to his writing.

Andy’s passion for the topics of sexuality and faith come from his struggle with self-acceptance. He knows the frustration of living as a secretly gay man and a publicly born-again Christian. Finding a solution that works without having to abandon one’s faith is Andy’s desire in helping others facing the same dilemma.

Andy and I talk about what self-worth and what it has looked like throughout his journey. Andy’s journey is one of understanding himself deeper, and growing through faith to find community that invites him to live into who he truly feels God has created him to be.

Find Andy:

Don't forget to join our Active Faith Community on Facebook to share your journey and encourage and support others in their active journeys as well.

Don't forget to join our Active Faith Community on Facebook to share your journey and encourage and support others in their active journeys as well.

Randy is a pastor and his partner Stephanie works at a church. They have a daughter, and have sought to establish what they call a “mental health household.” In this episode we explore what that looks like for them, and unpack that term as a general understanding.

Find Randy on Twitch is twitch.tv/xargathos

Find Stephanie on Instagram @timmerlady

Don't forget to join our Active Faith Community on Facebook to share your journey and encourage and support others in their active journeys as well.

Don't forget to join our Active Faith Community on Facebook to share your journey and encourage and support others in their active journeys as well.

Rev. Beth Anderson joins to talk about her recent renewal leave and what it means to take extended times of leave. We unpack how these things can be refreshing and help us to reflect on how we can care for ourselves better once we return.

Beth Anderson is a United Methodist Pastor in her 17th year of ministry serving our awesome God with the amazing people of Courthouse Community UMC. She has two incredible teenagers named Grace (15) and Sophia (14) and the sweetest dog ever named Joan. Beth's passion is helping people know their worth and discover their purpose. Too many people do not know that God loves them and there is nothing they can do about it-- she wants to change that. God's grace is real and hope is always possible. She's learning every day how to more fully love God, love others, and love herself.

Don't forget to join our Active Faith Community on Facebook to share your journey and encourage and support others in their active journeys as well.

Week 5 of my sermon series, Love: The Inside Job.

Don't forget to join our Active Faith Community on Facebook to share your journey and encourage and support others in their active journeys as well.

In week 4 of the series Love: The Inside Job, I unpack a healthy self-care mindset of failure. To continue the conversation from the last message on mental health, we observe those dark moments in our life, and what a healthy self-care centered response looks like for them.

Don't forget to join our Active Faith Community on Facebook to share your journey and encourage and support others in their active journeys as well.

Kori joins and talks about her journey in caring for herself and what it has meant at various points in her life and ministry. Now she uses her journey to help others as she looks to continue to gain education in clergy health, and how she can mentor clergy in their own wholistic self-care journeys.

Ordained elder in VA, serving in Chapel Hill, NC. I graduated from Duke Divinity in 2012, and for the last decade have served in higher ed at Duke and in churches in Durham and Chapel Hill. My health journey really began in 2011. I decided as I finished seminary, I wanted to make my physical health a priority. I managed to maintain a hundred pound weightloss for the last decade through better nutrition and activity (even through the birth of two kids). I also found myself passionate about helping clergy find rhythms of self-care that would contribute to well being for the whole self. That passion led me to work with the Clergy Health Institute through Pfeiffer University beginning in 2016. I am currently pursuing certification as a health coach, but I think health covers the whole person-mental, social, spiritual, vocational, financial, and physical.

This is the message from the third week on the sermon series I preached at Beech Grove UMC, Love: The Inside Job.

Don't forget to join our Active Faith Community on Facebook to share your journey and encourage and support others in their active journeys as well.

Rev. Jessie Squires Colwell is an Ordained Elder in the Virginia Conference of The United Methodist Church. She has served small, mid-sized, and large churches and currently serves as the Director of Clergy Excellence for the Virginia Conference UMC. She has served on local, national, and global boards for The United Methodist Church. Her first book: "Blessed Wrestling: Biblical Reflections Upon Discerning God's Call," was published in December of 2021 and is helpful tool to all who are all discerning next steps. It can be purchased on Amazon, Cokesbury, or Barnes and Noble Pastor Jessie has been married to her husband Nelson for nine years and Dean is their six-year-old son.

Second week of this series Love: The Inside Job we look at the nature of self-worth and claiming self-worth as the basis for our of practice self-care.

Don't forget to join our Active Faith Community on Facebook to share your journey and encourage and support others in their active journeys as well.

This is the first sermon in a aeries I am preaching at Beech Grove United Methodist Church called "Love: The Inside Job." This sermon was preached on August 7, 2022.

Don't forget to join our Active Faith Community on Facebook to share your journey and encourage and support others in their active journeys as well.

In a conversation centered around self-worth, Rev. KC joins to talk about their journey and struggles as they have sought to understand caring for themself more. 

Nathan is a pastor in the United Methodist Church, and in addition to a passionate love for God and the Church, Nathan is a major nerd in just about every way. He loves video games, anime, cartoons, comic books, tech, and his fellow nerds. He can be found lurking on some visual novel subreddit, reading the latest shōnen entry, or playing the newest Farm Sim.

He is married to the love of his life, Logan, and the two have two daughters, Norah and Quinn. Nathan is an ordained provisional elder in the United Methodist Church in the Western North Carolina Conference.