The Reformed Journal Podcast

In this episode, Jeff Munroe talks with Tim Van Deelen, who is a professor of Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He is also a frequent contributor to The Reformed Journal, regularly contributing the blog and writing essays. In this episode, they discuss Tim's work, as well as ways that individuals can make a difference around climate change, and more. 

In this episode, Rev. Kate Kooyman talks with Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap, who is the Vice President of the Evangelical Environmental Network. He attended Calvin University and Western Seminary, and has also served as the National Organizer and Spokesperson at the Young Evangelicals for Climate Action. They discuss Rev. Meyaard-Schaap's advocacy for climate change throughout his life, what he has learned about his faith through this work, as well as advice for those who want to become involved in climate change advocacy. 

In this episode of The Reformed Journal Podcast, Steve Mathonnet-VanderWell talks with Rev. Reggie Smith, the Director of Diversity for the Christian Reformed Church in North America. Rev. Reggie Smith grew up in Chicago, Illinois, then attended Calvin Seminary. He then pastored Northside Community CRC in New Jersey for almost two years before moving to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he pastored Roosevelt Park Community CRC for 20 years. He has also taught urban ministry and urban development classes at Calvin Theological Seminary, Western Theological Seminary, and Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. In 2017, he began serving with the Christian Reformed Church in North America, where he currently serves as the Director of Diversity. Tune in to hear their conversation!

In this episode, Jeff Munroe talks with Charlie Lowell, a founding member of the band Jars of Clay. Charlie is a three-time Grammy winner and most recently produced and co-wrote a song called "The End" that was streamed over five million times and featured in the Netflix series Bridgerton. They discuss his life, career, and play a segment of his most recent song. 

In this episode, Kate Kooyman talks with Meredith Anne Miller, a mom, pastor, and writer with over 20 years of experience in children’s ministry and curriculum. Meredith holds a Master of Divinity from Fuller Seminary, as well as a B.A. in Religious Studies and Spanish Language & Literature from Westmont College. Meredith and her husband started Pomona Valley Church in 2019, and she has been involved with the work of the Fuller Youth Institute since 2007. 

In this episode, Reformed Journal editor, Jeff Munroe, talks with Thomas Lynch about his life, career, and poetry. Thomas Lynch operated the Lynch and Sons Funeral Home in Milford, Michigan for decades. He's an accomplished essayist and poet, and he has been the subject of a documentary on PBS. He's written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and a host of others. He's also done spoken word pieces for the BBC. At the end of this episode, Thomas Lynch reads three of his poems aloud.

In this episode, Reformed Journal book review editor, Deb Van Duinen, talks with Joel Schoon-Tanis about his art and his most recently published book 40: The Gospels. Joel has a 30- year professional art career, and he is a celebrated painter who has shown his work around the United States and in Kenya. His murals can be found in many schools, children's hospitals, and churches, including murals in Kenya, Zambia, Palestine, and northern Wisconsin. He is also the creator and writer of Come On Over, a children's television show that won 13 regional Emmy awards and two national Telly awards. 

Brian Allain and Tood Deatherage are co-collaborators (along with several others) in the new book How to Heal Our Divides: A Practical Guide. In this episode, Reformed Journal editor Jeff Munroe talks with Brian and Todd about the book. They especially focus on Todd's work in peacemaking with Telos and the latest round of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In this episode Kate Kooyman talks to former RCA General Secretary Wesley Granberg-Michaelson about his new book Without Oars: Casting Off Into a Life of Pilgrimage. "Pilgrimage" becomes a metaphor for the journey of faith, based not on making one's beliefs fit into a confessional box, but on where one walks.

Roman Catholics on the Supreme Court, natural law, the nexus with public life, and how does the Reformed tradition evaluate and use natural law? Lisa Sowle Cahill, the J. Donald Monan S.J. Professor of Theology at Boston College discusses natural law as a source of public and Christian ethics. Dr. Cahill is known for her work in bioethics, gender studies, war-justice-and-peace. She talked with Steve Mathonnet-VanderWell

Winn Collier is the author of "A Burning in My Bones," the biography of Eugene Peterson, he's associate professor of pastoral theology at Western Theological Seminary and director of the Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination also at Western and our guest today on the Reformed Journal podcast.

Our guest for the first episode of our new season of the Reformed Journal podcast is one of our finest spiritual writers, Marilyn McEntyre. Marilyn has written over 20 books, and has three new titles being released in the first half of 2021. RJ editor Jeff Munroe talks with her about those books, her background, and her reading and writing practices.

Bob Leonard is a reporter in Iowa with almost unequaled access to the candidates, along with a deep familiarity of Iowa's first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses.  Hear Bob's thoughts on many candidates, including what might have gone wrong with some who are out of the race.  What is likely to happen on caucus night? Steve Mathonnet-VanderWell interviews Dr. Bob Leonard.

Jeff Munroe, a frequent contributor on The Twelve, has a new book -- Reading Buechner: Exploring the Work of a Master Memoirist, Novelist, Theologian, and Preacher. It's generating some good reviews and lots of buzz. Hear Jeff discuss the book with Steve Mathonnet-VanderWell. 

On this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, Luke Hawley joins us to talk about faith, music, and learning how to change the oil in his car. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJIPbnY6nBo

Welcome to the Perspectives Journal Podcast where we have conversation with thoughtful and interesting people from a generously Reformed Perspective. We’ll be covering topics from theology and church to the arts and sciences and many more. Today, we’re getting to know Scott Hoezee, one of our original bloggers on the Twelve. Scott is a professor at Calvin Seminary where he is the Director of the Center for Excellence in Preaching. Listen as we discuss topics from “What does it mean to be Reformed?” to the importance of science in the 21st Century. All in all, in this episode we get to know Scott on a more personal level. We hope you enjoy this episode! Feel free to comment below and let us know what you think!

Welcome to the Perspectives Journal Podcast where we have conversation with thoughtful and interesting people from a generously Reformed Perspective. We’ll be covering topics from theology and church to the arts and sciences. Today, one of our guest bloggers for the Twelve is with us, Chuck De Groat. He is discussing his article “What in the World Does it Mean to be Reformed?” from May 29, 2018. Among other things, in this episode we learn more about Chuck DeGroat and his work, we learn what it means to have a generously Reformed perspective, and we learn how to have conversation with humility and curiosity rather than judgement. Furthermore, we discuss difficult topics like what it means to live out our faith, how to wrestle with the question of LGBTQ+ using a generously Reformed perspective, and narcissism in the church. These are simply a list of topics, but the conversation that flowed from them is genuine and intentional–well worth listening to. We hope you enjoy this episode! Feel free to comment below and let us know what you think!  

Welcome to the Perspectives Journal Podcast where we have conversation with thoughtful and interesting people from a generously Reformed Perspective. We’ll be covering topics from theology and church to the arts and sciences. Today, we’ll be getting to know one of our Twelve Bloggers a little bit better. Introducing Rebecca Koerselman, a history professor at Northwestern College. In this episode, we discussed how Rebecca’s Reformed perspective and her faith shapes the way she studies history. She also tells of her fascination with gender history – studying history from the perspective of a particular gender and how that affects the way we perceive history. On a lighter note, one of the things Rebecca loves about teaching history is hearing the different perspectives that her students bring as they interpret history. And aside from teaching history, she finds joy in baking, spending time with her daughters, and doing projects around her home. Listen to the podcast or read the transcription for the full conversation and details. TRANSCRIPTION Steve: okay well we welcome Rebecca Koerselman, history professor at Northwestern College in Orange City and a regular blogger on the 12 thank you Rebecca for being one of our first podcast guests for the perspective podcast Rebecca: thank you Steve for having me Steve: so part of our goal is just to get to know some of our bloggers a little bit better so could you just tell us a little bit about who you are or your background what you do maybe FamilyLife kind of name rank serial number starting stuff Rebecca: Well, as you mentioned I’m a historian and I teach at Northwestern college. but I’ve kind of bounced around a few different places. I was born in Michigan, lived there for a while moved with my family to Iowa, went to Northwestern College as an undergrad and got my degree in history and secondary Ed, spent some time in South Dakota,  and in central Iowa and then I spent time in Michigan at Michigan State to work on my doctoral degree in history. my first job was in Oklahoma and this is my second job, and this is my fourth year here. so we’ve lived a few different places mostly in the midwest. I have… my spouse Works in special education. and we have two daughters, which give our life a lot of fun and a lot of drama all at the same time . Steve:and tell us about teaching. why do you like to teach? what excites you in the classroom are there courses especially to you like the teach? or topics? or what what is it that kind of makes you get up in the morning and want to go to work? Rebecca: I love teaching. I love the interaction of Youth in particular dealing with content and history specifically. one of my favorite things about history is that it’s always an interaction between the present in the past. right? the past doesn’t necessarily change that much will occasionally does that most of the time that information say the same but we don’t. the things were interested in the things we pay attention to changes just like we do .and one of my favorite things about teaching history is that I get  to see students bring their perspectives to what we’re looking at. so I could have read this book 4 5 times and then we talked about it in class, and I have students notice things and bring of things I’d never thought of or could ever possibly imagined before. and that’s one of my favorite things about teaching history. and I got to do that with high school students, I get to do that more with college students .because I got to spend less time policing behavior and more time talking about content, which I particularly enjoy. I teach all the u.s. history courses here at Northwestern College. and I’m primarily interested in 20th century US history. I do a lot and gender history and American religious history are two of my passions. I also oversee the student teachers and work a lot with the history education Majors, which I also really enjo

In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma talks with Deb Baker about her poem “Be Opened.” Deb lives in New Hampshire and works for a climate justice organization and in a hospital. She is a poet and spiritual director, Contemplative Practices editor at Vita Poetica, and writes about what she’s reading at bookconscious.wordpress.com.

In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma interviewed Steven Peterson about his poem “A Famine of Words.” Steven is a poet and playwright living in Chicago. His recent poems appear in Alabama Literary Review, America Magazine, The Christian Century, Dappled Things, First Things, The Windhover, and other journals. His plays have been produced around the USA. He is currently a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists. His first collection of poetry, Walking Trees and Other Poems, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press.