Love, The Goal

Episode #6 of the "Love, the Goal" podcast, featuring Rev. Rev. Rachel Billups, Lead Pastor at New Albany UMC in Ohio. The author of "Be Bold - Find Your Fierce," and An "Unlikely Advent," Rachel has a heart for loving Jesus and doing something about it. In this interview, Chris and Rachel explore what it looks like to put the love of Jesus into practice, including through self-care, ministering across racial/ethnic boundaries, conflict management, and owning who God has created you to be.

Episode #5 of the "Love, the Goal" podcast, featuring Rev. Cristin Cooper, founder of Coop's Soups, a social enterprise that makes soup to build bridges and get to know neighbors. In this interview, Cristin shares about her efforts to help people fight loneliness, build community, and share food while helping others in need as an expression of God's love.

Episode #4 of the "Love, the Goal" podcast, featuring Rev. Tim Merrill, pastor and social activist in Camden, NJ. In this episode, host Rev. Chris Heckert asks Tim about his own journey of putting the love of Jesus into practice while working with young people in Camden to help them flourish and thrive in the face of adver. Love the Goal is a production of Two Pews Media, Executive Producer: Chris Heckert; Edited by Phil Fizur and Megan Martin.

Listen to Episode #3 of the "Love, the Goal" podcast, featuring Dr. Ashley Boggan, General Secretary of the General Commission on Archives and History. Today we learn about Dr. Boggan’s role in which she ensures that The UMC understands its past in order to envision a more equitable future for all Methodists.

Our guest today is an amazing human being. His name is Shane Claiborne. Shane founded The Simple Way, which is a community in, North Philly, and he's going to tell a little bit of that story in the podcast today. Shane founded Simple Homes, an effort to put folks, into an affordable house in that neighborhood, as well as Raw Tools, a project where they literally melt down guns and turn them into tools for for nurturing life instead of, weapons that can take life. Shane is the author of a whole host of books including Jesus for President, Red Letter Revolution, Common Prayer, Follow Me to Freedom, Jesus, Bombs and Ice Cream, Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers, Executing Grace, his classic The Irresistible Revolution, Beating Guns, and his newest book, Rethinking Life,

Michael is the director of Fresh Expressions for the United Methodist Church, and Fresh Expressions is a movement of new church starts and nontraditional church ministries outside of the walls of a church. He is a church planter and also directs Fresh Expressions for Florida and fresh Expressions house of Studies. Michael leads a number of churches in Ocala, Florida, including plants in a burrito bar, a dog park, a tattoo parlor, and a sober living recovery house. And, in our conversation, Michael talks about his own story, how he came to experience the love of God and what it means to put that into practice working with folks in addiction recovery, working with folks across theological spectrums and backgrounds.