All 2018 Sessions
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Musical Performance: Lyric
Fri 9 PM | Main Stage
Lyric performs on the Wild Goose Main Stage
LISTEN
Lyric Leeda Jones
“Forget being signed. Paper fades. Legends don’t. I was born one.” This is what this band lives by. They started out as street musicians, filling downtown Asheville streets corners while touching many hearts . “The streets is where we love to be. We get so much positive feedback that it pushes us to work harder. This is where we started and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” said Leeda Jones(Lyric). With a sound and style that is so unique, they’re sure to please any crowd. Their album entitled, “Guitar Feet.” this album takes you on a walk through the promise of a better day. Through all hardships and struggle, this album has been known to lift people’s spirits!!
Sessions:
3 Musical Performance: Lyric
Session #3
Diana Butler Bass
Sat 10 AM | Main Stage
Diana Butler Bass
Diana is an author, speaker, and independent scholar specializing in American religion and culture. She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of nine books, including Grounded: Finding God in the World—A Spiritual Revolution (HarperOne, 2015) and the widely influential Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening (HarperOne, 2012). Her other books include A People’s History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story (HarperOne, 2009), and the best-selling Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith (2006) which was named as one of the best religion books of the year by Publishers Weekly and was featured in a cover story in USA TODAY. Diana regularly writes at The Huffington Post and The Washington Post and comments on religion, politics, and culture in the media including USA TODAY, Time, Newsweek, CBS, CNN, FOX, PBS, and NPR.
dianabutlerbass.com
Sessions:
4 Diana Butler Bass, Topic TBD
209 How did we get here and where are we going
Session #4
Jen Hatmaker
Fri 10 AM | Main Stage
Jen Hatmaker
Jen Hatmaker is the author of eleven books, including New York Times Bestsellers For the Love and Of Mess and Moxie. She is the happy hostess of a tightly knit online community where she reaches millions of people each week. She and her husband, Brandon, founded the Legacy Collective, a giving community that funds sustainable solutions to systemic problems around the world. They also starred in an HGTV series called “My Big Family Renovation” and live in a 105-year-old farmhouse just outside Austin, TX with their five kids. She speaks at events all over the country and hosts the popular podcast For the Love with Jen Hatmaker. Check out her books, schedule, and blog at jenhatmaker.com/
Sessions:
194 Jen Hatmaker – Topic TBD
5 Jen Hatmaker, Topic TBD
386 A Conversation with Jen Hatmaker
Session #5
Musical Performance: Melani
Sat 7 PM | Main Stage
LISTEN
Melani Jackson
Melani Jackson is a singer/songwriter, a creator of what she calls “Life” music. She is known for her open and free-spirited demeanor. She has created a cross-cultural array of inspirational songs that everyday people can relate to, regardless of ethnicity or religion. Ms. Jackson has a powerful voice that is only rivaled by her powerful message. Melani is often told that her energy is magnetic. She has been honored at the DMV music awards in 2013 and 2014 for her great music and music videos. She has also been featured in several magazines and she took the cover of Shine on Magazine in 2013. She has shared the stage with names such as Martha Munizzi, Vanessa Bell Armstrong, Michael Jordan, Jester Hairston, “Hannibal” Peterson, and the late Coretta Scott King. One of her most prized accomplishments was her opportunity to do pit singing with a group of 5 singers for the world-renowned Alvin Ailey Dancers’ “Revelations.”
Sessions:
6 Musical Performance: Melani
Session #6
Jacqui Lewis & Ruby Sales
Sat 11 AM | Main Stage
Jacqui Lewis
The Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis is Senior Minister at Middle Collegiate Church, a 1000-member multiracial, welcoming, and inclusive congregation in New York City. She is an activist, preacher, and fierce advocate for racial equality, economic justice, and LGBTQ equality. Her work has included co-founding The Middle Project, an institute that prepares ethical leaders for a more just society. She has also written three books, hosted a television program, been a frequent contributor to MSNBC, and taught at seminaries across the country.
Jacqui earned her Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, and earned a M.Phil. and a Ph.D. in Psychology and Religion from Drew University. Ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA), Jacqui is the first African American and first woman to serve as senior minister in the Collegiate Church, which was founded in New York City in 1628.
http://www.jacquijlewis.com/
Sessions:
281 Sending The Goose
7 Jacqui Lewis, Topic TBD
Ruby Sales
Perhaps no one is more rooted in history, engaged in the present, and leaning more intentionally into the future than Ruby Sales.
Ruby is a public theologian, historian, activist, social critic, and educator. She first answered the call to social justice in the 1960’s as a teenager at Tuskegee Institute to join the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and work on voter registration in Lowndes County, Alabama. Among her many great achievements since then, she is one of fifty African Americans from the Civil Rights Movement to have her oral history spotlighted at the Library of Congress. She also founded, and still directs, the SpiritHouse Project, a national nonprofit organization.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Sales
Sessions:
366 Spiritual Meaning of the Signs of the Times
7 Jacqui Lewis & Ruby Sales
Session #7
Randall Balmer
Fri 1 PM | Workshop
Randall Balmer
Randall Balmer, who holds the Ph.D. from Princeton University, is the John Phillips Professor in Religion at Dartmouth College, where he is also Director of the Society of Fellows and Chair of the Religion Department. Prior to coming to Dartmouth in 2012, he was Professor of American Religious History at Columbia University for twenty-seven years and an Adjunct Professor of Church History at Union Theological Seminary, where he earned the Master of Divinity in 2001. Ordained an Episcopal priest in 2006, he has served as rector in two parishes in Connecticut. He was Visiting Professor at Yale Divinity School from 2004 to 2008, and he has been a Visiting Professor at Princeton, Yale, Northwestern and Emory universities. Dr. Balmer is the author of fourteen books, including Evangelicalism in America and Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter. His second book, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America, now in its fifth edition, was made into a three-part documentary for PBS. Dr. Balmer was nominated for an Emmy for writing and hosting that series. He is a contributor for CNN, and his commentaries have appeared in newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Des Moines Register and the New York Times.
https://www.randallbalmer.com/
Sessions:
10 Randall Balmer, Topic TBD
209 How did we get here and where are we going
Session #10
Jesus and the Disinherited: Taking the Inward Journey to Liberation
Therese Taylor-Stinson
Sat 4 PM | Landing
Through the work of Howard Thurman’s book by the same name, written 41 years ago, we will explore how his words, though dated in terms of language and history, still ring true in the lives of the disinherited of the 21st century. Using Thurman’s broad categories of inward reflection, fear, deception, hate, and love, we will reflect on current events and the lives of the disinherited in present circumstances, making our own inward journey to overcome dominance and oppression. Please bring a journal to write your reflections.
Therese Taylor-Stinson
Therese Taylor-Stinson is a spiritual director in private practice for over 13 years. She is a graduate of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation and a member of the Shalem Society for Contemplative Leadership. Therese is also a member of Spiritual Directors International and an ordained deacon and ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She was the 2016 Moderator for PCUSA’s National Capital Presbytery. Therese is the Managing Member of the Spiritual Directors of Color Network, Ltd., and as an editor and author, her most notable works are the groundbreaking anthologies Embodied Spirits: Stories of Spiritual Directors of Color and Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Stories of Contemplation and Justice for which she was named 2018 Indie Author Legacy Awards (IALA) Author of the Year in the area of social awareness. She is passionate about exploring the intersection of spirituality and liberating justice. http://sdcnetwork.org
Sessions:
44 Jesus and the Disinherited
48 Centering Prayer
Session #44
Religious Cults Hidden in Plain Sight: How to Detect Them & How to Break Free
Ashley Easter
Fri Noon | Convo Hall 1
When you think of the term “cult,” your mind may flash to walled compounds, poisoned Kool-aid, or secret societies. While these types of cults exist, the truth is that other, less obvious, high control groups are far more common. Cults drain bank accounts, destroy families, entrap members, and cause them to do things they wouldn’t have considered before through manipulative mind-control and fear tactics. There are an estimated 5,000 cults in the US alone. Many of these groups go undetected, attracting members with promises of world-changing purpose and spiritual enlightenment. Once a person dives deeper into the cult, they may begin to see things are not quite right. But how do they break free? With a mix of storytelling and fact gathering, find out how to identify cults, discover who is susceptible, and how to help yourself or others break free.
Ashley Easter
Ashley Easter is an author, speaker, and abuse-victim advocate who educates churches and secular communities on abuse, safe practices, and effective resources.
At 22 she freed herself from a religious group that systematically devalued women.
Now she works to liberate other victims of abuse from toxic theology and encourage them along their journey back to wholeness.
Ashley founded The Courage Conference, a survivor-centered movement focused on self-healing, to empower victims to discover their courage and reclaim their freedom through connection, learning, and advocacy. She is the author of The Courage Coach: A Practical, Friendly Guide on How to Heal From Abuse and Cults: Hidden in Plain Sight.
www.AshleyEaster.com
www.TheCourageConference.com
Twitter: @ashleymeaster Facebook: /ashleymeaster
Sessions:
45 Religious Cults Hidden in Plain Sight
270 Ending Child Marriage In The US
Session #45
Surviving The Tyranny of The Now: Dismantling Christian Supremacy
Fri 5 PM | Workshop
Dr. Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, Rev. Alba Onofrio, & Dr. Jeffrey Koetje
We are living in what Robyn has been calling Tyranny of The Now in their writing and public talks, and so much of our present moment is created by what Alba calls white Christian Supremacy. Jeff has been fighting his own socializations as white and the ways he has to also confront white supremacy in his religious upbringing and educational training. As Alba has theorized, white Christian supremacy is elucidated in a parasitic relationship that is shared by white supremacy and Christian supremacy. This conversation is designed to expose the contours of these two material realities that are severely impacting all of us.
Alba Onofrio
Rev. Alba Onofrio (a.k.a. Reverend Sex) is a Southern Appalachian First-Gen Latinx Queer Mama Evangelical Femme who lives and loves in la Lucha with QTPOC folks as a Spiritual Healer and Bruja Troublemaker to combat spiritual terrorism, reclaim Guad, and eradicate shame and fear wherever they are found.
As the Spiritual Strategist for Soulforce and a Co-founder of the Sexual Liberation Collective, Rev. Alba Onofrio trains across the U.S. and internationally on decoding white Christian Supremacy and healing internalized religious-based trauma in order to rebuild our ethics and reclaim our sacred desires and spiritual practices. They also serve as Evangelist-Missionary at Jubilee Interfaith Community in Asheville, NC.
www.ReverendSex.com
www.Soulforce.org
Sessions:
Justice Camp Pre-Festival Event
186 Decolonize-Heal-Reclaim
46 Surviving The Tyranny of The Now
289 Loving Our Way to Freedom
Session #46
Noon-day Centering Prayer
Therese Taylor-Stinson
At Noon, we will gather to observe the contemplative practice of Centering Prayer. After some moments of introduction and reflection, we will fall into a period of silence, using our sacred word or our breath to center our intention for companionship with that which some call God.
Fri Noon | Chapel
Therese Taylor-Stinson
Therese Taylor-Stinson is a spiritual director in private practice for over 13 years. She is a graduate of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation and a member of the Shalem Society for Contemplative Leadership. Therese is also a member of Spiritual Directors International and an ordained deacon and ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She was the 2016 Moderator for PCUSA’s National Capital Presbytery. Therese is the Managing Member of the Spiritual Directors of Color Network, Ltd., and as an editor and author, her most notable works are the groundbreaking anthologies Embodied Spirits: Stories of Spiritual Directors of Color and Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Stories of Contemplation and Justice for which she was named 2018 Indie Author Legacy Awards (IALA) Author of the Year in the area of social awareness. She is passionate about exploring the intersection of spirituality and liberating justice. http://sdcnetwork.org
Sessions:
44 Jesus and the Disinherited
48 Centering Prayer
Session #48
Christ on the Psych Ward: Sharing Stories of Mental Health Struggles and Faith
David Finnegan-Hosey
Fri 10 AM | Workshop
“Christ on the Psych Ward” is a story-sharing based on the author’s experiences of mental illness, recovery, and faith. In telling his story, he weaves together threads of personal experience, spiritual reflection, and ministry praxis. By ”going first” with his own story of mental illness and mental health, he opens up the space for other participants to share their own stories of mental health struggles in their personal lives, family lives, and/or communities of faith. Rather than simply a book reading or presentation, we will work together to create a shared storytelling space of courage, lament, vulnerability, and hope.
David Finnegan-Hosey
David Finnegan-Hosey is a chaplain and campus minister. He currently serves as chaplain-in-residence at Georgetown University, having previously worked with campus ministries at American University and the University of Hawaii. He holds an M.Div from Wesley Theological Seminary and a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education from the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. He is certified by Mental Health First Aid USA to provide initial help to people experiencing depression, anxiety, psychosis, and substance use disorders. In 2011, David was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after a series of psychiatric hospitalizations. He now speaks and writes about the intersections among mental illness, mental health, and faith. You can learn about his book, Christ on the Psych Ward, at christonthepsychward.com, and read more of his writing on his blog, Foolish Hosey. David lives in Washington, DC with his wife Leigh and their dog Penny Lane.
www.christonthepsychward.com
Sessions:
49 Christ on the Psych Ward
50 Crazy Creative
Session #49
Crazy Creative: Exploring Connections Between Creativity and Mental Illness
Mary Button & David Finnegan-Hosey
Fri 1 PM | Studio
There has long been a popular association between mental illness and creativity. The infamous emotional intensity, even instability, of famous creatives – from Vincent Van Gogh to Sylvia Plath to Kurt Cobain – and the perception that creativity involves suffering has strengthened this link in the popular imagination. But is this link real? Is suffering a necessary prerequisite for creativity? Are people with mental health struggles inherently more creative? Artist and organizer Mary Button and chaplain and author David Finnegan-Hosey, both of whom get a real kick out of making stuff and both of whom are diagnosed with bipolar disorder, will facilitate this discussion on mental illness and creativity.
David Finnegan-Hosey
David Finnegan-Hosey is a chaplain and campus minister. He currently serves as chaplain-in-residence at Georgetown University, having previously worked with campus ministries at American University and the University of Hawaii. He holds an M.Div from Wesley Theological Seminary and a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education from the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. He is certified by Mental Health First Aid USA to provide initial help to people experiencing depression, anxiety, psychosis, and substance use disorders. In 2011, David was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after a series of psychiatric hospitalizations. He now speaks and writes about the intersections among mental illness, mental health, and faith. You can learn about his book, Christ on the Psych Ward, at christonthepsychward.com, and read more of his writing on his blog, Foolish Hosey. David lives in Washington, DC with his wife Leigh and their dog Penny Lane.
www.christonthepsychward.com
Sessions:
49 Christ on the Psych Ward
50 Crazy Creative
Mary Button
Mary Button was born and raised in the swampy wilds of East Texas, received a BFA in Photography and Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, and went on to earn a Master of Theological Studies with a concentration in American religious history and Christian ethics from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.
Her artwork has been exhibited across the US and UK, with exhibitions at the Museum of Biblical Art in NYC, the Church Center for the United Nations, Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, and Wesley House at Cambridge University, to name a few. She has written curricula for Women of the ELCA on a number of social justice issues and is a frequent contributor to Believe Out Loud. You can find her at marybutton.com
Sessions:
91 Reproductive Justice Is …
92 Crafting Icons of Resistance
50 Crazy Creative
Session #50
Bridges Over Battle Lines: how to move your heated conversations beyond debate
Fri 10 AM | Portal
Kevin Garcia
We live in a world that is more polarized than ever, so how do we live in the tension of people different from us? In this workshop, we’ll talk about strategies and ideas to help move conversations from merely debating differing theologies into meaningful relationships. We’ll talk about healthy boundaries, how to protect your energy, and how to use your story as your most effective tool in building bridges instead of drawing battle lines in the communities we live in and between those we love. Specifically, we’ll talk about how our brains are wired for fear rather than vulnerability, we’ll examine specific conversational strategies to move conversations from debate into meaningful conversation, and discuss how boundaries and self-care are pivotal in this work to bring about more healing and justice in our world.
Kevin Garcia
Kevin Garcia is a speaker, creative, musician, content creator and worship artist based in Atlanta, GA. He graduated from Christopher Newport University in 2013 with a BM in Music Education and has been everything from a barista to a corporate office worker to a non-profit professional since then. After coming out in the fall of 2015 as a gay Christian, Kevin has reached thousands of individuals across the globe with his blog, theKevinGarcia.com, his podcast, “A Tiny Revolution,” on his YouTube channel where he unpacks theology and addresses life as a queer person of faith, and through speaking engagements at churches, universities, and festivals. Kevin also works with The Reformation Project, an LGBTQ direction action organization with a mission to make the global church more inclusive for queer people. He is presently a candidate for a Masters of Divinity from Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, GA. He believes that by telling our stories, we set others free to tell theirs.
www.theKevinGarcia.com
Sessions:
51 Bridges Over Battle Linesconversation.
287 Embodied Grace: Sex-Positive Christianity
248 Failed Missionary
289 Loving Our Way to Freedom
Session #51
Dreams as a Wisdom Path
Fri 4 PM | Convo Hall 3
Sat 5 PM | Convo Hall 3
Darby Christopher
We will start this session with a brief discussion of how our night time dreams can serve as a wisdom path in our lives, laying the groundwork for this possibility, with an eye on how religions across time have valued or not valued dreams. Then we will pick a dream out of a hat to work with, using the “projective dream group” method developed by Jeremy Taylor and others. If you would like to put a dream in the hat to possibly be chosen, please bring a dream to share.
Darby Christopher
Darby Christopher is an ordained Interfaith Minister through One Spirit Learning Alliance in NYC and is a licensed Master of Social Work (LMSW). She gives talks and leads workshops on dreams, and has a passion for prison reform and reading the comics. Learn more about her at www.revdarbychristopher.com.
www.revdarbychristopher.com
Sessions:
52 Dreams as a Wisdom Path
Session #52
The Wisdom of Awareness, Insight, and Mindfulness
Fri 11 AM | Portal
Randy Bell
Today, many spiritual seekers across religious traditions are exploring Awareness, Insight, or Mindfulness practices. Unfortunately, these three terms have become highly overused, and their meanings are often confusing. Thereby, their usefulness to many spiritual seekers has been sorely diminished. In this session, we will take a fresh look at these very important concepts and practices. We need to understand that these ideas are not synonymous. Rather, they are distinct yet interrelated concepts which, when taken together, have great power to guide us in our spiritual quest. This overview session will clarify the distinct meaning and purpose of each concept, and how they work together. Thereby, we will see how they can move us further towards the Spiritual Wisdom we seek. The session is based upon Randy Bell’s book “Awareness, Insight, & Mindfulness: 3 Steps on the Path to Wisdom.” The session will include lecture, everyday examples, group discussion, and Q&A.
Randy Bell
I am the Director of Spring Creek Spirituality based in Asheville, NC, welcoming all faiths and backgrounds as we explore each person’s individual spirituality using our everyday language. My spiritual path has taken me to many diverse sources, though I am principally a follower of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, Buddha, Lao-Tsu, and have been a Zen practitioner for 40 years. I write extensively on various spiritual topics, including 14 books, 2 blog sites, and various reference materials. I serve as a guest speaker/session leader, lead spiritual and personal growth workshops and retreat sessions, and am a meditation teacher. I provide spiritual direction and companioning, and in 2016 & 2017 was on the Spiritual Direction Team at Wild Goose. I am also a member of North Carolina Writer’s Network and Spiritual Directors International. My personal resume website can be found at www.RandyBellSpiritualTeacher.blogspot.com. Books and publications can be found at www.McKeeLearningFoundation.com.
www.SpringCreekSpirituality.com
Sessions:
53 Wisdom of A-I-M
351 Spiritual Direction
Session #53
Reconciliation Yoga: Align Mind Body and Soul with an all-levels body prayer.
Fri 8 AM | Landing
Smiling Heart Yoga
Join Anita Grace Brown of Smilingheartyoga for an all-levels experience of freedom from the mind’s trappings. Enter the story of the body and allow healing to unfold in the newly created spaciousness. Holy Spirit flows in with healing power as we move and breathe in community honoring our sacred, rejected pieces. We welcome our wholeness to be restored in order to serve our broken world.Live musical accompaniment with Thom Buchanan
Anita Brown
Anita Grace Brown live in NJ with her husband and golden retriever, Sierra while her children are off balancing work hard/party hard at Syracuse U. As a yoga teacher she’s quite proud of this work life harmony they are already exhibiting!! A few months ago Anita birthed her Jesus Yoga podcast “It’s 5 o’clock Somewhere!” and has been excited to share embodiment and breath tools in her home church as well. She’s honored to be back offering all-levels morning body prayer at WG for the 4th consecutive year! You can also find her at this year’s healing arts tent assisting with trauma sensitive offerings and a place to find deep rest and release from stress. She’s been healed of decades of chronic PMDD and IBS among other lesser ailments thanks to the pranic balancing that comes with her unique East meets West practices.
Smilingheartyoga.org
It’s 5 o’clock Somewhere Podcast
Sessions:
54 Reconciliation Yoga: A Fresh approach to body prayer
149 Trauma-Sensitive Yoga
Thom Buchanan
Thom started playing the guitar at the age of 12, and has been honored to back-up artists such as Jeff Fenholt, Phil Driscoll, Darlene Zschech, Joe & Becky Cruse, Cindy Cruse-Ratcliff, Kent Henry, legendary studio guitarist Mike Deasy, Georgian Banov, JoAnn McFatter, Don Potter, Suzy Wills-Yaraei and Roy Fields, to notably name a fewHe has musically supported ministries such as: TL Osborne, Reinhard Bonnke, Rodney Howard-Browne, Lou Engle, Jerry Brandt and Jerry Saville.
He is the founder of the bands SonsUVthundr, Thom Buchanan Band and (Band dú Soleil – currently). He’s been joined by his life-long friend and bandmate, Juma Sultan (percussionist for Jimi Hendrix), in all three of these bands. He has played on hundreds of other’s albums and has released three LP’s of his own: “”Living On Borrowed Time””, “”Beautiful”” & “”Christmas Revisited.” He is a New York native and is, currently, making his home in High Point, NC, with his wife Caroline and their children.
Sessions:
54 Reconciliation Yoga: A Fresh approach to body prayer
Session #54
Discernment: The Art of Really Living Your Faith
Fri 1 PM | Portal
J. Marshall Jenkins
Do you come to the Wild Goose Festival at a crossroad on your journey? Each direction you turn may look like the right way sometimes and the wrong way others depending on how the light shines and the shadows fall. In addition to courage, you need discernment. More than calculated decision-making, discernment emerges from your true self. More than futuristic speculation, discernment attends mindfully in the present. More than prudence, discernment loves. Participants will learn spiritual practices that support discernment and share stories of Spirit-led moments to validate and support each other on the road.
Marshall Jenkins
J. Marshall Jenkins, Ph.D., is a writer, counseling psychologist, and spiritual director. Through his listening ministry, Marshall strives to facilitate discernment, graced healing, and everyday spirituality. His writing ministry carries that work forward through his Beatitudes Blog (www.jmarshalljenkins.com) and his books, including his most recent one, Blessed at the Broken Places: Reclaiming Faith & Purpose with the Beatitudes (Skylight Paths, 2016). He received certificates in spiritual formation at Columbia Theological Seminary and in spiritual guidance at the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. Since 1987, he has served as Director of Counseling at Berry College and conducted an evening private practice in psychotherapy and spiritual direction in Rome, Georgia, where he lives with his lovely wife, Wanda Cantrell.
www.jmarshalljenkins.com/
Sessions:
55 Discernment
351 Spiritual Direction
Session #55
The Shift in Language: Creating Intentional Community with those Experiencing Poverty
Fri 11 AM | Convo Hall 5
Sat 1 PM | Convo Hall 5
Randy Evans
The Shift in Language: Creating Intentional Community with those Experiencing Poverty Why does it matter what words we use? What’s wrong with saying, “homeless?” Why should I look deeper? Is self-satisfaction such a bad thing? Am I actually contributing to someone’s poverty? In the “Shift of Language,” we will see how the words we use affect the way we engage with individuals experiencing poverty. We will discuss how the language we use can cause harm through perpetuating the problem and victimizing the individuals we are trying to live life with or help. We will discuss ways to create intentional community with those in poverty, but also extend a hand to those who are not. This is a great opportunity to expand your reach while creating safe and sacred space for those who are marginalized.
Randy Evans
Walking Tall exists to build interpersonal relationships with individuals experiencing poverty through full access, so that they may experience community through safe, and sacred spaces for healing. They strive to bring awareness to the general public through an important, “shift” in the language used in regard to poverty, and charity. They accomplish their mission and vision through living out the ideas of Language, Mutuality, Abundance, Radical Hospitality, and Justice.
Randy Evans is the founder/director. He lives in Wilmington, NC with his wife Marya, Great-Nephew Jaxon, and two labs Zoe, and Izzy. He moved to Wilmington from Raleigh, NC in the Fall of 2013. He strives to create community with the most marginalized groups through giving full access and offering radical hospitality. He writes a monthly blog for Cape Fear Magazine. In addition to leading Walking Tall, he also enjoys Yoga, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Diet Mountain Dew, and Haunted Houses. Follow him @walkingtallwilmington or at http://
facebook.com/walkingtallwilmington
Sessions:
56 The Shift In Language
Session #56
Faith in a Fat Body: Learning to Love Our Bodies, Our Neighbors, and Ourselves.
Fri 2 PM | Portal
J. Nicole Morgan
So often we look at fat bodies as failures – and that is no different inside the church than out. This session will look at some truths about fat bodies – that they are made in the image of God, tell us something unique about God, and are not a sign of sin. While the world tells us that our fat bodies are too much, the truth is that all bodies are expressions of the body of Christ. We will talk about how our churches and communities can be places where fat bodies are welcome and intentionally included as part of a vibrant community. There will be time for questions and discussion.
J. Nicole Morgan
J. Nicole Morgan is a Christian fat-acceptance advocate, an amateur seamstress, an unlikely hiker, and the delighted aunt of four curious kids. She is the author of Fat and Faithful: Learning to Love Our Bodies, Our Neighbors, and Ourselves (Fortress Press, 2018) and co-host of the podcast Fat & Faithful. Nicole’s writing has been featured in Christianity Today, Sojourners, and other places. She earned her master of theological studies in Christian Faith and Public Policy from Palmer Seminary of Eastern University.
jnicolemorgan.com
Sessions:
57 Faith in a Fat Body
Session #57
Joyful Soul of Grief: a 2-hour Community-Supported Ritual
Fri 5 PM | Bridge
Joyful Soul of Grief Community Ritual
We draw support from song, toning, creative discussion, the presence of minerals, gems and stones, and group ritual to witness what grief is and how it moves in us. In the spirit of Francis Weller’s work, we acknowledge that, “There is some strange intimacy between grief and aliveness, some sacred exchange between what seems unbearable and what is most exquisitely alive.” Grieving is personal soul work for the sake of the world. We were not meant to grieve alone in our little cubicles; coursing in our veins is an ancient connection to tribal wisdom, and this is the medicine needed today to bring healing at individual and group levels. Includes an exercise in forgiveness as part of the grief process.
LISTEN
Sheridan Hill
My career as a biographer has taught me that life is a series of stories that you tell yourself; the mistake we make is believing our stories of victimization and repeating them in our heads, ensuring that we will continue to react instead of respond to each moment. Reactions rush forth out of past pain and are full of self-justification (the moral high horse); responses arise from an inner capacity to be-with-what-is (breathing into the vulnerability that love calls us to). I call myself a grief doula, as I help folks release grief and let vitality in. I’m honored to work with forgiveness activist Lyndon Harris. I believe in the healing power of rituals as simple as lighting a candle with an intention, both as private actions and as moments of community-building and group witnessing.
www.griefcircle.net
Sessions:
58 Joyful Soul of Grief
Lyndon Harris
Lyndon Harris is the Co-director of Tigg’s Pond Retreat Center in Zirconia, NC, where he is developing a Journey to Forgiveness Institute. Harris is also a forgiveness coach, and an inspirational and motivational speaker, having spoken at numerous conferences across the United States and around the world. He served more than 20 years as a pastor and his work at Ground Zero as priest-in-charge of Saint Paul’s Chapel (located directly across from the World Trade Center in New York City) has been written about widely, including the NY Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Christian Science Monitor. His work in forgiveness is featured in the award winning documentary, “The Power of Forgiveness” (Journey Films 2006). Harris is also the Executive Director of the Gardens of Forgiveness, an educational non-profit dedicated to teaching the way of forgiveness as tool for conflict transformation and peace making.
Sessions:
58 Joyful Soul of Grief
Session #58
Dialogue This!
Fri 11 AM | Convo Hall 7
Sat 1 PM | Convo Hall 7
John H Pomeroy
Presenter will introduce a simple dialogue process with structured listening and speaking, and invite participants to use the format to share with one another on a topic that is pressing for their community – after 20 minutes of sharing, participants will close with a simple reflection on how they experienced the process and where it could be used in their life/work/ministry.Kaleidoscope Institute
John H Pomeroy
John is a Regional Director and Associate with the Kaleidoscope Institute, a consulting group that works with schools, churches, not for profits and other organizations to use dialogue tools to facilitate building relationships for community action, ministry, and collective healing. John works as a UCC pastor, teaches at Claremont School of Theology and lives with his wife and two dogs in Los Angeles, CA.
www.Kaleidoscopeinstitute.org
Sessions:
59 Dialogue This!
Session #59
M-bodied Beauty: Beyond Media’s Portrayal – A Body Image Workshop
Sat 3 PM | Portal
Rev. Sarah Renfro
We are bombarded with 3000 messages a day, which promote an unrealistic “ideal beauty,” and sell us products to lose weight, gain muscle, and change our appearance. Rev. Sarah Renfro was an international fashion model but struggled with eating disorders and negative body image. She was constantly told she was not good enough just as she was. As children of God, made in God’s image with the imprint of the Divine in our DNA, we must counter media’s messages and connect to the Divine-within. As an ordained minister, Sarah seeks to help dispel the myths of media and “ideal beauty” and empower participants to claim their diverse and wonderful beauty given by God. For her interactive presentation, participants cut pictures out of magazines, process the findings, view a presentation of Sarah’s story from artsy-athlete to miserable model to mission-oriented minister. We look at scriptures that promote a positive body image and end with shouting in a mirror, “I am a beautiful child of God!”
Sarah Renfro
Born and raised in Lexington, KY, Rev. Sarah Renfro modeled professionally around the world for 7 years. After struggling with body image issues, disordered eating, and depression, she retired and returned to graduate from the University of Kentucky. Sarah attended Lexington Theological Seminary and was ordained in 2010. She’s been married to Rev. Kyle Brown since 2009, mom to Miriam since 2011, and one of the ministers at Geist Christian Church in Fishers, IN since 2015. Sarah is privileged to share her unique experiences of fashion and faith, modeling and ministry with youth, women’s groups, and cross-denominational gatherings from California to Mississippi to North Carolina. Sarah also has a book under contract with Chalice Press. She bleeds blue for the Kentucky Wildcats, loves dance parties with her girl, likes to eat and drink around town, and does crosswords to unwind.
m-bodied.com
Sessions:
61 Body Image Workshop
Session #61
Community Circle Weaving Project
Sat 10 AM | Studio
Melissa Yoder Ricks
Join in the creation of a woven work of art – no experience necessary! Fiber Artist Melissa Yoder Ricks will guide as participants add their own personal touches to a community weaving using yarn, fiber, or found objects such as feathers or twigs. Fiber arts are good for the mind and soul, creating a mental open space for contemplation and meditation. Creating with natural materials by hand fosters harmony and connectedness to the created world and the creator. Sharing and encouraging creativity creates community.
Melissa Yoder Ricks
Melissa Yoder Ricks has been knitting and crocheting since early childhood, and spinning, dyeing and weaving for most of her adult life. She loves to experiment, innovate and combine techniques to make one of a kind creations. A native on NC and graduate of Duke University, Melissa currently lives in the northern Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. In 2008, she launched Wild Hare Fiber Studio (www.wildharefiber.com) following a time of great personal upheaval during which she discovered the meditative and healing powers of working with yarn and fiber.
www.wildharefiber.com
Sessions:
62 Weaving Circle
Session #62
Creating Street Church–reaching people where they live
Fri 5 PM | Convo Hall 5
Sat 2 PM | Convo Hall 5
Elizabeth (Liz) Magill
There are more than 100 street church congregations made up of people who do not have homes or are at risk of homelessness in the United States. Using the story of Worcester Fellowship, an outdoor church in Massachusetts, Liz will lead you through the steps to create an outdoor church, or for your indoor church to engage in effective street ministry. Let the people you meet determine the direction of your mission.
Elizabeth Magill
Elizabeth Magill (Liz) is Minister to the Affiliates for Ecclesia Ministries, a network of street churches. With a passion for mission, evangelism, anti-oppression, and small church, Liz helps church leaders to go where the people are, to make space for people to lead, and to create church with food and fellowship. Her spiritual disciplines are knitting, quilting, and painting. She is working on the book Five Loaves, Two Fishes, Twelve Volunteers which explores food ministries where food insecure people are the volunteers. Find Liz @MagillElizabeth and writingfromtheside.weebly.com/
Sessions:
63 Creating Street Church
Session #63
The ART of Daily Living: Spirituality in the Everyday Spaces
Suzanne L. Vinson
Fri 3 PM | Studio
Life as art, a living work of art that is messy and true. We’re all in the same boat, though our perception of what’s around us might be different. Let us choose to see life through a lens of beauty. Even the dust of our days in the pile at our feet can be beautiful. How do you use the time in your kitchen to deepen your spiritual life? How do your interactions throughout the day weave into prayer? suzanne l. vinson will guide you in stories, pondering, and pause to encounter daily living with mindfulness, ease, and a deepening awareness of everyday spirituality. You will be invited into a “sacred pause” to create, reflect, and deepen through your senses. With guided meditation, creativity, poetry, prayer, and story, your spirit will be enlivened. You will depart more renewed than you entered, with insight for how to live into each day with #theartofdailyliving.
Suzanne L. Vinson
Suzanne L. Vinson has spent life collecting memories, recipes, stories, and wisdom as a woman of the Deep South who has offered care through her roles of motherhood, ministry and the arts. She loves gathering folks for good food and meaningful conversation. Suzanne creates soul wisdom art, meant to deepen your experience of life, delight, and connection. She also leads mini-retreats and gatherings in her studio, as well as travels to lead retreats for organizations, non-profits, and churches. She specializes in working with groups who seek healing, wholeness, and slowing down. Learn more about Suzanne, her art and her offerings at www.suzannelvinson.com and follow along at IG @slsvinson and @silvertreeartstudio.
http://www.suzannelvinson.com & http://www.jaymereaves.com
Sessions:
64 Spirituality & The ART of Daily Living
Session #64
#MeToo Jesus: Why Naming Jesus as a Victim of Sexual Abuse Matters
Sat 10 AM | Portal
Jayme R. Reaves
The #MeToo hashtag and its tributary campaigns such as #ChurchToo and #SilenceIsNotSpiritual has confirmed the prevalence of sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexually abusive behavior. As such, the #MeToo movement raises important questions for Christian faith and theology. This session will explore the current context of #MeToo, encounter a closer reading of Matthew 25:40 and Mark 15:16-24, discuss biblical and theological reasons for naming Jesus as a victim of sexual abuse, and consider the ways the Christian community can offer more appropriate and effective responses to sexual violence and victimization.
Jayme R. Reaves
Over the last 20 years, Jayme R. Reaves has worked as a consultant, researcher, lecturer, facilitator and chaplain in the United States, United Kingdom, Former Yugoslavia, and Northern Ireland on the intersections between theology, peace/conflict, memory, and gender. She has an M.Div. from Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond (Virginia, US) and an M.Phil. in Conflict Transformation and Reconciliation and Ph.D. in Theology from Trinity College, University of Dublin. She co-hosts the podcast “Outlander Soul” and lives in Dorset, England.
www.jaymereaves.com
Sessions:
65 #MeToo Jesus
Session #65
Anxious to Talk About It: Helping White Christians Talk Faithfully about Racism
Fri 2 PM | Landing
Carolyn B. Helsel
Helsel takes a storytelling approach to attend to the emotions people experience when hearing and telling stories about race. Part of the struggle involves remaining compassionate towards ourselves through the journey. Drawing from language of spiritual practices, Helsel encourages participants to deepen their capacity for tough conversations and points to how to have these conversations with others.
Carolyn B. Helsel
Carolyn B. Helsel is the author of Anxious to Talk About It: Helping White Christians Talk Faithfully About Racism (Chalice Press: 2018). Her work focuses on motivating people to have conversations about race through the lens of gratitude. Helsel teaches preaching at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and is a minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
https://carolynhelsel.com/
Sessions:
66 Anxious to Talk About It
Session #66
The Spiritual Price Of Confederate Symbolism
Sat 11 AM | Portal
Tony Caldwell, LCSW
Ole Miss college professor and activist Tony Caldwell leads a conversation about how our experiences of Confederate symbolism impact our psyches as well as our trajectories. Caldwell starts with his own story of how the view from his window as a child, a segregated cemetery with a Confederate monument as it’s centerpiece, set the tone for a life dedicated to addressing issues at the intersection of race and poverty in the the rural South. The psychological, emotional, and spiritual consequences of Confederate symbolism, though often unconscious and/or unacknowledged, continue to haunt the Southern landscape as well as our internal landscapes, individually and collectively.
Tony Caldwell
Tony Caldwell is a Professor of Social Work at the University of Mississippi, a Jungian psychotherapist in private practice, an activist, and a member of the Red Letter Christian Network. Tony has partnered with The Human Rights Campaign, the W.W. Kellogg Foundation, The William Winter Institute For Racial Reconciliation, the Southern Poverty Law Center, The Levi Strauss Co., and the Toyota Corporation among others. He and his colleague, Dr. Jandel Crutchfield, have enjoyed success in their grassroots Together Projects promoting interracial and interfaith dialogue around issues of race, privilege, and justice across the state of Mississippi. He is currently leading The Underground Church, a reconciling faith community, in Oxford, Ms. and conducting research linking the nation’s poorest health outcomes in the Mississippi Delta to transgenerational trauma related to slavery, segregation, poverty, and marginalization. Tony writes frequently for RLC and many other publications. See more at: www.tonycaldwell.net
www.tonycaldwell.net
Sessions:
154 Conversations With Silas: Raising The Next Generation
67 The Spiritual Price Of Confederate Symbolism
Session #67
Handmade in the Digital Age: Make a Book and Use It
Kate Elliott
Sat 3 PM | Studio
The only thing I have done religiously in my life is keep a journal. I have hundreds of them, filled with feathers, flowers, photographs, and words – without locks, open on my shelves. – Terry Tempest Williams – In an increasingly digital society, many people are rediscovering the joy and utility of keeping an analog journal. As we enter into the spirit of the Wild Goose, let’s talk about the many reasons – including spiritual growth and mental health – to write and make art by hand, even if only occasionally. Kate will lead participants in making a small book to be used at the maker’s discretion, perhaps as a way to record notes, thoughts, and feelings about the festival. No previous bookmaking experience is needed. All the necessary supplies – paper, thread, and glue – will be provided but feel free to bring any bits and bobs you might like to add to make the book your own.
Kate Elliott
Kate may have a resume full of administrative jobs that pay the bills and provide insurance but her true passion is making beautiful (and sometimes useful) things. Since her early tween years, journaling has been an essential part of her story, helping her process everything life has thrown at her. Along the way, she stopped merely writing in her journals and started making them, teaching herself bookbinding from various blogs and books before YouTube was invented. Kate enjoys any chance she gets to encourage others to document their lives through writing and visual arts. You can find her on Instagram: @kajellio: Come for the art, stay for the cats.
Sessions:
68 Handmade in the Digital Age
415 Handmade In the Digital Age (Youth Tent)
Session #68
Overcoming Sexual Shame through Story, Film and Play
Fri 3 PM | Convo Hall 4
Sat 11 AM | Convo Hall 4
Ryan Clark
Overcoming Sexual Shame through Story, Film and Play Ryan and Nathan have been exploring how the purity movements of the 1990’s and 2000’s helped to instill deep-seeded sexual shame in many people of faith. Nate and Ryan took different paths of healing and converged to create both a cinematic response to sexual shame as well as a process for reframing our life’s experiences. In this workshop, we will re-write the script of our lives, imagine alternate endings and begin to storyboard a plan for a better future.
Ryan Clark
Ryan Clark, D.Min. is a strategist with over 20 year of experience helping religious organizations and seminaries start something new. A film producer, blogger, prolific speaker, he is the producer and co-host of Touch Podcast: Conversations of Spirit and Body that explores religious America and sex. He is producing a documentary on the impact of Evangelical purity culture and serves as the Manager for Global Resources at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Ryan holds a M.Div. from McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University and a Doctor of Ministry degree in gospel and culture from Columbia Theological. He and wife Cindy have two children, two dogs, two kittens, four chickens and they live in Decatur, Georgia.
www.touchpodcast.com
Sessions:
69 Overcoming Sexual Shame
Session #69
Listening in Crowded Rooms: a Ministry of Presence for Minds Prone to Wander
Sat 3 PM | Landing
Tom Chappell Lewis
The brewery taproom is crowded tonight, and as you relax with beer in hand, you catch snippets of the conversations happening around you. You get the sense there are people here tonight who could use a listening ear, but the steady hum of TVs and talking isn’t the only interference; there’s also the noise of your day still rattling around in your tired, crowded mind. How can we address what’s going on internally while still being present to the people around us? Based in mindfulness and listening techniques, this session seeks that balance.
Tom Chappell Lewis
A trained chaplain and amateur mixologist, Tom Chappell Lewis pursues a ministry of presence to Jacksonville’s breweries. In addition to listening on bar stools, Tom co-leads a Beer & Hymns and Brew Theology chapter, consults with churches and bar owners, and writes on chaplaincy, cocktails, and other topics at www.barchaplain.com. Tom recently married his partner in ministry, scotch ale connoisseur Jessi Lewis. For pictures of their dog, Cowbell, follow @barchaplain on instagram and twitter.
www.barchaplain.com
Sessions:
70 Listening in Crowded Rooms
Session #70
Invitation to the Purple Zone – Introduction to Deliberative Dialogue
Fri 10 AM | River
Leah D. Schade
Red state/blue state politics threaten the foundations of our democracy and rend the fabric of our churches. How can people of faith approach the task of addressing controversial issues without causing further divisions or rupturing relationships? In this workshop, you’ll learn a method of civil discourse called “deliberative dialogue” for finding common values among politically diverse people. The session will include an opportunity to participate in a deliberative dialogue forum on the opioid epidemic.
Leah Schade
The Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade is the Assistant Professor of Preaching and Worship at Lexington (Ky.) Theological Seminary. An ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) for 18 years, Leah has served congregations in rural, urban, and suburban settings. She earned both her MDiv and Ph.D. degrees from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. Her book Creation-Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology, and the Pulpit are available at www.chalicepress.com. Her forthcoming book, Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red/Blue Divide, will be published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2019, and explores how clergy and churches can address controversial justice issues using nonpartisan, biblically-centered approaches along with deliberative dialogue. Leah is the EcoPreacher blogger for Patheos: www.patheos.com/blogs/ecopreacher/
thepurplezone.net/
Sessions:
71 Purple Zone – Deliberative Dialogue
219 Re-Member and Re-Imagine:Creation Care
117 Preaching as Resistance
Session #71
Graven Images: A Christian Response to Confederate Statues and Symbols.
Fri Noon | Convo Hall 6
Sat 10 AM | Convo Hall 6
Ben Wright
Over the last decade, flags, monuments and even certain ways of thinking about the past have become central to an increasingly ugly debate about what America is all about. How should Christians respond as their local college campuses, court houses, and other public spaces become cultural battlegrounds over the past and present? Drawing on my own work curating museum-based exhibits of removed confederate statues, this session will address the history of those statues, the motivations of those who erected them, and the meanings/uses of confederate statues today. We’ll also discuss what a progressive Christian response to these issues might looks like. After all, we live in an age where America is planning to build its largest confederate statue to date: the U.S./Mexico border wall.
Benjamin Wright
Ben Wright is a historian, curator, and writer based in Austin, Texas. His professional work involves the relocation of Confederate statues from public spaces to museum settings. Previously he worked as a journalist, a press secretary, and (worst of all) a youth minister. Originally from England, Ben has been in Texas since 2003.
linkedin.com/in/benwrightinaustin/
Sessions:
72 Christian Responses to Confederate Statues and Symbols
Session #72
Refocusing My Family: Coming Out, Being Cast Out, and Discovering the True Love of God
Amber Cantorna
Fri 3 PM | Library
Amber is the home-schooled daughter of a 30-year executive at Focus on the Family and grew up entrenched in the values that the organization embodies. Her conservative Christian parents worked hard to protect her from the outside world, but when Amber came out as gay at the age of 27, she shattered the perfect persona that her family strove to uphold. As a result, she lost everything, and her world forever changed. Join Amber for a time of storytelling and Q&A as she talks about coming out, the meaning of family, and what it means to be an LGBTQ person of faith.
Amber Cantorna
Amber Cantorna is an author, speaker, advisor, and leader in the movement of LGBTQ+ inclusion in the church. As Founder and President of Beyond, Amber is passionate about dissolving shame, fostering self acceptance, and generating messages of hope for LGBTQ+ people of faith. Her memoir, Refocusing My Family is now available everywhere books are sold and she blogs at AmberCantorna.com.
AmberCantorna.com
Sessions:
73 Refocusing My Family
350 A Conversation on Coming Out to Conservative Families
Session #73
Interact: Engaging Youth to Transform the World
Fri 10 AM | Convo Hall 1
Sat 4 PM | Convo Hall 1
Shannon LeMaster-Smith
This workshop is for anyone who works with youth (middle/high school) and/or youth themselves; we will examine our values and how we set the space and time of our ministry with youth. “Interact” is a trinity of elements that contribute to our holistic approach of Youth Ministry – cultivating community with youth, teaching youth to think theologically, and empowering youth to use their talents to respond to the needs of the world. We will share (and invite others to share) stories of success and failures and how we’ve learned to involve youth in exploring controversial topics and in sharing their gifts and talents to respond to the needs of their communities. Interact with one another, Interact with God, Interact with the world: Live into the change you wish to see!
Shannon LeMaster-Smith
Shannon LeMaster-Smith is a Deacon in the United Methodist Church, a clergy order ordained to Word, Service, Compassion and Justice. She currently serves in the Western North Carolina Annual Conference. She has a M.A. in Conflict Resolution and 10+ years of experience in youth ministry. Her call is to help people experience the transforming love of God and the power of the Holy Spirit and to equip and empower them to share God’s love and grace with others. She enjoys singing and playing board games and is married to her best friend, Dr. Jonathan LeMaster-Smith.
breathesinglove.wordpress.com
Sessions:
74 Engaging Youth
Session #74
Beer and Hymns 2.0
Fri 2 PM | Episcopal
WGF Beer and Hymns House Band
If you’re already leading a Beer and Hymns gathering, come to learn and share best practices and what works well. WGF B&H Leaders
Session #77
Creating the Lifesaving Church: Faith Communities and Suicide Prevention, Intervention, and Postvention
Sat Noon | Portal
Rachael A. Keefe
Suicide is one of the last taboos of the church. The very mention of it often triggers an uncomfortable silence. It’s time we shatter the stigma and end the silence surrounding suicide in the church. The church is the embodiment of Christ and there are many among us who struggle with suicidality, such that the Body of Christ is suicidal. It is possible for us to respond with love and grace in a way that saves lives and brings hope and healing to the body of Christ. In this interactive conversation, we will explore ways to safely talk about suicide in our churches, discuss the big questions (e.g. Is suicide a sin?), and explore the role of congregations in suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention. Do you want your church to be a lifesaver? Come and join in this conversation.
Rachael Keefe
Rev. Dr. Rachael Keefe is the author of The Lifesaving Church: Faith Communities and Suicide Prevention (Chalice Press, 2018), and pastor of Living Table United Church of Christ in Minneapolis, MN. She’s a favored conference presenter on topics related to and mental health, particularly suicide and congregations. Previously, she served as clinical chaplain at a state psychiatric hospital where she worked with patients, staff, clergy, and churches to increase understanding and welcome of persons living with symptoms of mental illness. She also served on a State Suicide Prevention Council. Since her ordination in 1992, Keefe has served in many different ministry settings. She has graduate degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary and Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School (formerly Andover Newton Theological School). She is a painter and a poet, and her other published works are three in a series of theological poetry, which you can find out more on by visiting Beachtheology.com
Sessions:
78 The Lifesaving Church
Session #78
Creating an Authentic Interfaith Community in Today’s World
Sat 1 PM | Portal
Margaret Mathews and Flo Sapp Martin
Hear how a small group of Jewish, Christian and Muslim women meeting for lunch in Central Georgia grew from eight to eighty; from niceties to knowing; from sharing to service; from acquaintances to authentic relationships; from sharing recipes to studying scriptures; from welcomes and goodbyes to invocations and benedictions; from telling stories to transformation. Through stories, visual presentation and group interaction, see the importance of FAITH and how it grows in Interfaith relationships, efforts, and work. The Women’s Interfaith Alliance of Central Georgia has been together for eight years and continues to grow. Our stated mission is: “We believe that people who live out their faith are positive contributors to their communities. We hope to promote understanding, respect, prayer, interaction and unity among the various faiths in central Georgia through education, dialog and service.”
Margaret Mathews
Margaret Mathews is a retired school psychologist who divides her time between volunteering, art, and travel. She is a graduate of Wesleyan College in Macon, GA and Georgia State University in Atlanta. An active layperson in the United Methodist Church, her membership is at Trinity UMC in Warner Robins, GA, where she teaches and leads various classes and groups. Margaret is an Associate at Green Bough House of Prayer, an intentional spiritual community in south Georgia. In her role as a founding member of the Women’s Interfaith Alliance of Central Georgia she has seen her life long hope for multi-faith understanding come to fruition.
Sessions:
79 Creating an Authentic Interfaith Community in Today’s World
Flo Sapp Martin
As a Christian Educator, Flo Sapp Martin has served as a Curriculum Consultant and national trainer for the United Methodist Publishing House for over 30 years. She has also been involved in children, youth, and adult ministry in various United Methodist Churches in the Southeastern US. An active lay person in the United Methodist Church, she has served and chaired boards, agencies, and committees at all levels of the church. The passion she has for bringing people together and also learning and growing in love and care for one another has come together in the Women’s Interfaith Alliance of Central Georgia in ways that are beyond anything she could hope for or imagine.
Sessions:
79 Creating an Authentic Interfaith Community in Today’s World
Session #79
Body Theology: Exploring the body and communal movement in the church as a way towards liberation
Lois Snavely
Fri 2 PM | Studio
This workshop will be an interactive, movement-based study of where the Church has colonized the body in pastoral leadership, liturgical movement and even the posture of prayer (particularly the bodies of women, POC and LGBTQ+ Christians). We will explore where we hold our own biases around what the body “should” or “shouldn’t” do, and then explore ways in which the body can be liberated in liturgical settings. This workshop will seek to move beyond just the realm of performative movement. Instead, the session will co-create with the participants a safe space where we can find ways to communally liberate the body in everything from preaching to prayer. We will operate around a theological understanding of the body, movement and dance as part of a liberative way to do Church and ministry. Throughout, we will utilize a unique approach to movement and body-awareness as an essential part of leadership training, personal and spiritual development, and community activism.
Lois Snavely
Lois is an MDiv student at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and a candidate for ordination within the United Church of Christ. She is a former professional dancer and still loves shaking up the Church and its theology of the body. Lois’s vocation lies at the intersection between spiritual direction and pastoral care, bringing a liberative theology into the corporate workspace, and exegeting the Church and the Bible from a feminist and religious pluralist perspective. At her home of University Church Chicago, Lois is a member of the Social Justice Committee and the Dance Choir. She has toured nationally with the Chicago-based performance ensemble Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, and she has performed, choreographed and taught movement-based awareness workshops at North Park Theological Seminary, McCormick Theological Seminary, Urban Village Church, University Church Chicago, Beloved of God Ministries, The Way International and SALT Performing Arts. Connect with her on Instagram @lsnavely7
Sessions:
80 Body Theology: Liberate!
Session #80
Spiritual Authenticity in a Narrow Land: Navigating the tension between our need to believe and our need to evolve
Fri 2 PM | Convo Hall 4
Sat Noon | Convo Hall 4
Mark Brouwer
What do you do when your life learning and experiences call into question the things you were taught to believe? What if your spiritual growth takes you to places “outside the camp” of your Christian community? Join pastor / writer Mark Brouwer as he shares his story of a journey though Evangelical Christianity, atheism, Buddhism, Taoism, into progressive, integral Christianity. His wife, therapist and speaker Charlene Brouwer will also talk about her experience of having a pastor husband who seemed to have “lost his faith,” only to emerge with something deeper. They will talk about their work with other spiritual leaders – and now parishioners – to help overcome the damaging misconceptions about how spiritual growth really works.
Mark Brouwer
Mark Brouwer is a spiritual teacher, writer, and spiritual adviser to leaders and activists. He is the pastor of Loop Church in Chicago, IL, and director of Renew Resources, whose mission is to equip people to serve God and others in a way that arises from — and maintains — their spiritual and emotional well-being. He is a contributing author of “A Christian Handbook of Abuse, Addiction, and Difficult Behaviors,” The Ministry Essentials Bible, and is author of The Solid Foundation Journal and the forthcoming Making Your Mark without Losing Your Soul. Mark and his wife Charlene live in Chicago, and have two grown sons. He can be found at lastingleaders.com and the recovery blog sexualsanity.com
http://lastingleaders.com
Sessions:
81 Spiritual Authenticity: when spiritual growth and traditional beliefs collide
Session #81
Stand-up comedy! Take a break and come have some laughs,followed by a discussion: I’m queer – will I be welcome?
Sat 2 PM | Portal
Joyce Hagen-McIntosh
Stand-up comedy! followed by a discussion: I’m queer – will I be welcome? I will share my story of coming out and fitting in (or not) and I invite attendees to share their experiences of being an out (or not) GLBT member of a Christian congregation. I will also provide resources for those seeking the welcome for GLBT Christians.I have shared my Christian journey with PFLAG groups, a teen GLBT group, and for panels including one with the Niebuhr Center at Elmhurst College.”In a world where faith is so often perceived as irrelevant at best and hypocritical at worst, Joyce’s take on being a Christian is fresh air and air gulping humor. Hers is a poignant, relevant, and earthy wit that is built upon sound theology and practical faith. Joyce brings a healthy balance of humor, satire, and irony to narratives of living the faith in the post-Christian age.”- Carly Stucklen Sather, Pastor, First Congregational Church of La Grange, IL
Joyce Hagen-McIntosh
Joyce Hagen-McIntosh
Joyce began the journey of coming out to herself at 9, out to the world at 19, and out as a comedian at 49! Out as a Christian? The whole time, (with occasional tweaks in denomination, faith tradition, and world-religion exploration) she has shared the message of God’s love being meant for ALL people.
As a librarian, she helps people fill information gaps and provides access to accurate information. She currently works with an organization promoting First Amendment education, fighting censorship, and promoting the freedom to read for librarians, authors and publishers, educators, and patrons.
As a comedian, Joyce presents the overlap of faith, GLBT identity, music (she’s been known to pick up her violin during a set), and parenting. She began performing with The Mother Cluckers in April 2017 and believes that social justice through humor can take place in local bookstores, classrooms, over meals, in our churches – basically in any conversation or space!
joycestandsup.com
Sessions:
82 Stand Up Comedy followed by sharing our stories as GLBT Christians
Session #82
Yoga, Spirituality, Religion, and Modern Life: an Exploration of Self-Concept and Community.
Fri 10 AM | Healing Arts
Chad Hallyburton
Explore your own self-nature and your place in community through the lens of yoga. A yoga practice is, at its heart, a striving towards INTEGRATION; the unification of body, mind, spirit, community, the natural world, and even the divine. In this participatory session, find out how yoga can complement, challenge, and learn from western religious traditions, as it calls us to examine our preconceptions of community. Move, breathe, and open your heart.No yoga experience necessary; all bodies welcome!
Session #83
Improv Shaman – The power of Divine Play
Fri 11 AM | Healing Arts
Keli Semelsberger
Improv Shaman is a high energy interactive workshop using improv techniques to demonstrate the healing powers of cooperative creating, being in the moment, laughter and taking ourselves and other less seriously. Taught by 24 year improv comedy veteran and Shaman. A fun, light hearted and yet deep workshop that will leave participants happily inspired.
Keli Semelsberger
Keli is a 25 year Chicago improv comedy veteran and owner of Charlotte Comedy Theater She is also a medicine woman trained in Native American & Peruvian rites & ceremonies. Keli is the Chief of Medicine Woman Dance, and a sacred fire keeper. Keli’s workshops infuse the fun of improv comedy with the healing properties of native energy medicine to provide an inspired, exciting and healing workshop that connects us to each other and reminds us of the sacred power of laughter and play. charlottecomedytheater.com/
Sessions:
84 Improv Shaman
Session #84
The Potential of Paper: Making Art with the Ordinary
Nicole Farley
Sat Noon | Studio
With so much paper crossing our paths every day, from mail we receive to leftover bulletins to greeting cards, we are constantly supplied generously with an inexpensive medium for art. The workshop will guide participants in ways to use what we have at hand to make art with skills accessible to anyone and on projects which can easily be translated into contexts back at home.
Nicole Farley
Community Artist
The Rev. Nicole Farley is an ordained pastor in the PC(USA). She most recently served a congregation in Waukesha, WI, and now serves as the founder and pastoral artist with A New Creation, an arts ministry which brings communities into the creation of worship-ful art together. She and her husband live in Gurnee, IL, and together they have an adult son named Jim and a greyhound named Buddy. Besides art and lived theology, she’ll gladly have a conversation about books, podcasts, music, and movies.
https://www.hereisanewcreation.com/
Sessions:
85 Making Art with the Ordinary
191 Community Art Project
Session #85
Banquet Tables from Prison Walls (& Other Dreams and Visions that Have Moved Bodies)
Fri 5 PM | Landing
Tom Gaulke
Pastor Tom Gaulke, with members of First Lutheran Church of the Trinity, Chicago, tell the story of the congregation’s journey into growth and works of liberative justice: from winning a local bus to helping to close down two dirty coal plants, to raising the Cook County minimum wage, to co-founding Moral Mondays IL, this small congregation, working in coalition and community, makes a huge impact on the Southside of Chicago—with a particular eschatology and view of that which God calls us to engage—and they hope all church communities will do the same. Hear about that vision, and how one community lives into it (flaws and all). Plus, pick up some useful tools for engaging your community back home!
Tom Gaulke
Tom Gaulke is pastor at First Lutheran Church of the Trinity in the Bridgeport Neighborhood of Chicago whose community-crafted Call to Mission is “We are faith community called to grow in the Spirit, love as Christ loves us, and participate in God’s liberating work of justice and peace.” Tom cofounded Bridgeport Alliance, an organization that, in coalition, shut down two dirty coal-fired power plants on Chicago’s Southside. More recently they won a battle for a 31st Street Bus! Tom is a leader in Moral Mondays IL and Resist Trump Tuesdays, and co-chair of the Faith Liberation Table of the People’s Lobby. He loves direct actions and Civil Disobedience. He loves bringing the crises we feel each day to the doorsteps of the powerful who would choose to ignore them—with our demands. He believes community is sacred. Tom also loves scootering. He has scooted to Wild Goose from Chicago three times. And he is very proud of that fact. He has an incredible spouse named Daisy. And a spunky pup named Samson.
www.FirstTrinityChicago.com
Sessions:
86 Banquet Tables from Prison Walls
Session #86
A Spiritual Response To Religious Dogma: A Dialogue With Brian McLaren and Reverend Trier
Reverend Trier and Brian McLaren
Fri 5 PM | Library
Based on Reverend Trier’s groundbreaking book, “What’s GOD Got To Do With It?”, moderator Brian McLaren and Rev. Trier will discuss navigating spirituality in religiously polarizing times, exploring the ever-changing face of Christianity. Focusing on religious hypocrisy (and using the Bible as a litmus test of morality), Reverend Trier will engage the audience in an honest, unfettered critique of “the steeple and the damage done”, with an emphasis on the Jesus parable as a spiritually-enlightening alternative to religious dogma. Myths will be shattered, beliefs debunked (“It’s time to accept the fact that the Bible was written by man, and not God. It is not an immaculate tome…”) as Reverend Trier suggests that a return to the tenet of “The Golden Rule” is the fulcrum for redemption and healing, for individuals and by extension, the world.
Reverend Trier
Reverend Trier grew up in a traditional, Roman Catholic household. A ULC-ordained minister, he has studied issues of spirituality, religion and social justice for most of his adult life. He has consulted with and taken part in symposiums presented by clergymen, psychologists, and psychiatrists, worked with homeless charities and the mentally-challenged, and has been a committed advocate for issues ranging from marriage equality and separation of church and state, to those adversely affected by racism, homophobia and serophobia. Outspoken and iconoclastic, Reverend Trier often finds himself at odds with the ‘conventional wisdom’ espoused by liberals and progressives alike. His mission is to initiate an honest, self-critiquing dialogue within church hierarchy and its parishioners, so that we may hold the mirror of truth up to ourselves, as much as we hold it up to others – replacing a literalist interpretation of scripture with a more Jesus-centered ideology of faith, hope and love.
whatsgodgottodowithreligion.tumblr.com/
Sessions:
87 A Dialogue With Brian McLaren and Reverend Trier
Brian McLaren
Board Vice-Chair
Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. Notable among the many books he has authored are: “A New Kind of Christian”, which won Christianity Today’s “Award of Merit” in 2002; “Everything Must Change” tracing critical ways in which Jesus’ message confronts contemporary global crises; and We Make the Road by Walking, marking a turn toward constructive and practical theology. His 2016 release, The Great Spiritual Migration, has been hailed as his most important work to date. Brian is married to Grace, and they have four adult children and five grandchildren. His personal interests include wildlife and ecology, fly fishing and kayaking, music and songwriting, art, history, and literature. www.brianmclaren.net
Sessions:
209 How did we get here and where are we going
226 Brian McLaren, Topic TBD
278 Gathering The Goose
128 Taking to the Social Streets
87 A Dialogue With Brian McLaren and Reverend Trier
335 Creating Congregational Change
Session #87
Al-Anon Meeting
Thurs/Fri/Sat 6 PM | Portal
Anonymous
If your life has been affected by another person’s drinking or drug abuse you are most welcomed to join us for our daily Al-Anon meeting. Al-Anon is an anonymous fellowship. Everything that is said in the group is held in confidence. Al-Anon is not allied with any sect, denomination, political entity, organization or institution; does not engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any cause.
Session #88
Beyond Mission Trips: Postcolonial mission experiences with youth
Fri 5 PM | Convo Hall 4
Sat 2 PM | Convo Hall 4
Bill Buchanan
What are we teaching our young people when we take them on “mission trips”? What are the most helpful ways of engaging youth in the brokenness of the world and God’s call to justice and compassion? We will discuss recent critiques of traditional mission trips and look at some evolving models of mission experiences with youth that are designed to go beyond colonial mission mentality.
Bill Buchanan
Bill Buchanan is the Executive Director of the non-profit ministry Youth Mission Co, which includes the programs Asheville Youth Mission (in Asheville, NC), Raleigh Youth Mission (in Raleigh, NC), and Memphis Youth Mission (in Memphis, TN). His passions are to engage young people in issues of social justice through mission immersion experiences and to lead youth toward hearing God’s call to action in their own lives and contexts. He is an ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA), a husband, father, stepfather, and co-owner of several pets. He lives in Asheville, NC.
youthmissionco.org
Sessions:
89 Beyond Mission Trips
Session #89
Godly Play: Approaching Scripture with Wonder
Sat 4 PM | Portal
Godly Play Foundation Trainers
Is it possible to play with Scripture? Godly Play invites imagination, stillness, and spirit to coalesce in a variety of ways. Inspired by Maria Montessori’s deep trust of each child’s inner teacher, this method of spiritual guidance invites all-comers of any age to listen and play with the Bible in fresh ways and is most at home with those who value story and wonder – families, churches, hospital bedsides and so much more. Join Godly Play Foundation Trainers as we share a Godly Play-style story from Scripture, wonder verbally together, make individual art responses, and share resources for developing this approach in your setting.
Emily Griffin
Director of Children’s Programming
Emily will be co-leading children’s activities at Wild Goose again this year. She’s an Episcopal priest at St. Alban’s in Washington, DC and a trainer in Godly Play – a hands-on, creative method of spiritual guidance used primarily but not always with kids. When she’s not in a circle sharing stories, she’s either reading voraciously, attempting French cooking with her husband, or brushing up on her Spanish. She’s most at home in the mountains and can’t wait to sing and work and pray and play again this year at the Goose.
www.godlyplayfoundation.org
Sessions:
90 Godly Play, Scripture and Wonder
408 Kids Tent Program
Nancy St John
Co-Director, Children’s Programming
Nancy is very much looking forward to joining teammates in co-leading children’s activities at Wild Goose this year. She is a trained early childhood Montessori teacher at a Montessori school in Scituate, Massachusetts. Nancy is also a trainer for the Godly Play, a religious method that helps children explore their faith through story. Both these passions compliment the other, as she sits on the floor with children most Sundays at a nearby Episcopal church telling stories. Nancy lives along the rocky Massachusetts seashore, where she marvels at its beauty and loves walking along the beach any chance she gets in search of “treasure.”
Sessions:
408 Kids Tent Program
Sally Thomas
Co-Director, Children’s Programming
“Sally is the most irreverent reverent person” a childhood friend proclaimed. Yep! Since her own children declared their innate theology as tiny sage ones, Sally has been attuned to the spiritual wisdom children offer in this wondrous world. She currently serves as the Missioner for Children & Families at Holy Communion (Episcopal) Church in University City, MO and is a D. Min. student at Eden Seminary. She has been in cahoots with circles of children and their families using Godly Play for twenty years and is thrilled to join Emily Griffin and Nancy St. John for Godly Play’s 3rd year at the Goose.
Sessions:
408 Kids Tent Program
Session #90
Reproductive Justice Is _______: Moving Beyond the Pro-Choice/Pro-Life Binary
Sat 5 PM | Portal
Mary Button, Emilie Bowman, Rachel Ankney
This interactive conversation will offer a variety of diverse perspectives and practices around the issues surrounding reproductive justice. Looking beyond the pro-choice and pro-life binary, the conversation partners will include abortion doulas, members of a collective that agitates for childcare in movement spaces, and labor activists advocating for a higher minimum wage. Rather than focus solely on abortion, the goal of this conversation is to engage the full spectrum of issues related to Reproductive Justice, which means engaging the many social injustices that people face when making decisions about their reproductive health.
Mary Button
Mary Button was born and raised in the swampy wilds of East Texas, received a BFA in Photography and Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, and went on to earn a Master of Theological Studies with a concentration in American religious history and Christian ethics from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.
Her artwork has been exhibited across the US and UK, with exhibitions at the Museum of Biblical Art in NYC, the Church Center for the United Nations, Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, and Wesley House at Cambridge University, to name a few. She has written curricula for Women of the ELCA on a number of social justice issues and is a frequent contributor to Believe Out Loud. You can find her at marybutton.com
Sessions:
91 Reproductive Justice Is …
92 Crafting Icons of Resistance
50 Crazy Creative
Session #91
Crafting Icons of Resistance
Fri 11 AM | Convo Hall 2
Sat 1 PM | Convo Hall 2
Mary Button
In this interactive art workshop, artist and iconographer Mary Button will lead participants in the creation of an icon for personal devotion. Creating icons is an important spiritual practice that offers people a creative outlet to lament and lift up people, places, and moments important to them. In recent years, Mary has created icons of contemporary martyrs, like Heather Heyer, as well as everyday heroes like the crowds of people who gathered at Women’s Marches across the world. Mary will provide materials and guidance so that every participant — regardless of drawing/painting skills — will leave the workshop with their own icon.
Mary Button
Mary Button was born and raised in the swampy wilds of East Texas, received a BFA in Photography and Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, and went on to earn a Master of Theological Studies with a concentration in American religious history and Christian ethics from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.
Her artwork has been exhibited across the US and UK, with exhibitions at the Museum of Biblical Art in NYC, the Church Center for the United Nations, Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, and Wesley House at Cambridge University, to name a few. She has written curricula for Women of the ELCA on a number of social justice issues and is a frequent contributor to Believe Out Loud. You can find her at marybutton.com
Sessions:
91 Reproductive Justice Is …
92 Crafting Icons of Resistance
50 Crazy Creative
Session #92
A Jew & A Gentile Walk Into a Bar…Mitzvah, The Podcast
Sat 4 PM | GooseCast
A Jew & A Gentile Walk Into a Bar…Mitzvah
Join the live “studio” audience at the GooseCast Stage for this interfaithED discussion on the nexus of faith and mental health issues. There will also be cigar reviews and perhaps a surprise guest or two. A Jew, & A Gentile smoking cigars, drinking whiskey, talking theology & mental health. What could possibly go wrong?
Charles Bretan
Charles Bretan is the Jewish half of the interfaithED blog and podcast, A Jew & A Gentile Walk Into a Bar … Mitzvah. He is also an adjunct professor at Guildford Technical Community College. With degrees in education from the University of Florida and from Nova Southeastern University, Charles has taught almost everything from composition to scuba diving and from leadership to life saving. Born and raised in Miami, FL, Charles now lives in Greensboro, NC with his wife, Gail.
charlesandchris.net
Sessions:
93 A Jew & A Gentile Podcast
Christopher Henson
Chris is the Gentile half of A Jew and a Gentile walk into a Bar…Mitzvah the blog and podcast. He holds a B.A. in Psychology from North Carolina State University and an M.Div from Duke University. He is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. He served as a pastor for 17 years, first in Oldham, England (a suburb of Manchester) followed by appointments in the Piedmont-Triad of NC. He was Pastor-in-Residence with the Wesley-Luther Fellowship at UNC Greensboro. Presently, he works as a chaplain caring for persons struggling with substance abuse and/or mental illness. He is a certified NC peer support specialist and uses both his lived and learned experiences to help others who struggle with substance abuse and/or a mental illness return to health and wellness. He is husband to Summer, father to Sophie, admitted cigar-arsonist, creative, subversive, and living with clinical depression.
www.charlesandchris.net
Sessions:
93 A Jew & A Gentile Podcast
Session #93
Queer Liberation in Poetic Narrative
leea allen
Sat 1 PM | Studio
More than words written on paper or spoken aloud, poetry is living testimony. Poetry has been a necessary art for me as a marginalized queer person of color, particularly in spaces that do not always acknowledge and affirm queer and trans voices. This session will offer you the tools to honestly articulate your suffering story in creative and powerful ways through narrative poetry. I encourage you to be vulnerable in sharing from your context and perspective in a safe, healthy, inclusive atmosphere. As we make space, queer and trans voices will be centered as we bear witness to our collective liberation. Poets will also have the opportunity to see their poetry featured in an upcoming chapbook. Come ready to be seen, be heard, and be transformed.
leea allen
leea is a Black singer-preacher-poet living in Atlanta. As a faith leader and freedom fighter, they work to bring Black and Brown queer and trans people in the South into real community in the body of Christ — particularly those living in poverty. leea is a 3rd year Master of Divinity student at Emory University and currently serves as a Worship Leader at Park Avenue Baptist Church, in addition to working for the Poor People’s Campaign and Presbyterians for a Better Georgia. Follow them on Facebook, Instagram, and Medium @leeavallen.
Sessions:
94 Queer Poetic Liberation
Session #94
Living Into a New Reality as United Methodists
Fri 10 AM | Bridge
Rocky Mountain Conference Panel
In 2016, the Western Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church elected Rev. Dr. Karen Oliveto as the first openly LGBTQ Bishop in the history of the UMC. Her election, although unanimous, sparked a season of soul searching for many United Methodists living in the West, and it has forced us to re-imagine how we can more effectively live into what MLK referred to as “Beloved Community”. The panel will include a cross-section of laity and clergy, from both urban and rural settings, who are active in the Rocky Mountain Conference of The UMC. Together, panelists and participants will have the opportunity to share hopes, fears, and dreams about the future of United Methodism in particular, and mainline Protestantism in general.This panel is made up of leaders from across the Rocky Mountain Conference of The UMC. Andy Millman is located in Denver, CO and currently serves as both Young People’s Ministry Developer and Mission & Ministry Project Coordinator for the Rocky Mountain Conference. Rev Margaret Gillikin serves as District Superintendent for the Trinity District of the RMC, covering approximately 55,000 square miles of rural southeastern Colorado. Rev Angie Katzmoyer serves as the Associate Pastor at Park Hill UMC and has been heavily involved in work around the Sanctuary Movement and the full inclusion of the LGBTQIA community into the life of the church. Rev Tom Henderson Owens was formerly a member of the pastoral team at Trinity UMC in downtown Denver, and has recently switched his clergy membership to the Western North Carolina Conference of the UMC.
Andy Millman
Andy Millman is the Young People’s Ministry Developer / Mission & Ministry Project Coordinator for the Rocky Mountain Conference of the UMC, and as such he works with and advocates for young people throughout Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. He grew up in an interfaith household and has spent most of his adult life working for the church in various contexts. Before working for the RMC, Andy served for 2 years in Moscow, Russia working with West African asylum-seekers and migrants to address racially-motivated violence and xenophobia.
https://www.mtnskyumc.org/
Sessions:
95 Living Into A New Reality – UMC
288 Bonhoeffer and Base Communities
Rev. Angie Heesacker
Rev. Angie Kotzmoyer was born and raised United Methodist in a small town of 600 people, called Hay Springs, in Nebraska. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Performance and a minor in History from Chadron State College in 2011. From there, she went on to attend the Academy of Arts University in San Francisco for a Master of Fine Arts in Acting. While in San Francisco she became a member and worshiped at Glide Memorial UMC, where her now Bishop, Rev. Karen Oliveto, was serving as Senior Pastor. However, her call to ministry was stronger than her passion for theatre and after a year in San Fran she decided to apply to seminary. She was accepted into Iliff’s Master of Divinity program and moved to Denver in August of 2013. She graduated from Iliff on June 8th, 2017 with an MDiv and on July 1, 2017 she was appointed as the Associate Pastor at Park Hill UMC in Denver, CO. In her spare time she loves hiking and camping with her wife, Colleen, their dog, Callie, and cat, Carl.
Sessions:
95 Living Into A New Reality – UMC
Tom Owens
Tom Henderson Owens is a pastor, social justice advocate, hospitality veteran, trail running addict, and modern theologian. A Virginia native, Tom moved to Denver CO where he received a Masters of Divinity with distinction at the Iliff School of Theology, was pictured in 5280 magazine for his work with Euclid Hall bar and restaurant and served as the Associate Pastor at Denver’s very first congregation, Trinity United Methodist Church. He is moving to the Asheville area with his partner, Ann Henderson Owens, to become the Executive Director of Open Door Ministries in Waynesville, North Carolina. His call is to bridge the chasm between “liberal” and “conservative” Christian theology and use his life experiences with both to help create a more unified Church mission based on dignity, respectful dialogue, and radical inclusion. He finds that in addition to cultural competence, compassionate missional work can be paramount to that effort as it fulfills the greatest of all God’s commandments to simply love others
Sessions:
95 Living Into A New Reality – UMC
Session #95
Prophetic Care: Embracing the Difficult Work of Following Jesus
Fri 11 AM | Bridge
Derek Penwell
The current political climate has prompted people to get involved in activism and advocacy. Unfortunately, inexperienced people often don’t know where to begin to get engaged on issues they care about. To the extent this is true, the church has failed a crucial part of its mission. Historically, the church has focused on pastoral care and evangelism—how we take care of church people and how we make non-church people into church people. But what it has failed to devote much thought to is “prophetic care”—how we amplify the voice of Jesus for justice in an often hostile world. This workshop will explore practical ways to embrace our calling to live like Jesus in public.
Derek Penwell
Derek Penwell is an author, speaker, pastor, and activist. He is the senior pastor of Douglass Boulevard Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky and a former lecturer at the University of Louisville in Religious Studies and Humanities.
Derek has a Ph.D. in humanities from the University of Louisville and has authored articles ranging from church history to aesthetic theory and the tragic emotions. He is also the author of The Mainliner’s Survival Guide to the Post-Denominational World, about how mainline denominations can avoid despair in an uncertain world. His newest book, Political Subversive: Why Jesus Was a Lousy Messiah, focuses on understanding the political nature of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as a model for forming communities of resistance capable of challenging oppression in the pursuit of peace and justice.
He is an activist and advocate on local, state, and national levels on issues of racial justice, LGBTQ fairness, interfaith engagement, and immigrant rights.
derekpenwell.net
Sessions:
96 Prophetic Care
Session #96
Abstract Art as Meditation
Fri Noon | Healing Arts
Sacil Armstrong
Meditation is a mystery for many, but the Zentangle® Method makes it simple and fun! If you can write your name, you can create beautiful abstract art while achieving a state of calm and focus. Use 5 basic shapes to create repeating patterns. By concentrating on each mark you make, you bring yourself into the present and create a piece of unique black and white art to document your meditation journey. With regular practice, you can develop your own artistic style and enjoy some of the scientifically-proven benefits of meditation: stress and anxiety relief, improved work efficiency, healthy blood pressure, increased creativity, improved cognitive function, and good sleep.
Sacil Armstrong
Sacil Armstrong is an Intuitive Coach based out of Roanoke, VA. She helps individuals break down inner barriers that block personal growth and slow down progress towards their goals. She also facilitates corporate and community groups to reduce work stress and improve communication. She is an award-winning grassroots community leader and owner of art & being, where she leads clients through self-discovery and provides remote energy healing. She can be reached on social media at @artbeingva or at artbeingva.com.
artbeingva.com
Sessions:
97 Art Meditation
Session #97
“The Power of Story to Interrupt Entrenched Injustice”
Fri 2 PM | Convo Hall 3
Sat Noon | Convo Hall 3
Micah Royal
During “The Power of Story to Interrupt Entrenched Injustice” we will be exploring the ways in which the gift of story – both listening to others’ stories and sharing our own – can help disrupt patterns of injustice. You will also be invited to explore your own stories and experiences disrupting patterns of injustice in your community.Our presenter Micah Royal has served in various contexts working to tear down barriers between people and working to speak up against injustice. On his podcast the Progressive Redneck Preacher, Micah tries to continue this process by lifting up voices and stories often overlooked here in the south.
Micah Royal
Micah Royal has served in various contexts working to tear down barriers between people and working to speak up against injustice. Previously he has worked as a pastor working to tear down barriers of racism and homophobia and currently he serves as a hospice chaplain, interim pastor, and as Vice President of the Eastern NC Association of the United Church of Christ. On his podcast the Progressive Redneck Preacher, Micah tries to continue this process by lifting up voices and stories often overlooked here in the south.
During “The Power of Story to Interrupt Entrenched Injustice” we will be exploring the ways in which the gift of story – both listening to others’ stories and sharing our own – can help disrupt patterns of injustice. You will also be invited to explore your own stories and experience disrupting patterns of injustice in your community.
progressiveredneckpreacher.wordpress.com
Sessions:
99 The Power of Story
Session #99
From “Love Thy Neighbor” to “Make America Great Again”: Difficult Conversations in a Difficult Time
Fri 1 PM | Bridge
The Praxis Forum
During difficult and divided times it can be hard to engage in meaningful conversations centered around religious, social, and political topics. However, it is in these exact times when these conversations are most important. In this workshop we will discuss the disconnect between the biblical decree to “love thy neighbor” and the political rhetoric of “Make America Great Again.” We will engage in a discussion as to how important it is to have difficult conversations with family members, friends, and co-workers. We will then move to a share-out where we will give some guidance and tips as to how to hold difficult discussions and provide a space for everyone to practice them. Finally, we will reflect on our experience through a worshipful debrief.
Stephen Tickner
Stephen Tickner is a founding member of the Westar Institute’s The Praxis Forum and is currently serving as the vice-chair. Stephen is the Senior Pastor of Central Christian Church in Danbury, CT. In addition to his pastorate, he also serves as the chaplain at Wooster School – an independent K-12 school in Danbury. Originally from Oklahoma, he now resides in New York City. He has his Masters of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary and is ordained into the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
Sessions:
100 Difficult Conversations in a Difficult Time
Julia Khan
Julia Khan is a writer, preacher, educator, and chaplain. Her work appeared in an edited anthology, Orthodox Monasticism Past and Present. A graduate of Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, she has served as a Chaplain at Soldier On, a non-profit providing housing and services to homeless and struggling veterans. Julia is currently embarking on a new ministry project which melds an intellectually engaging and spiritually challenging online video series to on-the-ground chaplaincy which seeks to meet the community where they are. In her spare time, she enjoys practicing and teaching martial arts, a passion of hers for thirty years.
Sessions:
100 Difficult Conversations in a Difficult Time
Session #100
Taizé Prayer Around the Cross Join us for an hour of quiet contemplative sung prayer and silence – a quiet time and place to catch your breath and be re-connected to your God.
Sat 11 AM | Chapel
Taizé Baltimore
An hour of contemplative sung prayer and silence. A space to enter into silence with your God.Duffy Laws and Lisa O’Reilly are women of spirit and prayer, both living in Baltimore, MD. Duffy is a mother and grandmother, environmentalist and retired teacher who holds a Masters in Spiritual Ministry; Lisa is a teacher and has a Masters in Pastoral Ministry having worked for the Catholic Church for 15 years. Both know that silence and reconciliation are needed in our busy world and have found a space in the Community of Taizé, France, an ecumenical monastic community of brothers who welcome often 7000 young people in prayer. The community has developed a style of worship that brings all into a common space of peace and reflection. Using aspects from all the Christian rituals, including icons, scripture, chant and silence, Taizé Prayer around the Cross is a time for folks to rest in the still small voice of God.
LISTEN
Duffy Laws
Duffy Laws actively facilitates Taizé prayer and spiritual direction groups in the Baltimore area as well as leads groups to Taizé, France. She holds a teaching degree and a masters in Spiritual Ministry. A backyard farmer at heart, she cultivates human, plant and animal life with her husband and fellow beekeeper. She is an activist for her family and the environment, and drinks deeply from the joys of life.
www.facebook.com/Taiz%C3%A9-Baltimore-134141239966039/
Sessions:
101 Taizé Prayer Around the Cross
Lisa O’Reilly
Lisa O’Reilly came to Baltimore MD in 2001 after 10 years of teaching Religion and History in Irish schools. She holds a degree in catechetics and a masters in Pastoral Ministry. She has been a youth minister in 4 different Baltimore City Catholic churches. Her passion for Taizé came from visiting the Community for the first time at the age of 16. She likes playing her guitar, travel and drinking beer, often at the same time!
Sessions:
101 Taizé Prayer Around the Cross
Session #101
Re-imagining Redemption: A Feminist perspective
Fri 10 AM | Convo Hall 2
Sat 4 PM | Convo Hall 2
Rev. Adele Henderson
As the #MeToo movement started picking up steam John Piper decided to speak a word to women that redemption would come from an earthly Boaz just as it did for Ruth. As a Divinity school graduate who has study scripture and continues to study the Bible as a minister I want to offer an alternative and more accurate view of redemption. This view will help to bring healing for women part of the #MeToo and #ChurchToo movement. Participants will have an opportunity to write and read their own poetry of redemption. The session will then close with communion and a blessing.
Adele Henderson
Adele Henderson is an ordained minister serving as The Director of Christian Education and Chaplain at HopeTree Family Services in Salem VA. Outside of work she provides pastoral care at LewisGale Hospital with other local clergy. Adele believes authentic community is fostered through story and the creation of art in community. For fun she hikes the many trails in the Roanoke Valley, sings in the choir at her local church and occasionally reads poetry at a local open mic.
Sessions:
102 Redemption by Faith
Session #102
Learning to Listen: An Exploration of How We Can Hear and Heed God’s Call
Fri 2 PM | Bridge
Kate Rademacher
How can we faithfully listen for God’s call? How do we respond when our sense of vocation contradicts – or is even diametrically opposed – to another person’s understanding of their calling? During this session, we will explore the topics of discernment and vocation. Author and facilitator Kate Rademacher works in international public health with a focus on increasing access to contraception in developing countries. Yet with birth control remaining a controversial topic in the religious landscape, understanding this work as a vocational calling raises challenging questions about how we can responsibly and accurately discern a sense of God’s call for us. Participants will be invited to share their own experiences with discernment, and we will discuss approaches to prayerfully listening for God’s voice in our own lives.
Kate Rademacher
Kate Rademacher grew up outside of Boston and now lives in Chapel Hill with her family. In her debut memoir, Following the Red Bird, Kate describes how she came to embrace a relationship with God after maintaining a pick-and-choose approach to spirituality for many years. Married to a devout Buddhist, Kate was sitting on a cushion at her husband’s meditation center one day when Jesus appeared unexpectedly in her consciousness and called her to follow him. She was baptized a year later to the day. Kate has over fifteen years of experience in non-profit management and group facilitation. Visit her at www.katerademacher.com
https://www.katerademacher.com
Sessions:
103 Learning to Listen for God’s Call
Session #103
(In)Sufficient Words: Using the Tools of Poetry & Jewish Midrash To Make Space for Justice & Redemption
Fri 5 PM | Convo Hall 1
Sat 2 PM | Convo Hall 1
Judith Kunst
Learn techniques from the ancient Jewish creative writing tradition called Midrash to play with, pull apart, and find transformative space within ordinary language we use everyday. Using hand-bound notebooks instead of handouts, we’ll talk and write together towards a poem like this: Not much was harder than saying out loud / “You’re right, we got it wrong.” But in / out-louding the “wrong,” we were also saying / “You’re right” and “We got it.” And though / you insisted that we’ll never get “it” / —and there are signs to suggest “you’re / right”—still, that day, “we got,” somewhere, / somehow, trying to “right” our “wrong.” / A little bit closer to “You are,” maybe. / A little bit closer to “we.” (Rock & Sling 2017) No prior writing experience is required for this workshop–just honesty, open eyes, and a willingness to believe that what we’ve been given can, with love and imagination, be made into what we need.
Judith Kunst
Judith Kunst is a poet and lifelong student of language and how it can work in the world. Her book The Burning Word: A Christian Encounter with Jewish Midrash celebrates the amazing Jewish idea that God intends the Bible as a conversation starter: that God eagerly awaits our arguments and questions and stories and poems. Some of Judith’s poems have appeared in The Atlantic, Poetry, Image, and other places. She and her husband and their three sons have just moved to Evansville, Indiana after a three year adventure in rural southeastern North Carolina. This is Judith’s first WGF, but since geese have been showing up in Judith’s writing for decades, she expects to feel right at home.
judithkunst.com
Sessions:
104 (In)Sufficient Words Poetry Workshop
Session #104
Being a Native American Christian in 2018: Reckoning With the Church’s Past to Create a More Hopeful Future
Kaitlin Curtice
Fri Noon | Greater Things
As an enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi Nation and a Christian, I often feel a lot of tension within the institutional church. As a result, many people ask me what it’s like to be a Native American and a Christian. Because we are a country that has swept crimes done against indigenous peoples under the rug, the church is still trying to figure out how to have the conversation about where we go from here to truly build a community of shalom across racial and cultural divides. Addressing issues of our time, misconceptions and stereotypes surrounding indigenous peoples and our history as a country, I want to describe what it’s like to be a Potawatomi woman and Christian in America in 2018 and my hope for the future church.
Kaitlin Curtice
Kaitlin Curtice is a Native American Christian author, speaker and worship leader. As an enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi Nation and someone who has grown up in the Christian faith, Kaitlin writes on the intersection of Native American spirituality, mystic faith in everyday life, and the church. Her recently released book is Glory Happening: Finding the Divine in Everyday Places. She is a regular contributor to Sojourners, and was most recently a speaker at the Why Christian? Conference and the Lynchburg Revival. You can also find her story featured on CBS Religion’s Race, Regligion and Resistance documentary. When she isn’t work on her second book or spending time with her family in Atlanta, Kaitlin writes at www.kaitlincurtice.com
Sessions:
105 Being a Native American Christian in 2018
Session #105
Native Americans, the Mainline Church, and the Quest for Interracial Justice
Fri 3 PM | Bridge
David P. Hansen
This workshop involves participants reading a script in the voices of Native Americans, Christian missionaries, Indian boarding school stories, press releases, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The goal is to raise awareness about the ongoing impact of the doctrine of discovery and Christian domination and inspire participants to take action toward healing among all people.
David Hansen
David Hansen has served in ministry in the United Church of Christ and more recently in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) for more than 40 years. His studies at the Pacific School of Religion and the Graduate Theological Union focused on religion and society and economic policy. He has served as campus minister in Oregon and Saskatchewan, and in congregations from Wisconsin to Hawai’i. He served as the conference minister of both the Hawai’i Conference of the United Church of Christ and the Kansas-Oklahoma Conference of the United Church of Christ. He and Sally, his wife, are parents and grandparents of an interracial, multicultural family that includes Christians, Muslims, and atheists, as well as French and Turkish citizens. His passion is to create a society in which interracial and multicultural justice and peace are normative.
davidphansen.com
Sessions:
106 Interracial Justice
Session #106
Finding Beauty + your Greatest Worth in Budgeting
Fri 3 PM | Convo Hall 5
Sat 2 PM | Convo Hall 6
Nicole + Sam of Greatest Worth
This session provides an introduction to Nicole’s + Sam’s tested process of creating a budget that not only sticks, but also empowers you to live grounded in the truth of your deepest callings, dreams and values. By exploring the power of Awareness, Values and Integration, you will leave the session with a new understanding of how budgeting is a beautiful way to move toward deep transformation.
Nicole + Sam Rule
Nicole + Sam Rule believe that active, aware management of personal finances is a subversive and spiritual act. During their personal journey through the process of paying off $100,000 in debt, they learned that creating and living by a budget that aligns with their values is the key to sustainable resistance against the status quo of mindless consumerism. After years of guiding individuals and groups from their church community through their process, Nicole started Greatest Worth.com as a platform to engage women in the wild and holy work of finding beauty in their personal finances.
www.greatestworth.com
Sessions:
107 Finding Beauty in Budgeting
Session #107
Experiments with Faithfulness
Fri 11 AM | Convo Hall 1
Sat 1 PM | Convo Hall 1
Releasing Ministry Alliance
Based on practices from traditional spiritual direction and today’s cutting edge teachings in human development, we’ll use individual and small group activities to accompany one another as we listen for and discern next steps to follow the Wild Goose/ Holy Spirit in our lives.We’ll practice a method of spiritual accompaniment and, depending on our interests, we’ll explore ways to facilitate personal growth, such spiral dynamics, MIT’s u.lab, horizon analysis, and other methods. These practices have offered other people much-needed, steady guidance while they pursued a wide variety of callings.Participants are encouraged to come with a particular question and a willingness to share openly about their faith journey now and going forward.Lola Georg (counselor) and Viv Hawkins (spiritual director) will facilitate this interactive session where all will be co-learners and co-teachers. They pray this session will serve you and other people with whom you may share what you come to know.
Session #108
Introducing the Religiosity Uncertainty Principle: A Conduit for Ecumenical and Interfaith Connection
Fri Noon | Convo Hall 4
Sat 10 AM | Convo Hall 4
Larry C. Dickinson
This interactive session will explore the idea the God is so awesome beyond human understanding that God can be honestly understood differently by different humans. Examples of scripture will be presented to help make the case that we humans can’t fully see/know/understand God from our limited perspective. This religious “uncertainty” will be paralleled with the “Heisenberg Uncertainly Principle,” a well-known and famous principle in modern science (i.e. Quantum Mechanics/Physics). The resulting “Religiosity Uncertainty Principle” will be articulated in several ways with participation from the audience. The concluding discussion will examine 1) how this basic principle can be understood in fundamentally different ways, and 2) how those different understandings can be used to facilitate dialogue and connection across deeply differentiated Faith groups: religions (Christian, Muslim, etc.), denominations (conservative, progressive, etc.); and un-religions (Atheist, Spiritual, etc.)
Larry Dickinson
Larry Dickinson is an Entrepreneur, Engineer and Lay Leader based in western NC. He earned his PhD in Applied Science and has a career of 25+ years in Research & Development and commercialization of new advanced materials. He has experience from both large (e.g. NASA, Lockheed) and small organizations. Owning his own business for more than 10 years he now claims to have the worst boss he’s ever had; himself. He grew up in a small UCC church in rural NC and has been active in lay leadership in different congregations where he’s lived. He has facilitated numerous classes ranging from Bill Hybel’s Contagious Christian; to multiple courses out of the Living the Questions series. He has taken formal facilitator training for the Methodist Disciple series and has lead/co-lead four different 30+ week Disciple bible study classes. His ongoing Faith Journey began in a conservative congregation of a progressive Christian denomination (UCC) and is now exploring broader perspectives with an interest in Mysticism.
Sessions:
109 The Religiosity Uncertainty Principle
Session #109
When One Dream Ends: Finding Healing and Purpose After Trauma and Loss
Fri 1 PM | Convo Hall 7
Sat 3 PM | Convo Hall 7
Michelle Schumacher
Every Day, You Are Loved conveys to adoptive children that they will always be loved…on the good days, the bad days, and all the in-between days. While I originally wrote the book for my then seven-year-old son, its message has helped me find healing, as well, from the abuse in my families of origin and by marriage, and even my church family. Rather than turning my back on God, I drew closer to Gawuh’s (God as we understood him) infinite love. In doing so, I was led to resources that helped me transform my traumas and losses into healing and purpose. As an instructional designer and a licensed massage therapist; a Hospice volunteer; a Wild Goose Festival Staff Volunteer; and an active member of Al-Anon, the Methodist church, and a Buddhist meditation center following the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, today my life’s purpose is to serve by helping others live all their days well. This presentation will provide direction to help others find their healing and life’s purpose, as well.
Michelle Schumacher
Venue Producer
Having had the greatest spiritual experience of her life at her first Wild Goose Festival in 2016, Michelle is incredibly thankful for the opportunity to give back as part of the WGF Staff/Support Team. Through her current work as a geriatric licensed massage therapist, instructional designer, author, and community volunteer, Michelle seeks to be the change she wishes to see in her own little corner of the world by helping others live all their days well. She is most grateful when she has the opportunity to work with and for other individuals and organizations that are choosing to do the same.
www.michelleschumacher.com
Sessions:
110 When One Dream Ends
Session #110
Sabbath for the Activist: Fuel for the Fight
Fri 10 AM | Episcopal
J. Dana Trent
Thomas Merton wrote “Action is the stream and contemplation is the spring.” Effective activism requires both action and contemplation. As activists, we must consistently reflect on our values and ethics—the “why” of what we do. Jesus was an activist, yet he was contemplative. Sabbath, in the form of rest, reflection, worship, and community, connect us with the ethos of the Gospel: service and activism. Sabbath for the activist is a labyrinth: we enter from the outside world where we work tirelessly to foster equity, diversity, inclusion, and justice. We then turn inward toward the center to be refreshed, refueled, and reconnected with the intention and purpose of our service. We return back to the world more engaged with God, in touch with our motivations, and focused on the needs of those whom we serve. But sabbath for the activist is easier said than done amid endless and expanding needs. This workshop will help participants embrace sabbath as an essential tool for their service.
J. Dana Trent
The Rev. J. Dana Trent is a graduate of Duke Divinity School, Baptist clergywoman, award-winning author, speaker, and workshop facilitator. She teaches World Religions and Critical Thinking at Wake Technical Community College. Her work has appeared in Sojourners and The Christian Century, as well as on Time.com, Religion Dispatches, and Religion News Service. Her third book, “One Breath at a Time: A Skeptic’s Guide to Christian Meditation,” releases in January 2019. She lives in Raleigh with her husband, a devout Hindu and former monk. Their Christian-Hindu interfaith marriage is chronicled in Saffron Cross: The Unlikely Story of How a Christian Minister Married a Hindu Monk. Her second book with Upper Room Books, For Sabbath’s Sake: Embracing Your Need for Rest, Worship, and Community, explores the how and why of slowing down for spirituality in a 24-7 world. She loves naps with cats, vegetarian food, and teaches weight-lifting for the YMCA.
http://jdanatrent.com/
Sessions:
111 Sabbath for the Activist
340 One Breath at a Time: A Skeptic’s Guide to Christian Meditation
Session #111
Musical Performance: Joshua Long
With special guest Martin Camper
Fri 10 AM | Café
What are you searching for? What is spirit saying to you? Do you feel called to be with the least of these? Many are searching for answer questions that tug at their heartstrings, yet those answers may be right in front of you. We all have a mountaintop we are trying to reach. We all have this race called life that we are in some way, shape, or form trying to win. Can you even win at the game of life, or do we just get better at experiencing this profound mysterious gift? When we think about justice, how many times have we reached the mountaintop and have yet to break into the promised land? Singer/songwriter Joshua Long and special guest Martin Camper will perform original music from Long’s albums “All God’s Children,” “All in You,” and his newest project “The Mountain Top.”
LISTEN
Joshua Long
Joshua Long grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, in a pastor’s family of seven. His love for music began at the age of ten when he started taking private piano lessons. Over the years, this led to his graduation from the University of the Arts with a bachelor’s degree in music in 2008. Josh’s ministry has led him to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis, where he serves as the Director of Contemporary Music and Membership Coordinator. Josh is also a student at Wesley Theological, Seminary studying to be an ordained UU minister. He lives in Severn, Maryland, with his wife, Tabitha, and their cat, Calypso.
www.jlongmusic.com/
Sessions:
112 Musical Performance: Joshua Long
Martin Camper
In another life, Martin Camper was in a band, where he played piano, sang, and co-wrote the group’s songs. He has also played music for churches, mostly piano, but sometimes drums, glockenspiel, and organ. Currently, he is a professor at Loyola University Maryland and teaches courses in writing, rhetoric, and argument. He is the author of Arguing over Texts: The Rhetoric of Interpretation (Oxford University Press, 2018), which presents a theory for understanding the roots of our disagreements over texts, from scripture to laws to novels, and how we use argument to resolve those disagreements. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, reading, visiting art museums, hiking, cooking, trying new restaurants, and writing short stories and poems. Martin lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
Sessions:
112 Musical Performance: Joshua Long
Session #112
Contemplative Prayer, an Alternative Approach
Fri 11 AM | Convo Hall 6
Sat 1 PM | Convo Hall 6
Jim Canup
This participatory session will use research based techniques along with Tai Chi to quiet the brain for prayer. After the mental alter is set, traditional Christian Contemplative prayer will then be introduced to the participants. This session is targeted for those who have little experience or success in quiet prayer.
Jim Canup
Retired Clinical Counselor and Employee Assistance Professional, Jim is now a Work Team Consultant and Trainer. Jim also teaches Tai Chi, Mindfulness Meditation and Contemplative Prayer. His interest is in the practices and truths of Christian Spirituality, often overlooked in the modern Christian Church. He loves integrating concepts and practices from various sources.
Sessions:
113 Contemplative Prayer for the Chatty Brain
Session #113
Life Compass Living: Stop surviving and start THRIVING!
Aline Defiglia LCSW, CSA
Fri 11 AM | Library
Life Compass Living begins with who you are, who your people are and where you want to be as your life unfolds. It helps you:• Take responsibility for your life choices• Get comfortable having crucial conversations with those you love• Actively share life with your core relationships and community• Become well informed about the complexities of maturing in a complex, modern lifestyle• Set and accomplish realistic goals for securing your future in relation to your current life stageLife Compass Living is for everyone! Come identify vulnerabilities and opportunities that need to be addressed in your life stage and leave with more resources on how to continue the process.
Aline Defiglia
Aline Defiglia is a licensed psychotherapist adventuring at the intersection of health, healing, and the restoration of connection with self, others, and the sacred. Her practice specializes in mind and body healing modalities, life coaching, hypnotherapy, and team performance consulting. Aline is also a Certified Senior Advisor and serves as a foundational partner and facilitator with the Life Compass Living Community. She and her husband are currently in the process of moving from Chicago, IL to Chattanooga, TN. Discover more at ABWellness.life.
https://lifecompassliving.com/
Sessions:
Wisdom Camp Pre-Festival Event
114 Life Compass Living
276 Holding Space for God and One Another
Session #114
Screaming and Shouting Until We Are Heard: Subversive Liturgies In Action
Jessi Knippel
To Lament is a deeply subversive action, especially in a cultural context where the push is to move away or negate the process of lament, and live in an idealized construction of exceptional reality. Lament asks us to enter into deepest of heartaches and the spaces where things are not as they should be, it is the upside-down spaces where the s**t hits the fan and seems to desecrate everything. Through an interactive panel/audience conversation constructed in the form of a liturgical lament, we hope to offer space to talk about our current work (#churchtoo, religion, gender/sexuality, racism, and social justice) as well as help others explore ways to creatively engage lament as a catalyst for action in their own lives, work, and communities. The panel will include Emily Joy, Hannah Paasch, Tamisha Tyler, & Jessi Knippel
Jessica (Jessi) Knippel
academic, writer, artist originally from the Pacific Northwest who now lives in the promised land of Southern California with her partner. She is currently working on a intersectional (Religion, Gender & Sexuality, Media) PhD at Claremont Graduate School.
A muralist at heart she pieces together project, events, thoughts, and people in her work and non work life. You can find her popping in and out of social media on these platforms: Instagram- @seattlerainartist, Twitter- @jessiknippel
www.jessiknippel.com
Sessions:
115 Screaming and Shouting: Subversive Liturgies
Tamisha Tyler
Tamisha A Tyler (she/her) is a Ph.D. student at Fuller Theological Seminary studying Theology and Culture with a minor in Ethics. She was born and raised in Long Beach, CA but currently resides in Pasadena. She works with several arts organizations and projects including Listen Los Angeles (a listening project featuring an all African American cast reflecting on the current state of the country through art), Level Ground (engaging empathy across difference) and ARC Art | Religion | Culture. She also co-hosts a podcast entitled Why Were Friends
Sessions:
115 Screaming and Shouting: Subversive Liturgies
Emily Joy Allison-Hearn
Emily Joy is a spoken word poet and yoga teacher RYT 200 whose work focuses on the intersections of faith and sexuality, spiritual deconstruction, and creative writing. Emily has released two studio albums of spoken word poetry, and travels the country performing at churches, schools, conferences, and festivals like Wild Goose. She also teaches yoga every week in her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. Her work as the co-creator of the #ChurchToo campaign exposing sexual abuse in faith communities has been featured on websites such as Time, Teen Vogue, The Huffington Post, and more. Emily is passionate about helping others, especially other women, make spiritual and creative progress in the wake of religious trauma, painful past experiences, and self-doubt.
Sessions:
115 Screaming and Shouting: Subversive Liturgies
126 Beyond #ChurchToo
133 Poetry Open Mic w Emily Joy
287 Embodied Grace: Sex-Positive Christianity
384 Emily Joy Allison-Hearn
Session #115
Epiphany Collection: Interactive Stories with Face Paint and Body Art
Sat 2 PM | Bridge
Epiphany Team
Heaven and earth, the Celtic saying goes, are only three feet apart, but in “thin places”, that distance is even shorter. An epiphany is a manifestation of a divine or supernatural being. Each of us experiences “thin places” and Epiphanies in very different. The Epiphany Collection hopes to collect your stories of “thin places”. Come with a friend or on your own. When you come with a friend, we will provide you with discussion questions and face/body paint. While you share your Epiphany or “thin place” your partner, they will try to recreate your story with face or body paint. If you come on our own we will interview you while painting your face or body. **If there is any part of the process that makes you feel uncomfortable, please let us know. We understand that face or body paint or photography is not for everyone. Please feel free to share your story with us in any way that you want.
Linda ClenDening
Linda and Andie are a mother-daughter team fascinated with storytelling. They both really enjoy podcasts like This American Life and Serial. It’s amazing how vulnerable people are willing to be when sharing their stories. Both mother and daughter love listening to others to understand. Linda lives in Nashville, TN and Andie lives in rural Colorado. Last year Andie took Linda to a music festival in Colorado and they hope to attend more together. They love chatting about music, philosophy, and religion.
Sessions:
116 Interactive Stories with Body Art
Session #116
Preaching as Resistance
Fri 4PM | River
Phil Snider
In the wake of the nationalism, nihilism, patriarchy, and alt-right fear-mongering that’s accompanied the surprising rise and valorization of Donald Trump, many pastors and faith-based leaders find themselves drawn toward acts of resistance—sometimes even from the pulpit—in ways they perhaps hadn’t previously considered, at least not with the same sense of urgency they now feel. This session will reflect on the kind of preaching that not only resists, challenges, and troubles the problematic structures of authoritarianism and oppression crashing in from all sides, but also invites listeners to experience the transformation, possibility, and hope stirring in the gospel of Christ.
Phil Snider
The Rev. Dr. Phil Snider is an activist, pastor, writer, and teacher. His books include Preaching as Resistance (forthcoming, 2018), Justice Calls: Sermons of Welcome and Affirmation, and Preaching after God: Derrida, Caputo, and the Language of Postmodern Homiletics. In addition to teaching at Missouri State University, his vocational heart is at the intersection of congregational ministry and community organizing. He’s a pastor at Brentwood Christian Church in Springfield, MO and is perhaps best known for the 15 minutes of fame he experienced when one of his speeches on LGBTQ rights went viral, leading to over five million views on YouTube.
www.philsnider.net
Sessions:
117 Preaching as Resistance
Leah Schade
The Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade is the Assistant Professor of Preaching and Worship at Lexington (Ky.) Theological Seminary. An ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) for 18 years, Leah has served congregations in rural, urban, and suburban settings. She earned both her MDiv and Ph.D. degrees from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. Her book Creation-Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology, and the Pulpit are available at www.chalicepress.com. Her forthcoming book, Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red/Blue Divide, will be published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2019, and explores how clergy and churches can address controversial justice issues using nonpartisan, biblically-centered approaches along with deliberative dialogue. Leah is the EcoPreacher blogger for Patheos: www.patheos.com/blogs/ecopreacher/
thepurplezone.net/
Sessions:
71 Purple Zone – Deliberative Dialogue
219 Re-Member and Re-Imagine:Creation Care
117 Preaching as Resistance
Rev. Alexis James Waggoner
Rev. Alexis James Waggoner is a theologian and educator working as the Marketing and Digital Education Director for the Westar Institute, an interfaith organization dedicated to bridging the gap between religious scholarship and culture. She is also an adjunct professor of religion, and a minister with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). When she’s not rabble-rousing for progressive theology, she serves as a Chaplain in the Air Force Reserves.
Sessions:
117 Preaching as Resistance
Session #117
The Women Experiencing Faith Project
Sat Noon | Bridge
Janel Apps Ramsey
Come hear about the Women Experiencing Faith Project. “How has being a woman (or interacting with women) impacted/influenced my faith journey?” Hear excerpts of how an intersectional group of (primarily) Christian women have responded, and get early insights into the themes that will be in the book. The session will include time to reflect on your own journeys of faith, and hear about plans for the book and podcast. Throughout our time together we will also reflect on the way bias and discrimination have shaped our stories and discuss the ways we can transform these issues in our own faith communities. You can learn more about this project at www.womenxfaith.org.
Janel Apps Ramsey
Janel Apps Ramsey is the Co-Director of Brew Theology (please come see us at our booth). She is the lead editor of Women Experiencing Faith with Dr. Thomas J. Oord, and holds an MA in Theological Studies. Raised in a conservative evangelical tradition, she now considers herself a progressive Christian. She leads interfaith discussions and participates in a weekly podcast. She also has a small house church of people in faith transition. Janel has served in ministry for 20 years and is learning how to do ministry outside of traditional structures. Janel is married, lives in Denver, CO, and loved participating in WGF last year. You can see more of her work at www.womenandchurch.com, www.brewtheology.org, and www.womenxfaith.org.
Sessions:
118 Women Experiencing Faith
179 Brew Theology
Session #118
#MeToo – Revelation, Reckoning, Revolution, Lament. A panel of survivors discuss their experience of the social media phenomena and whether the hashtag has become the modern-day equivalent of a lament.
Sat 1 PM | Bridge
Laura Parrott Perry, Matt Bays, Shannon Dingle, Brittany Pashcall
The #MeToo movement, originally created by Tarana Burke to support survivors in underserved communities, evolved into a phenomenon on social media. The simple hashtag became a courageous eruption of truth-telling, a powerful expression of anger and frustration, and a call for societal change. It was also an expression of grief. A panel of survivors discuss #MeToo; how it felt to participate in and bear witness to the public reclamation of stories of assault, abuse, and harassment, and how sharing their own stories publicly has shaped their ability to grieve, heal, and reclaim them.
Laura Parrott Perry
Laura Parrott Perry is the author of She Wrote it Down; How a Secret-keeper Became a Storyteller, a speaker, and co-founder and CEO of the non-profit Say It, Survivor – an organization devoted to helping survivors of child sexual abuse reclaim their stories as part of the path to healing. Her work has been featured on Trigger Points Anthology, No Make-up Required, Parenting with PTSD, Huffington Post and in Boston Magazine. Laura is a frequent public speaker on the topics of story, child sexual abuse, addiction, and shamelessness, and was a contributor at Wild Goose Festival 2016 and 2017. She is the single mother of two incredible human beings and the devoted servant to a glorious dog.
lauraparrottperry.com
sayitsurvivor.org
Sessions:
119 #MeToo Panel Discussion
Matt Bays
Matt Bays is a sought-after speaker and nationally published author of the book, FINDING GOD IN THE RUINS: (How God Redeems Pain), which New York Times bestselling author, Ann Voskamp, has described as “Rare, raw, gorgeous writing—profoundly moving.” With a passion to call people out of their hiding places, Matt joins the ranks of writers such as Ann Lamott and Donald Miller in offering readers an honest, raw, funny, and insightful compassion for sorting through the struggles and joys of life. He is also a life coach and freelance musician in the Indianapolis area and has 2 creative and amazing daughters.
mattbayswriter.com
Sessions:
119 #MeToo Panel Discussion
Shannon Dingle
Shannon Dingle is a freelance speaker and writer who talks about all the topics we’re taught to avoid in public settings, from politics and privilege to trauma and pain She’s written for The Washington Post and Teen Vogue, and is Managing Editor of SKEW, a monthly publication of Level Ground. Her passion is to educate faith and secular groups to be live-affirming, inclusive of disability and other marginalized identities, and trauma-informed. She draws from her life as a survivor with PTSD and her experiences as a disabled woman, with a professional background and master’s degree in disability education, now raising kids living with disability and trauma histories. Her work and story have been featured by the Today show online, The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, Slate, Sojourners, and The Daily Kos. She, her husband, and their six children live in Raleigh, NC where they’ve found a home in the faith community SouthEast Raleigh Table. You can find her @shannondingle or at shannondingle.com
Sessions:
119 #MeToo Panel Discussion
Brittany Paschall
Brittany T. Paschall is a radical liberator, ally, and friend. Brittany is committed to justice as Gospel work and to centering the needs of the marginalized. A proud native of Nashville, TN, and recent graduate of Grand Canyon University; Brittany is a 2017-2018 National ELLA Fellow with the Sadie Nash Leadership Project and the Next Steps Minister at New Garden Church. She is a core member and the Operations Director of the Students for Justice, Truth, and Reconciliation (SJTRGCU), a collective of GCU alumni, students, and friends for racial justice.
You will often discover her organizing (people + things), reading something good, or traveling as she prepares to pursue her MDiv in Fall 2018.
Visit her website at btpaschall.com.
Sessions:
119 #MeToo Panel Discussion
Session #119
Birds of a Feather: What can we learn about being a mixed flock church from birds and how we observe them?
Birding at 6:00 AM Friday and Saturday | Meet at the Main Stage Lawn
Session at 2:00 PM Saturday | Bridge
Ian Lynch
Sometimes birds of different species do flock together. As the church experiences convergence we might learn a thing or two from bird behavior. Through anecdotes and identification tips, birdwatching will be used as a metaphor for a new way of being church. What does migration teach us about risks and survival? How can a literal wild goose chase help us to understand that the Wild Goose often leads us into places we may not go ourselves? The afternoon session will be a time to explore the metaphor of birdwatching and chasing wild geese with some teaching about how to be a better birdwatcher (and maybe even a better follower of Christ). But since the best learning comes in walking the talk, there will also be early morning sessions offered both to sit in meditative and observant listening to birdsong followed by walks to observe whatever species the Wild Goose sends our way. If you have binoculars and field guides, bring them. There will be limited optics for sharing, but since most birding is “by ear” you will still enjoy the experience if you don’t have equipment.
Peace שָׁלוֹם سلام
Ian Lynch
Ian is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. He has been part of the migration to the Wild Goose nearly every year since the start. The image of the Wild Goose speaks to his passion. He has been an avid birder for three decades with a life list of 470 species and having been on winning teams at both the Super Bowl of Birding and the World Series of Birding. Currently he is pastor of Old South Church in Kirtland, Ohio.
http://birdparables.blogspot.com/
Sessions:
120 Birds of a Feather
Session #120
Creating a Community Commons at Home after Wild Goose
Sat 3 PM | Bridge
Brett W. Copeland
Between social media and politics that bind or blind, we increasingly live in segregated bubbles. People say they don’t trust media and rely on their peers’ opinions over expert evidence. How can you help steer your community toward justice in a politically or demographically monolithic region? Here’s a formula: faith + art & expression x radical hospitality = progress. By creating spaces in your community focused on storytelling and radical hospitality, we can build a revelatory and healing space for grace. The commons’ strong bonds also serve as a self-sustaining community of care. This session will help you think through how you spark a revolution in your own neighborhood. This interactive session will give you with concepts and tools to kick off your own community commons and build new relationships with your neighbors. Because when we love God and love each other, we can change the world.
Session #121
Life After Missions
Sat 4 PM | Bridge
Corey Pigg, Hannah Paasch and more.
Deconstructing or losing your faith is hard. Trying to move forward in that process after a vocation in ministry can be even harder. This will be a panel led discussion on practical ways to find your way forward after a life in vocational ministry.
Corey Pigg
Corey is a former missionary, recovering pursuer of Jesus and a cult survivor. After several years of traveling the globe as a missionary and in recovery as a cult abuse survivor, Corey’s work is devoted to helping others reconnect with themselves after the loss of a lifestyle steeped in spiritual vocation and/or spiritual abuse in order to find their way forward.
Corey is responsible for Failed Missionary, a new podcast/blog that explores topics and narratives related to the modern approach to missions and questions the odd ways we’ve interpreted the great commission.
www.failedmissionary.com
Sessions:
122 Life After Missions
248 Failed Missionary
Session #122
Is Christianity Even Good for Us?My Story and Interviews with Queer Christian Women
Rachel Murr
Fri 2 PM | Library
For years, I was a part of Christian communities that taught false and disparaging things about LGBTQ people. While angry at the church’s treatment of LGBTQ people, I still took on the belief that it was not okay for me to be gay. Over time, I came to change my beliefs about what kind of life and love could be possible for me, and I felt freed! But, coming out in my so-called progressive Evangelical community led to conflict, loss, and disappointment. It made me wonder if my faith was even good for me. These experiences, led me to interview other lesbian and bisexual women who’ve held onto faith despite some negative experiences. I wanted to know why and how they kept their faith. Their stories of resilience gave me hope for a faith that no longer causes harm, but offers healing, connection and hope. In this session, I’ll share my story and what I learned from this research.
Rachel Murr
Rachel is a social worker and therapist at a community mental health agency outside of Detroit, Michigan. Rachel’s book, Unnatural: Spiritual Resiliency in Queer Christian Women was born out of her experiences in non-affirming communities and her qualitative research. Now, Rachel has taken on the unexpected role of Pastor’s Wife since marrying Emily Swan, co-pastor of Blue Ocean Faith Ann Arbor. They have a beautiful community there.
www.rachelmurr.com
Sessions:
123 Is Christianity Even Good For Us (LGBTQ)? Stories of Resilient Faith
Session #123
Solus Jesus: A Theology of Resistance
Fri 4 PM | Bridge
Emily Swan & Ken Wilson
Through storytelling, we share about how violence was done to us in the name of sola Scriptura and how our theology coalesced into something new as we co-planted a church together. We offer a take on Jesus as the forgiving victim using the lens of René Girard’s work on scapegoating. And we propose a mystical experience of Jesus as crucial to following the Way. We hope you will join us as we bring you along on our journey.
Emily Swan
Emily Swan is co-pastor of Blue Ocean Faith Ann Arbor. She received her B.A. in history from Butler University, and has worked toward her Master’s degree at Fuller Theological Seminary. Additionally, she spent three years studying Mandarin and Amdo Tibetan languages at Qinghai Minzu Daxue Nationalities University in Xining, China.
Emily worked for two Fortune 500 companies and lived abroad for four years prior to serving as a pastor in the Vineyard movement, a movement which ultimately rejected ordaining queer pastors. She co-planted Blue Ocean Faith Ann Arbor with Ken Wilson in 2014. Emily is the author/creator of small group material, “The Earth is God’s Temple,” and occasionally speaks, or hosts workshops, at conferences.
She is married to author and therapist Rachel Murr. She lives in Ypsilanti, MI, and enjoys feasting with friends, playing tennis and making music.
a2blue.org
Sessions:
124 Solus Jesus: A Theology of Resistance
Ken Wilson
Ken Wilson is co-author with Emily Swan of Solus Jesus: A Theology of Resistance (Read the Spirit Books, 2018) and co-pastor with Emily of Blue Ocean Faith, Ann Arbor. Ken is founding pastor of Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor and author of A Letter to My Congregation: An Evangelical pastor’s path to embracing people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender, into the company of Jesus (Read the Spirit, 2016, Second Edition), Mystically Wired (Thomas Nelson 2010) and other books. Ken is married to Julia Huttar Bailey, an Episcopal priest, and father of six.
a2blue.org
Sessions:
124 Solus Jesus: A Theology of Resistance
Session #124
Women Survivor’s Empowerment-Survivors of Domestic Violence Regain Independence and Hope Connecting to the Earth
Fri 10 AM | Convo Hall 7
Sat 4 PM | Convo Hall 7
Rev. Abby Catoe
Women all over the world continue to be subjected to violence-outside and inside the home. Why do women stay in such situations and how can we help them to free themselves and become independent so they will not return?Connecting to God through the soil is a powerful way to help heal. There is also the concern about how Christianity has played a role in keeping women subjected to domination? As Christians, how do we bring about change regarding the role of women?
Abby Catoe
annieshopecenter.org
A life-long Christian, I took a long break from religious involvement only to be called again as a late bloomer! I recently completed seminary and was ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 2017. I love all people, animals and the outdoors engaging in horseback riding, kayaking, hiking as well as having a career in landscaping that keeps me outdoors. As a survivor of domestic violence, it only makes sense that God would call me to the ministry of helping other women who experience abuse. The nonprofit under way, Annie’s Hope Center for Growing and Healing will help any woman who is ready to be free from the trauma to heal, grow and find self-worth seeing themselves as God sees them; with love and divinity.
I am married to a wonderful companion who shares the care of our horses and dogs and grandchildren!
Sessions:
125 Hope for Survivors of Domestic Violence
Session #125
Beyond #ChurchToo: Power, Purity Culture, and Progressive Christianity
Hannah Paasch
Fri 10 AM | Library
As originators of the #churchtoo campaign, Hannah Paasch and Emily Allison-Hearn have been initiating conversations around purity culture for the past five years online and most recently facilitating space for church abuse survivors to tell their stories and out their abusers. Join us as we discuss the theological implications of #churchtoo, policy recommendations for congregations seeking to eradicate abuse, and spotlight progressive Christianity’s complicity in maintaining cycles of abuse.
Emily Joy Allison-Hearn
Emily Joy is a spoken word poet and yoga teacher RYT 200 whose work focuses on the intersections of faith and sexuality, spiritual deconstruction, and creative writing. Emily has released two studio albums of spoken word poetry, and travels the country performing at churches, schools, conferences, and festivals like Wild Goose. She also teaches yoga every week in her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. Her work as the co-creator of the #ChurchToo campaign exposing sexual abuse in faith communities has been featured on websites such as Time, Teen Vogue, The Huffington Post, and more. Emily is passionate about helping others, especially other women, make spiritual and creative progress in the wake of religious trauma, painful past experiences, and self-doubt.
Sessions:
115 Screaming and Shouting: Subversive Liturgies
126 Beyond #ChurchToo
133 Poetry Open Mic w Emily Joy
287 Embodied Grace: Sex-Positive Christianity
384 Emily Joy Allison-Hearn
Session #126
The Creative Life: a conversation about getting started, following through, and overcoming resistance
Fri 4 PM | Convo Hall 7
Sat 5 PM | Convo Hall 7
Emily M. Francis
How do we live a creative life every day? How can we understand our call as creators as a spiritual calling? Join in this conversation about dreams, creativity, the hard work it takes to get there, and the obstacles we encounter on the way. We will share and gather resources, talk about what has worked and what has not as we pursue our creative dreams. A great place for people just getting started on their creative journey as well as for those who have been on this path for some time. This is an opportunity to learn from one another, to re-ignite our calling, and to re-energize our work.
Emily Francis
Emily M. Francis is a writer and educator. She taught high school English for 15 years and currently teachers for the Writing and Rhetoric Department at Oakland University. She lives in Rochester Hills, Michigan with her husband Tuf Francis and their two children, Mabel and Finn. She also teaches Jazzercise so most of her days are filled with writing, dancing, and shuttling people around in her minivan. She has a passion for creativity and for helping others live brave and creative lives. A few years ago while doing laundry, she remembered she was a poet. She is currently working on her first collection of poems and occasionally rants at www.emilymfrancis.com
Sessions:
127 The Creative Life: a conversation
Session #127
Taking to the Social Streets: Non-Violent Engagement on Social Media
Jennifer Ould
Sat 2 PM | Greater Things
Martin Luther King’s principles of non-violence are as important today as they were sixty years ago. King understood violence. He knew when it needed to be provoked and exposed (as it was in Selma, which was chosen for a march with the knowledge that local law enforcement would be willing to resort to violence). And he understood the hard work needed to prepare oneself to respond to violence non-violently. The streets are still an important place to march and protest, but increasingly, our “streets” are online, on social media. And we’ve done nothing to prepare ourselves to respond non-violently to the violence we encounter there. Utilizing a panel discussion and Q&R, this session would challenge us to apply King’s principles of non-violence in our interactions and help us think creatively together about the preparation needed to engage non-violently.
Jennifer Ould
Jennifer’s journey brought her from the heart of hardcore fundamentalism, through conservative evangelicalism to a much more open and curious faith. Along the way, she has worked as a Republican activist, received an MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, worked to build bridges between conservative Christians and the LGBTQ+ community, served on an Episcopal church vestry, helped launch Gilead – an inclusive non-traditional church near her home in Chicago’s most diverse neighborhood, and advocated for racial and sexual justice in uncomfortable spaces. She maintains relationships with conservative family friends through social media, and regularly finds herself on the receiving end of their anger with progressives and “liberals.” Leaning to navigate those interactions and relationships non-violently continues to stretch and challenge her. Jennifer runs, preaches, tells stories, and blogs at jennifereould.com.
www.jennifereould.com
Sessions:
128 Taking to the Social Streets
Brian McLaren
Board Vice-Chair
Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. Notable among the many books he has authored are: “A New Kind of Christian”, which won Christianity Today’s “Award of Merit” in 2002; “Everything Must Change” tracing critical ways in which Jesus’ message confronts contemporary global crises; and We Make the Road by Walking, marking a turn toward constructive and practical theology. His 2016 release, The Great Spiritual Migration, has been hailed as his most important work to date. Brian is married to Grace, and they have four adult children and five grandchildren. His personal interests include wildlife and ecology, fly fishing and kayaking, music and songwriting, art, history, and literature. www.brianmclaren.net
Sessions:
209 How did we get here and where are we going
226 Brian McLaren, Topic TBD
278 Gathering The Goose
128 Taking to the Social Streets
87 A Dialogue With Brian McLaren and Reverend Trier
335 Creating Congregational Change
Xavier Ramey
Xavier Ramey is the CEO of Justice Informed, LLC, a social impact consulting firm based in Chicago, IL that focuses on using public policy, data, and human behavioral patterns to catalyze institutions’ social and economic inclusion, community engagement, corporate responsibility, and philanthropy. He is an award-winning social strategist, noted public speaker, & conflict mediator. A native Chicagoan, he is a recognizable voice on the topics of community and economic development, policing & policy violence, & connecting the Christian faith to our lived experience.
Xavier is often sought out to communicate issues of incredible tension and historical significance to audiences and communities that are either staunchly against, ignorant of, or confused about issues of racism, sexism, and other forms of systemic injustice. His message of ambition, deliberate relationship, and justice being a form of righteous discrimination has been heard across the world on stages, in companies, in churches and in classrooms.
Sessions:
128 Taking to the Social Streets
Session #128
Telling Better Stories Together: Improv Theater and Holy Spirit
Lyndsey Medford
Sat Noon | Workshop
Improv theater invites us to tell good stories together through teamwork and a spirit of play. Come play with us—this workshop is made up of games and exercises that will teach us to look for Spirit’s mischief in the world through honesty, listening, risk-taking, and fun. Take away some ideas for using creativity to invite others into more moments of yes—spaces to practice openness to new ideas and experiences.Two Rivers Church is a new United Methodist church plant in Charleston, SC.
Lyndsey Medford
Lyndsey Medford is watching a new garden and a new church grow in Charleston, SC, and she’s making it all up as she goes along. She has an MTS from Boston University and four years’ improv experience at a Pentecostal university.
Lyndsey writes about spirituality, social justice, bodies, and church at lyndseymedford.com and elsewhere. Find her on the socials @lyndseymedford.
lyndseymedford.com/meet-lyndsey
Sessions:
129 Improv Storytelling
Session #129
This is My Body: Embracing God Through Re-Membering Ourselves
Fri 1 PM | Healing Arts
Hannah Shanks
Bodies are important to God. As Christians we hold tight to Jesus—God made flesh. We follow a God who chose the name “God WITH us,” and that with-ness included a body. But many of us have been taught that God values our bodies only for how healthy, chaste, fair-skinned, pretty, or thin they are, or how well they fit within standard notions of gender and sex. We struggle to feel at home in our own skin. This workshop begins with the radical premise that God values our bodies and what we do with them. Combining storytelling, discussion, & active reflection, we will invite participants to own the messages that they have been told about their bodies—wounds inflicted at the hands of God’s people—& encourage them to consider how God is calling them to deeper communion with their whole selves. The session will move in multiple parts: storytelling, partner/group discussion, and a small service of reclaiming our bodies with tattoos reading “This is My Body.”
Hannah Shanks
Hannah Shanks is an assistant professor of social work and director of the social work program at Greenville University, Greenville, Illinois. She is a storyteller and has participated in the St. Louis chapter of Listen to Your Mother, a live reading series and video sharing company. Hannah is a member of Anam Cara St. Louis, an intentional ecumenical community formed around a shared Rule of Life and weekly observance of prayer and communion.
hannaheshanks.com
Sessions:
130 This Is My Body
Session #130
“Is it Time to Go Beyond Faith? Finding Life and Meaning in These Dark Times.”
Pub Theology Live
Pub Theology Live is on hand to record their 100th episode at the Goose! Join Bryan Berghoef, Ogun Holder and Shannon Meacham at the podcast tent for a beverage and a conversation on, “Is it Time to Go Beyond Faith? Finding Life and Meaning in These Dark Times.” Pub Theology Live seeks to address and engage what’s happening through a theological lens, with a good brew in hand. We’d love to have your voice in the conversation!
Bryan Berghoef
Bryan Berghoef is a “beer therapist” and author of the book, Pub Theology: Beer, Conversation and God. He insists that good things happen when we sit around the table together and talk about things that matter, and what better setting than at the pub, over a pint? Bryan has been facilitating pub conversations for the past ten years, and hosts the weekly podcast, Pub Theology Live. Bryan is the pastor of Holland UCC in Holland, MI and also provides online learning support for the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Washington, DC. Follow Bryan on Twitter @pubtheologian.
pubtheology.com/ptlive
Sessions:
131 “Is it Time to Go Beyond Faith?”
Ogun Holder
Rev Ogun Holder is an ordained Unity Minister. He’s held other titles over the years including speaker, teacher, author, podcaster, blogger, musician, parent, social media consultant, and self-proclaimed geek. His first full-length book Rants To Revelations: Unabashedly Honest Reflections on Life, Spirituality, and the Meaning of God was published by Unity Books in Fall 2012. Ogun currently serve as the Senior Minister of Unity on The River in Amesbury, MA. In his non-existent free time he co-hosts Pub Theology Live, a weekly podcast on life, culture, faith, meaning, and identity.
Sessions:
131 Is it Time to Go Beyond Faith?
Shannon Meacham
A rock star from the start, the Reverend Shannon Meacham belted out a Bachelor of Arts in Music with a minor in institutional spiritual matters that most people don’t believe in anyway, from the University of Louisville. Because she couldn’t get enough of the annoying ways people say “Loueyville” she moved across town to Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary for a Master of Divinity, a degree for young idealists and middle age crazies. Before the institution of the Presbyterian Church (USA) self-imploded they were kind enough to hand out a piece of paper saying Go forth and be an overpaid secretary in the name of God. Shannon is married to the Rev. Derrick Weston and is proud to be the reacher in their relationship. Together they parent four exhausting children. She currently serves Ashland Presbyterian Church in the safest part of Baltimore, the suburbs. And because she simply cannot stand free time, she is a Pastoral Coach and Consultant. You can find her musings at PulpitShenanigans.com.
PulpitShenanigans.blog
Sessions:
131 Is it Time to Go Beyond Faith?
Session #131
Is Manifesting Prayer?
Fri 2 PM | Convo Hall 1
Sat Noon | Convo Hall 1
Brandy Walker
“Manifest” is a buzzword that has made its way around many alternative spiritual circles in the last few years. What the heck is it? Magical thinking? Can it be helpful? Could it be a form of prayer? Join podcaster and MSW student, Brandy Walker, as she explores an answer that is nuanced and complex with wisdom gleaned from the sages, saints, and our sacred texts. Come ready for a thoughtful and interactive discussion about what manifesting is—and what it isn’t.
BRANDY WALKER
Brandy Walker is a writer and podcaster from Gaithersburg, Maryland. She is halfway through grad school, where she is working to become a licensed clinical social worker. In 2013, she curated and co-wrote Wild Goslings: Engaging with Kids in the Mysteries of God. Presently, she works as a job coach for individuals with severe mental health issues at an organization that provides comprehensive behavioral health services. In her free time, she explores intriguing and thought-provoking spiritual concepts and shares her musings about them on her podcast, Throwing Light.
brandyglows.com
Sessions:
132 Is Manifesting Prayer?
Session #132
Poetry Open Mic with Emily Joy
Fri 2 PM | Healing Arts
Emily Joy
Join spoken word poet Emily Joy for an open mic where participants will be able to tell their stories through poetry. Emily Joy will perform a selection of her own poetry and facilitate the open mic portion of this session. Please arrive 10 minutes early to sign up to read or perform!
LISTEN
Emily Joy Allison-Hearn
Emily Joy is a spoken word poet and yoga teacher RYT 200 whose work focuses on the intersections of faith and sexuality, spiritual deconstruction, and creative writing. Emily has released two studio albums of spoken word poetry, and travels the country performing at churches, schools, conferences, and festivals like Wild Goose. She also teaches yoga every week in her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. Her work as the co-creator of the #ChurchToo campaign exposing sexual abuse in faith communities has been featured on websites such as Time, Teen Vogue, The Huffington Post, and more. Emily is passionate about helping others, especially other women, make spiritual and creative progress in the wake of religious trauma, painful past experiences, and self-doubt.
Sessions:
115 Screaming and Shouting: Subversive Liturgies
126 Beyond #ChurchToo
133 Poetry Open Mic w Emily Joy
287 Embodied Grace: Sex-Positive Christianity
384 Emily Joy Allison-Hearn
Session #133
Disruptive Worship: Creating communal rites that poke, prod and move people to work for God’s justice
Fri 11 AM | River
Disrupt Worship Project
TL;DR Come learn about creating liturgy that moves people to work for justice. Every week, Christians gather together to worship, joining together in rites and rituals that praise, lament, inspire and connect. For many congregations, those words are the same week in and week out, providing comfort in the familiarity but also creating complacency (and all too often these words reinforce white supremacy, patriarchy, heteronormativity, etc). We believe liturgy can be used as a tool to gently (or not so gently) agitate congregations to move from complacency into action for justice. We will have a discussion about the ways we create prayers, rites other liturgical pieces based on the words of our traditions and scripture, the importance of lifting up voices not often heard in mainline traditions, and invite participants to create liturgy for an upcoming Sunday based on the readings in the Revised Common Lectionary.
Elizabeth Rawlings
Rev. Elizabeth Rawlings (she/her) is the ELCA pastor at The Sanctuary, The Lutheran Episcopal Campus Ministry to The University of Washington. She writes both liturgy and commentary for The Disrupt Worship Project and is active in anti-racism work wherever she lands. She is also currently investigating how to create more rites and rituals (public and private) to help people remember their innate connection to the Holy Spirit. A native Clevelander, she has moved around a lot and currently considers Seattle home (though her heart will always live in Cleveland). Elizabeth has a BA from Warren Wilson College, attended both The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary for her M. Div, and also holds a Masters in Public Administration from Seattle University. She hikes less than she wishes she did, plays more video games than she would like, and is the punkest hippie you will ever meet.
www.disruptworshipproject.com
Sessions:
134 Disruptive Worship: Liturgy for justice
Ray J Gentry IV
Ray (he/him/his) is a lay person with a passion for ministry. Writing and occasional preaching led to being High School Ministry Director (not a great fit) and a Band-Led Worship Director (a good fit). Worship planning renewed his passion for liturgy and inspired him to co-create the Disrupt Worship Project. He is a new resident of Omaha, NE.
www.disruptworshipproject.com
Sessions:
134 Disruptive Worship: Liturgy for justice
Lenny Duncan
Lenny Duncan (he/him) is a follower of Jesus Christ and is in a passionate love affair with Grace. He is the pastor of Jehu’s Table (ELCA.) Jehu’s Table is centered as an African Descent ministry in the heart of Brooklyn, but offers solace and refuge to all marginalized peoples including our LGBTQ siblings. Lenny believes scripture is the story of a gracious God who has liberated oppressed peoples throughout human history. That same God’s son was lynched for loving us. That Jesus died because of sin, not because of your sin. He views scripture through the lens of African Descent culture. That our LGBTQ+siblings in Christ are Holy. That justice is God’s love in the public. Lenny’s first stint at directing was with Ankosfilms and culminated in the two-part documentary “Do Black Churches Matter in the ELCA?His next film that he is co directing is “Young, Gifted and Black in the ELCA”. Lenny has just signed a book contract with Fortress Press for his new book “Dear Church” which will be available summer of 2019
Sessions:
134 Disruptive Worship: Liturgy for justice
Session #134
Nurturing the Radical Soul: Healing our Profane/Sacred Liminality
Fri 1 PM | Convo Hall 5
Sat 3 PM | Convo Hall 5
Mary Grace McCoy
Creating social justice is hard work! Where can a hungry activist turn for rooted spirituality? One answer might be Ignatian spirituality which can provide a framework for prayerfully engaging the social justice issues of our time. What might the Ignatian charism of “care for the whole person” contribute? How might Ignatius’ “discipline of transformation toward love” move us closer to the Peaceable Kingdom? Ignatian spirituality is revolutionary and will appeal to front-line “social justicers” as it heals the profane/sacred liminality we circumscribe our lives with, allowing us to “find God in all things”. This workshop will be a pilgrimage of sorts, a recognition that we are all “on the way”. We will draw on the Ignatian concept of inner freedom to discover where our own bias and blindness might still reside. We will challenge ourselves to form new ways of defining “we” that are radically inclusive. We will take time to listen with “holy boldness” for a different future.
Mary Grace McCoy
Mary Grace McCoy is co-founder of The Listening Place Spiritual Center in Durham, North Carolina. There she is a spiritual director and supervisor, and she also facilitates a formation program for spiritual directors. She frequently leads retreats on various topics, and particularly enjoys working with the Enneagram and leading directees through the 19th annotation of the Spiritual Exercises. The Listening Place Spiritual Center welcomes all who desire to experience God in their daily lives through contemplative prayer and action. It is a place for persons of any faith to come together, share the stories of their experiences of God, and deepen their spirituality through the Judeo-Christian story. The Listening Place is rooted in Ignatian spirituality and shares the desire of St. Ignatius to help others recognize how God is actively involved in everyday life and how to become the change God desires for the world.
listeningplacespiritualcenter.org
Sessions:
135 Nurturing the Radical Soul
Session #135
Let the Children Come with Me: Exploring the Community of God with Children, Art, and Flowers
Fri Noon | River
Andrea L. Lingle
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”So why do we—as people of faith and spirit, as people who seek the community of God, as those who long to enter the community of heaven here on earth—hush, excuse, or domesticate children? Is it possible to be people of faith if we do not allow children and the childlike to inform our theology?Andrea will be joined by her children, Laine, Annabel, Oliver, and Celian Blake, to explore what it means to allow children to show us what the community of God is like. The children will lead participants through preparing and creating flower petal art, and Andrea will lead a discussion about ways that communities of faith can learn from children.
Andrea Lingle
Author and lay-theologian, Andrea L. Lingle and her husband, Luke, live in the North Carolina mountains with their children. Andrea is passionate about creating space for creativity and imagination. She is less passionate about the ensuing mess. She homeschools her children, and seems to always be contemplating having a really good garden.
Andrea has a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in Music from Furman University and a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Nursing from Duke University. She is an editor, staff-writer, and lay-theologian for the Missional Wisdom Foundation. Her first book, Credulous: A Journey Through Life, Faith, and the Bulletin, came out April 2018.
www.andrealingle.com
Sessions:
136 Let the Children Come With Me
Session #136
Basement Spirituality: What the Church Must Learn from AA
Fri 3 PM | Convo Hall 2
Sat 11 AM | Convo Hall 2
Eric Mayle
In recent years, the vital spiritual community of Alcoholics Anonymous has been discovered by the non-addicted as a well of spirituality outside of the desert of the institutional church. Many see the spiritual depth and authenticity of the AA community and say, “I’m not an alcoholic or an addict, but I want that; I need that.” This session will discuss the ways in which AA can offer the church a model of spiritual revitalization. The irony is that church basements are the traditional meeting place for AA, so the church is literally sitting on top of these resources for revitalization.
Session #137
God is Not an Asshole (and Other Things I Wish My Church Told Me)
Fri Noon | Portal
Micah J. Murray
For many Christians, the Gospel has not been good news. The words of Scripture and the teachings of Jesus have been used to exclude, threaten, and condemn those who have sought a meaningful connection with the Divine. A religion that claimed to be life-giving and beautiful has left us disillusioned and betrayed. We still want to follow Jesus, but don’t know if we can deal with all the shit that comes along with that. Is there hope for us? In this session, we will revisit the teachings of Jesus and reimagine what the Good News could be — using a combination of theological inquiry, personal stories, and heretical retellings of familiar parables. If you are interested in Christianity but don’t want a religion rooted in cognitive dissonance and spiritual shame, this is for you. Join us as we attempt to discover a God who is actually Love and a Gospel that is actually Good News.
Micah J. Murray
Micah is your typical somewhat disillusioned-but-tenaciously-hopeful post-evangelical millennial. He grew up in a weird home school cult, did a brief stint as a missionary in Africa, went to Christian college, got married, had two kids, got divorced, and now goes to therapy a lot and writes angsty stuff on the internet. People tell him all the time that he shouldn’t be a Christian anymore after all the shit he’s experienced in the name of that religion, but by some combination of stubbornness, laziness, and the grace of God, he still claims that faith (most days). Micah lives in Minneapolis with his family, where he makes websites for artists and authors and entrepreneurs and waits (impatiently) for spring. micahjmurray.com
micahjmurray.com
Sessions:
138 God is Not an Asshole (and Other Things I Wish My Church Told Me)
139 Tattoo Stories: Art that Intersects the Spiritual and the Physical
Session #138
Tattoo Stories: Art that Intersects the Spiritual and the Physical
Micah J. Murray & Cody Burton
Sat 11 AM | Library
Tattoos mean a lot of different things to different people. Some commemorate a special place in time, Others are a physical reminders of the emotional or spiritual, but all have a story. In this session you are invited to show off your ink, and share your own story.
Micah J. Murray
Micah is your typical somewhat disillusioned-but-tenaciously-hopeful post-evangelical millennial. He grew up in a weird home school cult, did a brief stint as a missionary in Africa, went to Christian college, got married, had two kids, got divorced, and now goes to therapy a lot and writes angsty stuff on the internet. People tell him all the time that he shouldn’t be a Christian anymore after all the shit he’s experienced in the name of that religion, but by some combination of stubbornness, laziness, and the grace of God, he still claims that faith (most days). Micah lives in Minneapolis with his family, where he makes websites for artists and authors and entrepreneurs and waits (impatiently) for spring. micahjmurray.com
micahjmurray.com
Sessions:
138 God is Not an Asshole (and Other Things I Wish My Church Told Me)
139 Tattoo Stories: Art that Intersects the Spiritual and the Physical
Cody Burton
Operations and Programming Support
Born and raised in North Florida, Cody is a passionate advocate for social justice and full inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community within the Church. He currently resides in Denver, Colorado where he is an active member of House For All Sinners and Saints. In 2016 he helped launch and currently runs the website IntersectionsFaith.com where he is a self-proclaimed wannabe blogger and Co-host of the Intersections Podcast. Cody has also assisted in starting Beer & Hymns Jax as well as The Intersections Festival. Cody started as a part of the Wild Goose Festival staff this year handling logistics and operations and looks forward to seeing the festival and the Wild Goose Community continue to grow.
Sessions:
406 A Liturgy for the rest of us (Communion)
139 Tattoo Stories: Art that Intersects the Spiritual and the Physical
Session #139
What’s Your Story?
A session on why knowing your own storyline has the power to change the world, and is just what we need in today’s social climate.
Sarah Heath
Sat 5 PM | Library
We keep hearing about the power of story, but how do we know what parts of our own story are most powerful and how can we use that to effect the world around us? How do we move beyond the mini stories we share on instagram, snapchat, and facebook? In this session we will look at ways to share our own stories as well as how to make space for other’s stories. Pastor, writer, speaker and podcaster Sarah Heath spent a year researching the power of stories and narrative theology for her book “what’s your story? seeing your life through God’s eyes.” She will share how Jospeh Campbell’s heroes journey narrative theory has revolutionized not just the way she sees scripture, but the way she see’s her own life’s storyline.
Sarah Heath
Originally from Canada but spent some time in Southern Mississippi and North Carolina, Sarah currently serves First United Methodist Church in Costa Mesa, California, where she is the lead pastor for a church re-start and revitalization. Sarah has a passion for music, traveling, acting, creating art, playing and watching sports. She is the author of What’s your story? Seeing your life through God’s eyes and host of the podcast Sonderlust the podcast. The biggest blessings in her life are her random assortment of talented friends and her amazing mutt of a dog, Tenor.
www.revsarahheath.com
Sessions:
141 What’s your Story? how can your story change the world.
201 Tony Campolo Interview
Session #141
Crafting Frumpy Theology for a “Gucci Gang” Zeitgeist
Sam Martinez and Bart Patton
Lil Pump’s 2017 hit, “Gucci Gang,” was a smashing success, maxing out at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 and garnering two parodies on Saturday Night Live. But a critical success the song is not. Pump repeats the titular phrase 53 times in his song. It’s a veritable vapid word–or more accurately, syllable–salad of couture brands, drugs, and hating school. Still the tune influences youth and young adults. What does “Gucci Gang” tell us about the spirit of our time? “Frumpy theology” plays with teachings, beliefs, and themes steeped in history, ragamuffin by design, and quotidian in orientation. Beyond a trend, this is the broken-in stuff with staying power. We’re calling for approachable, “wearable” theology–something for everyday life, that is faithfully constant in addressing the real needs of Gen Z. Join us as we ask, answer, and dream: what are key elements to creating comfortable environments for deep, sustaining theological dialogue with young people?
LISTEN
Bart Patton
Bart Patton serves as Director of Youth & Young Adult Ministry Education at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He has served the church as a preacher, teacher, youth minister, worship leader, writer, and pastor in Texas, Arkansas, and New York for the past 20 years. He is most passionate about teaching, preaching, and writing to resource the local church. His blogs and articles on practical ministry have been featured by Youth Ministry Partners (Abingdon) and HuffPost. His youth ministry curriculum has been published by Youth Ministry Partners (Abingdon). Bart was born and raised in Arkansas, where the Ozark mountains give way to the Mississippi Delta. He learned how to fish on the Little Red, play harmonica on the curbs of Beale, and tell stories on the lap of his great-grandfather, Richard Harley Bartlett. He collects Pez dispensers, foam fingers, vintage Hebrew grammars, great recipes, and Batman comics.
leadingfromlastplace.com
Sessions:
142 Frumpy Theology
Sam Martinez
Sam Martinez recently received an appointment as Assistant Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology and is completing his PhD at Yale University in Religious Studies. The son of a teacher and a Pentecostal pastor, Sam loves the intersection of the academy, the church, and public life, especially after serving in local church ministry for over a decade. A native of Scratch Out, Arkansas, Sam’s lived in Dallas, New Haven, Brooklyn, and New Orleans, and now Atlanta. And he’s equally at home discussing trinitarian metaphysics, playing Gospel tunes on the piano, hunting ducks on an old slough, and listening to Mahler at Lincoln Center.
Sessions:
142 Frumpy Theology
Session #142
Radical Manners: Hosting and Hospitality for Resistance
Sat 4 PM | Greater Things
Sara Green
Started as a collection of recipes, stories and pictures from People of Color invested in liberation, Radical Manners is a traveling gallery that uses Christian narratives of hospitality, storytelling and food sharing to nourish ourselves for the work ahead. This workshop highlights the importance of hospitality as spirit work through conversation and art making.
Sara Green
Sara Green is the Youth and Young Adults of Color Ministry Associate at the Unitarian Universalist Association. She understands her work to be a practice of radical hospitality and embodiment in service of freedom and justice. Often, her ministry looks like putting her hands and heart into organizing for LGBT rights and racial justice. She currently serves on the board of Soulforce and is part of the Black Lives of UU Ministerial Network. As a graduate of Vanderbilt Divinity School, she is excited to make the walls of the church permeable and the reach of social change wide-felt.
https://brownmountaingirl.com/radical-manners/
Sessions:
144 Radical Manners
Session #144
Understanding and Ministering through Life Stories
Fri 4 PM | Convo Hall 6
Sat 5 PM | Convo Hall 6
Brandon McKoy
We may all acknowledge that stories are central in the formation of our identities, but how? What are life stories? How do we develop them? Dr. Brandon McKoy will walk us through the major elements present in all life stories, and how they develop from childhood through adulthood. Brandon will guide us to briefly share our life stories noting the elements present in how each person chooses to coordinate their life. Once we have a basic understanding of life stories, we will explore how we can use this knowledge to rewrite our own stories, help others dislodge oppressive narratives, enhance our preaching and teaching, and develop stronger connections with those we serve.
Brandon McKoy
Dr. Brandon McKoy serves as Senior Pastor at New Hope Baptist Church in Gastonia, NC, and he is an adjunct instructor at Gardner-Webb University in the department of religious studies and philosophy. His book, Youth Ministry from the Outside In: How Relationships and Stories Shape Identity (InterVarsity Press, 2013) has been used by seminaries and divinity schools world-wide to reimagine ministry practices. Brandon is also an Associate for the Taos Institute—a community of scholarly practitioners who extend social constructionist dialogues into diverse settings. He contributed the chapter Seeing through the Mirror in the book Spirituality, Social Construction, and Relational Processes (Taos Institute Publications, 2017). The book, an edited collection, explores ways that spirituality and social construction, can enrich each other for the benefit of the world. Recently, Brandon has used social constructionism in Charlotte, NC to train upper level law enforcement in relational and communal development.
Sessions:
145 Understanding and Ministering through Life Stories
Session #145
Un-othering the Other: Co-Creating with the Poor
Sat 11 AM | Bridge
Jacqui Buschor
Challenges in poor communities can seem so vast and complex that it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or like nothing we do is really making an impact. But what if one of the biggest barriers to justice for the poor is the baggage we “helpers” drag in and project on those experiencing poverty? Maybe we need to start by learning more about our own discomforts, wounds, and insecurities. Are there ways in which our own anxiety and misperceptions about economic status get in the way of us experiencing the unique gifts and wisdom of those who live on the margins? Join us for an interactive workshop in which we will explore methods of contemplative action so that we learn to honor all our neighbors, understanding that people living in poverty are not objects of our ministry, but are essential partners and co-creators in bringing God’s Kingdom vision into being.
Jacqui Buschor
Jacqui Buschor is a policy advocate, organizer, facilitator, and seminarian from Columbus, Ohio. Ten years ago, she first set foot in the Hilltop neighborhood she now calls home. Since then, she’s lived one adventure after another, living among, learning from, being shaped by, and loving the people who have become her neighbors. In recent years, her greatest passion has been teaching communities of faith to work toward healing and justice, serving each other while honoring the dignity, wisdom, and divine God-spark within us all.
Sessions:
146 Un-Othering the Other
Session #146
What I Am Really Asking For: Sex, Desire and the Raw Truth
Fri 3 PM | Portal
Katie Kinnison
Do we dare tread into the deep places, into the thundering cataracts, into the churning waters and arid wastelands of desire? This Wild Goose experience will begin with searing personal struggle and move to create bold risk-taking among the participants. Can we ask courageous questions? Can we tell the truth about our desire and its effects on us, on those we love, and on the community? Our most intimate desires bear political force into the world and shape reality. Rooted in my own experience as a white heterosexual woman, my exploration is also informed by walking with survivors of sex trafficking, by trying to understand the desire of the Johns, by imbibing the Mystics’ language of desire, and by engaging with the work of bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Luce Irigaray, and many others. We need the eyes of others if we are to see ourselves and the world around us, if we are to touch the face of God. I have been conversing largely with words on the page, now I get to talk with you.
Katie Kinnison
Katie Kinnison started dancing with God at the age of six while waiting at the school bus stop. She has spent her life training in words, giving them breath, incarnating them. Teaching for forty years in one capacity or another, Katie is now a Teaching Elder (pastor) at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Columbus Ohio. The overflowing abundance of her life includes reveling in three glorious daughters and spiritually supporting Judge Herbert’s CATCH program for survivors of human trafficking. Her first book, with the working title of Vibrating Godness and the Walking Wounded, is almost finished, and you can check out her blogs and podcasts at her new website (May 2018) at www.katiekinnison.com
Sessions:
147 Sex, Desire and Truth
157 Godness and the Wounded
Session #147
Immigrant Detention Stories: Personal Stories from Immigrant Prisons
Sat 10 AM | Episcopal
Leeann Culbreath
Immigrant communities are in crisis mode amid record-high arrests, detentions, and deportations. Almost a half-million immigrants and asylum seekers are detained annually in the U.S. in for-profit prisons rife with human rights abuses. Hear stories of immigrants imprisoned in Georgia (performed in reader’s theater style), learn about mass detention, and find out how to support detained persons and their loved ones. We’ll finish by making cards to send to detained persons.Leeann Culbreath is an ordained deacon in the Episcopal Church and Co-Chair of the South Georgia Immigrant Support Network (SGISN), a grassroots group based in south-central Georgia. SGISN supports detained immigrants and their loved ones through hospitality, friendship, and advocacy. They recently opened Casa Colibri, a hospitality house near Irwin County Detention Center. She is also developing immigrant detention ministry in her diocese and in the wider church.
Session #148
Trauma-Sensitive Yoga for All
Fri 3 PM | Healing Arts
Whitney R. Simpson and Anita Brown
Both the beginner and advanced yoga practitioner are invited to this experiential time as we explore movement and meditation with our whole selves.Trauma-sensitive yoga is an opportunity to practice yoga in a safe environment and increase your body awareness. The focus of this practice honors and acknowledges the trauma that our bodies have experienced (both large and small) with mindful breathing, purposeful movement, and simple meditation techniques. The purpose of trauma-sensitive yoga is to offer a safe space to connect with your body. Explore this practice with trained instructors who are passionate about yoga and meditation as part of the healing journey, as an integral part of faith. Hear some of their healing journeys and embrace your own in the process. This session is for all body shapes and sizes (the ability to get up and down off the ground is helpful, yet modifications will also be offered). If you have a yoga mat or beach towel with you, please bring it along.
Whitney Simpson
A stroke at age 31 forced Whitney to slow down and listen more deeply to her body. In the process she discovered how to listen more deeply to God. Over a decade later, Whitney’s healing journey led her to author Holy Listening with Breath, Body, and the Spirit. Through her work as as a spiritual director and retreat facilitator, she incorporates yoga and other ancient tools, encouraging the sacred connection of breath, body, and spirit. Whitney completed certification in spiritual formation at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and is a 500-hour certified yoga instructor. She is the founder of Exploring Peace, offering soul care resources for exploring the gift of God’s peace with the whole self. Whitney lives with her family in Tennessee and can be found online at www.ExploringPeace.com. Good books, the great outdoors, hot tea, dark chocolate, and the Trinity are good for her soul. www.exploringpeace.com
www.exploringpeace.com
Sessions:
149 Trauma-Sensitive Yoga
153 Exploring Breath Prayer
#436 Youth – Exploring Breath Prayer for Healing
Anita Brown
Anita Grace Brown live in NJ with her husband and golden retriever, Sierra while her children are off balancing work hard/party hard at Syracuse U. As a yoga teacher she’s quite proud of this work life harmony they are already exhibiting!! A few months ago Anita birthed her Jesus Yoga podcast “It’s 5 o’clock Somewhere!” and has been excited to share embodiment and breath tools in her home church as well. She’s honored to be back offering all-levels morning body prayer at WG for the 4th consecutive year! You can also find her at this year’s healing arts tent assisting with trauma sensitive offerings and a place to find deep rest and release from stress. She’s been healed of decades of chronic PMDD and IBS among other lesser ailments thanks to the pranic balancing that comes with her unique East meets West practices.
Smilingheartyoga.org
It’s 5 o’clock Somewhere Podcast
Sessions:
54 Reconciliation Yoga: A Fresh approach to body prayer
149 Trauma-Sensitive Yoga
Session #149
Radical Welcome: Queering Institutional Habits and Holdouts
Fri 5 PM | Portal
Vanderbilt Divinity School
The demographics of our organizations, churches, and schools are increasingly diverse and complex, especially when it comes to a spectrum of gender and sexuality. Yet many institutions still hold on to practices that marginalize the very populations they profess to include. From bathrooms to classrooms and everything in between, this session will equip participants with real strategies to help transform their institutions into places of radical welcome from the inside out. Along the way, we’ll also explore ways to navigate roadblocks and avoid burnout.
Amy Steele
Amy Elizabeth Steele is Assistant Dean for Student Life at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School.
Rev. Dr. Steele is a frequent lecturer on and off campus, teaching often on the works of 20th-century mystic Howard Thurman. Her current book project Howard Thurman and the Art of Meaning explores the theoretical contributions in Thurman’s mystical aesthetic, a trope she developed to name the religious encounter and the deeply aesthetic aspects of Thurman’s rhetoric and practice. She frequently leads sessions on spiritual formation and facilitates gatherings on intersectional diversity and community life.
She earned both the MDiv (2000) and the Ph.D. (2012) from Vanderbilt Divinity and Vanderbilt University Graduate Department of Religion (Ethics and Society), respectively. She is ordained in the National Baptist Convention (February 2001) and is currently serving as an Associate Pastor at Cornerstone United Methodist Church. She is the mother of Isaiah, an 8th grader and budding historian.
https://divinity.vanderbilt.edu/about/purposes.php
Sessions:
150 Radical Welcome
Damien Domenack
Damien Domenack is pursuing a Master of Divinity degree at Vanderbilt University. He is the President of the Latinx Seminarians, and is a staff member of the LGBTQI Life Center at Vanderbilt. Damien is a founding member of Audre Lorde Project’s TransJustice in NYC, Damien collectively organized the first ever Trans Day of Action for Social and Economic Justice in New York City. Damien is a prison abolitionist and former Chapter Coordinator and media strategist for Critical Resistance-NYC. Damien served as a Community Partner to “States of Incarceration,” a contribution to The New School’s Humanities Action Lab, which will exhibit in Nashville in spring 2019.
Sessions:
150 Radical Welcome
Session #150
Hearing Your Call and Listening
Sat 11 AM | Episcopal
Episcopal Service Corps
A key part of a service year with Episcopal Service Corps is helping young people discern their call going forward. While ESC’s focus is on 21 to 28-year-olds, figuring out how to live into God’s call doesn’t stop in our twenties. Indeed, current events have created a national dynamic where many are recognizing the need to do more than bring home a paycheck — they want to contribute toward building the Beloved Community either through a different type of work or deeper involvement in justice and equity issues. Using models from Johnson Service Corps and The Abraham Project, North Carolina’s Episcopal Service Corps affiliates, this workshop offers space to draw nearer to where you may be called next.
Aleta Payne
Aleta Payne is Executive Director of Johnson Service Corps, a diverse, ecumenical community of young adults committed to social justice, spiritual growth, and community living in Chapel Hill and Durham, NC and an affiliate of the Episcopal Service Corps. Prior to joining the staff of JSC, Aleta spent 16 years with the NC Council of Churches working on issues of justice, equity, and peace through a progressive faith lens.
www.johnsonservicecorps.org
Sessions:
151 Hearing Your Call
Becky Johnston
Becky Waldrup Johnston currently serves as the Program Director at The Abraham Project in Winston-Salem, NC. She landed in this role after winding her way through life as a full-time Baptist Minister, a College Minister in a Presbyterian Church, and now finds her worshipping home at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church. Becky spends her days hanging out with her two girls, one husband, and two dogs… And finds bizarre enjoyment from using a paper, old-school planner. (Feel free to come by her “Do Good.” RV site for some coffee or s’mores.)
Sessions:
151 Episcopal Service Corps
Session #151
Deacons: Comforting the Afflicted and Afflicting the Comfortable
Fri 1 PM | Episcopal
Rev. Deacon Leeann Culbreath
Most mainline Christian denominations ordain deacons to serve in ministries of justice, compassion, and mercy. In this panel discussion, deacons from different denominations will share stories from their ministries and discuss how the renewal of the diaconate impacts the future of the church. They will then lead the group a Stations of Justice prayer procession around the tent.Leeann CulbreathLeeann is an ordained deacon in the Episcopal Church (Diocese of Georgia) and Co-Chair of the South Georgia Immigrant Support Network (SGISN), a grassroots humanitarian group based in south-central Georgia. SGISN supports detained immigrants and their loved ones through hospitality, friendship, and advocacy. She also leads Creation care ministry in her diocese and advocates for eco-justice in Georgia and beyond. With her husband and two sons, she enjoys outdoor adventures and backyard homesteading.
Stacey Harwell-Dye
Stacey Harwell-Dye is trying to figure out the best ways churches can be good neighbors in their community. As a United Methodist deacon, Stacey stands with one foot in the church and one foot in the world, building bridges and connecting the two. She lives in Savannah, Georgia with her spouse Jonathan Harwell-Dye and dog Colby who teaches her about God’s love. She’s committed to God’s vision of shalom, figuring out how the church can be the church particularly in the areas of immigration, anti-racism, and anti-poverty. Stacey works at Trinity United Methodist Church downtown, as an Asset Based Community Development Consultant for churches, and as a disaster case manager for people recovering from Hurricanes Matthew & Irma.
Sessions:
152 Deacon Panel Discussion
Session #152
Exploring Breath Prayer: for Meditation and Healing
Sat 4 PM | Healing Arts
Whitney R. Simpson
This meditation experience invites you to participate in group breath work and explore the ancient practice of breath prayer in community. During this session, you will be invited to participate in breath work exercises, learn more about healthy breathing for the body, explore the ancient practice of breath prayer, and be invited to create and practice your very own breath prayer for your healing journey. You will also be invited to hear the story of how Whitney began practicing breath prayer the day of her stroke, inside an MRI machine, on her birthday in 2004. If you have breath in your lungs and a desire for healing on your journey, join Whitney for this transformative meditation practice. Chairs will be provided or you may wish to bring a yoga mat or beach towel to sit on the earth for this experiential session.
Whitney Simpson
A stroke at age 31 forced Whitney to slow down and listen more deeply to her body. In the process she discovered how to listen more deeply to God. Over a decade later, Whitney’s healing journey led her to author Holy Listening with Breath, Body, and the Spirit. Through her work as as a spiritual director and retreat facilitator, she incorporates yoga and other ancient tools, encouraging the sacred connection of breath, body, and spirit. Whitney completed certification in spiritual formation at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and is a 500-hour certified yoga instructor. She is the founder of Exploring Peace, offering soul care resources for exploring the gift of God’s peace with the whole self. Whitney lives with her family in Tennessee and can be found online at www.ExploringPeace.com. Good books, the great outdoors, hot tea, dark chocolate, and the Trinity are good for her soul. www.exploringpeace.com
www.exploringpeace.com
Sessions:
149 Trauma-Sensitive Yoga
153 Exploring Breath Prayer
#436 Youth – Exploring Breath Prayer for Healing
Session #153
Conversations With Silas: Raising The Next Generation
Fri 1 PM | Convo Hall 3
Sat 3 PM | Convo Hall 3
Tony & Silas Caldwell
Come along with Tony and Silas, age 10, as their father/son journeys take them to the site of the Emmett Till murder and trial, to bear witness to predatory lending institutions, confederate symbolism, and other social ills in the Mississippi Delta; and culminate in 10 year old Silas recognizing and addressing systemic gender inequality on a university campus. This session provides examples of how parents can empower children by: tapping into their natural tendencies towards empathy and compassion, giving them opportunities to practice these innate characteristics, and guiding them in recognizing, processing, and addressing social injustice at age appropriate levels in the context of a larger hope. During this developmentally crucial time, we can not only “teach our children well” but “become as little children” ourselves in the process. Raising “woke” children is possibly our greatest opportunity to participate in the Kingdom of God here and now.
Tony Caldwell
Tony Caldwell is a Professor of Social Work at the University of Mississippi, a Jungian psychotherapist in private practice, an activist, and a member of the Red Letter Christian Network. Tony has partnered with The Human Rights Campaign, the W.W. Kellogg Foundation, The William Winter Institute For Racial Reconciliation, the Southern Poverty Law Center, The Levi Strauss Co., and the Toyota Corporation among others. He and his colleague, Dr. Jandel Crutchfield, have enjoyed success in their grassroots Together Projects promoting interracial and interfaith dialogue around issues of race, privilege, and justice across the state of Mississippi. He is currently leading The Underground Church, a reconciling faith community, in Oxford, Ms. and conducting research linking the nation’s poorest health outcomes in the Mississippi Delta to transgenerational trauma related to slavery, segregation, poverty, and marginalization. Tony writes frequently for RLC and many other publications. See more at: www.tonycaldwell.net
www.tonycaldwell.net
Sessions:
154 Conversations With Silas: Raising The Next Generation
67 The Spiritual Price Of Confederate Symbolism
Silas Caldwell
Silas Caldwell is a follower of Christ who is compelled by his faith to address issues of inequality and injustice in the world. As a budding astrophysicist he aspires to a little bit like Neil deGrasse Tyson and a whole lot like Jesus. Silas plays violin and also has a rock band in which he sings and plays bass guitar. Silas is an NBA enthusiast. He loves his dog Scout and video games. Silas is bold and cautious, imaginative and thoughtful, creative and empathic, sensitive and independent. He embraces it all and encourages others to do the same.
Sessions:
154 Conversations With Silas: Raising The Next Generation
Session #154
Some Time Apart for Burned Out Teachers, Preachers & Activist Creatures
Fri Noon | Convo Hall 7
Sat 10 AM | Convo Hall 7
Julie McElmurry and Rev. Amy Vaughan
Enjoy tea and oranges and relax with us awhile. We’ll let the words of Thomas Merton, from his short writing “Letter to a Young Activist” encourage us to be liberated from being results-driven, to realize our work is not our identity and that we can “be less crushed” by the good work we do in our lives. Amy and Julie will guide us through a short, outdoor quiet time to reflect on Merton’s words and to be refreshed and rejuvenated. We’ll leave this special time together with new ideas about ourselves as teachers, preachers and activist creatures.
Julie McElmurry
Having led retreats and workshops in Spanish and English since 2010, Julie also makes documentaries about women religious (a.k.a. nuns), directs The Charlotte Film School and loves connecting people with each other. Encountering burnout sensitized her to the need for many to take some time apart from daily life to rest, reflect and reevaluate.
www.franciscanpassages.org
http://revamy.org/about
Sessions:
155 Some Time Apart
Session #155
Vibrating Godness and the Walking Wounded
Fri Noon | Convo Hall 3
Sat 11 AM | Convo Hall 3
Katie Kinnison
What if Paradise is right here and our wounds are keeping us from it? Forget talk of sin. Forget judgment. Here is Original Grace and compassion for the traumatized. I will use story to show how bringing compassion to personal wounds can transform our understanding of cultural powers and principalities that crush bodies and souls. Entering the story of my parents’ wounds with our minds sharp and our hearts tender, we can use the insights gained there to better understand our ongoing racial tragedies and the deep pain we can and must heal. You see, the political is personal. We bring our personhood into the political space. Collectively, and as individuals, we bring our wounds into public discourse, into policy making, into our “rational” commitments and explanations. We can bring healing there, too, with the Spirit of God vibrating within and animating us all.
Katie Kinnison
Katie Kinnison started dancing with God at the age of six while waiting at the school bus stop. She has spent her life training in words, giving them breath, incarnating them. Teaching for forty years in one capacity or another, Katie is now a Teaching Elder (pastor) at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Columbus Ohio. The overflowing abundance of her life includes reveling in three glorious daughters and spiritually supporting Judge Herbert’s CATCH program for survivors of human trafficking. Her first book, with the working title of Vibrating Godness and the Walking Wounded, is almost finished, and you can check out her blogs and podcasts at her new website (May 2018) at www.katiekinnison.com
Sessions:
147 Sex, Desire and Truth
157 Godness and the Wounded
Session #157
Raising Bad-Ass, Jesus-Loving Kids
Fri 1 PM | Convo Hall 6
Sat 3 PM | Convo Hall 6
Kirsten and Brian Miller
When the Miller family had three teenage girls, they left suburban America to move to the Middle East in response to the Syrian Civil War. As a family, they navigated shifting faith and doing hard things. In this interactive discussion, they will explore the themes of raising socially conscious kids who are resilient, seek justice, and are committed to deep spirituality. This workshop is ideal for parents who may have been raised in the fundamental church and are now looking for ways to foster spiritual formation in new ways. If you are eager to see your kids care deeply about the world and foster in them a refreshed faith, without control or religiosity, come and participate in the lively discussion. There won’t be easy answers, but together we can support each other on this journey.Kirsten Miller is a clinical psychotherapist and Licensed Clinical Social Worker. Over the span of 25 years, her practice has focused on parenting, mood disorders, adolescent trauma and spirituality. Brian is a humanitarian, having served in housing ministries in Chicago and Atlanta and having led a large relief response through churches in Syria and Iraq. They are now based in Madison, WI and have three daughters, aged 17-22 who are activists and musicians.
Kirsten & Brian Miller
When the Miller family had three teenage girls, they left suburban America to move to the Middle East in response to the Syrian Civil War. As a family, they navigated shifting faith and doing hard things.
In this interactive discussion, they will explore the themes of raising socially conscious kids who are resilient, seek justice, and are committed to deep spirituality. This workshop is ideal for parents who may have been raised in the fundamental church and are now looking for ways to foster spiritual formation in new ways. If you are eager to see your kids care deeply about the world and foster in them a refreshed faith, without control or religiosity, come and participate in the lively discussion. There won’t be easy answers, but together we can support each other on this journey.
www.livingwellinternational.net
Sessions:
158 Raising Bad-Ass, Jesus-Loving Kids
Session #158
Silent Disco 2018
DJ Ben Wright
Thu 11:15 PM, Fri & Sat at Midnight | Library
After a day of existential aeronautics, joining the joys of justice journeying, art appreciating, and dirt on your feet; mash that dirt into life-giving clay with this year’s late-night dance party: Silent Disco 2018 mixed by returning DJ Ben Wright. Step off the soapbox and strap on the headphones for a night of musical emancipation as you dance among a flock of sibling geese! Silent Disco 2018.
Ben Wright
Back once again is Goose’s favorite house DJ Ben Wright. Ben lives in Southside Virginia where he infotains primary school students as the Immersive Experiences Coordinator for the Danville Science Center. Baptist bred and Wake Div. ed., Ben also teaches as adjunct faculty for Apex School of Theology and Averett University. He has been altering audio since 1997 and identifies Electronic, Old Skool, and Funk as his preferred genres. Ben travels life with wife Rebecca, stepson Brandon, and adorable hedgehogs Ula and Billie Holiday.
djbenwright.com
Sessions:
159 Silent Disco 2018
Session #159
Accessing Your Full Voice for the Greater Good
Fri 10 AM | Convo Hall 5
Sat 4 PM | Convo Hall 5
Travis McAfee
What untapped gifts do our voices have in store for us? What might happen in our lives and in the world around us if we fully express our true selves? How often are we given permission to play hard, breathe deep, cut loose, or feel free? In this engaging, creative, and interactive workshop, we will explore our vocal landscapes to experience how voice connects us to deeper levels of ourselves and to the healing world of sound. During the session, we will:
- Open up the full range, power, and expression of our voices
- Learn how to use voice to sharpen our intentions, strengthen relationships, and live more alive
- Reclaim lost aspects of ourselves
- Risk being seen and heard in new ways
- Bring our truest voices to the intersecting circles in which we live and serve
*NOTE-Participants do NOT need to know how to sing. There will be singing involved, but we won’t read a lick of music and no one will have to sing a solo. In fact, no one will have to do anything they don’t want to do.
Travis McAfee
Travis McAfee is a Full Voice coach, singer and vocal improviser. As a fourth generation musician and voice teacher, his passion is to facilitate the exploration and expansion of the human voice. Using the Full Voice Five Elements Framework he supports people in learning how to access the full power and expression of their voice in service to their own work and relationships.
After 12 years on the road with East-West fusion band Aradhna, he now cherishes the constancy of life in Atlanta parenting a small entourage with his wife, Liz.
travismcafeevoice.com
Sessions:
160 Accessing Your Full Voice for the Greater Good
Session #160
Feeding Hungry Kids Is Simple. Promise.
Fri 4 PM | Convo Hall 1
Sat 5 PM | Convo Hall 1
Lillian Boeskool
While gathering food from South Nashville neighbors to send to a friend across town feeding hungry kids in schools in East Nashville, Lillian thought, “I wonder if there are any hungry kids in our school?” With over 50% of students at her children’s elementary on Free and Reduced Lunch, chances were pretty good. Starting small, and with very few operation guidelines or partners, she and a few friends gave this idea a try for the last 5 weeks of school. Five years later, they have expanded to their middle school as well, and hope to add an additional elementary this fall. This seed has encouraged others in their area to begin as well, and several hundred kids are getting food every weekend that they would have otherwise not had. You may not be someone with a big name or a lot of resources, but starting a program of any sort can actually be more simple than you realize. Come and hear about how this program began and is structured, and be inspired to start something small but important!
Lillian Boeskool
Lillian Boeskool is a part-time photographer who has an addiction to Nashville Hot Chicken and volunteering in her kids’ schools. She is a firm believer in investing in your local community with your time as well as your talents. Lillian has served on several local education-related committees and boards, and is currently a member of the Nashville Public Education Foundation’s Parent Council, in conjunction with the Mayor’s Office. She just finished her term as the World’s Okayest PTA President, and if that isn’t impressive to you, she dares you to give it a try. She is a Enneagram Social 8 with a very patient Enneagram 4 husband, and 3 kids who are seriously funnier than you.
Sessions:
162 Feeding Hungry Kids Is Simple. Promise.
Session #162
Christo-Shamanic Anointing CeremonyWelcoming You, Recognizing Your Gifts and Callings, and Sending You Forth to Do What You are Meant to Do in the World!
Fri 5 PM | Healing Arts
Pastor Nar Martinez
Anointing is an ancient sacred practice wherein people, places, or objects are blessed and consecrated. The ritual of anointing has been practiced for many thousands of years by most all the world’s major spiritual traditions and religions.Anointing has historically served as least three functions: for comfort, health, and healing; as a token of hospitality, honor, and recognition of status or calling; and consecration for a sacred use and purpose. Oils infused with fragrant plant essences were poured or rubbed onto the body or object being anointed. This will be a space where we gather to implement the three functions of anointing: a space of healing and comfort mediated through the Anointing Oil and Sacred Touch; an environment of hospitality and honor, recognizing the unique gifts and callings of those who gather; and a time of consecration, speaking words of Spirit and Life over those present, and finally, sending them forth to carry out their purpose in the world.
Nar Martinez
Healing Arts
Rev. Narcizo Martinez – known to many as ‘Pastor Nar’ – is a Mexican-American currently residing in Ohio. Growing up in a bi-racial household, he learned to appreciate the unique gifts offered through his differing familial cultures. He understands the struggles and beauty of integrating multiple cultures in his life story.
This celebration of opposites applies not only to his heritage, but also to his spirituality. After coming to faith during the Jesus Movement, he traversed through many different expressions of community. He is a lover and follower of Jesus, a mystic, as well as a practicing Shaman. The thread that holds this eclectic mix together is his belief in the Great Spirit that has expressed itself at all times, in all cultures, and through all people.
Nar is a healer – physically, emotionally, and spiritually. He is also an experienced ritual and ceremony creator who utilizes the ancient praxis of the Medicine Wheel, Sacred Touch, Essential Oil Anointing / Massage.
AmazingHumansBeing.com
Sessions:
163 Christo-Shamanic Anointing Ceremony
291 Medicine Wheel Mandala
Session #163
Enduring Spirituality: Exploring The The Ways That Discipline & Practice Generate Vital Spirituality That Lasts
Fri 2 PM | Convo Hall 5
Sat Noon | Convo Hall 5
Rev. Ben Collins
Belief is easy, but at some point we have to actually do what we want to do. If I asked you to do a 140 mile race tomorrow, you’d think I was crazy, even if I asked you try really hard and gave you gatorade and cliff bars. You know intuitively that endurance is a matter of training, not just of trying hard. As a 3 time Ironman Triathlete and coach, I’ve come to realize the value of training and the deception of “trying”. But when it comes to spirituality, we often live in our heads, believe things, then “try” to live our values and convictions. We have lost the ancient sacred value of practice and discipline… training. I’d like to spend some time and engage the crowd in conversation around the difference between the trying and training in life and formation, facilitating conversation around the trinity of endurance athletics and of spirituality: find a teacher (coach), find a practice( training plan), find a community (training group).
Ben Collins
Reverend Ben Collins is a spiritual entrepreneur, starting and innovating work in the United Methodist Church as well as consulting beyond denominational frameworks. Having founded multiple congregations, most recently Collective Church in Central FL, he continues reimagining the future of wholistic spiritual community. He has served as an adjunct Professor of Religious Studies at Stetson University, Hospice Chaplain, Campus Minister, and Triathlon Team Coach. Ben is passionate about religious pluralism, diversity and inclusion, and issues of social justice. His 3 year old son Huck and 6 year old daughter June are his life. When he isn’t working or enjoying his kids, Ben is a musician, ultra endurance athlete, coach, consultant, writer and speaker. Ben loves to laugh!
www.wearecollectivechurch.com
Sessions:
164 Enduring Spirituality
Session #164
Musical Performance: Kate Hurley
Fri 3 PM | Café
With influences like Patty Griffin and Tori Amos, Kate’s spiritual singer/ songwriter music will remind you that you are deeply loved. An Enter the Worship Circle Artist, Kate’s performances mix together spiritual roots and story telling. Her last album Sing Over Me was a concept album in which the songs were written from God’s perspective as if he was singing them to you. You may get to see her one-of-a-kind ability to play hammered dulcimer and piano at the same time, or sing a “song on the spot” where she spontaneously writes a song for someone in the audience.
LISTEN
Kate Hurley
Kate Hurley is a singer-songwriter, worship leader, writer, and teacher based out of Asheville, NC. She traveled the world for fourteen years sharing her music and stories. She has played everywhere from castles in Germany to slums in India to 30,000 people hippie gatherings. She was a writer and performer with Enter the Worship Circle for several years. She has created six solo albums and is on several other compilation albums, including Enter the Worship Circle: Third Circle. She has written two books, Cupid is a Procrastinator: Making Sense of the Unexpected Single Life and the upcoming Inside Story: Bringing Peace of Mind to All the Pieces of Your Mind. This summer she will be making a live worship album called Kate Hurley and a Bunch Of Hippies Sing Freedom Songs. She is extremely interested in living in intentional communities and has lived in several communities around the country. She is hoping to help plant an intentional community in Asheville.
katehurley.com
Sessions:
165 Musical Performance: Kate Hurley
Session #165
Karma, Dharma, & the Importance of Self Awareness
Fri 10 AM | Convo Hall 4
Sat 4 PM | Convo Hall 4
Kara Hayslip
“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” (2 Corinthians 9:6-15). If we claim God is in you, within me, and throughout all of life, we may be more deeply connected than we realize. Come learn how Hindus believe we are all connected within their systems of karma and dharma. In other words, how we reap what we sow. It may just challenge you to fulfill your innate duty and help further our Universal purpose.
Karma, Dharma, & the Importance of Self Awareness :Karma, in the Hindu context, is a system of cause and effect which explains why people are born into certain situations and how one’s actions contribute to their future (whether in this life or the next). In other words, you reap what you sow. However, karmic justice is not sown by an outside creator, but accomplished through the connectivity of reactions within this Universe. Dharma, in the Hindu context, is one’s duty or virtue. We are all born with specific abilities. To fulfill ones dharma, or purpose, is to utilize those specific gifts in order to assist in the Universal liberation of all beings. Through self awareness we can understand our karma & discover our dharma.Come learn how Hindus believe we are all connected within their systems of karma and dharma. It may just challenge you to accept your karma, fulfill your innate duty and help further our Universal purpose.
kara hayslip
Kara Hayslip received her Master’s of Divinity from McAfee School of Theology in 2014. After graduating, she traveled continuously from the United States to Nepal. After the Gorkha Earthquake in 2015, she moved to Nepal and started Backpacking 4 Betty, an organization geared towards empowering people and promoting growth through health education. Over the last 2.5 years, the organization has continued to grow into other programs to serve students and locals. If you can’t find her in the States, she will most likely be in Pokhara, Nepal either paragliding or grooming her adopted street dog.
www.backpacking4betty.org
Sessions:
167 Karma, Dharma, & the Importance of Self Awareness
Session #167
Pop-Up People’s Supper – Bridging & Healing in an age of Loneliness
Micky ScottBey Jones – The Justice Doula
Sat 5 PM | Living Room
You are invited to a BYOS* workshop that is part “pop up” People’s Supper with storytelling connection and part training so you can go home and host your own! What has Micky and her team learned from supporting over 1,000 suppers and over 4,000 people (including folks like the Obamas, Prince Harry and everyday people in their kitchens) in sitting down to bridge and heal over a meal? We’ve learned a lot about storytelling, empathy and connection and now Wild Goosers can take this tool back to their communities! *Bring Your Own Supper – yes, feel free to bring food and drink to enjoy during the workshop!
Micky ScottBey Jones
Micky ScottBey Jones, the Justice Doula, is a mama-activist-contemplative-healer-holy-disrupter who believes in throwing parties as a key revolutionary strategy. She loves bringing people together to explore brave space, awaken empathy and fight oppression. Micky is the Director of Healing Justice with Faith Matters Network and is a core team member with The People’s Supper who has gathered more than 4,000 people around tables since the 2016 election for bridging and healing conversations.
mickyscottbeyjones.com
Sessions:
168 Pop-Up People’s Supper
354 Micky ScottBey Jones & Panel
391 A Conversation with Micky ScottBey Jones
404 Voices in the Divide
Session #168
Faith-Rooted Organizing: Drawing Deep from the Wells of our Faith to do Justice in our Communities and World
Rev. Alexia Salvatierra with Jarrod McKenna
Fri 11 AM | Main Stage
Many of us want to change the unjust systems around us but we lack the tools — and prevailing secular models give us spiritual indigestion. This workshop will teach tools rooted in the deep wells of our faith to bring more shalom into our community and society
Alexandra Salvatierra
Rev. Alexia Salvatierra is the author with Dr. Peter Heltzel of Faith-Rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World (Intervarsity Press). She is a Lutheran Pastor with over 40 years of experience in congregational and community ministry, including church-based service and community development programs, congregational and community organizing and legislative advocacy. She is an affiliate professor at Fuller Theological Seminary and adjunct at four other academic institutions. In addition to coordinating the Guardian Angels Project and assisting at Hope Lutheran Church, she serves as a consultant (training, facilitating, organizing and leading strategic planning) for a variety of national/international organizations, including World Vision, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and the Christian Community Development Association. She is a national leader in immigrant justice, co-founder of the New Sanctuary Movement, the Evangelical Immigration Table and M25 (Matthew 25/Mateo 25).
http://www.alexiasalvatierra.com/
Sessions:
169 Faith-Rooted Organizing
170 M25 – Creating Immigrant Justice
383 Alexa Salvatierra
Session #169
M25 – a new model for protecting and defending our vulnerable immigrant neighbors
Rev. Alexia Salvatierra
Sat 5 PM | Workshop
Our immigration system is broken and it is breaking apart families and ruining dreams. M25 is a new model for accompanying and advocating for immigrant families caught in the broken system.
Alexandra Salvatierra
Rev. Alexia Salvatierra is the author with Dr. Peter Heltzel of Faith-Rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World (Intervarsity Press). She is a Lutheran Pastor with over 40 years of experience in congregational and community ministry, including church-based service and community development programs, congregational and community organizing and legislative advocacy. She is an affiliate professor at Fuller Theological Seminary and adjunct at four other academic institutions. In addition to coordinating the Guardian Angels Project and assisting at Hope Lutheran Church, she serves as a consultant (training, facilitating, organizing and leading strategic planning) for a variety of national/international organizations, including World Vision, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and the Christian Community Development Association. She is a national leader in immigrant justice, co-founder of the New Sanctuary Movement, the Evangelical Immigration Table and M25 (Matthew 25/Mateo 25).
http://www.alexiasalvatierra.com/
Sessions:
169 Faith-Rooted Organizing
170 M25 – Creating Immigrant Justice
383 Alexa Salvatierra
Session #170
Reiki Introduction and Healing Meditation
Sat 10 AM | Healing Arts
What is Reiki? You may have heard of this spiritual practice that can promote healing and stress reduction, but what’s the deal? In this session, we’ll explore some basics of Reiki – where it originated, how it’s often practiced, and examples of Reiki’s place in a few people’s spiritual journeys. Then we’ll have the chance to meditate together and welcome the energy of compassion to surround us and flow through us, to help us be instruments of peace here at Wild Goose and in the rest of our lives. No prior experience is necessary – just bring your curiosity and openness!
Session #171
Using Talking Circles to Nurture Communication and Understanding Across Divides
Fri 4 PM | River
Scott Bass
Talking Circles are a simple process for creating a brave space for all to speak, be heard, be valued & listen deeply. Circles have been used for centuries to build community, resolve conflicts & nurture connections. You are invited to experience a Talking Circle & learn how you might use this process back home. Bring yourself, what is stirring for you at WGF, & whatever else is on your mind & take advantage of this opportunity to encounter your best self in relationship with others. Scott Bass has more than a decade of experience with Circles & brings extensive experience as a group facilitator & as a therapist with individuals, couples & families. He is passionate about building a more just, compassionate & whole world by cultivating sacred connections. Scott provides therapy, consulting with groups to build community & nurture inclusivity, does public speaking & group facilitation, & works with a North Carolina nonprofit to enhance services for those harmed by violence.
Scott Bass
Scott Bass is passionate about building a more just, compassionate and whole world. Scott lives in Raleigh, North Carolina where he works as a family therapist and also offers spiritual direction, coaching, workshops, retreats and consulting. Current projects include working with a non-profit to deepen inclusivity and working with a faith community to nurture meaningful communication about racial and political differences. Scott also works as Director of Victim Services for the nonprofit North Carolina Victim Assistance Network. He is a passionate advocate for Restorative Justice Practices, such as Circle Processes. He is married to Marcelle Clowes. They have 15-year-old twin humans and two cats.
www.nc-van.org
www.capitalrestorativejustice.org
Sessions:
172 Talking Circles: Nurturing Communication Across Divides
Tyrone Greenlee
Tyrone Greenlee is an Asheville native. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a community activist who currently serves on the boards of Just Economics of Western North Carolina, Green Opportunities, and Hands and Feet of Asheville. Tyrone has volunteered for many years with the Building Bridges of Asheville organization. He has formerly served on the boards of The Mediation Center, The Asheville City Schools Foundation, The North Carolina Stage Company, and the Western North Carolina AIDS Project. Tyrone works as a mentor and mediator at the Francine Delany New School for Children Charter School in Asheville. He also serves as the Director of Christians for a United Community, a coalition of churches which has worked to dismantle racism and the disparities caused by racism for over ten years in the Asheville Community. Tyrone is also a member of the New Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church where he serves as a member of the Deacons, Youth and Music Ministries.
Sessions:
172 Talking Circles: Nurturing Communication Across Divides
Session #172
A World Without Walls/ Un Mundo Sin Muros
Fri 1 PM | River
Congregants at Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.
After the year we’ve endured together, we wanted to offer some of the stories we’ve been sharing together at Calvary, stories of faithful Christians who have had to stomach talk of walls, who have awaited outcomes on DACA and TPS, and who have heard the person with the highest office in this country call them criminals. This summer during one of our worship series, we spent several months making a pretty simple claim together: that all of Scripture is one big story about immigration, displacement, and return. We wanted to share how our life together helps us imagine “Un Mundo Sin Muros/ A World Without Walls.”
Calvary Baptist Church
Calvary Baptist Church strives to be an ecumenical, multiracial, and multiethnic community of faith. This is not an abstract commitment for us: about third of our worshipping congregation is Spanish-speaking, many originally from El Salvador. For several years, a number of these congregants have been attending the WGF, engaging even as language provides a certain barrier to full engagement.
www.calvarydc.org
Sessions:
174 A World Without Walls/ Un Mundo Sin Muros
Session #174
Finding Ourselves in the Rhythm: Drumming, Spirituality, Culture, and Power.
Sat 2 PM | River
Matt Meyer
A chance for people of all skill levels to participate in hands-on rhythm-making. We’ll tour instruments from around the world and experience the connection of community music-making through different activities, stories, and discussions. We’ll also look at how rhythm and music intersect with culture, race, and power. Bring your own drum if you have one- for those who don’t, we’ll provide extras.
Matthew Meyer
Matt Meyer is an itinerant worship leader and community organizer. He graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2004, where he studied hand drumming and world music. During that time, he also studied abroad in Cuba, Ghana, and Central America. Since then, Matt has led music and worship for hundreds of services in congregations all over the country.
He has been a keynote speaker and worship leader for conferences and seminaries around the country. He is a founding worship leader current Director of Operations for Sanctuary Boston, a contemporary worship community in Boston and is also a founding board member and resident of the Lucy Stone Cooperative, an intentional community and center for social justice based in the values and tradition of Unitarian Universalism.
Matt is honored to have performed with Ysaye Barnwell (of Sweet Honey in the Rock), Pete Seeger, Emma’s Revolution, Peter Mayer, Jim Scott, Nick Page, The Halalisa Singers, Samba Tremeterra, and Bloco de Afrobrazil.
rhythmrevelations.com
Sessions:
175 Drumming and Spirituality
Session #175
Setting a Bigger Table: Fighting for Justice Without Pushing People Around
Sat 11 AM | River
Ron Ruthruff
The way we treat the person we love the least is the way we love God the most. So how then do we extend hospitality and do justice in a world of privilege, power and religious refuge? Participants will engage with the gospel of Luke’s model of table fellowship as a map towards a symbiotic hospitality, learning to live in open space of justice, mercy and humility.
Ron Ruthruff
Ron is Associate Professor of Theology and Culture at The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. He is the anchor professor for Global and Social Partnerships. Ron is ordained clergy with the Street Psalms Community and works in their Resource Center providing care, training, and support for grassroots urban leaders serving youth and families in hard places around the world. His education is a blend of social work, counseling, and theological studies, including a doctorate of ministry in complex urban settings from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. For 27 years, Ron, with his wife Linda, served marginalized communities and street-involved youth. They live in the Rainier Valley, a multicultural neighborhood in Seattle, WA, and have two sons, Ben and Clayton. Ron loves motorcycles, cities, and Americana music. Ron and Linda’s mission is to equip individuals to lead lives of purpose, to empower faith communities to love their neighbors, and to engage communities in cross-cultural and global conversations.
https://theseattleschool.edu/faculty-staff/directory/ruthruff-ron/
Sessions:
176 Setting a Bigger Table
Session #176
Goose Group – Open 12 Step Recovery: AA, NA, GA, SLAA and OA .
Thu 6 PM | River
Dillon C.
Honoring recovery traditions and Group Conscience from years past, we will be using the 12 Steps as first put forth in “Alcoholics Anonymous” in a slightly modified version to share experience, strength and hope with each other across the recovery spectrum in open discussion during each session. It is hoped that other meeting facilitators will ‘step up’ to lead some of the sessions just like you would at your home group. We are influenced with gratitude by the flexibility and fluidity of the Wharf Rat recovery movement that originated with the Grateful Dead. Our purpose is to grow Spiritually – to grow in our relationship with the Divinity of our understanding.
Dillon C
An anonymous bio should be a fun assignment. After all, the second A in AA is ‘Anonymous’, yet how can we be of assistance if people can’t even tell we’re in ‘the program’? I made the ‘offer’ to host ’12 Step Recovery’ since I have experienced AA, NA, GA, SLAA, and OA .. however the Goose decides to fly the flag is fine by me .. as long as I’ve got a meeting! Since this IS Wild Goose, I come to serve .. food and Spirit .. so if you are trying to find me other than at meeting times, a good start would be to look for the purple glasses in the tent or behind the scenes at One Heart Café. I can’t bring my cat Thay to the Goose, but the reunions when I pick him up at the ‘Cat Condo’ make it OK! If you find the talk I walk something you’d like to dig into deeper, look up Ashe Unity Group at BooneAA.org .. I average five of our six meetings per week. Remember, it’s all One Day At A Time!
Sessions:
177 Goose Group Recovery
Session #177
Brew Theology
Sat 2 PM | Landing
Ryan-Miller & Janel Apps Ramsey
Wanna Brew Theology? Do you like wrestling with meaningful questions over theological topics? Brew Theology is an alliance of diverse communities across the country filled with a mosaic of amazing people across the religious-spiritual spectrum. We hold organized weekly conversations at local breweries. This is interactive – we’ll bring the content & questions. You’ll brew up a zesty topic, and experience the range in diversity from Christianity to Atheism, Buddhism to Judaism – kicking around a rich conversation pertaining to science, philosophy, sex, gender, race, politics, socio-economic and justice-centric issues. Brew Theology is open and honest. Even in our disagreements and differing beliefs, we cultivate a safe, interfaith community that values one another. We find common ground in our shared humanity and are strangely yet remarkably unified by simply being together. We affirm all people. Everyone’s voice matters – just don’t be a jerk! Pull up a seat at the table, and get ready to brew. www.BrewTheology.org
Ryan Miller
Ryan has been involved in ministry since 1998, and has worked as a Youth & Family Pastor, Campus Pastor, Missionary, Church Planter & Brew Theologian. Ryan is the founder and Co-Director of Brew Theology. He currently serves as the Director of Denver Brew Theology. Ryan is a licensed minister, seminary graduate and enjoys quality craft beer, and meaningful conversation within genuine community. He’s also an avid San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Cowboys & Texas Longhorns faniac! Ryan and his wife, Lauren, along with their two daughters live in the greatest ‘hood in the US of A – Platt Park! To learn more about Ryan, head over to www.brewtheology.org
www.brewtheology.org
Sessions:
179 Brew Theology
218 Brew theology. Create community through healthy, meaningful & eclectic dialogue!
Janel Apps Ramsey
Janel Apps Ramsey is the Co-Director of Brew Theology (please come see us at our booth). She is the lead editor of Women Experiencing Faith with Dr. Thomas J. Oord, and holds an MA in Theological Studies. Raised in a conservative evangelical tradition, she now considers herself a progressive Christian. She leads interfaith discussions and participates in a weekly podcast. She also has a small house church of people in faith transition. Janel has served in ministry for 20 years and is learning how to do ministry outside of traditional structures. Janel is married, lives in Denver, CO, and loved participating in WGF last year. You can see more of her work at www.womenandchurch.com, www.brewtheology.org, and www.womenxfaith.org.
Sessions:
118 Women Experiencing Faith
179 Brew Theology
Session #179
Nourishing Community by Eating Together Faithfully
Fri 1 PM | Convo Hall 4
Sat 3 PM | Convo Hall 4
Stephanie Campbell
What does it mean to eat daily bread as disciples of Jesus Christ? What does the way the church eats and invites others to eat say about the God we worship? Where is the church in the sound bites we hear almost daily about food insecurity, hunger, chronic illness, and the growing burden current food production methods are putting on our planet? What does the character of God say to us about how we are called to be faithful eaters? We will talk together about these questions and learn about a new resource, Eating Together Faithfully, which invites people to nourish community by gathering around the table, exploring these questions together, and delighting with God in the created world.
Stephanie Campbell
After thirty years in ministry with children and families in suburban South Florida, Stephanie Campbell and her husband, John, moved to North Carolina in order to become farmers and live out their conviction that discipleship is deeply grounded in the care of the earth. Together they are regenerating the land, feeding their neighbors, and nurturing community through their sustainable family farm. Stephanie also serves at Life Around the Table, a ministry fostering robust conversation and practices in faithful eating, Sabbath rest, and the connections between the Lord’s Table and our own tables.
www.lifearoundthetable.org
Sessions:
180 Eating Together Faithfully
Session #180
Peace in the Storm: Lessons from a Sanctuary Trainer
Fri 3 PM | Convo Hall 1
Sat 11 AM | Convo Hall 1
Bridget A. Blinn-Spears
Resistance sometimes brings us into unexpected, intense conflict with others. In the sanctuary movement, our volunteers work in a unique tension. In our current political environment, immigration officials could easily change the policies that currently avoid sensitive areas such as churches, synagogues, mosques, or other institutions of worship. Volunteers’ presence with our beloved undocumented guests living in our church spaces carries the remote, but very real chance, of a confrontation with armed government agents. This session will explore the training we provide to our sanctuary volunteers to consider ways we can prepare for potential future conflict, whether with the government, in our family systems, or elsewhere in our communities, through simple, intentional practices. If you are involved or considering involvement in the sanctuary movement or other kinds of ministry, you will leave this session better prepared to respond peacefully, but not passively, to conflict.
Bridget A. Blinn-Spears
Bridget A. Blinn-Spears sometimes calls herself a blood-cell in the Body of Christ. She is a mom of four, an employment lawyer at a large international law firm, an avid reader (now largely through the medium of audiobooks), a Two on the Enneagram, and an oldest child with a dozen younger siblings ranging in age from their late teens to late thirties. She and her husband, Brian, are covenant partners at Umstead Park United Church of Christ in Raleigh, where she is a member of the sanctuary task force and the trainer for sanctuary host volunteers. She prepared the training materials now shared around the state by churches offering sanctuary. Bridget and her family can often be found exploring the breweries around the Triangle.
babspears.wordpress.com/
Sessions:
181 Sanctuary Lessons
Session #181
Changing systems, changing ourselves: Anti-racist practice for sanctuary, accompaniment & resistance
Sat Noon | River
Jennie Belle, Church World Service
Do you want to join a community of people of faith and conscience committed to taking action as well as practicing reflection? Are you seeking ways to offer grounded solidarity that don’t reproduce oppressive practices? Have you ever gone to an immigration (ICE) check-in or court to support a person at risk of deportation? Is your congregation part of the New Sanctuary Movement, or talking about joining?Based on a monthly online course created by the American Friends Service Committee’s Sanctuary Everywhere initiative and the UUA and UUSC’s Love Resists campaign with partners Church World Service and CIVIC, this workshop will explore undoing racism in the context of immigrant rights solidarity with a specific emphasis on practical skills in three streams: ICE/court accompaniment, congregational sanctuary, and immigration detention/prison visitation.
Jennie Belle
Jennie Belle was born and raised in Savannah, GA. She moved to Texas for her undergraduate education at Rice University, during which time she studied in Mexico, Peru, and Argentina, and participated in service projects in Central America. After graduation she moved to Spain for a year to teach English. Jennie then came to North Carolina for a dual degree M.Div./M.S.W. graduate program at Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill where her work focused on advocating for farm workers and organizing churches for social justice. Jennie currently works for the Immigrant & Refugee Rights Program of Church World Service as a Faith Community Organizer.
Sessions:
182 Anti-racist practice for sanctuary, accompaniment & resistance
Session #182
Author Matthew Paul Turner will read one of his bestselling children’s books When God Made You and When God Made Light
Matthew Paul Turner
Friday & Saturday 6:40 PM | Side Stage
If you’re a child or a child at heart, you will love hearing Matthew Paul Turner read one of his hope-filled, life-affirming children’s books live from the main stage
Matthew Turner
Matthew Paul Turner is a best-selling author, writer, storyteller, photographer, speaker, and blogger. As one of the most influential progressive Christian voices in media, Matthew has been featured on The Daily Beast, CNN, Washington Post, Yahoo!, USA Today, The New York Times, The Colbert Report, Gawker, and many more. Matthew has a sincere heart for the marginalized and relentless dedication to truth-telling. This passionate spirit motivates him to share rich stories that would often otherwise go unshared. As a writer and photographer, Matthew has traveled extensively with World Vision to places such as Tacloban, Philippines; Entebbe, Uganda; Cochabamba, Bolivia; Gyumri, Armenia; and other locations documenting the vast effects of poverty. His travels have offered him a multitude of life-changing experiences, from praying with a family of HIV patients in the Dominican Republic to eating and conversing with a 26-year-old Iman and being blessed by a Hindu priest in Sri Lanka. http://matthewpaulturner.com
MatthewPaulTurner.com
Sessions:
183 A reading by Matthew Paul Turner
Session #183
Words of Blessing (Your Secret Super Power)
Sat 11 AM | Healing Arts
Rev. Katie Jo Suddaby
Speaking words of blessing is an act of faith and an act of protest. Whether you are laying on hands in prayer, speaking a much-needed word of encouragement, or declaring God’s approval of an ostracized community, words of blessing are powerful and transformative. Jordan Bowman and Katie Jo Suddaby will share their experiences with hands-on prayer and lead the community in a ceremony of mutual blessing, using colorful holi powders. Similar to how Christians use anointing oil, holi powders are used by Buddhists and Hindus in India and Nepal to anoint the head in prayer. Come experience a joyful ceremony full of life and color to renew your spirit.
Katie Jo Suddaby
Rev. Katie Jo Suddaby is a freelance pastor, ordained with the American Baptist Churches USA. Short, spunky, and straight forward; she is a sought after speaker and artist. The art-form that captured her heart is Tibetan Sand Painting. Katie Jo is one of the few Westerners who practice this ancient, delicate art. Since 2012, she has designed and performed over 40 original mandalas for festivals and retreats across the country. She has received training from Tibetan Buddhist monks in the US and Nepal. Katie Jo loves to fuse Buddhist art and Christian texts to teach self-care, art as a spiritual expression, and the value of religious diversity. When not roaming around providing pastoral services, she can be found running a food pantry in Rochester, NY, watching Star Trek, walking her dog (Bernie Sanders), and singing show tunes. www.sandbykatiejo.com
www.sandbykatiejo.com
Sessions:
184 Blessing 101
291 Medicine Wheel Mandala
Jordan Bowman
Jordan has been coming to Wild Goose since 2011. He has volunteered for many years and now is serving as a contributor. Jordan also contributes to Goose and many other gatherings by serving with Desanka. A passion for loving and for being love to strangers all over the world coupled with a deep respect for the teachings of Jesus led him to Desanka and he jumped right in. When it isn’t festival season, Jordan splits his time between perusing a Business degree from NC state University and leading a boys mentoring organization in the Raleigh area called Journeymen Triangle. Jordan aspires to do many things during his short time here on this Earth. He plans to use his degree and life experiences to assist in the spiritual revolution, this time of global conscious awakening that we are living through and can be a part of.
Sessions:
184 Blessing 101
Session #184
Decolonizing Our Minds, Healing Our Hearts, and Reclaiming Our Spirits
Rev. Alba Onofrio (aka Reverend Sex)
Sat 4 PM | Workshop
Until we can address the spiritual trauma caused by the domination strategies of white Christian Supremacy, we cannot fully reclaim our bodies and spirits as sacred reflections of the Divine. This space centers the experiences Queer & Trans people, People of Color, and other marginalized folks to dig into the ways the religion has been co-opted and forced to serve systems that deny our sacred worth. Healing from spiritual violence is a life-long endeavor, but together we will amplify our strategies of resilience and celebrate the wild diversity of Creation and our places within it!
Alba Onofrio
Rev. Alba Onofrio (a.k.a. Reverend Sex) is a Southern Appalachian First-Gen Latinx Queer Mama Evangelical Femme who lives and loves in la Lucha with QTPOC folks as a Spiritual Healer and Bruja Troublemaker to combat spiritual terrorism, reclaim Guad, and eradicate shame and fear wherever they are found.
As the Spiritual Strategist for Soulforce and a Co-founder of the Sexual Liberation Collective, Rev. Alba Onofrio trains across the U.S. and internationally on decoding white Christian Supremacy and healing internalized religious-based trauma in order to rebuild our ethics and reclaim our sacred desires and spiritual practices. They also serve as Evangelist-Missionary at Jubilee Interfaith Community in Asheville, NC.
www.ReverendSex.com
www.Soulforce.org
Sessions:
Justice Camp Pre-Festival Event
186 Decolonize-Heal-Reclaim
46 Surviving The Tyranny of The Now
289 Loving Our Way to Freedom
Session #186
Engaging Fundamentalism: Building Bridges in a Divided Society
Sat 10 AM | River
Peace Catalyst International
This interactive workshop invites participants to self-reflection, compassion, and a greater understanding of the roots, motivations, and ways to engage with modern fundamentalisms, offering a way forward to build bridges in divided times.
Katie Sturm
With over 20 years in ministry, interfaith, and peace-building work, Katie is passionate about building bridges in seemingly impossible situations between people of all backgrounds. Her work and research with the Irish School of Ecumenics’ Theological Fundamentalism Project and the Millenialism Project at LHU whet her appetite to better understand the traditions of her foundations (US Evangelicalism), and also gives her a unique insider-outsider perspective. She currently lives in Seattle with her husband and daughter and leads a small online tribe of “Dones” in their exploration of their spirituality.
www.peacecatalyst.org
Sessions:
188 Engaging Fundamentalism
Session #188
Singing for Our Lives!
Sat 3 PM | River
BeLoved Asheville
How can you use music in your context to build community and resist together? Holly Near penned the line “singing for our lives” in the song, We Are A Gentle Angry People. In these deadly and dangerous days, we recognize that we must be led by our faith and our courage, indeed we must sing for our lives. Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon says, “To this day, I don’t understand how people think they can bring anybody together without a song.” Our intersectional community from the streets and from the struggle at BeLoved Asheville has always been at its heart a singing community. We sing in our spiritual gatherings, sing and chant on the streetsin prayer & protest, and in the halls of power. This will be an interactive workshop where we will use popular education to share how we infuse music in our current movements and how to utilize music to help us in caring for ourselves and our communities as we work for justice.
Amy Cantrell
Rev. Amy Cantrell lives/works in the intentional community, BeLoved Asheville. BeLoved is an intersectional community of people from the streets and margins who conspire to do justice and end oppression including homelessness, poverty, and racism. BeLoved’s mission includes: Homeless Voice Project & Street Medic Team, Root Down Tiny House Village, Rise Up Art & Music Studio, being the first declared Sanctuary in WNC, Elders Free Farmers Markets, and campaigns around Housing Not Handcuffs, Anti-gentrification, A Million for the People, and the uprooting of systemic racism including work around police brutality and the removal of Confederate monuments. She is a pastor in the Presbyterian Church, USA. She is mom to twin four year olds, loves the color purple, playing guitar, and studying movement history. Find her on Facebook @Amy Cantrell and @BeLovedAsheville.
www.belovedasheville.com
Sessions:
189 Singing!
Ponkho Bermejo
Ponkho is a part of the intentional community of BeLoved Asheville. BeLoved works to make sharing and radical recycling an every day practice in building a new world in the shell of the old. Ponkho weaves his Mexican culture into his work as a cultural artist and community organizer. He creates public art out of recycled pallets that double as community gardens for elders and creates Neighborhood Fiestas to organize communities to support each other. He supported justice campaigns including the Charlotte Uprising, Housing Not Handcuffs, and an Emergency Food and Know Your Rights Campaign during the recent ICE raids. Ponkho is painter, graphic artist, and photographer with BeLoved’s Rise Up Studio as well as a musician and song-writer.
Sessions:
189 Singing for Our Lives!
Adrienne Sigmon
Adrienne is part of the intentional community of BeLoved Asheville. BeLoved conspires to put love and justice into action! She brings her experience from the streets into creating solutions like housing for all through the building of a Tiny House Village, organizing people experiencing homelessness through a Homeless Voice Community Power group, and healthcare for all through helping to create the first homeless Street Medic team in the nation. She has worked to challenge racism in policing and used power tools to work at taking down a Confederate Monument. She is a photographer and artist with BeLoved’s Rise Up Studio.
Sessions:
189 Singing for Our Lives!
Session #189
Racial Reconciliation: A Primer for White Christians
Sat 4 PM | River
Joseph Caldwell
Together we will identify some of the challenges that white Christians have in understanding the nuances of race in America. We hope to challenge biases on both ends of the political spectrum about reconciliation, activism, interracial relationships and other issues surfaced by the group. The co-creator of this session is a white male who has spent the last 23 years in an interracial marriage and hopes to recreate in the session what has been a blessing in his marriage; Principally the experience of being able to ask dangerous questions in safe spaces.
Joseph Caldwell
Dr. Joseph Caldwell is the President of the Memphis Center for Urban Theological Studies. MCUTS provides accredited associate and bachelor degrees in theology and human services to largely lower income and minority students with the purpose of empowering students to work through the church to transform Memphis’ most impoverished communities. This year Joe chaired the Memphis Teach In an MLK50 Commemoration event in partnership with the National Civil Rights Museum. This event brought together 350 scholars and students from across the nation to discuss the question of the church and civil rights.
Sessions:
190 Racial Reconciliation
Session #190
Community Art Project
Shawna Bowman
Wild Goose Community Artists are visual artists who will collaborate and co-create with presenters, speakers and musicians at the Goose! We are exploring a multi-sensory approach to learning and growing through the work of our visual artist and their work will provide a visual conversation partner along with the brilliant words and music you are used to encountering in our various venues. There will also be times and spaces in which community artists will invite you to co-create as well!
Nicole Farley
Community Artist
The Rev. Nicole Farley is an ordained pastor in the PC(USA). She most recently served a congregation in Waukesha, WI, and now serves as the founder and pastoral artist with A New Creation, an arts ministry which brings communities into the creation of worship-ful art together. She and her husband live in Gurnee, IL, and together they have an adult son named Jim and a greyhound named Buddy. Besides art and lived theology, she’ll gladly have a conversation about books, podcasts, music, and movies.
https://www.hereisanewcreation.com/
Sessions:
85 Making Art with the Ordinary
191 Community Art Project
Lisle Gwinn Garrity
Community Artist
Rev. Lisle Gwynn Garrity is an artist, retreat leader, and creative entrepreneur working within the Presbyterian Church (USA) and beyond. As founder of A Sanctified Art, a collaborative arts collective creating multimedia resources for churches, Lisle believes in the prophetic and freeing power of art to connect us more deeply to God and one another. She holds master’s degrees in divinity and practical theology from Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta. Based in the beautiful rolling hills of Black Mountain, NC, Lisle is passionate about creative worship, the intersections of art and justice, yoga, and long walks with her pup, Max. Learn more about her work by visiting lislegwynngarrity.com/ and sanctifiedart.org/
Sessions:
191 Community Art Project
Session #191
Silent Space
Sat 5 PM | Chapel
Karol Eubanks Vellines, MSW
My family debriefed about last year’s Wild Goose for weeks. The thing that continued to rise for us was the need for silence. If the need for silence was a big need for my family of extroverts, I knew more people had the same need. Silent Space will meet that need. Come join me as we are gently moved into silence space where you are free to be silent in any manner you need: meditation, journaling, silently listening to music through earbuds, napping or something silent you dream of. We will covenant to keep silent and you will leave renewed.
Karol Eubanks Vellines
Karol Eubanks Vellines is a social worker, social justice organizer and minister living in Atlanta, GA. She uses her MSW skills to work with families adopting and fostering children living with trauma, to organizing work with Children’s Defense Fund, Stop School Shootings Now: National Walkout and to end the child sex trade in Atlanta, and as a minster on staff in churches, most recently Oakhurst Baptist Church in Decatur, GA. Karol is an avid knitter, cook, and extrovert. She is here with her guys, husband Steve and son Sam who are camping and daughter Annabette who is glamping with Karol. She designed her workshop to be a gift to Goosers who need a quiet place to just be.
Sessions:
192 Silent Space
Session #192
Breaking Bad-Ass
How does simple Jesus-Following guys’ faith end them up in a jail cell? How it can happen to you and why it should.
Shane Claiborne, Doug Pagitt
Sat 3 PM | Greater Things
Shane Claiborne
Shane Claiborne graduated from Eastern University and did graduate work at Princeton Seminary. In 2010, he received an Honorary Doctorate from Eastern. His adventures have taken him from the streets of Calcutta where he worked with Mother Teresa to the wealthy suburbs of Chicago where he served at the influential mega-church Willow Creek. As a peacemaker, his journeys have taken him to some of the most troubled regions of the world – from Rwanda to the West Bank, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Shane is a founder and board member of The Simple Way, a faith community in inner city Philadelphia that has helped birth and connect radical faith communities around the world. He is married to Katie Jo, a North Carolina girl who also fell in love with the city (and with Shane).
Shane writes and travels extensively speaking about peacemaking, social justice, and Jesus. His books are translated into more than a dozen languages. Shane speaks over 100 times a year, nationally and internationally.
www.thesimpleway.org
Sessions:
193 Breaking Bad-ass
202 Shane Claiborne on Gun Violence
Doug Pagitt
If by some odd set of circumstances we were to meet at a party where neither of us knew the host and were both the party-partners of someone else, and we were trapped in the kitchen, and in a kind effort you sought to break the awkward silence by saying, “so, who are you?”, I would want to tell you that deep down I am a novice ultra-marathoner and try not to talk constantly about having run a 100-mile race recently. And at this very moment, I wish I was out on a run.
But instead, in order to fit the protocol of casual, professional interactions I would tell you that I am a pastor, an author, a convener who seeks to be a goodness conspirator & possibility evangelist finding creative, entrepreneurial and generative ways to enlist people to join in the hopes, dreams, and desires of God for the world.
If you seemed at all interested in all that professional stuff I might include that I do that work by being the pastor of Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis, speaking and writing on spirituality and leadership a
www.dougpagitt.com
Sessions:
227 Doug Pagitt, Topic TBD
298 Greater Than: How Ordinary People Are Outdoing Jesus, Why It Is Good News
299 Now Were Talk’n With Doug Pagitt Podcast
405 What is W/?
435 Vote Common Good Bus Tour enlisting religious voters to flip Congress
193 Breaking Bad-ass
Session #193
Jen Hatmaker
Jen Hatmaker
Sat 2 PM | Living Room
Jen Hatmaker
Jen Hatmaker is the author of eleven books, including New York Times Bestsellers For the Love and Of Mess and Moxie. She is the happy hostess of a tightly knit online community where she reaches millions of people each week. She and her husband, Brandon, founded the Legacy Collective, a giving community that funds sustainable solutions to systemic problems around the world. They also starred in an HGTV series called “My Big Family Renovation” and live in a 105-year-old farmhouse just outside Austin, TX with their five kids. She speaks at events all over the country and hosts the popular podcast For the Love with Jen Hatmaker. Check out her books, schedule, and blog at jenhatmaker.com/
Sessions:
194 Jen Hatmaker – Topic TBD
5 Jen Hatmaker, Topic TBD
386 A Conversation with Jen Hatmaker
Session #194
Lisbeth Melendez-Rivera
Sat 1 PM | Living Room
Lisbeth Meléndez Rivera
Lisbeth Meléndez Rivera is a 30+ year veteran of the LGBTQ and Labor movements. Lisbeth has extensive experience organizing and training at the intersections of sexual orientation, gender identity, and culture specifically as they relate to communities of color. Lisbeth has crisscrossed the country training workers and community leaders in organizing, leadership development, and community building strategies from a grassroots perspective. She has also done extensive work supporting LGBTQ leaders in America Latina.
Currently, Lisbeth, is the Director of Faith Outreach & Training at the Human Rights Campaign, where she works with people of faith across denominations to ensure we can be who we are, love who we love, and practice our faith free of judgement.
Lisbeth ia a biologist and sociologist by education, with a solid Jesuit and SND formation that makes her passions flare and her days move forward. Today Lisbeth lives in Hyattsville, Maryland, alongside her wife, Lisa Weiner- Mahfuz, and their chosen family, both human and furry!!
Sessions:
Justice Camp Pre-Festival Event
196 Lisbeth Melendez-Rivera Topic TBD
390 A Conversation with Lisbeth Melendez Rivera
272 Just As They Are
Session #196
Stan Mitchell
Fri 3 PM | Greater Things
Stan Mitchell
STAN MITCHELL Stan Mitchell, an Arkansas native and fifth generation classical Pentecostal, has traveled extensively for over 30 years of preaching and teaching, including a lead position at the highly respected Christ Church in Nashville, TN. Mitchell currently serves as senior pastor of GracePointe Church in Franklin, TN. The core members of GracePointe commissioned Mitchell over a decade ago to be the rallying teaching force of a new church that began in his living room. This progressive, evangelical and interdenominational community has been on an expansive and deeply sacred journey in the last few years, bringing their initiatives to the forefront of many modern day issues surrounding the Christian church, namely their recent movement into full inclusion of the LGBTQ community.
gracepointe.net/who-we-are/
Sessions:
197 Stan Mitchell
392 A Conversation with Stan Mitchell
215 Barbara Brown Taylor Interview by Stan Mitchell
Session #197
John Pavlovitz
Sun 9 AM | Main Stage
John Pavlovitz
John Pavlovitz is a writer and pastor from Wake Forest, North Carolina. In the past three years, his blog Stuff That Needs To Be Said has reached a diverse audience of millions. A 20-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John’s mission is to help the Church become a more compassionate, loving environment for all people. He serves on staff at North Raleigh Community Church and his first book A Bigger Table, will be released in October. http://johnpavlovitz.com/
Sessions:
199 John Pavlovitz – Topic TBD
228 John Pavlovitz, Topic TBD
Session #199
How to get the most out of the Goose
Joy Wallis
Thu 3 PM | Library
Session #200
Tony Campolo Interview
Tony Campolo with Sarah Heath
Fri 2 PM | Living Room
Tony Campolo
Tony Campolo is professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern University and a former faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania. For 40 years, he led the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, an organization which he founded to create and support programs serving needy communities. More recently, Dr. Campolo has provided leadership for the progressive Christian movement, Red Letter Christians as well as, for the Campolo Center for Ministry, a program which provides support to those the church has called to full-time ministry. He has written more than 35 books and can be found blogging regularly on tonycampolo.org and redletterchristians.org. Tony and his wife Peggy live near Philadelphia and have two children and four grandchildren.
Sessions:
201 Tony Campolo, Topic TBD
394 A Conversation with Tony Campolo
Sarah Heath
Originally from Canada but spent some time in Southern Mississippi and North Carolina, Sarah currently serves First United Methodist Church in Costa Mesa, California, where she is the lead pastor for a church re-start and revitalization. Sarah has a passion for music, traveling, acting, creating art, playing and watching sports. She is the author of What’s your story? Seeing your life through God’s eyes and host of the podcast Sonderlust the podcast. The biggest blessings in her life are her random assortment of talented friends and her amazing mutt of a dog, Tenor.
www.revsarahheath.com
Sessions:
141 What’s your Story? how can your story change the world.
201 Tony Campolo Interview
Session #201
Shane Claiborne on Gun Violence
Fri 4 PM | Living Room
It’s no secret that gun violence has been on the rise in the past years. Attacks on black churches, queer night clubs, and high schools, all make us ask: How do we stop the violence? How do we stand in solidarity with victims? What can we do?
This year at the Wild Goose Festival, Shane Claiborne, renowned author and activist, joins us for a conversation addressing this topic. Drawing from years of experience working for prison reform, the abolition of the death penalty, and as a radical peacemaker, Shane will be bringing a powerful word that we can carry with us back to our communities.
Shane Claiborne
Shane Claiborne graduated from Eastern University and did graduate work at Princeton Seminary. In 2010, he received an Honorary Doctorate from Eastern. His adventures have taken him from the streets of Calcutta where he worked with Mother Teresa to the wealthy suburbs of Chicago where he served at the influential mega-church Willow Creek. As a peacemaker, his journeys have taken him to some of the most troubled regions of the world – from Rwanda to the West Bank, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Shane is a founder and board member of The Simple Way, a faith community in inner city Philadelphia that has helped birth and connect radical faith communities around the world. He is married to Katie Jo, a North Carolina girl who also fell in love with the city (and with Shane).
Shane writes and travels extensively speaking about peacemaking, social justice, and Jesus. His books are translated into more than a dozen languages. Shane speaks over 100 times a year, nationally and internationally.
www.thesimpleway.org
Sessions:
193 Breaking Bad-ass
202 Shane Claiborne on Gun Violence
Session #202
Musical Performance: Charles Pettee & FolkPsalm
The Psalms: Songs of Tragedy, Hope, and Resistance
Fri 11 AM | Café
For devotees of the sacred texts, as well as folks who have never cracked open a Bible, FolkPsalm offers their music to highlight works from the Book of Psalms that speak to the oppression of the poor, the hubris of the Empire, the despoiling of the Earth, and unrestrained pursuit of wealth – issues thoroughly addressed over 3,000 years ago in this expansive collection of the poems and prayers. Often, the messages from our underdog, agrarian, Hebrew spiritual ancestors are lost on us today, either because we have become numb to the language, or because, all too often, we restrict these texts to merely “spiritual” lessons. Charles Pettee & FolkPsalm are renowned for helping us hear these poems all over again with urgency and wonder, through their memorable original acoustic folk/bluegrass settings of these texts, their sweet harmonies, their instrumental prowess, and their enthusiasm for every aspect of it! Dancing is encouraged!
see bio elsewhere
LISTEN
Charles Pettee & FolkPsalm
FolkPsalm formed in 2002 to perform Charles Pettee’s original music settings from the Book of Psalms. The group is known for featuring the talents of renowned professional musicians from NC, performing beautifully arranged instrumentals, with sweet harmony vocals. The group now boasts four full length albums of “folkpsalms.”
Five FolkPsalm members will perform at this year’s festival: Charles Pettee, guitar and mandolin wielding songwriter from Asheville, who is a teaching artist/music educator now residing in Chapel Hill, NC with his wife and two sons. Elizabeth Bahnson has been fiddling and singing since she was 5 years old. She is a nursing student and lives in Brevard, NC with her husband Fred Bahnson and three wild boys. Percussionist David Gerard is an internationally recognized electronic musician, who, in addition to his work with Folkpsalm, is a member of the acoustic trio Forever Young, as well as playing drums for the HRCH Jazz Quintet, both based in Albany, NY, where he currently resides. Brittany Whitmire is the fifth generation in her family to live and work on their farm in western North Carolina where they raise beef cattle. She works with dairy farmers throughout North Carolina as a NC State University Extension Associate. Brittany grew up singing with her Mama. Terry Allebaugh, harmonica master from the hills of Virginia, is a servant leader now living in Durham, NC and working to end homelessness across the Tarheel state.
“With strong conviction and sometimes wry humor, [FolkPsalm] delivers a message about the incomparable value of healthy land, a message that faith communities urgently need to hear and communicate to others.” (Prof. Ellen F. Davis, Duke Divinity School) “Something very old, very true is at work here.” (H.M. Simpson, Senior Pastor, University Baptist Church, Chapel Hill, NC)
www.folkpsalm.com
Sessions:
203 Musical Performance: Charles Pettee & FolkPsalm
Session #203
Amy Grant Interview with Chris Hauser: Forty-Plus Year Adventure
Sunday 10 AM | Main Stage
In 1978, Amy’s first record debuted. Amy talks with Chris Hauser, music industry veteran, about her forty-plus year adventure.
Amy Grant
Amy Grant has been strumming her way through a forty-plus year adventure as a singer-songwriter, author, television host, and speaker.
Amy has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. Her chart performance boasts six No. 1 hits, 10 “Top 40” Pop singles, 17 “Top 40” Adult Contemporary tracks and multiple Contemporary Christian chart-toppers. Grant has received 6 GRAMMY Awards, 26 Dove Awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a star on the Music City Walk of Fame. Additionally, she was most recently inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.
Stepping out from behind her guitar, Grant found herself hosting the NBC prime-time series “Three Wishes” in 2005. Two years later, Grant’s first book, Mosaic: Pieces of My Life, was published. She continues to share her stories with audiences all over the country.
Grant resides with her family in Nashville, Tennessee, and is widely known for her philanthropy and involvement in local causes and charitable organizations. Her own organization, The Helping Hands Foundation, has afforded her the opportunity to identify needs around her and the resources to help meet them, which has proven to be the sweetest reward of all.
amygrant.com
Sessions:
205 Amy Grant with Chris Hauser: An Interview
221 Musical Performance: Amy Grant
Mr. Chris Hauser
Chris Hauser is a nearly 40 year veteran of the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) industry, starting in radio in 1979, before being hired at Myrrh Records in 1987 (Amy Grant, Russ Taff, Phil Keaggy, Julie Miller). In 1990 he moved to Nashville to work with Warner Alliance, the Gospel div. of Warner Bros. Records (The Winans, Take 6, Donnie McClurkin, Caedmon’s Call). He is celebrating his 20th year in independent radio promotions (and 31st year in promotions). He is most proud of helping to bring artists like Gungor, Jars of Clay, Matt Maher, John Mark McMillan and finally, this year – Amy Grant to the Goose!
Sessions:
205 Amy Grant with Chris Hauser: An Interview
Session #205
Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America.
Nancy MacLean with Rob Wilson-Black
Sat 1 PM | Library
A talk by Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America. Democracy in Chains blows open the doors to the unknown history of the relentless campaign by the radical rich to eliminate unions, suppress voting, privatize everything from schools to Medicare and Social Security, stop action on climate change, and alter the U.S. Constitution. MacLean traces this game plan back to the Nobel Prize-winning political economist James McGill Buchanan, who forged his ideas in an attempt to preserve the white elite’s power in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education. As much of America (and the world) reels from a seemingly unexpected swing to populism and far-right rhetoric, Democracy in Chains offers a peek behind the curtain to reveal just how we got here and what the future will hold. The Nation magazine has named it “the most valuable book” of the year.
Nancy MacLean
Nancy MacLean is an award-winning scholar of the twentieth-century U.S., whose new book, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America, has been described by Publishers Weekly as “a thoroughly researched and gripping narrative… [and] a feat of American intellectual and political history.” Booklist called it “perhaps the best explanation to date of the roots of the political divide that threatens to irrevocably alter American government.”
history.duke.edu/people/nancy-maclean
Sessions:
206 Democracy in Chains
Rob Wilson-Black
Board member
A graduate of the University of Chicago (PhD, AM) under Martin E. Marty, and the University of Richmond, Rob is the author of numerous articles, blogs, podcasts, and a forthcoming book on religion and education. He has given talks on campuses throughout the world, including UC-Berkeley, Northwestern, Georgetown, the University of Chicago, the University of Cape Town, and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Rob has been CEO of Sojourners since 2013, and serves as co-chair of the National Museum of American Religion Board, on the Alumni Council of the University of Chicago Divinity School, Sidwell Friends School Parents Committee on Equality, Justice and Community, and the Wild Goose Festival Board.
He lives in Reston, Virginia with his wife of 23 years, the Reverend Juli Wilson-Black, a Presbyterian minister, and their children Hannah (15) Claire (12) and Owen (8). They travel with him to many of the 65 countries he has visited for research, speaking, and education.
sojo.net/biography/robert-wilson-black
Sessions:
206 Democracy in Chains
Session #206
