Shifting Culture

In this episode, Ruth Haley Barton joins me to talk about her new book, Leading a Transforming Community. We start with the difference between formation and transformation, and with why discipleship programs alone don’t always change us. Ruth makes the case that the spiritual life is never only a private project. It unfolds in community, among people at very different stages of faith, including those walking through doubt and loss. We talk about letting go of control and staying together long enough to change. We also talk about how difference, rather than sameness, helps us listen for God together, and about what it means to make room for transformation instead of trying to manage it.
Ruth Haley Barton (DD, Northern Seminary) is an author and founder of the Transforming Center, a ministry dedicated to strengthening the souls of clergy, Christian leaders, and the ministries they serve. She has been a student, practitioner, teacher, and leader in Christian spirituality and spiritual formation for over 25 years. A seasoned spiritual director (Shalom Institute for Spiritual Formation), she developed and leads the Transforming Center’s two-year Transforming Community experience, a practice-based spiritual journey for leaders offered in quarterly retreats. Ruth is the author of numerous books, including Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry, Life Together in Christ: Experiencing Transformation in Community, and Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest: From Sabbath to Sabbatical and Back Again. Her new book, Leading a Transforming Community: Foundations, Practices, and Strategies for Opening to God Together, along with a conversation guide for leadership groups, will be released on October 13.
Ruth's Book:
Leading a Transforming Community
Ruth's Recommendation:
Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World
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In this episode, Amanda Held Opelt and I talk about her book Provisions and what the food of Appalachia can teach us about home, memory, and belonging. We discuss why we long for rootedness in an age of machines, why nostalgia can’t carry us back, and how diet culture loses its grip when food becomes a matter of history and gratitude. We look at how the caricature of the hillbilly served the coal and timber companies, how a seed can carry a people through grief, and why Jesus gave us a meal to remember him by. We also talk about how to become native to the place where you live.
Amanda Held Opelt is an award-winning author, speaker, and song­writer. She writes about faith, creativity, communal traditions, and life in Southern Appalachia. Amanda spent nearly fifteen years serving in the nonprofit sector, and her writing has appeared in Christianity Today, Plough, Religion News Service, and 100 Days in Appalachia. She lives with her husband and two young daughters in the mountains of Boone, North Carolina.
Amanda's Book:
Provisions
Amanda's Recommendations:
Look Like a Lady
Night Magic
Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com

Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.

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In this episode, Brian McLaren joins me to talk about The Great Rift, the second book in his Last Voyage trilogy. We discuss what happens when a community leaves a collapsing Earth for Mars and finds that the old world’s assumptions have come along. I ask Brian how real change happens, whether we can imagine anything beyond the systems we’re swimming in, and what it takes to move from survival to meaning. We also talk about artificial intelligence, ritual, the power of story in a crisis, and why rediscovering our connection to one another and the earth may be the most urgent work we have.
Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, and public theologian who spent over 30 years as one of the most widely-read voices in progressive Christian theology. After the 2016 election, he began writing science fiction as a way to imagine the future honestly. His new novel, The Great Rift, the second book in a trilogy that began with The Last Voyage, releases November 3rd, 2026.
Brian's Book:
The Great Rift
Brian's Recommendation:
Children of Time
Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com

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In this episode, Matthew D. Taylor joins me to talk about his new book, Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists, and why he believes American Christianity has reached an emergency. We trace the merger of Christianity and empire back to Constantine, then read Mark, 1 John, and Revelation as challenges to Caesar’s vision of power. Matthew explains what John meant by antichrist and why the early church aimed that word at fellow Christians. I ask him what we’re supposed to do when the wheat and the weeds grow together, and what following Jesus looks like when Christians choose empire.
Matthew D. Taylor is the author of Defying Tyrants, The Violent Take It by Force, and Scripture People, and his work has appeared or been featured in the New York Times, Weekend Edition, On the Media, Rolling Stone, The Bulwark, Politico, Sojourners, and Religion News Service. A religious studies scholar who specializes in American Islam, Christian nationalism, and Christian extremism, he is also the creator of the Charismatic Revival Fury podcast series. Taylor holds a PhD from Georgetown University and an MA from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is currently a senior visiting scholar at the Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown University.
Matthew's Book:
Defying Tyrants
Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com

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In this episode, Carmen Joy Imes returns to talk about Fierce and Faithful: 25 Women of the Bible Who Dared to Trust God, the children’s book she co-wrote with Nijay Gupta. The book tells the stories of biblical women honestly and gives kids a big enough imagination for how God invites all of us into his work. We talk about holy disobedience, what Eve was called to do in the garden, Hagar naming the God who sees, the prophet Huldah, and how to tell hard stories to children with care. These are stories worth putting in the hands of the girls and boys in your life.
Dr. Carmen Joy Imes is associate professor of Old Testament at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, in Southern California. She is the author of Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters, Being God’s Image: Why Creation Still Matters, and Becoming God’s Family: Why the Church Still Matters. Her primary areas of expertise are Exodus and the Psalms. Carmen releases weekly videos on her YouTube channel and you can find her writing on various websites, including Christianity Today and Substack. Carmen has appeared on over 200 podcasts and radio outlets. She enjoys traveling to speak at churches, schools, conferences, and retreats. Carmen is passionate about equipping the church to engage the Old Testament well and to see its relevance for the Christian life. She is a fellow of Every Voice.
Carmen and Nijay's Book:
Fierce and Faithful
Carmen's Recommendations:
The Gospel and My Black Skin
Dementia
Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com

Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.

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Support the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below
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