Conversations on Hope, Episode 3: Pastor Rich Villodas

This final episode of the series is an excerpt from the webinar that Glenn hosted called “Songs of Hope”. Glenn asks the panel how worship leading during the pandemic has changed. Aaron Keyes talks about combining the right elements of hope and lament in order to embody faithful suffering; Nikki Lerner describes the way she slows down the spaces between songs to increase engagement; and Jon Egan shares how the Holy Spirit helps us see what people on the other side of a webcast are going through and how the Psalms help us give people language for their experience.

In this episode of Conversations on Hope, I sit down with Professor Jeremy Begbie to talk about hope, music, emotions, and worship. Begbie is the Thomas A. Langford Distinguished Professor at Duke Divinity School, Duke University, where he directs Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts. His primary research interest is the correlation between theology and the arts, in particular the interplay between music and theology. he is also an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of Music at the University of Cambridge. In our conversation, Begbie proposes that emotions have to rightly directed and appropriately proportionate. Music has the power to evoke emotions, a power that must be stewarded well but not feared or avoided. Words, however, are needed to aim and direct our affections. Finally, we discussed how musicians and worship leaders keep our hearts fresh in worship.

How does Christian hope inform our creative work for reconciliation and justice? In this episode, I chat with David Bailey, the Founder and Executive Director of Arrabon, an organization that builds reconciling communities in the midst of a digital, diverse and divided world. David describes his work as helping people who understand that there is a problem with racial justice in America figure out what to do about it. We talked about how we reduce the problem to fit a small theology, how innovation for the Christian is about living from the future rather than imitating the world, and how we can be angry without becoming bitter. In a key part of the interview, David outlined the key components of becoming a reconciling community and not simply a diverse community. 

In this episode, Glenn chats with Becky Drake about cultivating the virtue of hope in children by helping them to encounter the presence of God and to persevere through trials. Becky is a songwriter and worship leader, and works as the School Chaplain for The Blue Coat School in Birmingham, England, where she pastors children and their families. She and her husband Nick started “Worship for Everyone”, which features songs and videos for engaging all ages in worship.

In this excerpt from the webinar he did on Christian hope, Glenn Packiam shares six places of overlap with the eschatological visions of Moltmann and Wright. What we see as our future hope has major implications for how we understand the mission of the church today.

How does Christian hope compare with the promise of scientific progress? How might faith give us a vision of hope that is more than physical? What’s going to happen to the cosmos? In this episode, Glenn Packiam sits down with the Rev'd Professor David Wilkinson to talk about creation, the cosmos, and Christian eschatology. A Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and an ordained Methodist minister, David is Principal of St John’s College at Durham University and Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University. He holds PhDs in both Astrophysics and Systematic Theology, and writes and speaks around the world about science and faith. The Christian is able to give thanks for progress and the knowledge gained from science while placing her hope in a Creator and Redeemer, receiving both this creation and new creation as gift.

Glenn Packiam hosts a conversation with David Taylor, Associate Professor of Theology and Culture at Fuller Theological Seminary. David offers a theologically comprehensive and concise definition of Christian hope, and describes how the Psalms inform our understanding of hope— particularly its relationship to lament and vengeance. As one who has written and lectured widely about the arts, David offers insight into how art ignites our imagination of and invites our participation in new creation.

Glenn Packiam hosts a conversation with Rich Villodas, the Brooklyn-born lead pastor of New Life Fellowship, a large multiracial church with more than seventy-five countries represented in Elmhurst, Queens. Rich holds a Master of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary, and preaches and writes on contemplative spirituality, justice-related matters, and the art of preaching. His first book, The Deeply Formed Life, will be released September 15th, 2020. In this conversation, Rich talks about his vision of Christian hope and how it relates to his work on both formation and justice. Our inward formation is an expression of the healing work of Jesus, and our outward work for justice is a kind of micro-hope that gives the world a foretaste of the future. Finally, Rich describes the quality of a song of hope, and gives a surprising example.

Glenn Packiam chats with culture coach, speaker, artist, and author Nikki Lerner. Nikki is the host of the Culture Coach Podcast, has authored a new book entitled Life Whispers, and is also the co-author of the book Worship Together: In Your Church As In Heaven. In this episode, she shares her view of Christian hope as the fullness of the Spirit’s presence and the power of God to transform. She describes how her work of helping individuals and organizations move from monocultural to multicultural relates to hope, since multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-lingual worship witnesses to the world to come. Finally, she describes what makes a song a song of hope.

In this debut episode of a new series of short videos, Glenn Packiam interviews John Swinton, Professor of Practical Theology and Pastoral Care at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Swinton was given the Oskar Pfister Award by the American Psychiatric Association for making an outstanding contribution to religion and psychiatry in 2018. His latest book is called, "Becoming Friends of Time: Disability, Timefulness, and Gentle Discipleship". In this conversation, Swinton describes his view of Christian hope, how his work relates to hope, what a song of hope is, and the power of music for those suffering from dementia and Alzheimer's.