At the Table: Christian Community for the Common Good
While the world becomes increasingly complex, professionalized, and disconnected, the church is experiencing a crisis of identity. Do we follow suit and strive to out-program, out-professionalize, and out-attract the rest of the world? Or do gather at the table and focus on the small and simple community-based practices that have been our strength across the generations?
At the Table is a Podcast for church leaders interested in community-based ministry that contributes to the common good via mutual relationships, spiritual practice, simplicity, and an awareness of God’s activity in our communities. Each month, we will have conversations with leaders and practitioners of community-based ministry to reflect on and learn about the core practices, theological underpinnings, and immediate invitations of this important work. We believe that something miraculous happens when Christian community gathers with neighbors at the table.
You can learn more about the work of place-based ministry and the common good by visiting www.nicholastangen.com and subscribing to Nicholas Tangen's Newsletter.
At the Table: Christian Community for the Common Good
Contemplation and the Common Good: A Conversation with Sam Rahberg
My guest today is Sam Rahberg. Sam is a Benedictine, a spiritual director, a writer, and the Director of the Spiritual Direction program at St John’s university and seminary. Sam’s work with leaders in the church around vocation and discernment, and his profound wisdom about the contemplative life, has inspired me for as long as I’ve known him. And I asked him to join me for a conversation about spiritual practice and what the contemplative spiritual tradition can offer Christian communities seeking to live as good and attentive neighbors.
In this episode we talk about what the spiritual mothers and fathers call the unitive vision, contemplation as a way of life, and the tradition of Benedictine spirituality. My conversation with Sam was so much fun and left me dreaming about contemplative communities rooted in neighborhoods and seeking Christ in the face of their neighbor.
You can keep up with Sam's work at www.samuelrahberg.com
Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander by Thomas Merton