The Art of Holiness

A.J. Swoboda is a pastor, teacher, theologian, and author of such books as The Gift of Thorns, Subversive Sabbath, Slow Theology, After Doubt … to name a few. He serves on the faculties of George Fox University and Fuller Seminary where he teaches biblical studies, theology, and church history. He pastors Theophilus church in Portland, Oregon and leads a great podcast together with Nijay Gupta called Slow Theology. His most recent ...

Not that Jonathan Edwards ... the other one! The one who has served our podcast week in and week out this year as our faithful, enthusiastic, encouraging and extraordinarily talented producer. Jonathan is part of the Seedbed Publishing farm team, serving as one of their creatives in the area of video production. Because he has been with us behind the scenes for every single episode, I wanted to have a conversation with him about th...

Dr. Cheryl Bridges Johns – distinguished visiting professor at United Theological Semianry and professor of Christian Formation at Pentecostal Theological Seminary for 35 years –  is a long-time friend of The Art of Holiness, and of me. She has been a great mentor over the years. You can find three other conversations with her in our vault so look them up. Today, we are also joined by her husband, Dr. Jackie David Johns, professor ...

Dr. Nicole Massey Martin is a strong voice in the American Christian movement with decades of experience at the executive level. She currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer at Christianity Today, and currently hosts The Disrupters podcast (a CT production). Beyond her roles with CT, she is an author, preacher and teacher -- a solid academic, with degrees from Vanderbilt, Princeton and Gordon-Conwell. She is the founder and ...

If you listen to this podcast even occasionally, you know that I love discovering "treasures in a field" -- people I didn't know before who I'm just now discovering, and who are full of wisdom and goodness. Well, I just found another one! Christopher Lohrstorfer, VP of Academic Affairs at Wesley Biblical Seminary (and pastor of a local church, too!)  is the author of Learning to Breathe: Mastering the Art of Spi...

Reverend Doctor Petey Bellini is brilliant and faithful and deeply spiritual and that’s what makes conversation with him so good. He is an interdisiplinary academic, which a gift to the rest of us. It means he can connect the dots between the seen and the unseen, and he does so in the most accessible way. In his latest book, he writes about the intersection between neuroscience, emotional health and spirituality. This is a good one...

Rev. Dr Christian Selvaratnam serves as the Dean of Church Planting at St. Hild College, York, England. He is also the founder of the Centre for Church Planting at St. Hild and works extensively with Seedbed to train pastors and planters. He has decades of experience on staff with Alpha International, as Head of Alpha UK and and as its National Director. He has planted churches and written books, including The Craft of Church Plant...

I love finding treasures in a field. Finding Doug Koskela and his work was delightful. He serves through the Free Methodist Church as a professor at Seattle Pacific University, where he teaches Wesleyan Theology, epistemology of theology, vocation and ecclesiology. His is a member of the Wesleyan Theological Society and author of three books. Today, we’ll focus on his latest, The Radiance of God: Christian Doctrine through the Imag...

Winfield Bevins is some of everything good. He is a church planter who planted both a church and a network before taking on the role of Director of the Center for Church Multiplication at Asbury Theological Seminary. He has since stepped out of that role to lead Creo Arts, a non-proift dedicated to fostering creativity within the Church. Winfield is a prolific writer with books to his credit about Anglicanism, discipleship in the h...

Dr. Chris Bounds, professor of theology at Asbury Theological Seminary, has literally written the book on holiness … or should I say books. His most recent, co-authored with Matt Ayers and Caleb Friedman, is called Holiness: A Biblical, Historical, and Systematic Theology. But wait! There’s more! Dr. Bounds has also done laudable work in the area of worship and has written a book together with Constance Cherry and Mary Brown called...

Dr. Ellen Marmon serves Professor of Christian Discipleship at Asbury Theological Seminary. For years, she served on the leadership team of Asbury's Doctor of Ministry program, and helped so many pastors work their way through dissertation projects. She has lived the discipling life through and through, so it is a pleasure to introduce her to the Art of Holiness community. We talk about the culture of discipleship, evangelism,...

This episode drops on the first day of the Mega-Manila Annual Conference, where Dr. Luther Oconer presides as Conference Superintendent in the Global Methodist Church. So its fitting that we should listen to him today and get excited about the kind of faith and leadership that is leading that Conference.  Luther Oconer currently serves on the faculty of Asbury Theological Seminary, as an officer with the Wesleyan Theological Societ...

Some of our best podcasts have been with historians, and today will be no exception. This is a great conversation. Beth Allison Barr is The James Vardaman Endowed Professor of History professor at Baylor University, specializing in Medieval and Early Modern England, Women’s History, Medieval Sermons, and Church History. She received degrees from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Baylor University. While she has writte...

We had Dr. Tim Gaines on the podcast last fall, after I discovered him while speaking at a Salvation Army event. Tim is a professor of religion at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, where he teaches courses in theology and ethics and directs the graduate program in theology and biblical studies. He also serves as a pastor at Trevecca Community Church and as the director of The Center for Wesleyan-Holiness Formation, which s...

Brian Russell is a fine academic, a strong leader, a giving spirit, a remarkable multi-tasker, and man of deep prayer. That mix of gifts and traits makes him a rare treasure in this field called the Body of Christ. He is also an author, blogger, coach, mentor to many, and among the most accessible academics we know. He is a professor at Asbury Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida, who has authored a book on the devotional readi...

Today’s conversation is with Dr. Grant Wacker -- academic and author, and distinguished professor emeritus at Duke Divinity. His studies have focused on American Christian History, particularly on Pentecostalism and American culture. Today, we are talking to him about the Pentecostal life, and also what we might learn from the significant ministry of Billy Graham about how to do evangelism in the 21st century. Dr. Wacker has writte...

Linda Adams serves as a Bishop in the Free Methodist Church. She first served in the U.S. and now serves in Canada. In this episode, we talk about doing evangelism in a thoroughly post-Christian or secular culture, and also about prophetic gifts, and secularity, and some other things, too. As our producer said of this episode, this one "spanned just about everything.  Such wise and humble insight into every topic she spoke abo...

Bishop Keith Cowart has served as a bishop in the Free Methodist Church since 2019. With has degrees from Asbury Theological Seminary and a very warm heart toward the Global Methodist movement, Keith brings a lot of affinity to this conversation. He is a Methodist-minded follower of Jesus who gets us. I am finding some of the best wisdom comes from friends in other tribes and it was one of those conversations with Bishop Cowart tha...