The Approachable Jesus

Heather is joined by her bosom friend, Diana Lacey to talk about what it's like to be a midwife, especially when you have to deliver difficult news. Being a midwife of truth can be painful for both the messenger and the receiver. 

Heather and Diana talk about Mary, the women at the tomb, and others whose news wasn't believed. Diana also shares three R's that she learned the hard way: recognize, respond, and recover. She shares ...

Dude and Woman is a short bonus conversation following each full episode. Listen to the Liahni Chandler episode first. 

Every morning, Liahni thanks two people by name. Neither of them is alive to hear it.
That's what was on my mind after talking with Liahni about receiving both a liver and a kidney from donors she never met. It got me thinking about Dude, who was electrocuted at eleven, died, and came back, and I ...

Liahni Chandler is an executive management professional and a two-time recipient of the gift of life — a liver and a kidney. The transplants changed her career path: she left the corporate world and eventually landed at the Ronald McDonald House. She says it taught her to understand the word "savior" a lot better these days.

Heather and Liahni talk about Mary and Martha, and what it looks like to balance service with sitting a...

Dude and Woman is a short bonus conversation following each full episode. Listen to the McArthur Krishna episode first. 

Would an accountant think it makes financial sense for a company to pay for an employee's personal growth? 

That was the question I had for Dude who is a CFO and always watching the books. If it makes sense for a company to invest in an employee, why don't families invest in the mother's p...

 MacArthur Krishna married at 37 and gave birth to just one of her three daughters. She built a career as a river guide, window washer, forest service archaeologist, and businesswoman before she ever published a book — seventeen of them, so far. Six months ago, a professor called out of nowhere and invited her back to graduate school in a city she'd never considered; she packed up her family and went. MacArthur calls her...

Dude and Woman is a short bonus conversation following each full episode. Listen to the Terri Petersen episode first. 

Being covered in clay isn't really protection. It's more like being told you're not worth uncovering.

That's what stuck with me after talking with Terri Petersen about a 700-year-old golden Buddha hidden under clay to keep it safe from thieves.  I cling to the clay because I'm afraid of what it buri...

Terri is a yoga instructor, a personal trainer for over 40 years, and a docent at the Museum of the Bible — and now calls herself a Buddhist Mormon. She spent her twenties and thirties following a script: BYU, marriage in the temple, five kids, stay-at-home mom. She calls it outsourcing her life choices. 

Heather and Terri talk about the woman at the well, and how fixating on her marital history buries the real st...

Dude and Woman is a short bonus conversation following each full episode. Listen to the Amy Jensen episode first. 

From the stand, you can see who's missing.

That's what I couldn't stop thinking about after talking with Amy Jensen. Not who's watching you. Who you can watch. Who came in late, who's wrestling a toddler on the bench, who stopped coming.

I shared my thoughts with Dude, and he told me about a woman in our ward...

Amy Jensen's first reaction to being invited onto the stand was to say no. It sounded like one more assignment. Her daughters' reaction changed her mind, and she saw how it changed the ward to see who leads.  

Then came another no.  She was told she could no longer sit with the male leadership on the stand.  That is where Women on the Stand began.

Heather and Amy discuss how symbolically sitting on the stand si...

Have you ever met a married couple who call each other Dude and Woman?  Well, now you have. 
In this first Dude & Woman, Bradford and I talk about the nicknames we have for each other, and why "Woman" isn't the insult it may sound like. It's the same word Jesus used for his own mother. We get into sheep knowing their shepherd's voice, and Mary Magdalene recognizing Jesus by hearing her own name. 

The Approachab...

Mary Magdalene? A prostitute. Pilate's wife? A footnote. We've all been handed stories about the women of the New Testament—most of them wrong. Season 1 starts September 11.

The first season of The Approachable Jesus pairs a guest's real story of approaching Jesus with the women in scripture I call the Midwives of Jesus—women who helped deliver him and his gospel to the world. It's also the title of my study guide, out t...

We never read about Jesus checking His emails or sitting in traffic. He lived in a far away land in the distant past, and that distance can make Him feel unapproachable.

Every episode, I sit down with a guest who tells me their own story—not a lesson or sermon, their actual life—how they approach Jesus in their own unique way.

I'm Heather Ruth Pack, scripture scholar and author of the Times of Faith study guides. Follow t...