Back to Work on podcast

I’d like to introduce my friends here to a couple of great resources that I think you’ll like. Both are highly recommended for people of faith who like to think. (May your tribe increase.)

The first is Active Christian Media. I commend it here not just because Stacy Harp is my friend, though she is. We became friends through our mutual interest in blogging. Nor is it just because yours truly is featured there right now, though I am.

Most importantly, it’s a great 21st century new media resource designed around new books and podcasting. Stacy is a vivacious, slightly outside-the-box interviewer who manages to turn author interviews into a laid-back listening experience. You feel like you’re sitting in the author’s front room, sipping tea and chatting.

Wednesday I was the author, and Back to Work! was the book. It was a good conversation, running about 50 minutes. Go ahead, check out the podcast. The format allowed me to get a bit more personal than I’ve been able to do in more formal radio interviews. I enjoyed it.

The second resource has little to do with unemployment and the job search, but for this presumption of mine: The search for meaningful work is a subset of the search for meaning in life, which is at root a theological/spiritual issue.

And when it comes to such issues, I know of no person more thoughtful and articulate than Pastor Kjell Axel Johanson. Kjell (pronounced “Shell”) is the pastor of an Evangelical Free Church in Stockholm, Sweden. I’m so pleased that we’ve been able to re-connect through blogging.

I met him several years ago over lunch in downtown Stockholm at a place improbably called the World Trade Center near the train station. I was doing a story about the collision of preachers with Sweden’s ultra-liberal hate crimes laws. Some state church (Swedish Lutheran) pastors were rebelling at the requirement that they perform nuptials for same-sex couples.

I asked him for his personal take on all that, and he responded more positively than I expected. Swedes are noted for their thoughtfulness, and Kjell Axel rose to the occasion. He told me that in the long view these things could represent a positive development, that there probably needs to be a shake-out among churches willing to follow God despite the cost if there’s any hope of returning to first-century-type faith.

I am so glad he’s blogging. I think you’ll find his posts among the more deeply thought-provoking things around these days in a world of instant but shallow communication.