“Beginning Again!” with Allison Maus and Ben Wideman

Season 2 Episode 1
Full Episode Transcript

Season 2 Episode 1: Beginning Again! was released on January 4, 2022. The audio recording is available on all major podcasting platforms. More information is available here.

Episode Description:

We’ve arrived at the second season of MennoMedia’s ~ing Podcast! We can’t wait to tell you what is in store. With a brand new featured guest each week, we’ll be sharing insights on evolving as peacemakers and people of faith, into the best versions of ourselves. In today’s episode, ~ing hosts, Ben Wideman and Allison Maus, continue the conversation around Anabaptist perspectives we began in season 1, while introducing what is in store for this new season – a season which we hope includes your voices too!

Share your thoughts with us! Send us a voicemail by visiting this link – https://anchor.fm/ing-pod/message – or by emailing [email protected]

~ing Podcast is a production of MennoMedia, a nonprofit Publisher that creates thoughtful, Anabaptist resources to enrich faith in a complex world. To find out more, visit us online at MennoMedia.org

SPEAKERS
Allison Maus, Stephen Mattson, Ben Wideman

Ben Wideman 00:00
Welcome to Season Two of ~ing Podcast, a production of MennoMedia’s Leader Magazine. What does it mean to authentically follow Jesus? Each week ~ing Podcast invites you to join us on a journey. Join us as we talk with people of faith who are creatively thinking, growing, and being people who are reimagining and exploring what it means to enrich faith in a complex world. Our conversation begins now. Join us as we journey together. Welcome back, everyone. We’re here kicking things off with Season Two of ~ing Podcast. I’m joined today by my fellow host of ~ing Podcast, Allison Maus, and we are really excited to be getting things underway. Allison, I know we bump into each other in real life beyond the podcast, but it feels like it’s been a little while since the two of us recorded a podcast episode together.

Allison Maus 01:00
Yeah, I was telling Ben I feel very out of practice. But I also am very excited to, to be back and to start, you know, thinking and imagining and chatting with y’all again. But this does feel a little bit weird. I’m grateful to be back though,

Ben Wideman 01:18
You may be wondering, in season one, there were three of us who sort of shared the hosting duties. The third member of this team, Dennis Edwards, unfortunately, is having to step away from his podcast hosting duties. We’re still going to have his voice a part of a few of our episodes in season two, but we also want to wish him God’s peace as he continues on his journey of, of teaching and teaching future leaders of the church. And that feels like a good reason to be stepping away. And one of the things that we neglected to get to in season one was to talk to Dennis about his book that he published for MennoMedia, called Might from the Margins. And one of our hopes in season two is to have his voice on the podcast, talking about that specific work and having a conversation with him about that. I’m excited to see what comes from this next season. Allison, I know, we’ve been busy getting ready for this. And I’ve been more on the producer side of things. You’re a little bit in the dark. Are there questions that you have about what season two might look like?

Allison Maus 02:29
Yeah, I am sitting here thinking there were so many conversations that happen in the first season that were unexpected. For me, I didn’t really know a lot about many of our guests going into the interviews or going into you putting them on my schedule. And I think that I entered in thinking, oh my gosh, how could the next interview top? The one I had last week? Yeah. So I’m really excited to see what this next season holds. And I guess my biggest question is what what should I be excited for? Tell me Ben!

Ben Wideman 03:07
Well, aside from the specific guests, and I’m thinking that most of these people that we have here are going to be fascinating stories. I mean, otherwise, I don’t think that they’d be willing to share with us. But yeah, I think in season two, we really hope that we can focus in a little bit more than we did in season one on some of the resources coming directly from MennoMedia and Herald Press. We did a really great job thinking beyond that publisher and beyond the peace church traditions in season one. But we also overlooked a lot of really cool stuff that was coming out of our sort of parent company. And so this year, we hope that we are drawing a little bit more, especially from authors and voices that have something coming out. And our very first full length episode will come out next week, the week of January 10. And we’re gonna kick things off with an author named Stephen Mattson, who will be talking about an incredible peace and justice devotional that he has created through MennoMedia, and we’re going to hit the ground running with that. We also are hoping I think a little bit more than in season one
to be aware of the calendar when I say that I I think I mean, like, you know, when it’s Black History Month, maybe we focus a little bit more on some of our African American guests and authors. When it is Women’s History Month. Maybe the same thing goes they’re trying to find women who can speak prophetically to the future of the Church. And from time to time we’ll also be having little mini series pop up with specific focuses to try and help us navigate this… this new year… new year of 2022.

Allison Maus 04:53
What I’m excited about what you just shared was I think that relying a little bit more on MennoMedia and having resources have books, I love books, I have a full shelf behind me Ben can say sorry, audio listeners you cannot. But to have those resources going forward, especially as we are all I mean, probably church forever has been alright, what’s next? What do we do, but having these stories that we
get to not just hear from their creators, but to read and hold going into the future of what ever we’re coming out of, or whatever we’re being led toward? I’m excited to have some of those resources, and to introduce people to new resources.

Ben Wideman 05:39
It strikes me as you were saying that, that we we launched this podcast as the pandemic was wrapping the world. And, yeah, we maybe assumed that even before season one was done, we’d be heading out of that. And, and perhaps we might find along the way that a podcast was not needed, because we had returned to normal life. And now here we are about to start another new calendar year, still a global pandemic. And I think in a time where we are still lacking face to face human connection, I’m grateful for opportunities to to draw people to resources when they are feeling things like loneliness, grief,
longing, you know, all the more ways to try and find human connection. And in a podcast, I think I hope I can continue to offer that.

Allison Maus 06:33
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that I mean, I am a avid podcast listener, and those voices become
familiar and helpful in my personal journey. So I do hope that yeah, those of you listening, fine, find comfort and peace and inspiration, and all of that for the work that y’all do. And hopefully, we’ve learned a lot from doing a whole season that this second season to us entering in will be better at asking questions about, yeah, being relevant to the passions that are out there in the world that the church is asking.

Ben Wideman 07:13
Yeah, I think that leads us to one of our goals. We have continually asked along the way that you would like and review us and your favorite podcasting platform. But one thing we’d really love in this next season is to actually hear from our listeners, we do have a, a sort of voicemail system in place, and we’ll leave a link to that in the show notes. But we’d love to hear from you. We’d love to hear your questions, either about a show that you’ve listened to a question you wish we had asked a guest. But also the things that are carrying you through this this time in your life, this time in our world’s history. We want to hear our audience and have you participate in this ongoing conversation. I think that helps
us more authentically strive to continue to be people who are thinking growing being, you know, all those ing words that make ~ing Podcast what it is, we hope that your voice can be a strong part of season two of ~ing Podcast.

Allison Maus 08:15
Yeah, absolutely. I think that this could really be a community endeavor. This is an endeavor of the Church and the more voices that we can hear from and yeah, get feedback from so that we can be inspired and invite the guests that y’all want to hear from or ask the questions that are really on your heart or on your mind. We would love love to hear all the feedback, all the comments. Yeah,

Ben Wideman 08:48
So stay tuned. Our conversation begins next week with Episode One. Join us as we journey together here in season two. Thank you so much for coming along on this journey.

Allison Maus 09:01
Peace friends, we’ll talk to you soon.

Ben Wideman 09:07
Next time on ~ing Podcast, we’ll be sitting down with author and activist Stephen Mattson, who will be talking with us about his new social justice devotional entitled On Love and Mercy.

Stephen Mattson 09:18
Yeah, I just couldn’t believe it. And I wanted to do something to try to counter this narrative that social justice work was somehow contradictory to the faith in Christ when in reality, social justice is exemplified through Jesus and his life and words, and it’s a major theme in what he does. And the Bible talks about doing justice within our society bringing about justice and how we should be vessels of justice. So yeah, that was that was kind of the main motivation behind this project.

Ben Wideman 09:54
As always, we’d like to thank our guests and all who support ~ing podcast. Thank you for joining us on the journey. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a review in your favorite podcasting app. And if you have something to share, send us a message at [email protected] or by leaving us a voicemail. ~ing Podcast is hosted by Reverend Allison Maus and Reverend Dr. Dennis Edwards. And produced by me, Ben Wideman. Views and opinions expressed on ~ing Podcast are those of our hosts and guests and may not represent that of Leader Magazine or MennoMedia. ~ing Podcast is a production of MennoMedia, a nonprofit publisher that creates thoughtful Anabaptist resources to enrich faith in a complex world. To find out more, visit us online at MennoMedia.org.