Have You Listened to FTE’s Podcast on Meaning, Purpose and Vocation?

FTE’s podcast on meaning, purpose and vocation is back starting September 10. New to our podcast? In the video above, Patrick highlights the first half of the season and shares why you should check out this new resource from FTE. There are 10 episodes ready for you to binge with more on the way! Subscribe to FTE’s Sound of the Genuine today on the platform you enjoying listening to or visit https://fteonline.org/sotg.

Transcript

Patrick: Hey, what’s going on? It is Dr. Patrick Reyes, the senior director for learning design at the Forum for Theological Exploration and the host of the Sound of the Genuine. Now, the Sound of the Genuine is more than FTE’s podcast on vocation, meaning and purpose, it is a radical—from the roots—orientation to the souls of our people, our communities, our ancestors, and our descendants. It is the rhythm that connects our spirits as we find what calls us to minister to a broken and beautiful world. So in 2020, FTE began to interview pastors, scholars, young adults, elders, deans, presidents, campus pastors, and community leaders about how they find lives of meaning and purpose. From Sheehan Scarborough, the senior director of the Harvard Foundation to Reverend Hardy Kim, the executive minister of Sunnyvale Presbyterian to Jeffrey Kuan, president of Claremont School of Theology, Reverend Dr. Teresa Thames, the associate Dean of chapel at Princeton University, FTE has followed the lives of those who inspire us to walk humbly and do justice. Take Reverend Dr. Marilyn Pagán-Banks, the UCC pastor and executive director of A Just Harvest who is committed to making change in her neighborhood. Or Dorlimar Lebrón, who is pastoring the People’s Church or Dr. Chris Carter, whose work on soul food reframes how we break bread together!

So one of the things I’ve loved about my job at FTE is meeting these incredible people that we serve who are changing the world. They are the future of the church and the academy. The Sound of the Genuine is a podcast on meaning and purpose, and like everything we do, we start with the who. We start with people who have inspired our staff, who have inspired our work, who have inspired young people, who have inspired their communities, who are changing their communities, who are leading the church into a new tomorrow.

And now the Sound of the Genuine goes back to Howard Thurman who preached on the sound of the genuine multiple times throughout his career and probably most famous for his address at Spelman College. And what I love about the Sound of Genuine is that through hearing the stories of those who have inspired us, who have lived lives of meaning and purpose, who have committed to changing the church and academy, is that every single one of their stories is unique. And yet each one of them has paid attention to, and listened to, and sat deeply with the sound of the genuine in them and the many ways that it has showed up in their life, through their community, through that still small voice.

And the ways that they have surrounded themselves with people, with the community, with nature, with the incredible love of generations that have gone before, the love of the ancestors, and have sat with the dreams and imaginations for future generations, for their descendants and found the sound of the genuine in them.

And I am so excited that we have invited them onto this podcast to tell their story. So FTE just wrapped up our first season, 21 episodes total, and we have began recording our second season. We hope the listener will be inspired to find their own call, to tell their own story, to imagine a world they want to inhabit. We also hope that they listen and share these stories of these inspiring humans so others might also be inspired to see ministry and theological education as a call and something that we might do together, something we might live into together to inspire future generations to live into a more just and loving world.

So I ask each of you, as I ask all of our guests, what is the sound of the genuine in you? What are you called to? Tell us your story, drop it in the comments below. And if you want to be on the show, drop us a line and let us know. We would love to have you as a guest. The Sound of the Genuine can be found on all major platforms like Audible, Spotify, and Apple podcasts.

And I can’t wait for you to hear these stories on the Sound of the Genuine. Thanks again for being a listener, a supporter. And as always, sending all the love to you and we hope that you find the Sound of the Genuine in you.