Formed to Lead: An Author Event with Jason Jensen by NCB’s Radix Live

What does it mean to lead like Jesus?

In a world that prizes charisma and control, Formed to Lead invites us to rediscover leadership rooted in humility, prayer, and spiritual depth. Author Jason Jensen draws on decades of experience in ministry and leadership formation to explore how the Holy Spirit shapes leaders from the inside out—through vulnerability, discernment, and faithful dependence on God.

Grounded in Luke 3–4, Formed to Lead offers a fresh vision of leadership that mirrors Jesus’ own journey: resisting the temptations of power, embracing the disciplines of solitude and surrender, and leading from a posture of love. Jensen helps readers discern how divine calling, character formation, and communal accountability weave together in truly Christ-shaped leadership. Sounds pretty timely right?!

This Radix Live event offers a space to reflect and dialogue about how spirituality and leadership intersect in today’s complex world. Together, we’ll consider questions like:
• How do we discern the Spirit’s movement in our leadership and communities?
• How can humility and courage coexist in faithful leadership?
• Why is the Sabbath actually really important?

Whether you serve in a church, nonprofit, or any sphere of influence, Formed to Lead offers wisdom for those seeking to grow in integrity, compassion, and trust in God’s guidance.…

Knock at the Sky: Seeking God in Genesis After Losing Faith in the Bible (An Author Event by NCB’s Radix Live)

Grant’s work invites us to ask searching questions: What does Bible study look like after inerrancy? Do you have to give up Scripture when you no longer believe in its literal interpretation? Can you still call it sacred while renegotiating your relationship with the church?

In Knock at the Sky: Seeking God in Genesis After Losing Faith in the Bible, she wrestles with these questions in a lyrical and deeply personal commentary on Genesis—offering readers a fresh vision for encountering God in Scripture, even as faith continues to shift and evolve.

Michael Barram, always warm and thoughtful, will bring his trademark curiosity, expertise in biblical studies, and engaging questions to the conversation. And, as always, there will be time for audience participation.…

Banquet of Belonging: Faith, Food & the Psychology of Healing: A Radix Live Conversation with Jeannie E. Celestial

A Conversation with Psychologist & Best-Selling Author Jeannie E. Celestial

Many from marginalized communities suffer from the mental health impacts of oppression and discrimination. Dr. Jeannie Celestial, co-author of Clinical Interventions for Internalized Oppression, shares her discoveries about possibilities for healing, particularly among women of color, through the lens of mental health practices and Christian faith. In this, Dr. Celestial explores the role of "food as medicine," which richly informs The Filipino Instant Pot Cookbook, her culinary offering that has sold worldwide.

Dr. Celestial is a licensed clinical psychologist, currently serving in the San Francisco Unified School District through RAMS, a large social services agency in the Bay Area. She has over two decades of experience in healing and transformational practices. She employs EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing), Brainspotting, CBT, ACT, and other modalities in her work. Dr. Celestial earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Palo Alto University, with emphases in Clinical Neuropsychology and Meditation and Psychology.…

Liberating Scripture, with Michael Barram and John R. Franke: An Author Event by NCB’s Radix Live

What if the way we read scripture is part of the problem?

This Radix Live event offers a chance to learn about how we can join a growing, creative, justice-minded conversation on what it means to read scripture missionally in today’s world.

In Liberating Scripture: An Invitation to Missional Hermeneutics, authors Michael Barram and John R. Franke proposed a bold rethinking of biblical interpretation. Rooted in the “mission of God” and informed by postcolonial and postmodern insights, their work invited readers to unshackle the Bible from the theological and cultural chains that often distort its liberative power.

This live conversation explores how Liberating Scripture reframes the why and how of biblical interpretation. The book offers an accessible yet groundbreaking introduction to “missional hermeneutics”—a fresh approach to reading scripture through the lens of God’s ongoing mission of justice, healing, and reconciliation. Rather than treating the Bible as a static set of doctrines, this perspective emphasizes dynamic, community-rooted engagement. How do our cultural assumptions shape the questions we ask of scripture? How might diverse voices and global experiences help us decolonize Christian witness?…

“Just Making” with Mitali Perkins: An Author Event by NCB’s Radix Live

Why should we make art while injustice and suffering wreak havoc? How can we justify making beautiful things? Author Mitali Perkins isn't afraid of hard questions about justice and art. She knows that the creative life can seem selfish. As the daughter of immigrants, she studied toward a career of eradicating poverty and knows the internal voice that challenges: "How dare you retreat to your studio to create?"
Yet Perkins learned that writing fiction wasn't setting aside her passion for a better world but pursuing it. In Just Making: A Guide for Compassionate Creatives, she offers a justice-driven perspective unique among books on creativity. "My ancestors are village Bengali women who made beautiful things but didn't dare to dream of art as a career," she writes. Women across the globe have crafted beauty and order amid chaos, war, and deprivation, and Perkins turns our attention to what we learn from them.
Just Making introduces us to strategies such as forgetfulness in flow, tenderness in trauma, and crossing borders.…

From Solitude to Solidarity: Ron Dart on Evelyn Underhill and the Contemplative Path (NCB’s Radix Live)

What does contemplation have to do with the everyday life of faith? And why does it matter now?

Words like stillness, centering prayer, silence, meditation, attention, and contemplation were finding renewed resonance in Christian conversation. But what did they actually mean—and what did they mean for the rest of us? In this interactive online event, Ron Dart explored how the contemplative path is not a spiritual luxury for the few, but a vital calling for the many—a way of seeing, praying, and being that Evelyn Underhill might have called "the education of the whole person."

Ron introduced Underhill, one of Christianity’s most respected guides to the inner life, and reflected on her wisdom for our anxious and noisy age. Drawing from her writings, he unpacked why contemplation is not only personal but communal—not withdrawal from the world, but a way to be more deeply present in it. The event also…

Fight Like Jesus, with Jason Porterfield: An Author Event by NCB’s Radix Live

We hosted an online conversation with Jason Porterfield, author of Fight Like Jesus (2022), a book that challenges readers to embrace the radical peacemaking of Christ. In this interactive event, Jason explored how Jesus waged peace throughout Holy Week, offering insight into the events leading to the cross—and what they mean for peacemaking today. Timely, indeed.

Guiding the conversation was Michael Barram, professor of theology and longtime advocate for justice and discipleship. Drawing from Jason’s years of ministry among the urban poor and his theological study, the dialogue helped us understand how we, too, can cultivate God’s shalom in a world desperate for peace.

After discussing his book—which has been described as a compelling narrative of Holy Week and a practical guide for everyday peacemaking—we invited questions from participants. For those who long for a faith that actively pursues reconciliation and justice, this conversation offered both challenge and encouragement.…

Centered-Set Church: An Author Event by NCB’s Radix Live

Our monthly NCB’s Radix Live event featured host Matthew Steem inviting Mark D. Baker to discuss his book, Centered-Set Church: Discipleship and Community Without Judgmentalism (IVP Academic, 2022). A "centered-set" was presented as an alternative to either a "bounded-set" (churches with hard boundaries that could repel newcomers or make it difficult for them to join) or a "fuzzy-set" (churches with so much inclusion that they lacked a vital sense of shared faith and identity).
This Radix Live event included a conversation between Mark and our two panelists, Steve Joh, with Arbor Communities (a ministry of Rewire), and Dustin Maddox, with North Fresno Church, who had implemented a centered-set approach in their ministries. Attendees were welcomed to ask questions – and, as you’ll see, there were some good ones!…

Midwinter Light with Marilyn McEntyre

In this interactive event, Marilyn shared the art of reading poetry, something she is especially skilled at. She also discussed how fluidity of thought and shifting perspectives shape our understanding and reflected on the place of meditative, poetic writing in today’s world. After discussing her latest book (part of a lineage of works exploring language and spirituality, poetry and prayer, faith and public discourse), we invited questions from participants.…

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