Katie Koplin is busy with a big family move and finishing up this year of grad school, so Gretchen Ronnevik invited on one of the young women she mentors, Gretchen Larson, to talk about what it's like to be a young, single adult in the church, what they need from the church, and how to foster intergenerational relationships. Gretchen Larson is a chef at a Bible camp, finishing up her studies on the hospitality business, and was a missionary kid in Eastern Europe. She is involved in mentoring women younger than her as well, and has some great insight to the simplicity and difficulty of loving o ..read more

In the last episode, we talked about the tradwife movement. In this episode we move on to talk about what a homemaker actually is.  Citing Edith Schaefer's book on the Hidden Art of Homemaking, we talk about the vocation of reminding people of their humanity, and their need for food and rest. We talk about all the various things that make us human. CS Lewis writes about how the easiest way to sin against someone is to start thinking of them as less than human. The world is constantly trying to do this. Homemaking is the vocation of reminding people of their humanity. Gretchen Ronnevik and ..read more

What's the difference between a stay at home mom and a Tradwife? In this episode Gretchen Ronnevik and Katie Koplin, 2 women who have been stay at home moms, talk about the Tradwife movement, and all it contains. The easiest place to begin this conversation is from the male counterpart, or the Alpha Male mindset, to see the female counterpart to the joint movement. They talk about what this movement looks like for men, where "Beta Males" are viewed as trash, and then switch to the counterpart aspects of the equally dehumanizing aspects of this for the females. What starts out looking like a "g ..read more

Co-host, Katie Koplin has curated a gospel central devotional for moms, and it's coming out this next Tuesday. We talk about how she chose the various contributors, and the themes that arose as the submissions started to come in. Learning our limitedness as mothers was one of the major themes, and how to hold hope and hard in the same room. We talk about the hard and good together, and how sometimes it feels like you get punished for doing the right thing. There's no avoiding the suffering, there's just learning to walk through it. We talk about dealing with fear as a mother, asking God for a ..read more

We have back on our dear friend, Sarah Crowder, as she talks about her contribution to the upcoming devotional "Encouragent to Motherhood." In her writing, she shares about her kids one by one, being diganosed with type 1 diabetes, and mothering in hospital rooms, where death is near. She talks about the looming of the law when health issuses are life and death. As humans, we have what she calls a "default to death," which keeps bringing her back to baptism, and what Daniel Emery Price refers to as a "wet theology." We talk about the balm of baptism as we live in light of death. Come back to t ..read more

This month's bonus episode we discuss the book "The Spirituality of the Cross" by Gene Veith. This is a great book to read during Lent, as is looks at the centrality of the cross in our spiritual life. Katie Koplin and Gretchen Ronnevik focus their discussion on the beginning of the book, where he talks about morality based spirituality, speculative based spirituality, and mysical spirituality, and how the spirituality of the cross differs from those other 3 approaches.  While morals, intellectual speculation, and spiritual experiences are all good, centering our spirituality on them can ..read more

In this episode, Gretchen Ronnevik and Katie Koplin talk about the impact of story on our theological understanding, and the use of story in the life of Christians. Using the starting point of Psalm 107:2, we discuss how God works through story, and the baseline of him expressing himself through The Word, and ponder how deep that concept goes. The work of story connects the abstract to the concrete and this is shown through the sacraments, as God connects the spiritual through the physical.  We talk about the impact of story on our souls, how giving our testimony can impact, and the ..read more

Jane Grizzle is one of the contributors to the upcoming devotional edited by Katie Koplin: "Encouragement for Motherhood." Jane wrote about motherhood in the context of having a diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. She is also currently working on her doctorate in ministry. Her contribution to the devotional talks about what it is to parent through limitedness. We talk about the reality of anxiety, making judgment calls in parenting, and parenting from a place of being limited--which we all are. This was an encouraging conversation. Show Notes: Support 1517 1517 Podcasts The 1517 ..read more

Is Valentine's Day a Hallmark Holiday? We sit down with Dr. Dan van Voorhis from "Christian History Almanac" and ask him about the history of St. Valentine's Day from a church history perspective. He shares with us 3 different historic people named "Valentine" in the 200s, when Christianity was illegal in Rome. He shares how the first valentine letter on the record was one of condolances, not romantic love, and how these stories were tied into the martyrdom of the early church. We talk about the facinating Georgian vs Julian calendar, and how that effects our perception of the season of Valent ..read more

This is part 2 of our conversation on no-contact relationships, and looking at how various relationships of Jacob's are reconciled, and the spectrum of what that looks like. Regardless of how reconciliation happens, it never goes back to the way it used to be. A new relationship with new boundaries are formed.  We share the episode of "The Office" when Michael hits Meredith with his car, brings everyone to the hospital and while she's in pain, demands that she forgives him in front of everyone. When we injure someone, and demand instant forgiveness while they are still healing is actually ..read more