334: Dr. Amy Sherman and The God of Shalom

Dr. Amy Sherman directs the Center on Faith in Communities at the Sagamore Institute. She’s the author of seven books, most recently, Agents of Flourishing: Pursuing Shalom in Every Corner of Society. Today, Amy shares how her diverse denominational background shaped her worldview, what she learned from health challenges that have affected her productiving, and what we need to know about shalom and human flourishing. The Kingdom of God that Jesus taught and brought has room for every human being to thrive with the Lord and we get to participate in it’s unfolding. Amy’s story reminds us how that works and encourages us to show up and pursue a life of flourishing.

Listen to Amy’s story now!

Stories Amy shared:

• Working as a minister to ministries at the Sagamore Institute
• Why she wrote Agents of Flourishing
• Growing up near Buffalo, NY in a liberal Methodist church
• Learning about the social Gospel in her church growing up
• Finding Christ and being discipled by a young family in a charismatic church
• Going to Messiah College and discovering Christians like C.S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer
• Working at a think tank with George Waggle
• Deciding to get her PhD at University of Virginia
• Working at her church as director of ministries
• Experiencing chronic pain since a bad accident
• Health challenges that have limited her productivity
• Reading a devotional during a season struggling with lyme disease
• Reframing productivity as fruitfulness
• How flourishing and shalom are beyond circumstances
• Believing that God desires your flourishing

Great quotes from Amy:

Flourishing involves resting.

The biblical concept of flourishing is not contingent on circumstances.

Shalom is the world as God wants it to be.

God desires your flourishing.

Resources we mentioned:

• Amy’s website at Sagamore Institute
• Agents of Flourishing: Pursuing Shalom in Every Corner of Society by Dr. Amy Sherman
• Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good by Dr. Amy Sherman
• The God Who Is There by Francis Schaeffer
• When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor…and Yourself by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert

Related episodes:

• Amber Cullum and the Journey to Grace
• Peter Englert and Digital Ministry and Discipleship
• Lori Ann Wood and Questions in the Silence

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