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.…

Is Your God Good? Special Guest Dave Jackson

In this timely—and thought-provoking!—conversation, Jackson addressed one of faith’s most challenging questions: how can we reconcile belief in a perfectly good God with the reality of suffering, unanswered prayers, and troubling depictions of God in Scripture? He also explored the character of God, the problem of evil, and the way Jesus Christ reframes our understanding of divine goodness.…