Missio Savannah

Faith and Fiction is a reading group that normally meets on the second Wednesday of the month at 5:30 p.m. at the Green-Meldrim House.

Here is the Book list for Season Two Faith + Fiction

• September 13, 2023 - Murder at the Vicarage (Agatha Christie)
• October 11, 2023 - Whose Body? (Dorothy Sayers)
• November 8, 2023 - selections from The Innocence of Father Brown (G. K. Chesterton)
• December 13, 2023 - The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
• January 10, 2024 - The Secret Garden (Frances H. Burnett)
• February 7, 2024 (date to be confirmed) - Charis in the World of Wonders (Marly Youmans)
• March 13, 2024 - Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)
• April 10, 2024 - The Tempest (Shakespeare)
• May 8, 20204 - The Book of the Dun Cow (Walter Wangerin)
• June 12, 2024- The Towers of Trebizond (Rose Macaulay)

Rick Monroe has been a leader in youth ministry for over 50 years!

Dr. Mark Johnson to Savannah in 2015 to serve as the CEO of the Gateway Community Service Board.  Prior to moving to Savannah he spent 17 years in St. Louis serving as a Medical Director for Behavioral Health and providing outpatient care in downtown St Louis. 

A few years ago I had the opportunity to hear Mark share his testimony.  I was struck by how little Mark’s testimony was about Mark.  It was more annotated bibliography than autobiography—what Mark labeled at as a collection of bits and pieces of formative content that Mark wanted to share.  His offering bristled authors, artists, movies and scripture —especially scripture.  

It’s not that Mark’s life story is not interesting. He has many stories worth telling.  It’s just that Mark chose to use his testimony opportunity to share about the works and words that have formed and discipled him.  He put out some breadcrumbs that — with God’s Providence and the work of the Holy Sprit—could direct other curious people to a life of growth and wisdom in Christ. 

Mark’s unique form of testimony reminds of what R.D. Crouse wrote about concerning the communal aspect wisdom within the Church of Christ: “Do not suppose that wisdom is your private possession, your individual achievement; do not think that you are wise just by yourself alone.  We have wisdom only as a common possession.” 

In this episode, Mark Johnson shares some of those bits and pieces with us.  Mark offers rich reflections on paintings by Henry Ossawa Tanner and Rembrandt and unpacks scripture passages that have had particular resonance in his approach to psychiatry and family therapy. 

God has given Mark has a deeply informed and humble perspective on what it means to be a person, biologically, psychologically, socially and spiritually.  He is also a keen observer and a careful hearer the Word. It is a real gift to hear him share. 

Scoggins Berg is the U.S. Senior Regional Organizing Manager & Faith Lead at The ONE Campaign.

Scoggins shares about how he got involved with the One Campaign and the global work that he does from his couch in Savannah, Georgia.

Lillis Weeks shares a testimony of service and cross cultural experiences as she makes her way from the DRC to the Ivory Coast, from Duke to Morocco and London, from Nairobi to Johannesburg, and on the her current mission as music teacher at the Habersham School. Lillis also discusses her appreciation of quilting as both a form of art and a means of community.

Max Belz take us on a musical tour while sharing about growing up in a boarding school in Iowa and starting a family and a band in Southern California.

Author, folk musician and retired latin teacher Lance Levens shares his musical testimony that takes him from Macon, to Emory University, to California and ultimately Savannah with his wife Jean.

Father Jonathan Jameson takes us on a musical journey starting with the evangelical youth culture in Southern California, to stints in hardcore and emo rock, through a great run as a bassist in Delta Spirit, to family life and his call to the priesthood at St. John's Episcopal Church in Savannah, Georgia.

This might be the best music and talk podcast ever made about a bassist that became a priest. Enjoy!

Perry Brannen, Jr. served Chatham County for over four decades as a Superior Court Judge.  For roughly three of those decades he was the Chief Judge. He has a testimony to share. 

Perry’s story is one of steady service and cultural Christianity interrupted by divine intervention.  It is a story of a renewed and lively faith that shares in with his wife Marcia. It is a testimony well worth hearing.

Christian and Hannah Swails share their testimony of how God sent them our into international missions and then brought them back to Savannah to take part in formative and Kingdom building work through CoCreation.  

www.cocreationlife.com

Lorie Irish and Matt Coleman talk about the mission of Chatham Transitional Ministries and share their own testimonies.  

Illustrator Braelyn Snow talks about her work and participation in a children's book project that shares the life of Saint Faustina through poetry and pictures.   
The name of the book is "Faustina: A Saints Story for Children" by Kaitlyn C. Mason and Braelyn Snow.

Katie Beaumont's shares about her love of music and how God has shaped her journey.     

Fiction writer Lance Levens discusses his latest novel entitled "Foul Purity" and the craft of conveying his Christian faith through the "who-done-it" genre.  

The Rev. Drew Miller is an Anglican Priest who is wrapping up three years church planting and relational evangelism in Statesboro, Georgia.  

In this episode of the Missio Savannah Podcast, Drew looks back at the challenges and blessings he experiences along the way.  He offers insights on the church planting and shares about the college town that he has grown to love.  

Carl G. Fougerousse is the Owner and Lead Artist at Red Fern Studio in Savannah.   
Carl founded Red Fern to execute ecclesiastical works steeped in the tradition of Catholic figurative and decorative art.
The studio engages a community of artists and artisans to designs and produces stained glass, mosaics, murals, sculptures, and interiors for churches, healthcare facilities, universities, restaurants, and private residences throughout the United States and Europe.
In this episode of the Living Creatures Podcast Carl shares about creating sacred art for churches, fostering a community of artists, and charting a path to a broad-based artistic vocation.  

The McIntosh County Shouters are the foremost—and perhaps the last true—practitioners of the ring shout tradition.

The Savannah Music Festival describes “ring shout” as a compelling fusion of dance, call-and-response singing, and percussion (consisting of hand-clapping and beating a stick on the floor).

Brenton Jordan is the man who beats that stick for the McIntosh County Shouters. He also sings with the group as well.

Brenton took to the time to talk with me about the Shouters. 

This is a music and talk podcast so you will need to listen on Spotify to enjoy the fiver full musical tracks that appear in this episode

Sharon Mays provides the insider choral scholar "skinny" as to why you need to listen to the vocal ensemble VOCES8.    This "music and talk" episode features full artist tracks from Spotify so you will need to listen on Spotify to hear the full podcast. 

Lorrie and Fritz Rumpel had a dream for Savannah.  They wrote a play about Suzy King Taylor and led a production team that performed the play in the Summer of 2022.  

As he was in the midst of bringing the play to life, Fritz sat down with me to talk about his life’s journey that brought him out of Savannah and back again.  Fritz and Lorrie now lead tours in Savannah that emphasize the story of the Black Church in Savannah.  They are also theatre people who are passionate about the power and potential of community theatre. 

This episode first appeared on the Living Creatures podcast.

Wordsmith extraordinaire Aaron Belz is a punchy and pithy poet.  In books like “Soft Launch” and “Glitter Bomb,” Aaron supplies spoonfuls of guffaw-rendering humor that coats poignant moments of pathos and human-reckoning.  
Although he was not in Savannah for long, we are counting him as one of our own.  Thus he joins the pantheon of other short-timer Savannahians of note like  John & Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, William Tecumseh Sherman, Sandra Bullock, Sponge Bob Square Pants, Greg Allman and Dwayne the Rock Johnson.     

Upon completing his two-year of seasons in Savannah he was off to one of his former home towns - St. Louis.  That’s were Aaron joined me for a COVID style video conference interview. 

Int his interview, Aaron talks about the dynamics of community artistic endeavors  in light of SCAD’s formidable presence here.  Aaron talks about what he experienced here that he values and what it was like for him to write in Savannah in comparison to other places.

Aaron offers his perspective the poetry read at the Biden Inauguration, discusses domestic poetry policy, makes poetry recommendations based on Amazon purchases and reads one of his favorite poems and one of his own.  

The Coastal Empire's Gene Pinion sits down with Brian Dennison to offer a brief introduction to the joys of "Shape Note" signing and how to join in this longstanding tradition in Savannah and our extended neck of the woods.  

This is a "music and talk" podcast that is only available for a full listen through Spotify.  

Another version without Spotify tracks will be available on the Living Creatures podcast. 

From his parent's vinyl to indie rock to shape note music, Brian Dennison shares a playlist testimony with guest-host Jason Mehl.

This podcast is the second half of an interview with John Novicoff. The first half of the interview covered John’s life prior to coming to Savannah in 1972. This second podcast delves into John’s life since coming to Savannah. Here John talks about his time spend at a pastor and counselor as well as his opportunities for ministry in international missions and alcoholics anonymous. In addition, John takes the time to reflect on his wife’s Margot’s spirited tenacity in the face of a debilitating and deadly illness.

John’s life testifies to the steadfast patience of God and the relentless and surprising ways that in all things God works for good of those that love Him. We know the time you spend listening to John’s story will be time well spent.

John Novicoff was born in 1931 in East Los Angeles and lived in Savannah since 1972,

John’s life is a long and winding journey of ups and downs, successes and failures. Yet God faithfully used him John as His servant despite John’s own weakness and struggles. John’s testimony demonstrates God’s steady providence and long-suffering patience. It shows us how grace is not a one time event, but is something that we require again and again.  It shows how God can use our failings and circumstances for his purposes.

John testifies to a God that is with us in times of great suffering. John’s testimony shows how amendment of life can some slowly but surely as God does his slow and steady work in us.

This interview is split into two podcasts. This first podcast takes us from John’s childhood in a turbulent family and Russian upbringing in Depression era East LA’s all the way through John’s call to ministry and military service spanning the wrap up of the 2nd Word War through the wars in Korea and Vietnam.

The second podcast episode will focus on John’s half century of ministry and counseling in Savannah as well as his involvement in international mission work, alcoholics anonymous and his wife’s brave and clear-eyed battle with a debilitating illness.  Missio Savannah hopes you benefit from John's grace-marked testimony. To God be the Glory, great thing He has done!

Covardis "Varde" Broadie is a steady and impactful servant leader at Urban Hope Ministry in Savannah.

In this podcasts, Mrs. Broadie shares about her calling to serve God by working with local children through Urban Hope.  

Jason Mehl shares some of his testimony and story through Music. 

Brian and Heather Flood are the couple behind Hope Academy.  

Brian Flood talks about what Savannah can expect in terms of a coming diaspora in the wake of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.  

Brian describes ways that Savannahians can welcome and love the people displaced by conflict and they transition to new lives in the United States.   

Savannah's Dawson Long talks about why the band Casting Crowns means so much to him and is worth a deep listen.  

To enjoy to full musical tracks you will need to access to this "Music and Talk" episode on Spotify. 

Kerri Goodrich talks about the good work that is happening on the East Side of Savannah at Performance Initiatives.  

Savannah Attorney Roy Paul shares about his experience as a volunteer with Kairos Prison Ministry. 

Kristy Crill is the founder of "The Dive Savannah." 

Kristy sits down with Brian Dennison to talk about her call to serve and how God is using her catering start-up to minister to veterans and the homeless.   

Jay Thompson shares about the path that led him to the launch XCEL Strategies and the work on this vital mentorship network in Savannah and surrounding counties. 

An interview with Jon Dunham about the depiction of a donkey in Robert Bresson's 1966 film "Au Hasard Balthazar."