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Can the church still thrive in the bush?

When James Wood's father declared, "The church has abandoned the bush," it became a call to action. Now, as parish priest in Warracknabeal, Victoria, James is proving that rural ministry isn't dead—it's being reimagined.

In this episode of The Theology Pod, Dean Michael Davies sits down with Rev. James Wood to explore what ministry looks like when traditional models no longer work. From founding Wild Echidna Enterprises to installing Blue Trees for mental health awareness, from running drumming workshops to maintaining Prayer Book services, James embodies a new vision for the church in rural Australia.

Drawing on his own experience ministering through drought and crisis in Merriwa, NSW, Michael probes the hard questions: How do you sustain ministry when parishes can't afford full-time clergy? What does faithful presence look like when success might simply mean surviving? How do you create space for vulnerability in communities where asking for help is seen as weakness?

Discover:

• Creative sustainability models combining parish work, chaplaincy, and social enterprise
• How L'Arche community shaped one priest's approach to rural ministry
• The intersection of environmental crisis and spiritual crisis in farming communities
• Why reaching seven schools with wellbeing programs might be the future of evangelism
• What "Project Regenerate" means when everyone else sees inevitable decline

Whether you're passionate about rural Australia, curious about innovative ministry models, or wrestling with what faithful presence means in challenging contexts, this conversation offers both practical wisdom and theological depth.

The church hasn't abandoned the bush—it's finding new ways to be present.

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Thanks for joining us on The Theology Pod. We hope today's conversation has given you something meaningful to wrestle with as you continue your own spiritual journey.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform—it really helps other seekers find our conversations. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

For show notes, reading recommendations, and to join our ongoing discussion, visit us at TheologyPod.com. You can also follow us on social media @TheologyPod on Facebook for reflections and updates on upcoming episodes.

We love hearing from our listeners. Feel free to send us your questions, topic suggestions, or just let us know how these conversations are impacting your faith journey via our social media platforms.

Remember, theology isn't just an academic study—it's the lived experience of wrestling with the divine in our everyday lives. Keep asking the hard questions, keep seeking, and keep engaging with the mystery.

Until next time, may you find grace in the questions and peace in the seeking.

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In Australia, one woman is killed by a current or former partner every ten days. Half of all LGBTIQ people in relationships have experienced intimate partner violence. These aren't just statistics; they are our neighbours, our friends, people in our congregations.

Join trauma theologian Alexandra and pastoral voice Michael as they tackle one of the church's most urgent conversations. This episode moves beyond awareness to action, exploring what gender-based violence truly is, who it affects, and why the church can no longer remain silent.

Drawing on feminist theology, womanist scholarship, and trauma hermeneutics, Alex unpacks the theological dimensions of violence while Michael grounds the discussion in pastoral realities. Together, they examine how Jesus responded to marginalised women in the Gospels—stopping violence, restoring dignity, and challenging power structures—and what that means for how we must respond today.

This isn't comfortable to listen to, but it's essential. Whether you're a survivor, someone supporting a loved one, a church leader seeking guidance, or simply someone who wants to understand, this episode offers both theological depth and practical frameworks for action.

Content note: This episode discusses domestic abuse, sexual violence, and trauma. Support resources and helplines are provided throughout.

Because faith demands more than silence. It demands we rise up.

Available now at thetheologypod.com and wherever you listen to podcasts.

Support the show

Thanks for joining us on The Theology Pod. We hope today's conversation has given you something meaningful to wrestle with as you continue your own spiritual journey.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform—it really helps other seekers find our conversations. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

For show notes, reading recommendations, and to join our ongoing discussion, visit us at TheologyPod.com. You can also follow us on social media @TheologyPod on Facebook for reflections and updates on upcoming episodes.

We love hearing from our listeners. Feel free to send us your questions, topic suggestions, or just let us know how these conversations are impacting your faith journey via our social media platforms.

Remember, theology isn't just an academic study—it's the lived experience of wrestling with the divine in our everyday lives. Keep asking the hard questions, keep seeking, and keep engaging with the mystery.

Until next time, may you find grace in the questions and peace in the seeking.

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In 1611, forty-seven scholars completed a translation that would change the world. The King James Bible shaped Shakespeare's language, fueled democratic revolutions, inspired abolitionists, and provided the vocabulary for both liberation and oppression. It's been quoted by Frederick Douglass and slaveholders, by Martin Luther King Jr. and segregationists, by suffragettes and those who opposed women's rights.

Drawing on Melvyn Bragg's sweeping book, this episode explores how a translation commissioned by a Scottish king became one of the most democratizing forces in history. We delve into William Tyndale's martyrdom and lasting legacy, the Hampton Court Conference that launched the project, and the Bible's profound influence on literature, democracy, education, and social reform.

But this isn't just a celebration. We wrestle honestly with the King James Bible's deeply ambiguous legacy—how the same text that empowered the enslaved was weaponized to justify slavery, how it spread literacy while advancing colonial oppression, and how it inspired both the best and worst impulses of the English-speaking world.

Four hundred years later, this translation continues to echo in our language, shape our understanding of justice, and influence movements for change. Whether you've read it devotionally for years or never opened its pages, the King James Bible has touched your life in ways you might never have imagined.

Join Alex and Michael for a thoughtful, critical, and ultimately appreciative exploration of The Book of Books.

Support the show

Thanks for joining us on The Theology Pod. We hope today's conversation has given you something meaningful to wrestle with as you continue your own spiritual journey.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform—it really helps other seekers find our conversations. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

For show notes, reading recommendations, and to join our ongoing discussion, visit us at TheologyPod.com. You can also follow us on social media @TheologyPod on Facebook for reflections and updates on upcoming episodes.

We love hearing from our listeners. Feel free to send us your questions, topic suggestions, or just let us know how these conversations are impacting your faith journey via our social media platforms.

Remember, theology isn't just an academic study—it's the lived experience of wrestling with the divine in our everyday lives. Keep asking the hard questions, keep seeking, and keep engaging with the mystery.

Until next time, may you find grace in the questions and peace in the seeking.

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Need a break from the chaos? This episode is your retreat.

For centuries, Christians have fled to deserts, monasteries, and quiet corners seeking God in the silence. But what actually happens on a retreat? And what transforms a weekend away into a genuine spiritual encounter?

Join Alex and Michael as they explore the rich history of Christian retreats: from the fourth-century desert fathers escaping into the Egyptian wilderness to today's Ignatian silent retreats and bustling parish getaways. Fresh from his own diocesan retreat, Michael shares insights into what makes a retreat truly transformative, while Alex unpacks the theological questions at the heart of withdrawal: What are we retreating from? And what are we retreating to?

Whether you're a retreat veteran or you've always been curious about what happens when Christians deliberately step away from ordinary life, this conversation offers wisdom on choosing themes, crafting schedules, and holding space for spiritual renewal.

The Theology Pod – where faith meets thought, and questions lead to deeper understanding.

Support the show

Thanks for joining us on The Theology Pod. We hope today's conversation has given you something meaningful to wrestle with as you continue your own spiritual journey.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform—it really helps other seekers find our conversations. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

For show notes, reading recommendations, and to join our ongoing discussion, visit us at TheologyPod.com. You can also follow us on social media @TheologyPod on Facebook for reflections and updates on upcoming episodes.

We love hearing from our listeners. Feel free to send us your questions, topic suggestions, or just let us know how these conversations are impacting your faith journey via our social media platforms.

Remember, theology isn't just an academic study—it's the lived experience of wrestling with the divine in our everyday lives. Keep asking the hard questions, keep seeking, and keep engaging with the mystery.

Until next time, may you find grace in the questions and peace in the seeking.

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Think Christmas movies are just snow, sentiment, and nostalgia? Think again. Join Alex and Michael as they unwrap the hidden theology in beloved holiday classics like It's a Wonderful Life, Joyeux Noel, A Christmas Carol, and Elf.

From George Bailey's crisis of meaning to soldiers singing carols in the trenches of WWI, these aren't just feel-good films. They're modern parables exploring profound questions: What makes a life meaningful? Can we be redeemed? Does love conquer all?

Discover how Frank Capra, Charles Dickens, and even the Muppets have hidden eternal truths in your old DVD collection. These films offer sermons without cathedrals, revealing divine truths about sacrifice, grace, and what we choose to believe.

Whether it's angels earning their wings or Buddy the Elf in yellow tights, there's more theology happening in your holiday movie marathon than you might think.

Support the show

Thanks for joining us on The Theology Pod. We hope today's conversation has given you something meaningful to wrestle with as you continue your own spiritual journey.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform—it really helps other seekers find our conversations. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

For show notes, reading recommendations, and to join our ongoing discussion, visit us at TheologyPod.com. You can also follow us on social media @TheologyPod on Facebook for reflections and updates on upcoming episodes.

We love hearing from our listeners. Feel free to send us your questions, topic suggestions, or just let us know how these conversations are impacting your faith journey via our social media platforms.

Remember, theology isn't just an academic study—it's the lived experience of wrestling with the divine in our everyday lives. Keep asking the hard questions, keep seeking, and keep engaging with the mystery.

Until next time, may you find grace in the questions and peace in the seeking.

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Did you know the Bible contains toilet jokes? Or that medieval priests brought donkeys into cathedrals and had congregations bray instead of saying "Amen"?

Join Alex and Michael for a hilarious and profound exploration of Christianity's surprisingly rich comedy tradition. From Elijah's savage mockery of Baal's bathroom breaks to Jesus's absurdist parables, from Jerome's vicious fat jokes about theological rivals to Dante sliding down Satan's hairy legs like a fireman's pole - discover how laughter and faith have always been intertwined.

Featuring insights from priest-comedian Chris Bedding of Pirate Church fame, this episode reveals how comedy serves as prophecy, resistance, and even survival. Learn why Luther fought the devil with farts, how Holocaust survivors used dark humour to maintain dignity, and why Kierkegaard wrote philosophy under comic pseudonyms.

Whether exploring medieval Feasts of Fools, modern Christian memes, or the deep theology behind divine laughter, this conversation proves that sometimes the most profound truths come wrapped in the most ridiculous packages. Because maybe, just maybe, the opposite of faith isn't doubt - it's the inability to laugh at yourself.

A must-listen for anyone who's ever wondered if God has a sense of humour. (Spoiler: 400,000 species of beetles suggest the answer is yes.)

Support the show

Thanks for joining us on The Theology Pod. We hope today's conversation has given you something meaningful to wrestle with as you continue your own spiritual journey.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform—it really helps other seekers find our conversations. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

For show notes, reading recommendations, and to join our ongoing discussion, visit us at TheologyPod.com. You can also follow us on social media @TheologyPod on Facebook for reflections and updates on upcoming episodes.

We love hearing from our listeners. Feel free to send us your questions, topic suggestions, or just let us know how these conversations are impacting your faith journey via our social media platforms.

Remember, theology isn't just an academic study—it's the lived experience of wrestling with the divine in our everyday lives. Keep asking the hard questions, keep seeking, and keep engaging with the mystery.

Until next time, may you find grace in the questions and peace in the seeking.

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Ever wondered why you can't remember last week's sermon, but "Amazing Grace" has been stuck in your head for decades? In this episode of The Theology Pod, hosts Alex and Michael dive into the hidden theological power of hymns – those songs that have shaped what billions of Christians actually believe about God, often more profoundly than any sermon or creed.

From the ancient theological battles encoded in your favourite Christmas carols ("begotten, not created" isn't just poetic flourish – it's a fourth-century controversy set to music) to the modern worship wars over changing "the wrath of God was satisfied," this conversation reveals how every hymn is a theological statement, forming us at a level deeper than conscious thought.

Discover why Charles Wesley might be Methodism's greatest theologian (6,000 hymns!), how African American spirituals created liberation theology before it had a name, and why that controversial line about "perfect submission" reveals more about power and gender than about God. Alex and Michael explore everything from Gregorian chant to contemporary worship, from military metaphors to inclusive language, asking the crucial question: what theology are we actually absorbing when we open our mouths to sing?

Whether you're a church musician, a curious sceptic, or someone who just loves a good hymn, this episode will forever change how you hear the songs of faith. Warning: You may never sing "Onward, Christian Soldiers" the same way again.

The Theology Pod brings together two scholar-practitioners for honest, accessible conversations about the questions that matter. No prerequisites required – just curiosity about how theology shapes real life.

Support the show

Thanks for joining us on The Theology Pod. We hope today's conversation has given you something meaningful to wrestle with as you continue your own spiritual journey.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform—it really helps other seekers find our conversations. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

For show notes, reading recommendations, and to join our ongoing discussion, visit us at TheologyPod.com. You can also follow us on social media @TheologyPod on Facebook for reflections and updates on upcoming episodes.

We love hearing from our listeners. Feel free to send us your questions, topic suggestions, or just let us know how these conversations are impacting your faith journey via our social media platforms.

Remember, theology isn't just an academic study—it's the lived experience of wrestling with the divine in our everyday lives. Keep asking the hard questions, keep seeking, and keep engaging with the mystery.

Until next time, may you find grace in the questions and peace in the seeking.

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What happens when an artist becomes the analyst of their own work? In this episode, co-host Alex takes us inside her oil painting of an Australian payphone—examining it through the lens of Hagar's trauma narrative from Genesis. Together, Michael and Alex explore how obsolete infrastructure witnesses to systemic abandonment, how silence encodes theological meaning, and what it means to find redemption not as escape from suffering, but as survival within it.

Drawing on Emily Dickinson's haunting meditation on silence, womanist theology, and trauma hermeneutics, Alex maps four distinct silences in her painting: the absent body, the cradled receiver, the illegible instructions, and the wilderness beyond the steel mesh. Each silence resonates with Hagar's story—an enslaved woman rendered voiceless, expelled into the wilderness, and forced to survive with trauma embedded in her redemption.

This conversation pushes beyond comfortable theology into difficult territory: Who gets declared obsolete when society claims progress? Where is God's face in abandonment? And what does it mean when the church rushes to resurrection while people are still living in Holy Saturday?

Join us for a rigorous, uncomfortable, and ultimately transformative exploration of visual theology as a site of embodied knowledge—where paintings and ancient biblical witnesses speak together about populations rendered invisible, infrastructure that remains for those the system has abandoned, and the God who sees the unseen.

Content Warning: This episode discusses sexual violence, enslavement, child endangerment, and systemic abandonment in both ancient and contemporary contexts.

View the artwork: Find Alex's payphone painting on our Instagram and Facebook (@TheTheologyPod) or purchase limited edition prints at www.thetheologypod.com

Support the show

Thanks for joining us on The Theology Pod. We hope today's conversation has given you something meaningful to wrestle with as you continue your own spiritual journey.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform—it really helps other seekers find our conversations. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

For show notes, reading recommendations, and to join our ongoing discussion, visit us at TheologyPod.com. You can also follow us on social media @TheologyPod on Facebook for reflections and updates on upcoming episodes.

We love hearing from our listeners. Feel free to send us your questions, topic suggestions, or just let us know how these conversations are impacting your faith journey via our social media platforms.

Remember, theology isn't just an academic study—it's the lived experience of wrestling with the divine in our everyday lives. Keep asking the hard questions, keep seeking, and keep engaging with the mystery.

Until next time, may you find grace in the questions and peace in the seeking.