861: Politics, Pandemics, Race, and Pastoring Multi-Ethnic Churches: Rich Villodas

Theology in the Raw

Theology, Politics, Christianity, Culture, Religion & Spirituality, Discipleship

4.5 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2021

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rich Villodas is the Brooklyn-born lead pastor of New Life Fellowship, a large multiracial church with more than seventy-five countries represented in Elmhurst, Queens. Rich holds a Master of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary. He enjoys reading widely, preaching and writing on contemplative spirituality, justice-related matters, and the art of preaching. He's been married to Rosie since 2006 and they have two beautiful children, Karis and Nathan. His first book, The Deeply Formed Life, is now available wherever books are sold.

In this conversation, we talk about what it was like pastoring a church that is located at the epicenter of the pandemic in Queens, NY. We also discuss the beauties and challenges of pastoring a church where 75 different nations are represented, especially when they are all over the map on political and racial issues. We conclude by talking about Rich’s first book, The Deeply Formed Life, which focuses on the personal and public practices that contribute to our spiritual formation.

Read more about Rich Villodas here: https://www.richvillodas.com

Purchase Rich’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Deeply-Formed-Life-Transformative-Values/dp/0525654380/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=a+deeply+formed+life&qid=1618348231&sr=8-1

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, friends. Welcome back to another episode of Theology in the Rom. My guest today is the one
0:04.7	and only Rich Velotis. Rich is a Brooklyn-born lead pastor of New Life Fellowship, a large multi-racial
0:12.2	church with more than, count this, 75 countries represented in Elmhurst Queens. Rich holds a
0:19.4	master of Divinity Degree from Alliance Theological Seminary. And he has been, I mean, I would say a
0:27.6	growing leader in the Evangelical Church, especially when it comes to conversations surrounding
0:32.8	race, and conversations surrounding spiritual formation. He's the author of a deeply-formed
0:40.0	life, and we talk about that towards the end of this podcast where our spiritual formation should
0:48.2	be the primary focus of our ministry as Christian leaders, like our ministry should flow out of
0:55.3	our walk with God. And what I love about the book is he talks both about our inner kind of
0:59.9	spiritual formation and spiritual practices, okay, like spiritual disciplines, but also our public
1:05.2	social spiritual life and our concern for things like racial and social justice and so on.
1:11.3	Like it is not an either or, but a both and our faith is both personal and it is public,
1:16.2	and Rich has done a fantastic job promoting that. And I've never had an actual conversation with
1:23.1	Rich until this podcast. And this guy is just a delight, super humble, super wise, just,
1:31.4	yeah, we talk a lot about race and politics and kind of the last year and a half of ministry.
1:37.2	I mean, he's a pastor right there at the epicenter of the pandemic in Queens, New York, and we
1:41.7	talk about that as well. So yeah, I'm excited for you to check it out. If you'd like to support
1:45.5	show, you can go to patreon.com forward slash theology in the raw. This is a listener-supported podcast.
1:51.5	If you missed that reference, you can go down to the show notes, click on the link and support
1:55.6	to show for us a little less five bucks a month. Without further ado, let's get to know the one
1:59.3	and only pastor, Rich, the Lotus.
2:01.3	All right, friends, I'm so excited about this conversation. I am here with, I mean, I don't
	...

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