Honoring Origin Stories with Pastor James A. White
The Allender Center Podcast
The Allender Center
4.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 14 March 2025
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We’re thrilled to welcome back Pastor James A. White, who challenges us to think deeply about the stories we’ve been told — and the ones we haven’t.
Who decides which stories get remembered and which are forgotten? How has a Western lens shaped our understanding of the gospel? And what can happen when we truly honor the origin stories of everyone — individual cultures, histories, and experiences?
Pastor White believes that our past holds the key to both understanding the present and shaping a better future. In a world where truth is often distorted or silenced, he calls us to reclaim the power of storytelling — to listen well, read with intention, and resist narratives that erase or exclude.
Drawing from the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman, Pastor White highlights how Jesus intentionally crossed cultural divides to connect with and honor another’s story — a powerful example of wisdom, humility, and compassion.
The conversation calls for greater humility and curiosity in how we engage with others' stories, especially those shaped by trauma, resistance, and survival, while acknowledging the ways history and power influence how stories are told and remembered.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thank you for listening to the Allender Center podcast. |
| 0:06.7 | I'm Dr. Dan Allender. |
| 0:08.7 | And I'm Rachel Clinton-Centen. |
| 0:10.5 | We're fiercely committed to providing hope and healing to a fragmented world. |
| 0:14.7 | And restoration for the heart. |
| 0:17.2 | Thank you for joining us. |
| 0:18.5 | Let's get this conversation started. |
| 0:28.9 | Thank you for joining us. Let's get this conversation started. Good people with good bodies. I'm privileged to be here today with my friend and colleague, Dr. Dan Allender, and a returning guest on the Allender Center podcast, James White. We first |
| 0:39.1 | connected with James through our colleague and mutual friend Linda Royster, and you've heard from him |
| 0:43.3 | on our podcast before. James is a leader, facilitator, coach, and speaker. He serves as the |
| 0:49.3 | senior director of learning experiences at the YMCA of the North in Minneapolis, and is the senior pastor |
| 0:55.1 | of Christ our King Community Church. He is a dynamic, wise, and I would say fiercely kind |
| 1:01.0 | person who brings not just knowledge, but an embodied wisdom. James brings a deep passion for |
| 1:07.7 | justice, equity, and community transformation, which is something he carries |
| 1:12.2 | into his work with corporations, not profits, educational institutions, and government agencies. |
| 1:18.1 | He believes that our past stories give us both perspective on the present and an opportunity |
| 1:22.9 | to shave a better future. And so in a world right now, where we're being invited to deny memory, |
| 1:28.4 | to take in stories that have been co-opted and distorted, erased and silenced, we want to take |
| 1:33.7 | time today to talk about the power of stories, the power of storytelling, the power of how we read |
| 1:39.4 | and interpret. And I'm just thrilled, James, for you to be joining us in this conversation. So welcome. |
| 1:45.7 | Thank you, Rachel. And I agree. I think the timing of this conversation is very important. |
| 1:53.8 | However, it's really a conversation that I think is part of what shaped history, what shape the academy, what shape how we process ideas. |
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