There’s something about stories—especially the ones that stay with us long after the credits roll.

In this episode of the Well Dwellers Podcast, Erik Freiburger sits down once again with Dr. Ty Ragan for a conversation that moves through galaxies far, far away… and lands squarely in the heart of our own spiritual lives.

Together, they explore Star Wars not just as entertainment, but as theology in motion—a living parable of good and evil, fear and love, belonging and redemption. As Erik reflects early in the conversation, “stories shape us long before doctrines do.” And perhaps that’s exactly why stories like these matter so much.

What unfolds is a deeply imaginative and provocative dialogue around APEST—the apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, shepherding, and teaching gifts of the church—and how these missional expressions might already be hiding in the characters and narratives we know so well.

“What if the characters and worlds of Star Wars help us imagine what APEST looks like in real life?”

From Luke Skywalker’s journey through the gray spaces of identity, to Leia’s apostolic leadership, to the shepherding presence of unlikely characters like Chewbacca and the Mandalorian, this episode invites listeners to see the gospel not as static doctrine—but as a dynamic, unfolding story.

Ty brings psychological depth to the conversation, drawing on thinkers like Jung and Campbell, reminding us that:

“You are the main character of your own story, while at the same time you’re playing a supporting cast member to other stories.”

And perhaps that’s where this episode really begins to press in—on the tension between empire and rebellion, between control and community, between rigid religious systems and the wild, relational movement of the Spirit.

There are moments here that challenge the church directly:

“Are we here to serve the empire of the church… or is there something dynamically different?”

And others that reimagine what spiritual formation could look like if we dared to take story seriously:

“What if you treated a film like you would a piece of scripture… and let it speak to the community as they are gathered?”

This is a conversation about imagination—about reclaiming it, trusting it, and allowing it to reawaken something within us that doctrine alone sometimes cannot reach.

It’s about disability, belonging, and the prophetic call to reshape our communities.

It’s about the dark side within us—and the hope that redemption is never entirely out of reach.

And maybe most of all, it’s about learning to see again.

So whether you’re a lifelong Star Wars fan, a theologian, a skeptic, or someone simply searching for meaning in the middle of your own story—this episode invites you to step into the myth… and discover what it might be saying about your life, your faith, and the world we’re all trying to build together.

Chapters:

00:32 Opening Scenes

04:20 The Truth In Sci Fi

12:41 Roles Star Wars Plays In Shaping Good & Evil

19:25 The Story Of A Rebellious Movement

25:37 The Force & The Gifts Of APEST

34:08 Apostolic

46:29 Prophetic

54:03 Evangelism

1:05:04 Shepherding

1:11:27 Teaching

1:14:00 Psychology Of The Dark Side

1:20:10 Closing Scenes

Resources:

A Monk's Musings

Shepherd Sunday

Ah another geeky or cheaky subtitle. Today in church’s around the world, the lectionary would take one through the readings for Good Shepherd Sunday, in the Eastertide (Time of Easter) Fourth Sunday of Easter…

Read more

8 days ago · 1 like · Ty Ragan, Psy.D.

It is hard for me to know where to start. Everywhere I seem to look, it seems like so many battle lines of conflict are being drawn. As someone who has existed as a sort of nomad, I found a bit of comfort hiding in my prophetic cave in the wilderness while trying to pretend the earthquake that was happening under me and the firestorm out side the cavernous opening had little affect or impact on me. Try as I might, it seems more and more difficult to remain hidden in the shadows.

It wasn’t that I am without my own theological principles. More so, it was that my principles were able to be held in value without having to defend or enter the fray of the polarizing elements of world opinion. I am/was a nobody. And in some ways, I did not mind being so invisible.

Years ago I was confronted after presenting a proposal for a community ministry movement largely shaped by my missional theological values. It was shot down while questioning the potential “heresies” of such activities. I still remember sitting in a room where a denominational member of higher leadership turned to my pastor and said, “Yeah, we still are not sure what we are to do with these types of people.” It was my first taste of being accused directly of heretical deconstructional belief. Told I was seen as a “outside identity”, I moved on to growing a house church movement on my own. Ironically, as I told my pastor it would happen, Missional theology principles would be embraced by the denomination a few years later as the “next greatest thing”. By this time, I had long left the four walls of institutionalism. I don’t think I have signed a Doctrine of Membership Belief since.

Over the last few years, it seems this requirement of doctrinal submission or excommunication is rising once more. Academic theological exploration of doctrinal values are being challenged and repressed. Denominational institutions are siloing into defensive and exclusive positions. It is becoming more and more uncomfortable and discouraged to sit at the same communal table with those you may theologically be in difference of. Iron no longer sharpens iron. And wisdom is diluted by being comfortably numb as apposed to opening oneself to the punning of the Spirit and the submission to the unrecognized gardener. (John 20:14-16)

I am struggling heavily with the question:

The thought drew me back to the story of a woman (and man, for that matter) who were caught in adultery. The question of “Sin’s” involved I truly believe are probably far more complex then just the woman’s guilt or not. That is perhaps something to explore another time. Still, she was brought before Jesus with the question of, “What are we to do?”

Bending over, Jesus began to draw lines in the sand and told the religious leaders, “Let those who are without sin cast the first stone.” It wasn’t long before the accusers began to dissipate and disappear.

The truth is my theological positions in these arguments today are ones that draw me to the work and call of my heavenly Father. The intersections of such work keep me rooted in a firmament that provides both affirmation and fertilization that spurs growth and soulful challenge amidst doctrinal and principle differences. I do not agree with everything my marginalized relational connections believe. But nor do I feel the disempowerment of those differences uprooting the very powerful proximity we all share in with our creator. It is not my responsibility or place of authority to draw those lines in the sand. That is the place and authority for my Lord and Saviour’s hands.

Recently I came across the reference to Scot McKnight’s latest publication ‘Traumatized Church’. He writes with the effort in pairing theological insights with counseling expertise to guide readers through the four R's of trauma care: Realize, Recognize, Respond, and Resist.

As the Disability movement in the living church looks towards the future of its initiatives both in identity and in intersectionality, I find myself wondering how these four R’s might shape the disability theology and spirituality of its members. If nothing else, those of us in the disabled life should be masters of navigating trauma. Perhaps the future of the greater Church might depend on us for this!

There are conversations that feel like moving onto steady ground—comforting, relaxed, and affirming. Then there are conversations that feel more like moving onto sacred ground—holy, creative, and life altering.

This is one of those.

In this episode of the Well Dwellers Podcast, I sit down with Keith Dow for a dialogue that moves us beyond tidy theology and into the messy, beautiful, and often disruptive realities of being human together. This is not a conversation about disability from a distance. It is a conversation shaped by proximity—by shared life, mutual care, and what Keith calls the undeniable truth that “we were shaped and changed by each other… they represented God to me… and I represented God to them.”

Together, we wrestle with what it means to be made in the image of God—not as an abstract doctrine, but as something encountered in hospital rooms, in moments of fear and vulnerability, and in relationships that refuse to fit our categories. Keith names this tension honestly: “We often don’t understand ourselves… let alone those around us… so what is the ethical disposition?”

And maybe that’s where this conversation begins—not with certainty, but with posture.

A posture of curiosity.
A posture of mutuality.
A posture that dares to believe, as we explore together, that “true care is mutual care.”

Throughout this episode, we explore:

• How disability disrupts the “norms that govern recognition” and reveals deeper truths about humanity

• Why the church’s obsession with efficiency, productivity, and cognitive ability may be silencing the very voices we need most

• How art, culture, and embodied experience open new ways of encountering God beyond words

• And what it might look like to become communities where, in my own words, “dignity is not conditional… and interdependence is holy.”

There are moments in this conversation that feel like wrestling—like Jacob in the night—where theology is no longer clean or controlled, but lived, felt, and risked. Keith describes one such moment as “this picture of wrestling… trying to protect… and trying to understand… a desire to connect… to make sense of the world together.”

And maybe that’s the invitation for all of us.

To move beyond theology as information…
Into theology as encounter.
Into lives where vulnerability is not weakness—but wisdom.

So wherever you find yourself today—whether in certainty or in questions, in strength or in limitation—I invite you to lean in.

Because this conversation might just change how you see others…
…and how you see God.

Welcome to the bottom of the well.

Chapters:

00:31 An Invitation Into Sacred Ground

10:12 Discovering A Heart Of Mutual Care

21:17 Disrupting Postures Of Holiness

27:17 Disrupting The Norms Of Discipleship

33:56 Disrupting The Norms Of Culture

40:40 Banquet Of Belonging

44:25 Closing

Resources:

Keith Dow’s Website: https://keithdow.com/

Images of God: https://imagesofgod.ca/

Disability and Faith: https://disabilityandfaith.org/author/kdow/

Cross Training Theology & Psychology: https://crosstrainingpsychologyandtheology.com/researcher/keith-dow/

Formed Together: Mystery, Narrative, and Virtue in Christian Caregiving By Keith Dow: Available HERE

Deeper Communion Seeing The Kingdom Together: https://adeepercommunion.org/

Upcoming Events:

What if worship isn’t primarily about what we offer to God—but about what God is already doing within us?

In this deeply thoughtful and honest conversation, Erik Freiburger sits down with Kirsten Schmaus to explore how worship is shaped, disrupted, and reimagined through the lens of disability, embodiment, and community. Together, they invite us to move beyond performance-driven expressions and into something far more vulnerable, relational, and real.

As Erik frames early on, “it is not primarily about fixing worship, but about listening to what worship is already revealing—about God, about bodies, and about who belongs at the center of our shared life together.”

Kirsten brings years of experience in worship leadership and theological reflection, naming a critical shift many churches must wrestle with: “We run the risk of becoming the primary actor… and we forget that all worship is initiated by God, and that we respond.”
This reframing moves worship from performance to participation—from control to submission.

Together, Erik and Kirsten name how contemporary worship spaces can unintentionally mirror ableist assumptions—prioritizing polish, perfection, and predictability over presence, participation, and belonging. As Kirsten insightfully notes, practices like pre-recorded tracks can subtly communicate that “everything needs to move forward perfectly… and that is not welcoming, really.”

But this conversation is not merely critique—it is invitation.

An invitation to imagine worship spaces where bodies are not managed but received…
Where scars are not hidden but honored…
Where lament is not avoided but embraced as faithful worship.

In one of the most powerful moments of the episode, Kirsten reflects on leading worship the day after the tragic loss of her brother: “I don’t even know how to be in the world right now… but I do know how to worship.”
Here, worship becomes not triumph, but trust. Not escape, but presence.

This episode also explores:

• The tension between expressive vs. formational worship

• How ableism can shape liturgy, music, and leadership structures

• The possibility of worship as justice enacted in real time

• The beauty of communal, embodied practices like shared tables and Eucharist

• And what it means to create “submissive spaces”—where we yield not to performance, but to the Spirit’s movement among us

At its heart, this conversation asks a provocative and necessary question:

What happens when disabled wisdom is not simply accommodated—but received as a gift?

Come listen in as we explore “the first move” of worship—not ours, but God’s—and what it might mean to follow that movement into deeper belonging, deeper honesty, and a more authentic life together.

Chapters:

00:47 Opening

03:30 A Fun Start

08:10 Worship Formation

15:39 An Ever Evolving Embodiment of Worship

20:29 Looking For Justice

28:21 When Breakthrough Doesn’t Happen

38:25 Restorative Justice At Work

48:01 Put Your Hands In My Scars

53:03 Banquet Of Belonging

57:46 Closing

Resources:

James k.A. Smith Books:

• ‘Desiring The Kingdom’ — Here

• ‘You Are What You Love’ — Here

Rosemarie Garland-Thomson

• ‘Extrodinary Bodies’ — Here

Amos Young

• ‘The Bible, Disability, and the Church: A New Vision of the People of God’ — Here

Judith Butler

• ‘Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex’ — Here

Nancy Eiesland

• ‘The Disabled God: Toward a Liberatory Theology of Disability’ — Here

In this episode of the Well Dwellers Podcast, Erik Freiburger welcomes back his friend, theologian, and fellow traveler Dr. Michael Morelli. Michael teaches theological ethics, helps lead the Lazarus Center in Langley, British Columbia, and writes the thoughtful Substack . But perhaps more importantly, he speaks as someone whose life has been shaped by community, chronic illness, and a deep reflection on what it means to be human before God.

The conversation begins simply—with stories of Italian food, family, and a shared love for music—but it soon moves into deeper waters: disability identity, the language we use to describe one another, the nature of belonging in the church, and the role emerging technologies like AI may play in shaping our future.

Along the way, Michael reminds us that our understanding of disability cannot be separated from our understanding of what it means to be human:

“If we are created by a God, then that means we’re creatures… we have potential, but we also have limits. And to be a creature is to experience those limits.”

Together, Erik and Michael explore how Christian theology might help us move beyond narrow labels and toward a deeper sense of shared creatureliness—one that sees our limitations not as defects, but as part of the beautiful complexity of being human.

This conversation also touches on loneliness, friendship, the failures and possibilities of technology, and the calling of the church to become a community where people are not simply accommodated—but truly belong.

In another word from Michael, he reflects:

“The older I get, the more I appreciate the power of friendship and community… sometimes we understand ourselves best through the people who truly see us.”

So settle in for a thoughtful and wide-ranging conversation—one that invites us all to wake up a little more fully to the gift of being human together.

Chapters

00:30 Intro & The Desires Of A Foodie

08:22 Personal Connections With A Disabled Life

15:40 Models Of Disability

28:24 Finding Meaning Through Community

36:53 Is Having A Disability Ministry Important?

42:02 AI And Where Are We Between Immortality And The Apocalypse?

1:03:59 Acknowledging The Tensions Between Silos & Intersectionality

1:11:26 Deeper Communion’s ‘Banquet Of Belonging’

1:21:19 Closing

Resources & Links:

—

Personalist Manifesto(s)

Conversations for a contemplative revolution.

The Lazarus Center (Langley, BC):

https://www.thelazaruscentre.org/

Canadian Journal Of Theology, Mental Health, & Disability Article:

https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cjtmhd/article/view/46679

The Banquet of Belonging isn’t just a fabled dream — it is something that happens when people gather around a table of hospitality, share stories, and discover they are not alone.

Join us Wednesday evening for a relaxed dessert night as Ron & Teresa Buschman share conversation with Erik & Bonnie Freiburger about marriage, relationships, and building a life together while navigating spinal cord injuries and disability for most of their lives. Centred around dessert and conversation, they’ll share honest stories of love, challenge, humour, faith, and the unexpected ways disability can shape partnership and deepen connection with one another and the communities we are a part of.

Like any good banquet, this evening isn’t about having all the right answers — it’s about gathering together, listening well, and discovering how belonging grows when we learn to support one another with vulnerability, grace, and mutual care.

Come enjoy dessert, settle in, and be part of a conversation that reminds us God’s table is wide, welcoming, and always being expanded.

Conversational Presenters

Ron and Teresa Buschman Bio

Ron and Teresa Buschman have been married for over four decades and are passionate about helping couples build strong, healthy, and life-giving marriages.

They have been part of First Alliance Church in Calgary for many years, where they have served in a variety of leadership and volunteer roles. Their heart has been investing in marriages — walking alongside couples, facilitating marriage courses, mentoring, and creating spaces where relationships can grow and thrive. They previously served as Couples’ Ministry Coordinators and continue to be actively involved in supporting and encouraging couples in every season of marriage.

Ron and Teresa are trained facilitators for a number of marriage and relationship tools and have led workshops, small groups, and mentoring experiences both within the church and in partnership with organizations like Focus on the Family. Their approach is practical, honest, and grounded in real life — not theory.

They believe great marriages aren’t built by accident. They grow through intentional connection, healthy communication, shared purpose, and a willingness to keep learning and growing together.

When they’re not investing in couples, Ron and Teresa enjoy staying active, travelling, camping in their trailer, spending time with their grandkids in Chilliwack, and making the most of life together.

More than anything, their story isn’t about having a perfect marriage — it’s about a long journey of learning, growing, and choosing each other again and again.

Erik & Bonnie Freiburger’s Bio

Having been both in wheelchairs due to a spinal cord injury caused by separate motor vehicle accidents in the early 90’s, Erik and Bonnie Freiburger have learned a great deal as to what it means to be disabled. Meeting in a group home that served as a place for transition from the hospital to community life, they developed a great friendship that would eventually turn into a deep love for one another. Getting married in 1999, they built a home in SE Calgary and spent the last 27 years learning, growing, and sometimes juggling the chaos that comes in marriage and a life of disability.

Bonnie loves baking at home in the kitchen and hosting movie nights with their friends. Erik loves eating Bonnie’s baked goods while writing and hosting a Substack and podcast advocating for disability and faith called ‘At The Bottom Of The Well’ and ‘The Well Dwellers Podcast’.

Banquet of Belonging is a conference exploring how community and discipleship are reshaped when disabled and non-disabled people learn together across difference. Through theology, lived experience, and shared practices, participants are invited into a vision of belonging formed at one table—where gifts are celebrated and everyone matters. [Calgary live gathering is at First Alliance Church on the 2nd floor in the Harvest Room.]

This conference gathers disabled and non-disabled Christians, pastors, and families to explore how discipleship changes when people learn from one another across differences. Sessions will address theology, access, relationships, and lived experience, grounding everything in practices that create shared tables rather than parallel ministries. Each regional gathering includes a shared meal that embodies the call: a community formed by mutual welcome, celebrated gifts, and a commitment to belong to one another.

Plenary Keynote Speakers

Sarah Wardlaw (Vancouver)

Growing up with cerebral palsy, Sarah has always wanted to encourage others who feel underestimated and not truly known, whether as a consequence of a disability or some other circumstance. She works as a speech-language pathologist, and believes that the opportunity to express ourselves and be understood – whatever form that may take – is a gift from God for all people.

Sarah has been blessed to be part of several amazing church communities, including St. John’s Vancouver Anglican Church, which she has attended for 11 years. Through true friendships built with family in Christ, Sarah continues to learn more about how we can value interdependence and experience Jesus’ great compassion in our pain and weakness, without denying that pain. Dogs are guaranteed to bring a smile to her face, and she enjoys sci-fi TV and fantasy games.

Jon Coutts (Calgary)

After growing up and pastoring in western Canada, Jon wrote a PhD on forgiveness in Scotland and went on to teach ethics in England before returning home to continue his theological work in and for the Canadian church. Jon is married to Angie and they have four grown sons who still gather to watch Liverpool Football Club.

Chantelle, Jenna, & Terry Sanderson

Terry and Chantelle Sanderson have dedicated much of their lives to pastoral ministry, serving in London, Ontario, St. Louis, Missouri, and now at Bayview Glen Alliance Church in Thornhill. Their journey has been marked by a desire to follow God’s leading and to serve His people faithfully.

A central part of their story is their daughter Jenna. Living with a disability, Jenna radiates joy and creativity, with a love for history, art, and ministry alongside her sisters, Jadyn and Jovanna. Her perspective has opened up new ways for the Sandersons to see God’s presence at work in their family, church, and community. Jenna is a published author often writing about her experiences with disability within a church context.

Together, Terry, Chantelle, and Jenna share a testimony of faith, family, and the beauty of God’s image reflected in every person.

Not too many people know this about me, but prior to my spinal cord injury, I nearly became a lifeguard and spent a lot of time swimming in the Calgary public pools. However, that was over 30+ years ago and to be honest, I’ve never had the courage to get in a pool or visit one since!

There really are not very many accessible pools in the city, either. But that is truthfully just an excuse. Those of us in the dis/abled crowd know where the cool places to take a dip are; and the venturesome one’s of us have dove right in. Of course, those pools are open for any able person to join in the fun, too. Which opens the door to reflecting on when Jesus and his friends visited a similar community pool.

Yes, it might be a funny thing to say but, the dis/abled crowd in Jesus’s time had a similar place to hangout called the pool of Bethesda. Like today, “a great number of disabled people used to lie there.” (vs. 3) Intriguingly, you must note the generalization here of the labeled “disabled” in Jesus’s story; they are glazed over as a collective and overlooked as a crowd despite John articulating their unique characteristics – the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed. Even in saying this, most of us read these qualities as a loss or negative to their character recognition as appose to their gifting and empowerment. If this seems like a stretch, think of a similar story a few chapters later when Jesus says a blind man was born blind not because of a fault, but “so God’s glory might be seen in him.” (John 9:3)

In the midst of this story and crowd, we have to ask ourselves, “What were these people really looking for in the traditions of this pool of healing and God’s work?’ And “Why did they feel so invisible to the greater community around them?” For Jesus, this moment at the pool was not merely a place to perform a miracle. It was a moment for Jesus to model seeing the dis/abled while confronting cultural invisibility, redefine personal wellness, and to unveil God’s work that continues through us even today.

I. Jesus Saw the Man — Removing Invisibility with the Sight of Incredibility

“Jesus saw him there…” (vs. 6) We’re not really sure why Jesus focused in on this particular man. But he was drawn to him out of some desire for personal connection. I’d like to think his motive was not one of despair or pity, but rather a lighthearted passion to truly draw closer and find relationship with the giftings this man would reveal.

More often than not, dis/abled today are seen as a marginal group, small in number. We don’t realize that in Alberta, 27% of our population are considered dis/abled. That is nearly 1 in 3 of us! Look around our church community. Do you see the dis/abled around our activities? Does it reflect this kind of representation or presence? Why or Why not?

For those of us that are seen and recognized, it is more often because of particular visible labels or structures – wheelchairs, walkers, or characteristics that segregate us to the “disabled” sections and ministries of the church. We are seen and known not as persons, but as conditions and for our locations or needs (disabled… parking, seats, events, caregiving). Our gifts are reduced to the disabled pools of society while otherwise invisible to the greater ethos and involvement with the Christian community.

As Jesus entered these pool areas, he saw and brought a restoration of personhood to the dis/abled people first before any understanding of healing. He did not ask what he could do. He asked what he could learn. He removed their invisibility and gave sight to their incredibility.

“See, know, discern, unveil… Sight precedes morality.” Richard Beck articulates. “For how can you take proper action in the world if you are blind, lost, deluded, ignorant, or confused? As Jesus said, the blind lead the blind, and all fall into the pit. Vision is required for navigation.”^[1]

II. A New Meaning of Wellness — Empowerment, Not Erasure

“Do you want to be made well?” (v. 6) The question seems to come in simple form. But the complexity is quickly revealed with the dis/abled man’s response – a response that also shows the deeper desire he was looking for.

“I have no one…” A reply that reveals his deep sense of community isolation, exclusion, and lack of access. These feelings had been pressed into him for so long without wanting to break the religious traditional rules and boundaries, nor the social order of acceptability, that he simply laid there waiting for 37 years!

I find it intriguing that Jesus did not name healing as the man’s desire. But rather he used the words “made well”, as in well-being and the state of comfort, joy, and wholeness. Jesus redefined the dis/abled man’s restoration not as the religious or social order did – the need for a cure so that he might look and act like everyone else. He removed the shame of his cultures cure narrative and empowered the personal agency or identity in this man, so that internal self-dignity was established, a participation in life involvement was in his own rising, responsibility was given to his own recognized calling and passions, and a voice of testimony to reflecting the work and presence of God in his life was revealed as he did not throw away the mat, but picked it up and carried it with him. Jesus reveals wellness as restored belonging within God’s renewing work—not mere physical normalization to the community’s expectations or measures.

As someone who lives his life in a wheelchair, I cannot help but feel the incredible weight that must have been lifted from this man’s soul after 37 years. I do not need to feel shame nor responsibility for the ostracization of the ways my wheelchair has shaped my life. I carry it with me as evidence to my testimony and empowerment while the responsibility and work of recognition to my well-being falls not to myself, but to the community and church around me.

What are the experiences and relationships that bring these moments of well-being to you?

How might Jesus and his community empower such wellness?

Can we recognize these as the very works and miracles of God around us?

III. The Work Is Still Ongoing

As we read the story of the man at the pool of Bethesda, it is important for us to acknowledge the living Word being spoken. This is not a one-off miracle that has been performed to establish Jesus’s authority in that moment alone. It is a revelation of divine rhythm that carries on in his calling of each one of us today.

Modeling the Way for us, Jesus shares with the religious leaders around him, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” (vs. 17) The actions and social justice work of God continues throughout history as we seek to liberate and raise the well-being of the dis/abled and excluded within our neighbourhoods and world. “For we are God’s servants,” as Paul tells us. “…working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.” (1 Cor. 3:9)

We are to ask:

Who lies waiting in our sanctuaries and gathering spaces?

Who waits for access to events, retreats, and for community activities?

Who has been told to wait for a miracle while we refuse to move or change because it is easier to just continue with the normal activities?

The “Dis/abled God” Is Still Enabling His Church To Be Miraculous

The miracle at Bethesda did not begin with a man that was walking. It began with him being seen.

Before he stood, before he carried his mat through the streets, Jesus restored something even deeper than his muscle strength—he restored his dignity. In a world that had learned to step around him and not see him, Christ stopped. In a culture that had categorized him, Christ conversed. In a system and ideology that kept him waiting, Christ worked.

Nancy Eiesland reminds us that in the resurrected Jesus we meet “the dis/abled God”, a Saviour who still bears wounds. The scars and wounds were not erased in his resurrection; they were revealed as part of his glory. And it changes everything. It tells us that God’s work is not about erasing or curing dis/abled bodies or displaced lives, but about unveiling their belovedness, well-being, and belonging within the kingdom and within this world.

“My Father is still working,” Jesus says.

The question is whether we are.

Will we become a community where no one whispers, “I have no one”?

Will we dismantle the pools of exclusion we have grown comfortable maintaining?

Will we see dis/ability not as a detriment or need, but as a gift, a blessing to our community and to our lives?

Because the work that began at Bethesda continues wherever Christ’s body refuses invisibility and instead chooses the sacred, disruptive act of sight.

[1] https://substack.com/home/post/p-187960079

What if the future of the church isn’t stronger, faster, or more efficient—but more fragile, more attentive, and more deeply human?

In this episode of The Well Dwellers Podcast, Erik Freiburger is joined by theologian, pastor, and ethicist Jon Coutts for a wide-ranging and deeply honest conversation titled Escaping Superman Christianity: Rediscovering Our Creaturely Interdependent Identity & Why the Future Isn’t Superhuman.

Together, Erik and Jon confront the powerful cultural and ecclesial myths that shape so much of Western Christianity—the obsession with polish, productivity, efficiency, and success; the quiet idolization of the “Superman,” the “Barbie,” and the celebrity leader; and the ways these ideals marginalize disabled bodies, fragile lives, and those who don’t fit the mold. Drawing from disability theology, liberation theology, Scripture, and lived pastoral experience, they ask what it means to truly discern the body in a church culture still captive to marketplace logic.

This conversation moves through themes of disability and dignity, belonging and exclusion, church leadership and ecclesial imagination, and eventually into the ethical and theological questions surrounding artificial intelligence. Jon offers a compelling vision of creaturely interdependence, challenging the promise of a superhuman future driven by technology and efficiency, and instead calling us back to a faith rooted in limitation, mutual need, and shared life.

Along the way, they reflect on Luke 14’s banquet of belonging, the dangers of treating disability as a problem to solve rather than a gift that reveals God’s glory, and the urgent need for churches to recover an economy shaped not by success metrics, but by communion.

This is a conversation for anyone wrestling with the future of the church, the meaning of inclusion, and the question at the heart of it all:

What if escaping Superman Christianity is the very thing that allows us to become fully human—together?

Share

Please share this episode with others, rate, and leave a comment.

Pull up a chair, make room at the table, and join us at The Well.

Resources:

‘Deliver Us From AI’ w/ Jon Coutts — https://substack.com/@personalistmanifestos/p-165794360

Jon Coutts ‘Deliver Us From AI’ — PDF

Henri Nouwen’s ‘In The Name Of Jesus’ — https://www.henrinouwen.org/books/in-the-name-of-jesus

Richard Beck’s ‘On Intentionality’ — https://substack.com/home/post/p-183155944?source=queue

Pope Francis’s ‘Laudato Si’ — https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html

A Christian’s Perspective on Artificial Intelligence — https://christoverall.com/article/longform/a-christians-perspective-on-artificial-intelligence/

Willie Jenning’s ‘The Christian Imagination’ — https://www.amazon.ca/Christian-Imagination-Theology-Origins-Race/

Chapters:

00:00 Opening

05:02 On The Precipice Of Fragility & Hope

16:46 Blind Spots To Inclusion In The Church

25:12 Who Is Invited To The Banquet?

40:41 AI & The Pursuit Of The Perfect

55:00 Social Justice & The Ground Work Of Church

1:17:37 Anti-Heros & The “Sully’s” In The World

1:22:50 Closing

One of my favorite moments in the holidays is being able to cozy up with my wife Bonnie in our home theatre and watch a fantastic movie. Just a few nights ago, we dimmed the lights and together watched Brad Pitt’s newest film ‘F1’ — an incredible thrill ride of adrenaline and dramatic dialogue! While watching, a particular scene grabbed my imagination as the APXGP team members sat around the conference table and spoke ardently about holding onto their best hopes for the coming day’s race. Their driver Sonny Hayes however, cynically interrupted them saying, “Hope is not a strategy.”

What was it that seemed to grab my imagination’s attention in this moment?

“Hope Is Not a Strategy” — Naming the Limit Without Abandoning Hope

Over the past year, I have spent a lot of my energy and focus wondering where the disabled community and myself might find hope and experience it in deeper more profound ways. It has provided many moments of community development and activity, encounters with others in the search, conversations and presentations that led to personal and social growth, and time spent reading, listening, and learning from incredibly articulate and smarter people then I!

I owe a great debt to authors like , Sara Hagerty, Kurt Willems, Amy Lively, Kate Bowler, Richard Rohr, Christine Caine, and countless bloggers and social personality’s. There is profound gratitude to my friends , , Rob Buschman, my community in the New Leaf Network, and my home church The First Alliance here in Calgary. They have all greatly inspired my journey of hope this past year and what it might look like in disability.

But, Sonny Hayes is right. And in the paraphrased words of Jürgen Moltmann:

“Hope alone is not enough. It does not change the present. But without hope, the present cannot be endured.”

In a life of disability, Hope is not a strategy—it is a revealing vision of divine light that is shaping our imaginations, a refusal to accept social injustice as inevitable, and the courage to act toward a future not yet visible. Somewhere in a deeper story written in our life’s journey we must come to the transcending belief that Hope imagines the road ahead; while joy is the strategy that keeps us driving.

Share

When Hope Seems Blurry: Joy as an Enduring Practice

Recently, I have started reading ‘The Book of Joy’ by His Holiness the Dalai Lama & the Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Hoping it might begin to steer me in a direction of what a strategy and practice of disabled spirituality might look like, it quickly revealed a foundation to how that conversation might be grounded in reality. Speaking plainly, the Dalai Lama & Tutu framed their approach:

I have never professed that the disabled life is easy. Everyday comes with its ups & downs and many times it is not an easy or fair split between the two. But I don’t think in the 30 years I’ve been in a wheelchair that I have ever seen myself as suffering. Certainly there have been more then my fair share of experiences and times of pain. But I guess I simply framed it as the constant fight for life we all face in some form or way. Like the Furyan striving forward defiantly into the face of death itself, pain is a right of passage and not a state of suffering. But, with maybe a little more joy?

I think Jesus’s brother, the apostle James, also had a streak of Furyan character. “My brothers and sisters,” He began his letter to the early Christians who were facing great oppression and socially imposed exclusions to the point of death:

“… whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4)

James has a great point. Joy can hardly cover the full strategy and practice of a enduring & maturing disabled spirituality. But it is a conceiving start to a foundation that can build upon such a deep and meaningful endeavour. That foundation of joy is the task I am pulled towards as this New Year dawns.

“Drive Fast” — Joy as Strategy, Motion, and Refusal to Stagnate

There was an awkward pause following Sonny’s interruption in the APXGP pre-race meeting before the question was then asked, “So what is your strategy?” Sonny’s answer was simple, “Drive fast.”

Simple. Plain. And Direct. I don’t think Sonny thought driving a Formula 1 race car was easy and without the complexities of planning, conditioning, deconstructing & rebuilding. And of course practicing to win a race. The same truth can be said in building a strategy for practicing an enduring, maturing, and joyful disabled spirituality.

Hope casts an awe infused vision for us in an ever drawing near eternal reality. But, hope is not a strategy for driving the disabled life we live for and desire today. It cannot, by itself, carry us through exhaustion, repetition, or grief. Hope imagines what might yet be possible, but imagination alone does not move the body, mind, or spirit alone. And so Paul does not say, “Hope always.” He says, “Rejoice always. Again, I say rejoice!”

Joy becomes the practice that keeps us moving when hope feels thin. Joy does not deny struggle; it refuses to let struggle have the final word. “Drive fast,” not as escape or recklessness, but as commitment—to stay in motion, to remain alive to wonder, to move through the world with a defiant gladness rooted deeper than outcomes or ends.

So let the journey and race towards discovering a practical disabled spirituality built upon a foundation of joy begin!

Growing up I would see my mom daily facing the ups & downs of her disability. Some days were filled with physical pain brought on by debilitating fibromyalgia and she would lean heavily on her cane while walking. While other days she would be upright and steady. The cost of chronic pain would be taxing with depression, frustration, and mental fatigue.

Despite these constant pressures, she loved music and would often take out her guitar and play worship music on the living room floor. She would lead our small Anglican church in worship nearly every Sunday and would never miss a practice with the church band. Nor would she ever leave a campfire while in the hills of Kananaskis Country without leading us all in joyful songs while watching the embers rise in the starry night sky. Pain and all, my mother never left an opportunity unanswered to give paise to God.

Christmas was perhaps her favorite time of year. Every year, she would put her favorite Christmas record of Amy Grant on the turn table and sing to it as though she was the lead vocal for a Christmas concert of one — Emmanuel, God with us!

Today, I journey a different path of disability, reminded of the spirit of joy and hope that she always carried during this time of year. Truthfully, it’s not always easy for those with disabilities to hold onto this vision that Christmas and Advent is a season of remembering that God is with us.

It is true that like many others, we experience the great joys of crowding a local Access bus and driving around the city with others while being filled with the wonder & beauty of homes being decorated in Christmas lights with inflatable Santa’s in their snowy front yards. If we’re lucky, someone brought a thermos of hot chocolate with styrofoam cups, so everyone could share. We brave the crowded inaccessible malls to maybe buy a few gifts for our loved ones, while navigating the tricky balance of strained budgets and stressful spending. And, at home we play Christmas music while having a few family and friends over to celebrate the love and care of a supporting community.

But Christmas and Advent can also be a time of struggle. Cold snowy weather can make it difficult to get around as wheelchairs get stuck in unshovelled paths and slushy parking lots. Pain can increase with fluctuating weather storms and temperatures that can drop over night — not to mention the salt and ice that stick to your wheels and cut your hands to shreds. Doctor’s offices close down and appointments are cancelled which can for some lead to greater isolation at home and the loneliness of small subsidized apartments. Caregivers in mass take holidays leaving care for individuals in the community strained at best, if not neglected or unfulfilled with the expectations of care being left to clients family and friends. And, the reminder of living in poverty is at a heightened level while you try to not become depressed from the changing provincial policies that are already affecting whether you can afford rent, food, healthcare supplies, or the overwhelming guilt that you can’t provide a gift at family and community gatherings.

For many, we wish only to quickly get through the season to find more normalized anxieties and stress in the new year. Where can Christmas hope come from? How can we hold to that first Christmas promise that Emmanuel, God is with us?

Recently, I came across something Sara Hagerty wrote in her book ‘The Gift of Limitations’:

“Slower still comes to you and me in the form of things we might otherwise see as fences. Slower still, as we embrace the “come, die, grieve, live” cycle that God gives us, can become the words we use to lead us before our bodies do. Come (choose to step forward and not stay stuck), die (let Him have His way with us), grieve (collapse into God and remember, in our collapsing, that our longings matter), and live (truly live)—and slower still as we go.”

Slow is not the natural path of the world today. Perhaps even more unnatural during the Christmas season. And yet the promise of experiencing hope at Christmas is found even more in the story of Emmanuel — God stripping everything of himself away to take the form of a completely dependant infant. Humanly speaking, exposing himself to the risk of disabled divinity in utter dependance on the care of his mother, father, shepherds, wisemen, and the community who came to a small stable that first Christmas and brought the only gift that truly mattered — Hope & Joy.

Revealing the presence of God with us at Christmas is not a matter of bringing the most glittery gifts to toy drives and flooding tables with donated food packages; although those can accompany a spirit of hope and well being. Like the rhythmic talents of the traditional drummers boy in many Nativity Scenes, its the small acts we take in relationally connecting with one another that builds a world of hope around us.

in a short Advent devotional called ‘Hope Is Not Neutral’ shares the encouraging words of Nick Cave to a family in a moving letter:

“Unlike cynicism,” Nick Cave concluded, “hope is hard-earned and can feel like the loneliest place on earth. Hopefulness is not a neutral position. It is adversarial and it can lay waste to cynicism. Every redemptive act, as small as you like, such as reading to your little boy or showing him a thing you love or putting on his shoes, keeps the devil down in his hole. It shows the world and its inhabitants [that they] have value and are worth defending. It shows the world is worth believing in. [And] in time, you will find that it becomes so.”

Perhaps this Christmas, hope won’t arrive as a bright burst of cheer but as something quieter—an ember we choose to guard in the winds of our limitations and disabilities. Advent has always been a season that honours the slow, the small, and the vulnerable. It begins not with power and strength, but with a newborn cradled in a manger, dependent on the care and compassion of an unlikely expecting community. And it continues today wherever we dare to believe that our own limits, frustrations, and aches might still be places where God draws near and makes room for disabled joy, disabled grief, and disabled presence.

So as we move through this season—with its joy and pain, its crowded buses and unshovelled paths, its laughter, its loneliness, and its longing—may we remember that Emmanuel comes to disabled bodies, tired spirits, and tender hearts. Hope is not neutral. It is the stubborn decision to keep showing up for one another in small, redemptive ways: a song offered through pain, a shared cup of hot chocolate, a simple act of presence that tells someone they are worth defending.

And in choosing these small acts, we join that first circle of shepherds, parents, wanderers, and unexpected guests who gathered around the manger. Together, we become a community that makes room for real hope—hope that grows slowly, quietly, and faithfully. Hope that reminds us, again and again, that God is with us.

In this episode of The Well Dwellers Podcast, Erik Freiburger sits down with Bruce Callow for a rich and wide-ranging conversation at the intersection of music, memory, disability, and emerging technology. Recorded in the wake of a small but powerful gathering called ‘Remixing Reality’ at the Calgary Central Library, this dialogue explores how AI-assisted music creation can open new pathways of expression for those who struggle to find words—whether because of disability, aging, trauma, or simply the limits of language itself.

Bruce brings stories from decades of work in education, global justice, and community building, alongside his own musical journey—from punk and post-punk stages to facilitating songwriting workshops in seniors’ homes, immigrant communities, and across cultures and continents. Together, Erik and Bruce reflect on moments when music became a bridge: calming anxious bodies, unlocking memories, giving voice to prayers, and revealing identity in ways that surprised everyone in the room.

This episode doesn’t shy away from the ethical tensions surrounding AI and creativity. Instead, it asks deeper questions about dignity, embodiment, accessibility, and how technology—when held with care—might serve as a tool for connection rather than replacement. Along the way, you’ll hear snippets of songs born from these workshops and stories that linger long after the final note fades.

Pull up a chair at the well. This is a conversation about listening—deeply—to one another, and to the songs waiting to be sung within us all.

Chapters

00:00 Beginning Notes

02:32 About Bruce Callow

09:03 Discovering AI Music

12:09 Stories, Experiences, & Community Encounters

21:21 Concerns & Dangers

28:32 The Hope for and in AI creativity

37:44 Room for Improvement

39:09 Wrapping Up & Looking for More

41:58 Final Words

Resources:

Remixing Reality’s Event Entire Playlist: https://suno.com/playlist/3905363d-ec48-4322-9e37-257933d313de

Books By Bruce Callow:

Online Courses With Bruce Callow: https://www.create-learn.us/partners/bruce-callow-296

For most of my life I have dreamed of publishing a book. Ideas come and sometimes I even start to formulate them into something. But it always seems to fade into the backdrop of life. Wind up on my blog. Or, life itself gets in the way. The internal struggles:

• This is good and I can’t wait! — Shortly afterwards, I’ll publish it online somewhere.

• This sounds like a million other books. Who’s going to really be interested in mine?

• This is too BIG! I’ll be writing another “War & Peace” academic monstrosity.

• Health is struggling from to much time in front of the screen. I need to workout, eat better, and move more. I don’t want to loose my transfer independence!

• Will this work actually be meaningful a valued by others? I don’t want to put in all this effort only to have stacks of copies in my storage room to give away to others only to full shelf space. (Sorry. Being brutally honest.)

Are they valid? Honestly, I don’t know. But… the dream still comes up from time to time. Nudges from the Spirit? Maybe.

Anyways, New Leaf Network recently opened an invitation to join a writers circle. Perhaps you are asking, what is that?! In short… a group of writers who meet to share their work, provide constructive feedback, and offer mutual support in a safe and encouraging environment. In this case, we are connecting across country through Zoom.

It is my first time entering these kind of relationships and while I keep hopeful in the dream of producing something from the accountability & support, I also feel a bit intimidated. They all seem so accomplished, qualified… and way smarter then me! Still, I feel so incredibly honoured to be part of the fellowship and co-bearer to keeping the “flame” burning among us!

What do I expect from such a camaraderie in the pursuit of publication?

Perhaps first, a soundboard to ideas, thoughts, and writing samples. With the greater knowledge of the others in my circle, I would greatly appreciate there input to the quality of my efforts in my writing style and pieces. Is this worth writing? Is it engaging? Or what more or less does it need to communicate the message? At the same time, perhaps resources could be exchanged to help in the researching of my written project. Or aids to help with writing.

Second, while I don’t want a beat down for missing a deadline, I deeply need to find a sense of accountability and perhaps schedule for my writing goals. I can write. But without a focused date of expected completion from fellow sojourning friends in the same processes, it is too easy for me to put off for those other internal reasonings. It might be crap that I turn in. But it keeps me accountable to improvement and redrafting. I should also mention; this is a deadline for written pieces. I don’t think I am ready for a finished publication draft just yet.

Perhaps also connected to this accountability piece is to be a kind of advisory board to other projects. It is easy, really easy for me to fall in love with other projects in the disabled advocacy roll and end up taking on to much. It quickly leads to burnout. An encouraging advisor to ask if new projects are a worthy fitting amidst my other pursuits could be helpful.

Thirdly, to be sparks & embers that keep our collective flames ablaze with creativity, passion,. skills, and drive to accomplish the goal — PUBLICATION!! Let’s keep this fun! How do we do that? Honestly, I have no idea. Maybe we could have a guest in our meetings every so often to talk to us about certain subjects related to our writings. Or someone who could improve our writing abilities. Ideas?

Fourthly, this might be the hardest considering my mobility. Let’s keep it real as much as possible. We are spread out across the country. But lets try not to get lost in the matrix of online superficial-ism. If there is opportunity to meet face to face, let’s make it happen. Writer retreat workshops? Maybe those, too. If we get good at this… what if we planned, organized and hosted a workshop for the other New Leaf Circles?! Maybe I’m getting ahead and thinking too creatively.

Final Words…

This past weekend Kyle Trigg asked in my home church, what would be the greatest final words you ever spoke? Ok, I’m probably paraphrasing a bit from where my imagination went during his message. But the clear words that spoke in my head came from the lips of Jesus — “It is Finished!”

To be clear, I don’t expect for us to have an expected finish line drawn out with date, time, and schedule. I hope for an epic adventurous quest for completion together! A journey that brings new encounters and fellowships along the way. Overcomes tumultuous mountains and powerless pitfalls falls through the camaraderie of friendship & support. And yes, finally sees & shares the exciting conclusions of all of us publishing something completely unexpected from each of us, with the blessings of God’s Holy Spirit.

In today’s episode, we journey “The Road Less Traveled”—the winding, complicated, grace-filled journey of disability, belonging, and the church. Drawing from my recent Learning Lunch presentation at First Alliance Church, we explore what it means to seek belonging in a world that often wasn’t built with disabled bodies and souls in mind. Through story, theology, models of disability, and the haunting beauty of a song called The Road Less Traveled, we’ll reflect on the questions that have shaped so many of us: Who am I? Where do I fit? And where do we find dignity, hope, and God’s presence along the way?

Together, we’ll look at the invisible worlds beneath the surface of our communities, the statistics that challenge us, and the spaces of belonging we all move through—intimate, personal, social, and public. We’ll consider how learning zones, discipleship, and communal responsibility reshape the ways churches welcome, empower, and stand with disabled people. And through the stories of Scripture—from the man born blind to the feeding of the 5,000—we’ll see how Jesus leads us toward a more relational, imaginative, and inclusive way forward.

This is an invitation to slow down, to listen deeply, and to imagine the church not as a place that merely accommodates disability, but as a community transformed by the perspectives, gifts, and wisdom of disabled people. Let’s begin.

Chapters

00:00 Beginning

01:03 Framing Our Conversation

06:53 Where Do I Fit In

13:30 Questions That Shape the Disabled Life

27:15 The Unseen World of Disability

33:30 Circles of Belonging

47:10 Where To From Here

54:39 Deeper Communion National Conference

57:40 Closing

Resources:

First Alliance Church — https://www.faccalgary.com/

The Edge House Church Network — https://theedgehc.com/

Models of Disability — https://www.disabled-world.com/definitions/disability-models.php#:~:text=The%20Models%20of%20Disability,Sick%20Role

Calgary Quality of Life Report — https://publications.calgaryfoundation.org/quality-of-life-report-2025/18/

New Leaf Network’s Neighbour Up Series — https://www.newleafnetwork.ca/events/neighbourup

‘The Healing Homiletic’ By Kathy Black — https://www.amazon.ca/Healing-Homiletic-Kathy-Black/dp/0687002915

‘God Loves the Autistic Mind’ By Father Matthew Schneider — https://www.amazon.ca/God-Loves-Autistic-Mind-Spectrum/dp/081983162X

‘The Search To Belonging’ By Joseph Myers — https://josephrmyers.com/the-search-to-belong

Deeper Communion — https://adeepercommunion.org/

Paul’s Letter to the Disabled of Today —

Since the dawn of creation music has reached from the core of the human experience. We are melodic story tellers from birth! Whether it is a message of hope, love, character statements, social and/or political commentary, life changes, or even the expressing of emphatic grief and protest; music is the transcendent language of the human soul.

So what about the music of dis/ability?! For many disabled individuals, finding one’s voice or ability to express what is truly happening below the surfaces of personal challenges & socially oppressive ableism is not always easy. A loving, caring, accepting, patient, and listening community is definitely a key ingredient in hearing the intrinsic musical notes of the disabled soul.

But throughout history, technology has been a life altering experience for both disabled people and the world around them. Stephen Hawking radically evolved our understanding of intelligence and the universe around us with his use of his ACAT (Assistive Context-Aware Toolkit) to communicate his rapidly expanding imagination around blackholes and his Theory of Everything. And who can forget the hundreds of viral videos that reveal the surprise and joy of baby’s and their family’s after hearing the world around them for the first time, thanks to the development of the cochlear implant. And of course, the unforgettable, Cody Lee.

So what will happen now in the disabled world as AI has arrived on the stage?

Journeying across the countryside and to close-knit communities, Bruce Callow has been guiding elders and others on the margins in turning their life stories into music with the help of an AI program called Suno. Participants learn to set up a free account and begin a new creative practice—remixing the sound bites of their realities into expressive songs that share their experiences with the world. And now it is Calgary’s turn with the focus on disability!

I am excited to invite you to a live workshop hosted by the Well Dwellers community and Bruce Callow at the Calgary Central Public Library on November 18th, 2026 from 2 PM to 4 PM!

There is only 6 spots available. So please sign up soon!!

We are planning for an afternoon of fun, music, food, and drink as we create and find remixing disability realities is both rewarding and transforming.

If participants can prepare in writing or can think of a short story from their life that they might like to share beforehand, it can be a great time to get to know others and discover a new tool in expressing our struggles, hopes, joys, and passions to the greater community around us.

We ask for a donation of $5 or more to go towards Bruce Callow’s work and future Well Dweller community events.

In this rich and reflective episode of The Well Dwellers Podcast, Erik Freiburger sits down with his friend and fellow advocate, Ty Regan, to explore the deep intersections between disability, belonging, and the life of the church. Their conversation revisits a recent retreat at the FCJ Centre, where a small group of friends gathered to wrestle with grief, accessibility, and what it truly means to belong.

Through exploring stories of land acknowledgements and the passion of creatively writing them, understanding trauma-informed theology, and dwelling in the image of the woman at the well, Erik and Ty uncover how the church can move from accessibility to inclusion, and ultimately to belonging. Together, they challenge cure theology, reimagine community as courageous space, and invite listeners to see the sacredness in every body—broken, messy, and whole.

Chapters:

00:00 Beginning

01:40 Land Acknowledgement

09:21 Woman at the Well

21:35 Pyramid of Belonging

32:55 Before the Pew

51:24 Accessibility

1:05:28 Inclusion

1:15:49 Belonging

1:22:33 Closing

Resources:

Ty Ragan’s Substack:

A Monk's Musings

Writer, educator, advocate, dad of 2, one who experiences life with medical complexities. Trekkie, Robin Hood fan, Whovian, comic geek, hopeful for a present of belonging. Researcher/Philosopher/Theologian on Belonging.

By Ty Ragan, Psy.D.

Star Trek & Disability Episode:

The Canadian Jurnal of Theology, Mental Health, & Disability:

In this deeply reflective episode of The Well Dwellers Podcast, Erik Freiburger revisits an early piece of writing from his undergraduate days—The Words of Paul—a meditation on how the Apostle Paul’s letters might speak to people living with disabilities in our time today. Through this re-reading, Erik explores how faith, perseverance, and communal belonging intersect with the lived realities of those navigating ableism, policy injustice, and a spiritual vacuum in many faith communities.

Drawing from The Correspondence of Paul and the Physically Challenged of Today, listeners are invited to imagine Paul’s encouragement afresh—as words of solidarity and hope for the dis/abled body and spirit. From political exclusion and privatized healthcare to the longing for inclusion within the church, this episode asks: What might Paul’s letters say to us today?

With reflections on joy as the hallmark of holy obedience, unity in diversity as strength, and the communal vocation of mutual care, this episode offers both comfort and challenge. It’s a call to listen again for the enduring words of faith that sustain us at the bottom of the well—and to find in them a renewed vision of dignity, empathy, and shared humanity.

Resources:

The Correspondence Of Paul And The Physically Challenged Of Today

62.2KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Welcome back, to The Well Dwellers Podcast. I’m your host, Erik Freiburger, and I’m so glad you’ve returned to the well as we begin season 2.

In season one, we opened the space to wonder about the disabled life – its meanings, identity, what good news looks like, faith, and community. This season, it is my hope we can lean closer into the voices of disabled people and everyday life—their stories, their wisdom, their struggles, and their hope. Because as theologian Nancy Eiesland once wrote, “Disability is not a punishment from God, but a vivid reminder of the fragility and beauty of human life.” That’s where we begin—by listening to life as it is, not as we imagine it should be.

This season we’ll also ask questions that really matter; things that have really been percolating in my thoughts and personal life over the past few months. Questions like:

What does it mean to be called God’s elect in 1 Peter 1 and be a displaced disabled people?

How can creativity & the arts create divine encounters?

What are the positive & negative impacts of AI in the disabled world?

What is a disabled theology?

How does intersectionality between marginalized groups matter in a social justice movement against ableism?

And, others!

We’ll hear from voices across the spectrum—missional thinkers, disability advocates, artists, theologians, and from some of my other friends. Alan Hirsch once reminded us that “the church is always at its most faithful when it exists at the margins.” As we, the disabled overlooked, journey through that existence in a multitude of ways, we are able to embody that faithfulness and carry a story of great endurance needing to be heard by all.

We’ll listen to Keith Dow’s reflections on creativity and divine encounter, and Michael Morelli’s insights on the tricky polsrizing entanglement of AI and disability. I hope to spend some time with Zachary Weeks as he presses us toward a disability justice in society, and Fern Buszowski as she gently reminds us of hope’s endurance. And I hope we’ll get to engage with Richard Beck and his deep challenge that “the slavery of death is not simply about mortality—it’s about how fear dehumanizes us.” And his thoughts around how our joy has a geometry, a shape. We must learn to look outside ourselves to find it. It is also my hope to connect with my old prof and friend Dr. Mark Love to talk about pneumatology – the theology of the Holy Spirit, missional theology, and how they might meet with disability theology.

In all of this, we’re reaching for what Angela Reitsma Bick calls the “undone”—the courage to embrace unraveling, to see that in our undoing there might also be the seeds of a new wholeness.

And along the way, I’ll share short Well Dweller Moments—breaths of reflection, invitations to pause, and glimpses of how dignity and hope show up in unexpected places.

My fellow Well Dwelllers, season two is about stories, but it’s also about us. It’s about being human together—fragile, resilient, undone, and remade. As Howard Thurman once said, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

So before I sign off on this season 2 opener, I want to ask you… what makes you, as people at the bottom of the well, come alive? I want to invite you to join me here in the Well Dwellers Podcast and be a guest on the show who shares their personal story and journey. No need for expertise, religious or spiritual affiliation, or feelings of exceptionalism. Just someone willing to share some of your journey and how you might answer these 3 simple questions:

How do you find meaning in the language of disability?

Where does dignity take root in your life?

And what is it that brings you hope—not only for tomorrow, but for today?

If you might be willing to join us here on the show, email me at erikfreiburger@substack.com. I hope we are able to meet you and get to know you more in the near future. Simi Linton said it best that, “By telling our stories, we claim space in a world that would rather we stay silent. Each story is a thread, and together they weave a tapestry of resistance.” Together in a world that would rather keep us invisible, let’s stand out, been seen, and be heard. Nothing about us without us.

So come with me. Draw deeply. Listen well. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll find life together at the bottom of the well.

Until next we meet!

Probably one of the most difficult and taboo subjects to talk about with family & friends — Death & Dying. Particularly, our human obsession to control its outcomes and perceptions of dignity. Over the last few decades, Canada has tried to approach these issues with the legalization of assisted suicide. A policy documented as MAiD - Medical Assistance in Dying.

Recently, my friend and I engaged in a conversation around the issue prompting a well written post he shared a few days ago he called ‘Can It Be Ethical?’ I must admit to you that my strengths do not lie in the field of historical articulation or outlining the legal descriptions of euthanasia policy. But he shares a great detail in the beginning of his post opening that story for us to hear in a different light and the descriptive Tracks that MAiD is outlined in.

Moving from this history, Ty reveals an underlying prophetic struggle that we as human beings, and Canadians particularly, are wrestling with when searching for moral and ethical responses to policies in euthanasia; one which after many years of wrestling with the issues myself, I have come to agree with. MAiD and the policies around assisted suicide are not an evil in themselves, but a present sign of the greater underlying losses of human dignity and socially entwined responsibilities to care for our neighbour as ourselves. Particularly, those who are disabled and in the marginal communities of our society. As Ty shares in his post:

There is challenges when we enter into control over one’s own end. There are belief systems, theologies, philosophies, long treatises and examples on suffering. There is reams of writing on when one chooses to end their own life around selfishness, around those left behind, around things [that] can [or could] change, the list can go on and on… What I propose, is how we limit the collateral and ancillary reasons one would seek out this medical procedure apart from condition. It creates a more ethical usage.1

In essence, we cannot wrestle with the inadequacies of constructing the perfect legal enactment or wrongs of MAiD’s policies by themselves or oppose them as the pivotal force behind injustice. We must be willing to address the deeper social injustices and evil’s that have led to the conditions in which marginalized individuals feel they have no other recourse.

Articulating some of those issues, Ty speaks towards the following social wrongs which have led Canada to this state:

As our world is more migratory, we have lost the ideal that everyone has loved ones in the same community, city/county, province or even country. Autonomy, and one’s individual rights, have become polarized in our identity and sense of well being. In some ways, we have been isolated to our own need of independence for so long by a multitude of reasons — culture, pandemic isolation, misinformation, and a systemic history of conforming ableism. To borrow the words from William Earnest Henley2, we have adopted a hyper-idealism that says:

It matters not how strait the gate,
      How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
      I am the captain of my soul.

Other reasons one opts for MAiD are the feelings of being a burden, experiencing the loss of dignity, and living in poverty. How might we address these three streams of struggling in one’s well being?

Our understanding of personal limits and capabilities are not meant to be held to the false mythology & ideology of anything is possible if you just work hard enough for it — something which we as North Americans seem to struggle to live up to & believe about ourselves unrealistically. We are finite and created to find our fence lines strengthened not by expanding our own personal territory’s of greatness, and control over our own autonomy and authority. But by building inter-relational communities of vulnerable care and interdependence. What we perceive and falsely project as being burdensome should rather be a revealing of God’s glory in communally shared endurance and strength.3

Those in our society with disabilities also are often left behind in poverty with lack of social care and income. Alberta’s government alone has claimed a $8.3 Billion surplus in savings over the 2024/25 year.4 And yet it is the only Canadian province to claw back its AISH5 monthly payments from disabled recipients, effectively removing the CDB6 federal supports by 100% which was meant to assist those living below the poverty line.7 While having the means and federal supports to offer a universal or guaranteed income to those who are struggling in disability, the Alberta government chooses not to act or reverse its decision while also boasting of the possibilities in prosperous living. One has to ask, who exactly is prospering?! This should outrage our societies moral compass, and yet action towards change has yet to happen.

Change is then stifled by removing or muting the voices of advocacy by making their public and institutional presence to be considered irrelevant to the public eye. In an article written by Zachary Weeks called ‘Why Alberta’s Accessibility Report Was Hidden — And What’s Inside’, it is revealed that Alberta is one of two Canadian Provence’s that has no Disability Minister representative in the provincial legislature. Nor is there a provincial Disability Act in place to advocate for disability rights in Alberta. “It’s curious, isn’t it?” Zachary asks, “A government-commissioned accessibility report, repeatedly publicly referenced in the legislature, somehow never found its way into the hands of the very community it was written for — until someone filed a FOIP request. If transparency is a value, it shouldn’t require a legal form.” Perhaps it is a question all Albertans should be asking of their government representatives considering the disability community comprises of 27% of our population.8

The issues of social justice, accessibility, public health care and the decay of disability health needs in the health institutions is a continuing list of justice work that would extend long into the future of needed social reform impacting the dignity of disabled rights and the greater public. All of which influences marginal communities in understanding the significance of their lives and sense of belonging in society. Addressing all of these branches in which these prophetic works are revealed in our social and institutional systems would be exhaustive and resemble a Hydra of sorts in consequential dynamics.

But before moving into a question of how we might respond to these social justice issues and how it relates to an ethical or moral response to MAiD, I would like to add one more issue to our list of underlying causes or challenges that has not yet been brought up.

Despite there being a great deal of theological and communal representation and exploration into disability, there continues to be a chasm or significant divide between the nature and work of God in the world and the engagement and discipling pursuits of the Christian Church itself.9 While a large part of Canada’s demographics are in relationship to and with disability, the Canadian Church has very little to no representation in community leadership, interest in developing communal supports or leadership representation, or seemingly having any interest in the surrounding disability community itself. At most, the only interest has come at a compliance to legal building code or for some communities, a willingness to seek building structural accessibilities into the church building itself; often without consultation to local representatives.

These realities present two unavoidable consequences. The first is within the disabled community itself. Internally (both personally & in the greater church), the deeper question of understanding where disability comes from, its identity, and the significant role they have in embodying the gospel here and now today is lost without leadership representation or community discipleship. The second consequence is made visible through the cultural ableism that washes over into the church social ecosystem; first through the leaderships lack of theological discipleship, and then left to be blindly unchecked within the congregation as a whole. By the inaction of the church and its leadership, it looses the vision to be actively engaging injustice in its own local community and leaves the spiritual formation of heresies that form harmful cultural beliefs such as, “Wouldn’t it be better for them to be with Jesus.”

A few months ago, I took part in an online four part class looking at ‘Disability & the Church’.10 Greg Harris shared a prophetic vision into 5 stages in which churches could experience movement towards disability becoming a mutualistic discipleship within local community’s.11 As a means to reveal the gap between churches and the disabled community today, Greg asked a pointed question while showing the image below.12 As you pause to view it now, how might you answer this same question… Where is your church, leadership, or organization in the continuum of 5 stages for mutualistic ministries among persons of all dis/abilities?

The underlying issues and causes that lead to MAiD decisions can easily become overwhelming, as I am sure you may be experiencing here. And yet many disabled persons today cannot escape these issues or ignore the daily involvement they have with them on a constant basis. Compounded with the other issues of their disability itself, makes decision making and life management a constant stress and exhausting effort.

Perhaps we can now ask the significant question: How can we respond to these social injustices and make a moral and ethical change in the way MAiD decisions are made?

Recently I listened to a podcast episode on ‘No Small Endeavour: Exploring What It Means To Live A Good Life’ where Lee C. Camp spoke with Dan Heath about how to change what is not working.13 Throughout and over their conversation, Dan made a rather bold and pointed recognition to the fact that information alone is insufficient to spark change in any meaningful way.

Unfortunately, over the last several decades in the euthanasia and assisted suicide conversation, academia and the Church has seemingly focused their approach through theological and social debates and discourses around educational knowledge and information that directly addresses the issues of policies, legalities, and principles related to MAiD laws themselves. In doing so it neglects the prophetic work of flesh, sweat, and blood that is desperately needed to make any changes to the underlying issues leading to MAiD decisions.

Real change is sparked by emotion and sustained by motivation. We cannot let our struggles with institutional princes and principalities be simply head knowledge and education alone. We must connect deeper to our hearts and souls while doing the social work needed in the community to bring lasting and meaningful change to the underlying issues giving foundation to MAiD values and principles.

It is not individuals work alone that is needed either. We need independent communities, churches, and public institutions to rise up and make social activism a part of their worship and communal practices. We need people from corporate, small business, non-profits, volunteers and clergy members to educate and been publicly seen leading the frontlines of political and social rallies.

We need people who have an inside into government at the caucus level who can push buttons and advocate for institutional legal change while also protecting and safeguarding the legal rights and freedoms of disabled persons.

Without these greater actions happening in our communities, what remains is a continued fallacy and ignorance to think that we can inform people to change. Or worse, inform ourselves into change.

This can all seem rather overwhelming when looking at it from the macro level. So let me try to offer some simple steps of how we can take some actions ourselves in meaningful ways.

Look around in the places of complex systems around us were a little bit of investment or effort yields a disproportionate return. Where might you make some small changes for disabled persons in your place of work? In your neighbourhood? In your church? Or even, in your home? Perhaps, you might even invite a few others to join you in making these changes. There is a story in the gospels where the friends of a paralytic actually went as far as to rip the roof off of a local home in order that their friend could be included and belong!

Take the resources that we do have, re-stack those resources to have an impact upon those leverage places. Find out if there are grants available and utilize them for the changes you are trying to make. Fund raise and host community events to build towards fulfilling the needs many disabled in your neighbourhoods are experiencing.

Get out of the way! Sort out any ways “I” may be the problem, “I” may be inhibiting progress. Then, look for practical ways “I” can contribute to progress. Don’t just learn about disability, the social issues and theological understandings. Tell others, share about the local injustices that are happening in your social media, and join in local disabled initiatives. Perhaps most of all, get to know the disabled persons in your neighbourhood — listen to their story, discover the their super power in changing your life, see them and let them see you while getting to know that you care! Host disabled events in you church, community parks, and social centres while creating micro cocoons of inclusive transformation for beauty. These are the ways disabled persons can be seen and recognized as incredible and indispensable members to our neighbourhoods!

We must get close to the frontlines of the work being done around us. Simply giving money and applauding others efforts cannot really sustain lasting change. We must put ourselves in the visible range of others as involved in disability rights and freedoms. Volunteer in disabled organizations. Join social advocacy groups and be available for their activities and needs. Personally write your MLA and politicians about disability rights and the current issues.

Over the last few weeks I have been reading Sara Hagerty’s book ‘The Gift of Limitations: Finding Beauty in Your Boundaries’. Amidst sharing some of her own powerful story, she manages to reveal some incredible truths about our own limitations; even our disabilities. “We may not be able to choose our stories,” she writes, “but that does not mean we live without choices.”14

MAiD is a result of just one way of telling our story. But as I, and as we all, wrestle to understand its meaning and underlying reasons, we always have a choice to make. Waiting to long to make those choices or believing we have no choice is an illusion and lie of demonic proportions that affects not only our own rights and freedoms, but the rights and freedoms of others — particularly the marginalized and excluded. Nor can we hold judgement over those who feel they are unable to escape these underlying injustices that lead to such decisions of life and death.

It is true — We cannot do it all. But we can do it together! So I leave you with one last question to wrestle with… What choices will you make?

“Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these.”

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Jn 14:12). (1989). Thomas Nelson Publishers.

At The Bottom Of The Well is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I’ve been part of the missional conversation for the last 2 decades here in western Canada while leading a house church community and being part of a leadership team that trained and supported over 25 house churches across Canada. There have been so many treasured experiences both in learning and celebrating the amazing things God is doing in our communities!

Those communities, or tribes as I called them, still continue to missionally live the life of Jesus in their neighbourhoods and with their neighbours. But over the last four or so years, God has been pulling me in a different direction. Partly due to health and partly out of a desire to see the missional voice reach the disabled community in a more inclusive recognized way. Perhaps more then anything, because my people need a gospel which recognizes the glory of God being revealed through our shared cruciform life, and the power that transcends worldly ableist falsehoods and assumptions.

Our house is still in turmoil as we prepare yet again for another round of unplanned renovations. To be honest, I’m not sure I’ll be ready to start recording in The Well’s studio by September. But, I’ve still been day dreaming of next seasons ‘Well Dwellers Podcast’ and who I’d like to have on the show as guests. One particular theme I know I want to explore among others is the relationship between Missionality & Disability Theology.

After 20 years, I’ve began to notice a repetitive theme amidst missional exploration and I am wondering if we need to take the conversation deeper into more specialized focuses; particularly the disability community and our role in embodying the gospel. I’m sure the list may grow, and maybe you might leave other leads in the comments. But a few guests I’d love to have in The Well with me are:

My good friend — This Sunday he is actually preaching at Centennial Presbyterian Church here in Calgary on Missionality & the Disabled Community. He and his son Lee have a powerful story in inclusive community and belonging. You might recognize him as a past guest on the show as we both explored ‘Star Trek & Disabilities’ last season. We had such a blast! And as we are already in discussion for our next episode together, we are going to keep the fun going with a conversation around ‘APEST & the Star Wars Universe’!1

My long time friend & world traveler, — It might be just a dream, but I’d flip my wheelchair with me in it if I could have Alan on the show as he really launched me into the missional universe. Al and I go way back to 2007 when I met him in a conference he was co-leading with Alan Roxbrough in Vancouver BC. Reading 'The Forgotten Ways’ and inspired to start a house church after returning to Calgary, Al really molded me into the missional thinker I am today.

Recently he’s shared some brilliant posts here on Substack including ‘The Elect & The Holy Displacement’ as well as ‘Mission Is Identity: Toward An Apostolic Spirituality Rooted In Christ’s Own Becoming’. I’d love the chance to go deeper into his thoughts in these posts and how they translate into the cruciform life and discipleship of disabled people.

My friend and Prof. Dr. — In 2012, Forge Canada2 opened up an opportunity for me to pursue a Masters Degree at Rochester University. Mark was leading a program called the MRE3 and focusing on Missional Leadership. I had held of on Masters studies for several years as there was not really a missional program that existed during that time until Mark paved the way with the accessibility and innovation of enabling me to attend online. In the last several months, Mark has launched a new work in ‘The 1528 Collective’.4

Perhaps some of the most impacting moments in my journey with the MRE is the conversation and practices around hospitality. I would love the opportunity to sit with Mark and talk about how hospitality finds inclusivity with the disabled community and how these encounters reveal greater gospel movements for disabled people. I’m sure questions of discernment and church practices would most likely creep into our dialogue, too.

My imagination is still rolling around in these streams of thought while looking towards the next season of The Well Dwellers Podcast. And perhaps you have a few other questions, thoughts, and/or ideas I could pursue, as well, that focuses deeper into missionality & disability. But, until my house manages to push through the chaos of deconstruction and renovations, we will have to just continue to day dream together.