What does holy risk actually look like, and how is it formed?

In a moment when the church has confused nationalism with faithfulness and cruelty with obedience, we need to recover what it means to follow Jesus courageously. But courage isn't something we summon in a crisis. It's cultivated long before the moment arrives.

This episode explores the essential components of holy risk through the lives of people who chose obedience over safety: Esther, who prepared spiritually before approaching the king. Jesus, who deliberately broke the Sabbath to expose a broken system. Bonhoeffer, who returned to Nazi Germany when he could have stayed safe.

Their stories reveal a pattern and a path. Holy risk requires spiritual preparation, community discernment, and a willingness to act when the cost is real. And it's formed through practices most of us are skipping.

We close with six ancient disciplines that shape risk-ready disciples: practices that ground us in Scripture, anchor us in community, and prepare us to respond faithfully when neutrality is no longer an option.

The crisis is already here. The question isn't whether you'll be ready someday. It's whether you're being formed today.

Content Note: This episode discusses immigration policies, family separation, Christian nationalism, and historical references to Nazi Germany.

Primary Passages:

• Esther 4:13-16 - "For such a time as this" & "If I perish, I perish"
• Luke 14:1-6 - Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath
• John 5:1-18 - Jesus heals the paralyzed man, tells him to carry his mat on the Sabbath
• Exodus 1:15-21 - Hebrew midwives (Shiphrah and Puah) defy Pharaoh's order
• Daniel 3:16-18 - Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: "But if not..."
• Mark 5:25-34 - The bleeding woman touches Jesus' garment
• Joshua 4 - Stones of remembrance

Music:

• Kirk Franklin - "The Last Jesus"

Books:

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer - The Cost of Discipleship

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

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Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenannette.com

Holy Disruption: Reclaiming a Justice-Rooted Faith course info and interest list

Justice Coaching options!

"Find your justice mindset" quiz!

What King said about white moderates still confronts the church today.

In this MLK bonus episode, Kristen reflects on being born in 1963, the same year Martin Luther King Jr. wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail, and what his words reveal about comfort, delay, and Christian resistance to justice.

Rather than beginning with King’s now-famous letter, this episode starts with the lesser-known statement that provoked it: A Call for Unity, written by eight white clergymen who urged patience, order, and restraint in the face of segregation, brutality, and state violence. Their words sound measured. Reasonable. Even familiar.

This is not another tribute to Dr. King. It’s a reckoning with who he was actually writing to in 1963, not the extremists, but the moderates. The well-meaning religious leaders who agreed with justice in theory but were unwilling to be disrupted by it in practice.

Kristen reflects on what it means to inherit that distance, socially, theologically, and spiritually, and how many of us are still living inside an unfinished revolution. The systems King confronted were never fully dismantled; they were managed, delayed, and reframed as “order.” And generations later, we are still being asked to wait—often by people who are not the ones waiting.

In this bonus episode of Jesus, Justice & Mercy, we explore:

• Why Letter from Birmingham Jail was written in response—not isolation
• What King meant by the “white moderate.”
• How Christian calls for “order,” “unity,” and “patience” delay justice
• The difference between negative peace and positive peace
• Why comfort—not hatred—is often the greatest obstacle to liberation
• What it means to inherit an unfinished revolution

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

• Text this episode to a friend who might need it
• Leave a 5-star rating and review
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Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenannette.com

Holy Disruption: Reclaiming a Justice-Rooted Faith course info and interest list

Justice Coaching options!

"Find your justice mindset" quiz!

We're launching this season in a week when the gap between what Christians claim to believe and what we're willing to rationalize has never felt clearer. This week alone, we've watched violence unfold, lies amplified, and harm defended, often by Christians claiming Jesus' name.

If you've ever wondered what you would have done as authoritarianism took hold, as violence was rationalized, as truth became optional, you're doing it right now.

This episode is for Christians wrestling with what following Jesus actually looks like when faith comes at a cost. We explore Joshua, Esther, and Jesus to understand courage not as fearlessness, but as obedience when neutrality is no longer possible.

In this episode:

• Why staying silent becomes complicity when harm is being done
• What Scripture teaches about courage in moments of crisis
• How spiritual formation happens under pressure
• The cost of discipleship and what it asks of us right now

This is Re-Center: the inner work of faith before we can rebuild or reimagine anything.

Scripture Referenced: Joshua 1:9, Esther 4:13-14, Matthew 4:1-11, John 6:15, Mark 8:34-35, 2 Timothy 1:7, 2 Timothy 2:1, Isaiah 61:11, Isaiah 62:1

Connect with Kristen at kristenannette.com

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

• Text this episode to a friend who might need it
• Leave a 5-star rating and review
• Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes

Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenannette.com

Holy Disruption: Reclaiming a Justice-Rooted Faith course info and interest list

Justice Coaching options!

"Find your justice mindset" quiz!

Discipleship on Fire is Season 3 of the Jesus, Justice + Mercy podcast, exploring Christian discipleship, justice, and faith in a complex world.

New episodes begin January 15th

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

• Text this episode to a friend who might need it
• Leave a 5-star rating and review
• Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes

Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenannette.com

Holy Disruption: Reclaiming a Justice-Rooted Faith course info and interest list

Justice Coaching options!

"Find your justice mindset" quiz!

Christian discipleship and spiritual formation are not about resolutions, self-improvement, or fixing yourself at the start of a new year. In this New Year mini-episode of Jesus, Justice & Mercy, Kristen offers a different invitation, one rooted in humility, formation, and becoming more like Christ.

This is not a resolution episode.

Instead, we reflect on Christian discipleship and spiritual formation as a slow, faithful process shaped by God, not productivity tools. Drawing on the biblical image of the potter and the clay (Jeremiah 18:1–6; Isaiah 64:8), this episode explores spiritual formation as slow, patient shaping rather than self-improvement. Paul later echoes this imagery in Romans 9:20–21, reminding the early church that formation begins with humility, recognizing ourselves as clay in God's hands. We also explore why so many of us try to fill spiritual hunger with things that can organize our lives but cannot hold our souls, and why that leaves us exhausted.

This episode also highlights the distinction between legalism, cultural power, and Christlikeness, reminding us that justice is not a prerequisite for faithfulness; it is the fruit of a life shaped by Jesus.

If you’re weary of “New Year, New You” faith, this episode invites you to pause, breathe, and begin again, without pretending.

In this episode, we explore:

• Christian discipleship as formation, not performance
• Why resolutions and optimization can’t shape our souls
• The potter and the clay as a model for spiritual formation
• Christlikeness as the true goal of faith
• Justice as the fruit of the Spirit, not a checklist
• Letting weakness, humility, and openness guide our growth

Kristen also invites listeners to revisit Season 2 episodes that resonate with where they are right now and to reach out with questions or topics they’re eager to explore.

Email kristen: kristen@kristenannette.com

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

• Text this episode to a friend who might need it
• Leave a 5-star rating and review
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Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenannette.com

Holy Disruption: Reclaiming a Justice-Rooted Faith course info and interest list

Justice Coaching options!

"Find your justice mindset" quiz!

Advent of Justice God With Us invites us into the heart of Advent’s final theme: love, not romantic or Hallmark movie love, but the justice-rooted, presence-filled love Isaiah proclaimed, and Jesus lived.

In this Christmas Eve episode of Jesus, Justice & Mercy, Kristen explores Isaiah 7 and Isaiah 11, tracing how Emmanuel, God with us, was first a sign of real hope for people in crisis, and later became fully visible in Jesus.

This episode reflects on:

• Emmanuel as God’s commitment to presence, not distance
• Isaiah’s vision of justice that centers the poor and disarms violence
• Why God chooses closeness over control and presence over power
• How Jesus fulfills Isaiah’s hope through a life of humility, compassion, and solidarity
• What it means to practice presence in a world shaped by fear, injustice, and exhaustion

As we move through the quiet space between Christmas and the New Year, this episode invites listeners to slow down, receive God’s nearness, and consider how love that comes close can reshape both our faith and our lives.

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

• Text this episode to a friend who might need it
• Leave a 5-star rating and review
• Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes

Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenannette.com

Holy Disruption: Reclaiming a Justice-Rooted Faith course info and interest list

Justice Coaching options!

"Find your justice mindset" quiz!

In the third week of Advent, we turn toward joy, but not the surface-level version we’re often handed. Isaiah 61 and Jesus’ first public declaration in Nazareth reveal a different kind of joy: joy rooted in liberation, healing, and God’s restoring presence among those who carry the heaviest burdens.

Kristen explores:

• Isaiah’s vision of joy as God lifting what crushes the poor and the brokenhearted
• Why Jesus chose Isaiah 61 to declare His mission and why it nearly got Him thrown off a cliff
• How joy and justice are inseparable in Scripture
• The political implications of joy in a climate shaped by fear, exclusion, and power
• The witness of Hanukkah and what it teaches Christians about holding hope in the shadows of empire
• A real Advent practice: stand with someone pushed to the margins, especially when it stretches your comfort

Whether you’re carrying grief, exhaustion, shifting faith, or the weight of the world, this episode offers a grounded, honest invitation into the kind of joy Isaiah promised and Jesus embodied - joy strong enough for weary people in a weary world.

Scripture: Isaiah 61:1–3, Luke 4:16–21, Philippians 2

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

• Text this episode to a friend who might need it
• Leave a 5-star rating and review
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Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenannette.com

Holy Disruption: Reclaiming a Justice-Rooted Faith course info and interest list

Justice Coaching options!

"Find your justice mindset" quiz!

Advent Week Two centers on Peace, but not the thin, polite version we often settle for.
Kristen guides listeners through Isaiah 2:1–4, where peace is not the absence of conflict but the reshaping of violence into nourishment. Isaiah imagines a world where people choose formation over fear, learning new instincts that unmake the cycles of harm.

From there, we turn to Joseph in Matthew 1, often overlooked, rarely celebrated as the first person in the New Testament to embody this peace. He holds legal and social standing, yet chooses mercy in the dark, before he understands the full story. This is power used protectively, not defensively. Peace in practice, not just intention.

Then Kristen widens the lens to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose nonviolent resistance demonstrates what peace looks like when it transitions from private choices to public witness. Drawing from Letter from Birmingham Jail, we hear King’s challenge to “negative peace,” the kind that avoids tension instead of confronting injustice. Peace shaped by Jesus is something entirely different: disciplined, courageous, and unwilling to mirror harm.

This episode is trauma-aware at every turn, naming how our survival brains often override our desire for peace. Isaiah’s formation language reminds us that peace is something we learn, unlearn, and practice, not something we magically feel.

Finally, Kristen offers two concrete Advent practices to embody peace this week:

Peace is never just the absence of conflict.
It’s the presence of courage, truth, and love that refuses to harm even when harm would be easier.

KEY SCRIPTURES and more

• Isaiah 2:1–4 – Swords into plowshares
• Matthew 1:18–25 – Joseph’s mercy
• Selections from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail
• Poem "Peace at the Door", author unknown

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN (episode highlights)

• • The difference between biblical peace and cultural “niceness.”
  • Why Isaiah 2 calls for dismantling harm, not avoiding conflict
  • How Joseph became the first peacemaker of the New Testament
  • How trauma shapes our instinctive responses and why peace must be learned
  • How Dr. King’s disciplined nonviolence embodies Isaiah’s vision
  • Two practical ways to practice peace this Advent: repair and protection

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

• Text this episode to a friend who might need it
• Leave a 5-star rating and review
• Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes

Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenannette.com

Holy Disruption: Reclaiming a Justice-Rooted Faith course info and interest list

Justice Coaching options!

"Find your justice mindset" quiz!