Nicky Gumbel: Questions of Meaning
Everything Happens with Kate Bowler
Everything Happens Studios
4.8 • 4.7K Ratings
🗓️ 26 March 2024
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Our lives are rarely predictable or at all in our control. Sometimes what happens to us or around us can reshape our entire trajectory. Nicky Gumbel is someone whose life was dramatically changed. He thought he was going to be a very fancy lawyer… just like everyone else in his family, but that’s not what happened. Nicky became one of the pioneers of the Alpha Course where 30 million people have been introduced to Christian faith around the world.
In this conversation, Kate and Nicky discuss:
- Nicky’s reluctant conversion to Christianity
- How to stay open to the things we didn’t expect to happen.
- How age isn’t necessarily the limiter we might assume—perhaps there are opportunities or new ventures that can open up in our later third of life
- Why the church should be more like a hospital than a museum
Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode of Everything Happens is brought to you by booking. |
| 0:04.3 | Booking. Yeah. |
| 0:05.8 | Book whoever you want to be on booking.com, booking dot yeah. |
| 0:11.7 | This episode is sponsored in part by the Fetzer Institute. |
| 0:15.0 | Despite the time and money were pouring into policy reform to address society's biggest challenges, |
| 0:22.0 | how much progress are we making really? |
| 0:24.8 | The Fetzer Institute believes in cultivating ancient wisdom traditions to tackle today's |
| 0:29.5 | problems. |
| 0:30.9 | Fetzer is catalyzing a movement of leaders and funders who are applying a wide variety of faith-based and spiritual solutions to the world's toughest challenges. |
| 0:40.0 | Learn more about how to bring faith and spirituality back into the conversation at fetzer.org. |
| 0:47.0 | I'm Kate Bowler and this is everything happens. If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. |
| 0:58.0 | At least that's what it says on a lot of cross-stitched pillows |
| 1:01.8 | at many people's homes that I enjoy and love, mostly in my adorable Mennonite |
| 1:06.6 | church life. |
| 1:07.8 | But isn't there some truth in there? |
| 1:10.8 | We imagine our lives are going to follow a certain path. Go to a certain school, marry the perfect person. Never as a follow-up be annoyed by that perfect person. |
| 1:20.0 | Have very well-behaved reasonable amounts of children. |
| 1:23.4 | Get a job that pays well and also simultaneously magically gives you a sense of purpose. |
| 1:28.6 | Never lose anyone, quote, before their time. |
| 1:32.0 | Whatever that means, whatever that means, |
| 1:34.3 | whatever that means. |
| 1:36.5 | Retire at a young age and then vacation surrounded by your children and grandchildren |
... |
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