On Call: Stories and Conversations on Calling

In this episode, Adam interviews Lester Ruth, professor of worship at Duke Divinity School. In addition to being an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church, Dr. Ruth is a historian of Christian worship with particular interests in the early church and the last 250 years, especially the history of contemporary praise and worship. He has focused some of his research recently on the history and current manifestations of Christian Nationalism in the United States. We discuss how Christian Nationalism developed in its current form, the implications for the Church in America, what it has to do with Christian identity and vocation, and how congregations can guard against it. Adam apologizes for the poor audio quality of his voice during the interview, as the main microphone malfunctioned at the beginning of the interview and the laptop mic took over from there.