Listening At the Fire

In the 32nd episode of the Fountain Street Church podcast, Listening At The Fire, host Virginia Anzengruber shares the panel discussion she moderated during the 2019 Grand Rapids Feminist Film Festival about the FX series, Pose, which highlights the ballroom scene in New York City, which gave birth to the art of drag performance as we know it today.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS LIVE PANEL AUDIO. 

Panelists include: Sarah Nawrocki, Direct...

In the 31st episode of the Fountain Street Church podcast, Listening At The Fire, host Virginia Anzengruber shares a conversation between Dr. Yusef Salaam (The Exonerated Five) and Professor Jermaine Reese, Director of the Police and Corrections Academy at GRCC. Dr. Salaam was the keynote speaker at the 34th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration held at Fountain Street Church on January 20, 2020. This event was produced in part...

In the 29th episode of the Fountain Street Church podcast, Listening At The Fire, host Virginia Anzengruber shares the panel discussion she moderated from the FSC Screen Club event featuring the Pop TV series, Schitt's Creek.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS LIVE PANEL AUDIO. 

Panelists include: Thomas Pierce, Director of the Grand Rapids Pride Center; Shirley Griffin, Director of Thriller! Chiller! Film Festival; and Sarah Nawrocki, Dir...

In the 30th episode of the Fountain Street Church podcast, Listening At The Fire, host Virginia Anzengruber shares the panel discussion Sarah Nawrocki moderated from the FSC Screen Club event featuring the Netflix series, Stranger Things.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS LIVE PANEL AUDIO. 

Panelists include: Shirley Griffin, Director of Thriller! Chiller! Film Festival; and Sarah Nawrocki, Director of the Wealthy Theatre; and Tony Griffin, C...

In the third episode of Listening At the Fire Season 2, host Virginia Anzengruber embarks on a bit of a quest to narrow down a condensed history of modern-day Christmas by learning of its pagan roots from the team at 3 Pagans and a Cat Podcast, getting a bit of real-world testimonials from a professional Santa Claus, and getting an answer to the question: why is Christmas marketable year-round? with a conversation with the Vice Pre...

In the second episode of Season 2 of Listening At the Fire, host Virginia Anzengruber sits down with Cate from This Podcast is Haunted, and her husband, writer Stephen Pell, to discuss the much loved animated series of their Christian youths -- VeggieTales. 

They talk Christian culture, parables and how they're relevant regardless of faith practice, and how "Silly Songs With Larry" was as influential in shaping their s...

In Episode 1 of SEASON 2 of Listening At The Fire, host Virginia Anzengruber brings you a CROSSOVER episode with our friends at the True Myth Media podcast. Michael and Seth asked Virginia to come on their show to talk about films that have had a spiritual impact on her and the first movie on deck is the Steven Spielberg/Robin Williams classic, Hook. Virginia, Michael, and Seth talk about the themes of: being seen, childhood evolvi...

*This episode has live panel event audio.

In Episode 25 of the Fountain Street Church podcast Listening At The Fire, host Virginia Anzengruber shares the panel discussion from the Summer Screen Club event focusing on the Netflix TV series Orange Is The New Black. Created by Jenji Kohan and based on teh book by Piper Kerman, OITNB is a dramedy that takes a look at the lives of the women of Litchfield Correctional Facility, and the ...

In episode 24 of Listening At The Fire, host Virginia Anzengruber sits down with members of the Fountain Street Church 150th Year Anniversary Committee: Todd Johnson, Judy Botts, Charlie Gallmeyer, and Ruth Stein to discuss their thoughts on the monumental task of planning a year's worth of events to celebrate our 150th Anniversary. There's also mention of our very special 150th Anniversary Grand Celebration Street Party, t...

In Episode 23 of Listening At The Fire, the podcast from Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, host Virginia Anzengruber takes a deeper look at the homelessness and housing insecurity crisis facing America, and the Housing First model of approaching that crisis.

Virginia speaks with Rev. Kelly VanBrouwer, Associate Director of Heartside Ministry in Grand Rapids, "a relationship-based social service agency that has ...

In episode 22 of Listening At the Fire, host Virginia Anzengruber moderates another panel discussion from our Summer Screen Club series - this time focusing on the Hulu series The Handmaid's Tale. Based on the novel by Margaret Atwood, this series focuses on a dystopian future where a tyrannical religious government relegates women to class systems that force them to bare children for government officials. 

Virginia is joined ...

In episode 21 of Listening At The Fire, the podcast from Fountain Street Church, host Virginia Anzengruber sat down with Rev. Christopher Roe (Minister for Spiritual Life and Learning), Rev. Dr. Fred Wooden (Senior Minister), and Jack Woller (Executive Director) to have a roundtable discussion about the challenges of an independent church in 2019. 

Church decline statistics:

In Episode 20 of Listening At The Fire, host Virginia Anzengruber shares an edited panel discussion from the first of our Summer Screen Club events focusing on Shrill - the hilarious and poignant series on Hulu starring Aidy Bryant - based on the novel "Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman" by Lindy West. 

One night each month this Summer, Fountain Street Church will host a panel discussion featuring regional non-profit organiz...

In Episode 19 of Listening At The Fire, host Virginia Anzengruber illuminates the history of the show's title, which is borrowed from a book of poetry that was published at Fountain Street Church in 1998. 

Virginia reads the preface, by editor Linda Rosenthal, and then invites you to listen to a selection of poems from this book, read by current Fountain Street Church members and staff -- many of whom are poets themselves. 

A...

In Episode 18 of Listening At the Fire, the podcast from Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, host Virginia Anzengruber invites Rev. Dr. Fred Wooden to share a travel log story from his most recent pilgrimage -- this time to Cape Town, South Africa. Fred regales us on his somewhat perilous guided journey up Table Mountain, his visit to the National Museum, and his musings on why travel is part of his spiritual process....

In Episode 17 of Listening At The Fire, host Virginia Anzengruber shares excerpts from Fountain Street Church's First Annual PRIDE Celebration that was held on June 2nd. 

To watch the entire service, please visit our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwF9OdMlZK8

Special thanks to our A/V Coordinator Danny Heck and the entire PRIDE Celebration steering committee, all of our speakers, performers, and musician...

In Episode 16 of Listening At The Fire, the podcast from Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, we take another look at the last 2 weeks of Sunday 11AM sermons from our Minister of Spiritual Life and Learning, Rev. Christopher Roe. 

As we pay homage to our historic 150 years of Fountain Street Church programming, Rev. Roe challenges us to not only accept and embrace the anxiety we feel in the transitional nature of year...

In episode 15 of Listening At The Fire, host Virginia Anzengruber hosts a roundtable discussion on the phenomenon of Parasocial Relationships and the grief associated when those relationships end. Specifically, the discussion revolves around our relationships to fictional characters, namely those featured in Game of Thrones, Avengers: Endgame, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and a few examples of real-life individuals whose deaths deeply ...

In episode 14 of Listening At The Fire, host Virginia Anzengruber explores some of the history of dynamic concerts at Fountain Street Church that started in the 1960s. She speaks to concert organizer and long time FSC member Carolyn Heines, and she sits down with West Michigan music legend Randy Marsh, drummer for the band Phlegethon, who opened for The Byrds when they performed their sold out shows at Fountain Street Church. 

Be ...