Fabric Podcast

Mary stands weeping at an empty tomb, convinced she's alone — until someone says her name. This week we explore what it means to be truly seen, and why that experience might be more essential to our survival than we've been taught.   LINKS:  Current Conversation | Connect | YouTube |  Coming Up TRANSCRIPT: For the next several weeks, we're going to hold some of the Easter resurrection stories up to the light the way you hold a ViewMaster slide up to the light. You don't travel to those places. You hold the image up, and something in it travels into you. The depth, the color, the detail — it gets in you. And when you set it down, you're back in the room — but you've changed. You're carrying something you didn't have before. That's the invitation. We're not asking you to settle theological debates about what literally happened. We're asking: What do you see, when you really look? What wakes up in you? This series follows the thread we pulled on at Easter — "He is Woke Indeed." Woke, in its original 20th-cent

We’re living in a moment that feels deeply divided—where fear, violence, and separation can feel almost inevitable. Easter tells a different kind of story; one where people thought it was over, only to begin waking up to the possibility that love might still have the final word.  Maybe we could hope for that same kind of waking up...   LINKS: Current Conversation | Connect | YouTube |  Coming Up

Prayer doesn’t have to be polite or perfect it can be truth-telling– anger, doubt, gratitude, grief, longing– and honest prayer weaves us more deeply into community and even action. If God can handle the universe, maybe God can handle your real feelings.

What if prayer isn’t about convincing God to act, but about becoming more awake to ourselves and each other? This episode explores prayer as self-honesty, integration, and connection, discovering that we can’t draw closer to the divine without also drawing closer to our own souls and our neighbors.

For many, certainty is the assumption before approaching prayer. This week, we’ll gently unpack the “God boxes” we’ve inherited and consider whether prayer begins not with certainty, but with an openness to mystery. If God is bigger than our categories, maybe prayer starts with wonder. We might even discover that we pray a lot more than we thought…

In a world often filled with anxiety and uncertainty, comedy serves as a vital tool for connection and healing. In this special podcast episode, Ian sits down with Emily Schmidt, a talented comedy writer and producer of the hit CBS show "Ghosts," to explore the role of humor in navigating our tumultuous times and the significance of storytelling in our lives. To be human is to be a storyteller, it turns out. It's deep in us. How we tell— and see— our stories matters to how we interpret our lives!

When the circumstances we find ourselves in are beyond imagination, what does it mean to live as humans with integrity? How many times do we get to try again with second chances?  Join Chris Tripolino as he explores the post-apocalyptic science fiction western, Fallout!

This episode of FabricTV+ shares a Star Wars story about ordinary people living under occupation. Through powerful scenes of community, fear, courage, and awakening, Ian McConnell explores what it takes to stay human in inhuman times, how stories shape resistance, and why telling— and listening to— our stories matter now more than ever.

In moments of crisis, people show up. But what does it mean to stay? In this conversation, Ian McConnell sits down with Greg Meyer, founding pastor of Fabric (originally Jacob’s Well), to reflect on community in the midst of upheaval, and the deeper work of building something that lasts. Recorded during a period of intense disruption and fear in Minnesota, this episode explores why short-term surges of care matter, but why long-term commitment matters even more. Together, Ian and Greg talk about the “three bowls” of community life (gathering, small groups, and personal practice), the difference between showing up for our preferences versus our purpose, and how real community asks us not only to receive care, but to offer it; to be present for others even when it’s inconvenient or uncomfortable. This is a conversation about resisting isolation, choosing relationship over retreat, and weaving ourselves into something stronger than any one moment of crisis. Come for the urgency. Stay for the wisdom.

It takes courage to show up in public situations...and life! The Rehearsal is about, well, rehearsing these moments! We’re thrilled to welcome Fabric’s Danny McMillian up front for the first time for a less-rehearsed conversation with Melissa Lock to introduce The Rehearsal to us, and to take a meta look at the power of showing up and doing a hard thing, even if it’s not perfect.

Stories Matter. The stories we imagine, tell, and give our attention to shape us and our reality. And in the spirit of “life mirrors art, and art mirrors life,” we’re using the art of TV storytelling to help us see ourselves and our relationships with others and God– with a little more clarity and compassion. This episode features Fabric’s own Jessi Bergh talking with Ian McConnell about Stranger Things.

Generosity… in this economy?! Money might make things weird, but it also can make things beautiful. In our final week, we’ll talk about generosity: what it is, what it isn’t, and what it actually does to us (turns out, there’s fascinating brain chemistry involved). In a world that treats generosity as foolish or unrealistic, we’ll explore how this particular shade of green might be the one that frees us— not just spiritually, but practically, too.

We decided to make a quick turn from money to CareIQ in this episode in hopes of resourcing one another in the wake of violence and cruelty that much of the Twin Cities and beyond are feeling.

“What’s mine is mine,” right? You earned it, it belongs to you, and you get to decide what to do with it. That’s the story most of us have inherited...and it makes sense. But that particular shade of green has also gotten us into trouble for, oh… a couple thousand years. In this first episode, we’ll step back and ask a more honest question: what do we really own, and what are we simply holding for a while? Changing the lens might just change how we live.

A baby in a manger. A sky full of stars. The story of Christmas holds both; the small and the infinite, the ordinary and the sacred. Love arrives quietly, yet somehow it changes everything. We are a part of something so big, and so small.

Even before the story is complete, joy breaks through. In friendship, in community, in shared moments that remind us who we are and to whom we belong. As we near Christmas, we practice noticing the light already flickering among us. Sometimes celebration is an act of trust…

Waiting isn’t passive. It’s clearing space, setting things right, building peace one choice at a time. Oftentimes, it’s by virtue of being exactly who we’ve been created to be that we shape the landscape, create “home” in the wilderness, and make room for joy, peace, hope, and love to show up in their own time.

What are you waiting for? Justice, healing, peace, belonging? Waiting in the dark can feel like nothing is happening or ever could, but it’s also where longing and hope often exist together; where everything begins.

Delayed grief is far more common than we talk about—and yet nearly invisible when you’re in the middle of it. In this deeply moving conversation, Ian sits down with Jacqueline Werket— retired board-certified adult nurse practitioner, grief recovery specialist, co-author of The Book on Love, and author of the forthcoming memoir A Grief Postponed. Jackie shares her own story of losing her young son, the decade she spent unknowingly carrying unprocessed grief, and the moment everything finally surfaced. Together, Ian and Jackie explore what delayed grief is, why it happens, how our bodies hold onto loss, and the signs that unresolved grief may be shaping our lives far more than we realize. Jackie also offers practical steps for healing, from therapy and professionally-led grief groups to journaling, ritual, and honest self-expression, and reminds us that grief work is never something we’re meant to do alone. This tender, courageous conversation (an extension of Fabric's "Beyond Platitudes" series about grief) in

Real care isn’t sentimental; it’s radical. It grows our networks and keeps us healthy enough to show up for one another. To close the series, Carley Kammerer from Wildflyer Coffee helps us practice widening the circle and keeping ourselves healthy so that care can ripple outward into our world.