Past Dinner Recordings

Spiritual Conversations: Featuring Andrew Fassett, MDiv. There is a lot of stigma associated with discussing spiritual matters at work and a lot of confusion on how to bring the subject up well in conversation. Andrew discussed four areas of growth that he hopes everyone can progress in related to this very important topic.

Hostility to Hospitality: Featuring Michael Balboni. Whatever our creed, we all need healthcare. But today patients and healthcare providers interact in a system that often feels hostile to their concerns about compassionate care, as well as the ultimate ends of life and health. Michael took us through medicine as a gift from God, how it has fallen, and how it can be redeemed. Michael and his wife, Tracy, recently wrote about these ideas in greater detail in their book, Hostility to Hospitality. This book is available for purchase online.

Calling: Featuring Rev. Gloria White-Hammond MD, MDiv. Rev Gloria is a pediatrician who switched over and became a pastor along with her husband Ray Hammond of the Bethel AME church in Boston. She shared about discerning God’s call and how that played out over her life as a doctor, her work freeing people from slavery in Sudan, and in ministry throughout the Boston area.

Women in Medicine: Featuring Amy Hale PhD, Rebecca Saff MD, PhD, Susan Hata MD. These three women shared about how their faith has impacted their work, challenges they faced as women or are unique to women in medicine, advice to those entering their fields and more.

One pharmacist, two researchers and a doctor shared their stories about how they had seen God at work at their work. These stories were very encouraging and included key takeaways they learned from what they experienced. The order of the recordings is Ashley (0:21), Yvon (8:08), Holly (15:54), Sarah (26:13), and then question and answer (35:09).

Dr. John Kempen works as Massachusetts Eye and Ear Director of Epidemiology for Ophthalmology, Senior Scientist, and Ethiopian Missionary. He shared about his life, being an academic ophthalmologist at Harvard and being a missionary in Ethiopia at the same time. Beyond his experiences, he sought to help people live out the gospel in their own professions.

During or after you listen to the recording, I would like to invite you to consider the question - "How is God calling me to take risks for Him in my current position?" 

Tracy Balboni, MD, MPH, is an associate professor of radiation oncology at Harvard Medical School and the Clinical Director of the Supportive and Palliative Radiation Oncology Service at Dana-Farber Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center.  She also co-directs the Initiative on Health Religion and Spirituality at Harvard.  She is married to Michael and has two kids, Caleb and Eva, and has helped lead the Longwood Christian Community since 2003.

Tyler VanderWeele, Ph.D., Professor of Epidemiology in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Co-Director of the Initiative on Health, Religion and Spirituality, faculty affiliate of the Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science, and Director of the Program on Integrative Knowledge and Human Flourishing at Harvard University. He shared about his research and journey as a Christian in healthcare and his work on studying the effects of spirituality on health. His research is fascinating and the creativity in which he has applied Christianity to his work is something we can all learn from.