By Andy Hale
This week on the CBF Podcast Conversation, Andy Hale welcomes pastor, author and longtime North Carolina church leader Dennis Atwood to discuss his new book, Choosing Gratitude: Transforming Your Life & Community Despite the Odds. Drawing from decades of pastoral ministry and his personal journey living with Parkinson’s disease, Atwood offers a refreshing and honest vision of gratitude—one that moves beyond positive thinking and into a transformative way of seeing the world.
In this conversation, Dennis explores why gratitude is more than a feeling and why it cannot remain a private spiritual exercise. Together, Andy and Dennis discuss the growing culture of anxiety, anger and division, the difference between genuine gratitude and toxic positivity, and how gratitude can become a lens through which we view our lives, our churches and our communities. Rather than ignoring suffering, Atwood argues that authentic gratitude helps us face hardship with honesty while remaining open to possibility, generosity and hope.
The conversation also highlights the remarkable story of The Gratitude Project in Mount Olive, North Carolina, where a congregation’s commitment to gratitude sparked tangible community transformation. For listeners feeling overwhelmed by uncertainty, disappointment or discouragement, this episode offers a compelling reminder that gratitude is not merely a response to favorable circumstances—it is a spiritual practice that can reshape both our personal lives and our collective witness.
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Sponsorship
This podcast is presented by:
- Baylor’s Garland School of Social Work: Social workers can be found addressing the full scope of the human experience in churches, schools, prisons, government agencies, senior living centers, nonprofits, and Fortune 500 companies.
- Baptist Seminary of Kentucky: BSK equips leaders through their Homegrown Initiative, offering ministry leaders training and growth that fits into their busy schedules.
- The Gardner-Webb School of Divinity: The Gardner-Webb University School of Divinity aims to equip, nurture, encourage, and support men and women for their very best service in the Kingdom of God.
- The Center for Congregational Health: Strengthening congregations through consulting, leadership coaching, and intentional ministry.
- The Baptist House of Studies at Union Presbyterian Seminary: Exists by God’s grace to educate, inspire, and support generations of bold, faithful servant leaders as they seek actively to participate in God’s mission in the world.
- Community Transformation Center: Through educational opportunities, community conversations, and research initiatives in collaboration with universities and local leaders, PBACTC is at the forefront of integrating spiritual care into holistic community development.
- Creation Justice Ministries: Creation Justice Ministries equips churches to turn conviction into faithful action with Scripture-based resources, worship guides, and community support to pursue environmental justice and care for God’s creation.
- Dawnings: Through prayerful discernment, storytelling, and collaborative visioning, Dawnings helps churches rediscover their calling and imagine their next chapter—guided by trained facilitators and grounded in God’s ongoing story.
- Congregational Ministries Team of CBF Global: Through coaching, resources, and collaborative support, CBF’s Congregational Ministries Team helps churches and ministers cultivate the five traits of thriving—Rooted Relationships, Compelling Clarity, Holy Tenacity, Strategic Agility, and Dynamic Collaboration—for faithful and flourishing ministry.
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Andy Hale is the creator and host of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Podcast. Hale is the Associate Executive Coordinator of CBF North Carolina. He’s also served as CBF’s Church Start Specialist, the founding pastor of Mosaic Church of Clayton, and the senior pastor of University Baptist Church of Baton Rouge. Follow on Twitter @haleandy.