In this episode we talk to someone who wears a lot of hats. Mara Richards Bim is a mother, wife, an award-winning theater artist, a writer, and a spiritual director. She also recently graduated from seminary and is working toward ordination in the methodist church.

How does a founder and director of a theater company find herself on the path to being an ordained minister? Well, after her Dallas-based theater company had to pause on performances during Covid, she, like so many of us, also paused. And gained some clarity on the ways in which she felt God was calling her.

As the founder and former director of Cry Havoc Theater Company, prior to the pandemic Mara led teams of young artists in the creation of original plays on immigration and gun violence – some of the most challenging issues we’re facing as a society today. For one play, she took the teens in her theater company to the NRA convention to talk with gun-rights activists. It was here that she began to since that she was being called to use her voice in a more public way.

Mara’s passion is to generate connection, conversation and compassion in Dallas and beyond. She certainly did this through her plays and continues to do this through the current work she’s been called to as a  fellow with the Baptist News Global where she writes about the intersection of politics and religion in America today as well as her work as program director for Faith Commons – an interfaith nonprofit based in Dallas.  

And that’s something else that is particularly significant about Mara. She is passionate about finding common ground with people of all faiths and none without watering down her Christian tradition. 

Our time with Mara was inspiring and a reminder that even though we don’t know what’s ahead of us, it doesn’t mean that we aren’t going somewhere and being used by our Creator for good.