In this life-giving episode we are thrilled to welcome Austen Hartke, Michiko Bown-Kai, and Rev. Dr. Christina Beardsley as they each present a talk about evolving faith through the lens of their trans and/or non-binary identities. Then our guests join Sarah and Jeff in a wise and beautiful conversation on wilderness, hope, paradox, and how the fullness of identity can be a form of resistance and prophetic witness. (This episode runs a bit longer than usual because it is a full Evolving Faith conference session.)

In a beautiful, wise experience, we are thrilled to welcome Stephanie Tait, Derrick Dawson, and Raedorah Stewart as they each present a talk about identity, belonging, and an evolving faith through the lens of disability. Then our guests join Sarah and Jeff in a life-giving conversation on identity, hope, beauty, belonging, covenant, and perceiving the new thing God is doing.

This week, we hear from two incredible artists: Audrey Assad and A’Driane Nieves as they engage with art, embodiment, healing, and an evolving faith. These talks remind us that artists bring to their work sorrows and joys, griefs and delights, which a canvas or a song can hint at. But there’s always more. Then Sarah and Jeff have a conversation about dancing, embodiment, creativity, and much more. P.S. Please note that some aspects of this episode do discuss themes of sexual abuse and violence so please listen only at your discretion. Look after yourselves, friends.

This week, we hear from poet, political activist, and rapper Propaganda. Prop takes us on a journey into how music and art can help form an evolving faith. You’ll be immersed in what turned out to be one part beautiful poetic experience and one part off-the-wall, incredibly profound philosophy lecture. And maybe that’s the magic of Prop: he defies categorization. He leads us through the wilderness to find God, find possibility, find truth in every corner of creation - including Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (you’ll see, we promise). Then Sarah and Jeff have a conversation about finding God in unexpected places, cheerleader movies, and learning to terraform - world build - with God.

For the first - but not last time - we’re featuring a double-header of talks from Evolving Faith. First Cindy Wang Brandt explores parenting while your faith is evolving while placing the priority on giving our children spiritual autonomy and the freedom to explore and thrive. Then Kathy Escobar addresses what we gain in the wilderness when we are honest within our relationships from learning to live with disapproval to the opportunity to be a healthier, more integrated person. Finally, Sarah and Jeff have a conversation about how Sarah’s raising her kids with an awareness of an evolving faith, Jeff’s experiences within a more communal culture rather than an individualistic culture, and what it means to untangle our view of our parents or faith tradition from God and live honestly in relationship.

Now available and streaming wherever you listen to your podcasts.

For the first - but not last time - we’re featuring a double-header of talks from Evolving Faith. First Cindy Wang Brandt explores parenting while your faith is evolving while placing the priority on giving our children spiritual autonomy and the freedom to explore and thrive. Then Kathy Escobar addresses what we gain in the wilderness when we are honest within our relationships from learning to live with disapproval to the opportunity to be a healthier, more integrated person. Finally, Sarah and Jeff have a conversation about how Sarah’s raising her kids with an awareness of an evolving faith, Jeff’s experiences within a more communal culture rather than an individualistic culture, and what it means to untangle our view of our parents or faith tradition from God and live honestly in relationship.

Now available and streaming wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Telling better stories is one way we are being invited into God's magnificent story of redemption. This week, author and pastor Osheta Moore calls us into the most complicated and yet simple truth of Christianity: loving our enemies. She asks us to consider who lives on the other side of our empathy and offers spiritual guidance for daring to write a better story for our enemies. Then Sarah and Jeff get honest about why this particular way of living - loving your enemies, praying for those who curse you - is incredibly difficult especially right now and explore the invitation we all have to become peacemakers in the world.

This week, we go all in on politics, spiritual formation, and the call of this moment in time in the lead up to the American election. In this fiery talk, Nish Weiseth calls her fellow white evangelical Americans to account and argues that politics are the single largest systemic tool that we have at our disposal with which we can love our neighbor. Simply put, politics for the Christian should be institutional neighborliness. Then Jeff and Sarah have a wide-ranging conversation about the international dominance of the American evangelical experiment, spiritual formation, and politics as invitation to the intention, action, and movement we desperately need right now to move toward just a little more love every day.

P.S. This episode has an Explicit rating for language.

Does an evolving faith mean everyone has to think or worship like a white Westerner? or throw the faith of their grandmothers away? How do we read the Bible with the Spirit? In this episode, Pentecostal theologian Dr. Cheryl Bridges Johns explores reclaiming wonder and curiosity and humility about our relationship with the Bible as an icon. Using an oral tradition that includes storytellers, she broods over the text with us and invites us to remember the unnamed daughters and sons and gather under the wings of the Spirit. Then Sarah dusts off all her Pentecostal language as she and Jeff have a conversation about gatekeepers, ancestors, the Bible as icon, and living in the age of apocalypse.

P.S. One word of caution: some of the themes in this talk could be triggering for some listeners as we discuss themes of rape and violence. Please listen at your discretion.

Have you ever been called a heretic? unfaithful? ostracized for changing your mind on something related to your faith or theology? Well, this week’s episode with popular biblical scholar, podcaster, and author Pete Enns is for you. Pete talks about the biblical mandate for an evolving faith, illustrates this concept through the stories of Jonah and Job, and the sacred responsibility we all bear of reimagining Scripture. Then Sarah and Jeff have a conversation about how taking the Bible seriously doesn’t mean taking it literally, their favorite stories that illustrate an evolving faith from the Bible, and the permission we all need to take a break from reading the Bible.

This week, pastor, activist, and liturgist Sandra Maria Van Opstal challenges us to reimagine the intersection of worship and justice. She explores the impact of white supremacy on an evolving faith, worship, and justice work, leads us to learn from the global church and how justice is sustained. She then places a demand on all of us to move forward and engage. Then Sarah and Jeff have a conversation about the prophet Amos, the balance of contemplation with action, and discomfort.

Mike McHargue is one part Bill Nye the Science Guy and one part Mr. Rogers - and one part Baptist preacher. This week, Science Mike delivers a hilarious and devastating call to repentance as he expounds on climate change, the limits of science, the possibilities of faith, and the end of the world. Then Sarah and Jeff explore mysticism, certainty, and leaving religion.

In this episode, famed scholar and theologian Dr. Wil Gafney offers us the opportunity to experience evolution in our interpretation of Scripture through the richness of womanist biblical interpretation. Sarah and Jeff explore how an evolution of faith necessitates an evolution in our relationship with Scripture, learning how to integrate the harder stories of the Bible without explaining them away, welcoming other collaborators to our understanding of faith, and Sarah’s own evolution since writing “Jesus Feminist.”

P.S. One word of caution: some of the themes in this talk could be triggering for some listeners as we discuss themes of rape, incest, and violence. Please use your discretion.

We revisit the first Evolving Faith conference opening message from Sarah Bessey as she welcomes everyone to the wilderness, talks about grief, and - of course - prays for the days ahead of us. Jeff interviews Sarah afterwards about what she’s learned about courage, lament, and hope since those days.

Jen Hatmaker was the darling of white evangelical Christian women until the price of belonging became too high. Join us as we revisit her Evolving Faith 2018 talk on belonging and courage in the wilderness.

We make Jeff super uncomfortable as we return to his Evolving Faith talk on compost and healing. He takes us to the Farminary at Princeton Theological Seminary and shares about being a gay, Chinese, American, Reformed Christian whose journey has had more than a few unexpected turns. And spoiler alert: almost everyone in the room cried.

For episode 2, Sarah and Jeff revisit Austin Channing Brown's bring-the-house-down sermon from Evolving Faith 2018. They reflect on what they've learned and experienced since that day as well as how Austin's words planted the seeds for some major shifts in their own lives.