Explore every episode of the podcast Honoring the Journey

In this episode of Honoring the Journey, Leslie revisits a conversation with author and former pastor Colby Martin after a technical issue ruined their first recording at the Wild Goose Festival. Colby shares his personal journey from being raised in a Baptist family and sensing a call to ministry as a teenager, to pastoring at an evangelical megachurch in Arizona—where a single Facebook post celebrating the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" triggered a confrontation that ultimately led to his termination. He describes how studying the Bible's so-called "clobber passages" using rigorous evangelical scholarship led him to become fully affirming of LGBTQ inclusion, and how that conviction put him at odds with his church's leadership. The discussion also explores his evolving understanding of God—moving from a separate, personal being to a grounding presence of love—and his critique of how Christianity has reduced faith to intellectual belief rather than embodied action. Colby also introduces his forthcoming book, But What About?: The Most-Asked Questions on Faith, the Bible, and LGBTQ Inclusion, a follow-up to his earlier work Unclobbered, which addresses the common follow-up questions people still have after engaging the biblical texts on homosexuality.

Pick up your copy of Unclobbered HERE!

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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In this episode of Honoring the Journey, host Leslie Nease sits down with Keith Giles — author, publisher, and co-owner of Quoir Publishing — for a wide-ranging conversation about the art of storytelling and the launch of his new science fiction imprint, Pink Beam Press. Keith shares free, practical advice for writers on crafting compelling stories, drawing on a memorable creative writing exercise that taught him the power of economy in prose: condense a four-page scene to two, then to one, and discover what your story actually needs. He explains how fiction can communicate big ideas "under the radar" without becoming preachy, why putting your most provocative points in the mouth of a villain character disarms readers and invites them to think, and how the novella format forces writers to cut the padding and get to the meat. Along the way, Keith tells the wild true story behind the Pink Beam name — a mystical experience had by science fiction legend Philip K. Dick — and makes the case that novels are "empathy boxes," connecting us to authors and to each other in ways that nonfiction simply can't.

Find out more about Quoir and Pink Beam Publishing at www.quoir.com

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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Today we welcome Jason Becker, host of the podcast “What the Hell Do I Know? with JB,” for a powerful conversation about faith, doubt, deconstruction, and spirituality. Jason shares growing up Southern Baptist, being taught fear-based salvation and repeatedly praying the salvation prayer into his 30s, and how that coercion fueled later questions about hell, control in the American church, and conflicting doctrines. He describes moving into ministry, challenging treatment of LGBTQ+ people, planting an inclusive church in an LGBTQ+ theater in Atlanta, and later shifting to online conversations amid political and religious polarization. Together we discuss letting go of certainty, prioritizing the teachings of Jesus and present-day “bringing heaven here,” women’s roles in church, interpreting scripture through the lens of Jesus, and making space for empathy, accountability, and inclusion.

What the Hell Do I Know with JB Podcast:  
https://www.youtube.com/@Whatthehelldoiknowjb
 

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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What happens in our bodies when the beliefs we grew up with begin to unravel? In this episode of Honoring the Journey, Leslie talks with Dr. Shaleen Kendrick, author of Your Three Brains, about her experience growing up as a megachurch pastor’s daughter and how understanding the brain and nervous system helped her make sense of religious trauma. We explore fear, curiosity, and what it can look like to find wholeness as we make room for a new story.

Find out more about Shaleen and her work on her website.

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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On today's Honoring the Journey, Leslie sits down with Kallie Klug a somatic practitioner, yoga instructor, and author of Tired of Being Good, to explore the concept of "fawning" as a biological stress response rooted in people-pleasing. They discuss how growing up in religious environments can wire the nervous system for chronic fawning by coupling goodness with salvation and stigmatizing anger as sinful. Kallie breaks down the physiology behind the fawn response and how it layers freeze and appeasement on top of suppressed boundary expression, leading to physical ailments like jaw tension, neck pain, thyroid issues and more physical symptoms. They share personal stories of religious deconstruction, the guilt of leaving faith, and the liberating realization that the body's signals—including anger—carry intelligence rather than sin. Kallie guides listeners through a somatic practice to notice what fawning feels like in the body, offers practical tools for coming out of freeze by inviting small amounts of mobility and self-orientation, and reflects on her own journey of un-shaming her inner experience and embracing the fullness of being human.

Grab Kallie's new book HERE!

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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This conversation with Vernique Esther went so many places, and I loved every minute of it! Vernique grew up in a beautiful and sometimes chaotic mix of denominations, cultures, and ideas about God, shaped by her Haitian and West African roots. Her journey eventually led her into a legalistic campus ministry that she now describes as “culty,” an early marriage that ended in devastating infidelity and divorce, and the political upheaval of 2016 that caused the cracks in her faith to break wide open. We talked about purity culture, patriarchal church systems, and the impossible burden so many women were taught to carry—the idea that we were somehow the “moral vessels” responsible for holding everything together. We were expected to suffer well, forgive endlessly, stay faithful, remain quiet, and somehow keep everyone else from falling apart, even when we were the ones being deeply harmed.

Today, Vernique describes her faith as a Jesus-centered, non-religious spirituality. We had such an honest conversation about separating the character of Jesus from some of the violent and troubling portrayals of God we encounter elsewhere in Scripture, and what it looks like to keep following Jesus after so much of the religious framework around him has fallen away.

Vernique also shared her powerful concept of “trauma languages”—the patterns our pain can create in relationships, including control and rejection sensitivity—and opened up about who holds space for her while she continues doing her own healing.

Find out more about Vernique here: www.verniqueesther.com

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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Today, Leslie has a conversation with Rob Zahn, a Lutheran pastor and author of LSD to Galilee. The episode weaves together Rob's unconventional path into ministry, the story of discovering his estranged father on his deathbed and uncovering his father's ties to a 1960s drug-smuggling countercultural movement (the Brotherhood of Eternal Love), and a deeply theological conversation about certainty, deconstruction, and where the divine can be found — including surprising historical and academic parallels between psychedelics and early Christian/religious practice. Together they explore themes of doubt, humility, religious trauma, freedom in faith, and staying curious rather than certain.

Get Rob's book LSD to Galilee here!

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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In this episode of Honoring the Journey, we hear from the lovely Promise Backlund (Eve Was Framed), a former worship leader in Charismatic Churches, to discuss her deconstruction from an evangelical upbringing to eventual atheism. We explore themes like the fear of hell and losing salvation, the loss and rebuilding of authentic friendships, navigating family relationships after leaving the faith, and the difference between dogmatic belief and lived kindness — all tied to her new book, The Gospel of Lies: Surviving and Resisting Evangelical Extremism.

Follow Promise:

Instagram

TikTok

Facebook

YouTube

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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In this episode of Honoring the Journey, Leslie sits down with writer, artist, playwright, and speaker Rob Bell—someone whose work had a tremendous impact on her own deconstruction journey. If you’ve spent any time questioning or reexamining the faith you inherited, chances are you’ve come across Rob’s work. His groundbreaking book Love Wins famously landed him in hot water within evangelical circles for challenging long-held beliefs about hell, salvation, and the character of God.

In this rich and vulnerable conversation, Rob reflects on what it was like to experience rejection from the evangelical world he had once been such a prominent part of, and shares some beautiful wisdom for anyone currently navigating a season of questioning, uncertainty, or deconstruction. He also catches us up on life now—what he’s creating, what he’s discovering, and what midlife is teaching him about growth, identity, and becoming. This conversation is thoughtful, funny, tender, and full of the kind of wisdom that makes you want to grab a notebook. You won’t want to miss this one!

Want to listen to the series Jesus H. Christ that Leslie & Rob spoke about? HERE is a link to the first episode! 

Find out more about Rob's work and where you can find him online on his website: https://robbell.com/

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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Today on Honoring the Journey, Leslie welcomes back Britt Hartley from No-nonsense Spirituality for a wide-ranging conversation about navigating relationships with family members who are still religious after leaving the faith. The two cover the emotional dynamics of deconstruction, including the desperate need for validation, the defensive reactions of loved ones, and why leading with vulnerability rather than debate tends to be far more effective for maintaining connection. They explore how differing core values (truth-seeking vs. loyalty) can explain why people have such vastly different experiences within the same religion, discuss the ethics of sharing one's evolving worldview publicly without destabilizing others, and reflect on what it means to follow Jesus outside of institutional religion. The conversation also touches on existential crisis, the psychological benefits of releasing the need for ultimate truth, and the meaningful distinction between religious deconstruction coaching and spiritual direction — all woven together with warmth, humor, and a shared sense that human-to-human connection ultimately transcends theological differences.

Find Britt online!

Her Website

Instagram

TikTok

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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Helpful links we discuss on the pod:

Page on homosexuality and Christianity - www.kexc.us

"You Should Know" song (topic of homosexuality and Christianity) - https://youtu.be/UNqMMsoVDZU?si=s3tkxcnypuSU8yAy

INEVITABLE (dance, trance, electropop music) - www.inevitablemusic.org

Kurplunk (various styles, all funny songs) - www.kurplunk.lol

Kurt's career search handbook, Here Today Hired Tomorrow - www.kurtkirton.com and https://www.amazon.com/Here-Today-Hired-Tomorrow-Practical/dp/1941558062/ref=tmm_pap_title_0

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What happens when someone wakes up and starts to question their entire life? He was MAGA, happily patriarchal and deep in evangelicalism, but one day he began to question it all. In this episode of Honoring the Journey, Leslie chats with Steven Francisi, founder of Healing Roots On Up and author of From A-Hole to All Right.

Steven shares a raw and wide-ranging story that begins with a difficult childhood in New York marked by inconsistent parenting, feeling like an outsider in his own Italian family due to his red hair and fair skin, and early trauma that led to a suicide attempt at 16. He joined the Navy at 17 partly to earn his father's approval, later got drawn into evangelical Christianity through an Amway meeting, and spent years in high-control religious environments that deepened his shame while masking his unresolved trauma. After a serious motorcycle accident in 2015 that left him with a traumatic brain injury, a subsequent marriage breakdown, and a second suicidal crisis, Steven finally entered trauma-informed therapy through the VA, where he experienced a breakthrough moment of grief that unlocked decades of suppressed emotion.

Through therapy, a close friendship with a younger, non-Christian man, and reading works like The Power of Myth, Steven began deconstructing not just his faith but also his patriarchal worldview and far-right political identity, including walking away from the MAGA movement. The conversation is an honest, compassionate exploration of shame, healing, masculinity, religious trauma, and what it means to become a whole person.

Get his book, From A-Hole to Alright HERE.

Follow Steven on all social media outlets at Healing Roots On Up!

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today on Honoring the Journey, Leslie interviews Marla Taviano — a former evangelical Christian author who wrote books for conservative Christian wives and later went through a very public deconstruction.

Marla shares her journey from being deeply embedded in evangelical Christianity (as a missionary, author, Christian school teacher, and camp counselor) to leaving the faith altogether, driven by growing questions about salvation-focused theology, racism, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and the pro-life movement.

The conversation covers the role books like Love Wins by Rob Bell and Rachel Held Evans's work played in her shift, how humor and poetry became her tools for processing and communicating her deconstruction, the personal cost of losing her sister and other relationships, and her belief that true love — not religious obligation — is the guiding principle worth living by.

Marla's Website: www.MarlaTaviano.com

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

 In today’s episode, Leslie talks with theologian and activist Lisa Sharon Harper about her faith deconstruction. Lisa traces her family's centuries-deep American roots, from enslaved ancestors to Indigenous heritage and describes how a 2003 pilgrimage retracing the Trail of Tears forced her to reimagine the evangelical gospel through her great-great-great-grandmother's eyes, sparking a year of depression and ultimately a full "decolonization" of her faith. The conversation weaves through the suppressed history of the Alamo, the "tyranny of certainty" in evangelical culture, marriage equality, and the isolating dynamics of tightly-bound church communities, arriving at the hopeful conviction that humility, pilgrimage, and genuine listening are the path back to shalom, which is the radical relational wholeness at the heart of Jesus's message.

Lisa's Website

Lisa's Substack and podcast

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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In this episode, titled “Let’s Talk About Deconstruction”, Leslie interviews Phil Drysdale, a Scotland-based psychotherapist, researcher, and founder of Deconstruction Network, for a wide-ranging conversation about the psychology of deconstruction.

Phil shares his own journey from a fundamentalist upbringing through deconstruction while traveling the world as a speaker, and how that led him to spend nearly two decades coaching and now doing therapy with people leaving high-control religious systems.

The conversation explores the psychology behind deconstruction… why it happens, why it's terrifying, how values-based thinking can replace black-and-white morality, and why community is the single most important resource for people going through the process. They also touch on the neuroscience of change, the concept of "conditions of worth," the challenge of setting boundaries with people from your past, and Phil's observations on where the deconstruction movement may be headed, including a thought-provoking comparison to post-WWII Europe's mass departure from organized religion.

Find Phil on Instagram

Phil's Website

Deconstruction Network

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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 Today, Leslie sits down with David Gushee, a Pastor and Professor of Christian Ethics who is also a writer of one of the most influential books of Leslie’s deconstruction process—Changing our Mind. Leslie invites David to share his journey with us all trough being a Southern Baptist convert to a progressive Christian Scholar. David openly shares about his gradual theological broadening from accepting women in ministry to ultimately affirming LGBTQ inclusion in 2014, which cost him his standing in the evangelical world. They talk about the problematic clobber passages that are used to alienate and judge the LGBTQ community and the brittle nature of fundamentalist biblical interpretation. You’ll want to take notes on this one, folks!

Also - if you are interested in being in the book study with Leslie for “Job in Exile: A Guide for Spiritual Refugees” by David Gushee in September, please send Leslie an email and let her know! leslienease@gmail.com.

To check out David's books and pre-order his new book about Job, click here.

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today, Leslie invites Melissa Green, a former member of the beloved Christian music group Avalon, for a wide-ranging and deeply personal conversation about faith deconstruction, spiritual evolution, and the courage to question inherited beliefs.

Melissa traces her journey from growing up in the Southern Baptist church and becoming a member of Avalon, through the pivotal moment when founding member Michael Passons was quietly removed from the group after being outed as gay, to her gradual theological shifts sparked by travel, loss, relationships with LGBTQ friends, and her years at a progressive post-evangelical church.

The episode also celebrates the recent re-release of "Testify to Love" — a collaboration between Melissa, Michael, and Ty Herndon — which has unexpectedly become a queer anthem and a message of radical, boundless love.

Woven throughout is a tender, raw moment as Melissa shares the grief of walking alongside a beloved family member through the final stages of a terminal illness, reflecting on how joy and sorrow coexist, and how the divine shows up not in miraculous intervention but in the simple, profound act of people showing up for one another.

Follow Melissa on Social Media:

Instagram

TikTok

Substack

Watch the Testify to Love re-release on YouTube!

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today on Honoring the Journey, Leslie chats with Luke Justin Roberts (LJR) — a recording artist she found on TikTok. Luke was a former worship leader who grew up deeply embedded in evangelical and homeschool culture. They talk about his winding spiritual path from devoted churchgoer to questioning, deconstructing and finding his true path to freedom and now making music that speaks to others who are questioning their inherited beliefs.

Luke shares candid stories about his childhood faith, the pressures and identity that came with growing up in ministry, and how he found his way to making music that meets people in their doubt and deconstruction.

The conversation is warm, honest, and wide-ranging, touching on TikTok fame, building unexpected friendships across belief systems, and the exciting road ahead for LJR as an independent artist.

Learn more about Luke (LJR) and his music on his website, www.lukejustinroberts.com.

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today, we chat with pastor and author Brian Zahnd for a wide-ranging conversation about faith deconstruction, theological reimagining, and the journey of losing — and rediscovering — Jesus. Brian shares how, after 30 years of ministry, he found himself rethinking core evangelical doctrines including hell, the Bible's role as foundation, and the nature of God, ultimately arriving at the conviction that "God is like Jesus." He candidly recounts the painful fallout of losing 1,000 church members through that process, the healing that followed, and why he believes the discomfort of deconstruction is not a crisis of faith but a necessary path to spiritual growth. The episode also touches on his new book Unseen Existences, which is out now! Such a powerful episode.

Find Brian’s church HERE.

Pick up one of Brian’s books HERE.

Read Brian’s Substack HERE.

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode of Honoring the Journey, Leslie has a conversation with Savannah Locke — artist, songwriter, and podcaster — for a rich, wide-ranging conversation about faith deconstruction, religious trauma, and spiritual reimagining. Savannah shares her personal journey from confident evangelical Christianity through a crisis of belief, her discovery of the Anabaptist tradition and the transformative phrase "God looks like Jesus," and how that journey inspired her album Songs of Peace in Times of War. The two explore themes of trust, humility, love, and prophetic witness, discussing how lived experience, creative expression, and community shape the way we understand God — and why asking hard questions, far from being a failure of faith, may be the very heart of it.

Listen to Savannah's Album HERE!

Follow Savannah on Instagram. 

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

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Today, Leslie speaks with Chris Kratzer, a former Lutheran and Southern Baptist evangelical pastor who spent over 20 years in ministry before undergoing a profound faith deconstruction. Chris shares how ambition and ego initially drove him into the contemporary megachurch world, how a series of personal crises — including a near-suicide — forced him into radical honesty about his faith, and how he eventually became an affirming, progressive voice for those questioning religion.

He and Leslie discuss the cult-like control mechanisms of evangelicalism, the cost of leaving (financially, relationally, and emotionally), and how stepping away ultimately felt like resurrection rather than loss. Chris also talks about his two books and his mission as a writer: to expose the harms of conservative evangelicalism and to give voice to those who feel alone in their deconstruction journey.

Pick up Chris' books on Amazon.

What the Hell Did You Expect Me to Do? by Chris Kratzer

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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This special episode of Honoring the Journey is an insightful group conversation between Leslie and five guests — physicist Jenny Nielsen, mathematician-turned-writer Nish Dubashia, theologian John Van de Lair (South Africa), philosopher Eric English, and author/publisher Keith Giles — all contributors to the anthology book Quantum Theology, Volume 1.

The discussion begins with playful introductions and embarrassing playlist confessions before diving into the core thesis: that quantum physics — particularly concepts like entanglement, non-locality, and the wave function — may scientifically validate what mystics and early Christians have long taught about the interconnectedness of all things and humanity's inseparability from God.

The guests explore how quantum thinking reframes traditional Christian doctrines around sin, salvation, the nature of God, the devil, and prayer, arguing that the illusion of separation from God is the root of spiritual dysfunction, and that concepts like coherence and entanglement map surprisingly well onto the teachings of Jesus and Paul.

The conversation closes with each guest sharing their diverse religious backgrounds — Catholic, Hindu, Methodist, Baptist, and non-religious — all of which converged on this same quantum-informed spirituality, and Keith encourages anyone curious to pick up the book on Amazon, with Volume 2 already in progress.

Get your copy of Quantum Theology HERE!

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

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Today, Leslie sits down with Pastor Joe Smith, who leads Maison Church in Gainesville, Florida — a progressive, welcoming congregation formed from a merger of two churches. Joe shares his faith deconstruction journey, beginning in the Free Will Baptist tradition, where childhood teachings instilled deep fear of hell and the rapture. He traces his gradual shift away from fundamentalism, sparked by the birth of his daughter in 2002 and questions about gender hierarchy, accelerated by the political climate, and deepened during the COVID-19 shutdown when he had time to deeply study queer inclusion theology through books like Unclobbered and Changing Our Minds. The conversation explores themes of religious trauma, Christian nationalism, HSPs (highly sensitive people) and deconstruction, evolving views on sin and repentance, universalism, and the difference between certainty and faith — with both Leslie and Joe reflecting candidly on their own journeys out of fear-based religion and into a more inclusive, love-centered spirituality.

You can find Joe on Instagram!

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

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In today’s episode, Leslie reunites with returning guest Michael Camp to discuss his new book Faith Funk, which explores how people become trapped in high-control religious systems and the psychological toll — including anxiety, depression, and PTSD — that results from toxic faith experiences. Michael and Leslie dive deep into topics like cognitive dissonance within evangelicalism, the doctrine of original depravity, and how religious communities sometimes exploit vulnerability and suppress independent thinking. Together they examine the often painful but ultimately liberating process of deconstruction, reframing it not as a loss of faith but as a refinement — a shedding of toxic theology to discover a more authentic, love-centered spirituality. Michael shares practical tools from his coaching practice for navigating the stages of deconstruction, and both hosts reflect candidly on their own journeys out of fundamentalism, with Leslie sharing personal experiences from her time on Survivor and her ongoing work to undo deeply ingrained religious conditioning.

Pick up Michael's new book, Faith Funk, HERE!

Michael's Website: https://www.faithtransitions.com/

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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In this episode of Honoring The Journey, Leslie talks with Megan Verno — a therapist, writer, and founder of Novo Nexus — about their parallel journeys out of high-control religions (Megan from Mormonism/LDS, Leslie from Evangelical Christianity). They explore the striking similarities between their experiences, including the loss of identity, community, and self-trust that comes with religious deconstruction, as well as specific LDS practices like the temple ceremony and excommunication culture. The conversation touches on patriarchy, LGBTQ+ issues as a catalyst for doubt, the concept of religious trauma, learning to trust one's own authority, and finding spiritual freedom beyond organized religion. Megan shares details about Novo Nexus, her support group and coaching program for those rebuilding their identities post-religion, and both women offer encouragement to listeners who may be in the midst of their own deconstruction journey.

**I had some audio issues I tried working around in production with Megan's sound. My apologies for the quality! You can still hear her, it's just slightly muffled at times. Thanks!

Find out more about NovoNexus here!

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

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In this episode of Honoring the Journey, Leslie chats with Father Pete Nunnally — an Episcopal priest who calls himself "the Wilderness Priest" — about his nature-based church called Water and Wilderness Church near Washington, DC. Pete shares how the church meets outdoors, rain or shine, along the banks of the Potomac River, intentionally lowering the barriers to worship for people who've been hurt by or disconnected from traditional church settings. The conversation weaves through Pete's lifelong love of fishing and how it became a spiritual practice, culminating in his upcoming book Catching Hope: The Hidden Spiritual Wisdom of Fishing (releasing May 12th). Together, Pete and Leslie explore progressive Episcopal theology — including the idea that everyone belongs, that salvation is held by God rather than earned by works, and that faith should always be expanding — while also affirming those who need space away from organized religion to heal and find their own path.

Follow Pete on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/fr_pete_the_wilderness_priest/ 

Pre-order his new book "Catching Hope: The Hidden Spiritual Wisdom of Fishing here.

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

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What happens when the questions you’ve been taught to silence refuse to stay quiet?

Today on Honoring the Journey, Leslie talks with Jen Nielsen (@allthoseopposed), who shares her powerful journey out of the LDS Church—the doubts that started it, the cost of following them, and why she’s chosen to speak out. This is a story of courage, clarity, and reclaiming your voice. 

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

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In this episode of Honoring the Journey, I sit down with Rev. Joash Thomas—priest, public theologian, and author of The Justice of Jesus.

Joash shares his journey from an Indian Pentecostal upbringing in Mumbai, to political consulting in Georgia, to a powerful awakening that led him into human rights work. We talk about how Western Christianity has been shaped by colonialism, the difference between the “colonizer’s Jesus” and the historical Jesus, and how practices like prayer were meant to form us—not control outcomes.

This conversation got personal for me, especially when we talked about the cost of deconstruction—the grief, the loneliness, the loss of community. Joash offers such a grounded, compassionate perspective here, reminding us that love, curiosity, and “holy indifference” can guide us forward.

We close with a simple invitation: to look for the face of Jesus in the people around us—especially those on the margins.

You can find Joash’s work through his book and his Substack, Masala Chai Theology.

Find out more about Joash on his website: https://www.joashpthomas.com/

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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This episode is a deep dive conversation between Leslie and Joe Boyd, a former pastor and biblical scholar, exploring how to approach scripture during deconstruction. They discuss the challenging journey of questioning long-held beliefs about biblical inerrancy, examining how the Bible was compiled, and wrestling with its ancient cultural context versus modern interpretation. Joe explains how evangelicals are often deconstructing their understanding of the Bible itself rather than losing faith entirely, and offers a historical-literary lens for reading scripture that acknowledges its human authorship, biases, and contradictions while still finding spiritual value. The conversation covers topics like biblical canon formation, the multiple versions of Jesus across the gospels, reading ancient texts "forwards" rather than through modern assumptions, and ultimately encourages listeners to courageously let the Bible "be what it is" rather than what they were taught or want it to be.

To hear Joe's journey on a former episode of Honoring the Journey, click here!

Find Joe on Substack HERE.

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

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Today on Honoring the Journey, we have a powerful conversation with Josh Harris, author of "I Kissed Dating Goodbye," as he shares his journey of reckoning with the impact of purity culture. Harris openly discusses how he came to recognize the harm caused by his influential book after years of hearing stories from people affected by its teachings, ultimately leading him to unpublish it and apologize publicly. The conversation explores the difficult process of deconstructing deeply held beliefs, navigating church leadership failures and sexual abuse mishandling, his own marriage ending, and stepping away from evangelicalism. We reflect on the challenges of leaving rigid certainty for authentic faith, the importance of self-compassion during deconstruction, the dangers of algorithmic rage and groupthink, and the freedom that comes from holding beliefs with open hands rather than dogmatic certainty, emphasizing that healing and growth are possible even after significant mistakes.

Find and follow Josh on Instagram!

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

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Today on Honoring the Journey, Leslie chats with Halli Carbrey (@hallifaith.liberated) about leaving high control religion. Halli shares her story of growing up in a small, insular group called the Lord's Recovery, experiencing excommunication with her then-husband in 2019, and navigating the complex process of deconstruction while raising three children. The discussion explores themes of religious trauma, purity culture's impact on sexuality, the struggle to find identity beyond rigid belief systems, and the journey toward self-trust and authentic spirituality. Both women reflect on questioning deeply held beliefs, the loss of community when leaving religion, and finding healing through vulnerability and connection. Halli, who transitioned from being a Christian couples therapist to a religious trauma and sex coach, emphasizes the importance of rest, unconditional self-love, and creating safe spaces for others wrestling with similar experiences.

Find Halli on Instagram!

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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It's the 100th Episode of Honoring the Journey today!! Leslie welcomes Beau Stringer, a former Southern Baptist preacher who transitioned to mainline Christianity. Beau shares his journey from growing up in an evangelical bubble in West Texas, serving as a youth pastor at 19, and eventually becoming a senior pastor, to questioning biblical inerrancy and evangelical theology—particularly around the violence in the Old Testament versus Jesus's command to love enemies. After wrestling with these tensions for years, he left vocational ministry briefly before finding a home in the United Methodist Church in Kansas City, where he now serves at one of the largest mainline churches in North America. Throughout the conversation, they discuss what mainline Christianity is, the importance of pastoral care over conversion agendas, the shift from fear-based faith to love-centered faith, rethinking hell and the kingdom of God, and how to lovingly engage with people still in evangelical spaces without erasing or dismissing them—emphasizing humility, questions, and staying in relationship rather than canceling those who disagree.

Find Beau on Substack at https://substack.com/@beaustringer

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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Today we honor the journey of Jeremy Johnson, host of the Slutty Grace podcast, as we explore our parallel journeys of religious deconstruction. Both of us were raised in evangelical fundamentalist Christianity, and we discuss how we moved from rigid theological certainty to a more expansive, grace-centered faith. Jeremy shares his path from youth pastor to questioning core doctrines like total depravity, hell, and exclusionary salvation, catalyzed by reading Brian McLaren and experiencing diverse Christian traditions. Jeremy chats about how his childhood religious teachings shaped his self-worth, his eventual separation of faith from institutional paychecks, and his discovery that God's love might be far more generous and inclusive than he was ever taught. The conversation touches on the nature of sin, human connectedness, and the freedom found in embracing mystery and curiosity rather than doctrinal certainty.

Find Jeromy at Slutty Grace Podcast!

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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This episode of Honoring the Journey is a deeply personal conversation with Justin Telthorst, who shares his journey of coming out as gay at age 25 while remaining within the Catholic Church—a path that defied the common narrative of leaving religion behind. Growing up in a conservative Catholic environment in the Midwest, Justin initially viewed his sexuality as a "cross to bear" and his secret testimony to overcome. After years of internal struggle, falling in love with a man, and experiencing profound peace in that relationship, he faced a pivotal moment: conversations with unsupportive priests led him to leave his dream job at a Catholic nonprofit and begin the painful process of coming out. Rather than abandoning his faith entirely, Justin found his way back to Catholicism after several years, choosing to stay and create welcoming spaces within the church. He now runs a Discord community for LGBTQ+ Catholics, offers one-on-one spiritual direction, and advocates for a theology centered on God's infinite mercy and love rather than rules and condemnation.

Follow Justin on Instagram.

Empty Chairs Website

Key Points of Interest: 

• Justin's realization that the Catholic Church's teaching on homosexuality was based on outdated 1950s psychology, not serious theological reflection 

• The profound moment of peace he felt holding hands with a man while driving through the Colorado mountains—a spiritual experience that contradicted everything he'd been taught 

• His decision to return to the Catholic Church after leaving, viewing it as a place where he encounters God while maintaining spiritual autonomy 

• The importance of taking deconstruction "one step at a time" rather than trying to figure out the entire future at once 

• His discovery that Jesus's only commandment is to love God and neighbor—a realization that transformed his entire theological framework 

• The role of online community and welcoming churches in providing support during the coming-out process 

• His perspective that God's justice IS mercy, and that divine love is an "unfathomable ocean" we can't fully comprehend

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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Today, Leslie brings back a past guest: Jonathan Foster. They chat about navigating the "messy middle" of faith deconstruction—the space between conservative and progressive Christianity where people seek compassion, curiosity, and nuanced thinking rather than quick reactions. They discuss Jonathan's work with the Curian Network, a new denominational ecosystem that credentials pastors, chaplains, and faith leaders around "uncontrolling love" rather than rigid theological boundaries, offering a safe alternative for those who've been pushed out of traditional evangelical spaces. The conversation explores the challenges of living with uncertainty, resisting the urge to become what you're fighting against, and creating healthier systems centered on grace and human flourishing.

Key Points of Interest:

• The Curian Network - A new 501(c)3 denominational ecosystem credentialing pastors, chaplains, and spiritual directors around "uncontrolling love" rather than strict theological requirements

• Messy Middle Identity - The struggle of not being conservative enough or liberal enough, and feeling "homeless" between traditional camps

• Conditional Belonging - How both evangelical and progressive spaces can demand conformity, creating the same triggering dynamics people tried to escape

• Scapegoating Patterns - Discussion of how humans are biologically wired to create in-groups and out-groups, and the work required to resist this tendency

• Calling vs. Shape - The core of one's calling remains constant, but its expression changes dramatically as life and the world evolve

• Safe Spaces - The importance of finding people where you can be curious, ask questions, and process without immediate judgment or demands for certainty

• Prayer and Community - Even amid theological shifts, the value of being invited into prayer and community regardless of doctrinal differences

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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Today on Honoring the Journey, we chat with Stuart Delony, a former pastor turned satirist and creator of the "Snarky Faith" podcast and column. Stuart shares his colorful journey from growing up as a Southern Baptist kid whose mother took him to tent revivals seeking healing for his disabled sister, through 20 years of ministry marked by constant questioning, to his current work using humor and satire to examine faith and deconstruction. Leslie & Stuart touch on the absurdity of end-times theology, the trauma embedded in evangelical culture, the importance of self-care during difficult times, and how laughter can be a powerful tool for healing. Stuart's new book, "The Tribulation Survival Guide: How to Stay Alive When Everything Else Is Dead," uses satire to hold up a mirror to the anxiety-inducing escapism of rapture culture, while the conversation itself offers a refreshing reminder that sometimes we need to step back, laugh, and focus on what we can actually control—loving people right in front of us.

Check out Stuarts new book, The Tribulation Guide on Amazon HERE!

You can read his content on Patheos HERE.

Key Points of Interest:

• Stuart's early "BS meter" developed from being dragged to tent revivals and faith healers as a young child 

• How seminary education "ruined" him for traditional ministry by teaching him to actually read the Bible critically 

• The church plant in a bar that welcomed atheists and created open discussion spaces 

• His satirical book mocking end-times theology and the rapture culture that creates distance from present-day love and action 

• The parallel deconstruction journey he shared with his wife, which drew them closer together 

• Why end-times obsession is really about escapism and keeps people from caring about the environment, neighbors, and real-world issues 

• The importance of laughter, self-care, and stepping away from constant outrage in our current political climate 

• Setting healthy boundaries with family members while still honoring them "from a distance"

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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This episode features Mattie Jo Cowsert, author of "God, Sex and Rich People: Recovering the Evangelical Testimony," in a deeply personal conversation about growing up in evangelical purity culture, deconstructing faith, and finding autonomy.

Mattie Jo shares her journey from being raised in a multi-generational Baptist ministry family in Branson, Missouri, through her transformative move to New York City at 22 to pursue acting, where her insular religious worldview collided with diverse cultures and experiences. The conversation explores the damaging effects of purity culture on self-esteem and autonomy, the process of questioning long-held beliefs through academic study of scripture, and the unexpected role that working for wealthy New Yorkers played in her identity crisis.

Both Leslie and Mattie Jo discuss the importance of respecting others' belief systems while maintaining personal boundaries, the stages of grief in deconstruction, and how their parents' responses shaped their journeys.

To pick up her book, click here!

Mattie Jo's website: www.mattiejocowsert.com

Key Points of Interest:

• Multi-generational evangelical heritage - Mattie Jo's great-great-grandfather through both grandfathers were Baptist preachers, making evangelicalism "literally in her DNA"

• Purity culture's core damage - The primary harm wasn't about sex itself, but the complete lack of self-trust and autonomy it created, leading to poor self-esteem and inability to make decisions in one's own best interest

• The "what do I want?" question - How evangelical teaching explicitly discourages asking yourself what you want, framing personal desires as sinful idolatry

• New York City as catalyst - Moving from rural Missouri to Manhattan's Upper West Side provided the culture shock that made her insular belief system "unravel real quickly"

• Academic approach to deconstruction - Mattie Jo's recommendation to read actual divinity school textbooks and non-theological biblical scholarship, discovering that concepts like "original sin" aren't actually biblical teachings

• Parents' surprising support - Unlike many deconstruction stories, Mattie Jo's father (a pastor) publicly defended her blog critiques of church hypocrisy and underwent his own deconstruction alongside her

• The "rich people" element - Working as a nanny for uber-wealthy New Yorkers provided an unexpected container for her identity crisis and exposed another layer of cultural complexity

• Reward and punishment theology - How evangelical teaching removes personal autonomy by framing everything as God's reward or punishment rather than consequences of one's own choices

• The anger phase - Both speakers discuss moving through anger in deconstruction and learning that grace and listening are more effective than righteous indignation

• Respecting belief systems as tender - The recognition that people's belief systems are fragile and existentially important, requiring gentleness rather than aggressive evangelizing for deconstruction

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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In this, the first episode of Season 6, and our first episode of the year, I decided to do a little life update and read an entry from my Substack about some of the doctrines I used to teach that I do not believe anymore. This essay from my Substack has spurred a lot of real, deep conversation in the comments section of my Substack. Not only do I share the article and what I no longer believe, but I also share what I believe now and offer an apology to those I have hurt along the way. This was so hard for me, but I found it so very helpful.  

I am thankful that on my holiday break, I was able to reconnect with writing a bit more, as it was something that was not consistent in my life prior to the break. But it's here to stay because I'm finding tremendous healing in it and also a bonus community on Substack of people just like me who are seeking, asking deeper questions and being curious about their faith! Thank you for supporting this podcast. I appreciate you all so very much! 

To follow my substack, click here! It's free, and if you want to support my work, there are options to give, as well, but that is not my goal with this space. I appreciate support, of course, but I want my work to be available to anyone who is genuinely seeking, asking questions and looking for alternative ways to express and live out spirituality.

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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Today we welcome Jaxon Phoenix, an author and hand pan musician, to discuss his new book "Only Us: Searching for Truth About the Identity of God and Humanity." The conversation delves into Jaxon’s personal journey of faith, deconstruction, and healing from religious trauma. Together, we explore the challenges of questioning inherited beliefs, the psychological impact of indoctrination, and the process of finding a more authentic, compassionate spirituality. Jaxon shares his experiences with depression, therapy, and discovering the hand pan as a tool for healing, while he and Leslie reflect on the importance of critical thinking, empathy, and embracing uncertainty in faith.

Bullet Points of Interest:

• Introduction to Jaxon’s book and his background as a hand pan musician and healer.
• Discussion of growing up in a fundamentalist Christian environment and the struggle with unanswered questions about biblical stories.
• The psychological effects of religious indoctrination and the fear-based messaging around hell and salvation.
• Jaxon’s journey through depression, therapy, and the role of music (hand pan) in his healing process.
• Honest conversation about deconstruction, family reactions, and the importance of thinking for oneself.
• Critique of church hierarchy, performance culture, and the need for authenticity and safe spaces in faith communities.
• Reflections on the universality of cult-like control in various belief systems and organizations.
• The value of empathy, understanding, and allowing others to follow their own spiritual paths.
• Jaxon’s perspective on faith as embracing uncertainty and the ongoing process of questioning and growth.
• A live hand pan performance inspired by the conversation, symbolizing freedom and healing.

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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In this special episode of Honoring the Journey, Leslie sits down with her oldest daughter, Stephanie, for an open and vulnerable conversation about faith, family, and personal transformation. Together, they reflect on their shared history, the impact of religious upbringing, and the challenges of deconstructing long-held beliefs. Through laughter, honesty, and a few tears, they explore what it means to find healing, autonomy, and genuine connection—both with each other and within themselves.

• Stephanie recounts her experience growing up in purity culture and how it shaped her sense of self.

• The episode delves into the pressures and expectations of being a “model” Christian daughter and the journey to self-acceptance.

• Stephanie shares candidly about her time living abroad in Cambodia and how it influenced her worldview.

• Both mother and daughter discuss the process of deconstructing their faith and finding new meaning outside of traditional religious structures.

• The conversation highlights the importance of family support, therapy, and self-care in healing from religious trauma.

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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In this episode, we welcome Brit Hartley, an atheist spiritual director, to discuss her personal journey of deconstructing from Mormonism and religion at large. Brit shares her upbringing in a loving Mormon community, the cognitive dissonance she experienced as a teenager, and the pivotal moments that led to her faith crisis and eventual atheism. The conversation explores the challenges of losing faith, rebuilding identity and meaning, and the importance of love, authenticity, and human connection beyond religious dogma. Brit and Leslie also discuss the complexities of maintaining relationships with religious family members, the benefits and shortcomings of religion, and Brit’s work in helping others find spiritual tools without belief requirements. The episode is a compassionate, nuanced look at deconstruction, spirituality, and the search for meaning.

Points of Interest:

• Brit’s upbringing in Mormonism and early questioning
• The impact of cognitive dissonance and teenage rebellion
• Faith crisis triggered by issues like polygamy and racism in Mormonism
• The emotional toll of losing faith, including depression and loss of identity
• Rebuilding meaning through existentialism, love, and personal experience
• Navigating relationships with religious family and friends post-deconstruction
• The role of religion as a cognitive technology and its benefits
• Brit’s approach to “no-nonsense spirituality” and her book/podcast
• The importance of authenticity, boundaries, and bridge-building in interfaith relationships
• Embracing the “dark night of the soul” as a transformative experience

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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Today we welcome my longtime friend, Nicki Pappas, for a deeply personal and vulnerable conversation. Nicki shares her story of growing up in the Southern Baptist church, navigating fundamentalist spaces, and ultimately deconstructing her faith. We also explore themes of spiritual abuse, self-love, embodiment, therapy, and the journey toward authenticity. Nicki opens up about her evolving beliefs, coming out as queer, and the importance of living a life rooted in love rather than fear. The episode is rich with reflections on family, community, boundaries, and the courage it takes to embrace one’s true self. Find out more about Nicki at https://www.nickipappas.com

Points of Interest:

• Nicki’s upbringing in a Southern Baptist church and transition into more fundamentalist spaces.
• The impact of church teachings on fear, anxiety, and self-worth.
• Experiences with spiritual abuse and leaving a toxic church environment.
• The role of therapy (especially Internal Family Systems) and embodiment practices in healing.
• The importance of curiosity, vulnerability, and authenticity in personal growth.
• Reflections on self-love, boundaries, and letting go of people-pleasing.
• Nicki’s journey of coming out as queer and exploring non-monogamy.
• The influence of key figures like Donna Powell and the power of love at the end of life.
• Insights on parenting, breaking generational cycles, and giving children tools for emotional health.
• The value of community, safe spaces, and finding peace with being misunderstood.
• Embracing joy, freedom, and living for the sake of love rather than out of fear or obligation.

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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Today we welcome singer-songwriter and spiritual explorer Michael Gungor for a candid conversation about faith, deconstruction, and personal transformation. Michael shares his upbringing in a charismatic church, his early success as a worship leader, and the pivotal questions that led him to critically examine his beliefs. The discussion dives into the challenges of questioning long-held religious doctrines, the process of letting go of certainty, and the journey toward a more expansive, love-centered spirituality. Michael also reflects on mystical experiences, the role of ego, and the importance of embracing doubt and authenticity. The episode concludes with insights into Michael’s latest album and his ongoing creative and spiritual evolution.

Points of Interest:

• Michael’s upbringing in a charismatic church and early musical influences
• The role of questioning and critical thinking in his spiritual journey
• Experiences with deconstruction of faith and confronting religious dogma
• The impact of meeting people with different backgrounds and beliefs
• Mystical experiences and the search for authentic spirituality
• The challenge of letting go of certainty and embracing doubt
• Reflections on ego, identity, and the process of personal transformation
• Insights into Michael’s new album "Magnificat" and his creative process
• Encouragement for listeners navigating their own spiritual questions
• Find out more about Michael at http://www.michaelgungor.com
• Listen to his new album! Magnificat: https://open.spotify.com/album/2ZOXZ31WxsvPZ6A99hGjSG

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode of Honoring the Journey, we chat with Malynda Hale—a singer, actress, podcast host, activist, and the new executive director of The New Evangelicals. The conversation explores Malynda’s upbringing in a progressive Christian household, her experiences navigating conservative evangelical spaces, and her journey toward embracing inclusive, justice-centered faith. Malynda shares insights on deconstruction, the importance of self-love, her role at The New Evangelicals, and the challenges and opportunities in faith-based activism. We also get a peek inside her music career, the differences between gospel and contemporary Christian music, and her ongoing creative projects.

Points of Interest:

• Malynda’s progressive Christian upbringing and contrast with evangelical college experience
• The role of fear and love in religious communities and deconstruction journeys
• Malynda’s approach to activism and leadership at The New Evangelicals
• The importance of self-love as a foundation for loving others
• Differences between gospel and contemporary Christian music, rooted in lived experience and trauma
• Malynda’s creative work: music, film directing, and an upcoming docuseries
• The launch of new initiatives at The New Evangelicals, including courses, advocacy, and community support for marginalized groups
• Reflections on motherhood, family, and balancing personal and professional life
• Learn more about Malynda and what she's up to at www.malyndahale.com!

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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Today we are sharing a special, timely episode of Honoring the Journey where Leslie invites Ben Cremer back to the show to dive deep into the challenges of navigating grief, polarization, and faith in today’s divided world. Through honest conversation, personal stories, and a powerful parable, they explore what it means to see beyond our own lenses, embrace empathy, and walk the narrow way of love and compassion—even when it’s difficult.

Points of Interest:

• Ben Cremer’s reflections on grief and naming our pain
• The parable of the sunglasses: seeing the world through different lenses
• The struggle of being “in the middle” during polarized times
• Misconceptions about being Christ-like in moments of conflict
• The role of fear and certainty in fueling division
• Practical ways to embody peacemaking and compassion
• The importance of curiosity, humility, and authentic conversation
• How laughter and hope can be acts of resistance
• Advice for maintaining kindness and standing up for what’s right
• Insights on repentance, empathy, and the power of community

Find Ben on Substack, Instagram, Facebook and Listen to His Podcast, Into the Gray.

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

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In this episode, Leslie welcomes back Brian Recker to discuss his new book, "Hell Bent: How the Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back from a Spirituality of Love." Together, they dive into Brian’s journey from a strict evangelical upbringing to a more open, love-focused faith, exploring how fear-based teachings—especially the concept of hell—shape personal beliefs, relationships, and community dynamics. The conversation is honest, empathetic, and often humorous, offering practical tools for deconstructing harmful beliefs and encouraging listeners to embrace a spirituality rooted in love rather than fear. Whether you’re questioning your faith or just curious about new perspectives, this episode provides both thought-provoking insights and a sense of hope.

Bullet Points of Interest:

• Brian’s background: Raised evangelical, former pastor, and now an author challenging traditional views on hell.
• The main theme of the book: How fear of hell distorts Christian spirituality and relationships.
• The paradigm shift: Moving from a punishment-based faith to one centered on love and acceptance.
• Personal stories: Both Brian and the host share their experiences of deconstructing faith and the emotional toll it takes.
• The impact of fear: How fear of hell shapes parenting, self-worth, and community dynamics.
• Practical tools: Brian introduces reflective questions (inspired by Byron Katie) to help listeners interrogate their beliefs.
• The metaphor of hell: Exploring hell as a spiritual and psychological experience, not just an afterlife destination.
• The importance of community: Encouragement to process these questions with others, and info about a free study guide for group discussion.
• Humor and empathy: Lighthearted moments about rapture predictions and the shared experience of spiritual anxiety.
• A message of hope: It’s possible to move beyond fear and find a more loving, authentic faith.
• Find Brians book on Amazon or Audible, available 9/30/25

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Rachel Dixon joins us today to share her powerful story of self-discovery, faith, and authenticity. Growing up in a deeply religious environment, Rachel navigated the complexities of identity, conformity, and spirituality, ultimately embracing her true self and advocating for wholeness as a birthright. Imagine being accused by people in the church of being a homosexual because of how you look, being rejected because of it and not even realizing that was your truth until much later, after many years of agonizing introspection! The church knew she was gay before she even did. How is that, if being gay is a choice? This story is powerful and incredibly eye opening. Through candid conversation, we explore the challenges of deconstructing long-held beliefs, the courage to live audaciously, and the importance of community and unconditional love.

Bullet Points of Interest:

• Rachel’s upbringing in a strict Christian environment and the impact of religious expectations on her identity.
• The influence of Christian radio and audio dramas on Rachel’s early love for voice and storytelling.
• Early realizations of difference—Rachel’s discomfort with gendered expectations and required silence for women in church.
• The pivotal moment at Bible college: being dismissed from a job for having short hair, highlighting the consequences of non-conformity.
• The emotional toll of being judged for appearance and the pressure to fit a prescribed mold.
• Rachel’s journey through denial and eventual acceptance of her sexuality, including the challenges of navigating faith and identity.
• The experience of being directly questioned about her sexuality and the anger and self-reflection it provoked.
• The process of deconstructing faith—questioning dogma, seeking authenticity, and ultimately leaving the church to pursue a more genuine spiritual path.
• Insights on the difference between following rules for appearance versus living with honesty and love.
• The importance of community, creativity, and finding like-minded people after leaving a restrictive environment.
• Rachel’s message of honoring every step of the journey, even the difficult ones, as necessary for growth and self-acceptance.
• The episode closes with encouragement for listeners to embrace their own paths, seek community, and find freedom in authenticity.
• Find out more about Rachel and watch her TEDx Talk at www.racheldickson.com

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today we welcome Reverend Joseph Yoo for an open conversation about faith, deconstruction, and creating inclusive spiritual communities. Joseph shares his personal journey as a pastor’s kid in a multi-generational ministry family, his experiences with conservative and evangelical traditions, and his evolution toward a more inclusive, affirming approach to faith. Together, we discuss the challenges and rewards of questioning long-held beliefs, the loneliness and courage involved in deconstructing faith, and the importance of building spaces where everyone—especially those on the margins—can belong and be loved.

Bullet Points of Interest:

• Joseph’s upbringing in a family deeply rooted in ministry across generations.
• The impact of purity culture, fundamentalism, and immigrant experiences on his faith journey.
• Joseph’s transition from conservative theology to a more inclusive, affirming ministry.
• Honest reflections on deconstruction, including the pain, loneliness, and social consequences.
• The importance of creating safe spaces for those questioning or leaving traditional faith communities.
• Insights on tokenism versus true diversity in church leadership and congregations.
• Leslie’s personal story of leaving the church to pursue love and authenticity, including her experience on "Survivor."
• The role of neuroplasticity in changing beliefs and the difficulty of reprogramming long-held ideas.
• Encouragement for those deconstructing to seek community and not go through the process alone.
• A focus on love, acceptance, and supporting people wherever they are on their spiritual journey.

Find Joseph online:

Mosaic Episcopal Church

Instagram

Facebook

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today we honor the journey of David Hayward, known as the "Naked Pastor", who shares his profound journey of deconstructing faith. David discusses his background as a pastor, the origins of his Naked Pastor persona, his educational and theological journey, and the critical moments that led to his deconstruction. Together, we explore themes of authenticity, questioning beliefs, losing and finding community, and the evolving understanding of faith. This candid and thought-provoking conversation delves into personal transformation and the very human quest for spiritual freedom and truth.

Here are the main points of interest in this episode:

Origin of "Naked Pastor"
David explains the meaning behind his moniker, emphasizing transparency and authenticity in ministry.

David's Spiritual Journey
He shares his background: growing up in various denominations, extensive theological education, and his path through different church traditions.

Deconstruction Beginnings
David describes the pivotal moment that started his deconstruction—reading "The Silence of Jesus" and questioning the inspiration of scripture.

The Emotional Impact of Deconstruction
Both David and Leslie discuss the trauma, fear, and loneliness that can accompany questioning long-held beliefs.

Community and Belonging
The conversation explores the loss of community after leaving church, the challenge of finding new support systems, and the unique intensity of church-based relationships.

The Role of Empathy and Sensitivity
They note that people who deconstruct often have high empathy and a deep sense of responsibility for others' spiritual well-being.

Navigating Binary Thinking
The episode highlights the difficulty of moving beyond black-and-white thinking, especially when faced with questions about faith, truth, and identity.

Art as a Bridge
David’s cartoons are discussed as a gentle, creative way to challenge the church and support those in deconstruction.

Building New Community
Both hosts share their efforts to create or find new forms of community outside traditional church settings.

Personal Growth and Acceptance
David talks about honoring his roots while continuing to grow, and the importance of accepting the full journey, not erasing the past.

Oneness and Connection
David describes a transformative experience of perceiving the oneness of all people, which brought him peace and shaped his outlook.

Looking Forward
David hints at a new phase or mission beyond deconstruction, suggesting ongoing evolution in his work and message.

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode of "Honoring the Journey," Leslie welcomes author and theologian Keith Giles to discuss rapture theology and its impact on those raised in fear-based religious traditions. Building on feedback from a previous episode, they explore the origins of rapture theology, its scriptural interpretations, and the psychological effects it has had on believers. Keith offers a historical and theological critique, challenging common interpretations and encouraging listeners to consider alternative perspectives rooted in scripture, history, and a more inclusive understanding of faith. The conversation aims to diffuse fear, promote critical thinking, and highlight the importance of love, grace, and personal spiritual growth.

Find Keith's books here!

Topics of Interest:

• The trauma and fear caused by rapture theology in evangelical upbringings
• The origins of rapture theology and its invention by John Nelson Darby in the 1850s
• The role of dispensationalism in shaping modern end-times beliefs
• Scriptural analysis of Daniel 9 and the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24)
• The use of apocalyptic hyperbole in biblical prophecy
• Misinterpretations of scripture regarding the rapture and end times
• The historical context and coded language of the Book of Revelation
• The difference between the "end of the age" and the "end of the world"
• The inclusive message of Christ and the idea that the kingdom of God is within everyone
• The psychological burden of certainty versus the freedom of faith and trust
• The importance of questioning, critical thinking, and exploring multiple theological perspectives
• The invitation to embrace love, grace, and spiritual connection over fear-based doctrine

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.