Spiritual Misfits Podcast

Meeting Ground
  • 5.0 (9)
  • Christianity
  • Updated Weekly

If you’ve ever felt on the fringes of Christian faith this is a safe space for you. Your questions, doubts and hopes are all welcome here. We’re creating conversations, affirmations, meditations and other resources to support you on your spiritual journey and let you know that even if you feel like a misfit, you don’t have to feel alone. 

  1. 16h ago

    What Makes a Space Sacred? (Paul Banks)

    Paul Banks spent his early childhood living in an intentional Christian community — it wasn't perfect, but it 'spoiled' him for church spaces that never quite replicated the taste of an integrated communal life in the same way.  Paul has moved in, out and back in to communities of faith across his journey. In a sense, he has never stopped pursuing spaces where art, story and community come together in meaningful and transcendent ways.  Paul and his wife are the founders and hosts of Simba Sessions, a monthly night of poetry, storytelling and music in Kyneton, Victoria. The next Simba Sessions is taking place on September 11. More info and tickets are here: https://events.humanitix.com/simba-sessions-fundraiser-timothy-coghill-will-small-kavisha-mazzella-and-special-guests Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com

  2. Aug 29

    Our Surprising Listeners + AI & the Future Church (with Simon Buckingham Shum)

    Will and Caro discuss some surprising findings from the recent Spiritual Misfits listener survey and then continue their series looking back at excerpts from Future Church Conference keynotes — this time, Simon Buckingham Shum's exploration of AI and the Church. His talk pushes past the "AI will save us / AI will doom us" binary and asks a much better question: not is AI good or bad, but what is the quality of each interaction, and who is it being trained to serve? Watch Simon's full talk from Future Church Conference here: https://youtu.be/Q5zLFaK-pDw?si=JH6Pq3hwzW-pYR4y Check out the Center for Humane Technology's podcast, mentioned in this episode: Your Undivided Attention https://www.humanetech.com/podcast Slides from Simon's talk can be viewed here: https://simon.buckinghamshum.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Simon_FCC26.pdf Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com

  3. Aug 22

    Masala Chai Theology: Decolonising & Peacemaking (Fr. Joash P. Thomas)

    Fr. Joash P. Thomas comes from a long line of misfits — literally: a St. Thomas Indian Christian whose people had followed Jesus since the earliest days of the church, but were labelled heretics by colonial missionaries who showed up fifteen centuries later. In this conversation, Fr. Joash makes the case that justice isn't a side quest for the church, it's the main mission. We talk about the moment he realised he'd "sold his soul to Empire," what it means to decolonise the Great Commission, why deconstruction without decolonisation is pointless, and what ancient Celtic and Indian Christianity can teach a Western church that's forgotten how to hold doubt and diversity together. It's a conversation full of provocation, hospitality, and a lot of flavour! Connect with Fr. Joash P. Thomas Read his book: The Justice of Jesus Subscribe to his newsletter: Masala Chai Theology Substack Follow him on insta: https://www.instagram.com/joashpthomas Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com

  4. Aug 15

    The 'Displaced Middle' (Adam Gowen)

    Adam Gowen is a Wiradjuri man with deep cultural ties to Ngunnawal and Yuin country, a husband, father of three, not-for-profit board director, and campus manager at the University of Wollongong. In this conversation with Carolyn Meers, Adam traces his path from a childhood where his family's Aboriginality was known but rarely spoken of, through the education journey that gave him language for his identity, to recent years of actively stepping into cultural practice. The conversation centres on what Adam calls "the displaced middle": the experience of belonging fully to neither one world nor another, and finding that this in-betweenness can be a privilege rather than a deficit.  SPIRITUAL MISFITS LISTENER SURVEY — We want to hear from you! Take 5 minutes to fill out our listener survey here and shape the future of Spiritual Misfits: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9TY7zaFqW6Zlaq3h9gjKzp7LO2PNxVTqvBXhCzlKQjSJUeQ/viewform?usp=header Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com

  5. Aug 8

    Future Church Series: Tanya Riches and the Imago Dei

    We continue our Future Church series where Will and Caro listen back to a highlight excerpt from Future Church Conference and then debrief what it sparks for them as they think about their lives and faith communities. This time, we listen to 10 minutes from Tanya Riches' talk, where she invites us into a wider and deeper understanding of the 'Imago Dei.' Is the Image of God exclusively reflected in humans? Or might we find it in the face of a cockatoo? Tanya Riches directs the Masters of Transformational Development at Eastern University and is an all-round fantastic human. Her reflections spark Will and Caro's imagination and they discuss a range of ideas you might want to try out in your own life and/or faith community. Listen to Tanya's full talk from Future Church (and all other keynote sessions) here:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsFveo-xYmS3nYRJAMrVmew SPIRITUAL MISFITS LISTENER SURVEY — We want to hear from you! Take 5 minutes to fill out our listener survey here and shape the future of Spiritual Misfits: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9TY7zaFqW6Zlaq3h9gjKzp7LO2PNxVTqvBXhCzlKQjSJUeQ/viewform?usp=header Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com

  6. Aug 1

    Is it Ethical to Have Kids? / Would Aliens Change Your Theology?

    Will, Mitch and Caro get round the table and discuss some listener questions, like: Is it actually unethical to have kids given the state of the world? how do you respond to thought-stopping church clichés? And then Will shares the question on his mind: do you believe in aliens, and would it matter to your theology if they showed up tomorrow?  Take the Spiritual Misfits Listener Survey (5 minutes, helps shape exciting new things we're working on): https://forms.gle/Ce596SzAaDMFiXap7 Previous Spiritual Misfits episodes mentioned: Blood, Wrath & Love: What Actually Happened on the Cross? (with Mitch Forbes) A More Christlike God: Bradley Jersak on Faith After DeconstructionFuture Church Series: Uncle Ray Minniecon and the Scarred TreeThe Documentary Will mentions: UFOs: Investigating the Unknown — National Geographic documentary series on Disney+ Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com

  7. Jul 25

    Future Church Series: Uncle Ray Minniecon and the Scarred Tree

    We're kicking off a new mini-series looking back at talks from Future Church Conference 2026 — after playing a short excerpt from the talk, Will and Caro unpack it together.  First up: Uncle Ray Minniecon, a Kabi Kabi and Goreng Goreng elder of South East Queensland, with South Sea Islander heritage. Uncle Ray co-founded Scarred Tree Ministries in Glebe, Sydney, and has spent decades as a leading voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice, reconciliation, and self-determination within the Australian church. The full version of Uncle Ray's talk (and all other Future Church keynotes) is now available at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsFveo-xYmS3nYRJAMrVmew Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com

  8. Jul 18

    'Fish with Feet: Human Evolution & the Image of God (Janet Kellogg Ray)

    Janet Kellogg Ray returns to Spiritual Misfits to talk about her new book, Fish with Feet: Human Evolution and the Image of God. We dig into why human evolution remains uniquely offensive even to people who accept evolution everywhere else, debunk the "if we came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?" myth, and explore what it means to be evolved creatures, made in the Image of God. Janet argues the real motivation behind most anti-evolution theology isn't evidence, it's a need to protect a prior doctrine (original sin, biblical inerrancy), and that starting with the evidence instead doesn't have to mean losing your faith, it might mean finding a more honest one. Order the new book here: https://www.eerdmans.com/9780802885616/fish-with-feet/ Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com

See All (238)

Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

If you’ve ever felt on the fringes of Christian faith this is a safe space for you. Your questions, doubts and hopes are all welcome here. We’re creating conversations, affirmations, meditations and other resources to support you on your spiritual journey and let you know that even if you feel like a misfit, you don’t have to feel alone. 

Information

  • Creator
    Meeting Ground
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    238
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Spiritual Misfits Podcast
  • Show Website
    Spiritual Misfits Podcast