The Expansionist Podcast

Shelly Shepherd and Heather Drake
  • 5.0 (7)
  • SPIRITUALITY

Shelly Shepherd and Heather Drake invite you to listen in on a continuing conversation about expanding spirituality, the Divine Feminine, and the transforming impact of living attuned to Wisdom, Spirit and Love.#expansionisttheology #spirituality #spirit #spiritual #wisdom #love #Sophia #feminist #theology #community #table #expansion #fifthwaylove #deconstruction #Jesus #annointing #marymagdalene #feminism  #Jesuschrist #holyspirit #women #feminine  

  1. JAN 29

    Free Lemons And Holy Attention

    Send us a text What if wonder isn’t a luxury but a way of seeing that heals how we live? Shelly and Heather open the door to a practice of holy attention, starting with a simple moment on a city sidewalk: a box labeled “Free Lemons.” From that humble gift flows a conversation about abundance, beauty, and the courage to notice what is already with us. We explore how awe differs from endless questioning, and how sensory prayer—touching, smelling, tasting—can reawaken the heart to God’s nearness and the dignity in our neighbors. We move from contemplation to action, reflecting on Jesus’ everyday goodness: sharing meals, binding wounds, and paying the cost for someone else’s healing. That picture reframes what church can be in public life—a dependable address for kindness, patience, and steady help. Along the way, we name the noise that hijacks our attention, from relentless alerts to manipulative marketing, and we learn a kind of “spiritual caller ID” to tell the difference between a sacred invitation and a hollow distraction. Fear shrinks the path, but love widens it; the narrow way turns out to be the focused, expansive path of unity in a tribal age. Around the table of belonging, even doubters and deniers find a seat. We remember that family is messy, yet held together by mercy, and that we’re invited to be light that points out goodness wherever it’s piled high—on street corners, in kitchens, in communities that choose service over spectacle. Come for the stories, stay for the gentle practices, and leave with a renewed desire to tell everyone where the goodness is. If this resonated, share it with a friend, subscribe for more conversations like this, and leave a review to help others find the show.

    38 min

  2. JAN 20

    What If Communion Is How We Change The World

    Send us a text What if communion is less about rules and more about a living practice that heals our hunger for belonging? We sit down to reframe the table as a place of remembrance, courage, and everyday resistance—where bread meets body wisdom and wine meets shared responsibility. Starting with a growing pantry of rituals—anointing oil, candlelight, silence, movement, Celtic prayers, tea in warm hands, thresholds, altars, and blessings—we explore how simple practices become portals to presence without caging the mystery. Our conversation traces a journey from fear to curiosity. We name the ways many of us were taught to gatekeep the sacred and how we’ve unlearned exclusion to embrace an open table. “As often as you do this” becomes a call to embodied storytelling: recalling meals, friendships, and the women who tended the sacred. We talk about communion as an inclusive act—bread as the food of the poor, wine as the drink of the privileged—and how the table trains us to make room, wait for each other, and carry love into the street. This episode closes with a full blessing for the table: come as you are, unmasked and honest; receive what is given; rise sent to live what love has taught. If you’ve felt shut out of the sacrament or hungry for a practice that meets real life, you’ll find language, courage, and practical ways to host open tables in your home, church, or neighborhood. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a seat, and leave a review to help more people find a table where they belong.

    34 min

  3. JAN 15

    Going Home A Different Way

    Send us a text A single change of light can restory a whole room—and a whole life. We open the new year inside Epiphany’s gentle glow, trading the harsh glare of judgment for the candlelit mercy that helps us see what’s been true all along: we are held, invited, and free to go home by another route. Shelly and Heather explore how sacred rhythms, awe, and unhurried attention can shift our perspective from scarcity to abundance, from self-critique to compassionate awareness. We draw on the Magi’s journey as a living pattern: follow the star together, arrive in joy, offer what you carry, and then refuse the old path back to fear or control. That “different way home” speaks to anyone told they don’t belong—including LGBTQ listeners—affirming that home is found where love, not empire, names us. Along the way, we unpack the difference between womb-like rest and harmful darkness, and why curiosity loosens the knot between judgment and certainty. You’ll hear simple, profound practices: breath prayers to calm the body, lighting a candle to mark sacred attention, stepping outside to recover awe under a night sky, and asking better questions about where your light is coming from in any moment. We invite women especially to claim 2026 as a year of telling a better story—shifting the source of light so beauty, dignity, and hope come into view. We close with a blessing for Epiphany that softens judgment, widens the heart, and teaches us to carry light that is gentle, brave, and generous. If this conversation brightened something in you, share it with a friend, subscribe for more, and leave a review to help others find the light. For resources and community, visit expansionisttheology.com.

    32 min

  4. JAN 7

    Illuminating The Sacred With Laurie Brock

    Send us a text What if the holiest things in your life aren’t on an altar but on your kitchen shelf, folded in a quilt, or humming across your lawn? We sit down with Reverend Lori Brock—priest, author, and competitive equestrian—and uncover how ordinary objects become gateways to grace. Lori shares how a simple question from a priest cracked open a vocation she had never seen modeled for women. That thread runs through our whole conversation: why representation matters for girls in the pews, how to unlearn the secular–sacred split, and what it means to name our homes as holy ground. We dig into her practice of “letting objects testify,” a mindful way to ask not if something is sacred but how it is sacred—whether it’s an inherited skillet, a vacation ornament, or a quiet electric lawn mower that turns yard work into prayer. Advent frames the spiritual terrain: waiting is uncomfortable, thresholds are tight, and anger can be holy because it leads us to buried grief or long-silenced power. Lori’s stories with horses bring this to earth. Grooming, hoof picks, and the trust of a prey animal reveal a living catechism of vulnerability, consent, and care. Along the way, we talk about misogyny dressed up as theology, the courage of women at the first Easter, and how to discern which objects to keep, which to bless and release, and which to let teach us one last time. Come for the theology you can hold in your hands and leave with a practice you can live today. If this conversation stirred something in you, share it with a friend, subscribe for more expansive faith talks, and leave a review to help others find the show. Laurie M. Brock is an Episcopal priest, competitive equestrian, and author of three books. During her time in seminary, she worked as a chaplain in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and has continued her work in trauma chaplaincy with the Lexington Police Department in Kentucky. She is a retreat leader and guest essayist for several online and in-print devotionals. www.broadleafbooks.com

    41 min

  5. 11/21/2025

    All Shall Be Well: Opening To Mystery

    Send us a text What if “All shall be well” isn’t escapism but a summons to live braver, kinder, and more open to mystery? We sit with Julian of Norwich’s beloved quote and ask what makes hope durable when the world feels unwell—plague, patriarchy, and the daily grind of uncertainty included. Instead of chasing certainty, we explore the freedom of unknowing, the grounding force of ritual, and the quiet courage that comes from trusting love over fear. We take a hard look at how easy answers become avoidance, and we chart a different path: hope that looks pain in the eye and stays. From reframing death as passage to examining why judgment rarely produces justice, we talk about practices that rewire our attention—breath, blessing, bread, and honest questions like Who told me this? and Where is the holy? Along the way, we name the pull toward compassion and the call to act: advocating for the unhoused and immigrant, rejecting the myth of separateness, and returning to the good over and over until it remakes us. Advent threads it all together as a living metaphor: lighting small candles in thick dark, consenting to carry love into the world as Mary did, again and again. If love is the truest thing, then “all shall be well” becomes a commitment, not a cliché—a way of imagining equity, choosing solidarity, and embodying mercy when it matters most. Listen, share with a friend, and tell us: what’s one small act you’ll take this week to make things well for someone near you? Subscribe for more conversations on mysticism, courage, and the everyday work of hope.

    32 min

  6. 11/15/2025

    If Jesus Is The Lens, What Do We See: with Dr. Jennifer Garcia Bashaw

    Send us a text What if reading the Bible felt less like swallowing a prepackaged meal and more like cooking something nourishing with friends? We sit down with Dr. Jennifer Garcia Bashaw to reframe biblical interpretation through a simple, memorable kitchen metaphor that helps anyone move from fear and formulas to curiosity and depth. Instead of treating Scripture as a static rule book, we explore it as a living, multivocal library—divine and human—where honest questions don’t break faith, they build it. We start with you the reader: how your social location, church background, and assumptions shape what you see. From there we unpack genre—poetry, wisdom, ancient history, gospels—and why recognizing these forms changes everything about how you read. Jennifer shares accessible tools like the Bible Project’s book overviews to anchor any passage in its literary and historical context, and she offers a healing on-ramp for those wounded by weaponized verses: return to Jesus. Using Jesus as the interpretive lens reframes violent depictions of God and invites a way of reading that matches the character of Christ. Along the way, we revisit overlooked stories of women in Scripture, trace Israel’s long path toward monotheism, and practice a two-step that keeps us grounded: first ask what a passage meant to them, then consider what it can mean for us. The result is a richer, kinder approach to the Bible that welcomes complexity, values diverse voices, and makes space for growth. If you’re hungry for Scripture that feeds your mind and heals your heart, pull up a chair and join us. Dr. Jennifer Garcia Bashaw's newest book can be preordered on the link below. https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9798889835561/Serving-Up-Scripture Enjoyed the conversation? Subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review to help more people find the show.

    40 min

  7. 10/24/2025

    Your Mansion Can Wait; Your Neighbor Cannot

    Send us a text A single billboard question haunted our childhoods and still shapes modern faith: Where will you spend eternity? We decided to take it apart—gently, honestly, and without losing the heart of the gospel. Together we trace how fear-based scripts formed our earliest images of God and how those scripts often create otherness, separation, and shame. Then we pivot to presence, asking what happens when we trade anxiety about the afterlife for the daring work of love, justice, and neighborliness here and now. We revisit a familiar passage—“I go to prepare a place for you”—and explore a richer reading that centers God’s vast roominess rather than a gated heaven. This reframing loosens the grip of spiritual escapism and calls us back to the practices Jesus actually modeled: healing, freeing, welcoming, and making space at the table. We talk about empire thinking and why some religious messaging can function as social control, encouraging quiet compliance instead of courageous compassion. Through it all, we keep returning to the nearness of God, not as a concept in the clouds but as a living presence in our ordinary lives. Our aim isn’t to win an argument; it’s to change the question. Instead of “Where will you spend eternity?” we ask, “How can I be a better neighbor to you?” Drawing on contemplative wisdom and Thomas Keating’s invitation to a new language of prayer, we name the kingdom as a present reality felt in influence, community, and daily choices. Love birthed us, love sustains us, and love will receive us. The task is to align with that love now—through equity, mercy, and attentive presence—trusting the Spirit to lead. If this conversation meets you where you are, share it with a friend, subscribe for more thought-provoking episodes, and leave a review to help others find the show. Then tell us: What better question are you ready to ask today?

    30 min

  8. 10/04/2025

    Radical Hospitality: Love, Equity, and the Longer Table

    Send us a text A grandmother takes a door off its hinges to make the table longer. That simple act becomes our compass for a bold claim: hospitality isn’t a niche talent—it’s a spiritual practice that can transform how we love, listen, and live together. We trace radical hospitality from the kitchen table to the inner life, challenging the idea that it belongs only to those with perfect homes or to women trained to “host.” Instead, we make room for a fuller story where the feminine and masculine both offer welcome, and where presence—not performance—is the currency that changes communities. We move beyond labels to ask harder questions: Is hospitality a gift you either have or don’t, or is it a discipline anyone can learn? What happens when listening becomes our primary form of welcome? Through memories, lived examples, and the story of Zacchaeus, we show how a shared meal can lead to repair, how adapting a menu for a gluten-free guest can reshape our default settings, and how real inclusion costs us time, convenience, and sometimes restitution. Along the way, we connect hospitality to equity, feminist theology, and a vision of salvation as shared wholeness—no one fed until everyone is fed. If you’re curious about practicing hospitality beyond the table—opening your mind, revising traditions, and making amends where needed—this conversation offers language, courage, and next steps. Join us as we trade scarcity for abundance, make space for difference, and practice the daily prayer of openness. If the episode moves you, share it with a friend and visit expansionisttheology.com to learn more about our community. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: who needs a seat at your table this week?

    39 min
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5
out of 5
7 Ratings

About

Shelly Shepherd and Heather Drake invite you to listen in on a continuing conversation about expanding spirituality, the Divine Feminine, and the transforming impact of living attuned to Wisdom, Spirit and Love.#expansionisttheology #spirituality #spirit #spiritual #wisdom #love #Sophia #feminist #theology #community #table #expansion #fifthwaylove #deconstruction #Jesus #annointing #marymagdalene #feminism  #Jesuschrist #holyspirit #women #feminine  

Information

  • Creator
    Shelly Shepherd and Heather Drake
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    47
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Expansionist Podcast
  • Show Website
    The Expansionist Podcast