The Evolving Faith Podcast Evolving Faith

We just couldn’t help ourselves. Even though our team is busy behind the scenes preparing for Evolving Faith 2023, we just had to drop one more bonus episode featuring R. Eric Thomas’s talk from the 2022 conference. Eric is one of the funniest writers you’ll find on the internet, but he’s also incredibly thoughtful and genuine as he explores his own relationship to faith, blackness, and queerness. Even as he wrestles with the faith he grew up with, he’s a self proclaimed “big old church queen” who hasn’t stopped considering what it means to be fully at home in himself and in the world. This is a good one, friends. We’re glad you’re here.
 
Show Notes
2023 Evolving Faith Conference

Surprise! Another bonus episode featuring Barbara Brown Taylor from our 2022 Evolving Faith conference. Barbara skillfully walks us through how to own our ever evolving relationship with scripture. She reminds us that just as the text has stood the scrutiny of our ancestors, it can also handle ours. Barbara challenges us to see our own relationship with scripture as a quilt, with no two being the same. “Working on your quilt isn't the same as designing your own Bible, though we do that too. It's a matter of taking responsibility for how you read it and why along with the honor of putting your fingerprints on it as generations before you have done.” You don’t want to miss this episode, and you’ll most definitely want to share it with anyone in your quilt making circle. 
Show Notes
2023 Evolving Faith Conference

In this special episode, Kate Bowler joins host Sarah Bessey for a conversation about the search for spiritual language around blessing and praying without certainty. Kate also fields questions from the Evolving Faith community about her own faith journey and how that has shaped her thoughts about hope, “un-spiritual” feelings, and the character of God. They also chat about Kate’s latest book, which she co-authored with Jessica Richie, The Lives We Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days, and the process of writing blessings for our honest, human, everyday existence. 
Show Notes
2023 Evolving Faith Conference

Jeff and Sarah offer a benediction that reminds us of all we’ve learned from our guests through this season of the podcast. They leave us with the blessing that God loves us, and that with God’s Spirit and the community of fellow wanderers, we are never alone in the wilderness.
Show Notes
Evolving Faith Conference
Podcast After Party (Community Discussion)

Jeff and Sarah answer questions from the Evolving Faith online community. They discuss their stories of “deconstruction” and shifts in their faith practices, as well as how to walk through faith evolution when loved ones aren’t on board. They also share books that have shaped them along the journey and discuss reading the Bible with room for lament and doubt. Plus Jeff shares his fried rice guidelines, Sarah answers knitting questions, and they both give some comfort TV recommendations.
Show Notes
Evolving Faith Conference
Podcast After Party (Community Discussion)

Nadia Bolz-Weber talks about how we’ve used the phrase “the Lord” in ways that often paint a very different picture than who Jesus was and is. She tells us that in the time that Jesus was on earth, “Lord” was a term used for Caesar. Lords were dictatorial and made people’s lives miserable. But Luke tells us of a different God entirely, God as baby, as friend, as Jesus. And Luke waits to call Jesus “Lord” until this story in Luke 7: The widow is leaving the city to go and bury her child. Jesus sees her and has compassion on her. In Greek, this term is more visceral—his guts turned, his insides lurched toward this woman in grief. Jesus is not the Lord of empire or institution or domination; Jesus is the Lord of compassion. Jesus saw grief and wasn’t afraid to touch it. She concludes with a prayer for the Lord of compassion to enter into our grief, bless the things we think are dead, and give us back to one another. Following Nadia’s talk, Jeff and Sarah discuss the names they have used for God, the need for resurrection in our daily lives, and the hard work of compassion.
 
Show Notes
Evolving Faith Conference
Podcast After Party (Community Discussion)