Pentecostal Nun

Katie Haldane

A calling, not a waiting room. Living fully sold out for God doesn't wait for marriage — and it was never supposed to. The Pentecostal Nun is an honest, unfiltered look at singleness as its own calling, not a holding pattern you sit in until "real life" begins. Each episode digs into what it actually looks like to build a whole life with God at the centre of it: purpose, identity, desire, loneliness, friendship, calling, and the questions the church doesn't always know how to answer. No pretending singleness is a problem to be solved. No performative contentment. Just honest, warm, sold-out conversations for anyone building a whole life — single for a season, or single for good. If you've ever felt like your life was on pause until a ring showed up, this is the show that says it isn't, and never was. New episodes every week. The Pentecostal Nun is part of the Trash Your Bible family of shows. Subscribe, and stop waiting for your life to start.

Episodes

  1. 5d ago

    Never Apologise for Your Gifts (with Chrissy Forbes)

    Chrissy Forbes has been told she’s too strong, too driven, too much. Her answer is that she never needed to shrink to meet the person God had for her, and that the right person would celebrate her gifts and draw them out. Chrissy spent 13 years on staff at C3 Sydney before moving to Toronto as a single woman to help with a church plant. She married at 39. Katie sits down with her to talk about how she lived those years without putting her calling on hold. In this episode Why you don’t have to step back for God to bring the right personMoving to Toronto single, and starting again in your 30sWhy “balance” is the wrong word for singlenessWhat she learned about God in the valleysPraying for other people when you feel overlookedBeing honest with God, including when you’re angryPreaching vulnerably, and why it connectedMaximising the season you’re inWhy she did online dating even though she hated it, and what her pastor asked herChapters 00:00 Welcome00:33 Chrissy’s story: Sydney to Toronto02:50 Starting again as a single woman05:29 “It isn’t a balance”07:15 Not sitting on the sidelines09:14 Never apologise for your gifts10:27 Being celebrated, not just tolerated12:45 The valleys13:26 Praying for your single friends17:44 Preaching vulnerably21:07 When you’re heartbroken and angry at God24:30 What God was like in the valley25:42 Maximise the season30:00 What singles wrestle with most31:10 Online dating and what God asked her to do38:06 ClosingGuest: Chrissy Forbes Host: Katie Haldane The Pentecostal Nun: a calling, not a waiting room.

  2. Oct 7

    Move Toward the Joy: Pastor Valerie McIntyre on Singleness, Money and Anger

    Pastor Valerie McIntyre moved to New York City at 30 with $400 and a dream of writing. She built a business that has lasted close to 25 years, and she married at 47. She and her husband Simon have led and cared for pastors around the world. In this conversation, Katie Haldane asks Valerie what it really takes to walk through singleness with God. Valerie's answer is honest. Trusting God didn't mean she never felt fear, loneliness or disappointment, and she says pretending otherwise is when you get into trouble. Her advice for the hard days is to bring the anger to God, keep moving, and move toward the joy. In this episode Why "this life is meant to be producing God-like character in us every day"Giving first and trusting God with money as a single womanHow a church family that included her shaped her lifeEnjoying the life you have: golf, piano, French and a summer houseThe inner work that prepared her for marriageWhat pastors can do so singles are included, not sidelinedBringing your anger to God, then moving toward joyTimestamps 00:00 Why every day matters 00:49 Welcome 01:37 Valerie's story 03:12 Tithing and finances 06:24 Staying the course 08:21 Faith community 13:58 Married at 47 15:49 Enjoying the life you have 19:50 What churches can do 24:23 Confidence and identity 29:58 Anger and disappointment 33:40 Move toward the joy Listen and follow: Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and watch the full video on YouTube. Instagram: @pentecostal_nun

  3. Sep 29

    You're Not a Distraction

    Katie Haldane goes behind the makeup and the showreel to talk about the shame single women in ministry are handed about how they dress, and why she's handing it back. Single, preaching, and told to cover up so nobody gets distracted. In this solo episode, Katie Haldane sits down for a real, unpolished chat about a shame that church culture hands single women, and one she's decided to stop carrying. She has taught and preached for years, and for most of them she absorbed one message: keep your body out of the way of the message. The result was big jackets, baggy pants and dressing as masculine as possible so that people would take her seriously. Here Katie talks honestly about where that came from, what it cost her, and what changed when she looked at photos of herself preaching and asked why she was hiding. She also shares the moment a senior pastor told a room of single women to dress well, be fabulous and feel safe in church, and why that moment stayed with her. This isn't a dating episode. It's about being whole, present and fully yourself in the body of Christ, single or not. In this episode The unspoken rule for single women in ministryWhat "you're a distraction" does to a person over timeHow shame quietly changes the way single people show upWhy the church is meant to protect and celebrate its single womenTaking off the cloak of shame, whatever your storyA note for you: if you're in ministry, or you love someone who is, this one is worth passing on. The Pentecostal Nun is a calling, not a waiting room. New episodes weekly on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Podcasts.

  4. Sep 22

    A Season to Be Lived, Not a Problem to Solve | Pam Borrow on Being Single and Sold Out for Jesus

    Pam Borrow has spent her career doing what plenty of churches still tell single women they can't: leading. She's the Principal of C3 College, sits on the C3 executive team overseeing discipleship, coordinates a Master's program for C3 pastors at Alphacrucis University College, and somewhere in between is quietly finishing a PhD. She's single, and completely done being treated like a problem the church needs to solve. In this episode, Pam and Katie talk about the real grief of singleness (and why it never fully disappears, it just gets less intense), the moment a scripture from Numbers — "life and death stand before you, choose life" — changed everything, and why she refuses to sit in a "singles connect group" full of, as Katie puts it, "weeping willows." They get into everything church culture gets wrong about single people: the singles-auction-on-stage humiliation, the isolation, the even-numbers-only dinner parties — and what actually helps: texting people instead of waiting to be invited, being included in kids' weddings and Christmas plans, and a pastor bold enough to admit his own blind spots on stage. It's a conversation about theology too — the goal of the Christian life was never marriage, it was Christ formed in you — and about identity: "I'm more than my status. It's honestly the least interesting thing about me." About Pam BorrowPam Borrow is the Principal of C3 College, travelling globally to promote the college and connect with alumni. She sits on the C3 executive team overseeing discipleship — pastoring, Connect groups, the Next Step leadership pathway, youth and kids ministry, and preaching and teaching — and coordinates the C3 Pastors Master's program at Alphacrucis University College. She's also partway through her own PhD, a devoted aunt, and a Connect group leader. Fifty, single, and thirty-plus years into a ministry career, Pam is proof that a full, faithful, single life in senior leadership isn't a hypothetical — it's already happening.

  5. Sep 15

    Hung Four Times (In the Archibald) - I am Not in a Waiting Room with Kirsty Neilson

    Artist and four-time Archibald Prize finalist Kirsty Neilson on the freedom of a single season, the church prayer that made her furious, and why "it's not rejection, it's protection." Kirsty Neilson has been hung in the Archibald Prize four times, painted the likes of Cheng Lei, Ita Buttrose and Garry McDonald, and built a fifteen-year career on stepping out before she could see where she'd land. In this episode she sits down with Katie to talk about what actually changed her relationship with her own singleness — the desperate, self-righteous prayers, the church culture that only knows how to pray singles into marriage, and the moment she heard "it's not rejection, it's protection. Move on." They talk freedom, mission work in Uganda and Ethiopia, and why the value of this season isn't a "what if" — it's now. About Kirsty NeilsonKirsty Neilson is a Sydney-based portrait and landscape artist represented by Nanda\Hobbs, and a four-time Archibald Prize finalist (including her 2024 portrait of journalist Cheng Lei). Her past sitters include Ita Buttrose, Garry McDonald, Grace Tame and Rachel Ward. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the National Art School and is drawn to painting women with stories worth telling. Beyond the studio, Kirsty is an ambassador for the Barbara May Foundation, has completed five mission trips to Uganda with Watoto, and has worked with Esther's Voice providing art therapy to survivors of trafficking in Cambodia. Instagram: @kirstyneilsonWebsite: kirstyneilson.comMentioned in this episodeBarbara May Foundation — maternal health, EthiopiaWatoto — child care ministries, UgandaEsther's Voice — anti-trafficking ministry, CambodiaCheng Lei — Australian-Chinese journalist, subject of Kirsty's 2024 Archibald Prize portrait

  6. Sep 8

    Single and Secure: Why Singleness Is a Calling, Not a Waiting Room

    In the first episode of The Pentecostal Nun, host Dr Katie Haldane sits down without a guest to share the heart behind the show: that a single Christian is not half a person waiting for a spouse to complete them — they are whole in Christ, and this season, however long it lasts, is a good gift from God. Katie unpacks why church culture so often treats singleness as a problem to be fixed — the pity, the “poor you,” the well-meaning attempts to “set you up with anything that moves” — and makes the case, backed by Tim Keller, ancient rabbinic sources, and 1 Corinthians 7, that Christianity was actually the first faith in history to hold up single adulthood as a viable, honourable way of life. She walks through what it looks like to do singleness well: rejecting fear, shame and disgrace; building an identity that isn't dependent on relationship status; fighting loneliness through real community rather than a relationship; and learning contentment now, rather than waiting for a wedding day to grant it. Along the way: a rabbi's brutal ancient take on unmarried men, the moment Jesus's own singleness reframed everything for her, and the very Australian story of a chainsaw, a fallen tree, and a prayer that got answered in a way she didn't expect. In this episode —  Why “poor you” is the wrong response to singleness — and what to say instead —  Tim Keller's case that Christianity was the first religion to treat singleness as a viable calling —  What Jesus's own unmarried life means for anyone who feels like a “lesser Christian” —  The difference between being alone and being lonely — and how the church can do better —  Why desperate people make desperate decisions, and how to reject the fear of missing out —  Katie's four keys to being single and secure: gift, advantage, worth, and freedom from shame Scripture referenced 1 Corinthians 7:7–9, 7:29, 7:32–35 · Genesis 2:18 · Psalm 68:6 · Romans 12:10 · Colossians 2:6–10 · Philippians 4:11 · Isaiah 54:4–5 Timestamps 00:00  Cold open: “I am single and secure” 00:25  Welcome to Episode 1 00:54  The “poor you” response, and where it comes from 01:45  “Pairs and Spares”: if you're the spare, this one's for you 02:40  Don't get Jerry Maguire syndrome 03:30  Tim Keller: Christianity and the first case for single adulthood 04:56  Ancient culture, ancient pressure — and vanishing without children 05:52  Jesus never married 06:51  Reason 1: singleness is a gift, not a punishment (1 Cor 7:7–9) 09:00  Reason 2: the advantages of this season (1 Cor 7:32–35) 11:37  On loneliness — and the friend who stayed in an abusive relationship 13:23  What the church needs to do better 15:08  Reason 3: self-worth and contentment in Christ 16:53  “I the Lord am your husband” — Isaiah 54:5 18:46  Reject FOMO, reject desperate decisions 19:14  Reason 4: single without fear, shame or disgrace 20:04  “But you're not married, are you?” 21:55  Isaiah 54:4 — no shame, no disgrace 22:23  The storm, the tree, and the neighbour with a chainsaw 23:47  Living every season in light of eternity (1 Cor 7:29) 25:12  Closing blessing 🔔Subscribe to The Pentecostal Nun so you don't miss the conversations coming up — and if this episode landed, send it to a single friend who needs to hear it today.

About

A calling, not a waiting room. Living fully sold out for God doesn't wait for marriage — and it was never supposed to. The Pentecostal Nun is an honest, unfiltered look at singleness as its own calling, not a holding pattern you sit in until "real life" begins. Each episode digs into what it actually looks like to build a whole life with God at the centre of it: purpose, identity, desire, loneliness, friendship, calling, and the questions the church doesn't always know how to answer. No pretending singleness is a problem to be solved. No performative contentment. Just honest, warm, sold-out conversations for anyone building a whole life — single for a season, or single for good. If you've ever felt like your life was on pause until a ring showed up, this is the show that says it isn't, and never was. New episodes every week. The Pentecostal Nun is part of the Trash Your Bible family of shows. Subscribe, and stop waiting for your life to start.

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