Guest Sarah Bessey, an author, shares her journey of evolving faith practices and deconstructing religious beliefs. The podcast discusses transitioning from peacekeeping to peacemaking, the importance of community in spirituality, embracing growth, and exploring the interpretation of scripture.
Embrace evolving spiritual practices with room for play and mistakes for personal growth.
Differentiate between peacemaking and peacekeeping for transformation and harmony.
Navigate evolving faith journeys through community, connection, and shared exploration for deeper understanding.
Deep dives
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Sarah Bessie's journey from evangelical upbringing to evolving faith exploration
Sarah Bessie, co-founder of Evolving Faith, shares her journey from an evangelical background to deconstructing religious beliefs for greater authenticity. Through writing and community-building, including the evolving faith platform, she explores expanded connections with God and spirituality for personal and collective growth.
The concept of practices and evolving faithfulness in spirituality
Sarah Bessie advocates for the notion of 'practices' as an evolving and imperfect way of integrating spirituality into daily life, providing room for play, exploration, and expanded notions of faithfulness and belonging. This concept emphasizes the journey of growth and embracing diverse practices with humility and learning.
Peacemaking over peacekeeping and embracing discomfort for growth
Sarah Bessie discusses the difference between peacemaking and peacekeeping, highlighting the importance of embracing discomfort and disruption for transformation and growth. Rejecting avoidance and silence, she advocates for honest engagement, confrontation, and conflict resolution, encouraging active participation in creating harmony and embodying goodness.
Ongoing search for meaning and belonging in evolving faith journeys
The podcast explores the ongoing quest for meaning and belonging in evolving faith journeys, emphasizing the importance of community, connection, and shared exploration. By navigating deconstruction, reconstruction, and evolving understanding, individuals seek to find deeper connections, self-awareness, and resonance within the complexity of faith and spirituality.
Sarah Bessey is the author or editor of five books, including Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for an Evolving Faith. Sarah writes most prominently about leaving her evangelical upbringing and working through the deconstruction of her religious beliefs to create something that feels more true to her in its wake—as part of this, she co-founded the Evolving Faith community with some of her friends, including the wonderful and late Rachel Held Evans. Bessey writes prolifically about what it means to connect with her idea of God in a bigger and more expansive way—one that has moved from Simplicity, to Complexity, to Perplexity, to Harmony. In addition to Field Notes for the Wilderness, Sarah is also the editor of the New York Times bestsellerA Rhythm of Prayerand Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible’s View of Women. In today’s conversation we talked about ideas and processes Sarah holds tenderly, including a shift from peace-keeping to peace-making and trying to articulate a vision of what she is for rather than who she is against. There is much in this conversation to which we can all relate.
