Where Do We Go From Here?

Andy Stanley's megachurch, North Point, held a conference to equip parents of LGBTQ+ youth and young adults to love and accept their kids, and soon after conservative gatekeepers accused Stanley of abandoning historic Christian doctrine. This episode discusses North Point's method and asks the question: Is it a blueprint for churches to follow? We consider: North Point's engagement with the LGBTQ+ community for the past 10 years an affirming pastor's perspective on the conference will evangelicals handle LGBTQ+ affirmation eventually the way they deal with divorce today a Side B perspective on Stanley's sermon "slippery slopes" Full episode show notes here (interview transcripts as well). Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter. Partner with us to hear the uncut interview with David Bennett. Plus you'll get News & Views and a chance to chat about this episode on Zoom at the end of the month. Zach W. Lambert is the Lead Pastor and founder of Restore Austin, a church in urban Austin, Texas. He is also the co-founder of the Post Evangelical Collective--a group of pastors, artists, and leaders committed to full inclusion, holistic justice, deep and wide formation, a gracious posture, and the Way of Jesus. Additionally, Zach serves on the boards of Restore Houston (a church plant he helped launch), Hub Garage (a non-profit for single moms), the Austin Church Planting Network, and the Multi-Faith Neighbors Network. Connect with Zach on Twitter and Instagram. You can connect with Restore Austin on TikTok and Youtube. Dr. David Bennett is a visiting theologian at Reality San Francisco, a member of the Archbishop of Canterbury's College of Evangelists and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Faculty of Theology and Religion. David is a graduand and recently completed his DPhil (2023), entitled 'Queering the Queer: An Exploration of How Gay Celibate Asceticism Can Renew and Inform the Role of Desire in Contemporary Anglican Theology.' From Sydney, Australia originally, he has lived in Oxford for the last decade. Author of the memoir, A War of Loves: The Unexpected Story of a Gay Activist Discovering Jesus (Zondervan, 2018). Connect with David on Instagram and Twitter.

Annie Parsons is having a baby, and she's an unpartnered, 41-year-old woman in middle America who grew up in Purity Culture. Yes, we have questions. Her answers tell a complex, beautiful story about what it's like to gain agency, build community, and the dare to hope for a miracle. We talk about: ditching dating and pursuing motherhood "insurance against regret" gaining financial stability as a single woman the long road of navigating fertility questions Partner with us to hear a fresh Purity Culture News & Views episode this week. $3/month (USD) gets you in and there are romcom recaps plus a monthly zoom call with other partners. Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter. Full transcript here Annie Parsons is a single woman in Kansas City who, after years of dating and hoping for marriage, decided to pursue having a child on her own. Many twists and turns later, through a fertility process, she is now expecting a baby boy any day now. This is obviously a non-traditional path to motherhood, especially for one who grew up immersed in the purity culture of the 90s, so she wanted to have a conversation about what it took to make this decision, from the practical to the spiritual. Connect with her on Instagram.

Anna McGahan is an Australian actress and storyteller who found God in the most radical of ways. Baptised into the Pentecostal tradition, she gave up everything to follow Jesus only to find that life in the church wasn't quite what it seemed. In this episode we discuss: meeting God and meeting the church, it's not the same finding agency in celibacy losing queerness to find God recovering a sense of equilibrium and self Partner with us to hear The Jess & Devi Show and our take on the 1999 romcom She's All That (spoiler: it's not all that). Join for $3/month (USD). Anna McGahan is an actor, author, screenwriter, playwright and poet. Anna's work prioritises a defiant female gaze to explore experiences of embodiment, motherhood, sexuality and spirituality. She is the author of the Vogel Prize-winning novel, Immaculate, a book of poetry about motherhood, Skin, and the memoir, Metanoia. She lives in Meanjin (Brisbane), with her two young daughters. Subscribe to her Substack here.

The evangelical message for girls was all about virginity, naivete, and silence, and millenial women are paying the price for it. "She Deserves Better" gets into what went wrong but also gives us a playbook for how to do better. We talk about: the impact of modesty teaching what happens when girls are told they talk too much the importance of sex ed Full show notes here Partner with us to hear Jess and Devi's trip to a sex shop in Melbourne. We read out product descriptions and give our honest opinion about a (surprising) number of sea creature-like devices. Get it for $3/month (USD). Sheila Wray Gregoire is the face behind BareMarrige.com, the largest single-blogger marriage blog. She's also an award-winning author of nine books, including The Great Sex Rescue, and a sought-after speaker. Connect with Sheila on Instagram. Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach is a psychology graduate, Sheila's daughter, and the author of Why I Didn't Rebel. Working alongside her husband, Connor, she develops websites focusing on building Jesus-centered marriages and families. Connect with Rebecca on Instagram.

We're mixing faith and friskiness and spilling divine secrets on tasteful toys. Get ready to bless your bedside drawer with a touch of sex-educator-approved delights. Dr. Celeste Holbrook is back with the the quality sex education we need after purity culture life. Partner with us to hear our thoughts on the Barbie movie, plus you'll get a ticket to The Big Debrief at the end of the month and more! Full shown notes here (including a transcript of our interview wit Celeste) Dr. Celeste Holbrook is a sexologist and speaker who helps her clients evolve into the people they were created to be, in and outside of the bedroom. She speaks on a variety of topics from sex drive and sexual shame to painful intercourse, purity culture and more. Her mission is to provide safe spaces for people to talk about sex Dr. Celeste has been featured in Women's Health Magazine, Mothers of Preschoolers, Reader's Digest and more. Connect with Celeste on Instagram and take her classes online.

Purity Culture graduates left the movement with our feet stuck to chewed up gum, our fingers locked into purity rings, and our hearts (supposedly) irreparably broken. But these were images and metaphors given to us by an evangelicalism broken by its own damaged stories, images, and metaphors. This episode gets into what went wrong, and how we can start to make it right. Join us in Patreon to hear about deconstruction in evangelical history. Join today and get a ticket to our monthly Zoom call happening on July 27 (9pm EST) and 28 (11am AEDT). It's $3/month USD, and you get romcom recaps, purity culture news & views, and more! The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis16: Read Better Books (with Karen Swallow Prior) Karen Swallow Prior (PhD, SUNY Buffalo) is the award-winning author of On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books. She is a frequent speaker, a monthly columnist at Religion News Service, and has written for Christianity Today, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Vox. She is a contributing editor for Comment, a founding member of the Pelican Project, a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum, and a senior fellow at the International Alliance for Christian Education. Connect with Karen on Instagram and Twitter

While "Sound of Freedom" rakes in the profits in the US box office, there are still children in exploitative circumstances. Are search and rescue missions the most effective way of rehabilitating them? We bring you a Christian anti-trafficking expert who has seen the harmful impacts of well-intentioned evangelicals and knows that there's a better way forward. We talk about: how this movie harms anti trafficking work the trafficking of children happens primarily through exploitative and forced labor how our dollars fund child slavery (hint: check your pantry) evidence-based models for successful anti trafficking work organizations you can trust with your dollars Full show notes here (with all the organization links!) Dr. Lauren Pinkston is a public academic, teaching through published writing, nonprofit coaching, facilitated workshops, and a newly released podcast. She holds a PhD in International Family and Community Studies from Clemson University. Previous to working in academia, Lauren lived in Southeast Asia researching the human trafficking crisis and starting businesses to employ survivors. She now consults for anti-trafficking organizations and small business startups, helping them institute trauma policies into healing-centered workplaces. Lauren is the President of Kindred Exchange, a non-profit focused on establishing more ethical missions practices and expanding jobs in the Global South. Connect with Lauren on Instagram

"Christians need to face the truth of who we are." That's what Professor Iwan Russell-Jones told us, and it's why we took a hard look at Hillsong through the FX/Hulu docuseries "The Secrets of Hillsong." In this episode we talk about church as the show and what it is costing us. We also talk about: the docuseries as Carl Lentz's redemption vehicle the cost of spiritual abuse should church be charging money for attendance and paying volunteers? Full show notes here Instagram Twitter Partner with us to hear our romcom recap of 13 Going on 30 and get the full conversation with Professor Iwan Russell-Jones plus more partner perks.

Trigger Warning: This is a conversation about Frank Houston's three-decade history of sexually abusing children, and there are many references to the subject. Please proceed with caution if this topic is triggering for you. There are resources in the show notes about healing after trauma. Frank Houston was a serial sexual abuser of children, but he walked off the church stage into forced retirement to the sound of a standing ovation. After his son, Brian Houston, knew about at least once incidence of molestation. We discuss this sad, enraging event and the way "The Secrets of Hillsong" brings together the different pieces of information. Full show notes here Join us for The Big Debrief on June 30 at 11 am (Melbourne time), June 29 (9pm EST/8pm CST) to talk about the past month of Hillsong stories and your church stories. Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter

We dive deep into the shocking downfall of Carl Lentz, former pastor of Hillsong New York, and ask questions about the supposedly eye-opening revelations from "The Secrets of Hillsong" documentary. A former member of Hillsong NYC joins us to uncover what the documentary misses, the culture of celebrity pastors, and the consequences of blind faith in broken institutions. Full show notes here (including a transcript of the whole show) Partner with us to hear our conversation with documentarian Professor Iwan Russell-Jones on why it's important for Christians to face the truth. Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter