Spiritual Misfits Podcast

Olivia Jackson lives on the side of a windswept hill with two dogs. After spending most of her life in and around evangelical contexts, including nearly 15 years working for mission agencies in the UK and overseas, Olivia has been deconstructing her faith for the past few years. This eventually led her to seeking out the stories and experiences of others, through an online survey with over 400 respondents followed by in-depth interviews with 140 of them. The culmination of this storytelling process is her recent book '(Un)Certain: a Collective Memoir of Deconstructing Faith.'Olivia joins me for a conversation about what she learned from diving deep into deconstruction, not just as a personal process, but as a pattern occurring across a vast Christian denominations, institutions and movements. We explore the common themes that spark this journey and the various pathways it can lead to.Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you.The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguideSign up to our mailing list:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcastSupport the pod:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com

Gregg Morris returns to the pod (go back and listen to more of his brilliance on the episode ‘Melbourne panel: Is Christianity still good news?’) to share reflections on becoming culturally informed and examining what the referendum result reveals about Australia today. Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you.The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguideSign up to our mailing list:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcastSupport the pod:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com

What a wild week on planet earth. In the first half of this episode we try to process the emotions and experiences of what we are seeing in the media cycle, without providing commentary on the circumstances themselves (we would each freely acknowledge there are far better voices for you to listen to than ours for these purposes). We explore the place of hope in a heavy world. During the second half of the episode, we introduce a new 'occasional segment': Mitch reads the Bible. In which Mitch, who reads the Bible regularly, reads some of it for us and offers an alternative perspective on a familiar parable. Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you.The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguideSign up to our mailing list:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcastSupport the pod:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com

If you've joined us recently as a new listener chances are there are a bunch of great episodes in the back-log you haven't listened to yet! This is one of them. Benjamin Hastings is an incredibly gifted songwriter and lyricist, most known for some of the songs he’s written with Hillsong, including ‘So Will I’, ‘O Praise the Name’ and ‘Highlands’. His songs collectively have more than 500 million streams.Hillsong worship leaders probably  aren’t the image you typically think of when you hear the phrase ‘Spiritual Misfit’. But our conversation with Ben was a great reminder that human beings — whether on platforms or in lounge rooms — have questions. Live within mystery. And doubt. And faith. And mess. And beauty. This is what honest spirituality looks like. And Ben is a true spiritual seeker, not satisfied with easy answers, and deeply committed to bringing his whole mind, heart and being to the search for deep truth.Ben shared some of his own story with us — about the unravelling and the searching and the creative process in the midst of it all. And it was such a joy.And as an incredibly special treat, Ben played us two of our favourite songs of his at the end of our chat. Stick around to the end of the episode and you’ll hear these songs played exclusively for our Spiritual Misfits community. Check out more of Ben’s work here: https://www.benjaminhastingsmusic.com/Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you.The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguideSign up to our mailing list:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcastSupport the pod:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com

Grant Wilson is a pastor who became a quadriplegic after a mountain biking accident in 2021. In this conversation he shares with honesty and vulnerability about his injury and recovery journey, his faith, struggles and hopes. This episode explores significant trauma, distress and grief.  It also provides an invitation to grow in empathy and understanding and to think seriously about accessibility and inclusion as it relates to disability.Grant is an incredible guy, and alongside the enormous challenges he's faced, he’s clearly a person of deep hope and love. Watch the short film about Grant's story, 'I'm not Finished Yet': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ymLCuPqiiwWant to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you.The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguideSign up to our mailing list:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcastSupport the pod:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com

Jarrod McKenna joins me for a rich and beautiful conversation about his own story and the story of healing we are all invited into. We explore how Jarrod McKenna became Jarrod McKenna, why nonviolence isn’t the same thing as non-violence, why Jarrod prefers not to draw a line between the private and the public work, and how to swap out death-dealing religion for a life-giving, liberating love. This episode is an absolute banger. Enjoy, share and stir up loving mischief like Jarrod does. Check out InVerse podcast with Jarrod here: https://jarrodmckenna.com/inverse-podcast/Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you.The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguideSign up to our mailing list:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcastSupport the pod:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com

Jon Reichardt (probably the coolest person at the David Bentley Hart event in Sydney) joins Mitch and Will for a chat about David Bentley Hart's classic theism. We talk about freedom, universalism, panentheism, theosis and a bunch of other nerdy stuff that we're still trying to get our heads around. If you don’t know what some of the words mean, don’t stress — they aren’t prerequisites for joining us at the digital pub. Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you.The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguideSign up to our mailing list:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcastSupport the pod:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com

The excellent David Gushee returns to the podcast!If you are a newer listener  you may not have heard our previous episode with David around a year ago (we strongly recommend listening to that fantastic conversation exploring what comes after evangelicalism).This time round we’re speaking about David’s new book, ‘Defending democracy from its Christian enemies.’ The book explores anti-democratic movements and sentiments around the globe, and the way that certain expressions of Christianity can unfortunately be strong allies in that cause. We cover a lot of ground in this chat, from some of the history of democracy, to the rise of authoritarian reactionary Christian politics, to the way some of these ideas are playing out within denominations that have been historically more democratic tightening their centre of control. And we also reflect a little at the end of the conversation about the upcoming Voice referendum here in Australia — and how some of these ideas relate to that process.David not only diagnoses some very clear problems, but he also presents a democratic vision that can counteract some of what we’re seeing — and the conversation finishes with some optimism and good cause to  defend the achievement that democracy represents — one that we shouldn’t take for granted.  Connect with David’s work at:https://www.davidpgushee.com/Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you.The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguideSign up to our mailing list:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcastSupport the pod:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com

Safina Stewart and Bianca Manning from Common Grace joined me for a conversation about the season of creation and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander spirituality, and about the historical moment we’re in, with the upcoming referendum. It’s such a rich conversation with beautifully overlapping themes of truth, beauty and justice, and I encourage you to listen deeply. Connect with Common Grace and Season of Creation:https://www.commongrace.org.au/let_justice_and_peace_flow_introWatch the Common Grace 'Common Home' video Will speaks about in the episode: https://www.commongrace.org.au/aboutWant to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you.The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguideSign up to our mailing list:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcastSupport the pod:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com

Janet Kellogg Ray is a science educator who teaches biology at a large university. She's also a person of faith. In her US context, this puts her at odds with many evangelicals who are suspicious of science and deny evolution, climate change and COVID science. We discuss her upcoming book 'The God of Monkey Science' and why it's so dangerous for Christians to deny scientific evidence and consensus. We also explore the alternative — a faith that takes the modern world, including science, seriously. Connect with Janet’s work: https://janetkray.com/‘The God of Monkey Science’: https://www.eerdmans.com/Mobile/Products/8319/the-god-of-monkey-science.aspxWant to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you.The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguideSign up to our mailing list:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcastSupport the pod:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com