Spiritual Misfits Podcast

This episode is a chat with Mandy Smith. Mandy is a pastor and author of multiple books including The Vulnerable Pastor and Unfettered — a book about imagining a childlike faith beyond the baggage of western culture. That book has a foreword by Walter Brueggemann. And if you know who Walter is, you know that’s one of the finest endorsements you can get. I have really loved listening to the way Mandy speaks about Christian faith because it has reminded me how beautifully and radically upside down and unconventional Jesus is, in so many ways. In this episode we talk a lot about what it means to approach faith with a child-like posture, with an open heart that listens to our bodies and emotions and intuitions and says ‘yes’ to what might just be the prompts of the spirit in our ordinary, daily lives.   We also speak about the difference between ‘empire ways’ of doing things and ‘kingdom ways’ of doing things. We talk about the violence that life under the empire can do to our human-ness, and the way Jesus wants to restore our humanityChatting to Mandy felt like layers of reminders and invitations. To see the value in what it means to be human. To start the day with an open heart. And to say yes. To God, to life, to love.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

Hello friends and welcome back to the Spiritual Misfits podcast,This episode is the second half of one extended conversation I had with Andrew Dodd and Scott Higgins. If you haven’t listened to the previous episode where Scott and Andrew shared their own journeys towards inclusive theology and the story of Hamilton Baptist Church, I strongly recommend you do so.  In case you don’t or if you need a recap, here’s an outline of the story so far: Scott Higgins wrote a paper back in the 90s giving an overview of different Christian perspectives on sexuality. In many ways this was the beginning for him of coming to see theological diversity in this area. A few years down the track and he’s asked to read a statement to his church affirming that Baptists hold to a traditional view of marriage. Scott couldn’t bring himself to read it, but instead asked the church who would be interested in taking a few weeks to explore some diverse understandings of sexuality, marriage and Christian ethics. Every hand went up. As the church began to have these conversations a number of queer people were drawn to come along — and ended up staying in the church. The combination of fresh theological framing alongside real and loved members of their community played a key role in what was then Edgeworth Baptist becoming LGBTQI affirming.While this was happening there was also a conversation beginning with Hamilton Baptist Church where Andrew Dodd was the pastor. This conversation was about the two churches merging. This made sense for a lot of reasons, though Edgeworth had one non-negotiable. If the churches were going to merge, LGBTQI+ people needed to be fully included and embraced in the life of the new church. So the two churches went on a process together over around 12 months, testing the waters of their relationship so to speak, before officially deciding to proceed with the merge. At this point the vast majority of people were onboard. This doesn’t mean it was without cost or difficulty and some people left, though this was generally done in a gracious way. At the end of the last episode Andrew shared the story of their first service together as a new church, and the powerful moment when communion was served by a queer member of the congregation. What was powerful wasn’t so much this person sharing out communion. It was the fact that it didn’t matter that this person was sharing out communion. Because they were welcome as much as anyone else. So, in this next part of the conversation I talked to Andrew and Scott about what they learned from this journey that might inform other churches.   There’s another element of this story that’s important. The change Andrew and Scott have led at Hamilton — is not one that everyone is ready for. And in Andrew’s words Hamilton is now in a somewhat precarious position within the NSW Baptist denomination.So we talk a little about change,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

Here’s a conversation that weaves together multiple threads into one really powerful story. It’s a story about change and about the process of change — at an individual level as well as in a broader community.  Scott Higgins and Andrew Dodd are friends, pastors, and together help lead the community of Hamilton Baptist Church. This is their story of moving towards LGBTQI+ affirming theology. It’s also a story of merging two churches into one. And it’s the story of bringing those two Baptist churches through a process integrating theology, personal stories and pastoral sensitivity to become one church where everyone is genuinely welcomed and embraced, including those of diverse gender and sexualities.   Depending on where you listen from this might not seem like a big deal — but in terms of their state denominational context Scott and Andrew were kind of the first ones to do this. And going first always carries extra layers of risk and complexity.  Scott, Andrew and I spent a couple hours together discussing this story because there’s so much to learn from it — and so, next week’s episode is actually the continuation of this one. Essentially what you’re about to listen to is primarily about the story of Scott, Andrew and Hamilton Baptist Church. The next episode zooms the lens out and asks how might this inform other contexts. But for this week let’s start with the story. Join me, Scott and Andrew sitting at Andrew’s table in Warabrook.  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

After 15 years in pastoral ministry Simon Nixon found his beliefs and approach to ministry radically shifting. We explore what that looked like in this conversation, and talk a little about one of the positive outcomes: the formation of a new community called Fireside, another safe space for spiritual misfits.The Church at large is in a significant time of transition. I believe we’re going to see more decentralised and organic expressions of faith communities in the years to come. Many of us, including Simon and I, have benefited from digital access to a range of voices and thinkers who have helped us see faith afresh (and I hope that for listeners of this show that’s also what’s taking place here). But what does it look like to pair our access to voices who may be far away from us with flesh and blood communities, in our local neighbourhoods? Simon and I are both interested in this question, so we explored some thoughts around the landscape of what that might look like. Simon’s also studying counselling at the moment and one of the things we touched on was a concept in the counselling space called ‘unconditional positive regard’ — it provides a beautiful lens for thinking through community formation and we explore this a little in this conversation also.  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

There can often be this perception that faith is just about belief. And when your beliefs feel strong, your faith is strong. This can mean that on the days when you feel uncertain, unsure or disoriented, you begin to blame yourself for having a weak faith. But, what if the whole time we’ve been conceiving of faith in a manner that is a little distorted? In his book ‘The Sin of Certainty’, Pete Enns puts it this way: "I believe that the Bible does not model a faith that depends on certainty for the simple fact that the Bible does not provide that kind of certainty. Rather, in all its messy diversity, the Bible models trust in God that does not rest on whether we are able to be clear and certain about what to believe. In fact, the words “belief” and “faith” in the Bible are just different ways of saying “trust.” And trust works, regardless of where our knowing happens to be."When you stop thinking about faith as believing certain ideas, and instead begin to think about trusting — in God’s goodness and love — it can totally change the lens you’re looking through.  Here are a set of affirmations for when you need reminding about this alternative lens.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

A couple episodes back Mitch Forbes and I (Will) had a chat about heaven, hell and universal salvation. We spoke about 3 different views of hell that have existed from the beginning of the Christian church and our journeys towards the view that an all-loving and all-powerful God actually can and will reconcile and renew all people.Here Mitch and I continue that chat. If you haven’t already it’s probably worth going back and listening to the previous episode with Mitch before this one. There is more assumed knowledge this time round. Fair warning, the first half of this chat is a little heavy on the philosophy and theology and may not be everyone’s cup of tea. If you like sitting in a pub and philosophising over a beer and quoting theologians you will probably dig it. If that’s not your jam, there’s no judgment here. (See what I did there?)In the second half of the chat though we do turn the conversation towards the real world implications of our views around eternity and salvation. We get a little more ‘down to earth’ around the difference these beliefs can make when you wake up on Monday morning.Multiple times throughout this conversation Mitch references this beautiful verse from 1 John 4:16: ‘God is love. Whoever lives in love, lives in God, and God in them.’If you don’t take anything else away from this maybe those words are more than enough.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

Hannah and Will explore what it means to live full lives in a hustle-centric world. Does our Christianity present an antidote to our busyness and striving? Does it add fuel to the fire? A little a and a little b? A conversation about our modern attention crisis, capitalist infused Christianity, PreachersNSneakers, Mary & Martha, tattooed feet, and the importance of giving your oxen time off from plowing the field. Here are some of the books mentioned in this conversation: Stolen Focus, Johann HariPreachersNSneakers, Ben KirbyThe Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, John Mark Comer 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

Could it be that the good news of the gospel is that God actually loves and will save everyone? Mitch and I (Will) think the arguments that this is the case are pretty convincing. We discuss the views of hell we grew up with and how these have shifted over time towards belief in universally reconciling love in Christ.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

Kris Halliday is a Salvation Army Officer in inner city Melbourne. He’s passionate about serving people at the margins and sharing the love of God. He’s also gay. In this conversation he shares his story of faith, sexuality, and advocating for a more inclusive, imaginative and equitable future for the church.Sign-up for our Sunday Message at spiritualmisfits.com.auWant 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

This Good Friday I wanted to share with you a meditation on Psalm 22. Grab a candle, find a comfortable place to sit and spend 15 minutes listening.The meditation begins with a moment to help you become grounded and aware of your body and breath, followed by a reading of the Psalm, and a simple thought at the end for you to meditate on. Whatever Easter holds for you, I hope this meditation encourages you and connects you with the love of Christ. Wishing all our fellow spiritual misfits a Happy Easter, Will on behalf of Meeting Ground Church.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