NILS VON KALM listens to ‘Evolving Faith’…
Evolving Faith
Sarah Bessey and Jeff Chu
If you have found yourself feeling alienated by the church because your beliefs and worldview have been changing over the years, you are not alone. You are one of a growing number of Christians who are on a journey of deconstruction and possibly even reconstruction as you seek to follow Jesus in the world today.
Growth is a natural, necessary and healthy part of faith. It is actually what our individual relationship with God is all about. And often, as we grow into Christlikeness, we will feel alienated from others. This is where the Evolving Faith podcast has been a breath of fresh air for a growing number of Christians.
“If you have ever been hurt by the church but have been unable to let go of Jesus, this podcast is for you. Currently hosted by Sarah Bessey and pastor, Jeff Chu, the podcast helps listeners feel at home as they discuss their own experiences of feeling alienated from regular, traditional evangelicalism.”
The Evolving Faith podcast is just one aspect of a whole network for Christians who feel alienated from church because of a deconstruction they have either been through or are currently going through.
The podcast is part of the Evolving Faith Network. It was set up by author, Sarah Bessey, businessman Jim Chaffee, and the late and dearly missed Rachel Held Evans.
The Evolving Faith website states that the network exists to “cultivate love and hope in the wilderness, pointing fellow wanderers and misfits to God as we embody resurrection for the sake of the world”. The vision of the network is stated as “a community where the thirsty become water-bearers, the hungry become bread-makers, the wounded are our healers, the misfits become friends, and the wanderers find a home”.
The podcast generally takes the form of discussions and an interview on topics ranging from belonging and courage, justice for African Americans, embracing uncertainty, disability and relationships, and messy faith. One example of a wonderfully enlightening interview is that with influencer, Jen Hatmaker, as she discusses her transition from being the darling of white evangelical Christian women until the price of belonging became too high. In that episode, Hatmaker takes listeners on a journey where she vulnerably and eloquently discusses belonging and courage in the wilderness.
If you have ever been hurt by the church but have been unable to let go of Jesus, this podcast is for you. Currently hosted by Sarah Bessey and pastor, Jeff Chu, the podcast helps listeners feel at home as they discuss their own experiences of feeling alienated from regular, traditional evangelicalism.
This podcast is an oasis in the wilderness for the disillusioned, the lost and those who feel marginalised and alone in their faith and by the traditional church. As much of the world is slowly emerging from the dark years of the pandemic, Evolving Faith has found its place in the online world where Christians were unable to meet in person. Despite that though, it continues to grow as Christians can meet again in person, but many just don’t have a sense that they belong anymore in a church environment that they have found judgmental, exclusive and fearful.
The Evolving Faith Network has members all over the world, and even its own social network where anyone can join and connect with other people on a similar journey and in their geographic vicinity. It is all designed to be a place where people are made welcome when they have for too long been made unwelcome.
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Some of the wonderful, real and raw guests on the podcast include Lutheran pastor and founder of House for All Sinners & Saints in Denver, Colorado, Nadia Bolz-Weber; speaker, writer and activist, Lisa Sharon Harper; and author, teacher and priest, Barbara Brown Taylor. All of these guests are brutally honest, vulnerably humble and free from any bitterness as they discuss their love of Jesus away from traditional evangelicalism.
Like most podcasts of this ilk, it is created for a US-based audience. However, because US culture influences much of the world, this podcast is hugely relevant for Christians the world over who are on the journey of not just deconstruction, but reconstruction as well. This podcast, and indeed the whole network, is for people who are thoughtful, reflective and emotionally aware. It is not for Christians who are satisfied to just go along with whatever their church teaches. It is for people who are now at a place at which themselves of five years ago would have referred to themselves of today as heretics. It is for people who want to evolve and grow into Christlikeness.
I am convinced this is a podcast that Jesus would love and even be a happy guest on. As the ultimate outsider, rejected by his own people, and yet closer to God than anyone, He would fit right in to Evolving Faith.
