Broken to Beloved Podcast

How many of us know someone who talk about holiness and righteousness, then in the same breath can be found cursing out their opposing political party or candidate?

For many of us, the disconnect of faith and politics (or is the over-connection?) has caused much tension and conflict. For some, it’s led to questioning our faith, deconstructing why we believe what we do, and leaving our churches.

Seeing signs declaring Jesus Saves from those who violently marched into the Capital building on January 6 was a moment of startling confusion and clarity for many. So what is Christian Nationalism? And what do we do with it?

Join me as I talk to expert Andrew Whitehead about his book, American Idolatry, why he chose to write it as a cis white man who claims faith in Christ. Hear how he responds to critics who may accuse him of liberalism or wokeness, and how and why he holds on to hope.

Get the full show notes and links here. 📄

Guest Spotlight
Andrew Whitehead is Professor of Sociology at Indiana University Indianapolis.

Whitehead is one of the foremost scholars of Christian nationalism in the United States. He is the author of American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church which was awarded the 2024 Gold Medal Book Award from Foreword Reviews and the 2024 Midwest Book Award. He is also the lead author of Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States.

Website | Substack | Instagram | X

Get your copy of American Idolatry at Bookshop.org | on Amazon

Listen to Andrew’s 4-part podcast on Christian Nationalism

—————

We need your help. Your gift of just $25 will make a big difference and help us continue this work. Donate today.

—————

Sign up to receive our weekly Podcast Newsletter with new episodes, updates, exclusive discounts, and more!

Subscribe using your favorite podcast app:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Leave us a rating and review on Apple or on Spotify. This all helps us to grow and continue providing quality content for you and our community of listeners.

—————
As an Amazon and Bookshop.org affiliate, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Trauma fundamentally disconnects us.

It can disconnect our brains from our bodies. It can sever relationships and entire communities. Those of us familiar with trauma know it can have a real impact on our faith or beliefs. It warps our understanding of others, our sense of safety, and even our own identity.

So how do we find connection again?

When we are alienated from ourselves, each other, and God, how do we find our way back home?

These are the questions that therapist and author Chuck DeGroat tackles in his latest book, Healing What’s Within. This is not a sequel or follow up to his previous When Narcissism Comes to Church, but rather a look at his own journey and process of dealing with his own trauma after spiritual abuse.

His deep knowledge and understanding of therapeutic work coupled with his experience as a minister, DeGroat offers incredibly practical tools for us to examine our own stories with curiosity and compassion and find our way back home to safety and security.

He reiterates our deepest message and hope, that we are indeed not just broken, but deeply Beloved.

Get the full show notes here. 📄

Episode Resources and Links

• Broken to Beloved Conference (for pastors and church leaders)
• Broken to Beloved Gathering (for the wounded and their advocates)
• Episode 001: with Dr. Alison Cook

Guest Spotlight

Website | Instagram | Facebook

• Healing What’s Within at Bookshop.org | on Amazon
• When Narcissism Comes to Church on Bookshop.org | on Amazon

—————

We need your help. Your gift of just $25 will make a big difference and help us continue this work. Donate today.

—————

Sign up to receive our weekly Podcast Newsletter with new episodes, updates, exclusive discounts, and more!

Subscribe using your favorite podcast app:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Leave us a rating and review on Apple or on Spotify. This all helps us to grow and continue providing quality content for you and our community of listeners.

—————
As an Amazon and Bookshop.org affiliate, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

In this short series, you’ll get to meet each of our board members. Listen to their stories and backgrounds, and why they chose to serve on the board and support the work at Broken to Beloved.

This week, I talk with therapist Kat Wilkins.

Get the full show notes here. 📝

Episode Resources and Links

• Broken to Beloved Book Club
• The Understory on Bookshop | on Amazon
• Episode 13 with Laura Barringer
• When Narcissism Comes to Church on Bookshop | on Amazon
• Redeeming Power on Bookshop | on Amazon
• This Too Shall Last on Bookshop | on Amazon
• Conference info and registration
• Gathering info and registration

Use promo code PODCAST10 to get 10% off registration!

Guest Spotlight

Website | Instagram

Kat's Story as told in:

• Bully Pulpit on Bookshop | on Amazon
• Untangled Faith podcast with Amy Fritz

Narcissistic Systems blog series part 1
Narcissistic Systems blog series part 2

—————

We need your help. Your gift of just $25 will make a big difference and help us continue this work. Donate today.

—————

Sign up to receive our weekly Podcast Newsletter with new episodes, updates, exclusive discounts, and more!

Subscribe using your favorite podcast app:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Leave us a rating and review on Apple or on Spotify. This all helps us to grow and continue providing quality content for you and our community of listeners.

—————
As an Amazon and Bookshop.org affiliate, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

In this short series, you’ll get to meet each of our board members.

Listen to their stories and backgrounds, and why they chose to serve on the board and support the work at Broken to Beloved.

This week, I talk with teacher and author Laura Barringer about her “real” work with Kindergartners, her path to becoming a reluctant author, and how that writing has changed her life today.

Get the full show notes here. 📝

Episode Resources and Links

• Episode 7: Forced Forgiveness: Misinterpreting Matthew 18  with Dr. Scot McKnight
• Broken to Beloved Conference info and registration
• Broken to Beloved Gathering info and registration

Use promo code PODCAST10 to get 10% off your in person or live stream ticket today! Offer expires Friday, 9/13.

Guest Spotlight

Laura is a full-time teacher, a part-time writer and speaker, and she is coauthor of A Church Called Tov as well as Pivot: The Priorities, Practices and Powers That Can Transform Your Church Into a Tov Culture. She previously co-authored the children's version of The Jesus Creed and wrote a teacher's guide to accompany the book. A graduate of Wheaton College, she resides in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband Mark and their three beagles.

Website | Instagram

• A Church Called Tov on Bookshop.org | on Amazon
• Pivot on Bookshop.org | on Amazon

—————

We need your help. Your gift of just $25 will make a big difference and help us continue this work. Donate today.

—————

Sign up to receive our weekly Podcast Newsletter with new episodes, updates, exclusive discounts, and more!

Subscribe using your favorite podcast app:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Leave us a rating and review on Apple or on Spotify. This all helps us to grow and continue providing quality content for you and our community of listeners.

—————
As an Amazon and Bookshop.org affiliate, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

If you’ve experienced any amount of spiritual abuse or religious trauma, you know just how confusing, painful and isolating it can be. It can be hard to put into words just how devastating the impact spiritual abuse can have on an individual and family.

If you’ve had to leave your faith group for any reason, you know what it feels like to lose your community, friendships, and sometimes employment, insurance, spiritual mentors and maybe even a piece of your own identity.

If this sounds like your story or the story of someone you know and care for, I’m inviting you to join us for the first ever Broken to Beloved Gathering. It’s designed for those wounded by the church and their advocates who want to find a safe and welcoming place to discover community and find care and guidance toward embracing your belovedness.

You’ll meet others who have experienced spiritual abuse and religious trauma and discover that you are truly not alone.

I’m thrilled and honored to have therapist and bestselling author Aundi Kolber as our featured speaker. She’ll be sharing from her wisdom and experience around the effects of trauma on our bodies, and what we can do to find a way forward. You can hear a preview of her session in episode 10 of the podcast.

Don't miss this opportunity to attend the first Broken to Beloved Gathering on Friday, September 27.

Go to brokentobeloved.org/gathering and use promo code PODCAST10 to get 10% off your in person or live stream tickets today. Offer expires Friday, 9/13.

Join us as we move toward healing and wholeness. Together. I hope to see you soon.

—————

We need your help. Your gift of just $25 will make a big difference and help us continue this work. Donate today.

—————

Sign up to receive our weekly Podcast Newsletter with new episodes, updates, exclusive discounts, and more!

Subscribe using your favorite podcast app:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Leave us a rating and review on Apple or on Spotify. This all helps us to grow and continue providing quality content for you and our community of listeners.

—————
As an Amazon and Bookshop.org affiliate, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Being a pastor or leader in ministry can feel like an impossible job at times. The job includes not just spiritual direction and discipleship, but management, finances, counseling, and lots more. As if that wasn’t enough, the people in your care often feel an individual entitlement to your time and attention, and rarely understand the scope of the work in front of you. 

Add to that the explosion of awareness around spiritual abuse and the many stories and scandals in recent years, and it’s no wonder that those in church leadership are skittish around the terms abuse and trauma. Not to mention that most of us weren’t trained to deal with this in seminary or school. .

How can we best care for those in our congregations who have experienced religious trauma and spiritual abuse? How can we safeguard our own churches and ministries so that we are not (unknowingly) perpetuating harm or abuse?

If you're a pastor or church leader, you're invited to the Broken to Beloved Conference on Thursday, September 26.

You'll hear from pastor and author Steve Carter as he tell us how to build safe and trustworthy spaces. You’ll also hear from attachment experts Geoff and Cyd Holsclaw. You can hear a preview of both their sessions on episodes 8 and 9 of the podcast.

Go to brokentobeloved.org/conference and use promo code PODCAST10 to get 10% off your in person or live stream tickets today. Offer expires Friday, 9/13.

—————

We need your help. Your gift of just $25 will make a big difference and help us continue this work. Donate today.

—————

Sign up to receive our weekly Podcast Newsletter with new episodes, updates, exclusive discounts, and more!

Subscribe using your favorite podcast app:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Leave us a rating and review on Apple or on Spotify. This all helps us to grow and continue providing quality content for you and our community of listeners.

—————
As an Amazon and Bookshop.org affiliate, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Most of us are familiar with fight, flight, and freeze. "Fawn" may be a newer one for many of us. I first learned about the fawn response from Aundi’s incredible book, Try Softer. She describes it as “becoming whatever the abuser or potential threat needs to see from you to see that you are not threatening.”

I immediately knew it was one of my primary trauma responses, and it shocked me to look back and see just how often I’d done it. And I felt shame for it.

Aundi graciously offers a new and kinder way to see it.

We talk about what it looks like to be survivor-centered in our work, reframing our fawn response, and moving toward internal integration and wholeness.

If you want to know what it looks like to heal after harm, this episode’s for you.

Get the full show notes here. 📄

Episode Resources and Links

• Broken to Beloved Conference info and registration
• Broken to Beloved Gathering info and registration

 Use promo code PODCAST10 to get 10% off your in person or live stream ticket today! Offer expires Friday, 9/13.

Guest Spotlight

Aundi is a licensed professional counselor and the best selling author of the critically acclaimed Try Softer™, Try Softer™ Guided Journey and her newest offerings: Strong like Water and Strong like Water Guided Journey.

She has received additional training in her specialization of trauma- and body-centered therapies and is passionate about the integration of faith and psychology.

As a survivor of trauma, Aundi brings hard-won knowledge about the work of change, the power of redemption, and the beauty of experiencing God with us in our pain.

Website | Instagram

• Try Softer
• Try Softer Guided Journey
• Strong Like Water
• Strong Like Water Guided Journey

Support the show

—————

We need your help. Your gift of just $25 will make a big difference and help us continue this work. Donate today.

—————

Sign up to receive our weekly Podcast Newsletter with new episodes, updates, exclusive discounts, and more!

Subscribe using your favorite podcast app:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Leave us a rating and review on Apple or on Spotify. This all helps us to grow and continue providing quality content for you and our community of listeners.

—————
As an Amazon and Bookshop.org affiliate, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Have you heard of Attachment Theory? Have you ever found yourself lost in the language and terminology? Have you wondered if your less-than-perfect childhood and history of abuse or trauma means you're stuck in a specific style

Geoff and Cyd Holsclaw offer simple, easy to understand language around the concept of Attachment using the visual landscapes of the Pasture, Jungle, Desert, and War Zone. By laying a foundation of joy, Geoff and Cyd explain how our capacity for intimacy and independence can help us move us toward more healthy and whole relationships.

They also share a preview of their "Repairing Distorted Defaults" session at the upcoming Broken to Beloved Conference on September 26.

If you've longed for more secure relationships and a better understanding of your interior landscape, this episode's for you.

Get the full show notes here. 📄

Episode Resources and Links

• Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud and John Townsend at Bookshop.org | on Amazon
• Episode 001: Navigating Toxic System and Maintaining Agency with Dr. Alison Cook
• Broken to Beloved Conference info and registration
• Broken to Beloved Gathering info and registration

Guest Spotlight

Geoff (PhD) is an author of multiple books, affiliate professor of theology at Northern Seminary.

Cyd is an author, spiritual director, and pastor. She is also a trauma-informed, Jesus-centered, integrative coach focused on embodied practices and building a secure attachment to God.

Together, they co-host the Attached to God podcast, offering a neuroscience-informed spiritual formation and are the co-author of Does God Really Like Me? Discovering the God Who Wants to Be With You.

Website | Cyd’s website | Geoff’s Instagram | Geoff’s Facebook

Does God Really Like Me? on Amazon

—————

We need your help. Your gift of just $25 will make a big difference and help us continue this work. Donate today.

—————

Sign up to receive our weekly Podcast Newsletter with new episodes, updates, exclusive discounts, and more!

Subscribe using your favorite podcast app:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Leave us a rating and review on Apple or on Spotify. This all helps us to grow and continue providing quality content for you and our community of listeners.

—————
As an Amazon and Bookshop.org affiliate, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

What do you do when you’ve given your life to a cause and calling, to have only to find yourself walking away?

Steve Carter was named as one of two successors to Bill Hybels at Willow Creek Community Church. When the allegations against Hybels broke national news, it all changed. Ultimately, Steve sided with the women who told their stories and resigned his position in protest.

In this week’s conversation, Steve shares about that decision, and how he made choices to pursue integrity, and to allow his own grief to shape, but not define him. He also shares his personal litmus test for recognizing when he is drifting from living with integrity, and how he recognizes living as his full, whole self with integrity.

Plus, we tease his session topic on “Building a Safe and Trustworthy Church” at the upcoming Broken to Beloved Conference on September 26.

Get the full show notes here. 📄

Episode Resources and Links

• As Long As You Need by JS Park: at Bookshop.org | on Amazon
• Broken to Beloved Podcast: Episode 1: Navigating Toxic Systems and Maintaining Agency with Dr. Alison Cook
• I Shouldn't Feel This Way by Dr. Alison Cook: at Bookshop.org | on Amazon
• Continued Conversation with Heather Gargis
• Broken to Beloved Conference info and registration
• Broken to Beloved Gathering info and registration

Guest Spotlight 

Website | Instagram | X/Twitter | Substack

Grieve, Breathe, Receive on Bookshop.org | on Amazon

—————

We need your help. Your gift of just $25 will make a big difference and help us continue this work. Donate today.

—————

Sign up to receive our weekly Podcast Newsletter with new episodes, updates, exclusive discounts, and more!

Subscribe using your favorite podcast app:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Leave us a rating and review on Apple or on Spotify. This all helps us to grow and continue providing quality content for you and our community of listeners.

—————
As an Amazon and Bookshop.org affiliate, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

TW/CW: references to sexual assault

Have you ever had Matthew 18 used against you?

Far too often, the forgiveness passage in Matthew 18:15–17 is weaponized against those who experience hurt and harm. Victims are forced to face their abusers, and there is no real reconciliation. The abuser walks away “forgiven” and restored, and the abused walks away humiliated and put in their place.

Yes, forgiveness is important. And, forgiveness cannot be forced. It must be a freely made choice on our part.

This conversation isn’t about holding on to our offenses, grudges, or dismissing what happened to us. It’s not about releasing our abusers from accountability or letting go of our desire for justice.

It is about the ways forgiveness has been weaponized and abused in the church. It’s about having a truly biblical and scholarly understanding of how those passages are meant to be understood. It’s about protecting ourselves from future manipulation and further abuse.

Join me and New Testament scholar Scot McKnight as we dive deep into the original language and nuance of this passage. Discover what it really says about interpersonal conflict and its role in cases of abuse or an imbalance of power. Learn about the role of repentance as implied in the original Greek, even when it doesn’t show up in our English Bibles.

Get the full show notes here.
—————
Episode Resources and Links

• That Sounds Fun podcast Episode 494: Dr. Scot McKnight on When You Feel Like Your Church Is Falling Apart
• That Sounds Fun podcast Episode 879: The Gospel of Matthew with Dr. Scot McKnight

—————
Guest Spotlight
Website  |  Instagram  |  Twitter

The Second Testament: A New Testament Translation at Bookshop.org | on Amazon
PIVOT at Bookshop.org | on Amazon
A Church Called TOV at Bookshop.org | on Amazon
—————
Don’t Miss the Next Episode!
Subscribe for free and never miss out on these conversations with old and new friends like Laura Barringer, Steve Carter, Chuck DeGroat and many others. Is there a guest you’d like to hear from? Let us know!

—————

We need your help. Your gift of just $25 will make a big difference and help us continue this work. Donate today.

—————

Sign up to receive our weekly Podcast Newsletter with new episodes, updates, exclusive discounts, and more!

Subscribe using your favorite podcast app:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Leave us a rating and review on Apple or on Spotify. This all helps us to grow and continue providing quality content for you and our community of listeners.

—————
As an Amazon and Bookshop.org affiliate, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you.