What happens when your spiritual calling doesn't align with the tradition you grew up in or the one your spouse practices? In this double episode, world religions teacher Bryan Lorentz recalls the fifth-grade moment he begged his dad to let him leave home for a monastery, and the answer that changed his life. Then interfaith minister Clay Dockery shares what a decade of working with Jewish-Christian couples taught him about raising kids, keeping families together, and listening without an agenda. Two stories, one lesson: you don't have to leave where you are to find the divine.

"It's really easy to steal away to the mountains to find peace. It's much harder to find it from where you are." — Bryan Lorentz (quoting his father)

"We control the inputs. We can't control the outputs. So we give the best inputs that we can, and then we see where the outputs go." — Clay Dockery

"I don't think you have to talk about God to be doing God's work." — Clay Dockery

Bryan Lorentz teaches world religions at Sacred Heart Preparatory in Atherton, California, where he has spent nearly two decades teaching, leading retreats, and guiding immersion experiences across the Bay Area. He holds a master's degree in human development and psychology from Harvard, where he studied neuroscience and decision-making, and his spiritual formation has deepened through extended study in monasteries, temples, and universities across Nepal, Tibet, India, Sri Lanka, and China. A professional singer and guitarist, Bryan serves as music director at St. Denis Church in Menlo Park. He runs and meditates in the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains, and with his 14-year-old son, Xavi, runs the family beekeeping venture Bay B's, making Bay Area wildflower honey.

Clay Dockery is a nonprofit leader and seminary graduate whose work focuses on interfaith families, identity, and community life. He holds a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary and spent roughly a decade with Interfaith Community, writing curriculum and running programming that supports couples and children navigating Jewish-Christian family life. Today, Clay serves as Director of Operations at Renaissance Youth Center, a diverse community-based organization, where he leads organizational systems, staff support, and program infrastructure.

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