Expansion Lab

Celebrating one year of this podcast with what we’ve learned, highs and lows (including some pretty vulnerable moments) and what we are excited about going forward. 

If the gospel isn’t good news for all people, it isn’t good news at all.

We talk with our new friend Blake, about how Christianity has been colonized, what that means, and how a decolonized Church would liberate not only the oppressed, but the oppressor. He shares his personal story and talks about his transition from his current pastoral role into the ongoing role of helping the Church decolonize. We talk about the spiritual landscape we are in, how in waking up to the systems of injustice and brokenness within Christianity, many people are actually drawing closer to the heart of God rather than away from it and how the future Church and spirituality will not look like the past.

You can find Blake's work on Instagram at @the_decolonizing_christian

What do we mean when we are talking about integrating mind, body and spirit? What does it mean to live aligned? What do the scriptures have to say about it? What do embodiment modalities like meditation, silence, fasting, breath-work, and cold and heat immersion have to do with any of that? And how does any of that make our lives richer? There’s an invitation to move from being stuck in our heads to a more integrated life.

Throughout history the story of the Gospels has been co-opted by the powerful, and this is continuing to happen in our day. 

We talk with Poet and Pastor, Drew Jackson, about his own experience as a Black man navigating the landscape of American life and his poetic telling of the first eight chapters of the Gospel of Luke, centering the theme of liberation and his attempt to recover those voices that have so often been silenced. We discuss what it means to be on the way—in the dirt and dust where things get real and faith puts on flesh.

You can find Drew's work here: https://drewejackson.com/

You can follow Drew on Instagram here: @d.jacksonpoetics 

In this one, we talk to thought-leader, Alexander Shaia, about Quadratos- a map of our ongoing human experience across life’s four great questions:

How do we face change?

How do we move through suffering?

How do we receive joy?

How do we mature in service?

Alexander talks about how in this framework, the four gospels are delineated as the four strands of the transformational journey that’s true of every wisdom tradition. We discuss how we are collectively in the first two stages and he offers spiritual practices to help you as you move in and through those towards joy and service on the other side.

You can find Alexander's work here: https://www.quadratos.com/

Community After Individuality. Otherwise known as (or originally named) the Power of Presence. 

Loneliness is an epidemic. And while we are the most seemingly “connected” we’ve ever been as a society, it’s easy to be in a crowd of people and feel desperately alone. But the antidote to loneliness is presence- both to ourselves and to one another.

There is power in being present to yourself, and an important part of the spiritual journey is learning to own your own authority. Part of that is learning to listen to our bodies and trust what they are telling us, learning to trust the Spirit within us and moving to a deeper integration from belief into embodiment, but at the end of the day it is a personal journey- there really is no plus one. However, on the other side of that individual journey is community. And there’s a power in being present to one another- not needing to fix, but simply sitting in the questions and messiness of life and seeing each other.  

“One of the most difficult things is not to change society—but to change yourself.” -NELSON ROLIHLAHLA MANDELA

Talking with author Idelette McVicker about her journey out of whiteness and reckoning with her Apartheid past into becoming a part of repair and restitution. In this powerful conversation, we talk about the connectedness of all humanity, the journey of inner transformation and the path of liberation out of patriarchy.

You can find her new book, Recovering Racists- Dismantling White Supremacy and Reclaiming Our Humanity anywhere books are sold.

You can find her online at https://idelette.com/ or on Instagram @idelettemcvicker   

Talking with trauma therapist and embodiment coach, Chrissy Powers, about the power of living in connection with our bodies, moving from perfectionism and shame patterns to freedom, her faith evolution, spiritual gaslighting, purity culture, and body image. 

www.chrissypowers.com

Instagram: @chrissyjpowers

The word heretic has become a dirty word- one that most of us would probably not want to be called. But what does heretic really mean? It turns out that we are all heretics and that maybe it’s not a bad thing after all. 

Brit spent the first part of her life in the evangelical church and eventually became a pastor at a mega church at the ripe age of 26. After “peaking too soon”, she started to understand more about herself, her dreams and her sexuality. She met a woman named Sami that changed, saved and transformed her whole life. We talk with Brit about how meeting Sami, leaving the church, coming out and getting married have given Brit a deep seated passion for reminding people that choosing freedom is always worth it no matter the cost. We share how our perspectives have changed since originally starting the church that we led and how it’s okay to change your mind, even as people of faith and leaders. We talk about “the fear spiral” and the kinds of fears that keep us from evolving beyond the narratives that have been handed to us by others. We can't avoid or outrun these fears, but if we face them and move through them, we'll find out that it was so worth it!

Brit is a currently a pastor at New Abbey Church, and is a sought after speaker in the areas of personal development, race, gender and sexuality and lives with Sami in southern California with their dog Charles Barkley and their house full of plants that they treat like children.

www.britbarron.com

Instagram @britbarron

Twitter @britbarronco