Today, Leslie sits down with David Gushee, a Pastor and Professor of Christian Ethics who is also a writer of one of the most influential books of Leslie’s deconstruction process—Changing our Mind. Leslie invites David to share his journey with us all trough being a Southern Baptist convert to a progressive Christian Scholar. David openly shares about his gradual theological broadening from accepting women in ministry to ultimately affirming LGBTQ inclusion in 2014, which cost him his standing in the evangelical world. They talk about the problematic clobber passages that are used to alienate and judge the LGBTQ community and the brittle nature of fundamentalist biblical interpretation. You’ll want to take notes on this one, folks!

Also - if you are interested in being in the book study with Leslie for “Job in Exile: A Guide for Spiritual Refugees” by David Gushee in September, please send Leslie an email and let her know! [email protected].

To check out David's books and pre-order his new book about Job, click here.

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease and the artwork for the show is also created by Leslie Nease.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

If you are looking for community as you deconstruct or just a place to go and enjoy the company of people who are seekers, learners and who are looking to connect with the Divine without religious baggage, please join the Private Facebook Community!  Leslie is very passionate about connection and community, so if that sounds like you, please come join us!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today, Leslie invites Melissa Green, a former member of the beloved Christian music group Avalon, for a wide-ranging and deeply personal conversation about faith deconstruction, spiritual evolution, and the courage to question inherited beliefs.

Melissa traces her journey from growing up in the Southern Baptist church and becoming a member of Avalon, through the pivotal moment when founding member Michael Passons was quietly removed from the group after being outed as gay, to her gradual theological shifts sparked by travel, loss, relationships with LGBTQ friends, and her years at a progressive post-evangelical church.

The episode also celebrates the recent re-release of "Testify to Love" — a collaboration between Melissa, Michael, and Ty Herndon — which has unexpectedly become a queer anthem and a message of radical, boundless love.

Woven throughout is a tender, raw moment as Melissa shares the grief of walking alongside a beloved family member through the final stages of a terminal illness, reflecting on how joy and sorrow coexist, and how the divine shows up not in miraculous intervention but in the simple, profound act of people showing up for one another.

Follow Melissa on Social Media:

Instagram

TikTok

Substack

Watch the Testify to Love re-release on YouTube!

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease and the artwork for the show is also created by Leslie Nease.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

If you are looking for community as you deconstruct or just a place to go and enjoy the company of people who are seekers, learners and who are looking to connect with the Divine without religious baggage, please join the Private Facebook Community!  Leslie is very passionate about connection and community, so if that sounds like you, please come join us!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today on Honoring the Journey, Leslie chats with Luke Justin Roberts (LJR) — a recording artist she found on TikTok. Luke was a former worship leader who grew up deeply embedded in evangelical and homeschool culture. They talk about his winding spiritual path from devoted churchgoer to questioning, deconstructing and finding his true path to freedom and now making music that speaks to others who are questioning their inherited beliefs.

Luke shares candid stories about his childhood faith, the pressures and identity that came with growing up in ministry, and how he found his way to making music that meets people in their doubt and deconstruction.

The conversation is warm, honest, and wide-ranging, touching on TikTok fame, building unexpected friendships across belief systems, and the exciting road ahead for LJR as an independent artist.

Learn more about Luke (LJR) and his music on his website, www.lukejustinroberts.com.

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease and the artwork for the show is also created by Leslie Nease.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

If you are looking for community as you deconstruct or just a place to go and enjoy the company of people who are seekers, learners and who are looking to connect with the Divine without religious baggage, please join the Private Facebook Community!  Leslie is very passionate about connection and community, so if that sounds like you, please come join us!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today, we chat with pastor and author Brian Zahnd for a wide-ranging conversation about faith deconstruction, theological reimagining, and the journey of losing — and rediscovering — Jesus. Brian shares how, after 30 years of ministry, he found himself rethinking core evangelical doctrines including hell, the Bible's role as foundation, and the nature of God, ultimately arriving at the conviction that "God is like Jesus." He candidly recounts the painful fallout of losing 1,000 church members through that process, the healing that followed, and why he believes the discomfort of deconstruction is not a crisis of faith but a necessary path to spiritual growth. The episode also touches on his new book Unseen Existences, which is out now! Such a powerful episode.

Find Brian’s church HERE.

Pick up one of Brian’s books HERE.

Read Brian’s Substack HERE.

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease and the artwork for the show is also created by Leslie Nease.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

If you are looking for community as you deconstruct or just a place to go and enjoy the company of people who are seekers, learners and who are looking to connect with the Divine without religious baggage, please join the Private Facebook Community!  Leslie is very passionate about connection and community, so if that sounds like you, please come join us!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode of Honoring the Journey, Leslie has a conversation with Savannah Locke — artist, songwriter, and podcaster — for a rich, wide-ranging conversation about faith deconstruction, religious trauma, and spiritual reimagining. Savannah shares her personal journey from confident evangelical Christianity through a crisis of belief, her discovery of the Anabaptist tradition and the transformative phrase "God looks like Jesus," and how that journey inspired her album Songs of Peace in Times of War. The two explore themes of trust, humility, love, and prophetic witness, discussing how lived experience, creative expression, and community shape the way we understand God — and why asking hard questions, far from being a failure of faith, may be the very heart of it.

Listen to Savannah's Album HERE!

Follow Savannah on Instagram. 

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease and the artwork for the show is also created by Leslie Nease.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

If you are looking for community as you deconstruct or just a place to go and enjoy the company of people who are seekers, learners and who are looking to connect with the Divine without religious baggage, please join the Private Facebook Community!  Leslie is very passionate about connection and community, so if that sounds like you, please come join us!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today, Leslie speaks with Chris Kratzer, a former Lutheran and Southern Baptist evangelical pastor who spent over 20 years in ministry before undergoing a profound faith deconstruction. Chris shares how ambition and ego initially drove him into the contemporary megachurch world, how a series of personal crises — including a near-suicide — forced him into radical honesty about his faith, and how he eventually became an affirming, progressive voice for those questioning religion.

He and Leslie discuss the cult-like control mechanisms of evangelicalism, the cost of leaving (financially, relationally, and emotionally), and how stepping away ultimately felt like resurrection rather than loss. Chris also talks about his two books and his mission as a writer: to expose the harms of conservative evangelicalism and to give voice to those who feel alone in their deconstruction journey.

Pick up Chris' books on Amazon.

What the Hell Did You Expect Me to Do? by Chris Kratzer

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease and the artwork for the show is also created by Leslie Nease.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

If you are looking for community as you deconstruct or just a place to go and enjoy the company of people who are seekers, learners and who are looking to connect with the Divine without religious baggage, please join the Private Facebook Community!  Leslie is very passionate about connection and community, so if that sounds like you, please come join us!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This special episode of Honoring the Journey is an insightful group conversation between Leslie and five guests — physicist Jenny Nielsen, mathematician-turned-writer Nish Dubashia, theologian John Van de Lair (South Africa), philosopher Eric English, and author/publisher Keith Giles — all contributors to the anthology book Quantum Theology, Volume 1.

The discussion begins with playful introductions and embarrassing playlist confessions before diving into the core thesis: that quantum physics — particularly concepts like entanglement, non-locality, and the wave function — may scientifically validate what mystics and early Christians have long taught about the interconnectedness of all things and humanity's inseparability from God.

The guests explore how quantum thinking reframes traditional Christian doctrines around sin, salvation, the nature of God, the devil, and prayer, arguing that the illusion of separation from God is the root of spiritual dysfunction, and that concepts like coherence and entanglement map surprisingly well onto the teachings of Jesus and Paul.

The conversation closes with each guest sharing their diverse religious backgrounds — Catholic, Hindu, Methodist, Baptist, and non-religious — all of which converged on this same quantum-informed spirituality, and Keith encourages anyone curious to pick up the book on Amazon, with Volume 2 already in progress.

Get your copy of Quantum Theology HERE!

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease and the artwork for the show is also created by Leslie Nease.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

If you are looking for community as you deconstruct or just a place to go and enjoy the company of people who are seekers, learners and who are looking to connect with the Divine without religious baggage, please join the Private Facebook Community!  Leslie is very passionate about connection and community, so if that sounds like you, please come join us!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today, Leslie sits down with Pastor Joe Smith, who leads Maison Church in Gainesville, Florida — a progressive, welcoming congregation formed from a merger of two churches. Joe shares his faith deconstruction journey, beginning in the Free Will Baptist tradition, where childhood teachings instilled deep fear of hell and the rapture. He traces his gradual shift away from fundamentalism, sparked by the birth of his daughter in 2002 and questions about gender hierarchy, accelerated by the political climate, and deepened during the COVID-19 shutdown when he had time to deeply study queer inclusion theology through books like Unclobbered and Changing Our Minds. The conversation explores themes of religious trauma, Christian nationalism, HSPs (highly sensitive people) and deconstruction, evolving views on sin and repentance, universalism, and the difference between certainty and faith — with both Leslie and Joe reflecting candidly on their own journeys out of fear-based religion and into a more inclusive, love-centered spirituality.

You can find Joe on Instagram!

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease and the artwork for the show is also created by Leslie Nease.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

If you are looking for community as you deconstruct or just a place to go and enjoy the company of people who are seekers, learners and who are looking to connect with the Divine without religious baggage, please join the Private Facebook Community!  Leslie is very passionate about connection and community, so if that sounds like you, please come join us!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In today’s episode, Leslie reunites with returning guest Michael Camp to discuss his new book Faith Funk, which explores how people become trapped in high-control religious systems and the psychological toll — including anxiety, depression, and PTSD — that results from toxic faith experiences. Michael and Leslie dive deep into topics like cognitive dissonance within evangelicalism, the doctrine of original depravity, and how religious communities sometimes exploit vulnerability and suppress independent thinking. Together they examine the often painful but ultimately liberating process of deconstruction, reframing it not as a loss of faith but as a refinement — a shedding of toxic theology to discover a more authentic, love-centered spirituality. Michael shares practical tools from his coaching practice for navigating the stages of deconstruction, and both hosts reflect candidly on their own journeys out of fundamentalism, with Leslie sharing personal experiences from her time on Survivor and her ongoing work to undo deeply ingrained religious conditioning.

Pick up Michael's new book, Faith Funk, HERE!

Michael's Website: https://www.faithtransitions.com/

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease and the artwork for the show is also created by Leslie Nease.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

If you are looking for community as you deconstruct or just a place to go and enjoy the company of people who are seekers, learners and who are looking to connect with the Divine without religious baggage, please join the Private Facebook Community!  Leslie is very passionate about connection and community, so if that sounds like you, please come join us!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode of Honoring The Journey, Leslie talks with Megan Verno — a therapist, writer, and founder of Novo Nexus — about their parallel journeys out of high-control religions (Megan from Mormonism/LDS, Leslie from Evangelical Christianity). They explore the striking similarities between their experiences, including the loss of identity, community, and self-trust that comes with religious deconstruction, as well as specific LDS practices like the temple ceremony and excommunication culture. The conversation touches on patriarchy, LGBTQ+ issues as a catalyst for doubt, the concept of religious trauma, learning to trust one's own authority, and finding spiritual freedom beyond organized religion. Megan shares details about Novo Nexus, her support group and coaching program for those rebuilding their identities post-religion, and both women offer encouragement to listeners who may be in the midst of their own deconstruction journey.

**I had some audio issues I tried working around in production with Megan's sound. My apologies for the quality! You can still hear her, it's just slightly muffled at times. Thanks!

Find out more about NovoNexus here!

Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease and the artwork for the show is also created by Leslie Nease.

Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.

Interested in working with Leslie as your Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.com

If you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.

Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!

If you are looking for community as you deconstruct or just a place to go and enjoy the company of people who are seekers, learners and who are looking to connect with the Divine without religious baggage, please join the Private Facebook Community!  Leslie is very passionate about connection and community, so if that sounds like you, please come join us!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.