Marriage is hard... really hard!  Two people enter into a life-long promise to love one another as both people continue to change, grow and become.  Two people bring their whole selves into an incredibly intimate relationship where cultural realities clash and sparks fly.  Our ethnic identities, personalities and family of origin baggage all gets unpacked in the context of marriage.  Our guests this week have written a beautiful book that takes a nuanced approach to partnerships of all kinds and speaks truth, love and hope!

Gail Song Bantum and Brian Bantum join us to share about their new book "Choosing Us" and share some of their perspective on how we can cultivate mutual flourishing in the midst of such diversity in our romantic partnerships!  We talk about gender roles, unhealthy expectations, patriarchy and the fact that we never arrive at "perfect partner" status.  Then we reimagined Ephesians 5:21-32 and Brian reminds us of the context of the passage and takes us back to the garden.

Follow Gail and Brian on instagram @gailsongbantum and @profbkb and order "Choosing Us" right now at http://www.bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/choosing-us/408440 . 

Please subscribe, rate and review our podcast and check out our new website https://www.thekinshipcollective.com.  As you listen week after week and share the podcast we will keep ending otherness and growing solidarity!  Please share our podcast with a friend who needs to be part of a more inclusive conversation about scripture and community.

You are loved! We are family!

Several times in this convo the idea that something is understood to be true but never really clearly communicated comes up.  Religion and church can be a place where we experience a lot fo pressure to acquiesce parts of our identity to conform to tenets of White supremacy and heteronormativity just because it's in the air.  What if God is a beacon of diversity and all the diversity we see around us is God's reflection?

This week Melody Gurguis-Ofili joins us to share her experience as an Egyptian-American woman who spent her whole life code switching from her Egyptian Immigrant church culture to her Western church culture.  She talks a lot about proximity to power and how unique mentorship changed how she navigates the world and views scripture.  Then we reimagined Philippians 2:4-8 and how Jesus models surrendering power and privilege for good. 

Follow Melody on instagram @Meloogee and read more of her perspective at https://melodygurguis.wordpress.com

Please subscribe, rate and review our podcast and check out our new website https://www.thekinshipcollective.com.  As you listen week after week and share the podcast we will keep ending otherness and growing solidarity!  Please share our podcast with a friend who needs to be part of a more inclusive conversation about scripture and community.

You are loved! We are family!

What do you do when Sunday morning church culture and the story it tells is no longer enough? What do you do when you are reconciling passion for Hip-Hop, Beauty Supply Stores, The Divine 9 and Theology?  What do you do when you lose your entire immediate family in one tragic moment?  Our guest this week wrote a book about it and we get right to it!

Candice shares about her new book "Red Lip Theology" and how she's found an invitation to live into a more vulnerable truth within the "totalizing" losses and traumas she has experienced.  She invites us to forsake our facades and how doing exactly that leads to authentic relationship with a more expansive God.  Then we reimagined John 8 and how we can be tender toward ourselves.

Follow Candice on instagram @candicebenbow and learn more about her work at https://candicebenbow.com/

Please subscribe, rate and review our podcast and check out our new website https://www.thekinshipcollective.com.  As you listen week after week and share the podcast we will keep ending otherness and growing solidarity!  Please share our podcast with a friend who needs to be part of a more inclusive conversation about scripture and community.

You are loved! We are family!

What's your purpose? This is a HUGE question, one many of us have trouble articulating and have fears about responding to.  It has implications for where we spend our time, how and what we are hoping to accomplish and most importantly who we hope to become.  Our guest was asked this question and it changed everything!

Our guest this week is Dea Jenkins.  She's become an interdisciplinary artist who's curating spaces for others to encounter healing through "Inbreak", the non-profit she founded and directs.  We talk about her discovery of purpose, how her journey has unfolded and about how she has been othered by a few men.  Then we reimagined Exodus 31:1-5 and discussed the liberating power of art.

Follow Dea on instagram @dea.artist and learn more about her work at https://www.deajenkins.com/

Please subscribe, rate and review our podcast and check out our new website https://www.thekinshipcollective.com.  As you listen week after week and share the podcast we will keep ending otherness and growing solidarity!  Please share our podcast with a friend who needs to be part of a more inclusive conversation about scripture and community.

You are loved! We are family!

As we grow we can find ourselves at odds with some of the people who have helped us get to this point.  The wake of Trump's presidency and George Floyd's lynching have created extraordinary tension in relationships that seemed meaningful.  We have found ourselves drawing new lines in the sand and wondering who will really be with us?

Our guest this week is Andre Henry!  He's a prolific singer-songwriter, author and activist inviting us to imagine and fight for the world that ought to be.  We get to talk about his forthcoming book "All The White Friends I couldn't Keep" and he shares stories of fighting for justice and the toll it has taken on his mental health.  Then we reimagined Matthew 13:31-33 and discuss the extraordinary power of a few "ordinary, outraged and organized" folks.  If you are reconciling your faith with your ethics and fight for justice, we imagine you'll feel seen in Andre's story.

Follow Andre on instagram @andrehenry and learn more about his work at https://www.andrehenry.co/

Please subscribe, rate and review our podcast and check out our new website https://www.thekinshipcollective.com.  As you listen week after week and share the podcast we will keep ending otherness and growing solidarity!  Please share our podcast with a friend who needs to be part of a more inclusive conversation about scripture and community.

You are loved! We are family!

We are flat out asking bigger and better questions.  We have access to so much more information and our relationships are growing more and more diverse in ways that call our understanding of God into question.  However, religion and spirituality are such deeply held beliefs that changing them can be disruptive and disorienting.  Our guest this week is Brandi Miller, the founder and host of the "Reclaiming My Theology" Podcast, and we get into it.  Brandi is such a thoughtful and empathetic presence along the journey of folks trying to take their understanding of God back from ideas and systems that oppress.  We talked about the delicacy and agency of reclaiming faith and the beauty of seeing scripture in different ways!  Then we reimagined 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and the Jewish way of making meaning from scripture.  If you are reconstructing your faith or just beginning your deconstruction journey, this episode will inspire you and give you imagination for a way forward.

Follow Brandi on instagram @brandinico and learn more about her work at https://www.reclaimingmytheology.com/

Please subscribe, rate and review our podcast and check out our new website https://www.thekinshipcollective.com  As you listen week after week and share the podcast we will keep ending otherness and growing solidarity!  Please share our podcast with a friend who needs to be part of a more inclusive conversation about scripture and community.  

You are loved! We are family!

George Floyd's murder galvanized many of us to take the work of racial reconciliation more seriously.  The challenge is the work is really long, really up-hill and really hard.  Our guest this week, John Williams, has been at this work for over 30 years.  He is a lawyer, professor, civil rights activist and the Director for the Center for Racial Reconciliation at Fellowship Church.  We talked about what this work has cost him over the years and the guiding principles that have allowed him to maintain a level of emotional well being along the way.  Then we reimagined Matthew 5:38-42 and Jesus' invitation to exercise agency when we feel powerless!

Follow John on instagram @profjaydub and learn more about his work at https://madeforfellowship.com/reconciliation/

Please subscribe, rate and review our podcast and check out our new website https://www.thekinshipcollective.com  As you listen week after week and share the podcast we will keep ending otherness and growing solidarity!  Please share our podcast with a friend who needs to be part of a more inclusive conversation about scripture and community.

You are loved! We are family!