On today's episode, Julia and Westley are joined by community member Alex Smith, and housing rights attorney and affordable housing activist Ysabel Jurado! We discuss the negative mental health effects of becoming unhoused, the social conditions we subject our unhoused community to, and the various statistics around housing affordability in Los Angeles. Our conversation delves into the myriad ways that societal and legal structures push us away from a community-focused society, and we discuss what we can do to help move our communities toward addressing and fixing these problems.

There are many things that Angelinos love about living in LA, but the cost of living – especially housing – is not one of them. Our sacred text is filled with passages encouraging people of faith to care for the poor, the widowed, and the orphan. As progressive Christians, we know that we ought to do something to address housing insecurity, but what exactly can we do? How might the theological principles of belonging help us advocate for affordable housing? This Sunday, housing rights attorney and affordable housing activist Ysabel Jurado will share the center with Alex Smith and Pastor Molly as they discuss belonging and housing insecurity. www.TheLoftLA.org

In this episode, Julia, Westley, and Rev. Dr. Carter discuss healing from the trauma of feeling exiled from the spiritual communities of our upbringing. Our conversation turns to the film Barbie as we find inspiration in Barbie's journey to discover who she is and create the home that she longs for. We end our conversation by exploring how we can heal from the traumas of our past to create the church community that we want to belong to.

At The Loft, we strive to be a community of care, a place where all people can feel like they belong. As a community, our belonging finds its center at our church and in our worship space. Belonging to a community asks us to develop an attachment to a place. How might our attachment, or lack thereof, to our sacred space influence our ability to foster a culture of belonging?

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Whether in school or our professional lives, our journey into young adulthood grants us the freedom to discover who we are outside of the gaze of our immediate family. How might our church support and accompany young adults on their journey to discover where they belong? Join us this Sunday as Rev. Dr. Carter will share the center table with Deaconess Jeanne Roe Smith, Executive Director of 580 Café, an Immigrant Welcoming, LGBTQIA+ Inclusive, and Gender Affirming Community that serves the UCLA campus community and other institutions of higher education.

Whether our homes are happy or troubled, our families functional or dysfunctional, our homes and our communities are our original schools of love, compassion, justice, and belonging. Children develop their sense of identity as it is reflected to them from within these spaces, and they are ever attentive as they discern who and whose they are. Join us this Sunday as we continue our sermon series on Belonging as Rev. Dr. Carter is joined by our Pastor for Family and Children's Ministries Rev. Dr. Diana Holbert as they discuss what a church that helps children feel like they belong looks like.

In Preparation for Sunday: Looking back on your childhood, what spaces beyond your home did you feel a sense of belonging? What set those spaces apart from others?

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In this episode, Julia, Westley, and Rev. Dr. Carter discuss the challenges churches face when they attempt to be a community where people who are reconstructing or building their faith identity can belong. All too often, churches will want you to confess certain beliefs that do not align with what you believe. We end the podcast discussing how we at The Loft are trying to address this dilemma by creating a community focused on values rather than specific doctrinal beliefs.

Each week I begin our gathering by stating, among other things, that all people should feel welcome at The Loft, regardless of belief or unbelief. However, can someone who isn't sure what they believe about the Sacred feel welcome in a church? This week, Rev. Dr. Carter will be joined by Dr. Fay Lin, a member of The Loft community who started attending our gatherings as she constructed her own spiritual beliefs. We invite you to join us as we discuss the challenges of finding and creating a community for the spiritual but not religious.

Question In Preparation for Sunday: Imagine you are in a conversation with someone at The Loft. It's one of their first times at a gathering, and they say that they identify as spiritual but not religious. How would you respond to them?

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In this episode, Julia, Westley, and Rev. Dr. Carter are joined by Dr. Katie Schellenberg-Bell, a holistic advocate for students with exceptionalities, and founder Learning Lab LA. We talk about the history of disability justice, how our contemporary society falls short of creating spaces that are welcoming for all bodies, and how those who are already marginalized are disproportionately impacted. We wrap up our conversation by exploring the possibilities of Universal Design for religious communities.