Unravelling with Tom & Pete

We're capping season 3 with a fun, heartfelt, and thoughtful conversation with another one of Pete's "bosom-buddies", Keven Krieger. 

Keven shares about the experience of losing his dad at a young age, and how that impacted his faith journey. He talks about how his reasons for going back to church changed over time, and how his continuously evolving faith journey is leading him to ask new questions, even if it might mean he needs to find a new church. 

Thanks for listening to this season of the podcast. We'll be back a couple months into 2022! 

_____

Let’s keep this conversation going!

We’d love for you to share this episode with a friend, family member, or even an enemy. Listen to it together, talk about it together, and then tell us about your conversation. 

Also, join our Facebook group to find some fellow listeners to wrestle with these ideas further. 

Reach out to us with any thoughts, feedback, criticisms, what is helpful, what doesn’t make sense, what you think we’re totally wrong about, or what you’d love to hear on the podcast!

IG - @UnravellingPod

FB - facebook.com/groups/UnravellingPod

Email - [email protected]

It took nearly three full seasons, but we had our first Catholic on the podcast! 

We met Michael Gorman through some, ahem...crappy circumstances (that'll make sense when you listen). Michael has a pretty fascinating story, as he spent years pursuing the priesthood before ultimately discerning that he didn't want to walk that path. We talk about his journey through that process, and along the way we asked Michael questions about a few Catholic practices and doctrines as well. 

_____

Let’s keep this conversation going!

We’d love for you to share this episode with a friend, family member, or even an enemy. Listen to it together, talk about it together, and then tell us about your conversation. 

Also, join our Facebook group to find some fellow listeners to wrestle with these ideas further. 

Reach out to us with any thoughts, feedback, criticisms, what is helpful, what doesn’t make sense, what you think we’re totally wrong about, or what you’d love to hear on the podcast!

IG - @UnravellingPod

FB - facebook.com/groups/UnravellingPod

Email - [email protected]

Whew...y'all. 

Those of you who've been with us for a while know that when Philip Joubert joins us for a conversation, it's fire. 

This time, Phil shares more about his experiences of growing up in church, what growing up in the black church gave him, how he has navigated church hurt and not let go of his faith through the process. 

Phil's insight is powerful, and he is generous in sharing his experiences and his wisdom with us. 

_____

Let’s keep this conversation going!

We’d love for you to share this episode with a friend, family member, or even an enemy. Listen to it together, talk about it together, and then tell us about your conversation. 

Also, join our Facebook group to find some fellow listeners to wrestle with these ideas further. 

Reach out to us with any thoughts, feedback, criticisms, what is helpful, what doesn’t make sense, what you think we’re totally wrong about, or what you’d love to hear on the podcast!

IG - @UnravellingPod

FB - facebook.com/groups/UnravellingPod

Email - [email protected]

For many of us who are beginning to think about our faith in new ways and ask questions about what we were given growing up, Paul is...tricky. We've heard people use passages from Paul's letters in the New Testament to maintain patriarchy, support homophobia, and justify authoritarian leadership structures inside and outside the church...let alone the ways Paul was used historically to justify slavery. Those of us who want to hold on to some of this Christian faith, perhaps even an appreciation for scripture, we have to grapple with this question...what the F$&@ do we do with Paul?!

To help us with this difficult questions, Dr. Tom Rundel returns to the podcast. He helps us dive into the history of the church and of how scripture has been read, which helps us understand how we got here in the first place...and then, if this is how we got here and where we are, what do we do in response?

This is an incredibly permission-giving, thoughtful, brutally honest, grounded, and hope-filled conversation, especially for those of us who have started to struggle not only with Paul, but with scripture as a whole. 

_____

Let’s keep this conversation going!

We’d love for you to share this episode with a friend, family member, or even an enemy. Listen to it together, talk about it together, and then tell us about your conversation. 

Also, join our Facebook group to find some fellow listeners to wrestle with these ideas further. 

Reach out to us with any thoughts, feedback, criticisms, what is helpful, what doesn’t make sense, what you think we’re totally wrong about, or what you’d love to hear on the podcast!

IG - @UnravellingPod

FB - facebook.com/groups/UnravellingPod

Email - [email protected]

On this episode of the podcast, we sit down with Tom's sister, Sarah Fifer. In addition to sharing how learning to listen to those who believe differently from her opened up her faith and her understanding of what the Church can and should be, Sarah also  gives us a glimpse into her experiences as a Physician Assistant in critical care through the COVID-19 pandemic. Understandably so, this pandemic has had a massive impact on her life, and it has given her a unique perspective on the Church that we (whether we're part of a local church right now or not) need to learn from. 

This is a truly important episode...especially as locally in Grand Rapids, MI, Spectrum Health (the largest hospital system in the area) has moved to "red status" for the first time since the start of the pandemic. Now more than ever, we urge you to check in with the folks in your circles who work in healthcare, to offer your care and support. As Sarah shares with us, daily holding the hands of people who breathe their last breath without any family members around them is changing the DNA of frontline healthcare workers forever. We have to take care of the people who have been taking care of us. 

_____

Let’s keep this conversation going!

We’d love for you to share this episode with a friend, family member, or even an enemy. Listen to it together, talk about it together, and then tell us about your conversation. 

Also, join our Facebook group to find some fellow listeners to wrestle with these ideas further. 

Reach out to us with any thoughts, feedback, criticisms, what is helpful, what doesn’t make sense, what you think we’re totally wrong about, or what you’d love to hear on the podcast!

IG - @UnravellingPod

FB - facebook.com/groups/UnravellingPod

Email - [email protected]

Anna returns to the podcast, this time as a part of our series of conversations on people's relationship with the Church. In many ways, this is a Part Two conversation, as we pick up right where we left off from the first episode of season three. Anna shares how her experience coming out as gay has impacted how she will be able to relate to the Church, or any local church. 

_____

Let’s keep this conversation going!

We’d love for you to share this episode with a friend, family member, or even an enemy. Listen to it together, talk about it together, and then tell us about your conversation. 

Also, join our Facebook group to find some fellow listeners to wrestle with these ideas further. 

Reach out to us with any thoughts, feedback, criticisms, what is helpful, what doesn’t make sense, what you think we’re totally wrong about, or what you’d love to hear on the podcast!

IG - @UnravellingPod

FB - facebook.com/groups/UnravellingPod

Email - [email protected]

Our podcast intro you may have heard (or skipped through) quite a few times by now mentions about the grief that can accompany losing the certainty we were raised with in regards to our faith. Mark Shortt shares with us his experience of growing up in faith, going into ministry, losing his faith, and then rediscovering a sense of wonder, mysticism, and even what he now understands to be faith. 

Along the way, we talk about experiences in ministry, grappling with our trained abilities in "spiritual manipulation" as former worship leaders...among other things. (Seriously...this one is a little all over the place, but also fun.) :-)

_____

Let’s keep this conversation going!

We’d love for you to share this episode with a friend, family member, or even an enemy. Listen to it together, talk about it together, and then tell us about your conversation. 

Also, join our Facebook group to find some fellow listeners to wrestle with these ideas further. 

Reach out to us with any thoughts, feedback, criticisms, what is helpful, what doesn’t make sense, what you think we’re totally wrong about, or what you’d love to hear on the podcast!

IG - @UnravellingPod

FB - facebook.com/groups/UnravellingPod

Email - [email protected]

Many of us have gone through changes in our faith. In this episode, Erik Fuller shares his story with us, which invites us to ask the question...when does it become disingenuous to say that you are a Christian, and how do you know?

Erik's story is rich, with many twists and turns. He continues to work for good things in the world, and he has an excellent window into many of the issues that currently ensnare the Church. Yet, he's currently come to the place where he doesn't consider himself a Christian, and doesn't want to get connected to the church. 

No matter where you are in your relationship with the Church these days...we think Erik's story is one worth listening to and learning from. 

_____

Let’s keep this conversation going!

We’d love for you to share this episode with a friend, family member, or even an enemy. Listen to it together, talk about it together, and then tell us about your conversation. 

Also, join our Facebook group to find some fellow listeners to wrestle with these ideas further. 

Reach out to us with any thoughts, feedback, criticisms, what is helpful, what doesn’t make sense, what you think we’re totally wrong about, or what you’d love to hear on the podcast!

IG - @UnravellingPod

FB - facebook.com/groups/UnravellingPod

Email - [email protected]

This is the long-awaited follow-up conversation from our episode with Raphael discussing complimentarian theology!!

Mandy Fowler returns once again to the podcast to help us understand some of the nuances of how complimentarian theologies of gender roles have ultimately harmed the Church, women and men. Certainly, we can all point to the (sadly many) instances of abuse surrounding gender issues and the church, but what about all those "nice" complimentarians? Mandy helps us break down the difference between a "hard" vs. a "soft" complimentarianism, and how the nicer, quieter forms of this theology can often allow this theology to escape our awareness. Finally, she makes a strong case for why this shouldn't be relegated to a secondary, "agree to disagree", "non-essentials" theological category, but is actually an essential part of a Kingdom ethos. 

(If Pete heard Tom say that last sentence out loud, y'all know there would be a "BOOOOO".)

_____

Let’s keep this conversation going!

We’d love for you to share this episode with a friend, family member, or even an enemy. Listen to it together, talk about it together, and then tell us about your conversation. 

Also, join our Facebook group to find some fellow listeners to wrestle with these ideas further. 

Reach out to us with any thoughts, feedback, criticisms, what is helpful, what doesn’t make sense, what you think we’re totally wrong about, or what you’d love to hear on the podcast!

IG - @UnravellingPod

FB - facebook.com/groups/UnravellingPod

Email - [email protected]

This was such a rich conversation. 

We had the pleasure of spending time with Tim Whitaker, who is the founder and curator of The New Evangelicals, an online community (that is now starting to meet in-person!) that is all about "Learning backwards to go forward, Rediscovering our faith, Living in the tension of it all, Committed to King Jesus."

Tim is the first guest on a series of conversations we're having with folks to share about their current relationship with Church. He shares openly and honestly about his experiences growing up in church, how his faith began to change and evolve over time, and what led him to start this online community. He also talks about how his work with this community impacted his own church involvement and relationships, as well as the things he has learned from listening to thousands of people share their experiences growing up in the evangelical church. He also shares about what "Deconstruction" has meant to him, and how he has sought to make room for folks, whatever their deconstruction might look like. 

Seriously...we loved our time with Tim. We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did. 

After you're done with this episode, definitely search for "The New Evangelicals" on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and your favorite podcast player, and check out their work. 

(And for real, reach out to him through DMs...he does a great job of connecting with folks individually!)

_____

Let’s keep this conversation going!

We’d love for you to share this episode with a friend, family member, or even an enemy. Listen to it together, talk about it together, and then tell us about your conversation. 

Also, join our Facebook group to find some fellow listeners to wrestle with these ideas further. 

Reach out to us with any thoughts, feedback, criticisms, what is helpful, what doesn’t make sense, what you think we’re totally wrong about, or what you’d love to hear on the podcast!

IG - @UnravellingPod

FB - facebook.com/groups/UnravellingPod

Email - [email protected]