We bring back our friend Jeff Bell to talk openly and honestly about our personal experiences with purity culture, sex and the church. We discuss everything from the orgasm gap to masturbation and how the lasting impacts of the purity culture mindset still impact many people today. It's time to hand purity culture, sexual shame, purity rings and lack of positive conversations around sex back to the church and simply say "We can do better!" This is a two part series that you don't want to miss!
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In this episode, our friend Jeff Bell joins us to talk candidly about what it was like to grow up in and be a part of Christian fundamentalist evangelical organizations and churches in the 90's. We discuss what it was like to have this as our main faith experience during our formative years and what it was like to come out of that way of thinking. What did we have to unlearn? What evangelical teachings never set well with us? What was our journey to move past evangelical fundamentalist thinking? Christian fundamentalism had big impacts on our lives that took us years to unravel. In this episode, we share the highs and lows of what we learned and what we learned to unlearn as we grew up and out of Christian fundamentalism.
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This June, the Southern Baptist Convention approved an amendment to the Baptist Faith and Message to be approved next summer during their Annual Convention. The amendment restricted women in ministry, who were already not supposed to hold lead pastor roles, from having any pastoral position, where the title of 'pastor' was deserved.

In this episode, Craig and Amy share their reflections, frustrations and thoughts about the recent SBC decision. No, we are not Southern Baptist, but when a large denomination makes a statement like this; it is up to those standing with women in ministry to speak loudly against oppression and discrimination....
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In this episode we bring back our friend and colleague Stan Mitchell. Stan was founding pastor of Gracepointe Church in Nashville, TN and walked with that church through the process of becoming an open and affirming church in 2015.  Stan has since mentored numerous churches and families as they wrestle with their own stories of inclusion.  In Part 2 of the LGBTQ Conversation in Local Churches series, Stan gives us his insight on why these conversations are difficult but necessary in local churches...
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Over the last few years, we have received a lot of questions about this very process.  What was it like to have a conversation on inclusivity in a local church?  What did you actually do, talk about, and how?  What did you learn along the way?  In this episode, we dive into the process of what that was like for our local church, and we hope our story helps if your local church congregation is discussing inclusivity soon...
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Stories matter. Telling our stories matters. And hearing the stories of others matters. Craig and I are honored to hold and share Zachary Pomeroy’s rich and powerful story of discovery, heartbreak and healing. We invite you into this space knowing that you will hear things that are difficult, humbling and transformative. It certainly was that for us as we had this conversation with Zach in our small and sweaty podcast shack in late June. But Zach's is a story we all need to hear and we are honored to bring it to you.....
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Every experience we have in life impacts us. Some experiences leave a huge impact, like a canyon in the desert. Others might leave such a tiny ripple that we don't even notice the effects. Religious trauma, hurts from the institutional Church, or any pain we experience at the hands of those who represent the spiritual to us are deep wounds that leave an impact that often takes years to process.

This sermon that our dear friend Layne Rogerson gave at Cedarbridge Baptist Church in Greenville, NC back in June of 2021 speaks to this very idea. Layne shares parts of her family's story and weaves in the truth that even amid pain and struggle, God is at work, moving all things toward redemption and blessing. With Layne's permission we wanted to share this sermon with the Finding Free community and talk about why it was so meaningful to us.
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“In the most general sense, faith deconstruction begins with people realizing that the answers they possess are answers they have memorized that were achieved or developed by other people or authority figures…they were not their own answers. The demand of deconstruction is not that you find different answers, though often that happens, but that you ask the questions and find out for yourself.”
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Recently Craig and Jeff Bell did a “dad joke” video for Cedarbridge Baptist Church as a fun way to highlight Father's Day. Some of you have seen this video, but what you didn’t see was the rest of the almost full hour of what they recorded. In this episode, we are releasing the full unedited version, and for laughs, we even included soundbites of Amy trying to get the intro right at the end.
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Deconstruction is a bit of a buzz word these days, but for right reasons. Many people, especially those who grew up in a church atmosphere, find that at some point they need to rethink, unpack and "deconstruct" the theology, ideas and foundations that they were given early in life, sorting out elements that caused harm and eventually finding their way to a more complete and wholistic theology.
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