Sara & the Reader Redeemed

For the final episode of season one, Jonah speaks with their husband and co-pastor Cameron Malakai Overton. Cameron shares his own story, from conservative small town fish-out-of-water to fully out trans man, urban pastor, and all around agitator for the kingdom. Part of his lifelong transformation has included reorienting to a Bible passage that he once thought he starred in - the prodigal son. Now he's looking at that story from a different vantage point, and wondering if he and God the Father both are actually waiting for the church to come home at long last. 

Jason Chesnut, pioneering pastor of digital communities including The Slate Project and the Anam Cara Community, joins Jonah to talk church in digital spaces, mental heath and faith, and how God finds a way to be with us and share our struggle, even in the depths of depression, grief, and hopelessness.  CW: depression, suicide If you are experiencing thoughts of suicide, please tell someone you trust. One trustworthy resource is the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, which you can reach 24/7 at 800-273-8255.  To learn more about Jason's newest community, check it out here: https://anamcaracommunity.org

Jay Williams III is pastor of Union Church in Boston, which has the distinction go being the first historically Black United Methodist congregation ever to become officially LGBTQ affirming. As a queer Black man himself, Jay shares how the support of his family and congregation has given him both the support and the responsibility to help build a transformed church where future generations can all share in the freedom to explore who God created them to be. To do so, Jay argues that we must not gloss over the complexities of the scriptures, but wrestle with them to receive the true gifts of the scripture, which is true liberation for all.

Derrick Scott III joins Jonah to talk about his journey coming to terms with his identity as a same gender loving man, a self-taught intellectual, and a called and equipped minister in the church. He shares how his childhood fears of rejection by God were assuaged by scripture itself - proving that the Bible holds more treasures than the haters will ever know.

Sara Garrard, fellow Liberation Project collaborator, joins Jonah to talk about her own love of scripture and how she's come to read the Bible differently over time. Through coming to terms with her own queerness, Sara discovered a variety of ways that she wanted to reorient her reading of scripture, which allowed her to bring a more liberative message not only for herself as a queer woman, but around many other identities as well. 

JJ Warren, aka the Prophet in Pink, joins Jonah for a conversation about what it's like to pursue a career in ministry as an LGBTQ identified person in a queerphobic church structure. As an advocate for queer-inclusion in the United Methodist Church, JJ captured the attention of a whole denomination when he spoke as a youth delegate for just 3 minutes at a 2019 global Methodist gathering. Now he's in seminary, fighting to be ordained against the odds, and speaking around the country about his book Reclaiming Church: A Call to Action for Religious Rejects - all while looking dapper in his trademark pink blazer. 

Tyler Ho-Yin Sit joins Jonah for a conversation about his experiences of church, identity, and leadership as a Chinese American church planter. He shares how anti-Asian pop culture paired with a paradoxical proximity to whiteness limited his self-perceptions as a leader in the church. Ultimately, these structural limitations drove him to seek and create brand new spaces of anti-empire spirituality, as well as write the powerful primer Staying Awake: the Gospel for Changemakers.

Cedrick Bridgeforth, a Black, same-gender-loving, United Methodist pastor and author of the new book Alabama Grandson, joins Jonah for a conversation about his complicated childhood in the South, his rise to leadership in the Navy and then the church, a controversy that brought it all crashing down. Hear how this now prominent leader has used a humbling experience to become more authentic and rise to new heights.

Elle Dowd speaks with Jonah about understanding her identity in the church as both oppressed and oppressor, abolition as a long-standing framework of the Christian scriptures, and her new book Baptized in Tear Gas: From White Moderate to Abolitionist. Catch Elle's infectious love for the scriptures as well as her take on the radical messaging that has inspired her into the streets, into handcuffs, and into the kingdom. 

Victoria Sun Esparza joins Jonah for a conversation about disability, healing a wounded relationship with the body, and the ways that God has equipped each of us to be our own authority on what we need and believe. We'll revisit texts that Victoria was told could help tame her body into submission - texts that have completely different meaning now that she has learned to finally trust her body, even while grappling with suffering and chronic pain.