As you know we love to tell stories of people along their journeys of faith. Many times enjoy sharing high moments that we like to talk about and remember. But, we also go through difficult and challenging moments that we don’t tend to talk about but we could learn so much from if we can find a safe space to share those experiences.

This may surprise you. Pastors also encounter seasons of spiritual crisis. Sadly, we don't often hear their stories. In today's Uncharted podcast, we meet Scott. He's the Pastor of Discipleship at a church in Santa Cruz. He tells us about his own struggles along the journey of faith and the pain of spiritual disorientation. For Scott, the darkest season of his life happened just as he started his work as a youth pastor. It led him to question much of his faith and ministry calling.

Today we are joined by Amanda Anderson, author of All My Friends Have Issues and founder of her ministry, Heart in Training. Amanda joins us to share about her journey experiencing exile, confusion, and disorientation within her community about political tensions over the past few years. Her vulnerability offers us a window in the the sincere conflict we've found ourselves within as we wrestle with the overlap between American Christianity and politics.

Today on the Uncharted Podcast Ines and Andy offer up 3 ways to explore what it looks like to know more about your church. These ways are through discussing Governance, Theology and Worldview. Within those three pillars you can parse out many areas worth dialoging with your church pastors, elders, and staff with. No matter where you are on your journey of faith, if you are currently or formerly participated in attending a church, having a clear understanding of what makes up these three areas can prepare you and bring clarity to areas of tension you may be experiencing.

Today we are joined by none of than one of my daughters, Melissa Bond. Melissa spends some time sharing with me her journey through losing her sense of belonging and community. Melissa continues to hope for the possibility that somewhere out there exists a place where people gather, free from a partisan political agenda, seeking God in genuine pursuit of a deep a meaningful faith beyond the Sunday experience.

Our friend Brian spends some time with us sharing about coming to Jesus through a rich salvation experience, but wrestling with the presentation of a life of faith through the traditional Sunday gathering. He shares about how wrestling with the non-profit 501c3 implications have led him to a deeper relationship with God, by exploring additional avenues for worship, gathering experiences, and spiritual practices.

Today, I wanted to share with you 3 ways that I intend to approach how I actively listen to our guests on the podcast. I hope that you could consider and adopt these methods into your own listenership as we can grow together as a community towards kindness, healing, and thoughtfulness. Enjoy!

Welcome to Uncharted, a new podcast with Teacher & Pastor, Ines Franklin. Today, our producer Andy Lara joins us to discuss why we decided to do this podcast and who it may be for.