Today, we explore what it means to follow Jesus in a time when political identities increasingly compete with religious ones. Pete argues that Christians have always faced the temptation to use the Bible to back up our own opinions rather than allowing the life of Christ to reshape us. He challenges us to consider how certainty may be blinding, explains that a healthy patriotism deepens our love of neighbor, and emphasizes the revolutionary nature of Jesus’s love for those on the margins and calls us to consider what all of this means for Christians today.

Pete has spent decades at the intersection of faith and politics, serving in three Republican administrations, including as a speechwriter and director of the Office of Strategic Initiatives to President George W. Bush. He’s now a contributing writer for The Atlantic and The New York Times. Throughout his career, he’s consistently challenged himself and others to think with moral seriousness, intellectual honesty, and Christian charity.

This conversation invited us to think more deeply about where our deepest allegiances belong. We found it thoughtful, grounding, and so worthwhile, and we hope you will too. And with that, we’ll jump right into our conversation with Peter Wehner.

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CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD CONCERT & ART EXPERIENCE

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Our guest is Pete Enns, a well-known bible scholar and the Abram S. Clemens professor of Bible Studies at Eastern University in Pennsylvania.

In recent years, Pete has become well known for several highly popular books, including How the Bible Actually Works, The Bible Tells Me So, and the book we discussed with him in this episode: The Sin of Certainty. In addition to his research and writing, Pete co-hosts the podcast The Bible for Normal People.

In The Sin of Certainty, Pete opens up about his own faith journey, including what he calls “uh-oh” moments — those moments that, as Pete says, “wreak havoc with our neatly arranged thoughts of God, the world, and our place in it.”

He makes the argument that a faith preoccupied with correct thinking can quickly become exhausting as we try to force disruptive experiences into our existing frameworks. Pete insists that there’s a different way—the way of listening to those moments and learning from them, even letting them change us—and discovering a faith that shifts from rigid certainty about God to a more open, resilient trust in God.

This conversation has really stayed with us over the years, and we are so excited to share it with you now.

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Together with their spouses, Patrick Mason and Chad Ford, Melissa and Amanda have dedicated years to the work of building peace in families, communities, and faith spaces. But in this conversation, they invite us to consider the foundation of all lasting peace: the quiet, often difficult work of cultivating peace within ourselves.

Drawing from their work as therapists and educators, Amanda and Melissa offer a vision of emotional wholeness that challenges many of the assumptions our culture rewards. Together we explore how striving, productivity, and constant achievement may inadvertently shape our sense of worth, and ask why so many of us find it so difficult to rest—even when we desperately need it. They ask us to become more fluent in the wisdom of our bodies and to rediscover rest—not as something we earn, but as both a spiritual practice and a commandment.

Again and again, they remind us that spiritual formation isn’t a race toward perfection, that every season of our lives can become part of who we’re growing into. We hope this conversation helps you notice the ways you might be being invited into more rest and presence and less striving.

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Waymakers

Inspired by the skill, spirit, and the example of Jesus, Waymakers forms peacemakers through transformative training and constructive engagement with conflict.

Wayfare

Attending to Life

When I pine for my phone, I can feel it on my skin, a tingle akin to a lover walking into the room. Patricia Lockwood calls it “the portal,” glowing with the promise of significance and connection. Smartphones act like the enchanted Mirror of Erised in…

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2 years ago · 4 likes · Elizabeth Oldfield

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CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD CONCERT & ART EXPERIENCE

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For decades, we’ve measured the decline of American religion by empty pews and shrinking membership rolls. Ryan invites us to see another, deeper loss. As moderate congregations disappear, we’re also losing one of the last places where people with real differences—in politics, class, age, education, and conviction—learn how to love each other as neighbors.

At a time when it’s easier than ever to sort ourselves into smaller and more like-minded communities, church has remained one of the few places where belonging asks something of us. It asks us to listen, to worship beside people we didn’t choose. Ryan argues that this kind of community forms the habits of empathy, compromise, and civic trust that democracy itself depends on.

Ryan brings data and his own lived experience to this conversation, having spent years as a pastor watching his own congregation slowly disappear. It’s a challenging discussion about what church is for, what we’re losing, and why he believes showing to worship with people you may disagree with politically might be one of the most countercultural, and necessary, things we can do for our country right now.

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Today, we’re sharing a powerful message from Patrick Mason, that he shared at our Restore Gathering at Utah Valley University last year, just two weeks after the tragic shooting of Charlie Kirk on the same campus. Speaking only a few hundred yards from the memorial, Patrick reminds us that violence is never the end of the story. The gospel invites us to answer fear with courage, suspicion with curiosity, and enmity with love.

We love Patrick’s conviction that peacemaking is the work of discipleship. It is the work of Zion. And as we prepare to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, he invites us to declare our own independence—from the politics of fear, from contempt, from tribalism, and from the habits that keep us divided. Instead, he calls on all of us to join “a revolution of friendship and civility.”

When he finished speaking at Restore, the room erupted. There was a palpable sense of hope and energy— that ordinary people really can help heal a divided world. As you celebrate this Independence Day, we hope you’ll be filled with that same conviction.

Tickets for Restore 2026 are now available, and we have a new format we think you’re going to love. Get details below!

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Waymakers

Inspired by the skill, spirit, and the example of Jesus, Waymakers forms peacemakers through transformative training and constructive engagement with conflict.

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Many of us spend our lives trying to avoid friction. We want our faith to feel clear, our communities to feel supportive, and our spiritual lives to move forward without too much tension or uncertainty. But today Robin’s asking, “What if our deepest growth comes not in spite of friction, but because of it?”

And that’s at the heart of her book. Through interviews with a remarkable generation of Latter-day Saint women—many of them grandmothers now—Robin uncovers stories of faith, resilience, and spiritual maturity that feel so relevant today. These women faced difficult questions, competing loyalties, and real tension between their deepest convictions and the world around them. Yet rather than allowing that friction to diminish their faith, they used it to deepen their relationship with God and expand their capacity to serve.

Robin herself has spent a career building and leading transformative organizations, including at Microsoft, Intel, and most recently as President and Publisher of Deseret News. But this book grew out of a lifelong fascination with women’s spiritual lives and the wisdom that can be found in their stories.

Whether you’re currently navigating friction in your own faith journey or simply looking for examples of courage and grace, we think you’ll find this conversation both reassuring and inspiring.

You can buy your copy of Using Friction to Grow on Bookshop.org!

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JOIN THOMAS MCCONKIE IN A VIRTUAL RETREAT ON JUNE 27!

June 27th Online Retreat: The Taste of Emptiness

In meditation practice and in life, there is a natural tendency to seek pleasant experience and avoid what’s painful. The Buddha named this condition directly: taṇhā—craving—the root of suffering.

What can come as a genuine surprise as we deepen on the path is that getting what we want does not necessarily bring happiness, and meeting what we don’t want need not lead to suffering.

This is more than consoling philosophy. When we experience these truths directly, our motivation and perception shift at a fundamental level—something loosens that we didn’t know was held.

In this gathering, we will explore the subtle, positive states that arise naturally in still point practice. And we will refine our spiritual palate to appreciate something even more fundamental: the taste of emptiness—a quality not rare or distant, but always already present, waiting to be recognized.

Saturday, June 27th, 2026

7-11 am MDT

Online via zoom

All are welcome!

Register Here: https://lowerlightswisdom.org/classes/p/practitioners-monthly-june-26

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In this session, two men sat down together: Tom Christofferson and Darius Gray. Both are devoted Latter-day Saints who know what it is to love the Church while also having experienced real marginalization within it.

Darius Gray is a Black Latter-day Saint who was baptized on December 26th, 1964 — fourteen years before the revelation that lifted the priesthood and temple ban. He entered the waters of baptism knowing he could not hold the priesthood, and he built his faith anyway. He helped found the Genesis Group, he waited, he worked. And on a day in June 1978, everything changed.

This June, we’re sitting with what that means.

There is something powerful in Darius’s story—his rootedness, his patience, his refusal to let institutional limitation become the ceiling of his faith.

Tom Christofferson, as a gay Latter-day Saint, knows something about that too.

What you’re about to hear is a conversation between two men who have walked and who are walking long roads, who are holding hard questions, and who are bearing witness to a God whose work continues to unfold in their lives.

It is warm and honest and full of hope. We think you’ll find, as we did, that it stays with you.

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Crucial Conversations Across Faith Divides: The Courage to Stay Connected

On June 16th, Joseph Grenny and Tucker Boyle invite you to an evening designed to equip you for some of the hardest conversations life brings, the kind that happen between loved ones when faith changes.

Joseph will draw from his decades of work with crucial conversations, walking us through practical principles for navigating high-stakes moments without losing the relationship or ourselves. Tucker will bring a somatic and nervous system lens to each principle, helping us notice what’s actually happening in our bodies when these conversations get hard. 

The insight at the heart of the evening: people on both sides of a faith transition share remarkably similar embodied experiences. The protective urges, the impulse to shut down or push harder, the way the body tightens before the words even come, these aren’t signs that something is wrong with you. They’re signals worth learning to read. This insight can open a pathway to patience, empathy and even compassion when in otherwise risky moments. 

All it takes is one party to a conversation with this capacity to dramatically alter its outcome.

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Becoming One

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In this on-stage conversation, Steve, Alisha, and Ben share personal and vulnerable reflections on what it means to seek God when the road ahead feels uncertain, and the courage it takes to keep moving forward in faith. They explore belonging, revelation, and the complexity of spiritual life as they describe discerning and following paths that looked very different from one another’s and the ones they once expected—often amid the pain of being misunderstood.

This session was a powerful reminder that God is at work in every life, and that each person’s journey is sacred.

As Ben shares near the end of the conversation, “The stories that truly matter are the stories of the LGBTQ people that you know in your lives.” That’s our invitation this month. We hope this conversation opens the door to deeper connection with people in your own life whose paths may look different than your own.

We’re grateful to Steve, Alisha, and Ben for their vulnerability and wisdom.

You’ll hear Steve mention a short film at the beginning of this session that tells more of Alisha’s story. It’s beautiful and moving, and you can find a link below.

Souled of Other Stars

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Crucial Conversations Across Faith Divides: The Courage to Stay Connected

On June 16th, Joseph Grenny and Tucker Boyle invite you to an evening designed to equip you for some of the hardest conversations life brings, the kind that happen between loved ones when faith changes.

Joseph will draw from his decades of work with crucial conversations, walking us through practical principles for navigating high-stakes moments without losing the relationship or ourselves. Tucker will bring a somatic and nervous system lens to each principle, helping us notice what’s actually happening in our bodies when these conversations get hard. 

The insight at the heart of the evening: people on both sides of a faith transition share remarkably similar embodied experiences. The protective urges, the impulse to shut down or push harder, the way the body tightens before the words even come, these aren’t signs that something is wrong with you. They’re signals worth learning to read. This insight can open a pathway to patience, empathy and even compassion when in otherwise risky moments. 

All it takes is one party to a conversation with this capacity to dramatically alter its outcome.

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One Heart One Mind

Lower Lights Monthly Gathering - June 10

Friends…

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2 months ago

One Heart One Mind

Becoming One

I’m excited to announce to the broader community that Lower Lights will be hosting its first retreat in London this fall…

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In this episode, Faith Matters co-founder Bill Turnbull joins Judge Thomas Griffith, an expert in constitutional law, to explore the Constitution and the rapid erosion of goodwill and trust in American politics, including among Latter-day Saints. Judge Griffith sees the possibility of a serious crisis and believes that Latter-day Saints can and must play a critical role in healing today’s divides.

We’ve also compiled lots of additional resources that we hope will help as you prepare for this special Sunday lesson—you can find those below. Thanks so much as always for listening, and we hope you enjoy the episode.

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What We Owe Each Other

Today we’re sharing with you the first two episodes of Article 13, a new narrative podcast from Faith Matters that brings together cutting-edge research and spiritual wisdom to offer blueprints for a better world…

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a year ago · 17 likes · 4 comments · Zachary Davis

Wayfare

Good News

Most of the news we see each day is negative. This constant stream of bad news fuels news avoidance, anxiety, and animosity — all of which harm us at a spiritual level. This episode proposes a new, spiritually healthy way of engaging with the news, looking at how we can use our media diets to help us fulfill our personal vocations and cultivate the virt…

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a year ago · 3 likes · Zachary Davis

Wayfare

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Community in America has grown harder to find. The spaces and institutions that used to gather neighbors together are in decline, while loneliness, depression, and other social ills are on the rise. As Seth Kaplan and Pete Davis explain, a healthy country is built on healthy relationships, and healthy relationships are built on commitment…

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6 months ago · 17 likes · Zachary Davis and Maria McNair

Wayfare

Why the Church Is as True as the Gospel

I was convinced when I was a youth that the most boring meeting in the Church, perhaps in the world, was a quarterly stake conference. In those days, they were held every three months and included at least two, two-hour sessions on Sunday. The most interesting highlights to us children were the quavery songs literally “rendered” by the “Singing Mothers…

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2 months ago · 1 like

Wayfare

Doing Away With Political -Ites

The last eight years have felt politically, culturally, and societally unsettled. We have seen this unrest in everything from the election of Donald Trump, to the storming of the US capital, to reactions to the murder of George Floyd, to the rise of identitarianism, all the way through …

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2 years ago · 23 likes · Tyler Johnson

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STUDY “COME FOLLOW ME” WITH FAITH MATTERS

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Crucial Conversations Across Faith Divides: The Courage to Stay Connected

On June 16th, Joseph Grenny and Tucker Boyle invite you to an evening designed to equip you for some of the hardest conversations life brings, the kind that happen between loved ones when faith changes.

Joseph will draw from his decades of work with crucial conversations, walking us through practical principles for navigating high-stakes moments without losing the relationship or ourselves. Tucker will bring a somatic and nervous system lens to each principle, helping us notice what’s actually happening in our bodies when these conversations get hard. 

The insight at the heart of the evening: people on both sides of a faith transition share remarkably similar embodied experiences. The protective urges, the impulse to shut down or push harder, the way the body tightens before the words even come, these aren’t signs that something is wrong with you. They’re signals worth learning to read. This insight can open a pathway to patience, empathy and even compassion when in otherwise risky moments. 

All it takes is one party to a conversation with this capacity to dramatically alter its outcome.

RSVP

JOIN THOMAS MCCONKIE IN LONDON!

One Heart One Mind

Becoming One

I’m excited to announce to the broader community that Lower Lights will be hosting its first retreat in London this fall…

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3 months ago · 1 like

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Karl Ebeling spent 33 years as a chemical engineer before feeling an undeniable pull back to the land and to a childhood love of farming that had never really left him. He combined his love of the earth with desire to help and heal and founded Eden Streets in 2020, a community farming initiative that helps individuals relaunch their lives and cultivate community through farming. Karl has watched first hand as the earth does her healing work in the souls of men and women experiencing homelessness, addiction, or disconnection.

Today, he joins us to talk about the gifts of creation, and what it might look like to, in Elder Causse’s words, “grow, enhance, and improve upon” them, and what that kind of stewardship does for our own souls.

I was deeply moved by Karl’s grounded wisdom, his reverence for the Earth and by the lessons he’s learning from the natural world about rhythms, relationship, belonging, and peace.

With planting season upon us, we hope this conversation inspires you to step outside, put your hands in the dirt, and experience the way the natural world is reaching out to heal you.

You can find more from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on caring for the Earth here.

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Becoming One

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From the very first pages of this book, Tish gives us language for something so familiar. She writes about aridity—those seasons of spiritual drought, exhaustion, or distance from God, when prayer feels flat, faith feels heavy, and the life we once found nourishing suddenly feels barren.

Then she introduces us to the ancient idea of acedia—what the Desert Fathers and Mothers sometimes called “the noonday demon.” It’s that restless belief that life with God would be easier somewhere else, sometime else, with different work, different people, a different church, or a new set of circumstances. It’s a restlessness that wants to escape the ordinary demands of love in search of some imagined future where spiritual highs are constant and faith feels effortless.

But Tish says these experiences of aridity and acedia aren’t signs that something has gone wrong. In fact, they are experiences that Christians throughout time have understood to be normal—even necessary—parts of spiritual maturity.

In this conversation, she helps us see that the invitation in these weary seasons is not to force our way back into those spiritual highs, but to stay with prayer, to stay with the ordinary practices that have formed disciples for centuries, often staying with imperfect communities and relationships even after the shine has worn off and the brokenness becomes visible.

She makes the case that that maturity often looks less like finding the perfect place, and more like learning how God meets us in imperfect places through patience, repair, and the slow work of love.

Tish is an Anglican priest and author known for her award winning books Liturgy of the Ordinary and Prayer in the Night. Her new book, What Grows in Weary Lands, was released this week and is available wherever books are sold. We are so grateful to Tish for coming on the podcast and we hope that you enjoy this conversation.

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The Wayfare Festival 2026

The quality of attention that we bring to the world changes what we find. In our time of mass distraction, artifice, and vice, we need to develop our capacities for spiritual discernment more than ever…

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2 months ago · 3 likes · Zachary Davis

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CATCH UP WITH SANCTUARY

Sanctuary: Discovering the Temple

Feminism, Authority, and Garments: A conversation with Deidre Green

As a feminist and lifelong member of the LDS faith, Deidre brings an important voice to this community. In this episode, she shares her own temple journey, which—like mine—began with challenges but ultimately evolved into something deeply meaningful. She describes the temple as a space that empowers her as a woman and expresses her belief that it holds …

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3 months ago · 1 like · Cecelia Proffit

Sanctuary: Discovering the Temple

Circumscribing Truth: Ritual and the Shared Search for the Divine with Dave Butler

Something I have wrestled with in my own faith journey is how I can simultaneously feel such a strong witness of restored gospel truths and ordinances while also recognizing immense truth and beauty in other religions. In this conversation, Dave shares his journey of developing a deep love and appreciation for all faith traditions, and how embracing oth…

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3 months ago · 1 like · Cecelia Proffit

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Becoming One

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Our guests are Kathryn and Bob Sonntag, who joined us at Restore last year for a powerful session on ritual, wisdom, and our Divine Mother. Today, we’re bringing that conversation to everyone.

Together, we explore where the symbol of the Mother appears in ancient Christian traditions and grapple honestly with what divine femininity and divine masculinity look like when we strip away the stereotypes that can become rigid and prescriptive. As Kathryn says, the feminine is, by its nature, subtle and hidden—something that has to be cultivated with intention. And when souls or systems overdevelop the masculine and lose touch with feminine wisdom (or vice versa), something essential goes missing. Neither the masculine nor the feminine can truly flourish without the other.

We spend time on practical integration. Bob says that ritual is the way we translate meaning into action—the way spiritual truths become lived realities. And he says that ritual isn’t reserved for temples or holy days, but is available in the texture of ordinary life—in hospitality, shared meals, and the quiet rhythms of each day. When we bring intention to those moments, the mundane becomes sacred, and the deeper work of integration and transformation can take root.

This one is for Mother’s Day, and for anyone ready to engage in this deep inner work. We hope you enjoy this conversation with Kathryn and Bob Sonntag.

You can read more from Kathryn in her book, The Mother Tree, which is available on Amazon and at wayfaremagazine.org. You can read more from Bob at wayfaremagazine.org.

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CELEBRATING OUR DIVINE MOTHER

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A subscription to Wayfare would make a beautiful Mother’s Day gift! Become a paid Wayfare subscriber or Faith Matters donor in her name today and we’ll send Issue 7 now and Issue 8 in the fall. Get a peek inside the newest issue below, and email info@faithmatters.org if you have any questions about your subscription or a gift subscription.

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AN INVITATION FROM THOMAS MCCONKIE

Friends,

My wife, Gloria, and I have been holding this community together for over a decade — through seasons of growth, confusion, grief, and joy. And one of the questions that keeps returning to us is this: are we doing justice to both the masculine and feminine styles of spirituality that seek expression through this community?

We’ve learned a lot. We’ve struggled a lot. But I think we’ve struggled well. And this month, we’d like to open up the conversation more to the community.

One question we’re holding, among others, is what would a spiritual community look like if both masculine and feminine energies were valued and fully expressed? We’re not posing this as an abstraction — we’re asking how we, as the Lower Lights community, can continue to live into this question together.

We hope you’ll join us at Bell Hall on May 13th to begin this exploration — an evening of chant, meditation, and soulful conversation.

Love,

Thomas

When: Wednesday, May 13th, 7:30-9pm
Where: Bell Hall (389 East 1st Avenue), Salt Lake City
Who: Anyone looking for authentic spiritual companionship on the journey Home.
Registration required via the following link:

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*Please note that due to capacity restrictions at Bell Hall, 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝. We will have a check in at the door to confirm registration, so we recommend arriving early if you can! Please plan on street parking.

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Research suggests that roughly 40% of formerly active, faithful members have stepped away from the Church in the last twenty-five years—and the pace is accelerating. Jeff Strong is asking why. Drawing on hundreds of interviews, he’s found that, again and again, disaffiliation is rooted in unmet spiritual needs, strained trust, and experiences of exclusion or spiritual starvation. Jeff’s book is unflinchingly honest—and genuinely hopeful, because if culture is part of the problem, there’s also something all of us can do to help.

In this conversation, Jeff really challenges the assumption that people leave casually. His data shows that, on average, most people wrestle for nearly a decade before stepping away. These are sincere, often private, and deeply painful journeys that deserve to be understood with care.

Jeff says that what we need are not more gatekeepers, but more gardeners. He suggests our role isn’t to monitor who’s in or out—or how “in” or “out” anyone is—but to tend the kind of soil where faith can grow: in our homes, our wards, and our relationships.

He helps us recognize when that soil has become compacted or depleted of spiritual nutrients, and offers practical, grounded ways for everyday members and leaders to cultivate something more nourishing—a more Christ-centered culture where more people can grow and flourish.

We are so excited for you to read this book and hear the conversation. You can read the introduction and first two chapters, check out the appendix, and learn more about the research on Jeff’s website, tornbyjeffstrong.com.

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WAYFARE ISSUE 7 IS ARRIVING

Wayfare Issue 7 is all about trust—trust in ourselves, trust in God, and trust in each other—and centers women’s voices and experiences with this topic. A subscription to Wayfare would make a beautiful Mother’s Day gift! Become a paid Wayfare subscriber or Faith Matters donor in their name today and we’ll send Issue 7 now and Issue 8 in the fall. Get a peek inside the newest issue below, and email info@faithmatters.org if you have any questions about your subscription or a gift subscription.

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If you are already a paid Wayfare subscriber or Friend of Faith Matters donor, you should see your copy arrive this week—please email us if you haven’t seen it by May 10 and we’ll make sure you’re on the list for the next shipment on May 11!

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FAITH MATTERS BENEFIT ART AUCTION

When: Saturday, May 9th at 7:00 PM

Where: The Compass Gallery (250 W. Center St., Provo)

Highlights: Live auction of featured works, silent auction bidding, mocktails and hors d’oeuvres, live music.

LEARN MORE AND RSVP

Faith Matters needs your support for our Benefit Art Auction at The Compass Gallery. It will be an evening of art, connection, and giving, where you’ll have access to one-of-kind art we think you’ll treasure for years to come. Here at Faith Matters, we work to promote a vibrant, nourishing faith and we hope you’ll partner with us.

Can’t make it but still want to support Faith Matters? You can donate directly via DonorBox here:

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Our guest, Deidre Nicole Green, is a professor at Graduate Theological Union; a theologian and scholar whose work explores gender, faith, and the Christian life. The starting place for this discussion was Deidre’s just-released Wayfare Magazine article called “Envying Hannah.”

At the center of the conversation is a concept called epistemic confidence—a trust in our capacity to receive and recognize truth for ourselves. And while this shows up differently for each of us, research suggests it doesn’t fall evenly. Women, in particular, are often more likely to feel that their knowing needs to be confirmed or mediated by someone with more authority before it really counts.

Deidre helps us see how quickly this gets complicated, especially at church—where the line between agency and people-pleasing can blur without us even realizing it. She invites us to ask harder questions: when does deference begin to erode our connection to the divine? When are we silencing something sacred within ourselves?

And maybe most importantly, what becomes possible when we show up differently—when we act with courage, claim our spiritual authority and sacred agency, and allow ourselves to be fully seen and known… even if it means risking being wrong?

You can read Deidre’s piece, “Envying Hannah: Risking Respectability for Spiritual Fidelity“ in Issue 7 of Wayfare or online at WayfareMagazine.org now, and you can get a sneak peek inside the issue (including two more essays!) here. You can also read “Finding Truth Together: Epistemic Humility in the Book of Jacob,” an excerpt from Deidre’s book “Jacob: A Brief Theological Introduction“ on WayfareMagazine.org.

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GIVE WAYFARE ISSUE 7 FOR MOTHER’S DAY

Wayfare Issue 7 is all about this concept of trust—trust in ourselves, trust in God, and trust in each other—and it centers women’s voices and experiences with this topic. A subscription to Wayfare would make a beautiful Mother’s Day gift! Become a paid Wayfare subscriber or Faith Matters donor today and we’ll send Issue 7 now, and Issue 8 in the fall. Get a peek inside the newest issue (including links to three more essays) below, and email info@faithmatters.org if you have any questions about your subscription or a gift subscription.

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Sanctuary: Discovering the Temple

An Evolving Relationship with Obedience: A conversation with Jennifer Finlayson-Fife

I was so grateful to have the pleasure to speak with Dr. Jennifer Finlayson-Fife for this episode.. This conversation is another exploration of covenants, but from the framework of the stages of development. This episode begins with Jennifer introducing the three stages of development she describes in her work, and from there she helps us get a feel for…

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5 months ago · 6 likes · Cecelia Proffit

STUDY “COME FOLLOW ME” WITH FAITH MATTERS

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His new memoir is called Work in Progress: Confessions of a Busboy, Dishwasher, Caddy, Usher, Factory Worker, Bank Teller, Corporate Tool, and Priest. And yes, he held every one of those jobs before he found his calling. But beneath the laughs, this book is really about the slow, unglamorous, often uncomfortable work of transformation.

In our conversation today, Father Jim talks about growing up desperate to be liked—and what it took to become someone willing to speak up and make waves when it matters. We talk about the difference between kindness and people-pleasing, about staying connected to religious institutions that can both nourish and wound us, and why he believes doubt is a natural part of a living, growing faith.

In a moment when so many public voices feel reactive and divisive, Father Jim stands in conviction without losing compassion—offering a steady, grounded wisdom that feels deeply needed right now.

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Raising Little Saints: A Faith Matters Family Night

May 1, 2026 | 6-7:15pm | Kiwanis Park in Provo (the big pavilion)

Nurturing deep faith without fundamentalism.

An evening of music, storytelling, and connection designed for families—both parents and kids.

What to expect:

• Live music with Emily Susan Pack

• Short, inspiring reflections on faith and family from Whitney Call and Lauren Yarro

• Food and community building

• Simple activities for kids (movement welcome)

Bring your kids exactly as they are. No perfect behavior or faith required.

Spots are limited, so do please RSVP.

RSVP

STUDY “COME FOLLOW ME” WITH FAITH MATTERS

To receive Come Follow Me resource roundups from Faith Matters in your inbox, first be sure you are subscribed to the Faith Matters Substack, then go to manage your subscription and turn on notifications for “Come Follow Me”.

Subscribe now

GIVE WAYFARE ISSUE 7 FOR MOTHER’S DAY

Give a gift subscription to Wayfare to someone you love this week! Get a peek inside the newest issue here:

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Subscribe to Wayfare

FAITH MATTERS BENEFIT ART AUCTION

When: Saturday, May 9th at 7:00 PM

Where: The Compass Gallery (250 W. Center St., Provo)

Highlights: Live auction of featured works, silent auction bidding, mocktails and hors d'oeuvres, live music.

LEARN MORE AND RSVP

Faith Matters needs your support for our Benefit Art Auction at The Compass Gallery. It will be an evening of art, connection, and giving, where you’ll have access to one-of-kind art we think you’ll treasure for years to come. Here at Faith Matters, we work to promote a vibrant, nourishing faith and we hope you’ll partner with us.

Can’t make it but still want to support Faith Matters? You can donate directly via DonorBox here:

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Today, we’re joined by pastor, author, and researcher Meredith Miller, who has spent her career thoughtfully engaging these questions. Her book, Woven: Nurturing a Faith Your Kid Doesn’t Have to Heal From, offers a grounded and practical guide for what this can look like.

Meredith invites us to move away from rigid faith metaphors like walls and foundations, and instead to see faith more like a web—flexible, resilient, and uniquely woven for each person. That shift opens up a much more spacious way of thinking about what it means to guide our kids spiritually.

Anchoring this conversation is her distinction between obedience-based and trust-based faith. Meredith makes a compelling case that trust must come first—that obedience, when it matters, grows naturally out of a relationship with a God we’ve come to know and trust, rather than fear.

We also talk about how to approach scripture with kids, what her research revealed about the strengths of a Latter-Day Saint ward-based model, the value of family warmth, and why “I don’t know” can be a great answer.

This conversation was a steadying reminder for us that while we can’t control how our kid’s faith unfolds, we can trust that God is already at work in their lives. We hope this episode gives you both some practical tools and a little more peace for the long, slow work nourishing a faith your kid doesn’t need to heal from.

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Meredith's book Woven on Bookshop.org

Meredith's book Woven on Amazon

You can also find Meredith’s new book Wonder: 52 Conversations to Help Kids Fall in Love with Scripture on Bookshop.org and Amazon.

Raising Little Saints: A Faith Matters Family Night

May 1, 2026 | 6-7:15pm | Kiwanis Park in Provo (the big pavilion)

Nurturing deep faith without fundamentalism.

An evening of music, storytelling, and connection designed for families—both parents and kids.

What to expect:

• Live music with Emily Susan Pack

• Short, inspiring reflections on faith and family from Whitney Call and Lauren Yarro

• Food and community building

• Simple activities for kids (movement welcome)

Bring your kids exactly as they are. No perfect behavior or faith required.

Spots are limited, so do please RSVP below.

RSVP

MORE ON THIS TOPIC

STUDY “COME FOLLOW ME” WITH FAITH MATTERS

To receive Come Follow Me resource roundups from Faith Matters in your inbox, first be sure you are subscribed to the Faith Matters Substack, then go to manage your subscription and turn on notifications for “Come Follow Me”.

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GIVE WAYFARE ISSUE 7 FOR MOTHER’S DAY

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We sat down with two longtime friends of the podcast—authors and researchers Joseph Grenny and Jeff Strong—to explore these high-stakes moments when someone is ready to talk about their shifting faith.

Drawing on research from over 500 real-life conversations about faith transitions, Joseph and Jeff uncover something both surprising and sobering: statistically, it’s devout parents and church leaders who are most likely to miss the mark in these conversations.

They suggest this isn’t about a lack of love or sincerity—but consequences of a very natural response to fear. Jeff and Joseph call it a TUI—talking under the influence. When the amygdala takes over, stress floods the system, and the thinking brain goes offline. What looks like a communication problem is actually a chemical one, and even the most well-intentioned among us can say things that damage relationships for years.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Today, Joseph and Jeff show us how to recognize when we’re under the influence, how to pause before we cause harm, and how to come back grounded and clear—so that we can choose connection over control, curiosity over fear.

With General Conference and Easter this weekend—seasons that bring families together and open the door naturally, to these conversations—we hope this episode reminds you that you’re not alone, and that these hard moments, can become the fertile ground for relationships that are deeper, more honest, and more connected than they were before.

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STUDY “COME FOLLOW ME” WITH FAITH MATTERS

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Lower Lights In-Person Gathering | Wednesday, April 8th | 7:30-9 pm | Salt Lake City, UT

Most of us are a little lonely, even in a crowd.

We long to be truly known — and yet something in us resists it. To be seen is to risk being rejected. To open ourselves is to expose our most tender places. So we keep a careful distance, even from the people and the divine presence we most want to draw near.

In spiritual life, we name this honestly: we are ambivalent about intimacy. And then, we move into a greater vulnerability anyway.

On April 8th, we invite you to join us at Bell Hall — in song, in meditation, and in authentic contact with each other. To risk seeing others, and being seen in turn.

Love,

Thomas

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Today, we’re joined by Terryl Givens to explore an extraordinary book called The Stature of Waiting by W.H. Vanstone. Vanstone noticed something hiding in plain sight in the gospel accounts of the last week of Jesus’s life. Up until a certain moment, Jesus is the one acting—teaching, healing, feeding, leading. And then, almost imperceptibly, the grammar of the story shifts. He is no longer the one doing, but the one to whom things are done. He is handed over. He waits. He receives. And Vanstone suggests this isn’t a tragic turn in the story—it’s its deepest revelation.

Terryl and Fiona introduced many of us to the God who weeps in Moses 7. In Vanstone, we meet that same vulnerable God again—this time, waiting. And we ask what it means to follow that God in how we love, how we age, how we suffer, and how we let ourselves be carried.

We hope that as you move through Holy Week this year, this conversation helps see the face of God in the most vulnerable moments of the Easter story — and in your own.

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STUDY “COME FOLLOW ME” WITH FAITH MATTERS

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SUBSCRIBE TO WAYFARE NOW TO RECEIVE ISSUE 7

Issue 7 will be mailed out soon! Become a Friend of Faith Matters or Wayfare paid subscriber by March 31 to receive your copy in the mail! Get a peek inside the issue here:

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OPPORTUNITY TO SUPPORT A FAITH MATTERS VOLUNTEER

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If you haven’t discovered it yet, Article 13 is one of the most beautifully produced things Faith Matters does. The title comes from the thirteenth Article of Faith and that really captures the spirit of seeking that you’ll experience in these episodes. These are rich, deeply researched explorations that bring together cutting-edge scholarship and spiritual wisdom to ask big questions about how we live.

In today’s episode, drawing on research from thinkers like Seth Kaplan and Pete Davis, we hear a compelling case that one of the central challenges of our time is a growing fear of commitment.

Our culture tells us that the best life is the one where we keep our options open. But the irony is that the things that make life richest—friendships, tight-knit neighborhoods, shared projects, belonging—become possible when we choose to commit to one another. Real, rooted, showing-up-again-and-again community.

Even though our tradition is built around covenant relationships, we’re living in the same cultural waters that pull toward busyness, mobility, and individualism.

This episode is both a diagnosis and an invitation. It’s full of ideas and stories that might make you want to knock on a neighbor’s door, join something local, or start something in your own community.

We hope it sends you back to your people—your neighbors, your ward, your community—with a little more fire.

And with that, here’s Article 13.

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STUDY “COME FOLLOW ME” WITH FAITH MATTERS

To receive Come Follow Me resource roundups from Faith Matters in your inbox, first be sure you are subscribed to the Faith Matters Substack, then go to manage your subscription and turn on notifications for “Come Follow Me”.

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SUBSCRIBE TO WAYFARE NOW TO RECEIVE ISSUE 7

Issue 7 will be mailed out soon! Become a Friend of Faith Matters or Wayfare paid subscriber by March 31 to receive your copy in the mail! Get a peek inside the issue here:

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OPPORTUNITY TO SUPPORT A FAITH MATTERS VOLUNTEER

NEW COURSE FROM THOMAS MCCONKIE AND LOWER LIGHTS

One Heart One Mind

Creating a Rule of Life: The True Monastery is Within

We’re excited to share that registration is now open for our Rule of Life course—a 5-week exploration in creating a deep and authentic spiritual rhythm for daily living…

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5 months ago

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Our guest today is Riley Risto, director of Latter-day Peace Studies, who joined the Church after a powerful mystical experience while praying about the Book of Mormon, an experience that centered his faith on Jesus and shaped his lifelong effort to take Christ’s teachings seriously in a world—and a Bible—full of violence and conflict.

In this episode, Riley invites us to engage scripture through what’s often called a cruciform lens—the idea that, if Jesus gives us the clearest picture of who God is, then his life and teachings should shape how we understand every Bible story. Instead of letting the most troubling passages define our image of God, we begin with Christ and the cross and allow his life—and his radical call to love our enemies—to guide the way we wrestle with the rest.

Along the way we explore what René Girard’s work on scapegoating might reveal about violence in scripture, what it might really mean to “take the Lord’s name in vain,” and what a Christ-centered reading could mean about justice.

Underneath it all is the conviction that we’re not meant to be casual observers of scripture, but participants—trusting that honest wrestling can refine our faith and discipleship. For us, this cruciform lens has sparked new curiosity and breathed new life into our scripture study this year, and we’re excited to share it with you.

If conversations like this are resonating with you, we’d love to invite you to explore more of the work we’re doing at Faith Matters. One podcast you might especially enjoy is Proclaim Peace, a joint project from Faith Matters and Mormon Women for Ethical Government.

Hosted by Jennifer Thomas and Patrick Mason, Proclaim Peace explores what it might look like to read scripture through a lens of peace—and how those teachings can shape the way we live, engage conflict, and show up in the world.

If this episode sparked something for you, we invite you to subscribe to Proclaim Peace on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. We think you’ll really appreciate the thoughtful conversations happening there.

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STUDY “COME FOLLOW ME” WITH FAITH MATTERS

To receive Come Follow Me resource roundups from Faith Matters in your inbox, first be sure you are subscribed to the Faith Matters Substack, then go to manage your subscription and turn on notifications for “Come Follow Me”.

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CATCH UP WITH WAYFARE

Issue 7 will be mailed out soon! Become a Friend of Faith Matters or Wayfare paid subscriber by March 31 to receive your copy in the mail!

Subscribe now

Subscribe to Wayfare

NEW COURSE FROM THOMAS MCCONKIE AND LOWER LIGHTS

One Heart One Mind

Creating a Rule of Life: The True Monastery is Within

We’re excited to share that registration is now open for our Rule of Life course—a 5-week exploration in creating a deep and authentic spiritual rhythm for daily living…

Read more

5 months ago

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