Honoring the Journey

This conversation with Vernique Esther went so many places, and I loved every minute of it! Vernique grew up in a beautiful and sometimes chaotic mix of denominations, cultures, and ideas about God, shaped by her Haitian and West African roots. Her journey eventually led her into a legalistic campus ministry that she now describes as “culty,” an early marriage that ended in devastating infidelity and divorce, and the political upheaval of 2016 that caused the cracks in her faith to break wide open. We talked about purity culture, patriarchal church systems, and the impossible burden so many women were taught to carry—the idea that we were somehow the “moral vessels” responsible for holding everything together. We were expected to suffer well, forgive endlessly, stay faithful, remain quiet, and somehow keep everyone else from falling apart, even when we were the ones being deeply harmed.Today, Vernique describes her faith as a Jesus-centered, non-religious spirituality. We had such an honest conversation about separating the character of Jesus from some of the violent and troubling portrayals of God we encounter elsewhere in Scripture, and what it looks like to keep following Jesus after so much of the religious framework around him has fallen away.Vernique also shared her powerful concept of “trauma languages”—the patterns our pain can create in relationships, including control and rejection sensitivity—and opened up about who holds space for her while she continues doing her own healing.Find out more about Vernique here: www.verniqueesther.com Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.comIf you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today, Leslie has a conversation with Rob Zahn, a Lutheran pastor and author of LSD to Galilee. The episode weaves together Rob's unconventional path into ministry, the story of discovering his estranged father on his deathbed and uncovering his father's ties to a 1960s drug-smuggling countercultural movement (the Brotherhood of Eternal Love), and a deeply theological conversation about certainty, deconstruction, and where the divine can be found — including surprising historical and academic parallels between psychedelics and early Christian/religious practice. Together they explore themes of doubt, humility, religious trauma, freedom in faith, and staying curious rather than certain. Get Rob's book LSD to Galilee here!   Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.comIf you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode of Honoring the Journey, we hear from the lovely Promise Backlund (Eve Was Framed), a former worship leader in Charismatic Churches, to discuss her deconstruction from an evangelical upbringing to eventual atheism. We explore themes like the fear of hell and losing salvation, the loss and rebuilding of authentic friendships, navigating family relationships after leaving the faith, and the difference between dogmatic belief and lived kindness — all tied to her new book, The Gospel of Lies: Surviving and Resisting Evangelical Extremism. Follow Promise: Instagram TikTok Facebook YouTube Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.comIf you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode of Honoring the Journey, Leslie sits down with writer, artist, playwright, and speaker Rob Bell—someone whose work had a tremendous impact on her own deconstruction journey. If you’ve spent any time questioning or reexamining the faith you inherited, chances are you’ve come across Rob’s work. His groundbreaking book Love Wins famously landed him in hot water within evangelical circles for challenging long-held beliefs about hell, salvation, and the character of God.   In this rich and vulnerable conversation, Rob reflects on what it was like to experience rejection from the evangelical world he had once been such a prominent part of, and shares some beautiful wisdom for anyone currently navigating a season of questioning, uncertainty, or deconstruction. He also catches us up on life now—what he’s creating, what he’s discovering, and what midlife is teaching him about growth, identity, and becoming. This conversation is thoughtful, funny, tender, and full of the kind of wisdom that makes you want to grab a notebook. You won’t want to miss this one! Want to listen to the series Jesus H. Christ that Leslie & Rob spoke about? HERE is a link to the first episode!  Find out more about Rob's work and where you can find him online on his website: https://robbell.com/ Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.comIf you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today on Honoring the Journey, Leslie welcomes back Britt Hartley from No-nonsense Spirituality for a wide-ranging conversation about navigating relationships with family members who are still religious after leaving the faith. The two cover the emotional dynamics of deconstruction, including the desperate need for validation, the defensive reactions of loved ones, and why leading with vulnerability rather than debate tends to be far more effective for maintaining connection. They explore how differing core values (truth-seeking vs. loyalty) can explain why people have such vastly different experiences within the same religion, discuss the ethics of sharing one's evolving worldview publicly without destabilizing others, and reflect on what it means to follow Jesus outside of institutional religion. The conversation also touches on existential crisis, the psychological benefits of releasing the need for ultimate truth, and the meaningful distinction between religious deconstruction coaching and spiritual direction — all woven together with warmth, humor, and a shared sense that human-to-human connection ultimately transcends theological differences. Find Britt online! Her Website Instagram TikTok Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease. To help her keep these stories coming and fund the podcast expenses, you can donate here.Pick up Leslie's book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.Interested in working with Leslie as your Spiritual Director or Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.comIf you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.