Skyla shares her story of serving on a team called End Bible Poverty Now at Youth With A Mission's (YWAM) Kona campus in Hawaii, where she pushed leadership to support outreach to deaf communities. When she raised the issue, she was accused of being rude for crying and told she needed more discipleship. Skyla describes being tested, gaslit, and slowly pushed off her team, all while a separate clergy sexual abuse case was being quietly managed on campus. After she was let go, campus security p...
Sep 17
1 hr 40 min
Shelby returns to finish her story of leaving Youth With A Mission (YWAM) after almost 20 years. Two friends she trusted rise to lead her base, and when she raises concerns about how they treat people, she is accused of attacking them. She is pushed off a program she built, then invited onto their leadership team to quiet her down instead. She takes a sabbatical during the pandemic and starts naming what happened to her as spiritual abuse. When her husband tries to renew the farm lease his fa...
Sep 11
1 hr 37 min
Shelby joins us to share her story of almost 20 years with Youth With A Mission (YWAM), a Christian missions group with bases in nearly every country. She signs up at 24 to earn a counseling degree, hoping to help missionaries get better care. Instead, she is pushed to share painful secrets with strangers, watches a visiting speaker ask young women to sit on his lap for healing, and lives under a daily schedule that tracks her every move. She pushes through the flu because stopping looks weak...
Sep 10
1 hr 31 min
In this episode, Jay and Johnna introduce a new series featuring first hand stories from Youth With A Mission (YWAM). Before the storytellers share what happened to them, we take a step back and look at the roots. We cover who Loren Cunningham was, the Assemblies of God upbringing that shaped him, and how YWAM grew from a beach vision into a network of thousands of bases around the world with no central oversight. We also break down the Seven Mountain Mandate, an idea Loren helped start that ...
Sep 8
37 min
Keri Ladner is the author of American Dominion: The Rise and Radicalization of a New Christendom. Her book traces the roots of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and Dominion theology in the United States. She began her research while studying the Columbine shooting and how it was later used to build the martyr myths tied to this movement. Ladner also writes about these topics on Substack. American Dominion: The Rise and Radicalization of a New Christendom - Book LinkSupport the show
Aug 19
51 min
Bel joins us from Australia to share her story of growing up in a church in the Sydney Anglican Diocese. When she was six, she nearly died in an accident at church. Soon after, her family moved to a new church led by a man we call Rev T. He called himself a counselor and claimed he could help people no doctor could. Bel describes a community shaped by control, fear, and the constant feeling of being watched. She shares how Rev T's counsel tore her family apart, how her sister was sent away fr...
Jul 22
1 hr 24 min
In this episode, our storyteller Jane shares her years inside Chi Alpha, the college campus ministry of the Assemblies of God (AG). What began as a warm, welcoming community slowly turned into something else. Jane describes the pressure to lead, the strict rules over her time, friendships, money, and even her food and health, and the spiritual control that kept her silent for years. She walks us through her path from new student to leader, intern, and full staff missionary. She talks about th...
Jul 1
57 min
Michelle shares her story of serving on staff at a church in Indiana, where subtle control, blurred pastoral authority, financial pressure, and spiritual manipulation slowly became clear over time. Her story names the confusion of being labeled, silenced, and pushed to question herself while navigating deep personal and family crisis. Through telling the truth, Michelle begins reclaiming the voice she was told to bury. Support the show
May 8
1 hr 25 min
Katie shares her story of growing up in a highly controlled religious environment, entering a young marriage shaped by strict gender roles, and spending years overseas as a missionary. Through the pressures of ministry, isolation, and motherhood, she began to recognize patterns of emotional and spiritual harm in her life. This episode follows her journey of unraveling those beliefs, finding her voice, and taking steps toward healing and freedom. Support the show
Apr 17
1 hr 43 min
Katherine shares her journey from a young missionary sent overseas to confronting the realities of faith, sacrifice, and survival. Raised in the church and driven by a deep sense of purpose, she and her husband moved to the Middle East in their early twenties, navigating cultural barriers, personal risk, and the complexities of mission work. After experiencing trauma, health crises, and the unraveling of expectations, Katherine reflects on identity, belief, and what it means to rebuild life a...
Apr 3
1 hr 7 min
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