Sometimes in life ordinary objects can come to represent something more. I know from experience. In this episode I share why throwing away a worn and holy washcloth and towel has been especially challenging for me at this time in my life.

In this episode I decided to share something that I am learning in this season of my life and that is doing the hard work. I have wanted to quit so bad in this chapter of my life. I am not where I wanna be, not doing what I want to do and not really enjoying the process. But in spite of what I’m feeling and how it looks like and where I am. I know that I am doing the hard work.

If I could describe my relationship with the Lord these past few years it’s that I’ve not lost my belief in God’s existence. However, I do or have struggled to understand what it means to put my hope in God, especially when life hasn’t turned out the way I expected it to.

Growing up in church for some, felt like having religion shoved down their throat. My older sister didn’t grow up in church like my other siblings and I. She came to church and Christianity a little later in her childhood. And with that I could see how she could feel like her experience growing up felt forced. So we talked about it. And try to answer the question, what’s the difference between growing up in a religious environment vs having religion forced on you?

In this episode, I talk about why there hasn’t been any new episodes of the podcast for about a year and also why I created Growing Up Church and my initial vision for the podcast.

“What benefits do you find in belonging to Jesus?” This is a question a friend of mine and listener of the show asked if I could answer on the podcast. But I struggled to answer the question of belonging because I realized I didn’t feel like I belonged. And that realization led me to ask myself “What does it mean to belong to Jesus?”. So to help me answer this question I invited two other friends of mine to help me answer this question.

Deconstructing one’s faith is a process that I have started to become more aware about through various podcasts and social media posts but also something I know very little about. So in this episode I decided to invite my good friend Grace, co-host of the podcast Graced With Questions, to help me define what it means to deconstruct your faith along with why we don’t talk about that in church.

In this episode I reflect on what I learned about myself this year and how I plan on moving into 2022, Lord willing!

I invited my good friend Lydia back to the GUC podcast to talk about her experience abroad in Bible college and how that has changed or even enlightened her personal relationship with God.

On this episode of Growing Up Church my guest Lauren uses Facebook to have conversations about issues within the Christian church. So in this episode we’re going to talk a little about her decision to have these conversations as well as have her share about her own growing up church experiences.