If you’ve ever felt on the fringes of Christian faith this is a safe space for you. Your questions, doubts and hopes are all welcome here. We’re creating conversations, affirmations, meditations and other resources to support you on your spiritual journey and let you know that even if you feel like a misfit, you don’t have to feel alone.
Is it Ethical to Have Kids? / Would Aliens Change Your Theology?
Will, Mitch and Caro get round the table and discuss some listener questions, like: Is it actually unethical to have kids given the state of the world? how do you respond to thought-stopping church clichés? And then Will shares the question on his mind: do you believe in aliens, and would it matter to your theology if they showed up tomorrow? Take the Spiritual Misfits Listener Survey (5 minutes, helps shape exciting new things we're working on): https://forms.gle/Ce596SzAaDMFiXap7 Previous Spiritual Misfits episodes mentioned: Blood, Wrath & Love: What Actually Happened on the Cross? (with Mitch Forbes) A More Christlike God: Bradley Jersak on Faith After Deconstruction Future Church Series: Uncle Ray Minniecon and the Scarred Tree The Documentary Will mentions: UFOs: Investigating the Unknown — National Geographic documentary series on Disney+ Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
Future Church Series: Uncle Ray Minniecon and the Scarred Tree
We're kicking off a new mini-series looking back at talks from Future Church Conference 2026 — after playing a short excerpt from the talk, Will and Caro unpack it together. First up: Uncle Ray Minniecon, a Kabi Kabi and Goreng Goreng elder of South East Queensland, with South Sea Islander heritage. Uncle Ray co-founded Scarred Tree Ministries in Glebe, Sydney, and has spent decades as a leading voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice, reconciliation, and self-determination within the Australian church. NOTE: The full version of Uncle Ray's talk (and all other Future Church keynotes) will be available at https://futurechurchcon.com/ very soon! Check back in the coming days (we are just finalising these free resources). Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
'Fish with Feet: Human Evolution & the Image of God (Janet Kellogg Ray)
Janet Kellogg Ray returns to Spiritual Misfits to talk about her new book, Fish with Feet: Human Evolution and the Image of God . We dig into why human evolution remains uniquely offensive even to people who accept evolution everywhere else, debunk the "if we came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?" myth, and explore what it means to be evolved creatures, made in the Image of God. Janet argues the real motivation behind most anti-evolution theology isn't evidence, it's a need to protect a prior doctrine (original sin, biblical inerrancy), and that starting with the evidence instead doesn't have to mean losing your faith, it might mean finding a more honest one. Order the new book here: https://www.eerdmans.com/9780802885616/fish-with-feet/ Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
Gay, not Queer? Responding to Matthew Vines (Karl Hand)
Matthew Vines has spent many years making the case that Christians can and should embrace same-sex marriage — his book God and the Gay Christian helped a generation of people reconcile their faith and sexuality. So when he recently distanced himself from queer theology, first in a conversation on the Uncommon Ground podcast and then in a New York Times piece titled "I'm Gay, Not Queer. It Matters," it set off a firestorm. Karl Hand — pastor at Crave Church (Metropolitan Community Church), theologian, and longtime friend of the show — joins Will to sit inside the mess of it. This is a conversation that tries to hold two things at once: real, substantive pushback on where Matthew's argument goes wrong, and real gratitude for what his earlier work made possible. Along the way, Karl untangles what "queer" actually means across identity, activism, and theory, three things Karl argues Matthew's article quietly collapses into one. A note before you press play : this conversation touches on trauma connected to church rejection, queerphobia, and sexual ethics. Take care of yourself, and feel entirely free to skip this one if it's not what you need right now. The Matthew Vines NYT article: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/30/opinion/queer-gay-rights.html Books Karl references: Butler, Judith (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge. Rubin, Gayle (1984). "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality." In Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality. Boston: Routledge. Halperin, David M. (1995) Saint Foucault: Towards a gay hagiography. Oxford University Press. Matthew Vines quoted Halperin without providing broader context. Here are those quotes in their original context: “Queer is by definition whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant. There is nothing in particular which it necessarily refers. It is an identity without an essence. "Queer," then, demarcates not a positivity but a positionality vis-a-vis the normative—a positionality that is not restricted to lesbians and gay men but is in fact available to anyone who is or who feels marginalized because of her or his sexual practices: it could include some married couples without children, for example, or even (who knows?) some married couples with children—with, perhaps, very naughty children.” p. 62 “Perhaps I should say that I don't intend this argument to be understood as advocating the adoption of the term "queer" in preference to the term "gay" or as providing partisan support for the politics of Queer Nation. First of all, it is not for me to suggest what words the members of sexual constituencies should use to designate or identify themselves. Second, the only thing that need be said about Queer Nation in this context is that it is significantly less queer, in the sense in which I am using the term, than, say, ACT UP, whose style of direct-action politics and activist glamor Queer Nation has attempted to replicate for the purpose of creating a movement of young lesbian and gay radicals defined by no other issue than that of sexual orientation.” p. 63 Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
Post-evangelical parenting? [Replay]
Today is a replay of one of the most listened-to Spiritual Misfits episodes of all time — not because of a spike when it dropped, but because people just keep coming back to it. Every week, someone finds this conversation and sends it to a friend, or stumbles across it scrolling back through the feed. Becca, Caro and Will discuss the question: for those of us who grew up in evangelical Christian households, how are we raising our kids today? Even if that's not your exact story — not everyone grew up evangelical, not everyone has kids — there's something about reflecting on inheritance: what we keep, what we leave behind, and why it matters to think carefully about both. This episode is three years old, which means we're all in slightly different places than we were then. We're planning to revisit this topic in an upcoming episode — and before we do, we'd love to hear from you. Got a question or a story about how parenting and faith has shifted for you over time? Email hello@spiritualmisfits.com.au. Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
Hope is complicated: faith, climate anxiety and action (Jessica Morthorpe)
When people ask Jessica Morthorpe what gives her hope, she gets a little wary. Sometimes it feels like they're really asking for permission to stop worrying — to feel better so they don't have to act. And that's why hope is complicated. Offered too cheaply, it becomes a sedative. In this episode, Will and Caro speak with Jess — founder of the Five Leaf Eco Awards — about sitting honestly in that tension. How can we nurture hope that grows through participation, community and action? Along the way the three explore why caring for creation was never a fringe issue, how a community garden can become a place that literally saves lives, sitting with climate grief without rushing past it, and the ancient gifts the church has been carrying all along — that might be exactly what an anxious and lonely world needs now. Connect with more of Jessica's work at: https://fiveleafecoawards.org/ https://climatepastoralcare.thinkific.com/ Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
Slow Down (a Winter Contemplation)
Carolyn Meers guides us through a winter reflection on the healing power of slowing down. Where ever you find yourself when you hit 'play' this is a kind and gentle invitation to move differently through whatever activities this day may hold, drawing on an ancient prayer from St Aidan of Lindisfarne, alongside some poetry by Mary Oliver. Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
Queering theology, doubting God, making room (Pearl Nunn, Kevin Crouse, Mitch Forbes)
Pearl is a queer pastor with a PhD in history. Rev Kev is a former missionary who now sometimes identifies as an atheist pastor. Together, they are forming a new church community in Maitland — with misfits front of mind. Will is joined by Pearl and Kev in Mitch Forbes' office, where the four of them have a conversation about queering the bible, exploring negative/apophatic theology and how these approaches might translate into the formation of a new church. Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
Pub Theology: apologists, grifters and surprising churchgoers
Are apologists grifters? What happened to all the New Atheists? Can progressives Christians present a more compelling vision of faith that still has some backbone? Mitch and Will get into a free-ranging pub theology conversation that somehow ends up exactly where it needs to — thinking about what it looks like to communicate a more beautiful, more honest vision of Christianity for the times we live in. Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
How should we think about war? Four views (with Micah Hurst and Becca De Souza)
Is violence ever justified? Are there wars Christians should support? If so, what would the conditions need to be? If not, why not? In this episode Will and Caro are joined by friend of the pod Becca De Souza and Micah Hurst, pastor at Ashfield Baptist Church, to explore four historic Christian frameworks for thinking about war: from crusades and preventative war through just war theory, biblical nonresistance, and Christian pacifism. Along the way they wrestle with the gap between personal conviction and national policy, what nonviolence actually looks like in practice, and whether a world of mutually assured blessing is possible, instead of the current state of play. Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
3 spiritual directors walk into a podcast (Sally Jones, Peter Ellem & Kym Dixon)
What is spiritual direction — and could it be what your soul has been looking for? In this episode, Caro sits down with three trained spiritual directors — Sally Jones, Peter Ellem, and Kym Dixon — for a warm, honest conversation about the ancient practice of spiritual accompaniment. Together they explore what spiritual direction actually is (and isn't), how it differs from therapy or pastoral care, why people seek it out, and what it can offer people navigating faith transitions, religious trauma, or simply a longing for something more. All guests share from their own experience — both as directors and as people who have been directed — and the conversation is rich with hard-won wisdom about the spiritual life. If you've ever felt like you needed a gentle place to land, this one's for you. Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
‘The Fossil of Us’ — what mark will we leave?
Will has a new collection of poetry out in the world — 'The Fossil of Us' — and Caro interviews him about the themes it explores. Along the way they discuss grief, masculinity, faith and what it means to be human, with Will reading a few poems as they go. Get the book here in Australia or on Amazon for international orders. Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
The Crisis After the Crisis/Tethered to Hope (Adriel Booker)
What do you do with your faith after crisis — when the casseroles have stopped coming, people have moved on, and you're left in a strange in-between space between who you were and who you are becoming? Adriel Booker is an author, writer and dual Australian-American citizen whose latest book, Tethered to Hope , grew out of exactly that kind of liminal season — a succession of pregnancy losses, a move from Sydney to South Australia, leaving full-time ministry after 22 years, and a dark night of the soul she wrote through rather than out of. In this conversation, Caro and Will sit down with Adriel to explore what it means to be held when you can't feel it, why the shift from believing to beloving matters more than we think, and how we learn to inhabit our bodies and our faith when both feel unfamiliar. Note: Will needed to (reluctantly!) leave part-way through this interview, in case you notice his absence towards the end. Tethered to Hope is available wherever you buy books. Find Adriel at adrielbooker.com. Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
Does God even have a plan? Who for? (Roundtable: Will, Caro, Mitch, Becca)
Does God actually have a specific plan for your life? This is the inaugural Spiritual Misfits 'roundtable', and Will is joined by three friends of the pod — Caro, Mitch, and Becca — to wrestle with a question that came straight from the listener Facebook group. It's one of those topics that can land very personally for many of us: how much of the inertia, anxiety, and lost time that people carry came from being told to wait for divine direction that never came? The conversation moves through inherited frameworks, purity culture's meticulous God, the gendered politics of who gets the prophecy, and whether the whole question needs reframing — from what is God's will for my life to what is God doing among us, and how do we join in . Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
How to be Human in a Machine Age (Graham Hill)
What does AI reveal about where we've located our sense of worth? Graham Hill — theologian, and author of more than 30 books, including his recent release Born, Not Built: God's Children in an Age of AI — joins Will to explore what Christian faith has to say about human dignity in an age of intelligent machines. They discuss the 'Imago Dei', the difference between truth and plausibility, transhumanism as a contemporary Babel story, and what it looks like practically to raise kids and build communities with wisdom right now. Get Graham's new book discusses in this episode: Born, Not Built Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
Four years in, and what comes next?
After 200+ Spiritual Misfit episodes, Will sits down with long-time friend of the podcast (and new co-host!) Caro Meers to look backwards — and forwards. How did Spiritual Misfits begin? What's kept it going? And what does the next chapter look like with Caro on board? A conversation about community, curiosity, and why this little Australian podcast keeps finding people who need it. Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
Silence as Resistance (Sally Longley) [Replay]
This conversation with Sally Longley was first published in October, 2024. We're bringing it back because it feels timely and relevant. In a world that is loud, violent, and relentless, Sally Longley offers something quietly radical — a way of being present to the chaos without being consumed by it. We talk about Sally's commitment to nonviolence forged in apartheid-era South Africa, the transformative power of silence, Ignatian spirituality, deep listening, and what it might mean to build communities where people can come exactly as they are. Connect with Sally's work at longley.com.au Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
Is the Resurrection Just a Metaphor?
It's Easter Sunday, and for the first time in Spiritual Misfits history, Caro and Mitch are in the same conversation. To mark the occasion, we're wrestling with the question that sits at the heart of the Easter story: did the resurrection actually happen — and does it matter how we answer that? Will, Caro and Mitch explore the tension between resurrection as historical event and resurrection as metaphor, why Good Friday can feel more honest than Easter Sunday and what it means to be a person of the resurrection. Whatever you believe about the resurrection there's room for you and your curiosity in this conversation. Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
On Shedding: a Contemplation (Carolyn Meers)
Carolyn Meers guides us through a contemplation for autumn. As the leaves turn and fall from the trees, what might we let go of? Caro shares her observations then leads us through an embodied practice you can do almost anywhere (even if you're driving or walking your dog while you listen). Future Church Conference | May 28, Parramatta Town Hall Spiritual Misfits listeners can get $10 off tickets now, using the code SPIRITUALMISFITS at check-out. Come be part of a conversation about climate justice, embodied spirituality, AI vs human wisdom and how the church ought to respond when the world feels like it's on fire. With guests like Uncle Ray Minniecon, Tanya Riches, Sally Douglas, Simon Buckingham-Shum, Jione Havea and others, we'd love to see you there. More information and tickets via https://futurechurchcon.com/ Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
Beyond Binary: AI, Paul, Jesus and Human Consciousness (Ken Davidson)
Ken Scott D is an author and thinker exploring the evolution of human intelligence, faith, and relational capacity in an age of rapid technological change. His work examines AI and modern technologies as extensions of human perception, and invites the church into a renewed vocation as a steward of relational and spiritual intelligence during times of transition. In this conversation we explore his framework for reading the Christian story not primarily as a moral system but as a map of human consciousness maturing — and what that means for how we understand the Bible, the church, Paul, Jesus, and the arrival of AI. We get into: The Fall as the moment binary consciousness enters the human story Why the Law was necessary but was never the destination The difference between how Jesus and Paul think — and why that difference may be one of the most important theological questions of our time How the church might think about AI and the moment we find ourselves in Follow Ken’s substack: https://substack.com/@kscottdavidson Keep an eye out for Beyond Binary when it lands. Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you. The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide Sign up to our mailing list: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/ Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast Support the pod: https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/ View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
