In Episode 8, Adam & Melissa get into how spiritually esoteric beliefs and practices in the hyper-charismatic churches (such as Bethel, IHOPKC, & MorningStar) have harmed many people's lives. They open up about the impact of this on their own experience, and how so much of the teaching is actually unintelligible, pie-in-the-sky nonsense. Also, Adam & Melissa hone in on how the impact happens at the intersection of human agency and spiritual abuse. Beyond that, they explore how gaslighting and spiritual bypassing is harmful when survivors try to tell their story of what happened to them, at the hands of spiritual leaders who deny it.

In this episode, Adam & Melissa share more openly about their ongoing process of working through layers of grief 14 years into leaving church and in the deconstruction process. They seek to give all of us permission to make space for our own process and journey, no matter what it looks like or where each of us are.

In this episode, Adam & Melissa talk through the impact of the Firefly investigation report findings on the abuse at IHOPKC by Mike Bickle and others. They also process through the Shawn Bolz prophetic manipulation at Bethel, and specific ways that high control groups tend to condition us to check our brains at the door. In all this, baked into the system are illusions of hope (i.e. a Pot of Gold) that were promised but never a reality.

In this episode of Grit In the Wild Podcast, Adam & Melissa have a raw conversation about their latest thoughts on sitting with discomfort and owning emotions in the wake of charismatic church scandals @ Bethel & IHOPKC. We are the bodies behind the bus who can't not speak out any longer. How much more "grace" do you give church leaders who have a long history and pattern of covering up abuse?

In this Episode #4, Adam & Melissa have an honest conversation about their own journey of peeling back the layers of deconstructing toxic faith years later after leaving Bethel and hyper-charismatic cultish environments. This episode will also hit on "honor" (silent) culture and the harm it causes, and Adam & Melissa's experience in recovering from it.

In this episode, Melissa shares some of her story of spiritual abuse and religious trauma that she experienced, and the journey of recovery. Trigger Warning: Spiritual Abuse, Religious Trauma, & CSA

In our 2nd Episode, Adam shares some of his story of experiencing spiritual abuse while serving as a missionary in Africa, as well as the fallout that happened with the missions organization in Kansas City. Trigger Warning: Spiritual Abuse & Religious Trauma

This episode sets the stage for our journey thru spiritual abuse, cultish orgs, religious trauma, toxic faith, deconstruction, etc. We will be sharing more from our stories in upcoming episodes! Trigger Warning for spiritual abuse.

Hosts: Adam & Melissa Short