What is home? Do we feel at home with our families this holiday season, or do we feel anything alien? Do we dare spend our Thanksgivings and Christmases with friends and chosen family rather than biological family certain years? Or is it okay even to spend a holiday alone, if only to avoid the stress of the season? Join Tom, Ryan, and Aaron for our final YOBcast of the year as we discuss where – and with whom – we spend the holidays. We hope yours are merry and bright!
Kevin returns to talk about some of his latest reads! Including one of Tom’s favorite books, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller, which inspires you to live a life worth reading about. Tom and Kevin also talk about the magic of camp once again, early morning prayer gatherings at this year’s YOBBERS retreat, and a shared love for hoodies – sleeveless or otherwise.
As people of faith attracted to the same sex, we’ve learned to wait – and wait, and still wait. During this season of Advent, we connect our waiting for Christmas to our waiting for redemption, completeness, and peace. We share our histories with Advent, or lack thereof, both past and present, including our Christmas traditions. As we shift to our sexuality, we hold both our tension and our hope – our expectant waiting – with each hand.
Bridget Eileen Rivera (from Twitter!) joins us, along with her cat. She’s the author of the new book, Heavy Burdens: Seven Ways LGBTQ Christians Experience Harm in the Church (and just the second woman ever to appear on our show!). We discuss the burdens sexual minorities face regarding matters of so-called “clarity” in Scripture, stereotypical versions of masculinity/femininity, assumed pedophilia when working with children, and forced celibacy. Finally, we ask Bridget if her own choice to pursue celibacy stems from burdensome duty or life-giving joy?
Tom welcomes back our resident Filipino Londoner, and the second Daniel in as many weeks! We catch up with Daniel on the other side of COVID as he now attends three small groups simultaneously. We mourn the loss of our international flavor at this year’s YOBBERS retreat, but we also discuss possibly holding Zoom calls more relative to European time zones? With increasing UK and European support, Tom wants to travel overseas soon to visit Daniel and all the other YOBBERS. But does even the sparrow find a spare room? Finally, the guys share how they hear from Holy Spirit. Can you believe?!
Tom welcomes a longtime YOBBER to the show, and also the first guest to his recording studio! Dan has been pledging on Patreon since 2017, along with sharing a friendship with Tom that goes back to our first YOBBERS retreat in 2018. The guys discuss some shared travel stories from San Antonio to Albuquerque, including multiple traumatic events on the road that have forever bonded them.
Revoice exists to support and encourage Christians who are sexual minorities so they can flourish in historic Christian traditions. They recently held their first in-person conference since 2019, and we gathered to debrief our weekend together in Dallas! Which speakers resonated most with us? What moved us, and what challenged us? Join Tom, Ryan, and Aaron for our recap of Revoice 2021, including an inaugural gender minorities panel that will stick with us for a long time.
Tom welcomes his pastor to the show! Fred shares some tales from a recent road trip with his mom and unpacks his call to ministry, including how he never expected to be a lead pastor. He also describes his "coming in" story: his first interactions with gay people going all the way back to high school and college, and also his learning about "Side B" gay/SSA people in the church. What advice would Fred give to anyone listening who has never come out to a pastor before?
This summer Netflix released Pray Away, a documentary following the lives of former leaders of ex-gay ministries and survivors of conversion therapy. It's a heavy film, filled with heavy topics like abuse and self-harm. This may not be the podcast for you if it hits a bit close to home with your story. But if you watched the film and/or feel ready for our conversation on it, we hope this episode can be a blessing as we walk through the film's heaviness with you.
Tom welcomes back Matt as the technically “season premiere” guest for this next run of YOB ConvoCasts! The guys dive into “pool” workouts, favorite sandwiches, trivia night fortes, with the big meat of this conversation being the topic of Stitch Fix. Tom recently got a seasonal subscription and loves the notion of a stylish surprise; Matt, not so much! Tom also makes a declaration to Matt, effective October 2022, and involving a hot air balloon.