On Megachurch Implosions and Rebuilding Community

In this session, Jane Kennedy chats with podcasters Michael Frost and Shane Meyer-Holt about the origins of “In The Shift” Podcast. The tagline for the show is “For when life and faith go offscript”. They talked about why it felt important to speak up about people’s experiences of leaving faith and church and how it’s been for them to carry so many stories of harm and grief. 

Both researchers and writers interested in theology and community, they’ve covered easy topics on the pod like hell and megachurch implosions in New Zealand and Australia. Both gents are also committed to community building after losing so much in unhealthy faith spaces, and the conversation ended with how we might do that, what it could look like. As Michael says, “this is the work of our time”.

We acknowledge the Indigenous people of the lands we have recorded on. Our speakers and hosts are located on Aboriginal Country all across the lands now called Australia and Maori lands across Aoteoroa. We pay our respect to Indigenous elders who are custodians of these lands and extend that respect to any Indigenous people attending our event.