Super happy to be bringing you a new two-parter! Can’t wait for you hear this one!
Are you deconstructing your faith and wondering how you can still hold on to the good bits? Are you a creative person looking for success in an industry, and wondering how to keep your head on straight? Me too!
I’d be honored for you to take half an hour and check out my fascinating conversation with Jeff Gill
, who I met here on the Substack network. He pens a daily email I get called (fforest.substack.com.) and it rocks. It’s brilliant, hilarious, silly, and always thought-provoking.(Check out the transcript tab if you want to follow along - or click on this pic if you want to go to YouTube and watch our convo in video format!)
We dive into my time deeply entrenched in the Christian music scene in Nashville, and my work to find my own place in it. And we talk about the role of hope to keep us going, through whatever life throws at us, especially negative church stuff. And, of course, we talk about the power of music to sustain.
And Jeff is deeply honest about his own struggles losing faith while still being a pastor in an American church. He now lives in England with his family (and I can’t wait to meet him in person!). Please check out (and subscribe to) Jeff’s work at
- fforest.substack.com. You’ll thank me.HIGHLIGHTS:
4:34 - My move to Nashville and deep dive into the Christian music scene
7:40 - Not having the CCM red carpet rolled out for me
8:51 - Setting out on my own course
10:20 - Getting my identity wrapped up in the wrong things
11:23 - I needed a new perspective and moved back to Minnesota
12:39 - How God looks at us with love and affection, even me
13:18 - Jeff describes the unraveling of his faith, while being a pastor
18:26 - How has my faith remained, or has it?
20:08 - I want to find the good stuff about Christianity
20:33 - How hope sustained me while feeling hopeless
24:02 - Am I a naturally spiritual person?
26:08 - Where I’m at spiritually now
29:09 - What does it mean to “die to yourself”?
And in the next episode, we’ll flesh out the concept of hope even more, and how to make it super practical.
Unraveling My Creative Life & Faith - A Conversation with Jeff Gill