Faith Matters

We’re so excited to share a conversation that our friend and Executive Director, Zach Davis, had with Teresa Morgan, Professor at Yale Divinity School and a leading scholar of early Christian history.
Teresa invites us to reconsider one of the most central words in Christianity: faith. She explains that for the first generations of Christians, “faith” didn’t mean signing on to a list of beliefs. It meant something more like trust—faithfulness, trustworthiness, the act of entrusting your life to God. Faith was less about what you thought and more about the kind of relationship you were living: a daily, embodied trust in a faithful God.
But over time, as outside pressures mounted, Christian leaders drew clearer boundaries around belief. Creeds became markers of belonging, and faith—once rooted primarily in trust and lived allegiance—was increasingly defined by agreement with specific doctrines. That shift has shaped the Christian imagination ever since.
In this conversation, Zach and Teresa explore how that evolution happened, what may have been lost, and what it might look like to recover a richer, more relational vision of faith today. 
We also want to mention that this interview is featured in the upcoming Issue 7 of Wayfare, and that this is a special edition centering women’s voices on the theme of trust—trust in God, in ourselves, and in our communities. It’s a beautiful and thoughtful collection that we are really proud of. You can read this interview, and see the beautiful artwork that accompanies it, at WayfareMagazine.org.
If you’d like to receive your own copy of Wayfare in the mail, you can become a Friend of Faith Matters or a paid Wayfare subscriber by March 31. Your support is what makes conversations like this possible, and we’re so grateful.
Join us March 6 in SLC for Interfaith REPAIR: a peacemaking workshop from Waymakers!

Today we’re so excited to share our conversation with Bruce Tift, author, psychotherapist and longtime practitioner of Vajrayana Buddhism. This summer, our friends at Uplift Kids introduced us to Bruce’s fascinating book Already Free, and we’ve been thinking about it ever since.
In this conversation, Bruce dives into some of the ideas in the book. He explores how to make peace with being human. He looks at two seemingly opposing paths—both Western and Eastern wisdom—and shows how each offers a vital piece of the puzzle. Where psychotherapy may teach us to bring our early wounds and disowned emotions into awareness, Buddhist practices help us recognize the deeper freedom that’s available when we stop identifying with the fixed self.
We loved that Bruce talked us through the ways we organize around our core fears, why so many of our childhood survival strategies still run the show in adulthood, and why real freedom often begins with simply allowing ourselves to feel uncomfortable without trying to fix or escape.
Bruce’s insights feel so useful for navigating seasons of growth—emotional, spiritual, and relational.
This conversation really helped us see that personal growth isn’t about achieving some ideal version of ourselves—it’s about meeting our actual experience with curiosity, compassion, and presence. We found Bruce’s wisdom to be gentle, honest, and deeply liberating, and we’re so grateful he joined us.
You can find Already Free on Bookshop.org, Amazon, or wherever you buy your books, and you can find even more from Faith Matters on this topic in this week's newsletter on our website, faithmatters.org.
Join us March 6 in SLC for Interfaith REPAIR: a peacemaking workshop from Waymakers!

As we explore the Old Testament this year, we’ve found ourselves returning to a past conversation with our friend Terryl Givens. It felt grounding and expansive and we're really excited to share it with you again.
The Old Testament can be incredibly rich—full of beauty, poetry, and profound spiritual insights. But it can also sometimes feel bewildering or even faith-shaking. We get glimpses of a loving, nurturing God—and turn the page to encounter a God that seems angry, even violent. It's a text that raises big questions and invites us into deep wrestles. And maybe that’s part of its sacredness—that it pushes us into such honest, meaningful conversation.
In this episode, Terryl helps us navigate those tensions. Together, we ask: What is the Bible, really, and where did it come from? What do different translations of this text have to offer, and how can we engage with this scripture in a posture of reverence and discernment that allows for mystery, and honors the sacredness of the whole landscape.
We loved Terryl’s insights in this conversation, and we’re so grateful to revisit them now. Thanks so much for listening—we hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did.
For more on this topic, and for weekly resources to accompany your Come Follow Me study, be sure to check out the Faith Matters newsletter at faithmatters.org.
Join us March 6 in SLC for Interfaith REPAIR: a peacemaking workshop from Waymakers!

Hey everyone, this is Aubrey Chaves from Faith Matters. Today I’m excited to share my conversation with Katie Ludlow Rich and Heather Sundahl about 50 Years of Exponent II, their new book tracing the history of a space where Latter-day Saint women have engaged the most urgent questions of their time—while also honoring the dailiness of life.
The roots of this effort go back to 1872, when women began publishing the Woman’s Exponent to speak for themselves and stay connected across distance. A century later, Exponent II carried that work forward—not to create consensus, but to make room for complexity, difference, and the kind of deep listening that makes real community possible.
And that’s what this conversation is about—what it takes to stay in relationship, even when ground we used to share—whether in belief, perspective, or experience—starts to shift. We’re probably all navigating this now in some spaces, in families, wards, or friendships. And so today, Katie and Heather explore the difference between discomfort and danger, how we can sit with the tension of disagreement without walking away, and what it means to listen not to persuade, but to witness—to be present with someone else’s experience, even when it’s different from our own.
Katie is a writer and independent scholar of women’s history. Heather is a marriage and family therapist in Orem, Utah. 
This was a deeply personal conversation, and we’re so grateful to Katie and Heather for showing up with such honesty and care. Their own lived experiences have led them down different paths, and it was a gift to sit with them in dialogue—watching the ways they do this together and make space for others to do the same. That kind of wisdom is hard won, and we’re honored to share it with you now.
You can find their book, 50 Years of Exponent II, on Amazon, Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold.
Join us March 6 in SLC for Interfaith REPAIR: a peacemaking workshop from Waymakers!

We’ve all heard it called a sifting—the language that sometimes surfaces when someone is struggling or steps away from the Church. Wheat from tares, sheep from goats, a sorting in the last days that reveals truly elect.

But today, our good friend and contributor Jeff Strong is back to invite us into a deeper reflection on that idea—and what he sees as the more essential question: Who is the Church for?

Jeff shares how the way we answer that question has real implications—shaping how we respond to difference, and how we create (or close off) spaces for spiritual growth, belonging, and trust.

In this conversation, he also brings new and fascinating findings from his large-scale survey of Latter-day Saints. Jeff introduces a framework of spiritual segments that emerged from the data—types like Seekers, Protectors, Cultivators, and more. It’s illuminating to see yourself in one of these groups—but maybe even more powerful to recognize how others might experience the same Church culture in radically different ways.

He reflects on the tension people feel when their deepest values don’t seem to match what’s emphasized in their church experience. And he offers a way through that tension: wherever you fit, we each face the challenge to let go of fear—because fear, more than anything else, is what drives us apart.

Ultimately, this conversation isn’t about disaffiliation or activity—it’s about relationships. It’s about how we respond to differences, how we hold tension as a community, and whether we’re building a church culture that reflects the expansive, welcoming love of Christ.

And just a heads up: the story Jeff tells toward the end might sound familiar––in fact, Sister Dennis used it in conference this year, though we recorded this episode before conference, so we didn’t tie it in at the time.

Also, there are some really interesting graphs and charts that Jeff mentions that are in the YouTube version of this conversation if you’d like to watch this one instead, or you can search the episode on faithmatters.org and see them there.
Join us March 6 in SLC for Interfaith REPAIR: a peacemaking workshop from Waymakers!