Today I talked to Kevin Sweeney about his newest book The Joy of Letting Go, eventually we got there, at least. First we talk about a lot of amazing things, his journey as a teenager using psychedelic mushrooms and meeting God, his journey into Bible College, his deconstruction from that understanding and into Black Womanist Liberation Theology. Kevin is a wise man with a unique journey, and that makes it hard to sum up our conversation in a paragraph. Kevin was co-founder and lead pastor of Imagine Church in Honolulu for almost ten years, He was co-founder of the Honolulu based creative collective The (un)Commons, He has also organized and taught multiple Enneagram Experience events in Hawaii and California, he helped lead Saying Grace, a curated gathering of dinners and stories between the church and the LGBTQ community in Honolulu. He is the host of podcast The Church Needs Therapy and is a best selling author. His two books are The Making of a Mystic: My Journey with Mushrooms, My Life as a Pastor, and Why Its Okay For Everyone to Relax, and The Joy of Letting Go. He currently lives and surfs In Honolulu with his wife and co-founder of Imagine, Christine, and their two kids, True and Mikayla. Listen to his podcast: https://rb.gy/iwemt Website: www.https://www.kevinsweeneynow.com/ His on Amazon: https://rb.gy/3i8sh Time Stamps for the episode: 2:19: Faith Roots and leaving the Catholic Church 7:48: Meeting God on Psychedelic Mushrooms, and an existential crisis 13:02: The search for whats real, not just whats right 18:09: Building a system of Belief at Bible College, then going emergent 22:53: A call to be a pastor and not knowing what that meant 27:35: The Summer of Emergent 33:11: Finding truth in Black Womanist Liberation Theology 38:16: Voices who shape us along the journey, stages of beleif 45:07: Voices from higher up the mountain speaking to us at different stages in different ways 51:17: Writing The Joy of Letting Go 57:29: Letting go is not spiritual bypassing but walking the paschal mystery 1:03:13: The Gospel narratives of Letting Go. 1:08:25: We dont want to wake up 1:10:18: Conclusion All Music for this episode is provided by Axeltree: @axletree Sponsors Quoir Square 2 Class: https://www.bk2sq1.com/square-2-next-steps-into-reconstruction (Promo code: Liminal for 10% off) Kineo Center: https://www.thekineocenter.com/cohort (mention "Liminal" in Application for $100 off) Monk Manual: https://monkmanual.com/LIMINAL (10% off all merchandise) Connect Find us on the web: https://liminalliving.simplecast.com/ Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liminalliving Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCseqDsKpQv2r7AbFfrWF0ow Follow us on Patheos: patheos.com/editorial/podcasts/liminal-living Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.