Latest / MIDDLE GROUND - Real Conversations on Faith, Identity & Becoming — Through Brynne's LDS Lens of Curiosity, Love and Doubt / *Introducing FAITH IN PROCESS*: The LDS Faith Expansion Community I Wish I Had When My Faith Was Falling Apart
Transcript
- Brynne Erickson (01:05) For the past year now I have been working on something that is pretty special and exciting. It's a community. It's the community that I wish I had had in the thick of my faith. Journey, crisis, transition, expansion, deconstruction, reconstruction, whatever verbiage resonates with you. This is what I wish I had when I was in the thick of it. I'm creating it. And I'm going to tell you my background story of where it came from, what inspired it, and then I'll give you some details about the community itself and how you can join the wait list at brainerikson.comslash wait list and what to expect moving forward. It's still coming together, but I am absolutely thrilled to share it with the world. So a little bit about my backstory, why I'm moving forward with this. But about in twenty nineteen I just was confused about where our LGBTQ plus brothers and sisters fit in with the LDS church. And so I delved into podcasts and books and was led to a lot of really amazing thinkers and influencers and real life people. in this community that were also trying to figure out where they fit in. And the conclusions that they had drawn, and that was beautiful. I was introduced to Ben Shellatti, Charlie Byrd, Richard Osler, Jennifer Finless and Fife was really helpful for me as well. And just real people, living real experiences. And I drew the conclusion that there is nothing about anyone or any of these beautiful people that God wants changed. Like God all made all of us the way that we are with intent. And would not meaning to change our identity or our sexuality. And that was really a beautiful process for me. And then at the same time my younger brother was grappling with his questions and doubts about God and religion and identity, and I was a part of that and trying to support and love him as he was figuring that out too. And then not long later he would step away from the church and my middle brother came out as gay in about twenty twenty two. And I was so grateful for all of this work that I had done before all of this because I was already open and ready to accept them and love them and strive to be who they needed me to be and who I wanted to be for them. Which was really, really cool and really beautiful. And but it got me thinking, you know, like, well, where does my family fit in with this system that believes in everyone has to walk this covenant path and go through the temple and continue to go back in order to reach the celestial kingdom, which is ultimately the place that you want to be and where God and Jesus will be and where your whole family will be. And I really struggled and grappled with that and I didn't know who to talk to at the same time. Keep in mind my so my middle brother who came out as gay was in Boston doing school. I was in Arizona, my little brother was in Utah and my parents were sent seven thousand miles away as mission leaders in the Philippines. So we were completely separated from each other physically and timing schedules with my parents was really hard to have a phone call conversation. But thankfully with modern technology, can FaceTime and phone call and text all the time. So and I have an awesome strong relationship with my brothers. And even though on the outside it might have looked like our worlds were crumbled. Which in a way they were. We all felt strength and love and peace even amidst the storm that was going on within each of us. And I just remember feeling kinda helpless and alone and didn't know who to talk to and who could understand what I was feeling and thankfully I I believe that my heavenly parents and my savior Jesus Christ understand. So of course I turned to them. They were my rock. And that was incredibly helpful. But it's nice when you can have people here physically to talk to as well, right? And I was trying, I was trying to be brave and trying to find my people and I found some. and that was a blessing. And along my journey of deconstruction and what really felt like a crisis, there were times where I felt impressed to share my thoughts on Instagram and some of the learning experiences I had and people always reached out and they always said, Brynn, thank you so much for sharing. I have thought the same thing, I've wondered the same thing, I don't have anyone I can talk to, my spouse doesn't understand, my parents don't understand, I've tried And I'm very lost, I'm confused, and I'm sad, and I just went, my gosh, there's so many other people like me that are trying to figure this out, that feel completely alone. And they weren't just in Utah, they weren't just in my neighborhood. by this point I had moved to Utah from Arizona and I was in a group called Inklings. It's a beautiful group to study the conference talks. Sister Emily Bell Freeman started it. I believe it was around COVID time. And it's just a way to get together and share thoughts about the conference talks. And I was doing that and I was practicing, sorting out my new thoughts and getting some consensus, and that worked and helped for about three years. And then it was time to move on to something else. And essentially I took the Inklings concept. And I pulled together a couple of ladies that I had found and we would meet once a month, but we would talk about gospel topics that we wanted to talk about. Because all of us were in our own faith expansions and just wanted to be able to share our thoughts and our questions openly and honestly. And we've done that for over a year and a half now and I just felt like this needed to be available to more people. And that's where Faith in Process was born. And it's a online community. It's going to be through my website. So kind of imagine like a Facebook group that's private. But it'll be through my website. You'll have a login and it'll all be through just messaging. it's an asynchronistic community. So we won't have any zooms. Maybe down the road that'll be something that we'll step into, but for now It'll be just typing, putting it into the chat. And I we're gonna do topics each month. And in fact, I was inspired by one of my favorite books. It's the old gospel principles book that I used on my mission back in from 2009 to 2011. And I loved that book. And that's the class that you would teach to new members. I don't know if they still teach it. but in fact, one of my favorite people on my mission that I got to work with, he was baptized because of that book. Because he loved our viewpoint on the principles. So we're gonna take a principle each month and we're gonna study it and share and ask questions, and I will have a question each week to kind of guide the conversation. And It's it's gonna be awesome and it's gonna be really fun. And I'm excited about it. I'm actually a teacher by profession. I taught third and fourth grade for seven years. So creating lesson plans and facilitating group talk and group think and kind of trying to get you to think deeper, pushing back a little bit. I I really love doing that. I love being the person to get people thinking and where their thoughts came from and why they think that. And I s I'm going to be facilitating the group and you can come to just sit with like minded people and glean their thoughts and take it into your own mind and heart or you can come and contribute and share your own thoughts and questions. Imagine it kind of being like an online Sunday school. But you are with people who also want to talk about the more maybe controversial things or the questions that you wouldn't necessarily say at church, but you you do want to hear what other people would have to say. And my true hopes from this group is that we learning there is power in being able to speak your questions and your thoughts out. And the more that I have spoken them aloud and been brave to practice asking those questions and have those hard conversations, the easier it's getting. And I'm being able to sort out what f once felt hard and like I was stuck in a thought and couldn't move forward, I'm now moving forward and finding more peace and more conviction in my beliefs. my new beliefs is my faith is evolving. And faith is a process. It's a constant evolution and it's going to look different. It's not it doesn't have to stay the same your entire life. And it's kind of a space for you to just figure it out, sort it out. Maybe it'll be your first toe put into the water of actually saying your thoughts and concerns out loud. Maybe you're further down the road in your expansion and you just want a place where you can speak your thoughts and opinions more freely, but you've kind of settled into this middle ground space of faith. And where you have beliefs that overlap with the LDS faith, or maybe you have some completely different beliefs, or you have beliefs that overlap with Buddhism or Sikhism, you know, you're a little bit more expansive. And it doesn't matter if you choose to stay in the LDS faith or you choose to step away. This group is here to hold space for you as you are figuring it out. And I hope that you can feel that power and that peace. in whatever you choose. So that as you have these conversations about where you're at with people, whether in church or out of church, it's from a place of peace and love. Because that's what I think God wants for all of us. And we're here to have an experience and we're here to live in love. And you can be a disciple whether it's in organized religion or non participating in it. So that's what I believe. So that if that really aligns with you or resonates with you Then I would ask that you come check it out. You can find the wait list sign up at Bryn Erickson.com slash wait list. And I'm you gotta remember guys, I'm a naptime entrepreneur. So I do all of this about two to four hours a day, depending on nap time and after bedtime. So I'm hoping to roll the group out in the fall when school starts. get some newsletters out to you with more information. But it's it's gonna be really fun. I already have the curriculum lined up and what we're gonna be studying each month and some questions for each week to keep it to get us going. And it's gonna be great. Just a heads up there will be a little bit of a cost each month, like a subscription just to keep the group more in alignment with people that really want to be there and that it really resonates with. It'll be about seven dollars for founding members. You'll get three months at a seven dollar rate and be one of my founding members of faith in process and then after that we'll raise it to twelve dollars a month. And it's gonna be beautiful. It's the group I wish I had, I wish everybody had access to to just sort out where they're at as Latter day Saint. This is an LDS group For now I have visions of expanding to more inclusion of other faiths and other religions. but that's still a work in progress and I felt really inspired to just start where I'm at and I think that there's work to be done within the my own community that could use some a little extra love and support. And if this resonates with you, please send this podcast to someone that this could serve, that could help and they would like to be a part of. And please join the wait list. It'll help me know what I'm looking at as far as participation and how soon I need to get moving with the newsletters and whatnot. So thank you for your time. I am really excited and hope to see you there.