When certainty cracks and the foundations you once trusted feel unstable, it's easy to believe something has gone wrong. But what if disorientation isn't the opposite of faith? What if it's where deeper formation begins?

This week, we close out the Re-Member movement by naming what happens inside us when our theological frameworks shift. Defensiveness. Curiosity. Humility. The ache of belonging nowhere and everywhere at once. And the costly question: Do I still fit here?

We explore:

• What surfaces when certainty collapses (and why that's not failure)
• How Black theology models faith forged under pressure, not built on comfort
• The wilderness as both biblical metaphor and present reality
• Lent as holy disruption, exposure, surrender, and Good Friday honesty
• Why reconciliation without reckoning is just romanticism

Key Themes:

• Wilderness faith
• Theological disorientation
• Kenosis (self-emptying)
• Lament as faith without the mask
• Formation over certainty

Scripture Referenced:

• Philippians 2 (kenosis—the self-emptying of Christ)
• Exodus 16 (manna and the temptation to return to bondage)
• Psalm 22 ("My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?")
• Isaiah 43:18-19 ("I am about to do a new thing")

Practices for the Wilderness:

• Fast from defensiveness: When you feel yourself tighten, pause. What are you protecting?
• Listen to be changed: Not to respond or correct, but assuming the speaker might see something you haven't
• Refuse premature reconciliation: Stay in examination. Don't rush to tidy unity.

Next Week: We move into Re-Build and ask: What does repair as Christian witness actually look like?

A Note on Lent: We're a week into Lent, a season not of spiritual self-improvement, but of exposure and surrender. What if this year, instead of giving up chocolate or coffee, we fasted certainty? The need to be right? The reflex to center our feelings when confronted?

Disorientation is not the end of faith. It's often the beginning of discipleship.

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

• Text this episode to a friend who might need it
• Leave a 5-star rating and review
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Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenannette.com

Holy Disruption: Reclaiming a Justice-Rooted Faith course info and interest list

Justice Coaching options!

"Find your justice mindset" quiz!

White Christian nationalism shaped more than politics. It shaped discipleship.

In this episode, Kristen traces the formation story beneath today’s headlines. Long before it became a political slogan, white Christian nationalism formed reflexes on what felt holy, what felt threatening, and what felt worth defending.

This conversation explores:

• How “chosen nation” theology reshaped American Christian identity
• Why security, order, and national blessing began to feel spiritual
• The rise of “law and order” rhetoric within white evangelical institutions
• The Moral Majority era and the consolidation of faith and political power
• The contrast between white Christian formation and the formation of the Black church
• How Jesus consistently refused the fusion of faith and empire

Through Scripture (John 6; Luke 19; Mark 10, 11, 12; John 2), we trace a pattern: Jesus steps away from coercive crowns, mourns violent nationalism, redefines power, limits Caesar, and disrupts sacred systems.

This is not an episode about condemnation. It is about formation.

Because if we want to be formed by Jesus and shaped by justice, we have to be honest about what shaped us first.

White Christian nationalism is not just political. It distorts discipleship.

And discipleship can be re-formed.

Further Reading: Books on White Christian Nationalism and Christian Formation

If you want to go deeper, here is a list of books that trace patterns historically and theologically.

Core Recommendations

The Color of Compromise | Jemar Tisby
How the American church has been complicit in racism from slavery to today.

Jesus and John Wayne | Kristin Kobes Du Mez
How evangelical masculinity and militarism intertwined with Christian nationalism from the Cold War through Trump.

The Flag and the Cross | Philip Gorski & Samuel Perry
A sociological study of Christian nationalism as a cultural framework.

Taking America Back for God | Andrew Whitehead & Samuel Perry
Data-driven analysis of who embraces Christian nationalism and why.

White Too Long | Robert P. Jones
How white Christianity shaped racism and continues to perpetuate it, especially in the American South.

Historical Depth

The Cross and the Lynching Tree | James Cone
How white Christianity spiritualized violence & how Black theology confronted it.

Baptizing America | Melani McAlister
How evangelicals came to see the U.S. as central to God’s global plan.

One Nation Under God | Kevin Kruse
How “Christian America” rhetoric was constructed in the 1950s as a corporate and political strategy.

Theological Depth

The Myth of a Christian Nation | Gregory Boyd
An evangelical critique of fusing faith with political power.

The Politics of Jesus | Obery M. Hendricks Jr.
How Jesus’ ministry confronted empire & challenged systems of domination.

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

• Text this episode to a friend who might need it
• Leave a 5-star rating and review
• Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes

Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenannette.com

Holy Disruption: Reclaiming a Justice-Rooted Faith course info and interest list

Justice Coaching options!

"Find your justice mindset" quiz!

The Cost of Staying Awake can feel unbearable. This week isn’t a teaching episode; it’s a lament.

In this raw and personal reflection, Kristen shares how cultural hypocrisy, sacred language used as cover, and the grief of watching injustice normalized have weighed heavily on her heart. Drawing from Psalm 13’s cry “How long, O Lord?” this mini episode holds sorrow and defiant trust together.

This isn’t about outrage. It’s about moral exhaustion, embodied faith, and the courage to pause when the weight is too much.

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

• Text this episode to a friend who might need it
• Leave a 5-star rating and review
• Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes

Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenannette.com

Holy Disruption: Reclaiming a Justice-Rooted Faith course info and interest list

Justice Coaching options!

"Find your justice mindset" quiz!