Desert Voices was born from passionate and gritty conversations of loss, pain, joy, and love. We have a burning for every human to experience the wonder of human flourishing (self-actualization). You belong to this big, beautiful, and diverse family of God and we all have a say in the matter of our own spirituality. Desert Voices is a curation of spiritual journeys both personal and collective.
Inspired by John the Baptist — a fellow desert dweller — Desert Voices elevates those “crying out in the wilderness” who seek to follow the way to connection, health, and wholeness (John 1:23).
Healthy psychology increases our inherent human needs for Safety, Belonging, and Dignity. Healthy spirituality must do the same or it is not healthy. When we integrate healthy spirituality into our lives and work we cultivate healing, unity, equity, justice, and harmony with God, ourselves, others, and creation.
Healthy spirituality does not violate our need for safety, belonging, and dignity. It is not authoritarian. It does not demand conformity, claim exclusivity, or instill superiority.
As fellow travelers, we’ve learned a few things along the way about the importance of relationships. Let us be your guides in the desert. Between us we are ordained ministers, communication specialists, trained spiritual directors, certified life coaches, theologians, and certified enneagram practitioners. We are available for personal and professional development.
We are an educational podcast. Our conversations are the creative outflow of doctoral work. Our content is drawn from a diverse pool of sources and voices calling for equity, healing, and justice. We hope to co-create integrative living, radical inclusion, non-violent resistance to oppressive ideologies, and loving connections with ourselves, God, and all humankind.
We collect and share stories that bear witness to the shared human experience (ours included). These transformational stories are shared through our podcast. We highlight voices who speak truth to toxic power, who cultivate collaborative power, and who influence our thoughts surrounding spirituality.
We encourage one another to let our imaginations guide us. Each in our own way. We have big dreams to impact the world and push the human race forward. We thought our impact would manifest through our conservative/fundamental expression of Christianity. However, as we go through life, our experiences redirected our paths. We find ourselves in liminal spaces—the space between—and have moved into desert spirituality. A place we experience a contemplative, mystical expression of Christ in us. Desert Spirituality is no longer driven by converting others, but revels in transformative, live-giving experiences.
We look back on our paths and are grateful for the unity and harmony we find with God, humankind, and creation. We are grateful for resources that have become “watering holes” quenching our thirst along the journey. We are grateful for the signposts we encounter in the desert, guiding us towards connection, health, and wholeness. We wish we had these brave spaces years ago on our spiritual journeys. In fact, we wish we had them from the beginning, so it has become our mission to share resources and facilitate conversations with anyone who is shifting in their expression of faith!
Each of us enjoys the unique ride our work takes us on and we each continue to find our public voice. We continue to enjoy the ride as we find our public voice. In an ordinary time hanging out on my back porch an extraordinary idea united us in a new way, and Desert Voices emerged!
Our journey has led us to experience God as love and relationship. We remain securely attached to God as we boldly explore, question, doubt, and reconstruct our spirituality. You are invited into the conversation. We are fanatics about resources that amplify the perspectives of feminist, womanist, Black, indigenous, queer, people of color, and men who support and celebrate voices often deemed as “other.” The kind of resources that touch and transform your life. If you are looking to stay safe and comfortable we may not be the guides for you. If you are looking for brave spaces that expand your horizons and challenge the status quo…welcome!
We believe that sparking curiosity and boldly exploring your spirituality contributes to human flourishing. We defined “human flourishing” as all human beings living in ecosystems that allow them to flower, fruit, and seed. We imagine a world where human beings collectively thrive and not just survive
Flower: Humans living in full bloom. We hope to co-creating cultures that celebrate ALL of who God created each unique individual to be.
Fruit: The fruit (atmosphere) of your life smells like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Seed: We plant seeds for the next generation to flourish. Seeds of justice, equity, and collaborative power to push the human race forward.
Come explore with us.
We are brave souls (at least we think we are)…and theological activists.
“You don’t change the world simply by looking at it. You change it through the way you choose to live in it.”
– Amelia Wren in The Aeronauts
We believe Jesus reveals to us that the nature of God is not one of anger, but of non-violent, radically inclusive, unconditional love for all humankind.
Desert Voices upholds Father Richard Rohr’s understanding that “a mature Christian sees Christ in everything and everyone else.” We believe salvation is about experiencing connection, health, and wholeness — here and now. The Gospel proclaims goodness, the kind of goodness that celebrates the full humanity of all people and takes flight in diversity.
However, this expression of faith can lead you into a wilderness that feels like the Arizona desert: unyielding, hot as f***, lonely, thirsty, disorienting, and seemingly barren. In this unfamiliar territory you are often unable to see the desert for what it actually is: teeming with life, resilient, and breathtakingly beautiful.
We curate resources and create content so desert spirituality feels alive and interconnected.
Desert Voices engages and collaborates with diverse perspectives from fellow desert dwellers. We are here to provide tools and guideposts along your spiritual journey. Because to us, the wilderness has become a precious place with abundant life where we wish to share our voices.
We are committed to interfaith work, gender equity, social justice, and collaborative power.
