“Perhaps it was Thomas who made the disciples face the reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection.”

In this special episode, I share a sermon that my mother, Rev. Sheryl E. L. Peterson preached back in April of 1985, in honor of the 30th anniversary of her passing on April 8th. I found this while going through some of her papers, and it felt like a nudge from the Holy Spirit that this was the sermon of hers I found - just a few days before most churches around the world would hear sermons on the same scripture passage - about Thomas touching the wounds of Christ.

In her message, my mother shares about Thomas’ deep faith and willingness to not look away from the pain and suffering Jesus went through. She invites us to consider what we are unwilling to touch, and call us to a faith that is active - one that reaches out, rather than shrinks away from the suffering of others. It’s a powerful reminder to not be afraid to touch.

Scripture: John 20:19-31, NRSVUE

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“There's nothing and nowhere where God won't go. God can handle the pain, the doubt, the disbelief—and naming it allows us to honor the space and the time.”

In “The Blessings of Small Steps,” Pastor Kelsey sits down with Reverend Kimberly Knowle-Zeller to explore how blessing the messiness of everyday life opens us to God’s presence, especially when hope feels scarce. Together, they discuss how simple practices can help us remember the sacred within our routines, and how blessing others (and ourselves) is an act of trust and courage in a hurting world.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Honest reflections about parenthood, pastoral care, and finding God in the mundane
• How the practice of writing blessings became a way forward during seasons of exhaustion and uncertainty
• The power and vulnerability of sending words out into the world—and letting them go
• Why naming pain and hardship aloud can reveal what is sacred, without bypassing what is real
• An original blessing from Reverend Kimberly Noel Zeller’s new book, Small Steps

About Kim

Reverend Kimberly Knowle-Zeller is an author, pastor, and mother whose writing brings grace to life’s hardest, messiest corners. Her newest book, Small Steps: Blessings to Lift Your Soul on the Pilgrimage of Life, draws from her experience offering blessings at bedsides, in sanctuaries, and amid long nights as a mom. She writes for numerous faith publications and shares weekly reflections and blessings at Walk and Talk on Substack.

Show notes

• Preorder Small Steps: Blessings to Lift Your Soul on the Pilgrimage of Life
• Subscribe to Reverend Kim’s Substack: Walk and Talk

If you’re feeling weary, chaotic, or just longing for something real, this conversation is for you. Listen in for a quiet reminder that you are not alone—and that blessing can meet you right where you are.

Connect with us:

• Website: moveyourfaith.org
• Subscribe to our weekly devotional: Embody Faith
• Instagram: @pastorkelseyb and @faithinmotion.pod
• Support our ministry: moveyourfaith.org/give

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

- John 14:27

Lectio Divina is a spiritual practice that invites us to slow down, breathe, and spend a few quiet moments with God. Together, we’ll listen to scripture, reflect, and pray. You don’t need any prior experience or expertise; just a willingness to pause and listen for God’s love within and around you.

Connect with us:

Website: moveyourfaith.org
Subscribe to our weekly devotional: Embody Faith
Instagram: @faithinmotion.pod and @pastorkelseyb
Support our ministry: moveyourfaith.org/give

Every so often, I find it helpful to pause and name the things that are quietly holding me together—the small, ordinary practices that are keeping my faith alive.

This episode is a version of that.

These aren’t big, flashy spiritual habits. They’re simple things: bricking my phone, returning to prayer journaling (in a new way), reading more long-form writing, wearing color, leaning into creativity, and connecting with other moms.

None of it looks particularly “religious" or "church-y." And yet, all of it has helped me connect more deeply to God, and to myself.

So today, I’m just sharing my list.

If it’s helpful, I invite you to take a few minutes to notice what’s saving your faith right now, too.

Connect with us:

• Website: moveyourfaith.org
• Subscribe to our weekly devotional: Embody Faith
• Instagram: @pastorkelseyb

What if the goal of reading the Bible wasn’t to have all the right answers—but to fall in love with the story?

In this episode, I sit down with Meredith Miller to chat about her new book, Wonder: 52 Conversations to Help Kids Fall in Love With Scripture. Her passion for sharing the Bible and its stories with young folks - and helping adults feel confident in their abilities to do the same - truly shines.

We explore the idea that the Bible can be both deeply meaningful and playful. Meredith invites us to release the need to take everything so seriously and ask, What if delight, curiosity, and even laughter can be part of how we engage scripture?

Together, we reflect on what kids actually need when it comes to faith formation—and what they don’t. (Spoiler: it’s probably not what many of us were taught growing up.) And yes—this absolutely applies to adults, too.

This conversation is an invitation to loosen your grip, trust your curiosity, and rediscover scripture as a place of wonder.

About Meredith:

Meredith Miller is a pastor and a parent who has spent most of the past twenty years helping families follow Jesus. She has been involved with Fuller Youth Institute since 2007 and from 2014-2019 she was Curriculum Director for the children's ministry at Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago, Illinois. Meredith holds a Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary, as well as a B.A. in Religious Studies and Spanish Language & Literature from Westmont College. She is pastor of Pomona Valley Church and calls Southern California home.

You can find her on Instagram @MeredithAnneMiller and Substack where she writes about Kids and Faith, and you can order her book Wonder: 52 Conversations to Help Kids Fall in Love with Scripture wherever books are sold.

Connect with us:

Website: moveyourfaith.org
Subscribe to our weekly devotional: Embody Faith
Instagram: @pastorkelseyb

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

- Deuteronomy 6:4

Lectio Divina is a spiritual practice that invites us to slow down, breathe, and spend a few quiet moments with God. Together, we’ll listen to scripture, reflect, and pray. You don’t need any prior experience or expertise; just a willingness to pause and listen for God’s love within and around you.

Connect with us:

Website: moveyourfaith.org
Subscribe to our weekly devotional: Embody Faith
Instagram: @faithinmotion.pod and @pastorkelseyb
Support our ministry: moveyourfaith.org/give

When we think about the most important people in the Bible, most of us were taught the stories of men: Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, Paul.

But women have always been part of God’s story.

In this episode we highlight three women in scripture whose courage and leadership helped shape the story of God’s people—women whose stories are often overlooked or reduced to a single line.

You’ll meet:

• Shiphrah and Puah, the Hebrew midwives who resisted Pharaoh’s command to kill Hebrew baby boys and helped make the Exodus story possible.
• Rahab, the courageous woman in Jericho who protected the Israelite spies and negotiated safety for her family.
• Phoebe, a deacon of the early church who likely carried—and may have been the first to interpret—Paul’s letter to the Romans.

Together, these women remind us that God has always been working through women: through courage, resistance, leadership, and faith.

In honor of International Women’s Day, this episode invites us to read scripture a little more closely and rediscover the women who were there all along.

Scripture Referenced:

• Exodus 1:15–21
• Joshua 2
• Romans 16:1–2
• Matthew 1 (Genealogy of Jesus)

Books for further reading:

• A Womanist Midrash and The Womanist Lectionary by Wilda C. Gafney — powerful retellings and interpretations of biblical stories through a womanist lens.
• Books by Claire K. McKeever-Burgett, including Blessed Are the Women and In the Beginning Were the Women which explore the stories and theological significance of women in scripture.
• Books by Alice Connor, including Brave and Fierce, which highlight bold women of the Bible and the ways their stories still inspire faith today.

Connect with us:

• Website: moveyourfaith.org
• Subscribe to our weekly devotional: Embody Faith
• Instagram: @faithinmotion.pod and @pastorkelseyb
• Support our ministry: moveyourfaith.org/give

In this episode, Pastor Kelsey sits down with Rev. Delaney Schlake-Kruse to explore the intersection of faith, feminism, and leadership in the church. Together they discuss why the word feminism still raises resistance in many faith communities and how patriarchal assumptions have shaped expectations of leadership in ministry.

Delaney invites us to reimagine leadership by looking closely at how Jesus leads—not through domination, hierarchy, or control, but through relationality, mutuality, and power shared with others. Through a feminist lens, we explore what it might mean to cultivate leadership styles in the church that reflect the way of Christ, rather than the patriarchy.

About Delaney
Rev. Delaney Schlake-Kruse (she/her) is the rector at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in St. Louis, Missouri. Delaney recently completed her Doctor of Ministry, focusing on feminist pastoral leadership and congregational discernment. She lives in St. Louis with her family and enjoys gardening, taking walks, and drinking coffee.

Recommendations for further reading from Rev. Delaney:

• Gender Disrupted: Jesus as a “Man” in the Fourfold Gospel, by Brittany E. Wilson
• Theology for Skeptics: Reflections on God, by Dorothee Soelle
• Sexism and God-Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology, by Rosemary Radford Ruether
• The Man with the Flow of Power: Porous Bodies in Mark 5:25–34, by Candida R. Moss
• Behold the Man: Jesus and Greco-Roman Masculinity, by Colleen M. Conway

Connect with us:

• Website: moveyourfaith.org
• Subscribe to our weekly devotional: Embody Faith
• Instagram: @pastorkelseyb & @faithinmotion.pod