Coming Out Christian | Season 3, Episode 4 Guest: David Hayward, The NakedPastor

What do you do when the institution you've given your life to no longer has room for who you're becoming?

David Hayward — known online as The NakedPastor — spent nearly 30 years in ministry before leaving the church in 2010 and stepping into a new kind of calling: using his work as a cartoonist, artist, and writer to challenge religious control and inspire authenticity, equality, and spiritual independence. As an LGBTQ+ ally, feminist, and progressive voice for people deconstructing faith, David has built a community of people reclaiming their own spiritual paths on their own terms.

In this episode, hosts Siobhan Boyd-Nelson and Rev. Dr. Ben Huelskamp sit down with David to explore what it looks like to walk away from ministry after three decades — and what it means to find freedom on the other side. It's an honest, searching conversation about deconstruction, creativity, and what happens when you stop performing faith and start living it.

• 🎨 Follow David: @nakedpastor
• 🌐 Visit his website: nakedpastor.com
• 🤝 Explore The Lasting Supper: thelastingsupper.com
• 📲 Follow the podcast: @comingoutchristian_podcast
• 🌈 Follow LOVEboldly: @loveboldly

Coming Out Christian | Season 3, Episode 3 Guest: Rev. Charles Graves, IV

The church has made progress on LGBTQIA+ inclusion — but what happens when the conversation goes deeper than who's welcome at the table?

Rev. Charles Graves, IV is the Fourteenth Rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a seventh-generation Episcopalian, and a member of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church since 2019. He's also the creator of a denominational task force asking some of the most pressing questions in progressive Christianity today: How does the church understand and respond to household and relationship diversity — including polyamory? And how do we construct a sexual ethics that is both expansive and protective?

In this episode, hosts Siobhan Boyd-Nelson and Rev. Dr. Ben Huelskamp sit down with Charles to explore his journey in The Episcopal Church and the LGBTQIA+ inclusion work he's championed along the way. They also dig into the harder, more nuanced conversation about how the church builds new frameworks for sexual ethics — ones that make room for the full complexity of human relationships without abandoning the guardrails that protect and heal.

Thoughtful, prophetic, and ahead of the curve — this is the conversation the church is just beginning to have.

• ⛪ Follow Christ Church Shaker: @christchurchshaker (Instagram)
• 🌐 Visit the church website: cometochristchurch.org
• 🎙️ Follow the podcast: @comingoutchristian_podcast (Instagram)
• 🌈 Follow LOVEboldly: @loveboldly (Instagram and TikTok)

Coming Out Christian | Season 3, Episode 2

Guest: Rev. Tim Kobler

What do tattoos, beekeeping, and campus ministry have in common? More than you might think — and the Rev. Tim Kobler is here to connect the dots.

Tim is the Director of the Wesley Foundation at the University of Michigan, where he has served since 2018. With 33 years in full-time ministry and 24 years focused specifically on campus ministry, Tim brings a wealth of experience supporting young people as they navigate faith, identity, and community in higher education.

In this episode, hosts Siobhan Boyd-Nelson and Rev. Dr. Ben Huelskamp sit down with Tim to explore what faith looks like on college campuses today — and the conversation goes places you might not expect. Tim shares about Sacred Ink, his traveling photo exhibition that explores the intersection of spirituality and tattoo art, inviting people to consider how we quite literally wear our sacred stories on our bodies. He also talks about his 26 years as a beekeeper and what tending hives has taught him about life and faith.

This one is wide-ranging, warm, and full of surprises — a perfect listen for a long commute or a quiet afternoon.

📲 Follow the podcast: @comingoutchristian_podcast

🌈 Follow LOVEboldly: @loveboldly

🐝 Follow Tim: @timkobler

🖼️ Explore Sacred Ink: sacredink.art