How much authority should a pastor have over your life?

Paul and Toby spent years inside an Independent Fundamental Baptist church where loyalty, obedience, and spiritual authority were deeply intertwined. What they experienced was not one dramatic event. It was a gradual realization that something they had trusted for years was no longer sitting right with them.

In their first ever public telling of their story, Paul and Toby open up about growing up IFB, the subtle ways control can enter a church community, the cost of questioning leadership, and the painful impact it can have on family relationships.

We also talk about what happened when they began developing relationships outside their church, seeing their former beliefs through a different lens, and realizing that faith and fear do not have to be the same thing.

This conversation raises some uncomfortable questions.

When does spiritual leadership become control?

What happens when questioning your pastor feels like questioning God?

And what do you do when following your conscience means disappointing the people you've trusted for years?

Paul and Toby's story is ultimately about learning to think for themselves, reclaiming their voices, and discovering what faith can look like when fear is no longer driving the conversation.

If you've ever experienced religious control, fundamentalism, spiritual abuse, family estrangement, or the complicated process of deconstructing your faith, this is a conversation you will not want to miss.

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#Deconstruction #Exvangelical #ReligiousTrauma #SpiritualAbuse #Estrangement #IFB #Religion

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