Stay ConnectedA weekly sermon podcast from All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a Unitarian Universalist community rooted in Love Beyond Belief.
These messages explore progressive spirituality, social justice, compassion, and personal growth—offering thoughtful perspectives on life, meaning, and what it means to be human.
All Souls is an affirming, inclusive community where people of all beliefs—and no belief—come together to learn, grow, and make a difference.
The world is dangerous and beautiful at the same time. Most of us only have the bandwidth to notice one — so we either rush past the hard parts, or shrink our whole lives down to avoid them.Writer Annie Dillard warned against exactly that: living an "itsy bitsy" life to dodge how wild and extravagant the world really is. Rev. Dr. Nicole Kirk pairs that challenge with the story of Kate Bowler, told at 35 that she had two years to live, and a friend's gentle instruction — don't skip to the end. Kirk connects both ideas to her own experience choosing to live, not wait, through her husband's terminal illness.It's a message about staying present to everything at once: the danger, the beauty, and the people who help you carry both.QUESTIONS TO SIT WITH:- Are you rushing past a hard season, or shrinking yourself to survive it — or both?- Have you ever made an intentional choice about how to live in uncertainty, rather than just enduring it?- Can you hold "this is dangerous" and "this is beautiful" as true at the same time?- What's one place you've been living small to avoid something big?CHAPTERS:0:00 Opening Song1:01 A Diagnosis, and a Secret2:48 "Don't Skip to the End"3:00 My Own Threshold4:31 What Is a Threshold?8:02 Coming of Age & New Beginnings9:22 The Fall Equinox11:30 A World on Edge12:33 A Warning Against Shrinking14:55 Turning Cancer Into Art18:02 A Lifeline of Beauty19:53 Present in the Betwixt and Between21:24 You Don't Have to Wait Alone23:22 Measured by Love23:47 Closing SongThis message, "Beauty in a Spot of Danger," was delivered by Rev. Dr. Nicole Kirk at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa.SUBSCRIBE TO WATCH OTHER VIDEOS: @allsoulsunitarianGIVE A DONATION TO HELP US SPREAD THIS LOVE BEYOND BELIEF: https://www.allsoulschurch.org/GIVE or text AllSoulsTulsa to 73256LET'S CONNECT:Facebook: /allsoulstulsaInstagram: /allsoulstulsaAll Souls Church Website: https://www.allsoulschurch.org#AllSoulsTulsa #AllSoulsUnitarianChurch #LoveBeyondBelief #Grief #Presence
There's a difference between fitting in and belonging — and most of us have spent years mastering the wrong one. Fitting in means changing yourself to be accepted. Belonging means being accepted exactly as you are.This message argues that real community isn't built by people performing that they have it all together. It's built by people willing to show up as their actual, unfiltered selves — and makes the case that doing so isn't a risk to resilience. It's the source of it.QUESTIONS TO SIT WITH:
CHAPTERS:0:00 Opening Song1:00 A Man Walks Naked Toward Armed Guards3:24 What This Story Means For Us4:04 David and Goliath6:03 Our Modern-Day Giants8:02 Why Less Armor, Not More9:31 A Funny Recognition Moment11:37 Three Things We Actually Have12:02 What "Covenant" Means13:24 A Ritual of Honesty14:47 Belonging Changes Everything16:32 Fitting In vs. Belonging18:44 The Science of Connection20:44 Why Scars Matter22:44 A Question to Carry With You23:45 Closing SongThis message, "Belonging Changes Everything," was delivered by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.SUBSCRIBE TO WATCH OTHER VIDEOS: @allsoulsunitarianGIVE A DONATION TO HELP US SPREAD THIS LOVE BEYOND BELIEF: https://www.allsoulschurch.org/GIVE or text AllSoulsTulsa to 73256LET'S CONNECT:Facebook: /allsoulstulsaInstagram: /allsoulstulsaAll Souls Church Website: https://www.allsoulschurch.org#AllSoulsTulsa #AllSoulsUnitarianChurch #LoveBeyondBelief #Belonging #Vulnerability
The message was delivered on Sunday, September 6, 2026, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Randy Lewis, Assistant Minister.
Description:
What remains when the beliefs that once held your life together no longer fit? Letting go can feel like losing meaning itself, especially when certainty has been mistaken for faith. But the collapse of an old answer may uncover something more honest and sustaining. Sometimes the way forward begins with what we are willing to release.
Watch this message on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ig1HeIu-KKo
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"A blend of Mother Goose, Cinderella, and the local hooker." That's how Dolly Parton once described her own look — and her willingness to laugh at herself, before anyone else could, became part of why an entire country trusted her.
Drawing on the life, faith, and radical kindness of Dolly Parton, this message makes the case that the way she loved people — without judgment, without conditions, across every divide this country has — isn't just a nice tribute. It's a blueprint for a kind of community, and a kind of faith, most people have never actually experienced.
QUESTIONS TO SIT WITH:
- What would it look like to love people without judging them first?
- Do you know what you actually have in common with someone you've written off politically?
- Is your faith (or lack of one) built on believing the right things, or feeling truly seen?
- Who in your life makes you feel loved without conditions?
CHAPTERS:
0:00 "Light of a Clear Blue Morning"
0:51 Everything's Going to Be Alright
2:20 A Divided Country
3:22 The World Loses Dolly
5:04 The Unlikely Saint
7:55 Her Quiet Struggles
10:16 Living in Dolly's America
11:20 "I Do Not Judge"
12:21 Not a Grievance Christian
13:48 Money and the Kingdom of Heaven
14:54 The House That Whitney Built
17:09 What Love Beyond Belief Means
21:40 Building Dolly's America
23:29 Closing Blessing
23:47 "I Will Always Love You"
This message, "Living In Dolly's America," was delivered by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
GIVE A DONATION TO HELP US SPREAD THIS LOVE BEYOND BELIEF: https://www.allsoulschurch.org/GIVE or text AllSoulsTulsa to 73256
LET'S CONNECT:
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All Souls Church Website: https://www.allsoulschurch.org
#AllSoulsTulsa #AllSoulsUnitarianChurch #LoveBeyondBelief #DollyParton #DollysAmerica
What if you didn't have to choose between believing everything your religion tells you, and believing nothing at all? Most of us have been told those are the only two options.
All Souls Unitarian Church exists for that wider space in between. It's a community where people build their own relationship to faith, meaning, and mystery, instead of inheriting someone else's certainty.
Almost everyone who finds their way here says the same thing: they wish they'd found it years sooner. And most people don't stumble onto a place like this on their own. They find it because someone else told them it existed.
QUESTIONS TO SIT WITH:
- Have you ever felt forced to pick between "true believer" and "nothing at all"?
- What would it mean to build your beliefs from your own experience, instead of what you were taught?
- Have you ever felt pressured to defend your beliefs to someone determined to convert you?
- Who in your life might need to know a place like All Souls exists?
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Music
0:54 Opening
1:22 A Church For Skeptics
1:33 What Is an Oasis?
3:47 A Letter From Grove
4:45 Spiritual, Not Religious
9:12 Losing Sienna
9:54 An Angry Kind of Grief
11:21 Room to Breathe
13:44 A Zen Parable
14:35 Two Kinds of Travelers
17:14 Spread the Word
19:12 The Real Moral Issues
21:02 An Oasis For All
21:30 Closing
This message, "Oasis on the Arkansas," was delivered by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
GIVE A DONATION TO HELP US SPREAD THIS LOVE BEYOND BELIEF: https://www.allsoulschurch.org/GIVE or text LOVEBB to 73256
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Instagram: /allsoulstulsa
All Souls Church Website: https://www.allsoulschurch.org
#AllSoulsTulsa #AllSoulsUnitarianChurch #LoveBeyondBelief #UnitarianUniversalist #ProgressiveClergy
Every child asks the big questions eventually — where do we go when we die, why do bad things happen, what's actually magic and what isn't. Rev. Dr. Nicole Kirk's son had his own answer one August morning: the acorns in the yard were magic beans, obviously.She turns that memory into a reflection on wonder, growth, and nearly 200 years of Unitarian Universalists championing both public and religious education. Drawing on Horace Mann, William Ellery Channing, and mentor Rev. Dr. Laurel Hallman, she makes the case that the goal was never to hand our children — or ourselves — the answers. It's to help us stay curious enough to keep asking.KEY QUESTIONS TO SIT WITH:
CHAPTERS:0:00 Opening Music0:30 The Magic Beans2:53 Why Education Matters3:55 Unitarians Who Founded Colleges5:24 Horace Mann's Fight for Schools6:14 Teach Kids to Question7:57 You Carry a Divine Spark8:26 Two Unitarians, One Legacy9:30 How Kids Invent Religion11:05 The Risk of Bland Faith13:41 Your Own Spiritual GPS14:12 What All Souls Nurtures16:46 Let's Climb Together17:06 Closing MusicGIVE A DONATION TO HELP US SPREAD THIS LOVE BEYOND BELIEF: https://www.allsoulschurch.org/GIVE or text AllSoulsTulsa to 73256LET'S CONNECT:Facebook: /allsoulstulsaInstagram: /allsoulstulsaAll Souls Church Website: https://www.allsoulschurch.org
#AllSoulsTulsa #AllSoulsUnitarianChurch #LoveBeyondBelief #Unitarian #Universalist #UU
#AllSoulsTulsa #AllSoulsUnitarianChurch #LoveBeyondBelief #ReligiousEducation #BackToSchool
What if life came with a GPS. Not for the roads you drive, but for the ones you're not sure how to take?In his message, 'Life is a Highway' Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar continues All Souls' summer series on living in America with a personal reflection on discernment, loss, and finding direction.Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar turns the mechanics of an actual GPS — receiver, transmitter, ground system — into a map for navigating life's biggest questions.Drawing on his own experience of grief after the death of his daughter Sienna, the story of a young man facing a life-altering diagnosis, and the practices that keep us grounded before crisis hits, he makes the case that finding our way isn't a solo drive — it's a system, built together, long before we need it.QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:
CHAPTERS:0:00 Opening0:48 The Road Trip1:21 Life's Big Questions2:14 The Spiritual GPS5:00 Bill's Diagnosis7:52 Losing Sienna11:15 Receiver, Transmitter, Ground13:06 Something Bigger15:05 Blocked Signal19:15 Time to Listen21:02 Who Tells You the Truth26:16 Recalibrate
What if the answer to lingering pain lies not in forced forgiveness, but in embracing acceptance and the honest acknowledgment of injustice? As we follow the unfolding questions about justice, accountability, and the lingering scars that remain, explore how far the road to genuine healing can stretch when we stop demanding forgiveness and start bearing witness.
The message was delivered on Sunday, August 2, 2026, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Randy Lewis, Assistant Minister.
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What does it mean to carry both grief and joy on the same road home? Rev. Dr. Nicole Kirk reflects on a solo drive down Route 66 this summer — and what 19 months of grief have taught her about memory as something we tend, together.Rev. Dr. Nicole Kirk traces a single road trip into a reflection on grief, home, and belonging. Drawing on John Steinbeck's "Mother Road," a poem by Joy Harjo, the history of Tulsa's Council Oak, and stories from members of this congregation, she makes the case that memory isn't something we carry alone — it's something a community holds with us.KEY THEMES:
CHAPTERS:0:00 Introduction and road trip context1:05 Measuring distance between Oklahoma cities2:30 Route 66's 100th anniversary and Tulsa's role3:26 Steinbeck's "Mother Road" from The Grapes of Wrath5:28 Grief, 19 months after her husband's death6:50 Joy Harjo's poem "Remember"9:19 The Council Oak and Muscogee history12:10 A conversation about guarding memories13:35 A memory her son gave back to her15:00 Bluegrass music and collective memory17:07 Closing reflection and blessingSUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE: @allsoulsunitarianGIVE A DONATION TO HELP US SPREAD THIS LOVE BEYOND BELIEF: https://www.allsoulschurch.org/GIVE or text AllSoulsTulsa to 73256LET'S CONNECT:Facebook: /allsoulstulsaInstagram: /allsoulstulsaAll Souls Church Website: https://www.allsoulschurch.org
What if the love you need most right now is love for yourself? Rev. Cathey Edwards names the habit she calls "spiritual amnesia" — forgetting our own worth — and offers a simple two-word practice to interrupt it.Guest minister Rev. Cathey Edwards, part of the All Souls community since the 1980s, explores what it means to turn Love Beyond Belief inward. In this message, delivered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Rev. Edwards makes the case that self-compassion isn't a self-help detour from justice work, it's the foundation of it.KEY THEMES:- Self-compassion as a spiritual practice- The "just like me" practice for dissolving judgment- Naming "spiritual amnesia" as forgetting our own worth- Sharon Salzberg's "but I love you" technique- Truth-telling as an ethical, not just emotional, stance- Holding our own contradictions and multitudesSUBSCRIBE TO WATCH OTHER VIDEOS: @allsoulsunitarianWANT TO LISTEN? SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1TOSFe2QQ0Di7zeiwlcZgv and Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/all-souls-unitarian-church/id193096943GIVE A DONATION TO HELP US SPREAD THIS LOVE BEYOND BELIEF: https://www.allsoulschurch.org/GIVE or text AllSoulsTulsa to 73256LET'S CONNECT:Facebook: /allsoulstulsaInstagram: /allsoulstulsaAll Souls Church Website: https://www.allsoulschurch.org#AllSoulsTulsa #AllSoulsUnitarianChurch #LoveBeyondBelief #SelfCompassion #Tulsa
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