Episode 102: Sitting in the Swell-Brian Thompson

In this episode, Brian Thompson — a former pastor and lifelong surfer — shares how he stepped away from ten years of formal pastoral ministry after the weight of licensing requirements, congregational expectations, and carrying others' burdens began stealing his peace and joy. He describes returning to surfing in his fifties , and how that return unexpectedly became a spiritual practice and a new context for quiet, judgment-free faith conversations. Brian reflects on wrestling with guilt and the fear of disappointing God by giving up his title, ultimately concluding that his calling to reach the lost never required a license or institutional role to fulfill. The conversation closes with Brian describing an emerging, informal faith community he's starting with friends outside the church, built around open discussion rather than top-down teaching.