The Uplift

What if the Jesus you need most is not a new Jesus, but the real Jesus reintroduced?Pastor Damian Chandler returns in Episode 9 of The Uplift we call “Jesus: The Remix” - a message that does not change Jesus, soften Jesus, or reinvent Jesus, but invites us to see Him clearly again. Beyond cultural filters, religious assumptions, and incomplete versions of Christ, this episode brings the focus back to Jesus as Son of God, Savior, King, and the patient Redeemer still waiting for people to say yes.Chandler opens with a sports story: the last second shot. As a Toronto Raptors fan, he walks listeners back to Kawhi Leonard's unforgettable Eastern Conference playoff shot against the Philadelphia 76ers - bounce, bounce, bounce, and in. The crowd remembers the game-winner, but not all the missed shots and missed opportunities that made the final shot necessary.Then he turns to Luke 23 and the thief on the cross.The thief, Chandler says, is a man who had missed opportunities. He had likely heard about Jesus' ministry. He may have known the stories of the sermons, the healings, the feeding of the 5,000, the blind receiving sight, and the lame walking again. He saw Jesus treated unjustly. He saw the crowd choose Barabbas. He heard the mocking. He knew Jesus was innocent. And still, his life had brought him to a cross.But Chandler refuses to let the thief remain a distant Bible character. "This thief is me," he says. He names the ache so many people carry: the feeling that you missed your shot, squandered your chances, and no longer deserve another opportunity. Then he preaches the heart of the gospel: God is not only the God of the first chance. He is the God of the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth chance.From there, the message unfolds around three movements: the providence of God, the proximity of God, and the patience of God. Providence means Jesus was crucified on the same day as the thief because God was still reaching for him. Proximity means Jesus was placed in the middle, close enough for both thieves to hear His final sermon: "Father, forgive them." Patience means Jesus stayed on the cross long enough to hear one broken request: "Remember me."And then comes the turn: Jesus' final words before death were spoken to a criminal who had missed his opportunities. Chandler says Jesus saved His final breath, final energy, and final words for a man who thought it was too late.This episode is for anyone who thinks they have gone too far, waited too long, failed too many times, or missed too many chances. The Savior is waiting. Not because He has changed, but because He is exactly who Scripture says He is: close, patient, merciful, and ready to answer the prayer, "Remember me."---The Uplift is a podcast from Breath of Life Fellowship in Stamford, CT.Join us in person: 884 Newfield Avenue, Stamford, CTBible Study — Saturdays at 11:30am | Worship — Saturdays at 12:30pm---Keywords: Jesus The Remix, Pastor Damian Chandler, thief on the cross, remember me, Luke 23, second chances, Jesus saves, providence of God, proximity of God, patience of God, Christian podcast, Breath of Life Fellowship, Stamford CT, gospel message, Jesus reintroduced, salvation, forgiveness, last second shot sermon, Kawhi Leonard sermon illustration, John 3:16, Christian hope, Jesus is waiting

What if ignoring your limits does not make you faithful - it just makes you tired?In Episode 8 of The Uplift, Maxine sits down with wellness expert, life coach, personal trainer, and URNX CEO Helen Macey, along with Breath of Life Fellowship member, HR professional, fitness leader, and sports enthusiast Jean Joseph, for a practical and deeply honest conversation about self-care, stress, movement, boundaries, and what happens when full calendars become full-body exhaustion.The episode begins with a reality many people are living in real time: booked schedules, constant demands, bodies quietly waving the white flag, and minds that keep pushing through because stopping feels selfish. But this conversation refuses the lie that self-care is indulgent. Self-care, Maxine frames it, is stewardship. It is learning to care for the mind, body, and soul as part of a faithful life.Helen brings the conversation from theory into testimony. Today, self-care makes her feel eager - eager to begin the day with God, check in with her body, work out, and honestly assess how she is doing emotionally. But she is clear that it was not always that way. There was a season when self-care was a survival kit, something she reached for only at the edge of burnout. She names one of the quiet traps of serving others: sometimes giving can feel like it is filling you, while actually draining you. Her reminder is simple and sharp: even Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself. The self cannot be skipped.Jean adds another angle: self-care requires planning. As someone who likes to serve, show up, and be reliable, he names the pressure many people carry to be the person everyone can count on. He connects that pressure to family, work, HR, church, sports, and the "superhero" images that teach people to keep helping without stopping. His honesty makes the conversation feel grounded: sometimes self-care starts with admitting that no, or not now, may be the healthiest answer.Together, the conversation moves through wake-up moments, guilt, preparation, community, burnout, spiritual honesty, and practical rhythms. Helen shares how stepping on a scale at 18 and seeing 210 became a turning point in her wellness journey. Jean reflects on sports, discipline, reliability, and the cost of trying to come through for everyone. They talk about the need for community, the danger of suffering in silence, and the importance of not depriving others of the chance to grow by always doing everything for them.The most practical section may also be the most freeing: start small. One moment with God. One honest prayer. One walk. One push-up. One breath. Self-care is not about copying someone else's spiritual rhythm or fitness routine. It is about awareness, honesty, consistency, and learning to bring your real self - even your frustration, disappointment, or anger - into the presence of God.This 44-minute episode is for anyone who feels stretched thin, overextended, irritable, burned out, responsible for everyone, or quietly disconnected from the things they used to enjoy. Self-care is not selfish. It is sacred. You are not a machine. You are God's masterpiece.---The Uplift is a podcast from Breath of Life Fellowship in Stamford, CT.Join us in person: 884 Newfield Avenue, Stamford, CTBible Study — Saturdays at 11:30am | Worship — Saturdays at 12:30pm---Keywords: self-care, burnout, Christian wellness, faith and fitness, Helen Macey, Jean Joseph, Booked Busy and Broken Down, stress management, movement, exercise, boundaries, work-life balance, Breath of Life Fellowship, Stamford CT, Christian podcast, holistic well-being, mental health, spiritual health, physical health, self-care is sacred, URNX Now, church and wellness, Christian health conversation

What if one of the most spiritual things you could do this week is stop?In Episode 7 of The Uplift, Pastor Crystal Ward delivers a clear, timely, and deeply practical proclamation on the concept of Sabbath, self-care, and the kind of rest our culture keeps training us to ignore. In a world that glorifies hustle, exhaustion, overthinking, and nonstop productivity, she makes the case that rest is not laziness, weakness, or escape. It is trust. It is obedience. And it may be one of the most revolutionary acts of faith available to us.Crystal starts with a question that sounds simple until it gets personal: Are you practicing self-care? Not the kind built on occasional indulgence or emergency recovery, but the kind that creates sustainable rhythms of wholeness. Bubble baths, shopping sprees, and vacations may have their place, she says, but real self-care has to go deeper than temporary relief. It has to become a pattern.Her answer is Sabbath.Rooting her message in Genesis 2, Pastor Ward reminds listeners that God built rest into creation itself. Sabbath was not added as an afterthought once people burned out. It was there from the beginning. God blessed Sabbath, made it holy, and offered it as a rhythm for human flourishing. Not because He was tired, but because we would be.From there, she breaks Sabbath care into three dimensions: physical rest, mental and emotional renewal, and spiritual reconnection. We are not machines, she says, and rest is not a reward reserved for people who finally finish everything. It is a necessity. Without it, we drift toward burnout, anxiety, cluttered thinking, and spiritual disconnection. With it, we recover clarity, peace, and room to hear from God again.But one of the strongest turns in the message is her reframing of Sabbath itself. For many people, Sabbath has been reduced to a list of restrictions or rules. Pastor Ward pushes back hard on that idea. Sabbath, she says, is not about God limiting us. It is about God rescuing us from ourselves. It is not restriction. It is freedom. It is love. It is God pulling us off the hamster wheel long enough to remember that we are human beings, not human doings.At just over 19 minutes, this episode is short, but it lands with unusual weight. It is for the listener who feels rushed, stretched thin, emotionally noisy, spiritually dry, or quietly exhausted from carrying too much for too long. If you have been treating rest like something you'll earn later, this message gently and firmly says: later may be too late.Sabbath, in Pastor Ward's words, is not a luxury. It is a God-given rhythm of restoration. And if you let it, it can change your life.⸻The Uplift is a podcast from Breath of Life Fellowship in Stamford, CT. Join us in person: 884 Newfield Avenue, Stamford, CT Bible Study — Saturdays at 11:30am | Worship — Saturdays at 12:30pm⸻Keywords: Sabbath rest, Christian self-care, Crystal Ward, Rest Is the Revolution, burnout and faith, Sabbath as freedom, rest as resistance, spiritual renewal, holistic well-being, Christian podcast, Breath of Life Fellowship, Stamford CT, emotional renewal, physical rest, spiritual reconnection, trust God with your rest, Sabbath sermon, rest is not a luxury, biblical self-care, Sabbath message, Breath of Life

What if one of the strongest things your faith could do is admit it doesn't have all the answers?Episode 6 of The Uplift brings author, communication professor, and speaker Heather Thompson Day into a conversation many believers have quietly had in private but rarely feel safe saying out loud: What if I'm wrong? Not wrong in a way that destroys faith, but wrong in a way that humbles it, deepens it, and pushes it past performance into trust.Heather opens with a story about a little girl trapped on a burning roof. Her father calls from below, "Jump, I'll catch you," and when she cries that she can't see him, he answers, "I can see you." That becomes the heartbeat of the episode: faith is not always about seeing God clearly. Sometimes it's about trusting that God sees you.From there, she dismantles one of the church's biggest assumptions. We often treat certainty like spiritual maturity. Heather argues the opposite. Drawing from the Gospels and communication theory, she points out that Jesus asked hundreds of questions and answered only a few directly. If God, who has all the answers, chose questions as a primary way of teaching, why do so many Christians act like doubt is dangerous and curiosity is rebellion?In the proclamation, Heather walks through what it means to be an eyewitness rather than an arguer, why trust matters more than certainty, and how the early church became known not by self-labeling but by embodied love. "Christian," she reminds us, was a name other people gave the disciples after watching how they lived. Not because they won debates. Because they looked like little Christs.The second half becomes more personal. In conversation, Heather reflects on the parts of her book that were forged in grief, disappointment, and unanswered questions. She talks about watching her father pour his life into ministry, then develop Alzheimer's, and wondering how a faithful life could look so unrewarded from the outside. Her mother's text changed everything: "You say Dad has nothing to show for it. He has you to show for it. So I think you're wrong."That shift becomes the episode's deeper invitation. Maybe the story God is writing is larger than the one we would have chosen. Maybe obedience is success, even in the desert. Maybe purpose isn't something waiting for us later when life gets easier, but something available right now. Maybe the question isn't whether we are getting everything right. Maybe the real question is whether we are willing to trust God enough to keep walking.This is a 60-minute conversation for anyone carrying doubt, asking hard questions, wrestling with fear, or trying to hold onto faith without pretending certainty they don't actually have.---The Uplift is a podcast from Breath of Life Fellowship in Stamford, CT.Join us in person: 884 Newfield Avenue, Stamford, CTBible Study — Saturdays at 11:30am | Worship — Saturdays at 12:30pm---Keywords: faith and doubt, Christian questions, Heather Thompson Day, What If I'm Wrong, trust over certainty, church and curiosity, deconstructing faith, honest faith, Christian podcast, Breath of Life Fellowship, Stamford CT, spiritual growth, purpose in the desert, obedience is success, eyewitness faith, early church, Christian identity, uncertainty and trust, asking hard questions, God can handle your questions

Some wounds don't come from the world. They come from the church.Episode 5 of The Uplift is the most personal conversation in the series so far — a 74-minute expert-facilitated panel roundtable that goes into places most faith communities still refuse to name. The topic is spiritual abuse: how it gets taught to children, how it operates through scripture, how it entangles love with performance, how it leaves people either clinging to religion or walking away from it entirely — and how healing is even possible after that kind of damage.The conversation is guided by Dr. David Sedlacek and Dr. Beverly Sedlacek, co-founders of Into His Rest Ministries — a pastoral heart, a clinical mind, and a Christ-centered mission. Dr. David is a retired professor, therapist, and pastor with over 40 years guiding people through trauma, family dysfunction, and spiritual restoration. Dr. Beverly is a doctorally prepared mental health clinician with a gift for speaking into the hardest rooms. Together, they bring what they call an "ebony and ivory" approach to ministry — and a combined 60+ years of clinical and pastoral experience to a conversation that badly needs both.Around them, five panelists show up with real stories.Ruth Dwyer, a Seventh-day Adventist, shares a memory from age five — her aunt telling her that Jesus was writing down every sin to punish her. She says she made two decisions that day. One was self-fulfilling. The other was not. She also names shame and guilt as the obstacles that nearly kept her from healing, and credits the Sedlaceks for pushing her toward therapy and a Christian coach.Louise Calixte, a pastor's kid and ministry singer, talks about codependency with the church: the way service can hollow out a person when love is connected to usefulness rather than identity. Her father's death in 2018 cracked something open. She eventually took a year-long sabbatical from church before COVID.Clifton, 22, left the church entirely. He identifies as a seeker, not a Christian, and he brings Kierkegaard and Hebrews 11 into a room of believers and asks the question most people are afraid to ask out loud: what's the difference between real faith and performative faith?Caroline Adams, a pastor's wife who describes herself as "not the traditional first lady," carries her own history of church hurt — and shares what it cost her to stay, to serve, and eventually to meet people where they actually are.The structure moves through three acts: defining what spiritual abuse actually is (and separating it from the broader terms "church hurt" and "religious trauma"), sharing the lived stories that sit underneath those definitions, and then — without rushing past the hard parts — turning toward what healing actually looks like.Dr. David puts language around the psychology of certainty-seeking: why religious leaders and systems reach for control, what it costs the people under that control, and why "hurt people hurt people" is not just a slogan but a cycle with real victims. Dr. Beverly talks about what the church is meant to be — a safe community — and about a missionary chaplain she visited who said "I love you" every single day to a man who didn't need Bible verses. He just needed to know he was loved.The episode closes with Dr. David's mirror exercise: look at yourself, say "I love you." Dr. Beverly's closing word: "Love always wins. Love always wins. Doesn't matter where you are on your journey. Love always wins."This is a 74-minute conversation. It is not easy. It is worth every minute.The Uplift is a podcast from Breath of Life Fellowship in Stamford, CT. Keywords: spiritual abuse healing, religious trauma, church hurt, spiritual abuse in the church, Dr. David Sedlacek, Dr. Beverly Sedlacek, Into His Rest Ministries, trauma-informed faith, leaving the church, pastor's kid deconstruction, codependency and ministry, shame and guilt Christianity, unconditional love God, Seventh-day Adventist spiritual abuse

What if everything you thought about the church was actually a love story?In Episode 4 of The Uplift, host Maxine invites Pastor Damian Chandler‚ church planter, marriage and family therapist, author, and Associate Youth Director of the South Central Conference‚ to deliver a message that starts with a man chasing a girl and ends with God chasing all of us.The format is intimate by design: a pre-message interview where Maxine draws out Chandler's background (born in Toronto, raised in Barbados, shaped by Oakwood University, building "The Living Room" church in Nashville), followed by a 30-minute proclamation called "But I Love Her," and a post-message conversation where Chandler unpacks John 14's "mansions," prayer, and Bible study in a way that actually makes sense.But the message is where this episode lives.Chandler opens with his own love story. He was 16 when he met Tanzy Franklin at a Toronto SDA church. He chased her for two years. He drove 16 hours from Oakwood to see her. He proposed in Trinidad. And if you think that's romantic‚ wait until he tells you that God did the same thing first, and on a much larger scale.The text is Ephesians 5:25-27. The framework is three words: Pursue. Sacrifice. Commit. Psalm 139 becomes the story of a God who ‘stalks’ the people He loves ("He's worse than me," Chandler says about his own pursuit of Tanzy). Philippians 2:6-8 becomes the anatomy of a sacrifice no human could make. Hebrews 13:5‚ "I will never leave you or forsake you"‚ becomes a wedding vow that holds even when the bride doesn't deserve it.And the church? The church is the bride. Which means you can't love God and hate the church. "She's a part of me," Chandler says, speaking as God. "It doesn't work that way."He's honest about the church's failures. He doesn't dress them up. But he holds that honesty inside something bigger: "God does not love the church because it's perfect. God loves the church because His love is perfect." The God who marries potential. The God who gave the church His name‚ just like Tanzy Franklin became Tanzy Chandler. The God who, like the preacher in the closing illustration who faithfully loved his wheelchair-bound wife for decades, simply showed up. Every day. Without condition.The final turn is the most personal. The church isn't out there somewhere. The church is you. God pursued you. God sacrificed for you. God is committed to you. "He died for you," Chandler says. "And if he was willing to die for you, it means your life is worth it."This episode feels less like a podcast and more like being let into something tender. Come ready to be seen.---The Uplift is a podcast from Breath of Life Fellowship in Stamford, CT.Join us in person: 884 Newfield Avenue, Stamford, CTBible Study‚ Saturdays at 11:30am | Worship‚ Saturdays at 12:30pm---Keywords: God's love for the church, church as bride, Ephesians 5 25 27, pursue sacrifice commit, love story sermon, Damian Chandler, The Living Room Nashville, marriage metaphor faith, God's unconditional love, Breath of Life Fellowship, Stamford CT, Christian podcast, Black church, saved people saving people, faith and community, church plant, Oakwood University, marriage and family therapist pastor, Seventh-day Adventist, love sermon, church love story, God pursues you, your life is worth it

Is the church the building or the people? It sounds like a simple question — until five people with five completely different upbringings try to answer it at the same time. In Episode 3 of The Uplift, Devonte opens with a framing monologue and then hands it to moderator Shawn and a roundtable of four panelists — Jean Lemeau, Dr. Celeste Baldwin, Levi Decaile, and Stephanie Ashmeade— for an honest, unscripted conversation about what church actually is, what it was supposed to be, and why so many people have walked away from it.This isn't a sermon. It's five friends on couches wrestling with a question that matters.Shawn kicks it off with etymology: the Greek word ecclesia means "God's called out people" — but somewhere along the way, those called out people decided to stay in. From there, the panel trades childhood memories that reveal just how differently we picture "church." Jean grew up in Stamford where his church community was nomadic, moving from place to place — the people were the church. Celeste grew up in a palatial Caribbean Adventist church in Brooklyn where the building itself felt sacred. Levi came up where the church building was a monument in the neighborhood. Stephanie’s church met in a converted bowling alley in Brooklyn. Same faith, radically different imagery.That diversity drives the episode's central tension: have we confused the container with the contents? The panel digs into whether beautiful buildings help or hinder worship, why the church often scatters after worshipping instead of doing life together, and what it would actually take to shift from monument to community. Celeste delivers one of the episode's sharpest lines: "Let them feel you during the week because they don't feel the building during the week."Then Levi takes the conversation deeper with the story of the Ark of the Covenant from 1 Samuel — and draws out three modern idols that have replaced God in today's church: leadership worship, miracle-chasing, and legalism. "They love the law of the Lord higher than the Lord of the law," he says. "So we have made church more about sin than it is about God."The final stretch is the most personal. Stephanie opens up about the stigma and gossip she experienced in church — but also about the Sabbath school teachers who changed her life. Celeste shares what she discovered about peers who carried painful church experiences. Jean talks about the visibility bias in how churches care for people. Levi frames the whole thing around mercy: "Everybody I know, and that's every single person, their conviction came as a product of mercy and not of judgment." And he names the contradiction nobody wants to admit: "When people are the offender, they want mercy. But when they are offended, they want judgment."Shaun closes with a call to return to the foundation: "Return to God as the reason for church. And that is what we will present to the people. That is the package we will be selling instead of the monument."This episode is for anyone who's ever felt like church should be more than a building you visit once a week. It's for anyone asking whether community, love, mercy, and Christ-centeredness can become the definition again. Pull up a seat. The conversation is already going.⸻The Uplift is a podcast from Breath of Life Fellowship in Stamford, CT. Join us in person: 884 Newfield Avenue, Stamford, CT Bible Study — Saturdays at 11:30am | Worship — Saturdays at 12:30pm⸻Keywords: what is the church, church is the people, ecclesia, church community, church building, church redefined, faith, Christianity, community, Breath of Life Fellowship, Pastor Devonte, Stamford CT, church culture, doing life together, mercy vs judgment, Black church, Christian podcast, church hurt, leaving church, church relevance, church identity, Seventh-day Adventist, roundtable discussion

Church hurt, spiritual trauma, and healing after toxic church culture. Tichianaa Armah - psychiatrist and assistant clinical professor at Yale University - joins The Uplift co-host Devonte for a candid conversation on faith, mental health, and separating God from painful church experiences. Discover how honest dialogue, supportive community, and spiritual resilience can help break cycles of harm and lead toward healing.

Why has the church — called to be the greatest force of love on earth — become one of the most polarizing institutions in modern culture? In the debut episode of The Uplift, hosts Devante and Shawn a powerful message from Pastor Wesley Knight - an honest, unflinching conversation about why so many people are walking away from the church, and what it will actually take to bring them back.Pastor Knight opens with a striking analogy: Anakin Skywalker was destined to bring hope to the galaxy, but fear transformed him into Darth Vader. The church, he argues, has followed a similar arc — chosen to embody love, yet now widely perceived as a source of harm, control, and exclusion. But he's not here to condemn. He's here to diagnose.In this 40-minute message, Pastor Knight dismantles two of the most common myths churches tell themselves ("people don't want truth" and "people aren't interested in Jesus"), then lays out five real reasons the church has lost its appeal:1. The rise of individualism pulling us away from the community we were made for2. The historical weaponization of Christianity through colonization3. A watered-down gospel that asks too little — because a bloodless gospel, Pastor Knight says plainly, is not attractive4. The church's silence and indifference toward real suffering, including abuse, racism, immigration, and the LGBTQIA+ community5. Hypocrisy — backed by research from the Jude 3 Project at Morehouse, Spelman, and Clark Atlanta, which found it's the number one obstacle keeping Black students from committing to ChristianityHis answer isn't a new program or a rebranding strategy. It's John 13:35 — "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." The Great Commandment must come before the Great Commission. Love, he says, is the draw.This is what The Uplift is all about: real stories, real struggles, and real hope for anyone craving more from their faith journey. Whether you're deeply rooted in your faith, quietly drifting, or somewhere in the middle wondering if there's something more — this episode is for you.Coming up in future episodes: author and professor Heather Thompson Day and speaker Damian Chandler.---The Uplift is a podcast from Breath of Life Fellowship in Stamford, CT.Join us in person: 884 Newfield Avenue, Stamford, CTBible Study — Saturdays at 11:30am | Worship — Saturdays at 12:30pm

Meet the voices behind The Uplift — a new podcast from Breath of Life Fellowship in Stamford, CT. This isn't your typical church podcast. The Uplift brings honest conversations, powerful preaching, and practical insight for people who love God but still have real questions about life, faith, and church. From church hurt to mental wellness to rediscovering who Jesus really is — this is faith for real life, not just Sabbath morning. New episodes coming soon. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.#TheUplift #Podcast #Faith #BreathOfLifeFellowship #SDA #ChurchPodcast #FaithForRealLife