Ep11: Courage to Thrive — On today’s show, Rev. Dr. Robert Flanagan interviews the Rev. Chantal McKinney, an author, a mystic Christian and visionary, a faith-based entrepreneur
September 2026: Welcome to Ep10 of Father Bob’s Courage to Thrive show!
Father Bob talks with Chantal about her work and her new book, Following Jesus Beyond Church Walls: A Catalyst for Your Spiritual Growth
About our guest: Chantal McKinney is an author, a mystic Christian and visionary, a faith-based entrepreneur, a nationwide speaker, coach, and consultant for a wide diversity of churches, faith communities, and non-profits. She is the founder of Root Thrive Soar, the co-founder of Water + Light, the Founding Pastor for Christ’s Beloved Community, and the founder of Contemporary Mystics Publishing.
She has established supportive networks and circles for women affected by harm in the church and for spiritually expansive individuals. She coaches and consults with church plants, clergy leaders, redeveloping churches, Dioceses, and on the church-wide denominational level. Originally ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church, she now continually strives to be God’s priest, with a particular heart for the millions of people who are in exile and on the margins of church. She lives in North Carolina with her family.
Her first book, Following Jesus Beyond Church Walls: A Catalyst for Your Spiritual Growth, is available here.
Learn more: chantalmckinney.com • rootthrivesoar.com • contemporarymysticspublishing.com
“Following Jesus Beyond Church Walls,” by Chantal McKinney
About Following Jesus Beyond Church Walls: A Catalyst for Your Spiritual Growth: What happens to faith when the institutions meant to sustain it fail?
In Following Jesus Beyond Church Walls, ordained Episcopal priest Chantal Morales McKinney offers a searching memoir of spiritual reckoning from inside a progressive Christian community that could not live up to its own values. As cracks appear in the church’s moral and relational foundations, she confronts painful historical questions about power, accountability, and the limits of institutional belonging.
Rather than walking away from Christianity, McKinney turns the church’s failure into an invitation-one that leads her beyond institutional limits toward an expansive understanding of Jesus’ teaching: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there with them.” Beyond church walls, she begins to imagine a way of following Jesus grounded in relationship, moral courage, and presence rather than hierarchy or institutional authority.
Drawing on Christian mysticism, the Divine Feminine, contemplative practice, immersion in the natural world, and her own pastoral formation, McKinney reimagines what faith can look like when institutions fail. Structured around the spiritual arc of Root, Thrive, and Soar, this deeply moving memoir is both an exposé of the limits of even the most inclusive churches and a blueprint for building faith and community beyond them. Following Jesus Beyond Church Walls offers hope to those who have been harmed or disillusioned by religious institutions but still hunger for meaning, connection, and a faith that can survive the truth.
About our Courage2Thrive host: An esteemed Episcopal priest and author, Father Bob has dedicated his life to spiritual transformation and caring for others.
With a profound connection to his faith and an unwavering commitment to helping those in need, he has touched countless lives through his ministry, writings, and teachings. Bob’s book, “Letters of an Unexpected Mystic,” was a 2023 Selah Book Award finalist in the Bible study category.
Learn more: robertdflanagan.com
In his first-person spiritual journal, 
He knows that we do that by relating well to ourselves and others, the world and its various creatures and places—and God. “We thrive when we relate to who and what is around us in a healthy manner. We can discover ourselves—who we are—in beautiful, elegant, hope-filled, positive ways,” says 
