Faith Matters

Today we’re joined by Ryan Burge, one of the country’s leading data analysts on religion and politics, to talk about his new book, The Vanishing Church: How the Hollowing Out of Moderate Congregations Is Hurting Democracy, Faith, and Us.
For decades, we’ve measured the decline of American religion by empty pews and shrinking membership rolls. Ryan invites us to see another, deeper loss. As moderate congregations disappear, we’re also losing one of the last places where people with real differences—in politics, class, age, education, and conviction—learn how to love each other as neighbors.
At a time when it’s easier than ever to sort ourselves into smaller and more like-minded communities, church has remained one of the few places where belonging asks something of us. It asks us to listen, to worship beside people we didn’t choose. Ryan argues that this kind of community forms the habits of empathy, compromise, and civic trust that democracy itself depends on.
Ryan brings data and his own lived experience to this conversation, having spent years as a pastor watching his own congregation slowly disappear. It’s a challenging discussion about what church is for, what we’re losing, and why he believes showing to worship with people you may disagree with politically might be one of the most countercultural, and necessary, things we can do for our country right now.
You can buy Ryan's book on Bookshop.org and Amazon.com.
Tickets for Restore 2026 are now available, and we have a new format we think you're going to love. Get details here!

As we approach America's 250th birthday, we're reminded that every generation inherits the responsibility of shaping the nation's future. At a moment marked by fear, division, and distrust, the invitation to become peacemakers has never felt more urgent.
Today, we're sharing a powerful message from Patrick Mason, that he shared at our Restore Gathering at Utah Valley University last year, just two weeks after the tragic shooting of Charlie Kirk on the same campus. Speaking only a few hundred yards from the memorial, Patrick reminds us that violence is never the end of the story. The gospel invites us to answer fear with courage, suspicion with curiosity, and enmity with love.
We love Patrick's conviction that peacemaking is the work of discipleship. It is the work of Zion. And as we prepare to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, he invites us to declare our own independence—from the politics of fear, from contempt, from tribalism, and from the habits that keep us divided. Instead, he calls on all of us to join "a revolution of friendship and civility."
When he finished speaking at Restore, the room erupted. There was a palpable sense of hope and energy— that ordinary people really can help heal a divided world. As you celebrate this Independence Day, we hope you'll be filled with that same conviction.
Tickets for Restore 2026 are now available, and we have a new format we think you're going to love. Get details here!

Today we're delighted to share a conversation with Robin Ritch about her new book, Using Friction to Grow: Stories of Strength and Resilience.
Many of us spend our lives trying to avoid friction. We want our faith to feel clear, our communities to feel supportive, and our spiritual lives to move forward without too much tension or uncertainty. But today Robin's asking, "What if our deepest growth comes not in spite of friction, but because of it?"
And that's at the heart of her book. Through interviews with a remarkable generation of Latter-day Saint women—many of them grandmothers now—Robin uncovers stories of faith, resilience, and spiritual maturity that feel so relevant today. These women faced difficult questions, competing loyalties, and real tension between their deepest convictions and the world around them. Yet rather than allowing that friction to diminish their faith, they used it to deepen their relationship with God and expand their capacity to serve.
Robin herself has spent a career building and leading transformative organizations, including at Microsoft, Intel, and most recently as President and Publisher of Deseret News. But this book grew out of a lifelong fascination with women's spiritual lives and the wisdom that can be found in their stories.
Whether you're currently navigating friction in your own faith journey or simply looking for examples of courage and grace, we think you'll find this conversation both reassuring and inspiring.
You can buy your copy of Using Friction to Grow on Bookshop.org!
Tickets for Restore 2026 are now available, and we have a new format we think you're going to love. Get details here!

Today we’re sharing a special conversation courtesy of our friends at Lift+Love. This is a conversation recorded at their first ever Gather Conference in 2023, the world’s largest Christ-centered gathering of LGBTQ Latter-day Saints and those who love them.
In this session, two men sat down together: Tom Christofferson and Darius Gray. Both are devoted Latter-day Saints who know what it is to love the Church while also having experienced real marginalization within it.
Darius Gray is a Black Latter-day Saint who was baptized on December 26th, 1964 — fourteen years before the revelation that lifted the priesthood and temple ban. He entered the waters of baptism knowing he could not hold the priesthood, and he built his faith anyway. He helped found the Genesis Group, he waited, he worked. And on a day in June 1978, everything changed.
This June, we’re sitting with what that means.
There is something powerful in Darius’s story—his rootedness, his patience, his refusal to let institutional limitation become the ceiling of his faith.
Tom Christofferson, as a gay Latter-day Saint, knows something about that too.
What you’re about to hear is a conversation between two men who have walked and who are walking long roads, who are holding hard questions, and who are bearing witness to a God whose work continues to unfold in their lives.
It is warm and honest and full of hope. We think you’ll find, as we did, that it stays with you.
Tickets for Restore 2026 are now available, and we have a new format we think you're going to love. Get details here!

Today we’re honored to share a special session from Restore 2025 featuring Steven Kapp Perry, Alisha Anderson, and Ben Schilaty—three gay Latter-day Saints who have each taken different paths, and who share a deep commitment to following God with honesty, courage, and faith.
In this on-stage conversation, Steve, Alisha, and Ben share personal and vulnerable reflections on what it means to seek God when the road ahead feels uncertain, and the courage it takes to keep moving forward in faith. They explore belonging, revelation, and the complexity of spiritual life as they describe discerning and following paths that looked very different from one another’s and the ones they once expected—often amid the pain of being misunderstood.
This session was a powerful reminder that God is at work in every life, and that each person's journey is sacred. 
As Ben shares near the end of the conversation, "The stories that truly matter are the stories of the LGBTQ people that you know in your lives." That's our invitation this month. We hope this conversation opens the door to deeper connection with people in your own life whose paths may look different than your own.
We’re grateful to Steve, Alisha, and Ben for their vulnerability and wisdom.

You'll hear Steve mention a short film at the beginning of this session that tells more of Alisha’s story. It’s beautiful and moving, and you can watch it here. You can also watch a video recording of this session, including a musical performance from Steve and his wife, on our YouTube channel or Substack. You can order Ben's book A Walk in My Shoes here.
Tickets for Restore 2026 are now available, and we have a new format we think you're going to love. Get details here!