What does it mean to keep your faith when the version you were given no longer fits?
Each day, many of us continue to reckon with how much has shifted in our lives of faith—and how much has been exposed in the culture. For some, church is no longer a place of safety. For others, the language that once felt comforting now feels too small, or even harmful.
If you joined us for The Year of Belonging Book Club, you know we’ve spent the last two years asking how we can hold each other with compassion in a fractured world. This year, we’re asking a different question:
What does it mean to stay connected to our spiritual lives while telling the truth about the ways religion has harmed us?
The Faithfully Dissident Book Club is an invitation to explore that question together—gently and honestly.
About your facilitator:
Chelsea Kim Long (she/her) is a writer, creator, meditation teacher, and lay theologian. Entering motherhood catalyzed her deconstruction journey out of the white evangelical faith and into an expansive version of faithfulness to God that doesn’t require self-abandonment. She lives in San Diego with her husband and kids, where she co-leads an intentional neighborhood faith community. Learn more about Chelsea.
Meeting dates:
January 30, February 27, March 27, April 24, May 29, June 26, July 31, August 28, September 25, October 30, November 20
We will meet on the last Friday of each month (adjusted as needed for holidays, etc) on Zoom at 12pm PST/3pm EST. We will not meet in December.
How this group will run:
The book club will run from January to November of 2026. We'll read one book each month and have a live Zoom call once a month.
Throughout the month, we will also offer an optional WhatsApp group chat to offer you a space to connect with other participants to the degree that you want to. It can be really helpful to have a supportive digital community that encourages you to embody what you're learning through reading, and to check in if you can't make the Zoom call.
Chelsea will respond to your messages in a timely manner. The other group members will be invited to respond and share as they have capacity and desire. We'll have some ground rules to keep it helpful and respectful.
What does it cost?
The Faithfully Dissident Book Club is for paid newsletter subscribers in Chelsea’s community (learn more and sign up here). If you're already a paid subscriber and want to join the book club, email Chelsea to sign up. Thank you for sustaining my work!
*Please don't let finances be an obstacle; we are offering this book club on a "pay-what-you-can" basis with a suggested minimum payment of $5 per month. If you can't make that work, please email Chelsea and we are happy to have you join us. Registration will be open on an ongoing basis.
Also, you can pick up the books that we'll keep in a list on Bookshop.org or your local library (we recommend using Libby and Hoopla)!
About the books
I have curated a list that spans genres and voices, with the hope of creating vibrant conversation around what it means to remain rooted in faith while refusing to abandon ourselves. Some books are nonfiction and theological, guiding us into an embodied practice of dissent, healing, and spiritual imagination. Others are fiction and mythic retellings that invite us, through story, to wonder: What is possible beyond the versions of Christianity we were handed?
This year, we will be in conversation with contemporary thinkers who are reimagining faith in real time—and with writers across time who have dared to ask different questions of God. We’ll read about embodiment, feminist and womanist theology, liberation, mysticism, and sacred defiance, trusting that these angles will widen our understanding of what faithful Christian spirituality can look like.
If you’d like to see the lineage we’re building from, you can revisit our 2025 Year of Belonging Book Club selections or 2024 Year of Belonging Book Club selections.
WINTER · Awakening the Inner Dissident
- January 30 — The Dance of the Dissident Daughter · Sue Monk Kidd
- February 27 — God Is a Black Woman · Christena Cleveland
- March 27 — The Book of Longings: A Novel · Sue Monk Kidd
SPRING · Embodiment & Reclamation
- April 24 — The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love · Sonya Renee Taylor
- May 29 — Unmaking Mary: Shattering the Myth of Perfect Motherhood · Chine McDonald
- June 26 — The Break · Katherena Vermette
SUMMER · Wildness & Wisdom
- July 31 — The Girl Who Baptized Herself: How a Lost Scripture About a Saint Named Thecla Reveals the Power of Knowing Our Worth · Meggan Watterson
- August 28 — Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics Book by Mirabai Starr · Mirabai Starr
- September 25 — Lilith: A Novel · Nikki Marmery
AUTUMN · Integration & Liberation
- October 30 — Faithfully Dissident Daughters: Reclaiming Christian Womanhood Beyond Patriarchy · Chelsea Kim Long
- November 20 — The Women Could Fly: A Novel · Megan Giddings
- December — Rest & reflection (no formal meeting)
To learn more about each individual title, please visit the 2026 Faithfully Dissident booklist on Bookshop.org.