How do you maintain your faith and hope in the church when you have been hurt by it in the past? Is there a difference between following the teachings of Jesus and feeling obliged by the church community? Are you willing to fully love yourself and those around you? In this podcast episode, Billy and Brandy Eldridge speak about the other side of the church with Lathan Craft. Meet Lathan Craft Lathan Craft is the author of the Amazon best-seller The Leper in the Church, host of The Other Side Of The Church Podcast, and founder of Heartbeat from Hope, a non-profit organization giving individualized hope to the most hopeless of places. Lathan is also the owner of Made for Purpose, a coaching and consulting company founded to help clients find their dream job. Lathan has a heart for motivational speaking, ministry, and reaching others through transparent and hope-filled discussion. Visit The Other Side Of The Church and connect them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.   In This Podcast Summary * Maintaining hope in the church * Can you follow Jesus and not the church? * If you see or sense an issue in the church, report it Maintaining hope in the church How do you keep hope? You read the gospels. I think Jesus is literally the complete antonym of the American church in so many different ways, and if we really are preaching from our church to follow Jesus, I really hope people follow Jesus, and not just the construct we make church out to be. (Lathan Craft) The church as an organization and the teachings of Jesus are not synonymous. You can follow Jesus and be faithful to God without being affiliated with a church or church as a construct. Sometimes people try to convince you that to withdraw from the church community is to turn your back on Jesus, but that is not true. Jesus is a part of you and your journey and is not something that the church should weaponize to keep you within the community. If we keep saying, “follow Jesus”, I really hope Jesus changes our hearts and says, “okay, if you want to follow me then follow me … don’t follow what you think I am … the American flag or organized religion, follow me” … if we really want hope, we follow in his footsteps and we see how he loved people and what he did. (Lathan Craft) Can you follow Jesus and not the church? To follow Jesus means to champion and support those whom society says are not good enough, and to love those that the church might even say are not good enough. Jesus loved people and their stories and welcomed them into His space. You can follow Jesus by embodying his teachings in your life instead of keeping to what the church says you should or should not do. This idea and this reality of loving those who everyone else, in our culture, in Texas, in America, says, “they don’t fit what our church is or what our society is, therefore, we have nothing to do with them”, actually Jesus has everything to do with them. (Lathan Craft) Jesus teaches people to love one another for who they are and not for who they want them to be. If you see or sense an issue in the church, report it