tēnā koe. Welcome.

AlreadyEnough helps you find a way forward.

A mutually inclusive narrative and theology for you to (re)discover an expansive God.

About

Re-introducing
an expansive and inclusive God.

Frameworks, or interpretations within Scripture, have always existed, whether they are correct, life-giving, or good news, requires and invites attention.

More recently, people are questioning the one framework they grew up in and were taught. Increased interested around interpretation means people are being (re)introduced to a different framework, potentially even the original understanding, that invites and includes all.

Gaps in knowledge, alongside an openness to listen well to peoples lived experiences, is why AlreadyEnough was curated; to re-introduce us to a framework offering an expansive and inclusive God - and liberating faith that is indeed good news.

Curiosity around culture, context, time, place, people, traditions, and experiences, inside and outside of Scripture, enables us to gain some of this renewed understanding.

AlreadyEnough is a sorting house providing books, research, theology, podcasts, videos, stories and more inviting us into inclusive life-giving outcomes - for everyone.
Welcome. Lets get started, it's a mighty, sometimes uncomfortable, but Holy ride.

Food for thought.

"We all come to these complex questions about faith, sexuality, and identity from such different backgrounds, it would be impossible for one story to speak for everyone. I don’t assume my process or the conclusions I came to in my own faith will be the same as yours. And the truth is, I’m still learning, still making room for new ways of thinking and talking about this topic."

Staci Frenes - Love Makes Room: And Other Things I Learned When My Daughter Came Out

"Queerness matters. It is a matter of faith and a matter of spirituality. It matters to people who are trying to live but dying because of who they love. It matters to me as I struggle to orient myself in this world truthfully... Queerness matters because we need to see all the ways that we ourselves are loved by God, and loved in so many ways."

Mihee Kim-Kort

"Once we recognise we are beginning to Shift, freaking out, and the temptation to back-track into our safety zone can be enticing - we find ourselves on that 'slippery slope' we've been warned against. But a Shift, a slope, isn't a decent away from God and others - it's the upward slope, a Holy invitation into justice and mercy - and an inward slope into seeing ourselves (and others) as God sees us with authentic humility.

A. Pilbrow

"Shifts are honest signs of a deeply desired faith; the blessed conduits; the channels; the Holy encounters; the way through the waters to the other side – transformation."

A. Pilbrow

"A God who does not connect to the world around us is a God who cannot speak to us. Believing in a God who demands that we continue to adopt only biblically ancient ways of thinking of God, which are themselves rooted in their own cultural moment, is to diminish God’s active presence here and now."

Peter Enns - Curveball

“The Bible is not a Christian owner’s manual but a story—a diverse story of God and how his people have connected with him over the centuries, in changing circumstances and situations.”

― Peter Enns, The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable To Read It

Allyship is... "Standing beside us when we need support, standing behind us when we need back up, and standing in front when we need protection."

Emma Cusdin - Global Butterflies

"All people have the same rights and freedoms, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC). SOGIESC is an umbrella term like LGBTQI+, and MVPFAFF. It includes people who are takatāpui, lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, intersex, transgender, transsexual, whakawāhine, tangata ira tāna..."

Human Rights Commission

"Allies come in many forms - however, remember that being an Ally doesn't necessarily mean we are 'part' of the Rainbow/Queer community; we are supporters - not members. We are not the fighters in the ring; we stand outside the ring, each Ally at a corner rail, ready to ward off the armchair critiques, the self-appointed refs, the biased theologians, and perhaps tackle the rotten tomato throwers out the back door."

A. Pilbrow

"I thought God wanted to use me to show gay people how to be straight. Instead, God used gay people to show me how to be Christian." ​ ​

Rachel Held Evans

"‪It’s funny isn’t it?‬ That you can preach a judgmental and vengeful and angry God and nobody will mind.‬ ‪But you start preaching a God that is too accepting, too loving, too forgiving, too merciful, too kind... and you are in trouble‬."

Bishop Gene Robinson ‬

"In scripture, older texts are reappropriated, reinterpreted, and read with new eyes in new contexts. They become Scripture by being read anew, evolving in continuity with their original sense, tacitly corrected and given added depth and breadth of meaning. This is a process in which the word gradually unfolds its inner potentialities, already somehow present like seeds, but needing the challenge of new situations, new experiences and new sufferings, in order to open up…. "

- Joseph Ratzinger

"Christians have always been a people of story and testimony. We have always known that when people hear our stories and experience life through our eyes, hearts and minds will change."

Brandan Robertson

books

Getting started

With over 100 books available in the AlreadyEnough collection, reading one
book per season would take more than 25years to complete.
The goal is not to overwhelm with quantity but to emphasise the extensive range of quality information available, which continues to expand. This is good news.

Often the question is "If you had to recommend one book..."
Well, we have three, depending on where you want to start.
A lived story - Undivided.
A good place to start looking at the clobber verses - Changing our Mind.
Something a little deeper around scripture and meaning - Bible, Gender, Sexuality.
Let them be the starting block and not the finish line - let them tickle your curiosity.

Behind alreadyenough

The who, why, what, and you

I'm an ex-pastor, a theologian, constant student and researcher, an artist, spiritual director, supervisor, workshop facilitator, ally, and a cis-gendered woman, mother, and wife (she/her)- that's me, Amanda.

In the middle of my pastoring role, I became uncomfortably aware of how little I knew and questioned about the LGBTIQA+ community of faith and interpretive framework(s). The more I researched, listened, wrestled, and dumped my doubts before God, the more shocked and frustrated I became - that's the darker but equally Holy side of the story. The other is the gift God offered by inviting me out of ministry into a master of applied theology - listening to LGB faith stories and researching frameworks and literature.

What I continue to discover is a deeply profound, freedom induced, hope-filled, wonderfully inclusive God, and, yes, often an uncertain faith. Isn't that what faith is meant to be - waiting for the movement of the Spirit? Being open to transformation; risking acts of justice, loving mercy, and walking with open humility with God, self, and other?

If you're looking for a healthy, informed, and safe space to unlearn and learn anew around LGBTIQA+ and faith - AlreadyEnough is for you.

If you're part of the LGBTIQA+ faith community, or know someone who is curious, and looking for encouragement and resources - AlreadyEnough is for you.

If you're a ministry leader, parent, or potential ally looking for ways forward - AlreadyEnough is for you.

While AlreadyEnough offers oodles of resources, only you can decide if you want to get off the runway and discover something expansive - join us.

Get in touch

Set up a free consultation, or enquire about my work as a Spiritual Director, Integrative Enneagram Practitioner, Supervisor, Speaker, Presenter, Researcher, Artist, LGBTIQ+ Ally, and Theologian.

Looking forward to connecting soon - Amanda