Elaina continues her story, growing up in a strict, fear-based home where discipline, demons, and God were all tangled together, and how that shaped her earliest sense of safety and self. She talks candidly about the fear that defined her childhood, the distance in her relationship with her father, and the turning point when she left for Bible college in Texas, finding community and joy for the first time, even as her understanding of God began to change.

Elaina spent over a decade as a worship leader — signed to a label, singing on stages to millions of streams with the group Worship Mob — before she stopped believing the things she needed to believe to stay. In this first conversation, she traces the early unraveling: a lifelong struggle with the doctrine of hell, the books that cracked it open (including Rob Bell's Love Wins), and the slow, messy realization that the God she'd been taught to fear didn't match the love she'd been taught to trust.

This is Part 1 of Elaina's story on The Exit Interview — a podcast where two Christians sit down with friends who've left the church. No debate, no agenda. Just the table, and the story.

Hosted by Jordan and Anida.

We're not professional counselors or psychologists — just two people who love our friends and want to hear them out. This episode covers themes of religious trauma, divorce, and abuse; listener discretion advised.

Part 2 coming soon.

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