Everyday Interfaith with Bryan Lorentz & Clay Dockery

QUICK SUMMARY

What happens when your spiritual calling doesn’t align with the tradition you grew up in or the one your spouse practices? In this double episode, world religions teacher Bryan Lorentz recalls the fifth-grade moment he begged his dad to let him leave home for a monastery, and the answer that changed his life. Then interfaith minister Clay Dockery shares what a decade of working with Jewish-Christian couples taught him about raising kids, keeping families together, and listening without an agenda. Two stories, one lesson: you don’t have to leave where you are to find the divine.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE EXPLORE

• [00:00] Cold open: “It’s really easy to steal away to the mountains to find peace”
• [00:30] Dave and Fr. John introduce the segue episode between the Buddhism and Daoism series
• [02:00] Meet Bryan Lorentz: teacher, musician, meditator, and beekeeper
• [03:00] Growing up in San Francisco with teacher parents, five boys, and a family culture of music and open spiritual conversation
• [05:00] The fifth-grade calling: “When I grow up I wanna be a monk… but I don’t wanna wait” (including the Halloween monk costume)
• [10:00] The muddy minivan conversation: Bryan asks his dad, a former Salesian seminarian, to let him leave for the monastery
• [12:00] The answer that stuck: peace isn’t found by running away, because your emotional baggage travels with you
• [16:00] Bringing contemplation into a Catholic classroom: how Bryan gets energetic freshmen to meditate 5–10 minutes every class
• [18:00] The free-throw-line analogy: coaching students to hold their focus when everyone around them is losing theirs
• [21:00] Bryan finally does go East: monasteries in Nepal, Tibet, India, Sri Lanka, and China, and thousand-year-old temple stones worn soft by barefoot pilgrims
• [23:30] The Sisters of the Sacred Heart (RSCJ) and espacio: East-West contemplative practice in a global network of Catholic schools
• [25:00] Waking at 5 AM with Burmese monks in Bodh Gaya as the Muslim call to prayer rings out
• [27:00] Basketball, Tai Chi, and prayer rugs: the story of Ibrahim at Beijing Sports University
• [30:30] Dave’s reflection: the sacred hides in minivans, soccer practice, and Halloween costumes
• [31:30] Meet Clay Dockery: seminary graduate, interfaith family minister, and nonprofit leader
• [33:00] Life on the margins: the nerd on the tennis team who could talk to everyone
• [35:00] Kicked out of Sunday school five times for asking the wrong questions, and the day a rabbi was heckled from the front pew of Clay’s childhood church
• [38:00] Rebuilding faith: exploring Unitarian, Presbyterian, and other traditions before finding a home at the Presbyterian Student Center at the University of Georgia
• [41:00] How Interfaith Community works: meeting Jewish-Christian families where they are instead of asking whether they “should” exist
• [44:00] The three moments interfaith couples seek help: when they first commit, when kids arrive, and when those kids near bar mitzvah or confirmation age
• [48:00] Inside the curriculum: Jewish and Christian teachers co-teaching every lesson, and fully authentic (never watered-down) holiday services
• [51:30] Living in “liminal space”: why Clay is most at home in the tension between what is and what could be
• [52:30] Fr. John’s question: should interfaith parents give kids something, even something to reject?
• [56:00] The hardest moment: when school-age kids force parents to realize they care more about tradition than they thought
• [60:30] From seminary to the Renaissance Youth Center: “You don’t have to talk about God to be doing God’s work”
• [61:00] Clay’s two rules for listening without an agenda: name your agenda and set it aside, then take ten breaths before you respond
• [64:30] Closing reflections and a preview of next episode: Ming Dao Deng on Daoism

MEMORABLE QUOTES

“It’s really easy to steal away to the mountains to find peace. It’s much harder to find it from where you are.” — Bryan Lorentz (quoting his father)

“We control the inputs. We can’t control the outputs. So we give the best inputs that we can, and then we see where the outputs go.” — Clay Dockery

“I don’t think you have to talk about God to be doing God’s work.” — Clay Dockery

ABOUT BRYAN LORENTZ

Bryan Lorentz teaches world religions at Sacred Heart Preparatory in Atherton, California, where he has spent nearly two decades teaching, leading retreats, and guiding immersion experiences across the Bay Area. He holds a master’s degree in human development and psychology from Harvard, where he studied neuroscience and decision-making, and his spiritual formation has deepened through extended study in monasteries, temples, and universities across Nepal, Tibet, India, Sri Lanka, and China. A professional singer and guitarist, Bryan serves as music director at St. Denis Church in Menlo Park. He runs and meditates in the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains, and with his 14-year-old son, Xavi, runs the family beekeeping venture Bay B’s, making Bay Area wildflower honey.

ABOUT CLAY DOCKERY

Clay Dockery is a nonprofit leader and seminary graduate whose work focuses on interfaith families, identity, and community life. He holds a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary and spent roughly a decade with Interfaith Community, writing curriculum and running programming that supports couples and children navigating Jewish-Christian family life. Today, Clay serves as Director of Operations at Renaissance Youth Center, a diverse community-based organization, where he leads organizational systems, staff support, and program infrastructure.

Connect with Clay:

• Interfaith Community: interfaithcommunity.org
• Social media (all platforms): @smartpenguin78

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Interfaith Community — chapters, classes, and contacts for interfaith families
• Renaissance Youth Center — where Clay serves as Director of Operations
• Sacred Heart Preparatory, Atherton — where Bryan teaches world religions
• Sisters of the Sacred Heart (RSCJ) and their global network of 200+ schools practicing espacio
• CrossCurrents — the interreligious journal where Clay first connected with Interfaith Community
• Union Theological Seminary — Clay’s M.Div. alma mater
• Presbyterian Student Center at the University of Georgia
• The Tao of Pooh and the writings of Thomas Merton — books young Bryan flipped through for guidance
• Bay B’s — Bryan and Xavi’s Bay Area wildflower honey venture