Author: AthenaDeanHoltz

I'm a speaker, author, blogger, radio personality, publisher and pastor's wife and I help women who've been wounded by the church or other traumatic life experiences, so they can learn to trust God again. I've spent the past 30 years in the book publishing industry, as co-founder and former owner of the pioneering custom publishing company in the Christian book industry, and one-on-one as a freelance publishing coach. and was blessed to spend a year as a radio personality on “Always Faithful Radio” a live radio program for women on AM 630 KSLR in San Antonio, TX where I served as broadcast missionary under Commission to Every Nation. In August of 2015 I was invited to relaunch my Always Faithful show on AM 630 KCIS in the Seattle area (www.kcisradio.com) and it airs every Friday at 1:00PM PST. I spent my early days of being a Jesus follower in a ministry for Vietnam veterans and their family members. Through that experience, I learned a lot about PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and how far reaching it is—way beyond the combat veteran community. And to top that off, I am also a cult survivor, twice over. Once before I became a Christian I got sucked into and escaped from the Church of Scientology. After my salvation experience in 1986, I was lured into a legalistic, toxic, abusive Christian cult called Sound Doctrine. Ever since I walked away from this traumatic experience I've not been afraid to stand up and tell my story. It's created an immense backlash online by my abusers, but I have nothing to hide. I've learned a lot from that experience and God has taught me a great deal about why I was vulnerable in the first place. He has also given me great insights into deceivers and those who have been deceived as a result. Early in 2014, I returned to publishing in the Northwest and co-founded Redemption Press. The amazing part of that story is God brought me full circle, back to the offices I used to occupy before my detour into deception. I've written three books including, "Consumed by Success: Reaching the Top and Finding God Wasn’t There", "All That Glitters Is Not God", and am currently rewriting my book about self-publishing which will be titled "Authors in Charge: Helping Find Your Voice, Your Way". My personal blog (athenadeanholtz.com/athena-dean-holtz/) was selected as one of the top 100 faith blogs for Christian women in 2015 by http://www.womensbiblecafe.com/100-top-faith-blogs/. Imagine that! The most exciting thing that’s happened to me recently is I married Ross Holtz, founding pastor of The Summit, an Evangelical Free Church. That means I’m now a pastor’s wife…who knew?