The Saturate Podcast

Ever wonder what it might look like for churches to work together to strengthen and start churches? Bruce Wesley and Chad Clarkson were empowered and freed up by Clear Creek Community Church to give some of their time away to start the Houston Church Planting Network with several other leaders in the greater Houston area. Chad shares his personal story and the story of HCPN and what is required to see a collaborative church planting initiative thrive. You will be inspired, encouraged, and informed during this episode and gain some wisdom and direction for similar work in your context.

Tokyo has almost 40 million people and less than a quarter of a percent know Jesus. Sadly, 95% will likely never know a follower of Jesus their entire life. The need for the gospel to be planted is huge! Yoshito Noguchi moved his family from a comfortable existence and a very steady job as a youth pastor into the heart of Tokyo to start a new church. In this episode, Yoshi shares his journey with Jeff Vanderstelt, and all the struggles and joys that he encountered and the many ways God has been faithful. His is a journey of faithful trust and ongoing dependence on God. You will be encouraged and spurred on in your own faith journey and perhaps develop a passion for God’s work in Japan.

Leaving a steady career and moving a family to another country to start a church is no easy task. Atanasio Segovia did just that. In this episode, Atanasio shares his story and the story of Familia Soma with Jeff Vanderstelt. Atanasio shares the real struggles and how he has navigated through them, as well as the joy-filled breakthroughs. If you’re looking to be inspired and encouraged about how God is working in Mexico and through regular everyday people on mission, this episode is for you.

Craig Tuck and Clay Jernigan join Jeff Vanderstelt in this episode of the Saturate podcast. Craig and Clay are part of Mission Charleston, which exists to see churches and leaders collaborating together to love and serve Greater Charleston with the good news of Jesus. The city of Charleston experienced a horrific tragedy in 2015 when 9 parishioners from Emanuel African Methodist Church were killed during a Bible study. This event could have divided the city and led to destructive riots. However, due to previous work for unity, several African American leaders took a stand against division which saved the city from potential ruin. Craig and Clay share ongoing stories of leaders and churches intentionally engaging in collaborative forms of serving together.

Jesus loved Jerusalem and wept over her as He described the people there as a sheep without a shepherd. Jesus still loves cities and sends His people to care for the people in every city like He cared for us. Chris Gough has been working for many years in the greater Puget Sound region in Washington state and has many stories that will inspire you as you consider how you can pray for, serve, and share Jesus in your own context.

One of the ways Jesus taught us to create pathways for the gospel is through serving others like He served us. God loved us so much that He was willing to give His own Son for sinners. He became the Father to the spiritually fatherless. In this episode, Alison Martin, shares with Jeff Vanderstelt how she and others at Doxa Church have intentionally loved and served foster children, foster families, and foster care services to demonstrate the love of God in tangible ways. Alison shares many great principles that can be applied in any context and in many different forms of serving.

Like the previous two years, 2022 has been a mixed bag for many. Often we define our world by what’s broken or what’s been lost. We need to remember that the cup of sorrow can also be the cup of joy. In this episode, Jeff Vanderstelt takes some time to reflect on what God has done through Saturate this past year and looks forward with anticipation to another year of God’s faithfulness.

In the early days of Advent, we drive out to the Beck family farm to cut down a Christmas tree. Our only rule is it must be shorter than “Mom” so it will fit in our house. This rule is always disappointing, especially as you walk around towering and beautiful trees. Instead of those giants, we pick a tree that only slightly dwarfs Charlie Brown’s. And yet, once we bring the tree into our house, we realize it’s too big. There isn’t room. We have to move furniture, change our seating arrangements, and move lamps out of the living room. It inconveniences everything. It disrupts our feng shui. Our children clamor to decorate it as fast as possible, placing all the ornaments on the bottom half of our tree. The whole, lovely experience involves getting muddy, dirtying our car, moving furniture, pulling boxes out of the basement, and attempts at teaching a five-year-old the aesthetic of a balanced Christmas tree. This is one of my favorite moments. It’s the moment we prepare room in our house for the Christmas season. It’s the moment we make our house ready for the ongoing celebration that is full of expectation of God’s arrival. This physical discipline and family moment is an outward expression of what takes place within us. You are a Disciple and Worshipper of God Advent is a fresh invitation from God to prepare room in our hearts, minds, souls, and bodies to worship Him. This is the call to worship we hear as we sing in Joy to the World: “Let every heart, prepare him room.” This is not merely a missional call toward the world but it is a call to each other and ourselves in community. Many leaders and missional communities forget we are welcomed into a life of enjoying God, knowing His love, and experiencing His presence in our lives. We forget that we are God’s mission and on God’s mission. You and your community were created to live the gospel in unity with God. To taste the grace of God through repentance and faith. To worship God through confession. To know the depth of God’s love by listening to God. Christopher Friedrich Blumhardt notes the discipline we undertake of preparing room and searching for God’s work today…even in the ordinary. "One does not always have to wait for something out of the ordinary. The all-important thing is to keep your eyes on what comes from God and to make way for it to come into being here on the earth. If you always try to be heavenly and spiritually minded, you won’t understand the everyday work God has for you to do. But if you embrace what is to come from God, if you live for Christ’s coming in practical life, you will learn that divine things can be experienced here and now." This requires an intentional focus, just like the welcoming of a Christmas tree into your living room. How will you prepare room in your heart? How will you look for God’s presence? How will you tune your ear to hear His voice? At Saturate, we've created several resources to help disciples, families, and communities walk through this Advent with intentionality, hope, and joy in our Savior, Immanuel, God with us. You’re invited to join us. FINDING JESUS IN THE WAITING This Advent, we invite your community to work through the “O Antiphons” during your weekly community gatherings. These are six liturgical poems,

Many of us have come to believe that being needy and weak is a bad thing—even a sign of spiritual immaturity. As a result, we may have also come to believe that feelings are not good. In this episode, Jeff Vanderstelt makes a biblical case for the purpose of emotions and weakness to lead us to find our needs met in relationship with God and others.

Chuck Gschwend, spiritual director for the Saturate board and director of culture and spiritual formation at the Eden Project, joins Jeff Vanderstelt to talk about the importance of making spiritual direction a priority for healthy leaders

Each of us has an image in our head of who God is. That image, however, has been distorted and leads us to interact with a false view of God. The true image of God is seen and declared through Jesus. That truth is: God is love. When we know this both intellectually and relationally, it changes everything. In this podcast episode, Nathan Wagnon, CEO of the new start-up The Eden Project, shares with Jeff Vanderstelt how everything hinges on our image of God being reformed through the ultimate reality that God is love.

Todd Wermers, Director of Coaching at Tin Man Ministries, joins Jeff Vanderstelt in this episode and shares about his painful and transformative journey from sexual brokenness, leading him to lose his job, enter into recovery, restoring him to emotional health, and finally into helping others get their hearts back. Todd unpacks the common story of emotional brokenness that we all share and how Tin Man Ministries walks leaders back to emotional health through the transformational process.

Jeff Vanderstelt talks with Jeff Schulte, Founder and President of Tin Man Ministries, who shares about his journey from brokenness toward emotional and spiritual health, which led to the formation of Tin Man Ministries. The Tinman from the Wizard of Oz didn’t know he had a heart. Far too many people live disconnected from their own heart. Jeff shares how Tin Man Ministries helps people recover and re-engage their heart.

Jeff Vanderstelt interacts with Doug Paul, from Catapult, around the common struggles churches have in developing disciple-making strategies with an aim to provide practical solutions. In particular, Saturate and Catapult are partnering together to provide a Disciple-Making Digital Workshop on October 6, 2022 and two year-long Disciple-Making Labs beginning in January and May 2023. Listen to learn more and find out how you can get the help your church needs.

In this episode, Jeff Vanderstelt talks with Brian Johnson and Rob Wegner, leaders with the Kansas City Underground, about how they equip everyday people for disciple-making in everyday life leading to MicroChurch expressions so that all of Kansas City will one day be filled with the presence of Jesus.