The God Journey

Wayne is out of town with his family as they deal with his mother's passing, so there is no new podcast this week. But you can dip into the archives and chose your own, or listen to one of the classics: "It's not Chocolate." It's one of their most talked about podcasts as they explore how you can learn to recognize God’s voice among all the competing voices that fill our head and the noise that fills our world. Losing our taste for the false offerings of religion and dismissing the voices of guilt and shame are an important part of reducing the noise and recognizing God’s impulses in our heart.

Wayne reads the new first chapter of the book he is just completing, Finding Church: What If There Really Is Something More? This is very different from the one he read last November that was going to be the starting chapter. When you are frustrated at the difference between the picture Scripture paints of Jesus' church and the one we see after 2000 years of church history, you are ready for an incredible journey beyond the canvas of human effort to behold the masterpiece Jesus is creating. Here you'll discover the church that Jesus has been building since the Day of Pentecost, and that she is alive and well and reaches around the globe. Podcast Links: Finding Church Cover Wars! Over 300 responses on Facebook and no clear consensus, which I wasn't looking for anyway. Kenya Update for the Outreach in West Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney".

The look behind the curtain can be incredibly disorienting the first time around. Our assumptions that everyone engaged in our congregation is doing what they do with a pure heart and a passion for Jesus' kingdom, doesn't collapse easily and when it does people can feel exploited and abused. In an email from a listener, a blog post by a former staff member of Mars Hill and other readings, Wayne goes back to help those who are just beginning to grasp how much bondage and error there is in our systems of religious obligation and help them wrestle with what we do in response. Is it possible to teach and encourage among Jesus' family without having to build a conformity system around it? Podcast Links: Hi My Name is Mike Anderson... Ten Pastors I'm Concerned About by Scott Potsma Previous Podcast about Mistakes Were Made But Not By Me Kenya Update for the Outreach in West Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney".

In this kingdom getting to the end of our rope is not to be feared, but celebrated. At the end of all our efforts, doubts, and fears is a Loving Father and the freedom to see life through his eyes instead of our own. It doesn't always take that, but often it does and God is gracious enough to walk us through the process even when we don't know or believe he is there. Listener comments and email fill out the story from other people's experience and the light they've gained by going through the deep water with him and finding a rich dependency on him that is difficult for us to find in the good times we so ardently seek. Podcast Links: Engage: Letting God Build a Relationship With You Love Is Like A Fire Kenya Update for the Outreach in West Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney".

Brad is back as Wayne invites him into some of the God Journey's recent interaction in blogs and emails about why God doesn't make learning to live in his love easier than it is? Couldn't he just overwhelm us with something that proves it so our heart can rest in him, and if he doesn't what does that say about him? Or, is there a spiritual reality akin to gravity in our temporal world that God is helping us navigate in a way that will best lead to our transformation and growing trust in him? What if suffering and loss are not proof that he is absent or uncaring? What if the very pain we use as an excuse to doubt his love, is actually our mentor to lead us closer to him? Podcast Links: Kenya Update for the Outreach in West Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney".

Brad is back in the house celebrating with Wayne the completion of his newest book, Finding Church: What If There Really Is Something More? They talk about the people they know who are standing at the crossroads of whether or not they can abandon their human efforts for God and get on a better journey of learning to live in the work he does. Many avoid the road less traveled because it looks like a cliff, but it's a choice that can't seem to be made slowly. Either we're all in on the journey of love and transformation, or we'll stay stuck either in the futility of our own efforts or the frustration of unfulfilled promise. How can we take a chance on a road that offers no guarantees? Podcast Links: Kenya Update for the Outreach in West Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney".

There is a Conversation of Life going on around the world that allows the kingdom of God to grow in the human heart. As Wayne sorts through recent email he finds a consistent theme as people look for that communion in their own touch with God. As people grow in that reality internally then they can help others into that conversation by the way they engage and make themselves available to others around them. Finding our way into that conversation both with God and others is more art that science, so don't look to do it mechanically, but as we learn to live in his love and find ways to communicate it with others, it will open a door for an endless flow of conversational adventures that will inspire your own journey and that of others around you. Podcast Links: Genesis by Jimmy Wolfe Connections for Wayne's Travel Kenya Update for the Outreach in West Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney".

If you're counting anything as a sign of your fruitfulness in God's kingdom, you're already a step away from God's priorities. Fruitfulness isn't measured by the size of your audience, income stream, or the number of book sales or website clicks. Once you think it is, you will distort his kingdom to increase your bottom line and probably not even realize it. Wayne begins with a dip in the old mail bag following up on the John Lynch podcasts and then finds himself discussing how the priorities of Father's kingdom differs completely with the priorities of this world. You get to follow one or the other; trying to follow both is an illusion. Podcast Links: Wayne's Love Is Like Fire blog Kenya Update for the Outreach in West Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney".

How are you going to live when things don't turn out the way you want? Wayne continues his conversation with John Lynch, author of ON MY WORST DAY and co-author of BO'S CAFE as he talks about the physical challenge John is facing and learning how to embrace God's grace in difficult circumstances. John contemplates the question whether there is there even one moment in your life where God might be playing you, or is not completely for you. Living in his love invites us to embrace the day in his affection, rather than focus on the uncertainty of the future. God is enough for whatever we are facing, and we are enough for God to do his greatest work in us. Podcast Links: Previous podcast with John: Treasuring an Environment of Grace John's home site: Truefaced Wayne's review of ON MY WORST DAY >>>> Order it here. Wayne's review of BO'S CAFE. >>>> Order it here. Kenya Update for the Outreach in West Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney".

Wayne first worked with John Lynch (pictured at left with his wife, Stacey) as an editor on BO'S CAFE and has been hoping ever since to cross paths somewhere. It finally happened last week in Phoenix and Wayne recorded some of their conversations as they shared their journeys, their passion to help people live loved, and they difficulties of cultivating an environment of grace where people can discover how loved they are by a God who is for them. Wayne and John come from completely opposite backgrounds and celebrate how God has led each of them into the same space and how they share a passion for others to engage God in a way that lets them truly embrace his freedom. John's latest book is ON MY WORST DAY, a journey he is still living. Podcast Links: John's home site: Truefaced Wayne's review of ON MY WORST DAY >>>> Order it here. Wayne's review of BO'S CAFE. >>>> Order it here. Kenya Update for the Outreach in West Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney".

What do you do when the person you've poured so much love on doesn't love you back, doesn't blossom or succeed, didn't heal, or maybe even got more deeply into serious problems? Can forcing our love on someone who doesn't want it become destructive to them? Wayne interacts with an email from Emmett who has been contemplating the depth of love in his own life and how it applies to people around us that seem to reject or abuse it. How love intersects with human freedom is one of the puzzling realities of this journey and the only way to sort it out is to learn love from the author of love himself. Podcast Links: Details for Wayne's Arizona Trip Wayne's review of John Lynch's ON MY WORST DAY Kenya Update for the Outreach in West Pokot Emmett's Email Lifestream Journeys - an email list for fellow-travelers Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney".

What’s the best way for you to alter the trajectory of the world? Is it by starting or becoming part of a significant movement, or designing some media product that will dazzle the masses? Jesus didn’t seem to be preoccupied about either of those things. Instead he showed us a way to live that is far more powerful thananything else. What’s more, every one of us can engage it every day and by doing so we we become part of God's unfolding purpose in the world. Most miss it in pursuit of seemingly loftier goals, but nothing else will have the same impact. HINT: It’s not the projects you do, but the people you touch today that will make the difference. Podcast Links: Details for Phoenix Trip Looking Out for the Lonely by Glennon Doyle Melton Stairway to Wisdom by David Brooks Kenya Update for the Outreach in West Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney".

I get asked a lot of questions about elders and the five-fold ministry gifts of Ephesians 4. We know how religion has captured these terms and used them for top-down managers that often abuse people wittingly or unwittingly by thinking they have the responsibility to command others in Jesus' name. But what are they in the new creation? Instead of managing people or systems, the real fulfillment of these gifts is to equip others to live freely in Jesus, not to subdue them with their own wisdom or agendas. Our ministry contracts take people down this road all the time by making it more about the gift and their need for a following, rather than serving those who want to know him. Podcast Links: Kenya Update for the Outreach in West Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney".

From his portable podcast studio in the woods of Maryland, Wayne talks about his weekend with a broad spectrum of believers who gathered to share their God Journeys, ask some questions, and make some new connections. Here are stories of bondage and courage, as people are learning how to respond to Jesus as their head, and not the demands of those who bully others thinking they are Godly leaders. This theme continues as Wayne shares from the life of Moses and whether or not God's call to holiness is a terrifying place to dread, or a delightful space filled with joy and wonder inside a relationship with God. Podcast Links: Conformity is King Podcast from 11/8/13 Kenya Update for the Outreach in West Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney".

Following up last week's podcast, Wayne continues the theme of seeing our spiritual progress as a journey rather than an achievement. That allows us to be real about where we are in him and confront the circumstances before us with honesty and openness. Wherever we give up hope that Jesus wants to transform us out of a growing relationship with him and substitute instead a list of rules or objectives, we've traded the life of Jesus for an empty religion. As he awakens us out of that bondage an amazing journey unfolds of increasing freedom and love. All we have to do is live in the reality of what he's already done in us and make space for whatever he wants to give us that day. So instead of looking for formulas, we're just learning to follow him. Podcast Links: If you'd like to help us in Kenya. The need has grown by another $12,000. The Nut Test Wayne's Virginia Trip Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney".