The God Journey - 2012

God’s Provision and Our Desires

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 21:57:57 GMT

In the last podcast of the year Wayne takes on a question from our comment line about whether we need to work for a living if we trust God for our finances. Is working part of the curse of the law Jesus set us free from, or is it part of how God provides for us? That opens a door to conversations Wayne has had a lot lately with authors, musicians, and other creative people who would like to do what they love for a living. That also includes those who would like to be available full-time to help other people grow in this journey. Is there a way to make that happen? Why do we do when our desires and our income stream don’t merge?

Podcast Links:
Wayne’s story of responding to God’s voice in their finances on the Encouraging One Another Podcast.
Wayne’s blog postings on Lessons from the Tragedy in Connecticut

Part 1: The Nature of Evil

Part 2: Ripples of Consequence

Part 3: Triumph in Tragedy has not been released yet, but will be added here when it is.

Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at TheGodJourney.
Thanks to your generosity, we’ve been able to buy new clothes for the children at the orphanage in Kenya. You can see pictures here!

Jumping Off the Train

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 02:03:05 GMT

Wayne takes time to read through some wonderful listener input since the last podcast as people are learning to jump off the barreling train of the world’s expectations and religion’s demands, to engage a more incredible process of God’s transforming work. This journey is revealed not by find a method to implement, but by listening to Father’s simple invitations to think and live inside his revelation. Our curriculum is life itself, where God makes himself known in the unfolding joys, disappointments, and struggles in life. As we learn to live in that process with him, not only can we be at peace even where we’re still incomplete, but also embrace the joy mutually enthusiastic relationship with God and others.

Podcast Links:
LIVING LOVED article: The Narrow Road
Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980
Thanks to your generosity, we’ve been able to buy new clothes for the children at the orphanage in Kenya. You can see pictures here!

When Curriculum Attacks!

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 04:13:24 GMT

In a world replete with books, seminars, curriculums and classes designed to teach you how to have a relationship with God, why is it that so many people have a difficult time connecting? What if none of those things can provide a relationship with him, and in fact when we become more focused on a curriculum than we are responsive to him, they can actually be a detriment to our the very relationship we seek. Wayne responds to two emails that show the problems of trying to trust a curriculum to do, what only the Holy Spirit can do. Then he shares his current thoughts about how we can encourage and equip others to a relationship with God, without the message getting twisted into further expressions of human performance.

Living In More Gracious Space

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 13:21:00 GMT

Does religious thinking actually make it more difficult to know God and if so, what can we do about it? Kent Burgess of Manchester, IL joins Wayne in this podcast as they discuss that religion isn’t all that different from most of the ways the world thinks in that it drives us by fear and performance to try to control what’s coming at them. As Kent shares from the dramatic changes in his thinking over the last decade, they talk about how political rancor and religious thinking actually draws us away from the space where God is most easily known and where we can enjoy a growing relationship with him. Both Wayne and Kent have engaged people recently that only found the God they were looking for when they got away from the demands of religion and connected in more natural ways with the God of the Bible.

Podcast Links:
Kent’s Blog Faithfully Dangerous
For Kent’s previous appearances on The God Journey, please look him up in our Guest Archive
Thanks to your generosity, we’ve been able to buy new clothes for the children at the orphanage in Kenya. You can see pictures here!

Learning Love More Deeply

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 05:30:55 GMT

This past summer was a strange one for Wayne and Sara as God set about to do a deeper work of healing in both of them and through that process connect them more deeply than they’ve ever known. After thirty-seven years of marriage, they were caught by surprise and challenged at the very core of their marriage, but the came out with not only a greater connection to each other, but also a greater understanding of what love is. Sara joins Wayne in this podcast for an intimate look at the process of healing they are still going through and how it is changing both of them. They are discovering how much marriage is not just a commitment to be life-long partner; it is also the place where God deals with our selfishness as he teaches us what it truly means to love another human being.

Podcast Links:
Wayne’s Blog in the Aftermath of this part of their journey, Into Ever Deepening Realities of Love
Dr. Brené Brown’s video The Power of Vulnerability
Dr. Brené Brown’s video Listening to Shame
Dr. Brené Brown’s book, The Gifts of Imperfection
Thanks to your generosity, we’ve been able to buy new clothes for the children at the orphanage in Kenya. You can see pictures here!

A Journey of Growing Trust

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 00:57:37 GMT

What do you do when your thirty-years old, and the hunger you have for God is unfulfilled by the religious answers you’ve been given? That’s what faced Wayne’s father almost 55 years ago and launched this young farmer and father of four on a journey of spiritual transformation that fulfilled his greatest hopes and proved to be a blessing to many others. For the first time Wayne interviews Eugene “Jake” Jacobsen, who is not only his dad, but over the course of his life has also been his mentor, sounding board, brother in Christ, and best friend. Now approaching ninety years of age he reflects back on his life, the lessons he learned, how his passion for God led him to a growing trust and obedience that opened some amazing doors in is life, and what he would say to other younger, hungry hearts today.

Podcast Links:
We need some help clothing some orphans in Kenya

Relaxing In His Unfolding Will

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 13:25:45 GMT

On the last day of his three trips to Europe this summer, Wayne sits down with Silvio Viotti to process some of his experiences and their conversations helping people find their way out of religious obligation and learning to live in the love of the Father. Silvio is a friend from Vallorbe, Switzerland, translated some of Wayne’s books into French, and has shared some of his journey on a previous podcast. They talk about the process of those who have struggled in their own religious systems and come away from them looking to build another hoping for different results. Part of that stems from the desire to live by a strategic plan they can fulfill, because they don’t yet trust Father’s love enough to relax in his unfolding will.

Podcast Links:
Silvio’s earlier visit to The God Journey
We need some help clothing some orphans in Kenya

When Grace Overruns Pain

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 23:41:02 GMT

When you’re trapped in pain, you can’t imagine what grace might do to invite you out, but Paul and Janna LaFrance have lived through their own brokenness and found God’s grace more than sufficient to heal and restore them. On a recent trip to Canada, Wayne asked them to share a bit about their journeys and how they are helping others find the light of grace in their darkness. Paul is a deck-builder and TV host on HGTV Canada. Janna has just written a new book entitled, “A Girl Named Grace”, a compelling novel about a young woman trapped in an unfolding nightmare that threatens to destroy her. Then she begins to hear a voice in her head and thinks she might be going nuts. What transpires shows the depths God will go to walk us out of our pain. Together they are parents to four girls and rockers with a message of love and hope. Their band, Found in the Fury, is just releasing a new album called, “Songs from the Cave” One of their cuts debuts at the end of the podcast and underscores the content of this podcast.

Podcast Links:

Paul and Janna’s website, Safehouse Media

Janna’s book, A Girl Named Grace. You can read the first chapter here.

Wayne’s blog on A Girl Named Grace

Found in the Fury CD

Paul’s deck-building TV shows with HGTV in Canada

We need some help clothing some orphans in Kenya

The End of Religion

Sat, 13 Oct 2012 00:49:05 GMT

This is part two of a conversation Wayne had with Bruxy Cavey, author of The End of Religion, and Sean Davidson, a member of the staff at The Meeting House where Bruxy is the teaching pastor. They began last week talking about the reality of relationship Jesus extends to us. Now they plunge into a conversation about religion, systems, structure, and spontaneity and how they play out in our walk with Jesus and our connections with the fellowship of believers. They talk about the difference between doing tasks God puts on our hearts, and building structures that all too often outlive their usefulness. Though Wayne and Bruxy live in very different expressions of these realities, they were able to talk about those differences in an enlightening conversation.

Podcast Links:
Bruxy’s Blog and The Meeting House website where he is the teaching pastor.
Bruxy’s book, The End of Religion: Encountering the Subversive Spirituality of Jesus
Sean Davidson at the Meeting House
We need some help clothing some orphans in Kenya

Knowing God is More Than Knowing About Him

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 23:44:00 GMT

Ever since reading The End of Religion, I’ve wanted to talk to its author, Bruxy Cavey. During a recent trip to Canada, we had the opportunity to have lunch together and record some of our conversation along with one of their newest staff members, Sean Davidson. Since the podcast went long, we’re going to play it here in two parts. In this edition Wayne, Bruxy, and Sean discuss the difference between knowing God as a personality in the universe and trying to serve him as a concept. If he’s only a concept, history has demonstrated how we so easily allow human mediators to get between God and the people he invites to know him. Finally, in getting to know each other they also spin the doctrine wheel to explore such topics as hell, atonement, and place of theology in the believer’s experience. Part two follows next week.

Jake Colsen Goes to Hollywood

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 12:42:45 GMT

No the break isn’t over, but I couldn’t resist the urge to share this with all of you. “So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore” has been one of my flagship books that helps people wrestle with the reality of living loved in the religious environment of the 21st century. Almost a year ago, he was contacted by Kevin Waller about the possibility of converting this story into a theatrical film and they’ve been in discussions ever since. Wayne has the sense that Kevin is the right guy to interpret this movie for a spiritually hungry generation of people who are turned off to religion. He has enlisted Angela Eby to take first pass on the screen play and a few weeks ago they met for two days at Wayne’s house to block out the script. After their time together they recorded a conversation with Wayne to introduce you to them and this project and in doing so they share some of their journeys about coming through their disillusionment with religion to embrace a larger reality.

Podcast Links:
Kevin Waller’s current film in pre-production, Mission Blacklist
So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore
Help With Kenya

Taking A Break

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 13:20:19 GMT

Don’t worry, we’ll be back! But The God Journey will be taking a brief hiatus. Wayne explains that for many reasons he is sensing a stirring in his heart that a change is in the wind for what he’s been doing over the past seventeen years. To create the space to help sort out what that means will be taking a break from his regular postings here. Then he asks for help from God Journey audience with sorting out a definition of love worthy of the God who defines it. He offers three descriptive points to help get the discussion rolling. They are: (1) A wholehearted concern for someone’s ultimate good, even at great personal cost. (2) A delighted affection for another without the need to control or manipulate. (3) A growing, ongoing engagement of knowing and being known. Join the discussion and feel free to add your thoughts, ideas, or edits in the comment section below.

Podcast Links:
Wayne’s Books at Lifestream
Help With Kenya

Don’t Be a Circus Monkey

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 01:03:57 GMT

Podcast Links:
Infomercial for the secrets of making your gifts a “full time ministry”
Help With Kenya

When you use God’s gift to seek validation for yourself, or you need to make it the source of your income, something very serious gets twisted, both in the gift and how you’ll treat others to get them to respond to you. DaRon Maughon (pictured with wife, Tina, at left) joins Wayne for a discussion about his journey beyond religion into a freer walk with Jesus. As the son of a pastor, a musician, and “worship” leader, DaRon got tired of being the circus monkey on the stage and it launched him on a very different journey. Wayne talks with him about those transitions and the freedom his family is finding in the life of Jesus. They also listen to a disturbing clip promoting a webinar to help people discover the secrets of finding their way into “full-time ministry” and how those tricks of the trade are really about manipulating an audience for their own needs.

Risking the Congregation

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 22:20:05 GMT

Don Zimmermann, a long time Baptist pastor in the Phoenix area, joins Wayne to share his journey learning to live inside the love of the Father and how it has transformed his own life, his family’s life, and that of the congregation he has been involved with for multiple decades. People often ask if an established congregation can find its way into a more relational life together. The answer is, though it is rare, it can happen. This is an inside look at both the costs of that transition and the rewards of doing so. A powerful undercurrent to this entire dialog is how much more relevant this group of people hs become in the world when their objective was no longer “to invite people to church,” but to simply love them the way they had been loved. We did have some audio problems with Skype on this one, but the conversation is worth listening through them.

Podcast Links:
Contact Don Zimmermann
Our Help in Kenya

Exit Ramps to Nowhere

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 19:27:29 GMT

After listening to our recent podcast about “Living Beyond Your Transformation” one person came to the discovery that they were in a situation where they were asking others to live beyond their transformation. That takes Wayne and Brad down a wonderful track of doing to others what isn’t even helpful to do for ourselves. Encouraging others to live by what we think is best for them, when it is beyond their own growing trust in their Father, is fruitless. Living in freedom doesn’t focus on what others are doing, but only what Father is asking of us and can only happen in us when we are contented in his love and provision, rather than scheming for the things we want or think we deserve.

Podcast Links:
Help With Kenya

Rainbows And Mountain Lions

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 01:35:15 GMT

Brad and Wayne work through some of the email and blog postings from their recent podcasts on how God transforms us, especially in times of need and extremity. Too many people live with the assumption that if they are walking in God’s love that their circumstances will always be good and that God will make the pathway easy. But that’s not how he works. Our world is filled with pain and loss, and by embracing God in those times, rather than feeling separated from him, he can do wonderful things in us to shape our perspective and our lives.

Podcast Links:
Help With Kenya

What Brush Do I Paint With?

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 00:03:16 GMT

Whether it’s our angst with the institutions of organized religion, or dealing with expectations of God and others, it seems easier for us to paint with a broad brush and stand on our own principles and judgments of others. Better still to paint with a finer brush of what God is doing in us and what he’s asking of us, rather than to react in our own fears or hurt. Wayne and Brad sort through some recent email and blog postings and talk about the church not as an institution, but as an expression of what God is doing in people who are responding to him and whether or not God has expectations of us that we need to satisfy. And if we fall short, what then?

Podcast Links:
Update on the Orphanage in Kenya

Living Beyond Our Transformation

Sat, 07 Jul 2012 00:21:09 GMT

When we lose our need to try to get God to give us what we think we need, then we’re free to live by what God gives. Brad is back and he joins Wayne for a conversation about God’s transforming process and our learning to be comfortable in it, rather than resorting to our own human attempts to make ourselves better for God. Those who live by rules can never relax in the process, while those who put their trust in what God is doing rather than what they can do will bear the fruit of his transformation in the world.

Podcast Links:
Update on the Orphanage in Kenya

In the Face of Death

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 01:54:57 GMT

We could call this The Death Podcast. Wayne continues his conversation with Dave Coleman, his co-writer on So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore. Dave has not only faced his own mortality in a brutal battle with cancer years ago, but as a hospice chaplain he has helped many others face their own death. According to Dave most so-called Christians arrive at death’s door in fear, rather than in peace and he explores some reasons why. Confronting our mortality is not a cause for fear or despair, but anticipation of a transition that will take us into the fullness of life as God always meant for us to know it.

Podcast Links:
Previous Podcasts with Dave Coleman: Meet Jake Colsen (3/24/06), Why Religion Doesn’t Work (4/17/08), and Why Religion Doesn’t Work II (4/25/08)
Contact Dave Coleman
My Descent into Death by Howard Storm
Update on the Orphanage in Kenya

Disconnecting Affection From Approval

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 02:39:13 GMT

As long as we think God’s affection for us is tied to his approval regarding our performance, we will grovel about in our shame and miss the reality of living loved. Joining Wayne this week is Dave Coleman, co-writer of So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore and a long-time friend of Wayne’s. The sort through some recent email and end up in a discussion about those who cannot conceive of a God who would enjoy them just as they are. Religion so saddles us with expectations God has of us, and the shame that results from falling short of them makes them feel unworthy of God’s loving. God wants to rewire our thinking so that we know him as he is and not the way religion has disfigured him, making him our judge instead of our Abba.

Podcast Links:
Previous Podcasts with Dave Coleman: Meet Jake Colsen (3/24/06), Why Religion Doesn’t Work (4/17/08), and Why Religion Doesn’t Work II (4/25/08)
Contact Dave Coleman
Brene Brown’s Book – The Gifts of Imperfection and her talks at Ted.com: The Power of Vulnerability (12/10) and Listening to Shame (3/12)
The Orphanage in Kenya

Living In Agreement with Father

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 15:58:17 GMT

When we truly know we are loved by a gracious Father, then we are freed to live in agreement with him, instead of using him to fulfill our own desires. During Wayne’s recent trip to Ireland, he got into a conversation with a close friend, David Rice, as they talked about the process by which God invites us inside of his love and teaches us to be at rest in his provision and desires for us. This is where we discover the joy of abandoning our own agendas and dreams and learn how to walk in agreement with him. This is how Jesus lived, not by following a set of principles, but learning to recognize and cooperate with what his Father was already doing. And this is the essence of real community–where brothers and sisters come into deep agreement with God and with each other in seeing his kingdom unfold in the world.

Podcast Links:
Previous Podcasts with David Rice: Living as a Family (8/21/10) and Laying it All Down in Dublin (4/26/06)
Contact David Rice
Great Joy in Kenya

The Dark Underbelly of Religious Leadership

Sat, 09 Jun 2012 01:01:11 GMT

This podcast may not be for everyone. While in Holland recently Wayne met Filip van den Eynde, a young man who had just spent 17 years serving in an charismatic, apostolic setting and was able to see behind the scenes as those who claimed to be “men of God” systematically manipulated and abused hungry hearts to expand their ministry, feed their own insecurities, and line their own pockets. Wayne spoke with him via Skype after he returned to the States for this conversation. While this is not as much fun as talking about the joys of a growing relationship with the Father’s love, it is helpful for people to know that those insights they have about everything not being as it appears, might be God’s prodding to find freedom from those who use the guise of “Christian leadership” as a means to manipulate those Jesus loves.

Podcast Links:
Links to John Beaumont’s resources on the web.
Great Joy in Kenya

Whose House Is It Anyway?

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:06:17 GMT

Calling a building that Christians gather in on Sunday morning “God’s house” is not a cute story we tell children; it is an abusive image that disfigures the God of the Bible and keeps people from actually engaging his reality in the places he most wants to share his life with us. Brad joins Wayne for a conversation about how we define the church and view our life in it. Is our engagement with the church an obligation we must fulfill, or is it an irresistible reality for those who engage God as Father? Do we get together as a matter of routine, or a matter of purpose? When we define church the way God does, can we embrace its reality and free others to as well.

Podcast Links:
BreakPoint Column on Being the Body of Christ.
Great Joy in Kenya

With You, God Is Pleased!

Fri, 25 May 2012 15:45:27 GMT

Both the cruelty of the world and the conformity demands of religion teach us to live inside a shell of our own self protection and only present to others the illusion we think they want to see. Shame and fear combine to make us feel lost and isolated in the world, unable to be who God simply made us to be. Wayne and Brad find themselves talking about how God is not waiting for us to crawl out of our brokenness before initiating relationship with us, but that the Incarnation itself testifies to his desire to crawl into our shell with us, and as he wins us into his affection, to invite us out of it without fearing how others might respond. He has always been pleased with his creation and seeking to win it back into his wholeness.

Podcast Links:
Order your copy of A Man Like No Other
Great Joy in Kenya

The God With Us

Sat, 19 May 2012 01:43:08 GMT

As Wayne recovers from his recent trip to Russia and Holland, Brad joins him for a discussion of his trip. They talk about Wayne’s perception of the Russian people he was with, the unique challenges of their culture, and their passion to learn to live loved in a culture where only a very small slice of people are engaged with spiritual realities. In the course of the conversation they discuss how people tend to view God. Is he the awesome deity enthroned among the angels that we have to approach by jumping through a bunch of cleansing rituals and protocols, or is he the tender Father who comes to us even in our most broken moments to invite us into his reality?

Podcast Links:
Links to John Beaumont’s resources on the web, and the PDF download of his latest article, Jesus is Building His Church.
Great Joy in Kenya

In Russia With Love

Sat, 12 May 2012 01:46:35 GMT

From St. Petersburg Russia, Wayne talks with his hosts, Michael and Susan Simpson as they share a bit of their journey that engaged a former K-State women’s basketball player to the people of Russia. They describe the current climate in Russia and what God has done to change their mission from trying to engage people with a discipleship program, to living among them to help them live loved and what it has cost them when they no longer fit into the program. In the course of that journey, they married seven years ago, both for the first time and live at the Father’s pleasure part time in Russia and part time in the States. You’ll find their desire to help others on this journey charming and infectious.

Podcast Links:

Find out more about Michael and Susan’s life coaching at Trove Inc.
Their seasonal chocolate business with a message of the lost finding redemption: The Chocolate Bordello
Great Joy in Kenya

A God-Filled Nobody, Part 2

Sat, 05 May 2012 00:19:00 GMT

Wayne continues his conversation with John Beaumont from last week. John Beaumont is the author of A God-Filled Nobody, and numerous other books about our freedom to live in the revelation of Jesus and has traveled throughout the world encouraging others on this journey as well. Now retired he lives in Rotorura, New Zealand. In this second of a two-part interview, John talks about the things that matter most as he looks back on his journey. He shares about the constant pain he lives in, healing, and how he processes that tension in his own relationship with God. Finally they discuss John’s conviction that “Fellowship ends when meetings begin.”

Podcast Links:
Links to John Beaumont’s resources on the web.
Great Joy in Kenya

A God-Filled Nobody

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 04:55:31 GMT

During Wayne’s recent trip to New Zealand, he spent a day with John Beaumont, author of A God-Filled Nobody, and numerous other books about our freedom to live in the revelation of Jesus. John is one of those pioneers whose passion for God helped unmask the conventions of religion that do more to restrict our growth in him, rather than free us to know him. He has traveled the world sharing some of his insights with others. In this first of a two-part interview, John shares a bit of his own story and how God has shaped his life over seven decades, and continues to invite him into the freshness of a daily walk with him.

Podcast Links:
Links to John Beaumont’s resources on the web.
John Beaumont’s, Passing the Torch (PDF file)
Great Joy in Kenya

Repentance That Works

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 02:39:42 GMT

Following up on a conversation Wayne and Kent Burgess had over the weekend about repentance, and how their view of it has shifted greatly from their old days of religion, they reconnected to record some of that for others. They used to see it as wallowing in guilt and shame and making well-intentioned, though impossible, promises to God about never repeating it again. After the cross has removed our shame, however, repentance is the lively conversation with God about the broken places in our thoughts and motivations that invite a work of healing and invites us more deeply into his process transformation. Loving the way God does it is so subversive, and where we give up our need to control the people we love, we can see how subversive it is in inviting others into transformation without needing to manipulate them at all.

Podcast Links:
Kent’s Blog Faithfully Dangerous
Great Joy in Kenya

Sharing Another’s Journey

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 04:27:48 GMT

The previous podcast began to explore what it means to share someone else’s journey, even if its not the journey you’d prefer them to be on. Wayne asked his wife Sara to join him for a further look at the things God has taught them in their own marriage and to answer some of the questions that others asked about finding a way to share their spouse’s, and even their children’s journeys. Relationships thrive where we embrace the other person in their journey and trust God to work out what he needs to in them, rather than getting someone else to do what would make us happy, or at least mitigate our fears. Of course none of this can happen as long as we see our relationships as a contest of power and not a relationship of affection.

Podcast Links:
Previous Podcast on learning to share our spouse’s journey
Great Joy in Kenya
Wayne’s resources available in Australia at livingloved.com.au

The Simplicity of a Loving Life

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 18:10:27 GMT

Brad is back in the podcast studio as he and Wayne sort through the last few weeks of not seeing each other and catch up a bit on Wayne’s trip to New Zealand. Sorting through the mail bag and blog posts they read one of the best blog posts ever, and then find themselves talking about living in fullness by loving and cherishing what God puts before us each day. Find out what VPD is and how not to not only avoid it, but also avoid passing it on to others. They end up in discussing the freedom of love between spouses, and the pressure many feel to get their spouse on their journey, and how backwards that way of thinking really is. There are still so many holdovers of history among people of faith that truly relegate women to second-class status. A TIME Magazine article reminds us how culture was designed to lord over women as a way of limiting their freedoms and choices in the world. Thank God for freedom!

Podcast Links:
Time Magazine article on Women, Money and Power.
Great Joy in Kenya
Wayne’s resources available in Australia at livingloved.com.au

The Life of a Pilgrim, Part 2

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 01:37:37 GMT

Part 2 of Wayne’s conversation with Jack Gray, a Scottsman who has resided in New Zealand for almost 50 years. They continue their discussion from last week on the life of the church and Jack’s journey to find the church Jesus is building, rather than the one man is building. They talk about a Swiss theologian from the mid 1900s who pointed out that when the love and power of the Spirit faded in the early church, we replaced him with dogma, doctrine, and institutionalism. They talk about Jack’s rich experiences with church life as a relational reality and how people cannot resist the desire to put things into a box, rather than continue to embrace the unfolding work of the Spirit.

Podcast Links:
The Misunderstanding of the Church by Emil Brunner
Jack Gray’s website: The Pilgrim Path
Great Joy in Kenya
Wayne’s resources available in Australia at livingloved.com.au

The Life of A Pilgrim

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 04:21:16 GMT

Meet Jack Gray, a native of Scotland, surgeon in the Congo in the 1950s, doctor and hospital administrator in New Zealand, and a life-long, passionate follower of Jesus. Wayne met up with Jack during his recent visit to New Zealand, where Jack and his family have lived since 1965, and encouraged him to reflect over his nearly ninety years and the things Jesus has taught him along the way. As he tells his story he talks about his bout with depression, betrayal by brothers in Christ, the loss of his dear wife of 59 years, and how Jesus led him beyond the boundaries of religious institutions to walk freely in him. He talks about the day Jesus spoke to him, “If you want church my way, you have to stop doing it your way,” and how it changed the trajectory of his life and met the deepest passion of his heart.

Podcast Links:
Jack Gray’s website: The Pilgrim Path
Great Joy in Kenya
Wayne’s resources available in Australia at livingloved.com.au

The God Journey #353

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:34:04 GMT

Just because something is wonderful and God-filled does that mean we should expect it to be permanent? This is our 353rd podcast and the completion of our seventh year sharing our conversations with the world. As Wayne and Brad take a look back and celebrate the incredible journey they have had together over those years, they also see that season coming to an end. They talk about the fact that God seems to be leading them down different paths and that has challenged them to put their friendship above compelling the other to go where the other isn’t called to go. Brad is now taking on Windblown Media as his journey unfolds and Wayne will be taking The God Journey into some different conversations that are on his heart. While Brad will still be a frequent voice in these conversations, their schedules and differing passions will preclude that from being an every-week event. Not all collaborations are meant to be as permanent as we might hope, and letting go of them as God leads, opens up fresh possibilities for God’s working.

Podcast Links:
Great Joy in Kenya
Wayne’s resources in Australia at livingloved.com.au

The Myth of Managed Spirituality

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:43:34 GMT

Crawling through recent emails, Wayne and Brad share and comment from other people’s journeys and how they are being transformed in God’s life. That brings up such recent podcast topics as how we view and treat women, spiritual authority, and our attempts to change others through preaching principles are destined to fail. For centuries our religious structures have endeavored to change people by giving them a set of principles to follow and motivating them to do it. When will we learn that “managed spirituality” is an oxymoron of the highest order that can never deliver what it promises?

Podcast Links:
Great Joy in Kenya
Wayne’s resources in Australia at livingloved.com.au

The Love of a Father

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 23:50:50 GMT

Wayne’s just back from the Fort Worth area of Texas and in sharing some of that with Brad they end up talking about finding our security and freedom in the affection of a loving Father. Unfortunately religion teaches us to live out of our heads by finding and following a set of principles or doctrines that define a Father’s love for us, but often without actually linking us to that Father. Connecting with God’s love doesn’t come by getting my doctrines all lined up, but in learning to live out of our hearts as he reveals himself in us. Learning to live loved is not just a message or a fad to follow but a reality God wants to teach us how to relax into.

Podcast Links:
Demi Moore’s comments in Harper’s Bazzar.
Great Joy in Kenya

Don’t Should On Me

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:05:38 GMT

There are two different conversations in this podcast. The first is about not shoulding on ourselves or others, spawned by a t-shirt that were given to Brad and Wayne. That doesn’t mean there aren’t wonderful ways to live that God has revealed, but that conformity through obligation is a very different process than God uses to transform us into his image. The second responds to some blog comments about the twisting of certain Scriptures to validate viewing women as second-class citizens and to justify husbands manipulating them for their own convenience or even abusing them. Jesus regarded women as full participants in his kingdom and overturned society’s norms to do so. How can we do any less?

Podcast Links:
Great Joy in Kenya
Order A Man Like No Other from one of these three websites: Murry’s website, Windblown Media, or Lifestream
Order In Season: Embracing the Father’s Process of Fruitfulness from Lifestream

In the Midst of Pain

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 02:54:20 GMT

Do we have to go through suffering to be shaped by God? Prompted by a question on a blog comment, Brad and Wayne talk about the tension between finding God’s presence in the midst of our troubles and difficulties, and thinking God brings suffering in our lives to teach us something. While God does not orchestrate our sufferings to help us grow, he does promise to be in them when they come to teach us how to live beyond the realities of this age by living deeply in his love. Rather than live in fear of future sufferings to come, we can simply live in his love every day, whether that is in easy times or painful ones. Suffering on the outside does not have to destroy us on the inside.

Podcast Links:
Great Joy in Kenya

Passive Follower or Active Participant?

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:07:14 GMT

Brad and Wayne couldn’t find a slot to record a podcast this week, but Wayne had some visitors in town over the weekend who are long time friends and frequent listeners to The God Journey. Watching their lives grow in joy and freedom over the last decade, Wayne gleans lessons from the journeys of Kevin Tupper, Kent Burgess and Mike Rea (pictured left to right). Each talk about finding their way into a real and effective growing relationship with a Loving Father by moving from being passive followers of religion to active participants in their engagements with God. You’ll learn about switching your default position from God is against you, to the reality that God is for you and find out what a quiet time really is.

Podcast Links:
Joy from our orphanage in Kenya
Previous Podcasts with Kent: The Painful Process of Transformation and In the Land of Kenya
The movie Instinct

Your Sense of Belonging

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:33:19 GMT

It’s Super Bowl week in the States and a little romp about football turns into a wider discussion about God’s intervention in sport and recreation and why people get so connected to athletic teams that they go through days of depression if their favorite one loses. Could it be a result of God wiring us for himself and our seeking it in all the wrong places? Is that why people identify with athletic teams, celebrities, and even religious gatherings that offer a false sense of belonging by connecting it to something human? A false sense of belonging will always separate us from others, but if we find our belonging in God we may still enjoy sports and other groupings of people, but they won’t own us in the same way and they won’t give us an excuse to look down on others who like things other than we do. Finding our worth in God’s love for us will open doors to a richer kind of community and freedom to live in the world.

Podcast Links:
Wayne’s Blog on Tattoos on the Heart
Order A Man Like No Other from one of these three websites: Murry’s website, Windblown Media, or Lifestream

Seeing People as People

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 06:48:11 GMT

Brad’s been listen to the relationships versus religion raps on YouTube and Wayne’s been reading Tattoos of the Heart and the two converge in a lively discussion about how we view people. Do we treat others as individuals and love as people even if broken or lost, or do we see them through the grid of us versus them relationships that makes us more prone to poke them in the eye with our own need for self-validation. As long as we need people to fill up something in us, we use them even if we don’t mean to. By finding our acceptance and worth in him, we will not view people based on our needs, but rather engage them as loved children of a gracious Father, whether they know it yet or not. That invites us into the space Jesus enjoyed, the freedom to love people for who they were, not how they would fit into his plans.

Podcast Links:
The Religion/Relationship Rap
Wayne’s Blog on Tattoos on the Heart
The Human Experience
Order A Man Like No Other from one of these three websites: Murry’s website, Windblown Media, or Lifestream

Relationships First

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 03:51:46 GMT

Charlie shares a wonderful story about how this podcast has opened some doors at his work. Then Brad and Wayne interact with other emails about creating community that offers a safe environment by putting relationships first, as a family does. Too many times a genuine move of God gets curtailed by those who seek to “steward” it, but only end up in a misguided attempt to control it. In the end what might have begun as God’s gift ends up possessing them just like the ring of power in the Lord of the Rings. Though well-intentioned they change the dynamics from sharing real friendships to trying accomplish a task and then relationships are destroyed. This fits Marshall McLuhan observation that “We shape our tools, and then our tools shape us.” Unless we put relationship first and free each other to be their own life in God we’ll never discover the real joy of God’s kind of community.

Podcast Links:
Marshall McLuhan Quote
Contributions are still needed to help establish an orphanage in Kenya.
Order A Man Like No Other from one of these three websites: Murry’s website, Windblown Media, or Lifestream
Order In Season: Embracing the Father’s Process of Fruitfulness from Lifestream

Living Truly

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:10:20 GMT

Wayne and Brad revisit the Spiral of Silence Podcast through comments and emails received about it. This time the focus is on our response to this phenomenon that makes us care more about what others think of us than we do living truly. How do we help create a safe place for ourselves and others to be their authentic selves? Only God’s love can bring us freedom from this false sense of belonging and when God teaches us how to live this way, we will want to extend the same freedom to others. They finish with a quote from George McDonald about how it it is more important for us to live obediently to the living Jesus rather than theorize about him. How awesome our fellowship with others would be if each of us learned to live this way and free others to do so as well.

Podcast Links:
George MacDonald Quote
Contributions are still needed to help establish an orphanage in Kenya.
Order A Man Like No Other from one of these three websites: Murry’s website, Windblown Media, or Lifestream
Order In Season: Embracing the Father’s Process of Fruitfulness from Lifestream

The Spiral of Silence

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:28:52 GMT

Wayne and Brad explore the cultural phenomenon researchers are calling the “spiral of silence” that demonstrates the truth behind the Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, “The Emperor’s new Clothes”. Simply put, people who want to avoid reprisal or isolation actually go along with the popular opinion around them even when it differs from their own. Instead of objecting, they spiral into silence so that a whole group of people can actually embrace what others want of them rather than risk the negative social judgment of their peers. The research is fascinating and helps explain why religious systems or communities can be caught up in a culture of conformity where everyone seems to agree, rather than making people feel safe especially where they might have questions and disagree.

Podcast Links:
Chuck Colson’s Breakpoint on The Spiral of Silence
Wikipedia on The Spiral of Silence