The God Journey

What do you do when you come to see that the beautiful bride of Christ cannot be crammed into human systems without causing collateral damage? Wayne follows up last week's podcast as he interacts with listener emails and blog postings to discuss the challenges many face when they are no longer part of a system. What if your spouse sees it differently? How can I find friendships that will respect my journey? How do we avoid creating our own systems? And how do I handle the infamous, "Where do you go to church?" question. There are not easy answers to any of these because the flow out of a process of finding our freedom, learning to live in our freedom, and learning to share that freedom with others no matter where they are in their journey. Podcast Links: FindingChurch.com Wayne's Travel Schedule The latest update from Kenya Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney"

Where have all the people gone? Pew Research announced a couple of years ago about the rise of the "Nones", those who no longer claim any religious affiliation. Now, there's a growing conversation about the rise of the "Dones", those who are leaving traditional Sunday morning congregations to find more authentic expressions of community. Research shows that these maintain a deep passion for God, but that it is unlikely that they will ever return. Brad joins Wayne as they talk about the research here as Wayne had an opportunity to speak with the lead researcher on this project. The research does not bode well for the future of traditional congregations. Podcast Links: FindingChurch.com The Rise of the Dones Dr. Josh Packard's research on The De-Churching of America The latest update from Kenya Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney"

Current research shows how easily we all create illusions whenever it serves our own self-interest. How then can we know we are processing life around us objectively and accurately? Ultimately we can't. Wayne and Brad take on this dilemma using some listener emails and some research by Dan Ariely. By recognizing that our desires and fears make us want to take control of circumstances and people around us to our own benefit. On the other hand, genuine affection for others around us will help us seek a better reality than our own personal gain. Only by growing in love can we hope to see more accurately who we are and what's going on around us. Podcast Links: Order Finding Church The audio clip we used is not linkable, but it was from Duke Researcher Dr. Dan Ariely, author of The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone--Especially Ourselves.. You can find his website here. The latest update from Kenya. Previous Podcast about Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me: Honest to God. Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney"

Can any system humans design to justice to the transcendent beauty of Jesus' church as she takes shape in the world? As more an more people are coming to the conclusion that our systems don't function well, especially when people need to know the reality of love, rather than the rigidity of a program. Wayne dives back into the mailbag for a discussion about our religious systems and why they are destined to fail at the critical moments of life. The more we come to know his love, the more we lose hope that any system can reflect God's love and life. That opens the door for some pretty powerful lessons and a way of living that expands his love in the world. Podcast Links: FindingChurch.com Order Finding Church If you can help with the needed medications in North Pokot, you can get more details here. Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney"

While God makes himself known even through some of the silliest things we humans attempt, does his graciousness justify our lack of concern for the collateral damage our efforts may cause? After Wayne's three-part conversation with Brad, he opens up the conversation by sorting through his email and blog comments about many of the themes we've explored over the past few weeks. The written covenant story continues as does the dialog about the supernatural, counseling techniques, religious abuse, and patriarchal authority. Even when God is gracious in our misguided efforts, can we not be honest with the destruction it causes in others who become disillusioned, hurt, or diminished by the flesh of others? Can we not celebrate the good in something while at the same time seek to mitigate the damage that it does to others? Podcast Links: Wayne's Travel In Texas Order Finding Church Kenya Update for the Outreach in West Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney"

So what do we do when you're wanting to embrace the new creation, but are bombarded by people whose passion for cash, credit, and control only seek to draw you back into the old? Wayne and Brad continue their discussion about one of the themes in Wayne's newest book, Finding Church, and how we can live that out the reality of the new creation when others around us are embracing the realities of the old. How do you continue to live free when others around you are fouling the relationship with their brokenness, demands or agendas? Discover that, and you can enjoy living wholeheartedly in your relationships, with unity where you can and generous honesty where unity of heart has not yet come. We can live in the world, and not be of it. This is the final installment of a three-part conversation with Brad. Podcast Links: The new web page for Finding Church. Order Finding Church 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 wants to weigh on on Wayne's earlier comments about "Treasure Hunts, Angel Feathers, and Sozos". So the first part of this podcast refocuses on the supernatural and how we distinguish between real moments of God's moving and contrived ones perpetuated by group dynamics and the power of suggestion. What happens when we divorce the supernatural from a growing relationship with Jesus and lead people to believe that his power is in their control? They also talk about the Seven Mountains of Influence and how we are warped by old creation priorities even as we are being invited to live in a new creation. This is the second installment of a three part conversation with Brad that will finish next week. Podcast Links: Seven Mountains of Influence The new web page for Finding Church. Order Finding Church 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 comes over to explore Wayne's new release, FINDING CHURCH, as he probes Wayne about the process and what most impacted him in writing this book. He also has some specific questions that rose in his mind while working through it. They talk about the critical choice of choosing the new creation when the door is open in front of us, instead of retreating inside the old, and how we learn to fly in the fullness of the Father's life or stay stuck on the ground by living in our own human efforts. This is the first installment of a three-part conversation with Brad that will play out over the next three weeks. Podcast Links: The new web page for Finding Church. Order Finding Church Kenya Update for the Outreach in West Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney"

After a bit of follow up from last week's podcast, Wayne reads part of an article written by a woman who grew up and mothered seven children in the Quiverfull Movement, and discovered that Christianity is a system of abuse that she and her children suffered under, unwittingly. Only when she was confronted by an abuse counselor was she able to see how much abuse was sown into her interpretation of the Scriptures. What a wake-up call for all of us to realize that any interpretation of Scripture that justifies abuse is a misinterpretation and one we need to take liberty from. Podcast Links: The new web page for Finding Church. Order Finding Church The presentation Wayne discusses: How Playing Good Christian Housewife Almost Killed Me Quiverfull Information The Jesus Lens: A Re-examination of How We Interpret Scripture 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 plows through his recent email, getting comments on past podcast themes and then covers at length one asking about the current so-called revival movements that draw people fascinated by the hope of signs and wonders. How much of it is genuine, and how much of it is a distraction to the greater journey Jesus invites us into? This is straight talk from someone who has been involved in past incarnations of this movement and has settled on a very different view of them as he's learning to live in the affection of the Father. He talks about the manifestations many think demonstrate the power of the Spirit and about the misguided energy that seeks to educate people in techniques that are supposed to produce signs, wonders, and healing at our command. No one he knows who engages Jesus deeply is fascinated by the pursuit of signs and wonders, and no one he knows in the pursuit of signs and wonders is deeply engaged in a relationship with Jesus. That’s not to say they aren’t there, only that he hasn’t met them yet. Podcast Links: The new web page for Finding Church, when we launch it! 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 would Jesus' church looked like if it was really built on love derived from him and shared with each other. Dan Mayhew of Portland, OR, joins Wayne on this podcast about his life-long adventure of seeking the church whose builder and architect is Jesus. How does love shape us to live differently in his family? How does it allow us to honor relationships beyond our disagreements and by doing so reflect the glory of his kingdom in the world? Dan's a prolific author, former pastor, and passionate to equip others to know him. In their conversation they talk about the challenges of parenting a prodigal child, the power of submission as God sees it, and the challenges of living inside and outside the box of institutionalism. Podcast Links: Pre-order Finding Church Wayne's Travel Schedule Dan Mayhew's Website To order: The Butterfly and the Stone, The Sword of Submission, or The Ancient Deceptions from Amazon Wayne's review for The Butterfly and the Stone Kenya Update for the Outreach in West Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourney"

Everywhere you look our world is in crisis--the atrocities of ISIS, ongoing conflict and hatred in the Middle East, the battle for Ukraine, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the racial angst in America, harsh weather conditions, erupting volcanos and devastating earthquakes. If God gave you the power to resolve any of these crises, what would you do? How do we pray in the face of all that is going on in the world, especially if we're not focused on our own personal comfort and safety, but the unfolding purposes of God in our world? Does it matter if we do? And, how might God engage us in the power of agreed prayers with other believers? Brad joins Wayne again and neither of them foresaw where this conversation was going to go. 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's a world of difference between trusting that God loves you because Scripture says so, and trusting the one of whom Scripture speaks. One is an intellectual exercise, the other can only result from a growing engagement with him as a personality in the universe. Brad joins this week's podcast as he and Wayne discuss how God's reality and communion with him seeps into our lives over time that allow us to walk with him in increasing wholehearted engagement. As people come to engage him in a real way, they'll find their engagements with others on this journey as well, allowing for a depth of shared life that less-relational structures can only crave. 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"

What if the church Jesus is building looks more like wildflowers strewn across an alpine meadow than a walled garden with manicured hedges? Wayne's back for a new podcast and after a look at the last month of his life, he reads Chapter Two of his recently-completed book, Finding Church. The church Jesus is building is the fruit of a news creation that rises out of transformed lives, not the result of human effort trying to do something for God, no matter how well-intentioned. Wayne invites the reader in to a different conversation and a different perspective of the church that humanity cannot build. We can only recognize her as she takes shape around us and participate with her as long as God gives us opportunity to do so. Podcast Links: Chapter 1 of Finding Church a href="http://www.lifestream.org/blog/finding-church-now-available-pre-ordering">Wayne's Latest Blog on Finding Church Pre-order Finding Church Living Loved and Riding Bikes - Podcast from the archives Kenya Update for the Outreach in West Pokot Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at "TheGodJourne

Wayne is still on hiatus this week, so let's visit the archives again. This podcast aired over a year and a half ago and unbeknownst to Wayne at the time planted the seeds for the book he has just completed. Are those who no longer attend Sunday services part of a scattering movement that is undermining the mission of the church in the world or are they in fact people looking beyond conformity-based environments for a more meaningful relationship with God and with others? Check out both this podcast, the one that followed it up, and the comments from both in the links below. It shows there is great hunger to see how Jesus is connecting his church in the world beyond our human efforts. Podcast Links: Link to Original Podcast: A Greater Gathering Link to Follow-up Podcast" A Greater Gathering Aftermath Add your voice to our question/comment line: (805) 539-6980 or Skype us at TheGodJourney. Kenya Update for the Outreach in West Pokot