The Free Believers Network - Into the Wild

From False Reality to Living In the Wild

Ministry Mentality

Darin and Aimee Dassele discuss the condition that many of us are in when we exit organized religion and how unaware the average person is as to just how destroyed they really are. Mos of us left our religion with a pretty good idea of how hurt and angry we were. We at least felt that we had a handle on it and knew ourselves pretty well. As we begin to walk in the wild and spend time away from the world of fear and manipulation we start to realize just how devistated we really were from that world. Darin is finding that the longer he lives in freedom, the more he becomes in tune with exactly how hurt he was in the institutional church. This attack went unnoticed becaus from the get-go in the institutional church world, we are all taught to deny ourselves and reject our own heart. Living in the wild is a process where we slowly come back into contact with ourselves and discover the wounds that were left there by religion. 

Darin and Robert talk about the usual pattern of healing that Free Believers goes through after leaving the church system. Usually there is a phase the first year or two where people are angry with the institutional church and all the lies they were taught to believe over the years. There comes a point during the \"church bashing phase\" when people either come full circle and asknowledge their own responsibility in the bondage precess. We have to own up to our part in all this. Oppress and manipulate me once; shame on YOU. Oppress and manipulate me twice; SHAME ON ME. Until we are willing to take at least some of the responsibility for our bondage, we usually end up stuck in the \"church bashing phase\" for way longer than we want too. 

Darin and Heidi Venie talk about the central focus of everything Darin does in the ministry. More than anything else in the world, it is relief that Darin enjoys bringing to people who are under fear and condemnation. \"RELIEF\" is the common denominator that is threaded throughout every podcast, blog, article and sermon on the Free Believers Network website. Some people would like to think that the heart of the FBN is to create controversy, and others would say it\'s to bring the institutional church to it\'s knees. Providing relief to people who\'s hearts have been burdened and enslaved is the number one motive behind everything Darin does. Love cannot get past this. 

Darin talks with Heidi Venie again. Heidi is an ex-worship leader and has had to wrestle with what a \"spiritual experience\" really is compared to what she\'s always believed it to be. After being raised on a steady diet of pentecostal worship services, it\'s difficult to connect with God without a band, lighting and a great sound system. Rather then write off all her spiritual experiences in the church world as being emotionalism or fake; Heidi has come to a place where she can embrace her past experiences with God as well as her present. Many Free Believers feel they have to renounce everything from the church world as being phony or wrong. Heidi has found that this isn\'t nessessary. 

Darin and Aimee join Heidi Venie once again for a great discussion on what it really means to have faith and belief as a Christian. For so long, we have been taught that things like faith and belief only pertained to our relationship with God. Most of us have been carrying on two types of relationships. We have our human friends who we can both see and hear, and then we have our relationship with an invisible and inaudible God. It seems that the first relationship requires no amount of faith because we actually SEE people. The relationship with God is completely based on faith because God is invisible. Though this is how most Christians view their life, it is actually the epitome of double-mindedness. This conversation will change your perspective on faith and belief altogether and open up doors that just might bring to life an entire world you never knew existed. 

Darin talks with Heidi Venie again about what the difference is between Free Believers and most \"church people\" we grew up with. Heidi lives in a small town where being a Free Believer can be a bit of a challenge. Most of us have come out of the church world where we were inundated with teachings on how to spread the message and win people to Christ. Our method of witnessing usually included an invitation to our church or bible study. There always seemed to be an agenda behind everything we did. The question many new Free Believers have now that they are living in the wild is, \"How do we witness to people.\" We ask this because now we don\'t have something to invite them too. This worries some of us, but the fact is that what we do bring to the table is even more powerful than having a group or church. Free Believers are simply people who have extremely good news. We deliver it and fade away. 

Darin talks with his good friend Heidi Venie from Wasilla Alaska. Heidi was on the \"Into the Wild\" show about a year ago and started a firestorm in her home town. It\'s been two years since she left the institutional church system where she used to be a worship leader. Heidi talks about the difference of worship in the wild verses what she was used to in the institution. Because of the way everything is set up in \"church\" many of us have wrong ideas about what worship is. It becomes a manipulative show that starts at 7:00pm every Sunday night. Heidi is like many Free Believers people who used to lead worship. She is on a journey of rediscovery. She is learning who she is and what role that will play in the wild. You\'ll enjoy this conversation. 

Darin and Aimee continue the dating discussion. The two talk about how difficult it is for single people today to find someone who really knows their heart. Being a Free Believer makes it even more difficult to find someone you feel \"equally yolked\" with. Men and women think so differently. Having real relationship with each other seems almost impossible at times. So many of us enter into a relationship based completely on mistranslation and a lack of understanding of the opposite sex. Learning to understand one another is the first step to really knowing the heart of anyone. Having faith in your convictions and staying true to yourself in the dating world is becoming more and more difficult. 

Darin and Aimee talk about how our religion has dictated and controlled so many aspects of our lives that we can\'t even meet people, fall in love and get married without something religious getting in the way. Many of us have become socially illiterate because we have over spiritualized almost every aspect of life. We have become experts in blaming others for our relationship problems. It seems that most people today lie to themselves about who they are and what their heart needs in a relationship. Learning to be raw and truthful in a relationship is a difficult process for people who have tried their best to \"act\" out relationship their entire lives. 

Darin and Robert have a great discussion on the topic of what it means to judge others. There is a sweeping fad in the Free Believer world that basically states that we are not to judge anything or anyone at anytime. Not only is this next to impossible, but it\'s also a very dangerous way to living. Even Scripture says that we are to judge those inside the church. There is a difference between \"passing judgment\" and \"making a judgment\" based on the facts at hand. Many of us have rendered ourselves useless because of our unwillingness to trust what our hearts are telling us about a particular person or situation. 

Darin and Aimee talk about how difficult the dating world can be when you have a broken heart. So many of us feel that we have nothing to offer so we intentionally choose a person who we know can\'t see inside of us. We\'re not comfortable having real relationship because we honestly don\'t believe there is anything of value within us, and if we were to find someone who could see our heart, they might see how empty we really are. After years of being alone and feeling worthless, it becomes easier and easier to choose the wrong person. We end up choosing a mate based on what we believe we deserve. Unfortunately, it seems that most of us believe we deserve very little. 

Darin and Amy Ramos continue the discussion on \"For Christ Vs In Christ. Darin calls out all the ministers out there who spend more time trying to be an example then they do being an ambassador. For some reason we still have people out there preaching and doing things FOR Christ rather than In Christ and the result of this is that people have become actors. Our generation of Christians have two faces; the ministry face and the home face. We are two different people and somehow we justify it because we thing we\'re being an example for Christ. This generation needs to see REAL people who live IN CHRIST. That\'s something that even the poorest of the poor can relate too. That\'s something that the chief of sinners can relate too. 

Darin and Robert get into a deep discussion about the difference between living FOR Christ and living IN Christ. For so long we have been taught that we\'re put on this earth to please God. Most of us spend our lives thinking about ways that we can serve Him. We attempt to learn as much theology as we can in an effort to fill our minds with God-knowledge hoping that by doing so we will become more like Him. Unfortunately it matters not how much we DO or how much we KNOW. These things pass away and mean nothing. God is interested in a generation of people who live IN Him. Achieving this is as simple as believing in Santa Clause. It takes the mind of a child to live IN Christ.