Become Good Soil

By Morgan SnyderReligion & Spirituality Christianity

Become Good Soil episodes

January 03, 2023 125: Stories from the Frontlines, Part 1

Rule with the heart of a servant. Serve with the heart of a king.

Friends, we’re pulling back 50 yards from the frontline to hear fresh stories from the field.

The Becoming a King Retreat is slowly and steadily building an irreversible revolution in the hearts of men all over the world. We’re hoping the stories of men like you taking risks all around the globe will inspire you to do the same.

What if there was a way to be good again?

It isn’t cheap.

It isn’t quick.

It isn’t easy.

Few things will facilitate our masculine initiation more deeply than offering strength, love, and service on behalf of other men. This series is an invitation to join us in bringing the mission and message of Becoming a King on behalf of other men—that they might become the kind of men to whom God is glad to entrust the care of his Kingdom.

Come along into this first conversation as we hear reports from men courageously choosing to serve with kingly hearts...and rule with servant hearts.

Find an exclusive event to attend or offer one in your local area at www.BecomingAKingRetreat.com.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
52 min
December 20, 2022 124: A Soul’s Review

“Where are you, Adam?”

– Genesis 3:9

A disruptive phrase in Isaiah 44 has grabbed my attention and refused to let go. Notably grieved, the prophet utters these words:

“They know nothing, they understand nothing. Their eyes are plastered over so they can’t see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand….No one stops to think...” (44:18-19 NIV)

The prophet was urgently inviting the people of his day to stop everything and consider afresh God and his engagement with them. More than 2500 years later, the Spirit urges us to do the same.

This new guided exercise from Become Good Soil is intended to help you slow down to reflect with the Spirit through the close of this year and the launch of the next. Together we will look back in order to look forward.

Honoring your own masculine heart and life in God, I encourage you to set aside two or three hours of distraction-free time to engage in this Soul’s Review.

Download the free guided reflection here.

I recorded this podcast to walk together through the entire reflection. The podcast includes everything in the PDF with even more examples, explanations, and guided prayer. You can go through this reflection using only the PDF, or engage the podcast and PDF together for a more shepherded experience. The choice is yours.

What if your whole story is one unbroken line of intentional initiation as your Father shepherds you into the wholehearted, mature man he intends you to be? What if pausing with him to review this past year will uncover the particular treasures and clarify priceless insight for the journey ahead? He’s worth it. And so are you.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
54 min
December 06, 2022 123: The Carpenter’s Gift

Each human soul has to enact for itself the gigantic humility of the Incarnation. Every man must descend into the flesh to meet mankind.

– G.K. Chesterton

Friends,

We have a gift for you.

Take up a childlike heart again and be swept up into the awe and beauty of Immanuel—God with us.

Join us for this special BGS Christmas podcast.

Through the generosity of Penguin Random House Publishing, it’s our joy to take you into a generous portion of The Carpenter’s Gift. Written by David Rubel and whimsically illustrated by Jim LaMarche, this modern-day parable and timeless classic is sure to access the childlike place in your soul.

This Christmas season, we invite you to revel at the miracle of God pursuing us and forever joining us in the fullness and limitations of our humanity.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan

We encourage you to bless someone this Christmas season with The Carpenter’s Gift.

22 min
November 23, 2022 122: But It’s Worth It (Part 2)

The difference is not in what people suffer, but in the way they suffer. In the same fire, gold glows and straw smokes.

– St. Augustine

Suffering is brutal.

Suffering is lonely.

And suffering is a sacred space of masculine initiation.

As we mature, we are made ready to walk through suffering redemptively, allowing it to transform us rather than destroy us. In The Problem of Pain, C. S. Lewis wrote, “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

So often in masculine initiation, it is through this megaphone of pain that God rouses parts of us long dead and dormant.

Aaron, John Scott, and Ryan have become the kind of men transformed by pain. In Part 2 of this conversation, we explore the brutally beautiful intersection of pain and possibility in masculine initiation.

It hasn’t been easy. But it’s worth it.

Join us for the second part of an intimate conversation between like-hearted men of the Become Good Soil fellowship.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
48 min
November 08, 2022 121: But It’s Worth It (Part 1)

In the larger-than-life, spiritually transformed people I have met, I always find one common denominator: in some sense, they have all died before they died. They have followed in the footsteps of Jesus, a path from death to life.

– Adam’s Return

In his account of the Larger Story, Matthew writes, “Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said: 'You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.'” (Matthew 5:1-3, MSG)

In this episode of the Become Good Soil Podcast, I’m joined by three of Jesus’ climbing companions: Aaron McHugh, Ryan Ruebsahm, and John Scott Mooring. All three are men who at some point reached the end of their ropes. All three have sat in the pain and limitations of their own private resources. And all three have found even more of God and his rule in their lives.

In time and over time, these men have followed the path and process of Jesus, passing through death into more and more life.

In Part 1 of this conversation, they share stories from the blood, sweat, and tears of their own masculine initiation. Spiritually transformed, they are men who have become larger than life.

And they’re inviting us to do the same.

Come along into an intimate conversation between like-hearted men of the BGS fellowship.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
49 min
October 26, 2022 120: Land I’m Livin’ In (Part 4)

However quickly or slowly the call of God comes, it is always accompanied with an undercurrent of the supernatural….If a man or woman is called of God, it doesn’t matter how difficult the circumstances may be. God orchestrates every force at work for his purpose in the end. If you will agree with God’s purpose, he will bring not only your conscious level but also all the deeper levels of your life, which you yourself cannot reach, into perfect harmony.

– Oswald Chambers

How do we steward the kingdoms God has entrusted to our care?

What do we do when things go sideways?

What can we do now so that we will be thriving a decade from now?

The Helsers entice us to plunge deep into mature sonship and daughtership. As Melissa beautifully teaches, “Our lives are one percent talent and gifting, but 99 percent trust and dependence in friendship with the Lord.”

We get to choose, friends.

We get to choose to be with God, rather than impress him.

In the hidden parts of our lives, in time and over time, we can experience friendship with God that far outweighs the fleeting nature of talents.

Join us for the fourth and final episode of this series as the Helsers blaze yet another Kingdom trail that leads to Life.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
1 hr 9 min
October 11, 2022 119: Land I’m Livin’ In (Part 3)

Get into the habit of saying, “Speak, Lord,”

and life will become a romance. (1 Samuel 3:9)

– Oswald Chambers

Friends,

Jonathan David Helser teaches, “In the Garden, it all began with a kiss. God’s first moment with us is…messy." And though we started out as dirt in the cherishing hands of the Trinity, our God invites us into more. Over a lifetime of maturing, we are intended to become the children, the friends, and, finally, the lovers of God.

The Helsers have consented for decades to the movement and invitation of God in their lives.

It hasn’t been easy.

It hasn’t been cheap.

It hasn’t been quick.

But through them, God is blazing a path for generations of disciples to become the friends and lovers of God.

In time and over time, they’ve practiced trusting the affection of God rather than trusting their gifting. A thousand times a thousand, they’ve chosen to receive and rest in the bottom-line reality that God’s love is better than life itself—and they’re inviting us to do the same.

Come along into Part 3 of this series as we follow the Helsers on the path and process of becoming the sons, daughters, and lovers of God.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan

"I will take delight in you. As a groom rejoices over his bride, so will I rejoice over you." – Isaiah 62
1 hr 28 min
September 28, 2022 118: Land I’m Livin’ In (Part 2)

He opened the door of the birdcage to let the eagle fly to freedom. But the eagle had been in captivity for so long it no longer believed it could fly, and it chose not to fly. It was then he realized the bird was not in the cage. The cage was in the bird.

– Jonathan Helser

Friends,

Jonathan David and Melissa Helser have become the kind of people who bring with them, wherever they find themselves, the atmosphere of the Kingdom of God.

Through their pain, they’ve grown into their possibility. Their suffering has given way to an even greater desire. They have seen the goodness of God in the land of the living.

And they are inviting us to come along, courageously following the Father anywhere.

We rise by bowing

We live by dying

When we give what we could never keep

We gain what we will never lose

Join us for Part 2 of this series as we weave together story and song to shepherd our hearts ever deeper into the hope and heart of a God unbound by death.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
1 hr 19 min
September 15, 2022 117: Land I’m Livin’ In (Part 1)

God loves you unconditionally, exactly as you are and not as you "should be.”

– Brennan Manning, All Is Grace

The best teachers are foremost, always and forever, committed students.

Jonathan David and Melissa Helser are unapologetically committed, life-long students of Jesus and his Kingdom. Risk-takers, worship leaders, and courageous parents, the Helsers blaze a path for people to encounter God—exactly as they are.

For decades, they’ve invited generations of God’s sons and daughters to come as they are, authentically and intimately, into the presence of God.

From that place, they’ve discovered a secret of the Kingdom: The one who knows us best is the one who loves us most.

Friends, God is the one who knows us best.

And from that place of deep knowing, he is the one who chooses us and loves us most.

Come along as we discover afresh that we truly are the dearly loved sons and daughters of God.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan

[Here are some ways to go deeper with the work entrusted to the Helsers' care: Explore their worship ministry, which has traveled the globe to offer live opportunities to encounter our Father together, at JonathanHelser.com and CagelessBirds.com. Check out their small-batch deep discipleship school for young adults through 18InchJourney.com, one of the premier contexts for apprenticeship in this hour on the globe.]
1 hr 31 min
August 30, 2022 116: Love Wins, with Tommy Colwell (Part 2)

Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am.

– Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation

Our stories do not define us; the Author of them does.

It’s a profound truth and reality that takes many tears, much blood, and many years to fully participate in.

Tommy Colwell is one of the men heroically participating in this reality. Through the ups and downs, the triumphs and tragedies, the breakthroughs and dead ends, he has discovered, looking back, that throughout his story he has been led.

Deeply. Strongly. Abundantly.

By a Father who is far more kind and loving than we dared to believe.

How does a man abandoned and abused in childhood, suffering a profound lack of attachment, become a conduit of the Father-heart of God to not only offer to a family what he never had, but also shepherd the hearts of over a thousand individual fallen pastors into restoration and repair?

Come along to witness and participate in a living miracle as we dive into Part 2 of this rich story of God fathering a boy, initiating a man, and raising up a seasoned sage.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
58 min