In this episode, guest speaker, FW board member, and member of the Keep Calm community Lou Huesmann explains that self-differentiation requires clarity about what really matters to us. If we are not really clear on our values, we will be influenced and pressured by the values of everyone around us. According to Edwin Friedman, self-differentiation is the ability to claim your goals and values in the midst of surrounding togetherness pressure. To help make this concept more tangible, Lou wraps up by sharing some wonderful guiding principles - or values - from author Jenny Brown in her book Growing Yourself Up.

This episode was recorded on September 12, 2025.

In this episode, Ken Shuman digs deeper into the concept of differentiation in relationships by speaking of what we mean when we say we are "close" to someone. "Typically," he states, "people define closeness as sameness." Ken unpacks this notion and asks the group how they behave when they discover someone they feel close to is different, or when that person disappoints them. What do they do with their anxiety? And how can we increase our capacity to let others be exactly who they are and to be exactly who we are ourselves?

This episode was recorded on September 5th, 2025.

In this episode, Ken Shuman speaks with Ryan Ashley, a pastor, chaplain, and long-time Faithwalker who lives in Arvada, CO, in the greater Denver area.

For Ryan, Faithwalking is an opportunity to "take discipleship deep." "Faithwalking," he says, "took me on a real deep dive to understand the truth about myself and why I show up the way I show up in different situations, and it's really been an incredible ongoing discipleship-tool part of my life."

He speaks of learning to be vulnerable and the impact this has had on his relationships with his wife and children and his church community, as well as the Faithwalking process for cleaning up our messes that begins with that vulnerability: "...one of the things that has brought me the most life is asking people the impact when I promise and don't deliver...and that has been absolutely life-giving because it's brought closeness to the relationships that have been impacted by an integrity gap."

Ryan speaks with delight of the transformation he is seeing in members of his church profoundly impacted by their Faithwalking work, and speaks of how he would love to see healthier pastors, when "sometimes the church is a great place to hide." To the question of what he would say to a pastor who asks why he or she should engage in Faithwalking, Ryan gives a deep and beautiful response that you will want to hear!

This episode was recorded in July 2025.

In this episode, Ken Shuman states that he believes self-differentiation is the last and biggest hurdle in growing in emotional maturity, and it is a really challenging one. He shares a personal story about his own growth in differentiation and then puts forward seven characteristics of highly differentiated people, as growth goals for our journey toward emotional maturity.

This episode was recorded on August 22, 2025.

In this episode, Ken Shuman speaks with Tammi Van Drunen, a longtime Faithwalker, Faithwalking coach, facilitator, and Circle leader, and children's minister.

Tammi shares about the impact of Faithwalking on her relationship with her kids and on her ministry with kids and their parents. She expresses how much she loves walking parents through this process, because of how much change she sees in how they're thinking about their parenting and how it changes their relationship with their kids. She also talks about the power of what she learned in FW about cleaning up messes - a process she uses all the time with her kids that makes them feel "seen, and heard, and loved" - and about the freeing nature of healthy boundaries, and she shares a great boundaries story!

Tammi encourages listeners that "if you can stick it out...and you really invest in the [Faithwalking] process, you WILL be a different person by the end...in partnership with God. Two years of investment into this kind of hard work pays dividends for the rest of your life...no matter how old you are."

This episode was recorded in June 2025.

In this episode, Ken Shuman speaks with Ben Vos, a youth pastor and Faithwalking grad who lives and serves in northwest Iowa. Ben shares that the impact of Faithwalking for him has been in layers - among other things that he is more patient, quicker to listen and much better at listening, and a less-anxious person - and that he is a better employee, husband, and father. He talks about his growth in differentiation, work that is "so hard and so good," and says that he is "intrigued, fascinated by this idea that we can remain unified as believers - as brothers and sisters - even as we differentiate from one another." "I've seen it done, " he says, "I've experienced it myself - other people in Faithwalking, other emotionally mature leaders in my life...the love I've felt, the acceptance I've felt, even with people with whom I disagree...man, it works!" Ben says he tells his congregation, "If you're willing to give yourself over to these concepts, to these practices, to these ways of thinking, I think it can be one of the most transformative things you will do in your adult life."

This episode was recorded in June 2025.

In this episode, Ken Shuman speaks with Deanna Napier, a teacher and coach and a long-time Faithwalker and FW coach. Before Faithwalking, Deanna struggled with deeply ingrained feelings of worthlessness that she brought with her out of her first formation. Faithwalking helped her identify where that lack of worth was coming from and to address its root causes.

Deanna shares that at the time she decided to try Faithwalking, she was mad all the time. Now she says, "Not only have I learned to help manage my anger, but I've really become a completely different person." She shows up differently in all her relationships, particularly with her older brothers, with whom she never felt she could measure up before.

She used to think she needed to people please for people to like her, and she would borrow her identity from the people around her, but she has grown in confidence and a sense of who she is so much that she now says she believes she has the potential to be things and do things she never thought possible before. Faithwalking "transformed me in ways I never could have imagined."

This episode was recorded in May 2025.

In this episode, Ken Shuman shares a Substack post by Alan Hirsch* in which Hirsch reflects on words from theologian-psychologist Richard Beck on the concept and nature of "Satan." Hirsch speaks of the forces in the world that are anti-Jesus, and the temptation for those in the Church to adopt the same tools and become anti-Jesus in his name. But he also celebrates the good news of the One who will never be other than who he is - who will never be other than love:

"There is a satan to the kingdom of God. But the good news, the Easter news, is this: Jesus did not become the enemy to defeat the enemy. He remained the Son. He remained love. And this is what saves us. He did not fight Satan with Satan’s weapons, but refused them altogether. He overcame by being entirely what he always was.

And so must we."
This episode was recorded on July 25th, 2025.

* Alan Hirsch, "The life and mission of Jesus, as well as that of his followers, are not lived in a neutral world," July 19, 2025

In this epsode, Ken Shuman shares a personal transformation story about the power of asking the question, "What is my role in keeping this problem in place?" He shares how he asked himself this question when reflecting on an area of chronic disappointment in his life, and how it led him to an important and potentially life-changing realization and a powerful guiding principle that he will take with him moving forward.

This episode was recorded on July 18th, 2025.

In this episode, Ken Shuman speaks with Aundrea Baker, a professional coach, spiritual director, Faithwalking coach and board member. Aundrea shares a powerful Faithwalking testimony of healing and reconnection - reconnection with herself, her emotions, and her body and restoration of important relationships that had been estranged. She talks about learning to manage her anxiety, dismantling her vows, and ceasing to take responsibility that was never hers to bear. And she attests to the gentleness and challenge of Faithwalking coaching and the power of a judgment-free, safe community to promote healing and wholeness.