The biggest thing God has planned for you next is not a job or a move, it is knowing Him. In week three of What Does God Have Planned for Me Next? Pastor Ethan tells the story of his own fork in the road after college and shows that the anxious search for the perfect next step settles once you answer who you are following.

God rarely calls the person who feels ready for it. In this episode, Pastor Brad Wilkinson of Christian Life Austin talks about the moment God got hold of a kid who would rather take an F than speak in front of a room, what it looks like to pastor in Austin, and the quiet power of staying.

In week two of What Does God Have Planned for Me Next? Doug Wekenman looks at why the fear of missing out makes it so hard both to choose God's plans and to stay in them. As our options multiply, our commitment and contentment shrink, and we spend our lives second-guessing the story we are already living. The way through is to flip the FOMO: stop fearing the paths you did not take, and start fearing that you will miss the life right in front of you. Own the decision, plant yourself, and learn to remain.

The story worth telling is not the one about why you left. It is the one about why you stayed.

The fear of missing out on everything can keep you from committing to anything. In this episode, Ethan, Ryan, and Doug dig into Chapter 12 of Doug's new book, What Does God Have Planned for Me Next?, and the paradox of choice that keeps us double-minded long after we have chosen. It is about owning the decision and flipping the FOMO, so the life you are afraid of missing becomes the one right in front of you.

Doug's book, What Does God Have Planned for Me Next?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQHZ1917

God is always speaking. The real question is whether we are learning to listen.

Week one of What Does God Have Planned For Me Next? Doug walks through three ways He still speaks: the whisper of His nearness, the people around us, and His voice in our pain. His first plan for us is simply to know Him.

Most of us want to know what God has planned. Fewer of us want to know God.

In this episode, Ethan, Ryan, and Doug sit down around two books. Doug's new one, What Does God Have Planned for Me Next?, and the one that has been sitting on most of our shelves for years. They talk about the two lies that keep people from opening the Bible, the moment it stopped feeling like something to be afraid of, and where to actually start.

You are not the main character of the story. You are invited into it.

The enemy knows Scripture well enough to quote it. Most of us do not. In week two of Word of God, Ethan Matott looks at Scripture as a weapon to carry rather than a book to admire, and why we keep walking into the fight empty handed.

Some of the most faithful work in the church is the kind no one ever sees. In this episode, Ethan and Ryan sit down with Jady Griffin of Antioch Austin and Tory Mayo of The Well to talk about the preacher swap, church planting, and what it really means for a church to be fruitful. Faithfulness still counts, even when no one is watching.

Chapters

0:00 Welcome and the fantasy draft fallout

8:00 The preacher swap and the response

14:51 A heart for church planting

19:58 Only room for ten percent of the city

30:12 Lessons from Acts on sending people out

39:21 Deploy people, do not just gather them

49:54 Why most church plants do not make it

56:18 Spurgeon and the pastor no one remembers

60:45 Danny and a different scorecard

66:40 Jonah, Jeremiah, and fruit that lasts

69:19 Praying for a move you may never see

72:17 Being the church in Austin

Follow this week's guests, Jady Griffin of Antioch Austin and Tory Mayo of The Well:

Jady Griffin: https://www.instagram.com/jadygriffin

Antioch Austin: https://www.instagram.com/antiochatx

Tory Mayo: https://www.instagram.com/toriano.mayo

We have outsourced almost everything we used to remember to our phones, and somewhere in that trade we stopped carrying the words that could actually change us. In the first message of our new series, Word of God, Doug makes the case that memorizing and internalizing Scripture is not a discipline reserved for the spiritually elite but something anyone can do, and that the words we hide in our hearts are what steady us when life goes to airplane mode.

The last two weeks, we swapped preachers to prove that the churches in Austin are not in competition with each other. We are for each other. But today, we are not. In this episode, the Afterthoughts crew is joined by Jady Griffin of Antioch Austin and Tory Mayo of The Well for the first ever Afterthoughts Fantasy Bible Draft, drafting teams across seven categories, from the greatest leader to the best bromance to the funniest moment in the Bible, defending some very questionable picks and talking plenty of trash before a final verdict crowns the 2026 champion.

Chapters

0:00 Welcome and the Preacher Swap

1:48 How the Fantasy Bible Draft works

13:39 The draft is on

66:01 Bonus picks and baptism stories

70:07 The verdict and the 2026 champion

Follow this week's guests, Jady Griffin of Antioch Austin and Tory Mayo of The Well:

Jady Griffin: https://www.instagram.com/jadygriffin

Antioch Austin: https://www.instagram.com/antiochatx

Tory Mayo: https://www.instagram.com/toriano.mayo