Still Being Shaped

"It's not just about the bicycle. It's the fact that you're seeing the person for who they are."

Steven Bertalan has spent years behind a camera telling other people's stories. But it wasn't until he fixed his homeless neighbor's bike on his own driveway that he finally understood what the gospel actually looks like in real life. No stage. No script. No motive. Just a person choosing to see another person.

In this conversation, we explore:

• The viral bike video and what it taught him — how a simple act of seeing someone as a person changed his own understanding of the gospel
• Leaving church without leaving God — what it actually looks like to step away from the building while holding on to the relationship
• Performative Christianity vs. real faith — why "saying the right things" and "doing the right things" are not the same, and how to tell the difference
• The danger of transactional mission — why a scripted prayer on a street corner might be doing more harm than a quiet cup of coffee
• Asking questions as a spiritual practice — why Jesus answered so few of them directly, and what that says about how we should show up for people

You don't have to have it all figured out. You just have to show up.

✨ Shop the Mission: www.madeofclay247.com📸 Instagram: @madeofclay247📸 Follow Steven: @stephenberty

"Your goals have to be big enough that it almost requires a higher power to achieve. If you're not aiming to that level, you're doing yourself and your faith a disservice."

Lauren Williams is an international athlete, Stanford graduate, and entrepreneur who spent twenty days running and operating a coast-to-coast flag relay across fifteen states for America's 250th birthday. She came into this conversation honest, curious, and wide open about her faith journey. This is a rare conversation about what it looks like to be on the front edge of belief before you even know what you believe.

In this conversation, we explore:

• Relay for America behind the scenes — the logistics, the sleepless nights, and what it actually takes to run 3,016 miles on a two-week build
• Dreaming bigger than yourself — why Wyatt Moss says your goals aren't big enough unless they require something outside of you
• Faith curiosity without a road map — Lauren's honest questions about where to begin and what a real relationship with God even looks like
• Getting in the water up to your nose — Gabby's retelling of the Nachshon story and what it means to actually take the first step
• What small-town America taught a Stanford grad — the warmth, community, and shared humanity Lauren found in places she'd never been

If you've ever felt like faith was something other people had figured out, this one is for you.

✨ Shop the Mission: www.madeofclay247.com📸 Instagram: @madeofclay247

🇺🇸 Relay For America: @relayforamerica

"I was showing up to church hungover. I had accepted Jesus, so why was I still anxious? And then I hit a prayer walk, weeping, and told God — if I have to keep feeling like this, I don't know if I can keep going."

Robert Knoll grew up Catholic, wore a cross his whole life, and thought being a good person was enough. Then a breakup in Pittsburgh took him out. What followed was a year of crippling anxiety, alcohol as a coping mechanism, and a lukewarm faith that wasn't actually changing anything. It wasn't until full surrender on a prayer walk that everything shifted.

In this conversation, we explore:

• Identity crisis — why Robert's sense of self collapsed when his relationship did, and what Hebrews 13:8 gave him that the world never could
• Anxiety without sugarcoating — from childhood hypochondria to bedridden panic during COVID, and what it actually looks like to hand it to God
• Lukewarm faith and drinking through it — the first year of his walk, still getting drunk, and the moment he finally surrendered alcohol after 17 months sober
• Shame vs. repentance — the difference between Judas and Peter, and why how you respond to sin matters more than the sin itself
• Stacking little wins — why discipline at 5 AM when no one's watching is how real transformation happens

You are not too far gone. You are not too broken. And you do not have to have it all figured out before you come home.

Connect with Robert:Instagram: @lifetalkswithrobTikTok: @faithfueledrobertLinktree: linktr.ee/FaithFueledRobert

✨ Shop the Mission: www.madeofclay247.com📸 Instagram: @madeofclay247

"I don't want to stand in front of Christ and say, God, you gave me this tool called AI and I buried it out of fear."

Jonathan Mast built a community of over 500,000 people teaching them to use AI as an amplifier of the gifts God already gave them. But before the audience, the business, and the mission, there was a federal prison sentence, a rock-bottom surrender, and a two-by-four from God. This conversation is raw, real, and deeply convicting for anyone trying to walk out their faith in a world obsessed with metrics.

In this conversation, we explore:

• Prison, surrender, and meeting God in the last place you expected — Jonathan's testimony and the moment everything shifted
• The Parable of the Talents and AI — why he refuses to bury a tool God put in his hands
• "With Thanksgiving" — how two words from Philippians 4:6-7 changed his entire perspective inside a federal prison
• Why fear is the enemy of discernment — what he wishes every Christian understood about artificial intelligence
• Amplifying what God already gave you — the difference between chasing success and stewarding your platform for the Kingdom

You are a jar of clay. Cracked, imperfect, and exactly who God wants to use.

✨ Shop the Mission: www.madeofclay247.com📸 Instagram: @madeofclay247

🤖 Learn more about Jonathan: www.whitebeardstrategies.com

"You survived all of the worst days that you thought were the worst day of your life. That means there's purpose, and there's more to do."

Karen Hite has built businesses, hosted events, and led a mastermind, but the season that changed everything was the one where she admitted out loud that she didn't know what she was doing. This episode is about what happens when you stop trying to fill someone else's shoes and start developing the gifts God actually gave you.

In this conversation, we explore:

• Survival mode and the cost of getting good at the wrong things - why excelling at skills that aren't natural to you can quietly drain you dry
• The discernment that changed her direction - how a Bible passage, a video, and a hard conversation in one week led Karen to build her spiritual gifts assessment
• First-world meets third-world marriage - building a life and business with someone whose default is dream big when yours is stay stable
• Why failure isn't real - reframing failed experiences as curriculum God is using to prepare you
• The Friday date night rule and the 1-to-10 framework - two pieces of advice that protect both her marriage and her business partnership

You are a jar of clay. The cracks are where the light gets through.

✨ Shop the Mission: www.madeofclay247.com📸 Instagram: @madeofclay247

📚 Spiritual Gifts Test: www.whatsmygift.com

"Jesus is so far away from us (perfection), and my good intentions and his terrible intentions are way, way closer than what it looks like to be perfect."

JC Hite built a 350-person agency surrounded by stupid money, then walked away from all of it two months before his daughter was born. But this conversation isn't really about business. It's about the idols we still defend, the anxiety scripture quietly healed, and the gap between us and Jesus being smaller than we pretend.

In this conversation, we explore:

• The idols the world rewards: Why grind, guilt, and gluttony hide in plain sight when alcohol and the "heavy" sins are already gone
• Healing in the walking: How JC stopped panic attacks not in a hospital but by pressing play on scripture and just walking
• The wrong phone number for God: Trading a rulebook religion for a relationship you actually hear from
• Heart posture over performance: Whether God sees our intent more than our actions, and what that means for the way we live
• The whiteboard and the gap: Zooming out until the best person you know and the worst look almost identical next to Jesus
• Leading like Jesus: Why the man who knew every answer chose to ask 300 questions instead

You're a jar of clay. The cracks are where the light gets out. Keep going.

✨ Shop the Mission: www.madeofclay247.com📸 Instagram: @madeofclay247 @jc.hite

"Rules without relationships equal rebellion."

For 36 years, Thaddaeus "Thud" Hill has poured his life into at-risk kids in some of the hardest situations imaginable. In this conversation, he gets real about what it actually costs to serve, why he's pivoting after 25 years as executive director, and how to tell the difference between a good thing and a God thing.

In this conversation, we explore:

• Seed planters, not people fixers: the family phrase that shaped a 50-year ministry
• Agape can't be defended: loving people with no expectation of a good response back
• The good Samaritan model: meeting physical needs before anyone opens their heart to God
• Good thing vs. God thing: saying no without saying you don't care
• The reset: pivoting from a six-day week to coaching other lonely leaders

You're a jar of clay. The cracks are where the light gets out. Catch you on the next one.

Connect with Thud:🐎 Timothy Hill Ranch: timothyhill.org🔄 Reset Leadership Group: resetleads.com

✨ Shop the Mission: www.madeofclay247.com📸 Instagram: @madeofclay247

"There's not one thing you can do to make God love you any more than He does right now. You're not that powerful."

Failure isn't the enemy. Avoiding it is. In this episode, Gabby sits down with Dr. William Attaway, CEO of Appreciation at Work and host of the Catalytic Leadership Podcast, to talk about why chasing perfection is killing your growth and how to finally rewire a mind stuck on the negative.

In this conversation, we explore:

• The Crystal vs Rubber Ball Test: How to know which failures you can bounce back from and which ones you can't afford to drop.
• The Wins Journal: A dead-simple practice that rewires your brain to fight imposter syndrome with data, not feelings.
• The Empty Pitcher Problem: Why leaders burn out and what Jesus modeled about pouring back in before you pour out.
• One Command Over 613: Trading a performance-based faith for the only thing Jesus actually asked us to do.
• The Coconut Moment: A story from Guatemala that flips everything you think about "sharing the gospel."

You are a jar of clay. Cracks and all, His light still shines through.

Find Doc:Catalytic Leadership Podcast: https://www.catalyticleadership.netAppreciation at Work: https://www.appreciationatwork.comInstagram: @wattaway

✨ Shop the Mission: www.madeofclay247.com📸 Instagram: @madeofclay247

"Some of us are going to overnight have our lives radically changed, and some of us are going to crawl our way to the gates of heaven."

Haley Furst was one of the biggest trans TikTok creators online, living fully in the LGBTQ lifestyle, before Jesus met her where she was and rewrote her entire story. Now she's in Costa Rica serving the church across Central America, and she's not holding back about what really happened in the years no one saw.

In this conversation, we explore:

The slow slope: how a 12-year-old at a private Christian school ended up idolizing LGBTQ YouTubers and questioning everything she'd been taught

The hidden trauma: the sexual assault Haley never told anyone about, and how it shaped her decision to dress, identify, and medically transition as a boy

What the church gets wrong: why attaching faith to an aesthetic, a political party, or a lifestyle pushes hurting people further from Jesus

Truth and love without compromise: how to hold biblical truth, speak clarity, and still leave the heart change to the Holy Spirit

Ordinary people, extraordinary God: worship as warfare, boldness from Acts, and why your "small" circle of influence is exactly where revival starts

If you've ever felt too far gone, too labeled, or too broken to come home, this one is for you. You are not who the world says you are. You are His.

✨ Shop the Mission: www.madeofclay247.com

📸 Instagram: @madeofclay247📸 Instagram: @haleymfurst

"It’s not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular. It is why he does it." — A.W. Tozer

In this episode of the Made of Clay Podcast, Gabby is joined by Jay Vics, a digital marketing expert and "AI Guy" with a teacher’s heart. Jay shares his journey of discovering that his ability to simplify complex technology wasn't just a business skill, it was a spiritual gift intended for a greater purpose.

In this conversation, we explore:

• The Zone of Genius: Why it took Jay 40 years to realize that teaching technology was a spiritual calling.

• Mission in the Mundane: How parenting an adopted daughter with mental health struggles became Jay’s most significant "mission field".

• The "Midwit" and the Simpleton: Why over-analyzing faith makes us miserable, and why we should aim to be "dumb" enough to trust God like a child.

• The Rule of Denominations: A raw look at why "man-made rules" often drive people away from the simple Gospel.

• Redefining Failure: How millions of small failures shape a life more effectively than one big win.

Whether you are navigating the complexities of modern parenting or trying to find God in your 9-to-5, Jay’s insight will remind you that the Holy Spirit meets you exactly where your feet are today, even in a webinar or a coffee shop.

Connect with Made of Clay:

✨ Shop the Mission: www.madeofclay247.com📸 Instagram: @madeofclay247

Connect with Jay:TikTok: @jaytheaiguyofficialYouTube: youtube.com/@jvimobileWeb: www.jaytheaiguy.com