Kyle and I are taking a break during this holiday season, and we hope you get too as well. We're taking a hiatus over the next two weeks, so there will be no new podcasts.  But the last year has been a powerful one for Wayne. He says he's learned more in the last year about how to walk with God than the previous fifteen, through some amazing moments and through challenging circumstances as well. Over the next two weeks, we'll replay a couple of the key podcasts that express how that work has happened in his heart. This was from last March 12, 2021, Gaze with Me.

Has Christianity unwittingly tamed the Lion of Judah and lost the mystery and wonder that draws us into a life-changing relationship with God himself? That's what one email proposes and in the last podcast of 2021, Wayne and Kyle interact with that email and contemplate how easy it is for us to retreat to the illusion of the safe ground we pretend to control. However, removing the mystery and wonder of a relationship with the transcendent steers us into stagnant waters. Engaging him, we touch a reality far beyond our understanding that can shape us in ways that can't be codified in doctrines and principles alone. Are we willing to risk that journey? Jesus warned us that what humans value highest, God finds detestable. So, how do we embrace the transcendent and find those who can help us walk that journey without taking the mystery out of it.

Podcast Notes:

If you want to read Jack's letter Wayne posted it on his blog today

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Last weekend, Wayne and Kyle met with a group of twenty and thirty-year-olds from all around the U.S. regarding God's freshening work among that age group. No, it is not exclusive to them but it gave them a chance to see what God is doing there and how others can come alongside them to encourage God's work. Holding space in our hearts and in prayer are ways we can participate in God's work, without trying to control him for the results we want. They talk a bit about that process and what it means to guard the gift of God's work in others rather than trying to tell them what to do as we discover the power of prayer and what it means to be their cheerleaders.

Podcast Notes:

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For some, the holiday season is the most wonderful time of the year; for others, it can be filled with pain, loneliness, and disappointment especially with all the nostalgic hopes we place on it. However, not all families celebrate with love and graciousness. Some families are riddled with expectations, gossip, and manipulative power games that make them a minefield of pain and judgment. Back from Thanksgiving, Kyle asks Wayne about negotiating the holidays when your family dynamics are destructive and hurtful. Do you owe it to your family to gather with them when they are destructive, or do you have other options? They talk about getting out of the game that requires performance as a condition for love and how to let God lead you by endearment instead of obligation in whatever situation you find yourself.

Podcast Notes:

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Is learning to live loved by God a selfish pursuit?  One man thought it was at a recent gathering Wayne held in Florida. He thought it was more important that people try to help the lost be born again. Religion trades on fear—fear of God's punishment, fear of what others think, fear of not doing enough to keep God on our side, or the fear that I'll lose control. As the recent episodes of the Mars Hill podcast demonstrate, it not only affects the average Christian but also dominates leaders as well. Love is not peripheral to the kingdom; it is the antidote to religious fear and the very thing Jesus wanted us to know personally and to spread in the world.  Love is just a word until someone comes along and shows us its meaning.

Podcast Notes:

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Asking an institution to reflect God's glory is asking more of it than it has to give. While many start out with the vision to express God's reality, few maintain that over time as other priorities take over. Is that why Jesus invested his glory in people, not systems, and the power of the church not in its institutional might but in the love and unity of his people who share together in his work in the world. Responding to a seminarian's struggle with his own call, Wayne and Kyle talk about how to navigate institutional systems without putting our hope in them. Structures can be helpful as long as the people in them reflect his glory in the earth, and become harmful when they seek to protect their own agenda. They also talk about the direction God might lead us is not always to the destination we think he has in mind.

Podcast Notes:

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We look at the times and wonder if our whole world is falling apart, what if Jesus looks at the same circumstances and sees that things are falling into place?  That would sound more like God's view. Since there is nothing he can't work good out of, and he is going to sum up all things in himself, maybe that's a view we can embrace as well. Wayne and Kyle reflect on what they have learned from the podcasts on Mars Hill and Liberty University and why so many "successful" Christian institutions fall for the same old traps of excess and hypocrisy. They also talk more about the our how evangelicals came to see masculinity as so confrontative and rough, while the fruits of the Spirit are more seen as feminine virtues.

Podcast Notes:

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What you believe doesn't matter if it isn't true. Cultural competence is education jargon for familiarizing ourselves with other cultures but Kyle learned a new term last week that he likes better—"cultural humility". Instead of thinking we can master another person's culture wouldn't it be far better to enter the conversation with humility and openness seeking to understand another's story and perspective? That alone would invite us out of our siloed information camps as it offers us a framework to navigate relationships with others who think differently than we do. Isn't that what God offers us as he seeks to engage us in a transformative journey. It's also helpful as they revisit their conversation last week with Anna about the government seeking to discount parents.

Podcast Notes:

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Every person needs someone whose eyes light up when they enter a room, especially kids in trauma. Anna LeBaron, personal growth activist and the author of The Polygamist's Daughter, joins Wayne and Kyle for a conversation about the trauma of her childhood, the process of being healed from such an abusive past, and what she thinks of the growing conflict between government leaders and public school students, especially those from religiously authoritarian homes. Anna was born into a polygamist cult with a violent father who used his kids for slave labor and neglected their needs. She talks honestly about the trauma that upbringing caused and her tenacious quest for healing in her adulthood. Looking back, would she have wanted to be rescued by an outside agency? She confronts the difficulty of crafting a one-size-fits-all policy for such situations and shares the most important thing anyone can do to reach out to traumatized children.

Podcast Notes:

Anna's Web Page

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U.S. Should Ban 'Authoritarian' Homeschooling by Christian Parents  By Douglas Ernst - The Washington Times

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Those are two words you rarely see together, but they come from one of our listeners writing about the harsh betrayal of a friend and how it was going to help him discover the forgiveness that Jesus knew. He wrote, "It is excruciating beautiful to learn of it." What an accurate description of the transformative journey. When we can celebrate the painful stretches of our journeys as an opportunity for us to go deeper into the reality of Jesus, we're on to something. Embracing his work in the difficulties of our lives can only happen when we don't see God as the agency of our pain, but the Presence in our story inviting us to greater love and healing. And yet, our circumstanes, especially our successes, push us down a diferent path, where power, money, and fear can draw us away from genuineness and authenticity in the desire to grab the greatest can we can for ourselves.

Podcast Notes:

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