Transformed & Transformational

Why can’t we all just get along? Unity can feel impossible sometimes. Brian Delamont returns to the podcast this month to unpack how we can honor Christ as we pursue unity. 

• “That’s a great way to picture what unity looks like: something working together to accomplish a greater goal.”
• “The higher we value something, the more difficult it actually is to work and live in unity.”
• John 17:20-23
• “So what’s on Jesus’s heart as He is about to face what He’s about to face as He goes to the cross? Unity is on the heart of Jesus in that moment.”
• “[Jesus is] not asking for everyone to be the same. He’s asking that these very different people with very different ways of doing things would be brought to complete unity.”
• John 10:30
• “While the Father, Son, and Spirit are one, they’re not the same.  In the perfect beauty of this trinitarian relationship, we can learn the key to living in unity with people who follow Jesus who are different than [we are].”
• Colossians 3:7-8
• “The Gospel gives us an unshakable basis for the change which will enable us to seek unity with others who follow Jesus.”
• Colossians 3:1-3
• “In order to set my heart and mind on things above, on the objectives and the life that God has for me, I need to die [...] Dying to self means letting Christ win the ultimate argument when He brings everything under His feet.”
• “Unity in this moment involves trusting God with the outcome God says He is responsible for. I don’t have to win the argument to bring God’s Kingdom by myself. God is capable and He is in control of this outcome, whether I win the argument or not.”
• Colossians 3:12-14
• Episode 21: Prayer is Conversation
• “I’m not responsible for the reign of Christ to come and be established. He’s already said that He will do that, and He’ll do that as I live out my commitment to holy living and to becoming all that God intends.”
• “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”
• Ephesians 4:2-4
• 1 Corinthians 13:5
• “We need to endure differences. This is part of God’s design for His work in my life to conform me to the image of Christ.”

October Reflection: Where are you feeling unity being challenged in your life? What does God want to do in your own heart?

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Treasure maps
• Heather: Applying tips from At Your Best by Carey Nieuwhof
• Brian: Leaves changing colors

Weekly Spotlight:  LinGo Online

We’d love to hear from you! [email protected]. Podcast Website: https://teachbeyond.org/podcast  Learn about TeachBeyond: https://teachbeyond.org/

Listen in for the story of how the @liturgiesforalifeabroad account came to be and the value of integrating liturgies into our everyday rhythms.

• Check out @liturgiesforalifeabroad on Instagram!
• Every Moment Holy by Douglas McKelvey
• “We don’t have to be in a church setting or in a formal worship setting to experience the presence of Christ. He wants to be part of those everyday moments.”
• “Jesus is with you and that He is in those moments with you, the fellowship of His presence even in the mundane and the unique and the completely bizarre.”
• “There is purpose in these [mundane] things, there is opportunity for fellowship with Christ, there is opportunity for spiritual formation and for growth in all of these experiences. [This] has really helped me to come to a deeper level of gratitude for my life overseas, realizing that all of these things the Lord wants to use to shape me and mold me into His image and to show His love to the people around me.”
• “Take a moment and prepare your heart with a moment of silence, breathing, and centering yourself.”
• “I may not be actively doing something, but my silence and solitude before the Lord is productive, and I am allowing Him to have that space and time.”
• “Anybody who has experienced moving overseas, I would imagine, comes to this place where you realize a very deep and desperate need for the Lord.”
• “We are all foreigners in this world; this world is not our home. That’s one theme that I constantly come back to in writing these liturgies.”
• Hebrews 11:16
• “As I look back over the different seasons of my life, I see how the Lord has prepared me in really unique ways for each of the things I have done.”
• “There are some of us - and maybe more of us even than we realize - that the Lord doesn’t give this clear billboard sign of ‘this is what you were made to do’ because He wants us to be available and willing to say yes to those different opportunities that come along the way.”
• A Liturgy for Times of Transition

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Durham Museum of Life and Science
• Heather: Expansion pack for Sagrada board game
• Heather F: “Get Out of the Way of Your Own Heart” by Chris Renzema

Weekly Spotlight: BridgeWay North American School

We’d love to hear from you! [email protected] Podcast Website: https://teachbeyond.org/podcast  Learn about TeachBeyond: https://teachbeyond.org/

What is the relationship between teacher, student, and subject? Long-time educator Randy Dueck joins us for a conversation about these essential relationships in the classroom.

• Click here for the article by Randy Dueck
• “The teacher who knows the subject well must introduce it to students in the way one introduces a friend.” - Parker J. Palmer
• “I care for the subject, I care for the student; I’m going to do my best to help you become friends.”
• “Without the relationship between the teacher and student, the teacher’s not going to be as adept at helping the student develop the relationship with the curriculum.”
• “As you know a student better, you’re going to be able to establish better links between that student and the curriculum.”
• “Relationships are at the core of everything. Nothing happens outside of a relationship.”

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Known book
• Heather: Fig and goat cheese pizza
• Randy: Flying internationally for the first time in two years

Weekly Spotlight: El Camino BIlingual School

We’d love to hear from you! [email protected]. Podcast Website: https://teachbeyond.org/podcast  Learn about TeachBeyond: https://teachbeyond.org/ 

Tara-Leigh Cobble, founder of D-Group and The Bible Recap, shares about the transformational experience of reading through the Bible and growing in relationship with the God of the Word.

• “What you see when you read the whole BIble in order is that the character of God is consistent throughout.”
• “Scripture is a relationship with the living God.”
• “It’s not a box to check; it is air to breathe.”
• “When you feel a responsibility to teach through it or lead through it, you really try to access deeper things because you realize you can’t coast… Then you get to engage with the zeal that they have.”
• YouVersion Bible App
• “Stop looking for yourself. Look for God, look for His character... What is His heart bent toward?”
• Psalm 145:17
• “Focusing on my sin humbles me, but it also produces this great gratitude in me that God has pursued me in that space, and it draws me to Him. It causes me to delight in Him all the more; it helps me recognize my need for His Word.”
• James 5:16
• “What the Lord has called you to, you know that He will carry you through. What He initiates, He will sustain and He will fulfill. He will carry on to completion what He has begun in you.”

Check out The Bible Recap here!

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Changing the alternator in my car
• Heather: Podcast stickers
• Tara-Leigh: Contigo stainless steel water bottle

Weekly Spotlight: Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center

We’d love to hear from you! [email protected]. Podcast Website: https://teachbeyond.org/podcast  Learn about TeachBeyond: https://teachbeyond.org/ 

Want a glimpse into the mission behind the podcast?  TeachBeyond President, Dr. David Durance, returns to the podcast to share about his dissertation research and what it means to be part of the global movement of transformational education.

• “An effective missionary is someone who follows Jesus’ calling on your life and that you look like Him.”
• “What can we do in TeachBeyond and organizations like TeachBeyond, to help facilitate that in our members and in the work that we do around the world? If we’re saying that TeachBeyonders need to be like Jesus to be effective models, then we as an organization, as a community, need to come around each other and say, ‘How can we do that well together?’”
• “Right at the core of our understanding of effectiveness is that our people have to live out the mission.”
• “Our mission is transformation. We’re desiring to see that happen elsewhere, but that has to be inside us.”
• “If we’re being transformed and transformational, we’re loving God and our love for God spills out into this awesome way of seeing the world God’s way.”
• Psalm 24:1
• Romans 9:2 
• “A love for God and love for people is ingrained in someone’s heart.  We can help foster that [...] but for people to be engaged in the mission, that must be ingrained in their heart.”
• “[We have] this shared calling to be followers of Jesus in this world of education.”
• Galatians 3:28
• “As we strive to be as diverse as the Church itself, we want to be where the Church is serving. Our rich understanding of what it means to love God and love people, that core value, we come together and have a deeper understanding of that because we think about it differently.”
• “By God’s grace, we can be both unified and diverse at the same time.”
• “What does the learner need to learn in this environment? That’s a question we want to ask in every environment, and it’s going to end up with wonderfully diverse answers, and I think that’s one thing that we want to celebrate within our TeachBeyond community.”
• “[A] precursor to being in TeachBeyond is that you care about excellent education. That cannot be a prescription of a curriculum or a prescription of what a classroom must be designed like.”
• “We want to not be behavioral experts, but experts of desiring God to do something in our hearts so that flows out to the world around us.”
• “As we are desiring to follow Jesus and be that beacon of light, saying let’s go together toward Jesus and become more like Him [...] we have a richer, deeper understanding of what it means to be missionally effective.”

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Moving to North Carolina
• Heather: Cooler mornings and sitting on the balcony
• David: Completing the dissertation and a swim/run competition

Hear an overview of what changed our lives last year in the Season 1 Finale, Episode 35.

Click here to learn more about the upcoming educational conference.

We’d love to hear from you! [email protected].

Podcast Website: https://teachbeyond.org/podcast 

Learn about TeachBeyond: https://teachbeyond.org/ 

Our Summer Episodes:

• Episode 36: Mentoring
• Episode 37: Creativity

Let us know what’s changing YOUR life!  Email us at [email protected].

Podcast Website: https://teachbeyond.org/podcast 

Learn about TeachBeyond: https://teachbeyond.org/ 

On this summer bonus episode, Keane is joined by his mom, Cyndi Fine, to talk about how we can cultivate creativity in our lives.

• “Brainstorming is just looking at new ways to do things.”
• “‘Creative’ has the same letters as the word ‘reactive.’ Instead of being reactive, how can we be creative?”
• “That’s at the heart of creativity and innovation - seeing things in a new way, connecting the dots that didn’t used to be connected.”
• “Neuroplasticity is how your brain can grow new connections and have new wiring.”
• “The more you do new things, the easier it is for you to take on doing new things.”
• Questions to ask myself:
• • What’s keeping me from doing this? What’s in my way?
  • What am I telling myself [about this]?
  • What am I saying no to? What do I want to say yes to?
  • What do I love to do that comes easily for me?
• “The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” Pablo Picasso
• “If we are always comfortable, then we aren’t growing, but if we can have a comfortable discomfort, then we can have a space that we can grow in.”

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Two shows called “Grizzly and the Lemmings” and “Bluey”
• Cyndi: Going for bike rides

We'd love it if you would subscribe, rate, review, and share this show! To learn more about TeachBeyond, visit teachbeyond.org. And as always, you can reach us at [email protected].

On this summer bonus episode, Heather is joined by her mom, Barb Brown, to talk about mentoring.

• “[Mentoring is a relationship between] two people where one is ahead of the other a little bit in their life journey, age and stage of life, and the other has things they can learn as they continue to journey together.”
• “Neither of you has reached the end of the journey. You’re both continuing on the journey, and you’re going to do it together, which is, in this context of spiritual mentoring, pursuing Christ and knowing Him better.”
• “As mentor and mentee, both have things to learn as they grow in this relationship.”
• “Expectations are really important to identify so that there aren’t misunderstandings.”
• “Jesus mentored a group of ragtag men who were future leaders of the Church, so that is a wonderful example. He took them on a journey; they learned by being with Him.”
• “The Body of Christ is built on relationships like [the ones] we’re talking about, and I think it’s important in our modern-day churches to be looking for that and to be intentional about pursuing them so that we can build up not only one another, but the Church, and be built up in Christ.”
• “We have a phrase ‘have a mentor, be a mentor,’ so it’s not necessarily one or the other. Go ahead and invite someone to pour into your life, and then pour out, be available.”
• “Transformation [...] happens in our lives by the work of the Holy Spirit when you’re in an intentional relationship with somebody who’s walking the same direction as you, pursuing Christ.”
• “There’s a need for humility in these relationships because we are not everything this person needs. We need to recognize that we don’t have all the answers, so a mentee should not expect a mentor to solve all her problems. We should expect that that person would take us to Jesus.”
• “Each relationship is unique because the two individuals are unique.”

What’s changing our lives:

• Heather: Hosting TeachBeyond Orientation last month
• Barb: Anticipating a grandson!

We'd love it if you would subscribe, rate, review, and share this show! To learn more about TeachBeyond, visit teachbeyond.org. And as always, you can reach us at [email protected]. See you next Friday!

Graphic designer Erin Hiatt shares how the Transformed and Transformational cover image came to be and turns the table to ask co-hosts Keane and Heather about their experiences with Season 1 of the podcast.

• “Darker colors allude to permanence or a legacy, and then partnering that with the bold, bright burnt sienna sienna shows [...] that there is also modern, forward-thinking with the burnt sienna.”
• “Transformed and transformational is not about just us, it’s really what God is doing in transforming and allowing us to be transformational in the different things we are able to do all around the world.”
• Erin’s favorite episode: The Advent Project
• Quote from Episode 4: "It's a thousand yes-no decisions that enable transformation to happen. It's also a process of disciplining myself to choose to listen - choosing to listen to who God is and who He longs for me to be and become versus being king of the universe." -Brian Delamont

What's changing our lives: 

• Keane: Seeing his parents for the first time in over a year
• Heather: Article about transitioning to a new normal
• Erin: Springtime in the United States

Take a quick survey about Season 1!

We'd love it if you would subscribe, rate, review, and share this show! To learn more about TeachBeyond, visit teachbeyond.org. And as always, you can reach us at [email protected]. See you in September!

Trust is central to how our world functions, how we form relationships, and how we connect with God. Brian Delamont returns to the podcast for the final time in Season 1 to talk about building and rebuilding trust with God’s love at the foundation.

• “We live in this world designed by God, so God’s character attribute of trust infuses everything. That’s why there’s so much constancy in our world, which we absolutely rely on.”
• “In the context of building a team, trust is the confidence among team members that their peers’ intentions are good and that there is no reason to be protective or careful around the group. In essence, teammates must get comfortable being vulnerable with one another.” -Patrick Lencioni
• “For us to have confidence that the other person’s intentions are good, there needs to be a belief in their behavior. There’s no reason to be protective or careful because there isn’t a threat. This is reinforced by humility and vulnerability. These play such a huge role in a trust relationship.”
• “Teams that lack trust waste inordinate amounts of time and energy in managing their behaviors and interactions within the group. They tend to dread team meetings and are reluctant to take risks in asking for or offering assistance to others.” -Patrick Lencioni
• “God understands these feelings of mistrust, and He has been putting a plan in place to show us that He’s trustworthy, and He’s been doing this for millennia. Even as other people break your trust.”
• Exodus 19:9
• John 20:27
• “God is not intimidated by any level of mistrust I may have. He’s proven Himself, and He actually invites us to trust Him. Trust is always built up by repetition.”
• Psalm 145:13
• “We want to receive and give trust in a sense that there’s a predictability to it; there’s a reliability to it, just like there is with God.  It requires shared experiences over time, multiple instances of follow-through, it requires credibility and an in-depth understanding of the person or place that you’re putting that trust in.”
• “We can either practice worry, or we can practice trust.” -Tim Timmons
• “Trust is the currency of connection.”
• “Trust is the fruit of love - the love of God for us and the love God gives us so that we can love others, even if they’ve broken our trust.”
• 1 Corinthians 13
• “Look at what He’s done in Jesus to rebuild the bridge of trust. He came to seek and save that which was lost, and I’m one of those people.”
• Psalm 91:2

May Reflection:  Where do I have an opportunity to trust more today?  

What's changing our lives: 

• Keane: Rainer Maria Rilke
• Heather: Turning a corner in a work project
• Brian: Seeing tulips bloom

Weekly Spotlight:  Asunción Christian Academy 

Take a quick survey about Season 1!

We'd love it if you would subscribe, rate, review, and share this show! To learn more about TeachBeyond, visit teachbeyond.org. And as always, you can reach us at [email protected]. See you next Friday!