Transformed & Transformational

Are you setting New Year’s Resolutions or goals for 2021? Join us for this conversation with Mark Giebink, TeachBeyond’s Director of Member Care, helping us shift our focus from striving for success to hope-filled surrender. 

  

• Reimagining the Examen App
• “Silence and Solitude, things that we tend to ignore in our busy lives, help us to make space for that reflection to give us time to look back, but then also to look forward, to really have a conversation with God about what we want life to look like.”
• “If COVID has given us a gift, I think it’s been to slow us down a little bit. It’s exposed our interiors.  As our outside world is iffy and unstable, it has exposed our hearts.”
• “We can rearrange the furniture in our lives, but the real change happens inside us, in our hearts and in our minds.”
• “Three key ingredients to transformation are honesty, God’s presence, and a loving environment.”
• “God lives and works and meets us in reality. He doesn’t meet us in what we wish were the case or our fantasyland; He meets us in real life. That’s the beauty of the incarnation.”
• Romans 15:13
• “Hope is a huge ingredient for change. If we don’t have hope, we’re not going to do it.”
• “Love is so much greater a motivation to change than fear.”
• “Celebrating every success is important, breaking that big overarching goal into small steps.”
• “Hold resolutions with open hands and make them an ongoing conversation with God so that it’s not a one-time conversation.”
• “There are two circles in life: things we can control and things we can’t. We have to make sure our resolutions are related to things we can control.”
• “To know that we are known and loved by God, that’s a great motivator for transformation.”

 

What's changing our lives: 

• Keane: Rocket book
• Heather: Snuggly Sweater candle
• Mark: Chickens and grandkids

 

Weekly Spotlight: Dakar Academy

  

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

Merry Christmas! Today and every day, we celebrate that “the Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood” (John 1:14 The Message). Brian Delamont joins us again to talk about the life-changing Good News of Christmas.

• “Jesus’s arrival is the announcement of God’s offer of transformation for you and for me.  That’s why it’s announced as Good News to all humanity by angels.”
• ”This is the great thing about God’s plan - it’s always been to be with us.”
• John 1:14
• “Being ‘with’ is what Advent draws out in our hearts. We are longing and waiting for what will come, and this is what Christmas can bring us if we actually engage with why it even exists.”
• G.T. and the Halo Express
• “He’s primarily coming to be with us, and being with Him literally changes everything.”
• “As His children, He gives His glory to us in order to move into new neighborhoods in His name.”
• “It’s more than Jesus coming as a baby, but Jesus coming to be with us and those who don’t yet know Him. When Jesus moves into the neighborhood, He comes to be.”
• “When we choose to come to Him, to come to the One who created all of this, who formed me just because He loved me and wants me to be with Him, in that moment I come and I bow to the child in a manger. He gives me this invitation to ‘be’ because He is. He is totally sufficient, and He places that sufficiency on me as His child, whom He invites to come and be with Him, to be all that He intends for me to be and become. This is the transformation that Christmas calls me to.”
• “You can show love and care for the people around you that goes way beyond just being nice, checking the box on your to-do list.  It’s your way of being that’s transformative.”
• “Jesus gives us the opportunity to be with Him, to be in this peaceful place even in the midst of whatever may be going on in our lives that’s not peaceful right now.  God has taken this amazing action to come and be with us, and because of that, we get this opportunity to then take Him with us, take the presence of Christ with us to be with others.”

What's changing our lives: 

• Keane: Sending postcards to friends
• Heather: This podcast! 
• Brian: Eggnog in coffee

December Reflection:  What’s on your “to be” list?  What would you like to be more of this year?

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

We all find ourselves in seasons of waiting, perhaps even right now. We might not want to wait, but we can be confident that God is in the waiting. Jennifer Rymer walks us through her story of trusting God’s timing and reminds us of the truths we can hold onto in the seasons of waiting.

 

• “As I look at these periods of waiting, and even right now as we are in the lockdown, I can look back and say that I am right where God wants me. That brings reassurance. It’s not a mistake that I am here during this time. He does have a purpose for me being here.”
• “God is still moving and providing opportunities, even though they’re not what I thought that they would be.”
• “God was saying, ‘Follow Me. If this is where I’m telling you to go, then your job is to be obedient, and I will provide for you.’ It is moments like that where I feel like God has, in His kindness, spoken to me in ways that are meaningful and intimate to me that I just know that it’s Him. That looks so different from person to person, and even different moments in my life.”
• “God is faithful to show us and tell us where He wants us to be. Sometimes it’s literally one step. Maybe He shuts the door, maybe it’s another step in another direction.”
• “That obedience of that one step, even if you have no idea where that will lead or what it will look like, just taking the next step is what you have to do.”
• “It’s remembering those times, being in continual prayer, reading the Word, and surrounding myself with people I can be really honest with that can speak truth into my life.  I think it’s this continual walk of staying close to the Lord and having that reassurance. When I do hear lies in my head, I can point them out as lies.”
• “In the waiting, we can experience God in ways that we may not be able to otherwise.”
• “God doesn’t always call us to easy things. But that is a time of growing and refining. I have grown, but my love for Him has also grown.”
• “Even if it is hard or it’s not what we expect, God is with us through that.”
• “As I am waiting, [it’s] being in the moment and living where God has placed me in that moment - loving the people that He has put in front of me for that moment, not wishing for the future or living in the future.”
• “[I’m] continuing to rely on God and live with this picture of open hands. This is where You have me, and this is where I will be until You tell me that it’s time for the next thing.”

 

What's changing our lives: 

• Keane: AnyList app
• Heather: The Bible Recap 
• Jennifer: The Chosen TV Show 

 

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

As we journey through the Advent season, Helen Spencer introduces us to Godly Play and invites us to approach the mystery of the incarnation with childlike faith.

• “Advent is a time to get ready. If you’re getting ready to go on holiday, you do certain things, like packing your suitcase… Every day life goes on as well, but you’ve got in the back of your mind that you’re going on holiday.”
• “We give [children] the time, the space, and the quietness to come close to God.”
• “Because it’s very experiential, there’s no direct teaching point, so that every child is coming and seeing the story for themselves. It’s a little alarming when you’re used to having a particular teaching point and that you want right answers.”
• “Our relationship with God is actually a relationship. We can’t explain a relationship; we may be able to describe it. For hundreds of years, sadly, adults have imagined that children couldn’t or don’t have a relationship with God because they don’t have the words.”
• “Children respond to the space that Godly play allows them, whereas adults often see it superficially and see it as a cute way to tell Bible stories but miss the point. Children never do.”

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Getting a TV
• Heather: New Christmas music, including Ben Rector and Rend Collective
• Helen: Staying connected with friends in Minsk & the Facebook “care” emoji

We’d love it if you would subscribe, rate, review, and share this show! And as always, you can reach us at [email protected]. See you next Friday!

Professor Luke Aleckson introduces us to Advent, a season of waiting and anticipation, and invites us to experience this season through the lens of art. Join us in journeying through the Advent Project here! 

• “It’s a very intentional, focused time to anticipate. It’s anticipating Christmas and Christ coming as a child into the world, but it’s also used as a time to talk about the second coming, the anticipation of Christ in both senses.” 
• “That sense of anticipation and waiting is something that can either be frustrating or anxiety-inducing, or it could be something that is cultivated as a spiritual attitude in and of itself.” 
• “The lighting of candles on the [Advent] wreath was a way to have something tangible to point to every day, going through physically and tracing out this time. When that time becomes intentional, then our focus can become intentional.” 
• “You can experience and appreciate it without fully understanding the entirety of a piece. That’s maybe the hardest thing for people to cope with when dealing with art and music, knowing the limits of your own understanding but being okay with that. That’s something that scares people away sometimes.” 
• “I would encourage everyone to be open. Different things will hit different people different ways.” 
• “We have a hundred different Christmas songs that we sing, and that isn’t a necessity as much as it is all these different ways to experience the same story from a different vantage point with a different tone. That’s really what we are trying to do with the Advent Project.” 
• “This year is so different than past years in that virtually all of us are going to be feeling isolated or alienated from the body of worshippers that we would normally be with. Even if we are in person, maybe it’s strained and strange. This isn’t a substitute for embodiment or the richness of lived community, but it is a different avenue for exploring different facets of human experience.” 

"Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus" recorded by Bethany Martell, TeachBeyond Associate Director of Latin America 

What's changing our lives: 

• Keane: Changing Christmas plans 
• Heather: Q Ideas Conference 
• Luke: Mourning as a discipline and moving forward in anticipation 

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

Surprise, it’s a bonus episode! For the next month, we are going to celebrate the season of Advent together. Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is the beginning of the liturgical church calendar and a season marked by waiting, longing, and preparing for the coming of Christ. The word “advent” actually means “coming,” so in this season we celebrate the first coming of Christ and also anticipate the return of Christ someday.

We welcome you on this journey with us! Join us by subscribing to the Advent Project’s daily devotions that begin today.

"Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus" recorded by Bethany Martell, TeachBeyond Associate Director of Latin America

Happy Thanksgiving to our American listeners!  Our conversation with Brian Delamont this month is centered around a gratitude that is anchored in the goodness of God, even in the midst of challenging circumstances.  

• Psalm 100:4
• "Gratitude inherently shifts my focus from me and my resources toward God and His greater story."
• "Sometimes thanksgiving gets pretty surface-level for us - but I actually get to know the source of all these great things, of all resources, and He wants me to know Him in this transformative relationship."
• "Whenever we start doing comparisons, we immediately become dissatisfied because we will always lose the comparison challenge.  When I come to God, that's the point where I realize there is no resource lacking."
• "We get to live in the Father's presence, and He doesn't withhold any resource from us."
• "Goodness is an attribute of God, so it's just wrapped up in who He is, it's His nature, His character."
• "There are days when thankfulness is a hard commodity to come by, and yet, in the midst of this, we can see the echoes and foreshadowing of what is to come: that day when God makes everything new."
• Psalm 77:7-12
• "When I'm in the midst of challenging times, one of the best ways that the Spirit can reorient my heart is to remind me that God is good.  My circumstances may be anything but good, but God is good, and He has good intentions to transform my life."
• "'Everything happens for a reason.'  It'll all be okay.  Actually, it might not be.  In the scope of eternity and in God's sovereignty, yes, because He is working out His plans and purposes, but there isn't always a 'reason' that something bad happens...  I think there's gratitude to be expressed even those situations."
• Romans 12:15
• Thank you to our generous ministry partners!

What's changing our lives:

• Keane: Making CO2 for Soda Stream
• Heather: Blue light glasses
• Brian: Canoeing the Mountains by Tod Bolsinger

Weekly Spotlight: Cap-Haitien Christian School   November Reflection: What does my thankfulness tell me about God?  What does He want to say to me in this place of gratitude?   We'd love it if you would subscribe, rate, review, and share this show!  And as always, you can reach us at [email protected]. See you next Friday!

It's amazing how God weaves together the tapestry of our lives, isn't it?  Megan traces the threads of how God led her from degrees in studio art and media communication to a year of teaching art in Spain, several months of Facebook Live art lessons during quarantine, and now as a graphic designer in the UK.  

• "Art [isn't] a pagan thing.  Actually, art started with God at the beginning."
• "The moment He called me to Spain, I felt a love for the students I was going to get to teach."
• Megan's Art Lessons
• "Take a moment after a conversation that went really well, and think about what you got passionate about in that conversation."
• "The Body of Christ is made up of a lot of different people, and so all those skills are needed."
• "Being in the place where God asks you to be is better than trying to make yourself fit in a place that you feel you should be."
• Megan Kay on Spotify

What's changing our lives:

• Keane: George Floyd Square in Minnesota
• Heather: Fall Harvest Salad from Half Baked Harvest
• Megan: Amazon UK

Weekly Spotlight:

• Black Forest Academy
• BFA Life Podcast

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

How can we focus on transformation while also managing the class well?  And how does Deuteronomy relate to that?  Joe Neff walks us through how to foster transformation that begins with the heart.

• "I think the big thing is to build relationship, build some trust, listen, not come in and act like [you] know everything."
• "The key is you don't start with the outside. Obviously, you have to control behavior to have the class work, but you're always thinking about the heart."
• "It's so much about who the teachers are first. They really need to have God working in their hearts, and then their interaction with students spills over. Students can see God alive in them and are drawn to it."
• Jewish Mezuzah
• Deuteronomy 6
• "When the student comes in their classroom, they should never have a doubt that that teacher loves God."
• "Never forget that you're after the heart."
• "It's fine to be open with kids. Instead of just saying, 'Hey, follow the rule,' it's like, 'here's why we have them.' They really appreciate that.  And then you can say, 'Ultimately this isn't important, it's your heart.'"
• "God talks again and again about love and heart, even though there are commandments. He's after the heart."
• 1 Samuel 16:7

Check out this article from today's guest:  "Transformation from the Inside Out"   What's changing our lives:

• Keane: McDonald's buffalo sauce
• Heather: Hosting an outdoor open house
• Joe: Cheez-Its and a new pace of life during lockdown

Weekly Spotlight: HOPE International School   Want to learn more about TeachBeyond?  Join us for a virtual banquet this week!   We'd love it if you would subscribe, rate, review, and share this show!  And as always, you can reach us at [email protected]. See you next Friday!

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Faten AlFaraj joins us to share about the making of documentaries and her new feature-length film Life Jacket, telling the stories of refugees on the island of Lesvos, Greece.  Learn how Faten's motto - making a difference through media - guides her work and her life.  

• "Documentaries are more authentic.  They tell the story the way it is without polishing it."
• "Documentaries are there to make a change, to encourage people to see the truth, to see it the way it is, and make a change around that certain issue.  I love that authenticity."
• "Sometimes it's not a huge statement, but in a small way where you highlight the truth, highlight what's wrong, bring a different perspective to things... Just to have this conversation is part of making a difference."
• Five steps of making a documentary: development, pre-production, production, post-production, distribution
• "It gets more personal when they start sharing their story, when they start getting vulnerable in front of you and entrusting you with their story.  That's when you feel that you need to cherish that sensitive information and really handle it with care."
• Life Jacket is a new feature-length film about refugees on the island of Lesvos, Greece.
• "We need to hear their side of their story. I felt like it's about time to shed a light on this issue and just listen to them."

What's changing our lives:

• Keane: Life Jacket Film
• Heather: Small group study of Acts
• Faten: Discerning what's next

Weekly Spotlight: Beyond Borders, Greece   Find out more about Life Jacket film screenings here.   We'd love it if you would subscribe, rate, review, and share this show!  And as always, you can reach us at [email protected]. See you next Friday!