In this special WikiGod bonus episode, David Fitch wikiis God with us about his new book, Faithful Presence: Seven Disciplines That Shape the Church for Mission.

David talks about how the world is longing for presence and how God wants to be present by the church. But that means Jesus-people need a practice to make space for the presence of God as we become present to others. There are seven disciplines to make this a possibility - disciplines that can be cultivated in all the circles where we find ourselves.

David talks about:

• Eucharist happening where we don't even know it yet,
• tending to the presence of Christ,
• the seven disciplines,
• the disciplines as "social sacraments,"
• the close, porous, and half-circles of our lives,
• mutual submission as the core of the Christian walk,
• the non-hierarchical nature of the church,
• how presence is different from faithful presence.

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Explore BICCanada - the denomination that accredits Mark.

In this, the last weekly episode after 100 consecutive weeks over 2 years, Mark reviews the journey of the WikiGod Project, and walks through his key "personal waypoints" that led from "there" to "here." You'll hear about:

• Exponential 2015 and Michael Frost's “live a questionable life'”
• Hugh Halter and "my house as a missional outpost;”
• Karen Wilk and “don’t invite them to church;”
• John Fuder and “your neighbourhood person of peace;”
• Bivo Conference in Denver and “the power of working and living among;”
• The Abundant Community and “the 3 marks of competent community;”
• The Art of Neighbouring's block map;
• World Vision's workshop and “community sites of significance;”
• Tamarack Institute and “knowing neighbours’ names;”
• The One Thing “Mark needs to focus on…;”
• Rick Tobias and “pastoring the people;"
• Howard Lawrence and The Abundant Community Initiative in Edmonton.

Reflecting on all the ideas, stops, and starts of the last many years, Mark can only conclude that God seems to lead some of us to a defined area so that God can then lead us to an undiscovered area - an area we never knew existed. But to get us "there," God has to bring us "here" first.

And now, after all that, the culmination of the WikiGod Project is Mark about to launch out full-time into a new venture to help people discover abundant lives by intentionally building up the social fabric of our neighbourhoods.

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Explore BICCanada - the denomination that accredits Mark and supports this project.

This week, we wiki God with Brett McBride, Lead Pastor of The Peoples Church and former Executive Director of Urban Promise Toronto.

Brett talks to Mark about:

• how the voice of a friend rocked him into making his faith his own,
• how patient, understanding parents gave him a safe place to fall,
• how urban ministry made him a learner/listener rather than a dispenser of "aid,"
• the differences between parachurch and local church and how they complement one another,
• what the institutional church has to offer,
• how large churches can and must resist the temptation to navel-gaze or huddle up, but rather incarnate where people and God are in the neighbourhood.

"People live their lives in the neighbourhood. And we're emphasizing to each of us as members of this community, 'You don't need to leave your home, your street, and drive here so you can do ministry. Your ministry is where [God] has planted you to live, work, play, and enjoy life. We want to equip and learn together what it means to incarnate and serve where we are.'"

Follow Up This Week's Guest

Explore The Peoples Church: thepeopleschurch.ca/

Stay Connected

Join the mailing list at wikigodpod.com/mailinglist to get the new weekly Monday WikiGod digest and a transcript of the guest quotes for every interview episode!

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Leave a voice message on the Speakpipe at wikigodpod.com/.

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Explore BICCanada - the denomination that accredits Mark and supports this project.

Stop me if you've heard this:

• "We pray to ask God to intervene."
• "God knows everything, so what's the point of praying?"
• "Praying doesn't change God, it changes us."

Is there another way to think about prayer?

Inspired by last week's Anne Woolger's account of prayer in the creation of Matthew House, this week Mark talks about God as the one "in whom we live and move and have our being" (Paul quoting the philosopher Epimenides), how God is not a removed "genie" up in the dome above us but rather thicker than the molecular realm all around us, and how prayer closes a loop in our partnership with a God who needs collaboration to ameliorate healing and shalom in the world.

An announcement to wrap up the episode: after 2 years, September 5 will be the last weekly WikiGod episode. WikiGod Podcast will move to a "Seasons" schedule so Mark can start to pursue a new full-time neighbourhood initiative and attempt to find funding for the venture ahead.

A 10-interview-episode WikiGod Season 3 will begin in April of 2017. For more details of the journey past and future, tune into the final weekly Episode 85b) in two weeks.

Stay Connected

Join the mailing list to get the new weekly Monday WikiGod digest and a transcript of the guest quotes for every interview episode!

"Like" WikiGod to get updates on Facebook.

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Leave a voice message on the Speakpipe.

Never miss an episode! "Subscribe" or "Listen Later" on iTunes, Stitcher, PocketCasts, Overcast,and TuneIn.

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Explore BICCanada - the denomination that accredits Mark and supports this project.

Next: Episode 85) Brett McBride, Lead Pastor of The Peoples Church, former Executive Director of Urban Promise

This week, Mark reflects on a theological throwdown that happened on his Facebook wall this past week and wonders about how everything we say of God can be met with opposition from very smart and spiritual friends. Then he references an article by Dr. Daniel Kirk (Use Your Imagination...) to discuss how

• we all tend to insist on different and even conflicting characteristics about God;
• the attributes of God that I emphasize say more about me than about God;
• when the church becomes more about doing than talking, we will experience greater things.

Stay Connected

Join the mailing list to get the new weekly Monday WikiGod digest and a transcript of the guest quotes for every interview episode!

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Leave a voice message on the Speakpipe.

Never miss an episode! "Subscribe" or "Listen Later" on iTunes, Stitcher, PocketCasts, Overcast,and TuneIn.

Reach Out

Leave a comment, voice message, or direct email via the WikiGod website.

Explore BICCanada - the denomination that accredits Mark and supports this project.

Next: Episode 84) Anne Woolger, Founding Director of Matthew House Toronto

This week, Mark wikiis God with Michael W. Smith, prolific musical artist and winner of three Grammy Awards, an AMA Award, and 45 Dove Awards. He also has recorded 31 No. 1 hit songs, fourteen gold albums, and five platinum albums.

Michael phones in from Tennessee and talks to Mark about:

• his parents’ and his church’s positive and lasting influence,
• his many conversion experiences,
• how he discovered his passion for writing music,
• the challenges of the music industry and to being a musical celebrity,
• what it was like to found and pastor a church, and
• what Michael feels is his contribution to the Kingdom of God.

For a free resource - a transcript of the each upcoming guest-episode's quotes - head over to www.wikigodpod.com/mailinglist!

Follow Up This Week's Guest

Check out what Michael is up to: www.michaelwsmith.com

Stay Connected

Join the mailing list at wikigodpod.com/mailinglist to get the new weekly Monday WikiGod digest and a transcript of the guest quotes for every interview episode!

"Like" WikiGod to get updates on Facebook.

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Leave a voice message on the Speakpipe at wikigodpod.com/.

Never miss an episode! "Subscribe" or "Listen Later" on iTunes, Stitcher, PocketCasts, Overcast,and TuneIn.

Reach Out

Leave a comment, voice message, or direct email via theWikiGod website.

Explore BICCanada - the denomination that accredits Mark and supports this project.

This week, Mark takes on the subjectivity of the previous B-side's claim that "I can only believe in a God I like," and challenges us to think about the God we believe in through the lens of data, experience, and interpretation.

You'll hear about:

• why it's important to be religious and not just spiritual,
• how each of us is an event contingent on previous events,
• that "the data can only be the data of experience, and there is no experience that does not interpret its data" (- John Cobb),
• how sacred texts are "evidence/data" through which we can explore new experiences,
• how healthy submission only happens with I'm convinced that my best interests are at heart,
• an exercise: because of the data I experience in _______, I believe in a God who _________. 
   

Stay Connected

Join the mailing list to get the new weekly Monday WikiGod digest and a transcript of the guest quotes for every interview episode!

"Like" WikiGod to get updates on Facebook.

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Leave a voice message on the Speakpipe.

Never miss an episode! "Subscribe" or "Listen Later" on iTunes, Stitcher, PocketCasts, Overcast,and TuneIn.

Reach Out

Leave a comment, voice message, or direct email via the WikiGod website.

Explore BICCanada - the denomination that accredits Mark and supports this project.

Next: Episode 83) Michael W. Smith, musical artist

This week, Mark wikiis God with Dion Oxford, longtime Toronto anti-poverty advocate and founder of The Salvation Army Gateway downtown men's shelter and Causeway.

Dion talks to Mark about:

• how a young man's life changed when he became friends with "those people,"
• being frustrated with the church while deeply loving it;
• the important difference between judging and criticizing;
• intentional decisions around eliminating feelings of "us and them;"
• how ministry should not and cannot be one-sided;
• how the world can only make sense in a God-paradigm;
• how our lives are a mingling of wounding and blessing.

For a free resource - a transcript of the each upcoming guest-episode's quotes - head over to www.wikigodpod.com/mailinglist!

Follow Up This Week's Guest

Read Dion's blog: dionoxford.com/

Get involved at The Salvation Army Gateway: thegateway.ca/

Get involved with Causeway: thecauseway.ca/

Stay Connected

Join the mailing list at wikigodpod.com/mailinglist to get the new weekly Monday WikiGod digest and a transcript of the guest quotes for every interview episode!

"Like" WikiGod to get updates on Facebook.

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Leave a voice message on the Speakpipe at wikigodpod.com/.

Never miss an episode! "Subscribe" or "Listen Later" on iTunes, Stitcher, PocketCasts, Overcast,and TuneIn.

Reach Out

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Explore BICCanada - the denomination that accredits Mark and supports this project.

This week, Mark makes the observation: a person who believes in God has to be mostly-to-completely satisfied with the God he or she believes in. Put another way: a person will generally not worship and/or be devoted to an unlikeable God. 

Well, if I only believe in a God I like, then that means:

• I can dialogue with other people's views of the God they like,
• I need to own my own preferences about my God,
• I can acknowledge the subjectivity of my religion/tradition and yours, too,
• I should examine what I like about God, what I don't like, and examine what I'm doing about it.

Stay Connected

Join the mailing list to get the new weekly Monday WikiGod digest and a transcript of the guest quotes for every interview episode!

"Like" WikiGod to get updates on Facebook.

Follow WikiGod on Twitter.

Leave a voice message on the Speakpipe.

Never miss an episode! "Subscribe" or "Listen Later" on iTunes, Stitcher, PocketCasts, Overcast,and TuneIn.

Reach Out

Leave a comment, voice message, or direct email via the WikiGod website.

Explore BICCanada - the denomination that accredits Mark and supports this project.

Next: Episode 82) Dion Oxford, founder of The Salvation Army Gateway and The Causeway

This week, Mark sits down for WikiGod's first ever over-the-phone, non-Torontonian interview. Dr. Jerry L. Martin is the author of God: An Autobiography, as told to a philosopher.

Jerry talks to Mark about:

• what it was like to be interrupted by a divine voice for over a year;
• how Jerry learned to discern and obey;
• how God is a self-developing and perfecting God;
• how God became a Person only when God encountered persons;
• how the world religions in their essential teachings reveal different aspects of God in the way that others cannot;
• where and how we stray when we give our cultural mores a divine halo with our religious dogma;
• what it is to be in harmony with God and have purpose in the world.  

For a free resource - a transcript of the each upcoming guest-episode's quotes - head over to www.wikigodpod.com/mailinglist!

Follow Up This Week's Guest

Explore Jerry's website: http://godanautobiography.com/

Drop in on the Theology Without Walls forum: http://tww.freeforums.net/

Stay Connected

Join the mailing list at wikigodpod.com/mailinglist to get the new weekly Monday WikiGod digest and a transcript of the guest quotes for every interview episode!

"Like" WikiGod to get updates on Facebook.

Follow WikiGod on Twitter.

Leave a voice message on the Speakpipe at wikigodpod.com/.

Never miss an episode! "Subscribe" or "Listen Later" on iTunes, Stitcher, PocketCasts, Overcast,and TuneIn.

Reach Out

Leave a comment, voice message, or direct email via theWikiGod website.

Explore BICCanada - the denomination that accredits Mark and supports this project.