The God Journey - 2014
The God Journey is designed to facilitate an ever-expanding conversation with those who are thinking outside the box of organized religion. Our primary desire is to encourage people on their spiritual journey by sharing our own and by providing insightful commentary on what it means to grow in a relationship with God. We’ll discuss the realities of other people’s journeys, cultural trends, current events, and the Scriptures as well as fielding questions related to the challenging issues of life. You can join the conversation through calling our question or comment line at (905) 539-6980 or Skype us at TheGodJourney, posting comments on the blog, participating in our Forum, or by emailing us directly. The God Journey began in 2005 as a way for Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings (See Brad’s bio below) to share their conversations about finding life outside the box of organized religion. Here were two brothers on a journey to discover the fullness of God’s life and sharing those journeys w
Episodes
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Questions for Wayne (#467)
In his year-end podcast Wayne clears out his desk at the end of the year and with it a number of questions that people have wanted him to address on the podcast. Since none of them were enough to fill a podcast he combines a potpourri of them here to at least share how he and Sara have worked...
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Living Gleefully in the Hallway (#466)
Moments of transition are possible where we look beyond our circumstances and get a glimpse of a greater reality and freedom that lies at the heart of the Father’s love for us. Will we risk what we have to embrace something new? Wayne reflects on last week’s podcast on experiencing the new…
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Seeing Into the New Creation (#465)
Looking beyond the religious systems of this world to a greater reality isn’t always easy. Wayne works through some recent correspondence first from a woman who argues that our congregational systems are the only valid expression of Jesus’ church in the world and deeply misunderstands the freedom...
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When You No Longer Fit (#464)
What do you do when you come to see that the beautiful bride of Christ cannot be crammed into human systems without causing collateral damage? Wayne follows up last week’s podcast as he interacts with listener emails and blog postings to discuss the challenges many face when they are no longer…
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Nones, Dones And a Wider Conversation (#463)
Where have all the people gone? Pew Research announced a couple of years ago about the rise of the “Nones”, those who no longer claim any religious affiliation. Now, there’s a growing conversation about the rise of the “Dones”, those who are leaving traditional Sunday morning congregations to…
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The Antidote to Control (#462)
Current research shows how easily we all create illusions whenever it serves our own self-interest. How then can we know we are processing life around us objectively and accurately? Ultimately we can’t. Wayne and Brad take on this dilemma using some listener emails and some research by Dan…
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Can a System Ever Love? (#461)
Can any system humans design to justice to the transcendent beauty of Jesus’ church as she takes shape in the world? As more an more people are coming to the conclusion that our systems don’t function well, especially when people need to know the reality of love, rather than the rigidity of a...
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Hope Beyond Death (#460)
What do people think about when death becomes imminent? The experiences of an Emergency Medical Technician in New York offers some startling observations. In the backdrop of Wayne’s mother passing away a few months ago and his recent contacts with others dealing with death in a variety of ways…
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At What Cost? (#459)
While God makes himself known even through some of the silliest things we humans attempt, does his graciousness justify our lack of concern for the collateral damage our efforts may cause? After Wayne’s three-part conversation with Brad, he opens up the conversation by sorting through his email…
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When Creations Clash! (#458)
So what do we do when you’re wanting to embrace the new creation, but are bombarded by people whose passion for cash, credit, and control only seek to draw you back into the old? Wayne and Brad continue their discussion about one of the themes in Wayne’s newest book, Finding Church, and how we…
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Angel Feathers Redux (#456)
Brad wants to weigh on on Wayne’s earlier comments about “Treasure Hunts, Angel Feathers, and Sozos”. So the first part of this podcast refocuses on the supernatural and how we distinguish between real moments of God’s moving and contrived ones perpetuated by group dynamics and the power of...
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A Finding Church Conversation (#456)
Brad comes over to explore Wayne’s new release, FINDING CHURCH, as he probes Wayne about the process and what most impacted him in writing this book. He also has some specific questions that rose in his mind while working through it. They talk about the critical choice of choosing the new…
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Abusive Christianity (#455)
After a bit of follow up from last week’s podcast, Wayne reads part of an article written by a woman who grew up and mothered seven children in the Quiverfull Movement, and discovered that Christianity is a system of abuse that she and her children suffered under, unwittingly. Only when she was...
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Treasure Hunts, Angel Feathers, and Sozos (#454)
Wayne plows through his recent email, getting comments on past podcast themes and then covers at length one asking about the current so-called revival movements that draw people fascinated by the hope of signs and wonders. How much of it is genuine, and how much of it is a distraction to the...
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The Trajectory of Learning Love
What would Jesus’ church looked like if it was really built on love derived from him and shared with each other. Dan Mayhew of Portland, OR, joins Wayne on this podcast about his life-long adventure of seeking the church whose builder and architect is Jesus. How does love shape us to live...
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How Shall We Then Pray? (#452)
Everywhere you look our world is in crisis–the atrocities of ISIS, ongoing conflict and hatred in the Middle East, the battle for Ukraine, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the racial angst in America, harsh weather conditions, erupting volcanos and devastating earthquakes. If God gave you the...
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Engaging God (#451)
There’s a world of difference between trusting that God loves you because Scripture says so, and trusting the one of whom Scripture speaks. One is an intellectual exercise, the other can only result from a growing engagement with him as a personality in the universe. Brad joins this week’s…
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The Community of a New Creation (#450)
What if the church Jesus is building looks more like wildflowers strewn across an alpine meadow than a walled garden with manicured hedges? Wayne’s back for a new podcast and after a look at the last month of his life, he reads Chapter Two of his recently-completed book, Finding Church. The…
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From the Archive: Where It Began
Wayne is still on hiatus this week, so let’s visit the archives again. This podcast aired over a year and a half ago and unbeknownst to Wayne at the time planted the seeds for the book he has just completed. Are those who no longer attend Sunday services part of a scattering movement that is...
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No New Podcast this Week
Wayne is out of town with his family as they deal with his mother’s passing, so there is no new podcast this week. But you can dip into the archives and chose your own, or listen to one of the classics: “It’s not Chocolate.” It’s one of their most talked about podcasts as they explore how you can...
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Finding Church Alive and Well (#449)
Wayne reads the new first chapter of the book he is just completing, Finding Church: What If There Really Is Something More? This is very different from the one he read last November that was going to be the starting chapter. When you are frustrated at the difference between the picture Scripture...
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Peeking Behind the Curtain (#448)
The look behind the curtain can be incredibly disorienting the first time around. Our assumptions that everyone engaged in our congregation is doing what they do with a pure heart and a passion for Jesus’ kingdom, doesn’t collapse easily and when it does people can feel exploited and abused. In…
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At the End of the Rope (#447)
In this kingdom getting to the end of our rope is not to be feared, but celebrated. At the end of all our efforts, doubts, and fears is a Loving Father and the freedom to see life through his eyes instead of our own. It doesn’t always take that, but often it does and God is gracious enough to…
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Spiritual Gravity (#446)
Brad is back as Wayne invites him into some of the God Journey’s recent interaction in blogs and emails about why God doesn’t make learning to live in his love easier than it is? Couldn’t he just overwhelm us with something that proves it so our heart can rest in him, and if he doesn’t what does...
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At the Fork In the Road (#445)
Brad is back in the house celebrating with Wayne the completion of his newest book, Finding Church: What If There Really Is Something More? They talk about the people they know who are standing at the crossroads of whether or not they can abandon their human efforts for God and get on a better...
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The Conversation of Life
There is a Conversation of Life going on around the world that allows the kingdom of God to grow in the human heart. As Wayne sorts through recent email he finds a consistent theme as people look for that communion in their own touch with God. As people grow in that reality internally then they…
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The Numbers Game
If you’re counting anything as a sign of your fruitfulness in God’s kingdom, you’re already a step away from God’s priorities. Fruitfulness isn’t measured by the size of your audience, income stream, or the number of book sales or website clicks. Once you think it is, you will distort his kingdom...
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On My Worst Day (#443)
How are you going to live when things don’t turn out the way you want? Wayne continues his conversation with John Lynch, author of ON MY WORST DAY and co-author of BO’S CAFE as he talks about the physical challenge John is facing and learning how to embrace God’s grace in difficult circumstances....
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Treasuring An Environment for Grace (#442)
Wayne first worked with John Lynch (pictured at left with his wife, Stacey) as an editor on BO’S CAFE and has been hoping ever since to cross paths somewhere. It finally happened last week in Phoenix and Wayne recorded some of their conversations as they shared their journeys, their passion to…
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When Love Doesn’t Win (#441)
What do you do when the person you’ve poured so much love on doesn’t love you back, doesn’t blossom or succeed, didn’t heal, or maybe even got more deeply into serious problems? Can forcing our love on someone who doesn’t want it become destructive to them? Wayne interacts with an email from…
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Altering the Trajectory of the World
What’s the best way for you to alter the trajectory of the world? Is it by starting or becoming part of a significant movement, or designing some media product that will dazzle the masses? Jesus didn’t seem to be preoccupied about either of those things. Instead he showed us a way to live that is...
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Equipping Without Subduing (#439)
I get asked a lot of questions about elders and the five-fold ministry gifts of Ephesians 4. We know how religion has captured these terms and used them for top-down managers that often abuse people wittingly or unwittingly by thinking they have the responsibility to command others in Jesus’…
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Delighting In Holiness (#438)
From his portable podcast studio in the woods of Maryland, Wayne talks about his weekend with a broad spectrum of believers who gathered to share their God Journeys, ask some questions, and make some new connections. Here are stories of bondage and courage, as people are learning how to respond…
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Awakening To A Better Journey (#437)
Following up last week’s podcast, Wayne continues the them of seeing our spiritual progress as a journey rather than an achievement. That allows us to be real about where we are in him and confront the circumstances before us with honesty and openness. Wherever we give up hope that Jesus wants to...
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It Is a Journey (#436)
When we live by achievement, expectations, or obligations instead of beloved children on a journey we are ripe for condemnation, despair, and inner turmoil. After an important update on the need in Kenya, Wayne takes a poem from a good friend of his, and the events from the last week of Jesus’…
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Catching Up With Brad (#435)
For seven years Wayne and Brad Cummings walked the God Journey together as they shared their journeys with a growing audience of people around the world. Since then the’ve been involved in different projects that has not allowed their lives to connect as frequently, but today Brad is back! He…
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Beyond The Congregation
One of the hardest moments for people on this journey is when they begin to realize that they no longer fit in the congregation that has been home to them for sometime. Most can’t even put their finger on why they feel so restless, but they no longer seem to fit into the pressure-packed,...
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Eden In Our Hearts
When Jesus told his disciples that what defiles a person is not what comes to them, but what flows out of them, he wanted them to know that his healing, freedom, joy, and life come from within. After a brief update on a couple of movie projects Wayne is connected to, he takes on some listener…
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Seldom Right, Always Confident
“Spiritual maturity is moving from confident arrogance to thoughtful uncertainty.” Why is it that those who least understand truth peddle their teachings with confident and demanding assertions, and while those who more clearly understand truth share with greater gentleness? Beginning with a...
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Living in Death’s Shadow
Everyone knows it’s coming but few people are prepare when the process of dying begins to work its way into our lives. Over the past couple of weeks Wayne has been walking with his family through “the valley of the shadow of death” and found out how much learning to live at rest in the Father’s...
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Relational Freedom
Some of my fellow-travelers to Israel took me up on my offer to share their experiences and add to the ones Sara and I offered last week. So by email, blog comment, phone, and Skype call, we’re get to see this trip through their eyes. One of the undercurrents to all of this is how an environment…
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A Family Takes Shape In Israel
Sara joins Wayne for this week’s podcast as they share thoughts and observations from their recent trip to Israel with thirty-eight other friends and God Journey listeners. Though they were strangers to each other when they arrived, over the first few days of exploring Israel, they also…
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Chapter Two of Finding Church
Finally, the promised update of Wayne’s current project and newest book, Finding Church: What If There Really Is Something More? This is the rough draft of the second chapter entitled, “What if Jesus Taught Us Everything We Needed to Know About the Church?” We don’t seem to believe that he did,...
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Finding Rest In His Love
All growth comes from rest! If that’s true then no wonder the new covenant sought first to establish us in God’s love by ending any illusions that we had to earn it. It also explains why religion unwittingly pushes us away from God even while it claims to bring us closer. Wayne combs through some...
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Valuing What God Values
What most call success, is merely stress in disguise. Wayne met Philip Akintunde during his fall trip to the UK and a friendship began that continues in this Skype conversation between them. During a recent email exchange Phil shared some of his journey out of the value system of the world and…
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Lonely Seasons On a Relational Journey
Many have commented that moving outside the confines of religious obligation took them to a lonelier space than they thought it would. For some that created an agony in their hearts that destroyed any hope they had for real community. For others those lonely stretches provided an opportunity for...
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That Your Joy Might Be Full
What if the thing you enjoy most also brings joy to God’s heart as well? While recording one of the last Engage videos about God’s pruning in our lives Wayne was struck with the phrase, “that my joy might be in you, that your joy might be full.” Is that Jesus’ purpose in our lives, to bring us to...
About this show
The God Journey is designed to facilitate an ever-expanding conversation with those who are thinking outside the box of organized religion. Our primary desire is to encourage people on their spiritual journey by sharing our own and by providing insightful commentary on what it means to grow in a relationship with God. We’ll discuss the realities of other people’s journeys, cultural trends, current events, and the Scriptures as well as fielding questions related to the challenging issues of life. You can join the conversation through calling our question or comment line at (905) 539-6980 or Skype us at TheGodJourney, posting comments on the blog, participating in our Forum, or by emailing us directly. The God Journey began in 2005 as a way for Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings (See Brad’s bio below) to share their conversations about finding life outside the box of organized religion. Here were two brothers on a journey to discover the fullness of God’s life and sharing those journeys w