In Russia With Love
From St. Petersburg Russia, Wayne talks with his hosts, Michael and Susan Simpson as they share a bit of their journey that engaged a former K-State women’s basketball player to the people of Russia. They describe the current climate in Russia and what God has done to change their mission from trying to engage people with a discipleship program, to living among them to help them live loved and what it has cost them when they no longer fit into the program. In the course of that journey, they married seven years ago, both for the first time and live at the Father’s pleasure part time in Russia and part time in the States. You’ll find their desire to help others on this journey charming and infectious.
Podcast Links:
Find out more about Michael and Susan’s life coaching at Trove Inc.
Their seasonal chocolate business with a message of the lost finding redemption: The Chocolate Bordello
Great Joy in Kenyaидея за подарък
Wayne continues his conversation with John Beaumont from last week. John Beaumont is the author of A God-Filled Nobody, and numerous other books about our freedom to live in the revelation of Jesus and has traveled throughout the world encouraging others on this journey as well. Now retired he lives in Rotorura, New Zealand. In this second of a two-part interview, John talks about the things that matter most as he looks back on his journey. He shares about the constant pain he lives in, healing, and how he processes that tension in his own relationship with God. Finally they discuss John’s conviction that “Fellowship ends when meetings begin.” 
Following up on a conversation Wayne and Kent Burgess had over the weekend about repentance, and how their view of it has shifted greatly from their old days of religion, they reconnected to record some of that for others. They used to see it as wallowing in guilt and shame and making well-intentioned, though impossible, promises to God about never repeating it again. After the cross has removed our shame, however, repentance is the lively conversation with God about the broken places in our thoughts and motivations that invite a work of healing and invites us more deeply into his process transformation. Loving the way God does it is so subversive, and where we give up our need to control the people we love, we can see how subversive it is in inviting others into transformation without needing to manipulate them at all. 
The previous podcast began to explore what it means to share someone else’s journey, even if its not the journey you’d prefer them to be on. Wayne asked his wife Sara to join him for a further look at the things God has taught them in their own marriage and to answer some of the questions that others asked about finding a way to share their spouse’s, and even their children’s journeys. Relationships thrive where we embrace the other person in their journey and trust God to work out what he needs to in them, rather than getting someone else to do what would make us happy, or at least mitigate our fears. Of course none of this can happen as long as we see our relationships as a contest of power and not a relationship of affection. 
Brad is back in the podcast studio as he and Wayne sort through the last few weeks of not seeing each other and catch up a bit on Wayne’s trip to New Zealand. Sorting through the mail bag and blog posts they read one of the best blog posts ever, and then find themselves talking about living in fullness by loving and cherishing what God puts before us each day. Find out what VPD is and how not to not only avoid it, but also avoid passing it on to others. They end up in discussing the freedom of love between spouses, and the pressure many feel to get their spouse on their journey, and how backwards that way of thinking really is. There are still so many holdovers of history among people of faith that truly relegate women to second-class status. A TIME Magazine article reminds us how culture was designed to lord over women as a way of limiting their freedoms and choices in the world. Thank God for freedom! 
Part 2 of Wayne’s conversation with Jack Gray, a Scottsman who has resided in New Zealand for almost 50 years. They continue their discussion from last week on the life of the church and Jack’s journey to find the church Jesus is building, rather than the one man is building. They talk about a Swiss theologian from the mid 1900s who pointed out that when the love and power of the Spirit faded in the early church, we replaced him with dogma, doctrine, and institutionalism. They talk about Jack’s rich experiences with church life as a relational reality and how people cannot resist the desire to put things into a box, rather than continue to embrace the unfolding work of the Spirit. 
Just because something is wonderful and God-filled does that mean we should expect it to be permanent? This is our 353rd podcast and the completion of our seventh year sharing our conversations with the world. As Wayne and Brad take a look back and celebrate the incredible journey they have had together over those years, they also see that season coming to an end. They talk about the fact that God seems to be leading them down different paths and that has challenged them to put their friendship above compelling the other to go where the other isn’t called to go. Brad is now taking on Windblown Media as his journey unfolds and Wayne will be taking The God Journey into some different conversations that are on his heart. While Brad will still be a frequent voice in these conversations, their schedules and differing passions will preclude that from being an every-week event. Not all collaborations are meant to be as permanent as we might hope, and letting go of them as God leads, opens up fresh possibilities for God’s working.