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Finally Brad and Wayne have a chance to catch up with all the email and traveling they’ve been doing over the past few months. They begin by rehashing some of the conversation about parenting in the previous two podcasts, then talk about some of the lessons and joys in their travels, the joy of relationship they celebrated on Father’s Day, and some of the things that have been touching their lives these days. At the heart of it all seemed to be the recurring theme that all of us do well to treasure those things that matter most and not get lost in the issues that don’t.

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Danny and Sheri Silk are back for part two of their discussion with Wayne and Brad about the challenges and joys of raising children in grace. Danny is author of Loving or Kids on Purpose and they talk about some of the specific questions sent in by many of our listeners about discipline, manipulation and sharing healthy relationships. Throughout the application of this framework of putting relationship above conformity also helps illumine our relationship with God and with others. You can find more of their resources at their website, Loving on Purpose and a website they refer to frequently, Love and Logic, which provides added resources for parents and teachers to raise responsible children.

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In this special edition of The God Journey, Wayne and Brad are joined by Danny and Sheri Silk as they share about the challenges and joys of raising children in grace. Danny is author of Loving or Kids on Purpose and they talk about some of the specific questions sent in by many of our listeners about spanking, building a culture of honor and discipline choices in dealing with our children. Throughout the application of this framework of putting relationship above conformity also helps illumine our relationship with God and with others. You can find more of their resources at their website, Loving on Purpose and a website they refer to frequently, Love and Logic, which provides added resources for parents and teachers to raise responsible children.

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Wayne is back from vacation and Brad has skipped town, so Wayne’s wife, Sara, joins him for a listener question about the role of commitment in marriage and church life. How important is commitment to a growing relationship? Do people check out of relationships too easily, instead of growing through the difficulties that challenge their selfishness? If we want to feast on the thrilling fruits of long-term relationships we have to let God change us even as we respect the work he’s doing in others.

Here’s a picture of the lava flow we spotted from the air. It’s probably a mile and a half to two miles long.

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Sara brings in a plateful of her fresh-out-of-the-oven, famous chocolate chip cookies and Wayne and Brad enjoy the feast while talking about the difference between the truth of a recipe and tasting the reality of what the recipe makes. If we focus on the recipe as an end in itself, we get caught in endless discussions about the ingredients, arguing about their worth and labeling others so that we can be dismiss the importance of relating to them as individuals. They also follow up on ultimate reconciliation and the danger of shaping our theology to address our fears, instead of finding our comfort in the character of God.

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A request from a reader asking Brad and Wayne to help them read Scripture without the religious glasses that lead to distorting the simple story of God’s love and redemption, spark a discussion about reading the Bible through the lens of Jesus Christ and embracing its value. Also they hear from a former pastor who finally arrived at the end of his rope, which turns out to be exactly the place where he could best see and embrace the work of God in his world.

The podcast is up, but we’ve had problems with our home page and will fix it ASAP. Sorry for the inconvenience.

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With a plethora of Christianity-related stories in the news, Brad and Wayne find themselves talking about Obama’s Notre Dame speech on abortion, the evangelical support for torture and how God makes himself known in our culture. Why don’t believers live more with the fragrance of Father as they engage the culture, rather than the smell of fear and control? Whenever we trade our passion for the revelation of Christ to fight for a principle, we’ll lose our connection with the culture.

And if you’d like to help the brothers and sisters in Kenya, you can find out more at and links to donate at Wayne’s Lifestream blog.

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Following up on their discussion of ultimate reconciliation with letters from readers, Brad and Wayne find themselves focusing on the problems a religious mindset creates for those who want to live on the simple relational journey of knowing Christ Jesus. They talk about theological precision, rule-keeping and how easily those who live by religion end up feeling like they are a privileged class with God for all their effort and hold in contempt anyone not working as hard as they are to try to be good. Losing our religion seems an important step to embracing his reality.

And if you’d like to help the brothers and sisters in Kenya, you can find out more at and links to donate at Wayne’s Lifestream blog.

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Wayne and Brad plow through a potpourri of topics that listeners have recently asked about. They start with a delightful story about how God’s gifts can frustrate us in the early stages, but only because God is preparing for the growth he is working in us. They talk about spiritual warfare and why they don’t seem to talk a lot about the devil. Then they climb on the third rail of Christianity today by probing the reality of hell and the possibility of ultimate reconciliation. In doing so they discover once again that God wants to invite us into his reality, not answer all of our questions about things we cannot see from our current vantage point.

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Wayne is back from a delightful trip to Indiana and plowing through the mailbag with Brad they find some interesting letters about holiness and the parenting book they talked about in the previous podcast. Throughout they keep coming back to a familiar theme—everything we can access in this age will be a bit of a mixed bag, in some of it we’ll hear the voice of the Shepherd and in some of it the flesh of men and women. But he lives in each of us so that our pursuit is never dependent on following another person or program, but him and him alone.

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Wayne has found a new book on parenting in grace and can’t wait to share it with Brad. Loving our Kids on Purpose by Danny Silk not only gives a framework for parenting children, whether they are toddlers or adults, but it also gives some wonderful insights into how God disciplines his children in his love to help us live free from the bondage of sin. Joining them in the studio is their good friend Mick Silva, who appeared on a previous podcast. He was visiting LA and as a young father joined Brad and Wayne for their discussion. Not only will this book give you a framework for parenting children, whether they are toddlers or adults, it also gives some wonderful insights into how God disciplines us out of love to set us free from the bondage of sin. You can find out more at the Loving On Purpose website.

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The mailbag is full as Wayne and Brad come back from Easter. And what letters they are, too, as people share from their own journeys the surprising changes they are recognizing in themselves as a result of living loved and loving others. Finding freedom from changing others allows us to love them where they are and hopefully open a door to God’s life for them. Not needing to validate our own views, we can focus on the relationship instead of how we’re being perceived. And, then, the re-visit last week’s discussion on the cross through more listener email.

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On this Good Friday Brad and Wayne talk about a growing doctrinal feud over the crucifixion of Jesus. Those who advocate for the view often called penal substitution, see the cross as God expending his wrath on the Son as a stand-in for the punishment we deserved and by doing so satisfying his demand for holiness. Many of them are now claiming that this view is so central to the Christian faith that those who do not embrace it are not truly Christian. But there is a growing voice that sees the cross as God expending his wrath on our sin and shame that Jesus held in his being, to effect a cure for broken and fallen humanity, and by doing so satisfies his love and holiness to bring us back into a valuable relationship with him. That view doesn’t negate substitutionary atonement but embraces it in its fullest meaning.

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Following up their “Is Christianity Collapsing“, Brad and Wayne discuss an interesting column written by Tom Ehrich, an Episcopal priest, entitled Saying No to Sundays. It offers an honest and generous look at those who no longer find the Sunday morning ritual a part of their connection to the body of Christ. Then they read a letter from a God Journey listener from South Africa that gives a remarkable look a the process and fruit of the transformation that only God can accomplish. It demonstrates wonderfully how God so transforms us from the inside out that we no longer need to consciously try to be used by God, but simply live in the overflow of his love for us.

Also, for those interested, our fourth Archive Disc is now available, covering December 2007 through November 2008. The cost is $12.00 and you can order it here.

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Who’s in? Who’s out? Who cares? Christianity has been all over the news lately as many are predicting the impending collapse of Christianity as we know it. People are leaving institutions in droves; fewer people identify themselves as Christians, pastors and parishoners are leaving congregations in droves, and evangelicalism is increasingly seen as an outdated political philosophy. What these observers may be missing is the larger shift from people who are weary of practicing Christianity as a religion and are instead learning how to be followers of Christ. Maybe all of this opens a wider opportunity for God to make himself known in people who simply follow him, rather than in the weaknesses and excesses of Christianity as a religion. Some of the resources referred to on this podcast include: Newsweek Article on Christianity, Statistics on Pastors, and The Coming Evangelical Collapse.

To take THE SHACK Reader Survey, being conducted by a doctoral candidate at Regent University, please click here.

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Brad and Wayne discuss David Wilkerson’s open letter of impending calamity on the United States that is making the rounds these days and then take a humorous look at how our own efforts to know God better might look to God. Then they settle into a discussion about the changes in relationship that happen when you move from a performance-based approach to the faith, to living in the certainty of the Father’s affection. What do we do when some of our valuable friendships whither up in the face of our transformation, and how do we find new friendships that will give us companionship on the journey?

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A trip through the mail bag lends us the voices of a solider in Afghanistan, a young girl in Canada, an honest man California and a congregation in Tennessee, as they sort through their God Journeys. And then Brad and Wayne take on one of their most often-asked questions: “Are you saying there is no structure to the body of Christ?” Not at all. Structure is a valuable asset when it is designed to facilitate what God’s doing in our lives, and an incredibly damaging substitute when it only seeks to replace it.

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After some reader feedback from our No Man (or Woman) is an Island podcast, Brad and Wayne find themselves in a discussion base on Romans 11:22 about the kindness and severity of God. Many people misunderstand the reality of the loving Father as just a God who is nice all the time. What about God’s severity? God is not just love, he is also light. Understanding that will change our view of righteousness from an onerous obligation, to one of the most incredible offers God makes to us. Knowing and loving him, who wouldn’t want to be like him?

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Wayne and Brad follow-up on last week’s podcast about ‘Stop Doing’ by delving further into Romans (10:9-10, and 12:1-4) and incorporating some of the Forum discussion about the disciplines, especially fasting. What is the difference between doing something in an attempt to earn a relationship, or responding to a relationship by doing what God puts on our hearts. Along the way they also discuss the challenge of living generously in a world that is all about people maximizing their own portion.

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Wayne and Brad are back from New York City and share from their experiences there as well as plow through the email that has come in from recent podcasts. One of the recurring themes revolves around the classic question: I want to learn to live loved, but what do I do? Their musings take them to Romans 4, and Paul’s central argument about the righteousness that doesn’t come through human effort, but only through a growing trust in God’s ability to do in us what we cannot do for ourselves.