Behind the Scenes

But first, I came across this quote the other day by Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt from his book, Everyone Belongs to God.  Immediately my heart resonates with this, but I realize how it is polar opposite to the way I used to think when I was younger. The hope then was to go from seeming powerlessness and helplessness to acquiring the knowledge and power to be able to fix things for myself and others.  But time and reality has won me away from such misguided notions.

You must learn to accept your weakness, your own poverty, and your own limitations, especially when the going gets rough. It is just through your weakness that our Savior can do his work (2 Cor. 12:9). He can manage what you cannot!…It’s often better not to get too involved in other people’s affairs, wanting to have a say in everything, because most of the time we don’t really know what the right step is. In the end, only God can work things out. Especially where there is sickness, poverty, or strongholds of temptation, you will have to realize your helplessness. You don’t need to be a knight in shining armor who is all set to kill the devil – no, we must learn to step back in faith and hope and keep the power of Jesus firmly in the center.

Brad and I discuss this quote on last week’s podcast because I wanted to know how he would think of it.  I now think we are at our most powerful when we put no confidence in our own abilities and can then allow God’s grace and strength to shine through our weakness.  If not, we become the annoying fix-it person who is out to get everyone else to do their bidding.

Now an important note about updates from our websites:  FaceBook has made it more difficult for you to view feeds from pages like Lifestream.org, TheGodJourney.com and FindingChurch.com. It is part of their strategy to increasing access through advertising and to create an addictive environment so that you will find it difficult to avert your eyes from FaceBook. What began as a way to connect people is now a full-fledged advertising venue.  Talk about mission creep!

However, if you’re missing these updates, you can restore them by going to the corresponding FaceBook pages: Wayne Jacobsen (Lifestream), The God Journey, or Finding Church, clicking on the “Liked” tab (see picture above) and in the drop-down menu click on “First” instead of using the default.  If there are updates on those pages, they will now show up at the top of your feed.  You can do this with any pages you want to follow and with the profiles of your friends and family by finding the drop-down menu under “Friends.”

It’s your feed, you ought to get what you want to see, not what FaceBook wants you to see.

You can also subscribe by email to the blogs on all three of those sites, so that when a new blog is posted you’ll receive it in your inbox. Just look at the top right hand page on those websites for the box to enter your email address.

Sara and I have arrived in the Sierras, Shaver Lake, CA our home away from home this time of year. I enjoy coming up here for a number of reasons. In the slower pace of summer it gives me a place to reflect on what God seems to be doing in my life and a place to write the projects on my heart.  Coming here also takes me back to the places where I vacationed in my childhood—alpine lakes, mountain meadows, and rocky outcroppings to scan the horizon by day or the undiluted stars at night.  It is hear that God has often spoken to me in ways that have been transforming as I go for a hike in the woods. No place on earth restores my soul more than here.

It also gives me four weeks visiting with my dad as he just turned 91.  He still cuts firewood, clears his driveway of snow in the winter and continues to listen to Jesus now two years out from my mom’s passing.  It also brings us near the Central Valley where Sara and I lived for 25 years and were we raised our children.  We have lots of people in this area that we have known for multiple decades and it is always good to catch up with them as well, or at least as many as we can fit in.

Today two people we’ve known for over forty years and have shared this journey of faith with in two different congregations are coming up for the day.  I love those  connections. The nourish my heart, but to have them Sara and I have stayed very intentional over the years of inviting people back into our lives and have probably done it far more than others have done it with  us, but they always seem to appreciate it.

And we’ll also get some vacation time in with our children, grandchildren, and other extended family who enjoy these mountains as much as I do.  But since we’re not close to all the things we do at home, things will slow down a bit at Lifestream. We’ll still be filling orders, but not quite as fast as we normally do. I’ll still blog a bit, but not as much as normal and I’ll still respond to emails, but that, too, will take more time.  This time is about listening and refreshing not keeping up with demands on my time. I hope y’all understand and give me some added space.

My podcast at The God Journey will continue for the next three weeks, as Brad and I had recorded some in advance, but after that we may have a brief hiatus as we are taking some time out this summer.

I am continuing the book discussion about Finding Church and today we’ll start chapter 5.  It’s not too late to join us. You can jump in at chapter 5 or review the previous chapters there as well.  This chapter shows how quickly and easily the history of our religious institutions departs from Jesus’ priorities by putting a premium on managing believers rather than helping them learn how to live in the fullness of his love.

Finally we’re in the last few days of getting people signed up for Israel. There are a few slots left and are available on a first-come, first-served basis, but registration must be completed by August 1.  You can get all the details here.

Registration closes in nine days!

If you’re interested in The God Journey tour of Israel with Brad Cummings and me, the time is at hand. August 1 is the cut-of date for registration we still have some slots for you if you’d like to join us. I know it is quite a time and cost commitment but was pleasantly surprised last time to have people come who didn’t think they had the means but watched God provide.  It is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience to explore the Holy Land and see the land where God made himself known and out of which our Scriptures arose.

We have some amazing people already signed up and as happened last time I know you will enjoy the time getting to know others on a more relational journey from all over the world as much as you’ll enjoy the sites in Israel.  It’s a win/win.  You can read about our last tour here, or get the details for this one and sign up for this one here.

This land and its people are pivotal in the biblical story and it is here that history will reach its conclusion. No, God is not more present here than he is anywhere else on the planet, but if you’ve never been you have no idea how it will impact you to be in the very places you’ve read about so often and how it will change your reading of Scripture for the rest of your life.

For more information and registration click here.

Helping People Find a Better Path

As I write this, I’ve just returned from the east coast, in what proved to be an intense but fruitful time. So many people I met on this trip were in the throes of severe crisis, looking for a way to navigate their need with a loving Father alongside. Some had recently lost children to tragic accidents, one was about to lose her child to a congenital medical condition. Others were battling guilt from past religious experiences, or loneliness after no longer feeling connected to the congregations they used to attend.

No, I don’t try to fix all of that in a few hours or a few days, I simply look for a way to walk alongside people at that point in their journey and encourage them down the better road. If grief is isolating them or turning a couple against the other, I look for that path where grief promotes healing and encourage them to go that way way. If they are trying to earn their healing with one more prayer, or pretending to have “faith”, I help them relax and entrust all that to Jesus’ love for them rather than their own effort.

In every uncomfortable situation we stand at a crossroads. One path leads to greater freedom and life, the other to greater pain and destruction. Sometimes people can’t see the path to life and that’s where we can help point it out to them in simple encouragements. It isn’t always easy to see, but it leans toward trusting God to do in us what we could never do for ourselves.

I just put up a new blog today about handling the truth with love, which is part of my continuing series on The Phenomenon of the Dones.  That dovetails with this encouragement quite well. If you haven’t seen it, you can find it here.

Updates

Come check out the changes at TheGodJourney.com. Now that The Shack movie is all but completed, Brad is back at co-host and we have re-designed the website for easier navigation and an updated look.  For the last issue we rolled out a new website for Lifestream.org. This month we have just completed a re-design of The God Journey.com d our new website this year, come take a look.  Everything I’m doing is easily accessed from the front page.

Join Brad and I in Israel for TheGodJourney Tour. Because the release of The Shack movie conflicted with our Israel dates, we had to move them to earlier in they year. We will now be headed to Israel January 25 through February 4, 2017.  The pre-trip to Petra has moved to January 22-25.  If you’re interested in joining us you can get all the details here. For those interested in the release date of the movie, it is now March 3, 2017.

The movie of So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore, called Out of the Game, is moving along nicely and stirring up some interest even among Christian filmmakers. We are getting ready to raise the needed capital to go into production. If you’d like to help with this project, either by being an investor in the movie, or through contributions to Lifestream, you will get your chance shortly. Keep an eye on Lifestream.org for details.  (If you’d like to subscriber to the blog, you will receive notifications by email whenever we post news there.

Torrential rains this spring have given us another setback in Kenya with a break out of Typhoid and malaria. Medical teams are in that region now to offer vaccinations and medial attention. If you’d like to help us with this need, you can get more information here.

The on-line book discussion of Wayne’s Finding Church continues in our new forum.  Come join us if you’d like to discover how to embrace the church that Jesus is building in your own corner of the world.

For the readers out there I’ve recommended eight good books this spring that I think many of you would enjoy. If you’re looking for some summer reading, scroll back a couple of months through the blog. You’ll find books on God’s mystery, discussing sexuality with your daughter, on death and tragedy, and even a book on marriage by a family court judge.

Upcoming Travel:  I’ll be in Alberta Canada from June 3-13, and then on it looks like I’ll be in Nashville and Bowling Green, KY on July 7-12, but that isn’t final yet.  Get all the details on Wayne’s Travel Schedule.  If you’d like to know when Wayne is visiting near you be sure and sign up for our mailing list and include your location so we can send you a notice.

In Case You Missed it…

• Here are the best 23 minutes I have on my Hope the church Jesus is building. These were my opening comments to a gathering near London.  You can listen here
• When God doesn’t seem to move as fast as you want, learn about his Slow and Glorious Working.
• At TheGodJourney.com we’ve been talking a bit about sexuality and salvation, but not together!  Let’s Talk Sex and Who Doesn’t Need a Friend? Also, find out just what’s broken about evangelical theology in How Contrarian Are We?

To get all the latest information as it happens, you can subscribe to the blogs at Lifestream or The God Journey and receive notification in your email whenever we post something new.

All new!  Still free!

If you haven’t visited The God Journey website for awhile, now would be a good time.  Brad is back as co-host and we have a full re-design of the website and the podcast to update the look.  Still the same conversations, with new artwork and imagery and it’s still free!

Brad and I continue to explore our journeys and invite others along for the ride. We’re always blessed by the email we receive from people who are encouraged, challenged, or enlightened out of our conversations and thoughts about the journey.

New episodes post on Fridays. There are 532 shows in the archive. Every where I go people tell me how much my weekly conversations with Brad, others, or myself has helped to bring freedom and joy to their journey. We even included on the new page a list of some of the sweet things people have said or written about the podcast.  I’ll also include them here:

“I don’t think you realize what a lifeline the podcasts have been.”
“You articulate what I am feeling. Somehow I don’t feel alone when I listen to you and Brad talk.”
“Your conversations are like a cool breeze on a hot day.”
“It’s simply two real guys talking about life…”
“Keep slinging that freedom all over the place.”
“My entire outlook on life has changed overnight! My life has Life again!”
“The podcasts also gave me language and an eye to see what God was doing inside me.”
“Your compassion for both God and his children is refreshing and honest.”
“Yours is a sane voice in a crazy world.”

Who would have thought when we began recording our conversations 11 years ago, that it would have gone on this long and been helpful to so many?  We are blessed by the continued encouragement we get to record conversations that Brad and I find so joyful even if they were not.

It seems our lives are measured in dog years.  Yesterday morning, on what would have been her thirteenth birthday, we put the remains of our beloved dog to rest in a corner of Sara’s garden.  And we cried, both at our loss of Sheba’s presence and in celebration of the love we shared together for so long.

We’re grateful for all thirteen of those years.  She wasn’t supposed to have so many. At six months of age our vet told us she wouldn’t live past five since she had such severe hip dysplasia. We were shocked at the news. Dogs don’t live long enough as it is, but only five years! As the news settled in Sara took a firm resolve.  “If she only has five years I am going to make sure they are the best five years any dog could ever have.” And she did, so much so that Sheba just kept on enjoying the life Sara made for her for eight extra years.

As we buried her ashes, we gave thanks to God for the gift Sheba was to our family.  She was a friend  to everyone and embraced life with a passion.  At the same time this black lab/German shepherd mix was a gentle soul. She thought fetching balls was a waste of time, but couldn’t resist a stick thrown into the ocean or a mountain lake. Swimming must have felt so good on her damaged hips. Perhaps her favorite thing was going for a ride in the car. You just mentioned a ride and she would go crazy, rushing for the door roiling with impatience.  Even if Sara didn’t have anywhere to go she would take Sheba for a ride anyway almost every day. She was Sara’s constant ompanion when working in the garden until her back legs wouldn’t follow her to get down there anymore, then she would sit on the grass watching Sara’s every move.

When she came into our lives I was still writing So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore, Sara had just earned her Master’s Degree in Guidance and Counseling and was employed by a local high school.  The God Journey wasn’t even a thought yet, nor was The Shack. We had no grandchildren. Sheba saw us through the joy of those years, as well as their challenges. And she fell in love with each grandchild we had and treated them oh so gently loving each grandchild in turn and winning them into her friendship.

On Easter a week before she died, all the kids were packed up ready to leave and were heading for the front door. All of a sudden we heard one loud bark from Sheba laying a rug unable to get up on her own.  That bark said everything:  “Don’t you dare leave this house without saying good-bye to me.” We all laughed at her indignation and rushed back to include her in the good-byes.

Yesterday morning we also reflected on what Sheba demonstrated to us about God’s love and care.  She was always there providing comfort and joy in the best and worst of times. Dogs are faithful no matter what. And you have no idea what adoration really is if you didn’t see Sheba watch Sara walk through a room. Her eyes were fixed on her with a look of wonder in her eye. She thought Sara was the most incredible human being to walk this planet.

We are embracing the grief now that our home is a bit emptier without her. We talk of her in the special places in our home where she used to keep watch. We speak of her often and how much we miss her. We made a video of her life to the tune of You Have a Friend in Me. We reminisce. We cry. We pray. Grief is a glorious process of crying out the pain to reclaim each memory, eventually taking out the sting of her loss and reveling in the joy of her time with us. It takes time, but it will work.

Yes, she is just a dog, but she’s was a beloved member of this family. She was a big part of the past 13 years and will always be a treasured part of our lives.  We miss her and all she represents to us.

But time marches on.

A new pup has already taken up residence in our home.

The Zoey years have just begun.

Actually there is no winner. Over three hundred of you offered your thoughts and suggestions to me through Facebook, email, and blog comments to my recent post about book cover designs for The Phenomenon of the Dones. Thank you all for your help. It is greatly appreciated. My artist on this project commented how amazing it was to have so many readers care so deeply about the cover and offer us their input. Some even sent their own cover designs. It is incredibly inspiring to see so many people offer their input and ideas.

So which direction are we going? That was tough. The problem for me was not that there are good covers and bad covers, but that all of them resonated with me for different reasons, and all of had things about them I’d want to tweak. That’s what comps are for, to begin the process and find a cover that is both attractive, inviting, and conveys the heart of what’s inside.

Option 3, the staircase climbing out of the basement, had significantly more votes than the other two options. Though I love that cover, it is a bit more “institutional-looking” than I like, and way more formal. I can see how it really speaks to the journey of someone coming out of a more institutional environment and into greater light, life, and freedom. What I didn’t like about it was that it made the journey of the “Dones” more preferable than those who are still in more traditional congregations growing in the same life, freedom and passions as those who are no longer there.

I loved the mystery of the second one, but not the overly sinister look of it. Some compared it to a Stephen King feature. What I liked was the open door outward, which really gets to the issue of the so-called “Dones” and the feel of those inside who are missing their friends and relatives who no longer attend. As I said, I hope this e-book will encourage a conversation among all God’s children whether they go or not about what God seems to be doing with the breakdown we’re all experiencing with the traditional congregation no longer being the soul source of community, discipleship, and engagement with the world.

So we have reworked Option #2 to a softer image. You can see a larger version of it below.

The danger of course of letting others give input is that some won’t like it or will have other ideas. In the end, of course, there is no right answer, obviously. Book covers like book reading is a matter of preference and there really isn’t a right or wrong.

Now I’ve got to get to writing the rest of it!

As regular readers here know, I’ve been writing another book online, this one a special report relating to the latest research on those being called the “dones”, those who are giving up on the traditional congregational model for church and are looking for more relational realities.  This series is designed to help people understand what’s being going on for the past twenty-five years or more while inviting the body of Christ from all her expressions to an expanding conversation about the nature of the church and its unity in our day.

Those are going to be combined into a book and since I’m getting toward the end we are working on a cover for that book. Last time, readers of this blog and those who “like” its Facebook page provided some helpful input to sort out a cover for Finding Church: What if There Really Is Something More? This isn’t a vote to decide, but a chance to hear which cover resonates with you and why, which is very helpful for us in crafting a final cover that will serve the project well.

My hope for this book is that it will invite all followers of Jesus Christ into a better dialog about the nature of his work in the world. I don’t want to see yet another division among those who are learning to live in Father’s love, this one between the “dones” and “undones.” We have to see the life of Jesus as larger than the specific way we might encounter his church. For those who attend a local congregation and for those who are finding life in his church beyond it, we need a better conversation that coincides with Jesus’ prayer that the Father would make us all one, even as Jesus and his Father are one.

If you’ve missed this series of blogs, you can find the links on my latest in the series.

Take a look at the covers above. Which do you prefer and why? What would make it better?  You can comment on the blog, my Facebook page, or email me with your comments.

Thanks for your help.  You all make a pretty incredible focus group.

Those of you that have read So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore will recognize the above photo. It was taken in San Luis Obispo, CA where the first chapter of the book was set. John disappears down this alleyway as Jake goes looking for him.  We were there awhile back and thought I’d post a picture of it. In case you didn’t believe it, people have been sticking their gum (and other things) to this wall for multiple decades. It is a bit creepy to be sure.

I am incredibly grateful at how this little book has touched lives around the world. I get email every week from people who found this story pivotal in their own journey. One of the more unique ones came in last week from Pooja and I wanted to share a bit of it with you.

I do not know where to begin thanking Jesus for your books and your life. I was born and raised Hindu and changed to Christianity at the age of nineteen. Thereafter for 18 years I was the most “faithful and committed Christian” that you could hope to find. My husband and I served our congregation in any which way that we could. He was both the deacon and the treasurer and I would not miss any opportunity to sing, teach or pray. However the spiritual emptiness that built inside of me caused me great depression and made me question my belief in Jesus.

To make a long story really short, I was on my way to agnosticism/atheism when the Lord met me in my closet in my home (My testimony starting from Hinduism leading up to this point is recorded in my book, And Then There Was Jesus.). Following this moment there was a very painful exodus from my church/community. The Holy Spirit kept on leading me to be like the apostle John. I felt like it meant taking a break from all religious activities and just spending the time to love and get to know the person of Jesus better and to start writing about Him.

I really doubted this inner voice. It was against everything I had been taught and whenever I missed my church friends the doubts would creep in. One day I prayed to the Lord to validate the thought that he wanted me to be like John and you cannot imagine my shock when I found your book So You Don’t Go to Church Anymore! Your book sits by my bed and reading it one time has not been enough. Whenever doubts creep in I go to different sections of this book and read it randomly and feel peace! You are an example of what God can do with just one person who follows their inner convictions no matter what the cost. I cannot say thank you enough!

Thank you, Pooja, for taking the time to write and let me know. I am honored that this book would be such a source of confirmation in your own journey and pray he will continue to lead you onward in his life.