May 11, 2015 Podcast

Opening monologue and agenda

A host opens the show live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston, joking with Boova (addressed in the audio as 'Buba'/'Moova') about making faces at the camera. He welcomes back guests Wayne Stewart and Chris Acres, previews Boova's 'Pope style' advice bit and a Relevant Magazine article on the problems with trying to be 'sold out for Jesus,' and the room looks up the word 'magnanimous.' The show is presented as a live internet-radio broadcast with both radio and podcast audiences.

Sponsor segment: Bob Eisenlauer and Westfield Veterinary Hospital

A host reads sponsor copy for Bob Eisenlauer (rendered 'Eisenhower'/'Eisner' in the transcript) of the Eisenhower Team at eisenhowerteam.com, joking that Eisenlauer was interviewed on the local news about real-estate trends and claiming to have referred the interview his way after a scheduling conflict. He then plugs Westfield Veterinary Hospital in Johnston and spins a riff about how to tell your dog is fat, which another voice in the room extends into a couch-shoving test.

Catching up with Chris Acres: wedding plans and marriage advice

Guest Chris Acres confirms he is getting married in about two months, on July 11 ('7-Eleven day'), in Washington state, where he and his fiancee are both from, and the hosts joke about 7-Eleven sponsoring the wedding with Slurpees. Asked for advice to a man approaching marriage, Acres says to lean into scripture, humble himself, seek to love her first, and treat his wife as his 'first mission field.' A host responds that men who can articulate that tend to be genuinely ready for marriage.

Chris Acres performs 'Grace'

Guest Chris Acres performs his original song 'Grace,' which he says the church has been singing; the song's vocals are diarized separately from his speaking turns. Afterward he calls hearing a congregation sing a song he wrote one of the most 'sublime' experiences, a seed planted for others to connect with God through rather than for himself. He adds that he and his fiancee have begun recording worship songs together in his home-office 'studio.'

Catching up with Wayne Stewart: ministry and the move

Guest Wayne Stewart reveals that Chris Acres is engaged to his oldest daughter. He describes the church's move after fifty years at its historic site to a new property northwest of town, anchored by a community facility called 'the Plex' that runs Upward sports and hosts neighborhood programs weekly. The hosts and guests discuss how American church culture treats community as an event to attend rather than a life to live in, and how kids' packed schedules compartmentalize church into just another activity.

Wayne Stewart's book: worship bigger than an hour a week

Wayne Stewart discusses his book on worship as spiritual formation, arguing that 'smaller' worship means one evaluative hour a week while 'bigger' worship means all of life, asking what God deserves and what honors him rather than what attendees prefer. He says the book grew out of four years as a small-group curriculum for worship and arts volunteers, with a four-week reading and reflection schedule led by him and Chris. A host agrees the church struggles to understand worship as a lifestyle rather than an event people connect into and out of.

Wayne Stewart performs 'This Love'

Wayne Stewart introduces 'This Love,' tying it to the book's theme: because Jesus came as 'the perfect Adam,' humanity can no longer claim confusion about how to live, and his life of laying itself down is the call — then performs the song live in the studio. A host responds that the line about 'holy surrendering' recalls the Son of Man giving his life as a ransom, quoting Mark 10:45 in garbled form. Wayne gives book-buying details (Amazon and a CreateSpace link) while the hosts joke about the other, jazz-playing Wayne Stewart of Chicago who dominates Spotify under the same name.

Live-tweeting banter and the hashtag goats gag

The hosts recount a failed attempt to live-tweet the Grammys alongside the popular John Acuff, landing only one retweet from an Andre Rieu fan after a joke about a guitarist's long hair. Guest Jake Stewart describes live-tweeting as pretending to be in a room of fans while the room is actually indifferent, coining himself 'the pleated khakis of the room.' The bit escalates into a running gag about hijacking the #goats hashtag on Twitter to get attention — 'the Jesus content ain't doing it' — complete with a fictional Russian goat enthusiast, Sergey Goats.

Chris Acres performs 'Unstoppable'

Chris Acres introduces 'Unstoppable,' based on Romans, with a chorus of 'neither height nor depth... neither life nor death... I'm convinced,' and performs it live. After the song a host jokes that Ben must give a controlled go-ahead before anyone claps so the song can be cut cleanly, and asks Ben directly whether they can clap yet. Acres plugs his Facebook artist page and the Dauntless Music project on ReverbNation, and the hosts invite him to bring his fiancee in to record together.

Boova's Pope-style advice: give God the glory

Boova (speaker-3, addressed as 'Buba' in the audio) delivers the 'Pope style' bit: mistaken for the Pope, he must give balcony-style wisdom to the crowd on his lawn. He tells how he pursued a new position at his company — a big step he is underqualified for, possibly in Texas — at first to show off how great he is, then realized he was glorifying himself and shifted his prayer to 'God, what do you want me to do,' finding unexpected peace. His closing charge: if you are doing something for your own glory you are in the wrong place — let God be glorified, align your heart to his will rather than his to yours, and 'get off my lawn.'

Radio sign-off and link roundup

A host signs off the 99.3 FM radio portion of the broadcast ('Troop Network') while the podcast continues. He rounds up the episode's links — Wayne's book, Chris's ReverbNation page and Dauntless Music — promises to read Wayne's book along with listeners and discuss it on Facebook and Twitter, and points radio listeners to lifefrompat.org for the musical clips. He closes the radio hour with the sign-off line, 'be faithful, God will handle the ends.'

Studio banter and Bash on the Farm promo

Between segments the hosts joke about camera shots, Mike changing light bulbs in frame, and 'Harry's legs' walking through, and one host coins 'pulling a dead Hudson' for an inadvertently offensive remark. A host promotes Bash on the Farm, June 19-20 at Heritage Park in Forest City — two free days of Christian music with Willett, Echo, Fight the Fade, Eyes Clouds Break, Chris Doerr, Breaking Adam, and the Jeff Arendelle band, many of them past show guests. He also plugs fan Kevin Lindgren's new album 'My Words' streaming at kevinlindgren.bandcamp.com.

Missions: Haiti, and Jesus everywhere

Wayne Stewart describes his church's spring-break mission trip to a partner in Haiti: serving and encouraging local partners, with his high-school-junior daughter along, and marveling at a village where fourteen witch doctors once ruled by fear and now most have come to faith, with eight feeding centers, a school for 500 kids, and a college training doctors, teachers, and pastors. Jake Stewart and a host trade stories of feeling at home in churches in Indonesia and the Philippines — 'Jesus is Jesus wherever you go' — and the host pushes back on the American instinct to box the Holy Spirit into the first century.

Wayne Stewart performs 'Hold On'

Wayne Stewart introduces 'Hold On,' written from a season of learning that faith often means not giving up — 'the walk of faith is just taking one more step forward' — while God reaches in with his presence, assurance, and truth, then performs the song live. Afterward the hosts plug his ReverbNation page and its EP from last fall, a host asks about his older favorite '78,' and the room jokes again about the other, jazz-playing Wayne Stewart of Chicago hiding in plain sight. A host gives the location of Christ Community Church, about a mile and a half northwest of the northern edge of Ames, and its well-known facility 'the Plex.'

Introducing Jake Stewart: Navigators and Corvallis

The hosts formally introduce guest Jake Stewart, a recent University of Northern Iowa graduate joining Navigators staff in August to plant a ministry at Oregon State in Corvallis — which he notes sits in the least religious county in the U.S., where only 25% of residents claim any religion at all. He explains he will raise his own salary through prayer and financial partners, and the hosts promise to share his giving page once it is live. A host exhorts listeners not to merely pray for someone else to give, but to consider that God may want them to be part of the answer.

Dear LFTP: the South America cruise gift

• When a gifted trip's itinerary misses the mark, should the recipients ask the giver to change it, or was the wife right to refuse the lavish gift?

A host asks Mike to read the Dear LFTP letters, and a voice in the room reads the first: the letter writer, a real-estate agent, waived her commission for her daughter Stacy's home purchase and received a lavish South America cruise as thanks, then refused it as too much money after her husband demanded the itinerary be changed to include the Rio de Janeiro Jesus statue. The hosts largely advise graciously accepting the gift and asking for a small itinerary tweak, noting the wife may have overreacted from embarrassment. The 'secular' answer blames the husband's ingratitude and says he should have asked the daughter directly.

Dear LFTP: eight years, no 'I love you'

• How can a woman get her boyfriend of eight years to say 'I love you' again after he stopped once the chase ended?

The second Dear LFTP letter comes from a woman in an eight-year committed relationship whose boyfriend pursued her intensely, then stopped all dates and 'I love you's once 'the chase was over,' now calling her insecure and needy for asking. The hosts are blunt — one says 'dump him,' another calls the man a con artist exploiting the woman's capacity to love — while a guest cautions that the 'I love you's may return only when she decides to leave, and to be careful then. The 'secular' answer calls the boyfriend a jerk unlikely to change and asks whether he is the husband she would want for a lifetime.

Jake Stewart performs 'Hound of Heaven' and sign-off

Jake Stewart closes the show with his original song 'Hound of Heaven,' written about a year earlier with a congregation in mind after hearing people sing along at a Navigators large-group gathering. He notes his former band Oregon Kids (oregonkids.bandcamp.com) and his SoundCloud, and plans to relaunch as a solo Jacob Stewart project after the summer. The transcript's song coverage is fragmentary and ends mid-performance; a host then thanks Chris Acres, Wayne Stewart, and Jacob Stewart and signs off with 'be faithful, God will handle the ends.'