July 18 2011

Show open: guest introductions and topic teaser

• What promises can you make (or should you make) on God's behalf when witnessing for Christ?

The show opens in studio with Mike Fust and Dan Hudson (both named on-air) plus two in-studio guests, CJ Michaels and Travis, who will perform later in the show. CJ is plugged as performing Saturday at 10am at the Spirit Midwest Music Festival (Aug 5-6), which the show plans to broadcast live from both days. The hosts tease the episode's discussion topic: what promises a person can or should make on God's behalf when witnessing.

The lost-wallet story

Mike (named on-air) recounts losing his wallet at a Burger King: after paying he left the wallet on the van's dashboard, peeled away, and it flew out the window without him realizing. He tore the van apart, searched a Burger King trash can, called the non-emergency police line, canceled his debit card, and got a new driver's license in Warren County (noting Polk County's DOT office is clogged) - joking the episode forces him onto a Dave Ramsey-style budget.

Interview with CJ Michaels, part 1: testimony and ministry

The hosts interview in-studio musical guest CJ Michaels: single since his wife died of cancer in February, 46 years old with two grown daughters, living in Winterset doing ministry with First United Presbyterian Church, where he runs the town's only after-school program plus college and Sunday-school ministry. He describes picking up the piano at 27, being laughed at in early talent shows, and feeling God and his late wife pushing him to take music seriously - including a secret letter she left urging him to launch a music career.

'In Jesus': the story behind the song and the performance

CJ explains the song grew out of a hard, unemployed year in Winterset when someone gave him Romans 8 - 'God before me, who can be against me... works all things for good' - and the realization that being 'more than a conqueror' means God secured the victory so his sons don't have to hold the ground themselves (unlike Alexander the Great). After the performance, the hosts marvel that two people with keyboards sound like eight.

Interview part 2: loss, the keyboard as a step of faith, and the Jordan

CJ recounts losing his fiancee (she died on a plane), then his university job and housing within weeks, and buying the keyboard because he felt God say to - a 'testimony breaker' and faith investment even though it put him $3,500 in debt. He connects it to the priests told to step into the Jordan's waters before they parted: God wants to see faith before the miracle. The hosts extend the picture - the priests only knew 'God said go' and kept walking until their feet were actually in the water.

Chat banter: NASCAR play-by-play and the Olympics

After CJ's song the hosts read the live chat (described as tangential and untrustworthy) and riff on NASCAR play-by-play radio on 98.3 - imagining Dale on turn four, a smoking tire, and Carl's stomachache - admiring how the announcers always have something to say. The talk drifts to the Tour de France as a 'bachelor soap opera' and Olympic commentary, where nobody cares about the sport itself but everyone loves the backstories.

Meeting Travis: harmonica, concrete, and the college ministry

The hosts properly introduce Travis Skeffers (last name spelled on-air), who does concrete work 65 hours a week in 95-degree heat and has only played harmonica for three and a half months - yet delivered a solid performance. Answering a question from Danielle in the chat about how the two met, CJ explains Travis is part of his college ministry group in Winterset and he is mentoring him toward youth ministry this summer. Banter covers Winterset's aquatic center, where many of CJ's lifeguard college students serve, and the search for a wave pool.

'8000 / I Believe in Love': the Australia story

CJ introduces his next song, '8000' ('I Believe in Love'), rewritten from piano to guitar after his fiancee's death. He tells of going to Australia at the end of his 'adventure with God' - 8,000 miles from his problems - and meeting God there, realizing God's love is eternal and that the love he has for the women who died remains, since they will see each other someday.

Performance: '8000'

CJ Michaels performs '8000' in studio with Travis on harmonica; a lyric fragment ('God's love is so mean') is captured mid-song. Afterward the chat gives the harmonica good reviews, which the hosts greet with mock suspicion given how mean the chat is.

Post-song banter: autoharp, revivals, and Ted Yoder's hammered dulcimer

The talk turns to the autoharp (which a host claims to play), a remembered revival couple who toured nursing homes with autoharp and guitar, and Rich Mullins' hammered dulcimer work. Ted Yoder is plugged as the hammered-dulcimer act at the Spirit Midwest Music Festival, with jokes about the instrument's size and his Ohio home.

Spirit Midwest Music Festival logistics

The hosts and CJ work through festival plans: the show will broadcast live from the festival Friday and Saturday with a couch for drop-in interviews and cameras at the tent and main stages for 20-25 minute band recordings. CJ's 10am Saturday tent-stage slot conflicts with the show's own 10-11am live slot at the Truth Talk stage - they realize he is a 'competing vendor' and agree he will walk over at 10:45. Rosalind's Coffee and Delights (and Friends) and its couches get a plug; Kirk Cameron's scheduled appearance is noted.

'Meant to Stay': the fiancee's pastors and saying goodbye

CJ explains 'Meant to Stay' came from his fiancee's pastors requiring a season of total separation to 'prove' the relationship - the couple breadcrumbed each other through MySpace - and from what the separation taught him about codependency and healthy love ('I don't need to be with you, I want to be with you'). She died of undiagnosed cardiomyopathy on a plane ride home; CJ believes God told him to break the rule, go to the airport, and say goodbye before she died.

Performance: 'Meant to Stay'

CJ Michaels performs 'Meant to Stay' in studio with Travis. The song's music occupies a single long segment in the transcript.

Comedy bit: the 'turn four' check-in with Troy Engelinger

A host doing mock NASCAR coverage calls down to 'Mike at turn four' with Troy Engelinger, who is puzzled by the bowls of water set out to catch studio drippage. Mike ('back to you, Ben') runs the bit through jokes about Epsom salts and tasting the water.

Plugs, housekeeping, and the lost Sanctified show

The show plugs livefromthepath.org and the audio podcast archives, and explains last week's Sanctified episode was lost when the studio computer crashed 90 minutes into the show. Pathway Church's details are given (Sundays at Wallace Elementary in Johnson, 9 and 10:30; email info@livefromthepath.org). CJ's music is plugged at cjmichaelsmusic.com, where he is moving from demos toward studio recordings on a new machine. Banter runs through folding chairs vs. bean bags vs. restaurant high chairs, a terrible Julie Roberts impression, and more wallet jokes.

Interview part 3: jurisdiction, the journal, and a Hallmark story

Returning to CJ's story, a host probes the fiancee's pastors requiring separation; CJ frames it as jurisdiction - she had given her pastors covering, and God wanted him to respect it - which he says grew him up. He tells how her parents called him when she collapsed, how reading her journal revealed the pastors 'trying to tear us apart,' and how God told him to break the no-contact rule to say goodbye at the airport. The hosts land on 'our relationship to God is the most important one,' and joke the story needs a better ending for Hallmark.

Performance: 'Shekinah'

CJ introduces 'Shekinah' (for 'Shekinah Glory'), a worship song about wanting to be in God's presence, and performs it to close the first hour.

Hour-two interlude: the absurd mashup

After the hour break the show runs a chaotic comedy interlude of rapid non-sequiturs - 'Life from the Past,' 'Silk Sheets and Rainbows,' a man growing his mustache 'until the world understands me,' chicken-themed bits, and fake listener lines. A station ID names the REMAX Studios in downtown Des Moines. A chat participant named Daniel is addressed ('I don't need your approval, Daniel').

Second hour open: CJ farewell and festival reminder

Back live, the hosts thank CJ Michaels, urge listeners to check his website and catch him at the Spirit Midwest Music Festival (Aug 5-6), and lament again the lost Sanctified episode, noting Sanctified will play the festival's main stage. They remind listeners the show itself will broadcast from the festival both days.

The CNN Belief Blog as distraction

A host reports going to the CNN Belief Blog for show topics and finding it worthless: its premise is arguing tenets of the faith or whose faith is wrong, a format in which nobody's mind is ever changed. He runs through the week's stories - Michelle Bachmann leaving her church, conversion-therapy polling, the Obamas' churchgoing, the Vatican vs. China, Casey Anthony and forgiveness, Obama and the Dalai Lama, Harry Potter and religion, Georgia's 'In God We Trust' car-tag fight - and says none of it made him feel closer to Jesus or gave him anything worth saying to another person.

Denominational bickering and what the world sees

The hosts describe Sunday-school classes that spend their time bashing the Methodists or Baptists down the road, and argue most denominational differences (like tongues) are not worth division the way denying the Trinity would be. They recall two straight weeks of 'non-biblical signs of the apocalypse' - deacons and elders fistfighting outside church doors - and ask what that reflects to non-believers. The bridge: Jesus does not promise much worldly comfort, which raises the episode's core question - what can you actually promise someone about God?

A personal witnessing story: 'your word vs. God'

A host recounts an ongoing, first-time witnessing experience with a man who called out of nowhere, unhappy with his life and using drugs, asking what Jesus could do for him. After praying together, the man reported a terrible day where he wanted drugs but did not use - crediting his word to his lady; the host walked him through the fact that his word had not held up elsewhere that week, asking 'do you think your word can hold up against God?' The man went silent, said 'wow,' and said he felt something - which the host describes as watching God show up, the most exciting thing in life.

What you can promise on God's behalf

The hosts conclude you cannot promise happiness - Jesus never guaranteed it, and promising things God never said risks presenting a false Jesus - but you can promise peace, and the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control; cited on-air as Galatians 6) growing as you submit to Christ. They stress transformation is not instant: rehab, accountability, and chemical dependence still matter. One host's bottom line: 'I'm not the perfect example of a Christ follower, but I am a perfect example of God's grace' - and every believer is the 'Jesus representative' for their own workplace and circle.

Wallet callback, the Jesus hundred, and the church fun run

Banter returns to the lost wallet (a host found a 'Jesus hundred' - a fake-$100 gospel tract - while searching), sparking a story about a host's dad who bought thousands of them and slipped them as restaurant tips, watching servers' reactions. The talk shifts to the church's charity 5k fun run: Shelly Carson, the Edomas family (Rodney joking he was the caboose), Sean and Troy Engeldinger, fast runners who paid $15 just to race, and Tony and Jody missing it after a motorcycle accident. The children's ministry got the proceeds.

The running debate and the South Dakota fence

A long debate: one host is flabbergasted that people pay to run for fun, while others defend exercise as therapy - lifting weights to the point of failure, clearing the head. A host recalls a South Dakota ministry trip building fence with Joe Poland, Jay Lucci, and Jared, pounding posts with a 20-pound driver until he could not lift his arms. 'Samson' is offered as the definition of a real man.

Dear LFTP: the cyclist and the unpaid family loans

• I loaned two family members $1,000 each while overseas; two years later neither has repaid and they post shopping and gym visits on Facebook. How do I get this settled?
• I'm a cyclist. What should I do with myself?

The Dear LFTP reader (Abby, the staff writer) fields two letters: a joke one ('I'm a cyclist. What should I do with myself?'), and a real one - a listener loaned two family members $1,000 each while overseas, got excuses for two years, and sees them shopping and joining gyms on Facebook. The hosts' consensus: either get a contract up front or treat it as a gift and let it go - never lend money you need back; co-signing is a terrible idea too. Abby's written response (post the debtors, 'Tom and Jerry,' on Facebook to shame them) is read aloud and unanimously panned as terrible, passive, chicken-livered advice.

Dear LFTP: the bridezilla wedding and sign-off

• My daughter and granddaughter are in a summer-2012 wedding; the bride keeps scheduling bridesmaids' luncheons, bridal expos, and ultra-expensive dresses my stay-at-home-mom daughter can't afford. Should she back out or level with the bride?

The last letter: a listener's daughter and granddaughter are in a summer-2012 wedding where the bride demands endless bridesmaids' luncheons, bridal expos, and ultra-expensive dresses, though the daughter is a stay-at-home mom of two. The hosts call it fear-of-man - most Dear LFTP questions boil down to 'I'm scared to say what I think' - and agree weddings have gotten out of hand (one host's own wedding was white shirts, shorts, and sandals; another's had Hy-Vee deli sandwiches in the church basement). The show closes with the Spirit Midwest Music Festival reminder (Aug 5-6) and an outro lyric fragment.