As you can tell, I’ve had some room to create several things I’ve been dreaming of and that I thought might be helpful to you.
I have just produced a pod-cast that I think you will love. It is an interview that I did with Jeff Andrechyn, founder of Expeditions of the Heart (www.expeditionsoftheheart.org) on the subject of The Frontier which he wrote about in one of his e-letters.
You can listen to it on-line – I’ve broken it into four 10 minute segments. Or you can download the entire pod-cast to your computer or iPod.
POD CAST: www.thenobleheart.com/podcasts.
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Jeff, thank you for pointing out God’s fingerprints in history and in my his-story. We have been led to the frontier by a wild God who knows what he has put there while we were still in “Europe.” Something was stirred in there that is awakened out in the frontier.
My voice sounds funny on this podcast – please tell me I don’t always sound like that!
I would like to say one thing about tradition because I was not to kind to it in the Podcast. Truth is I love tradition, and I would be fine to stay in it all my life. But what happens when tradition isn’t working? That was the real dilemma for me. It can be hard to reconcile this frontier life in us when we are landlocked in tradition. Do I move with this new life or stay with tradition? I think the real test of weather you are stuck in tradition or weather you are living free is “are you experiencing God.” When you go to a meeting, is your heart alive? or is it numb? Life is the best indicator for knowing Gods will and you will know it in your heart. God will dry up your current environment if he is moving you on. Remember we are pilgrims on a journey. God knows how to move us when we are in need of fresh green pastures.
Jeff A
This conversation was like listening to two trained warriors share what they learned out in the battle on the frontier about walking with God and what the journey looks like even day to day. I love it. There is more to this Life than we have been led to believe! Sooo much more. Thanks for this podcast! Please do it again! There is a feast at this Round Table.
Planning for only 3-4 months into the future? What a relief! Thanks for permission to do that. It seems everything around me demands that I have my life plan figured out for the next five years. At work, you’re not ambitious unless you can answer the question “where do you want to be in five years”. Several years ago I moved into a role with no obvious career path, but doing work I enjoyed and that was needed. But it was hard to move off of a more known path for the future. Really enjoyed the podcast! God may be drying up certain parts of my environment so I am trying to stay alert.
Dear Gary,
Thank you for taking the time with Jeff Andrechyn to address the idea of frontier in the Christian life. I am encouraged with the message that there is new life ahead that God is calling us into, and that you are moving people away from the old message of “be good, try harder.” Though I am not always sure how to live out on the frontier (part of me definitely wants to play it safe) I know Jesus is comfortable there. As you both pointed out, he seems very willing to take me into unfamiliar territory (the frontier) for the sake of my relationship with him and others. I need that and so appreciate the encouragement from you both to keep heading in that direction.
Sincerely,
Lance Thollander
Jeff and Gary,
As always, thank you for sharing your life and story. 1. A number of things were stirred in my heart as you spoke. I love the idea of studying history to uncover the “fingerprints of God”. It makes sense when you consider that God is always telling a larger story through the events in our life and others. In the long run, history is after all – His-Story.
2. Also, becoming “comfortable with mystery’ on the frontier is something I have grown into in recent years. I have always been one who has taken risks, but I wasn’t always comfortable with not knowing the outcome or what lies ahead. I have found, the more I trust the heart of God towards me, the more comfortable I am with leaving the future in his hands.
3. I was also struck with the need for the frontier. I was reminded of the words of Frank Laubach. When asked why he spoke so much about practicing the presence of God, he said, “I feel convinced that for me, and for you who read, there lie ahead undiscovered continents of spiritual living compared with which we are infants in arms.”
To journey deeper into Christ is truly the final frontier! Amen! Thank you brothers!
What I love about this podcast is that I believe Jeff & Gary have opened up something much deeper than it first appears. This whole concept of the frontier gives me a context, a perspective, that I desperately need. I have learned about my wounds and the battle I am in. I understand there is a glory in me that only I can bring. I believe the kingdom of God is accessible right now. But I still don’t know how to heal my wounds, how to survive in the battle, how to find my glory, or how to live in the kingdom. Maybe we should all be asking ourselves where is our frontier. This is where God wants to work out our healing & restoration. This is where we will discover our glory. This is where victory in the battle will be won. This is how I am meant to live in the kingdom. Thanks Jeff & Gary for opening this door!
Thank you for ‘jumping off the cliff without a parachute’ to pursue your calling. Listening to the podcast on the Frontier cannot help but affirm and confirm that what i am currently about to pursue is fundamental to the whole nature of frontier. It confirms that being a seed of Abraham is meant to be a lifestyle of frontier to take the road less travelled. Anything less and it just kills our true manhood. The frontier lifestyle is so intrinsic to the pillars of our manhood as well. To the extent that we have been trained by hardship and initiated as a warrior, and to the extent we have mentored others, been a true friend. The frontier for is about being a king and a priest to live sacrificially for others because the magnificent epic we are in has gripped us and we have seen who we really are in Him while also spent a long enough season as the Beloved son, so that when we make mistakes it won’t define us…because He and our calling is our life focus. Thank you for being brothers albeit behind a computer screen. In Christ our Mightiest Warrior-King. Nigel Mohammed
As I listened through the interview, I got the impression that to go into the “frontier” you have to leave security and “trust” God. A man has to earn a living and he has to provide for his family (1 Timothy 5:8). Meetings can be boring, work can be monotonous, and your heart isn’t always going to feel “alive.” Was Adam’s heart always alive while working in the garden of Eden? Would it be right for me to develop my calling into a ministry and ask others to support me while I’m perfectly capable of holding a job and supporting myself and my family? Is my calling lived out if it’s only done “on the side?” Is there something lacking in my faith that keeps me in my current job because I believe it provides for my family? Can I still enter the frontier with God with the passions of my heart or must I leave everything to truly follow Him?
Russ
Russell, the frontier for us is not a place (a particular job, company, organization or group) but rather the way that we live our current life. Frontier is the willingness to enter uncharted territory with a person or situation where God needs to show up vs. living a predictable, safe, formulaic life. Frontier is not found only in places that the government classifies as a 501c3 religious organization. In fact, many people have left the frontier for a rather domesticated life by working for a ministry. I hope this clarifies what we were trying to say. Good question.
Gary
Russell
You have pointed out one of the weakness of our podcast. Gary and I are living out a certain calling in our life that is so similar that you could mistakenly get the impression that we were saying the only way to live on the frontier would be to do what we are doing. I wish we could have had a panel of men from all walks of life talk about what the frontier looks like in their lives. For one man it might be fighting through diminishment to accept a promotion at work that he always felt unqualified for. For another man the frontier might be to loosen up his schedule to spend more time engaging his kids. I have a friend who is a doctor who chose to put his practice in the poorest section of town and serve them. He is on the frontier!
I would also like to reiterate that I did not willing choose the frontier. I claim no credit. I was squeezed on to it by God. He chose to push me out of the nest. One aspect of the frontier for me is not chasing down money as the answer to all my problems but rather to be open to serving other, and that my friend looks more like sacrifice than support, just ask my wife.
As far as the boring meetings Russ – I would say if they continue that way maybe God is moving you on. Extended boring meetings can numb your heart (ask me how I know this) and you need to protect your heart because it is the wellspring of life.
Jeff
Thanks for the clarification, Jeff. A panel of men discussing the frontier is a great idea. I believe the whole concept of the frontier is its uniqueness, it can’t look the same for everyone but we can learn from each man’s experience.
Russ
Russell, I don’t believe that there is secular and sacred work or life. It’s all sacred as we walk with God. I believe that living in the “frontier” is simply when we follow God into any conversation, relationship, work or activity where God must show up. It’s walking off the map with God. It’s when, as Dallas Willard said, “We live as a co-worker with God in the creative enterprise of life on earth…we exhibit the striking availability of God to meet present human needs through our actions…we are the good news about the kingdom.” Good question, Russell.
King Nigel Mohammed
I sure would like to meet you one day. I’ll bet you would liven up some dinner parties around here! I love what you said about “being trained by hardship and initiated as a warrior, and we extend that to mentor others and be a true friend.”
That is a beautiful gospel to live out. May that be said about us Nigel.
Thank-you, I loved it.
Jeff
Well said Russell – I have heard it said that this is what we suffer from the most today in Christianity – a “poverty of uniqueness.”
Live authentically
Jeff
This is so much who you guys are to me. I love the frontier, and more importantly I love the fact we walk together. Jeff you are truly gifted in seeing God in the history of men! I am proud to call both of you my brothers! Crazy month for me, so I am just now listening to the Podcast.
McDade