Living Loved - Letters
From Living Loved • Spring 2012
Renee in Texas
So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore was a life-changing book for me. Reading it was like putting glasses on and looking at something I've looked at all my life, but never really seen. As a teacher, writer, and friend you've helped me to see beyond religion, the church, and the law, beyond the system, the building, the hierarchy, the leader, beyond fear and shame, beyond the program, the rituals, the schedule, the weekly meeting, beyond obligations and expectations, beyond "a thing with a name that has to be maintained," beyond the need to fix, the need to do, the need to solve and the need to prove, the need to know, the need to carry, the need to be heeded. And beyond all these I've found rest, joy, adventure, engaging relationships and unfolding seasons and the reality of living loved.
Buster by email
I just finished reading So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore. What an amazing book. There is so much I want to say but through my tears and thoughts and thankfulness all I can say is thank you. Thank you for listing to Father and writing a book that grabbed my very soul. I see myself in Jake. What a freeing and frightening read.
Bob in India
I want to take this opportunity to communicate the life changing impact your work has had on my ministry over these twenty-five years. Your teaching, books and relationship opened up the scriptures to me even though I'm seminary trained and have been in ordained ministry for forty-two years. The primary awakening started with the understanding of the shift from the old covenant to the new covenant and what that means for all believers.
Kevin in Australia
The copies of A Man Like No Other arrived this morning. They are just beautiful in every way! A beautifully written story of a beautiful man with beautiful illustrations and a beautiful production!! I can imagine they will be a great blessing to many families.
Louise by blog post "Religion is a social experiment to see how many hoops someone will jump through before they go postal." This is a quote from a little known, yet brilliant philosopher--my 15 year old son.
Carol from Scotland
I have just enjoyed He Loves Me, having stumbled upon it in a charity shop here in Glasgow where I live. I loved it and found it life/faith changing in that I felt, after 30 years as a Christian, I realised I had actually known far more 'about' Jesus which fell a long way short of the personal relationship with Him I longed for (and indeed, thought I had!). I'm delighted to say, that is changing now. I love what God is doing in my life through your ministry so, thank you from the bottom of my heart - but I want more! I love listening to the conferences you have very generously made freely available online - you just seem to 'get' what my struggles have been about all these years.
Katrina in the UK
I read a couple of your books about two years ago and they continue to have a profound effect on my life, the way I look at things in relation to church, duty, relationship. The truth in your books have just stuck with me and become part of me. It's hasn't always made life easy or comfortable as a result but it's definitely more life-giving, real and authentic.
Elina in Finland
Thank you for writing the book So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore. Now I can name some of those feelings and thoughts that I've been having but been unable to name. I'm also thankful for giving me ideas for new vocabulary that must substitute the old one which is so packed with old and perhaps wrong connotations. I'm so excited that I can find a real, meaningful life with God!
Greg from New Zealand
I wanted to say how encouraging Wayne's latest Living Loved newsletter was to both my wife & I. We've been on this journey for a couple of years and feel like we are just starting to "relax" into this relationship of living loved. Its great to be reminded of what real 'elders' look like. Reminded is probably the wrong word, as I don't think I've ever seen elders described so well, (especially not in the institution), but the more Wayne wrote about how real elders lives are characterised by authenticity, horizontal friendships, and hospitality, the more it resonated with me. When we fellowship with these types of people we are truly encouraged and built up and we want to meet with them again. There is a connect there and its a wonderful thing! We also have something that we can aspire to. Not in a striving way, but in a way that we can recognise in others and grow towards ourselves.
Renee in Oklahoma
I've been meaning to write you to tell you how much A Man Like No Other has been ministering to me. I read it during my sunrise with Jesus each morning. It's like I'm transported to a different time and place with Him and He speaks such wonderful things to my heart. The beautiful art work helps me to imagine each story more vibrantly. Your words and especially your questions give me much to ponder.
Pablo from Madrid
Thank you first to the Lord for the gifts He has given to you and second to you Wayne for the use of these gifts to bless so many people in their journey. I am one of this. Your books and articles have been and are a precious balsam, a tremendous encouragement and a profound motivation source to live my life closer to Jesus. I am widely distributing them around the people God has connect me and they are so blessed as well.
Eric in Florida
I just finished reading In Season: Embracing the Father's Process of Fruitfulness. This book is tied for first place among my all time favorite books. A must read!!"
Pete on the blog
Many thanks for this edition of Living Loved. A special thanks for not making this a "how-to" but very much a "He will"!
Claire in England
Many times since then I've felt at the end of my rope as far as reading the Bible. This August I was out for a run and listening to a God Journey podcast, You were reading a letter from someone who was advocating chucking out the Bible altogether. That was how I felt! Whist I have held onto a conviction that the Bible is a precious and valuable part of relationship with God, my experience in recent years has been that reading it leaves me frustrated and angry and unable to connect with God! Then, (I started listening to) The Jesus Lens. Why has no one ever told me it like this before?! Again, as with He Loves Me what I've been hearing makes so much sense. It seems so obvious! I'm beginning to get it! I am beginning to see the God I know there in the Bible. I love the story of the extravagant Father but it has often seemed at odds with the portrayal of God in the rest of the Bible. But to think that I could see it as a summary of the Bible's story. Well! That is such good news! That changes everything! I can actually say I'm beginning to get it!! Thank you for all the resources you've made available to people like me.