In this episode Lou Huesmann talks about one of the sources of our anxiety as human beings - the feeling that we should do more and be more. We face limitations - we are creatures created to be dependent on God, other people, and the earth. In our culture dependence is viewed negatively, yet God created us this way and declared it good - and Jesus took on our humanity and our finitude! God endorses our humanity! Our limitations therefore are not failures on our part, but the way we were created to be; we are designed for relationship and interdependence.

This episode was recorded on December 19, 2025.

In this episode, Ken Shuman interviews Scott Hescht, a Faithwalking coach and facilitator and a bivocational pastor, about the impact Faithwalking has had on his life and his ministry.

Scott shares that one way Faithwalking has had a major impact on his life is by helping him learn how to manage his anxiety, particularly by teaching him to slow down and reflect. As someone who is constantly thinking, processing, and analyzing, Faithwalking has given him healthier ways to engage these tendencies.

When it comes to his ministry, Scott shares, "Faithwalking has changed who I am as a pastor and helped me to pastor in a healthy way." One key shift has been learning to listen rather than fix. "I'm a much better listener now, rather than a fixer...Before, I thought it was my job to listen a little bit, give the answers, and wrap everything in a pretty bow" and send people on their way. Faithwalking helped him confront a deep fear of being responsible for people and their outcomes. " As a result, he has learned to love, listen to, and shepherd others without carrying a weight that was never his to bear. When asked what he would say to someone considering Faithwalking, Scott responds, "Think about the ways that you show up in life that you would rather show up differently, and imagine a world where it's actually possible to do that." Before Faithwalking, he says he often assumed those patterns were simply “just the way that I am” and would never change. "It's what following Jesus is all about - he defines us as new creations" and invites us to learn how to live into that reality. Faithwalking, he says, equips people to do exactly that. "It's what the Kingdom of God is all about."

This episode was recording in September 2025.

In this episode, Ken Shuman continues his series on shalom, inviting us to shift our focus away from our present reality—all the problems and everything that looks bleak and hopeless—and toward the vision of shalom. He encourages us to trust that God is still at work faithfully fulfilling his vision, and to live as people full of faith, hope, joy, grace, and love.

Two thousand years ago, people were waiting for the fulfillment of God’s shalom, and we are still waiting for its fullness today. Just as Jesus sent out his disciples, he continues to send us now—to be vision casters and equippers of shalom. Even as we wait for what is yet to come, we are invited to partner with him in creating shalom in the places where we live, work, and play today.

This episode was recorded on December 12th, 2025.

In this episode, Ken Shuman expands on his belief that the Old Testament idea of shalom is the same as the New Testament concept of the Kingdom of God. He notes, “Jesus came preaching the gospel of the Kingdom; he didn’t come preaching the plan of salvation.” He quotes John Franke, who says, “The Kingdom of God is a community of love where everyone has enough and no one needs to be afraid....The good news of the gospel is peace in the world and the end of violence and hostility that leads to death.”

Ken poses two questions to the group: “What does it look like to align our lives with shalom, with the Kingdom?” and “Who are the shalom makers?” Using scripture, he explores these questions and connects them to the work of Faithwalking, which is to "come alongside people and help them experience wholeness [shalom] in places in their lives where there is currently brokenness." "And," he says, "when our own wholeness begins to be restored, it opens the opportunity for us to be whole in our relationships with other people as well. So the good news is about God helping you get alignment in your life with his design, and then part of that design is we are going to live in relationship with other people - even people we disagree with - in ways that are more whole."

This episode was recorded on December 5th, 2025.

In this episode Ken continues his series on the Old Testament concept of shalom and what he argues is God's intended design for the world, further unpacking this beautiful vision. He talks about the idea of sin as shalom breaking (ref. Cornelius Plantinga) and explores a different way of thinking about sin - as corporate versus individual.

Imagine a world that is safe, free, whole, secure, prosperous (for everyone), just, reconciled, and complete, with all of creation living in harmony. This is the vision of shalom in scripture that we have to look forward to and we partner on mission with God to create!

This brief episode was recorded on November 21st, 2025.

In this episode Ken Shuman launches a series on the biblical vision of shalom, which reflects God’s intended design for the whole world. Shalom means wholeness, justice, and well-being for everyone, and this dream of shalom is filled with hope for a better future. When we get discouraged or depressed, we are reminded to return to this vision and have hope that God is at work; that we are invited to join God in this work; and that shalom can come and will come.
We are also reminded that we can't put our hope or trust in government and politicians to create shalom. When the Israelites were exiled in Babylon, the prophet Jeremiah urged them to seek the welfare of the city and to pray for it, because if Babylon experienced shalom, they too would share in that peace. We are called to do the same.This episode was recorded on November 14th, 2025.

In this episode Ken speaks with Willemina Zwart about her Faithwalking journey. Willemina is a pastor, ministry leader, and long-time Faithwalking Circle leader, facilitator, and coach who lives in Ontario, Canada.
Willemina highlights two Faithwalking tools that have particularly impacted her - addressing integrity gaps and the powerful work we do with vows. Speaking about integrity gaps she remarks, "If all of us in the Church world learned how to clean up our messes and live into new promises, that right there would change the nature of the Church in big ways." And knowing the language of vows has allowed her to be authentic with people more quickly, and she has discovered that people are naturally drawn to authenticity and to "wounded healers."
Willemina also speaks of the power of growing in awareness of our "meaning making." Realizing that we can choose the meaning we make in interpersonal situations has been pivotal for her. "What I love about meaning making is I choose the meaning that helps me show up with my best self in Christ." This has allowed her to give others the benefit of the doubt, and she now has the courage to step into a relationship and to be curious about what the story is...." She says this has been a game changer for her.
Looking back on her Faithwalking journey as a whole, Willemina affirms, "Faithwalking has really given me a framework and a community in which to be actively engaged in transformation regularly. And part of the reason why I stay in Faithwalking is - very selfishly - it's the way for me to keep learning, keep growing, keep reflecting - keeping me honest."
This episode was recorded in August 2025.

In this episode, Lou Huesmann unpacks a Substack post by Kathleen Smith called "Turning Off Your Anxious Scanner." In it Smith talks about the anxious habit of "scanning" - the emotionally driven monitoring of others - where, she states, the boundaries between our responsibility and others' blur. Lou connects scanning with overfunctioning - looking for something to fix in someone else - and points out that anxiety triggers us to focus on others and try to control them.

He shares, "I think it's easy to see people as characters - actors - in our own story and then to treat them as such as opposed to seeing them as people who inhabit their own unique stories." We get anxious when we perceive that others are not playing the role we want them to play in our story, so we try to fix them. Lou, and Smith, challenge us to learn how to show up differently in the midst of our anxiety and share some suggestions for doing so.

Lou wraps up by reflecting on the life of Jesus and how he always connected with people within their own unique stories, never anxiously scanning their behavior as if they were merely characters in his.

This episode was recorded on November 7th, 2025.

In this episode, Ken spends some time with the group in Luke. He points out that in spite of the threats posed to him by the religious leaders and by living under Roman occupation, Jesus was a consistently non-anxious presence. Moreover, he did not let himself get sucked into theological or political debates of the day. Rather, he regularly and consistently defined himself and the way of the Kingdom and stayed engaged, yet remained above the fray.

Ken shares with the group 7 ways we can define ourselves as followers of Jesus. He asks us to consider how we can live our lives in such a way that we are not at the mercy of anxiety. How can we show up daily as the best version of ourselves, no matter what is happening in the world around us? How can we exchange our expectations for our nation, the world, and our lives for hopes, accepting what is and managing ourselves well in the midst of it?

This episode was recorded on October 31st, 2025.

In this episode Ken Shuman speaks with Chris Jacobsen, a pastor of a congregation in Columbus, OH and a Faithwalking graduate who is also walking alongside members of his congregation and team as they engage in the Faithwalking process.
Chris shares that Faithwalking has impacted him in many ways - and perhaps most profoundly in his ministry. The Faithwalking process helped him become aware that he was leading with a lot of inauthenticity, saying and doing things that he thought were expected of him that were not true to who he was. He was able to discover his core values for himself and create guiding principles for his life that have changed the way he relates to others and the way he leads. He has also learned to recognize anxiety and shame when they descend and to get curious about what is going on in those moments of discomfort and how he would like to respond, which has led to transformation in himself and in his relationships.
Chris observes that the Faithwalking process has also given him the tools to navigate the high anxiety and division in the Church and in our world today with greater maturity. "There is a real tendency, especially when it comes to the Church, for folks to want to experience fusion of their beliefs with one another, and the feeling of, "Well, if you don't believe the same way I do on all these different things, then I can have no part of you and I can have no part of this church." Chris's desire is that members of his own congregation, other leaders, and people in our society at large will receive this gift of growing in emotional maturity and in their ability to engage with diversity in lifegiving ways, and that they will recognize that people who disagree with us "are not our enemies...they're just folks who - for one reason or another - have a different understanding, and that it doesn't make the other person a bad person, and it does not mean that they're someone we can't be in relationship with." Chris believes that Faithwalking has made him a more open-minded person with the tools to love others well - a tremendous gift.This episode was recorded in August 2025.

In this episode, Ken Shuman continues his teaching on loving our enemies from Matthew 23, and specifically on what it means to speak blessing over those who curse us. He explains that "speaking blessing" means speaking good words about a person, words of praise or blessing. At the same time - in a way that could be considered a contradiction if you don't look more closely - Christ denounces groups of people (not individuals) whose behavior is out of alignment with God's design. He does not address their theological or political beliefs, just the behaviors that can lead people away from the Kingdom. In summation, Ken states that Christ calls us to love our enemies by speaking blessing to those who are against us and by denouncing behaviors that are out of alignment with the way of Jesus.

This episode was recorded October 24th, 2025.

In this episode, Ken speaks on Luke 6:27-38, which he believes is at the heart of the message of Jesus and what life in the Kingdom is like - and perhaps the most challenging section of Scripture.

In this passage, Ken states, "Jesus invites us to love our enemies...and it's not so our enemies will change! " Christ expands on this by urging us to:

- Keep doing good to those who hate us

- Keep praying for those who mistreat us

- Speak blessings rather than curses on them

- Be kind even when it is not returned

- Be compassionate

- Not to bad-mouth people if we don't want to be bad-mouthed; to be forgiving if we want to be forgiven; not judge if we don't want to be judged; and to give, and it will be given to us.

And, Ken says, all of this is impossible without growing in our emotional maturity - and lots and lots of practice. Listen now for more on how we can show up in life in increasingly loving ways - even with our enemies.

This episode was recorded on October 17th, 2025.

In this episode, Ken Shuman speaks with Tammy DeRuyter about her Faithwalking journey. Tammy is a Faithwalking facilitator, coach, and former board member and Circle leader who is a middle school and high school teacher on the island of St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands.

Tammy credits Faithwalking with giving her the tools to manage anxiety in much healthier ways. She speaks of how anxiety affected her physically, mentally, and emotionally for so many years, and of learning through Faithwalking to become aware of her anxious patterns. Now she recognizes these patterns and can pause and calm herself in the midst of them, engaging her prefrontal cortex to get her thinking back in line, and allowing her to choose how she wants to respond.

At another point in the conversation, Tammy speaks of the stranglehold shame had on her for most of her life - until Faithwalking gave her the ability to recognize and combat her shame voice and she experienced a major breakthrough. Now she says she has the tools to no longer let shame sabotage her, and she can be fully her authentic self.

Tammy shares that one of the reasons she encourages others to try Faithwalking is that it is "an amazing opportunity to become more than you ever imagined yourself possibly becoming."

This episode was recorded in July 2025.

In this episode, Ken discusses Mark chapter 11 and the "triumphal entry" of Christ and relates it to what is going on in America today. There were two very different Jesuses Christians were choosing to follow - then and now. The people were crying out for a political king, a gladiator, a hero - and what they got instead was a humble servant on a donkey. They wanted a king of power, not the King of Peace.

Ken asked the group to consider what it looks like to be a person of peace even when people in our own faith communities want to pull us the other way. And he asked, "What kind of person will we be when things don't go the way we want?" We are now being presented an opportunity, he said, to go find the "people of peace" in our communities - and to partner with them to make a difference in this world.

This episode was recorded October 3rd, 2025.

In this episode, Ken Shuman speaks with Josh Kuipers, a Faithwalking graduate from Sioux Center, IA who is Director of Worship at Northwestern College. Josh credits Faithwalking with helping him understand himself more and more deeply so that he can live in integrity with who he is and who he wants to be. He shared that he has been in a really difficult season in recent years, with both the political landscape and the conflict that has stemmed from that at work that was burning him out and years of grieving the loss of one and then both of his parents. "Faithwalking has really been an anchor that has helped me stay in integrity to who I am even in this tumultuous, super hard time...." He celebrates that he is much less anxious and much more at peace, to the point that others have noticed and told him he seems like a different person! He also shares that the Faithwalking tool of establishing guiding principles in particular has changed the way he approaches decision making and how he relates with others. He is able to approach sensitive situations and conversations with intentionality and with much less reactivity, as he seeks to be calm and curious instead of making up unhelpful stories in his head about what is going on .

This episode was recorded in July 2025.

In this episode, Ken Shuman asks us what kind of person we want to be in the midst of the polarized, highly anxious, reactive culture we are in. He then spends time unpacking James 3:13-18 and the two distinct kinds of wisdom James talks about - earthly, "natural" wisdom and the wisdom that comes from God. Are we aligning ourselves with wordly wisdom or with the wisdom from above during these anxious times?

This episode was recorded on September 26, 2025.

In this episode, Ken Shuman speaks of how easy it is to throw diverse groups of people into one category, which results in polarization. You hear people in the US say or imply that "ALL conservatives are evil" or "ALL liberals are evil," and so forth. Lumping people together and labeling them comes too easily in our world. It is far too easy to get sucked into the anxiety out there and to take many things personally. Instead, Ken invites us - as we grow in emotional maturity - to quit labeling people and allow them to define themselves.

Ken then digs into the actual meaning of the word "evil," which may be surprising to some. And where the Bible speaks of evil, he says, it is about behavior - not the intrinsic value of people - and clearly evil behavior is demonstrated on both sides of the political aisle. Labels shame people at the level of their identity, whereas Scripture convicts us with regard to evil (destructive, injurious , malicious) behavior. For this, and for behavior leading to life, Isaiah 58 is instructive, and so Ken digs into this passage with the group.

Ken concludes by inviting us to align ourselves with the way of Jesus over any group, so that we might show up differently in the midst of the polarizing forces in our world.

This episode was recorded on September 19th, 2025.

In this episode, Ken Shuman speaks with Sherri Meyer-Veen, a pastor and long-time Faithwalking facilitator, coach, and Circle leader who lives in upstate New York, about her Faithwalking journey. In it Sherri reflects that Faithwalking was a "coming home" to her - coming home "to a committed community of people seeking to truly live our their faith." Faithwalking, for her, is about "seeking to be who God would want us to be in community with others over time." For Sherri Faithwalking is a learning community of deep transformation.Sherri also talks about how Faithwalking helps us learn how to manage ourselves - to grow in awareness of our triggers, our vows, our defensive routines, and how we respond in the midst of anxiety, so that we can slow ourselves down, engage our thinking brain, and choose more fully who we want to be and how we want to show up.

When asked what Faithwalking tools or learnings have meant the most to her, one of the things she shares is that Faithwalking has really helped her with learning to see the impact of her anxious response of overfunctioning - how it was hurting those around her and the systems she was a part of. She asserts that it has been incredibly powerful for her to grow in awareness of these patterns and to learn to choose to be different in the midst of them.

This episode was recorded in June 2025.

In this episode, guest speaker, FW board member, and member of the Keep Calm community Lou Huesmann explains that self-differentiation requires clarity about what really matters to us. If we are not really clear on our values, we will be influenced and pressured by the values of everyone around us. According to Edwin Friedman, self-differentiation is the ability to claim your goals and values in the midst of surrounding togetherness pressure. To help make this concept more tangible, Lou wraps up by sharing some wonderful guiding principles - or values - from author Jenny Brown in her book Growing Yourself Up.

This episode was recorded on September 12, 2025.

In this episode, Ken Shuman digs deeper into the concept of differentiation in relationships by speaking of what we mean when we say we are "close" to someone. "Typically," he states, "people define closeness as sameness." Ken unpacks this notion and asks the group how they behave when they discover someone they feel close to is different, or when that person disappoints them. What do they do with their anxiety? And how can we increase our capacity to let others be exactly who they are and to be exactly who we are ourselves?

This episode was recorded on September 5th, 2025.