Ministry Deep Dive

The Christmas season is a time of generosity and one of the greatest examples of generosity is found in Mary, the mother of Jesus. She personified generosity, but not in the financial sense. She was generous in the sense of giving up herself, her reputation, and her status in the immediate moment, to serve and fulfill the purpose of God. Her life is a lesson for us in generosity and service. But how? That's what we are talking bout today on Apollos Watered. Sign up for the Apollos Watered newsletter.Check out our YouTube channel.Help support the ministry of Apollos Watered and transform your world today!

C.S. Lewis has had a huge influence on so many people. He was a man that so many still read and influenced their walk with Jesus. Travis welcomes Jerry Root to the show! Jerry is a renaissance man, one of the people you want to sit down with and have a cup of coffee, and simply soak up the wisdom. We talk about Christ, culture, Christianity, C.S. Lewis, and practical tools for sharing the Gospel in our modern world. It's a conversation that will feed your soul. Learn more about Jerry. Sign up for the Apollos Watered newsletter.Check out our YouTube channel.Help support the ministry of Apollos Watered and transform your world today!Takeaways: Travis Michael Fleming and Jerry Root explore the profound influence of C.S. Lewis on contemporary evangelism and the Christian faith. The dialogue emphasizes the essential role of storytelling and imagination in effective evangelism, as exemplified by Lewis's literary works. Jerry Root articulates the necessity of addressing profound existential questions as a means to engage others in spiritual discussions. Both speakers highlight the importance of community and shared inquiry in nurturing faith and understanding in the context of evangelism. The conversation sheds light on how C.S. Lewis's writings provide a vocabulary for articulating deep spiritual longings and existential questions. Travis and Jerry reflect on personal experiences that illustrate the transformative power of listening and asking meaningful questions in evangelistic conversations.

We love a good story and each one of us has the Divine Author weaving it together for our good. My story. Your story. Our story. God has woven our stories together to transform lives around the world. None of us can do it by ourselves. We need one another. That's why we want to have stories of generosity of supporting the work of God so that others' lives might be changed and their stories reflect God's peace, purpose, and presence. Listen in as Travis shares how we can continue to partner to water thirsty souls worldwide. Sign up for the Apollos Watered newsletter.Check out our YouTube channel.Help support the ministry of Apollos Watered and transform your world today!

In this second part of our conversation w/John Hannigan, Executive Director of Celebrate Kids. In our previous conversation, we learned his story—how he grew up in the church and struggled with same-sex attraction and sought help but found none. In his late teens, he was done fighting his desires and urges and decided to pursue the life he desired away from God. But God wasn't done with John, and pursued him and brought him back to Himself. Today we’re shifting gears in our conversation, moving from John’s story, to how that story has equipped him as a dad and a ministry leader to help parents deal with difficult issues. How do we approach education and entertainment, how do we tell a story of sin and redemption to our kids? How do we as parents help our kids to become what God intends them to be? How do we reach out to that friend or family member in love while still holding to the truth of Scripture?John’s story forces us to confront whether or not we are really ready to love our neighbors. It also provides us with a unique insight into how to approach these thorny issues. This is a conversation about desire, pain, freedom, identity, and hope. The first part: #132 | Redemption & LGBTQ: Becoming A Man of God, Pt. 1 | John HanniganLearn more about Celebrate Kids.More on LBGTQ+: #44 | Posh, Pleasures, & Pain: The Life of a Social Media Influencer Turned Christ, Pt. 1 | Sandra Poenar#45 | Posh, Pleasures, & Pain: The Life of a Social Media Influencer Turned Christ, Pt. 2 | Sandra Poenar#78 | Love Thy Body, Pt. 1 | Nancy Pearcey#79 | Love Thy Body, Pt. 2 | Nancy Pearcey#83 | What God Says About Our Bodies? | Sam AllberryLearn more about Celebrate Kids.Sign up for the Apollos Watered newsletter.Check out our YouTube channel.Help support the ministry of Apollos Watered and transform your world today!

Join this week's episode as Wayne Stender, our podcast producer, interviews Travis and Melissa Fleming about their story and the Apollos Watered Missioholistic approach to faith. There are so many issues that are facing Christians and the church today that it seems overwhelming. Church members are tired, some have deconstructed and left the faith altogether and pastors are burning out. What's the solution? Better yet, what is the problem? How did we get here? Why is the church in the West in the mess it's in right now? Having served in a variety of contexts with different cultures and in churches of various sizes, the Flemings have seen and experienced the pitfalls of our modern Western church firsthand and have a better path forward-the missioholistic approach. This is a fascinating and behind-the-scenes, firsthand look at the mission and heartbeat of Apollos Watered. It's a conversation about passion and the hope of renewal for the church going forward, to not just survive, but thrive!Sign up for the Apollos Watered newsletter.Check out our YouTube channel.Help support the ministry of Apollos Watered and transform your world today!

Travis welcomes John Hannigan to the show. John is the Executive Director of Celebrate Kids, a ministry dedicated to offering peace to anxious students, extending hope to depressed teens, and providing encouragement to discouraged moms and dads who want the best for their children. John is a unique, fun, larger-than-life personality that has God's grace written all over his life. John's story is one that bears hearing. He knows firsthand the brokenness of life and the failures of the church in helping navigate the brokenness. As a result, he left the church behind and went off to pursue a life away from God (and becoming a drag queen in the process) but God wasn't done with him. John's story is one of great pain and sorrow but one of even greater hope, joy, and redemption. Before Celebrate Kids, John served businesses and families for over twenty years. Married to his best friend, Melissa, and father to four wonderful kids, he is filled with a zest for life and making God's kingdom known all over the world, whether he is leading mission trips to Puerto Rico, serving families in his local church, guiding strategy and vision sessions with his clients, or taking his family on a spontaneous trip while keeping everyone laughing, John glorifies God each day by using the talents and gifts he has been given. The second part: #134 | Redemption & LGBTQ: Becoming A Man of God, Pt. 2 | John HanniganLearn more about Celebrate Kids.More on LGBTQ+: #44 | Posh, Pleasures, & Pain: The Life of a Social Media Influencer Turned Christ, Pt. 1 | Sandra Poenar#45 | Posh, Pleasures, & Pain: The Life of a Social Media Influencer Turned Christ, Pt. 2 | Sandra Poenar#79 | Love Thy Body, Pt. 2 | Nancy Pearcey#83 | What God Says About Our Bodies? | Sam AllberrySign up for the Apollos Watered newsletter.Check out our YouTube channel.Help support the ministry of Apollos Watered and transform your world today!

The values of our modern world are individualism, productivity, and efficiency, and while not bad things in themselves, they have so crept into our Christian experience unnoticed. In fact, they have been adopted and Christianized--used to justify ministry, busy-ness, and the inhumanity of man. What if God wants something altogether different for us? What if He wants us to not only make disciples but be disciples? That's what we are talking about today! Travis welcomes Kelly Kapic to the show and they discuss what it means to be human in the midst of an inhuman world. Enjoy some laughs and deep thoughts that are sure to help you understand your place in your world!Learn more about Kelly. Get the book.Sign up for the Apollos Watered newsletter.Help support the ministry of Apollos Watered and transform your world today!

Do you ever feel guilt and shame at the end of the day for not getting stuff done? Why? Why do we feel like we can do everything and be everything? We know that we have limitations and yet we live and think that we do not. Have we believed something about ourselves that is wrong? Perhaps we have forgotten something about ourselves that we are creatures with limitations and that is a good thing? Travis welcomes Kelly Kapic to the show and they discuss what it means to be human in the midst of an inhuman world. Can we recover a better perspective about who we are and who God desires us to be? Yes! Yes! Yes!Listen in to this stress-relieving, shame-shedding, and guilt-reducing conversation that takes us back to the Garden to rediscover our origin story and our humanity. Enjoy some laughs and deep thoughts that are sure to help you understand your place in your world!Learn more about Kelly. Get the book.Sign up for the Apollos Watered newsletter.Help support the ministry of Apollos Watered and transform your world today!

Our tagline is simple: "Water your faith. Water your world." But for us, it's more than a slogan. It's what we want to help people do. What does it mean to have your faith watered? And then in turn, what does it mean to water your world? What does it look like in everyday life? During the month of November, you will be hearing various stories of people whose lives were in desperate need of water. God led them to Apollos Watered so that we could do what God has purposed us to do and that is water faith wherever it is found. When faith is watered, when we are filled, we overflow to others. Hear Corrie's story as she talks about how her faith was dry, how God watered it, and how God used her to water another whose life has been changed by Jesus. Sign up for the Apollos Watered newsletter.Help water thirsty souls around the world by partnering with Apollos Watered

Travis welcomes Alan Noble to the show as they discuss his book You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World. Once again they discuss what it means to live in our modern-day world. They discuss our fixation w/ self-medication, technique, the burden of self-justification, and guys like Charles Taylor, Jacques Ellul, and Zygmunt Bauman-fun names to say, eh? These are deep thinkers who were insightful to step back and examine our modern world and how it is shaping us. There are promises of having a better life, of being a better you, of fill-in-the-blank that is going to make your life better and give you a more concrete and complete identity. But what if those promises are simply symptoms of something deeper and more sinister? What if they represent an incorrect view of the world that promise freedom but leads to tyranny instead? And if tyranny, how can we find freedom from it? That is what Travis and Alan talk about in today's episode of Apollos Watered! Learn more about Alan. Get the book.Sign up for the Apollos Watered newsletter.Help support the ministry of Apollos Watered and transform your world today!Takeaways: In our churches, we must ask ourselves how we are mutually supporting one another in our faith journeys, as this is essential for sustaining our spiritual lives. The modern burden of self-justification arises from societal pressures that compel us to define ourselves, leading to anxiety and discontent. Understanding that we belong to God rather than being our own liberates us from the exhausting pursuit of self-definition and perfection. The concept of efficiency permeates our lives, often overshadowing deeper values such as love, beauty, and community, which are essential for holistic living. In a culture obsessed with technique, we must recognize that there is not always one correct way to navigate life's complexities, especially in parenting and personal relationships. Ultimately, true freedom and peace are found in surrendering to God's guidance and nurturing authentic relationships within our communities.