S2 Ep1: What If Reconciliation Takes Longer Than You Want?

We come back after a long break to share why we paused, what changed in our team, and how God kept working through transition. We talk honestly about the messy middle of reconciliation and why biblical unity grows through patience, trust, and Spirit-led conversations.

Be sure to follow our podcast to stay up to date on our newest episodes. If your community needs training or encouragement, please reach out to us by email: info@bereconciledlexington.org or visit our website at bereconciledlexington.org, where you can also learn more about our vision.

Transcript

Welcome Back And Why We Paused

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Be Reconcile Podcast, where we help followers of Jesus love biblical unity, live out reconciliation, and lead the conversations. Hey guys, we are back. I know we've been gone for a long time. It's probably longer than maybe you were expecting, but we are back. And we want to give you a little context of why we have been gone for the time that we have been and kind of update you on what's going on with Be Reconcile and hopefully give a little hope for what God is doing for the future with Be Reconciled. Let's just talk a little bit about what has kind of happened in this year and some. A lot of changes, a lot of transitions, good things, but we definitely want to let you know that God has definitely been working in our lives and in the lives of so many people through the work of Be Reconciled. And we want to share that with you. So this particular episode is really just a catch-up of ways that we haven't really shared, but we're going to share now so that moving forward, we can talk about those topics that really jump into reconciliation similar to what we were doing in past podcasts.

Grace’s Transition Off The Mic

SPEAKER_01 1:24

So first, uh we just kind of want to share that typically when you are listening for the past podcast, there was a third voice that you would hear with us, Grace, and we love Grace. And Grace is such a blessing, and she has been a blessing, and she continues to be a blessing to us. But there's been so much has happened in her life where she still would be reconciled. It just looks different. She will not be as you won't hear her voice as much. Be cool if we maybe we can have her back, you know, sometime as a little guest. That's right. But as of now, she's kind of transitioned out of that particular role that she was in, and she has moved and she's doing some really great things just in the ministry and other places. But it was it was sad to see her shift. A lot of tears. Lots of tears. Um, but again, we love her and we're still connected to her. She's our dear friend. And yes, we wanted to share that because that's kind of a one of a you know, larger update. You're not gonna hear her voice as much on this podcast. Um, and then also tell them a little bit about the pilot program or

The Pilot Program And Learning Pace

SPEAKER_01 2:31

something.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

Yeah, so once we sort of had that transition point, that kind of shifted some of the podcasting time because uh Grace's was our systems person, website person, everything Grace person. And so that slowed us down in regarding to uh some of the things we were doing with Be Reconciled. So, with that, there came a moment where things sort of revitalized after the Lord was taking us through some of the details of what we had to walk through to kind of really learn to walk out this reconciliation in our own many ways. Back in November of 24, about a year ago, we'd uh there's just a sense to start a pilot program. So we did a we did a pilot program in I think it was February to April of 25. Yeah. And uh had a group of I think it was about 16 people that joined us. So we had two separate groups, and it was amazing. A lot of data from that, a lot of insights from that, a lot of great things that we experienced. It was it was phenomenal. And so it really taught us about some of the things that we're doing and just gave us some I don't know if we could validation and uh verification and confirmation and every other shun that's there that could help us to really say that okay, Lord, you've you're doing the work. You're doing the work. With that in mind, we we recognize the slowness and slowness may sound bad, but the slowness of our ministry to where that even if God's reconciliation story took thousands of years, if you think about it, from sin entering to the world to Jesus coming. There's a slowness in this ministry, but there's a vitality and importance and pieces of this ministry of reconciliation that just needs to be worked out a certain way. And so we had to learn that tempo and that pace, and from that, it just basically led us to a place of realizing that God has called us. We are, we were still doing be reconciled, be reconciled is still on our hearts. We want to see a city change, we do want to do everything according to our vision. But it just brought us to a place of um realizing that the Lord was sort of repositioning us, recalibrating us, kind of guiding us a certain direction, and that kind of led us to just kind of where we are now.

Meeting Chelsea And God’s Timing

SPEAKER_02 4:43

With um we have a dear friend, awesome, gifted, amazing uh friend of ours, Chelsea Wisely, that joined us.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

So Chelsea.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

And um, she's here. Um say hello for us, Chelsea.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Hey everybody.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

Hey girl. Well, we'll uh let you hear from Chelsea in just a minute, but uh there was an interesting story that sort of got us connected to Chelsea. It really was one of those stories that God really was orchestrating a lot. So as we're mourning the transition of our sister to go on to do the great things the Lord has for her of Grace, transition seeing Grace transition, here comes Chelsea one day reaching out, and this isn't a new relationship that she's just kind of reaching out at that time. Yeah, at that time, and she's just kind of saying, Hey, I feel the Lord is wanting to let me give you to give you a little bit of my time to you guys. We're like okay, and then it gets deeper and there's more, and it's become an absolute God blessing of this ministry and this work of what Chelsea has done. And so is that well, first of all, I want to transition to Chelsea in a minute, but am I catching most of the highlights?

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Yeah, I mean, I think so. I think it'll be it'll be great to maybe I don't know if this episode, but talk a little more about the Power Program. Yeah. It would be great if we could have one of the participants come on. That'd be great. Because people's lives were definitely changed, and Chelsea was a part of that process as well. And I think that helps to not only give encouragement to those that are listening, but to know that God is still moving in those hard places in our lives, specifically in relational breaks, and he's still moving to bring reconciliation. So we have a lot of really great testimonies from the pilot program. And yeah, so Chelsea is a huge part of that, and she has been with us and helped us through thinking through what's next, and you know, really the Lord in all of our lives, just teaching us this really deeper levels of what does it mean to be reconciled people. So, so Chelsea, please introduce yourself to the people.

Building The Pilot Sessions In Unity

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Um, even just tell them a little bit about like what, you know, drew your heart to want to get connected with us.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

My name's Chelsea Wisely. I am so glad to be here, so excited to be doing this. We've been talking for a while about starting the podcast backup, and the Lord kind of gave the nudge and said it's time. So it's exciting. Just a little bit about how I came on with Be Reconciled. It's funny. I had known about you guys a long time before I met you. I had seen one of your conferences advertised. I don't know if you remember that. And I really wanted to go, but we had a conflict that weekend. So I had even forwarded it on to some of my friends and said, look at this, this looks so cool. Like, look at this organization. I had checked out your website page and all that. So I had a context for what you were doing before I even actually knew you. And then uh met you guys through church and we started hanging out some outside of church a little bit, a few double dates, tremendous. Wow, you really wanted to have like those culinary experiences. We were trying so hard to to create those those great atmospheres and the good food. But I think Candace, you had asked me if I was interested in being in on an advisory board for Be Reconciled. And I think we had only had a couple meetings, so I was still really learning what Be Reconciled was about. I had my framework of what I thought it was about based on the website, but obviously we'd had a few more conversations, and I think it was the second advisory board meeting I was in, and Grace shared that she was um transitioning to a different role. And I just heard the Holy Spirit really strongly urging me to offer your time to them. And what's interesting is, you know, at that point I wasn't really used to hearing the Holy Spirit in that way with that kind of clarity. But it felt so clear, not exactly an audible voice in the room, but as close to that as you can get is what it was just wow, okay, the Lord really wants me to do this. And so I asked the Lord and he confirmed it. And I remember I texted y'all and said, Can we FaceTime? And I said, I don't know what this means, but I feel like the Lord's told me to offer you some time. Like, what can I help with? How can I jump in? And I think that just kind of evolved over time as we all just said yes to that, and it became clear that admin was an area that y'all were wanting some extra help with. We need your help, yeah. Yeah. So I started doing some admin stuff, and then kind of simultaneously the Lord put the pilot program on our hearts around the same time, and that's really was one of my favorite periods of time from that like November, I think November 9th.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

Yeah was you remember the date.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

So I have this tendency to get up early in the morning and write up stuff and kind of send it to them and say, Hey, have this thought. And so that's what happened that morning. Uh I woke up early and gave him Chelsea and said, What do you think about this? This eight-page document.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Yeah, you brought that document, and this whole idea was birthed, and immediately reading it, I was just like, This is good. This is gonna be good. And so that period from November to February, I think at that point we had established a rhythm of meeting, right? Once a week. Yep. And just seeking the Lord, what do you want next for be reconciled? And we were doing some admin things, but kind of like you talked about that slowness. We were like, okay, Lord, what's next? What's next? And then it kind of felt like he dropped that. He did, you know, really clearly for all of us. But that that uh few months of us seeking the Lord and like really allowing him to kind of download his vision for the pilot program. That was one of the sweetest periods of time.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

And they keep painting a little picture, is like we we were having our weekly meetings and we would just hash out session by session, really seek the Lord. There's sometimes the Lord, it's like he just hijacked hijacked our conversation and we're like, ooh, that was good. And we're kind of writing it down. Chelsea writing stuff down, I'll be writing stuff down. And Candace has a great memory, so we we we were She's gonna call me out, but I I wasn't taking notes.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

She wasn't taking notes.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

He's saying you were so good you didn't have to take notes. Yeah, you were so good you didn't need to memory.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

I said great. I praised you in heaven grace, such a great memory. But we were just, I mean, it was such a life-giving time for the three. It was rich. And the Holy Spirit just really just spoke to us. And yeah, yeah, it's a great combination of just what you know you've brought to the table for us. And she really just anchored us and moved us forward to say, Well, what about this and what about this? And it was it was great.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

I just remember there would be many times we would come in with an idea of what we thought the Lord was gonna say, and then we would sit with the Lord and He would say something totally different, but it was always like communicated to all of us, and that was really sweet and building unity of us just feeling clearly led by Holy Spirit. No, this is where we're going.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Yeah, and I love how you said just the process built unity among us because that was in the DNA, I believe, of the pilot program. Of the the process of building something together, a lot of the participants when they went through were like, wow, we can sense just how you guys were so unified when you guys were doing the sessions, which I believe it was because of the formation of the pilot program.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

That's right. Yeah, so then you helped us rewrite the pilot certain um the process guy? Yes. So you've got to know this that Chelsea is an amazing writer, absolutely amazing, gifted, editorial in so many ways. I mean, there's things when she's helped me write some of my other works that I'm like, how in the world did you pick that up? Places where she can feel some of my vulnerabilities and securities coming out on the page. She was like, Are you afraid to really go there? I'm like, Yeah. She's like, okay, stop that. You need to write it to you.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Stop that. That's how I said it. Stop that.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Exactly, exactly. Her mom, her mama would come out. Now, by the way, y'all don't know. I don't, she doesn't share this yet, but she is married with kiddos.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

That's true. I alluded with the date night. There was somebody, somebody else. Somebody's dating with us.

unknown 13:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

That would be a little weird and straight.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

I didn't say anything about the kids, though.

SPEAKER_02 13:25

But um all that that was a sidebar. But just this thought of her writing capacity and what she's done with the process guide has been amazing. Absolutely amazing. So thank you, of course. So it's kind of give you all just an idea of just some of the things that she's brought, the life she's brought to be reconciled, the details of what has just enhanced us. And there's even more, more to come. We're still in process and still working out our all of us, all of our relationships. And I guess that's kind of interesting question. And because here's today, we're just kind of introducing, getting us back on, getting you all listening again to our voices and bringing you back to the be reconciled

Letting Go Of Control To Trust God

SPEAKER_02 14:01

world. Um Chelsea, what are some things that you feel like the Lord is speaking to you about or you're thinking about towards being reconciled? Things you're excited about about this journey where we're going. I didn't prepare you for this, but putting you on the spot to think about. You can think about think it out loud if you need to. But um, we're excited about what's next. Some of this, especially this podcast. This podcast is gonna be good. You're gonna hear some real neat things that we the Lord really has been doing some transformative work in us together, and you'll hear the unity coming across as we talk. But um, Chelsea, I'd love to hear some of your thoughts and then um some final thoughts, and we'll kind of just transition and go from there.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

So the question is, what am I excited about with what the Lord's doing with me reconciled? Yes. Okay. I think I'm just learning to embrace the adventure that it is to walk with Holy Spirit. It's been really transformative for me because I'm, you know, y'all know this. Our listeners don't know this unless you know me, but I'm very wired as like a planner and I like structure and I like things to go a certain way. And I think God is a God of order, but like most things, it's both and. There's so much mystery in the things of God, and there's so much for us to find and discover and know about him, but we have to kind of take that framework of whatever box we're trying to put him in and just kind of lay that down and be open to him showing us what he wants to show us about himself, how he wants to show us, in whatever way that he deems best. And so for me, this whole thing has been an adventure. I mean, I talked about it a little bit with the pilot program where we would show up with kind of our plan or our agenda. And over and over again, the Lord just teaching us, okay, that seems best to you, but my ways are higher and my ways are better, and and we're gonna do this. And it would just be these wild, like ideas that just clearly came from the Lord, and watching him again do that in that place of unity where he's kind of sh putting the same kind of sensings on our hearts. Um, it's just grown my faith in such a profound way. Being able to lay down so many of those frameworks, it's been painful and messy and very hard at times, but also just really refreshing to see my own self-sufficiency die in that process again and again. And my own kind of those frameworks of boxing got in, and here's what I think it's supposed to be and how it's supposed to look like, and him just saying, No, I have more to show you. I'm just inviting you in for more and more. And so there's been throughout that process a natural human resisting to that, the the struggle, if you will. But now it's like I'm finally learning, not always, not perfectly, but often to be in this place of okay, God, whatever you got next, I'm here for the ride. And so I think I'm just excited to lean more into that freedom of what it is to trust the Lord, because trusting the Lord really is kind of a free fall, but it's like once you embrace it, you get to just enjoy that that whole ride. And so I'm just excited to see him reveal more, um, open up doors I wouldn't have dreamed of for myself or for this ministry. I'm excited to see him kind of work in that unifying way where he's just um truly reminding us what it is to be a people with one heart.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

Yeah. Well, Miss Candace, is there anything you want to sort of share getting excited about this new podcast season that uh we've got ahead of us?

SPEAKER_01 17:52

Yeah, I mean, I really believe that so many things that we experience are not just to us or for us. It really helps other people to be able to identify that the Lord is also working in their life, even in the messy and the uncomfortable. And so I'm actually encouraged because I know that even right now and the things that we have gone through in this past year and some are gonna help to encourage so many people through the challenge, the endurance, the difficulty, but also seeing how God can use all of those things for his good. And sometimes we want this pretty little bow to be on the end of our stories, and sometimes it's it's not. It's still undone and it's still um in progress, but God is still working and he's still moving. So I'm excited as we kind of dive into these topics that are really tender to people's hearts. Because, I mean, I some of you who are listening, you are in places where you're wanting reconciliation in your relationships, in your family, in your marriage, in your churches. There's so much brokenness that we see, and knowing that God has given us what we need, and we're not alone in that. So I'm just excited to encourage those that are listening, and we encourage each other as we share our stories.

SPEAKER_02 19:13

Likewise, I love what you both just mentioned. It's just it's phenomenal to see. I love how you're talking about the adventure, Chelsea. And then Candace, you're talking about just the encouragement. It's it's interesting, it's coming out with both of your identities, just as that place of encouragement and adventure and all these things. But you know, I'm I'm excited likewise of just great

Biblical Unity And Leading Hard Talks

SPEAKER_02 19:34

things to come. I do want to bring reminder for those that haven't listened. I encourage you to go back to listen to our other 10 episodes that we have, but to think about and see it in the context of our vision. Part of our vision, we're helping believers learn how to do this thing of loving biblical unity, living out reconciliation, and leading the conversations. And then having to remember that to love biblical unity. We're not talking about unity that the world has articulated in the way that they've articulated, we're talking about the biblical constructs, frameworks, patterns of what we see in the Bible. Candice, what you said. Sometimes this pretty bow at the end is kind of the Hollywood version of unity. But the Bible doesn't necessarily always show that that that pretty bow at the end. It can be messy. It can be messy, having to live in that tension. And then the living out reconciliation is now saying, how do we practically really walk this out? There are some real things that we have to walk out. And sometimes it's gonna take effort and not laziness. It's gonna take us seeking the Lord and getting his perspective. I think one of you mentioned that, just kind of getting his perspective on the matter, as opposed to I'm just gonna take my natural thinking of what I think and go from there. But what does God really say about it? But then um leading the conversations. This should be an the goal is hopefully to be an empowering journey where we find ourselves saying, Oh, I know how to lead these conversations, I know how to steer this conversation, guide the conversation, trust God in the conversation, not respond a certain way. Because sometimes our responses aid in foolishness. All of us do it. But to know there's sometimes the Lord is like, uh-uh, you don't need to engage, you don't need to engage. And sometimes that's a part of the unity journey, the reconciliation journey. Because he's trying to do a work that he's got to work on someone else's heart first before we just speak our minds or say what we want to say. He very well may be saying, uh-uh, not a place for you, sir, or ma'am, not a place for you. So in that I'm looking forward to even seeing how in this time period in this season, we really just talk out some of the things that have come out of the fruit of our lives, which I'm excited about. Any other comments or thoughts before we sort of end this sort of first?

Thanks For Listening And How To Connect

SPEAKER_01 21:45

Well, thank you for joining us. Thank you for not forgetting about us. We're still here. We just, you know, you know, live life a little bit and we're excited because we know that the Lord is wanting to bring some things that are gonna encourage you and strengthen you on your journey of reconciliation as well.

SPEAKER_02 22:03

That's right. That's right. All right. Well, until next time, thanks for tuning in to the Be Reconciled Podcast. We'll see you later.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

Bye, everybody. Thanks so much for listening. We hope this conversation encouraged you today. Be sure to follow our podcast to stay up to date on our newest episodes.

SPEAKER_02 22:22

If your community needs training or encouragement, please reach out to us by email at info at breconciledlexanton.org or by visiting our website, bereconciledlexington.org, where you can also learn more about our vision. The offended restores the offender. Until next time, friends, peace.