Followed By Mercy
The Followed By Mercy Podcast
Real Grace, Honest Hope
You might notice a new name and a fresh look, but the heart behind this podcast is the same. After years as the World Evangelism Podcast, I sensed God leading me to a deeper, more personal path centered on His relentless mercy and the kind of honest hope that can reach into every hurting place. That’s why this show is now called Followed By Mercy Podcast. The format may shift, and the tone may be a bit more personal, but my mission hasn’t changed: I still believe the world desperately needs to hear the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ. You are welcome here if you’ve been with me from the beginning or just found us now.
What if God’s love is more personal, stubborn, and relentless than you ever imagined?
Welcome to The Followed By Mercy Podcast, where we get honest about pain, hope, and the kind of grace that finds you right where you are, five days a week. This isn’t about religious performance or church routines. It’s for anyone who’s ever felt worn out, unseen, or unsure if they belong in the story of God’s love. Every conversation is rooted in this reality: God loves you right now, just as you are, and He isn’t giving up on you.
Here’s what you’ll find in every episode:
Experience God’s Relentless Love
Every show starts by reminding you that the Shepherd knows your name, cares about your story, and isn’t offended by your failures or questions. This is personal—it’s about God’s unwavering affection for you.
Find Your Place in His Heart
Once you grasp how fiercely you’re loved, sharing that love with others doesn’t feel forced. It becomes the most natural thing in the world. Real grace overflows.
Prayer That Changes You
We pray together—not just for the world “out there,” but for the battles and hopes you’re carrying right now. These prayers are honest, rooted in Scripture, and meant for hearts that need a gentle touch from the Shepherd.
Discover Your Unique Role
Whether you’re called to go, give, serve, or show kindness in your corner of the world, God’s mercy meets you where you are. You’re not just a bystander. You are His beloved, invited into the story He’s writing.
When life knocks the wind out of you, this is a place to catch your breath. You’ll hear the encouragement that meets you on your hardest days, and your honest questions will be welcomed. No pretending, no heavy-handed advice—just the reminder that your Shepherd is right there with you, walking every step with you, even when you feel like giving up.
Why does this matter? Because some days, it feels like nobody sees you or cares what you’re going through. But the truth is, you have a Shepherd who never takes His eyes off you, lets you slip through the cracks, and never gives up on you. That kind of love can put you back on your feet, and it might be the hope someone else is waiting to see in you, too.
If you’re longing for more than just religious talk—if you want to know you’re not alone and that God’s mercy is following you all the way home, you’re in the right place. Whether you listen in the car, on a walk, or in a quiet moment, let every episode remind you: God’s mercy is after you right now, ready to bring real grace and honest hope.
Subscribe today and join a community to discover what happens when loved people become loving people. The journey’s just beginning, and there’s a place for you here.
Followed By Mercy
Guiding with Heart: The Power of Transparent Leadership
Can you imagine the power of leading with love and authenticity? In this episode, we unlock the secrets to training leaders by allowing them the freedom to grow. Broadcasting from vibrant Medellin, Colombia, we explore the transformative impact of transparency and vulnerability in mentorship. Discover how sharing your real self, including your weaknesses, can inspire those you guide, making you a relatable and effective mentor.
We also discuss the importance of supporting future leaders in their unique journeys without imposing our own visions on them. Whether someone aspires to be a pastor, a Sunday school teacher, or anything else, our role is to provide the guidance they seek, not to dictate their path. Learn how to respect and nurture the individual aspirations and limits of those you mentor, ensuring they realize their full potential and feel empowered in their calling.
Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
Well, I've been coming to you from Medellin, colombia, and I've been trying to talk to you a little bit about training men, and I thought today I would just make a couple of more comments. We discussed Having a loose rein. Don't try to control people when you train people. Leaders in training are leaders. Leaders in training are leaders. And since they're leaders in training and are already leaders, they won't do well with a tight control. So teach them and love them and tie them down, but with chains of love and not with orders and commands. And let them know the real you. Let them know you. Your weaknesses are going to help them more than your strengths, because when they see that you are so much above them, then they don't think they can. But when they see you're like them, they realize maybe God could use me. So you and I want to be transparent and open. Now, it's risky to do that. If you share your heart and share everything about you, it's risky to do that, but it's still what we want to do.
W. Austin Gardner:The next thing I'd like to share with you briefly is you can only take a person as far as they want to go. You know, and you need to kind of be uncomfortable but comfortable with that. So you'll start training some guys and you really believe you see leadership in them. You see that they may become the pastor or missionary or evangelist. But as you work with them they start dropping off Somewhere along the way. One of them will say you know, I just want to be a regular church member. Another will drop off and say I just want to be a Sunday school teacher or a deacon or whatever it is that they want to do.
W. Austin Gardner:You're not the one that calls them. You're not the one that places them. You're not the one that makes that decision. All you do is help them be all God wants them to be, and that's not your call. I don't get to decide who gets to be a preacher. I don't get to decide who's going to make it in the ministry. All I get to decide is I'll help you as much as you want me to help you, as far as you want me to help you, and I'll do everything in my power to help you be what you feel like God wants you to be.
W. Austin Gardner:So I'd like to tell you that when you're training leaders, you got to be careful to realize that you can't determine how far they go. You can only determine how much help you give them. You can't determine how they're going to respond to the help you're giving them. They'll determine how much they want to respond to that help. So help them as far as you can to do all that they can do, all that they want to do. So they will be satisfied with pastoring a church and running 50 in church and others will be satisfied being a Sunday school teacher with 10, and others will want to be a missionary or pastor of a large church and you can train. But remember your job is to be there to take them as far as they want to go. They're like children and I don't mean that in any way insulting, but you know our children have different abilities and different desires. One wants to be an artist, another wants to be a mathematician, one wants to be electronically no-transcript.