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
Walking with Purpose: The Power of Intentional Mentorship
How can we redefine mentoring to make a deeper, lasting impact on those we guide? This episode explores the transformative journey of "life on life" discipleship, inspired by the example of Jesus Christ. We dive into the heart of real mentorship, which goes beyond lectures and sermons to encompass every aspect of life. From spiritual maturation and Bible study to practical day-to-day living, we discuss how true mentorship involves sharing life experiences and investing time in personal relationships. Reflecting on Jesus’ own method of mentoring His disciples, we emphasize the value of walking alongside those we mentor, offering both guidance and companionship.
We also highlight the crucial role of spiritual leaders in shaping the faith journeys of others. By dedicating 80% of our efforts to a select few, we can profoundly influence their spiritual growth and life choices. The remaining 20% of our time is spent on broader teaching, emphasizing the importance of personal engagement over mere instruction. Whether you're a pastor, mentor, or someone on a faith journey, this discussion urges you to embrace mentoring as a mission to nurture future leaders and spread the gospel. Join us as we uncover how intentional mentoring can change lives and fulfill a higher calling.
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Well, I'm happy to talk to you about mentoring and we're kind of drawing to a close on this section about that but let me remind you of what we would consider real mentoring. It is life on life, discipleship. It's living and sharing life with each other. It's loving the person like they were a part of your family, so you're so deeply involved with them. This isn't a from the pulpit to the pew kind of relationship. It is look, I am going to spend time with you. We get that perfect example in the life of Jesus Christ. If you'll be honest, he walked up and down through the hills and the valleys and the coast in the mountains with 12 guys. They slept in the same place, they ate together, they worked together, they prayed together and, I am sure, they played together, and so they had life together. That's what we would consider mentoring. So you've got to remember it is much more than a series of lessons. It is you pouring your life into another person. It's you sharing everything God's taught you with somebody else. It is, as we've seen and I'm being repetitive here, but it is as we've seen, with-ness, with-ness, mark 3.14. It is you and I spending time with them that we might send them forth to preach. So no series of lessons involved here. It is life on life. Now that doesn't mean that there won't be lessons, it doesn't mean there won't be discussions. It just means that it's much more than a classroom. In America we are very accustomed to if you're going to teach or train somebody, they set themselves down in seats. We stand in a pulpit or a platform or a lectern with a blackboard and we teach. But that's not how Paul did it. That's not how Jesus did it.
W. Austin Gardner:I believe that Christian men and women are hungry for godly input and accountability in their lives. I believe that one of the marks of a spiritual leader is your passion to shape and assist other believers in their journey of faith. I really believe that with all my heart. I believe that you and I should work at helping form young men and women to be what God has called them to be. So let me just go along with you just a little bit in these closing videos about what it means. It means that you will come alongside of and love the people that you're training. Now you're going to spend 80% of your time with the 12, with the chosen, with the elected ones, with whoever you're picking to work with and train, and I would hope that a man would be training young men and I would hope that ladies would train ladies. And you're going to spend 80% of your time with them and you're going to help form them in their Bible study and their prayer and how they pay their bills and how they love their spouse and how they treat others and how they forgive and how they grow spiritually to be what God wants them to be, and then you're going to spend like 20% of your time and that's what you'll do in the pulpit. That's what you'll do with the great majority.
W. Austin Gardner:I challenge you to go back and read what Jesus did. Let's consider what he did. You know we have the Sermon on the Mount and we could go through and find several times when he sat down to preach, several times no-transcript, with his disciples. They come into town and, yes, he speaks and yes, he heals and yes, he feeds. But he's with the guys. He gets time. He needs to be alone and he takes the guys and they go to be alone.
W. Austin Gardner:He is spending his time on purpose, training them, and that's exactly what the apostle Paul taught Timothy to do. He said Timothy, you know what you've heard me teach. You know that other people have heard it and I'm teaching it to you and I want you to find somebody to teach it to. Who will teach it to somebody else. It's a chain. Keep it going. And so this is something. They have to be faithful and they have to be able. And he was writing a letter from a preacher to a preacher, a pastor to a pastor, a missionary to a missionary, and telling him what he expected in the work. So that's what we're working on accomplishing in our churches, in our lives, in our ministries, to help get the gospel out to the world. So what we'll do is we'll spend 80% of my time training these young men.
W. Austin Gardner:Now you got a ton of work you got to do and you don't have time for that, but you know what. They can go on visitation with you, and that's togetherness. That's what Jesus did. You can go to the hospital. That's togetherness. You're on your way there. You're on your way back. You've got things you can do there. They can do counseling with you. They can help you clean the church, if that's what you have to do. They can help you mow the grass, if that's what you have to do. They can help you doing things around your house. I mean, it's just a matter of he's my family, he's with me and I'm spending time with him. I got a couple of more things for you this week on mentoring and I pray that this will be a blessing and help you.