In this episode, Ken speaks with Renee' Jelsma, a pastor andlongtime Faithwalking leader, about her Faithwalking journey. Renee' lives in Holland, MI and is a Faithwalking adjunct facilitator, coach, and former Circle leader. In fact, she will be launching a FWF Module 1 next month!
Renee' shares with Ken how Faithwalking has transformed her relationships—especially her marriage, her relationships with her adult children, and her relationship with God. The wounds of her first formation, her shame voice, the lies she believed, and her anxious reactivity no longer have the final say in how she shows up in the world. She describes Faithwalking as“tough work that hurts so good”—work that draws us deeper into following Jesus and opens us to more freedom than we ever imagined possible.
Renee' emphasizes that the ultimate goal of Faithwalking isnot to make our lives easier, reduce our anxiety, or improve our relationships, but to live on mission with God as agents of wholeness in the world. Instead of living “small, safe, and defensive” as she once did, through Faithwalking shehas learned to recognize and respond boldly to the missional opportunities God places before her. She calls this “the deepest part of the abundant life God invites us into.”
“Faithwalking changed the trajectory of how I live out myfaith,” she declares. She no longer holds God at a distance due to feeling unworthy of God’s love. Instead, she has experienced God’s passionate pursuit of her and has begun practicing what it means to live as though God’s word istrue. As she puts it, "I practice the courage to respond to what God has invited me into — space, places, relationships, and positions that were not necessarily easy and not necessarily safe, but they were sacred spaces of working towards reconciliation or restoration and seeing and being part of what God is up to in our world — and that has been amazing!” Her testimony is compelling. “I truly live with more peace, more fulfillment, more abundance, and more flourishing.”
This episode was recorded in October 2025.
