J.D. Walt is one of my favorite people, and one of the most fruitful. He seems to ooze “Spirit-filled life” wherever he goes. He is an author, speaker and thought-leader who writes daily to a community of thousands via the Seedbed Daily Text. Formerly the Dean of Chapel at Asbury Theological Seminary, J.D. founded Seedbed in 2012 (through Asbury) to begin the work of sowing for a Great Awakening.
I’m particularly grateful for J.D.’s call to be the Sower-in-Chief at Seedbed, because his call has directly impacted mine. Early on, J.D. invited me to be a sort of guinea pig for them, publishing their first video-based Bible study. We’ve since published several more and I’ve been so honored to partner with Seedbed at New Room conferences, seven-minute seminary clips, a ton of blog posts … and maybe best of all, in this partnership we now share in producing The Art of Holiness podcast as a New Room Network podcast.
This week, we offer a conversation with J.D. Here’s what you’ll hear:
We talked about the preached word …
As a man who has heard a thousand preachers (he served for ten years as Dean of the Chapel at Asbury Theological Seminary), he can talk from a deep well of experience about the preached word. Listen for the difference between the “downloaded sermon” and the “livestream sermon.” Real preaching feels less like a download, more like a livestream, as it causes us to lean forward and invites us to encounter God. To know which you’re offering, J.D. offers this question as a litmus test: Am I on this platform as a prepared preacher, or as a preacher with a prepared message?
We talked about New Room …
Alongside some long-running movements like the Toronto Blessing, we talked about New Room as a new and vital movement working inside the Wesleyan stream to bring awakening. New Room is like a petri dish, growing a culture of Spirit-led community. Unlike some other movements, it is designed not as a pilgrimage destination but as a model to be transplanted back into local congregations.
We talked about the secret ingredient …
The real gold in our conversation was the part where we unpacked the theological underpinning and the secret ingredient of authentic supernatural ministry. JD talks about love but not warm-fuzzy love. This is scriptural love … real love. The Wesley genius is that we will see the greater things of God when we embody the greater love of God. Listen for his distinction between transaction and transcendence. You will get something deep here, and grounding, from one who has been sowing this stuff for decades.
JD Walt is a friend. Not in the “I know him” or “we follow each other on Twitter” sense of that term. JD is a friend, and it is a pleasure for Pierce and me to share this conversation with you — friend to friend.
You can find our conversation with J.D. at all the places where you listen … here, here, here, and here.
