What does it look like to remain in Jesus when we're so accustomed to striving, performing, and trying to produce fruit on our own?

In John 15, Jesus invites us to remain in him, promising that a life connected to the true vine will bear lasting fruit. But what does that invitation look like in the everyday realities of leadership, identity, suffering, and surrender?

In this episode of Called Beyond, host Tim Shuck sits down with David Zimmerman and Nick Greenwood to explore the lifelong journey of learning to abide in Christ. Drawing from decades of ministry experience and seasons of personal challenge, David and Nick share how Jesus has been teaching them to move beyond striving to do more for God and toward a deeper experience of his presence and love.

Together, they reflect on the subtle ways performance and self-reliance can shape our faith, the unexpected interruptions that invite us to slow down, and the freedom of discovering that Jesus has been faithfully present even when we struggled to recognize him.

Nick shares how a season of significant health challenges and suffering reshaped his understanding of surrender, leading him to a simple but profound invitation: to stop striving and simply be with Jesus. David reflects on the journey of recognizing our resistance, surrendering control, and learning to receive the life that flows from remaining in Christ.

Ultimately, as we pursue a courageously rooted life, we find that fruitfulness doesn't begin with what we do for Jesus. It begins with our abiding in him.----more----

In this episode:

• What it means to abide in Jesus rather than strive to produce spiritual fruit.

• How performance, self-reliance, and the pressure to lead can shape our identity.

• Why suffering and unexpected interruptions can become invitations to deeper surrender.

• How reflecting on our life stories can help us recognize God's faithful presence.

• What it looks like to surrender to love and make our home in Christ.

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Featured Guests

David Zimmerman is a longtime ministry leader and former senior pastor who joined Novo with a heart to serve the church as a missionary. Through decades of ministry and more recent seasons of personal challenge, David has continued to discover the depth of Christ's abiding presence and the freedom of surrendering to his love.

Nick Greenwood serves as a team leader on Novo's Activated team, helping others recognize God's work in their lives and grow into the people he has created them to be. Nick enjoys woodworking, teaching younger generations, and running a family business with his family. You can learn more about their family business, Greenwood Jerky.

What does it look like to love our neighbor as a compassionate witness?

In Luke 10, Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan to show us what it means to love our neighbor. While others passed by, the Samaritan stopped, entered into another person's suffering, and responded with compassion.

Johanna Lohrmann joins Tim Shuck to explore what it means to become a compassionate witness to the people God places in our lives. Drawing from her own experience of losing her youngest daughter, Elizabeth Joy, Johanna shares how others entered into her family's grief without trying to explain it away, fix it, or rush them through it. Their presence became an expression of Christ's compassion and a profound part of God's healing.

Together, Tim and Johanna explore the difference between having the right answers and faithfully entering someone's story. They talk about listening for the Holy Spirit, resisting comparison, remembering the names and stories of those who are hurting, and discovering that witnessing to someone in their suffering can itself be a form of discipleship.

Because Jesus doesn't ask us to fix everyone's pain, he invites us to be with people in it, just as he is with us in our own pain and suffering.

What might it look like for you to stop, see, and become a compassionate witness to someone God has placed in your path?

Featured Guest Johanna Lohrmann holds a Masters in Ministry from Richmont University and has served in a variety of teaching and ministry contexts, including developing early teachings for Novo around prayer walking and reclaiming spiritual territory. She currently teaches seventh grade and leads enrichments in art and Shakespeare. Johanna and her husband, Simeon, have three children.

What if the thing holding you back isn’t a lack of calling, but a lack of courage?

In this episode, Tim sits down with Simona to explore what it looks like to courageously step into what God has called us to, even when we don't feel qualified or ready.

Simona shares honestly about her own struggle with imposter syndrome and the moment God taught her that the burden of provision wasn't hers to carry. Together, they explore how God can use the gifts and experiences we already have to accomplish his purposes.

Ultimately, the invitation is simple: take the next step. You may not feel ready. You may not have all the credentials. But nothing is wasted in God's kingdom, and courage grows as we say yes to what he is asking of us.

In this episode, we explore:

• What it means to “fan into flame” the gifts God has given us
• Overcoming timidity and imposter syndrome
• Learning to trust God with the burdens we were never meant to carry
• The courage required to follow Jesus when faith comes with a real cost
• What it means to practice creative courage
• Taking the next obedient step, even when you don't feel ready

Simona is a fourth-generation missionary and the executive director of Global Covenant, one of Novo’s international partners focused on disciple-making movements in South Asia. Having grown up as a missionary kid, she now serves among many of the same people and communities she grew up around. A graduate in sculpture and ceramics, Simona brings her creativity and passion for the arts into her work of leading and equipping others for gospel multiplication.

What if we've made following Jesus more complicated than he ever intended?

In this episode of Called Beyond, host Tim Shuck welcomes leadership coach, author, and Arable founder Karl Martin for a conversation about what it really means to be deeply rooted in Christ. Together they explore why true discipleship isn't about doing more for Jesus, but about living more fully with him.

Drawing from Colossians 2 and the imagery of the Parable of the Sower, Karl challenges many of the assumptions we've inherited about leadership, evangelism, and spiritual growth. Rather than striving to produce fruit through greater effort, he invites us to cultivate healthy roots through generosity, obedience, worship, and an ever-deepening awareness of our identity in Christ.

Whether you're wrestling with a major life decision, longing to experience God more personally, or simply tired of performance-driven faith, this conversation offers a refreshing invitation to trust the Spirit's work from the inside out.

When our roots go deeper into Jesus, fruitfulness becomes his responsibility—not ours. ----more----

• How the condition of your heart determines the fruit your life produces.
• A fresh perspective on the Parable of the Sower and spiritual formation.
• How identity shapes leadership, discipleship, and mission.
• Practical encouragement for hearing God's voice and courageously taking your next step.

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Karl Martin is the founder of Arable, a leadership consultancy that helps leaders, teams, and organizations grow from a deeper place through authenticity, courage, kindness, and curiosity. Originally from Scotland, Karl spent more than two decades leading and planting churches before launching Arable to coach leaders across business, ministry, sports, and the nonprofit sector. He is the author of The Cave, The Road, The Table, and The Fire: Leading from a Deeper Place and now lives in Nashville with his wife, Niki. Together they have four grown daughters.

What does it look like to trust Jesus when he calls you beyond what feels safe, familiar, or controllable?

In this episode of Called Beyond, Zach Duke shares the remarkable story of how obedience led him from a place of discouragement and regret into an unexpected journey of pursuing soccer (a sport he had never played) on a professional level. But Zach's story isn't really about soccer. It's about learning to trust God when you don't understand where he's leading.

Reflecting on Jesus washing his disciples' feet in John 13 and Peter's encounter with Jesus in Luke 5, Zach explores what it means to obey before we understand, surrender our need for recognition, and trust God with the outcome.

We may not know why he's asking. We may not know where obedience will lead. We may even wonder whether we're hearing him correctly.

But as we learn to recognize his voice and experience his faithfulness, we become more willing to trust him with what we cannot control.

In this episode:

• Why it's never too late to say yes to God's invitations
• What it looks like to obey God from a posture of humility
• How fear can keep us from obedience and faithful discipleship

----more----Featured Guest Zach Duke is a husband, father, athlete, speaker, and disciple-maker who serves with Big Life. He and his wife live in Indiana, where they also help steward several kingdom businesses. Zach is passionate about helping people hear God's voice, live with courageous obedience, and make disciples. Interested in hearing more from Zach? 📺 From Couch to Soccer Star — a testimonial about the impact Novo's Activating Prayer Cohort had on Zach's spiritual life and his soccer career 🎙️ Teach Us to Pray — a recent episode from the KC Underground podcast featuring more of Zach's story and the role prayer has played in this life

What happens when you've prayed for years…and the answer still hasn't come?

In this deeply personal conversation, Tim sits down with clinical psychologist and author Dr. Andrea ("Anny") Ganahl to explore one of the hardest realities of following Jesus: trusting God in the middle of unanswered prayer.

Beginning in John 21:15–19, where Jesus lovingly restores Peter after he denies him, Anny reflects on what it means to follow Christ when the future feels uncertain and anxiety threatens to take hold.

Drawing from both her professional expertise and her own family's ongoing journey with a prodigal son, Anny shares how God has gradually shifted her focus by faithfully revealing his presence.

Together they discuss:

• Why anxiety often grows from trying to control an unknown future
• The difference between asking God to align with our plans versus allowing our hearts to align with his
• How listening prayer has transformed Anny's relationship with God
• Practical ways journaling and Christian community help renew anxious minds
• Why God's presence often becomes the greatest answer before our prayers are fully answered
• How courage grows through waiting, not just through miracles

Whether you're carrying unanswered prayers, walking alongside someone you love, or simply longing for deeper intimacy with Jesus, this conversation offers hope that God is at work, even in our waiting. Featured Guest Dr. Anny Ganahl is a licensed clinical psychologist, speaker, and author of Victory Over Anxiety: Take Your Anxious Thoughts Captive. With more than two decades of experience, she helps people find lasting freedom from anxiety by integrating biblical truth with practical psychological tools. Passionate about listening prayer, identity in Christ, and emotional healing, Anny equips others to experience the peace that comes from God's presence. She lives in Southern California with her husband, Patrick.

If fear keeps us striving, isolating, and self-protecting, what story are we actually living inside?----more---- If you haven't heard Jamie and Norris' full episode Courageous Identity we encourage you to check that out before giving this bonus content a listen.----more----

In this bonus segment of S3 Ep7, Jamie Winship and Norris Williams discuss the difference between a worldview of separation and a worldview of connection.

Jamie describes how so much of our fear-based living is rooted in a story of scarcity—not enough, not safe, not secure, not seen—and how that story quietly shapes the way we relate to God, others, and even ourselves. Together, Jamie and Norris contrast that with the worldview of the kingdom: a life of connection, humility, receiving, and trust.

They also name one of the traps many of us fall into: building our identity around what we do for God rather than receiving what God says is already true. If the main episode invited you to name your fear, this bonus conversation helps uncover the deeper worldview underneath it.

• The difference between a worldview of separation and a worldview of connection
• Why scarcity, self-protection, and self-promotion are signs of fear-based living
• How even “good” identities can keep us disconnected from our true identity in Christ
• Why maturity in the kingdom is measured more by receiving than by producing
• How confession, repentance, and transformation work together
• Jamie’s framework for change: truth tell → mind change → form change

The kingdom of God is not built on separation, scarcity, and striving. It is built on connection to God, to others, and to the truth of who we really are. Freedom begins when we tell the truth about the lies we believe and learn to receive what God has been saying all along.

Jamie Winship has spent decades helping people discover their true identity, overcome fear, and navigate conflict with wisdom and courage. A former law enforcement officer, his work has taken him from local communities to some of the world’s most challenging conflict regions. Today, Jamie coaches leaders across business, government, education, sports, and ministry. He is the author of Living Fearless and The War of Worldviews, and co-founded Identity Exchange with his wife, Donna.

Norris Williams has spent more than five decades helping people discover their true identity and live with greater freedom, courage, and purpose. As part of Novo’s global partner team, he works alongside national leaders around the world, helping identify, develop, and support disciple-making movements. With experience spanning agriculture, professional sports, ranching, biblical studies, and mentorship, Norris brings a rare blend of wisdom, humility, and practical insight to his work.

What if courage doesn’t begin with trying harder—but with remembering who you are?

In this episode of Called Beyond, Tim is joined by Jamie Winship and Norris Williams for a conversation rooted in Romans 8:15–17 and centered around on one critical question for all of us to consider:

What are you afraid of right now?

Together, Jamie and Norris explore the difference between living from fear and living from the freedom of our identity as sons and daughters of God. They unpack how fear fuels performance, self-protection, and false identity—and how the Spirit of adoption invites us into a different way of living marked by truth, humility, freedom, and courage.

This conversation is for anyone who feels stuck in striving, weary from performing, or unsure how to hear God’s voice in the middle of ordinary life. If fear has been shaping your decisions more than you’d like to admit, this episode offers a better starting point: not proving yourself to God, but receiving from the Father who already calls you his own.

• Why fear and love lead us in radically different directions
• How performance can become a form of spiritual slavery
• The connection between fear, false identity, and self-protection
• Why courage isn’t proving yourself—it’s believing what is true
• How God meets us in our fear with his presence rather than a formula
• What it looks like to live as a beloved son or daughter

Fear closes us off to God, to others, and even to ourselves. But the Spirit of adoption tells a different story. When we live from our true identity as sons and daughters of God, we no longer have to perform, protect, or prove ourselves. Courage grows as we receive what is true and trust that God is with us.

Jamie Winship has spent decades helping people discover their true identity, overcome fear, and navigate conflict with wisdom and courage. A former law enforcement officer, his work has taken him from local communities to some of the world’s most challenging conflict regions. Today, Jamie coaches leaders across business, government, education, sports, and ministry. He is the author of Living Fearless and The War of Worldviews, and co-founded Identity Exchange with his wife, Donna.

Norris Williams has spent more than five decades helping people discover their true identity and live with greater freedom, courage, and purpose. As part of Novo’s global partner team, he works alongside national leaders around the world, helping identify, develop, and support disciple-making movements. With experience spanning agriculture, professional sports, ranching, biblical studies, and mentorship, Norris brings a rare blend of wisdom, humility, and practical insight to his work.

• Living Fearless by Jamie Winship
• The War of Worldviews by Jamie Winship

To learn more about Novo and our work to spark and sustain movements of the gospel among the nations, visit our website. You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.