Welcome my friends to season 3 of the Determined to Dance podcast. My prayer is that you’ll be encouraged to persevere daily in our chaotic world.

Show Notes: An Interview with Jeff Walling

Today I’m honored to welcome Jeff Walling: author, speaker, and the Director of the Youth Leadership Initiative at Pepperdine University to the podcast. We’ve spent this season learning from his wonderful book, Daring to Dance with God. Jeff, I’m so glad you’ve joined us today.

Jeff: Well, thank you, Jennifer. It’s a blessing to be with you and so encouraging that your podcast listeners have been walking through the book. I do pray that God used it to bless them.

Jennifer: It has. This has actually been my best season yet as far as downloads and stuff. I think a lot of people have listened to it and also the podcast is heard on internet radio, Christian Mix 106, in over fifty-five countries. So, there is no telling who all is hearing it.

Jeff: Wow. I wasn’t nervous about being on your show until that moment. Thank you.

Jennifer: Anyway, so who knows? Someone over in Ethiopia or China could be listening and buying your book right now.

Jeff: Well, God has a way of putting us where we need to be, and in this wonderful day and age something I wrote—oh goodness, I hate to even think of it now—twenty-plus years ago continue to resonate and has people reach out to me about it. God deserves all the praise.

Jennifer: Amen. First, go ahead and tell us a little about your ministry and your family.

Jeff: Sure. Sure. I am blessed to have been a preacher for forty years now. And my sweet wife, she and I are celebrating forty years together also. We have three sons; one of which is a minister himself, Taylor. He is about to start a new ministry out here in California: a church focused on reaching young people here on the Pepperdine campus. My middle son and Taylor will both be living here in Southern California and my youngest son is in Denver. They are all married and I am blessed to have four grandkids and two granddogs. It’s a lot of fun. I work here, trying to raise up the next generation of young Christian leaders. I preach as a teaching pastor for Shepherd Church about eight to ten times a year which is a church here in the Los Angeles area.

Jennifer: Okay. That sounds really interesting and like a much-needed mission in that area.

Jeff: Blessed to be involved with it.

Jennifer: Going back to the book—as I was telling Jeff earlier—the book meant so much to me when I was younger and I read it. I’m so excited to do a podcast about it. Can you explain to my listeners the central idea discussed in Daring to Dance with God?

Jeff: Well, I’ll give it a shot. The very first chapter of the book tells about how I was raised in a home that believed that dancing was not a thing that Christ would want us to do. And it was a big shock to me and I immediately called my mom the first time that I really took a look at the beautiful parable called the parable of the prodigal son. When the father comes out from the house, where there is the sound of music and dancing emanating. And the scripture uses the word there for dancing. And that father has always represented to me: God. So, here is God coming out here to this older son, who doesn’t want to come in and celebrate what has happened to his younger brother. To think that God would come out and say, “Come dance with Me. Come dance with us.”

This idea that God invites us, not into a drudge march or inviting us to get in line. But this idea of dancing. Dancing to me has always carried a sense of joy and getting connected with something bigger than yourself. I mean, if you’ve been to a wedding recently, right, you see a lot of people who never dance any place else dancing at a wedding. And quite frankly, I’m one of them. It’s wonderful to see folks who are all connecting in different ways to the same piece of music. And I guess that idea of trusting God enough to step ou...