Image Makeover Nick Oyler

I had my mom, and two grandmothers praying for me during my growing up years, so I like to say that I didn't have a choice but to be a pastor. Children need to learn how to pray because, prayer is a key component in our relationship with God and because of our relationship with God, we can ask Him for things and He answers our prayers. It also takes much prayer in order to parent our children and lead them in the way that they should go.
In this episode, we talk about how to pray for our children and how to teach them to pray. We take a look at Jesus' prayer for his disiples and us in John chapter 17.
Some resources that will be helpful in pursing prayer:
Prayer Coach: For all who want to get off the Bench and onto the praying Field by James L. Nicodem.
Focus on the Family has a great set of resources on their website.
Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun
A Book of Prayers for Kids: ways to talk to God every day by Mel Lawrenz
Special Guest: Jessie Rayos.

What is prayer and how do you make it part of your church culture? These are the questions that we seek to answer in this episode of the Image Makeover podcast.
Prayer is our way to communicate to God. In prayer we not only bring our requests, but it is where we tell God what is going on in our lives and it is where we take time to listen to him.
Relationships take time and presence to devlop closeness and that is what we do in prayer, we spend time with God and give attention to him and he gives attention with us. When we take the time to spend with God, the Holy Spirit forms us into the image of Jesus.
Some resources that will be helpful in pursing prayer:
Prayer Coach: For all who want to get off the Bench and onto the praying Field by James L. Nicodem.
Praying: Finding Our Way Through Duty to Delight by J.I. Packer.
Praying Together: Kindling Passion for Prayer by James Banks
Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire: What Happens When God's Spirit Invades the Hearts of His People by Jim Cymbala
Extreme Prayer: The Impossible Prayers God Promises to Answer by Greg Pruett
Prayer: Communing with God in Everything--Collected Insights from A. W. Tozer by A. W. Tozer
Praying the Prayers of the Bible for Your Everyday Needs by James Banks
Special Guest: Andrew Knollenberg.

Music is satisfying to me. Whether it is a screeching rock opera, a soft ballad, a jazz tune with blazing sax and trumpet jams, a beautiful symphony or a simple song sung by a talented vocalist, I am transported to that place where I am at ease and I get that tingling down my spine. I connect to God through music as well. I am transported to the throne of God through music and when I can hear everyone around me singing, it just brings tears of joy to my eyes. My mom knew this about me at a young age, so she always tried to steer me towards Christian music, so her and my dad made sure that I got to go to a lot of Christian concerts. One such concert that sticks in my mind is a concert that I went to at Lincoln Christian University with the late Rich Mullins. His main song was Awesome God, but that was not what triggered me, it was the rain storm that the audience made before that song. Rich directed the crowd to start with rubbing your fingers in your hand and then moving to a snapping of the fingers to a golf clap and a harder clap to smacking the knees and back to the rubbing of the palms. With a large crowd doing this all together, it sounds like a rain storm and just thinking about it tingles the spine.
Now that I'm a parent, I'm always on the lookout for ways to help my kids connect with God and I found one for my daughter Kylie. She loves to watch ASMR videos on YouTube because they are satisfying to her. This past Christmas, she wanted a microphone that she could use to make her own ASMR videos. That same microphone inspired me to create this podcast, so I had a genius thought of creating an episode of this podcast dedicated to ASMR and how we can use it to help us connect with God better. I have to admit to you that this episode is a true proud parent moment for me and I am so glad that I get to share it with you. I think that we will explore this more in further episodes, but for now, enjoy the satisfying sounds with Kylie.
I learned much from researching ASMR. It is like a lot of things in life, it's all in how you use it. There are some sides of it that I definitely want to steer my kids from and I'm looking at it from the how do I use something my kids are in to the lead them closer to God.
If you would like to see what ASMR is, here are a few resources:
The New York has a good article explaining ASMR and will give you some insight into how it works and why it's in the news, "'Life with Mak' Star Makenna Kelly, 13, Quits YouTube".
I found a very helpful article at ASMR University.
Brain Tingles: The Secret to Triggering Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response for Improved Sleep, Stress Relief, and Head-to-Toe Euphoria by Craig Richard PhD.
ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response - How to Use Sound for Meditation, Relaxation, Pleasure and Better Sleep by Jane Whitaker and Michelle Murillo
Special Guest: Kylie Oyler.

In this episode, Nick Oyler, our regular host, shares his story of going through a painful season of ministry. He is joined by special guest host, Mitch Lamb, and they talk about the things that Nick has done over the years to care for his soul so that he could overcome ministry adversity.
The heart of this episode is to get a dialogue going that can help other pastors, particularly young pastors to prepare their souls so that ministry adversity does not knock them out of ministry.
Here are some great resources:
The Self-Aware Leader: Discovering Your Blind Spots to Reach Your Ministry Potential by Terry Linhart
A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows through Loss by Jerry Sittser
Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity: Trigonometry for Pastoral Work by Eugene Peterson
The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Director by Eugene Peterson
Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry (Transforming Resources) by Ruth Haley Barton
The Leadership Ellipse: Shaping How We Lead by Who We Are by Robert A. Fryling

In this episode, we discuss the best spiritual practices for each personality type on the Enneagram.
I first discovered the Enneagram in my first class of my Masters program with J.K. Jones. He introduced us to Ian Morgan Cron's book, The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery and I bought it, but I put it on the read later list. A few months later, I was walking down the hall to our kids ministry area and saw a guy reading Cron's book and I stopped and had a good conversation about it. Then I took the Enneagram test and found out my number and then it seemed that everyone was discovering the Enneagram. Our staff listened to podcasts on it and took the tests together so we could figure out how to work together better. Then I had a conversation in the office with Brenda Baldovin and discovered that she had studied the Enneagram and the connection between personality and what spiritual practices work best for what type. With that conversation in mind, I wanted to further the discussion in podcast form.
Here are some great resources to check out:
The Path Between Us: An Enneagram Journey to Healthy Relationships by Susanne Stabile
A helpful website that I found is Your Enneagram Coach
The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth by Christopher L. Heuertz
The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective by Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert
Special Guest: Brenda Baldovin.

Things just don't happen by accident, there is a natural process to all things. Take a garden for an example, plants do not just appear and produce fruit without being planted and nurtured. The is a process of preparing the ground, planting a seed, making sure it's watered and fed and the weeds and pests kept away from it. Then when the plant is mature, fruit will appear and you can enjoy green beans and tomatoes and peppers.
There is a process for the Christ follower to be madeover into the image of Jesus. In this episode, we will be talking about what that process is and how a Christ follower matures into a fruit bearing little Jesus looking follower. Or something like that.
Here are a few resources that can give you some more insight:
Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered: Growing in Christ through Community by James C. Wilhoit
Growing In Christ: A Thirteen-Week Follow-Up Course for New and Growing Christians by The Navigators
The Coaching Guidebook by Community Christian Church
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: It's Impossible to Be Spiritually Mature, While Remaining Emotionally Immature by Peter Scazzero
Special Guest: J. Thad Harless PhD.