THE AUDACIOUS ADVENTURE with Danica & Autumn

YOU are on THE AUDACIOUS ADVENTURE with God! // Adventuring with the Holy Spirit

• Autumn Cornwell & Danica Childs • Episode 1

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Do you know that as a Christian you are LITERALLY on the adventure of a lifetime?  Well, you are!  And we’ll explain WHY in this first episode of our show.  Some call it the sanctification process, some call it the Christian journey, some call it the walk of faith.  We call it THE AUDACIOUS ADVENTURE!  

Join us as we adventure with the Holy Spirit – and the more laughs along the way, the better!  Whether you realize it or not, once you have the AUDACITY to say YES to Jesus, you're embarking on THE AUDACIOUS ADVENTURE -- a lifelong journey with the Holy Spirit as your guide.  It's the threefold adventure of knowing God intimately through His Word and your experiences with Him, knowing your true self through the work of the Holy Spirit, and then making Jesus and His love known to the world.

ABOUT US:
DANICA CHILDS is a Spiritual Director with a MA in Spiritual Formation/Soul Care from Talbot Seminary and a MA in Christian Apologetics from Biola University. Her sister AUTUMN is a storyteller passionate about the spiritual gifts and creating with the Holy Spirit. We’re sisters who've spent a combined forty years in various forms of ministry, including co-planting a church in Hollywood with other families, where we served in a variety of leadership roles for around a decade. Later we began THE AUDACIOUS ADVENTURE as a Los Angeles based ministry in 2016. We daily pursue creative, artistic, messy, and joyful lives of adventure in Southern California with our family and friends!

"We're excited to adventure audaciously with YOU!"


Autumn Cornwell:

Hello, and welcome to The Audacious Adventure! I'm Autumn Cornwell!

Danica Childs:

And I'm Danica Childs!

Autumn Cornwell:

And we're two sisters adventuring with the Holy Spirit.

Danica Childs:

Thank you for joining us today. And today, we want to know, what do you think the Christian life is? What have you thought about it? Have you thought about it? Maybe you're on it, and you didn't even pay attention to what it means to you. Well, we want you to start thinking about that. What do you think it is, Autumn?

Autumn Cornwell:

Well, is it being in mission work? Is that what the true Christian life is?

Danica Childs:

Or is it the spiritual disciplines, like going to church and tithing and praying and reading your Bible?

Autumn Cornwell:

Is it some sort of Pilgrim's Progress where we proceed through life, encountering all sorts of obstacles and living through it?

Danica Childs:

Or is it just trying to do the right thing and avoiding the wrong thing?

Autumn Cornwell:

Or is it a life of miracles -- like constant miracle after miracle after miracle? And that's the true Christian life.

Danica Childs:

Like signs and wonders.

Autumn Cornwell:

Yes, signs and wonders. If you're not experiencing signs and wonders 24/7 Is there something wrong? Or if you're praying 24/7? Is that the Christian life?

Danica Childs:

Is it just doing lots of good works? Like Sister Theresa --

Autumn Cornwell:

Mother Theresa?

Danica Childs:

(laughing) Mother Theresa on steroids? Is that is that the Christian life?

Autumn Cornwell:

Or is it we just say yes to Jesus, he comes into our heart, and we just wait here till he jumps out of the sky to get us.

Danica Childs:

I want to see that.

Autumn Cornwell:

Maybe he come's in a hover craft!

Danica Childs:

I want to be alive for that moment. When he returns, we're talking about the Second Coming.

Autumn Cornwell:

It's theologically accurate, we know he's coming again, but we don't know if it's a hovercraft. Just kidding!

Danica Childs:

Exactly. Well, we want to let you in on what we think the Christian life is What is our vision for the Christian life here at The Audacious Adventure? We think it starts with a relational foundation. So all the other things we mentioned are definitely a part of the Christian life. They're a part of it. But none of that it's going to matter if you don't have a relational foundation with God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, it starts with that relationship. It starts with the relationship of love between you and the God of the universe, and that God calls you His Beloved.

Autumn Cornwell:

And why do we call it audacious? It's so audacious! Why is it so audacious? Well, it's because it actually is audacious to say that when you say yes to Jesus, you have eternal life, that actually saying yes to Jesus means you agree that He is the WAY the TRUTH and the LIFE, and that after that you have the Holy Spirit in you who's guiding you for the rest of your life. That's rather audacious today to say, to say that's the TRUTH.

Danica Childs:

VERY audacious. I totally agree with you.

Autumn Cornwell:

I'm glad you're on board, Danica! It's taken some time, but thank you, you're here.

Danica Childs:

So basically, we want to reframe how we think of the Christian life. We want to think of the Christian life as an audacious adventure like Autumn just talked about, and we want to reframe the Christian life, because the Christian life starts with this relationship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And out of that relationship come all those other things we were talking about, like the ethics, the the service, the spiritual disciplines, all this stuff comes out of the relationship. And so when we're talking about what is this Christian life look like, that relationship and that life is meant to change us into people who look and act like Jesus. And so that process in theological terms is called the sanctification process. And that sounds very --

Autumn Cornwell:

Theological.

Danica Childs:

That sounds theological --

Autumn Cornwell:

Or seminary.

Danica Childs:

Yeah, you know, and it's a great word, and it's a true word, and you're gonna read about it if you ever open up a theological textbook, but we want to reframe it as THIS life is THE Audacious Adventure. And the reason why is because an adventure is filled with all sorts of things like risk, unknowns, thrills, and joys, ups and downs, and an adventure -- what was that, Autumn?

Autumn Cornwell:

Mountains and valleys. Use your words, Autumn! That was me gesturing high and low. There are highs and lows, and this and that.

Danica Childs:

Exactly. If you've been on the if you've been on the adventure of Jesus for any length of time, you know, that's filled with highs and lows. And then that adventure is meant to change us and if you've been on any kind of adventure in your life, whether it's an inward adventure of figuring out who you are, you know that at the end of that adventure, you're going to be changed or a physical adventure where you go to mountains or go to unforeign places --

Autumn Cornwell:

Unforeign places! (laughing) Extra foreign and extra unknown!

Danica Childs:

I love making up neologisms!

Autumn Cornwell:

UBER foreign. Yes, yes.

Danica Childs:

Well, wouldn't unforeign become the opposite of foreign?

Autumn Cornwell:

Oh, good point! Very familiar -- I might crack the door and go out my door today, I might go out in the neighnorhood today -- some unforeign adventuring! so that's actually very true. Oh my goodness. (laughing)

Danica Childs:

Anyway, all that to say is that just like any regular adventure in life, the Christian life is that kind of adventure to the Christian life, the sanctification process the walking with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is filled with risk. It's filled with all sorts of challenges and risks and acts of obedience that we have to do, even if we don't understand why. It's filled with the unknown. We don't know what's ahead of us, we don't know what God's gonna be asking us into. It's filled with the ups and downs, the joys of the Lord, the joys that come from being close to God, and it's also filled with deserts and dark nights of the soul and, you know, troubles and tribulations and "Why why why, God?" And then at the end of it all, though, we come out of that changed. And so you can see how it's so obvious that the Christian life is exactly like an adventure.

Autumn Cornwell:

Yeah. And what's interesting is, I think sometimes we think, once we are saved, and we're believers that everything's going to be straightforward and calm, that God is going to preempt everything. "Oh, there's a slight dip in the road, I'm going to pave that over for you!" And it almost seems like the opposite. Sometimes you think God's like, "Oh, that'll be good for you to try that, go fall off that cliff."

Danica Childs:

"Go into that sinkhole!"

Autumn Cornwell:

"You can get out on your own, that might be normal sand, but it might be the other kind of sand" -- what is the other kind of sand?

Danica Childs:

Quicksand?

Autumn Cornwell:

That other kind of sand, quicksand, the slow sand. (laughs)

Danica Childs:

Okay. So, the three fold adventure is the the adventure of getting to know yourself. Self awareness, self knowledge is key to this adventure, it is key to becoming like Christ. We have to know who we are, we cannot remain blank and opaque to ourselves and think that we will be transformed into Christ. That will not happen. And so that is quite the adventure when you start partnering with the Holy Spirit to find out who you truly are. What are your motivations? What are your desires? What are your fears? What are your coping and defense mechanisms? How has your family of origin impacted you and how you see the world? And what are your disordered desires and attachments? What are your sin propensities? Oh, the joy of discovering the self!

Autumn Cornwell:

And that's a pretty intense adventure. I remember when we got more into this kind of thing, thinking, wow, it's almost more adventurous to go that way than it is to just, you know, go down a volcano sometimes.

Danica Childs:

Right. Exactly. Like we often don't think about the adventure of understanding ourselves.

Autumn Cornwell:

The adventure within.

Danica Childs:

Yes, the adventure within. Well, then the second part of that is, as you are getting to know yourself, you're also getting to know God. So the adventure of getting to know the creator of the universe, who created you and calls you his Beloved, that is an adventure, the adventure of really getting to know God. And now, by this we don't mean just developing a theology of God, where you have a lot of correct theology and doctrine and understanding about God. We're talking about experiential knowledge of God, we're talking about, you are going to get to know the God of theology --

Autumn Cornwell:

Of the Bible.

Danica Childs:

Yes, the God of theology, the God of Christian theology, of the Bible. That is an adventure itself, not just knowing about him, but actually having to engage with him and experience Him and be open to him in whatever ways he wants to communicate to you. However, whatever adventures he wants to go on with you, I mean, that is a whole adventure of getting to know God in that personal, experiential type way. And so the knowledge of God and the knowledge of self always go together as well. And so as you're doing one, you're going to learn about the other and as you're learning about one, you're gonna learn about the other.

Autumn Cornwell:

Yeah, they're kind of connected, so to speak. And then the third part of the adventure is making Jesus's love and Jesus himself known to the world around us.

So that's adventuring with the Holy Spirit, partnering with the Holy Spirit in different ways to spread joy and love that can include all sorts of things:

spreading the gospel, praying, prophesying, miracles, setting people free in different ways -- having a lot of fun as a Christian and being lights in the world!

Danica Childs:

And bringing joy and delight and wonder.

Autumn Cornwell:

Laughter!

Danica Childs:

Laughter!

Autumn Cornwell:

Humor!

Danica Childs:

Humor! If you haven't picked up on that yet...

Autumn Cornwell:

Comedy and humor are superpowers. I think we need to cover that in more depth.

Danica Childs:

So that, in a nutshell, is what you can expect if you join us on this audacious adventure. You're going to hear topics all about the adventure of self, the adventure of God, and the adventure of making Jesus known to the world.

Autumn Cornwell:

Sounds good.

Danica Childs:

Join us!