MY STORY

How I Learned to Walk With God Beyond Religion

I didn’t grow up in an environment that taught me how to hear God.
I learned because God taught me Himself.

Some people meet God through sermons, rituals, or carefully structured theology.
I met Him as a young boy; quietly, unexpectedly, and unmistakably.
It wasn’t dramatic.
It wasn’t emotional manipulation.
It wasn’t the product of a revival service or a church program.

It was simply this:

I talked.
And God talked back.

Before I knew anything about doctrine, denominations, or “how Christianity is supposed to work,” I knew God as Someone who paid attention to me. Someone I could ask questions. Someone who answered.

That early experience shaped everything that came later… even when religion tried to bury it.

Growing Up in a World Where God Felt Distant

As I got older and became more involved with church life, I slowly realized that the God I knew—the One who was close, present, and conversational—didn’t quite match the God being described in church.

Church gave me rules.
God gave me relationship.

Church trained me to perform.
God trained me to listen.

Church taught me to fear getting it wrong.
God taught me that He wasn’t keeping score.

That tension between the living God I knew and the institutional God I was being shown became the undercurrent of my whole spiritual life. I didn’t have language for it then. I simply felt the weight of expectations that never felt like Him.

And yet, even when I was confused, frustrated, or spiritually exhausted, God never stopped talking.

The Long Journey Through Church, Religion, and Identity

I spent years faithfully involved in church:

• • serving

  • learning

  • leading

  • trying to “get it right”

  • trying to reconcile what I’d been taught with what I had personally experienced

  • trying to explain to others what I knew about God versus the doctrine they’d been taught

There were seasons of beauty and seasons of pain.

There were moments of clarity and moments of contradiction.

There were times the church was a blessing, and times it was the source of deep wounds.

But through all of it, God remained consistent.

“Church hurt” didn’t silence His voice.
Religious pressure didn’t cancel His Presence.
Human failure didn’t undo divine faithfulness.

What I eventually realized was this:

The problem was never God.
It was the layers of religion that had distorted how I saw Him.

Hitting the Wall: When Religion No Longer Worked

There came a point — and it didn’t happen all at once — when the religious systems I had trusted for clarity only added confusion. The formulas stopped working. The expectations became suffocating. The constant pressure to measure up wore me down.

I knew God.
But I no longer recognized the version of Him being presented to me.

It was then that I faced the question so many believers wonder and secretly ask:

“God… is this actually You?
This can’t be right. Just what is this?”

And for the first time, I allowed myself to consider the possibility that God might be inviting me out of the very system that claimed to represent Him.

Returning to the God Who Spoke to Me as a Boy

Everything changed when I went back to the simplicity of those early conversations:

• • no rituals

  • no pressure

  • no system

  • no fear

  • no intermediaries

Just me and God.

I re-learned how to listen.
I re-learned how to trust His voice over the noise.
I re-learned how to be honest with Him… and with myself.
I re-learned how to walk with God without the weight of religion.

And I realized:

God hadn’t changed.
Religion had only obscured who He was—and who I was—beneath all the noise.

What came out of that season was clarity, identity, and healing.
Not the kind you get from doctrine or theology alone, but the kind that comes from Presence. His Presence. And His Spirit.

Why I Do What I Do Now

Everything I teach, coach, write, or build comes from one simple truth:

God is still speaking.
You just need to hear Him without the religious interference.

My mission is to help people:

• • rediscover the God they always sensed was there

  • separate His voice from the noise of religion

  • heal from the wounds the church never addressed, or worse inflicted

  • rebuild their faith on the foundation of a truly personal relationship with God

  • discover the strength found in spiritual identity, not performance

  • learn to engage with Him every day—simply, relationally, honestly

This is why I wrote Out of Religion & Into Relationship.
It’s why I created the 5-Day SM².
It’s why I built EK Tribes.
It’s why I coach the way I do.
It’s why I teach the way I teach.
It’s why my entire “ecosystem” exists.

Not to lead people away from God.
But to help them overcome everything that has gotten in the way of a direct relationship with Him.

A Final Word

If you’ve ever felt:

• • spiritually tired

  • confused

  • hurt by church

  • unsure how to hear God

  • disconnected from your identity

  • frustrated by religion

  • hungry for something real

Then my story is probably not all that different from yours.

You’re not alone.
You’re not broken.
You’re not “losing your faith.”

You’re being invited back to the God who loves you and was with you from the beginning—
long before religion tried to shape Him into something else.

If you’re ready to (re)discover who He really is,
I’m here to help and direct you to Him.