Heather Bellamy heard Mike McHargue's life story.

Heather: What was the process of building a relationship with God from there?

Mike: It's prayer primarily. I now place myself within the contemplative stream of Christian practice. It's finding myself through prayer and through meditation in God's presence that opens up Christian theology and opens up the power of scripture and opens all we associate with historical Christianity. It happens through that process, which is interesting to me; that it was the failure of prayer that ultimately killed my faith to begin with, but it was a renewal of prayer that brought my faith back.

Heather: How do you deal with doubts now?

Mike: Doubt is dangerous when we couple it with fear, but when we're not afraid, then doubt is an old friend. It's a way to test ideas and learn new things. So today I'm actually delighted when I experience doubt, because I understand that it's a growing process and a way for me to learn new things.

Heather: Who is Jesus to you now and why would you say you follow Him?

Mike: Jesus is the figure I cannot escape. I can't get away from Him. I've tried. Every moment I have with God; every time I find myself able to connect with God, it is through the identity and teachings and in a relationship with Jesus.

I've stopped fighting that and so I feel more at peace. The fact is, it was Jesus that made me feel like I belonged on the playground when I was seven years old and that has continued today. It's kind of a homecoming, to accept that whatever empirical merit, or not, to make claims to Christianity, I am and will always be a person who desires to follow Jesus.

Heather: Why do you think so many people walk away from the Church, or institutional religion?

Mike: I think institutional religion often becomes more about being right, or promoting a power, than about serving others and healing the world. That's why people are moving on. They don't want to be judged and they don't want to be confined by dogma.

The Church is meant to be something that helps people heal, grow, learn and change and we turn it into a strait jacket. Of course people are moving on. My hope is that we can learn as Christians to embody a faith that is about service and about connection; one that is about love and grace. We may find that if we do that, less people feel the need to move on.

Heather: With your book, podcast and website, are you trying to create a safe place for those who might be doubting, or are atheist, or people who are on a journey; to be able to have conversation and feel okay about that?

Mike: That's what my life's work is entirely about. It's the creation of spaces where people aren't judged for growing, changing, or for figuring out who they are and how they understand God. That's what the central idea of everything I do is.

Heather: Who is your book for and what will people find when they read it?

Mike: In the West, faith transitions are the new normal, but it's new for them to be the new normal. So many people of faith and sceptics find themselves bewildered and confused by how people hold different ideas about God, or why so many people's ideas about God are changing. So most people who read the book are reading it to understand more about how faith changes, what atheists believe and what Christians believe and why, so that they can understand someone across the divide. That's most people, but a significant minority of the group and really, who I wrote the book for, is people who themselves are going through a faith transition and are afraid where they may end up. They are afraid of a loss of connection and may even think they are the only one. In that way, the book is written to say, it is not just you. Millions and millions of people are wrestling with the same questions, the same struggles and the same concerns about what it means to believe in God in the 21st century.

Heather: How can people buy your book?

Mike: It's available in bookstores everywhere. So anywhere good books are sold you will find Finding God in the Waves.