Latest / KCMS Spirit 105.3 / Passion Meets Purpose with Sarah Taylor - What Happened Next? Part 1 with Pastor Ian Simkins

Transcript

Passion Meets Purpose with Sarah Taylor - What Happened Next? Part 1 with Pastor Ian Simkins · KCMS Spirit 105.3

0:01
Speaker 1: Purposely. Your life. God's purpose. Listen at Purposely.com. Probably one
0:12
Speaker 1: of the most seismic shifts in my life was after
0:15
Speaker 1: that sermon, this sweet old woman walked up to me
0:17
Speaker 1: and she said two things. One, she pointed to the
0:20
Speaker 1: stage and said, that was bad. But then she like
0:23
Speaker 1: looked into my soul. She said, I believe the Lord
0:25
Speaker 1: has given you a voice, so you better learn how
0:28
Speaker 1: to actually use it.
0:31
Speaker 2: His name is Ian Simpkins. He is my guest today,
0:34
Speaker 2: lead pastor of teaching and vision at the Bridge Church
0:37
Speaker 2: in Spring Hill, Tennessee. Ian, you know, I first got
0:40
Speaker 2: to know you on social media. I would see really
0:43
Speaker 2: poignant thoughts in black boxes of text. I started reposting
0:47
Speaker 2: a few and some people I work with in Nashville
0:49
Speaker 2: were like, that's my pastor. So thank you for being here.
0:52
Speaker 1: Oh, it's my pleasure. Thanks for the invitation.
0:55
Speaker 2: I actually heard on a different interview you did that
0:57
Speaker 2: someone goes, what's the intentionality? What's the framework behind those
1:01
Speaker 2: black boxes of text? And you had a fun answer.
1:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, usually people ask really philosophical questions like, where did
1:08
Speaker 1: the design aesthetic come from? And I'm like, well, it's
1:11
Speaker 1: me screenshotting my notes app because I'm not smart enough
1:16
Speaker 1: to figure anything else out. That's the whole thing. That's
1:19
Speaker 1: the whole gig.
1:20
Speaker 2: Well, it's working for you. I actually have a few
1:22
Speaker 2: of my favorites that I've screenshotted that I'm going to
1:25
Speaker 2: read back to you and ask you to expand upon.
1:28
Speaker 2: But first, I want our audience to get to know
1:30
Speaker 2: you a bit. You're a Detroit native. You've served in
1:34
Speaker 2: communities throughout the United States and abroad. We're going to
1:36
Speaker 2: talk about that from the streets of India to the
1:39
Speaker 2: suburbs of Nashville, where you now live. You're known for
1:42
Speaker 2: your humility, your humor, and your theological depth. And so
1:47
Speaker 2: let's start a little bit. What parts of that, maybe
1:50
Speaker 2: all those character qualities, came from being the oldest of
1:54
Speaker 2: seven kids in a homeschooled household? Let's talk about it.
1:57
Speaker 1: Anything good that anyone has ever observed in me is
2:00
Speaker 1: the direct result of two incredible parents and just an
2:06
Speaker 1: endless list of friends and mentors who have sharpened and
2:09
Speaker 1: guided along the way. I think back to my life
2:12
Speaker 1: in my teens and 20s, and I was, in a
2:15
Speaker 1: lot of ways, a train wreck waiting to happen. Someone
2:19
Speaker 1: on staff recently made a bingo card for Ian's preaching
2:24
Speaker 1: of phrases that I say all the time. And it
2:27
Speaker 1: was so spot on. But one of them was, a
2:30
Speaker 1: mentor once told me dot, dot, dot. And I wasn't
2:33
Speaker 1: even mad at it. I was like, yeah, I would
2:36
Speaker 1: not be here if it wasn't for this long list
2:39
Speaker 1: of men and women who have poured in and invested.
2:41
Speaker 1: It's also... Hard to take yourself that seriously when you're
2:44
Speaker 1: one of seven kids in Detroit, Michigan.
2:47
Speaker 2: Do you have any snapshot memory that you feel like
2:49
Speaker 2: encapsulates a bunch of years of growing up in that family?
2:52
Speaker 2: Just give me one glimpse that's a postcard view.
2:55
Speaker 1: Oh, man. I have to think through because we were
2:57
Speaker 1: also homeschooled. And I was homeschooled in the dark ages
3:01
Speaker 1: of the 80s and 90s before anyone really knew what
3:05
Speaker 1: it was. So, you know, we got into a fair
3:07
Speaker 1: amount of trouble. But my mom and dad were involved
3:11
Speaker 1: in our church. that they had keys to the building.
3:15
Speaker 1: And so we would like regularly have band practice in the,
3:17
Speaker 1: in the church basement. And we would, you know, we
3:20
Speaker 1: would throw parties in ways that were probably not ideal
3:23
Speaker 1: for what they were hoping we would do. My, my
3:26
Speaker 1: little homeschool family, like I was just chatting with my
3:30
Speaker 1: brother about this. I think part of the reason we
3:32
Speaker 1: like each other so much in adulthood is because one,
3:35
Speaker 1: we just spent so much FaceTime each other, but two,
3:39
Speaker 1: My parents did a really brilliant job of helping us
3:41
Speaker 1: to think critically, like to form our own opinions and
3:44
Speaker 1: not just, you know, go with the group think. And
3:47
Speaker 1: I think that that's so much of what I have
3:50
Speaker 1: valued about my upbringing is even though we're all over
3:53
Speaker 1: the place, theologically, politically, like we enjoy each other's company
3:57
Speaker 1: because we like, I think, learned that from the get go.
4:01
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. I can see that. So while most kids
4:05
Speaker 2: are getting ready to take a written driving test at 16,
4:09
Speaker 2: you were invited to give your first sermon.
4:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, calling it invited is probably... I remember my pastor
4:19
Speaker 1: pulling me aside saying, I want you to preach next month.
4:21
Speaker 1: And I said, oh, no, thank you. And he said,
4:24
Speaker 1: I wasn't asking you. And like any 16-year-old, I'm assuming,
4:28
Speaker 1: my response was, well, what would I even preach on?
4:32
Speaker 1: And he said something like, the Lord will reveal that
4:35
Speaker 1: to you. And kind of Obi-Wan Kenobi waved across my,
4:38
Speaker 1: I was like, what does that mean? It was so intimidating.
4:43
Speaker 1: And so I spent a month preparing this sermon. And
4:48
Speaker 1: I'll tell you honestly, it was really bad. I mean,
4:52
Speaker 1: I remember walking off the stage so embarrassed because my
4:57
Speaker 1: family and friends were there. And that was actually probably
5:01
Speaker 1: one of the most seismic shifts in my life was
5:04
Speaker 1: after that sermon, this sweet old woman walked up to
5:07
Speaker 1: me and she was, she said two things. One, she
5:10
Speaker 1: pointed to the stage and said, that was bad. And
5:13
Speaker 1: I'm like, thank you. I am aware. But then she
5:18
Speaker 1: like looked into my soul the way that only like
5:21
Speaker 1: wise older people can. And she said, I believe the
5:24
Speaker 1: Lord has given you a voice. So you better learn
5:27
Speaker 1: how to actually use it. And I, That kind of
5:31
Speaker 1: sent shivers down my spine. I did not know what
5:33
Speaker 1: that meant at the time. But I'm just so grateful
5:36
Speaker 1: for her willingness to shoot straight like a recently embarrassed 16-year-old.
5:42
Speaker 1: But that kind of, that planted a seed for sure.
5:45
Speaker 2: Yeah.
5:46
Speaker 1: Okay.
5:46
Speaker 2: So then what happened next? You graduate high school and?
5:50
Speaker 1: Again, calling it graduated is being more generous. I've never
5:56
Speaker 1: been a good, I mean, I just crawled across the
5:58
Speaker 1: finish line. Plus it was, I was doing like a,
6:01
Speaker 1: like a, like a phone in the, the program I
6:04
Speaker 1: was doing was actually technically for adults that wanted to
6:08
Speaker 1: go back to get their high school diploma.
6:10
Speaker 2: I know what you're talking about.
6:12
Speaker 1: I was so anticlimactic. I just got a letter one
6:14
Speaker 1: day and they're like, all right, you're done. And they
6:18
Speaker 1: sent me, they sent me a class ring that was
6:21
Speaker 1: like sized for a gorilla. And I was like, who,
6:26
Speaker 1: I'm not going to wear a homeschool class ring. Like
6:29
Speaker 1: I didn't, I didn't know what to do with that.
6:31
Speaker 1: So I, uh, my parents would kill me for telling
6:35
Speaker 1: this part. I never took the SATs or the ACT.
6:38
Speaker 1: I never did any of it. So I was like
6:40
Speaker 1: done with high school. And I was like, well, I
6:43
Speaker 1: guess I should go to college. So I like drove
6:45
Speaker 1: up to the community college because I didn't know what
6:47
Speaker 1: to do with my life. And I just, I just
6:49
Speaker 1: walked in. I go, Hey, can I go here? And
6:51
Speaker 1: they said, do you have money? And I was like, yeah.
6:53
Speaker 1: And they were like, come aboard. So I just literally,
6:58
Speaker 1: I picked, this is embarrassing. I don't think I've said
7:01
Speaker 1: any of this on air. I picked the longest name
7:05
Speaker 1: in the book of like possible degrees because I thought
7:08
Speaker 1: it would be like the most impressive. So I saw
7:10
Speaker 1: what it said, telecommunications. I was like, don't know what
7:13
Speaker 1: that is. I'll do that. And so I have associates
7:17
Speaker 1: in telecommunications. And it was actually kind of fun.
7:22
Speaker 2: What is telecommunications?
7:25
Speaker 1: Again, this was, you know, 30 years ago, but it
7:29
Speaker 1: was like, Uh, broadcast journalism. It was, uh, I learned
7:33
Speaker 1: how to write commercials, um, ad spots. It was like,
7:38
Speaker 1: I got to tinker out in the radio studio. They
7:40
Speaker 1: gave me a, uh, midnight to 3 AM show where I,
7:45
Speaker 1: you know, on air, I'd be like, if anyone is
7:48
Speaker 1: listening and brings me a pizza, I'll put you on air.
7:51
Speaker 1: And so, you know, stoners would show up at two
7:54
Speaker 1: in the morning. They're like, can I have a record?
7:56
Speaker 1: And I'm like, sure. So I, you know, again, That
8:00
Speaker 1: was a part of my journey into ministry as I
8:03
Speaker 1: was trying to kind of discern what I wanted to
8:06
Speaker 1: do with my life. It was actually kind of sobering
8:08
Speaker 1: because a lot of my friends went to public school
8:11
Speaker 1: and a lot of them had a story like, oh,
8:13
Speaker 1: I had an English teacher that really unlocked my love
8:16
Speaker 1: of literature or a chemistry teacher. And I was starting
8:19
Speaker 1: to panic because I didn't have that. And I was
8:23
Speaker 1: really beginning to feel like I don't think I have
8:26
Speaker 1: a thing. And that was a really, that was a
8:30
Speaker 1: scary couple of years for me, for sure.
8:32
Speaker 2: I can relate to that when everyone's declaring a major
8:35
Speaker 2: and some people know that they know. And then what
8:37
Speaker 2: do you do with the rest of us that are
8:39
Speaker 2: just over here with an interdisciplinary degree because our parents
8:42
Speaker 2: want us off their insurance?
8:46
Speaker 1: Well, I remember there being like a, again, I say
8:49
Speaker 1: a seed planted of ministry, but I come from a
8:51
Speaker 1: family of engineers. And so most of my extended family said,
8:56
Speaker 1: Don't go into ministry. That's not a real job. That's
8:59
Speaker 1: not a real degree. Get a real diploma and then
9:04
Speaker 1: you can tinker in ministry in your free time. And
9:07
Speaker 1: I remember, again, this is another kind of seismic moment
9:09
Speaker 1: for me. My father sat me down. I'll never forget this.
9:14
Speaker 1: He said, listen, I understand what your uncle and grandpa
9:17
Speaker 1: are saying, whatever. If you feel like the Lord has
9:20
Speaker 1: called you to ministry, then you need to run after
9:23
Speaker 1: that with everything you got. And as like a son
9:26
Speaker 1: from a father, I don't think I even realized how
9:30
Speaker 1: much I needed that from him. And that was like
9:33
Speaker 1: all the permission I needed. He's like, yep, doesn't make
9:35
Speaker 1: a lot of sense. You don't come from a family
9:37
Speaker 1: of pastors. If that's what you're discerning, if that's what
9:40
Speaker 1: you feel like the Lord has laid on your heart, run. Wow.
9:45
Speaker 2: And in that moment, did you put on your running
9:48
Speaker 2: shoes or did it take a little bit longer?
9:51
Speaker 1: It took a while. I was still probably... you know,
9:54
Speaker 1: cracking away at my telecommunications degree. I didn't really, okay,
10:01
Speaker 1: this is the truth. The seed had taken root. And
10:06
Speaker 1: so my deal with God was, all right, all right,
10:08
Speaker 1: all right. If I'm going to do this ministry thing,
10:11
Speaker 1: I want to at least have fun while I'm doing it.
10:12
Speaker 1: So like my quote unquote compromise with God was, Because
10:17
Speaker 1: I wanted to move to California, study music, psychology, learn
10:20
Speaker 1: to surf and be done with it. Ministry just felt
10:22
Speaker 1: like a total right turn. And I said, all right,
10:25
Speaker 1: I'll do the ministry thing. I'll give it a shot.
10:27
Speaker 1: But I'm going to do student ministry because that seemed
10:29
Speaker 1: to be where all the fun was. That's where the
10:31
Speaker 1: lock-ins and the Mountain Dew was. So I moved to
10:35
Speaker 1: Chicagoland to study at Judson University. And I got a
10:40
Speaker 1: degree in student ministries and adolescent studies. I loved my
10:45
Speaker 1: time at Judson. The program itself was incredible. Where I
10:49
Speaker 1: really struggled was the actual internships and practicums on the ground.
10:54
Speaker 1: I was probably an idealistic 20-year-old, but I was also
10:57
Speaker 1: kind of getting a glimpse of how the sausage was made.
11:00
Speaker 1: And it was very disorienting for me to the degree
11:03
Speaker 1: actually that I was home my senior year on Christmas break.
11:07
Speaker 1: I sat my parents down and I said, don't panic.
11:11
Speaker 1: I'm going to finish the degree. I don't think I
11:15
Speaker 1: can do this church thing. And it was, it had
11:17
Speaker 1: reached that point for me. And again, to their credit,
11:20
Speaker 1: they're like, well, we trust that you're listening to God
11:25
Speaker 1: and please finish the degree. You know, like that's, please
11:29
Speaker 1: don't bail on it now. And that like next morning
11:32
Speaker 1: or two days later, actually, I got a call from
11:35
Speaker 1: a church that I had not applied to offering me
11:38
Speaker 1: a job. It was like such a bizarre, it's a
11:41
Speaker 1: whole other story, but it was like, A very, very
11:45
Speaker 1: interestingly timed providential phone call that I, looking back now,
11:49
Speaker 1: I'm eternally grateful for.
11:51
Speaker 2: And then I feel like my whole interview with you
11:52
Speaker 2: is going to be like, and then what happened?
11:56
Speaker 1: I'm trying so hard not to dominate with stories. I'm
11:59
Speaker 1: happy to share them. That's what this is.
12:01
Speaker 2: It's story time with Ian.
12:03
Speaker 1: Perfect. Perfect. All right, kids, grab your chamomile tea. I'm
12:06
Speaker 1: going to continue. So I told them everything I told
12:10
Speaker 1: my parents. That's what was weird. I went in for
12:13
Speaker 1: this interview. Listen, guys, I don't even know that I
12:15
Speaker 1: want to work in a church anymore for this reason,
12:16
Speaker 1: this reason, this reason. Here's my issues with what I'm seeing.
12:19
Speaker 1: And they were like, we think you'd be a great fit.
12:23
Speaker 1: I'm like, are you listening to me? I just told
12:25
Speaker 1: you I don't know that I even want to be
12:27
Speaker 1: a pastor. It was like so, I know now how
12:31
Speaker 1: wild it is to hear what I just said and
12:34
Speaker 1: for them to say, yeah, we think you might be
12:36
Speaker 1: the guy. Around that time, an opportunity opened up for
12:39
Speaker 1: me to do an internship in India. And the church,
12:45
Speaker 1: it's a much longer story, but they actually graciously held
12:48
Speaker 1: the position for me to allow me to spend a
12:51
Speaker 1: summer in India, which did not go the way I
12:53
Speaker 1: intended to, and then hold the job for me to
12:57
Speaker 1: start when I came back, which as a recent graduate
12:59
Speaker 1: who knows, oh man, loans are about to be due.
13:06
Speaker 1: I probably didn't even appreciate how rare of what arrangement
13:10
Speaker 1: that is. But that time in India actually ended up
13:13
Speaker 1: being another really seismic shift in like my own kind
13:17
Speaker 1: of journey. So to go from that into suburban student
13:21
Speaker 1: ministry outside Chicago was such a wild season of my life.
13:27
Speaker 2: When you look back in hindsight, do you feel like
13:29
Speaker 2: the Lord orchestrated that way on purpose?
13:33
Speaker 1: A hundred percent. I don't want to be, I don't
13:35
Speaker 1: want to over-spiritualize or be too stars aligned. 100 100%.
13:41
Speaker 1: The Lord showed me some things. I mean, because I
13:43
Speaker 1: was supposed to do an internship for a degree that
13:46
Speaker 1: had certain qualifications in India. So I was supposed to
13:49
Speaker 1: be partnering with this pastor who had this student ministry
13:52
Speaker 1: of hundreds of kids that he, or so he claimed.
13:57
Speaker 1: And I got there and he had like one or
13:59
Speaker 1: two students. And so he like fudged a bunch of
14:02
Speaker 1: the numbers and And he'd lock me in his house
14:06
Speaker 1: and make me do his dishes and clean his car.
14:08
Speaker 1: And it was a very bizarre. So I was sneaking
14:13
Speaker 1: out of the house to help with another ministry down
14:15
Speaker 1: the street so that I could qualify to graduate. And
14:20
Speaker 1: he didn't like that. So he kicked me out of
14:22
Speaker 1: his house. So long story short, I ended up living
14:25
Speaker 1: as a. essentially like a wandering nomad for the better
14:29
Speaker 1: part of a summer by myself in Northern India. I mean,
14:32
Speaker 1: it real bizarre stuff. And I, I was sort of a,
14:38
Speaker 1: a wide eyed and bushy tailed 22 year old that
14:41
Speaker 1: didn't know any better that now in hindsight, as a father,
14:44
Speaker 1: I'm just like, my poor parents, like what a nightmare.
14:48
Speaker 2: My only question was, did your mom know what was
14:50
Speaker 2: going down?
14:52
Speaker 1: Oh, honestly, there was a window there where I couldn't
14:55
Speaker 1: get to an internet cafe for a little over a week.
14:59
Speaker 1: And around that same time, there was a bombing on
15:02
Speaker 1: a train in the area that I was. See, I
15:07
Speaker 1: get emotional even talking. And when I finally did get
15:11
Speaker 1: to an internet cafe, I was like, hey, mom, what's
15:13
Speaker 1: going on? Just so oblivious to the stress and weight
15:20
Speaker 1: that I'm And all of my siblings are like this,
15:22
Speaker 1: by the way. My poor parents have had to deal
15:25
Speaker 1: with so many stories like this. They're angels on earth.
15:30
Speaker 1: It gets unbelievable, the stress that we've put them through. Wow.
15:37
Speaker 2: Wow. Wow. How did that trip change the way that
15:39
Speaker 2: you do ministry moving forward?
15:42
Speaker 1: Man, again, at the risk of sounding over-spiritualized, I saw
15:48
Speaker 1: God show up and provide in ways that never in
15:51
Speaker 1: my wildest dreams would I have even had the boldness
15:56
Speaker 1: to pray for, to be honest. I believe in the
15:58
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. I was studying to be a pastor. But
16:01
Speaker 1: I got just a front row seat to stuff that
16:05
Speaker 1: I didn't have categories for. And not only that, I
16:09
Speaker 1: just got, I don't know, I have a strong conviction
16:12
Speaker 1: that much of the work of Jesus in the kingdom
16:15
Speaker 1: of God needs to include, and I think Jesus would agree,
16:20
Speaker 1: care for least of these and those on the margins
16:23
Speaker 1: and those on the fringe. And I just spent a
16:26
Speaker 1: whole summer in these spaces where no one was impressed
16:29
Speaker 1: with my degree or social media, any of that. It
16:32
Speaker 1: was like, what does it actually mean to, by the
16:37
Speaker 1: grace of God, as best we can be the hands
16:39
Speaker 1: and feet of Jesus? That framing into a suburban, established
16:43
Speaker 1: community church ministry. And a year after I started, our
16:48
Speaker 1: lead pastor was forcibly removed for a laundry list of
16:51
Speaker 1: moral failures. And so this whole church, the church, I mean,
16:55
Speaker 1: I was already feeling trepidatious about working in a church anyway.
17:01
Speaker 1: And so for 13 months after I started for there
17:04
Speaker 1: to be an implosion at the top and a, and a,
17:08
Speaker 1: community that is now sent really to have the anchor
17:11
Speaker 1: of the type of summer that I had. I had
17:13
Speaker 1: no idea that I was going to need to draw
17:16
Speaker 1: on that just a year later in the ways that
17:19
Speaker 1: I did. I think I'm still learning 20 years later
17:23
Speaker 1: how much that trip and those people and that experience
17:26
Speaker 1: impacted me.
17:27
Speaker 2: So what happened next?
17:31
Speaker 1: Okay. Let me recall. So the lead guy is removed.
17:35
Speaker 1: It's really painful. He started the church.
17:37
Speaker 2: It was.
17:38
Speaker 1: And there was like more stuff that kept coming out.
17:40
Speaker 1: It was just a really, really hard season. They quickly
17:46
Speaker 1: hired an interim guy to try and stop the bleeding.
17:51
Speaker 1: And he ended up not being a good fit for
17:54
Speaker 1: a whole other list of reasons. And it was around
17:56
Speaker 1: that time that the leadership discovered that we had six
18:01
Speaker 1: months to bankruptcy. There was a lot of secrecy in
18:04
Speaker 1: the finances leading up to that point. And so they're
18:06
Speaker 1: finally kind of getting a handle on it all. So
18:08
Speaker 1: we discovered that, hey, we have about six months to bankruptcy.
18:11
Speaker 1: That's when the elders approached me and essentially said, hey,
18:15
Speaker 1: do you want to take a crack at it? And
18:17
Speaker 1: I'm like, not really.
18:20
Speaker 2: No.
18:22
Speaker 1: And then they said, well, would you at least pray
18:26
Speaker 1: and fast about it for a week? And I mean,
18:28
Speaker 1: what a Jesus juke, right? Like, oh, I guess I
18:33
Speaker 1: can't say no to that. Yeah. Yeah. Forget about it.
18:36
Speaker 1: And I wish I had a better explanation for you,
18:38
Speaker 1: but something happened in my heart in that week. And
18:41
Speaker 1: I want to be careful to say I went into
18:44
Speaker 1: that week fully convinced that it was a no for me.
18:47
Speaker 1: I was like, man, hey, no offense, but I'm young.
18:52
Speaker 1: I'm dusted off the resume like this is. Love you all.
18:55
Speaker 1: And at the end of that week, it was like, shoot,
18:59
Speaker 1: I think God's asking me to do this. It was
19:00
Speaker 1: such a bizarre. And I don't even know. I wouldn't
19:04
Speaker 1: say I was totally excited about it. I was like,
19:07
Speaker 1: I have a bachelor's of student ministry. I don't know
19:11
Speaker 1: how to lead a staff meeting. I don't know how
19:13
Speaker 1: to balance budget. I don't know how to cast a vision.
19:16
Speaker 1: I don't know any of these things.
19:18
Speaker 2: What changed in your heart? Do you remember specifically? Because
19:21
Speaker 2: you just talked about in the span of a week,
19:23
Speaker 2: you went from nope to yep.
19:27
Speaker 1: I think maybe the only thing that changed is I
19:30
Speaker 1: thought at the beginning of that week, That the Lord
19:33
Speaker 1: was giving me the green light to go ahead and
19:35
Speaker 1: move on. And by the end of it, it was,
19:37
Speaker 1: it just seemed unmistakable to me. And I invited a
19:39
Speaker 1: couple of other people to kind of pray and fast
19:42
Speaker 1: and discern with me. I'm just a big believer in,
19:46
Speaker 1: I know I have blind spots. I need faithful gospel
19:49
Speaker 1: community around me. me. And so at the end of that,
19:53
Speaker 1: I was like, there's no way they're also feeling this.
19:57
Speaker 1: Because not only was I in my early 20s, I
20:00
Speaker 1: was single. A single senior pastor in his early 20s
20:06
Speaker 1: is a pretty uncommon thing. And That kind of shows
20:10
Speaker 1: you how desperate they were, to be honest. Like, all right,
20:14
Speaker 1: let's ask Simpkins if he'd take it. And that just
20:17
Speaker 1: ended up being, again, one of the most difficult, but
20:21
Speaker 1: beautiful and fruitful. The Lord just did something, maybe in
20:25
Speaker 1: spite of, but also through my naivete. I didn't know
20:28
Speaker 1: any better than to just try some of these really bizarre...
20:32
Speaker 1: And they were like, sure, what's the worst that could happen?
20:35
Speaker 1: We're already going bankrupt. It was a permission to play
20:38
Speaker 1: in a way that... Yeah, it was just really, really unique.
20:41
Speaker 1: And I just have so much affection for that community
20:43
Speaker 1: because I was immediately thrust into preaching every week. I
20:47
Speaker 1: didn't really know how to. And they suffered through so
20:51
Speaker 1: many years of bad preaching and like harebrained ideas that
20:55
Speaker 1: I thought were, you know, great, but we didn't have
20:57
Speaker 1: any money for. Like, I just have, yeah, that church
21:01
Speaker 1: and that community will forever hold like such a special
21:03
Speaker 1: place in my heart because we kind of, you know,
21:06
Speaker 1: when you like deal with something that heavy, with a
21:08
Speaker 1: community of people, we're just in for life now. Like
21:11
Speaker 1: whether you want it or not, like we, what we've
21:13
Speaker 1: walked through together and these people, they're just, they're just lifers.
21:17
Speaker 2: And it flourished.
21:18
Speaker 1: Which is wild because it, on paper, should not have.
21:22
Speaker 1: There was no, to the point where people would like
21:24
Speaker 1: ask me like, hey, what's your strategy for, and I
21:26
Speaker 1: would just laugh in their face. I'm like, the fact
21:28
Speaker 1: that you think I have any whisper strategy. One of
21:33
Speaker 1: my first moves was to cancel all programming. And we're
21:42
Speaker 1: just going to gather together and worship and pray. I'm
21:45
Speaker 1: just going to open the scriptures, all volunteer, none of it.
21:49
Speaker 1: We're just all going to be together. We're going to
21:51
Speaker 1: break bed. We brought back potlucks. I was like, I'm
21:55
Speaker 1: just going to open the scriptures and we're going to
21:58
Speaker 1: throw ourselves at the feet of Jesus. And people are like, well,
22:03
Speaker 1: what about nursery? What about like, nope, none of it.
22:05
Speaker 1: Not for a season. We're just all going to be,
22:08
Speaker 1: it was like, I took every church growth leadership book
22:12
Speaker 1: and just threw it out the window. And, uh, and
22:15
Speaker 1: I don't know where that, that audacity even came from,
22:18
Speaker 1: to be honest. Like I, why, one, why I thought
22:21
Speaker 1: that was a good idea or two, like one of
22:24
Speaker 1: the next things that we did was all this acreage.
22:27
Speaker 1: And I said, Hey, I want to throw a massive
22:29
Speaker 1: party for the city. and invite any other church that
22:33
Speaker 1: wants to come and be a part of it for free.
22:35
Speaker 1: And we called it Jubilee. It was like, hey, a
22:38
Speaker 1: recognition that this is God's house. This is God's church.
22:41
Speaker 1: These are his people. It's not ours. We're just stewards
22:44
Speaker 1: of it. And it was wildly successful. It was so strange.
22:50
Speaker 1: And churches are like, hey, you want to come and
22:52
Speaker 1: set up a booth and do it for free? And
22:53
Speaker 1: they're like, why would you offer that for free? I'm like,
22:55
Speaker 1: because we're on the same team. You're my brother. You're
22:59
Speaker 1: my sister. You're not my competition. I just was like,
23:01
Speaker 1: so yeah. So interested in like building bridges rather than,
23:06
Speaker 1: oh man, how do we move our attendance up 10%
23:09
Speaker 1: from last year? And how long were you there? I
23:12
Speaker 1: was there 10 years.
23:14
Speaker 2: Okay. Is that where you met your wife?
23:16
Speaker 1: That is where I met my wife. Yeah.
23:19
Speaker 2: Can I hear that story?
23:23
Speaker 1: Sure. Without telling too much of her story, uh, She
23:27
Speaker 1: came to faith later in life, but encountered Jesus through
23:30
Speaker 1: some pretty remarkable things that happened in her family. As
23:33
Speaker 1: a result of that, her mom started a homeless ministry
23:36
Speaker 1: that is still active today, caring for hundreds of men
23:40
Speaker 1: and women every week. So Katie's introduction to church was
23:43
Speaker 1: like breaking bread and singing old hymns with men and
23:46
Speaker 1: women who were on the streets. And so when it
23:48
Speaker 1: came time for her to like move out, she's like,
23:50
Speaker 1: I should kind of find my own kind of church community.
23:53
Speaker 1: She's like, I found it really difficult because none of
23:55
Speaker 1: the suburban churches I visited looked at all like what
23:59
Speaker 1: my mom was cultivating and leading. And so she had
24:02
Speaker 1: kind of written off church for a little bit, but
24:04
Speaker 1: a bunch of her friends apparently had started attending our
24:07
Speaker 1: church and were part of the community. the band and
24:09
Speaker 1: there were, you know, it was this kind of ragtag
24:11
Speaker 1: group of like hippies and misfits. And so they kept
24:13
Speaker 1: inviting her and she, she wouldn't come, wouldn't come, uh,
24:16
Speaker 1: started listening to the sermons apparently. And they really resonated
24:21
Speaker 1: with her. And this is, you know, this is before
24:24
Speaker 1: video cast or any of that. So she, she finally, uh, decided, yeah.
24:30
Speaker 1: All right, Lord, I feel like I need to show up.
24:33
Speaker 1: It was like out of a movie. It was not
24:34
Speaker 1: a big church. I didn't see her. I didn't see
24:37
Speaker 1: her come in. I actually didn't see her until I
24:38
Speaker 1: took the stage and I lost my place in my notes.
24:42
Speaker 1: I like, I like walked up to the stage and
24:45
Speaker 1: I like, I'm looking down at the podium. I'm like,
24:46
Speaker 1: all right, everybody turn in your Bibles to Galatians. And
24:51
Speaker 1: it was like light from heaven. It was so, but
24:53
Speaker 1: also terrifying because I'm having this moment in front of
24:55
Speaker 1: our whole church and I don't know anything about this woman.
24:58
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh no. Have I just become the creepiest
25:01
Speaker 1: pastor in the world? I don't know. I don't know
25:03
Speaker 1: her history. So I avoided her like the plague for
25:06
Speaker 1: a while because there's no scenario where a pastor asking
25:13
Speaker 1: a congregation out for coffee, if she's not into it,
25:15
Speaker 1: you're the worst person. So we just avoided each other.
25:18
Speaker 1: But I lived in the parsonage on the property and
25:21
Speaker 1: it was this big old farmhouse on all this acreage.
25:26
Speaker 1: And I really didn't want to live on the property
25:28
Speaker 1: as an unmarried senior pastor. And the elders kept asking
25:32
Speaker 1: if I would consider it. And I said, I'll move
25:34
Speaker 1: into the parsonage under two conditions. One, I want to
25:38
Speaker 1: use the extra rooms to help people who are coming
25:41
Speaker 1: out of treatment and kind of get their life together,
25:43
Speaker 1: like have a safe, free place to stay. And two,
25:46
Speaker 1: I said, I want to throw massive parties for the
25:50
Speaker 1: kinds of people who would never show up at a
25:51
Speaker 1: church on Sunday. And the elders said, do we have
25:55
Speaker 1: to go to these parties? And I was like, no, no,
25:57
Speaker 1: you don't have to come. And they said, fine, go ahead.
26:01
Speaker 1: So it was this gathering, these parties that we were
26:05
Speaker 1: throwing that Katie and her friends slowly sort of formed
26:10
Speaker 1: a leadership team with me. And that's sort of how
26:12
Speaker 1: I made my first in, my first in road with her. Yeah. Okay.
26:16
Speaker 2: Yeah. That is a hard one to like, just, you
26:18
Speaker 2: got to get... You got to get the right timing
26:21
Speaker 2: and the.
26:21
Speaker 1: Right situation for that. Yeah. Yep.
26:25
Speaker 2: There's so much more for us to hear from you
26:28
Speaker 2: because we're only halfway through my notes, but I just
26:30
Speaker 2: wanted to turn it into story time with Ian. Will
26:33
Speaker 2: you join us for one more episode? I can't just
26:35
Speaker 2: leave it there. Like we haven't even gotten to what
26:37
Speaker 2: took you to Nashville. We haven't gotten to you guys
26:40
Speaker 2: getting married and your three kids. So will you stick
26:42
Speaker 2: around for episode number two?
26:44
Speaker 1: I'd be happy to.
26:47
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining us on this episode
26:50
Speaker 2: of the Passion Meets Purpose podcast. Thank you to Josh Model,
26:54
Speaker 2: our show producer. Thank you to Lana Begas, our scheduler
26:57
Speaker 2: and our guest coordinator. These episodes would not happen if
27:01
Speaker 2: it wasn't for them. And I would welcome it if
27:04
Speaker 2: you would take a moment to rate and review the podcast.
27:06
Speaker 2: It helps others to find it. Plus, it just makes
27:08
Speaker 2: the show better. And one of my favorite things is
27:11
Speaker 2: to hear from you on who would you like to
27:13
Speaker 2: be featured as a guest today.
27:15
Speaker 1: On this show.
27:16
Speaker 2: So you can connect with us at purposely.com. Thank you.