Latest / Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk / ManTalk 133 - Pastors in the Workplace: Faith, Family & the Calling to Serve
Transcript
- 0:00Station where our veterans voices are heard.
- 0:03MBR talk. Hey folks, thanks for tuning in.
- 0:07You're giving veterans a voice today, powered by Work Simple,
- 0:10where we simplify your mission. Find us on the web at MB radio
- 0:14dot. The station where our veterans
- 0:18voices are heard MBR talk. Hey, thanks.
- 0:23For tuning. In welcome are those of the
- 0:26speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions
- 0:31of any entities they represent. The web at MB radio dot.
- 0:37Welcome to Man Talk 133, where men unite.
- 0:43So listen, it's a question that I've been wanting to know and a
- 0:45lot of people have been wanting to know, and that's about passes
- 0:49in the workplace, right? So we got the man tonight that's
- 0:53going to answer these questions because I got and questions and
- 0:56everybody else got them. So welcome to the show, Pastor
- 1:02Eric Wade. Welcome to the Eric White.
- 1:04I'm sorry, I'll welcome to the show.
- 1:07Amen. Thank you.
- 1:08Thank you my brother. Amen.
- 1:09Glad to be here. Thank you for inviting me,
- 1:11having me to be a part of what y'all guys are doing here.
- 1:14Yes, Sir, Yes, Sir. So we're going to get started
- 1:17like this, Pastor White, introduce yourself, tell the
- 1:19people who you are and you know anything you want to share about
- 1:23yourself. The floor is yours, man.
- 1:25For right now, it's because I got.
- 1:26I definitely got some questions that I know you can answer.
- 1:29Amen. Amen.
- 1:30We're just real quick just and I try to keep it in line with what
- 1:33we're doing here. Served in the military for
- 1:36years, active duty, graduated from North Carolina A&T, Aggie
- 1:40Pride. I was in the RO, I was in the
- 1:42ROTC program and it launched out of there.
- 1:46Went on active duty for eight years.
- 1:48Loved the military, but I had an encounter with God in the
- 1:51military, man and, and through that encounter, I resigned my
- 1:55Commission and jumped out and went to move to Cincinnati, OH.
- 2:02And there I knew that the Lord had called me into the ministry
- 2:06for another eight years. Man, I just served in the local
- 2:09church and I went back to school at night, went back to school,
- 2:14served in the local church, was working a full time job working
- 2:16for a company called Corning and was working for them in
- 2:20Cincinnati. And I was going to school at
- 2:22night, in Bible school at night. And about eight years in doing
- 2:27that, not 8 years of going to school, but eight years serving
- 2:30at a, at a church. I went to the leaders and I
- 2:34hadn't risen to the, the, the role of elder, congregation of
- 2:37elder in that particular church. And I went to the leaders and I
- 2:40had been telling them about what the Lord had called me to do.
- 2:43And they, they launched me to launch a church in Cincinnati,
- 2:47OH back in September, the 1st 22,000 and two, I launched the
- 2:53first church there and I pastored it for 16 years.
- 2:57And we moved back to North Carolina, my wife and I, and
- 3:00that church is still going strong there in Cincinnati
- 3:03called Bread of Life Church. Amen.
- 3:05Bread of Life Church in Cincinnati, OH.
- 3:08And so I've been married for 37 years in December, 37 years my
- 3:15age, I'd be 61 next week, October the 5th and said Tesla
- 3:19have three grown children 1 into the ministry 2.
- 3:24That's here in Durham, NC. I have two that are in New York
- 3:28City. 1 is in a theater. She's a writer, director, and
- 3:33we've been our youngest son. He's a business guy and he's in
- 3:36New York City as well. But my wife and I, we born and
- 3:39raised in North Carolina. We had a heart desire to come
- 3:43back home and God brought us back home in 2016 to the Raleigh
- 3:48area. Then we moved back to our
- 3:50hometown. Done Dunn, North Carolina back
- 3:54in 20 20/20/20. So we've been here and we
- 3:58launched another church and we planned on another church right
- 4:01here in Dunn. So that's just a real overview
- 4:04and all of those times I've been in some type of full time part
- 4:09time work and passing the church.
- 4:13OK. So when did you first realize
- 4:16that God was calling you into ministry?
- 4:19Because you know you have a lot of people that's in ministry,
- 4:22well working and in ministry and want to try to combine the 2.
- 4:27So when did you first realize that you were called in the
- 4:29ministry? Well, I was in the military and
- 4:32I was serving. I was actually actually in the
- 4:35position of AI was a company commander at the time, and I was
- 4:38commanding and was having a great command.
- 4:43And I had an accountant coming home from PT one day and I put
- 4:47in and not notice, you understand, I was saved.
- 4:50I had already given my life to the Lord and I was, I was living
- 4:54serving the Lord and I was coming home one day, um, from
- 4:58physical training and go home change and give her go back to
- 5:01duty. And I put into the driveway and
- 5:05I'm telling you, man, the Holy Spirit of God came into the car.
- 5:08I couldn't get out me and a piece was all over me, man, that
- 5:11I'm telling you, I was crying, didn't know what was going on.
- 5:14And I'm telling you, I heard just as clear as you and I are
- 5:18talking, what you are doing for the military is what I want you
- 5:23to do for me. And I was like, well, what is
- 5:25that? And I realized as a company
- 5:27commander, I was shepherding. I was past the soldiers and then
- 5:32and my wife was the first lady. She was responsible for the
- 5:35families and you know the all of that and and the Lord spoke to
- 5:39my heart about that. I resigned my Commission at the
- 5:43day that I turned over my command.
- 5:47I left the military, Amen, to pursue what God had called me to
- 5:51do. And that's how real it was for
- 5:53me. Amen.
- 5:54Wow, did you ever envision yourself being the pastor and
- 5:57working at the same time? I did not, I, I, I did well,
- 6:02what happened was I was already again in, in corporate work and
- 6:07I was so when I started planning the church at the beginning, and
- 6:10I, let me say this to you, there was seasons that I was in full
- 6:14time ministry. There was seasons in full time
- 6:16ministry. And I can tell you some of those
- 6:18dynamics, you know, I think it has all to do with what size of
- 6:21a church. You know, God doesn't bless
- 6:23everybody with a mega church. You know, if, if you know the
- 6:26statistics out there, most churches are not mega churches.
- 6:30And so, so when you don't have that mega church backing or
- 6:35whatever it may be, you got to consider some options, you know,
- 6:39for the seasons and the times that you're in.
- 6:41Yeah, yeah, yeah. But but yeah, I, I, I, I, I knew
- 6:46that I was calm, but I also knew I had to take care of a family.
- 6:51Right, so now you are, because I met you through my wife Latisha.
- 6:56You are a chaplain. Yes, Sir.
- 6:58Right. So now how did how does well you
- 7:03became a chaplain win I guess so I can ask.
- 7:06Them. Well, yeah, I've been a chaplain
- 7:07now just for a short period of time.
- 7:10I actually retired from my job. I had been working in corporate
- 7:15America off and on for a number of years and I was as a plant
- 7:19operations manager in my recent role before, you know, and we,
- 7:23like I said, we just started a plant in a church about five
- 7:26years ago here and done. And I was working at this whole
- 7:30time while doing that. And I decided though, because of
- 7:36the stress, anxiety, depression, everything that comes with being
- 7:40a print, a plant manager, my season was up, you know, and
- 7:44then I was 60 years old and the body was breaking down.
- 7:47I need a hip replacement and all of that.
- 7:50I decided my faith in, and I believe it was God's purpose for
- 7:53me to transition out of that, out of that.
- 7:56And I'm telling you, I wasn't looking to be a chaplain, but
- 7:59when one door closes, God opens up another door.
- 8:02And then, yes, Sir, you know, I like to say go ahead, I'm sorry.
- 8:06No, no, no good. No, you're good.
- 8:07You're good. Two things I like to say real
- 8:09quick is I learned the very own. There's a you got to separate
- 8:13occupation from vocation. You know, the Bible says walk
- 8:16worthy of the vocation in which you have been called and that
- 8:19vocation really is your calling. Amen is what God has called you
- 8:23to do. But then again, you got to
- 8:25understand you got to have an occupation.
- 8:26Why? Because you got to take care of
- 8:28your family. The Bible also says, you know,
- 8:30if you don't work, you're not going to eat.
- 8:32Now, I'm all in believing that the local church should support
- 8:37their pastor if they can sustain the pastor, if the congregation
- 8:42is large enough to sustain the pastor of them.
- 8:45So. But I also understand that when
- 8:48the congregation isn't large enough and the pastor is trying
- 8:52to be full time before time, it stunts the growth.
- 8:57It, it puts the pressure on the people.
- 9:00You know, we, we yeah. To to stop manipulating and
- 9:03doing things that would cause not have a good healthy church.
- 9:08Yeah, for real. So so how does how does
- 9:11chaplaincies is your pastor? How does that help you become a
- 9:14better? Does it make you busy, make you
- 9:16a better pastor? Or does you know by you?
- 9:19Let me say this thing. Yeah, I believe that what I'm
- 9:22doing now and is where my occupation and vocation have
- 9:27come together. My occupation is what I get paid
- 9:30to do. My vocation is what I've been
- 9:31called to do. And now they've been both, They
- 9:33both come together. So I am enjoying what I get paid
- 9:37to do. And you know what I'm saying?
- 9:39I'm walking. And this lines up with pastoral
- 9:43ministry. I'm, I'm basically pastoring.
- 9:47I'm leading because I'm a leader.
- 9:50Even I'm leading people when I say I'm leading groups of
- 9:53volunteers, I have a group of volunteer chapters that I lead
- 9:57here as well. And so I'm leading, developing,
- 10:01encouraging all the above. And then I'm also with my
- 10:05leadership experience in corporate and also in the
- 10:08ministry, I'm able to because a Chapman not only just deals with
- 10:15the patients, but they deal with the staff as well.
- 10:17So I'm able to deal with the always with the CEO to the
- 10:20hospital, to the person that's cleaning, changing sheets, able
- 10:24to minister to all of them as they need it as as well.
- 10:28So as a, as a working pastor for the, for the people, because you
- 10:32mentioned some people can, can get out too fast, want to become
- 10:35full time ministry too fast for you since you've been in
- 10:39corporate and you've been a pastor for 16 years and you're a
- 10:42pastor now. What does that look like as a
- 10:44working pastor? When people are working pastor,
- 10:48they see, hey, you know, you got a job and you pass it on Sunday.
- 10:52But I'm sure it's a lot more entailed than that.
- 10:54Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, the whole time I've been
- 10:57doing what I call by vocational ministry, I just didn't do it on
- 11:01Sunday. I was doing it on Wednesday as
- 11:02well, and I'm preaching twice a week and still do it.
- 11:08What I'm saying is it takes discipline, man.
- 11:10It really does. It takes discipline.
- 11:12And I think that's where some of the military piece of it comes
- 11:15for me is the discipline side of it.
- 11:18I don't have a lot of play time, you know what I'm saying?
- 11:20I don't, yeah, I'm, I stay focused and discipline.
- 11:25And not only that, you know, it's not about us, it's about
- 11:29him. And when it's about him, you,
- 11:32you, you want to have a team. I had a, as my church grew in
- 11:35Cincinnati, I had a staff, I had a team.
- 11:38And so guess what? Most of my team members were
- 11:41where most of your volunteers at the church, or you don't want to
- 11:45call them volunteers, whatever. Guess what?
- 11:47They, they working on a job somewhere, you know what I'm
- 11:49saying? Yeah, yeah, they are, they're
- 11:50getting it. And so them are the people that
- 11:53you're leading on to help you in the ministry.
- 11:56And so these are the folks. So I didn't have to do it by
- 11:59myself. I had a staff team and they,
- 12:02they helped Aiden and assisted and they understood what I did
- 12:07because they were doing the same thing.
- 12:09Yeah. And and they supported me
- 12:10strongly in that. Hey man, that's great.
- 12:13So I heard, I've heard some people say this.
- 12:16If you're truly called to ministry, why don't you, why
- 12:21don't you just do it full time? You should do it.
- 12:23If you're called to be a pastor, you should be doing it full
- 12:26time. What would you say to that?
- 12:28I would say in some cases that that could be true.
- 12:31I mean, it's all in the I won't say that, hey, I disagree with
- 12:38that, but I won't say I agree with that as well.
- 12:40I think, you know, you got to understand the times and the
- 12:43seasons that that we're moving in, we're moving.
- 12:45And even now, I'll just give you an example.
- 12:47I was at Campbell University about a month ago and I was
- 12:51talking to the Dean of the, of the school that the divinity
- 12:55school, the Dean and associate Dean at the school, and they are
- 12:59saying that they're seeing a increase in by vocational
- 13:03ministry. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 13:05They're seeing more people that are doing both of them.
- 13:08You got so many people hopping out at me and people quitting,
- 13:11pastoring me. There's churches everywhere.
- 13:14Let me say this to you. I can go find a church right
- 13:17now. I can go find a church right now
- 13:20that I can go pastor and I can be full time at that church
- 13:23right now. That's how many vacancies are in
- 13:26churches that are out there right now, even in a rural place
- 13:29that I am. But that ain't what God called
- 13:30me to do. You got to understand what God
- 13:33you got some people that hop church to church to church so
- 13:36they can maintain their full time ministry and their status
- 13:39or whatever. You got to understand whom God
- 13:42has called you to be and what God has called you to do.
- 13:45So I'm not opposed to those that say, hey, full time pastor, God
- 13:49called me to plant churches. And a part of planting churches
- 13:53is, you know what Paul was the person that planted churches.
- 13:56He was a tent maker. He worked, you know what I'm
- 13:59saying? So you, you got the different
- 14:00models for different people, you know, in different seasons of
- 14:03life. And so I would not come against
- 14:05anyone that would say that, but I know what God called me to do
- 14:09and I got to do what he called me to do.
- 14:11Amen. Amen.
- 14:12So we got about 30 seconds before we go to the first break,
- 14:15right? Have you ever struggled?
- 14:18And I know this, this is a yes. Have you ever thought about just
- 14:22just quitting? Yes, yes, yeah.
- 14:31My, my pastor said you got to have a rough hide and a tender
- 14:34hot pastor. Amen.
- 14:36But this is the thing. Quitting is not an option for
- 14:40me. And that's when you know, you
- 14:42really been called, Amen. That's when you really know
- 14:45you're you're you're calling is being tried.
- 14:48Yeah. But I've I've I've definitely
- 14:50has been in my heart more than one time.
- 14:53Yeah, man, we're here with Bassa Eric White y'all tonight.
- 14:56We'll be right back after the break.
- 14:58Stats tell that each day, 22 veterans commit suicide due to
- 15:03PTSD. These stats shook us and urged
- 15:06us to do our part. After hours and hours of
- 15:10thinking, beekeeping for veterans was born.
- 15:13Beekeeping for veterans combines beekeeping with mindfulness
- 15:17meditation. Why combine them?
- 15:19Here's why beekeeping causes positive rush of adrenaline.
- 15:24While beekeeping you have to be calm during it you are mindful
- 15:28of your movements. Each week, a veteran will
- 15:31receive a mindful meditation to build emotional and mental skill
- 15:35sets. Mindfulness is a set of three
- 15:37attentional skills that work together, concentration, sensory
- 15:42clarity and equanimity, mental calmness, composure, evenness of
- 15:46temper. Every time mindfulness is
- 15:49practiced, we build these skills.
- 15:51Beekeeping for veterans not only helps veterans overcome
- 15:55emotional trauma but also aids our environment as without bees
- 15:59there is no food. Come forward.
- 16:02The people who have supported your country now need your
- 16:05support. Military broadcast radio, the
- 16:14station that's giving veterans a voice Find.
- 16:17Us on the web at MB radio dot US.
- 16:20Opinions expressed in this program are those of the
- 16:23speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions
- 16:27of any entities they represent. Welcome back to Man Talk 133.
- 16:33We hit the night whip, Pastor Eric White.
- 16:37So we're talking about passes in the workplace, right, Sir?
- 16:41So what does it feel like? Because I never done it before,
- 16:45right? What does it feel like at the
- 16:47work all week? Had to prepare sermons, cancel
- 16:52people, attend meetings, visit the sick and lead a congregation
- 16:57all in one week. How does that?
- 17:00Well, again, it takes a team when you think that that's,
- 17:05that's what you really got to understand early on.
- 17:07You think about the military, it takes a team, you know, a
- 17:11commander, whatever role you're in, a platoon Sergeant, you
- 17:14know, whatever squad leader, whatever it is, it takes the
- 17:17team. So you're influencing a, a, a
- 17:20team of people. And if it comes to the
- 17:23discipleship, it takes a team, whatever it may be, it takes a
- 17:26team. You have deacons to help with
- 17:28the watch care of the people. So it's not again about that one
- 17:32individual. I might be the main speaker, but
- 17:36at the same time too, I'd be wise as well to have other
- 17:39speakers to stand because I might have a, a certain gift
- 17:42mix. And the Bible tells us that we
- 17:44need the fivefold ministry, Amen, to help to equip the
- 17:49Saints out of the perfection of the Saints.
- 17:51And so I might be a pastor teacher, but they need to have
- 17:54the evangelist, they need to hit the prophet, the apostle, you
- 17:58know, the those other types of giftings as well.
- 18:01And so to to answer your question again, it comes back to
- 18:05team. It's a team.
- 18:06Yeah, it's a team. That's how we get it done.
- 18:10Amen. Amen.
- 18:10So so how like because I'm just asking these questions and I'm
- 18:15thinking of myself. So you guys as pastors pray for
- 18:20people and you know all the time and pouring the people who pray
- 18:24for you guys and pour into y'all when you need it.
- 18:27Amen. I would say my, that's why we
- 18:30got to be connected. You know what I'm saying?
- 18:33I'm not a alone, sheep, wolf or whatever you want to call it.
- 18:37I'm connected to an organization.
- 18:39I'm not per SE in a denomination, but I am connected
- 18:43to a larger organization called CCI, Covenant Connection
- 18:46International. They're out of Texas Action, the
- 18:49Fort Hood, TX area and over 500 different churches.
- 18:53And so I have a fellowship, I have a group of presbyters that
- 19:00it's an organization. It's not, again, not a
- 19:03fellowship or organization that I'm involved in that men I can
- 19:07lean on me and I can call them and and and you know, and we
- 19:11fellowship and and those things there.
- 19:13So there's some accountability and I go to conferences and
- 19:17those things, they're to be encouraged, but I also, if I
- 19:19need counseling, I can go to them as well.
- 19:23So when you so when your kids were young, so like 6 when when
- 19:26you were doing the first 16 years in ministry?
- 19:28Yes, Sir. Now how did you balance that?
- 19:31How did you balance, you know, ministry and work and kids and
- 19:35you know all that stuff at one time because I, I would imagine
- 19:39doing your full time, doing your part time stints and full time
- 19:44you were working. How did you balance that?
- 19:46You know, what was the, what was that like?
- 19:48And having kids with events and the wife and all that stuff
- 19:51going. Well, thank God for my wife.
- 19:55Again, it comes back to the team, man, you know what I'm
- 19:58saying? My wife and I are team.
- 20:00And we, you know, my wife, she sacrificed because not only were
- 20:05was I in the ministry, we were away from home, you know, saying
- 20:08we were raising our children in the city.
- 20:10In a state, man, where we didn't have no aunts and uncles and
- 20:13grandma and granddad, we didn't have any of that.
- 20:16But we had a church family. We had a church family.
- 20:19And I really realized what church family meant.
- 20:24You know, as we were all growing up, we had other friends that
- 20:27were in very light situations and we leaned on one another,
- 20:31man, that's what it was. We leaned on one another.
- 20:34When it comes to the kids though, man, I, I made it a
- 20:36priority because I, you know, I worked in professional
- 20:38environments and being in a professional environment, you
- 20:42know, if I needed to be somewhere and #1 if my
- 20:45reputation was good and I carried myself in a way and I
- 20:48was an asset to my organization, man, look, man, they, they knew
- 20:54who I was, man. They knew I was a man of God,
- 20:56but they, they had no problems with me if it was at a, a
- 21:00function that I needed to go to or taking care of my kids or
- 21:03whatever, you know, because I was worthy of my hire in, you
- 21:09know, in my, in my private or the corporate side of things.
- 21:12And so they were very supportive of me.
- 21:14I didn't have to hide that I was a pastor.
- 21:16Matter of fact, there were times when they would call on me to do
- 21:19things within my, in the organization.
- 21:21They didn't have to call like EAP employment assistance
- 21:24program. They had one on site and so and
- 21:27so I, I didn't have to hide who I was.
- 21:31Amen. In my corporate and and so I've
- 21:34always been very supportive by the organizations that I've I've
- 21:38worked with and and worked for. OK.
- 21:41What type of SAC you mentioned sacrifices, what type of
- 21:44sacrifices that that you guys had to make?
- 21:47Being away from family, your wife is, you know, kind of
- 21:51holding things down. You know what type of
- 21:53sacrifices, you know. Well, yeah, there were some
- 21:55things that our kids obviously couldn't do.
- 21:57You know, they they played sports.
- 21:59But my son, I couldn't. I remember we had to make a
- 22:03decision one time that I couldn't go with the, you know,
- 22:05we couldn't support the travel ball, you know, the travel
- 22:08league. Yeah.
- 22:09You know, my son, he was playing basketball and and the coach sat
- 22:13down, we had a meeting and my wife and I were in this meeting,
- 22:16you know, and he was saying, well, your summer's going to be
- 22:19in Florida this year. We're going to be doing travel
- 22:21about it. And I looked at my wife and I,
- 22:24we looked at what another say, not our summer.
- 22:29And we had to have a conversation with our son about
- 22:31it. And he looks back.
- 22:34He's a pastor today, you know, he looks back and we laugh about
- 22:38that situation because we knew he wasn't going to the NBA.
- 22:44So we said we go cut this thing off early.
- 22:48Right now and cutting. That off and so we had to make
- 22:51some hard choices when it was with our kids, but we supported
- 22:54them and each one of our kids, we had three kids.
- 22:57They were three years apart and we supported them.
- 23:00Them let me let me say some of the things that had to pull me
- 23:04out when I was full time and I got pulled out of full time.
- 23:07I had to go back to work and I had a situation with two of our
- 23:12kids. All our kids were in public
- 23:13schools, man. And our daughter, she was doing
- 23:16great because she was how can I say you know, very intelligent
- 23:22influence. She was at the top tier and she
- 23:24was she was what I what I considered she stayed out of
- 23:27general population and so she was able to move through school
- 23:32very well without a lot of the distractions.
- 23:35But my two sons, they weren't, they weren't achieving like
- 23:39that. And so they were having a lot of
- 23:41issues in school, man. And my wife and I, when I was in
- 23:44full time ministry, I became a, a substitute teacher.
- 23:50My wife and I did, we both did. Why?
- 23:52Because we wanted to get into the school system to see what
- 23:55was going on with our kids because they were complaining, I
- 23:58realized I had to pull my kid out of public school to put them
- 24:01in a private school if they were going to learn anything, if they
- 24:04were going to graduate, just because of where I lived there
- 24:07in the school district I was in, I didn't move.
- 24:10But we had to move them out of there and put them into some
- 24:13private schools. Hence I had to go back to to my
- 24:17corporate environment to make enough money to send them to
- 24:21school. So what I'm saying I'm going to
- 24:23be prideful to stay in full time ministry and let my kids suffer.
- 24:28I made the sacrifice this time to say, hey, I'm going back to
- 24:32work and I'm going to what? Look, everybody else had their
- 24:35kids in in the right schools that were going to the church.
- 24:37Why wouldn't I do any different? And So what I'm saying is
- 24:40there's times and seasons that we must understand that we got
- 24:44to do the right thing when it comes to our children.
- 24:47And my children are the better. Matter of fact, they tell me all
- 24:50the time, Dad, we're so appreciative that you pulled us
- 24:53out of that school and put us in in the private school.
- 24:55Amen. Yes, Sir, that that's for the
- 25:00people that want to go into ministry for ward time
- 25:04sacrifices you're going to have to make.
- 25:05He's giving me all some sacrifices now that you're going
- 25:08to have. To make, let me tell you another
- 25:10one. You know, with doing that,
- 25:12brother, I couldn't drive the best cars.
- 25:14I didn't have the newest, the newest cars all the time.
- 25:17You know what I'm saying? Yeah.
- 25:18You know, sometimes we want to be in ministry.
- 25:19We want to be flashy. We want to have, we want to
- 25:22drive the best car, wear the best suits.
- 25:24We want to do all those types of things and that's what ministry
- 25:27is not about. And so there were seasons where
- 25:30I didn't have those suits and I didn't have the the ride I
- 25:34didn't have why? Because I was taking that and
- 25:38putting it into vesting into my children.
- 25:40You know what I'm saying? Making sure they had great
- 25:42educations. You know, I can have a good car
- 25:45and they and and they they getting a bad education.
- 25:48And so there were numerous sacrifices that we made, but we
- 25:52thank God for family, man. My parents, folks would fly out.
- 25:55We would go to conferences. My parents would fly out.
- 25:59They would take care of the kids because they were with their
- 26:01grandkids, and we would go to a conference.
- 26:04I'm telling my whole life has been about team, you know, and
- 26:08support one another. Yeah, to be successful.
- 26:13Now you, you, I know you're a veteran and we don't, we don't
- 26:17give up easy, right? We don't, we fight to the end,
- 26:20right? Have you, have you ever
- 26:22experienced burnt out or got close to it, you know, doing
- 26:25ministry and having to sacrifice and have the work And have you
- 26:29know, have you ever got close to that or experienced burnout?
- 26:33Yeah, I've, I've experienced that twice that I'm aware of.
- 26:36Amen. When I left Cincinnati and I
- 26:40look back of leaving Cincinnati, coming to North Carolina, I
- 26:44didn't pass it for about 3 years and I realized that I needed a
- 26:48sabbatical. I realized I was burnt out a
- 26:51ministry, although things were thriving and going well, we
- 26:55stepped out by faith to come back home and and we, we what we
- 27:00realized was that the churches, even though we founded that
- 27:03church, the church is not ours. It belongs to the Lord.
- 27:06And if it's going and if it's the Lord's, it's going to it's
- 27:09going to last. You know, I'm saying so we
- 27:10stepped out by faith. The Lord gave me my wife and I
- 27:14he spoke to me. He says Genesis 31 and three,
- 27:17get ye up out of this land. Return to the land of your
- 27:20father and your relatives and I would be with you.
- 27:22That was the, that's how I left Cincinnati.
- 27:24Everywhere I left when I left the military, I left on the
- 27:27word. When I left the ministry in
- 27:30Cincinnati and came to North Carolina, I left on the word of
- 27:33God. And what I'm saying unto you is,
- 27:37is that the Lord knew more than anything that I needed some
- 27:40rest, man. I needed some rest.
- 27:42I got here for three years and did not officially try to.
- 27:48I tried to start a couple of Bible studies and they didn't.
- 27:51They did nothing happen and I realized that the Lord had me in
- 27:55a sabbatical time of season and resting and resetting to go over
- 27:58there and and then just recently transitioning out of my full
- 28:03time corporate job and moving into this role.
- 28:07I was in a season where physically as I was, I had a
- 28:14needed a hip replacement. Blood pressure went high man.
- 28:18I had a lot of different things going on and I was overwhelmed
- 28:24physically and emotionally and mentally and I reached out.
- 28:30I got weeks out to the vet center and connected with a a
- 28:33vet a therapist man to start. I used to look down on therapy
- 28:37but all my kids I realized my 3 kids.
- 28:40One day I found out my wife was talking to me.
- 28:42She said they all got therapist. I said therapist for what?
- 28:46All the sacrifice we've done. They all went to college, they
- 28:49all, you know, all of those things.
- 28:51I said what they need a therapy for, a therapist for and I
- 28:54realized, man, that therapist weren't a bad thing.
- 28:57It's what they, it's what they, you know, I realized and to the
- 29:00day I found out that I needed one.
- 29:03And I'm telling you, it was the best thing I did.
- 29:05I went and fell on the mercy of the VA and, and, and, and I'll
- 29:10tell you what. And that therapist navigated me
- 29:14out of my corporate career and helped me to move into what I'm
- 29:19doing now as a chaplain. And you know, we talked off ad
- 29:23we talked about the on the phone.
- 29:24So I'm going to bring you I'm going to bring you back on for
- 29:27another show because once we get over into that, we'll be into
- 29:29that for a while. I won't bring you back on about
- 29:32that. The part you just talking about.
- 29:33So what are some for the for the pastors out there that is like,
- 29:37you know, they want to say, they want to say, you know, dinners
- 29:41and they want to do real estate and they want to do all these
- 29:44things and do ministry and they want to all these things they
- 29:47want to do, right? What are some signs that pastors
- 29:50are carrying too much? Because sometimes they don't see
- 29:53it and they don't have the team around them like you had.
- 29:57What? What are some signs they can
- 29:58look for that and let them know like, Hey, you, you, you getting
- 30:01close to burning out? Well, your, your number one sign
- 30:05is your wife. If you're married and your
- 30:08family, you know my my wife. She and I thank God I have a
- 30:13strong wife and she always knew those times and those moments
- 30:20when to pull my coattail and to say, hey, you know, we need to,
- 30:25we need to do something with the fan.
- 30:26We need to focus on this. And maybe we need to pull out of
- 30:28this. Maybe we don't need to go to
- 30:29that. Maybe we don't need to
- 30:30participate in everything. And a lot of that sacrifice was
- 30:34that, you know, I when I said sacrifices, I couldn't be at
- 30:37every every church function or not just mine, but other
- 30:43peoples, you know, said I couldn't, you know, let's go
- 30:46fellowship over here. Let's go do this.
- 30:48That another a lot of that I chose not to do as times of
- 30:52protecting myself and you know, arresting.
- 30:55And so I think a lot of that wisdom also came to of being,
- 30:59like I said earlier, I was connected with an organization
- 31:02and those organizations, people would testify, I would be
- 31:08connected with another brother, you know, another pastor, and,
- 31:11and he would tell him what he was dealing with and going
- 31:14through. And so I believe having a
- 31:16network, Amen, starting with your family, Amen.
- 31:20And then having a network, being connected with other people,
- 31:23oppressions like faith are all, and having real relationships.
- 31:29Other people can speak into your life and say, man, you're doing
- 31:32too much, you know, and so you got to have some real friends in
- 31:35your life when you're doing ministry, people that's going to
- 31:38be able to tell you and speak to you and give you some reality.
- 31:42And what they're seeing in your life, I think, is what's most
- 31:45important. Amen to that way.
- 31:47Listen, we up against the breaks, so we'll be back right
- 31:49back after the break, y'all? It's time for a vacation and
- 31:53Fairway Travels is here to share great specials for you to choose
- 31:57from. Discover the charm and features
- 31:59of 1 of Sandals 16 all inclusive luxury included adults only
- 32:04resorts or a family friendly beaches destination in the
- 32:08Caribbean. How about a couples resort in
- 32:10Jamaica? If cruising is your preference,
- 32:13get Thunderstroke aboard Carnival Cruise Lines or set
- 32:16sail on an award-winning Royal Caribbean ship.
- 32:20Join Virgin Voyages now for a wonderful adults only sailing.
- 32:23It doesn't matter if you choose to travel by plane, train,
- 32:26automobile, cruise ship, a row boat, we can help you reach your
- 32:30dream destination. Contact Fairway Travels today at
- 32:33228-365-1012. That's 228-365-1012 or e-mail
- 32:40bookitnow247@gmail.com. Fairway travels where your
- 32:45journeys keep satisfying. Military broadcast video The
- 32:51station that's giving veterans a voice Find.
- 32:54Us on the web at MB radio dot US.
- 32:57Opinions expressed in this program are those of the
- 33:00speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions
- 33:04of any entities they represent. Welcome back to Man Talk 133 we
- 33:11had tonight with Pastor Eric White.
- 33:14So listen, we talked about the sacrifice, we talked about all
- 33:18those stuff. Now let's get into some churches
- 33:21want to some time aboard? Let's talk about that money,
- 33:24right? Should pastors be compensated?
- 33:27Because some people feel like pastors shouldn't be
- 33:29compensated. Do you feel like pastors should
- 33:32be compensated for their work? I do, I do, I I I really believe
- 33:38that the, as the church has the, as you have the capacity to do
- 33:43it. You know, many times we're
- 33:45playing the musicians and and the past is not getting paid,
- 33:49but the musicians are getting more paid more than the the past
- 33:51thing is. And that's a whole, that's a
- 33:53whole nother source subject there.
- 33:55But and I don't have anything against musicians.
- 33:58I'm just saying if we can pay the musicians, we got to be able
- 34:01to pay the pastors as well. And so at the end of the day,
- 34:06the pastor should be compensated.
- 34:08They're worthy of their hire. They should be compensated as
- 34:12they can be compensated. You know, as the congregation
- 34:14grows, so, so shall the, the salary grow.
- 34:20I, I also believe if you're going to do it right, that we
- 34:22should be legit. We should have a independent
- 34:25third party organization that that will, that would tell you,
- 34:31you know, that will speak to you and give you that
- 34:34recommendation. That's why it's good to be
- 34:36involved with a organization that's larger than you are.
- 34:40You know what I'm saying? That that will coach you and and
- 34:43introduce you to those things that would be helpful in helping
- 34:47to establish the right salary amount for a pastor with the
- 34:52science church that they have and responsibilities that they
- 34:55have. Yeah, yeah.
- 34:56You know, I've heard people say some crazy stuff that they don't
- 34:59think pastors should get paid because that they calling they
- 35:03should, they should just go and do it for free.
- 35:06So my thing is like, do you go to work for free?
- 35:11You might know how to do it real good, but you go there and do it
- 35:14for free. So let me say.
- 35:16Always think pastor, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 35:17Let me do this. I believe just even as the
- 35:20pastors have received the salary, that pastor should also
- 35:23be tithing and giving as well. You know what I'm saying?
- 35:25Yeah, If you got that expectation of your your
- 35:28congregation members, you should be doing the same giving as a
- 35:31principle that God. It's not just for the
- 35:33congregation, it's for the pastor as well.
- 35:36And so we should be, I think I always like to say, I think the
- 35:39pastor should be one of the biggest givers in the church.
- 35:42Amen. If not the biggest giver in the
- 35:43church. Amen.
- 35:44Yes, Sir. Now, what would you say to
- 35:46people that you know, I've heard people, you know, these are
- 35:49things that I've heard. I jot stuff down that I've heard
- 35:52because I knew you was coming on and I was like, you know what?
- 35:54These are some questions I've things that I've heard and I
- 35:58know you got the answers for them right.
- 35:59So what would you say to the people who criticize pastors?
- 36:04My pastors shouldn't have the words.
- 36:06He I don't I don't feel like it's right.
- 36:08He got to have a career or business outside of, you know,
- 36:13outside of ministry because he can't focus on God.
- 36:16Yeah. Well, what would you say to
- 36:18people that say? Something again, a pastors in
- 36:21full time ministry, they got to be disciplined as well.
- 36:24You can get up and you can get up and they can take you be
- 36:27doing do this, that and other. They could be in themselves
- 36:30writing their books and doing all other types of things.
- 36:33And so at the end of the day, it's all about our discipleship.
- 36:38Amen. With discipline, you know,
- 36:40sitting before the feet of the Lord and I, I sit before the
- 36:43feet of the Lord where I'm coming to the hospital, going to
- 36:47the corporate giant or whatever it may be.
- 36:49Amen. I, I still got to humble myself
- 36:51and, and sit before the Lord and get into that and get into that
- 36:55word as well. Let me say this, I ran into a
- 36:59situation where I just family had joined my congregation and
- 37:05it wasn't too long. Me and the the husband and him,
- 37:08we got somehow we, you know, we, we were, he got upset with me
- 37:13about something. I don't know what was going on.
- 37:15And he pretty much told me. He said, I tell you what he says
- 37:18I ain't going to pay your bills. I'm not paying your bills.
- 37:21I said paying my bills. What you talking about, man?
- 37:23I said, paying my bills. Yeah.
- 37:26Come to find out when we got beyond that and begin to have a
- 37:30real sensible man to man conversation, he had left for
- 37:34church where he was paying the pastor's electric bill and stuff
- 37:37like that. I said, brother, I can assure
- 37:40you, one thing is for sure, you wouldn't ever have to pay one of
- 37:43my bills. You know why?
- 37:45That's why I go to work to take care of my bills.
- 37:48That's why I go to them to take care of my family.
- 37:50Amen. And and if the church, if I'm
- 37:53not don't have the churches decide to do that, it's my
- 37:56responsibility to do that. Yeah, absolutely.
- 38:00So so you know, we people in church, they talk about orphans
- 38:05a lot, right? You know, the amount of
- 38:07offerings. So how did you as a pastor
- 38:11pursue like the financial, you got to have a balance like the
- 38:15stability without allowing money to become the motivation for
- 38:20ministry. Like some people, you know,
- 38:22their money is the motivation they got to have that they going
- 38:26to do whatever offers they got to do to get the money they need
- 38:30for the ministry. How do you kind of how do you
- 38:32separate that because you don't take me as a hey, I got I need
- 38:35like I ain't got enough. Yeah, I need some more before we
- 38:39leave this business. Somebody close them doors before
- 38:42they. Brother, that it's so
- 38:44distasteful, man. And I've been in environments
- 38:46like that where I've been at meetings or whatever and, and
- 38:50I've been one time I told my wife, I said, Dad, God, I feel
- 38:54so bad. I went out to my car.
- 38:55I had to go out in my car and get some more money.
- 38:57Wasn't even my church, wasn't even my organization.
- 39:00The guy just worked us over like that.
- 39:02I, I went out and went out of my car.
- 39:04I left my wallet in the car. So I want to bring so much with
- 39:07me. Like I know I'm going out to get
- 39:09my dad going wild out in the car to, to give some more money.
- 39:14You know, man, I tell you what, that's a I've never in almost 24
- 39:23years of pastoral ministry, I've never had to ask for extra
- 39:28offering. I've never had to manipulate the
- 39:31people. I've always only received one
- 39:34offering unless we're having a special offering about something
- 39:36and people would know about that ahead of time.
- 39:40But never, I'm telling in 24 years, I have never had to
- 39:45manipulate. I've never had to receive more
- 39:48than one offering at the church. And our needs were always met.
- 39:53And I've we've had buildings, I've had mortgages and
- 39:56buildings. Right now we're leasing a
- 39:58building. We don't own our building, We're
- 40:00leasing a building, but we've owned buildings in the past.
- 40:03You know what I'm saying? And, and never, I'm telling you
- 40:05absolutely never had to do this. Why?
- 40:07Because we had budgets. We understood.
- 40:10What was going in what was coming out.
- 40:12We weren't trying to live larger than what we were.
- 40:15And so I think all of those things come into play when those
- 40:19types of things happen. And not only that God when you
- 40:22do the the work of the Lord. I've had people put money in my
- 40:26hand, large sums of money when we go out and serve and do
- 40:30different things people have God has favored the ministry.
- 40:34Amen. Because of the work of the
- 40:36ministry. He has favored the ministry when
- 40:38I might not had enough congregation remember to do what
- 40:41needed to be done. But God, I'm telling you, man,
- 40:44God used people from outside the congregation that would come in
- 40:49and sow sizeable seeds and offerings into the ministry
- 40:54because of the work that we were doing.
- 40:56Wow, see. They got of all of the
- 40:59blueprint. That's right, brother.
- 41:00God provides me. That's right.
- 41:05So I take you as a real genuine man of God.
- 41:10So and I knew you're going to be honest with me.
- 41:12Yes, Sir. How was how does work?
- 41:14How's the working past affected your marriage and your family
- 41:17life? Well, my wife, she has.
- 41:22I remember my wife telling me one day she came home and she
- 41:25was crying and weeping and I said what's going on baby?
- 41:28She said, she said. She said the Lord spoke to me
- 41:34about, about my calling into ministry.
- 41:39And so my wife is not just the first lady, you know, saying
- 41:43that's, that's not her role. She is a very intimate part and
- 41:46has always been an intricate part of the ministry.
- 41:49And so we're A-Team, Amen. We, we've worked together over
- 41:54these years. We've worked in integrity.
- 41:59We've honored one another in ministry.
- 42:02Now you, I'd be the first to tell you.
- 42:04She would tell you too. There has been some intense
- 42:08fellowship, you know what I'm saying, where we've, where we've
- 42:11had disagreements, but not to a point of where there was
- 42:16anything with divorce or fighting or any of those types
- 42:19of things. We, we've learned to honor one
- 42:22another and, and we've, we've walked through this together,
- 42:26man, which is so grateful and thankful that I got 3 kids, none
- 42:30of them. My wife was always telling me
- 42:32you're gonna get your report. We're gonna get our report card
- 42:34when they get older. And we thank God we got A328
- 42:38minutes. We go get a report card from the
- 42:40kids won't get older when they get older.
- 42:42We go get one and we thank God, man, we got a 3034 31 and 28
- 42:49year old young adults and they're they're living well.
- 42:53They're on their own living well.
- 42:54And I'm telling you, man, I'm just so thankful and grateful we
- 42:57haven't gotten one report that mom and dad, y'all did this and
- 43:01you did that. You neglected us.
- 43:03Yeah, we we loved on them and we didn't let and we weren't the
- 43:08type 2 that would the church weren't going to bully our kids
- 43:11as well. Yes.
- 43:12So we kept our kids close to us. We entrusted them, you know,
- 43:19other people with them. And you know what?
- 43:21But just as as other people, like my kids would go to other
- 43:24people's house, guess what? Those kids would come to our
- 43:27home. You know, I'm saying what?
- 43:28Not yeah, we went, the church wasn't raising our kids.
- 43:31We raised our kids and then we raised our kids and we're would
- 43:34think, you said, I'm saying I, I instead of having a better
- 43:37church, I want to, you know, it's not about having a big
- 43:40church, It's about having big people.
- 43:42And we grew big people, man, and we grew big, big children.
- 43:46You know what I'm saying that that's what's most important to
- 43:48me. Amen.
- 43:49Now, now you know how some people you know, they want
- 43:52access to the pastor, they and the first lady, they got to have
- 43:56it. How did you protect?
- 43:58How do you protect it now and how did you protect your family
- 44:01time then from somebody that always want to contact the
- 44:04pastor? Hey, I you know, I got my toe
- 44:06finger hurt. I got to call the pastor because
- 44:09he got to pray for me. You know, all these things.
- 44:11How do you protect that? Well, that that's comes back to
- 44:15the organization of the church. That's why we had the deacons
- 44:18and the elders of those ministries and we also we had
- 44:23what we call small groupman. So the deacons were responsible
- 44:26for a certain amount of families.
- 44:28And so, and it wasn't that the Deacon was blocking them from
- 44:31the pastor, but if there was something that that they needed,
- 44:35they can, they had a relationship with the Deacon and
- 44:37we weren't, we weren't jealous of the relationship that the,
- 44:40the members had with the deacons.
- 44:42Amen. We did well, we, we wanted,
- 44:43that's what we wanted and that's what we had.
- 44:45So we found out. Now we're obviously in a much
- 44:49different situation now where we're in our, in our hometown,
- 44:53which is a smaller hometown, We got a smaller church and, but
- 44:56we're in a different place in our life, a different season.
- 44:59You know what I'm saying? We're my wife and I, you know,
- 45:02we long for fellowship. We long for connecting with
- 45:06people. And so it's not so much an issue
- 45:10for us now as it was in the past where we had to protect and and
- 45:15guard and, and, and just be wise and what we were doing in the
- 45:19ministry. Yeah.
- 45:21Amen. I so listen, we we were just our
- 45:23last break. We'll be right back after the
- 45:25break, y'all. The station where our veterans
- 45:27voices are heard. MBR talk.
- 45:31Hey folks, thanks for tuning in. You're giving veterans a voice
- 45:34today, powered by Work Simple, where we simplify your mission.
- 45:38Find this on the web at MB radio dot.
- 45:42The station where our veterans voices are heard.
- 45:45MBR talk. Hey thanks for tuning.
- 45:51In Welcome Back program are those of the speakers and do not
- 45:54necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they
- 45:58represent. The web at MB radio dot.
- 46:03Welcome back to Man Talk 133 with me and Unite here tonight
- 46:08with Pastor Eric White. And he's given some stuff
- 46:11because I had these questions. I wanted to know, you know, I
- 46:14mean, like, OK, for example, stuff I wrote down, right?
- 46:18What advice would you give a pastor's spouse who feel like
- 46:22the church is getting the best of their husband or wife?
- 46:25Yeah, wow, that's a tough one. I, I would, I would, you know,
- 46:34I, I, I believed in prayer and not just praying for your
- 46:39spouse. I know my wife, man.
- 46:40She's my, my biggest fan, my biggest cheerleader, man.
- 46:44My, I'm talking about when, when I tell all your preachers.
- 46:48Look, man, if if your wife ain't saying Amen and lifting our
- 46:51hands while you're preaching, brother, it's yeah, brother.
- 46:53Yeah, yeah. Something, something's wrong.
- 46:55Something's wrong. You know what I'm saying?
- 46:56You know? Yes, Sir.
- 46:57Yes, Sir. Yes, Sir.
- 46:59You may go sit down, do something.
- 47:02And so with our wives been our, our greatest cheerleaders.
- 47:06They're also our greatest prayer warriors and they're concerned
- 47:09for us. You know, I'm going to be a
- 47:11little transparent right here, man.
- 47:12I, I got throughout ministry one specific time I got attacked,
- 47:18man, not not physically attacked, but spiritually
- 47:22attacked. And my character was attacked
- 47:25right in front of my wife. And it was right after the
- 47:29prayer meeting that we had. And it wasn't nothing but the
- 47:33devil, you know what I'm saying? And, and I and I went late on
- 47:36the altar and I told my wife, don't, don't say that.
- 47:39I said, just sit down. My wife sat down there beside me
- 47:42and she heard two individuals, man laying on me, brother, like
- 47:46it ain't never been laid on the individual.
- 47:48You wouldn't think this would come out of the church people's
- 47:50mouths. You know what I'm saying?
- 47:52And, and I'm telling you, I've been, I've dealt with those type
- 47:58of things and, and different things in ministry that were
- 48:01that would hurt, that would cause a pastor to say, I'm, I'm
- 48:04done with this man. You know what I'm saying?
- 48:06And but what I say is to that, to that young lady is to pray
- 48:14and and walk and stay in communication with a husband.
- 48:18And when she see those types of things, you know, suggest, Hey,
- 48:22we need a break, we need to go somewhere.
- 48:24You know, again, we always have had couples that we were
- 48:29connected with that we're not in our in our congregation.
- 48:33I'm not saying that we didn't connect with our leaders and
- 48:35stuff like that. I'm just saying we had friends
- 48:38that were not a part of they were pastors and at other
- 48:42churches in other cities, a part of that overall organization
- 48:47that we had. And then we strengthen one
- 48:50another and encourage one another when we see when we need
- 48:54it. Man, look, hey, they come in
- 48:56town, we leave out of town, you know, those types of things
- 48:58there. So, yeah, we got to use the
- 49:01wisdom of God and, and understanding that when a woman
- 49:05sees that and the husband, they're they're they're to bring
- 49:09it to their attention and they're to talk about how
- 49:11they're going to navigate through that season in time.
- 49:13Yeah. Amen.
- 49:15Amen. So so how is ministering as a
- 49:17chap and different from ministering behind the pulpit?
- 49:21That's. A good question there.
- 49:23Excellent question there. The difference is I do more
- 49:26listening here I ever do. You know, us preachers, we love
- 49:30talking. We love talking and preaching.
- 49:33But when I walk into a room here, it's not about me
- 49:37whatsoever and it should never be about me.
- 49:39Even at the church, it's about him.
- 49:42And so for it to be about him in a hospital setting is when you
- 49:45walk in A room, you're there with, with your ears open, you
- 49:50come to hear what they're saying.
- 49:52Some of these people are at the end of their lives.
- 49:54Some of these people have had a traumatic experience.
- 49:57Some of these people have been hurt in their lives.
- 49:59I'm telling you what I've just for the short amount of time
- 50:02I've been in, in, in chaplaincy ministry, I would say every,
- 50:07every pastoral minister, every pastor needs to go get some
- 50:12clinical pastoral education training and, and at least do
- 50:16some type of volunteer for a short period of time in the
- 50:19hospital. And you will come to the reality
- 50:22of understanding when people are hurting.
- 50:26People have been through things, man.
- 50:29And I'm telling you what, it's been such a joy for me to sit
- 50:33and to listen to. That's what Pastoria clinical
- 50:37Pastoria education has taught me to do is to listen to people.
- 50:41And while we listening to people without forming a response to
- 50:45anything, just listening. And then God would give you the
- 50:49God would give you the answer. Sometimes you don't need the
- 50:51answer. Sometimes you don't need to say
- 50:53anything. They just need to get out what
- 50:55they need to get out. It's been phenomenal, man.
- 50:58It's been phenomenal being a chaplain.
- 51:00Yes, it has. Now, you know, you encounter
- 51:03some people that have that dealing with some of the hardest
- 51:07things in their lives, some of them, right.
- 51:10How did you, how did you take those experiences without taking
- 51:15it home? How do you, you know, how do you
- 51:18hear that over and over without taking some of that stuff home?
- 51:22How do you kind of? Yeah, yeah.
- 51:23Another great question, man. Yeah, yeah, another great
- 51:26question. You know, the Bible tells us the
- 51:28cast all about cares upon him for he cares for us.
- 51:32I've always had a like a little, if it's 1520 minutes commute or
- 51:36whatever, you know, I listen to music, I listen to podcasts, I
- 51:40listen to things. I, I kind of wind down just like
- 51:43my wife. She looks, you know, if she's
- 51:45working or whatever she's doing, she comes home.
- 51:47Most of us come home. We don't really want to, we, we
- 51:49want a little bit of free time. We want to really, can I unwind
- 51:52a minute? You know, whatever.
- 51:54And so we, we got to learn how to, to do those types of things.
- 51:57Even here at the hospital. Every day is different, man.
- 52:01And when I was in corporate America, it was boy, I'm telling
- 52:03you what, but it was fire every day and I would leave and go
- 52:08home And the last thing I want to hear my wife do well, tell me
- 52:11about work she do she do not live.
- 52:13I don't even want to talk about you know what I'm saying?
- 52:15And so I just learned to leave it.
- 52:18I learned to leave it where it's at, you know, and and I come
- 52:24home. I call it being fully present in
- 52:26the moment intimacy into me. You see my wife when I get home
- 52:31to my wife and my family, they want intimacy.
- 52:34They want me to be into them. Yeah.
- 52:36We have to learn how to do it. If it's ministry, corporate,
- 52:40whatever it may be. I step in the house and I tell
- 52:45her I listen to what my wife I want.
- 52:47I ask her how has her day been? And then she asked me how has my
- 52:50been. We have an exchange and if we
- 52:52need to pray about something, we pray about it.
- 52:54If we don't, man, we keep moving.
- 52:56Yes, Sir. We take in the evening.
- 52:58Yes. Sir, Amen.
- 53:01Since since being a pastor is more of like you said, more of a
- 53:05self thing, were you were you preaching instead of listening?
- 53:08Do you think pastors should should consider chaplaincy as an
- 53:12extension of their ministry to kind of help them grow to see
- 53:16both sides of it minister? Man, I don't know how many
- 53:21people I've met in here that don't have a church home.
- 53:24Wow. There's a lot of unchurched
- 53:26people, man, in the world. And we know where they're saying
- 53:30that people are leaving church. They are, but I see some of
- 53:34those. I see some, I see a lot of God
- 53:36fearing unchurched people. They fear God, man.
- 53:41There's a lot of people that fear God.
- 53:42They don't, they don't look like church people.
- 53:44They don't dress like church people.
- 53:46They don't, but they fear God. They have a fear for God.
- 53:51And I'm telling you so I, I, that's why I would convince any
- 53:54pastor to, if they don't do nothing but go take the CPE
- 53:58clinical pastoral education training, which requires 4400
- 54:02hours of working in the hospital.
- 54:04And there's some small group training that's along with that.
- 54:07If they don't do nothing, we'll go and do a couple of those.
- 54:10I think that they would, it would give them, it would, it
- 54:13would change their perspective, I think on, on, on ministry.
- 54:17Amen. In ministry, right, How hard is
- 54:21it as a pastor? How hard is it to carry people
- 54:25week out the week, day out the day?
- 54:27Well. You know.
- 54:30Yeah, well, again, it comes back to your team, but it also comes
- 54:36back to I'm the under shepherd or the lead sheep, Amen.
- 54:40Jesus is the Good Shepherd, the great Shepherd, and the chief
- 54:42shepherd, Amen. I'm nobody's God, Amen.
- 54:45It's not my church, it's his church, Amen.
- 54:47And because of his church, if I got a problem with one of his,
- 54:51his, his, his, his sons or daughters, I go to him about
- 54:54that, you know what I'm saying? And I don't have to carry.
- 54:56I don't have to carry them because my goal is not to get
- 55:00them close to me, but to get them close to him.
- 55:04Amen. You hear what I'm saying?
- 55:06Yeah. I want Jesus came that we could
- 55:09go to God for ourselves. And so I won't.
- 55:12I want every church member, I teach church members to grow up.
- 55:16Amen. And you go to God for yourself.
- 55:19Amen. Yes, Sir.
- 55:20I know you ain't got grandma and granddad and them no MO, but you
- 55:23sure ain't gonna have me. I'm going to intercede for you.
- 55:26But the Bible says there's one mediator.
- 55:28There's one mediator between God and man, and it's that man
- 55:32Christ Jesus. Amen.
- 55:34So I, I point people to him, man.
- 55:36And don't get me wrong, I intercede and pray for the
- 55:39congregation. I intercede and pray for the
- 55:41people here in the hospital. And I, I take great joy at doing
- 55:44that. But I want people not dependent
- 55:47upon me. I want them to be dependent upon
- 55:50him. You know, for the young pastors
- 55:53out there, you know, young people pastors, is they just
- 55:56getting into it? Is it is it is it OK for them to
- 56:02admit that they're tired without questioning their calling?
- 56:06Because you know, some people get tired in it and they like,
- 56:09well, God, did you really call me to do this?
- 56:12Because it gets because it gets, you know, it gets taxing
- 56:15sometime. And I think because they don't
- 56:18have the structure that you had in you have in place, you know,
- 56:21like team and they they trying to carry it all themselves.
- 56:25Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And yes, it's, it's OK to be
- 56:29tired, man. It's OK to.
- 56:33I remember early on I had so much energy, man.
- 56:35I, you know, I was, you know, the zeal and all of those types
- 56:39of things that I had early on in the ministry and the preaching
- 56:42and all of those albums on the radio.
- 56:44I was doing all kinds of stuff. We would, you know, outreach
- 56:48ministry and, and I believe in all of that, but we also got to
- 56:53understand there's a pace that we got to go ahead and that we
- 56:56got to understand. There's times in season, There's
- 56:58going to be times in season. I, I, I used to say, well, I had
- 57:02a ministry week. Amen.
- 57:03I mean, something happened Monday, Sunday through Sunday,
- 57:06you know what I'm saying? Every day that was a, it was a
- 57:09taxing week on because something was going on.
- 57:11But then I had weeks where, you know, I could catch my breath
- 57:14and, and, and and rest, you know what I'm saying?
- 57:17There was something I didn't have to be and everything I
- 57:19didn't have to be seen everywhere.
- 57:21That that's the things, you know, and, and then, you know,
- 57:24and these tags and Titans we got nowadays, you know, these young
- 57:27brothers and some of the older folks having as well, you know,
- 57:30it's not about tags and Titans. It's not about trying to be over
- 57:33this and all of that. Just be who God has called you
- 57:37to be. And God has a timing and a
- 57:40season for all of us, man and and rest in the Lord, Amen.
- 57:44If if we're tired and burnt out, it's, it's, it's really a
- 57:49indication that we're not sitting at the feet of the Lord.
- 57:53It's it's really a telltale sign that we're trying to do this in
- 57:57our own Smith and our power. I mean Zerubbabel said, I mean
- 58:00the Zechariah, Zerubbabel said, Zechariah 4 and 6 not, not by my
- 58:05power, no, by my mic, but by my spirit, say if the Lord, Amen.
- 58:09And that's it brother, we brother, I'm here to tell you
- 58:12man, we can't do this thing in our own strength, Amen.
- 58:15We got to do it. The Bible says Jesus was
- 58:17anointed, Acts 1038. He was anointed with power and
- 58:21with the Holy Ghost and he went about doing good, Amen.
- 58:24We need that same anointing and power and how we get it is
- 58:28sitting at the feet of the Lord. You know what I'm saying in the
- 58:30word prayer is there's no shortcuts.
- 58:34Amen to the anointing of God. All right.
- 58:36So before we close right, because we got probably like a
- 58:39minute left. Yes, Sir.
- 58:41If it's a page out there watching, they working 4060
- 58:45hours a week, right, what would you say to them?
- 58:52If they're thinking about quitting, what would you say to
- 58:55them? If, hey, listen, I understand
- 58:57you're working, you got the church going on, you got the
- 59:00people calling you all the time because you don't have any
- 59:03order. What would you say to them?
- 59:06I, I would, I would say to them to, to examine them, to examine
- 59:09themselves, just kind of see where they're at and see what,
- 59:12see what might be out of place and what might be wrong.
- 59:16And, and it's a season, you know what I'm saying?
- 59:18Sometimes we, we, we, you know, the, the doors, the, the, the
- 59:24new season, the new chapters right around the corner.
- 59:27And, and the enemy wants us to give up.
- 59:29He wants us to throw in the tower.
- 59:31And I would say surround yourself with with other people
- 59:34that you can be able to talk to about these moments.
- 59:37You know that we can pray for one another and encourage one
- 59:41another. Bill, when I got a friend that's
- 59:43an encourage, I got several people I can call their
- 59:46encouragers even when they are down, even when they got stuff
- 59:50going on, they can still encourage me because God has
- 59:53called them to be an encourager. And that's what we need to have.
- 59:55We need to have encouragers in our lives.
- 59:58And, and I know who to call when things get get get down for me,
- 1:00:02Amen. I can, I got two or three people
- 1:00:03I can call and they going to encourage me when they going to
- 1:00:06make me feel like I'm the best preacher that ever set foot in
- 1:00:10the planet. You know what I'm saying?
- 1:00:12And I thank God for that, man. We all need to be encouraged for
- 1:00:15the Hallelujah. Amen.
- 1:00:17Before we get out is anything you want to share with the
- 1:00:19people, any platforms you want to, you want to put your church
- 1:00:22out there for people to come visit?
- 1:00:24Anything you want to share Before we go?
- 1:00:26Before we go? Yeah, we're in Bread of Life
- 1:00:29Church. I mean, we're in Cincinnati.
- 1:00:32Is, is. And also in Dun, the, the small
- 1:00:36town, the city of Dun, Dun in Bread of Life Church.
- 1:00:39You can find us on social media out there at Bread of Life
- 1:00:42Church nc.org, a brother like Cincy Amen for the Cincinnati
- 1:00:47locations there, but you can find me on LinkedIn and on
- 1:00:50Facebook is Eric White Amen. I'm out there LinkedIn on the
- 1:00:53professional side is the clinical chaplain and and as
- 1:00:56pastor, lead pastor there. And you can also find me out on
- 1:01:00Facebook. I don't do a lot of social media
- 1:01:02out on Facebook, but I don't phone anybody else that does.
- 1:01:04I just don't have the time to to to be caught up out there.
- 1:01:09Not not against it. I just don't have the time.
- 1:01:11Amen. Well, listen, I appreciate this
- 1:01:14was really informative the people you know that that's want
- 1:01:19to go and ministry giving it from a different perspective.
- 1:01:21I told y'all we talking about pastors in the workplace.
- 1:01:25He had work y'all that's. Right.
- 1:01:27He had work right now, so ain't no he's showing you here at
- 1:01:31work. So it's about pastors in the
- 1:01:32workplace. So he's living it.
- 1:01:34He's doing it and pastor, I appreciate you coming on and you
- 1:01:39know we got I got to get you back on for this type of show.
- 1:01:43We're going to set that up too. All right, hey, so I thank y'all
- 1:01:47for joining Man talk 133 of men unite.
- 1:01:50Don't forget check us out our heart, Spotify, Pandora,
- 1:01:55YouTube, Facebook, us talking Instagram, all the platforms
- 1:01:58that we on and just check us out.
- 1:02:00Stay connected until next time. Thank y'all for joining.
- 1:02:03Until next time, God bless. Hi, I'm Beaker with Military
- 1:02:08Broadcast Radio TV. We're your virtual MWR bringing
- 1:02:13veterans radio, podcasts, gaming, animation, 3D printing
- 1:02:18and a community that never leaves you behind.
- 1:02:20Download our Roku or mobile app today.