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Dr. Gabriel Warren: You're Never Too Far Gone · Why I Believe

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome back to Why I Believe.
• 0:03
  Today I have the honor of having Dr.
• 0:06
  Gabriel Warren join us.
• 0:07
  How are you today?
• 0:08
  Hey, I'm doing really good.
• 0:10
  Michelle, thanks for having me.
• 0:12
  Thanks for being here.
• 0:13
  Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
• 0:16
  Yes, so a little bit about me.
• 0:18
  So I am from the great state of Sweet Home, Alabama.
• 0:23
  Born and raised.
• 0:25
  I lived there my entire life until 2017 when my family and I took the leap and we moved from Alabama up to Northern Minnesota for a career opportunity that I had.
• 0:43
  But along the way there, so I know I skipped a lot.
• 0:46
  I graduated from high school, I was able to be a scholarship athlete to attend the University of Alabama in high jump.
• 0:56
  So I competed four years at the University of Alabama and after that I got into working in corporate, did that for a number of years and then along the way I went back to school and
• 1:08
  was able to finally pivot to be able to get into higher education full time.
• 1:15
  in 2017.
• 1:16
  So when I left the state of Alabama, I made the shift from corporate into full-time higher ed.
• 1:24
  So um there's lots of stories in between there that I'm sure we'll probably get into.
• 1:29
  um The other thing that I'll say really quickly in my intro is that both my parents have been married for 53 years as of this podcast.
• 1:40
  uh I come from a pretty big family, I think, so there are seven kids as well.
• 1:45
  And uh both my parents are pastors, so I grew up uh in the environment of being uh a preacher's kid.
• 1:54
  So that was another part of my story.
• 1:58
  Yeah, that's awesome.
• 1:59
  So let's talk about being a preacher's kid is or PK as you've told me in the past.
• 2:03
  So what was it like growing up in that environment with six brothers and sisters, parents that are preachers?
• 2:11
  What did that look like for you?
• 2:13
  so probably about what you could imagine.
• 2:14
  So both my parents um are very active.
• 2:20
  growing up, I just remember we did a lot of um street evangelism, a lot of tent revivals.
• 2:30
  Sometimes I think back on it and I'm like, man, how did we go to school?
• 2:33
  we would do, I don't know, sometimes we would do seven day revivals, 14 day revivals.
• 2:39
  We were in church probably three to four days a week because there was Wednesday night service, there was Friday night service.
• 2:46
  You know, we would have two services on Sunday.
• 2:49
  We may be doing something on Saturday.
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  So like that was definitely part of our upbringing.
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  Also, my dad, a period of time when I was growing up, my dad had became the chaplain for a homeless shelter that was in the local city that we
• 3:09
  that was adjacent to where I grew up.
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  So we would go there and we volunteer and like serve meals or help with giving out clothing and stuff.
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  um So very, very, very involved.
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  um So there wasn't much time for a lot of things outside of uh ministry type activities.
• 3:29
  But because of that, we were always together.
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  we, our, you know, my siblings, you know, it's a wide range from the oldest to the youngest.
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  But we found ways to kind of connect with one another.
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  And we did the same things that most siblings do, which was get on each other's nerves.
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  uh But we're very close.
• 3:50
  as we've grown older and everybody's kind of an adult now, we have grown very close to one another.
• 3:56
  oh And it's been neat to see that full circle come back together.
• 4:01
  that's awesome.
• 4:02
  Yeah, and he spends a lot of time together, ah mostly, sometimes by choice, sometimes not by choice.
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  there was one thing that you mentioned.
• 4:09
  You said you guys did seven day and 14 day tent revivals for the people that don't know what that is.
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  Can you explain that?
• 4:16
  Yeah, yeah.
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  So essentially it would just be, you know, like my dad would basically go out and we would put flowers up.
• 4:24
  I remember putting flowers up around like a city and saying, hey, we're going to have a seven day revival, which basically would mean like every evening, it probably would start
• 4:34
  at about 7 PM.
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  We would just have a church service and it would be seven days in a row.
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  So we may start it up on a Sunday night.
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  and it will go until the following Saturday night.
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  But then every day you would go out in the community and let people know that you're going to be having like a church service.
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  You would put up flyers.
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  Sometimes we would kind of pass them out like at different places like Wal-Mart or wherever.
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  This was in the 90s.
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  So it was a little bit of a different time where it wasn't as how things are today.
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  But I think.
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  Yeah, we would do that and then every night.
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  So our family was very involved in it.
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  So my sisters would do some singing and my mom, me and my brothers would play the drums.
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  My dad would deliver the message and we were all super involved in oh just trying to do whatever we could to make sure that we had a good revival.
• 5:33
  But yeah, we wouldn't know people there all the time.
• 5:36
  So sometimes you would just go to a community and you would just pass out the flyers and stuff and whoever shows up shows up.
• 5:45
  Yeah, so did you meet at a local church or did you guys literally put a tent up?
• 5:48
  No, so sometimes they were at churches, but then, yeah, sometimes they were actual tents.
• 5:52
  So it would be like a big white tent.
• 5:55
  Of course, I was a kid, so I don't really know exactly how big it was, but it seemed like it was super big, like a circus tent, kind of.
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  ah But of course, not that big, because it wouldn't be that many people.
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  But you would just have uh whoever came, and they would be there for that week or that two weeks of time.
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  And then oftentimes, we would.
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  you know, during the day still be doing some type of evangelism.
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  My dad did a lot of street evangelism where he would, I remember pulling up some places and he would be on the street corner and just kind of, you know, sharing his faith.
• 6:33
  oh And, you know, we were just there, you know, so everybody was there together.
• 6:39
  That's awesome.
• 6:41
  So some of my guests have talked about they've inherited their faith and you very clearly inherited your faith.
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  was there ever a time where you like made that actual choice to continue with your faith or has it always been a clear path for you?
• 6:55
  No, I think like all of us, it definitely was a time.
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  So I remember getting baptized when I was like six years old.
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  And I had that conversation with my parents before.
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  And so that part of it, I think it was just kind of a thing that, you know, we grew up in it.
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  We were always there.
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  My dad would, um I remember when I was living in Alabama, when I was really young, my dad would do baptisms in the lake.
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  And, you know, there was, grew, I was born.
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  in an area called Ufala, Alabama, and they had a lake there.
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  So Lake Ufala was where we would go.
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  And I remember getting baptized when I was really young and, you know, declaring my faith at that point.
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  However, when I went to college, you know, being on my own, having to kind of like figure things out, there was a period of time where, you know, I kind of started exploring, like
• 7:48
  not necessarily doing all kind of um strange things, but more of just like
• 7:53
  trying to figure out like where my faith and where church fit in my new adult life per se.
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  So I did kind of stray away at that point, but that wasn't very long lived.
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  I think after about my sophomore year, I rededicated my life back to the Lord and then I really got involved in a church and my community.
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  And then I really got from that point on.
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  really focused on growing my faith.
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  oh One thing that I did do after I started my family, so I was married, I had kids, before we actually moved to Minnesota, the summer of 2016, I actually got baptized again as an
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  adult.
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  And my kids were able to be there, my wife was there.
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  It was a pretty neat thing because at that point I kind of felt like...
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  You know, I did it for, you know, as an adult and it wasn't something where I was just doing it as this six-year-old kid and I didn't really necessarily fully probably
• 8:56
  comprehend what was going on at that time.
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  um So that was one moment that I really remember saying, hey, you know, I wanted to do it even though I know you don't have to get baptized again after you get baptized once.
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  But for me, I felt like it was important as an adult and to be an example for my family and my friends and all of the things.
• 9:18
  to be able to do that as an adult and to be able to share that um with those people around me.
• 9:25
  that's beautiful.
• 9:27
  You said that when you were in college, you're kind of straight a little bit.
• 9:31
  I think that's normal and typical for most people.
• 9:33
  But your sophomore year, so was there a turning point or did something happen that kind of helped you flip that switch back on?
• 9:40
  Well, know, I just kind of, you know, so I did the things that most college kids do.
• 9:44
  I started partying a lot, started, you know, getting in bad relationships with people.
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  um I just kind of noticed that I felt like there was that void, like I was looking for something.
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  um And it just never really, I never felt like that sense of peace and calm and all of those things.
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  So I just got to a point to where, you know,
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  I had always promised myself, so I had this thing for a while I did kind of get involved in like drinking alcohol and things like that.
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  And I had got to a point to where I made myself a promise.
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  I was like, if I ever find myself sitting at home on a Monday night or a Tuesday night and just drinking a beer, then I would know that I've kind of gone too far.
• 10:30
  You know, because at first when I started, it was like, yeah, I would do it at the parties or I would, you know, I would do this wherever they're in a social environment.
• 10:39
  but I never wanted to be someone who would just be at home by myself, watching TV and drinking a beer, you know, per se.
• 10:48
  So when I got to that point, it was kind of like a little bit of a wake-up call.
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  oh I was reminded of that promise I made to myself.
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  I was like, you know, maybe I need to make some changes.
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  And that's when I actually started seeking out, like going back to church, trying to find my community, because I was in college at the time.
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  oh
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  And I had tried a few different churches in my college community, but none of them stuck with me.
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  And then I really got connected with a ministry that was a non-denominational ministry.
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  it ended up, it was the first time in a long time that I had been able to see people that I wanted to model my life after, like other men, other couples and things like that.
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  And I was like, you I want to be in a position like that when I got older.
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  So I started coming back to that, to that church.
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  And that's how I ended up kind of really getting involved.
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  And then along the way, I met my, my, my wife, who was m my girlfriend at the time.
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  um And she was very strong in her faith and her and I would have these really, really good conversations about just faith and the Bible.
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  and we would pray together, we would do all these things, because she lived in another city, so she lived in Tennessee.
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  We met at a track meet, uh but her and I, had a long distance relationship, so we would talk about our faith and all these things, and I think that was also something that really
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  helped me along that time.
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  So I think those were the things that really kind of helped to catch my attention and to try to help get me back focused on what I needed to be focused on.
• 12:30
  Yeah, that's awesome.
• 12:31
  I really think it's cool that your now wife was also a track student athlete because I gotta imagine the pressures of being a student athlete and the norms of that going into
• 12:44
  college are very different from even just the typical student, right?
• 12:48
  Yeah, they are very different.
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  then so I'll clarify.
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  So she wasn't a student athlete, but she worked in athletics.
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  So she uh majored in sports management.
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  we had a track meet.
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  She went to the University of Tennessee.
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  We had a track meet up there, oh our SEC conference meet.
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  And she was working the event while I was there competing.
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  So we met there in 2003.
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  uh
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  So that's how we met.
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  But yes, to your question about the demands are very different.
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  They are because not only do you have that adjustment period of just going to college and trying to be a good college student, but then you also have the demands of practice.
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  And then when season starts, you're gone all the time.
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  I was in the spring.
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  you know, every weekend starting up in January from January until June, you're pretty much gone from Wednesday, sometimes Thursday all the way through Sunday.
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  ah So there's a lot of dealing with professors trying to make sure you're not missing assignments and all that stuff that you have to manage along with uh competing because my
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  first year at the University of Alabama, I struggled a lot.
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  I struggled
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  with the educational part of it because I went from being a really, really good high school student, not necessarily probably having the best study habits, to going to college
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  and having to learn how to study and be a college student.
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  And that transition didn't go well my first year.
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  And then on the competing side, I went from being the top, I won my high school state championship twice.
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  I won...
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  10th grade in the high jump and then I won again my senior year.
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  And, you know, I was always the top person where when I went to Alabama and I didn't, you at the time I wasn't as familiar with how good the SEC conference was for track and field.
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  So I went from being the top to really struggling and being able to find my way.
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  So I did kind of go through a period of time where I...
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  just didn't really do well.
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  I got injured my freshman year and there was a lot of those things that I had to wrestle through ah my first year.
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  all of that was a part of me just kind of trying to, I guess, find myself during that time.
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  Yeah, and you said your first year was 2001, right?
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  So you also had 9-11, just like I did.
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  was, yeah, freshman year.
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  Yep, I remember being in class and yep, yep, they canceled class.
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  We all went to the student center.
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  We were looking at it on the big screen, not really fully grasping what was happening.
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  But yes, that happened my freshman year.
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  And then also during my freshman year, oh one of my teammates ended up passing away my freshman year in college that year in the spring.
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  He had an aneurysm in the cafeteria.
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  So it was a very tough year um for all of us, coaches, teammates, all of us.
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  And it came out of nowhere because he was a very healthy guy, distance runner.
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  He had just got married.
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  So it was like all of these things that had happened during my freshman year.
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  And I think it was definitely a wake up call, wake up year for us.
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  Yeah, for sure.
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  But through all the challenges and all the struggles, God has been there for you, whether you were actively seeking that relationship or not.
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  And so what are some of the ways that he's worked miracles or wonders or God winks, whatever you want to call it in your life.
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  Man, know, I would say there's so many because I'm, you know, and I think back over from high school all the way to the point where I am now, I can think of so many ways.
• 16:55
  I think one for sure is, you know, just paving the way for me to go to college on an athletic scholarship.
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  We didn't, I didn't grow up in a family that had a lot of money and that...
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  That was one of the ways I was able to go to college was by based off of getting a scholarship.
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  So I think that was the big one.
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  um And from that, I met a lot of people who invested in me that I, you know, I didn't even know they were invested in me at the time.
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  So I think that was one.
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  Another one was my, you know, meeting my wife.
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  So we met at a track meet, but the way we met was I feel like very unique because
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  Like I said, she worked in sports management um and she was in grad school and doing all the things at University of Tennessee and I was competing.
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  But at the track meet, what happened was there was a tornado that touched down about 10 minutes away from where we were during the track meet and we ended up being in the same
• 17:59
  shelter.
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  So they sent people in different shelters on campus and we ended up being in the same shelter and it just so happened.
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  I was kind of walking around and doing whatever.
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  And my wife told me that she made a bet with one of her friends that if I walked by again, she was going to stop me and just say, hello, whatever.
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  So I think even that was like a little bit of a God wink because if it had not been for that, I probably never would have met her because she was working like the tickets and all
• 18:27
  of that.
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  And I was competing.
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  So we would not have been in the same place naturally.
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  um And she has definitely...
• 18:35
  been instrumental in helping me grow in my faith and personally and all those things.
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  So I know that that was a God wink um for me.
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  And even I would say we've had a lot of health challenges in our family from just chronic illnesses and things like that.
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  But being able to see God provide along the way just for all of us um and to see things um
• 19:05
  work out the way that they have.
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  And everybody's still been in relatively great health and able to function.
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  All of our families still intact um has been an amazing thing.
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  And then I think the last thing that I would say would be just in my journey, um especially my career journey.
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  So I told you, I mentioned I started out in corporate.
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  I was able to transition to higher education.
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  But when we moved to Minnesota, we didn't know anyone.
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  So we had no family here.
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  um We sold a lot of things, one of our cars and all the things.
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  And we moved to a city that was um two hours away from the Canadian border.
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  So very different cultural experience.
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  um But um every since we've been in Minnesota, now we live in the Twin Cities, but every since we've been in Minnesota since 2017, every year,
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  We have seen God move so many different ways and our lives have continued to progress and get better.
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  And I think we can only attribute that to the Lord leading and guiding us um from me and my work to my wife and her work to even our kids and the things that they've been able to
• 20:23
  do.
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  um So I know that he has carried us through.
• 20:27
  Yeah, that's great.
• 20:29
  So if there's a student athlete or even a college student that's listening to this that has gone through the same thing where they've walked away and hopefully they haven't had
• 20:36
  the same tragedies that we had our freshman year, ah what would you say to them if they're feeling lost and how did you get back and what would you recommend?
• 20:47
  um I would say the biggest thing that I would say is if someone may have find themselves in a place where they're feeling lost, it would be one to realize that that's not
• 20:59
  uncommon.
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  I think that is part of growing up, part of being on this journey of faith.
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  There's gonna be times where maybe we take a detour and you make a bad decision or you make a mistake or life happens.
• 21:15
  because sometimes it may not be of our own doing, but to realize that that is a part of living and to try your best not to allow yourself to get in the place of condemnation and
• 21:30
  shame and feeling like you're the only one who have ever faced this problem and you can't share it with anyone.
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  So find someone that you trust, whether that's a parent or a guardian or a really close friend, or if you have a pastor, a pastor or a coach or
• 21:45
  whoever it is that you trust and that you feel safe around, that you can share the challenges and the struggles that you may be experiencing.
• 21:55
  I think doing that really kind of relieves a lot of pressure.
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  It frees you up to know that you are not alone and you have someone who can walk alongside you to help you through that journey because sometimes we get in things that it is almost
• 22:13
  impossible to get out on our own.
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  And it requires, of course, our relationship with the Lord, but it also requires someone that we can walk alongside with too to help us when we run into those challenges.
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  So I would say just find your people or find your person, because you don't need a bunch.
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  That's another thing I would say.
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  You don't have to have five friends or 10 friends.
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  You just need one or two people who can, who have your best interests at heart, who care for you.
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  who will pray for you, who will check in on you at times when you need it, um and who really does want to see you succeed.
• 22:53
  think being able to just have those things in place is super important.
• 22:59
  Yeah, I think that's so true.
• 23:01
  And you what you're really talking about is building your community, right?
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  And how, and when you moved from Alabama, from the South to the heat and diversity to a town two hours from the Canadian border, which is cold and very culturally different, how
• 23:17
  important was it for you and how quickly were you able to build that community for yourself and your family?
• 23:23
  It was extremely important.
• 23:24
  um It did take a while to build our community because again, you I grew up um in a very different culture.
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  Like you described, my parents both were Pentecostal.
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  So I grew up in a Pentecostal environment.
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  My mom did um transition to the AME church.
• 23:46
  So the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
• 23:49
  When I was still growing up,
• 23:51
  So I had that Pentecostal background and the African Methodist Episcopal background and moving to Northern Minnesota, uh I didn't see much of that.
• 24:03
  There was lots of different denominations and we were trying to figure out like, okay, what is this denomination?
• 24:11
  What do they believe?
• 24:12
  What is this one?
• 24:13
  And we were going to churches where we were the only black people that were a part of those churches because there wasn't many.
• 24:21
  The town that we lived in, when we moved there, it was less than 1 % black.
• 24:27
  So, you know, even that was different for us because coming out of Alabama, there was, of course, a lot more diversity.
• 24:36
  So what we did was we tried to plug into the areas where we knew there was some common ground.
• 24:42
  So we did try to connect with a church.
• 24:45
  So we connected with churches, even though racially there were differences.
• 24:50
  we looked at it like, okay, what is our common thing, our faith?
• 24:54
  So we could come together on Wednesdays and Sundays around faith and try to find ways to uh engage in that way.
• 25:04
  So that led to some relationships.
• 25:06
  Also, our kids were younger.
• 25:08
  um They were nine and six when we moved.
• 25:11
  So they were still at the age where they were in youth sports.
• 25:15
  So my wife and I, we got involved in coaching and that allowed us to meet other parents, other kids.
• 25:22
  We were able to do that.
• 25:23
  um And then I eventually uh got involved.
• 25:28
  ran for the local school board in our community and I was able to get elected in the school board.
• 25:33
  And I think that also opened up some opportunities for us to connect to other families and the community.
• 25:40
  um So we try to do it that way.
• 25:42
  My work...
• 25:43
  was also a big environment because when we moved, my wife, ah she didn't work when we initially moved for the first uh year or so.
• 25:52
  ah So I think that also kind of allowed for us to have some flexibility and we only had to work around my schedule.
• 25:59
  So all of those things really did truly help.
• 26:01
  So we had to be intentional because if we didn't do those things, we could have very easily been in a community.
• 26:08
  I would have went to work and came home and then we did not met anyone.
• 26:13
  But I think people were also naturally uh inquisitive and they were very open to getting to know who we were, finding out a little bit about us.
• 26:23
  And we did have people invite us over, so that was really nice too.
• 26:28
  Awesome.
• 26:29
  Well, it sounds like things have worked out for you.
• 26:32
  I won't say always worked out because they never always work out, right?
• 26:34
  There's always trials and tribulations along the way, but through your faith and through your communities, you've managed to make everything very successful.
• 26:45
  Yeah.
• 26:46
  I've tried my best and you know, I feel like, you know, the Lord has led us in all those different ways.
• 26:54
  So it's definitely not been of my own.
• 26:57
  It's been the Lord helping me to like figure out like, okay, what are the next steps?
• 27:02
  And my wife has done the same thing.
• 27:04
  So.
• 27:06
  There's one line that you told me and you said that you are never too far gone for God to save your soul.
• 27:12
  And I just, I love that.
• 27:15
  And I wanted to share that too, cause I think that's so true, right?
• 27:18
  Like he knows we're broken.
• 27:20
  We're born with sin, right?
• 27:21
  So we're broken from the get-go and we're never going to be too far gone.
• 27:24
  So there's always a way to come back.
• 27:27
  Yeah, I think that is something that needs to get out more, especially in our culture today.
• 27:38
  I feel like, you know, sometimes people feel like they're too far gone or they're too far out there or they've done too many things.
• 27:45
  And I think that message has to go out more because we do have a lot of people who sometimes get in the place where they feel like they send too much.
• 27:56
  and God doesn't love them anymore, he doesn't care, but we know that to be different and we know that God does love us, he cares for us and when he sent Jesus to down the cross
• 28:07
  for us for all of our sins, that included everything past, present and future and I think those are the messages that have to get out so that as people are going through their dark
• 28:19
  times, they can be reminded of that.
• 28:23
  Absolutely.
• 28:24
  Yeah, and if you think you're too far gone, feel free to listen to more of these episodes and you'll find that maybe your story matches somebody else's or, you know, isn't quite
• 28:33
  as, you know, tragic.
• 28:34
  So you're not alone, that's for sure.
• 28:39
  So thank you for sharing that, I appreciate that.
• 28:41
  And I always ask all my guests, what is your favorite Bible verse or the Bible verse that you're walking through this year?
• 28:47
  What is that one for you?
• 28:49
  So there's one Bible verse in 2nd Peter and it talks about how we are living epistles read of all men.
• 28:56
  um And I think, and I'll have to get the exact scripture um note for you so that you can put it in the show notes, but to me it always has spoken to me because it reminds me that
• 29:14
  we are the examples to be able to show others Christ and the earth.
• 29:20
  And a lot of times we think that someone has to go to this church or to this event or to be a part of some group in order to meet Christ.
• 29:31
  And there are people who will do it that way.
• 29:34
  But I think the most powerful thing that God did when he sent Jesus to down the cross for us is he allowed for us to be able to become
• 29:45
  like that living epistle, people are looking at us and they're looking at our lives to be able to realize like, is this real?
• 29:54
  Because sometimes people have, they struggle with that.
• 29:56
  They don't know if this faith thing for real, is this just a hoax or are the people that saying that this is real, they living it out?
• 30:05
  And I think we are the examples and we have to live our lives in that way, not saying that we have to be perfect, not saying that we don't make mistakes.
• 30:14
  but saying that as we are journeying through life, we have to show people how to navigate as a believer so that they know that you can be a believer and you can still make mistakes
• 30:27
  or you can struggle with certain things and you can overcome through the work that Christ did for us.
• 30:35
  And I think as we show people that and we show people the humanity,
• 30:41
  of being able to wrestle between being a believer and trying to work out our own salvation, uh then people will be more open to the idea of, it is possible for me to also
• 30:54
  pursue a relationship with Christ.
• 30:56
  So that has been a message that I've always kept in the forefront of my mind, and that is something that I try to live out because I may be the only person somebody meets that says
• 31:09
  I'm a believer.
• 31:10
  And if I don't show them a good example, they may never try it again.
• 31:16
  And that is why I try to live my life in that way.
• 31:21
  That's beautiful.
• 31:23
  Well, thank you so much for sharing that and thank you for being here.
• 31:26
  I truly appreciate your time today and your story and just the example that you're setting for the people around you.
• 31:34
  Thank you very much.
• 31:34
  This has been awesome and I'm looking forward to hearing it more on the podcast and hopefully it will continue to minister for some other people.
• 31:44
  Thank you.
• 31:46
  You're welcome.