Latest / 4-Freedom Podcast / 147. Crossover Event with Recovering Fundamentalist Podcast - Featuring JC Groves

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147. Crossover Event with Recovering Fundamentalist Podcast - Featuring JC Groves · 4-Freedom Podcast

0:10
I found my freedom in you. I found a toy I can't lose, and
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thank God it's true. You wrapped your arms around me
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and heaven broke through. From the moment she found me.
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I found. Welcome to the Four Freedom
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Podcast. This podcast exists to bring the
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freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with
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everyday issues. Now here are your hosts, James
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Seyfried and Brett Moore. Welcome back to the Four Freedom
0:51
Podcast. James, I've got a question for
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you. Do you know what FOMO is?
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I do. I talk about it often.
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It is the wonderful fear of missing out.
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The reason why I ask that question is because that is what
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people are going to be, they're going to experience FOMO, fear
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of missing out if they don't come to Ringgold, GA to the for
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the sake of the Gospel conference that we are getting
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ready for. I mean, me and you, we've got
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our, we've got our tickets. There are no tickets as free
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admission, but we, we've got our, we, we've got our plans
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together. We've got our Airbnb rented.
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We was just talking to JC the other day about the plans for
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the meet up and the schedule and what we're going to do and who's
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going to preach when and where. And I can't wait to be there
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again. It's always a joy when we get
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together with the RFP fam and we see our listeners there as well.
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We see our listeners there every year and it's just going to be a
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great, great time. I'll tell you, I went to the
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first one in Statesboro and we went to a little rinky dink
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little, I don't even know what it was, some kind of camp off in
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the woods. It had a Old West town that was
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like out of a Western movie. And I've made some Tik toks
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there. Then they had a old, old Chapel,
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like wooden Chapel, like old school, like in the 1800s type
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Chapel. And man, we went in there and
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and and sang and worshipped and it was some of the best worship
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service that I've ever been in. We went to Bourbon.
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You were at Bourbon and man, Bourbon was a great time here in
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Utah. We had a great.
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Hearing you explain Statesboro sounds like a cult startup or
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something. I know meeting back in the woods
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somewhere. No, no cell service, no, no
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padding on the pews. Just in a little.
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Barn they even serve kool-aid for for dinner.
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So go baby. You.
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We were. Drinking.
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Drinking the Kool-aid. I'm serious.
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We was. I was all in me and Emily drove.
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I Remember Me and Emily drove 10 1/2 hours to that meet up.
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It was a one night meet up, but we were like we are not missing
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it. We when we went to it and we
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went to bourbon and we've been to every for the sake of the
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Gospel conference since. And it is just been an
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extraordinary just to get together with people that have
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the same background as you, that people who've been through what
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you've been through. And I, I've used this
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illustration many times when you try to explain what growing up
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in the IFB is like, it's almost like you're talking to people.
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People look at you like a calf looks at a new gate.
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They have no clue what you're talking about.
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It's like you're talking German to them.
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But when you get around people who've been there, who've
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experienced it, who was raised in legalism and got out and
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somebody can sympathize and empathize with what you went
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through, it just it, it's a sense of camaraderie.
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It's a sense of family. And if you have never been, get
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off work, ask off work now it's and go make the trip, make the
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journey. I guarantee you it'll be worth
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it. Well, and Brett, you know, they
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don't really even have to ask off work.
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If they don't work on Saturday, you can leave when you get off
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work on Friday. Make it down that way.
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We're doing just doing a meet up on Friday night and then
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Saturday morning Nathan's going to be preaching.
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Saturday afternoon after lunch, Matt's going to be preaching and
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then the rest of the Saturday is off just to hang out and
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fellowship. And then Sunday we'll be at
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Brett at JC's church. So I mean, realistically, you
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could make it down and not have to miss any work.
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My wife's taking off Friday and we're going to drive down, be
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down there with you guys and then leave Saturday after Matt's
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session. We'll be heading home after
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that. We won't be staying Saturday
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night. So realistically you could come
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down and not even miss any work. Exactly.
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Unless you're coming from like Alaska or Hawaii or something or
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other side of the world. Which last year we had a couple
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flying in from Alaska. We did.
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It's always in we, you know, as, as we're thinking about it and
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talking and, and getting ready for this, one of the questions
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is always, well, how many are we expecting?
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We have no idea because there's no registration.
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So it could be 10 people. Well, at least 10 with JC's
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family there, you know, he's got like 45 kids.
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So we're good there. We, it always pads the number
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for the Baptist Convention when we were able to, to say we had
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75 people there, but it was one family.
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And so that's always exciting and we're going to have a good
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time. I hope you can join us, man.
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It's going to be a phenomenal time.
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Bourbon was my favorite meet up of all time.
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I know I didn't get to go to Statesboro.
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The conferences have been great. It's been great just to hang out
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and fellowship and and be around people.
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And so we're pumped and we're excited about that coming up.
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Yep, Yep. So what what we got today,
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James? Today we are interviewing the
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RFP guys and really when we say guys, it's just one, it's the
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main one, the one. That the one that matters.
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Yeah, the bald, beautiful, brawny guy his.
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Name the one that returned our call is the one that matters.
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Absolutely. Yeah.
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So Nathan's in Nepal and Matt, he's out doing something that
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he. He's in the woods bow hunting.
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That's where Matt Dudley is. He's.
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Bow hunting. He's got, he's grounded himself.
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He's probably barefoot, running around summoning demons
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somewhere. It's probably what he's doing.
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But JC is jumping on with us and let's let's get this, this party
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started by bringing on JC. Let's do it.
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What kind of shallow person you want to become?
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Recovering from. Fundamentalism or something.
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They're everywhere. And I'm thinking to myself,
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well, you were just stupid to begin with.
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If there's such a word, you're stupider.
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Now. Don't get flubbed up like us and
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all. You flubbed up people, you come.
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We'll all flub up together. We are excited about having our
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guest on today. He's no stranger to our show and
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excited about having JC Groves here with us.
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This is the first time that me and Brett have got to interview
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JC and we were trying to get a couple of others with the RFP,
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but they all are flakes and they didn't come on.
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And so we have the main man, the legend, the myth, the legend all
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together right here. And the only one that matters,
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Brett, we are excited about the meet up and being able to meet
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in person here soon. But JC, welcome to the show and
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welcome to the Full Freedom Podcast again.
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Thank you. I'm excited to be back on and I
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don't promise you that it will sound nice and quiet like it
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does right now. There's looks like there's a
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construction crew continuing to come in, so if that door gets
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open I'll just yell go Knowles at them and we'll see what
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happens. That's right, they will probably
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lose no matter what if you do that, so we're good.
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JC coming up is the devil's holiday.
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I want to know what you're going to dress up for Halloween.
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As you know, but I don't know, we, I try to tell people this
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all the time. We don't celebrate Halloween
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like not because we're like oh Halloween bad, Jesus good, but
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we have we have turned Halloween as if y'all have listened to the
8:46
podcast. We turned Halloween into
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Christmas. That's our.
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First night of. Christmas with six kids dressing
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everybody up and trying to get them out, you know, in the trick
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or treating and all that. It's, it's, you know, kind of
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like a fart in the fan factory. It's just a mess.
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I mean, it's gone. And so the thought process, hey,
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let's create something that we can get everybody around.
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And so we set up our Christmas tree this whole next two weeks
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we'll set up our tree and get the eggnog going and the hot
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cocoa and the sugar cookies and then we'll we'll have Christmas.
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I dress up like Santa, the kids are like elves, and we hand out
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little. Now, have you already started
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listening to Christmas music or is that coming?
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October 1st Christmas music starts October 1st, tree goes up
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October 31st and was like, what about Thanksgiving?
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I'm like, we're thankful for Christmas.
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Like, I just love everything about it so.
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Yeah, that's that's way too much Christmas music for me.
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No way I could do that. There's new ones that come out,
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Little Big Town, Dan and Shay. Toby Keith just came out with a
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new Christmas album. You can't beat Toby Keith.
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Did he? Wow, Yeah.
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I, I can get my Christmas music in around Thanksgiving.
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And I mean by Christmas Day, I am Christmas music out.
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I I'm like Grinch by that time. No, definitely by by Christmas
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Day I'm done and then the day after I'm done.
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But October 1st, get that full first little chill in there.
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I'm like I need some Mariah in my life.
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Right, right. Well, man, hey, we're excited to
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have you on day we we know your time is valuable and we're
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wanting to talk today about building churches in new spaces
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and the freedom that's going to look like we're going to be at
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the meet up here in just a couple of weeks.
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Two weeks from today, we'll be down there.
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Which I can't wait. For yeah.
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I'm excited. Brett's got his sabbatical plan
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for down there to, to rub the head of JC and make a wish and
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see what happens. Yeah, the oil from now does does
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the ISP, do they sell holy anointed oil where you can
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anoint people with oil bread? Have you seen that anywhere?
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I haven't seen it, but I wouldn't make that.
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Maybe we can get some fresh warm bread to put the oil on as well.
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Straight from the heaven. Hang on.
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There you go. I got it.
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I got it lined up, baby. Hey man, the.
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Only one I bought when we were in was it Capernaum.
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We were one of one of the stops we did.
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It might have been the Dead Sea Scrolls that I bought a bottle
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about yay big of oil and it was called Jerusalem Holy Anointing
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oil. I use it but I lost my other one
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so when I got back. So now anytime I ask to pray for
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it, I'll use that. I'm like, this is straight from
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an olive tree in Jerusalem. Yeah, I love it.
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Now, do you have it there with your shawl behind you or no?
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No, it's somewhere, but you do want to see what I do have, so
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check out that yarmulke on that guy I.
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Love it. I don't know.
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So this thing, 24 years ago, I was on my senior trip to New
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Orleans. I walked into an antique store
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that was sitting up against the counter and I said, what is
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that? He goes, I don't know.
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It had a $800 tag on it. I said I'll give you 10 bucks.
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He said take it. That's been in here for about 20
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years. So I took it.
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It's been hanging in my office for 24 years.
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And when we lived in Salt Lake City, I passed it out in Salt
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Lake City for a while. I took it down to Pawn Stars,
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the the show and I walked in, they looked at it, took pictures
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of it, had an expert come in. They're like, you don't really
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know what this is, but keep it. They offered me 500 bucks for
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it. I said now I'm just going to
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keep it. Someday this is going to pay my
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kids college tuition, or I'll probably do it to pay off all
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the debt from the Recovering Fundamentalist podcast.
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Right, right. All the, all the lawsuits from
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calling out people's names. So well, hey, we're excited
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about having you on and you've had the a fun journey here
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recently and you've been able to through the Lord's help plant a
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church there in Catoosa and started out in that space where
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really it was a miraculous event where you were able to take over
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a church that was leaving and had a basically abandoned a
12:53
building basically. And then outgrew it within like,
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I mean, really two or three Sundays and y'all running
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multiple services. And then I don't know where
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you've been looking for a church and sort of put it on pause.
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But now this new facility has opened up, you've moved into it.
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This transition that's happened in planting and building this
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church and going through this transition.
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Why don't you tell us a little bit about the journey leading up
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to this move, how that would, what happened and then really
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the motivation behind this new building?
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Yeah. So 24 months ago, back up, 25
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months ago, you know, we moved back from South Georgia here to
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Catoosa County, which is North Georgia.
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And sitting in cigar, sitting in, in cigar shops, coffee
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shops, church, you know, just going all around running into
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people and they're asking questions like, hey, you can
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plant a church immediately. The first answer was no.
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You know, we really didn't think that there was going to be any
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type of church that was going to get planted.
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I had planted a church in this town, Rockbridge Community
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Church. It was a campus of a multi site
14:04
church as campus pastor there for 10 years, we moved into a
14:07
$7,000,000 building that's about 8 miles away.
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Moved in on Sunday. I quit on Monday, got said go.
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It wasn't my turn to, to lead there.
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And so we came back two years later and we said, OK, here's
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what we're going to do. We're going to meet for the very
14:20
first time down at a barn on Post Oak Rd. about four miles
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away from here. And I said if anybody wants to
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come, come on. We had 70 plus people show up
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that first night. I was like, what are y'all doing
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here? I mean I preached on a pulpit
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that broke. It was one of those acrylic
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Church of God pulpit, you know what I mean?
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Like the see through kind with the and it broke on the move.
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So I had a little spot on it. So I'm just setting my Bible on
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there and I was like, hey, we just want to do something.
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We want to see God move. I I love Catoosa County.
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I have always had a place in my heart for this area and I
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couldn't get away from it. I went to Utah, came back, we
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went to South Georgia came back like I just can't get away from
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this county. And so we we did there's about
15:00
70 people the first night I said y'all want to meet next week.
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They said yes. We came back the next week we
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had 115 adults. I think there's like 20 kids.
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It was unreal. And we're meeting in a barn next
15:09
to a rodeo arena. So the kids ministry our second
15:12
week was them chasing a cow and like tying it up and that poor
15:15
little cattle man. They were happy to see us go.
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Well, I knew quickly that we were going to outgrow this, this
15:20
barn. So that night we're driving and
15:23
I'm just praying. I'm like, OK, God, we need you
15:25
to if this is going to happen, where are we going?
15:28
What are we doing? I mean, we, we literally church
15:31
planted bipolar, opposite of any of the, the self how you should
15:35
do it and you know, get a budget, a vision, a mission and
15:39
all this stuff. We just met and we're like, oh,
15:41
now we got to do it. I mean, we're two years later
15:43
and we're just now rolling out mission statement stuff.
15:45
That's how behind the ball we are.
15:47
But I drove past this church. It was meeting.
15:50
I knew the guy that was leading worship there, They're running
15:52
8:15 on a good day. And so I just pulled in and
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asked him. I said, hey, would you be
15:59
willing to rent this building out on a Sunday night?
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I said, we're meeting in a barn. We've outgrown it, We need a
16:04
space. And he was like, yeah,
16:05
definitely. So I said, OK, I said, hey, let
16:08
me ask you another question. I hope this doesn't offend you,
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I said. But you know, I can't help but
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notice y'all are barely, you know, here.
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I said, would y'all just want to merge in with what we're
16:18
starting and just start over? I did not know it was a campus
16:21
of another church that was about an hour away.
16:23
He said that's crazy that you said that.
16:25
We literally just left a meeting.
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This is about 10 minutes after they just walked out.
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He said we just voted to put the church up for sale to shut us
16:33
down as a campus. He was like, this may be the
16:35
answer to that, that question of prayers.
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So Thanksgiving happens. This is 2 years ago.
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Thanksgiving happens. The Black Friday.
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I get a call from him and the pastor of the church and they
16:46
said meet us at Cracker Barrel. So 930, 30 minutes before they
16:49
close, we, we show up at Cracker Barrel and he said, what's your
16:51
vision? This is the pastor.
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I was like, bro, I don't, I don't have a vision.
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I don't, I don't know, like we're three weeks, 4 weeks in on
16:58
this thing. We've met twice.
17:00
And I said, here's, here's my heart and that's all I can share
17:03
with you because we don't have a vision, We don't have money, we
17:06
don't have a name, we don't have none of this stuff.
17:08
I said, my thought is I Nehemiah, he's serving in in
17:14
Sushan, Sushan as the King's Cup mayor.
17:18
But his heart was in Jerusalem where the gates were torn down,
17:20
the walls were destroyed and he wanted to see his people
17:23
prosper. His heart was burdened for them.
17:26
That's what I told him. I said, man, I've been in South
17:28
Georgia, I've been in Utah. I can't get away from this area.
17:31
I just want to see the people of Caduceus County prosper.
17:34
I want them to know Jesus, not just religion.
17:36
I want them to know Jesus, like to become disciples of the way.
17:41
And he said his Fort down. He said nine years ago we were
17:44
given this building from a failing church and the word that
17:46
we prayed over this building was prosper.
17:48
He said we've never prospered in here.
17:50
We've never had fifty 60-70 people coming.
17:52
He said we just felt like we should be good stewards of the
17:57
building. He said let's let's work out a
18:00
deal. So 5 weeks in as a brand new
18:02
church, we, we came up with the name.
18:04
We started looking at who's going to lead worship, who's
18:07
going to be kids. All this in five weeks.
18:09
We took on a $4500 a month rent, you know, electric, all this.
18:14
A lot of people, mostly everybody said don't do it.
18:18
You're not going to be able to do it.
18:19
But I just, there was something in me that said we got to take
18:21
this step. And to this day, we have never
18:24
missed a rent payment. We've never asked for an
18:26
extension. Like the money has always shown
18:28
up. God has provided and that's been
18:31
awesome. We were meeting there and
18:34
quickly, quickly folks just started coming, they started
18:37
growing. We went to two services about 3
18:39
months in and the building is 120 year old movie theater.
18:46
Literally when you stand at the top right, you've been there,
18:48
you've seen it. When you stand at the top, it
18:50
literally is a 20° like incline. I mean we had four wheelchairs
18:56
in there. Easter Sunday the 1st year were
18:58
there, Ladies breaks Gateway and she started rolling down the
19:00
hill. I was like, that's new meaning
19:01
to holy Roller right there. And so so we're in there, we're
19:08
meeting, it's fun, we're growing.
19:10
Well, about a year ago we got to a place where it was just, we
19:15
could not function physically, could not function.
19:17
We had three rooms for our kids. We're running anywhere from 70
19:21
to 90 kids, 100 plus on a good day and three little bitty
19:25
rooms. And I was like, OK, we got a
19:27
problem here and we need to figure out what to do.
19:29
So we started looking. Our leadership team that we've
19:32
established started looking. We started praying.
19:34
When I tell you all, we looked at every building, every
19:36
makeshift room, every piece of property.
19:39
I feel like every place. I called probably 8 churches in
19:43
Caduce County and said, hey, y'all struggling you need us to
19:46
come in and take over your building.
19:48
You know, I'd probably offended a bunch of people, but I'm like
19:50
you have not cuz you have not. So Long story short, we we about
19:55
three months ago, this is fresh. We're October 22nd today.
19:59
So literally beginning of August, we made the idea that we
20:03
were just going to stay where we were and we're going to add a
20:06
third, possibly a fourth service on.
20:08
We were just going to make it work.
20:11
We went one Sunday, had people leaving in our two services
20:15
because there was physically no room to park or sit.
20:18
And you, you guys know your pastors that like when, when
20:21
people leave just cuz there's nowhere to sit, you're like,
20:24
what is happening? You know, I mean, it's a great
20:26
problem to have, but it's also it just kicks you in the gut
20:28
just like, what if they needed to hear the message today or
20:31
something? You know what I mean?
20:32
All those things. So we, I left that Sunday and I
20:36
got a text message and there was a guy that owns the building
20:39
we're currently in. And he said, Hey, I had a lady
20:42
that was going to buy this building.
20:43
She's backed out. Are you interested in renting
20:46
this? I was like, well, did Tim Tebow
20:48
have a quiet time? Yes, I am interested in reading
20:50
that. It's the only time I'll mention
20:52
a Florida Gator, by the way. And I don't even like him.
20:54
He's a Christian. But I, I said, yes, let's, let's
20:57
talk. So we came in, you know, it, it,
21:00
it was a little, it was a little scary step of faith.
21:07
You know, we were paying $4500 a month plus we, we were running
21:10
about seven, $8000 a month with all the bills and everything.
21:14
This is $6000 a month. So it's a up the ante there, you
21:19
know, still not getting paid as a church planner.
21:21
There's all these like dynamics that are in that, but we just
21:24
felt we needed to take the step. And so September 1st we said OK,
21:29
we had to pay 2 rents in the month of September.
21:31
We had to finish out our $4500 a month rent at the old building,
21:34
pay a $6000 a month rent here with gas.
21:36
And I'm telling you, it was nuts, but we, we've made it.
21:41
We, we put the vision out to our folks.
21:43
We had a, a thing called an expansion offering just said,
21:46
hey, we feel that this is a new platform.
21:48
Same message, same ministry, same opportunities to connect
21:52
with the community, larger platform to do it on, if you
21:55
will. And we did an expansion offering
21:57
raised about $48,000 in one Sunday, just folks.
22:01
But here's what I love about that one person, one person gave
22:04
a $10,000 check. Everything else was all of our
22:06
church folks giving 500 a hundred.
22:09
You know that that really helped my heart like that was everybody
22:12
giving to the expansion offering.
22:13
Not just like 3 big checks and we high five that we look like
22:16
we were doing it. And so we, we, we got the keys
22:20
here September 1st and it was non-stop for 36 days.
22:26
We totally remodeled this place. I mean, built paint, put lights
22:31
in the floors were hideous and we put this garage floor epoxy
22:35
down. I'm so excited for y'all to see
22:38
it. I mean, it's, it's really, it's
22:39
really awesome just to see where it was and what where we're at
22:43
now. We went from 150 seat auditorium
22:46
to A-350 seat auditorium. First Sunday we had right at 400
22:50
and something, I can't remember the amount, we had to bring out
22:53
about 80 chairs. That was the first Sunday.
22:56
Listen, we've all eaten at Bojangles.
22:58
If they build a new Bojangles down the street, we'll sit in
23:00
line for an hour just to get to the new Bojangles, right?
23:02
So the first Sunday, don't ever, don't ever high 5 yourself or
23:06
bite yourself on the back for the 1st Sunday.
23:07
The last two we've averaged out right at around 3/15, 3:50.
23:11
It's been awesome. You know, folks are getting
23:14
saved, folks are getting baptized.
23:15
We've seen 50 folks baptized in the last 24 months as a church.
23:19
I told him I said, man, if we were Southern Baptists and sent
23:21
that in, we'd have a plaque on the wall and a ride up in the
23:23
outreach magazine. But it's, it's, it's fun.
23:28
It's just this, this place was not on the radar.
23:33
There was another church that was meeting in here and they
23:35
actually kicked him out. They were building a new
23:37
building because the lady was going to buy it.
23:39
And then she ended up getting cancer and backed out.
23:41
And so in the course of 50 days, it went on the market.
23:46
We got it and we've had three services in here now.
23:48
And it's, it's been fun. It's it's exciting, challenging,
23:51
but that's the that's the story in a nutshell of the last two
23:55
years. You know, I was following your
23:58
first, you know, your first meeting, your first Sunday,
24:02
reading comments on your posts and your videos.
24:05
And now I was noticing people dogging yet about the parking.
24:08
There's no parking Parking. I would have been able to stay.
24:12
And I was like, and it's, you know, it's crazy that it's such
24:15
a victory. But then, you know, people
24:17
complain about something like parking.
24:19
Yeah. So maybe you can speak on that.
24:22
But that brings us into our next point that we want you to talk
24:25
about is kind of how do you manage the growth now that
24:29
you're in this new building? You know, like, have you managed
24:32
the growth in your attendance? What are the biggest changes in
24:35
your church since the move? Well, the parking is that is
24:39
definitely one of the the biggest headaches that we've
24:42
had. We are going from a place that
24:44
we had zero parking. We we literally were parallel
24:48
parking on a on a county or on a city road.
24:51
Folks were walking a mile plus in to church at our old
24:55
building. We get here and I was really
24:57
excited. We got 118 spots and every one
25:01
of them hacked to the gills. We're parked all the way down
25:04
the road. There's a diesel plus mechanic
25:06
shop right across the street. So we started parking folks over
25:09
there. You know, good problem to have,
25:12
but it's also a tension to manage because you want to make
25:14
sure that you know, I mean, we live in this consumeristic
25:17
mentality of me church, you know, like, oh, we got to have
25:20
the handicap parking the first time guest turn your hazard
25:23
lights on. We the mindset of church
25:29
treating a first time guest special is I get it, but we also
25:35
say, what about the second timer because they're choosing to come
25:38
back? What about the third, the 4th,
25:39
the 5th? So we don't put an emphasis on
25:41
first time guest. We never say the word first time
25:44
guest. We don't have you turn your
25:45
hazard lights on. We don't have a special parking
25:47
spot for you. And we're just like, come on in.
25:49
We only we're a church plant, so we give you a high 5.
25:51
We don't even have a first time guest gift.
25:53
So that's a tension to manage there.
25:54
But you know, one of the things that I've absolutely loved about
25:58
this tension to manage, excuse me, one of the things that I've
26:04
loved is corps volunteers, people who are all in, people
26:09
that are they, they see the vision, they get the vision.
26:13
We've put the ask out, not tailing, not forcing, just
26:17
asking. Hey, we want to Createspace for
26:19
those who want to come, who aren't plugged in yet, who might
26:24
not stay if there's not a parking spot in the church.
26:26
I know it's a little inconvenient, but here's the why
26:30
behind the what if we would just park two blocks down, a half a
26:34
mile down at this business that's letting us park there,
26:37
That would free up spaces here. I pulled in Sunday, the band,
26:41
the worship team, greeters, volunteers.
26:44
There was probably 60 cars parked a half a mile down the
26:47
road at a business. And I see this line of people
26:51
walking in 7:00 AM. It's sun's coming up, it's cold,
26:55
and they're walking down the road carrying all their stuff
26:57
with them. Like, I was like, OK, we need to
26:59
get a golf cart to thank those people for their added step of
27:03
taking, you know, that's being the church.
27:05
It's it's, it's like, OK, we'll park up.
27:07
It's inconvenient, but I'm going to free up a spot that somebody
27:10
might be able to turn because we did have some folks leave.
27:13
You know, I mean, we probably had four or five people that
27:15
commented on that. Hey, you know, I would have
27:16
stayed if there was a parking spot, you know, but those folks
27:20
see that so they came. So that's awesome.
27:22
Parking is just an issue. It's it's, it is what it is.
27:26
We've been working with the city.
27:27
There's a 14 acres to our right about trying to get that and
27:30
turn it into a gravel spot. You know, we'll, we'll work with
27:32
that inside the lobby. One of the tensions to manage
27:35
here. So we we built a wall.
27:37
Y'all will see it when you come. It's a movable wall on wheels.
27:41
We're going to write welcome home on it.
27:43
On the other side of it, we put, so I'm going through our first
27:46
series is just our mission statement.
27:48
We are the church and I wrote we are the church and we put a
27:50
bunch of pictures all over it from our first service to now.
27:54
And we put that wall specifically strategically right
27:58
inside the front door because it is a representation of the size
28:02
of our old lobby, which is about 600 feet.
28:05
So you walk in and I mean you're practically there and then you
28:08
step around into a 6000 square foot room that we have for
28:11
community. We're going from 600 feet space
28:14
for community to 6000 square feet.
28:16
And it's just, it really just kind of opened your eyes to see
28:19
the, the difference between where we were and where we're
28:22
at. And you know, we're still, we're
28:24
only three weeks in. There's still this healthy
28:27
tension of where do I sit? All of our chairs were donated.
28:31
So we've got three different sections of donated chairs.
28:33
We've got a red section, we've got a green section, A Doo Doo
28:36
brown section, A pastel section. You know, I mean, it's, it's
28:39
funny just to see there, there's still, you can still tell it's
28:42
very much a church plant, but we're trying to make it work,
28:45
you know, and I think just figuring out the newness of
28:50
where people are going to sit. We, we went from 2 services to
28:54
1. So that means there's 50-60
28:56
people that are volunteering and kids in parking and security
29:00
that don't get to come into the service that are serving in
29:02
kids. And so there's that like, you
29:04
know, with one service, they'll work one Sunday a month and
29:08
trying to get enough volunteers where they're not missing church
29:11
every week, you know, because that's what tends to happen when
29:13
you, when you do kids ministry. And so we're just, we're, we're
29:17
managing all of that in a new realm.
29:20
And it's, it's fun, it's exciting.
29:23
We're trying to figure out sound.
29:24
I mean, it's, it's a, it's, it's, it's a, it's a journey
29:28
that we're on to help people not get frustrated with the way that
29:35
it's always been. Even as a 24 month old church,
29:38
we still started creating some traditions and some DNA who we
29:43
are kind of thing. And so getting them to not see,
29:46
well, this is how it's always been.
29:48
You know, I mean, from our background, we know that's, that
29:50
puts you in a rut. So it's just a healthy tension
29:53
that we're managing right now. And I'm sure next month from
29:56
now, if we sit back down, all of that would have changed because
29:59
something new is going to come with how we're doing it here.
30:01
And so that's kind of where we're at right now.
30:04
Does your children's church have kind of the same amount of space
30:07
or or more? Space we went, we went from 3:00
30:10
rooms to 8:00 rooms plus a massive theater.
30:15
So we have we have ample amount of kids space now which is
30:19
awesome. We've got 2 rooms for babies.
30:21
We Sunday we had 27 birth to two year olds and that was in one
30:26
room that was like very, very tiny.
30:29
Now we've got 210 by 10 rooms for them to be in and you know,
30:32
it's, it's clean, there's carpet.
30:34
It's not 120 year old asbestos room that they're rolling around
30:38
in now. So we've got we've got much room
30:41
for for our kids. So, and you know, in our
30:44
building it is one big room. So there is still that noise
30:47
issue that we're trying to work with.
30:48
You know, we've, we've, we've figured this out over three
30:51
weeks. I'm like, OK, I hear kids
30:52
screaming. So we put some soundproofing up
30:54
on the walls and the the kids area.
30:56
You know, it's just those little things that, you know, after you
30:58
buy a car, it's really nice. You take it to the car wash
31:00
about 15 times and about a month in you're like, I didn't see
31:03
that scratch, you know what I mean?
31:04
So that's kind of where we're at now.
31:05
The newness is wearing off and we're starting to see the things
31:08
that we need to work on. You said something that was
31:11
interesting because we were in an association meeting just a
31:14
couple of days ago planning our semi annual meeting and somehow
31:19
they nominated me to be like vice moderator or something.
31:22
I don't know how I wasn't at a meeting.
31:24
And then they were like, hey, you're going to be this guy.
31:26
So yeah, that's how it works. And so.
31:29
Sign of Bibles and babies. I guess and so we were talking
31:32
and one of the guys, he's the oldest pastor in the community.
31:36
He's in his 70s. He retired and came back out of
31:39
retirement helping a church that need a pastor.
31:41
We call him the Pope of the county.
31:43
And so he, he hates when we call him that, but there was
31:47
something that had we had done last year, we just all the new
31:51
pastors in the association came up and we introduced them.
31:54
And then one of the guys just prayed over them, not laid hands
31:57
on, but just, you know, hey, let's say a blessing, a prayer
31:59
of these guys. And so it had gotten brought up
32:02
to do it again. He said, let me pray about that
32:04
because in the Baptist world, if you do anything twice, it
32:08
becomes a, a ritual and you got to keep doing it from then on.
32:11
You can't break it. He said, let me make sure this
32:13
is something we want to continue to do.
32:16
And so it's always, yeah, it was.
32:18
There's some in some things that that the church I'm at now where
32:21
I'm like, I really don't like doing that.
32:23
Well, I know we've done it for 170 years, but we're going to
32:25
change it a little bit. And it's like, whoa, we can't
32:27
change that. We we've always done that.
32:30
That's what I do love about church planning is we have no
32:34
traditions right now. Like you know, I say the Bible
32:36
is our only tradition. But in saying that, in 24 months
32:41
we have created some, some, I don't know if it's DNA, if it's
32:44
culture, if you know what is it culture eats vision for, for
32:48
breakfast kind of thing or is it the other way around?
32:50
Yeah. Culture eats vision for
32:52
breakfast. So we have just some culture
32:54
that's created. Now we're starting over with new
32:57
culture and it's like, oh, we're, we can't do it that way.
32:59
I'm like, we've only done that for like 8 months y'all.
33:02
I mean, come on, it's not like it's that old.
33:05
Yeah. So how about that, Brett JC,
33:08
what is some challenge or maybe the biggest change that you've
33:12
had to do since you've made this move in transition?
33:16
What? What's the biggest one that you
33:17
would say that's man, this one thing has been the biggest
33:21
obstacle to overcome or the biggest challenge that we've had
33:24
to do. Yeah, I think, I think follow up
33:29
is something that we we really never really did well in the old
33:33
place. And I don't know if it's that
33:35
they're more visible now and they're hanging out.
33:38
And so I I've really poured into more of like the follow up
33:44
culture. You know, we're we're pastoral
33:46
care. It seems like there's just a,
33:48
we've had an amazing amount of first time guest new building,
33:52
you know, they're drawn to that. So the follow up has been
33:54
something that we've really tapped into.
33:57
I use a thing called Vidyard. Not sure if y'all ever heard of
33:59
that, but I I've been wanting to try it.
34:01
I did it when I was campus pastor, but what it is is I
34:05
mean, you, you literally record a video and can send it to them
34:07
on text or e-mail. And it's been a it's been a good
34:10
tool. I mean, it puts a face with the
34:12
name so they're able to see that and and have a conversation
34:15
there. So that's been one I think just
34:18
teaching for me. I don't have that practice
34:21
sermon at 9:00. Now I only got to do it one time
34:25
and I'm finding myself not having the clock.
34:27
And so I went 52 minutes on Sunday, which is a long time for
34:31
me. And I was like, Oh my goodness.
34:33
You know, I'm, my folks are used to about 20-30 minute little
34:35
sermons. And then I'm going 52.
34:37
I'm like, calm down, breathe. So, you know, just just keeping
34:39
my finger on the pulse of that. You know, you get used to where
34:43
people are sitting even in your places, you know, you, you have
34:46
those faces it I still don't feel comfortable on that stage
34:50
yet. Like it's still it.
34:52
The room is a lot wider. When I turn and look to my left,
34:54
there's people behind me and the same as opposed to everybody
34:57
being right in front of me. So there's there's little things
35:00
like that. I don't know if necessarily I
35:02
can say there's one thing that is we've had to change or, or
35:07
manage differently. That would be a challenge.
35:10
I think, you know, just just obviously, you know, casting
35:14
vision a lot more for income or finances, you know, that's a lot
35:18
more bills to pay. I don't know.
35:20
I don't know if I can necessarily pinpoint 1 area that
35:22
we're having to really focus on now, something that's coming in
35:25
the future. We are putting a bigger emphasis
35:28
on groups, on making sure we get folks connected because the goal
35:32
is the larger we grow, the smaller we want to become.
35:34
And so, you know, getting people connected because I see the
35:39
tendency to just blend in, especially now in a much larger
35:42
room, slip in, slip out. I mean, there's people here that
35:45
I sent texts to last week. I'm like, hey, Manhattan's in
35:47
here. Like I sat right in front of
35:49
you. I was like, I'm sorry,
35:50
everybody's face is kind of blended in.
35:51
But also letting life happen in community.
35:54
And so getting people really plugged into community.
35:57
There's also some let me, I do have a challenge that that just
36:01
kind of came to mind. There's this natural sense I
36:07
think in all of us as humans, especially in church world, of
36:12
when you move to something that's a little bit nicer,
36:14
something bigger. There's this feeling of I've
36:16
arrived, we've achieved something.
36:18
We we've crossed the finish line.
36:21
I think really managing that and keeping people aware on the
36:27
mission and on the goal. We're doing the same thing that
36:31
we were doing 8 miles down the road, just in a larger platform.
36:35
Now we've got to keep pressing the ball forward.
36:37
We can't let up on the accelerator.
36:39
This is not like we've crossed the finish line and we're like,
36:41
OK, we're in a nice building now let's take a breath.
36:44
No, now ministry is just that much more larger scale.
36:48
Let's continue to do what we've always done and press the ball
36:51
forward. I think so.
36:53
One of the things that we have here is a volunteer staff.
36:55
Nobody's paid. And so it's, it's, it's like
36:59
volunteers on steroids. I mean, but they get the vision,
37:02
they run with the vision. So pouring that into them a
37:05
little bit. There's that sense of like,
37:06
we've arrived and, you know, just just making sure we keep
37:09
the finger on the pulse of that, like, hey, we haven't arrived.
37:12
We're, there's a tension now to manage.
37:14
We're, we're doing the same thing we've always done.
37:17
We just got to make sure we pump a little bit more gas into it,
37:21
if that makes sense. Yeah, it's like the football
37:24
analogy for the football team that's so, you know, up by two
37:28
or three touchdowns, it's easy to sort of coast a little bit
37:31
and that the coach, the coach comes out and says, hey guys,
37:34
this is the time to put the pedal down and and keep going
37:37
forward. And it's just not natural for us
37:39
to do that in our culture. And so and you'll see a team
37:43
that'll blow up a 10/15/20 point lead because they just can't
37:47
keep the gas pedal down. I don't know if I'm if I'm
37:50
talking to Brett or JC right now, but but you know.
37:53
I going 13 and O and then coming back out and going one and six.
37:56
I. Mean yeah it's it's tough and so
37:58
that that definitely can that coaching round can can correlate
38:02
over into pastoring in in a different area so.
38:05
You know it it. Oh, go ahead.
38:08
No, go ahead, Brett. I was going to say, it's funny
38:10
you mentioned the football analogy.
38:12
In my mind, I just saw a video where Nick Saban was saying that
38:16
when he's on a a winning streak in the middle of the season and
38:20
they haven't lost any games that season, he'll go to his guys and
38:24
say, all right, guys, when you wake up in the morning, who owes
38:27
you something? Nobody, you know, And there were
38:31
some more statements that he made, but, you know, just not to
38:33
get full of yourself, you know, stay humble.
38:36
JC. Here's here's kind of like the
38:38
final question, I know this is new, you've only been in your
38:42
building like 3 weeks, but let's just say a pastor comes in your
38:47
office and the pastor says, listen brother, we're about to
38:51
go through a transition similar to what you did when you
38:56
transitioned into your new church.
38:58
Can you give me any advice? Is there something that maybe
39:02
you would have done different or something as I'm going into this
39:07
I need to look out for what advice would you give a brand
39:11
new pastor that's going into the same type of transit transition
39:16
that? You've been through step one.
39:20
Pray, pray, pray, pray. Don't ever make a decision off a
39:27
feeling. Don't ever make a decision off
39:30
of what what might seem right. There is wisdom in a multitude
39:36
of counselors. I I'm a nerd when it comes to
39:39
certain things. I will review stuff before I buy
39:41
it. I bought some Cologne last week
39:43
and I think I've watched about 7 review videos off that Cologne.
39:46
My wife's like, you're a nerd. I'm but I want to know the why
39:49
behind the why. I want to make sure when we're
39:52
taking this step like here's every possible thing that could
39:56
go wrong, here's every pro, here's every con.
39:59
There's always going to be stuff you're going to miss.
40:01
But I think the first thing is to ask the question why?
40:06
Why are we making this move? Is it because a bigger, nicer,
40:10
newer building is sexy and this one smells bad and instead of
40:14
fixing some stuff, I just want to go and do that there.
40:17
Do we think is it? Is it pride?
40:19
Is it ego? Is it, you know, I think you
40:21
that's the first step is you've got to answer the why question.
40:25
Why does the move need to happen?
40:28
A lot of times people will, you know, let's be honest and I'm
40:31
the I'm the same way. I'm not calling anybody out.
40:34
We are enamored with new. There's something about new, new
40:37
car smell, new shoes, new Golf clubs, new, you name it.
40:42
New beard oil, new toothbrush, like new deodorant.
40:45
I mean, there's something about deodorant, whatever.
40:47
There's just something with new. So there's this, this bit to not
40:53
just stay where we are, but to look ahead to new.
40:56
And I think you got to really struggle with that.
40:58
We we struggled wondering why are we searching for something
41:03
new? We had to stop and pause and we
41:06
actually came back with the answer.
41:07
There's nothing out there. Let's stop and let's focus on
41:11
where we are and how we can make this work.
41:14
If you have explored every option and you're still coming
41:17
back to the same result that it has to change, then you start
41:22
taking the steps to go. But that's only done through
41:25
prayer and a lot of counsel. And obviously, if you can't
41:30
financially do it, don't do it. It's not good to put yourself in
41:33
a worst case scenario that's ultimately gonna hurt it.
41:37
I mean, I'll just be honest, We were, we were at the point where
41:40
two years in, I was about to start taking a salary on, you
41:44
know, we, we, we have very little income right now, $1000
41:48
stipend a month, you know, and then my family cleans the
41:51
church. We make $400.00.
41:52
So we're bringing in and then we have some outside people that
41:55
gave us some support for the last year.
41:56
We're bringing in about 2000 total a month here as pastors of
42:01
Hope Church. Well, that leadership got
42:03
together and we, they said we want to start giving you a
42:06
salary. Funds are at the place where we
42:08
can give you a salary. Well, then literally the next
42:10
week, this building came available $1500 more rent,
42:15
looking at bills and all that stuff.
42:16
And I said, here's this, here's what you have to understand.
42:19
We, my wife and I, we're on the same team.
42:21
We, we came to the agreement. We came here knowing that we
42:26
were going to take a step to help the church grow.
42:28
We on purpose came here knowing that we may not have a salary
42:32
for a while. We'll work odd and in jobs to
42:34
make it work, but we had to agree.
42:36
My wife and I, you know, like I, I saw the new building, but she
42:40
saw the paycheck. So we had to come to an
42:42
agreement. Hey, we may not be able to take
42:44
a paycheck for a while, but if is it us get paid or the
42:47
detriment of the church moving forward.
42:49
We took the step and said, hey, well, we don't want to be paid
42:52
right now. We we would love to be, but we
42:55
understand if we take that the church is going to have to stay
42:57
where we are. And I would rather see the
42:59
church move into a new larger facility that could draw in
43:03
people. And bro, I'm honest, the last
43:05
three weeks are giving has been triple where we had been.
43:09
And you know, it's steps of faith are scary, but you have to
43:13
take them at times. I think counsel is the biggest
43:16
thing. First thing, prayer.
43:17
Second thing, make sure your spouse is on board because
43:19
there's going to be some big decisions that come with that.
43:21
That's a biggie. Third is your leadership.
43:24
One of the things that we did, especially for young guys,
43:27
especially for newer churches, even older churches, a lot of
43:30
times we make decisions in silos.
43:33
We have the idea, we have the thought, We make it happen.
43:36
We put a leadership team together.
43:38
We call them the Hope leadership team, the HLT.
43:41
And so it is a sounding board. It is guys giving their, you
43:44
know, it's not a group of yes men.
43:46
Some would have Deacon boards, some would have elder boards,
43:48
but those are helping us make decisions.
43:50
We're young church, we're still working on our structure and all
43:53
that. So I just don't want to make a
43:54
decision in a silo. These are big money decisions
43:57
that we're making here and to take this step.
43:59
So I think you, you, you got to look at it.
44:01
You can't just do knee jerk reactions.
44:04
You, you got to do your due diligence.
44:06
Is it even feasible? Because there, there may be a
44:09
building that you're wanting to move into that's nice, but it
44:12
may not work because you just can't afford it, you know, and
44:16
you got to live within your means as stupid Dave Ramsey
44:19
would say, you know, so you got it.
44:21
You got to make sure that there are the, and then and then on
44:24
that, what I, what I always say is God's will is practical.
44:28
It's not mystical. It will just work out if it's
44:33
supposed to happen. There's a lot of times I'm
44:35
praying God, are we supposed to go there?
44:36
Are we supposed to do this? Like if we are, will you let
44:39
$2000 show up tomorrow in the mail?
44:40
You know, that may not happen. Or can I just hear you audibly
44:44
speak? I hope he sounds like Morgan
44:45
Freeman if I ever hear him audibly speak.
44:47
But it's it's practical. Literally in 57 days, the
44:52
practicality of every little detail fell into place and we
44:55
didn't have to make that happen. So I think knowing the God's
44:58
will is practical, not mystical, not making something happen.
45:01
Wisdom and a multitude of counselors.
45:03
Your spouse is on board. Prayer, prayer, prayer, prayer
45:07
is probably the biggest step that you could, you could take.
45:10
If if you if you feel when you're praying about it and
45:13
asking about it that it's a no, don't move forward.
45:17
You're making you're making a decision out of flesh and not
45:19
spiritual, if that makes sense. Yeah.
45:22
I think that one of the things you said that was great that I
45:25
took away as you were saying that was talk to your spouse,
45:29
You know, as a pastor, we were. We had an opportunity.
45:33
Church was shutting down. They had five or three members.
45:37
They a couple of the churches were wanting to work, adopted
45:41
this church, bringing it on to replant it.
45:44
And they had asked me to come be their pastor.
45:47
And so I've met with the, the pastors of that, the team that
45:50
was going to help fund it and everything.
45:52
And I was excited. I was ready to go like we were,
45:55
we were all on board and I was talking to John and John said,
45:59
well, how's Ally? What's Ally think about this?
46:01
And I sort of hung in my head and I said, you know, I haven't
46:03
really asked her that question. So I went home that night and I
46:07
said, hey, Allie, I said, what, what do you think about this
46:09
church? I haven't asked you.
46:09
So what, what, what's your thoughts?
46:11
She said, James, I know you're excited.
46:13
She said, but one of those pastors, he just reminds me a
46:16
lot of one of our former pastors.
46:18
And I just don't think you're going to be able to you're going
46:20
to mesh well and you're going to be able to pass the way you want
46:24
to Pastor. I thought, man, I didn't get
46:27
that. I didn't see that.
46:28
So again, it's not mythical. Like you said, all this is
46:32
wrapping around. So I went and next meeting sat
46:36
down with them, told them, hey, we're not going to go with it.
46:39
We're going to move on. I mean, it was the hardest
46:41
meeting I've ever had, but telling them and they were ready
46:43
to pull the trigger and and move forward that day.
46:46
I'm driving down the road and I get the phone call from this
46:50
church where I'm at now. And I told John and I told Brett
46:54
this. I said I fully believe if I say
46:57
yes to that other church, this church didn't call.
47:00
Yeah. And it was God just saying, Hey,
47:02
test your faith, see where you're at.
47:04
And that that is, that is huge. And, and having that council and
47:08
having that those people around you that you're talking to.
47:11
My, my papaw used to always tell me he pastored 40 plus years.
47:15
He said, John Calvin, you got to live your life every moment to
47:18
where when the Holy Spirit speaks, you not only hear his
47:21
voice, but you know who it is speaking.
47:23
And you know, I mean, if you back up five years ago to well,
47:27
2019, I'm standing on a 40,000 square foot slab, 2 still beams
47:32
of Rockbridge Community Church. And it was just very clearly God
47:36
said, you're done. You are not supposed to be the
47:38
campus pastor that leads this church into a new building.
47:41
And then it was after that. OK, now what?
47:43
You know, that's right before COVID hits.
47:45
I get a position at at Bill Hybels old church, Willow Creek
47:49
up in Chicago. Then when we come be the student
47:51
impact director and all the council, this is where it's
47:54
important. All the council was, no, don't
47:55
go. You're going to make a lot of
47:57
money, but that's going to be like $20,000 in Georgia.
48:00
You got six kids living in Chicago.
48:02
You look like a walking Trump supporter, like it probably
48:05
wouldn't be a good idea to go to Chicago.
48:07
Well, lo and behold, four months later, COVID hits.
48:10
That place shut down. I mean, Chicago really shut
48:13
down. God LED us to South Georgia.
48:14
God LED us back here. So when I say you got to live
48:17
every moment to where when the Holy Spirit speaks, you are the
48:19
leader. If I'm talking to that Pastor
48:21
Brett, you're the leader of that congregation.
48:24
You're the one that God is, is you're in tune to the Spirit to
48:28
listen, to lead and to guide. And a lot of times what happens
48:31
is we tend to take steps out of pride because it would, it would
48:36
appear that we're better off than we are than actually
48:40
staying and just going through the motions of making it happen,
48:44
where sometimes God is just wanting you to, to rely on him
48:48
and stay where you are. You know, we, I think it's,
48:52
it's, it's harder at times to obey and stay than it is to grow
48:56
and go because it seems prettier, if that makes sense,
49:00
You know what I mean? And you just got to you got to
49:03
live every moment to where when he speaks, you not only hear his
49:06
voice, but you know who it is speaking.
49:08
So one. Of my favorite verses is
49:12
Colossians 315 where it talks about letting the peace of God
49:16
rule in your hearts. You know, where the peace of God
49:19
and it's not only just like a compass telling you what
49:22
direction to go. It's an umpire that rules and an
49:26
umpire has authority in your life.
49:29
And that's people that rule in your life have the authority.
49:33
And sometimes we can use the peace of a God, God as an
49:36
excuses. You know, I don't have peace
49:38
about that. But really the Bible instructs
49:40
us in the how we know how the Holy Spirit speaks to us.
49:44
I'm mentioning this first because it's on my heart that
49:47
that he knows through the peace of God and it's with you got to
49:50
sit back. You got to be willing to listen
49:52
not to your flesh. You need to listen to the Holy
49:56
Spirit communicate to you through the peace of God before
49:59
you act, before you move. And you know, that's, that
50:02
should be the foundation of of our decisions.
50:05
Even going into a transition like this, going into a new
50:08
church situation, you got to make sure that you have the
50:12
peace of God. It is the the compass.
50:14
It's the ruler that Christians use.
50:17
Yep, I agree. I love it.
50:21
One last question, where is Matt Dudley?
50:24
Man, I don't know. Where's where's Nathan, I mean?
50:28
Well, Nathan, Nathan's in Istanbul, but no where was he at
50:32
last night? Asia, Nepal.
50:34
He he texted me the other day from London.
50:37
He's been in Nepal for the last. Three traveling evangelist.
50:40
I'm in Billy Graham Junior. This guy could take a flight.
50:43
This is where Nathan and I are different.
50:45
I'd get on a plane and fly to Nepal.
50:47
Nathan gets on a plane and does a world tour and then goes to
50:50
Nepal and then does a world tour and comes home.
50:52
I'm like, just go to Nepal and come back.
50:54
He goes to Dubai to to Where was he at?
50:58
France? I think I got a picture of that.
51:00
He was in Asia on. I'm pretty sure he sent me a
51:03
picture of Mount Everest. I don't know where that was.
51:06
He's all over the world. It's like, where in the world is
51:08
Nathan Cravat stupid? I just.
51:11
Tried Matt Dudley. Might be out bow hunting
51:13
somewhere. It's that time that.
51:14
Is exactly where Dudley is at so I have been trying to call
51:16
Dudley for a week now last night at 3:30 in the morning 4:00 AMI
51:22
was up I text Nathan cuz I knew he's on the other side of the
51:24
world and it's probably lunchtime and he texted me and
51:27
Dudley goes hey guys I was like you're alive OK I've been trying
51:30
to get a hold of you for a week he's like sorry bro I've been
51:32
out here hunting and don't have any cell signal I was like man
51:35
we released we yeah so I don't know where dudley's at he was
51:39
supposed to be on here with us today but.
51:40
He was. He was.
51:42
Bless his heart, there's only one of us really committed to
51:45
the mission. Hey.
51:45
Man, that's exactly right. All right, I.
51:49
Love it, I love it. Listen, guys, I am, I have to,
51:52
we have to mention this one more time before we go.
51:55
I could, I cannot be more excited for the conference this
51:58
year. Yeah, we got our we got our
52:01
Airbnb. Where y'all?
52:03
Staying. We are staying in what, Rolling
52:07
Fork or something that's right outside of Fort Oglethorpe.
52:12
Let me pull it up right here. Rock Springs.
52:17
Maybe let me. Brett book the Brett book the
52:21
room. I'm just showing up and
52:22
sleeping. That's all I'm doing.
52:23
My whole family's coming down. JC That's good are.
52:26
Y'all leaving Saturday? Night, Rossville.
52:29
I'm leaving Rossville. Yeah, you're you're right here
52:31
by us. Yeah, I'm leaving.
52:32
I'm leaving Saturday night, Saturday after the after the
52:35
session. You're going to miss the best
52:37
session on Sunday morning. Yeah, someone's got.
52:39
Someone's got to preach. So big man's got to show up and
52:42
preach. Here's what I did.
52:43
I said, Nathan, Matt, y'all just take Saturday.
52:45
I'm just going to preach like normal on Sunday and call it the
52:48
third session. So see, Friday it it all changed
52:51
because IPA announced high school football here locally and
52:54
we had a rain delay so they moved our game to Friday night.
52:58
So Friday night session is just going to be a meet up where
53:00
we're just going to hang out and, you know, sit around here
53:03
at the church and eat and do whatever.
53:05
And so I'll be here Friday, it'll be late.
53:07
I'll be in around 10:00. But then Saturday, we'll start
53:10
with the sessions that morning we got some good worship.
53:13
I think the people that lead with Nathan are coming down and
53:16
he's gonna be speaking and then. The hips family.
53:20
Can you hear me? Yeah, the Hips family are coming
53:23
down. Hello.
53:24
Yeah, we can hear you. Oh, sorry, I lost.
53:27
I lost Sears. I don't know what happened.
53:29
So they're going to come down and, and Nathan's going to speak
53:31
and then our worship team is going to leave worship for the
53:33
afternoon session and Dudley's speaking and then we'll hang out
53:37
and all eat together. When are y'all leaving Brett?
53:41
Let's see. We're leaving.
53:43
Yeah, we're leaving. I think that that Friday morning
53:47
and we'll, we'll be there that evening, but we're leaving early
53:50
Friday and it's, it's not a long trip for us.
53:53
Yeah. When are you heading back home?
53:55
Will you be here Sunday? Yeah, we'll be there Sunday.
53:57
We're hey, we're going to go to the conference and then we'll be
54:00
there Sunday and then we start a week vacation.
54:03
So. Oh.
54:03
Yeah, you're taking sabbatical. You did that last year, didn't
54:06
you? Oh yeah, it's when I do it.
54:09
Did you preach or did you just come in?
54:11
I just came in man. If I'd have known you were going
54:14
to be. Here.
54:17
I don't. Will you be back the next
54:19
Sunday? I can be I'll.
54:27
Call you. OK.
54:29
Love it. Well, hey, hopefully you guys
54:31
come down. It's been great to have this
54:33
crossover event. We're still recording guys, so
54:36
it's great. Hey, come and come and be with
54:37
us. For the Sake of the Gospel
54:38
Conference is going to be at Hope Church, 25 O1 Pine Grove
54:41
Rd. in Ringgold, GA. And this is our third annual For
54:46
the Sake of the Gospel Conference.
54:48
It's a meet up. It's it.
54:50
I love meetups. I love when the the fam gets
54:53
together and we just sit around and talk and it's, it's like we
54:56
never miss a beat. Like everybody just gets
54:59
together. If we're in bourbon, if we're in
55:01
Bourbon, MO, if we're in. Where else were we at?
55:04
Oh, Statesboro. We did Statesboro.
55:06
We did Danville, VA. Now we're doing it.
55:08
We did Asheville. Yeah.
55:09
Yeah, I didn't get, I didn't get to go to Statesboro.
55:14
We missed it. Bourbon.
55:16
Bourbon so far has been my favorite of all time.
55:18
Bourbon was great state. Girl meet up.
55:21
The very first one was one of the most special nights I've
55:25
ever had in my life. There was something that Chapel,
55:28
when we got in there and started, my goodness, it was it.
55:31
Was a little bit of heaven. Little country church, Hey, it
55:35
reminded me of that Chapel. Church that Hal.
55:37
Started what was it called? But yeah, it was it was awesome,
55:42
man. It was great.
55:44
I love it. So we're gonna do it.
55:46
November 3rd. No, second, third and 4th.
55:49
That's what it is, right? November 2nd, 3rd and 4th here
55:51
in Ringgold, GA free of charge, no registration.
55:55
Just come on down and be with us.
55:57
Love it, can't wait. It's gonna be great and I can't
56:00
wait to come down there. Next week we'll be giving our
56:03
meet up or our crossover event with Growing Race podcast and I
56:07
hope you'll TuneIn next week with that the girls podcast and
56:11
we appreciate JC coming on and hate that the other guys
56:16
couldn't be here. But until next time, Brett to
56:19
God. Not the pastor.
56:22
Be the glory. Peace.
56:25
Found my new name, found that good grace, found that healing.
56:31
And the tears fell down my face when I found my beginning has no
56:37
ending. From that second chance, from my
56:38
best friend, from my forgiveness, from my happiness.
56:40
I've been singing ever since about my freedom.
56:56
Thanks for listening to the Four Freedom Podcast.
56:59
If you enjoyed our content, do us a favor by liking,
57:03
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57:06
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