Latest / Small Town Summits / The Ministry of Encouragement (w/ Phil Waldrep)
Transcript
- Ben Whittinghill: Just because you did not see the visible happening did not mean God was at work behind the scenes. I think men and women in New England need to know that when we get to heaven, it's going to be men and women in places like New England who have not gotten the awards and the accolades and the applause, but they have remained faithful that when they stand before God, they're going to be amazed at the lives they touched and the people they impacted. For the cause of the price. Welcome back to the Small Town Summits Podcast. I am Michael Badger, one of your co-hosts, and on this week's episode, I, along with our other co-host, Ben Whittinghill, had the wonderful opportunity to speak with a man who has had a big impact on pastors and pastors' wives here in New England, a man named Phil Waldripp. Phil is the head of Phil Waldrup Ministries, a ministry that has many arms doing many wonderful things. Including ministering to those who are laboring for the gospel in New England. Whether it be through free retreats, supplying Bibles, or aiding pastors and pastor wives in receiving biblical counseling, the Lord has used his ministry greatly over the past several decades. We speak to him about all of this and more in this week's episode. We hope you enjoy this conversation and are greatly encouraged by it. Well, welcome to the Small Town Summits Podcast. I am one of your co-hosts, Michael Badger, here along with your other co-host, Ben Whittinghill. And we have the joy and the privilege today of sitting down with Phil Waldrip, a Phil Waldrip Ministries. Now, Phil, for people who don't know you or maybe unfamiliar with with who you are, what you do, can you just ⁓ give us a a biography of of who you are? ⁓ a maybe a a little short spiel of how you came to faith and ⁓ and what you do now. I don't know how much time we have because it tak I can give you this the short version or I can give you the long version. I was privileged to be born and reared in Alabama, as far away from New England as probably you can be in the United States. But I grew up with a wonderful mom and dad. Church was a regular part of our life. When I was seven years of age, I was very much aware that I was a sinner That I needed a personal relationship with Christ. And it was just before my eighth birthday that I remembered consciously giving my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ and saying, I want to follow you for all my life. Now, sometimes people say, Do you think seven year olds know what they were doing? Well, I did because I was I was reared in a home where, you know, reading the Bible and praying every day, being in church every time there was a service, that was a part of our routine. So I had a really strong foundation. My life's goal was to go to Auburn University and to become a veterinarian. I wanted to doctor the cows. We had cattle, so I wanted to doctor cows. I I didn't want to do dogs and cats. That's like, you know, children. I wanted to, you know, cattle its business. But the Lord had different plans and when I was a teenager, by the time that I was fourteen, fifteen years of age, I sensed a call to ministry. And I'd already been promoted a grade in high school, so I was I actually graduated high school when I was sixteen. I was getting very close to graduating from high school. And it was like, Lord, what do you want me to do in my life? Do I become a veterinarian? Do what do you want me to do? And I remember it was a very clear call in my heart that I was to go into ministry. Now, at the time I didn't sense I would be a pastor. ⁓ it wasn't that I I mean I had wonderful pastors. I never had a pastor who had disappointed me or ⁓ discouraged me. But I felt that I was called to be a vocational evangelist, meaning that I would be one who would travel from churches and in those days to lead in a lot of church revivals, church renewals, ⁓ crusades and things like that. And I did that for a vast part of my early life. ⁓ that was very common in the South and literally with week after week after week, I would be speaking night after night after night. When I look back, I think I did it too much. ⁓ And then, you know, in nineteen eighty four I had a friend who came to me and asked me would I consider ⁓ putting together a youth camp and allowing churches to go to it because I was doing a lot of those just by virtual my age. And so I remember in I think it was nineteen eighty four that I said, Okay, we'll do the first one, if you'll kinda hit it up and I'll help ya and I'll prove to you this was not gonna work. Well, the opposite happened. ⁓ we had about two hundred forty eight kids, which I thought was you know, tremendous. And the next year we had four hundred, the next year we had eight hundred, the next year been twelve hundred. And so I really enjoyed that. I enjoyed putting together, bringing in speakers and worship leaders. And so that launched a whole part of our ministry. We had formed our ministry as a nonprofit in nineteen eighty, but this had opened up a whole new world of doing events and conferences. And so we started doing a number of those that still do. We have a wonderful staff that handles all of those ⁓ that we do women's conference, men's conference and celebrators, which is for older adults, senior adults that we do. And many of those have ⁓ well in excess of ten to fifteen thousand people who attend each one of them. So they're very large. Really, that was part of what we did, but my heart was still in the local church. It still is in the local church. I think there's a advantage when there are large events where Christians can get together, but it never can replace what happens in the local church. So my heart is still in the local church and everything we do is geared to undergrading and building and strengthening the local church. So that's what we do. And along the way, ⁓ my wife and I got married. We've been married forty one years and ⁓ yeah, it was she was a godsend. I had two great kids, I had two daughters. ⁓ who are married to two wonderful guys. ⁓ one of them is actually our creative director. The other is a ⁓ minister of worship at a church in North Carolina, our two son in laws. And so we have a great family. Dimmy and I are grateful every day that our kids ⁓ chose to serve the Lord we serve. That's not everybody's story. It's not a fault of parenting. It's not because we were great parents. It was just that God gives us the privilege to The involved. So they're very involved in ministry as well. Really wonderful to hear. ⁓ I'd love for you to explain a little bit more about Phil Waldrip Ministries in total. When I hear Phil Waldrip Ministries, because of your kindness and generosity, I think pastors and wives retreats for New England. But I don't I don't know the scope of Phil Waldripp Ministries beyond that. So it's it's thrilling to hear that you're still hosting these events that are drawing sort such large numbers of people for discipleship and for training. But maybe you can share a bit more with us about what your ministry looks like today. Well we do we do those events and there are several of those a year. We do actually I think sixteen, eighteen major events a year. as a matter of fact, next week we have one of our women's events. It's actually a cruise. So ⁓ we'll be leading a cruise of about five hundred women. That's smaller, but it is a cruise. We'll be in the Caribbean and with winter storm it's coming through. Alabama, we're grateful that we're gonna be there. ⁓ but we we do those events and and I'm still preaching almost every Sunday in a local church. ⁓ I still do that as my schedule permits. ⁓ I also do quite a bit of writing. I have three major books that are out, one of which is called Reaching Your Prodigal, which is done it's been in print now for a long time and has become somebody's really written and addressed I'm a very practical oriented person, meaning I want to not just give people here's what you ought to do, but to help walk them along. If if you want to put that in a biblical concept, I I think part of my preaching gift at least is is exhortation, not just teaching, but okay, now that I know this, what do I do with it? And so that's been a very vital part of what we do. Then we have a whole division where we do mission oriented activities. And that's where all the things that we do and are continuing to do and are expanding to do in New England, how that all fits in as well. So I lead a team ⁓ between our part time and our full time, most of which are full time. ⁓ I think, counting myself and my wife, I think there's eighteen of us now. And then we have a lot of people who come in. to ⁓ as needed. But we have a group of about forty people that either work our conferences or here every day or are part-time or along those lines. So it's a pretty good team and God's been good to us and I can't complain. Some like two longest term employees, one has been here, a director of our conference has been with me for thirty one years. We have one of the ladies who's in our graphics department who's been here 30 years. So we they tend to stick for my own voices I don't know if that's good or bad, but it's it's a wonderful thing. They're wonderful people that share our vision. Well every day they hear this from me every day. Our goal is to make an eternal difference in the life of every person we encounter. And that's our daily goal. And that's our mission. Yeah, that's wonderful. Well As somebody who's been blessed by your ministry specifically here in New England and and I we actually had a conversation not too long before we jumped on with you with another man who's been blessed by your ministry here in New England, a man named ⁓ Tim Counts, ⁓ who said that ⁓ he's been going to ⁓ to these events that you put on up here ⁓ in New England for so long that it feels like a family reunion when he comes back, when he comes each year. ⁓ but can you explain why New England? What what first stirred your heart for New England. Why New England ministry? You know, a lot of people down south, ⁓ I'm from Tennessee, don't really think about New England other than like, well, you know, everybody up north is just kind of mean and rude and all that kind of stuff. So so w how did God pierce your heart for New England pastors and pastor wives? Well, before we say that, this let me say I'm glad you talked to Tim Counts. Tim Counts is one of my dear friends of New England. And by the way I have said this publicly before, I've said it privately, I said again. I think Tim Counts is one of the best Bible preachers in the nation. So anytime I'm in Manchester or we're in Manchester, if I can anyway make it happen, I'm gonna be sitting in his church on Sunday morning, just in priests. And you know, a lot of times people don't think of people in New England who are very gifted ⁓ expositors and preachers of the word. But there's a number of them across the meeting. Tim Counts just happens to be one of ⁓ and he's he and his family are one of my favorite families there too. ⁓ but I jay out it all began. I grew up in the South where literally every street corner has a church. Now I would say evangelical church, but I'm using that loosely. But most churches in the South, you know, in the county where I live most people were Southern Baptists. ⁓ we had a few others, but that's just kind of culturally what we were. And I do use that word culturally because there's a lot of cultural Christianity in the South. And we grew up, I grew up, assuming it was that way across the country. And when I began to read church history and I would read about the Great Awakenings, I thought New Louan particularly would be even deeper spiritually, even more so than I found in the South. And so in nineteen eighty four, had a friend whose name was ⁓ Robert Campbell, Bob Campbell, who was working with the Baptist Convention of meeting now called Baptist Churches of Meeting, and who called me and they were going to have all of these simultaneous revivals in churches, trying to get everybody to do it. And they were going to have like this ⁓ publicity campaign, PR campaign of commercials of saying, you know, attend a Southern Baptist Church in your community. They're have services this week. And he called me and he asked me if I'd be willing to deal with him. So remember, I'm twenty-three years old. I'm about to get married. And he actually called my parents because he knew my parents and said, you know, we'd love for Phil to come, would he be willing to do it? It's a mission trip, had to pay his own way. So my parents agreed if I'd be willing to go, they'd pay my way. So in April of nineteen eighty-four, I was paired with a man named Aubrey Jones. Aubrey was the pastor at Recision Valley Baptist Church in North Springfield, Florida. And You know, I went in there with all of this excitement of boy, I'm finally gonna get to be in one of those New England churches. At the time I never been above the Mason Vixen one. And so I remember I ride, Aubrey was from Mississippi, so we kind of hit it off just because we could talk, you know, SEC football and all the things that Southern is talking about. And he was ⁓ several years older than I was. But on Sunday morning I went to his church and I never will forget it, because I grew up where There was a lot of emotions in your preaching. And so that Sunday morning, boy, I'm preaching and I'm s you know, I'm I'm just laying the word on. And I knew it was so effective because nobody moved. I mean nobody moved. And I thought, boy, you know, they're under deep conviction. And when the service was over with, there was this wonderful man named Norm, still in that church, who's who's a great guy. And Norm walked up meet true Vermonter. He walked up the first thing a Vermonter ever said to me after I preached in New England was he walked up to me and he said, Hey, who are you mad at? You know, because they had never heard nobody raise their voice. Now, I don't do that now, but I tell Norma all the time, he taught me more about preaching in that one statement in New England than I could have learned in the four years. Because I realized culturally it was different. Now, fortunately That was a very gracious church, been there many times. Aubrey Jones, my friend, is now with the Lord. But when I was with Aubrey, ⁓ he would drive me around and show me that a lot of what I thought was churches with those beautiful Christmas card pictures now were community centers or historical societies. He church had long farms. And so I was like, You're kidding. And then began to realize that. He was literally traveling at that time, fifty or sixty miles, to meet with another pastor who wasn't even a Baptist, but somebody who loved Jesus, leaning the heirs of scripture, was committed to sharing the gospel. And even though they disagreed on some things, they would meet for fellowship. And he told me the number one need we have is I get so lonely, I feel isolated, I'm so disrupted. And it really was Aubrey Jones who said to me You need to think about starting a time when pastors and and their wives can come and just have a couple of nights, three days. We don't have to do anything. Because he said we're used to having to do everything from, you know, turning on the lights, turning on the heat, sweeping apple church or whatever. ⁓ and a lot of times, you know, teaching a Sunday school Bible class, making the singing. He said, Some of us do it all. And he said, But we don't have the funds to go because most of us are working forty hours. We Would you raise the money to do it? And initially that really wasn't kind of like, you know, no, I just I just don't know. And then ⁓ I also had a friend named Mike Griffin who went called in New Hampshire, he was up in the north country, who ⁓ actually went there to help start a church. And and through him and through hearing what he was saying at Aubrey, I'm like, well, maybe we should do this. And so took it before the Lord and said, Lord, I don't know how we're gonna do this, but if you'll provide. And so I remember that's been over three years ago. We were at the I guess it's still a holiday yet in Rutmum for mine, I don't know. But you know, the hardest things I had, guys, was getting people to come the first year. I mean, you know, if somebody calls you up and says, Hey, we're gonna put you in two night hotels or meals, we just wanna love on you and it's all free. That was the era when there was so much ⁓ of the what do you call it, the where you buy a week, ⁓ I Yeah. Where they were trying to get you to come. Yeah, timeshares to sell you timeshares. And so everybody thought it's one. I'm like, no, no, no, no, it wasn't. And I think the first year we had twenty-four people, twenty, twenty-six. I I know it wasn't more than thirty. And when it was all over with, half of them was apologizing, kept waiting for the sales pit. And of course, then they told their friends, who told their friends, who told their friends. And the rest was history. But as I Started going to New England, traveling to New England, getting to know pastors in New England, understanding the the need and the heartbeat. ⁓ God just gave me that heartbeat for New England. And to this day, one of my favorite things to do is when I'm in New England, just get out and buy it. ⁓ you know, Vermont was the first state I went to, so I always think Vermont would be special. But there's two hundred and fifty-one villages, cities, and corporations. in Vermont, two hundred and fifty-one. And I make it a practice that I'm gonna pray for one of those cities every single day. And I discovered a long time ago, if you start praying for people, God will start sharing his heart for those people. And I think that started it. Now that's expanded it for all the six New England states. but that's how my heart and and God was good because My wife has the same heart. And when my ⁓ oldest daughter was about to get married to the young man who's on our staff, one of the things he shared with her, totally unaware, was his heart for New England and how God gave him a heart for New England. So he's just kind of knit our whole family, ⁓ with New England. I know this is not biblically correct, so please take it to Spirit and I say, but I don't mean to tell people if I die in heaven's full, God can send me to Vermont in the summer. in the summer. I want to be there to talk. So but that's how much I love. And it's just been through that experience and getting to know people and being able to pray for people and with people. And that's how the retreat started. And since then it's grown, now as you know, we do we need two of them because we have a commitment, because we study what we do. We don't want over two hundred and fifty people. Because when you move over two hundred and fifty people, it's no longer a retreat. It's now on conflicts. And those have two different purposes, two different missions. We want it where people can feel included, where there's time for fellowship and networking, because one of the underlying purposes of that retreat is to get men and women to meet other men and women who are in ministry, where they either live nearby or there's a common interest or a common struggle that takes place. And so they find out there's someone who lives near them where they can fellowship and have that common core. They may be in a they may have theological differences. On the basics, they're on the same things, but they may have some d theological differences. I normally bring theologically with everybody who comes. Now on the basics, they're subtle, but you know, th there may be some who do infant baptism, for example, others who do not. ⁓ I would feel the persuasion not to do that. But There are some who come who do. And I'm like, look, we're we we want you here. If your heart's for the gospel and you love Jesus, we want to encourage you in the world. So that's really how I got started. Been doing it now all these years. I I think what's so endearing for people listening in is you can hear how genuinely you love people here and how your heart beats for Jesus to receive the glory that he's due here and it's not new. It's not a flash in the pan, it's been for thirty years. And so, you know, if if you're s kind of ⁓ suspicious of things that are new or people that are in it for some other reason, like you're selling something like a timeshare, and they realize like, ⁓ this is actually just very generous, very genuine and long lasting. ⁓ that's moving to hear of you praying for all these Vermont towns as two guys who are ministering in Vermont. So thank you for that. ⁓ I'd love for you to share though In addition to it's it's a beautiful ministry, we share this burden or this desire to connect people who are ministering in similar areas, to help them to know they're not alone, to encourage them. It's very much the heartbeat of our summits. I'd love for you to share with people listening in. A lot of our audience is in New England. This the main audience that we have, small town New England. And ⁓ probably most of them have heard of your of your ministry, just word of mouth, the different people that have been to part, but maybe some of them listening in this the first time, they don't know what they would expect. And so usually by the time I hear about ⁓ you know, ⁓ this Phil Wildard retreat, you like, it's it's booked. I mean, this is like a high demand people love it thing. So what can you explain those twice a year what the design and format what they would expect if if they and their spouse came to one of these events? Well I mean They're they're both in the fall. We always do them usually around Labor Day. This this year they're actually the week before. And the first one is a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. That's a little bit of different format. We've normally been Thursday, Friday, Saturday. ⁓ we always put people in a very, very nice hotel. I told people, you know, missions does not have to be spelled ⁓ I S E R La. Now, we're not not you don't have to be invisible. We just think I have often said we want you to be treated like a king and a queen for three days. And I want you to go somewhere where if you had the opportunity to get away with your spouse, where would be a place you would want to go? And so I know like this coming fall, we're in ⁓ is it Samoset which is up in Maine, which is a wonderful resort, and then we're at the Equinox, which is in Manchester, Vermont, is where the other one is. And we move them around a little bit. There's certain hotels we use a lot because we have a good relationship with them. ⁓ one is like the Omni Mount Washington. That has become a really that's probably become one of the favorites of people who come. And it's just perfect for what we do. You know, you're isolated, you're not in the big city. Well, when people come the first night, here's what's going to happen. And then I'll tell you ⁓ after I give you kind of the agenda, I'll tell you what we're trying to accomplish, which really surprises people when I tell them. But they'll come the first night, get there. Usually we have some kind of ticking fingers or something, just 'cause a lot of times we don't have time to stop and eat. We have an open worship service, and I will bring in someone to share. May not be someone you know, although we have had people like David Jeremiah who's been there with us, who's a dear friend. His wife's from New Hampshire, by the way. A lot of people don't know that. So there's a little inside track with him. He has a heart for New England. ⁓ yeah, that worship service, follow the worship service. Everybody who attends is given someone from outside of New England who has come to New England to be an encouragement. It's usually almost always a couple. They have a heart for New England, and they are going to take you, have a a prayer time, listen for your heartbeat. What can they pray with? What can you rejoice meeting about? What are some good things God's good? And so they are part of that prayer time. Then we have a big fellowship that night. She's like a pinza party or something. Because everybody wants to see everybody or they want to meet other people. So there's a lot of fellowship that night. The next morning we have breakfast and then we have two the only time we do a breakout session. And we really do this for the women, not so much for the men. And even though we have a breakout time to the men, it's the women who want to hear from other women. So we will bring in usually a well known ⁓ person who is ⁓ ⁓ a woman ⁓ women speaker ⁓ just to speak to women about where they are. At the same time the men, a lot of times the men is a more QA or we'll take something specific ⁓ what maybe some new ideas you can use in ministry. ⁓ that maybe a little bit of approach. So it's a little bit of training, but I don't really like to use that word. Then we have a morning worship service and then we have a box lunch with our prayer group. We're free all afternoon. And then that night we come back for a really nice dinner and we ⁓ we usually do it really nice. I mean we make it like if you're gonna go out somewhere really nice and we make that a fun night. Yeah, it it depends, we change the program buttons. But a lot of that is just a laugh and have fun, relax, and then ⁓ the next morning there's breakfast, there's a go and come and breakfast, and then we have a final worship service and we leave. And even though it's quick, I'll tell you what Our three missions are, our three goals of invention. Number one is we want people to rest. I tell people the older I get, the more I realize taking a nap is a spiritual thing. Because I think in ministry, we go so hard, so hard, so hard. So there's always something that needs our attention. So when you're able to come to the retreat and just rest, just it's amazing how that's encouraging yourself. Number two is an opportunity for you to spend time with your spouse. Because a lot of times if you're in ministry and especially if your spouse is working, there's not a lot of time that you have to be in. And then the third thing is to help you network to meet new people, to meet people who have similar experiences that they can help you ⁓ become a resource. If nothing else, just to be friends. Because you know when you're in ministry, there's times you just need to go eat with another ministry cobble. Not really to talk about problems, but just because you have that camaraderie that you can maybe open up and talk about some issues in the church. Well, you can't talk to them in the members of the church. And so that's part of it. And it also, and I would say a fourth thing is so that we become aware of what men and women approximately need. You know, there's a lot of things that we do behind the scene that we don't always put forward. And and so but coming to the retreat becomes ⁓ opportunity for us to hear. You know, there's nothing worse. I think one of the biggest mistakes ministers make, and I if you ever hear me speak to people who want to do ministry anything, this is one of the things I almost pale with. ⁓ it's not about going there where we have all of the answers and saying, okay, here's how you do it. It's going there to say, you're the you're the front troops, you're the ones on the front line. What do you mean to help enhance your ministry? And it's been amazing how many times I get phone calls from pastors who are like, we're going through this issue. Is there anybody you know who can help us? And normally I do. It's not may not be us, but I'm like, Yes, I know a pastor again who's been through something very similar. He can walk you through that. and and who are more than willing to do it. But so part of it is just that we can kind of be listening ears and to encourage the men and women who are ready. ⁓ You know, and sometimes encouraging doesn't mean I have to be the encourager. It just means let me just get you but other emo to be the so that's kind of what people can expect when they come. And our goal is our our encouragers, we actually have video footage of this. This is how we know if it's a win. If video people as they're walking in, they have kind of plain faces, whatever. And the last morning wants a video. Where people are smiling and they're laughing. To quote an early encourager who was with us, he said one time, he said, You know, it's so much fun when you come here, you're with these minute women, and you see ⁓ leave here ready to charge hell with my hostess. But I've never forgotten any specific. But that's our goal is we don't want people to quit. We want you, if God calls you away from you, England, or your place of service. We want you to know it, but we don't want you to make an emotional reaction to where you've kind of gone through a valley, you've hit a you know, you've hit a few rough spots that you don't bail emotionally. And we want people to be able to rest and to be able to think through, is this really what God wants me to do? Yeah, that's so sweet. You know, and it's so sweet because there are so many things that ⁓ you know, as as Ben and I were talking about before with some other people, you know, it's You know, ministry up here in New England is not all, you know, misery. You know, like you mentioned before, there's so many sweet and wonderful gifts from God that we get to experience ⁓ by by serving the Lord in in these small and forgotten places. but that doesn't negate the fact that it is difficult. ⁓ there are ⁓ moments where, you know, it it feels like we're just kind of trudging through the mud. So with that being said, what are some of the the fruit that you have seen in your ministry? ⁓ to these these New Englanders who you are fighting with them again in that fight against things like burnout ⁓ or just ⁓ you know depression in ministry, all those different kinds of things. What are some of those those tangible fruits that you've seen or maybe heard about from those who have attended your conference? Or not conference, sorry, not conference. Get conferences out of here. Run retreats. Other things that I say I get a lot of phone calls from people who are going to New England. They're moving to New England. They're gonna pastor in New England, they're not finding a church in London. And the first thing I tell them that I think the real fruit for us, and this may not be quite where you're asking me, but is helping people to understand this is a marathon, it is not a shift. You know, where New England is spiritually is going to take us a long time to get there. I don't think there's a magic formula that somebody's gonna move to New England and in twelve months you know, that their church is running three thousand or whatever. Now, granted, God can send a revival. I do believe the next great spiritual awakening will have its beginning. And I really believe that. I believe it was what caused the first two to take place. And I think everything is in place for a third great spiritual awakening. Because yeah, remember, by definition, yes, there's a definition of a spiritual awakening, but God doesn't need a large number to start a spiritual Waking. It could be a small. And there's some things, even I tell people, even anecdotally, that you can s for example, New England is the only region of the country, according to the New United States census, where Christianity has grown in the last ten years. That is United States government data by people who self identify as an evangelical Christian, ⁓ which is interesting because in every other region, including the South, it has declined. But in New England, it It is it is growing. And I think now maybe as high as seven percent self-identify and always say that because that's their self-identification that they're a Christian. But one of the fruits has been is helping pastors to have what I call a realistic view on ministry in the England for one thing. ⁓ the second thing that I see as fruit is realizing, and I did not embrace this role. ⁓ I didn't see this role. It was a role, I saw it, but I began to see that they needed someone who could be a friend who sometimes could just listen. And for me, it's like, and I give you a story, or even when they come to a retreat, if if you want a example, there's so many of these we have, but let me give you one. ⁓ a pastor who's up in Maine actually came to the retreat and had in his pocket his resignation, he was resigning his church, not because of any theological difference, it was just hard. It was just hard for him. ⁓ and his wife. And I mean, it was a good church, but it was a small church, financial struggles both personally ended with church. And God did such a work at the retreat that the last day he asked me if I would tear up his resignation. He is still serving at that church, though it's been eight years later. And it was amazing After about six months later, they began to see a turnaround in numerical grow. And, you know, there's stories like that all over in New England. But one of the roles that I realized that I didn't seek was sometimes a pastor needs a pastor. He needs someone who's been in ministry longer who can give him an honest assessment. I mean, there are times when I've told guys, I really think I can't be the Holy Spirit, but it may be time for you to leave. maybe time you to move on. For your family's sake, for your church's sake, for your sake, it may be time to move on. And and so I think part of that fruit has been being a pastor to people. ⁓ and you know, we've done this so long now that it sounds awkward, but I don't let this sound awkward. I do more fumos in New England than I do in the South. And almost every funeral I've done in New England has been for a pastor, retired pastor or a pastor's wife. And I was just there in May. John and Joanne Tracy, you were ⁓ seniors, but when we started the retreat, was among the first people to ever come, served so faithfully in Mary, Vermont, and had a seat kitchen ministry and the people they wanted Christ. And John went to be with the Lord in February and he had asked me if I would do his memorial service. And I told him I would. We could postpone it because they chose to be cremated. And so his wife also was planning the service and she got sick and died. And I actually did a double funeral for John and Joanne Tracy. Now and it was so special, but what was so special to me was in that service there were a number of people that John and Jo had one to Christ and who had discipled. And at their request, not a forward come forward, but I did a very clear gospel presentation and invited people that John and Joanne had ministered to who maybe they had talked to about a relationship and we had people who trust in Christ. It's done. Is that fruit? You bet it's fruit because it's fruit that lasts. I think the world is tired of kind of shiny, flashy, not really real, what's under the hood. ⁓ but there's been so many examples of men who have been who have been willing to stay, you know, and not run just because it's been tough. So part of it is I the fruit is helping people to have a real mystic human ministry, ⁓ to know what's involved. It is a marathon, it is not a sprint. So you've got to stay with it for a long time. You know, because ⁓ one the things I've learned, I I tell people one day I'm gonna write a book on what I've learned about New England. But one of the things I've learned about New England is it takes a long time to be have credibility with Pete. It takes a long time for them to trust it. And in so many of these little communities, pastors have come and gone so quickly. Our churches have started and closed, started and closed, that sometimes they just wonder, are you going to stick around a while? Are you going to be here a while? So longevity has this price. So I don't know if that answered your question that like you wanted. But it's just the fruit I see is that, you know, is guys are staying longer and realizing that now they have credibility and they can start. And a lot of times it may be the person who follows them who numerically takes the church to the next level. But That says a lot about those who are the pioneers who are willing to invest and, you know, stick it out. Bill, it's amazing. I mean that far from being awkward, I think your example about the funerals speaks to that the level of impact you had on people who needed they were they were testing you out for a little while when you first got here and for you to go from stranger from the South with an Alabama accent and who likes SEC football and we don't even know what that is. To I would love for you to do my funeral as I go to be with the Lord is a very, very meaningful and a moving in fact. And to hear of a guy ripping up his resignation or asking you to do it are just wonderful examples. I think fabulous ⁓ commercials for the ministry that God's called you to, and really, and I I think massively encouraging for you that the Lord's Doing exactly what you're saying you hope the ministry does, you know, and helping people to stay connected, to k stay faithful to the Lord, and then for you to be a mentor at that capacity for for you to have that big of an impact is really encouraging. And I think also your encouragement's a great example to guys who are serving that they themselves may be tempted to throw in the towel, or yeah. Are are we who are ministering in these towns going to be as faithful as you praying daily for towns of Vermont and continuing to come back year after year and pour your life into New England from a distance. So we are thrilled for how the Lord's using you here. And ⁓ I want to give you an opportunity to encourage people in closing, but before we go there, Michael was mentioning that you have now a counseling arm of the ministry that this is a a new initiative for you guys. And I don't know if that has implications on people ministering serving in New England, but I'd love for you to be able to share a little bit about that. Well it does. Now we don't have counselors ourselves in the house. Let me explain how it works. Several years ago, one of my your friends who was a pastor in New England ⁓ took his life. I have never had anything impact me like that did. And knowing the story and realizing that sometimes men and women who are serving in New England need a solid biblical counselor who is trained to help them process the emotions of what they're going through. And so we started a ministry. We have three ⁓ counselors who are predominantly in the South. One is ⁓ a guy who's in the Knoxville area, I almost said his name, but he's in the Knoxville area who works with he's an executive pastor, but he works with pastors, actually if it's church related or administrative related type issues. We have a lady who works with women who with a specialty. She's a pastor's wife. And then we have another one who works with minor children, teenagers or minor children of pastors that are there. Not adult children, but minor children. And then our ministry, every year we raise the funds that any pastor, pastor's wife or minor children who need counseling We provide up to ten sessions, no cost for them to get it. We don't even know the details of it. In fact, we oftentimes if even if a pastor wants some confidentiality, they that's the one thing I will deal with directly arranged so that even my staff doesn't know who's getting that counseling. Now a lot of times they're like, No, no, no, it's it's fine. When your staff people can handle that. But that's something that's available from any pastor, pastor's wife, any ⁓ minor children. I'll say minor because a lot of times it's adult children. We don't do that, but minor children that we do. And another thing, if I could mention this real quick, that's on a big love of my life too, we have something called a Bible project community, where ⁓ every year any church can get ⁓ leather bound Bibles and there's a there's a set number. We 'cause you know, we don't we wanna everybody if you want to give ⁓ to people in leadership, ⁓ they're nice Bible to me they're fifty, sixty, seventy dollar Bibles that you can give. Like if you have somebody who's becoming an elder or an equity church, you want to do a presentation. We also have a program you get children's Bibles that you can give for children, especially like maybe if they're going into, you know, ⁓ first grade or something you want to something you want to do. We also have a program for ⁓ if you want to have like gospels or, you know, what I would call ⁓ inexpensive that you want to give out in an event. ⁓ all of those are things that we can provide for you. Now there's a we have a set limit on how many you meet every year because we want to spread them around. But I have people who just believe that. We we do pewness. That's another one we do. You can get pewters and we let you pick the version, whatever the pastor's using. But you know in Untimes people that aren't believers, they come, they don't have a physical Bible. And it just It's just really good if the pastor can say, Maybe you're you're muted Christianity or maybe not, take the pew Bible, turn to page 'cause you know, they don't know jobs from Job to, you know, the the you know, psalms from palms. They don't know. So if if you that enables that's been a huge ministry for us too. I have people who believe in that. ⁓ if you give generously for us and make that possible. So I want pastors to know that's another thing that's available for us and we can get you information. either one of the doctrines counseling saying like Bible positive. And it it is just like people listening in, they need to rewind forty years ago to Phil saying this is not a timeshare. There's no there's no strings attached. So if because this is so incredibly generous of you and we've we've received Bibles from you f in our church. So we're so appreciative. So if people want to look more into either the counseling opportunity or the Bibles, do they go to your website? How do how do they access the Here's the best way you can do that is send an email to me. My personal email is P W the number one at fillwater.org. Make sure you spell my name right. P-H-I-L-W-A-L-Gateheart E-P dot or G. Just Pw one at Philwater.org. Give it come to me directly. I'll pass it on to the people who need and our staff and they'll get they'll get in contact with you. So yeah, I'm glad you got the Bible. You know, people still like a physical Bible. I know we have electronics and and all of that, but there's something about a physical Bible. And one of the things that's so neat about a PewE Bible, if somebody is is been coming, they're learning, they're new Christian, you're in a position to say, Hey, that's your gift. Take that Bible home. It's yours. Take it home and and you know, have other words you can put back in the Pew. I I tell people the word of God can go places and do more than any of us can do. And you know, and we even have ⁓ I You know, the funny side, one of these days, I'm like a funny side of what I call funny things in New England, and one of them is we've had some what you would call mainline denominations in New England. I'll say which what? There is a remnant of people who still believe the scriptures and reach out to us quite often and say, Can you help us find somebody need to preach for us or somebody to be our pastor? Because there's a remnant that remembers the way it used to be. And one of the things that they always say is nobody brings a Bible to church anymore. So we we get them Bibles for the pew Bibles for people to start using. And I jokingly say to pastors, I don't say it public, but I say it to pastors, you know, I never thought my ministry would be smuggling Bibles in the mainline churches, but it's kinda fun to, you know, to say that because in some ways that's you know, it's kinda there's so many times that the Bible has been pushed aside. So you put it back front and center. If someone starts preaching, you didn't start watching the Holy Spirit work in those churches. And, you know, and the amazing thing to us is that then their friends find out about it. Hey, can you find us a preacher like that? You know, a lot of times we just have connections or a lot of times people say, hey, there's a building in town. You know a church might. We've got a building the city will give them. Now you may have to do a lot of cleaning and repairs and, but you know, here's a presence in our city. That happens all the time across. And part of that is Getting to know people beyond the ministry. ⁓ you know, has been really kind of neat. I tell people it's all about relationships. And in today's world, people don't meet many people who don't have an agenda. And so when you do it, I mean, I've heard from people in government. ⁓ I think I can say this, it wasn't on the news, but I think it was probably fifteen years ago, ⁓ a legislate a legislator from Vermont reached out to us and asked us when we give a Bible to every legislator in Vermont. And we were thrilled to do that. And he happened to be a believer, probably one of the few believers. And ⁓ you know, it was like, well when are the cameras coming? We're not gonna send cameras. In fact I didn't even go to present ⁓ I got someone to do it who was there. I still have a stack of letters. I still hear from legislators who are like, you know, that was just some meat. He gave us some Bible and I've read it. I had one he was an elderly gentleman long out of the legislature, but he wrote me and he said the only time anybody gave me a Bible, he's now deceased, was before World War Two, when I got one and it had a little Franklin Del printed dub in the front of it before I went off to war. And he said, No one ever gave me a Bible until you gained this one. He became a Bolivial before he got in. ⁓ wow. Everything else was not worth it. It was worth just that money placement. So ⁓ It's not because I'm a preacher, I believe it. I've seen it primarily. The word of God can go places and do things at Nancy. Yeah. Well, Phil, this whole conversation and your whole ministry have already there's such a rich encouragement. ⁓ this has been such a life giving and encouraging conversation for me. But I wanna give you opportunity if you have any kind of parting word of encouragement to anybody listening in from your vantage point of having kind of had an outsiders but with an insider's heart view on New England. I'll give you the final word. Well here's what I would say to every person in ministry is I think in New England is a place of ministry where unlike the South or maybe the Midwest, we're in the South and the Midwest, when we do ministry, we often get to see immediate visible results, whether it's an increase in attendance, whether it's ⁓ you know, an increase in giving, there's some way we feel like, okay, we've been validated, and I hate to say that, but you know what I mean. There's some evidence you can imagine. But there are men and women across New England who have served faithfully for years and would really be pressed to be able to write out all the visible things they've seen happen. But here's what I have discovered. Just because you did not see The visible happening did not mean God was at work behind the scenes. It's much like Joseph in the Old Testament, who could have thrown his hands up and said, Lord, why is all this stuff happening to me? But God had a plan and he was in that plan. And because he remained faithful in his law, ultimately he was in the right place to have the right impact for for what God wanted to do. I think men and women in New England need to know. that when we get to heaven, I don't think, and I mean this sincerely, I don't think it's the Billy Browns ⁓ and other people, ⁓ Phil Waldrups are people that maybe have more visibility that are gonna get the most remote and who are gonna get the most recognition. I think it's gonna be men and women in places like New England who have remained faithful, who have not gotten the awards and the accolades and the applause or the attention. But they have remained faithful that when they stand before God, they're gonna be amazed at the life Saints Hudson, the people they impacted for the cause of Christ. And so I just want to encourage you today. You may not get the recognition of others, but stay faithful and you will be amazed when you get to heaven at the encouraging. Phil, thank you for all your investment in New England and beyond. We're grateful for you and for your ministry and thanks for joining us today. I'm honored. Anytime I can talk to people from New England or about New England, I'm always in. So anytime, guy, my question. Wonderful. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you again for listening to the Small Town Summit Podcast. We hope that it was a blessing to you, and if you are interested in learning more about the Small Town Summit Ministry, check out our website, smalltownsummits.com. We also want to let you know about an exciting opportunity to join us, the Rural Home Missionary Association, and Desiring God, at a new England wide conference October 5th through the 6th in Newberry Port, Massachusetts. Our speakers, Dave Mathis and Scott Hubbard of Desiring God, We'll be helping small town pastors and ministry leaders remember that Christ is our treasure and goal in gospel ministry. For more information, visit STSfallconference.com. Again, that is STSfallconference.com. We hope to see you there.