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Florida's Governor Ramping Up Efforts To Work With Faith Community · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

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  Five minutes past the hour, third hour of The Morning Show with Preston Scott,
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  Fast Moving Tuesday. Thanks for joining us August fifteen and show number forty
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  nine eighty seven. That's Grant Allen running the program. And it's just a
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  little old me here in Studio one B and I am joined by Eric Dellenbach,
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  his bios fascinating. Served as president and executive director of the Tim Tebow
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  Foundation for seven years. You might remember the Night to Shine. It's growth
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  across the country and around the world that happened under Eric's leadership. He's now
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  serving as the Governor's lays on for Faith and Community. Eric, Welcome to
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  the program. How are you look. Good morning, Preston. I'm great,
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  thankful to be When I say the words faith in community, you know,
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  the mainstream media is kind of marginalized the word faith and trivialized it,
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  you know, kind of almost mocking it. Tell me, what was the
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  Governor's intent with this initiative. That's a fantastic question, Presson. I wish
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  more people ask me that question. Actually, I think the intent of the
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  initiative in the beginning was realizing there's twenty thousand faith institutions in Florida at about
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  one hundred thousand plus nonprofits, and the power of those whose entities serving their
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  communities cannot be understated. I mean overstated. I mean at the end of
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  the day, I think when the governor first put it together is kind of
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  objective to me in coming in was make sure they feel thanked, make sure
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  they feel seen, make sure we're opening lines of communication, and make sure
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  we're giving them the tools to be successful. Well, the reason for that
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  is because twenty thousand faiths, institutions and community organizations serving our state. They're
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  taking care of the needs of our vulnerable pipe relations and we don't even know
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  about them as government. And quite frankly, that's how the system works best.
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  And I think that was probably the early acknowledgment of let's make sure that
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  we're appropriately saying thank you the one standing on the front line. I have
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  long contended, you know, in the twenty plus years of doing this show,
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  Eric, that if you pulled Americans, they think separation of church and
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  state is part of the Constitution, that it's somehow in there, and we've
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  demonized the idea that the government was never supposed to have a say in what
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  happens in matters of faith, but that our Judaeo Christian faith was supposed to
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  have influence and sway on our government, and people are still really uncomfortable with
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  that. So on what form does this kind of re energizing or acknowledgement of
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  the faith community take hold? How does it show up? Well, I'm
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  gosh, Preston, what an amazing question there too, because ultimately it shows
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  up by understanding what is and what isn't in the Constitution. I mean,
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  I think, I think if you want to be bold, you should probably
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  be aware of where these statements come from and what they mean and what they're
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  for. And you're hitting the nail on the head with these the idea of
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  separation from church and state, which by the way, was brought up to
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  me. I mean, I've been here with the governor now for four years
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  and it was brought up continuously in the beginning. How can this position even
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  exist? How can this role with talking this initiative exist? And you know,
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  if you go back, if you're any kind of historian, which it
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  sounds like you enjoy quite a bit, if you're any kind of historian,
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  you look back and you said, well, the original community based care of
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  our country really came through the church, and so the church was standing in
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  the gap and they were serving these populations. And as the government came in
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  and started serving these same populations, the church kind of pulled back. Well,
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  the problem with that is that the people of the church, the scripture
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  that guides the church talks about serving people, and so all of a sudden
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  the churchill will wait a minute, I don't think it's just their role.
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  I think we should be serving people as well. And they come back in
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  full for to serving the community. And the problem is that in the midst
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  of that phrase, in the midst of some misunderstanding, you have the church
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  serving in a silo, you have government serving in a silo, and yet
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  we're serving the exact same people. And so it became imperative that there'll be
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  discussions across the lines. We as a state, Floridians should be proud as
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  they listen this morning, that we as a state are leading in this category.
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  I mean leading in major ways. We have over five thousand churches are
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  part of the Governor's faith the Comunity Initiative. There's over sixteen hundred churches this
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  morning as we wake up sixteen hundred churches that are collaboratively working together. I
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  mean, that's not happening in other states. There's there's only about fourteen states
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  that have an initiative like this. Our faith is any part of what they
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  do and want to I want to say this not because I want to make
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  things about money, but if you look simply from a fiscal perspective, the
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  amount of money the churches and nonprofits standing in the gap serving their population saves
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  the taxpayers of or you would do this initiative all day long just for that.
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  But it's not just about money. It's also about the fact that we
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  can't serve as government as well as they can serve the people that surround them.
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  And so it's it's imperative that people understand the importance of the two working
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  together and what that actually means. Joining me on the program is Eric dellenback
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  with the Governor's Faith and Community Based Initiative, and Eric I mentioned the three
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  core pillars. Let's let's take the time in this segment to talk about what
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  those are and how they express themselves. Well, I mean, at the
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  end of the day, the three core pillars for us are that we need
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  to be out there thinking the faith institutions of our state. At the end
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  of the again, going back what we just spoke about, the work that
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  they're being doing is being invaluable. We need to make sure that government is
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  saying thank you. It's not that we're telling them what to do. It's
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  one informing them on what to do. We're simply thanking them for being part
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  of serving our vulnerable populations. Secondly, and this is a big one,
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  we have to open communication. I think I have the best job in the
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  state as Governor's Liaison for Faith and Community. I get to be his voice
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  to the twenty thousand plus states institutions of our state, and I get to
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  be their voice coming back into state government and really informing one another of what
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  we're missing, what we're not seeing, how we can help better, who's
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  out there that we can serve. It's become a tremendously successful program that is
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  being duplicated by many states now. And then third, we've got to figure
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  out resources where we can work together. There's a resource right now. The
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  First Lady launched a program called Hope Florida. And Hope Florida is the idea
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  that need meters would be connected with need. People in need might not be
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  the right vernacular, but that's the idea and launched a program here called Hope
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  Florida where there are people in every piece of our community right now. They
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  when a person that's in need calls them, they are connecting them with the
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  local church, They're connecting them with the local nonprofit, they're connecting them with
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  the local synagogue. They're finding all these different resources, and they're kind of
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  serving as a middle person to get them to the right place so they can
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  be served in the most effective way. And those three things are driving everything
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  we do. And so those that's kind of where we stand. Eric.
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  If I were I'm just being kind of an outsider and looking at this program,
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  I would say objectively, you don't need to spend a lot of time
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  on number one, because as a former vocational pastor, I would say that's
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  like thanking somebody for not robbing the bank. I think I think. I
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  think the faith community is supposed to do what the faith community does because it's
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  it's integral to their their faith. It's what they're supposed to do. But
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  if we focus on the other two things, what obstacles are you facing?
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  I mean, who could possibly fight this other than the insanities of places like
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  the ACLU or whatever. Well before I moved it too. And here I
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  want to say to you. The first thing we did was sent out forty
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  thousand thank you notes. And I agree with you. I don't think you're
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  I don't think you're thanking them for doing a role that God called them into.
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  I think instead, what you're saying is we recognize you, we see
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  you now. I had we sent out little pins and certificates to pastors and
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  faith leaders all over the state. Many of them were in tears when I
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  talked to them because they've just never been thanked by government. I mean,
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  to them, that was so foreign. And I think we had to break
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  down some understanding too, of like government should not be in its perfect form
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  against them. It's just a but we're in weird times, so a thank
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  you note became oddly important. You know. The other two, I mean,
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  the things we face and obstacles we face is just Number one is people.
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  People don't necessarily want faith institutions involved in things. And I don't even
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  get that. I mean, the truth is and and so if you look
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  at Foster Care, that's where we started and we said, okay, we
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  want to first start with foster care. Who want to go look at the
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  programs? And the day that we started, there were twenty three thousands of
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  children in foster care in our state alone. And we started asking the question,
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  well, what's better than helping a child that's in foster care is helping
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  a child before they get the foster care. And so because the most traumatic
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  moment of their life happens in between, and so we started asking questions about
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  if we open communication because the state knows that we know in advance who those
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  kids are coming down, the church really doesn't get to know them until they're
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  in foster care. And so we started opening dialogue and saying, hey,
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  would you would you go with us? There's an app we put in Florida.
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  We're one of the only states where one of the fastest prices. We're
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  just so need and so proud of what we're doing here. But it's just
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  this press is so simple. A case worker or CPI standing in a home
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  can recognize that there's great need in that home. Maybe they need a bunk
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  bed, maybe they need a car seat, maybe they need their floors falling
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  in their roofs falling in. They can press a button on their phone real
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  time and that need goes out to every phaith in community organization in that city
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  that has signed up wanting to see need it is. It is so simple.
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  But the pushback originally was well, how can that work? And what's
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  that look like? And is it safe? And we had to answer a
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  lot of questions. And we did answer a lot of questions. Tell me
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  what LA on your phone with the Ihart radio app and on hundreds of devices
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  like Alexa, Google Home, Xbox and sons. This is Chris and Ihearts
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  Radio station coming up to twenty two minutes past the hour with Eric dellenback Governors
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  lay us on for Faith and Community. We talked about first Lady Casey de
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  Sanders is Hope Florida. We've talked about kind of the breadth and the idea
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  behind this program. And Eric, let me just ask you, as you
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  have heard back from pastors and leaders of faith based organizations and so forth,
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  what comes back as some common I don't know, needs or common thoughts ideas
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  on the subject of how Florida's government can be helpful. Well, I mean
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  just being very reality President. I think The first thing that comes back is
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  they don't particularly trust government. Sure, you know, I hear the Ronald
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  Reagan quote, I mean multiple times a day. You know, I'm here
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  with the government, here to help, and I'm like, look, I
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  get that, and I think government has done a good job of kind of
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  earning that title. However, I think to throw the baby out with the
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  bath water. That's where we spend the most time in the beginning. It's
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  just working on trust. You know. I think it helps that my last
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  two roles were with Tim Tebow and Chris Tomlin, and so I think that
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  helps them say, Okay, well, you know, I think he might
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  be one of our people. But you know, when we look across the
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  needs of our state, the needs aren't going down, right, the needs
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  are increasing. I mean, if you look at let's just go to a
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  topic that a lot of people are talking about in a post Rowe versus Wade
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  era, in a time when our legislation has just put a six week on
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  abortions, like, I don't spend a ton of time talking about that,
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  to be honest with you. What I spend a ton of time talking to
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  is to the safe institutions, saying, look, we are stronger together.
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  It's imperative that we work collaboratively. When we built Night to Shine, it
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  was the idea that multiple churches on one day would work together to serve the
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  people with special needs community. And this is an important time in our state
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  that as this legislation has changed, I'm going to be real, real blunt
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  here with your listeners and say, there'll be more people with special needs born
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  than in the last fifty years. There'll be more people that would have the
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  possibility of entering foster care born than in the last fifty years. It is
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  imperative. I like a phrase that I heard from a pastor in Jacksonville,
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  and so it's imperative that we not be merely pro birth, but pro life
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  from womb to tomb. And I think if you looked across the relationship between
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  faith and institutions and government, that's what we've got to be. We've got
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  to be talking about what are the programs we're giving children who are in some
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  cases of income shortage or special needs or you know, again, this movie
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  came out that's impacted the country around anti trafficking. These are issues we've better
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  be looking at. However, we've better be looking at how we're serving our
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  elders and our veterans, and I think, like I think, this time
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  in Florida's history has opened up government's eyes more than ever to the imperative nature
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  of looking at each part of life and saying every single one of those matters.
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  And so it's it's been a very very fun time with this governor,
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  with this first lady, because that's exactly how they talk, That's exactly what
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  they do, is like, how can we enhance every single program that serves
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  citizens in this kind of imperative growth time in Florida? It would seem,
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  and you and I've both been around the political process, it would seem that
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  this type of initiative and the people that it has the most potential impact on
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  would appeal to both sides of the political aisle. Are you seeing that in
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  reality? Absolutely? Absolutely? And so I know I've given so many statistics
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  to your listeners, But if you think Quarta has got twenty three million people
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  right now in our state, seventy percent say that they are Christian, seventy
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  percent, six percent say that they are of other faith, and then twenty
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  four percent would say no faith. Well, if I think that seventy six
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  percent to stay there. Faith based about sixteen point eight nine million people.
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  I have to tell you it is the largest group. It is a bipartisan
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  group. And we've got to start acting that way, right, which is
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  like and I don't mean we've got to act that way and how we vote,
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  I mean we've got to act that win, how we serve. Like
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  is this is a role that the faith intusition's role is not to talk party
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  first, then service second. The role is to serve people, then somewhere
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  down the line talk about your party. But no, I think it is
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  absolutely working that way. I mean, honestly, there's no one that can
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  come in right now to our administration or to the governor's mansion in the future
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  and not understand the value of what's being served here, how being done.
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  The fact that sixteen hundred faith instiusions are working together, and even if they
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  just understood it fiscally, this thing makes tremendous common sense. I heard someone
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  once say, many years ago, Eric preach the Gospel and every now and
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  then use words. I think that's a major piece. I mean, I
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  think I think I ask our faith instiusitions all the time, doesn't love leave
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  this whole thing, and of course it does, so that's where we've got
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  to start. Thanks for the time this morning. I appreciate what you're doing.
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  Yes, sir, thank you.