Latest / Every Church Flourishing by the Great Commission Association / Episode 5: Artificial Intelligence and the Church + GCA Director Michael Stewart + The Soda That Never Plays It Safe!

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Episode 5: Artificial Intelligence and the Church + GCA Director Michael Stewart + The Soda That Never Plays It Safe! · Every Church Flourishing by the Great Commission Association

• 0:00
  Chase: Welcome back to Every Church Flourishing, the podcast of the Great Commission Association.
• 0:06
  Chase: I'm the Associate Director of Missions for the Great Commission Association,
• 0:10
  Chase: Christopher Cole, and I'm here today with the host of our podcast, Pastor Chase Thompson.
• 0:17
  Chase: Howdy. Pastor Chase, today we get the privilege of listening to an interview
• 0:21
  Chase: that we recorded with the Director of Missions for the Great Commission Association, Dr.
• 0:28
  Chase: Mike Stewart, my boss and your friend, and the friend to every one of our pastors,
• 0:34
  Chase: has been serving as our Executive Director of Missions
• 0:38
  Chase: for over 28 years. Now, this makes him one of the longest running executive
• 0:47
  Chase: directors of missions or any kind of director of missions in the United States.
• 0:52
  Chris: I understand he's actually the second, right?
• 0:54
  Chase: Yeah, it is. He is well known in associational life and in the SBC in many different
• 1:01
  Chase: circles. He is a strategist.
• 1:05
  Chase: He came into an association that was really small and struggling.
• 1:09
  Chase: In fact, fun fact, nobody else applied for this job 28 years ago.
• 1:15
  Chris: Nice.
• 1:16
  Chase: And we are not there now.
• 1:19
  Chase: We are in a very different world where our association is thriving by God's grace,
• 1:25
  Chase: and that grace has been exemplified by the faithful efforts,
• 1:30
  Chase: the persistent work that God has done in and through Dr. Stewart.
• 1:35
  Chase: That's sort of the big level, the metal level introduction to him.
• 1:39
  Chase: But I will just tell you this, as one of the pastors in his association,
• 1:43
  Chase: and you know this to be true too, I'm sure it's your experience,
• 1:47
  Chase: he is a good friend to our pastors and to our churches.
• 1:51
  Chase: He's faithful to our churches to minister to them, to encourage them,
• 1:56
  Chase: to equip them, and to protect them when that's needed. We are so grateful that
• 2:00
  Chase: we got to do this interview with him.
• 2:02
  Chris: He's going to give us some great deep insights into the church,
• 2:06
  Chris: into strategies about churches being healthy and flourishing here in Central
• 2:12
  Chris: California that you can translate to your area as well. So here we go with Dr. Stewart.
• 2:19
  Chase: We are back here with Pastor Chase Thompson, pastor of Valley Baptist Church in Salinas. Hi. And Dr.
• 2:25
  Chase: Mike Stewart, our Great Commission Association's Executive Director of Missions.
• 2:31
  Chase: And we get to spend a little bit of time today just hearing more from Dr. Stewart about
• 2:37
  Chase: our association and his vision and pictures and ideas of what an association can and should be.
• 2:44
  Chris: Yeah, let's go. So, Dr. Stewart, your hypothetical situation,
• 2:47
  Chris: you're on an elevator with a young pastor or a church leader,
• 2:50
  Chris: and they happen to recognize you and ask a couple of questions about the Great
• 2:54
  Chris: Commission Association. You have two minutes. It's a long elevator ride.
• 2:59
  Chris: This is your chance to give your elevator speech. Why would a church or a church
• 3:04
  Chris: leader or a pastor want to join the Great Commission Association.
• 3:09
  Michael Stewart: My pitch would be that we need them and in their church to advance the gospel
• 3:14
  Michael Stewart: together with the rest of our partner member churches, and they can do that in a greater way.
• 3:19
  Michael Stewart: I'd ask questions, what is their plan to reach the Hispanic population that's in Salinas?
• 3:23
  Michael Stewart: What's their plan as a Great Commission church to reach the many,
• 3:27
  Michael Stewart: many new immigrants coming into the Bay Area that don't speak their language?
• 3:31
  Michael Stewart: Do they have one? And if they don't have one. Why not partner with GCA to advance
• 3:36
  Michael Stewart: the gospel? It's a responsibility to be a Great Commission Church.
• 3:39
  Michael Stewart: So we're part of that solution, and we've been here a long time.
• 3:43
  Michael Stewart: And you need friends. I'd also say you need friends in ministry that will be
• 3:48
  Michael Stewart: there with you when things are great and when things aren't so great,
• 3:51
  Michael Stewart: because that pastor has a lot of things he's doing. He's dealing with his
• 3:56
  Michael Stewart: His own ministry, his own sense of worth, but also he has his wife,
• 3:59
  Michael Stewart: he has his children, he has the economics, he has many things swirling around
• 4:03
  Michael Stewart: that he's trying to balance.
• 4:04
  Michael Stewart: He needs trusted people. He needs them more than he knows.
• 4:08
  Michael Stewart: And you learn that later on in ministry that you really need people that you can tell real things to.
• 4:14
  Chris: Yeah, absolutely. So around 20 years of ministry pastoring with the Southern
• 4:19
  Chris: Baptist Church, I've been to a couple of conventions, not nearly enough,
• 4:23
  Chris: and a couple of denominational things. I didn't really make friends at those
• 4:26
  Chris: things. And you mentioned friendship.
• 4:29
  Chris: I happen to know that the GCA does multiple get-togethers and events throughout the years.
• 4:34
  Chris: Can you tell us a little bit about those and how the GCA, just kind of being
• 4:38
  Chris: part of it, facilitates relationships?
• 4:41
  Michael Stewart: Well, we do all kinds of things throughout the year. We'll have prayer meetings with pastors.
• 4:46
  Michael Stewart: We have small group inviting pastors to lunch and to be in smaller groups so they can be known.
• 4:52
  Michael Stewart: We do those. and we do this, we're a large association. So we have southern
• 4:56
  Michael Stewart: region, central region, northern region connection events.
• 4:59
  Michael Stewart: We have our annual meeting is a big deal for us. A lot of our churches participate.
• 5:04
  Michael Stewart: They like that. They like coming together. We do it overnight in a hotel so people can have time.
• 5:10
  Michael Stewart: It's hard to build friendships with no time. And nobody cares about coming to a 90-minute meeting.
• 5:17
  Michael Stewart: They want to be with people who love God and who care about them.
• 5:23
  Michael Stewart: There's lots of connection points out. Chris, what are some others?
• 5:26
  Chase: Yeah, well, we try to have regular regional pastoral gatherings in each of our regions.
• 5:33
  Chase: And this year, 2026, we've added two new ambassadors to our Mission Advance
• 5:38
  Chase: team to help facilitate that in our Central and North region.
• 5:42
  Chase: We already have Dr. Chris Smith, who will be on future episodes of this podcast,
• 5:47
  Chase: Helping facilitate that in the South region.
• 5:49
  Chase: And we're trying to make them not just pastors, but hopefully we're wanting
• 5:53
  Chase: pastors and other leaders in the church come together. So we have one this coming
• 5:59
  Chase: Friday night, for example.
• 6:01
  Chase: Dr. Stewart and I will be at—just got the report this morning.
• 6:03
  Chase: We're going to have pastors and pastors' wives and other leaders present.
• 6:07
  Chase: Sometimes we have just the pastors come together so that they can sort of have honest pastor talk.
• 6:13
  Chase: But we want to also do that, have other leaders, part of developing and raising
• 6:17
  Chase: up other leaders, elders in the church or young men that are coming up in ministry,
• 6:22
  Chase: want them to come and see what this fellowship is like.
• 6:26
  Chase: We have those planned throughout the year. Another new thing for us this year
• 6:30
  Chase: is going to be our first-ever Pastors and Wives Retreat.
• 6:35
  Chase: This year, we focused it specifically in partnership with the Galatians 6-6
• 6:41
  Chase: organization to help focus on developing healthy pastoral marriages.
• 6:46
  Chase: So this one's going to have more of a marriage emphasis.
• 6:49
  Chase: We'll see how this first year goes, but we're constantly trying to bring together
• 6:54
  Chase: different types of pastors and their families.
• 6:58
  Chase: Their wives and their leaders in the churches so that there is good fellowship
• 7:02
  Chase: across the communities, in addition to those things that Dr.
• 7:05
  Chase: Stewart was talking about.
• 7:06
  Michael Stewart: In the marriage retreat, we were trying to partner. So that's only,
• 7:09
  Michael Stewart: what is it, a $2,000 cost event at the hotel?
• 7:12
  Michael Stewart: I don't remember what you, but it was, we're trying to make it so it's $99. What are those numbers?
• 7:17
  Chase: Right. Yeah, the pastors and wives are only having to pay $99.
• 7:20
  Chris: It's an incredible deal.
• 7:21
  Chase: For this retreat, and they get to stay in literally, I think,
• 7:25
  Chase: a world-class hotel right on the beach in Monterey
• 7:29
  Chase: And they get to have this great resource brought into them. There's going to
• 7:32
  Chase: be worship. There's going to be live translation, because we are a diverse community of churches.
• 7:37
  Chase: And there's going to be some great resourcing that they'll be given and just
• 7:42
  Chase: good times of fellowship together, but lots of one-on-one time for pastors and wives.
• 7:46
  Chase: And the overall value that we've calculated is well over $2,000 per couple that
• 7:53
  Chase: they're going to be given. and they only have to provide a $99 basically registration
• 7:58
  Chase: fee to be there and experience that.
• 8:01
  Chase: The hotel gets paid for, the meals get covered, all of those things,
• 8:05
  Chase: and that's only possible because of our churches coming together and setting
• 8:10
  Chase: aside GCA resources for this, but also partners that are helping pay for this.
• 8:15
  Chase: So there's an invitation out there. If you haven't yet found what you want to
• 8:20
  Chase: be giving to this year, so maybe your church or you as an individual say,
• 8:24
  Chase: hey, I want to invest in pastors and their wives, you can do that.
• 8:28
  Chase: Go to our gcasbc.org website, and you can find there a link to contribute to
• 8:34
  Chase: this particular ministry, because we love partnering together on those kinds of events.
• 8:41
  Chris: Yeah, fantastic.
• 8:42
  Michael Stewart: Yeah, our pastors and wives are excited about it. We have a pretty strong response
• 8:45
  Michael Stewart: happening, so that's just a few of the things that are going on.
• 8:49
  Chris: Yeah. So I don't work for the GCA, but as a pastor, as a part of the GCA,
• 8:53
  Chris: there's stuff coming up all the time to plug in and either a small group,
• 8:58
  Chris: you know, kind of regional kind of meeting or big gatherings.
• 9:01
  Chris: And we had the best food spread at the last October gathering of the whole group.
• 9:07
  Chris: Man, it was so good. And the fact that we're really right close to lunch right
• 9:11
  Chris: now is hurting me a little bit as I think of it. So we better change the subject.
• 9:15
  Chase: We better change the subject. So, Dr. Stewart, you have been...
• 9:20
  Chase: Director of missions now for over 28 years.
• 9:25
  Chase: And I believe just a week or so ago, you became the longest tenured director
• 9:31
  Chase: of missions in the United States because your competitor retired a couple of weeks ago.
• 9:36
  Michael Stewart: Well, there's been an edit to that.
• 9:39
  Chase: Oh, there's been an edit to that.
• 9:40
  Michael Stewart: Yes. My friend in Las Vegas, Harry Watson, is director of missions there,
• 9:46
  Michael Stewart: and I'm told he's been there already 29, 30 years. So yeah, I'm second.
• 9:51
  Chase: So you've got a ton of experience. You get a chance as a director of missions,
• 9:56
  Chase: you get to teach a 30-day crash course to leaders and potentially key leaders
• 10:03
  Chase: in Baptist life, pastors.
• 10:06
  Chase: And what are the two most significant overall areas that you would like to emphasize in that course?
• 10:13
  Chase: Because you were a pastor for many years, a successful pastor in Texas and in
• 10:18
  Chase: Arizona, thriving ministries, and then now almost 30 years as a director of mission.
• 10:24
  Chase: What are the things you would emphasize in that course?
• 10:27
  Michael Stewart: Well, first of all, no director of missions in California is coming to a 30-day course.
• 10:31
  Michael Stewart: So the minute you said that, they tapped out.
• 10:35
  Chase: Oh, okay.
• 10:36
  Michael Stewart: You know, I would say, well, you said two, I'm going to say three,
• 10:40
  Michael Stewart: but I would say your mindset.
• 10:42
  Michael Stewart: What do you believe the association is or can be?
• 10:47
  Michael Stewart: Inside of your head, there is already a box when you step into it,
• 10:51
  Michael Stewart: but that box hasn't been created by God.
• 10:53
  Michael Stewart: It's been created by past structures.
• 10:55
  Michael Stewart: So a lot of things at GCA that we try to do or are willing to do is I believe
• 11:01
  Michael Stewart: that the association is a missions organization.
• 11:04
  Michael Stewart: It isn't a subset of something else. It isn't in In our batter's life,
• 11:07
  Michael Stewart: it's a partner with every other organization, but it's got critical work and
• 11:12
  Michael Stewart: it can be creative, it can be open, it can be daring.
• 11:17
  Michael Stewart: If you believe the box has always got to be something that is smaller than,
• 11:22
  Michael Stewart: or more, then you're in a trap.
• 11:26
  Michael Stewart: That hasn't been given to you by the Lord. So that's a mindset as you go into,
• 11:32
  Michael Stewart: what does God call me to do on mission with him? It's a great commission work.
• 11:35
  Michael Stewart: It can be anything God wants it to be. And I would just encourage any director of missions, believe.
• 11:42
  Michael Stewart: Believe that God wants to use your organization in an incredible way to further
• 11:49
  Michael Stewart: the gospel, and don't settle for what happened 10 years ago. So that'd be one.
• 11:55
  Michael Stewart: Two, invest in prayer. Several years ago, I was the president of the California
• 11:59
  Michael Stewart: Director of Missions Fellowship, and I like to lead with books,
• 12:03
  Michael Stewart: and I gave all the directors of missions a book called, In fact,
• 12:06
  Michael Stewart: it was referenced by CJ Juan.
• 12:09
  Michael Stewart: It was called Old Past, New Power.
• 12:11
  Michael Stewart: It was a book on prayer. And I had the directors of missions teach it to the
• 12:15
  Michael Stewart: group. We all came together.
• 12:16
  Michael Stewart: And this was just before COVID or why that was right up for it.
• 12:21
  Michael Stewart: And they all taught a chapter. I like to give books away, and then I have.
• 12:24
  Michael Stewart: When I teach them with leaders, I give them a chapter because I know they'll
• 12:27
  Michael Stewart: read that chapter, at least.
• 12:30
  Michael Stewart: I think there were nine or 10 chapters they read, they all read,
• 12:33
  Michael Stewart: and they all presented. They had five minutes or 10 minutes,
• 12:36
  Michael Stewart: and we all talked about the chapter together.
• 12:38
  Michael Stewart: There was such a spiritual awakening that came out of that, and we discovered
• 12:42
  Michael Stewart: that one of the brothers got up, one of the good brothers said,
• 12:45
  Michael Stewart: I don't know about the rest of you, but he goes, how many of you have a daily
• 12:48
  Michael Stewart: quiet time? Because I don't.
• 12:52
  Michael Stewart: And I thought, what a brave question and what a brave admission.
• 12:57
  Michael Stewart: And he said, this book has changed my life. And he goes, and I've led my whole
• 13:02
  Michael Stewart: associational calendar is about where is prayer? Where are we praying together?
• 13:07
  Michael Stewart: And he said, and he later told me this, this is what pulled in through COVID.
• 13:11
  Michael Stewart: Invest in that, in yourself, in the rhythm of your life and in the rhythm of
• 13:16
  Michael Stewart: your association. it's not just it's it's it's just not religious talk it is
• 13:22
  Michael Stewart: you look at any scripture
• 13:24
  Michael Stewart: Every person that God uses powerfully in Scripture, they are people of prayer.
• 13:28
  Michael Stewart: They are men and women of prayer.
• 13:31
  Michael Stewart: And so, you know, I was just reading in the morning about Daniel,
• 13:34
  Michael Stewart: you know, hearing the idea that all the wise men are going to be killed.
• 13:38
  Michael Stewart: And when he hears about it, he asks the guy about it. What does he do?
• 13:42
  Michael Stewart: He asks his friends to pray with him. That was normal.
• 13:46
  Michael Stewart: I'm not sure. That needs to become normal. So I would say for our director of
• 13:49
  Michael Stewart: missions, make that normal. We pray together. we see a world that God has put
• 13:56
  Michael Stewart: us in that needs His power that comes through prayer.
• 13:59
  Michael Stewart: Many times you come out of the pastorate as a director of missions,
• 14:02
  Michael Stewart: and you have been trained to serve people and to care for them.
• 14:06
  Michael Stewart: You're a good shepherd, and they are your sheep.
• 14:10
  Michael Stewart: Pastors do not think of themselves as your sheep. The director of missions,
• 14:13
  Michael Stewart: they're not the director of missions sheep.
• 14:15
  Michael Stewart: The director of missions is a pastor at heart most of the time,
• 14:18
  Michael Stewart: and so he sees In fact, I asked the new director of mission,
• 14:22
  Michael Stewart: so what's your objective?
• 14:24
  Michael Stewart: What do you think the big goal is of this year? And he goes,
• 14:26
  Michael Stewart: I just want to take care of my pastors and meet their needs.
• 14:30
  Michael Stewart: And how can I counsel and help them?
• 14:32
  Michael Stewart: And I listened to them. I said, you know, these are the mighty men of God.
• 14:37
  Michael Stewart: These are the mighty men of God, hand-selected by God himself.
• 14:41
  Michael Stewart: He has placed them in the battlefield.
• 14:44
  Michael Stewart: They do not see themselves as weak or needy or broken.
• 14:49
  Michael Stewart: They are his champions on the field. I would go to them. I said,
• 14:54
  Michael Stewart: I would go to them, know them, pray for them.
• 14:56
  Michael Stewart: They need your encouragement, but always have something in your back pocket
• 15:00
  Michael Stewart: as a way to ask them to move further into the kingdom of God work.
• 15:05
  Michael Stewart: How can their church help? You know, the collaboration or whatever.
• 15:09
  Michael Stewart: Pastor, I need you to be praying with me about this. These are his servants.
• 15:12
  Michael Stewart: And if you see them differently, if you see them as always being in need,
• 15:16
  Michael Stewart: you'll provide for things for them.
• 15:18
  Michael Stewart: It's not helpful. But approach them
• 15:21
  Michael Stewart: And that's how I try to approach pastors of any church in any size.
• 15:26
  Michael Stewart: They are the champions of God. They are in the field, the battlefield.
• 15:30
  Michael Stewart: And they may not have the greatest victory last Sunday, but they're still fighting,
• 15:35
  Michael Stewart: and you can approach them in a different way.
• 15:39
  Michael Stewart: They are, as I said, they are God's servants.
• 15:42
  Chase: Such a good word. Inviting them to be on mission, inviting them to be part of
• 15:46
  Chase: that prayer movement, inviting them to actually step into their personal prayer lives.
• 15:52
  Michael Stewart: And that's the heartbeat of the Holy Spirit. That leader is filled with the
• 15:56
  Michael Stewart: Holy Spirit, and you're speaking across.
• 15:58
  Michael Stewart: You're speaking to the Holy Spirit, the heart of the Holy Spirit in that person.
• 16:03
  Michael Stewart: When you're inviting them into Great Commission, work into a greater way,
• 16:06
  Michael Stewart: that is going to resonate with the Spirit of God that's in all of us.
• 16:11
  Chris: Amen. So it's shifting gears a little bit. Let's think strategically here.
• 16:16
  Chris: California is obviously the largest state by population in the United States of America.
• 16:21
  Chris: It's one of the epicenters of the entire world. One thing that strikes me as
• 16:26
  Chris: a strategic issue is that Southern Baptists and maybe the evangelical church in general,
• 16:35
  Chris: we're not planting a lot of churches in California as compared to Georgia,
• 16:42
  Chris: Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee.
• 16:43
  Chris: So along those lines, do you think that the,
• 16:49
  Chris: generally speaking, the national denominational leaderships of these evangelical churches,
• 16:56
  Chris: are they prioritizing the West Coast and California adequately,
• 17:01
  Chris: or is the lack of church plants, the lack of resources,
• 17:07
  Chris: sort of more of a reflection of a difficult economic reality here?
• 17:11
  Michael Stewart: Chase, it could be a both-and on that.
• 17:15
  Michael Stewart: Let's speak to the latter first, which is the economics of being a national
• 17:21
  Michael Stewart: agency whose job is to plant churches.
• 17:24
  Michael Stewart: And you have $10 million. I'm just picking a number. And I got a report on how
• 17:29
  Michael Stewart: many churches we planted.
• 17:30
  Michael Stewart: Well, if I can plant 1,000 churches in Iowa for $10,000 each,
• 17:36
  Michael Stewart: there is a dynamic there. And I appreciate that difficulty.
• 17:39
  Michael Stewart: But if I say to you, yeah, that church is going to cost a million dollars in
• 17:43
  Michael Stewart: San Jose or Los Angeles, I can imagine the stress on that national organization.
• 17:49
  Michael Stewart: They know it's needed, but the way things will be evaluated is going to perhaps impact that.
• 17:58
  Michael Stewart: And your first part of the question, are we investing enough in the West Coast
• 18:02
  Michael Stewart: strategy? I would say no.
• 18:05
  Michael Stewart: And even when we do invest, we invest with non-West Coast affinity.
• 18:09
  Chris: Yeah, unpack that a little bit. What do you mean there?
• 18:11
  Michael Stewart: Well, we many times bring, we have, we're willing to invest in,
• 18:16
  Michael Stewart: the structures are willing to invest and people they know.
• 18:18
  Michael Stewart: And the people they know are not the people who have the California or West
• 18:24
  Michael Stewart: Coast culture from the toes up. They've always lived there.
• 18:27
  Michael Stewart: I grew up in outside Phoenix, Arizona. We never had big churches.
• 18:32
  Michael Stewart: We never were the game in town, but we were faithful, winning people to Christ.
• 18:36
  Michael Stewart: But that's the world I grew up in. We were not supposed to be a majority.
• 18:40
  Michael Stewart: We were not supposed to influence politics.
• 18:42
  Michael Stewart: We were supposed to win people to Christ, tell the truth about Jesus, and do the work.
• 18:48
  Michael Stewart: So if there is going to be a strategic move by national and organizations about
• 18:54
  Michael Stewart: this, they're going to have to trust leadership from those places,
• 18:57
  Michael Stewart: from the West Coast, from the Northwest Convention,
• 19:02
  Michael Stewart: from the California Convention areas.
• 19:04
  Michael Stewart: They have to trust leadership, invest there, and they have to bring up a nucleus
• 19:08
  Michael Stewart: of leaders here who this isn't, this is normal.
• 19:12
  Michael Stewart: The California or the West Coast culture is normal and they like it.
• 19:17
  Michael Stewart: They like how the people work because they understand it, and they spread the
• 19:22
  Michael Stewart: gospel across a similar culture.
• 19:25
  Michael Stewart: They know how that person is going to get to a decision.
• 19:28
  Michael Stewart: It isn't how they're going to get to it in other places.
• 19:31
  Michael Stewart: So that's my answer. But I don't think there's not a want to.
• 19:35
  Michael Stewart: I think you ask any national group, do you want to win people to Christ in the West Coast?
• 19:40
  Michael Stewart: Yes, of course. But the how to and the cost to are real things we need to pray
• 19:45
  Michael Stewart: for these leaders about as they evaluate, are we really doing the best?
• 19:49
  Michael Stewart: Because these men and women who have to run these agencies, they report to other
• 19:52
  Michael Stewart: people besides people on the West Coast.
• 19:54
  Chris: So we can edit this question out if we need to, because it's a little bit of a controversial one.
• 20:01
  Chris: Essentially, as an officer boots on the ground in California,
• 20:05
  Chris: are you regularly contacted by the North American Mission Board about the issues
• 20:12
  Chris: related to evangelism and church planting in No.
• 20:16
  Michael Stewart: That's not how they have structured their engagement most of the time.
• 20:20
  Michael Stewart: I'm contacted by the local rep here from time to time about events that they're
• 20:26
  Michael Stewart: having. They would like support or training.
• 20:29
  Michael Stewart: But strategy, engagement, placement, all of those things, we're not teamed up
• 20:35
  Michael Stewart: on that. And that's a loss.
• 20:36
  Michael Stewart: That's a loss because of just local knowledge and local engagement and partnership.
• 20:43
  Chris: Our house in the South was larger than our house in California.
• 20:46
  Chris: The yard twice as big, more bedrooms, more square footage.
• 20:50
  Chris: And our house in California is worth the parsonage either way.
• 20:54
  Chris: The house in California is worth four times as much as our house in Alabama.
• 20:58
  Michael Stewart: That's because the mosquitoes are smaller.
• 21:00
  Chris: Oh, buddy, there's so many mosquitoes in Alabama and none here.
• 21:04
  Chris: As you're kind of hinting around at, it's an entirely different reality.
• 21:08
  Chris: And if the leadership of Southern Baptists and other evangelical churches come
• 21:14
  Chris: from another part of the country and they're not working with boots on the ground,
• 21:18
  Chris: West coasters who understand the culture here, we're missing a huge opportunity.
• 21:22
  Chase: I think one factor that plays in that Dr.
• 21:25
  Chase: Stewart alluded to that's significant, you know, in addition to the economics,
• 21:30
  Chase: the cost of living, all of those different kinds of things, but it impacts the
• 21:35
  Chase: mindset of the missionary sending agencies and the networks is that you have
• 21:40
  Chase: to enter California with a missionary mindset.
• 21:43
  Chase: You can't approach it from a dominant cultural.
• 21:46
  Chris: It's almost like another country in so many ways.
• 21:49
  Chase: Right.
• 21:49
  Michael Stewart: Most of our leaders are not from a missional background.
• 21:54
  Michael Stewart: They're from a pastoral background. So it's geographical. It's where they were
• 21:58
  Michael Stewart: raised, how things worked. That's their wheelhouse.
• 22:01
  Michael Stewart: There are people around them that they can surround themselves with that would have that.
• 22:05
  Chase: Right. But if because they don't have it, I think they tend to underestimate
• 22:10
  Chase: the cross-cultural engagement that's required.
• 22:14
  Chase: And I'm not just talking about ethnicities, but value systems,
• 22:19
  Chase: socioeconomics, educational differences, so much more.
• 22:23
  Chase: And then just culturally, California and the West Coast in general –
• 22:28
  Chase: is radically different than, say, Oklahoma, Texas, or Alabama,
• 22:32
  Chase: which you know because you came here from Alabama.
• 22:35
  Chase: And very few pastors, by the way, I just want to congratulate you,
• 22:39
  Chase: very few pastors make a successful transition from a Southern ministry in the
• 22:46
  Chase: heart of the Bible belt into long-term California ministry.
• 22:50
  Chase: And you've done that, Pastor Chase. You've been here for over eight years,
• 22:54
  Chase: which makes you an outlier.
• 22:56
  Chase: You already are genuinely a serious outlier.
• 22:59
  Chase: We have a very common turnover rate of Southerners lasting just about three
• 23:05
  Chase: years, and then they go home. They're done.
• 23:07
  Chase: And so you're truly unique. And we're blessed in GCA.
• 23:11
  Chase: We've had a number of pastors that have come in from the South that have done
• 23:15
  Chase: this hard work of adapting themselves culturally, missiologically,
• 23:19
  Chase: and you're one of them, and we're grateful.
• 23:21
  Chris: I don't even know how to talk about it. It's just grace of God,
• 23:24
  Chris: because it is an entirely different, totally different atmosphere here.
• 23:28
  Chris: Is there a fix to that situation?
• 23:30
  Chris: It almost seems like the IMB strategy would work better here than the domestic
• 23:37
  Chris: strategy that works really well in the southeastern United States.
• 23:41
  Chase: There are attributes. Two members of our team, myself, Dr. Chris Smith,
• 23:45
  Chase: we served with the IMB overseas.
• 23:48
  Chase: And I think in some ways, we would say on our mission advance team,
• 23:52
  Chase: that it has made a lot of the missional engagement here and our vision for what
• 23:59
  Chase: we want to see happen as we work towards every church flourishing,
• 24:03
  Chase: as we work towards every community being transformed by the gospel.
• 24:07
  Chase: It's given us a different mindset, for sure.
• 24:10
  Chase: But there are pastors like you, Pastor Drew Cunningham, another pastor that
• 24:14
  Chase: moved here from the Midwest that have that mentality.
• 24:18
  Chase: So, Oklahoma, yeah, it doesn't really fit in.
• 24:21
  Michael Stewart: It's just anti-Texas.
• 24:23
  Chase: But whatever it is, we've got great guys like that that have done really well
• 24:27
  Chase: here in reaching those communities.
• 24:30
  Chase: So I don't know that there is a single solution.
• 24:33
  Chase: In my opinion, us developing and developing tools for leaders to see that as
• 24:40
  Chase: part of their mentality, certainly as part of our mission and everything else.
• 24:44
  Chase: So I'd be curious how Dr. Stewart feels about that.
• 24:46
  Michael Stewart: There's a fix as far as on the national level. I don't have the capacity to know that.
• 24:53
  Michael Stewart: I think that takes for the national level to redefine where is missional work
• 25:00
  Michael Stewart: really needed and where there are enough existing churches in areas that they
• 25:05
  Michael Stewart: can take care of what's next.
• 25:07
  Michael Stewart: And we used to call that pioneer missions or areas of the United States
• 25:11
  Michael Stewart: And we've kind of lost that designation, but that's kind of an internal issue.
• 25:14
  Michael Stewart: But the other fix is, is for the churches that are in the West Coast,
• 25:18
  Michael Stewart: is I would say same thing when I talked about the mindset.
• 25:22
  Michael Stewart: The mindset is not for someone else to figure out how they're going to help
• 25:27
  Michael Stewart: us, but for us to turn to the Most High God and say, use us together,
• 25:33
  Michael Stewart: Build us together, don't do it for us, do it for the kingdom.
• 25:36
  Michael Stewart: And so our association and other like-minded partners, and there's a lot of
• 25:41
  Michael Stewart: people out there that want to advance the work of Jesus.
• 25:43
  Michael Stewart: If that's you and you're listening to this, we are thrilled to work with partners
• 25:47
  Michael Stewart: that want to see the work of Jesus through his church go forward.
• 25:51
  Michael Stewart: God has plenty of provision.
• 25:52
  Michael Stewart: And the leaders that we need are really in the churches in the West Coast.
• 25:57
  Michael Stewart: We just have to have great platforms and structures to identify leaders,
• 26:01
  Michael Stewart: encourage them like those pastors encouraged you as a young youth minister.
• 26:05
  Michael Stewart: Those need to be real and can come alive if we are, as leaders around in our
• 26:10
  Michael Stewart: association and others are saying, we see this as a need. We're going to make
• 26:14
  Michael Stewart: this real. There's got to be a path.
• 26:16
  Michael Stewart: And a guy can't get help to become a pastor or become a leader unless someone
• 26:20
  Michael Stewart: taps him on the shoulder and says, hey, there's a real resource here I want to walk with you in.
• 26:25
  Michael Stewart: So we're building, you know, the MAT team is doing their start.
• 26:28
  Michael Stewart: They've been doing that.
• 26:29
  Michael Stewart: They're building great structures to do that. And I think we're going to see
• 26:33
  Michael Stewart: a wave of leaders in the next two or three years that we're going to identify.
• 26:37
  Michael Stewart: And they're working with young men right now who are, they're so encouraging to me.
• 26:41
  Michael Stewart: I see what they want to do, how God's calling them. So we have to take responsibility ourselves.
• 26:46
  Michael Stewart: I thank God for everybody who wants to help as a national organization.
• 26:49
  Michael Stewart: We have wonderful partners all over, but we have to take responsibility as member
• 26:53
  Michael Stewart: churches and our own association.
• 26:55
  Michael Stewart: God's capable. He's faithful. He'll provide.
• 26:58
  Chris: Amen to that. One last question as we close out. Take off your pastor's hat.
• 27:03
  Chris: Dr. Stewart, what do you do for fun? What are your hobbies and hobbies?
• 27:06
  Michael Stewart: My hobbies aren't that fun, but, well, I will tell you my hobbies,
• 27:11
  Michael Stewart: but what I really, really, really like is ministry.
• 27:15
  Michael Stewart: I really like ministry. I like it. I'm so privileged that God called me,
• 27:22
  Michael Stewart: and I needed God so much in my life as a 10-year-old boy and confused about
• 27:26
  Michael Stewart: what's happening in my family and structure,
• 27:28
  Michael Stewart: man, going to church and hearing a pastor talk about that Jesus loved me and
• 27:33
  Michael Stewart: that he forgave me. I was in trouble a lot as a kid.
• 27:37
  Michael Stewart: And that he forgave me, he accepted me. Man, that was better than candy for me.
• 27:41
  Michael Stewart: And that pastor did not know that. I was a kid trying to process that.
• 27:45
  Michael Stewart: So I love ministry. I like to read.
• 27:48
  Michael Stewart: I enjoy reading. I like to play music. I write music sometimes.
• 27:52
  Michael Stewart: I enjoy that. I like getting to get with people to sing.
• 27:55
  Chase: And there's a Mike Stewart album.
• 27:59
  Chris: Legitimately.
• 28:00
  Michael Stewart: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. It sold less than a million copies.
• 28:03
  Michael Stewart: So just miss the platinum, And I've just missed, or gold, whatever that is.
• 28:07
  Michael Stewart: And I actually like playing, I get online and play Destiny 2 with my grandson over in Clovis.
• 28:13
  Chris: Whoa, okay.
• 28:14
  Michael Stewart: And we do that.
• 28:15
  Chase: Dr. Mike Video Gamer.
• 28:17
  Chris: I'm literally shocked. I would not have expected that.
• 28:20
  Michael Stewart: Well, what I like, I like the gaming with him. But it is that it is a source
• 28:24
  Michael Stewart: of relational conversations with my 13-year-old grandson that he just talks
• 28:31
  Michael Stewart: to me about life while we're playing. And that to me.
• 28:36
  Chris: That's huge.
• 28:37
  Michael Stewart: Yeah. Someone asked me, a guy asked me, so what do you want to invest in after
• 28:40
  Michael Stewart: you retire? I said, I want to invest in really knowing my grandchildren.
• 28:43
  Michael Stewart: Because as a pastor and director of missions and all the things I did, I didn't get to do that.
• 28:48
  Michael Stewart: And sometimes because of distractions, did not choose to do that with my own
• 28:52
  Michael Stewart: children as much as I should have. But with my grandchildren, I'm wiser now.
• 28:56
  Michael Stewart: My retirement is going to be, first of all, do I know them and do they know
• 29:00
  Michael Stewart: me and do they know the Lord?
• 29:02
  Michael Stewart: In a way that's a blessing. So that's what I like to do. I also like to go on
• 29:06
  Michael Stewart: walks with Sheila with our dog, Evie. And those are great.
• 29:10
  Chris: Shout out to Evie.
• 29:11
  Chase: And you might be a little bit of a baseball fan.
• 29:14
  Michael Stewart: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I love the San Francisco Giants. I like baseball,
• 29:18
  Michael Stewart: follow that. I do it better when they're winning championships.
• 29:22
  Chris: Don't we all?
• 29:23
  Michael Stewart: But do believe that there will be Dodgers fans in heaven.
• 29:27
  Chris: We can hope.
• 29:28
  Michael Stewart: There's a theological dispute on that, but.
• 29:32
  Chris: Bit of trivia, Dr. Stewart. When you released your country music album,
• 29:36
  Chris: you came to Valley Baptist Church for a release party, and you sang with the
• 29:41
  Chris: Anthem Christian School students.
• 29:43
  Chris: And it was one of the biggest Sundays we ever had because their families came.
• 29:48
  Chris: And I look on that day fondly because it boosted us by a lot. So thank you for that.
• 29:53
  Chris: Release another CD very soon and come back and promote it. You will be welcomed.
• 29:58
  Chase: All right. That would be great. Yeah.
• 30:00
  Michael Stewart: Don't hold your breath on that, but I appreciate the compliment there.
• 30:03
  Michael Stewart: It's just a joy to do it. And thank you for letting me share from my heart about
• 30:08
  Michael Stewart: Every Church Flourishing.
• 30:09
  Chase: Well, Dr. Stewart, we are definitely having you back very, very soon on many
• 30:13
  Chase: future episodes of Every Church Flourishing.
• 30:16
  Chase: And we are glad that you got to be with us today. We're grateful for your leadership.
• 30:21
  Chase: We're grateful for everything you have meant to our churches.
• 30:24
  Chase: Every single pastor I talk to in the association, when they talk about GCA,
• 30:29
  Chase: they have a story about how GCA has ministered to them.
• 30:35
  Chase: And almost all of those stories start with something like, well,
• 30:38
  Chase: I called Dr. Stewart, and then this happened.
• 30:42
  Chase: And so we're grateful for your faithful ministry. 28 years, we're looking forward
• 30:45
  Chase: to the next couple of them together, and then to see all that God is going to be doing in your life.
• 30:50
  Chris: Thanks for your time, Dr. Stewart. You're welcome.
• 30:52
  Michael Stewart: God bless.
• 30:53
  Chris: All right, Pastor Chris, we're back. What is next on the agenda?
• 30:57
  Chase: We like to bring you practical resources.
• 31:01
  Chase: We want to help ordinary pastors and church leaders be equipped and encouraged
• 31:07
  Chase: in their ministry to help their church flourish.
• 31:10
  Chase: And we try to find resources that we think will help churches just thrive or grow or learn.
• 31:18
  Chase: And a lot of those resources might be new to you.
• 31:22
  Chase: And today, Chase, you're going to talk to us, I think, about an AI tool.
• 31:28
  Chase: And I know that a lot of pastors may sort of be a little bit uncertain about AI.
• 31:33
  Chase: Church leaders may even be scared of AI.
• 31:37
  Chase: But I know you've been using AI, and I think we're going to do a future episode
• 31:42
  Chase: all about how we can use AI in ministry and use it well and use it ethically.
• 31:50
  Chris: People have passionate feelings about AI.
• 31:55
  Chris: Some people hate it, and I get that. And some people love it and probably overuse
• 32:02
  Chris: it to the point of laziness, and I get that too.
• 32:05
  Chris: What's your take? If you had to give a thumbs up overall or a thumbs down to
• 32:10
  Chris: AI, Pastor Christopher, what would you do?
• 32:13
  Chase: Can I give a thumb sideways?
• 32:15
  Chris: Yes, you can.
• 32:16
  Chase: Because I think like all technologies, these are...
• 32:21
  Chase: Largely, in many ways, neutral.
• 32:24
  Chase: Those technologies can be used for the advancement of God's kingdom.
• 32:29
  Chase: There's things that AIs can do when it comes to,
• 32:32
  Chase: for example, Bible translation or engagement with reaching unreached people
• 32:37
  Chase: groups that we should anticipate that would have taken much greater human efforts to do.
• 32:44
  Chase: Now, we should be concerned about its ethical implications across society,
• 32:49
  Chase: but there's also just ordinary tools that will make life easier in a world that
• 32:54
  Chase: can often be challenging. So I'm looking forward to seeing how some of those tools develop.
• 32:59
  Chase: Now, I do think we also need to be cautious.
• 33:01
  Chase: There's AI tools out there that are quite, frankly, evil.
• 33:06
  Chase: In the last couple of weeks of the time that we're recording this,
• 33:09
  Chase: there's been quite a few news articles about AI generating inappropriate images of people,
• 33:17
  Chase: sexualized images of people taking ordinary persons and generating sexualized images of them.
• 33:24
  Chase: And of course, that would be an ungodly and evil use of that kind of technology.
• 33:30
  Chase: Using AI to cheat your way through things that require knowledge probably is an unethical.
• 33:37
  Chase: It is an unethical use of that.
• 33:39
  Chase: And I'm concerned personally about pastors using AI, not as a research tool,
• 33:46
  Chase: but using AI to write their sermon.
• 33:49
  Chris: Yeah. And it will. It will write a sermon and it's not, I don't know,
• 33:53
  Chris: it'll write a fairly decent theological sermon if you put the right things in,
• 33:58
  Chris: but it's a terrible thing to do.
• 34:01
  Chris: Don't do that.
• 34:02
  Chase: Right. And, you know, I mean, I could tell it.
• 34:06
  Chase: I know there's some AIs that we could tell, say, hey, I want a sermon on this
• 34:12
  Chase: text, and I want it to be in the style of Tim Keller or the style of Dr.
• 34:19
  Chase: John Piper or somebody like that. Or even in Baptist circles,
• 34:24
  Chase: I could probably say, you know, draw up a sermon on 1 John in the style of Al Mohler.
• 34:30
  Chase: And we might see what that sounds like or looks like.
• 34:34
  Chase: But the problem is, it wouldn't be me preaching to my congregation
• 34:41
  Chase: from my exegesis of God's word under the influence and direction of the Holy Spirit.
• 34:48
  Chase: So I think AI could be a research tool and many other great organizational tool,
• 34:56
  Chase: a lot of great tools there.
• 34:57
  Chase: But you're going to tell us about a particular tool today that you found helpful.
• 35:01
  Chase: So Pastor Chase, why don't you tell us about that?
• 35:03
  Chris: Yeah, it's called SermonMakerAI. No, I'm just kidding. It's not really called that.
• 35:07
  Chris: I'm going to tell you about Notebook LM, which is a tool from Google.
• 35:12
  Chris: This is maybe the single most impressive AI tool I've used. It's subtle.
• 35:19
  Chris: What you do is you upload a source or a group of sources and it will take in a lot of information.
• 35:27
  Chris: You upload PDFs or documents or books even, and you have to have it in the right
• 35:32
  Chris: format, but you upload it and it will take that and it will make various things from it.
• 35:39
  Chris: For instance, Our interview of the GCA senior directors from the last couple
• 35:44
  Chris: of episodes, I uploaded and it made graphics and infographics and a slide sheet.
• 35:51
  Chris: It made a summary video of it.
• 35:54
  Chris: And to listen to it, if I had heard that video that it made,
• 36:00
  Chris: which is narrated by a voice, if I had heard that a year ago,
• 36:03
  Chris: a year and a half ago, and you said, is this a human or is this an AI or a robot?
• 36:09
  Chris: I would say 100% that is a human in every way, shape, or form because the voice just sounds...
• 36:16
  Chris: Look, I know AI voices. I've worked with AI ever since it's come out.
• 36:21
  Chris: The way Notebook LM will make a summary sounds so human and is so impressive.
• 36:28
  Chris: We had one use case where we had this massively long email that,
• 36:32
  Chris: That really covered a lot of ground way too long. We plugged it into Notebook LM.
• 36:38
  Chris: We made an infographic out of it, slides out of it, and a podcast out of it
• 36:43
  Chris: where two AI hosts discussed the contents of the email.
• 36:48
  Chris: It was mind-blowing.
• 36:50
  Chris: It's a fantastic tool. Wow. I'm sure you can use it for nefarious and cheating
• 36:55
  Chris: and lazy purposes, but you can also use it to boil down things to easily understandable points.
• 37:03
  Chris: You can upload documents and ask questions about the documents.
• 37:08
  Chris: I love Notebook LM and you get limited functionality free to really get a lot out of it.
• 37:16
  Chris: You might have to be a Gemini Plus member, which is free for all students right
• 37:21
  Chris: now for one year, which is pretty cool.
• 37:24
  Chris: Just Google how to get it free. But I know AI has a lot of detractors and for good reason.
• 37:30
  Chris: But this is one of the good guys and one of the good uses. And I'm pumped about it.
• 37:34
  Chase: I'm excited to hear how we can summarize our podcast today.
• 37:40
  Chase: But before or maybe as part of this particular podcast, we're going to be trying
• 37:46
  Chase: out something that is old school, right? Pastor Chase.
• 37:51
  Chase: Yes. Beer. Not something, beer.
• 37:53
  Chris: Beer. Baptist beer.
• 37:54
  Chase: Baptist don't drink beer.
• 37:56
  Chris: Oh, my bad. Baptist don't drink beer. Ginger beer. You're right.
• 38:00
  Chris: Baptist don't drink beer. Ginger beer. We can't drink ginger beer.
• 38:03
  Chase: Ginger beer. Woo! And this is no regular ginger beer.
• 38:08
  Chris: No, it's not.
• 38:09
  Chase: This here is Old Jamaica ginger beer.
• 38:14
  Chase: And it says that it's made with authentic root ginger.
• 38:19
  Chris: Nice. Right?
• 38:20
  Chase: Authentic root ginger. It also says this isn't just a drink,
• 38:25
  Chase: Pastor Chase. This is a lifestyle.
• 38:28
  Chris: Okay. Wow.
• 38:29
  Chase: Now, I don't know what that means, but it says it's spices, it's boldness,
• 38:35
  Chase: it's fiery fizz, it's taste that doesn't play it safe.
• 38:40
  Chase: And it's asked, do you play safe?
• 38:42
  Chris: Not always.
• 38:43
  Chase: Not always, right? Yeah. Apparently, we're going to be taking quite the chance
• 38:47
  Chase: drinking this. Now, this is made in the UK.
• 38:51
  Chris: Okay.
• 38:51
  Chase: Despite its Jamaica name.
• 38:53
  Chris: I'm surprised to hear that, honestly.
• 38:55
  Chase: Yeah, it's manufactured in the UK, but it's closely made with the authentic
• 39:01
  Chase: thing, real root ginger.
• 39:04
  Chase: So I'm actually eager to try this one. Ginger ales and ginger beers are some
• 39:09
  Chase: of my favorite type sodas.
• 39:11
  Chris: We have that in common. Okay, here we go.
• 39:14
  Chase: Here we go.
• 39:15
  Chris: Welcome to the new lifestyle of Old Jamaican ginger beer.
• 39:19
  Chase: Old Jamaican, here we go.
• 39:22
  Chris: Oh, this is good. Not much of a smell, at least not on my end.
• 39:28
  Chase: That is an incredibly ginger-forward ginger beer.
• 39:33
  Chris: I like it.
• 39:35
  Chase: You can taste, you really can't taste the ginger root.
• 39:42
  Chase: You know, a lot of ginger, ginger ales, ginger beers, they have a lot more spice
• 39:47
  Chase: flavor, but I'm primarily getting the ginger in this one.
• 39:52
  Chase: And it's on the back end of the tongue, the way that ginger hits the back end of your tongue.
• 39:56
  Chase: Those of you that cook Chinese food, Japanese food, where there's more ginger-forward
• 40:02
  Chase: flavors in a lot of East Asian foods, you would be familiar with this.
• 40:08
  Chase: You know, as a kid, we had ginger candy in Indonesia.
• 40:12
  Chase: This reminds me in some ways of that. It's very sweet as well,
• 40:15
  Chase: but very ginger-forward. I like how it tastes.
• 40:19
  Chris: I love it. This reminds me of a beverage from Birmingham, Alabama called Buffalo
• 40:25
  Chris: Rock, which I think as far as I know, you can only get it in the South.
• 40:30
  Chris: It's like a very spicy, very, very old Jamaica ginger beer.
• 40:36
  Chris: This says since 1988, Buffalo Rock is older than that. I don't know.
• 40:40
  Chris: I'm not accusing anybody of
• 40:41
  Chris: copying, but Buffalo Rock is great and old Jamaica ginger beer is great.
• 40:47
  Chris: In fact, I would give this four and a half Charles Spurgeon's out of five.
• 40:55
  Chris: I would drink this happily on every occasion.
• 40:59
  Chase: Wow. Okay. Now, I'm thinking to myself here, if I were trying to drink this
• 41:04
  Chase: like with a meal, like with a burger, a hot dog, a corn dog,
• 41:09
  Chase: do you like corn dogs, Pastor Chase?
• 41:11
  Chris: I do. Yes. Okay. Who doesn't?
• 41:12
  Chase: Me too. I like corn dogs. I mean, who doesn't, right? I don't know.
• 41:16
  Chase: But I'm not sure I would want to drink this with something like that.
• 41:21
  Chase: The way, you know, like you drink a Coke or something.
• 41:23
  Chase: I think I would want to pour this, if I were drinking this,
• 41:27
  Chase: I would want to pour this over ice and sip it.
• 41:31
  Chris: Yeah, it's definitely a sipping drink.
• 41:33
  Chase: Like on a hot day. It's not hot today here where we're recording this.
• 41:38
  Chase: But I think if I were, I really like this. I like those flavors.
• 41:42
  Chase: I think I would want to pour it over some ice and just sort of sip on it.
• 41:48
  Chase: And enjoy that as just a refreshment, you know, in lieu of like a flavored tea or something like that.
• 41:56
  Chase: It's got that sparkling taste to it.
• 41:59
  Chase: So for me, I'm going to give this also four and a half out of five Spurgeons.
• 42:06
  Chris: Strong.
• 42:06
  Chase: I would gladly drink this again.
• 42:09
  Chris: Yeah.
• 42:09
  Chase: On one of our prior podcast, we had that Lester's Vixen's Ranch Dressing Soda.
• 42:15
  Chase: And this stuff will clear that stuff out.
• 42:20
  Chris: Yes. Yes.
• 42:21
  Chase: Right. Yeah. I think so. This is a reminder of God's goodness.
• 42:25
  Chris: This is a gift of grace. I agree. I would love to drink this if it's late at
• 42:31
  Chris: night and I'm driving home and I'm a little tired.
• 42:33
  Chris: It doesn't have caffeine in it, but it's got that kick that would wake you up
• 42:38
  Chris: and then allow you to go to bed without the stimulant of caffeine.
• 42:43
  Chase: Well, that's right.
• 42:44
  Chris: Chris, I got some ginger beer trivia for you.
• 42:47
  Chris: Let's go for it. In the Victorian era, ginger beer was really,
• 42:52
  Chris: really popular, but it came with a distinct hazard that often turned kitchens
• 42:57
  Chris: into war zone because of the fermentation process.
• 43:01
  Chris: So what violent event would sometimes happen in late 19th century England to
• 43:09
  Chris: stoneware bottles that were stored in warm cupboards.
• 43:14
  Chase: Well, they would get very warm and that would activate the fermentation of the
• 43:20
  Chase: ginger and the other spices that are in there. So they would explode.
• 43:24
  Chris: You got it. You're one for one.
• 43:26
  Chase: They would explode. Yes.
• 43:28
  Chris: The yeast would keep eating the sugar, which would cause a big buildup and
• 43:33
  Chris: boom, there would be glass and ginger and gross stuff everywhere.
• 43:37
  Chris: So it was like a delicious pipe bomb.
• 43:40
  Chase: For those of our podcast listeners who are teetotalers by conviction,
• 43:45
  Chase: we should clarify, if you've never had something because it said ginger beer,
• 43:50
  Chase: this is like a ginger ale.
• 43:52
  Chase: There's no alcohol in this beverage.
• 43:56
  Chris: Well, that brings us to the next question. When you say no,
• 44:00
  Chris: you're labely, you're correct, but you're not 100% correct because most ginger
• 44:09
  Chris: beer is less than 0.5% alcohol,
• 44:13
  Chris: but more than 0% alcohol.
• 44:17
  Chase: Interesting.
• 44:17
  Chris: Yes. So there's a little bit of fermentation in ginger beer,
• 44:21
  Chris: almost not in ginger ale, but back in the 1700s in England, It was a fermented
• 44:28
  Chris: alcoholic beverage before the Excise Act of 1855.
• 44:33
  Chris: What would you guess would be the maximum alcohol content of ginger beer?
• 44:41
  Chase: This is a very good question. I'm going to say, well, those excise taxes,
• 44:46
  Chase: man, you know, you got to watch them.
• 44:48
  Chris: You got to watch those British and their excise taxes.
• 44:50
  Chase: Their excise taxes might cause a revolution.
• 44:53
  Chris: Might.
• 44:53
  Chase: I'm going to say it could probably get as high as 7% to 8%.
• 44:59
  Chris: How about 11%? So stronger than almost any modern beer.
• 45:06
  Chase: Oh, yeah.
• 45:07
  Chris: Yeah, absolutely. Not good for our teetotaling friends, but this is good for
• 45:12
  Chris: us because it has a trace at best of alcohol in it. Okay, here's your third question.
• 45:17
  Chase: And a ton of flavor.
• 45:18
  Chris: A ton of flavor. It's so good. A ton of flavor. It's so good.
• 45:21
  Chris: I'm probably going to drink it all. It's so delicious.
• 45:25
  Chase: All right.
• 45:26
  Chris: Who is the only main cast member of Gilligan's Island still alive?
• 45:30
  Chase: Okay. And what does this have to do with ginger beer?
• 45:33
  Chris: That's a good question.
• 45:34
  Chase: That's the segue. Okay. Let's see. Who is, so, I don't know.
• 45:42
  Chase: Alan Hale is gone.
• 45:43
  Chris: Gone a long time. 1989, I believe he died.
• 45:47
  Chase: Yeah. Alan Hale, gone a long time. Probably not the millionaire and his wife.
• 45:53
  Chase: So i'm gonna i think i saw something in the news that don wells had passed away she
• 46:00
  Chris: Did very recently a 2023 maybe.
• 46:03
  Chase: Okay all right that's marianne right that's marianne so i i don't i i can't
• 46:12
  Chase: remember the actress's name so i'm i'm gonna say uh the movie star
• 46:16
  Chris: That's right and her name in the show was ginger and her real name is tina louise
• 46:24
  Chris: and she is 91 years old everybody else is gone.
• 46:29
  Chase: Tina louise if you by some chance happen to listen to this podcast which is
• 46:35
  Chase: for pastors church leaders and lay people of all types so we do hope that you're
• 46:40
  Chase: and we are drinking this ginger beer
• 46:43
  Chase: for Ginger.
• 46:44
  Chris: Yes. How about that? Cheers to you. Cheers.
• 46:47
  Chase: And cheers to Gilligan's Island, because that was a fun show.
• 46:51
  Chase: Fun show. It was always fun. Great show.
• 46:54
  Chris: Great show. And as we close out, Pastor Chris, I understand you're going to
• 46:58
  Chris: give us another great resource for church leaders, for pastors.
• 47:02
  Chris: Tell us about church teams.
• 47:04
  Chase: Well, Pastor Chase, you know, and I know that one of the most challenging things
• 47:09
  Chase: for pastors to do in a very fast-paced ministry world is to connect church members together,
• 47:17
  Chase: connect people together, and let the leaders know all the information about
• 47:22
  Chase: things that are going on in the church.
• 47:25
  Chase: And so there's been, over the years, quite a few products that have emerged
• 47:30
  Chase: really since the 1980s when churches began to use computers.
• 47:35
  Chase: Church data systems began to emerge. People are creating databases to say,
• 47:41
  Chase: you know, we need a database of our church members.
• 47:43
  Chase: And those software pieces have evolved. They've become much more sophisticated.
• 47:47
  Chase: There's many good products out there on the market.
• 47:51
  Chase: And recently, our good friend, P.J. Dunn, Dr. P.J.
• 47:54
  Chase: Dunn from the Georgia Baptist Convention, told me about a product that was new to me. It's not new.
• 48:02
  Chase: They've been in development and growing this product for about 20 years.
• 48:07
  Chase: But he said, hey, I suggest that you take a look at this product called Church Teams.
• 48:11
  Chase: So you can just go to churchteams.com. And I should say,
• 48:17
  Chase: just like on our other resources, we don't receive any sort of kickbacks or
• 48:22
  Chase: anything for endorsing these products or encouraging people to try them out.
• 48:27
  Chase: One of the things I like about Church Teams is that they have a free trial for
• 48:32
  Chase: churches, so you can try it out and see whether or not it will help you.
• 48:37
  Chase: But this product is incredibly powerful.
• 48:40
  Chase: Rather than being based in the beginning around worship planning software,
• 48:46
  Chase: from the beginning, Church Teams has been about connecting people in the church.
• 48:51
  Chase: So it's not only a way for you to track your membership, but it's a way for
• 48:56
  Chase: you to make notes about what's going on in your members' lives.
• 48:59
  Chase: You can attach prayer notes to that, but it's also how you can group them together,
• 49:04
  Chase: whether that's for discipleship groups or small groups.
• 49:08
  Chase: And it has amazing tools.
• 49:10
  Chase: Some of the most impressive for me were their check-in tools and their texting
• 49:16
  Chase: tools. They have these tools that allow two-way texting interactions.
• 49:22
  Chase: So you can have a guest and you can say, text the word connect to a certain
• 49:26
  Chase: phone number, and the guest will get a connection card on their phone.
• 49:31
  Chase: They don't have to scan a QR, tap something.
• 49:35
  Chase: And in Silicon Valley, where we do a lot of our ministry, people are very used to texting.
• 49:40
  Chase: And even in our agricultural communities, everybody texts today.
• 49:44
  Chase: So it's very easy to say to someone, hey, text the word connect and you'll be able to do this.
• 49:49
  Chase: But if you want to give, they have a great giving platform at the lowest rates,
• 49:55
  Chase: Cost rates for giving that we have seen as we've evaluated different software pieces.
• 50:00
  Chase: But they also let you do things like check in your family when your kids are
• 50:04
  Chase: coming to church and help you track and manage volunteers.
• 50:09
  Chase: And they have a seamless communication system that we think is just really,
• 50:13
  Chase: really great. And again, there are plenty of other good products out there,
• 50:17
  Chase: but this is a really good one.
• 50:19
  Chase: Oh, I should mention they have really great tools for creating events and registration
• 50:23
  Chase: for events and even paying for events, Pastor Chase.
• 50:27
  Chase: So you're doing, whether it's a church supper night or you've got a men and
• 50:31
  Chase: boys weekend retreat, that sort of thing, or you've got a women's event that
• 50:37
  Chase: you're hosting at your church of some kind, they've got the registration tools for you.
• 50:42
  Chase: So that's churchteams.com. And we suggest you check them out and talk to them
• 50:48
  Chase: about whether or not they can help your church continue to thrive and to flourish,
• 50:53
  Chase: because that's our goal.
• 50:54
  Chris: Absolutely. Tell them we sent you from the Every Church Flourishing podcast.
• 50:58
  Chris: And if you forget the churchteams.com address somehow, or you're interested
• 51:03
  Chris: in any of the other resources we talk about, you can, of course,
• 51:06
  Chris: check those out at our website, everychurchflourishing.com.
• 51:10
  Chris: Next week, we have the privilege of having Dr.
• 51:14
  Chris: CJ1 with us, who is a man who values prayer and abiding.
• 51:19
  Chris: And we're going to have some deep spiritual conversations with him.
• 51:22
  Chris: Can't wait for that. Stay tuned. We will see you next Monday.