Latest / Main Thing Podcast / INSIDE COVENANT | Chet Bergeron Pt.1

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INSIDE COVENANT | Chet Bergeron Pt.1 · Main Thing Podcast

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_02: Main Thing Podcast with Pastor Steve, equipping you to respond and thrive in the world we live in today.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: Keep the main thing the main thing has been a saying that Pastor Steve has told for decades.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: It means no matter what is happening around us, Jesus is what we need to have frightened sin in our lives.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: There couldn't be a more powerful reminder for us to recall in today's divisive and dark culture.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: From foundational truths and scripture to the hot topics of today's culture, allow this podcast to inspire and motivate you on your faith journey.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, welcome to the main thing podcast.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: So glad you guys are here today.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: We're on episode 45, I believe.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: And this one's going to be different for our guest.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, Chet Bajron is switching places this time.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we both host this podcast, but today it's my turn to be the host and ask him all the questions.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: So, Jet, welcome to the other side of the uh the chair, I guess.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Glad to be here, sir.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: So so we've been doing that, we were just talking, we've been doing this almost almost two years now.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: I know you were the one who wanted to do the podcast, or at least you you drove us to do this.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: What was um what was important about a podcast to you?
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: I think the most important thing for me was just to get Steve in front of the camera.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I think we've had some fun times.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's been great.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I I think I the heart behind it was for the church body and others in the community to understand what we believe, uh, to get to know our pastor a little more, get to know you and me, and really just dig into the word together and and learn about what is discipleship.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: What does it mean to follow Jesus?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm gonna ask you about an old one.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: You you did one called Mutterings of a Bald Guy.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me about that real quick because I remember listening to you when you were in Virginia.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, throwback, throwback.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: So it all started back in 2019, right before I left here to go to Virginia.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: Nicole and I started a podcast.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I to be honest with you, I can't remember what the first one was called, but it was just me and her getting on the mic and just doing random stuff.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we were talking about marriage even though we weren't married that long.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: We were talking about kids even though we just had a kid, didn't know much, and it morphed into mutterings from a bald guy interviewing other people, interviewing you and Kelly, Steve, and others uh through the years.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: And it gained a lot of traction and I enjoyed it.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: COVID really amped it up because I was in a basement in Virginia, uh leading a church with lockdowns there.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: And so I just really spent a lot of time building the church's online infrastructure and then the podcast through that time.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's it's funny that time.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: We talked a few times, but I just pictured you waking up in the morning going down to the basement and holding up all day, producing content and all that kind of stuff.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's what it felt like.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm guessing that was the smallest church in the history of the world that had the best uh the best tech.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: That was my goal.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: That was my goal.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: People probably wonder how does little church in Buffalo Okay, funny story though.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I I don't know if everybody realizes this, but like a church's front doors online, their online presence.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and uh the church grew significantly because we were not only on the radio, but we were online and we had a good, a good website with good content.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I know like for some for some churches, it's oh, I don't want to spend all that money on this type of stuff, but really that's how you reach people today.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: And uh and I think the proof is in the pudding.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, we we have a lot of people coming through Covenant class who mention that's that's where they went first, and I think we all do that, right?
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: We still go to the website first.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, I'm I I know we were just talking right before we started about linking some different things and having some more content on the website.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: So uh we probably have a way to get up, way to go to catch up to where you were in uh Virginia.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, I'm trying to catch up with Sean.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: Sean's doing good.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: You are dragging us lovingly into the 21st century.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: So um what what is your role here?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: What what all do you do at Covenant Church?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I should ask what don't you do at Covenant Church?
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: Do a good bit.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: I I actually I enjoy all the different things I do.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um I it's hard for me to just sit at a desk.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: And so, especially with this construction this last year, has been fun for me to be able to get out and do stuff.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I I guess the main role for me is assistant pastor, campus pastor.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna be launching in a few weeks.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: So that's exciting.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, of course, I I help you with discipleship, some different aspects with that.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, do some teaching, some preaching, um, help Kat with Living Water.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_02: She's really developing a team with that.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm I'm not as hands-on with that as I once was.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and and really leading D groups and just training men uh to train other men and lead them to follow Jesus is really where my heart is.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: I love online stuff.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: I've I've talked with Sean, work with him about you know the uh social media algorithms and how to reach people online.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: And so just different things I've learned through the year to try to give back to the church.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: Speaking of which, so so right now, if you're listening to this, unless something crazy has happened, we have already launched the Thibodeau campus because June 7th uh is the day we launched that.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I rebuke anything crazy happening in the name of Jesus.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: We've had enough crazy happen uh going up to now.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: So yep.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: But uh hopefully you are watching this and maybe you've already been to Thibodeau campus.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: So we're excited about that.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, how'd you end up here?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: I always like to ask this question.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: How did you end up uh in ministry at Covenant Church, which was first Baptist Homer back back when you started?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my goodness.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: Brings me back to being uh leaving Minnesota where I got sober, coming here in August of 2010.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: My friend Bobby LeConte, not the Bobby LeConte that most think, the other Bobby LeConte uh that still lives in Homa, he brought me to Ricky Britt's Sunday school class.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_02: He was my sponsor and he invited me to church.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: And that's how I went to First Baptist Church downtown before it became Covenant.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember learning about politics the first 30 minutes and then learning about Jesus the next 30 minutes.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: And to be honest, as a young 20-something year old, I needed both just to learn what's the biblical view of politics, and then what does Jesus say about everything else?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: And so after that, I I just fell in love with the church.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: And it was in it was in February of 2011, I was dating a woman.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: She had four kids.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_02: I and I look back on that now and think, my goodness, Chet, what were you thinking?
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: She was not in a place to be dating me.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: I was not in a place to be dating her.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_02: And that relationship ended.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember finding myself in the Southland Mall parking lot.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: It was raining, it was 7:33 p.m.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'll never forget it.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I cried out to Jesus.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_02: I remember Pastor Steve talking about who Jesus was and hearing the gospel message in its simplest form for the first time in my life.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I cried out and I said, Jesus, if you're real, I need you now.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: I am tired of living this way.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: And in that moment, he saved me.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_02: And the funniest thing happened in that same moment, I remember I never really heard the voice of God audibly.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: Never.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: Some people may have.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_02: But I had this overwhelming sense that I was going to preach.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: And this was before I knew about Billy Graham and all the greats and that preaching looked cool to me.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_02: I just saw what Pastor Steve did every Sunday, you know?
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember I laughed out loud because I thought, that's silly.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: I barely passed English.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: I can't speak clear language.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: People are not going to understand me.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: And um, from that moment on, I met you.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Billy Stevens first.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: He got my connection card, then I guess he gave it to you.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: And then you called me.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I met you in the office, and you were like, Well, hey, look, the first thing you do, you're called to do is to get baptized after you believe in Jesus.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember not even having a hesitation.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: It was just okay, let's do it.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, look, that's what I remember about you when you first came.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: Everything was okay.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, right.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: This is your next step, Chad.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, let's do it.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: I was ready.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: And so uh you baptized me, and then bless your heart, you ran with me for it.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know how long you ran with me, but I was I was in prime marathon training stage in my life, and and uh you would get out there and and beat the pavement with me just to hang out with me and disciple me.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: Look, I could barely breathe trying to keep up with you.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: So you would talk and I'd be like, yeah.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: Try to correct you if you said anything wrong, but that's right.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: And then we go back to your house and Kelly had some buffalo chicken dip ready for us, whenever.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: Love buffalo chicken dip.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: And then from that moment on, really, just the love for the ministry, and you and Steve ever so slightly just kept bringing me into the fold of ministry.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you need to tell everybody your very first paying gig at First Baptist Homework.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: Because I love this.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: Sweet Miss Judy Calais called me one day.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: I was shredding paper out.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: I remember I was on the east side, shredding paper at some oil field company, and Miss Judy Calais called, I said, Hello.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: She said, Hey, baby, this is Judy from the church.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, Hey, Miss Judy.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: And she said, Look, um, we need somebody to watch a dead body tonight.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: Are you free?
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: I thought, watch a dead body.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what is this?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: You know?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so that was my first paying gig watching dead bodies at the old church.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Look, I can't imagine anything worse than sitting in that church by myself, that old church with a dead body.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: It was creepy.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: It was creepy.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna lie.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you were you were strong, man.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: I just I love that aspect of your ministry journey.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's your that's your first ministry position, sitting up with the dead body.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I tell you, you know, I felt so honored to do that.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: I I think I I look back on that and I think, man, to just to know that y'all trusted me enough to even do that, it was a big deal for me.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: Well, look, I mean, I I think I've told you this before, but it was obvious to me, and I think it was obvious to Steve at the very beginning that God had called you into ministry, just because we work with people all the time, right?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: Some people get saved and they they jump right in, right?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: Because nobody told them you need to ease into this thing.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then some people take a while to really surrender, I guess.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, and I and I I remember that it was obvious you surrendered right away, you know, because I remember when you came in too, uh, we were setting up for the CCA first CCA prom ever.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: And you walked in the gym and uh and I believe if I remember that time, uh, we started talking about how do you grow in your faith, you know, what you need to read and stuff.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: So if you would talk, talk a little bit about your journey before Christ.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, what what kind of um what kind of things did you have to struggle through to get to where you are?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: My mom and dad did the very best they could with what they knew.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: Early on in my early on in my walk with Jesus, I used to say, Oh, I grew up in this terrible house.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_02: And my perspective has changed on that now, raising kids.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: My parents provided a home for me that had accountability the best way they knew how.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: My parents provided a home for me where they they struggled through a lot.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: My mom and dad struggled a lot, but at the end of the day, they loved me and my brother, and they did the very best they could.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I appreciate that because I see so many families who are like mine when I grew up, but in but in a much different vein.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they let their kids go out and do whatever.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_02: You know, my mom and dad held me in check.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: I I would try to go drinking with my friends when I got a little older in teenage years, and they would drive by the house and be like, hey, Chet, I saw you holding something in your hand.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_02: What was that?
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just Coca-Cola, man.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: That's all it is.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: Drinking a cold Coca-Cola, you know?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so that the upbringing, um, the home, just the anger that was in my heart most of my childhood.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: My mom and dad even they paid thousands of dollars for counseling, just trying to get me the help that I needed.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: It really morphed into uh me having bits of rage.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I would punch holes in the wall in my room, I would throw stuff through the door.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: I even threatened my mom with a bat one time when I was 12.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: And my mom called the cops, which she most definitely needed to do that.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_02: And the cop came over and said, he said, Chet, I'll give you two options.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: Either you stop what you're doing or I'm bringing you to Juvie.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: Now, at that point, I had enough sense to not want to go to Juvie.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: So I never pulled out a bat on my mom again.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: But that did not stop me from cussing them.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: That did not stop me from making their lives a living hell.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: The moment that changed for me was when I drank my first beer and smoked my first bowl of pot.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: I was in heaven.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: The anger subsided.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: I felt this peace, this calmness come over me.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: I was able to sleep.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: It was amazing.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then that through the years, of course, went into one relationship after another.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: It got into harder and harder drugs.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, just spending days away from home, strung out.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: My first treatment center was a Kadiana Addiction Center at the time in Lafayette.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: I went there for 30 days.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: At that time, I was I was taking lots of cocaine.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: I was dabbling into pain pills and smoking a lot of pot.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I learned about harder drugs in that treatment center, got out, started doing them.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: So I started at that time smoking oxycotton, um, snorting oxycotton, and I really just got into this place where I was taking LSD, I was, I was popping um ecstasy pills.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: I began to sell ecstasy pills for people who fronted them to me, and then I was responsible of paying them back, and I'm just running away from them because I'm doing all the drugs that people are giving me.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I found myself in a position where I couldn't even, I didn't feel like I can go out during the day because someone would see me and they would make a call and I would be chased.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: So my life became like a bat.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: I would sleep during the day and stay up at night.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: I remember vividly being so strung out one night, and we we were doing cocaine all night, and I was at a rent house in um by Maple Avenue, downtown Homa, and I remember when the birds started chirping.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: They used to always start about 5.15, 520 right there.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember feeling depressed when the bird started chirping because that that meant the sun was coming out, that light was coming.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: I was living in such darkness and being oppressed by such evil that even the thought of the sun would give me depression.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: And that was a very dark moment in my life because I realized this is not where I wanted to be, but this is where I was and I couldn't stop.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so in February of 2008, I blacked out that whole month.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: I don't remember much about it.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_02: I know what my friends told me I did.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, as far as I know, I didn't do anything too crazy, but I was so strung out that I was I was not even in reality of what was going on.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: At the end of that month, my mom called me because I had stolen the car.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_02: My dad kicked me out.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: My dad did the most loving thing he could do.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: He said, Chet, you're not welcome here anymore.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: Get out of my house.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_02: Now I grew up in a home where this has changed, but I grew up in a home where my mom led the house and she enabled me a lot.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: My dad didn't want to enable me, but my mom did.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: And that was them just like they were working out their relationship, they were working out their relationship with God, and so it was an unhealthy place.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: And my dad stepped in and he said, Chet, this is the last straw.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: You're done.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: Get out of my house and don't come back.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: That hit me because that was the final bridge I had to any type of stability.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I steal the car, I go out, snort half an ounce of cocaine with a friend in a couple of days, and just really lose my mind.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: My mom called me.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: She said, Chet, you gotta understand what I'm about to tell you.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: She said, I have been begging your dad for three days straight.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: He is willing to give you one more chance.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_02: She said, Chet, it's you're not getting another one.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_02: She said, I found this place, and why is that in Minnesota?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: I don't even remember how she found it.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: When she listens to this, she'll probably remind me.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: But it was this beautiful treatment center, and at the time it was$10,000, which is unheard of.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: Usually treatments, even at that time, were$50,000,$60,000.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: And she said, Look, you if you go here, this is your last chance.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: And at that time, I remember being high and thinking, you know what?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: My mom is right.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: I said, I'll go.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: So she gave me the number, I called the number, and they said, Look, the only way you could come is if you're sober.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: I said, I'm sober.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I was not sober at all.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: So I slept.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: It was a 24-hour drive.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we stopped once.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: I slept the whole way, detoxing to that treatment center.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: Got there, got sober.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: To make a long story short, uh, began roofing, learned how to become a man, but there was still something missing.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I felt like it was time to move home.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_02: So I moved home in August of 2010, and that's where I ended up, you know, at First Baptist Now Covenant Church with you and Steve.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: And here we are now.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you remember this.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: So that first year that you would have gone to Brazil for the ministry, that was would have been my first time too.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: And the we well, we always did like a um gosh, what am I looking for?
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: What's the word I'm looking for here?
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, highlight video.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: And you uh you remember the song we used that first one?
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: It was uh, you know, you make beautiful things.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: You make beautiful things out of this.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: And hearing your story, I mean, that's that was that picture, right?
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: God makes beautiful things out of the mess we make of our lives.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, yeah.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I I you know, Brent, I look back on that and I I think about even even to go deeper when I met Nicole, you know, you and Kelly, you and Kelly were the first family for me that I really got to know inside their home that that truly loved each other.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: And that profoundly impacted me.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_02: And uh Nicole and I still talk about it, you know, in many ways early on in our marriage and even well into our marriage, we would think about you know how you guys would react around one another in your home.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, I just thank you for that because really it was a it was a big deal in my life.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_02: And now to see and now to see my mom and dad like being saved and transformed, and now they're praying for us and they're you know investing in our life, it just it's just amazing.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: We know as you were talking when I was thinking about that that song, The Beautiful Things.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I was thinking about the other day when we're moving those chairs into Thibodeau.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: Who would have I guess your parents in their wildest imaginations could not have imagined one day they're moving the chairs in for their son's campus that he's about to launch as a pastor, you know?
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's amazing.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: It brings tears to my eyes, you know.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: So talk about your ministry journey here.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we we we sit with the dead bodies, they they're not waking up, you're doing a good job.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: You didn't lose any dead bodies when you're there.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: Where'd you go from there?
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: How'd that come about?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I I one of the things that you and Steve have helped me with through the years is allowing me to fail.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: And early on, I remember my first five years of ministry as a student pastor here.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: Really, it was middle school with you and Sarah still leading, you were leading the youth, Sarah was doing high school, and then um, and then I transitioned after after uh she had left.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember making so many dumb decisions, but I was let to I was allowed to make those decisions, and that really helped me.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: You and every other young guy that's ever been in ministry, man.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: I look back, I was 28 when I came here.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: I look back at some of the things I did, and I was like, good lord, how did Steve not fire my butt?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know, right.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: I and I same thing.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: I look back on that.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: I look back when I started uh my the senior pastor position in Virginia at 30.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: I'm 38 now, but just eight years, I look back and go, Man, Chad, that was kind of dumb, man.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: You shouldn't have said that, or you shouldn't have done that, or you shouldn't have you should have weighed it.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_02: My my greatest weakness is impatience.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, when the Lord gives me a directive, I want it done tomorrow, and I'm willing to do everything I have to do to get it done tomorrow.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: And so um being here and and being on the pace of ministry that Steve sets helps me to see like things are done in God's timing.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: And and it's okay to press into that and and seek Him while you're on that path.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and it's been tough.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: Ministry, I had someone come up to me the other day and say they wanted to be in ministry.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_02: It was a student, and I said, I'm gonna give you I'm gonna give you a comment that I probably wouldn't have gave 10 years ago.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: You have to be 150% sure that you want to be in ministry.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: It is, it can be the toughest job, and it can be the most rewarding job.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh through the years, I've heard things that people have said about me.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I've had great friends, you know, stab me in the back.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_02: You know, these things are just part of the job.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_02: But on the flip side, I've created relationships that will last forever, and I've got to see God change lives in miraculous ways.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_02: And so I couldn't imagine doing anything else.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: That concludes part one of Inside Covenant with Chet Bajron.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Stay tuned next time for part two.