Pastor John James on Leadership, Generational Anointing, Perseverance, and His Love for Missions / Back Channel with Foth
Pastor John James joins us on the podcast for an insightful and inspiring conversation.
Takeaways:
- Understanding one's familial roots is crucial for personal development and leadership effectiveness.
- The concept of 'past is prologue' emphasizes the significance of history in shaping identity.
- Emotional and spiritual DNA influences leadership styles and personal growth significantly.
- A leader's primary task is defining reality, which is deeply informed by family history.
- Generational anointings should be acknowledged rather than focusing solely on generational curses.
- Empowering staff and promoting unity among campus pastors is essential in a multi-site church structure.
Transcript
Greetings and welcome back to the Clarity podcast.
Speaker A:So excited to be here today with a friend of the podcast, Dick Foth, for another session of Back Channel with Foth.
Speaker A:And then we're going to jump into our interview with Pastor John James.
Speaker A:Dick, welcome back to the podcast.
Speaker B:Thanks a million.
Speaker B:It's always a delight, Dick, looking forward.
Speaker A:To spending some time again with you today on Back Channel with Foe.
Speaker A:I got a listener.
Speaker A:Send in two questions.
Speaker A:First question is, Pete Cesaro says, Jesus is in your heart, but grandpa is in your bones.
Speaker A:How does understanding your past and family make you a better leader?
Speaker B:You know, hearing that line from Pete Scazaro makes me say, man, I wish I'd said that.
Speaker B:I love that Jesus is in your heart, but Grandpa's in your bones.
Speaker B:And how does understanding your past and family make you a better leader?
Speaker B:It's very interesting if you, if you and I were to go to a town you and I both have been in quite a bit, Washington, D.C.
Speaker B:and you walk up the stairs, I think this is correct, if my memory serves, which at my age, it doesn't always.
Speaker B:You see on one of the, of the main pillars going up the flank, the stairs, this phrase, past is prologue.
Speaker B:And the, some, some have said there, there is no past.
Speaker B:It's always with you in, in, in some way.
Speaker B:And that has a downside if, if it's guilt or shame or whatever.
Speaker B:But what you're asking here is what, what do you, what do you think?
Speaker B:Or how does your understanding of your roots coming through?
Speaker B:You know, we're fond today, especially in your arena in the, in the medical field of speaking about DNA and the breakthrough and breaking the code is just unbelievable what can be done.
Speaker B:And we think a fair amount about physical DNA.
Speaker B:I don't know that we talk quite as much about emotional, mental or spiritual DNA.
Speaker B:And oftentimes I speak of the fact that a lot of us feel like we're trapped by our past.
Speaker B:If it's our personal past, not our familial past necessarily, but taking it back to familial, to grandparents, parents, grandparents, their attitudes, their practices, maybe even their talents or gifts.
Speaker B:Well, pretty sure talents and gifts shape us more than we know.
Speaker B:There's a, there's a program on PBS in this country that's led by Dr.
Speaker B:Louis Gates from Yale, and it's called Finding your roots.
Speaker B:And in one of his episodes, he was talking with the singer Josh Groban and talked about how he got into music and so forth, and they started looking into his past and they got back to his Fifth or sixth great grandfather, great, great, great, great, great, great.
Speaker B:And they found that he was a choir master at a church in either a German, Swiss or Austrian town.
Speaker B:And here is this young man generations down the pike who has similar gifts to this choir master, composer and all of that.
Speaker B:And I think, I think understanding where we come from and the influences that shape us is so big.
Speaker B:You know, I look at my, I look at my father's father who worked in a raisin packing plant in Selma, California his whole life.
Speaker B:He was an artworker.
Speaker B:I look at my, my father's.
Speaker B:Excuse me, I look at my mother's father, and he was a rancher.
Speaker B:And before that, they were pioneers coming across the country and all of that.
Speaker B:But also there's a spiritual thread that runs through that.
Speaker B:So I think if, in fact, as our, as our friend Verne Clark, Admiral Clark says, to be a leader, the first task of a leader is to define reality.
Speaker B:Well, if I'm going to define reality about me and my personality and my mission, understanding my familial roots is a big part.
Speaker B:And so I think it's key, and I do think that how we, how we understand ourselves comes out of that.
Speaker B:My, My mother's, my mother's maiden name was Boyd.
Speaker B:And there are gazillion boys.
Speaker B:They're very prolific people around the world, as opposed to folks.
Speaker B:And the boy, it comes from a, I think a Gaelic or something phrase called boid.
Speaker B:It means yellow haired.
Speaker B:And they.
Speaker B:There's an ancestral castle in Kilmarnock, Scotland, south of Glasgow.
Speaker B:Little castle, not big.
Speaker B:But Ruth and I were there years ago and took a little tour and I'm looking at the coats of arms and stuff, and we get down to the end.
Speaker B:This is from the 12th century.
Speaker B:We get down to the end and I asked this older Scott, who's taking us around.
Speaker B:I said, so were the boys pretty good guys?
Speaker B:And he looked at me and grinned with a twinkle in his eye and said, they were gangsters.
Speaker B:I said, well, that helps me understand my uncles better, you know.
Speaker B:So anyway, I just, I, I just think when you read scripture, why did they do genealogy?
Speaker B:Why did they, you know, express that?
Speaker B:And here comes Jesus, who's saying, you know, both.
Speaker B:Paraphrase again.
Speaker B:I'm the spitting image of my dad, of my papa.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Anyway, yeah, I'm going to start rambling if I'm not careful.
Speaker A:No, it's good, it's good.
Speaker A:So you've kind of, you've delved in a little bit to.
Speaker A:Their second question is, how do you not let your family of orig be a shadow.
Speaker A:When you realize negative family traits are.
Speaker B:Impacting your leadership and by negative family traits impacting your leadership, I understand, at least I understand that as boy, here we go again.
Speaker B:Or I have this attitude that I picked up from a parent or a grandparent and it's affecting how I see my world.
Speaker B:I think this is where we say, okay, Lord Jesus, if in fact you came to transform me, I need your presence in my life to break this cycle.
Speaker B:I have a friend who served as a university president and then a district superintendent or depending on your church structure, the bishop of the area.
Speaker B:And it was interesting because he was so well received and so gifted.
Speaker B:But he had a brother who was in prison and had been for years, perhaps decades.
Speaker B:And it showed the difference between same family and historically some challenges in that family.
Speaker B:But he by his choices to follow Jesus and let the spirit work in him was breaking the cycle.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I think, and, and again that, that, that comes back to am I trapped or am I shaped?
Speaker B:I'm not, I don't have to be trapped.
Speaker B:Jesus didn't go to the cross for me to be trapped.
Speaker B:But I am shaped in certain ways and, and some of those are downsides and I just need to be aware of that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Good word as always, Dick.
Speaker A:It's, it's gold.
Speaker A:Getting your wisdom and insight on these, on these questions, we're going to go ahead and jump into our interview with Pastor John James on leadership and transition in succession.
Speaker A:Well, there's no to get started, so here we go.
Speaker A:Greetings.
Speaker A:Welcome back to the Clarity podcast.
Speaker A:So excited to be here today with a friend from a long, long way back, Pastor John James.
Speaker A:John, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker C:Hey, thanks for having me.
Speaker C:And yeah, we've known each other a long time.
Speaker A:A lot of years.
Speaker A:A lot of years.
Speaker A:And we won't delve into those past stories.
Speaker A:But John, for those who didn't get to go to Southeastern University with you and don't know you yet, will you share a little bit about yourself before I start peppering you with some questions?
Speaker C:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker C:So Bethany Church in North Jersey, right outside New York City.
Speaker C:We're a multi site church and I had the great privilege of pastoring kind of my home church that I grew up in and my dad was the pastor before me and I kind of been here all my life, had a couple little segues obviously went up to Southeastern for a couple years.
Speaker C:I was in another church in New Jersey for a couple years, but 23 years now on staff and Tons of different roles.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker C:And I love this church.
Speaker C:I love this house.
Speaker C:I'm so privileged now to get a chance to pastor it.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So what's it like being.
Speaker A:I mean, you're pastoring the church where you grew up in.
Speaker A:I mean, so how.
Speaker A:What.
Speaker A:I'm sure that's joy.
Speaker A:So I'm sure there's some challenges.
Speaker A:What are some of the joys?
Speaker C:Well, the joys are you love it.
Speaker C:Like, you just.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:You.
Speaker C:You have a special passion because of your.
Speaker C:I have memories.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And you have people that I've known.
Speaker C:You know, I have a staff pastor that I've known him since he was born, and just family, friends.
Speaker C:And then you.
Speaker C:You have.
Speaker C:You just know all the history.
Speaker C:You don't have to try to be piecing it together.
Speaker C:You are the history.
Speaker C:So when we do our membership class, when I tell the history, it really is a good history, John.
Speaker C:Even though the church is 114 years old, so it's 114 year old church.
Speaker C:But obviously now, you know, between my father, myself, over 40 years of leading this.
Speaker C:So we have a big part of the history of it.
Speaker C:The bad, the negative is there was a lot of people that were aunts and uncles to me, and now I'm their pastor.
Speaker C:And that's.
Speaker C:That one's.
Speaker C:That one's a funny one because they knew me as a kid who was running up and down the hallways, getting in trouble, the PK that was always messing up.
Speaker C:And now I'm trying to lead them.
Speaker C:So that's the challenge of it.
Speaker C:But they're wonderful.
Speaker C:I have so much grace.
Speaker A:Awesome.
Speaker A:Awesome.
Speaker A:Well, I'm going to start asking you some questions.
Speaker A:So here's this one.
Speaker A:You lead a church that has a heart and passion for the world, and Heather and I got to be there with you in January.
Speaker A:And that was evident not only as you as the leader, but the people in the church, man, they love the world and love missions.
Speaker A:Can you share kind of the genesis story of this love for the world?
Speaker A:And as you became lead pastor, what are some of the reasons you didn't come in and say, hey, I'm going to change this, and we're going to.
Speaker A:We're going to continue to be outward focused.
Speaker A:We're not going to become inward focused.
Speaker A:Kind of the genesis story for love for the world.
Speaker A:And some of the reasons you've said, hey, I want to embrace this and help us move forward, not draw inward.
Speaker C:Yeah, well, I love the question.
Speaker C:Well, first and foremost, it's all I ever really knew.
Speaker C:So for me, going outside of that would have been very countercultural.
Speaker C:So my dad, when they first got saved, so the cool thing kind of about my parents are first generation Christians.
Speaker C:And so they got radically saved.
Speaker C:Drugs, alcohol, dysfunctional families, radically saved.
Speaker C:And they ended up in a church in Aurora, Colorado.
Speaker C:And it was a, it was one of the big missions churches in the 80s.
Speaker C:And so they were instantly ingrained into a missions culture.
Speaker C:When my dad moved out to New Jersey, became the pastor here, he basically turned a church that was giving a few thousand dollars a year to missions into one of the top missions giving churches in the ag.
Speaker C:And that's what I was raised in.
Speaker C:The very first time I ever got a check, it was, okay, John, let's write your tithe and let's write your back then.
Speaker C:Faith promise.
Speaker C:What's your faith promise going to be?
Speaker C:There was never a moment of discovery and it was just part of what we did.
Speaker C:And so my calling really happened on a missions trip when I was a teenager.
Speaker C:I felt called as a young kid, but really my faith and everything kind of came together on a missions trip where it was kind of like, if I'm going to do this Jesus thing, it means I'm going to be in ministry.
Speaker C:And I was fighting that in my younger years and then finally just gave it over.
Speaker C:That was right before I went to Southeastern and committed it all.
Speaker C:And so missions is our family.
Speaker C:It's our passion.
Speaker C:The Lord made my dad a promise.
Speaker C:This used to be on the wall.
Speaker C:It was just simply this.
Speaker C:If you'll take care of the world, I'll always take care of you.
Speaker C:And I remember him teaching that to us as a staff and it never got out of my heart the minute I heard it.
Speaker C:So we've seen the blessing of God over every area of our church.
Speaker C:And I just know it's because that promise he prophetically spoke, if you'll take care of the world, we'll take care of you.
Speaker C:We've never hurt for anything as a church.
Speaker C:We've been able to never not pay bills.
Speaker C:The Lord's always taking care of us.
Speaker C:And I think it's just because we love the world and we love the Great Commission.
Speaker C:You know, we have this little thought like, oh, are they a Great Commission church?
Speaker C:Like, I think we're all supposed to be and that's just our calling.
Speaker C:So, no, it's been easy.
Speaker C:It's all I ever knew.
Speaker C:When they, when the church interviewed me, that was one of their big questions is, do you have the Same philosophy on world missions as your dad?
Speaker C:It was, yes.
Speaker C:And I even said, I really feel like we can even go upward from where we have is the church is growing, we'll see this grow.
Speaker C:And luckily we've actually seen that.
Speaker C:So that's been really cool.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:And when I was there, I got the opportunity to.
Speaker A:You took me to the community center and man, you lit up at the church and you lit up at the community center so you could tell where your passions were.
Speaker A:So that's the other.
Speaker A:I think that thought that was really exciting was I got to experience the love for the world.
Speaker A:And then your community, you have a heart and love for the community.
Speaker A:Can you share just a little bit about the community center?
Speaker A:The focus of that once again, reaching outward.
Speaker A:It's not inward towards Bethany, but you want to touch the community.
Speaker A:You're touching the world.
Speaker A:So share about the community center.
Speaker C:Yeah, sure.
Speaker C:So one of the campuses, it was our first campus we planted.
Speaker C: Susie and I planted it in: Speaker C:The Lord was on it.
Speaker C:And we just kind of said, what if our main campus is in Wyckoff?
Speaker C:And we kind of said, what if we took this and just did it in another place?
Speaker C:And it just.
Speaker C:It worked.
Speaker C:And then we started looking for a building within the first few years because we.
Speaker C:The building we had was.
Speaker C:Didn't fit the congregation.
Speaker C:And down the street was this huge Jewish Community Center.
Speaker C:88,000 square foot building with swimming pools and basketball courts.
Speaker C:And you name it, it has it in it.
Speaker C:But it was run down.
Speaker C:It was what you saw was not what we bought.
Speaker C:And the Lord just kind of led us.
Speaker C:We did vision walks, we did prayer walks around it.
Speaker C:We just started claiming it.
Speaker C:We couldn't afford it.
Speaker C:North Jersey, the prices here are New York City prices.
Speaker C:So it's crazy.
Speaker C:We did prayer walks around it.
Speaker C:We just started claiming it for.
Speaker C:And then the miraculous story may be another time of how the Lord just began to ordainly move different people out of the way.
Speaker C:So basically we were the only potential people in the whole place that could buy it.
Speaker C:And we got it for basically half the original asking price.
Speaker C:And then we begin to transform it.
Speaker C:And so it basically functions against 88, 000 square foot.
Speaker C:It has a wellness center.
Speaker C:You can be a member at a pool gymnasium.
Speaker C:It has a music school that has 450 kids a week to take music lessons.
Speaker C:It has a dive academy, so kids learn die their Junior Olympics training there.
Speaker C:We're.
Speaker C:We're about ready to open up our cafe Pretty soon there.
Speaker C:It's an amazing place.
Speaker C:And the whole goal is the Bethany Community center is a ministry of Bethany Church that exists to connect the local community to the local church.
Speaker C:And it's all.
Speaker C:It's just simply an on ramp.
Speaker C:Churches are always finding out how do we get people into our building.
Speaker C:And we basically built the building that they had to be in.
Speaker C:And so the really is.
Speaker C:The town is in every day.
Speaker C:Thousands of people go through that building every single day.
Speaker C:Our challenge now is taking a deeper look of how do we really operate this to the.
Speaker C:But full potential.
Speaker C:It can be.
Speaker C:It can become a YMCA, and I love YMCAs, but it can become a YMCA very easily.
Speaker C:So we're always pushing back to make sure we're keeping mission first.
Speaker C:We're a church with an outward focus.
Speaker C:Let's not.
Speaker C:Let's be careful and just manage it.
Speaker C:But the Lord's been in it.
Speaker C:It's been miraculous.
Speaker C:We have tons of stories of people who came in for amusing class and ended up in our church family saved, baptized.
Speaker C:And they had no idea that that's where the Lord was leading them.
Speaker C:But the Spirit was.
Speaker C:The Spirit was leading.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:So, John, what are some of the questions you're asking yourself?
Speaker A:You said, I played church league basketball in the why, so I love the why too.
Speaker A:But you said it could easily become the why.
Speaker A:But we want it to be mission focused.
Speaker A:So that's a passion of yours because you could hear when you shared it the passion.
Speaker A:Where does that desire come from?
Speaker A:And then what are some of the questions you ask yourself to make sure that you're staying on that mission focus.
Speaker A:And it doesn't drift because I think things naturally can drift if we're not anchored.
Speaker A:So what are some questions?
Speaker C:Yeah, and I would even say that it, it has drifted in some areas.
Speaker C:We've had that I think for.
Speaker C:We've had the building for eight years.
Speaker C:And I think it's an always a pullback in.
Speaker C:There's financial expectations that need to be met to help pay for the facility.
Speaker C:And so some of those sometimes can kind of, kind of reign over mission a little bit more because you got to pay bills and some of those things.
Speaker C:And we fall into that in church ministries and missions ministry as well.
Speaker C:I mean, I'm talking, I think to a lot of missionaries on this, on this group.
Speaker C:So this is a bam.
Speaker C:That's just, it's just simply a bam.
Speaker C:You guys are.
Speaker C:You guys have been doing this all over the world as long.
Speaker C:Way longer than we.
Speaker C:We didn't invent this this is just you.
Speaker C:We're just taking what you guys have been doing around the world now and doing it locally.
Speaker C:But it's easy for those things to just become a business and lose the mission.
Speaker C:And so I'm always talking to the team.
Speaker C:Let's remember what we're trying to do.
Speaker C:Let's, let's try to lead every conversation to a Christ centric.
Speaker C:Let's try to have faith conversations.
Speaker C:Let's try to lead them that way.
Speaker C:And then the challenging thing on all that is always like the harvest.
Speaker C:The harvest doesn't work as easy as it is to just ordain because what sometimes we're tilling the ground, sometimes we're planting, sometimes we're watering and you're just praying the Lord would begin to bring the harvest into different areas.
Speaker C:And so you're just praying and believing.
Speaker C:But our biggest thing is we're like doing evaluations.
Speaker C:Is this helping us financially?
Speaker C:If it is, then maybe we'll do it.
Speaker C:Is it working missionally?
Speaker C:And then it's just kind of reinventing the wheel.
Speaker C:But if it has, if it's just something that the town comes to and there's just never a connection with the church and we're probably saying good, but not, not really what our, what our main goal is.
Speaker C:And that's a tough balance because it can easily waver.
Speaker C:I kind of say like this, the, our at least where we live at, we don't need another ymca.
Speaker C:There's other ones around here that probably do that stuff better than we do it.
Speaker C:So if there's not a connection to the local church, then we're kind of wasting time, money, energy.
Speaker C:So let's just continue.
Speaker C:And I just think a lot of prayer, a lot of prayer, just saying God ordained conversations today that will lead towards, hey, here's our service times.
Speaker C:Come check out a service.
Speaker C:And it's a heavy kind of Roman Catholic background.
Speaker C:So people come in and their first things are, oh my goodness, what have I walked into?
Speaker C:You know, we're obviously Pentecost, Pentecostal Church and Spirit filled and all that.
Speaker C:So it's, it's an interesting, interesting thing.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's in the heart of the community.
Speaker A:That's the other thing that, you know, I noticed it's, it's not on the outskirts of town.
Speaker A:You know, it's in the heart of the community.
Speaker A:The other thing I noticed, John, when I was with you, that you stop and take the time to talk to people.
Speaker A:People knew you.
Speaker A:We were going in out of the center.
Speaker A:People knew you and you're you're a pastor of a multi site.
Speaker A:We're going to talk a little bit about some of the challenges of that.
Speaker A:But you take, you take the time to genuinely look at people in the eye and to talk to them and value them.
Speaker A:Is that something that comes natural to you?
Speaker A:And because it's, it struck me as I spent time with you because you could easily say, listen, I live in a fast paced culture.
Speaker A:I would imagine North Jersey's fast paced, right.
Speaker A:People, it's high paced.
Speaker A:People talk quick in the realities of.
Speaker A:You have a lot of responsibilities but you, you stopped and greeted people, spent time with them and you didn't move on until they were ready to move on.
Speaker A:Is that, is that something you learn, something come natural to you?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Can you share about it?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Well, I don't know if I noticed.
Speaker C:I did it.
Speaker C:So I naturally I actually, the older I've gotten, the more challenging it's become where just the job sometimes can get so big that you kind of forget those things.
Speaker C:And so again, I was, I always say this for good or for bad.
Speaker C:I was mentored by my father and there's some great qualities of that and there's probably some things that people would say you need another mentor in some areas.
Speaker C:But one of the things my dad never was not in the hallways, working, greeting people like that was never like, obviously there's times we have three services on Sunday mornings, man preaching three times.
Speaker C:Sometimes you need 10 minutes to catch your breath in the morning.
Speaker C:But we were trained to work hallways, be in hallways, greet people, learn names.
Speaker C:And it was just, it was ingrained into me that that's, I go home sometimes and Susie will say, can you give me that kind of attention?
Speaker C:Like, I'm here too.
Speaker C:Your boys are here.
Speaker C:And sometimes I use up all my words and all my energy and I got to be careful that I don't bring that home with me.
Speaker C:But I try, I try my best to engage people.
Speaker C:I love ministry.
Speaker C:I absolutely, I never wake up one day and say, I don't want to do this.
Speaker C:There's days, there's things I don't want to do.
Speaker C:There's a lot of things I don't want to do.
Speaker C:But I love ministry in general.
Speaker C:I love people.
Speaker C:Not everybody's easy to love, but I love them.
Speaker C:And we just try our best to be as real.
Speaker C:I think the John you would get from me, at least like my heart is the same John, if you showed up to my house at any time, it'd be the same guy you'd run into in the hallways.
Speaker C:I don't.
Speaker C:I don't.
Speaker C:I'm not trying to try to pretend to be anybody else, but who I am, for better or for worse, that's who you're going to get.
Speaker A:No, and it's.
Speaker A:It's evident.
Speaker A:And John, he went over it really quick, but I got to speak at their church, and it is three services, and I lost my voice in the third.
Speaker A:In the third one.
Speaker A:So there was a challenge of that, and he was kind even to the West Virginian who lost his voice in the middle of the third sermon.
Speaker A:So, John, you and I are becoming the older ones in the room, but what are some of the joys and challenges of being a younger spiritual leader with a large global outreach?
Speaker A:I mean, you and I would say when you look at that, the large global reach that you have at Bethany, you definitely have to be one of the younger spiritual leaders in the room when it comes to that large of a reach.
Speaker A:What are some of the challenges of that?
Speaker C:Yeah, I think it's just gaining your voice and finding.
Speaker C:Finding that because I'm, you know, my goal, first and foremost is to learn first and try to read a room of what's going on and learn from those that have been doing this a lot longer than I have, and then trying to find where do I fit into these conversations, and then obviously invited into those conversations.
Speaker C:And then how.
Speaker C:How do I.
Speaker C:How do I.
Speaker C:You know, what.
Speaker C:What's important enough for me to talk about and what I've learned.
Speaker C:And again, I feel it is funny because I.
Speaker C:We're at this age, you know, I'm.
Speaker C:I'm 47, and I still feel and think I'm 30, and, like, that's the way I perceive myself.
Speaker C:And then I go back and I watch a Sunday service, and I look very quickly and realize I'm not 30 anymore.
Speaker C:And I see a family picture or a picture, and I go, I'm not that person who my brain.
Speaker C:So I'm always having to kind of tell myself I'm young at heart and young in mind, and I still think I'm that person.
Speaker C:And then all of a sudden, I see how things are viewed, and it's not that anymore.
Speaker C:And so just trying to find that.
Speaker C:I think it's just trying to find that balance of doing that and trying to help those along the way, especially in global.
Speaker C:In global ministry.
Speaker C:I don't do a lot of.
Speaker C:I do a little stuff on church planning because we planted a campus and we have multiple sites, but my heart mostly for Communicating with, with leadership is mission stuff.
Speaker C:I love helping other churches learn how to run missions programs and I've learned from everybody else.
Speaker C:I'm just taking what they did and moving in different places, but that's kind of my goal.
Speaker A:Yeah, awesome.
Speaker A:So John, you mentioned it.
Speaker A:You've sat in, you lead a multi site church and you sat in a lot of those different seats.
Speaker A:So and, and I think the missionaries listening in a lot of times they've, they've been a team member, they've been a team leader, they've been a, an area, they've sat in a lot of those seats too.
Speaker A:So I think this is super valuable what you're going to share.
Speaker A:So what are some of the lessons you've learned?
Speaker A:Maybe some, or if you want to pick a few from the different seats that you sat in in a multi site church and the different seats you've got to sit in.
Speaker C:Yeah, I, I, I'd love to spend a couple of minutes on this conversation.
Speaker C:The benefit of being at one place for a long time is you really get to see how things can progress over years and time.
Speaker C:And I do know there's people that they shift ministries and the Lord leads us and I get that.
Speaker C:But when you get to watch something for years and years, you can really watch the development.
Speaker C:So I started as a youth pastor, I moved into as associate pastor.
Speaker C:Then we planted our first campus and I was a campus pastor then senior pastor.
Speaker C:So I just went through these roles.
Speaker C:I was a media director at one time.
Speaker C:I mean, you name it, pretty much I've done it.
Speaker C:And one of the things that I've learned is my personality is I always want to go faster.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker C:And everything that I've ever walked through has been slower than I like it.
Speaker C:And the most valuable lessons that I've learned is God's timing is perfect.
Speaker C:Because I've always, at the end of every season that I've been in, I've wanted to press harder and, and I felt, I felt the Spirit's promptings sooner than the transitions happened.
Speaker C:I sensed the Lord saying to do things but the time for when the Lord beginning to stir my heart towards hey, this season the youth ministry is done.
Speaker C:Let's plan a church.
Speaker C:All those the Lord spoke to me a long time before those things transpired.
Speaker C:And so in that process, I think the beauty of the weight, I think the beauty of God's timing, the beauty of trusting the processes of God and saying the Lord's timing is perfect.
Speaker C:And what I've learned is I thought I was More ready for different things.
Speaker C:And then when I got into those specific new roles with opportunities and leadership, I quickly realized, man, I'm glad I wasn't here two years ago.
Speaker C:I'm glad that this is the right time and just trusting that time.
Speaker C:You know, time is the ultimate gauge of leadership.
Speaker C:You can read books, you can grow.
Speaker C:I think there's some questions on some of those things.
Speaker C:To me, I think time is.
Speaker C:You learn more by doing and being.
Speaker C:And being confident in that.
Speaker C:And so the roles that I've served in.
Speaker C:So I think the most important one would be my role from campus pastor to lead pastor.
Speaker C:And that was a tough one because my father and I, he had had leadership conversations with elders about a transition, and he had begun to prepare for what that would look like.
Speaker C:And those conversations were, like, way prior to when the season would happen.
Speaker C:And I remember I was very anxious about it.
Speaker C:I actually felt like the Lord was calling me into that role at some point to be a lead pastor, to be a senior pastor.
Speaker C:The timing didn't work out on all of those things, and I just felt there was a preparation.
Speaker C:And now that I sit in the seat that I sit for the last five years, man, I'm so happy that it didn't happen sooner.
Speaker C:If anything, maybe another year or two would have been okay.
Speaker C:You know, I mean, that's the truth.
Speaker C:I mean, again, I feel called to lead, so I don't back away from that.
Speaker C:I feel like there's a grace and an anointing on it, but on the opposite side is there's no.
Speaker C:There's no one else to pass the buck up to.
Speaker C:The responsibility falls on you.
Speaker C:The weight.
Speaker C:There's a.
Speaker C:There's a weight of leading the whole organization that you can just.
Speaker C:All you can do is just say it's there.
Speaker C:You can't explain it.
Speaker C:And I remember my dad would sit in those meetings we had where he was training me and preparing me, and he goes, john, until you sit on this side of the desk, there's just things I can try to explain to you, but you're just not going to understand them.
Speaker C:And then you sit there and you go, oh, wow.
Speaker C:This is what he was talking about.
Speaker C:This is the pressure.
Speaker C:This is the tension.
Speaker C:This is the.
Speaker C:This is the weight.
Speaker C:There's just.
Speaker C:But then there's an anointing for that, too, which is really cool.
Speaker C:There's not only there's a weight, there's an anointing to walk through it.
Speaker C:But I wasn't ready.
Speaker C:I will tell you this.
Speaker C:I wasn't ready for those.
Speaker C:At the times that the Lord began to tell me that that was coming.
Speaker C:And I'm happy for God's race and seasons and patience, patience, patience, patience.
Speaker C:And that's been.
Speaker C:That's probably the biggest thing I can learn is wherever you're at, let.
Speaker C:Let time.
Speaker C:God knows the perfect timing for these things.
Speaker C:And what I found is when I maneuvered things to my abilities, I usually regretted it and when I allowed the proper things to take place.
Speaker C:So the way the transition even ended up happening was my dad ended up being elected as a superintendent.
Speaker C:So it's supposed to be a couple years later, and it happened out of nowhere.
Speaker C:There was a big kind of turnover in our district, and my dad said he would never be a superintendent, swore to me with his life on the line, and ended up moving into that role.
Speaker C:And so it ended up happening even at a different timing than we were talking about.
Speaker C:But his timing was perfect and we were able to move into it.
Speaker C:And so, yeah, there's a season.
Speaker C:There's a season.
Speaker C:I mean, there's a season for everything.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And then I think I've learned this too.
Speaker C:Enjoy those seasons.
Speaker C:Like, literally when I look back, I tell our campus pastors, now, that's the best job in the church.
Speaker C:I'm just telling you, it's the best job in the church.
Speaker C:I got to lead a church.
Speaker C:We went, moved into a community center.
Speaker C:I was leading a congregation.
Speaker C:I was preaching, I was pastoring.
Speaker C:But I didn't have to carry the weight of the whole budget.
Speaker C:I didn't have to see all the campuses.
Speaker C:I just could just focus on that.
Speaker C:So I.
Speaker C:I didn't have to run every board meeting.
Speaker C:I didn't have to run the annual church meeting, but I got to pastor the church.
Speaker C:That was the benefit.
Speaker C:The struggle of it was I'm sitting in a position that we were pastoring one of the fastest growing.
Speaker C:If you just took our campus on its own, it would have been a top missions church in the network on its own.
Speaker C:If it just stood alone, it was probably the fastest growing church in our network.
Speaker C:It was the fastest growing missions church in the network.
Speaker C:And I'm sitting there going on this campus pastor, and you start kind of playing this game in your brain of, you know, like, I should be this and that.
Speaker C:And then you just say, that was a tough.
Speaker C:That was a tough balance for me in that role and a great campus pastor.
Speaker C:You better be sure of who God called you to be, because you're gonna.
Speaker C:Oftentimes that senior pastor is going to get the recognition you're going to look, be looked past.
Speaker C:And so when I tell my campus pastors, we have top tier campus pastors that could go put their resumes out right now, they'd be hired in a second.
Speaker C:And you just gotta be very confident that you're where God called you to be and trust that thing.
Speaker C:And then now stepping out of it, it's the best, it's the best job of all.
Speaker C:Like in our role you get to do all the great parts about ministry and you actually don't have to deal with the worst parts of it.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker C:Sometimes I wish I could go back.
Speaker A:Wow, wow, wow, wow.
Speaker A:So John, how with the multi sites you talked about the different campus pastors, how do you promote unity and a united vision when it could as you just shared, you know, you have high anointed people leading these churches and it would be very easy for everybody to kind of do what they wanted to do and be more about their selves.
Speaker A:So how are you promoting this unity and united vision with the multiple sites with highly talented and gifted people?
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah, very highly.
Speaker C:You met quite a few of them.
Speaker C:Highly gifted, great people, most of that.
Speaker C:So the way our structure is and one of the major changes that I made when I took over the role to lead was that we'd have a campus pastor at every location.
Speaker C:So my dad, kind of, because we were one church when he started it, the church grew from a couple hundred people to a couple thousand under his leadership.
Speaker C:So like.
Speaker C:But it was still one site.
Speaker C:So people still saw him as that pastor of that main location.
Speaker C:So the first thing I did was basically put in a campus pastor at every location so that I could go around and speak at different campuses.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:And so I get to travel.
Speaker C:So like I probably preach like 35 to 40 times a year tops.
Speaker C:And I probably only preach at our main location like 20 times a year.
Speaker C:So I'm at campuses lots of weeks and those are our biggest campuses and our smallest campuses that creates unity.
Speaker C:And then basically my role and really my wife, my wife and I, Susie, is we really pastor, our pastors, you know, that's, I don't do a ton of pastoral care, obviously.
Speaker C:I made a call today.
Speaker C:We have someone in the hospital that's you know, urgent and, but I do a little bit of that.
Speaker C:But, but that's really it.
Speaker C:Our campus pastors handle all that.
Speaker C:So I really, I really lead our team.
Speaker C:And so my wife has this thing or Bethany Church, she calls it BC Chicks.
Speaker C:And it's all of our, we have, we Have a couple great female pastors on our staff and then spouses and she leads us.
Speaker C:She's got a book club with them in the morning and she leads that.
Speaker C:And they do it once a month.
Speaker C:And we really pour our heart and our life into our staff.
Speaker C:And so that's our investment.
Speaker C:So that keeps unity because they kind of get our undivided attention.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker C:So really the people I work with is our deacons, elders and staff.
Speaker C:And outside of that, again, the critical stuff.
Speaker C:But again, like you mentioned, I appreciate.
Speaker C:You mentioned.
Speaker C:I still go on the hallway and love people.
Speaker C:Like I still love people.
Speaker C:Thanks for trying.
Speaker C:I didn't, you know, thanks for noticing that.
Speaker C:But I do, I just, I let the, the mechanics of the ministries be run by the pastors.
Speaker C:So they run the ministries.
Speaker C:But I still out there loving on people, meeting as many people as I can.
Speaker C:And so that's the big thing.
Speaker C:And then we just promote, we just promote unity.
Speaker C:Better together.
Speaker C:Better together.
Speaker C:And so here's, I'll give you like our strategies, ministries are going on and maybe if you have international church planners or some of those things.
Speaker C:So like our, whenever I teach it like CNN or some of those things for church planning, this is, this is the definition I use like same DNA, different personality.
Speaker C:That's our multi site method.
Speaker C:So like I want you in one second to walk in and say Bethany Church, any of our campuses, you should come in and go, I know who this is.
Speaker C:But then when you really get to know that campus, we have campuses that are a little more rural.
Speaker C:We have ones that are in upper economic, you know, townships, we have some in inner city, we have Spanish.
Speaker C:So they're all ministering.
Speaker C:So like the goal is really simple.
Speaker C:Like you come in and say, this is, I know what family I'm in.
Speaker C:And then it's like any good family, they have distinct personalities.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:So like one of the cool things is, and you met my brother, my brother's on staff with us, he's one of our campus pastors.
Speaker C:And so I always use the illustration like you meet my brother for one second, you're going to go, those guys are brothers.
Speaker C:Like you just know it.
Speaker C:Like you'll get to talk to us for one minute and you'll say, oh my goodness, that's obviously John's brother.
Speaker C:But then when you really get to know us well, you'll find out we have very distinct personalities.
Speaker C:Like he's my older brother and he never would wanted to have been a senior pastor.
Speaker C:He loves pastor on the campus, he heads up our missions he loves planning events and details.
Speaker C:He's administrative.
Speaker C:I hate administration.
Speaker C:So when you get to know us, we have very different personalities.
Speaker C:And so that's it.
Speaker C:So you're going to know very quickly, same family.
Speaker C:But then every campus and every ministry has its own kind of personality to it, and that's kind of the way we draw that.
Speaker C:And that's fine.
Speaker C:I really let the guys build their local churches with personality as long as we're staying.
Speaker C:So I say this, stay in the box.
Speaker C:But we're going to give you a very big box to be in.
Speaker C:Like, a very big box.
Speaker C:Like.
Speaker C:But you have to stay in the box.
Speaker C:But it's going to be the biggest box you've ever been able to be in.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:You've worked in some unique.
Speaker A:You know, you've got to do ministry in unique situations.
Speaker A:I mean, with your dad and now with your brother.
Speaker A:And I don't think.
Speaker A:I think that also speaks to your family, the love you guys have for each other, which is.
Speaker A:Which is palpable and evident.
Speaker A:But I don't know if everybody could do that, you know, I mean, and.
Speaker C:As you said, not everybody can do it.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And as you said.
Speaker C:And there's tension.
Speaker C:There's tension with that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:Even with my dad.
Speaker C:He's my mentor.
Speaker C:18 years.
Speaker C:If you would have told me as a teenager, I'd have worked for my dad for 18 years, I would have laughed at you.
Speaker C:I didn't even know if I wanted to be a Christian, let alone work for my dad in the church.
Speaker C:So, you know, it.
Speaker C:Amazing.
Speaker C:And then my brother, and then now leading your older brother, that has some tension to it every once in a while, but he has the best spirit about it.
Speaker C:Never, never any pushback.
Speaker C:No.
Speaker C:Not everybody should do it.
Speaker C:I would say that.
Speaker C:And I've actually had people come me and be like, hey.
Speaker C:And I, like, I had one pastor who I served at his church for a couple years.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:And he had a son.
Speaker C:He goes, I'm thinking about.
Speaker C:And I told him, I don't know.
Speaker C:I know your son.
Speaker C:I don't think you guys should do this.
Speaker C:They did it.
Speaker C:It didn't work.
Speaker C:It's not for everybody.
Speaker C:There has to be a lot of grace extended.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And it worked for us.
Speaker C:But the.
Speaker C:The.
Speaker C:My dad, who I worked for later in life was not the same dad who raised me.
Speaker C:You know, he wasn't.
Speaker C:He wasn't a strict father anymore.
Speaker C:He was a loving pastor who saw me as a son and trusted me with leadership.
Speaker C:That's the other thing.
Speaker C:If you're going to lead a multi site church that has strong leaders.
Speaker C:You've got to empower them.
Speaker C:So like I give a lot of empowerment.
Speaker C:I don't micromanage.
Speaker C:And that's what I learned from my dad.
Speaker C:Like he let me lead, he let, he never tried to hold me back.
Speaker C:He never was threatened that we had this campus that was like getting as large as our main location.
Speaker C:That never, it was just blessing, blessing, blessing.
Speaker C:Keep running, keep going, keep, keep running as fast as you can.
Speaker C:And so when you do that, you're going to have great people stick around because you're not threatened by them.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:But no, no, no, it's not fair.
Speaker C:Multi site's not for everybody.
Speaker C:And working with families, not for everybody.
Speaker C:But we've done it very, very well.
Speaker C:But can I share something on that for a minute?
Speaker C:Because the Lord speaking to me about something with this, this is really cool.
Speaker C:I'm not a writer, so I don't know if I'll write this.
Speaker C:Maybe I'll have you write the book for me and I can put my name on it somewhere.
Speaker C:I want to put this thought together about generational anointings.
Speaker C:And we talk too much about generational curses and what is it that's been passed down, passed down bad.
Speaker C:But when do we stop talking about that and start talking about what's been passed down good?
Speaker C:Like I'm walking in generational anointing.
Speaker C:And so this hit me and I'll show you how the story, this is a cool story.
Speaker C:So Scott Young.
Speaker C:Did you know Scott in Tampa?
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker C:So I was at a global university event just a few weeks ago.
Speaker C:And if I, if I tear up in this, this is how emotional the story is to me.
Speaker C:He comes up and, and I brought my oldest son who's, who's 15, he's a golfer.
Speaker C:And we're, we're doing a golf event and a fundraiser and whatever.
Speaker C:And we're sitting there, I said, hey, Scott, I want you to meet my oldest son.
Speaker C:And Scott gets down on his knee and if you know him, he's just, he's affirming, he's loving, he's just an incredible man.
Speaker C:And he leans down and he goes, he goes, sammy, that's my oldest son's name.
Speaker C:He goes, did you know that there's an anointing on your family?
Speaker C:And he looks at him dead in his eyes, he goes, I know your grandfather and he has an anointing.
Speaker C:I know he puts his arm around me.
Speaker C:I know your dad very well.
Speaker C:And he's got an Anointing on him.
Speaker C:He goes, you know, you have an anointing on you.
Speaker C:And he goes, are you a man of God?
Speaker C:He looks at my 15 year old, imagine him, he's like, you know, like how a 15 year old could read, Are you a man of God?
Speaker C:And he.
Speaker C:So then Sammy's, yes.
Speaker C:You know, like, and, and I, and I walked and, and I said, I told my son, I said, do you know what just happened there?
Speaker C:And he's like, yeah, he just prophesied anointing over your life.
Speaker C:So I found, I had to find Scott later on.
Speaker C:And I said, man, I cannot tell you.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:How powerful that was.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:And he goes, and he just said this.
Speaker C:He goes, the spirit told me to do that.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker C:And it hit me.
Speaker C:How many times have we stopped and just called something for what it is?
Speaker C:And I just want to begin to promote this thing of like generational, like anointings and like a good word, father to son to son to daughter.
Speaker C:Like, let's.
Speaker C:Because my parents are first generation and their only goal in ministry was that we serve Jesus.
Speaker C:And now our only goal is that our kids serve Jesus.
Speaker C:Like not build great churches.
Speaker C:That's a wonderful blessing out of it.
Speaker C:Not have multi sized, not.
Speaker C:It was like, let's have our kids serve Jesus.
Speaker C:And so anyway, yeah, enough, enough with generational curses.
Speaker C:Let's get to generational anointings.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker A:Sounds like you got, you got it.
Speaker A:You can get somebody to write that one all day long.
Speaker A:And I love, and I love the, I love your challenge because we do talk a lot about the negative, but there are, if I think, if we, we sit down and think about it.
Speaker A:But we've, many of us have been blessed by those who've went before us and the anointing that God's placed on their life and the honor that we've got this to serve with them.
Speaker A:So thanks.
Speaker A:Thanks for being obedient to the spirit.
Speaker A:John, you also, you know, a lot of missionaries that listen in struggle with physical challenges and, and you, you know, you've had different physical challenges, but at the same time it could have been easy for you to say, hey, I'm not gonna do this.
Speaker A:I'm gonna set aside.
Speaker A:But you've shared that God's given you anointing to lead.
Speaker A:He's giving you anointing as a spiritual leader and you continue on.
Speaker A:Can you share a little bit about that?
Speaker A:As much as you're comfortable?
Speaker A:I asked before, you know I didn't.
Speaker C:Yeah, please.
Speaker A:Listeners know I didn't.
Speaker A:I'm not, you know, catch him off guard on this one.
Speaker A:But I asked before because I think it speaks and I think it'll be a great encouragement to those who are listening in.
Speaker C:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker C:I'm hoping my, my notifications are going off like crazy right now.
Speaker C:What's going on, but popping through.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I've dealt with.
Speaker C:With pretty major health issues for the past 20.
Speaker C:Well really since college, since I met you.
Speaker C:And I.
Speaker C:I have.
Speaker C:I have a.
Speaker C:I have a disease, an autoimmune disease called ulcerative colitis.
Speaker C:And most people know like Crohn's ulcerative colitis.
Speaker C:And I've gone through like two or three bad times that where I've been.
Speaker C:I had to go to the hospital and haven't been walked to that.
Speaker C:And then.
Speaker C:And then I have migraines and that, that's.
Speaker C:That kind of, that's.
Speaker C:That happened.
Speaker C:I don't know, maybe about 10 to 12 years ago.
Speaker C:They started coming on me like crazy.
Speaker C:And crazy enough.
Speaker C:A medicine that was prescribed to me for migraines actually helped my colitis which was just crazy.
Speaker C:I could not get my colitis under control.
Speaker C:But it basically was like a medicine that was supposed to calm the nerves of your brain but it kind of ended up calming my system and thank the Lord for it, really.
Speaker C:Miracle.
Speaker C:So yeah, it's a real issue.
Speaker C:And for those that are walking through the difficulties, I love this thought.
Speaker C:I heard a message from Mark Batterson years ago and he did a teaching on his mercies are new every morning.
Speaker C:And he defined new and the word new was unique.
Speaker C:They were not like new from like a week ago.
Speaker C:It was every single day.
Speaker C:There's not just a new mercy, but it's actually a brand new invented grace mercy over your life that day.
Speaker C:And I've just kind of walked under that.
Speaker C:When I heard that, I just said God, I think that's what I need.
Speaker C:I need a distinct new grace over.
Speaker C:Over my life every day and for.
Speaker C:For healing for.
Speaker C:Just to get me through that day.
Speaker C:Obviously one of the.
Speaker C:If you know anything about ulcer, which you probably do know about this but colitis and stuff like this, so much of it's stre.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:And I.
Speaker C:The stress of my job is a lot and so that there's times of temperament with those things and I just do my best to get through that day.
Speaker C:God, would you give me the grace for this day?
Speaker C:Obviously I got to be wise to some of the things I do and I don't do.
Speaker C:I don't do a ton of international travel Even though I'm taking a step of faith this year, I'm going to Calcutta.
Speaker C:I sit on the board of Calcutta Mercy, and I just want to go and I'm going to do it.
Speaker C:I'm a little nervous about it because of, just because of my, my, my health.
Speaker C:But I actually, a guy, a doctor in our church is going to go with me.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker C:And so he's taking me and he's like, I'm gonna make sure you're good and I'm gonna be with you every step of the way.
Speaker C:And so I just, I just watch through those things.
Speaker C:My schedule, I purposely, and this is just like the little things, like I purposely balance my schedule that most of my issues with both of those issues are a little bit more morning geared.
Speaker C:And so I just, I don't, I don't schedule a lot of things in my mornings simply to give myself, if I am having any issues, to work through those.
Speaker C:And so I'm.
Speaker C:Luckily I'm a kind of a night person in general, so that works out well for me.
Speaker C:So I just kind of work a little bit later than most people do, but I don't usually start quite as early.
Speaker C:And that's just me working through if I have, if I woke up with a migraine or stomach issues or some of those things.
Speaker C:But it's a real thing.
Speaker C:I think the Lord will give you grace for it.
Speaker C:And, and then being wise, like, I don't, I don't.
Speaker C:I think this is one of the most important things that I learned a long time ago, especially my health.
Speaker C:I don't put.
Speaker C:Let other people put expectations on me of what I should be doing or not doing.
Speaker C:And that would be probably the thing I would say.
Speaker C:Like, I'm not going to like, apologize.
Speaker C:I don't feel bad for being sick.
Speaker C:I don't apologize.
Speaker C:I'm trying.
Speaker C:I pray every day for healing.
Speaker C:If you're listening to this, pray for my healing.
Speaker C:It would really help me a lot.
Speaker C:I would love to not walk with these.
Speaker C:And I've had seasons where I've done better and worse and all those things, but I don't really allow the prescription of like certain people to put mandates on how I should or shouldn't be with this stuff.
Speaker C:I just kind of say, lord, this is, this is what you've called me to kind of carry.
Speaker C:You know, I mean, Paul talked about his, his thorn.
Speaker C:We have a lot of theology on what that is, but this is just for me, kind of what my, my number one challenge of ministry has been my health And I walk with it.
Speaker C:The Lord gives me grace for it.
Speaker C:I just seem to be able to do everything that I need to do.
Speaker C:And then if there's a day that I can't do what I need to do, I don't walk under punishment or shame or I didn't accomplish something.
Speaker C:It's just what it is.
Speaker C:And I just don't allow people to put a lot of parameters on me of you should be doing this, you can't be doing that.
Speaker C:And I just try to not allow those things to get in my mind.
Speaker C:And I think that would be the best thing, is set your parameters for what's healthy for you and live with those things and live with what they are.
Speaker C:And I've watched the Lord do great things.
Speaker A:Awesome.
Speaker A:John, any last words before.
Speaker A:Is there a good question I should ask you that?
Speaker A:I didn't.
Speaker A:I'm going to ask you to pray for us, but it's been an honor to have you.
Speaker A:But any, any last words, any words of encouragement for those listening in, then I'm going to ask you to pray.
Speaker C:Yeah, I thought this was a great conversation.
Speaker C:I'd be willing to do it anytime with you.
Speaker C:Just trusting God for the season.
Speaker C:I just for anyone that's in something for a long time, I have a little quote that I do with our staff.
Speaker C:Sometimes we do all staffs where we gather all together.
Speaker C:And I said, be around long enough to be a part of the good old days.
Speaker C:Like let your name be a part of a story.
Speaker C:Like where.
Speaker C:When people talk about it, where you're actually still there when people are talking about it or when they're talking about things, you can say, I was there.
Speaker C:There's just something to being around and watching something come and go and be a part of a process.
Speaker C:And not everyone's called to that.
Speaker C:I don't say that.
Speaker C:But there is some things in life be around long enough to see something grow into full maturity in your own life, in church and ministry.
Speaker C:It's a cool thing to watch happen and I've got to see that.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:So yeah, that's it.
Speaker A:All right, bud.
Speaker A:It's been an honor.
Speaker C:You pray for us, I'll pray for you.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker C:Thank you, Lord, for this time with Aaron and just so thankful for what he's doing, the calling on his life.
Speaker C:I pray for any leaders, global workers that are.
Speaker C:That are listening in here.
Speaker C:I pray, Lord, that this will be.
Speaker C:There'll be some encouraging words in here, an opportunity for them to grow mature.
Speaker C:I thank you for what you're accomplishing.
Speaker C:Around the world.
Speaker C:Lord, I pray that the gospel would go to the ends of the earth.
Speaker C:We pray for your imminent, your quick return, but help us to do our part of bringing the gospel to every single person.
Speaker C:In Jesus name, amen.
Speaker C:Amen.
