Discussing What God Has Done

Go ahead and get started. I'm recording this

for posterity's sake, because we're going to

talk about some things that people might forget.

So we're going to do it so we don't forget. But

before we do that, we're going to look at some

scripture. You ready? All right. We're going

to pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for this

day. Even the rain, the work, even the tiredness,

even the troubles, we realize, Lord, that they

are all part of the plan. And you're a master

planner, much better than we are, for sure. And

we're grateful that you take care of us. We confess

to you our weakness. We don't always understand

the plan. When we don't understand the plan,

sometimes we go off plan. And so we ask your

forgiveness for when we do that. Thank you for

each person that's here. We thank you for the

workers in the kingdom and what's being done.

We especially pray right now, Lord, for Chris.

He's in a terrible amount of pain. We pray that

you'd heal us. his hip and his knee and getting

back on his feet strength pray for those who

are traveling pray for others who are sick pray

for rachel but we ask you to bless rachel heal

her heart help her make all the right choices

and then to experience your healing firsthand

i should bless our time together we're just going

to look a little bit of scripture and then talk

about some things that have happened so we don't

forget them and we pray that eventually the news

of what you've done here will go all over the

world. We pray all that in Jesus' name. Amen.

Okay, so the scripture we're going to look at,

there's no worksheet. So the scripture we're

going to look at is Matthew 16. So if you want

to grab a Bible and follow along, you can. Otherwise,

I am going to read it. So this is a pretty classic

passage of scripture. Jesus is with the disciples.

It is during Jesus' public ministry, and it is...

really headed into the time of when he'll be

crucified. And it's sort of like people are beginning

to realize what's going on. So we're going to

start reading in verse 8. Okay, this is Matthew

Matthew 16:8

16, verse 8. Matthew 16, verse 8. It says, So

Matthew 16:8

basically they were talking about why he was

upset with them, why he had said they had little

faith. And Jesus being aware of it, he said to

them, O you of little faith, why do you reason

among yourselves because you have bought no bread?

Because that's what they thought they had done

wrong. Do you not yet understand or remember

the five loaves of the 5 ,000, how many baskets

you took up, nor the seven loaves of the 4 ,000

and how many large baskets you took up? How is

it you do not understand that I did not speak

to you concerning bread, but to be aware of the

leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees? Then they

understood that he did not tell them to beware

of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of

the Pharisees and the Sadducees. That's the teaching

of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. When Jesus

came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he

asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that

I, the Son of Man, am? So they said, Some say

John the Baptist, some Elijah, others Jeremiah,

or one of the prophets. He said to them, But

who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered

and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the

living God. Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed

are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has

not revealed this to you, but my Father who is

in heaven. And I also say to you that you are

Peter, and on this rock I shall build my church,

and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against

it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom,

and whatever you bind on earth will be bound

on heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will

be loosed in heaven. Okay, so real quick before

I get into it, there's a couple things I want

to clarify. So when he says you are Peter, the

word Peter meant stone, small stone, generally

like a pebble, right? And so people do get off

in a confusion and thinking like that God would

build the church specifically on Peter. And that

is where the doctrine of the Pope comes from.

There's some stuff happens in between there.

But the bottom line is, I think there is a guy

who has the descendant authority all the way

back to Peter. All right. And that's not true.

That's not right. That's not what was intended.

But he was Jesus was giving a poetic way to remember

what he was saying. So the rock that he's talking

about there is the revelation or the understanding

of who Jesus is. Okay, so it's the gospel essentially,

right? The truth about Jesus. So we understand

that that is what God will build the church on.

And then he says, the gates of Hades or hell

shall not prevail against it. So when you see

that phrase, one thing prevailing against another,

you think like two wrestlers or two armies or

two football teams, right? Although they're not

really, they're prevailing in the sense that

they score, but not actually in the sense that

they're destroying the other team, right? So

he's saying the gates of hell. will not prevail

against us. The gates of hell would be symbolic

of the things that would hold back the church,

that would attack the church, the persecutions,

evil in the world, right? Okay, so if Jesus built

his church, if he's the one building the church,

then the evils of the world, the evils of hell,

demons, evil spirits, everything that's evil,

right? None of that is going to prevail or overcome

the church. So really what we have to just ask

ourselves is... Two things. One, what do we have

to do? And the answer is we just need to ensure

that our faith rests on Christ, not on something

else, not on like even an idea of who Jesus is

or even like just on the Bible, for example.

You say, well, I only believe, you know, what

the Bible says. Well, the Bible says a lot of

things, but it is not. Conclusive of all things.

It doesn't necessarily include everything you

might have to do. So the Bible doesn't talk about,

for example, cell phones at all. What about cell

phones? I don't know about cell phones. What

do we do with cell phones? Well, I don't believe

there's anything we should do with them, positive

or negative, because it doesn't say so in the

Bible. Well, you might have to read the Bible

and extrapolate what it means for today's world,

right? Ultimately, we have to build our lives

and especially the life of the church as a people,

as a person in the church, as the people that

is the church, and then the church growing, reaching

out on Jesus, on the revelation, understanding

of who Jesus is. So when people are like going

like, I believe in Jesus, but then they're living

kind of like however they want to live or they're

going after certain things that they want. They're

not building their lives on the church. They're

not building their lives as the church on Christ,

right? So it's nice to be able to go to church.

It's nice to be able to sing worship. It's nice

to be able to give and feel good about it or

serve and feel good about it or, you know, whatever.

But the key is building it on the revelation

of who Jesus Christ is. Basically, you say it

this way. If two or three people get together

and their relationships are founded on Jesus

Christ and they begin to live in community like

the church, then you could say, no matter how

many people are in the church, Jesus is there

with them and he's going to make it work because

the gates of hell will not prevail against them.

And then the second piece was we have to realize

that when he says the gates of hell shall not

prevail, that can take a lot of forms, right?

So that can take a lot of forms such as... temptation,

persecution, trials, poverty, hunger, disease,

famine, pestilence. Pestilence is like bugs and

rats and things that invade, disease. So all

of those things can be part of the gates of hell.

So for example, if death should take my body,

death cannot prevail against me because i'll

go straight to heaven right as soon as i'm dead

i'll go to heaven so even death can't overcome

me and that's why elsewhere it says it's death

has lost its sting okay so what we set out to

do quite some time ago now was to build a church

to make a church that was uh founded on the lord

jesus christ that was the whole goal i lost my

notes oh they're right here okay All right, so

what I've done on these pieces of paper here

is I have written or printed, some are printed,

some are written, examples of crazy things, miraculous

things sometimes, or sometimes they were hard

things that we had to overcome, whatever like

that. that we taught, learned, experienced while

planting or up to fairly recently even at new

heights. Okay. So what I'm going to do, I'm going

to randomly draw one and then I'm going to explain

it. So maybe it could be anything. Even I don't

know. There's about 30 of them here. All right.

I got to look at them. Hi Natalie. Nice to see

you. Okay. All right. So the first one that's

on the top. All right. And again, these are,

this is completely random. So one of the things

that about the church, right, is that the church

is led by what's called the priesthood of believers.

So everybody that's here who loves the Lord,

everybody that's here who believes in God is

supposed to be focused on Jesus. Right. So we're

not looking at each other. We're not looking

at the structures of the church or where the

money. coming from or going to, right? Who's

tithing, who's not, who's giving, who's not,

who's serving, who's not, all that. The priesthood

of a believer means your eyes are on Jesus, and

then when your eyes are on Jesus, you can lead.

You can do various things and serve, right? So

our church is led by our membership meeting.

So those who are members of the church since

the very beginning have set all of the ideas

and directions for the church. So you're supposed

to be praying, you're supposed to be studying,

you're supposed to be... serving in the teams

and knowing what is going on, right? And so they

come to the membership meeting and they would

say, I think we think we'd like to have a block

party. And the church says, yeah, we want to

have a block party. So then who throws the block

party? The church does, right? He's not hurt

anything. As long as he doesn't fall down with

that in his mouth. Okay, so we keep the membership

meeting orderly, which means we use it kind of

like Robert's Rules of Order. We use motions

and we take votes. The whole idea is that everybody

there is listening to Jesus. If we get there,

there's another one in here that's a very specific

time in which that really became huge. So that

was one example. You may go to another church.

There are churches that are called elder -led

churches. So sometimes you could visit one or

maybe down the road, the Lord leads you to be

in one. There are elder -led churches. And that

means that the oldest people, people who have

been around the longest or recognize being around

the longest, they make all the decisions. That's

not necessarily biblical, right? It's not a bad

thing. Elders should be respected, but it's not

necessarily biblical that a small, select group

of people make all the decisions. Even the disciples

didn't do that. When they wanted to call another

disciple, they did it with the whole big group

there. When they wanted to call another deacon,

they had them put forth examples of who would

be a good deacon, and they gave them criteria.

When they wanted to commission missionaries,

they all gathered around and prayed for them.

So there's not just a few people making the decision.

It's the whole church. So I've shuffled the pile.

I don't want to do that one next. I'll do this

one next. Okay. So we do, in our church, we do

a thing called the inspirational moment. So we

don't do it every Sunday anymore. Okay. But we

do it once in a while. And it's basically saying,

how has God spoken to you? Right? Are you able

to do that and multitask? Okay. As long as everybody

else is as well. Okay. So we all ask people to

read their Bibles and then come tell us what

they read. Ask people to pray, listen to what

God says, and come tell us. And the idea is that

it encourages everybody. So when one person speaks

up, then somebody else hears what they're saying,

and they say, hey, you know that. that speaks

to me too, right? Or I can read my Bible and

hear from God and that kind of thing, right?

And then we also have what's called a spiritual

discipline emphasis. And we do them basically

at the same time in the service. And that is

every six months, we pick a new spiritual discipline

to look at. That was something that along the

way, the Lord led us to start doing that. Now

we've done it for 10 years. So for 10 years,

which means 20 different times, we switched from

one spiritual discipline to another. Well, it'll

be 20 from May 22nd, okay? And then we explain

it, we practice it, we talk about it, we do it

together. Okay. I'm going to stop looking, because

if I look, I'm going to pick and choose. I told

myself I wasn't going to do that. Some of them

I like to talk about, some of them I don't like.

Okay, now this is it. All right, so along the

way, we started what's called Fog and Moon Books.

Okay, so Foggy Moon Books publishes books. Other

people have written as well, not just me, but

I do most of the writing. We promote the writing

online, and now those books have been read all

over the world. People can donate their writings.

You can write and donate. We've had a guy do

that with a couple of stories. Or people can

financially support, like give money to support

it. People can buy the books, and all that money

then goes to help fuel the ministry. Now, this

late date, we have the Prince Albert series.

We have the Low Moon Rising Saga. We have One

Last Soul series, Think Again series, and the

most recent book was called Another Reason to

Stand Up. Okay. And so those things are going

all over the world, having an impact. Okay. Next.

So New Heights partners with the Life Station.

Okay. The Life Station is a food and clothing

pantry. It gives food to the entire city when

they need it. We deliver food. We didn't used

to do that. We started that in 2020 during COVID,

when people couldn't get out, right about the

same time we started delivering. And it went

crazy right away because a lot of people wouldn't

come out of their house because they were scared.

And the governor said, you can still go to food

pantries, but a lot of people didn't want to

do it. They were afraid to. So we started delivering

and taking them the food. And we've been doing

that since then. Now we're at the point where

every month the Life Station helps between 1

,500 and 2 ,000 families with emergency food.

Several of our members work at the Life Station.

And if you count volunteers, like almost half

the adult and teenager population in the church

works there at some point in time. It's a very

active way of serving God. What most people don't

know is that when I... I first started the Life

Station. I've been there about two years. Northwest

Ohio Food Bank, which is the largest food bank

in this region. And they serve like nine counties.

And it's downtown. And they have a $120 million

budget or something. It's a lot of money. Big

money budget. And they appealed to the Life Station.

So we come use the Life Station. Or come use

Northwest Ohio Food Bank. There we go. I'll get

around. And we said, we'd love to. We want to

get more free food to give away to people. That

would be great. But they had a rule that you

can't talk about Jesus. But more than that, not

only can you not talk about Jesus or any faith

at all, but you're required to train every volunteer

and every worker not to talk about faith. But

a lot of other religions can do that. Right.

So they can say, well, we're just not going to

talk about it while we're here. That's fine.

But Christianity has built in the commands. Right.

So go ye therefore and you should be my witnesses

and and so on. And so we I am not ashamed of

the gospel. Right. So we are kind of like commanded

and required to share. So we can't train our

workers. That makes that policy directed right

at Christianity because we're the only ones that

have it built into our faith that says that we

must share. Not the only ones, but primary ones.

And so we went and toured the Life Station. One

of the guys that was working there at that time

and myself went and toured Northwest Ohio Food

Bank. And at the end, they said, OK, just sign

here and you can start using our food bank. I

read down the list, and sure it was. They were

right there, number 17. It says you have to train

all your people not to talk about faith. I said,

we can't do that. I said, if you'll mark that

off, we'll sign right now. We'll start using

it right now. And she said, no, we can't do that.

So then the director called me, the CEO. Actually,

he's the CEO. He makes hundreds of thousands

of dollars a year. He called me and said, we

really want you to use the food bank. And I said,

well. We wouldn't mind, but you'd have to take

this policy. So I'm going to task one of my vice

presidents with, or whatever she was, with getting

rid of that rule. And she called me two weeks

later. I called her several times. She was on

vacation and she called me back and she said,

well, we can't do that. So the bottom line was,

if you will not talk about Jesus. Here's a whole

bunch of resources you can have. You can get

cheaper product, cheaper food, get free food

to give away. You have all these resources. You

just have to agree to not talk about Jesus. So

we didn't do that. We refused. We would not do

that. So we said, no, we're going to keep talking

about Jesus. It means we're going to go out of

business. Well, about a year later, I got a letter

in the mail from the state saying that there

were funds for people who were not using Northwest

Ohio Food Bank. So if you're a food pantry and

you're not using Northwest Ohio Food Bank, you

can get funds. So I applied. Put in an application

and I asked for the funds and they approved like

$40 ,000 the first year, $50 ,000 the second

year. So right there, I'm $90 ,000 ahead of where

I would have been if I had just said, okay, we'll

stop talking about Jesus. And then in the middle

of that, COVID hit while that was going on. And

they called me and they said, can you take more

money? And so I wrote it again for like $100

,000 and like $115 ,000 the next year. And they

approved it. And then in the middle of that,

they called again and said, can you take more

money? And we said, yeah, we'll take whatever

you got. So then it went to, the first year was

almost over. So it went to like, I think it stayed

115 or something like that. And the next year

went to $250 ,000. So now I've gotten $365 ,000

from the state that I would not have gotten if

we had just agreed not to talk about Jesus and

been able to use that other food bank. I would

have got a lot of food and stuff, but we wouldn't

have got all that money. During 2020, actually

20. fiscal year 2021 because they switch over

in june right so the second half of 2020 was

fiscal year 21. they called me and they said

well they still have money on the table can we

take more and i said yes and then still later

with only like three months left in that fiscal

year they called me again and asked and the end

result was in fiscal year 21 we got 750 000 from

the state and we would not have gotten a penny

had we agreed not to talk about jesus and so

this church Any ministry that I'm a part of,

I hope I can always say, we will never accept

the ultimatum to not talk about Jesus. We will

always talk about Jesus. And so if we ever start

saying, well, we're just not going to talk about

Jesus here because it's uncomfortable or something

like that, you can be the one who says, no. That's

not us. That's not what we do. We're going to

talk about Jesus. I almost got arrested. I don't

remember for sure who was with me, but it was

Northwood and the Woodville Mall. We were talking

with a guy with a couple of evangelists and one

other person from our church was there. We were

talking and he was on the verge of accepting

Jesus Christ. And the security called the police

on us because they had asked us to not talk about

Jesus in the mall. And so we were edging toward

the door but still talking about it. And they

said, you got to go, you got to go. We went out

by his car. He said, well, come on. He still

had questions. He was going to accept Jesus.

And we went out by his car. And they followed

us all the way out to the car. And the police

were turning in the parking lot with their lights

on. And he didn't want to get in trouble with

the law. So he got in his car and went across

the street or whatever. And then he didn't stay.

So we didn't get a chance to finally finish talking

with him or get his information or anything.

But the point is, they said, you can't talk about

Jesus here. Might have gotten arrested for that.

And then I talked to the owner of the mall about

two weeks later while I was out bowling and ball

things. And I told him, I said, that's the way

it's going to be. Just be aware. God's going

to do something. God's not going to take that

lightly. And I said, and he said, I don't believe

in God. It's kind of fine, whatever. About two

years later, the mall closed. They went out of

business. He said, we are, they said, we understand

our business to be people come directly to the

mall. They buy what they want to buy and they

leave. They don't want to talk to anybody while

they're at the mall. So if you go try to talk

to them, you're going to chase them off. So we

don't want to allow that. I said, that's not

even true. That's not what malls were. Malls

have always been about. community so you'd be

a shopping center so you're talking about a shopping

center not a mall malls have huge indoor spaces

where all kinds of things go on that's how they

stay alive and he just wouldn't listen so anyway

so then it went out of business A more recent

thing in 2014, we started podcasting New Heights

services. So in 2020, we started putting them

on Facebook, but we started podcasting before

that. And then our podcasting provider went out

of business and it all went away, lost 300 episodes.

And I have some of those recordings that could

eventually be edited and put up on there, but

they haven't. Most of them have not been. And

then we got a new podcast provider and it went

pretty well. So we've been still doing it. And

now I, so the new. podcast provider just changed

their policy that you can't go back and see how

many people have listened to your podcast back

to the beginning anymore, unless you pay money.

So it's behind a paywall, basically. If you want

to know all the way back to the beginning, you've

got to pay money, more money. We already actually

paid out of the podcast. It's not very expensive.

But they pay more money if you want to go see

all of that. So I thought, well, I'm not going

to do that. I'm going to pay the money. So how

far back can you see? So I went back and looked

at 180 days. This is from today. 180 days back.

The New Heights podcast. which is just the sermon

from Sunday, and then usually it'll be like one

or two songs or excerpts of songs. I usually

want to do whole songs because you get into copyright

issues with that. In the last 180 days, the New

Heights podcast was listened to in 378 cities

worldwide. 378 different cities in 87 countries.

Is that not nuts? So we come in here, we preach,

we hear like 30 people in the room. And then

we take that audio and we edit it, put it up

on the podcast. And in the last 180 days, which

is just less than right around six months, right?

It was listened to in 378 cities in 87 different

countries. That's crazy. The live station doesn't

do quite as well, but it's the same way. That's

just the encouragement call. So each episode

is like a minute and a half, two minutes long,

and it's just the encouragement call. All it

is is we edit it, put it up, same as what it

went out to everybody in Toledo or wherever they're

at. So we've got a lot of people getting it all

over the U .S. now. And it was listened to in

the last 180 days in 172 cities in 57 countries.

And that one has an extra interesting statistic

in that because they're so short, each one's

less than two minutes long, there was 152 different

computers or different devices. So people listen

to more than one episode. So there's 154 different

devices. So that's why we're recording this right

now. So then this will become a podcast, and

then who knows how many times it will be heard

all over the world. I'm kind of ready to do that

one. All right. So here's a tough one. Along

the way, we realized that New Heights, this church,

is not going to be a church for everybody. And

that was a hard realization. So we don't tell

anybody, unless they're causing a problem or

something, we don't tell anybody they can't come.

Everybody's welcome. Every walk of life, every

social class, every skin color, pretty much every

age, we pretty much don't tell people they can't

be here. Now, if they come in, they're disrupting

the service, or they're not properly dressed.

come and smell so bad of weed that it's making

people sick or things like that, then we would

probably ask them to leave and come back when

they're more able to do so. But this is New Heights

Fellowship Baptist Church. So the New Heights

is about reaching new heights in Jesus. It's

about growing. So the people that are here are

supposed to be people that want to grow in their

relationship with Jesus, grow in what they know

about the Bible, and grow. So the theme of the

church is I'm growing and Cary's growing. Now,

the next step for me is not the same as the next

step for Cary. But Cary can help me get to my

next step just the same as I can help him get

to his next step. We can work together. And it's

not like the step that he's on is higher or lower

than my step because it's in his journey. It's

not even on my staircase. It's a whole different

staircase or a whole different. hike or trail

or road, whatever you want to say. And so the

step that I'm on, it's not the same step he's

on, but we can work together so that we can both

get to our next steps. And that's what Reaching

New Heights of Jesus is all about. But some people

don't want that. There's people that want anonymity.

That means that nobody knows your name. There

are people that don't want to be convicted. I've

had a lot of times where people come in and we're

preaching and then... At the end, someone will

be very polite or whatever, but then when you

follow up with them, you find out, well, they

had a funny feeling while you were preaching.

Something wasn't, I didn't feel right. When you

were preaching, I didn't feel right. I said,

well, not right, like what? Like you did something

wrong? Like I did something wrong? Did I say

something wrong? No, what was it? He said, well,

you made me feel like I should do something or

I should be something. I'm like, okay, let's

talk about the gospel. Let's talk about Jesus,

right? So all we really call to is to be a follower

of Jesus and, you know, like that. And we're

talking about conviction of sin. That's present.

I'm not saying it's not present in other churches.

It's present wherever the gospel is preached.

But that means that some people are not going

to be interested in growing. Right. They want

to just be able to go sit in the back, drink,

drink free Mountain Dew or have coffee or have

doughnuts or get prizes. Right. And and not there's

a problem with any of those things, but they're

not what this is all about. But this is all about

Jesus, right? And so we decided to do that. And

what that has resulted in, a couple of things.

One, we have a lot of men. If you look around

the room right now, there's more men than women

by no small margin. And it's like that on Sundays

too. Because men don't mind being told like it

is. And I'm not saying that women are the other

way. I think a lot of women don't mind being

told like it is either. But men need that. I've

been to churches where the message was kind of

pretty gentle. And I just felt... you know kind

of like it really wasn't the gospel you know

and that and so it's a different thing um and

so why why it's exactly like that i don't know

for sure but this is what i know i know we've

attracted with men uh and then we've tracked

a lot of young people we have a lot of teenagers

we have a lot of young people who want they're

smart for their generation they're smart they

understand this is the place to grow this is

the place i'm going to get what i need right

but also because they're young people a lot of

times they make bad decisions they go in a direction

that they should not go they do something they

should not do But they can recover from it. That's

another thing about young people. Older people,

when they make a bad decision, a lot of times

they get stuck in it for a long time. Like, why

did I do that? If that's true, then we think,

and I'm including myself in this, I think simply,

I make a mistake. And man, I own it. And I'm

feeling bad. I feel guilty. And then, okay, give

up the guilt because God doesn't do that. Okay,

now I'm feeling convicted. Okay, I repent. I

turn to God. I still have to figure out why did

I let that happen? Why did I do that? Whereas

young people are ready to go, that was stupid.

I shouldn't have done that. I'm done. I'm over

that now. I'm not going to do it again. I'm moving

on. And that's good. But it's also about personality

types. So you do, you know, because you're going

to have young people that are the other way too.

Young people get beat themselves up. And older

people can be quick to let it go. Anyway, the

bottom line is, in this church, you can't get

by for long. As a member of the church, pretty

soon, if you're not holding up your weight, people

know it right away. If you don't show up three

Sundays in a row, of course everybody knows.

If you join a ministry team and you're serving

and you don't show up to your meetings or you

don't show up to serve, then people know. Because

you're not in a meeting of 40 people. You're

in a meeting of like four people. And you're

one quarter of the people are missing. Everybody

sees it. And so that's different. So it's not

going to be a church for everybody. OK, this

is another one very early on. So and Karina can

attest to this one, even though she has struggles

with it a little bit, too. And that is we don't

go to church. We do go to church, but we don't

go to church. Right. So the church is the people.

So when we're not here, the church is wherever

we are out there, right? So New Heights Fellowship,

we tell people when they get voted in as a member,

you can now call yourself New Heights Fellowship

Baptist Church. You become the church and you

become a member. And it's not a member like a

name on a list. I probably shouldn't even say

this. It might be controversial to somebody,

but I'm registered to vote Republican. Not because

I'm primarily Republican, but because I want

to vote in the primaries, right? And if I'm going

to vote in the primaries, the people I feel like

I want to be able to have a say, that's the parties,

that's the one I'm registered to. It is what

it is. Like it or not, I'm not political. But

anyway, the point is, so because I'm on that

list, they consider me a member of that party.

That is not how this works, right? I go to Glass

City Federal Credit Union for my bank. And if

you're a member of Glass City Federal Credit

Union, every dollar you have in your bank account

counts as a share in their credit union. That's

a membership. This is not a member like that.

This is a member like a lung, a liver, or a leg,

right? And so when you join the church, you become

that important. And if you suffer, the church

suffers. If somebody's missing, and somebody

says, well, I'll do this, yeah, I'll take care

of that, and then they don't show up, then everybody

else is suffering, right? So, what, two weeks

ago on Monday, Josh was sick, right? I can't

remember what stopped him, but anyway, he was

sick, so he wasn't going to be able to do arts

and crafts night. Well, that same night, Most

of his team was having struggles, right? And

so nobody could pick up his load. And so we didn't

have arts and crafts. Josh is the one that God

has called to lead that ministry in our church.

He's the one. And so when the one who's called

to lead is out, if there isn't somebody else

to pick up, then everybody suffers, right? And

that's the way it works. We have people who want

to come and take part in ministries, and that's

good, or they help out, and that's good. But

it's when you say, I'll be there. You know you

can count on me. I'm a member of the church like

a lung or a liver. You're going to be able to

depend on me from now until I die or until God

calls me to another church, right? Yeah, I'm

dependable. If you ever have to have your entire

liver taken out, you'll never be the same. If

you ever have to have an arm taken off, you'll

never be the same. He was in his shirt. Okay.

All right. So we don't go to church. The church

is the people. I know this is another one that

we do fall into sometimes. The pastor doesn't

preach the sermon. I preach and I deliver the

sermon that God has given us, but the idea is

God is writing that sermon into all of us. So

if I preach something and nothing I said in it

resonates with you, it doesn't connect with you,

that doesn't matter to me. He talked about something

that was pretty hyper -focused today and it really

doesn't apply to me at all. Then you have to

ask yourself, well, why is that? There's one

possibility because you're not in the right church.

Another possibility is because God was preparing

me for something that's coming down the road.

And so maybe this is preparation you're learning

today because next week you're going to need

it. Maybe it's something that happened in your

past years ago and you haven't dealt with it.

So whatever. The bottom line is God is writing

the sermon, not in one person, but in the whole

church. And then we own everything. The church

owns everything. So we have 40 -ish, 45 members.

This building is appraised at $2 million. Last

time it was appraised. And so every member owns

1 45th of this building. That's how that works.

We all own everything. All the money we have

in the bank, we all own it, right? Now we all

together decide what to do with it. So that's

why in the church building, we all use the church

building. I'll take care of the church building.

You're supposed to. Sometimes we don't, but we're

supposed to. I'll take care of it because it's

ours. It's really God's, right? It's God's. And

so... That's another one. Every person has a

responsibility to grow. So if you're here and

you don't want to grow, you're in the wrong place

because every person has a responsibility to

grow. Every person is empowered. We want to bring

along people and let them serve. We have some

people who are not members, for example, and

they want to serve. We want to let them serve.

We want to let them participate. At the same

time, there is a difference. And not to be rude,

but there's a difference between being a lung

or a liver and being like a piece of clothing.

Clothing is valuable. It's necessary, right?

But your lung or liver is more than just valuable

or necessary. Okay, and then... So we've worked

throughout our history to kind of limit. So my

household, for example, we don't say we go to

church. We say we're going to the church building,

right? Or we're going to worship service. Or

we're going to Bible study. Or we're going to

Tuesday nights. Or we're going to Faith Force.

Because all of those things are true. But we

don't say we're going to church. Or if we slip

into it, we're constantly correcting ourselves.

Because remember, this is the church. Those that

are here that are committed and have become members.

Okay. Funny thing happened early on. We got this

building. We were still renovating it. When we

first got the building, there was a ton of leaks.

And there was a lot of water damage. And we took

the walls out. So we had a mission team come

in from Mississippi. This used to be three rooms.

Some of you probably don't know that. You see

this line right here behind the piano? There's

one line right there. That was a wall that went

all the way across the room. So that was one

room. And this was a bigger room. And then there

was another one of those lines right here at

the edge. It's behind that wall where the bathroom

was. So that was the third room. Those rooms

were 14 inches thick. block. So blocks, you know

what I'm saying? Like cement blocks, 14 inches

thick. And they busted them up and carried them

out. And back, it was two 15 -year -old girls

with buckets that carried out all that weight,

which turned out in the end to be 7 ,000 pounds

of stone. And they busted it up, and they put

it in the buckets, and they carried the buckets

like this, and they took them out, and they put

it down in a plastic tunnel that was trying to

keep the dust down. It went from this door to

the mortal perfection door, and they carried

them out there to a dumpster waiting by the dock,

and they dumped it in. And the reason why we

know how much weight it was was because after

they dumped it all in there, it went over the

weight, and then they had to pay more money.

And so they said, you are right. It fits, but

it's way too heavy. Anyway, and so while all

that was going on, we were getting ready to be

in this building one night. We never did find

out who. Somebody came up and went up on the

roof of this building. And if you look at it,

it looks kind of like a kind of castle edge around

the outside. But there used to be big, huge,

huge stone blocks that sat on each one of those.

They were like caps. They sat on each one of

those pieces. And they just sat there. And underneath

of them was copper plating. So you have this

big, long, eight foot long thing that weighs

about probably 400, 500 pounds easy. And then

under it was copper sheeting. Somebody went up

there on the roof and they pushed those pieces

off. onto the roof bed to get the copper out.

And they stole about $900 worth of copper was

what the police estimated it was worth. $900

worth of copper. When they did that, they pierced

the roof bed in 14 places. So there were holes

in the roof. And then it rained. And water came

in everywhere. And so we had insurance. So insurance

came and they looked at it and said, well, this

is vandalism. So then the insurance paid for

us to get a new roof. Now, we had some minor

leaks before. And I was up there several times

trying to make the water stop leaking in, right?

They put a whole new roof. And some of us, I

think, Karina, you were in Vacation Bible School,

right? This is way back. Like, she's tiny and

snotty. Anyway, so they pierced the roof in 14

places. Water's raining in. Like, right over

there in that door where that exit sign is, there

was a waterfall this big around. pouring into

the room. And Kuzhno's disaster came in and they

had heat blowers and they blew all the water

out and tried to keep it from doing too much

damage. Anyway, in the end, it was $880 ,000

that they paid to replace the roof on this building.

And the insurance paid it all. And it didn't

cost us a cent. And all the leaks were gone.

See? So there's a verse in the book of Genesis

talking about Joseph. And he says, what you meant

for my hurt, God used for mine and a lot of other

people's good. And so we're able to meet in this

building today without a leaking roof and probably

for another 30, 40 years without any major repairs

on that roof because somebody stole $900 worth

of copper from the church. Also, Ariana was a

baby at the time, and they put me on the news

talking about it. I was holding Ariana while

I was talking on the news, talking about the

vandalism. And so the church got a lot of free

publicity out of it too. Okay. From the very

beginning, it was the Southern Baptist Convention

that helped us plant this church. Okay. Here's

a couple things about Southern Baptist. Number

one, this is huge. You might get this because

someone's going to ask you. I guarantee it. Number

one, this is huge. Southern Baptist is not a

denomination. People go, what denomination church

do you go to? So we are a Southern Baptist church.

That's true. They planted us. We follow the Baptist

faith and message. We give the cooperative program.

I'll talk about those things in just a second.

We are Southern Baptist through and through.

Being Southern Baptist is not a denomination.

So I was talking with a guy today who asked me

what denomination we are, and I said, well, we're

Southern Baptist, but actually being Southern

Baptist is not a denomination. It's a missions

organization. It's a convention. We all participate.

Yes, sir? Okay, I'll explain that. One second.

Okay? And so it's not like being Lutheran or

Methodist or Presbyterian because we choose to

be involved. There's nobody above us. So in our

church, guess who's the boss? Easy. Jesus, right?

That's what matters to Jesus. And then after

Jesus, it's the opposite of no one. It's everyone.

Like I talked about with the membership meetings,

the members come together and make the decisions.

So it's kind of like no one, because no one of

us is in charge, but we together decide. So we

have a team that gets together to write the budget.

They bring the budget to the membership meeting.

The members vote. If the members don't like the

budget, they say, write a new budget. Say, you

want to get rid of me as the pastor. You want

to hire a new pastor. The members say, we think

we should get rid of Pastor Dan. And as long

as you get enough people to vote. I'm out. Then

you're going to call a new pastor. Well, let's

make a team. Let's get a team together and call

a new pastor. Or say I got killed in a car accident

or something, right? We're going to get a new

pastor. Who's it going to be? Bring a team of

people together, review candidates, bring it

to the members. The members are going to decide

who that's going to be, right? So in denominational

churches, it's not like that. Denominational

churches have a pattern of leadership. So for

example, in Catholic churches, Presbyterian churches,

and most Lutheran churches, you don't decide

who your pastor is. They make a circuit out of

it. So they're there for whatever length of period

of time. And then the leadership, that's outside

the church says, okay, they've been there long

enough. We're going to move them to Arkansas

and we're going to bring this guy from California

and he's going to be your new pastor. Even though

you like the guy you had, you liked his teaching,

you liked his preaching, everything worked for

you, it was working great, everything's, no,

you don't have to have him anymore. There's somebody

outside you telling you what you have to do.

In the Southern Baptist Convention, it's not

like that. So anyway, so I told him, I said,

we're non -denominational, but we're Southern

Baptists. All right, so now to answer your question

about denominations. So denominations, to denominate

something, is basically like to separate it down

into parts. So Christianity, those who believe

in Jesus, are separated. Maybe they shouldn't

be. Like maybe we shouldn't be separated at all.

Jesus, before he was crucified, he prayed, let

them be unified. So maybe there shouldn't be

any separations. But we're largely separated

by two things. So one of them is doctrine. So,

for example, we believe. that people are saved

only by faith in Jesus, by God's grace and faith

in Jesus. They're baptized by immersion because

that's a picture, that's what Jesus did, and

it's a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection

of Christ. So that's why we do that. We believe

in the Lord's Supper and taking the Lord's Supper

as a body. Some church denominations might say,

well, it's okay to be sprinkled. Splash the water

on you. Don't you. The problem with that is the

word baptism comes from the word baptismo in

the Greek, which means to be dumped or to be

immersed. That's a problem. So we try to have

the best biblical understanding that we can and

go by that. And that separates us from certain

denominations who have certain rules. One of

the examples of Presbyterians, for example, they

have higher level leadership. They have somebody

telling the Pope, for example, is the highest

person in the Catholic Church. So he's telling

everybody below him. He tells all the bishops

what they have to do. And then all the bishops

tell all the priests what they have to do. And

all the priests tell all the... under priest

what they have to do and then the under priest

and the priests all tell the people what they

have to do so it's all handed down from the tops

sort of kind of sort of isn't too but um that's

what they say so we don't do that we don't have

those other rules we follow the bible so if you

if you read your bible and you think you see

something we have not seen and you come in here

you say i see this and we talk about it yeah

that's right that is there and we realize that

we'll all adjust according to the what we found

in the bible but we will confirm it right so

you can't just go oh i think oh the bible says

you don't have to tithe anymore so i'm just not

going to do that because this says you don't

have to do that anymore and you don't talk to

anybody about it you just don't do it anymore

right you can't do that Because the church teaches

what the Bible actually says, which is that the

tithe continues. In fact, so just touch on that

for a second. The Old Testament standard was

a tithe, but it wasn't a tithe, right? They actually

did two and a third tithes. So they get 23 and

a third percent of their income every year. Yeah,

so they didn't get 10%. They gave two 10 %s,

and then they give another 10 % every third year.

So that's 23 and a third percent, right, in the

Old Testament. In the New Testament, Jesus said

that essentially the standard now is sacrificial

giving. So you're supposed to give what hurts,

give what's hard, right? But then when they questioned,

he said to the Pharisees, you know, you tithe

on the mint and the cumin, but then you don't

do the greater works of compassion and mercy

and kindness and whatever the actual words there

are. And he said, the one you should have done

and still done the other. So he said, you should

still tithe. But the truth is we should be more

than tiny because that might not be sacrificial

giving for some of us. For some of us, 10 % is

a real sacrifice. to really be able to get 10

% of your income, that's a real sacrifice. But

for some of it, it's not. And that depends a

lot about where you're on your journey and how

God has set things up. So to answer your question

is, Mike, are you ready? Answer your question.

Denomination means they have a certain set of

beliefs or doctrines that they follow that they

think distinguishes them from everybody else,

and they've named it. So they say, this is Presbyterian

doctrine. We go this way. We're Presbyterians.

This is Catholic doctrine. We go this way. We're

Catholics. we're Catholics. This is Lutheran

doctrine. We go this way, we're Lutheran. So

we go, we believe in Southern Baptist doctrine

in that sense. But even in that sense, in a given

church, it might not be followed the exact same

way. That make sense? So for example, in our

church, we are fully members -led. I have a friend

of mine who's a pastor of a Southern Baptist

church locally. And they only have a business

meeting twice a year. And they don't make any

significant decisions in that meeting. So the

members do not have any control over the direction

of the church because they don't get to vote.

They just, in the meeting, which they have twice

a year, they tell them what's going to happen.

The church that we went up to up in Holt, Michigan,

when we were in, we lived in Mason, it was in

Holt, was called Pastor Led. And so he made it.

All the decisions. He made all the decisions

about all the money. And the only committee that

they had in the church was the personnel committee.

And that was just formed whenever they needed

to hire staff. That's it. Otherwise, he made

every decision in the church. And he was a good

guy. He was very godly. And he made good decisions.

Don't get me wrong. But that's not biblical because...

then what happens is something happens to him.

Or if he turns in a direction that's ungodly.

There was a church in Georgia at one point in

time, this is 25 years ago, 19 years ago. We

thought God might be calling us to Atlanta, Georgia,

Sherry and I and the kids. And I had a job offer.

And Sherry had a job offer. And so when we went

down there, she was visiting the properties that

she would have been governing. She was going

to be a regional manager. And one of the properties,

this lady, she got witness into her, which I

encourage her to witness every opportunity that

she can get while she's at work. And I think

God encourages her to do that, too. And this

lady was just crushed. She was having a hard

time working because she was in a really bad

emotional state. And she was like, what is going

on? What had happened was they had joined a church.

And it was a big, beautiful, wonderful church.

They loved being there and everything like that.

And it was a pastor -led church. The pastor made

all the decisions, had all the control of all

the money, hired all the staff, everything. And

it had grown a lot. It had thousands of people

attending this church over the whole week. And

he got up one Sunday morning after preaching

for 20 years about the sexual... appropriateness

of heterosexuality only, right? So he didn't,

that homosexuality is not biblical. And after

20 years of doing that, he got up in one morning,

informed the congregation that he was becoming

a homosexual and that he was involved in an active

homosexual relationship and that he was not going

to resign. And overnight, the church went from

like 2 ,000 people to like 600 people. The 1

,400 people didn't come the next Sunday. And

then, so there were 600 people. That made like

all the Sunday, they come in on Sunday and all

of a sudden, teachers didn't show up you know

all the mature christians in the church or whatever

there's tons and tons of people not there and

they knew they had no avenue there's nothing

that they could do about it and so then they

they couldn't change it so then the next week

it was down to 400 and then she had just gone

the chair was there on a monday she had just

gone the day before on sunday there were 300

people it's like i don't know what we're gonna

do we can't even we're not even gonna afford

to pay for our building or anything and he was

he was just refusing to resign And so if the

pastor takes a doctrinal position that is wrong,

there's nothing anyone can do about it unless

the body has that vote, unless the body has that

control. So we've been represented in the Southern

Baptist Convention since the very beginning.

We had a vote from the beginning. I served as

a moderator for four years and a vice moderator

for two years or vice versa. RJ served as a moderator

for two years in the association. We've always

had messengers. We've always had responsible

people who go to those meetings and then come

back and they know what's going on. And all that

kind of thing. All right. I think we're about

done. Okay. This is the most important. Okay.

This will be the last one. So team structure

is the other one. So in our church, Natalie,

do you know what the word team stands for? It's

really good. So for us, it's an acronym. It's

Together Empowering a Ministry. Okay? Together

Empowering a Ministry. That's what TEAM stands

for. We don't always often say it, but you'll

notice that on most of the paperwork, if you

look on here, the letters are in all caps. T

-E -A -M is in all caps. It's because each letter

represents a word. Together Empowering a Ministry.

So we don't do committees. The other thing about

committees is if you have a committee, then in

Robertsville's order, when they bring a motion,

then they don't have to have a second. It comes

to the floor automatically, and you have to decide

on it or table it, one or the other. And so we

don't do committees, which means if one of our

teams makes a decision and somebody comes in

and is going to make a motion, then they have

to bring a second person. That way, if Josh is

the only person in the arts and crafts team,

then he doesn't have the power to automatically

get any motion that he wants. Everybody has to

listen, right? But the other thing about teams

then is we have people who are called to lead

or serve in those teams. I think God wants me

to serve this way. And then they marshal the

other people in the church who want to serve

in that same way. Right. So, for example, Josh,

our team leader, he's got 10 or 11 members of

his team now. And he has to organize them, serve

them, keep them kind of going in the right direction.

He has to unlock the door, lock the door, you

know, all those kinds of things for that team.

And then Brother Tim has, for the longest time,

Brother Tim was the team leader for the largest

team in the church, which is the music team.

And you've got a bass player, you've got a drummer,

and you've got three vocalists who can also play

instruments. And so he's been anywhere from like

seven to ten team members most of the time. And

some of those people, he brought them from not

knowing how to do music at all up to being able

to help them, assist them to be able to do music.

And so he was called to do that. And their team

does that together. They're together empowering

a ministry. The crossover line is when a team

wants to do something and another team is going

to be affected. So, for example, let's say we're

going to have a concert on a Tuesday night. So

we're going to cancel Faith Force and we're all

going to get together and do music. Well, Aaron

is the God's Kids team leader and Sherry is the

Little Wonders team leader. You would have to

get clearance from them. in order to be able

to cancel their club, right? You can't just go

canceling it. Same thing if somebody wants to

do something on Monday night between 6 and 8.

If it needs to be in the multi -purpose room,

we use the multi -purpose room now for arts and

crafts because we don't fit anywhere else really,

right? I mean, not comfortably. We might have

just fit. It would be tight. But some nights

we would not have fit. And it's probably going

to be like that again. So we're in the big room.

So if somebody wants to use the big room between

6 and 8 p .m. on a Monday night, they've got

to get permission from Josh because he has an

ongoing thing, and he would have to move it to

somewhere else. So that's one of the values of

teams. If you want to adjust something in a team,

you know who to go to, who to talk to. Or you've

got a great idea. Oh, I think it would be great

to do this with the kids. So you go to Aaron.

Or I think it'd be great to do this with the

toddlers. So you go to Sherry. You have somebody

in the church that can do that. In our church,

a team leader does not have to be an adult. There's

nothing that says a team leader has to be 18

years old or older. So we've had a couple of

times where kids, older kids, usually in the

15, 16 range, were close that they were feeling

called to a ministry. And they were close to

taking over and leading a ministry. It's never

actually happened. But a couple of times it's

been close. It could happen. Which means that

you could have a 16 -year -old. leading a group

of four -year -olds to do something. That's entirely

possible, right? And the church is not against

that. We don't age discriminate. If you went

in a lot of churches, there's no way. There's

no way that anybody under the age of 18 would

even get a vote or would be allowed to serve

or be allowed to decide how money is spent, right?

It's mostly all kind of like sit over there and

be quiet, behave yourself, come to this fun event,

invite your friends. I mean, that's pretty much

what goes on. The last piece of that then is

that every team leader who has an active ministry

that's actually doing things has a discretionary

fund, a budget, an amount of money that they

can use every month to fuel their ministry. It

isn't much, usually, but it's something. It's

something that will keep them all rolling. And

if they don't spend it, then at a certain time

it caps, and then the rest of that extra money

that would have gone into their budget goes back

into the general fund and the church's savings.

The reason that is is because somebody steps

out of that role, that money doesn't stop accumulating.

So, for example, for a while we didn't have a

preschool nursery team leader. um and so then

the pastor steps in and fills that role temporarily

or a deacon fills that role until they can find

somebody new um and if it was arts and crafts

for example if nobody stepped up if something

happened to josh nobody stepped up and took his

place that team after a period of time nobody's

taken a place would just cease to exist because

he has a calling by god to do that And if nobody

else has that calling by God, then that ministry

is not supposed to be here. And it's the same

way with almost everything. Now, some of the

age -based ministries, they never really cease

to exist. They just sort of combine or fall under

something else. You're always going to have,

hopefully, always going to have young kids. And

so when we didn't have the preschool and nursery

team leader, I let it go out, and then it just

kind of got lumped in under all the kids. And

the youth is the same way. You're always going

to have teenagers. You're going to have something

going on. So if you don't have a youth team leader,

then we're going to have youth activities, but

we don't have somebody. who's really leading

it and but like to talk about a lot of it for

example we do not have we know we have two very

avid workers cleaning the building we do not

have a cleaning and maintenance team leader i'm

filling that role but that's not me we don't

have one we don't have a uh let's see what's

the other one that we're missing tech yeah although

we have one in the queue so keep praying because

there's a family right now that is probably going

to come to join the church in june and that's

what he does at his current church So God may

be providing. That would be really great. But

the point is, there are areas where, and then

it could be something different. I'm talking

with a guy who's looking to join the church.

He's a veteran, and he feels like God is calling

him to do a ministry specifically with veterans.

Not just veterans in the church, but with the

veterans of foreign wars, connected to the VSC,

veterans all over. You know, and then he said,

we'll have events, appreciation events, Bible

studies and things. Which is a great idea. And

he feels like God's calling to do it. I'm all

for it. So, you know, don't put the cart before

the horse. Let's not figure out what we're going

to do first. Let's figure out who we're going

to be the church first and how to be the church

and then do it. So that's how that could work.

You could be like, I think we should have a ministry

giving out flowers to ladies. They're trying

to get in. Okay, anyway, so whatever it might

be, if it's flowers to ladies, for example, and

you feel like that's a thing, you could come

and be the team leader of flowers to ladies,

right? That kind of thing. And then sometimes

we'll segment the teams down with lead team members,

like Holly McCrory is a lead team member in Little

Wonders right now. And also... Hold on, who's

the other one that I know of? At least she's

a lead team member. Do you have a lead team member?

Ariana's? She's your lead? Okay. You want to

decide whether you want to formalize that or

not, and if so, get her some parameters so she

knows what she's up against. I think there's

at least one more that I'm missing. Ricky's the

lead team member of Active Sports and Christian

Games. So I like that. So the lead team members

that are not called to separate off from their

team, they just take over a certain aspect of

what's going on. All right. Well, I did most

of them. Is there one that you can think of that

we do that's different or an event or something

that has affected our church that you think we

should add in this before we cut off the recording?

I didn't make one, but COVID was huge for us.

I don't know if you know this or not, but Deacon

Tony and I in a prayer meeting felt maybe informed

by God that COVID was coming to the United States

and that we would have to decide what to do about

it almost three months before COVID came to the

United States. So we had that advanced warning

and we already had plans to sanitize everything

in between services, to shut down things that

were more like just like fellowship and recreation

and not. really a god like bible study and worship

and stuff like that to keep worship probably

open although we were going to let the church

make that decision those kinds of things before

it ever came to the us and then when it came

to the us we had a conversation about whether

to stop having public worship and they lots and

lots of churches did right a lot of people stopped

meeting on sundays talking about study put everything

online or not at all um and then we It was a

unanimous decision in the team leader meeting,

and then also there was a couple of very strong

proponents for it that we would remain open and

continue to have Sunday worship, and we did.

And we took a lot of heat for it. The health

department was calling me, bugging me about it,

and eventually I just told them I'd stop answering

the phone, and then when I did that, they stopped

calling. So the point is, we were legal. Everything

was legal. You're allowed to keep worshiping.

It was nothing that required church to stop in

Ohio. But we were one of very few that did. I

think maybe we weren't quite. We probably should

have been a little bit more public about it.

Let everybody know that we weren't stopping because

that might have been a good thing. But it also

probably would have drummed up a lot more trouble.

So what else? Anybody else think of anything

recent or not even recent? Yeah. So I don't know

if you know or not, but in the early days, the

church was in Northwood High School. So we started

in Perrysburg Heights across from Levis Commons,

which was just getting started at that time.

And when I would stand up and preach, right out

the window behind me was the mosque. You could

see it framed perfectly when I was up there preaching

the gospel. And we got persecuted out of there.

A powerful church in the community came after,

didn't want us there. got us kicked out of the

building, and then they were supposed to be allowed

to go back in the building in the fall, and then

they came and just told us we were allowed to

go back. So then we came, so we met in my house,

and it was hot. I didn't have air conditioning

until this last year's first time I've ever had

air conditioning in my whole life. Never had

air conditioning in my house. Still don't have

air conditioning in my vehicle again. But anyway,

so... We didn't have air conditioning, and we

crammed a lot of people in our house and stuff.

So we started meeting outside. And then my neighbor,

who was Jehovah's Witness, I remember this or

not, Tim, you probably remember, he would come,

and during our worship every Sunday, he would

mow his lawn while we were trying to worship.

Remember that? I don't remember that at all.

And eventually, I did give him what for about

it, and he did stop. And then from there, we

went to Northwood High School for about a year

and a half. Had an Awana club there, or kids

club. It was basically even Awana material. So

Jehovah's Witnesses, basically, they would say

that they are Christian, right? But their doctrine

is not Christian. It's a cult, is what it is.

What's that? Yeah. So they don't believe in heaven.

They don't believe in hell. The Catholic believes

in Mother Mary, if I'm not mistaken, because

my mom was Catholic. And we believe in Jesus.

Yeah, in Jesus alone. He was talking about how

to build a house. And I was about 13 years old.

And not because my mother was. I got into some

problems in school. And they wanted to rehabilitate

me. I went up to this family I didn't know. They

took me to Finley, and I was in an airplane.

And then they took me in a boxer, and I was there.

Well, their families would be too tough. And

they said, come on in, we'll take you down there.

At the time, I didn't know the weather was bad.

I really didn't know. from God, things from God,

to do what he wants you to do. We get down here,

and before you know it, these people had their

chairs all out, and they went to church every

day, second to second, and they worshipped the

Lord, and they did the Bibles. And everybody

had to do it. The next thing you know, we built

these metal things that come across with these

handles and go over the top. And then all of

this got together. And one thing I like about

the barn people, for the armors, they all get

together and they help each other. You don't

see them getting, I don't know how much armors

they get or this or that. They do what God wants

them to do. They all work together. So we got

there, man. The next thing you know, we had this

big old plant we worked on. I don't know what

that's called. And they had that preacher guy

down there. He preached to everybody and everybody.

We got their Bibles and stuff. The next thing

you know, we built this small chapter bar thing

that was really huge and it was really jerky.

And, you know, one thing, I would love to go

back there, and I would love to see it, because

it's always got together. My grades got better.

I was able to go home after that. I didn't have

to wait until I was 18. I got home when I was

16. So, you know, I got early, but my grades

started to get good, and I started to do good.

And that's one thing I will carry with me as

long as that church we build. Sometimes it just

takes putting somebody in a different environment,

and it's like that with the church. If people

will come in here. that people will come with

an open heart, they'll be exposed to the Bible,

exposed to the Word of God, see the community

that's here, that people care about each other,

then it will help them. It's different than the

world, and it helps them realize there is something

different. All right. Anything else? We are done.

We're going to pray together.