MID WEEK MOTIVATION - November 12, 2025 (Brian Hood & Grant Stegall)

She said, I saw Grant at the convention.

I didn't recognize him that he was in a suit.

He never wears a suit.

I'm like, well, he wears one on Sunday mornings, but he doesn't wear one at Sam's Club in the afternoon or anything.

I had to call.

I was like, hey.

And she's like, You're listening to the Midweek Motivation Podcast from DeSoto Hills Baptist Church in South Haven, Mississippi.

Here's your host, Mark Lewis, David Burgess, Laura Ulrich, and Pastor Grant Diegall.

Welcome to the Midweek Motivation Podcast for Wednesday, November the 12th, here at DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

I'm Mark Lewis.

I'm with Brian and Grant today.

And uh by the way, this is sort of live, Brian.

We really don't, he's sitting over here kind of nervous, Grant.

I know.

I know.

And uh this music, for our listeners, like you hear the music and all of that stuff.

A lot of podcasts do all of that production in the background, but we literally just sit the machine down here and go all in one take.

So as soon as that music cut in just a second ago, like it seemed like Brian started to get a little more nervous.

Hey, we hope this programming can encourage folks throughout DeSoto County and beyond.

Be sure to subscribe and share our link on social media.

So you already know what the bulk of this podcast is going to be today because we have Brian Hood in the house.

What's up, man?

Good evening.

I'm glad to be here.

All right, tell us your story.

You've you've told us uh you've shared before at DeSota Hills, but a lot of our listeners may not have been up on upstairs on Sunny night.

So tell us a little bit about your story and your background.

Oh, wow.

All right.

Well, first of all, Brian Hood again.

I'm glad to be here with you guys today.

I'm the lead pastor for Community Point, um, there in Hernando.

And um, we've been in existence now about four years now.

And so we started off in our living room.

And uh basically from the living room, we're um a church plant out of uh Longview Point.

And um God has definitely been faithful.

And before we moved to our current location that we're at, now we were in the library, downtown library, there for about three years.

And so God has definitely been faithful.

And so again, we're just riding the wave.

I love it, man.

And you said y'all y'all are located real close to Cedar Hill Farm?

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

It is right behind us.

The church is right on 51.

Like if you head out of Hernando going south, the church is on 51 on the left side of the road, and right before you get to the City Hill exit.

He said City Hill is behind them, but it's right before the Cedar Hill turn.

I got you.

And y'all are now what year do what what years have y'all been in existence?

When did y'all start at the library?

Do you remember off the top of your head when that was?

Four years ago.

Okay.

So four years ago.

So we've been so right after the pandemic, right in the middle of the pandemic, I suppose.

Man, it didn't seem like that long, Brian.

It doesn't, but it's it's been that long.

That's insane.

Okay, now tell us uh the story of where you're located now.

How did all of that come about?

Wow.

How that all came about, uh definitely the hand of God.

Um the the previous church there was going out of existence.

It was dying.

And uh prior to us taking over that um facility, about a year or two before that, that church had reached out to me to see about a merger.

And um so went down, talked to uh that congregation and everything, and just unfortunately, some things just did not work out.

Um but I was content and my prayer to God was if we're gonna be in the library, I'm gonna be faithful there, not knowing that one of my members sings in a quartet.

And so on a Saturday night, I'm at this church and I'm watching my member as he sings in this quartet.

When it's all said and done, a lady walks up to me and she says, You don't know me, and she said, But I've I know of you and I know you guys.

And she says, I'm praying that you guys get this building.

And I'm like, Okay, you know, thank you.

Later on, I find out that that the previous church did die out.

Um, the church that did own it here in South Haven, um, Calvary.

And so I went, talked to the uh pastor over at Calvary, told him who I was, told him my story that I just shared with you guys and everything.

And lo and behold, the Lord just worked it out to where we got the keys to the building and we started moving in.

Oh man, that's so exciting.

So y'all have y'all partnered with several other churches in the area throughout DeSoto Hills and a few others, yes, sir.

Okay.

And then Longview, y'all still consider yourselves under Longview's umbrella, or have you since branched completely off?

We branched completely off, yes, sir.

We've completed all the um all the requirements that a church planner has to go through and everything.

We met all of those requirements.

Okay.

Tell me uh a few of your stories from the library.

Well, pick pick out a few things that that you remember fondly about meeting in the library.

First of all, there's nothing easy about a mobile church because going in and out of those buildings is is tough.

And then you're sort of at the mercy of the library or the city when it comes to anything.

So tell me tell but tell me a little bit about some of your memories being in the library.

Okay, so one of my uh fondest memories is that um it was a certain holiday, and I can't remember the actual holiday.

I know it was, I think it was Veterans Day, if I'm not mistaken.

Okay.

That we were we normally go pick up the key so that we can have the key for the services on Sunday.

And we did not know that the library closed like two days early.

Two days early.

So I get the phone call, Pastor, library's closed.

We did not know they were closing two days early.

What are we gonna do?

And so thank God one of our members opened up their doors and we took everything that we had in my van and some of the other members' vehicles and everything.

On Sunday morning, we really on a Saturday night, took it, set it up in their living room, had services.

Oh, that's but I bet that was awesome.

Yes, sir.

It it was.

It was one that I will never forget.

Intimate.

That's the word I think.

Intimate.

Intimate.

Very, very personal, very personal.

All right, so your new location uh is off the ground and running.

Tell us uh a few, like tell us a little bit about what it took to get in that building and get going.

Wow.

So what it took to get in that building, and I want to say thank you to Brother Grant, uh DeSoto Hills, because uh him, his team members who came out on a Saturday morning and stayed early from Saturday morning to Saturday.

It's probably about lunchtime when I left.

Most of our folks left.

Exactly.

Still we did a lot.

From pulling up the carpet to cutting out walls, cutting out w uh sheetrock for windows.

I mean, you name it, they did it.

Doors.

I mean, it took a lot because it was unfortunately is a is an older building, so it needed a lot of tender, loving care.

Sure.

But granted, his team came in, electrical work.

I mean, and then just taking all of that stuff and dragging it out to the dumpster and everything, but they did a marvelous job.

All right, what are some of these should have seen carpet going out that day, Mark?

That was the first thing when he said some changes be made, the first thing I'm thinking, it's gotta be the like carpet milled used.

Ask Billy Wilson about moving that carpet, man.

We thought it would take forever.

It took about ten minutes to get all the carpet out of that.

Was it just battery?

It just pulled right up.

It was crazy.

All right, what did y'all put back down?

Uh carpet.

Put down.

So economically speaking, carpet, and we had somebody who donated carpet uh to us, brand new carpet.

So we put that down.

It matched our color scheme and everything.

So we're very grateful for that.

It helps with sound too.

Yes.

All right, tell us about uh what your services look like on Sunday morning.

What's your worship style?

Is it a more contemporary acoustic guitar?

Like what's what's your what's your style look like?

So I guess as a blend, contemporary.

We do some hymns, but more so on the cons uh contemporary side.

I mean, there is one service.

Um one of the things I think is very unique about our situation that you just don't see a whole lot today.

Um when we talk about family worship, I mean we worship together as a family.

So while we do have community groups early in the morning for the kids, for the women, for the men, but when it comes down to worship, men, women, boys and girls, kids, we're all in the sanctuary together.

Crying babies and all.

And crying babies at uh at I mean, you name it.

And we have a good time in that.

Because how can how will our children know why we do what we do and learn if they don't see us do that?

And so we really enjoy that.

I love it.

How do your community groups work?

Do y'all meet in homes before you come to the church or do y'all have space at the church?

How is all that set up?

Um, Sunday mornings we have our community groups, but on Wednesday nights, we meet in the homes.

Okay.

And then there's one Wednesday out of the month that we meet actually at the building.

Because one of the sayings that I really try to stress to uh the members of our church is that we are married to the assignment and not the location.

Right.

I love it.

What kind of visions do you have for the future?

What are some things you're working towards?

Well, right now, getting adjusted to this community that we're in, because even though we were in the library, you're talking about from the library to where we're currently at right now, you're talking about maybe a five or six minute ride.

And even though it's very short, it is like night and day between the two different communities.

So one of the things is definitely trying to make sure that we just build those relationships.

And uh not only just build those um relationships, but I mean, again, where scripture talks about the Great Commission going and reaching the nations and everything.

If we don't go across the street, there's no way in the world we're gonna be able to reach the nation.

So we want to make sure that we get into every home that individuals allow us to do.

And the only way that we can do that is where we live, where we play, where we work, and even where we worship.

Those are the four pillars that I stress every Sunday.

I love it.

Tell us a little bit about your background.

When did you know that you wanted to be a part of the ministry?

Wow.

So this is my 31, 31st year of ministry and 31 years of preaching.

Um was in the ministry 15 or 16.

I'm 45 now, so that's a long time ago.

Yep uh definitely, but God has been faithful.

Um in that time, um, before I moved up here to Hernando, um, in Columbus, pastored a church there, an existing church, and came behind a guy who had been pastoring there for 48 years.

And um the Lord blessed me to be able to be the senior pastor there for 15 years.

And so it was majority African-American church.

God blessed, built relationships.

Uh, was only 24 at the time.

And so I learned a lot.

Um, my wife and I, the youngest people in the congregation in that church, but we learned a lot that people loved on us and we loved on them and everything.

And then the Lord just uprooted us, and here we are here, church planning, and uh went from one extreme, and I tell people this all the time, that God is definitely faithful, went from one extreme to uh being a senior pastor of a majority African-American church to now the current makeup of our congregation, other than me and my family, everybody else is Caucasian, and I'm loving it.

Grant, you got any questions?

No.

Um I I guess tell tell just quickly, Brian, how that call came to leave Columbus to come here.

How that call came to leave Columbus.

Well, it started.

It it actually started with Dr.

Parker, Dr.

Sean Parker.

Him and I both uh pastored in the same community, actually on the same street.

He pastored on one side, I pastored right across the uh the railroad tracks.

And so after, not long after he uh not long after he um went to Jackson, accepted the executive director uh position there, um, I was sitting on my back porch and he called me up and he said, We need more church planners.

And I'll be open and honest with you.

I'm thinking, man, you're crazy.

I'm I've been somewhere for 15 years.

You're settled.

I'm settled, is running like, I mean, I can run it in my sleep.

And he said, Well, pray about it, think about it.

And through prayer, through supplication, I told him I would, but I didn't think anything would come of it.

But look where I'm sitting at now.

So um, that's how that came about.

And so we we left Columbus um through prayer, through supplication, and started this journey, and it's definitely been a roller coaster, but God has been faithful through it all.

Brian, tell a little bit about like where you're from.

You're not from Mississippi.

No, I'm not.

So tell where you're from and how you got to Mississippi.

Okay, so how I got to Mississippi is um by way of Warsaw, Virginia.

So I'm uh born in born and for a good part of my life, teenage years, um, raised in Warsaw, Virginia.

Um, my mother's family is from um Alabama.

And so at the time, my grandmother, who's no longer living, deceased, um, went visit her one summer uh in my senior year in high school, and um she ended up falling ill.

And so, be honest, I was her favorite grandchild.

And so talked to my parents, didn't think it was going to work out, but I convinced them to let me stay, help take care of her.

And I've actually finished my senior year of school in a place called Millport, Alabama, which is right on the state, on the line between Mississippi and Alabama.

I mean right on the state line.

And so from there, after I graduated high school, I got a full scholarship to uh the women's college in Columbus.

And so uh met my wife there because at that time the ratio was for every one guy.

There was 60 ladies, so I met great odds.

Exactly.

And so I met the love of my life, thank God for her and three beautiful children that the Lord has blessed us with.

And so the rest is history.

That's how I found myself here.

All right.

Now, how when you were in Columbus and you were having those conversations and praying, how did you end up in DeSoto County?

How did I end up in DeSoto County?

To plant and and to and to plant under the umbrella with Longview.

Like how did that connection come about?

Okay, now the how I ended up in DeSoto County was I originally started out in Meridian.

Started out in Meridian, and the vision that I had for uh a lot of people kept asking, what type of church do you want to plant?

I mean, do you want to plant African American, Latino, Hispanic?

And I didn't want to plant any of that.

That was not what God was leading me to do.

My statement has always been, and Grant could even tell you, I still say it today, all I've ever wanted to plant was a healthy church.

The makeup of that church is above my pay grade.

That is God.

And if everybody looked like me, if that's how God deemed it, so be it.

I just want to be faithful to that group.

And so um, make a long story short.

Unfortunately, just some people couldn't get with that.

They couldn't fathom that because it had to be either one or the other.

They couldn't fathom this idea of just a healthy church.

And so some things didn't work out, but again, the hand of God just working through this and met another preacher who told me about uh Longview Point and how they plant churches and everything, put me in contact with the staff there and everything, drove from Meridian up to uh That's a long drive.

Yes, sir, a long drive.

It's about as far as it gets.

Yes, sir.

But I came, met with the staff and everything, and the rest is history.

Here I am.

Yeah, and when you when you started talks with Longview, did they basically like did you just start going out in the community?

Like, I think I think if anyone's listening who likes the idea of planting a church, the first thing in my mind is where on earth would you start?

Like, how do you just start?

It's an honest question.

Yes, sir.

It is it is it is definitely an honest question.

And we did have some prayer walks, most definitely.

Had some prayer walks, got a chance to talk to um a lot of people and everything.

But uh even in that, um just wasn't settled on some things and just had to really truly just be patient and wait on God because there were places, buildings, and things that look great, but they just they just wouldn't fit.

That wasn't what God was calling me uh to.

And I I would just tell anybody who's thinking about planning or anything of that nature, um, just buckle up because what you may think you want or desire, that may not necessarily be in God's will.

It may be something totally different as what he's done in my situation, but ride the wave, just ride it.

Do a lot of churches start in homes, Grant?

Like what I think most church planters planters start in homes.

And a lot of times you just get it with a small community of people and say, hey, let's meet in somebody's house.

I mean, people you meet at Walmart or the grocery stores.

A lot of churches, I suppose, start like that.

I mean, I a lot of a lot sometimes, Brian, tell me if I'm wrong.

Like if you have a sending church like Brian's Sending Church was Longview Point, sometimes the sending church will some people will come from the sending church to help you develop a core group to get you started.

And and they may commit to being there a year, two years, six months, and then six months.

Then they may go back or they may wind up staying, but sometimes they uh the sending church will send you some people to just kind of help you get started to start building those relationships.

That makes that makes real good sense.

All right, Brian, we're gonna do something fun with you now that we call table topics.

Table topics, okay.

Yes.

All right, now this is uh they make these cubes that you can sit with your family at the dinner table.

And we've been trying to do more and more family dinners.

And grant, this is hard these days this day and age because the families are so splintered.

We're involved with so many things: band, sports, athletics, whatever.

But I have tried really to make it a point to get our family to the table at least three or four nights a week.

And this is just something fun that's designed on Amazon and it's a little cube of cards, and you can just open it up and chat with your family.

So I'm gonna ask uh Brian a couple of these table topics.

Don't he's man, he looks so nervous, Graham.

Okay, what was your favorite family vacation you ever took?

We are still on the podcast.

Okay.

Wow.

For the for the listeners who are like, did my did my phone just cut off?

Well, um, well, the one of my favorite times um we were supposed to, and we didn't make it.

We were going to go to Florida and we were gonna go on vacation, but we didn't, I think car broke down or anyway, it was That's a good memory.

Yes, it it it turned out, unfortunately, we didn't make it.

But what was good about that was I actually got a chance to spend some time with my dad because he was a uh truck driver for 30-something years.

So he always stayed gone.

And even though we didn't get a chance to make it to the destination, but the time that we got a chance to spend together in the midst of all of that, yes, I finally remember that because we just got to spend that time that we didn't get a chance to do a whole lot because he had a family he had to provide for.

He stayed gone a lot, but I I enjoyed it.

That's great.

And I remind my family like when the when the tire goes flat on the road or what like while in the moment it's frustrating and horrible, those will be memories that you will remember forever.

Exactly.

Alright, if money and time were no object, where would you go on your dream vacation?

If money and time was no object, where would I go on my dream?

Which means it could be two months.

I mean, just time's not a factor, money's not a factor.

Where's Brian end up?

Alaska.

Alaska.

Alaska.

All right.

Do you like cold or are you just just the beauty of everything we've seen growing up from pictures and videos?

The beauty, solitude, no cell phones.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, nobody's pulling and tugging on you.

I mean, that's where I would go if I get it.

All right, here's a softballing for you.

What's your favorite dessert?

And I'm a sweets guy.

Gran will tell you that.

So I always like to ask people.

I'm not big on desserts, but when I do caramel cake.

Caramel cake.

Love it.

Okay.

That's a sleeper one.

That's not one that most people would do.

You don't hear people say it much, but once you get it, you're kind of like, why do not why do I not think about caramel cake that much?

Exactly.

Right.

If you could master any skill instantly, what would it be?

And I've told Grant before, I've always wanted to know Spanish.

But if you if you could master any skill, what would it be?

If I can master any skill, I can't believe you may not believe this when I say this, but if I could master any skill, listening.

And here's the reason why I say that, is because I've always just been built and I'm just built to want to fix everything.

And so there's times when my wife is talking to me and she will say something, and I'm like, okay, what do I need to do to fix it?

And she's like, stop.

I don't need you to fix anything.

I just want you to listen.

And so I find myself over the years trying to master that.

And I think about that when somebody's talking to me.

Because again, first thing I want to do is try to fix it.

And I have to control myself and pull myself back and be like, you just need to listen.

Man, Brown's being all spiritual.

He's like listening.

I I was thinking, I want to be a mechanic.

I want to be able to divine.

I'll take all my cars when they broke down.

I won't.

He's got all he's like oozing with all this wisdom.

That's table topics.

All right.

Before we move on to our moment, we wanted to briefly mention just our calendar of events for our own members who are listening.

We have the night of worship coming up this Sunday, November the 16th at 5 p.m.

And Grant, you're going to give like a kind of state of the year of the church.

Right.

So just give a quick overview of what that's going to look like.

I mean, we'll we'll I'll just go back and remind us of some of the highlights that we had uh this past year.

Uh and then also look forward to the coming year, just kind of the vision of what we want to do this coming year, some things we want to accomplish, some ways we want to see our church grow.

Uh not just numerically, but just spiritually, how we can grow and some challenges for the upcoming year.

Okay.

And then we're also going to have uh a brief business meeting with some business that we need to take care of as well.

Correct.

We're gonna vote on deacons.

Uh we will vote on the church budget.

Um the church budget will be voted on without questions.

We had you were able to make questions, ask questions to the stewardship team last Wednesday and then tonight.

Correct.

You'll be able to come from 5 30 to 6 30 and ask questions.

So we'll vote on budget at that meeting without questions.

Uh and they'll be located in the office tonight if you need to talk.

I'm sorry.

Correct.

5 30 to 6 30.

And then uh we will also vote on the new team members, like committee team members.

Okay.

And it's gonna be a wonderful night of worship.

We've got Gary Pierce, who many of you know uh on pedal steel coming tonight.

We've got a fiddle player.

It's going to be uh a night of country worship, so you're not gonna want to miss that either.

We also have the holiday season coming up, and we just wanted to make everyone aware uh we've got uh we're starting to decorate the church.

And on the 17th, we'll put pull Christmas trees out.

Um we have some people lined up to decorate each one of the trees, but we really need help fluffing the trees.

Right.

So if you're a tree fluffer, you like to do that, or you can do that.

We need some help that Monday.

Uh take you all day, but preferably Monday morning, coming and prepping the trees so they can just come and decorate those.

Um need some help doing that.

So um need some help too if you can climb a ladder and do that because some of our trees are really tall.

Uh so we need some help.

That's that's the biggest help in decorating that we need.

Yes, and again, that's on the 17th.

That's a Monday morning.

Uh coming up on the 23rd, we wanted to make you aware that we have the Lord's Supper.

Hey, we also have the youth choir singing on the 16th.

The youth choir is singing on the 16th.

That's right.

November, November the 16th.

So be sure and be aware of that as well.

And then the church office is going to have a couple of days of closure around Thanksgiving.

The office is going to be closed on Wednesday, the 26th, on Thanksgiving Day, the 27th, and then on Friday, the 28th, the old Black Friday.

So we wanted to make y'all aware of those dates.

Obviously, December's calendar is slammed, and we will save that for another episode.

We're now going to shift to our devotion portion of the podcast that we call the Midweek Moment.

Our devotion for today, Psalms 92 and 1.

And it says, it's a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.

And so, just for a few moments, I really want people and everybody who's listening just to really think about how often do we give gratitude to God?

I mean, when you think about this month, November, known for Thanksgiving and everything, and people start talking about the things they're thankful for, and that's great.

And it's great in this place.

But why wait to November?

Shouldn't every day be a day of Thanksgiving?

Shouldn't we exemplify and give gratitude to God on a daily basis?

When I think about my family, when I think about how good God has been to me, when I think about sometimes when I complain about m my kids sometimes or my job or whatever the case may be, there are times where God really touches and pulls at my heart that I have to repent and apologize.

Because when I think about my life and when I think about how good God has been to me and the things that I complain about, when somebody else looks at my life, my life actually looks good to somebody else.

And no matter how frustrated I may get with my wife, there's somebody who had to say goodbye to their wife.

There's somebody who doesn't have children to fuss at or to complain about.

There's somebody today who, as frustrating as our jobs can be at times and the things that God has called us to, there's somebody today who got the pink slip.

And here I am, I have the best job in the world.

And I get a chance to make a difference in the lives of people.

And so when I think about Psalms 92 and 1, it's a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.

I just want to tell him thank you.

And I pray that everybody in every opportunity, in every way, will give thanks to him, not just in the good times, but even in some of our most difficult situations.

Still give some thanks.

Amen.

Amen.

Man, Brian, thank you so much for coming today, man.

This was awesome.

And see, the the podcast is over and you survive, man.

No issues.

No issues whatsoever.

And we want to end extend the invitation to you to come back anytime, man.

Because we love having you on here.

Thanks for listening.

If you don't have a church home, we'd love to see you here on Sunday mornings.

You can catch our services online at Desotahills.com, our YouTube channel at DeSota Hills Baptist Church.

If you are in the Hernando area, definitely give Brian a call.

I'm sure he'd love to host you as well.

For all of our church family, we love you.

We'll see you back here next Wednesday morning, bright and early.

God bless.

This has been your midweek motivation.

We'd love to have you join us in person on Sunday mornings.

Our services are at 9 and 10 30 a.m.