Venture Unfiltered #16: I Found God in Seattle

Okay, are you hosting or am I hosting? Don't? I mean you

normally host, but today you're our guests. I want you to host.

Okay, could you to start the song? Song? Starting? Here we

go? Who's hosting? I don't know what you say? Hello Venture Church

Pastor Tony here, pastor Nicole here, my new co host. I got

a really deep voice. I hope everyone liked that little question right there in

the beginning. Who's hosting? Well, we just found out it's Nicole,

our our fearless leader, and my co host is in Las Vegas with David

Diaz. Luke Bryan yep row can't beat it. Pastor David was handed a

adult beverage. It was a virgin by Luke Bryan. By Luke Bran touched

a beverage that David got to do David got to drink. For all of

you that are wondering, did I make it to Drake, I did not.

There it is I'm going to bury the lead from now. I did

not go. I didn't have the money, and there's just something felt wrong

in my spirit about going. And you're just not as blessed as your wife,

who also happens to be another of our special Oh my goodness, my

wife is here. Everyone Aeriel Natar Judas, there a button for that?

Oh boy? Oh gosh. Okay, well, folks, at least he

didn't play some slow jail. Oh no, yeah, we will not.

Last week, Pastor Brandon talked about the songs he dedicated to Pastor and his

wife. You should go back and listen. You should. If you want

to feel uncomfortable. You should have seen my face when he dedicated those songs.

I was like, mom, Dad, stop, hey, a couple

of things quickly before we dive in today's content. We finally got a sponsor.

Everyone who you won't believe who sponsored us. I would believe it because

you already told me. Logos Bible Software hooked us up. Thank you,

Judah. They hooked us up. So if you are a Bible reader you

want to dive deep into the scriptures, it's a phenomenal software. You should

use it. There it is. I've heard great things. I have used

it from Morgan's computer a couple of times. Yeah, that's great. Yeah,

they hooked us up. Thank you so much. Loos. That's how

you say it in the Greek. Did you know that I didn't probably didn't

know why people just assume I know how to speak Greek. I don't.

I didn't look at me. Okay, you don't as I think people look

at you assume you speak Spanish, Spanish, you speak Persion, you speak

Hindu Seak? What do you speak? Yeah? And I want to address

an issue really quickly before we move on. So last week Pastor Die pulled

me aside and said, people are loving the podcast. I've had a few

people call me and text me call her. So it must be so bothersome

that they are calling her to talk about this. They don't like that.

When we have a guest and I am in agreement with what he or she

is saying, that, I go, M M. I think that's active

listening. Well, Venture Church, because you're the predominant listeners of this podcast.

Maybe I'm so sorry my MS offended you. Maybe lean back further so

YOURM isn't so loud. M. Maybe that's better. That felt odd.

On that note, On that note, for everyone that our host today,

Pastor Nicole, is our post and everyone listening and you're speaking this Sunday,

I am, oh my gosh, I am. It's it's gonna be the

best Sunday we've ever had. I got the highlights and it was pretty great.

So all right, well today, come on, we are actually here

to hear a little bit about what God is doing in your in Ariel's life.

Lego. So, Tony, you have been at Venture for pushing thirteen

years, thirteen years going on fourteen in January. Wow, wow, an

Ariel, you have been here for about a decade. Yeah, twenty eleven

in August. So yeah, currently twelve years. Wow, this year.

Quite a long time, quite a long time, quite a long time.

You've seen a lot. God's done a lot in you. You did freaking

I just, oh my gosh, so sorry. Yes, yes, I've

seen a lot. God's done a lot. All right, you Tony,

you got saved here, I did. You guys have met here. Tell

us a little bit about that for anyone who missed the vision meeting or yeah,

we I got saved here because I was invited to church by all my

co workers. I worked at Hollywood Video at the time, renting movies.

Shout out Hollywood Video, rest in peace, and eventually got saved. I

didn't know what to do, so I just started going to youth ministry.

I just went on Wednesday nights and eventually became a youth leader. And then

I did the internship where I met Aeriel. Yeah, and I had moved

up here to do the internship. My former youth pastor was running it at

the time, So I moved up from like right out of high school to

do the internship program here and then just stuck around. And did you know,

Nicole, we got caught cuddling by your husband. I did know that.

Yeah, yeah, we did. Were Morgan sat me down, He

sat both of us down. He looked at us and goes, what do

you think I should do right now? Like dead serious? Well not because

Morgan's against cuddling. We weren't supposed to be dating. Weren't allowed to be

dating, right because we were both were interns that back then it was kind

of wa yes, fell, I'm an adult. They can't date someone else?

Well, we don't know. There for Jesus. We were there for

Jesus just to have Also, it wasn't Morgan's rules, let's just clarify.

Wasn't his rules someone else's. He was the enforcer. He was just being

obedient. Yeah, it's always weird to enforce other people's policies. So so

you got cock cuddling, got cock cuddling. And did he do he said,

he said, either you go talk to Oh yeah, we had to

talk to the leader of the program. You go talk to him or I

will. And we did and nothing happened, honestly, like I think,

like a month later they were like, you guys can just date. That's

because they were leaving. That also, well it worked out in your file.

Now I got married. We did youth ministry at the church. The

church because we were so poor. Nicole took me on my bachelor at weekend.

That's right, Morgan took me to my bachelor party. It was in

Seattle. O. Mine was in Las Vegas. We don't worry. It

was super take. I don't send so I don't know what you're talking about.

We're really tame. Actually we mostly like hung out at the Bellaggio and

went to eminem World. So and you guys, didn't you guys get scammed.

Yeah, that's a story for a different You should have seen their faces

when I just said that. All right, God saved here, got saved

each other here, he got married literally here became youth pastors. Did that

first season served in the youth ministry up until twenty twenty one or throw a

lot of building changes, a lot of building changes. We feel like our

our time and youth ministry it was never about like man, our youth ministry

was so big. It was like how do you sustain this through a lot

of change. We had four different venues over time, we had graduated a

huge senior classes and then we had to navigate the final two years of youth

ministry and COVID so figuring it out, and we had no one to learn

from. It was just us, like we just had to kind of spearhead

this and see what do we do? Unprecedented times we hear that everyone is

yeah, and then a lot kind of you know, we we were just

we were so much like man, we are doing youth ministry till the day

we die. Like God, you will rip us out of youth ministry.

There is nothing else I'd rather do. I don't want to be an associate

pastor. I would never church plant, I'd never be a lade pastor never.

And then God did God did j well? I mean, after we

had our first daughter, Lynya, I took a huge step back from church

ministry to focus on family ministry and raising our kids. And now we have

Elie two, So I think that was a different transition for our lives too,

just because we had always partnered together in ministry and then for the last

you know, three or four years, we've kind of been dividing conqueror where

Tony's doing this like vocational church ministry and I'm focusing on family ministry a little

bit more. And that was definitely like an adjustment because we had been used

to ministering together, and so I think as we kind of talked through what

was next for us, a lot of that had to do with what can

be next for us that we can do as a team, because we hadn't

had that in a few years. Yeah, all right, So before we

get into those discussions, so about three years ago, so lots of years

of you saying, Nope, just youth, we're in it for the teenagers,

next gen, baby, come on, But you actually felt God stirring

your heart in a different direction, and so I want to I kind of

want to hear about that, because you know, a lot of times we

get in this mindset of like this is what I want, this is where

I feel called, and then there's this shift and it can be hard to

kind of lean into that. So tell me a little bit about what that

shift was like for you guys. Let's talk about And I think that's such

a good question to Coole, And I think if there's anything we can help

unpack today that we've learned on our journey, those starts how to navigate God's

will for your life. Yeah, this is less about Tony Niel anything that

we're doing, but more so how can we help people listening navigate? Because

that's exactly I will say, Nicole, this is this season. If I

was to call it a season started April twenty twenty. We were It has

probably been the most challenging season ever. Personally, I went through depression.

I had a lot of major identity issues. I had to figure out who

am I? When I was when I was finally out of youth, I

had to figure out who I was because so much my identity was tied to

success and to youth and to people and the church, that when all of

it's gone, who am I? Yeah, it was April twenty twenty.

We were sitting down in our living room and everyone had a crisis. April

of twenty twenty though, So that's true. I don't think that was unique

to you. We didn't feel like God said move. We didn't feel like

he said you're done with Brandon and I and venture, and but we did

feel like, I don't know how to describe it other than it's like the

It's like grace is like a faucet and it runs and it runs great,

and that's how you know, all right, God's grace is on this.

And it was like God started turning the faucet off and the grace for youth

ministry was coming off. The things that I loved I didn't love as much

anymore. The things that brought me joy didn't bring me joy as much anymore.

I started feeling I want to say burdensome because I love it, because

I love teenagers. But I started feeling like, man, I just it's

tough for me to get so excited about doing this right now when I know

there are people in our ministry leaders specifically, who are way more excited,

have way more vision. And it wasn't just like a funk. It really

felt like, oh my goodness, this thing might be ending soon. That

was going to be kind of my next question for you is because you said

that was a hard season for you personally, and so if you're kind of

struggling mentally a little bit, or maybe you feel like I'm not necessarily at

my best, how do you differentiate like, hey, this is all in

my head first, this is God nudging me somewhere. I think that was

a huge conversation that I kind of pushed him on of like is this your

season of discontentment? Is that just you? Or is that like the Holy

Spirit speaking to us? And I think where where we kind of leaned into

wise counsel in that, And also I think there just came a point where

it was like, us staying in this position is stopping someone else from getting

to walk out their assignment, and they're calling I had looked behind me.

Yeah, we had four people and honestly, we almost had to get out

of the world. People that could have been hired to be associate youth passers

or ful on youth passers ready to go. And that's when we felt like,

man, we really could be robbing someone of this opportunity. Yeah,

But I think all so because I had already stepped away from it a little

bit, I was able to look at that with a little bit more clarity

because I had stepped away from actively being involved with the youth ministry, so

I was able to sit in that and kind of be a sounding board through

that too. So I think before you made any decisions, I remember you

going into a season of working on yourself and really making sure like this wasn't

a I'm just making this decision out of emotionalism, but like I'm going to

get healed in the ways that I need to work, walk through my depression

and walk through my fear or all of those things before I make a decision,

So not making it out of that emotion. I do remember you walking

through that first and like making the steps to heal personally. I had a

decision. I think it was wise counsel. Honestly like wise counsel and friends,

like there is nothing I thought of on my yell and that I thought,

I'm just going to do this. Yeah, like I knew I was

not emotionally stable spiritually mature to make a big decision. I needed to take

a step back. Yeah, yeah for sure. All right, So great

first steps for somebody maybe in a season, whether it's ministry or their vocation,

you know, or life change, y'all move anything like that. Get

healthy, get get healthy, and get counsel. Ye a sap. So

I'm assuming one of one of the players in your wise counsel was was Pastor

Brandon. He was and you know what, I'll give him credit because he's

my pastor. Oh no, not too much, not too much credit,

just kidding. He's so good. He was so from day one, Tony,

you need to leave. And like when he first said that to me,

I was like, what do you mean he goes? He goes.

The Holy Spirit spoke to me, I need to release you, And I

said, why is that he goes? I just there's gifting and anointing on

you that if we contain it, we can be robbing the king like another

ministry from that, and I man, that really hit home because I was

like, oh my gosh, he sees it, he feels God spoken to

him about it. I'm starting to feel this discontentment, like not that I

don't enjoy what I'm doing, but there's something deeper in there that I'm not

tapping on. He has been so open handed him and I so open handed

with us, like we will love you, will support you, will bless

you, if you need to go interview elsewhere, go interview elsewhere. We

will. I can't, Like I who else would do that? Like what

other boss would be like, oh you're discontent, great, you got three

weeks to figure it out and then you're done. Yeah, I would necessarily

take that advice from most other areas of your life to tell your boss from

the go, like I don't want to do my job anymore. We have

a relationship and rapport and like he's walked through a lot of crud with me.

So yeah, I mean that. So I would say for the person

listening, find spiritual counsel, maybe like your pastor not your boss. I

just have the best both worlds. I think too though, whenever we talk

about wise counsel, I think the number one reason why it worked to have

pastor Brandon in that conversation is because he has a similar like trajectory of life

and career that you are looking for. So I think, you know,

if you were in a different job position, you would have probably talked to

somebody who was higher than you in that field. Yeah, And that's the

proximity principle, right, Like you need to surround yourself around people who are

in the field you want to be in, and you rub shoulders with them,

you meet with them, and you figure out how do I get to

where they're at? And like luckily with Pastor Brandon, I wasn't trying to

be him. I'm not trying to emulate him at all, but he was

on a very similar route that I desired to be in. Yeah, we're

not sure, Okay, so we're talking about a similar route. So what

then was that shift? What was what did you feel God calling you,

guys to next? This is where I think it gets kind of interesting as

a couple because I pretty much you from that twenty twenty conversation that church planting

in some capacity was in our future. Nope, I knew that. But

Tony was adamantly again, you're more annointed than me. I did not hear

that. He didn't. I think there was just a sense in my spirit

knowing your giftings, knowing obviously, like as a spouse, you know things

about your husband or your wife that other people maybe don't see. And like

I had just always seen that anointing in that call on him to lead something,

to be a visionary, to get people behind him. And so when

I was sitting there like just looking at it. Logically, I'm like,

well, this makes sense, Like this is definitely like where I could see

you going. But he was so adamantly against that, and so I remember

I brought it up once and he shot it down so quickly that I just

kind of like, because everyone listening has heard every horror story of church planning.

Everyone tells you it's awful, it's miserable. No one wants to hang

out with you, no one wants to support you. Gotta ask people for

money, Like, why about that? Sounds enticing? What about that?

I'm pretty sure I've heard Pastor Brandon call it signing up for in like involuntary

poverty, literally, like like, we have a good life here at Venture.

My kid goes to the preschool here, we have a steady income,

we have a beautiful ministry, we have the best coworkers. Why would you

like give all that up to go like, yeah, I'm gonna go fundraise

for the next year and a half and ask beg people for money please help.

Okay, So I just I want to push back just a little because

the way you're making it sounds like, Hey, if you've got a good

thing going at your job, but you feel like God's calling you somewhere else,

don't do it. This was me. I'm not saying that for anyone

else. I know. I think that's the advice you would not give.

No, it was the wrestling point, which I think is why it took

us so long to say yes to what God had for us. It is

because we were wrestling personally through those barriers of fear. If you have a

good thing going, you're blessed by God, be blessed. Okay, don't

God calls you outward, then you move outward. And I think like for

us, there's always been this thing of like we just can never disobey God.

So when God makes something clear and God makes a pathway clear, like

we have to do it. Like there's no like I'm not going to be

like Jacob and wrestle with the Lord until he breaks something in my body or

just in my life in general. Like I don't want to be that.

I want to I want to say yes immediately. I want to be more

like Abraham and just walk directly through whatever God's given us. And so,

and here's the thing about Abraham. Most people forget. It was years and

years and years before he saw the promise. We read scripture and we and

we just we see the lines, we see the pages. We think it

was quick. It was years before he ever saw any of the promise,

and he wandered, yep, traveled. There was a lot God had doing

us before we're ready. I feel like that is that is man, You

nailed it. There's a lot in me God had to do before he can

release me in the next season. I ran our dinner church at our ever

campus and we'll still do come on and needed the humbling from the Lord to

do that ministry in a way that's like now I'm not working with teenagers and

work with adults yea in a more urban setting. We still have to fundraise

for our campus. And it's Everett and it's it's beautiful, it's unique.

It's a city that people sometimes overlook and we had to like, God,

show me break my heart forever. Now, Like I drive into Evert,

I get excited when I see Everett. And there was a lot of just

internal refining God had to do before. And I'm like begging God, God,

just give me an answer, show me what's next, Show me what's

next. And God is just it's not that he's holding back, It's that

there was more in me he needed to do before he could just open another

door. And I think a lot of times we want that, we want

God to be audible, We want him to just like come down and be

like, this is what you need to do. And realistically, there's there's

process that God wants to walk us in and walk us through so that we're

prepared for the assignment that He's given to us. And I think one of

the main things God has shown me in this season is the difference between calling

an assignment that like, you can have a calling to do something, but

like the assignment changes and we have to be obedient to the assignment that we're

given in the moment, rather than always focusing on like what's to come and

what's happening. Instead we focus in on, like what is the assignment God

has given me right now? And for my season? At first, that

was my kit's like that was my assignment, Like that was the assignment I

was given. Then for a season it's been dinner church. That's the assignment

we're given, and we do that wholeheartedly. We don't do that with one

foot out. And it was the internship, which is just youth ministry on

steroids. I love it. Now they have licenses and money, kind of

no money, less money, can make a little bit of decisions. Yeah,

your life without the protection of their parents. You will tell my dad,

will you you're nineteen be an adult? Yeah, okay, No.

I love that idea, that truth about assignment, and to dig into that

a little bit more. You guys were stirred thinking your assignment might have been

something else. Yes, and it's not quite where you've landed. So I

love that and I love that we get to talk about that today because I

do think a lot of us feel like, Okay, God's calling me to

something, and then maybe like a door opens and it feels right, and

then as you kind of start to walk through that, you're like, oh,

I don't actually know because now they're kind of another door. So that

is okay. So you determined assignment is a good question. That is a

good question. So most people don't know the story. Yeah, we really

kept it. We really shared it with just trusted sources and a handful of

our friends and family. Right, So Pastor Brandon had approached us during all

of this figuring out what's next and said, hey, I want you to

pray through loss Vegas. Yeah, and we were alike Vegas. Fact response

was absolutely not that is not what you said. That is the version of

it. I will say on the podcast you referred to Hades, and it

was like I was like, what what is he thinking? And he goes,

I want you to pray through it and go see it. And at

that point, by the way, I've now determined Okay, God, I

will go lead, but I still will not church plant. Yeah, I

will go lead, but I will not church plant in any capacity. I'm

not doing that once again kind of dragging my feet like a child. And

we go to Vegas and Nicole like I we felt the burden for the valley

and it wasn't just like I could I could have gotten Yeah, I do

believe I could have gotten excited about anything, Like if you had put me

in Oklahoma, I probably would have been like I feel the burden for Tulsa.

Maybe not me, maybe not arial, but like I think I was

just so hungry and ready. Yeah, but I also did sense like,

wow, God, there are so many people moving into Vegas, into the

valley who don't know you yet, and there's mega churches out here, and

there's some churches, but there's so much more for there's so much more room

for the gospel to move here. And we were like pretty adamant we're doing

this, and we had a couple of doors kind of come our way.

Yeah, and that's how we kind of felt like, Okay, we go

to Vegas. We feel this confirmation. Then a couple of doors start kind

of opening up. They look like they're opening so Ariel and I where our

hearts are Vegas. We're starting to think through Vegas. I'm like, we

got to sell the house. We gotta go down there. We gotta take

a team with us. Like he moves quickly, I move quickly. I'm

not saying that's truly, and then quickly, yes, I'm not saying that's

I think though in that so, this is an interesting part of that dynamic.

The more I've been really processing and thinking of it too, I think

anyone who's known us for any length of time, I know that even Tony

got jokes of like, weren't you going to move to California? Like hasn't

known that we are more fans of sunshine and beaches. I've told everyone I

want to live in La Yeah, well I don't. I think we've always

been Again, this was really us walking through and wrestling through discontentment and what

contentment really looks like as a follower of Jesus, because so much of us

was discontent with the familiarity of the Northwest and the weather and like, oh,

we know so much about it, and like we've lived We've both lived

here our whole lives, and so I think we fell into this rut of

discontentment, not just the rut of discontentment, but like the negativity. Yeah,

people have been spreading about Seattle all it smells like this and look at

the politics, look like we really started buying into I remember it getting to

a point where every time it rained, I'd be like, this is why

I don't want to live here, like every time, which is a lot

in Seattle. And so I think the opportunity of something like that door kind

of cracking open for something that was sunny and like seemed like idea, Like

we always say, the grass is greener on the other side, desert is

greener on the other side. So I think we just got excited about the

idea that like, maybe this is God giving us the desires of our heart

to to live in a warmer climate. And here's what I have really come

to realize is that when we talk about that verse of like, delight yourself

in the Lord and He'll give you the desires of your heart, the difference

is that God knows our desires more than we do. And so while I

thought our desire was to live some were warm, somewhere sunny, all of

that, when that opportunity was actually in front of us and we were presented

with like, okay, then do that thing. That closeness to the Lord

really reminded me and showed me that maybe that wasn't actually my heart's true desire,

that it was more of a lustful desire, a fleshly desire to live

in those things, and that God had to reveal to us through that season

of discontentment that our desire is actually to be where the Gospel is needed the

most, where our people are, where our friends are, where our community

is, and to feel supported. And I remember Clear's day, Nicole,

I was sitting at Visible and I was like asking God, God, what

do I do with my life? Do to do I go to Vegas?

Do I go to Los Angeles? Please do I go anywhere? God?

And all God said to me like, clear's day, make me your portion.

I was like, what does that mean? And I honestly sense the

Holy Spirit was just saying, I just want you to want me. Yeah,

that's it. I don't care about this location. I want you to

just want me. And I was like, all right, Lord, You're

all I want wherever that may be, which I think opens the door up

for truly anywhere. Yes, And that could be why you know when you

when you go to Vegas and you sense the s borden for the city,

like the Lord is doing so much inside of you that he's just showing you

it's about people. It's about the people who are in need. And so

it would be really easy to feel that call to any yeah, really anywhere

if if the heart is about God, I want to obey and God,

I want people to know you. And so you know well that you came

to the healthiest place, place that God ultimately wanted you. But kicking and

screaming like it wasn't like please no, like this wasn't easy, guys,

And I wish I could have made it easier on myself, Like my flesh

really got in the way, and my ego got in the way. And

I will say the minute I came to that place, I just started seeing

anything and everything as the mission field. Like I started seeing my neighborhood as

my mission field. Safe way, when I'm there picking up groceries, that's

my mission field. And burden was overwhelming and we so this summer we went

down to Vegas during sabbatical to really pray through and finally get the screen light.

And we had a couple of doors opening, but they just they shutting.

Yeah, slam shut slam shutt. And the only door that was left

open was the one I would open myself, and that would be plant a

church. So then we plant a church. Yeah, do it through venture.

But you do it all man, You pry it open, you want

this, you go for it, You build a team, you fundraise.

I would I'd have to go get a job. I'd have to make money

somehow, And honestly, we didn't feel peace, but we've thought, Okay,

we'll just do this. Yeah. And I think one of the main

things we wrestled through in that season, which I think is probably really relatable

for a lot of people listening, is do you double down when a door

shuts, do you double down and go No, I'm gonna be tenacious.

I'm gonna be tenacious for the Lord, like I'm going to push through this,

or do you go, Okay, that door shutting that's a sign from

God that I shouldn't do it. And I think that's the tension we really

wrestled through, is like do we just lean into that and be like okay,

Like the only opportunity for us to be down here is to plant our

own church so well into that, and that's what God's asking us to do.

So we kind of took that path initially of like we're just going to

double down into this and we're going to put our all in it, and

then more doors for that opportunity just kept shutting, and so then we were

like, okay, let's take a step back from this, look at it

at a thirty thousand foot view, like, Lord, what are you doing?

And like you had said, Nicole, like we really felt confirmation from

the Lord that it was not about a location, that it wasn't about where

we went. It was just as long as we were doing the will of

God, which is to love Him and make disciples, and that we could

do that anywhere before before we before we move on, I want to kind

of pause in that thought aerial, because I have had so many people that

I know that when there is kind of pushback or a door feels like it's

closing, they do lean into that, like they try to push that door

open because they feel like, oh no, this is the enemy, Like,

this is not God closing this door. This is the enemy trying to

stop stop God from what he wants to do. And so if it's hard,

that's the Lord's will, right, And I think a lot of believers

live in that like, well, if it gets hard, that means it's

probably more God's will, yeah, than not God's will. And so how

how do we help people? Yeah? Here, Okay, here's something I've

learned that is good, Nicole, because I mean, scripture is clear about

knock and the doors shall be open, and faith is persistent and pray at

all times, never stop, you know, don't cease praying. Okay,

God's will isn't easy, but his burden is light. Yeah, that's really

good. He doesn't want you to just struggle for the rest of your life.

I'm gonna push this store, I'm gonna push that door. I'm gonna

God, I'm gonna bust through this stuff. And like there's a joy in

serving the Lord. There's not an ease. But when God's in it,

doors naturally open. Yeah, things naturally come about. Yeah, I've noticed

fall like Light's part. You pray and the wall falls and the sea opens.

And if you constantly feel like you're hitting roadblock after a roadblock, after

a roadblock after a roadblock, maybe there is a season God's calling you to

stretch your faith. Yeah, but maybe there's also the season where he's saying

this isn't it. This just isn't it. Well, And that's a hard

tension, right, because even when you say, you know, wall's fall

steaks open. When I think of those stories, people still came up against

the walls of Jericho and looked at it and probably thought, okay, that

same question do we power through or do we walk away? Same with the

Red Sea, do we go around it or do we walk through it?

And so I think that's where, at least for us, we leaned a

lot into I remember being in this in this moment where I was like,

I don't trust myself to make this decision in my own emotions because I can

tell that my perspective on this is probably warped. And so what I need

is outside voices. I need scripture. I need things that are going to

bring truth into this situation. And so and again I'm we were careful with

those voices because I don't want just opinions from anyone. I want why.

I want wisdom, not advice. And we also were specific. We ask

people who had no through certain similar situations, similar situations, but they had

no emotional, tire investment to the decision we made. Yeah, So I

asked people, three men who don't attend venture. Yeah, very godly,

have nothing to do with venture. They go to other churches or live in

other parts of the country and it has no effect on them. Yeah.

And to a t every answer of God was so in unison. And that's

another way I sense, Okay, God is really speaking here. Yeah.

So I think in that moment where you're not sure whether to lean into something

or to take that shut door and that tension as a sign from the Lord,

I think leaning into wise counsel and leaning into scripture. So first,

like, does the decision I'm making align with scripture? Does it align with

what God's will is for humanity, for his greater story, and then taking

that to people who know you know the situation and can give you wisdom.

And I always define wisdom as like it's a challenge to you. It's not

just advice, which, like I feel like a lot of times with advice

you can get people that just are agreeable to whatever you're thinking, but wisdom

that challenges your thinking, and and then just putting all of that together to

kind of go, Okay, this is this is wisdom in this situation.

That's at least what we did help. And I think a huge part is

you ended in a place as as husband and wife, right unity, Yes,

that's what mattered most. You nailed At the end of the day,

we have to live with the decision, right Like, whatever decision we make

for our lives, we are the ones that have to live that out.

Something we've learned from Die is that you know, in marriage, whenever we

have conflict or whenever trying to navigate something, you know, one of the

things Dies said before, whoever's more passionate about it, just let them make

the final say on it. So rather than Ariel just submit to every decision

I make or vice versa. The beauty about this one. It was mutual.

Yeah. It wasn't like Ariel, I want God's telling us to this,

we're doing this. It was like, this is our this is a

family to say, our daughters are involved in this, Our family's involved in

this, and yeah, all right, so here we go. Multi million

billion dollar question, where'd you land? Where'd we land? Well? The

title today's podcast is I found God in drum roll? Judah, do we

have a drum roll? We don't. Okay, that was so anticlimactic.

I found God in Seattle's very loud. This is not a Mariners game,

bro, that would be a former Sonics game. Yeah, Seattle. So

ah man Seattle, Seattle, Okay, Vegas to Seattle. Attle. So

here's the deal we are. We just launched a campaign Sunday night at the

Vision meeting, I found God in Seattle, which, to remind all venture

it was. It's incredible. It's not about the campus. It's about we

are redeeming the narrative Seattle, of this area. We're proud to be from

Seattle. Men and women were It doesn't matter if you live in Marysville or

Bothel, you are proud to be from this area. We're proud that God

has moved and hey, I found God here, yep, I did,

truly, truly, like people are finding Jesus left and right. So when

people want to bash on Seattle and crap on it, God is doing a

move in Seattle. And Pastor Brandon really wanted that to be the emphasis of

the year. And actually, when oh, sorry, go ahead, I

was going to say, I think that even if you didn't receive salvation in

the city of Seattle, yes, we have seen our church be affected by

what the Holy Spirit is doing in this area. And they're deep in faith

and they're deep in worship. They are finding God in a deeper way here

in Seattle. You're you nailed it, because I think the cool thing about

the Seattle area is that because it's not culturally cool or culturally normal to be

a follower of Jesus, the faith that you do experience here is so real

because I think there's a lot of places in the world where maybe Christianity seems

like it's flourishing more, but it's cultural Christianity. It's I grew up this

way. This is my family always goes to church, and some of it's

not even real for like themselves. But in Seattle, in this area,

it's like if you believe in Jesus and you fight that like you're going countercultural,

and so it's real, it's it's deep. It's a like deep knowing

of Jesus. And I think that's a really cool thing that God is using

in our city. So for us, we I was addressed on Seattle's by

our network leaders. So where somebody's at God. Our network leader Don Ross,

who's out to coffee with me about eight months ago, and I was

talking them through Vegas. I was telling them essentially I'm leaving, I'm going

to do Vegas. And he well, that wasn't leaving that. I was

really praying through it, and he goes, wow about Seattle response. I

literally looked at him and I said, Don, that's that's a no,

Like literally like like I'm breaking his heart, Like that's a no. I

felt like, who was that guy on American Idol, Randy That's no for

me, dog, That's a no for me. Dog. And then Pastor

Brandon we went to Houston meet him and die for a church planners conference and

he brought it up to me again too, and once again I said no,

no way. I've lived here all my life. I get seasonal effective

everything at all times except for July. Like, like, I know,

Seattle, I've loved this place. But every time we travel, I will

say, we come home and go there's no place like Seattle, like there's

every time we go somewhere. And but again, I think going back to

I think our rut of discontentment really spoke into that because we were just living

in this. We're just discontent with the life that we have. We didn't

learn how to be content with what we have. And now I look at

all of the things I didn't like about Seattle or said I didn't think I

liked. Now I'm like looking forward to and I'm like, oh, like

it's almost fall, Like I get to do all these things that I wouldn't

get in another location. And so I think the Lord really just changed the

lens in which we viewed the city. And I hope that people hearing that

and hearing that, like how our lens was changed for the city so much

so that we're like, let's bury our hearts here and do ministry here and

like put our entire everything into this. I hope that it can for people

who also are looking through that lens of discontentment can kind of make that shift

for them too, of like maybe God has us here for a reason.

Maybe there's familiarity for a reason. You know, a lot of people walk

into the Seattle area. I was even just on TikTok the other day,

people making jokes about the Seattle freeze and all of that. But when you

live here, you don't really think of it that way, Like you're not

like, oh, the Seattle freeze. It's just a culture that you're used

to. Whereas they think, if you know, when people come in,

they think that that's really abnormal. But again, because we've lived here our

whole lives, we understand the heart of the people in this city. We

understand the love that they have for the Seattle, for one another. Actually

think Seattle is going through a major identity crisis. The Seattle that you and

I all know from even ten years ago is not the same. You have

all these transplants, tech has I mean, we're the new Silicon Valley right

like tech has boomed. You meet people, they all work remote, so

they're stuck indoors, and they're from different parts of the country, but they're

all here. Now and then you know you're you meet less and less true

Northwest Natives. Nowadays they're they're here, but a lot of left, a

thought of left. But also because costs of living. Yeah, it is

so expensive to live here. And we came back from sabbatical. Then Pastor

Brandon met with us and he goes, hey, man, well, we

support you if you want to go do Vegas, go do Vegas. But

he said, I really want to challenge you to consider your Jerusalem, Like

you're trying to go to jude in Samaria. What about your Jerusalem? And

he goes, what about Seattle? And I literally looked at Arriel, like,

oh my gosh, we're having this conversation again. We thought we finally

just made it. DESI, we just took our family to Vegas. We're

all in. We just sat our friends down literally told Nicole and Morgan and

Rachel we're leaving. And we've gone through all the emotions, we've cried.

So then I said, give us forty eight hours, we're gonna go walk

the streets of Seattle. Let's see if God speaks. And then also a

dear friend of mine who's a pastor called me and he he didn't put the

full court press. He really just said, Tony, you need to I

want you to really pray for a burden as you walk tonight through Seattle.

I said, okay, so what do we do? We hop on the

light rail because I ain't driving down there, and I love the light I

have an card. I just got an Orca card. Love the light rail.

And we go on date night and Cap Hill Love cap Hill one of

my favorite neighborhoods, and I I'm just overwhelmed. It was so undeniable.

I couldn't. I just started like just sobbing. And on date night there

goes all the fun. I'm like sobbing on date night. There are two

phrases of the Holy Spirit kept speaking to me clear as day. He kept

telling me these are sheep without a shepherd. There is no shepherd. Number

two, Eternity is at stake. And I'm literally watching men and women,

couples, gay couples, kids, people walking. Eternity is at stake.

And I thought, Lord, we need to do something about this. And

it wasn't necessarily like, let's get excited. We can convince a lot of

people who come down with us and fundraise a lot like that who cares.

I'm talking like the actual burden, and I think for everyone listening who's from

Seattle, we need to remember this, guys. This is not a knock

on any church that's been here. Thank you to anyone and everyone who cares

for the city. Ten years ago in the ag we had twelve churches in

the greater Seattle area. I'm not talking suburbs. I'm talking in Seattle,

Seattle city limits. We are down to two two the major mega churches that

we're here. Ten years ago we had ten churches over a thousand. Now

there's zero gone. Yeah, all gone. And it's not about a mega

church. It's not about having a big church. I'm just saying we influence

though churches is no longer here. It's gone. Yeah, And everyone is

excited to talk about planting in Bellevue, and everyone's excited and praise God.

Go Bellevue, Kirkly. These are wonderful places to be in need the gospel.

I don't hear conversations anymore about Seattle because they're rary right. There's again

the move of God is so countercultural to the city of Seattle. Everyone knows

the culture of Seattle, and how counter to Christianity it is, and I

think there's an intimidation factor. It's like, well, I don't want to

get into those conversations. I don't want to get into those arguments. I

don't know if I can love those people. And I think we have to

evaluate ourselves in that too, right, because as Christians, we can be

so afraid to embrace somebody that believes differently than us and instead, like Jesus

literally had dinner with these people, like these people that we speak about in

Seattle, those are the people Jesus ate with. Those are the people Jesus

ministered. Too. Is where he would be. This is where he would

be. And I truly believe that Jesus, the embodiment of who he is,

would be in the city of Seattle and many other places as well.

But I think that there. But there isn't a lot of hands and feet

in Seattle. The harvest is plenty, and the workers are very few,

very few. Now, so I'm I'm super excited, especially kind of on

the heels what you just said, Ariel, because not this Sunday, but

next Sunday we do get to start a series in Jonah, which if anyone

knows the story of Jonah, it's that God called him to a place that

he did not want to go because the people were hard and they were not

who he wanted to be around. And so I am excited to ye to

see how that challenges us, how that challenges our way of thinking about about

people and about pushing into God's will even even when it's scary. The Book

of Jonah, the City of Ninevah, God calls it that great city three

different times, three different times, and that's the phrase. I've been married,

like married in my mind too with Seattle, that great city. Yeah.

Yeah, what Jonah saw as something evil and wicked God called great.

Yeah, I'm excited for that series in please know, Like to everyone listening,

like, man, we here, here's the most humbling part, Nicole,

like, honest to goodness, it was Sunday night when we announced I

found gone Seattle. We see everyone's like whooo Seattle. Yeah, They're like

wow, that was quick. Everyone's heart just changed. We went from Pharaoh

to like, come on, like, let's go. I think we just

needed a vision to nailed it. It's easy to kind of rally around that

common Yeah, you know, Seattle, this Seattle, that and the complaining.

But Pastor Randon's so great at helping us see the vision of like no,

like we get to shift this narrative, and so I'm I'm excited for

this movement of It was so humbling. Then after he announced it, to

announce the campus and then announced Ariel and Night and like I didn't like,

I froze. I literally walk We walked up there and I looked at him.

I said, I don't know what to say. I don't know what

to say. Well, the cheering was really loud, and there was a

standing ovation. There was a standing ovation, and you know what, it

felt like, it felt likely. It reminded me, whoever's listening, this

is why we're part of the local church. I got saved here. I'm

a son of this house. This house is sending me out like like like

you're going out like and we're trusting you. We're sending you because we love

you. And for people who are holding onto this narrative. I love God,

but I don't love church. You have it so wrong, and it's

so it is it is heretical thinking. The church is like we come together,

we resourced together, we love together, and like to have people who

don't even know me come up to me and go, I've got your back.

Yeah, I'm praying. We're excited. That is the partnership that we

absolutely love, and so we're excited. We're now in this season where we

are fundraising for Seattle, a lot of people ask me, where is it

going to be? We are really navigating where we don't know where, we

just know the when. Okay, this has been actually my most surprising.

I just never I didn't anticipate this question as often as we've gotten it.

So I'll answer it because everyone I've literally been asked this so many times,

is whether or not we're moving to Seattle. I've just like, I didn't

anticipate that many people asking As of right now, we are staying where we

are and we will navigate that in the future. But it was just funny.

I just didn't expect like almost everyone's question to me, like, so

are you moving to Seattle? And I'm like, I don't know yet.

Yea twenty five minute commute, yes on the light rail. My commute is

about twenty five minutes into the city. So but yeah, I mean,

we'll navigate that as it comes, right, Like, I think this season

has also really taught us to hold things loosely and to allow God to move

in the way that he does. I think that we got really married and

excited to certain aspects of this process, even like emotionally with Vegas and with

all of this that we like, then it was hard to separate from.

So I think we've just begin to like lay it down and be like,

however God wants to move, we'll move. We're thinking for right now,

Like you know, a lot of people are like, hey, how can

I support, and like, hey, we're not crazy gung ho about recruiting

a team yet because we're still working through, still figuring out details, and

I don't have a vision to cast yet, to be honest to God,

don't right now. The vision is fundraise and figure out your location. Yeah,

because regardless the burdens for Seattle, it doesn't matter where. If it's

Ballard, if it's Roosevelt's cap Hill, it's everywhere. It's just Seattle,

and we really want to be in Seattle. We don't like we love like,

we love Shoreline, we love these errors, but we want to be

in Seattle. And we're working through a really good partnership with the network on

that. With pastor Brandon, Like there are a lot of voices in that

conversation too, and so I think, you know, it's not like Tony

and Ariel just praying and considering, like where do we want to plant a

church? Like there's a lot of factors. So we're being wise with how

we navigate that another like quick question. I know we're going to wrap up

here in minutes. People have asked me like why venture, Why didn't you

just go do it on your own? And the reality is this, like

we love our church, we love the mission, we love the values,

we love what is done here. We do feel like if we could take

venture and what God has done and put it in Seattle, oh my goodness,

like it would just be so it would be beautiful because we I feel

like our preaching is solid, our teaching is solid, We're not abrasive,

and we don't come back Like I've learned something about Seattle already. Cultural Christianity

doesn't work down there. So if you go down there, come on,

all your preachers, all the come ons, come on, somebody, get

to your fee am. That stuff doesn't work. You need to speak human

language to humans. And I have a dear friend of mine. He's in

New York City at C three NYC. He told me he was from Florida.

He said the greatest culture shock was the way he talked to people.

He goes, my first sermon, I bombed it. I was like,

why. It's like he travels and speaks all over the country. He goes,

Dude, like, they don't want the wishy washy preaching. Nothing wrong

with the preaching, and he goes, they don't want that, they want

truth, they want vulnerable community. I was like, dude, you nailed

it. That's what we want for Seattle. And I think the other part

of why stay with Venture is realistically, we if we would have done something

with our own name, that's all it would have been, is a name,

Like we would have taken all of the same systems, all of this,

Like we would have copycatted everything, So that would have been silly,

and then we would have been completely on our own. We would have no

like oversight. Like one of the things that we're really passionate about is having

being people under authority. We see a lot of value in that, and

so we want the wisdom of our leadership. We trust our our elder board,

we trust past, our Brandon. We trust the team that we have

here, so we want to be under that. You know what, you

know what we could have called the church if we want on our own the

needle, the needle you on that note, or the light rail or ORCA

church and everyone gets an ORCA card. It's good venture. Okay. So

as we wrap up, I just maybe just one or two quick thing.

I was talking about navigating change, being obedient. What's what's What's a takeaway

that you can give one of our listeners That is a great question. Is

Jesus wants your heart yep, surrender fully and get some solid godly mature voices

in your life. Don't go to your don't go to your friend who's your

age or younger. Go get some mature voices. Yeah. In scripture,

oh my gosh, of course, read your Bible. Read your Bible.

My advice I think would sit in the be willing to be vulnerable. People

can't give you wisdom if you're pretending to be and think something you're not.

So be willing to be vulnerable in the conversations you do have with wise counsel

of where you're struggling and wrestling. And the last thing is prayer, my

prayer life, my intimacy with the Lord has been deeper than last season.

I can recall I have been seeking Jesus in prayer, talking to him,

hearing his heart. We have to pray, we have to and people like

get overwhelmed by prayer, and I think we do need to do a podcast

on prayer. Prayer has been my It's like my, it's my funnel with

God, and I like, that's how we talk to each other. And

yeah, but realistic and yes, because realistically, every person that God used

in the Bible, it wasn't because they were perfect. It wasn't because they

had it all together. It's because they wanted to know Jesus and know God

like and be close to God. And so when we align ourselves with the

spirit of God, it immediately aligns us with His purposes. And so we

align ourselves to God through prayer, through scripture, through being in good like

godly community, and those things bring us into alignment with the heart of the

Father. And when we're in alignment with the heart of God, decisions come

more naturally because we're making decisions in the will of God. Yeah, Nicole,

you're a great host. Thanks, You're gonna take his job. I'm

going to resign. No, there's so many things about your job I don't

want I love our listeners. You're great. You don't want to get chastise

for going Mmm. No, I probably have way different quirks and I don't

have a stick of skin. So yeah, I couldn't handle the comments.

The comments. All right, Well, we want to thank you guys for

tuning in for another week of Venture Unfiltered podcast. The name changes pretty soon.

You're going to say there might be whoa change happening change in the name

of the podcast. I didn't know that teaser as Brandon, we miss you.

Please bring David homes safe and sound. In one piece, David is

drinking verge of Markarada, Oh my goodness. And on that note, hey,

if you haven't picked up your iPhone God in Seattle merch, you gotta

do that on Sunday. We're gonna have it dropping online, hopefully on an

online storefront pretty soon. But this is a movement and it's not going away.

So in Seattle, I want to be at art. See ya,

see ya, Bye.