So, uh, thanks again for pastor Thompson coming in and preaching for us.
That was great.
And, uh, we're just going to let you, we're just open it up, spend a little
bit of time, ask some questions.
Um, and, and I'm going to start, so I'm going to ask pastor Thompson a question.
And, uh, this is a serious question.
What does Brandon suck at?
Listening.
No,
just kidding.
Oh, all right.
Anybody got a question?
I'm just kidding.
No.
Uh, when do you think it's the next time you'll head to the UK?
I'll have to answer that off camera.
Sorry.
Question.
Someone got something.
The Guerra.
So I, uh, uh, like what, what's the workload like on your point of view, uh,
with starting a church in Portland?
Well, I mean, I've never actually physically done it myself, but, uh, I
mean, you got to have the right guy.
You got to have someone that's not a total failure and loser.
Like a couple of people that I could mention that I won't, but, um,
I mean, you got to have the right, you got to have, you got to have enough
people to like, you can't just start a church with two people.
I mean, I guess it's possible, but it's just, it's difficult to run a church
alone without having to do it on the foreign field.
But I mean, our church in the UK has done really well.
And, uh, even after having to kick a bunch of people out just recently, um,
you know, he's getting tested for sure.
So he's going, he's going through the gauntlet and he's passing the test.
So, um, but as far as, you know, starting a foreign, like if, if, if you're going
to go start a foreign mission, you better be able to speak the language.
Number one, you know, if it's something other than English, you got to be able
to speak the language, but as far as like, if it's just somebody else, like I'm
starting a church through someone in another country, then obviously that
person should probably be, you know, a native of that or, uh, you know, have
citizenship there is I think it's a big part of it too, because, you know, if
you're a foreign citizen trying to go, and then you're preaching the things
that we preach, they can just throw you out of the country, basically.
So, I mean, I think that that's part of it.
That's, it's, it's an important part of it, but, uh, yeah, you gotta have a,
you gotta have a man, you gotta have a leader, that one leader that'll, that'll
lead the charge and, um, you don't always know, but like, uh, I've, I've
obviously learned, learned a lot through a few failures of mine, but, um, you
know, you don't, if you don't try and go big, then, you know, sometimes you're
going to make mistakes sometimes, you know, things aren't going to work out
and, you know, it's better than never trying though.
It's better than never trying to attempt to do anything.
It's easy to be the armchair quarterback when you've never done something.
So, um, but as far as being, you know, the foreign, you're going to have to
get a group of people.
So that's always kind of been like the new IFB way.
You get a group of people, you know, 20 or more people, and you get a man that
you can trust to lead, um, and then you just start from there and then you just
kind of bring in the structure of a church because a lot of times people
start like, you know, work, working up to that.
I talked to brother Ian for months on the phone and, you know, we planned
everything, and so you got to plan, there's a lot of things you got to
plan, a lot of structure, people that haven't gone to a Baptist church before,
like ours, or just the Baptist church in general, or even been in church.
Sometimes we forget that a lot of the new people that come in, they might not
have ever been in a Baptist church in their life, and so they don't know some
of the etiquette and some of the things that are right and wrong and, you know,
it takes time.
We got to have some grace of people, but, um, you know, structure is important
and I always try to, when I started church, I, I try to bring that structure
immediately, you know, how our church does stuff.
That's how I want them to do it.
And then obviously they can make it their own flavor later on.
Uh, they can change some things that, you know, when they're the pastor, they can
change a lot of things if they want, but, you know, I learned how to, how to start
a church from pastor Jimenez, and so I just try to copy what he does basically.
And if there's something different that I like better than my do that or
whatever.
So, but yeah, it takes structure, it takes the right man, it takes people.
So, and obviously again, being a national or like dual citizenship is an important
part of that.
So because of how we preach, so you got to take those things into consideration.
Anybody else got a question for both of you guys?
Could you do a five minute sermon?
Well, I went to the city council and I got three minutes, so if you ever come to a
wedding, it's pretty short.
That's called the announcements at my church.
Could I, I could, but do I have to?
No, cause I'm the pastor tomorrow.
You will though.
I have a question.
Brandon, 10.
Tanner.
Yeah, I got a Bible question.
I was just kind of curious if you guys had any thoughts about the spiritual
application of the two pillars of the temple of Jacob and Boaz.
Like if that, if you've ever, you know, just any thoughts on what that might
represent in there, like from a spiritual application.
Are you asking like specifically about Jacob?
Are you saying just the pillars or just anything or what do you mean?
Yeah, just, I assume as we're reading through, there was probably some type of a
spiritual application that you could apply to the Jacob Boaz.
I just thought it was interesting that they, that the name of Jacob was selected
for one because that seems like a kind of a, it's not very common name or a, you
know, popular name Boaz kind of makes a little bit more sense, but I just didn't
know if you guys ever had any thoughts about what that might represent.
Just off the cuff.
I mean, I would say Old Testament, New Testament, you know, um, and then
obviously Boaz is a relative of Solomon, so that makes sense.
But, uh, yeah, other than that, I mean, I don't really have anything.
I don't have any, yeah, I don't have anything when it comes to the number two,
but I, you know, the Bible talks about the church being the pillar and ground
of the truth, so we're, as a church, we're supposed to kind of like lift up and
hold up the truth, and so that's kind of like what the pillars represent in
general, but I think the two there could probably be applied to a lot of
different things.
Um, but I don't have anything specific, so to me, like I, I would have to study
it more to give you a good answer on that one.
That's, that would be a good thing to study.
Yeah.
It's just like, well, I, the last few times I've read through it, I'm just
like, there's gotta be some type of meaning there associated with it.
Why else would it tell us the name?
I just read it not too long ago too, and it did peak my interest, but then I
continued living my life and didn't go back.
But I have wondered, I mean, I'll admit I've wondered, I just haven't
dove into it yet.
So
another question.
I'm just curious for you to go on your own personal level reading type schedule
or plan or whatever, just what do you currently do and was there ones that
you've tried in the past that you didn't like or ones that you did like and how
you kind of came to where, what you're doing now as far as your own personal
reading?
I mean, I personally don't think that it matters.
Like, I think it's a preference on like how you approach Bible reading.
I personally like to just go straight from Genesis to Revelation and then
just, and then just start over again.
But sometimes I haven't done that just like we did in Testament challenge.
So like I was in the middle of Old Testament, but then I just quit and just,
just did the New Testament challenge and then I kind of go back.
And also sometimes I would just read things that I was interested in
occasionally, but I mean, I just find it, it best to just whatever plan you make
to just try to stick with that plan no matter how ugly it gets, because there's
just sections of the Bible that you just aren't interested in reading at times.
I think personally, like I just get to certain, like there's certain sections
of the Bible that are just really hard to read and like, they're not as much fun.
It's like you get to the New Testament and it just seems like you just fly
through it and there's certain sections of the Bible that you love reading.
A lot of the stories, you know, you can get through Genesis pretty quick, Exodus
it starts getting quick and then it starts slowing down and then it really
just, it's just, you get hammered because you know, you think about like Leviticus
and Numbers and Deuteronomy and Joshua and Judges gets fun again, so you're
like, Oh, that was kind of fun.
And then, you know, and first, you know, first is Samuel, but then you get hit
hard with like, you know, some of the Kings and the Chronicles and just some
of the, all these names and it's, it gets laborious at times.
So I think just making goals, having a plan, and then just kind of forcing
yourself to do it because at the end of the day, like there's just, there's
just sections of the Bible that may never be that interested in reading.
And, but I find that once I start reading it, I get interested.
Like I think almost for me personally, like the first chapter is the hardest
chapter to read, but then once I kind of get halfway through, then I'm like
motivated to finish, but it's like, if I just kind of like, when I kind of start
reading, I'm just like, man, I don't want to think about anything else or do
something else or whatever, but just kind of just forcing yourself to do it.
But again, if someone likes to read in a different way, different order,
people, I think really just as long as you're doing it, that's the most
important thing.
Um, I, I like to go from Genesis to Revelation also, um, I've tried
different ways to, cause when you get like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, you know,
Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, you know, that's some pretty, some
pretty tough stuff.
It's pretty negative, but, uh, uh, I mean, I liked the whole Bible.
So, um, but I, I usually start the year doing the New Testament
challenge in 30 days.
And then I always feel like I have a leg up on jumping into my Old Testament.
And I really love the book of Genesis.
I just got done doing, you know, like two years of study on it.
So I know that pastor Shelley did it in like 50 weeks or whatever.
I don't know.
I really dove in deep on some of those chapters and I love studying the Bible.
But so when I pre, when I, I don't count my Bible reading where I study.
So like all that just kind of, but I mean, I, I studied.
So when I, you know, the Bible says to study, to show thyself approved unto
God will work when it needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
So when I'm writing a sermon, I study that topic.
I study the scriptures and I don't count any of that Bible reading.
There's a lot of Bible in my sermon tonight.
I'm sure you guys realize that, but, um, so, I mean, so think about, I mean, I
had to search for all that, put it all together and that's a lot of Bible
reading plus I go over it, you know, multiple times or whatever, but my
regular Bible reading start in January, New Testament challenge, just keep going.
So I find that's the best way to do it.
I mean, I just, I tried the Reese's chronological thing and I don't
think that their chronology is right.
So I just, if they're going to say that this is the chronology and it's not
what I believe is the right chronology, it just instantly turns me off into
reading it that way, so I just, uh, just like to go through the whole thing.
And, you know, one, one other tip I'll say is this, and this is a personal tip.
A lot of times if I personally just like want to make a goal, like let's just say
I want to read the Bible in 90 days or whatever my goal is, sometimes what I'll
do is I'll try to actually read, I'll read at a pace that's 45 days, because what I
notice is like all of us, especially since we are like providing for our whole family
and we have like difficulties in our life, you're going to have a bad day.
Like the, the, the idea of going 90 days where you don't have like some crazy
day, or you have to go into work early, or you have something bizarre that has
to happen that you have to like manage is unrealistic, so like if you actually
want to meet that goal, it's better to just kind of like read more aggressively
because then you kind of have a bad day, but it's okay, whereas if you kind of
like set yourself up for this level of perfection, you pretty much always fail.
And so it's like, it's like kind of better to just like make a realistic goal, you
know, something that you can actually attain, but then kind of like double your
efforts so that when you kind of have off and on days, you kind of just can get it
done.
Like if you make a plan, like I'm going to read the Bible this year, let's just say
you want to read the Bible this year.
Don't only read 15 minutes a day, because there's going to be several days in that
year's time that you're not going to read it for 15 minutes and it's going to stack
up and it's going to get crazy.
So it's like better to just like, try to like double your efforts and front load a
lot of it, because then you'll actually typically maintain a better realistic
pace.
Elijah?
Do it in your commute to work.
Here's the thing, there is no trick to Bible memorization, unless you're a
savant, it just is literally just laborious work.
I mean, you just have to sit there and just quote it and quote it and quote it.
But, but here's the thing, quote it out loud, like quote phrases of a verse out
loud, 10 times in a row, like just take a verse that you want to memorize and just
say like a memorable section just for like 10 times in a row out loud and then go to
the next section, then combine them.
Because you see like 10 times, that's not that many, but it actually, it feels like
a lot when you're actually really doing it.
And here's the thing, my children, cause like at our church, we let all the kids do
like the ice cream or whatever.
It's like, if we just sit there and we just quote it 10 times, you know, and we
just do it every night, like obviously the really young ones struggle, but like my,
my son Clayton, he always gets the verse and it's not because he's special.
It's just because he just wrote memory.
But if we don't practice that week and he doesn't say it much, he couldn't get it.
You know, it's just, there's not really a, uh, like, well, if you say it this way or
do it this way or write it this way or get this app or whatever, I mean, it's
like, it honestly doesn't matter.
And here's the thing.
If you cheat your way into memorizing a verse, it won't last.
So if you don't do a real methodical wrote type memorization technique where you
just say it over and over and over and over again, and just kind of do it the
hard way, it won't stick because some people have these apps, so they kind of
like, they learn how to study the chapter by memorizing the first letter of each
word, or they have these different techniques, but I guarantee that person
will not memorize that verse for as long.
And it won't stick in their mind as well.
It's just, you know, the Bible talks about a pastor, a preacher being like
an ox and, you know, they're treading out the corn and, you know, the Bible
talks about just these pictures of just, you know, mulling the word of God.
And it's just like, that's really what it is.
I mean, you just have to sit there and just meditate and think about it and say
it and, you know, it's, it's not easy, but this is what I noticed.
I have, there's nothing I can do in the car that's beneficial, but what I can
do is I can memorize scripture and like, for me personally, I memorized a lot
of scripture in the car because there's nothing really that great to do in the
vehicle and when I had like an hour commute to work one, like back when I
lived in Phoenix, like I could learn lots of Bible on my way and you can just sit
there and just say, say the verse a bunch of times, just over and over and over
quote things that you've already memorized.
So you can kind of keep in your memory and regurgitate it.
There's really no replacement in my opinion, because I've tried a lot of
different things, but like, that's the only one that works.
I don't know what your light perspective is in Bible memorization.
Well, I mean, I like to memorize things that I'm going to use on a daily basis
or use for the rest of my life.
Um, or maybe just ones that are in a specific sermon to quote in the sermon
or whatever, I think that's a good, I don't know, a lot of you guys probably
do preach or you get opportunities in the preaching class, try, try this, just
memorizing one of the verses in your sermon that you just quote from memory.
And, you know, sometimes you, you try to quote something from memory and it's
like, you know, the verse really well, and then just like, you just have a Biden
moment and you're just like, maybe it's just me, but I personally think that
the best scriptures to memorize are the ones that you're going to use out.
Soul winning all the time.
So say you're just, you know, being unspiritual one day and you don't have
your Bible in your hand everywhere you're walking, no, you're just going to get,
you're going to get in situations where so many verses are going to help you
because you don't necessarily have a Bible, or maybe they just, you know,
you're just in a conversation with someone, you can quote those scriptures.
Those are great ones to quote.
I mean, that's a lot of scriptures.
Like if you have a detailed plan, um, you know, memorize those scriptures and
memorize the ones that are easy phonetically, because some verses are
a lot more tongue twisters.
And, uh, I mean, my, just my personal view is I like to just memorize
scriptures that I'm going to use.
Because if you don't use it, you're going to lose it.
And so if you, you might be able to memorize half the Bible or whatever,
but you're not, like you said, you're not going to retain it.
And then it's like, was it a useful exercise?
I mean, I guess, you know, all scripture is profitable, right?
I get that, but, you know, memorize the ones that are going to work in your
daily life or that are just good ones to encourage yourself a lot of times,
you know, when you're battling, you don't want to, you know, there's a
sin that you're struggling with, you know, memorize, you know, you don't
have to memorize a whole page to get a scripture that's going to help you.
You know, you can memorize one scripture.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me or whatever, you know,
those verses, you know, are all those small are, are ones that you can use
for the rest of your life as the first one I ever memorized.
So, you know, and just, I mean, that's just my philosophy on it.
I know that people have different philosophies, philosophies, or however
they want to do that, but my personal belief is that if you're going to
retain it, it's going to be something that's going to be useful to you in
your Christian life, so.
Other questions?
All right.
I got one.
Uh, all right.
Let's say you got like a shipwreck on that one, uh, book of the
Bible, uh, that's survivable.
You want to go first?
I would probably just pick Psalms just because I'd have the most at my
disposal, plus it has, it has a lot of songs in it and it has like the most
doctrine like components, but I don't know.
This is my favorite book of the Bible, but I think if I was in that scenario,
I mean, it has the most utility, but especially since I'm by myself, you
know, like I want to entertain myself, obviously, but like, if you were going
to say like, I'm there and I could get people saved, probably just Romans.
So I could use the Romans road.
Um, I don't know.
I'd probably, I just liked them all.
I really liked the book of Matthew a lot because it has, you know, a lot
of essential doctrine, you could get someone saved out of it probably, but
yeah, Romans would be also a great one, but I definitely wanted to have the
words of Jesus, maybe the book of revelation.
Um, yeah, but back to the Bible members memorization thing,
just another thing real quick.
You can learn a lot from memorizing it through songs, you know, so songs,
a little jink, you know, there's a lot of songs in like Sunday school and stuff
that we would teach or learn or whatever.
But, um, also, you know, turning to the Bible when the pastor's preaching,
like I, I learned, like I learned the song, the books of the Bible
and taught that to my children.
But, which I think is good because then you know where to turn to, you
know, you just start singing a song and you're like there, but that also
helps you when you're turning into the pages yourself, once you start turning,
you're going to like, sometimes the pastor can be preaching and I'm sure
that you know where he, what verse he's going to use when he's preaching
that sermon and you're only going to get that from turning in your Bible.
Like when we say turn your Bible, you know, we're not saying it just to say
it, we want you to turn your Bible so you know your Bible and then you can
memorize scripture that you love because a lot of those verses they're turning
to aren't necessarily obscure verses or ones that get turned to quite a bit.
Um, and then you, you know, you know where it's at and then
you can memorize it that way.
I did memorize scripture that way.
So, I mean, it's just another couple of things.
And I know that we're onto another question, but I
thought that would be important.
Are you guys reading any secular books right now or is there one
you read recently in the new lives?
I never read secular books.
Not, I'm only kidding.
No, there's nothing I'm currently reading.
Uh, a Baptist, there's a Baptist history one that I've started, but I haven't
finished, but I need to get back to.
So I don't have any, I was reading a book called the Bible,
even though it's not the Bible and it's not the greatest book.
It was interesting about the King James translation, but just mostly
my reading right now has been related to our project on the King James
Bible documentary, but I think I was given a really interesting book by
somebody from our church that I want to read, uh, I can't remember the
name of it right now, but I'll, uh, you can follow up with me.
It's like a book about Indian history, like not Native American, but rather
people from India and just kind of like some interesting stuff about that.
Some kind of, I want to read that one.
Another question.
Do you like Indian food?
You know, it's funny that you say that because my whole life I didn't, I've tried,
I had tried it a couple of times, but when I went to the UK, so like, you
know how Chinese food for us is not like really what Chinese people necessarily
would eat, it's more like Americanized Chinese food, but there they have, you
know, Englishized Indian food and so it's kind of like that and I loved it.
I mean, I, we went to an Indian restaurant and I didn't like it as much as the
takeout that he got from someplace else, but I real, I mean, I don't know what
to order, I would just have to depend on people that know what they're talking
about, but I mean, I trusted Ian's judgment was, was spot on with his Indian
food and yes, I do like Indian food.
So British bastardized, crickets and everything else off, you know, no,
what do you guys think about having like secular hobbies?
I mean, here's the thing.
I personally don't even like the word secular.
I understand that it's used because technically like the Bible says like
whatever, so that I, whatever that I hand find to do, do it with all I might.
So it's like, I think everything to some degree is, could be viewed in a spiritual
lens.
It's just, it's more about priorities than it is about like the activity being
secular because even the Bible says like bodily exercise profit of little, but it
didn't say like it doesn't profit.
So like, I don't think that there's anything wrong with working out or
playing sports or doing, doing activities that people enjoy shooting.
And in fact, it's arguable, like what is a quote unquote hobby?
Because some people do these things as a living and other people do it, you know,
just because they enjoy doing it.
They're not less than making money out of it.
Like to me, I just think as long as your priorities are right, all the other stuff,
it doesn't really matter.
But, but I think that if you're going to have hobbies, quote unquote, or you're
going to have secular things that you enjoy, they should have some benefit,
right?
Like watching football is not nearly as beneficial as like playing football or
like working out or, or gaining a skill or something like that.
So like to me, if I'm going to pick hobbies or activities to just have fun or
do things, I think it's best if they have some kind of like tangible benefit, you
know, riding a bike with your kids or playing ball with your kids, teaching
them eye hand coordination, you know, through sports or activities or physical
exercise or, you know, in all labor there is profit, right?
But like, there's a lot of things you could do that just really have almost no
profit, like video games and just watching TV and just like, there's a lot
of lazy activities that really don't benefit.
And I think you should like have that as a very small minimum.
Like you don't want to, you don't want to have that to be a main hobby or a main
activity, things that are challenging your brain or making a better person.
I mean, you should just ask the question, is this making me a better person or is it
not?
And it's like, you know, Dungeons and Dragons, it's not making you a better
person, you know, but like, obviously we as men should be strong and like, and I
think we should be healthy and we should be mentally sharp.
So like, there's probably a lot of activities and games and things like that,
that challenge you and force you to just be a better person overall.
And I think they, they should be done in their proper role place and with some
moderation.
So that way you're, you're like getting both of the best of both worlds.
Because I do personally believe that we should all have hobbies or activities
that we like to do.
You need to have some things that you're just like every once in a while,
spending time having some fun, because if you don't like let off a little steam,
or if you're not doing things that are sometimes enjoyable, you can get kind of
this like apathetic attitude towards life.
Like you kind of need to just have some things that you also enjoy and look
forward to, because let's be real.
You're not going to love going to work for eight, nine, 10, 11 hours every single
day. It kind of sucks, but it's like, okay,
but I'm going to get one hour to do this one activity that I really like or,
or hang out or, you know, working for the weekend is, you know,
is what they typically say in the secular world or whatever, quote unquote.
But it's like, it's kind of true though,
that we should have small rewards for ourselves,
things that we enjoy and teaching our children to do these things in moderation.
Right. Whereas like our world does the opposite.
It's like baseball is life, you know, football is life.
It's like none of these things are done in moderation whatsoever.
I mean, it is kids activities and sports. It's just like the only thing they do,
the only thing they focus on and it makes them have a warped mentality and
viewpoint on life. So, so there's balance to these things,
but I think you could arguably say like,
even when you play football or you play a game or whatever,
it can still be under the Lord and it can still be like,
I've heard plenty of people,
they go play basketball at the park and they run into some kids and then they
get them saved afterwards when they're playing basketball. Right.
When they're just getting better physically, there's bonding time.
When you bond with brethren,
there's bonding time when you go and take your children out and you do
activities with them, hunting, fishing, camping, lifelong memories.
And if you think about times in your past,
it's not the eight hours you spent at work.
It's the one hour you spent playing a sport with your kid or was the one hours,
it was the one trip you went fishing with your dad or it was, you know,
the one activity.
So like you're creating like the personality of your children and developing
even yourself as a, as a person and a man. So it's like,
it's important to have that, that role in your life or do something,
but at the same time it shouldn't be the only thing you're doing.
I don't know.
Yeah. I mean, I, I agree with that totally. Um, you know, when I kid,
I coached my kids in sports, I liked, I wanted them to play sports.
They wanted to play sports, but like I w I always made sure that I was the coach.
And so the coach gets to pick the practice days,
which aren't Wednesdays and Sundays, there's no game. I know.
And I put them in football leagues where they don't have games on Sundays.
Like the ones that are, there's certain ones,
I think Pop Warner or whatever is on Sundays. You know, and I think that that,
a lot of that's by design. I don't, I don't want to, you know,
have my children.
I didn't want to have my children involved in stuff that was going to take away
from us being able to go to church. So, and yeah, that's what it,
so he's talking about priorities. Like some people like,
that's all they do is this train there. Now it's kind of like specialized every,
there's no multi athletes that are doing basketball, football and baseball.
They're just doing one thing. And then that's all they care about.
All the tournament wrestling,
you've got these parents that just like live vicariously through their children
all the way through their lives. And it's just, it gets inordinate.
And so you want to definitely have your spiritual life.
You want to feed the spiritual man more than the flesh.
So if you're just constantly just trying to get the best or,
you know,
try to spend too much time doing other stuff than your spiritual life is going
to fail.
One other thing that I think it's really important that you instill this in your
kids that they do these things because we have to teach our children to have
good clean fun because if they don't,
because if it's just only 24 seven Bible church, soul winning and whatever,
then,
then what's going to happen is when they finally get into the world and they
realize that the world's kind of fun, they're going to like resent church,
the Bible and these things because they didn't really have like any other
outlets or activities they liked.
So I think it's good to show them how you can still have fun.
You can still do things that are enjoyable.
There's other aspects of life and you kind of develop those in your children so
that they don't seek that in the wrong avenues like the
bar or women or whatever, you know,
that the world has to offer because you know,
there we as we're still human and we still need relief.
We still need fun activities. We still need other things.
There's more to life than just reading the Bible all day. Now again,
I doubt anybody in this room is probably struggling with that, but, but,
but I am saying that you should have some balance there.
You don't want to just force your kids to like your,
your enjoyment is reading Leviticus. Okay.
Leviticus is your fun time today. You know, it's like, you know, they, they,
you know, yeah,
forced them to read the Bible for 10 minutes or 15 minutes a day or whatever,
but then go play with them and then go have fun with them and do whatever.
It's like people aren't even teaching their kids anything from the Bible.
They're not ever going solo near ever going to church. That's, you know,
we want to find balance, but it's like you put God, your wife,
your children, your work, your church,
and then basically all the stuff that you want to do for fun,
which you have about 10 minutes for. Okay. So, so it's like, you know,
have fun with those for those 10 minutes. John, you had a question.
Not at this point. No, I mean, it's pretty small.
So they're kind of like that guy that was like, get out. You know,
that guy who's a heretic by the way. But, uh, he,
it was still a funny video, but you know what I'm talking about?
Get out of here. Yeah. He's just like, yeah, I was like, COVID, you know,
so the people that were resisting COVID,
they were the one like that were just like out and just trying to, you know,
make a spectacle themselves. They got punished for that by the government,
but like, we haven't had any issues. I mean,
our YouTube channels get deleted all the time up there,
but that's pretty much it so far. So, um, yeah.
Canner along the same lines as the previous question.
So what are your views on the differences between your daughters and your sons
playing sports and being on an organized sports games?
I mean, it kind of already hit on some of that,
but just like the dynamics between the different daughter or, you know,
between some, well, I mean, here, I don't think that there, there's,
I don't think there's a Bible verse that I could point to that says like women
playing sports is a sin.
So I think that there's going to be personal preference on like what you want to
let your daughters do.
I think that as long as my daughter can look like a girl and have fun and
whatever that activity is, then it's totally within my discretion.
As long as I'm not forsaking God's commandments to basically allow her to
participate in this particular activity,
then I think that it's on the table. But,
but you have to ask yourself this question, like,
do I really want my daughters to learn how to play football?
Like at a high level,
like I'll throw a football with them and I'll catch with them or whatever.
But it's like,
do I really want to put them in like a football league and teach them how to
play football? Probably not. That doesn't really make a lot of sense.
And here's the thing. Women's bodies are not designed the same as men's bodies.
Okay. So like I grew up in a small town where girls basketball was the sport
because they always won the national champion.
Like they always won the state championship, sorry, in our area.
They were like always the best. And they recruit,
they these girls were visited by the high school coach when they're like in
elementary school.
Like he was already like coaching them and putting them in these programs.
But you know what also happened is a vast majority of them all broke their knee
and had to have knee surgeries when they were in high school and in college and
they constantly hurt their hips.
And I know several of them that they can't even have a natural birth because
they injured themselves so many times from playing these sports.
Because here's the thing, a woman is not designed to go out there and be a man.
And so it's like,
I don't really want to force my daughter to do two a day practices and like go
out there and compete at this like high level and some kind of sport that for
sure, I mean, she's not, I mean, even if she competed in the WNBA,
that's not even enough money to pay the bills. So it's like, you know,
I mean some of the men in this room might make more money than WNBA players.
So it's like, like I, I just think like with your daughters,
like you should just,
you should think about it from the perspective of there's an opportunity cost to
every decision. So like,
is it really beneficial for her to be playing sports or is there a better
activity for her to do? Now again, I think that like, you know,
we have a lot of kids, they all want to go play outside.
They all want to go throw the ball.
They don't want to do these things but like I'm just not going to force my
daughters to play a sport or do something like that if they don't want to.
I'll let them kind of navigate that area as much as they want.
But at the point that my daughter wants to be on the football team, it's like,
no, you need to like probably do something else. Cause I just don't want you,
you don't need to be a dude. You need to be a lady, you know?
Well plus they always try to make them dress like men and then like if it was
volleyball, they can't, they can't just wear a skirt with leggings.
They got to wear butt hugger pants or whatever, you know,
they're basically out there in their underwear, you know?
And then if then they look like the freak that wants to wear a dress and you
know, even in, in the, in the basketball,
they got to wear short shorts or whatever. And it's just like, um,
or they're on the cheerleading. I mean,
what can they do that's actually modest or not cross dressing that's an
organized sport? I mean, unless they make an exception to them,
but then they're going to get the peer pressure from all the other girls that
says, you know, why are you so weird? Why do you have to wear a dress? Or,
you know what I mean? It's just like, so it's just your wall. Yeah,
it's supposed to be fun. That's not too fun for them.
And it makes that influence that worldly influence, you know, put,
put anger in their heart and against their parents because they think they're
making them do something weird or something. I don't know. That's just
okay. Brandon, you had a question.
I don't know that I have like a singular activity. I, when we,
when we play, we'll play a game together, that's kind of fun.
But I think that, I think, you know, some degree it's going to be different for
each family because like some people,
their kids are teenagers and like I have a bunch of little kids.
So like what might be fun for a family that has older kids might be different.
You know, they might like go on a hike.
You don't want to take toddlers on a hike because pretty soon you're going to
be carrying them. Okay. So it's like, you know, you kind of, to me,
it's just about like what you like to do.
Our family likes to take walks together. Our family likes to play games together.
My wife really likes to go out shopping and we'll go out there with her and
that's kind of a family activity. But, but here's the thing.
I when it's family activities,
I typically just try to do whatever they want because like I'm not,
my goal is not to do what I like.
It's my goal is to spend time with them and have fun with them. So like,
we'll just go to the park and let the kids play at the park and me and my wife
can sit and talk because when we're in the house and they scream,
it disrupts the conversation, but they're screaming on the park, you know,
on the park is like whatever, you know,
and they love it and they're all tired and then they go to bed a lot easier.
Cause I don't know if you realize this, but like bedtime is a fight.
And if you let them go run around and scream and yell and then you put them in
bed, they go to sleep a lot better. So you know, there's just,
that's kind of a benefit. But like the teenagers, it wouldn't work.
They don't want to go swing on the swings or whatever.
They're they're too cool for that. Right.
So you got to come up with different activities for your family. I don't know.
You have older kids, so you might have a different answer.
Yeah. I mean, when we get, when we get together,
we still get together and do stuff.
It's been a while since we have actually like had like a holiday or a family
night or whatever. I think we were sick on the 4th of July,
so we couldn't do anything, but we like to play games and you know, I mean,
and yes, every once in a while we'll play video games like on like a holiday or
something, but we're not playing like, you know, God of war or something.
We're playing, you know, Tetris.
Yeah.
You know, Tetris, like on the old Nintendo, the older Nintendo. So like,
I mean, I was going to say this earlier,
but Gideon wasn't called when he was, you know, right in the middle of a match.
Hold on God, I'm on the middle of the match. So, I mean, I,
but I don't think video games are sinful unless the video game content itself is
sinful. So like if we're like all, you know, we'll,
we'll play Tetris against each other or whatever, you know,
stuff like that or monopoly or, you know, whatever,
just board games and stuff like that. Monopoly is owned by Jews by the way.
But anyway,
so like those people that are like, well, video games are bad. It's like, well,
you know, put some of the people that own the games are bad too. So if we,
if we never shopped at any place that didn't sell something that we didn't like
or whatever, we would never go shopping. So anyway, I don't know.
I'm getting off into the weeds here, but we do a lot. We just, you know,
I have grandkids now. So like when the grandkids come over,
we'll take them to the park or whatever. And that's, that's a,
that is a fun activity.
We've got this little wagon that we have that has sits to drag them to the park
and feed the squirrels or let them play and stuff like that.
So kind of what you guys are all doing probably too.
All right. Well, this is not something that I believe, but, uh,
what is your opinion on, um,
with your daughters where people suggest that you don't shelter them and keep
them from, you know, getting some kind of like a womanly world like job,
like babysitting or something where they have some kind of life experience so
called in the world. Does that,
does that even matter or important at all or just go straight from being raised
by a stay at home mother to being married off to be a stay at home mother?
I mean, I don't have, I don't have older daughters,
so like I'm not there yet, but just like, you know,
I talk to other people and give them advice.
Like I don't think that a woman having a job is a sin, but, but it's,
again, it's about priorities.
So it's like women need to have the right priorities.
Like there could be a situation where a woman has a job and she's not
neglecting any of your priorities then. So be it right. Or like,
let's say there's lots of women who have a deadbeat husband or a non
existent husband. So she has a job to provide for her family.
Like there's nothing wrong with that.
But when it comes to my daughter specifically, like, and you know,
I'm not going to just say like carte blanche,
she can't have any job because, because how are we defining this?
But, but like to me, I don't, I've heard other people say this,
and I kind of agree,
like I don't want to send my daughter to a like low level,
low skill job just to make money.
Like I don't want to send my daughter to go work at McDonald's to make the
minimum wage and it being around like really bad influences in that kind of
like environment, just so she has like an extra couple hundred bucks to spend.
To me, that seems pretty, pretty pointless.
Like if she was going to have a job that's related to skills or tasks
that are perhaps, you know, feminine, like, like you said,
maybe babysitting or things like this.
I think that that's to their father or husband's discretion. Like is it,
you know,
there's going to be women that get married young and they don't have kids.
Right. And you can only clean your one bedroom apartment so many times.
So it's like if they find something to do and it's a job or however you want to
classify that, you know,
I think that's the husband's discretion of like what he wants to let his wife
do or do or not do. Or like if your daughter doesn't get married right away,
let's say she was 24 or 25 or 26 living in the house. And again,
she doesn't really have a lot to do with the house.
I don't think that there's necessarily anything wrong with giving her some kind
of a opportunity to go out and to do some kind of a task.
But I think it's just going to be with women.
It to me would be more important that what they're doing is like a safe
environment and like beneficial for them than how much money they're making.
Like if it's a task that, you know,
is kind of like in a better situation.
The people that she's around, the tasks that she's doing,
I just wouldn't want her to be in, you know, a promiscuous,
a promiscuous environment or an environment that she's just around a lot of
worldly people and like a kind of a bad thing.
But that's just my personal views towards that.
I hope that my daughters never work like a job, quote unquote,
but you know, Proverbs 31, you could argue that that woman is self-employed.
I mean, she has her own vineyard. She's purchasing vineyards.
That's like a realtor. Okay. She's,
she's planting garden crops. So she's kind of like a farmer in a sense.
I mean, she's making clothing and then she's selling it.
So like you could view that today,
like a woman could literally be buying like buying property,
doing real estate investment.
They could be making clothing and selling it online.
They could be having all kinds of activities that are jobs.
But typically when you think about it, this, this Proverbs 31 woman,
she's either the boss or their husband's the boss.
She's not like working for the man. She's kind of like working for herself.
So it's like, why can't,
why can't a daughter work for her parents?
Why couldn't she develop a skill or a hobby or an activity that's actually
still working from home, quote unquote, or in a safer environment,
but she could still make money or do something beneficial.
Like I would think that that's the best or most ideal situation.
Yeah. And I mean, like before we started our church,
like we were going to a different church at the time, but like Nia,
I know had like her certification to, you know,
like to be able to babysit kids or whatever.
And we would let her in certain situations do things like that. I mean,
obviously maybe I've changed my, my stance on some of that stuff, but like,
yeah, definitely our job as, as dads is to protect our daughters.
Like there is a difference. I mean, we're supposed to protect our sons also,
but, but you know,
we're supposed to be the covering for our daughter until they're handed off to
their husband. And I believe that, you know,
that they should be trained to do the things that a wife,
a good wife is supposed to do. But you know,
some of that stuff that pastor Shelly was talking about is,
is things that are hobbies. Like, I mean,
maybe she's just doing it cause she's, you know, she's bored or whatever.
She wants to do those things.
And I think as long as the husband's okay with that, then that's fine.
But as far as the daughters, like, I believe like literally, you know,
like when I handed off Jasmine and we handed off Nia,
that was, you know, that was me. I,
I protected them as best as I could and,
and handed them off to men that I thought were good men. So, and so far,
so good. Don't you fail me. Don't you fail me boys.
But they, you know, they, they got good husbands.
So thankful for that.
So that should be the goal is to hand them off to someone that's going to treat
them right and take care of them. But at the same time, you know, we,
you know, cause that w like when we married, when they, I,
I hate to say that term married them off because it's not like we wanted to get
rid of them or something, but they wanted to get married. So.
But when, when we did that, you know, we were, we,
my wife would always say we've lost our handmaids because they,
they helped my wife do a lot of stuff.
They did a lot of cooking and clean or maybe not a lot of cooking because
anyway, but
they learned how to cook. They learned how to clean.
They knew how to do all this stuff and, and that's good, you know,
and we did lose handmaids. And you know,
it's funny how today like it's the opposite in the world is like, you know,
the father of the variety is supposed to pay for everything,
but that's not what the Bible teaches. So I didn't ask for a dowry,
but I feel like I was in within my rights to ask for one. So if someone's like,
Hey, you need to pay for the wedding. It's like, shh, go kick rocks, buddy.
I mean that too.
I like them both the same.
You're shorter. You're easier to get around.
You're intimidated by Brandon.
I'm just a, they're blessing in my life. So I've loved them both. So
I'm glad I don't have to choke them out like literal real or beat them down or
anything like that. I don't, you know, and here's, here's the thing,
like we preach, you know, and I preach that, you know,
we don't interfere with people with our kids as, you know, marriage. We don't,
like, I mean,
obviously sometimes advice is needed for like things that like maybe they just
don't have experience in, but man,
one of the worst things I've seen is where people, they say,
they hear the preaching all the time and they're just like, it's right over.
Their heads are like interfering with their, their kids. And I mean, yeah,
can I get a witness? I don't interfere in your guys' marriage. Amen.
Yeah.
How would you like, uh, find like for men that have daughters,
how would you find a son-in-law like that to kind of like keep it out of all
kinds of approach and kind of come to you, talk to you first.
I'm going to talk to your daughter.
My belief is that they should come to me and ask for permission to talk to them
or to call. Um, you know,
and obviously we live in a different world now,
but like I'm very traditional and things like that.
So if some dude just started talking to my daughter, like, you know, people,
I think warned them already in advance,
don't don't just start getting the digits or whatever. Right.
Yeah. They had to come talk to me first. And then like, you know,
my requirement was that they, that I get to know them.
And the only way they were able to get to know me is by moving to our church and
so I could watch. I mean, you know, I mean,
you're giving away your daughters to somebody and I mean, I just be personally,
not everybody's like this or whatever,
but I just wanted to make sure that the guy was that they were good guys and
they love the Lord and you know, they, they moved to our church.
And people would say, well, that's a ridiculous request. Well, I mean,
you can think whatever you want,
but when you don't even know the person your daughter's marrying at all and you
know, I mean, to me it's a lot more, I mean,
it's just really important to make sure that they,
that you get to know them and feel right about that decision because you can
only, I mean, you're only supposed to hand them over once.
And if they get divorced, guess what?
They're supposed to be back in your, the father's house. And I already told,
I don't want them back. No, I mean,
I do want them back.
Well, I mean, it's, to me,
it was already obvious that they were interested,
but my requirement was that they come and talk to me and get my permission
first. That was my requirement.
But as far as like getting to know them and stuff like that,
like that's just depends. Like it's that it's kind of at your discretion,
but I think that the man should be able to provide for the house and have a job
that's he's established that he's not like just jumping from job to job.
I mean, there's just a lot of things that you need to look at. Are they stable?
Are they just coming to church just because they want to marry your daughter?
They saw her at the Red Hot preaching conference or whatever, but that's,
that's how they did see my daughters. But anyway, but like,
I wanted to make sure that there's, you know,
you got to make sure that they're spiritual and you can't just like,
I want to make sure that they're checking the boxes. I mean,
nobody's perfect, you know, so they're definitely not perfect.
My daughters aren't perfect, but I still, I want,
I wanted there to be a union of believing and being on the same page.
So, but as far as like what age and things like that,
that's kind of at your discretion. And, uh, but I mean,
if they're not able to get married, then the dating thing, and, and,
and I'll say this about the dating thing, cause you know,
pastor Shelley just be prepared and all you guys,
so I didn't,
I didn't allow them to sit in the same car next to each other,
period. That was my rule. So,
because you know, foolishness is still bound in the heart. I mean,
they might not be a total child, but like, you know, people just,
you guys know you're men of like passions.
And so you get together with the opposite that you are just headed over heels
with and you know, your, your flesh has to be under control. And so like,
why not put boundaries in place that are going to make that flesh be controlled?
It's like no sitting in the, in the seat,
in the back seat together by yourself. I mean,
that might've been a stupid rule and I got my rules challenged.
My kids would challenge my rules. My boys would challenge my rules,
but they're, they're happy that they made those, those choices,
or that I made those choices for them. And sometimes they just thought, well,
dad, you're being ridiculous. But I had, you know, I would allow them to date,
but they had to have chaperones with them because nobody's going to snitch
faster than brother or sister, you know,
and they're going to hold it. They hold each other accountable.
So if they're holding each other accountable, they're not just going to allow,
you know, you know, Mr. Hanson to come and put his arm around, you know,
my daughter because they know, you know, first of all,
the first time in Brandon, I ever met Brandon,
he came and visited and I was cleaning my AR 15 at the table.
True.
When we were doing the practice for the wedding, I, uh,
we were doing the practice in the handoff and I like, instead of grabbing,
shaking Brandon's hand, I grabbed his throat.
True story. But, uh, anyway, I lost my track of train of thought, but I just,
you know,
you got to make sure that you put boundaries in place for them because you
don't want something happen, you know, that shouldn't happen, you know?
So I mean, what kids will try to get around any
provisions that, you know, kids are just, you think they're, Oh,
they're going to just do everything you say. They're, they're not,
when they're out of your sight, they're,
they're going to do things that they're not supposed to.
So you got to make sure that put stuff in place for them.
Do you guys have a favorite sermon or a sermon that, uh,
that you heard that like affected you the most in your life?
The gospel.
I mean, one of my favorite sermons is binding,
blinding and grinding by Pastor Anderson.
I don't know that it was the most influential.
I think that that's a really important,
like it's almost an impossible situation because,
cause I don't, I don't think that my life is influenced by one sermon.
It's influenced by, and I'll be, honestly, sermons are really important,
but like my life is influenced by the Bible reading.
So like sermons that probably just challenged me to read the Bible a lot were
probably the most influential,
even though they might've been boring sermons and I might not have even liked
them because the only thing that will really change your life is reading the
Bible. Like sermons just kind of,
they just come and go and you forget them and you know, you're,
you get excited in the moment,
but it's like the Bible is really what changes your life and you get a
handful of verses. Even in his sermon, he used a lot of verses,
but it's still only a handful of verses. You know,
you get just so much more out of just reading consistently is just my thought.
Yeah. It's like an accumulation, you know,
you might not even get things the first time through that someone preaches,
but like you, you, you learn things through accumulation preaching. You learn,
you know,
a lot of great truths through the accumulation of the Bible preaching because I
mean, as much as we'd like to say, you know,
think that people are just hanging onto our every word, it's just not true.
You guys are probably spaced out through 99% of my sermon. No, I was kidding.
But I'm sure you spaced off at certain points. Like, is he ever going to quit?
I'm hungry. Where's the peanut butter? I'm thirsty. If I get up,
I'm going to look that, you know, I mean, I don't know, but like, yeah, I mean,
there's, there's some, I know one thing,
one sermon that the pastor mentioned preached about how to start a church that
was like, it might not be in his like top greatest hits, but like to me,
just the way the, the,
kind of the formula of how to get a church started like really just spoke to me
and like, really, I think influenced me to actually, you know,
take that step and become a pastor. So,
but obviously there's been lots of sermons in my life that I,
that I've listened to that helped me guide me to like pastor Shelley was saying,
read the Bible more, or, you know, just motivates you to,
you know, do something that you're not doing in your Christian life. So, I mean,
yeah, it's, it's, I can't pick an ultimate favorite.
Now if you're just talking about ones that I just love about rip and face or
whatever, I mean, man, there's been so many, but, uh, the one where pastor,
I can't, is it, uh, resist the devil is probably one of my,
one of my favorites where he kicks the pulpit. That's sweet cakes by Melissa.
That one was great.
Elijah.
How did we meet? The first time I met him was at red hot.
Cause I, it was like outside, it was like dark.
And then he just approached me and it was weird because
like, no, no, no, it was,
it was weird because we both,
I knew of him because like he preached at church foundations,
like church, it was really a church plan of Verity at first.
And I kind of preached at the church plan and faithful word.
And we were kind of the pioneers of like church planting.
He did it more than me cause he was like the number one guy the whole time.
I was just kind of like one third of the operation,
but he approached me and here's the thing.
It was like pastor Thompson was like my best friend for my whole life.
The second he met me and I like,
I was really shocked at how friendly he was being towards me even though I
didn't know him at all. And uh, and like,
I don't think I was as friendly back probably. I mean,
I should have been, but I was just like, it was just,
he came up to me and he just like wanted to talk to me. He was interested.
And like, it was just, it was really,
it was really cool because he just was such a friendly person and was just like
interested in talking to me. And we didn't,
he didn't even know me from Adam theoretically, except for just listening online.
And I think just,
we just both really liked talking to each other and pastor Thompson is a real
humble guy. He's real friendly.
And so it's just real easy to be friends with him.
I don't know why. I don't know why. I don't know why you wanted to talk to me,
but I, I think you approached me. So that was kind of,
do you remember that at all? Yeah. And I think I asked you like, you know,
well, Tyler Baker told me a bunch of stuff that was just like stupid.
So I guess it's not really the time to get into that. But like, yeah,
anyway, maybe talk about that afterwards.
Yeah, it is.
But like I think that when we really started to become good friends is after he
became the pastor and like we really just started talking to each other a lot
more on the phone and stuff and kind of like when the whole Manly Perry stuff
really kind of kicked off and it was just like, I don't know.
So we just, you know,
we stay in close contact a lot and obviously we're both busy,
but we still find time to talk and see how each other's doing and a good
friend. Very good friend.
Other questions?
What advice would you guys have for disciples?
I mean, I think the most discipleship is like church related. Like I think when,
you know,
Christ is talking about like
in Matthew 28,
like the great commission and he's like teaching them all things,
what sort of I've commanded you. I think that's technically church.
So I think that that's like where the majority of discipleship comes into play.
And really you look at Christ and his disciples, it was,
it was a lot of that in the sense that they're sitting around and he's teaching
them the Bible. So it's not, it's kind of like,
even though it's not necessarily church, it's like an informal church service.
So I think that that's like the majority of discipleship,
but I think as an individual, like maybe if you're not a pastor,
that your discipleship should be like focused on your wife and on your children
that you should be discipling that like,
you should be spending the most of your time discipling them where you're
teaching them the Bible. You're emphasizing that.
And then like my tips would be like discipling people in moments,
that you have with them because you never know,
like outside of your wife and your children,
you never know if he's going to Jacob's going to turn bad and like leave the
church tomorrow. Right. So like, but,
but if Jacob's here today and I'm out soul wanting with him and there's a moment
where I feel like, you know,
I could benefit Jacob or give him some tip or some advice,
then I give him that tip or advice that day.
And so like my view on discipleship is that you should just seize the moment and
you should just like take advantage of the people that are in your life that
you already have, the relationships you already have,
and then when you have moments, disciple them. And you know,
when it comes to the new believers, you know,
you can always try to like follow up with them and try to like bring them
alongside, encourage them to come to church, take them to lunch,
show them things in the Bible. But you know,
discipleship is hard because people are just apathetic,
not that interested in the things of God and they're,
you know, not always going to do what you said. So you just kind of have to like,
you kind of have to,
you kind of have to take a realistic view of discipleship that
I can only make you like a very small percentage better,
but it's still, it's still beneficial, right?
Like I'm not going to radically transform you,
but I could make you just a little bit better today.
Like I could give you a tip that make you a little bit better soul winner,
or I could give you advice in some area of your life and make you just a little
bit better.
And it's like if we were all doing that iron sharpens iron and we can all
constantly disciple one another and kind of edify each other and that like
build up.
But it's rare that I've seen it where it's like just someone that's not saved.
You just like get them saved, teach them the whole Bible, get them baptized.
Now they're a soul winner. You taught them everything they know.
Like that just doesn't happen very often.
It would be great if it did happen more often, but it's like, to me,
it's more about like, you know,
discipling one another in the moments that we have edifying one another.
You know, today,
lots of people are out here asking each other questions about the Bible and
explaining their views on verses and scripture. I think that's discipleship,
you know, encouraging someone to come out to this, this retreat.
That's discipleship because they're now encouraged to do that.
Asking someone to go soul wanting with you, you know, is discipleship,
making a sacrifice to give someone a ride to church or, you know,
we carpool down here. That's discipleship because you get to fellowship.
You get to have time with one another.
So like to me it's just like taking moments in your life to just do good under
the brethren and help encourage them to be spiritual and do things that are
right. And everyone is,
everyone should be discipling in those ways.
Yeah. And just to add to that,
like I think it's really important that people try to be friend or be not,
you know, be kind, be nice to new people that come.
Because we don't want to get this attitude where we're just like have our own
little posse and then like they're the weird kid or whatever that came.
You know, we, even if someone's not,
cause some people just aren't very outgoing and like then they kind of feel
isolated. So I think that just even that in itself can be a great motivation,
motivation, you know, to them to want to stay in that church.
And then they're going to be discipled because they're going to come and listen
to the sermons and hear things that they've never been preached to before.
And you know, as far as like just being, you know, individual discipleship,
I mean you can only knock on someone's door and text them and bother them so
many times. And I think that, you know, if they just don't respond to you,
then just give up on that person. I mean, if that's what you want to do, I'm,
I'm, but I don't want people like holding personal Bible studies with Paul
chapels, you know, book or whatever, you know, down in the basement. I mean,
that's what churches are doing today. They're saying here,
you be the disciple or,
and then like they give them Paul chapels book and say,
let's break into small groups, you know,
and it's like you got people that aren't even saved teaching people like,
you know, discipleships are really broad thing to say,
but like as far as I'm concerned, you know, when you get someone saved, you know,
give them everything you can right there. You know,
you've already gone through all the process of getting them saved and stuff,
but I always like to just say, well, you know, I like to give them a Bible.
And then I like to, I have a little pamphlet that I have on baptism.
I just give that to them.
And I turn to acts eight and show them how the people were supposed to be
baptized after they're saved. And so basically I've given them like the followup,
Hey, the first thing you need to do is get baptized. Here's a Bible.
You have the Holy spirit. You can read the Bible for yourself. And you know,
God will never fail you. And you can learn as much as you want,
but you should come to church. You should get baptized.
And then that's my discipleship with them at that moment, because in reality,
I just don't have time to just go to every single person that I ever get saved
and just continue to just like text them. I mean, it's,
it's just not realistic. And Phillip, you know,
was taken away with a whirlwind and didn't even give him the baptismal.
Well, he already baptized him, but he didn't say,
make sure you come to church. I don't know.
So, I mean,
I think that you should do as much as you can to try to get them into church and
get them baptized and get them with the word. But like, you know,
you can't drag people to church. If you're always having to drag the church,
you know, you're always going to have to drag the church. It's annoying.
So people want, like, I wanted to go to church. Why did I want to go to church?
I just did. You know,
I got a little bit of discipleship and I finally went to a Baptist church and I
got baptized and, you know, started learning the Bible. And why?
Because I wanted to do those things. Some people just don't want to.
And so I think that we should not wait. You know,
we only have so much time spend the time using it to do wise things and just,
I'm not saying give up on them, stop praying for them or something,
but just like people get creeped out when you, you know,
do too much with the discipleship. So would you please quit texting me?
It's like, okay, okay.
Juan.
I don't have any specific age. I think once they can read,
they should be encouraged to read on their own.
So like some kids are going to read a little faster than others.
Like some kids could start reading at four or five. That's,
that's really precocious. That's like really young.
Some kids are going to kind of start reading at seven, eight.
That's a more like typical age, but once they,
once they can read,
I also think it's good to just try to give them books that are simpler, you know,
like give them Jonah or give them, you know, simpler books.
But like my son Clayton,
he's eight and we gave him a one year Bible this year and he's read,
he has to read for 15,
20 minutes every single day and he's reading every single chapter and it's,
it's crazy how much he actually understands.
Like he understands so many different things and so many different concepts and,
and he'll bring up all kinds of stuff in the Bible that I'm just thinking like,
I'm surprised that a kid could understand that.
So I don't think that there's really a cap like for how young,
like brother Ili,
his son Liam is like the smartest kid I've ever met in my life.
And like I wouldn't be surprised if that kid could be reading lots of scripture
a lot younger than many other kids.
So I wouldn't want to put an age on it and say,
wait until they're eight because Liam,
maybe he's going to be understanding the Bible.
He's going to read it like five times by eight or something. You know,
I don't know. It's like, so it's like you just kind of work with it.
You got, whereas my, my son Jackson,
he's has a harder time learning how to read and it's not,
it doesn't mean anything about him because just some kids are just different.
Their attention spans are different and everything like that.
I personally was in a program like where I,
when I was a kid where they put me like,
I wasn't able to read well or something as a kid,
but I don't think it was actually some deficiency I had.
It's just kids develop at different ages and have a different attention spans or
whatever. So,
but it's good to get your kids in a habit of reading.
And we read a lot of books before the Bible because the Bible is a little more
advanced, right? Like it's not hop on pop, you know,
it's not like these smaller ABC books or something like that.
So we would just read a lot of that, you know,
and then once they get to the point where they can read more advanced things,
then just start making them read the Bible on their own.
But if they're reading the Bible on their own and you don't even understand
anything that they read, then it's probably not that profitable, right?
If they're just looking at the words and they can't understand any of it.
But what you could do is you could take small sections and read it with them and
then kind of explain it and it'll, it'll slowly stare stuff. But,
but here's the thing,
teaching your kids how to read is like the most infuriating thing ever is it
just takes so much practice, so much effort, so much energy, but you know,
eventually they get there. So do you have tips on,
well, I think once they can, once they can read and you know, we would,
my wife would have the kids like read the Bible sections of the Bible and they
read through the, I think they read through the whole Bible,
you know, in their late teens,
they would just sit around and read and like, that's,
it's good to read out loud, you know? So,
and then at our house it was like shame training. You know,
if you messed up on a word then you're getting stung on, burned, you know?
And so that meant, you know, Hey, it's brutal,
you know, pronounce it right or you're going to get burned into the ground.
Yeah.
Like, yeah. So anyway, I was kind of a little harsh, but
it's still funny. Yeah.
Change of tire. Number one,
she got a beard and you don't know how to change a tire. You ain't a man.
I mean, that's probably, that's probably an inexhaustible list. I mean, I think,
I think the most important thing is the things that are mentioned in Proverbs,
you know, Proverbs is your best list of activities and skills.
But you know, the activities that
are practical for our day, I think are going to always change, right?
Like we could say change a tire,
but that didn't exist 300 years ago because there wasn't any tires to change on
any kind of vehicles. Right.
And there's probably going to be tasks and things that are constantly new and
kind of adapting. I think just as a man, like as a father,
you just need to think about all the things that you do as a man and then just
make your kids do your job for you. Make them take out the trash,
make them mow the lawn, make them,
make them change the tire when it needs to be changed. Make that like,
instead of doing everything, you should just do nothing.
Like that's like the best thing ever is just make it,
make your kids do everything.
Make your your your daughters be the wife and make your sons be the dad and just
basically force the kids. You really only learn things by doing them.
And so like the best thing you can do is just you go through life and you just
take every moment and you just kind of like teach and train them. Now,
if you're, you maybe you didn't have that growing up.
I don't think that you need to just really worry or fret about like,
is there this skill or some task or something that I'm missing out on or
something like that? You've already, you're already a man. Okay.
So it's just, it's just whenever you have a task that is daunting,
look it up on YouTube,
daddy YouTube and just say like, how do I do this? And, and just,
just be a lifelong learner. You know, I, I think as a,
I think there's this kind of like mentality,
like as a man that you're already able to do everything.
Like I already have all the answers. I could do everything.
I can do every task. Like I don't even need to look at the instructions.
And I think that's a stupid idea. I think it's a stupid mentality.
I just basically like decided, you know,
when I became a little more mature to eat some humble pie and just anything I
didn't know, I would just ask somebody.
So like anytime someone used a word I didn't understand, I just said,
what does that word mean that you just said?
Or anytime someone said you know about this and I didn't, I would just say,
I don't know. Tell me about it. And then you just look it up.
And then eventually you start actually knowing things because you looked them up
and you, you experienced them and you like went through it.
Like just challenge yourself to not be a know it all,
but rather just be humble and learn.
And it's funny because the people that actually know the most are kind of like
that. Like pastor Anderson always talks about, he doesn't know anything.
And it's like, he's the smartest person I've ever met. You know, it's like,
it's funny, but it's,
but the people that talk a big talk are usually the dumbest people that you've
ever met.
So it's just kind of like having the right mentality of just always wanting to
learn, always willing to see what other, how other people do it.
Cause maybe I change a tire, but I don't even do it right.
And pastor Thompson does it better, you know,
so you kind of like learn from his example and you can always improve,
but yeah, for your children specifically,
I think you should just force them to do everything.
Well, cause if you're a hardworking man, like, you know,
I didn't grow up as an auto mechanic. I mean,
I did learn how to change a tire and I know how to check the oil.
That's pretty much it. I could change a headlight off a YouTube video.
I'm not a mechanic, but you know what I do know how to do, you know, that,
those are the things like, if you're going to be a hardworking man,
then teach whatever it is that you're working hard at.
Just have your sons and daughters, you know, work, work with you.
Like you said, and I think that's a great idea.
Take one more question.
All right.
You guys ever gotten a fight and what happened like a physical fight?
Honestly, honestly, I've never really been in a fight.
I've had like one time where someone tried to fight me and was like punching me
and hitting me, but I just didn't retaliate because like, I just,
to me,
the only reason for me to fight is to kill and destroy the other person because
my life is at threat or a danger.
So like I've just never had any desire to like want to fight somebody.
But, you know, obviously some people have different,
different experiences, different human experiences.
But I think also like I grew up being like the shortest kid in my grade.
So like when you're the smallest person,
you don't go around picking fights because you're not going to win a lot of
those. So it's like, you know,
it's kind of better to just just be humble about it and just kind of like,
whereas if you're the, you're the, you know, the biggest guy in the room,
it's like you can kind of bully people around, you know, if you want to.
But I'm not that way naturally. I'm like a more gentle giant, I guess.
But like when the fangs come out, you know, sometimes I've,
I haven't been in a fist fight since I was saved,
which has been over 20 years. But yes, I did get in fights.
I'd get in fights and fight in front of the whole school.
Well usually if someone picked that fight with me,
that was kind of my philosophy. I didn't go around picking fights with people,
but like rich punks that, that would like, you know,
they just think that they're better than you would always like,
try to fight me. Seemed like when I was in middle school,
I moved from the country to the city and like, I'm wearing like Wranglers and,
you know, we'll go like a hillbilly, no offense. But,
you know,
then everybody's wearing Air Jordans and you know,
like I did had no sense of style or whatever.
So like you're going to get picked on.
So I got picked on a lot in middle school and I got in a few fights and then
you know, I've been in a lot of fights, but I haven't fought since I've been saved.
So yeah,
I've lost one fight and he was older than me and he just kind of,
I don't know. It was a, it was a good fight, but I lost.
I guess I forgot there was one fight that I wasn't.
So like at our school they got, they like started a fight club or something.
It was weird.
Is that where that came from, right?
No, but like this one, this one,
like this one kid challenged me. He was just like, I want to fight,
I want to fight Shelly. Like I want to fight him. And so I was like, okay.
I mean, I didn't want to back down.
So like we went to this guy's house and you know, we had a fight and it was like,
it was like one minute or two minutes of boxing or whatever.
Basically I just punched him in the nose really hard and he started bleeding.
It was over and it was just like, okay. But yeah,
it was just like, you know,
yeah, I'm already out. Okay.
Those are the other fights we don't talk about.
I just, when I was 18 I learned that I could drop someone with one punch.
I could, I used to say like punch me in the face cause I, I really, I,
I wouldn't get mad until like somebody would hit me.
Like, you know,
if you get slapped or a ball hits you in the face when you're playing volleyball
in the water or whatever, it just like, it just like enrages you.
So I would just let people hit me and then I would get mad enough to fight back
or whatever. But now when I saw,
when I realized the first time I ever dropped somebody and they didn't get back
up, I was like, dang,
I better quit telling people to do that because I'm going to get knocked out,
you know?
So I just kind of developed a hit first and ask questions later mentality after
that. And, uh, yeah, but I'm not, I mean, I'm not proud of that.
I, you know, that is what it is. I mean, I kind of had a rough,
rough upbringing in some ways, so I'm not a striker anymore.
If you strike one time or you, no, I'm just kidding.
No more questions. All right.
Well, that doesn't mean the striker, the, uh, uh,
qualifications for a Bishop.
So I've heard like a couple of different thoughts on the striker,
like cause you got brawler, but then it mentioned striker.
Could that possibly be in relation to somebody who strikes hands?
Like somebody, you know, how the proverbs kind of talks about, you know,
you shouldn't strike hands, make a pleasure surety. Yeah.
Like make yourself a value for somebody else. Things like that, I guess.
I personally think that, that I'm not going to say dogmatically that's wrong,
but I just personally think that's like wrong interpretation for sure.
That is talking about striking hands because there's not like a commit.
I don't know that there's necessarily just a prohibition to striking hands in
the context of making an agreement. The Bible is giving a warning about it.
Like don't just be quick to do that or don't just necessarily cosign for
somebody that you've never met. Like some kind of,
it could just be some kind of a bozo and you don't want to just like put your
name on a big loan for some guy that you don't even know.
It's like you would only want to cosign for your kid or somebody or somebody
that's trustworthy or something like that. But I don't think,
like I don't think my parents are strikers because they help cosign my first
mortgage on my house.
Like the Bible is just giving you like general warnings about that.
But there is a difference between striking and brawling because,
because the striker is just hitting someone, brawling is just starting fights.
Like a lot of people could just start a lot of fights and not necessarily be a
striker. But, but, but like some of the words in,
in the qualifications of Bishop are just very similar.
Like they're just kind of the same type of admonitions or just general warnings
general principles of integrity. I mean, think about the, the, the bat,
the Bishop is supposed to be blameless. Well, that's like a catchall of all of
them, right? So they're all going to be interwoven and talking.
So like I personally believe the striking there is a hit is someone hitting.
Yeah.
And I explained it because I just preached to Titus just recently and I,
I had to really think about some of these things because a lot of things are a
little bit subjective and you know,
obviously the qualifications are there and they need to be met.
But like I kind of put it like I actually explained it like when I was in middle
school and I got into a lot,
I got in like three or four really public fights where like the whole school
showed up and like I'm fighting one person at a time or whatever. And this,
this girl, she said, like I, I went into the next grade,
I went into like seventh grade or whatever and she was like,
or maybe it was eighth grade, but anyway, she was like, you get a lot of fights.
And so like I had a reputation and I didn't see myself that way,
but I had a reputation for being, you know,
someone that gets on a lot of fights or brawler or striker.
So like I think that if like a pastor like had to punch somebody that was like
trying to assault them in some way and obviously, you know,
people have different, you know, beliefs on this, but like, you know,
if you're out soloing and someone punches you,
I don't think you should just get on top of them and mop them or whatever,
because you're being persecuted for, for,
for your belief and things like that.
So I don't think that you should respond that way.
But if someone's like trying to hurt your family and you beat the crap out of
them, that doesn't, I don't believe that that disqualifies you. I mean,
do you agree with that? I totally agree. I think that,
I think all self defense is,
is absent of striking and brawling because brawling is insinuating that you're
starting fights and then the striker in my opinion is also kind of in that
category because like the only purpose of me striking someone would be just to
disable them or stop the threat. But like, I think what,
what the word striker is meaning is that instead of resolving conflict in a,
in a positive way, I just strike you. Like you say something I don't like,
I strike you. You're mean to me. I strike you. Like that's just,
that's just how you resolve. Like in, in like even Islam, you know,
it literally says when your wife doesn't obey you strike them. Well,
that's a striker. Like instead of like,
if you can only get your wife to obey you by physically hitting her,
you're a bad husband. Like you're a bad leader.
That's not like a legitimate thing.
And I think there's also a difference between striking and chastisement.
Like you're not striking your children. You're, you're punished.
You're spanking them. You're not going to hit them in the face, you know,
like with a punch or the closed hand fist or something like that would be
inappropriate in every context. So like, again, I,
I view a lot,
a lot of what first Timothy three and Titus one are doing is it's like talking
about like a lifestyle. This person just instigates fights.
This person will not resolve a conflict and a peaceable amicable way.
They will just literally beat them up. And there are men like that.
There are men that it's like if someone was getting in their face and saying all
kinds of evil things, then they would just punch them.
And like that's the wrong person to be the pastor.
Like I've had plenty of times where people were in my face that yeah,
there would have been opportunity for the wrong person.
Just just beat the living tar out of them.
But it's like that's just not the right thing to do. And in fact you should,
you should quote unquote take the punch unless your life's in danger or you know
there's sort of the, there, your family's there.
Like I won't take punches if it could possibly knock me out and then leave my
wife and children vulnerable.
Like I won't do that because that you're basically just at that point you're
sacrificing your family for, for something.
It's like you're not going to just walk all over me.
But if I'm by myself or I'm out soul winning or whatever and they just hit me
or kind of shoved me around, I'll just walk away.
I'll get away from the situation. And in fact you probably should like,
you should knock them out and walk away.
Not then like curb stomp them on top of it or something. You know,
like you want to, you want to, you know,
basically just using enough force to basically stop the threat as it were.
But yeah, I mean if, if someone,
if one of my pastor friends,
someone was threatening them and started a fight with them and they,
and pastor Thompson hit him in the face and they like got injured,
I would be like, that's fine. This is fine.
I wouldn't be like calling for his resignation. It would be basically like,
you know,
pastor Thompson would have to just be like hurting people and there wasn't
really a good reason on a regular basis. And it's like, okay, well,
I just don't think that you're, you know,
someone, someone, yeah. Like what is someone in the,
someone in the church rails on pastor Thompson and he goes over to their house
and just punches them in the face. You know, it's like, well,
that probably wasn't right.
Yeah. Because I mean the battle is a spiritual battle and we're not supposed to
be battling in the flesh. So I mean it's, it makes sense because I mean, yeah,
could, could I handle and resolve situations that way? Yes.
But that's not how, what we're supposed to do. Cause believe me,
there's times when the adult man wants to come back out and say,
let's have a loser leave town match or loser leaves the internet match or
whatever. But, uh,
yes. But it's best to let God fight your battles because you know,
he's going to repay a lot harder than you can. Yeah.
So, all right. Thanks guys.