Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Sam.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Ashwood, welcome to the Code Red studio.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: Thanks, Pastor. Good to be here.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: Hey, just finished up your master's degree. Just turned in your last paper.
[00:00:38] Speaker A: Just turned in the last paper last night. And now it's up to the professor to do his job.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: And you're doing that through Liberty?
[00:00:44] Speaker A: Liberty University online? That's right.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Okay, well, is it in a specific discipline or.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: It's a Master's of Arts in Theological Studies.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: So just got a general theology. You know, kind of give me the wide range of things.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: How are you feeling about the doctorate after that?
[00:00:58] Speaker A: You know, my wife has really been pushing me.
She thinks I need to go for it. So school is one of those things that I haven't always enjoyed it, but I'm pretty good at the study part of it. And writing papers comes pretty, pretty easy for me.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: We've talked about it before. I say it for the benefit of those watching. When they reached out to me, I had shown a little interest.
They changed the programming requirements around and the time it took, it was going to be a two year program instead of a three or four year program.
And it piqued my interest. I wanted to learn more, but I pretty much talked myself out of it because I hate, I love to read, I'm constantly reading, but I hate for someone to tell me what to read.
If I'm not interested, I'm not interested.
So I said, I told the gentleman, Dan Dumas. When he reached out, I said, dan, I really don't think this is for me. I'm not an academic, it's not really my thing and I'm incredibly busy. I just don't think, just like you, your kid's age especially, you're very busy. And so I said, I don't think I would be a good fit for the program.
And Dan said, well, you're the type person the program was built for.
And probably the best thing that came out of my experience with a doctorate is he said, I think if you think you're maxed out, we tend to think there's about 30% there that we can tap into and we're gonna help you find that. And he did. That was the best thing I can say. I learned a lot through it, met some great people through it, but, but learning how to produce consistently.
And I'd written with the help of a team, one or two books before.
After that, I think since that time, it's probably three or four.
I've got one, I'm waiting for an agent to look at. I've got one that's about a third of the way done. And so it's just interesting. I'm more productive than I've ever been. But that's sort of what the training was, was not theological as much as it was productive.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: Yeah, it helps you find another gear, another level. And, you know, that's one thing, you know, going back into my master's, so my master studies and, you know, this pastor. But I stopped and I started and I stopped multiple times, and it was usually around the birth of my children, which I've got five kids, so that's a lot of starting and stopping. And this last time, it was, you know, hey, we just need to get this done. Well, in the process of re. Enrolling to get it going, they had rewritten their program, and with new classes and new things. So about half of my previous classes didn't qualify, and I had to take new classes. And it was looking like it was going to take me if I sort of took small chunks and just kind of, you know, methodically went through it. It was going to take me a year and a half to two years.
I did the math, and I was like, but if I really buckle down, I can get this thing done in two semesters. And so I talked to my wife about it and talked to the kids about it, because they were going to be part of the sacrifice as well. And they were like, let's just do it. Let's just do it and just get it knocked out. And so I started in February this year, and now here in August, we're wrapping it up, and took eight classes in that. In that timeframe and just buckled down, made it happen. Kids know the bedroom door is shut. Leave dad alone. It's getting work done.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: Well, you'll. You'll find, I think one of the benefits of furthering your education that you don't think about is your grandkids. Now you've raised the bar for them.
[00:04:31] Speaker A: Right? Sure.
[00:04:32] Speaker B: You know, I know. You know, when Cole went to Nashville, he wasn't as intimidated as he might have been, because we have an uncle who's been there and done that.
[00:04:41] Speaker A: Sure. Yeah.
[00:04:41] Speaker B: He's made it work in Nashville. And so he knew it was possible.
He knew that people with our genetic makeup or whatever have done this before. You know, he's not the trailblazer. And, you know, when I look back with my ancestors, my dad, my granddad, on both sides of the family, dad dropped out of high school at 10th grade, and he insisted I get my education.
Now, by that, he meant get your Bachelor's and. And once I had done that, it hit me. I'm the first man in our family to ever go all the way through a bachelor's degree on the Terry side of my family.
And then when I completed the doctorate, was the first to get the doctorate. And so now for my kids and grandkids, they know it's possible.
They don't have to go as far as idea, they may go further, but they know that it can be done. And I think it just, it lifts a lid for your kids and your grandkids so that they're not as intimidated and you learn kind of how the process and the system works. So there's things that nobody told me, and probably the same with you, that made it. We had to learn the hard way, but we can teach our kids and our grandkids.
For example, I could write a paper that I knew was a good paper, it was an accurate paper, it was theologically balanced, all that.
But if it wasn't what the professor wanted, it made no difference.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: Right? Yeah.
[00:06:15] Speaker B: You know, and that never made sense to me until, I don't know, second, third year of seminary. It's like he's the grader, he's wanting certain, you know, words on that paper. If I don't give them to him, he can fail me.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: He can do what he wants, you
[00:06:30] Speaker B: know, and so that was like a breakthrough. That was a new day for me, you know.
[00:06:37] Speaker A: Well, so our daughters, your youngest daughter, my oldest daughter, they're the same age, both going to college. And the one thing I've told her, and you know, she's got a plan and I'm proud of her plan, I think it's a good plan. But the one thing I've told her is that, you know, hey, when it comes to finishing, finish. And that's the one thing I've learned in my process from my masters. I mean, this has been 17 years in the working and it's like the one thing that I wish I had done that I didn't do, but now I have is finish. You know, it's one thing to get started on something, it's another thing to finish it.
[00:07:10] Speaker B: Honest question, and I'm asking again for the benefit of those who are watching, how helpful has it been as far as like in your day to day ministry? Are you a better pastor because of your master's degree?
[00:07:26] Speaker A: So I think it's been very helpful.
The things that I'm really enjoying, really over the last five or six months is that I'm putting into practice the things that I'm learning in the classroom, I'm putting into practice in my practical ministry. And so things like there's a. For us in ministry, and with me in seminary, there's this tool called logos. And you're familiar with logos. You use logos. A lot of pastors do. Well, I never really fully understood how to use it, what the benefits were, but I actually, I had in my classes, my professors required me to use logos in a certain way, and I had to take screenshots and I had to prove that I was doing the work and doing the process the way they wanted me to. Well, now when I go to write a sermon, I don't just use logos to go find a commentary like a library. It actually has tools that helps me form the sermon and help me. It's even got artificial intelligence tools to appropriately and responsibly use AI and things like that. That really helps you, not just use it as a library, but to use it as a real ministry tool. So that's just an illustration.
But one of the things too, that's really helped me that I view as important in ministry, and really it crosses over to other areas of expertise as well, is I'm not the guy that started something and didn't finish it. I'm the guy. I started it, I stuck with it, I finished it, I found a way.
And to me, as a dad, as a husband, as a leader, I think that really helps me.
[00:09:08] Speaker B: There's a measure of self esteem associated with it that's healthy and helpful.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: Yeah, that's good.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: I like the fact that you did it while you were working in ministry, because you have.
There's a sense, I think of it like for a doctor, you're learning some things. You can learn some things about the human body from a book, but then when you get on that surgery table, it's different. And it's the laboratory versus the classroom. And so it's the same way theologically. You can learn things theologically, but if you see a guy who just went to school and never had that laboratory practical experience, it doesn't transfer well.
They come out, they think they know a lot more than they do, and they get usually humbled really quickly, you know. So thankfully, you had that grounding of practical ministry experience that you were getting all through seminary.
What are some things that you think of when it came to education?
That seminary didn't teach you or couldn't teach you?
[00:10:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
So for me, one of the biggest things about education, and you just kind of touched on it, there the practical, the implementing the things that you learn.
There's just things that in the classroom and whether it's online or in person with the books that you just can't put into practice.
One of the biggest things for me was that I had to learn still. Learning is really relationships and how important relationships are in ministry, but also just in life because you can be the smartest person in the room. But if you don't know how to connect, so true. Then you're going to really be limited.
You can be a person that whether you're genuinely interested in what the conversation is or not, but if you can find a way to find value in the person and speak value into their life, then you can make a big impact, even if it's something that you're not really interested in. I practice this with one of my sons, Rocky. He's eight years old. He really likes to just talk about these. He reads books with dragons in faraway lands and things like that. So he wants to tell me about the dragon in his book and I'm really not interested in the dragon in his book, but I am interested in connecting with my son. And so, you know, I'll ask him questions and things like that. And to him it's the best thing in the world. He thinks I love dragons.
I do because he loves them. But you know, and you look at that in ministry and you know, if I'm talking to a plumber or if I'm talking to. Right now out at Central Nassau in our current building state, we're talking a lot about drilling wells. I'm really not interested in talking about drilling wells, but we can have these conversations and we can learn about things and really it helps bring the relationship forward and it helps me as a person be more well rounded and connect with others and stuff like that.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: It does. And really ministry is serving the people that Jesus died for.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: You know, I remember when I first started I was in a much smaller church. It was a large church for a first church, couple hundred, 250 people.
We left there after seminary. So four years there left and it had grown considerably by that time. But when I came it was like, okay, so if we're going to baptize somebody, I've got to fill the Baptistry.
[00:12:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:31] Speaker B: And you're kind of in that boat now.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: Yeah, we're firmly in that help.
[00:12:35] Speaker B: But you're really. So if it's going to get done, you're going to have to do it right. And so I remember going when I walked down to Proclaim that the Lord was calling me in ministry. I didn't think about hot water.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:46] Speaker B: You know, but that's part of it. That's a practical. If the little kids are going to get to church, you got to drive that van and pick them up.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:53] Speaker B: You know, there were things like that that I'm like, okay, one, I didn't sign up for this. Two, I'm going to learn how to train other people really quick because I want to study. I love to study.
Me and Rocky could probably talk about dragons for a long time. I can go deep in that stuff. But I love the academic side of ministry, preparing the sermon, all that. And it helped me to hand things off. You know, when you there at Central Nassau, that's really why we're doing this episode, is we've been working. How long has it been? Two years?
[00:13:32] Speaker A: It's been two and a half years. So January 14, 2024, was our first Sunday.
[00:13:37] Speaker B: And how close are we? What's the official from the main guy? So what is the official. When are we going to have our first Sunday?
[00:13:44] Speaker A: So we've got. So back to leadership strategies. I'm. I'm a firm believer in. I like to toss the ball up, then I have to go catch it. And so right now we're really in that toss the ball up moment and go catch it. And so for the best, the best plans, the best knowledge, information that we have, our grand opening is supposed to be on October 4th.
[00:14:04] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: And so first Sunday of October, first Sunday of October.
All of that hinges right now on just finishing the project and getting all the. The permitting and everything with the county. So we all know, and anyone in Nassau county knows that sometimes that can take a little bit longer. I feel like it has taken longer. So now we're kind of in that get it done phase. Hurry up and wait. Yeah. And so. But yeah, and if it's. If it's not October 4th, it'll be very soon after that.
And we'll be able to announce. We'll have enough Runway ahead of us to be able to announce that firmly.
But with that, it has been two and a half years in the making. And you know, Pastor, that we actually started that work specifically with a name two years prior to that.
And I know even since you started here at First Baptist Fernandina, it was a conversation even in your interview process, and people that we've talked to that have been here a lot longer than us said, oh, yeah, this is something we've been seeing coming for a long time. Now. So I really think that this vision and this idea has been there for a while, and I just get to be the one that gets to walk it across the finish line, Lord willing and real excited about it.
[00:15:14] Speaker B: Well, for those who are new to this program that may not know me as a pastor, there's a lot of people that follow on Code Red that don't think of me as Pastor Zach.
This was. I came to Fernandina.
It's on Amelia island, northeast corner of Florida, a little barrier island. And I came here over nine years ago, and the church has grown tremendously since that time. And really what happened that spurred. We always kind of had the idea that we wanted to be a regional church. And to do that in this part of the world, you really have to do campus ministry, especially on an island, because you can't build forever. And. And I think the day of just building Six Flags over Florida and endlessly expanding your auditorium to encompass more people in one service is just not sustainable.
Through multiple generations, you usually have one generation where the Lord's working in that way to build it up. And then maybe the next generation might be a deepening generation, but we can't presume that they're going to be able to see the same numbers that we're seeing. So we try to build with that in mind now.
But the growth came. We were one of the few churches that I'm aware of that grew from COVID Covid hit. Our response to it was favored in the community.
We were one of the only. We were one of the first churches back in opening to have live services.
And at that same time, we've talked about this before. 2020 was a unique year in that this is a extremely conservative part of Florida. It's really more South Georgia than North Florida.
[00:17:01] Speaker A: Right.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: And Nassau county is extremely red. It's extremely conservative in every sense of the word, except in Christian ministry.
And so we would see people who would maybe consider themselves conservative that really were more moderate, at least when it came to the issues throughout the county. Not all of the churches, but some of the churches that you would think of as a conservative church. It was really a name only when it came down to the issues. They either avoided them or came down on the other side of it on the island. In the mainline churches, they were extreme liberal, but no one knew that. So you would have the churches filled with people who were, you know, very conservative, right leaning, believed every word of Scripture.
All of that tended to share a worldview across denominations. If you met a Presbyterian in 2019 or a Methodist or a Baptist. They really saw the world in a similar way.
They favored certain things, they objected to certain things.
So 2020, you had COVID lockdown. You had vaccine mandates, you had Trump, you had George, Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery. You had all these issues thrown at us at one time.
And I'll never forget that. We all had to, like, lay our cards on the table and how we saw things.
And so every pastor had to do that. The community made you.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: Yeah. You couldn't avoid it.
[00:18:38] Speaker B: Right. So.
Well, they presumed where I would stand on the different issues, and they were right.
But they presumed that so would the Presbyterian and Methodist and Catholic and all the other Lutheran, Episcopal.
And when some of those showed their hand, it wasn't what the people in the pew expected.
So you had a gap between the pew and the pulpit that was dark.
So we had been growing evangelistically, but we started growing through transfers during that time of people that were just misaligned, you know, and so we picked up a lot of great people. And I feel bad for the other churches. We never told anybody to come over here. We said, you know, try to reform your church and make it a strong church. But they felt the Lord led them that way. And so we came out of COVID I think when I came here, it was like 4:25. We came out of COVID in the 600s. Is that right?
[00:19:38] Speaker A: Yeah, it was around there. It was.
[00:19:39] Speaker B: And since that time, we're up in the twelves now, pushing 13. I think we were 1250 Sunday.
We went to multiple services.
Really, the thing that pushed a second campus was we had nowhere to park, and so we were in two services, but we had two services and two Sunday schools that interchanged, and so parking lots maxed out. We couldn't buy the land around us, and by necessity, we had to do something.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:10] Speaker B: And we didn't want to go to a third service at that time and over, you know, tax our staff.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:16] Speaker B: So we found the Baptist property out on Highway 17. They worked with us to let us stay there for a little while, get started, and then ultimately we purchased that. And then how many acres around?
[00:20:30] Speaker A: Yeah, so we've got the 12 and a half acres around, plus the one acre that the building is building is currently on, so a total 13 and a half acres.
[00:20:39] Speaker B: So that worked in our favor. Ironically, after that happened and it was purchased and we're building a building, the other properties opened up around us.
[00:20:51] Speaker A: Yeah, sure.
[00:20:51] Speaker B: You know, so now we've got those properties and the Central Nassau property. And so as the church has continued, the island campus has continued to grow.
[00:21:00] Speaker A: And Pastor, you still have parking issues too.
[00:21:02] Speaker B: And we do.
And that's going to be.
Now we're having to think through the balcony and third service, all those things.
And I'll never complain about that.
The good problems.
[00:21:15] Speaker A: Well, and here's the thing too, Pastor, that a lot of churches don't understand. Maybe pastors don't understand if you're a pastor listening to this and you're considering doing something similar.
But, you know, one of the fears and we had to walk through this with some of our leaders and our volunteers was, well, if we send so many people, then who's going to fill those roles here? Like, if we're sending people that serve in children's ministry, they serve in worship ministry, they make coffee and we send, then who's going to do those things here? And the idea was, if we send so many people, then we're going to shrink back. Well, one of the things, one of the studies that they show in church planting and campus ministry is that when a church takes on this type of a vision and they take on this type of an understanding of, hey, we're not just going to do everything for the good of these four walls.
It actually grows a church.
It grows the church plant or the campus in our situation. And it also grows the sending church really does. And because one thing that people are looking for, and I think this is one thing that we also saw in Covid, that when we came out of COVID it wasn't a, a reactionary plan. It wasn't a fit, a plan made out of fear of, hey, how can we, you know, kind of protect what we have? It was a go get them type plan. It was, it was visionary. It was, hey, we're not satisfied with just opening the doors again.
We want to, we want to go, we want to take ground. We feel like for a year our people were locked behind their doors and locked behind, you know, locked out of certain places. And, and we wanted to let them know that the church isn't going to be that way. The church is going to take ground for the kingdom. And with the idea of doing campus ministry, that's an idea that even people who, you know, they live here on Amelia island, they've been going to First Baptist for, you know, generations. Their families have. They look at it and they say, hey, that's a vision I can get behind and I want to be a part of something that's not just going to be about building something here. But it's going to be about doing exciting things around the area.
And what really, what we're seeing out of central Nassau, I absolutely love this, is we're seeing families who.
They've never been to the island campus until we send them, and we're like, hey, you need to go check it out. You at least need to go see this. The island campus is just as much central Nassau as central Nassau is them. And you need to go experience it and see what it's all about. You need to meet these people face to face.
But what they really get excited about and what really gets me excited about it is that what we're doing in central Nassau, we get to be a part of something that very few people will ever get to be a part of. And for generations, there will be a church building on that property that will be reaching people for the kingdom that we don't even know who they are. We don't know where they're coming from.
We'll never go to know their names. And honestly, they very well likely will never know our names. But one day we'll get to see them, right? And they'll. We'll get to run into them and we'll get to run into them in glory.
And then they will know and they'll say thank you, and we'll say, no, thank you. Because the vision and the mindset that Christ has given us is so much bigger than just, we need more people to park. That's what spurted on. But it's as souls, as souls that Jesus died for. It's people that Christ cared for and that we care for, even if we don't know who they are.
[00:24:41] Speaker B: Well, and two things I would say to those pastors that are watching or church leaders that are thinking about maybe should they pursue something this aggressive.
I would say a couple of things.
If you do not, if God is blessing, sending people your way and you do not take that step, there are two things you're going to lose.
One, I don't think if we kept you as student pastor, I don't think you would be here today. I think eventually God probably would have said, I could use them in other places more effectively. So I think the stewardship of staff to say, if you've got a key staff member that you want to keep on the team, that's a leader that has a heart like you have, that you talk about it and you can sense the passion there, and you don't give them opportunities to reach more people and be used in a greater way, then God will. I think it's a spiritual thing that God will say, okay, well, I can move him over to Orlando or Daytona or wherever it is and be more effective. And that's something you don't really get a vote in. You know, God does that. So I think there's a stewardship there that we need to keep great challenges and opportunities in front of our staff.
There's a certain percentage, and I'm not sure. I've always felt like it was about 10% of any congregation that has what I call a frontier spirit.
And they're always going to be ridiculously attracted to opportunities and new things.
In this day and age, you're going to have to face churches from Jacksonville coming our way, from Georgia coming south.
And that urge to be a part of a frontier work is so strong that they can almost not say no to it. It's like they. It's the challenge of it.
It's the shoestring budget at times.
It's certain types of people, they want to get there and set up and stay over and tear down all that stuff you have to do along the way. And so we knew if we didn't give them an opportunity to use that calling and gift mix, somebody else would.
[00:26:57] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:26:58] Speaker B: And so selfishly, I want to be. I don't want somebody to have to go to another church to use their gifts. I want them to be able to find that usefulness at First Baptist. Now, if God calls them elsewhere, that's between them and the Lord. But not because we didn't give them an opportunity to grow and to reach more people.
[00:27:17] Speaker A: But.
[00:27:17] Speaker B: And so I think when we did that, it was really interesting. That original group that stepped up, you identified some of that frontier heart, and they. They went out there. They gave up a lot.
[00:27:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:29] Speaker B: You know, childcare and just a lot of the bells and whistles of being at the main campus. But they're going to have a lot by the time it's all said and done. You know, I can't imagine. I wish we could sometimes. I wish we could see in the future sometimes. I think it would scare us.
[00:27:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:43] Speaker B: But I think the day will come, most likely, when you will see some interchange between the two campuses to where the live preacher is at Central preaching, back to the island campus.
And people at first, if they've not been exposed to that type of ministry, that's a simulcast type ministry, live worship. But then the teaching. I mean, how far apart are the two campuses?
[00:28:09] Speaker A: So I believe we're about nine.
Between nine and 12 miles.
[00:28:13] Speaker B: So it's not a whole lot. There's some differences culturally, but they're not major. You know, the things that we're dealing with on the island, you guys are dealing with out there. So it's not like a pastor has to write a totally different sermon just for that campus. And so the model that we've taken is you are the pastor of that campus.
You're the point man out there.
We pipe in what I teach here on Sunday into that campus on large, what will be LED screens.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: Right.
[00:28:44] Speaker B: Have they. Have they arrived yet? They were on a boat, the last.
[00:28:46] Speaker A: So they're still on a boat. Okay. Which, you know, is good for those LED panels to get broken in a little bit before they get here.
So, yeah, that's still on a boat. That'll actually be the last piece that gets installed, technology wise.
[00:29:00] Speaker B: But they look amazing.
[00:29:01] Speaker A: They're crystal clear.
[00:29:02] Speaker B: It's like you're live.
What people. We see it at the island campus because we do what they call imag, you know, of the worship. We've got cameras on the worship leaders, and we're projecting it up on a screen. Well, what you see is the people in the auditorium, they're watching the screen. They're not watching the stage.
And when that occurs to them, you're doing this already. Already doing it, you know, and so it makes it a little bit easier to transition.
Well, you tell me, does it feel like.
[00:29:32] Speaker A: So a couple things that we've seen, and this is feedback that we've gotten from our people is one of the number one things is parents with young kids, young families, they really like it, they really enjoy it. So they're not. Maybe they're not quite ready to take their kid into, you know, the nursery or the childcare yet, or they're just checking it out. And they don't trust the nursery. They don't trust. We have great childcare workers. One of the background checks, background checks, trainings, regular trainings, you know, all that type of stuff. We got a security safety team.
Our campus, especially being the smaller type of campus we are, it couldn't be safer. But there's still parents that, you know, hey, this is my kid. And my kids just. They don't even like to go to grandma, let alone to some stranger they don't know. And so they'll sit in there. And we actually had a family one time tell us here recently that they really enjoyed our campus because we allowed them to bring their child in with them. They said that last time they went to a church, they got escorted Into a small room with a television. And they had. This was the cry room. The cry room. And so this is where you need to go. So they were escorted in there. And I just jokingly, but in good humor, I thought it was good humor.
They told me the story and I said, oh, well, here we all sit in the cry room.
Here we all get to just sit and watch the tv, the pastor on a screen.
[00:30:54] Speaker B: It's not going to distract me at all.
[00:30:56] Speaker A: Listen, they have screamed so loud at times and not one time did you lose your spot in your sermon, your message. You didn't miss any points. You were right on it. It's like you didn't even hear.
We joke around about it, but the truth is that comfort level helps a family that maybe at one time we have special needs families. We have families with special needs that they have children who maybe can't go into a traditional childcare situation.
And so they've stayed out of church because they don't want to be a distraction. They don't want to be the one that the whole service is disrupted because of their child. That really can't help it. It's the way they're creating in God's image.
And so they find a home there because they feel more at home, they feel more comfortable, and that's good. But also, you look at things like when you're presenting and you say something that's funny, we laugh. Even though you get no affirmation from our laughter. You said something funny, we laugh, you say something to celebrate, we clap and we amen. And it's as though you're in the room.
[00:31:58] Speaker B: You forget that it's a. I'm wondering, like, is the first time you're there, does that happen? Or like, I think when I went to watch maybe like Avatar and there was a new way of shooting and CGI and all these things and different colors. It took me a minute. Like, at first I wasn't tracking with it. Yeah, maybe 10, 15 minutes into it, I'm fully immersed. And then when I would leave the theater, it felt kind of weird because the world didn't look like that world looked.
Is there a similar type experience the first time somebody goes to a video campus?
[00:32:35] Speaker A: So I think they come in with a preconceived notion of a video campus. And so there's even people that come, they don't know we're a video campus. We don't put it on the sign.
We just put church on the sign. So they come in expecting to experience church stuff. Not a screen at times. And so there's that initial reaction. I'll see it in their faces and where it's like, oh, it's one of those places.
But really, by the end of the service, it's just like any service. And usually second week, third week, fourth week, we get so many families coming out saying that they actually prefer it because of the.
Just the.
It makes it more. It makes the atmosphere something that I don't want to say prefer, but they enjoy it.
[00:33:27] Speaker B: Let's think of that way it can be. You feel closer to the stage.
I noticed when I worshiped out there at our main campus, if you're not on the first few rows, you can kind of feel disconnected there. Every row feels like you're on the front.
[00:33:43] Speaker A: You're on the front row. You can see the facial expressions, the gestures that you use.
It's more clear.
The.
Even with our side screens right now is where we, like, put your points and things like that. So those things are always up and so people can track, they can take notes. Well, it really works out well. What I tell our people is Pastor Zach is our senior pastor and he's bringing the Word.
And I let them know that we're very blessed to have such a great senior pastor. I said, but even though he's not in the room, he's been praying for you, and you've been on his heart. And he really. And this is true, you and I have talked about this, that you really do. As you're. As you're formulating your sermons, you're thinking about, okay, how would this transfer through the screen to Central Nassau and the people there? Is this going to translate well? Is it not going to translate well?
And you pray about it and you're really concerned about it. But then I also segue. I say, but more importantly, we don't need Pastor Zach in the room, but we do need the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is here.
[00:34:44] Speaker B: Do you believe that happens? Do you think you have the spiritual to the same degree as it is a moment where the Holy Spirit is taking the Word and bringing illumination to the brain, conviction to the Spirit? Are those things taking place?
[00:34:59] Speaker A: I really do think. I really do see it happening. And you can see it in our people.
We just baptized a husband and wife this past week at the beach and Central Nassau family.
And the gentleman, he comes up to me on a regular basis now. He's like, hey, I've been reading my Bible, and this is what it's showing me. And what do you think about this?
And things like that this is a gentleman who, when I first met him, really was upset with God and didn't really want to have anything to do with God. And he believed in God, but he really wasn't really interested in being close and growing.
But I'll see him in his.
The questions he's asking me are questions that are stemming from your sermons, and they're stemming from things that he's heard taught to him. And now he's going and he's digging deeper into those things. And that just really shows me that the message is coming through and the Holy Spirit is taking those next steps.
[00:35:55] Speaker B: It's been interesting to see when we stepped into, when we started this podcast, the reason that I started it.
There was one meeting with a missionary in particular that I remember leaving that meeting, and he talked about witnessing a child sacrifice in just a dark part of Africa.
And I left that one on one conversation. And I felt guilty. I thought, why am I. Because I really did. I felt like something was wrong, like I'd sinned or something. And I thought, well, why do I feel that way? And the more I kind of examined it, I felt like, I wish the whole church could have heard what he said. And I couldn't give him a Wednesday night. He was out on, like a Tuesday, right? So I thought, okay, if I ever have. In this area in particular, it's just unique. We have interesting people from every walk of life pass through here. So a lot of good one on ones. And so I said, what if I could set up a camera and capture that and just share it with other people?
So we didn't, like, set out to podcast, really. We just wanted to invite people into the room, was more of what we were doing.
[00:37:04] Speaker A: And.
[00:37:05] Speaker B: And so I'll have certain people. I wish I would give anything if as many people saw the sermon as we'll see this.
I mean, tens of thousands of people see this thing.
And now even in Nassau County, I'll meet people who know me from Code Red that don't know me as First Baptist pastor. And so they'll show up at First Baptist and either put two and two together, oh, you're the guy from Code Red, or they'll connect it. I mention it on the program or whatever, and they're like, I'm going to check it out.
Then we have the radio program that's going. It's in Pennsylvania. It's all over Florida and Alabama.
So that is really every week. We meet people who listen to Maximum Life every day. And then they figure, oh, wow, 30 minute drive, I can be there or even closer if it's central Nassau. And so that's another factor is that we're ministering in different layers and we're trying to consolidate those as much as we can. And that requires us to go to them sometimes.
[00:38:14] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true.
[00:38:16] Speaker B: Another thing that's interesting that we, again, we're discovering this, this is not great leadership. This is just, oh, wow, this works.
We can see. I can bring up a page on our app. If someone's on the app or the website, I can get a hotspot. Like if we were on it right now, it would show me probably within like a 10 mile radius. So I don't know who it is. I just know that somebody in Fernandina is on the app.
So if they Download the maximum LifePlus app or if they go to ZackTerry.com we can look at that in real time.
So we can see people in south Georgia, Brunswick, St. Mary, up to Jekyll regularly get on that app.
[00:39:05] Speaker A: Right.
[00:39:06] Speaker B: And then we'll see them showing up at the main campus or over at the Central Nassau. And it helps us to go have a little bit more intelligence before we just kind of throw a dart at a map and guess at it to say we know there's an audience there already.
And so it's a calculated type risk. And so as you max out, as we max out, hopefully, Lord willing, then we'll need a third campus.
[00:39:33] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure.
[00:39:34] Speaker B: And so we're using that data to kind of size up, you know, what should come next year.
[00:39:40] Speaker A: Funny thing about the, you know, sort of the genesis of Code Red, but also with the app and the ministry and influence that is coming, it's a different type of ministry, a different type of influence. We had a family come to Central Nassau and they're just looking for a church from South Georgia. And so they came in just like any guest. We gave them coffee, offered them a donut. I don't know if they took it or not, but, you know, and, you know, had them sit down, I'm talking to them, just kind of learning their name and their story and hey, have you ever been to our island campus? No, never been. Just kind of branching out, looking for a church that really fits our style and what we're looking for.
So I kind of shared with them what we do and everything. And they're watching the pre service loop where the slides scroll and there's a code red slide there. And it just kind of gives information of radio broadcasts and the app and Things like that. Just information, but it's also got your face on it. And the wife starts hitting the husband, and she says.
And she's having a conversation over there. She's getting really excited about it. And she kind of, like, waved at me, and I came over and I'm like, hey, yeah, can I help you? What's going on? She goes, you know that guy? I'm like, oh, yeah, I know that guy. He's a good guy. She's like, oh, I listen to his podcast and his radio show all the time. He goes, I don't miss it. Always listening. I'm like, oh, that's great.
Yeah, he's wonderful. I didn't think anything of it. Of course, they know, you know. And we get to the message part, and you're on the screen now, and she just started going, oh, my goodness.
You mean he's a pastor? And he's the pastor of this church. She didn't even know you were in Fernandina.
[00:41:17] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:41:18] Speaker A: She just.
[00:41:18] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the thing about it. People don't.
And really, we probably should talk about that more. We're trying to get it to where at the beginning of every radio program, they tag that.
And I think Keith has that worked out. But people, it is really an unforeseen, strange thing to meet people that know me, that I don't know. And you can walk into a restaurant, you can kind of know they're looking at you, and it's weird.
And now people that you've reached that will know me because I'm the guy on the screen.
And we were at a staff luncheon not long ago, and these little kids came up and they're talking to me. I'm like, who are these little kids? I've never seen these kids before. And it was like, oh, they're Central Nassau kids, you know, and so it's special.
[00:42:04] Speaker A: By the way, you'll know they're Central Nassau because I always tell them to ask for your autograph.
[00:42:08] Speaker B: Okay. That's what it is.
[00:42:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay.
[00:42:09] Speaker B: They're the only people that ask for my autograph. Well, it's going to be interesting in the days ahead to see.
I like for staff to. I've always said I want to be the brake, not the accelerator. I want to have to slow you guys down, not speed you up. And so there may be a day where Central Nassau has its own podcast, and it would be interesting to see. I think I mentioned yesterday 70% of the words we have from Jesus were through conversations. They weren't sermons, like 30%, 25% are sermons. And so he was a believer, the Holy Spirit was a believer in the power of a conversation.
And so that, you know, all of that we've kind of stumbled into. And it's been a fun lesson to learn as we go, but I do think it's been neat to see how it can, because the church doesn't pay for this, and they don't realize. They don't pay for the radio program.
What they give goes to what we're doing, but not the media ministry with Maximum Life. And so to see those two organizations work together toward a common good has been really special and exciting to watch.
Now Ladylike has started and to see that kind of develop, and it's got a separate audience.
And so people who really don't watch Code Red watch Ladylike. And we're beginning to hear from them and get feedback.
[00:43:32] Speaker A: No offense, Pastor, but I watch Ladylike more than I do Co Red.
I just need the inside track on how to get along with my wife at times, you know, and make up my mistakes and that kind of stuff.
[00:43:43] Speaker B: They kind of get to the point a little quicker than I do, too, probably.
But, you know, I've got a. I think the tools are here, and I look out in our congregation sometimes and I'll see people and think they would do well at this, you know, and I think that's. I'm beginning to feel. I'm 50 now, and the older I get, the more I'm feeling like a father or grandfather toward the church. I'm looking at our, you know, God sending us these 20 somethings at the island campus. We calculated the other day there was 120 who regularly attend between 19 and 29. And we don't have a program for them.
And the conversations that they're having are different than the conversations maybe that you and I are having.
And I'm extremely curious to get them on camera and just have those conversations. Julie tapped into that by bringing Delaney on, and I'm looking for ways to do that on this program as well. I'm curious.
One of the things that we've noticed, really, because somewhat because of Charlie Kirk, we saw a new kind of tide of 20 somethings coming into the kingdom, and they're listening to certain influencers and the place of Israel in the conversation. And with the war, with the Hamas attack, we were there when it happened, and all of those things together has made that a point of great interest for young men. Have you found that to be true?
[00:45:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I have. And there's you know, there's this, I think there's a desire at times when we're talking about these conversations, you know, for certain people to bring an angle of a conversation that maybe they think is unique or they think, oh, you know, I've got the corner on this.
But there's times too where the reflection of scripture and where, you know, we're blessed.
Probably every generation felt this way. I think God designed it that way on purpose.
We see that in scripture too, where they, they felt like the return of God or the return of Christ was imminent. It could happen at any moment, but we really feel that now and so now, so that they're seeing these things happen on a global stage, but then to actually be able to see it in scripture as well and say, oh wait, this might be that, this might be this. There's some real excitement there. And you know, it's almost like the fourth quarter of a basketball game or a football game.
[00:46:23] Speaker B: Yeah, there's an urgency to it where
[00:46:24] Speaker A: you kind of feel like your team's making a run and like, you know, hey, this could be, this could be the year, this could be the play, this could be the moment. And you're kind of on the edge of your seat. And I think with, specifically with young men, but women too, there's that, wow, this is actually happening. When I was growing up as a, as a young man, even as a, as a teenager and a young 20 something, it still felt far off at times, you know, and I think maybe that's something that 2020 brought to us. Right. And it kind of was something that it showed us. Oh, you mean a one world government might be possible? You know, because up until then it really didn't feel like, but something happened. The whole world participated in this. And so it just kind of showed that that's possible and that's, that's there.
And I think there is a real curiosity about it. And so I see it as well too. And we've got, you know, we've got young adult children and there's, there's things that I see in them that I'm like, you know, I don't think the kingdom can wait until you're 40 years old for you to start making a maximum impact. You know, I'm 42 years old. I really feel like there's things that I'm doing now that I'm making a larger impact for the kingdom than I did in my 20s. In my 20s I made an impact, but it was different.
I look at these 20 somethings and I'm like, we can't wait till you're 40 to start seeing your impact.
[00:47:44] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:47:45] Speaker A: We need to make a way for that impact to happen. Now, maybe a conversation on a camera is a great way to do that. Maybe it's doing more campuses and getting them more involved on the ground level of planning things.
Maybe it's just creating a space for them to feel like they belong.
Yeah.
[00:48:02] Speaker B: And I think as a campus pastor, me at Island, Campus U, at Central, being approachable by that age group is really important. They've got to believe that they can come up to us, talk to us, ask questions that they may even feel a little weird asking.
I think it's been interesting.
If you dial down, I'm taking my son's age. So Cole, 23, just turned 23.
Cole, his age range, the boys in his circle, you know, they're listening to the podcasters. They're hearing influencers. They want to develop an opinion on should we go to war because Israel is under attack? They have questions about that.
They have opinions about what we would consider, maybe from a previous generation, kind of the odd parts of Scripture.
So things like the Nephilim in Genesis, they are fascinated. I've got more questions about the Book of Enoch than I've ever gotten in my life in the last five years.
So when they come to church and they're wrestling with these issues, and we're not building sermons to address those issues. We're just working through the Bible, and we went through Genesis. We had to deal with the Nephilim, and we had to talk about that. We addressed the Book of Enoch, all those things.
And I'm seeing that young men appreciate that. You know, Sunday, we're going through Romans. We were in Romans 9 yesterday, and we talked about Israel and our perspective biblically on Israel, I had young men just, you know, so excited because they literally were telling their wife, I wish Zach would talk about this, because I don't know how to perceive it.
I don't know if what I'm hearing from these podcasters or influencers are accurate.
I want to know what the Bible says.
And so I think that it's interesting where we fit a little niche that we have in the conversation, where it all kind of works together, I guess, is what I'm trying to say, and overlaps for the purpose of discipleship and evangelism.
[00:50:17] Speaker A: Right. Well, and I think that's. That's the thing, too, that, you know, we saw that in 2020 as well, where it's not just about addressing culture. And it's not just about, oh, this is what society wants culture to be perceived as. And so we're going to change this. No, it's, hey, we're going to look at culture and we're going to talk about culture, but we're going to talk about it through the lens of scripture.
[00:50:39] Speaker B: Well, in scripture, you know, our conviction in scripture is relevant.
[00:50:42] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:50:43] Speaker B: It's far more relevant than the newspaper.
[00:50:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:50:45] Speaker B: You know, or whatever, the blog, whatever it is, it's eternally relevant. And we have the joy of discovering that and then looking at the world and seeing how it connects together.
And so one of the ways that a campus pastor can help one another, but you can help me as the primary teacher, I want to know what the conversations are. And I don't mean about church, I'm talking about outside of church. What are people curious about? What are their needs?
Especially in 20 somethings, a need for some basic. The reason we started Ladylike is Julie would discover some of the young ladies that she was meeting with didn't know what we think of as just basic, like how to make a casserole, you know, basic stuff. And we keep throwing Bible studies at them.
And I heard about a young man this week that had a flat tire. He'd never been taught how to change a tire. And you know, our parents generation taught us that.
And we tend to academically teach our kids, but we don't teach them the practical things.
So that's one of the talking points I'm hearing a lot about right now. Things like Israel that's just in the news.
The weird esoteric things like Nephilim yesterday.
This is the kind of, these are the kind of stories that are fascinating to me. Yeah, we talked about Israel, we talked about the Jewish community ethnically, nationally, culturally, all those different ways religiously, and how they needed Jesus and how we can't worship them and evangelize them at the same time.
What I didn't know, every Sunday we've got people who are of Jewish descent in our congregation. We've got some messianic Jews, we've got some people who are Jewish that just view us as friends.
So they go to synagogue and they come to First Baptist just as attenders. They're not members.
But we had a young lady visit the church, first time she's ever been in a church who was a Jewish young lady. Her ancestors were religiously and ethnically Jewish.
And so it was sort of like that. You know, when I finished the early service, they're like, oh, did you know that this young lady was here today? I'm like, no. How is she doing? You know?
And they said, we'll find out. I found out later that it piqued an interest. She was fascinated. She wants to learn more. And so those are the kind of things that I don't like to think of the sermon as something that's just put out there and we walk away from it. It's a conversation that's ongoing. People are processing it. I can hear that from the island campus. You can hear it from central Nassau. But that's why you and I have to work pretty closely together so that we're in the loop of man. God's really using some of these conversations over this issue, it seems.
[00:53:55] Speaker A: Well, even just yesterday, we're after service, you know, my wife actually had to come back in and check in on me, like, hey, is everything okay? You know, because sometimes I'm there taking off trash or whatever. And I was still having this conversation, but with some of our young people. And we were. They were asking about, well, how does God bring salvation to the Jewish nation? So they're kind of taking.
[00:54:17] Speaker B: It's almost like they presume there's a different way.
[00:54:20] Speaker A: It is. And they were. And I was like, the same way as every single person that is saved gets saved by faith. It's the grace of God. And it was the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ on the cross, his resurrection, all that. Now, some.
If they were before Christ, it was a.
We're looking forward to now. We're looking back towards him.
[00:54:42] Speaker B: And it's always been. It was always through Jesus.
[00:54:44] Speaker A: It was always through.
[00:54:45] Speaker B: They could not necessarily put in the same terms. They didn't know he would die on a cross, but they knew that somehow God would provide a substitute.
[00:54:53] Speaker A: He was sending a substitute. And so they look at it, they're like, okay, so the. The people that are Jewish that don't believe in Jesus, are they still looking for a messiah? Are they not looking for a messiah? And there is just this genuine curiosity about it.
[00:55:06] Speaker B: How old was the person that was having the conversation?
[00:55:08] Speaker A: So these were upper high school, upper class.
[00:55:11] Speaker B: That's so cool for me to know. You know, we delved in. We delved into free will and sovereignty of God issues Yesterday in Romans 9, there's a different segment of the congregation that wrestles with those issues more. You know, and we try to do it in a way that's authoritative. You know, we don't. We do take sides. I mean, there is a correct interpretation. I do try to leave the sense of, I have been wrong before, you know, and so that could always be the case. But we do try to settle on a side with it. But it's fascinating to me. I feel like it's a successful day, or the sermon is a successful sermon. If people are going back and searching the Word, sometimes it may leave them with more questions than answers. I'm okay with that if they're going back to the Scripture for the source. And if they're not, then it just has no bearing on me if they come back and they say, well, you know, this theologian said, I really don't care.
It just doesn't have a bearing on the conversation if you can't get it from the text.
So that's where we want to constantly see them go back to. I got a text one day, it was after a Wednesday night, and they were saying, man, that really rattled my cage.
I've got so many questions, and I'm wrestling with some things, but I'm in the Word.
But really, they're kind of looking at me saying, you need to fix this. It's like, no, it's fixed. You're in the Word. You're getting in there digging.
Mission accomplished. I feel great about it.
[00:56:49] Speaker A: That's good. You know,
[00:56:53] Speaker B: so early October, you think we'll get this thing going.
[00:56:56] Speaker A: Early October, we're going to be.
[00:56:57] Speaker B: It's going already.
[00:56:58] Speaker A: It's going. I mean, we're seeing people. Place your faith with Jesus, get baptized, join in the church. Like I said, we baptized two this past week, and we had at the Baptist, and this is what I love. So we had the beach baptism service, you know, both campuses there celebrating. And we've got people from central Nassau campus just coming to celebrate the.
The baptism service, you know, and they're. And they're driving out there and they're celebrating. They're having fun. You know, we see families playing in the water and all that stuff. It's great. The church is happening. And, you know, this pastor. The church is not a building. It's the people. The people that Jesus died for. And that is already there.
What the building's going to open up is another level, a next layer of ministry to see more people come to Christ. And our goal is to fill it and wear it out, have to renovate it, build a bigger one, go do another one somewhere. And I say build a bigger one. Honestly, if God wants us and it makes sense in the. In the direct community to build a bigger building, that's fine. If it makes more sense to Go build another building similar size somewhere else or go renovate an abandoned building or something. Then let's go do that.
[00:58:07] Speaker B: Well, things are moving so quickly. I think people will ask that standard question, what's your 5 year, 10 year old, 20 year plan? I don't know that that's possible right now, you know, so the way that we're doing things, we can guess at it and have, you know, some broad strategies. But you know, what we see right now, we know the word of God's going to be preached and we know that this is going to be a biblical New Testament Baptistic church.
Beyond that, you know, how we're going to do it and what it's going to, you know, who's going to do what. All those things that could change, you know, we're looking, we want everybody. You know, I think it was Jim Collins that said, get the right person on the bus but hold their seat loosely, that we're moving people to different seats, trying different things because it just, it keeps it fresh and it keeps it working.
You know, how can we pray for Central Nassau? How can we pray for you?
[00:59:05] Speaker A: Yeah. So for Central Nassau, the verse that is perpetually playing in my mind over the last two and a half years is the harvest is ready, the labors are few, you know, and so you mentioned some of those entrepreneur mindset people we need.
It takes time to disciple people to be ready to start discipling other people.
And so a lot of people we're reaching are wonderful, great, energetic, love Jesus, but they're just not ready to teach a class, they're not ready to become a deacon or things like that. And so we need people that are ready, they're looking for the next battle or looking for the next fight and say, you know what, there's something over there, there's some people over here I can help out with. We really need some positive, high energy people that are, that are just ready to go.
We're growing our own, but they're just not. The incubator's still working there.
[01:00:00] Speaker B: There are people probably watching this episode that are, and we're going to really promoted in Nassau, obviously, you know, North Florida. There are probably people, I know, people that follow our ministry that either they went through a bad experience, they were hurt in a church and they kind of have said, well look, I'm just going to listen to Maximum Life, watch the program and get my discipleship through that. We want to say like one, we're glad you're watching. We're glad you're listening. But that's not cool.
[01:00:30] Speaker A: You need a church, jump in.
[01:00:32] Speaker B: Yeah, you got to find a church.
We all get hurt, we all get hurt. And that's just the nature of humanity.
But this could be a good new chapter for somebody.
[01:00:43] Speaker A: Well, and I've seen and I've had conversations in the last two weeks, I've had conversations with people that, you know, there's other, we're not the only ones doing what we're doing. There's other churches doing it. The one thing that sets us apart I think in some ways is other churches are doing it. They've done it before, they've done it many times. They've been successful, they've kind of unlocked the code a little bit. And so when you go to a new campus of an established multi site church, you may look, walk on campus, be like, well they got this all figured out. You walk on campus in Central Nassau five minutes and you're like, they don't got this figure out. They're learning, they are putting this thing together as the train goes down the tracks at times. And so I literally just had a conversation with a gentleman new to the area and this has probably been two or three families like this over the last couple months where they're like, I've been looking for something that I could really put my fingerprints on and not in a selfish idolic.
[01:01:35] Speaker B: They want a legacy there.
[01:01:37] Speaker A: They want to know that their gifts can be used by the kingdom and God can say, hey, I can use you here in a great way.
And that's really what we're seeing at Central Nassau. If you're looking at yourself like, you're like, man, I've just kind of been in a rut or I'm just looking for to find my place.
The places are multiple. Like we have definitely places at the same time. The people we have serving are so faithful and they're so generous with their time, their talents and their treasures. They're just doing incredible things.
It's a real cool time of ministry.
And there's pieces of what we're doing now that I think when we get to the larger building we may miss.
[01:02:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:02:17] Speaker A: And that's what I remind my team right now is hey, enjoy these moments, enjoy these times, enjoy these memories because when things ramp up, they're going to change.
And you won't necessarily go back to this personally.
You can pray for me and listeners, please pray for me too. Just pray for my family. You know, it's we're in this time right now of just oldest just went off to college, you know, and it's just kind of like our kids.
This is one thing that I hear from church planters and missionaries, that when God calls the dad, he calls the family. But the sacrifice, a lot of times for me, what I do, I love what I do. It's exciting. And my kids and my wife, they love it too. But it comes at a cost, you know, and, you know, relationships change, ministries, ministry, possibilities for the kids maybe not quite be as developed yet as what they. But they get to participate. So like my boys, my teenage boys, 14, 15 years old, Sunday morning, they're setting up chairs in the worship. Worship. And I've taught them. I said, hey, when you set up a chair, when you unfold a chair, you pray for that chair.
And you just kind of be in prayer as you're setting up chairs. Now, kids at the Island Campus, they don't get to go set up chairs and pray over the chairs. So there's give and take. But at times it can feel like there's more sacrifice and there is benefit. And we know that there's, you know, there's blessings in the end and stuff, but just kind of praying through that and praying for that, you know. And if you're an island campus family, personally, as a dad, if I could selfishly ask you, when you see my kids at the island campus, because they still go there, we're still there often, you know, just say hi to them, welcome them, let them know such a good word, what you're doing. It's not just about what your dad's doing.
[01:04:12] Speaker B: In fact, they're heroes.
[01:04:13] Speaker A: Don't even thank me.
Go thank my kids. Because what they're doing is a big deal.
[01:04:18] Speaker B: Well, and they're entering into. I think this is the thing that was on my radar when I was where you're at. In age of kids, they didn't get to pick ministry, they didn't get to pick their dad. And so they're in a ministry family without getting a vote.
They didn't get to pick the church they go to.
And when you are at your dad's church and you gotta be there, if somebody gets mad at your dad and they leave the church, you lose friends, and that's a reality. And you don't get a vote in that. And so there's a sacrifice in that. What I tried to do at that same age is make life as normal for my kids as I could.
There's things that we can't debate that are just black and white in scripture.
And then there's A lot of things where it's conscious issues or whatever. So I tried to, with my kids, not force a cultural Christianity on them that was not a biblical Christianity. And so I did try to avoid being legalistic with them. Let them be teenagers. You know, I'll tell you this. I'm not being prophetic. I'm telling you, this is just reality you're entering into for those boys, a really difficult stage.
It's difficult to shepherd them through it.
They're going through puberty, man. I mean, you know, they're going to wake up a different person daily. Yeah, really.
And they're not going to understand it, and they're going to get mad at you for silly reasons.
And all of that's going to happen. And you don't get a pass on that because you're a Christian, a pastor, planting a church, all of those things.
You'll get through it.
My baby just graduated. Right. She's going off next week to fsu.
You'll survive it.
The goal is to survive it where they still love Jesus and love the church.
You know, the best kind of victory that I've had in recent days is my son joined another church a couple of weeks ago, picked a great church in Nashville, and he's plugged in. He's volunteering, and I could not be more proud of that.
[01:06:42] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[01:06:42] Speaker B: You know, so he's at a place where he doesn't have to go. He doesn't have to be a Christian. He could abandon the faith if he wanted to.
He's his own man. He's paying his own bills. I don't give him a dime. And so to look at it and go, he of his own choice, loves the Lord. The work that God did in his heart was real.
And he still wants to be around it. Like his life revolves around what's happening at church.
That's really a win to me.
You know, I just want him to love the Lord and want him to.
I want them to want to be at church, and I want that for your kids. I want it for all of our people. It's just a little more difficult when they're on staff.
Mom and Dad's on staff, so we'll pray for that for your family.
But I can say, just from our observation, you guys are parenting extremely well.
I think they've got a great advantage having you as a dad and you doing ministry with them. You know, a lot of times, I'll see you. Whether it's going on a visit or whatever it is, having one of the kids with you.
That's the way to do it. Let them see it. Because they'll also share some of the burden. They'll go, okay. Dad's not in the best mood right now, but I saw who he talked to at Publix the other day.
[01:08:04] Speaker A: Whatever.
[01:08:05] Speaker B: And so they will get, over time, more that you're not bulletproof, that you're a real person, and they'll have some empathy there. I think the older they get, and they'll have a lot of appreciation, the older they get that they were able to see the kingdom behind the curtain, so to speak. And they don't hate it. They don't hate what they saw. That's really, really special.
Well, hopefully we've got people watching. I hope we've got people at the island campus that will go out and say, well, look, I want to. I've got that frontier spirit. I want to go out to Central Nassau and plug in.
That's great.
We want that. We want to send as many people as we can. Plus, it frees up parking.
[01:08:49] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. You're in either spots. Yeah.
[01:08:52] Speaker B: So we just hope it's a tremendous success over time. I really believe it will be.
We're putting. The billboards are going up. Currently, we do that. Nobody goes to a church because they see a billboard. We're not stupid. But it gives. When you invite someone, it gives credibility to the invitation.
[01:09:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:09:13] Speaker B: Billy Graham, he would ask people at the Crusades when they made a decision, what was it that got you here? And they would say, a personal invitation. 90% of them, it was a personal invitation.
But they put literally tens of thousands of dollars into billboards and ads and all these things. Marketing.
And the idea was, if I go up and say, hey, you need to come check out Central Nassau, they already have some idea of what that is. Right. And so that's what we're trying to do, is to give them context.
But if you're a member of our church or if you're familiar with this ministry, invite, invite, invite. Send people out there. Share this episode.
These episodes are what tracts used to be.
And so where people would give you a tract before, now they share podcasts with you.
That's one of the main reasons we do this. So take advantage of that opportunity, and let's pray, and let's just watch what God's going to do through Pastor Josh Wood.
[01:10:09] Speaker A: Well, hey, it's an exciting time, and I appreciate you having me on pastor and, you know, your leadership to the FB First Ministries as a whole. Is something that we just really appreciate, we really enjoy. But what I tell people all the time is, you know, because they ask me. They ask me, you know, how is it being a campus pastor and leading a place where, you know, it's a video venue? I say I absolutely love it because it just. It frees me up to be with the people, and it frees me up to just care for hearts and care for souls and be that shepherd out there.
So it's a joy.
[01:10:40] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't think people see what you give up when you're the teaching pastor.
When I show up, like, when I wake up on Sunday, that sermon is heavy on my mind.
And everything I do from the time I wake up till I get there, I'm prepping to deliver the message.
And so even though I can be friendly between services and hopefully be nice to people, I'm haunted that there's another service coming, and I can't be. We've even talked about having a staff member who's like the campus pastor of the island campus, because I can't be that the way that you can, you know, when you. When your main thing is to walk the halls, make sure everything's working, but. But love on the people.
I envy that sometimes, you know, And I don't have that privilege right now, but it all works together, hopefully to the building of the kingdom. And like I said, it could change next week, but we're thankful for the ride.
[01:11:43] Speaker A: Yeah, it's been a good ride, and it's going to continue Lord willing, and we're excited about it.
[01:11:48] Speaker B: Amen. Well, thanks for being on code Red.
[01:11:49] Speaker A: Yes, sir. Thank you.
It.
