May 13, 2025 • 38 mins
What if everything we've been told about Gen Z's relationship with faith is wrong? This eye-opening conversation with a passionate young missionary flips the script on conventional wisdom, suggesting that rather than being "post-Christian," today's youth might actually be "pre-revival."
The journey begins with raw stories from the mission field – sleeping in barns, ministering in America's largest homeless population in San Francisco's Tenderloin district, and confronting entitlement and pride when exhaustion and sickness set in. These "entitlement killers" form the crucible where genuine ministry is forged.
Most fascinating is the counterintuitive discovery that sometimes the most receptive audiences aren't where you'd expect. While church-filled communities occasionally proved resistant, party scenes in cities like San Diego often yielded profound spiritual conversations. Why? As the missionary explains, those searching for fulfillment in temporal pleasures often recognize their emptiness faster than those surrounded by religious structures without relationship.
Behind this ministry lies innovative approaches worth noting. Pop-up vintage clothing stores serve dual purposes – funding the mission while creating natural spaces for spiritual conversations with unlikely audiences. Meanwhile, QR code systems at events connect new believers directly to local churches, addressing the critical gap between momentary decisions and long-term discipleship. Last summer alone, approximately 1,500-1,600 people not just made faith commitments but actually connected with local churches.
Whether you're considering missions work, curious about Gen Z's spiritual landscape, or simply interested in innovative outreach approaches, this conversation offers a refreshing perspective on how authentic faith is spreading in unexpected ways across America.
Have you noticed signs of spiritual hunger in today's youth? Join the conversation and share your thoughts on this potential pre-revival generation.
Website: https://unhingedchristian.buzzsprout.com/
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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ2RmIFRIlcH-L-UPZYtGSw
Blog: https://www.unhingedchristianblog.com/blog
X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/PalebCarker
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
here, I think it was just before you went on tour
went on tour, were you in the,the, the program that you were
doing?
Yeah, okay, so you had alreadystarted that yep so let's start
off from there when you go ontour.
Yeah, what's that like?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
dude it was.
It was wild tour is crazy tour.
Every heart Tour is a reallygood experience.
I would highly recommend it toany college student that wants
to give their summer to being amissionary serving local
churches, local bodies.
It was super growing, superstretching.
(00:42):
You know there's a lot of Ithink of.
We stayed at YWAM San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Stayed at where YWAM San.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Francisco, um, and it's, uh, in the heart of what's
called the tenderloin in SanFrancisco, which is the biggest
homeless population in all ofthe United States, and so we
talk about entitlement killers.
It's midnight, we're in thebiggest homeless population.
(01:09):
There's people lining thestreets like sleeping in front
of the doors and like crazystuff gunshots, like it was wild
, and I'm sick as a dog.
I'm so sick at this point andwe get there and we're like From
what Just from?
Just traveling, travelingcatching something shaking
people's hands and praying forpeople and not being smart with
(01:30):
them, washing my hands andsanitizing my hands and rubbing
my eyes or my face, whatever itwas.
Yeah, um, and so sorry, Itouched the mic, it's fine.
Um, and so a lot of like thingsthat like entitlement, pride
thing, ego, all these things,they, they start to show up on
tour and you have to, you haveto be the one that's like all
(01:51):
right, lord, you can, you cankill this, like, this is like,
I'm here for you and nothingmore.
Um, and so, dude, it's, everyheart tour is wild man, and I'm
going on my second tour thissummer, so I'm leaving in like
two weeks for another tour.
I'm leading a team this year tothe northeast part of america,
so we're going to west virginia,virginia, boston, new york city
(02:14):
, new jersey, maine and thentoronto, and so skipping over
new hampshire.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, that breaks my heart but the rest of this the
rest of the states are going tobe cool dude.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah, it's going to be so fun.
I'm super excited.
We went as a leadership team injanuary, uh, which was such a
blast and love to all of theseeastern side okay yeah, because
so the northeast for us has beenreally like hard, a lot of hard
soil over there that for us tokind of like break into.
And so we went with the goal oflike just doubling our
(02:48):
connections.
And so that means the citieswhere we have one connection, we
want just one more.
Cities where we have three, wewant three more.
And just so we can help unifythe bodies within these cities.
And so we went and I mean wesaw there were some days we just
went, we looked up churches.
We were like Lord, are you onthis, should we go here?
(03:10):
And if we felt a yes, we'd justshow up and we'd knock on the
church door and we'd get ameeting with the pastor and he's
like I love it, let's do it.
And there's others that are likewhat are you doing, get out of
here, you know, um and so.
But it's so fun and the Lord'sreally moving over in the
Northeast and we're superexcited and super expectant, um,
(03:31):
for what he's going to do thissummer.
Um, but I mean, last summer,dude, the Lord did so so much.
We we started implementing thisthing where at our gatherings
we would put up ar code forpeople to scan, uh, and fill out
like hey, was this your firsttime giving your life to the
lord, or was this your firsttime like having a, like a
(03:53):
significant encounter with jesusor whatever it is?
Uh, and then ask, we'd alsohave the question of do you want
your information to get passedto a local body?
Speaker 1 (04:02):
okay, because so there there can be follow-up.
Yeah, should they say.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Because in the past we've been like all right, we
have a rare opportunity to goout and travel during the summer
and see these people get savedand have significant encounters
with the Lord, but then we leave, yeah, and we're like we can't
just let these people have thisencounter and not do something
about it.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
And so that's why we started doing a lot more like
pre-tours is what we call them.
In January, we go and partnerwith a lot more local churches
that are kind of similar withwhat we believe in, because
we're like, hey, we, we want toknow that we have safe
connections that we can sendthese people to all over the
city.
And so we, we've, I all over thecity and so we've, I think,
this last summer let me check mynotes this last summer alone,
(04:53):
we saw, I think, 1,500 people,around 1,500 to 1,600 people,
commit their life to the Lordfor the first time, but also get
plugged into a church.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah, that's important.
People commit their life to theLord for the first time, but
also get plugged into a church.
Yeah, and so give like, whichis important, yeah and so
because.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I mean they need to be discipled, Obviously, jesus
is the greatest discipler and hecan do it.
But we also believe like, hey,you should be in the body.
And so the Lord moved in crazyways.
So many people got saved,people got healed, people got
delivered.
It grew me.
There are some things I waslike I didn't know god could do
that you know, I saw this womanget up out of a wheelchair after
(05:32):
a car accident.
Doctor told she never walk againand now she's walking and it's
like all right, god, I that'scrazy you know what I?
Mean so, but it's like nothingthat I could do or our team
could do, or every heart does,like it's just Jesus.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Right, it's who he is , you know.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
And so tour was wild man and grew me and stretched me
a lot.
But I'm super excited for thisupcoming tour and yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
So where all did you go this past summer?
Because January and then thisyear you're going to the
Northeast and you were in LAright for the summer.
Was it just California?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
We went through Fort Collins, Colorado, Colorado
Springs, Salt Lake City, Utah,Boise, Idaho, Phoenix, Arizona,
Fresno, San Diego, San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
So in Utah did you have any trouble with Mormons
Dude, Because I've had both Joshand Alec on here and when they
were down there it was like ifthey tried to set up a church
it'd be really hard for thembecause the Mormons would want
to shut them down.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, yeah, it'd be.
Really it'd be hard for thembecause the Mormons would want
to shut them down.
Yeah, yeah, they know.
Yeah it was.
It wasn't super difficult.
Obviously, you know we'd runinto Mormon missionaries or just
Mormon families who didn'treally agree with everything
(07:04):
that we believe in, but they'realso super kind.
Mormons are super nice.
Yeah, they are, they're verynice people, and so they're not
the ones that are going to tryand start the debates with us,
and we're not wanting to startdebates with them.
But what we realized is a lotof religion versus rebellion in
(07:24):
Utah, lot of religion versusrebellion in Utah.
And so we've encountered, weencountered a lot of people that
were they loved God, they lovedJesus, but they knew Mormonism
wasn't who he really is.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
And walk away from the faith, but they don't know
what the what faith is, becauseMormonism was all what they knew
, and so we had a really goodopportunity to go in there and
share actual truth and have alot of local bodies that believe
what we believe in that wecould be like, hey, like this is
truth you know, I mean, this islike this is who jesus really
(07:59):
is.
um, there were obviously some ofthe, the guys you know we would
run into and they just weren't.
They were very kind about it,but they were like that's not
true, that's not truth.
This is truth and it's likedude, I'm sorry but no, it's not
.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah, it gets hard when you're trying to be loving
and kind and then there'sdisagreements or like what
you're saying like truth, andthen they're just not hearing it
.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, and it's.
You know, there's only so muchwe can do.
I mean, we're not the ones thatsave, only Jesus can, and so
best thing that we can do istell them truth and encourage
them.
There was a pastor that wepartnered with and he was like
encourage them to read the Bible.
He's like, nine times out ofwhen a Mormon reads the Bible,
(08:48):
they convert because they don'tread the Bible.
They read the book of Mormon.
And he was like tell them toread the gospel of John and
watch their life get transformed, you know.
And so anytime I'd encounter aperson that, like, practices
Mormonism, I'd ask him, likehave you ever read the book of
John?
I'd encounter a person thatpractices Mormonism, I'd ask
them have you read the book ofJohn?
They're like you know here andthere, I know it, but it's like
(09:10):
I'd look into it man, you'regoing to read this and you're
going to feel truth runningthrough your body.
This book is alive.
Yours isn't Joseph Smith's dead.
Jesus isn't.
There's something significantabout that, that's dead Jesus
isn't.
There's something significantabout that.
And so your prophets are alldead when they all look to Jesus
(09:36):
.
Jesus looks to himself Probablymeans that it's Jesus, and so
it's a wild thing out there, butit's super fun.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Yeah, and was it any?
Was there any culture shockLike last time you were on here?
We were talking about how weboth grew up in West Michigan,
with it being very reformed andChristian, and so when we get
out of this bubble, we realizethat not all of America is
actually saved.
So what was the culture shocklike that for you?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
So what was?
Speaker 1 (10:10):
the culture shock like that for you.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah, I honestly think on tour this last year out
west, when we went out west itwasn't a big culture shock, as
much as it was on pre-tour forme when we went to Maine.
Maine's one of the mostunreached states in all of
America and mainly because Maineis the state where people will
(10:35):
go when they retire and they'relike I don't need Jesus, you
know, I live my life, I got mymoney, I got whatever, I'm going
to retire, I'm going to have agood time and and so what?
I encountered a lot.
There was a lot of like you'dgo up to someone, hey man, like
can I pray for?
And they're like dude, buzz off, dude, kick rocks, get out, get
away from me.
(10:56):
And it was really hard it wasreally hard soil, but the way
the Lord's moving in the bodyover there is super exciting.
We're partnering with, I think,three church plants that are
starting around this time In.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Maine.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
In Maine and so, and the Lord has like just been all
over it and you know, and sothere's, there's a lot of,
there's a lot of hard soil outin Maine and that was really
like those the week to two weeks, that.
No, how long were we there inpre-tour?
Just about a week and a fewdays.
It was really hard.
(11:38):
I'd try to go out and I loveevangelism, I love evangelizing,
I feel the Lord all over it inmy life and you know I'd go out
and they'd just be like dang,this is hard, this is hard soil,
but what the Lord's doing outthere is exciting, man.
But I think last tour as well,this was also really weird.
(11:58):
It was so odd.
But we were in Fort Collins,colorado, and I remember we went
out to evangelize that entireweek and I think we saw like
which I mean praise God, likethis was awesome.
But I think we saw like which Imean praise God, like this was
awesome.
I think we saw like two peopleget saved that entire week and
it's like amen, like praise God,you know we're there we're
(12:21):
there for the one, Um, but itwas not like any other week that
we had where we'd see likehowever many, and it was just
really odd because like it wasreally hard, but there's
churches, there's churches likeeverywhere.
And so I was kind of under theassumption like yeah, okay, this
place seems pretty churched andwhatever, and we would go and
(12:43):
out evangelize.
And I remember that was likethe one time where I was like it
sucks, I keep getting rejected.
People keep yelling at me this,this, this, this, this, this,
this, which I'm fine with, but Iwas like this is so weird.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
But there's also the reality of getting that
rejection.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Yeah, yeah, and it's like this is just so weird, like
I was not expecting this withthis city, but I was like this
is what I'm expecting like SanDiego.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Like where people go there to party at the beaches.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
But I go to San Diego and people are like, dude,
let's chat, and like you'rehaving like an hour long
conversation with that one dude,you know who's really open, and
so it was.
That was the sense of like Ihad presumptions of different
cities that just were likeflip-flopped and I was like what
the heck is going on.
But yeah, man.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
I wonder if it's because in San Diego generally
there is a little bit moredepravity and so like they may
be searching for something thatall these other things are just
haven't worked.
They thought it would bringhappiness, and it still hasn't.
So they try something new, andit doesn't bring happiness.
And then you mentionedsomething, or I should say
(13:58):
someone who can bring that, andso they're probably more
interested.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, and it's also too.
San Diego is a lot of youngpeople, especially in the
summertime.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Really, there's a lot of young people.
Okay, that's new.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
I didn't know that.
Yeah, I mean I ran into so manyso, and I say young, but I mean
like 26 and under, you know,and it's just like there's these
people that are like like Imean I remember saying this last
time on the podcast but like Ireally believe like the Lord's
hand is all over Gen Z in thisgeneration.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
You know what?
Speaker 2 (14:34):
I mean, and people say that it's becoming the first
post-Christian generation, butI think it's the first
pre-revival.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
So you're a little more optimistic about it.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Oh, I think this generation is hungry for the
Lord about it.
Oh, I think this generation ishungry for the lord, you know,
um.
And so when we go and you'reexactly correct there's people,
especially in san diego, thatare there searching for
something yeah searching forfulfillment partying on the
beaches, partying the bars,surfing, whatever it is, fishing
, finding fulfillment, thingsthat ultimately doesn't satisfy.
(15:13):
They go home at night andthere's still that hole in their
heart.
And when we go and we're like,hey, man, there's someone who
loves you.
Can I tell you about him?
And watching these people like,oh my gosh, this is real, this
isn't just something that Sundayschool, you know what I mean.
(15:33):
Jesus is real, he's alive, heloves me, you know.
And so seeing seeing those samepeople like, especially the
young people that are just likefinding fulfillment in Jesus and
not in these things, you know,has been super exciting.
We had a dude from San Diego onour team.
His name was Bodie.
We had a dude from San Diego onour team, his name was Bodie,
(15:53):
and Bodie, like surfer skater,had that California accent, like
amazing dude, amazing dude andhe loves the Lord.
And I mean we were in San Diegoand I mean I just was watching
him and I was honestly gettingreally inspired.
But watching him just like bein his element with his people,
(16:16):
that he used to be a part, likethat crowd, of trying to find
fulfillment and things, so heused to be part of that same
crowd, yeah.
I mean he loved Jesus.
But there were things like Imean, like any of us, that we go
to to try to fill this void.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
And he was able just to relate so easily like, hey, I
was there, man, it doesn'tsatisfy, it doesn't get easier,
it doesn't get better.
But once you allow jesus to bethe lord of everything, when you
let him love you like you'relike that's what does it.
And so I mean san diego waswild man and I mean gen z is,
I'm super excited man, the, theLord's doing something in this
generation.
And I mean you can lookanywhere and you can see people
(17:01):
saying post-church and this,this, this, this, this, that,
that, whatever.
And it's like dude, no, like,look a little deeper, you'll see
that Bible sales are almost atthe highest that they've ever
been.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Really.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah that churches are blowing up Like dude.
We're on the brink of revival,man, we're on the brink of it.
I hope so, dude, I know so.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I would say I'm like, not pessimistic, but I'm also
not optimistic about it.
Yeah, but I do believe that ifyou're watching mainstream media
then, yeah, you wouldn'tbelieve, because they're showing
you the worst of the worst, butthat's just one, one person,
and so if you're payingattention to that, you're
starting to think that that'severybody.
(17:41):
When, in reality, you go aroundand talk to people, it's a
different story.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
So that's kind of where I'm at.
Yeah, dude, the church is.
Man, I should have wrote allthese these things down, we
things down.
We've been talking about themas like within our movement,
like these things that we'reseeing of man.
I got to find these statistics.
I'll text them to you.
I'll text them to you when Iget them.
But, like dude, Bible sales arelike skyrocketing.
Churches are expanding likecrazy.
(18:08):
Christian churches areexpanding like crazy and it's a
fluctuation of people 25 andunder that are coming in, that
are buying these Bibles, thatare downloading the Bible app,
that are doing all these thingsbecause they know deep down in
their soul that they've longedfor a relationship with him and
he's moving.
You know what I mean.
And so, dude, I'm super full offaith that this generation,
(18:36):
that very soon we're going tosomething crazy happening and
hopefully I believe in there.
I believe it, dude.
I'm super, I'm super excitedfor it and it's gonna be great.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
It's gonna be great so when you're not on tour, what
does your?
Because you're officially amissionary, now right, that's
that's what you do.
Yeah, what does your, becauseyou're officially a missionary,
now right yeah, that's what youdo, yeah what does the normal
day look like for you?
Speaker 2 (18:57):
dude it's, it's kind of spread out.
Um, and so I.
This last year I was, uh, partof what we had called kingdom
clothing and so that was a waythat we would make money for the
movement, raise money for themovement and raise money for the
movement, and so we would sellvintage clothing, and so we
(19:19):
would, but the unique thingabout that, we didn't have a
brick and mortar.
We would go to what's calledvintage pop-ups and so we'd
travel all across the US Midwestregion and do these pop-ups and
, honestly, these places that wewould go to they're kind of
like circuses, I guess.
I don't know.
It's really weird.
So we go to this, it is, we goto this place called totally rad
vintage fest and they literallyjust travel like all the time
(19:43):
and there's like usually thesame people that travel with
them and it's really like justlike we'd show up every once in
a while and it's like, oh, dude,you're still here.
Like amen, praise God.
You know, but We'd show upevery once in a while and it's
like, oh, dude, you're stillhere.
Amen, praise God.
But we would go and we'd set upand two of us would stay and
check people out and we'd rotate.
We had a team of four, five,six that would go and we'd just
(20:04):
evangelize.
And it was so fun.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
While selling the clothing.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, and it was a good opportunity to go into
places where people wouldprobably never step foot in a
church, honestly, are trying tofulfill again a void in their
heart with making money,clothing, whatever it is, uh,
and go and share truth.
(20:28):
And you know, we saw people getsaved.
We saw people get super mad atus that we're even there.
And you know, sorry, dude, welove you man, but there's a
bigger mission here, and so wewe'd still go and and within
Kingdom Clothing.
It looked like a lot of.
We would get the clothes, we'dwash them, we'd photo them,
(20:49):
measure, upload and then we'dhave drops on our website as
well, I think like twice a month.
And so we were kind of grindingwith that and we felt the Lord,
which was really wild.
We were at like KingdomClothing was doing the best that
it was doing, we were seeingpeople get saved, we're making
money for the movement and wefelt the Lord say close it.
(21:10):
So we closed it as of like twodays ago.
So we're done for good now withKingdom Clothing, which is
really, really sad, really likebittersweet.
Me and my friends me and myclose friends were the ones that
were working in it and we justwere like all right, lord, we
feel you moving on other areasand so, but also within Kingdom,
(21:33):
what I was doing with KingdomClothing was also in our worship
ministry as well, and so wehave about four man wait one,
two, we four, four to fiveworship sets a week, and so I
would play Cajon and serve atour college campuses, our Met by
Love campuses on Monday nights,tuesday morning we'd have
(21:57):
prayer sets that I would usuallyrun audio.
At, thursday nights, we'd haveanother prayer set do drums at,
and then Sunday nights, I wouldeither play drums or do audio,
and then at the end of the month, every Monday, we would have
our unity gatherings, which areour big worship gatherings that
(22:18):
we invite all the collegecampuses to and we just do a
giant worship event.
It starts at 9, ends at like 12.
It's awesome 12 am 12 atmidnight.
Yeah, dang, it's late, yeah, wego late.
It's fun, though it's fun andwe see people get saved,
baptized, healed, delivered,encountered in the presence, and
(22:41):
I mean that's all.
Our main goal with our worshipministry.
Our worship movement is just tobuild him a resting place,
somewhere he can come and restand dwell, because inevitably
that's what he longs for is aplace to rest, a place to dwell.
We see it in the garden.
He created the garden to restwith his people.
He sent Jesus, when we allowedsin into the world, and Jesus
(23:05):
lived the perfect life thatwe're supposed to live, died on
the cross, rose again and thennow the Holy Spirit dwells
within us to rest Right, and soour main goal is, like God, we
want to build you a restingplace.
We want people in our DTS tocome and learn our culture.
We want people on our staff tolearn our culture.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
DTS being Disciple Training School?
Yep, Discipleship TrainingSchool Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah, we want people to come in and learn our culture
and if they want to join staffand you're on it, amen and if
you want them to go home andshow that culture that we have
of building him a resting placeabove anything else, great.
Our Every Heart Tours our maingoal with our worship gatherings
building him a resting place.
We go out and evangelize, thenwe worship.
(23:48):
We build him a resting place.
We want him to rest, he wantsto rest, he desires to rest, and
so our worship movement it'sawesome.
Mbl worship.
Every Heart Prayer Rooms it'sawesome.
The Lord's been on it.
We have a few things that we'rethinking about here and so
(24:09):
super exciting.
And then I also do a lot ofoperations stuff as well within
the movement.
So a lot of behind the scenesthings.
I'm on our call team and socall people that want prayer,
that are interested in ourschool, interested in our tours
or starting campuses.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
So you go through all the cards or whatever they fill
out and you contact them.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Okay, how's that?
Do you like doing that?
Speaker 2 (24:36):
It's fun.
When I first, when I firstfound out I was doing, it was
like I'm not a communicator, Ican't, I'm not good at being on
the phone and you know what Imean.
Like, if I have a phone call,like I try to keep it like two
minutes max unless it's like ameeting you know what?
I mean or it's like just text me, and so it was like it was
(24:59):
definitely like a little killerwhere I just had to sit and I
was like, all right, lord, likethere's someone on the other
side of this phone that needs toencounter you, and really like
catching fear of the Lord overit, of like, wow, like I could
talk to this person and theycould get encountered by the
Lord, they could do a DTS andtheir life could be changed, or
they could go on tour and theycan encounter Jesus in a new way
(25:20):
, because I took the time to hopon a call and so caught a lot
of fear of the Lord over that.
But I also just helped with alot of little things helped
build the stage at the newbuilding, transporting vans to
get fixed, just little things.
And so now going into, I justagreed to another two and a half
years with the movement and somy only really responsibility
(25:46):
now is worship.
Uh, so maybe doing a little bitof operations here and there,
but really getting to hone in onmy craft as a drummer, becoming
I want to become a professionalon my instrument um, yeah, dude
I'm super excited about that,but also just have a lot of
opportunity in my time now in mydays to schedule out times, to
(26:07):
start planning exploits ofthings.
I'm feeling the Lord onEvangelizing here in Grand
Rapids.
I'm going to start gettingmentored by some professionals
at drums and some guys that arejust like older brothers in the
faith that I can finally have alot of time to like go and meet
with them or hop on a zoom calland like learn from them and
(26:28):
then also doing a lot of musictheory classes.
Um, I start learning more aboutmusic theory.
Um, and then, yeah, justlearning my craft and and
growing in that and then havingour prayer sets and, yeah, super
excited, music theory will befun, dude.
I prayer sets and yeah, superexcited.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Music theory will be fun.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Dude, I'm excited for it.
I'm super excited.
I've grown a little bit in itand learning the number system
and a lot of things.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Oh, so you're going to be learning not just the
rhythm theory, you're going tobe learning the notes and scales
and stuff.
Yeah, are you going to playsomething other than drums then?
Speaker 2 (27:05):
so I play.
I play acoustic guitar.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Yeah, I play acoustic okay I love acoustic.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
I love I've been leading every once in a while
you sing too.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Yeah, oh yeah, that's new, you didn't mention that.
Yeah, about a half hour, and Ijust found out that you sing,
yeah I've been, I've beenstepping out more.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
I feel the lord I love and I love playing acoustic
.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
I feel really called to that and even before I was
singing and doing all that, I'dget words about like I see you
leading worship and it's like Idon't sing, man.
And then I started in my secrettime with the Lord playing my
guitar and singing and justfalling in love with it and the
Lord is still growing me a lotin it and I told him there's a
(27:50):
lot of things personally in mylife that I want to die before I
step foot on a stage and leadpublicly at a service or
something.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Because it's like, for example, like Lord, I want
the want to be seen, the want inmy heart to be seen, that needs
to die before I ever step footon a stage.
Yeah, because if I step foot ona stage with that, I'm leading
people to myself and not him andthat's a disservice to
everybody and so little likethings like that, where it's
(28:18):
just like and so I love, I lovesinging, I love, I love writing,
I, I love playing acoustic, I'mlearning bass.
Nice, yeah, super excited, umand um, the dude that's actually
teaching me the number systemis our main bass player, um, and
so super excited to grow withhim and yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
So did you take singing lessons or did you just
start playing your acoustic andsinging and kind of picking it
up?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
I did lessons with Tiffy.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
You and I were doing it at the same time I did
lessons for like four weeks andI was like I had a hard time
singing in front of her Like andjust singing in front of people
in general.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
So I was like no, I'm good.
And I was like, teach me thetechniques, teach me how to
breathe, and I'll be good.
And so she taught me techniques, and then I would go home and
I'd just sing to God.
And then in my secret time andI'd practice techniques every
once in a while but I would justsing and I've honestly trained
myself in a not good way.
Like what's like on tour when I, if I would lead with, like at
(29:29):
a team time, like a pre-tour,it's like, oh, I'm having a hard
time hitting that high note,all right, just yell, you know,
and like we'll get up there andlike things like that and like
that's just become like I'm aloud singer but it's, it's fun
and you know, so you're going tohave to be stepping away from
the mic.
Yeah, sometimes, sometimes, andother times happens.
(29:50):
Other times it's like yeah, Idon't know, man, I don't know
it's wild, but it's, it's fun.
You know, it's so fun.
And yeah, I don't, I don't, I'mnot bad at it, like I'm not the
greatest at it, but I don'tsuck, and so it's also nice,
like when I'm like and like,just like singing, like learning
(30:10):
a song on guitar and I'msinging to it so I can like play
along and it's like all right,I'm not like, I'm not like tone
deaf, you know what I mean.
Like I can hold it, you know,and so that's also been really
like a blessing.
It's like all right, Lord.
Thank you that I don't suck atsinging because that'd stink,
but yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Yeah, who wants to stink at singing?
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Nobody, nobody, but no, it's wild, I love it.
I love singing.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Well, good.
Thanks, I'm glad to see thatyou're doing the music theory.
That stuff is important andhelpful, yeah, and it's cool to
see that you're singing too.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Amen, Amen bro.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
So I guess that brings us to the last section.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Hit me.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Of the pod.
Then you're going to be leavingon tour again.
So you said you're leaving intwo weeks.
Yeah, is there any preparationyou have to do in these two
weeks, or is it just the samekind of thing and then you're
just off?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
yeah, so we're, we're .
We're on break right now as astaff.
We just finished our lecturephase of our DTS.
This we just did our second DTS, and so the last semester has
been really wild, and so we'retaking like a week and a half
break just to rest, get alongwith the Lord.
But then we're we're takinglike a week and a half break, um
, just to rest, get along withthe lord um, but then we're also
, uh, gonna have like a littlelike leadership training, um,
(31:30):
and so our leaders are gonna oursenior leaders so brennan,
jonah and bryce, um, and thenpeyton, are gonna, um, just like
walk us through what it lookslike to be on every heart tour
leading every heart tour.
There's people that we havecalled point leaders on every
team who have been around for awhile.
So, like Kyle Mervine, kyleMervine's my point leader.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
I haven't heard that name in forever.
That's cool.
He's with you.
Yeah, he's on staff with usyeah.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
And so him, his wife, his baby, me, and then three
others.
So him, his wife, his baby, meand then three others, our other
leadership team for theNortheast team, and so we're
going to do like a three to fourday leadership training and
then our team will arrive, andthen we'll have an entire week
called training week, where wego more in depth with the team
(32:19):
of what things would look like,and then we have our Jesus rally
here in Grand Rapids at RosaParks on the 30th, and then we
leave the next day.
So Wow, yeah.
We leave for West Virginia, soyeah, Wow.
Super exciting.
(32:39):
Our team that we have this yearis wild.
We have a full band, which iswild, so I'll be playing drums.
We have a bass player who's inour DTS he's awesome.
We have an electric guitaristwho's from Canada.
He's nuts, he's crazy, he'sfrom Canada yeah.
He's wild on the electricthough.
He has this YouTube channelthat he just hit like 10k
(33:02):
subscribers and he does likeplaythroughs of how to play
songs on electric.
He's like crazy good what's hisyoutube name?
oh, what is his name?
Speaker 1 (33:10):
it's sam something and do you know what part of
canada he's from?
Speaker 2 (33:17):
he told me, but I forgot.
I'm sorry, sam.
I'm sorry, sam, I'm sorry.
Let me see Sam, it is calledAlso shout out Riders.
You want some good Christianhip hop, indie styles music.
(33:39):
He's awesome.
He's from Circuit Riders inCalifornia.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
The same guy.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
No that's just a different dude.
I just saw that I was listeningto his stuff.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Oh, gotcha Okay.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Sam Gibson.
His YouTube is Electric PraiseOkay.
Okay sweet, so shout out Sam,Love you bro.
And then Kyle is going to beour lead vocalist.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Cool to see he's still singing.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Dude, his range is crazy.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
I can imagine he was good back then.
His range isn't?
I'm sure he'd just be gettingbetter.
Yeah, dude his range is nuts.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
I remember I heard him sing for the first time.
I was like, how did you get upthat high dude?
That's crazy.
Like that's a girl range dude.
And he hit it perfectly.
I was like, amen, all right,praise God, and so I have a full
band.
We're going to be doing Jesusrallies every week.
The full band was going to benice.
We're going to do a rally inNew York City.
(34:39):
Last year we did it in TimesSquare, and so we're hopefully
going to try and do that again.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Nice yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
It's super fun.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Where do you stay?
We stay with host homes so wereach out to the church.
Hey, this is when we're coming.
Do you know of any people thatwould be opening their homes for
us for the week?
And so we usually split up guysand girls, and girls would be
(35:10):
in one house or two houses, guyswould be in one house or two.
I mean, last year our guys, westayed in a barn, we slept on
air mattresses for the week,which was really lit.
It was a furnished barn lit.
It was a fur like furnished farm, uh, barn, but it was still
like still kind of cool, stillkind of sick you know, and the
girls are in in the houses andthe beds and we're on the air
(35:31):
mattress and wake up on thefloor with it like folded around
us and it was awesome, you know.
And so we rug it, we, we yeah alittle bit, and so, um, we stay
with host homes um.
A lot of times we'll stay withywam bases if we can.
So, like boston, we'll probablystay with ywam boston um the um
(35:52):
.
Where are we staying?
We have a partnership with mapsglobal.
I think they're in richmond,virginia, and so we'll stay with
maps global um, um, but thenother places.
It's like New York city.
We partnered with the churchthat has connections um all over
.
Sometimes we'll stay in thechurch basement.
Sometimes the people will openup their homes to us and, um,
(36:15):
yeah, that's usually the goal.
The goal is to be able to staywith host homes um, but
sometimes we get thrown leftfield and they're like hit the
barn.
I'm like all right, cool hey,it's a place it's a place, it is
, it's a roof, it's a roof, it'sa roof.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
So all right, well, I don't have anything else.
I don't know if you haveanything else I don't think so,
man okay, so I know you post onsocial media about where people
can give.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
So you can say that on here and then I can also put
it in the link.
Dude, that's a blessing On thedescription.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Yes, there's two ways you can partner with me.
One of them prayer.
Please pray for me and my team.
That's the most important thing.
Prayer changes things.
If you want to give importantthing, prayer changes things.
If you want to give, there's a.
Uh, I have a 501c3 link throughequip net which is a tax
(37:11):
deductible link.
Then also have venmo, soappreciate it.
If you guys want to partner,have a going on tour this summer
, going on tour with umBLWorship this fall, planning some
exploits here and there, and soall of it goes to missions.
So, love you guys, appreciateit, appreciate you man.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Yep, thanks for coming on.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
I have to publicly repent.
I have to publicly repent.
Caleb texted me about this likefour months ago and I was like,
dude, I'm in.
And then I never texted himback.
And then I got reminded of itand I went to text him like,
wait, why didn't this happen?
And I saw I never texted himback and I felt really bad.
(37:53):
And so, Caleb, I'm sorry butI'm happy I'm here.
I'm happy I'm here.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
It is okay, thanks for coming on.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Yes, bro.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
And thank.
here, I think it was just before you went on tour
went on tour, were you in the,the, the program that you were
doing?
Yeah, okay, so you had alreadystarted that yep so let's start
off from there when you go ontour.
Yeah, what's that like?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
dude it was.
It was wild tour is crazy tour.
Every heart Tour is a reallygood experience.
I would highly recommend it toany college student that wants
to give their summer to being amissionary serving local
churches, local bodies.
It was super growing, superstretching.
(00:42):
You know there's a lot of Ithink of.
We stayed at YWAM San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Stayed at where YWAM San.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Francisco, um, and it's, uh, in the heart of what's
called the tenderloin in SanFrancisco, which is the biggest
homeless population in all ofthe United States, and so we
talk about entitlement killers.
It's midnight, we're in thebiggest homeless population.
(01:09):
There's people lining thestreets like sleeping in front
of the doors and like crazystuff gunshots, like it was wild
, and I'm sick as a dog.
I'm so sick at this point andwe get there and we're like From
what Just from?
Just traveling, travelingcatching something shaking
people's hands and praying forpeople and not being smart with
(01:30):
them, washing my hands andsanitizing my hands and rubbing
my eyes or my face, whatever itwas.
Yeah, um, and so sorry, Itouched the mic, it's fine.
Um, and so a lot of like thingsthat like entitlement, pride
thing, ego, all these things,they, they start to show up on
tour and you have to, you haveto be the one that's like all
(01:51):
right, lord, you can, you cankill this, like, this is like,
I'm here for you and nothingmore.
Um, and so, dude, it's, everyheart tour is wild man, and I'm
going on my second tour thissummer, so I'm leaving in like
two weeks for another tour.
I'm leading a team this year tothe northeast part of america,
so we're going to west virginia,virginia, boston, new york city
(02:14):
, new jersey, maine and thentoronto, and so skipping over
new hampshire.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, that breaks my heart but the rest of this the
rest of the states are going tobe cool dude.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah, it's going to be so fun.
I'm super excited.
We went as a leadership team injanuary, uh, which was such a
blast and love to all of theseeastern side okay yeah, because
so the northeast for us has beenreally like hard, a lot of hard
soil over there that for us tokind of like break into.
And so we went with the goal oflike just doubling our
(02:48):
connections.
And so that means the citieswhere we have one connection, we
want just one more.
Cities where we have three, wewant three more.
And just so we can help unifythe bodies within these cities.
And so we went and I mean wesaw there were some days we just
went, we looked up churches.
We were like Lord, are you onthis, should we go here?
(03:10):
And if we felt a yes, we'd justshow up and we'd knock on the
church door and we'd get ameeting with the pastor and he's
like I love it, let's do it.
And there's others that are likewhat are you doing, get out of
here, you know, um and so.
But it's so fun and the Lord'sreally moving over in the
Northeast and we're superexcited and super expectant, um,
(03:31):
for what he's going to do thissummer.
Um, but I mean, last summer,dude, the Lord did so so much.
We we started implementing thisthing where at our gatherings
we would put up ar code forpeople to scan, uh, and fill out
like hey, was this your firsttime giving your life to the
lord, or was this your firsttime like having a, like a
(03:53):
significant encounter with jesusor whatever it is?
Uh, and then ask, we'd alsohave the question of do you want
your information to get passedto a local body?
Speaker 1 (04:02):
okay, because so there there can be follow-up.
Yeah, should they say.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Because in the past we've been like all right, we
have a rare opportunity to goout and travel during the summer
and see these people get savedand have significant encounters
with the Lord, but then we leave, yeah, and we're like we can't
just let these people have thisencounter and not do something
about it.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
And so that's why we started doing a lot more like
pre-tours is what we call them.
In January, we go and partnerwith a lot more local churches
that are kind of similar withwhat we believe in, because
we're like, hey, we, we want toknow that we have safe
connections that we can sendthese people to all over the
city.
And so we, we've, I all over thecity and so we've, I think,
this last summer let me check mynotes this last summer alone,
(04:53):
we saw, I think, 1,500 people,around 1,500 to 1,600 people,
commit their life to the Lordfor the first time, but also get
plugged into a church.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah, that's important.
People commit their life to theLord for the first time, but
also get plugged into a church.
Yeah, and so give like, whichis important, yeah and so
because.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I mean they need to be discipled, Obviously, jesus
is the greatest discipler and hecan do it.
But we also believe like, hey,you should be in the body.
And so the Lord moved in crazyways.
So many people got saved,people got healed, people got
delivered.
It grew me.
There are some things I waslike I didn't know god could do
that you know, I saw this womanget up out of a wheelchair after
(05:32):
a car accident.
Doctor told she never walk againand now she's walking and it's
like all right, god, I that'scrazy you know what I?
Mean so, but it's like nothingthat I could do or our team
could do, or every heart does,like it's just Jesus.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Right, it's who he is , you know.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
And so tour was wild man and grew me and stretched me
a lot.
But I'm super excited for thisupcoming tour and yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
So where all did you go this past summer?
Because January and then thisyear you're going to the
Northeast and you were in LAright for the summer.
Was it just California?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
We went through Fort Collins, Colorado, Colorado
Springs, Salt Lake City, Utah,Boise, Idaho, Phoenix, Arizona,
Fresno, San Diego, San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
So in Utah did you have any trouble with Mormons
Dude, Because I've had both Joshand Alec on here and when they
were down there it was like ifthey tried to set up a church
it'd be really hard for thembecause the Mormons would want
to shut them down.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, yeah, it'd be.
Really it'd be hard for thembecause the Mormons would want
to shut them down.
Yeah, yeah, they know.
Yeah it was.
It wasn't super difficult.
Obviously, you know we'd runinto Mormon missionaries or just
Mormon families who didn'treally agree with everything
(07:04):
that we believe in, but they'realso super kind.
Mormons are super nice.
Yeah, they are, they're verynice people, and so they're not
the ones that are going to tryand start the debates with us,
and we're not wanting to startdebates with them.
But what we realized is a lotof religion versus rebellion in
(07:24):
Utah, lot of religion versusrebellion in Utah.
And so we've encountered, weencountered a lot of people that
were they loved God, they lovedJesus, but they knew Mormonism
wasn't who he really is.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
And walk away from the faith, but they don't know
what the what faith is, becauseMormonism was all what they knew
, and so we had a really goodopportunity to go in there and
share actual truth and have alot of local bodies that believe
what we believe in that wecould be like, hey, like this is
truth you know, I mean, this islike this is who jesus really
(07:59):
is.
um, there were obviously some ofthe, the guys you know we would
run into and they just weren't.
They were very kind about it,but they were like that's not
true, that's not truth.
This is truth and it's likedude, I'm sorry but no, it's not
.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah, it gets hard when you're trying to be loving
and kind and then there'sdisagreements or like what
you're saying like truth, andthen they're just not hearing it
.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, and it's.
You know, there's only so muchwe can do.
I mean, we're not the ones thatsave, only Jesus can, and so
best thing that we can do istell them truth and encourage
them.
There was a pastor that wepartnered with and he was like
encourage them to read the Bible.
He's like, nine times out ofwhen a Mormon reads the Bible,
(08:48):
they convert because they don'tread the Bible.
They read the book of Mormon.
And he was like tell them toread the gospel of John and
watch their life get transformed, you know.
And so anytime I'd encounter aperson that, like, practices
Mormonism, I'd ask him, likehave you ever read the book of
John?
I'd encounter a person thatpractices Mormonism, I'd ask
them have you read the book ofJohn?
They're like you know here andthere, I know it, but it's like
(09:10):
I'd look into it man, you'regoing to read this and you're
going to feel truth runningthrough your body.
This book is alive.
Yours isn't Joseph Smith's dead.
Jesus isn't.
There's something significantabout that, that's dead Jesus
isn't.
There's something significantabout that.
And so your prophets are alldead when they all look to Jesus
(09:36):
.
Jesus looks to himself Probablymeans that it's Jesus, and so
it's a wild thing out there, butit's super fun.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Yeah, and was it any?
Was there any culture shockLike last time you were on here?
We were talking about how weboth grew up in West Michigan,
with it being very reformed andChristian, and so when we get
out of this bubble, we realizethat not all of America is
actually saved.
So what was the culture shocklike that for you?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
So what was?
Speaker 1 (10:10):
the culture shock like that for you.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah, I honestly think on tour this last year out
west, when we went out west itwasn't a big culture shock, as
much as it was on pre-tour forme when we went to Maine.
Maine's one of the mostunreached states in all of
America and mainly because Maineis the state where people will
(10:35):
go when they retire and they'relike I don't need Jesus, you
know, I live my life, I got mymoney, I got whatever, I'm going
to retire, I'm going to have agood time and and so what?
I encountered a lot.
There was a lot of like you'dgo up to someone, hey man, like
can I pray for?
And they're like dude, buzz off, dude, kick rocks, get out, get
away from me.
(10:56):
And it was really hard it wasreally hard soil, but the way
the Lord's moving in the bodyover there is super exciting.
We're partnering with, I think,three church plants that are
starting around this time In.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Maine.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
In Maine and so, and the Lord has like just been all
over it and you know, and sothere's, there's a lot of,
there's a lot of hard soil outin Maine and that was really
like those the week to two weeks, that.
No, how long were we there inpre-tour?
Just about a week and a fewdays.
It was really hard.
(11:38):
I'd try to go out and I loveevangelism, I love evangelizing,
I feel the Lord all over it inmy life and you know I'd go out
and they'd just be like dang,this is hard, this is hard soil,
but what the Lord's doing outthere is exciting, man.
But I think last tour as well,this was also really weird.
(11:58):
It was so odd.
But we were in Fort Collins,colorado, and I remember we went
out to evangelize that entireweek and I think we saw like
which I mean praise God, likethis was awesome.
But I think we saw like which Imean praise God, like this was
awesome.
I think we saw like two peopleget saved that entire week and
it's like amen, like praise God,you know we're there we're
(12:21):
there for the one, Um, but itwas not like any other week that
we had where we'd see likehowever many, and it was just
really odd because like it wasreally hard, but there's
churches, there's churches likeeverywhere.
And so I was kind of under theassumption like yeah, okay, this
place seems pretty churched andwhatever, and we would go and
(12:43):
out evangelize.
And I remember that was likethe one time where I was like it
sucks, I keep getting rejected.
People keep yelling at me this,this, this, this, this, this,
this, which I'm fine with, but Iwas like this is so weird.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
But there's also the reality of getting that
rejection.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Yeah, yeah, and it's like this is just so weird, like
I was not expecting this withthis city, but I was like this
is what I'm expecting like SanDiego.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Like where people go there to party at the beaches.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
But I go to San Diego and people are like, dude,
let's chat, and like you'rehaving like an hour long
conversation with that one dude,you know who's really open, and
so it was.
That was the sense of like Ihad presumptions of different
cities that just were likeflip-flopped and I was like what
the heck is going on.
But yeah, man.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
I wonder if it's because in San Diego generally
there is a little bit moredepravity and so like they may
be searching for something thatall these other things are just
haven't worked.
They thought it would bringhappiness, and it still hasn't.
So they try something new, andit doesn't bring happiness.
And then you mentionedsomething, or I should say
(13:58):
someone who can bring that, andso they're probably more
interested.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, and it's also too.
San Diego is a lot of youngpeople, especially in the
summertime.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Really, there's a lot of young people.
Okay, that's new.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
I didn't know that.
Yeah, I mean I ran into so manyso, and I say young, but I mean
like 26 and under, you know,and it's just like there's these
people that are like like Imean I remember saying this last
time on the podcast but like Ireally believe like the Lord's
hand is all over Gen Z in thisgeneration.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
You know what?
Speaker 2 (14:34):
I mean, and people say that it's becoming the first
post-Christian generation, butI think it's the first
pre-revival.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
So you're a little more optimistic about it.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Oh, I think this generation is hungry for the
Lord about it.
Oh, I think this generation ishungry for the lord, you know,
um.
And so when we go and you'reexactly correct there's people,
especially in san diego, thatare there searching for
something yeah searching forfulfillment partying on the
beaches, partying the bars,surfing, whatever it is, fishing
, finding fulfillment, thingsthat ultimately doesn't satisfy.
(15:13):
They go home at night andthere's still that hole in their
heart.
And when we go and we're like,hey, man, there's someone who
loves you.
Can I tell you about him?
And watching these people like,oh my gosh, this is real, this
isn't just something that Sundayschool, you know what I mean.
(15:33):
Jesus is real, he's alive, heloves me, you know.
And so seeing seeing those samepeople like, especially the
young people that are just likefinding fulfillment in Jesus and
not in these things, you know,has been super exciting.
We had a dude from San Diego onour team.
His name was Bodie.
We had a dude from San Diego onour team, his name was Bodie,
(15:53):
and Bodie, like surfer skater,had that California accent, like
amazing dude, amazing dude andhe loves the Lord.
And I mean we were in San Diegoand I mean I just was watching
him and I was honestly gettingreally inspired.
But watching him just like bein his element with his people,
(16:16):
that he used to be a part, likethat crowd, of trying to find
fulfillment and things, so heused to be part of that same
crowd, yeah.
I mean he loved Jesus.
But there were things like Imean, like any of us, that we go
to to try to fill this void.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
And he was able just to relate so easily like, hey, I
was there, man, it doesn'tsatisfy, it doesn't get easier,
it doesn't get better.
But once you allow jesus to bethe lord of everything, when you
let him love you like you'relike that's what does it.
And so I mean san diego waswild man and I mean gen z is,
I'm super excited man, the, theLord's doing something in this
generation.
And I mean you can lookanywhere and you can see people
(17:01):
saying post-church and this,this, this, this, this, that,
that, whatever.
And it's like dude, no, like,look a little deeper, you'll see
that Bible sales are almost atthe highest that they've ever
been.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Really.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah that churches are blowing up Like dude.
We're on the brink of revival,man, we're on the brink of it.
I hope so, dude, I know so.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I would say I'm like, not pessimistic, but I'm also
not optimistic about it.
Yeah, but I do believe that ifyou're watching mainstream media
then, yeah, you wouldn'tbelieve, because they're showing
you the worst of the worst, butthat's just one, one person,
and so if you're payingattention to that, you're
starting to think that that'severybody.
(17:41):
When, in reality, you go aroundand talk to people, it's a
different story.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
So that's kind of where I'm at.
Yeah, dude, the church is.
Man, I should have wrote allthese these things down, we
things down.
We've been talking about themas like within our movement,
like these things that we'reseeing of man.
I got to find these statistics.
I'll text them to you.
I'll text them to you when Iget them.
But, like dude, Bible sales arelike skyrocketing.
Churches are expanding likecrazy.
(18:08):
Christian churches areexpanding like crazy and it's a
fluctuation of people 25 andunder that are coming in, that
are buying these Bibles, thatare downloading the Bible app,
that are doing all these thingsbecause they know deep down in
their soul that they've longedfor a relationship with him and
he's moving.
You know what I mean.
And so, dude, I'm super full offaith that this generation,
(18:36):
that very soon we're going tosomething crazy happening and
hopefully I believe in there.
I believe it, dude.
I'm super, I'm super excitedfor it and it's gonna be great.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
It's gonna be great so when you're not on tour, what
does your?
Because you're officially amissionary, now right, that's
that's what you do.
Yeah, what does your, becauseyou're officially a missionary,
now right yeah, that's what youdo, yeah what does the normal
day look like for you?
Speaker 2 (18:57):
dude it's, it's kind of spread out.
Um, and so I.
This last year I was, uh, partof what we had called kingdom
clothing and so that was a waythat we would make money for the
movement, raise money for themovement and raise money for the
movement, and so we would sellvintage clothing, and so we
(19:19):
would, but the unique thingabout that, we didn't have a
brick and mortar.
We would go to what's calledvintage pop-ups and so we'd
travel all across the US Midwestregion and do these pop-ups and
, honestly, these places that wewould go to they're kind of
like circuses, I guess.
I don't know.
It's really weird.
So we go to this, it is, we goto this place called totally rad
vintage fest and they literallyjust travel like all the time
(19:43):
and there's like usually thesame people that travel with
them and it's really like justlike we'd show up every once in
a while and it's like, oh, dude,you're still here.
Like amen, praise God.
You know, but We'd show upevery once in a while and it's
like, oh, dude, you're stillhere.
Amen, praise God.
But we would go and we'd set upand two of us would stay and
check people out and we'd rotate.
We had a team of four, five,six that would go and we'd just
(20:04):
evangelize.
And it was so fun.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
While selling the clothing.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, and it was a good opportunity to go into
places where people wouldprobably never step foot in a
church, honestly, are trying tofulfill again a void in their
heart with making money,clothing, whatever it is, uh,
and go and share truth.
(20:28):
And you know, we saw people getsaved.
We saw people get super mad atus that we're even there.
And you know, sorry, dude, welove you man, but there's a
bigger mission here, and so wewe'd still go and and within
Kingdom Clothing.
It looked like a lot of.
We would get the clothes, we'dwash them, we'd photo them,
(20:49):
measure, upload and then we'dhave drops on our website as
well, I think like twice a month.
And so we were kind of grindingwith that and we felt the Lord,
which was really wild.
We were at like KingdomClothing was doing the best that
it was doing, we were seeingpeople get saved, we're making
money for the movement and wefelt the Lord say close it.
(21:10):
So we closed it as of like twodays ago.
So we're done for good now withKingdom Clothing, which is
really, really sad, really likebittersweet.
Me and my friends me and myclose friends were the ones that
were working in it and we justwere like all right, lord, we
feel you moving on other areasand so, but also within Kingdom,
(21:33):
what I was doing with KingdomClothing was also in our worship
ministry as well, and so wehave about four man wait one,
two, we four, four to fiveworship sets a week, and so I
would play Cajon and serve atour college campuses, our Met by
Love campuses on Monday nights,tuesday morning we'd have
(21:57):
prayer sets that I would usuallyrun audio.
At, thursday nights, we'd haveanother prayer set do drums at,
and then Sunday nights, I wouldeither play drums or do audio,
and then at the end of the month, every Monday, we would have
our unity gatherings, which areour big worship gatherings that
(22:18):
we invite all the collegecampuses to and we just do a
giant worship event.
It starts at 9, ends at like 12.
It's awesome 12 am 12 atmidnight.
Yeah, dang, it's late, yeah, wego late.
It's fun, though it's fun andwe see people get saved,
baptized, healed, delivered,encountered in the presence, and
(22:41):
I mean that's all.
Our main goal with our worshipministry.
Our worship movement is just tobuild him a resting place,
somewhere he can come and restand dwell, because inevitably
that's what he longs for is aplace to rest, a place to dwell.
We see it in the garden.
He created the garden to restwith his people.
He sent Jesus, when we allowedsin into the world, and Jesus
(23:05):
lived the perfect life thatwe're supposed to live, died on
the cross, rose again and thennow the Holy Spirit dwells
within us to rest Right, and soour main goal is, like God, we
want to build you a restingplace.
We want people in our DTS tocome and learn our culture.
We want people on our staff tolearn our culture.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
DTS being Disciple Training School?
Yep, Discipleship TrainingSchool Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah, we want people to come in and learn our culture
and if they want to join staffand you're on it, amen and if
you want them to go home andshow that culture that we have
of building him a resting placeabove anything else, great.
Our Every Heart Tours our maingoal with our worship gatherings
building him a resting place.
We go out and evangelize, thenwe worship.
(23:48):
We build him a resting place.
We want him to rest, he wantsto rest, he desires to rest, and
so our worship movement it'sawesome.
Mbl worship.
Every Heart Prayer Rooms it'sawesome.
The Lord's been on it.
We have a few things that we'rethinking about here and so
(24:09):
super exciting.
And then I also do a lot ofoperations stuff as well within
the movement.
So a lot of behind the scenesthings.
I'm on our call team and socall people that want prayer,
that are interested in ourschool, interested in our tours
or starting campuses.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
So you go through all the cards or whatever they fill
out and you contact them.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Okay, how's that?
Do you like doing that?
Speaker 2 (24:36):
It's fun.
When I first, when I firstfound out I was doing, it was
like I'm not a communicator, Ican't, I'm not good at being on
the phone and you know what Imean.
Like, if I have a phone call,like I try to keep it like two
minutes max unless it's like ameeting you know what?
I mean or it's like just text me, and so it was like it was
(24:59):
definitely like a little killerwhere I just had to sit and I
was like, all right, lord, likethere's someone on the other
side of this phone that needs toencounter you, and really like
catching fear of the Lord overit, of like, wow, like I could
talk to this person and theycould get encountered by the
Lord, they could do a DTS andtheir life could be changed, or
they could go on tour and theycan encounter Jesus in a new way
(25:20):
, because I took the time to hopon a call and so caught a lot
of fear of the Lord over that.
But I also just helped with alot of little things helped
build the stage at the newbuilding, transporting vans to
get fixed, just little things.
And so now going into, I justagreed to another two and a half
years with the movement and somy only really responsibility
(25:46):
now is worship.
Uh, so maybe doing a little bitof operations here and there,
but really getting to hone in onmy craft as a drummer, becoming
I want to become a professionalon my instrument um, yeah, dude
I'm super excited about that,but also just have a lot of
opportunity in my time now in mydays to schedule out times, to
(26:07):
start planning exploits ofthings.
I'm feeling the Lord onEvangelizing here in Grand
Rapids.
I'm going to start gettingmentored by some professionals
at drums and some guys that arejust like older brothers in the
faith that I can finally have alot of time to like go and meet
with them or hop on a zoom calland like learn from them and
(26:28):
then also doing a lot of musictheory classes.
Um, I start learning more aboutmusic theory.
Um, and then, yeah, justlearning my craft and and
growing in that and then havingour prayer sets and, yeah, super
excited, music theory will befun, dude.
I prayer sets and yeah, superexcited.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Music theory will be fun.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Dude, I'm excited for it.
I'm super excited.
I've grown a little bit in itand learning the number system
and a lot of things.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Oh, so you're going to be learning not just the
rhythm theory, you're going tobe learning the notes and scales
and stuff.
Yeah, are you going to playsomething other than drums then?
Speaker 2 (27:05):
so I play.
I play acoustic guitar.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Yeah, I play acoustic okay I love acoustic.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
I love I've been leading every once in a while
you sing too.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Yeah, oh yeah, that's new, you didn't mention that.
Yeah, about a half hour, and Ijust found out that you sing,
yeah I've been, I've beenstepping out more.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
I feel the lord I love and I love playing acoustic
.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
I feel really called to that and even before I was
singing and doing all that, I'dget words about like I see you
leading worship and it's like Idon't sing, man.
And then I started in my secrettime with the Lord playing my
guitar and singing and justfalling in love with it and the
Lord is still growing me a lotin it and I told him there's a
(27:50):
lot of things personally in mylife that I want to die before I
step foot on a stage and leadpublicly at a service or
something.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Because it's like, for example, like Lord, I want
the want to be seen, the want inmy heart to be seen, that needs
to die before I ever step footon a stage.
Yeah, because if I step foot ona stage with that, I'm leading
people to myself and not him andthat's a disservice to
everybody and so little likethings like that, where it's
(28:18):
just like and so I love, I lovesinging, I love, I love writing,
I, I love playing acoustic, I'mlearning bass.
Nice, yeah, super excited, umand um, the dude that's actually
teaching me the number systemis our main bass player, um, and
so super excited to grow withhim and yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
So did you take singing lessons or did you just
start playing your acoustic andsinging and kind of picking it
up?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
I did lessons with Tiffy.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
You and I were doing it at the same time I did
lessons for like four weeks andI was like I had a hard time
singing in front of her Like andjust singing in front of people
in general.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
So I was like no, I'm good.
And I was like, teach me thetechniques, teach me how to
breathe, and I'll be good.
And so she taught me techniques, and then I would go home and
I'd just sing to God.
And then in my secret time andI'd practice techniques every
once in a while but I would justsing and I've honestly trained
myself in a not good way.
Like what's like on tour when I, if I would lead with, like at
(29:29):
a team time, like a pre-tour,it's like, oh, I'm having a hard
time hitting that high note,all right, just yell, you know,
and like we'll get up there andlike things like that and like
that's just become like I'm aloud singer but it's, it's fun
and you know, so you're going tohave to be stepping away from
the mic.
Yeah, sometimes, sometimes, andother times happens.
(29:50):
Other times it's like yeah, Idon't know, man, I don't know
it's wild, but it's, it's fun.
You know, it's so fun.
And yeah, I don't, I don't, I'mnot bad at it, like I'm not the
greatest at it, but I don'tsuck, and so it's also nice,
like when I'm like and like,just like singing, like learning
(30:10):
a song on guitar and I'msinging to it so I can like play
along and it's like all right,I'm not like, I'm not like tone
deaf, you know what I mean.
Like I can hold it, you know,and so that's also been really
like a blessing.
It's like all right, Lord.
Thank you that I don't suck atsinging because that'd stink,
but yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Yeah, who wants to stink at singing?
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Nobody, nobody, but no, it's wild, I love it.
I love singing.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Well, good.
Thanks, I'm glad to see thatyou're doing the music theory.
That stuff is important andhelpful, yeah, and it's cool to
see that you're singing too.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Amen, Amen bro.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
So I guess that brings us to the last section.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Hit me.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Of the pod.
Then you're going to be leavingon tour again.
So you said you're leaving intwo weeks.
Yeah, is there any preparationyou have to do in these two
weeks, or is it just the samekind of thing and then you're
just off?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
yeah, so we're, we're .
We're on break right now as astaff.
We just finished our lecturephase of our DTS.
This we just did our second DTS, and so the last semester has
been really wild, and so we'retaking like a week and a half
break just to rest, get alongwith the Lord.
But then we're we're takinglike a week and a half break, um
, just to rest, get along withthe lord um, but then we're also
, uh, gonna have like a littlelike leadership training, um,
(31:30):
and so our leaders are gonna oursenior leaders so brennan,
jonah and bryce, um, and thenpeyton, are gonna, um, just like
walk us through what it lookslike to be on every heart tour
leading every heart tour.
There's people that we havecalled point leaders on every
team who have been around for awhile.
So, like Kyle Mervine, kyleMervine's my point leader.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
I haven't heard that name in forever.
That's cool.
He's with you.
Yeah, he's on staff with usyeah.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
And so him, his wife, his baby, me, and then three
others.
So him, his wife, his baby, meand then three others, our other
leadership team for theNortheast team, and so we're
going to do like a three to fourday leadership training and
then our team will arrive, andthen we'll have an entire week
called training week, where wego more in depth with the team
(32:19):
of what things would look like,and then we have our Jesus rally
here in Grand Rapids at RosaParks on the 30th, and then we
leave the next day.
So Wow, yeah.
We leave for West Virginia, soyeah, Wow.
Super exciting.
(32:39):
Our team that we have this yearis wild.
We have a full band, which iswild, so I'll be playing drums.
We have a bass player who's inour DTS he's awesome.
We have an electric guitaristwho's from Canada.
He's nuts, he's crazy, he'sfrom Canada yeah.
He's wild on the electricthough.
He has this YouTube channelthat he just hit like 10k
(33:02):
subscribers and he does likeplaythroughs of how to play
songs on electric.
He's like crazy good what's hisyoutube name?
oh, what is his name?
Speaker 1 (33:10):
it's sam something and do you know what part of
canada he's from?
Speaker 2 (33:17):
he told me, but I forgot.
I'm sorry, sam.
I'm sorry, sam, I'm sorry.
Let me see Sam, it is calledAlso shout out Riders.
You want some good Christianhip hop, indie styles music.
(33:39):
He's awesome.
He's from Circuit Riders inCalifornia.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
The same guy.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
No that's just a different dude.
I just saw that I was listeningto his stuff.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Oh, gotcha Okay.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Sam Gibson.
His YouTube is Electric PraiseOkay.
Okay sweet, so shout out Sam,Love you bro.
And then Kyle is going to beour lead vocalist.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Cool to see he's still singing.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Dude, his range is crazy.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
I can imagine he was good back then.
His range isn't?
I'm sure he'd just be gettingbetter.
Yeah, dude his range is nuts.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
I remember I heard him sing for the first time.
I was like, how did you get upthat high dude?
That's crazy.
Like that's a girl range dude.
And he hit it perfectly.
I was like, amen, all right,praise God, and so I have a full
band.
We're going to be doing Jesusrallies every week.
The full band was going to benice.
We're going to do a rally inNew York City.
(34:39):
Last year we did it in TimesSquare, and so we're hopefully
going to try and do that again.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Nice yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
It's super fun.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Where do you stay?
We stay with host homes so wereach out to the church.
Hey, this is when we're coming.
Do you know of any people thatwould be opening their homes for
us for the week?
And so we usually split up guysand girls, and girls would be
(35:10):
in one house or two houses, guyswould be in one house or two.
I mean, last year our guys, westayed in a barn, we slept on
air mattresses for the week,which was really lit.
It was a furnished barn lit.
It was a fur like furnished farm, uh, barn, but it was still
like still kind of cool, stillkind of sick you know, and the
girls are in in the houses andthe beds and we're on the air
(35:31):
mattress and wake up on thefloor with it like folded around
us and it was awesome, you know.
And so we rug it, we, we yeah alittle bit, and so, um, we stay
with host homes um.
A lot of times we'll stay withywam bases if we can.
So, like boston, we'll probablystay with ywam boston um the um
(35:52):
.
Where are we staying?
We have a partnership with mapsglobal.
I think they're in richmond,virginia, and so we'll stay with
maps global um, um, but thenother places.
It's like New York city.
We partnered with the churchthat has connections um all over
.
Sometimes we'll stay in thechurch basement.
Sometimes the people will openup their homes to us and, um,
(36:15):
yeah, that's usually the goal.
The goal is to be able to staywith host homes um, but
sometimes we get thrown leftfield and they're like hit the
barn.
I'm like all right, cool hey,it's a place it's a place, it is
, it's a roof, it's a roof, it'sa roof.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
So all right, well, I don't have anything else.
I don't know if you haveanything else I don't think so,
man okay, so I know you post onsocial media about where people
can give.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
So you can say that on here and then I can also put
it in the link.
Dude, that's a blessing On thedescription.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Yes, there's two ways you can partner with me.
One of them prayer.
Please pray for me and my team.
That's the most important thing.
Prayer changes things.
If you want to give importantthing, prayer changes things.
If you want to give, there's a.
Uh, I have a 501c3 link throughequip net which is a tax
(37:11):
deductible link.
Then also have venmo, soappreciate it.
If you guys want to partner,have a going on tour this summer
, going on tour with umBLWorship this fall, planning some
exploits here and there, and soall of it goes to missions.
So, love you guys, appreciateit, appreciate you man.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Yep, thanks for coming on.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
I have to publicly repent.
I have to publicly repent.
Caleb texted me about this likefour months ago and I was like,
dude, I'm in.
And then I never texted himback.
And then I got reminded of itand I went to text him like,
wait, why didn't this happen?
And I saw I never texted himback and I felt really bad.
(37:53):
And so, Caleb, I'm sorry butI'm happy I'm here.
I'm happy I'm here.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
It is okay, thanks for coming on.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Yes, bro.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
And thank.
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CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.