August 14, 2024 • 51 mins
Get ready for a heartwarming journey as we welcome the embodiment of Southern hospitality, Scott Cleveland, to the Kings of the Road podcast. Scott's generosity shone bright during our memorable visit to Savannah, where he cooked for 200 people and serenaded a captivated crowd at Steadway Island Methodist Church. Relive the thrill of exploring Savannah in Scott’s vintage Jeep and experience the charm that defines our adventures.
We then dive into the unique dynamics of community ministry on Skidaway Island. Scott shares his personal journey from his Methodist upbringing to his diverse professional endeavors and unexpected involvement in church youth groups. Alongside Pastor Jim Giddens, we uncover the intricacies of building a sense of community in a gated environment, blending social fellowship with spiritual activities, and the transformative power of communal dinners.
Our conversation wraps up with a look at Savannah's burgeoning social incubator scene and Georgia's evolving cultural landscape. Discover how innovative community initiatives are taking root in Savannah, the shift from peaches to blueberries in Georgian agriculture, and the rise of rap and hip-hop as dominant music genres. Cap it all off with a dose of Southern humor and a nostalgic invitation to join us for a delightful trip to Savannah in 2025. This episode is a treasure trove of stories, insights, and laughs, all wrapped in that signature Southern charm.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Well, there went the turn.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Oh, it couldn't have been.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I came up so fast.
Yeah, you know, 100 yards, notthat far, dang it Detour, detour
, detour, detour, Detour, detour, detour, detour.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Detour, detour, detour.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
With that sound.
It means that you are in adetour, we've come off the road.
We are not reading from thejournal today, but we get to
spend time talking about otherthings, and today it is our
great pleasure to have trackeddown a man who we hold very
fondly in our hearts and closein our minds as the epitome of
(00:48):
Southern hospitality isbasically what I would say.
When I think of Southernhospitality, I think of Scott
Cleveland is here.
So welcome Scott Cleveland tothe Teams of the Road podcast.
Thank you so much for takingtime out of your day in the
midst of a tropical storm to bewith us.
Glad to be here, glad to be withyou, and that's how a Southern
(01:08):
man sounds, and Andrew's heretoo, and so we get to talk
together.
And so, scott, I don't know ifyou have listened to the
episodes, but I'm assumingyou're not, so I'm going to tell
you.
What we remember is we werecoming out of the cold, cold
north, and it was foggy, and wehad just spent the coldest night
(01:29):
in the motorhome that weremember in someone Virginia,
right, andrew?
That's right, yep, and we'redriving to Savannah and we don't
know much about Savannah, butwe pull up to Steadway Island
Methodist Church and it's aWednesday night and you are
there and you are cooking pork,tenderloin and baked apples and
(01:50):
rice pilaf for 200 people, andyou're like come on in help, and
we helped you.
And then, sometime during themeal, they're like it's time for
Scott to sing, and you sang forthe whole crowd to do some,
some hymn or something.
And then, um, we're, we wentout and had drinks with you and
you you're driving aroundSavannah telling us about the
(02:12):
city and how, what, king Georgethe third put the city down on
the river to protect it from theSpanish, and we're just in awe
of all of this.
And then, um, and this is trulylike such a memory that I will
forever remember is you knockingon our door and saying Savannah
is too beautiful a city todrive around the motor home?
(02:33):
Here's my Jeep.
Take this and I want you to seeSavannah's Jeep.
And my first car was a Jeep andit just such an awesome memory.
So do you still have the Jeep?
And it's just such an awesomememory.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
So do you still have the Jeep?
Everyone wants to know.
No, I do not have that.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Jeep.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Oh, first of all, the Jeep was probably 20 years old
when you borrowed it and drovearound in it Maybe so One thing
that the coast is not good toare open air vehicles.
Oh, that was such a greatvehicle so once you get a little
bit of sand and salt and youknow you tend to drive in the
summer with it raining a bitmuch and and the poor jeep
(03:12):
actually gave up the ghost, so II fixed it and kept it, but
when, um, my left foot wentthrough the bottom, went through
the uh, I mean it was it's time.
It's time to give it up, and ithad major repair a few times.
But, um, the good part is is,like you know, when a good
person gives their body forrecycling you know, for organ
(03:35):
donation that jeep was recycledinto, so its spirit is roaming
around out there.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yes, other jeep wranglers, but someone might be
okay.
You know, now I have a pickuptruck, so yeah okay, that jeep
was and it had no doors and noroof and it was a stick shift
and this, like it, was such abeautiful car and still I mean
jeeps are so incredible and sowe got driving around savannah
and that thing was just so cool.
(04:02):
The one problem we had was wedidn't know how to fill it up
with gas, because we stopped andwe called one of our friends
who had a deep rainbow.
We're like where is the gasfill up on this thing?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
And he was like oh, around that whole thing, yeah,
we're like looking underneath,it's the license plate.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Right, it's the license plate, yeah, and he's
like he was like where is it?
And he's like he was like,where is it.
He's like oh, try to flip downthe license plate.
We're like what, yep?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
there, it is, there it was yeah you know, I remember
the best part was somebody inthe church office said the next
day well, you just gave thoseguys your jeep.
How do you know they're goingto come back?
I said I have their rv so yeah,I've got yeah they've got to
come back for their room andboard one day.
Yeah, I left their house theyhave.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, we have their house, you, they just have the
jeep.
Yeah, so, um, again, suchspecial memories for us.
Uh, do you have any things thatwe didn't know?
Like, that part is funny, yeah,you just let these guys drive
away in their jeep.
Um, what do you remember aboutthose days at Skidaway Island?
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Well, one of the reasons that.
So Skidaway.
I think it's funny that you allended up at Skidaway Island
because you got as far as youcould get without hitting a gate
.
So, if people don't know,skidaway Island is one of the
largest gated communities on theEast Coast, so it is nine golf
courses three neighborhoods, allgated communities on the east
coast.
So it is nine golf courses,three neighborhoods, all gated
(05:26):
community.
And one of the challenges ofbeing church is gates and church
often don't go together.
Um, you know it's, and therewas a little bit of a tug of war
over putting a church on anisland with a gated community so
skid away.
Made it a real purpose to be asopen community as possible, and
so one of the ways we did thatwas I wouldn't.
(05:49):
It wasn't me cooking the meals,I was just sort of the chief
cheerleader of about 15 to 20retired folks that every week
did that and the idea was, yes,you could go to the club.
Most people ate lunch at theclub all day long after golf or
whatever, but that was the wayof putting a public face to the
church that we're here and justcome fellowship, come get to
(06:11):
know each other and, being agated community, most of the
people retirees from theNortheast we called a lot of
previously important people pipsbecause, they were all retired
previously.
important people because, theywere all retired previously
important people and they didn'tneed a whole lot.
But what you did find is thatthey did need fellowship and
(06:35):
they did need to be heard andthey did need to find community,
and especially when thingswould go wrong or as you got
older and you couldn't play golfanymore, and there was this
real niche of you know, comejoin us for that.
That was pretty much the simpleof it there was a lot of people
there.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I remember like 200 or so.
Yeah, I think we could seat 265, 270.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
And so that's usually about what they were maxing out
.
And so that's usually aboutwhat they were maxing out.
And it was a great opportunityfor sort of witness and ministry
because you could go play golfwith a buddy and most of these
pips are not going to beinterested in.
Do you want to come to a Biblestudy or whatever else?
You can say hey come to dinnerWednesday night.
How much does it cost Nothing.
(07:21):
Just come for dinner, and thatwas always a great starting
point to just let's share a mealand see where it goes from
there and there was a lot ofgreat a lot of great, a lot of
great stuff that came out ofthat.
Now, that said, jim hiddens, theminister, preaches a great
sermon.
So that was sort of a good wayto bring people in and and
that's why we started doing it.
And so when I moved to savannahin 2000, um, we just said,
(07:42):
let's it a try.
I like cooking for a crowd ofpeople.
It's kind of entertaining.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
So what is this?
Speaker 1 (07:48):
What is this story?
If you wouldn't mind, Likewhere, where were you born?
You just said you moved toSavannah in 2000.
Like, bring us through thequick Scott Cleveland story.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
All right.
So I, I've been UnitedMethodist my whole life, sort of
church as a church background.
In my southern half of myfamily we were all Methodist,
and my northern side which wereGerman, czech kind of folks,
they were United Brethren, whichis an old you know
Lutheran-esque Lutheran spin offpart of the Wesleyan tradition.
So I grew up in the church andgrew up in Atlanta.
(08:21):
when Atlanta was exploding, alot of people would say I don't
have much of a Southern accent,but that's because I mean
Atlanta went from one million tofive million in my 20 years of
growing up, so everybody wasfrom somewhere else.
But I went to college andgraduate school.
I studied economic developmentin college and in graduate
school and in graduate schoolgot to spend time in the West
(08:45):
Indies and Central America some.
And then um in the I went wasin graduate school in the UK
when the UK was not the dynamic,healthy place it is now.
Um, in the early eighties,those Matt Margaret Thatcher
days, there was lots of poverty,lots of displacement, lots of
lots of just urban decay.
You know all these cities nowlike manchester and glasgow and
(09:06):
all those that are justwonderful.
Now we're all in a bad way.
And so through all that, I sortof I, when I look into in the
hindsight I was wanting to gointo the international business
but I came back was sellingchicken um internationally for a
company in Atlanta.
We were selling 40,000containers of chicken and one of
(09:28):
the partner's sons said do youwant to come to my basketball
game or baseball game?
Do you want to come to mybaseball game?
And I did.
And then he said, hey, mychurch youth group is looking
for some adult leaders.
Would you be interested?
And I said, well, let me gomeet and see or whatever.
And I got involved with thisyouth group.
That again everything inAtlanta was growing.
I mean you are halfway good atbeing church.
(09:48):
You open the doors and therewere 3000 people.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
You know a couple of years later.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
And all these little rural churches that Sherman
burnt down during the Civil War,all had 10,000 members.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
You know whether it's Little Baptist.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Little Methodist, so anyway.
So I went and volunteered for alittle while and I'm selling
chicken on the side all over theworld and um, and anyway they
had this big youth group justkept growing and he was.
They were like you know, weneed somebody to help
administrate this, you know, andall of a sudden I never thought
of myself as being called intoministry, but I was definitely
(10:23):
called into ad ministry.
And you know and and that's, and.
So long story short.
They ended up offering me tocome on staff and we started
doing youth ministry.
Then in the early nineties itwas old school youth ministry
when people brought their kidsand we had 350 kids at youth
group and it was huge.
(10:44):
I mean, the church at thatpoint was about 7,000 members.
But I remember I've also cometo the understanding church can
only be so big, because once youget too big then there's no
accountability.
You know nobody misses you.
I know small groups might missyou and that.
But you know the big picture isI've always thought about 12,.
1500 is about the right size ofa church.
(11:05):
You have enough resources butyou don't have too many people
that you lose track, you know.
And so a friend of mine asked meif I'd like to come work as a
church administrator program inmiddle Georgia in a little town
called Jackson, and I said yeah.
And so this lady, that, um,that's dad, sold this is very
Southern for you.
So in the 1920s her dad, um,her dad, sold cotton fields
(11:30):
because um bull weevil wascoming from Alabama and her dad
was smart, so Sarah Bond, that'sher name and her dad's like I'm
going to sell my farm, we'regoing to get rid of this land.
So 1925, 26 coming in there, hesold all his farmland, 1200
acres, and he went and bought alittle stock in the small bank
and the small drink company.
(11:50):
The small drink company wasCoca-Cola and the other was
Trust Company, which y'all beinto the West, but Trust Company
is one of those institutionalbanks of the South and so the
mid-20s her dad.
So she literally told my friendshe goes a if I like him and b
if it's a him.
So she was old school.
(12:11):
You know she was okay yeah, if Ilike him and he's a him I will
pay his salary for the firstyear and if he fails it's on him
.
If he succeeds, I'll take careof the second year.
And so, literally, I said well.
And so we negotiated a salary,went down there and was there
for a decade.
It was fantastic.
That would have been ninetiesin.
(12:32):
That would have been pretty muchthe nineties and the very 2000,
2001,.
Right in there and um we endedup.
It was like.
It was like going back into aNorman Rockwell um suburban
Atlanta had not swallowed it up.
It back into a norman rock clubum suburban atlanta had not
swallowed it up, it was still asmall town with city.
You know cities, you know townhall in the middle and first
(12:55):
baptist is on one side, firstmethodist on the other.
All the kids were either in theband cheerleading or in the
football team, you know wow orthey were the goths that had
their own cool edge, but youwere one of those four.
You know it's like and it was,but it was like it was.
It was old school and it wasfantastic.
It was um.
The church was very involved inthe community, lots of
(13:17):
leadership in the community inthe church, but it was old
school again it was.
It was a very old school kindof church environment and what I
love about that is those kidsare now in their 40s, who have
kids that are six, seven, eightyears old, and I've godfathered
all these tons of kids.
We have relationships.
(13:37):
Those are all held on and peoplewant to come to Savannah, so
it's been a real blessing.
I often think if I had stayedselling chickens I probably
could have made a bunch of money.
I have to say church has notmade me poor.
So you know I'm going to saythat's another end of it.
You know church has been a goodthing, but I think people want
(14:02):
relationship, which is what youguys are sort of building on.
And so in Jackson it wasbuilding long term family
relationships.
About 600 people in the church,everybody knew each other and
two of the more profound thingsthat I learned in Jackson One
was my very first paycheck fromthe church.
This little guy, levi Ball, camein and he was all quiet and he
(14:24):
sat down.
He says I need to give yousomething and, almost like the
Japanese, hand you a businesscard with two hands.
He handed me my paycheck, veryfirst paycheck.
And as I'm about to take it, mrBall, his family owned the mill
.
So you get this.
He's the guy, the treasurer for50 years or whatever.
And I'm like what is it?
(14:48):
And he said I just want you toremember that this paycheck
represents the hard earned moneythat people put in the offering
plate to the glory of God.
And I hope every day you'llwork to live up to that.
Wow, and and I've actually usedthat in front of paid ministers
, I mean, that was that was aprofound, that was a profound
that was a moment.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
That is a profound moment.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
It could have been him coming as a jerk.
I'm the treasurer, I give themost money, blah blah.
But it didn't come that way.
It was literally.
This is hard-earned money, putin that offering plate and you
need to work and live to theglory.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Very reverent yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
And then the other thing was I loved watching how
people that didn't like eachother, disagreed with each other
, had had access to grind for 50years, could put them down
outside the parking lot, comeinto church and be family.
And I think that's one of thethings that sort of saddens me
about the church now is it seemsto be very difficult for people
(15:43):
to disagree, be on oppositesides, even have bad history, I
mean, and I knew people whowould like silly things Like
you'd ask like now why did Tomnot like him?
Well, because he got hisgirlfriend and married her.
You know like maybe that kind ofthing, Like he got his
girlfriend in high school andmarried and they've been angry
at each other for 20 years butthey could come to church, you
(16:06):
know, or I found out you knowone person.
You didn't know but she had anaffair with her husband.
It's like everybody could getyou know.
It's a small town or talk about, you know, bad bank loans that
went off.
He ran against me in schoolboard, all those human things
(16:27):
you know.
But they could walk into churchand you could put all those
things aside, and so I thinkthat reverence for the people
that are the church and theability to to be the church and
not drag the world into it um is, is something that Jackson sort
of showed me, taught me, and Ithink that's why we sort of I
mean, I literally have familythat are friends, friends that
(16:49):
are family that come out of thathole.
Yeah, yeah, that that's, that'sat home, that yeah, so then,
what brought you to savannah?
Speaker 1 (16:56):
how so?
What brought me to?
Speaker 3 (16:58):
savannah is, uh, my friend alice rogers, who was the
minister there, um she umserved candler school of
Theology as our local DukeDivinity School.
Perkins at SMU and then Candlerat Emory are sort of the local
seminaries you know for UnitedMethodist Church.
And so Jim Giddens, who was thepastor at Skidaway, had had a
(17:18):
couple of associates.
In our system you get appointedan associate and so you have to
hope, a the associate has theskill set you need.
B you have to hope they get onwith the existing staff and
pastor.
And C you have to hope theymatch the congregation.
And so all three of those and,as I mentioned, being a gated
community with a lot ofpreviously important people,
(17:39):
skidaway was not an easy placeto light.
And so they had been through twoor three appointed associates
and it was just terrible.
And so Jim just called me upone day and said I want to hire
you to come down here.
What would it cost to move youhere?
And I said I'll be happy tomove down, gave a house and,
like I said, paid well.
But again, jim was brilliant atministry.
(18:02):
What he needed was Was somebodythat would do the ad ministry
you know, and and that was wherewe really leaned into active
missions, active fellowship.
We didn't.
We felt fellowship ran right inthere with preaching the word,
like preaching the word andevangelism need a social
(18:23):
component, a fellowshipcomponent.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
So, we.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
We always thought that serving a meal and being in
ministry all ran together.
Those we had a huge breakfastthat all these men would come to
and there were several retiredladies that would do it.
It was fantastic.
And, um, uh, all along the way,just being at the table always,
um, was an important part ofSkidaway.
Um, there's someone.
There's someone I know in lifewho says ministry is three
(18:47):
things just being at the table,always was an important part of
Skidaway.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
There's someone, there's someone I know in life
who says ministry is threethings telling stories, praying
for people and throwing parties.
And it's like I hear that andwhat you're saying, like there's
just something about gatheringaround, being together, laughing
, having food, without really anintentional, like we are here
(19:09):
to study the book of john rightnow.
You know it's like let's betogether, let's laugh, let's.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Let's a soft place to have pork, tenderloin and baked
apples and rice but anyway,that's so, that's how I ended up
, ended up in savannah and umand and it was.
It was great one of I'll haveto toot my own horn.
We have an award called theDenman Award, which is given for
clergy and lay leadership andevangelism.
(19:34):
And because of church growththat came through that dinner
the National Church gave me theDenman Award, actually helped me
get the um.
So pork loin led to uh, youknow, led to um, to
denominations, um, denman awardfor evangelism and leadership.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
So it that was showing up on that Wednesday was
that the spirit of that nightwas very intentional.
Yes, it was very intentional tobe with people who, people
don't know each other,everyone's welcome, everyone
come as much food as you want,be here, good food, good
(20:17):
fellowship and like becausethat's what we experienced was
just an enjoyable.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Oh, man yeah we did Night meal.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Yeah, felt warm, felt welcomed, and I imagine that so
many other people who justlived there were like, oh, that
was really great just to bethere and that was the deal is,
you'd get to know the communityand the community would get to
know you.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
And one of the things that I thought was powerful is
we never did a Bible study.
We had plenty of Bible studies.
There were Bible studies allthrough the week.
It's retired folks, so youcould have Bible study all week
long, you know.
But what I always foundpowerful is there was usually
music.
Savannah is a very musical city.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
So the Savannah.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Jazz Festival, savannah Music Festival.
There's tons of music inSavannah, and so what we would
find is almost like a medievalbanquet have dinner, have a
little bit of entertainment andthen and then afterwards there
would always be like five or 10minutes Y'all might not remember
a prayer request and that wouldalmost just here in the whole
room, and I would often beamazed at how people like brand
(21:18):
new to the space, like maybethey knew Joey played golf with
or whatever, but you know theyweren't confident.
Long-term members would bestanding up saying you know, my
wife just got news on cancer.
Long-term members would bestanding up saying you know, my
wife just got news on cancer.
You know, my son's in rehab forthe second time, you know, and
and people would share, and Ithink the spirit of the room
made people more comfortable toshare those kinds of things and
(21:45):
I think they felt it was a roomthat would embrace your needs,
your, your, your wants, you know, those things that you're
bringing to the community and toGod and prayer.
I think they felt a little, alittle more warmer reception to
that Um, but it was uh, um, yeah, it was, it was a great place.
And then in um, in 2000 and um,well, I got jumped for that.
So in 2014, 2015, um, we'd hadpastoral leadership change.
(22:09):
I'm sure y'all have beenthrough some of that.
Some churches you've beenaround.
And then I had a couple ofhealth issues that I needed to
work on, so I took a break.
Church can become grueling, asyou probably well know yeah,
it's just nonstop, and I waslike I wanted to do something
different and go back to that.
You know, when I first gotinvolved, like in graduate
school, economic development,the needs of people.
(22:31):
You know, I always think it'simportant that Matthew 25 starts
off with feed my sheep beforewe get to the go, make disciples
of all nations, because I dothink you need to do a little of
that.
And so, through the connectionsof Skid Away Methodist and
through my own getting to knowthe community, as you can tell,
I'm a people person, so yeah, Igot to know Savannah, and that's
(22:56):
where we went out and startedgathering funds.
It's Urban Fix.
I'm gathering funds to helpsenior adults stay in their
houses and then what I was ableto do is become a clearinghouse
for groups that want to come toSavannah to do that kind of work
, and so there's lots ofvolunteer work and over the
course of last decade we havetiny houses that were built for
(23:16):
veterans.
We got involved in FamilyPromise, which is nationwide I'm
sure they're in Orange Countybut we did some transition three
transitional houses for them.
We just worked on a lot of goodhousing projects.
Three transitional houses forthem.
We just worked on a lot of goodhousing projects.
And then I got back involved inthe church organizing missions
for Wesley Monumental, where Iam now.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
So I enjoy getting involved.
Go ahead that missionorganization for the building
thing.
Two questions.
The first is is that somethingyou started then in Savannah by
gathering those resources andputting that all together Okay?
Secondly, could Andrew and Icome out and do a Kings of the
Road mission trip and fix housesin Savannah and eat at Mrs
(23:57):
World's boarding house?
Is that still?
Speaker 3 (23:58):
a possibility.
I mean, here's the deal we dothat, we do that, we do that all
the time.
That's on the table.
Yes, that's on the table.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Matter of fact I had.
We got our plans, andrew.
We know where we're going.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
We had five groups this summer, so we had five
groups come through this summer.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
But yeah, you need to plan ahead.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
But again back to letting you all borrow a Jeep.
One of the things that I reallyenjoy is when people come to
Savannah.
Even I have friends that go toAtlanta or come to middle
Georgia.
You know, I'm just sort ofproud to be a Georgian and I
enjoy telling people what to goeat, what to go see and what to
go do and and yeah that's, andwe enjoy showing off Savannah.
(24:42):
I think Savannah is also asmall enough place that you can
talk about the microcosm of, of,you know, economic challenges,
racial issues you can talk about, you know.
I mean climate change hasbecome very evident in the last
two or three years in SavannahSea level rise, weather change,
there's just lots of you canhave a good, wholesome, hearty
(25:05):
conversation.
You know I might theologicallyand I like the way you mentioned
sort of you need a little bitof adventure, you need to do a
little travel, you need to bringpeople together and I just one
of the reasons I've always had aproblem with sort of the
Christian faith often boils downto me plus Jesus equals heaven
(25:26):
and now we can move on.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Faith often boils down to me plus Jesus equals
heaven and now we can move on,and as a United.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Methodist and John Wesley came to Savannah is that
we always believe that you're ona pathway to perfection and
that perfection only comes atdeath.
And the more we do to love andto serve and to be in fellowship
(25:55):
and to do adventure, like yousaid, the more adventure we have
in our faith, life sort of, thebetter that pathway is.
Now I can slink along thepathway and be perfectly fine
and Jesus will welcome me at theother end.
But if we're on a pathway toperfection, we might as well
make it the most active,glorious adventure in that
pathway, because you only get itonce.
I mean we're mean, we're not weknow we're not going to get this
twice you know so why not makethe most of of the pathway jesus
is calling you on now, you know?
Speaker 2 (26:16):
rather than you know um the knot, so absolutely yeah,
the best way to travel down apath is with a open top jeep,
right is that exactly yeah,exactly, so it's perfect yeah,
and a group of hobbits aroundyou the conclusion of today's
episode, or the is is the jeepis the most holy of all vehicles
(26:41):
is that what we're?
yeah, maybe I draw some oddconclusions from time to time,
but but no, that's great.
I mean for us so much of whatyou said has resonated with kind
of what this trip ended upbeing with.
You know, just going andmeeting new people in different
areas and seeing sort of howthey do church together and
(27:05):
having that aspect of what youguys called your family dinners
and we tried to have familydinners all along the way, Right
and just meeting differentfamily members.
So it was.
It was very cool and great tohear your story and how, how all
of that came to be, and I alsolove just that.
This was never your intention,you know, like I I know Scott,
(27:27):
scott and I knew each other fromhigh school and even from the
time that I met Scott when hewas a sophomore in high school,
he knew he was going to be apastor.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yeah, you know I'm one of those odd ones about like
this is, this has always beenwhere Jesus is, like you're
gonna end up doing ministry whenI was in middle school and so
just stayed focused on that andI've been very grateful for that
.
But I do recognize that I'mlike, oh, I'm the exception here
.
Most people are more likeAndrew or like you, where it's
like four or five differentcareer paths that are kind of
twangled, and also like, oh,this is where I'm getting spit
(27:58):
out to serve in this place andit's been.
It's such a wonderful,wonderful thing to hear and just
to to acknowledge that what wediscovered was exactly what you
were going for was a place tofeel warm, a place to feel
welcomed.
And for us, I, in my mind, justam always comparing our coming
(28:20):
into Boston, where we struggledto find anybody to serve and we
ended up serving at a seafarersmission downtown because there
just weren't, no one was sayingyes to us.
I was calling, calling, calling.
And then the Savannah um, youknow, we serve Stadaway Island.
We served at the Wesleyancenter, um, and we served
another church that we justtalked about downtown.
(28:42):
What was that church, andrew?
Do you have that written down?
I think it was just Christchurch Savannah, maybe, yeah,
written down.
I think it was just christchurch, if I'm not christ church
in savannah maybe yeah yeah, Ithink it's the oldest church in
savannah, is that right?
Speaker 3 (28:52):
it was probably their emmaus house.
Emmaus house is their um, theirservice to the homeless and low
income but we actually hung outtheir youth group.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
We hung out their youth group and played music for
them and stuff.
So, um, but just we found allthese like soft landings and and
it was really the the vision ofthis was saying we don't know
the family we're going to meetyet, but but we're excited about
meeting them.
And so that's why when I, whenI called you know, I just
Googled Steadway Island,methodist and I'm like I'm just
(29:23):
going to see if, if Scott'sstill there, or if I can get in
touch with him from there.
And the woman who answered didnot immediately know you, but
the person behind was like wait,who are we talking to?
And then knew how to get intouch with you.
And I feel like that's the samething that happened when I
called the first time.
Like the secretary is like whatdo you guys want to do?
And you may have been walkingby Scott at that point being
(29:45):
like that's fine, tell him tocome and go from there.
And it's just like it's justthat, that attitude and that
atmosphere of like yeah, let'ssee, let's see what the next
thing is.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
And the next person we meet and the next person we
serve.
So what if I have a fault?
I tend to lean into yes and Iwant you to prove no, rather
than a lot of people lean intono and want you to prove yes.
You know what I mean, yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
You know, I, you know , I get that my soul, Scott.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Hawkins knows exactly what you mean because because I
feel like I'm talking to two ofthe same person right here,
where it's just like oh, Ihadn't even considered
(30:58):
no-transcript.
It was yeah it's such a good.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
It is.
It's so much fun and just thegospel and the opportunity to
spread the gospel in that way.
So what are you doing right nowthen?
What's the current ScottCleveland ministry happening?
Speaker 3 (31:16):
I mean one of the fun things, this is not really
ministry.
Well, I guess it is.
A friend of mine, christianSwales, started a nonprofit
called Code Creation and ourcity has spent a lot of money on
because we have the secondlargest port.
We might beat Lark Beach in thenext couple of years, but we
have an incredibly busy port.
And so they're doing a lot oftech-based entrepreneurial
(31:40):
development, trying to do allthis high-end tech development
for the port, streamline, allthat kind of stuff.
And we decided what wouldhappen if you did a social
incubator?
So in other words, the citywill spend all this money doing
business incubating to make theport a better place.
We have all these intractablesocial issues in Savannah.
What if we created a socialinnovation incubator?
(32:02):
And this is Christian's idea.
What if we created a socialincubator in Savannah that would
help small nonprofits?
Some little grandmother on thewest side of Savannah that says
if I could just do X, y and Z, Icould address this problem, but
(32:24):
she doesn't have either thefunding or the structure or the
skills.
And it's literally using all ofthose asset-based community
development ideas and bringingsmall groups together.
So at Wesley, where I am now,we've had a group for six weeks
that are sort of pitching,almost like you're in Silicon
Valley, pitching nonprofit ideas.
And how could we bring togethercommunity assets to help you
(32:44):
address those issues that yousee?
Awesome, and Andrew, to thatpoint I'm learning to do really
kind.
No, because I mean there aretimes when you say, honey, I
hate to tell you, but there arethree other groups that already
do that.
You know, go join that.
Right, right right.
You see what I mean.
There are times when you sayhoney, I hate to tell you, but
there are three other groupsthat already do that.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
You know, go join that Right right right.
You see what I mean.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
So you know there is but it's been really cool.
It's been a really cool thingthat is cool.
Yeah, it's been a really coolthing, sort of came up and sort
of identified and we help themwith things like board
development.
Um, you know, do you alwaysneed more money?
I mean, all non-profits alwayswant more money is money
necessarily what you need, or doyou need a better board to
(33:23):
connect you, better resources,all that kind of thing?
So so, that's that's sort ofwhat we're.
We've been working on that,which has been a good thing.
So, um, so, no, that's.
That's been a little project westarted and a couple of city
aldermen are interested and whatwe're trying to tell the city
is, rather than throwing moneyat things, why not find people
in the community that that theircommunity is identifying the
(33:45):
issues and they're beginning toidentify a way to address them?
You know, why don't we trustpeople in the field to figure it
out?
So right, that's one of those.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Empower them to do that.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yeah, empower them to do it.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
How big is Savannah?
Speaker 3 (33:59):
savannah, like what's the, what's the population
generally well, the themetropolitan area now is about
300 000 um.
Oh wow, it has doubled in sizesince you came um and and in the
by 2030 we're gonna haveanother 100 000 people because
what's happened is the port'sincredibly busy.
So all this shipping industry,warehousing has come.
(34:22):
And then Hyundai is buildingthe largest electric car plant,
about 10 miles west of.
Savannah, and then the batteryplants and everything that goes
through with that.
And then there's some in Bryanand Liberty counties which are
south of Chatham County.
It's going to end up like it'llbe like South Florida when I'm
an old man.
(34:42):
It's going to look like SouthFlorida.
It's going to be just retirees,no, no, no, just chock-a-block
neighborhoods.
It's all cotton field.
What I mean by Florida.
If you fly over Florida or youfly over parts of California
you'll just see the house afterhouse after house after house.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
That's it, and we're, we're about to be.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
we're about to be at that point shortly, so but so so
insider real estate tip go buyproperty in.
Savannah two years ago.
Is what you're saying Correct?
Okay, correct.
Or you should have bought ahouse.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
You should have bought a house in Malibu in 1950
.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
You know that's right , yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's
so cool.
I mean that that whole ideaabout you know really what it
(35:41):
comes down to, is likeconnecting people and connecting
community, which again is a bigtheme of what, what we did.
But, um, you know, I recall Iwent to business school and I
had this professor who, um, he'sa founder of a restaurant chain
out here called Wahoo's fishtacos and his superpower was
connections and buildingrelationships.
And so they're.
They're kind of a niche sort ofSouthern California fish taco,
surf skate, bmx sort of placeand he would talk about he led a
(36:02):
marketing class and he was likeI don't pay for the furniture
in my stores because I get thesurf brands to put logos of
their athletes on our tables.
We don't pay for cups because Igot my buddy down at this
clothing company to put theirlogos on.
And he just talked about like Iwas the only vendor allowed at
(36:24):
this golf tournament because Ibrought everybody lunch and it
was.
It was like to your point, it'slike it's not about just
raising money and just the hardbusiness of raising capital
doing the thing, but it's theresources are there and if you
connect the resources in theright way, then money kind of
gets out of the equation and youcan just make so much more
(36:46):
happen and it's so much moremeaningful that way.
So what a cool thing thatyou're doing.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
And it's not just me, there's a whole group of people
, but it's Christian Swalesbrought it to our attention and
he's actually working on theprogram.
Great guy Lives downtownSavannah, so our Wesley Monument
, where I am.
If you don't show up with morethan 20 people, we have a
retreat center on the river, onthe Moon River, made famous by
Johnny Mercer, so y'all canalways come down and stay there.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
So we need 20 people less.
He's our spiritual director outthere.
Speaker 3 (37:18):
Well, you could bring 15 with 15, that's fine 15
great we could do that 10 to 15would great yes 10 to 15
listeners.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
We're going to go to savannah 2025.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
We're going to serve the city again.
Fly direct to los angeles, tosavannah oh perfect what
airlines, allegiance or delta.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Oh man, I have to tell you california folks.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
So during covid um, our governor, our governor was
not particularly keen onclothing closing down much, and
so savannah closed for about sixmonths, and when the gates
opened tourism just exploded.
But because, the film industryis so big in Georgia.
Now, if we look out our frontwindow, there are four houses
(38:03):
across the street.
Two are from Los Angeles andone's from New York via Los
Angeles.
So the amount of people thatmoved to Savannah from
California during COVID andafter the number all for the
movie industry.
And another exciting thing thathappened right after COVID is we
had um, our next door neighbor.
(38:24):
They rented their house for 30grand to film a movie.
They rented our driveway forthree grand to rent a movie and
but here's the great part, wegot, um, we got.
Clint Eastwood's last movie wasfilmed in our next door
neighbor's house and I have apicture of Clint Eastwood
sitting under a tent directingthe final scenes.
(38:45):
So I'm going to put a littlemarble thing that says Clint
Eastwood producing ClintEastwood final scene.
Yes, so California's discoveredSavannah.
It's kind of a problem.
Oh well, here's the thing,Scott, we were first.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
We discovered in 2004 .
It's kind of a problem.
Oh well, here's the thing,Scott, we were first.
We discovered in 2004.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
That's right.
Yeah, you were the first weshould have bought.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
We should have bought .
We should have bought.
We've discovered a few thingson this trip you should have
done.
I don't know if you.
You must be familiar with theshoes, crocs yes.
Yeah, you must be familiar withthe shoes Crocs.
Yes, we discovered Crocs on ourroad trip.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
We were the first ones to find those from
California did you buy stock?
Speaker 2 (39:26):
no, because we thought they were so stupid and
ugly and we're like these aren'tgoing to catch on and they're
still stupid and ugly.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
They're still stupid and ugly, but everyone swears
they're the most comfortableshoe, oh man, yeah, there's a
few things like that a blue moonbeer.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
They're still stupid, ugly, yeah, but man are they
popular, yeah.
Oh man yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
There's a few things like that.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
A Blue Moon beer which became very popular yeah.
We had some of the first sipsof that at Coors Brewery in
Golden, colorado, yeah, and thenSavannah.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
I didn't realize how much of a trailblazers we are.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Did you eat at Mrs Welch when you were here?
Speaker 1 (39:58):
Oh, we sure did.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Yes, we did.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
You'll have to go back.
We have a cliffhanger in ourepisodes because we have not yet
talked enough about Mrs Wilkes.
We keep thinking it's the nextday and then it's the next day
and everybody who tells me, goto Savannah, I'm like let me
tell you a couple of places youhave to eat.
That is, go to Savannah.
(40:21):
I'm like let me tell you acouple of places you have to eat
.
And that is the first one Itell them.
And then I was like, well, showyou a Paula Deen's.
I'm like that's fine, but MrsWilkes is the, that's the place.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
But I will say, when you bring your group of 15, I'm
going to take you to somefabulous African-American
churches that cook an entirebuffet of soul food and little
retired ladies who need a littleextra retirement income.
Cook all the food and you pay10 bucks and you get the best
oxtail smothered, chick turkeywings, um whole bunch of good
(40:47):
stuff.
So we'll, it's.
It's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
We've already this trip is playing.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
It's already happened , it's already happening, it's
booked.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
We just need to get the dates on the calendar and
then they're happening.
So I decided to give.
We're also going to transitionto a defender state um part of
the podcast soon, but I decidedto google or actually chat gbt,
what are the 10 commonstereotypes about the state of
georgia, and I want yourreaction to these as well, as if
you have more that you mightadd.
(41:19):
So these are the 10 that chatgbt, the knower of all things,
said uh, first, southernhospitality, which I mean it
doesn't matter than that, no twosweet tea lovers.
That's a thing that wediscovered in the south, that
you guys guys rot your teethwith sweet tea.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
I will give a caveat to that.
A lot of people are doing halfand half.
And that's true in whiteGeorgia.
In African-American Georgia ittends to be red fruit drink.
When you come to Savannah.
You need to Google around redfruit drink.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Red fruit drink.
It could red drink it'd be.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
There could be anything from tahitian treat to
red kool-aid, but they just justjust red fruit drink in general
.
Okay, I didn't know that sosweet tea is for white folks
predominantly.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
So anyway, there you go okay I didn't know that okay,
okay, um three is the peachobsession, which of course,
georgia peaches.
That's an easy one, hold on.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
Like our blueberries are now better than our peaches.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
The weather's changing, oh really.
So our blueberries are betterthan our peaches Yep.
Interesting.
Regarding peaches, I know thatwell they must.
You must grow a lot of themthere, but do people really, are
they, obsessed with peaches?
I know that you must grow a lotof them there, but do people
really are they obsessed withpeaches?
Or it's just that they're grownand they get exported?
Speaker 1 (42:43):
Good question.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Or is there a lot of peach cobbler at every meal?
Is that really something?
I think?
Speaker 3 (42:48):
there's a lot of peach cobbler in that.
What I've heard this is a rumoris that South Carolinians
believe they make the bestpeaches, grow the best peaches
period and somebody I read onetime that back in the state
legislature wanted to claim tobe the peach state to try to get
that moniker away from SouthCarolina.
Who knows If you draw.
(43:11):
I mean because we actually makemore, grow more blueberries and
more pecans than we do, and inSouth Georgiaia big fat oranges
those things are growing likecrazy just on the georgia
florida border.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
So interesting, yeah, so see it's always interesting,
oh yeah yep, oh yeah so forsure and there's always a reason
behind a lot of that stuffwhich we use.
You claim you don't have asouthern or much of one, and I
agree it's lighter, but everyonewould say, yeah, scott has a
stud, stockley has a southernaccent and um, and we got I
(43:45):
think it was in stidaway islandwhere we had some of your youth
look at us and say you guyssound like newscasters.
And I was like, oh, I neverheard you, ever heard my voice
be called the newscaster voicebefore.
But California is known for itsnon-regional dialect, so I
guess that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:04):
Well, I will have to find every Christmas Again.
We're a very traditional churchWesley Monumental we did the
nine lessons and carols wherethey read the nine lessons, and
there's a woman by the name ofCamille who's in her nineties,
who taught school for 70 yearsand you have never heard Luke
two read better than when shestands up in that perfect,
(44:26):
well-educated,multi-generational Southerner
and when she says when a decreewent out from Caesar Augustus.
It I'm going to see.
The whole room goes silent,just waiting to hear because she
sounds like your grandmotherand your great-grandmother.
That's disappearing.
That southern is disappearing.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
Is it really that bad for all because of Californians
coming in and stuff?
Speaker 3 (44:52):
Which is television and kids are on.
Okay, think about it Kids arespending more time listening to
tick tock than they are.
Listen to their friends, goodpoint.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
That's the same.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
Yeah so they're.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
They're here in the non-regional dialect, so it's
just going away.
That's good.
You're news broadcasting, it'sblending all together.
Yeah, so funny, I had neverthought of our you, scott, but I
did six years in Birmingham.
I did ministry in Hooveroutside of Birmingham and I
(45:24):
discovered the football lovethere.
Like they just looked me in theeye and said do not plan
anything for falls or Saturdaysin the fall.
Speaker 3 (45:33):
Because no one will.
So I'll give you an example Anychurch with a brain, any church
, the first thing they're goingto do is they're going to have
the UGA schedule, because allfootball doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
It's not that football matters, it's Georgia
matters to Georgia.
Speaker 3 (45:48):
The Gamecocks matter to.
South Carolina.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
You know, that's the deal the roll tides, the Gators.
Speaker 3 (45:53):
Exactly.
And so you have to plan worship.
And I swear the choir directorwill ask when the Georgia games
are, because she knows choirmembers are going to come in
hungover or late.
And so I mean they literally.
I mean it affects church, youknow it is.
It is the second religion, soit is.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
Yeah, it is, and I would tell my California, I tell
, tell my friends in Californiaand say they love college
football like we love nothing.
There is nothing I can comparethe passion to that college
football has.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
That doesn't exist here no.
No.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Like there's Laker fans and there's Dodger fans.
Of course there are.
There's millions of them, but Idon't look at the schedule and
go when are the Lakers playingin order to plan that retreat or
that thing.
Not even a thing.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
There's nothing everybody here is unified around
like that.
I'll give you one other quickexample.
Speaker 3 (46:45):
The South Georgia conference.
We have a bishop, we haveeverything the way it's set up
politically in our system.
We had a bishop from Tennesseeand we could never have a
conference without there beingcompetition between the
Tennessee Bishop and the UGAcongregants out front, and it
would always go back and forth.
He'd come out with hisTennessee button on and just
(47:07):
give each other a drink.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
So, yes, football matters.
They know, yes, they know.
So this one Country MusicEnthusiasts was its number six.
Does that feel true anymore?
Speaker 3 (47:20):
I would say no because, first of all, atlanta,
macon, even Savannah, are nowsome of the top rap and hip hop
producers in the country, right,yeah, I mean.
And then when I think of likemedium-sized towns like Augusta,
georgia, macon, milledgeville,madison, athens, they all have
(47:42):
small band like create the kindof bands that Portland used to,
you know what I mean.
Okay, you know those kind ofsmall bands.
They've got good, healthy,local music.
So, yeah, I would say I thinkthat's faded some that's faded
too, I agree.
Slow pace of life, no more laidback, not anymore, right that's
(48:03):
it's hard to find laid backGeorgia, I would say, oh love it
I mean George, conservativepolitics Pretty.
Yeah, that's number nine,Although you know we seem to be
a little purple lately.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
So Right Right, although you know we seem to be
a little purple lately, rightright, things are changing a
little bit.
And then the 10th is one of myfavorites that it popped up with
Love for fried food, that istrue, saw a sign, saw this big
sign that was a foot.
Speaker 3 (48:29):
It was like a foot tall and like eight feet long
tin sign that said if it ain'tfried, it ain't food, and I
wanted to buy it for the kitchen.
It was this big tin thing um,but yeah there's nothing better
than the perfectly fried shrimp,perfectly fried chicken.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
You know you can't beat it.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
it's a.
It's a gift of the gods.
Fried food is a gift of thegods.
When, yeah, when, I moved fromalabama to california, um, I was
expecting everything to costmore, everything to be more
expensive.
And I called about theinsurance.
My health insurance is like$300 a month cheaper and I'm
like what?
This is crazy.
And the insurance person saidwell, let me tell you two things
.
The first thing is the state ofAlabama is locked up with Blue
(49:10):
Cross of Alabama or Blue Shirtof Alabama, so it's a monopoly
there.
So they have the prices.
Okay, I get that.
Number two you're moving fromthe 49th healthiest state to one
of the first healthiest statesBecause all they're eating is
fried food now.
And I was like, okay, that alltracks.
I understand why people arejust a little bit healthier out
here, but boy do I miss the goodold days of, yes, fry that.
Speaker 3 (49:35):
Macaroni and cheese is a vegetable.
Yes, please, and I'm not justsaying that it's a competitive
state, but there is a hugeeconomic development difference
between Georgia and Alabama.
You know there's Well, I knowthat.
There's a huge and again thatleads to all of those.
You know lots of things thatmake health less life less
(49:55):
healthy.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
Well, you also have the Alabama favorite saying of
praise the Lord for Mississippi,so we're not 50th and
everything.
Speaker 3 (50:06):
That is true.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
My mother's family's from Mississippi.
Speaker 3 (50:10):
And they used to tell another joke, which I don't
know whether I can say this on agood Christian thing, but have
you ever know, have you everheard the joke?
Do you know why all the treesin georgia lean west while the
trees in mississippi lean east?
What?
Because alabama sucks.
That's an old football joke.
(50:32):
That's an old football joke, soyou may have to edit that one
out.
Speaker 2 (50:35):
So no, we can do that that stays in, that is good.
Oh man, those are good times.
Speaker 1 (50:42):
Hey Scott thank you so much and, if you're listening
to this, be one of the 15people to come with us to
Savannah summer of 2025.
Boom, there we are.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
Now you're committed.
Speaker 1 (50:52):
We'll see.
I'm in, andrew, I think, as heleans.
No, we have to convince himslowly, but he'll get there.
He always does.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
It's going to be an easy sell, I'll tell you.
Yeah, I wish I were there rightnow.
Speaker 1 (51:06):
I wish I was there right now.
Hey, this has been so much fun.
Thank you so so much for ourtime together.
Speaker 3 (51:11):
I hope we had the conversation you thought we
would so enjoy talking with me.
We so enjoy talking with us.
Speaker 1 (51:15):
We totally, totally had it.
So hello guys, thank you andsee you on the flip side.
Bye, Take care.
Well, there went the turn.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Oh, it couldn't have been.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I came up so fast.
Yeah, you know, 100 yards, notthat far, dang it Detour, detour
, detour, detour, Detour, detour, detour, detour.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Detour, detour, detour.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
With that sound.
It means that you are in adetour, we've come off the road.
We are not reading from thejournal today, but we get to
spend time talking about otherthings, and today it is our
great pleasure to have trackeddown a man who we hold very
fondly in our hearts and closein our minds as the epitome of
(00:48):
Southern hospitality isbasically what I would say.
When I think of Southernhospitality, I think of Scott
Cleveland is here.
So welcome Scott Cleveland tothe Teams of the Road podcast.
Thank you so much for takingtime out of your day in the
midst of a tropical storm to bewith us.
Glad to be here, glad to be withyou, and that's how a Southern
(01:08):
man sounds, and Andrew's heretoo, and so we get to talk
together.
And so, scott, I don't know ifyou have listened to the
episodes, but I'm assumingyou're not, so I'm going to tell
you.
What we remember is we werecoming out of the cold, cold
north, and it was foggy, and wehad just spent the coldest night
(01:29):
in the motorhome that weremember in someone Virginia,
right, andrew?
That's right, yep, and we'redriving to Savannah and we don't
know much about Savannah, butwe pull up to Steadway Island
Methodist Church and it's aWednesday night and you are
there and you are cooking pork,tenderloin and baked apples and
(01:50):
rice pilaf for 200 people, andyou're like come on in help, and
we helped you.
And then, sometime during themeal, they're like it's time for
Scott to sing, and you sang forthe whole crowd to do some,
some hymn or something.
And then, um, we're, we wentout and had drinks with you and
you you're driving aroundSavannah telling us about the
(02:12):
city and how, what, king Georgethe third put the city down on
the river to protect it from theSpanish, and we're just in awe
of all of this.
And then, um, and this is trulylike such a memory that I will
forever remember is you knockingon our door and saying Savannah
is too beautiful a city todrive around the motor home?
(02:33):
Here's my Jeep.
Take this and I want you to seeSavannah's Jeep.
And my first car was a Jeep andit just such an awesome memory.
So do you still have the Jeep?
And it's just such an awesomememory.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
So do you still have the Jeep?
Everyone wants to know.
No, I do not have that.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Jeep.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Oh, first of all, the Jeep was probably 20 years old
when you borrowed it and drovearound in it Maybe so One thing
that the coast is not good toare open air vehicles.
Oh, that was such a greatvehicle so once you get a little
bit of sand and salt and youknow you tend to drive in the
summer with it raining a bitmuch and and the poor jeep
(03:12):
actually gave up the ghost, so II fixed it and kept it, but
when, um, my left foot wentthrough the bottom, went through
the uh, I mean it was it's time.
It's time to give it up, and ithad major repair a few times.
But, um, the good part is is,like you know, when a good
person gives their body forrecycling you know, for organ
(03:35):
donation that jeep was recycledinto, so its spirit is roaming
around out there.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yes, other jeep wranglers, but someone might be
okay.
You know, now I have a pickuptruck, so yeah okay, that jeep
was and it had no doors and noroof and it was a stick shift
and this, like it, was such abeautiful car and still I mean
jeeps are so incredible and sowe got driving around savannah
and that thing was just so cool.
(04:02):
The one problem we had was wedidn't know how to fill it up
with gas, because we stopped andwe called one of our friends
who had a deep rainbow.
We're like where is the gasfill up on this thing?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
And he was like oh, around that whole thing, yeah,
we're like looking underneath,it's the license plate.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Right, it's the license plate, yeah, and he's
like he was like where is it?
And he's like he was like,where is it.
He's like oh, try to flip downthe license plate.
We're like what, yep?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
there, it is, there it was yeah you know, I remember
the best part was somebody inthe church office said the next
day well, you just gave thoseguys your jeep.
How do you know they're goingto come back?
I said I have their rv so yeah,I've got yeah they've got to
come back for their room andboard one day.
Yeah, I left their house theyhave.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, we have their house, you, they just have the
jeep.
Yeah, so, um, again, suchspecial memories for us.
Uh, do you have any things thatwe didn't know?
Like, that part is funny, yeah,you just let these guys drive
away in their jeep.
Um, what do you remember aboutthose days at Skidaway Island?
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Well, one of the reasons that.
So Skidaway.
I think it's funny that you allended up at Skidaway Island
because you got as far as youcould get without hitting a gate
.
So, if people don't know,skidaway Island is one of the
largest gated communities on theEast Coast, so it is nine golf
courses three neighborhoods, allgated communities on the east
coast.
So it is nine golf courses,three neighborhoods, all gated
(05:26):
community.
And one of the challenges ofbeing church is gates and church
often don't go together.
Um, you know it's, and therewas a little bit of a tug of war
over putting a church on anisland with a gated community so
skid away.
Made it a real purpose to be asopen community as possible, and
so one of the ways we did thatwas I wouldn't.
(05:49):
It wasn't me cooking the meals,I was just sort of the chief
cheerleader of about 15 to 20retired folks that every week
did that and the idea was, yes,you could go to the club.
Most people ate lunch at theclub all day long after golf or
whatever, but that was the wayof putting a public face to the
church that we're here and justcome fellowship, come get to
(06:11):
know each other and, being agated community, most of the
people retirees from theNortheast we called a lot of
previously important people pipsbecause, they were all retired
previously.
important people because, theywere all retired previously
important people and they didn'tneed a whole lot.
But what you did find is thatthey did need fellowship and
(06:35):
they did need to be heard andthey did need to find community,
and especially when thingswould go wrong or as you got
older and you couldn't play golfanymore, and there was this
real niche of you know, comejoin us for that.
That was pretty much the simpleof it there was a lot of people
there.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I remember like 200 or so.
Yeah, I think we could seat 265, 270.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
And so that's usually about what they were maxing out
.
And so that's usually aboutwhat they were maxing out.
And it was a great opportunityfor sort of witness and ministry
because you could go play golfwith a buddy and most of these
pips are not going to beinterested in.
Do you want to come to a Biblestudy or whatever else?
You can say hey come to dinnerWednesday night.
How much does it cost Nothing.
(07:21):
Just come for dinner, and thatwas always a great starting
point to just let's share a mealand see where it goes from
there and there was a lot ofgreat a lot of great, a lot of
great stuff that came out ofthat.
Now, that said, jim hiddens, theminister, preaches a great
sermon.
So that was sort of a good wayto bring people in and and
that's why we started doing it.
And so when I moved to savannahin 2000, um, we just said,
(07:42):
let's it a try.
I like cooking for a crowd ofpeople.
It's kind of entertaining.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
So what is this?
Speaker 1 (07:48):
What is this story?
If you wouldn't mind, Likewhere, where were you born?
You just said you moved toSavannah in 2000.
Like, bring us through thequick Scott Cleveland story.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
All right.
So I, I've been UnitedMethodist my whole life, sort of
church as a church background.
In my southern half of myfamily we were all Methodist,
and my northern side which wereGerman, czech kind of folks,
they were United Brethren, whichis an old you know
Lutheran-esque Lutheran spin offpart of the Wesleyan tradition.
So I grew up in the church andgrew up in Atlanta.
(08:21):
when Atlanta was exploding, alot of people would say I don't
have much of a Southern accent,but that's because I mean
Atlanta went from one million tofive million in my 20 years of
growing up, so everybody wasfrom somewhere else.
But I went to college andgraduate school.
I studied economic developmentin college and in graduate
school and in graduate schoolgot to spend time in the West
(08:45):
Indies and Central America some.
And then um in the I went wasin graduate school in the UK
when the UK was not the dynamic,healthy place it is now.
Um, in the early eighties,those Matt Margaret Thatcher
days, there was lots of poverty,lots of displacement, lots of
lots of just urban decay.
You know all these cities nowlike manchester and glasgow and
(09:06):
all those that are justwonderful.
Now we're all in a bad way.
And so through all that, I sortof I, when I look into in the
hindsight I was wanting to gointo the international business
but I came back was sellingchicken um internationally for a
company in Atlanta.
We were selling 40,000containers of chicken and one of
(09:28):
the partner's sons said do youwant to come to my basketball
game or baseball game?
Do you want to come to mybaseball game?
And I did.
And then he said, hey, mychurch youth group is looking
for some adult leaders.
Would you be interested?
And I said, well, let me gomeet and see or whatever.
And I got involved with thisyouth group.
That again everything inAtlanta was growing.
I mean you are halfway good atbeing church.
(09:48):
You open the doors and therewere 3000 people.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
You know a couple of years later.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
And all these little rural churches that Sherman
burnt down during the Civil War,all had 10,000 members.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
You know whether it's Little Baptist.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Little Methodist, so anyway.
So I went and volunteered for alittle while and I'm selling
chicken on the side all over theworld and um, and anyway they
had this big youth group justkept growing and he was.
They were like you know, weneed somebody to help
administrate this, you know, andall of a sudden I never thought
of myself as being called intoministry, but I was definitely
(10:23):
called into ad ministry.
And you know and and that's, and.
So long story short.
They ended up offering me tocome on staff and we started
doing youth ministry.
Then in the early nineties itwas old school youth ministry
when people brought their kidsand we had 350 kids at youth
group and it was huge.
(10:44):
I mean, the church at thatpoint was about 7,000 members.
But I remember I've also cometo the understanding church can
only be so big, because once youget too big then there's no
accountability.
You know nobody misses you.
I know small groups might missyou and that.
But you know the big picture isI've always thought about 12,.
1500 is about the right size ofa church.
(11:05):
You have enough resources butyou don't have too many people
that you lose track, you know.
And so a friend of mine asked meif I'd like to come work as a
church administrator program inmiddle Georgia in a little town
called Jackson, and I said yeah.
And so this lady, that, um,that's dad, sold this is very
Southern for you.
So in the 1920s her dad, um,her dad, sold cotton fields
(11:30):
because um bull weevil wascoming from Alabama and her dad
was smart, so Sarah Bond, that'sher name and her dad's like I'm
going to sell my farm, we'regoing to get rid of this land.
So 1925, 26 coming in there, hesold all his farmland, 1200
acres, and he went and bought alittle stock in the small bank
and the small drink company.
(11:50):
The small drink company wasCoca-Cola and the other was
Trust Company, which y'all beinto the West, but Trust Company
is one of those institutionalbanks of the South and so the
mid-20s her dad.
So she literally told my friendshe goes a if I like him and b
if it's a him.
So she was old school.
(12:11):
You know she was okay yeah, if Ilike him and he's a him I will
pay his salary for the firstyear and if he fails it's on him
.
If he succeeds, I'll take careof the second year.
And so, literally, I said well.
And so we negotiated a salary,went down there and was there
for a decade.
It was fantastic.
That would have been ninetiesin.
(12:32):
That would have been pretty muchthe nineties and the very 2000,
2001,.
Right in there and um we endedup.
It was like.
It was like going back into aNorman Rockwell um suburban
Atlanta had not swallowed it up.
It back into a norman rock clubum suburban atlanta had not
swallowed it up, it was still asmall town with city.
You know cities, you know townhall in the middle and first
(12:55):
baptist is on one side, firstmethodist on the other.
All the kids were either in theband cheerleading or in the
football team, you know wow orthey were the goths that had
their own cool edge, but youwere one of those four.
You know it's like and it was,but it was like it was.
It was old school and it wasfantastic.
It was um.
The church was very involved inthe community, lots of
(13:17):
leadership in the community inthe church, but it was old
school again it was.
It was a very old school kindof church environment and what I
love about that is those kidsare now in their 40s, who have
kids that are six, seven, eightyears old, and I've godfathered
all these tons of kids.
We have relationships.
(13:37):
Those are all held on and peoplewant to come to Savannah, so
it's been a real blessing.
I often think if I had stayedselling chickens I probably
could have made a bunch of money.
I have to say church has notmade me poor.
So you know I'm going to saythat's another end of it.
You know church has been a goodthing, but I think people want
(14:02):
relationship, which is what youguys are sort of building on.
And so in Jackson it wasbuilding long term family
relationships.
About 600 people in the church,everybody knew each other and
two of the more profound thingsthat I learned in Jackson One
was my very first paycheck fromthe church.
This little guy, levi Ball, camein and he was all quiet and he
(14:24):
sat down.
He says I need to give yousomething and, almost like the
Japanese, hand you a businesscard with two hands.
He handed me my paycheck, veryfirst paycheck.
And as I'm about to take it, mrBall, his family owned the mill
.
So you get this.
He's the guy, the treasurer for50 years or whatever.
And I'm like what is it?
(14:48):
And he said I just want you toremember that this paycheck
represents the hard earned moneythat people put in the offering
plate to the glory of God.
And I hope every day you'llwork to live up to that.
Wow, and and I've actually usedthat in front of paid ministers
, I mean, that was that was aprofound, that was a profound
that was a moment.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
That is a profound moment.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
It could have been him coming as a jerk.
I'm the treasurer, I give themost money, blah blah.
But it didn't come that way.
It was literally.
This is hard-earned money, putin that offering plate and you
need to work and live to theglory.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Very reverent yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
And then the other thing was I loved watching how
people that didn't like eachother, disagreed with each other
, had had access to grind for 50years, could put them down
outside the parking lot, comeinto church and be family.
And I think that's one of thethings that sort of saddens me
about the church now is it seemsto be very difficult for people
(15:43):
to disagree, be on oppositesides, even have bad history, I
mean, and I knew people whowould like silly things Like
you'd ask like now why did Tomnot like him?
Well, because he got hisgirlfriend and married her.
You know like maybe that kind ofthing, Like he got his
girlfriend in high school andmarried and they've been angry
at each other for 20 years butthey could come to church, you
(16:06):
know, or I found out you knowone person.
You didn't know but she had anaffair with her husband.
It's like everybody could getyou know.
It's a small town or talk about, you know, bad bank loans that
went off.
He ran against me in schoolboard, all those human things
(16:27):
you know.
But they could walk into churchand you could put all those
things aside, and so I thinkthat reverence for the people
that are the church and theability to to be the church and
not drag the world into it um is, is something that Jackson sort
of showed me, taught me, and Ithink that's why we sort of I
mean, I literally have familythat are friends, friends that
(16:49):
are family that come out of thathole.
Yeah, yeah, that that's, that'sat home, that yeah, so then,
what brought you to savannah?
Speaker 1 (16:56):
how so?
What brought me to?
Speaker 3 (16:58):
savannah is, uh, my friend alice rogers, who was the
minister there, um she umserved candler school of
Theology as our local DukeDivinity School.
Perkins at SMU and then Candlerat Emory are sort of the local
seminaries you know for UnitedMethodist Church.
And so Jim Giddens, who was thepastor at Skidaway, had had a
(17:18):
couple of associates.
In our system you get appointedan associate and so you have to
hope, a the associate has theskill set you need.
B you have to hope they get onwith the existing staff and
pastor.
And C you have to hope theymatch the congregation.
And so all three of those and,as I mentioned, being a gated
community with a lot ofpreviously important people,
(17:39):
skidaway was not an easy placeto light.
And so they had been through twoor three appointed associates
and it was just terrible.
And so Jim just called me upone day and said I want to hire
you to come down here.
What would it cost to move youhere?
And I said I'll be happy tomove down, gave a house and,
like I said, paid well.
But again, jim was brilliant atministry.
(18:02):
What he needed was Was somebodythat would do the ad ministry
you know, and and that was wherewe really leaned into active
missions, active fellowship.
We didn't.
We felt fellowship ran right inthere with preaching the word,
like preaching the word andevangelism need a social
(18:23):
component, a fellowshipcomponent.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
So, we.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
We always thought that serving a meal and being in
ministry all ran together.
Those we had a huge breakfastthat all these men would come to
and there were several retiredladies that would do it.
It was fantastic.
And, um, uh, all along the way,just being at the table always,
um, was an important part ofSkidaway.
Um, there's someone.
There's someone I know in lifewho says ministry is three
(18:47):
things just being at the table,always was an important part of
Skidaway.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
There's someone, there's someone I know in life
who says ministry is threethings telling stories, praying
for people and throwing parties.
And it's like I hear that andwhat you're saying, like there's
just something about gatheringaround, being together, laughing
, having food, without really anintentional, like we are here
(19:09):
to study the book of john rightnow.
You know it's like let's betogether, let's laugh, let's.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Let's a soft place to have pork, tenderloin and baked
apples and rice but anyway,that's so, that's how I ended up
, ended up in savannah and umand and it was.
It was great one of I'll haveto toot my own horn.
We have an award called theDenman Award, which is given for
clergy and lay leadership andevangelism.
(19:34):
And because of church growththat came through that dinner
the National Church gave me theDenman Award, actually helped me
get the um.
So pork loin led to uh, youknow, led to um, to
denominations, um, denman awardfor evangelism and leadership.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
So it that was showing up on that Wednesday was
that the spirit of that nightwas very intentional.
Yes, it was very intentional tobe with people who, people
don't know each other,everyone's welcome, everyone
come as much food as you want,be here, good food, good
(20:17):
fellowship and like becausethat's what we experienced was
just an enjoyable.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Oh, man yeah we did Night meal.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Yeah, felt warm, felt welcomed, and I imagine that so
many other people who justlived there were like, oh, that
was really great just to bethere and that was the deal is,
you'd get to know the communityand the community would get to
know you.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
And one of the things that I thought was powerful is
we never did a Bible study.
We had plenty of Bible studies.
There were Bible studies allthrough the week.
It's retired folks, so youcould have Bible study all week
long, you know.
But what I always foundpowerful is there was usually
music.
Savannah is a very musical city.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
So the Savannah.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Jazz Festival, savannah Music Festival.
There's tons of music inSavannah, and so what we would
find is almost like a medievalbanquet have dinner, have a
little bit of entertainment andthen and then afterwards there
would always be like five or 10minutes Y'all might not remember
a prayer request and that wouldalmost just here in the whole
room, and I would often beamazed at how people like brand
(21:18):
new to the space, like maybethey knew Joey played golf with
or whatever, but you know theyweren't confident.
Long-term members would bestanding up saying you know, my
wife just got news on cancer.
Long-term members would bestanding up saying you know, my
wife just got news on cancer.
You know, my son's in rehab forthe second time, you know, and
and people would share, and Ithink the spirit of the room
made people more comfortable toshare those kinds of things and
(21:45):
I think they felt it was a roomthat would embrace your needs,
your, your, your wants, you know, those things that you're
bringing to the community and toGod and prayer.
I think they felt a little, alittle more warmer reception to
that Um, but it was uh, um, yeah, it was, it was a great place.
And then in um, in 2000 and um,well, I got jumped for that.
So in 2014, 2015, um, we'd hadpastoral leadership change.
(22:09):
I'm sure y'all have beenthrough some of that.
Some churches you've beenaround.
And then I had a couple ofhealth issues that I needed to
work on, so I took a break.
Church can become grueling, asyou probably well know yeah,
it's just nonstop, and I waslike I wanted to do something
different and go back to that.
You know, when I first gotinvolved, like in graduate
school, economic development,the needs of people.
(22:31):
You know, I always think it'simportant that Matthew 25 starts
off with feed my sheep beforewe get to the go, make disciples
of all nations, because I dothink you need to do a little of
that.
And so, through the connectionsof Skid Away Methodist and
through my own getting to knowthe community, as you can tell,
I'm a people person, so yeah, Igot to know Savannah, and that's
(22:56):
where we went out and startedgathering funds.
It's Urban Fix.
I'm gathering funds to helpsenior adults stay in their
houses and then what I was ableto do is become a clearinghouse
for groups that want to come toSavannah to do that kind of work
, and so there's lots ofvolunteer work and over the
course of last decade we havetiny houses that were built for
(23:16):
veterans.
We got involved in FamilyPromise, which is nationwide I'm
sure they're in Orange Countybut we did some transition three
transitional houses for them.
We just worked on a lot of goodhousing projects.
Three transitional houses forthem.
We just worked on a lot of goodhousing projects.
And then I got back involved inthe church organizing missions
for Wesley Monumental, where Iam now.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
So I enjoy getting involved.
Go ahead that missionorganization for the building
thing.
Two questions.
The first is is that somethingyou started then in Savannah by
gathering those resources andputting that all together Okay?
Secondly, could Andrew and Icome out and do a Kings of the
Road mission trip and fix housesin Savannah and eat at Mrs
(23:57):
World's boarding house?
Is that still?
Speaker 3 (23:58):
a possibility.
I mean, here's the deal we dothat, we do that, we do that all
the time.
That's on the table.
Yes, that's on the table.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Matter of fact I had.
We got our plans, andrew.
We know where we're going.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
We had five groups this summer, so we had five
groups come through this summer.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
But yeah, you need to plan ahead.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
But again back to letting you all borrow a Jeep.
One of the things that I reallyenjoy is when people come to
Savannah.
Even I have friends that go toAtlanta or come to middle
Georgia.
You know, I'm just sort ofproud to be a Georgian and I
enjoy telling people what to goeat, what to go see and what to
go do and and yeah that's, andwe enjoy showing off Savannah.
(24:42):
I think Savannah is also asmall enough place that you can
talk about the microcosm of, of,you know, economic challenges,
racial issues you can talk about, you know.
I mean climate change hasbecome very evident in the last
two or three years in SavannahSea level rise, weather change,
there's just lots of you canhave a good, wholesome, hearty
(25:05):
conversation.
You know I might theologicallyand I like the way you mentioned
sort of you need a little bitof adventure, you need to do a
little travel, you need to bringpeople together and I just one
of the reasons I've always had aproblem with sort of the
Christian faith often boils downto me plus Jesus equals heaven
(25:26):
and now we can move on.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Faith often boils down to me plus Jesus equals
heaven and now we can move on,and as a United.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Methodist and John Wesley came to Savannah is that
we always believe that you're ona pathway to perfection and
that perfection only comes atdeath.
And the more we do to love andto serve and to be in fellowship
(25:55):
and to do adventure, like yousaid, the more adventure we have
in our faith, life sort of, thebetter that pathway is.
Now I can slink along thepathway and be perfectly fine
and Jesus will welcome me at theother end.
But if we're on a pathway toperfection, we might as well
make it the most active,glorious adventure in that
pathway, because you only get itonce.
I mean we're mean, we're not weknow we're not going to get this
twice you know so why not makethe most of of the pathway jesus
is calling you on now, you know?
Speaker 2 (26:16):
rather than you know um the knot, so absolutely yeah,
the best way to travel down apath is with a open top jeep,
right is that exactly yeah,exactly, so it's perfect yeah,
and a group of hobbits aroundyou the conclusion of today's
episode, or the is is the jeepis the most holy of all vehicles
(26:41):
is that what we're?
yeah, maybe I draw some oddconclusions from time to time,
but but no, that's great.
I mean for us so much of whatyou said has resonated with kind
of what this trip ended upbeing with.
You know, just going andmeeting new people in different
areas and seeing sort of howthey do church together and
(27:05):
having that aspect of what youguys called your family dinners
and we tried to have familydinners all along the way, Right
and just meeting differentfamily members.
So it was.
It was very cool and great tohear your story and how, how all
of that came to be, and I alsolove just that.
This was never your intention,you know, like I I know Scott,
(27:27):
scott and I knew each other fromhigh school and even from the
time that I met Scott when hewas a sophomore in high school,
he knew he was going to be apastor.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yeah, you know I'm one of those odd ones about like
this is, this has always beenwhere Jesus is, like you're
gonna end up doing ministry whenI was in middle school and so
just stayed focused on that andI've been very grateful for that
.
But I do recognize that I'mlike, oh, I'm the exception here
.
Most people are more likeAndrew or like you, where it's
like four or five differentcareer paths that are kind of
twangled, and also like, oh,this is where I'm getting spit
(27:58):
out to serve in this place andit's been.
It's such a wonderful,wonderful thing to hear and just
to to acknowledge that what wediscovered was exactly what you
were going for was a place tofeel warm, a place to feel
welcomed.
And for us, I, in my mind, justam always comparing our coming
(28:20):
into Boston, where we struggledto find anybody to serve and we
ended up serving at a seafarersmission downtown because there
just weren't, no one was sayingyes to us.
I was calling, calling, calling.
And then the Savannah um, youknow, we serve Stadaway Island.
We served at the Wesleyancenter, um, and we served
another church that we justtalked about downtown.
(28:42):
What was that church, andrew?
Do you have that written down?
I think it was just Christchurch Savannah, maybe, yeah,
written down.
I think it was just christchurch, if I'm not christ church
in savannah maybe yeah yeah, Ithink it's the oldest church in
savannah, is that right?
Speaker 3 (28:52):
it was probably their emmaus house.
Emmaus house is their um, theirservice to the homeless and low
income but we actually hung outtheir youth group.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
We hung out their youth group and played music for
them and stuff.
So, um, but just we found allthese like soft landings and and
it was really the the vision ofthis was saying we don't know
the family we're going to meetyet, but but we're excited about
meeting them.
And so that's why when I, whenI called you know, I just
Googled Steadway Island,methodist and I'm like I'm just
(29:23):
going to see if, if Scott'sstill there, or if I can get in
touch with him from there.
And the woman who answered didnot immediately know you, but
the person behind was like wait,who are we talking to?
And then knew how to get intouch with you.
And I feel like that's the samething that happened when I
called the first time.
Like the secretary is like whatdo you guys want to do?
And you may have been walkingby Scott at that point being
(29:45):
like that's fine, tell him tocome and go from there.
And it's just like it's justthat, that attitude and that
atmosphere of like yeah, let'ssee, let's see what the next
thing is.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
And the next person we meet and the next person we
serve.
So what if I have a fault?
I tend to lean into yes and Iwant you to prove no, rather
than a lot of people lean intono and want you to prove yes.
You know what I mean, yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
You know, I, you know , I get that my soul, Scott.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Hawkins knows exactly what you mean because because I
feel like I'm talking to two ofthe same person right here,
where it's just like oh, Ihadn't even considered
(30:58):
no-transcript.
It was yeah it's such a good.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
It is.
It's so much fun and just thegospel and the opportunity to
spread the gospel in that way.
So what are you doing right nowthen?
What's the current ScottCleveland ministry happening?
Speaker 3 (31:16):
I mean one of the fun things, this is not really
ministry.
Well, I guess it is.
A friend of mine, christianSwales, started a nonprofit
called Code Creation and ourcity has spent a lot of money on
because we have the secondlargest port.
We might beat Lark Beach in thenext couple of years, but we
have an incredibly busy port.
And so they're doing a lot oftech-based entrepreneurial
(31:40):
development, trying to do allthis high-end tech development
for the port, streamline, allthat kind of stuff.
And we decided what wouldhappen if you did a social
incubator?
So in other words, the citywill spend all this money doing
business incubating to make theport a better place.
We have all these intractablesocial issues in Savannah.
What if we created a socialinnovation incubator?
(32:02):
And this is Christian's idea.
What if we created a socialincubator in Savannah that would
help small nonprofits?
Some little grandmother on thewest side of Savannah that says
if I could just do X, y and Z, Icould address this problem, but
(32:24):
she doesn't have either thefunding or the structure or the
skills.
And it's literally using all ofthose asset-based community
development ideas and bringingsmall groups together.
So at Wesley, where I am now,we've had a group for six weeks
that are sort of pitching,almost like you're in Silicon
Valley, pitching nonprofit ideas.
And how could we bring togethercommunity assets to help you
(32:44):
address those issues that yousee?
Awesome, and Andrew, to thatpoint I'm learning to do really
kind.
No, because I mean there aretimes when you say, honey, I
hate to tell you, but there arethree other groups that already
do that.
You know, go join that.
Right, right right.
You see what I mean.
There are times when you sayhoney, I hate to tell you, but
there are three other groupsthat already do that.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
You know, go join that Right right right.
You see what I mean.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
So you know there is but it's been really cool.
It's been a really cool thingthat is cool.
Yeah, it's been a really coolthing, sort of came up and sort
of identified and we help themwith things like board
development.
Um, you know, do you alwaysneed more money?
I mean, all non-profits alwayswant more money is money
necessarily what you need, or doyou need a better board to
(33:23):
connect you, better resources,all that kind of thing?
So so, that's that's sort ofwhat we're.
We've been working on that,which has been a good thing.
So, um, so, no, that's.
That's been a little project westarted and a couple of city
aldermen are interested and whatwe're trying to tell the city
is, rather than throwing moneyat things, why not find people
in the community that that theircommunity is identifying the
(33:45):
issues and they're beginning toidentify a way to address them?
You know, why don't we trustpeople in the field to figure it
out?
So right, that's one of those.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Empower them to do that.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yeah, empower them to do it.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
How big is Savannah?
Speaker 3 (33:59):
savannah, like what's the, what's the population
generally well, the themetropolitan area now is about
300 000 um.
Oh wow, it has doubled in sizesince you came um and and in the
by 2030 we're gonna haveanother 100 000 people because
what's happened is the port'sincredibly busy.
So all this shipping industry,warehousing has come.
(34:22):
And then Hyundai is buildingthe largest electric car plant,
about 10 miles west of.
Savannah, and then the batteryplants and everything that goes
through with that.
And then there's some in Bryanand Liberty counties which are
south of Chatham County.
It's going to end up like it'llbe like South Florida when I'm
an old man.
(34:42):
It's going to look like SouthFlorida.
It's going to be just retirees,no, no, no, just chock-a-block
neighborhoods.
It's all cotton field.
What I mean by Florida.
If you fly over Florida or youfly over parts of California
you'll just see the house afterhouse after house after house.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
That's it, and we're, we're about to be.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
we're about to be at that point shortly, so but so so
insider real estate tip go buyproperty in.
Savannah two years ago.
Is what you're saying Correct?
Okay, correct.
Or you should have bought ahouse.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
You should have bought a house in Malibu in 1950
.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
You know that's right , yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's
so cool.
I mean that that whole ideaabout you know really what it
(35:41):
comes down to, is likeconnecting people and connecting
community, which again is a bigtheme of what, what we did.
But, um, you know, I recall Iwent to business school and I
had this professor who, um, he'sa founder of a restaurant chain
out here called Wahoo's fishtacos and his superpower was
connections and buildingrelationships.
And so they're.
They're kind of a niche sort ofSouthern California fish taco,
surf skate, bmx sort of placeand he would talk about he led a
(36:02):
marketing class and he was likeI don't pay for the furniture
in my stores because I get thesurf brands to put logos of
their athletes on our tables.
We don't pay for cups because Igot my buddy down at this
clothing company to put theirlogos on.
And he just talked about like Iwas the only vendor allowed at
(36:24):
this golf tournament because Ibrought everybody lunch and it
was.
It was like to your point, it'slike it's not about just
raising money and just the hardbusiness of raising capital
doing the thing, but it's theresources are there and if you
connect the resources in theright way, then money kind of
gets out of the equation and youcan just make so much more
(36:46):
happen and it's so much moremeaningful that way.
So what a cool thing thatyou're doing.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
And it's not just me, there's a whole group of people
, but it's Christian Swalesbrought it to our attention and
he's actually working on theprogram.
Great guy Lives downtownSavannah, so our Wesley Monument
, where I am.
If you don't show up with morethan 20 people, we have a
retreat center on the river, onthe Moon River, made famous by
Johnny Mercer, so y'all canalways come down and stay there.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
So we need 20 people less.
He's our spiritual director outthere.
Speaker 3 (37:18):
Well, you could bring 15 with 15, that's fine 15
great we could do that 10 to 15would great yes 10 to 15
listeners.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
We're going to go to savannah 2025.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
We're going to serve the city again.
Fly direct to los angeles, tosavannah oh perfect what
airlines, allegiance or delta.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Oh man, I have to tell you california folks.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
So during covid um, our governor, our governor was
not particularly keen onclothing closing down much, and
so savannah closed for about sixmonths, and when the gates
opened tourism just exploded.
But because, the film industryis so big in Georgia.
Now, if we look out our frontwindow, there are four houses
(38:03):
across the street.
Two are from Los Angeles andone's from New York via Los
Angeles.
So the amount of people thatmoved to Savannah from
California during COVID andafter the number all for the
movie industry.
And another exciting thing thathappened right after COVID is we
had um, our next door neighbor.
(38:24):
They rented their house for 30grand to film a movie.
They rented our driveway forthree grand to rent a movie and
but here's the great part, wegot, um, we got.
Clint Eastwood's last movie wasfilmed in our next door
neighbor's house and I have apicture of Clint Eastwood
sitting under a tent directingthe final scenes.
(38:45):
So I'm going to put a littlemarble thing that says Clint
Eastwood producing ClintEastwood final scene.
Yes, so California's discoveredSavannah.
It's kind of a problem.
Oh well, here's the thing,Scott, we were first.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
We discovered in 2004 .
It's kind of a problem.
Oh well, here's the thing,Scott, we were first.
We discovered in 2004.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
That's right.
Yeah, you were the first weshould have bought.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
We should have bought .
We should have bought.
We've discovered a few thingson this trip you should have
done.
I don't know if you.
You must be familiar with theshoes, crocs yes.
Yeah, you must be familiar withthe shoes Crocs.
Yes, we discovered Crocs on ourroad trip.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
We were the first ones to find those from
California did you buy stock?
Speaker 2 (39:26):
no, because we thought they were so stupid and
ugly and we're like these aren'tgoing to catch on and they're
still stupid and ugly.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
They're still stupid and ugly, but everyone swears
they're the most comfortableshoe, oh man, yeah, there's a
few things like that a blue moonbeer.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
They're still stupid, ugly, yeah, but man are they
popular, yeah.
Oh man yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
There's a few things like that.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
A Blue Moon beer which became very popular yeah.
We had some of the first sipsof that at Coors Brewery in
Golden, colorado, yeah, and thenSavannah.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
I didn't realize how much of a trailblazers we are.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Did you eat at Mrs Welch when you were here?
Speaker 1 (39:58):
Oh, we sure did.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Yes, we did.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
You'll have to go back.
We have a cliffhanger in ourepisodes because we have not yet
talked enough about Mrs Wilkes.
We keep thinking it's the nextday and then it's the next day
and everybody who tells me, goto Savannah, I'm like let me
tell you a couple of places youhave to eat.
That is, go to Savannah.
(40:21):
I'm like let me tell you acouple of places you have to eat
.
And that is the first one Itell them.
And then I was like, well, showyou a Paula Deen's.
I'm like that's fine, but MrsWilkes is the, that's the place.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
But I will say, when you bring your group of 15, I'm
going to take you to somefabulous African-American
churches that cook an entirebuffet of soul food and little
retired ladies who need a littleextra retirement income.
Cook all the food and you pay10 bucks and you get the best
oxtail smothered, chick turkeywings, um whole bunch of good
(40:47):
stuff.
So we'll, it's.
It's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
We've already this trip is playing.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
It's already happened , it's already happening, it's
booked.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
We just need to get the dates on the calendar and
then they're happening.
So I decided to give.
We're also going to transitionto a defender state um part of
the podcast soon, but I decidedto google or actually chat gbt,
what are the 10 commonstereotypes about the state of
georgia, and I want yourreaction to these as well, as if
you have more that you mightadd.
(41:19):
So these are the 10 that chatgbt, the knower of all things,
said uh, first, southernhospitality, which I mean it
doesn't matter than that, no twosweet tea lovers.
That's a thing that wediscovered in the south, that
you guys guys rot your teethwith sweet tea.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
I will give a caveat to that.
A lot of people are doing halfand half.
And that's true in whiteGeorgia.
In African-American Georgia ittends to be red fruit drink.
When you come to Savannah.
You need to Google around redfruit drink.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Red fruit drink.
It could red drink it'd be.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
There could be anything from tahitian treat to
red kool-aid, but they just justjust red fruit drink in general
.
Okay, I didn't know that sosweet tea is for white folks
predominantly.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
So anyway, there you go okay I didn't know that okay,
okay, um three is the peachobsession, which of course,
georgia peaches.
That's an easy one, hold on.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
Like our blueberries are now better than our peaches.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
The weather's changing, oh really.
So our blueberries are betterthan our peaches Yep.
Interesting.
Regarding peaches, I know thatwell they must.
You must grow a lot of themthere, but do people really, are
they, obsessed with peaches?
I know that you must grow a lotof them there, but do people
really are they obsessed withpeaches?
Or it's just that they're grownand they get exported?
Speaker 1 (42:43):
Good question.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Or is there a lot of peach cobbler at every meal?
Is that really something?
I think?
Speaker 3 (42:48):
there's a lot of peach cobbler in that.
What I've heard this is a rumoris that South Carolinians
believe they make the bestpeaches, grow the best peaches
period and somebody I read onetime that back in the state
legislature wanted to claim tobe the peach state to try to get
that moniker away from SouthCarolina.
Who knows If you draw.
(43:11):
I mean because we actually makemore, grow more blueberries and
more pecans than we do, and inSouth Georgiaia big fat oranges
those things are growing likecrazy just on the georgia
florida border.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
So interesting, yeah, so see it's always interesting,
oh yeah yep, oh yeah so forsure and there's always a reason
behind a lot of that stuffwhich we use.
You claim you don't have asouthern or much of one, and I
agree it's lighter, but everyonewould say, yeah, scott has a
stud, stockley has a southernaccent and um, and we got I
(43:45):
think it was in stidaway islandwhere we had some of your youth
look at us and say you guyssound like newscasters.
And I was like, oh, I neverheard you, ever heard my voice
be called the newscaster voicebefore.
But California is known for itsnon-regional dialect, so I
guess that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:04):
Well, I will have to find every Christmas Again.
We're a very traditional churchWesley Monumental we did the
nine lessons and carols wherethey read the nine lessons, and
there's a woman by the name ofCamille who's in her nineties,
who taught school for 70 yearsand you have never heard Luke
two read better than when shestands up in that perfect,
(44:26):
well-educated,multi-generational Southerner
and when she says when a decreewent out from Caesar Augustus.
It I'm going to see.
The whole room goes silent,just waiting to hear because she
sounds like your grandmotherand your great-grandmother.
That's disappearing.
That southern is disappearing.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
Is it really that bad for all because of Californians
coming in and stuff?
Speaker 3 (44:52):
Which is television and kids are on.
Okay, think about it Kids arespending more time listening to
tick tock than they are.
Listen to their friends, goodpoint.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
That's the same.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
Yeah so they're.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
They're here in the non-regional dialect, so it's
just going away.
That's good.
You're news broadcasting, it'sblending all together.
Yeah, so funny, I had neverthought of our you, scott, but I
did six years in Birmingham.
I did ministry in Hooveroutside of Birmingham and I
(45:24):
discovered the football lovethere.
Like they just looked me in theeye and said do not plan
anything for falls or Saturdaysin the fall.
Speaker 3 (45:33):
Because no one will.
So I'll give you an example Anychurch with a brain, any church
, the first thing they're goingto do is they're going to have
the UGA schedule, because allfootball doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
It's not that football matters, it's Georgia
matters to Georgia.
Speaker 3 (45:48):
The Gamecocks matter to.
South Carolina.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
You know, that's the deal the roll tides, the Gators.
Speaker 3 (45:53):
Exactly.
And so you have to plan worship.
And I swear the choir directorwill ask when the Georgia games
are, because she knows choirmembers are going to come in
hungover or late.
And so I mean they literally.
I mean it affects church, youknow it is.
It is the second religion, soit is.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
Yeah, it is, and I would tell my California, I tell
, tell my friends in Californiaand say they love college
football like we love nothing.
There is nothing I can comparethe passion to that college
football has.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
That doesn't exist here no.
No.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Like there's Laker fans and there's Dodger fans.
Of course there are.
There's millions of them, but Idon't look at the schedule and
go when are the Lakers playingin order to plan that retreat or
that thing.
Not even a thing.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
There's nothing everybody here is unified around
like that.
I'll give you one other quickexample.
Speaker 3 (46:45):
The South Georgia conference.
We have a bishop, we haveeverything the way it's set up
politically in our system.
We had a bishop from Tennesseeand we could never have a
conference without there beingcompetition between the
Tennessee Bishop and the UGAcongregants out front, and it
would always go back and forth.
He'd come out with hisTennessee button on and just
(47:07):
give each other a drink.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
So, yes, football matters.
They know, yes, they know.
So this one Country MusicEnthusiasts was its number six.
Does that feel true anymore?
Speaker 3 (47:20):
I would say no because, first of all, atlanta,
macon, even Savannah, are nowsome of the top rap and hip hop
producers in the country, right,yeah, I mean.
And then when I think of likemedium-sized towns like Augusta,
georgia, macon, milledgeville,madison, athens, they all have
(47:42):
small band like create the kindof bands that Portland used to,
you know what I mean.
Okay, you know those kind ofsmall bands.
They've got good, healthy,local music.
So, yeah, I would say I thinkthat's faded some that's faded
too, I agree.
Slow pace of life, no more laidback, not anymore, right that's
(48:03):
it's hard to find laid backGeorgia, I would say, oh love it
I mean George, conservativepolitics Pretty.
Yeah, that's number nine,Although you know we seem to be
a little purple lately.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
So Right Right, although you know we seem to be
a little purple lately, rightright, things are changing a
little bit.
And then the 10th is one of myfavorites that it popped up with
Love for fried food, that istrue, saw a sign, saw this big
sign that was a foot.
Speaker 3 (48:29):
It was like a foot tall and like eight feet long
tin sign that said if it ain'tfried, it ain't food, and I
wanted to buy it for the kitchen.
It was this big tin thing um,but yeah there's nothing better
than the perfectly fried shrimp,perfectly fried chicken.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
You know you can't beat it.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
it's a.
It's a gift of the gods.
Fried food is a gift of thegods.
When, yeah, when, I moved fromalabama to california, um, I was
expecting everything to costmore, everything to be more
expensive.
And I called about theinsurance.
My health insurance is like$300 a month cheaper and I'm
like what?
This is crazy.
And the insurance person saidwell, let me tell you two things
.
The first thing is the state ofAlabama is locked up with Blue
(49:10):
Cross of Alabama or Blue Shirtof Alabama, so it's a monopoly
there.
So they have the prices.
Okay, I get that.
Number two you're moving fromthe 49th healthiest state to one
of the first healthiest statesBecause all they're eating is
fried food now.
And I was like, okay, that alltracks.
I understand why people arejust a little bit healthier out
here, but boy do I miss the goodold days of, yes, fry that.
Speaker 3 (49:35):
Macaroni and cheese is a vegetable.
Yes, please, and I'm not justsaying that it's a competitive
state, but there is a hugeeconomic development difference
between Georgia and Alabama.
You know there's Well, I knowthat.
There's a huge and again thatleads to all of those.
You know lots of things thatmake health less life less
(49:55):
healthy.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
Well, you also have the Alabama favorite saying of
praise the Lord for Mississippi,so we're not 50th and
everything.
Speaker 3 (50:06):
That is true.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
My mother's family's from Mississippi.
Speaker 3 (50:10):
And they used to tell another joke, which I don't
know whether I can say this on agood Christian thing, but have
you ever know, have you everheard the joke?
Do you know why all the treesin georgia lean west while the
trees in mississippi lean east?
What?
Because alabama sucks.
That's an old football joke.
(50:32):
That's an old football joke, soyou may have to edit that one
out.
Speaker 2 (50:35):
So no, we can do that that stays in, that is good.
Oh man, those are good times.
Speaker 1 (50:42):
Hey Scott thank you so much and, if you're listening
to this, be one of the 15people to come with us to
Savannah summer of 2025.
Boom, there we are.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
Now you're committed.
Speaker 1 (50:52):
We'll see.
I'm in, andrew, I think, as heleans.
No, we have to convince himslowly, but he'll get there.
He always does.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
It's going to be an easy sell, I'll tell you.
Yeah, I wish I were there rightnow.
Speaker 1 (51:06):
I wish I was there right now.
Hey, this has been so much fun.
Thank you so so much for ourtime together.
Speaker 3 (51:11):
I hope we had the conversation you thought we
would so enjoy talking with me.
We so enjoy talking with us.
Speaker 1 (51:15):
We totally, totally had it.
So hello guys, thank you andsee you on the flip side.
Bye, Take care.
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