May 6, 2024 • 49 mins
Have you heard about a Christian fight club? We discuss this and more with special guest Lee Anstead.
Intro music by Upstate - How Far We Can Go
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right.
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen,to the MC Squared podcast.
This is episode 25.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Okay, episode 25.
Thank you, Drew.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Yeah, there we go.
It's been a little while.
So we've got a special episodetonight, got a special guest
friend of ours, both Jimmy andme, that's me of ours, both
Jimmy and me, that's me.
So it's kind of weird.
We've got a little bit of adifferent setup here tonight.
We changed our tables no onecares.
We got different cameras at usAgain, no one cares, but it is
(00:35):
throwing me off my game just alittle bit.
But yeah what game is exactlyright?
So okay, so I'm Andrew McNeil.
This is Jimmy McKenna, asalways, and tonight we are
joined with a friend of mine anda friend of Jimmy's, mr Lee
Anstead.
Hello, everybody, all right.
So I think Jimmy's going totalk most of tonight.
(00:59):
I don't know.
No, no, please don't turn off.
Just kidding.
So I thought what I would do isstart out with a little bit of
how I got to know Lee, and it'sa pretty cool story.
So Andrea and I hosted a smallgroup for a while at another
(01:21):
church the one we're going tonow and it was struggling and it
wasn't my fault.
It was probably my wife's whowon't watch this show.
No, actually it was just wewere starting and we had like
three people and it was justreally struggling.
So we were reaching a pointwhere we were deciding whether
we're gonna close it down.
You always have that.
(01:43):
You feel like God called you todo something.
But now we're reaching a pointwhere we're either going to
close this thing down or we'llgive it another shot.
And the church we were going toat the time had a meeting where
they said hey, we got a bunch offolks who may want to join a
small group.
So any of these, you know theydidn't say struggling, but you
know, if you're open to addingpeople, why don't you come to
this meeting?
And it was actually kind ofbrutal because what they did was
(02:06):
they would have the hosts, whowere desperate for people, go
stand out in the hallway.
You remember this?
I do Go stand out in thehallway and it was kind of like
a speed dating kind of thing.
And what was terrible was and Inever really asked Lee whether
or not they stayed with ourgroup because they felt sorry
for us.
Yeah, I thought it probably was,but you literally could just, I
(02:29):
mean, it was such a vulnerablespot to get rejected, I mean to
have people go.
Yeah, that was niceconversation.
I think I'm going to move on.
So Lee and his beautiful wifeSusan came out and they came
right up to us and they talkedwith us and they stayed with us,
thank God, because it was sucha blessing getting to know you
(02:54):
guys and we'd gone to the samechurch for a while never seen
you ever, absolutely.
So joined our small group hugeasset to it both of you were and
it actually grew.
We had, I don't know, 10 people, maybe at one point 10 to 12?
Yeah, and it was great becauseit was right before COVID and so
the church shut down, but wedidn't and we were able to keep
(03:16):
meeting on Sunday.
And we had great times breakfastpitch in breakfast on Sunday
mornings, and then we'd worshipand stuff, and I kind of missed
that.
Honestly, we wouldn't have shutdown if we didn't have.
We left, went to a differentchurch and a lot of folks wanted
to keep going, but I just feltlike it probably wasn't
appropriate to do that.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You know so, but anyway, that's how and we've
been friends ever since and wehave yeah, and my point of view
is that same thing, because weled a small group, a couple of
them, and they, since the peopleleft, and stuff, and we didn't
know what we were going to do.
Yeah, so we went to thatmeeting there at that church
saying, are we going to lead,are we going to join one?
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Oh, that's right.
They were given that option,weren't they?
And Susan and I was like Idon't know and we don't know
which way to go.
Like I don't know, we don'tknow which way to go and we met
Andrew and Andrea and we're like, okay, we'll go to their house.
Let them lead, and it was agood fit.
It was a good fit, it was youguys were a huge blessing.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, that's awesome it is, and I met Lee back.
I don't know, many years ago,many years ago, jimmy.
So I was going to CalvaryTemple, clinton, clinton, and we
were in a ministry classtogether.
Wow yeah, so we did a ministryclass together.
I think we were probably onabout the same path.
This was.
I have a really good idea it's2011, because when my son was
(04:34):
born in 2012,.
That's when we stopped ministryclass, and so you probably
finished in 2012.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
You're an ordained minister, aren't you Not
ordained minister?
Aren't you not ordained?
I have my card that I can marryand bury and go into the
hospital that is good to knowthat's cool.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, if you ever need to be buried, I can do the
job.
And that was all from thatclass.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Pastor Sonny's class and I still carry my card and
stuff.
So yeah worked a couplefunerals here recently and still
some preaching on the side andstuff.
So yeah, it's been exciting andI've known Jimmy since that
time.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, I remember one of the times that we kind of
were together, that one time inclass is when that was big there
teaching on theophasticministry, and I do remember that
and that was a pretty amazingtime Okay, so I feel like I'm
fairly familiar with the Biblein terms.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
I have never heard of that Theophostic, theophostic.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Ministries.
What does that mean?
So it's shedding light intodark places.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
So you've probably it's called other things
Essentially Well so break theword down, because Theo is what
Theos, it's God right.
Yeah, and theophostic BecauseTheo is what Theos, it's God
right.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, yeah.
And fostic is light.
Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, okay.
So shining God's light in darkplaces.
I got away from my mic therefor a second, but yeah,
essentially you pray withsomebody through past history.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Oh, okay, gotcha, yeah, and you shine God's.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
You speak God's truth into it and there's been some
amazing things come out of itand it gets beat up all over the
place sometimes so we wouldcall that inner healing.
I think it would be called that.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Yes, I think so too.
And also you're taking thatperson back to where the enemy
planted their root and pullingthat root out of there, getting
it out, and say come on, dude,that's important isn't it.
Yes, Jesus was here, rightthere at that time.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
So yeah, and we like practiced on each other.
We did, I remember doing that.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
That explains a few things, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
We stopped halfway through.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
That's why I laughed.
But it was so cool because Iknow Jimmy was there that night.
I used to drive a semi in myprevious life and I came in and
I hurt my back in two places.
I just hurt my back and Sonnywas teaching and stuff and he
asked me a question.
I couldn't concentrate and Isaid, sonny, if you're willing
(06:59):
and the Lord's willing, I said Ineed healing right now and
Sonny's like well, absolutely.
So we all gathered around andthey laid hands on my back and
Sonny started praying and stuffand I'm crying out to Jesus and
stuff.
And we got done about threeminutes.
He goes how are you?
And I said not good.
I said I could hardly breatheand he said well, let's keep on
praying.
(07:19):
So we kept on praying and Itell you what time that class
was over.
I was healed.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
I was healed.
Yeah, praise the.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Lord.
But I got up early the nextmorning and I was on my way to
Tennessee I remember it like itwas yesterday and I stopped down
at the Love's Truck Stop downthere in Hopstot and got my
coffee and went to the restroom,come out and there was a guy
with a cane.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
There was a guy with a cane walking.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I said hey, buddy, I said you okay, and he said no,
I'm getting ready to havesurgery.
This guy's like all right, man,I'll pray for you Took off,
missed a blessing, missedhealing, you know, because I
just got healed and I justmissed an opportunity to glorify
the Lord and it's just likegosh.
But like you said, that was2012, 2011.
(08:05):
I remember like never forget it, you don't.
But since then, but since then,I've stepped out of my comfort
zone a lot.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
That's awesome yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
That's awesome.
I love that.
I love the fact that you feltlike you missed an opportunity.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah, absolutely, but what it's?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
done is changed your outlook on every other
opportunity past that Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
So was that opportunity really missed?
Speaker 2 (08:27):
I don't even know.
I would say it set you on apath.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
It set me on a path to realize that it's not me,
that it's the Lord workingthrough me.
That's right, and I think thatwe have to be aware of the
Spirit when it's moving and justjump in.
Yeah, it don't matter whathappens.
I should have prayed for thatguy and if he would have got
healed that day or that surgerywould have went you know
whatever, yeah, and that'sbetween him and the Lord, right?
But yeah, it was, it wasprofound, it really was.
(08:59):
So yeah, that's how we got toknow each other, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Well back, all right, so we've got.
So we've got a segment comingup.
We're not doing it yet becausewe always have to take a break.
Folks don't actually know this.
We take a break, and the reasonis because our camera basically
will burn up at 20 minutes andapparently this is something
that happens a lot, except forour phones, so the live feed
(09:22):
will continue.
This is something that happensa lot, except for our phones, so
the live feed will continue.
If you're watching this onYouTube, after the fact which of
course it will there'll be abreak and then, you know, edit
it out.
You won't notice anything.
But later on we're going totalk about a ministry that
you're involved in, somethingthat you guys have some in
common.
Also, from a while back.
We're going to talk about someawesome things the Lord's doing
(09:44):
and then maybe end with a reallygood focus of what God's doing
here in the community.
Amen.
This podcast is going to go outon election day, which is kind
of crazy.
That's awesome, yeah.
So if you're watching this, thepolls will probably Well, no, I
guess it'd be in the morning.
So it'll be during election day, which is kind of appropriate
(10:07):
because we talk a lot ofpolitics here on the show.
As you guys know, I lovepolitics Jimmy not so much, and
Lee probably even less.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Even less.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
So it's a very, very.
It's a crazy little thing thatI care about, but the reality is
we all should care about it inthe sense that we want and we
need godly leaders, andgovernment does matter, and
matters way too much, actually,where it is right now and I
don't know if you guys have seenthe news or not, but our
(10:39):
universities all across thecountry are in an absolute
uproar and they may be funneledin a lot of paid protesters.
Definitely there's agitatorsbehind the scenes, no doubt
about it.
I saw a graph on X that had.
This is crazy.
They have over 1,100 of thedevices given out at the border
(11:05):
were at those college campusesduring those riots.
So that's not a huge percentageof the people, because we've had
millions pour across thatborder this year, but that means
that they're-.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
It's a pretty long way too from the Right, and it's
all over the country.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
So it's a spewing of anti-Israel, anti-jewish hatred
which we never thought we wouldsee in America.
It is like the beginning ofNazi Germany, and I think there
are some folks that are takingthis seriously, and I don't know
if we're taking it seriouslyenough in the church, because
these are the beginning waves ofa country that's getting ready
(11:43):
to be destroyed.
I mean, we have people pouringover our borders.
We're not even keeping track ofthem.
We don't know who they are.
They're not just Mexicanstrying to find a better life.
I mean, that passed a long timeago.
We're getting people from allover the world across that
southern border.
Our universities are anabsolute, absolute mess.
Columbia shut down for the year.
(12:05):
Most of the teachers andprofessors were in solidarity
with with the, the rioters Ithink it was either Columbia or
I think it was Columbia was oneof them where the students this
is a riot, I'm this literallytook over one of the buildings.
Did you see this?
No, I didn't see it.
They had gone it.
I should have looked.
(12:26):
I believe it was.
Yeah, oh yeah, literally aninsurrection.
They took over the building andthen their spokeswoman was
demanding that the school bringthem food and water.
Do you remember that?
Did you hear that?
Oh my gosh.
And the reporter was like solet me get this straight.
Basically, you just are likeyou took over this building.
(12:49):
You're basically a revolution.
You're starting a revolutionand then you're wanting them to
bring you food and water.
Delusion, and it was just ablank look and then she was like
well, yes, because this couldbe a human crisis.
This is the very basic of humanneeds that we need.
We water.
We don't want people, you know,she said, dying of thirst here
(13:09):
falling over and dying of thirst, and he's like well, did they
shut the water off to thebuilding?
I mean what is going on here?
So, with all that said, todaythat we're recording is also the
National Day of Prayer.
I put a little post out onFacebook.
I don't normally do that.
I have a blog that I try to do.
(13:34):
If I have anything to say, Itry to do it there.
Facebook has just become awfulto me.
In my opinion.
The app is destroyed, but aswe're live, we're just throwing
it at him, absolutely.
But to me, if you look at Danielin the Bible, he is the picture
to me of what prayer should beon a national day of prayer.
And if you'll read where Danielunderstands from prophecy that
(13:59):
the 70 years of exile, that theIsraelites had been exiled from
Jerusalem because of their sin,he was recognizing that time
frame was up and that there wasa possibility of coming back
into the land of Israel.
He starts out with justreciting to God the sins that
(14:19):
they had committed as a people,reciting to God the sins of what
got them where they were, whythey were, and then ascribing
the goodness of God that, eventhough they were judged, that
they were still preserved andthat God said there was only a
70-year period on it.
And it leads into just thisbeautiful prayer of repentance
(14:41):
and then asking the Lord tohonor His Word and to have mercy
on them and to restore themonce again.
And honestly, my heart has been.
I've been to a lot of NationalDay of Prayer events and I love
them, I appreciate them.
There's been so many.
City Hall had one today.
They've had one every year fordecades.
Too often.
(15:03):
And then I said this it's ageneral criticism, because I
appreciate people praying, buttoo often there is almost no
repentance and the prayers areLord, bless us, lord bless us,
lord bless us, which, yeah, weneed it Absolutely.
We need the Lord's protection,his favor, but we don't deserve
it.
We've not done anything in thiscountry to deserve the favor of
(15:26):
the Lord, and so an attitude ofrepentance and ascribing,
taking on the guilt of thenation if you were Lord.
We've shed innocent blood, lord.
We have condoned sexualperversion all throughout the
land.
We've incited rebellion againstGod.
In our churches We've incitedrebellion.
So there's a lot of ways I feellike that is the move that's
(15:48):
coming.
I don't think this is a voicecrying in the wilderness
necessarily.
I think there is a groundswelland I think that's kind of what
I'd like to get into later withwhat we're going to talk about.
God's doing somethingunderneath the surface that
maybe we aren't seeingnecessarily on the news with the
universities blowing up or oursocial media feeds where
(16:08):
everything's bad it is, but Ithink God is doing something
underneath the surface and sowhen we come back, we're going
to take a little break,especially for the live feed.
When we come back, we willhopefully get right into that.
Sounds great.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
That's good, all right, feed.
When we come back we willhopefully get right into that.
Sounds great, that's good, allright.
Hey, welcome back everybody.
Like we said, we're going totalk to Lee about a men's
ministry that he's been a partof and he's got some notes here.
I mean, I feel like this isreally laid out well and I was a
part of it too at one time.
But I'll let Lee kind of talkabout it a little bit.
It's called Fight Club, kind ofgive the explanation of it and
(16:46):
then talk about what it's doingand what it's doing for men.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Yeah, absolutely First rule about Fight Club you
can't talk about Fat Club.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Interview's over.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
We're done.
Shut it down, baby.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
So yeah, I have been part of Fight Club here in Terre
Haute for about two and a halfyears now and we're on week
seven of a 10-week journey.
And what Fight Club is?
It's a ministry for men, by mento reach men.
I got tired of being in ourchurch every Sunday, it doesn't
matter what church it is, itdoesn't matter what church it is
(17:19):
, but you see men leaving,coming and going and getting out
of church as fast as they canand you're like man.
That's very uncomfortable forme, you know, and I like talking
to people, I like getting in,figuring out who they are and
what their mission is, and I'mlike so I was searching for
(17:40):
something, okay, for somethingokay.
So fight club is a 10-weekjourney where men are required
to complete weekly challengeswithin a text of a squad,
community or brotherhood and umand also accountability triad.
So okay, explain those.
So I will.
So 10, so your um community, wecall it, we call it a region.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Terre.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Haute has a region.
Right now we have 63 men inTerre.
Haute doing this round of FightClub.
Okay, so we break down insquads.
We have five squads at threedifferent locations and we meet
weekly as our squads Okay.
And then twice the round, threetimes around, at least two or
three times around we meet asthe region Okay, gotcha.
(18:24):
So last Saturday we met atmaryland community church.
There at 46 campus, we had most, everybody made it.
We had about 50 men there, allright, and uh, we worship
together, we pray together, wedo some physical activities
together and, um, we heard avery, very powerful devotion,
very powerful devotion, and thenat the end of it, one of the
requirements for going throughFight Club is you have to pray
(18:45):
for a stranger.
Oh, wow so I said all right,people you don't know get
together and pray with eachother.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
So that was pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
So we completed one.
So that is a squad.
So you have a squad.
It's eight to 12 guys to meetweekly.
We're going through a book,we're going through scripture.
There's challenges physicalchallenge, mental challenge and
then inside of your squad youhave an accountability group, a
triad.
So you have two other brothersthat you're accountable to and
(19:14):
we got tough questions.
You know and we need to knowwhat trips you up and they need
to know what trips you up andyou're accountable to that.
That's awesome.
And there's certain challengeswhen you go through your 10
weeks that are strikeable too.
Like one week was fast food.
You couldn't have any fast foodfor a week.
I struck out on that one.
I took a strike.
(19:35):
I got a 16-year-old daughterthat plays softball.
We had four games that week andI'm like, okay, what are we
going to do?
And there's times that Susanand I don't eat until 10 o'clock
at night and you're like I'mnot going to make anything.
So I called my accountabilitytribe, I said, hey guys, I'm
taking a strike.
You know I just did.
And so during Fight Clubthere's four areas that a man
(19:56):
works on himself.
That's the spiritual side, andyou've got your relational side.
You have your mental side andyou have your physical side.
And every Sunday morning we geta message on Mighty Networks
from our Fair Warrior groupwe're attached to.
(20:16):
We are actually the Terre Hauteregion is umbrellaed under the
Fair Warrior group out of Carmel, okay, and we have 600, almost
600 men going through fight clubright now at this time in the
state of Indiana.
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
And so every Sunday morning weget our challenges and what
we're going to work on and wejust go pick up and go for the
(20:39):
week through that.
The spiritual is the book ofProverbs, whatever the day is.
That's a chapter you read.
For anybody that's alreadygraduated through fight club
they have extra reading.
Ours is James this time.
So we're in the book of James,studying that, reading that,
journaling that your mental.
We're reading a book this timecalled the men we need.
(21:02):
It's been a very interesting,encouraging book.
Um, it really has.
The author of the book is a?
Um flute player and he teachesit and stuff.
So it's not your manly man yeahit's, it's very apical to
everyday life.
It really is it is and how heleads his family and his family
(21:24):
looks up to him.
His family, um, lets him leadthe household.
They can't wait to get homebecause they're encouraged to be
by dad and stuff like you guys,like how you guys lead your
family.
And then you have a mental.
That's mental.
You have your physical side,which is this is I lack in this
area, but there's a lot ofpushups, there's a lot of
burpees, there's a lot ofrunning and stuff, but that's
(21:47):
just trying to get you in abetter shape to fight.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
And I think all of those are important together,
don't you?
Speaker 3 (21:54):
They are, they are and how it's laid out.
It really comes together good,it's very motivational too.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
The physical part.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Because some of that stuff's really hard.
It is really hard.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
But when you know that you're accountable to a
couple other guys or anybody inthe squad and you and you look
at some of the guys.
You're like if old boy can do apush-up.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
I better be getting some push-ups done.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
I remember pull-ups were tough yes, well, we don't
have any pull-ups.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
You don't pull-ups, we didn't pull-ups, we don't
have any pull-ups it was likeone one a day or something, but
that was enough, and then, andthen your relational side too.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
so talk about that.
What does that mean?
So the relational side is youhave certain challenges that you
do at home.
A lot of our men areuncomfortable, for whatever
reason, for cooking for theirfamily and they have to take
pictures of it and they have tosubmit it to.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Is this before they burn it or after?
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Whatever it looks like, you know, whatever it
looks like You're going to havefun with it, and some of it is
cooking with your family,getting them involved.
Yeah, and then some of it.
This is a big struggle for men,too.
A person that you had contactwith in the past that maybe you
don't have any longer reach outto them and tell them why you
(23:02):
find value in them?
Oh, wow, that's big yeah that'sreally big.
So I got an opportunity to dothat with the guy that led me to
the Lord and we haven't talked,sit down and talked and shared
a cup of coffee for about twoyears two and a half years and I
sent him a video text and toldhim what I thought of him and
(23:22):
what the Lord's doing, becausehe said a prayer over me one day
in a parking lot.
So yeah, so that was pretty cool.
I bet that probably blessed hissocks off.
It did, it did, and since thenwe've reached out a couple,
three times yeah and and um.
So that is cool.
And then also, every thebeginning of every round of
(23:43):
fight club you have to writeyour letter why, why are you
doing fight club this?
That's right.
And you have to read it to yourfamily.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Oh, that's good.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Yeah, so they know up front.
And it's so cool to me becausesome of these guys get caught up
in working and working andworking and they miss an
opportunity with family.
They don't realize howimportant it is until it's gone
Right.
But getting them involved, Ihave, like I said, we've got
(24:14):
five squads, so we've got 10leaders and one guy.
This is his third round.
He got his family involvedright from the get-go and he has
three kids and his wife andwhatever physical challenges he
has, they're involved in it tooand they do push-ups together.
They do set-ups together,whatever it is running, they do
(24:37):
their mile together and stuff.
So he's actually buildingfuture Fight Club guys.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
That's awesome.
All right, so tell us a littleabout where Fight Club came from
, Lee.
Where was it started?
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Fight Club was started in the late 80s, early
90s up in Goshen, indiana, byPastor Jim Brown and he wanted
something more for his men thanjust the breakfast and barbecue
once a year.
And so he came off.
He sought the Lord and the Lordled him to Nehemiah 4.14.
(25:10):
It's where the scripture versefor Fight Club is, and much was
what Andrew was talking aboutearlier, about when the Lord
embarked on Nehemiah to go backto Jerusalem and rebuild the
city, he wept.
He wept because his country wasstill in shambles and I don't
think men weep enough for thesins of our country.
(25:32):
We just don't.
We say we're sorry, we ask theLord for forgiveness and we move
on with our day.
And this was.
He was passionate about whatthe Lord wanted him to do.
So he went back to Jerusalem andthey were rebuilding the wall
and of course opposition cameagainst him.
You know your enemies come,trip you up and Nehemiah got
(25:54):
tired of the grumbling of hismen.
He really did and he stood up.
Nehemiah 4.14 says he stood up.
He said to the nobles, he saidto the scribes, he said to
everybody else he said rememberyour God, who is awesome and
great, and fight.
Fight for your families, Fightfor your wives, fight for your
sons, your daughters and yourfamilies, and that's what this
came about from.
(26:15):
Oh, very good.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
So you're fighting.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
So you're not fighting each other.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
No, we're not fighting each other.
You're fighting for yourfamilies and for the community.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Okay, For the, for the brotherhood of the churches.
Yeah yeah, we have six churchesrepresented in this round of
Fight Club, with 65 guys.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
I think that's real key too, like when you were
explaining to it at thebeginning about all these
different guys that are in it.
These are not just a bunch ofguys that go to one church.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
No, it's not.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
And I think that's where you see so much fruit from
a guy's perspective, becausesometimes you get really used to
the guys that you hang out withand the guys that you know, but
then when you see some otherchurch over here and you're like
man, and I think that's one ofthe things about Fight Club that
some pastors are afraid of yeah, it is Is they're afraid of
losing guys to another church.
They are, and that's insecurity, man.
(27:05):
It is At its finest, because ifyou build those men in your
church to be the men thatthey're supposed to be, you're
going to have a stronger church,absolutely you are.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
And I tell them and I ask the pastor if we can come
in, like in between fight clubs,the rounds of fight clubs we
have one in the spring, one inthe fall and I go to them and
say can we sit up in your foyeror whatever and meet the guys?
And they're like, yeah, okay,because I know some of the
pastors of the church that weget involved with and I tell
those pastors I said this ain'tabout us stealing your men, it's
(27:38):
about the men getting involvedin the church, because there's
requirements they have to do.
They have to tie the lease forthe 10 weeks they have to
volunteer somewhere in thechurch during the round of fight
club.
They have to be accountable tothe pastor of whatever church
they're a part of.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
So that is really cool to see that it really is, I
tell you when I first started.
So I'll tell you about my storywith it.
We just moved to a church andit was the first service, maybe
the second service they promotedFight Club.
It was actually Tim Mink'schurch, and so they promoted it
and I said, you know, I'd liketo do that, because going into a
(28:15):
church as a guy it's reallyeasy to kind of sit back and
just let everything, leteverybody else get involved, but
you stay back yourself and wedid the whole thing.
We met at midnight.
I went out there with it wasprobably eight to ten guys and I
went out there with it wasprobably eight to 10 guys and we
started at midnight on a Friday.
And I'll tell you what it's likebreaking the ice with a bunch
(28:36):
of guys, and these are, honestly, that's where I saw so much
fruit, is where the shells came,like the outer layer that these
guys had came off.
Because when you know you havethis group and that's a question
I want to ask you in a secondwhen you know you have this
group of men that, for one, aregoing through the same stuff
that you're going through,having the same thoughts, having
(28:58):
the same urges, having the samethings at work that you're
going through and you're alltrying to be the best follower
of Jesus that you can.
Yeah, absolutely, I mean.
And that's where it reallychanged everything for a lot of
us and honestly, we would havenever been friends, these people
that I went through Fight Club.
I mean we would have seen eachother, been hi, how's it going
at church?
(29:18):
Never but after Fight Club youget such a deep and I have a
friend now that I'm a reallyamazing friend of mine.
That is 100% through Fight Cluband any of those Fight Club
guys that I was with I know thatI could call them up anytime
and ask for prayer and that'sthe network that guys just don't
get.
I mean it's such a big network.
(29:38):
But I wanted to ask you aboutyou've been through a few of
these.
Now I'm on my sixth one what doyou and you don't have to talk
about your most recent onebecause, like you don't talk
about fight club, so it's reallykind of private to what's going
on, because you're really openand we had a lot of guys be
really open about what battlesthey're dealing with and when
they were open, man, I mean itwould bring.
(29:58):
I mean there would be people.
You know, if somebody saysthey're gonna pray for you, yep,
even if it's two o'clock.
We did the prayer chain.
Yep, every hour you take it andyou get up up.
And I remember we did this, wetook an hour, and I remember
getting up for one of thesethings at like two o'clock in
the morning because I was by theend of it, I was acting like I
was hardcore, so I was going totake the two o'clock in the
morning.
But I remember getting up and Iremember physically feeling
(30:22):
like weight on me when I hit myknees and prayed and I would
pray for a half hour an hourwhen I hit my knees and prayed.
And I would pray for a halfhour an hour, and I was 2
o'clock in the morning, which isnot easy, but you felt like you
were standing in the gap.
I mean so much similar to Jesus, but not on that level, but you
felt like you were standing inthe gap for these men and you
were not going to let them down.
(30:42):
You were going to keep fightingand driving and driving and I
think it just kind of convertsto what we do with our families.
But from your previous fightclubs and you've been associated
with a lot of men what do youthink is one of the biggest
things that men are battlingright now?
Number one, let's say numberone.
Number two that you hearbecause you've been a part of a
(31:04):
lot of different groups with alot of different men what are
men in the church battlingagainst?
Still?
Speaker 3 (31:11):
porn is the big one, okay, and we have a lot of pride
.
Still they're battling prideand a lot of not a lot some of
them.
The group we have right now weprobably have, let's say, 10
recovering drug addicts.
I'm still kind of involved alittle bit with that.
(31:33):
We're trying to minister tothem.
Got a real cool story Threerounds ago.
This guy started a fight clubwith us and he quit about
halfway through but he was stillin church and we were still
talking to him and so he startedanother fight club around and
(31:53):
he was quitting, drawing awayand stuff.
And so we went over to hishouse, knocking on the door,
beating on the windows.
I called his wife, found outwhere the spare key was got in
his house.
We went looking for him therewas three of us and went all the
way around his house, went inhis house, couldn't find him,
couldn't find him.
He was in the garage.
He had his place in the garagewhere he was doing his drugs and
(32:15):
stuff.
So we went out to the garageand we was ministering to him
and loving on him and prayingfor him and we left and he quit
Fight Club that time and then,he started this round drug-free,
got hooked up with one of ourleaders there that um hired him,
uh took him under his wing andhe has a powerful testimony
(32:38):
right now absolutely.
He has powerful, he's on fire,he's bringing, he's bringing.
Anybody talks to you say man,you gotta come join me in my
fight club.
This is like it, like it was socrazy.
I mean the enemy hates that man.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
The enemy knows.
That's why the enemy oppressesthose people because he knows
what the Lord's put inside ofthem.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
But what opened his eyes is three guys that he
didn't know it's coming to hishouse looking for him, saying
where are you at?
We need you, don't quit on us,don't quit on us, don't quit on
us.
And that's what it's about.
It's about that very thing.
You know and and I love mysquad guys because, just as
you're saying jim, because youcan say, hey, we need prayer for
(33:17):
this immediately.
You know this, this is maybecould be life and death.
You know it could be.
And that's that's a powerfulaspect, for because you know who
you can go to.
You know the brothers andchurches you can go to.
And it's pretty cool becausewe've got a couple of brothers
right now in a couple ofdifferent churches, and they're
(33:37):
not in my squad, but they reachout and say, hey, how are you?
And it's just like really cool,that is awesome, that's amazing
.
We have another guy out ofMaryland, because I attend
Maryland 46.
And the first time I met theguy he was 24.
I thought he was 16.
I really did.
I asked him to come to youthand he's like I already went
(33:57):
through youth.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I'm like how old are you, you've got three kids, he's
not married.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
He just sits out in the atrium and stuff.
He joined his fight club.
This will be his fourth round,oh wow, during the Show me what
a godly man looks like, andsince that time he has been
dedicated to Fight Club.
That's wonderful Not for theFight Club part of it to know
(34:28):
what a godly man looks like andhow he will pray with anybody.
He found the boldness in Christto come out of a shell because
he'd just show up at church andhe'd be there at a table waiting
for it to be picked up.
And now he will reach out.
He's volunteering in the church.
He is with the kids everySunday morning.
(34:48):
He is praying, he's worshiping.
He got the Spirit Award last.
We give awards at the end ofevery round.
He got the Spirit Award lastround just for being awesome.
It is really cool.
That is awesome.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Praise the Lord.
Praise God for that work.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Absolutely, and it's the Lord it really is.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Well, I appreciate you pushing through too.
Do you realize if you had justgone?
Oh, I tried.
They said they're not doing it,so I'm just going to quit.
I tried, but the first round Iwent through.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
I had to do a virtual group and my squad leader was
in Michigan.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Half the guys yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
And the other half.
The guys were East Coast, westCoast, and there was only two
other guys from Indianapolisthat was on this call every
Tuesday night and that's theonly time I met with them.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
All right, so welcome back, if we are welcoming you
back.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
You're not really sure at this point.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
A little bit of technical difficulty and you
know, it always seems like thatwhenever you know, you know
something spiritual is happeningoh yeah, sometimes the
equipment starts failing on you.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
So well, we gotta remember.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
That's right absolutely all right.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
So lee, talk about um , if someone, if you got you've
got a guy that wants to getinvolved, you guys are doing a
new one in the fall.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
In the fall About September will be the kickoff.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Okay, so how does somebody get a hold of you?
How does this work?
Speaker 3 (36:09):
Yeah, that's a great question.
They can go to fightclub414.comOkay.
Okay, that's the website forGoshen, okay, and they can get
all the information about whatFight Club is and answer
questions that I missed orwhatever, okay, and then they
can reach out.
I guess to me right now wedon't have a website for yet for
(36:32):
Terre Haute, because we'regetting ready Terre Haute's
getting ready to kick off theirown in the fall.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
That's going to be awesome.
That's great yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
But I will get that to you soon.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Yeah, and then we'll put the link.
We'll definitely put the linkto the website underneath the
video.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
And and then, when I send out my my update email,
that I always Absolutely, andattach my email to that too.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Okay yeah, absolutely Okay, cause there's flyers
going around Terre Haute thathas my name and Jim Pond's name.
Okay, yeah, name on.
There.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
So it's got all of our information.
So, yeah, Very good.
Well, I think that is um,obviously it's.
It's extremely encouraging.
It's the kind of work that is.
It's not done overnight, Is it?
Speaker 3 (37:11):
It's not, it is not and it's.
It really is.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
It's not just 10 weeks no because you're never
done growing With yourself.
You're not.
And this just gives men moreaccountability with other men,
which is sorely lacking.
It feels like you know I knowthere's a really big women's
Bible study group that happensfrom time to time in Terre Haute
(37:37):
and it seems like you know,like those kind of things happen
, but for men there hasn't beenthe accountability and maybe not
just the structure but thespiritual growth.
That's desperately needed.
I mean me, and you are oldenough to remember, jimmy,
probably too promise keepers andgoing through that.
(37:59):
And that was a great, and evenEmmaus in a way, that was a
great event.
And then they would always tryto follow up.
Emmaus tried to follow up also.
I remember when I went on myfirst Emmaus walk they had kind
of an accountability group whatdid they call it?
Speaker 2 (38:16):
The fourth day group.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
And that was okay, it was fine.
But all those kind of faded andeverybody tries and all that
kind of stuff.
But this is really reallyexciting.
I don't know if you're gettinga sense, and this is kind of the
question I've got, because I'mseeing I think it's kind of cool
, you're going to a church,you're going to a different
(38:40):
church, I'm going to a differentchurch.
We're brothers in the Lord.
We love each other.
We love the Lord.
We've got each other's backs.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Even if.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
I don't talk to Lee for six months and then, out of
the blue, nothing has changedSame.
I talk to Jimmy all the time,and that's a good thing.
But, one of the things I haveloved coming out of the history
that I've had which was notgreat is I love, in Terre Haute,
(39:10):
that we've come to know so manydifferent brothers and sisters
in the Lord across differentchurches and there's no.
You said something earlier, andmaybe Jimmy did.
I don't want to be in thiscircle where all of my friends
and all of the people that arein a church- one group.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
It was not made to be that way.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
No, I don't think it is.
I mean, I love my churchabsolutely and if someone
doesn't have a church homeabsolutely, I welcome you, would
love you to come, but my goalis not to get everybody in
church to come to my church,it's to get them to come to
Jesus and find a church, yes,and wherever that is that works
(39:55):
for them is the key.
And then I mean, I remember,just real quickly, the Crisis
Pregnancy Center banquet, youknow, and that is just.
It was a testimony to me, itjust blew me away All of the
different churches and they'reall supporting a cause and
they've laid aside theirdenominations, they've laid
aside their titles, andeverybody's pushing for a common
(40:15):
goal, which is, you know,obviously, to take care of unwed
mothers and, you know, andfolks in in uh, having a crisis
with their pregnancy, which is agreat cause, but, uh, I haven't
seen that anywhere else.
I mean, I know it must occur,but Terre Haute is unique in
that way, I think, and it's,it's something that should be
trumpeted, and so I, I thinkit's a, it's a great thing.
(40:36):
So my question, long-winded, myquestion I have noticed, from
what I've picked up, there hasbeen increased in baptisms.
There's been increase inactivity on the campuses.
Our church alone we've had tonsof college students that have
been coming out of the blue,Even folks that are finding
their way back to their faithwhere they once weren't, or
(40:59):
reacquainting themselves with.
You know, they're seeking,they're searching, they're
hungry.
Have you noticed that?
Have you picked up on somethinglike?
Speaker 3 (41:08):
that, yes, we have Same thing at our church.
Young college-age students arepouring in yeah and baptisms out
the door.
Just in this round of FightClub we've had six of our guys
that's got baptized.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
So I mean not to say our ages or anything, but we've
been around a little while.
I don't remember quite a timelike this, do you?
I mean, you can feel agroundswell of something's going
on.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Oh yeah, the Lord's raising up His church, raising
up His peoples.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Well, that is encouraging.
Yeah, absolutely I mean, that'sour only answer.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
That's our, absolutely it is.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
Huh, okay.
Well, we're having problems,technical difficulties, so I
don't know how long the video'sgonna go.
The audio has not been aproblem.
But National Day Prayer I kindof thought I would really like
it if we could pray together.
And if you're listening,obviously if you're watching
this, there is no such thing asthe only day you pray, right.
(42:12):
The only day you pray for yourcountry.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
It's always we always need it.
That's what the scripture says.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
But it's kind of wonderful to be able to join
with Christians all around thecountry on a specific day.
It was a presidentialproclamation, but if you read
the original ones from eitherWashington, george Washington or
Abraham Lincoln, it was aproclamation of repentance.
It was absolutely we need Godto move for our country.
So I didn't know if you guyswould.
(42:38):
As we get ready to wrap this up, do you have anything else?
Speaker 2 (42:42):
to say before we no.
I think that's great.
I think it's really the waythis is kind of falling, because
today we're recording usNational Day of Prayer.
This is going to drop on theelection and I don't like to
intermix them too much, but Imean there's some authority that
needs to be taken.
Absolutely, absolutely.
I mean and so I think that wedo a lot through prayer, and
(43:06):
then a lot of it we do throughstanding up for what rights
we've been given and voting.
That's right.
I mean, you can't have one andnot the other.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
Yeah Well, and just aside, kind of along with the
spirit of what the Fight Club is.
I mean, I've just recently, itfeels like, been put in, coming
out of you know, resting fromministry, and then you know we
had some ministry but I've justfelt recently, in the last
(43:36):
couple of weeks, just kind ofnot a rebuke but a call from the
Lord to step up you know, stepup your game, you know, and I've
had to institute just adiscipline in you know, a
discipline into my devotionallife or into my Christian walk
that I was resisting for a while.
I mean it's and it's just Godjust will put you in situations
(44:01):
where you have to, where youhave to step up and as men I
don't think men realize orunderstand the spiritual
authority or the desire God hasto move through a man if a man
will submit himself to the Lordand walk in humility, rebuilding
those walls.
Which is really cool about theNehemiah thing he prayed, he
(44:22):
wept, but he acted, absolutelydid, and it's both.
We need to pray, but then weneed to go act and we need to do
so if you guys want to join me,absolutely Okay.
All right, let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we just cometo you today and we come to you
in the name of Jesus Christ.
We come to you as brothers,lord, who love you and are Lord
(44:46):
before you.
Not of our own righteousness,not of our own goodness, lord,
we're not praying because we'regood people.
We're praying because you're agood God.
That's right and, Lord, we justwant to humbly ask you to
forgive, lord, our sins, lord,the sins of this country, lord,
the waywardness that we've had.
Lord in our churches, in ourpulpits, but also in our pews.
(45:09):
Lord, god, we've gone our ownway, we've made up our own minds
to do our own thing and we'vemade you, lord.
We've made you in our own image.
We've decided to worship a Godthat we liked and that things we
didn't like about you, lord, weput them aside and, lord, we've
been very rebellious as apeople, god, we've even risen up
and declared we're not aChristian nation anymore or
(45:32):
never were.
But, lord, we love you and asbrothers in Christ, joining with
all the believers across thisland that are grieved.
God, like Nehemiah, was at thestate Jerusalem was, in that the
walls were down and burned withfire and that no one seemed to
be concerned about it.
Lord, we are concerned about it.
I believe you are concernedabout it, and, god, we pray.
(45:55):
Today, lord, we humbly ask thatyou would visit our families.
Today, lord, we humbly ask thatyou would visit our families,
father, that you would visit ourchurches, that you would visit
the men and women in the pulpits, lord that would preach, we
pray that you would visit, lord,our government.
You would visit, lord, god, thefolks that are running for
public office, those that aregoing to win and those that,
(46:17):
lord, are seeking it.
Lord, we pray that you wouldvisit our schools, our
universities, our collegecampuses.
That you would visit, lord, ourpublic schools and our home
schools and our private schools.
And, lord, that you would visitour places of work, employment.
Lord, that there wouldn't be aplace in our society where the
gospel of Jesus Christ did notgo and that hearts were not
(46:37):
touched where the gospel ofJesus Christ did not go and that
hearts were not touched by thepower of the Holy Spirit, and
that you would not, Lord, lord,that you would draw us back to
you as a people.
God, we are so sorry that wehave failed, lord, as leaders,
as men.
Lord, as followers of Christ.
We've been terrible examples,lord, of you and Lord, we're
(46:59):
truly, truly sorry and we areasking Lord on this National Day
of Prayer and Lord, asfollowers of Christ, we've been
terrible examples, lord, of youand Lord, we're truly, truly
sorry and we are asking Lord onthis National Day of Prayer and
Lord also, as folks are joiningus, lord, on an election day.
God, we are asking you formercy, we're asking you for
grace once again and, lord, thatyou would listen to the cries
of your people, that you wouldvisit from heaven, lord, and
that you would heal our land.
(47:20):
God, that you would visit fromheaven, lord, and that you would
heal our land.
God, that you would forgive usand remove, lord, god, the
scourge of drug addiction, thescourge of addictions to
pornography and sexualperversion, the scourge of abuse
in homes and in marriages anddivorce and all of the horrible
things that are the result, god,of our own waywardness and our
own decisions.
And, lord, we are praying aprayer of faith tonight that,
(47:44):
god, you're going to hear us,that you're going to answer and
that you're going to move.
And we thank you, God, forwhat's happening in the Fight
Club.
Thank you, god, for Lee'swillingness, lord, to step up to
the plate and to lead.
And God, for all of the menthat have been affected by his
decision, by his willingness tobe obedient, lord, all of the
men that have been affected inour community because of him,
(48:05):
and Lord, what an encouragementfor all of us, lord, to step up
to the plate and to do whatyou've called us to do in the
place that you've called us towork, lord, to be obedient to
you, and who knows how manypeople we could see affected for
the good Lord.
So, god, we are believing, you,are expectant and we're excited
to see what you're going to do,and we pray, lord, all of these
(48:26):
things in the precious andpowerful name of Jesus.
Amen, amen.
Lee, it has been a real honorto have you on the show and
Jimmy, as always, it's been alot of fun and, uh, who knows
where these shows are going togo?
Speaker 2 (48:42):
We?
Speaker 1 (48:42):
have no idea, but, uh , I I just believe that that
hopefully that's been a uhsomething to really touch, uh,
touch your heart and encourageyou and uh, strengthen you.
Speaker 2 (48:59):
And also probably Lee's email, probably the best
way to get a hold of him.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
And we'll get that out there for you guys, and as
always, so thank you, gentlemen,you want to close us out?
Speaker 2 (49:08):
Like, subscribe yeah, make sure you like and
subscribe.
Follow us.
We're trying to go live withInstagram and Facebook now, so
put some alerts on so you canwatch these live.
You can get all the outtakesand all the other stuff, that
kind of goes on in thebackground that Lee got to
experience.
Yes, and appreciate you beinghere, and the MCSquared podcast
(49:30):
at gmailcom is our email.
We appreciate you and we'll seeyou the next time.
Speaker 3 (49:34):
See you later.
Bye.
All right.
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen,to the MC Squared podcast.
This is episode 25.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Okay, episode 25.
Thank you, Drew.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Yeah, there we go.
It's been a little while.
So we've got a special episodetonight, got a special guest
friend of ours, both Jimmy andme, that's me of ours, both
Jimmy and me, that's me.
So it's kind of weird.
We've got a little bit of adifferent setup here tonight.
We changed our tables no onecares.
We got different cameras at usAgain, no one cares, but it is
(00:35):
throwing me off my game just alittle bit.
But yeah what game is exactlyright?
So okay, so I'm Andrew McNeil.
This is Jimmy McKenna, asalways, and tonight we are
joined with a friend of mine anda friend of Jimmy's, mr Lee
Anstead.
Hello, everybody, all right.
So I think Jimmy's going totalk most of tonight.
(00:59):
I don't know.
No, no, please don't turn off.
Just kidding.
So I thought what I would do isstart out with a little bit of
how I got to know Lee, and it'sa pretty cool story.
So Andrea and I hosted a smallgroup for a while at another
(01:21):
church the one we're going tonow and it was struggling and it
wasn't my fault.
It was probably my wife's whowon't watch this show.
No, actually it was just wewere starting and we had like
three people and it was justreally struggling.
So we were reaching a pointwhere we were deciding whether
we're gonna close it down.
You always have that.
(01:43):
You feel like God called you todo something.
But now we're reaching a pointwhere we're either going to
close this thing down or we'llgive it another shot.
And the church we were going toat the time had a meeting where
they said hey, we got a bunch offolks who may want to join a
small group.
So any of these, you know theydidn't say struggling, but you
know, if you're open to addingpeople, why don't you come to
this meeting?
And it was actually kind ofbrutal because what they did was
(02:06):
they would have the hosts, whowere desperate for people, go
stand out in the hallway.
You remember this?
I do Go stand out in thehallway and it was kind of like
a speed dating kind of thing.
And what was terrible was and Inever really asked Lee whether
or not they stayed with ourgroup because they felt sorry
for us.
Yeah, I thought it probably was,but you literally could just, I
(02:29):
mean, it was such a vulnerablespot to get rejected, I mean to
have people go.
Yeah, that was niceconversation.
I think I'm going to move on.
So Lee and his beautiful wifeSusan came out and they came
right up to us and they talkedwith us and they stayed with us,
thank God, because it was sucha blessing getting to know you
(02:54):
guys and we'd gone to the samechurch for a while never seen
you ever, absolutely.
So joined our small group hugeasset to it both of you were and
it actually grew.
We had, I don't know, 10 people, maybe at one point 10 to 12?
Yeah, and it was great becauseit was right before COVID and so
the church shut down, but wedidn't and we were able to keep
(03:16):
meeting on Sunday.
And we had great times breakfastpitch in breakfast on Sunday
mornings, and then we'd worshipand stuff, and I kind of missed
that.
Honestly, we wouldn't have shutdown if we didn't have.
We left, went to a differentchurch and a lot of folks wanted
to keep going, but I just feltlike it probably wasn't
appropriate to do that.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You know so, but anyway, that's how and we've
been friends ever since and wehave yeah, and my point of view
is that same thing, because weled a small group, a couple of
them, and they, since the peopleleft, and stuff, and we didn't
know what we were going to do.
Yeah, so we went to thatmeeting there at that church
saying, are we going to lead,are we going to join one?
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Oh, that's right.
They were given that option,weren't they?
And Susan and I was like Idon't know and we don't know
which way to go.
Like I don't know, we don'tknow which way to go and we met
Andrew and Andrea and we're like, okay, we'll go to their house.
Let them lead, and it was agood fit.
It was a good fit, it was youguys were a huge blessing.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, that's awesome it is, and I met Lee back.
I don't know, many years ago,many years ago, jimmy.
So I was going to CalvaryTemple, clinton, clinton, and we
were in a ministry classtogether.
Wow yeah, so we did a ministryclass together.
I think we were probably onabout the same path.
This was.
I have a really good idea it's2011, because when my son was
(04:34):
born in 2012,.
That's when we stopped ministryclass, and so you probably
finished in 2012.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
You're an ordained minister, aren't you Not
ordained minister?
Aren't you not ordained?
I have my card that I can marryand bury and go into the
hospital that is good to knowthat's cool.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, if you ever need to be buried, I can do the
job.
And that was all from thatclass.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Pastor Sonny's class and I still carry my card and
stuff.
So yeah worked a couplefunerals here recently and still
some preaching on the side andstuff.
So yeah, it's been exciting andI've known Jimmy since that
time.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, I remember one of the times that we kind of
were together, that one time inclass is when that was big there
teaching on theophasticministry, and I do remember that
and that was a pretty amazingtime Okay, so I feel like I'm
fairly familiar with the Biblein terms.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
I have never heard of that Theophostic, theophostic.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Ministries.
What does that mean?
So it's shedding light intodark places.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
So you've probably it's called other things
Essentially Well so break theword down, because Theo is what
Theos, it's God right.
Yeah, and theophostic BecauseTheo is what Theos, it's God
right.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, yeah.
And fostic is light.
Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, okay.
So shining God's light in darkplaces.
I got away from my mic therefor a second, but yeah,
essentially you pray withsomebody through past history.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Oh, okay, gotcha, yeah, and you shine God's.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
You speak God's truth into it and there's been some
amazing things come out of itand it gets beat up all over the
place sometimes so we wouldcall that inner healing.
I think it would be called that.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Yes, I think so too.
And also you're taking thatperson back to where the enemy
planted their root and pullingthat root out of there, getting
it out, and say come on, dude,that's important isn't it.
Yes, Jesus was here, rightthere at that time.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
So yeah, and we like practiced on each other.
We did, I remember doing that.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
That explains a few things, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
We stopped halfway through.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
That's why I laughed.
But it was so cool because Iknow Jimmy was there that night.
I used to drive a semi in myprevious life and I came in and
I hurt my back in two places.
I just hurt my back and Sonnywas teaching and stuff and he
asked me a question.
I couldn't concentrate and Isaid, sonny, if you're willing
(06:59):
and the Lord's willing, I said Ineed healing right now and
Sonny's like well, absolutely.
So we all gathered around andthey laid hands on my back and
Sonny started praying and stuffand I'm crying out to Jesus and
stuff.
And we got done about threeminutes.
He goes how are you?
And I said not good.
I said I could hardly breatheand he said well, let's keep on
praying.
(07:19):
So we kept on praying and Itell you what time that class
was over.
I was healed.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
I was healed.
Yeah, praise the.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Lord.
But I got up early the nextmorning and I was on my way to
Tennessee I remember it like itwas yesterday and I stopped down
at the Love's Truck Stop downthere in Hopstot and got my
coffee and went to the restroom,come out and there was a guy
with a cane.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
There was a guy with a cane walking.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I said hey, buddy, I said you okay, and he said no,
I'm getting ready to havesurgery.
This guy's like all right, man,I'll pray for you Took off,
missed a blessing, missedhealing, you know, because I
just got healed and I justmissed an opportunity to glorify
the Lord and it's just likegosh.
But like you said, that was2012, 2011.
(08:05):
I remember like never forget it, you don't.
But since then, but since then,I've stepped out of my comfort
zone a lot.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
That's awesome yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
That's awesome.
I love that.
I love the fact that you feltlike you missed an opportunity.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah, absolutely, but what it's?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
done is changed your outlook on every other
opportunity past that Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
So was that opportunity really missed?
Speaker 2 (08:27):
I don't even know.
I would say it set you on apath.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
It set me on a path to realize that it's not me,
that it's the Lord workingthrough me.
That's right, and I think thatwe have to be aware of the
Spirit when it's moving and justjump in.
Yeah, it don't matter whathappens.
I should have prayed for thatguy and if he would have got
healed that day or that surgerywould have went you know
whatever, yeah, and that'sbetween him and the Lord, right?
But yeah, it was, it wasprofound, it really was.
(08:59):
So yeah, that's how we got toknow each other, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Well back, all right, so we've got.
So we've got a segment comingup.
We're not doing it yet becausewe always have to take a break.
Folks don't actually know this.
We take a break, and the reasonis because our camera basically
will burn up at 20 minutes andapparently this is something
that happens a lot, except forour phones, so the live feed
(09:22):
will continue.
This is something that happensa lot, except for our phones, so
the live feed will continue.
If you're watching this onYouTube, after the fact which of
course it will there'll be abreak and then, you know, edit
it out.
You won't notice anything.
But later on we're going totalk about a ministry that
you're involved in, somethingthat you guys have some in
common.
Also, from a while back.
We're going to talk about someawesome things the Lord's doing
(09:44):
and then maybe end with a reallygood focus of what God's doing
here in the community.
Amen.
This podcast is going to go outon election day, which is kind
of crazy.
That's awesome, yeah.
So if you're watching this, thepolls will probably Well, no, I
guess it'd be in the morning.
So it'll be during election day, which is kind of appropriate
(10:07):
because we talk a lot ofpolitics here on the show.
As you guys know, I lovepolitics Jimmy not so much, and
Lee probably even less.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Even less.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
So it's a very, very.
It's a crazy little thing thatI care about, but the reality is
we all should care about it inthe sense that we want and we
need godly leaders, andgovernment does matter, and
matters way too much, actually,where it is right now and I
don't know if you guys have seenthe news or not, but our
(10:39):
universities all across thecountry are in an absolute
uproar and they may be funneledin a lot of paid protesters.
Definitely there's agitatorsbehind the scenes, no doubt
about it.
I saw a graph on X that had.
This is crazy.
They have over 1,100 of thedevices given out at the border
(11:05):
were at those college campusesduring those riots.
So that's not a huge percentageof the people, because we've had
millions pour across thatborder this year, but that means
that they're-.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
It's a pretty long way too from the Right, and it's
all over the country.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
So it's a spewing of anti-Israel, anti-jewish hatred
which we never thought we wouldsee in America.
It is like the beginning ofNazi Germany, and I think there
are some folks that are takingthis seriously, and I don't know
if we're taking it seriouslyenough in the church, because
these are the beginning waves ofa country that's getting ready
(11:43):
to be destroyed.
I mean, we have people pouringover our borders.
We're not even keeping track ofthem.
We don't know who they are.
They're not just Mexicanstrying to find a better life.
I mean, that passed a long timeago.
We're getting people from allover the world across that
southern border.
Our universities are anabsolute, absolute mess.
Columbia shut down for the year.
(12:05):
Most of the teachers andprofessors were in solidarity
with with the, the rioters Ithink it was either Columbia or
I think it was Columbia was oneof them where the students this
is a riot, I'm this literallytook over one of the buildings.
Did you see this?
No, I didn't see it.
They had gone it.
I should have looked.
(12:26):
I believe it was.
Yeah, oh yeah, literally aninsurrection.
They took over the building andthen their spokeswoman was
demanding that the school bringthem food and water.
Do you remember that?
Did you hear that?
Oh my gosh.
And the reporter was like solet me get this straight.
Basically, you just are likeyou took over this building.
(12:49):
You're basically a revolution.
You're starting a revolutionand then you're wanting them to
bring you food and water.
Delusion, and it was just ablank look and then she was like
well, yes, because this couldbe a human crisis.
This is the very basic of humanneeds that we need.
We water.
We don't want people, you know,she said, dying of thirst here
(13:09):
falling over and dying of thirst, and he's like well, did they
shut the water off to thebuilding?
I mean what is going on here?
So, with all that said, todaythat we're recording is also the
National Day of Prayer.
I put a little post out onFacebook.
I don't normally do that.
I have a blog that I try to do.
(13:34):
If I have anything to say, Itry to do it there.
Facebook has just become awfulto me.
In my opinion.
The app is destroyed, but aswe're live, we're just throwing
it at him, absolutely.
But to me, if you look at Danielin the Bible, he is the picture
to me of what prayer should beon a national day of prayer.
And if you'll read where Danielunderstands from prophecy that
(13:59):
the 70 years of exile, that theIsraelites had been exiled from
Jerusalem because of their sin,he was recognizing that time
frame was up and that there wasa possibility of coming back
into the land of Israel.
He starts out with justreciting to God the sins that
(14:19):
they had committed as a people,reciting to God the sins of what
got them where they were, whythey were, and then ascribing
the goodness of God that, eventhough they were judged, that
they were still preserved andthat God said there was only a
70-year period on it.
And it leads into just thisbeautiful prayer of repentance
(14:41):
and then asking the Lord tohonor His Word and to have mercy
on them and to restore themonce again.
And honestly, my heart has been.
I've been to a lot of NationalDay of Prayer events and I love
them, I appreciate them.
There's been so many.
City Hall had one today.
They've had one every year fordecades.
Too often.
(15:03):
And then I said this it's ageneral criticism, because I
appreciate people praying, buttoo often there is almost no
repentance and the prayers areLord, bless us, lord bless us,
lord bless us, which, yeah, weneed it Absolutely.
We need the Lord's protection,his favor, but we don't deserve
it.
We've not done anything in thiscountry to deserve the favor of
(15:26):
the Lord, and so an attitude ofrepentance and ascribing,
taking on the guilt of thenation if you were Lord.
We've shed innocent blood, lord.
We have condoned sexualperversion all throughout the
land.
We've incited rebellion againstGod.
In our churches We've incitedrebellion.
So there's a lot of ways I feellike that is the move that's
(15:48):
coming.
I don't think this is a voicecrying in the wilderness
necessarily.
I think there is a groundswelland I think that's kind of what
I'd like to get into later withwhat we're going to talk about.
God's doing somethingunderneath the surface that
maybe we aren't seeingnecessarily on the news with the
universities blowing up or oursocial media feeds where
(16:08):
everything's bad it is, but Ithink God is doing something
underneath the surface and sowhen we come back, we're going
to take a little break,especially for the live feed.
When we come back, we willhopefully get right into that.
Sounds great.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
That's good, all right, feed.
When we come back we willhopefully get right into that.
Sounds great, that's good, allright.
Hey, welcome back everybody.
Like we said, we're going totalk to Lee about a men's
ministry that he's been a partof and he's got some notes here.
I mean, I feel like this isreally laid out well and I was a
part of it too at one time.
But I'll let Lee kind of talkabout it a little bit.
It's called Fight Club, kind ofgive the explanation of it and
(16:46):
then talk about what it's doingand what it's doing for men.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Yeah, absolutely First rule about Fight Club you
can't talk about Fat Club.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Interview's over.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
We're done.
Shut it down, baby.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
So yeah, I have been part of Fight Club here in Terre
Haute for about two and a halfyears now and we're on week
seven of a 10-week journey.
And what Fight Club is?
It's a ministry for men, by mento reach men.
I got tired of being in ourchurch every Sunday, it doesn't
matter what church it is, itdoesn't matter what church it is
(17:19):
, but you see men leaving,coming and going and getting out
of church as fast as they canand you're like man.
That's very uncomfortable forme, you know, and I like talking
to people, I like getting in,figuring out who they are and
what their mission is, and I'mlike so I was searching for
(17:40):
something, okay, for somethingokay.
So fight club is a 10-weekjourney where men are required
to complete weekly challengeswithin a text of a squad,
community or brotherhood and umand also accountability triad.
So okay, explain those.
So I will.
So 10, so your um community, wecall it, we call it a region.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Terre.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Haute has a region.
Right now we have 63 men inTerre.
Haute doing this round of FightClub.
Okay, so we break down insquads.
We have five squads at threedifferent locations and we meet
weekly as our squads Okay.
And then twice the round, threetimes around, at least two or
three times around we meet asthe region Okay, gotcha.
(18:24):
So last Saturday we met atmaryland community church.
There at 46 campus, we had most, everybody made it.
We had about 50 men there, allright, and uh, we worship
together, we pray together, wedo some physical activities
together and, um, we heard avery, very powerful devotion,
very powerful devotion, and thenat the end of it, one of the
requirements for going throughFight Club is you have to pray
(18:45):
for a stranger.
Oh, wow so I said all right,people you don't know get
together and pray with eachother.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
So that was pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
So we completed one.
So that is a squad.
So you have a squad.
It's eight to 12 guys to meetweekly.
We're going through a book,we're going through scripture.
There's challenges physicalchallenge, mental challenge and
then inside of your squad youhave an accountability group, a
triad.
So you have two other brothersthat you're accountable to and
(19:14):
we got tough questions.
You know and we need to knowwhat trips you up and they need
to know what trips you up andyou're accountable to that.
That's awesome.
And there's certain challengeswhen you go through your 10
weeks that are strikeable too.
Like one week was fast food.
You couldn't have any fast foodfor a week.
I struck out on that one.
I took a strike.
(19:35):
I got a 16-year-old daughterthat plays softball.
We had four games that week andI'm like, okay, what are we
going to do?
And there's times that Susanand I don't eat until 10 o'clock
at night and you're like I'mnot going to make anything.
So I called my accountabilitytribe, I said, hey guys, I'm
taking a strike.
You know I just did.
And so during Fight Clubthere's four areas that a man
(19:56):
works on himself.
That's the spiritual side, andyou've got your relational side.
You have your mental side andyou have your physical side.
And every Sunday morning we geta message on Mighty Networks
from our Fair Warrior groupwe're attached to.
(20:16):
We are actually the Terre Hauteregion is umbrellaed under the
Fair Warrior group out of Carmel, okay, and we have 600, almost
600 men going through fight clubright now at this time in the
state of Indiana.
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
And so every Sunday morning weget our challenges and what
we're going to work on and wejust go pick up and go for the
(20:39):
week through that.
The spiritual is the book ofProverbs, whatever the day is.
That's a chapter you read.
For anybody that's alreadygraduated through fight club
they have extra reading.
Ours is James this time.
So we're in the book of James,studying that, reading that,
journaling that your mental.
We're reading a book this timecalled the men we need.
(21:02):
It's been a very interesting,encouraging book.
Um, it really has.
The author of the book is a?
Um flute player and he teachesit and stuff.
So it's not your manly man yeahit's, it's very apical to
everyday life.
It really is it is and how heleads his family and his family
(21:24):
looks up to him.
His family, um, lets him leadthe household.
They can't wait to get homebecause they're encouraged to be
by dad and stuff like you guys,like how you guys lead your
family.
And then you have a mental.
That's mental.
You have your physical side,which is this is I lack in this
area, but there's a lot ofpushups, there's a lot of
burpees, there's a lot ofrunning and stuff, but that's
(21:47):
just trying to get you in abetter shape to fight.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
And I think all of those are important together,
don't you?
Speaker 3 (21:54):
They are, they are and how it's laid out.
It really comes together good,it's very motivational too.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
The physical part.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Because some of that stuff's really hard.
It is really hard.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
But when you know that you're accountable to a
couple other guys or anybody inthe squad and you and you look
at some of the guys.
You're like if old boy can do apush-up.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
I better be getting some push-ups done.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
I remember pull-ups were tough yes, well, we don't
have any pull-ups.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
You don't pull-ups, we didn't pull-ups, we don't
have any pull-ups it was likeone one a day or something, but
that was enough, and then, andthen your relational side too.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
so talk about that.
What does that mean?
So the relational side is youhave certain challenges that you
do at home.
A lot of our men areuncomfortable, for whatever
reason, for cooking for theirfamily and they have to take
pictures of it and they have tosubmit it to.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Is this before they burn it or after?
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Whatever it looks like, you know, whatever it
looks like You're going to havefun with it, and some of it is
cooking with your family,getting them involved.
Yeah, and then some of it.
This is a big struggle for men,too.
A person that you had contactwith in the past that maybe you
don't have any longer reach outto them and tell them why you
(23:02):
find value in them?
Oh, wow, that's big yeah that'sreally big.
So I got an opportunity to dothat with the guy that led me to
the Lord and we haven't talked,sit down and talked and shared
a cup of coffee for about twoyears two and a half years and I
sent him a video text and toldhim what I thought of him and
(23:22):
what the Lord's doing, becausehe said a prayer over me one day
in a parking lot.
So yeah, so that was pretty cool.
I bet that probably blessed hissocks off.
It did, it did, and since thenwe've reached out a couple,
three times yeah and and um.
So that is cool.
And then also, every thebeginning of every round of
(23:43):
fight club you have to writeyour letter why, why are you
doing fight club this?
That's right.
And you have to read it to yourfamily.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Oh, that's good.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Yeah, so they know up front.
And it's so cool to me becausesome of these guys get caught up
in working and working andworking and they miss an
opportunity with family.
They don't realize howimportant it is until it's gone
Right.
But getting them involved, Ihave, like I said, we've got
(24:14):
five squads, so we've got 10leaders and one guy.
This is his third round.
He got his family involvedright from the get-go and he has
three kids and his wife andwhatever physical challenges he
has, they're involved in it tooand they do push-ups together.
They do set-ups together,whatever it is running, they do
(24:37):
their mile together and stuff.
So he's actually buildingfuture Fight Club guys.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
That's awesome.
All right, so tell us a littleabout where Fight Club came from
, Lee.
Where was it started?
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Fight Club was started in the late 80s, early
90s up in Goshen, indiana, byPastor Jim Brown and he wanted
something more for his men thanjust the breakfast and barbecue
once a year.
And so he came off.
He sought the Lord and the Lordled him to Nehemiah 4.14.
(25:10):
It's where the scripture versefor Fight Club is, and much was
what Andrew was talking aboutearlier, about when the Lord
embarked on Nehemiah to go backto Jerusalem and rebuild the
city, he wept.
He wept because his country wasstill in shambles and I don't
think men weep enough for thesins of our country.
(25:32):
We just don't.
We say we're sorry, we ask theLord for forgiveness and we move
on with our day.
And this was.
He was passionate about whatthe Lord wanted him to do.
So he went back to Jerusalem andthey were rebuilding the wall
and of course opposition cameagainst him.
You know your enemies come,trip you up and Nehemiah got
(25:54):
tired of the grumbling of hismen.
He really did and he stood up.
Nehemiah 4.14 says he stood up.
He said to the nobles, he saidto the scribes, he said to
everybody else he said rememberyour God, who is awesome and
great, and fight.
Fight for your families, Fightfor your wives, fight for your
sons, your daughters and yourfamilies, and that's what this
came about from.
(26:15):
Oh, very good.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
So you're fighting.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
So you're not fighting each other.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
No, we're not fighting each other.
You're fighting for yourfamilies and for the community.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Okay, For the, for the brotherhood of the churches.
Yeah yeah, we have six churchesrepresented in this round of
Fight Club, with 65 guys.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
I think that's real key too, like when you were
explaining to it at thebeginning about all these
different guys that are in it.
These are not just a bunch ofguys that go to one church.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
No, it's not.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
And I think that's where you see so much fruit from
a guy's perspective, becausesometimes you get really used to
the guys that you hang out withand the guys that you know, but
then when you see some otherchurch over here and you're like
man, and I think that's one ofthe things about Fight Club that
some pastors are afraid of yeah, it is Is they're afraid of
losing guys to another church.
They are, and that's insecurity, man.
(27:05):
It is At its finest, because ifyou build those men in your
church to be the men thatthey're supposed to be, you're
going to have a stronger church,absolutely you are.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
And I tell them and I ask the pastor if we can come
in, like in between fight clubs,the rounds of fight clubs we
have one in the spring, one inthe fall and I go to them and
say can we sit up in your foyeror whatever and meet the guys?
And they're like, yeah, okay,because I know some of the
pastors of the church that weget involved with and I tell
those pastors I said this ain'tabout us stealing your men, it's
(27:38):
about the men getting involvedin the church, because there's
requirements they have to do.
They have to tie the lease forthe 10 weeks they have to
volunteer somewhere in thechurch during the round of fight
club.
They have to be accountable tothe pastor of whatever church
they're a part of.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
So that is really cool to see that it really is, I
tell you when I first started.
So I'll tell you about my storywith it.
We just moved to a church andit was the first service, maybe
the second service they promotedFight Club.
It was actually Tim Mink'schurch, and so they promoted it
and I said, you know, I'd liketo do that, because going into a
(28:15):
church as a guy it's reallyeasy to kind of sit back and
just let everything, leteverybody else get involved, but
you stay back yourself and wedid the whole thing.
We met at midnight.
I went out there with it wasprobably eight to ten guys and I
went out there with it wasprobably eight to 10 guys and we
started at midnight on a Friday.
And I'll tell you what it's likebreaking the ice with a bunch
(28:36):
of guys, and these are, honestly, that's where I saw so much
fruit, is where the shells came,like the outer layer that these
guys had came off.
Because when you know you havethis group and that's a question
I want to ask you in a secondwhen you know you have this
group of men that, for one, aregoing through the same stuff
that you're going through,having the same thoughts, having
(28:58):
the same urges, having the samethings at work that you're
going through and you're alltrying to be the best follower
of Jesus that you can.
Yeah, absolutely, I mean.
And that's where it reallychanged everything for a lot of
us and honestly, we would havenever been friends, these people
that I went through Fight Club.
I mean we would have seen eachother, been hi, how's it going
at church?
(29:18):
Never but after Fight Club youget such a deep and I have a
friend now that I'm a reallyamazing friend of mine.
That is 100% through Fight Cluband any of those Fight Club
guys that I was with I know thatI could call them up anytime
and ask for prayer and that'sthe network that guys just don't
get.
I mean it's such a big network.
(29:38):
But I wanted to ask you aboutyou've been through a few of
these.
Now I'm on my sixth one what doyou and you don't have to talk
about your most recent onebecause, like you don't talk
about fight club, so it's reallykind of private to what's going
on, because you're really openand we had a lot of guys be
really open about what battlesthey're dealing with and when
they were open, man, I mean itwould bring.
(29:58):
I mean there would be people.
You know, if somebody saysthey're gonna pray for you, yep,
even if it's two o'clock.
We did the prayer chain.
Yep, every hour you take it andyou get up up.
And I remember we did this, wetook an hour, and I remember
getting up for one of thesethings at like two o'clock in
the morning because I was by theend of it, I was acting like I
was hardcore, so I was going totake the two o'clock in the
morning.
But I remember getting up and Iremember physically feeling
(30:22):
like weight on me when I hit myknees and prayed and I would
pray for a half hour an hourwhen I hit my knees and prayed.
And I would pray for a halfhour an hour, and I was 2
o'clock in the morning, which isnot easy, but you felt like you
were standing in the gap.
I mean so much similar to Jesus, but not on that level, but you
felt like you were standing inthe gap for these men and you
were not going to let them down.
(30:42):
You were going to keep fightingand driving and driving and I
think it just kind of convertsto what we do with our families.
But from your previous fightclubs and you've been associated
with a lot of men what do youthink is one of the biggest
things that men are battlingright now?
Number one, let's say numberone.
Number two that you hearbecause you've been a part of a
(31:04):
lot of different groups with alot of different men what are
men in the church battlingagainst?
Still?
Speaker 3 (31:11):
porn is the big one, okay, and we have a lot of pride
.
Still they're battling prideand a lot of not a lot some of
them.
The group we have right now weprobably have, let's say, 10
recovering drug addicts.
I'm still kind of involved alittle bit with that.
(31:33):
We're trying to minister tothem.
Got a real cool story Threerounds ago.
This guy started a fight clubwith us and he quit about
halfway through but he was stillin church and we were still
talking to him and so he startedanother fight club around and
(31:53):
he was quitting, drawing awayand stuff.
And so we went over to hishouse, knocking on the door,
beating on the windows.
I called his wife, found outwhere the spare key was got in
his house.
We went looking for him therewas three of us and went all the
way around his house, went inhis house, couldn't find him,
couldn't find him.
He was in the garage.
He had his place in the garagewhere he was doing his drugs and
(32:15):
stuff.
So we went out to the garageand we was ministering to him
and loving on him and prayingfor him and we left and he quit
Fight Club that time and then,he started this round drug-free,
got hooked up with one of ourleaders there that um hired him,
uh took him under his wing andhe has a powerful testimony
(32:38):
right now absolutely.
He has powerful, he's on fire,he's bringing, he's bringing.
Anybody talks to you say man,you gotta come join me in my
fight club.
This is like it, like it was socrazy.
I mean the enemy hates that man.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
The enemy knows.
That's why the enemy oppressesthose people because he knows
what the Lord's put inside ofthem.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
But what opened his eyes is three guys that he
didn't know it's coming to hishouse looking for him, saying
where are you at?
We need you, don't quit on us,don't quit on us, don't quit on
us.
And that's what it's about.
It's about that very thing.
You know and and I love mysquad guys because, just as
you're saying jim, because youcan say, hey, we need prayer for
(33:17):
this immediately.
You know this, this is maybecould be life and death.
You know it could be.
And that's that's a powerfulaspect, for because you know who
you can go to.
You know the brothers andchurches you can go to.
And it's pretty cool becausewe've got a couple of brothers
right now in a couple ofdifferent churches, and they're
(33:37):
not in my squad, but they reachout and say, hey, how are you?
And it's just like really cool,that is awesome, that's amazing
.
We have another guy out ofMaryland, because I attend
Maryland 46.
And the first time I met theguy he was 24.
I thought he was 16.
I really did.
I asked him to come to youthand he's like I already went
(33:57):
through youth.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I'm like how old are you, you've got three kids, he's
not married.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
He just sits out in the atrium and stuff.
He joined his fight club.
This will be his fourth round,oh wow, during the Show me what
a godly man looks like, andsince that time he has been
dedicated to Fight Club.
That's wonderful Not for theFight Club part of it to know
(34:28):
what a godly man looks like andhow he will pray with anybody.
He found the boldness in Christto come out of a shell because
he'd just show up at church andhe'd be there at a table waiting
for it to be picked up.
And now he will reach out.
He's volunteering in the church.
He is with the kids everySunday morning.
(34:48):
He is praying, he's worshiping.
He got the Spirit Award last.
We give awards at the end ofevery round.
He got the Spirit Award lastround just for being awesome.
It is really cool.
That is awesome.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Praise the Lord.
Praise God for that work.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Absolutely, and it's the Lord it really is.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Well, I appreciate you pushing through too.
Do you realize if you had justgone?
Oh, I tried.
They said they're not doing it,so I'm just going to quit.
I tried, but the first round Iwent through.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
I had to do a virtual group and my squad leader was
in Michigan.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Half the guys yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
And the other half.
The guys were East Coast, westCoast, and there was only two
other guys from Indianapolisthat was on this call every
Tuesday night and that's theonly time I met with them.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
All right, so welcome back, if we are welcoming you
back.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
You're not really sure at this point.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
A little bit of technical difficulty and you
know, it always seems like thatwhenever you know, you know
something spiritual is happeningoh yeah, sometimes the
equipment starts failing on you.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
So well, we gotta remember.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
That's right absolutely all right.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
So lee, talk about um , if someone, if you got you've
got a guy that wants to getinvolved, you guys are doing a
new one in the fall.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
In the fall About September will be the kickoff.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Okay, so how does somebody get a hold of you?
How does this work?
Speaker 3 (36:09):
Yeah, that's a great question.
They can go to fightclub414.comOkay.
Okay, that's the website forGoshen, okay, and they can get
all the information about whatFight Club is and answer
questions that I missed orwhatever, okay, and then they
can reach out.
I guess to me right now wedon't have a website for yet for
(36:32):
Terre Haute, because we'regetting ready Terre Haute's
getting ready to kick off theirown in the fall.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
That's going to be awesome.
That's great yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
But I will get that to you soon.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Yeah, and then we'll put the link.
We'll definitely put the linkto the website underneath the
video.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
And and then, when I send out my my update email,
that I always Absolutely, andattach my email to that too.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Okay yeah, absolutely Okay, cause there's flyers
going around Terre Haute thathas my name and Jim Pond's name.
Okay, yeah, name on.
There.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
So it's got all of our information.
So, yeah, Very good.
Well, I think that is um,obviously it's.
It's extremely encouraging.
It's the kind of work that is.
It's not done overnight, Is it?
Speaker 3 (37:11):
It's not, it is not and it's.
It really is.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
It's not just 10 weeks no because you're never
done growing With yourself.
You're not.
And this just gives men moreaccountability with other men,
which is sorely lacking.
It feels like you know I knowthere's a really big women's
Bible study group that happensfrom time to time in Terre Haute
(37:37):
and it seems like you know,like those kind of things happen
, but for men there hasn't beenthe accountability and maybe not
just the structure but thespiritual growth.
That's desperately needed.
I mean me, and you are oldenough to remember, jimmy,
probably too promise keepers andgoing through that.
(37:59):
And that was a great, and evenEmmaus in a way, that was a
great event.
And then they would always tryto follow up.
Emmaus tried to follow up also.
I remember when I went on myfirst Emmaus walk they had kind
of an accountability group whatdid they call it?
Speaker 2 (38:16):
The fourth day group.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
And that was okay, it was fine.
But all those kind of faded andeverybody tries and all that
kind of stuff.
But this is really reallyexciting.
I don't know if you're gettinga sense, and this is kind of the
question I've got, because I'mseeing I think it's kind of cool
, you're going to a church,you're going to a different
(38:40):
church, I'm going to a differentchurch.
We're brothers in the Lord.
We love each other.
We love the Lord.
We've got each other's backs.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Even if.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
I don't talk to Lee for six months and then, out of
the blue, nothing has changedSame.
I talk to Jimmy all the time,and that's a good thing.
But, one of the things I haveloved coming out of the history
that I've had which was notgreat is I love, in Terre Haute,
(39:10):
that we've come to know so manydifferent brothers and sisters
in the Lord across differentchurches and there's no.
You said something earlier, andmaybe Jimmy did.
I don't want to be in thiscircle where all of my friends
and all of the people that arein a church- one group.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
It was not made to be that way.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
No, I don't think it is.
I mean, I love my churchabsolutely and if someone
doesn't have a church homeabsolutely, I welcome you, would
love you to come, but my goalis not to get everybody in
church to come to my church,it's to get them to come to
Jesus and find a church, yes,and wherever that is that works
(39:55):
for them is the key.
And then I mean, I remember,just real quickly, the Crisis
Pregnancy Center banquet, youknow, and that is just.
It was a testimony to me, itjust blew me away All of the
different churches and they'reall supporting a cause and
they've laid aside theirdenominations, they've laid
aside their titles, andeverybody's pushing for a common
(40:15):
goal, which is, you know,obviously, to take care of unwed
mothers and, you know, andfolks in in uh, having a crisis
with their pregnancy, which is agreat cause, but, uh, I haven't
seen that anywhere else.
I mean, I know it must occur,but Terre Haute is unique in
that way, I think, and it's,it's something that should be
trumpeted, and so I, I thinkit's a, it's a great thing.
(40:36):
So my question, long-winded, myquestion I have noticed, from
what I've picked up, there hasbeen increased in baptisms.
There's been increase inactivity on the campuses.
Our church alone we've had tonsof college students that have
been coming out of the blue,Even folks that are finding
their way back to their faithwhere they once weren't, or
(40:59):
reacquainting themselves with.
You know, they're seeking,they're searching, they're
hungry.
Have you noticed that?
Have you picked up on somethinglike?
Speaker 3 (41:08):
that, yes, we have Same thing at our church.
Young college-age students arepouring in yeah and baptisms out
the door.
Just in this round of FightClub we've had six of our guys
that's got baptized.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
So I mean not to say our ages or anything, but we've
been around a little while.
I don't remember quite a timelike this, do you?
I mean, you can feel agroundswell of something's going
on.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Oh yeah, the Lord's raising up His church, raising
up His peoples.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Well, that is encouraging.
Yeah, absolutely I mean, that'sour only answer.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
That's our, absolutely it is.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
Huh, okay.
Well, we're having problems,technical difficulties, so I
don't know how long the video'sgonna go.
The audio has not been aproblem.
But National Day Prayer I kindof thought I would really like
it if we could pray together.
And if you're listening,obviously if you're watching
this, there is no such thing asthe only day you pray, right.
(42:12):
The only day you pray for yourcountry.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
It's always we always need it.
That's what the scripture says.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
But it's kind of wonderful to be able to join
with Christians all around thecountry on a specific day.
It was a presidentialproclamation, but if you read
the original ones from eitherWashington, george Washington or
Abraham Lincoln, it was aproclamation of repentance.
It was absolutely we need Godto move for our country.
So I didn't know if you guyswould.
(42:38):
As we get ready to wrap this up, do you have anything else?
Speaker 2 (42:42):
to say before we no.
I think that's great.
I think it's really the waythis is kind of falling, because
today we're recording usNational Day of Prayer.
This is going to drop on theelection and I don't like to
intermix them too much, but Imean there's some authority that
needs to be taken.
Absolutely, absolutely.
I mean and so I think that wedo a lot through prayer, and
(43:06):
then a lot of it we do throughstanding up for what rights
we've been given and voting.
That's right.
I mean, you can't have one andnot the other.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
Yeah Well, and just aside, kind of along with the
spirit of what the Fight Club is.
I mean, I've just recently, itfeels like, been put in, coming
out of you know, resting fromministry, and then you know we
had some ministry but I've justfelt recently, in the last
(43:36):
couple of weeks, just kind ofnot a rebuke but a call from the
Lord to step up you know, stepup your game, you know, and I've
had to institute just adiscipline in you know, a
discipline into my devotionallife or into my Christian walk
that I was resisting for a while.
I mean it's and it's just Godjust will put you in situations
(44:01):
where you have to, where youhave to step up and as men I
don't think men realize orunderstand the spiritual
authority or the desire God hasto move through a man if a man
will submit himself to the Lordand walk in humility, rebuilding
those walls.
Which is really cool about theNehemiah thing he prayed, he
(44:22):
wept, but he acted, absolutelydid, and it's both.
We need to pray, but then weneed to go act and we need to do
so if you guys want to join me,absolutely Okay.
All right, let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we just cometo you today and we come to you
in the name of Jesus Christ.
We come to you as brothers,lord, who love you and are Lord
(44:46):
before you.
Not of our own righteousness,not of our own goodness, lord,
we're not praying because we'regood people.
We're praying because you're agood God.
That's right and, Lord, we justwant to humbly ask you to
forgive, lord, our sins, lord,the sins of this country, lord,
the waywardness that we've had.
Lord in our churches, in ourpulpits, but also in our pews.
(45:09):
Lord, god, we've gone our ownway, we've made up our own minds
to do our own thing and we'vemade you, lord.
We've made you in our own image.
We've decided to worship a Godthat we liked and that things we
didn't like about you, lord, weput them aside and, lord, we've
been very rebellious as apeople, god, we've even risen up
and declared we're not aChristian nation anymore or
(45:32):
never were.
But, lord, we love you and asbrothers in Christ, joining with
all the believers across thisland that are grieved.
God, like Nehemiah, was at thestate Jerusalem was, in that the
walls were down and burned withfire and that no one seemed to
be concerned about it.
Lord, we are concerned about it.
I believe you are concernedabout it, and, god, we pray.
(45:55):
Today, lord, we humbly ask thatyou would visit our families.
Today, lord, we humbly ask thatyou would visit our families,
father, that you would visit ourchurches, that you would visit
the men and women in the pulpits, lord that would preach, we
pray that you would visit, lord,our government.
You would visit, lord, god, thefolks that are running for
public office, those that aregoing to win and those that,
(46:17):
lord, are seeking it.
Lord, we pray that you wouldvisit our schools, our
universities, our collegecampuses.
That you would visit, lord, ourpublic schools and our home
schools and our private schools.
And, lord, that you would visitour places of work, employment.
Lord, that there wouldn't be aplace in our society where the
gospel of Jesus Christ did notgo and that hearts were not
(46:37):
touched where the gospel ofJesus Christ did not go and that
hearts were not touched by thepower of the Holy Spirit, and
that you would not, Lord, lord,that you would draw us back to
you as a people.
God, we are so sorry that wehave failed, lord, as leaders,
as men.
Lord, as followers of Christ.
We've been terrible examples,lord, of you and Lord, we're
(46:59):
truly, truly sorry and we areasking Lord on this National Day
of Prayer and Lord, asfollowers of Christ, we've been
terrible examples, lord, of youand Lord, we're truly, truly
sorry and we are asking Lord onthis National Day of Prayer and
Lord also, as folks are joiningus, lord, on an election day.
God, we are asking you formercy, we're asking you for
grace once again and, lord, thatyou would listen to the cries
of your people, that you wouldvisit from heaven, lord, and
that you would heal our land.
(47:20):
God, that you would visit fromheaven, lord, and that you would
heal our land.
God, that you would forgive usand remove, lord, god, the
scourge of drug addiction, thescourge of addictions to
pornography and sexualperversion, the scourge of abuse
in homes and in marriages anddivorce and all of the horrible
things that are the result, god,of our own waywardness and our
own decisions.
And, lord, we are praying aprayer of faith tonight that,
(47:44):
god, you're going to hear us,that you're going to answer and
that you're going to move.
And we thank you, God, forwhat's happening in the Fight
Club.
Thank you, god, for Lee'swillingness, lord, to step up to
the plate and to lead.
And God, for all of the menthat have been affected by his
decision, by his willingness tobe obedient, lord, all of the
men that have been affected inour community because of him,
(48:05):
and Lord, what an encouragementfor all of us, lord, to step up
to the plate and to do whatyou've called us to do in the
place that you've called us towork, lord, to be obedient to
you, and who knows how manypeople we could see affected for
the good Lord.
So, god, we are believing, you,are expectant and we're excited
to see what you're going to do,and we pray, lord, all of these
(48:26):
things in the precious andpowerful name of Jesus.
Amen, amen.
Lee, it has been a real honorto have you on the show and
Jimmy, as always, it's been alot of fun and, uh, who knows
where these shows are going togo?
Speaker 2 (48:42):
We?
Speaker 1 (48:42):
have no idea, but, uh , I I just believe that that
hopefully that's been a uhsomething to really touch, uh,
touch your heart and encourageyou and uh, strengthen you.
Speaker 2 (48:59):
And also probably Lee's email, probably the best
way to get a hold of him.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
And we'll get that out there for you guys, and as
always, so thank you, gentlemen,you want to close us out?
Speaker 2 (49:08):
Like, subscribe yeah, make sure you like and
subscribe.
Follow us.
We're trying to go live withInstagram and Facebook now, so
put some alerts on so you canwatch these live.
You can get all the outtakesand all the other stuff, that
kind of goes on in thebackground that Lee got to
experience.
Yes, and appreciate you beinghere, and the MCSquared podcast
(49:30):
at gmailcom is our email.
We appreciate you and we'll seeyou the next time.
Speaker 3 (49:34):
See you later.
Bye.
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