March 27, 2025 • 58 mins
In this episode, Rob, Spencer, and Brody recap the Be Strong Men’s Conference from this past weekend, sharing funny stories and impactful moments. They dive into highlights like Rob’s new workshop and meaningful conversations with attendees about faith, struggles, and growth. Spencer and Rob reflect on the connections they made with some men, while Brody discusses the weekend’s theme — staying in the light and finishing strong. Tune in for a blend of humor, honesty, and inspiration!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, so in this episode I got Spencer and Rob on
here today and y'all I'm goingto go ahead and apologize for
where this conversation might go.
We're going to have a follow-upto Be Strong.
We're going to talk about BeStrong, but just welcome to no
Sanity Required.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome to no Sanity Required from the Ministry of
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters.
A podcast about the Bible,culture and stories from around
the globe.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
All right, so we're going to start off with a couple
funny stories, and the reason Iwant to do this is just to get
things going because I don'treally know where to start.
We don't have a notes or anoutline.
We just came out of our BeStrong weekend notes or an
outline.
We just came out of our bestrong weekend and on friday
night I told a story thatcreated so much conversation
(00:52):
around uh, so I think we shouldprobably tell that story now
with y'all's, with y'all's input, because you were both there
when that happened.
I told a story about pooping mypants and I told it to 600 men
on Friday night and it dawned onme and it was in a sermon
illustration and it dawned on methat, men, we are not much
(01:14):
different than middle schoolboys and that pooping your pants
is always funny.
But then it also dawned on methere are men here that have
never been here.
25% of people there have neverbeen here.
I wonder what they werethinking, but it turns out
afterwards I was at one of thecampfires around camp and for 20
minutes guys were telling pooptheir pants stories you're not
(01:35):
alone.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I was out, you know in the uh and the main, you know
in the room uh and the main,you know in the room with
everybody and it was very wellreceived.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Okay, good.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
You know there's always going to be some guys
that are just waiting to beoffended, but the vast majority.
It was like okay, good.
Yeah, you're amongst friends.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Well, I was talking to one guy afterwards because
the whole point I was trying tomake is, when you're laying
there, when you're in your ownfield, then you're like, how did
I get here?
I just need, like, I need somecleansing because I was talking
about okay.
So here's the story.
We're in a meeting, the threeof us, I don't remember.
Okay, where were you sitting inrelation to me?
Speaker 4 (02:25):
across the room.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
You were across the room for me, but you were beside
me I was in the danger zone,okay, yeah and to set this what,
what?
What kind of meeting was this?
Speaker 4 (02:35):
uh, so this is our, this is our l10 meeting, so it's
basically it's the executiveteam, it's all the directors,
and we meet togetherperiodically to kind of discuss
camp business finances, visionfor the future, marketing, all
that sort of stuff Prettyimportant.
Serious meeting yeah seriousmeeting.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
At times, at times.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
But what happened was I had expelled gas and it was
loud, and so the three of usgiggled.
It's funny, because that'sfunny.
I had expelled gas and it wasloud, and so the three of us
giggled.
It's funny.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Because that's funny.
Every time somebody does itit's funny.
And somebody else in themeeting was trying to.
I mean, just didn't break,Didn't break, Just trying to
stay the course, which justmakes it funnier.
It makes it even funnier.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
If everybody would have laughed, it'd probably been
over yeah yeah, but then thatwas so.
Then I thought, well, I justfarted and everybody laughed I
bet, if I fart again, everybodywill laugh again and then I was.
You know, you kind of, you kindof are at the end of yourself,
so you're straining you knowreaching deep yep, and so I get
(03:47):
up.
I'm sitting on my haunches isthat what you call that when
you're squatting?
Sure, and I'm up in the chair.
I mean, I'm almost a 50 yearold man.
When this happens, I'm probably46 and I'm squishing, squeezing
, straining and next thing youknow, there is literally from
the back of the knees to theshoulder blades.
(04:09):
It was explosive.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
From across the room.
All we heard was oh, oh, yep.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
And I believe Rob ran for you couldn't run for the
door.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
No, you were between me and the door.
You couldn't run for the door.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
No, you were between me and the door and it yeah, I,
I started hurtling benches.
It's the fastest I've seen youmove in a while.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I think at one point you were up there was a stack of
chairs, because there's a highwindow in that room and there's
a stack of chairs.
You're up, like like you'regonna go out that window, which
there's nowhere to go, even ifyou could have gotten out, kind
of like people jumping out ofburning buildings, like there's
a better option than to stayhere.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
If I'm going to go, I choose this way.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
So then the story is funny because of a number of
reasons.
There's layers to the humor,but one of them was little and
Tucker.
Tucker was probably 16 at thetime.
16, yeah, I'd say, and he'sdownstairs, let's see.
Yeah, well, you know whatTucker was?
(05:14):
I think a freshman, becauseKilby, that's what they were
downstairs doing.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
They were working on a float.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
They were working on a float for the homecoming thing
Yep, so she's downstairs andthey're down there tucking
Little working on the float.
The homecoming thing?
Yep, so she's downstairs andthey're down.
They're down, they're tuckinglittle working on the float.
Because we're in the upstairsof the barn at camp and they
hear the commotion because tohear little tell it, it's like
so loud because you've gotroaring, laughter, screaming,
people screaming y'all.
(05:40):
I.
I cannot be clear enough that Ihad made a mess, like a baby
makes when they have one ofthose blow-up diapers.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, and it wasn't just that you did it and I ran
away from knowing that it wasinside your pants.
You dropped your pants to showus what had happened.
That's when I yeah, survivalinstincts took over.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yes, okay, so, understandably so.
So then Little comes up to thedoor and by this point I've
stripped down, uh, but I'm likeliterally covered in poop and
little comes to the door andpeeks her head and says what are
you doing?
And I went, I said I pooped mypants and little and tuck seemed
(06:22):
like oh, unmoved it just turns.
That makes sense.
They just turn around and leftlike completely unamused but
also unsurprised.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
As if we were laughing at you sending an email
.
I sent an email.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Oh, no wonder everybody's laughing.
So the point was then I hadnowhere to go, no clothes, no
clean clothes.
So and I, there was this momentwhere I realized I can't clean
myself.
This is between my shoulderblades, right below my shoulder
blades, in the middle of my back.
So I have to go lay in thecreek and scrub my back on
(07:00):
gravel and grit and rocks, andso then I drive home and do the
and get, do the best I can.
So anyway, tell that story.
We're talking about cleansingand how you can't clean yourself
.
There's areas of your life youcan't reach, you know.
So you, you realize, sometimesillustrations over illustrate
(07:21):
and and it's hard to rein itback in.
But then, but I seriously haddudes come up to me and say, oh
no, I'll never forget that, yeah, it's first john 1 9, that, uh,
he's faithful, just to cleanseus was the point I was making.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
So anyway, several guys mentioned it in the surveys
, just like how much thatillustration stuck in their
minds.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, crazy so.
So the summary here for bestrong is grown men at any age
are not so different from 14year old mungus boys.
What was the funny thing?
We're telling that I brought upthat spencer did the bathroom
thing yes, yes yeah, all rightso okay.
(08:04):
So the reason we're we'restarting this by talking about
this is before we startedrecording.
We're sitting around talking.
Spencer has one of the funnieststories.
It kind of I would say it's inthis genre of story that I've
ever heard.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
We can we can keep names anonymous other than
spencer davis okay, uh, so we inthe if you've ever been to camp
we're in the metal buildingcamp and there's only one men's
bathroom, one women's bathroom,and in the men's bathroom
there's only one stall.
And so I was talking to Roboutside the bathroom and I had
to go in there and use thebathroom stall.
(08:41):
And so I walked in.
We're just kind of talking andhe's walking in behind me and I
open up the bathroom stall andsomebody had absolutely
destroyed it.
I mean, just, it was a mess, itwas terrible.
Like you couldn't go to thebathroom in there.
It was just it's so bad.
And so I was so mad because Iknew exactly who it was that had
done it.
And I was like dadgum and I andI'm, you know, just venting to
(09:06):
rob about this person who hadjust blown up the bathroom stall
.
So I was like dad gum, it wasafter work, so there's not, I
mean, there's nobody in themetal building at all.
And, uh, so I'm like, hey, sowe're continuing our
conversation.
I was like I'm just gonna go inthe girls bathroom, come on.
And so we turned the corner andI just kind of, you know,
there's nobody in the in theroom, there's no girls in there
or whatever.
I just open the girls' bathroomdoor slightly and say you know,
(09:26):
are there any girls in here,any girls in here?
I'm coming in?
No response, no response at all.
And so I didn't know.
So I walk into the middle stall, right, so there's three stalls
.
I walk into the middle stalland shut the door.
Well, I didn't know, in thatgirl's bathroom the the like the
(09:47):
walls don't come all the waydown to the floor.
They're very high, like waisthigh.
They're unusually high, wayhigher than the men's bathroom.
But you know, I've never beenin that women's bathroom,
whatever.
And so I walk in and I'm stillkind of mad at the other guy.
I'm like, come, I can't believeyou left that bathroom like
that.
And so I've already done thegirl check, like no girls in
here.
And I'll look over and there'sshoes next to me and in the
(10:07):
stall next to me and I thoughthow in the world did rob get in
here so fast?
He was behind me and I leanedunderneath and said rob, is that
you?
And the kitchen lady said no,and I went oh, my gosh, well,
well, by that time I'm committed.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
I'm already in it side by side, taking a tandem
dump.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
So I saw her that night and I was like hey, real
sorry about earlier and she'slike it's all right, I got sons.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
And I was like.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
I did yell, though I did say are there any girls in
there?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Oh man, I mean to this day, I'll occasionally see
that person.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
And I just start giggling.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Oh man, it is funny how, when you get a group of
guys together around the fire,remember, uh, somebody.
Recently there was a group ofmen at camp.
Group leaders were sittingaround a fire and the one guy
said is all y'all talk about ispoop.
I think you talked to both ofy'all about this separately.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
He did.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
But it is common that that's where the conversation
turns, including when I hadScott Bryson on here, my cousin
who was Secret Service.
I went straight to getting himto tell a couple of funny poop
stories from when he was in theservice.
You know, when Gar Bozeman'sgot some hilarious in-combat
poop stories, one where he'soutside of a Bradley or a Humvee
(11:29):
or something and he's squatteddown by the wheel while pooping
and he realizes bullets arewhizzing and the guys are like,
hey, man, I think they'reshooting at you.
He's dropped trial, he's outthere on the side of a hill in
Afghanistan and they're crackingoff rounds.
So the Be Strong event.
I wanted to just highlight itand kind of get y'all's thoughts
(11:50):
just kind of feedback justwithin this group and then let
everyone else kind of listen into that conversation.
I thought it was.
If I'm not mistaken, it endedup being the biggest one we've
ever done.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Yeah, biggest one, yet it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
And I think that's between.
So it was the mostregistrations.
I also think it was the mostwalk-ins, like from our church,
local guys, I think that, likehow full the room was, reminded
me of summer camp or Fuller.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
Yeah, went all the way to the back.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
We tried something new this year.
We did so the format for BeStrong and I know a lot of our
listeners were in attendance.
But for folks that weren't, orif you've been to a Be Strong in
the past, or if you've neverbeen to one, Be Strong is what
we call our men's conferences.
We do two of them a year and wealways do a series of breakout
(12:44):
sessions.
Breakout sessions are differentfrom main sessions ser two of
them a year and we always do aseries of breakout sessions.
Breakout sessions are differentfrom main sessions sermons,
worship services they'reoptional.
We run those throughout theafternoon.
Guys can go attend them andthey typically have to do with
family stuff, marriage stuff,just manhood stuff.
Spiritual disciplines We've donebreakouts on everything from
having an effective quiet timeto how you lead, manage your
(13:07):
household.
We've done breakouts on blendedfamilies, discipline like not
not spiritual disciplines, buthow do you handle discipline of
your children.
And we tried something new thisyear which was running parallel
to the breakout sessions.
In the afternoon rob did a work.
(13:29):
We call it a workshop.
Uh, I'd like maybe talk alittle bit about that.
Just what your feedback?
The feedback I got was great.
I talked to two guys that satthrough it.
I didn't make it over there.
I had planned on going, andthen I got interviewed by the
french foreign legion.
Uh, there's a guy that showedup at camp we can get into that
too.
There's.
And then I got interviewed bythe French Foreign Legion.
There's a guy that showed up atcamp.
We can get into that too.
There's a guy that showed up atcamp that writes for a
(13:50):
Paris-based publication.
That's something like the NewYork Times.
We didn't know why he was here,but he came as an attendee and
he interviewed me on our view ofmasculinity.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Oh, yeah, very interesting guy.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Super interesting guy .
He's African, he's fromcameroon but grew up in paris,
moved to new york.
He's based out of manhattan butit's a paris publication so he
had been I think he'd been onthe west coast interviewing some
folks out there and kind of thela culture.
So I don't know, we'll seewe'll see.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yeah, I need to follow up an email, make sure he
sends us the article that hewrites.
Yeah, he said he's going towrite an article just on us Like
it's part of a series.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I told Rob there's nothing to hide, nothing.
We don't say on this platform.
But my concern would be more.
If he ends up trying to twistthings, takes it out of context.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Yeah, and I tried to dig into that a little bit.
It was a little evasive, itfelt like my concern would be
more if he ends up trying totwist things.
Yeah, takes it out of context.
Yeah, and I tried to dig intothat a little bit.
It was a little evasive, itfelt like.
But he also, you know, after Irealized what he was doing, you
know, I was aware where he wassitting and he seemed to be
(15:05):
nodding his head in agreement,especially during Zach's
breakout on masculinity, whichwas very clear, very well done,
and he seemed to really enjoythat, yeah, but yeah, so the
workshop you know that was kindof born out of had done a
breakout.
So you know it's supposed to beabout a 30 minute max session
for the college retreat on Biblestudy, attempting to maybe go a
(15:28):
couple steps further than whatwe've done in the past with how
to study the Bible breakoutwhich Spencer's done a few
different versions of.
It's always my favoritebreakout.
It's very clear, very practicaland helpful.
So just trying to think, okay,you know, maybe going a little
bit more into interpretation ofthe text.
(15:49):
And so anyway, I ended up notgetting very far in that
breakout.
You know, spent more time onthe beginning and but it was, it
was good and it got goodfeedback.
And then we did a, an episodetalking about it and your idea
was, you know, maybe for theadult retreats we'd have time to
, where it wouldn't just be asession but be more like a
(16:10):
classroom where there could bediscussion, um, so yeah, that's
what we shot for.
we had about I think it wasbetween 15 and 20 guys came,
total that's awesome a couple ofthem came in a little bit later
, you know, with there's wreckgoing on and other breakouts,
and yeah, I really enjoyed itbecause the way that I formatted
(16:32):
it was, you know, I did like anintro to it was about 25, 30
minutes long, and then I justpicked a passage.
I took Philippians 2 that wewere going to read and then
discuss and with based on theprinciples that I introduced to
them.
And so you know, we had thatfirst time of study and I asked
(16:54):
a question.
Coming out of that it was noone was really saying anything,
and then one person did and thenit just opened the floodgates
and there was so much discussionso we did that for about a half
hour.
And then I did another, uh,half hour of you know a little
bit, um, you know, some moreprinciples, introducing those of
really trying to get themeaning of the text, um, and so
(17:18):
we had another round and thatwent really well.
The discussion was great, yeah,and I had a number of guys that
night the next day come up tome and really appreciated it.
I think it was a little bitmixed.
I think there were some guysthat felt overwhelmed and
freaking from a fire hydrantkind of feeling.
Um, so it's, you know goodfeedback.
(17:38):
You know if we do it againthat's good maybe adjust, but
but overall I thought it was uh,really well received.
I was super encouraged.
There was guys in there thatbased on their answers I thought
one guy might be a pastor.
But then he came up and talkedto me that night and he's a
believer, loves the Lord, not inministry, but just was
(18:01):
articulating that he's beenwanting something like this,
that knew that his study couldgo deeper but just didn't really
know the steps to take.
And so he was saying that and Iwas like man, I thought you
were, I thought you might be,you know somebody who preaches
for a living.
So that was just superencouraging hearing from those
guys.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
I'd talked to one guy at supper.
I sat with him and he was.
He was very encouraged by itand I'd asked him how many
people were there and he said hesaid it wasn't a real big crowd
.
I said, well, we weren'texpecting, nor did we want a
real big crowd.
You know the the format of it.
It's almost better if it'sbecause it's like a lab.
(18:43):
We were hoping it'd be 20-ishor less and he said I think it
was close to 20 probably, but wedidn't record that, did we?
Speaker 3 (18:53):
I think we just recorded it.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
We did record the audio, your audio.
I don't know if we'll put thaton the SWO podcast, the other
podcast that SWO produces, theteaching podcast, but this is a
lot of the content you and Italked about in a two-part
episode here at NSR a couplemonths back, so right after a
college retreat.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
I'll tell you one thing that I you know talking
about dumb stories like we had,you know, opening up.
One of the things that reallyattracted me to camp in general
was that you know that when Icame here, these were guys that
were serious about the lord anduh could laugh at normal things
like reggie and yes, yes, 100like reggie.
(19:36):
So yes, we all right, here'sanother story.
Uh, so we had a at the timecamp had a goat named Reggie.
When I first came to camp itwas 01.
It might have been spring of2000.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, I think it was it was either fall of 2000 or
spring of 01.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
Spring of 01,.
I think it was.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
We're building the wreck shed.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
And so when I came up to camp for the first time, you
know I was really drawn to it.
I was a pretty new Christian,and so what I saw was guys that
were really serious about theirwalk with the Lord, like guys
that actually studied the Biblein the mornings, guys that
actually tried to fight againstsin, and I was so attracted to
that.
Well then this goat comes by,and it's a black goat named
(20:20):
Reggie that they kept pinned upat the metal building and there
was a bulldog on campus namedLeroy, and when I looked up, so
we're just hanging out in thegravel outside the middle
building, and when I looked up,that dog, leroy, was trying to
breed that goat Reggie, andReggie was kicking it right in
the chest and I started dyinglaughing.
(20:41):
And then I was like, whoa, thismight not be that kind of crowd
, like, and I pulled it back,cause I was like, oh, maybe I
shouldn't be laughing at that.
And I looked over and everybodyexploded laughing at it and I
was like, okay, okay, like these, these guys are serious about
the Lord and can laugh at normalstuff you know, stuff that's.
That's funny.
You know, obviously you cantake that way too far, you can
(21:02):
take it over the line, but Iheard a lot of guys this weekend
just being like I didn'trealize how much I needed that.
Not only the emphasis on theword, but just hanging out and
fellowship and laughing withguys.
I probably heard three or fourguys say I signed up for this
but I didn't realize how much Ineeded it needed to unwind,
(21:25):
unpack the word, but then justlaugh with other guys.
That was cool.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
And you know I'm the first to raise my hand that you
know, I get convicted over whereI let my sense of humor go, but
I think what you're talkingabout and hopefully what people
feel when they get here, isthere's not a facade.
I remember the Lord saved mewhen I was 18.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Went to a mega church in the area and felt very out
of place.
But I was so drawn to thepreaching and I knew I wanted to
be around Christians but it was, you know, definitely not the
neighborhood I was living in,like most people that went to
that church and I rememberfeeling out of place, like I
went.
I went out because all I hadwas jeans and t-shirts.
(22:15):
Surprising, I've gone back tothat.
Yep, it's a good system but Iremember going out and buying,
like I bought a sweater vest.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
Yes, sir oh, where's that?
Speaker 3 (22:27):
been.
It's probably still in my mom'scloset, but but I had, uh, yeah
, I was.
Just I felt so out of place,felt, you know, like I came in
looking scruffy and and justtrying to.
Everything is brand new, so I'mtrying to fit into this world
and never really felt like I fitin there socially at all.
(22:48):
And then I went to college at.
Liberty, which I'm very thankfulfor, but that was I mean as
well, and that was during thedress code days where you had to
wear a shirt and tie.
But I was constantly asking atboth places, asking people if
they would disciple me, becauseI knew that was something.
Um, and just some guy, mostpeople just turned me down or
(23:14):
you know, or they gave me a bookto read and I just remember I
was seeing like the way thatpeople would act in worship
services and then how they wouldact outside of that and there
was such a divide and I rememberlike I'd come out of a worship
service and I just want to talkabout the sermon I was you know,
everything's new to me and Ijust loved the.
(23:34):
Lord and wanted to like talkabout it and people like I
remember like feeling howuncomfortable people were and
you know, it wasn't until likethe following year, I ended up
on a dorm with Zach and Spencerand, like they, really, I
remember when it dawned on methat they had been discipling me
because it was just so naturaland it was just good
(23:56):
relationships and friendshipsand we joke around.
You could joke around and talkabout the Lord and it would just
flow back and forth, and then Icame that first summer 2001 to
work at camp and it was the samething.
It was like I just rememberthinking, yeah, this is real,
like you know, because all I'dseen to that point was people
who would preach and thendisappear and, like you couldn't
(24:19):
interact with.
I remember I set up a meetingwith some of the campus pastors
and I walked away feeling likethe whole time I talked to them
the vibe I was getting is thiskid's wasting my time.
And it was stuff to me that wasimportant.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
And then I came to camp and it was like man, that's
real.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
And initially maybe a little like okay, like
recalibrating, because I wastrying to suppress sense of
humor and what was appropriate.
Not that we perfected that, butI enjoy it very much.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
And like I think guys feel that when they come that
it's not like there's not aseparation of our relationship
with the Lord from the rest ofour lives, and I think that that
is like like that's freeing andrefreshing yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Yes, I think guys, a lot of guys, they do.
They get here and they go.
Here's an illustration to whatyou're saying, rob.
I grew up playing basketball,loved basketball, loved football
.
It's the two sports.
I played baseball when I was alittle boy, you know, but loved
those two sports and there was apoint where you realize I
(25:35):
cannot play in the NBA.
That's never going to happen,it's not attainable.
And even one of my best friendsand college teammates was a guy
named Jody Chapman and, uh, wecall him Chap.
I talked to him, he texted meevery morning.
I got a text from him.
This morning I haven't seen him.
I see him once a year, maybe atchurch, when I'm speaking at
(25:57):
his church, but he texts aboutevery morning praying for you.
Today, pretty cool.
But he's, you know, he's 6'8",6'9", played small forward,
could shoot the three Phenomenalbasketball player.
And and he had a tag.
He had a personalized tag.
You know the license platewhere you get your own.
(26:18):
It said one day NBA.
And I was always like I don'twant to ride around.
I remember driving his car acouple times, like you know.
But he really believed it.
You know, he, he and he didn't.
He did not make it to the NBA,but he did have.
I think he could have.
Potentially he definitely had anopportunity to play in Europe,
but by the end he was gettingmarried.
(26:39):
He wanted to settle.
He's like I won't be done withthat.
The point being, when stephcurry came along and people, you
don't have to be a basketballfan to to get where I'm going
with this.
So it's cool if you don'tunderstand basketball.
Steph curry's an nba star whois the all-time three-point
leader in in the nba.
(26:59):
So he has hit morethree-pointers than anybody else
in history and is continuing tobuild on that record.
I doubt it will get brokenanytime soon.
So he comes along and playscollege ball at a little school
called Davidson, takes them tothe Final Four.
He's not a big guy by NBAstandards.
He's 6'3" 6'4", which by NBAstandards is really small.
(27:22):
And when he really storms ontothe scene in the NBA, he gives
high school players somethingthat they can strive towards,
because to that point it wasLeBron James or Michael Jordan
and you're like I can't do thatI can't be 6'8" 275.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
And with a 40-inch vertical I can't do that.
Yeah, I can't be 6'8" 275.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
And with a 40-inch vertical, I can't do that.
I can be 6'3".
Work on my fundamental skills,master ball handling and master
shooting the ball.
Anybody can do that.
And so then, all of a sudden,the game of basketball changes
to where our kids are playing ina basketball world that's not
(28:05):
like the one we played in.
Everybody shoots the three,everybody, everybody, everybody
has patterned their game afterSteph Curry.
It's the first, it's the firstNBA all-star that's come along
that people are going oh, I cando what he does.
Now, people can't do as good ashim, but it gives you something
to strive towards.
And I think there's a disconnectwith most quote unquote
professional pastors andministry leaders, where people
(28:26):
are like, yeah, but that's.
I said on Friday night to kickit off, I said there's two
mistakes I think people makewhen there's two.
There's two lights that peopleput pastors in.
One is yep, you're aprofessional Christian.
I can't, I'll never be able todo what you do, read what you
read, study what you study,understand and know what you
know.
Or they put you in a differentcategory of you're probably a
(28:47):
hypocrite because they've seenpastors that were in charge of
big ministries come out in themedia or the news that they were
having an affair or they hadstolen money.
So people have these two weirdcategories either unattainable
Like I love John MacArthur, butI can't imagine sitting down and
hanging out with him andcutting up and telling jokes and
doing what we do he feelsunattainable.
(29:09):
But then there's the guy likeRobert Morris, the pastor in
Texas that just got arrestedbecause he's messed with a
12-year-old or whatever.
And you're like these, weird.
And so I think when people cometo be strong, men come to be
strong, and the people thatlisten to this podcast and that
interact with us, they realizethese are just dudes.
These are just normal dudes.
Live normal lives, have normalstruggles.
(29:31):
We're just before we turn thison, we were having a
conversation about we're toyingwith the idea of getting dumb
phones because we get distractedby the internet.
I get distracted by huntingvideos, gun videos, fitness
videos, blah, blah, blah, blah,blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and
political video.
You know like I need to removesome distractions and start
carrying a book around so thatwhen I've got an extra 10
(29:52):
minutes I'll open up a paperback, even if it's a fiction.
You know, yeah, we strugglewith the same thing everybody
else struggles with.
That's right, and I think thatcomes through at Be Strong and
that's what goes along with whaty'all are both saying.
I'd like to have, maybe talk.
Let's each share anonymouslyone or two interactions you had
(30:15):
with men that I think I'd liketo kind of share some examples
of interactions we had justwhere guys are at, where guys
were struggling coming in thisweekend.
Is there a conversation or asituation that stood out to
either one of y'all withsomebody you interacted with?
Maybe somebody you already knew, maybe somebody you'd never met
?
Speaker 2 (30:33):
Yeah, yeah, the ones that are fresh on my mind.
Well, one.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
You directed somebody to come talk to me.
He was sharing, you know, tocome talk to me.
He was sharing, you know, andhe's a granddad, I believe.
Yeah, his granddad, you knowstarted sharing stuff that
happened to him, you know, whenhe was a kid, that I could
relate to.
You know some abuse from hispast and you know, an older man
(31:03):
had taken advantage of him andyou know an older man had taken
advantage of him and you knowsuper painful and raw still, you
know.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
And just getting to listen to his story and you know
the things that.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
I had to share with him that have been really
helpful for me, just in myrelationship with the Lord and
the healing and where you know,for me it's only when I have
opportunity to minister tosomebody in a similar situation
that I really think about it.
You know, and a lot of times Itell people, man for me.
(31:38):
Now I'll get emotional talkingabout it, but only in so much as
, like when I'm fresh, rememberGod's grace over that situation
more than like any pain or or,you know, hurt from that I often
say it's more like I'm watchinga movie when I'm remembering,
(32:01):
it's like something that Iremember, but I'm so
disconnected from it and, um, asfar as like how it has affected
me.
Um, and so just getting to sharethat with him and hear his
story and that's what most of itwas was just man, he just
needed somebody to talk to thathe would know.
Like there's no judgment here.
(32:22):
There's no like I'm gonna startlooking at you differently, um,
you know, and so that that'salways you know an honor to be
in a conversation like that,that somebody would trust you
Speaker 1 (32:33):
you know, and so that that was one that I believe he
said uh, when he came and talkedto me, what triggered that was
the episode, the podcast episodefrom a couple weeks ago, where
we talked about a guy who was apredator.
And when he came to me he hadtexted me and said hey, when I'm
there at Be Strong, I talked toyou for a few minutes about
(32:53):
that episode of NSR.
And when we started talking hesaid the only other person that
knows this is my wife, whichpraise the Lord.
And I told him only otherperson that knows this is my
wife, which praise the lord.
And I told him man, I'm gladyou shared this with your wife,
yeah, at some point.
So that's a big.
I mean, you're talking about aguy that has been carrying
something for over 40 years andhe's now brought it into the
(33:14):
light with a brother yeah, andand I'm I'm sure he'll listen to
this one, you knowand I think, if any, it has
changed the way I looked at him,but only for the positive, like
yeah, you respect that a lotand even just hearing how god's
grace in his life you know isawesome yeah, and I would just
say, because he will listen tothis and he knows who he is and
(33:37):
just know, uh, we as brothersare praying for you and we're
thankful for you and we're proudof you for taking that step.
Satan wants to keep stuff inthe dark, man.
He wants to keep it in the darkand when you bring it into the
light, light and darkness haveno fellowship.
That's part of the text I spokeFriday night.
So, anyway, we're proud of youand thankful for you, and
(34:00):
thankful that you would let usshare in that part of your
journey Any that stood out foryou, and thankful that you would
let us share in that part ofyour journey.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
Any that stood out for you, Spence yeah, I had one
conversation with a guy that Ilove a lot.
He's been coming around for along time.
He's a brother and he's beenfaithful and really seeking the
Lord for a long time and I'vegot a lot of appreciation for
him and he'll listen to this too.
Uh, and he'll listen to this too.
Um, and you know, when he came,he kinda he kinda fallen into
(34:28):
the same ruts.
He'd been in for a long timeand, to be honest, he's been
struggling with the same stufffor about six years or so and
we've had similar conversationsthe last six times he's come up.
And you know, uh, he knows heknows this I was aggressive with
him.
You know I was as aggressivewith him as I've been with with
(34:48):
any other guy and one.
One of the issues that he'sstruggling with is is, uh,
looking at porn on his phone.
And you know, I, I, I had somesolutions kind of like hey man,
have you tried ABCDE?
And you know he kind of cameback with well, here's some
hurdles, here's why I can't walkin victory to that.
You know I need my phone forwork.
I, you know I got the apps onit to connect to.
(35:09):
You know, jobs I've got to getdone and things like that.
And that's where, you know, Ikind of got aggressive with him.
I was like I was like great,then you shouldn't come back
Like this, this thing is owningyou and your every solution I
bring, you're bringing um,you're bringing hurdles to it
and if you want out of this, theLord's mercies are new every
(35:29):
morning and your life can be ahundred percent different by
nightfall tonight, like ifyou're not happy with your job,
the place you live, the habits.
You have changed them.
Like you, you have power tochange what's in your pocket
that's dominating you know, likeand um, yeah, he knows if he's
(35:49):
listening to this, you know Iwas hard on you, uh, and he,
he's a brother, we've built thatequity over years of
relationship.
And to his credit, man, he, hecomes back the next day and it's
like hey, man, are you right, Icalled my boss on a Saturday.
He's like I called my boss andsaid, hey, I'm not going to have
my phone anymore, so whateverwe need to do.
And his boss was like cool.
(36:09):
And so you know, to me, firstoff, credit to the Lord for
doing that work in this guy'sheart, to where he was open
enough to share that struggleagain, because it'd be easy to
come year six and be like, oh,we're good, you know some
struggles, you know, but justkeep it real vague.
But like, praise the Lord thathe caused this guy to be open
(36:30):
again, cause that's where a lotof us are like all right, I've
confessed this in the past, youknow.
I'll just say generally, I'mdoing all right you know, but
the Lord caused him to be open.
And then, uh for him, for himnot to push back strength
against strength, cause I didcome at him pretty hard but he
went back and kind of humbledhimself and like, prayed through
it and took action and actuallygot over a lot of those hurdles
(36:53):
that he'd been putting in hisown way for a long time and told
his boss, hey, I'm not happyand maybe to the risk of his job
, I'm not carrying a phone, I'mnot going to do it because of my
relationship with the Lord.
And I'm like, yeah, that guy isa guy who is struggling to try
to be like Jesus and to me likethat was a big success story and
you know, you know who you are.
(37:14):
If you're listening to this man, I love you, I'm proud of you
for that for sure, because youknow that really was job on the
line, potential things, but youknow, in that moment, saying
faithfulness is more importantthan my job, I'm like, heck,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Man, that's encouraging.
Yeah, yes, I had a guy.
I had multiple conversationsthis weekend with guys that are
struggling in their marriage.
I can think of four, three orfour, I think four.
I can think of four one-on-oneconversations I had with guys
(37:50):
that are struggling in theirmarriage and one of the guys I
already knew two of the guys Ihad never met and one of them I
had met a few years ago.
He came to be strong Justrealizing in a crowd that big,
there's a whole lot of unhealthymarriages represented in the
room and I think for thosebrothers, hopefully they had
(38:13):
some good accountabilityinteraction.
You know, one of the things Icounseled with each of those
guys was hey, man, you can onlycontrol what you can control.
Your wife may be so frustratedwith you now, or y'all may be so
at odds that this is just whereyou're at, but you need to
embrace the responsibility thatGod's called a man to embrace.
(38:34):
So that was just some coolconversations like that.
But I had one conversation thatstood out to me.
A guy walks up to me, I'mtalking to Lailie.
My 19-year old daughter hadswung by.
This was right before supper onSaturday evening and I'm out in
front of the coop and she'dswung by camp.
She'd come in from school and Ididn't know she was coming in.
(38:55):
So I was real excited.
I saw her get out of the carand I went, went over there and
you know, was talking to her andI realized a guy's waiting to
talk to me.
I turn around to walk away fromLaylee and this guy is standing
there and and and I said, hey,man, you never know, am I
supposed to know this person?
A lot of times I feel like Ishould know this person, but
(39:17):
maybe I don't, maybe I should,maybe I shouldn't, I don't know.
And you don't want people tofeel like if you should know
them, you don't want to.
It's just hard.
But we've learned.
You don't bluff, don't act likeyou know somebody if you don't.
So I just said you were speakingand I won't say the place, but
(39:40):
it was for a denominationalevent.
It was, I think, about a dozenor so churches maybe 18 churches
at a conference center severalyears ago in another state doing
a session on man.
It was an event like Be Strongkind of biblical masculinity and
what it was one of the churches.
An event like Be Strong kind ofbiblical masculinity and what
it was one of the churches hascome to Be Strong several times
and so they brought us intotheir denominational regional
(40:03):
gathering or whatever.
So it was like a Friday nightand a Saturday event.
And he said he said my wifemade me go to that and she had
grown up coming to SWO and saidI think if you'll go to that and
we we she had grown up comingto SWO and said I think if
you'll go to this, I saw wherethis guy from SWO is, from
Snowbirds can be speaking.
I think you'll connect with him,you can listen this guy, you'll
(40:24):
enjoy it.
It's not gonna be weird, it'snot gonna be awkward, it'll be
very easy for you to listen to.
This guy works in construction,in the construction field.
Non-college educated but butsharp dude, very professional,
makes a good living in theconstruction world working with
general contractors.
So a dude.
You know, I think a lot of menare scared.
(40:45):
A lot of dudes are scared tocome to Be Strong because
they're like, is this going tobe?
Like we got to hug each otherand it's going to be super
emotional and it's just, it'snone of those things.
It each other and it's going tobe super emotional and and it's
just, it's none of those things, just it's just facts, you know
.
So he said.
He said I came to this thingjust because my wife wanted me
(41:05):
to.
And he said it changed my life,changed my marriage, changed my
view of work, parenting, beinga dad.
So he's a dad to some smallkids, he's got young kids and he
said that was I think it waslike three, three years ago or
four, three, four years ago.
He said it literally changed mylife and so he's been back to
be strong a couple times.
He's been to two or three bestrongs.
Him and his wife have been tothe marriage retreat and but he
(41:26):
just briefly shared and I saidman, I'd like to hear more.
Are you going to go in and eatsupper?
So we just went in and sat downand ate, which is another thing
that I think is cool about SWOis everybody here is accessible
to everybody.
So I got to sit down and have ameal with the guy and hear just
what God's done in his life.
(41:47):
There's no real struggles Imean the struggles that we all
have.
But he wasn't like his marriageis in crisis, his kid's turning
away, he's got kids like six,four and two or something like
that, and him and his wife aredoing pretty well and works good
and he's praying about does theLord want me to go and to be
more involved in ministry?
And we talked about lay leading.
You know, as a layman in thechurch, it was so encouraging.
(42:10):
But this guy said, yeah, Ididn't care about the things of
God, I was just kind of likegoing to church, I come to this
men's event.
It changed my life and I saidwho'd you go there with?
He said nobody.
I didn't know a single person.
I went to appease my wife satthrough those sessions and it
changed my life.
So that was very encouraging.
Yeah, a guy's name is Sean.
Shout out, sean, I Appreciateyou.
(42:31):
You blessed me a lot.
I don't know if you realize youwere the blessing in that
conversation.
I was the one that received theblessing.
So thanks for sharing that.
Yeah, but a lot of goodconversations, a lot of hard
conversations, for sure, forsure.
A lot of cool networking.
There's a guy named Brian.
Brian and his wife came to amarriage retreat, marriage
(42:52):
conference back in October.
I met them there Me and Littlesat across from them at supper
and Brian and his wife, whitneyare from Mount Airy, north
Carolina, and I'd made an AndyGriffith reference marriage
retreat and they said, hey,we're from Mayberry, that's
(43:15):
where Andy Griffith, that'swhere he was from.
And uh, we started talking.
So I ended up and they, theyjust come to snowbird on the
recommendation of a friend.
They wanted to get away, go dosomething marriage related.
They've been married 20 someyears.
Let's go somewhere close by.
We don't have to go too farfrom home.
They came, they didn't.
They've never been to snowbird,didn't know anything about us.
Lord really used that weekend.
I I ended up on the phone withBrian the next week.
(43:36):
He was serving as a.
He had served as a children'spastor and had been in another
role at his, at their homechurch, but really felt had felt
called to pastor.
And so we ended up on the phonethe next week for about an hour
one night and he, he's lookingat church planting.
So I introduced him by text toMike Talley, one of our board
(43:56):
members, who's a church planterin Denver, colorado, and John G
Tate.
John G is in Virginia and hasplanted multiple churches out of
the original plant BedrockChurch and so networking guys.
Well then, I've kept up withhim through the last six months
and he's there in the processwith NAM, north American Mission
Board to plant, with Send NC toplant within the state of North
(44:17):
Carolina.
He wants to hometown plant,that's cool.
In Surry County, north Carolina.
Well, timmy Burnett is a friendof ours, a pastor brother, who
felt really called to.
He's a bivocational pastor whoplanted in his hometown which is
just north of Asheville on theBunkum bunk of Madison County
line, to plant in the mountainsamong mountain people.
You know Asheville churchplanting has been huge in
(44:40):
Asheville in the last 25 yearsbut it's all been sort of
targeting the young, the REIcrowd and Timmy was like I want
to plant among mountain people.
There's still small town andsmall community feel in these
mountain communities aroundAsheville.
So he planted close to home.
So Brian comes up to me I saidhey, there's a guy here you got
to meet and I see Timmy backthere.
(45:01):
Did you see?
Timmy had a blaze orange hat on.
He had a soda snowbird patch onit.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
It was awesome.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
I was like, hey, we need some of those hats so Timmy
and Brian connect.
And now they're connected, bothNorth Carolina church planters.
That's cool.
Timmy will be able to kind ofmentor and help Brian.
So there's a cool networkingstory that came out of Be Strong
.
That's cool.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
It was cool seeing guys like Timmy, who are
bivocational or full-timepastors that were here at Be
Strong up until late Saturdaynight, and then a lot of these
guys were like hey, man, I gotto preach, I'm out of here.
I got to preach on Sundaymorning but they came and
they're with their guys and thentook off late Saturday or early
Sunday to go preach in theirchurches.
That was a cool little subplot.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Jeff Martin did that.
Yeah, jeff Martin did it.
It was in Johnson City and Isaw him Saturday afternoon late.
He said man, I hate it, I gotto preach both services tomorrow
.
Love pastors like that.
It was cool.
We had a lot of guys here withtheir sons.
(46:05):
Had a lot of guys here thatserved in years past on SWO
staff.
Guys served 15, 20 years ago.
They're here attending BeStrong.
We got Sovereign Hope churcheshere and that lead pastor, adam
Benson, is a close friend of allof ours, a guy we have a lot of
respect for.
He planted and that church isgrowing and a lot of their men
were here and a lot of new faces, a lot of new churches, new
(46:29):
faces, new people.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
Yeah, I was really surprised when we asked them to
raise their hand if this wastheir first time.
There was a ton of guys.
It felt like just from lookingout on the stage, it felt like
over half the crowd, but atschool it feels like the
opposite.
But just because there's somany, guys that have been coming
for years, that just becomegood friends and they just keep
(46:53):
bringing folks yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
The theme, the teaching focus, and I, they just
keep bringing folks.
Yeah, the, uh, the theme, theteaching focus.
And and I would just againencourage y'all to go listen to
all the sessions we'll have themon the the snowbird outfitters
podcast.
Um, our, our other podcast,which covers all of our teaching
content.
Uh, the theme was, uh, life ofthe apostles, or teaching
content.
The theme was Life of theApostles, or just the Apostles.
(47:18):
The theme was the Apostles, andFriday night I opened up with 1
John, 1, 5 through 10, which isthat contrast of light and
darkness can't have fellowship.
So as believers we've got towork and fight to stay in the
light and the way we do that isthrough confession.
But if we'll live as men ofconfession, both in confessing
our sins and confession of theLordship of Christ, and that
(47:42):
through that there's a constantcleansing.
And we looked at sanctification, felt like that was a need for
men, like the guy you're talkingabout, spence, that feel like
man.
I keep going back to the samething.
It's the Roman seven struggle.
I keep going back to the samething and it's like we'll just
keep confessing and just keepreceiving the cleansing power of
(48:04):
the blood of Jesus.
And then Saturday morning lookedat those last words of Paul in
second Timothy, chapter four,where he's writing that last
letter, and we've chopped thatup a hundred different ways over
the years.
It'd be strong because it'sthat kind of passage.
There's so many angles you cantake on it.
There's so many like you canfocus in on one of the names in
the passage or one of thephrases in the passage and, um,
(48:26):
I looked back as I was preparingthat message.
I looked back and I hadpreached three different sermons
, all different there.
Yeah, on that, that text.
But one of the things I reallywanted to highlight was that
moment where he asks for JohnMark because he's useful for
ministry, and that was a bigredemptive moment because that
was a guy that abandoned Pauland then Paul wouldn't allow him
(48:48):
to serve alongside of him for along season.
And then Saturday night, spence, you brought a message on
Paul's last interaction with theleaders of the church at
Ephesus on the beach.
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 4 (49:03):
Yeah, and that one man that affected me a lot
personally, because it was, youknow that centering around it's
Acts 20, and in verse 24, hesays something like I don't
consider my life of any value.
If only I can finish the course.
And to me it was just man.
It was so impactful all weekthinking about I don't count my
(49:24):
life, my comfort, money, of anyvalue.
The only value is sharpeneddown to finishing the course is
proclaiming the gospel, and itwas super challenging for me
personally.
And then, you know, just tothink, one of the sub points of
the sermon was talking about howmuch Paul had accomplished in
such a short time and it waslike okay, he wrote Romans in
(49:46):
this three month span and thenhe basically evangelized all of
Asia within this two year spanand it made me just sit and
think okay, three months ago,what am I doing?
It was New Year's.
Paul wrote Romans in this timespan.
What have I done in threemonths, and even two years ago,
I think?
In March of 23, paul hadevangelized a continent.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
A con Before there was technology.
Speaker 4 (50:11):
Yeah, it was just so challenging to me to think about
.
Obviously, he's driven by theHoly Spirit as an apostle, but
to think about what a lifethat's so sharpened down to such
a point of faithfulness.
Faithfulness, finish the course, the gospel yeah, it was really
challenging to me personally.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
Good, I loved it.
Sunday morning John Rouleauspoke.
He took us through the text,also another one that we've done
a lot through the years.
It's kind of a go-to SWO text.
He's even taught on that textbefore, but it was from a
different angle where afterJesus has resurrected and the
(50:50):
disciples are by themselves andthey go fishing and Jesus
appears to them.
And I had several guys come upto me and say, man, that sermon
this morning was exactly for me.
It's just neat how many guyswould say they would resonate
with a breakout or aconversation or one sermon, or
one point in one sermon.
(51:10):
It happens so much and then,yeah, but John did a phenomenal
job with that.
I liked, I loved his firstpoint.
The first point was don't lookback.
Don't look back, just quitlooking back.
And I think that for a lot ofdudes, a lot of guys look back
either at the glory days or witha defeatist mindset.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
I just keep doing this.
Speaker 1 (51:37):
Don't look back, look forward.
Keep your eyes on jesus.
I love that first point.
And then breakouts.
We had hank, zach and sean allteach breakouts and, uh yeah,
zack's was phenomenal and inzack's, just fyi z Zach's
breakout was exactly what any ofus would teach.
It was more of a snowbird.
(51:58):
This is where snowbird stands.
This is what we teach.
This is what we align withscripture.
On masculinity, we've alltaught every point in that
breakout before and I love thatthere's like a cohesion to our
mindset when it comes to what isbiblical masculinity.
Even when I was talking to thatreporter and he said you know he
starts off by the firstquestion.
We sit down at the metalbuilding.
The first question is what doyou say is masculinity?
(52:21):
And I was like all I can thinkof is that one thing where he
got that one video where thatafrican news reporter goes are
you gay?
Why are you gay?
Y'all know, have you seen it?
Have you seen it?
Why are you gay?
Why do you say I'm gay?
Who says I am gay?
You are gay.
It's one of the best videos onall of the internet.
(52:44):
Um, but like we sit down andthe guy goes um, what is
masculinity.
And I was like, uh, did you?
I said now, did you listen tozach's breakout?
He said, yeah, I did.
And I said that's literally ourministry, that's what we've
taught.
I said hours of content on NSR,hours of teaching content.
We've all taught that samebasic outline, obviously a
(53:08):
little different when each guyteaches it, but it's 80%, 80%,
90%, same content.
I was like that's it.
So I would encourage you to goback through that breakout and
listen to it again when it postsnext week.
And then he said what is thedifference?
But what is, how would youdefine taking dominion, not
(53:31):
being toxic masculinity?
And I said well, zach, explainthat not being toxic masculinity
.
And I said well, zach, explainthat.
He said he differentiatedbetween being domineering and
taking dominion.
And I said but what I said tohim was I don't entertain the
phrase toxic masculinity.
That is a phrase that was coinedby a certain socio-political
(53:52):
faction of our culture and I'mnot going to use their
terminology.
What we believe is that Goddesigned masculinity, god
designed marriage, god designedsexuality.
There are various varyingperversions of that, and so if
we're going to take masculinity,one perversion of it would be
an abuser.
Another perversion would besomeone who abdicates
(54:14):
responsibility.
There's different perversions.
I'm not going to, I'm not gonnagive credence to the phrase
toxic masculinity and so, um,just unpacking that with him was
good because and he was, youknow there's a language barrier
there.
English is in his firstlanguage and it was cool seeing
him go.
Okay, I get it, I'm trackingwith that.
It was a good conversation, itwas a good dialogue and it was
(54:35):
good to be able to justreference back to that.
Speaker 3 (54:38):
Yep, that's cool.
I didn't realize.
I had the same conversation andhe used that term.
I was like I don't like to usethat.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (54:47):
Because I mean, really, where it got steamed was
people using it, but reallyattacking biblical masculinity
it, but really attackingbiblical masculinity.
But uh, it was there.
So he, he, uh, after zach'sbreakout, which he was nodding
at a lot of it.
But he, he said, how is joerogan an example of biblical
masculinity?
And I was like oh well, uh, Iwould say he's not but zach
(55:11):
referenced, but he hadreferenced him in that.
How many guys you know,whatever 18 to probably 30,
something resonate with.
Speaker 4 (55:22):
Joe.
Speaker 3 (55:22):
Rogan, but just because he's definitively
masculine.
Speaker 4 (55:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (55:25):
So he's using that as an example but saying but it's
not biblical masculinity.
That's right, yeah, so I wasglad he asked that.
So it doesn't put in thearticle that we looked at Joe
Rogan.
Speaker 1 (55:36):
As an example of biblical masculinity.
Yeah, I think Zach had a list.
It was like Rogan Jocko, davidGoggins.
It was a group of guys and hesaid why are these guys blowing
up?
Why is this who everybodylistens to?
And it's because young men.
That resonates with them.
But we have the blueprint forit.
God's the one that designed itAnything, but we have the
blueprint for it.
God's the one that designed it.
(55:57):
Anything else y'all can thinkof.
Andy crushed it again.
The food was phenomenal.
Yes, cowboy butter, Cowboybutter On steak.
Yes, was impressive.
Speaker 4 (56:11):
Not for you.
I didn't get it.
I didn't see the cowboy butter.
Speaker 3 (56:18):
What's in it.
So what he did?
I went back I was like where'sthe cowboy butter?
And he had already like glazedit glazed it, and then he gave
me a big scoop of it, but yeah,it's just butter with like
basically everything in yourpantry I spiced up butter, okay,
melted and drizzled over your?
Speaker 4 (56:35):
yeah, it was.
It was gone or put up by thetime I got through, because I
came in, came through late.
I spiced up butter melted anddrizzled over your meat.
I'm down with that.
Yeah, it was gone or put up bythe time I got through, because
I came through late.
Speaker 1 (56:44):
But that steak was so good.
Oh my gosh, he does such agreat job.
I'll tell you, vanity ofvanities, I didn't get any
steaks Friday night because Iwas preaching and I had finished
I told Rob I didn't come to the4 o'clock meeting because I was
literally in the like at 3.30.
I was like I got to stop now orpower through, and I powered
through until about 4.30.
And I had Friday night stuffready, but at that point I was
(57:08):
about 60 or 70% done forSaturday morning.
I was like I need to at leastwork on Saturday morning's talk.
I was like I need to at leastwork on saturday morning's talk.
I was like I'm not gonna, if I,because you know, if you go eat
it's a two-hour commitmentbecause you can't not talk to
folks.
It's like I need to get throughmy teaching stuff and you know.
So I ate the next, the nextrest of the meals from from
lunch saturday, supper saturday.
(57:28):
But I heard the steak wasawesome uh, it was, it was same
thing.
I didn't eat the second nightbecause, uh, getting ready to
speak, but the steak wasmemorable I think the the thing
with the steak that's soimpressive too is it wasn't a
ribeye.
It's like, yeah, I don't knowwhat cut it was, but it but he,
I mean, he called it somethingfancy.
(57:49):
Yeah, it's like a shoulder cut.
Yeah, yeah, but man, I heard Imean everybody raved about it.
When you get that many guysbragging on meat yeah, because
guys are critical, right, guysare meat critics.
So, all right, we'll wrap thatup and, uh, thank y'all for
listening and I hope that, ifyou're not already thinking
about it, you'll be thinkingabout coming to be strong next
(58:11):
september.
That's our next one.
And then also, uh, husbands andwives, we do still offer a
marriage conference in Octoberand for you ladies that listen
to NSR, if you're not alreadysigned up, our women's
conference is in April.
So be sure and come to that.
Our wives will be leading thatand super involved in that.
She had just a few spots leftand they will go.
It'll be full, so hope you canmake it.
Speaker 2 (58:37):
And we'll see you next week.
Thanks for listening to nosanity required.
Please take a moment tosubscribe and leave a rating.
It really helps.
Visit us at swoutfitterscom tosee all of our programming and
resources, and we'll see younext week on no sanity required.
Okay, so in this episode I got Spencer and Rob on
here today and y'all I'm goingto go ahead and apologize for
where this conversation might go.
We're going to have a follow-upto Be Strong.
We're going to talk about BeStrong, but just welcome to no
Sanity Required.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome to no Sanity Required from the Ministry of
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters.
A podcast about the Bible,culture and stories from around
the globe.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
All right, so we're going to start off with a couple
funny stories, and the reason Iwant to do this is just to get
things going because I don'treally know where to start.
We don't have a notes or anoutline.
We just came out of our BeStrong weekend notes or an
outline.
We just came out of our bestrong weekend and on friday
night I told a story thatcreated so much conversation
(00:52):
around uh, so I think we shouldprobably tell that story now
with y'all's, with y'all's input, because you were both there
when that happened.
I told a story about pooping mypants and I told it to 600 men
on Friday night and it dawned onme and it was in a sermon
illustration and it dawned on methat, men, we are not much
(01:14):
different than middle schoolboys and that pooping your pants
is always funny.
But then it also dawned on methere are men here that have
never been here.
25% of people there have neverbeen here.
I wonder what they werethinking, but it turns out
afterwards I was at one of thecampfires around camp and for 20
minutes guys were telling pooptheir pants stories you're not
(01:35):
alone.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I was out, you know in the uh and the main, you know
in the room uh and the main,you know in the room with
everybody and it was very wellreceived.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Okay, good.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
You know there's always going to be some guys
that are just waiting to beoffended, but the vast majority.
It was like okay, good.
Yeah, you're amongst friends.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Well, I was talking to one guy afterwards because
the whole point I was trying tomake is, when you're laying
there, when you're in your ownfield, then you're like, how did
I get here?
I just need, like, I need somecleansing because I was talking
about okay.
So here's the story.
We're in a meeting, the threeof us, I don't remember.
Okay, where were you sitting inrelation to me?
Speaker 4 (02:25):
across the room.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
You were across the room for me, but you were beside
me I was in the danger zone,okay, yeah and to set this what,
what?
What kind of meeting was this?
Speaker 4 (02:35):
uh, so this is our, this is our l10 meeting, so it's
basically it's the executiveteam, it's all the directors,
and we meet togetherperiodically to kind of discuss
camp business finances, visionfor the future, marketing, all
that sort of stuff Prettyimportant.
Serious meeting yeah seriousmeeting.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
At times, at times.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
But what happened was I had expelled gas and it was
loud, and so the three of usgiggled.
It's funny, because that'sfunny.
I had expelled gas and it wasloud, and so the three of us
giggled.
It's funny.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Because that's funny.
Every time somebody does itit's funny.
And somebody else in themeeting was trying to.
I mean, just didn't break,Didn't break, Just trying to
stay the course, which justmakes it funnier.
It makes it even funnier.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
If everybody would have laughed, it'd probably been
over yeah yeah, but then thatwas so.
Then I thought, well, I justfarted and everybody laughed I
bet, if I fart again, everybodywill laugh again and then I was.
You know, you kind of, you kindof are at the end of yourself,
so you're straining you knowreaching deep yep, and so I get
(03:47):
up.
I'm sitting on my haunches isthat what you call that when
you're squatting?
Sure, and I'm up in the chair.
I mean, I'm almost a 50 yearold man.
When this happens, I'm probably46 and I'm squishing, squeezing
, straining and next thing youknow, there is literally from
the back of the knees to theshoulder blades.
(04:09):
It was explosive.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
From across the room.
All we heard was oh, oh, yep.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
And I believe Rob ran for you couldn't run for the
door.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
No, you were between me and the door.
You couldn't run for the door.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
No, you were between me and the door and it yeah, I,
I started hurtling benches.
It's the fastest I've seen youmove in a while.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I think at one point you were up there was a stack of
chairs, because there's a highwindow in that room and there's
a stack of chairs.
You're up, like like you'regonna go out that window, which
there's nowhere to go, even ifyou could have gotten out, kind
of like people jumping out ofburning buildings, like there's
a better option than to stayhere.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
If I'm going to go, I choose this way.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
So then the story is funny because of a number of
reasons.
There's layers to the humor,but one of them was little and
Tucker.
Tucker was probably 16 at thetime.
16, yeah, I'd say, and he'sdownstairs, let's see.
Yeah, well, you know whatTucker was?
(05:14):
I think a freshman, becauseKilby, that's what they were
downstairs doing.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
They were working on a float.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
They were working on a float for the homecoming thing
Yep, so she's downstairs andthey're down there tucking
Little working on the float.
The homecoming thing?
Yep, so she's downstairs andthey're down.
They're down, they're tuckinglittle working on the float.
Because we're in the upstairsof the barn at camp and they
hear the commotion because tohear little tell it, it's like
so loud because you've gotroaring, laughter, screaming,
people screaming y'all.
(05:40):
I.
I cannot be clear enough that Ihad made a mess, like a baby
makes when they have one ofthose blow-up diapers.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, and it wasn't just that you did it and I ran
away from knowing that it wasinside your pants.
You dropped your pants to showus what had happened.
That's when I yeah, survivalinstincts took over.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yes, okay, so, understandably so.
So then Little comes up to thedoor and by this point I've
stripped down, uh, but I'm likeliterally covered in poop and
little comes to the door andpeeks her head and says what are
you doing?
And I went, I said I pooped mypants and little and tuck seemed
(06:22):
like oh, unmoved it just turns.
That makes sense.
They just turn around and leftlike completely unamused but
also unsurprised.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
As if we were laughing at you sending an email
.
I sent an email.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Oh, no wonder everybody's laughing.
So the point was then I hadnowhere to go, no clothes, no
clean clothes.
So and I, there was this momentwhere I realized I can't clean
myself.
This is between my shoulderblades, right below my shoulder
blades, in the middle of my back.
So I have to go lay in thecreek and scrub my back on
(07:00):
gravel and grit and rocks, andso then I drive home and do the
and get, do the best I can.
So anyway, tell that story.
We're talking about cleansingand how you can't clean yourself
.
There's areas of your life youcan't reach, you know.
So you, you realize, sometimesillustrations over illustrate
(07:21):
and and it's hard to rein itback in.
But then, but I seriously haddudes come up to me and say, oh
no, I'll never forget that, yeah, it's first john 1 9, that, uh,
he's faithful, just to cleanseus was the point I was making.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
So anyway, several guys mentioned it in the surveys
, just like how much thatillustration stuck in their
minds.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, crazy so.
So the summary here for bestrong is grown men at any age
are not so different from 14year old mungus boys.
What was the funny thing?
We're telling that I brought upthat spencer did the bathroom
thing yes, yes yeah, all rightso okay.
(08:04):
So the reason we're we'restarting this by talking about
this is before we startedrecording.
We're sitting around talking.
Spencer has one of the funnieststories.
It kind of I would say it's inthis genre of story that I've
ever heard.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
We can we can keep names anonymous other than
spencer davis okay, uh, so we inthe if you've ever been to camp
we're in the metal buildingcamp and there's only one men's
bathroom, one women's bathroom,and in the men's bathroom
there's only one stall.
And so I was talking to Roboutside the bathroom and I had
to go in there and use thebathroom stall.
(08:41):
And so I walked in.
We're just kind of talking andhe's walking in behind me and I
open up the bathroom stall andsomebody had absolutely
destroyed it.
I mean, just, it was a mess, itwas terrible.
Like you couldn't go to thebathroom in there.
It was just it's so bad.
And so I was so mad because Iknew exactly who it was that had
done it.
And I was like dadgum and I andI'm, you know, just venting to
(09:06):
rob about this person who hadjust blown up the bathroom stall
.
So I was like dad gum, it wasafter work, so there's not, I
mean, there's nobody in themetal building at all.
And, uh, so I'm like, hey, sowe're continuing our
conversation.
I was like I'm just gonna go inthe girls bathroom, come on.
And so we turned the corner andI just kind of, you know,
there's nobody in the in theroom, there's no girls in there
or whatever.
I just open the girls' bathroomdoor slightly and say you know,
(09:26):
are there any girls in here,any girls in here?
I'm coming in?
No response, no response at all.
And so I didn't know.
So I walk into the middle stall, right, so there's three stalls
.
I walk into the middle stalland shut the door.
Well, I didn't know, in thatgirl's bathroom the the like the
(09:47):
walls don't come all the waydown to the floor.
They're very high, like waisthigh.
They're unusually high, wayhigher than the men's bathroom.
But you know, I've never beenin that women's bathroom,
whatever.
And so I walk in and I'm stillkind of mad at the other guy.
I'm like, come, I can't believeyou left that bathroom like
that.
And so I've already done thegirl check, like no girls in
here.
And I'll look over and there'sshoes next to me and in the
(10:07):
stall next to me and I thoughthow in the world did rob get in
here so fast?
He was behind me and I leanedunderneath and said rob, is that
you?
And the kitchen lady said no,and I went oh, my gosh, well,
well, by that time I'm committed.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
I'm already in it side by side, taking a tandem
dump.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
So I saw her that night and I was like hey, real
sorry about earlier and she'slike it's all right, I got sons.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
And I was like.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
I did yell, though I did say are there any girls in
there?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Oh man, I mean to this day, I'll occasionally see
that person.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
And I just start giggling.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Oh man, it is funny how, when you get a group of
guys together around the fire,remember, uh, somebody.
Recently there was a group ofmen at camp.
Group leaders were sittingaround a fire and the one guy
said is all y'all talk about ispoop.
I think you talked to both ofy'all about this separately.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
He did.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
But it is common that that's where the conversation
turns, including when I hadScott Bryson on here, my cousin
who was Secret Service.
I went straight to getting himto tell a couple of funny poop
stories from when he was in theservice.
You know, when Gar Bozeman'sgot some hilarious in-combat
poop stories, one where he'soutside of a Bradley or a Humvee
(11:29):
or something and he's squatteddown by the wheel while pooping
and he realizes bullets arewhizzing and the guys are like,
hey, man, I think they'reshooting at you.
He's dropped trial, he's outthere on the side of a hill in
Afghanistan and they're crackingoff rounds.
So the Be Strong event.
I wanted to just highlight itand kind of get y'all's thoughts
(11:50):
just kind of feedback justwithin this group and then let
everyone else kind of listen into that conversation.
I thought it was.
If I'm not mistaken, it endedup being the biggest one we've
ever done.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Yeah, biggest one, yet it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
And I think that's between.
So it was the mostregistrations.
I also think it was the mostwalk-ins, like from our church,
local guys, I think that, likehow full the room was, reminded
me of summer camp or Fuller.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
Yeah, went all the way to the back.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
We tried something new this year.
We did so the format for BeStrong and I know a lot of our
listeners were in attendance.
But for folks that weren't, orif you've been to a Be Strong in
the past, or if you've neverbeen to one, Be Strong is what
we call our men's conferences.
We do two of them a year and wealways do a series of breakout
(12:44):
sessions.
Breakout sessions are differentfrom main sessions ser two of
them a year and we always do aseries of breakout sessions.
Breakout sessions are differentfrom main sessions sermons,
worship services they'reoptional.
We run those throughout theafternoon.
Guys can go attend them andthey typically have to do with
family stuff, marriage stuff,just manhood stuff.
Spiritual disciplines We've donebreakouts on everything from
having an effective quiet timeto how you lead, manage your
(13:07):
household.
We've done breakouts on blendedfamilies, discipline like not
not spiritual disciplines, buthow do you handle discipline of
your children.
And we tried something new thisyear which was running parallel
to the breakout sessions.
In the afternoon rob did a work.
(13:29):
We call it a workshop.
Uh, I'd like maybe talk alittle bit about that.
Just what your feedback?
The feedback I got was great.
I talked to two guys that satthrough it.
I didn't make it over there.
I had planned on going, andthen I got interviewed by the
french foreign legion.
Uh, there's a guy that showedup at camp we can get into that
too.
There's.
And then I got interviewed bythe French Foreign Legion.
There's a guy that showed up atcamp.
We can get into that too.
There's a guy that showed up atcamp that writes for a
(13:50):
Paris-based publication.
That's something like the NewYork Times.
We didn't know why he was here,but he came as an attendee and
he interviewed me on our view ofmasculinity.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Oh, yeah, very interesting guy.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Super interesting guy .
He's African, he's fromcameroon but grew up in paris,
moved to new york.
He's based out of manhattan butit's a paris publication so he
had been I think he'd been onthe west coast interviewing some
folks out there and kind of thela culture.
So I don't know, we'll seewe'll see.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yeah, I need to follow up an email, make sure he
sends us the article that hewrites.
Yeah, he said he's going towrite an article just on us Like
it's part of a series.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I told Rob there's nothing to hide, nothing.
We don't say on this platform.
But my concern would be more.
If he ends up trying to twistthings, takes it out of context.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Yeah, and I tried to dig into that a little bit.
It was a little evasive, itfelt like my concern would be
more if he ends up trying totwist things.
Yeah, takes it out of context.
Yeah, and I tried to dig intothat a little bit.
It was a little evasive, itfelt like.
But he also, you know, after Irealized what he was doing, you
know, I was aware where he wassitting and he seemed to be
(15:05):
nodding his head in agreement,especially during Zach's
breakout on masculinity, whichwas very clear, very well done,
and he seemed to really enjoythat, yeah, but yeah, so the
workshop you know that was kindof born out of had done a
breakout.
So you know it's supposed to beabout a 30 minute max session
for the college retreat on Biblestudy, attempting to maybe go a
(15:28):
couple steps further than whatwe've done in the past with how
to study the Bible breakoutwhich Spencer's done a few
different versions of.
It's always my favoritebreakout.
It's very clear, very practicaland helpful.
So just trying to think, okay,you know, maybe going a little
bit more into interpretation ofthe text.
(15:49):
And so anyway, I ended up notgetting very far in that
breakout.
You know, spent more time onthe beginning and but it was, it
was good and it got goodfeedback.
And then we did a, an episodetalking about it and your idea
was, you know, maybe for theadult retreats we'd have time to
, where it wouldn't just be asession but be more like a
(16:10):
classroom where there could bediscussion, um, so yeah, that's
what we shot for.
we had about I think it wasbetween 15 and 20 guys came,
total that's awesome a couple ofthem came in a little bit later
, you know, with there's wreckgoing on and other breakouts,
and yeah, I really enjoyed itbecause the way that I formatted
(16:32):
it was, you know, I did like anintro to it was about 25, 30
minutes long, and then I justpicked a passage.
I took Philippians 2 that wewere going to read and then
discuss and with based on theprinciples that I introduced to
them.
And so you know, we had thatfirst time of study and I asked
(16:54):
a question.
Coming out of that it was noone was really saying anything,
and then one person did and thenit just opened the floodgates
and there was so much discussionso we did that for about a half
hour.
And then I did another, uh,half hour of you know a little
bit, um, you know, some moreprinciples, introducing those of
really trying to get themeaning of the text, um, and so
(17:18):
we had another round and thatwent really well.
The discussion was great, yeah,and I had a number of guys that
night the next day come up tome and really appreciated it.
I think it was a little bitmixed.
I think there were some guysthat felt overwhelmed and
freaking from a fire hydrantkind of feeling.
Um, so it's, you know goodfeedback.
(17:38):
You know if we do it againthat's good maybe adjust, but
but overall I thought it was uh,really well received.
I was super encouraged.
There was guys in there thatbased on their answers I thought
one guy might be a pastor.
But then he came up and talkedto me that night and he's a
believer, loves the Lord, not inministry, but just was
(18:01):
articulating that he's beenwanting something like this,
that knew that his study couldgo deeper but just didn't really
know the steps to take.
And so he was saying that and Iwas like man, I thought you
were, I thought you might be,you know somebody who preaches
for a living.
So that was just superencouraging hearing from those
guys.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
I'd talked to one guy at supper.
I sat with him and he was.
He was very encouraged by itand I'd asked him how many
people were there and he said hesaid it wasn't a real big crowd
.
I said, well, we weren'texpecting, nor did we want a
real big crowd.
You know the the format of it.
It's almost better if it'sbecause it's like a lab.
(18:43):
We were hoping it'd be 20-ishor less and he said I think it
was close to 20 probably, but wedidn't record that, did we?
Speaker 3 (18:53):
I think we just recorded it.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
We did record the audio, your audio.
I don't know if we'll put thaton the SWO podcast, the other
podcast that SWO produces, theteaching podcast, but this is a
lot of the content you and Italked about in a two-part
episode here at NSR a couplemonths back, so right after a
college retreat.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
I'll tell you one thing that I you know talking
about dumb stories like we had,you know, opening up.
One of the things that reallyattracted me to camp in general
was that you know that when Icame here, these were guys that
were serious about the lord anduh could laugh at normal things
like reggie and yes, yes, 100like reggie.
(19:36):
So yes, we all right, here'sanother story.
Uh, so we had a at the timecamp had a goat named Reggie.
When I first came to camp itwas 01.
It might have been spring of2000.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, I think it was it was either fall of 2000 or
spring of 01.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
Spring of 01,.
I think it was.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
We're building the wreck shed.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
And so when I came up to camp for the first time, you
know I was really drawn to it.
I was a pretty new Christian,and so what I saw was guys that
were really serious about theirwalk with the Lord, like guys
that actually studied the Biblein the mornings, guys that
actually tried to fight againstsin, and I was so attracted to
that.
Well then this goat comes by,and it's a black goat named
(20:20):
Reggie that they kept pinned upat the metal building and there
was a bulldog on campus namedLeroy, and when I looked up, so
we're just hanging out in thegravel outside the middle
building, and when I looked up,that dog, leroy, was trying to
breed that goat Reggie, andReggie was kicking it right in
the chest and I started dyinglaughing.
(20:41):
And then I was like, whoa, thismight not be that kind of crowd
, like, and I pulled it back,cause I was like, oh, maybe I
shouldn't be laughing at that.
And I looked over and everybodyexploded laughing at it and I
was like, okay, okay, like these, these guys are serious about
the Lord and can laugh at normalstuff you know, stuff that's.
That's funny.
You know, obviously you cantake that way too far, you can
(21:02):
take it over the line, but Iheard a lot of guys this weekend
just being like I didn'trealize how much I needed that.
Not only the emphasis on theword, but just hanging out and
fellowship and laughing withguys.
I probably heard three or fourguys say I signed up for this
but I didn't realize how much Ineeded it needed to unwind,
(21:25):
unpack the word, but then justlaugh with other guys.
That was cool.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
And you know I'm the first to raise my hand that you
know, I get convicted over whereI let my sense of humor go, but
I think what you're talkingabout and hopefully what people
feel when they get here, isthere's not a facade.
I remember the Lord saved mewhen I was 18.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Went to a mega church in the area and felt very out
of place.
But I was so drawn to thepreaching and I knew I wanted to
be around Christians but it was, you know, definitely not the
neighborhood I was living in,like most people that went to
that church and I rememberfeeling out of place, like I
went.
I went out because all I hadwas jeans and t-shirts.
(22:15):
Surprising, I've gone back tothat.
Yep, it's a good system but Iremember going out and buying,
like I bought a sweater vest.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
Yes, sir oh, where's that?
Speaker 3 (22:27):
been.
It's probably still in my mom'scloset, but but I had, uh, yeah
, I was.
Just I felt so out of place,felt, you know, like I came in
looking scruffy and and justtrying to.
Everything is brand new, so I'mtrying to fit into this world
and never really felt like I fitin there socially at all.
(22:48):
And then I went to college at.
Liberty, which I'm very thankfulfor, but that was I mean as
well, and that was during thedress code days where you had to
wear a shirt and tie.
But I was constantly asking atboth places, asking people if
they would disciple me, becauseI knew that was something.
Um, and just some guy, mostpeople just turned me down or
(23:14):
you know, or they gave me a bookto read and I just remember I
was seeing like the way thatpeople would act in worship
services and then how they wouldact outside of that and there
was such a divide and I rememberlike I'd come out of a worship
service and I just want to talkabout the sermon I was you know,
everything's new to me and Ijust loved the.
(23:34):
Lord and wanted to like talkabout it and people like I
remember like feeling howuncomfortable people were and
you know, it wasn't until likethe following year, I ended up
on a dorm with Zach and Spencerand, like they, really, I
remember when it dawned on methat they had been discipling me
because it was just so naturaland it was just good
(23:56):
relationships and friendshipsand we joke around.
You could joke around and talkabout the Lord and it would just
flow back and forth, and then Icame that first summer 2001 to
work at camp and it was the samething.
It was like I just rememberthinking, yeah, this is real,
like you know, because all I'dseen to that point was people
who would preach and thendisappear and, like you couldn't
(24:19):
interact with.
I remember I set up a meetingwith some of the campus pastors
and I walked away feeling likethe whole time I talked to them
the vibe I was getting is thiskid's wasting my time.
And it was stuff to me that wasimportant.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
And then I came to camp and it was like man, that's
real.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
And initially maybe a little like okay, like
recalibrating, because I wastrying to suppress sense of
humor and what was appropriate.
Not that we perfected that, butI enjoy it very much.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
And like I think guys feel that when they come that
it's not like there's not aseparation of our relationship
with the Lord from the rest ofour lives, and I think that that
is like like that's freeing andrefreshing yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Yes, I think guys, a lot of guys, they do.
They get here and they go.
Here's an illustration to whatyou're saying, rob.
I grew up playing basketball,loved basketball, loved football
.
It's the two sports.
I played baseball when I was alittle boy, you know, but loved
those two sports and there was apoint where you realize I
(25:35):
cannot play in the NBA.
That's never going to happen,it's not attainable.
And even one of my best friendsand college teammates was a guy
named Jody Chapman and, uh, wecall him Chap.
I talked to him, he texted meevery morning.
I got a text from him.
This morning I haven't seen him.
I see him once a year, maybe atchurch, when I'm speaking at
(25:57):
his church, but he texts aboutevery morning praying for you.
Today, pretty cool.
But he's, you know, he's 6'8",6'9", played small forward,
could shoot the three Phenomenalbasketball player.
And and he had a tag.
He had a personalized tag.
You know the license platewhere you get your own.
(26:18):
It said one day NBA.
And I was always like I don'twant to ride around.
I remember driving his car acouple times, like you know.
But he really believed it.
You know, he, he and he didn't.
He did not make it to the NBA,but he did have.
I think he could have.
Potentially he definitely had anopportunity to play in Europe,
but by the end he was gettingmarried.
(26:39):
He wanted to settle.
He's like I won't be done withthat.
The point being, when stephcurry came along and people, you
don't have to be a basketballfan to to get where I'm going
with this.
So it's cool if you don'tunderstand basketball.
Steph curry's an nba star whois the all-time three-point
leader in in the nba.
(26:59):
So he has hit morethree-pointers than anybody else
in history and is continuing tobuild on that record.
I doubt it will get brokenanytime soon.
So he comes along and playscollege ball at a little school
called Davidson, takes them tothe Final Four.
He's not a big guy by NBAstandards.
He's 6'3" 6'4", which by NBAstandards is really small.
(27:22):
And when he really storms ontothe scene in the NBA, he gives
high school players somethingthat they can strive towards,
because to that point it wasLeBron James or Michael Jordan
and you're like I can't do thatI can't be 6'8" 275.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
And with a 40-inch vertical I can't do that.
Yeah, I can't be 6'8" 275.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
And with a 40-inch vertical, I can't do that.
I can be 6'3".
Work on my fundamental skills,master ball handling and master
shooting the ball.
Anybody can do that.
And so then, all of a sudden,the game of basketball changes
to where our kids are playing ina basketball world that's not
(28:05):
like the one we played in.
Everybody shoots the three,everybody, everybody, everybody
has patterned their game afterSteph Curry.
It's the first, it's the firstNBA all-star that's come along
that people are going oh, I cando what he does.
Now, people can't do as good ashim, but it gives you something
to strive towards.
And I think there's a disconnectwith most quote unquote
professional pastors andministry leaders, where people
(28:26):
are like, yeah, but that's.
I said on Friday night to kickit off, I said there's two
mistakes I think people makewhen there's two.
There's two lights that peopleput pastors in.
One is yep, you're aprofessional Christian.
I can't, I'll never be able todo what you do, read what you
read, study what you study,understand and know what you
know.
Or they put you in a differentcategory of you're probably a
(28:47):
hypocrite because they've seenpastors that were in charge of
big ministries come out in themedia or the news that they were
having an affair or they hadstolen money.
So people have these two weirdcategories either unattainable
Like I love John MacArthur, butI can't imagine sitting down and
hanging out with him andcutting up and telling jokes and
doing what we do he feelsunattainable.
(29:09):
But then there's the guy likeRobert Morris, the pastor in
Texas that just got arrestedbecause he's messed with a
12-year-old or whatever.
And you're like these, weird.
And so I think when people cometo be strong, men come to be
strong, and the people thatlisten to this podcast and that
interact with us, they realizethese are just dudes.
These are just normal dudes.
Live normal lives, have normalstruggles.
(29:31):
We're just before we turn thison, we were having a
conversation about we're toyingwith the idea of getting dumb
phones because we get distractedby the internet.
I get distracted by huntingvideos, gun videos, fitness
videos, blah, blah, blah, blah,blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and
political video.
You know like I need to removesome distractions and start
carrying a book around so thatwhen I've got an extra 10
(29:52):
minutes I'll open up a paperback, even if it's a fiction.
You know, yeah, we strugglewith the same thing everybody
else struggles with.
That's right, and I think thatcomes through at Be Strong and
that's what goes along with whaty'all are both saying.
I'd like to have, maybe talk.
Let's each share anonymouslyone or two interactions you had
(30:15):
with men that I think I'd liketo kind of share some examples
of interactions we had justwhere guys are at, where guys
were struggling coming in thisweekend.
Is there a conversation or asituation that stood out to
either one of y'all withsomebody you interacted with?
Maybe somebody you already knew, maybe somebody you'd never met
?
Speaker 2 (30:33):
Yeah, yeah, the ones that are fresh on my mind.
Well, one.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
You directed somebody to come talk to me.
He was sharing, you know, tocome talk to me.
He was sharing, you know, andhe's a granddad, I believe.
Yeah, his granddad, you knowstarted sharing stuff that
happened to him, you know, whenhe was a kid, that I could
relate to.
You know some abuse from hispast and you know, an older man
(31:03):
had taken advantage of him andyou know an older man had taken
advantage of him and you knowsuper painful and raw still, you
know.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
And just getting to listen to his story and you know
the things that.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
I had to share with him that have been really
helpful for me, just in myrelationship with the Lord and
the healing and where you know,for me it's only when I have
opportunity to minister tosomebody in a similar situation
that I really think about it.
You know, and a lot of times Itell people, man for me.
(31:38):
Now I'll get emotional talkingabout it, but only in so much as
, like when I'm fresh, rememberGod's grace over that situation
more than like any pain or or,you know, hurt from that I often
say it's more like I'm watchinga movie when I'm remembering,
(32:01):
it's like something that Iremember, but I'm so
disconnected from it and, um, asfar as like how it has affected
me.
Um, and so just getting to sharethat with him and hear his
story and that's what most of itwas was just man, he just
needed somebody to talk to thathe would know.
Like there's no judgment here.
(32:22):
There's no like I'm gonna startlooking at you differently, um,
you know, and so that that'salways you know an honor to be
in a conversation like that,that somebody would trust you
Speaker 1 (32:33):
you know, and so that that was one that I believe he
said uh, when he came and talkedto me, what triggered that was
the episode, the podcast episodefrom a couple weeks ago, where
we talked about a guy who was apredator.
And when he came to me he hadtexted me and said hey, when I'm
there at Be Strong, I talked toyou for a few minutes about
(32:53):
that episode of NSR.
And when we started talking hesaid the only other person that
knows this is my wife, whichpraise the Lord.
And I told him only otherperson that knows this is my
wife, which praise the lord.
And I told him man, I'm gladyou shared this with your wife,
yeah, at some point.
So that's a big.
I mean, you're talking about aguy that has been carrying
something for over 40 years andhe's now brought it into the
(33:14):
light with a brother yeah, andand I'm I'm sure he'll listen to
this one, you knowand I think, if any, it has
changed the way I looked at him,but only for the positive, like
yeah, you respect that a lotand even just hearing how god's
grace in his life you know isawesome yeah, and I would just
say, because he will listen tothis and he knows who he is and
(33:37):
just know, uh, we as brothersare praying for you and we're
thankful for you and we're proudof you for taking that step.
Satan wants to keep stuff inthe dark, man.
He wants to keep it in the darkand when you bring it into the
light, light and darkness haveno fellowship.
That's part of the text I spokeFriday night.
So, anyway, we're proud of youand thankful for you, and
(34:00):
thankful that you would let usshare in that part of your
journey Any that stood out foryou, and thankful that you would
let us share in that part ofyour journey.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
Any that stood out for you, Spence yeah, I had one
conversation with a guy that Ilove a lot.
He's been coming around for along time.
He's a brother and he's beenfaithful and really seeking the
Lord for a long time and I'vegot a lot of appreciation for
him and he'll listen to this too.
Uh, and he'll listen to this too.
Um, and you know, when he came,he kinda he kinda fallen into
(34:28):
the same ruts.
He'd been in for a long timeand, to be honest, he's been
struggling with the same stufffor about six years or so and
we've had similar conversationsthe last six times he's come up.
And you know, uh, he knows heknows this I was aggressive with
him.
You know I was as aggressivewith him as I've been with with
(34:48):
any other guy and one.
One of the issues that he'sstruggling with is is, uh,
looking at porn on his phone.
And you know, I, I, I had somesolutions kind of like hey man,
have you tried ABCDE?
And you know he kind of cameback with well, here's some
hurdles, here's why I can't walkin victory to that.
You know I need my phone forwork.
I, you know I got the apps onit to connect to.
(35:09):
You know, jobs I've got to getdone and things like that.
And that's where, you know, Ikind of got aggressive with him.
I was like I was like great,then you shouldn't come back
Like this, this thing is owningyou and your every solution I
bring, you're bringing um,you're bringing hurdles to it
and if you want out of this, theLord's mercies are new every
(35:29):
morning and your life can be ahundred percent different by
nightfall tonight, like ifyou're not happy with your job,
the place you live, the habits.
You have changed them.
Like you, you have power tochange what's in your pocket
that's dominating you know, likeand um, yeah, he knows if he's
(35:49):
listening to this, you know Iwas hard on you, uh, and he,
he's a brother, we've built thatequity over years of
relationship.
And to his credit, man, he, hecomes back the next day and it's
like hey, man, are you right, Icalled my boss on a Saturday.
He's like I called my boss andsaid, hey, I'm not going to have
my phone anymore, so whateverwe need to do.
And his boss was like cool.
(36:09):
And so you know, to me, firstoff, credit to the Lord for
doing that work in this guy'sheart, to where he was open
enough to share that struggleagain, because it'd be easy to
come year six and be like, oh,we're good, you know some
struggles, you know, but justkeep it real vague.
But like, praise the Lord thathe caused this guy to be open
(36:30):
again, cause that's where a lotof us are like all right, I've
confessed this in the past, youknow.
I'll just say generally, I'mdoing all right you know, but
the Lord caused him to be open.
And then, uh for him, for himnot to push back strength
against strength, cause I didcome at him pretty hard but he
went back and kind of humbledhimself and like, prayed through
it and took action and actuallygot over a lot of those hurdles
(36:53):
that he'd been putting in hisown way for a long time and told
his boss, hey, I'm not happyand maybe to the risk of his job
, I'm not carrying a phone, I'mnot going to do it because of my
relationship with the Lord.
And I'm like, yeah, that guy isa guy who is struggling to try
to be like Jesus and to me likethat was a big success story and
you know, you know who you are.
(37:14):
If you're listening to this man, I love you, I'm proud of you
for that for sure, because youknow that really was job on the
line, potential things, but youknow, in that moment, saying
faithfulness is more importantthan my job, I'm like, heck,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Man, that's encouraging.
Yeah, yes, I had a guy.
I had multiple conversationsthis weekend with guys that are
struggling in their marriage.
I can think of four, three orfour, I think four.
I can think of four one-on-oneconversations I had with guys
(37:50):
that are struggling in theirmarriage and one of the guys I
already knew two of the guys Ihad never met and one of them I
had met a few years ago.
He came to be strong Justrealizing in a crowd that big,
there's a whole lot of unhealthymarriages represented in the
room and I think for thosebrothers, hopefully they had
(38:13):
some good accountabilityinteraction.
You know, one of the things Icounseled with each of those
guys was hey, man, you can onlycontrol what you can control.
Your wife may be so frustratedwith you now, or y'all may be so
at odds that this is just whereyou're at, but you need to
embrace the responsibility thatGod's called a man to embrace.
(38:34):
So that was just some coolconversations like that.
But I had one conversation thatstood out to me.
A guy walks up to me, I'mtalking to Lailie.
My 19-year old daughter hadswung by.
This was right before supper onSaturday evening and I'm out in
front of the coop and she'dswung by camp.
She'd come in from school and Ididn't know she was coming in.
(38:55):
So I was real excited.
I saw her get out of the carand I went, went over there and
you know, was talking to her andI realized a guy's waiting to
talk to me.
I turn around to walk away fromLaylee and this guy is standing
there and and and I said, hey,man, you never know, am I
supposed to know this person?
A lot of times I feel like Ishould know this person, but
(39:17):
maybe I don't, maybe I should,maybe I shouldn't, I don't know.
And you don't want people tofeel like if you should know
them, you don't want to.
It's just hard.
But we've learned.
You don't bluff, don't act likeyou know somebody if you don't.
So I just said you were speakingand I won't say the place, but
(39:40):
it was for a denominationalevent.
It was, I think, about a dozenor so churches maybe 18 churches
at a conference center severalyears ago in another state doing
a session on man.
It was an event like Be Strongkind of biblical masculinity and
what it was one of the churches.
An event like Be Strong kind ofbiblical masculinity and what
it was one of the churches hascome to Be Strong several times
and so they brought us intotheir denominational regional
(40:03):
gathering or whatever.
So it was like a Friday nightand a Saturday event.
And he said he said my wifemade me go to that and she had
grown up coming to SWO and saidI think if you'll go to that and
we we she had grown up comingto SWO and said I think if
you'll go to this, I saw wherethis guy from SWO is, from
Snowbirds can be speaking.
I think you'll connect with him,you can listen this guy, you'll
(40:24):
enjoy it.
It's not gonna be weird, it'snot gonna be awkward, it'll be
very easy for you to listen to.
This guy works in construction,in the construction field.
Non-college educated but butsharp dude, very professional,
makes a good living in theconstruction world working with
general contractors.
So a dude.
You know, I think a lot of menare scared.
(40:45):
A lot of dudes are scared tocome to Be Strong because
they're like, is this going tobe?
Like we got to hug each otherand it's going to be super
emotional and it's just, it'snone of those things.
It each other and it's going tobe super emotional and and it's
just, it's none of those things, just it's just facts, you know
.
So he said.
He said I came to this thingjust because my wife wanted me
(41:05):
to.
And he said it changed my life,changed my marriage, changed my
view of work, parenting, beinga dad.
So he's a dad to some smallkids, he's got young kids and he
said that was I think it waslike three, three years ago or
four, three, four years ago.
He said it literally changed mylife and so he's been back to
be strong a couple times.
He's been to two or three bestrongs.
Him and his wife have been tothe marriage retreat and but he
(41:26):
just briefly shared and I saidman, I'd like to hear more.
Are you going to go in and eatsupper?
So we just went in and sat downand ate, which is another thing
that I think is cool about SWOis everybody here is accessible
to everybody.
So I got to sit down and have ameal with the guy and hear just
what God's done in his life.
(41:47):
There's no real struggles Imean the struggles that we all
have.
But he wasn't like his marriageis in crisis, his kid's turning
away, he's got kids like six,four and two or something like
that, and him and his wife aredoing pretty well and works good
and he's praying about does theLord want me to go and to be
more involved in ministry?
And we talked about lay leading.
You know, as a layman in thechurch, it was so encouraging.
(42:10):
But this guy said, yeah, Ididn't care about the things of
God, I was just kind of likegoing to church, I come to this
men's event.
It changed my life and I saidwho'd you go there with?
He said nobody.
I didn't know a single person.
I went to appease my wife satthrough those sessions and it
changed my life.
So that was very encouraging.
Yeah, a guy's name is Sean.
Shout out, sean, I Appreciateyou.
(42:31):
You blessed me a lot.
I don't know if you realize youwere the blessing in that
conversation.
I was the one that received theblessing.
So thanks for sharing that.
Yeah, but a lot of goodconversations, a lot of hard
conversations, for sure, forsure.
A lot of cool networking.
There's a guy named Brian.
Brian and his wife came to amarriage retreat, marriage
(42:52):
conference back in October.
I met them there Me and Littlesat across from them at supper
and Brian and his wife, whitneyare from Mount Airy, north
Carolina, and I'd made an AndyGriffith reference marriage
retreat and they said, hey,we're from Mayberry, that's
(43:15):
where Andy Griffith, that'swhere he was from.
And uh, we started talking.
So I ended up and they, theyjust come to snowbird on the
recommendation of a friend.
They wanted to get away, go dosomething marriage related.
They've been married 20 someyears.
Let's go somewhere close by.
We don't have to go too farfrom home.
They came, they didn't.
They've never been to snowbird,didn't know anything about us.
Lord really used that weekend.
I I ended up on the phone withBrian the next week.
(43:36):
He was serving as a.
He had served as a children'spastor and had been in another
role at his, at their homechurch, but really felt had felt
called to pastor.
And so we ended up on the phonethe next week for about an hour
one night and he, he's lookingat church planting.
So I introduced him by text toMike Talley, one of our board
(43:56):
members, who's a church planterin Denver, colorado, and John G
Tate.
John G is in Virginia and hasplanted multiple churches out of
the original plant BedrockChurch and so networking guys.
Well then, I've kept up withhim through the last six months
and he's there in the processwith NAM, north American Mission
Board to plant, with Send NC toplant within the state of North
(44:17):
Carolina.
He wants to hometown plant,that's cool.
In Surry County, north Carolina.
Well, timmy Burnett is a friendof ours, a pastor brother, who
felt really called to.
He's a bivocational pastor whoplanted in his hometown which is
just north of Asheville on theBunkum bunk of Madison County
line, to plant in the mountainsamong mountain people.
You know Asheville churchplanting has been huge in
(44:40):
Asheville in the last 25 yearsbut it's all been sort of
targeting the young, the REIcrowd and Timmy was like I want
to plant among mountain people.
There's still small town andsmall community feel in these
mountain communities aroundAsheville.
So he planted close to home.
So Brian comes up to me I saidhey, there's a guy here you got
to meet and I see Timmy backthere.
(45:01):
Did you see?
Timmy had a blaze orange hat on.
He had a soda snowbird patch onit.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
It was awesome.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
I was like, hey, we need some of those hats so Timmy
and Brian connect.
And now they're connected, bothNorth Carolina church planters.
That's cool.
Timmy will be able to kind ofmentor and help Brian.
So there's a cool networkingstory that came out of Be Strong
.
That's cool.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
It was cool seeing guys like Timmy, who are
bivocational or full-timepastors that were here at Be
Strong up until late Saturdaynight, and then a lot of these
guys were like hey, man, I gotto preach, I'm out of here.
I got to preach on Sundaymorning but they came and
they're with their guys and thentook off late Saturday or early
Sunday to go preach in theirchurches.
That was a cool little subplot.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Jeff Martin did that.
Yeah, jeff Martin did it.
It was in Johnson City and Isaw him Saturday afternoon late.
He said man, I hate it, I gotto preach both services tomorrow
.
Love pastors like that.
It was cool.
We had a lot of guys here withtheir sons.
(46:05):
Had a lot of guys here thatserved in years past on SWO
staff.
Guys served 15, 20 years ago.
They're here attending BeStrong.
We got Sovereign Hope churcheshere and that lead pastor, adam
Benson, is a close friend of allof ours, a guy we have a lot of
respect for.
He planted and that church isgrowing and a lot of their men
were here and a lot of new faces, a lot of new churches, new
(46:29):
faces, new people.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
Yeah, I was really surprised when we asked them to
raise their hand if this wastheir first time.
There was a ton of guys.
It felt like just from lookingout on the stage, it felt like
over half the crowd, but atschool it feels like the
opposite.
But just because there's somany, guys that have been coming
for years, that just becomegood friends and they just keep
(46:53):
bringing folks yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
The theme, the teaching focus, and I, they just
keep bringing folks.
Yeah, the, uh, the theme, theteaching focus.
And and I would just againencourage y'all to go listen to
all the sessions we'll have themon the the snowbird outfitters
podcast.
Um, our, our other podcast,which covers all of our teaching
content.
Uh, the theme was, uh, life ofthe apostles, or teaching
content.
The theme was Life of theApostles, or just the Apostles.
(47:18):
The theme was the Apostles, andFriday night I opened up with 1
John, 1, 5 through 10, which isthat contrast of light and
darkness can't have fellowship.
So as believers we've got towork and fight to stay in the
light and the way we do that isthrough confession.
But if we'll live as men ofconfession, both in confessing
our sins and confession of theLordship of Christ, and that
(47:42):
through that there's a constantcleansing.
And we looked at sanctification, felt like that was a need for
men, like the guy you're talkingabout, spence, that feel like
man.
I keep going back to the samething.
It's the Roman seven struggle.
I keep going back to the samething and it's like we'll just
keep confessing and just keepreceiving the cleansing power of
(48:04):
the blood of Jesus.
And then Saturday morning lookedat those last words of Paul in
second Timothy, chapter four,where he's writing that last
letter, and we've chopped thatup a hundred different ways over
the years.
It'd be strong because it'sthat kind of passage.
There's so many angles you cantake on it.
There's so many like you canfocus in on one of the names in
the passage or one of thephrases in the passage and, um,
(48:26):
I looked back as I was preparingthat message.
I looked back and I hadpreached three different sermons
, all different there.
Yeah, on that, that text.
But one of the things I reallywanted to highlight was that
moment where he asks for JohnMark because he's useful for
ministry, and that was a bigredemptive moment because that
was a guy that abandoned Pauland then Paul wouldn't allow him
(48:48):
to serve alongside of him for along season.
And then Saturday night, spence, you brought a message on
Paul's last interaction with theleaders of the church at
Ephesus on the beach.
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 4 (49:03):
Yeah, and that one man that affected me a lot
personally, because it was, youknow that centering around it's
Acts 20, and in verse 24, hesays something like I don't
consider my life of any value.
If only I can finish the course.
And to me it was just man.
It was so impactful all weekthinking about I don't count my
(49:24):
life, my comfort, money, of anyvalue.
The only value is sharpeneddown to finishing the course is
proclaiming the gospel, and itwas super challenging for me
personally.
And then, you know, just tothink, one of the sub points of
the sermon was talking about howmuch Paul had accomplished in
such a short time and it waslike okay, he wrote Romans in
(49:46):
this three month span and thenhe basically evangelized all of
Asia within this two year spanand it made me just sit and
think okay, three months ago,what am I doing?
It was New Year's.
Paul wrote Romans in this timespan.
What have I done in threemonths, and even two years ago,
I think?
In March of 23, paul hadevangelized a continent.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
A con Before there was technology.
Speaker 4 (50:11):
Yeah, it was just so challenging to me to think about
.
Obviously, he's driven by theHoly Spirit as an apostle, but
to think about what a lifethat's so sharpened down to such
a point of faithfulness.
Faithfulness, finish the course, the gospel yeah, it was really
challenging to me personally.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
Good, I loved it.
Sunday morning John Rouleauspoke.
He took us through the text,also another one that we've done
a lot through the years.
It's kind of a go-to SWO text.
He's even taught on that textbefore, but it was from a
different angle where afterJesus has resurrected and the
(50:50):
disciples are by themselves andthey go fishing and Jesus
appears to them.
And I had several guys come upto me and say, man, that sermon
this morning was exactly for me.
It's just neat how many guyswould say they would resonate
with a breakout or aconversation or one sermon, or
one point in one sermon.
(51:10):
It happens so much and then,yeah, but John did a phenomenal
job with that.
I liked, I loved his firstpoint.
The first point was don't lookback.
Don't look back, just quitlooking back.
And I think that for a lot ofdudes, a lot of guys look back
either at the glory days or witha defeatist mindset.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
I just keep doing this.
Speaker 1 (51:37):
Don't look back, look forward.
Keep your eyes on jesus.
I love that first point.
And then breakouts.
We had hank, zach and sean allteach breakouts and, uh yeah,
zack's was phenomenal and inzack's, just fyi z Zach's
breakout was exactly what any ofus would teach.
It was more of a snowbird.
(51:58):
This is where snowbird stands.
This is what we teach.
This is what we align withscripture.
On masculinity, we've alltaught every point in that
breakout before and I love thatthere's like a cohesion to our
mindset when it comes to what isbiblical masculinity.
Even when I was talking to thatreporter and he said you know he
starts off by the firstquestion.
We sit down at the metalbuilding.
The first question is what doyou say is masculinity?
(52:21):
And I was like all I can thinkof is that one thing where he
got that one video where thatafrican news reporter goes are
you gay?
Why are you gay?
Y'all know, have you seen it?
Have you seen it?
Why are you gay?
Why do you say I'm gay?
Who says I am gay?
You are gay.
It's one of the best videos onall of the internet.
(52:44):
Um, but like we sit down andthe guy goes um, what is
masculinity.
And I was like, uh, did you?
I said now, did you listen tozach's breakout?
He said, yeah, I did.
And I said that's literally ourministry, that's what we've
taught.
I said hours of content on NSR,hours of teaching content.
We've all taught that samebasic outline, obviously a
(53:08):
little different when each guyteaches it, but it's 80%, 80%,
90%, same content.
I was like that's it.
So I would encourage you to goback through that breakout and
listen to it again when it postsnext week.
And then he said what is thedifference?
But what is, how would youdefine taking dominion, not
(53:31):
being toxic masculinity?
And I said well, zach, explainthat not being toxic masculinity
.
And I said well, zach, explainthat.
He said he differentiatedbetween being domineering and
taking dominion.
And I said but what I said tohim was I don't entertain the
phrase toxic masculinity.
That is a phrase that was coinedby a certain socio-political
(53:52):
faction of our culture and I'mnot going to use their
terminology.
What we believe is that Goddesigned masculinity, god
designed marriage, god designedsexuality.
There are various varyingperversions of that, and so if
we're going to take masculinity,one perversion of it would be
an abuser.
Another perversion would besomeone who abdicates
(54:14):
responsibility.
There's different perversions.
I'm not going to, I'm not gonnagive credence to the phrase
toxic masculinity and so, um,just unpacking that with him was
good because and he was, youknow there's a language barrier
there.
English is in his firstlanguage and it was cool seeing
him go.
Okay, I get it, I'm trackingwith that.
It was a good conversation, itwas a good dialogue and it was
(54:35):
good to be able to justreference back to that.
Speaker 3 (54:38):
Yep, that's cool.
I didn't realize.
I had the same conversation andhe used that term.
I was like I don't like to usethat.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (54:47):
Because I mean, really, where it got steamed was
people using it, but reallyattacking biblical masculinity
it, but really attackingbiblical masculinity.
But uh, it was there.
So he, he, uh, after zach'sbreakout, which he was nodding
at a lot of it.
But he, he said, how is joerogan an example of biblical
masculinity?
And I was like oh well, uh, Iwould say he's not but zach
(55:11):
referenced, but he hadreferenced him in that.
How many guys you know,whatever 18 to probably 30,
something resonate with.
Speaker 4 (55:22):
Joe.
Speaker 3 (55:22):
Rogan, but just because he's definitively
masculine.
Speaker 4 (55:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (55:25):
So he's using that as an example but saying but it's
not biblical masculinity.
That's right, yeah, so I wasglad he asked that.
So it doesn't put in thearticle that we looked at Joe
Rogan.
Speaker 1 (55:36):
As an example of biblical masculinity.
Yeah, I think Zach had a list.
It was like Rogan Jocko, davidGoggins.
It was a group of guys and hesaid why are these guys blowing
up?
Why is this who everybodylistens to?
And it's because young men.
That resonates with them.
But we have the blueprint forit.
God's the one that designed itAnything, but we have the
blueprint for it.
God's the one that designed it.
(55:57):
Anything else y'all can thinkof.
Andy crushed it again.
The food was phenomenal.
Yes, cowboy butter, Cowboybutter On steak.
Yes, was impressive.
Speaker 4 (56:11):
Not for you.
I didn't get it.
I didn't see the cowboy butter.
Speaker 3 (56:18):
What's in it.
So what he did?
I went back I was like where'sthe cowboy butter?
And he had already like glazedit glazed it, and then he gave
me a big scoop of it, but yeah,it's just butter with like
basically everything in yourpantry I spiced up butter, okay,
melted and drizzled over your?
Speaker 4 (56:35):
yeah, it was.
It was gone or put up by thetime I got through, because I
came in, came through late.
I spiced up butter melted anddrizzled over your meat.
I'm down with that.
Yeah, it was gone or put up bythe time I got through, because
I came through late.
Speaker 1 (56:44):
But that steak was so good.
Oh my gosh, he does such agreat job.
I'll tell you, vanity ofvanities, I didn't get any
steaks Friday night because Iwas preaching and I had finished
I told Rob I didn't come to the4 o'clock meeting because I was
literally in the like at 3.30.
I was like I got to stop now orpower through, and I powered
through until about 4.30.
And I had Friday night stuffready, but at that point I was
(57:08):
about 60 or 70% done forSaturday morning.
I was like I need to at leastwork on Saturday morning's talk.
I was like I need to at leastwork on saturday morning's talk.
I was like I'm not gonna, if I,because you know, if you go eat
it's a two-hour commitmentbecause you can't not talk to
folks.
It's like I need to get throughmy teaching stuff and you know.
So I ate the next, the nextrest of the meals from from
lunch saturday, supper saturday.
(57:28):
But I heard the steak wasawesome uh, it was, it was same
thing.
I didn't eat the second nightbecause, uh, getting ready to
speak, but the steak wasmemorable I think the the thing
with the steak that's soimpressive too is it wasn't a
ribeye.
It's like, yeah, I don't knowwhat cut it was, but it but he,
I mean, he called it somethingfancy.
(57:49):
Yeah, it's like a shoulder cut.
Yeah, yeah, but man, I heard Imean everybody raved about it.
When you get that many guysbragging on meat yeah, because
guys are critical, right, guysare meat critics.
So, all right, we'll wrap thatup and, uh, thank y'all for
listening and I hope that, ifyou're not already thinking
about it, you'll be thinkingabout coming to be strong next
(58:11):
september.
That's our next one.
And then also, uh, husbands andwives, we do still offer a
marriage conference in Octoberand for you ladies that listen
to NSR, if you're not alreadysigned up, our women's
conference is in April.
So be sure and come to that.
Our wives will be leading thatand super involved in that.
She had just a few spots leftand they will go.
It'll be full, so hope you canmake it.
Speaker 2 (58:37):
And we'll see you next week.
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