September 8, 2025 • 40 mins
In this special episode of No Sanity Required, Brody shares powerful listener stories from across the country—testimonies of lives changed, marriages formed, and families coming to Christ through the ministry. These heartfelt comments reveal how God is using the podcast to impact people far beyond Snowbird. Brody also gives a sneak peek at what’s ahead, including a two-part interview with a former Mormon, conversations on cults vs. Christianity, and upcoming guests like a former FBI agent and LMNT program leaders. Don’t miss this encouraging and honest look at how God is working through No Sanity Required.
Too Far Gone? A Story of Tragedy, Hope, and Redemption.
Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help improve No Sanity Required and help others grow in their faith.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, this episode is going to be a little bit
different.
I want to welcome everybody tono Sanity Required, but what
we're going to do is just readsome comments from recent
episodes and then some moregeneral comments about the
podcast.
Then I'm going to go over someupcoming topics and themes and
guests and interviews, thingslike that, just to give you kind
(00:21):
of an idea of where we're goingover the next few months, give
you something to look forward toand then to welcome your
feedback.
This will be a little bitshorter than normal episode
because later this week we'vegot some longer form stuff
coming out.
Let me just welcome you to noSanity Required and then we'll
get into today's episode.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
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 (00:56):
JB and I sat down a few days ago with a guy that
worked at Snowbird for years.
His name's Josh Haskell andJosh Haskell.
His background was that he grewup Mormon and I know a lot of
us have a lot of misconceptionsabout the Mormon church and I
will say I've had a little bitof interaction with Mormons and
we're going to be talking abouttheir doctrine and their beliefs
(01:19):
and, uh, in the the twoepisodes, one will get more into
what they believe and the otherwill get more into Josh's
specific story and it was wevideoed it.
So it'll be a video episode andI'm looking forward for you, uh
, for y'all, to hear that butand see it, because it was
fascinating to me.
I've known Josh for 15 yearsnow longer than that, I guess,
(01:41):
maybe like 17 years years nowlonger than that, I guess maybe
like 17 years and I and I'veknown his story and we've had a
lot of conversation about it,but this is the first time I
ever sat down with him and justsaid, all right, man, let's,
let's just walk through this.
So we really get into thedoctrine of the Mormon church
and I learned a lot.
At the very end, I asked him togive me a definition of a cult.
(02:02):
What is a cult?
Because sometimes people willjoke about snowbird being a cult
, and I don't like that.
I like, I'm, I'm fine with withhumor.
That's a little bit sarcastic,you know, but that's such a
serious thing.
Because someone who like a cultis heretical.
So anything that deviates fromthe true gospel or that adds
(02:25):
something to it.
You know, paul tells theGalatians if anybody changes or
adds to the gospel, preach.
He says, if anyone preaches anyother gospel than the gospel of
scripture, that that person isto be accursed, and the word is
anathema in the Greek, whichmeans condemned to hell.
This is where the idea of wherewhat happens to heretics, this
(02:46):
is where that idea comes from.
A heretic is someone thatrejects core Christian doctrine,
specifically something like thedeity of Christ or the work of
Jesus, rejects God's revelationto us or changes it.
So the Bible's got harsh wordsfor somebody that falls into
that category.
And so I'm, um.
(03:06):
By the way, I'm I'm recordingalone with no headset this
morning, so I hope I'm the rightdistance from the microphone.
I have no way of knowing.
Hopefully this will all pick up, um, but there's a little
disclaimer.
But the reason I don't like to,to even joke about, you know
cultish things is because of the, the gravity of what we're
(03:28):
saying, what that means.
A cult is a group of people, ora cult leader would be someone
who teaches a false gospel or afalse religion or religious
system, and specifically as itrelates to the person and work
of Jesus, and then one you knowsome characteristics of cults.
(03:51):
One characteristic of a cultwould be a charismatic leader
that you know that abuses hisposition of influence or power.
Typically that's going to haveto do with power, money, sexual
relationships almost all cultsI'm sure there's exceptions to
this.
I can't think of any.
Every cult that I know ofthere's sexual perversion or
(04:13):
deviance.
So that's typically somethingyou think about.
Like David Koresh at Waco, hewas a cult leader of the latter
part of the last century andwhen you read about what went on
behind the walls of thatcompound in Waco, the Branch
Davidian compound, there wassexual perversion.
(04:35):
He experienced polygamy or hehad the women there had to be
his sexual partners, that'salways a part of it.
Had to be his sexual partners,that's always a part of it.
One characteristic of cultsthat Josh points out in the
interview that you'll hear laterthis week is you're not allowed
(04:55):
to leave Once you're in, youcan't just walk away.
So, anyway, that's why I neverjoke about cult stuff, and so
we'll get into that.
We'll get into what a cult is,and it's a fascinating episode.
Two episodes.
(05:16):
We'll break it into two becauseit was almost two hours of
interview and we don't typicallydo episodes that long.
But anyway, we'll get that outlater this week and I know
you'll learn a lot I did.
We talked about the.
Mormon view of heaven, theMormon view.
They believe so.
Mormons believe that before wewere on the earth we preexisted,
so we were like Jesus.
(05:37):
He's just one of us, we allpreexisted.
Then you come to earth to getyour body and then after that
you go into one of the heavensand then there's different
progressions and it was verydifferent than the Christian
gospel.
I think there's one, one realfamous guy I think it's a news
commentator like a Glenn Beckmaybe that was.
(05:59):
That was Mormon Um, who was.
I don't know if he's still likea talk show person, but I know
he was real popular a few yearsago and I remember a lot of
Christians just wrestling withman.
This guy says the same thingswe say and one thing I know to
be true is that people thatpreach or teach false religions,
a lot of times they run realclose to Christianity and that's
(06:23):
kind of the way Satan typicallyworked.
Now you do have far-fetchedreligions that are, I mean,
couldn't be farther fromChristianity.
You know, like if you studyBuddhism or Hinduism, so far
from what we believe.
But Islam, you know, in Islamthey hold to a lot of the old
Testament, history and teachingof the Bible, and then they, you
know, they, they value Jesus asa prophet like Muhammad, and so
(06:47):
it just muddies and makes thewater real murky and also makes
it mulky, which is another wordthat we use around here Um, but
it just kind of clouds things,you know.
And so the the beauty of thegospels?
It's very, it's very simple,it's very articulated in
Scripture.
We don't have to.
(07:09):
I mean, the gospel is so clearthrough the Scripture and if you
hold a high view of theScripture, then you've got a
clear view of the gospel.
What the Mormon church has doneis they've added to the
scripture by creating their ownholy writing.
I think that's anothercharacteristic of a lot of cults
(07:30):
is that they'll have their ownadditions to scripture,
subtractions from scripture.
One thing that might be aninteresting conversation to have
would be what's the differencebetween a cult and a different
religion, difference between acult and like a different
(07:50):
religion?
So when we use the word cult,um, as a as I'll say this as a
christian, I would drop a lot ofpagan religions in the same
category, I would drop cults,you know, like islam and the
muslim faith.
It is the biggest cult inhistory because of what they
teach and you're not allowed toleave it, and and what their
founding fathers taught, theirmain founding father, muhammad,
(08:13):
what he taught.
So it is a cult.
But then there's kind of thisdifferent category of religions
versus cults.
The main differences would be areligion is typically going to
be something that is it's publicand it's belief system so
anybody can study it or learnabout it, know about it.
Typically they're they'reculturally integrated thing
(08:47):
called freedom of religion andtypically what is recognized as
a religion is going to bemainstream and people are going
to be able to study it.
There's going to be a set ofdoctrines, which is beliefs that
are adhered to but that arepublic.
In the Christian doctrine webelieve that one example would
be we believe that God becameman in the person of Jesus, that
Jesus is the second person ofthe Trinity.
(09:08):
We believe in a triune God, aTrinitarian God, that our God is
three in one Father, son, holySpirit and that the second
person, or the second member ofthe Trinity, came to earth.
Philippians 2 says says Jesusdid not consider equality with
God a thing to be grasped, buthe made himself of no reputation
(09:28):
, he humbled himself and becameobedient, even to go to the
cross and die.
So Jesus came to earth as a manthat is at the core doctrine of
the Christian faith.
There was a heretic named RobBell some years ago.
That was a leadingquote-unquote Christian voice
who began to sort of tamper withChristian doctrine, and we
(09:56):
talked about him recently in thePenal Substitutionary Atonement
episode.
But he came out and questionedthe virgin birth and the
validity of it, and then hequestioned the necessity of it.
So the necessity of the virginbirth is that Jesus had to be
truly human, but he had to betruly God.
So he was born in asupernatural way, but though he
(10:19):
was born that way, he was humanin his time on the earth, and so
that's a core doctrine.
The virgin birth is a doctrineof scripture, um, and it's
mainstream, and now you getvariations and disagreements on
on some things.
But a religion is going to havea core doctrinal system where a
cult is going to be very secret.
You're maybe not going to knowwhat people believe, um, until
(10:44):
you get to the inside.
You know there's a lot ofquestions surrounding things
that go on behind closed doorsin that system.
And so a religious system, youknow, when we think of major
world religions again, we thinkof Buddhism.
Islam, hinduism, christianity,judaism those are mainstream
(11:05):
global religions, but then a lotof cults are going to be a spin
off of one of those, and soMormonism is a spin off of
Judaism and Christianity.
And so then, you know, there'sa gray area where people would
disagree.
Some people would say, well,mormonism is not a cult, it's a
religion.
No, it's a cult because it's aperversion of Christianity, but
(11:28):
it's very secret.
So, anyway, I'm looking forwardto it.
I just said a lot more than Iplanned on saying in this
episode about what's coming up,but I think I'm very excited,
and I think you'll find theinterview with Josh Haskell
that's coming out later thisweek to be very insightful and
helpful.
I learned a lot, I mean, Ilearned a whole lot, um, and
then I wanted to uh just taketoday's episode, take some time
(11:52):
and just work through some uh,some some comments we had.
Um, I'm excited about, uh, someupcoming episodes.
I'm going to be interviewing JBand I will be interviewing it
might even be just JB, I don'tknow, but I I'd like to be
involved in the interview, um,with a young lady who has got a
(12:16):
really dynamic testimony.
She grew up coming to SWO.
Um, there's a good chance.
Matter of fact, her story willend up in the no sanity stories
book that's coming, uh, thatthat we're putting together this
winter.
Um, so anyway, the the a coupleof episodes coming up, one with
with a young lady whose storyis one of growing up, coming to
(12:38):
SWO, involved in, you know,families in ministry, and she
ended up in a crazy situation incollege and the Lord.
I don't want to, I don't wantto give too much of her story
away, but I'm looking forward tothat.
And then I'm going to sit downin a few weeks here with a lady
that that served at SWO for adecade and has one of the most
(12:59):
amazing stories of her life,story like what she grew up in,
what she came from, how Godbrought her to Snowbird as a
14-year-old, gave her life toChrist, and then how she served
and worked here so faithfullyfor several years, and just some
crazy stuff that she'saccomplished in her life.
It's an amazing story.
Her name's Ann.
I'm excited for you all to hearfrom Ann.
(13:20):
So we've got some goodinterviews coming up.
We've got an episode that we'vebeen sitting on with a former
FBI agent who deployed withspecial operations in the
military.
He was FBI.
He was in the military.
He was on a nuclear navalsubmarine during the 90s, got
out of the military, went intothe FBI and then ended up on a
(13:44):
task force or like a programwhere FBI agents would deploy
with special operations, sfteams and folks from the special
operations community and theywould deploy with those guys
during the war on terror becausethey were needing to collect
information from high-valuetargets.
(14:04):
And this guy's story's wild man.
He's a really good personalfriend of mine, his name's Clay
and somebody I consider a reallyclose brother, both me
personally and the ministry hereat Snowbird.
But I really appreciated I'mlooking forward to interviewing
him.
We did an interview on hisnaval service and just kind of
(14:26):
his time going into the FBI.
But then after that interview wesat around and talked some more
at a fire that evening and wereally got into sort of the
theology of God's sovereigntyand how that grounds a person
before they go into combat.
It's kind of a different take,a different conversation for
people that are considering themilitary or law enforcement.
(14:49):
A lot of people struggle withPTSD and this guy hasn't really
struggled with that even thoughhe's been in some pretty intense
combat environments.
And I asked him.
I asked Clay.
I said man, do you think that,because you were 38 years old
when you deployed, you'realready very established in your
(15:11):
theology, the framework of howyou view God and his sovereignty
, did that prepare you?
And he said a hundred percent.
And he talked about things heread and in ways that he
prepared his heart and mind.
I'm excited to get him back tothe microphone and interview him
.
So we've we've held the.
We interviewed him a couplemonths back, but we've sat on
that first interview because wewant to have a couple of
(15:33):
follow-ups and then drop thosesubsequently.
Um, just boom, boom, boom, withtwo or three conversations with
Clay.
That's coming up, uh, alsocoming up.
We're going to be interviewingfolks that have been part of the
Element program here.
That's L-M-N-T LeadershipMentorship, next Generation
Training.
Element is a program that's areally dynamic program here.
(15:55):
It's phenomenal.
Jb is a leader in that program.
She has a really heavy hand inthe leadership of that program
and I'm excited to meet with JBand I will have a conversation
about it.
We'll probably bring Zay in.
Zay worked this past summer onthe on in the element program
leading.
He was one of the leaders forthe guys team, so we have about
(16:18):
20 guys and 20 gals 20 guys, 20girls that come in for the
summer, so 40 students highschool students between 10th and
12th grade and it's a it's aleadership program, it's it's
heavy discipleship andmentorship and it's an amazing
program.
We have, uh, three to four menand three to four women that
(16:41):
lead that program, so it's a bigstaff for that program and it's
a program that a lot of peoplehave a lot of questions about
and are interested in.
So I'm looking forward to tosit down and have a conversation
about that Um, and then we'regoing to do uh, let me see what
else we've got coming up.
One that I'm really excitedabout is I'm going to interview
(17:01):
my sister, rocky.
Raquel Mabry is Zach Mabry'swife and she's my sister.
My mom and stepdad raised Rocky.
She came into the family afterI was grown and out of the house
.
As a matter of fact, I waslittle and I were already
(17:22):
married.
But, um, she's my sister and,um, I love her so much and her
story is amazing.
I mean, it's crazy.
Her story is wild.
Some of y'all have heard it,cause I used it a few years ago,
um, when we were doing a serieson Ruth, um at a SWO event and
I and I did tell her story isfascinating.
Rocky comes from a family I'lltell you this much of the
(17:43):
dynamic Her father, biologicalfather, murdered her biological
mother when Rocky was four yearsold and, um, and it's just a
crazy story.
It's a story that really helpsme understand the sovereignty of
God.
So I'm looking forward to thatuh with Rocky and let's see what
(18:04):
else.
Some episodes that folks haveasked about that I think will be
really interesting.
We're going to talk about thestaff selection and application
process here.
That'll be later, like late inthe semester, as we get close to
closing out staff applications,how we put together our current
application, the history of howwe got to where we're at, and
(18:25):
then Issa and Zay and JB willall be on that episode and we're
just going to talk through whatit looks like to apply to serve
here and then just some talkingpoints that folks have asked
about the death penalty.
These will be shorter episodes,sort of like beyond the flannel
graph, but a little bit moremaybe harder topics of
(18:48):
boundaries with the opposite sexstories from the mission field
I'm going to talk about um, uh,I'm going to have a conversation
with little about the pinwheelprogram.
So looking forward to a lot ofthe content that we've got laid
out.
These are all the things I'mmost of what I've shared with
you here we don't yet haverecorded.
We have recorded the JoshHaskell interview, we have
(19:11):
recorded the first interviewwith um Clay Hicks and, uh, then
we got a lot of cool interviewscoming up.
Uh, the last one I wanted toshare with you I'm going to do
episode.
I going to do an episode onmotifs and themes in scripture,
because in scripture you'll seea theme or a motif that runs as
(19:32):
a thread through scripture, forinstance, rocks or stones.
You'll see that a lot.
You'll see whales a lot.
Jesus meets a woman at a whale.
He uses water as an analogy ormetaphor.
You see whales throughout theold Testament a lot.
So motifs in scripture.
(19:53):
And then I'm going to sit down.
One thing I'm really lookingforward to is JB and I sit down
with Nikki Smith.
Nikki oversees the entireElement program.
So JB runs and works on thegirl's side of Element, zay
works on the guy's side.
Nikki oversees the entireprogram, but Nikki is also.
(20:13):
She has her master's degreefrom Southeastern Baptist
Theological Seminary inChristian counseling and she's
got a ton of wisdom, 20 years ofexperience here at SWO.
She's been with us going on 20years and is just a phenomenal
(20:35):
source of wisdom and counsel andhandles a lot of hard
conversations here and she doesit with strength and firmness
but with gentleness.
And so we're going to Nikki andI are going to have a
conversation about hardcounseling situations and sort
of our approach to that.
And then we're going to getinto some things like
homosexuality, codependency,just wisdom in how we navigate
(20:59):
and deal with those types ofsituations.
I'm looking forward to that.
So here we are, 20 minutes intothis episode and all I've done
is give you all a preview ofwhat's coming.
But I thought it would be agood time to hit pause and look
forward and sort of give yousome direction on where we're
going over the next few months,and I'm real excited about it.
(21:21):
So what I want to do for therest of this episode is I'm
going to just give y'all somecomments, read some listener
comments and then give somecomments back on those.
The feedback that I've gottenover the last couple of years
that we've gotten about thispodcast has been phenomenal.
We've, to this point, we'venever been monetized.
We don't get sponsorships.
(21:42):
We don't.
We just this is very organic, Iguess is the word sort of blue
collar, sort of grassroots, Idon't know the best way to say
it, but it's just.
It's very down to earth, iswhat I think maybe would be a
good way to describe it.
So this podcast is very down toearth.
The way we do things is verydown to earth, and that's true
(22:05):
of the way we do things atSnowbird in general.
Just want to be real.
I read an article in FamilyDevotions this morning about a
guy that he takes pictures withan old school camera and he
doesn't edit or doctor anything.
He just wants to show things asthey are, and I think that's
(22:25):
something that we try to do herejust be real and be raw and be
as authentic as we can be, andit seems to be working.
We're not trying to be cringey,we're not trying to say things
for shock factor value, we'renot trying to be cutesy or funny
(22:45):
, just trying to haveconversations and give you
content.
That's encouraging.
And so these comments givetestimony to the fact that I
think we're doing that and theLord's blessing it.
But also I have hundreds ofconversations.
I mean hundreds, not dozens,hundreds.
I think it's important toemphasize that, like in a normal
(23:09):
event at SWO where we've got,say, we've got 600 people here,
man, I'll have a couple dozenconversations about NSR People
are listening to this thing.
I don't.
I mean every single week, tensof thousands of people are
listening and I'm just blownaway by that, so very encouraged
by it.
I want to give you somecomments that we've gotten from
(23:34):
listeners.
A lot of these are on specificepisodes.
So here's a comment fromMoultrie, georgia.
Please thank Blake and Taylorfor sharing their story.
That's Blake and Taylor.
Blake's the firefighter that weposted this a couple months
back.
I don't remember what episodenumber this was, but he's a
(23:55):
firefighter who they've beenthrough a lot together in their
marriage.
Just a lot of it related to hiscareer in their marriage, just
a lot of it related to hiscareer.
It's so good to hear and bereminded of how God is redeeming
us through our tough situationsand so good to see people
fighting for their marriage.
I'll be praying for them andtheir hearts and their family.
It's so good to be reminded howmuch God loves us, especially
(24:17):
in our messiness.
Thank you from Moultrie,georgia.
Thank you for that comment,because the reason I think this
comment is important is whensomeone comes onto a stage or a
platform, you know, like NSR, orthey get up in front of their
church and they share, they endup in some sort of a spotlight.
I believe and I've seen this tobe true that the devil's now
(24:38):
going to really come after you.
So when Blake and Taylor agreedto do this, one of the things
we talked about is and thedevil's going to come after
y'all, because now that yourstory's out there, if he can
bring you down, you know it'sgoing to have a greater, broader
impact, and so I appreciatethat this commenter said I'll be
(24:59):
praying for them and for theirfamily.
So do that.
And so thank you again to Blakeand Taylor for allowing us to
bring them on and for the Lordto use their story to encourage
others.
This is Daniel from Jacksonville, florida, brody.
My name's Daniel.
I'm a member of HiberniaBaptist Church in Fleming Island
.
I've had the privilege to hearyou speak here before and I'm
(25:22):
looking forward to hearing youon August 10th.
So this is about a month oldcomment, and I actually did, uh,
talk to Daniel when I was there.
It was great meeting him andhis family, so shout out to
Daniel and his family.
Um, his girls, um got to meet,uh, his wife, just awesome.
Family loves the Lord and theirdiehard hunters.
(25:42):
And I learned something in thatconversation.
They have a.
You know those little dogs,they're wiener dogs.
What are they called?
Dachshunds?
Is it dachshund?
Is that what the wiener dogbreed is called?
I think it is.
But anyway, they have theselittle dachshund cross dogs that
they use to track deer, andDaniel's wife said it's crazy
(26:05):
how effective it is.
So anyway, that was prettyinteresting and sent me down a
YouTube rabbit hole.
But anyway, daniel asks are yougoing to be bringing any of
your books with you when youcome?
Oh, I did not take books, Iforgot them.
I had a case of books I wasgoing to take and I forgot them.
So, daniel, I know you listenweekly.
If you'll text me we exchangedcontact info.
(26:25):
If you'll text me your address,I'll put a book in the mail for
you.
I also wanted to share with youthat my daughter came to SWO
during week five this pastsummer and the Holy Spirit
really spoke to her heart.
Whenever she got home, thefirst thing she did was come and
talk to me and tell me that shewas lost and was ready to
accept Jesus as her savior.
I just wanted to share thatwith you so that you could
(26:47):
rejoice with me.
Thank you for being faithful toGod's calling, looking forward
to hopefully being able to spendsome time with you in
conversation whenever you'rehere.
We did get to talk briefly, andDaniel did share that with me
about his daughter, which to me,is the best.
That's the most amazingscenario.
A kid comes here, the Lordopens their heart.
While they're here, they reallybegin to respond to the gospel,
(27:08):
the Holy Spirit begins to dothe work, and then she goes home
and talks with her parents andembraces Christ.
That is the most powerful.
Beautiful like that.
If we could script it, thatwould be it.
Unfortunately, the majority ofthe kids that end up here don't
have a dad like daniel, so theydon't have a dad to go home and
talk to, but some do, and thisstory just blesses me and so I
(27:30):
wanted to share it with you.
That comment is a huge blessing.
So thanks, daniel, thanks forsharing, thanks for commenting
and also thanks for coming upand talking to me when I was,
when I I was speaking there um afew weeks ago.
Next is from Branson, missouri.
Love to listen to your podcastand all the wonderful pastors
from Red Oak church.
So it's a reference to, uh, youknow NSR is a podcast.
(27:55):
Uh, that's a ministry ofsnowbird wilderness outfitters,
but, um, the church that I'maffiliated with is red Oak
church and our teaching podcastis something that's um, that a
lot of our listeners also listento.
Snowbird has a second podcastAlso.
We have two podcasts this oneand then our teaching podcast.
(28:15):
So there's really threeresources that we're connected
to here the red Oak sermonpodcast it's our weekly sermon
that we're connected to here.
The Red Oak Sermon Podcast it'sour weekly sermon.
The Snowbird Teaching Podcast,which is all teaching content at
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters,and then this podcast, the NSR
Podcast.
Love to listen to your podcast,all the wonderful pastors from
Red Oak Church.
God is doing great work throughall of you.
(28:37):
I'm a new pastor in Missouri.
One day I hope to bring somestudents to camp and see camp.
I a new pastor in Missouri.
One day I hope to bring somestudents to camp and see camp.
I can't wait to visit Red Oak.
Do you have seminars forhusbands and wives?
Thank you for your faithfulnessto the kingdom.
Yes, we do have a marriageconference late October.
Now, that is, it is full, it isbooked, but we are trying to,
(28:58):
we're trying to open up somemore spots just to figure out a
way to creatively squeeze morepeople in Um, so so check that
out.
Um, that might be somethingthat you would enjoy coming to.
It's always very well attendedand, uh, it's a it's a good time
for us.
It's coming up at the end ofOctober.
Um, I also want to say um inreference to red oak church.
(29:21):
Uh, I didn't mention thisearlier, but one of the podcast
episodes that's not on the listbut it's on my kind of the back
of my mind is I want to sit downwith, uh, the two guys that are
paid staff or like vocational,like on staff at our church.
Um, they're now, when I saypaid, these guys are making
(29:42):
sacrifices.
They could both be making a lotmore money at larger churches
because they're both very giftedand talented dudes and they've
had amazing opportunities.
We have a few paid staff, quitea few part-time folks.
So when I say that, I don'twant it to sound like these guys
are making a big bunch of money, because they are not, but guys
(30:03):
that are vocational, you knowthey're either by vocational or
they're full-time doing this,and so I want to sit down with
our team because we are a smalltown.
You'll never grow a big churchin this town, because Andrews
town, the city of Andrews, northCarolina, is like I don't know,
1,200 or 1,400 people.
And then the greater Andrewstown, the city of Andrews, north
Carolina, is like I don't know,12 or 1400 people.
And then the greater Andrewsarea.
(30:25):
If you take the surroundingarea, you get, you know, that
number of get up above 2000maybe, but that's in a pretty
big area geographically.
And then it takes well over anhour to drive across our County
and in this County, um, there'slike 25,000 people and in this
county there's like 25,000people.
(30:45):
So you know I get tickled.
I got a buddy, steve Finn.
Y'all know Steve, he's been onhere before and he lives in
Morgantown, west Virginia, andhe'll say you know, we're just a
small town and you look up thepopulation of Morgantown and
it's like 60,000 people and I'mlike I guess everybody's version
it's relative.
He came from Atlanta.
Atlanta is the greater Atlantaarea, there's millions of people
(31:06):
.
He moved to Morgantown.
There's 50,000, 60,000 people,whatever.
That's a small town to him, tome Morgantown's a big city.
So everything's relative.
So what I want to do is I wantto do an episode with our guys
about what it's like to pastorand do ministry in a small town,
because our guys are soeffective and I feel like the
(31:27):
Lord's given us a lot of favorin this community and anyway
it'd be fun to share that.
But thank you from Branson,missouri, next from Gainesville,
georgia.
As a 58-year-old woman, thisepisode really hit home.
I loved it.
It was almost as good as theepisodes when we get to hear
from JB.
I'm not sure which episodeshe's talking about.
She did the emoji where theeyeballs are crossed and the
(31:51):
tongue's hanging out.
She loves hearing from JB,apparently, which is awesome.
I'm really thankful because oneof the biggest moves I think
we've made at NSR is bringing JBin and getting her involved.
She's just been phenomenal.
Jb is one of those people thatjust gives you a lot of
confidence and hope for thisyounger generation that's just
(32:13):
entering the workforce andcoming into adulthood.
I mean JB, you would never knowshe's as young as she is, she's
wise beyond her years and um,so anyway, I appreciate that
this is recognized.
This 58 year old woman, anyway,um, she loved hearing from JB.
She says thanks for alwaysspeaking truth boldly and
unapologetically.
(32:33):
Nsr is my favorite podcast man.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
What a blessing to read that.
That's so cool.
Um, from Memphis, tennessee,just wanted to say say thank you
so much for all you do for thekingdom of Jesus Christ in
making disciples, baptizing andteaching people to observe all
that Jesus has commanded.
(32:54):
Huge fan.
Having a platform that is deepin scripture and the true
meaning of and also hard truththat doesn't beat around the
bush is hard to find, but not atNSR.
How do you train others in away to share the gospel?
Sharing the gospel and makingdisciples is my passion.
I love hearing how others dowhat God has called us to do.
So that was from Memphis,tennessee, and that's a good
(33:15):
question.
We just teach our folks to justshare the good news of the
gospel.
We train them what the gospelis.
We've got some different onramps for how to get into
conversation, but there's athere's a lot of different
strategies and ways to do it and, um, and it's something we try
to help our people focus on andemphasize.
(33:35):
But thank you from Memphis,tennessee, that was awesome.
Thank you from Mobile, alabama.
Listen to the most recent noSanity Required podcast and
remembering all the things theLord did in my life at SWO back
in 2008.
Wow, so this guy or gal came toSWO in 2008 and is now an avid
(34:00):
listener of NSR.
I just graduated high schooland had all these plans to go to
college and become a highschool math teacher.
I can very vividly rememberstanding there in a worship
service and the Lord telling methat was not his plan for me.
I bawled, I knew it wasn't.
I attempted to follow throughwith my plans anyways.
It didn't work out.
I dropped out of college beforethe first semester ended.
(34:28):
I'm now homeschooling my fourkids and running a homeschool
co-op in our area.
So maybe this is a mom.
I'm not sure.
I said a guy, I'm not sure.
Maybe it's a mom.
Quite the opposite.
Yep, it's a lady.
Okay, sorry, quite the oppositeof my plans.
I also met my husband of 15years at SWO.
We were both campers.
We met on Picnic Rock whilewhitewater rafting and ended up
going to old school at the sametime later that summer.
I love that.
(34:49):
Old school was a program weused to have here that we don't
do anymore.
But how cool is that.
She met her husband at SWO.
That's so cool.
And they've been married 15years and got four kids and
she's running the homeschoolco-op in their area.
I love hearing of other people'slife changes because of this
ministry.
It truly is special.
I love hearing of the growth ofthe ministry over the years,
(35:09):
praying for y'all as youcontinue to minister to young
people at SWO.
Um, that was cool.
Where was that one?
From Mobile, alabama?
This is from a guy named SeanUm and he says this and he's
responding to the episode.
No one drifts toward holiness.
Relevant appraisal of currentcultural Christian experiences.
(35:32):
This podcast forces me to alignmy attitude with that of Christ.
As I meet and encourage people,I we must diligently study
God's word to be trained well bythe Holy Spirit for the purpose
to exalt Christ.
So thanks, sean, appreciatethat.
And then from Adam, thank youso much, mr Holloway.
(35:53):
He called me Mr Holloway, so Idon't want to see that he might
be being funny.
No, I think this is a young guywho's being sincere.
Adam, call me Brody, please.
Pretty casual here.
Uh, thank you for the respectthat you're showing there, um,
and I appreciate that, but Iwould.
I would invite you to call meBrody, um, think that'd be
awesome.
Adam says thank you so much, mrHolloway.
(36:14):
This episode was awesome.
The interview with Mo wasreally cool.
That's from the episode where Iinterviewed Lely and Mo came on
at the beginning.
So people love Mo.
That's awesome to hear, thankyou.
And then from Kate Olmsted,this made me want to jump back
into reading Ruth.
Beyond the flannel graphepisodes are probably my
(36:34):
favorites and that was a commenton God of Ruth, god of Now
episode we did back early in thesummer.
So there's some comments fromNSR and thank you for leaving
those comments everyone who didand just ask you to do that in
(36:55):
the future.
It was wonderful to sit downand read all of those.
It was so encouraging to me andum, so I appreciate it and so
I'm going to finish this episodewith I'll just change
microphone, so I don't know ifit changed the I needed to get
my headset on for this one butum, so my son Tucker a lot of
(37:17):
our listeners know he's a widereceiver and punt returner for
Virginia Tech Off to an 0-2start Seasons.
It's been a rough start, butweek one we played the
University of South Carolina atMercedes-Benz Stadium and Tuck
got.
He was in the game a lot, buthe never got targeted for any
passes, returned a couple puntsand so he was definitely in the
(37:41):
action.
But this past week againstVanderbilt, we lost a pretty
rough loss.
But early in the game Tech wasleading 3-0, still first quarter
and Tuck got his firstreception of the season.
So West Durham is my favorite.
(38:01):
I'm pretty sure this is WestDurham calling it.
We were at the game so I wasn'twatching it on TV, but this was
West Durham play calling.
I love the way he calls.
I was going to play that foryou.
Proud dad moment.
First catch of the season 33yard reception to midfield.
So that was cool.
(38:34):
We were there, we were goingcrazy.
Laylee was there, me littleLaylee, zach, rocky, their boys,
my brother shout out to duke.
Duke was there with his wifeand my two nephews, um, juju and
mo were there.
I mean, it was a lot of peopleat the game.
(38:55):
Uh, zach, I mean I'm sorry.
Rob, adam and spencer werethere.
These are names.
If you're, if you're, familiarwith the swO team, you know
these folks and so, anyway, um,that was fun, even though we got
whooped.
Uh, hopefully we'll get theseason turned around, hopefully
we'll get something going here,but uh, that was cool, tuck's
first catch of the year.
He actually had two catches for43 yards.
(39:17):
So, um, yeah, it was a good dayfor tuck, bad day for the
Hokies, which I guess the badday for tuck also, but as a dad,
it's just fun seeing your kiddo well.
So, anyway, thank y'all forlistening to this week's episode
.
This is, uh, this is today'sepisode, but we are going to
drop a couple more.
Uh that we'll get those.
Uh, the book for the, theinterview with Josh Haskell who
(39:41):
came out of the Mormon church,uh, we'll.
The first episode will droplater this week and then we'll
follow it with part two nextweek.
So look for that coming up anduh, thank y'all, and uh, we'll
talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Thanks for listening to.
No sanity required.
Please take a moment tosubscribe and leave a rating.
It really helps.
Visit us at SW outfitterscom tosee all of our programming and
resources and we'll see you nextweek on.
No sanity required.
Hey, this episode is going to be a little bit
different.
I want to welcome everybody tono Sanity Required, but what
we're going to do is just readsome comments from recent
episodes and then some moregeneral comments about the
podcast.
Then I'm going to go over someupcoming topics and themes and
guests and interviews, thingslike that, just to give you kind
(00:21):
of an idea of where we're goingover the next few months, give
you something to look forward toand then to welcome your
feedback.
This will be a little bitshorter than normal episode
because later this week we'vegot some longer form stuff
coming out.
Let me just welcome you to noSanity Required and then we'll
get into today's episode.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
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 (00:56):
JB and I sat down a few days ago with a guy that
worked at Snowbird for years.
His name's Josh Haskell andJosh Haskell.
His background was that he grewup Mormon and I know a lot of
us have a lot of misconceptionsabout the Mormon church and I
will say I've had a little bitof interaction with Mormons and
we're going to be talking abouttheir doctrine and their beliefs
(01:19):
and, uh, in the the twoepisodes, one will get more into
what they believe and the otherwill get more into Josh's
specific story and it was wevideoed it.
So it'll be a video episode andI'm looking forward for you, uh
, for y'all, to hear that butand see it, because it was
fascinating to me.
I've known Josh for 15 yearsnow longer than that, I guess,
(01:41):
maybe like 17 years years nowlonger than that, I guess maybe
like 17 years and I and I'veknown his story and we've had a
lot of conversation about it,but this is the first time I
ever sat down with him and justsaid, all right, man, let's,
let's just walk through this.
So we really get into thedoctrine of the Mormon church
and I learned a lot.
At the very end, I asked him togive me a definition of a cult.
(02:02):
What is a cult?
Because sometimes people willjoke about snowbird being a cult
, and I don't like that.
I like, I'm, I'm fine with withhumor.
That's a little bit sarcastic,you know, but that's such a
serious thing.
Because someone who like a cultis heretical.
So anything that deviates fromthe true gospel or that adds
(02:25):
something to it.
You know, paul tells theGalatians if anybody changes or
adds to the gospel, preach.
He says, if anyone preaches anyother gospel than the gospel of
scripture, that that person isto be accursed, and the word is
anathema in the Greek, whichmeans condemned to hell.
This is where the idea of wherewhat happens to heretics, this
(02:46):
is where that idea comes from.
A heretic is someone thatrejects core Christian doctrine,
specifically something like thedeity of Christ or the work of
Jesus, rejects God's revelationto us or changes it.
So the Bible's got harsh wordsfor somebody that falls into
that category.
And so I'm, um.
(03:06):
By the way, I'm I'm recordingalone with no headset this
morning, so I hope I'm the rightdistance from the microphone.
I have no way of knowing.
Hopefully this will all pick up, um, but there's a little
disclaimer.
But the reason I don't like to,to even joke about, you know
cultish things is because of the, the gravity of what we're
(03:28):
saying, what that means.
A cult is a group of people, ora cult leader would be someone
who teaches a false gospel or afalse religion or religious
system, and specifically as itrelates to the person and work
of Jesus, and then one you knowsome characteristics of cults.
(03:51):
One characteristic of a cultwould be a charismatic leader
that you know that abuses hisposition of influence or power.
Typically that's going to haveto do with power, money, sexual
relationships almost all cultsI'm sure there's exceptions to
this.
I can't think of any.
Every cult that I know ofthere's sexual perversion or
(04:13):
deviance.
So that's typically somethingyou think about.
Like David Koresh at Waco, hewas a cult leader of the latter
part of the last century andwhen you read about what went on
behind the walls of thatcompound in Waco, the Branch
Davidian compound, there wassexual perversion.
(04:35):
He experienced polygamy or hehad the women there had to be
his sexual partners, that'salways a part of it.
Had to be his sexual partners,that's always a part of it.
One characteristic of cultsthat Josh points out in the
interview that you'll hear laterthis week is you're not allowed
(04:55):
to leave Once you're in, youcan't just walk away.
So, anyway, that's why I neverjoke about cult stuff, and so
we'll get into that.
We'll get into what a cult is,and it's a fascinating episode.
Two episodes.
(05:16):
We'll break it into two becauseit was almost two hours of
interview and we don't typicallydo episodes that long.
But anyway, we'll get that outlater this week and I know
you'll learn a lot I did.
We talked about the.
Mormon view of heaven, theMormon view.
They believe so.
Mormons believe that before wewere on the earth we preexisted,
so we were like Jesus.
(05:37):
He's just one of us, we allpreexisted.
Then you come to earth to getyour body and then after that
you go into one of the heavensand then there's different
progressions and it was verydifferent than the Christian
gospel.
I think there's one, one realfamous guy I think it's a news
commentator like a Glenn Beckmaybe that was.
(05:59):
That was Mormon Um, who was.
I don't know if he's still likea talk show person, but I know
he was real popular a few yearsago and I remember a lot of
Christians just wrestling withman.
This guy says the same thingswe say and one thing I know to
be true is that people thatpreach or teach false religions,
a lot of times they run realclose to Christianity and that's
(06:23):
kind of the way Satan typicallyworked.
Now you do have far-fetchedreligions that are, I mean,
couldn't be farther fromChristianity.
You know, like if you studyBuddhism or Hinduism, so far
from what we believe.
But Islam, you know, in Islamthey hold to a lot of the old
Testament, history and teachingof the Bible, and then they, you
know, they, they value Jesus asa prophet like Muhammad, and so
(06:47):
it just muddies and makes thewater real murky and also makes
it mulky, which is another wordthat we use around here Um, but
it just kind of clouds things,you know.
And so the the beauty of thegospels?
It's very, it's very simple,it's very articulated in
Scripture.
We don't have to.
(07:09):
I mean, the gospel is so clearthrough the Scripture and if you
hold a high view of theScripture, then you've got a
clear view of the gospel.
What the Mormon church has doneis they've added to the
scripture by creating their ownholy writing.
I think that's anothercharacteristic of a lot of cults
(07:30):
is that they'll have their ownadditions to scripture,
subtractions from scripture.
One thing that might be aninteresting conversation to have
would be what's the differencebetween a cult and a different
religion, difference between acult and like a different
(07:50):
religion?
So when we use the word cult,um, as a as I'll say this as a
christian, I would drop a lot ofpagan religions in the same
category, I would drop cults,you know, like islam and the
muslim faith.
It is the biggest cult inhistory because of what they
teach and you're not allowed toleave it, and and what their
founding fathers taught, theirmain founding father, muhammad,
(08:13):
what he taught.
So it is a cult.
But then there's kind of thisdifferent category of religions
versus cults.
The main differences would be areligion is typically going to
be something that is it's publicand it's belief system so
anybody can study it or learnabout it, know about it.
Typically they're they'reculturally integrated thing
(08:47):
called freedom of religion andtypically what is recognized as
a religion is going to bemainstream and people are going
to be able to study it.
There's going to be a set ofdoctrines, which is beliefs that
are adhered to but that arepublic.
In the Christian doctrine webelieve that one example would
be we believe that God becameman in the person of Jesus, that
Jesus is the second person ofthe Trinity.
(09:08):
We believe in a triune God, aTrinitarian God, that our God is
three in one Father, son, holySpirit and that the second
person, or the second member ofthe Trinity, came to earth.
Philippians 2 says says Jesusdid not consider equality with
God a thing to be grasped, buthe made himself of no reputation
(09:28):
, he humbled himself and becameobedient, even to go to the
cross and die.
So Jesus came to earth as a manthat is at the core doctrine of
the Christian faith.
There was a heretic named RobBell some years ago.
That was a leadingquote-unquote Christian voice
who began to sort of tamper withChristian doctrine, and we
(09:56):
talked about him recently in thePenal Substitutionary Atonement
episode.
But he came out and questionedthe virgin birth and the
validity of it, and then hequestioned the necessity of it.
So the necessity of the virginbirth is that Jesus had to be
truly human, but he had to betruly God.
So he was born in asupernatural way, but though he
(10:19):
was born that way, he was humanin his time on the earth, and so
that's a core doctrine.
The virgin birth is a doctrineof scripture, um, and it's
mainstream, and now you getvariations and disagreements on
on some things.
But a religion is going to havea core doctrinal system where a
cult is going to be very secret.
You're maybe not going to knowwhat people believe, um, until
(10:44):
you get to the inside.
You know there's a lot ofquestions surrounding things
that go on behind closed doorsin that system.
And so a religious system, youknow, when we think of major
world religions again, we thinkof Buddhism.
Islam, hinduism, christianity,judaism those are mainstream
(11:05):
global religions, but then a lotof cults are going to be a spin
off of one of those, and soMormonism is a spin off of
Judaism and Christianity.
And so then, you know, there'sa gray area where people would
disagree.
Some people would say, well,mormonism is not a cult, it's a
religion.
No, it's a cult because it's aperversion of Christianity, but
(11:28):
it's very secret.
So, anyway, I'm looking forwardto it.
I just said a lot more than Iplanned on saying in this
episode about what's coming up,but I think I'm very excited,
and I think you'll find theinterview with Josh Haskell
that's coming out later thisweek to be very insightful and
helpful.
I learned a lot, I mean, Ilearned a whole lot, um, and
then I wanted to uh just taketoday's episode, take some time
(11:52):
and just work through some uh,some some comments we had.
Um, I'm excited about, uh, someupcoming episodes.
I'm going to be interviewing JBand I will be interviewing it
might even be just JB, I don'tknow, but I I'd like to be
involved in the interview, um,with a young lady who has got a
(12:16):
really dynamic testimony.
She grew up coming to SWO.
Um, there's a good chance.
Matter of fact, her story willend up in the no sanity stories
book that's coming, uh, thatthat we're putting together this
winter.
Um, so anyway, the the a coupleof episodes coming up, one with
with a young lady whose storyis one of growing up, coming to
(12:38):
SWO, involved in, you know,families in ministry, and she
ended up in a crazy situation incollege and the Lord.
I don't want to, I don't wantto give too much of her story
away, but I'm looking forward tothat.
And then I'm going to sit downin a few weeks here with a lady
that that served at SWO for adecade and has one of the most
(12:59):
amazing stories of her life,story like what she grew up in,
what she came from, how Godbrought her to Snowbird as a
14-year-old, gave her life toChrist, and then how she served
and worked here so faithfullyfor several years, and just some
crazy stuff that she'saccomplished in her life.
It's an amazing story.
Her name's Ann.
I'm excited for you all to hearfrom Ann.
(13:20):
So we've got some goodinterviews coming up.
We've got an episode that we'vebeen sitting on with a former
FBI agent who deployed withspecial operations in the
military.
He was FBI.
He was in the military.
He was on a nuclear navalsubmarine during the 90s, got
out of the military, went intothe FBI and then ended up on a
(13:44):
task force or like a programwhere FBI agents would deploy
with special operations, sfteams and folks from the special
operations community and theywould deploy with those guys
during the war on terror becausethey were needing to collect
information from high-valuetargets.
(14:04):
And this guy's story's wild man.
He's a really good personalfriend of mine, his name's Clay
and somebody I consider a reallyclose brother, both me
personally and the ministry hereat Snowbird.
But I really appreciated I'mlooking forward to interviewing
him.
We did an interview on hisnaval service and just kind of
(14:26):
his time going into the FBI.
But then after that interview wesat around and talked some more
at a fire that evening and wereally got into sort of the
theology of God's sovereigntyand how that grounds a person
before they go into combat.
It's kind of a different take,a different conversation for
people that are considering themilitary or law enforcement.
(14:49):
A lot of people struggle withPTSD and this guy hasn't really
struggled with that even thoughhe's been in some pretty intense
combat environments.
And I asked him.
I asked Clay.
I said man, do you think that,because you were 38 years old
when you deployed, you'realready very established in your
(15:11):
theology, the framework of howyou view God and his sovereignty
, did that prepare you?
And he said a hundred percent.
And he talked about things heread and in ways that he
prepared his heart and mind.
I'm excited to get him back tothe microphone and interview him
.
So we've we've held the.
We interviewed him a couplemonths back, but we've sat on
that first interview because wewant to have a couple of
(15:33):
follow-ups and then drop thosesubsequently.
Um, just boom, boom, boom, withtwo or three conversations with
Clay.
That's coming up, uh, alsocoming up.
We're going to be interviewingfolks that have been part of the
Element program here.
That's L-M-N-T LeadershipMentorship, next Generation
Training.
Element is a program that's areally dynamic program here.
(15:55):
It's phenomenal.
Jb is a leader in that program.
She has a really heavy hand inthe leadership of that program
and I'm excited to meet with JBand I will have a conversation
about it.
We'll probably bring Zay in.
Zay worked this past summer onthe on in the element program
leading.
He was one of the leaders forthe guys team, so we have about
(16:18):
20 guys and 20 gals 20 guys, 20girls that come in for the
summer, so 40 students highschool students between 10th and
12th grade and it's a it's aleadership program, it's it's
heavy discipleship andmentorship and it's an amazing
program.
We have, uh, three to four menand three to four women that
(16:41):
lead that program, so it's a bigstaff for that program and it's
a program that a lot of peoplehave a lot of questions about
and are interested in.
So I'm looking forward to tosit down and have a conversation
about that Um, and then we'regoing to do uh, let me see what
else we've got coming up.
One that I'm really excitedabout is I'm going to interview
(17:01):
my sister, rocky.
Raquel Mabry is Zach Mabry'swife and she's my sister.
My mom and stepdad raised Rocky.
She came into the family afterI was grown and out of the house
.
As a matter of fact, I waslittle and I were already
(17:22):
married.
But, um, she's my sister and,um, I love her so much and her
story is amazing.
I mean, it's crazy.
Her story is wild.
Some of y'all have heard it,cause I used it a few years ago,
um, when we were doing a serieson Ruth, um at a SWO event and
I and I did tell her story isfascinating.
Rocky comes from a family I'lltell you this much of the
(17:43):
dynamic Her father, biologicalfather, murdered her biological
mother when Rocky was four yearsold and, um, and it's just a
crazy story.
It's a story that really helpsme understand the sovereignty of
God.
So I'm looking forward to thatuh with Rocky and let's see what
(18:04):
else.
Some episodes that folks haveasked about that I think will be
really interesting.
We're going to talk about thestaff selection and application
process here.
That'll be later, like late inthe semester, as we get close to
closing out staff applications,how we put together our current
application, the history of howwe got to where we're at, and
(18:25):
then Issa and Zay and JB willall be on that episode and we're
just going to talk through whatit looks like to apply to serve
here and then just some talkingpoints that folks have asked
about the death penalty.
These will be shorter episodes,sort of like beyond the flannel
graph, but a little bit moremaybe harder topics of
(18:48):
boundaries with the opposite sexstories from the mission field
I'm going to talk about um, uh,I'm going to have a conversation
with little about the pinwheelprogram.
So looking forward to a lot ofthe content that we've got laid
out.
These are all the things I'mmost of what I've shared with
you here we don't yet haverecorded.
We have recorded the JoshHaskell interview, we have
(19:11):
recorded the first interviewwith um Clay Hicks and, uh, then
we got a lot of cool interviewscoming up.
Uh, the last one I wanted toshare with you I'm going to do
episode.
I going to do an episode onmotifs and themes in scripture,
because in scripture you'll seea theme or a motif that runs as
(19:32):
a thread through scripture, forinstance, rocks or stones.
You'll see that a lot.
You'll see whales a lot.
Jesus meets a woman at a whale.
He uses water as an analogy ormetaphor.
You see whales throughout theold Testament a lot.
So motifs in scripture.
(19:53):
And then I'm going to sit down.
One thing I'm really lookingforward to is JB and I sit down
with Nikki Smith.
Nikki oversees the entireElement program.
So JB runs and works on thegirl's side of Element, zay
works on the guy's side.
Nikki oversees the entireprogram, but Nikki is also.
(20:13):
She has her master's degreefrom Southeastern Baptist
Theological Seminary inChristian counseling and she's
got a ton of wisdom, 20 years ofexperience here at SWO.
She's been with us going on 20years and is just a phenomenal
(20:35):
source of wisdom and counsel andhandles a lot of hard
conversations here and she doesit with strength and firmness
but with gentleness.
And so we're going to Nikki andI are going to have a
conversation about hardcounseling situations and sort
of our approach to that.
And then we're going to getinto some things like
homosexuality, codependency,just wisdom in how we navigate
(20:59):
and deal with those types ofsituations.
I'm looking forward to that.
So here we are, 20 minutes intothis episode and all I've done
is give you all a preview ofwhat's coming.
But I thought it would be agood time to hit pause and look
forward and sort of give yousome direction on where we're
going over the next few months,and I'm real excited about it.
(21:21):
So what I want to do for therest of this episode is I'm
going to just give y'all somecomments, read some listener
comments and then give somecomments back on those.
The feedback that I've gottenover the last couple of years
that we've gotten about thispodcast has been phenomenal.
We've, to this point, we'venever been monetized.
We don't get sponsorships.
(21:42):
We don't.
We just this is very organic, Iguess is the word sort of blue
collar, sort of grassroots, Idon't know the best way to say
it, but it's just.
It's very down to earth, iswhat I think maybe would be a
good way to describe it.
So this podcast is very down toearth.
The way we do things is verydown to earth, and that's true
(22:05):
of the way we do things atSnowbird in general.
Just want to be real.
I read an article in FamilyDevotions this morning about a
guy that he takes pictures withan old school camera and he
doesn't edit or doctor anything.
He just wants to show things asthey are, and I think that's
(22:25):
something that we try to do herejust be real and be raw and be
as authentic as we can be, andit seems to be working.
We're not trying to be cringey,we're not trying to say things
for shock factor value, we'renot trying to be cutesy or funny
(22:45):
, just trying to haveconversations and give you
content.
That's encouraging.
And so these comments givetestimony to the fact that I
think we're doing that and theLord's blessing it.
But also I have hundreds ofconversations.
I mean hundreds, not dozens,hundreds.
I think it's important toemphasize that, like in a normal
(23:09):
event at SWO where we've got,say, we've got 600 people here,
man, I'll have a couple dozenconversations about NSR People
are listening to this thing.
I don't.
I mean every single week, tensof thousands of people are
listening and I'm just blownaway by that, so very encouraged
by it.
I want to give you somecomments that we've gotten from
(23:34):
listeners.
A lot of these are on specificepisodes.
So here's a comment fromMoultrie, georgia.
Please thank Blake and Taylorfor sharing their story.
That's Blake and Taylor.
Blake's the firefighter that weposted this a couple months
back.
I don't remember what episodenumber this was, but he's a
(23:55):
firefighter who they've beenthrough a lot together in their
marriage.
Just a lot of it related to hiscareer in their marriage, just
a lot of it related to hiscareer.
It's so good to hear and bereminded of how God is redeeming
us through our tough situationsand so good to see people
fighting for their marriage.
I'll be praying for them andtheir hearts and their family.
It's so good to be reminded howmuch God loves us, especially
(24:17):
in our messiness.
Thank you from Moultrie,georgia.
Thank you for that comment,because the reason I think this
comment is important is whensomeone comes onto a stage or a
platform, you know, like NSR, orthey get up in front of their
church and they share, they endup in some sort of a spotlight.
I believe and I've seen this tobe true that the devil's now
(24:38):
going to really come after you.
So when Blake and Taylor agreedto do this, one of the things
we talked about is and thedevil's going to come after
y'all, because now that yourstory's out there, if he can
bring you down, you know it'sgoing to have a greater, broader
impact, and so I appreciatethat this commenter said I'll be
(24:59):
praying for them and for theirfamily.
So do that.
And so thank you again to Blakeand Taylor for allowing us to
bring them on and for the Lordto use their story to encourage
others.
This is Daniel from Jacksonville, florida, brody.
My name's Daniel.
I'm a member of HiberniaBaptist Church in Fleming Island
.
I've had the privilege to hearyou speak here before and I'm
(25:22):
looking forward to hearing youon August 10th.
So this is about a month oldcomment, and I actually did, uh,
talk to Daniel when I was there.
It was great meeting him andhis family, so shout out to
Daniel and his family.
Um, his girls, um got to meet,uh, his wife, just awesome.
Family loves the Lord and theirdiehard hunters.
(25:42):
And I learned something in thatconversation.
They have a.
You know those little dogs,they're wiener dogs.
What are they called?
Dachshunds?
Is it dachshund?
Is that what the wiener dogbreed is called?
I think it is.
But anyway, they have theselittle dachshund cross dogs that
they use to track deer, andDaniel's wife said it's crazy
(26:05):
how effective it is.
So anyway, that was prettyinteresting and sent me down a
YouTube rabbit hole.
But anyway, daniel asks are yougoing to be bringing any of
your books with you when youcome?
Oh, I did not take books, Iforgot them.
I had a case of books I wasgoing to take and I forgot them.
So, daniel, I know you listenweekly.
If you'll text me we exchangedcontact info.
(26:25):
If you'll text me your address,I'll put a book in the mail for
you.
I also wanted to share with youthat my daughter came to SWO
during week five this pastsummer and the Holy Spirit
really spoke to her heart.
Whenever she got home, thefirst thing she did was come and
talk to me and tell me that shewas lost and was ready to
accept Jesus as her savior.
I just wanted to share thatwith you so that you could
(26:47):
rejoice with me.
Thank you for being faithful toGod's calling, looking forward
to hopefully being able to spendsome time with you in
conversation whenever you'rehere.
We did get to talk briefly, andDaniel did share that with me
about his daughter, which to me,is the best.
That's the most amazingscenario.
A kid comes here, the Lordopens their heart.
While they're here, they reallybegin to respond to the gospel,
(27:08):
the Holy Spirit begins to dothe work, and then she goes home
and talks with her parents andembraces Christ.
That is the most powerful.
Beautiful like that.
If we could script it, thatwould be it.
Unfortunately, the majority ofthe kids that end up here don't
have a dad like daniel, so theydon't have a dad to go home and
talk to, but some do, and thisstory just blesses me and so I
(27:30):
wanted to share it with you.
That comment is a huge blessing.
So thanks, daniel, thanks forsharing, thanks for commenting
and also thanks for coming upand talking to me when I was,
when I I was speaking there um afew weeks ago.
Next is from Branson, missouri.
Love to listen to your podcastand all the wonderful pastors
from Red Oak church.
So it's a reference to, uh, youknow NSR is a podcast.
(27:55):
Uh, that's a ministry ofsnowbird wilderness outfitters,
but, um, the church that I'maffiliated with is red Oak
church and our teaching podcastis something that's um, that a
lot of our listeners also listento.
Snowbird has a second podcastAlso.
We have two podcasts this oneand then our teaching podcast.
(28:15):
So there's really threeresources that we're connected
to here the red Oak sermonpodcast it's our weekly sermon
that we're connected to here.
The Red Oak Sermon Podcast it'sour weekly sermon.
The Snowbird Teaching Podcast,which is all teaching content at
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters,and then this podcast, the NSR
Podcast.
Love to listen to your podcast,all the wonderful pastors from
Red Oak Church.
God is doing great work throughall of you.
(28:37):
I'm a new pastor in Missouri.
One day I hope to bring somestudents to camp and see camp.
I a new pastor in Missouri.
One day I hope to bring somestudents to camp and see camp.
I can't wait to visit Red Oak.
Do you have seminars forhusbands and wives?
Thank you for your faithfulnessto the kingdom.
Yes, we do have a marriageconference late October.
Now, that is, it is full, it isbooked, but we are trying to,
(28:58):
we're trying to open up somemore spots just to figure out a
way to creatively squeeze morepeople in Um, so so check that
out.
Um, that might be somethingthat you would enjoy coming to.
It's always very well attendedand, uh, it's a it's a good time
for us.
It's coming up at the end ofOctober.
Um, I also want to say um inreference to red oak church.
(29:21):
Uh, I didn't mention thisearlier, but one of the podcast
episodes that's not on the listbut it's on my kind of the back
of my mind is I want to sit downwith, uh, the two guys that are
paid staff or like vocational,like on staff at our church.
Um, they're now, when I saypaid, these guys are making
(29:42):
sacrifices.
They could both be making a lotmore money at larger churches
because they're both very giftedand talented dudes and they've
had amazing opportunities.
We have a few paid staff, quitea few part-time folks.
So when I say that, I don'twant it to sound like these guys
are making a big bunch of money, because they are not, but guys
(30:03):
that are vocational, you knowthey're either by vocational or
they're full-time doing this,and so I want to sit down with
our team because we are a smalltown.
You'll never grow a big churchin this town, because Andrews
town, the city of Andrews, northCarolina, is like I don't know,
1,200 or 1,400 people.
And then the greater Andrewstown, the city of Andrews, north
Carolina, is like I don't know,12 or 1400 people.
And then the greater Andrewsarea.
(30:25):
If you take the surroundingarea, you get, you know, that
number of get up above 2000maybe, but that's in a pretty
big area geographically.
And then it takes well over anhour to drive across our County
and in this County, um, there'slike 25,000 people and in this
county there's like 25,000people.
(30:45):
So you know I get tickled.
I got a buddy, steve Finn.
Y'all know Steve, he's been onhere before and he lives in
Morgantown, west Virginia, andhe'll say you know, we're just a
small town and you look up thepopulation of Morgantown and
it's like 60,000 people and I'mlike I guess everybody's version
it's relative.
He came from Atlanta.
Atlanta is the greater Atlantaarea, there's millions of people
(31:06):
.
He moved to Morgantown.
There's 50,000, 60,000 people,whatever.
That's a small town to him, tome Morgantown's a big city.
So everything's relative.
So what I want to do is I wantto do an episode with our guys
about what it's like to pastorand do ministry in a small town,
because our guys are soeffective and I feel like the
(31:27):
Lord's given us a lot of favorin this community and anyway
it'd be fun to share that.
But thank you from Branson,missouri, next from Gainesville,
georgia.
As a 58-year-old woman, thisepisode really hit home.
I loved it.
It was almost as good as theepisodes when we get to hear
from JB.
I'm not sure which episodeshe's talking about.
She did the emoji where theeyeballs are crossed and the
(31:51):
tongue's hanging out.
She loves hearing from JB,apparently, which is awesome.
I'm really thankful because oneof the biggest moves I think
we've made at NSR is bringing JBin and getting her involved.
She's just been phenomenal.
Jb is one of those people thatjust gives you a lot of
confidence and hope for thisyounger generation that's just
(32:13):
entering the workforce andcoming into adulthood.
I mean JB, you would never knowshe's as young as she is, she's
wise beyond her years and um,so anyway, I appreciate that
this is recognized.
This 58 year old woman, anyway,um, she loved hearing from JB.
She says thanks for alwaysspeaking truth boldly and
unapologetically.
(32:33):
Nsr is my favorite podcast man.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
What a blessing to read that.
That's so cool.
Um, from Memphis, tennessee,just wanted to say say thank you
so much for all you do for thekingdom of Jesus Christ in
making disciples, baptizing andteaching people to observe all
that Jesus has commanded.
(32:54):
Huge fan.
Having a platform that is deepin scripture and the true
meaning of and also hard truththat doesn't beat around the
bush is hard to find, but not atNSR.
How do you train others in away to share the gospel?
Sharing the gospel and makingdisciples is my passion.
I love hearing how others dowhat God has called us to do.
So that was from Memphis,tennessee, and that's a good
(33:15):
question.
We just teach our folks to justshare the good news of the
gospel.
We train them what the gospelis.
We've got some different onramps for how to get into
conversation, but there's athere's a lot of different
strategies and ways to do it and, um, and it's something we try
to help our people focus on andemphasize.
(33:35):
But thank you from Memphis,tennessee, that was awesome.
Thank you from Mobile, alabama.
Listen to the most recent noSanity Required podcast and
remembering all the things theLord did in my life at SWO back
in 2008.
Wow, so this guy or gal came toSWO in 2008 and is now an avid
(34:00):
listener of NSR.
I just graduated high schooland had all these plans to go to
college and become a highschool math teacher.
I can very vividly rememberstanding there in a worship
service and the Lord telling methat was not his plan for me.
I bawled, I knew it wasn't.
I attempted to follow throughwith my plans anyways.
It didn't work out.
I dropped out of college beforethe first semester ended.
(34:28):
I'm now homeschooling my fourkids and running a homeschool
co-op in our area.
So maybe this is a mom.
I'm not sure.
I said a guy, I'm not sure.
Maybe it's a mom.
Quite the opposite.
Yep, it's a lady.
Okay, sorry, quite the oppositeof my plans.
I also met my husband of 15years at SWO.
We were both campers.
We met on Picnic Rock whilewhitewater rafting and ended up
going to old school at the sametime later that summer.
I love that.
(34:49):
Old school was a program weused to have here that we don't
do anymore.
But how cool is that.
She met her husband at SWO.
That's so cool.
And they've been married 15years and got four kids and
she's running the homeschoolco-op in their area.
I love hearing of other people'slife changes because of this
ministry.
It truly is special.
I love hearing of the growth ofthe ministry over the years,
(35:09):
praying for y'all as youcontinue to minister to young
people at SWO.
Um, that was cool.
Where was that one?
From Mobile, alabama?
This is from a guy named SeanUm and he says this and he's
responding to the episode.
No one drifts toward holiness.
Relevant appraisal of currentcultural Christian experiences.
(35:32):
This podcast forces me to alignmy attitude with that of Christ.
As I meet and encourage people,I we must diligently study
God's word to be trained well bythe Holy Spirit for the purpose
to exalt Christ.
So thanks, sean, appreciatethat.
And then from Adam, thank youso much, mr Holloway.
(35:53):
He called me Mr Holloway, so Idon't want to see that he might
be being funny.
No, I think this is a young guywho's being sincere.
Adam, call me Brody, please.
Pretty casual here.
Uh, thank you for the respectthat you're showing there, um,
and I appreciate that, but Iwould.
I would invite you to call meBrody, um, think that'd be
awesome.
Adam says thank you so much, mrHolloway.
(36:14):
This episode was awesome.
The interview with Mo wasreally cool.
That's from the episode where Iinterviewed Lely and Mo came on
at the beginning.
So people love Mo.
That's awesome to hear, thankyou.
And then from Kate Olmsted,this made me want to jump back
into reading Ruth.
Beyond the flannel graphepisodes are probably my
(36:34):
favorites and that was a commenton God of Ruth, god of Now
episode we did back early in thesummer.
So there's some comments fromNSR and thank you for leaving
those comments everyone who didand just ask you to do that in
(36:55):
the future.
It was wonderful to sit downand read all of those.
It was so encouraging to me andum, so I appreciate it and so
I'm going to finish this episodewith I'll just change
microphone, so I don't know ifit changed the I needed to get
my headset on for this one butum, so my son Tucker a lot of
(37:17):
our listeners know he's a widereceiver and punt returner for
Virginia Tech Off to an 0-2start Seasons.
It's been a rough start, butweek one we played the
University of South Carolina atMercedes-Benz Stadium and Tuck
got.
He was in the game a lot, buthe never got targeted for any
passes, returned a couple puntsand so he was definitely in the
(37:41):
action.
But this past week againstVanderbilt, we lost a pretty
rough loss.
But early in the game Tech wasleading 3-0, still first quarter
and Tuck got his firstreception of the season.
So West Durham is my favorite.
(38:01):
I'm pretty sure this is WestDurham calling it.
We were at the game so I wasn'twatching it on TV, but this was
West Durham play calling.
I love the way he calls.
I was going to play that foryou.
Proud dad moment.
First catch of the season 33yard reception to midfield.
So that was cool.
(38:34):
We were there, we were goingcrazy.
Laylee was there, me littleLaylee, zach, rocky, their boys,
my brother shout out to duke.
Duke was there with his wifeand my two nephews, um, juju and
mo were there.
I mean, it was a lot of peopleat the game.
(38:55):
Uh, zach, I mean I'm sorry.
Rob, adam and spencer werethere.
These are names.
If you're, if you're, familiarwith the swO team, you know
these folks and so, anyway, um,that was fun, even though we got
whooped.
Uh, hopefully we'll get theseason turned around, hopefully
we'll get something going here,but uh, that was cool, tuck's
first catch of the year.
He actually had two catches for43 yards.
(39:17):
So, um, yeah, it was a good dayfor tuck, bad day for the
Hokies, which I guess the badday for tuck also, but as a dad,
it's just fun seeing your kiddo well.
So, anyway, thank y'all forlistening to this week's episode
.
This is, uh, this is today'sepisode, but we are going to
drop a couple more.
Uh that we'll get those.
Uh, the book for the, theinterview with Josh Haskell who
(39:41):
came out of the Mormon church,uh, we'll.
The first episode will droplater this week and then we'll
follow it with part two nextweek.
So look for that coming up anduh, thank y'all, and uh, we'll
talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Thanks for listening to.
No sanity required.
Please take a moment tosubscribe and leave a rating.
It really helps.
Visit us at SW outfitterscom tosee all of our programming and
resources and we'll see you nextweek on.
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