"What if your health story could change the way your church lives, serves, & worships? Pastor Steve Reynolds continues with us to unpack how a hard stop on exercise, years of eating like an athlete, & a brush with serious disease turned into a faithful return to movement, a 130-pound weight loss, & a practical framework built from Scripture."
Pastor Steve Reynolds is back to take us behind the scenes of “Bod4God”—the sermon series that sparked a media whirlwind, front-page coverage, & books that meet people where they are with grace, honesty, & small, doable steps. We dive into the surprising places where faith and fitness meet: studying the word “body” across the Bible, embracing stewardship over shame, & seeing Genesis as a blueprint for daily activity—tending & keeping as purposeful movement. Steve’s mantra, “delay the decay,” lands with refreshing realism. No magic hacks, just consistent habits that restore energy, reverse risk, & extend our capacity to love, serve, & create. He shares candidly about still being an “average dude” who struggles, & why that authenticity helps more than perfection ever could. We open up about our own journeys too—returning to training after mission work left us winded on stage, & a 65-pound win through First Place for Health that reignited discipline at age 60. Performance ministry is physical, & we talk about the spills, the sweat, the headsets that take a beating, & the spiritual charge of treating art as athletic worship. If you’re looking for practical tools, you’ll hear about PastorSteveReynolds.com, the Losing to Live challenges, & accessible books like Get Off the Couch that help men & women build momentum without hype. Please, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs encouragement today, & leave a review with the one habit you’ll start this week.
Pastor Steve Reynolds, Lead Pastor: Capital Baptist (website) • Capital Baptist (Facebook) • https://pastorstevereynolds.com/ Pastor Steve's Books: • Bod4God • Get Off The Couch • Taking God To Work • The Healthy Renegade Pastor: Abandoning Average in Your Health and Wellness • Wise Up!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Let's do it.
Lord, you know, let's see theplace the best.
SPEAKER_00 (01:01):
Hello, and welcome to Plays on World Radio and
Alive's work and play on theWord of God.
Thank you for joining us on the5030 today.
Let's join Pastor Teddy, alsoknown as Fred David Kenny Jr.,
the founder of Plays on WordTheater, as he has a deep dive
into the Word of God.
SPEAKER_04 (01:22):
Okay, so I also had a couple questions that I did
not know about that SisterJackie Coles uh made me aware of
when she came in here today.
That I must apologize.
I didn't realize that you were afitness celebrity.
Well, uh you are a fitnesscelebrating celebrity, and
(01:46):
Jackie, Jackie, she brought thereceipts.
She was like, hey, he's gotbooks out.
And I was like, what?
He didn't even mention this.
What are you talking about?
Tell me the titles in the booksand what they're about.
And we're gonna put a link inthe show notes of this podcast
so that if anybody wants to buyit.
SPEAKER_03 (02:07):
Let's hear about this.
Okay, yes.
Feel free to cut some of thisout if you need to.
So basically, I struggled weightall my life.
I weighed over 100 pounds infirst grade.
So that was 1963.
The average first grader weighed52.
Yeah.
I weighed 103.
Okay, so I'm double the size.
Okay.
But I used my size to become,like I said, a decent football
(02:28):
player, not a great one.
Uh walked off third Saturday ofNovember 1979.
I don't know if you rememberwhat you were doing.
Okay.
SPEAKER_04 (02:37):
1979?
SPEAKER_03 (02:38):
Yeah, third Saturday.
Probably about three in theafternoon.
Okay.
I was walking off a footballfield in Lynchburg, Virginia,
saying, I am done with exercise.
Okay.
I'm sick of it.
These coaches have been yellingat me since I was like eight
years old.
Okay.
And so for 25 years I kept thatpromise, but I also kept eating
like a football player.
So I got about 350 pounds, highblood pressure, high
(03:00):
cholesterol, diabetes.
Literally feeling like I, youknow, I'm going to die.
Okay.
And so I finally, I you say, Ibet you tried 25 years, every
once in a while to try to losesome weight.
I did not.
Okay.
I couldn't care less.
I couldn't care what youthought, or and truthfully, I
couldn't care less what Godthought.
Okay.
And he he knows it, so he's notsurprised by me saying that.
(03:23):
Okay.
It was just one area of my lifeI was going to do what I wanted
to do.
Anyway, okay, so finally I'mgoing to thinking I got this
beautiful wife and three awesomechildren and this great church I
get to pastor.
I I don't want to die.
And I said, I said, okay, uh,what do I do when uh people have
a problem or sin?
Uh well I tell them to talk totalk ask God, what should I do?
(03:45):
And I just feel like God said tome, Hey, you're always telling
people look in the Bible.
Why don't you look in the Bible?
SPEAKER_04 (03:52):
Sounds like him.
SPEAKER_03 (03:53):
Okay, sounds like him, okay.
And uh so I did.
I like to study words in theBible, and I studied the word
body in the Bible.
Okay, it's in there 179 times.
And out of that I crafted fourkeys for me to follow, never
ever expecting to talk aboutthis or write about this, okay?
Because I, you know, in my lifeI never heard a pastor talk
(04:16):
about it.
Okay, I never heard of nobody, acollege professor, seminary
professor, you know, you justdidn't talk about this stuff in
church.
You just didn't bring it up,okay?
But um, but I started doing thisand because I was I was the kind
of person that I I would, if youwere healthy, I would make fun
of you.
Like I'd go out of my way toprod you a little bit, like go
(04:37):
eat your salad or whatever, youknow.
I'm going over to the buffet orwhatever, okay.
Uh so I was, yeah, I you know, Ican't so I here I am changing,
and these people are saying,This isn't our pastor.
What's he doing here?
Oh, really?
So I got up to about 70 poundsof weight loss, and that I've
lost 130 total.
But I got up to 170 70, and I uhand I lost diabetes, high blood
(04:59):
pressure, and high cholesterol.
Okay, and they're noticing achange in the weight.
They're noticing changing, yeah.
So so they're saying, You gottatell us what you're gonna do,
you're doing.
Okay, so okay.
So I said, okay, I'm gonna do asermon series.
Bod for God.
Okay.
Bod for God.
Colossians 1.16 says we're madeby God and for God.
SPEAKER_04 (05:20):
Okay, not just by Colossians right now.
SPEAKER_03 (05:22):
Okay, not just by, but for.
Okay.
So God's to be the He's thecreator of our body, he's also
to be the controller of ourbody.
And so so a few times a year wedo like a postcard mailing to
the community.
And a reporter with I sent out acard saying, Pastor Steve Rill
is gonna preach on Bod for God.
Have it all, Bod for God.
(05:42):
And a reporter for theWashington Post got the card.
And she called me up and says,Hey, I got your card here.
She says, Can I come hear thesesermons?
And I thought, wow, you know,because the Washington Post is
really not, you know, typicallythey're not really a friend,
they're not a friend of JerryFall on Liberty, okay, number
one.
And they're gonna say, hey,there's one of these.
But they're a big newspaper.
(06:03):
Yeah, they're a big newspaper,okay.
And I saw I thought they weregonna make fun of me actually or
do something, but they didn't,okay.
They actually put the article onthe front page of the newspaper,
and I didn't know how this stuffworks, but they call it the AP
wire system.
Yeah, if you read the new Idon't know if you know what
newspapers are, they're thesepieces of paper.
These pieces of paper have inkon them first.
(06:24):
Right, but but back in the day,okay, that was one of the
primary so it ended up being, Ithink, in 500 and some
newspapers, their articles.
You picked it up.
Yeah, they picked it up, yeah,yeah.
And within a few days, I I hadthe media all over me.
Uh local, national,international.
Okay.
I mean, I'm talking about likedozens and dozens.
(06:45):
Check on me as a celebrity.
Yeah, yeah.
And so I ended up uh uh Fox uhFox News uh Neil Cavuto at the
the first interview uh I had,and um, and he called me the ant
America's anti-fat pastor.
Which I I they put that aside.
I love it.
They they said, okay, theAmerica's anti-pastor uh pastor
(07:08):
is gonna uh come up here next.
And I'm thinking, I don't know,I thought I thought I was by
myself.
I didn't know another pastor wasgonna be on here.
Yeah, I found out he's talkingabout Nick.
And bottom line is from there,it was just it's been
unbelievable.
So so I feel like at that pointGod wanted me to you know to do
some some writing.
So so I wrote the book, Bod forGod, and you know, it's but sold
(07:31):
about 75,000 copies.
All right.
And I think God's just I'm justan average dude.
I still struggle with my weight,I'm nothing special.
I'm not a I have, you know, I'mnot a doctor, I'm not a trainer,
I'm not a nutritionist.
I'm just me, okay.
And I just feel like God wantedto take some ordinary dude still
struggling and help the body ofChrist.
(07:51):
Because Christians, we're themost overweight people group.
Yes, we are.
That's a fact, that's not just ajoke.
Or, you know, we are documentedfact, and the Baptists are the
fattest, okay?
And I pastor a Capitol BaptistChurch.
So I recommend you not be aBaptist, okay?
Okay, uh, but anyway, so thatled to that book.
Then I wrote another book calledGet Off the Couch, and then I
(08:11):
wrote another book with a pastorfriend of mine, Nelson Searcy, a
book for pastors called TheHealthy Renegade Pastor.
And then I wrote a book onProverbs, I wrote a book called
Taking God to Work.
So, but yeah, five books.
SPEAKER_04 (08:25):
So we're gonna try to put these links in the that
would be great.
SPEAKER_03 (08:29):
Yeah, pastorstevereynolds.com.
Uh everything's on Amazon too.
Pastorsteve Reynolds.com.
I have uh you know the books, Ihave a um an online course you
can take just for yourself, andwe do what's called losing the
weight loss competition here atthe church uh three times a
year, and you can join on site,but we also have people online.
(08:52):
We have about 12 states in thecurrent competition.
People can can join us fromother places.
So so yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (08:58):
So tell me about get off the couch.
What's that about?
SPEAKER_03 (09:01):
Yes, it was geared towards men.
Uh obviously.
The publisher came to me andsaid, Did you mention a remote
controller?
Yeah, I did.
Yeah, I sure did.
I talked about my kids being myremote control because we had
it, we didn't have that, butthey were mine.
Get up there and change thechannel.
Um yeah, so get so the publishercame to me and said, Listen,
every book for men, men don'tread, and if they read, the last
(09:24):
thing they're gonna read aboutis health.
But we believe if anybody canpull it off, this is what they
said, okay.
If anybody can pull it off,Steve Reynolds is the man.
So we took a shot at it.
And it did pretty good.
Okay.
But honestly, there's nothing inthe book except a little bit of
talk about if you're fat, sex isgonna be hard.
Other than that, the book is formen and women.
(09:45):
Okay.
Yeah, that because we're we'reyou know, we've got the same
bodies pretty much, okay, ingeneral.
SPEAKER_05 (09:52):
Amen.
SPEAKER_03 (09:54):
More information than you ever want to hear.
unknown (09:56):
It's all good.
SPEAKER_04 (09:57):
I I I love it.
I love the fact that you know,yeah, I love the the health
aspect.
Yeah, this is real talk.
SPEAKER_03 (10:03):
Yeah, this is real talk.
Yeah, amen.
I don't know.
I tell you, I that's all I knowis real talk.
SPEAKER_04 (10:08):
So I we were on a mission trip about two actually
two years ago, and um the Lordspoke to my heart similar
because I I used to work out allthe time.
I used to love going to the gymand work out, and I just got
away from it and was not eating,eating healthy or anything like
that.
And we went to this, we wentwhen we went to Albania, I think
(10:30):
the second time.
And I remember I said, That'sit.
And I got to the point, I said,That's it, I'm done with feeling
feeling like doing plays andfeeling so beat up after a play.
SPEAKER_03 (10:40):
Oh, okay.
And so you're like an athlete.
You literally are, you'reliterally sweating, right?
SPEAKER_04 (10:47):
And I was an out-of-shape athlete, right?
SPEAKER_03 (10:49):
Right.
SPEAKER_04 (10:50):
And I was starting to really feel, and the the Lord
was like, Listen, man.
Basically get off the couch.
Right, right.
And so I started I started goingback to the gym and I started
eating and approaching thingsand recognizing that uh I you do
honor God if you take care ofthe temple, the body.
(11:10):
You know, he yes, yes, we'regetting new ones, but that
doesn't mean you need to runthis into the dirt.
SPEAKER_03 (11:15):
No, no, I got I have a little statement.
I say delay the decay.
Yay! Okay, we're gonna decay,we're gonna die.
Okay, but delay it as long as wecan.
Amen.
So today I'm you know thankfulnot to have these diseases, and
you know, so yeah, it's ablessing.
SPEAKER_01 (11:33):
So yeah, and myself watching him, um, you know, I
kind of got a little motivatedtoo because I knew I really
needed to lose weight.
And even though he's up on doinga lot of work on the, you know,
during the plays, I kind oftease him sometimes.
But we do have the easy part,just throwing two hours up
there.
I'm running around takingpictures of all the stuff.
(11:54):
But um, and it was actuallyJackie Coles that told me about
first place for help.
Amen.
And but the crazy thing is, twoyears it was two years ago I
went to um one of the weekendswith her.
And I I always say this topeople, you just have to be
ready.
Yeah.
And it wasn't until this pastJanuary talking to Jackie, she
said, there's another online,it's starting in a week, and I
(12:16):
had just been praying that Lord,I I have to be able to keep up
with it.
SPEAKER_03 (12:21):
Right, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (12:22):
This year I turned 60, and so it was like, okay, I
have to do something.
SPEAKER_03 (12:26):
Yeah, and you ladies, it's harder to set it
up.
SPEAKER_01 (12:28):
So I jumped on to that in January and January,
I've lost 65 pounds.
SPEAKER_03 (12:33):
Um way to go.
I'm a raving fan of first place.
So yeah.
So yeah, did you go to the umwhat event did you go to?
SPEAKER_01 (12:42):
I went to the um, it was at Sandy Cove.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (12:45):
I've spoken to that.
Yeah, that's good.
SPEAKER_01 (12:47):
It was back in 23.
I haven't been able to go backsince, but I've done I've done
at least, I think.
Amen.
Do they know about it?
Three or four on the city.
Okay, they ought to put you, youknow.
SPEAKER_04 (12:55):
They ought to put you in their publications.
You know what the thing is, itnot nothing happens until it
until you know.
SPEAKER_03 (13:01):
Yeah, now for me it's 25 years.
SPEAKER_04 (13:03):
Yeah, and then you were like, Okay, that's okay,
and you know, I believe thatcomes from the Lord.
I remember I also prayed for youto get you know, just get the
hunger and the desire, andthat's so she got she's got the
hunger and the desire.
So sometimes I'm like, I don'teven feel like going to the gym.
She's like, Oh, we're gonna weI'm going to work out.
And she goes and gets gets onthe exercise bike, works out,
(13:24):
and I'm like, That's awesome.
Wow, I'm a bum right now.
I got I gotta get off the couch.
SPEAKER_01 (13:28):
You know, again, right before that happened with
Jackie, uh that was the prayerto the Lord.
I can't do this anymore.
I can't do it in my strength.
Yes, you're gonna have to helpme.
And then plus she's weird.
SPEAKER_04 (13:39):
Can you can you incorporate God in in your
desire to exercise?
Like bringing God in that's athat's a wise thing.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03 (13:48):
I mean, I I believe you know I believe the Bible
says before sin came and thecurse, he says that he says
you're gonna sweat.
But before that, he said, I'mputting you in this garden, tend
and keep it.
Okay, Genesis 2, before the fallof man.
And I believe, you know, Ithere's I believe there's a lot
(14:08):
of uh practical in informationthere that God wanted them to
move.
Okay.
So I don't know if you knowanything about tending and
keeping a garden.
Uh uh sadly, I know too much asa child, okay.
Um like I mentioned earlier, Iwas cheap, cheap farm hand back
there.
Okay.
I'm just saying, I think God puthim there, said to tend to keep
(14:29):
this garden because you're madeto move.
Don't okay.
You you you're supposed to bemoving around.
I made you to move.
And then Genesis 3 got harder.
He said, now you're gonna havewheeze, you're gonna have
thorns, you're gonna sweat.
You know, but it wasn't like youknow, this is the beginning of
movement.
No, uh, you know, the more youmove, the more you lose.
(14:49):
If you don't if you don't moveit, you're gonna lose it.
Yeah, so that's that's for sure.
So that's so important.
Praise God, yeah.
Praise God.
SPEAKER_04 (14:55):
And it's when uh I know my uncle, my uncle and my
dad both worked at uh TuscanDairy in New Jersey.
They worked at the dairy, okay,and they knew guys that when the
these guys they'd work at thedairy dairy for 20, 30, 40
years, as soon as they retired,these guys would drop dead
(15:17):
because they stopped moving.
Yeah, they would just go sit onthe couch.
SPEAKER_03 (15:21):
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04 (15:21):
And I remember my uncle telling me one time he
said the couch got me, man.
I it uh he's and that's fromthat point on he went downhill
as health.
Went downhill.
Yeah, movement is so importantto um to keep athletes.
SPEAKER_03 (15:35):
Absolutely, yeah.
But you're literally an athlete,okay.
SPEAKER_04 (15:39):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (15:40):
Man, that's a workout, man.
You're not kidding.
You literally have sweatdropping off your yeah, it's
amazing.
Going down on the ground,absolutely, yeah.
I mean, yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (15:50):
Yeah.
Our Genesis show plays like thattoo.
SPEAKER_03 (15:52):
Oh, okay.
Yeah, when you're on the ground,yeah.
Okay, that's amazing.
Yeah, they flopped your body.
SPEAKER_04 (15:58):
Yeah.
We did one play where when Petertakes off, and he's uh after he
denies the Lord, he startsrunning.
And we did this one play, andthey had a really high stage
where we were.
And I remember I wasn'tthinking, I said, and and I and
and I took off running and I Iran off the stage and I jumped
(16:20):
off the stage.
Wow.
And in the air, I thought tomyself, oh, this might not have
been the smartest thing.
And as the ground was comingcloser to me before I landed, I
said, I just said, I rememberpraying, Lord, please don't let
me fall into like completelycrumple up and turn into 20
different pieces of broken T 10right now.
(16:40):
Please let me hit don't hit theground hard.
Lord, I know this was a mistake.
But if you get me through this,I won't ever do this again.
And that was all that wholeconversation.
As I'm in the air like this, andI landed and I was like, okay,
no pain, no pain, no pain.
Okay.
And uh he protected me in thatbuttons.
SPEAKER_01 (16:59):
Well, you were up in the up in the air, all I kept
thinking was tuck and roll, tuckand roll.
SPEAKER_04 (17:04):
Yeah, it was high.
Yeah, it was high.
I want to say that the stage waslike four or five feet.
It was the stage was up here.
Wow, okay.
And I just didn't think itthrough, and I was like, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (17:16):
I can I can see you doing that.
Yes, right.
SPEAKER_04 (17:20):
Right.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (17:20):
You know, the scene where he kind of flops on the
ground as if they they were deadat that point, right?
Yes.
I there was one time he was downthere for quite a bit.
SPEAKER_03 (17:28):
Okay.
SPEAKER_04 (17:29):
That's one of my favorite parts of the book.
He's resting.
He leads to the rest of the restof the rest.
That's one of my favorite partsof the book because the ground
feels so good.
I bet it did.
When I lay down, I go, we wewhen we heard that voice, we
fell as if we were dead.
And boom, I hit the ground.
I'm like, the ground feels sogood.
Oh man, I could just go tosleep.
SPEAKER_03 (17:48):
I uh man, yeah.
Yeah, your microphone workedgood too.
I was worried about next thingyou know, it was totally clear,
it was fantastic.
SPEAKER_04 (17:56):
Yeah, we need um I'm I need to to do some uh
refurbishing on that mic, butthat thing gets beat up.
SPEAKER_03 (18:03):
That is an awesome mic.
SPEAKER_04 (18:04):
You know, we jump around and and that's why I have
to have the double headset.
Right, yeah, yeah.
But last week they I didn't Iwanted to acquiesce to what they
were doing, and they had theydidn't want me to they didn't
want to use my set.
They wanted me to use theirs.
SPEAKER_03 (18:17):
And I said, okay, no, I'm the other way around.
And it was one of the things, Iwanted to blame you.
SPEAKER_04 (18:20):
So well, it was one, it was it was only one ear,
yeah, and so I had to becareful.
SPEAKER_03 (18:25):
No, no, no, that's it.
SPEAKER_01 (18:28):
No, no, no, that was that but none of us knew you
were distracted you know withit.
It didn't come across that way,but I I know you, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (18:37):
Absolutely during the performance.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (18:40):
So, Pastor Steve Reynolds, thank you so much for
um taking the time out and andand actually being willing to
have us come here.
Well, we'd love to have youback, and yeah, amen.
And thank you for letting uscome here and serve and be part
of uh the work that you're doinghere.
Because you know, there are alot of pastors that don't want
(19:01):
to, they just don't even want totake a chance on they hear like
plays on plays on word.
What is that?
SPEAKER_03 (19:06):
Right, right.
SPEAKER_04 (19:06):
Play, I know we've had plays, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (19:08):
Right, right.
SPEAKER_04 (19:09):
And uh so I always like to thank the pastors that
say, you know what, uh, if it'sof God, cool.
SPEAKER_03 (19:15):
Right.
So thank you for letting us keepup the good work.
SPEAKER_04 (19:19):
Amen.
We're we're gonna try to comeback.
We we will put the links uh inthe show notes so you guys can
check out this guy's writing.
Sounds good, and hopefully losesome weight.
And maybe we'll put hiscontacts, you reach out to him
if you want to talk to himdirectly.
SPEAKER_03 (19:34):
Okay, sounds good.
SPEAKER_04 (19:35):
Um and will you close us in prayer?
SPEAKER_03 (19:37):
Yes, yes, yes.
Lord, thank you for yourtechnology.
Thank you that we have a way touh talk and spread the word,
Lord, and just thank you forwhat you're doing through play
on word, playing on word, Lord.
I pray that you continue to meetthe needs and Lord provide.
SPEAKER_02 (19:52):
And Lord, just uh thank you for the calling uh of
this ministry, and we pray yourhand would continue to bless and
use them.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
SPEAKER_04 (20:03):
All right, Captain Father.
SPEAKER_00 (20:15):
This program was made possible by the Playsone
Word family of supporters.
To find out more, check out ourwebsite at plazonword.org.
Let's do it.
Lord, you know, let's see theplace the best.
SPEAKER_00 (01:01):
Hello, and welcome to Plays on World Radio and
Alive's work and play on theWord of God.
Thank you for joining us on the5030 today.
Let's join Pastor Teddy, alsoknown as Fred David Kenny Jr.,
the founder of Plays on WordTheater, as he has a deep dive
into the Word of God.
SPEAKER_04 (01:22):
Okay, so I also had a couple questions that I did
not know about that SisterJackie Coles uh made me aware of
when she came in here today.
That I must apologize.
I didn't realize that you were afitness celebrity.
Well, uh you are a fitnesscelebrating celebrity, and
(01:46):
Jackie, Jackie, she brought thereceipts.
She was like, hey, he's gotbooks out.
And I was like, what?
He didn't even mention this.
What are you talking about?
Tell me the titles in the booksand what they're about.
And we're gonna put a link inthe show notes of this podcast
so that if anybody wants to buyit.
SPEAKER_03 (02:07):
Let's hear about this.
Okay, yes.
Feel free to cut some of thisout if you need to.
So basically, I struggled weightall my life.
I weighed over 100 pounds infirst grade.
So that was 1963.
The average first grader weighed52.
Yeah.
I weighed 103.
Okay, so I'm double the size.
Okay.
But I used my size to become,like I said, a decent football
(02:28):
player, not a great one.
Uh walked off third Saturday ofNovember 1979.
I don't know if you rememberwhat you were doing.
Okay.
SPEAKER_04 (02:37):
1979?
SPEAKER_03 (02:38):
Yeah, third Saturday.
Probably about three in theafternoon.
Okay.
I was walking off a footballfield in Lynchburg, Virginia,
saying, I am done with exercise.
Okay.
I'm sick of it.
These coaches have been yellingat me since I was like eight
years old.
Okay.
And so for 25 years I kept thatpromise, but I also kept eating
like a football player.
So I got about 350 pounds, highblood pressure, high
(03:00):
cholesterol, diabetes.
Literally feeling like I, youknow, I'm going to die.
Okay.
And so I finally, I you say, Ibet you tried 25 years, every
once in a while to try to losesome weight.
I did not.
Okay.
I couldn't care less.
I couldn't care what youthought, or and truthfully, I
couldn't care less what Godthought.
Okay.
And he he knows it, so he's notsurprised by me saying that.
(03:23):
Okay.
It was just one area of my lifeI was going to do what I wanted
to do.
Anyway, okay, so finally I'mgoing to thinking I got this
beautiful wife and three awesomechildren and this great church I
get to pastor.
I I don't want to die.
And I said, I said, okay, uh,what do I do when uh people have
a problem or sin?
Uh well I tell them to talk totalk ask God, what should I do?
(03:45):
And I just feel like God said tome, Hey, you're always telling
people look in the Bible.
Why don't you look in the Bible?
SPEAKER_04 (03:52):
Sounds like him.
SPEAKER_03 (03:53):
Okay, sounds like him, okay.
And uh so I did.
I like to study words in theBible, and I studied the word
body in the Bible.
Okay, it's in there 179 times.
And out of that I crafted fourkeys for me to follow, never
ever expecting to talk aboutthis or write about this, okay?
Because I, you know, in my lifeI never heard a pastor talk
(04:16):
about it.
Okay, I never heard of nobody, acollege professor, seminary
professor, you know, you justdidn't talk about this stuff in
church.
You just didn't bring it up,okay?
But um, but I started doing thisand because I was I was the kind
of person that I I would, if youwere healthy, I would make fun
of you.
Like I'd go out of my way toprod you a little bit, like go
(04:37):
eat your salad or whatever, youknow.
I'm going over to the buffet orwhatever, okay.
Uh so I was, yeah, I you know, Ican't so I here I am changing,
and these people are saying,This isn't our pastor.
What's he doing here?
Oh, really?
So I got up to about 70 poundsof weight loss, and that I've
lost 130 total.
But I got up to 170 70, and I uhand I lost diabetes, high blood
(04:59):
pressure, and high cholesterol.
Okay, and they're noticing achange in the weight.
They're noticing changing, yeah.
So so they're saying, You gottatell us what you're gonna do,
you're doing.
Okay, so okay.
So I said, okay, I'm gonna do asermon series.
Bod for God.
Okay.
Bod for God.
Colossians 1.16 says we're madeby God and for God.
SPEAKER_04 (05:20):
Okay, not just by Colossians right now.
SPEAKER_03 (05:22):
Okay, not just by, but for.
Okay.
So God's to be the He's thecreator of our body, he's also
to be the controller of ourbody.
And so so a few times a year wedo like a postcard mailing to
the community.
And a reporter with I sent out acard saying, Pastor Steve Rill
is gonna preach on Bod for God.
Have it all, Bod for God.
(05:42):
And a reporter for theWashington Post got the card.
And she called me up and says,Hey, I got your card here.
She says, Can I come hear thesesermons?
And I thought, wow, you know,because the Washington Post is
really not, you know, typicallythey're not really a friend,
they're not a friend of JerryFall on Liberty, okay, number
one.
And they're gonna say, hey,there's one of these.
But they're a big newspaper.
(06:03):
Yeah, they're a big newspaper,okay.
And I saw I thought they weregonna make fun of me actually or
do something, but they didn't,okay.
They actually put the article onthe front page of the newspaper,
and I didn't know how this stuffworks, but they call it the AP
wire system.
Yeah, if you read the new Idon't know if you know what
newspapers are, they're thesepieces of paper.
These pieces of paper have inkon them first.
(06:24):
Right, but but back in the day,okay, that was one of the
primary so it ended up being, Ithink, in 500 and some
newspapers, their articles.
You picked it up.
Yeah, they picked it up, yeah,yeah.
And within a few days, I I hadthe media all over me.
Uh local, national,international.
Okay.
I mean, I'm talking about likedozens and dozens.
(06:45):
Check on me as a celebrity.
Yeah, yeah.
And so I ended up uh uh Fox uhFox News uh Neil Cavuto at the
the first interview uh I had,and um, and he called me the ant
America's anti-fat pastor.
Which I I they put that aside.
I love it.
They they said, okay, theAmerica's anti-pastor uh pastor
(07:08):
is gonna uh come up here next.
And I'm thinking, I don't know,I thought I thought I was by
myself.
I didn't know another pastor wasgonna be on here.
Yeah, I found out he's talkingabout Nick.
And bottom line is from there,it was just it's been
unbelievable.
So so I feel like at that pointGod wanted me to you know to do
some some writing.
So so I wrote the book, Bod forGod, and you know, it's but sold
(07:31):
about 75,000 copies.
All right.
And I think God's just I'm justan average dude.
I still struggle with my weight,I'm nothing special.
I'm not a I have, you know, I'mnot a doctor, I'm not a trainer,
I'm not a nutritionist.
I'm just me, okay.
And I just feel like God wantedto take some ordinary dude still
struggling and help the body ofChrist.
(07:51):
Because Christians, we're themost overweight people group.
Yes, we are.
That's a fact, that's not just ajoke.
Or, you know, we are documentedfact, and the Baptists are the
fattest, okay?
And I pastor a Capitol BaptistChurch.
So I recommend you not be aBaptist, okay?
Okay, uh, but anyway, so thatled to that book.
Then I wrote another book calledGet Off the Couch, and then I
(08:11):
wrote another book with a pastorfriend of mine, Nelson Searcy, a
book for pastors called TheHealthy Renegade Pastor.
And then I wrote a book onProverbs, I wrote a book called
Taking God to Work.
So, but yeah, five books.
SPEAKER_04 (08:25):
So we're gonna try to put these links in the that
would be great.
SPEAKER_03 (08:29):
Yeah, pastorstevereynolds.com.
Uh everything's on Amazon too.
Pastorsteve Reynolds.com.
I have uh you know the books, Ihave a um an online course you
can take just for yourself, andwe do what's called losing the
weight loss competition here atthe church uh three times a
year, and you can join on site,but we also have people online.
(08:52):
We have about 12 states in thecurrent competition.
People can can join us fromother places.
So so yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (08:58):
So tell me about get off the couch.
What's that about?
SPEAKER_03 (09:01):
Yes, it was geared towards men.
Uh obviously.
The publisher came to me andsaid, Did you mention a remote
controller?
Yeah, I did.
Yeah, I sure did.
I talked about my kids being myremote control because we had
it, we didn't have that, butthey were mine.
Get up there and change thechannel.
Um yeah, so get so the publishercame to me and said, Listen,
every book for men, men don'tread, and if they read, the last
(09:24):
thing they're gonna read aboutis health.
But we believe if anybody canpull it off, this is what they
said, okay.
If anybody can pull it off,Steve Reynolds is the man.
So we took a shot at it.
And it did pretty good.
Okay.
But honestly, there's nothing inthe book except a little bit of
talk about if you're fat, sex isgonna be hard.
Other than that, the book is formen and women.
(09:45):
Okay.
Yeah, that because we're we'reyou know, we've got the same
bodies pretty much, okay, ingeneral.
SPEAKER_05 (09:52):
Amen.
SPEAKER_03 (09:54):
More information than you ever want to hear.
unknown (09:56):
It's all good.
SPEAKER_04 (09:57):
I I I love it.
I love the fact that you know,yeah, I love the the health
aspect.
Yeah, this is real talk.
SPEAKER_03 (10:03):
Yeah, this is real talk.
Yeah, amen.
I don't know.
I tell you, I that's all I knowis real talk.
SPEAKER_04 (10:08):
So I we were on a mission trip about two actually
two years ago, and um the Lordspoke to my heart similar
because I I used to work out allthe time.
I used to love going to the gymand work out, and I just got
away from it and was not eating,eating healthy or anything like
that.
And we went to this, we wentwhen we went to Albania, I think
(10:30):
the second time.
And I remember I said, That'sit.
And I got to the point, I said,That's it, I'm done with feeling
feeling like doing plays andfeeling so beat up after a play.
SPEAKER_03 (10:40):
Oh, okay.
And so you're like an athlete.
You literally are, you'reliterally sweating, right?
SPEAKER_04 (10:47):
And I was an out-of-shape athlete, right?
SPEAKER_03 (10:49):
Right.
SPEAKER_04 (10:50):
And I was starting to really feel, and the the Lord
was like, Listen, man.
Basically get off the couch.
Right, right.
And so I started I started goingback to the gym and I started
eating and approaching thingsand recognizing that uh I you do
honor God if you take care ofthe temple, the body.
(11:10):
You know, he yes, yes, we'regetting new ones, but that
doesn't mean you need to runthis into the dirt.
SPEAKER_03 (11:15):
No, no, I got I have a little statement.
I say delay the decay.
Yay! Okay, we're gonna decay,we're gonna die.
Okay, but delay it as long as wecan.
Amen.
So today I'm you know thankfulnot to have these diseases, and
you know, so yeah, it's ablessing.
SPEAKER_01 (11:33):
So yeah, and myself watching him, um, you know, I
kind of got a little motivatedtoo because I knew I really
needed to lose weight.
And even though he's up on doinga lot of work on the, you know,
during the plays, I kind oftease him sometimes.
But we do have the easy part,just throwing two hours up
there.
I'm running around takingpictures of all the stuff.
(11:54):
But um, and it was actuallyJackie Coles that told me about
first place for help.
Amen.
And but the crazy thing is, twoyears it was two years ago I
went to um one of the weekendswith her.
And I I always say this topeople, you just have to be
ready.
Yeah.
And it wasn't until this pastJanuary talking to Jackie, she
said, there's another online,it's starting in a week, and I
(12:16):
had just been praying that Lord,I I have to be able to keep up
with it.
SPEAKER_03 (12:21):
Right, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (12:22):
This year I turned 60, and so it was like, okay, I
have to do something.
SPEAKER_03 (12:26):
Yeah, and you ladies, it's harder to set it
up.
SPEAKER_01 (12:28):
So I jumped on to that in January and January,
I've lost 65 pounds.
SPEAKER_03 (12:33):
Um way to go.
I'm a raving fan of first place.
So yeah.
So yeah, did you go to the umwhat event did you go to?
SPEAKER_01 (12:42):
I went to the um, it was at Sandy Cove.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (12:45):
I've spoken to that.
Yeah, that's good.
SPEAKER_01 (12:47):
It was back in 23.
I haven't been able to go backsince, but I've done I've done
at least, I think.
Amen.
Do they know about it?
Three or four on the city.
Okay, they ought to put you, youknow.
SPEAKER_04 (12:55):
They ought to put you in their publications.
You know what the thing is, itnot nothing happens until it
until you know.
SPEAKER_03 (13:01):
Yeah, now for me it's 25 years.
SPEAKER_04 (13:03):
Yeah, and then you were like, Okay, that's okay,
and you know, I believe thatcomes from the Lord.
I remember I also prayed for youto get you know, just get the
hunger and the desire, andthat's so she got she's got the
hunger and the desire.
So sometimes I'm like, I don'teven feel like going to the gym.
She's like, Oh, we're gonna weI'm going to work out.
And she goes and gets gets onthe exercise bike, works out,
(13:24):
and I'm like, That's awesome.
Wow, I'm a bum right now.
I got I gotta get off the couch.
SPEAKER_01 (13:28):
You know, again, right before that happened with
Jackie, uh that was the prayerto the Lord.
I can't do this anymore.
I can't do it in my strength.
Yes, you're gonna have to helpme.
And then plus she's weird.
SPEAKER_04 (13:39):
Can you can you incorporate God in in your
desire to exercise?
Like bringing God in that's athat's a wise thing.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03 (13:48):
I mean, I I believe you know I believe the Bible
says before sin came and thecurse, he says that he says
you're gonna sweat.
But before that, he said, I'mputting you in this garden, tend
and keep it.
Okay, Genesis 2, before the fallof man.
And I believe, you know, Ithere's I believe there's a lot
(14:08):
of uh practical in informationthere that God wanted them to
move.
Okay.
So I don't know if you knowanything about tending and
keeping a garden.
Uh uh sadly, I know too much asa child, okay.
Um like I mentioned earlier, Iwas cheap, cheap farm hand back
there.
Okay.
I'm just saying, I think God puthim there, said to tend to keep
(14:29):
this garden because you're madeto move.
Don't okay.
You you you're supposed to bemoving around.
I made you to move.
And then Genesis 3 got harder.
He said, now you're gonna havewheeze, you're gonna have
thorns, you're gonna sweat.
You know, but it wasn't like youknow, this is the beginning of
movement.
No, uh, you know, the more youmove, the more you lose.
(14:49):
If you don't if you don't moveit, you're gonna lose it.
Yeah, so that's that's for sure.
So that's so important.
Praise God, yeah.
Praise God.
SPEAKER_04 (14:55):
And it's when uh I know my uncle, my uncle and my
dad both worked at uh TuscanDairy in New Jersey.
They worked at the dairy, okay,and they knew guys that when the
these guys they'd work at thedairy dairy for 20, 30, 40
years, as soon as they retired,these guys would drop dead
(15:17):
because they stopped moving.
Yeah, they would just go sit onthe couch.
SPEAKER_03 (15:21):
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04 (15:21):
And I remember my uncle telling me one time he
said the couch got me, man.
I it uh he's and that's fromthat point on he went downhill
as health.
Went downhill.
Yeah, movement is so importantto um to keep athletes.
SPEAKER_03 (15:35):
Absolutely, yeah.
But you're literally an athlete,okay.
SPEAKER_04 (15:39):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (15:40):
Man, that's a workout, man.
You're not kidding.
You literally have sweatdropping off your yeah, it's
amazing.
Going down on the ground,absolutely, yeah.
I mean, yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (15:50):
Yeah.
Our Genesis show plays like thattoo.
SPEAKER_03 (15:52):
Oh, okay.
Yeah, when you're on the ground,yeah.
Okay, that's amazing.
Yeah, they flopped your body.
SPEAKER_04 (15:58):
Yeah.
We did one play where when Petertakes off, and he's uh after he
denies the Lord, he startsrunning.
And we did this one play, andthey had a really high stage
where we were.
And I remember I wasn'tthinking, I said, and and I and
and I took off running and I Iran off the stage and I jumped
(16:20):
off the stage.
Wow.
And in the air, I thought tomyself, oh, this might not have
been the smartest thing.
And as the ground was comingcloser to me before I landed, I
said, I just said, I rememberpraying, Lord, please don't let
me fall into like completelycrumple up and turn into 20
different pieces of broken T 10right now.
(16:40):
Please let me hit don't hit theground hard.
Lord, I know this was a mistake.
But if you get me through this,I won't ever do this again.
And that was all that wholeconversation.
As I'm in the air like this, andI landed and I was like, okay,
no pain, no pain, no pain.
Okay.
And uh he protected me in thatbuttons.
SPEAKER_01 (16:59):
Well, you were up in the up in the air, all I kept
thinking was tuck and roll, tuckand roll.
SPEAKER_04 (17:04):
Yeah, it was high.
Yeah, it was high.
I want to say that the stage waslike four or five feet.
It was the stage was up here.
Wow, okay.
And I just didn't think itthrough, and I was like, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (17:16):
I can I can see you doing that.
Yes, right.
SPEAKER_04 (17:20):
Right.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (17:20):
You know, the scene where he kind of flops on the
ground as if they they were deadat that point, right?
Yes.
I there was one time he was downthere for quite a bit.
SPEAKER_03 (17:28):
Okay.
SPEAKER_04 (17:29):
That's one of my favorite parts of the book.
He's resting.
He leads to the rest of the restof the rest.
That's one of my favorite partsof the book because the ground
feels so good.
I bet it did.
When I lay down, I go, we wewhen we heard that voice, we
fell as if we were dead.
And boom, I hit the ground.
I'm like, the ground feels sogood.
Oh man, I could just go tosleep.
SPEAKER_03 (17:48):
I uh man, yeah.
Yeah, your microphone workedgood too.
I was worried about next thingyou know, it was totally clear,
it was fantastic.
SPEAKER_04 (17:56):
Yeah, we need um I'm I need to to do some uh
refurbishing on that mic, butthat thing gets beat up.
SPEAKER_03 (18:03):
That is an awesome mic.
SPEAKER_04 (18:04):
You know, we jump around and and that's why I have
to have the double headset.
Right, yeah, yeah.
But last week they I didn't Iwanted to acquiesce to what they
were doing, and they had theydidn't want me to they didn't
want to use my set.
They wanted me to use theirs.
SPEAKER_03 (18:17):
And I said, okay, no, I'm the other way around.
And it was one of the things, Iwanted to blame you.
SPEAKER_04 (18:20):
So well, it was one, it was it was only one ear,
yeah, and so I had to becareful.
SPEAKER_03 (18:25):
No, no, no, that's it.
SPEAKER_01 (18:28):
No, no, no, that was that but none of us knew you
were distracted you know withit.
It didn't come across that way,but I I know you, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (18:37):
Absolutely during the performance.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (18:40):
So, Pastor Steve Reynolds, thank you so much for
um taking the time out and andand actually being willing to
have us come here.
Well, we'd love to have youback, and yeah, amen.
And thank you for letting uscome here and serve and be part
of uh the work that you're doinghere.
Because you know, there are alot of pastors that don't want
(19:01):
to, they just don't even want totake a chance on they hear like
plays on plays on word.
What is that?
SPEAKER_03 (19:06):
Right, right.
SPEAKER_04 (19:06):
Play, I know we've had plays, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (19:08):
Right, right.
SPEAKER_04 (19:09):
And uh so I always like to thank the pastors that
say, you know what, uh, if it'sof God, cool.
SPEAKER_03 (19:15):
Right.
So thank you for letting us keepup the good work.
SPEAKER_04 (19:19):
Amen.
We're we're gonna try to comeback.
We we will put the links uh inthe show notes so you guys can
check out this guy's writing.
Sounds good, and hopefully losesome weight.
And maybe we'll put hiscontacts, you reach out to him
if you want to talk to himdirectly.
SPEAKER_03 (19:34):
Okay, sounds good.
SPEAKER_04 (19:35):
Um and will you close us in prayer?
SPEAKER_03 (19:37):
Yes, yes, yes.
Lord, thank you for yourtechnology.
Thank you that we have a way touh talk and spread the word,
Lord, and just thank you forwhat you're doing through play
on word, playing on word, Lord.
I pray that you continue to meetthe needs and Lord provide.
SPEAKER_02 (19:52):
And Lord, just uh thank you for the calling uh of
this ministry, and we pray yourhand would continue to bless and
use them.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
SPEAKER_04 (20:03):
All right, Captain Father.
SPEAKER_00 (20:15):
This program was made possible by the Playsone
Word family of supporters.
To find out more, check out ourwebsite at plazonword.org.
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