April 10, 2025 • 38 mins
Kyle O'Neal, Creative Arts Pastor at Shoreline Church, shares his journey from childhood musician to worship leader and how his faith shaped his path through church planting, cross-country moves, and creative ministry leadership.
• Growing up in Atlanta with his father as primary influence and role model for serving in church
• Making cassette tape "radio shows" at age six and receiving his first real guitar at twelve
• Dropping out of college at 19 to plant churches, spending 11 years in church planting ministry
• Moving from Georgia to Wichita, Kansas with his family after God prepared them through strengthened finances, parenting and marriage
• Leading with three core principles: "Point to Jesus," "Bring your best," and "Seek to serve"
• Maintaining personal faith through daily Bible reading (currently in year nine of annual reading)
• Observing post-COVID church trends as an opportunity for fresh direction rather than trying to return to previous patterns
• Writing original worship music with his team at Shoreline Church
• Navigating parenting teenagers while exploring Austin with his family
Learn more about our amazing sponsor Ten Fold Counseling.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kyle O'Neal (00:00):
I slept most of the way.
It was hard to sleep the wholetime.
I'd never like, because I don'tnormally sleep 12 hours.
So it was a little bit and thenwe had the interruption of
landing in Turkey for a minutetoo.
Piet Van Waarde (00:10):
Oh, wow, wow.
I can't not sleep on planes.
That's awesome.
Kyle O'Neal (00:18):
I started audio recording.
so that was our cold open.
Well, I had a question what so?
Piet Van Waarde (00:24):
that was our cold open.
Well, I had a question what'syour favorite like when you're
not doing worship music?
What's your favorite genre Tolisten to?
Kyle O'Neal (00:30):
Yeah, oh man.
Piet Van Waarde (00:32):
Do you have a favorite?
Kyle O'Neal (00:33):
I don't know that I have a favorite.
I'm pretty eclectic when itcomes to music, but there's
certain things I won't listen to.
But I mean growing up like Iwas in a Christian rock band, so
like I love like rock, I likemetal, I like lo-fi, like if I'm
just like needing to just kindof chill for a little bit, I
like lo-fi or study or thosekind of things.
Piet Van Waarde (00:53):
I like those kind of music I should turn you
on to my son.
My son does lo-fi.
Kyle O'Neal (00:57):
Yeah, he's got his own channel.
Piet Van Waarde (00:58):
No way, that's cool, and so we were just out to
see him.
Kyle O'Neal (01:02):
Where's he live at he's doing so good.
Piet Van Waarde (01:03):
He's outside of San Diego.
Kyle O'Neal (01:05):
Oh, very cool.
Yeah, that's a cool area.
Piet Van Waarde (01:08):
He's getting married in October.
Let's go.
I know that's awesome and wereally like her too.
Kyle O'Neal (01:13):
Yeah, that's a good thing.
It's a bonus, yep, so yeah.
Piet Van Waarde (01:28):
That's cool.
Hey, thank you for joining usfor another Sidewalk
Conversations.
I'm excited about our guesttoday and we'll be introducing
him in a moment, but let mefirst say thank you to our
sponsors.
Today, our sponsor is TenfoldCounseling out of Kansas City.
They are good friends of minepersonally, but they also serve
a great community there inKansas City and they do have
(01:50):
online services, and so ifyou're in need of some
encouragement, some perspective,some help through a difficult
season, I would encourage you togive Crystal and the folks at
Tenfold Counseling a call.
They'll serve you well, allright.
Well, thank you for joining usand I want to introduce you to
my guest, kyle O'Neill.
Kyle, thank you for joining me.
Kyle O'Neal (02:11):
Oh, it's an honor.
I'm excited to chat and talkabout life.
Piet Van Waarde (02:15):
Yeah, let's do it.
So let's go all the way back tothe beginning.
Kyle O'Neal (02:19):
Okay Of time?
Yes, of your time, at least mytime.
Yes, of your time, at least mytime yes.
Piet Van Waarde (02:26):
So I always like to.
There's like a story thatpeople know and then there's the
story that's behind that storyand I always find that so
interesting.
So share a little bit aboutwhere you grew up, who some of
your key influences were.
Tell us about that.
Kyle O'Neal (02:40):
Yeah for sure.
So I grew up in the Atlantaarea.
I was born in South Georgia,georgia, and I was going to grow
up on a farm.
So this is like the storybehind the story on a farm.
But when we were two my parentswanted me to have a better
upbringing and opportunities andstuff.
So my dad got a job up inAtlanta.
So when I was two we movedthere.
I spent most of my life inAtlanta.
Piet Van Waarde (02:59):
Okay, wow, that's a big place.
It's a big place.
Oh my gosh.
Kyle O'Neal (03:03):
We've moved a couple times since then, but I
would say, being in Austin nowit reminds me a lot of Atlanta.
So you've got the city, you'vegot the nature, you've got the
hills, all of it.
We've been here for a year nowand it feels like home, which is
great.
But yeah, atlanta, I grew up, Iplayed baseball growing up, so
a lot of influences werebaseball players.
Uh, so a big, big atlantabraves fan, um got a tattoo
(03:26):
right there.
So uh, chipper jones, that wasmy, my absolute favorite like
player like I wanted to, not inhis like personal life, but in
his baseball life I wanted to belike chipper jones and had some
other favorites with with them,from dale murphy on.
But um, uh I would say like all,all over, encompassing like
inspiration, was my dad.
So growing up, my dad was theguy who would literally do
(03:49):
anything for anybody and wouldserve in the church and I just
saw what I felt like I wanted tobe in him from really early on.
Piet Van Waarde (03:58):
What a great compliment for him, huh.
Kyle O'Neal (03:59):
Yeah, I mean, and we're still good today and good
friends, which is great.
Piet Van Waarde (04:03):
So that helps, I mean, and we're still good
today and good friends, which isgreat.
Kyle O'Neal (04:06):
So that helps?
Yeah, but yeah, no, it's, hewas.
If the church needed a singlespastor, for a little bit he was
our singles pastor.
If they needed a fill-in musicminister, he was the fill-in
music minister.
So I just saw him serve in somany different capacities and
just the church and us.
They like to tell me the storythat, like I think I was born on
a Thursday and we were inchurch on a Sunday, kind of
thing.
Piet Van Waarde (04:24):
Of course.
So like we were there.
Kyle O'Neal (04:26):
But yeah, my dad big, big influence and I had
just some key like youth leadersalong the way too that.
Piet Van Waarde (04:32):
So were you like always, I'm assuming from
the story of your dad and mom,I'm guessing that you were in
church regularly.
Were you always like a personof faith, or did you ever have
the season where it was kind ofa little more shaky?
Kyle O'Neal (04:44):
Yeah, was it like a person of faith, or did you
ever have a season where it waskind of a little more shaky?
Yeah, I wouldn't say shaky.
I think there was times where Itook it more seriously.
So I did grow up in Christianhome and like if the doors were
open.
We were there kind of thing,and there was a lot of doors
that were open most of thenights of the week.
So we were there a lot, so itwas kind of like a second home
for a long time.
There was a moment, like inhigh school, where I was like
(05:07):
I'm not exactly sure, like ifI'm just living my own faith or
if I'm living the faith that myparents had for me.
So it didn't really like fallaway or do anything crazy or
anything like that, but it wasjust.
It became more real to me inhigh school.
Piet Van Waarde (05:15):
And was there a moment?
That it became more real, likewas there something that
happened where you're at a camp,or was something taking place.
Kyle O'Neal (05:21):
So I think some of it was kind of part of my story
with like music.
So like coming into from middleschool, going into high school,
kind of had to make a decision.
Like I was doing baseball a lotand I was also doing music a
lot, so I was like I had to makea decision between those two.
And when music and what we nowknow is like worship, music and
all that started to become apart of my life.
It was in that that my faithbecame more real and it wasn't
(05:42):
about I'm this person's son orI'm this person's like uh, or my
dad's son or my mom's son, likeI was me, like I was learning
how to be my own relationshipwith jesus in that moment.
So I gave my life, uh, to jesusearly at eight.
But uh became really real andstarted owning my own faith
around the beginning of highschool.
Piet Van Waarde (06:03):
So so it, and so music sounds like music was a
big part of that.
And we're going to get intoyour professional life in that
regard, but did you always havea love for music?
I mean, was that like, as faras you can remember?
Kyle O'Neal (06:15):
and you love music, as far as I can remember and I
have pictures before that to-help me know.
So there's a picture that mymom has of me that I was like
two years old, singing into ahairbrush on the fireplace like
mantle area kind of thing.
And like just singing my heartout I would.
I would make like this is goingto sound crazy, but I would
(06:38):
make little tapes.
So I had a cassette taperecorder and I would be like the
radio host talking about thesong that's about to come on,
I'm like and here's the next up,they're going to sing Amazing
Grace, and then I'd wait alittle bit, and then I would
sing in a funny voice and Iwould sing the part, and so hold
a radio show on cassette tapesand stuff.
So music was pretty early on.
My parents got me like a toyguitar when I was probably six
(07:01):
and I called it my tune andplayed on that and then bought
my first real guitar when I was12.
Piet Van Waarde (07:09):
Is that your favorite instrument?
Kyle O'Neal (07:11):
Yeah, I play a lot of things but guitar is
definitely the one I come backto the most and the one I
started with Cool Now.
Piet Van Waarde (07:17):
Did you study music in school as well?
Kyle O'Neal (07:20):
I did a little bit in high school and I chose a
different path in college.
So so for in high school, I didband, um, so I played trombone.
I started.
I did that and wanted to learnmore of the brass instruments.
I started learning a coupleother instruments as well, but
still played guitar.
I learned that if I was cause Istarted in a like a Christian
(07:40):
garage band, literally becausewe practice in a garage but in
fifth grade.
So I realized I couldn't tell myfriend Eric, the bass player,
how to play something if Ididn't know how To play.
So I learned a little bit ofbass.
I could tell my friend Adam,what I was wanting and a song
that we were writing with drums.
So I learned a little bit ofdrums.
It's a little bit that just kindof picked up a little bit here
and there.
But man, yes, just music.
(08:01):
Throughout high school didmusic theory.
I didn't do choir, which waskind of funny.
But I didn't do choir until mylast semester of high school and
then in college, every time Ilooked at different colleges for
music, I knew God was callingme into music and I knew he was
calling me in some type ofministry.
No-transcript.
Piet Van Waarde (08:36):
So when you connect your faith to music and
you said those things werehappening congruently, was there
something about music?
Because you lead worship at thechurch and we'll talk about
that here in a bit but it seemslike even when you're leading
worship, that there's somethinghappening in you, not just
(08:59):
something you're doing quoteunquote for the church.
So is that really kind of howyou would describe it?
Kyle O'Neal (09:06):
Yeah, I think.
So, backing up to where I wastalking about making the
cassette recordings and stuff,like that that.
I feel like I was emulatingthings.
And then, when I started takingmy faith seriously and owning
my own faith in high school,something real came in to me.
It wasn't just the hymns thatwe were singing in church, but
by that time there were startingto be praise songs that were
starting to be written.
A couple years later was theTomlin movement and all that
(09:28):
kind of stuff, but all of thosesongs started.
Man, this is what I'm trying,this is my prayer, that I'm
praying to God and this is asong that we can sing.
And now when we pray and singthese songs, everybody's praying
and singing these songs andjust seeing the unity behind it
and that really just deepenedand strengthened my faith around
ninth, tenth grade kind ofthing.
Awesome yeah.
Piet Van Waarde (09:47):
And so where did you end up going to school?
Kyle O'Neal (09:49):
So I went to Truett McConnell and I went for two
years.
It's a North Georgia Baptistcollege.
I went for two years andliterally dropped out to go
plant a church years andliterally dropped out to go
plant a church.
So I was learning how to doministry and learning how to
plant a church and all that kindof stuff in college.
And a buddy of mine that I'ddone a lot of youth events with
he's like would you everconsider starting a church with
(10:10):
me now?
And I said yeah, I think.
Piet Van Waarde (10:13):
I would Were you married at the time?
I was not.
Kyle O'Neal (10:15):
So I was 19,.
Maybe 20 at that point, yeah.
Piet Van Waarde (10:20):
Okay, and how was that experience?
Kyle O'Neal (10:22):
Oh, it was amazing.
So I just jumped in and I feltlike everything that I'd already
kind of been wanting to do Iwas just literally getting to go
and there was a ton of justtrust and leadership that I
clearly didn't earn or deserveyet but was just given to me and
, school of Hard Knocks, we madeit work.
Piet Van Waarde (10:39):
You figured it out?
How long were you doing that?
Kyle O'Neal (10:41):
So I did church planning in the Georgia area for
11 years.
Wow yeah, so 10 of those wereportable.
So the whole unloading, packinga trailer, we've met in movie
theaters and schools and alibrary, actually like all kinds
of places, but 11 of thoseyears were portable, and then I
ended up taking a really bigstep of faith.
(11:02):
We knew that something in ourlife was changing.
By this time I was married.
So the second church I workedat was when I met my wife,
melissa, and we had been at thesame church for about seven
years at that point, which knewsomething was happening?
God was shifting our hearts insome way and we thought it was
something to do with maybefinances or our parenting or our
(11:22):
marriage.
So we started shoring upeverything we could.
We had no debt.
We wanted to make sure we werethe best parents that we could.
We were strengthened in ourmarriage in every way we could.
What we didn't realize was Godwas actually calling us way
outside of our comfort zone andmoved to Wichita, kansas, of all
places.
When they told us Wichita, Ididn't even know what state that
was at the time so we moved toWichita, Kansas, to be a part of
(11:43):
a large multi-site church andman.
that was incredible.
Piet Van Waarde (11:48):
How did they find you?
Kyle O'Neal (11:49):
So that was kind of in that season of looking my
dad on it.
So back to my dad.
I've been influenced multipletimes in my life.
He said you should apply atthis church and it's a church
that, like I had used resourcesfrom like looking from for afar
for like five, six years and I,on a joke, kind of whim to him,
I filled out an application andI got a call the next day.
So it all happened really fast.
(12:11):
Like obviously my pastor was inon, he knew that God was
calling us into something and heknew there was something going
on, but I did not think it wasgoing to happen that fast.
Piet Van Waarde (12:21):
I bet.
Kyle O'Neal (12:23):
So the beauty of where God was leading was we
thought we needed to make surethat everything was strong.
Man, we really did when weneeded to move halfway across
the country.
Our finances were great, ourparenting was great and our
marriage was great.
So we move into this new seasonoutside of our comfort zone and
we had everything else strong.
That's awesome, yeah.
Piet Van Waarde (12:44):
That's a wise move, bro.
It wasn't me All God, all justlistening.
Well, you had to pay attention.
Kyle O'Neal (12:50):
So how was that experience?
What was that like?
Yeah, it was great.
So, man, that was the fasttrack of everything.
So I went from a church plan ofabout 500 to a church that,
when I left, was averaging about150,000 on a weekend, and when
I started there there was 20campuses and when I left there
was 40.
So it was quite the seven yearsof drinking from the fire
hydrant of just trying to learnand grow and man, it was awesome
(13:11):
and again I felt like I gotopportunities that I didn't earn
.
But we just listened and wereobedient to God and different
things happened and, man, we gotto be a part of some great
things.
So we saw some big thingshappen, got to be a part of some
songs that got to.
The whole church was singingand it was just, yeah, it was a
great experience.
Piet Van Waarde (13:29):
Oh man, that's great.
Now most people know you as theperson up front who's leading
the worship experience, andyou're great at it, but you also
have this whole other part ofyour life.
In fact, you had to correct meat first when I was talking to
you about this, because you'realso, I guess, your official
title is a creative arts pastor.
So that means essentially thatyou lead a variety of teams.
(13:52):
So you have obviously the musicpiece.
But then, it's also video andtech and anything else in that
list.
Basically there's threesections.
Kyle O'Neal (14:01):
There are like three ministry areas, so it's
worship, production and theMarcom area.
So I would say I get theprivilege to serve these teams.
Man, we have some of the mosttalented people in the entire
country, the entire world, thatare doing the things, so I
really just get to serve themand lift them up as much as I
(14:21):
can.
So our worship team obviouslyleads worship on Sunday.
Our production team is anythingfrom audio, video, lighting and
marketing is all the video, thegraphics, all of that type
stuff.
Piet Van Waarde (14:31):
Wow, and so you're responsible for all three
of those?
Yeah, which is a lot.
Yeah, my goodness, it wouldn'tbe a lot without all those
people.
Kyle O'Neal (14:38):
Yeah, yeah.
Piet Van Waarde (14:39):
So tell me a little bit of like when you
think about your week and youknow you don't have to get all
into the weeds but like, how doyou think through the grid of
all those things and be, youknow, taking care of the people
side of the equation yeah,because it's obviously a lot of
people involved but then alsothe quote-unquote production
(15:00):
ministry side of the equation.
What does that week look likefor you?
Kyle O'Neal (15:04):
Yeah, so one of the things I love about our
creative team is, even thoughit's three different teams,
we're very unified.
Piet Van Waarde (15:10):
Okay.
Kyle O'Neal (15:10):
So we start Mondays , and literally our Mondays is
that touch point where we allget together.
We look at what went right,wrong, confusing, missing from
Sunday.
How can we make it better?
How can we make it 1% better?
And then we just tell storiesof what God did.
We look ahead at what we haveon our calendar and then we
(15:30):
disperse from there and try tomake things work.
So I do have meetings with eachteam that happen also
throughout Monday.
Tuesdays are a lot of extrameetings that I go to that they
don't have to.
That's when they're executingwhich is good.
And then we have rehearsals onTuesdays.
Wednesdays is that catch-up,all the things that we didn't
have time for we're making surehappen.
(15:51):
And then Thursday is all thefinal prep for the weekend to
really quickly kind of overviewthings.
But I think the reason and theway it works really well is that
we just have great people.
Like there are just greatpeople who love God, who love to
serve the church and love whatthey do and they're living in
their passion.
So there's a.
It's funny like I was actuallytalking to our music director
(16:13):
and vocal director today.
I was like I'm not sure I wantto give you guys more off my
plate, but I'm looking ateverything on worship and you do
all of it.
Want to give you guys more offmy plate, but I'm looking at
everything on worship and you doall of it.
So it's like I love that you dothis.
All I have to do is give athumbs up and cheer you on and I
love that.
I love that I get to serve themin a way and lift them up and
put them in a place that theycan grow more and develop more.
(16:35):
So it's been great.
Piet Van Waarde (16:36):
I want to tease on that a little bit.
So all of us, we kind of have Idid ministry for a good many
years and we have a grid that wethink through as it relates to
leadership.
So do you have some models andmaybe some internal grids that
you think about when you'redoing leadership, of whether
(16:58):
it's on your team or whetherit's of the entire congregation?
Maybe we'll start with the team.
What's your philosophy aboutthat?
Kyle O'Neal (17:09):
Yeah, so I have these three phrases that I use
for literally everything.
So hopefully this answers.
It's not as like it's practical, but it's also like what drives
it.
So I think, if you're like,what's the target?
This is my target every time.
So one is that I point to Jesus.
So everything that we do, ifit's a worship song, or if it's
a light cue, or if it's agraphic that we're going to use
or a video we're going to make,how does it point to Jesus?
And then I'll have like asubtitle to it.
So we point to Jesus becauseworship is a response.
(17:30):
So that's the first one is likethat, without anything else,
like that's the one that has tomatter before anything else.
The second one is we bring ourbest you.
The second one is we bring ourbest.
You can do anything halfway, butwe have the opportunity to
serve God, we have theopportunity to serve people.
So we bring our best.
And the subtitle of that one isexcellence is a choice.
So, like anything andeverything that we do, like I
(17:51):
want to make sure that I'mbringing my absolute best with
it.
And then the third one is seekto serve, and then the subtitle
is serving as a posture.
So in everything that we dowe're going to point to Jesus.
We're going to bring our best,but our heart is to serve and
love people.
So I think that's maybe moregeneric than maybe you're asking
, but that is the target thegoal and, if I get that right,
(18:15):
the other things we can make itwork.
Piet Van Waarde (18:17):
Yeah, yeah.
And is there any adjustment youmake in your thinking when it
comes to the congregation as awhole?
I mean, you could certainly putthat all in that same bucket.
Kyle O'Neal (18:26):
Yeah, yeah.
Piet Van Waarde (18:26):
Is there anything else that you would add
to the list?
When it comes to the church asa whole, I think just helping
people connect it.
Kyle O'Neal (18:32):
So you know, from Shoreline, when it's like know
God, find life, make adifference, it kind of a little
bit goes into that.
Like a little bit goes intothat, like how are we creating
moments in worship, how are wecreating environments in worship
, how are we creating thingsthat even get people there and
help them connect with theirnext steps, that help them know
God, find life and make adifference?
So it's just looking throughthe lens of the things that
(18:52):
those are like my, the point toJesus, all those.
Those are my, like personalones, but the know God, find
life, make a difference.
That's our heart, our goal, ourvision for Shoreline.
So it's more all along thatline.
It's like knowing that that'sthe target.
How can we make that happenwith the things that we're doing
?
So just thinking through lenses, I think is helpful.
Piet Van Waarde (19:14):
It's good to know a goal before just going
out and creating.
Kyle O'Neal (19:16):
I think as creatives, we can all just dream
all day long, but creativesalso need can all just dream all
day long, but, like it,creatives also need that those
guardrails not not rules, butguardrails just go.
Okay, this is where I'm going,but that's the target.
As long as I know the targetman, I can hit that all day long
, I think if I can help someoneknow God if I can help someone
find life, I can help someonemake a difference, then yeah,
that's Win.
Piet Van Waarde (19:36):
Yeah, for sure, for sure.
All right Now.
We didn't necessarily talkabout this beforehand, but it
just came to me and I wasthinking about some of the
things we did when I was servingas a senior leader.
I loved working with creatives,you know, because they have a
way of helping you not onlythink through a different grid,
(19:56):
as it relates to how to comeinto a topic, but then also
expanding on the topic once yousay, hey, this is where I'm
headed.
And then, all of a sudden, thecreatives say, well, we could do
this we could do that.
But the downside of creatives isthat they can be all over the
place, and you just kind ofmentioned too.
And so what are some of thethings that you find yourself
(20:19):
doing on a regular basis toprovide the guardrails, as you
called them, a way to kind ofgive them room to fly and do
their creative thing but alsokind of keep them somewhat
railed in so it's not spinningout all everywhere?
Kyle O'Neal (20:35):
Yeah, I think one additional just to add before
the guardrails would just be thetarget for creativity in the
church, like we must follow oursenior pastor, so we're always
like it starts with where PastorRob wants to go.
Yeah, so here's our next series.
You guys dream I'm feeling this, this, this Great.
That's our target.
Piet Van Waarde (20:55):
Yeah.
Kyle O'Neal (20:55):
I think the guardrails is multiple things,
so I think one of them is openhands, because I is multiple
things, so I think one of themis open hands because I think
any kind of idea that a creativehas, if it's not the idea
that's chosen, it's like well,that was my baby.
Piet Van Waarde (21:05):
That was right, that was my one so always just
open hands, like it's.
Kyle O'Neal (21:08):
It's not about my idea getting chosen sometimes
it's that idea gave birth tothis idea that gave birth to
that idea.
That man we helped reallyconnect the dots for people in
that and it started startedbecause of this, I think.
A second is honor.
So just when, like not justcelebrating this, but
celebrating that initial thoughtthat got to this, that got to
this.
Piet Van Waarde (21:26):
That got to this.
Kyle O'Neal (21:28):
And we don't necessarily honor like publicly
on this was your idea and thishappened Like we honor publicly
within our team and celebratethose, because we're not about,
we're not trying to get creditfor the things that we're doing.
We want to put the credit andthe headline to be Jesus, but we
want internally for our team toknow man, wasn't that awesome
that this idea started with this, but then it happened.
None of that would have everhappened if you wouldn't have
(21:52):
said that idea.
And then I think another partof it is just keeping all of the
things in the forefront of yourmind and being very good with
communication, because I thinkthe hardest thing with creatives
is you tell me to do somethingand then you walk away and a
creative is going to be thinkingabout that until they finish it
all the way.
Piet Van Waarde (22:10):
You're going to keep going, keep dreaming, if
it's something you're reallyexcited about.
Kyle O'Neal (22:13):
You're going to lose sleep over it creating all
these things.
And then, if the plan changedbut was never communicated, it's
like, oh, I've already beenworking this and this and I've
already done that and that.
So, like communication alongthe way of like, hey, just a
heads up, this changed and nowit's going to go this direction,
Great, and then they couldpivot in the middle of the
process rather than at the endof the process when they feel
(22:34):
like it's a final product, kindof thing.
Piet Van Waarde (22:37):
So, yeah, communication is a big key there
.
Oh man, so true, and I lovewhat you said about one idea
leading to another.
One of the definitions I'veloved of synergy is where one
plus one plus one equals five,because it's exactly like what
you described.
It's like one idea creates thisother thing, which creates this
other thing, and then together,all these things kind of come
(22:58):
together and you realize thiswould never have happened if any
one of us had tried to take onthe assignment.
It was the fact that we weretogether.
We had this kind offree-flowing conversation.
Look at what happened.
We created this beautiful thing.
That's awesome.
All right, so let me bring thelens out a little bit.
When you look at what'shappening in the church
(23:21):
generally speaking, um, so, notjust Shoreline, but just church
in general what are some of thethings that you're excited about
that you see in the church?
And then maybe in a little bitwe'll talk a little bit about
areas that you're like, wow, I'mnot sure about that.
So what makes you excited aboutwhere the church has had a
(23:42):
generalist?
Kyle O'Neal (23:42):
be.
Yeah, man, a lot of things.
I feel like I know it's hardnot to zoom too far out, but
just think about even Austinthings.
I feel like I know it's hardnot to zoom too far out, but
just think about even Austin.
So today we got the opportunityto meet with a bunch of worship
leaders and all kinds ofcreatives that were in the city
and there's just a unity that'shappening in Austin right now
within the creative and theworship world right now that you
see, you start to see differentglimpses of it kind of all
(24:04):
across the country.
I love that.
It's kind of taken progressionand that happens.
There's growth every singletime.
But you went from hymns topraise choruses to kind of
worship, and the worship when itfirst started, kind of in that
early 2000s era, was very just,raw, authentic.
And then there was a goodseason of like upping the
(24:24):
excellence and upping theproduction higher and higher and
higher, almost to a point itkind of got a little bit out of
hand and I feel like there's atrend of man, just don't worry
about perfection, that's notwhat we're chasing, we're
chasing presence and I feel thatmore and more, the more worship
pastors I talk to, I am prettyconnected all over the country
(24:45):
with different worship pastorsand just hearing their heart
like less and less about theproduction to make it happen.
Obviously, you want it toenhance what you're doing, you
want it to be a part of it, butwe also don't need any of it,
like we don't need a singlelight, we don't need a sound
system, we don't need anythingto worship Jesus.
We just need us to be able toput our focus on Him.
So there seems to be aheightened freshness, uh,
(25:07):
specifically in worship.
Uh, for that of just like wejust want to seek the face of
god in this moment, and that'swhat we're really chasing right
now too.
Just bringing a macro down to,or micro down to shoreline is
what we're chasing, is like wejust want to seek the presence
of god and all the other stuffis extra, but we don't need it.
But how can we just seek?
Piet Van Waarde (25:26):
it yeah, so I'm excited for that.
So when you One of thechallenges that I've noticed and
I experienced myself when I wasin ministry there's the
obligation of Sunday comesaround with amazing regularity,
and so you.
Kyle O'Neal (25:43):
Crazy, how that happens.
Piet Van Waarde (25:44):
Yeah, and you're not always in the best
place personally, emotionally,even spiritually, to quote
unquote, be on, and I think thateverybody understands that.
But I think you have to besuper intentional yourself when
you're in a role where you'releading.
And so what are some of thethings that you do on a regular
(26:08):
basis that kind of keeps youfresh in this thing you talked
about in terms of seeking Jesus,because you can talk about it
all from platform and into yourteam and be somewhat bankrupt
even yourself in terms of yourown walk.
And so are there things thatyou find yourself doing on a
regular basis that kind of keepthat fresh for you?
Kyle O'Neal (26:27):
Yeah, so multiple, so one, I would say scripture.
So I made the commitment.
I'm on year nine of readingthrough the Bible every year and
this year I'm doing the Biblerecap.
So it also includes a 25-minutepodcast.
Piet Van Waarde (26:42):
So I read my.
Kyle O'Neal (26:42):
Bible plan and then listen to basically a
commentary on what you just read.
Man, that's how I start my dayevery day, and I think that just
going through that and like nottrying to do, because I think
for me, like I'm a doer, I wantto accomplish, I want to do all
those things, that's not thefirst thing I do in the morning.
The first thing I do is okay,god, what do you want to teach
(27:03):
me today?
um, and start there um, a thingthat I try to live out as much
as I can and I'll give somepracticalities.
But I say to our team, a lot isnever let what you do on
worship on stage outshine whatyou do offstage.
So you kind of hinted at this,but to me, worshiping onstage
and leading a room in worshipshould always come out of the
overflow.
So, how are you filling yourselfup?
(27:24):
Are you spending time with God?
Are you listening?
So we were talking like are youspending time with god, are you
are you listening?
So like we're uh talking aboutlo-fi earlier and, like man, I
like there's lo-fi worship.
That's.
One of my favorite playlistsright now is lo-fi worship.
It's on a spotify radio stationand it's just so good and it
just kind of gets you out of.
You're not listening to it likefrom, like a worship or like a
production stand.
oh, I could use that like yeah,like you're not, you're not
(27:46):
listening to it that way, you'rejust listening to it like okay,
God, thank you for showing methis, and like you hear the
words in a different way.
But yeah, listening to worship,a lot of times I'll just find
myself singing.
I love just being out andpraying and singing by myself,
sometimes with a guitar,sometimes without, but man just
filling up and letting thebiggest time and the most
(28:07):
intimate time that I worship Godnot be on a stage and with a
microphone.
That's great.
Piet Van Waarde (28:14):
And I commend you for it because it can be.
So you know, especiallyShoreline is a very active
church, so you don't just havelike Sunday morning, you have
first Wednesday, you havespecial events, men's event
coming up on Friday.
Kyle O'Neal (28:31):
You got marriage.
You know the marriageconference.
Piet Van Waarde (28:34):
So you have all these things and the staff
chapel I'm sure you still doworship there too so you have
all these responsibilities andit's just so easy for all of
those responsibilities to crowdout the personal time and it's
like, well, I'll be worshipingat church on Sunday.
So if you can really do that,man, that's so commendable and I
(28:57):
think it's going to help youstay.
As you well know, I'm nottelling you anything you don't
know, but it'll help keep you ontrack for the long haul,
Because one of the hardships andheartaches you see in the world
today is that people who werevery big in the quote
unquoteunquote worship worldtank go off the rails, do stupid
things and even, some cases,just give up on the faith
(29:20):
altogether.
So sad, so good for you forstaying on it.
Kyle O'Neal (29:24):
Yeah, I think it's a learned thing.
It's not a like.
I don't want to make it soundlike oh man, I got this all
figured out.
Piet Van Waarde (29:30):
I think you do it over time.
Kyle O'Neal (29:32):
So this August will actually be 22 years of
ministry for me and I thinkearly on that was not my mindset
.
I had to learn that throughhardship of realizing that man,
I just gave everything I had andthat was the most I ever
worshiped God.
This week was that 20-minuteworship set.
Piet Van Waarde (29:50):
That's convicting.
Kyle O'Neal (29:52):
I'm not giving God my best.
I'm not bringing my bestpointing to Jesus seeking to
serve.
But man, it's a learned thing.
You mentioned there's busyseasons.
Easter is very busy, so youhave to prioritize it too.
It's got to be a habit, it'sgot to be a priority.
Piet Van Waarde (30:10):
It's got to be a priority.
Kyle O'Neal (30:13):
It can't just be something that.
Piet Van Waarde (30:15):
oh yeah, I said I'd get to that All right, as
there are things that you'relike.
Kyle O'Neal (30:18):
you look at the church and you say, ooh, I'm not
sure that's going to be, that'sgoing to work out so well.
Man publicly criticizing thecapital C church?
I'm not sure.
No, no, I think what I see inthe global church is so COVID
changed everything right andthere's just kind of this sense
(30:42):
of and I still hear it of likewe'll get back to where we were
before COVID and I still hear itof like we'll get back to where
we were before COVID and Ireally feel like COVID happened
to shift something.
I don't know that it is to goback to, because kind of what I
saw a trend in was you had highattendance on every church, like
churches were growing likecrazy.
(31:03):
Covid happened and then everychurch was at 30%, 40% maybe
like 60%, like if it was like alot and people are like people
just didn't come back.
What I actually saw more trendof was it was not necessarily
just the people not coming back,it was new people coming and it
was like the most devoted.
So I think what it kind of didwas shake and sift through some
of church culture and, like yourfor lack of better words like
(31:25):
church consumers kind of justdidn't come back.
They found other things thatworked for them.
They were really just there tomaybe check a box and man like
the dedicated, like we want tobe here, and then the new people
who I need something deeper inmy life are the ones that came
back.
So I think I'm not.
I would say it's just a concernthat I really hope that we
(31:46):
continue to use that as ashifting, not a look back and
hope for, but a shifting.
What is God doing new?
Why did we have that pruning,if you will, of church members
and church attendance and theway that we did things?
How can we not just think abouthow we did something five years
ago or six years ago, but howcan we actually move forward in
(32:07):
a new way with whatever God'sdoing?
Now I feel like Psalms talksabout it so much, like God's
doing a new thing, so like wewant to sing a new song, let's
do a new thing in the church.
But ultimately I think thatit's just finding ways to follow
after where he's leading, sonot being afraid to give up and
move ahead of where we were, butlook at a way to accept the
(32:30):
shift and move into somethingnew that God's been doing.
Piet Van Waarde (32:33):
Yeah, I totally agree with you on that.
And I think for leaders andI'll just personalize it for me
as a leader I was still on staffat a church, I was at Shoreline
and I think one of the things Isaw happen in me and I think I
can say this fairly for our teamwas that we were forced to kind
(32:55):
of ask the question how are wegoing to measure success?
So during COVID you couldn'tnecessarily measure it by people
in the seats and offerings inthe plate.
I mean, you're your kind oftypical way of measuring quote
unquote success and I think thatwas a good test for leaders to
(33:17):
say, really, how are we going tomeasure our effectiveness and
being willing to try new thingscertainly in the midst of COVID,
with technology andcommunicating in new and
different ways but, I think,also forcing ourselves to say is
it just about how people showup or is it about something
deeper than that transformation?
(33:37):
And how do we measure that?
And so I think there were somereally good things that happened
, even though, from a pragmaticstandpoint, covid was so hard on
the church.
In some ways, many churches arestill kind of paying the price
for what happened there, but Ithink God, as he does with all
(33:59):
things, he used it as anopportunity for him to do
something deeper in us as well.
So when you're looking at yourown life now, in the future,
what are you excited about?
What's coming down the roadthat you want to talk about?
Yeah, oh, my gosh, a littleplug for yeah.
Kyle O'Neal (34:15):
So a couple of things, so church-wise, so we
are starting to write music.
So there's a series that we'regoing to be doing right after
Easter called Fully DevotedFollower a very big, just phrase
that's on Pastor Rob's heartand that, coupled with, we had
prayer strike team come in andpray over the church and one of
(34:36):
the biggest things that theysaid in the prayer was that let
Jesus be the center of the stageat Shoreline.
And like we took both thosethings to heart and we wrote a
song called you Alone, justdemoed it last week.
We're going to be introducingit to the church soon.
So we're excited about justsongwriting and having prayers
that our church can be having ontheir lips when they're singing
(34:57):
prayers, singing declarationsso excited for that.
I love that.
Yeah, I'm real, real excitedfor that.
Piet Van Waarde (35:03):
You know, I think with this I'm sorry to
interrupt, but the talent of theteam there doing songwriting,
I'm like, yeah, yes, you got todo that.
Yeah.
Kyle O'Neal (35:13):
I often call it embarrassment of riches, like
like we have.
Like if you even just look atthe front line of our church,
like every single person couldbe a worship leader of church
somewhere, but like it's just anembarrassment of riches that we
we have at the church.
But um, that personally,personally man, my kids are
growing up.
It's exciting but also scary.
So my oldest just turned 15.
(35:33):
My youngest just turned 12.
So they're finishing out firstyear of middle school and first
year in high school.
She's begging to get herlearner's permit like all that
kind of stuff.
So it's just kind of funwatching them grow up and
growing.
So where my oldest daughterMadison is right now is where I
was when I started taking myfaith seriously.
So it's just kind of funwatching them grow up and
growing.
So where my oldest daughter,madison is right now is where I
was when I started taking myfaith seriously.
So kind of just seeing thatwith her.
(35:55):
They take notes every singletime, whether it's at youth or
on Sundays.
They're taking notes in ajournal, they cannot wait to go
to youth, all those type things.
So I love just watching themown that.
And then just for me and mywife, melissa, it's just a sweet
season because we transitionedfrom we had kids to now we've
got teenagers and just learningthat the hardships, but also the
(36:16):
blessings of it too.
So we're in the middle of it.
For sure.
We've got everything from a ohwow, you still want to hug me
and an eye roll to a handhold.
Piet Van Waarde (36:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah Right.
But yeah, it's just a fun, funseason that we're in, and you're
settling well, cause you'refairly new here.
So we.
Kyle O'Neal (36:35):
So we moved June last year but I started last
April.
So I did a kind of unique thingfor three months I traveled
back and forth, cause we wereliving in Houston and I spent
three days here, four days thereand traveling back and forth
for three, three months.
But it was so that the girlscould finish elementary school
and middle school.
But man, we love Austin Likeit's been so good.
(36:56):
We get teased because I gettold that we do more activities
than people that have lived herefor all their life but every
Friday, saturday, we try to dosomething.
So last weekend we went to theAustin steam train and rode it
to the hill country and hadlunch and burn it and rode back
and it's like we're always justtrying to find something to do.
Piet Van Waarde (37:13):
There's so much the city has to offer, so, yeah
, carol and I made a commitmentto at the start of this year.
We've been here for five yearsnow and we're like we haven't
seen hardly anything the onlytime we see stuff is when people
come to see us yeah, so we haveit once a month on our day
we're like we're gonna go seesomething in central texas there
you go, and we've seen some funthings too.
It's a lot looking.
(37:34):
You're right, there's so muchto do here.
Sounds like we need to gotogether.
That'd be great on the calendarwell, this has been really
great.
Thank you so much I appreciateyou taking the time.
I know you're super busy, sothanks for hanging out with me
for a little bit and loved yourinput.
God bless you, man.
Thank you, thank you and thankyou for joining us.
We're so grateful that you havecome and been part of this
(37:56):
conversation and hope to see younext time on Sidewalk
Conversations.
I slept most of the way.
It was hard to sleep the wholetime.
I'd never like, because I don'tnormally sleep 12 hours.
So it was a little bit and thenwe had the interruption of
landing in Turkey for a minutetoo.
Piet Van Waarde (00:10):
Oh, wow, wow.
I can't not sleep on planes.
That's awesome.
Kyle O'Neal (00:18):
I started audio recording.
so that was our cold open.
Well, I had a question what so?
Piet Van Waarde (00:24):
that was our cold open.
Well, I had a question what'syour favorite like when you're
not doing worship music?
What's your favorite genre Tolisten to?
Kyle O'Neal (00:30):
Yeah, oh man.
Piet Van Waarde (00:32):
Do you have a favorite?
Kyle O'Neal (00:33):
I don't know that I have a favorite.
I'm pretty eclectic when itcomes to music, but there's
certain things I won't listen to.
But I mean growing up like Iwas in a Christian rock band, so
like I love like rock, I likemetal, I like lo-fi, like if I'm
just like needing to just kindof chill for a little bit, I
like lo-fi or study or thosekind of things.
Piet Van Waarde (00:53):
I like those kind of music I should turn you
on to my son.
My son does lo-fi.
Kyle O'Neal (00:57):
Yeah, he's got his own channel.
Piet Van Waarde (00:58):
No way, that's cool, and so we were just out to
see him.
Kyle O'Neal (01:02):
Where's he live at he's doing so good.
Piet Van Waarde (01:03):
He's outside of San Diego.
Kyle O'Neal (01:05):
Oh, very cool.
Yeah, that's a cool area.
Piet Van Waarde (01:08):
He's getting married in October.
Let's go.
I know that's awesome and wereally like her too.
Kyle O'Neal (01:13):
Yeah, that's a good thing.
It's a bonus, yep, so yeah.
Piet Van Waarde (01:28):
That's cool.
Hey, thank you for joining usfor another Sidewalk
Conversations.
I'm excited about our guesttoday and we'll be introducing
him in a moment, but let mefirst say thank you to our
sponsors.
Today, our sponsor is TenfoldCounseling out of Kansas City.
They are good friends of minepersonally, but they also serve
a great community there inKansas City and they do have
(01:50):
online services, and so ifyou're in need of some
encouragement, some perspective,some help through a difficult
season, I would encourage you togive Crystal and the folks at
Tenfold Counseling a call.
They'll serve you well, allright.
Well, thank you for joining usand I want to introduce you to
my guest, kyle O'Neill.
Kyle, thank you for joining me.
Kyle O'Neal (02:11):
Oh, it's an honor.
I'm excited to chat and talkabout life.
Piet Van Waarde (02:15):
Yeah, let's do it.
So let's go all the way back tothe beginning.
Kyle O'Neal (02:19):
Okay Of time?
Yes, of your time, at least mytime.
Yes, of your time, at least mytime yes.
Piet Van Waarde (02:26):
So I always like to.
There's like a story thatpeople know and then there's the
story that's behind that storyand I always find that so
interesting.
So share a little bit aboutwhere you grew up, who some of
your key influences were.
Tell us about that.
Kyle O'Neal (02:40):
Yeah for sure.
So I grew up in the Atlantaarea.
I was born in South Georgia,georgia, and I was going to grow
up on a farm.
So this is like the storybehind the story on a farm.
But when we were two my parentswanted me to have a better
upbringing and opportunities andstuff.
So my dad got a job up inAtlanta.
So when I was two we movedthere.
I spent most of my life inAtlanta.
Piet Van Waarde (02:59):
Okay, wow, that's a big place.
It's a big place.
Oh my gosh.
Kyle O'Neal (03:03):
We've moved a couple times since then, but I
would say, being in Austin nowit reminds me a lot of Atlanta.
So you've got the city, you'vegot the nature, you've got the
hills, all of it.
We've been here for a year nowand it feels like home, which is
great.
But yeah, atlanta, I grew up, Iplayed baseball growing up, so
a lot of influences werebaseball players.
Uh, so a big, big atlantabraves fan, um got a tattoo
(03:26):
right there.
So uh, chipper jones, that wasmy, my absolute favorite like
player like I wanted to, not inhis like personal life, but in
his baseball life I wanted to belike chipper jones and had some
other favorites with with them,from dale murphy on.
But um, uh I would say like all,all over, encompassing like
inspiration, was my dad.
So growing up, my dad was theguy who would literally do
(03:49):
anything for anybody and wouldserve in the church and I just
saw what I felt like I wanted tobe in him from really early on.
Piet Van Waarde (03:58):
What a great compliment for him, huh.
Kyle O'Neal (03:59):
Yeah, I mean, and we're still good today and good
friends, which is great.
Piet Van Waarde (04:03):
So that helps, I mean, and we're still good
today and good friends, which isgreat.
Kyle O'Neal (04:06):
So that helps?
Yeah, but yeah, no, it's, hewas.
If the church needed a singlespastor, for a little bit he was
our singles pastor.
If they needed a fill-in musicminister, he was the fill-in
music minister.
So I just saw him serve in somany different capacities and
just the church and us.
They like to tell me the storythat, like I think I was born on
a Thursday and we were inchurch on a Sunday, kind of
thing.
Piet Van Waarde (04:24):
Of course.
So like we were there.
Kyle O'Neal (04:26):
But yeah, my dad big, big influence and I had
just some key like youth leadersalong the way too that.
Piet Van Waarde (04:32):
So were you like always, I'm assuming from
the story of your dad and mom,I'm guessing that you were in
church regularly.
Were you always like a personof faith, or did you ever have
the season where it was kind ofa little more shaky?
Kyle O'Neal (04:44):
Yeah, was it like a person of faith, or did you
ever have a season where it waskind of a little more shaky?
Yeah, I wouldn't say shaky.
I think there was times where Itook it more seriously.
So I did grow up in Christianhome and like if the doors were
open.
We were there kind of thing,and there was a lot of doors
that were open most of thenights of the week.
So we were there a lot, so itwas kind of like a second home
for a long time.
There was a moment, like inhigh school, where I was like
(05:07):
I'm not exactly sure, like ifI'm just living my own faith or
if I'm living the faith that myparents had for me.
So it didn't really like fallaway or do anything crazy or
anything like that, but it wasjust.
It became more real to me inhigh school.
Piet Van Waarde (05:15):
And was there a moment?
That it became more real, likewas there something that
happened where you're at a camp,or was something taking place.
Kyle O'Neal (05:21):
So I think some of it was kind of part of my story
with like music.
So like coming into from middleschool, going into high school,
kind of had to make a decision.
Like I was doing baseball a lotand I was also doing music a
lot, so I was like I had to makea decision between those two.
And when music and what we nowknow is like worship, music and
all that started to become apart of my life.
It was in that that my faithbecame more real and it wasn't
(05:42):
about I'm this person's son orI'm this person's like uh, or my
dad's son or my mom's son, likeI was me, like I was learning
how to be my own relationshipwith jesus in that moment.
So I gave my life, uh, to jesusearly at eight.
But uh became really real andstarted owning my own faith
around the beginning of highschool.
Piet Van Waarde (06:03):
So so it, and so music sounds like music was a
big part of that.
And we're going to get intoyour professional life in that
regard, but did you always havea love for music?
I mean, was that like, as faras you can remember?
Kyle O'Neal (06:15):
and you love music, as far as I can remember and I
have pictures before that to-help me know.
So there's a picture that mymom has of me that I was like
two years old, singing into ahairbrush on the fireplace like
mantle area kind of thing.
And like just singing my heartout I would.
I would make like this is goingto sound crazy, but I would
(06:38):
make little tapes.
So I had a cassette taperecorder and I would be like the
radio host talking about thesong that's about to come on,
I'm like and here's the next up,they're going to sing Amazing
Grace, and then I'd wait alittle bit, and then I would
sing in a funny voice and Iwould sing the part, and so hold
a radio show on cassette tapesand stuff.
So music was pretty early on.
My parents got me like a toyguitar when I was probably six
(07:01):
and I called it my tune andplayed on that and then bought
my first real guitar when I was12.
Piet Van Waarde (07:09):
Is that your favorite instrument?
Kyle O'Neal (07:11):
Yeah, I play a lot of things but guitar is
definitely the one I come backto the most and the one I
started with Cool Now.
Piet Van Waarde (07:17):
Did you study music in school as well?
Kyle O'Neal (07:20):
I did a little bit in high school and I chose a
different path in college.
So so for in high school, I didband, um, so I played trombone.
I started.
I did that and wanted to learnmore of the brass instruments.
I started learning a coupleother instruments as well, but
still played guitar.
I learned that if I was cause Istarted in a like a Christian
(07:40):
garage band, literally becausewe practice in a garage but in
fifth grade.
So I realized I couldn't tell myfriend Eric, the bass player,
how to play something if Ididn't know how To play.
So I learned a little bit ofbass.
I could tell my friend Adam,what I was wanting and a song
that we were writing with drums.
So I learned a little bit ofdrums.
It's a little bit that just kindof picked up a little bit here
and there.
But man, yes, just music.
(08:01):
Throughout high school didmusic theory.
I didn't do choir, which waskind of funny.
But I didn't do choir until mylast semester of high school and
then in college, every time Ilooked at different colleges for
music, I knew God was callingme into music and I knew he was
calling me in some type ofministry.
No-transcript.
Piet Van Waarde (08:36):
So when you connect your faith to music and
you said those things werehappening congruently, was there
something about music?
Because you lead worship at thechurch and we'll talk about
that here in a bit but it seemslike even when you're leading
worship, that there's somethinghappening in you, not just
(08:59):
something you're doing quoteunquote for the church.
So is that really kind of howyou would describe it?
Kyle O'Neal (09:06):
Yeah, I think.
So, backing up to where I wastalking about making the
cassette recordings and stuff,like that that.
I feel like I was emulatingthings.
And then, when I started takingmy faith seriously and owning
my own faith in high school,something real came in to me.
It wasn't just the hymns thatwe were singing in church, but
by that time there were startingto be praise songs that were
starting to be written.
A couple years later was theTomlin movement and all that
(09:28):
kind of stuff, but all of thosesongs started.
Man, this is what I'm trying,this is my prayer, that I'm
praying to God and this is asong that we can sing.
And now when we pray and singthese songs, everybody's praying
and singing these songs andjust seeing the unity behind it
and that really just deepenedand strengthened my faith around
ninth, tenth grade kind ofthing.
Awesome yeah.
Piet Van Waarde (09:47):
And so where did you end up going to school?
Kyle O'Neal (09:49):
So I went to Truett McConnell and I went for two
years.
It's a North Georgia Baptistcollege.
I went for two years andliterally dropped out to go
plant a church years andliterally dropped out to go
plant a church.
So I was learning how to doministry and learning how to
plant a church and all that kindof stuff in college.
And a buddy of mine that I'ddone a lot of youth events with
he's like would you everconsider starting a church with
(10:10):
me now?
And I said yeah, I think.
Piet Van Waarde (10:13):
I would Were you married at the time?
I was not.
Kyle O'Neal (10:15):
So I was 19,.
Maybe 20 at that point, yeah.
Piet Van Waarde (10:20):
Okay, and how was that experience?
Kyle O'Neal (10:22):
Oh, it was amazing.
So I just jumped in and I feltlike everything that I'd already
kind of been wanting to do Iwas just literally getting to go
and there was a ton of justtrust and leadership that I
clearly didn't earn or deserveyet but was just given to me and
, school of Hard Knocks, we madeit work.
Piet Van Waarde (10:39):
You figured it out?
How long were you doing that?
Kyle O'Neal (10:41):
So I did church planning in the Georgia area for
11 years.
Wow yeah, so 10 of those wereportable.
So the whole unloading, packinga trailer, we've met in movie
theaters and schools and alibrary, actually like all kinds
of places, but 11 of thoseyears were portable, and then I
ended up taking a really bigstep of faith.
(11:02):
We knew that something in ourlife was changing.
By this time I was married.
So the second church I workedat was when I met my wife,
melissa, and we had been at thesame church for about seven
years at that point, which knewsomething was happening?
God was shifting our hearts insome way and we thought it was
something to do with maybefinances or our parenting or our
(11:22):
marriage.
So we started shoring upeverything we could.
We had no debt.
We wanted to make sure we werethe best parents that we could.
We were strengthened in ourmarriage in every way we could.
What we didn't realize was Godwas actually calling us way
outside of our comfort zone andmoved to Wichita, kansas, of all
places.
When they told us Wichita, Ididn't even know what state that
was at the time so we moved toWichita, Kansas, to be a part of
(11:43):
a large multi-site church andman.
that was incredible.
Piet Van Waarde (11:48):
How did they find you?
Kyle O'Neal (11:49):
So that was kind of in that season of looking my
dad on it.
So back to my dad.
I've been influenced multipletimes in my life.
He said you should apply atthis church and it's a church
that, like I had used resourcesfrom like looking from for afar
for like five, six years and I,on a joke, kind of whim to him,
I filled out an application andI got a call the next day.
So it all happened really fast.
(12:11):
Like obviously my pastor was inon, he knew that God was
calling us into something and heknew there was something going
on, but I did not think it wasgoing to happen that fast.
Piet Van Waarde (12:21):
I bet.
Kyle O'Neal (12:23):
So the beauty of where God was leading was we
thought we needed to make surethat everything was strong.
Man, we really did when weneeded to move halfway across
the country.
Our finances were great, ourparenting was great and our
marriage was great.
So we move into this new seasonoutside of our comfort zone and
we had everything else strong.
That's awesome, yeah.
Piet Van Waarde (12:44):
That's a wise move, bro.
It wasn't me All God, all justlistening.
Well, you had to pay attention.
Kyle O'Neal (12:50):
So how was that experience?
What was that like?
Yeah, it was great.
So, man, that was the fasttrack of everything.
So I went from a church plan ofabout 500 to a church that,
when I left, was averaging about150,000 on a weekend, and when
I started there there was 20campuses and when I left there
was 40.
So it was quite the seven yearsof drinking from the fire
hydrant of just trying to learnand grow and man, it was awesome
(13:11):
and again I felt like I gotopportunities that I didn't earn
.
But we just listened and wereobedient to God and different
things happened and, man, we gotto be a part of some great
things.
So we saw some big thingshappen, got to be a part of some
songs that got to.
The whole church was singingand it was just, yeah, it was a
great experience.
Piet Van Waarde (13:29):
Oh man, that's great.
Now most people know you as theperson up front who's leading
the worship experience, andyou're great at it, but you also
have this whole other part ofyour life.
In fact, you had to correct meat first when I was talking to
you about this, because you'realso, I guess, your official
title is a creative arts pastor.
So that means essentially thatyou lead a variety of teams.
(13:52):
So you have obviously the musicpiece.
But then, it's also video andtech and anything else in that
list.
Basically there's threesections.
Kyle O'Neal (14:01):
There are like three ministry areas, so it's
worship, production and theMarcom area.
So I would say I get theprivilege to serve these teams.
Man, we have some of the mosttalented people in the entire
country, the entire world, thatare doing the things, so I
really just get to serve themand lift them up as much as I
(14:21):
can.
So our worship team obviouslyleads worship on Sunday.
Our production team is anythingfrom audio, video, lighting and
marketing is all the video, thegraphics, all of that type
stuff.
Piet Van Waarde (14:31):
Wow, and so you're responsible for all three
of those?
Yeah, which is a lot.
Yeah, my goodness, it wouldn'tbe a lot without all those
people.
Kyle O'Neal (14:38):
Yeah, yeah.
Piet Van Waarde (14:39):
So tell me a little bit of like when you
think about your week and youknow you don't have to get all
into the weeds but like, how doyou think through the grid of
all those things and be, youknow, taking care of the people
side of the equation yeah,because it's obviously a lot of
people involved but then alsothe quote-unquote production
(15:00):
ministry side of the equation.
What does that week look likefor you?
Kyle O'Neal (15:04):
Yeah, so one of the things I love about our
creative team is, even thoughit's three different teams,
we're very unified.
Piet Van Waarde (15:10):
Okay.
Kyle O'Neal (15:10):
So we start Mondays , and literally our Mondays is
that touch point where we allget together.
We look at what went right,wrong, confusing, missing from
Sunday.
How can we make it better?
How can we make it 1% better?
And then we just tell storiesof what God did.
We look ahead at what we haveon our calendar and then we
(15:30):
disperse from there and try tomake things work.
So I do have meetings with eachteam that happen also
throughout Monday.
Tuesdays are a lot of extrameetings that I go to that they
don't have to.
That's when they're executingwhich is good.
And then we have rehearsals onTuesdays.
Wednesdays is that catch-up,all the things that we didn't
have time for we're making surehappen.
(15:51):
And then Thursday is all thefinal prep for the weekend to
really quickly kind of overviewthings.
But I think the reason and theway it works really well is that
we just have great people.
Like there are just greatpeople who love God, who love to
serve the church and love whatthey do and they're living in
their passion.
So there's a.
It's funny like I was actuallytalking to our music director
(16:13):
and vocal director today.
I was like I'm not sure I wantto give you guys more off my
plate, but I'm looking ateverything on worship and you do
all of it.
Want to give you guys more offmy plate, but I'm looking at
everything on worship and you doall of it.
So it's like I love that you dothis.
All I have to do is give athumbs up and cheer you on and I
love that.
I love that I get to serve themin a way and lift them up and
put them in a place that theycan grow more and develop more.
(16:35):
So it's been great.
Piet Van Waarde (16:36):
I want to tease on that a little bit.
So all of us, we kind of have Idid ministry for a good many
years and we have a grid that wethink through as it relates to
leadership.
So do you have some models andmaybe some internal grids that
you think about when you'redoing leadership, of whether
(16:58):
it's on your team or whetherit's of the entire congregation?
Maybe we'll start with the team.
What's your philosophy aboutthat?
Kyle O'Neal (17:09):
Yeah, so I have these three phrases that I use
for literally everything.
So hopefully this answers.
It's not as like it's practical, but it's also like what drives
it.
So I think, if you're like,what's the target?
This is my target every time.
So one is that I point to Jesus.
So everything that we do, ifit's a worship song, or if it's
a light cue, or if it's agraphic that we're going to use
or a video we're going to make,how does it point to Jesus?
And then I'll have like asubtitle to it.
So we point to Jesus becauseworship is a response.
(17:30):
So that's the first one is likethat, without anything else,
like that's the one that has tomatter before anything else.
The second one is we bring ourbest you.
The second one is we bring ourbest.
You can do anything halfway, butwe have the opportunity to
serve God, we have theopportunity to serve people.
So we bring our best.
And the subtitle of that one isexcellence is a choice.
So, like anything andeverything that we do, like I
(17:51):
want to make sure that I'mbringing my absolute best with
it.
And then the third one is seekto serve, and then the subtitle
is serving as a posture.
So in everything that we dowe're going to point to Jesus.
We're going to bring our best,but our heart is to serve and
love people.
So I think that's maybe moregeneric than maybe you're asking
, but that is the target thegoal and, if I get that right,
(18:15):
the other things we can make itwork.
Piet Van Waarde (18:17):
Yeah, yeah.
And is there any adjustment youmake in your thinking when it
comes to the congregation as awhole?
I mean, you could certainly putthat all in that same bucket.
Kyle O'Neal (18:26):
Yeah, yeah.
Piet Van Waarde (18:26):
Is there anything else that you would add
to the list?
When it comes to the church asa whole, I think just helping
people connect it.
Kyle O'Neal (18:32):
So you know, from Shoreline, when it's like know
God, find life, make adifference, it kind of a little
bit goes into that.
Like a little bit goes intothat, like how are we creating
moments in worship, how are wecreating environments in worship
, how are we creating thingsthat even get people there and
help them connect with theirnext steps, that help them know
God, find life and make adifference?
So it's just looking throughthe lens of the things that
(18:52):
those are like my, the point toJesus, all those.
Those are my, like personalones, but the know God, find
life, make a difference.
That's our heart, our goal, ourvision for Shoreline.
So it's more all along thatline.
It's like knowing that that'sthe target.
How can we make that happenwith the things that we're doing
?
So just thinking through lenses, I think is helpful.
Piet Van Waarde (19:14):
It's good to know a goal before just going
out and creating.
Kyle O'Neal (19:16):
I think as creatives, we can all just dream
all day long, but creativesalso need can all just dream all
day long, but, like it,creatives also need that those
guardrails not not rules, butguardrails just go.
Okay, this is where I'm going,but that's the target.
As long as I know the targetman, I can hit that all day long
, I think if I can help someoneknow God if I can help someone
find life, I can help someonemake a difference, then yeah,
that's Win.
Piet Van Waarde (19:36):
Yeah, for sure, for sure.
All right Now.
We didn't necessarily talkabout this beforehand, but it
just came to me and I wasthinking about some of the
things we did when I was servingas a senior leader.
I loved working with creatives,you know, because they have a
way of helping you not onlythink through a different grid,
(19:56):
as it relates to how to comeinto a topic, but then also
expanding on the topic once yousay, hey, this is where I'm
headed.
And then, all of a sudden, thecreatives say, well, we could do
this we could do that.
But the downside of creatives isthat they can be all over the
place, and you just kind ofmentioned too.
And so what are some of thethings that you find yourself
(20:19):
doing on a regular basis toprovide the guardrails, as you
called them, a way to kind ofgive them room to fly and do
their creative thing but alsokind of keep them somewhat
railed in so it's not spinningout all everywhere?
Kyle O'Neal (20:35):
Yeah, I think one additional just to add before
the guardrails would just be thetarget for creativity in the
church, like we must follow oursenior pastor, so we're always
like it starts with where PastorRob wants to go.
Yeah, so here's our next series.
You guys dream I'm feeling this, this, this Great.
That's our target.
Piet Van Waarde (20:55):
Yeah.
Kyle O'Neal (20:55):
I think the guardrails is multiple things,
so I think one of them is openhands, because I is multiple
things, so I think one of themis open hands because I think
any kind of idea that a creativehas, if it's not the idea
that's chosen, it's like well,that was my baby.
Piet Van Waarde (21:05):
That was right, that was my one so always just
open hands, like it's.
Kyle O'Neal (21:08):
It's not about my idea getting chosen sometimes
it's that idea gave birth tothis idea that gave birth to
that idea.
That man we helped reallyconnect the dots for people in
that and it started startedbecause of this, I think.
A second is honor.
So just when, like not justcelebrating this, but
celebrating that initial thoughtthat got to this, that got to
this.
Piet Van Waarde (21:26):
That got to this.
Kyle O'Neal (21:28):
And we don't necessarily honor like publicly
on this was your idea and thishappened Like we honor publicly
within our team and celebratethose, because we're not about,
we're not trying to get creditfor the things that we're doing.
We want to put the credit andthe headline to be Jesus, but we
want internally for our team toknow man, wasn't that awesome
that this idea started with this, but then it happened.
None of that would have everhappened if you wouldn't have
(21:52):
said that idea.
And then I think another partof it is just keeping all of the
things in the forefront of yourmind and being very good with
communication, because I thinkthe hardest thing with creatives
is you tell me to do somethingand then you walk away and a
creative is going to be thinkingabout that until they finish it
all the way.
Piet Van Waarde (22:10):
You're going to keep going, keep dreaming, if
it's something you're reallyexcited about.
Kyle O'Neal (22:13):
You're going to lose sleep over it creating all
these things.
And then, if the plan changedbut was never communicated, it's
like, oh, I've already beenworking this and this and I've
already done that and that.
So, like communication alongthe way of like, hey, just a
heads up, this changed and nowit's going to go this direction,
Great, and then they couldpivot in the middle of the
process rather than at the endof the process when they feel
(22:34):
like it's a final product, kindof thing.
Piet Van Waarde (22:37):
So, yeah, communication is a big key there
.
Oh man, so true, and I lovewhat you said about one idea
leading to another.
One of the definitions I'veloved of synergy is where one
plus one plus one equals five,because it's exactly like what
you described.
It's like one idea creates thisother thing, which creates this
other thing, and then together,all these things kind of come
(22:58):
together and you realize thiswould never have happened if any
one of us had tried to take onthe assignment.
It was the fact that we weretogether.
We had this kind offree-flowing conversation.
Look at what happened.
We created this beautiful thing.
That's awesome.
All right, so let me bring thelens out a little bit.
When you look at what'shappening in the church
(23:21):
generally speaking, um, so, notjust Shoreline, but just church
in general what are some of thethings that you're excited about
that you see in the church?
And then maybe in a little bitwe'll talk a little bit about
areas that you're like, wow, I'mnot sure about that.
So what makes you excited aboutwhere the church has had a
(23:42):
generalist?
Kyle O'Neal (23:42):
be.
Yeah, man, a lot of things.
I feel like I know it's hardnot to zoom too far out, but
just think about even Austinthings.
I feel like I know it's hardnot to zoom too far out, but
just think about even Austin.
So today we got the opportunityto meet with a bunch of worship
leaders and all kinds ofcreatives that were in the city
and there's just a unity that'shappening in Austin right now
within the creative and theworship world right now that you
see, you start to see differentglimpses of it kind of all
(24:04):
across the country.
I love that.
It's kind of taken progressionand that happens.
There's growth every singletime.
But you went from hymns topraise choruses to kind of
worship, and the worship when itfirst started, kind of in that
early 2000s era, was very just,raw, authentic.
And then there was a goodseason of like upping the
(24:24):
excellence and upping theproduction higher and higher and
higher, almost to a point itkind of got a little bit out of
hand and I feel like there's atrend of man, just don't worry
about perfection, that's notwhat we're chasing, we're
chasing presence and I feel thatmore and more, the more worship
pastors I talk to, I am prettyconnected all over the country
(24:45):
with different worship pastorsand just hearing their heart
like less and less about theproduction to make it happen.
Obviously, you want it toenhance what you're doing, you
want it to be a part of it, butwe also don't need any of it,
like we don't need a singlelight, we don't need a sound
system, we don't need anythingto worship Jesus.
We just need us to be able toput our focus on Him.
So there seems to be aheightened freshness, uh,
(25:07):
specifically in worship.
Uh, for that of just like wejust want to seek the face of
god in this moment, and that'swhat we're really chasing right
now too.
Just bringing a macro down to,or micro down to shoreline is
what we're chasing, is like wejust want to seek the presence
of god and all the other stuffis extra, but we don't need it.
But how can we just seek?
Piet Van Waarde (25:26):
it yeah, so I'm excited for that.
So when you One of thechallenges that I've noticed and
I experienced myself when I wasin ministry there's the
obligation of Sunday comesaround with amazing regularity,
and so you.
Kyle O'Neal (25:43):
Crazy, how that happens.
Piet Van Waarde (25:44):
Yeah, and you're not always in the best
place personally, emotionally,even spiritually, to quote
unquote, be on, and I think thateverybody understands that.
But I think you have to besuper intentional yourself when
you're in a role where you'releading.
And so what are some of thethings that you do on a regular
(26:08):
basis that kind of keeps youfresh in this thing you talked
about in terms of seeking Jesus,because you can talk about it
all from platform and into yourteam and be somewhat bankrupt
even yourself in terms of yourown walk.
And so are there things thatyou find yourself doing on a
regular basis that kind of keepthat fresh for you?
Kyle O'Neal (26:27):
Yeah, so multiple, so one, I would say scripture.
So I made the commitment.
I'm on year nine of readingthrough the Bible every year and
this year I'm doing the Biblerecap.
So it also includes a 25-minutepodcast.
Piet Van Waarde (26:42):
So I read my.
Kyle O'Neal (26:42):
Bible plan and then listen to basically a
commentary on what you just read.
Man, that's how I start my dayevery day, and I think that just
going through that and like nottrying to do, because I think
for me, like I'm a doer, I wantto accomplish, I want to do all
those things, that's not thefirst thing I do in the morning.
The first thing I do is okay,god, what do you want to teach
(27:03):
me today?
um, and start there um, a thingthat I try to live out as much
as I can and I'll give somepracticalities.
But I say to our team, a lot isnever let what you do on
worship on stage outshine whatyou do offstage.
So you kind of hinted at this,but to me, worshiping onstage
and leading a room in worshipshould always come out of the
overflow.
So, how are you filling yourselfup?
(27:24):
Are you spending time with God?
Are you listening?
So we were talking like are youspending time with god, are you
are you listening?
So like we're uh talking aboutlo-fi earlier and, like man, I
like there's lo-fi worship.
That's.
One of my favorite playlistsright now is lo-fi worship.
It's on a spotify radio stationand it's just so good and it
just kind of gets you out of.
You're not listening to it likefrom, like a worship or like a
production stand.
oh, I could use that like yeah,like you're not, you're not
(27:46):
listening to it that way, you'rejust listening to it like okay,
God, thank you for showing methis, and like you hear the
words in a different way.
But yeah, listening to worship,a lot of times I'll just find
myself singing.
I love just being out andpraying and singing by myself,
sometimes with a guitar,sometimes without, but man just
filling up and letting thebiggest time and the most
(28:07):
intimate time that I worship Godnot be on a stage and with a
microphone.
That's great.
Piet Van Waarde (28:14):
And I commend you for it because it can be.
So you know, especiallyShoreline is a very active
church, so you don't just havelike Sunday morning, you have
first Wednesday, you havespecial events, men's event
coming up on Friday.
Kyle O'Neal (28:31):
You got marriage.
You know the marriageconference.
Piet Van Waarde (28:34):
So you have all these things and the staff
chapel I'm sure you still doworship there too so you have
all these responsibilities andit's just so easy for all of
those responsibilities to crowdout the personal time and it's
like, well, I'll be worshipingat church on Sunday.
So if you can really do that,man, that's so commendable and I
(28:57):
think it's going to help youstay.
As you well know, I'm nottelling you anything you don't
know, but it'll help keep you ontrack for the long haul,
Because one of the hardships andheartaches you see in the world
today is that people who werevery big in the quote
unquoteunquote worship worldtank go off the rails, do stupid
things and even, some cases,just give up on the faith
(29:20):
altogether.
So sad, so good for you forstaying on it.
Kyle O'Neal (29:24):
Yeah, I think it's a learned thing.
It's not a like.
I don't want to make it soundlike oh man, I got this all
figured out.
Piet Van Waarde (29:30):
I think you do it over time.
Kyle O'Neal (29:32):
So this August will actually be 22 years of
ministry for me and I thinkearly on that was not my mindset
.
I had to learn that throughhardship of realizing that man,
I just gave everything I had andthat was the most I ever
worshiped God.
This week was that 20-minuteworship set.
Piet Van Waarde (29:50):
That's convicting.
Kyle O'Neal (29:52):
I'm not giving God my best.
I'm not bringing my bestpointing to Jesus seeking to
serve.
But man, it's a learned thing.
You mentioned there's busyseasons.
Easter is very busy, so youhave to prioritize it too.
It's got to be a habit, it'sgot to be a priority.
Piet Van Waarde (30:10):
It's got to be a priority.
Kyle O'Neal (30:13):
It can't just be something that.
Piet Van Waarde (30:15):
oh yeah, I said I'd get to that All right, as
there are things that you'relike.
Kyle O'Neal (30:18):
you look at the church and you say, ooh, I'm not
sure that's going to be, that'sgoing to work out so well.
Man publicly criticizing thecapital C church?
I'm not sure.
No, no, I think what I see inthe global church is so COVID
changed everything right andthere's just kind of this sense
(30:42):
of and I still hear it of likewe'll get back to where we were
before COVID and I still hear itof like we'll get back to where
we were before COVID and Ireally feel like COVID happened
to shift something.
I don't know that it is to goback to, because kind of what I
saw a trend in was you had highattendance on every church, like
churches were growing likecrazy.
(31:03):
Covid happened and then everychurch was at 30%, 40% maybe
like 60%, like if it was like alot and people are like people
just didn't come back.
What I actually saw more trendof was it was not necessarily
just the people not coming back,it was new people coming and it
was like the most devoted.
So I think what it kind of didwas shake and sift through some
of church culture and, like yourfor lack of better words like
(31:25):
church consumers kind of justdidn't come back.
They found other things thatworked for them.
They were really just there tomaybe check a box and man like
the dedicated, like we want tobe here, and then the new people
who I need something deeper inmy life are the ones that came
back.
So I think I'm not.
I would say it's just a concernthat I really hope that we
(31:46):
continue to use that as ashifting, not a look back and
hope for, but a shifting.
What is God doing new?
Why did we have that pruning,if you will, of church members
and church attendance and theway that we did things?
How can we not just think abouthow we did something five years
ago or six years ago, but howcan we actually move forward in
(32:07):
a new way with whatever God'sdoing?
Now I feel like Psalms talksabout it so much, like God's
doing a new thing, so like wewant to sing a new song, let's
do a new thing in the church.
But ultimately I think thatit's just finding ways to follow
after where he's leading, sonot being afraid to give up and
move ahead of where we were, butlook at a way to accept the
(32:30):
shift and move into somethingnew that God's been doing.
Piet Van Waarde (32:33):
Yeah, I totally agree with you on that.
And I think for leaders andI'll just personalize it for me
as a leader I was still on staffat a church, I was at Shoreline
and I think one of the things Isaw happen in me and I think I
can say this fairly for our teamwas that we were forced to kind
(32:55):
of ask the question how are wegoing to measure success?
So during COVID you couldn'tnecessarily measure it by people
in the seats and offerings inthe plate.
I mean, you're your kind oftypical way of measuring quote
unquote success and I think thatwas a good test for leaders to
(33:17):
say, really, how are we going tomeasure our effectiveness and
being willing to try new thingscertainly in the midst of COVID,
with technology andcommunicating in new and
different ways but, I think,also forcing ourselves to say is
it just about how people showup or is it about something
deeper than that transformation?
(33:37):
And how do we measure that?
And so I think there were somereally good things that happened
, even though, from a pragmaticstandpoint, covid was so hard on
the church.
In some ways, many churches arestill kind of paying the price
for what happened there, but Ithink God, as he does with all
(33:59):
things, he used it as anopportunity for him to do
something deeper in us as well.
So when you're looking at yourown life now, in the future,
what are you excited about?
What's coming down the roadthat you want to talk about?
Yeah, oh, my gosh, a littleplug for yeah.
Kyle O'Neal (34:15):
So a couple of things, so church-wise, so we
are starting to write music.
So there's a series that we'regoing to be doing right after
Easter called Fully DevotedFollower a very big, just phrase
that's on Pastor Rob's heartand that, coupled with, we had
prayer strike team come in andpray over the church and one of
(34:36):
the biggest things that theysaid in the prayer was that let
Jesus be the center of the stageat Shoreline.
And like we took both thosethings to heart and we wrote a
song called you Alone, justdemoed it last week.
We're going to be introducingit to the church soon.
So we're excited about justsongwriting and having prayers
that our church can be having ontheir lips when they're singing
(34:57):
prayers, singing declarationsso excited for that.
I love that.
Yeah, I'm real, real excitedfor that.
Piet Van Waarde (35:03):
You know, I think with this I'm sorry to
interrupt, but the talent of theteam there doing songwriting,
I'm like, yeah, yes, you got todo that.
Yeah.
Kyle O'Neal (35:13):
I often call it embarrassment of riches, like
like we have.
Like if you even just look atthe front line of our church,
like every single person couldbe a worship leader of church
somewhere, but like it's just anembarrassment of riches that we
we have at the church.
But um, that personally,personally man, my kids are
growing up.
It's exciting but also scary.
So my oldest just turned 15.
(35:33):
My youngest just turned 12.
So they're finishing out firstyear of middle school and first
year in high school.
She's begging to get herlearner's permit like all that
kind of stuff.
So it's just kind of funwatching them grow up and
growing.
So where my oldest daughterMadison is right now is where I
was when I started taking myfaith seriously.
So it's just kind of funwatching them grow up and
growing.
So where my oldest daughter,madison is right now is where I
was when I started taking myfaith seriously.
So kind of just seeing thatwith her.
(35:55):
They take notes every singletime, whether it's at youth or
on Sundays.
They're taking notes in ajournal, they cannot wait to go
to youth, all those type things.
So I love just watching themown that.
And then just for me and mywife, melissa, it's just a sweet
season because we transitionedfrom we had kids to now we've
got teenagers and just learningthat the hardships, but also the
(36:16):
blessings of it too.
So we're in the middle of it.
For sure.
We've got everything from a ohwow, you still want to hug me
and an eye roll to a handhold.
Piet Van Waarde (36:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah Right.
But yeah, it's just a fun, funseason that we're in, and you're
settling well, cause you'refairly new here.
So we.
Kyle O'Neal (36:35):
So we moved June last year but I started last
April.
So I did a kind of unique thingfor three months I traveled
back and forth, cause we wereliving in Houston and I spent
three days here, four days thereand traveling back and forth
for three, three months.
But it was so that the girlscould finish elementary school
and middle school.
But man, we love Austin Likeit's been so good.
(36:56):
We get teased because I gettold that we do more activities
than people that have lived herefor all their life but every
Friday, saturday, we try to dosomething.
So last weekend we went to theAustin steam train and rode it
to the hill country and hadlunch and burn it and rode back
and it's like we're always justtrying to find something to do.
Piet Van Waarde (37:13):
There's so much the city has to offer, so, yeah
, carol and I made a commitmentto at the start of this year.
We've been here for five yearsnow and we're like we haven't
seen hardly anything the onlytime we see stuff is when people
come to see us yeah, so we haveit once a month on our day
we're like we're gonna go seesomething in central texas there
you go, and we've seen some funthings too.
It's a lot looking.
(37:34):
You're right, there's so muchto do here.
Sounds like we need to gotogether.
That'd be great on the calendarwell, this has been really
great.
Thank you so much I appreciateyou taking the time.
I know you're super busy, sothanks for hanging out with me
for a little bit and loved yourinput.
God bless you, man.
Thank you, thank you and thankyou for joining us.
We're so grateful that you havecome and been part of this
(37:56):
conversation and hope to see younext time on Sidewalk
Conversations.
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