May 29, 2025 • 39 mins
What happens when God gives you a vision that takes 16 years to fulfill? Bill McLeod's journey from seminary student to mission mobilizer reveals the patient, often unexpected path of kingdom work.
Bill's story begins during the Jesus Revolution when he came to Christ just before college. Through divine connections—from working with Luis Palau's crusades to directing Promise Keepers events—God prepared him for a larger calling. When faced with a critical career decision, Bill fasted and prayed, receiving a vision that would take nearly two decades to fully materialize.
This conversation challenges our Amazon Prime expectations of immediate results. As Bill shares, building Mission Connection required eight years before launch and another eight before going full-time—contradicting our cultural impatience. "It's not the microwave approach," he explains, "but the crockpot approach" that God often uses to develop both us and our ministries.
The heart of Bill's teaching centers on what he calls "the three Cs" of discipleship: the Great Commandment (love God), the Great Commission (make disciples), and the Great Commitment (die to self). This final element—Jesus' challenging teaching that unless a seed falls to ground and dies, it remains alone—proves particularly transformative for listeners.
Perhaps the most penetrating question raised: "Who are you willing to die for?" Your mission field becomes the people for whom you're willing to spend your life, endure hardship, and potentially suffer. This counter-cultural perspective reframes mission not as achievement but as sacrifice—just as Jesus modeled.
Mission Connection events now operate in both Portland and Phoenix, remaining intentionally free and prayer-driven. Bill's humble approach ("Jesus is the CEO; I'm just sales") has created space for God to work in unexpected ways through collaborative, denomination-spanning partnerships.
Whether you're waiting on God's timing, seeking your place in mission, or wondering how to develop deep character for long-term impact, this conversation offers wisdom from a leader who has walked the patient path of kingdom work for decades.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey everybody, thank you so much for joining us on
today's podcast.
I have a great guest, one ofour prospective speakers our
last one from this session BillMcLeod.
I hope that you're going toenjoy all the ways that God has
used him in our conversationtoday, so we'll hope you enjoy.
Welcome to FBC Missions.
So that Podcast.
This is an encouraging place tohear how God is working in and
(00:24):
around us.
We know that he blesses Hispeople so that they can bless
the world around them.
Join us as we discuss how tojoin God in all that he is doing
.
Why is God working in our life,church and community?
It's so that, through us, theworld will know that he is near.
Hey everybody, we're so gladthat you're with us on the
(00:44):
podcast today.
It has been a lot of fun overthe last few months walking
through our perspectivesInstructors.
Today we have another one, billMcLeod.
He is with us here in thestudio, bill.
How are you bud, hey?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I'm doing great.
So good to be back here.
It's great to have you.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
This is your second time on our FPC Missions podcast
, so we're so glad that you'vejoined us.
It was a lot of fun listeningto your presentation this
morning, as always.
I think I mentioned this lastyear, but I'll mention it again.
You're probably one of theoldest friends I have in the
missions world, all the way backin around—.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
What did you say?
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Oldest friends, Longest tenured friends may be a
better way of saying it.
It was all the way back around2000,.
I think when we first met allthe way in the Northwest when I
was in.
Washington and you were workingin Portland, and even then you
had an inspirational impact onmy life.
And so here it's really fun, 25years later, to still be
working together in mobilizationvenues.
(01:38):
Well, hey, we also have a newguest today, brittany Whitworth.
Welcome.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Thank you, excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
So glad to have you.
Over the 65 episodes we've hadso far, I have continually asked
the Lord to give us a number ofco-hosts, and Brittany's
considering that.
So a lot of pressure on youright now, brittany, but so glad
you're jumping on here with ustoday.
Hey, brittany is also aprospective student.
(02:07):
Today we finished lesson 15.
So just to put you on the spota little bit, just give us.
I mean, this is fresh.
You finished the class twohours ago, so you know how have
you found it?
Has it had an impact on you?
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Oh, my life-changing for sure.
And I haven't exactly finished,because I do have my project to
go.
Okay okay, but other than thateverything is done, but it has
been life-changing and I'm sograteful that you two did meet
because, here as I'm thinkingthis through, I would not have
had this life-changingexperience had Chad not met you
(02:43):
years ago, right.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
I mean, is that fair to say?
It goes a lot deeper than that,but yeah, very much.
So.
Bill started a ministry inPortland.
I don't know if it was calledthis, but I remember it being
called Northwest Connection.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Well, it was Missions Fest.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
It was Missions Fest Portland.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Missions Fest Northwest.
I messed the name up completely.
We had a challenge when we wentto Seattle Missions Fest.
It was Missions.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Fest Portland Missions.
Fest Northwest Northwest Imessed the name up completely.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
We had a challenge when we went to Seattle, because
they really they said, well,we're Northwest.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
We're even farther north and west than you are,
right.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
But we had the name first, so they chose Missions
Fest Seattle, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah, yeah.
So Missions Fest Northwest,which was in Portland, started
before Missions Fest Seattle andas we were working to kind of
build a core team for MissionsFest Seattle, we were looking at
the other organizations aroundus doing similar things.
So I think it was Missions FestVancouver and then Missions
Fest Northwest there, and Billwas one of the guys, the guy
that started it down in Portland.
(03:39):
So we obviously wanted to talkto him.
So we had a number of meetingswhere we would drive down or
bill would come up and we weretalking about how do we get this
formed?
Do we get the right number ofchurches involved?
What's our first um, you know,sessions going to look like?
And it was at that firstmissions fest Seattle.
That, you know, took us almostthree years to get it all
organized, but when we finallyhad it, it was at that event
where I saw perspectives for thefirst time and, uh, and it's
(04:01):
been such a major part of mylife ever since I think it took
it in 2006, was when I took theclass Um, but, uh, but yeah,
what a, what a wild ride it'sbeen.
And so, yeah, in it, indirectly, bill had a huge influence.
Uh, on, on, on that whole areaof my life and missions fest was
a part of it still going reallycool thing.
Missions fest, seattle stillcontinues today.
(04:22):
And uh uh, and it stillcontinues to be a mobilizing
force there in that seattle areawell, and chad, I really do
have to say that.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Doctor, I'm going to call you dr bill, I hope that's
okay because my dad's name isbill are you a doctor?
Speaker 1 (04:35):
no, okay, okay, okay.
We introduced him a coupletimes today inadvertently, but
we'll stay, mr mcleod, or we'llgo, but we'll go, bill, all day
long.
Mr Bill, bill's like shakinghis head, no, like what in the
world's going on here.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Well, bill, I'm so grateful, though, that truly
that y'all met, because even mypath to land in this course was
crazy.
And so here I am the last week,and my mind was already blown
with understanding the GreatCommission in a new level and
God's call to Abraham, and thenwhat you tied in today with that
third C that I have no doubtChad will probably talk about
(05:11):
that third C command.
I'm like, okay, it was just theperfect bow to wrap up this
beautiful package of 15 weeks.
So, thank you.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah, so this is going to be a lot of fun.
We just want to hear how God'susing you, bill.
I know that's a big thing andthere's a lot of different
pieces to it, but let's startwith just introducing yourself.
For those people that didn'tlisten to last year's podcast,
tell us a little bit aboutyourself, your family and your
work.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Okay, bill McLeod.
I was born in Massachusetts,not doctor.
Yes, please.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Sorry, I heard that I'm not a doctor.
I play one on TV, but I'm not.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
No, born in Massachusetts, came to Christ
the week before I startedcollege.
Second in college and westarted Bible study on campus,
the thing exploded.
It was back during the JesusRevolution.
I've seen that movie.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
I have.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
We were living it and after two years the Lord moved
me to Bible college.
During Bible college I went ona short-term mission to Scotland
.
Felt like God was calling me toScotland and I went to Western
Seminary in Portland Oregon.
So moved from Philadelphia allthe way to Portland Oregon to go
to Western Seminary to prepareto go to Scotland as a pastor.
(06:25):
I didn't know that a guy namedLuis Palau, who was the Latin
American Billy Graham, justmoved to Portland to start the
Luis Palau EvangelicalAssociation in 1977, the year
that I moved there to startseminary.
Two years later we met.
He was doing all these LatinAmerican crusades.
(06:46):
He was now doing Englishspeaking.
I got invited to join the plowteam and was working in Aberdeen
, scotland.
Anyhow, all these things, youknow you do one thing and it
opens the door for the nextthing.
And so I ended up meeting mywife in the London crusade.
Joni was a missionary fromMontana living and working about
(07:10):
seven, eight years in Londonwhen we met and we got married
in London, then came back,eventually left the Palau team,
got involved with PromiseKeepers.
I was the director for thePromise Keepers conference in
the Northwest.
First time it went outside ofBoulder, this big men's movement
.
We had the largest gathering ofmen ever in the Northwest.
(07:31):
It was at the PortlandConference.
And then an interesting thinghappened.
I was just there for a year.
They wanted me to do what I'ddone in Portland around the rest
of the country.
And my church said to me wewould like you to be our
missions pastor.
And I was quite intrigued bythat.
I'd done a lot of festivals andcrusade preparation for Luis
(07:52):
Palau it's kind of like samething, different city.
And I thought, yeah, that wouldbe what promise keepers would
be.
But I got a way to pray andfast for a day, to basically say
pray and fast for a day, tobasically say what job do you
want me to have, want me to take?
And the Lord gave me a vision.
(08:14):
I'm not given to visions, butthe Lord gave me a vision that I
knew.
I didn't understand it, but Iknew, when I just was still and
trying to think about it, I knewthat he wanted me to say yes to
my church and no to PromiseKeepers.
So I said thank you very much,bill McCartney, I'm going to do
this.
And I was intrigued by the ideaof actually developing
something.
You know, being led by the HolySpirit to develop something new
(08:36):
.
Not the same way every time.
So I said yes to becoming amissions pastor.
In the next few years wasbuilding relationships with
other mission pastors in thearea, with other pastors, but
still there was this thing.
What is this thing that Godgave me this vision for?
Well, eventually would becomewhat I do full-time now Mission
Connection, northwest MissionConnection, the ministry.
(09:00):
But it took like eight yearsfor me to just wait on the Lord,
share with a few people thevision that the Lord had given
me, and then they got excitedand they said we will pray with
you.
So it was eight years from thetime that I got the vision until
we actually pulled the triggerand launched this basically
(09:20):
citywide, region wide missionsconference that has exhibitors
from the agencies and, you know,lots of workshops led by
mission leaders from the localchurch and and uh speakers,
plenary speakers and um.
So that's where we started, butI was still uh church missions
pastor, uh, eventually went backand work with the plow team,
(09:42):
but then eventually I went fulltime with that and that was
another eight years.
So you think about the way Godmoves.
It's not quick.
Sometimes it takes time forthings to really kind of a
crockpot type approach.
Not the microwave, and so eightyears to launch it and then
(10:02):
another eight years before Iwent full time.
We didn't have any foundationfor a paid salary.
We were doing really well but Iwent full time and the Lord
provided, and everybody wastelling me you need to do this,
it'll, it'll take off.
Well, I can give that advice topeople like Chad.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Sure Sure, but anyone can tell you that you?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
need to do this full time.
It's going to be great.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
And you say well, how am I going to get paid?
And they're like well, I don'tknow.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
But trust the Lord, it'll be fine.
It's always the spiritual.
People have no money.
We know those guys.
Yeah, Anyhow that was yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
One thing I love that you said and I actually wanted
to land there today after yousaid it is you prayed and fasted
, or fasted and prayed, and Ithink that I mean that hits home
personally for me, because I infact did that yesterday for a
decision, but it, but there's somuch to that I I don't know
well notice, it was fasted andprayed and worked for 16 years
like, like the overnight success, the fasting
Speaker 1 (11:03):
and praying, guided, a decision that didn't seem,
didn't see its full fulfillmentfor almost two decades.
I mean, like in our world today, we want immediate
gratification, like that's justthe American norm, right?
Everything from buy it onAmazon, you see it tomorrow, to
fast food and our whole, thewhole world that we live in,
especially as Americans, is, isbuilt on what I need, what I
(11:26):
want.
I can get it right now, andthat's just not the way the Lord
works, right?
He takes time to build people,to build systems, to build the
right teams so that the thingsthat we can do can be successful
.
And even then you watch goodones crash and burn.
Right, even with all the bestpreparations, it doesn't
(11:47):
guarantee success.
But, bill, like one of thethings I love about you again,
we've had a relationship off andon for 25 years Like you look
the same as you did 25 years ago, like I don't think you've aged
.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
You haven't aged a moment.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
I, on the other hand, have I was skinny then and I'm
not anymore and I think I didn'thave any gray hair and I've got
almost as much gray hair as youdo now.
But this 20 to 45 has beenrough on me.
But I don't know how old youare now, but it's you look Rough
on me too.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
yeah, you know it doesn't look like it.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
So it's been amazing to watch the way that God has
continued almost expand yourinfluence, right Like you
already had influence.
When I first met you, we wereasking to advise us so that we
could develop something similarto what God had done in your
ministry.
But beyond that now to see howit's grown from a cool thing in
a church right, a way to getother churches involved in what
(12:44):
your church was doing, but itjust kind of kept growing.
And now you've got MissionsConnection.
That is doing the same thing inPortland, but it's also now
spread to the Southwest, soyou've got stuff there in
Phoenix.
It's got a large following.
It's not uncommon to bump intopeople who are doing other
missions conferences and they'revery aware of missions
connection.
It's a part of the network ofof conferences that you can go
(13:07):
to and and it's just reallyamazing to see how God has
continued to do that.
And you know, to watch you as aperson kind of grow in your
capacity as well, like it's nota given.
We've watched lots of men andwomen who have great big ideas
and crash and burn before theyget realized and maybe never
recover from that.
(13:28):
Crashing and burning right Likethe big idea is, I think, the
easy part, and burning rightLike the big idea is, I think,
the easy part.
But living the life to bringthat idea into, into, uh, into
reality is a it's going to be alifetime process.
Um, that reminds me when I waslike 20, getting out of college,
I was going to a four squarechurch in Puyallup, washington.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
You know where Puyallup was.
You guys have probably neverheard of that, that word, ever.
I've heard of it, but I don'tknow where it is.
Spell it.
No, I'm kidding, it's okay,pass.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
And my pastor there said if you have a big vision
from the Lord, you have to workbackwards to see you know what's
step one and on.
So I wrote this like lifetimevision document back when I was
like 19 or 20 and uh, and thenit has these big things and it
was really quick to under.
I was really quick tounderstand, probably two or
three years after I wrote it,that it far exceeded my
character, right, yeah, like if,if, if what I saw in that
(14:25):
vision or my desire had beenaccomplished right away, it
would have been so much ofarrogance and pride and I would
have been so.
It would have platformed me tothink that I had brought this to
pass.
You know, and here I'm 25 yearslater and God has done a lot of
good things, but it's neverlooked like what that vision,
what I thought it was going tolook like, right, Because you
(14:47):
change, we change in the process.
Yeah, we change our life, changeyour priorities change.
You become a husband, youbecome a parent, you become a
church employee.
I mean there's so manydifferent layers a missionary
for a season, and in all thosethings you have different roles
and it actually makes thatvision look a little different
at each level and it's a goodthing, I think it's a God thing.
(15:09):
To be honest, I think that'spart of how so like perspectives
gives you this almost braindump of how God has moved
throughout history for hispurpose, singular right, one
purpose to bring about theknowledge of the nations and
their worship of him, right?
That's the point.
But, man, you know, the wayAbraham saw that looked a lot
(15:33):
different than the way moses sawthat and david saw that.
You just kind of walk throughscripture and you get these big
pictures.
Everyone sees this slightlydifferently, but the picture
hasn't changed.
It's the same lord using allthese men and women in scripture
, all the men and womenthroughout history in very
different ways, all of theflawed people that they are to
(15:54):
drive towards his global purpose.
And so now the same thing aswe're finishing Perspectives
Week 15, I know I've done thisenough to know that in the next
few months all of those studentswill wrestle with now what?
Speaker 4 (16:05):
What's God want me?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
to do and how's it going to look and what's it
going to feel like, and we don'tgive them answers.
We just kind of want them tosit and listen to the Lord on
that.
And so you've been doing thismobilization work as a career,
bill, how have you watchedpeople maybe go from entry level
wanting to learn more about God?
They go through perspectives.
(16:26):
How have you seen it impacttheir lives?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Well, I mean everybody's different.
How did it impact your life?
We'll start there.
Well, it's funny, you mentionedyou went through it in 2006, so
I was just kind of doing themath.
Yeah, I went through it 1996,so exactly 10 years before you,
and I'd been through biblecollege and seminary and I was a
brand new missions pastor andone of our missionaries was home
(16:54):
, or, and he just said, yeah,you have to take perspectives.
And I'm like, yeah, I've heardthe name, but you know, whatever
I have, you know.
I told him I have a lot ofthings I got to do.
He said, no, a lot of thingsyou have to do that.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
You know you're added to the list.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I'll take that under advisement right.
So when I took it in the springof 1996, no pardon me, 1995, 11
years before you.
I just said why didn't someoneteach me this, why didn't I get
shown this when I was doingBible college and seminary?
And it really rocked my world.
(17:29):
And it really rocked my world,it changed my whole outlook and
it really gave me a structure tobuild a whole mission, pastor
ministry under.
You know like I could putstructure to hey, this is who we
are today, but where do we wantto be in the next five years?
And I maybe didn't necessarilythink along those lines, but
(17:53):
once I'd had this 15 weeks oftraining, it was like that's how
I looked at my ministry.
We need to look at the greatdisparity between the amount of
money that sure people that weresetting to reach parts of the
world.
What about the unreached?
Yeah so so that really is.
Uh, its impact was just thebeginning for me, and um, and
(18:13):
then, of course, you form afellowship, a deep fellowship,
with anybody that's beeninvolved with Perspectives class
.
It's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah, it's got its own little tribe, and when you
find someone that's Perspectives, it's like, oh, how did it
impact you?
Speaker 2 (18:31):
And you hear very similar stories over and over
again and it was with you lastyear here, uh-huh, hanging out,
you know, with the great chad.
Okay, he really kind of dr chad, I think no, no, no, and that's
right yeah, yeah and um he, buthe was the one that really said
you know, you really ought tocome to the 50th anniversary
(18:53):
celebration of Perspectives.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
I thought you'd been with it for 50 years.
Yeah, that's right.
No, wait, wait, wait.
That would have been 86 or 76.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Right, right, right.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
And so.
But you know, really it wasyour encouragement.
I thought, oh man, you're goingto be there.
Oh yeah, oh man, I get to hangout with the great Chad, I'm
going.
So that was almostlife-changing because I got to
meet different people.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
It really was an incredible event to celebrate
how Perspectives has had such animpact over its 50-year history
and the different countries.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
What were there?
Like 46 countries.
Yeah, it's unbelievable.
See, if you weren't there youwouldn't even know that.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, it really is incredible.
Well, thank you for sharingkind of your perspective story.
You get to do Lesson 15 a lotand I know that you've taught
other lessons as well, but youdo a great job on Lesson 15.
And just so our listeners knowthat, that Lesson 15 is focused
on the world Christian disciple.
Like what does it mean?
to have a global focus to theway that you live out your faith
(19:56):
day to day and the way, maybe,you train other disciples as you
go.
And so we're walking throughsome of the tools that, as you
finish perspective, you'rethinking about the next steps.
When you're thinking about whatare you going to do next,
there's some really simpleguides you give people.
So, just in a real quicknutshell, what would you say to
someone who realizes that God'sgiven them a purpose and that
(20:17):
that purpose is beyondthemselves?
Right, my goal here is not justto be a really strong, faithful
church member who's got my acttogether, but beyond that,
there's a purpose Like thispodcast.
It's the so that why does Godmake his face shine on us?
Why is he gracious to us?
It's so that his name will beknown among the nations right
His salvation on all the peoples.
(20:37):
So if God's done all this in us, how are we going to engage the
world around us?
And you give a few simple toolsas you walk through.
So give us a little nutshell ofwhat that looks like.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Well, you were talking about some of the things
that you know hit you.
You know, I'd like to do thethree buckets, which is number
one, the great commandment, andthen the great commission, and
then the great commitment.
And, of course, the greatcommandment is love the Lord,
thy God, with all your heart.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Great commission is, you know, sending out, go make
disciples.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Great commitment is what Jesus spent the most time
on and that was, you know,unless the seed falls in the
ground and dies, you know, youcan't have a plant without the
seed giving up its life, andthat's what Jesus is calling us
to.
So we basically, in this lesson15, we talk about practices and
um disciples you know, and whatdoes it mean to have
(21:33):
disciplines, what does it meanto have practices?
So it was kind of fun talkingabout you know that and and
asking the class you know whatdoes that mean to you?
And then at the end we say, oh,this is great, now you've done
all this stuff.
But now where do you fit?
And that's, um, that's likesharing the gospel and, uh,
people kind of go along whenit's in the third person, but
(21:53):
it's all of a sudden when youchange to the second person,
what are you going to do withthe gospel?
Oh, gee, I've got anappointment, got to go, and and
so you know.
But that's what we all need towrestle with, because you can
hear all kinds of rhetoric outthere, but in the end of the day
, who Jesus Christ is is onlyimportant to you.
(22:14):
Who is jesus christ to you?
What is this great commandment,commission commitment to you?
And when we wrestle with and wetake personal responsibility
for this body of informationthat we've just been hearing
about, looking at perspectivesis looking at the world
christian movement through whatthe bible, history, culture and
(22:39):
strategic strategy is where itgets personal, isn't it?
And you know where do I fit?
So I mean, that's kind of whatwe talk about and it's kind of
fun to talk about.
The finale was not what is itgoing to take, but who is it
going to take?
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
I actually think, bill, it would be awesome.
I don't know if you're a writer, but I'm like those three C's.
I would love that to be in thenext edition, because that final
C, that really hit me thismorning.
You know the commandment I'vealways heard and known.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Commitment, you mean Well, but but but yes.
The great command.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
But the commandment I've always known right.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
And the commission.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
I've known but not fully understood until this
class.
But then when you tied the bowon this whole thing with that
commandment, the commitment.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Excuse me the commitment.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Thank you, that commitment to follow and to die
to myself.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
I mean it does.
It gets real personal, realfast.
Yeah, amen.
Well, there's a couple ofthings.
Jeff Vanderstatt you probablyknow, jeff, he's a pastor at
Soma Church outside of Seattle,in Tacoma, and I saw him at a
conference here in Austin and hesaid that the call of Jesus is
a call to come and die.
The question is, who are youwilling to die for right?
Right, like your mission field,is the person, the people that
(23:55):
you're willing to spend yourlife to engage for the gospel.
You know, and so you know, andfor Soma Church there in Tacoma,
they have a lot of work amongthe homeless, among the poor and
impoverished of the area.
You might think we had JimmyDorrell here a few weeks ago
that talked about that in Wacoand the area and how they moved
into one of the worst zip codesin the United States so that
(24:16):
they could make a difference ina community and in the 40 years
they lived there they've made ahuge difference.
And so that kind of idea likewho are you willing to put your
life on hold for and put yourlife aside for right, this idea
of the seed, has to fall to theground and die before it can
give life to the next generationof is such a major part of of
(24:39):
any john piper might say, likeany, any plan to take the gospel
, it doesn't include a plan thatthat, if it doesn't include
suffering, it probably isn't thefull plan, like it's just just
kind of a full.
Like we, we, we put togetherour processes and plans and we,
as Americans especially, avoidsuffering at all costs, right,
like in every level.
(25:00):
Um, but there's not a story inscripture where God doesn't use
that suffering to draw peopleinto dependence on him.
And uh, and so you know, youmentioned the 16 years of
waiting, from the time that youfelt like this is kind of what I
think God's put on my heart,and then even starting at
another eight years, untilyou're in a position.
There was some suffering, therewas some bloodshed to try to
(25:22):
get this thing working.
There's some sweat and sometears and like maybe this isn't
going to work and I'm going tobe okay with that.
You're going to work throughall of that.
And that 16 years it wasn'tfully formed in day one.
It wasn't fully formed in yearfive, 10, 15.
You're still waiting in somerespect, and so I hope that, if
(25:42):
you're listening today, what Ihope you're hearing us say is
that God has a purpose for youand that purpose is being
brought about in your life insome way.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
And the way for you to really it's to draw near to
him right.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
It's to obey him, it's to love him, it's to draw
near to him, to abide in me andI abide in you and you will bear
much fruit right.
This abiding might take someyears.
Right now I think it's reallypopular the Amazon Prime series
on David, the House of David,House of David, Yep Super cool.
I watched all of them in likethree days because I love the
(26:19):
story.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
It's a compelling story.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
David has been one of my lifelong fascinations.
I've preached through his lifea few times.
I used Chuck Swindoll's bookfor a while when I was a youth
pastor.
So I'm just fascinated withDavid's story and it's one of
the most heroic and courageousstories and that's the part that
remembers.
But it's also one of thesickest, brokenest, you know
messiest stories in all ofscripture.
For the scriptures to say thisis a man after God's own heart
(26:43):
and be talking about David, likeyou know Saul's sin, right Saul
, the kingdom has been takenfrom him and it's so clear.
He disobeyed God and he did itvery clearly.
David did way worse.
So then why in the world canyou say this is a man after
God's own heart when David's sinis so much more egregious than
(27:03):
Saul's sin?
And the only thing I can see isthe humility and the repentance
Saul never repents.
In his whole defense to Samuelhe's defending himself.
And this is what I was doing.
I was afraid of them, all thesethings.
David does horrible things, butwhen he's confronted by Nathan,
immediately he repents, yeah,and actually in an incredibly
(27:26):
sincere format for some time.
And there's a book, that kindof contrast, that, uh, kind of
contrast those two.
The tale of three Kings by aJean Edwards.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Fantastic book.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
If you want to pick it up, it's one of the best
leadership books ever.
Anyway, um, when I think aboutthat, I again you think about
the character development ofsomeone like David.
You know, a shepherd with thesheep has.
No, there is no career pathright, much less a path that
will eventually lead you to be aking Like.
(27:59):
There's no way, because ofDavid's manipulations, he can
work himself into that jobposition, right, and then, as a
king, he makes terrible mistakesand then you just kind of watch
the way that all works out.
You think God was developinghim at every step of the way,
and I think how short-sightedsometimes we are when we
(28:20):
consider our plans and God'splans and how quickly he should
bring it about.
Maybe switching back to themissions topic, it also doesn't
strike me as fair that India waswhere William Carey went 300
years ago and it remains thelargest population of unreached
(28:40):
people group on the planet, youknow.
So probably the recipient ofthe most gifted, probably
longest term influence, right,the very first missionary that
we consider Modern Missions goesthere.
There's been missionaries eversince and it remains one of the
least reached portions of theplanet.
Like that's 300 years ofhistory that we can track and
(29:00):
see what's.
It remains one of the leastreached portions of the planet.
That's 300 years of historythat we can track and see what's
, and God's been doing somethingthere since the beginning of
time.
So you just think, how is Godmoving the development of a
character of a person, how abouta character of an organization,
what about a character of anation?
And on, there's so much there.
We want to be there in a hurry,we want it tomorrow, and yet
god is, is very willing, uh, tokind of walk this with us.
(29:24):
So this actually was not on ourum, my target for us to talk
about today.
It does seem that that's thetheme of our podcast, um, and
here we're already at 28 minutesout of our 30.
So, bill, it is incredibleagain to watch how God has used
(29:44):
you and to be a participant froma while ago, to see your impact
on people who heard you a yearago and, of course, even
Brittany got to hear you for thefirst time this morning and I
really appreciate the characterthat God has given you and
really the mission that he's putyou on for these years.
(30:04):
As we're kind of coming to anend of the podcast, what are
some things coming up for you.
What's exciting for you, mrBill McLeod.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Well, we've got our Mission Connection Southwest.
It is in its fifth year comingup in Phoenix in the first
weekend in November.
It's always the first weekendin November.
And then we've got MissionConnection Northwest coming into
our 25th year in Portland,always the third weekend in
January.
As I said this morning,wonderful time to come to
(30:36):
Portland if you like rain and ifyou don't like rain.
It to come to Portland if youlike rain and if you don't like
rain.
It just rains and it's coldrain.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
And so we really.
It's a filtering device to getthe people that are really
serious.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
You only get the committed ones you only get the
committed ones, Well, but Iloved what you shared, some of
the bullet points for how itcame about.
Like even that it's free, Imean.
I think that's amazing becauseyou even said you had a heart
for families coming together.
I was like that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Oh yeah, no, this is a.
This is like the unconference.
It's not in fact.
I've had past come because wewrestled with it as a board.
You know, you always have thosebusiness board members that say
we're skin in the game.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
You know.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know all that
stuff, skin of the game.
Yeah, okay, you're a businessguy, great.
But I had a pastor come up tome right after we were debating
this stuff and, just totally outof the blue, he had no idea.
He says, bill, I hope you nevercharge for this event.
And I said, really, now, that'sintriguing that you would just
out of the blue come up.
And he was there with his wifeand family.
(31:34):
He said because then people'sexpectations change as soon as
they put money in.
They will expect you and thenthey will begin to dictate.
And he said what you've gothere is completely organic.
You know, you honor the localchurch, I mean, he had this
whole list of things and it'slike it all came back to the
(31:55):
things that we're committed to.
You know prayer, like we don'thave a meeting without, and they
say, oh, isn't that nice, very,you know, very thoughtful, that
they pray.
No, you don't understand.
You know me, you know that Ihave no idea what I'm doing and
I'm just saying we, you guys, weneed jesus to help us and so
all the things we pray about arereal needs.
(32:17):
It's not things that you knowwe've already solved.
But you know it'd be a niceidea to pray.
No, we pray because my teamknows we're desperate for the
Lord and we're desperate for theLord to be the main person.
He's the CEO.
I'm just best I can ever be isjust sales.
You know, really it's Jesus, isthe is the.
(32:39):
CEO and so we've operated thatway and praise the Lord.
In Phoenix, they caught thesame vision and I just kept
saying you guys, you have tostart praying.
And they prayed for like twoand a half years before they
launched and you know it's goingto look different, but it's the
same DNA and I love that.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
I love the way you lead.
You have this, I would say,unexpected character within you
and it's that desperation forthe Lord that you allow the
unexpected.
Like even when you shared thismorning, when you said it's
going to be free, they're likeno skin in the game and you're
like let's just go theunexpected path and let's see
(33:19):
what happens.
Let's wait 16 years and seewhat develops.
Like that's super cool.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Yeah, well, it's the Lord how it's played out.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Well, it's not accidental.
Sometimes we might confuseunexpected with accident, but
it's not accident Like it'ssomething that the Lord's been
using.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
But he allows it right.
Yeah, no, of course you allowit.
I kind of welcome it.
You know it's not cookie cutter.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
It's, like you know, working with the team.
We have a director there and youknow, I'm so open to their
ideas that I don't want to say,well, this is how we did it.
Sometimes they push me to sayyou know, well, how do you do it
in Portland?
And I almost don't like to say,well, in Portland, you know we.
(34:07):
And so, um, and they, they,they.
When they really feel like theymight be messing up, they say,
uh, how do you think we'rereally doing?
And I just always tell them I'mwaiting for you guys to have a
major fail, because only whenyou fail, will you learn.
But so far it's never happened.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
You're doing it great , so please you know just do
something.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Do the crazy, because I'm waiting for that failure.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
But it never happens.
Well, it's just like when youoriginally fasted and prayed and
you got the unexpected answer,probably at the time.
That's cool.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Well, Bill, it is always a pleasure to have you
with us.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Wonderful to be with Dr Chad.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Oh gosh, anyone listening.
You know I'm not a doctor, butyou may not know that I am
pursuing a doctorate.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
So I got a long ways to go.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
But one day maybe I'll be Dr Chad Not yet Eight
years, yeah, 16 years 16 years,but we're so thankful for your
ministry, bill, and anyone thatwants to learn more about
Missions Connection, it's gotits website.
You can just Google it.
There's a lot of informationthere, lots and lots of really
(35:11):
cool arms of the ministry thatare working in different
segments and spheres of missions.
Some of it focused onmobilizing local church, some of
it on how to form a missionscommittee or team or
organization, how to partnereffectively overseas.
There's so much wealth ofinformation that they've
compiled and developed for thechurch, for the local church,
for obviously originally therein Portland and then again now
(35:33):
in Phoenix, but so much of it isvaluable to churches everywhere
.
I keep telling him that youknow, if they were going to do
Missions Connection here in SanAntonio, it would probably
naturally be called Southwest,but since that's name taken, I
don't know what we'll do.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
You're used to that.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
We'll just call it South Tex and go from there, and
of course South Texas isanother four hours south of San
Antonio if you hang out.
But there are needs for thosekind of events that pull the
body of Christ towards oneanother for the sake of
partnership for the kingdom andmission seems to be the only
(36:09):
area that people are willing tohave.
Those cross-denominationalconversations Every one of us
know it's too big for any of usto do alone, and so if the globe
and the ends of the earthcontinues to be the task
remaining, then we need to worktogether to see that task
accomplished.
You're one of those frontrunners.
We're so thankful for you, bill.
Anything you want to say beforewe close?
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Well, mission connection is spelled with an X
and it's global.
So if you just went on and youput C-T-I-O-N, you'll probably
end up.
We've got probably the URL forthat too.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
But yeah, missionconnection, all one word
dot global and you'll come rightto us and yeah, but otherwise,
thank you so much for being ableto be here.
For sure, brittany, anythingelse you would say, thanks for
hanging out with us today.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Oh, I'm incredibly grateful that you came and
wrapped up this class for us.
It, it, it has beenlife-changing for me and you
adding, you adding that finalpiece today just was terrific.
So thank you for theexclamation marks.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Wow.
Well, we want you to be acoordinator for Perspectives
next year, just get through thattrain.
Speaker 4 (37:10):
Well, I didn't expect to land here today.
Turn that train, start turningthe screws.
Someone's going to give me thatkind of accolades.
I'm just going to help, I'mjust going to do a solid for.
Chad and go.
Hey, we'll see how committed ohgosh, I think you said
something about people like thattoday in class he said
something about that.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
I'm pretty sure it's on your paper over there.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
I also want to just acknowledge Savannah Austin
hanging out with us today.
She's going to help us in theproduction side, so happy to
have you with us.
Savannah, thank you for allthat you're considering.
And to finish up, really to youlisteners, like as you think
about how God's calling you,anna, thank you for all that
you're considering.
And to finish up, really to youlisteners, as you think about
how God's calling you, as youlisten to a podcast like this
and you consider all the workthat has gone into both the Lord
(37:52):
calling you and drawing you tohimself and giving you the
attention span to listen to fourof us just rant and rave about
crazy things for 35 minutes.
I just want you to know it'sfor a purpose.
The purpose is that you wouldknow how much God pursues you
and loves you and cares for you,but also know that there's a
purpose beyond you and thepurpose beyond you is that you
would be again a mission, anambassador on mission for his
(38:17):
kingdom wherever he sends you.
So why does God bless you?
Why does he make his face shineon you?
It's so that you will bring theglory of God to the nations.
So be a blessing.
Use that blessing in the lifethat you've given you.
Draw near to those who areclose to you and far from God
and help them see the glory ofGod at work within you so they
can glorify him.
Guys, have a wonderful day.
(38:38):
Thank you for tuning in.
We'll talk to you soon.
God bless, we are so thankfulthat you joined our podcast
today.
We would love to hear anyfeedback you may have for us.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
Remember.
Psalm 67 says May God begracious to us and bless us and
make His face shine on us sothat we always may be known on
earth and your salvation amongall nations.
Don't forget why the Lordblesses us it's so that we can
be a blessing to those around us.
Until next time, god bless.
Hey everybody, thank you so much for joining us on
today's podcast.
I have a great guest, one ofour prospective speakers our
last one from this session BillMcLeod.
I hope that you're going toenjoy all the ways that God has
used him in our conversationtoday, so we'll hope you enjoy.
Welcome to FBC Missions.
So that Podcast.
This is an encouraging place tohear how God is working in and
(00:24):
around us.
We know that he blesses Hispeople so that they can bless
the world around them.
Join us as we discuss how tojoin God in all that he is doing
.
Why is God working in our life,church and community?
It's so that, through us, theworld will know that he is near.
Hey everybody, we're so gladthat you're with us on the
(00:44):
podcast today.
It has been a lot of fun overthe last few months walking
through our perspectivesInstructors.
Today we have another one, billMcLeod.
He is with us here in thestudio, bill.
How are you bud, hey?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I'm doing great.
So good to be back here.
It's great to have you.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
This is your second time on our FPC Missions podcast
, so we're so glad that you'vejoined us.
It was a lot of fun listeningto your presentation this
morning, as always.
I think I mentioned this lastyear, but I'll mention it again.
You're probably one of theoldest friends I have in the
missions world, all the way backin around—.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
What did you say?
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Oldest friends, Longest tenured friends may be a
better way of saying it.
It was all the way back around2000,.
I think when we first met allthe way in the Northwest when I
was in.
Washington and you were workingin Portland, and even then you
had an inspirational impact onmy life.
And so here it's really fun, 25years later, to still be
working together in mobilizationvenues.
(01:38):
Well, hey, we also have a newguest today, brittany Whitworth.
Welcome.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Thank you, excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
So glad to have you.
Over the 65 episodes we've hadso far, I have continually asked
the Lord to give us a number ofco-hosts, and Brittany's
considering that.
So a lot of pressure on youright now, brittany, but so glad
you're jumping on here with ustoday.
Hey, brittany is also aprospective student.
(02:07):
Today we finished lesson 15.
So just to put you on the spota little bit, just give us.
I mean, this is fresh.
You finished the class twohours ago, so you know how have
you found it?
Has it had an impact on you?
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Oh, my life-changing for sure.
And I haven't exactly finished,because I do have my project to
go.
Okay okay, but other than thateverything is done, but it has
been life-changing and I'm sograteful that you two did meet
because, here as I'm thinkingthis through, I would not have
had this life-changingexperience had Chad not met you
(02:43):
years ago, right.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
I mean, is that fair to say?
It goes a lot deeper than that,but yeah, very much.
So.
Bill started a ministry inPortland.
I don't know if it was calledthis, but I remember it being
called Northwest Connection.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Well, it was Missions Fest.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
It was Missions Fest Portland.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Missions Fest Northwest.
I messed the name up completely.
We had a challenge when we wentto Seattle Missions Fest.
It was Missions.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Fest Portland Missions.
Fest Northwest Northwest Imessed the name up completely.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
We had a challenge when we went to Seattle, because
they really they said, well,we're Northwest.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
We're even farther north and west than you are,
right.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
But we had the name first, so they chose Missions
Fest Seattle, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah, yeah.
So Missions Fest Northwest,which was in Portland, started
before Missions Fest Seattle andas we were working to kind of
build a core team for MissionsFest Seattle, we were looking at
the other organizations aroundus doing similar things.
So I think it was Missions FestVancouver and then Missions
Fest Northwest there, and Billwas one of the guys, the guy
that started it down in Portland.
(03:39):
So we obviously wanted to talkto him.
So we had a number of meetingswhere we would drive down or
bill would come up and we weretalking about how do we get this
formed?
Do we get the right number ofchurches involved?
What's our first um, you know,sessions going to look like?
And it was at that firstmissions fest Seattle.
That, you know, took us almostthree years to get it all
organized, but when we finallyhad it, it was at that event
where I saw perspectives for thefirst time and, uh, and it's
(04:01):
been such a major part of mylife ever since I think it took
it in 2006, was when I took theclass Um, but, uh, but yeah,
what a, what a wild ride it'sbeen.
And so, yeah, in it, indirectly, bill had a huge influence.
Uh, on, on, on that whole areaof my life and missions fest was
a part of it still going reallycool thing.
Missions fest, seattle stillcontinues today.
(04:22):
And uh uh, and it stillcontinues to be a mobilizing
force there in that seattle areawell, and chad, I really do
have to say that.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Doctor, I'm going to call you dr bill, I hope that's
okay because my dad's name isbill are you a doctor?
Speaker 1 (04:35):
no, okay, okay, okay.
We introduced him a coupletimes today inadvertently, but
we'll stay, mr mcleod, or we'llgo, but we'll go, bill, all day
long.
Mr Bill, bill's like shakinghis head, no, like what in the
world's going on here.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Well, bill, I'm so grateful, though, that truly
that y'all met, because even mypath to land in this course was
crazy.
And so here I am the last week,and my mind was already blown
with understanding the GreatCommission in a new level and
God's call to Abraham, and thenwhat you tied in today with that
third C that I have no doubtChad will probably talk about
(05:11):
that third C command.
I'm like, okay, it was just theperfect bow to wrap up this
beautiful package of 15 weeks.
So, thank you.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah, so this is going to be a lot of fun.
We just want to hear how God'susing you, bill.
I know that's a big thing andthere's a lot of different
pieces to it, but let's startwith just introducing yourself.
For those people that didn'tlisten to last year's podcast,
tell us a little bit aboutyourself, your family and your
work.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Okay, bill McLeod.
I was born in Massachusetts,not doctor.
Yes, please.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Sorry, I heard that I'm not a doctor.
I play one on TV, but I'm not.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
No, born in Massachusetts, came to Christ
the week before I startedcollege.
Second in college and westarted Bible study on campus,
the thing exploded.
It was back during the JesusRevolution.
I've seen that movie.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
I have.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
We were living it and after two years the Lord moved
me to Bible college.
During Bible college I went ona short-term mission to Scotland
.
Felt like God was calling me toScotland and I went to Western
Seminary in Portland Oregon.
So moved from Philadelphia allthe way to Portland Oregon to go
to Western Seminary to prepareto go to Scotland as a pastor.
(06:25):
I didn't know that a guy namedLuis Palau, who was the Latin
American Billy Graham, justmoved to Portland to start the
Luis Palau EvangelicalAssociation in 1977, the year
that I moved there to startseminary.
Two years later we met.
He was doing all these LatinAmerican crusades.
(06:46):
He was now doing Englishspeaking.
I got invited to join the plowteam and was working in Aberdeen
, scotland.
Anyhow, all these things, youknow you do one thing and it
opens the door for the nextthing.
And so I ended up meeting mywife in the London crusade.
Joni was a missionary fromMontana living and working about
(07:10):
seven, eight years in Londonwhen we met and we got married
in London, then came back,eventually left the Palau team,
got involved with PromiseKeepers.
I was the director for thePromise Keepers conference in
the Northwest.
First time it went outside ofBoulder, this big men's movement
.
We had the largest gathering ofmen ever in the Northwest.
(07:31):
It was at the PortlandConference.
And then an interesting thinghappened.
I was just there for a year.
They wanted me to do what I'ddone in Portland around the rest
of the country.
And my church said to me wewould like you to be our
missions pastor.
And I was quite intrigued bythat.
I'd done a lot of festivals andcrusade preparation for Luis
(07:52):
Palau it's kind of like samething, different city.
And I thought, yeah, that wouldbe what promise keepers would
be.
But I got a way to pray andfast for a day, to basically say
pray and fast for a day, tobasically say what job do you
want me to have, want me to take?
And the Lord gave me a vision.
(08:14):
I'm not given to visions, butthe Lord gave me a vision that I
knew.
I didn't understand it, but Iknew, when I just was still and
trying to think about it, I knewthat he wanted me to say yes to
my church and no to PromiseKeepers.
So I said thank you very much,bill McCartney, I'm going to do
this.
And I was intrigued by the ideaof actually developing
something.
You know, being led by the HolySpirit to develop something new
(08:36):
.
Not the same way every time.
So I said yes to becoming amissions pastor.
In the next few years wasbuilding relationships with
other mission pastors in thearea, with other pastors, but
still there was this thing.
What is this thing that Godgave me this vision for?
Well, eventually would becomewhat I do full-time now Mission
Connection, northwest MissionConnection, the ministry.
(09:00):
But it took like eight yearsfor me to just wait on the Lord,
share with a few people thevision that the Lord had given
me, and then they got excitedand they said we will pray with
you.
So it was eight years from thetime that I got the vision until
we actually pulled the triggerand launched this basically
(09:20):
citywide, region wide missionsconference that has exhibitors
from the agencies and, you know,lots of workshops led by
mission leaders from the localchurch and and uh speakers,
plenary speakers and um.
So that's where we started, butI was still uh church missions
pastor, uh, eventually went backand work with the plow team,
(09:42):
but then eventually I went fulltime with that and that was
another eight years.
So you think about the way Godmoves.
It's not quick.
Sometimes it takes time forthings to really kind of a
crockpot type approach.
Not the microwave, and so eightyears to launch it and then
(10:02):
another eight years before Iwent full time.
We didn't have any foundationfor a paid salary.
We were doing really well but Iwent full time and the Lord
provided, and everybody wastelling me you need to do this,
it'll, it'll take off.
Well, I can give that advice topeople like Chad.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Sure Sure, but anyone can tell you that you?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
need to do this full time.
It's going to be great.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
And you say well, how am I going to get paid?
And they're like well, I don'tknow.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
But trust the Lord, it'll be fine.
It's always the spiritual.
People have no money.
We know those guys.
Yeah, Anyhow that was yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
One thing I love that you said and I actually wanted
to land there today after yousaid it is you prayed and fasted
, or fasted and prayed, and Ithink that I mean that hits home
personally for me, because I infact did that yesterday for a
decision, but it, but there's somuch to that I I don't know
well notice, it was fasted andprayed and worked for 16 years
like, like the overnight success, the fasting
Speaker 1 (11:03):
and praying, guided, a decision that didn't seem,
didn't see its full fulfillmentfor almost two decades.
I mean, like in our world today, we want immediate
gratification, like that's justthe American norm, right?
Everything from buy it onAmazon, you see it tomorrow, to
fast food and our whole, thewhole world that we live in,
especially as Americans, is, isbuilt on what I need, what I
(11:26):
want.
I can get it right now, andthat's just not the way the Lord
works, right?
He takes time to build people,to build systems, to build the
right teams so that the thingsthat we can do can be successful
.
And even then you watch goodones crash and burn.
Right, even with all the bestpreparations, it doesn't
(11:47):
guarantee success.
But, bill, like one of thethings I love about you again,
we've had a relationship off andon for 25 years Like you look
the same as you did 25 years ago, like I don't think you've aged
.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
You haven't aged a moment.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
I, on the other hand, have I was skinny then and I'm
not anymore and I think I didn'thave any gray hair and I've got
almost as much gray hair as youdo now.
But this 20 to 45 has beenrough on me.
But I don't know how old youare now, but it's you look Rough
on me too.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
yeah, you know it doesn't look like it.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
So it's been amazing to watch the way that God has
continued almost expand yourinfluence, right Like you
already had influence.
When I first met you, we wereasking to advise us so that we
could develop something similarto what God had done in your
ministry.
But beyond that now to see howit's grown from a cool thing in
a church right, a way to getother churches involved in what
(12:44):
your church was doing, but itjust kind of kept growing.
And now you've got MissionsConnection.
That is doing the same thing inPortland, but it's also now
spread to the Southwest, soyou've got stuff there in
Phoenix.
It's got a large following.
It's not uncommon to bump intopeople who are doing other
missions conferences and they'revery aware of missions
connection.
It's a part of the network ofof conferences that you can go
(13:07):
to and and it's just reallyamazing to see how God has
continued to do that.
And you know, to watch you as aperson kind of grow in your
capacity as well, like it's nota given.
We've watched lots of men andwomen who have great big ideas
and crash and burn before theyget realized and maybe never
recover from that.
(13:28):
Crashing and burning right Likethe big idea is, I think, the
easy part, and burning rightLike the big idea is, I think,
the easy part.
But living the life to bringthat idea into, into, uh, into
reality is a it's going to be alifetime process.
Um, that reminds me when I waslike 20, getting out of college,
I was going to a four squarechurch in Puyallup, washington.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
You know where Puyallup was.
You guys have probably neverheard of that, that word, ever.
I've heard of it, but I don'tknow where it is.
Spell it.
No, I'm kidding, it's okay,pass.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
And my pastor there said if you have a big vision
from the Lord, you have to workbackwards to see you know what's
step one and on.
So I wrote this like lifetimevision document back when I was
like 19 or 20 and uh, and thenit has these big things and it
was really quick to under.
I was really quick tounderstand, probably two or
three years after I wrote it,that it far exceeded my
character, right, yeah, like if,if, if what I saw in that
(14:25):
vision or my desire had beenaccomplished right away, it
would have been so much ofarrogance and pride and I would
have been so.
It would have platformed me tothink that I had brought this to
pass.
You know, and here I'm 25 yearslater and God has done a lot of
good things, but it's neverlooked like what that vision,
what I thought it was going tolook like, right, Because you
(14:47):
change, we change in the process.
Yeah, we change our life, changeyour priorities change.
You become a husband, youbecome a parent, you become a
church employee.
I mean there's so manydifferent layers a missionary
for a season, and in all thosethings you have different roles
and it actually makes thatvision look a little different
at each level and it's a goodthing, I think it's a God thing.
(15:09):
To be honest, I think that'spart of how so like perspectives
gives you this almost braindump of how God has moved
throughout history for hispurpose, singular right, one
purpose to bring about theknowledge of the nations and
their worship of him, right?
That's the point.
But, man, you know, the wayAbraham saw that looked a lot
(15:33):
different than the way moses sawthat and david saw that.
You just kind of walk throughscripture and you get these big
pictures.
Everyone sees this slightlydifferently, but the picture
hasn't changed.
It's the same lord using allthese men and women in scripture
, all the men and womenthroughout history in very
different ways, all of theflawed people that they are to
(15:54):
drive towards his global purpose.
And so now the same thing aswe're finishing Perspectives
Week 15, I know I've done thisenough to know that in the next
few months all of those studentswill wrestle with now what?
Speaker 4 (16:05):
What's God want me?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
to do and how's it going to look and what's it
going to feel like, and we don'tgive them answers.
We just kind of want them tosit and listen to the Lord on
that.
And so you've been doing thismobilization work as a career,
bill, how have you watchedpeople maybe go from entry level
wanting to learn more about God?
They go through perspectives.
(16:26):
How have you seen it impacttheir lives?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Well, I mean everybody's different.
How did it impact your life?
We'll start there.
Well, it's funny, you mentionedyou went through it in 2006, so
I was just kind of doing themath.
Yeah, I went through it 1996,so exactly 10 years before you,
and I'd been through biblecollege and seminary and I was a
brand new missions pastor andone of our missionaries was home
(16:54):
, or, and he just said, yeah,you have to take perspectives.
And I'm like, yeah, I've heardthe name, but you know, whatever
I have, you know.
I told him I have a lot ofthings I got to do.
He said, no, a lot of thingsyou have to do that.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
You know you're added to the list.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I'll take that under advisement right.
So when I took it in the springof 1996, no pardon me, 1995, 11
years before you.
I just said why didn't someoneteach me this, why didn't I get
shown this when I was doingBible college and seminary?
And it really rocked my world.
(17:29):
And it really rocked my world,it changed my whole outlook and
it really gave me a structure tobuild a whole mission, pastor
ministry under.
You know like I could putstructure to hey, this is who we
are today, but where do we wantto be in the next five years?
And I maybe didn't necessarilythink along those lines, but
(17:53):
once I'd had this 15 weeks oftraining, it was like that's how
I looked at my ministry.
We need to look at the greatdisparity between the amount of
money that sure people that weresetting to reach parts of the
world.
What about the unreached?
Yeah so so that really is.
Uh, its impact was just thebeginning for me, and um, and
(18:13):
then, of course, you form afellowship, a deep fellowship,
with anybody that's beeninvolved with Perspectives class
.
It's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah, it's got its own little tribe, and when you
find someone that's Perspectives, it's like, oh, how did it
impact you?
Speaker 2 (18:31):
And you hear very similar stories over and over
again and it was with you lastyear here, uh-huh, hanging out,
you know, with the great chad.
Okay, he really kind of dr chad, I think no, no, no, and that's
right yeah, yeah and um he, buthe was the one that really said
you know, you really ought tocome to the 50th anniversary
(18:53):
celebration of Perspectives.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
I thought you'd been with it for 50 years.
Yeah, that's right.
No, wait, wait, wait.
That would have been 86 or 76.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Right, right, right.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
And so.
But you know, really it wasyour encouragement.
I thought, oh man, you're goingto be there.
Oh yeah, oh man, I get to hangout with the great Chad, I'm
going.
So that was almostlife-changing because I got to
meet different people.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
It really was an incredible event to celebrate
how Perspectives has had such animpact over its 50-year history
and the different countries.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
What were there?
Like 46 countries.
Yeah, it's unbelievable.
See, if you weren't there youwouldn't even know that.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, it really is incredible.
Well, thank you for sharingkind of your perspective story.
You get to do Lesson 15 a lotand I know that you've taught
other lessons as well, but youdo a great job on Lesson 15.
And just so our listeners knowthat, that Lesson 15 is focused
on the world Christian disciple.
Like what does it mean?
to have a global focus to theway that you live out your faith
(19:56):
day to day and the way, maybe,you train other disciples as you
go.
And so we're walking throughsome of the tools that, as you
finish perspective, you'rethinking about the next steps.
When you're thinking about whatare you going to do next,
there's some really simpleguides you give people.
So, just in a real quicknutshell, what would you say to
someone who realizes that God'sgiven them a purpose and that
(20:17):
that purpose is beyondthemselves?
Right, my goal here is not justto be a really strong, faithful
church member who's got my acttogether, but beyond that,
there's a purpose Like thispodcast.
It's the so that why does Godmake his face shine on us?
Why is he gracious to us?
It's so that his name will beknown among the nations right
His salvation on all the peoples.
(20:37):
So if God's done all this in us, how are we going to engage the
world around us?
And you give a few simple toolsas you walk through.
So give us a little nutshell ofwhat that looks like.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Well, you were talking about some of the things
that you know hit you.
You know, I'd like to do thethree buckets, which is number
one, the great commandment, andthen the great commission, and
then the great commitment.
And, of course, the greatcommandment is love the Lord,
thy God, with all your heart.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Great commission is, you know, sending out, go make
disciples.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Great commitment is what Jesus spent the most time
on and that was, you know,unless the seed falls in the
ground and dies, you know, youcan't have a plant without the
seed giving up its life, andthat's what Jesus is calling us
to.
So we basically, in this lesson15, we talk about practices and
um disciples you know, and whatdoes it mean to have
(21:33):
disciplines, what does it meanto have practices?
So it was kind of fun talkingabout you know that and and
asking the class you know whatdoes that mean to you?
And then at the end we say, oh,this is great, now you've done
all this stuff.
But now where do you fit?
And that's, um, that's likesharing the gospel and, uh,
people kind of go along whenit's in the third person, but
(21:53):
it's all of a sudden when youchange to the second person,
what are you going to do withthe gospel?
Oh, gee, I've got anappointment, got to go, and and
so you know.
But that's what we all need towrestle with, because you can
hear all kinds of rhetoric outthere, but in the end of the day
, who Jesus Christ is is onlyimportant to you.
(22:14):
Who is jesus christ to you?
What is this great commandment,commission commitment to you?
And when we wrestle with and wetake personal responsibility
for this body of informationthat we've just been hearing
about, looking at perspectivesis looking at the world
christian movement through whatthe bible, history, culture and
(22:39):
strategic strategy is where itgets personal, isn't it?
And you know where do I fit?
So I mean, that's kind of whatwe talk about and it's kind of
fun to talk about.
The finale was not what is itgoing to take, but who is it
going to take?
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
I actually think, bill, it would be awesome.
I don't know if you're a writer, but I'm like those three C's.
I would love that to be in thenext edition, because that final
C, that really hit me thismorning.
You know the commandment I'vealways heard and known.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Commitment, you mean Well, but but but yes.
The great command.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
But the commandment I've always known right.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
And the commission.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
I've known but not fully understood until this
class.
But then when you tied the bowon this whole thing with that
commandment, the commitment.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Excuse me the commitment.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Thank you, that commitment to follow and to die
to myself.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
I mean it does.
It gets real personal, realfast.
Yeah, amen.
Well, there's a couple ofthings.
Jeff Vanderstatt you probablyknow, jeff, he's a pastor at
Soma Church outside of Seattle,in Tacoma, and I saw him at a
conference here in Austin and hesaid that the call of Jesus is
a call to come and die.
The question is, who are youwilling to die for right?
Right, like your mission field,is the person, the people that
(23:55):
you're willing to spend yourlife to engage for the gospel.
You know, and so you know, andfor Soma Church there in Tacoma,
they have a lot of work amongthe homeless, among the poor and
impoverished of the area.
You might think we had JimmyDorrell here a few weeks ago
that talked about that in Wacoand the area and how they moved
into one of the worst zip codesin the United States so that
(24:16):
they could make a difference ina community and in the 40 years
they lived there they've made ahuge difference.
And so that kind of idea likewho are you willing to put your
life on hold for and put yourlife aside for right, this idea
of the seed, has to fall to theground and die before it can
give life to the next generationof is such a major part of of
(24:39):
any john piper might say, likeany, any plan to take the gospel
, it doesn't include a plan thatthat, if it doesn't include
suffering, it probably isn't thefull plan, like it's just just
kind of a full.
Like we, we, we put togetherour processes and plans and we,
as Americans especially, avoidsuffering at all costs, right,
like in every level.
(25:00):
Um, but there's not a story inscripture where God doesn't use
that suffering to draw peopleinto dependence on him.
And uh, and so you know, youmentioned the 16 years of
waiting, from the time that youfelt like this is kind of what I
think God's put on my heart,and then even starting at
another eight years, untilyou're in a position.
There was some suffering, therewas some bloodshed to try to
(25:22):
get this thing working.
There's some sweat and sometears and like maybe this isn't
going to work and I'm going tobe okay with that.
You're going to work throughall of that.
And that 16 years it wasn'tfully formed in day one.
It wasn't fully formed in yearfive, 10, 15.
You're still waiting in somerespect, and so I hope that, if
(25:42):
you're listening today, what Ihope you're hearing us say is
that God has a purpose for youand that purpose is being
brought about in your life insome way.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
And the way for you to really it's to draw near to
him right.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
It's to obey him, it's to love him, it's to draw
near to him, to abide in me andI abide in you and you will bear
much fruit right.
This abiding might take someyears.
Right now I think it's reallypopular the Amazon Prime series
on David, the House of David,House of David, Yep Super cool.
I watched all of them in likethree days because I love the
(26:19):
story.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
It's a compelling story.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
David has been one of my lifelong fascinations.
I've preached through his lifea few times.
I used Chuck Swindoll's bookfor a while when I was a youth
pastor.
So I'm just fascinated withDavid's story and it's one of
the most heroic and courageousstories and that's the part that
remembers.
But it's also one of thesickest, brokenest, you know
messiest stories in all ofscripture.
For the scriptures to say thisis a man after God's own heart
(26:43):
and be talking about David, likeyou know Saul's sin, right Saul
, the kingdom has been takenfrom him and it's so clear.
He disobeyed God and he did itvery clearly.
David did way worse.
So then why in the world canyou say this is a man after
God's own heart when David's sinis so much more egregious than
(27:03):
Saul's sin?
And the only thing I can see isthe humility and the repentance
Saul never repents.
In his whole defense to Samuelhe's defending himself.
And this is what I was doing.
I was afraid of them, all thesethings.
David does horrible things, butwhen he's confronted by Nathan,
immediately he repents, yeah,and actually in an incredibly
(27:26):
sincere format for some time.
And there's a book, that kindof contrast, that, uh, kind of
contrast those two.
The tale of three Kings by aJean Edwards.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Fantastic book.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
If you want to pick it up, it's one of the best
leadership books ever.
Anyway, um, when I think aboutthat, I again you think about
the character development ofsomeone like David.
You know, a shepherd with thesheep has.
No, there is no career pathright, much less a path that
will eventually lead you to be aking Like.
(27:59):
There's no way, because ofDavid's manipulations, he can
work himself into that jobposition, right, and then, as a
king, he makes terrible mistakesand then you just kind of watch
the way that all works out.
You think God was developinghim at every step of the way,
and I think how short-sightedsometimes we are when we
(28:20):
consider our plans and God'splans and how quickly he should
bring it about.
Maybe switching back to themissions topic, it also doesn't
strike me as fair that India waswhere William Carey went 300
years ago and it remains thelargest population of unreached
(28:40):
people group on the planet, youknow.
So probably the recipient ofthe most gifted, probably
longest term influence, right,the very first missionary that
we consider Modern Missions goesthere.
There's been missionaries eversince and it remains one of the
least reached portions of theplanet.
Like that's 300 years ofhistory that we can track and
(29:00):
see what's.
It remains one of the leastreached portions of the planet.
That's 300 years of historythat we can track and see what's
, and God's been doing somethingthere since the beginning of
time.
So you just think, how is Godmoving the development of a
character of a person, how abouta character of an organization,
what about a character of anation?
And on, there's so much there.
We want to be there in a hurry,we want it tomorrow, and yet
god is, is very willing, uh, tokind of walk this with us.
(29:24):
So this actually was not on ourum, my target for us to talk
about today.
It does seem that that's thetheme of our podcast, um, and
here we're already at 28 minutesout of our 30.
So, bill, it is incredibleagain to watch how God has used
(29:44):
you and to be a participant froma while ago, to see your impact
on people who heard you a yearago and, of course, even
Brittany got to hear you for thefirst time this morning and I
really appreciate the characterthat God has given you and
really the mission that he's putyou on for these years.
(30:04):
As we're kind of coming to anend of the podcast, what are
some things coming up for you.
What's exciting for you, mrBill McLeod.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Well, we've got our Mission Connection Southwest.
It is in its fifth year comingup in Phoenix in the first
weekend in November.
It's always the first weekendin November.
And then we've got MissionConnection Northwest coming into
our 25th year in Portland,always the third weekend in
January.
As I said this morning,wonderful time to come to
(30:36):
Portland if you like rain and ifyou don't like rain.
It to come to Portland if youlike rain and if you don't like
rain.
It just rains and it's coldrain.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
And so we really.
It's a filtering device to getthe people that are really
serious.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
You only get the committed ones you only get the
committed ones, Well, but Iloved what you shared, some of
the bullet points for how itcame about.
Like even that it's free, Imean.
I think that's amazing becauseyou even said you had a heart
for families coming together.
I was like that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Oh yeah, no, this is a.
This is like the unconference.
It's not in fact.
I've had past come because wewrestled with it as a board.
You know, you always have thosebusiness board members that say
we're skin in the game.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
You know.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know all that
stuff, skin of the game.
Yeah, okay, you're a businessguy, great.
But I had a pastor come up tome right after we were debating
this stuff and, just totally outof the blue, he had no idea.
He says, bill, I hope you nevercharge for this event.
And I said, really, now, that'sintriguing that you would just
out of the blue come up.
And he was there with his wifeand family.
(31:34):
He said because then people'sexpectations change as soon as
they put money in.
They will expect you and thenthey will begin to dictate.
And he said what you've gothere is completely organic.
You know, you honor the localchurch, I mean, he had this
whole list of things and it'slike it all came back to the
(31:55):
things that we're committed to.
You know prayer, like we don'thave a meeting without, and they
say, oh, isn't that nice, very,you know, very thoughtful, that
they pray.
No, you don't understand.
You know me, you know that Ihave no idea what I'm doing and
I'm just saying we, you guys, weneed jesus to help us and so
all the things we pray about arereal needs.
(32:17):
It's not things that you knowwe've already solved.
But you know it'd be a niceidea to pray.
No, we pray because my teamknows we're desperate for the
Lord and we're desperate for theLord to be the main person.
He's the CEO.
I'm just best I can ever be isjust sales.
You know, really it's Jesus, isthe is the.
(32:39):
CEO and so we've operated thatway and praise the Lord.
In Phoenix, they caught thesame vision and I just kept
saying you guys, you have tostart praying.
And they prayed for like twoand a half years before they
launched and you know it's goingto look different, but it's the
same DNA and I love that.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
I love the way you lead.
You have this, I would say,unexpected character within you
and it's that desperation forthe Lord that you allow the
unexpected.
Like even when you shared thismorning, when you said it's
going to be free, they're likeno skin in the game and you're
like let's just go theunexpected path and let's see
(33:19):
what happens.
Let's wait 16 years and seewhat develops.
Like that's super cool.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Yeah, well, it's the Lord how it's played out.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Well, it's not accidental.
Sometimes we might confuseunexpected with accident, but
it's not accident Like it'ssomething that the Lord's been
using.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
But he allows it right.
Yeah, no, of course you allowit.
I kind of welcome it.
You know it's not cookie cutter.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
It's, like you know, working with the team.
We have a director there and youknow, I'm so open to their
ideas that I don't want to say,well, this is how we did it.
Sometimes they push me to sayyou know, well, how do you do it
in Portland?
And I almost don't like to say,well, in Portland, you know we.
(34:07):
And so, um, and they, they,they.
When they really feel like theymight be messing up, they say,
uh, how do you think we'rereally doing?
And I just always tell them I'mwaiting for you guys to have a
major fail, because only whenyou fail, will you learn.
But so far it's never happened.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
You're doing it great , so please you know just do
something.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Do the crazy, because I'm waiting for that failure.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
But it never happens.
Well, it's just like when youoriginally fasted and prayed and
you got the unexpected answer,probably at the time.
That's cool.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Well, Bill, it is always a pleasure to have you
with us.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Wonderful to be with Dr Chad.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Oh gosh, anyone listening.
You know I'm not a doctor, butyou may not know that I am
pursuing a doctorate.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
So I got a long ways to go.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
But one day maybe I'll be Dr Chad Not yet Eight
years, yeah, 16 years 16 years,but we're so thankful for your
ministry, bill, and anyone thatwants to learn more about
Missions Connection, it's gotits website.
You can just Google it.
There's a lot of informationthere, lots and lots of really
(35:11):
cool arms of the ministry thatare working in different
segments and spheres of missions.
Some of it focused onmobilizing local church, some of
it on how to form a missionscommittee or team or
organization, how to partnereffectively overseas.
There's so much wealth ofinformation that they've
compiled and developed for thechurch, for the local church,
for obviously originally therein Portland and then again now
(35:33):
in Phoenix, but so much of it isvaluable to churches everywhere
.
I keep telling him that youknow, if they were going to do
Missions Connection here in SanAntonio, it would probably
naturally be called Southwest,but since that's name taken, I
don't know what we'll do.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
You're used to that.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
We'll just call it South Tex and go from there, and
of course South Texas isanother four hours south of San
Antonio if you hang out.
But there are needs for thosekind of events that pull the
body of Christ towards oneanother for the sake of
partnership for the kingdom andmission seems to be the only
(36:09):
area that people are willing tohave.
Those cross-denominationalconversations Every one of us
know it's too big for any of usto do alone, and so if the globe
and the ends of the earthcontinues to be the task
remaining, then we need to worktogether to see that task
accomplished.
You're one of those frontrunners.
We're so thankful for you, bill.
Anything you want to say beforewe close?
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Well, mission connection is spelled with an X
and it's global.
So if you just went on and youput C-T-I-O-N, you'll probably
end up.
We've got probably the URL forthat too.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
But yeah, missionconnection, all one word
dot global and you'll come rightto us and yeah, but otherwise,
thank you so much for being ableto be here.
For sure, brittany, anythingelse you would say, thanks for
hanging out with us today.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Oh, I'm incredibly grateful that you came and
wrapped up this class for us.
It, it, it has beenlife-changing for me and you
adding, you adding that finalpiece today just was terrific.
So thank you for theexclamation marks.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Wow.
Well, we want you to be acoordinator for Perspectives
next year, just get through thattrain.
Speaker 4 (37:10):
Well, I didn't expect to land here today.
Turn that train, start turningthe screws.
Someone's going to give me thatkind of accolades.
I'm just going to help, I'mjust going to do a solid for.
Chad and go.
Hey, we'll see how committed ohgosh, I think you said
something about people like thattoday in class he said
something about that.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
I'm pretty sure it's on your paper over there.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
I also want to just acknowledge Savannah Austin
hanging out with us today.
She's going to help us in theproduction side, so happy to
have you with us.
Savannah, thank you for allthat you're considering.
And to finish up, really to youlisteners, like as you think
about how God's calling you,anna, thank you for all that
you're considering.
And to finish up, really to youlisteners, as you think about
how God's calling you, as youlisten to a podcast like this
and you consider all the workthat has gone into both the Lord
(37:52):
calling you and drawing you tohimself and giving you the
attention span to listen to fourof us just rant and rave about
crazy things for 35 minutes.
I just want you to know it'sfor a purpose.
The purpose is that you wouldknow how much God pursues you
and loves you and cares for you,but also know that there's a
purpose beyond you and thepurpose beyond you is that you
would be again a mission, anambassador on mission for his
(38:17):
kingdom wherever he sends you.
So why does God bless you?
Why does he make his face shineon you?
It's so that you will bring theglory of God to the nations.
So be a blessing.
Use that blessing in the lifethat you've given you.
Draw near to those who areclose to you and far from God
and help them see the glory ofGod at work within you so they
can glorify him.
Guys, have a wonderful day.
(38:38):
Thank you for tuning in.
We'll talk to you soon.
God bless, we are so thankfulthat you joined our podcast
today.
We would love to hear anyfeedback you may have for us.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
Remember.
Psalm 67 says May God begracious to us and bless us and
make His face shine on us sothat we always may be known on
earth and your salvation amongall nations.
Don't forget why the Lordblesses us it's so that we can
be a blessing to those around us.
Until next time, god bless.
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