Interview: Sherman Bradley: Band Of Brothers: Powerful Living with Henry Flowers

To all Men and those who have Men that you love. You really want to experience this interview and share it with those you love. LEAD LIKE FATHERS! You can reach Sherman Bradley at [e-mail]

Exciting news!!! You can now join Henry, live via Zoom, every Sunday morning at 1030am EST, by clicking the link below, or by using the ID and passcode provided below. https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82108038420?pwd=twW0ChMfqMskiPizTEFEbOPFq8zORT.1 Meeting ID: 821 0803 8420 Passcode: 439385 After the message, feel free to stay in the Zoom room and attend the "Empowerment Session".

Empowerment sessions are not a church service—but are a service to the church. Our automobiles, homes, electronics and various other tools in our lives need maintenance, upgrades and repairs. Are we as a person any different? Empowerment Sessions are where believers get the opportunity to make the necessary corrections, adjustments and spiritual enhancements needed to be better equipped to live more powerful lives for Christ. Acts 1:8

When you begin to operate with power in EVERY area of your life, then you have achieved Powerful Living. Join your host, Henry Flowers, as we discover principles that produce the "rich and satisfying life" that Jesus said that He wants for us.

Let's also make strides in the area of teen pregnancy prevention. My book will help your teens avoid the dangers of excessive unsupervised idle time, which is the major cause of trouble for too many of our teens; and it will help them to move from where they are to living the life that they love. Get it here. http://amzn.com/1503271021 To hear my musical tribute to a father's dedication to his family, get my album "I Am With You", at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/henryflowers

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, friends, Henry Flowers here, powerful litting outreach ministries back
coming back at you again over the YouTube air waves.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
You already know what to do.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Make sure you subscribe and like this channel because you
are going to love this interview today and with me today.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Once again.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
You have already experienced him before as we talked about grief.
I can't wait for his upcoming podcast to be launched
because I'm gonna be on his podcast and he's already
been on mind. This will be a second interview my
man fifty grand soon to be pilot of the podcast

(00:44):
Good Grief. You know him, You've seen him again, mister
Sherman Bradley.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yes, good day, good day, my brother back.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yes, let me give you formerly an introduction this time
as we delve into our content. So, Pastor Sherman Bradley
is the founder and co pastor of the Warehouse Church,
former trainer to doctor Ruby K.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Payne, who's a founder of the organization called AHA Process.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
He was certified to teach these two programs, which is
that person was certified to teach these two programs a
framework for understanding poverty and bridges out of poverty.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Sherman Bradley is a toast Master.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Many of you know if you've been following my podcast
as long as you guys know as well. I've been
a member of toast Masters for years.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Toast Masters is a great organization.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Go to toast Masters dot work if you want to
improve your leadership and communication skills. It's an amazing It's
probably the best educational tool on the planet. For less
than twenty bucks a month, you can't be it for sure. Yeah,
he's a toast Master, spiritual director of social advocate, and entrepreneur.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
He is a gifted poet of the which I can verify.
We have had a couple of open mics together.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
He's a former vice president of City Gospel Mission, where
he served men and homeless men in homelessness at the
shelter and founded the Exodus Men's Drug Rehabilitation Program, which
is a twelve month in patient process for transforming.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
The lives of men.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Recently developing Storehouse Development, which is a nonprofit tackling financial literacy, transitions,
and housing to.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Name a few things that he does.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
So needless to say, you guys agree with me that
he's just sitting around doing nothing agenda, got nothing going
on at all. Brother, We want to jump right in
and start talking about this powerful ministry that I've been

(03:07):
a part of several times now called Band of Brothers. Yes,
I'm gonna just tell your powerful partners. Listen, y'all. When
I get the email that says there's another band of
brothers meeting, two things happen.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Immediately.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
I get a sense, well, it's about time. How long
has it been? What are these thinks? Once every three months?

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Why is this?

Speaker 1 (03:29):
And I'm right, that's the first thing goes to my mind.
It's about time this band of brothers meeting. You'll hear
more about it today. You want to be a part
of this if you're in the Cincinnati area and it's
going to be expanding. It's just a powerful men's ministry
that I think is just lacking. We need more things
like that band of Brothers. But the second thing happens

(03:51):
first is the where has this been? But the second
thing that happens before I finish the where has this been?

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Thought, I'm registering, yes you are.

Speaker 4 (04:00):
And he means that literally because he is almost always
the first person registers is.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
That right now?

Speaker 1 (04:08):
I didn't know that, but usually I do know because
I'm an avid tennis player. Many of my tennis matches
are on Saturdays, and when I see the date for
the Band of Brothers meeting, I'm ristering quickly because I
know I'm only gonna get either one half or.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
The other half of the session. And I hate it
when I have to leave for a tennis matches lay one,
so I gonna right after lunch, I.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Gotta go, And I hate it because the first half
has been so powerful. And then the last time you
had the meeting I was. I had an early tennis match.
I started at like nine, some crazy, stupid ill and
then I could get I got the back half, and
I was just as richly blessed and encouraged through this
Band of Brothers Men's retreat.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yes, talk about it.

Speaker 4 (04:56):
So the bander Brothers United is the official name because
there are a lot of bands the Brothers out there,
so we had to build the United on there to
kind of differentiate ourselves. And the idea came about post
COVID twenty twenty one one because my lovely bride co
pastors they have search with me kept insisting you need

(05:18):
to do something with men.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
You do something with me, and you need to do
something with man. It's post COVID.

Speaker 4 (05:22):
You know, we're re engaging culturally again, we're meeting in
locations again, and I'm thinking, I don't.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
Want to do anything with me.

Speaker 4 (05:29):
I tried that before COVID twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, just
fizzled out.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
Just couldn't see me get any traction with the men.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
And let's be honest, COVID made you not want to
do nothings, like we shut.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
The whole world down.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
So for you to have I don't want an attitude
that was not surprising to anybody.

Speaker 4 (05:48):
Yeah, well that was not the first, not even the second.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
That's not of the tertiary reason for not wanting to
do it.

Speaker 4 (05:56):
But really I had just been burned out on trying
to do anything, lead anything just wasn't on my list
of to dos. What my lovely bride she kept saying,
you needed something in you need someone man, So I
decided I actually I literally called my my friend, one
of the facilitats with me, pastor to Jackie Jackson, and talked.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
To him about and he's like, yeah, you should, you
should do what we should.

Speaker 4 (06:17):
Do one and then I called a pastor, Freddie Pyphus,
who is another good friend of mine, another pastor, a
gentleman who actually was ordained by my late uncle, who
pastored the church I grew up in. And they were like, yeah,
let's do this, let's do one, and so we did.
I think it was October of twenty one, I think
I remember correctly, and I was just.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Gonna do one and see how it might.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
I was going to leave it at that and maybe
do one and you know, the next October in twenty
twenty two. But the first two months after the October event,
I remember this specifically because it was before Christmas.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
I kept getting asked, and when are you gonna do
it again? When are you gonna do it?

Speaker 4 (06:57):
You can't wait a whole year, you can't wait a
whole year. I was like, okay, fine, let's do one
in the spring. We'll do one in the spring.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
So sure enough, we did one in the spring and
I think end of March, and it went well. Again.
Men not only attended, they appreciated.

Speaker 4 (07:14):
The opportunity to be with just men, to have impactful teaching,
and to be able to meet men outside of just
their sphere of influence in their churches and out of
their ethnic group. Because we've been very intentional, a lot
of attivities, getting men from other ethnicities across the denomination
of spectrum and even across some of the religious spectrums,

(07:35):
because we've had some varying viewpoints of Catholicism and so
on and so forth coming in and participating.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
As well, and that has been exciting. Let me just
tell you, guys, just especially.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
For my married people, as Mother's Day approaches and Final's
Day becoming after that, I'll be doing a series recently
about woman power, about manpower, just godly.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
Expressions of those two people groups.

Speaker 1 (08:06):
I just need everybody to understand the value and the
power that is delivered when men get together with just men,
just ladies. Listen, if you want your man to be
a better man, whether it's your brother, your uncle, your cousin,
your husband, your sons, get them into a situation where

(08:31):
they're able to experience just men sharing deeply.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
There's a way that men will.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Share when it's just us that we won't share any
other way. It's transformational for the men. And he don't
need to come back and tell you what happened. Don't
ask him, don't ask him what he can said. No,
just understanding when he comes back his life is going
to be transformed.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
That's what I experienced with this band of brother thing.
And I remember the first time.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
That I came to one of your events. My disappointment
next was that it was only a couple of months
at it.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
I was like, wait, how many times a year? You
need to be doing this every month?

Speaker 1 (09:17):
As y'all know you've been back his resume, he's just
sitting around doing nothing.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
So once a month, that, lads, bro.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
Because this thing is transformational because men shared differently when
it's just.

Speaker 4 (09:29):
Us, yes, and fortunately it is being led in that way.
So between myself pastor Fernie, pastor Jackie, the fact that
we're willing to be transparent, the fact that we're willing
to share sensitive information about our own lives is the
prelude to what we've been able to experience and other

(09:49):
men being willing to say, yeah, I struggle with this,
and yeah I struggle with that. Yeah I need help
with this, and yeah I need help with that, and
yeah I hadn't heard that before.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
I didn't know that's what that meant. I didn't know
that was possible. And just the.

Speaker 4 (10:03):
Camaraderie that comes and letting, as women say, letting our
hair down and really attempting to create an atmosphere where
hearts can be open, to reveal and to receive, because
it's not enough just to be out there vomiting the
mess that our lives represented times, but it's also important
to be able to receive from one another as well.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
So there's dialogue that happens at the tables.

Speaker 4 (10:27):
Is one of the reason why I love the round
tables versus other forms of seating, such that at the
tables there are times of discussion that are happening almost
you all after we've posed challenging questions for you to
delve into. I think the other thing that's important to
this is that you know underlying all of this for
me has been my own challenges becoming a better father,

(10:50):
a better husband, a better son, and a better friend
because as an only child, I have some only child tendencies,
having some broken family dynamics. My family divorced and my
parents remarried, my father divorced again. I've seen broken family

(11:10):
and all that did was continue to show me I
needed to isolate to protect myself before I was mature
enough to realize that that was not healthy. And in
that I've got a long period of time where I've
only had a few friendships, significant friendships, to the point.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
That when I became a child of Gun and I.

Speaker 4 (11:30):
Accepted Jesus crisis lot and savior that was so familiar,
I still didn't know how to navigate friendships and was
at the time, quite frankly, not finding.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
Only a couple of models.

Speaker 4 (11:45):
Matter of fact, it's not probably one person that I'm
directly connected to today that I began to engage at
a time where I just really gave my life to Christ.
The other individuals in that sphere of influence around that time,
of those next couple of three four five years, they've

(12:06):
waned relationally. But there's one that I can call him
up today and if I need something.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
He's in Florida. He's gonna he's hooking crook. He's going
to try to find a way to make it happen.

Speaker 4 (12:18):
Or he's going to be a listening ear who won't
sugarcoat anything. If I come with a bunch of nonsense,
He's you know, he's going to be frank about what it.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
Is that I need to hear.

Speaker 4 (12:32):
And that's invaluable, no question this time out with having
to so first let me back up. Why would I
want to lead with all I just said a group
of men. I didn't view myself as the proper choice
for this kind of endeavor, So it was the last
thing I wanted to do. And if and my wife

(12:52):
had not been continued to mention it, I still don't
think I would have done it. And the reason I
went to these two guys was because I didn't want
to do it by myself anymore. And if I just
do an event, that's different than doing that every month
that we were doing previously, that fizzled out.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
So your wife was your inspiration to begin working with men,
so that you're kicking it behind, you put off the
cliff behind.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
And then not only did you need that from her, you.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Felt because you weren't the best example or either had
the best examples of leadership of men, you inquired acquired help.
You need some mother brothers to join you. That's powerful,
because I see too many times where men think and
they live out this idea that I don't need no help,

(13:43):
I don't need nobody. I can do this on my own.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
My father was in.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
There and inspires this whole I have to do it
on my own.

Speaker 4 (13:53):
That was me when I left at eighteen to go
into the United States Air Force.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah. Matter of fact, Yeah, I was eighteen. That was
my motto.

Speaker 4 (14:05):
I gotta do it for me. I gotta do it
for myself. I want to make my decisions. I gotta
figure this out.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yeah I.

Speaker 4 (14:16):
And then I found a bunch of love little eyes
that would become my friends in the military. And we
were all champions of III and you know it it
We had some some bonds, but we asked a lot
of dysfunctions, especially once we got to Europe and didn't

(14:38):
know any better, and I immaturity showed. So there's a
lot of baggage that comes into taking a step into
this thing called Bander Brothers United. But God made it
very clear very early on at that second event that
this was necessary and that I needed help beyond just

(15:00):
having two facilitators who would assist me. So I wound
up going to somebody else's men's retreat.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
I think it was that same spring of twenty twenty two.

Speaker 4 (15:15):
When I went to my first Canon Pathways retreat in
South Dakota, of all places.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
No, I'm sorry, I wasn't Spring, it was.

Speaker 4 (15:23):
It was. It was the fall of twenty twenty two
because it was it was the first week of October,
because they promised me it wasn't going to snow yet
the first week of October.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
And then, let me guess, not only did it snow.

Speaker 4 (15:39):
The way it all happened was when I land at
this airport and little bitty airport in South Dakota.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
It's just writing, no big deal. I'm like, oh, it's
writing cool, there's no snow anywhere.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
It was a little rain, because snow is different.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
Rain was different, not the same. No, and this is
very small airport. Did I say that, Alred? It's a
very small airport. Got a small airport.

Speaker 4 (16:06):
It doesn't take long to get from the plane, to
get my bag, to get out front.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
To where the car is waiting for me to leave
the airport.

Speaker 4 (16:17):
Now, when I get to the vehicle, the snow the
rain is looking a little different, and I'm.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
Thinking, Okay, well, no, maybe it's just that in between kind.

Speaker 4 (16:27):
Of things just gonna happen now, because you know, it
is October and we are up north, dude. We took
a ten minute ride off the airport and they stopped
to get coffee, and I went in and got some
hot chocolate.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
Henry.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
We couldn't have been in there more than ten fifteen
minutes max. Probably really just ten. By the time we
turned around and went out that door.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
To get to the.

Speaker 4 (16:51):
Vehicle, we needed to turn the windshield wipers on to
remove the snow.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
It was coming down like bucket. Somebody was pouring buckets.
I kid you not.

Speaker 4 (17:02):
And by the time I have pictures, I started taking
video through the front windshield.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
While I'm telling the driver you said it wasn't going
to snow in October. This is more than snow. I mean,
it was just coming down, and it does matter like that.
I mean the snowflake looked like the size of my fist.

Speaker 4 (17:23):
It took us, I know, forty five fifty minutes to
hour to get a place that was half that time.
And when we got to where the chalet was sitting
up on this hill where did su be mind you?
We had to get a bobcat to come down, hook
itself up to it.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
Called a bobcat.

Speaker 4 (17:40):
Pulled us up the hill to get back to where
the chalet was.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
I kid you not.

Speaker 4 (17:45):
Over October, first week of October, right, and they're laughing
by this time because I'm literally, like.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
You promised me, it wasn't going to snow. You got
me up here in no man's land.

Speaker 4 (18:01):
Who you know, you know, ain't a whole lot of
us up there, as it is already on top of that.
And here we are, I'm out of this little shallow
and it's just coming down, coming down.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
And then a few hours later it's still coming down.

Speaker 4 (18:12):
And now I have to leave this chalette and go
to the one where I'm actually staying.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
Because there was twenty one of us, and we had.

Speaker 4 (18:18):
Two different locations that we were staying about ten minutes apart.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
We get over to the other one. Henry. First night's cool, right,
except for we wake up that morning.

Speaker 4 (18:30):
Twenty inches of snow have fallen in one day in October.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
In October, the first week Gottober. In October, twenty inches
of snow. Beerfish Canyon, South.

Speaker 4 (18:44):
Dakomina, the Black Hills, i think is what they call it.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
So all right, and so we get out, we look
at it. It's it now, the sun's out.

Speaker 4 (18:57):
It's really beautiful for the first ten minutes. Then I'm
tired of it quite frankly, yeah, because it's because it's snow.
Twenty two inches in October. So so we leave because
the chalet we're in only hosts like eight. The other
twelve are at the first building that I was at.

(19:17):
So we leave this one. We go up there and
spend off day up here. We come back in the
evening two and we're only out there for four days.
Right now, say now, remind you the second day we
come back. The second day, we come back to our
chalet and the power is out.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
Twenty twice? Is this now twenty two inches?

Speaker 4 (19:39):
No, you got to be towed up to the place
via bobcat.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
Yes, not a power is out. And then not to
mind y'all. Powerfully in partners. He going to pay for
a man's retreat, and all his solution is going on.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
This is this is an opportunity for a man that
wounded to retreat from this man's retreat.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
This is how he got his start in this man ministry?
What does that say about God? People think?

Speaker 1 (20:06):
Listen, you mean tell me Godod out there rolling that
ain't thunder and that's an't rolling across the four laughing.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
So forget this. The second night we're only up there
Tuesday through Friday.

Speaker 4 (20:17):
The second night Wednesday night, I am the one waking
up every two hours to stoke the fire because fortunately,
since the ELECTRISKI is out, there's a fireplace and there's
plenty of wood because this happens and it's rural, so
they're finding the fireplaces.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
But everybody else is asleep, and you gotta keep the
fire going because.

Speaker 4 (20:38):
I can feel, see I hate col weather and I
hate to be cold, so I could feel even in
my sleep when that fire was going down, And the
rest of these jokers are just out snoring and everything.
So I'm the only one if I'm gonna stay warm,
I'm the one that's got to get up. And you
know they said heat rises, right, So I'm at the top.
I gotta go up to these steps to get to

(20:59):
the bump where I am. So I got to come
down in the middle of the night with no electricity
to get logs to put on and stove that fire
that it gets hot enough. Then I go back up
and try to give us two hours of sleep before I.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
Got to come back down again. The fire is supposed
to be there to keep everybody going down there. How
come you don't because.

Speaker 4 (21:20):
Them jokes when they went to sleep, they were out
cold in the cold, like it wasn't cold. Man let
me tell you what It was a wonderful experience through
all of that because it constantly challenged me to assess
why am I in so need of comfort? And am

(21:47):
I going to allow this to distract me from the
purpose of coming out here, which was to rest, to
rest my mind, to rest my emotions, to hear from God.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
I see them.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
So you're talking about physical comfort, then the fire, the
power being out of psychological too, drive for comfort, I see.

Speaker 4 (22:08):
Yes, yes, yes, And so one of the things that
happens on every every canyon pathways retreat for.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
Every new person. The founder who.

Speaker 4 (22:20):
Facilitates most of these, good friend of mine know, he's
in Dallas, Texas.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
He spends time with God for each person, whether he
knows them or not. He just spends time with the Lord.

Speaker 4 (22:31):
And he comes up with the word, just one word
that he says, I want you to chew on this word.
He's not I'm not even sitting here to say God
came down and plotted the sea of eroded in sand
for me to give to you.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
He said, I'm just spending time with God. I'm just
thinking about each person. And take this word, and this
is what the word means. It's the etymology of the word,
and see if it speaks to you.

Speaker 4 (23:01):
Man.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
My word was rest, of which you got, none of.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
Which I rejected, literally I rejected. I mean I wish
I could have had a.

Speaker 4 (23:14):
Picture of my face the moment I pulled it out,
this envelope and saw what it was.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
He laughed at me once he saw my face. But
he knew enough about this rat race.

Speaker 4 (23:25):
I was in the challenges I was facing that I
had just had shingles, and the stress I was under.

Speaker 5 (23:33):
And the difficulty I was having with losses of life
and grieving those situations and coming out of depression and
even fighting to do this whole men's thing I had just.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
Done twice by that time I went on. I think
this first retreat and.

Speaker 4 (23:50):
That word rest was significant, It was necessary, and I
didn't receive it until the second trip. And so that
following year, the second trip I went on with Canyon
Pathways was to California, Snow Valley, and got to spend
time with the grandson and nephew of Ernest and Julia Gallo.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
His name's Tom Gallo, wonderful brother.

Speaker 4 (24:19):
And he took us out too, and we literally stayed
in tents on the property underneath these huge ancient trees.
I forget what they were, but they were enormous and old, ancient.
These bad boys had been around for one hundred years,
he said, and it was gorgeous out there. And I

(24:40):
didn't know at the time, but we're sitting around a campfire.
I got pictures and videos of this one too. We're
sitting around a campfire. It's time to get off the
words again. And I'm thinking, I'm gonna get a different
word because this is a different place and different location,
a different retreat.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
This is not the same. This is not the snow.
This is out in California, uneath these beautiful trees. And
it's a year later. Right, dude gives me the same
exact word. This is the same dude.

Speaker 4 (25:06):
It was the same dude, same facilitator, the founder of
the organization.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
He gives me the.

Speaker 4 (25:11):
Same word rest And this time I'm like, okay, God, fine,
what what?

Speaker 2 (25:18):
What? What did I need to restaurant man? And he
took me through the difficulties.

Speaker 4 (25:24):
Of the striving that I had been doing, trying to
catch up to my ideals of who I should be
and where I should be at this particular age and stage.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Of my life, and.

Speaker 4 (25:41):
It was revelatory not just for me, but I saw
it playing out in the lives of other men as well,
and it became very clear to me this is a
condition that's a byproduct of just being human, especially male,
because we're taught to go out and kill it and
drag it home and say, look what we've accomplished.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
We have to provide, we have to leave, we have
to guide.

Speaker 4 (26:02):
And in so doing we often find ourselves striving and
trying to claim ideals or positions and stature that may
not be directed to who we are or what God
has for us, or maybe we're just out of season.
Maybe it might be the right things at the wrong
time because we're anxious and we don't wait on God.
But nevertheless, I found myself having to internalize what are

(26:24):
you asking me to rest from and about? And it
was everything I wasn't keeping the savage rest.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
I wasn't properly paying attention enough to my sleep.

Speaker 4 (26:34):
Or exercise, hadn't rested from the anxieties of depression and
loss of my mother. There was just a host of
things that I had to slowly unpack over time.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
But first I had to give credence to this word.

Speaker 4 (26:50):
That was a very intentional word for me to look
deeper within myself for what it was was trying to
reveal to me.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
Did you ever ask him, because this is the same
person this is the second time, Yes, did you ever
ask him what went into him choosing that word?

Speaker 2 (27:13):
The second time you get the first one. Everybody gets.

Speaker 4 (27:16):
If you wanted more than one retreat, you're going to
get the same words you got from.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
The first retreat.

Speaker 4 (27:21):
He told you that, Yeah, I see, everybody gets the
same word because what I had conversations that trip.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
Talk to him about me yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.
I was like, dude, this is the same word I
got last time. Right, did you make a mistake? I thought?
He was like, no, that's that's your word.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Well, at least you didn't have fitst sized snowflakes that time.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
No, we didn't. It was a much, much, much more
pleasant trip. But the first one was good. The first
one was necessary.

Speaker 6 (27:50):
Those things needed to happen the way it happened, and
I wouldn't I wouldn't take him back for the world.
But it has also assisted me with what I began
to see as a little more clarity.

Speaker 4 (28:01):
And direction for band of brothers, and so it wasn't
enough to just go on these retreats periodically with Canyon Pathways.
I needed to continue to do what God was calling
me to do here in this city with the men
of this city, and continue down this path of inspiring
and bringing men in and rethinking about even the thematic

(28:23):
approach to this because one of the models, the main
motto for Canyon Pathways is live like sons, to lead
like fathers, and the posture and position and disposition of
sonship is something that I found I wasn't given enough
credence to and I find other men don't as well.
We like the title of father and pastor, or engineer

(28:47):
or lawyer or entrepreneur. We've met all these other titles, husband, businessman, politician,
We've got all these titles we like to wear. But
the most prominent title we have is a son of
God because its us reminds us of our adoption, which
means we've been extended grace and mercy that was undeserving

(29:08):
of us to be adopted into the family. And as
a son, we're also an heir, a joint heir with
Christ Jesus.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
Well, what does that mean and how must that inform
my day to day interactions.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
Well, sonship is necessary for us to understand what it
means to be a father. If I can't be a
good son, how am I going to be a good father?
And a good son? Said at the feet of the
Father to learn the wisdom that the Father has to offer,
And we know that is the whole posture of our
walk of faith with our heavenly Father. We're always supposed
to be entering into the holiest of holies and sitting

(29:41):
at the feet of the Father and gleaning from him
such that we know how to live the life.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
That He's purposed for us.

Speaker 4 (29:47):
And the other side of this is we must understand
as a son, it makes us a prince.

Speaker 2 (29:53):
We are royalty. And I don't think.

Speaker 4 (29:55):
We give enough credence to what this posture means in
representation to who we are in God. Our elder brother,
who sits at the right hand of the Father making
it a session for us, would want us to realize
the level of love that our Father has for us.
He says, I want to withhold no good thing from you.
He says, I own all the hills and all the

(30:16):
cattle upon these hills.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
He says, I want to give you the kingdom.

Speaker 4 (30:20):
He says, fear not, little flocking Luke, I want to
the Father has promised to give you the kingdom. The
kingdom is ours if we'll walk in our true identity
and understand that there's purpose connected to it.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
I'm coming to understand.

Speaker 4 (30:35):
That this that I was begrudgingly walking into was purpose
for my life, such that not only are we about
to do our first Man of Brothers United and Nirobi
Kenya of all places coming up June twentieth of this year,
but I just got a text two days ago a
guy asking me to do one in Denver, Colorado. I'm

(30:56):
not asking anybody to ask me to come anywhere to
do this. This was brought to me and asked would
I'd be willing to go there and do it. I'm like, well,
if they would want to. I don't know if anybody
would want this in another country. I'm still trying to
figure out how to do it right where we are locally,
because still I don't have the numbers i'd like to have.
I don't have the diversity that i'd like to have

(31:18):
when we do what we do, and I'm still trying
to determine what else might there be connected to this
beyond the two events that we do every six months.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
And so as those.

Speaker 4 (31:29):
Questions are being formed, now I'm asked to going to Nairobi.
Now I've got an inquiry from Denver, Colorado, and in Nairobi,
they've never done anything like this before. Nairobi Chapel, the
church that's going to house this event, has fifteen hundred members, huge,
huge outdoor tent that can literally literally put at least

(31:51):
the twelve hundred people underneath it is going to host
this event, but they have told me they've never done
a citywide men's retreat before. That's the churches are pretty
side love like we are here, and they're pretty connected
to their denominations, but there isn't a robust even like here.
Two thirds of their churches are women and children, just

(32:11):
like it is here, and so they have a desire
to be more impactful with men. And one of the
things that we have been facilitating here is that we
are responsible for how a city gets formed and what
it's going to look.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
Like from generation to generation.

Speaker 4 (32:27):
If we can't step up and honor who we're supposed
to be as men leading going back and taking territory
for the Kingdom of God. Wherever our feet show tread,
the Bible says that's territory we're supposed to be taking
for the Kingdom of God. We're supposed to be pushing
back the darkness, not the darkness expanding. So we've got
to take more ownership for who it is that we
are created to be and what it is that we're

(32:49):
created to do. It's very clear in Genesis in chapter
one what our responsibility is. We're supposed to have dominion
over the earth, not one another, over the earth and
the things that God has established for us. We must
take ownership of the more responsible and have more responsibility
for what it is that He wants to do. And
so we're gonna take that message of sonship to Nairobi

(33:11):
and we're gonna challenge them as we've challenged one another here,
what does it really mean to walk in this identity
as the son of God? And how do we allow
it to inform all the other roles that we like
to wear, and.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
How do we use this to impact this city as
a whole.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
So I got to jump in and go back just
a few steps here, because you talked about this this
man retreating things that you're doing here in Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
When you when you said that you.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
Don't have the numbers that you want, this is interesting
because you're talking about men and our desire and it's
this huge really it's a search for significance that we
have as men, just pursued sue, go go, go, go,
go more and more, and so it's it's it's something
that that it's like being going downhill in the current.

(34:08):
You're right, you're almost yeah.

Speaker 7 (34:13):
Because I've been a part of the retreats and although
they don't happens as often as I think they should happen,
when you say you don't have the numbers, I gotta
question you about.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
That about your expectation or your desire, because when I've
gone to the retreats, just in the room, there's been
ninety percent capacity as far as what the room could handle.
And I'm saying ninety percent. So just me in my
logical mind, I'm saying, what is he talking about here?

Speaker 2 (34:43):
And have the numbers? What you talking about? Bigger rooms
that are going to hold hold more men.

Speaker 4 (34:50):
Bottom line, I'm a more diverse group of men age
stage as well as ethnicity. There's more diversity in the
city than what's represented right.

Speaker 8 (35:01):
Now when we gather, and that is my heart and
my desire to not have the silos that we've established
in American culture and Christendom that are too disconnected and
not really understanding. We're a band of brothers and we're
supposed to be united, and there are far more things

(35:25):
that we are unified upon than the slices of the
pie where we may have division over the challenges that
we've faced socially or theologically, and the only way we're
going to alter that is with intentionality.

Speaker 2 (35:41):
And I think that there's.

Speaker 4 (35:42):
More opportunity as we continue to facilitate this message.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
So it's amazing then that so your vision for a
band of brothers tied in to the expectation of the
impact is based on what you see the needs of
the city are the population of men and this kind
of thing. So for me, I got to challenge you
again just.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
A follow up.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
Question as far as the numbers. If you're saying the
numbers are not what you want, what I'm saying is,
if the numbers aren't what you want, why a.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
One day retreat. Well, because we're men and we've overscheduled ourselves.

Speaker 4 (36:24):
We've over prioritized things that require our time in order
to keep the standard of living that we operate out of.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
So it's difficult to get more than one day. Now
for me, I've.

Speaker 4 (36:37):
Made the commitment to go to canyon pathways where I
can get four or five days and disconnect from the
day to day life altogether. To spend that time, I
need to hear from God and hear from Mother, like
minded brothers who are also seeking the same Father, oftentimes
for the same reasons, just different scenarios in different ages

(36:57):
and stages of life. Here, it's more difficult because we're
too close to home to get multiple days. There's always
there's the busyness that you just described on the day itself,
where you cut the day in half to have multiple priorities.
Imagine trying to get guys to do more than one day.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
I see, because they're close to home, it's very easy
to get swept back into the current because close in to.

Speaker 4 (37:24):
The priorities that we've set for ourselves that may or
may not be the priorities God has set for ourselves,
and we have to challenge ourselves one day.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
I mean, that's what the Sabbath is.

Speaker 4 (37:35):
All about We're supposed to be taking a day just
for God every week, the entire day. And I didn't
fully understand what that really meant, even though I read
and I can understand what I've read about how others
have done it until I actually went to Israel and
watched them do it. The whole city shuts down. I

(37:55):
don't have to worry about influences of other people doing
stuff I don't get to do on this day because
the whole city shut down. Nobody's shopping, nobody's doing the recreation,
nobody's just out and about hanging and chilling.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
Everybody's honoring the Sabbath.

Speaker 4 (38:12):
So now if I'm concerned about popular opinion or.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
Culture, I don't have that to concern myself.

Speaker 4 (38:20):
I don't have temptations that are going to lead me
somewhere else on the day I'm supposed to be resting,
because the whole community is resting.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
I gotta tell you about a conversation I had with
a friend of mine. He's an Orthodoxy Jew. He asked me,
what's the greatest thing that God created? And without even
thinking about it, and I say a woman, And I
asked him, what's your opinion? And he said, the Sabbath day.

(38:52):
And this is a guy who's super busy, has a
phenomenally large podcast. He said, the Sabbath day is everything
to me. The Saturday from sundown to Sunday, I think
is what they do at sundown, I think, he says,

(39:14):
I turn my phone off. There's no television, there's no internet,
there's no nothing. There's me, my wife, my children, and God.
It is my favorite time of the week, the Sabbath day.

Speaker 4 (39:31):
If I put one hundred men in a room in America,
in this city, how many of them are going to say.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
That I don't do it.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
And I know on Sunday mornings, I work first thing
in the morning, and then I have church, so I'm preaching,
and then the needs of the people afterward, and then
it's possibly going to work that afternoon. And so I
know there's not a single day that.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
I shut off my phone.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
If I take a day off, I'll try to distance myself.

Speaker 2 (40:02):
Usually at Tuesday or Wednesday is when I take the
day off.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
I'll try to distance myself and try to resist. But
it's still binging and blinging, and people are still calling.
And on the day off, I'm assessing whether or not
that's a need for me to come out of mind.
But there's no boom cut off. It doesn't matter what happens.
I'm out made God and family. That never happens.

Speaker 4 (40:27):
Guilty is charge and that's our challenge.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
And that's what we have to get into the hearts
of men.

Speaker 4 (40:32):
If we can't take a day for him as just man,
to set aside whatever the other things that we would
be doing on that day, to really just offer him
us amongst other brothers in Christ, such that we can
get new.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
Downloads from him. I you know, as I've.

Speaker 4 (40:51):
Been processing through this for the last couple of years,
what is the more? What would men actually be willing
to do in a manner in which it would prove
beneficial to them if they won't create consistency with it?

(41:14):
And so the next step has to be something that
there's going to be some consistency otherwise where's the benefit?

Speaker 1 (41:25):
So with this platform, the band of brothers, what's what
is what's been your what's been your hope as far
as what you hope to accomplish, Because because you can
crawl across the pond, I mean, so this idea of sabbath.

Speaker 2 (41:49):
And rest, like I don't know you. This seems like expansion.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
This don't seem like a rest because you're going overseas
now and then somebody's calling from Denver.

Speaker 2 (41:59):
What's sure? What do you hope to accomplish with the
right now?

Speaker 4 (42:03):
It's literally about each person that shows up on that
day being challenged to look deeper within themselves as to
who God is inspiring them to become as a son,
and to take that back to the roles and responsibilities.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
That they have and to the men's ministries that they
operate in.

Speaker 4 (42:29):
For those that do, because some don't, which is another indictment,
we need to challenge ourselves too.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
Are we in.

Speaker 4 (42:39):
Accountability processes with other like minded men such that we're
continuing to be Iron shopping Iron says that we're continuing
to grow now. One of the things that we do
with Carryon Pathways is that there are weekly calls that
the men who've been on one of these retreats, no
matter where it's been in the world, who get on

(43:01):
a call and we offer one another time for updates.
Are what are we doing? What do you need to
be prayed for? What challenge are you facing? How can
we pray for you? It's only an hour some of
those simple things, and it's it's on a zoom so
that we can see one another. We're face timing, if

(43:22):
you will, and a new technology because we say they
face to face. It's nowhere, it's here to stay.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
It is.

Speaker 4 (43:29):
So that's one of the things that we can incorporate.
But ultimately, when you talk about going across the waters
to Africa, we're going into a city of men who
are being challenged with day to day life and the
desires to find themselves in quite frankly more Western cultural
elements that provide more comfort and convenience to day to

(43:50):
day life, such that we have to continue to challenge
them about the very basic simplicity of are you evolving
by trusting in God's word, feeding from God's word, being
a student of God's word, and then living that word
for your roles that you play husband, father, son, brother, friend,

(44:15):
all these interactions relationally is at the core of it.
Your son should and are you aligned that then to
inform your behavior in these environments such that you are impactful.
Your peculiar As this holy nation, we're supposed to be peculiar.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
We're supposed to be a light that people are.

Speaker 4 (44:36):
Drawn to the supposed to be coming to us for
questions as to why are you so calm in the
midst of this chaos and confusion? How is it that
you are operating in such a manner of being blessed
dispositionally as much as whatever it might produce materially, such
that it's peculiar to the people.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
Who are struggling. Are we living out this? That is
our walk of faith?

Speaker 4 (44:59):
Su The testimony is much easier when we're living the
life genuinely and we take the time to refill ourselves
when we become depleted, because oftentimes when we don't Sabbath,
we're operating on empty.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
But we know what to do, so we do what
we do, but.

Speaker 4 (45:17):
We do it without power because we haven't refilled ourselves.
And then we're struggling when we have limited results because
we're hoping for something more. We're believing the word says
something more, but we haven't plugged into the power source
that's going to empower us to get more.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
Ouch yeah, say man I say ouch say yeah. This yeah.
This whole challenge of the.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
Sabbath day just in ministry, just it's it's it's it's
so easy to just get pulled into the current and
it's go, go go swim, swim, swims swim, and you
you don't find it easy.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
To do that.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
What you just mention, what's been the greatest challenge for
you in this pursuit of band of Brothers?

Speaker 4 (46:12):
Well, probably my own journey. First the fight to do
it because I didn't want to. You didn't feel like
you were qualified. No, yeah, didn't feel like others would

(46:37):
want it either, and the way.

Speaker 2 (46:40):
That they have.

Speaker 4 (46:42):
Didn't know I'd have the support from Pastor Freddie and
Pastor Jackie the way that I have.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
Because we started off with.

Speaker 4 (46:50):
Four speakers the first two times that we did so,
I'd always choose a fourth outside of the three of us.
That was different and it just there wasn't the connection
because because Pastor Freddy and Pastor Jackie and I all
have history, sometimes it's collective. Sometimes they had it without me,
and so on and so forth.

Speaker 9 (47:08):
You know them while I have known them for a while,
and that camaraderie has created a synergy where we will
get together and pray before and they allow me to
download from the Lord each time we do this what

(47:29):
the theme is and then.

Speaker 4 (47:31):
I parse off to them each of their sections and
every time God seamlessly weaves these together in ways that
you would think we have spent far more time than
we actually have going through what we go through to
deliver what we deliver on the day. But it's because

(47:51):
God has knitted our hearts together by His spirit and
ways that allow us. Like starting five on a basketball team,
they've played together for so long now their tendencies, they
don't have to think about that, they know that the
other has. There's a trust level that's there even when
times are difficult, especially for when times are difficult, that

(48:12):
we're leaning on one another, not divided from one another.
That there's just this gift that God has given to
us in this opportunity. Hence that Pastor Jackie's going over
to Nairobi as well. Pastor Freddie won't because of some
health issues, but Pastor Michael type Mumbey, who was from

(48:32):
Zimbabwe is filling in for him, who has been a
part of all of these events as well, and assistant
Pastor Freddie with his role each time that he is
doing it. And the last one, the one that you
were just at that we had for the first time
we had at Zion Global Ministry's Church, which I don't
know if you experienced it or not because you missed

(48:53):
the first thing.

Speaker 2 (48:53):
In the morning, but I can tell you this.

Speaker 4 (48:56):
Was the most spirited and collective praise worship expression.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
Of all of the events. This was the seventh one.

Speaker 4 (49:04):
None of the other sixth priors to this was there
such a unified expression of worship amongst the men. And
it started with Pastor Freddy, who played the keys, but
he brought up a.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
Gentleman named Eric. I forget Eric's nas nine, forgive me
Eric for that. But Eric came up and led worship,
and I kid you not Henry.

Speaker 4 (49:23):
From his first note, from his first note, the anointing
on his life was expressed, it was experienced, it was exposed,
it was modeled, and he has such a bravado in
his voice, his tone that it just captured the whole room.
And when it was because you know, we got you know,

(49:46):
you know, we try to be fluent, but we've got
time that we set up on a calendar for how
the day must unfold.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
And so this is a certain time we set for
praise and worship and we've typically we've pretty much off
at the time.

Speaker 4 (50:01):
Now, Pastor Freddie is typically the one who's always leading
it and doing the vocals and playing the keys, so
he's aware of the time and he pretty much stays
within the time.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
Eric has no clue to the time.

Speaker 4 (50:12):
Oh boy, Not that that was an issue. It was
quite theopposite, quite frankly, because when he did, when I
did go up and he did slowly transition back to
his seat, he kept singing, and Pastor Freddie stopped playing,
and he kept singing, and he kept singing with such
a passion that the guys stopped at first when they
saw him leave, and Pastor Freddie stopped playing the keys,

(50:36):
but as he sang by himself a cappella, the guys
began to slowly start singing and chiming in again. Next
thing I know, I'm standing up front, and I set
the microphone down because I clearly know we're not about
the transition. It ain't time to move yet. It was clear,
and you could feel the presence of the Lord, and
you could feel the guy's hearts experiencing the moment such

(50:59):
that they weren't ready to move on either.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
And so then.

Speaker 4 (51:02):
Pastor Phradates just started playing in again, and it just
continued until it was time for it to subside, and
I don't even know what time that was.

Speaker 2 (51:12):
I was no longer concerned about what the time was.
We were in the.

Speaker 4 (51:16):
Presence of the Lord, and I wasn't going to stifle
that and not continue to permeate throughout the rest of
the day.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
I love that because it speaks to the challenge that
you talked about, this idea that you don't believe you're
enough or qualified or the right one right.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
That whole thing hinges upon.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
This area that I've seen, just especially as ministers, but
just as people in general. The amount of time that
we spend in worship and connecting with God, I find.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
Is just just.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
Speaking for me personally, wholly insufficient, just to be able
to get to the place where prayer and praise can
usher in the presence of God, to the point where
you actually hear in our present, to hear what He
wants to do next, not just at this meeting, but

(52:23):
in your life as well. When you can get men
to worship, and it's you talked about the Book of Genesis,
I'm very I'm more than a preacher, I'm a worshiper,
and I've just found that One of the most important
parts of the initial book in Genesis is the part

(52:46):
where Adam walked with God during.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
The cool of the day. There's a fellowship there and
and there was a connection.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
And I found that happened during worship times where even
if I was by myself sometimes I remember just being
in the car and having to pull over just during
times where worship music was going on, and there was
a connection between me and the heart of God. I
wish that would happen more with us as man. I
think it would make us better leaders and absolutely better

(53:21):
aware of the fact that we've been called to do
something in spite of our qualifications, because I'm a clear
believer that God never calls the qualify, but He always
qualifies the called, and those things are founded upon and
strengthened through our worship.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
Sounds like you guys experienced that that day.

Speaker 4 (53:44):
Yeah, And so we're excited about the possibilities with this
opportunity in Arobi, and then even this question about Denver.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
Clearly I have to spend some more time.

Speaker 4 (54:04):
On my sabbath assessing what's God doing. Part of this
for me in Africa is that in two thousand and nine,
the late doctor Miles Monroe prophesied.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
Over my life and the life of my wife. And
one of the things he said, you met doctor Monroe.
Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (54:30):
A couple occasions, but this one particular occasion when he
came here to Cincinnati, he prayed. He literally in a
meeting where were over six hundred people there. I'm the
only one up front on stage, and then my wife
accompanies me, and he he looks at me because I
had handed in an offering that he had requested.

Speaker 2 (54:51):
And he looked at me and said, that was hard
for you, wasn't it. I was like, wow, was that obvious?
He said that from these people? Yeah? Yeah, because I
was the last one up.

Speaker 4 (55:01):
It took me so long to realize that everybody that
the people have gotten the baskets and people were in
the back and here I come with my check probably
probably like this because it was the largest thing. Is
the largest amount we had ever written for in our
Christian ministry.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
Walko, you know what I mean. So, and he took it.
He looked at me and then he said, what do
you do.

Speaker 4 (55:24):
At the time, I was running the homeless shelters running
He got some homeless shelter in the drug we have
a program for man.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
And he looks at me and his eyes get bigger
and he looks at the crowd and he says.

Speaker 4 (55:32):
And I'm like, this man runs your city's homeless shelter.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
Did you want to hear that? And I'm like, where's
he going with this? He says, where are all the
ministers and pastors in him? Stand up?

Speaker 4 (55:44):
And they'll still up. He said, I need you on
to get to know this man. And this was at
somebody else's church. Well, I'm mentioned, but he asked the
pastor to come up. He says, you need to get
to know this brother. He runs the men's homeless shelter
in your city.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
You all of y'all need We're gonna pray for him.

Speaker 4 (56:02):
All of y'all need to get to know him and
what this man's work is doing.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
He looked at me and he said, brother, because of.

Speaker 4 (56:10):
Your heart for the poor and working with the men
and men or a homeless, you are never going to
be poor day.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
In your life.

Speaker 4 (56:21):
He says, I'm going to pray for you, and I
want to prophesy over your life. He said, because you
have a spirit of Joseph on you. And he says,
I am going to pray a double portion of every
blessing that God has put on my life, for writing,
for speaking, for leadership. He says, kings and queens and
people of leadership are going to come to you because
God's going to give you solutions for the poor.

Speaker 2 (56:42):
And he's like, who is that next to you? I said, like,
that's my wife.

Speaker 4 (56:45):
She's in the ministry with me. And he looked at
her and he said, you have the spirit of debor
on you. He says, I can see it. He says,
you're going to command an army of women. They are
going to follow you. God's going to lead.

Speaker 2 (56:56):
He's like, you're supposed to be writing books, aren't you?
And she was like yeah.

Speaker 4 (57:00):
He was like, everything that you have written down already,
that you got on notes, because you're a thinker, all
that stuff you've got written, you need to bring that
together and you need to write.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
You need to write the books to God.

Speaker 4 (57:12):
He's like, I am going to pray a double portion
of what God has given me on your lives so
that you can do even greater things than I did
with mine.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
I'm dumbfounded.

Speaker 4 (57:26):
So when this opportunity came to me and this brother
from Zimbabwe says, why aren't you doing this in Birobi, Kenya.
I'm like, well, because nobody's asked me. But if God's willing,
I mean, you know, I'll go. And next thing you know,
you started making some phone calls and the door is
open and we're going. But that's always in the back

(57:49):
of my mind because I'm not always.

Speaker 2 (57:55):
I've not seen a path to that, so it's not
something that I've had top of mind.

Speaker 4 (58:00):
But it came to me when he said it, and
he said it at the end of our October Band
of Brother's event, and so I knew there was something
God was trying to speak to me about.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
That's amazing. I love it.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
Dearly missed doctor Miles Monroe A why just a great brother? Yes,
oh man, successes from your Band of Brothers' efforts, tell
us about it.

Speaker 4 (58:41):
Repeat attenders, people like yourself will see the value and
come back. Even if you have to split the day,
You're not gonna.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
Miss I'm never gonna miss one.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
I'm in y'all, listen.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
I'm enriched every time I go and I only get
to experience half of it. My complaint is always why
every three months at three every three months sixty six six.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
We only do it twice a year. It's crazy.

Speaker 1 (59:15):
That's been my complaint about this dude right here, this
dude right here, right there. Why more we need more
of this? I need to be inviting more men because
of my how my life has been enriched every time
I go that table.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
Sitting at the table.

Speaker 1 (59:31):
Oh my, I took a picture just because the table
is so beautiful.

Speaker 2 (59:38):
But I'll never get it out of my mind.

Speaker 1 (59:41):
The idea of sitting at the table, he prepares a
table for me, and the idea of just sitting at
the table and.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
Fellowshipping and supping with God. It is beautiful.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
I'll never get I'm always gonna be there. I ain't
going over the pond. I ain't going to Nairobi. I
ain't going I ain't doing anything. And I just saying
my ministry, people like him who feel called over the park,
It's just say, this is not my ministry.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
My minstry is to give and support. I'm going to
do do that. The other three pieces are attend Ricky
who come.

Speaker 4 (01:00:17):
Who's come down twice from Michigan, Isaac who just came
up from Indianapolis.

Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
Ricky somebody drives from Michigan. That's three and a half
four hours and where you're from.

Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
So he's from Upper Michigan, Lansing, sacking Off somewhere.

Speaker 4 (01:00:31):
Uh no, if he's doing the speed limit is five,
but he probably gets here in four.

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
He's coming from Grand Rapids, Grand Rapids. I was born
in Grand Rapids. Okay, wow. For the men's for the
men's retreat, he drives for one.

Speaker 4 (01:00:45):
Day for the day. Yeah, and there's something who come
from Dayton. And all this is through word of mouth,
through connections and relationships. The fact that we are getting
new first time people each time as well as repeat attendees.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
So this brother who drives from Michigan, he's not from
your tree. He's not your disciple. He's someone else, is okay,
And you used to live here, gotcha? She lives abroad
now and he drives from Michigan.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
For the retreat and you only have it twice a year.
That's myself more than that.

Speaker 4 (01:01:23):
So it's over three grand when we were having a
Great Wolf Lodge each time, so that's six grand a year.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
It's got to come from somewhere.

Speaker 4 (01:01:36):
Previously, a form a relationship we had in a partnership
that was an that was an open funnel that is
closed now. So that's why we had this most recent
one design global at the church. The cost was considerably different.
So there may be some investigations about how often. But
you know, you start looking at the holidays or you

(01:01:59):
start looking at the summer. We're dispersed. That's a much
much challenging time. So that's why we're in October and
April right now. Well, we'll see what else the Lord
is doing, because right now what he's done is he's
opened up Nairobi and he has them for asking and
so if the next step is other cities, then that's

(01:02:23):
something we will investigate as it relates to here.

Speaker 2 (01:02:27):
I to keep bringing and listening.

Speaker 1 (01:02:30):
Wow, I mean, I'm surprised that money is a thing
for you because I mean, after all, he's a preacher.
You know, y'all know preachers ain't about nothing but the moneys.
I mean, you know, we just we just bought that money.
That's all we in it for. I mean us shut
the door, shut ulcers, close the doors. We just gonna
get that money today. We're gonna all leave you together.

Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
But I did.

Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
I'm sorry, just I don't understand the problem with money.
I mean, I get up at work at four o'clock
in the morning, and I go and preach, and then
I go to work at that did evening because the
bill's got to be paid. So somebody is about the money.
I just ain't found it yet, and you absoutely hadn't
found it yet either. Need to spend more time in worship.

(01:03:12):
Maybe the Lord of leaders to way his money is.
So these repeat attendees. You got folks that drive from
the Michigan that's five hours.

Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
That shows value that they see in what you're doing.

Speaker 1 (01:03:32):
One more, what's another excess personally for you success that
you've experienced.

Speaker 4 (01:03:39):
Well, I think it's the testimonies of the men of
moments that they're having the honesty of being willing to say,
I have to change this. Whether it's their personal walk,
or it's a relationship inside the matterage of the family,
or they are not really viewing their walk in ways

(01:04:02):
that they're evangelizing and their places of influence. Just a
variety of different testimonies of them saying I must go
deeper is probably what's most impactful right now. The fact
that they're willing to come and continue to glean and
fellowship and share stories.

Speaker 2 (01:04:25):
Its powerful.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
So for the men who will be listening to this
podcast and who've never been to a band of Brothers retreat,
what would you want them to.

Speaker 4 (01:04:46):
Know that there's a responsibility that we all have and
we must be accountable to the gifts and the purpose
and the car on our lives that requires us to
one realize. You know, as Jethro told Moses, you can't

(01:05:08):
do it this way. You're going to kill yourself. And
then even God gave him Aaron and her in the
battle such that they would hold his arms up because
if when he got weary, if you let him down,
they would lose the battle. We light most of the
time the fact that people are counting on us. The
difficulty is is that are we counting on God to

(01:05:29):
deliver for these people or are we operating in are
striving in our humanity? And we all have to ask
ourselves that and coming together to abandon Brothers United Retreat
for a day is going to allow us an opportunity
to hear from God, hear from other brothers of God,

(01:05:50):
and to challenge ourselves to be better, to be better
more than doing better, but to be the first look
internally at who am I in Christ?

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
Am I really taking this walk of faith? Seriously?

Speaker 4 (01:06:05):
Am I really a good soldier committed even in spite
of the suffering that comes along with this journey? Where
if I created a place of comfort and convenience and
I'm just going through the motions of my faith, I.

Speaker 2 (01:06:18):
Know where to go on Sundays.

Speaker 4 (01:06:20):
I'm connected to Christian people, I do Christian things, I
have Christian thoughts.

Speaker 2 (01:06:26):
But am I an agent of change?

Speaker 4 (01:06:31):
Am I really understanding what it means to be a
son such that I can be a better father? And
that extends itself beyond my biological seed? Each of us
have a responsibility to live like sons so that we
can lead like fathers. Because we're leading, whether we take
the charge of mental we're leading. People are watching, other

(01:06:52):
men are watching, younger folk are watching. We're always gleaning
from one another directly and directly in this life we
call humanity.

Speaker 2 (01:07:01):
The question is how are you leading?

Speaker 4 (01:07:03):
Are you shining a light or is your light under
a bushel because you're either hiding it or you're unaware that.

Speaker 2 (01:07:10):
You've gotten luke warm.

Speaker 4 (01:07:12):
Coming into a band of brothers, United Opportunities is going
to challenge you to look deeper. And so if you're
serious about that and you want to step out of
your comfort zone, you want to be challenged, then you
want to join us for one of these opportunities. You do.

Speaker 1 (01:07:31):
Want to join him from one of these opportunities. My
life has been impacted greatly every time I've attended water marks,
just water marks left in my life from every Band
of Brothers meeting because I want to be better. Oh man,

(01:07:58):
So I just got one last question for you as
we bring this thing to a close. Cincinnati twice a year,
Denver is calling. And now you're talking about going over
the pond to the mother land in Africa, to in

(01:08:20):
Chu Shipupo, whatever city that was that part that one
over there.

Speaker 2 (01:08:28):
What do you see in the future? Really just leaning
on God for what's next.

Speaker 4 (01:08:36):
If this is in the city's then we'll continue to
avail ourselves to wherever He's challenging us to go. That's
really ultimately my goal to be sensitive to his leading

(01:08:56):
and also to make sure that I am challenging myself
in the areas which I challenge others, and continuing to
be transparent and humble through this process. And I'm grateful
for Pastor Freddie and Pastor Jackie and even Pastor Michael Dafemombe,

(01:09:17):
because we have given one another license to be authentic,
to be genuine, to be transparent and vulnerable, such that
we're continuing to humble ourselves ultimately before the King, ultimately
constantly seeking what does God want with these experiences and
with the direction which He's going to lead us down.

Speaker 2 (01:09:41):
That's that's that's the that's the skinny of it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:46):
I love it. I love it. Are you when you
so this next event in Nairobi.

Speaker 2 (01:09:57):
Yestre twentieth, Nairobi, Are you.

Speaker 1 (01:09:59):
Going to make that available to us here on this
side of the pond?

Speaker 2 (01:10:04):
Are you going to live stream? Do you know?

Speaker 4 (01:10:07):
No, that's a very good question. Nobody's asked that question before.
Then it causes me to be the first the first.
Let me think about that. We have purposely not done
that here locally for people in the US or wherever,
because we want.

Speaker 1 (01:10:24):
You to come got you. And then also there's a
there's a privacy like and intimacy just you have to
be there because I'm telling you there's there's there's ways
that guys will share personally and privately with other men
that they won't share it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:40):
That's just just trusting believe that that's true. Ladies, Okay,
that's true.

Speaker 1 (01:10:44):
That's why you want to be encouraging your men in
your lives that you love to be a part of
this event. So I definitely could understand why the live
stream wouldn't be made available.

Speaker 4 (01:10:53):
Yeah, all right, And you know they're they're anticipating to
hundred forty to three hundred men in that roovily, So
this is gonna be a different setting than the intimacy
of fifty men, and we'll have to see how that
plays out before we worry about streaming. Wow, it wouldn't
surprise me if that question pops up.

Speaker 2 (01:11:13):
Good well.

Speaker 1 (01:11:15):
I pray for your success and for God to continue
to expand your territory because I've experienced this band of
brothers meeting and fellowship, and I've also enjoyed walking just
for a short time. I have known you for a

(01:11:36):
long time, but I've just enjoyed our friendship, being able
to take off the pastor role and share with somebody
that I know, you know, the things that I say
with you will stay with you, and that somebody is
willing to be transparent as well.

Speaker 2 (01:11:55):
It's a powerful.

Speaker 1 (01:11:56):
Thing, and I hope that other men and we'll experience
that as well.

Speaker 2 (01:12:03):
So as we close, look into your camera and speak
to my powerful.

Speaker 1 (01:12:07):
Living partners and everybody who will be watching experiencing this podcast.
Contact information, all your information that you've want to sharing party.

Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
Well, that's a very good question.

Speaker 4 (01:12:21):
You can reach me at Sherm dot Bradley at gmail
dot com and on social media platforms. If you want
more information about the Band of Brothers. There's a Band
of Brothers United Facebook page as well where you can
log on and we like to put updates and simple
things out there. Most importantly, though, ask yourself, what can

(01:12:45):
you do to draw closer and deeper in your walk
of faith with our Lord and saying, Jesus Christ, there
is more. There's always more. We'll never exhaust the knowledge
of the Word of God or the expressions for which
we can offer ourselves in praise and in worship and
gratitude and thanksgiving. There's always more. The question is what

(01:13:05):
are you willing to invest such that you can receive
and then continue to draw closer and grow deeper.

Speaker 2 (01:13:13):
We offer you that.

Speaker 4 (01:13:14):
Opportunity in just one day, to be challenged to look
at your life a little differently, to look at your
walk of faith in a way that you will find
out you're not alone. Whatever it is you might think
you're wrestling with, you're gonna find even if you don't
divulge it in the room, you're gonna hear somebody else
divulge it even though you're not alone. And that's one
of the beautiful things about this walk of faith. God
doesn't want us wallowing in shame. It doesn't want us

(01:13:35):
walk around in guilt. He wants us free. The only
way to be free is to be transparent and vulnerable,
and we get to do that with one another and
it stays in the room. That's one of the reasons
why we don't record as well while that question was posed,
because we want men to be free to share, and
that's why we do it with just men where we
can be vulnerable with like minded men. So you can

(01:13:56):
reach me a shrm dot Bradley at gmail dot and
on all of the social media platforms, and you can
go to Band of Brothers United on Facebook and message
me and I'll give you more information. Our next event
is going to be October fourth and Cincinnati June twentieth.
Pray for us for June twentieth and I Robie because
we're taking new territory. We're going into unchartered waters. We're

(01:14:19):
going into a community that has never experienced what it
is that we're offering them their own words. They've never
done a citywide men's retreat. So we thank God for
this opportunity. But we need your prayers, we need your support,
and we'll be in touch soon with more information about
October fourth coming up.

Speaker 2 (01:14:37):
God bless you.

Speaker 1 (01:14:40):
For Sherman Bradley and the Band of Brothers Men Retreat.
I'm Henry Flowers, Powerful Living Outreach Ministries.

Speaker 2 (01:14:49):
I ain't going nowhere. I'm coming back.