May 29, 2025 • 22 mins
On this episode of Voices of Legacy, we welcome Tim Brentlinger—respected leader, dedicated family man, and voice of conviction. Join us as he shares insights from his journey of faith, the values that shaped his vision, and how he continues to make a lasting impact in the lives of others through service, leadership, and integrity.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Welcome to the Voices of Legacy, where we're honored to
welcome another distinguished guests whose life and body service, leadership,
and unwavering commitment to faith in community. Mister, or should
I say minister Timothy L. How do you pronounce that
last name?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Brelinger?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Rent Laner? Okay, you're a US Army veteran. You've served
three tours. Was it in the United States Army?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yes, I did three one year tours in South and
Central America in the early nineties.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Oh wow, you served the nation with valor. We're so
thankful for that. And you've engaged in civic engagement, in
political environments and in community as well as a graduate
of the University of Toledo. You returned to federal service
following nine to eleven. Tell us more about ten Well.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I was born in Lucas County at the Toledo Hospital.
My parents were residents of Toledo at the time, and
not long after that, my mom was walking to work
and was mugged, and my dad, being the responsible husband
and good father, said we've got to leave the city.
And so not long after that, we wound up in
a small community in Wood County, oh and went to
(01:33):
school out there.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, so you kind of left Toledo, but you didn't
really leave Toledo, right, yeah, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Everything that we needed we had to come to Toledo
or the suburbs for Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah. Wow, that sounds pretty interesting. So you think that
may have been some of what led you into your
military service.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, that and I kind of have a spirit of
wander lost. I just want to go out and experience
things and see new things. Being raised in a small
country town about a mile from home, it was a
large set of woods with a stream that led to
the river, the Maumee River, and many times I would
spend summer days just canvassing and exploring. It was quite
(02:14):
the childhood. Play an army, Oh yeah, nobody plays air force.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Oh you're already starting trouble. Oh boy. So you were
raised here in Lucas County and Wood County area. What
school did you go to?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I went to Otzigo, Oh Okay, and then in the
later years I went to Penna, Penna County Pocational School.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Did you pick up a trade?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I did. It was agriculture, So you.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Went out in the country and you learn how to
tend to the fields. Yep. That's pretty cool. What was
your specialty if you don't mind.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Oh, it was landscaping, design and things of that nature.
That's the area that I shifted towards.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Is that something that your dad did or no, it's a.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Time my mom worked for an agricultural supplier and it
just kind of leaned in that direction. Come to find out,
once I started attending school at Penna, that agricultural supplier
that my mom worked for was the supplier that Penna
went to for supplies. So it's kind of a small
world experience.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
So you've got a love for nature pretty much.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, I do love being outdoors.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yeah, that's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. So what led
you from that into military service then to community I
almost say activism to a certain degree. I know you
probably see it as low key, but you really do
seem to have a heart for the community.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yes, I do.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
I do.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
It's really heartbreaking a lot of the stories that we
see coming out of our community here in the last
few months. Being a minister of the Christian faith, I
take a lot of my directives directly from this scripture,
and we are to have a heart for individuals as
well as a heart for communities, and so that's where
(03:59):
a lot of it comes from, is through my obedience
to the.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Scriptures or obedience to your call.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yes, you could make that argument.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Also, Yeah, that's pretty cool. Oh that makes a lot
of sense. So can you share some of your experience
while you were in the midstrandle were jumping from subject
to subject, but it seems like they're all kind of related.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
My duty station was in Panama, which has been in
the news a lot in the last few months. It
was a hidden gem. Very few people in the military
that I've come across and knew about it. And I
was originally supposed to do one year there and I
ended up extending to do two more tours. And it
(04:40):
was a paradise loss. You could go when you're off
duty time. You could go scuba, scuba diving, snorkeling, all
kinds of water sports, surfing, deep sea fishing. You could
go in a couple of areas. They had rivers where
you could still go panning for gold, and that was
a neat variance.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Also, should I asked, did you get any.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
No, No, I had a couple buddies that did, and
they brought them home in small vials. So yeah, were
you involved.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
If you can tell, you don't have to tell, might
be top secret. With the I guess getting of Manuel Noriega.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Arresting, there's a funny story to that, I think. Yeah.
I got there a year to the night of the
anniversary and flew into Kuman Airport in Panama on a
civilian flight and we got off the airplane, went into
the terminal and we could hear gunfire, and myself and
(05:39):
a couple of other American soldiers, all all of us
in civilian clothes. We're supposed to get picked up by
our home units, but with all the gunfire and everything,
we're wondering what the world's going on? Are they trying
to take Panama back one year after the invasion, and
so we were very scared individuals. We had no idea
what was going in an exercise, no, and we actually
(06:01):
called d embassy and they told us you need to
call your supporting unit. I was like, we just got
in country. We haven't been assigned anywhere yet. So that
was an exercise in futility.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
But wow, So you returned to service thereafter many years later,
after nine to eleven, yep.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I was in the National Guard for a while and
attending school at the University of Toledo. And then nine
to eleven happened, And two to three days later I
get a phone call and I'd been recalled federal service.
So by October sixth, the unit that I was in
was completely packed up and we were on a bus.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
D it out. Well, it sounds interesting and possibly scary.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, Another neat story to that was we were in
our buses and we were leaving Bowling Green and traveling
out seventy five South towards where we were going to
end up being and we had police escort cars and motorcycles,
and at some point the motorcycles just took off, you know,
(07:12):
you could see them. They gunned it and were gone.
And then a few moments later they were on the
last overpass in Wood County and they were all sitting
there rendering a salute as we passed.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
It was a different time, it was I think everybody
remembered where they were. So with all of that service
behind you, I guess that's possibly what led you, and
you tell me to public service. You did run for
public office at one.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Time, party office, not public office. I ran for State
Central Committee with the Republican party, and on the second
attempt I did win that position. So I believe the
title is Ohio Republican Party State Central Committee Member for
Senate District too.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
So you think that might lead to public office sometime
in the future.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I'm not sure. I'm not sure. There are a lot
of things that happen behind the scenes. You have to
gain nomination, you have to there's all kinds of things,
secure funding for the campaign and all that stuff. There
are a lot of moving parts, and I'm looking.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
We've had been blessed to have quite a few mayors
and at least one elected official who's currently serving right now.
And it seems as though in those lives, in those stories,
the common denominator is they didn't really seek the office.
The office kind of came after them. Do you think
(08:42):
that may be the direction that you mad. I'm not
trying to lead you in it, but it just seems
that way with what you do.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
I haven't ruled it out. No, I haven't ruled out.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I do have four sons at home that we're raising.
It takes a lot of time to raise a family
right and to raise it properly.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
That's four out of five.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, five voice total. Yeah, ones out on his own
already and the other four are still at home.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
So yeah, it sounds like you probably have some pretty
good stories from home. None that I'll share, Oh boy, okay, Well,
you've been in an instrumental in community engagement and participating
in politics as well as in your faith. Wife, have
(09:25):
those intersected?
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Yeah? I came across some documents from the pre Revolutionary
War era, the colonial era, and they were sermons from
that era, and the ministers back then were incredibly active
in politics in this country. And that was an eye
(09:48):
opener to me because in our schools we're told, you know, hey,
when we take government or civic courses in our schools,
we're told there's a separation of church and state and
all of these other things. But when I started to
read more of these doctors uments from that era, it
was like they didn't quite believe that, and that kind
of you know, peeled back the curtain. I started to
look behind and say, hey, what else is out there
(10:10):
that hasn't been talked about?
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, and so it seems as though in that era,
the exercise of faith, at least from the Judeo Christian
point of view, was to allow for every person of
every faith to be here in America. It's kind of
impetus for us even being here in this wonderful country
of ours, to have the freedom to worship however you
(10:33):
see fit, as long as you're not hurting anybody here. Wow.
So faith in ministry your ordained minister? Is that correct? Yes? Yes?
And you were influenced to approach this by what? So
did you have a mentor or I did? Or literally
it was just a call and you asked.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
It was a calling that I have felt from my youth,
but kind of like Jonah, Yeah, I just there was
something inside of me that was relenting and not giving
a kid. Yeah, and it took well into my adult
life until I finally relented and said, Okay, I'll go
ahead and Elsie coordination that.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
You Again, you don't have to answer this question, but
how'd your family feel about that calling?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
It was no surprise for my wife and kids. It
was no surprise. We've attended a couple of different churches
in the region, and in every one of those I
would end up leading Bible studies, morning Bible groups, men,
all kinds of different studies, and it was just a
matter of time and a dear pastor who passed away
(11:40):
a couple of years ago. He's the one who first
approached me and said, have you considered becoming an minister
and being ordained? And yeah, And that's where the that's
where the rubber met the road and we started moving forward.
That process that had that sentiment, that inner pushing that
call had been there for decades. We finally acted on it.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Oh, the call to serve is a great thing. It
really is in every aspect. And it seems like there's
a lot of service in your life which leads us
to our your professional career. What is it? I already
know the answer to the question, but what is it
that you do professionally? Well?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I did have to sign a disclaimer that I couldn't
talk about this stuff. I can say that I'm in
the investments in insurance industry. Gotcha, That's all I can say.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Got you. So you're kind of a insurance and finance
and such. Yeah, yeah, well that's still service. It is.
It is.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
A very famous guy, Dave Ramsey. He said a couple
of times that if they would teach in high schools
what he teaches, then he'd be out of a job.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
And that's kind of where I am. In the same
way as it. I take basic financial principles and share
them with people, and when they see that it would
benefit them by moving forward with a product or service,
then we go ahead. I'm not the kind of guy
that you know there to push hard for a sale
if they don't need the product or service. Thank you
very much. Here's my card. Consider calling you into the future.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
You're not the salesman in the ninja outfit waiting to
pounce on somebody. No, or twist their arm.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
No, No, not at all. If they don't have a
need for the product or service, I don't push it.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
And that's good. And it's good to give a good
information in sales in particular, if you have informations helpful
to them, even if they don't buy from you, you're
making a relationship. Your educational background. You went to the
University of Toledo, which I did.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
I did not finish nine to eleven interrupted that and
I was studying political science and history. That's the direction I.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Was going, Wow, Well you think you'll ever go back.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
I'm currently taking online courses at Liberty University, so it
lends itself more to my current schedule than actually having
and going to a location like University of Toledo, not
that it's bad, but taking twenty minutes to drive there,
finding a parking spot, yeah, twenty minutes. You know, all
of the time that's consumed in all of that. It's
(14:06):
much easier just to go online, start and then turn
it off and go about the rest of my day.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
At your own pace. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty good.
So you're going to get that degree. Yep. You've hosted
various events, including educational classes and candidate dinners and things
of that nature. What impact have these events had on
the community that you serve in.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I have been able, through conversation and through the different
presentations that I've given, gotten more people to become more
involved with the Republican Party. A couple have become candidates
here and there. I know one person who was very
upset with everything that was going on with COVID, and
(14:54):
this person went out and started a small group and
then was eventually hired by a nationally known organization that's
involved in the political realm, and just a couple of
weeks ago, she sent me a thank you note saying, hey, thanks,
If it hadn't been for you, I never would have
gotten involved and would not be where I am now today.
So it's little things like that that I receive on
(15:16):
occasion that it makes a struggle worth it awesome, It's
very heartening.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
So have you experienced a lot of challenges in any
of the things that we spoke of today, your careers,
your your education, your military experience.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
For me, the military was fun. I had a lot
of fun. I had a couple of injuries that prevented
me from seeking a particular course in the military that
I wanted to pursue, so I just called it and
got out. Civilian jobs pay more than military desk jobs.
(15:54):
So the politics has been really challenging. There's a lot
of self interest, a lot of folks with agendas coming
in and they don't always align with the party values.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Your personal values.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Oh yeah, yeah, And that's what it takes to live
in a republic is you have to be tolerant to
a degree of other ideas that you may not even
agree with.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Don't say that again, what's that You have to be
tolerant of other people's ideas.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
To a degree.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
To a degree I agree with you, I'm kind of
mess with you, but you do you have to listen
to people that may not agree with and really see
where they're coming from in order to come to some
type of common ground, not without trying to. I think
in ministry in particular, people assume that we're always trying
to convert somebody, and.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
That's not really the case. No, listening is primarily what
we do in the ministry. People come to you, and
many of them have come from heartbreaking backgrounds that would
have destroyed And that's something I'm always amazed about, is
the resilience of the human spirit. Yes, you come and
you listen to some folks that have come from some
(17:13):
soul crushing backgrounds, and just to see that they're still
willing to keep moving forward, it's inspiring. It is inspiring.
And to be able to meet with people like that
and offer them just a little bit of encouragement or
a little bit of hope, and when the opportunity arises,
steer them in the direction of sharing the Gospel with them.
That that's a beautiful moment.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Do you have any media out of any books or
anything of that nature.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
I am working on a book at the moment. I'm
bouncing back and forth between two publishers trying to get
the best deal that I can. But the premise of
the book is that America is not the first limited
representative constitutional republic in history. The first one was the
republic of the Israelites, established during their exodus from Egypt.
(18:03):
And the parallels are there. I have a volume of
it's a book, and it's a collected volume of pre
revolutionary war sermons, and there are a couple of them
in there that talk about, hey, as we move forward
in establishing our own government, we should consider what the
(18:25):
Israelites had established at Mount Sinai, which was the world's again,
the world's first limited representative constitutional republic with a structure
of subsidiarity.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
So that's the.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Theme of the book. And it's kind of curious that
when you look at in the scriptures, how it talks
about if Israel will do all of these things, that
God will bless them, and then America set up on
those same principles. And we are the wealthiest country in
the world, and you can't draw a direct parallel, but curious,
(19:01):
we set ourselves up very similar to what ancient Israel had.
Ancient Israel prospered when they followed God's model for humanity
and we tried the same thing and yeah, so yeah,
writing a book on that and it probably come out
in the next year.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
It sounds like you have it in you, Thank you,
thank you, get it out of Yeah, it's really nothing
more not taking anything out of me, But it's really
more studying the scriptures carefully and just pulling that out
and writing a book on it. Well, here's the question
of the day. We're there a little early, but nevertheless,
(19:44):
what do you think your legacy is? And then what
would you like for it to be?
Speaker 2 (19:50):
At this point, my legacy is probably that I'm stubborn
and obstinate on things that to me are objective truth.
I will not deviate from that, and I hope that
my legacy has been or will be. I hope that
my legacy will be that I did those things out
of love and concern for individuals and to help steer
(20:15):
them towards objective truth, and in doing so, helping them
to base their lives on facts they can move forward
and be productive and enjoy life.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Well, that sounds like a pretty good answer.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Thanks. Oh, totally unscripted.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
I'm a witness a legacy of hope left behind I
think is what every father would like to leave for
their children and grandchildren. Yes, and we hope that that's
exactly what you're doing in your public service, in your
reaching across the political divide and causing people to come together,
(20:54):
think and love each other and then act in our
community towards salute. We thank God for that. Thank God
for you joining us for the Voices of Legacy today.
Did you have any parting words?
Speaker 2 (21:07):
No other than thank you for having me on today.
And I hope this program reaches more people and can
make an impact in our community for good.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Thank you for listening to the Voices of a Legacy.
This is your friend, Pastor Carl Mitchell, the third, your
host of this program. We want you to go to
WGTE dot org slash legacy to like, share, subscribe, and
hear all of our past podcast and our future podcast.
Be a friend and join with us in the Voices
(21:44):
of Legacy where you're writing your own legacy every day
that you live. Have a blessing WGT voices around us.
(22:22):
WGT supported in part by the American Rescue Plan Act
funds allocated by the City of Toledo and the Lucas
County Commissioners and administered by the Arts Commission,
Welcome to the Voices of Legacy, where we're honored to
welcome another distinguished guests whose life and body service, leadership,
and unwavering commitment to faith in community. Mister, or should
I say minister Timothy L. How do you pronounce that
last name?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Brelinger?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Rent Laner? Okay, you're a US Army veteran. You've served
three tours. Was it in the United States Army?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yes, I did three one year tours in South and
Central America in the early nineties.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Oh wow, you served the nation with valor. We're so
thankful for that. And you've engaged in civic engagement, in
political environments and in community as well as a graduate
of the University of Toledo. You returned to federal service
following nine to eleven. Tell us more about ten Well.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I was born in Lucas County at the Toledo Hospital.
My parents were residents of Toledo at the time, and
not long after that, my mom was walking to work
and was mugged, and my dad, being the responsible husband
and good father, said we've got to leave the city.
And so not long after that, we wound up in
a small community in Wood County, oh and went to
(01:33):
school out there.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, so you kind of left Toledo, but you didn't
really leave Toledo, right, yeah, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Everything that we needed we had to come to Toledo
or the suburbs for Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah. Wow, that sounds pretty interesting. So you think that
may have been some of what led you into your
military service.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, that and I kind of have a spirit of
wander lost. I just want to go out and experience
things and see new things. Being raised in a small
country town about a mile from home, it was a
large set of woods with a stream that led to
the river, the Maumee River, and many times I would
spend summer days just canvassing and exploring. It was quite
(02:14):
the childhood. Play an army, Oh yeah, nobody plays air force.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Oh you're already starting trouble. Oh boy. So you were
raised here in Lucas County and Wood County area. What
school did you go to?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I went to Otzigo, Oh Okay, and then in the
later years I went to Penna, Penna County Pocational School.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Did you pick up a trade?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I did. It was agriculture, So you.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Went out in the country and you learn how to
tend to the fields. Yep. That's pretty cool. What was
your specialty if you don't mind.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Oh, it was landscaping, design and things of that nature.
That's the area that I shifted towards.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Is that something that your dad did or no, it's a.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Time my mom worked for an agricultural supplier and it
just kind of leaned in that direction. Come to find out,
once I started attending school at Penna, that agricultural supplier
that my mom worked for was the supplier that Penna
went to for supplies. So it's kind of a small
world experience.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
So you've got a love for nature pretty much.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, I do love being outdoors.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yeah, that's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. So what led
you from that into military service then to community I
almost say activism to a certain degree. I know you
probably see it as low key, but you really do
seem to have a heart for the community.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yes, I do.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
I do.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
It's really heartbreaking a lot of the stories that we
see coming out of our community here in the last
few months. Being a minister of the Christian faith, I
take a lot of my directives directly from this scripture,
and we are to have a heart for individuals as
well as a heart for communities, and so that's where
(03:59):
a lot of it comes from, is through my obedience
to the.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Scriptures or obedience to your call.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yes, you could make that argument.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Also, Yeah, that's pretty cool. Oh that makes a lot
of sense. So can you share some of your experience
while you were in the midstrandle were jumping from subject
to subject, but it seems like they're all kind of related.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
My duty station was in Panama, which has been in
the news a lot in the last few months. It
was a hidden gem. Very few people in the military
that I've come across and knew about it. And I
was originally supposed to do one year there and I
ended up extending to do two more tours. And it
(04:40):
was a paradise loss. You could go when you're off
duty time. You could go scuba, scuba diving, snorkeling, all
kinds of water sports, surfing, deep sea fishing. You could
go in a couple of areas. They had rivers where
you could still go panning for gold, and that was
a neat variance.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Also, should I asked, did you get any.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
No, No, I had a couple buddies that did, and
they brought them home in small vials. So yeah, were
you involved.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
If you can tell, you don't have to tell, might
be top secret. With the I guess getting of Manuel Noriega.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Arresting, there's a funny story to that, I think. Yeah.
I got there a year to the night of the
anniversary and flew into Kuman Airport in Panama on a
civilian flight and we got off the airplane, went into
the terminal and we could hear gunfire, and myself and
(05:39):
a couple of other American soldiers, all all of us
in civilian clothes. We're supposed to get picked up by
our home units, but with all the gunfire and everything,
we're wondering what the world's going on? Are they trying
to take Panama back one year after the invasion, and
so we were very scared individuals. We had no idea
what was going in an exercise, no, and we actually
(06:01):
called d embassy and they told us you need to
call your supporting unit. I was like, we just got
in country. We haven't been assigned anywhere yet. So that
was an exercise in futility.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
But wow, So you returned to service thereafter many years later,
after nine to eleven, yep.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I was in the National Guard for a while and
attending school at the University of Toledo. And then nine
to eleven happened, And two to three days later I
get a phone call and I'd been recalled federal service.
So by October sixth, the unit that I was in
was completely packed up and we were on a bus.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
D it out. Well, it sounds interesting and possibly scary.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, Another neat story to that was we were in
our buses and we were leaving Bowling Green and traveling
out seventy five South towards where we were going to
end up being and we had police escort cars and motorcycles,
and at some point the motorcycles just took off, you know,
(07:12):
you could see them. They gunned it and were gone.
And then a few moments later they were on the
last overpass in Wood County and they were all sitting
there rendering a salute as we passed.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
It was a different time, it was I think everybody
remembered where they were. So with all of that service
behind you, I guess that's possibly what led you, and
you tell me to public service. You did run for
public office at one.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Time, party office, not public office. I ran for State
Central Committee with the Republican party, and on the second
attempt I did win that position. So I believe the
title is Ohio Republican Party State Central Committee Member for
Senate District too.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
So you think that might lead to public office sometime
in the future.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I'm not sure. I'm not sure. There are a lot
of things that happen behind the scenes. You have to
gain nomination, you have to there's all kinds of things,
secure funding for the campaign and all that stuff. There
are a lot of moving parts, and I'm looking.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
We've had been blessed to have quite a few mayors
and at least one elected official who's currently serving right now.
And it seems as though in those lives, in those stories,
the common denominator is they didn't really seek the office.
The office kind of came after them. Do you think
(08:42):
that may be the direction that you mad. I'm not
trying to lead you in it, but it just seems
that way with what you do.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
I haven't ruled it out. No, I haven't ruled out.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I do have four sons at home that we're raising.
It takes a lot of time to raise a family
right and to raise it properly.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
That's four out of five.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, five voice total. Yeah, ones out on his own
already and the other four are still at home.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
So yeah, it sounds like you probably have some pretty
good stories from home. None that I'll share, Oh boy, okay, Well,
you've been in an instrumental in community engagement and participating
in politics as well as in your faith. Wife, have
(09:25):
those intersected?
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Yeah? I came across some documents from the pre Revolutionary
War era, the colonial era, and they were sermons from
that era, and the ministers back then were incredibly active
in politics in this country. And that was an eye
(09:48):
opener to me because in our schools we're told, you know, hey,
when we take government or civic courses in our schools,
we're told there's a separation of church and state and
all of these other things. But when I started to
read more of these doctors uments from that era, it
was like they didn't quite believe that, and that kind
of you know, peeled back the curtain. I started to
look behind and say, hey, what else is out there
(10:10):
that hasn't been talked about?
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, and so it seems as though in that era,
the exercise of faith, at least from the Judeo Christian
point of view, was to allow for every person of
every faith to be here in America. It's kind of
impetus for us even being here in this wonderful country
of ours, to have the freedom to worship however you
(10:33):
see fit, as long as you're not hurting anybody here. Wow.
So faith in ministry your ordained minister? Is that correct? Yes? Yes?
And you were influenced to approach this by what? So
did you have a mentor or I did? Or literally
it was just a call and you asked.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
It was a calling that I have felt from my youth,
but kind of like Jonah, Yeah, I just there was
something inside of me that was relenting and not giving
a kid. Yeah, and it took well into my adult
life until I finally relented and said, Okay, I'll go
ahead and Elsie coordination that.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
You Again, you don't have to answer this question, but
how'd your family feel about that calling?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
It was no surprise for my wife and kids. It
was no surprise. We've attended a couple of different churches
in the region, and in every one of those I
would end up leading Bible studies, morning Bible groups, men,
all kinds of different studies, and it was just a
matter of time and a dear pastor who passed away
(11:40):
a couple of years ago. He's the one who first
approached me and said, have you considered becoming an minister
and being ordained? And yeah, And that's where the that's
where the rubber met the road and we started moving forward.
That process that had that sentiment, that inner pushing that
call had been there for decades. We finally acted on it.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Oh, the call to serve is a great thing. It
really is in every aspect. And it seems like there's
a lot of service in your life which leads us
to our your professional career. What is it? I already
know the answer to the question, but what is it
that you do professionally? Well?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I did have to sign a disclaimer that I couldn't
talk about this stuff. I can say that I'm in
the investments in insurance industry. Gotcha, That's all I can say.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Got you. So you're kind of a insurance and finance
and such. Yeah, yeah, well that's still service. It is.
It is.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
A very famous guy, Dave Ramsey. He said a couple
of times that if they would teach in high schools
what he teaches, then he'd be out of a job.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
And that's kind of where I am. In the same
way as it. I take basic financial principles and share
them with people, and when they see that it would
benefit them by moving forward with a product or service,
then we go ahead. I'm not the kind of guy
that you know there to push hard for a sale
if they don't need the product or service. Thank you
very much. Here's my card. Consider calling you into the future.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
You're not the salesman in the ninja outfit waiting to
pounce on somebody. No, or twist their arm.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
No, No, not at all. If they don't have a
need for the product or service, I don't push it.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
And that's good. And it's good to give a good
information in sales in particular, if you have informations helpful
to them, even if they don't buy from you, you're
making a relationship. Your educational background. You went to the
University of Toledo, which I did.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
I did not finish nine to eleven interrupted that and
I was studying political science and history. That's the direction I.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Was going, Wow, Well you think you'll ever go back.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
I'm currently taking online courses at Liberty University, so it
lends itself more to my current schedule than actually having
and going to a location like University of Toledo, not
that it's bad, but taking twenty minutes to drive there,
finding a parking spot, yeah, twenty minutes. You know, all
of the time that's consumed in all of that. It's
(14:06):
much easier just to go online, start and then turn
it off and go about the rest of my day.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
At your own pace. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty good.
So you're going to get that degree. Yep. You've hosted
various events, including educational classes and candidate dinners and things
of that nature. What impact have these events had on
the community that you serve in.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I have been able, through conversation and through the different
presentations that I've given, gotten more people to become more
involved with the Republican Party. A couple have become candidates
here and there. I know one person who was very
upset with everything that was going on with COVID, and
(14:54):
this person went out and started a small group and
then was eventually hired by a nationally known organization that's
involved in the political realm, and just a couple of
weeks ago, she sent me a thank you note saying, hey, thanks,
If it hadn't been for you, I never would have
gotten involved and would not be where I am now today.
So it's little things like that that I receive on
(15:16):
occasion that it makes a struggle worth it awesome, It's
very heartening.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
So have you experienced a lot of challenges in any
of the things that we spoke of today, your careers,
your your education, your military experience.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
For me, the military was fun. I had a lot
of fun. I had a couple of injuries that prevented
me from seeking a particular course in the military that
I wanted to pursue, so I just called it and
got out. Civilian jobs pay more than military desk jobs.
(15:54):
So the politics has been really challenging. There's a lot
of self interest, a lot of folks with agendas coming
in and they don't always align with the party values.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Your personal values.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Oh yeah, yeah, And that's what it takes to live
in a republic is you have to be tolerant to
a degree of other ideas that you may not even
agree with.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Don't say that again, what's that You have to be
tolerant of other people's ideas.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
To a degree.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
To a degree I agree with you, I'm kind of
mess with you, but you do you have to listen
to people that may not agree with and really see
where they're coming from in order to come to some
type of common ground, not without trying to. I think
in ministry in particular, people assume that we're always trying
to convert somebody, and.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
That's not really the case. No, listening is primarily what
we do in the ministry. People come to you, and
many of them have come from heartbreaking backgrounds that would
have destroyed And that's something I'm always amazed about, is
the resilience of the human spirit. Yes, you come and
you listen to some folks that have come from some
(17:13):
soul crushing backgrounds, and just to see that they're still
willing to keep moving forward, it's inspiring. It is inspiring.
And to be able to meet with people like that
and offer them just a little bit of encouragement or
a little bit of hope, and when the opportunity arises,
steer them in the direction of sharing the Gospel with them.
That that's a beautiful moment.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Do you have any media out of any books or
anything of that nature.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
I am working on a book at the moment. I'm
bouncing back and forth between two publishers trying to get
the best deal that I can. But the premise of
the book is that America is not the first limited
representative constitutional republic in history. The first one was the
republic of the Israelites, established during their exodus from Egypt.
(18:03):
And the parallels are there. I have a volume of
it's a book, and it's a collected volume of pre
revolutionary war sermons, and there are a couple of them
in there that talk about, hey, as we move forward
in establishing our own government, we should consider what the
(18:25):
Israelites had established at Mount Sinai, which was the world's again,
the world's first limited representative constitutional republic with a structure
of subsidiarity.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
So that's the.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Theme of the book. And it's kind of curious that
when you look at in the scriptures, how it talks
about if Israel will do all of these things, that
God will bless them, and then America set up on
those same principles. And we are the wealthiest country in
the world, and you can't draw a direct parallel, but curious,
(19:01):
we set ourselves up very similar to what ancient Israel had.
Ancient Israel prospered when they followed God's model for humanity
and we tried the same thing and yeah, so yeah,
writing a book on that and it probably come out
in the next year.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
It sounds like you have it in you, Thank you,
thank you, get it out of Yeah, it's really nothing
more not taking anything out of me, But it's really
more studying the scriptures carefully and just pulling that out
and writing a book on it. Well, here's the question
of the day. We're there a little early, but nevertheless,
(19:44):
what do you think your legacy is? And then what
would you like for it to be?
Speaker 2 (19:50):
At this point, my legacy is probably that I'm stubborn
and obstinate on things that to me are objective truth.
I will not deviate from that, and I hope that
my legacy has been or will be. I hope that
my legacy will be that I did those things out
of love and concern for individuals and to help steer
(20:15):
them towards objective truth, and in doing so, helping them
to base their lives on facts they can move forward
and be productive and enjoy life.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Well, that sounds like a pretty good answer.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Thanks. Oh, totally unscripted.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
I'm a witness a legacy of hope left behind I
think is what every father would like to leave for
their children and grandchildren. Yes, and we hope that that's
exactly what you're doing in your public service, in your
reaching across the political divide and causing people to come together,
(20:54):
think and love each other and then act in our
community towards salute. We thank God for that. Thank God
for you joining us for the Voices of Legacy today.
Did you have any parting words?
Speaker 2 (21:07):
No other than thank you for having me on today.
And I hope this program reaches more people and can
make an impact in our community for good.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Thank you for listening to the Voices of a Legacy.
This is your friend, Pastor Carl Mitchell, the third, your
host of this program. We want you to go to
WGTE dot org slash legacy to like, share, subscribe, and
hear all of our past podcast and our future podcast.
Be a friend and join with us in the Voices
(21:44):
of Legacy where you're writing your own legacy every day
that you live. Have a blessing WGT voices around us.
(22:22):
WGT supported in part by the American Rescue Plan Act
funds allocated by the City of Toledo and the Lucas
County Commissioners and administered by the Arts Commission,
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