Skip to content Spiritual Gifts for Pastors | The BRAVE Way Podcast EP. 13 Feb 19 · 37 min ...more
Spiritual Gifts for Pastors | The BRAVE Way Podcast EP. 13
February 19, 2025 · 37 min
Pastor Travis shares his experiences pastoring in Alabama, growing church campuses, and his passion for mission work in Cambodia.
Series The BRAVE Way Podcast February 19, 2025 · 37 min · The BRAVE Way Podcast
Pastor Travis shares his experiences pastoring in Alabama, growing church campuses, and his passion for mission work in Cambodia. ...more Show the full description Show less Pastor Travis shares his experiences pastoring in Alabama, growing church campuses, and his passion for mission work in Cambodia.
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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Unapologetic Faith and Community Impact 0:00 And I said, you know, some people are calling on me to apologize for my prayer, and so I do have a statement. Here's my statement. I am not sorry. I do not apologize. And it it was just0:12 man, it was amazing. We're in the middle of pride month. Our church is packed. We have 7 services at our campuses. There's no place to sit. Our giving goes through the roof, and0:24 we baptize more people that month than ever.0:36 Hey, guys. Pastor Jeff here on the Brave Way podcast. And today, joining me in studio is my good friend, pastor Travis Johnson. We met last year at a conference with a with a group of guys. And for whatever0:48 reason, I mean, I really liked all the guys, but we just kinda connected. I mean, there was an authenticity about you that I really appreciated and I enjoyed it too. What you're doing. You're pastoring in Mobile,0:55 Alabama. Tell us a little bit about what you do, where you're at, your family, and then we'll kinda launch from1:01 there. Sure. First of all, I I would say this. I want everybody to go to heaven. Okay? But if you can't get to heaven, at least get to Mobile because it is just a I mean, you got sweet tea. You got the1:12 beaches. You could be out fishing, like, you know, 5 minutes, or you could be in the woods getting some deer. Or recently,1:21 you can be in 9 inches of snow.1:22 9 inches of snow. Who does that? So, anyway, Jeff, man, great being with you.1:26 Great being with you. I'm really good. Yeah.1:27 Yeah, man.1:27 I know you're up here for our Warrior Summit, which actually we're we're recording this day before that. I know it's gonna be great tomorrow. So you've been pastoring in Mobile now 8 years.1:38 Is that right? 8 years. And, we have campuses along the Gulf Coast. So, you know, Orange Beach, Gulf Shores, Foley, couple campuses in Mobile. We have a campus up near Memphis. And1:50 then our newest campus is in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which we've been in Cambodia for a couple decades doing missions. And so I got some really neat things happening there, but that's kind of the lay of the land for us.2:00 Yeah.2:01 And talk a little bit about Cambodia, and then talk about, what you're doing with this initiative with trees because it's it's all over the place. It's kinda it's2:06 kinda blue. Weird. Like, you know, only recently has my beard turned gray. You know, I can start out as Santa Claus. But, about 13 years ago, we had a Coast Guard family in our small group in the church we are pastoring2:18 in Miami. It's LifePointe Church, amazing place. And, so we were trying to figure out how to help this Coast Guard family that was adopting a little girl from Ethiopia raise the money for the2:30 adoption. And so I don't know. People were, like, car wash, and we kinda had a rule for all of our small groups. You don't take up offerings in the in the small group. So we're thinking of fundraisers we could do. So 12:42 of the guys said, hey. I sold Christmas trees over in Miami Beach, and I did pretty good. And I'm thinking, man, Miami Beach, people they don't go to church, They're not really Christians and a lot of huge Jewish2:52 population. So I guess if you could do, like, Hanukkah bushes or something like that Yeah. Yeah. Then we could do Christmas trees in South Miami, which was culturally Catholic. And, so we sold trees. We raised 250003:04 dollars that first year and had a great time. I mean, miracles happened. We raised the amount for the adoption. Like, really significant leaders in our community came to3:16 Christ. It activated our volunteers. I remember 1 night I drove by the Christmas tree tent. Like, it was way after hours, like midnight. And there were a bunch of people in there3:28 do giving salsa lessons. You know? So they they had found this different kind of community that wasn't happening in the regular flow of the church. Well, it was great. I mean, our church grew, and so we said, hey. Look.3:39 This is a thing. So we started a a a an organization, 5 0 1 c 3. We called it Buy a Tree Change a Life. We thought about calling it Buy a Tree Save a Life, but that was like a overstatement, maybe, overpromise.3:51 Buy a tree change a life that was doable. And, this last year, we just passed away passed given 13000000 dollars away to help children globally and locally. And, we're in about 23 different states, and it it's been4:02 incredible, and it's just been awesome.4:04 So so neat. And so talk about Cambodia a little bit. I know you have a heart for Cambodia.4:08 You've been there many times. So before we started buying Tree Change Life, every year, I I personally was trying to do a project to raise a 1 raise awareness and to raise money for the work in Cambodia.4:20 And I got going to Cambodia when we were I was a church planter. We had just been meeting barely been meeting in a movie theater. And Miami is not churched.4:32 Everybody's, you know, either Christian or Catholic, but nobody goes to church. Yeah. They they don't there aren't really megachurches. The only reason and then those generally are Latino churches, Spanish4:44 speaking. Okay? So, you know, figure 16 percent non Hispanic, Caucasian, 22 percent African American, and then, everyone else is Latino. Half of the population is born outside of the United States.4:56 Very transient high cost of living and then relatively low wages because it's a service industry. Not so much now. Commerce, finance is coming up in Miami. But, we're so we're out5:07 hustling. You know? I had a soundboard was on a TV tray in the movie theater. You know? So it was, like, pillar to post kind of5:19 really duct taped together, and we were reaching people. It it was awesome. So, doctor Fred Garman, who is executive director of People for Care and Learning, said, Travis, you gotta come with me to5:31 Cambodia. And I said, well, you know, man, I'm broke. I can't I can't do that. And he said, look. You come, I'll pay for it. And it was like, like, he was like a drug dealer or something. You know? He5:43 he paid for the first 1, and then I just never I never stopped going. So every year since then and so that's been forever. And then, so I'm doing these5:55 projects. Like, I rode my bicycle across Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand in 7 days. So I was ranging between, like, 80 to a hundred and 40, hundred and 37 miles a day. And for that,6:07 we're raising money to build houses in a Build a City project, and and there's children's homes. I just fell in love with it. We actually almost moved to Phnom Penh to start an international church, you know, kinda reach6:18 expats. We had gotten connected into the government, and, we thought we would do that while we're training Cambodian leaders to start churches. And, we were that close, and then doctor Fred was like, I don't think you're6:30 supposed to do this. I don't want you going I don't want you to not be my friend, but I think you're not supposed to do this. And so we didn't go kinda brokenhearted. It was not malicious. He's like a father to6:42 me. But it was really he was seeing something develop in me that needed to be heard. So that's by a tree and a bunch of things happen. It it really helped us to expand our network and6:53 and, you know, our bandwidth, and then we end up taking over people for care and learning when he retired. And so that's been incredible. And, so I'll take about 207:05 pastors over there in about a week from now, and, we'll go to parliament. We know all the leaders. Is it really kinda crazy? Kelly and I actually got, like, a humanitarian medal7:18 from the vice prime minister of Cambodia a few years back. So God's given us favor there. We have orphanages, schools, churches, farms. Like, I'm a cattle rancher7:29 in Cambodia. I'm trying to get up to a thousand head of cattle that will help fund church planting there. We have restaurants. I have a we have a we have a cafe that's nicer than any Starbucks you've been in there.7:41 Really? Some of that came because we weren't allowed to start churches when we started. So we would start a school and evangelize kids, start a restaurant,7:53 evangelize the workers, hold a church service in the restaurant, that kind of stuff. Yeah. So, and then years now have you been in Cambodia? Well, I've been the executive director for for People for Care8:05 and Learning for 8 and a half years. Okay. But I've probably been going close to 20 years. Maybe, like, 17, 18 years.8:14 And have a lot of people from your church then traveled with you? We've taken over.8:18 You know, we have buy our By Tree Change of Life sites, we take the pastors over too. So it's like a big network. We had about a hundred and 50, hundred and 60 pastors in DC last year for8:30 March for Life, and we had our celebrate life gala there. We do that at different places each year. This year, I'll be at University of Florida. 2 years ago, I was at University of Georgia. Took everybody through the8:40 football stadium. But we're always at 1 of our churches, 1 of our biotry churches, and try and get into, you know, like, a high performing church slash biotry8:52 situation. So we have some sites that raise 850000 dollars in a couple weeks. Wow. Some a hundred and 50, you know, some 30, some 6000. You know? So but we're trying to activate the9:04 church into, you know, missions and mobilizing volunteers. So we probably have about 6000 volunteers every Christmas on these sites, and then we get them all together and just say thank9:15 you. So we'll do stuff like, if the site is performing, you know, high, then we'll try and get the senior pastor and the site director over so they can go meet the kids that they're funding. And it it's9:27 been transformative. To Kham Village okay. Cambodia is 99 percent 98 percent Buddhist. When we started, it was 99 percent9:39 Buddhist. So you really don't see a lot of Christians at all. And it's all of our leaders are first generation Christians. A lot of our leaders came up out of our children's home. Our commitment to our kids in9:50 our children's home is, you know, we'll pay for their high get them through high school and then pay for whatever college they get accepted into. And then once we've had, you know, 15 years of10:03 18 years of discipleship and mentoring and loving them and family, then we wanna keep them. They become our our leaders, our youth pastors, our pastors.10:11 Got it.10:11 It's been awesome, man. You gotta go with me sometime. I wanna go. Yeah. I wanna go.10:15 You're always inviting me to travel. I think you invited me10:17 to go to Greece with10:18 you later this year and10:19 Oh, yeah.10:19 We walk around. I wanna do that too. So Absolutely. You're quite the traveler. Talk let's shift gears just a little bit because you're also part of the National Faith and Advisory Board. I think you have been for about10:29 the last 5, 6 years, something like that. So you've had a very eventful, you know, last 6 months, really last couple of weeks. Talk to us a little bit about what you've been up to.10:38 Well, so I got involved in National Faith Advisory Board, really kind of coming, you know, when president Trump was running for that 20 20 election. And I had been to some10:50 events just like going. And then Christianity Today I'm assuming I could talk about this. You can talk about10:56 whatever you want.10:56 Christianity Today had run an article talking to Christians that were voting for president Trump, and they said, remember who you are and who you serve. And it was like this real11:08 shaming kind of you can't vote really for the only pro life person running for office, and somehow that was wrong. And I I mean, just being honest, I just got, I'm, like, triggered11:20 by this article. It felt I'm like, man, where's Christianity? What's this about? And then, there was a response. It was written to it. And, I believe, Jensen Franklin had written11:31 it, and then I took it and distributed it for signatures. And then I'm like, you know what? I'm I'm a hundred percent in. I I feel like before that, I was kind of, you know, it's like the11:43 peacetime church. Yeah. And then that was right then was probably when I was becoming a a wartime pastor. You know, I'm just going, you know, it's not enough for me just to,11:57 you know, disciple my people in the confines of the church, and, we we actually were under attack. And we're not just going to like, it was just gonna be a more12:08 radical, aggressive approach. And, you know, like, brave church. Right?12:13 Same.12:13 Yeah. So then I was like, I'm all in. You know? Burn the ships. Burn the bridges. We're all in. And I just started getting involved. And then in 20 23,12:26 I was praying a prayer. You know, I'm more involved at this point. In 20 23, I'm praying a prayer in my city, in vocation at city city council, and it happened to be Pride Month.12:38 And I I prayed I said, and, Lord, especially, put a hedge of a protect hedge of protection around our children who are being targeted by ideologies in our schools, parks, libraries, and online. And then that12:50 was, like, this avalanche of, you know, like, a l dot com came out and said that some people were saying my prayer was anti LGBTQ. You know? Because you can say stuff like that13:02 as long as you say, some people are saying, you know, like you anyway.13:09 So You weren't using the politically correct language.13:11 Yeah. But I didn't I wasn't targeting anybody. Even if I had, it's fine. Even if I had, dude, our kids are under attack.13:17 They are under attack.13:17 They are under attack. Do that. I didn't do that. I'm not above it. Right? So then, like, there's all these articles, like, 8 or 9 articles. And, you know, I'm getting,13:30 you know, my my wife got doxxed. Our family got doxxed pictures of our kids. My wife's salary is being pushed online. You know, there's this journalist for a a gay magazine that did that,13:43 just because I prayed a prayer in city council. So, I shared, you know, with my church. I was like, I've got an announcement I'm gonna make. And, so I stood up in the pulpit. It says he's getting ready to13:55 preach. And I said, you know, some people are calling on me to apologize for my prayer. And so I do have a statement. Here's my statement. I am not sorry. I do not apologize. And it14:07 it was just man, it was amazing. We're in the middle of pride month. Our church is packed. We have 7 services at our campuses. There's no place to sit. Our giving14:19 goes through the roof, and we baptize more people that month than ever. Mhmm. And I was already just, like, ticked off, but now I'm, like, invigorated. So it was just from then on, it was, like, pedal to the14:30 metal. Well, because of that pressure, then NFAB started leaning in more to me, and I'm leaning in more to NFAB, and I'm finding this really great encouragement from them.14:42 And, you know, sometimes you just you need somebody to say, I believe in you. You know? And I'm in the middle of a fight. I'm in the middle of a battlefield, and nobody can do that but me. Right? So I just felt very14:54 strengthened and encouraged. And I think that's when I said, hey. Whatever it is that you're doing, I'm doing. And if it if if, there's a spot for me, I'm there unless, like, my son15:06 has a soccer game. Right? Other than that, I'm in. And so, man, we just started going. And so from 23 till, yeah, 23 till now15:15 Mhmm.15:15 Just wide open. There's some other things, but that was, like, what really pushed. And then from then, I mean, there's just been some pretty exceptional moments that I was going, well, I didn't have that on my bingo15:25 card.15:25 You know? Talk about some of them. I mean, I'm aware of some of them.15:28 Yeah. Well, I mean okay. I can't remember if it's 23 or 24. It it was either late 23 or early 24. You know, I'm with NFAB. Mhmm. And,15:40 you know, I'm with president Trump the night that he's arrested in DC. You know? Like, that kind of stuff. And, man, he's he's really strong. You know? Seeing him walk in after15:52 that, it's like nothing faze him. You know? So I'm I'm actually, like, a little bit encouraged by his resilience. But then also that he would take time to be with pastors on a time like that,16:04 you know, let me know that, you know, he values the church. He values the voice of the ministers, and he really does. And then, you know, also kinda, you know, being down in that too. But, yeah, some things like that.16:15 And, you know, I think that's where I was going, wow. There's a lot of pastors that aren't involved in politics because they think it's distasteful or they should stay16:27 in their lane. And, man, a lot of that stuff just began to really organize in my mind. I started thinking things like this. Like, if you don't get involved in politics, politics will get involved in you. I've also I've16:38 also started thinking that, hey, we get involved in business, in humanitarian work, hospitals. The church has built more hospitals than anybody. Right? Schools, we do that. Education, humanitarian work, everything.16:50 Which makes sense because the first directive that we have is to go16:54 and take dominion over the earth, to subdue it, to rule over it, actually, to govern it. Yes. So then why would we where do you think that comes from where people because I would even say, I mean, even even growing up in17:05 church Mhmm. Going to seminary, being a pastor. I mean, there's this there's this,17:11 I don't know17:11 if I was ever taught it or if I if I was taught it, it was more of the idea of, hey. Share Christ, share the cross, share the gospel, grow people up in the faith, teach the word, do your thing. The government's out17:22 there. Mhmm. But what I discovered I mean, 20 20 and then 20 21, all of a sudden, it's like, if you don't address the issues that people are dealing with Right. And we're not17:34 talking about those, and we're we're we're not being loving, we're not being caring. And all those things are gonna come act upon us. Right. And, you know, for me, it became it wasn't a a deal of right versus left17:44 anymore. It was right versus wrong. Mhmm. It was evil standing right at our doorstep. And, to be silent when evil's right at your doorstep is to not do to not do anything. I know that's been some of your journey as well17:56 as a pastor and all that. But I I guarantee, you know, there's pastors in your area or people that know you that would say, come on, pastor. I mean, you don't have to be involved. And don't you understand that Donald18:06 Trump, he he may or may not be a Christian. If he is, he may not be all that. Like, how can you stand there and talk about these kind of things? Why not just disciple your church? And your response is what?18:16 Yeah. I mean, a lot of people have had that idea. But first, I would think, well, thank god. This might recognize that our rights are inalienable and given by god. Mhmm. And that's the founding of our country. So18:28 we never separated our relationship with the lord from the founding of our country. So God is at the very foundation of who America is. If this this founders18:40 had have had divorced their faith from politics, that would be crazy. Secondly, if logically, how does it even work? Like, if you, me, if the people that we18:52 love that love the Lord, love Jesus, or in the word of God, if they remove themselves from political activities, there's a vacuum, and somebody's gonna fill it. It's not gonna be people like them. Exactly.19:04 It's a bad idea. It's a really bad idea. Because then you can't you can't complain about what you got if you have given it up. And so, yeah, Christians need to be on the school board. By the way, Christians'19:16 parents at school boards are not terrorists. They're just putting that out there. It's crazy. That's that's just what happened. Mhmm. We have trendy or or or or however you say that taking over19:27 this, like, call out here in Denver. Right? Is it Denver? Or so doing that, but then we are labeling 74 year old grandmothers who are praying in front of planned parenthood as domestic terrorists. Are you19:39 kidding me? It's not easy. So when we remove ourselves, then we end up with the FACE Act, and we end up with nonsense like that. We end up with a bunch of gender indoctrinating19:51 content being, you know, focused on fourth graders. And then there's there are some really nice people in pulpits that are much more apparently more mature than I am and20:03 more polite than I am. They wanna address those things in the pulpit, and maybe that makes them a statesman or something. But it doesn't help the kids. It doesn't help the families. And so I just decided, no. I'm all20:15 in. I'm all in. And so it was, like, 20 20. I you said how was it you said that in 20 20? I said everything changed for me in 20 20. I say radicalized. Like, I20:27 got radicalized in 20 20.20:29 Because I realized when I'm getting ready to go to the church in October, and I'm praying with my my wife before I leave, but our our prayers look something like this. Lord, if I get arrested today, be with my wife and20:39 my kids, let them know I'm gonna come back and all this stuff. And I'm like, what in the world kind of world am I living in? Mhmm. Like, and if I'm just gonna sit by silently when when I'm when I'm considered being rude20:49 because I'm gonna open our doors and have church, I'm I'm done with that. And I'm I'm completely done with that, and I'm not gonna ever close our doors again unless the Lord has us for a season. We make that decision.21:00 Nobody's gonna infringe that upon us. And so I I think for me, that's what started changing. Right. Because I started realizing, like, we've been quiet for so long. And, I would tell you this too. I mean, you use the21:11 word wartime present wartime pastor. That's the way I would describe it. Right. I was the most alive I think I've ever been during that season too because it was almost like my resolve is so strong. I feel the same way21:22 now. I mean and regardless of which way the election went, and I'm glad it went the way that it did. But I'm like, I'm we're into taking ground now, and we would have been into taking ground if it would have gone the21:31 other way. But I'm done just sitting back and just waiting for things to happen, and hopefully, we'll pray it out. And I'm like, no. No. No. Let's pray, and let's be biblical. Let's do all this. But let's call a spade a21:41 spade. Right. And let's be engaged in our culture. Because if we're not, then we're really not making disciples. We're just talking platitudes from21:47 the point. Every now and then I'll have somebody say, pastor, you know, we we shouldn't be in all of the politics. You know, this is gonna run people off. I'm like, I you know, when we we're going into COVID, we barely21:58 had 2 campuses. Really, we had 1 campus until right before COVID. And now we have 5 campuses. And our church is a heck of a lot bigger. If 1 person leaves, we got 10 people coming in the22:10 door. And, you know, actually, you know, maybe half the problem here is that the church is not being pruned. The church is not being22:22 disciplined. I'm not talking about just being discipled, but I'm talking about correction in the church Yes. That you cannot be pro abortion and be a Christian. You you can't. Incongruent.22:35 It's an oxymoron. Yeah. It does not that doesn't that doesn't work. And but how many churches never even hear their pastor talk about the sanctity of life? 20 20,22:48 I sat down with our staff. And in in our staff meetings, we had always been doing book studies. Always. Mhmm.22:54 And22:54 when I say book studies, I mean, like, a a book in the Bible. I'm talking we take a leadership book, and everybody's doing book reviews, and we talk about it. And that's just a part of our staff meeting.23:04 Mhmm. But23:04 in 20 20, I swept all the leadership books off, and I said, listen, guys. You know how I preach on Sundays. And you're gonna preach like that in kids, in students, in in middle school,23:17 in young adults, everywhere. We're bringing this across the board. Listen, this LGBTQ agenda, if that wolf carries off 1 of our 13 year olds, It better be23:28 over the bleeding body of a pastor laying in the doorway of the sheep pen that cares enough about it. Yeah. Our first book, Owen Strand, Wokeness and Christianity,23:41 which Owen has been I mean, just what a what a great voice. And it was you know, I we just went right through them, and we're just working through that. And then we're getting into the scriptures, and we're saying, I23:50 just need you to know this because the scriptures call us to tear down every single vain imagination that exalts itself above the name of Jesus. It's not just stand our ground. It's to take that ideology,24:02 pull it out, look at it, show everybody, say, look look at this right here, and then you explain why this opposes God. We're not going to abandon a a 15 year old boy to a rainbow emoji on a24:14 Instagram account without him knowing what the Bible has to say about it. Amen. And then what I found out is the harder we pressed in with the gospel, the more people were radically saved.24:26 Mhmm. And I think that was, like, the you know, and I told you I was I'm doing a book. Right? So I haven't really told anybody this is probably the first time I say it out loud, but the book is called Unembarrassed of24:36 Jesus. And it's the idea is that the closer, the the you know, Peter following Jesus at a distance caused him to deny Christ. But following Jesus closely helps you to change the world.24:48 And so what I what I found out is that the closer you call people to Jesus, the bolder you preach the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, then people will turn the world over. Like, I'm25:00 thinking about a this little group of am I talking to my No, man. Okay. So I'm talk I'm talking to, I'm watching this group of, like, young men come up in our student ministry. And, you know,25:12 we have a real imaginative name for our student ministry. It's just pathway students. Right? But I call these kids the Jesus Revolution kids. Dallas Davis25:25 comes to youth camp. Somebody invited him to youth camp. He spent 1 night at camp. The camp was full. He slept on the floor. Has a radical, experience with Jesus.25:37 He comes to my office the next day. No appointment. He just walks in, and he looks like, Johnny Knoxville. Yeah. Yeah. Right? And he just tells me a story. He plays soccer.25:51 He just you know, he's a great kid, but got people in a lot of trouble. I'll tell his story because he's told it publicly, but he was selling weed and but you just wanna be around26:03 this kid. Whatever it was he was doing in the world, I mean, he's, like, 10 times more following Christ. And he's got packs of kids following him. So he's going down to the altar during worship, worshiping,26:15 and there's all these kids coming. And he's organizing I don't even know where he gets this. Jericho marches around his school before school opens. First 7 days marching around, just praying for26:27 God to give revival to his school. And then he's got, like, a hundred and 20 kids marching around the school, this high school. And they're, like, jocks and cheerleaders and26:39 mathletes and geeks and eve everybody. And so it was like there's this positive peer pressure in the school.26:47 Love that.26:47 And then he comes to me. He's like, pastor, I I wanna do, like, a a worship and testimony night, at school. I wanna I wanna put it in the auditorium. You know, kids that have those ideas, and that was the last thing I26:59 heard until I saw the poster for it. And there's, like, 700 kids there, and they have it's completely student led, worship. He preaches. He didn't have pastor baptizing. He just27:11 baptized, like, 70 people.27:14 I love it. And it was just I mean, this next generation I mean, there's just something special. The Lord open. The Lord's doing something great, and I love that.27:23 And and they want they don't nobody wants Look. For us to you know, revival is like fresh bread. You know? But when you're living off a 20 year old27:34 bread that used to be fresh, that like, we we don't need to try and imitate that. Like, this generation, you know, they're going through stuff we never did, hundred percent. You know? I mean, even think27:46 about like, did you ever get busted with, like, a love note or something your parents got or a teacher got it? Oh, I'm sure I did. Yeah. But our kids, we if we take their phone, we have access to everything they've27:57 written. You're right. Yeah. We we didn't have that. Now they have temptations we never had. Yep. Everything's so quick. But, man, they're smart, and they is they could do so much. So, anyway, watching28:09 these kids radicalize has been incredible. And, you know, I think, like, Junior Muhabao, he's a great football player, just some just seeing all of that happen. And I don't know that28:21 that would've happened with the, like, the 2017 Travis. And then that fight that I got in 20 20 prepared me for 20 23, and then I could go28:33 right on down the list. And, man, to me, it feels now if I'm gonna say what's happening right, I feel free, completely free. Every now and then, I'll stand up in the pulpit and say, hey, man. I just joined this28:44 club. It's called the I Don't Give a Rip Foundation. You know? And I'm the CEO. I just don't care, and I'm a bring the gospel. But I think God's prepared me for this now and probably you as well. To me, it feels28:56 like in 20 25, there's, like, a window of opportunity over the church for revival. I don't think it's a guarantee, but it feels like the conditions are there. You know? Lord's moving. Family's in style. A29:08 lot of things are back in style. The conditions are there. People are going, this, what we just did, didn't work. There's gotta be more. In the church, there's nobody poised better than the church. We just have to speak.29:20 I agree. Yeah. I agree. I also wanna29:21 shift gears too, talk about your family because you mentioned it earlier.29:24 I29:25 know you have 3 children.29:26 Mhmm.29:26 2 daughters at college, an ORU, a son that's a soccer player. But, you know, even when you're you're doing the different things you're doing around the country, you're traveling a lot. You're like, but I'm not gonna miss29:35 my son's soccer game. Yeah. You prioritize your wife, your kids, your family. Talk about why that's been so important, why that's foundational, and why there's such a support to you.29:45 Yeah. I mean, what's better? What's better than family? You know? And, Kelly and I have been married 25 years, and, you know, I I like to say my family29:56 is my first church. You know, things get raising kids is busy. It's I forget who said this, but, the time your kids need you the most is when you have the least30:08 time, when you're having to earn money and provide for them. It's almost like a tension that God put there because you are called to provide for your family. Right? Right? So if you don't work to spend time30:20 with your kids, you you're not a good father. Right? That's that's not a good thing if you're not providing for them. You're as much as providing, you're teaching them. You're living with them. You're modeling.30:32 So, you know, those pieces are are really important. But then too, I mean, I I love my kids. I love being around them. We had some friends that had kids really close together, and they kinda ran like a tribe. And I was30:42 like, I wanna do that. So our kids are all probably just under 2 years apart. Okay. So that's been fun, and our caboose is right there. He's he's a junior in in high school, and,30:54 that's been great. I was in I had a deal in, Dubai 1 time, a meeting that I had to get to. And Courtney, my my oldest, she was on the homecoming court. And so I went to Dubai. I was only31:06 there for, like, 32 hours because I need to get back to walk her out on homecoming, which was I mean, it's that was pretty awesome. I was completely sleep sleep deprived.31:18 But for her, it meant a lot. And for me, it meant a lot. You know? That's awesome. So to me and what does it matter what you build, you know, if you lose that? And and I I've watched a lot of31:31 my friends who are pastor's kids31:33 Mhmm.Show more In this video 0:00 Unapologetic Faith and Community Impact54:18
Why We Serve | First Responders Sunday Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub Oct 25
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