Brian Schulenburg + the Power of Parenting

[00:00:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Ask About My Faith Podcast, where our hope is to inspire everyday faith conversations.

[00:00:09] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm Abbey, and normally I get to co-host alongside Jess, but she couldn't join me today for the

[00:00:15] [SPEAKER_00]: conversation with our amazing guest, Brian Schulenburg. While I miss Jess's insightful

[00:00:21] [SPEAKER_00]: thoughts, Brian is someone I've known personally for years as my pastor, realtor, boss, and friend.

[00:00:27] [SPEAKER_00]: I am so excited to dive into this solo. Brian has been serving in the local church since 2001

[00:00:34] [SPEAKER_00]: with a deep passion for leading people to follow Jesus. In addition to his ministry, he's also a

[00:00:41] [SPEAKER_00]: licensed realtor, which we'll hear more about in part two. Brian and his wife, Cindy, have been married

[00:00:47] [SPEAKER_00]: for over 30 years and together have raised four adult children and are proud grandparents with

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_00]: their family continuing to grow. From the moment God touched his heart as a child, Brian has been

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_00]: passionate about introducing people to Jesus. His love for walking alongside others as they discover

[00:01:06] [SPEAKER_00]: their purpose is infectious, and we're going to hear about how his parents set a strong example of

[00:01:11] [SPEAKER_00]: living missionally. I know you're going to feel right at home and be encouraged as Brian shares with

[00:01:17] [SPEAKER_00]: us. So let's jump in. Brian, welcome to the Ask About My Faith podcast. We are so excited to have

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_01]: you today. Hey, Abby. I am thrilled to be here. This is actually one of my favorite podcasts and

[00:01:34] [SPEAKER_01]: definitely some of my favorite podcast hosts. So this is- You're so sweet. Yeah. Thank you.

[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_00]: We love to start by getting to know you. So can you share a bit about how you came to know the Lord?

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you bet. So I was one of those people who thought I had a really boring faith story growing

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_01]: up. I grew up in a Christian home and I started going to church like probably one week into being

[00:01:58] [SPEAKER_01]: alive. I mean, that's kind of who my parents were. So my dad was a pastor's kid. He was like,

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm never going to be a pastor. That's just, I know how hard that is. And so he worked in banking and

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_01]: real estate, but made sure that his family was a part of church. And I think growing up as a pastor's

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_01]: kid, he knew how important it was to just have people in the church who were faithful, who prayed

[00:02:24] [SPEAKER_01]: for their teams and that kind of thing. And so the church was just a part of life. And really young,

[00:02:31] [SPEAKER_01]: really young, I came to faith in Jesus. It was actually Easter Sunday, 1974. And I have always

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_01]: been an introvert. People don't believe that about me. I don't know. And so I remember going to Sunday

[00:02:43] [SPEAKER_01]: school that day. And there's not a ton of memories I have from when I was a kid, but it's like that day

[00:02:47] [SPEAKER_01]: plays back in technicolor in my mind. I mean, I went to Sunday school. Donna Peltz was my Sunday

[00:02:53] [SPEAKER_01]: school teacher. She shared the story of Easter. It was Easter Sunday. And I'm sure the preacher did too,

[00:02:59] [SPEAKER_01]: but it was this faithful volunteer who had been volunteering with kids for decades. And

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_01]: she just faithfully shared. And she had all the little kids in the circle in front of her and

[00:03:09] [SPEAKER_01]: said, okay, we're going to pray a prayer. And I didn't pray the prayer in Sunday school that day

[00:03:13] [SPEAKER_01]: to ask Jesus to be my Savior. But I went home that day. And I'm just kind of thinking about

[00:03:18] [SPEAKER_01]: everything I'd experienced at church that day. People were dressed up a little bit more. And

[00:03:22] [SPEAKER_01]: there was just a little bit more happening in church than a normal Sunday. But that story of a God

[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_01]: who loved me, created me, sent His Son to die for me and for my sins was something that even at four

[00:03:36] [SPEAKER_01]: years old, I understood that I was a sinner and that I needed Jesus. So I'm sitting in the back seat,

[00:03:40] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry, the backyard of my house on a swing set. And it was one of those little swing sets where

[00:03:46] [SPEAKER_01]: normally there's one person on one side and one on the other, but I'm an introvert. So I'm like all

[00:03:49] [SPEAKER_01]: alone on that little swing set. And I prayed right there to ask Jesus to be my Savior and Lord. And I

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_01]: remember running up the back steps of my deck and into the kitchen of our home. My brother was preparing

[00:04:03] [SPEAKER_01]: to go fishing. He had night crawlers in a bucket on the table. And my mom was just so patient with four

[00:04:09] [SPEAKER_01]: boys at home. And I'm like, Mommy, Mommy, Mark, I just asked Jesus to be my Savior. And literally that

[00:04:17] [SPEAKER_01]: day, I had the opportunity to share Christ with my best friend and my next door neighbor, Trina,

[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_01]: who also prayed to receive Jesus that day. And the two of us, as four-year-olds ran down the street,

[00:04:29] [SPEAKER_01]: the only other four-year-old in the neighborhood, a guy named Jason. And we told Jason about Jesus and

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_01]: he told us we were crazy. And I don't think I shared Christ again for years. But it was, you know,

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_01]: so it's interesting that on the day I was saved, had the opportunity to share about Christ with somebody

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_01]: else and then had my first kind of spiritual warfare when it came to evangelism on that same

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_01]: day. So yeah, that was kind of my, in a nutshell, kind of the when I came to faith. And then like

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_01]: so many people throughout the rest of my life, there have been lots of valleys and mountaintops and

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_01]: times where I was really faithful in my walk with Jesus and times where, boy, if those days were played

[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_01]: over on a videotape or, you know, on digital video, I'd be pretty embarrassed. And moments of doubt,

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_01]: moments of, you know, just victories. And God has been so faithful through it all.

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. I love that as a four-year-old, just swinging and thinking about what the volunteer had

[00:05:27] [SPEAKER_00]: shared that Sunday morning. I'm curious too, did Trina go to church with you or was she just...

[00:05:33] [SPEAKER_01]: No, she was our... Well, she did afterwards for a little bit. So Trina's mom was a single mom and

[00:05:41] [SPEAKER_01]: she was doing her best with her daughter. And I think she just loved when my family would take

[00:05:46] [SPEAKER_01]: Trina to church with us. Yes.

[00:05:48] [SPEAKER_01]: If they had time off, she wasn't necessarily interested in going, but... And then they moved

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_01]: away and we moved away and, you know, we lost touch with her over the years. But I'll never forget

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_01]: that experience. That's so sweet. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes. Yeah. To just be so like overflowing with the love of God in this decision that you had to

[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_00]: share. And then for you both to have to share with your other friend and to get that like,

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_00]: no thank you, was probably really hard even as a four-year-old to like process that rejection.

[00:06:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. You know, evangelism was something that was really modeled well in my house. So again,

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_01]: my dad was a pastor's kid, but like, I don't know, my parents just again, as kind of normal

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER_01]: people in church who volunteered and were faithful, were so good about like, kids, we're going to pray

[00:06:39] [SPEAKER_01]: for our neighbors and we're going to pray that they'll come to know Jesus. So I know I had heard

[00:06:43] [SPEAKER_01]: that, but I didn't know Jesus yet. And then, you know, when I did, it was such a, almost a natural

[00:06:49] [SPEAKER_01]: thing. But yeah, there were moments in my childhood where like my older brother, Randy, who's three

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_01]: years older than me, had a period in his life where he just on fire for Jesus. And he's like,

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_01]: our neighbor kids need to know the Lord. And we lived in like this private drive. My dad had built

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_01]: a home and we were surrounded by woods, but across the street was like a neighborhood that a lot of

[00:07:15] [SPEAKER_01]: people were like, Gordon, why are you building a home there? And he's like, I love it. And God loves

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_01]: all people. And so, so he was like, guys, we've got this mission field across the street now.

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_01]: And so we hosted like, we called it the Sunshine Club, S-O-N-S-H-I-N-E, as like a nine-year-old

[00:07:34] [SPEAKER_01]: and a 12-year-old. And that summer, I don't know, like, like 15 of our neighbor kids came to faith

[00:07:41] [SPEAKER_01]: in Jesus. And those are just those, those experiences and those formative things.

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_01]: But we had lots of rejection too, and we're teased and we were, yeah, but it just, I don't know,

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_01]: it was just a part of life. Like if Jesus is who he says that he is and he loves us like he says

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_01]: that he loves us, then he is worth sharing with the world, no matter how old you are.

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely. Yes.

[00:08:05] [SPEAKER_01]: And so I love that. Yeah.

[00:08:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Was your Sunshine Club like a, like a week-long VBS or what did that look like?

[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. It was like VBS run by kids. So my mom gave us money and she's like, you could buy prizes at the,

[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, it was like Kmart.

[00:08:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Dollar store.

[00:08:22] [SPEAKER_01]: It was literally like stores that don't exist, but it was like the dollar section of that store.

[00:08:26] [SPEAKER_01]: And so we're buying, I remember we bought plastic tops and baseball cards and other things to give

[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_01]: away. And yeah, yeah. And, and it was, it was just so much ingrained into us. I mean,

[00:08:40] [SPEAKER_01]: by the time I was in high school, it was like, kids, you should be volunteering at church. You know,

[00:08:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, you can teach younger kids. And so my little church gave me this class of second grade boys when

[00:08:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I was 16 years old. And I would spend all the money that I made at work on prizes for the kids in

[00:09:00] [SPEAKER_01]: my class. Cause if they invite people to come to church, I'd be like, I'll give you this or this

[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_01]: or that. And it was, it was probably not the right motivation looking back on it, but it worked. Like

[00:09:11] [SPEAKER_01]: these kids were like, yeah, we'll invite friends if you, you know, transformers, you're bad.

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Right. Yes.

[00:09:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_01]: But it was, it was just, and for me, I know most of your guests aren't pastors and I'm a pastor and

[00:09:25] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm a real estate. I go do two different jobs and we'll talk about that later and why, but,

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_01]: you know, that was such a formative thing to me, even considering the call of God in my life.

[00:09:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Cause I went to, I went to college as an accounting major and that was kind of my plan and what I was

[00:09:40] [SPEAKER_01]: going to do. And it was a working job for an introvert and I had some different plans for me

[00:09:46] [SPEAKER_01]: along the way, but there are, there are just so many ways that I'm just convinced that young people

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_01]: involved in sharing faith. And even in this generation, I'm so inspired by those who are

[00:10:02] [SPEAKER_01]: younger. I was a youth pastor for 15 years and, and I'm so inspired by the generation that is growing

[00:10:10] [SPEAKER_01]: up today that is still boldly standing for Christ. I mean, I think about that with you and you blow me

[00:10:18] [SPEAKER_01]: away, you and your, your husband and, and, and those that I know that you have the opportunity to hang

[00:10:23] [SPEAKER_01]: out with day by day and you're just living on mission and make it an incredible impact. And, um,

[00:10:28] [SPEAKER_01]: God is doing great things in this world. You're so kind. Yeah. No, you're so right.

[00:10:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Before we jump into your career and kind of life now, which I'm so excited to get there. Um,

[00:10:39] [SPEAKER_00]: I was just wondering, so you're saying that evangelism, loving the Lord well was ingrained

[00:10:46] [SPEAKER_00]: as a kid. So, uh, could you speak to parents now that are even just raising littles, but all the way

[00:10:54] [SPEAKER_00]: up, what was something you saw your parents do really well that encouraged you to do this in

[00:11:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Jank Club and share with your four-year-old neighbor? What would you, what kind of, uh,

[00:11:05] [SPEAKER_01]: yeah, what are some examples of what they did well? Yeah. So my parents, um, prayed with us every day.

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Um, we didn't always read the Bible and like four boys that were three years apart, each, each,

[00:11:18] [SPEAKER_01]: each one of us, um, trying to, my dad trying to do family devotions. It was like herding cattle. I mean,

[00:11:24] [SPEAKER_01]: and we prayed a lot and we, uh, you know, like our dinner prayers were oftentimes about, um,

[00:11:31] [SPEAKER_01]: friends of ours who needed Jesus. We had a long drive to school every day. Like our school was like 20

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_01]: minutes away. And I remember, you know, those rides in the car, um, my mom would just talk about,

[00:11:43] [SPEAKER_01]: you know, Hey, who, who are we going to invite over this weekend? You know, like hospitality is a big

[00:11:47] [SPEAKER_01]: part of who my parents were too. And that hospitality was like, we're going to invite, um, people who

[00:11:54] [SPEAKER_01]: need Jesus to hang out with people who know Jesus. And so, um, so there was often an intermingling of,

[00:12:00] [SPEAKER_01]: we're going to have church friends over and we're going to have friends who don't know the Lord.

[00:12:03] [SPEAKER_01]: And so that was, that was kind of a modeled in my home as being a beautiful thing. Um,

[00:12:09] [SPEAKER_01]: my parents never wanted to be those Christians that were always hanging out with Christians and

[00:12:13] [SPEAKER_01]: didn't have any people in their life who needed Jesus. Cause then they were kind of no heavenly

[00:12:16] [SPEAKER_01]: good, right? Like no earthly good. I mean, it's just, you're just hanging out with believers all

[00:12:22] [SPEAKER_01]: the time. And that's not what Jesus called us to do. And so, um, and if we'd get in these ruts,

[00:12:27] [SPEAKER_01]: you know, where all we were doing was hanging out with, with believers, they, they just kind of,

[00:12:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know. They, they wanted us to go to like a Christian school through eighth grade.

[00:12:36] [SPEAKER_01]: And then it wasn't a choice. They were like, like in high school, you're going to a public school.

[00:12:40] [SPEAKER_01]: We want you to learn how to stand for your faith. Um, we want you to have the questions before you

[00:12:44] [SPEAKER_01]: go to college. We want you to, to wrestle. Um, not everybody believes the things that you believe.

[00:12:50] [SPEAKER_01]: And we want you to just, just see that God's faithful, um, when, uh, things are hard and

[00:12:58] [SPEAKER_01]: he's faithful, things are good. And so, yeah, so it was just a lot of, a lot of praying. Um,

[00:13:03] [SPEAKER_01]: my parents, um, talked to us about having a list of people that we'd pray for who needed Christ.

[00:13:08] [SPEAKER_01]: And we'd pray regularly for those people. They'd encourage us to either write it in a Bible or

[00:13:13] [SPEAKER_01]: parent or to, you know, write it on a three by five card and have it in a place that we could pray.

[00:13:17] [SPEAKER_01]: And so those were things that, uh, I saw, I saw modeled at home. And then my dad, um, again,

[00:13:24] [SPEAKER_01]: worked at a savings alone and then started his own real estate company later on. And, um, but he was

[00:13:30] [SPEAKER_01]: constantly sharing stories of how God had opened up doors in his career to have spiritual conversations.

[00:13:38] [SPEAKER_01]: So, uh, Keith was a guy who lived across the street in that neighborhood that I was talking about. And I

[00:13:42] [SPEAKER_01]: remember his parents came to get a loan from my dad at the savings loan. They wanted to buy

[00:13:47] [SPEAKER_01]: a house. And, um, and my dad found out that they lived just like six blocks away from us

[00:13:53] [SPEAKER_01]: across the street and they had adopted a son. Um, and these people were about as far from Jesus as

[00:14:01] [SPEAKER_01]: you could get. Uh, they were as opposite of my parents as you could get. Their son came to that,

[00:14:07] [SPEAKER_01]: that one adopted son. He came everywhere with his parents. And they, uh, my dad said, I met this boy

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER_01]: today. His name's Keith and Randy's between your age and Brian's age. And we're going to befriend Keith.

[00:14:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Keith started, um, coming to church with us and, uh, he did become a follower of Jesus who, um,

[00:14:26] [SPEAKER_01]: probably took probably two years though, of kind of faithfully coming to our church. I remember that

[00:14:31] [SPEAKER_01]: he became a believer as a Wednesday night at our church and his, his whole countenance changed. I

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_01]: mean, he was kind of, um, at times he could be a little bit bully-ish, all that changed. And he became,

[00:14:44] [SPEAKER_01]: uh, he ended up, um, going to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. He became a pastor for a time. Um, he

[00:14:52] [SPEAKER_01]: was like, I'm going to have as many kids as I can to try to get six or seven kids. I mean,

[00:14:58] [SPEAKER_01]: it's just an amazing story. And I just loved it. And I just saw him at my dad's funeral and, um,

[00:15:04] [SPEAKER_01]: still just so faithfully living for the Lord. And so those kinds of stories, I mean, it's just like,

[00:15:08] [SPEAKER_01]: yeah, I love that. I love it. And so that was, but that's so much of that was my day. Um,

[00:15:14] [SPEAKER_01]: I was setting this, this fervor of guys, God's put us around people in the sphere of influence,

[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_01]: and we're going to use that sphere of influence. Um, and we're going to trust that the Holy Spirit

[00:15:24] [SPEAKER_01]: can work. And we're going to, we're just going to, we're going to believe that if we'll be faithful,

[00:15:29] [SPEAKER_00]: God's going to be faithful. Yeah. It sounds like your parents really had eyes for, uh, for

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER_00]: opportunities and took those steps of faith when they saw that. And that's the beautiful thing

[00:15:41] [SPEAKER_00]: about raising a family too, is you, yeah, you, you're a unit, you're, you're a team and you get

[00:15:46] [SPEAKER_00]: to, to do that together. So it's sweet that he wrapped you guys in to, to meet Keith and befriend

[00:15:52] [SPEAKER_00]: him and yeah, just do, do life together too. Yeah, he really did. He really did. And

[00:15:59] [SPEAKER_01]: you know, they let us, um, they let us struggle too. You know, they didn't, um, they weren't afraid

[00:16:04] [SPEAKER_01]: of the struggle. They believed that the trials in our life would make us stronger. And so I remember

[00:16:09] [SPEAKER_01]: like my junior year of high school was my little rebellious year, you know, like I, I just, uh,

[00:16:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to be like everybody else. I wanted to become, and it was so empty, you know, it was just

[00:16:18] [SPEAKER_01]: so, and my senior year came along and I'm like, I can't do that again. And I decided I'm going to

[00:16:25] [SPEAKER_01]: live different. And like my senior year, 14 of my friends became followers of Jesus and one of them,

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_01]: um, and, and that way that happened was again, I wasn't the bold evangelist. I didn't know what to

[00:16:37] [SPEAKER_01]: say, you know, like I, but I invited them to things that my church was doing. We had a youth for Christ,

[00:16:42] [SPEAKER_01]: like a chapter in our area of Chicago, the Chicago area where people would, uh, they just did amazing

[00:16:48] [SPEAKER_01]: things. And I remember taking a bunch of friends on a spring break trip with youth for Christ to

[00:16:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Florida, which is just crazy. Like, but, but one of those friends became a believer on that trip.

[00:16:58] [SPEAKER_01]: And today he's like running this amazing ministry as a normal business guy who produces, like does high

[00:17:07] [SPEAKER_01]: end, uh, like home theater stuff, but he's created this men's ministry and he brings guys in a boot

[00:17:14] [SPEAKER_01]: camp. And, you know, I ran into him. I was in Colorado a few years ago and he had just moved

[00:17:18] [SPEAKER_01]: there from the Chicago area and he saw my Facebook and he's like, Hey, can we get together and meet?

[00:17:23] [SPEAKER_01]: And for him to just share like how he was walking with Jesus, you know, 30 years later, I was just

[00:17:28] [SPEAKER_01]: like, Oh my goodness, God, you are so faithful. And it can have somebody I lost touch with. I hadn't

[00:17:33] [SPEAKER_01]: talked to him since my wedding and yet God's like working in incredible ways. So we'll be faithful.

[00:17:40] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I was reading just yesterday, I was reading in, in Mark, um, and reading where Jesus talks

[00:17:45] [SPEAKER_01]: about the different types of seed that you sell. And, um, and you know, it's just amazing. If we're,

[00:17:52] [SPEAKER_01]: if we'll be faithful to cast that seed out, he'll, he's, he'll, he'll be faithful with the rest and

[00:17:58] [SPEAKER_00]: it's what he can do. Yeah. With your, with your high school friends, did you have pretty intentional

[00:18:05] [SPEAKER_00]: conversations around the Lord or did they mostly see the way you were living life or do you remember

[00:18:10] [SPEAKER_01]: any of those stories? Yeah, there was a combination of it because there would be things that they would

[00:18:13] [SPEAKER_01]: do, you know, that I was just wouldn't, I wasn't going to do. And so the question would come up,

[00:18:18] [SPEAKER_01]: why, you know, like, um, and, uh, and so that's where I would talk about the Lord and, uh, and

[00:18:25] [SPEAKER_01]: sometimes my invitations to them were very senior in high school type invitations. I was a boy with

[00:18:31] [SPEAKER_01]: hormones and there were cute girls and I was like, Hey, you should come with me. There's cute girls.

[00:18:35] [SPEAKER_01]: And they'd come because they were cute. You know, it was, it was not super spiritual and yet God can

[00:18:39] [SPEAKER_01]: use, but, but for me, it was the risk of, Oh, I'm going to invite my friend to church. And so it was,

[00:18:46] [SPEAKER_01]: it wasn't the most, you know, beautiful invitation. Um, but God, God even worked through that.

[00:18:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. And, um, yeah. And, and again, when I, when I was, uh, when I first started at, uh,

[00:19:01] [SPEAKER_01]: as a youth pastor in Minnesota, I had not come from a large church and I was going to a very large

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER_01]: church and there was a youth pastor across town who was about 15 years older than me. And he says,

[00:19:10] [SPEAKER_01]: never forget. And he was talking about kind of, we were on a radio show together about how do you,

[00:19:17] [SPEAKER_01]: how do you raise kids who are going to follow Jesus? And I had no business on that show. I have

[00:19:22] [SPEAKER_01]: seven year old and a five year old, but, but he, he did. And so I was just kind of soaking in what he

[00:19:29] [SPEAKER_01]: was saying. And, and he said, listen, I think kids need three things to, to make it in this world.

[00:19:34] [SPEAKER_01]: They need parents who love them and are going to point into the Lord. They need a great church

[00:19:37] [SPEAKER_01]: family and they need really good friends. And he said, if you've got two out of those three things

[00:19:42] [SPEAKER_01]: as a kid, you're probably going to be okay. You're probably, you know, so if your parents don't love

[00:19:47] [SPEAKER_01]: the Lord, but you had a great church family and great friends, you're probably going to be okay.

[00:19:50] [SPEAKER_01]: If you've got parents who love to learn a great church family, but you know, the friends are tough to

[00:19:55] [SPEAKER_01]: come back. Praise God for those two things. Right. But two out of three,

[00:19:58] [SPEAKER_01]: kept that principle. And I look over the course of my life now, I'm 55 and I look back and I go,

[00:20:04] [SPEAKER_01]: oh my goodness, that is so true. I mean, if you have all three, I was blessed to have all three

[00:20:10] [SPEAKER_01]: and there's, there's no reason. And my parents were super intentional about that too. They were like,

[00:20:15] [SPEAKER_01]: we're going to get to know the parents of your friends. And so. Yes. Right.

[00:20:19] [SPEAKER_01]: I think about my wedding day, Abby, and like the guys who stood in my wedding next to me when I got

[00:20:24] [SPEAKER_01]: married, most of them had been invited to my parents' home for dinner after church. Cause my

[00:20:31] [SPEAKER_01]: mom would make twice as much lunch every Sunday as she needed to for our family. Cause she was like,

[00:20:38] [SPEAKER_01]: there's going to be a family visiting church today and we're going to invite them over.

[00:20:41] [SPEAKER_01]: And so like, they were the people who weren't on staff again, just kind of worked in business,

[00:20:49] [SPEAKER_01]: but loved hospitality. And they said, we're going to make sure that nobody that comes to this church

[00:20:55] [SPEAKER_01]: doesn't get an invitation to our home. Yeah. Okay. Wow. Those were my, where my best friends came

[00:21:00] [SPEAKER_01]: from those and, and we'd vacation with those families and we'd, it was just beautiful. It was a

[00:21:05] [SPEAKER_00]: beautiful thing. I love that. When you were talking about inviting your friends and not

[00:21:12] [SPEAKER_00]: totally having the right motivation, it reminded me of another story I know you have about,

[00:21:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I think you were in college and you went on, was it a mission trip to, okay. Can you tell this?

[00:21:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Or I think you know what I'm saying. So I went to a, I went to a Christian college.

[00:21:27] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm an accounting major and there's a super cute girl in my class who ended up marrying named Cindy.

[00:21:33] [SPEAKER_01]: And it's evangelism class together and required for all students. And one of the requirements was

[00:21:41] [SPEAKER_01]: that you would, on a Friday night, you'd go to a football game. And we had a survey,

[00:21:46] [SPEAKER_01]: it was a high school football game. We had this survey like they used to do that would ask a series

[00:21:51] [SPEAKER_01]: of questions. And the last question was, if you could know God personally, would you want to?

[00:21:56] [SPEAKER_01]: And I went into that so half-heartedly, I was really trying to impress Cindy. And

[00:22:00] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know. I think it was even, it may have even been extra credit. Like maybe it wasn't

[00:22:04] [SPEAKER_01]: required. Maybe it was extra credit. But I'm like, okay, I'll go do that.

[00:22:10] [SPEAKER_01]: And so we're asking these questions to these students at this high school football game.

[00:22:14] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not expecting any of them to say, yes, I'd like to know God personally.

[00:22:19] [SPEAKER_01]: And we get to the question. And I remember I'm talking to this guy who

[00:22:22] [SPEAKER_01]: looked like he was in a gang and he says, yeah, I'd want to know God personally.

[00:22:27] [SPEAKER_01]: And I froze. I was like, I don't know what to say. So think about like a year before I'm a senior in

[00:22:33] [SPEAKER_01]: high school and a bunch of my friends come to know Jesus, but I'm inviting them to places where

[00:22:37] [SPEAKER_01]: other people are talking about them and they're hearing the gospel. Now I'm like tasked with that.

[00:22:45] [SPEAKER_01]: And I-

[00:22:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Was this the first time that you were explaining the gospel?

[00:22:49] [SPEAKER_01]: I did it as a, my first day as a believer at four years old. I was better at four than I was at

[00:22:54] [SPEAKER_01]: 19. Yeah. I mean, it's amazing. It was just wild. But I think it was the, really, I had the wrong

[00:23:02] [SPEAKER_01]: motivation going into that night. But even then I was doing a spiritual act of worship. And I think

[00:23:10] [SPEAKER_01]: it was where God was like, hey, Brian, you know what? Like you're really blowing it here. Your heart

[00:23:16] [SPEAKER_01]: isn't in it. My heart's in it. I love that young man. And I'm going to use, if I can use a donkey,

[00:23:22] [SPEAKER_01]: I can use you because you're kind of being like a donkey right now, Brian. And I'm going to use you.

[00:23:27] [SPEAKER_01]: And as I stumbled, my precious wife now, like was like, I got this. And she, she explained it. And

[00:23:36] [SPEAKER_01]: that young man prayed to receive Christ. And I think that's the last time I ever

[00:23:41] [SPEAKER_01]: didn't know what to say. You know, it was kind of like, but oh my goodness, there have been plenty

[00:23:47] [SPEAKER_01]: of times in my life where I haven't said what I knew I should say or where, or where I thought I'm

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER_01]: supposed to say something. And that didn't, you know, the result that I thought it was going to

[00:23:56] [SPEAKER_01]: do because sometimes God's just asking us to be faithful. Yeah. Yeah. And we're just, we're just a

[00:24:02] [SPEAKER_01]: step along the way. Right? Yeah. Like so many of the people I know that have become followers of

[00:24:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Jesus because I've had the chance to share with them. It's not because of me. It's because a hundred

[00:24:13] [SPEAKER_01]: other people have been faithful along the way and they've just been like a quiet witness or they've

[00:24:18] [SPEAKER_01]: shared or they've done whatever. And it's been a, it's been a beautiful thing. And so I, I've had

[00:24:24] [SPEAKER_01]: the opportunity to talk to a whole lot of people and see people respond to the gospel. But part of that,

[00:24:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Abby is because I know that the Lord has given me the spiritual gift of evangelism too. And that's,

[00:24:35] [SPEAKER_01]: that's a, it's kind of a rare gift and it's an interesting gift because in the Bible, you know,

[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_01]: we have this list of spiritual gifts and I'll teach evangelism classes. I was teaching just this

[00:24:44] [SPEAKER_01]: week at my church and I've asked over 700 people here, how many of you have the spiritual gift to

[00:24:48] [SPEAKER_01]: evangelism? And three out of seven say, I mean, I just think it's a rare gift, but it's the one gift in

[00:24:56] [SPEAKER_01]: scripture that all of us are responsible for. And we pay a part in, and I think that's, you know,

[00:25:01] [SPEAKER_01]: you think about first Corinthians 12 to 14 and how every part of the body is important. And there

[00:25:06] [SPEAKER_01]: is this like reality that when we're just faithful in, in being who God's called us to be,

[00:25:15] [SPEAKER_01]: we're part of that person's journey. I mean, if the average person needs to know like about five

[00:25:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Christians they actually like before they ever consider the claims of faith, like there's at least

[00:25:24] [SPEAKER_01]: four probably or five other people because there's plenty of people that are making God look really

[00:25:29] [SPEAKER_01]: bad out there day by day. And we're all hypocrites every time we sing, right? Like we all just,

[00:25:34] [SPEAKER_01]: none of us are perfect, but man, praise God for his grace and that he can take a college student with

[00:25:42] [SPEAKER_01]: really impure motives and work through that. And if he can do that, he can work through anyone.

[00:25:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. Well, and I'd love to clarify too that not having the spiritual gift of evangelism doesn't

[00:25:54] [SPEAKER_00]: mean that we're not called to share our faith and be obedient when God gives us the opportunity.

[00:26:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. And that's the thing, that's where I say like, it's the one gift that we all have this mandate,

[00:26:04] [SPEAKER_01]: like five times in the New Testament, the great commission is given and it's given in very different

[00:26:10] [SPEAKER_01]: ways, you know, from the simple invitation, follow me, I'm going to make you fishers and men to,

[00:26:14] [SPEAKER_01]: hey, you're going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and other parts of there.

[00:26:19] [SPEAKER_01]: And what I love about evangelism, and I'll say this to people all the time, is like,

[00:26:24] [SPEAKER_01]: you ever have those moments in life where you just feel God's just so far from you and,

[00:26:27] [SPEAKER_01]: oh, I just, I'm not feeling the presence of God. I'll oftentimes tell people there,

[00:26:32] [SPEAKER_01]: when's the last time you just trusted him in his mission, of joining him in his mission and

[00:26:37] [SPEAKER_01]: been faithful with sharing the gospel? Because he promises us in Matthew 28, 18 to 20,

[00:26:43] [SPEAKER_01]: that when we do that, he says, I am with you. And if you want to, I mean, he's always with us,

[00:26:48] [SPEAKER_01]: he's Emmanuel, he's God with us. But if you want to experience the presence of God in a really special,

[00:26:52] [SPEAKER_01]: tangible way, take a risk, take a risk. And there's this book that, I think it was one of the guys

[00:26:59] [SPEAKER_01]: from Steiger wrote called 1000 Risks. And it's literally the story of somebody saying for the

[00:27:05] [SPEAKER_01]: next 1000 days, I'm going to share the gospel with someone. I don't know how it's going to be,

[00:27:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm not going to let a day go by without doing that.

[00:27:14] [SPEAKER_01]: And you and I have a mutual friend, Richard Payne, who read that book. And he was like,

[00:27:18] [SPEAKER_01]: he's like, I'm doing that. So I'm like, every time I'm with Richard, like whether it's a server,

[00:27:21] [SPEAKER_01]: and some people could do that. And God just seems to work it beautifully. And others,

[00:27:28] [SPEAKER_01]: you know, like we could try that and, and maybe not so much, but you can't try that and not feel

[00:27:33] [SPEAKER_01]: the presence of God. So D.L. Moody was a famous evangelist in the last century and started Moody

[00:27:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Bible Institute in Chicago. And he, the great Chicago fire happened on a night that he was

[00:27:48] [SPEAKER_01]: preaching. And he was feeling the urge to like share the gospel that night. And for whatever

[00:27:53] [SPEAKER_01]: reason, he didn't do it. Like the Holy Spirit was telling him to share. He didn't,

[00:27:56] [SPEAKER_01]: the fire happens, thousands of people die. And he made a vow that night, I'm never going to go

[00:28:03] [SPEAKER_01]: another day without sharing Jesus with at least someone. And he was so well known for that,

[00:28:08] [SPEAKER_01]: that there's a story of him one night where, you know, there's these big clocks, it's the 1800s,

[00:28:14] [SPEAKER_01]: there's these street clocks in Chicago, and he's been in a busy day of meetings. And he sees it's like

[00:28:20] [SPEAKER_01]: 1159. And Moody was this huge guy, he's like 350 pounds and super tall. And he's a man at

[00:28:26] [SPEAKER_01]: the end of the street, and he realizes I haven't shared Christ. And he starts,

[00:28:30] [SPEAKER_01]: he's like, do you know Jesus? And the guy looks at him, he goes, are you D.L. Moody?

[00:28:39] [SPEAKER_01]: That's the kind of reputation, wouldn't it be great? Like, we love people so much that

[00:28:44] [SPEAKER_01]: we can't not share. And yet most of us, again, aren't going to be that person. But,

[00:28:52] [SPEAKER_01]: you know, start reading stuff like that about people. Or the people that you have in your life

[00:28:57] [SPEAKER_01]: that do have that gift, lean into them, you know, with them. Larry Gilbert wrote a book years ago

[00:29:02] [SPEAKER_01]: called Team Ministry. And he's like, listen, again, like, here's spiritual gifts. Like,

[00:29:06] [SPEAKER_01]: we're teammates. So I need, you know, somebody's hospitality, they need my evangelism,

[00:29:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I need somebody else to get on and together. Oh my goodness.

[00:29:14] [SPEAKER_00]: All part of the body.

[00:29:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Powerful. Yeah.

[00:29:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:29:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes. Absolutely.

[00:29:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Because the Holy Spirit's powerful. Yeah. And that's, so it's really about us. But

[00:29:21] [SPEAKER_01]: man, with the Spirit who's working in all of us in different ways, like, look out. Look out.

[00:29:26] [SPEAKER_00]: So good. Okay. I can't wait. Okay. We are going to get into your career now and how you're able to

[00:29:34] [SPEAKER_00]: share your faith in your everyday life. So everyone tune back in next week.

[00:29:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening to the Ask But My Faith podcast. We'd love your support in continuing

[00:29:45] [SPEAKER_00]: to bring you encouraging and inspiring stories. Please subscribe, rate, and review wherever

[00:29:50] [SPEAKER_00]: you're listening. And you can learn more about us and donate at askbutmyfaith.com.

[00:29:55] [SPEAKER_00]: God bless you this week as you go out and share your faith.