Damon Adcock + the Loud Motorcycle

[00:00:00] We're our hope is to inspire everyday faith conversations. I'm Jess and I'm Abby. Today we're sharing a conversation we have at Damon Adcock, driven by a passion to inspire, develop and add value to others. Damon brings a wealth of experience or discussion.

[00:00:21] He has spent the last 28 years leading what he calls one of the most complex organizations on the planet, the local church. More recently, Damon was invited by our friends Scott Pile to become the chief culture officer of Pile Financial Services in part two.

[00:00:37] You're going to hear a powerful story of his impactful work there. But today, Damon shares stories that I think will really resonate deeply with anybody that's on staff at a church or involved in full-time ministry. He speaks candidly about a conviction he received from the Holy Spirit,

[00:00:54] realizing that he needed to make sure and because Faith wore a personal support, he was able to help his parents and their parents. And not miss all those little opportunities that got placed in his life due to his church commitments.

[00:01:05] Now Damon lives with a sense of expectancy always looking for connection to what those were open to it. You're going to love his stories. Let's jump in. Damon, welcome to the Ask About My Faith Podcast. How are you today? I'm doing great. Doing great.

[00:01:23] Doing great here in Murdobe, South Carolina. Murdobe, that's really nice right about now. Yes. Well, thanks for joining us. We look forward to having you share your stories. Let's go ahead and dive right in to how you came to another Lord.

[00:01:37] Yeah, you know, I grew up in a pastor's home. In fact, I tell my kids all the time that they actually stand on the faiths shoulders of generations of men and women who love Jesus and love his church.

[00:01:50] My, we had a grandma at a granny and my granny playing the piano and organ for her church for 51 years. And so I always tell my kids, you know, we come from the tribe of Levi. You know, we will care for the church and serve the church.

[00:02:06] And but my dad was a pastor my mom played piano. And so from a very young age, you know, how to sing and put on people singing church that kind of thing. And so, and that journey lets us just several moments

[00:02:22] of just remembering I think when I was like six years old, I remember laying in a few, you know, it's a kid. You just sometimes you're, you know, the pastor's going along and so you're just laying down and listening or not listening but trying to you know, just.

[00:02:35] And I remember it was towards the start service. And I remember looking up on my mom and she was crying. And I, and I said, Mom, what's wrong. And, you know, because it's a kid. The only time you know tears when your brother hits you or, you know,

[00:02:50] or your mess around and you trip or something, you know, you fall. But she said, and she kind of pointed, she just pointed at the gal that was at the altar. And she said, I've been praying for her.

[00:03:03] And there's trying to the first time I kind of understood that tears could be something other than for pain but actually for the actual way. And mom was kind of instilling this sense of faith and praying for people and you know, wanting to change in that gal's life.

[00:03:21] And so she was actually rejoicing at the transformation that was happening. And so, you know, but I came to faith, you know, we've gone to a wisdom night service course, you know, growing up as a kid. You know, it was someone who's some nine boys tonight.

[00:03:36] But we had come home and I remember the pastor's message and I remember that even that I think I was at age of the old and asked my parents, I said, I want to accept pieces of my life.

[00:03:49] And it was a young, young confession, you know, the way you don't like other people from our brothers and, you know. But I knew I needed Jesus. I wanted him to go part of my life. And I wanted a difference to be lived out as I saw

[00:04:09] lived out in my mom and dad. And that grew. My father was actually working for the SOMEBAPS Convention. And so, part of that every summer we were part of this camp and were kids from all over the state with calm.

[00:04:28] And so it was always a part of this expression of either share my faith or getting ready for events that would facilitate faith conversations. So, whatever is running sound or leading worship or whatever. But we had thousands of students come every week.

[00:04:45] And but it was really in my, I'm a junior senior here. We were part of this church plant in Fresno, California and Clove and we were part of this church plant. And we have a church of like 125 people. But like 40 to 50 of them were youth.

[00:05:07] Like me and my friends God, it's Stacy and Carrie. We were all these, you know, we got these masters kind of kids. And we love Jesus, I love the sheriff. I think we have great, you know, we're leaders in our school. A very involved and stuff.

[00:05:22] And we have no like full time youth pastor or anything like that. But we knew what I got there. And we knew how to share our faith and. And stuff we would, we would plan church, we plan events and, you know, the

[00:05:36] Lord just I begin to see this, see this how the Lord was cultivating this message in my heart to want to share my faith with others. You know, and so whether it was through singing or leading or whether it was through sports

[00:05:50] or whatever it was involved with that I was going to be this connector and then from that, you know, share my faith with others and I'm sure. Yeah. I love that to just the boldness of teenage teenagers like the faith like children. How cool. Yeah. It's right.

[00:06:12] Oh, sorry. I just can ask if you remember any stories or like specific moments in California where you got to have like that one on conversation sharing your faith as a teenager. Yeah. There were several times. I remember one specific time.

[00:06:28] I had a good friend that I was starting to hang out with and. I knew his his family life was tough. His parents were going through a really hard time and. And I grew up in the, yeah, played. Snorodrum and man and.

[00:06:46] And I knew he needed a friend but he also needed just a place to fit in. And so I invited to come along. You know, you know, those kids that just they just need or.

[00:06:57] They just need a place to fit in and they think it a little bit of a family and I had invited him to go on this ski retreat and.

[00:07:06] And it was in as we were, you know, skiing and we were on the chair lift and he began to ask me questions like, what, what do you. Why do you hang out with me?

[00:07:18] You know, why did you, you know, why did you invite me and I said, well. Why did you say yes? Why did you decide to come? And because I always tried to, you know, I try to get them to, you know, hands, hands, you know,

[00:07:35] ask, ask, and answer their own questions but I said, well, why did you say yes? Why didn't you work? I was like, well, I thought it was to ski but I think it's, I think it's, I think it's, I think it's to be around this group.

[00:07:48] I think it's something something in this group and that's the, that's the almost electrifying part of being something like like you said that's something that's, you know, young and just fearless for the Lord that there's such a draw right?

[00:08:05] There's such a draw to wanting to cheer a faith in. And, uh, and through that week it, you know, through shared of my story, my faith story, he knew my family well and

[00:08:15] knew kind of my background and, and, uh, and I remember just, at a point in saying, Jeremy, do you, do you want to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior? And, uh, and he said yes, I do. Wow.

[00:08:29] And I remember, you know, just that moment to being, you know, a junior in high school and just, just remembering just how important it was to not just provide the opportunity, you know,

[00:08:41] what is he or whatever but living your life in a way that would, that would give example to who Jesus was in your life, you know. And even as a young kid, right?

[00:08:50] Because we're just so kids, we're not, we're not, you know, we're just so kids, you know, but when you know there was something different in my spirit, in my heart and in my life and the way I was trying to live it and, and he wanted that.

[00:09:02] And so, you know, that would be getting the marker from me of, of being such a connector and, um, and being bold enough to invite people to, uh, to talk about my faith and then just ask them where they are, you know. I love it.

[00:09:20] The, that theme of kind of just being that connector and being a person that people want to be around. That's going to, uh, tie through all your stories today and I think our listeners will hear that

[00:09:30] and really enjoy that, um, because that's a good reminder to us that it's not necessarily, um, about having the right words but it's being just being yourself, being someone who is ready for that interaction and expectant that you're going to be able to,

[00:09:46] to share about who you are and why you are, um, the way that you're. Yeah. And I think part of that too is integrity. It's like you're the same person on the chair lift as you are at church as you are at school and it's like, oh wow.

[00:10:00] I want to be around him and his friends before we push record. We're talking about just the importance of relationship and getting to share your faith in that and yeah, I'm excited to dig into more of those stories. Yeah. Absolutely.

[00:10:14] It is part of who you are, you know, who you are like on stage is who you are all stages who you are. It does, it does about where you are, you know, the consistency of who Christ is in your life.

[00:10:28] What compels people to draw clothes and in somebody's time is work so perried or we're so, in this, in this season those things where it's just crazy that we often miss the availability of really what Jesus wants us to be.

[00:10:47] It's just, it's how, you know, just that spirit of availability, you know. Yes. Well, not hit home for me even as I hear you say that right. It's like, oh man, things have been pretty busy lately.

[00:11:00] Oh, I kind of haven't been making myself as available as I have another season. So thanks for the reminder. Yeah. And you have a story you were telling us a moment as a staff member on church that was really like pivotal in this topic.

[00:11:16] Can you share that moment what you said to your elders and then like how you saw them and what happened? Absolutely. So I grew up as a worship leader and actually started a business administration degree in silence, it's leadership, business events alone with this artistic gift

[00:11:35] and it's a beautiful blend and it's allowed me to do a lot of great fun things. Yeah. But started a ministry, I've been a pastor, worship leader of pastor for 28 years, of course, even before that. But I was at a very successful, very successful church.

[00:11:53] We started when I went to church when I got on a salad, it's true for running 1,600 people in the next four years we grew 1,000 people a year over the next four years and it was crazy. So we did double Saturday, double Sunday, and a midweek service.

[00:12:11] So I was on stage every three days leading a service. And while it was fun, we were in the outreach magazines, fastest growing churches in America. I began to really, you know, the Holy Spirit really began to whisper to my heart about just the

[00:12:29] pace of that and just always being at the leadership lead of the expression of sharing your faith with the song or message or whatever. But the Holy Spirit began to talk to me privately about just this deep desire, like, David, you're not connected.

[00:12:49] You're not in a faith conversation with anybody. And I remember telling my elders, you know, we were, I think we were doing like 8 or 9 Christmas Easter vices and I remember telling the elders, I said, I hope we are really good at reaching

[00:13:06] our neighbors because I don't have time to talk to mine. And as I spoke that, I think the really, and I was saying that to them because of the pace and all this stuff.

[00:13:17] But I really, I think the Spirit, I was thinking that to me, like they mean, yeah, you have to re-evaluate this this, this

[00:13:25] thing, you're in this space here and because you are, you know, you're up front so much and you're leaving so much in the expression of that so much and the church that you're missing out on people that I'm putting in your power every day. Oh my gosh.

[00:13:39] And I was, I was still convicted of that. And I was trying to put it on them like, you know, like, hey, we're still effective and we're growing so much. I just don't have time, but the truth is I have time.

[00:13:52] But I was just electing to do other things with it, you know? And so that began a really, a journey from me of really recalibrating that I, in order for the great big experience through

[00:14:08] ministry needed to happen, I needed to make sure that I have the spiritual conversations to, to one day know that my neighbor is sitting in the fourth row, you know, and or someone I'd met along the way is sitting there.

[00:14:23] And so it makes that expression of sharing my faith through song or speaking or whatever, make much more personal and then just the expression of the large gallery and holding, you know, it's having an impact.

[00:14:39] And that's the thing is you, you know it's having an impact but you can never measure it. When you're sharing your faith personally, you can always, you know, see where we are in those relationships and kind of keep a count of those things on the way.

[00:14:51] And I think that's what the Lord was drawing me to is, David, while that's great and that's that's a part of my effective reach. Don't forget that this needs to be something personal to you.

[00:15:04] And then you'd be going to take me back to the stories that the stories of the members of those moments of sharing your faith along the way in that personal, you know, story telling and witnessing. So that was a huge thing for me.

[00:15:17] And so that would be a big shift. And so not only for me but really for those that I led with, you know, I had began to really challenge the musicians that I led with and the other leaders that I'm led with like,

[00:15:28] who in that time, you know, who in the audiences has a neighbor, a friend, a coworker. And when I went, you know, nobody did it for several weeks. I was like, okay, we've got to really challenge ourselves to really grow in this area.

[00:15:43] And not leave just a faith expression to my youth and my gift in a like a little church or a local ministry setting. But I need to keep it personal, right? Because sometimes you hear about, sometimes there's in the church where people are like,

[00:16:01] you know, they haven't shared it faith in a long time. And so there's kind of like their dry bones. It's kind of like, you know, they don't have that vibrant contagious stir for the

[00:16:11] Lord and I think it can often be lost by, by keeping it close and keeping it personally, you can really keep it fiber down live and be reminded of the day in which you said he was in the uses. So yeah. Yeah.

[00:16:25] I know we have a lot of, we have a lot of listeners that are in full-time ministry. My husband is in full-time ministry and it gets to be super easy to check the box of like

[00:16:34] I'm doing work for the Lord, but you're right, you're working for the Lord is so different than the relationship and getting to share your faith really fuels the fire in our hearts and makes even full-time ministry more purposeful too. So I know that that shift came with.

[00:16:55] I think some stories from this record field and like with your neighbors, can you share a story after that moment where you got to engage in relationship and share your faith? Yeah. You know, that continued to grow and recently, well, not recently but years ago, this

[00:17:19] became more and more evident in my life of just that God strategically placed you obviously where you live and he puts people around you. So every neighbor, every person, God's, I believe God's, all right, well let's see about this couple, this relationship.

[00:17:38] So we have this, you know, more reach, especially we have families moving in and all the time. It's kind of a trip, about two years, two to three years. And so we was family with across the street and from us and I was just like, all right, Lord,

[00:17:53] you know, they're moved in, you know, I'm just waiting for that. You know, you just want to make that natural, you know, they're moving in, I don't want to, you know, over, you know, be all zealous, run upon it.

[00:18:03] But when you put that right moment and I cannot win warning and my neighbor Robby was, he was trying to get to work at a motorcycle. It was very loud, I mean very loud and it was just very loud and all that

[00:18:17] ever was complaining about it all the time. But he had a flat tire and he had a bike pump out there, and I flipped on my air compressor and fired up thing up, you know, got full, took it over there and got that tire say,

[00:18:34] I said hey, my name is David, you know, I said if you ever need me thing, you know, let me know. It's like thanks so much, I run and you know, lift the work and stop and introduce himself.

[00:18:42] And that was it, you know, he got on his way and later he came by and he's, and he said they want to just want to thank you for reach out to me because,

[00:18:50] you know, I said you're the first person I kind of reached out, you know, to us. And I said, oh, I said absolutely, and I was kind of shocked because we got pretty free

[00:18:59] of the neighbors and I said well if you ever need anything, you know, let me know. And that became another time you come over and he's like, he needs something help around the house and so we kind of helped him with that because I said I've got tools

[00:19:14] and stuff and again, it's just this idea of just being connected and just kind of, you know, building that relationship and, you know, and the truth is, you know, sharing your face is never convenient. It always happens that sometimes the most difficult times or the most, you know,

[00:19:32] you know, you can be in your time. Yeah, it can be in your time. You know, and I remember one night, specifically my wife and my daughter, they gone out. So it's like one of the rare nights that

[00:19:43] as a dad and you know, husband, I just, there's, I'm just by myself, the house and I'm going to want to go. I move to that I'm looking forward to. I got all the kind of like dialed in, you know, ready to go.

[00:19:56] Yeah, yeah, yeah, everything. And you know, I remember it was like 830, the door middle rings and I'm like, and I just like hit play, you know, and that's like, whatever was watching. And I was like, oh no, you know,

[00:20:11] and so I get up and go to the door and turn up and throw me and he, he said, damn, I hate to bother you and he said, but I, my friend had been drinking too much

[00:20:22] and I needed a, I drove him home, but I need a, you know, why did you go pick up my motorcycle? Would you take me? And, you know, and of course, I was like, of course,

[00:20:32] I'm like, you know, in my spirit though, I was like, are you kidding me? You know, I listen to not, you know, this is not what I want to be doing in stuff and anyway, instead of course. And so we, anywhere in my world beach

[00:20:44] is 20 minutes or 25 minutes and so, you know, I finally, you know, I get up all the way there and when we get there, you get out and he's, I can see the search for his pockets and, and he's grabbed the wrong keys

[00:20:58] to his motorcycle. Now, and I'm just like, because I'm just like, you know, if we hurry, you know, I can, you know, drop him off and bust back and get back and he's like, I forgot, I forgot the wrong keys and I said,

[00:21:14] that's a key route, you know, that's our world world world world. We'll drive back and then back again, you know, but, but I had a chance because I had so much hard time. Yeah. To start asking questions.

[00:21:31] So Robby, what do you do? You know, I said, and you got a loud motorcycle and I know I'm so sorry, you know, you begin to know that, that's what you do is like, well, I'm a mechanic and he said,

[00:21:43] actually, and if you begin to this whole story about how, how broken the family was. And that he was actually living with this, because he couldn't live with his family. And he was 20 years old and

[00:21:57] and he, I was trying to find a life. And, and so I said, well, man, we just, and so we didn't have this spiritual conversation about, well, we should, he's like, how did you get here? I'm saying,

[00:22:12] well, I came here, you know, of course, I always say my homets. I always, has it just shared that with Pastor because I kind of want to just, because we didn't really say Pastor, they really did church and they

[00:22:22] started acting or behaving in a certain way. And you kind of want to like, I just want you to be you and not without that in the way. And so he can get to just, and so I'm going to share about my faith in my story

[00:22:33] and who we are more about. And, and so that was on Thursday on Saturday, I saw him across the driveway. And Robby is high as a house of life, Robby's a good. He said, I said, hey, what, what terms are you? Tristers and could I go with you?

[00:22:51] And I'm, and I just, and I just remember, just almost tear it up because I knew the Lord was like, they mentioned your faith is never convenient. But it's the availability that I'm after. I'm just after availability, you know, and that can come at any time. And I,

[00:23:11] I, I said, well, would you like to ride with us? You know, would you like to go with us? You just like, no, I don't want to do that. He's like, because I'm having to go with someone else or so, and I'm like, okay, I said, okay.

[00:23:22] And so, anyway, so he started to come in and after after we could comment and messages connecting, we gave us like the Christ. And I just thought, man, if I've blown that off, I'd blown off those moments on the communities, you know,

[00:23:42] if I had settled in my mind that, you know, that I didn't have time or the bandwidth or just want to do something else. And that would have happened. So, you know, that's, so I always want to, you know, that's a big

[00:23:56] heartbeat of mine like you said, I always want to be connected. You know, I always want to stay connected. You know, I've been a pastor in World Beach for 13 years and I'm doing something different now. But, but people always say, dude, how are you so connected? Like,

[00:24:12] everywhere we go, you know, somebody. And I always say, because I'm expecting, I'm highly, so whenever I go into a warm war or loads or whatever, I'm highly expected, I'm going to run into somebody I know or they know me by leading or, you know, from

[00:24:29] church and it allows me to have a faith conversation. I can't tell you how many times I pray with people like in a loads or one more or whatever, just because I'm not just looking for the items I'm looking for and that's the work. But I'm looking

[00:24:45] for maybe the God intersecting those moments. And, you know, so, you know, so I always, I always tell myself and others, you know, hey, be expected, be ready, you know, God's always looking for opportunities to kind of cross your path. So, somebody that

[00:25:01] is connected with. Yeah, well, really practically too, it's like you're in this store, look at eyeballs and not just pass people and ask the items but yeah, those, those connection points. And I think about how, you know, God wants to use us and he

[00:25:17] asks that we would, you know, pick up our cross, just in our daily life, right? And so what does that look like? What, what does that mean for you, you know, each, each individual, we have to consider what am I sacrificing because if I have a

[00:25:33] ton of money, that's where I feel like I have the abundance and I can easily give from there. Well, maybe actually God wants you to give up your time because that's a little more painful. Well, so it's like, I mean, that just makes me think about

[00:25:45] that night where you spend what probably close to two hours driving to the most critical of that. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, like for someone else, that might be where God really wants us to lean in and reach people not using our

[00:26:00] finances or the resources but our time. Yeah. Looks different for each person, of course. Yeah. That's absolutely. I've interrupted a lot too. You know, if we're taking his example as the gold standard, he was interrupted a lot but never like in convenience it seemed.

[00:26:16] Right. Right. That's, that's, that's, that's such a picture. You know, he was always interrupted but never in convenience. You know, we're bringing out words, we're bringing out words, we're putting things like that just they wanted that moment and so many times I think as

[00:26:33] Americans pastors, whatever, we just are so trans-picked on our, you know, what we're trying to get done that we often forget that. And people, you know, that we need to be available and people can sense when we're, we're bringing friendly or are we present enough to have a

[00:26:55] conversation that's different. And so many times we're really saying hey it's good to see you and just move on but really, really pause and long enough to be present to to have an engagement and see God, are you, are you

[00:27:11] want to be to say something here or encourage your or speak hope into or maybe there's something they want to share. And, and so many times we just missed those opportunities because little, little, we started I think God will kind of

[00:27:25] opens up for us, you know, along the way. Thank you for listening to the Ask But My Faith podcast. We'd love your supporting continuing to bring you encouraging and inspiring stories. Please subscribe, rate, interview, wherever you're listening and you can learn more

[00:27:40] about us and donate at AskButMyFaith.com. God bless you the speak as you go out and share your faith.