Pt 1: Greg Stewart + Tenant / Landlord Chats

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

[00:00:09] I'm Jess and I'm Abby. Today we're sharing a conversation we had with the amazing Greg Stewart.

[00:00:15] Greg is an art director and animator at a motion design studio in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia

[00:00:21] with plans to move to the US soon with his wife, their two kiddos and two gold retrievers.

[00:00:27] Greg grew up in church and loving God most of his life, but get this.

[00:00:31] One of his first memories was sharing his faith when he was just five years old and he was so

[00:00:36] unafraid. Greg also tells about late night strolls with the neighbor slash tenet

[00:00:41] and the kind of deep toxic it to have while letting their dogs out. Jess is also going to share

[00:00:46] a story about giving to be a generous landlord. There are so many great stories and ideas for you

[00:00:52] this episode. Let's jump in. Greg thank you so much for joining us today. Welcome.

[00:01:03] Thanks great to be here. Yes we are excited to hear some of your stories and

[00:01:09] what you do for work is really fun. Would you share just a little bit about what

[00:01:14] what you do? It's a pretty it's just a pretty cool thing that a lot of us have probably seen.

[00:01:19] Yeah yeah so what I do is like we would call it motion design which is sort of like the middle

[00:01:27] of the ven diagram between graphic design and animation. So if I say I'm an animator what most people

[00:01:35] think of is like Pixar movies, which is like a cousin of what I do but more of the animation I do

[00:01:40] is rooted in like graphic design so typography and shapes and that sort of thing. Right.

[00:01:46] Practically what that looks like the company I work for we do a lot of work for tech companies so

[00:01:52] we just worked on, we just worked on a big project with Google they were launching like a new AI

[00:02:00] thing this week and so we worked on sort of like the intro video kind of announcing that.

[00:02:06] If you've ever used Dropbox and have had a slow connection and see some little squares bouncing

[00:02:10] around that was something we worked on. So that's that's really cool but then I'm really blessed to

[00:02:17] work at a company where we also work on some nonprofit and Christian content so we've done I think

[00:02:23] ten or so videos with Bible projects which is super exciting for me because they're translating

[00:02:29] their work into I think currently 55 languages. So it's super cool for me to think about you know

[00:02:36] the work I'm doing getting seen by a ton of people none of them will know who I am that doesn't

[00:02:42] matter but just that like in so many different languages like people will get to see content that

[00:02:47] will help them know God's word and know God better. So faith is inherently a little bit part of your

[00:02:54] part of your work just because of the organizations you work with yeah but you also you work with

[00:03:02] probably some believers and plenty of non-believers as well. Yeah I think our company I think it's

[00:03:08] currently about 12 people and I I think probably out of that there's maybe like eight or nine believers

[00:03:16] okay which is pretty awesome yeah so but we have a lot of people that we we work with a lot

[00:03:23] of contractors and so that brings like tons of opportunities to connect with people outside of

[00:03:27] those churches. Yeah okay well we'll talk more about work and how you kind of weave your faith

[00:03:33] into conversations there let's back up first and go to how you came to know the Lord

[00:03:40] from an early age it sounds like. Yeah yeah so I grew up in so when I was born my dad was a pastor

[00:03:47] in a church here in Canada and then I think when I was about three or four he decided to go to grad

[00:03:54] school for I think the fourth time loves loves getting degrees to become a theological librarian

[00:04:02] and so for most of my life he's been working in like seminaries currently or he just retired from

[00:04:09] Bethel in Minnesota and is now part-timing with a seminary in Pennsylvania and then when I was

[00:04:16] in high school my mom started working in children's ministry so at various points in my life both

[00:04:21] of my parents never at the exact same time have been pastors so I've had I've very much had the

[00:04:28] experience of being a pastor's kid. Sure which I have come to appreciate a ton as an adult though

[00:04:36] maybe it's like a younger person I thought it was a little bit weird and so I I distinctly remember

[00:04:44] I think I would have been probably about four years old praying the prayer to ask Jesus into my heart

[00:04:50] and in my mom of course is a four-year-old I didn't necessarily understand like

[00:04:56] theologically what was happening but I also think that that doesn't make it not genuine.

[00:05:02] I think that in a lot of my interactions with people outside the church in middle school and high

[00:05:08] school I sort of had this feeling of like oh they had this sort of clear distinction of like

[00:05:12] they were doing drugs and then they met Jesus and now they don't do drugs and that seems kind of

[00:05:18] you know nice and tidy whereas for me it was like well I think I've always known Jesus and

[00:05:23] there isn't like this kind of clear before I met Jesus and after I met Jesus but my whole life has

[00:05:30] just been this process of like you know inheriting a faith that's been passed down to me from my parents

[00:05:35] and from their parents and I think their parents parents and maybe beyond that I don't know

[00:05:40] that quite that far back but and sort of you know the process of like making that my own

[00:05:48] so yeah as a kid I grew up doing a little bit of like homeschooling a little bit of private school

[00:05:55] a little bit of yeah kind of a little bit of everything but I think like one of the things

[00:06:00] that I'm super grateful for now as an adult is that like as part of my homeschooling we would

[00:06:06] memorize scripture we would learn like you know old hymns like all the lyrics to you know

[00:06:12] these like classic hymns my mom would read us biographies of like famous Christians in kind of

[00:06:19] all different spheres of life so not just people who've been like missionaries like Hudson Taylor but

[00:06:23] yeah so Isaac Newton and um uh Corey Tenboom and just like uh you know so we're just having I had

[00:06:30] all these examples in front of me of what it looked like to be like a faithful follower of Jesus

[00:06:37] and that didn't just mean going and being a pastor that could that could mean you know giving up

[00:06:42] your dream job to go do something you know else which is the thing about a lot lately um or you know

[00:06:50] it could mean being a scientist or being a janitor or or whatever it doesn't have to be attached

[00:06:56] like this specific um you know career or or job and that's so great I feel like a lot of people don't

[00:07:05] how do they I feel like a lot of people think about pastors and people who work in the church as being

[00:07:12] kind of the the first tier of Christians and then the rest of us who don't work in a church are

[00:07:18] second tiers like no we as those who work out in the world and the workforce outside of the church

[00:07:26] we are you know the hands and feet where the people that really get to berate

[00:07:30] totally Jesus outside the walls of the church yeah when a lot of times the pastors are sometimes

[00:07:38] really focused on their work in the church they don't get to get out quite as much so we go

[00:07:43] out and bring you more elsewhere I think if that whole like body of Christ right like yeah I can't say

[00:07:48] to the hand like I don't need you and in Christ person um but don't let me have

[00:07:53] to say like yeah yeah I just like in my industry uh is like I wouldn't say I would say it's largely

[00:08:02] like not Christian at largely sure maybe even like I don't want to say anti-Christian but like um

[00:08:09] not necessarily like friendly to like Christian evangelical whatever you want to call it like values and so

[00:08:16] I've had a lot of conversations with some of my friends here in Vancouver um which is like a very

[00:08:22] popular spot for animation about you know the things that we work on and what to what extent we feel

[00:08:28] like we're kind of helping promote certain messages by like participating in those things but I think

[00:08:34] that you know we've kind of just come back to time and time again like what are we supposed to do

[00:08:38] just like if all the Christians up and leave the industry then like who's left to like share

[00:08:45] Jesus with like everybody else in the industry right and so of course you know we do want to be

[00:08:50] careful about the things that we're helping promote but I think that you know the first instinct

[00:08:55] shouldn't just be like well let's just run away from things that are hard or yeah don't seem like

[00:09:01] easy and natural ways of like you know living as a Christian.

[00:09:04] We're seeing totally yeah yeah being anti-culture isn't the uh isn't the best option because that

[00:09:11] just pulls Jesus out of the culture and it's like no we need to be infusing who he is maybe

[00:09:16] everything that we're doing so yeah I appreciate that. So I think growing up as like a believer

[00:09:23] a lot of us probably relate to that was there ever a time where you like struggled between

[00:09:28] is this my parents' faith? Is this mine or do you feel like you kind of knew the Lord the whole time

[00:09:33] and like just grew up into knowing him? Yeah I think um I think yes sort of both of those to some

[00:09:44] extent. I mean at the church that I grew up in in Minnesota it was like a church plant that we

[00:09:50] like when we moved to Minnesota we got really involved in and so I think in that context it was

[00:09:56] really hard for me to know like how much of this am I participating in just because I feel like it's

[00:10:01] sort of the expectation of you know the family where moms on staff and dad for a while was on

[00:10:08] like the vestry or board of others. Like I sort of just have to do this otherwise I'm gonna you know

[00:10:14] that the family the you know alleged family image might not look good if I'm not on worship team

[00:10:19] or greeting or involved in youth group whatever so actually actually had a second youth group

[00:10:25] that I went to at a church that like my family wasn't involved in yeah and I think that was just

[00:10:30] like a really really healthy thing for me to be able to you know ask questions in groups where

[00:10:37] I didn't feel like what's you know what's my mom or dad gonna think her how is this gonna like

[00:10:42] reflect on my family? And so I think I definitely experienced like the bits of both of those I don't

[00:10:50] know that I felt like an existential struggle in my teenage years of like is this real or is

[00:10:56] this not? I feel like how he's knew it was real. I think it was just more like a process of like

[00:11:03] finding out what that looked like you know my own expression of that and you know not necessarily

[00:11:08] just like doing all the things that I thought my parents might want me to do. So Greg it

[00:11:14] just over time your faith became your own but I know even at an early age you were able to step out

[00:11:20] and share your faith that sounds like in kindergarten tell us that story. Yeah I

[00:11:28] that would have been kindergarten so I yeah so I went to kindergarten first grade in Canada and I

[00:11:34] I wish I could remember the conversation more but I had a best friend named Patrick

[00:11:41] and he was like one of the few friends that you know I would go over to his house he would come

[00:11:44] over to my house and as part of that one of our parents would ferry us back and forth. And I just

[00:11:51] like distinctly remember one day in the you know you know we're both sitting in the back of his

[00:11:57] his mom's Ford Taurus and I just remembered telling him about Jesus and asking him if he went to church

[00:12:05] and I think I just said well you should go to church or you know something for that extent yeah

[00:12:11] and his whole family started going to church like shortly after that. Wow and I don't know if

[00:12:17] that's necessarily you know I think it was connected to that conversation I don't think it's

[00:12:22] like a week to right to say that but yeah I just remember it just sort of seemed like well

[00:12:28] obviously you should like you should be going to church like why wouldn't you go to church um

[00:12:33] which I kind of love because I feel like it's I've gotten older and you kind of have these like

[00:12:38] you talk about different ways of sharing your faith and strategies. I think

[00:12:44] you know we tend to start putting a lot more like emphasis on like being able to articulate things

[00:12:48] clearly in having these little like tools and diagrams that you can like visually like sketch out

[00:12:54] on a napkin or whatever which those things are all great but I also think that like you know as a

[00:13:00] five or six-year-olds I had no idea what justification or sanctification arrangements or you know any

[00:13:06] of these like sort of more heavy and obviously the important things um there's just sort of like well

[00:13:12] I know God loves me I want like my friend to know God loves him. I feel like I experienced that at church

[00:13:18] so like I want you to go to church and that's yeah go that was just sort of it yeah the faith and

[00:13:24] boldness of a kindergarten and they probably as a family witnessed your family living out

[00:13:30] like the Christian lifestyle too so that was probably without even saying anything they were probably

[00:13:35] watching and then you're like you should go to church. Oh yeah is that your secret?

[00:13:42] Yeah I don't know and I don't know if there's still you know that was I don't want to count the years

[00:13:48] but it was a long time and I don't know if if there's still you know involved in church or

[00:13:53] anything like that we moved away to the state shortly after they moved to a different part of

[00:13:56] Canada but um of course like you also just never know how maybe you know if they were just

[00:14:01] in church for a season like the Lord might use that down the line or whatever and you know I don't

[00:14:07] judge the success of that faith sharing experience based on the result that I can see um because

[00:14:14] you know we can look at the outside God sees the heart and obviously I'm not capable of

[00:14:19] saving somebody that's that's the Lord's work so um yeah but I oh I'm just gonna say it seemed to

[00:14:26] have an impact on you if you're remembering it even I'd like from year five all the way till now

[00:14:32] it still has something that's like man that was like a special that was a moment. Yeah absolutely

[00:14:38] I mean there's a lot from that time of my life that I don't remember and I think there's a reason

[00:14:43] that something stick with us and some things don't and the fact that I can remember like it

[00:14:48] it can't have been a long conversation because we didn't live that far apart and I remember that it

[00:14:53] was in the car and I was sitting in the back right right on the back left and it was a Ford

[00:14:58] Taurus which really mostly goes to me but yeah you know as an adult now processing that it's like we

[00:15:04] maybe would have had like five or ten minutes yeah to be talking right in between you know his house

[00:15:09] in mind and as a five-year-old you probably didn't have enough words for the five to ten minutes

[00:15:14] anyways yeah of course like it was probably realistically a minute conversation yeah yeah but

[00:15:20] you know at least from what I know for a season at least like a few years like that yeah definitely

[00:15:26] impacted like how his whole family was living their life you know I'm gonna church every Sunday

[00:15:30] so much as adults we again we talk sometimes about how we over-complicated yeah

[00:15:36] someone just simply needs an invitation say hey yeah what I've actually

[00:15:43] been able to get a lot of community through going to church and you know where you feel under

[00:15:48] you're kind of feeling down sounds like you want to make more friends I mean

[00:15:54] I'll need some of my friends easy yeah yeah just the simple invite doesn't need to be a gospel

[00:16:01] presentation but no so okay so that was your first memory of sharing your faith how about

[00:16:10] the most recent I know you have some neighbors that you get to have a conversation

[00:16:14] right yeah so we live in an old house but it has three sweets in it and our basement

[00:16:22] tenant is in our small group of church so we have lots of conversation upstairs tenants are

[00:16:28] they're not believers but so it's a couple and we have dogs they have a dog and so the guy

[00:16:35] and I kind of run into each other often late at night when we're taking our dogs out for bed

[00:16:40] I guess it just sort of falls to the the male in the relationship but um and inevitably like we end

[00:16:48] up sometimes like just talking outside of the 11th at night for like three or 45 minutes

[00:16:51] wow and so we've had just like tons tons of conversations about

[00:16:57] the bible his parents I think left Iran in like the 80s or something okay um and so he has some

[00:17:05] I would say like some negative connotations with like faith and maybe like Islam specifically just

[00:17:11] because of some of the political stuff over there and some oppression um he claims he read

[00:17:18] the bible in a week in high school because he wanted to be able to

[00:17:23] to poke holes in it with one of his like Christian friends and so he's just like very very open

[00:17:29] to having conversations about things um I think with him I've taken more of like the you know long

[00:17:35] game approach where I because there's this sort of complication of being like his landlord as well

[00:17:41] I don't want to be kind of like constantly shoving things down his throat but I think that um the

[00:17:47] way that it's been really important for my wife and I to sort of share our faith with them

[00:17:51] is not only in the conversations we have but in our like landlord tenant relationship um specifically

[00:17:58] in Vancouver there's a huge housing shortage and landlords are kind of notorious for like

[00:18:03] trying to jack rent way up or doing everything they can do avoid putting money into things

[00:18:10] and so we have tried to you know as much as we can afford um really try and like be on the opposite

[00:18:17] end of that spectrum in how we interact with them so when something goes wrong like you know

[00:18:21] sure I'll come take a look or I'll fix it um you know being like reasonable with with like rent

[00:18:28] stuff and being flexible if there's like a day or two that thingy timing on um things like that

[00:18:35] and so I think like we're really trying to sew a lot of seeds um now that we're going to be moving

[00:18:40] in a few months that might sort of up the urgency to maybe have a yeah do you think that um do you

[00:18:47] think that you would do something so little more bold at some point knowing that you weren't going

[00:18:52] to be here that much longer what do you think yeah so so we're hoping to move in the summer it can

[00:18:59] get more into all that later but um depends on some government uh processes and how short

[00:19:05] of one they might take um we are going to continue to rent like to own the house and rent it so it's

[00:19:11] not like we're kind of washing our hands um but yeah obviously there is going to be a lot less

[00:19:16] of like those natural interactions where you just sort of like bumping into each other

[00:19:22] and so I do think there definitely might be like a time coming for a little bit more of like a

[00:19:26] a direct appeal um but I think that like the focus that we've had there is just going to build

[00:19:32] as much of like because there is opportunity like to build as much relationship as possible so that

[00:19:38] you know if that that moment comes where there is more of like a direct invitation or appeal

[00:19:43] that's sort of like backed up and like hey like you you know that I you know I believe these things

[00:19:49] because you've seen how that's like impacted how we've interacted and how we've you know treated

[00:19:54] y'all um and you know so I'm hopeful that there would be like maybe a little bit more meat to

[00:20:00] that invitation based on like a couple years of history of um hopefully like them being treated

[00:20:06] feeling that they've been treated well and you know treated the generosity definitely the generosity

[00:20:11] and just um showing high character and integrity is like what are the words that are coming

[00:20:18] into my mind that's good I'm just reading her faith in that way yes Greg I'm curious if you've

[00:20:23] had any conversations that even come to mind now where you recall how you weaved in a little bit

[00:20:29] of your faith yeah yeah so I think a way that I try and weave like faith into those late-night

[00:20:37] conversations where we're walking the dogs are more accurately like standing on a corner while

[00:20:42] our dogs wishing they're being locked um you know because we just talk about so many different

[00:20:48] things and and I believe that faith should impact every sphere of life when we're talking about

[00:20:54] like politics and voting and whatnot you know I I try and weave in well you know I

[00:21:01] actually think this about like what kids should be taught in schools at certain ages because

[00:21:07] I you know believe ex-wisey about God or I believe you know like well the Bible says this or that

[00:21:14] and so just like trying to connect um things from my my faith into like these sort of real world

[00:21:21] situations like voting or you know landlord tenant rights or unions and raises and inflation

[00:21:28] or you know just like all the sort of different subjects that come up um I believe God has

[00:21:34] something to say about absolutely every single topic there's some way that like faith should

[00:21:39] influence that and so trying to you know give a little bit of context for why I might have the

[00:21:45] view I do on that certain thing or if I don't have a view for them just sort of trying to process

[00:21:50] out loud a bit and saying well you know I might not know that but I I do know this and I think

[00:21:55] this about this or um you know I think that like God would say this or um there's this like

[00:22:01] verse in or story in the Bible that maybe kind of relates to that and so maybe that would sort

[00:22:06] of help me find an opinion you know what do you think um so yeah I think just like from that premise

[00:22:11] of God has something to say about every single sphere of life and trying to you know just think

[00:22:18] critically about well what that what might that be in this particular topic of conversation

[00:22:24] and trying to find a way to bring that in yeah I really appreciate that too especially it is

[00:22:32] such a good um like uh what's the word it's such a good not pattern but like um to to show up

[00:22:43] regularly especially with your neighbor a good practice yeah where um maybe we don't all walk

[00:22:50] our docs at the same time as our neighbors but the more that we are like showing up in their every day

[00:22:56] life and getting to have real conversations and then just incorporating God into what into what those

[00:23:02] are you know like what are your plans for this weekend oh I'm going to church I'm hanging out

[00:23:05] with like a community group and uh politics whoa if you can have a conversation about politics

[00:23:12] and religion and walk away like positive that is a gift right yeah those can be dangerous grounds

[00:23:20] you have to have the relationship built first for sure yeah I know that I did and just have um

[00:23:28] tenants uh landlord relationship do you want to share a story of how you've been able to weave

[00:23:33] in your face oh it's oh as I think back it's just so it just it warms my heart and it makes me really

[00:23:40] love my husband now um I think one of the things one of the awesome things when my husband is that

[00:23:46] he kind of like you were saying he wants to do things well yes and and love people by by being

[00:23:54] generous and not just fixing the issue but say you know what is there any other little value add I

[00:24:00] can do here that would make life better for for the tenant as a tenant it's kind of about it's a

[00:24:05] vulnerable position of being a little bit because someone else is in control and you're in their space

[00:24:12] and it's not really yours but you want it to feel like yours anyway um I think I recall it was

[00:24:18] maybe a water type issue which as any homeowner knows is really awful the worst and if you're

[00:24:24] not in control of it you know you're just hoping that they they resolve the problem quickly and that

[00:24:29] they do it well and that it's not too much of an inconvenience for you even though you know will be

[00:24:36] and in this case it was in the tenant's kitchen and she was kind of in a downstairs unit of

[00:24:43] this I think is a triplex and we knew that she was going through some really hard life things um

[00:24:50] I think her daughter had just gotten pregnant um she wasn't married her sister she

[00:24:57] the the tenant had become a caretaker for her sister who had some really serious stuff going on and she

[00:25:04] herself had just been diagnosed with cancer oh wow so she's going through hard things and

[00:25:10] we're aware of it she did a lot of stuff to add value and so we took some um money off of her

[00:25:16] rent and we were more than happy to do that but she had this water issue now that was impacting

[00:25:22] her kitchen of all the places that if you want just one thing to be working well you wanted to

[00:25:27] be her kitchen and we decided that even though you know we could have just pulled stuff out and

[00:25:33] kind of patched up as best as we could you know fixed I think it was a window we had to replace

[00:25:38] um you know we we did that as well as we could but then we also decided you know what these cabinets

[00:25:46] are kind of junky they've been here for like 20 years so we went ahead and replaced those as

[00:25:51] well yes it probably we knew it would probably help us in the long run but we also know it would

[00:25:56] bless her in the meantime that she's going through so much let's just give her a little bit of joy

[00:26:02] we repainted the walls to be a bit brighter and um they were really dirty she'd been there for a long

[00:26:09] time I don't know how much they've been claimed that's fine it was a little extra work but it was

[00:26:13] so worth it to um love her in that way and she was home a lot of the time that we were doing the work

[00:26:20] in her unit so we got to chat with her share with her about you know why we do what we do and

[00:26:27] why we were spending so much more time on this project than we needed to so it goes such a long way

[00:26:34] yeah and you got to say it's because we got to say yeah you know what we just we feel like

[00:26:40] God's put us in this position yeah uh for a reason and we we think specifically that we are

[00:26:47] here that you are here for a reason yeah and we shared you shared Jesus with her several times when

[00:26:53] you were there well Dan probably has even more stories than I do have them back yeah so good

[00:27:00] there are so many yeah just little opportunities to to have that high character and integrity and then

[00:27:07] it just opens doors for me next week we are going to hear more about what Greg is doing for work

[00:27:16] and he just got a new job which is so exciting so we're going to dig more into that next week everyone

[00:27:23] come back

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