Dead Men Walking Podcast: Jeremy Stalnecker, Mighty Oaks Foundation - Leadership, Trauma, & Politics

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00:15

Well, hello everyone welcome back to another episode of dead men walking. I'm Greg And I'm Jason.

00:22

Hey, Jason. How you doing, man? I'm doing awesome. You think everyone knows her name by now. We're Sure, hope so, but you know, that's all right.

00:30

We might have some have some new new news Newsy news some new news How you doing, man doing awesome, and this is uh,

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I don't usually tell people this but tomorrow is my birthday Nice, happy birthday.

00:44

I will be 40 years Young goodness. Yes, you're young. We're 40 years young give the applause for that.

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No, let's do this one Yeah, that's what you deserve Actually, it should be gasped that you made it to 40.

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Yeah. Yeah this yeah, never thought this would happen. But yeah, the Lord is So good.

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I just love being the young looks of the show. Yeah. Yeah me too at a young 39

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Oh, I'm the young one on the show true Man, you must have ate your

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Wheaties or I don't know more salads or something. I don't know Well, hey, listen that welcome to the show everyone.

01:20

We really appreciate you guys listening We had a couple people reach out to us too and just say they really enjoy your post

01:25

Jason my posts on Instagram at dead men walking podcast that's where you can find us on Facebook YouTube Instagram all those places dead men walking podcast

01:34

But we do appreciate you listening. We have someone with us Today, which I'm always it's always where we say with us or sit in to speak with us.

01:41

It's always zoom right now, right? Yeah, vid and just you know travel and logistics.

01:46

Yeah, we don't have the cash. Are they always really men, right? One day one day one day our private jet.

01:53

We're gonna send about private jet. Yeah, Kenneth Copeland style Yeah, creflo dollar style dollar, baby.

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Okay, we're saying that tongue -in -cheek. You guys know how I feel about those guys, but We have a Jeremy Stahlnecker on the program, he's actually

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USMC infantry officer Iraq veteran Navy combination medal with V for valor for combat valor executive director and co -founder of the mighty

02:15

Oaks Foundation Which Trump gave that a shout out when he was in office and he's a fellow podcaster.

02:22

Nice. He's in the Brotherhood man. Yes It is Jeremy selling Jeremy. How are you, sir?

02:32

So great glad to be with you guys So with fellow podcasters, it's a thing, you know, it's a title

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So and I believe he's an author too But we list off all these things and then the most important one is that last one fellow podcast.

02:49

Yes, exactly That's the Brotherhood that is that's actually that's that's horrible. I say that He's got the voice for it though,

02:57

I don't know that we do we're just kind of like hacks over here, we're working on it and But listen, we're gonna get into what you're all about mighty

03:12

Oaks a little bit of your bio and background first We want to get into a little newsy news That's where we talk about maybe two or three subjects that came up this week and comment on it

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And Jeremy if you want to jump in at any point you hear something interesting feel free. So a little newsy news

03:37

Nice oh, yeah, so what do we got J? Yeah, so we're just gonna jump into it today Usually we do a couple of that are a little bit lighter

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But there's just a few things that came out this week that we may just have to talk about. Yeah, dr

03:50

Rachel Rachel Levine Yeah, get her out of my newsfeed.

03:55

It seems as though him out of my newsfeed. Yeah. Yeah him It seems as though we're trying well, not we they are trying to pass a bill

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Which allows children to make the decision to become a boy or a girl?

04:12

By getting injections and yeah all of the hormones and all that. Yes So that was in the news because she testified before Congress, right?

04:20

Yes, correct. I can't believe we're even talking about this, right? We don't let Children drive until they're 16.

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We don't let them smoke cigarettes till they're 18. We don't let them drink until they're 21. There's Sure are not allowed but we're going to allow them to Mutilate themselves and do things that children probably should not have that decision if that isn't depravity

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I don't know. What is breaking the innocence of a child, right? You think about Jesus saying bring the children on to me? Yeah, right, right and to say that they can either make that choice or really let's be honest

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It's parents or guardians indoctrinating them. Yeah into a certain lifestyle. It's true. Okay, and now we've taken

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Boys that play with dolls and girls that play with trucks All right, which is totally fine and taking that to another level of oh

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The boy wants to be a girl and the girl wants to be a boy and with the urging of this is a sad part parent

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Hopefully that the children trust their guardians or parents and they're in the parents are misusing that trust in Guiding those children into something that's going to be devastating for life.

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Now. We have an assistant health and human services What is it director administrator? Whatever his title is?

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Advocate not only advocating for it But when questioned in front of Congress would not answer it wouldn't answer the question See the clip with our podcast

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Dr. Rand Paul, dr. Rand Paul really did an awesome job in that clip, which we might I can't say anything right now

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But we're the works with possibly you might be here. Let's get him might be hearing from him. Nice.

05:51

He's a good guy so yeah, just once again the depravity of man, I mean This Jeremy when you when you see because I know you're active politically and things like that I mean when you see a you know undersecretary essentially

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Advocating for something like this Obviously it is a reflection of the depravity of man I mean sin

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Takes us down this road Roman chapter one is pretty clear on what happens when you're given over to sin

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What's interesting to me is is less those who are of that depraved nature Then it is those who would not be necessarily even

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Christian people churches that are saying well, we need to have compassion We need to have love we need to have acceptance we had on one of the shows that we do we had a

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Incredible guest won't hire. I don't know if you've heard of him, but Walt Transitioned as a man to a woman in his mid 40s.

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He accepted Christ about 10 years later Transitioned back. I don't know what all that looks like But he's in his 80s now and he came on our show and he said what's crazy about this is we talked about compassion

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But 100 % he said 100 I questioned him on it 100 % of the people he has dealt with over his 40 years of working with folks trying to help them

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Are doing what they're doing as a result of trauma so we talked about love and yet what we're really do doing is is not dealing with the actual issue these young men and women have and doing a tremendous disservice under the guise of compassion and love and all the rest and Yeah, it's it's it's fascinating like so many other things.

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We're ignoring science. We're ignoring You know basic math around these issues right and and call something that it's not yeah, it's crazy

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Wow, yeah, he said it too. We're gonna touch on trauma a little bit when we get into it with Jeremy But what do we what else we got on the docket?

07:37

Yeah. Yeah um, I think I think this will kind of lead us into the end of the subject, but We have been seeing more and more people coming out of their caves

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Since Kovac over caves, you know since that started can I make it? Can I admit something really quick?

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Yes Yes on the podcast. Yes. I never went into a cave man. You didn't I didn't mask weirdo stay home

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I was driving around you don't care about people. Do you learn born to be wild?

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No, no, yeah, because you know, but here's the thing. Yeah, I also Before Kovac guess what when kids had flu or colds, we didn't go see grandma you common -sense.

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Yeah. Yeah, right I thought you were gonna say something like we let him sneeze on a piece of toast and then

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I ate and then we ate It yeah, just so I could build up the immunity. Don't you know, that's what they are the crazy homeschoolers do

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Yeah weirdo So, yeah, just people people coming out of their out of their homes after being isolated for a year and just that that emotion that's happening once they finally really come into contact with people that they love rather than Looking at them through a window or on the other side of a screen door six feet back with three masks on Just a lot there, you know, absolutely there has to be some trauma that's involved within that one hundred percent, you know

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Here's here's a here's a little something. So back in Late March as a county commissioner.

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I sent a letter to Governor Whitmer and I said, hey look at you're doing these lockdowns You're doing all these things, but you don't understand the ramifications of these type of lockdowns

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I said, I don't have numbers but I can guarantee you in a year's time we're gonna have numbers on domestic violence on suicide on drug overdoses all these different issues that are related to lockdowns and restrictions of freedom and The press secretary said oh, we thank you for your service as a local like official.

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We're not responding to these issues right now, right? About a week ago. I sent another letter. I said, well the numbers are out governor.

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Here's my first letter Here's the second one all kinds of trauma all kinds of issues even in in our state in Michigan domestic violence through the roof

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Suicides up drug overdoses up mental illness issues up because of Restrictions and lockdowns and people not being able to provide for their families and go to work

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The Bible says it is good for a man to work It is good for a man to provide when I say man talking about man or woman

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But that's the way the Lord created us and you know, I didn't want to send it I told you so letter, but it's

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I told you so anyone with common sense understands this and instead We are blindly being led by bureaucrats and politicians who simply just don't care.

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Well, that's called that's called wisdom on your part Well the little bit I have 10 % much better than silver and gold brother, but yeah you deal in trauma

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Jeremy So, I mean, what have you seen in the effects of kovat 19? I know more people are starting to come out now because of the vaccine they feel a little safer, you know, whatever

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I'm not gonna get a vaccine. I looked at the raw data of what the corona family virus was with kovat 19 wasn't too

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Fearful of it, but you deal in trauma and you've lived through kovat 19 now for a year. What have you seen?

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Yeah I was just looking at my notes on my my phone on some of these statistics early on back in April of This last year

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ABC actually put out a study a report that said among other things that the United States mental health

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Helpline That calls had gone up year over year by like a thousand percent or something And this is people just being locked in their homes

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Just trying to deal with the mental health issues that they already have and you know, we could explore. What is mental health? What does that mean?

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What does that look like? But clearly isolation is not good for us and particularly if there's not a spiritual understanding

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It's absolutely devastating. So then fast -forward another year and this is the world that I live in the world of the military

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You know Toward the end of this last year, so I could say earlier this year but toward the end of this last year the

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Department of Defense put out a study that suicides amongst active -duty service members

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So we say, you know, you hear the number 22 tossed around a lot for veterans and that's a high number

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It may be lower. It depends on how you do the math exactly but the active -duty suicide rate generally is about four per day for active -duty

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Service members a day take their lives The Department of Defense said over the period of coronavirus lockdowns from March forward

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That number had gone up by 20 % across the services. So 20 % higher suicide rates amongst active -duty service members

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I mean either folks who are engaged with the people around them But because of the way lockdowns are being handled in the military the army said it's gone up 35 %

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The Air Force had its worst year in like 35 years Again this is like what we're talking about the transgender thing.

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The data is there We just refuse to look at it under the guise of compassion and these other things and we'd have to ask

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What's the underlying issue for real? I mean what's actually going on? It's not You know, yeah the data that we're acknowledging people are dying because what's being done to them?

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Absolutely So do we got anything else on newsy news? Are we jumping right in with Jeremy? Let's jump in with Jeremy I think so. I think so.

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So Jeremy, can you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself? I know we touched on it We've talked about it a little bit here in the first segment

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But give us a little two three minute bio on who you are where you come from and what you're doing at Mighty Oats Yeah, sure.

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And again, I appreciate guys giving me the opportunity to talk about it. There's a critical issue Obviously the veterans issues and these things

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I did serve the United States Marine Corps I served as an infantry officer during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 our infantry battalion was part of the initial movement into Iraq We breached the berm in southern

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Iraq and made our way to Baghdad on April 10th of that year Came home and could tell the longer version of this story

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But I grew up in a pastor's home and I always say the one thing you learn growing up in a pastor's home is that you? Don't want to be a pastor

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I told my dad I don't ever want to be in ministry. I love you. I'm glad you're in ministry

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I'm thankful for God and what he's done for me, but I don't have anything to do with that and man, God gets a hold of your heart and he certainly did we went to a great church and saw great things happen and Separated out of the

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Marine Corps in 2003 went to work on a church staff in Southern, California here And then five years later after working on that church staff for five years

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I pastored a church up in the San Francisco Bay Area and that was a great experience It was it was difficult in a lot of ways

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But God used that in my life and my family and in that process of time It's a weird thing how

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God brings the pieces together and you feel like why did that thing happen? And now I'm doing this thing I went from serving in the military and then serving at a church in a military community to Serving in the

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Bay Area where for those of you that don't know not a lot of military folks in the Bay Area And I was you know trying to figure out how it all worked, but God brought it together

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I met the founder of the Mighty Oaks Foundation, and he was just getting it started He was trying to get it off the ground.

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He asked me if I'd come along and help and We just started trying to help veterans and really

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Take them through a process of understanding that there is a creator that he has a plan and that they can align their lives to That plan but this trauma thing that has so much control over them doesn't need to have control over them and God has blessed

14:58

Since 2012 we went from running a couple of week -long programs a year to this year. We'll run 30 week -long programs

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We have about 4 ,000 students that have graduated from one of our programs and it's just it's amazing

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What God has done and allows us to be a part of Yeah, that's what we do we serve veteran the first responders community are struggling and then the spouses and families of those

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So that's what we do and thankful for the opportunities that God gives to us. It's it's amazing.

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We started small we thought we'd do a little bit, you know a couple times a year and We have a staff that spread out across the country facilities across the country and a long list of folks trying to get into one of the programs

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So is your target demographic then veterans with trauma or is it trauma in general with with anyone with anyone

15:45

It is those in those communities so veterans active duty service members or first responders who are dealing with some type of trauma and we can talk about definitions of trauma but Early on when we started it was, you know 2011 -2012 the wars were still really going on a lot of young men and women were coming home dealing with Post -traumatic stress disorder combat related trauma.

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That's specifically who we serve since then we have served many folks in one of those categories

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Dealing with trauma that is probably related more to life than to combat or to their service and in fact most of what we see is that what is designated as Combat trauma or work related trauma you move back a little bit what you find out is there was childhood trauma a lot of sexual trauma

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Relationship trauma a lot of other things that were taken into the military or into the first responder community

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And now it's just been you know blown up and they're dealing with the fallout of that. So that's what we deal with so we don't put a

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We don't stipulate what whether your trauma came from combat or something else if you served in one of those communities or are

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We want to help you really at the end of the day We want to help you have a relationship with Christ and move forward in that.

16:59

Oh, that's awesome So what is your definition of trauma then? I know you just mentioned that a little bit So what what's your definition of trauma trauma is something that's interesting

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And so we we work with folks who probably in many cases have been diagnosed clinically with post -traumatic stress

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So they've been to the VA. They've been to another clinician. They've been diagnosed with post -traumatic stress

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The challenge there is it's very narrow in order to fit within the DSM 5 diagnostic and statistical manual of mental and health mental health disorders 5 version 5 trauma has to be connected to Death or near -death sexual trauma or some other violent act, right?

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So that's a very narrow definition of trauma and the problem is although that will get you a clinical, you know

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Rating of trauma or post -traumatic stress It doesn't expand to the the thousands of other things that are traumatic in life

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Everyone who's born everyone who lives will deal with trauma a lot of statistics I could give you there

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I won't so the definition I like to use moving forward and this has been a great one that someone gave to me

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Trauma is an event or series of events that pushes one beyond their ability to cope trauma is an event or series of events that pushes one beyond their ability to cope a

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Definition is only good if it is a bridge to healing and if we have such a narrow definition of trauma that it excludes people they're not getting help and So we just say look if you have had an event or series of events come into your life

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That's pushed you beyond your ability to cope That's traumatic and we want to help you move forward

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Right, I I was wondering I mean it and this might be Completely different category here, but in a a you know

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There's 12 steps and they they bring in the Bible they bring in these different steps. How are you guys able to?

18:57

bring the gospel into this situation With with trauma with with the military.

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Yeah, it's crazy. So Man, it's nuts when we started doing this program

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Several people in the faith community told us if you hang on to this Jesus thing If you keep talking about Jesus and the

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Bible and faith and all that you'll be able to help people Come to your program, but you won't be able to help active -duty service members

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They'll be excluded because you know separation of church and state and so we said well We're gonna try to be faithful to what

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God has called us to do. We'll do that and see what happens and Initially people came to our program.

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We then had some active -duty service members attend our program We now have about half of the folks who attend our program are coming on orders to us the military sending them to us

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And in addition to our programs where they come for a week, we speak at large military conferences

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I spoke in 2019 to 12 Air Force yellow ribbon conferences probably about 12 ,000 people over the

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That said thing we speak to tens of thousands the active -duty service members on bases in units on issues of faith and it's

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It's insane because the way we approach it is Your story may be different than my story, but let me tell you my story.

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Yeah, this is where I was This is where I am and were it not for my understanding of a relationship with God through Christ I couldn't have gotten there now.

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We can't do an altar call. There are some things we can't do in specific settings But an understanding of the importance of faith

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The Department of Defense has four pillars of resiliency and one of those pillars is the spiritual pillar now they have no idea what that means, but they talk about how

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Resiliency requires an understanding of spirituality Yep And so we've been brought in hundreds of times over the years to talk about that and the door or is open

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We leverage that to get people to attend our program about 70 % of the students who attend one of our week -long programs will either place their faith in Christ or you know make a make a

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Rededication or however, you would phrase that. Yeah to live for God and to move forward in that and Opens up incredible doors for biblical counseling and other things on the other side

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So we try to approach it very honestly very much from our own testimony and just say look you can do whatever you want

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But we want to contrast the life you're living with the life you could live and we're gonna do that by telling our story This is what

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God did for me Are you guys funded privately with grants a combination of both or one or the other?

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We are funded privately now. We do have some grants, but they'd be private grants. We don't We have we've looked at several different ways to there's a lot of government funds available

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So we would have to change our message and we more importantly have to have a VA clinician with us

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And so we haven't done that and thankfully You know, that's a that's a firm stand.

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We've taken up to this point and God has provided Miraculously for us so that our program is free to the students and we cover travel

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There is zero cost even to get there and to get home for the students We have the opportunity to remove every barrier and that's because people have been very faithful to support us.

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Amen. Amen Yeah, like I tell people in my limited capacity working with with grants and public money

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Just be very careful when you accept that money because there are strings attached, right? Federal state or local government wants you to do something.

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But so let me just ask this question. I feel in the Christian community and believers

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Evangelical whatever you want to call us. I feel like we're really good at like Rules, so it's like we can't do this do that We feel good about it.

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If you want to sit down your kid and tell him you shouldn't smoke cigarettes We're pretty comfortable with dealing with that and you come from a from a pastor's family

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So you probably understand this more than most we are not very good with trauma in the church.

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We do we hear Sexual trauma or you know mental issues or anything like that in boy

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I feel like a lot of pastors either aren't qualified for it. The elders just kind of stiffen up It's it's very hard to deal with trauma within a church

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So what's the biblical approach to trauma? And what is it that you guys do? That is biblically based to help people deal with trauma

23:15

I'll say a couple things if I can one is to the church because you're absolutely right. I Don't believe look let me back up I do believe that a pastor who can rightly divide the word of truth can rightly divide it in any situation now

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You don't have to have a special background or have been in the military to help those who are

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And this is something I get asked this question often from pastor. I wasn't in the military.

23:43

I don't know how to help those who were But most of the counseling situations that a pastor would encounter are not situations that he has personally dealt with and so Don't be afraid of that veteran or that situation

23:57

What they need is for someone to faithfully and accurately Present to them what the

24:03

Bible says about what they're dealing with. It's it's Discipleship, it's understanding what God wants us to do to do to move forward according to his

24:12

Word But I will say there are some things that are difficult sexual trauma would be one of those very very difficult situation sometimes

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Military situations and other situations a pastor doesn't have to feel like he has to be the primary counselor

24:27

That's something I think that we have gotten wrong I say we the background that I come from I think we got it wrong

24:34

Where it was the pastor is always the primary counselor and even if the pastor doesn't necessarily know how to deal with this

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He's God's man, and he needs to do that. And I just don't think that's right. I think a pastor should counsel

24:49

Should understand that you know what there are some issues here that I'm not equipped to deal with But I know someone who is so I'm gonna follow that through and get you to that person a lot of what we do

25:00

Is helping people to understand that God has a plan for their lives that they need to understand who they are in Christ Their identity is a big issue.

25:08

They get up on their feet They need to make a decision to move forward and then we have a large network of biblical counselors

25:15

The old word used to be new static But biblical counselors that can help them with their marriages help them with addictions help them with these other issues

25:23

And that can be a very long Process, but we want to make sure they make a decision.

25:29

They understand hope and what that means they understand their identity is in Christ not in their trauma and then hand them to someone who is

25:37

Educated and prepared to to help them work through that Yeah, that's so good. And he is right about that You know,

25:45

I grew up in church and it was like the pastor he did it all he was the dude He was the guy.

25:50

He was a counselor. He was the therapist. He was the Funerals, he was the music director.

25:56

I mean it was like good lord I grew up and I just went and i'm still good friends with pastor's kids and I just they've had a you know real tough time with that because You know their dad gave more to the church probably than he could to his family, which was which was real tough on them

26:09

But uh, yeah, you're so true I want to shift gears here a little bit and jason, maybe you can jump in on this too because we just did

26:15

I've been walking short on leadership versus discipleship Uh, you know, i've i'm a real estate broker now

26:22

Uh, obviously you were you were a leader and influencer where you were working at previously jason Uh now kind of doing your own thing.

26:29

You know a business owner now We got two business owners here, but a new business new business. There you go.

26:34

He said what kovid i'll start a new business That's what i'll do. Oh, yeah doors are open and I started my real estate business in 2010

26:42

You know the worst time to start a real estate business, but the lord led and he provided and thank god for that but so, uh, you know and i've managed people i've had teams project managers,

26:52

I love the uh, The idea of leadership and talking about it. Obviously you were a leader when you served and thank you for your service

27:00

So how do we get people from where they are to where they need to be when we're talking leadership?

27:06

Do you have certain? Uh styles that you use do you you have certain philosophies is it based in the bible?

27:12

Is it is it a hybrid of things? Is it tony robbins? Is it tony robbins? Uh, is it gary vaynerchuk?

27:19

Yeah. Yeah. No, uh, Give us give us your opinion. Let's talk about leadership a little bit.

27:24

All right, let's talk about leadership. Yeah Um, so yes, it's all of the above. I love everybody who talks about leadership

27:30

Um, i'll tell you again where this came from for me. I wrote a book Uh, I wrote a book called leadership by design and The reason

27:38

I wrote that book and and we published it and we've used it And it's I think it's been helpful to some people the three or four that have read it.

27:44

They really enjoyed it um, but we uh I wrote it because I struggled with an accurate definition of leadership.

27:52

I love definitions definition of trauma I worked through that I love definitions because I think it frames every conversation you have to define the words correctly.

28:00

Amen and what I grew up with was This idea of spiritual leadership or servant leadership, so we talk about that all the time

28:09

But what I saw often in the context of the local church is that what we call spiritual leadership

28:16

Is just secular leadership. It's manipulation, but with god attached. So did he did he listen to?

28:27

Right on this is what you guys are talking about this was where I was right And I looked at it and went

28:33

All you're doing is saying do what I want you to do Because god wants you to do it

28:38

How is that servant leadership and you can pull? Out of verse and say well now it's spiritual leadership

28:44

So I struggle with that like in my spirit, you know, and then I was in the military and I learned that leadership was very strong principles of leadership and you recite all these principles and you do these things

28:57

And you need to be type a and it's very much that follow me we're going over there thing So I went from one

29:05

Into the other And then I was in neither And I just I just had no idea what leadership really was

29:12

I mean i've read every john maxwell book I could read and you know Every secular leadership book I could find and and all the rest of it and it just it was so confusing to me

29:22

So I stepped back and I said i'm gonna go through the process of really trying to figure this out for myself And the title leadership by design comes from my belief that god has created us created all of us to be leaders every single person

29:36

We are all people that have the opportunity to lead those around us in our world But if our definition is wrong, then we won't believe that so what's the definition?

29:47

I really believe I it's it's it's way too simple But I really believe that an accurate definition of leadership the way god wants us to lead is leadership

29:57

Is simply taking people from where they are To where they need to be Leadership very simply is taking people from where they are to where they need to be.

30:08

It's using my influence my time My opportunities my skills whatever

30:14

I have whatever's been given to me by god To help the people in my life in my world that can be my kids.

30:20

It can be my employees It can be my employer. It can be people that I just have a platform to influence

30:25

It's helping whoever I can influence to move from where they are right now To where they really need to be and the thing that's absent from that entire definition is me

30:37

It's not about me leadership is entirely 100 about the people being led

30:44

And it has nothing to do with personality You don't have to be the type a guy who can scream and jump up on a table and get people excited you

30:52

May be that person if god created you to be that person then be that person But but that's a technique

30:58

That's not leadership. It's a style, but it's not leadership styles are important techniques are important Lists are important.

31:07

All of these things are important, but those are not leadership And we see this simply and then i'll stop talking, but we see this simply

31:14

When someone that you know has been a leader, let's say in the military again where I come from Strong leader they knew how to get things done

31:21

They transitioned out into a different world a civilian job, or maybe they retired from the military and they're completely lost

31:29

Their identity was tied up in this leadership thing But it wasn't really about leadership.

31:34

It was about a particular way to lead That's why you can lead in combat But you can't lead your kids and you can't lead your wife and you can't lead in a secular job

31:43

Because that wasn't leadership. That was a way to lead But when you realize that leadership is just moving people from where they are to where they need to be

31:52

You learn a new set of skills to accomplish the exact same thing to me That's leadership and there's so many applications to this but uh, that's simplified the way

32:01

I think about all of it Yeah, I start to see more and more in uh in the christian community just uh

32:10

As people are are saying that they need to be the leader Um, they're more or less stepping on others, um to get to the top um to have their platform to have their ministry grow to have you know x y and z

32:26

And unfortunately when pride and ego get involved with anything, uh That's when they fall, right?

32:34

But uh, it's really sad to see um ministries that are supposed to be you know, uh founded on The gospel on christ, you know and here they are um pushing others down Um just to get to the top

32:52

Um, I don't know if you guys can can uh kind of expound on that a little bit but man, I I that really grieves my heart to see you know, it's like We all um have a ministry we all have

33:05

The gospel in front of us. We need to be out there. Um, uh, you know with uh sharing the gospel but it's not like I can do it better than you thing.

33:16

It's like man, you know, we're all in these different areas in our life someone works at uh in the factory somebody else is at the grocery store both people should you know

33:26

Taking a shot like go up and take take a shot. Take a swing, you know We don't need to sit around and wait for a a leader pastor

33:35

Um, uh to be there to to be the voice for us. Well, that's does that make sense? I don't know. No, it makes total sense.

33:41

That's exactly what jeremy was talking about What got me is he goes look at that definition doesn't include you. Yeah, he's saying take you out of the equation

33:48

A leader doesn't look and say i'm the leader. Yeah, right You've heard the saying lead from behind and all those things.

33:55

He also said he doesn't care what personality you have now I'm a big personality guy that kind of hurt a little bit when he said that I love the four temperaments.

34:03

I love the meyer briggs. I love to analyze. I love all that stuff but he's totally right when he says

34:10

Yeah, it's not about you. It's about how I get from point a to point b with these group of people Sometimes I think we too get too caught up in the minutiae of well

34:18

How do we do it the personality types all these things? And like you said people Essentially wanting to be that leader in that ministry.

34:26

I got this ministry. I'm this i'm this person I'm gonna take over this town. Yeah, and it sounds like jeremy what you're saying is that's the exact opposite of leadership leadership leadership is

34:36

Uh, like you said doesn't doesn't focus on you doesn't focus on the leader. Is that correct? It it doesn't

34:45

Accept and this is I guess this would be the exception to understanding that I do think personality is important I do think all those things are important.

34:52

I think those tests can be helpful As they help you to understand better who god made you to be

35:00

So that when you're leading You are doing it within the realm or within the skill set within the gifting that god has given to you

35:08

And so it's only about you to the extent that you understand what you can do and what you can't do

35:15

What opportunities you have what resources are available to you? So this is where it gets tricky when you're talking about platform building and all these things we talk about If god gives you the opportunity to influence a crowd

35:28

Then he has given you the responsibility To steward over that influence

35:33

To influence the crowd. Yeah, but again, it's not about building yourself up so that you can receive the accolades or whatever

35:40

It's about god has put me on this rock, which is a little bit higher than everyone else so I better take this very very seriously and help these people move from where they are to where they need to be if You know and I I believe that moms are the most influential people in the world.

35:56

I absolutely believe Sometimes you know a mom staying at home homeschooling the kids and taking care of the family would say well

36:03

I'm, not really a leader. I'm a mom. I'm taking care of the family No, you are leveraging the gifts that god has given to you

36:10

To lead the people in your life to take them from where they are now right now It may be they need to learn how to brush their teeth.

36:16

That's where they need to be. Yeah Maybe they then need to learn how to read that's where they need to be At some point they're going to grow up and leave your home.

36:23

You're not Growing them to stay you're helping them to move from where they are To where they need to be in the center of god's will then using their gifts to influence others

36:35

That's what leadership is to me. I just I have a hard time seeing it any other way There's management and we could talk about that all day.

36:41

That's a different thing. That's moving people and things from one place to another

36:47

Um That's important as well. I don't think they're in conflict but real leadership is saying here's where you are

36:54

That's where you need to be and I want to leverage everything I have to help you get there Wow, such a great definition

37:01

Hey, let's switch gears here as we wrap this up and put some bookends on the episode. So Uh, you've been all over the place.

37:08

Jeremy. He's been on Breitbart. I think I saw him on um, Oh, where was he man? He was just all over the news and commentating and things like this

37:15

I know you dabble in the political a little bit And you have a military background. So I did want to ask this he dabbles he dabbles, you know

37:23

I don't know. We might be we might be seeing uh, senator stelnecker pretty soon. I don't know We're not announcing anything here on the podcast

37:33

Okay, just throwing it out there absolutely not but uh, yeah, so so you have a military background so give us a little bit of insight on What what you think about these airstrikes that went down with uh, the biden administration this week looks like we uh, you know uh

37:51

Did we bomb I think we bombed syria on some, you know, they said militia led terrorist -led iraqi sites

37:58

Um, what is that when a military? Uh veteran like yourself sees something like that. Are we all going home for that?

38:05

Are we you know approach with caution? Are we against it? I mean, where do you land when you see those type of things happen?

38:11

Yeah, so one of the things president trump did really well was articulated the america first Idea the principle that the united states military exists to defend the national security interests of the united states the the primary job of the president

38:28

Is to protect defend the national security interests of the united states and its citizens

38:34

And that's why the military exists So we project power for that purpose and president trump was very clear that if there is a place

38:42

Where we are involved militarily Where there's not a national security reason to be there

38:47

We're going to pull out and the issue with syria was something that was dealt with in the last year of his administration so when a president joe biden then

38:56

Authorizes, you know, what are we two months away or two months outside of his inauguration authorizes airstrike airstrikes back into syria

39:03

Uh, it's about more than the national security the interests of the united states. I don't know exactly what it's about But there's something more to it than that And it's extremely hypocritical just on its face the fact that president trump apparently was going to start world war three and he is the

39:20

First president to not get us involved in new conflicts in 40 years president

39:26

He pulled us out didn't get us involved in anything new and now we're involved in syria. We'll probably be involved in iran

39:34

Uh in the short term I would imagine So it has to do I would imagine with money power and agreements between countries that we're not aware of So no,

39:43

I don't think military members are excited about it at all So what's your outlook on that? So is the middle east still important?

39:49

Are we still keeping an eye on that? What about china we heard a lot about that over the last four years china and russia was kind of our uh,

39:56

You know our new enemy to watch out for so for someone who served in the military I would suspect has some type of knowledge about um, you know about these types of issues

40:07

What are we watching china? Are we watching russia? Is the middle east still important from a national security standpoint?

40:14

What should we be focusing on? I I definitely think the middle east is still it's still very important. We um a secure and stable middle east is

40:24

It's important for a lot of reasons but one is because israel is there and because most of the countries in the middle east would annihilate the nation of israel if they could and so We have a treaty with them and it's important for us to maintain stability there and peace there

40:39

Which again the president president trump did um, and so the fact that we're taking backward steps on that is

40:45

It's baffling. It has nothing to do. This is a theme right? It has nothing to do with science. It has nothing to do uh with anything that makes

40:53

Diplomatic sense. Yeah, so what will happen there? I don't know we took Several steps forward we're starting to take steps back a destabilized middle east is bad for the entire world

41:05

You talk about north africa and and just that region very very bad china and russia

41:12

Yes, china is I would believe I would imagine our number one threat uh, um in terms of size of their military influence economically

41:20

And uh, this is something president trump was was beating this drum Just about every day sure and uh, you know not to be too conspiratorial because I don't want to be conspiratorial

41:31

But I think probably the reason if there's one uh that so many on the left were

41:38

Against the trump administration was because of his stance on china Uh, there was too much to be gained and having a relationship with them and president trump viewed it as a liability

41:47

Not as something to be gained. So, uh, that caused a problem and it's going to be a problem. We don't deal with with them

41:53

Yeah, no 100 Jason, you got anything else for jeremy as we wrap up man. I just really appreciate this conversation

41:59

I I love that. We jumped jumped subjects so much. This is this is cool. We did cover a lot.

42:05

Yeah Jeremy man, you just gave us a lesson there man. That was awesome. So jeremy as we wrap up here

42:11

Can you just tell our listeners? Uh where they can reach out and find mighty oaks where they could reach out maybe follow you

42:18

If you have any social media platforms you want to know about um Just throw those out on the website stuff like that sure, uh

42:24

First one is mighty oaks foundation And again, our program is free to those who have served are serving or those in the first responder community

42:30

We pay for travel we pay for everything. Just get him in mighty oaks programs dot org mighty oaks programs

42:37

Website, there's a place to fill out an application there a lot of information about us Go ahead check that out. And then my socials i'm on All the platforms,

42:46

I guess most active on instagram, but I have a blog jeremy stonelicker .com Jeremy stonelicker .com

42:52

and that has all of the information there About my socials and other stuff that I do. So if you'd like to check that out

42:57

Please do and i'd love to hear from you. Well, jeremy. Thanks so much for coming on And we'll make sure we link those all up not only in the podcast wherever you listen

43:07

But also youtube videos on our instagram page all those good social media sites So all those links will be there so you guys can check out jeremy and what he does

43:15

Um as always we appreciate you guys reaching out to us following us sharing Uh our content sharing who's sharing

43:24

Sharing. Sorry. That's that midwestern accent. That's that's that michigan stuff Sharing our uh content.

43:30

I mean it really does bring glory to god. We didn't get into this to uh For fame or fortune or anything else we did it to bring glory

43:36

Yeah to god's name and we hope we can do that having guests on like jeremy who can come on and you can talk

43:41

About these things educate us a little bit. Uh his mighty oaks foundation that is doing great things

43:48

For our veterans and first responders that it's biblical and based in the word.

43:53

I love it when we take Uh real world issues we we combine it with a biblical and christian worldview

44:01

And help advance the kingdom and help our fellow brothers and sisters. So jeremy. Thanks so much for coming on Jason, do you have anything as we wrap up later dudes?

44:09

All right. God bless guys Be sure to follow us on facebook and instagram at dead men walking podcast for full video podcast episodes and clips or email