Kevin Grangetto and Christian business 

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. It is a cool October New England day. Looking outside, I see green. Not money, but trees. Yellow, orange, red. It's nice. Crisp. Nice, crisp day.

You can always email me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com. Normally on Wednesdays, at least for probably the last 15 years, I would have people on. I would interview theologians and authors and all that stuff.

And I kind of stopped doing that. I don't know why. Probably just lazy. My wife said, why don't you have people on anymore? I thought, all right, I'll have people on. So today in studio live, I have my friend here, Kevin Grangetto.

Meeting Kevin Grangetto and His Family's Farm Business

Welcome to No Compromise Radio. Thank you, Mike. I listen to you every morning. Okay. Well, that's why I have you on. Thank you. It's a beautiful studio here. It's a beautiful community. And thank you for letting us stay at your home.

Well, I'm glad you and your wife could stay. Tell us about your trip the last 10 days. Basically, you've traveled New England and Vermont and all that. Yes. We've gone from your home to Vermont to New Hampshire.

And we came back. And it's just amazing to see fall. We live in San Diego, Escondido proper. And so we're not used to having any kind of seasons, but you definitely have seasons here. Nice. Well, speaking of Escondido, Luke Abendroth, my son, attends Westminster Seminary Escondido.

And your property where you live is close by. Yeah. We're about probably five minutes away from there. And we have an avocado ranch. So we farm avocados and lemons and a little bit of wine grapes. And then we have a business in town, Grangetto's Farm and Garden Supply.

And you'll never want to miss that place. And it's surviving without me, thankfully. And we just wanted to take the trek to New England to see everything here. Nice. Well, in addition, you attend the church that my son pastors.

Absolutely. We love it. Redemption in C. Started about earlier in May, just around Easter time. And Luke has done an excellent job. And John Stead and Andrew Hartung are three pastors that we are blessed to have.

And Renee's helping as well as a deacon, a deacon candidate. Yes. It's interesting. You said redemption in C. So for people in New England, is that redemption no compromise? Not exactly. North County is what that stands for.

So we differentiate it. But it could be no compromise if you'd like it to be. That's right. Well, maybe we'll talk a little bit more about Luke and the church and cemetery and stuff in a little bit. Do you remember how we met?

Let's talk about that first. How did we meet? I think I met you at a church potluck. That's exactly right. We were having tacos. Right. And I was sitting down at a, I don't know, like picnic tables or something.

And we began to talk. You sat next to me because it was an open seat. And before I knew it, you were offering me free avocados. That's right. It's always the opening line for me. People seem to love these things.

And I think I probably said something about, you asked about me or something, and I said I was a pastor or had a radio show. And before you knew it, you're off listening to No Compromise Radio. That's right.

I haven't missed it. And I have you in my phone. I switched to Grand Jetto, but it just used to say Kevin with her last name, Avocado. I answer to that. That's fine. So you told me you've been on one podcast before.

And what was the topic? Oh, it was all about gardening. It's a gardening show. Walter Anderson Nursery has it at Saturday mornings at six o 'clock. Not a lot of listeners that I think of at that time, but they feel that's the best time to have it.

Well, there's probably not many listeners on No Compromise Radio, but you could listen to yourself. Oh my gosh, that's going to be scary. So Kevin, tell me a little bit about how you grew up. Was it a religious background?

What kind of church? How the Lord saved you? I know my family was not religious. My mom was Catholic by birth. My dad became Catholic in order to get married to my mom, but we didn't go to church at all.

It wasn't until my second year in college that a friend invited me to a manual faith community church in Escondido. Started going that summer, was saved later in that summer, and then went back to college and started growing in Christ.

And it's been a wonderful... 1982, July. So Kevin, when you were at college, were you part of InterVarsity, Navigators? InterVarsity, yep. And that was a great experience. Got to lead Bible studies in the dorms at UC Riverside.

I'm trying to think of some funny wisecrack about UC Riverside. There's not much known about UC Riverside. It's a great school for entomology, which I studied. Okay. Tell me about entomology. What's that?

So everything having to do with three-bodied, six-legged insects I learned about, and how to kill them primarily, because we were trying to figure out how to best control them without having to use pesticides.

Okay. So head, thorax, and abdomen. Correct. That's absolutely three body parts, yes. And with six legs. So a spider is not an insect, it's an arachnid. Correct, because it's just a body and a head and a body.

And eight legs. And eight legs, yes. Everything I learned in four years, I just spewed out. So did you know you needed that information to help with the avocado farm? Because I believe your father was the originator of the farm, right?

No, it was really because the business. So the businesses have been around since 1952. So we sell farm and garden supplies to the farmers, to homeowners, to landscapers, everything it takes to grow a plant, from fertilizer to soil, to irrigation.

All right. And your dad decided to start the business how? Well, he was actually graduated from UC Davis in the 30s, got into the service, came out of the service, and then that's when he bought the business.

He enjoyed just farming. He enjoyed doing tractor work and spraying citrus trees. So in addition to doing that, then he bought this business that was already started, but it was much smaller. And what did he think of you when you went off to college, or before college, became a Christian, off to college doing this Christian stuff?

Did that affect your relationship with him? Not at all. No, he was actually very encouraged by it because he said that he knew a man that went to Emanuel Faith, Coach Embry. And he said, hey, Coach Embry goes there, that's a good church.

And so he wasn't concerned about me, but I think he realized that my life was taking a different path as I became a believer. So you were pretty much saved from going to college and being a crazy person and the whole whatever sex, drugs, and rock and roll thing, the Lord protected you from that.

Absolutely. Yeah. And then I got done with college, came back and started working in the business in 1985. Wow. I've been to your store. I've been to your house. What did we call it? The compound? The compound.

Yes. Kind of like Kennebunkport on a smaller scale. Right. Now, you're known in the area for what you do. How do you keep your consistent, or how do you attempt to keep a consistent Christian witness?

You know, it's relatively easier because the farming community is a very conservative community. Actually, we're part of the San Diego County Farm Bureau. So before the Farm Bureau meets, we actually pledge allegiance to the flag and have an opening prayer.

And so it's really that community is much more, I think, like-minded in that sense. But they have challenges like everything else. We're dealing with imported fruit, we're dealing with high cost of water and labor, and somehow we've been able to survive through this whole time.

The Lord has been very faithful to us. Kevin, has there been times, and maybe there's not been a time, so that's fine. Has there been a time where you thought, you know what, I made a promise with this deal, pricing, delivery date, or something, and I made a promise.

And then I'm going to have to fulfill it even though it's to my hurt, it's to my financial loss. I want to make sure my testimony is good as a Christian. Have there been times like that? Oh, definitely.

Yeah, definitely. And fortunately, it's hard because you make a commitment and you don't want to renege on it, even though perhaps the vendor is going to charge you more now for the product that you had committed to.

But, you know, your word is what you live on and you can't just go back on that. You need to stay forward on it. Even if it's going to cost you money in the long run, I think your integrity is much more important.

And then what about sales reps that come in or other people that want to do business with you? And you can kind of see through them. How old are you now, Boy? I'm 62. 62. So at 62 years of age, you've got some wisdom and discernment and plenty of gray hair.

Absolutely. But you've got hair. How do you have so much hair? It's the fertilizer. It's keeping me going. Can you easily kind of see through people that are just trying to swindle? Yeah, you can. There's in our industry, they call it snake oil when they're promising everything that it can do.

And, you know, that's not realistically true. So you kind of have to challenge them on it and say, let me see some third party data. Let me make sure this is really because your sounds like it's too good to be true.

And it usually is at that point. But you try to discern and you have your experience from the past that you can learn from. But yeah, that's those things do happen. And we have to be careful because it's our reputation on the line.

If we're going to represent a product, we want to make sure it's a quality product. Right. Excuse me. My name is Mike Avendroth with Kevin Grangetto today on No Compromise Radio Ministry. Kevin, I know you understand that God is the creator of all things, and he shows in nature, his wisdom and power and more.

Romans chapter one. If I were to hand you an avocado and I were to say to you, Kevin, tell me about how great God is for even designing such a thing. What would you tell me about an avocado that would make me think God's handiwork is even there in an avocado?

Wow, that's a great question. Well, I think part of it is, you know, an avocado has more potassium than a banana does, and it has very good fats in it, and it has a lot of fiber. And again, God's, it's kind of known now as a superfood, as many things are, whether it's blueberries or pomegranates, but avocados have a lot of value nutritionally speaking, then comparatively to other fruits that are out there.

And so I think if you were to ask me that question, you would say that obviously God is the designer of all these things. And it's amazing how he made all these things very substantial for us to survive on.

And not that everybody needs to have an avocado, but we'd like to see that, especially California avocados. But it's amazing when you think about how the Lord has created everything that we have to be thankful for.

Why are the seeds so big? I don't know. That's a good question. They are very, the pit is very large and you can't really grow an avocado from a seedling because you won't get fruit from it. You have to have it grafted to a root stock.

Oh, interesting. We were just talking about Johnny Appleseed from Lemonster, Massachusetts a while ago and grafting and all that stuff. So if I take an avocado that I get at the store, take the pit out and plant it and water it, I can get it to grow, but it'll have no fruit.

Right, right. It's not... How does that work? Who figured that out? I don't know. We just have everything that we have on the ranch is a grafted variety because you want to graft it to a specific root stock that's more tolerant of disease and salinity.

So that's how it's been working for years. I guess we just need an illustration about Romans 9 to 11 about being grafted. Exactly, exactly. That's where we're going to transition to. That's right. Tell me a little bit about...

You're a Christian businessman. I'm sure it takes a lot of time. When I stayed at your house, you had to leave early. When do you have time to read, serve? How do you prioritize? In other words, when it comes to, there are different aspects to your life.

There's business, there's your walk. How do you do that? Well, you just try it. They take it as a step at a time. And really what we find is that being able to serve at our church redemption is an opportunity to just give back.

The Lord has been so faithful to provide good teachers to us. And so I'm excited to get involved with men's Bible studies. We have a discipleship ministry, reaching out to the men, helping them grow in their walk with the Lord.

Those are the things that I enjoy doing. And it gives me a purpose beyond just my job. And also being a dad and a father, I have three children now that are growing up. Two got married this year, my daughter and my son.

And now we've got, Elise is the only one that hasn't gotten married yet. Well, two in one year. Tell me about it. Yeah. I know. I had two grandchildren in one year. Congratulations. And grandchildren are coming your way, I'm sure.

Lord hopes so. Yeah, we're looking forward. My wife is especially looking forward to it. She was watching my wife FaceTime one of my grandchildren and she thought it was pretty cute the way my wife was acting.

But I thought, Martha, you're going to be doing the exact same thing. Definitely looking forward to that. Plus more. Definitely. Where'd you meet her? I met her at Emanuel Faith. We were on a missions trip and we went to, we were in a young adult singles group called Spectrum.

Got to know each other and actually went on a missions trip that summer to Germany to teach English to German students and got to know each other, came back and started dating. And a few years later, we got married.

So it was a fantastic experience. Love my wife, Martha. She's going to be married almost 30 years next February. That's great. What do you have, I'm thinking about children dating, any advice for young people, 20, 25, 30, wanting to get married, but not wanting to marry the wrong person, wanting to marry a Christian, but they can't seem to find them at their church.

What kind of advice do you have for them? What would you tell your daughter? I tell her, and I do tell her this, that it's best to wait. You know, it's harder for a woman, I think, than a man, because the man's kind of the initiator in the relationship.

But I just tell my daughters, it's all of them to wait until the right person came along and you start to date and get to know that person, really different seasons of life too, because, you know, initially you're kind of caught up in the whole relationship aspect of it all, but then getting to know them, getting to know their families is critical because that's going tell you a lot about the person.

And then just really interacting with them, seeing how they respond at church, seeing how they respond in their life career path as they take it. Those are all things that takes time and it doesn't happen overnight.

You just have to be patient. Kevin, as I listen to you and I watch you, because we've gotten to know each other and become better friends, I'm thankful that you're not a typical Christian businessman, or maybe I shouldn't say typical, but there are some Christian businessmen that since they're successful in corporate America business, they own things, then they kind of throw their weight around in the local church, right?

And so when I look at elder qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 and in Titus chapter 1, it doesn't say anything about good with money, makes a lot of money, a wielding power and influence. There are other characteristics that the Lord provides and then we recognize.

What's your, how do you work through that? I just like the way you act. You're not throwing your weight around at redemption NC. What's your strategy there? Or you don't even think about it because it's just who you are.

Yeah, it's just who I am. I think just really in part of it is just really wanting to give back and to serve and to see what it's like for these young guys, because it's relatively a young church, as you know, with younger couples.

And we just, Martha and I have just felt like where we are in our life now with kind of being empty nesters that we want to give back to these young couples. We just would love to get to know Luke and Hannah at our church.

And it's just so exciting to see these young people that really are on fire for the Lord, that just looking forward to serving, to growing the gospel message in North County and between John and Andrew and Luke, they're doing that and they're both in seminary.

So it really encourages me to see how hard they're working at going to seminary, balancing being husbands and now parents. And to me, that really gives me encouragement when I see where the future of our church is going, but especially for us now to give back and be part of that process of growing the church.

Amen. You live so close to Westminster Seminary Escondido. How do you remain a Baptist? You know, that's interesting. They were actually going to purchase our old farm when we had lived in San Marcos.

Westminster was going to buy that property for their seminary and the deal didn't work out. And so we ended up selling it. It became a Costco now on the former grand general property in San Marcos. But it's interesting.

That was our first experience with Westminster, but it's been a great seminary from what I've heard. A lot of pastors have come out of there. In fact, we used to have a home on our property that we rented to a young couple that were going to seminary there and then became a pastor after that.

I think I should probably rent that. You should leave a perfect place for you, Mike, to come out to. We'd love to have you on the farm, a resident pastor. You know, that's what some of the kings and queens of England used to do.

They would have their own personal pastor kind of thing. That would be nice, wouldn't it be? Closer to your grandkids. That's right. A different subject. I know you love the San Diego Padres baseball team because you've stayed in our house, I think, only three nights, even though you've been in tennis or something.

But everything, including right now, every t-shirt, every sweatshirt seems to be San Diego Padres. It is. It is. I'm a lifelong fan. 1969 was the first year of the Padres. I've been a fan ever since.

And every year we keep saying, this is the year. But unfortunately, now as we're embarking into late October and the Dodgers have passed us by again, and we're just saying next year. Have the Padres ever won the World Series?

No, they've only been to the World Series twice and we lost both times. Okay. The Detroit Tigers in 1984 and the New York Yankees in 98. Well, moving to New England 27 years ago, Boston Red Sox have, you know, had a good reputation and then they've had the, you know, the Babe Ruth curse and all that other stuff.

And so I think they've won two or three times since I've been here. Of course, the Patriots won a bunch. Celtics have won a bunch. Bruins maybe once or something. It's kind of a sports town here. Definitely.

It seems like a sports town. People wear their jerseys around. I've seen it in town. Yeah. Dunkin' Donuts. Have you made it to Dunkin' Donuts yet? No, I have not made it to Dunkin' Donuts. I've seen them everywhere though.

I kept wondering, why is Dunkin' Donuts so popular here? And then I found out from our illustrious host that it started here. So if I go to a Padres game, do you have good seats for me? I do. We are an advertiser.

So they give us seats when we request them. So you could sit with me. Oh, interesting. So if I see a billboard in the back or something, it's going to say what? Grand Jetto avocados? No, no. We can't afford that one.

No, no. We just have advertisements on the radio. So during the seventh inning, we sponsor the seventh inning. Oh, okay. Yeah. So when you get ready for the seventh inning stretch, you'll be thinking about Grand Jettos.

Do you make more money from your store retail or do you make more money from other wholesale? Wholesale is about 80 of our business. And then about 20 is retail. So the homeowners come in and we help them as well.

But primarily it's the farmers and the professionals, the commercial. So your father passed it on to you. You're going to pass it on to... We don't know. My kids are not interested at this point. My son is working as a director of baseball operations at UC San Diego.

My two daughters are teachers. So at this point, the next steps are to be determined. Maybe they need to go to UC Riverside and learn how to study... Insects. Insects and arachnids and... All those things that are bad things for the orchards.

Exactly. That's what we need to work towards. But I have a question for you, Mike, while you're here. It's my show, but go right ahead. We talked about that last night. We did. But what was the first broadcast of No Compromise Radio and who did you have as a guest?

Well, the show started... Maybe I've said this on the air before. There's a local station, WVNE 760. And we used to be on that. But before I was, Tom Krause was a host for two hours, Bible talk and call-in.

And I think it was from three to five. And he was going out of town and he said, Mike... And I know I went in to be a guest, like you're a guest today. And he asked me questions. And then he said, well, can you fill in for me for a day?

And then one time he said, can you fill in for me for 10 days straight? So I had to drive to the studio for 10 days, live two-hour radio. I remember, I think I had Moeller on, Michael Horton and some others.

And then the radio director said, you should have a show. You should do this. And of course, you have to pay to be on. And I thought I needed a name. I said to my wife, what should the name be? She said, oh, that's easy, No Compromise Radio.

And back in those days, it was a little more discernment going after people. What did Beth Moore say? What did Joyce Meyer say? What did Ravi Zacharias say? Or whomever it might be. And so I think the first couple shows, I had no guests.

I was probably down at the studio and I was probably just going on a tirade against the Promise Keepers or Prayer of Jabez or something like that. So I don't remember. I started doing kind of funny little skits and stuff.

I would say, are you a Roman Catholic? And then I'd give a quote, and then depending on what the quote was, right or wrong, it determined if it was a Catholic doctrine or not. I would give away awards for bad doctrine, and I called them Kooks and Barney's awards for the surfers that were bad.

And so I'd present an award for whomever it might be. I'd have a message moment. I'd read from the message Bible. It'd be something really dumb. So it was kind of the shtick to try to get some radio stuff going.

And so I can't remember the first show, but I think it's like 4 ,030 shows ago. Wow. What a history. Oh my gosh. I don't know why I keep doing it. It's good though. I look forward to it. I tell you, people out there, every morning I get into my truck going to work, going to the gym, and there it is, No Compromise Radio.

I can't wait for it. I was very encouraged, Kevin, when I was in Omaha for the Pactum Conference with my brother, Pat Abendroth, and several people came up to me and said that they appreciated the show.

They were encouraged, understanding law gospel categories, how to get Christian assurance, making sure we talk about the Lord Jesus. And I was especially encouraged when a couple of pastors came up and said that.

So as you know, we're just in the studio here looking outside. We don't know if a thousand people listen, one person listens, but if the Lord can be honored, that's wonderful. And some of the BBC people, Bethlehem Bible Church, they listen.

And so it's almost like they're my main audience. And if it goes beyond that, then that's fine. Praise the Lord. It goes all the way to Southern California. I know that. I know. Well, you know what? Sometimes you want to have, you know, certain, you know, you're interested in my little buttons here for things.

How long have you been on that medication?

That's Judge Judy. How long have you been on that medication?

And how long have you been on that medication?

You've got all these buttons. It's amazing. I get like this soundboard that has lights and colors. Yeah, but I need to get new ones, right? Because I just have these old ones like this. I see dead people.

That's from that movie, The Sixth Sense. The Sixth Sense. Oh, yeah. That was scary. Well, that's Ephesians 2, right? It's like it's a night of the living dead. Sixth Sense, I see dead people. Spiritually, that's what we are before the Lord saves us.

We're walking dead, night of the living dead. I remember a pastor once was preaching Ephesians 2, 1 to 10, dead in trespasses and sins, children of wrath, you know, following the course of the world and Satan and all that stuff.

And then, of course, in verse 4, but God being rich in mercy, we're rich in sins. He's rich in mercy. By grace, you've been saved through faith, et cetera. And he entitled the sermon, I was never good for sermon titles, but he entitled the sermon, Natural Born Killers, because that was a movie that was out in the late 90s.

And of course, Ephesians 2, 1 to 3 talks about our depravity and we're naturally born killers. He also did the one with Nicodemus in John chapter 3, where Jesus said, you must be born again. You know, you're the teacher of Israel.

You don't even know this. Referencing Ezekiel 36 and his sermon title for that section of John 3, 1 to 16 was, Nick at Night. That's really clever though. Wow. So, those are the only titles I really know much.

My title for next Sunday is going to be, my working title. There's working titles and then titles. It's the four woes that Jesus gives after the four blessings to the disciples and woe to the people that are against him, the Son of Man.

And my working title is How to Go to Hell. That's it. So, when do you actually come up with your actual title? Does that have to go on the bulletin? Well, see, that's the problem. The secretary that we have here, Tina, she's great and she's on it.

And so, she wants titles by, she asked for titles on Tuesday. I try to give them by Wednesday, but then I might change it around. She's printed the things by Thursday, the bulletins. So, if I have a new title, fine.

I never get up and say, the title of my sermon is such and such. It's almost kind of bad preaching form, in my opinion. And it's not a big deal, but I usually don't say the title of my sermon. It's in the bulletin, but I will say the purpose of the passage is, here's what I want you to take home.

What's the so what? I try to do that, but I don't try to... Do you give room on your bulletin to fill out things, like if there are people are taking notes or is that on their own to do? Well, we don't really like that because then it would inhibit them using the bulletins as a paper airplane.

That a lot would give them quite a bit of a distance to get to, but do they have room to write on there? I think so. Yeah, that's good then. I think, well, maybe, I'm not sure. Last question as we wrap up the show, Kevin, we walked into my library here today, my office, my study, and you saw a Transforming Grace book by Jerry Bridges.

And what'd you say? I said, I loved that book. That was one of the first books I ever read as a believer. And it was transforming grace to really understand the gospel message clearly. And the way that Jerry writes, I also have a book, Pursuit of Holiness, I think he wrote, which was an excellent...

I mean, everything that he writes is so well done and so easy to understand. We, Luke, Pat, my brother, myself, others, Pastor Steve here, we love to recommend Jerry Bridges. He's easy to understand because he ministered to college students.

He's very biblical. He comes from a Reformed tradition. But the way he writes in such a way that it's almost like a gateway drug for people that maybe are adverse to some of the Reformation doctrines, but they read Jerry Bridges and they go, oh, trusting God, subtitle, even if life hurts, and you go, oh, that's exactly right.

And so, if I'm trying to teach something to someone, and if I were to say, John Calvin said, they might not like that. They might push back. But if I said Jerry Bridges said... Very acceptable. Hardly.

I mean, whether you're a lordshipper, non-lordshipper, whether you're a fundamentalist or a pietist or whatever, if I say Jerry Bridges, most people go, oh, I can take that. Absolutely. So I love to recommend Jerry Bridges' book.

I 100 agree with you. Kevin Grandgetto, thank you for being on No Compromise Radio today. Thank you so much, Mike, for having me today. I was glad to do it. And when you listen to yourself on the show, you'll think, oh, that's one of the hardest things to do, is listen to your own preaching, listen to your own radio.

That's for sure. And now you can say, I've been on a gardening podcast and I've been on NoCo Radio. I can thank you so much, Mike. I appreciate it. Thanks, Kevin.