Steven Whitlow: Clear Truth Media The Best New Christian Media Source? DMW#230

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Here we go Exploring theology doctrine and all of the fascinating subjects in between Broadcasting from an undisclosed location dead men walking starts

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Well, hello everyone welcome back to another episode of dead men walking podcast,

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I'm your host Greg Moore You can find us at DMW podcast comm check us out there We got some snarky merch help support the show gets us to conferences brings you content

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Get tickets to that. All right, cool Now that we got the business out of the way have this gentleman if you're watching sitting to my right to your left

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How you doing brother, why don't you give us a little bit of an intro? Yeah, who are you? What are you about man? So many things.

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So my name is Steven and I like you Steven Whitlow. I am Right here in Northwest, Ohio.

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Yeah, I guess you're technically in southeast, Michigan. Yeah, we're neighbors. We're close Yeah, we are which is awesome because we just we just learned about each other which is fantastic Isn't that crazy my yeah, and I've been that, you know, basically

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Toledo native my whole life And so been here and doing ministry for almost 20 years now

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So I started as a young pop and have been doing that for a while married now I got four delightful kids just had my my most recent one about five weeks ago

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Yeah, right in there. So you look you're the pastor of Redemption Church right now. Yes CEO of clear truth media, which we're gonna be talking about a little bit today, correct got a lot of stuff going on It's always crazy, too.

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I was telling you this before we started recording I've been in Monroe County pretty much my whole life couple months here and there lived abroad

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But when how do I not know this guy we have the same friends I mean you're preaching the stuff that I'm going.

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Yes. We need to hear that from the pulpit I'm going he's 15 miles away from me. This guy should have been in here years ago

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So right so happy to have you in man. Well, I know it is it's amazing And and like we were talking about before the show

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There's a lot going on in this part of the country right now, and it's really fun to start getting connected Yeah, how about even like in the

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Ohio area? You've got like Foster doing this thing down there blowing up You guys are doing crazy stuff with clear truth media

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There's some guys up in northern, Michigan that are you know, kind of bringing attention to the culture I think it's really, you know reformation revival

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It's it's those type of things that have been being preached the last four or five years I'm we're starting to see and even before that starting to really come to fruition

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And seeing these things but um let's talk about clear truth media because that's what turned me on to you because last week in my

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Instagram my Twitter X on my Facebook. I couldn't get away from it Everyone was tweeting and go.

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Hey this thing just launched and I went how have I not now look at I'm a real estate broker I got a family right

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County Commission. I got a bunch of stuff going on, too So it's hard to keep my you know finger on the pulse of everything that's going on And I went how have

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I not heard about this? You just launched this. Can you tell me a little bit about clear truth media? Yeah, I can so it's it's about To your history with it.

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So about two years ago in October of 22 We ran a series at the church called clear truth for a confused world

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And it was at that point right then where we just knew our church needs some answers on some really important stuff

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Yeah, we ran a series on men women marriage family and society and I just preached through this is what the word says

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This is what the world says sent out a mailer. Our church grew by 50 % in five weeks I've been doing ministry for 20 years.

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I've never seen anything like that Yes, I was like, wow, we're kind of tapping into something So clear truth for a confused world series then turned into a conference that we did and we did that and last

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March It's then turning into kind of a conference tour and as it kept building we thought well something's happening here and about a year ago

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I sat down with Joel Barry who's the manning managing editor of the Babylon Babylon be another Toledo guy Toledo Yep, and so Joel and I have known each other for 15 years got disconnected our kids go to the same school

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We sat down and I was like, dude, what have you been up to? He's like, well, I work for the Babylon. That's kind of like you and I was like,

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I had no idea really doing that I had no clue. That's what he was doing. So we sit down we talk. He's like, how's your church?

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What's been happening since kovat? I kind of told him what was going on He said dude, I thought you were just one of those weak woke megachurch guys said no not exactly

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And so we started walking through this kind of the last four years, you know since kovat and I said, dude

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Do you realize that the Babylon B has become like the hub of? American evangelicalism. Yeah, like everything else is imploded over the last couple years

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There's nowhere where I know the guys that I've been, you know In contact with that a central landing spot for everybody and I was kind of joking but but really

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No, you're kind of right though. You have some bigger ones, but they're kind of sectioned off the nominationally

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I think of like founders ministries or something or even the network. I'm on fight left feast It seems to be a little more

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Presbyterian and you know Calvinistic. It's it's really it's really crazy You know gospel coalition.

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It's out Christianity. They know it the numbers are falling. No one even really trusts it So there's like this weird place for it.

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Yes. Okay, and that's that's what we saw. There's this massive hole See I come out of the megachurch So, you know, there's a megachurch in our area and I think when

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I left we were like 10 ,000 people six campuses that kind Of thing and I was you know preaching and and leading across multiple campuses and kind of grew up in that So, you know when

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I was growing up in ministry, it was Andy Stanley Bill Hybels Rick Warren Craig Rochelle Those kind of guys and I kind of learned from them how to do ministry and then

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I left the megachurch in 2013 But most of the connections conferences platforms that I would have looked to back then

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I don't trust any of them, right? And so now when I'm talking to people that are on a similar journey that I was on where do

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I go now? What do I look for? They didn't have any answers And so he said well we need to create something So Joel and I started chatting about creating that and it took us about a year at some point in time

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We got connected with Megan Basham from the Daily Wire Sure, and then that connected us with Foster and chase and then eventually we got connected with this

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You know guy from Northern Ireland Jamie Bambrick who made some crazy He saves us video following the Super Bowl and that's how

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God brought together the launch team Wow Yeah, I'm looking at the contributors on the website

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It's clear truth media comm for any listeners that want to go there and we'll link this all up So you guys can just click below Joel Berry, of course

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Tom Askell been on the podcast Megan Basham on the podcast Joe Booth boot I'm just gonna say who's been on the pot because I couldn't believe it.

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I'm like right we're running the same Joe boot Oh my god, Joe Joe boot three and a half years ago in South Dakota gave such a stunning exhortation of Of acts and when

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Peter says there's no other name which you shall be saved It was just I don't know. It's probably one of my favorite episodes.

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It was a remote episode Lewis Brackpool, I'm not familiar with him. Why does that sound familiar?

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He's journalist social come here. He was just all over for recording things that are going on right now.

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Okay, that's that's what it is Yeah, I mean Chase Davis Josh Dawes. Yep all these guys, man

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You got some Jared Fleming Keith Foskey Michael Foster Seth Gruber. I'm just reading them off just so people kind of Josh Howard It's Rod Martin was just on two weeks ago.

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Great guy Yeah, this is pretty and John Root sports guy. He's been on he's a good guy

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Samuel say yep So at Will Spencer Renaissance of men Steve. Yes, Steve you see our Wiley Oh, I love theology podcast and those guys what they do with history and so it's an incredible list that God has brought

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How did you how do you do that though? I mean, that's insane. Those guys are all busy They have things they're doing stuff.

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Do you just call them up and go? Hey, I'm starting this thing. You want to be part of it? They were some of them so some of them were a little harder

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So here's what happened, you know, the the practical story of it is that Joel and I started talking Joel obviously with this platform

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You know, he can he can get people to talk to him Sure, and you know answer the phone that kind of stuff So Joel and I were praying through this and there are multiple times throughout this where I was ready to throw it in Yeah, just say, you know, we're not gonna do this.

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It isn't gonna work people aren't receptive to it But we kind of kept pushing in and then when we did the conference in March it was in March It was really kind of confirmation like okay, we're headed in the right the right direction here

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Foster said no to me about six times and then I called him once I said, hey, I'm gonna circumnavigate your know

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And and so here's my side request and then he called me about 48 hours later and he said, you know what? I actually think

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I think God's really in this thing he said I'm not I'm not a charismatic but I think that God is really in this thing and I gotta say yes, and And it was kind of that story over and over and we just kept communicating with people and laying out a really simple vision guys

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You know, we we're gonna disagree on some things. We understand that But if there's ever been a time in in my life for us to work together across some

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Boundary lines, you know typically from a denominational perspective, but not from an Orthodox Evangelical Protestant perspective and so we said we're gonna make a firm box in what we believe in what we can unify in and if we can all agree

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In that I think it can be a beautiful thing. We can model a little bit to Christendom. Hey, this is how we can work together

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Yeah, we can also model that to the world and and I think we can create something really cool And so people just started saying yes, you know

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The funny thing is though even like you said with Foster saying that We have too much of an echo chamber you almost have too much of you go to a

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Christian website and they have a very thin view of every all their all their Reporting and all their articles and all their resources line up at that very this is what we kind of where we want you to Go, right.

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I was looking over some of the articles on clear tooth media and it's kind of all over the place You've got contributors

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Eschatology for instance, you've got contributors that are pre mill post mill. I'm ill and then you know

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Yeah, it was a title of how post mill ruined something and then right below it It's like post mills gonna get a bring back the nation.

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Yeah, you know, you're like, okay I kind of want that as a as a viewer or a listener or even a reader

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I don't want to be force -fed the narrative of whatever Then you know what?

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I mean? Yeah, absolutely Whatever whatever it is that that you're trying to give me. I want to go to a place that goes

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Okay, I know I can have and I think this is what clear truth is I know that all these contributors believe in Orthodox Christianity, right?

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I don't think we're ever gonna see a Mormon contributing on there maybe or a Jehovah Witness or Scientology or something like that, correct?

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Is that kind of the hey the baseline is the core tenets of Orthodox Christianity. Yes Yeah, so we we call it post -denominational ism.

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Okay, and here's what we mean by post -denominational ism We don't mean some kind of weird ecumenical ism that involves anybody who claims religious faith, right?

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We also don't mean kind of a Christian ecumenical ism that says hey anyone who kind of Adheres to the name of Christ will take in so this is not a

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Catholic platform. It's not an Orthodox platform It is a post -denominational we mean

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Protestant, you know kind of from the Reformation What are the things that we've generally all agreed on and and that's what we're choosing to unify

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Okay, certain people are going to step out of the box So, of course early on we had a lot of conversations about well, okay

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What about baptism, right? Yeah, we have both right a secondary issue. Yeah, exactly next.

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Yeah. Yeah, right then Okay, what about communion? Okay. Well, well, we'll understand that but are there some ways outside of our box to understand communion?

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Yes, are we gonna embrace those? No, you know, we're gonna embrace the things that Orthodox evangelicals have kind of always

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Embrace now I will say this our church has been on this journey for like five years Yeah, and because I I grew up I was kind of label myself as a quasi charismatic semi reformed megachurch trained guy

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You're all over the place. I mean, I'm like, I don't know. I like Martin Lloyd -Jones. That's what I mean and and and with that as a church we've been on this journey because most of our founding elders were more charismatic than I am and But but as a as a church, we've kind of been working together on how do we have these conversations?

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How do we discuss not divide over secondary issues and I would say that during that it has made a stronger not weaker

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Discussing not dividing now sometimes I wish we were part of the denomination because it'd be really easy to just say well We believe this because that's what our confession says and you know, no questions asked but that's not our context

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And so we've had to learn how to discuss not divide and grow as a result That's funny. You say that because even me being a member of a confessional

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Presbyterian Church Also, you can sometimes find that that is the that is the crutch that you use

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Yeah Hey We don't have to really get into this deep discussion and kind of figure things out and wrestle between brothers

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Because our confession says it they figured it out a long time ago. Yeah, which okay. There's something to that We want we want those, you know guardrails on so we don't go off in the ditches

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That's what confessions and creeds are for but at the same time at some time and I'm not saying at my church I'm just saying

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I've seen in general confessional churches where it can just be well That's that's what we have and that's what it is

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And that's the crutch to no longer look in and to actually explore theology, which just means to know God We just want to know

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God deeply know God rightly, you know So I'd like that to where you have this kind of vast contributing audience

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Cross denominational what you're calling it. You said post denominational, right? Yep The only time

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I've ever seen Someone talk about post -denomination. It was this crazy guy and he was he was kind of saying it how you said it

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Is it like anyone who's deconstructing or ever had a you know?

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Capital C Christian and that's that's post -denominational. So it's not that yeah, it's not that yeah

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There are some we want to make that clear and we always tell people we're not Anti -denomination right be a part and many of our guys are part of a denomination right?

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I always joke chase is a part of like seven, right? So we're not anti -denomination out to chase.

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Yeah, baby, right exactly But what we are doing again, we're united around core doctrine We're discussing not dividing around the secondary issues and allowing people to learn through that and I would say the people in our church

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Who are by and large coming out of I would say mega church

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Style churches. Yeah, and one of the reasons that I think post -denominational ism and clear truth Then is so important right now because the

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American Evangelical Church is Theologically emaciated. Yeah, and the reason they are is because over the last 20 to 30 years as the church as a whole

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Shifted to the mega church model. We we stripped down Theology.

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Yeah, right and we replaced it with kind of the self -help five points all of that kind of stuff

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Okay, it was good or helpful I'll say 20 years ago when you had all of these people coming out of theological or doctrinally heavy

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Denominations sure and the mega church grew by the denominational people leaving

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Pre -trained now and saying oh these five -point sermons are really helpful and applicable built off of my doctrine

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Well after 20 years of not being taught doctrine you become emaciated again The world blows up in 2020 and all now the emaciated church just follows the world into woke land

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Yeah, it's kind of it's crazy how it was a kind of a pendulum swing. Yep So I'm 42 grew up in the 80s and 90s

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I remember the Jerry Falwell and as a homeschooler were part of Bill Gothard for a few years Oh, wow, which was very you and Joel Barry both.

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Yeah, which it was it was crazy You know, even my parents were like is a little too nuts for us after a couple years

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I think and we exited out of that but my point was Very fundamentalist very legalistic and it seemed like the evangelical church was kind of going that way and then the pendulum swung and they went

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Wait a minute. There's freedom in Christ. There's I you know, there there is an emotional side to God emotions aren't bad

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We do need to keep them in control and not trust them as Jeremiah says But at the same time that pendulum swung and then we had 20, you know over here legalistic.

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Don't touch it Don't look at it. Put your head in the sand Jesus coming back. It's all rock music It's bad bad bad and then over here it was like, well, we don't really you know it's all fields and coffee houses and you know, just get the people into the building and it's crazy how the older you get you

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Realize like Proverbs says a lot about moderation and everything Yeah and that can even be moderation and how

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How you pastor how you shepherd how a church is ran like you kind of need a little bit of both of that, right?

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We need our doctrine in theology We need to know what the do's and don'ts and what God calls us to but at the same time

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Man you can you can just kill the spirit of a person in a fundamentalist legalistic church of the don't don't don't you know?

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It's it's the Protestant version of a very strict kind of Catholicism works based salvation and it's so sad

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It's like both are in moderation are very good. It kind of sounds like maybe this is the journey

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I don't want to put words in your mouth But the journey your church is on right now to where you said they kind of came out of one thing Looking at another thing, but just trying to make it work alongside

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Running this clear -truth media. Is that what's going on? Yeah, so that is the journey that our church has been on and we always I always say when what is a healthy?

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Post -denominational church look like it looks like a church that is theologically sound because we care about doctrine

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We care a lot about core doctrine when when we first planted people to hair you non -denominational and I would say well technically yes

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But if by that you mean that we don't care about doctrine or we're highly charismatic

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Then no, we're not that and we needed a word to help people describe what we were

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So that's when we started using post -denominational because we were noticing that we were multi -denominational in makeup and by that I mean people were coming from every denomination into our church sure and But multi -denominational people kind of felt like oh, so I just stay my

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Methodist self like well, not exactly So by post -denominational we mean we do care about doctrine

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We care very much about unifying and knowing core doctrine And so we're not gonna avoid theology like the non -denominational mega church system of the last 20 to 30 years

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In fact, we're gonna go pretty deep into the core stuff and discuss not divide over the secondary stuff Yeah, right

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So so a a post -denominational church is going to be theologically sound but it's also and this is kind of my quasi charismatic upbringing

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It is going to be experientially rich in a way that is still biblically accurate. Our faith should be emotional, right?

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We've been saved from the pit of hell, right? Adopted into the family of God that is an emotional experience.

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I have friends who just adopted a kid. It was emotional Yeah, it's supposed to be it's legal, but it's also emotional, right?

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And so it should be that but then this is probably my mega church element We say well, it should also be to an extent professionally excellent.

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In other words, we don't need to throw leadership We don't need to throw a good system. We don't need to throw all of that out when

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I left the mega church I allowed myself to pendulum swing Leadership's bad and you know, I'm never gonna look at an

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Excel document again and all of that kind of stuff But we've layered some of that back in to realize well

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There was a reason they re brought leadership back into the church 30 years ago There are things that you can learn and sadly more churches fail not because of bad doctrine, but because of bad leadership

20:14

Yeah And so now we're trying to take all three another way of looking at it is kind of the shepherd preacher leader Perspective on ministry and say a healthy church needs all three of these things.

20:23

Yeah No, I was in the same boat to where it was like part of my excuse me part of my

20:31

Testimony is to telling people they've heard it many times on this podcast I was a closeted Calvinist for like eight or nine years because I was like I can't even

20:37

Well, I was you weren't in the AG Well, no growing up. It was non -denominational.

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Yeah Legalistic think think mid 80s legalistic Jerry Falwell kind of built right, but so Spirit -filled supposedly, but very never saw evidence of that or anything like it and then swung that to my early

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Teens with a church here in Monroe that just bought in real heavily to Bethel So we had like Bill Johnson and stuff coming out and prophesying over the leaders

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So it's this weird thing of like 13 years old. I'm playing the piano and my you know, my

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My youth pastor tells me hey, you can't play Keith Green. That's devil's music It's got a drum beat and then you know five eight years later.

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You're going Oh, they're supposed to be feathers and gold dust coming from the ceiling so got this really weird thing of like all these traditions and Then ran from the

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Lord and shook my fist at him and thought I could do my own thing and then graciously saved me When I was 24, so I said the sinner's prayer at 7 and got saved at 24 and then started going

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Let's just read the Bible see what the Bible says I've been taught all these different right and then really just went whoa

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Maybe the these doctrines of grace are insane. They're just all through the Bible, right? But I don't want to get into my testimony, but my point was

21:47

Yeah, that that journey of the traditions too is real tough and then when I came to Christ the

21:52

Word where I'm at now It's evangelical Presbyterian we have a full worship band. It's like it's you go in my upbringing from what

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I'm little like is this still okay? Yeah, right. Just pounded in you know, I'm a musician man You know many times

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I've worshipped on the drums or the piano or lead worship and went and and I knew my heart was glorifying

22:11

But it wasn't for any type of self indulgence or anything and you go. Yeah, we have to have that in church

22:17

I went to a predominantly black church for the first two years when I came back from the Lord is a Bivocational black preacher.

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He put me on the worship team. I was the drummer I'll tell you what you want to learn how I came out of a band that was signed a major label you get on a

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Praise team and you're like, oh these get you know Had to you know shape up really fast and I just went

22:36

I just love the cultural way of how we praise I mean, there's nothing I mean if you can't jump up and get excited for how the

22:44

Lord has saved you What are we doing? Yep, and we just you know, flipping a page in a book Oh, I don't know this old dead guy said you're not allowed to shout in a service

22:52

It's like I don't want to sound sacrilegious by saying that but at the same time I'm understanding what you're saying where there has to be a fullness in it and and there should be a natural excitement and gratefulness and of what the

23:05

Lord has done for us and It kind of sounds like that's kind of what you're cultivate I know we didn't come here to talk about your church, but we're still on it

23:12

Kind of what you're cultivating at Redemption Church. Is that kind of what it is? Yeah, it absolutely is and so there's gonna be joy, but yeah, you know when you show up you're gonna love it

23:21

You're gonna you're gonna worship to the music. You're gonna experience that we're gonna pick theologically rich songs, of course, right?

23:26

But then, you know, there's gonna be the preaching of the word because that's what it's about so and then we're gonna preach expository through the scriptures and the idea though of Post -denominationalism and clear truth came out of Redemption.

23:38

So this is all part of the story And then this is what led us into, you know launching clear truth media

23:43

And right now I look at clear truth media and part of it is just us naturally telling our story to a broader audience

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But then inviting people into it and so beginning to share the idea of okay We've learned how to unify around core doctrine here in the church

23:56

Can we do that as a broader evangelicalism and that's when God started opening doors doors like Joel and Megan and Jamie Bambrick and Foster and chase and the rest of the contributors that you already looked in and and what we're doing now

24:08

You know clear truth media why we exist is just to be a Platform that people can still trust.

24:14

Yeah, I know these people I can trust them both doctrinally and culturally yeah, and also get like I said get that wide range of kind of looking at things from different perspectives, but all through the worldview of Christian of being a

24:31

Christian Yes having a biblical worldview, which I find like I said, very interesting and refreshing So it launched just by the time people hear this it'll have been out maybe two two weeks

24:43

And like I said, I saw it everywhere. What was that? Like like just seeing it I mean on headlines and on major news outlets and through Twitter and social media you said, you know to everyone else

24:54

You know people say oh man, I can't believe that guy blew up overnight or this thing happened overnight to them

25:00

It's overnight, but to you this is a five -year journey How was it seeing that that launch just go very well people and I saw so many people that I would never have connected in The only dots that connect them was clear truth media and I went that's what

25:13

I went. Oh, this is something a little different This is something special Yeah Because these three guys over here and these three guys over here that I know well

25:21

But they never talk and I'm the guy connecting them now clear truth is connected all six of them in a weekend and I went

25:27

We got a we got to talk about this. This is exciting So, how was that launch for you to see it being received? So while there's so many different people

25:33

Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's God's grace and it is it's 20 years in the making right 20 years of ministry

25:38

But also upbringing and and God refining and then opening up doors. And so it's very easy to look at this

25:44

I was talking to one of our clear truth contributors and kind of a mentor of mine Rob McCoy Who's also outside of the circle of a lot of these guys and that's what's been fun

25:53

I'm talking to Robin and I was complaining about something and Rob just said dude stop. You're an idiot Just remember that none of this all of this is it's been his work already and so just trust him to take it from here and And that's how

26:05

I can look at this and now watching the launch and seeing the people that have gotten involved I mean, it's it's it's of course, it's exciting

26:11

You want to stop you want to give God the glory do when you are experiencing fun things? Take it in and you know for anyone listening to this who's in ministry or just we're all in ministry, you know

26:20

Life throws its battles at you And so when you get the wins stop celebrate praise the Lord and thank him for it

26:26

And so that's what a lot of the last week has been But also seeing that I think that God is using some of these connections

26:34

Beyond us already. And so now my favorite thing is watching clear truth contributors get to know each other

26:40

Yeah, and now they're often running and doing ministry that really has nothing to do with clear truth But seeing that's part of the win of this.

26:47

It's not just going to be the building of a platform like who cares? It's going to be the ministry connections that that begin to happen and then you know

26:54

God uses those and in other outlets. Yeah, so is it just articles right now? Is there going to be any other type of media or kind of what's the game plan going forward?

27:03

Yeah, three things articles videos and podcasts. Okay, and so there's a there's a few podcasts on there a few videos right now

27:10

But we launched mostly with articles because we wanted to set that as a kind of a primary tone Yeah and then begin to build the podcast and And then sermons as well will be posting sermons on there and one of the reasons we wanted to do the you know

27:23

Particularly the podcast and the sermons is a lot of people right now struggle to find who should I be listening to?

27:30

Obviously dead man walking podcast dead man walking is your top but outside of that truth media Yeah, if you need more than 45 minutes a listen time a week, you know, who else do

27:39

I go to? Yeah, and and then also sermons if I want to listen to good preaching You never know you're gonna stumble across somebody used to listen to five years ago

27:45

Get halfway through the sermon ago. I don't agree with this And so we want to create an outlet for people to find good content

27:51

I always thought it'd be great to have like a wikipedia, but it was just for preachers and it was just called preacher pedia

27:56

Yeah preacher pedia or who is this guy comm or something where you can just type in a name and it was like yeah He did this oh but he said that you know, not that look at if someone said something that is biblical and It can be filled with the spirit and you can also make mistakes two years prior after right?

28:13

We can't judge a pastor a preacher or a teacher by one thing. They've said but sometimes there's

28:20

Habitual things that you can see lead up to other errors and You would like to be warned by that especially if you're recommending to someone or something like that But it's always you know, you have so many now with social media.

28:33

It was like geez even 20 years ago I feel like you could you had like five guys that were alive and maybe five guys

28:41

He had recordings of who just passed, you know in the 60s or 70s You're like you had those and everyone else was just kind of now

28:47

It's like everyone has their own platform. They're putting out content You go to my Instagram page and the deadman walking thing and it's like pastor pastor

28:54

But clip clip clip and I follow him and make sure I can kind of try to keep up It's like it's just too much is you know, and you don't really know what what they're preaching what they stand for what you know

29:05

Do I? My worst fear is you send a clip to someone Oh check this out in the next thing They go into a deep dive and you know two years later.

29:12

They're in a I don't know Some kind of megachurch cult, you know, whatever it is

29:18

Yeah, now that I'm saying megachurches are cults, but I'm saying that kind of you know, sure go down that road.

29:24

But Yeah, so it's it's cool too. Like you said so they come to clear truth media they can they can trust who it is and who to listen to or Suggestions because I found that some of the guys that have been on the podcast like a

29:37

CR Wiley or a Tom Askell Off -camera say who we listening to what should

29:42

I look and he'll give me some names you I don't have heard of these guys He goes these are the best preachers. You've never heard of Yep, and you go what and then

29:49

I go listen to sermons or read a read one of their books you go Oh my gosh, these are like the best -kept secrets.

29:54

Not everyone with a huge platform is necessarily giving you the creating the best content Does that make sense?

29:59

No, they're just good at creating platforms and part of clear truth is to do exactly that It's the platform guys

30:05

And no one's ever heard of that you can look and say here's how we know or we know that you can trust this person They've signed off on our on our doctrinal agreement and they've signed off on our cultural application

30:16

So and those that's kind of the first process people have asked me. Well, how did you pick these people? How did you know? Well, that was step one

30:22

Do you agree with both of these things? Because what we saw over the last couple years is people who would say well, yeah I agree with your doctrinal agreement and then you start seeing some of the cultural application you go.

30:30

Well, hold on How does your agreement with that doctrinal agreement leads you to say you need to confess your whiteness here, you know

30:37

Or whatever other wrong Application and so we took it a step further and said, you know We want to see how you're applying this doctrine through some particular spirit of the age cultural convictions

30:47

So is that what that cultural document is explain it a little bit like what because I've heard of the first one

30:53

Yep, I don't know if I've heard of the second one the cultural one that has to be signed Yeah, so that's also in our you know, it's on our website and so I knew

31:01

I can go back and read it But basically what we did is we took kind of the seven or eight most important topics of today from a cultural application

31:07

Okay, and we said, okay We want to make sure that you agree with us on this too Because this is kind of the spirit of the age stuff that we see people

31:16

Going astray on and and so there's things on there on critical theory. There's things on there on race. There's things there on, you know abortion

31:23

Gay marriage LGBTQIA stuff and then a few other things. I think I got all the letters, right?

31:31

Exactly so because we want people to know if you follow these people

31:37

You're not just gonna hear good teaching. You're also gonna hear good application, right? Wow, so Where are we going from here?

31:46

Because we're gonna wrap this up a little bit and then I want to do a fresh 10 segment with you Which you don't you didn't know that you were gonna do it, but hopefully you stick around for it

31:53

So we got we got the launch. What is like the next year look like you got a conference coming up We do you this

32:00

March and where's that being held at? It'll be held in Montclova Montclova so not too far from me.

32:06

I think I will be attending So what what goes on at the conference for the clear truth media conferences? What what is that kind of like?

32:12

So it's it's a lot of teaching a lot of panels and so last year. It was just very general kind of thing We haven't themed this year's yet.

32:18

Okay, but you know a lot of our clear truth contributors will be there Yeah, so next year though. What does it look like it?

32:24

Well, it looks like continuing to create consistent content One of the things that was really important for us with the clear truth platform

32:30

We wanted it to be a place where you could go and there would be something new every single day okay, and that's one of the kind of the barriers to entry in kind of stepping into this is that you need a wide

32:41

Collection of contributors to be able to produce that much fresh content. Sure And so thankfully we do, you know

32:51

There's going to be new one to three pieces of content whether that's a video, you know again written mostly written

32:58

But then also podcast as well. So the continuing to build that out We do have a subscription service right now

33:05

But continuing to kind of build out the content library We want to be a place where people similar to the gospel coalition a decade ago where when you needed to you know

33:13

Search something you went there and you typed it in and you saw all this great content So building up a new fresh library of that kind of stuff as well

33:19

That's kind of the goal over the next year. Very interesting. Do you have an app coming down the road or anything like that? Yeah, so the app will be released probably sometime in August It's so crazy how easy it is to get to a website

33:31

Turn it into an icon on your phone to create like an app, but if there's an app I go for the app

33:37

Yeah, it's just we're so trained. We've been so trained. It's just so nice to have that But I do have to say whoever's doing your back -end stuff.

33:45

The website looks beautiful. Thanks You know when you click on some I know this is probably 2 % of people listening like why are you talking about this?

33:53

But I like the look of something like if I'm scrolling through it needs to just look appeasing not too cluttered

33:59

Organized correctly. It just feels like okay. This is a place. I want to be meaning this this site.

34:05

Does that make sense? Yeah, and I will say I don't know who did it But whoever designed the website looks nice and look forward to the app too because it'll probably be done just as professionally.

34:13

So, okay So someone listening right now, they've never heard a clear truth media now they have

34:22

What what's your call to action to them? Hey visit as often as you can take part in the videos the podcast the articles

34:31

Is there anything they can do share with a friend like what is their call to action for someone who goes? Yeah, I want to get on board

34:38

Week three of clear truth media. So five years from now when they're running the world, you know, I can say

34:43

I was there Yeah, no, well and we would appreciate the support one of the lines I often use is we're trying to take a battle axe to progressive

34:49

Christianity like that because it needs to right? Yeah, and and we want to you know

34:56

Matching wrote Christianity and liberalism a hundred years ago. Now. This story is still the same He could have written it last week, right and and and fortunately a lot of those platforms are the platforms that that still exist and take off and we need to take them down that way we can retrain the pastorate and retrain the everyday believer to retake culture and so Here's how they can help

35:15

Check it every day. Yeah, there's gonna be something new there follow us on all the social platforms clear truth media pretty simple

35:21

And you know ten bucks a month you can subscribe you're gonna get premium content You're gonna get access to our monthly

35:26

State of the Union with our contributors And and then you're just gonna support the cause of taking a battle axe to progressive

35:32

Christianity Yeah, and this is what I say to to people listening look at You can spend ten dollars now on one drink at Starbucks.

35:40

So this is what you do Instead of your Starbucks once a month you take that ten dollars and you go

35:46

I'm gonna support something that is new and fresh and godly and right It's been worked on by a lot of people has great contributors and I'm gonna throw it over to clear truth media

35:56

And that's what you do throw it right on a card. You pay it off every month. Anyway, that ten bucks goes a long way

36:02

I don't want to sound like an infomercial but sometimes it just it drives me nuts how we justify things as Christians.

36:08

Well All this horrible pagan company, whatever it is Target or whoever whatever month it is

36:15

Right and then go spend all that money there and then they stumble across a site like this thing I don't know $10 you go.

36:21

What's $10 in Biden's America, baby. He has a $1 couple eggs Yeah, I mean

36:27

I had a friend bucks. Let's go. I had a friend yesterday sign up and he goes He goes I wasn't gonna sign up but then I realized if I give

36:32

Disney ten bucks a month How can I honestly justify and sleep at night and not give you ten bucks? I was like, all right

36:37

Well, you're not giving me the ten bucks, but yeah, I appreciate now I hear you know, we shifted some stuff and it wasn't just the whole it was before the whole

36:44

Disney fallout But in my family, we shifted some stuff and went Okay, we're spending X amount on these streaming services and this and that What we should shift that to the streaming services that are supporting the kingdom of God, you know

36:57

Maybe some more like we're a canon plus Family will probably be a clear truth media now.

37:02

Well, you know what? I mean? There's different things where it's go Yeah, let's put it there because you might go oh well the quality

37:10

Let's say or that what what we have access to first of all might not be as much as let's say a

37:15

Disney first of All I would argue how much good content is actually on Disney that you want your kids or you should be watching, right?

37:21

Second of all, it's like well, they kind of had a hundred year head start So you can't you got to put your money where your mouth is.

37:27

It's fun. These guys. That's fun. You guys Let's get the money because we don't like talking about it But money is how things get done, right?

37:34

Yeah, and we've got a really bad rap in the Christian community with You know churches and pastors asking for money right prosperity gospels gone through the roof.

37:43

They've really hurt the actual laborers in the field that do need

37:49

Funds to do things right? It's kind of like even when I Run as a county commissioner.

37:55

I hate asking for money, but at the same time Hey, that's how I buy yard signs and send out mailers and you know that started in 2016 by this year

38:05

I was like, I just need money. Yeah, right, you know, you're kind of jaded by it But it is but it's like rightly handle it and all that So all that to say your 10 bucks go subscribe clear truth media.

38:17

I would say go do it because It's a $10 well spent each month. All right, let's put bookends on that Would you mind sticking around for a fresh 10 segment where we ask you 10 fresh?

38:28

I say we it's me. I used to have a co -host. It's still saying we He's not We ask you 10 fresh questions, they're just fun

38:37

They're light the rapid -fire, but we get to know you a little bit more. You want to do it's great. Let's do it All right. Let's go 10 fresh questions.

38:56

Oh It's 10 fresh questions with Steve Whitlow Question number one. Let's get out the list here.

39:01

This will be fun What sitting state did you grow up in and how did that affect your childhood? We already kind of know that but Toledo area.

39:08

Is that where you grew up? I grew up in Toledo, Ohio How did it affect my child? Yeah, how did it I mean a Midwest kid?

39:13

Well, I love the fall. Yeah Okay, you a Buckeye I I am

39:19

I actually this and I grew up a Michigan fan Oh, then I went to Ohio State for a little bit. So I My time

39:26

I feel like that's a fair reason yeah change Yeah, our whole families you have them and then my son who's 10 is,

39:32

Ohio And I went and this was because he got into football at 7. He's now 10 No, it's 6.

39:38

So four years ago Ohio was probably the best team nationally and then it's funny soon as he became a fan Michigan beat him what two or three years in a row which hadn't happened for the previous 20 years and He's hoping it's been a bad run for him.

39:50

It's been a bad run for him. But this year I think he's gonna make it back What's your favorite funny story or joke to tell people you got like a go -to joke a dad joke a funny story

39:59

Maybe you first meet someone or you guys are all sitting around talking. What's a funny joke or go -to story

40:05

Wow I don't know if I have a funny joke that I go to but a story that I often tell is the time that we Accidentally shot my friend with a

40:12

BB gun across a hundred yards and it got lodged in his head You have a BB gun that can go a hundred yards.

40:18

How many pumps did you pump that thing? Okay, so this was we were in sixth grade Okay Tell the story we pumped it enough to kill a squirrel and my buddy was running through the woods and I said to him my

40:27

Friend I said hey, why don't you I shoot him and he just literally like kind of just threw the gun in that direction pulled the

40:32

Trigger and my friend fell to the ground. We thought he was joking We ran over to him and the BB was stuck right here and we used a bunch of sticks to pop it out

40:41

That poor kid sticks not even like a sharp knife or something. This was the last day of school in sixth grade

40:47

We did not tell a soul until our graduation year. Oh my god. It's like a Johnny Cash song It was a great rider going by a great story

40:55

Wow Top three bands or music albums that have influenced your life the most Or you can just give us one if you can't give us three a band or an album or something musically that yeah

41:05

That was that had that marked me for whatever reason good or bad. So, okay So I'm gonna

41:10

I'm gonna show some bad cards here right now because I'm one I'm not like a big music guy Okay, okay

41:16

But when it does come to music, I I probably hit the three that that everyone's gonna be like, oh man

41:21

Okay, so obviously first I I mean I like worship music, right? Right? So there's certain songs I can go back to but if I'm not gonna use the worship music outlet

41:28

I was like that dude in high school that was listening to pop music Okay, I have to admit it here in front of you and all of your your your this is forever on video

41:38

And I hate that but okay, so I'm just gonna tell the story this way They're up here in Michigan.

41:44

Okay a long long time ago. Okay, it was I once dated somebody who lives up here

41:49

And so it's funny that now 25 years later. I'm driving up here and that song is running through my head.

41:57

No. Yes Well, I mean the songs do do a weird thing where it's just like connects to a memory Can you say the song or no?

42:03

Do you want to I mean I don't don't say it if you don't want to it was it was who was thanks the reason All right. Yeah who mistake was awesome back in the come on.

42:11

It was that one For that one summer right and that was everybody saw that's funny.

42:17

Yeah. Yeah High schools in you know, early college years are always a little you look back on it.

42:22

You know, what was I thinking? Yeah, they don't count. Yeah, what Monopoly piece do you take the dog the dog?

42:29

Yeah Okay, what what properties do you go for? Are you like a Baltic and slumlord guy?

42:35

You go for boardwalk somewhere in the middle. You look like a tenant like an orange or red. Yeah I try to take that I guess that would be like the third row one two.

42:43

Yeah Yeah, I'd like the end of the second end of the third row I think that's always like you get your best return for investment on those you do actually yeah

42:49

Yeah, the the oranges are the best return If you could sit down with for a cup of coffee with any historical figure outside of the

42:57

Bible All right, so we can't say Paul or Jesus right or Jesus or Paul outside of the Bible historical figure

43:03

Who would it be and why get to have a cup of coffee with them for an hour? I'm gonna go with Martin Lloyd -Jones. There you go.

43:09

I like it. I had a feeling since that early mentioned All right, what is a movie you've watched multiple times and I used to ask us

43:15

What's your favorite movie and people said I can't pick a favorite But when I started asking is what's a movie you've watched multiple times ago.

43:22

Oh, and that's usually your favorite movies Yes, just put it in and watch it The Rock. Oh Man, that's the

43:28

Alcatraz one. Oh, yeah Sean Connery, I love that movie.

43:34

I haven't seen that in a while. That was a good flick. Oh came out in 1997 I've watched that movie probably 1997 times

43:40

Wow, man, you just threw it took me back. All right last question What's a book outside of the

43:45

Bible that everyone should read pick up take a look at at least peruse through? There's gonna be another

43:52

Martin Lloyd -Jones Yeah, I mean I could go that I'll shift gears I'll say this to anyone who does anything with leadership in any way whatsoever.

44:00

Okay, you have to read the book great by choice What is it called great by choice great by choice? it was written by a guy named

44:06

Jim Collins back in kind of like the height of like the leadership is everything and Not all of those books last the test of time but this one for at least the last 25 years

44:15

I go back to it and I read that over and over and from like an organizational perspective I mean, it is just it is kind of structured the way

44:23

I think about things Interesting. I haven't heard of that one. You know, you always hear the what was a seven Oh Seven habits are highly all those things were all within like five years and everyone was just putting them out and I never really

44:35

Got into them, but I'll take a look at that one. All right, that's fresh 10 All Right as we wrap this up Give us the final word.

44:54

What's on your mind. Tell the people where to go what to do where they can find you All that good stuff. Yeah. Well, they can check everything out at clear truth media comm

45:01

That's the hub clear truth media on social media. Here's what I'm most excited about right now I think that God is bringing people together

45:08

Kind of across the the doctrinal lines as we've talked to do because we're gonna win again And the only way to do that is us working together along those denominational lines.

45:16

Amen Steve Thanks so much. You go by Steve or Steve. I go by Steven Steven. I'm sorry. So no more Steve Steven Thanks so much for being here taking time out of your day.

45:23

I know you're busy You got a lot going on with the launch of clear truth media the church the pastor the whole thing Appreciate you brother.

45:29

Thanks for having me. I'm glad we made this connection. Yeah me too guys Thanks so much for listening to another episode of dead men walking podcast as always

45:34

You can find us at DMW podcast comm anywhere on social medias. Thanks for telling a friend. Thanks for supporting the show

45:40

Thanks for sending in your comments We just had someone two weeks ago say hey get Timothy Brindle on and ask him these questions and we got

45:47

Timothy Brindle on and Asked him those questions So we love it when you guys are leaving us messages and giving us ideas for shows

45:53

Appreciate that a lot as always remember the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever

45:58

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46:04

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46:09

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