The Other 6 Days

Young Adults Ask Us Anything! | The Other 6 Days | Episode 28

• Southwest Church • Season 2 • Episode 28

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In this episode, we take a group of young adults from Southwest Church and let them ask us anything! Our hope in this episode, is to simply highlight young adults, open up dialogue about some of the most pressing issues, thoughts, ideas, questions or concerns they are currently navigating, all while having some fun as we discover some ways to encourage & help each other grow. 

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Speaker 1:

Can we teach you how to be holy and how to obey scripture and how to know Jesus? Of course you know. But, man, there's a spark in this generation that I know nothing about, just nothing. You know. There's an art on the inside of y'all souls.

Speaker 2:

Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the other six days podcast, where we chat about life outside of Sundays and what it means to live from our gatherings, and not just for them. I'm your host, cj McFad, and I'm here again with Pastor Ricky Jenkins, along with some very special guests today a group of our Southwest Church young adults. Yes, yeah, well, we'll be running a kind of Q&A format today for the podcast, where we basically let them ask us anything and then we're going to do our best to answer their questions. Our hope will be that we can have a little fun, all while discovering new ways to help encourage each other to grow in Christ.

Speaker 1:

But first, ricky, what was your favorite age growing up so far, and why? So this is my favorite, but it shouldn't be Okay. So like 16, 17. All right, well, 15, 16. So old enough to drive, but shouldn't probably be allowed to drive. So like 15 and 16. I got to say you want 16. So like 15 and 16, when you and your friends are just idiots, yeah, and like going places, so like. I remember you know we were idiots and we were idiots, but we weren't bad. Yeah Right, we weren't bad boys, like we were church rats, like we were, you know, but we weren't bad. Yeah Right, we weren't bad boys.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, like we were church rats, Like we were, you know, so we weren't Just knuckleheads a little bit yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we weren't thuggish, ruggish bone, we were dumb church kids. And I remember this one night we all were out to Waffle House, which is do y''t have a Waffle House, but anyways, we're at Waffle House. It's like 1 am. No, it could have been that late because I was on 15. Anyways, we go to Waffle House and we put on. We go to our car and we put on hoodies and it's cold and we got our hands in our pockets or whatever. And then we just walk in the Waffle House again and we got our hoodies on and we're just walking around like this, like we're puffing tough and it's like five of us and we're just like you're like picking up napkin things, just like you know.

Speaker 1:

And then we walked out because we're that's just stupid, like someone should have fought us and we was would y'all do the red light thing? What's that? You just stop at a red light and all four doors open and you just run around every car and scream oh, yeah, yeah. So we did that stuff all the time. We should have been shot, like years ago. So what about you?

Speaker 2:

Same thing, yeah for sure, 14, 15 for me. Mine was like BMX summer camps and sleepovers. I think it was the time that you don't have to worry about adult stuff.

Speaker 3:

That's right.

Speaker 2:

But you still get that freedom to explore and not come home till yeah, that was, that was mine, but doing definitely stuff that, like I, shouldn't be alive today.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, totally Should totally be dead or like definitely in a wheelchair and can't talk, like oh, we should be dead.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean we were talking about that before the podcast, saying like man we're we're living on borrowed time, so totally Well, before we jump into some questions from our young adults here today, I'd love to actually first ask a common question that we get, and I know a lot of viewers want to know, is in your opinions to our group today what age group or range would you guys say best defines young adults?

Speaker 1:

That's a real good question, yeah, especially today.

Speaker 2:

Right 2024. What do you guys think Like? What age group is that? Immediately after high school? Immediately after high school? Immediately after high school?

Speaker 4:

In a growing period after high school.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so like 18, and what's the cap on it? About 30. 30 years old, yeah, huh, yeah, what would you?

Speaker 1:

say, it makes me sad that I could be 31 and not be considered a young adult.

Speaker 2:

I think there's that's a little gray area, I think.

Speaker 1:

I don't get that. They get to say it, so I don't get to say it, but that makes me very sad. Yeah, yeah, but it's true if they say it.

Speaker 2:

Well, we've talked about it before, I think. So a lot of us have said like 18 to 23, like post-college, right, or after high school and college, and then 24 to 30 is kind of a unique. You guys have like definitely like a diverse, yeah, a diverse group there so, because there's a lot that can happen in that time.

Speaker 1:

It's a lot that can happen, yeah, a lot that, man. I would want to know, though can you date within that range? Yeah, what do you guys think? Yes, well, does that define the range then?

Speaker 2:

yeah, what's the youngest that a 31 year old can ask? A great question I think they got 30 over 21 hey, I even didn't hesitate on that.

Speaker 1:

I was like, hey, yeah, I think they need to be over 21.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's a good answer. I'm not hating on that I don't.

Speaker 1:

I don't disagree like if my, if andy, andy's five. So if andy was 19 and said hey dad, this guy's coming over, he's 31. He wouldn't be coming inside.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely not. Yeah, that's true, that's true. Yeah, that's good. I haven't had to think about that, but that's a good one, that's good, all right. Well, let's go ahead and jump in, you guys. Why don't you go ahead and ask us? Let us know what you got.

Speaker 4:

Hi. So my first question is is it OK to kind of put a pause on tithing while trying to get out of debt?

Speaker 2:

That's a good question. That's a good question, go for it.

Speaker 1:

So is it OK to put a pause on tithing while you're working out of debt? Yeah, that's good. So here's let's make up a cliche on the spot right? One of those is math work, the other one is heart work. Both of them are important. One of them is necessary for everything else you will do in the way of money and navigating your financial life.

Speaker 1:

So, essentially, the reason God told us to tithe there's several reasons God told us to tithe. The second reason God told us to tithe. So, second place, that God told us to tithe, or give, be generous is so that his kingdom might be financed through a partnership with his creation. That's the second thing God was thinking. Right, but it's not the first thing God was thinking. The first thing God was thinking is I don't ever want Satan to have a stranglehold on your soul or on your heart, and the biggest avenue to your heart is your money. And so the number one thing that Jesus was thinking when he says, hey, I want Ricky to be generous and I want Ricky to be a giver and I want Ricky to see his first fruits as something that belongs to me, is because Jesus wanted to make sure that my heart would always be connected to him and open to him and not enslaved yeah, right To anything or anyone else that God has made. And so when you think I think a key text is Matthew six Right, and so this is the parable of the talents and all this kind of stuff, but at the end of the day it just Jesus basically says he talks about having good eyes Right, and he basically says that in the story he says watch out for greed. Essentially, when you translate the Greek, he says watch out for greed. And then he says if you have a good eye you'll be okay, but if you have a bad eye you'll be pretty jacked up. And so what in the world does that mean? And Jesus was essentially teaching us that, man, when I have anything other than in my eye right, that thwarts my vision of Christ and who he is, that's the beginning of trouble. So ain't nothing wrong with money, but it's something wrong with money having me, which is why Jesus says hey, man, don't even put yourself in that kind of situation.

Speaker 1:

So here's the thing. Debt is important too. That's also biblical, right. That's also very principled what God wants us to do with our debt. But, man, if that's also very principled what God wants us to do with our debt. But, man, if I get all my debt out the way and then start being generous with what God has told me to do with my money number one, that's already kind of reimagining what scripture teaches. So that's a disobedient thing, right? So we already know that the answer is an easy no. But here's the thing If I'm putting God and his business first, I now have a right of way to see clearly as to how he wants me to manage all these other things. I would guarantee you that tithing principally, you'll pay off debt even faster because you have a clear eye to see how God wants you to manage everything else. What do you think?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, I totally agree. I think putting your money where your faith is, I think, is more important than paying down your debt. Dave Ramsey would actually agree with that sentiment too. So, and you know, cause God's? He's? Definitely he's, like you said, he's more concerned with your heart than your debt.

Speaker 2:

And so, and then I think, like Ricky said, that God uses generosity as one of the ways to liberate us from the tyranny of greed. So he actually uses that in our lives to help keep us from having a bad eye. That's right, and so you know, I 100% agree with you on that one. So I think it's a. I would say no, I would challenge you to say you know, trust God in that and be obedient in that way and you'll see God show up different.

Speaker 1:

Well, too, you know, if we would, if we had time, we'd dig into that a little bit more. Like you know, you look at what's going on. I think national debt is at $30 trillion, right, I think national consumer debt is a lot, but anyways, average American owes, you know, umpteen thousand dollars, right? The average American lives paycheck to paycheck. Statistics tell us what is this? 24? Statistics tell us, in six years, we'll start to enter into what economists call the retirement apocalypse.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, which basically means that the people who are like 58, 60, 63, 64, 65 have saved nothing, and so, at 65, they're not going to be retiring, they're going to be working till 70, 75 and 80, keeping jobs that y'all need, right, and so there's a whole thing that's going on because people didn't save and people didn't pay off debt. So that's why I would encourage you to even get after generosity that much sooner, because it helps you to see, clearly make choices. Because here's the thing Nine times out of 10, if we got debt, it's because we didn't do something right. Right, maybe not wrong either, but definitely something not right and not smart. So, anyways, that's my, that's my two cents.

Speaker 2:

No, it's good, I love it. We're going to move on to the next question now, so go for it. Who's got the next question?

Speaker 1:

for us Say Maribel, that's Jordan. Yep, stacey Tyler, stacey, tyler, jocelyn.

Speaker 4:

Josh, that's it.

Speaker 3:

So next question we have is, with such a large community of our peers questioning their sexuality and genders, how, as Christian young adults, can we support our friends and communities in times of confusion or new changes?

Speaker 1:

Wow.

Speaker 2:

That's good. Wow, that's good. Amen, goodness gracious.

Speaker 1:

Well, you know, paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, right Now abides faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love, which goes to the old adage that love covers a multitude of sins. What CJ needs from me more than anything else is love. What is love? Well, love is the fact that unconditional, non-transactional, nothing based on your actions or your performance, I've accepted you. You are human, you are an image bearer of Christ. I'm going to love you even when you're wrong, and because I want you to love me even when I'm wrong. And so that's the love that God gave Ricky Jenkins. God has made up his mind that, ricky, if you're an idiot, I'm still going to love you, I'm still going to journey with you, right, and so love is the principle. I think what a lot of young adults miss is that they've confused love for agreement, and love does not mean agreement. Indeed, if love is agreement, it's not, it's no longer love, it's actually worship, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1:

And so, yeah, I think we've started to conflate the two ideas that for me to actually authentically, vulnerably love you, it means I have to tolerate, accept, endorse every decision you make in your life, and if I don't, that is counterfeit love, that's nowhere in Bible and also that doesn't make sense, right? So once you take your logic to its extremes, and if it doesn't work in the extremes, it doesn't work. So if Jocelyn says, ricky, do you love me, no matter what decision I make, and I say yes, absolutely, and Jocelyn picks up a shotgun and aims it at my forehead, I don't know, but if I love her, that's what it means, right, but it don't mean I agree. So, hey, you better stop. I love you, but if you shoot me I'm going to knock you across the head. So it doesn't mean agreement. So, hey, you better stop. I love you, but if you, if you shoot me, I'm going to knock you across the head. So it doesn't mean agreement. Yeah, so I think that's the main thing people need to hear.

Speaker 1:

I would say to us there's a, there's a. There is at least two same sex attraction couples at our church that I know of. That I talk with that, I speak with all the time there are several same sex attraction attendees of our church. We love them very dearly. They know where their church stands because we've had those hard conversations and we are proud to love them until the Lord takes us all home. In fact, it's one of the great honors that we have, just like it is to love anyone else.

Speaker 1:

That's making a tough decision. So this is what I would say to a young adult. I would say all that that I just said, but I would say I would gauge. I don't have to gauge my love, but I do have to gauge my investment. And so what I mean by that is man, at this age, when I'm still kind of figuring out who I'm going to be the next 70 years, right, I would be careful to make sure my investment of time, conversation, money, all the above does not go to the space with that person where it does irreparable harm to my walk with Jesus, right? So mama used to say birds of a feather flock together. Right, show me your friends, I'll tell you your name. And so, yes, love, but I've got to make a decision as to how much my soul can handle doing life with you. And if you haven't defined what that limit is or what those boundaries are. Here's now your problem. You're not loving yourself Right, and so I would say that to us. What would you say to that?

Speaker 2:

Oh, I totally agree, and I'd actually say that you might put yourself in a position to be incapable of real love for that person, for what they need and what God wants to do in their life, because we did a previous episode on it. I encourage you guys to go back and watch it if you haven't. But Caleb Kaltenbach, we had him on and interviewed him, and he had some great insights into loving our friends in the LGBTQ community. But he said love is a tension of grace and truth, and so it's definitely a tension. It's just one that we have to manage, and I think Ricky had a good word there when he said you have to know yourself what that looks like, what you're, how much you can engage in that before it basically become you know part of the world. You know or does something that's irreparable, and so, um, I love.

Speaker 2:

I heard a quote too, I think uh, you know me always bringing comorisms on here, but it says I'd say first, um, definitely don't, don't deviate. You want to align yourself always with scripture, right? And so, first and foremost, um. And then um, he says something that says be with Jesus, become like Jesus and do as he did. That's the title of his book, the. You know what is it practicing the way, and so I just think that's such a cool thing. Look at the way Jesus modeled that and the people that he hung out with and those kinds of things. Like you can see, it lived out in Jesus's life and so.

Speaker 2:

I'd say you know, just look at scripture.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'll just add on to kind of project responsibility onto this generation too, right, my generation has screwed this up yeah, lord knows my dad's dead because they just didn't understand. And my generation understands, but just won't do it. And so, if you guys can tell the weight of you know, let me put it this way Jesus was accused of being a drunkard, a reviler, a sinner, like all, because of who he hung with. So Jesus was willing to be ostracized and looked down upon by the religious folks because he was one of the love folks, no matter what, right. And so I would just project responsibility back on you guys, if you can handle that, what God calls us to do, in that we're desperately going to need your generation to show the church how that is done, because we we I still got some time, but, man, we're going to need this generation, who's got to deal with it way more than we did, to show us how to do this through the power of the gospel.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. Yeah, we actually have episodes coming up for what is love, so we're going to talk about what love really is, so that'd be a good one.

Speaker 1:

And then also we're going to do one actually on tithing and giving later too. So we've gotten, we're covering a lot of the topics today.

Speaker 2:

So what is it?

Speaker 1:

yeah, dude had a way we're gonna talk no yeah that's it.

Speaker 2:

That was for me. Okay, that was, but we're gonna talk more about that song specifically. All right, anyway, back to our podcast. Sorry guys, uh, next question we'd love to hear from you guys what do you got next? Um?

Speaker 3:

Current economic conditions are forcing young adults to debate either living with their parents longer or thinking about living in with their significant other. What are your thoughts or advice on this? Yeah, that's good.

Speaker 2:

Wow. So do you live with your parents longer or do you move in with your significant other?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so let's talk about the obvious and then go to the hard and squishy Right. So the obvious is cohabitation doesn't yield much gospel fruit. It just never. It just never has. You don't see explicitly in scripture where the Lord says you can't live with your significant other.

Speaker 1:

So I hear a lot of times that people say, yeah, we're living together because it's cheaper, and you know, we got this, we got that, we're splitting bills and all that good stuff. But we're not ready to get married yet because we need more money for the wedding and all this kind of stuff. But hey, it's all good, we're Christians, we love the Lord, we go to church and the first thing I say is how much sex? How many times have you had sex? Yeah, and you know, faces get red. So I don't know many cases where a person has not either fell into fornication, sin or subjected themselves to an unhealthy tension.

Speaker 1:

But that's not the biggest grievance of living together. To be quite honest, of living together. To be quite honest, the biggest grievance of cohabitation without marriage is that you have defamed the name of God and you're making Jesus look bad. Yeah, that's. The biggest problem with it is that he invented marriage to make him famous. And when you live together before marriage, you're making him infamous Because you're basically saying oh well, christians just don't have any principles and don't have these. I thought you got. You know what.

Speaker 1:

I'm saying so that's the whole thing, so that's the obvious one, right? So let's go to the squishy one, because it makes sense.

Speaker 2:

I mean, you know man.

Speaker 3:

I don't know if my kids know.

Speaker 1:

I think so, I think my kids something to be said about man. If there's a healthy situation, I would say I'd stay with your parents as long as it's feasible, or roommate. And this is why I say that what is more normal of human history? Being with a few roommates or living with your parents till you're married?

Speaker 1:

Thousands of years people live with mom and dad and it hadn't been a shameful thing up until about 50 years ago or a hundred years ago, whenever the middle class was invented. Then all of a sudden there was like this pressure. You know why? Because houses were cheap, you had good union paying factory jobs. Okay, that's only was normal for maybe 80 years. It is gone and coming back for a long time. So it's just reality in brass tacks. And here's the thing you know, if it's healthy and that's the expectation and you and your parents are having that conversation I would not only would I be encouraging that, I'd be darn proud of it. You know so and hear me, young men need to be young men. But if it's a financial situation and you just want to steward your dollars well until you're ready, I ain't got no shame in that, especially if you're working and give mom and dad a little rent money. You know what I'm saying, so anyway what do?

Speaker 1:

you think. I want to know what they think about that answer too, I know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we'll ask you guys, because I totally agree.

Speaker 2:

Obviously, you know, I see it from a biblical point of view and your point of view and just from some experience there, actually, and so I'd say, um, yeah, you're, we're looking at more like our independence or our own desires over our witness, and so it's an oculus thing, right, you know. So people assume that if you're living together, no matter what you say, that you're sleeping together and so it's the assumption, and so you can fight that one all day. But I think, like, you put your witness on display by what you do yeah, more so than you say, and so, um, inconvenience yourself temporarily. I also think, like, cause you look at all the stats, you know it shows that.

Speaker 2:

You know, there's a way, higher percentage of people who are divorced that live together before they're married and so, and that just comes from natural tensions, finances sharing, you know, we know about all the convenient things, but you're playing house. There's so much going on there. I think you set yourself up for a lot harder of a journey than you would. The other way of just saying, hey, I stuck it out with my parents longer and you know what? I saved $60,000 in my bank account, so now I'm ready to buy you that big fat ring. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

You know I want to delve into that. The question came from an economic framework, so that was the energy behind the question which is great.

Speaker 1:

But so that was the energy behind the question, which is great, you know. But I kind of want to say, like I made mistakes when I was dating. You know what I mean. I'm not, you know. Yeah, we're seeing this. Yeah, I wasn't pure as the driven snow when I got married, but obviously I've been a Christian for a long time.

Speaker 1:

By the time I met April and this is what I want to say like that has blessed me 13 years later, wed night, memphis, tennessee, downtown Sheraton, before we flew to Mexico the next morning. You know, just keeping it real, you know, here's I'm about to see this gal for the first time, you know, as God made her, you know, and as a dude, I'm just like, yeah, baby, here we go. And I just want y'all to know that it was giddy, it was awkward, yeah, we were giggling, it was like weird, but it was precious and I loved entering into covenant with her that night, not knowing I loved, I loved, yeah, I loved, I loved, yeah, I loved. That that's one relationship. I did God's way, yeah, and my grandfather used to always say this, cause we I'm very close to granddad, so he knew when I was dating, he knew when I was breaking up, he knew when I was dumped.

Speaker 1:

So we were close and I remember a couple of times getting dumped Like, yeah, granddad, she just kind of let me lose, whatever you know. He's like well, son, I ain't, I ain't but one of them supposed to work. He used to always say ain't, ain't but one relationship supposed to work. They're literally all supposed to not work, so that one does work and this is the one that worked. And entering into that covenant Don't hear shame if you don't enter that, by the way, but hear that at 30, what am I? 47? 37 minus three is four. So at 34, 33, whenever I got married I felt like and that was worth waiting for and it was sweet bro.

Speaker 2:

Oh man, yeah, I've got the same experience doing it God's way. You said. I can say we did it God's way. I've done a lot of things not God's way and I did like my marriage with Kelly God's way, and we can look back and even in the hardships and the awkwardness and all the things that were there, I get to say and we stand on that a lot of the time Like there's actually been a time where she told me she's all. I think if we had been together, moved in together, been intimate or whatever, you know that she's all, I don't know that we would have made it Totally and I was like man, that's how deep that bond is, and so I can say that from experience that I would just say like, wow, man, like I would encourage you to and challenge you to to pursue that.

Speaker 2:

So so good. So yeah, let's jump into the next question what else you guys got? That was a deep one, yeah that was good.

Speaker 4:

So my question is what is some good advice that you guys would offer regarding the polarization, regarding the division that our generation seems to be facing? That's a good one.

Speaker 1:

Man, I was hoping you would be able to tell me, yeah, yeah, Well. So I'll say a couple, a couple of things. When the pandemic started, I remember listening to Kerry Newhoff and Mark Sayers. Mark Sayers is probably a good name for y'all to know. He's the John Mark Comer of Australia, Christian pastor, thought leader, wicked smart, and this is like June 2020. Right, so, three months into COVID, George Floyd, country's on fire. Right, we ain't got no toilet paper. It was that moment. Everybody at home you know what I mean? It's crazy. Well, Mark Sayers has been interviewed.

Speaker 1:

Who's just studied history, church history and you know all these philosophies and all this kind of stuff. And Kerry says well, with everything that's going on in the world and we're so divided and we're so angry with one another, and goodness gracious, just man, all this disruption, when do you think it's going to get normal again? To which Mark Sayers replied in his Australian voice oh, actually, mate, this is normal. And so the point is from the way to history, what's happening the last four or five years is way more normal to the human experiment than is whatever we thought about the previous 50 years.

Speaker 1:

Now the Bible says there's nothing new under the sun, and so to some extent, right, this has always happened in the American ethos. Right, there's always. I'll show you old newspapers from the 1880s where you'll be surprised what these old guys were saying about one another. The problem with 2024 is that I'm not sure we are worse. I just think we have a lot more cameras.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And so I don't think the human spirit, the fallenness of man, has changed that much. I just think we got way more broadcasters where I can just see brokenness and fallenness all throughout the day. So I would offer two things. One what does it mean for me to understand this from the weight of history that says by faith, christian people have always lodged in a context of disarray and brokenness, vitriol, polarization in the norm, and God saw previous generations through, he will see me through as well. From a faith standpoint, number one. Number two what does it mean for me to not retreat from it but learn how to be salt and light in it? So there's things we're complaining about with. Whoever you want to be, you know to win for the election, whatever you know donkeys or elephants, it doesn't matter. Like if Paul came to church this weekend and saw how much we talked about politics, he would be like, did y'all get some drugs? Like what's going? What's wrong? Because Paul never put hope in the politics of man, because Christian meant persecuted, talked about probably going to get beheaded. That's what it meant to be a Christian, and so my hope is not what a politician does here, but it's what a better politician did when he came down here and went back up there. So their hope was never based on what happens the next four years. It was what happens after 40 years, when I'm dead and go to heaven. It wasn't me to live in light of that hope.

Speaker 1:

Number two, that's a hard one, but that's a whole other thing. Thirdly, though, I would simply say man, there's a way to. I would just call this generation to stop disassociating yourselves with people that don't agree, that you don't agree with, and people that don't, that are just as opposite from you and don't even make sense. The problem is that the media, and the tribalism of social media and technology, has forced us, with algorithms, to get used to only people like us. The only thing that phone is showing me is what I already like. That's why, and then it knows how to show me something I hate, and I hate it. I can't stand it. It never shows me in the middle Right, and so I think that's taught us in this moment to, just as soon as you say something politically I don't like oh, you're an idiot, whatever, no, sit at the table and say well, tell me what you think about that.

Speaker 1:

So to not disassociate yourself from people that you don't agree with, because that was the way Jesus. Jesus was around people who disagree with him all the time. And that's what it means to be gospel, by the way, with him all the time. And that's what it means to be gospel, by the way. It's just, you know what? Because I'm not really pursuing your heart for the case of your politics, I'm pursuing your heart for the case of your soul and your state of eternity. So that's way too much what do you think?

Speaker 2:

No, that's good, I mean, you said it all, yeah it's easy.

Speaker 1:

That's a great question.

Speaker 2:

It's so easy when you when you're, you know you talk.

Speaker 2:

We're talking about the to retreat to digital and social media echo chambers you know, especially when we're in disagreement and I just think there's so much opportunity to be had in healthy conversation and I've actually seen it a lot with our younger adults that they are willing to engage in a lot of conversation and they do want to have those conversations it's just how do we go about it?

Speaker 2:

And so I'd say again with humility you know we need to show up the way Jesus showed up, Like how do you start to have those? You know, obviously it's going to wrestle some things up inside of you and it's going to make you feel a certain way. And that's kind of what we're responding to now is we've moved from an information age to an experiential age and experiential age and so we rely a lot on our emotions, are stirred in these experiences, and so we want to react and that's what social, you know, our feeds do to us. And so I'd say you have to fight against that and be like hey, I'd love to hear, let me hear you, Even though I might not agree with you, let me hear you. And sometimes you know it's cliche, but we've always said we have to agree, to disagree on some of these things. But how do we maintain healthy conversation and still show love, like?

Speaker 2:

you talked about before, in the midst of this.

Speaker 1:

You know, it's one of the reasons why I don't think I'm concerned, because God's sovereign is going to work with it, and one of the things that marriage teaches you is that, okay, we still have to figure out how to be together, and we totally see that the opposite way. But my concern, though because I don't care what somebody gets married or not my concern is that, as we continue to organize ourselves according to our tribe right Whoever sees it like us, raised with all this kind of stuff is that the people of this generation who have the best, the best capacity to actually show the love of Christ in awkward spaces, people that don't look like us, act like us, think like us, vote like us, are so used to man being in that one fell swoop of thought and conversation that we won't have the necessary skills to subject ourselves to awkward Right.

Speaker 1:

To subject ourselves to uncomfortable. So I want to push us in that direction too. And so I would always disciple. I've always discipled 20 something. This is my first time discipling. No, it's 30-somethings.

Speaker 1:

Anyways, most of my life I've discipled 22s, 25s, 26s, 21s, and it was always when it came time to do something awkward, it was the most debilitating thing. Why? Because you were never subjected to it. You always got to do what you want and got to play soccer and get a trophy, even if you lost, and all this stuff. So like that muscle of doing things uncomfortable and awkward. And they would always say but Ricky is so awkward, it's so awkward, and I would always say awkward happens so much in life that they made a word for it. Awkward, yeah, and it's okay, and it's not the end of the world, yeah. And Jesus jumped into awkwardness all the time. It was real awkward to put flesh on. That's awkward for a deity. It's real awkward to leave heaven A little strange, a little uncomfortable, you know. It's real awkward to allow yourself to miss a nail, although I wouldn't think Jesus would have missed a nail.

Speaker 1:

That's a whole other thing, but to allow yourself to bleed and get a cold and run fever and people to talk about you and spit on you and you made them. So imagine subjecting yourself. I'm going to be cussed out and spit on, but I remember making you. That's awkward, yeah, but look what happened because he stepped into it. So that's my challenge, to us and to me too, but to step into it with grace and love, that's really good. These questions are brilliant. I think they should take our jobs.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and they will. That's true.

Speaker 1:

If we do this right. Especially if we save our money and have some retirement.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there you go, we're going to leave you guys something for sure. I love it. Yeah, I was using you said it already but I was thinking about the Kellerism. You know, christianity isn't from left or right, it's from above, and so that's a really I think that's a really poignant, powerful one, and I did see a quote somewhere. Someone said one time and I don't know who this is A biblical unity is not about the absence of conflict, it's the presence of a reconciling spirit, and so I just thought that was really powerful too. That's that, you know, in the same vein of that humility that I was talking about.

Speaker 2:

But what are we looking to? You know, we want to reconcile people to Jesus, right, and so how you engage with them is so important. And so in all these polarizing and divisive topics, it can get so easy to become an us versus them, and so just challenge people to, you know, say you said it so well, man, sit in it. It's so uncomfortable, but you know we spend our time. It's a funny tension here at the church. We spend a lot of our time making, trying to make the comfortable uncomfortable so that they can, you know, they'll engage in the mission, right, that's right. But we also spend a lot of time making the uncomfortable comfortable with Christianity. So so it's kind of it's a tension we manage right. That's good. I Tyler what?

Speaker 3:

are some ways we can help more adults become invested in getting involved at Southwest and the Big C Church overall that's so good.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so two things. One man, I just encourage y'all you gotta keep being who you are in Christ and not allow us to project too much into what that is. And there's a tension, man. So we talked about this today. Francis Schaeffer said that a culture cannot move forward unless a culture has art, and so the whole idea is that art challenges all of our norms and our current boundaries and stretches us to move forward. No, art culture can't move forward.

Speaker 1:

So I use that metaphor to talk about what God is doing specifically in this generation. And so can we teach you how to be holy and how to obey scripture and how to know Jesus? Of course you know, I mean, there's a spark in this generation that I know nothing about, just nothing. You know there's an art on the inside of y'all souls, and here's my point we need you to be who you are in this generation and in this moment. And I'm just going to give you a little permission, especially for those of y'all, because y'all, if you're here, it means you're pretty involved If you're here on a Tuesday night at a podcast.

Speaker 2:

You're a pretty committed.

Speaker 1:

Southwest person. So I would say, yes, please continue to get involved in the channels and avenues that the church facilitates. But, man, I want to license you guys and give you permission to man, get a vision for how we need to help and serve you to win your generation for Christ. I don't have that idea. I'm 47. It ain't coming. It ain't or it would have come. I'm expecting God to speak to some of you and you teach us what we need to do to service your ministry, and so what we love about SOS is that we're close with each other. We're doing life together.

Speaker 1:

So, man, I was trained by my grandfather me and a guy named Albert Tate, my cousin, and we were 21 year old youth ministers, youth pastors and we were close to him, though, and he was discipling us, and we would just bug him till he did it, cause he was doing stuff that was just like, granddaddy, this ain't gonna work. It's just not gonna work, it sucks, I don't want to come. So I know my friends aren't, and so we had to learn through that relationship and the permission that he gave us. No, granddaddy, granddaddy, please like give us. All we need is four grand. Four grand, we can pull this off as a community. The L grant is going to be awesome. And he, let us do it. That's why I talk about him so much, because at 70, 65, 65, he would say what you want to do, what? But what about this? That don't make any sense. Okay, he would let us do it.

Speaker 1:

So I yearn for those kinds of conversations. Let us do it. So I yearn for those kind of conversations. So one of our thoughts, when we're ready, you know, is a Thursday night service that we would garner towards young adults. We would need to marry that with some empty nester folks to kind of disciple us and all that good stuff. But I want to create a whole space. Can't do it now, don't have the capacity, but when we're ready, I see us coming here on a Thursday night, cool vibe or whatever. But that's just my idea. It may suck. So like that, that, I know our heart is open and responsive, because if we don't, if we don't get, this generation is going to lead the next 50 years. So for me that's crucial. What would you say to that? And I would like to know what they think about what I just said. Yeah, if they have.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, let's have you guys jump in. I'll answer real quick and then I would love to hear what you guys have to say too. But I said well, you guys, this time is valuable, our time is one of the most valuable things we all have. And so for you guys to show up and do this like we were talking about, even just to be here and to be encouraged you know, like Ricky said, your license to you know to be you, but also you know, I think, that you guys need to ensure that you continue to see yourselves represented, to be seen and heard, and so I genuinely believe that the young adult representation is probably one of the primary indicators of a healthy, thriving and growing church.

Speaker 2:

You know, kids attend with their parents, high schoolers eventually go away to college and parents are concerned with kids and family and the elders, the elderly. Typically they have the means but they lack the muscle. That's good. And so young adults inspire the youth but they empower the elderly. So I think you guys give momentum and horsepower to the body of Christ.

Speaker 2:

So be encouraged with that and I'd say, continue to do what you guys are doing showing up in these spaces, like you said, bugging everybody to make sure that you are seen and heard, because you know you got to see yourself in something and so the more you guys are represented, I think like that'll go a long way. And so I think young adults are the church now too. They're not the church of the future after we're done. So, like you said, we want to build into that and so just know that from our hearts. And I would just say you know like I'm excited I get the opportunity to partner with a few of you every now and again and like I'm just so encouraged I'm like you guys give me just glimmers of hope for the future. Amen to that. And I'm like man that is so cool and that just inspires me and encourages me to continue doing what I'm doing, knowing what is being handed over to you, yeah, and as we grow and create opportunities for vocational ministry.

Speaker 1:

if you have a call by God to service church and there comes up something available here, we want y'all to apply, we want y'all to talk to us about it, you know, because, well, Ivan is right there and Cassidy is right there, right, so like look at them, aren't?

Speaker 1:

But I would say, too, that one of the things our church has to start doing megachurches don't do this well, but we don't create space for the called to be called, oh yeah. And so we've got to start normalizing. It's okay to desire the office of a pastor if that's what the Spirit is doing in your soul, and that's one reason we're doing the pastoral residency is so we can have space for people to be called. I don't think a 21-year-old church, 21-year-old in our church the Spirit is saying I want you to be a pastor. I don't think that person knows how to communicate that to us. I don't think they know that they can, and I don't think we've done a good job in making ourselves accessible to the call of ministry. Right, so you lead a rooty group.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, no, ricky, I want to do a CJ. Does I want to do what you do? How do I do that? So, like that's our next steps.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I'd make a plug for that. Right now, you guys need to jump into church online, cause you know, when I'm 50, I better not be doing what I'm doing right now. I handed over to the social media experts. You know, younger generation. That's right, that's right. But yeah, what do you, what do you guys think about that? Anybody have any thoughts? I mean, do you just want to popcorn and say some? You know what are your thoughts on that, Can I?

Speaker 4:

add something. Yeah, my grandfather, who's pretty much a powerful spiritual mentor to me in my life. His mantra was never miss a meeting. There's a power in plugging in to this church community because not only does it encourage everyone else, especially the generation that's before us, but it empowers the current generation today to lead.

Speaker 3:

Wow, wow yeah.

Speaker 2:

Wow, that's a smart man.

Speaker 1:

Yes, it is Jesse. Do I pick up an accent?

Speaker 4:

Yes, Where's that accent from? I'm from Cape Town South.

Speaker 2:

Africa. What, yeah, are you serious? That's awesome, I know.

Speaker 4:

What you doing here. Uh, I work here now, so yeah really here in the desert.

Speaker 1:

Yes, sir welcome.

Speaker 2:

Did you know that? No, I had no idea. Did you know that I haven't? Did you know that?

Speaker 1:

oh, okay, yeah, yeah, they knew it. That's awesome, that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

I was just enamored with the accent.

Speaker 1:

I'm like he was talking I was like that's great brother, that's great.

Speaker 2:

Anybody else have any thoughts on that?

Speaker 3:

I would just say, like, keep inviting your friends that are adults, like I have friends that now work in this church, because I bothered him to show up every single Wednesday. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And now he's kind up every single Wednesday, yeah, yeah, and now he's kind of in charge of student history. Yeah, uh-huh, uh-huh, that's so good.

Speaker 3:

I don't know if I'll admit that, but I'll say it. Yeah, yeah I just keep inviting people. I keep inviting. I invite maybe two or three people every week. I'm getting told that there's too many people in our group.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, keep doing it. Yeah, that's so good.

Speaker 2:

What advice would you guys give us the two? Of us like right now that you would say is would be encouraging or the most helpful that we could, you know, continue to do, or to advocate for you guys, or whatever that looks like.

Speaker 3:

Any thoughts.

Speaker 1:

And I would add to that if there's anything that we should stop doing.

Speaker 2:

Oh, there you go. Yeah, that might be a good one too.

Speaker 3:

Something we have talked about, too, is we. If we're going to grow in our numbers, we need more leaders, and so that's something we encourage with our young adults is get into rooted, get plugged in where you can, because we'll need your help eventually.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, that's good.

Speaker 2:

That's really good.

Speaker 1:

Wow, that's huge yeah.

Speaker 2:

That's good stuff. I love that. Yeah, thank you guys. Wow, all right. Well, let's let's jump onto our last question.

Speaker 1:

Wanting to live lives that honor God. What are some ways we might hear God's voice for direction in our lives? That's good, yeah, man, I'd love Jocelyn's pretty sharp. But, dear brothers and sisters, you can be rest assured that you'll be able to discern God's voice when you're continually asking that question. Don't never stop asking that question how do I hear your voice? That is a barometer of health, spiritual health, and I just want to encourage. Encourage that that's a sweet, what a sweet, wonderful question, um two, two things.

Speaker 1:

One, two, yeah, maybe three. Definitely two. Definitely two, yeah. So maybe about four. Five weeks ago, I believe, I heard God's voice and what I mean by that. I can discern that God was telling me specifically to do something, and about four or five weeks ago I could feel the Spirit saying I want you to read through the whole Bible again. You know I've done that before a few times, but I just finished a devotional with my disciples, with my small group, and we went through it for 40 days. Levi, let's go.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Did I tell?

Speaker 2:

you that? Yeah, you told me that. Awesome, I stole so many stories. I just downloaded it Cause you told me about it. Oh bro.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh. Anyways, Okay, Tangent, Sorry. And so I was kind of in between devos. Like you know, usually I do the puritanical thing, Like I stick with a book for a couple of months and then go on to the next one. But it was interesting. Like Master, I hear you telling me to do this. You know, and I've just been praying over that I sent a message to the pastor teams about three weeks ago. I said hey guys, I think I'm hearing God's voice telling me to walk through the whole Bible, and for me to hear this distinctively it makes me wonder if I should challenge the whole congregation to do it with me and we all start praying through that and let's just spend a few months hearing God's voice together.

Speaker 1:

Now I'm going a roundabout way to say Jocelyn, I'm not sure if I have the wherewithal to have that kind of discernment of his voice, having not read and been in his word. So does. Can God speak to our heart without scripture? He can. Can I fully, in a healthy way, in a God-honoring way, discern that voice consistently without hearing and reading and being in his word? Absolutely not. So a lot of people are always saying man, God ain't speaking, God ain't saying nothing, I don't know. I'm in a wilderness.

Speaker 4:

You, know, sometimes it'd be like then I'll't know.

Speaker 2:

I'm in a wilderness, you know they just felt like you know.

Speaker 1:

So sometimes it'd be like then I'll say have you been in a word? No, but I just want God to speak to me. No, so that's my encouragement. God has spoken, and everything he has said, he wrote a book about it. He's not coming up with anything new. It is his composite call hallelujah to us in the Holy Bible.

Speaker 1:

So I always say this You're never going to have a great relationship with God unless you have a good relationship with your Bible. And so that's one way. So God's word. The second God's people. And so I can be in the word and still be an idiot, because I'm human and there's something about the voice of God I'm refusing in the word that I can't do as well in his people. And so I'm just a witness that if I don't have my partners around me doing life together with me, that man, that's how secret sin stays secret. That's how, when I've just made up my mind that I'm just going to be slack in that area, that's how I continue to be slack in there, cause I'm not subjected myself to gospel community. So God's word, god's people, long answer. That's what I would say. What would you say?

Speaker 2:

I don't have much to add to that. I mean, the way that you keep asking that question, I mean we asked that question our whole lives and so, you know, I'm like, how is he speaking to me in this season? And so, and it's when you said when it's partnered with God's people and God's word, you know, and you know Ricky says he discerns, he hears from the Holy Spirit. I mean we obviously, you know, we know that that can happen and sure, but that goes partnered with scripture. I mean, and and how do we communicate with God? How do we, how do we discern that and how do we talk to him? Well, that's through prayer. And so spending time in prayer and communicating with him, you know it's a conversation that we have. That's what he wants us to. He wants us to draw near to him by being present with him, and we do that through prayer often.

Speaker 2:

And then, like you said, you know mentor, community relationships and mentors and mentees, people that pour into your life. So when you have that person I mean Ricky said it so well that can speak into your life Sometimes that you just hear it in a different way. You may have even read it in scripture and they literally tell you the same thing in a different way, and you're like ah, the light bulb goes on. And you're like dude, that's exactly what I've been. Oh man, you know, and it's. It's just cool how God does that.

Speaker 1:

And so I was talking to a guy who was talking about his daughter and she's getting ready to, she's getting done with school, but has been dating this guy, great guy, all this kind of stuff, and they've been talking about maybe getting together, marriage, all that kind of stuff. I was talking to our dad who was saying, yeah, it's just time to see what he's going to do, Because if he really loves her he'll move down here and you know, kind of give up where he is and come down here and be with all of us. And I'm just listening and it's public so I can't say what you know what I mean. So, like I'm just listening to it, this guy loves God and loves the church, loves the word, but I know him to not be in gospel community and so he's literally saying something. I'm thinking to myself if he's a young man and following the Lord, honey, you're going to follow me as I follow Christ, right? So it's just like me saying, hey, church, Southwest, I love y'all.

Speaker 1:

April's moving to Tennessee, so I'm going to go move with her because I want to be with her. So I don't think it works like that. I think it works like me hearing a vision, her hearing a vision. God's calling us, and I think that's what Ephesians 5 is saying. So that's my point. Means well, in God's word, in God's church, but not in God's community, and so there's no voices that he. There's no soundtrack, there's no, what's the word I'm trying to say? Soundboard.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there's no sound Sounding board for him to say hey man, actually let's talk about that, because I don't think. I think what you're saying is you just want, you just don't want your daughter to move.

Speaker 2:

You know what I'm saying. So, anyways, did that make sense? Oh yeah, no, absolutely. We have that entire thing out. No, we have a propensity to align things with our own desires and wants, right. So, you know, those sounding boards help discern that that's right.

Speaker 2:

And so, and I would say, one of the things that's really easy to fall into for myself, and so I'd encourage you guys, is that we often look at this as we're always looking. Well, hey, I'll be in community and relationship with people wiser, smarter and further along than me, more mature than me, more spiritually experienced, or, you know, they say all the right things. I've actually learned a lot from people who are younger than me, maybe not further along in their faith, but someone else that I've decided to engage with. I'm pouring into their life. I've received just as much. So it can happen the other way too, where I'm like you know what? Actually, this is an area in my life that I need to work on, that I need to grow in and I need to get better. So there's ways to. There's that too. There's that too, right. So you can kind of flip the script a little bit.

Speaker 1:

That's good. That's good. How many of y'all are thinking about doing the pastoral residency that you know about it, Tyler? Okay, Does anybody who who doesn't know what I'm talking about?

Speaker 2:

Three of you.

Speaker 1:

Okay. So we're starting a training program called the pastoral residency and basically what the pastoral residency does is, if you have a calling on your life to be a pastor, spiritual leader, church staffer, you know we walk you through it, we pay for your school. If you get selected, we pay for your school and you get a part time job on staff and we train you for a year or two and then we launch you out and so we're going to steal the best for ourselves and then we're going to send some to wherever God's calling them to go in the kingdom. So I'd love for y'all to think about that. If you've got a calling on your life, holler at us.

Speaker 2:

Yep, that's how we're going to get raised up and replace me. Amen, brother, that's right.

Speaker 1:

Me too. Me there you go.

Speaker 2:

Amen. I'm like whoa Amen. Well, there you go. As always, we hope that our conversations are engaging, but we always want to provide people, too, with helpful resources. So what are some resources that you might want to point people to, ricky, that they might find helpful? Or beneficial.

Speaker 1:

I like a couple of the voices that you mentioned. I think John Mark Comer is connecting with young adults and today, like never before, I think that's a real good go-to where he just makes spiritual discipline and how to walk holy with Christ very accessible. He just puts the cookies low on the shelf. It's not big words you know what I'm saying it's just like oh, this is how I love God, this is how I live for God, this is how I make good choices. So I would say him, as far as a read is concerned, I would also look at the preaching.

Speaker 1:

This is an audio thing, so I would look at the preaching of a guy named what is his name? Lord Jesus Stuart Kinectley, k-n-e-c-h-t-l-e. It's actually not, he's a pastor and a preacher, but he's like a campus apologist. So what that means is he goes from campus to campus and he has these big crowds around him and he defends the faith, and so he'll just be talking to people who have great questions about the gospel and about the Bible and you know there ain't no God and he just logically wins people to the Lord or defends the faith. That I think is excellent for a 20-something to kind of know how to. So I used to.

Speaker 1:

A guy named Ravi Zacharias was a great apologist. He's dead now and messed up later in his life, which is unfortunate, but anyways, probably the most brilliant apologist we've had in the previous century. I used to memorize his stuff Like I'd read his stuff, I'd watch it, I'd listen to it all the time because I just wanted to know how to defend my faith and how to preach better. I think that's one of the best things 20-somethings can do now is to know how to defend the faith and talk about Christ in a world that's never heard of them, doesn't go to church, doesn't care about your God. You know what I mean. I think that's really helpful, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

I think to add to that I was going to say, jt English and Jen Wilkin. I just recently read it and it's called You're a Theologian and it's an invitation to know and love God. Well, I think, again, it's really accessible, it's really easy and it's for basically a lay person just to say like hey, don't absegate responsibility, to like you know you, basically you're pastors, only like you guys are theologians, and so it's really really good. It's kind of does a core work of the foundations of faith, spiritual formation, all that stuff. So I would encourage our listeners to go check that out. We said Mark Sayers, so I'll put that one on the show notes too.

Speaker 2:

That's a good one, and we have a whole bunch of others too that I'll list. But and then, as always, we want your questions, comments and feedback. So leave a comment on YouTube and, if you're just listening, email us at the other six days at southwestchurchcom. That's the number six, and so Ricky and our guests. Any last comments or thoughts before we wrap this up?

Speaker 1:

I just want everyone to know that I've memorized their names.

Speaker 2:

I know, I'm so impressed by that. Thank you, it actually is pretty amazing. Well, there you guys have it. That just happened. Oh man, we said that that was a superpower one time if we could memorize people's names, and Ricky just did it. So there you go. Yeah, well, anyway, there you guys have it. Thanks for joining us for another episode of the other six days podcast. Be sure to hit that subscribe, follow, share and like and spread the word and, as always, take what you've heard and turn it into something that you can do to further the gospel and the world around you. Until the next time, that's cool.