WEBVTT
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Well, we're back with Outside the Walls Podcast.
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We're really happy to be here today.
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We're in downtown Northport historic.
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I mean, I grew up coming into downtown Northport.
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It was just an amazing place always to come into Tuscaloosa.
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You used to, you had to come right down Main Street, right across through here and cross the old bridge right on the other side of this.
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It's a wonderful place to be.
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Just a lot of history.
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And we're here with uh Pastor John Brooks uh from Five Points Baptist.
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And we're here in Northport.
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Your church is right here.
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We got a number of churches, even in the area.
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Northport is blessed with the gospel and blessed with churches.
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So we're happy to have you with us today.
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We're glad to be here.
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I'm excited to be able to be a part of this.
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I've seen uh several of the other pastors in their interviews with you, and I'm excited and and and thrilled that you and honored that you asked me to do this.
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Well, it's really a lot of fun because I think here we get to see the pastors outside the walls of the church.
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And sometimes we think of pastors that they they were born pastors, yeah, and it's not that way.
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That God has called us from different parts of life and at different times.
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And so I think it's really good for the church to see the pastors outside of the church, but also to remember our main our our worship may be in the church, but our ministry is outside the walls.
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Yeah.
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So uh it's really good to be out together in downtown Northport.
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Downtown Northport.
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Beautiful place.
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There you go.
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So now you're you're not originally from here though, right?
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I'm not.
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No, I'm from North Alabama, just outside of Huntsville, uh small town uh called Gurley, Alabama.
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Gurley, Alabama.
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Yeah, not many people are familiar with that.
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I tell them, I say Huntsville when they ask me where I'm from, but Gurley's located between uh Huntsville and Scottsboro.
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Yeah, if you if you tell everybody you're from Gurley, that's uh that might be a little bit of a joke there.
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Yeah, it has been.
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It has been over the years, yeah.
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Yep.
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Yeah, well, with a name like Herbie, I can I can identify.
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So, well, that's wonderful.
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And so you were the in Hunts uh in Gurley.
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Yeah.
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And so how did you uh wind up?
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How did you grew up?
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Where did you come to the Lord at?
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Yeah, so uh grew up, went to high elementary uh through high school in Masson County High, and uh we didn't my family didn't go to church growing up.
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It wasn't until I was 13 uh our family had been invited by my bus driver, actually.
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Uh he would he would uh regularly ask my brother and I if we'd love to come to church, and he knew my dad, small town, and hit him in the hardware stores and things like that.
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And so he asked him regularly, hey, we'd love to have your family at church with us.
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Um they had a a dinner on the grounds, uh kind of a fellowship day one Saturday, and so we decided to go to that.
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Uh afterwards, I remember my dad saying, Well, they they fed us, so I feel like we need to go to church tomorrow.
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And so we did, and and ever since then we have gone every Sunday.
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It was two weeks after that, it was right after my 13th birthday that I heard the message of the gospel clearly, understood that I was a sinner, uh, and I and I asked the same question that that the people in Acts when the disciples shared about Jesus to the thousands, and they said, What do we do?
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Like they hear that we are sinners, and they said, What shall we do?
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And and I asked that same question, and I heard clearly my pastor share, you need to repent.
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You need to call out to Christ, give your life to him, and repent.
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And so I did that at the age of 13.
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Um, and I I didn't live as devout of a Christian as I should through my teenage years.
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I had a lot of struggles trying to fit in, and so I would do things, you know, try to fit in, but but Jesus really called me back, and I could hear him and speaking to me all the time.
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And so when I was 19, I decided, hey, it's time to get serious with what he's called me to do.
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And actually, uh at 19 is kind of when I started feeling the call into ministry.
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Oh, wow.
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Yeah, yeah.
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I uh started working with students uh I um just as a volunteer.
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Uh so I worked for a couple of years as a volunteer alongside someone uh in student ministry, and then in my my mid-20s uh is when I was ordained uh as a as a pastor, um, started working more.
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I didn't know that you could have a vocational job.
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Like my pastor was a a retired railroad worker, um, so he was paid part-time, but he was he was a retired uh gentleman, and so I we I didn't grow up with a a student pastor uh or a large youth group.
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I just didn't know it was a vocation.
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I was doing it just because I loved the Lord and loved working with students.
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So now where were you where were you working while you were doing doing this?
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Yeah, so I was uh I was a um when I graduated high school, I I tried college.
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Um I I went to uh Calhoun Community College for a couple of years, but uh college wasn't for me at that point.
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Um and so I started working in construction.
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My dad uh had a kind of a family business.
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We built houses, and so I I was a block mason for a little while.
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I I uh worked with my dad in construction.
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We we built houses, did landscaping, uh cleanup job sites, all those different things.
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And I did that for several years.
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Um from there I went even into uh started working at a lumber company in Huntsville.
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So I was constantly working full-time jobs and I did ministry as a um eventually I was hired by another church to be part-time.
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Um, but um yeah, I just was bivocational for for years and years, and that's that's really, you know, honestly, that's really where I learned how to uh to um to understand people, like being being hands-on with people, interacting with individuals, the social aspect that I think that we miss out a lot of times in ministry, loving the people, living with the people, sharing life with the people.
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Uh that's kind of where I cut my teeth, if you will, was in construction, working in the front counter, sales and lumber, those type of things.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, you know, I even when I was growing up, from eighth grade until senior, I worked in a general store.
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Yeah.
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So I think really for pastors, if you can get out and be among people and you know the way they think, and you know what offends people, what doesn't offend people, it goes a long way because uh, and especially I think if we can work with our hands, uh Jesus was a carpenter.
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That's right.
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I mean, his father was a carpenter, grew up in that.
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So and uh you look at the places he walked in uh in Israel, it's tough.
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Yeah.
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I had talked to a pastor that ran the uh Jerusalem marathon.
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Oh wow.
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And he had run also in Athens.
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He said Athens wasn't anything compared to Jerusalem because up and down the hills, I mean it was it's tough.
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So I think you know, we learn a lot when we when we work our way through life and and do it.
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And I think you know, we have some great pastors that have amazing backgrounds.
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I remember even Drew was doing art, you know, his his degree is in art.
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Yeah, but God calls us from every different thing.
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And I think if we think that God can't use us because of our vocation, we miss the boat.
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That's right.
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Yeah.
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That's that's so well.
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You know, I think he wants us to use our vocation for for ministry.
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Like every no matter what job we have, whether we're full-time or we work in one of these stores here in downtown Northport, God wants us to use that vocation to share the gospel.
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Yeah, I still love this hardware store.
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It's one of my favorite hardware stores because it's like the old time you walk in, you can't move because it's got so much stuff in it.
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Yeah, it's really it's really fun.
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But you're exactly right.
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So uh so now you you you came in and so you started there.
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Uh now uh you said you weren't ready for college.
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And I think that's really wise, you know, because I don't think we're always ready exactly at that time in in Israel.
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The kids have to do their army service, which at least three years for guys, two years for girls.
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Sometimes they'll travel for a year after.
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So they're much older when they hit, and when they hit college, uh university, they're they're ready to go deep into study.
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Uh so when did you wind up in college then?
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Yeah, so um uh through a lot of life circumstances, God put me through a lot of different things that grew my faith.
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And um ultimately, um I so I was in a praise band uh at one of the churches where I served.
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We kind of created a praise band.
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Uh, and I share this because this is how I met my wife, right?
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She uh was a full-time youth minister in Tennessee.
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Uh, we went to lead a uh weekend event for them.
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That's how I met her.
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We started dating.
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Long story short, a year later we got married.
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It was during that time she was working full-time.
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Uh we were in our our mid-30s, and I saw an opportunity to go back and finish school.
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Um, and so I worked part-time at a Sharon Williams uh paint store while we were living in Tennessee.
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Uh, I finished uh I got my undergrad, Liberty University, and finished my master's degree after that.
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Um, and so so God had, I saw the need, I wanted to study and learn how to study scripture more than I than I already knew.
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I I didn't have those those tools growing up.
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Uh uh, I didn't have you know hermeneutics, all those different things.
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You know, I'd learned uh the hands-on communicating with people, caring for people, uh preaching from from the preacher that I grew up listening to, but I wanted to learn more tools to study scripture to be able to understand it more.
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And so God gave me that opportunity uh to go back and finish undergrad and then go to seminary and uh finish that.
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And and so I had the had the time while I was still working part-time um uh to do that uh during that month.
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Did you enjoy it?
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I did.
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I I loved it.
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Um I didn't enjoy school when I was younger, but I I enjoyed studying, learning how to study God's word.
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And uh yeah, I really did enjoy that.
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You know, we we were been on the field for like seven years, and I came back to do seminary.
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And uh I had my undergraduate degrees in engineering.
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Yeah.
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I was scared to death going in.
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I mean, I was almost crying.
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I was so afraid of I can I really do that.
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But then when you get to it, you see that the Lord has changed you so much that He's already given a good framework that you can hand things on because you've been working in it for so long.
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So that it was an amazing experience for me going through.
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It was uh it was a challenge, you know.
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I uh so um right at the time I started my master's degree is when we had our twin girls.
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Oh wow, and so that that first semester they were just born.
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Uh and I actually twins.
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Twins.
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Twins.
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Yeah.
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Um yeah.
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So uh that first semester um I started, I thought I we could do both.
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I thought, okay, I can take on seminary um and then and have twin girls at the same time.
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But that first semester I actually had to step out of it.
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I took a break and got back into it the next semester, but it was a challenge, but uh, but I didn't give up.
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You know, I we kept going.
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I'm glad that we were able to do that.
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Well, we always look at uh brand new dads before their babies and I say, okay, you've just enjoyed your final night of good sleep.
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That's true.
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That's true.
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You don't you don't know realize how tired you are after now?
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Sleepless nights for sure.
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It's nothing like it, but you don't realize how much you you pour yourself into it.
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I think it is really the neat thing that God has given us that we we learned uh to see beyond who we are and and uh see the next generation.
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It's it's really cool.
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Okay, so uh so you wind up there.
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Now you wind up in Tuscaloosa.
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Yeah.
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And you were doing youth work still down here?
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Yeah, when we came, uh it's been six years that we were called to Tuscaloosa.
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We were serving in Thomasville.
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We had found our way from Tennessee down to Thomasville, Alabama, serving there as uh that was my first uh um full-time uh position was in Thomasville.
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We served there for a little over five years, and then uh Lord the Lord moved us up here to Northport um to five points.
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We came as the uh I was a student pastor here.
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Um, and so we that's kind of how we got connected here to Northport and um and we just fell in love with the people and the families that we served.
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We love the area.
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Uh Thomasville was a very small area, but we it was family, we made friends there.
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Uh my wife is from uh near Nashville, so she's used to big city.
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So Northport Tuscaloosa was kind of that mixture of the family that we experienced, like in Thomasville, but the uh the things that you would want, uh, you know, like like uh a doctor that you didn't have to drive two hours to go to, um, you know, able to go to the Walmart or the Target just right there, you know, and those Starbucks.
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My my wife loves Starbucks, so all those uh amenities that you wouldn't have in a small town like so that you did have in Nashville.
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So she she the combination of the city that Tuscaloosa and Northfort was was a good setting for us.
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And and we fell in love with the people of our church, and uh so we served them, uh was student pastor for the first uh four, a little over four to five years.
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Wow.
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Yeah, and then there was a transition.
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Um God, God kind of threw some circumstances at five points.
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Um we were looking for a pastor, and um uh God was making a transition in our lives.
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And so when we were we talked about um that I actually interimed, I was the interim for the church for a little while while I did student ministry.
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Um, and so um I put in my resume to to be a the pastor as well.
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We had conversations about it, and they uh I said, Look, I want to uh yes, I I'll consider this, but I want to be in I want you to search, I want you to go through the search process.
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And so we we were involved that for about a year.
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Um the Lord said, Hey, it's time, and and we became the the lead pastor and senior pastor there, and it's been a blessing.
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We we love it.
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Been that for almost two years.
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Yeah, I think it's really neat as I see how the Lord works.
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We open our hands and and then He He He leaves us what place He wants us to be.
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Yeah.
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I've been really excited about Five Points and just a lot that's going on there.
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Before I get to Five Points, I'm gonna ask you a question.
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Okay, it's a question I like to ask everybody.
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What do you like to do?
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Not not in pastoring.
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What what kind of what do you like to do?
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I I have a few hobbies I do.
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I love the lake.
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Lake is beautiful, I love to play golf, but uh it's hard to find time, a lot of time to do those things.
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I would say the biggest thing that gives me uh that reset time, I guess you would say, is it I love to cook.
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Um, you know, so one of the jobs I had growing up, my dad was a uh a chef in the army.
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Yeah, he was always cooking, did catering on the side.
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Um, and so I learned, kind of picked up that skill, cooked a lot at home, and and I worked at a restaurant for a couple of years.
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One of my jobs that I had many different jobs, and um, so I learned how to bake.
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Uh I baked at a restaurant in Huntsville, uh, where um where I was at for many, many years.
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And um, so I love baking cheesecakes, cookies, pastries, different things, but I like to cook too.
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There's a difference in baking and cooking.
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Yeah, uh big difference.
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But I like to go home.
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I I cook our at dinner.
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Um my wife is completely okay with me cooking food.
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She's like the kitchen is is difficult for me.
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She's like, it's not joyous, like I don't enjoy cooking, so she has I do.
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So she has no problem.
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So every every day uh I come home and it's kind of a relaxed time.
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Like I I can be in my zone and and cook supper, cook food, uh cook a meal.
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And I and I love one of the things I love about cooking the most is seeing the joy that it brings other people when it's good, like when they enjoy eating something that you created.
00:14:05.759 --> 00:14:09.919
It's not for a pat on the back, but it's just to see that they enjoy something that you had a part of.
00:14:10.080 --> 00:14:12.480
It's such a coincidence because you like to cook.
00:14:12.559 --> 00:14:12.879
Yeah.
00:14:13.039 --> 00:14:14.320
I like to eat.
00:14:14.799 --> 00:14:16.000
I see where you're going here.
00:14:17.679 --> 00:14:18.799
No, it's really great.
00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:21.200
I mean, it's very interesting to me though, really.
00:14:21.279 --> 00:14:21.440
Yeah.
00:14:21.679 --> 00:14:23.440
And hearing your story.
00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:25.840
How did you get to church?
00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:28.000
Somebody cook for your family.
00:14:28.080 --> 00:14:29.440
That's the I never thought about it.
00:14:29.679 --> 00:14:30.080
No, you're right.
00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:39.840
No, and okay, and I, you know, I think the Lord has really just given us the gifts he wants to use to for us to reach out, and he uses everything he came to me.
00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:47.759
He doesn't he doesn't waste one passion, yeah, he doesn't waste one gift, he doesn't waste one tear, that he uses it all within the body.
00:14:47.919 --> 00:14:57.759
And I think uh, you know, I I think we get so stuck as observers in church sometime, thinking that I'm here just to hear the word.
00:14:58.080 --> 00:15:05.759
When God says, no, I've equipped you and I've I've I've I've given you some gifts and skills that can reach people that nobody else in this church can.
00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:06.240
Yeah.
00:15:06.399 --> 00:15:12.559
And I think as we move outside the walls, we get to see him moving in that way.
00:15:13.039 --> 00:15:15.919
And so I I I really that's a really great guy.
00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:17.679
I used to work with the guy in Israel.
00:15:17.759 --> 00:15:19.039
He had been a cook on his ship.
00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:19.759
Okay.
00:15:19.840 --> 00:15:23.919
So but that was the way he did things, and and everything was around food and bringing in the loss.
00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:32.559
We would we would bring people in every Friday night, uh youth hostels outside, and he'd have soup and salad, beans, and rice, yeah, and bring everybody.
00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:42.720
We'd go, we'd go to the bars and invite people in from the bars, we'd go to the beaches, invite people into the beaches, but then they would hear the gospel and they would get uh to eat, and you sit and eat and break bread together.
00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:44.799
And I think that's that's what Jesus did.
00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:45.440
He would sit.
00:15:45.600 --> 00:15:49.440
What why the why is he eating with sinners and tax gatherers?
00:15:49.600 --> 00:15:51.360
Because that's the way we get into the heart.
00:15:51.519 --> 00:15:52.000
That's right.
00:15:52.080 --> 00:15:53.120
So that's really cool.
00:15:53.279 --> 00:15:53.759
I really like it.
00:15:54.000 --> 00:16:00.480
Yeah, the one of the lady that uh hired me at the restaurant in Huntsville, her name was Cynthia, and amazing woman of God.
00:16:00.559 --> 00:16:03.440
She owned this restaurant and she served the Lord with that restaurant.
00:16:03.519 --> 00:16:03.759
Yeah.
00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:13.200
And she was so excited, she said, I'm so excited that I have someone baking bread that's a pastor who preaches the bread of life through the word and bakes bread every morning for me.
00:16:13.279 --> 00:16:21.679
Like uh, and I just that connection that just to be able to work, she was a joy to work for, but but using you talk about using uh your vocation to serve others, and she did that.
00:16:21.759 --> 00:16:24.000
It was an honor to work and learn uh from her as well.
00:16:24.240 --> 00:16:26.080
The Lord's given every one of us a ministry.
00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:29.600
We're not all pastors, but we all are ministers to take the gospel.
00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:30.240
Wow.
00:16:30.399 --> 00:16:31.200
That's really good.
00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:34.240
So five points, like it's been really just an inspiration.
00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:43.759
I've gotten back and gotten to know because of course I grew up here, but I didn't really know five points and coming back and just seeing a lot of the history of Five Points of uh being involved.
00:16:43.919 --> 00:16:48.559
I mean, a lot of volunteers and the a disaster relief and all like that early on came from there.
00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:51.279
Tell me where Five Points is now and what's going on there.
00:16:53.759 --> 00:17:01.600
I think our our people are continuing to catch the the fire of the gospel to take it to the nations, uh starting with our community.
00:17:01.679 --> 00:17:18.000
Um, you know, we just a couple of weeks ago, two weeks, two Sundays ago, we had a serve day, and we had over 200 people that uh came uh after our worship on Sunday to serve our community, work in some schools and and do some beautification projects and serve teachers at a couple of local schools, and um and they enjoyed it.
00:17:18.079 --> 00:17:23.839
It was a time of fellowship, and we have many who are are wanting to go and serve in in other states.
00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:26.160
We've got several, as you said, disaster relief.
00:17:26.240 --> 00:17:31.680
Um, you know, we've got builders for Christ, uh, there's a lot of people working for that, and then going and serving other countries.
00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:36.559
We just sent a family out um to serve with the IMB uh just a few weeks ago, sent them off um for that.
00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:40.160
And God's done a lot of great things through our people uh wanting to serve.
00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:47.599
Our our our purpose statement is uh to to create disciples, make disciples who live for his kingdom and for his glory.
00:17:47.759 --> 00:17:54.319
And uh so uh our people are catching that and and they're continuing to be more and more active and sharing the gospel every day.
00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:55.759
Okay, well, wonderful.
00:17:55.839 --> 00:17:57.119
I I'm really excited.
00:17:57.200 --> 00:18:04.400
I mean, we we uh you have uh uh a uh kind of outreach that's kind of come together with several churches.
00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:05.519
Yeah, Clarkston.
00:18:05.599 --> 00:18:11.039
We so we um years ago we had an opportunity to go to Clarkston, Georgia and serve with Send Relief.
00:18:11.119 --> 00:18:12.160
Um we worked with them there.
00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:15.440
We connected with uh Clarkston International Bible Church.
00:18:15.599 --> 00:18:18.000
Uh and so we began to grow a partnership with them.
00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:27.279
And so now uh we have gathered with with several other churches in the Northport Tuscaloosa area to where we go regularly to a community there that that church supports.
00:18:27.440 --> 00:18:35.680
I think they uh uh CIBC, Clarkston International Bible Church has about uh 12 or 13, 14 communities where they try to reach uh in Clarkston.
00:18:35.759 --> 00:18:38.799
Uh Clarkston is a, if you're not familiar with that, it's a refugee city.
00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:44.240
It's the the um it's the the most diverse square mile in the United States, if you call it.
00:18:44.319 --> 00:18:45.359
Wow, um, they say.
00:18:45.519 --> 00:18:48.240
So uh a lot of different countries, refugees coming into there.
00:18:48.319 --> 00:18:50.480
So this church is trying to pour into those communities.
00:18:50.559 --> 00:18:55.920
And so we have um come together with several other churches and created a partnership to support one of those communities.
00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:02.079
Uh Christopher Woods, it's a um a place where there's several different refugee families and homes, it's an apartment um complex.
00:19:02.160 --> 00:19:06.400
And so we with other churches partner and go there regularly uh and do Bible clubs.
00:19:06.559 --> 00:19:08.480
I think there's a little bit of ESL things going on.
00:19:08.559 --> 00:19:16.480
We're trying to grow that ministry and just um and and kind of uh be in the lives and serve them um so that we can have the opportunity to share the gospel to them.
00:19:16.720 --> 00:19:19.599
You know, this is this is what's exciting to me, okay?
00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:22.240
This wasn't started by the association.
00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:25.440
No, it was started by the churches deciding to do things together.
00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:25.920
Uh-huh.
00:19:26.160 --> 00:19:27.200
That is the association.
00:19:27.359 --> 00:19:27.920
That's exactly right.
00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:29.119
That's what it should be.
00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:38.000
It's not about controlling, it's not about uh pushing things, it's about how does God call us together to work as a network of churches to do more together than we could ever do separately.
00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:48.880
It belongs to our churches as our churches seek seek to reach uh Tuscaloosa County, Tuscaloosa City, our university students, and and all with the good news of Jesus.
00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:49.119
Yeah.
00:19:49.279 --> 00:19:54.559
And man, as we as we focus on that, I think it's a power that can't be can't be matched.
00:19:54.960 --> 00:19:55.599
And it's exciting.
00:19:55.680 --> 00:20:00.960
I I've been in communities where the churches seemed like they were struggling against each other.
00:20:01.119 --> 00:20:02.799
They were in competition with each other.
00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:07.680
But I love that here there are many, many churches that want to work together to see the gospel advance.
00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:08.079
Right.
00:20:08.319 --> 00:20:20.079
And sometimes, you know, it's uh people come from different places, and if they come from that, it it's it's sometimes hard to see the genuineness of wanting to work together and not be in competition.
00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:21.440
And it's always easy.
00:20:21.599 --> 00:20:25.119
I think that's where Satan works overtime, is to destroy unity.
00:20:25.519 --> 00:20:43.519
And that we got to work really hard to bear with one another and forgive one another and just say, okay, let's look past uh uh uh past past wrongs, yeah, the wrongs of the the past, and be able to move forward with what God is doing today.
00:20:43.680 --> 00:20:49.519
And I believe that our churches do that, and sometimes, you know, with a smaller church without so many resources, say, how can we be used?
00:20:49.680 --> 00:20:58.240
Yeah, but they can be in, and I think I've I've talked to a number of pastors that do have churches that have a little bit more resource and say, okay, how can we help the other churches?
00:20:58.400 --> 00:21:15.759
So if we can just talk together as pastors, yeah, I see that there is this hope and attitude of working towards how can we do it all together, and that there's enough lost people that I think we can fill every Baptist church in Tusclose County with no problem.
00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:21.039
Yeah, we just got to get to the lost, get get get the discipleship and get it all done together.
00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:23.119
So yeah, I appreciate you, John.
00:21:23.279 --> 00:21:24.319
I appreciate you coming out.
00:21:24.400 --> 00:21:25.440
We appreciate five points.
00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:26.079
Yeah.
00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:30.400
And so I'm looking forward as we find ways to to work together in the future.
00:21:30.559 --> 00:21:34.079
We're looking to say how can we help churches hear more from one another?
00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:36.319
Because sometimes you're you're busy.
00:21:36.400 --> 00:21:41.839
I mean, we got work, you got church, you got doing your ministry uh in your church.
00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:45.359
Uh, how do we make it easier for people to find those connect points?
00:21:45.519 --> 00:21:52.000
And so I think as association, that's something we're gonna work on to make it easier for all of us to hear and plug in where we need to, and right.
00:21:52.160 --> 00:21:53.279
Yeah, amen.
00:21:53.920 --> 00:22:10.480
Thank you guys for everything that you're doing, and and I would encourage, uh, as you said, even some there are there are a lot of um even smaller um church uh families and congregations in our in our county, and if there's ways that they want to be plugged in, I would encourage them uh to to do that, to to be ready to serve.
00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:12.559
And and you guys are providing resources to do that.
00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:13.359
So thank you for that.
00:22:13.519 --> 00:22:13.920
Great.
00:22:14.079 --> 00:22:14.720
Lord bless you.
00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:16.720
Yeah, and uh we'll keep walking together.
00:22:16.960 --> 00:22:17.440
Amen.
00:22:17.599 --> 00:22:18.480
Thank you.
00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:20.320
Well, we're back with Outside the Walls Podcast.
00:00:20.399 --> 00:00:22.079
We're really happy to be here today.
00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:24.640
We're in downtown Northport historic.
00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:28.399
I mean, I grew up coming into downtown Northport.
00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:31.359
It was just an amazing place always to come into Tuscaloosa.
00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:37.840
You used to, you had to come right down Main Street, right across through here and cross the old bridge right on the other side of this.
00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:39.679
It's a wonderful place to be.
00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:41.359
Just a lot of history.
00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:47.119
And we're here with uh Pastor John Brooks uh from Five Points Baptist.
00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:48.960
And we're here in Northport.
00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:50.320
Your church is right here.
00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:52.560
We got a number of churches, even in the area.
00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:55.679
Northport is blessed with the gospel and blessed with churches.
00:00:55.759 --> 00:00:57.200
So we're happy to have you with us today.
00:00:57.520 --> 00:00:58.079
We're glad to be here.
00:00:58.399 --> 00:00:59.920
I'm excited to be able to be a part of this.
00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:06.719
I've seen uh several of the other pastors in their interviews with you, and I'm excited and and and thrilled that you and honored that you asked me to do this.
00:01:06.959 --> 00:01:12.079
Well, it's really a lot of fun because I think here we get to see the pastors outside the walls of the church.
00:01:12.239 --> 00:01:18.159
And sometimes we think of pastors that they they were born pastors, yeah, and it's not that way.
00:01:18.239 --> 00:01:21.840
That God has called us from different parts of life and at different times.
00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:32.480
And so I think it's really good for the church to see the pastors outside of the church, but also to remember our main our our worship may be in the church, but our ministry is outside the walls.
00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:32.799
Yeah.
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So uh it's really good to be out together in downtown Northport.
00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:37.040
Downtown Northport.
00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:37.680
Beautiful place.
00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:38.319
There you go.
00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:41.120
So now you're you're not originally from here though, right?
00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:41.599
I'm not.
00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:46.480
No, I'm from North Alabama, just outside of Huntsville, uh small town uh called Gurley, Alabama.
00:01:46.719 --> 00:01:47.359
Gurley, Alabama.
00:01:47.519 --> 00:01:48.799
Yeah, not many people are familiar with that.
00:01:48.879 --> 00:01:53.920
I tell them, I say Huntsville when they ask me where I'm from, but Gurley's located between uh Huntsville and Scottsboro.
00:01:54.079 --> 00:01:57.680
Yeah, if you if you tell everybody you're from Gurley, that's uh that might be a little bit of a joke there.
00:01:58.079 --> 00:01:58.799
Yeah, it has been.
00:01:58.959 --> 00:02:00.319
It has been over the years, yeah.
00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:00.640
Yep.
00:02:00.799 --> 00:02:04.719
Yeah, well, with a name like Herbie, I can I can identify.
00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:06.640
So, well, that's wonderful.
00:02:06.719 --> 00:02:09.680
And so you were the in Hunts uh in Gurley.
00:02:09.919 --> 00:02:10.080
Yeah.
00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:12.080
And so how did you uh wind up?
00:02:12.159 --> 00:02:12.960
How did you grew up?
00:02:13.039 --> 00:02:14.159
Where did you come to the Lord at?
00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:22.400
Yeah, so uh grew up, went to high elementary uh through high school in Masson County High, and uh we didn't my family didn't go to church growing up.
00:02:22.479 --> 00:02:27.120
It wasn't until I was 13 uh our family had been invited by my bus driver, actually.
00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:34.560
Uh he would he would uh regularly ask my brother and I if we'd love to come to church, and he knew my dad, small town, and hit him in the hardware stores and things like that.
00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:38.639
And so he asked him regularly, hey, we'd love to have your family at church with us.
00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:45.199
Um they had a a dinner on the grounds, uh kind of a fellowship day one Saturday, and so we decided to go to that.
00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:50.639
Uh afterwards, I remember my dad saying, Well, they they fed us, so I feel like we need to go to church tomorrow.
00:02:50.719 --> 00:02:54.000
And so we did, and and ever since then we have gone every Sunday.
00:02:54.080 --> 00:03:08.560
It was two weeks after that, it was right after my 13th birthday that I heard the message of the gospel clearly, understood that I was a sinner, uh, and I and I asked the same question that that the people in Acts when the disciples shared about Jesus to the thousands, and they said, What do we do?
00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:12.000
Like they hear that we are sinners, and they said, What shall we do?
00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:16.800
And and I asked that same question, and I heard clearly my pastor share, you need to repent.
00:03:16.879 --> 00:03:19.199
You need to call out to Christ, give your life to him, and repent.
00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:21.520
And so I did that at the age of 13.
00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:26.400
Um, and I I didn't live as devout of a Christian as I should through my teenage years.
00:03:26.479 --> 00:03:35.120
I had a lot of struggles trying to fit in, and so I would do things, you know, try to fit in, but but Jesus really called me back, and I could hear him and speaking to me all the time.
00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:39.840
And so when I was 19, I decided, hey, it's time to get serious with what he's called me to do.
00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:43.280
And actually, uh at 19 is kind of when I started feeling the call into ministry.
00:03:43.439 --> 00:03:43.919
Oh, wow.
00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:44.560
Yeah, yeah.
00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:48.879
I uh started working with students uh I um just as a volunteer.
00:03:48.960 --> 00:03:59.919
Uh so I worked for a couple of years as a volunteer alongside someone uh in student ministry, and then in my my mid-20s uh is when I was ordained uh as a as a pastor, um, started working more.
00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:02.560
I didn't know that you could have a vocational job.
00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:16.079
Like my pastor was a a retired railroad worker, um, so he was paid part-time, but he was he was a retired uh gentleman, and so I we I didn't grow up with a a student pastor uh or a large youth group.
00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:17.600
I just didn't know it was a vocation.
00:04:18.160 --> 00:04:20.879
I was doing it just because I loved the Lord and loved working with students.
00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:23.920
So now where were you where were you working while you were doing doing this?
00:04:24.079 --> 00:04:29.120
Yeah, so I was uh I was a um when I graduated high school, I I tried college.
00:04:29.279 --> 00:04:34.959
Um I I went to uh Calhoun Community College for a couple of years, but uh college wasn't for me at that point.
00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:36.800
Um and so I started working in construction.
00:04:36.959 --> 00:04:38.879
My dad uh had a kind of a family business.
00:04:38.959 --> 00:04:42.959
We built houses, and so I I was a block mason for a little while.
00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:45.120
I I uh worked with my dad in construction.
00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:49.360
We we built houses, did landscaping, uh cleanup job sites, all those different things.
00:04:49.439 --> 00:04:50.720
And I did that for several years.
00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:55.120
Um from there I went even into uh started working at a lumber company in Huntsville.
00:04:55.279 --> 00:05:02.480
So I was constantly working full-time jobs and I did ministry as a um eventually I was hired by another church to be part-time.
00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:24.720
Um, but um yeah, I just was bivocational for for years and years, and that's that's really, you know, honestly, that's really where I learned how to uh to um to understand people, like being being hands-on with people, interacting with individuals, the social aspect that I think that we miss out a lot of times in ministry, loving the people, living with the people, sharing life with the people.
00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:31.920
Uh that's kind of where I cut my teeth, if you will, was in construction, working in the front counter, sales and lumber, those type of things.
00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:32.160
Yeah.
00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:39.120
Yeah, you know, I even when I was growing up, from eighth grade until senior, I worked in a general store.
00:05:39.279 --> 00:05:39.680
Yeah.
00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:53.920
So I think really for pastors, if you can get out and be among people and you know the way they think, and you know what offends people, what doesn't offend people, it goes a long way because uh, and especially I think if we can work with our hands, uh Jesus was a carpenter.
00:05:54.160 --> 00:05:54.399
That's right.
00:05:55.120 --> 00:05:57.040
I mean, his father was a carpenter, grew up in that.
00:05:57.199 --> 00:06:03.439
So and uh you look at the places he walked in uh in Israel, it's tough.
00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:03.839
Yeah.
00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:07.519
I had talked to a pastor that ran the uh Jerusalem marathon.
00:06:07.680 --> 00:06:08.000
Oh wow.
00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:10.000
And he had run also in Athens.
00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:14.959
He said Athens wasn't anything compared to Jerusalem because up and down the hills, I mean it was it's tough.
00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:20.879
So I think you know, we learn a lot when we when we work our way through life and and do it.
00:06:20.959 --> 00:06:24.800
And I think you know, we have some great pastors that have amazing backgrounds.
00:06:24.879 --> 00:06:28.720
I remember even Drew was doing art, you know, his his degree is in art.
00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:31.040
Yeah, but God calls us from every different thing.
00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:36.160
And I think if we think that God can't use us because of our vocation, we miss the boat.
00:06:36.319 --> 00:06:36.720
That's right.
00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:37.040
Yeah.
00:06:37.199 --> 00:06:38.240
That's that's so well.
00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:41.519
You know, I think he wants us to use our vocation for for ministry.
00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:50.000
Like every no matter what job we have, whether we're full-time or we work in one of these stores here in downtown Northport, God wants us to use that vocation to share the gospel.
00:06:50.240 --> 00:06:51.600
Yeah, I still love this hardware store.
00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:56.720
It's one of my favorite hardware stores because it's like the old time you walk in, you can't move because it's got so much stuff in it.
00:06:56.800 --> 00:06:58.560
Yeah, it's really it's really fun.
00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:00.079
But you're exactly right.
00:07:00.399 --> 00:07:05.040
So uh so now you you you came in and so you started there.
00:07:05.519 --> 00:07:08.560
Uh now uh you said you weren't ready for college.
00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:14.000
And I think that's really wise, you know, because I don't think we're always ready exactly at that time in in Israel.
00:07:14.240 --> 00:07:18.879
The kids have to do their army service, which at least three years for guys, two years for girls.
00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:20.879
Sometimes they'll travel for a year after.
00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:27.680
So they're much older when they hit, and when they hit college, uh university, they're they're ready to go deep into study.
00:07:28.240 --> 00:07:30.800
Uh so when did you wind up in college then?
00:07:31.040 --> 00:07:37.439
Yeah, so um uh through a lot of life circumstances, God put me through a lot of different things that grew my faith.
00:07:37.519 --> 00:07:42.959
And um ultimately, um I so I was in a praise band uh at one of the churches where I served.
00:07:43.040 --> 00:07:44.560
We kind of created a praise band.
00:07:44.639 --> 00:07:47.279
Uh, and I share this because this is how I met my wife, right?
00:07:47.439 --> 00:07:50.079
She uh was a full-time youth minister in Tennessee.
00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:52.879
Uh, we went to lead a uh weekend event for them.
00:07:52.959 --> 00:07:53.680
That's how I met her.
00:07:53.839 --> 00:07:54.560
We started dating.
00:07:54.720 --> 00:07:56.800
Long story short, a year later we got married.
00:07:56.959 --> 00:07:59.360
It was during that time she was working full-time.
00:07:59.439 --> 00:08:03.519
Uh we were in our our mid-30s, and I saw an opportunity to go back and finish school.
00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:08.079
Um, and so I worked part-time at a Sharon Williams uh paint store while we were living in Tennessee.
00:08:08.160 --> 00:08:12.480
Uh, I finished uh I got my undergrad, Liberty University, and finished my master's degree after that.
00:08:12.639 --> 00:08:18.800
Um, and so so God had, I saw the need, I wanted to study and learn how to study scripture more than I than I already knew.
00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:21.519
I I didn't have those those tools growing up.
00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:24.560
Uh uh, I didn't have you know hermeneutics, all those different things.
00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:34.799
You know, I'd learned uh the hands-on communicating with people, caring for people, uh preaching from from the preacher that I grew up listening to, but I wanted to learn more tools to study scripture to be able to understand it more.
00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:40.240
And so God gave me that opportunity uh to go back and finish undergrad and then go to seminary and uh finish that.
00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:46.000
And and so I had the had the time while I was still working part-time um uh to do that uh during that month.
00:08:46.240 --> 00:08:46.799
Did you enjoy it?
00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:47.279
I did.
00:08:47.360 --> 00:08:48.080
I I loved it.
00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:53.279
Um I didn't enjoy school when I was younger, but I I enjoyed studying, learning how to study God's word.
00:08:53.440 --> 00:08:55.279
And uh yeah, I really did enjoy that.
00:08:55.519 --> 00:09:00.159
You know, we we were been on the field for like seven years, and I came back to do seminary.
00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:04.080
And uh I had my undergraduate degrees in engineering.
00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:04.480
Yeah.
00:09:04.639 --> 00:09:06.559
I was scared to death going in.
00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:07.840
I mean, I was almost crying.
00:09:07.919 --> 00:09:10.960
I was so afraid of I can I really do that.
00:09:11.120 --> 00:09:19.600
But then when you get to it, you see that the Lord has changed you so much that He's already given a good framework that you can hand things on because you've been working in it for so long.
00:09:19.679 --> 00:09:23.200
So that it was an amazing experience for me going through.
00:09:23.600 --> 00:09:24.960
It was uh it was a challenge, you know.
00:09:25.039 --> 00:09:28.799
I uh so um right at the time I started my master's degree is when we had our twin girls.
00:09:29.039 --> 00:09:32.480
Oh wow, and so that that first semester they were just born.
00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:34.399
Uh and I actually twins.
00:09:34.639 --> 00:09:34.960
Twins.
00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:35.360
Twins.
00:09:36.159 --> 00:09:36.399
Yeah.
00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:37.039
Um yeah.
00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:40.480
So uh that first semester um I started, I thought I we could do both.
00:09:40.559 --> 00:09:45.360
I thought, okay, I can take on seminary um and then and have twin girls at the same time.
00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:47.679
But that first semester I actually had to step out of it.
00:09:47.759 --> 00:09:52.960
I took a break and got back into it the next semester, but it was a challenge, but uh, but I didn't give up.
00:09:53.039 --> 00:09:53.919
You know, I we kept going.
00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:55.039
I'm glad that we were able to do that.
00:09:55.200 --> 00:10:02.639
Well, we always look at uh brand new dads before their babies and I say, okay, you've just enjoyed your final night of good sleep.
00:10:02.960 --> 00:10:03.600
That's true.
00:10:03.759 --> 00:10:04.159
That's true.
00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:06.960
You don't you don't know realize how tired you are after now?
00:10:08.639 --> 00:10:09.600
Sleepless nights for sure.
00:10:09.840 --> 00:10:13.200
It's nothing like it, but you don't realize how much you you pour yourself into it.
00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:21.440
I think it is really the neat thing that God has given us that we we learned uh to see beyond who we are and and uh see the next generation.
00:10:21.519 --> 00:10:22.559
It's it's really cool.
00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:24.639
Okay, so uh so you wind up there.
00:10:24.720 --> 00:10:26.399
Now you wind up in Tuscaloosa.
00:10:26.559 --> 00:10:26.879
Yeah.
00:10:27.039 --> 00:10:29.600
And you were doing youth work still down here?
00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:33.600
Yeah, when we came, uh it's been six years that we were called to Tuscaloosa.
00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:34.960
We were serving in Thomasville.
00:10:35.039 --> 00:10:42.720
We had found our way from Tennessee down to Thomasville, Alabama, serving there as uh that was my first uh um full-time uh position was in Thomasville.
00:10:42.799 --> 00:10:48.480
We served there for a little over five years, and then uh Lord the Lord moved us up here to Northport um to five points.
00:10:48.639 --> 00:10:51.759
We came as the uh I was a student pastor here.
00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:59.519
Um, and so we that's kind of how we got connected here to Northport and um and we just fell in love with the people and the families that we served.
00:10:59.679 --> 00:11:00.480
We love the area.
00:11:00.559 --> 00:11:04.559
Uh Thomasville was a very small area, but we it was family, we made friends there.
00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:08.080
Uh my wife is from uh near Nashville, so she's used to big city.
00:11:08.159 --> 00:11:24.399
So Northport Tuscaloosa was kind of that mixture of the family that we experienced, like in Thomasville, but the uh the things that you would want, uh, you know, like like uh a doctor that you didn't have to drive two hours to go to, um, you know, able to go to the Walmart or the Target just right there, you know, and those Starbucks.
00:11:24.480 --> 00:11:31.200
My my wife loves Starbucks, so all those uh amenities that you wouldn't have in a small town like so that you did have in Nashville.
00:11:31.279 --> 00:11:36.960
So she she the combination of the city that Tuscaloosa and Northfort was was a good setting for us.
00:11:37.039 --> 00:11:45.120
And and we fell in love with the people of our church, and uh so we served them, uh was student pastor for the first uh four, a little over four to five years.
00:11:45.519 --> 00:11:45.840
Wow.
00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:47.919
Yeah, and then there was a transition.
00:11:48.240 --> 00:11:52.480
Um God, God kind of threw some circumstances at five points.
00:11:52.559 --> 00:11:58.320
Um we were looking for a pastor, and um uh God was making a transition in our lives.
00:11:58.399 --> 00:12:04.960
And so when we were we talked about um that I actually interimed, I was the interim for the church for a little while while I did student ministry.
00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:09.840
Um, and so um I put in my resume to to be a the pastor as well.
00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:18.720
We had conversations about it, and they uh I said, Look, I want to uh yes, I I'll consider this, but I want to be in I want you to search, I want you to go through the search process.
00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:21.120
And so we we were involved that for about a year.
00:12:21.200 --> 00:12:26.879
Um the Lord said, Hey, it's time, and and we became the the lead pastor and senior pastor there, and it's been a blessing.
00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:27.519
We we love it.
00:12:27.759 --> 00:12:28.960
Been that for almost two years.
00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:31.600
Yeah, I think it's really neat as I see how the Lord works.
00:12:31.679 --> 00:12:35.759
We open our hands and and then He He He leaves us what place He wants us to be.
00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:36.159
Yeah.
00:12:37.120 --> 00:12:40.960
I've been really excited about Five Points and just a lot that's going on there.
00:12:41.120 --> 00:12:43.279
Before I get to Five Points, I'm gonna ask you a question.
00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:45.919
Okay, it's a question I like to ask everybody.
00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:47.919
What do you like to do?
00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:49.440
Not not in pastoring.
00:12:49.519 --> 00:12:52.320
What what kind of what do you like to do?
00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:54.000
I I have a few hobbies I do.
00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:54.639
I love the lake.
00:12:54.879 --> 00:12:59.440
Lake is beautiful, I love to play golf, but uh it's hard to find time, a lot of time to do those things.
00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:05.600
I would say the biggest thing that gives me uh that reset time, I guess you would say, is it I love to cook.
00:13:05.679 --> 00:13:10.080
Um, you know, so one of the jobs I had growing up, my dad was a uh a chef in the army.
00:13:10.159 --> 00:13:12.960
Yeah, he was always cooking, did catering on the side.
00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:18.320
Um, and so I learned, kind of picked up that skill, cooked a lot at home, and and I worked at a restaurant for a couple of years.
00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:22.399
One of my jobs that I had many different jobs, and um, so I learned how to bake.
00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:28.399
Uh I baked at a restaurant in Huntsville, uh, where um where I was at for many, many years.
00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:33.519
And um, so I love baking cheesecakes, cookies, pastries, different things, but I like to cook too.
00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:34.879
There's a difference in baking and cooking.
00:13:35.039 --> 00:13:36.080
Yeah, uh big difference.
00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:37.120
But I like to go home.
00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:38.480
I I cook our at dinner.
00:13:38.559 --> 00:13:40.960
Um my wife is completely okay with me cooking food.
00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:43.679
She's like the kitchen is is difficult for me.
00:13:43.759 --> 00:13:48.159
She's like, it's not joyous, like I don't enjoy cooking, so she has I do.
00:13:48.399 --> 00:13:49.519
So she has no problem.
00:13:49.600 --> 00:13:53.120
So every every day uh I come home and it's kind of a relaxed time.
00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:57.840
Like I I can be in my zone and and cook supper, cook food, uh cook a meal.
00:13:57.919 --> 00:14:05.600
And I and I love one of the things I love about cooking the most is seeing the joy that it brings other people when it's good, like when they enjoy eating something that you created.
00:14:05.759 --> 00:14:09.919
It's not for a pat on the back, but it's just to see that they enjoy something that you had a part of.
00:14:10.080 --> 00:14:12.480
It's such a coincidence because you like to cook.
00:14:12.559 --> 00:14:12.879
Yeah.
00:14:13.039 --> 00:14:14.320
I like to eat.
00:14:14.799 --> 00:14:16.000
I see where you're going here.
00:14:17.679 --> 00:14:18.799
No, it's really great.
00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:21.200
I mean, it's very interesting to me though, really.
00:14:21.279 --> 00:14:21.440
Yeah.
00:14:21.679 --> 00:14:23.440
And hearing your story.
00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:25.840
How did you get to church?
00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:28.000
Somebody cook for your family.
00:14:28.080 --> 00:14:29.440
That's the I never thought about it.
00:14:29.679 --> 00:14:30.080
No, you're right.
00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:39.840
No, and okay, and I, you know, I think the Lord has really just given us the gifts he wants to use to for us to reach out, and he uses everything he came to me.
00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:47.759
He doesn't he doesn't waste one passion, yeah, he doesn't waste one gift, he doesn't waste one tear, that he uses it all within the body.
00:14:47.919 --> 00:14:57.759
And I think uh, you know, I I think we get so stuck as observers in church sometime, thinking that I'm here just to hear the word.
00:14:58.080 --> 00:15:05.759
When God says, no, I've equipped you and I've I've I've I've given you some gifts and skills that can reach people that nobody else in this church can.
00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:06.240
Yeah.
00:15:06.399 --> 00:15:12.559
And I think as we move outside the walls, we get to see him moving in that way.
00:15:13.039 --> 00:15:15.919
And so I I I really that's a really great guy.
00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:17.679
I used to work with the guy in Israel.
00:15:17.759 --> 00:15:19.039
He had been a cook on his ship.
00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:19.759
Okay.
00:15:19.840 --> 00:15:23.919
So but that was the way he did things, and and everything was around food and bringing in the loss.
00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:32.559
We would we would bring people in every Friday night, uh youth hostels outside, and he'd have soup and salad, beans, and rice, yeah, and bring everybody.
00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:42.720
We'd go, we'd go to the bars and invite people in from the bars, we'd go to the beaches, invite people into the beaches, but then they would hear the gospel and they would get uh to eat, and you sit and eat and break bread together.
00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:44.799
And I think that's that's what Jesus did.
00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:45.440
He would sit.
00:15:45.600 --> 00:15:49.440
What why the why is he eating with sinners and tax gatherers?
00:15:49.600 --> 00:15:51.360
Because that's the way we get into the heart.
00:15:51.519 --> 00:15:52.000
That's right.
00:15:52.080 --> 00:15:53.120
So that's really cool.
00:15:53.279 --> 00:15:53.759
I really like it.
00:15:54.000 --> 00:16:00.480
Yeah, the one of the lady that uh hired me at the restaurant in Huntsville, her name was Cynthia, and amazing woman of God.
00:16:00.559 --> 00:16:03.440
She owned this restaurant and she served the Lord with that restaurant.
00:16:03.519 --> 00:16:03.759
Yeah.
00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:13.200
And she was so excited, she said, I'm so excited that I have someone baking bread that's a pastor who preaches the bread of life through the word and bakes bread every morning for me.
00:16:13.279 --> 00:16:21.679
Like uh, and I just that connection that just to be able to work, she was a joy to work for, but but using you talk about using uh your vocation to serve others, and she did that.
00:16:21.759 --> 00:16:24.000
It was an honor to work and learn uh from her as well.
00:16:24.240 --> 00:16:26.080
The Lord's given every one of us a ministry.
00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:29.600
We're not all pastors, but we all are ministers to take the gospel.
00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:30.240
Wow.
00:16:30.399 --> 00:16:31.200
That's really good.
00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:34.240
So five points, like it's been really just an inspiration.
00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:43.759
I've gotten back and gotten to know because of course I grew up here, but I didn't really know five points and coming back and just seeing a lot of the history of Five Points of uh being involved.
00:16:43.919 --> 00:16:48.559
I mean, a lot of volunteers and the a disaster relief and all like that early on came from there.
00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:51.279
Tell me where Five Points is now and what's going on there.
00:16:53.759 --> 00:17:01.600
I think our our people are continuing to catch the the fire of the gospel to take it to the nations, uh starting with our community.
00:17:01.679 --> 00:17:18.000
Um, you know, we just a couple of weeks ago, two weeks, two Sundays ago, we had a serve day, and we had over 200 people that uh came uh after our worship on Sunday to serve our community, work in some schools and and do some beautification projects and serve teachers at a couple of local schools, and um and they enjoyed it.
00:17:18.079 --> 00:17:23.839
It was a time of fellowship, and we have many who are are wanting to go and serve in in other states.
00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:26.160
We've got several, as you said, disaster relief.
00:17:26.240 --> 00:17:31.680
Um, you know, we've got builders for Christ, uh, there's a lot of people working for that, and then going and serving other countries.
00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:36.559
We just sent a family out um to serve with the IMB uh just a few weeks ago, sent them off um for that.
00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:40.160
And God's done a lot of great things through our people uh wanting to serve.
00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:47.599
Our our our purpose statement is uh to to create disciples, make disciples who live for his kingdom and for his glory.
00:17:47.759 --> 00:17:54.319
And uh so uh our people are catching that and and they're continuing to be more and more active and sharing the gospel every day.
00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:55.759
Okay, well, wonderful.
00:17:55.839 --> 00:17:57.119
I I'm really excited.
00:17:57.200 --> 00:18:04.400
I mean, we we uh you have uh uh a uh kind of outreach that's kind of come together with several churches.
00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:05.519
Yeah, Clarkston.
00:18:05.599 --> 00:18:11.039
We so we um years ago we had an opportunity to go to Clarkston, Georgia and serve with Send Relief.
00:18:11.119 --> 00:18:12.160
Um we worked with them there.
00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:15.440
We connected with uh Clarkston International Bible Church.
00:18:15.599 --> 00:18:18.000
Uh and so we began to grow a partnership with them.
00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:27.279
And so now uh we have gathered with with several other churches in the Northport Tuscaloosa area to where we go regularly to a community there that that church supports.
00:18:27.440 --> 00:18:35.680
I think they uh uh CIBC, Clarkston International Bible Church has about uh 12 or 13, 14 communities where they try to reach uh in Clarkston.
00:18:35.759 --> 00:18:38.799
Uh Clarkston is a, if you're not familiar with that, it's a refugee city.
00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:44.240
It's the the um it's the the most diverse square mile in the United States, if you call it.
00:18:44.319 --> 00:18:45.359
Wow, um, they say.
00:18:45.519 --> 00:18:48.240
So uh a lot of different countries, refugees coming into there.
00:18:48.319 --> 00:18:50.480
So this church is trying to pour into those communities.
00:18:50.559 --> 00:18:55.920
And so we have um come together with several other churches and created a partnership to support one of those communities.
00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:02.079
Uh Christopher Woods, it's a um a place where there's several different refugee families and homes, it's an apartment um complex.
00:19:02.160 --> 00:19:06.400
And so we with other churches partner and go there regularly uh and do Bible clubs.
00:19:06.559 --> 00:19:08.480
I think there's a little bit of ESL things going on.
00:19:08.559 --> 00:19:16.480
We're trying to grow that ministry and just um and and kind of uh be in the lives and serve them um so that we can have the opportunity to share the gospel to them.
00:19:16.720 --> 00:19:19.599
You know, this is this is what's exciting to me, okay?
00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:22.240
This wasn't started by the association.
00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:25.440
No, it was started by the churches deciding to do things together.
00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:25.920
Uh-huh.
00:19:26.160 --> 00:19:27.200
That is the association.
00:19:27.359 --> 00:19:27.920
That's exactly right.
00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:29.119
That's what it should be.
00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:38.000
It's not about controlling, it's not about uh pushing things, it's about how does God call us together to work as a network of churches to do more together than we could ever do separately.
00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:48.880
It belongs to our churches as our churches seek seek to reach uh Tuscaloosa County, Tuscaloosa City, our university students, and and all with the good news of Jesus.
00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:49.119
Yeah.
00:19:49.279 --> 00:19:54.559
And man, as we as we focus on that, I think it's a power that can't be can't be matched.
00:19:54.960 --> 00:19:55.599
And it's exciting.
00:19:55.680 --> 00:20:00.960
I I've been in communities where the churches seemed like they were struggling against each other.
00:20:01.119 --> 00:20:02.799
They were in competition with each other.
00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:07.680
But I love that here there are many, many churches that want to work together to see the gospel advance.
00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:08.079
Right.
00:20:08.319 --> 00:20:20.079
And sometimes, you know, it's uh people come from different places, and if they come from that, it it's it's sometimes hard to see the genuineness of wanting to work together and not be in competition.
00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:21.440
And it's always easy.
00:20:21.599 --> 00:20:25.119
I think that's where Satan works overtime, is to destroy unity.
00:20:25.519 --> 00:20:43.519
And that we got to work really hard to bear with one another and forgive one another and just say, okay, let's look past uh uh uh past past wrongs, yeah, the wrongs of the the past, and be able to move forward with what God is doing today.
00:20:43.680 --> 00:20:49.519
And I believe that our churches do that, and sometimes, you know, with a smaller church without so many resources, say, how can we be used?
00:20:49.680 --> 00:20:58.240
Yeah, but they can be in, and I think I've I've talked to a number of pastors that do have churches that have a little bit more resource and say, okay, how can we help the other churches?
00:20:58.400 --> 00:21:15.759
So if we can just talk together as pastors, yeah, I see that there is this hope and attitude of working towards how can we do it all together, and that there's enough lost people that I think we can fill every Baptist church in Tusclose County with no problem.
00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:21.039
Yeah, we just got to get to the lost, get get get the discipleship and get it all done together.
00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:23.119
So yeah, I appreciate you, John.
00:21:23.279 --> 00:21:24.319
I appreciate you coming out.
00:21:24.400 --> 00:21:25.440
We appreciate five points.
00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:26.079
Yeah.
00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:30.400
And so I'm looking forward as we find ways to to work together in the future.
00:21:30.559 --> 00:21:34.079
We're looking to say how can we help churches hear more from one another?
00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:36.319
Because sometimes you're you're busy.
00:21:36.400 --> 00:21:41.839
I mean, we got work, you got church, you got doing your ministry uh in your church.
00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:45.359
Uh, how do we make it easier for people to find those connect points?
00:21:45.519 --> 00:21:52.000
And so I think as association, that's something we're gonna work on to make it easier for all of us to hear and plug in where we need to, and right.
00:21:52.160 --> 00:21:53.279
Yeah, amen.
00:21:53.920 --> 00:22:10.480
Thank you guys for everything that you're doing, and and I would encourage, uh, as you said, even some there are there are a lot of um even smaller um church uh families and congregations in our in our county, and if there's ways that they want to be plugged in, I would encourage them uh to to do that, to to be ready to serve.
00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:12.559
And and you guys are providing resources to do that.
00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:13.359
So thank you for that.
00:22:13.519 --> 00:22:13.920
Great.
00:22:14.079 --> 00:22:14.720
Lord bless you.
00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:16.720
Yeah, and uh we'll keep walking together.
00:22:16.960 --> 00:22:17.440
Amen.
00:22:17.599 --> 00:22:18.480
Thank you.
