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Speaker 1: Life Audio.
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Speaker 2: Guys, I'm so excited for today's episode. I have Butch Hartman joining me. And if you don't know who he is, have you grown.
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Speaker 1: Up on cartoons? Have you seen Danny Phantom? Have you seen Fairly Odd Parents?
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Speaker 2: But we're going to talk about more importantly his testimony, how he came to know Christ and how that has impacted his creative journey and even his pastoral journey.
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Speaker 1: Let's dive in.
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Speaker 2: Hello, Hello, Hello, ladies and gents, and welcome to this week's episode of The Botton Beloved Podcast.
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Speaker 1: As always, it's your.
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Speaker 2: Girl Kirby Kelly, and I am so stoked about my guests that I have joining me today. If you grew up watching cartoons like me, I mean it's amazing, right like our childhood, we reminisce on those things, but specifically Danny Phantom Fairly Odd Parents. I have Butch Hartman joining me today.
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Speaker 1: He is going to be.
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Speaker 2: Sharing a little bit about his experience of being a Christian navigating that industry, even just being a creative in the new projects that he has coming out. I'm pumped for it. It's going to be a great conversation today. But before we dive into that, butch, welcome to the podcast. Can you just let everybody know a little bit about who you are, what you do, and what you're passionate about.
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Speaker 3: Oh, that's just a very simple question, no problem at all. First of all, I got to pull up my little magic wand here and say I made a wish to be on your podcast, and here I am. It came true. Look at that, it came true. Hey, first, it's really nice to meet you, Kirby. A pleasure, thanks for having me on. You know, I'm just I'm a guy from Michigan. I grew up in Michigan and moved to California when I was eighteen. I've been interested in drawing cartoons my whole life. I didn't grow up in a godly home at all. Not that my people I grew up with were bad people, my family or anything, but nobody just there's homes out there in the world where people just don't mention the Lord. They don't mention God. If you mentioned Jesus, it's because you hit your finger with a hammer or something like that. And that's about it. And so I came to Californ in nineteen eighty three, and when I was eighteen, years old and I was born in nineteen sixty five. I'm sixty one now. But I ended up wanted to work for Walt Disney. I always wanted to work for Disney. So I worked really really hard to come out here at age eighteen, pre internet, sending my portfolio through the mail to a school called cal Arts and Valencia, California. They were the only school in the country that taught animation, and I wanted to get into that school. And I got into the school, and so I was able to leave Michigan and come to California, and from there, I sort of after three years of school, I got into the industry. This is the nineteen eighties, and most TV and animated shows were being done based on toys back then, you know my Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, that type of thing. But I, instead of working for Disney like I always one too, I ended up going into the television game and I started working on different TV shows, and I ended up going to Nickelodeon in the nineties, where I sold my show The Fairly Odd Parents, and I sold Danny Phantom, and I sold a show called Tough Puppy, and then a show called Buns and is a beast. And now I have now broken away from those Hollywood studios and stuff. I had a great time in the industry. But I have my own studio now called wuch Hartman Studios, and I'm now producing this cartoon which is called The Garden Cartoon that stars Lending the Line and Lucy the Lamb, and it teaches kids all about the Bible and Jesus Christ. I became a Christian in the year two thousand, so I've been a Christopher for twenty six years. And I'm now a pastor. My wife and I are pastors, and we have our own church. And I didn't know that that's all we're doing the podcast. You can find these things out.
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Speaker 1: That's incredible.
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Speaker 2: So how has that been for you, like balancing your creative endeavors but also pastoring.
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Speaker 1: What's that looked like for y'all.
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Speaker 3: Well, I'll be very honest. When you are a pastor, it's funny. I wasn't expecting to ever be a pastor. I was a disciple of the Lord, as we all are when we first In fact, I shouldn't say when we start, we're always a disciple of the Lord. But when I started out, I had never intended on being a pastor. In fact, I would always say out loud, I will never be a pastor. I don't ever want any of that because there's so much responsibility that comes with it. And when you're a pastor, people need you, and they want you, and they want your advice, and they depend on you. That's the tricky part. They depend on you and you need But I was never called I don't think I was called like a dinner bell rang you're going to be a pastor. But I don't think everybody's called that way. I don't think everybody's called.
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Speaker 1: In that way.
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Speaker 3: I think it was sort of a leading My wife and I love the Lord. We started teaching a Bible study at night on Wednesdays, and in California in twenty twenty, when COVID happened, all the churches closed, or a great many of them closed, and so we didn't have a church to go to, and so we thought, let's just go out to a park and put out lawn chairs on Sunday morning and we'll just read the Bible. And we've been doing that for six years now, and so we've kind of became the pastors of this church. It's called new Branch family Fellowship because and John fifteen to five, Jesus said, I'm the vine, you're the branches. If you abided me, you're going to bear much fruit. And I thought that's a killer name for a church. New branch, because you're a new branch on your family tree, or a new branch in the industry. You're a new branch. You're a new branch. You're that new little sprig coming out of that vine. Because we're all grafted into him, and we're not grafted into him, then we won't produce any fruit. In fact, that scripture ends with without me, you can do nothing. And so I want to just remind people Leaven at age, you know sixty one what I am now, I still need the Lord. I mean, the older you get, the more you realize you do need the Lord. I think when you're younger, you're so young and you're already you already know the Lord. But I was younger, I thought I could do it all myself, because no one ever told me I needed a savior because I'm not doing anything wrong. Oh I'm bad. Look at that guy, he's worse than I am. But it's like, well, what's worse? I mean, you know, or what's better? People have their own interpretations of good. They say, well, I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person. I say, really, you're a good person. How many prayers did you say? Well? I said five prayers today? What if he says six prayers? Now, who's good? What if he says seven prayers? That's why we can never get into heaven based on what we do. It's all about what he did. He's never going to ask you, thanks, thanks for coming up to heaven. What did you do?
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Speaker 2: Now?
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Speaker 3: He's going to ask what you did for him, not what you did for you. That's what it's going to come down to. Amen, and the podcast is over.
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Speaker 1: That's it by run.
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Speaker 2: Okay, Well, let's actually talk about even back in two thousand and you coming to know the Lord, because, like you said, you didn't grow up in a Christian home. You are in or we're in a secular industry. So what did that look like for you with coming to know the Lord and then navigating the industry that you were in with newfound Christian values?
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Speaker 1: Even what did that look like?
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Speaker 3: It's very what a great question. You know, I was never like a hardcore. I mean I was a worldly person, but I wasn't like a hardcore you know person.
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Speaker 1: That was capital s centner, right.
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Speaker 3: I was never like I mean I was. I mean, we're all, you know, we all started off this, I know, I know, but I was never like an openly defiant person of g I mean, I was believed in God. I tried to be a good guy. I had two little daughters. They're fully grown now, of course, and I was I've been married for thirty four years, but at that time, I was a guy just trying to make it on my own wits, you know. And I'd go out with my friends, I'd party, I do whatever. I wouldn't again, wouldn't party, but I'd go out and I would I would, you know, have drinks of my friends and I'd you know, do it. But when it came down to the emotional stuff, for the spiritual stuff, I was just like a. I was just like a like it was lost, like all of us are. I was angry, I was sad. I didn't know. I didn't know what the next day was going to bring. And I thought and then we had our daughters, they were very little, and a friend of mine who was going to church, said he had really good his kids were great and like his they were older than mine. So how do you get such great kids? He goes, well, we take him to church. I said, you take him to church. Wow. And then with my wife and I thought well we should go to church. And I thought, well, then it's like which church do you go to? We all know the challenge of that. So we started going from church to church to church. We finally found one that really resonated with us. And this pastors had opened the Bible. He was the first pastors that had opened the Bible and follow along and really explained things very very well. And I started getting a hunger for it. And these spiritual scales started coming off of my eyes and I got saved. And then the scales really came off my eyes, and I started going, Wow, all these things I had believed in my life were wrong. You know, it's not about you know, revenge, It's not about getting or it's not about getting over on the next person. It's not about holding a grudge. It's not about Jesus tells you to forgive your enemies. Why, you know, Jesus tells you to wash the feet of your enemies. What what are you talking about? How it doesn't make any sense to a worldly person. The Bible even says the things of the of the Bible are foolishness to the natural man. It makes its foolishness to people that don't understand. And so when those scales came off my eyes, I started applying it to my work. I'm like, Wow, I can't tell that joke I wanted to tell. I can't tell that biting, horrible joke that's going to hurt that person's feelings. You know, I'm saying I was perfect at it. Believe me. It took me a long time to learn this. But it's like I because we're all in a process. But I I, man, I can't tell that joke. I can't write that story. I can't I can't do that. I wow. I really probably should. I probably should maybe work a little harder. You know, the Lord gave me this awesome opportunity, gave me this field of these shows like Danny Fantom, Fairly Adurance and I four shows in Nickelodeon. No one sold four shows to Nickelodeon back then. Yeah, And I'm I'm looking at my life now. It's getting blessed. I was starting to get blessed as a result of my cutting these things out of my life, and even people had to cut out of my life. And listen, I'm sure there's people that cut me out of their life, but you need to cut these toxic things out of your life. And the Lord even says, I didn't come to bring peace but a sword. I came to be. I came to set mother against daughter, you know, he came to And it's funny. Jesus doesn't want to divide people. He doesn't want to, but he just does because you're either going to follow him or you're not, you know, And it's like, I'm I'm He says it himself. I didn't come to bring peace but a sword, you know. And he is the prince of peace ironically, which is funny because it's in that division where the peace will come.
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: Well, it makes me think of the Beatitudes even because it says blessed are the peace makers, and there's a difference between being a peace keeper and a peace maker. And I think about Jesus even when he went into the temple and he was went out, made a whip, came back start flipping tables, and it's like, this is our prince of peace, and it's like when you understand the context of why he was bothered and how he is a peace maker and wants to return to this actual order and completeness and wholeness of life, following and abiding in him, because that is true life, as you were talking about, we have to abide in him. Anything outside of that, the false piece that we're trying to keep just so that other people are happy or we feel comfortable, just like you know, flying under the radar, is that the life that christis called us to live. Now, we can go about it from a place of gentleness, from a place of kindness, from a place that is honoring to other people. But at the end of the day, we have to make that decision of am I just going to be be a peace keeper and do what's comfortable, or am I going to be a peace maker and stand firm for the Lord? Because sometimes, like you said, it can be divisive. And I would think, even in the Hollywood space, that that could be something that could be a divine thing depending on the rooms that you're in, depending on the people that you're around.
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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, but that could be true.
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Speaker 2: For anywhere, in any culture, in any environment that someone could be a part of.
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Speaker 1: That's listening to the episode today.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, several things else. And that's really brilliant what you said. So and you're so young. I love that, you know all this so great. I'm so proud of you. But you know, you know it's interesting about Jesus. It's kind of an interesting comparison the Lord gave me. Whenever you put rubbing alcohol on a wound, you know, is it going to feel great or is it going to burn? Burns pretty bad? But why is it burning. It's burning because it's cleansing. It's destroying the bad stuff. And so the Lord is like that that alcoholic wipe. It's like he's gonna there's a wound there, but that alcohol is destroying all the bad stuff. Now there might be obviously you're going to feel it, but we know in the end the results are going to be better, you know. So it's that cleansing. But see, the majority of people in the world don't want to be uncomfortable even for a second, because when you're in Christ, I mean, you got to die to yourself. You have to die to you. Butch Hartman had to die and the Lord had to move in now. Butch Hartvind tries to come back sometimes, and the Lord is such a gentleman he'll allow that to happen. But he's going to be grieved if that happens, because it's not about me, it's about him and why he's not an ego maniac. See people think, well, Jesus, guess, says God, it's a jealous God. He's jealous God. He's not jealous like you're jealous. He's not jealous like a person is jealous wanting to covet things. He's jealous because he knows what's best for you. It's like a baby, like you know with this little baby, don't touch the fire on the stove. Well, it's mean you need to let the baby do what he wants. Well, the baby's going to get hurt and be damaged. I need to say that's love will prevent you from doing stupid things. And that's where the jealousy comes in. He knows what's best for you. The other thing too, you know, there's ways I could have gotten a lot more. I guess you want to say things successful things going in Hollywood had I not been a Christian, there could have been many, many different projects I could have made and been a part of. But later on in my life, twenty years down the road where I am right now, would I have been happy with those results? What I have been proud of the work I did before? And the answer is no. I'm glad I didn't do those things that would have been in you know, let's say easy money back then, because I'd be sitting there watching them now, going, man, maybe I shouldn't have made that that's going to influence a kid in a bad way, you know, saying that thing, you know, doing that action. Maybe I shouldn't have done that. I still look at things now. When I was a Christian, I go, oh, man, I would certainly redo that.
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Speaker 1: You know, again, the story of my life, story of all our lives.
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Speaker 3: You're still so very very young, and I know you already know this, but like when you're sixty one, like me, when you're thirty years down the road, you're going to see, man, I'm so glad I didn't do whatever that was. I'm so glad I listened to Jesus at that time because he knew what was best for me.
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Speaker 2: That it makes me think of the word compromise that we can be put in these situations where we can really compromise our values, we can compromise our faith, we can compromise.
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Speaker 1: The all that Jesus has on our life.
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Speaker 2: And sometimes it's one of those things where it's like it makes sense by every worldly standard, it makes sense by by my own reasoning to say yes to these things, to say yes to the opportunity to say yes to maybe the thing that I have been working for my whole life, career wise or finance wise or relationship wise. But when Jesus gives you that conviction, it's it's are you going to listen to that? The voice that sometimes makes no sense? But later on down the line, when we have that time, we're able to also have that perspective looking back. I would just love to even hear your thoughts on that to the person who's listening, who might be in that place today where it's like, you know, I've been following the Lord, or maybe they're new to the whole faith and their life has been one one eighty right completely turned around, and they're in a position where it's like, you know, I've worked for these things and I could compromise I could justify all these actions. What would you encourage them just on that notion of maybe giving up those things that we once expected would be fulfilling, to actually follow the Lord and to do the things that maybe don't make sense.
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Speaker 3: Well, that's such a great question. You know, I would encourage you to do this if you have taken that step to move into let's say, to move into your true calling, which is the Christian walk. Right when you realize that's a look about Jesus. You can't become a Christian. You're not born in a Christianity. You know, there's other beliefs where you're born into it. You know, it's like, oh, I'm this because my parents were, you know, but you the Christian Christianity is not like that. It's an absolute one thousand percent choice that you make. And and when Jesus when you when you're in Jesus's family, you're adopted into his family. Basically, Bible says he's not going to leave you orphans. And you can't be adopted accidentally. You have to there's a process of adoption. You are adopted. When someone wants to adopt you, there's a lot they got to go through to get you into their family. Once you're in that family, you have all the same rights as any of the child that family has. So I guess I would say this, if you've gone to the lengths to be adopted by Jesus, if you've already given yourself over to him, you might want to do yourself a favor and listen, because he's trying to talk to you now, and he's never going to force you. He's not a god that will ever force you. But I'll tell you this, there are many times in my life where I was going to do it my way, but I decided to stop for a second and then do it the Lord's way. You're telling me to do this, but this doesn't look as exciting as the way it does over here, right. You know, the Bible says there's the wide path that goes to destruction and then there's the narrow path that leads to salvation. There are a few who find that one. Why it's this little path. Imagine walking up to this like you're walking up to a mansion and there's this big gate, all the lights, thousands of people walking in, party going on everyone, and they're going like this, come on in. But over here to the right. There's a little pathway and it's and it's a broken down little path it's overgrown, barely see it. But that's the pathway to salvation. Because this world is big and it's loud, and man, it's kind of always have something shiny for you, but I guarantee you it's temporary. It's always temporary. Take it from a guy who's now at the age I'm at. I've seen all this shiny, flashy stuff. I've seen all the shiny, flashy people and all the shiny flashy promises, and they are all temporary, all of them. And it's that pathway that I chose to go down. And by the way, he keeps me on that path. I'm if I ever sound like I'm giving myself credit for anything, please forgive me, because I give him all the credit. But I'm just telling you what I've done. And I owe a lot of this to my wife as well, my wife, Julianne, who is my co pastor at my church. I couldn't do this without her, but she's we got saved like the same week back in two thousand and we've both been doing this walk one thousand percent because we got saved in our thirties, and the odds I'm getting saved in your thirties are a lot higher or a lot less. I should say, thank getting saved when you're younger. And so we just dove in head first, like what is this all about? You know, what is this all about? You know? One of the biggest things I had to overcome for me was evolution. Let's just talk about evolution for a second. You know, I grew up in the secular school system. It's all about evolution. You didn't come from God. You came from a fish that evolved into a monkey that evolved into you. And you're like, well, okay. But that was when I really had a struggle when I got saved, and I was going full full blast at this. I'm like, Lord, show me the evolution thing. And it really just came down to the evolutionary model says the Earth is going to burn up, and the Bible says, I give you a new Earth. So it's like, which one do I want to follow? That sprung up into my heart and went, well, I think I want the new Earth, not the burned out hus school and I think I want the new Earth. I want that one and so that was something very simple for me that just resonated really hard. I was like, Wow, that makes sense. And does it make more sense that I came from a fish or do I came from two p pople named Adam and Eve? I mean, what makes more sense? And people might say, well, that's silly, I can't believe you would believe that. Well, there's all kinds of things that we believe, you know.
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Speaker 1: I'm like, it's also silly to believe you came from a fish. And like, when we really strip.
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Speaker 2: It down, it's like we all have faith in something, even the people who declare who that they don't have faith. We all put our faith in something or someone, whether it's ourselves, whether it's.
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Speaker 1: The words of other people in other books.
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Speaker 2: The only difference is is that our book is inspired by God himself, that is living and breathing and active. And like you said, it can seem foolish to the people who don't seek Christ with their full heart, who seek Him humbly, even with the questions of what if and I don't know and I don't get this, Like when we actually search Him and seek Him with that humility, the things that get revealed to us, it's incredible.
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Speaker 3: That's all too Yes, yeah, I mean, I'm sorry, But the Bible says not to exalt yourself. Yeah, you know, don't exalt he. He who humbles himself will be exalted, but he who exalts himself will be humbled. How many times have we seen in this world, in this life, even maybe you personally are sitting out there listening, you've exalted yourself. You've read your own mail out loud, you've read your own publicity. You're the most awesome thing ever. You're telling everybody, and then something happens and it all goes away and you are instantly humble. Boy, that's a and I've been there. Boy, that's a that's a feeling, and that's not a pleasant feeling. But the Bible says to come into the king's house, sit at the low spot at the table. You take the lowest seat. That way, when the king goes, hey, where's where's butch Hey, man come up here, come in. He does it in front of everybody. That's where you get honored. That's where you get on. You get the honor when they bring you and someone else exalts you. When someone says nice things about you. You know, we don't need to exalt ourselves in the presence of the Lord. You know, we want to exalt him and through that we get exalted. Not that we're doing it for that, but that's why you know, when you when you said compromise, compromising our beliefs and our values. Those opportunities come every day. They come every single day, you know. But I, when I had my children, would always come back to my kids, well, my kids, when I want my for me, It came down to my kids. When I want my kids to see this, when I want my kids to hear me saying this. One small example, I stopped swearing. I used to swear all the time. I would swear, you know, because it was cool as everybody did, right. And then I don't even know what it happened. When I got saved and I had kids, I stopped swearing. It's just I stopped. And now when I hear people swear, I'm never going to say anything. I will never say a word, but I just go like just it just rubs me the wrong way a little bit. I go, whoa, it just sounds odd because I don't do that anymore. And again, no judgment, not saying a word. But that was one of those things where the Bible says, let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth. That hit me. I was like, I'm not gonna swear. And then all the jokes I used to tell that I'd swear words in them, I couldn't say them anymore. And as dumb as that sounds, you're like, man, that's a little that's one of those things. That was a pruning. That was a you know, thing that had to come off of me, and I didn't realize it happened when you pray to the Lord. I had challenge people out there too. If you're toying with the idea of entering into the kingdom and asking Jesus to be your lord, ask him and say, Lord, if you're real, show me. I guarantee he will show you. Something will happen in your life that will only happen because He made it happen.
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Speaker 2: He wants us, He wants us to know him, and he wants us to be known by him. And I love that you say that, because he is a He's not just some transient god who sits on the throne of heaven and we will never reach him. And we can never reach out to him, and we hope that we can send up a prayer and that it sticks. It's like he hears us. He wants to commune with his creation.
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Speaker 1: I mean, when we.
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Speaker 2: Actually read scripture for what it is, you can see this repetition, this pattern of God. Number one redeeming his people unto himself.
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Speaker 1: But two is.
00:24:00
Speaker 2: God consistently pursuing his people because he wants to be in relationship with them.
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Speaker 1: Is that cool?
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Speaker 3: Though? Yeah? Not great. You have a guy that will pursue us so much because he loves us so much. He is so so attentive to us. You know, I have a little granddaughter. She's fourteen months old, and you know, when she takes us and she just started walking a few months ago, and she's so good, she's doing so great. But when she first started walking, when she took her little first step and she fell, that I get mad at her. Of course I didn't get mad at her. I go, she's learning, she's learning how to do this. You know, when she's seventeen, different story, I'd be more concerned, like why didn't she fall? Right? But she's fourteen months old and so yeah, But the father rejoices as we take those steps, as we take those first steps, as we fall and get back up again, because he knows we have to learn. Like playing piano, You're not going to be an amazing piano player day one. It takes time, It takes learning, it takes failing. But again, this world has become a place where nobody wants to be uncomfortable even for a second. And I'm not saying discomfort is wonderful and understand that, but you know, it's like losing weight, not a comfortable thing. But there's a process that has to be followed, you know, getting muscles, you have to go to the gym. You know, I draw cartoons every day. It starts with a blank page. It doesn't just show up by itself. Right. That was another thing the Lord told me about evolution too. He said, see that blank paper over there? I said yeah. He said, is there anything on And I said no. He goes, is anything just going to appear on it? After millions of years? And I said no, He goes, what's the take? I said, It takes me. It takes a designer. He goes, exactly, it takes a designer with a designer behind a designer holding this pen can create anything, but it has to be helped by somebody and the Lord. And see, we're created in the image of our God. He's a creative God. He created you, and he just didn't create you in his image to look like and he created you to be like him, your creative to all of us have gifts and talents.
00:26:04
Speaker 2: I love, And that's such a cool way that God will, specifically, like you said, reveal himself to his people, and even just in that that being one of those things that you brought to him that he revealed spoke your language so that you could understand his language, the language of the word, which is beautiful. But I want to make that transition as we get to the end of our podcast, because you do have a new project that is debuting and I'm so excited for people to tune into it. And it's called The Garden Cartoons. So can we just shift gears real quick and talk? Can you, like tell us about that what made you want to step out of the secular space to step into this faith based space and create cartoons that glorify the Lord, that teach children about the Lord.
00:26:47
Speaker 3: Well, thank you for asking. You know, I worked at Nickelodeon for twenty years. I was in the I've been in the animation industry for forty years as of this year. In nineteen eighty six is when I started. I can't believe it, Oh wow, crazy. But I looked at the Christian marketplace and I loved I obviously loved Lord, I love Christianity, but I was like, there's not enough entertaining things for kids in the Christian space. There's some like, for example, if I were to ask you name me a Christian cartoon, what would.
00:27:13
Speaker 1: You say, veggietails?
00:27:14
Speaker 3: Everybody says, and I, by the way, exactly love veggietails. It's the only one people say. And it's like, we need to make some more stuff. So I had been developing this cartoon since two thousand and five. It was a Christian cartoon, but it wasn't even going to be a cartoon at first. It was going to be like a Barney the Dinosaur, like a guy in a costume with kids and all that stuff. But as I kept going, I'm like, well, make it a cartoon. And I produced about three or four episodes of it myself, short episodes, and then one day I got a chance to present it to some amazing people that wanted to help support it, and so they supported it, and lo and behold, we have two full seasons of the Garden cartoon. We have twenty half hours we've done. It's absolutely great. It's about a little lion named Lenny a little lamb named Lucy, and they live and work in a miraculous garden where anything can grow. And God comes down as a rainbow and talks them every day, gives them and if they call them the boss because they work for him high Boss. And so he comes down as a rainbow and every day they get a new assignment. And Lenny, of course, is the silly one and Lucy is the more pragmatic one. And we have original songs in every episode. But it's a great show for kids five to eight. If you're a mom or a parent or a grandparent out there, this is a show that will help teach your kids the Bible the word. It's super fun. We started with fun and funny because kids won't watch something if it's boring. They just won't. Yep, by the way, neither would I. So I would like to, you know, teach the kids the word. I wanted to create a cartoon that I would have loved when I was a kid. Me as a kid, even though I didn't grow up in a Christian home, I would have watched this cartoon because there's a million kids out there that won't go into churches, but they will watch something on their phone and Lillian families that will never go to church, but they might run across this cartoon and they look at the seed of the Word inside of them.
00:28:54
Speaker 2: Well, I love that because that's also such a great evangelistic tool too, where more and more families want and not just faith based content, but friendly content, like family oriented content. So I see that even just being something that people who like you said, aren't Christian will be able to gravitate towards and then that will plant seeds in their life, not just their children, but the family, you know, the mom doing the dishes, the dad who's just playing.
00:29:18
Speaker 1: With this kid.
00:29:18
Speaker 2: Like I'm hoping that it's one of those things that expands to the whole family and not just the children, because I know for me I would I'm I'm doe. By the time you and I recording this, I'm do with my first kid in five weeks, and it's thank you I'm so excited that there is content, more and more every day, it seems every year, even where it's just excellent Christian content.
00:29:46
Speaker 3: You'll love the garden. So I mean your little one boy or girl girl. Oh that's so cute, that's great.
00:29:52
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:29:52
Speaker 3: Well, and when she's about two or three, she's good. Even before that, she'll love the show.
00:29:56
Speaker 1: I'll start watching it. I'll have it on in the we'll plant those seeds before Stephen knows the worst.
00:30:03
Speaker 3: And well, you can watch it actually have a great segue. You watch it on Angel Studios. Our season two is premiering this week on Angel Studios and it's exclusive, and we start with our Easter episode. I wrote an episode about Easter because kids don't understand Easter. They really don't know unless it's explained to you. When I was a kid, I was like, why are we doing Easter? What's up with Easter? There was bunnies, there was eggs, and there was Jesus somebody, how does this all work? And think about that, really, if you could, if you had explained Easter to somebody, it's kind of hard. So I made an episode. I think that explains it pretty well, and I think it's a lot of fun. We have a song called the Resurrection Song in there that's really fun, you know, So it's really really cool. So I think you're going to really love it, So check it out on Angel Studios awesome.
00:30:45
Speaker 2: Is that the only place that people can stream it? Or are there other places where people can stream it?
00:30:50
Speaker 3: Good question? Yeah, that We're on Yippie TV where also we have our own Garden Cartoon app. You can find us on the app store and we're absolutely free. You can get our episodes on there, and I encourage you to go there because the app itself is a contained environment where there's no ads, nothing, You just watch the show and just careers out there and stuff. It's really cool, and we're also looking for anybody wants help support us. We have an awesome foundation called the Lion Lamp Foundation. Yes, and that's a five, but one C three. We get a lot of people that say, I'd like to like to donate to you, but you know they're not millionaires. I want to give us maybe five dollars, ten dollars. That's a wonderful thing. We would love that, and you can donate to the cause there.
00:31:27
Speaker 1: Amazing.
00:31:28
Speaker 2: I'll link all that down below for anyone who's listening who wants to not only enjoy all the content, but wants to be a part of it. I remember when The Chosen Forever ago, Like I was just scrolling on Facebook and somebody posted about it before season one, episode one even aired, and they were like, we're we're looking for crowdfunding for this. And I was one of the first people to start giving in the early days of that. And to see what it's grown to now with its worldwide impact, it's just beautiful to know that, oh, we can be a part of something that not only impacts our own children and our own families, but the world. And this is just another one of those projects where you got a dollar, give a dollar, you got twenty, give twenty, you got a.
00:32:07
Speaker 1: Million, give a million. Why not? But this is something.
00:32:11
Speaker 2: But this is something that the Lord is blessed, and I know it's going to continue to bless so many people, and especially the next generation, because they need it and we need.
00:32:20
Speaker 3: They do and I appreciate. Oh, then thank you. And you know, we started our brand new studio, butch Hartman Studios. We're making not just the Garden cartoon, but we're making a whole bunch of other family friendly and Christian for kids, and so we are off and running and so we are just real excited to keep this train running. So I'm super grateful to you and you know having me on and just and then help me spread the word.
00:32:43
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Well, is there any way that people can stay up to date with everything that you're doing and that your studio is doing, because if there are more projects to come, people are probably gonna want to hear about that.
00:32:53
Speaker 3: Absolutely, go to Butch Hartman Studios dot com and you can find me Butch Hartman on Instagram and TikTok. And one more thing I want to say this Monday. I know when this is gonna air, but March thirtieth is the twenty fifth anniversary of The Fairly Odd Parents. We are twenty five years ago on March thirtieth, two thousand and one, we first aired, So that's a big thing. We're celebrating big milestone for us this week.
00:33:16
Speaker 1: That's so cool. Well, I grew up on that show.
00:33:18
Speaker 2: I was thinking about it on the car ride back to my house before we recorded, and I was like, the two things that stoock out to me the most from that show that live rent free in my mind. Number one is Doug Demodon, owner of the Dimsdale Demodon.
00:33:32
Speaker 1: Because that's literally everybody. That's everybody here in Texas.
00:33:36
Speaker 2: And then the second is there was an episode where Timmy I think it was like he made a wish where it's like everything he said was true or everything he said was right, and mister Crocker's like, how many how many states are there?
00:33:46
Speaker 1: And he's like forty nine and he's like, that's wrong.
00:33:49
Speaker 2: And then the principal comes over the intercomm and she's like, North Dakota and South Dakota decided to marge and become Dakota. And then one of the stars falls off of the flag. And I think about that all of the time, and so I'm not really.
00:34:04
Speaker 3: About It's just such a one.
00:34:07
Speaker 1: It is such a random one, big to caude. It's like it lives in my head.
00:34:12
Speaker 2: But how great will it be for that to live in the future generations? But also just the moments that are gonna come from your show, from your program, it sticks even now this many We.
00:34:25
Speaker 3: Just did an interaction with a pretty big YouTuber recently. Two big YouTubers recently out the fans of the show too and Uh, it was really fun to see what the what the show did for them as kids, Like they're now in their twenties, but it's like, man, they they were well and I drew drawings for them with their favorite fairly odd parents characters are like. So it was really really fun. One one one guy loved Chip Skylark, my shiny teeth.
00:34:48
Speaker 1: Oh yes, iconic, iconic.
00:34:52
Speaker 3: And see that's not even like a quote unquote Christian show, but it's got a lot of Christian vibe to it, meaning there's a lot of a lot of fun, lot of joy the way the Lord wants us to be, you know. And you know, people will say, well, how can I follow Jesus and I still feel sad. I go, well, look there's a lot of things in this world that are still going to come at you. But at the end of the day, he is the principiece and he does want you to feel joy. That's the whole point of this and he, you know, he can't to give it to John. Chapter ten, verse ten says a thief comes to kill, steel and destroy, but I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly. So he wants you to have an abundant life. He really truly does.
00:35:30
Speaker 2: Hey man, we'll wrap on that note. Well, Butch, thank you for taking the time to be on here.
00:35:35
Speaker 1: I love you.
00:35:36
Speaker 3: Let me close you out of my again. Hey everyone, Okay, good, Yeah, but you know I'm grateful and thank you. Yeah, and I've enjoyed the conversation too. You are a very wise young lady. I know you all. Thank you. I know you. You're twenty nine. You probably feel like you're. Oh, you're wilder than he used to be, and you are. You've got a great long road ahead and you're gonna be a great mom too.
00:35:57
Speaker 1: I appreciate that.
00:35:58
Speaker 2: And to everyone who listened, I love you guys, thanks for tuning in.
00:36:01
Speaker 1: I pray that this episode blessed you.
00:36:03
Speaker 2: All the links will be down below, so check those out and start streaming Butcher's show and all the ones that are going to drop soon today.
00:36:11
Speaker 1: Love you guys. Bye.
00:36:14
Speaker 2: For more life giving, faith based podcast just like this one, check out lifeaudio dot com, a proud partner of the Botan Beloved podcast
Speaker 1: Life Audio.
00:00:04
Speaker 2: Guys, I'm so excited for today's episode. I have Butch Hartman joining me. And if you don't know who he is, have you grown.
00:00:10
Speaker 1: Up on cartoons? Have you seen Danny Phantom? Have you seen Fairly Odd Parents?
00:00:15
Speaker 2: But we're going to talk about more importantly his testimony, how he came to know Christ and how that has impacted his creative journey and even his pastoral journey.
00:00:23
Speaker 1: Let's dive in.
00:00:28
Speaker 2: Hello, Hello, Hello, ladies and gents, and welcome to this week's episode of The Botton Beloved Podcast.
00:00:33
Speaker 1: As always, it's your.
00:00:34
Speaker 2: Girl Kirby Kelly, and I am so stoked about my guests that I have joining me today. If you grew up watching cartoons like me, I mean it's amazing, right like our childhood, we reminisce on those things, but specifically Danny Phantom Fairly Odd Parents. I have Butch Hartman joining me today.
00:00:54
Speaker 1: He is going to be.
00:00:55
Speaker 2: Sharing a little bit about his experience of being a Christian navigating that industry, even just being a creative in the new projects that he has coming out. I'm pumped for it. It's going to be a great conversation today. But before we dive into that, butch, welcome to the podcast. Can you just let everybody know a little bit about who you are, what you do, and what you're passionate about.
00:01:16
Speaker 3: Oh, that's just a very simple question, no problem at all. First of all, I got to pull up my little magic wand here and say I made a wish to be on your podcast, and here I am. It came true. Look at that, it came true. Hey, first, it's really nice to meet you, Kirby. A pleasure, thanks for having me on. You know, I'm just I'm a guy from Michigan. I grew up in Michigan and moved to California when I was eighteen. I've been interested in drawing cartoons my whole life. I didn't grow up in a godly home at all. Not that my people I grew up with were bad people, my family or anything, but nobody just there's homes out there in the world where people just don't mention the Lord. They don't mention God. If you mentioned Jesus, it's because you hit your finger with a hammer or something like that. And that's about it. And so I came to Californ in nineteen eighty three, and when I was eighteen, years old and I was born in nineteen sixty five. I'm sixty one now. But I ended up wanted to work for Walt Disney. I always wanted to work for Disney. So I worked really really hard to come out here at age eighteen, pre internet, sending my portfolio through the mail to a school called cal Arts and Valencia, California. They were the only school in the country that taught animation, and I wanted to get into that school. And I got into the school, and so I was able to leave Michigan and come to California, and from there, I sort of after three years of school, I got into the industry. This is the nineteen eighties, and most TV and animated shows were being done based on toys back then, you know my Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, that type of thing. But I, instead of working for Disney like I always one too, I ended up going into the television game and I started working on different TV shows, and I ended up going to Nickelodeon in the nineties, where I sold my show The Fairly Odd Parents, and I sold Danny Phantom, and I sold a show called Tough Puppy, and then a show called Buns and is a beast. And now I have now broken away from those Hollywood studios and stuff. I had a great time in the industry. But I have my own studio now called wuch Hartman Studios, and I'm now producing this cartoon which is called The Garden Cartoon that stars Lending the Line and Lucy the Lamb, and it teaches kids all about the Bible and Jesus Christ. I became a Christian in the year two thousand, so I've been a Christopher for twenty six years. And I'm now a pastor. My wife and I are pastors, and we have our own church. And I didn't know that that's all we're doing the podcast. You can find these things out.
00:03:42
Speaker 1: That's incredible.
00:03:43
Speaker 2: So how has that been for you, like balancing your creative endeavors but also pastoring.
00:03:48
Speaker 1: What's that looked like for y'all.
00:03:49
Speaker 3: Well, I'll be very honest. When you are a pastor, it's funny. I wasn't expecting to ever be a pastor. I was a disciple of the Lord, as we all are when we first In fact, I shouldn't say when we start, we're always a disciple of the Lord. But when I started out, I had never intended on being a pastor. In fact, I would always say out loud, I will never be a pastor. I don't ever want any of that because there's so much responsibility that comes with it. And when you're a pastor, people need you, and they want you, and they want your advice, and they depend on you. That's the tricky part. They depend on you and you need But I was never called I don't think I was called like a dinner bell rang you're going to be a pastor. But I don't think everybody's called that way. I don't think everybody's called.
00:04:35
Speaker 1: In that way.
00:04:35
Speaker 3: I think it was sort of a leading My wife and I love the Lord. We started teaching a Bible study at night on Wednesdays, and in California in twenty twenty, when COVID happened, all the churches closed, or a great many of them closed, and so we didn't have a church to go to, and so we thought, let's just go out to a park and put out lawn chairs on Sunday morning and we'll just read the Bible. And we've been doing that for six years now, and so we've kind of became the pastors of this church. It's called new Branch family Fellowship because and John fifteen to five, Jesus said, I'm the vine, you're the branches. If you abided me, you're going to bear much fruit. And I thought that's a killer name for a church. New branch, because you're a new branch on your family tree, or a new branch in the industry. You're a new branch. You're a new branch. You're that new little sprig coming out of that vine. Because we're all grafted into him, and we're not grafted into him, then we won't produce any fruit. In fact, that scripture ends with without me, you can do nothing. And so I want to just remind people Leaven at age, you know sixty one what I am now, I still need the Lord. I mean, the older you get, the more you realize you do need the Lord. I think when you're younger, you're so young and you're already you already know the Lord. But I was younger, I thought I could do it all myself, because no one ever told me I needed a savior because I'm not doing anything wrong. Oh I'm bad. Look at that guy, he's worse than I am. But it's like, well, what's worse? I mean, you know, or what's better? People have their own interpretations of good. They say, well, I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person. I say, really, you're a good person. How many prayers did you say? Well? I said five prayers today? What if he says six prayers? Now, who's good? What if he says seven prayers? That's why we can never get into heaven based on what we do. It's all about what he did. He's never going to ask you, thanks, thanks for coming up to heaven. What did you do?
00:06:24
Speaker 2: Now?
00:06:24
Speaker 3: He's going to ask what you did for him, not what you did for you. That's what it's going to come down to. Amen, and the podcast is over.
00:06:33
Speaker 1: That's it by run.
00:06:34
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, let's actually talk about even back in two thousand and you coming to know the Lord, because, like you said, you didn't grow up in a Christian home. You are in or we're in a secular industry. So what did that look like for you with coming to know the Lord and then navigating the industry that you were in with newfound Christian values?
00:06:54
Speaker 1: Even what did that look like?
00:06:55
Speaker 3: It's very what a great question. You know, I was never like a hardcore. I mean I was a worldly person, but I wasn't like a hardcore you know person.
00:07:05
Speaker 1: That was capital s centner, right.
00:07:07
Speaker 3: I was never like I mean I was. I mean, we're all, you know, we all started off this, I know, I know, but I was never like an openly defiant person of g I mean, I was believed in God. I tried to be a good guy. I had two little daughters. They're fully grown now, of course, and I was I've been married for thirty four years, but at that time, I was a guy just trying to make it on my own wits, you know. And I'd go out with my friends, I'd party, I do whatever. I wouldn't again, wouldn't party, but I'd go out and I would I would, you know, have drinks of my friends and I'd you know, do it. But when it came down to the emotional stuff, for the spiritual stuff, I was just like a. I was just like a like it was lost, like all of us are. I was angry, I was sad. I didn't know. I didn't know what the next day was going to bring. And I thought and then we had our daughters, they were very little, and a friend of mine who was going to church, said he had really good his kids were great and like his they were older than mine. So how do you get such great kids? He goes, well, we take him to church. I said, you take him to church. Wow. And then with my wife and I thought well we should go to church. And I thought, well, then it's like which church do you go to? We all know the challenge of that. So we started going from church to church to church. We finally found one that really resonated with us. And this pastors had opened the Bible. He was the first pastors that had opened the Bible and follow along and really explained things very very well. And I started getting a hunger for it. And these spiritual scales started coming off of my eyes and I got saved. And then the scales really came off my eyes, and I started going, Wow, all these things I had believed in my life were wrong. You know, it's not about you know, revenge, It's not about getting or it's not about getting over on the next person. It's not about holding a grudge. It's not about Jesus tells you to forgive your enemies. Why, you know, Jesus tells you to wash the feet of your enemies. What what are you talking about? How it doesn't make any sense to a worldly person. The Bible even says the things of the of the Bible are foolishness to the natural man. It makes its foolishness to people that don't understand. And so when those scales came off my eyes, I started applying it to my work. I'm like, Wow, I can't tell that joke I wanted to tell. I can't tell that biting, horrible joke that's going to hurt that person's feelings. You know, I'm saying I was perfect at it. Believe me. It took me a long time to learn this. But it's like I because we're all in a process. But I I, man, I can't tell that joke. I can't write that story. I can't I can't do that. I wow. I really probably should. I probably should maybe work a little harder. You know, the Lord gave me this awesome opportunity, gave me this field of these shows like Danny Fantom, Fairly Adurance and I four shows in Nickelodeon. No one sold four shows to Nickelodeon back then. Yeah, And I'm I'm looking at my life now. It's getting blessed. I was starting to get blessed as a result of my cutting these things out of my life, and even people had to cut out of my life. And listen, I'm sure there's people that cut me out of their life, but you need to cut these toxic things out of your life. And the Lord even says, I didn't come to bring peace but a sword. I came to be. I came to set mother against daughter, you know, he came to And it's funny. Jesus doesn't want to divide people. He doesn't want to, but he just does because you're either going to follow him or you're not, you know, And it's like, I'm I'm He says it himself. I didn't come to bring peace but a sword, you know. And he is the prince of peace ironically, which is funny because it's in that division where the peace will come.
00:10:44
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:10:44
Speaker 2: Well, it makes me think of the Beatitudes even because it says blessed are the peace makers, and there's a difference between being a peace keeper and a peace maker. And I think about Jesus even when he went into the temple and he was went out, made a whip, came back start flipping tables, and it's like, this is our prince of peace, and it's like when you understand the context of why he was bothered and how he is a peace maker and wants to return to this actual order and completeness and wholeness of life, following and abiding in him, because that is true life, as you were talking about, we have to abide in him. Anything outside of that, the false piece that we're trying to keep just so that other people are happy or we feel comfortable, just like you know, flying under the radar, is that the life that christis called us to live. Now, we can go about it from a place of gentleness, from a place of kindness, from a place that is honoring to other people. But at the end of the day, we have to make that decision of am I just going to be be a peace keeper and do what's comfortable, or am I going to be a peace maker and stand firm for the Lord? Because sometimes, like you said, it can be divisive. And I would think, even in the Hollywood space, that that could be something that could be a divine thing depending on the rooms that you're in, depending on the people that you're around.
00:12:04
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, but that could be true.
00:12:05
Speaker 2: For anywhere, in any culture, in any environment that someone could be a part of.
00:12:09
Speaker 1: That's listening to the episode today.
00:12:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, several things else. And that's really brilliant what you said. So and you're so young. I love that, you know all this so great. I'm so proud of you. But you know, you know it's interesting about Jesus. It's kind of an interesting comparison the Lord gave me. Whenever you put rubbing alcohol on a wound, you know, is it going to feel great or is it going to burn? Burns pretty bad? But why is it burning. It's burning because it's cleansing. It's destroying the bad stuff. And so the Lord is like that that alcoholic wipe. It's like he's gonna there's a wound there, but that alcohol is destroying all the bad stuff. Now there might be obviously you're going to feel it, but we know in the end the results are going to be better, you know. So it's that cleansing. But see, the majority of people in the world don't want to be uncomfortable even for a second, because when you're in Christ, I mean, you got to die to yourself. You have to die to you. Butch Hartman had to die and the Lord had to move in now. Butch Hartvind tries to come back sometimes, and the Lord is such a gentleman he'll allow that to happen. But he's going to be grieved if that happens, because it's not about me, it's about him and why he's not an ego maniac. See people think, well, Jesus, guess, says God, it's a jealous God. He's jealous God. He's not jealous like you're jealous. He's not jealous like a person is jealous wanting to covet things. He's jealous because he knows what's best for you. It's like a baby, like you know with this little baby, don't touch the fire on the stove. Well, it's mean you need to let the baby do what he wants. Well, the baby's going to get hurt and be damaged. I need to say that's love will prevent you from doing stupid things. And that's where the jealousy comes in. He knows what's best for you. The other thing too, you know, there's ways I could have gotten a lot more. I guess you want to say things successful things going in Hollywood had I not been a Christian, there could have been many, many different projects I could have made and been a part of. But later on in my life, twenty years down the road where I am right now, would I have been happy with those results? What I have been proud of the work I did before? And the answer is no. I'm glad I didn't do those things that would have been in you know, let's say easy money back then, because I'd be sitting there watching them now, going, man, maybe I shouldn't have made that that's going to influence a kid in a bad way, you know, saying that thing, you know, doing that action. Maybe I shouldn't have done that. I still look at things now. When I was a Christian, I go, oh, man, I would certainly redo that.
00:14:31
Speaker 1: You know, again, the story of my life, story of all our lives.
00:14:34
Speaker 3: You're still so very very young, and I know you already know this, but like when you're sixty one, like me, when you're thirty years down the road, you're going to see, man, I'm so glad I didn't do whatever that was. I'm so glad I listened to Jesus at that time because he knew what was best for me.
00:14:50
Speaker 2: That it makes me think of the word compromise that we can be put in these situations where we can really compromise our values, we can compromise our faith, we can compromise.
00:14:59
Speaker 1: The all that Jesus has on our life.
00:15:02
Speaker 2: And sometimes it's one of those things where it's like it makes sense by every worldly standard, it makes sense by by my own reasoning to say yes to these things, to say yes to the opportunity to say yes to maybe the thing that I have been working for my whole life, career wise or finance wise or relationship wise. But when Jesus gives you that conviction, it's it's are you going to listen to that? The voice that sometimes makes no sense? But later on down the line, when we have that time, we're able to also have that perspective looking back. I would just love to even hear your thoughts on that to the person who's listening, who might be in that place today where it's like, you know, I've been following the Lord, or maybe they're new to the whole faith and their life has been one one eighty right completely turned around, and they're in a position where it's like, you know, I've worked for these things and I could compromise I could justify all these actions. What would you encourage them just on that notion of maybe giving up those things that we once expected would be fulfilling, to actually follow the Lord and to do the things that maybe don't make sense.
00:16:10
Speaker 3: Well, that's such a great question. You know, I would encourage you to do this if you have taken that step to move into let's say, to move into your true calling, which is the Christian walk. Right when you realize that's a look about Jesus. You can't become a Christian. You're not born in a Christianity. You know, there's other beliefs where you're born into it. You know, it's like, oh, I'm this because my parents were, you know, but you the Christian Christianity is not like that. It's an absolute one thousand percent choice that you make. And and when Jesus when you when you're in Jesus's family, you're adopted into his family. Basically, Bible says he's not going to leave you orphans. And you can't be adopted accidentally. You have to there's a process of adoption. You are adopted. When someone wants to adopt you, there's a lot they got to go through to get you into their family. Once you're in that family, you have all the same rights as any of the child that family has. So I guess I would say this, if you've gone to the lengths to be adopted by Jesus, if you've already given yourself over to him, you might want to do yourself a favor and listen, because he's trying to talk to you now, and he's never going to force you. He's not a god that will ever force you. But I'll tell you this, there are many times in my life where I was going to do it my way, but I decided to stop for a second and then do it the Lord's way. You're telling me to do this, but this doesn't look as exciting as the way it does over here, right. You know, the Bible says there's the wide path that goes to destruction and then there's the narrow path that leads to salvation. There are a few who find that one. Why it's this little path. Imagine walking up to this like you're walking up to a mansion and there's this big gate, all the lights, thousands of people walking in, party going on everyone, and they're going like this, come on in. But over here to the right. There's a little pathway and it's and it's a broken down little path it's overgrown, barely see it. But that's the pathway to salvation. Because this world is big and it's loud, and man, it's kind of always have something shiny for you, but I guarantee you it's temporary. It's always temporary. Take it from a guy who's now at the age I'm at. I've seen all this shiny, flashy stuff. I've seen all the shiny, flashy people and all the shiny flashy promises, and they are all temporary, all of them. And it's that pathway that I chose to go down. And by the way, he keeps me on that path. I'm if I ever sound like I'm giving myself credit for anything, please forgive me, because I give him all the credit. But I'm just telling you what I've done. And I owe a lot of this to my wife as well, my wife, Julianne, who is my co pastor at my church. I couldn't do this without her, but she's we got saved like the same week back in two thousand and we've both been doing this walk one thousand percent because we got saved in our thirties, and the odds I'm getting saved in your thirties are a lot higher or a lot less. I should say, thank getting saved when you're younger. And so we just dove in head first, like what is this all about? You know, what is this all about? You know? One of the biggest things I had to overcome for me was evolution. Let's just talk about evolution for a second. You know, I grew up in the secular school system. It's all about evolution. You didn't come from God. You came from a fish that evolved into a monkey that evolved into you. And you're like, well, okay. But that was when I really had a struggle when I got saved, and I was going full full blast at this. I'm like, Lord, show me the evolution thing. And it really just came down to the evolutionary model says the Earth is going to burn up, and the Bible says, I give you a new Earth. So it's like, which one do I want to follow? That sprung up into my heart and went, well, I think I want the new Earth, not the burned out hus school and I think I want the new Earth. I want that one and so that was something very simple for me that just resonated really hard. I was like, Wow, that makes sense. And does it make more sense that I came from a fish or do I came from two p pople named Adam and Eve? I mean, what makes more sense? And people might say, well, that's silly, I can't believe you would believe that. Well, there's all kinds of things that we believe, you know.
00:20:08
Speaker 1: I'm like, it's also silly to believe you came from a fish. And like, when we really strip.
00:20:12
Speaker 2: It down, it's like we all have faith in something, even the people who declare who that they don't have faith. We all put our faith in something or someone, whether it's ourselves, whether it's.
00:20:23
Speaker 1: The words of other people in other books.
00:20:26
Speaker 2: The only difference is is that our book is inspired by God himself, that is living and breathing and active. And like you said, it can seem foolish to the people who don't seek Christ with their full heart, who seek Him humbly, even with the questions of what if and I don't know and I don't get this, Like when we actually search Him and seek Him with that humility, the things that get revealed to us, it's incredible.
00:20:55
Speaker 3: That's all too Yes, yeah, I mean, I'm sorry, But the Bible says not to exalt yourself. Yeah, you know, don't exalt he. He who humbles himself will be exalted, but he who exalts himself will be humbled. How many times have we seen in this world, in this life, even maybe you personally are sitting out there listening, you've exalted yourself. You've read your own mail out loud, you've read your own publicity. You're the most awesome thing ever. You're telling everybody, and then something happens and it all goes away and you are instantly humble. Boy, that's a and I've been there. Boy, that's a that's a feeling, and that's not a pleasant feeling. But the Bible says to come into the king's house, sit at the low spot at the table. You take the lowest seat. That way, when the king goes, hey, where's where's butch Hey, man come up here, come in. He does it in front of everybody. That's where you get honored. That's where you get on. You get the honor when they bring you and someone else exalts you. When someone says nice things about you. You know, we don't need to exalt ourselves in the presence of the Lord. You know, we want to exalt him and through that we get exalted. Not that we're doing it for that, but that's why you know, when you when you said compromise, compromising our beliefs and our values. Those opportunities come every day. They come every single day, you know. But I, when I had my children, would always come back to my kids, well, my kids, when I want my for me, It came down to my kids. When I want my kids to see this, when I want my kids to hear me saying this. One small example, I stopped swearing. I used to swear all the time. I would swear, you know, because it was cool as everybody did, right. And then I don't even know what it happened. When I got saved and I had kids, I stopped swearing. It's just I stopped. And now when I hear people swear, I'm never going to say anything. I will never say a word, but I just go like just it just rubs me the wrong way a little bit. I go, whoa, it just sounds odd because I don't do that anymore. And again, no judgment, not saying a word. But that was one of those things where the Bible says, let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth. That hit me. I was like, I'm not gonna swear. And then all the jokes I used to tell that I'd swear words in them, I couldn't say them anymore. And as dumb as that sounds, you're like, man, that's a little that's one of those things. That was a pruning. That was a you know, thing that had to come off of me, and I didn't realize it happened when you pray to the Lord. I had challenge people out there too. If you're toying with the idea of entering into the kingdom and asking Jesus to be your lord, ask him and say, Lord, if you're real, show me. I guarantee he will show you. Something will happen in your life that will only happen because He made it happen.
00:23:26
Speaker 2: He wants us, He wants us to know him, and he wants us to be known by him. And I love that you say that, because he is a He's not just some transient god who sits on the throne of heaven and we will never reach him. And we can never reach out to him, and we hope that we can send up a prayer and that it sticks. It's like he hears us. He wants to commune with his creation.
00:23:49
Speaker 1: I mean, when we.
00:23:50
Speaker 2: Actually read scripture for what it is, you can see this repetition, this pattern of God. Number one redeeming his people unto himself.
00:23:59
Speaker 1: But two is.
00:24:00
Speaker 2: God consistently pursuing his people because he wants to be in relationship with them.
00:24:07
Speaker 1: Is that cool?
00:24:07
Speaker 3: Though? Yeah? Not great. You have a guy that will pursue us so much because he loves us so much. He is so so attentive to us. You know, I have a little granddaughter. She's fourteen months old, and you know, when she takes us and she just started walking a few months ago, and she's so good, she's doing so great. But when she first started walking, when she took her little first step and she fell, that I get mad at her. Of course I didn't get mad at her. I go, she's learning, she's learning how to do this. You know, when she's seventeen, different story, I'd be more concerned, like why didn't she fall? Right? But she's fourteen months old and so yeah, But the father rejoices as we take those steps, as we take those first steps, as we fall and get back up again, because he knows we have to learn. Like playing piano, You're not going to be an amazing piano player day one. It takes time, It takes learning, it takes failing. But again, this world has become a place where nobody wants to be uncomfortable even for a second. And I'm not saying discomfort is wonderful and understand that, but you know, it's like losing weight, not a comfortable thing. But there's a process that has to be followed, you know, getting muscles, you have to go to the gym. You know, I draw cartoons every day. It starts with a blank page. It doesn't just show up by itself. Right. That was another thing the Lord told me about evolution too. He said, see that blank paper over there? I said yeah. He said, is there anything on And I said no. He goes, is anything just going to appear on it? After millions of years? And I said no, He goes, what's the take? I said, It takes me. It takes a designer. He goes, exactly, it takes a designer with a designer behind a designer holding this pen can create anything, but it has to be helped by somebody and the Lord. And see, we're created in the image of our God. He's a creative God. He created you, and he just didn't create you in his image to look like and he created you to be like him, your creative to all of us have gifts and talents.
00:26:04
Speaker 2: I love, And that's such a cool way that God will, specifically, like you said, reveal himself to his people, and even just in that that being one of those things that you brought to him that he revealed spoke your language so that you could understand his language, the language of the word, which is beautiful. But I want to make that transition as we get to the end of our podcast, because you do have a new project that is debuting and I'm so excited for people to tune into it. And it's called The Garden Cartoons. So can we just shift gears real quick and talk? Can you, like tell us about that what made you want to step out of the secular space to step into this faith based space and create cartoons that glorify the Lord, that teach children about the Lord.
00:26:47
Speaker 3: Well, thank you for asking. You know, I worked at Nickelodeon for twenty years. I was in the I've been in the animation industry for forty years as of this year. In nineteen eighty six is when I started. I can't believe it, Oh wow, crazy. But I looked at the Christian marketplace and I loved I obviously loved Lord, I love Christianity, but I was like, there's not enough entertaining things for kids in the Christian space. There's some like, for example, if I were to ask you name me a Christian cartoon, what would.
00:27:13
Speaker 1: You say, veggietails?
00:27:14
Speaker 3: Everybody says, and I, by the way, exactly love veggietails. It's the only one people say. And it's like, we need to make some more stuff. So I had been developing this cartoon since two thousand and five. It was a Christian cartoon, but it wasn't even going to be a cartoon at first. It was going to be like a Barney the Dinosaur, like a guy in a costume with kids and all that stuff. But as I kept going, I'm like, well, make it a cartoon. And I produced about three or four episodes of it myself, short episodes, and then one day I got a chance to present it to some amazing people that wanted to help support it, and so they supported it, and lo and behold, we have two full seasons of the Garden cartoon. We have twenty half hours we've done. It's absolutely great. It's about a little lion named Lenny a little lamb named Lucy, and they live and work in a miraculous garden where anything can grow. And God comes down as a rainbow and talks them every day, gives them and if they call them the boss because they work for him high Boss. And so he comes down as a rainbow and every day they get a new assignment. And Lenny, of course, is the silly one and Lucy is the more pragmatic one. And we have original songs in every episode. But it's a great show for kids five to eight. If you're a mom or a parent or a grandparent out there, this is a show that will help teach your kids the Bible the word. It's super fun. We started with fun and funny because kids won't watch something if it's boring. They just won't. Yep, by the way, neither would I. So I would like to, you know, teach the kids the word. I wanted to create a cartoon that I would have loved when I was a kid. Me as a kid, even though I didn't grow up in a Christian home, I would have watched this cartoon because there's a million kids out there that won't go into churches, but they will watch something on their phone and Lillian families that will never go to church, but they might run across this cartoon and they look at the seed of the Word inside of them.
00:28:54
Speaker 2: Well, I love that because that's also such a great evangelistic tool too, where more and more families want and not just faith based content, but friendly content, like family oriented content. So I see that even just being something that people who like you said, aren't Christian will be able to gravitate towards and then that will plant seeds in their life, not just their children, but the family, you know, the mom doing the dishes, the dad who's just playing.
00:29:18
Speaker 1: With this kid.
00:29:18
Speaker 2: Like I'm hoping that it's one of those things that expands to the whole family and not just the children, because I know for me I would I'm I'm doe. By the time you and I recording this, I'm do with my first kid in five weeks, and it's thank you I'm so excited that there is content, more and more every day, it seems every year, even where it's just excellent Christian content.
00:29:46
Speaker 3: You'll love the garden. So I mean your little one boy or girl girl. Oh that's so cute, that's great.
00:29:52
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:29:52
Speaker 3: Well, and when she's about two or three, she's good. Even before that, she'll love the show.
00:29:56
Speaker 1: I'll start watching it. I'll have it on in the we'll plant those seeds before Stephen knows the worst.
00:30:03
Speaker 3: And well, you can watch it actually have a great segue. You watch it on Angel Studios. Our season two is premiering this week on Angel Studios and it's exclusive, and we start with our Easter episode. I wrote an episode about Easter because kids don't understand Easter. They really don't know unless it's explained to you. When I was a kid, I was like, why are we doing Easter? What's up with Easter? There was bunnies, there was eggs, and there was Jesus somebody, how does this all work? And think about that, really, if you could, if you had explained Easter to somebody, it's kind of hard. So I made an episode. I think that explains it pretty well, and I think it's a lot of fun. We have a song called the Resurrection Song in there that's really fun, you know, So it's really really cool. So I think you're going to really love it, So check it out on Angel Studios awesome.
00:30:45
Speaker 2: Is that the only place that people can stream it? Or are there other places where people can stream it?
00:30:50
Speaker 3: Good question? Yeah, that We're on Yippie TV where also we have our own Garden Cartoon app. You can find us on the app store and we're absolutely free. You can get our episodes on there, and I encourage you to go there because the app itself is a contained environment where there's no ads, nothing, You just watch the show and just careers out there and stuff. It's really cool, and we're also looking for anybody wants help support us. We have an awesome foundation called the Lion Lamp Foundation. Yes, and that's a five, but one C three. We get a lot of people that say, I'd like to like to donate to you, but you know they're not millionaires. I want to give us maybe five dollars, ten dollars. That's a wonderful thing. We would love that, and you can donate to the cause there.
00:31:27
Speaker 1: Amazing.
00:31:28
Speaker 2: I'll link all that down below for anyone who's listening who wants to not only enjoy all the content, but wants to be a part of it. I remember when The Chosen Forever ago, Like I was just scrolling on Facebook and somebody posted about it before season one, episode one even aired, and they were like, we're we're looking for crowdfunding for this. And I was one of the first people to start giving in the early days of that. And to see what it's grown to now with its worldwide impact, it's just beautiful to know that, oh, we can be a part of something that not only impacts our own children and our own families, but the world. And this is just another one of those projects where you got a dollar, give a dollar, you got twenty, give twenty, you got a.
00:32:07
Speaker 1: Million, give a million. Why not? But this is something.
00:32:11
Speaker 2: But this is something that the Lord is blessed, and I know it's going to continue to bless so many people, and especially the next generation, because they need it and we need.
00:32:20
Speaker 3: They do and I appreciate. Oh, then thank you. And you know, we started our brand new studio, butch Hartman Studios. We're making not just the Garden cartoon, but we're making a whole bunch of other family friendly and Christian for kids, and so we are off and running and so we are just real excited to keep this train running. So I'm super grateful to you and you know having me on and just and then help me spread the word.
00:32:43
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Well, is there any way that people can stay up to date with everything that you're doing and that your studio is doing, because if there are more projects to come, people are probably gonna want to hear about that.
00:32:53
Speaker 3: Absolutely, go to Butch Hartman Studios dot com and you can find me Butch Hartman on Instagram and TikTok. And one more thing I want to say this Monday. I know when this is gonna air, but March thirtieth is the twenty fifth anniversary of The Fairly Odd Parents. We are twenty five years ago on March thirtieth, two thousand and one, we first aired, So that's a big thing. We're celebrating big milestone for us this week.
00:33:16
Speaker 1: That's so cool. Well, I grew up on that show.
00:33:18
Speaker 2: I was thinking about it on the car ride back to my house before we recorded, and I was like, the two things that stoock out to me the most from that show that live rent free in my mind. Number one is Doug Demodon, owner of the Dimsdale Demodon.
00:33:32
Speaker 1: Because that's literally everybody. That's everybody here in Texas.
00:33:36
Speaker 2: And then the second is there was an episode where Timmy I think it was like he made a wish where it's like everything he said was true or everything he said was right, and mister Crocker's like, how many how many states are there?
00:33:46
Speaker 1: And he's like forty nine and he's like, that's wrong.
00:33:49
Speaker 2: And then the principal comes over the intercomm and she's like, North Dakota and South Dakota decided to marge and become Dakota. And then one of the stars falls off of the flag. And I think about that all of the time, and so I'm not really.
00:34:04
Speaker 3: About It's just such a one.
00:34:07
Speaker 1: It is such a random one, big to caude. It's like it lives in my head.
00:34:12
Speaker 2: But how great will it be for that to live in the future generations? But also just the moments that are gonna come from your show, from your program, it sticks even now this many We.
00:34:25
Speaker 3: Just did an interaction with a pretty big YouTuber recently. Two big YouTubers recently out the fans of the show too and Uh, it was really fun to see what the what the show did for them as kids, Like they're now in their twenties, but it's like, man, they they were well and I drew drawings for them with their favorite fairly odd parents characters are like. So it was really really fun. One one one guy loved Chip Skylark, my shiny teeth.
00:34:48
Speaker 1: Oh yes, iconic, iconic.
00:34:52
Speaker 3: And see that's not even like a quote unquote Christian show, but it's got a lot of Christian vibe to it, meaning there's a lot of a lot of fun, lot of joy the way the Lord wants us to be, you know. And you know, people will say, well, how can I follow Jesus and I still feel sad. I go, well, look there's a lot of things in this world that are still going to come at you. But at the end of the day, he is the principiece and he does want you to feel joy. That's the whole point of this and he, you know, he can't to give it to John. Chapter ten, verse ten says a thief comes to kill, steel and destroy, but I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly. So he wants you to have an abundant life. He really truly does.
00:35:30
Speaker 2: Hey man, we'll wrap on that note. Well, Butch, thank you for taking the time to be on here.
00:35:35
Speaker 1: I love you.
00:35:36
Speaker 3: Let me close you out of my again. Hey everyone, Okay, good, Yeah, but you know I'm grateful and thank you. Yeah, and I've enjoyed the conversation too. You are a very wise young lady. I know you all. Thank you. I know you. You're twenty nine. You probably feel like you're. Oh, you're wilder than he used to be, and you are. You've got a great long road ahead and you're gonna be a great mom too.
00:35:57
Speaker 1: I appreciate that.
00:35:58
Speaker 2: And to everyone who listened, I love you guys, thanks for tuning in.
00:36:01
Speaker 1: I pray that this episode blessed you.
00:36:03
Speaker 2: All the links will be down below, so check those out and start streaming Butcher's show and all the ones that are going to drop soon today.
00:36:11
Speaker 1: Love you guys. Bye.
00:36:14
Speaker 2: For more life giving, faith based podcast just like this one, check out lifeaudio dot com, a proud partner of the Botan Beloved podcast
