Colby: Andy Harrison tried several different career paths before he ended up right where God wanted him to be all along in ministry. Join us today as we talk with Andy about his time as a youth pastor, time working for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma and Falls Creek Youth Camp, one of the largest youth camps in the world. And now as he settled in as the senior pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in Paul's Valley, Oklahoma. we may even talk a little bit about his new podcast. And can AI be used for ministry? Today on Call to Lead. Hello and welcome once again to the Call to Lead podcast. I'm your host, Colby Rich. And with me today, my great pleasure to have Andy Harrison. Andy is a jack of all trades when it comes to ministry. He's been local church stuff, Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, camp director at Falls Creek, one of the largest youth camps in the world. He's done a lot of different things. And we're gonna hear about those things today and some new things he's doing. So, Andy, how are you, my friend?
Vincent Harrison: I'm doing great, Kobe. It's good to see ya and good to be with you today. Yeah. Doing well.
Colby: Thank you very much for taking time. I know local pastoring, that's a different kind of work, different kind different level of responsibility and work and stuff. So I I'm thankful that you took a little bit of time of your day to spend with us today. Why don't you start off just telling us a little bit about you, growing up and stuff, and then about your family.
Vincent Harrison: Sure. I'm originally from Arkansas. I was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and then we moved six months into Little Rock and was there for about ten years and my father, his dad, my granddad, had a shoe store in Sepulpa, Oklahoma. And my dad was working at a newspaper doing some advertising stuff and he decided he didn't want to do that anymore. So he said, We're gonna up and move to Sepulpa and take over in our dad's shoe store. So basically we moved to Sepulpa and which is just southwest of Tulsa and that's where I graduated high school, grew up there, met my future wife there. As a matter of fact, we knew each other when I was in seventh grade and she was in the fifth. And we started dating when I was a senior and she was a sophomore in high school. And we dated about four and a half years. Then we got married. currently we've been married forty-three going on forty-four years. she wonderful wife, mom. I mean, everything that I knew of when I was when I was watching her when we were dating that I thought she's gonna be great at. She's been f fantastic at. And so it's wonder wonderful life partner. we have three children and now have eight grandchildren with one more on the way. So
Colby: Congratulations.
Vincent Harrison: yeah. And so we've lived in Oklahoma. I've lived in Oklahoma all that time except for one year of exile in Nebraska. went up to help out with the Navigators Ministry on the campus of University of Nebraska Lincoln for one year. I was actually at school there too, so I I was a corn husker for a year. but then we came back down to to Oklahoma again. So that's kind of me and my family, and where I've been.
Colby: tell us how you came to faith in Christ. One of the things I always want to hear from people is you as far as leadership and stuff, being a Christian is always if you're a believer, that's your foundational thing, is just knowing Jesus. So why don't you tell us about that? How you came to faith in Jesus.
Vincent Harrison: Yeah, absolutely. when I was seven years old, we were living there in Little Rock. I had a friend down the street, and he and I, good buddies, and w one day, you know, it's how it is when you're seven years old. One day you're getting along great, next day you're fighting like cats and dogs and stuff. But he started doing some things that my mom and dad always told me were wrong. And, you know, you y you don't know a whole lot about life when you're seven years old, but I knew that he was doing some things that they had said was wrong. And I asked my mom one day, I said, Why Why does David do that stuff? And she said, It may be because he doesn't know Jesus. Now, we my parents were Christians. We grew up in I was going to church nine months before I was born. I mean, I I've been in church all my life and I thought everybody knew Jesus and she said and that's what I told her. I said, Well, doesn't everybody know Jesus? And she goes, No, son, there's a time where every person has to admit that they're a sinner in need of a savior, and they need to ask Jesus to forgive them of their sins. And so my mom is the one that led me to Christ when I was seven years old. I remember we were in revival actually. So I think the Spirit of God was really working on me as a as a child during that time. whenever that that next night we went to service and when he when the pastor gave an invitation, I was immediately leaving my seat and going down to speak with him. And I was so excited. I remember standing there in that pew and and feeling it w it was like a a sensation. I'd never had it ever before, physical type of thing in in me. And and I went forward and was excited as a little child and I stayed active in the church and was a good kid growing up. But really, even though I was a believer, and I know I was, and was a good good kid, didn't get into a lot of trouble or anything like that, I still didn't really know what it meant fully to have a relationship with Jesus and walk with him day by day. When I was a junior in high school, there's a guy that came in, started a Bible study, and he had been trained by the he came to Christ his senior year at Kansas State through the Navigators Ministry. And he d got he asked 20 of us to be in this Bible study, only eight of us said yes. And he discipled us for three years, and that changed my entire life. The discipleship process of him just pouring his life into me, teaching me how to pray, read the scripture, study it, memorize scripture, witness all those things. changed my life completely. And I knew during that time that God probably was calling me to ministry. It was during that time I kind of felt that call as well. So that's when my life significantly changed. And I I'll go ahead and say that once, you know, I I I told you that I dated Kim. We were high school sweethearts and things and and and so my desire was to get married. And so getting married you got to have a job. And I so I started going job to job and every job I took, I I was more and more dissatisfied in every job I took. I worked I was working as a bank teller, I worked in a glass factory, I worked at a f as a sales rep for a company, and every job was success in in each successive job I was more and more miserable. And I finally said, Okay, Lord, I I'm done with this. I'm gonna quit this. I'm gonna go back to school, I'm gonna finish up my degree. And I'm gonna open my s this let people know that I'm ready to go serve somewhere in a church. I remember standing there with with Kim and the church. We were our home church was first Baptist Church the Pulp, and we were gonna go and let people know we were called into ministry. As the pastor was giving the invitation, the same exact sensation I had at seven years old being saved, I had again in my life. And I knew it was God's confirmation that all along He had set me a aside for the purpose of calling me to ministry. And that's a month after that date is the first time I ever got a call from a church and it said, Hey, we want you to come be our part time youth pastor. And that's where everything started in ministry.
Colby: Well the good thing about being part time to start off with too is you had all this other background of all these different things you could do.
Vincent Harrison: Yeah. I and you know what? I think that's kind of invaluable for a lot of people. I I think there's a lot of people in ministry who've never done anything else. And boy, you need to do something else to understand the people you're ministering to.
Colby: Yeah, it definitely, you know, we were talking before we started that I'm full time or seven years in ministry and then now been a firefighter for about fifteen. And and and it it does just help you to be able to, and I won't do this forever, but the firefighter part, I'm getting in my forties and I can't do that. That's a job you can't do forever. But but but it does it being able to connect with people and and identify with people. I think I was telling somebody just the other day that I don't think God wastes anything, you know, in our past. It whether it's the the good, the bad, Romans eight twenty eight, he works all things together for good. Those that love him and are called according to his purpose. And some of those things we don't like or we don't like at the time, but I don't think he wastes that. He he uses all those things. So man, I that's awesome. And I I was gonna ask you specifically about that, about feeling called to ministry and how that happened, but but it just kinda you you you kind of went went down all these other roads and then God just said, No, no, no, no, no. Yes, you know.
Vincent Harrison: Yes, that's exactly what happened. And once I received once I stepped into that position, well, then I was a part-time youth minister at a church for about two and a half years. And then that's when I went and did the one year in Nebraska. I went to help out with the ministry on campus up there. The guy who replaced me in Tulsa, who became the youth minister there, he just left them in the middle of the night, quit on. So the pastor called me, and this is about nine months into it or so. The pastor called me and he said, Why don't you come back down here and be our youth minister again? He goes, And w the church will pay for your schooling. And I said, I I sense the Lord moving.
Colby: Yeah.
Vincent Harrison: yeah. So we went back to the same church. So I served at that same church twice. So we're there for about a little over two more years, and then was called down to First Baptist Church Durant, which is Not too far north of where you get to do your firefighting right now. And I was there all the 90s, 91 through 2000, and that's when I went on board with the Baptist Journal Convention of Oklahoma and had several positions there, including program director at False Creek and also director of conference centers there before becoming pastor here in Paul's Valley.
Colby: So you did youth minister for a long time and we'll come back to that
Vincent Harrison: Yeah.
Colby: here in a little bit, but so how how did how did that prepare you for what you did at the convention and then the convention prepare you for being camp director and then all that prepare you for being a senior lead pastor where you are now? How how can you how can you see God kind of using all these different things just to to prepare you to be where you are?
Vincent Harrison: it all goes back to me to that God working sovereignly in my life as a junior in high school to give that guy three years, you know, bring him into the town where I live, and I'm a part of this eight guys that say yes to this Bible study and and my life is transformed in that. And so with all that input, I wanted to take what I had learned. Really, he did that Bible study. He was a member of our church, but we kind of did that Bible study outside of church. I wanted to take as a as a youth minister what I did outside of church and bring it into the church. We need to disciple people like that. when I started doing youth ministry in the church, I that's what I was doing. I mean, I was really trying to equip people for to not live as a Christian for a season of their life during their middle school and high school years, but throughout their life. And so we We were doing that, my wife and I both, and then when we went down to Durant, we were writing our own curriculum and eventually the church said, You need to publish that. So we self-published a three three books. There's a series of discipleship curriculum, which then Lifeway, the publisher, picked up and ran in the early two thousands for a while. But that because of that discipleship, that's what caused the convention. James Langford, who was the person at the time at the convention who was doing youth ministry and was False Creek program director. he was talk I didn't know this till later, but he was talking to some BCM leaders, which is collegiate ministry leaders. And he was asking them, Hey, you get kids coming from all different churches. Is there are there any kids you get coming to your schools that are equipped and ready to go when they get there? And all of them were going, well mostly, you know, we have to work with them a year or so. And there was one BCM leader who said, I get a lot of kids from Durant, Oklahoma, First Baptist Durant. And those kids, when they get here, they're ready to work the first day. W there's not training we have to do or anything because whoever's equipping them is doing that. And I I mean I that a lot of those people they were talking about were young ladies. So it that that credit goes to my wife actually, who was discipling them. But but James talked to me, and I ended up being the person they hired to be a student education specialist at the convention. So that my work in youth ministry and what I did as far as developing discipleship programs for students is what got the attention of the convention. And then it helped me because I knew in a practical sense, this is how it works in a church. And so going on the convention staff, I was able to go out to churches and go, hey, I know this works in a church, and I know this will help your students, and this will help. You're adults who work with students because that's what I've done. And so I had about fifteen years of experience, almost sixteen, before I ever even got on the state staff.
Colby: those are some good things that prepared you for that? But what are some what were some challenges? And and now that you've you've kind of bookended local church ministry with some with some some other ministry, you know, the convention and Falls Creek in the middle of those things, those bookends of youth and now senior pastor, what are some what are some differences? What are some challenges maybe that from maybe going from local church ministry to those other kind of ministries or maybe going from there back to to local church ministry.
Vincent Harrison: Sure. Chal the biggest challenge in in going from local church to the convention was you were now no longer like for me, I was still in student ministry, but now instead of working with students, I was working with those who work with students. So my connection point was all the Sunday school teachers, was all the discipleship leaders, the youth ministers, and all that crew, instead of just working with students directly. And I can tell you that for a person who loves the local church, that first six months that I was at the convention, I'd be sitting at a desk and I literally had a six foot table, the old kind that weighed about two hundred pounds. You know, those tables. And it had a little phone on it and I had a yellow legal pad. This is what I had as equipment then when I first got there. And I would sit at the desk and I go, what do I do? And I one day I would say, man, this is the greatest job ever. And the next day I'd say, You gotta get me out of here, Lord, and get me back in the local church. So that went on for about six months till he settled my heart there. So it was a big challenge making the shift of who I was working with and then how to direct my programming to help them understand how to communicate the things that I had always communicated to students as well. going back to the local church is not that difficult because I've always been connected. even as a member, we helped out. We we led discipleship and student ministries wherever we were, both at First Baptist Church Piedmont and at Quail Springs Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. Kim and I taught us adult Sunday school class that went from like eight to seventy. I mean it became a small church inside that Quail Springs is huge. So but we got to do that. so we we've ha we were stayed connected. So and going back to the local church, that that's a well known entity and it was kind of a smooth transition and I'm really I'm loving it again.
Colby: so now that you're servant, this is your first lead pastor, senior pastor position, right? You've done all these other things, but is this your first first, you know? So what
Vincent Harrison: That's right. Yes.
Colby: what's that like? What's the transition not just from maybe that to local church ministry, but but even inside of local church ministry from being youth guy to being the lead guy.
Vincent Harrison: Well, I I think God prepared me in two ways, both in the local church that when I was a youth minister and also at the convention. In the in the local church in Durant, I was minister of students and senior adults.
Colby: Mm.
Vincent Harrison: So I worked a and listen, if you're a youth minister and you get to work with senior adults, don't fight against it because when when the senior adults love you, you're in good stead, my friend. So
Colby: That's true.
Vincent Harrison: But working with those senior adults helped me understand that really, honestly, my I have a l I have really a little thing that I always say that it's true. W none of us ever get out of middle school. The pro the problems with senior adults or adults, they're they're middle school problems. They just act more sophisticated because we're adults. You know, it's still like I I'm mad at her, he's mad at me, or they did something to hurt me. I mean, it's all the same thing. and so I think for me, I I had that experience with senior adults coming out of youth ministry. But then at the convention, well, I had a lot of leadership role responsibility. I mean the Falls Creek budget in the summer as program director was close to seven hundred, eight hundred thousand dollars. Whenever I became director of conference centers, now I'm leading this entity that's the budget's closer to five or six million dollars. And and so it's like running a small city. I I had a staff of twenty one when I first got there. COVID cut us down a bunch to about sixteen or so, but that gave me the chance to work with the staff. That gave me a chance to understand how you y have how you have to negotiate everything from working with people as far as what they get paid to expectations that you lay out to here's the vision of where we're going, how to bite your tongue when things come down the pipe from above me that I didn't, you know, like. I mean all those things.
Colby: Yeah.
Vincent Harrison: And that and that happens routinely as a pastor. Anybody in a leadership role, no matter what your role is, no matter what your occupation is, you have those things. What I remember is this I'm not fighting our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against
Colby: Mm-hmm.
Vincent Harrison: powers and principalities and the forces of the darkness of this world, you know. And and so I I I realize most times people just want to be heard. And so when I get in and and I have it when I work with my deacons, you know, I we have a good time when we get together. one of the things that God helped me learn early is the balance between I like to ha laugh and have a good time and I know the difference between the time when that needs to end and I we need to get serious about what we're doing here. But if you can keep that balance, people understand that life is a balance. Because there's some people who they walk into every meeting, as you well know, they're serious as a heart attack about everything.
Colby: Mm-hmm. yeah.
Vincent Harrison: and you just gotta go, you know, you might want to lighten up a little. And then there's other people who you can't ever get serious. But life is a balance and knowing that balance. And and when you work with people, that's been helpful through all my experience to bring me into this role as as senior pastor.
Colby: Let me ask you this. Do you ever miss just being the youth guy?
Vincent Harrison: Right up until I see people sleeping in the dorm at camp. and then I go, you know, I really enjoy going home to my bed. no, I there there are things that I miss about it. I I I I miss the enthusiasm of youth and the idealism and working with people who say we can change the everything still. You know, adults they kind of get settled in and go, Yeah, I know the limitations. I'm not gonna I don't think I can still do that, but th youth don't have that, so it's it's nice to be around that.
Colby: Well, you've invested in younger people and investing in older people. like you said, and I I love that you said that to to to be close with the youth and the senior adult ministry, because we went to Honduras on a mission trip this summer and really got to we're there about eight days, but about half the group that went, half were younger, you know, people with kids my age, or people with with kids who are my my kids' age and stuff and around major, a lot quite a few youth went but we had quite a few senior adults and course you know, and with kids, camp is a huge thing because when you go to a place and you're together for a week, especially one of the things I love about Falls
Vincent Harrison: Mm-hmm.
Colby: Creek is it's we I've been to smaller camps in the past, but Falls Creek is so big and I know people that people use that as a critique. But I love it because it makes my group kind of kind of come in towards each other. They don't really know anybody else. So they when they're gonna go do something, they go do it with each other and they come back way closer you guys, I know when you were there and that's this is continued, but such a focus on small group Bible study in the cabin and doing things together with your group instead of just always being in the big group. and I I know that's intentional on you guys' part and I appreciate that. but you know, adults, senior adults and adults don't really have those experiences unless you can talk into going to camp. And I'm I'm blessed that I have a lot of I I have a waiting list of adults that want to go every year. And I'm just I'm blessed in that 'cause I not ever not everybody has that, but But mission trips are a place where you can connect where adults can do that. For me, that's my experience.
Vincent Harrison: yeah.
Colby: And man, I really enjoyed getting to know some of our senior adults that week that were in Honduras. It was just awesome. Just hearing their stories. And I I love hearing people's stories. I the fire service part of me, I they don't let me do anything on the ambulance anymore since I'm a captain. But every now and then I get back and they
Vincent Harrison: Mm-hmm.
Colby: just say, Can you just talk to this person? I'm like, I'm your guy. I'm I can do that, you know.
Vincent Harrison: Yeah, yeah.
Colby: I just love hearing those stories. There's so much wisdom to be gained from them. how important is it, do you think, for for a pastor, for church leadership, but just anyone really to have those older people invest in the younger people? Like, like and to to kind of bridge that gap there? Do you think that's an important thing?
Vincent Harrison: It is, and we have to be creative about it. We have so many technological tools that can help us with that now. I mean, when I was doing youth ministry, you know, I mean, there's still overhead projectors and stuff. Now you can anybody can make a video with just their phone, right? So you you can do that. And what you need to do is students see senior adults as they are right now. So you need to get pictures of them when they were younger and show them those pictures and go, you know, that's Because the here's what we've learned about aging, right? I'm I've turned sixty-five here on Wednesday and and so I don't feel sixty-five. I've I mean inside, you know, you're like that eighteen year old, twenty-year-old kid and you're you're still tr figuring life out in a lot of ways. You're doing you your mind doesn't age like your body ages in that sense. b except you're getting wisdom. Obviously you're acquiring wisdom over those years. And so if students can see, yeah, th this person yeah was once like me, and then they're able to hear the wisdom. I think if you can record testimonies of your senior adults especially and then be able to get those before your and I say record them instead of having them come in because sometimes they're they're like me rambling on. All right, and and and you can edit that down and have great testimonies, and then your your students have a greater respect for those people who are not only important to the workings of the church, but they're certainly the financial supporters of your church.
Colby: Yeah. Yeah, those are good ideas about recording that, giving get having those testimonies available for those kids. And and you know, I my my own kids, my kids are a senior and a sophomore. And I've noticed that with them is that when they've of course they're involved in everything we do. My wife, like your wife, she's she's the backbone of every ministry that I've been a part
Vincent Harrison: Mm-hmm.
Colby: of. And she's really the reason that they keep me around is just so they don't lose her. But But my kids are super involved My son plays drums in the praise team. My daughter does know, photography for our our media
Vincent Harrison: Right.
Colby: team and stuff, but but seeing them build relationships with some of those older people and a couple of them have been very purposefully investing in my kids. Like one there's a couple of ladies who after the mission trip have asked to take my daughter out for Braum's just take her out to eat and things.
Vincent Harrison: that's awesome.
Colby: And so that's and that's been so it's so impactful for her because you know, teenage girls. I wasn't around girls growing up. It was all boys and it's a different world. And I I have trouble connecting with with that, know, that part sometimes of what she's going through. Cause I I haven't I obviously haven't been through some of those things as not a girl,
Vincent Harrison: Right.
Colby: but but these ladies have. And and that I I love what you said there because that connection was has been so meaningful in my daughter's life.
Vincent Harrison: the more people they have in their life that are adults like that that they don't want to disappoint, the more likely they are to walk according to the the the the morality and the s the integrity you know that we need to as believers.
Colby: I remember years ago the National Study of Youth and Religion, and you're probably all over this, but I remember one of the things Richard Ross and some of the a lot of people were involved in that that big study, but I remember one of the findings was was about they're talking about how likely teenagers are to stay involved in church after they get out of youth group. And one of the number one factors was how many meaningful relationships they had with people who were not other teenagers in their church. because you
Vincent Harrison: Yeah, exactly.
Colby: know so there's some big churches where They have a thriving, you know, if they're in college town or whatever and they're staying local, then they have a they can't really move into a thriving college ministry or whatever. But a lot of small churches like the the city where I serve at and stuff like that, they don't really have that. There's no college there. The kids go off
Vincent Harrison: Mm-hmm.
Colby: and so you kind of lose them. So the ones that stay around, they they don't really have a place. But what I've I've I've seen that in our church is that the ones who have those meaningful relationships, they graduate from youth and they still feel like that that's their family.
Vincent Harrison: Yep, that's good. That's right.
Colby: All right, so so you've invested in a lot of people over the years. Who are some people who've invested in you? I know you talked about navigators and some things like that. Who are some people that have invested in you and and made an impact?
Vincent Harrison: Well, th there was a first person was probably my pastor, Joe Knowles, who was a pastor, passed away a long time ago, but that there at First Baptist Church Sepulpah. And he always called me Preacher Boy, saying you're gonna be a preacher, and I'm like, I don't matter of fact I'd always said I wouldn't be a pastor. my mom always used to tell me too, she used to say Don't say what you won't do, because God will just take those words, bake a cake, and make you eat it. And that's exactly what he's done. So now I'm a pastor. but he always treated me that way. And so he he gave me insights into things, you know, and spent time with me and and kind of invested in me in small ways. John, the guy who discipled me, who was with the navigators for those three years, life changer. And so that was very significant. Then when I got to Durant. There was a pastor there who was only there about four and a half years before he retired. He stayed in town, but he was there. His name was Gerald Tidwell. And Gerald has since passed on. But Gerald was an absolute unbelievable preacher, best kept secret in Oklahoma. And and he really he he told us whenever I first got there on staff, he said, you know, I'm not going to socialize with you guys. I I mean, I see you at work and that kind stuff. He he was kind of an introvert. I think he'd been burned at a place before a church. For some reason I I kept going to him and saying, Would you take would you go you know, I don't know how to do these visits. If you take me with you when you go on hospital visit or this or that, you know, I want to go and learn these things. And he took me under his wing and we really became close, close friends. and Gerald was an immense help to me in ministry, teaching me everything from just how to do those simple little things of ministry to how to lead, how to how to be with people and and how to make tough decisions. And so those are s some of the people that have have have poured into me and made the big difference in my life.
Colby: What's an important leadership lesson you feel like you've learned picked up somewhere along the way?
Vincent Harrison: boy. leadership lesson. I I'm gonna Probably the number one thing is just to always be yourself and to be honest. And when I say be yourself, I don't I don't mean be yourself like being an idiot or being mean or crude and stuff and saying, well, this is how God made me. I'm talking about you don't need to be two different people. You don't need to be like I I'm I'm pastoring, right? So every Sunday I get up and preach and I don't need to be one person in the pulpit and somebody outside of it. I mean, you need can be consistently who you are and and then that person that you consistently are needs to walk in honesty and integrity. And so for me, the Lord has blessed me in a way I don't I don't like the way he's blessed me, but he's blessed me in that he's always put people around me who have felt n they had no problem pointing out when I did something I shouldn't do, or whenever I maybe acted out of side character. And And at the moment I hate that stuff. I mean, I just, you know, I get defensive like the next person. And then later on I go, you know what, Lord, I th that they were right. thank you for sending them in my life so that I don't stay an idiot. You know, I can be the stupid in the moment, but I don't want to be that way always. And so I think just walking in integrity and being that person that a consistency in your character is is key.
Colby: All right. You have a lot of years in ministry at a lot of different levels, from state to local church. give us something funny. Give us a good story that you've got. And and I know we're gonna have to probably limit it, but give us one or two good stories.
Vincent Harrison: All right, I'll I'll give you I'll give you one. this is when I were I was in Durant as as a youth minister. there was a lady, senior adult lady, and she she told me one day, she goes, Andy, my sister, she's gonna die pretty soon, and I want you to do her funeral. You know, she was telling me she wanted her to do her sister's funeral. And her sister lived in Norman, had lived in Norman for years and years. And I said, Well, didn't she have a church up there? Well, she did, but I know that I'm going to be in charge of stuff when she dies, and I want you to do that funeral, you know. And she and she goes, and I want you to sing at her funeral. Now you have to understand. I don't sing. Okay. I mean, I sing, but not so as everyone will hear. And so she wants me to sing. And I said, sure. Her name is Essie May. I said, Sure, Essie May. I'll I'll I'll you know, I'll help you out. If if she actually wants that, then that you know, that's what I'll do. And so not even a month passed. And I'm in the shower one Saturday morning and Kim, my wife, yells at me and I stick my head out the curtain and she said, Essie Mae called, she said she wants you to call her, her sister passed away. And I said, okay, well I guess okay. So I got ready and then I called her back and she she just said that she died and no, I want you to do the funeral and I said, Okay. I if if they're gonna Have me do it. And she goes, Well, I'll let you know. Well, I didn't hear from her. And the weekend went by. She was gone on Sunday because the next day, because she was up in Norman, I guess, with her sister. And I guess it figured out, maybe she did have a church and she was going to be, you Well, Tuesday morning rolls around, and I'm at the church, and this guy, an older senior adult guy named Ed Shreve, walks in and he says, Andy, what are you doing here? I said, Well, Ed, I work here. so I that's yeah, that's why I'm in here. And he goes, Well, I know you can't be two places at once. I said, You know, this is this is a tough day for you, Ed. Yeah, I understand. What are you talking about? And he goes, Well, we're headed out to Essie May's sister's funeral. And she told us that you were doing it. It's out graveside in about thirty minutes out here at Ashley, Oklahoma. I had heard nothing. I'm doing the funeral and it's thirty minutes from now. All right, I'm I'm in like youth minute. I got shorts on and a shirt. So I run home, which is not far in Durant, grab grab my suit and grab Bible, and I remember thinking, She said, I want you to sing at this funeral. And I just happened to have a hymnal at my home at at the house. So I grabbed that hymnal too, and I took off and I thought, Lord, please. So anyway, I didn't even know where this where this graveside, it was just a graveside, but it was taking place out in the middle of this place. I didn't know where it was. And there was no GPS back then. So I am just going, Lord, you gotta direct me to this place. and I I did stop back by the church and somebody said, I'll tell you this is how you get there. I got a quick best map I could get. I get out there, I'm like five minutes before it's supposed to start. I don't even know this lady's name. I don't even know her name. And and so I walk out there and there's the family around and there I'm thinking it's gonna be one or two people. This they were both like ninety plus years old, you know, there's not gonna be many people out there. There's like thirty or forty people gathered around this graveside and the funeral guy g hands me a the little program and it's got her name in it and stuff, and I'm out there this the worst thing ever that can ever happen to you. Like I'm doing this funeral, I don't even know who the person is, and I'm opening it up and I go, Lord, we're here you know, it's time for me to start. And I notice in the program, Officiating Reverend Andy Harrison. Special music, Reverend Andy Harrison. I'm like, my gosh, my gosh. So anyway, I I start out and I'm like, Lord, we're here to to for the service of Gladys Benson, who you know, I'm looking down at her name because I don't even I'm like, my gosh. You can imagine, and everybody else is thinking, I've I've been prepared, I know what this stuff is. Of course, I have funeral stuff that I've done before, so I've kind of gonna go through that. those funeral things. But then when it was over, and I get through this short ceremony, I just shut my Bible and I open up that hymnal and I just I've come to the garden alone. I start singing. And the only reason I'm singing that song is because of course is Andy Walks with me. Andy
Colby: Yeah.
Vincent Harrison: talks with me. I've been like I I did a funeral I didn't even know I was doing. So Don't ever get caught in that situation, Colby. Not good.
Colby: not sure about funerals, but I've had s I've I've been volunteered for lots of ministry things over the years, you know, and and and sometimes it's man, that's it sometimes. Sometimes you just show up and make the best of it. And and the
Vincent Harrison: Yeah.
Colby: the cool thing is is that God sees you through, you know, and and and it creates a fun story to tell later on a podcast, right? So
Vincent Harrison: What if that guy had not shown up? What if he'd not shown up and told me I hey, I'm going out to this funeral? man, terrible.
Colby: yeah. Yeah. He works all things together for good for those that love him and are called according to his purpose, Andy. That's that's how. And I forgot, you know, there's there's some old Aggie joke about knowing God's name and and the
Vincent Harrison: Yeah.
Colby: Jehovah and all this other stuff, and the Aggie says Andy, and they Wow, Andy walks with me, Andy talks with me. Anyway,
Vincent Harrison: That's right. Yeah.
Colby: well, that's good, that's great. Want to move on just to as we kind of finish up to something else you've got going on now, a new thing for you is you are a podcaster now. You have a new podcast called Jurassic Andy's TNT, right? so tell us, the name, what what what that means and and kind of what led to the inspiration for that.
Vincent Harrison: a few years ago I started doing these posts on Facebook. They had a lot of followers just because of my work at False Creek and did these posts called Jurassic Andy Posts because I'm this social, spiritual and you know, cultural throwback. I'm the old K curmudgeon in the room now, so I called myself Jurassic Andy and And everybody I kinda like those posters. They're a lot of it's just a lot of fun. It was just funny stuff that I was writing, you know, where I would go off about something and really doing it light lightheartedly. And and so I took that and thought, well, you know, I'm gonna do this little podcast. Because when I was started studying as a pastor for the sermons that I'm preaching, I wanted to encapsulate the thoughts of the sermons that I'm writing. And I you need to get the main idea just down to that one little thing and I thought a good way to do that is to try to write it in a a short form and I love music. I can't play music, I can't really sing well. I mean, I'm all right, but I I can't sing well. so AI now a allows me to the capability to be able to I can write all the lyrics, I can write a song. So what if I were gonna write the the crux of what I'm trying to teach into the song form? How how would that song go or how what would I have to say? What are the critical points I'd want to include in that song? So I started writing those just for my own edification. And I was doing that. Then I'd take AI and I would let it create the music and the vocals. And and it was kind of fun. I was just doing just for fun. And it really it I'd all over the map on music genre, everything from country to to hip hop to nineties garage band to r church choir music. I mean, I just using different whatever fit the song best. And so basically I would I would preach a sermon and that on nights when I had downtime I would just work on these little songs and do this stuff. And I was just listening to it in my car. And it helped me kind of think through the whole point of what I was teaching and preaching. Well, I had a bunch of those now, twenty or thirty of them already in the hopper. And I thought, you know, I'll just do a little podcast called Jurassic Andes TNT. TNT starts for thought and a tune. So I'm doing a devotion and then afterwards there's a song. that plays that kind of reinforces what I was speaking about on my devotion. And so it's the one way that I found, you know, I I tell people before AI takes over and kills us all, I thought I'd use it for a little fun, because the the apps that you can get for that really help create and it's kinda fun because it's not I'm not asking AI to create anything for me that's a spiritual thing. I give all the lyrics. It just puts it to music and And so I work with that and and it takes a little while to get the right music and get the right, you know, stuff for it. But it's been fun and and I've put out about four of those now. And it's available on on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and Buzz Sprout and and YouTube, all that. So it's kinda been kinda fun.
Colby: Yeah. Well I I I was telling you before you started, I I listened to episode three I haven't listened to episode four yet, but I've listened to the first three. And episode three, let's get ready to grumble. I tell people go listen to that one. I'll we'll put a link to the podcast here in the description below on all of our things. So whoever's listening or watching, you can you can find the link to Andy's podcast there. But man, I identified perfectly with with the with the one in in session three with with what you're talking about. I dare say preaching about there. So that was it was really good. I so I and I appreciate you doing
Vincent Harrison: Mm-hmm. Thank you.
Colby: that. I I kind of want to ask you a question about that though, and kind of a bonus question really, that we we didn't really plan for a lot, but we brought up AI. you know, that's such a a big deal right now. and and so I'm sure there are some some qualms, there's some hesitation about using AI. what are your thoughts on that? for for people in general, but especially for people in ministry. do you think that there's a a line we draw? Do you think that there's use it like you said before it takes over and kills us, use it to use it for the kingdom? What what do you what do you think about that?
Vincent Harrison: Yeah. Well, that's Yeah. and of course I say that lightheartedly, but you know, right now, as of the day that we're recording this, there's there's really ex there's expectation that stock market's gonna tank today simply because of AI getting ahead of itself and people getting worried about where it's going because it's been been trying to crack codes and break into certain things, you know, and and that's that's not good. That that's so typical of man though, it in that we create something and then think whether or not we should have. because we're worried about losing the situation. And I'll tell you another thing too. Think about this. We know that God's omniscient, he has all knowledge. You know what doesn't scare us at all that God has all knowledge, that he knows everything, what's gonna happen, what what has happened? he He knows the answer to every problem that we have right now. He knows all know what it doesn't scare us at all. You know why? Because God is good and full of love. But that man has all knowledge should scare us to absolute death. but when it comes particularly to the ministry, there are some limits. Absolutely there are. I mean, I'm using that recreationally on this podcast just for music and stuff. And then it kind of builds back in the idea. But every single word that's on it is a word that I've written. It's not something that AI added to it. If I go to prepare a sermon, I I've gotten on my, I'm looking at my desk over here across the way, and I've got a stack of books over here that I'm using to read and prepare as I'm preaching through Matthew. And and I'm going to then gather ideas from that. I'm going to then put what the Holy Spirit speaks to my heart down, I'll write out a manuscript for that sermon on that. I'm not going to let AI create that. The Holy Spirit doesn't is not a part of the AI process. And
Colby: Yeah, absolutely.
Vincent Harrison: so you can Put some things in there. And by the way, it can create some great outlines for you. It can create I'm sure it can write some decent sermons. Now, most AI, you can tell it's AI writing it on because of the way the language is. And I'm sure there are guys that are probably opting to do that. I'm just gonna tell you right now, that's beyond the pale as far as I'm concerned. the Lord has called me as a minister of the gospel. He's asked me to shepherd this people. He's not asked a computer to do that thing. And so there is a limit on it. Absolutely there is. I think there's a limit on it in in general for how we ought to use AI, but specifically when it comes to the ministry. I think you can use it as a research tool. I don't I don't know I don't use it a lot as a research tool. I use still use books and that kind of thing. but I don't know how you don't bleed over into I mean, I don't know how to trust the resources. I'd have to have a lot of documentation with what it provided me for as resource material before I would you know Before I would feel good about ever using anything that I receive from it. Now, I've used AI in this sense. I've asked AI questions, and like the as a part of a sermon last week, I said, What is the most important question in the world? So I asked different AI engines what that was. And of course, now I that's that's simply getting okay. And so I told my congregation, this is what AI says the most important question is, but here's what Jesus says: Who do you say that I am? So You know, I mean s use it in that way, but that's not a way that you're actually using it to teach people. It's you're just using it as an example.
Colby: Yeah, I've I've used it for like coming up with points. Like, you know, sometimes pastors, you want to have all the points to all start with R or all start you know what I mean, something like that.
Vincent Harrison: Yes.
Colby: So I've done that. I've put my points in and said, try to arrange this in a way where I can, you know, where they could be A, B, C, D, or they could whatever. And
Vincent Harrison: Yeah. Alliterate it. Yeah.
Colby: and and it's it's good at those things. There's some things that definitely has value and but I I'm with you that that if we're called to be if God calls us to be pastors, Then we need to be pastors. We need to do what God's calls to shepherd the flock. And you can't let a computer do it. You have to be the one to do it. And that's that takes time. It takes energy. It takes resources. It takes you get frustrated sometimes. It would it be easier just to let the computer handle everything and handle the lesson? Probably so. but that's not what our calling is. You know, our calling is to serve and to lead, and and and that's really what that's what we talk about on this podcast. And man, that's what we've been talking about for a long time is your ministry and and how you've been leading. Man, I want to thank you, Andy, for being on with us today and just thank you so much for all the the years of ministry that you've done. I've benefited. I I've I said earlier that I've you know I started bringing kids to Falls Creek in two thousand and four when you were still there and the devotional, the end all devotional, some of those things that I know you had a hand in years and years and years ago. some of that curriculum and stuff, I I still use and it's been a long time and I still use some of those things. And so I'm so thankful for you and for your ministry over the years and just how you're continuing to serve, but how you've invested either either personally or even impersonally in so many lives for the kingdom over the last however many generations it's been that you've been serving. So I I just wanna thank you for that.
Vincent Harrison: Thanks, Colby. Listen, it's it's a privilege to get to do this with and get to speak with you and appreciate you too on behalf of the as I'm I'll retro myself back to False Creek program director. Thanks for trusting us to come and bring your kids there and be faithful, bring them to camp and and it's it's people like you who inv who are investing in people on a regular basis that make the difference and and I'm grateful for your ministry and what you're doing now and how you're using it and how you're saying, Okay, I want to be as big a influence as I can be f for the cause of Christ.
Colby: My pleasure. And I, man, I appreciate you again. Thank you, Andy, for being here. Thank you guys for listening. We'll catch you next time on Called to Lead
Vincent Harrison: I'm doing great, Kobe. It's good to see ya and good to be with you today. Yeah. Doing well.
Colby: Thank you very much for taking time. I know local pastoring, that's a different kind of work, different kind different level of responsibility and work and stuff. So I I'm thankful that you took a little bit of time of your day to spend with us today. Why don't you start off just telling us a little bit about you, growing up and stuff, and then about your family.
Vincent Harrison: Sure. I'm originally from Arkansas. I was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and then we moved six months into Little Rock and was there for about ten years and my father, his dad, my granddad, had a shoe store in Sepulpa, Oklahoma. And my dad was working at a newspaper doing some advertising stuff and he decided he didn't want to do that anymore. So he said, We're gonna up and move to Sepulpa and take over in our dad's shoe store. So basically we moved to Sepulpa and which is just southwest of Tulsa and that's where I graduated high school, grew up there, met my future wife there. As a matter of fact, we knew each other when I was in seventh grade and she was in the fifth. And we started dating when I was a senior and she was a sophomore in high school. And we dated about four and a half years. Then we got married. currently we've been married forty-three going on forty-four years. she wonderful wife, mom. I mean, everything that I knew of when I was when I was watching her when we were dating that I thought she's gonna be great at. She's been f fantastic at. And so it's wonder wonderful life partner. we have three children and now have eight grandchildren with one more on the way. So
Colby: Congratulations.
Vincent Harrison: yeah. And so we've lived in Oklahoma. I've lived in Oklahoma all that time except for one year of exile in Nebraska. went up to help out with the Navigators Ministry on the campus of University of Nebraska Lincoln for one year. I was actually at school there too, so I I was a corn husker for a year. but then we came back down to to Oklahoma again. So that's kind of me and my family, and where I've been.
Colby: tell us how you came to faith in Christ. One of the things I always want to hear from people is you as far as leadership and stuff, being a Christian is always if you're a believer, that's your foundational thing, is just knowing Jesus. So why don't you tell us about that? How you came to faith in Jesus.
Vincent Harrison: Yeah, absolutely. when I was seven years old, we were living there in Little Rock. I had a friend down the street, and he and I, good buddies, and w one day, you know, it's how it is when you're seven years old. One day you're getting along great, next day you're fighting like cats and dogs and stuff. But he started doing some things that my mom and dad always told me were wrong. And, you know, you y you don't know a whole lot about life when you're seven years old, but I knew that he was doing some things that they had said was wrong. And I asked my mom one day, I said, Why Why does David do that stuff? And she said, It may be because he doesn't know Jesus. Now, we my parents were Christians. We grew up in I was going to church nine months before I was born. I mean, I I've been in church all my life and I thought everybody knew Jesus and she said and that's what I told her. I said, Well, doesn't everybody know Jesus? And she goes, No, son, there's a time where every person has to admit that they're a sinner in need of a savior, and they need to ask Jesus to forgive them of their sins. And so my mom is the one that led me to Christ when I was seven years old. I remember we were in revival actually. So I think the Spirit of God was really working on me as a as a child during that time. whenever that that next night we went to service and when he when the pastor gave an invitation, I was immediately leaving my seat and going down to speak with him. And I was so excited. I remember standing there in that pew and and feeling it w it was like a a sensation. I'd never had it ever before, physical type of thing in in me. And and I went forward and was excited as a little child and I stayed active in the church and was a good kid growing up. But really, even though I was a believer, and I know I was, and was a good good kid, didn't get into a lot of trouble or anything like that, I still didn't really know what it meant fully to have a relationship with Jesus and walk with him day by day. When I was a junior in high school, there's a guy that came in, started a Bible study, and he had been trained by the he came to Christ his senior year at Kansas State through the Navigators Ministry. And he d got he asked 20 of us to be in this Bible study, only eight of us said yes. And he discipled us for three years, and that changed my entire life. The discipleship process of him just pouring his life into me, teaching me how to pray, read the scripture, study it, memorize scripture, witness all those things. changed my life completely. And I knew during that time that God probably was calling me to ministry. It was during that time I kind of felt that call as well. So that's when my life significantly changed. And I I'll go ahead and say that once, you know, I I I told you that I dated Kim. We were high school sweethearts and things and and and so my desire was to get married. And so getting married you got to have a job. And I so I started going job to job and every job I took, I I was more and more dissatisfied in every job I took. I worked I was working as a bank teller, I worked in a glass factory, I worked at a f as a sales rep for a company, and every job was success in in each successive job I was more and more miserable. And I finally said, Okay, Lord, I I'm done with this. I'm gonna quit this. I'm gonna go back to school, I'm gonna finish up my degree. And I'm gonna open my s this let people know that I'm ready to go serve somewhere in a church. I remember standing there with with Kim and the church. We were our home church was first Baptist Church the Pulp, and we were gonna go and let people know we were called into ministry. As the pastor was giving the invitation, the same exact sensation I had at seven years old being saved, I had again in my life. And I knew it was God's confirmation that all along He had set me a aside for the purpose of calling me to ministry. And that's a month after that date is the first time I ever got a call from a church and it said, Hey, we want you to come be our part time youth pastor. And that's where everything started in ministry.
Colby: Well the good thing about being part time to start off with too is you had all this other background of all these different things you could do.
Vincent Harrison: Yeah. I and you know what? I think that's kind of invaluable for a lot of people. I I think there's a lot of people in ministry who've never done anything else. And boy, you need to do something else to understand the people you're ministering to.
Colby: Yeah, it definitely, you know, we were talking before we started that I'm full time or seven years in ministry and then now been a firefighter for about fifteen. And and and it it does just help you to be able to, and I won't do this forever, but the firefighter part, I'm getting in my forties and I can't do that. That's a job you can't do forever. But but but it does it being able to connect with people and and identify with people. I think I was telling somebody just the other day that I don't think God wastes anything, you know, in our past. It whether it's the the good, the bad, Romans eight twenty eight, he works all things together for good. Those that love him and are called according to his purpose. And some of those things we don't like or we don't like at the time, but I don't think he wastes that. He he uses all those things. So man, I that's awesome. And I I was gonna ask you specifically about that, about feeling called to ministry and how that happened, but but it just kinda you you you kind of went went down all these other roads and then God just said, No, no, no, no, no. Yes, you know.
Vincent Harrison: Yes, that's exactly what happened. And once I received once I stepped into that position, well, then I was a part-time youth minister at a church for about two and a half years. And then that's when I went and did the one year in Nebraska. I went to help out with the ministry on campus up there. The guy who replaced me in Tulsa, who became the youth minister there, he just left them in the middle of the night, quit on. So the pastor called me, and this is about nine months into it or so. The pastor called me and he said, Why don't you come back down here and be our youth minister again? He goes, And w the church will pay for your schooling. And I said, I I sense the Lord moving.
Colby: Yeah.
Vincent Harrison: yeah. So we went back to the same church. So I served at that same church twice. So we're there for about a little over two more years, and then was called down to First Baptist Church Durant, which is Not too far north of where you get to do your firefighting right now. And I was there all the 90s, 91 through 2000, and that's when I went on board with the Baptist Journal Convention of Oklahoma and had several positions there, including program director at False Creek and also director of conference centers there before becoming pastor here in Paul's Valley.
Colby: So you did youth minister for a long time and we'll come back to that
Vincent Harrison: Yeah.
Colby: here in a little bit, but so how how did how did that prepare you for what you did at the convention and then the convention prepare you for being camp director and then all that prepare you for being a senior lead pastor where you are now? How how can you how can you see God kind of using all these different things just to to prepare you to be where you are?
Vincent Harrison: it all goes back to me to that God working sovereignly in my life as a junior in high school to give that guy three years, you know, bring him into the town where I live, and I'm a part of this eight guys that say yes to this Bible study and and my life is transformed in that. And so with all that input, I wanted to take what I had learned. Really, he did that Bible study. He was a member of our church, but we kind of did that Bible study outside of church. I wanted to take as a as a youth minister what I did outside of church and bring it into the church. We need to disciple people like that. when I started doing youth ministry in the church, I that's what I was doing. I mean, I was really trying to equip people for to not live as a Christian for a season of their life during their middle school and high school years, but throughout their life. And so we We were doing that, my wife and I both, and then when we went down to Durant, we were writing our own curriculum and eventually the church said, You need to publish that. So we self-published a three three books. There's a series of discipleship curriculum, which then Lifeway, the publisher, picked up and ran in the early two thousands for a while. But that because of that discipleship, that's what caused the convention. James Langford, who was the person at the time at the convention who was doing youth ministry and was False Creek program director. he was talk I didn't know this till later, but he was talking to some BCM leaders, which is collegiate ministry leaders. And he was asking them, Hey, you get kids coming from all different churches. Is there are there any kids you get coming to your schools that are equipped and ready to go when they get there? And all of them were going, well mostly, you know, we have to work with them a year or so. And there was one BCM leader who said, I get a lot of kids from Durant, Oklahoma, First Baptist Durant. And those kids, when they get here, they're ready to work the first day. W there's not training we have to do or anything because whoever's equipping them is doing that. And I I mean I that a lot of those people they were talking about were young ladies. So it that that credit goes to my wife actually, who was discipling them. But but James talked to me, and I ended up being the person they hired to be a student education specialist at the convention. So that my work in youth ministry and what I did as far as developing discipleship programs for students is what got the attention of the convention. And then it helped me because I knew in a practical sense, this is how it works in a church. And so going on the convention staff, I was able to go out to churches and go, hey, I know this works in a church, and I know this will help your students, and this will help. You're adults who work with students because that's what I've done. And so I had about fifteen years of experience, almost sixteen, before I ever even got on the state staff.
Colby: those are some good things that prepared you for that? But what are some what were some challenges? And and now that you've you've kind of bookended local church ministry with some with some some other ministry, you know, the convention and Falls Creek in the middle of those things, those bookends of youth and now senior pastor, what are some what are some differences? What are some challenges maybe that from maybe going from local church ministry to those other kind of ministries or maybe going from there back to to local church ministry.
Vincent Harrison: Sure. Chal the biggest challenge in in going from local church to the convention was you were now no longer like for me, I was still in student ministry, but now instead of working with students, I was working with those who work with students. So my connection point was all the Sunday school teachers, was all the discipleship leaders, the youth ministers, and all that crew, instead of just working with students directly. And I can tell you that for a person who loves the local church, that first six months that I was at the convention, I'd be sitting at a desk and I literally had a six foot table, the old kind that weighed about two hundred pounds. You know, those tables. And it had a little phone on it and I had a yellow legal pad. This is what I had as equipment then when I first got there. And I would sit at the desk and I go, what do I do? And I one day I would say, man, this is the greatest job ever. And the next day I'd say, You gotta get me out of here, Lord, and get me back in the local church. So that went on for about six months till he settled my heart there. So it was a big challenge making the shift of who I was working with and then how to direct my programming to help them understand how to communicate the things that I had always communicated to students as well. going back to the local church is not that difficult because I've always been connected. even as a member, we helped out. We we led discipleship and student ministries wherever we were, both at First Baptist Church Piedmont and at Quail Springs Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. Kim and I taught us adult Sunday school class that went from like eight to seventy. I mean it became a small church inside that Quail Springs is huge. So but we got to do that. so we we've ha we were stayed connected. So and going back to the local church, that that's a well known entity and it was kind of a smooth transition and I'm really I'm loving it again.
Colby: so now that you're servant, this is your first lead pastor, senior pastor position, right? You've done all these other things, but is this your first first, you know? So what
Vincent Harrison: That's right. Yes.
Colby: what's that like? What's the transition not just from maybe that to local church ministry, but but even inside of local church ministry from being youth guy to being the lead guy.
Vincent Harrison: Well, I I think God prepared me in two ways, both in the local church that when I was a youth minister and also at the convention. In the in the local church in Durant, I was minister of students and senior adults.
Colby: Mm.
Vincent Harrison: So I worked a and listen, if you're a youth minister and you get to work with senior adults, don't fight against it because when when the senior adults love you, you're in good stead, my friend. So
Colby: That's true.
Vincent Harrison: But working with those senior adults helped me understand that really, honestly, my I have a l I have really a little thing that I always say that it's true. W none of us ever get out of middle school. The pro the problems with senior adults or adults, they're they're middle school problems. They just act more sophisticated because we're adults. You know, it's still like I I'm mad at her, he's mad at me, or they did something to hurt me. I mean, it's all the same thing. and so I think for me, I I had that experience with senior adults coming out of youth ministry. But then at the convention, well, I had a lot of leadership role responsibility. I mean the Falls Creek budget in the summer as program director was close to seven hundred, eight hundred thousand dollars. Whenever I became director of conference centers, now I'm leading this entity that's the budget's closer to five or six million dollars. And and so it's like running a small city. I I had a staff of twenty one when I first got there. COVID cut us down a bunch to about sixteen or so, but that gave me the chance to work with the staff. That gave me a chance to understand how you y have how you have to negotiate everything from working with people as far as what they get paid to expectations that you lay out to here's the vision of where we're going, how to bite your tongue when things come down the pipe from above me that I didn't, you know, like. I mean all those things.
Colby: Yeah.
Vincent Harrison: And that and that happens routinely as a pastor. Anybody in a leadership role, no matter what your role is, no matter what your occupation is, you have those things. What I remember is this I'm not fighting our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against
Colby: Mm-hmm.
Vincent Harrison: powers and principalities and the forces of the darkness of this world, you know. And and so I I I realize most times people just want to be heard. And so when I get in and and I have it when I work with my deacons, you know, I we have a good time when we get together. one of the things that God helped me learn early is the balance between I like to ha laugh and have a good time and I know the difference between the time when that needs to end and I we need to get serious about what we're doing here. But if you can keep that balance, people understand that life is a balance. Because there's some people who they walk into every meeting, as you well know, they're serious as a heart attack about everything.
Colby: Mm-hmm. yeah.
Vincent Harrison: and you just gotta go, you know, you might want to lighten up a little. And then there's other people who you can't ever get serious. But life is a balance and knowing that balance. And and when you work with people, that's been helpful through all my experience to bring me into this role as as senior pastor.
Colby: Let me ask you this. Do you ever miss just being the youth guy?
Vincent Harrison: Right up until I see people sleeping in the dorm at camp. and then I go, you know, I really enjoy going home to my bed. no, I there there are things that I miss about it. I I I I miss the enthusiasm of youth and the idealism and working with people who say we can change the everything still. You know, adults they kind of get settled in and go, Yeah, I know the limitations. I'm not gonna I don't think I can still do that, but th youth don't have that, so it's it's nice to be around that.
Colby: Well, you've invested in younger people and investing in older people. like you said, and I I love that you said that to to to be close with the youth and the senior adult ministry, because we went to Honduras on a mission trip this summer and really got to we're there about eight days, but about half the group that went, half were younger, you know, people with kids my age, or people with with kids who are my my kids' age and stuff and around major, a lot quite a few youth went but we had quite a few senior adults and course you know, and with kids, camp is a huge thing because when you go to a place and you're together for a week, especially one of the things I love about Falls
Vincent Harrison: Mm-hmm.
Colby: Creek is it's we I've been to smaller camps in the past, but Falls Creek is so big and I know people that people use that as a critique. But I love it because it makes my group kind of kind of come in towards each other. They don't really know anybody else. So they when they're gonna go do something, they go do it with each other and they come back way closer you guys, I know when you were there and that's this is continued, but such a focus on small group Bible study in the cabin and doing things together with your group instead of just always being in the big group. and I I know that's intentional on you guys' part and I appreciate that. but you know, adults, senior adults and adults don't really have those experiences unless you can talk into going to camp. And I'm I'm blessed that I have a lot of I I have a waiting list of adults that want to go every year. And I'm just I'm blessed in that 'cause I not ever not everybody has that, but But mission trips are a place where you can connect where adults can do that. For me, that's my experience.
Vincent Harrison: yeah.
Colby: And man, I really enjoyed getting to know some of our senior adults that week that were in Honduras. It was just awesome. Just hearing their stories. And I I love hearing people's stories. I the fire service part of me, I they don't let me do anything on the ambulance anymore since I'm a captain. But every now and then I get back and they
Vincent Harrison: Mm-hmm.
Colby: just say, Can you just talk to this person? I'm like, I'm your guy. I'm I can do that, you know.
Vincent Harrison: Yeah, yeah.
Colby: I just love hearing those stories. There's so much wisdom to be gained from them. how important is it, do you think, for for a pastor, for church leadership, but just anyone really to have those older people invest in the younger people? Like, like and to to kind of bridge that gap there? Do you think that's an important thing?
Vincent Harrison: It is, and we have to be creative about it. We have so many technological tools that can help us with that now. I mean, when I was doing youth ministry, you know, I mean, there's still overhead projectors and stuff. Now you can anybody can make a video with just their phone, right? So you you can do that. And what you need to do is students see senior adults as they are right now. So you need to get pictures of them when they were younger and show them those pictures and go, you know, that's Because the here's what we've learned about aging, right? I'm I've turned sixty-five here on Wednesday and and so I don't feel sixty-five. I've I mean inside, you know, you're like that eighteen year old, twenty-year-old kid and you're you're still tr figuring life out in a lot of ways. You're doing you your mind doesn't age like your body ages in that sense. b except you're getting wisdom. Obviously you're acquiring wisdom over those years. And so if students can see, yeah, th this person yeah was once like me, and then they're able to hear the wisdom. I think if you can record testimonies of your senior adults especially and then be able to get those before your and I say record them instead of having them come in because sometimes they're they're like me rambling on. All right, and and and you can edit that down and have great testimonies, and then your your students have a greater respect for those people who are not only important to the workings of the church, but they're certainly the financial supporters of your church.
Colby: Yeah. Yeah, those are good ideas about recording that, giving get having those testimonies available for those kids. And and you know, I my my own kids, my kids are a senior and a sophomore. And I've noticed that with them is that when they've of course they're involved in everything we do. My wife, like your wife, she's she's the backbone of every ministry that I've been a part
Vincent Harrison: Mm-hmm.
Colby: of. And she's really the reason that they keep me around is just so they don't lose her. But But my kids are super involved My son plays drums in the praise team. My daughter does know, photography for our our media
Vincent Harrison: Right.
Colby: team and stuff, but but seeing them build relationships with some of those older people and a couple of them have been very purposefully investing in my kids. Like one there's a couple of ladies who after the mission trip have asked to take my daughter out for Braum's just take her out to eat and things.
Vincent Harrison: that's awesome.
Colby: And so that's and that's been so it's so impactful for her because you know, teenage girls. I wasn't around girls growing up. It was all boys and it's a different world. And I I have trouble connecting with with that, know, that part sometimes of what she's going through. Cause I I haven't I obviously haven't been through some of those things as not a girl,
Vincent Harrison: Right.
Colby: but but these ladies have. And and that I I love what you said there because that connection was has been so meaningful in my daughter's life.
Vincent Harrison: the more people they have in their life that are adults like that that they don't want to disappoint, the more likely they are to walk according to the the the the morality and the s the integrity you know that we need to as believers.
Colby: I remember years ago the National Study of Youth and Religion, and you're probably all over this, but I remember one of the things Richard Ross and some of the a lot of people were involved in that that big study, but I remember one of the findings was was about they're talking about how likely teenagers are to stay involved in church after they get out of youth group. And one of the number one factors was how many meaningful relationships they had with people who were not other teenagers in their church. because you
Vincent Harrison: Yeah, exactly.
Colby: know so there's some big churches where They have a thriving, you know, if they're in college town or whatever and they're staying local, then they have a they can't really move into a thriving college ministry or whatever. But a lot of small churches like the the city where I serve at and stuff like that, they don't really have that. There's no college there. The kids go off
Vincent Harrison: Mm-hmm.
Colby: and so you kind of lose them. So the ones that stay around, they they don't really have a place. But what I've I've I've seen that in our church is that the ones who have those meaningful relationships, they graduate from youth and they still feel like that that's their family.
Vincent Harrison: Yep, that's good. That's right.
Colby: All right, so so you've invested in a lot of people over the years. Who are some people who've invested in you? I know you talked about navigators and some things like that. Who are some people that have invested in you and and made an impact?
Vincent Harrison: Well, th there was a first person was probably my pastor, Joe Knowles, who was a pastor, passed away a long time ago, but that there at First Baptist Church Sepulpah. And he always called me Preacher Boy, saying you're gonna be a preacher, and I'm like, I don't matter of fact I'd always said I wouldn't be a pastor. my mom always used to tell me too, she used to say Don't say what you won't do, because God will just take those words, bake a cake, and make you eat it. And that's exactly what he's done. So now I'm a pastor. but he always treated me that way. And so he he gave me insights into things, you know, and spent time with me and and kind of invested in me in small ways. John, the guy who discipled me, who was with the navigators for those three years, life changer. And so that was very significant. Then when I got to Durant. There was a pastor there who was only there about four and a half years before he retired. He stayed in town, but he was there. His name was Gerald Tidwell. And Gerald has since passed on. But Gerald was an absolute unbelievable preacher, best kept secret in Oklahoma. And and he really he he told us whenever I first got there on staff, he said, you know, I'm not going to socialize with you guys. I I mean, I see you at work and that kind stuff. He he was kind of an introvert. I think he'd been burned at a place before a church. For some reason I I kept going to him and saying, Would you take would you go you know, I don't know how to do these visits. If you take me with you when you go on hospital visit or this or that, you know, I want to go and learn these things. And he took me under his wing and we really became close, close friends. and Gerald was an immense help to me in ministry, teaching me everything from just how to do those simple little things of ministry to how to lead, how to how to be with people and and how to make tough decisions. And so those are s some of the people that have have have poured into me and made the big difference in my life.
Colby: What's an important leadership lesson you feel like you've learned picked up somewhere along the way?
Vincent Harrison: boy. leadership lesson. I I'm gonna Probably the number one thing is just to always be yourself and to be honest. And when I say be yourself, I don't I don't mean be yourself like being an idiot or being mean or crude and stuff and saying, well, this is how God made me. I'm talking about you don't need to be two different people. You don't need to be like I I'm I'm pastoring, right? So every Sunday I get up and preach and I don't need to be one person in the pulpit and somebody outside of it. I mean, you need can be consistently who you are and and then that person that you consistently are needs to walk in honesty and integrity. And so for me, the Lord has blessed me in a way I don't I don't like the way he's blessed me, but he's blessed me in that he's always put people around me who have felt n they had no problem pointing out when I did something I shouldn't do, or whenever I maybe acted out of side character. And And at the moment I hate that stuff. I mean, I just, you know, I get defensive like the next person. And then later on I go, you know what, Lord, I th that they were right. thank you for sending them in my life so that I don't stay an idiot. You know, I can be the stupid in the moment, but I don't want to be that way always. And so I think just walking in integrity and being that person that a consistency in your character is is key.
Colby: All right. You have a lot of years in ministry at a lot of different levels, from state to local church. give us something funny. Give us a good story that you've got. And and I know we're gonna have to probably limit it, but give us one or two good stories.
Vincent Harrison: All right, I'll I'll give you I'll give you one. this is when I were I was in Durant as as a youth minister. there was a lady, senior adult lady, and she she told me one day, she goes, Andy, my sister, she's gonna die pretty soon, and I want you to do her funeral. You know, she was telling me she wanted her to do her sister's funeral. And her sister lived in Norman, had lived in Norman for years and years. And I said, Well, didn't she have a church up there? Well, she did, but I know that I'm going to be in charge of stuff when she dies, and I want you to do that funeral, you know. And she and she goes, and I want you to sing at her funeral. Now you have to understand. I don't sing. Okay. I mean, I sing, but not so as everyone will hear. And so she wants me to sing. And I said, sure. Her name is Essie May. I said, Sure, Essie May. I'll I'll I'll you know, I'll help you out. If if she actually wants that, then that you know, that's what I'll do. And so not even a month passed. And I'm in the shower one Saturday morning and Kim, my wife, yells at me and I stick my head out the curtain and she said, Essie Mae called, she said she wants you to call her, her sister passed away. And I said, okay, well I guess okay. So I got ready and then I called her back and she she just said that she died and no, I want you to do the funeral and I said, Okay. I if if they're gonna Have me do it. And she goes, Well, I'll let you know. Well, I didn't hear from her. And the weekend went by. She was gone on Sunday because the next day, because she was up in Norman, I guess, with her sister. And I guess it figured out, maybe she did have a church and she was going to be, you Well, Tuesday morning rolls around, and I'm at the church, and this guy, an older senior adult guy named Ed Shreve, walks in and he says, Andy, what are you doing here? I said, Well, Ed, I work here. so I that's yeah, that's why I'm in here. And he goes, Well, I know you can't be two places at once. I said, You know, this is this is a tough day for you, Ed. Yeah, I understand. What are you talking about? And he goes, Well, we're headed out to Essie May's sister's funeral. And she told us that you were doing it. It's out graveside in about thirty minutes out here at Ashley, Oklahoma. I had heard nothing. I'm doing the funeral and it's thirty minutes from now. All right, I'm I'm in like youth minute. I got shorts on and a shirt. So I run home, which is not far in Durant, grab grab my suit and grab Bible, and I remember thinking, She said, I want you to sing at this funeral. And I just happened to have a hymnal at my home at at the house. So I grabbed that hymnal too, and I took off and I thought, Lord, please. So anyway, I didn't even know where this where this graveside, it was just a graveside, but it was taking place out in the middle of this place. I didn't know where it was. And there was no GPS back then. So I am just going, Lord, you gotta direct me to this place. and I I did stop back by the church and somebody said, I'll tell you this is how you get there. I got a quick best map I could get. I get out there, I'm like five minutes before it's supposed to start. I don't even know this lady's name. I don't even know her name. And and so I walk out there and there's the family around and there I'm thinking it's gonna be one or two people. This they were both like ninety plus years old, you know, there's not gonna be many people out there. There's like thirty or forty people gathered around this graveside and the funeral guy g hands me a the little program and it's got her name in it and stuff, and I'm out there this the worst thing ever that can ever happen to you. Like I'm doing this funeral, I don't even know who the person is, and I'm opening it up and I go, Lord, we're here you know, it's time for me to start. And I notice in the program, Officiating Reverend Andy Harrison. Special music, Reverend Andy Harrison. I'm like, my gosh, my gosh. So anyway, I I start out and I'm like, Lord, we're here to to for the service of Gladys Benson, who you know, I'm looking down at her name because I don't even I'm like, my gosh. You can imagine, and everybody else is thinking, I've I've been prepared, I know what this stuff is. Of course, I have funeral stuff that I've done before, so I've kind of gonna go through that. those funeral things. But then when it was over, and I get through this short ceremony, I just shut my Bible and I open up that hymnal and I just I've come to the garden alone. I start singing. And the only reason I'm singing that song is because of course is Andy Walks with me. Andy
Colby: Yeah.
Vincent Harrison: talks with me. I've been like I I did a funeral I didn't even know I was doing. So Don't ever get caught in that situation, Colby. Not good.
Colby: not sure about funerals, but I've had s I've I've been volunteered for lots of ministry things over the years, you know, and and and sometimes it's man, that's it sometimes. Sometimes you just show up and make the best of it. And and the
Vincent Harrison: Yeah.
Colby: the cool thing is is that God sees you through, you know, and and and it creates a fun story to tell later on a podcast, right? So
Vincent Harrison: What if that guy had not shown up? What if he'd not shown up and told me I hey, I'm going out to this funeral? man, terrible.
Colby: yeah. Yeah. He works all things together for good for those that love him and are called according to his purpose, Andy. That's that's how. And I forgot, you know, there's there's some old Aggie joke about knowing God's name and and the
Vincent Harrison: Yeah.
Colby: Jehovah and all this other stuff, and the Aggie says Andy, and they Wow, Andy walks with me, Andy talks with me. Anyway,
Vincent Harrison: That's right. Yeah.
Colby: well, that's good, that's great. Want to move on just to as we kind of finish up to something else you've got going on now, a new thing for you is you are a podcaster now. You have a new podcast called Jurassic Andy's TNT, right? so tell us, the name, what what what that means and and kind of what led to the inspiration for that.
Vincent Harrison: a few years ago I started doing these posts on Facebook. They had a lot of followers just because of my work at False Creek and did these posts called Jurassic Andy Posts because I'm this social, spiritual and you know, cultural throwback. I'm the old K curmudgeon in the room now, so I called myself Jurassic Andy and And everybody I kinda like those posters. They're a lot of it's just a lot of fun. It was just funny stuff that I was writing, you know, where I would go off about something and really doing it light lightheartedly. And and so I took that and thought, well, you know, I'm gonna do this little podcast. Because when I was started studying as a pastor for the sermons that I'm preaching, I wanted to encapsulate the thoughts of the sermons that I'm writing. And I you need to get the main idea just down to that one little thing and I thought a good way to do that is to try to write it in a a short form and I love music. I can't play music, I can't really sing well. I mean, I'm all right, but I I can't sing well. so AI now a allows me to the capability to be able to I can write all the lyrics, I can write a song. So what if I were gonna write the the crux of what I'm trying to teach into the song form? How how would that song go or how what would I have to say? What are the critical points I'd want to include in that song? So I started writing those just for my own edification. And I was doing that. Then I'd take AI and I would let it create the music and the vocals. And and it was kind of fun. I was just doing just for fun. And it really it I'd all over the map on music genre, everything from country to to hip hop to nineties garage band to r church choir music. I mean, I just using different whatever fit the song best. And so basically I would I would preach a sermon and that on nights when I had downtime I would just work on these little songs and do this stuff. And I was just listening to it in my car. And it helped me kind of think through the whole point of what I was teaching and preaching. Well, I had a bunch of those now, twenty or thirty of them already in the hopper. And I thought, you know, I'll just do a little podcast called Jurassic Andes TNT. TNT starts for thought and a tune. So I'm doing a devotion and then afterwards there's a song. that plays that kind of reinforces what I was speaking about on my devotion. And so it's the one way that I found, you know, I I tell people before AI takes over and kills us all, I thought I'd use it for a little fun, because the the apps that you can get for that really help create and it's kinda fun because it's not I'm not asking AI to create anything for me that's a spiritual thing. I give all the lyrics. It just puts it to music and And so I work with that and and it takes a little while to get the right music and get the right, you know, stuff for it. But it's been fun and and I've put out about four of those now. And it's available on on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and Buzz Sprout and and YouTube, all that. So it's kinda been kinda fun.
Colby: Yeah. Well I I I was telling you before you started, I I listened to episode three I haven't listened to episode four yet, but I've listened to the first three. And episode three, let's get ready to grumble. I tell people go listen to that one. I'll we'll put a link to the podcast here in the description below on all of our things. So whoever's listening or watching, you can you can find the link to Andy's podcast there. But man, I identified perfectly with with the with the one in in session three with with what you're talking about. I dare say preaching about there. So that was it was really good. I so I and I appreciate you doing
Vincent Harrison: Mm-hmm. Thank you.
Colby: that. I I kind of want to ask you a question about that though, and kind of a bonus question really, that we we didn't really plan for a lot, but we brought up AI. you know, that's such a a big deal right now. and and so I'm sure there are some some qualms, there's some hesitation about using AI. what are your thoughts on that? for for people in general, but especially for people in ministry. do you think that there's a a line we draw? Do you think that there's use it like you said before it takes over and kills us, use it to use it for the kingdom? What what do you what do you think about that?
Vincent Harrison: Yeah. Well, that's Yeah. and of course I say that lightheartedly, but you know, right now, as of the day that we're recording this, there's there's really ex there's expectation that stock market's gonna tank today simply because of AI getting ahead of itself and people getting worried about where it's going because it's been been trying to crack codes and break into certain things, you know, and and that's that's not good. That that's so typical of man though, it in that we create something and then think whether or not we should have. because we're worried about losing the situation. And I'll tell you another thing too. Think about this. We know that God's omniscient, he has all knowledge. You know what doesn't scare us at all that God has all knowledge, that he knows everything, what's gonna happen, what what has happened? he He knows the answer to every problem that we have right now. He knows all know what it doesn't scare us at all. You know why? Because God is good and full of love. But that man has all knowledge should scare us to absolute death. but when it comes particularly to the ministry, there are some limits. Absolutely there are. I mean, I'm using that recreationally on this podcast just for music and stuff. And then it kind of builds back in the idea. But every single word that's on it is a word that I've written. It's not something that AI added to it. If I go to prepare a sermon, I I've gotten on my, I'm looking at my desk over here across the way, and I've got a stack of books over here that I'm using to read and prepare as I'm preaching through Matthew. And and I'm going to then gather ideas from that. I'm going to then put what the Holy Spirit speaks to my heart down, I'll write out a manuscript for that sermon on that. I'm not going to let AI create that. The Holy Spirit doesn't is not a part of the AI process. And
Colby: Yeah, absolutely.
Vincent Harrison: so you can Put some things in there. And by the way, it can create some great outlines for you. It can create I'm sure it can write some decent sermons. Now, most AI, you can tell it's AI writing it on because of the way the language is. And I'm sure there are guys that are probably opting to do that. I'm just gonna tell you right now, that's beyond the pale as far as I'm concerned. the Lord has called me as a minister of the gospel. He's asked me to shepherd this people. He's not asked a computer to do that thing. And so there is a limit on it. Absolutely there is. I think there's a limit on it in in general for how we ought to use AI, but specifically when it comes to the ministry. I think you can use it as a research tool. I don't I don't know I don't use it a lot as a research tool. I use still use books and that kind of thing. but I don't know how you don't bleed over into I mean, I don't know how to trust the resources. I'd have to have a lot of documentation with what it provided me for as resource material before I would you know Before I would feel good about ever using anything that I receive from it. Now, I've used AI in this sense. I've asked AI questions, and like the as a part of a sermon last week, I said, What is the most important question in the world? So I asked different AI engines what that was. And of course, now I that's that's simply getting okay. And so I told my congregation, this is what AI says the most important question is, but here's what Jesus says: Who do you say that I am? So You know, I mean s use it in that way, but that's not a way that you're actually using it to teach people. It's you're just using it as an example.
Colby: Yeah, I've I've used it for like coming up with points. Like, you know, sometimes pastors, you want to have all the points to all start with R or all start you know what I mean, something like that.
Vincent Harrison: Yes.
Colby: So I've done that. I've put my points in and said, try to arrange this in a way where I can, you know, where they could be A, B, C, D, or they could whatever. And
Vincent Harrison: Yeah. Alliterate it. Yeah.
Colby: and and it's it's good at those things. There's some things that definitely has value and but I I'm with you that that if we're called to be if God calls us to be pastors, Then we need to be pastors. We need to do what God's calls to shepherd the flock. And you can't let a computer do it. You have to be the one to do it. And that's that takes time. It takes energy. It takes resources. It takes you get frustrated sometimes. It would it be easier just to let the computer handle everything and handle the lesson? Probably so. but that's not what our calling is. You know, our calling is to serve and to lead, and and and that's really what that's what we talk about on this podcast. And man, that's what we've been talking about for a long time is your ministry and and how you've been leading. Man, I want to thank you, Andy, for being on with us today and just thank you so much for all the the years of ministry that you've done. I've benefited. I I've I said earlier that I've you know I started bringing kids to Falls Creek in two thousand and four when you were still there and the devotional, the end all devotional, some of those things that I know you had a hand in years and years and years ago. some of that curriculum and stuff, I I still use and it's been a long time and I still use some of those things. And so I'm so thankful for you and for your ministry over the years and just how you're continuing to serve, but how you've invested either either personally or even impersonally in so many lives for the kingdom over the last however many generations it's been that you've been serving. So I I just wanna thank you for that.
Vincent Harrison: Thanks, Colby. Listen, it's it's a privilege to get to do this with and get to speak with you and appreciate you too on behalf of the as I'm I'll retro myself back to False Creek program director. Thanks for trusting us to come and bring your kids there and be faithful, bring them to camp and and it's it's people like you who inv who are investing in people on a regular basis that make the difference and and I'm grateful for your ministry and what you're doing now and how you're using it and how you're saying, Okay, I want to be as big a influence as I can be f for the cause of Christ.
Colby: My pleasure. And I, man, I appreciate you again. Thank you, Andy, for being here. Thank you guys for listening. We'll catch you next time on Called to Lead
