LEAD STRONG - Introduction

MTN CHURCH: Hey, welcome to the Lead Strong Podcast introduction. My name is Jim Wright, and I'm the lead pastor here at Mountain Church in Medford, Oregon. And I'm super stoked to finally be launching a podcast. It's been in my heart for years. I've been praying about it, and ⁓ just a lot of thought and energy and time ⁓ gone into why I feel this is an important podcast. And I've been encouraged by friends and other pastors to get this thing off the ground. So I'm super stoked to be ⁓ kind of introducing you to why. Lead Strong Podcast is important. And I wanted to d discuss anything ⁓ here in this podcast. Nothing is off the table. I want to just be honest, like in-your-face conversation, ⁓ not politically correct, not polluted by like progressive ideals, but rather just really being honest and real and and not gentle about it and not soft about the truth. And and our our culture. Is in desperate need of truth. And whether you know it or not, you are in desperate ⁓ need and you have a desperate deep desire for truth in a world that just is is promoting lies and confusion and fog and mist. And ⁓ and it's it's it's something that it's in our DNA to to seek out clarity and and and truth. And and if you connect with this podcast, I believe you're gonna find truth. This vision has its roots in my time in seminary. And ⁓ I went to seminary kind of late in ministry, about ten years ago. ⁓ went to a very conservative, biblically grounded seminary called Multnomah, ⁓ seminary up in Portland, Oregon. And what I found in my time there over the years is ⁓ there was so much leaning of the students in the direction of progressivism and so much leaning in the direction of of of being woke. And and so in the in the in the Classroom, you know, I would, I would speak out and and found that as I spoke out, there was this real push ⁓ to cancel me and a real push to silence me. And ⁓ and there was this punching down on what I believed to be biblical truth. And and so ⁓ I began to really see in that time frame, wow, there's a real shift in evangelical culture. And a real shift in church culture going more towards ⁓ you know, being accepted and not offending and all of that, you know? And so as I would speak out, I would find this this really ⁓ aggressive opposition, which I don't mind. That's great. I don't mind aggressive opposition. I love aggressive debate. And ⁓ but but I found that there was a lot of people that probably were Desiring to speak from a biblical worldview, but just out of fear wouldn't. It's like, man, I don't want to speak in this environment because man, it's like if I speak up, I'm going to be surrounded by wolves and I'm going to be attacked. And I'm like, yeah, well, that's what you signed up for, right? As a Christian, as a leader, particularly as those that that desire to be in church leadership or pastors, man, you you we sign up for that. But we don't stop speaking truth just because, you know, there there's gonna be this pushback and there's going to be, you know, these these hits that we're gonna take and we're gonna, you know, take it on the chin. And then there's gonna be some, you know, ⁓ some pushback. Well, we we signed up for that. I mean, Jesus was one that would speak the truth and just let the chips fall where they may, you know. Thank God the disciples, the followers of Jesus, the the original disciples. They were ones that were willing to die for the truth. They would they wouldn't, they wouldn't step down, they wouldn't be silent, they wouldn't live on the defense. They they chose to to live on the offense. And and and so I'm thankful for our our our our discipl the disciples of Christ, and I'm thankful for our our our ⁓ our our fathers of the faith that were willing to die for the truth over the years. And what I found not only when I was in seminary, but I found that. in conversation with many other church leaders and many other pastors presently. You know, my my my contemporaries presently, ⁓ they they've they've taken the path of silence and they're they're afraid to speak the truth and they've lost or or never found the courage to say, you know what, this is what the word says and I'm gonna unapologetically speak concerning these things and and and cowardice, listen, is not the road Of followers of Jesus. It's never been the road of followers of Jesus. We are not like woke tinker pots. We are warriors for the kingdom of God and we live on the offense and we don't give one inch to the enemy. You know, we storm the gates of hell. That's what we do. We we storm the gates of hell with the truth of God's word. And and so I I hope that that these things ring true in your heart. You know, I I I hope that you will join me. In becoming a more chiseled warrior ⁓ of God's kingdom. And if this sounds like this is in your wheelhouse and this is the kind of mindset that you believe that God's word ⁓ defines for us as as ⁓ disciples of Jesus, ⁓ and and you want to live on the offense, and and I I just encourage you, if that's you, man, subscribe. To this podcast. Follow us, right? Leave reviews, ⁓ share these podcasts with others going forward. And and I look forward to dropping the the the first like legit episode shortly. And so I hope you're ⁓ gonna follow us on that and be prepared to ⁓ have that downloaded and and and take that in. So until then, I just encourage you, man, lead strong.