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Candid conversations for the church. Host is Ardin Beech of Windsor District Baptist Church, Sydney, Australia. Co-hosted by Jonathan Hoffman.
Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to the final This Week At Windsor for 2025. Doctor Jay, thanks for joining.
Jonathan:Great to have you back, Arden.
Ardin:Last one.
Jonathan:Last one of the year.
Ardin:What a year it has been.
Jonathan:Yeah. I'm gonna recap the year a little bit today, but glad to have you back.
Ardin:I know. I had a bit of a break.
Jonathan:Yeah. I was in the hot seat. It's not as hard as you make it out to me. Wow. That's my way of saying you are replaceable.
Jonathan:No. No. You're not. You're not. Like, there's there's only I get it.
Jonathan:There's only one. There's only one art in beach, but it's the way you slide the faders up.
Ardin:That's right. Yeah. The control of the desk.
Jonathan:So where where have you been?
Ardin:Working. Really? Yeah. Work's been busy, so I missed one of the podcasts, unfortunately. Mhmm.
Ardin:But I'm back for the final episode.
Jonathan:That's right. You're going away?
Ardin:Yeah. Yeah. Just all the week before Christmas. Going away to the coast, have a week off, and then back. Yeah.
Ardin:Not only really taking the public holidays and stuff over the Christmas break, but you're away from it.
Jonathan:I think we're going the same week. Okay. We were gonna do a whole remote sort of episode, but
Ardin:Who could be bothered? Yeah.
Jonathan:Well, I was gonna say the funding wasn't there.
Ardin:I mean, Christmas time is really the wind down time for for you guys.
Jonathan:Yeah. Which is different. I mean, for us growing up, like, Christmas is, like, felt like the middle of the year because school year was always, like, September to June. But over here in Australia, can I just say it makes a whole lot more sense? Okay.
Jonathan:You start January, finish December, Christmas time. People are starting to rest, so it's good. We're winding down things, here at the church, so we'll have morning services with the exception of Christmas Eve, which will be 05:30PM and then Christmas Day on, at 09:30 in the morning.
Ardin:Now I've heard disgruntled feedback from your children before that they're not allowed to open their presents until after Christmas morning service.
Jonathan:That's true.
Ardin:Yeah. That's a tough one.
Jonathan:Well, I mean, they they might get one beforehand or maybe they get, you know, whatever's in the stocking. Make them wait. Delayed gratification. That's
Ardin:right. That's resilience.
Jonathan:Yeah. That's how you gotta build it. I mean, I know too many adults who don't you know, they can't do that. So gotta build it in now.
Ardin:Good old them for toughing it out.
Jonathan:That's right. The probably the worst thing we do to them, actually, and this is the tip of my hat to them. They're they're pretty amazing kids. We'll travel the day of Christmas, and we'll have our Christmas technically on Boxing Day. So we're kinda like putting off Christmas a whole month of day.
Jonathan:It's just it's pretty tough on them, but they're good kids.
Ardin:Pastor's kids, that's the life they chose.
Jonathan:It's not. It was chosen for them. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Jonathan:You would know.
Ardin:I would know. And we had I mean, 2025 was a big year for us. Massive year. I don't know how we went, how the numbers went, but it seemed like we talked to a great many people.
Jonathan:This is our twentieth episode. I thought that was a good total.
Ardin:How how does that compare to previous years?
Jonathan:I think we did 19 last year in season three.
Ardin:Okay.
Jonathan:Yep. Yeah. I think we're doing okay. Track. We're on track.
Jonathan:One, a little more. Maybe we shouldn't be called this week at Windsor. Maybe it should be, like, the next week at Windsor. I don't know.
Ardin:Something involving weeks.
Jonathan:Every other week. It's hard to get a good title with Fortnite. Yeah. Fortnitely, it was
Ardin:Did you have any favorites of all the folks that we spoke to this year?
Jonathan:I was gonna ask you. I mean, there are definitely some ones to remember. I think we just said goodbye to Peter Davies. That was a great interview we had, you know, hearing his story of connecting reconnecting with his daughter. That was early in the year.
Jonathan:I love me some Zach s one. He was fantastic. Really got a lot from him and definitely laughed the most with Lisa and Nelson. That was pretty funny.
Ardin:They're they're long distance, long term relationship.
Jonathan:And they just had a baby.
Ardin:Oh, cool. Yeah. Yeah. Nice.
Jonathan:Not too long ago. So, yeah, a lot of good things happen, but really, really grateful for all of our guests. How about you, Arden? Who stands out the most to you?
Ardin:Oh, I'd probably would have gone with Lisa and Nelson as well. That was just such a cool story. Yeah. And they just kinda threw thick and thin. They just kinda stuck through, you know, with each other, and, yeah, it was it was pretty cool to hear.
Ardin:You'd almost say fairy tale, but it was just so hard and difficult. I'm I'm sure neither of them would call it a fairy
Jonathan:tale.
Ardin:But it was just a just a fabulous story, I think, of two people in love and willing to work for it. You know? Either of them could have walked away at any time, but they kept at it and threw it thick and thin. Yeah. It was cool.
Ardin:Early on, we had the surprising news from Janelle Keyes that she's a renowned author.
Jonathan:I know. How good is that?
Ardin:Yeah. Her book about Walt Disney and how he had inspired her.
Jonathan:Yeah. Lots of highlights for me. Amy was great last week. She did a wonderful job, I think, just highlighting some really cool truths and, yeah, relating to, I think, lot of challenges people face today and and her story of how her faith kinda came alive and sort of finding her feet with God again and some tough choices she had to make. I I think that relates to a lot of people.
Ardin:And, of course, a few weeks back, your cousin Jessica and her husband, how did the carol service go?
Jonathan:Yeah. Fantastic. I mean, I've heard nothing but great feedback, really, and not trying to pat ourselves on the back there.
Ardin:Well, I mean, she did most of the work. She did. Yeah.
Jonathan:No. They the the whole team that put it together, to be honest, was still kinda buzzing from it. It was it was really, really good. Different than what we normally do, and that's not to say that we don't enjoy what we normally do. It was just sort of things got to a place this year where felt like, hey.
Jonathan:It might be good to give our golf volunteers a bit of a break and maybe shift a little bit. So we just kinda leaned into the more of the traditional side. And, yeah, my cousin Jessica was able to come over and bury her husband and we're able to implement them and a lot of other people as well from our community. Like, we had the Northwest String Ensemble there. We had the Wham band playing.
Jonathan:We had, you know, a lot of musicians from our place. We had the group from Quizworks. They were fantastic. The puppet show they did was like a two parter. Yeah.
Jonathan:We had Emma rapping to Forrest Frank, the present. Like, it was we just had we just had lots of cool stuff and, finish it off with some Pavlova, which was which was amazing. So we I think a lot of people were encouraged. And if you didn't get a chance to be there, sorry you missed it, but encourage you to go back online and and, yeah, you can see what happened and enjoy some of the great music and encouraging message.
Ardin:And we also had a special episode this year too, after the passing of Charlie Kirk and just exploring, you know, the social aspects of that, the political aspects of that.
Jonathan:And I think there's people who are still wrestling with, you know, some of those changes. I think feels like things have maybe the wave has crested a bit, and we're kind of still moving. But I think the undercurrents are still there and maybe not so much in this country per se, but maybe the wrestle that we're seeing in society around free speech and freedom of thought, but also, you know, understanding what equality means and what it really looks like. I see people wrestling with that and how do we provide a safe environment for people to disagree to do that in a civil way, but also, yeah, not necessarily have to take the lowest common denominator of what people say is acceptable and and say we're gonna draw the we're gonna draw the line there. So I think his death has really spurred a lot of productive and healthy conversation, as well as some unhealthy and harmful ones too.
Jonathan:But it'd be very interesting to see, yeah, what God has in store. And for us as his church, our calling is to continue to be salt and light. And I think, man, there's so many ways, so many opportunities we have to shine the light. So, yeah, our theme for this year was seeing God in our world, and I'm curious to hear you answer, Arden. If you look back on 2025, where are some places you've seen God working in your world?
Ardin:Yeah. I think the opportunity as the opportunities I've had at work to witness in the sense that you're not really witnessing. You're just you're just sharing your story. Mhmm. Witnessing in many workplaces is something you frowned upon or perhaps even illegal in some places to try and share your faith.
Ardin:But the openness of people, especially of other faiths, to hear about my faith and and my journey and why I believe what I believe has been really encouraging, and I've made some really some deep friendships through that, which has been cool. And exploring the aspects of other faiths, you know, a a dear friend of mine at work is a Muslim guy. Mhmm. And so learning about his the Muslim faith and what they believe and why they believe it in the background and and all that sort of stuff and and looking into that kind of thing has has been interesting. Yeah.
Jonathan:As you recount your story, whether it's with, you know, these workmates or other people and you think about kind of your journey, has God brought things to mind to you that have been sort of maybe cemented a bit more than than you thought as you rehearsed your story to others?
Ardin:Yeah. I think the difference I guess it possibly sounds arrogant in a way, but the difference to me is that ours is the living God
Jonathan:Mhmm.
Ardin:And he's not just a statue somewhere in a temple that we visit or or not just a personality or a character in stories, but the living God that we interact with every day. And you just you just you don't see that in in other faiths. That's not a thing they they have or experience.
Jonathan:There's a
Ardin:lot of good aspects in many faiths, but that life is not there. Yeah. In talking to to some other folks, yeah, it just it just felt almost like a dead just kind of a day to day, just hashing things out and and living by rules and expectations and regulations and and not a real living relationship there. And, yeah, and just the god who lives and breathes, but the god who also does stuff as well, you know, and hearing stories of people getting healed throughout the year. You know, people from our church community being healed in miraculous ways just serves as a reminder that he's he's the living God.
Jonathan:Yeah. And I I wonder too if for some Christians, it can feel a bit like a system of rules sometimes, and and I I love that. That's an encouragement to me, you know, and I've had seven conversations with people this week and just being reminded that God is alive and he's active. And so why would we not interact with him as if he's a living the living God, you know? And as I mean, I love the word as much as anybody.
Jonathan:Like, I love the word, teach the word, preach the word. Absolutely. But if you don't realize there's a living being behind the word, then then you've you've stopped short. You know? So it's it's like, you know, the people who are gonna show up in front of Jesus and say, hey.
Jonathan:We did this in your name, this in your name, this in your name. And it's like, well, you've been using my name everywhere, but, like, yeah, I don't know who you are. Like, it's not just about, you know, slapping a bumper sticker on your life or, you know, wearing the right colors, picking the right flavor of religious ice cream that, you know, it's it's about knowing God, as J. I. Packer, yeah, pointed out.
Jonathan:So that's really cool. Thank you for thank you for sharing that with me, and I hope and pray that's the experience of other people as well. One thing that was cool for me was when Jessica and Barry were here, got to spend a lot of time with them and just a lot in their story about the hand of God kind of moving moving things and the way they battle challenges. You know, Jessica was very open about her journey with breast cancer. Barry lost his first wife to breast cancer and, and then, you know, getting remarried, you know, after being widowed and then having children.
Jonathan:God's still holding the pen. You know? He's still writing the story. We often we wanna say, oh, well, that's it. You know?
Jonathan:It's done. Either I've messed up or or I can't get out of this bad situation that I'm in. But being able to spend time with them and to see how God's really redeemed some tough things in their life and some brokenness around them and to watch how they've just sort of kept hold of their love for the Lord and their faith in the Lord and to watch him hold them through this is a great encouragement to me that God still holds the pen and he's gonna put it down when he's done with it and and you know the story he's writing is gonna be a good one.
Ardin:Yeah. The impression I got talking to them for the episode was that it was a real story of redemption and second chances.
Jonathan:So as we come to Christmas time
Ardin:Here we go.
Jonathan:We gotta give a bit of Christmas cheer to everybody who's out there. Now I'm gonna give you some Christmas, would you rather?
Ardin:I knew you couldn't do it without some little game. If you
Jonathan:can only see the death stares that that I'm getting from Arden. It's you like that emoji. They're like that side eye emoji, but, like, with even more side eye.
Ardin:I knew it was coming.
Jonathan:Arden, the people wanna know what makes you tick. So here we go. Some Christmas would you rather. Would you rather ride in a sleigh or have a ride on the Polar Express?
Ardin:Sleigh.
Jonathan:Okay. Why the sleigh? Sleigh's real. Okay. Are you saying the Polar Express isn't?
Ardin:Well, the Polar Express is isn't it driven by creepy creepy Tom Hanks? Creepy computer generated Tom Hanks?
Jonathan:See, whoever did the animations on that, that was it's a little bit. I agree. I I think I saw it once. I don't really think I finished it. It's a bit it was definitely definitely a bit weird.
Ardin:Slay you get, hopefully, you get some kind of big blanket and get a little romantic sleigh ride in the snow. Nice. I don't know what that's like. Is that a thing they do in The States?
Jonathan:Fact, Joanna and I were supposed to leave our wedding ceremony in a horse drawn sleigh, but it was too cold. I said, I don't even take my horses out in this weather.
Ardin:What's the point of having a sleigh if it's not going out in the cold?
Jonathan:That's what we thought. But
Ardin:Can't use it in summer.
Jonathan:No. Okay. Second one. Would you rather wrap 100 Christmas presents or write 100 Christmas cards?
Ardin:Wrap.
Jonathan:Wrap. Okay. What would you say your wrapping style is? Quick. Okay.
Jonathan:Slapdash.
Ardin:Quick and haphazard.
Jonathan:Quick and haphazard. Do you like to so you don't like put bows and ribbons or anything on?
Ardin:No. But it is kind of exciting. You know, wrapping stuff up knowing that someone's gonna hopefully enjoy the gift. Yeah. Yeah.
Jonathan:Can't respect that. Would you rather have a red bulbous nose like Rudolph or be green like the Grinch? Green. Okay. Interesting.
Jonathan:I I was I would have pegged the other way, but tell me why.
Ardin:Well, the red bulbous nose, I think, could just be construed as, like, a bit ugly. Whereas if you're green, you scare some children, but society comes around. He's just different.
Jonathan:He might get some special concessions. Is there a category for that? It's certainly green.
Ardin:Not for being green.
Jonathan:Not for being green. Okay. Elf on a shelf or angel on a tree. What would you rather be?
Ardin:If I had to be one.
Jonathan:Yep. I had to be one.
Ardin:If I had to be one, probably the elf on the shelf because they have a lot more fun. Okay. But I also find the whole concept so annoying. Who has the time to do all that? Yeah.
Ardin:Shane does. He puts so much effort in. He's amazing at this. Some people have
Jonathan:a real talent for that.
Ardin:Yeah. Yeah. He's incredible. Every day he's putting stuff on Facebook.
Jonathan:I'm like, these are the lost claymation people. You know?
Ardin:Yeah. Not not me.
Jonathan:What should our aspirations be for next year with this podcast? Any goals? Any hurdles?
Ardin:Everyone has a story, which I appreciate, which is amazing, and I love hearing people's stories and testimonies. Testimonies. But I think we could probably go a little deeper.
Jonathan:Yeah. I like it.
Ardin:If there's some brave folks out there who wanna kinda really dig into their story Yep. A little bit, the stuff God has done in their lives, kinda take the cover off a bit.
Jonathan:How do we do that? Do we do like a good cop, bad cop thing?
Ardin:A good cop, bad cop thing. How does that work?
Jonathan:I don't know. One person's a little more like pushy. The other one's really like soothing and calm.
Ardin:Oh, we just be both nice and just have guests on.
Jonathan:I thought that's what we've been doing for three and a half years. He said it's not deep enough.
Ardin:I think we can go deeper.
Jonathan:I do. I would agree with that. I think I think we can. Alright. So we'll sharpen up our questions.
Jonathan:Yes. Yep. But I I was thinking maybe video.
Ardin:No. No? Why not? It's a lot of work for Katie.
Jonathan:If we do it right, is it though?
Ardin:Yes. Well, I think so.
Jonathan:The the video one's gonna be well received. I I don't know. It might be good to surely, there's gotta be a way.
Ardin:Well, that means bigger budgets and more better gear.
Jonathan:How are we gonna catch Joe?
Ardin:He is he does have a pretty good head start.
Jonathan:We're not giving up.
Ardin:Well, to all our listeners, thanks for coming along for the ride. I had fun. Did you have a good year?
Jonathan:Absolutely. Had a fantastic year. So grateful for the people who sort of kept up and dove into people's stories with us.
Ardin:We've had some good feedback. Yeah. I think people are enjoying it. We'll be back next year with bigger and better things.
Jonathan:And much deeper conversations.
Ardin:And more amazing guests. And more ardent trivia. Thanks for joining us This Week At Windsor.