Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Candid conversations for the church. Host is Ardin Beech of Windsor District Baptist Church, Sydney, Australia. Co-hosted by Jonathan Hoffman.
This Week At Windsor coming at you once again, Arden and Doctor Jay. Thanks for joining me.
Jonathan:Great to have you here. Great to be here. We got a great guest lined up today.
Ardin:We do indeed. One of our own.
Jonathan:One of our own.
Ardin:From WDBC.
Jonathan:Spoiler alert, but he and I have connections that go, like, way, way back, like, to before. I think it was, like, to when I was like two. Wow. Isn't that crazy?
Ardin:There you go.
Jonathan:Yeah. A little bit of a tease right there.
Ardin:He is on the way. But until then, what's coming up at WDBC? What's happening?
Jonathan:Well, I'm really excited because it's been a great weekend. We've had compassion Sunday where we look at how we can pull together for those you know, for the least of these. We've also had collection of Operation Christmas Child. Did you get your box in, Arden?
Ardin:We did. Yeah. We went as a family. My wife thought, let's all let's do this as a family. And we'll we'll we'll have a box each.
Ardin:Oh, nice. But, like, all the kids and everything came along. We had a late a late Thursday night at Rouse Hill.
Jonathan:Oh, beautiful.
Ardin:And look. She said going into it, oh, no. The kids have done it tons of times. I've like, they know what will fit in the box. And then they came back with all this stuff, and I'm thinking there's some laws of physics being broken if you think any of that is fitting in, but they got it in.
Ardin:Yeah. I mean, they were held together with, like, duct tape and string and, like, wire and they they fitted it.
Jonathan:So That's impressive. What was your special item? What did you
Ardin:Well, I well, mom and dad didn't have a box.
Jonathan:So it was just the kids.
Ardin:Oh, okay. But it was awesome to see them kinda thinking through and going through the process and and and picking the, you know, the the category of the the age category and the gender of the child and and and picking stuff and going through what what kind of stuff would they want, but perhaps also kinda what stuff would they need to,
Jonathan:you know, it was
Ardin:it was really cool to to watch them kinda running around and grabbing stuff from the aisles and Yeah.
Jonathan:It was awesome. That's great. It's it's a great reminder. I love the videos. You know, the it's often they use them in promotion videos, but just the joy you see on the kids, like Yeah.
Jonathan:When they get those boxes. It's a it's a small thing, but it's a it's a great reminder of god's love. Our, made new family course. So we run these courses around the areas of transformation that we are looking to see. So that that's family, faith, following, freedom, which if you've a part of our church for some time, you know those things are really important to us.
Jonathan:And we've just kicked off our family course, which is still open for those who wanna join, but it's a it's essentially a bible study that I run through the book of Philippians. And we just spent time getting to know one another, hear hear one another's stories, and hear where people are up to on their faith journey. And so it's just been great to hear the testimonies of how people have got here, the the journeys they've come from. And it's a great place to remind people of what what is it that makes us together? What is it that makes a church a church?
Jonathan:So I guess I'd ask you that question, Art. If I said to you, what's the difference between a church and a country club? What would you say?
Ardin:Yeah. I've had the conversation before with with people. I think the only answer I could come up with is the spirit. Mhmm. Like, if the spirit is not here, we're just another RSL.
Ardin:Yeah. I mean, RSLs do your community great. They do feeding people great. They do entertainment and music great, really well. Without the spirit in our midst Yeah.
Ardin:We're just another RSL or country club.
Jonathan:And I love that because it's the spirit within each believer that forms that bond of unity. Mhmm. And I think that's what makes the church so special and so unique is because, you know, we got some people here who've, you know, come from other countries who who for whom English is not their first language, who have been through traumas that I can't even imagine, but we share the same spirit. We share the same grace. It's it's pretty spectacular.
Jonathan:And so just a bit of a plug if you're someone who's felt like you're on the fringes of this community or you've just been struggling to find traction, struggling to find your tribe, struggling to find your group here at WDBC, please do just join. Come along. It doesn't matter how long you've been here. Come to this family course, and I think it's a great stepping stone, a great starting place. I think it's how we got you in the door, isn't it?
Ardin:Indeed. We did it as a we did it as a home group. Yeah. Well, that's news and events wrapped up. Doctor J, who are we chatting to today?
Ardin:Who's the special guest?
Jonathan:Very excited to welcome on the podcast, Dave Daniels. Welcome, Dave. Great to see you.
Dave:Thank you. It's an honor to be on the podcast.
Jonathan:Yeah. So aside from the fact that you're a Chargers fan, which I'm not gonna hold against you for the sake of this episode, the second best team in LA, I've really enjoyed just getting to know you and and getting to hear a lot about your life and your story. Why don't you tell us a bit about the connection that you and I sort of historically have that goes all the way back to California?
Dave:Yes. So my dad visited California in the late eighties and he visited a church over there called Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and he met a incredible pastor over there by the name of pastor Chuck Smith. And he was so moved and blown away by what was happening over there that when he returned back to Australia, he prayed about it and he felt like God was calling him to start the very first Calvary Chapel in Sydney, Australia. Now he'd come through the Baptist system and he was the senior pastor at Ride Baptist, but he felt like God was calling him to start that and he was able to do that in the nineties.
Jonathan:That's crazy. I couldn't believe when you came out with that when you and I were talking. I was like, what? Because that's the church I grew up going to. My parents came to faith in that church.
Jonathan:My my mom was baptized by Chuck. I was thinking I was dedicated by pastor Chuck, so it was really crazy for me personally that we have that that connection. Tell us, what was it like growing up as a pastor's kid?
Dave:Yeah. It was great. We attended church every Sunday as as all pastor's kids do. I think growing up in primary school, it was great because you had that fundamental sort of foundation of church and to be able to have that as part of your weekly routine and and weekly schedule was really cool. I must admit, as you got into high school, things got a bit harder because you start wanting to look at things outside of the church and you start wanting to see what's on the other side of the church wall.
Dave:But, yeah, growing up, it was good and I didn't feel like as much pressure in primary school as I did when I started high school.
Ardin:Some of our folk would know you because you've spoken here at our church before. Yes. You were telling me earlier that you you had a bit of a prodigal son sort of experience, so you obviously sort of walked away for a little bit there?
Dave:Yeah. When I was 17, I left home. I sort of it had been a ongoing thing in high school where I was going to a Christian school. I had, you know, friends that went to youth group and stuff like that, but I just kind of felt like I was missing out on something, like like the the rules and that my my family had and and the the church and biblical stuff that I'd learned was potentially holding me back and and stopping me from doing things with friends of mine who weren't going to church and breaking connections with potential friends of mine. So, yeah, we had this sort of ongoing battle within the family, and we got to the point where I decided at the age of 17 that I was gonna leave home.
Dave:And that was, you know, really tough, obviously, for my family at the time. But looking back on it now, it was something that, you know, was part of my journey, and I ended up moving in with a a family that took me in. And I spent I've still got a youth group at the time, but I just continued on being on away from home for quite a few years, and that's where I started to get a front row seat of what life in the world was really like outside of the church.
Jonathan:So how does that conversation go with your parents? Are you like, I'm out of here, you know, slam the door, walk out in a big huff, or is it like careful deliberations? Like, hey. This is what I gotta do.
Dave:Yeah. I think it was it was one of those things where it was an ongoing conversation from probably when I was in year 10. Yeah. Year 10, I was turned 16, and a lot of my friends started going to parties and started going out a lot more and the conversations started happening. And we got to a sort of point where, you know, we had our our family rules and our our rules for the house and that sort of thing and and, you know, my parents will look was sort of like, look, if you wanna do your own thing, that's up to you, but, you know, you have to make that decision sort of thing.
Dave:So and I thought about it for a while, and I just got to this point where I felt like, you know, I wanna go and and give it a go.
Ardin:Because these things are I mean, like, we talk about good and evil and etcetera etcetera, but the world is super attractive.
Dave:Oh, yeah. I mean, was before social media, but at the time, I was really into music. I was really into sport. I was into a lot of worldly things that from the outside, especially the music industry. I would watch TV.
Dave:I'd, you know, see movies and stuff like that and see a lot of the people who I looked up to at the time. And it looked like they were having the time of their lives. Looks like they were happy. They were loving life. They had all the things that I didn't have, and it was this incredible just vision of fun and happiness and everything that I thought that I was missing out of.
Dave:So I thought if I chase that, then potentially, you know, I could end up like them.
Jonathan:So how did you chase it?
Dave:Well, I left home. I, you know, started playing in bands at the time. I've been playing drums for most of my life. So I was in a couple of bands, and I thought, you know, if I could become a professional musician, I could tour the world and travel and make lots of money and and and I'd be happy. And and that thing that was in my heart was empty.
Dave:I thought, you know, if I just became a famous drummer, then I'd be happy. And then if I just got my dream car, then I'd be happy. If I just got you know? And it was just this once I get this, then I'll be happy. Once I get this, then I'll be fulfilled.
Dave:And it just kept going on and on and on. And even though a lot of those dreams didn't happen, some of those things that I was chasing, I was able to achieve, but the happiness didn't come with it. And that empty hole was just still there.
Ardin:Yeah. My wife and I enjoy watching the biopics about these famous musos. Elton John, Robbie Williams, Freddie Mercury, the guys at the top of their game, none of them happy. All just the saddest stories.
Jonathan:Wow.
Dave:Yeah. Yeah. For me, it was there was a a guy by the name of Brian Welsh, and he, at the time, was in a band called Korn. And and I at the time, they were probably the biggest rock band in the world in the late nineties. And I remember following them and, yeah, just seeing, you know, the the music videos and the and all the stuff, you know, the the concerts and I was going a lot of rock concerts at the time and and things were just going really, really, you know, just looking up to these guys just thinking, oh, you know, if only I was on that stage one day or if only I had that car or whatever.
Dave:And I just the enemy was really just lying to me and had completely fooled me into thinking that the joy and the love and, know, the fulfillment I was looking for was out in the world, but it was just a complete lie.
Jonathan:How did you go with your past? Like, as you're chasing this, is it like take us back into your mindset back at the time where you're like, oh, so great to be free of all this stuff that my parents were saying? Like, were you actively raging against it? Was there were you carrying guilt? Were you secretly trying to hold on to it as true?
Jonathan:Like, how were you processing where you'd come from as you were on this chase for what the world might have to offer.
Dave:At the start, to be honest, I thought it was like freedom. You know, I thought I can do whatever I want. I can stay up as late as I want. I can go to as many parties as I want. I can hang out and do whatever I want with the friends that I had.
Dave:And so at first, was like a big holiday, but then reality kicked in. You know, I ran out of couches to sort of crash on and I ran out of places to stay. That's when the reality sort of kicked in and I thought, oh, hang on a second. And that then went led me down quite a a bad path mentally. I started feeling like just a lot of failure, a lot of sadness, a lot of loneliness, and then that led to me then, you know, when I was going to those parties, doing things that I thought would make me feel better and would make me feel happier and would take away that those those negative feelings.
Dave:But then that then spiraled into, you know, even more problems that I was bringing on myself.
Ardin:What was the the prodigal son moment then? What was the the the waking up with the pigs in the mud and deciding like, something needs to change?
Dave:Yeah. Well, I actually had I didn't wake up with pigs. I wasn't living in any rural areas at the time, but I did actually have a moment. And I'll I still I've shared this story with a few people before. I was at my house, and we used to have this house that I just lived with with a few friends and we had all these people over.
Dave:We had music playing. It was this huge party. And I remember sitting at this table and I was surrounded by all my friends and it was like I said loud music. It was everyone was going wild and it was like something out of a movie and all of a sudden, I just remember sitting there and just, like, looking around at everyone. And I remember thinking, I've never felt so lonely in my entire life.
Dave:Like, it was just this real moment of it was like a I was looking down on myself, and I just I was just miserable. And I I thought for so many years, you know, if I got to this place and everything would be great. So I just was so lonely and I was just depressed and I just felt terrible. So I started realizing that I'm gonna have to make some changes in my life in order to get myself out of this, know, space that I was in. And one of the big things was was I started reconnecting with my parents.
Dave:Now this had been something that had been going on. I used to go home for Christmas and Easter and stuff like that, but I'd stay for a couple of nights and then I'd go back, you know, to my my world. My parents were actively sort of seeking me out and wanting to reconnect them, and they eventually invited me to come home. And at first, I was like, oh, I don't know. But then we ended up getting evicted from the house we're staying in for something completely, nothing that we did wrong, but something just bizarre.
Dave:Then I my job circumstances changed, and I was I was actually earning good money at the time, but then it changed and I was earning a heap of, you know, heap less money. And all of a sudden, I had all these bills and car payments and all this stuff. So it was like looking back on it now that god just started pulling all these things away, and I just landed with in this really, really tough space where financially, mentally, you know, all these things were just breaking me at the time. And and so I ended up just saying, well, look, I'm gonna have to move home. I got nowhere to live.
Dave:I don't I'm not earning enough money. So I moved home. And then at the time, my parents had been asked well, sorry, my father had been asked to do an interim pastoral role down in Canberra. And he said, look, we're gonna move to Canberra. I know you've just moved home, but do you wanna come with us?
Dave:And I was just like, well, yeah. I mean, I I don't have any other options at the time. So I moved to Canberra with him, which I never thought I'd do, but it was one of the best things that ever happened to me because I sort of had hit rock bottom. I moved a camera. I was physically taking away from the the scene I was in and that's where God started that process of bringing me back and basically healing the wounds that I had in mentally and internally and that's when he started bringing me back to to him.
Jonathan:How did you go with the wrestle? Maybe you didn't have it at all, but I think I talked to a lot of people and it's one thing to feel bad. It's one thing to feel bad, feel low. How do you go from that to navigating the space between do I have to earn my way back or is he just gonna take me back? Cause I think, like, in the prodigal son story, we're sort of using that as a theme.
Jonathan:You know, he says, he's got this speech prepared. You know? Alright. God. You know?
Jonathan:God, I'm gonna do this for you. I'm gonna do that for you. And I'm really you know, he sort of got it all laid out. And then the story, quite amazingly, he doesn't even get to say the speech because the father's love just comes and wraps him up before he's even there. So I'm wondering how did you fight that kind of human tendency that says, okay.
Jonathan:I know I'm, you know, this maybe was the wrong thing, but I'm gonna earn my way now versus just resting in grace because that that's what the gospel is. Right?
Dave:Yeah. So I fought it for so many years and my pride was I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm I'm doing fine. Everything's great.
Dave:I've got the freedom. I've got this. But I really did hit rock bottom and it was a conversation that I had with my parents where I said, look, I I think they could just hear it in my voice. I was broken. I was completely broken.
Dave:And I got to the point where I tried everything and God was just shutting door after door after door after door and nothing was working. I was trying all this stuff to try and do it on my own and I got to that point where I was like, I cannot do this on my own anymore. I have to get help. And the only people at the time that were putting their arms out to help me was my mom and my dad. And so I just went to them and said and they knew what I needed to do.
Dave:They knew they knew I needed to get away from the scene. They knew I needed a fresh start and just by giving me that space to just do my own thing and they didn't pester me. They didn't say come to church or anything like that. They just gave me that space where I could sort of recoup and start healing from a lot of the stuff that I was involved in before and basically build like a whole new life. That's what I had to do.
Dave:And it was scary because I was only in my, you know, twenties at the time, but I realized that my world wasn't over, that God had a plan, and it was through a book that I was given that that process was able to to start. My parents had known about my love for music and stuff like that, and they actually bought me a biography, talking about biographies of that guitarist, Brian Head Welsh, who had given his life to the Lord, and he'd put out
Ardin:a book. From corn. Yes. Yeah. So many of our listeners are big big big corn fans.
Dave:Oh, yeah. I the guys are wearing corn shirts right now and there's posters all over the studio and but, yeah, at the time, I couldn't believe because I remember hearing that he'd become a Christian, and a lot of my friends were really angry about it. They're like, oh, you know, can't believe the corn guy became a Christian because he left the band as well. And he can he put out a book called save me for myself. And I remember my parents had heard the same thing and I don't know which one of them it was, but one of them thought, oh, I'll buy that for Dave.
Dave:That was probably the best thing at the time. I wasn't ready to read the bible again. I wasn't ready to jump back into church, but this was a really good intermediate thing to sort of give to me and allow me to sort of start hearing from god but through the words of someone who I'd looked up to. Back then, I wasn't a big reader. I love music, but I I didn't really like sitting down reading books.
Dave:But I remember they bought it for me and I was sitting in this little room in Canberra, and I had no friends. And I was just like, I'm just gonna start reading it. And I started reading it, and I was like, oh, this is cool. You know? You're about all the pre, you know, pre Jesus stuff in corn and some of the wild stories that he got up to, and some of them just blew my mind.
Dave:But then it got to this part of the book where he talked about his sort of rock bottom and he quoted Matthew eleven twenty eight. And I remember reading the verse and all of a sudden, I felt like I just I wanted to read it and say it myself. So I said it and I said this tiny little prayer and I was just like, god, if you're real, like, if this is a real thing like, I'd grown up in the church. I'd heard all the bible verses. I knew all the hymns, but I hadn't had that decision on my own.
Dave:And so I remember just praying that prayer and just saying, god, if you're real, like, can you give me that rest that Ed's talking about in this in this verse?
Jonathan:Yeah. What is Matthew eleven twenty eight?
Dave:Come to me all those who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.
Ardin:As if you didn't know.
Jonathan:Well, he's his story. I wanted to tell us.
Dave:Yeah. So it was and honestly, I I remember just praying and saying, god, I just need rest. Yeah. I need physical, mental, emotional. Like, there's so much rest I need.
Dave:And I just remember this. It wasn't like, you know, the curtains blew open and, you know, a light shone in my room or anything like that. But I just remember this. It felt like this huge weight just came it was like I was carrying a backpack of just rocks and it just felt like this huge weight just came off me and that's where my story restarted with with God. And fast forward a bit, I started going to church after a while.
Dave:After a few months, I started going to church again and they didn't have a drummer at their church. They had all these musicians and they had no drummer. And they said, oh, we heard you were a drummer. Would you ever think about playing in worship? And at first, I was like, no, I don't I don't think I
Jonathan:I'm a rock legend.
Dave:I don't No. No. It wasn't that. It was more like
Ardin:I might be a little too hardcore.
Dave:Well, no. I I I honestly thought that I wasn't sort of good enough in terms of where my faith was at. Like, I felt like I wasn't Christian enough to play in the worship team because I knew ability wise I could do it, but I just thought, no. Like, you know, because I was still working through some things and some activities that I was doing on the weekends and stuff like that. So I was just like, I don't think I'm Christian enough to do this, but they didn't care.
Dave:They were just like, you know what? We want you to come and and play, but it's completely up to you.
Ardin:So wearing your corn t shirt up on this date?
Dave:No. At the time, I was looking very much like someone in the world. I was still going out on the weekends, not as bad as what I was beforehand, but I was still going out and catching up with some old friends and stuff like that. So I yeah. I just felt like I was being not truthful by you know, because I I just thought, you know, I'm not this full of Christian like these other guys.
Dave:But hats off to them because I know a lot of church worship teams that probably wouldn't have given me a go because they would have been like, he's hasn't been here long enough or he hasn't been baptized or whatever it may be. But they want they gave me a go. And so I was like, okay. And I started playing just because I just missed drumming. And after a while, I would just play and sit down and then I'd sort of zone out.
Dave:But after a while, I actually started listening to the sermons while I was waiting to get back up. And, yeah, God just started very slowly talking to me and sharing little bits of truth and faith and wisdom and a whole bunch of stuff. And then slowly, started in my face to started reigniting again and as to started getting closer to him and yeah.
Jonathan:I love how much your parents are a part of your story because you've taken on a very unique role now in your life as a parent. I wonder if you can tell us a bit about you and your wife, Kirsty, like, tell us a bit about what it's like for you guys as parents and a bit about that journey.
Dave:Yeah. So Kirsty and I prayed for a while about starting a family, and we felt very led by the Lord to go down the route of fostering. And so we have two incredible children who are living with us right now, and they're in the foster to adopt system. So they came from a very traumatic household and background, but they've moved in with us in the start of twenty twenty three, and they've lived with us since. One is six, the other is four, and they have just shone a light in our family's lives and into our hearts in such an incredible way.
Dave:And we really feel like God called us to not just look after them, but to shine God's love into their lives and to show them how much God loves them and just help them to be the people that God has called them to be.
Ardin:Is that a tough journey? Like, I know families who have foster kids and that that like, that's big heart stuff. Like, that's the hard yards.
Dave:Yeah. It's very hard. It's I'm not gonna sugarcoat it and say, oh, yeah. It's easy. I mean, there's the one aspect you go from not having any experience of being a parent to being thrown in the deep end.
Dave:And then there's the other stuff that, you know, from the the traumatic background that they've come. There's a lot of stuff that you have to work with, a lot of superpowers that you gotta work with as well. So it's kind of yeah. There's two different learning spaces that you're sort of in while you're you're doing it. You just thought, how do I be a dad for the first time?
Dave:And then how do I be a dad to this child who has needs and a lot of needs more than your average child. So there's there's two things that you sort of juggling at the same time and, you know, we knew that God would go with us to do it. We know that when he calls us to do something even if it is out of our comfort zone, we have to do it. And we just trusted and just knew that God would be faithful and help us through it. But it is a a daily and a weekly thing that we have to grind out.
Jonathan:One of the things I've appreciated about getting to know you, Dave, is you're a man of prayer. I wonder, can you tell us, was there a time when God really, you know, impressed that upon you that, hey, you can talk to me and I'm really here? Or was that something you always sort of had? Like, I know I if I talk to God in prayer, he's there. Because I think a lot of people wanna pray, but they're maybe not not sure about that.
Dave:Yes. So prayer was something that I'd heard millions of times growing up in church and through at home and, you know, we'd pray before dinner and we'd pray for this and that. But the interesting thing was is I didn't really experience the power of prayer until I actually left home. So obviously, I'd seen things and I'd, you know, would I'd heard of people being healed and stuff like that. But there was actually two times when I was out of home and I won't go into it now, but there was actually two times where I should have probably not been here.
Dave:And one time, I actually prayed out loud and I actually I completely had forgotten this until a few years ago, and then I remember my parents brought it up and they said, do you remember when you told us about that? And I said, no. I don't. But I was in a situation where I things got out of hand and I thought that my life was just in a in a really bad space and I actually called out to the Lord because I remembered from church years earlier about calling out to the Lord. And I called out to him and asked him to to help me and to save me and he did.
Dave:So that was one example. And then just through the transformation that God has done from that first prayer after reading that book and just seeing every year that I've been walking back with the Lord to meeting my wife, to becoming a dad, to restoring my relationship with my parents, just all the roller coaster of life that I've experienced. Just constantly praying and just seeing god's faithfulness throughout it and knowing that prayer is real. It's not just something we do to be, you know, to fill in some time, you know, on a Sunday morning service. It's not just something we do as a as a tradition.
Dave:We it it really is talking to the creator of the universe. And for everyone listening today, if you don't do it, please just try and pray every day because it really does just become an incredible part of your everyday life when you can adopt that prayer life and just see what God can do through that.
Jonathan:Now the last thing for me, and thank you for sharing that, the last thing for me is you and I have been having conversations about what it means to belong in a church community. And I know this is something that's kind of on your heart and, you know, you've been a part of this church for a couple years now, but tell us a bit about your journey and and what do you feel like is kind of missing in a lot of churches today? And and what what's sort of behind that passion that God's given you for our community?
Dave:Yeah. So when I left home, I think I shared earlier about me being able to stay with a family. So that family was actually one of my youth pastor's parents houses that I was able to stay in, and that was one of the first real acts of fellowship that I experienced when I left home. Now had they not taken me in, I don't know where I would have ended up and I might not have even been here now. So that in itself was a huge eye opener for me.
Dave:And since then going on my journey with the Lord, I've just experienced and seen so many incredible stories of people coming together, sharing their love for God, and just being able to do life together. And I think since the all the lockdowns a few years ago, I think one thing that I've observed and not just in the Hawkesbury, but around the world, because I've spoken to pastors. I've heard podcasts and stuff of just this detachment that's happened since we've all locked down. And I think a lot of people started new rhythms. A lot of people changed their regular Sunday plans where like, I remember growing up, you'd go to church and then you'd have a family over or we'd go to a family's house.
Dave:You know, that was like the Sunday thing that you would do, but no one does that anymore. You know, no one seems I don't don't know why, but, you know, it was just something that was part of our family's life and people just aren't doing that anymore. And I loved seeing people waiting at the front door of a church for their friend or their neighbor or their colleague, you know, turning up and they would bring people in. So this is so and so, and everyone be like, hey, you know, and it was that family much like Christmas day lunch. When you have someone come for Christmas day lunch, it doesn't matter who they are, but as soon as they walk in that door because of that connection, everyone embraces them, everyone loves them, and they just feel like they're home.
Dave:And so my heart for fellowship is I want everyone that comes to not just our church, but any church to have that feeling of feeling like they're home when they walk into a church. And then, unfortunately, that can't be done by one person. That has to be done by a lot of people. And we've heard stories here of people saying, you know, when I started at WDBC, met with someone and they waited for me and and kept a spot or they, you know, invited me on. I've heard lots of different stories about that in the past and that's fantastic, but I'd really love to see that happen more now.
Dave:I'd love to see that, you know, be a real focus for the end of this year and maybe even next year, just that feeling of, you know, there's so much chaos in the world and there's so much going on and this I speak to so many people who don't go to church who is really searching, and I feel like if we can get that fellowship back to where we used to get it, not just at our church but all across the world, then I really feel like that, you know, we could see an incredible incredible revival of people.
Ardin:Awesome. Good words to end with.
Jonathan:Fantastic. Very grateful for you, Dave, and it's been just such a pleasure to get to know you while you guys have been a part of our church. Really grateful, not just for your drumming, but, yeah, more for your encouragement, your prayer, and and the way that you guys try to lay that foundation both for your family and your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Dave:Thank you. And I just wanna say it, this church has been so incredible, not just to myself, but to Kirsty and the kids taking us in, you know, making us part of your family. It's been such a blessing.
Ardin:Thanks for joining us today, and thanks for for being so honest and vulnerable. It's great.
Dave:Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, guys.
Ardin:What a great a great life story from Dave there, and fantastic that he's able to be so honest and just vulnerable about it and just putting everything out.
Jonathan:And I love that the person we just talked to, you could meet him for the first time, you're gonna hear the same thing. There's just a wonderful freshness and an openness to his story. He said to me beforehand, he's like, do you want the g version or the r version? I was like, I don't think this is an r rated podcast.
Ardin:Maybe like an
Jonathan:m. So so, yeah, maybe you know, they're explicit for the the little ones listening. But Dave is just he's willing to share his life with you and just be real about his faith. He's one of the people who I go to here when I just want a fresh reminder of how vivid God is. And the amount of times, you know, he'll just call you up and say, hey.
Jonathan:We need to pray about this. Let's do it.
Ardin:Awesome. Awesome. Well, everyone has a story.
Jonathan:Can't wait to hear the next one.
Ardin:If you've got a story, come along and join us. We would love to hear it. We won't bite. Most of the time, we even wear pants.