Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Tell Me More is a weekly podcast hosted by Katy Reed Hodges and Luke Stehr, where they unpack the Sunday sermon with Dr. Dennis Wiles. This podcast is designed on the premise that Dr. Wiles always has more to say than can fit in a 35 minute sermon - so we have fun discussing it here each week. We hope that in listening you are educated, encouraged and more connected to the pastor and his teaching!
On this episode of Tell Me More, Doctor. Wiles and I celebrate the two hundredth episode. We talk about all the amazing things going on in the life of our church over the course of the summer, and there are a lot of amazing things. We also talk about where we're headed for the rest of 2026 and what's in store for 2027. We hope it's a great episode for you.
Speaker 1:And to our listeners, thank you for continuing to listen to Tell Me More. Alright. Welcome to the two hundredth episode of Tell Me More.
Speaker 2:Wow. Cue all the applause.
Speaker 1:Yeah. We're gonna make a big deal next week or maybe not next Whenever. Whenever. We full disclosure, we are prerecording this episode. Doctor.
Speaker 1:Miles has not preached a sermon. It is 2PM. 2PM for the two hundredth episode on Wednesday before camp. And so we this is prerecorded.
Speaker 2:200 episodes. So that's wow. So that's two hundred weeks. Okay. We've been doing this a while.
Speaker 2:Four years? No. Almost? Yeah. That is crazy.
Speaker 1:And somehow you all are still listening.
Speaker 2:I was gonna say. Yeah. And we're still talking.
Speaker 1:But Katie is not with us today. She is on a
Speaker 2:trip. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think enjoying life. Where'd she go? Do you know?
Speaker 2:Yes. She's gone to her family's lake house. Oh. Nice. In kind of Central Texas.
Speaker 1:We support our staff going on Absolutely. Sounds
Speaker 2:Just doing well. So here we are.
Speaker 1:We're here. So we'll do a bigger kind of celebration when Katie returns.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:Looking back, we don't But know what we'll 200 episodes. Tell Me More.
Speaker 2:Our hundredth episode, you were not even on location. You were in
Speaker 1:I was in Florida. Florida. In my brother's backyard. Yes.
Speaker 2:But you made an appearance.
Speaker 1:I did make an appearance. A virtual appearance. We did it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Man. I don't remember when you started because Katie and I started it. And at some point, went on maternity leave.
Speaker 1:She did.
Speaker 2:And that's when you stayed. I know. Then you just stayed. You wouldn't leave. You just stayed.
Speaker 2:You
Speaker 1:couldn't get rid of me.
Speaker 2:I know it. It's crazy. So, anyway.
Speaker 1:I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 2:It's all good.
Speaker 1:Thanks for keeping me around.
Speaker 2:We're happy you're here.
Speaker 1:So but it's summer at First Baptist Arlington. Well, camp. Camp is starting on tomo the day we're recording, it's starting tomorrow. By the time you listen to this Connect Camp will be over.
Speaker 2:That's We'll
Speaker 1:be in the swing of youth camp and counter week. That's right.
Speaker 2:Night, we had our meeting, our pre meetings.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pre meetings last So
Speaker 2:we had they're telling us we're right at 600 for children's camp. That includes the there are 10 churches that are going along with us and they're churches that have been before. So we we know them. We know their children's ministers and, most of them we know their pastor. What you know, I know several of the pastors.
Speaker 2:Some of them actually come. And so we've had a chance to be with them for a number of years. It's our first one without David Butts though in twenty three years. This will be my, I think my twenty fourth camp. I believe I'm right about that.
Speaker 2:Something like that. And, but, man, Casey Fagan has stepped up huge.
Speaker 1:Casey Fagan. Yeah. Susanna Dana.
Speaker 2:These are rock stars.
Speaker 1:Oh, my gosh. And then you put Brian Supplier Seriously. In the
Speaker 2:incredible. And I'm so proud of them, all the work they've done, all of our volunteers. And so last night, we had a really, really sweet meeting. And parents, kids, excited about a bunch of first timers.
Speaker 1:I I know a lot of those first timers.
Speaker 2:So it's gonna be fun for them.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be so
Speaker 2:a great time and a lot of great man, just great volunteers that Who go
Speaker 1:who is preaching at Connect Camp?
Speaker 2:You know, this year, we have called in this high powered preacher from Arlington, Texas, who loves to preach to children. So, so yeah, this will be my I think it's my twenty fourth or twenty fifth. I I you know, my when I came here in o one, it was in August, really July, but I started August 1. So camp was already over. And I didn't grow up going to camp.
Speaker 2:It's just not a, you know, not a thing for me. And even as a pastor, I would say, I did, camp when I was pastoring in Murtens years ago. I was on the Hill County Baptist Association team. And we had an area wide association that included Corsicana and Hillsborough, Navarre County, and Hill County, and kind of Central Texas region, if you will. And so I was on the board for it.
Speaker 2:And somehow or another, even though I never went to camp as a kid, didn't have anything to do with camp, didn't really care about camp, I was elected to be in charge of recreation for Latham Springs Encampment.
Speaker 1:I've been I've been to Latham Springs.
Speaker 2:I think it's the hottest place in Texas
Speaker 1:It might be. This summer? It might very well be.
Speaker 2:You were there, and, man, I did that for a couple of years. And then after that, I just really never did camp again as a pastor. Kids went, but I never went. And so and, when I came here, I had no idea. You know, camp is It's camp.
Speaker 2:Is a big deal, First Baptist Arlington. And everybody has been, everybody goes, all the adults that go. I just I'd never seen anything like it unless in a church that valued camp. And I'd never been a part of a church that did camp the way we do it. So it's all brand new to me.
Speaker 2:And yeah, the first year that I went, I was shocked at the quality of it, just the caliber of people that go. And, of course, Riverbend, just A great place. Oh, my goodness. It's it's unbelievable what they do. So so anyway, I love it.
Speaker 2:And I love preaching to the kids. I, you know, I I taught Preaching at Truett. Well, I'm still teaching Preaching at Truett. I'm teaching another seminar this year in Tomalytics. But I've told my students before, if you want to know how good you're doing, go preach children's camp.
Speaker 2:Because grown ups, if they don't listen to you, they're polite enough usually just to not say anything. They'll just sit there. Children, if they're not listening, they just start talking. They don't know any different. You know, they start moving around and so it's a really good test.
Speaker 2:You get 600 children in a one worship room and then you try to preach to them. It's it's fascinating. So, I always love doing it, but it's it's it's interesting. And and they're fourth as well going into fourth grade, going into seventh grade. So you've got a little bit of a
Speaker 1:You do.
Speaker 2:Age span. And it's it's so funny that those little third graders who now fourth graders, some of them can walk under this table. They're just tiny. And you see them walking around camp. A lot of them have their little map out.
Speaker 2:They're so cute because they've never been there before. They don't know where they're going. And it's just a really sweet time. Some of them get really homesick that first day or so. It is really hard in those cabins.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of tears in those cabins. But then you've got the veterans, the ones who want to seventh grade who just kind of strut everywhere because they know where everything is. They've been there. They've been making plans. Ada, my granddaughter, she's one of those.
Speaker 2:So she asked me to order I ordered 200 of the little Jesuses. I'm talking about I do. Yeah. And so she and her friends are going to put little Jesuses all over the camp while they are there. So see who can find them all.
Speaker 2:So anyway, so they're they're fired up. Oh, good. Little ones that'll be,
Speaker 1:Oh, they're fired up too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I hope so. So it's fun. I love it. And then Monday Encounter week. Yeah, by the time you hear this, we will already be in day two or so of encounter week with our youth.
Speaker 2:We had a good group last night. Are I think there's, nine churches, I think, going to youth camp. But we have our largest number of youth since, before COVID. We've got about a 100 it's a 140. I'm trying to remember what they said last night.
Speaker 2:A 100 I think we're a 143, I believe, after last night or maybe two. But supposedly, Tanner and Chelsea had said if we get a 150 kids
Speaker 1:He's eating he eats pepper?
Speaker 2:Some kind of pepper I've never heard of. So they're they're in shouting range.
Speaker 1:Scotch Bonnet? I don't know
Speaker 2:what is. But, anyway, they're they're getting nervous because my grandson came in last night and brought two more guys with him that are going
Speaker 1:Good job. If Tanner eats said pepper, we will do our best Yes. To get it on film and have a medical team on standby.
Speaker 2:Let Phil figure it out. But, but, you know, we've got a great group going to eat. Same thing. The the parents, the volunteers, yeah, it's just Oh, it's great. It's a highlight for us.
Speaker 2:And then we get back, it is a busy
Speaker 1:Yeah. Summer. Were just going over calendar before
Speaker 2:Trying to figure out if we even know everything that's going on.
Speaker 1:And think we both struggled to actually list everything.
Speaker 2:We did. I had to get my phone out and look at our app just to try to think through it all.
Speaker 1:So we're gonna we're just gonna try and talk about Yeah. Everything that happens this summer. You are gonna leave on your study leave. We're gonna talk about your sermon series for the summer here in a little bit.
Speaker 2:We are.
Speaker 1:Camp, we get everyone back. I think June 14 is our next thing and that's send Sunday Mhmm. Where we're gonna commission all of our youth and college summer trips. Mhmm. So let's make sure I'm in the engagement team so I better be able to list Is all of
Speaker 2:that right?
Speaker 1:But our seventh through twelfth graders are going to the border. Okay. And then our ninth through twelfth graders are going to Toronto, Canada. Okay. And then which is a really neat story.
Speaker 1:They're working with a group called the Remix that we heard about through some friends we do ministry within Canada. Okay. And we were talking with our global center in Barcelona, and they actually know the Remix people. So there's a connection between the work our youth are gonna go do in Toronto and our global center in Barcelona Wow. Which is amazing.
Speaker 2:And our college kids are going to
Speaker 1:And our college kids are going there. I'm getting there.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:So our eleventh and twelfth graders are going to Indonesia and then our college students are going to Denver and Spain. And so in Denver, they're gonna be working with the church planning group that they've worked with for a few years now.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then in Spain, they're working with our global center.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:So lots of great things happening on the engagement front.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Our traditionals are going to Branson. They are. Brian I guess Brian's taking them.
Speaker 1:Right? Brian Sublava has taken a bus to Branson, which I grew up in Missouri, very close to Branson. You've been to Branson? I've been to Branson, and I've also seen many a tour bus of traditionals get off in Branson.
Speaker 2:A bit. And you said you had had your prom in there?
Speaker 1:My prom was in Branson.
Speaker 2:Wow. You took a date to your prom. Right? Unlike my grandstand.
Speaker 1:Did take a date. You talked
Speaker 2:about it last week.
Speaker 1:My date was the prom queen.
Speaker 2:Woah. Woah.
Speaker 1:I was not the prom king. Woah. Woah. But my date wasn't prom queen. Here we go.
Speaker 1:So there we go. And then, Kinder Bible
Speaker 2:Kinder Bible.
Speaker 1:Is happening. That is, I think, the June twenty something week. Yeah. Yeah. It is.
Speaker 1:June 22. June.
Speaker 2:It starts on June 22.
Speaker 1:Man, I'm on fire.
Speaker 2:Look you.
Speaker 1:That week is gonna be a busy week at our church's life. We're gonna, on that weekend, host, yeah. Do you wanna say what we're doing?
Speaker 2:Well, we have been trying. And, Luke, you've been a part of this team. We have been trying to figure out a way to connect to the World Cup. Which is a big deal
Speaker 1:if you were not aware.
Speaker 2:The world is coming to Arlington. We don't even know how many people. But, anyway. But on that weekend, June the weekend of 06/25/2627, we were going to host a party on our campus on the twenty seventh with Texas Baptist. We kind of still are.
Speaker 2:But Jordan, the country of Jordan's national soccer team, is in the World Cup for the first time in their history, and they are very excited. And they're playing Argentina of all teams that night on the twenty seventh.
Speaker 1:If you've heard of, like, Messi is one of the most famous soccer players, I think that's maybe his last game.
Speaker 2:I think so.
Speaker 1:It's when they play. And so
Speaker 2:it's a biggest game in the entire World Cup, and it's going to be right here in Arlington. And so the Jordanian government is hosting a party downtown Arlington from really starting on Wednesday going through Saturday, and they need our property to really handle everything they would like to do. And so we've changed our plans on the twenty seventh. We're just going to host the Jordanian government's party.
Speaker 1:So we're working with the Jordanian Yes. Department of Tourism and Consulate.
Speaker 2:It's And Fascinating.
Speaker 1:God has done some, I think, interesting things to get us to this point, and we're excited for what A lot of public
Speaker 2:even on the other side of it. Yes. Because Jordan hosts Jordan is home to some holy sites in Christianity and biblical history. In fact, the baptism of Jesus the Jordan River is actually the actual site for it is on the Jordan side of the Jordan River. Mount Nebo where Moses saw the promised land.
Speaker 2:Anyway, so there are there are a lot of connections there that we believe we're going to have with, with, the Jordanians. And we're excited there. We've been with the
Speaker 1:sweetest Sweet spirit.
Speaker 2:People. Oh, my goodness. Very gracious and giving. And so we're gonna help host that. We have no idea
Speaker 1:what that's gonna be like. We don't. So if you are looking for details Yes. We don't have no idea on what it looks like to be involved.
Speaker 2:Though. They're they're having these big screen TVs so you can watch the games there, on that Saturday. And we the Jordanian game.
Speaker 1:Come. And, I mean, I think over those three days, they're actually going to play. They got a license from FIFA to play the World Cup games at the Levitt. Yes. And so if you just wanna be a part of World Cup energy and be a presence for Christ
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:In the midst of the World Cup, go and park in our parking lots
Speaker 2:and watch Be with us.
Speaker 1:The World Cup at the eleventh. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's pretty awesome, really. So, yeah, that's that's crazy. That weekend, who knows?
Speaker 1:We don't know. So that's happening. Yeah. Then, we have Wow Camp. Is that next?
Speaker 2:That's in July. We have summer clusters.
Speaker 1:Summer clusters for our women's ministry happening.
Speaker 2:Forge Bible study for the men. Yep.
Speaker 1:Wow Camp. There's the rookie sports camp is going on all summer long. Our college ministry is continuing to meet for bible study. Our youth ministry will pick back up on the other side of camp. Having
Speaker 2:the lowdown, lunch on Wednesday.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah. I'm just looking through the calendar. There are a lot of things.
Speaker 1:We don't slow down in the summer.
Speaker 2:No. It's it's really a busy, busy summer.
Speaker 1:And so
Speaker 2:if you don't know It's exciting.
Speaker 1:If you can't keep all of this in your head, go to fbca.org/summer to get information on all of this because it is a lot. And there's so much valuable ministry that's gonna happen in and through our church over the course of the summer. You think about the global impact of sending our students on trips, hosting another country on our property around the World Cup, the millions of people from around the world who will be here. Hard to believe. This is a summer for just tremendous global impacts.
Speaker 1:And you can actually just come to church this summer and touch the world.
Speaker 2:Be a part of it. That's
Speaker 1:right. Which is incredible. It
Speaker 2:really is. And, and it just, you know, it's always busy. And plus, it's a great time to maybe pick up some new rhythms in your spiritual life, you know, because, it's a season where things are very different, particularly if you're a family with kids.
Speaker 1:You know,
Speaker 2:kids are not in school and everything is just really different. And you've got a chance, a lot of times, taking a family trip or whatever, you've got some time to evaluate the rhythms that are in place in your life and the habits, you know, and ways to flourish, those kinds of things. So that's what I love about summer. It offers us an opportunity to kind of refresh, restart, rethink, reevaluate, and get ready for the fall. That is usually when those kinds of thoughts really become so important to us, you know, because when everything kind of kicks back in, hopefully you have you've been revitalized a little bit during the summer.
Speaker 2:That's our hope.
Speaker 1:One thing I love about summer, I don't know that we always think or talk about this, but June, July, and August are some of our biggest months for first time guests on Sunday mornings. Fascinating in that. Well, you know, it's when people move.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And so when people move, they look for a new church, where they have space in their schedule because of just rhythm changes.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:But just be extra attentive to new people at church. There's a good chance you'll get some new neighbors over the summer just because, again, it's when people move. So look for opportunities to invite people to join you, for church. One of the things I love about what we do in the summer is there's so many events. They're actually just great to invite people to even beyond Sunday morning.
Speaker 1:It's kind
Speaker 2:of low hanging fruit.
Speaker 1:It's low hanging fruit. There's so many great things. Summer clusters are great if you've got, you know, for the women's ministry, if you've got friends who you want to get connected to the life of the church, but maybe they're not ready to come on a full Sunday morning Right. Summer cluster is great. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:If you've got a, you know, new family moved in with you, the family water park night at BK Waterpark on June 28 is just a great chance for people to meet families in our church.
Speaker 2:That's
Speaker 1:right. Dive right in, pun intended. So so many good things. Be on the lookout for new people and invite. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And then be on the lookout for new people on Sunday morning.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I I think too, just, for those of you that are longtime members, and best members, even newer members, just praying for all of this that's happened this summer, all these teams that will be going out. And there are just a lot of opportunities for a lot of spiritual activity in the lives of our people and in the life of the community. And so it's just a great season. I love it.
Speaker 2:I'm grateful for it. And we've had a really good Eastertide season. And now we're turning our attention, you know. So I've been working on children. Our theme for connect camp, as we call it now, is lost and found.
Speaker 2:And so we are going to help our boys and girls just think spiritually about what it means to be lost, what it means to be found, and, kind of tie in some very famous stories that will help kind of plant that in their minds as they launch their summer. So, the kids are going to be doing bible studies, and together each, you know, each morning is kind of the bible study time and then we have a worship time. And, so they're going to be looking at it, you know, some really the prodigal son is one of the stories that they'll be focused on. What does it mean for this young man who left and presumably is lost and all of a sudden he's really found. And I'm going to be highlighting some things in the evening that just kind of run parallel to those conversations.
Speaker 2:And it's just a really, really sweet time to just be with our kids. We're going to talk about the story of Zacchaeus, know, that he you know, was this very successful man. But there's a lot about his life that was not right. And on Sunday, I'm going to come back home, though, to church to preach. And Brad is going to to preach.
Speaker 2:And he's going to, he's going to share the story of Jesus reinstating Simon Peter, you know. And, and then that, that Sunday night, I'm going to tell the story of Matthew and and just how Matthew was found by Jesus and then followed him and then the impact Matthew's had, you know, really in the history of Christianity. So it's it it just looks like it's going to be a really fun sweet time with these children. So I'm really excited about it. We a few years ago, I started something.
Speaker 2:I had no idea what I was starting. But we were studying the word grace. And so the concept of grace is I thought, okay, let's talk about that particular word, adding it to your vocabulary. And so I decided to add a segment in every one of my times, new words that have been added to the English dictionary. And it's become a thing now.
Speaker 2:So the children now think every year I'm supposed to show up with all these new words that they've never heard Oh,
Speaker 1:Can't wait.
Speaker 2:Yes. So we'll be doing that again this year. And so last night, we tested that. They were already excited about it. Good.
Speaker 2:Anyway, it's gonna be fun. And then, then I'll come home on Sunday and launch a brand new sermon series.
Speaker 1:Okay. Let's talk about it. Yeah. Let's talk about the summer's new You sermon and
Speaker 2:the rest of our ministry team. Have decided to look at what it means to make a difference in our world. In order to do that, we need to be difference makers. So how do you become a difference maker, you know, is really kind of the underlying thing for us for nine Sundays. And we've chosen to look at the fruit of the spirit and highlight one each Sunday.
Speaker 2:And so I'll just tell you all that are listening, as I was planning the series, in my mind, I kind of had an idea of how I wanted to go. And I just backed off of that. And I just kind of struggled a little bit. So one day in our larger staff meeting, you may remember when we had everybody in the room, I just said, okay. I put the nine fruit of the spirit on the board in Greek, you remember, so that nobody would kind of know what they were at first, unless those of you can read Greek.
Speaker 2:And we just went through each one. Then I asked
Speaker 1:My Greek's not Greek, but I didn't figure it out. It didn't take
Speaker 2:it a minute. We just asked. I just asked the whole staff, so when you think about each one of these, who comes to mind in the scripture? Are there people that when you hear one of the fruit of the spirit is love, does that signal to you some character in the Old Testament or some incident incident in the life of a character? And how do we see that in the life of Jesus?
Speaker 2:And so we kind of looked at that in different people. We wrote down biblical characters for every one of the three. And then we've started this preaching conversation conversation that that you're you're a part of that we all get together and we're learning from each other about preaching. And so that group, I just said, okay, let's be more definitive because I'm going to be out for four of those Sundays. And I asked some of you all to preach and you're one of them.
Speaker 2:And Katie is going to be preaching, and Brad is going to be preaching, and Connor, Toriaba, and you. So I said, okay, if I'm going to do five of these, y'all are going do four of them. Let's settle on who we're actually going to talk about in each one of these sermons. And so we went through the list of the nine fruit and we all kind of put our heads together and chose nine different biblical characters that kind of reflect.
Speaker 1:Are you going to spoil those now? No.
Speaker 2:We're going to make you come to it. But we also said, okay, let's do that. But on top of that, these really reflect the character of Christ. So what are some stories out of his life that demonstrate that fruit for that week? And then how do we take that home, so to speak?
Speaker 2:What do we do with that ourselves? And so, so yeah, you're going to have to come to look at these, these various characters from scripture that reflect, demonstrate, exhibit, you know, these qualities. I I will say that I will tell them one. Well, I'm not gonna tell them the name because the fruit. You can do you can look the fruit up yourself, you know?
Speaker 2:But Yes. But the the one that I think is a little bit humorous is on Father's Day.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Conor Toriyaba, I've asked him to preach on I wanted him to preach on Father's Day because I thought it's his first
Speaker 1:It is his first.
Speaker 2:Father's Day. And so it just so happens that the fruit that day is patience.
Speaker 1:Which if you don't know, Connor's wife's name is patience. That's exactly right. And so, that joke is That's right. Gonna wear it out.
Speaker 2:So we have just said Connor is gonna be talking about Patience on Father's Day. And I'll just leave it at that. And, so we're actually calling it for Let
Speaker 1:the hero decide what he's really preaching about or two.
Speaker 2:So I thought that was pretty cool. But he's excited about it and all of y'all. And it gives me a chance to be away and spend some time studying and reflecting. And I've already got the plans laid out all the way through the end of this year. We're going to come back in August and have a focus on prayer.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. And use it really primarily using John 17, the prayer of Jesus. And called that that month praying for believers and how Jesus prayed for his people who already followed him, the believers he already knew. But then he also prays for those who are going to believe through their message. And so we're using that to spend some time to center ourselves to think about the fall because the fall, I want us to give some, attention to just personal evangelism.
Speaker 2:What does it mean to live evangelistically, which is kind of in your job description, actually. It's not just kind of. It actually is in your job description of helping us learn to live evangelistically. And so during the fall, we're going to to look at what is I've entitled the the series Gone Fishing. But the point is, what does it mean to personally try to share the gospel?
Speaker 2:There's so many ways to do it. In fact, today, I was with Connor, and we have a new staff member, Tatum, who's just joined
Speaker 1:by Yeah, her new college associate.
Speaker 2:Yes, she's awesome, by the way, in our college ministry. And so we were talking to a lady who was caring for us at the table. So I showed them. I put these new little business cards together that our team has printed for me. So it has my name on the front and all that.
Speaker 2:But on the back it has what's called the salvation poem. It's written by Matt and Sherry McPherson. It's actually a song that they wrote. But but it's a poem turned into music. And it the the poem says, Jesus, you died upon a cross and rose again to save the lost.
Speaker 2:Forgive me now of all my sin. Come be my savior, Lord and friend. Change my life and make it new and help me Lord to live for you. Well, obviously, it's not a whole presentation of the gospel, but it's it's got the concepts there. And so what I've been doing is giving this card to people and just saying, hey, this is my card.
Speaker 2:It's got our phone number, our website. You can check it up. But on the back, there's a little poem you might want to read. And if if you've if you've never given thought about what it means to to follow Jesus, this would at least give you something to think about. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Look the song up. Go to our website. Call us. We'd love to talk to about it. So I left one today for the lady that waited on us.
Speaker 2:So we just talked about just some very practical I mean, that's not a very confrontational way to share the gospel. It's just No. I just talked just briefly with this young lady. And then I put it in my when I finished my bill and all that, it just slid it in there for her. And I've started doing that in just various ways.
Speaker 2:And, nobody's called me yet. You know, it has a number on there for us to call for the church, but I have no idea just yet. But those kinds of, ideas of what we wanna share. Yeah. You know, just where is it that God may use You know, you've taught some you've you've helped us think about being a chaplain for our neighborhoods, even for our offices or our school classroom or
Speaker 1:All of the above.
Speaker 2:Some way to be thoughtful and prayerful Yeah. And how God opens doors when you're spiritually attuned. And how he kinda takes our heart in a certain direction if we're praying. I think prayer is a great pathway to evangelism, you know.
Speaker 1:You know, I like to talk about the blessed habits and that's Yes. The b is the first letter and it's begin with prayer. Yeah. So prayer is such a good place to start. Exactly.
Speaker 1:And I've told people and I've been proven right because God is good. Mhmm. That if you start praying for the lost people in your life or the lost people around you that you may not know yet and you pray that God will give you opportunities, it turns out he will. He will. He will.
Speaker 1:So if you start praying Mhmm. God will start working.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And and people in general are spiritually curious.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:They just are. They're interested in things.
Speaker 1:They really are.
Speaker 2:They're human beings. They're made in the image of God. And so there's a there's somewhat of a, I hate to call it natural curiosity because I think it's a spiritual that that the God's just put in all of us. And people are interested in their own opinion about things. So asking questions is always a good path.
Speaker 2:Plus, you learn from people. When you ask questions about what people believe about things and why they believe them, It's really fascinating.
Speaker 1:Oh, I think questions are one of the best evangelistic tools. A good question can take you so far. Exactly.
Speaker 2:And you just learn. I mean, I'm always fascinated by what people believe. Like the other day I was somewhere and this guy, he had a he was a really nice young man and we were engaged in a conversation. Well, he had a tiny cross right behind his ear tattooed. And at first, I I couldn't quite tell if that's what it was because of the way his hair was.
Speaker 2:Anyway, he, you know, he turned a couple of times and I noticed. Finally, I just said, I said, man. I think, do you have a cross tattooed? And he said, oh, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And and I said, oh, okay. That's And And I think he was thinking, do I not like tattoos? And so we kind of talked about it. I said, no, no. Don't have a problem with tattoos.
Speaker 2:Said, it's interesting. And he said, yeah. He said, put it right there just to be just he said, you all see it every day. Obviously, it's not like it's something on my arm or my hand that I noticed. He said, but I know it's there.
Speaker 2:And, and he said, it's just reminding me that, you know, that's kind of the central event in history. And I just I like to keep it kind of close. And I'm supposed to be attentive to the things of God. And I thought, pretty cool. You know?
Speaker 2:And so we ended up having a conversation and he was he's not in church right now. But I just listened to him kinda explain to me what he And, and I thought that was so I just affirmed him and encouraged him. I said, I think that's pretty cool. You know? I said, I'm I'm not a tattoo guy myself.
Speaker 2:But I said, I think this is fascinating. So I mean, just listening to him just reminded me people are interested in what they think, what they believe. Yeah. And it's interesting to hear it all. That's
Speaker 1:You're making a great case and point for the blessed habit cause the second one is listen.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Which is so good. It is.
Speaker 1:Listen to people.
Speaker 2:So we're going to do that in the fall and kind of think through what does it mean to to share Jesus. You're getting ready to
Speaker 1:Yeah. We're gonna launch.
Speaker 2:To teach the or launch the alpha. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't I won't it because it's a video series. But Alpha, if you aren't familiar, is a international program but it's a video series that basically it's a safe place to invite people to to have honest conversations about life and meaning. It's a Christian curriculum. And so you have a meal together. You watch a video that basically tackles an issue about faith or kind of meaning of life stuff.
Speaker 1:And then people are around tables and you have a discussion afterwards. And so the idea is you're making space for people to process, what they're thinking. And so right now, we're working on building a leadership team for Alpha. And so we've got some
Speaker 2:Started in England.
Speaker 1:Started in England.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But the American director was at Ascent.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So Alpha is I think it was the Canadian. Maybe in
Speaker 2:the Canadian. I can't remember. Somebody who leads Alpha
Speaker 1:in America was at Ascent. So Alpha is working and partnering with So we're excited about that. And honestly, it does is it gives you, just in the congregation, maybe you don't feel confident enough to share the gospel but you're like, oh, I can invite someone Mhmm. To something like this. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:That's what it's there for. It's to have a place for you to invite people who maybe Mhmm. Don't wanna come to church on a Sunday morning and go to a worship service because they don't believe or they're not really curious about that but they wanna have a conversation about why they're suffering or what life is all about. And so it's that kind of space. And so we're excited to offer that.
Speaker 1:And hopefully, it becomes a long running thing that we can keep going. And also, in
Speaker 2:the fall, once we get past Labor Day, we're going to relaunch, if you want to call it that, a Wednesday evening prayer time. Love it. Invite our people to come just to pray. I'm not really going to teach bible study. I'm to do that at noon.
Speaker 2:But the old prayer meetings that we used to have back in the day, which Baptists had forever, we're going to reengage that with a little bit of a different feel to it, Wednesday evenings that I'm gonna try to help lead and, looking forward to that. And just call our church to prayer. As you said, that's a great pathway to evangelism and to pray for people because God orchestrates circumstances. He softens people's hearts. He does things that we can't do.
Speaker 2:We we can't save anybody. We can't make anybody ready for a spiritual conversation. That's just not our job. Mm-mm. But he's really good at it.
Speaker 2:And so Yeah. Just coming before him and softening our hearts, you know, and making us more aware.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And I think if you need, like, a case study for this, you know, I think everyone in our church can see how our college ministry has just grown. Yes. And Yes. Watching students get baptized routinely.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:What everyone in the church may not know is that our college minister, Connor, over the summer will prayer walk UTA every day at 9AM.
Speaker 2:Yes. In fact, I had breakfast. I had lunch with him and and, Tatum today, and they've already started. And he told me today, they went walking and Tatum went. And two of our church members, I had no idea, two ladies from our church were with Connor and Taylor Day walking.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It is open. I mean, they're they're not gonna turn you away. So if you wanna go and pray for college ministry at our church or at UTA Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's pretty awesome.
Speaker 1:AM every weekday. It's pretty awesome. Rain or shine or 100 degrees. They will do it.
Speaker 2:So good. So calling the church to prayer, that's gonna happen in the fall. And then that leads right into engagement month
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Where Do we have a special guest preacher
Speaker 2:in the special guest preacher coming in the fall, Rafael Ansberger. And he is the head He's
Speaker 1:the General Secretary of the French Baptist Union of Canada.
Speaker 2:There it is.
Speaker 1:I've never done anything with him, so I don't know.
Speaker 2:He's a great guy. Luke has worked with him. I met him, a while back through Ascent. And, we got involved in Canada in Ascent in Toronto primarily through Jennifer Lau, Canadian Baptist Ministries, which led then to us meeting the French Canadian Baptists. And, and Raphael is their general secretary.
Speaker 2:Jennifer leads the the English side of things, I guess. Well, Toronto does both, but
Speaker 1:She she's supposed to be, which is, like, the mission board for Canadian Baptists.
Speaker 2:Right. So great, great lady. Oh my gosh. Goodness. Awesome.
Speaker 2:She and Rafael both are just Phenomenal, phenomenal leaders. Great leaders for the twenty first century. I'm I'm so humbled by both of them. So Rafael is just a really good evangelist himself. So he's going to come and, preach in, September for us and do some training for us Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Actually, as well for evangelism. And so, yeah, the fall to me is it it and there's some new discipleship plans for the fall that our discipleship lead team is putting in place. And so it's it's like it's all just really coming together. And it all has the, the feel of intentional discipleship and flourishing. It's it's all under that umbrella, you know?
Speaker 2:So the evangelistic emphasis and then leading into engagement month, where we're going to to look at John 20 where Jesus sends all of us, where he says, I'm sending you, plural, you all. And what does it mean for us to engage the whole world, you know, and make sure we're connected to what God's called us to and how to live that out in our current world, realizing that the Lord has brought the whole world to us. And that what an
Speaker 1:Every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah. What an incredible
Speaker 1:Friendly reminder, we live in the most diverse large city in the country. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Which is amazing, you know? And when you find your way around Arlington, if you're paying attention, the Lord has just brought the world to Arlington.
Speaker 1:Half of the world's unreached people groups are represented at UTA.
Speaker 2:And they're here. They're here. Can reach them. Can engage them, which is awesome. And then in Advent this year, we're going to end with the word, kind of where we started in John one, the prologue to John's gospel.
Speaker 2:And then that's going to lead us into 2027, which is going to be about influencing our world for Christ is is the kind of where we're headed for this next year. And all of this is laying the groundwork for for that for next year. Love it. Which is what I'll be working on while I'm on city leave. So, you know, I'll I'll look at it all and it's just watching it all come together.
Speaker 2:And then we're launching three new search committees. Really, one's already been in place, our youth minister search committee. But we have actually, engaged, with an entity to come alongside us in that search. And I'm really excited about that. They're going to be here the first weekend of June to meet with our committees.
Speaker 2:So there's there's just a lot of things happening all right here in front of us right now. Know?
Speaker 1:A lot of great life at First Baptist.
Speaker 2:Yes. You know? And the I'm I'm loving watching the worship life of our of our church. You know, Aaron has actually been in Korea with our community. Aaron preached He preached
Speaker 1:last Sunday. Last Sunday.
Speaker 2:I haven't Why'd
Speaker 1:that sink in?
Speaker 2:I haven't even talked to him about it yet. He's he's still there. But
Speaker 1:I mean, this church has been sending us their students for how many years now?
Speaker 2:Well, Katie was the college minister when it started. So it's been seven however long Almost ten. Eight or ten years ago. Don't know now. And, their pastor they're they're they have a pastor, kind of a senior pastor.
Speaker 2:They have a teaching pastor. Their teaching pastor, pastor O is the is the senior pastor. Doctor Cho did his PhD at Southwestern. So he actually came here while he was finishing up his PhD and approved us theologically. I guess all that's for his students to come here.
Speaker 2:And so a number of their parents, not everybody, but a number of them want their students to have some type of international experience educationally. And so that's what's connected them here for them to go to school here. And but they also need to be in a faith community, is incredibly important to their church. And so they have Weren't there a Yeah, really. And so Aaron and Brock and, I think Joshua was there.
Speaker 2:And they are, they they actually flew with the Korean students who went home. They all went together. But Sunday morning, one of the two two or three of the Korean students were still with us. And one of them came up to me and I I made a video just to speak a word of encouragement to the church, thank them for sharing their students with us, and basically introducing Aaron and all that. So, well, because of the time change, you know, they're so far ahead of us.
Speaker 2:It was like 08:30 our time, Saturday night was Sunday morning in Korea. And so they had already watched the service. And one of them, he was so excited. He said, It was so good. Doctor.
Speaker 2:Wiles, Aaron did such a good job. My brother Aaron, he called him brother Aaron, such a good job. And they translated my video into Korean, obviously. And, anyway, so I said it was really, really sweet. We haven't gotten to be with him yet.
Speaker 2:But, but, yeah. So this and there's just a lot of really good connections happening right now that I'm grateful for and, looking forward to the future. So, yeah. How could you not? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Busy summer going into, I believe, a really, really meaningful fall Yeah. Season for us.
Speaker 1:Stay engaged this summer. Yeah. Pick something. Mhmm. Pray for it.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Be involved in it.
Speaker 2:Yep. That's what I'd say.
Speaker 1:Whether it seems like just a fellowship event or, you know, it's our youth going on an engagement trip. Mhmm. Pray for it because people get connected. People encounter Jesus whether it's a fellowship event or an engagement trip. So
Speaker 2:It's really good. Really good.
Speaker 1:So much good.
Speaker 2:Looking forward to it all.
Speaker 1:Yep. Okay. Thanks for listening everyone.
Speaker 2:Episode Episode 200.
Speaker 1:Episode 200. In the books. We did it.
Speaker 3:Thanks for listening to the Tell Me More podcast today. You can subscribe to this podcast on your app of choice, or you can visit us at fbca.org to find out more information about the podcast and our church. Thanks for listening. Have a good day.