Bryan and Kendall Howard Q&A

Get to know Bryan and Kendall Howard as Cory O'Hara hosts a Q&A about their testimonies and calling to serve in Bellevue's college ministry.

Show Notes

Cory O'Hara welcomes Bryan and Kendall Howard to The Vue for a Q&A about their lives, testimonies, and calling to ministry. Get to know the Howards as they begin serving Bellevue's college ministry, and hear Bryan reflect on the mercy of Jesus in 1 Timothy 1:15–16.

What is The Vue?

Bellevue Baptist Church College Ministry

Alright. What's up Owen? What's up? What's up everybody? Happy Thursday. Can I get some noise in the house? How y'all doing? I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Did y'all enjoy your Chick-fil-A tonight? Yeah. Mad props. Okay. Hey listen, we're so glad you're here tonight. It's a big night for The View. A lot of new things going on in The View ministry, but it's a big night because it is Brian and Kendall's first night. Put your hands together and thankful for Brian and Kendall being in the room with us. Alright. So hey, here's the deal. Before we get rocking tonight, I just want to set the stage. Thank you. Appreciate y'all front rowers. What's up? I just want to get started with setting kind of the stage where we're going tonight. Okay. I want you to know we are. What's up front rowers? Sorry I didn't get in. Just give me a shade. Okay. My bad. Sorry. Tonight's gonna be a fun night. We are gonna spend a little bit time in worship tonight, and then after that we're gonna do some Q&A with Brian and Kendall. Y'all get to know them. Alright. Some fun questions. Hear their story of how they got saved. About their call to ministry. All the things. So we're gonna jump into that tonight. Be fun. And that's gonna be the driver for the night for us. But I do want to kind of highlight before we get to worship, just some big wins. And something we do in our next gen, our next gen, our Bellevue all-staff meetings is we have a thing where we do big wins. It's where we have a big win. We all go Ric Flair style. You know what I'm saying? Who was with me on that? Yeah, you're with me. Thank you very much. Yeah. And so as we think about worship tonight, we just want to start with just chiming in on things that we're thankful for, grateful for. We mentioned a little bit last week. And if it's okay with you, I want to give an example of just ways that we're grateful. Okay. So starting off, I've got ten things rapid-fire. I want to tell you things that from a guy who's been with you guys for the last three months helping lead in our view ministry. Areas that I'm just seeing the Lord work in mighty ways and I'm thankful for. So I'm gonna start with a big one. First one is this. I'm thankful for Tanya Franks. That's right. T Franks. T Franks and I work side-by-side at Next Gen. And I'll be honest with you, Tanya. I'm telling this to your face right here in front of everybody. The summer would have been impossible without you at the helm. And I just want to say thank you big time. Thank you. Another big thank you is to Carson Everson. Woo! All right. Carson Everson. What's up? She's in the cafe. She's still serving. Okay. She came to us in May. She walked into our office, sat down on the couch, and said, I know I'm working fourth and fifth grade ministry, but she said, I want to help out with the view this summer. And she said, if there's anything and everything I can do, let me know. So every balloon arch, every decoration you see up here, every time you see something nice in the view ministry, it most likely started with Carson. Okay. I just want you to know. So she doesn't work in college, but she's been helping us out in the view ministry all summer long. So big woo to Carson. Thank you. Another one is Caleb Hall. Where's Caleb Hall? Woo! Is he in the room? Where's he at? He's, he's serving somewhere. Um, can I get, uh, I'm looking around the room real quick. Um, Gavin Kopko. I need you to come up to the stage real quick. Come on. Run, run, run, run. You got 10 seconds. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5. He's so athletic. Okay. All right. Stand up here. You hate me on the stage. Gavin runs our media every night, but he's going to show you is that this new view shirt was designed by Caleb Hall. Turn around, show him the back. Look how cool this is. Super sick. Also want you to know there's copyright infringement on this thing left and right. Okay. I don't know how we got away with it. All right. But Caleb Hall designed this and a hat over there. You can turn around. All right. Give him a hand. Thank you, Gavin, for being our model tonight. He designed that for us. And I just give Caleb a huge shout out. We don't have a lot of creatives that can do that all the time. And Caleb went and did that himself and made it. So those are actually for sale tonight. I think 20 bucks for the T-shirts. They're the nice heavy. Those are nice. So if you want to grab one, you can. Another big woo goes to Philip Bennett. Woo. Okay. He built this whole space. How about that? And he came in here last week to check it out. And he also said he said, I heard this is rumbling, but y'all want the espresso machine in the kitchen. Is this true? Y'all want the espresso machine from the old building? Yeah. Well, it's coming per Philip Bennett. He's working on it. Okay. So for all you coffee addicts, you'll get it. Okay. It's gonna be fun. Big time. Another big thank you. Praiseworthy thing is Maggie Foreman. Can I get a woo? Maggie Foreman. She's walking the room right now. She does not necessarily also. She's on the Next Gen team. She doesn't work in The View necessarily. But she is committed until we get our next lady hired in our View ministry. She's going to be here with us to help support and serve on The View front with us. So I'm grateful for her. She's here every Thursday from two to 10 o'clock pulling all things together for The View and helping us out. Another big thank you goes to my friend Chase over here on the corner over here. All right. Give a big woo to Chase. Woo. Chase. Chase has done nothing. Okay. I want you to know that. All right. He's done nothing. But I want you to know every week Chase would come up to me, dap me up, talk smack about volleyball tournaments and all the other things. Him and Hunter and Brian have been three guys that I look forward to seeing every single week. And so I said to say, I'm thankful. Every Thursday I look forward to just seeing you guys and connecting. And I appreciate y'all. All summer long you've been faithful. So mad respect. Y'all want to hang out? You want to hang out after this? Be fun? FIFA. All right. I got you. All right. Another big woo goes to Alexis Gohill. Where's she at? Woo. Alexis. You're like, why? Yeah. There's so many reasons. That's why. Um, the first one is this Alexis. Uh, she came to us at the end of the summer. She just served all over the place and she's got about five months before she steps into an accounting role. And she said, Hey, in my five month hiatus, I want to serve the church. Can I come serve on staff? And so she interviewed and applied and she's now working with our fourth and fifth grade ministry, like 29 hours a week. She served with left and right. And I'm just so grateful. She's so gifted, so talented. And she chose to give that time for the next couple of months in fourth and fifth grade. So thankful to you from the next gen side. Thank you a bunch. So, uh, another big woo goes to someone I mentioned last week, and that is Stephanie Borden. There you go. All right. Yeah. Stephanie, uh, we didn't have a babysitter today. And so she stepped in today for frizzle, showed up at our house and babysat Oliver today. And that doesn't mean anything to you, but for Cora Harrow is a big thank you. Now we're going to bless her another way, but I'm just thankful she showed up today and was like, I want to hang out with your kid. Let me take care of them, all the things. So y'all can go do all your stuff today. And I'm great for her. Another one is that we're having a baby in like 20 days. Okay. Well, yeah, we'll say we, my wife is okay. She's having a baby. Um, and, uh, we're so pumped. And so October 1st, the due date, if she makes October 1st, that will be literally Jesus walking on water. It'd be a miracle. Cause I think it'll be sooner than that, but I'm so grateful. Very excited about our next little baby to bring to the world. And then one more big praise goes to the fact that Brian and Kendall Howard are joining the team with us here at Bellevue. Give them a big woo, big, big woo. All right. And so I could say a lot about this. The reason I've taken so much stage is at the beginning of the summer, we started praying, God, would you give us a full next gen team as far as our leads go? And we saw our high school pastor get hired. We saw Brian get hired and we saw JP Funk leading in our young adult ministry as well. And all three of those are huge answers to prayer. And this is kind of the last domino of that journey. And I'm just so grateful and so thankful. We've had a great first three days in the office and, um, it, Brian's just super pumped about what all God's going to do through our view ministry. And so anyways, I'm very thrilled. So those are 10 things that today, when we sing some new songs you got for us and worship together, that when Corey sits in those seats next to you, those are the things that I'm praising God for today. And so here's what I want to, amen, amen. Here's what I want to challenge you is what are your 10 things? What are the things on your list that when in just a moment, we stand together and sing songs of worship, that they're not just lyrics on a screen or just the habit of singing? Cause everyone else is singing. What's, what's in your heart that you're saying, I'm praising God for this. I'm going to thank God for this night. You with me on that? So I want to let you have a moment to think about what is worthy in your life right now that you want to give God praise for. So I want you to take a moment, take a moment real quick, and just think through that personally, you and the Lord. And then I'm going to start us off with just some prayer. Think through it. What is it that today, when you stand in a moment to sing praise, what is it that is in your life that gives you a reason to say, God, I am thankful and you are worthy because of this. To quote Revelation, worthy is the lamb who was slain. Worthy is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins. Worthy is our Lord who has blessed us to be able to gather as the body of believers. Worthy is the Lord who has forgiven us of all of our sin, past, present, future. Worthy is the Lord who has provided for us every single day. Worthy is the Lord to give us a brand new view pastor, to lead our view ministry. Worthy is the Lord who is working in the middle of our view ministry right now. Worthy is the Lord to give us a chance to sit in a moment and rest in your presence. Worthy is the Lord who is worthy of our praise today because of how good you are and how kind you are.

how kind you are, how faithful you are. Lord, in Psalms, you say over and over again that the Lord is full of steadfast love and faithfulness. Every person in this room, they may come in with some challenges or things they're working through, but today, we are reminded that you, God, are full of steadfast love and faithfulness to us. Today, we're gonna sing your praises. We're gonna lift high your name. Jesus is gonna be the name that we lift to the top of the room as we sing your praises tonight. And I pray, Father, that as we sing worship tonight and sing songs, that it truly would be not out of habit, not out of routine, but it'd be out of a heart and a posture that says, Lord, you are worthy of my worship tonight. I pray, Lord, that tonight would be the beginning, the genesis of a movement that happens in our college ministry. As we welcome new team members, as we launch a new space, as we lift high the name of Jesus, I just pray it'd be a sweet, sweet night amongst our view ministry tonight. So may you be praised, may you be glorified in all that we do, and we now give you glory and praise through worship. In your name we pray, amen. Tell us about y'all's number one vacation you've been to, because I think it's fascinating. Tell them. Milo's. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we went to Milo's, Greece last year. Maybe. In March, and that was the best ever. It's a lesser known island, and we had to ATV everywhere. They didn't really have a lot of cars, so even going to dinner, we were just like riding an ATV to dinner, and it was an adventure no matter what we did, and the food was so good. People are super nice, it was, yeah, it was a really great trip. And that is awesome. That's your pick too, you would say Greece for sure. Yeah, for sure, Milo's was awesome. So I'm a big beach guy, we grew up in Florida, that's where we met, and so yeah, I miss the beach, but Milo's was awesome. I mentioned coffee, y'all both love coffee, right? And if you were to go, is Starbucks, y'all like Starbucks for now? Yeah. Okay, what's your go-to? We like Starbucks. You're not against it, okay. Yeah, we like it. Okay, what's your go-to order? Is it kind of like bougie? It's brown sugar shake and espresso with oat milk. Is that good? Anyone else? Is that good coffee drink? Do you know that's the best one there? That's the best. Okay. 100%, that's the Starbucks order. Same for you? Yeah, yeah. Oh my goodness, yeah. If we're going to a local shop, honey cinnamon oat milk ice latte. Okay. Because it's like the brown sugar ice latte. I know that's a thing, what's that mean? It's like, oh yes, oh yeah. I'm going to learn that, and I'm going to be cool one day, so. Hey, where would y'all recommend, if they had to pick top three coffee shops in Memphis to go visit, where are they going? Where you got? Coffee Black. This house. Coffee Black? Coffee Black. I've never heard of it, but sounds like it could be great. All right, what do you think? Joe Joe's. Joe Joe's, it's the best. It's in Germantown? It's in Winthrop. Yeah, Winthrop, yeah. It's like three minutes from there. It's great, it's so fun. All right, what else? What would you say? Byway. Byway. Any Byway fans out there? Give them some of this. Give them some of this. All right, yeah. All right, back here, what you got? What do you think? Seven Brew. Oh, Seven Brew. Hey, hey! So we just opened a new Seven Brew, like right across the street, and like half of Bellevue works there. Is that right, yeah? Left and right, yeah. I don't work in Bellevue. Well, somebody does. I know a bunch of them do. Yeah, you work there? Yeah. Okay, all right. Okay, another fun question. Sports, y'all play any sports? We're super sporty, can't you tell? We're the sportiest. We like pickleball. That's how sporty we are. Big pickleball fans. We like the athleisure sports. We love athleisure. So swimming, pickleball. I don't swim. Walking? You're a tennis girl, aren't you? You play tennis? Like a little. Okay, she plays. She's pretty good. He will beat me every time. She plays tennis. He's pretty good. He's too good. Y'all like pickleball, right? Yeah. Yeah. Should we take a vote right now that before now in the end of the year, after the View One Night, we go to the gym and play pickleball? Vote, can I get a hand in the air? Okay, it's about 50-50. I'm gonna be honest with you. We gotta sell that. I expected more, okay. Hey, spikeball, anyone? Spikeball? Okay, I gotta create that culture here, guys. Spikeball's a big thing for me. Yeah, okay. All right, what about ultimate frisbee? Yes. Yeah! Okay, okay. Basketball, anybody fans of basketball? Do y'all play basketball? No. Yeah, very mediocre basketball. I play horse. Horse? I can play horse. Okay, all right. Okay, one more fun question. Anybody got a good fun question out there? Not serious yet. Give me a good fun one. What you got? Ooh, I got one. Okay. Okay, you can make an animal bigger or smaller that you take into battle with you. What would you choose? An animal could be bigger or smaller that you take into battle with you. Oh my goodness, welcome to the medieval times. I'm a fan of this. This is like a Narnia question. Like we choose the animal and then we can make it big or small? Yeah. For example, me, I'm going praying mantis. Praying mantis. Okay. Do you wanna come up and do some Q and A? You wanna come up? Okay. He said praying mantis. Okay. I don't know if there's a wrong answer. I'm gonna go with a bunny and I would make it big. Okay. A big bunny. Very Monty Python size. Okay, that's great, good. She had a bunny when I met her. Yeah. Did you really? You had a bunny when you grew up? It was our stepchild. For like 13 years. Your stepchild. And it finally died. Oh man. The thing lived forever. What was its name? What was its name? Ty. Ty. Cause I got it with my best friend and it was Bo. So Bo-Ty. Oh. Very wholesome. Not a very good name. Bo didn't make it guys. Yeah. Bo did not make it. Yeah. How long did Bo last? Oh yeah, that wasn't it. How long? 13 years. 13 years. That was Ty. Ty lasted 13 years. Oh, sorry. Bo? Less than that. Like four. Hey, that's enough questions from the audience. Okay. All right. Yeah. All right. Hey, let's go serious. Let's go serious. Your story is incredible of how you got saved. So I want to hear your journey from your parents and what they did and how y'all moved away. And then we're back here in the States and how you came to the Lord. Give us the snapshot, the Polaroid pictures on the journey. Give it to us. Love it. Okay. I didn't prepare anything cause I wanted this to be like really real and organic. So. No monologues. Yeah. No monologues. And so I might, you might get the unfiltered version of this. Yeah. But yeah. Short, short's part of it. So I got the Polaroids. So my parents were missionaries in Africa for seven years. Where? What country? They were in South Africa. Cool. And so I was born in Johannesburg. I heard y'all, Bellevue's going there in December. Are they really? And so. That's news to me. I could go back. I'm just saying. So I was born in Johannesburg, but we moved back to the States before I was a year old. So it's not like I have a cool childhood at all. You don't speak the language. No, I don't speak Swahili. My dad speaks Swahili to every waitress ever. And he thinks it's hilarious, but they don't know that. So it's like a little racist. Anyway. So anyway, grew up. My parents were missionaries in Africa. We came back to the States. My dad was a pastor. So I was a PK for a long time until about middle school. And so we, I grew up in a Christian home. Like every dinner was just Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. We just talked about the gospel all the time. They're like the perfect parents. And I hated them growing up because of that. That's all they talked about at all our dinners. And so my story really starts when some tragedy hit our family. And so there was a lot of family members that started to like pass away in our middle school years. It's pretty normal. But a lot happened in that year. And then we like 2007, the housing market crash. Y'all might remember that. I don't know. Anybody remember that? Yeah. Anyone? No. They weren't even born then. Some of our leaders. Yeah. Jason Borden put his hand up. He's like, yeah, all right. You remember that? Okay. Well, long story short, we lost our house. It went into foreclosure. We couldn't pay our bills anymore. So we ended up filing bankruptcy. And so I just, I couldn't wrap my head around. I think I was like a freshman in high school at this point. I could not wrap my head around how a good God could exist and let something so terrible happen to people who like literally served him in Africa. Yeah. That's gotta be like a pretty high end Christian. And that's a question that a lot of people ask a lot of times anyway. So this is something you wrestle through that like, they probably hear that argument all the time of like, how can a good God let these things happen? Especially to people who are doing the Lord's work, you know? Yeah, absolutely. So where'd they go? Yeah, I wrestled with, okay, if God's real, then he's not good. And if he is, or if he's not real, then I don't need to follow him. And so I kind of went on a season of just like darkness and wandering and trying to find fulfillment. And I was just angry. Yeah. I was just angry at God. Growing up, I wasn't angry. I just didn't care that much about him. He was just common to me. I grew up in church. But after that point, I was just mad. And so I rebelled. I ran as far away from God as I could. And those junior or freshman and sophomore year were tough for me. I really didn't understand that, what God was doing. And my heart became really black. And I just had like sin just like define my life. It controlled my life. How did that rub with your parents? Like, were you, did you have a good relationship with your parents in that season too, or no? The best. The best. They're the best. That's why you kind of hate them and love them at the same time. They were just so kind. And I was so disrespectful, like argumentative towards them. And I just, like they couldn't do anything right in my eyes. But looking back, like they were just such a picture of Christ to me in that moment. And that's honestly what probably led to that next turn in my life. That's cool. Was there was, we ended up moving into an apartment complex behind a mall, which was super not nice. And my youth pastor, we started doing like home groups on Wednesday nights. And so he asked me to lead one of those home groups there. And I'll talk about that more in my calling. But through that journey, I really realized like God was who he said he was. And he was real. And he wasn't just a real bad God. He was a real good God. And he met me, and how far he stooped down to scoop me up out of my sin. He had to love me. Yeah. He had to love me. I want to hear more about that spot there, because that's, that's leads into your kind of like your salvation story there of what the Lord did and the call to ministry.

...quickly after that. Tell us about, because y'all moved in that apartment complex and I remember you said that your church leader, someone was like, hey, I want you to lead a Bible study. Is that right? Yeah, he was like, we're doing home groups, I want you to lead one of these home groups. You weren't even a Christian at this point, you know? Yeah, not really. I was a fake Christian, yeah, and I was like, dude, I don't even have a home, you jerk. You know, we live in an apartment. And so I threw that back and I mean, he's like, well, I know that, that's why I'm asking you to do it. And so I ended up leading it, but more so just to like please my parents and try to honor them. And so as I was teaching the word, the gospel like really pierced my heart for the first time. And I remember the moment, so just to set the tone with that group, I was by far the only white guy I knew there. And I would go around and my my pride was kind of hurt because all the other home groups where they were like thriving, they had like a ton of people, and you got preppy white Brian trying to minister to everyone who's just very different from him. And so I just went around and knocked on doors and started mowing lawns and trying to get money to buy pizza. And I told him pizza was there. And so they all came for pizza. And I'd be like, ah, it's a Bible study. Gotcha. But there was this moment like as I was teaching the lesson, and I really didn't believe it as I was teaching it. Afterwards, one of the guys came up to me and he was like, hey, I, I want what you're talking about. Like, will you, will you pray with me to receive Christ? And as I was praying with him, I realized like, I don't really have what he's wanting. And I want that. And I want that. And that was the moment he called me to ministry. That moment was the first moment in my life where I felt like purposeful and useful after like such a sinful season in my life. I was living such a double life there. And if God could say someone like me, and he could like use me to change someone else's life. And what could you do when I'm pursuing it? That's so cool. Thanks for sharing. Did you rob banks or anything in your past? What did you do before you became a believer? Yeah, tell us your story. Super rebellious. No, so I grew up in a Christian home. It was just me and my sister, my parents, so kind of small household. And we went to church every Sunday, but it wasn't anything extra. Like we didn't serve, we didn't lead, I wasn't really plugged into small groups. We just kind of went to church, went home. That was it. And so growing up, I would say, you know, like, we're Christian. And when I was probably nine is when I actually felt the conviction of like, okay, I've, I feel like maybe my heart's been hardened. Like, you know, my parents loved me, they loved each other, but it wasn't the most like peaceful household. And so I think growing up, it was just a little bit chaotic. And so I think, at nine, you kind of go through that bratty stage, but maybe I was like a little extra bratty, because I saw like a lot of disrespect in my family. And so I started acting that way, too. So there's this one service and the pastor was talking about this, you know, having a hardened heart and having Christ just change your life and change your heart. And I really, at nine years old, in a big service, felt that conviction and like, walked to the front, got baptized. Like, I would say that's, you know, when I was saved, but... When you were nine? Yeah, when I was nine. Did anyone else get saved under 10? Anyone else make a decision to follow Jesus under 10 years old? Yeah, a lot of folks in the room. Yeah. So there's a lot of people that relate with that story, for sure. Yeah. So then I was young and I wasn't really being discipled. And so I would say I was saved, but there wasn't really growth. It was just kind of this stagnant relationship with the Lord. Like I said, we didn't really have leaders pouring into me and learning much, much else besides like a Sunday service. So as I grew up, I would say I, like I said, I wasn't really growing. And so when I was probably 14, that's when, oh, also I should say I was homeschooled growing up. So... There's a lot of homeschoolers here. Yeah, a lot of homeschoolers in here. Everybody homeschooled out there, but homeschooled? Okay, all right. No, so it's not like I had like this huge community or this big school. Like I was at a co-op school, so my group was pretty small. So when I was 14, that's when my friends decided to start like living differently and making some bad decisions. And I was like, okay, well, I'm not going to do that. Like I had a strong conviction of like, I'm not going to drink and party. I'm going to be different. But unfortunately that left me very lonely and alone. And my sister was going off to college. So it was kind of just me in my house with my parents that was like, oh, that was lonely. Yeah. Didn't y'all travel a good bit too to move around a little bit? Yeah. So we traveled in like fifth and sixth grade. My mom was a flight attendant for Delta. So we had free flights and love to travel. That's what gave me my passion for flying. But did you do it stint in Europe for a little bit? Did you live in Europe for a little bit? How long was that? Well, it was like a year. We traveled back and forth to different places in Europe. So that was what we called homeschool for like that year. That's cool. I didn't have a house, so very different. But similar themes of like, I just felt like, okay, here I am making good decisions, but I feel like God's just not really a good God. I let my circumstances really deem my joy, my happiness. And I just was not happy and struggled really. Probably when I was 14 and going into 15, just struggled really bad with depression and anxiety and just wrestling with that idea of I'm a good person, but bad things are happening to me. So like God's not good. But it's so similar to what you said. It's so similar. Yeah. So very similar. But for me, it was just like, I didn't really know what the Bible said. I didn't know God as my friend. Like I knew him as my savior, but I did not know him as my friend. And so, yeah, I struggled a lot with anxiety and depression. And it got to a point one night where I was just so desperate. And there were a lot of nights where I thought that I was praying to God, but really I was just praying like at God. And I, Brian said he wasn't angry. I was angry. And so there was one night though, that I was just so desperate for help. And I remember actually, instead of talking at God, I just cried out and was just asking him for help. I was like, okay, I, I need help. Something has to change because I'm, I'm in a bad place. Um, and in that moment that was today still probably like the most obvious encounter I've had with the Lord where I just felt this peace come over me. And, uh, first Peter 5, 7, which I had not read that verse, but it's cast your anxieties on me for, I care for you. That was just like in my head. And it's a very simple verse, but for me, that was like a life-changing verse. Cause I was like, okay, like God cares for me. He wants me to come to him with these anxieties, with these worries. Um, and that night like really changed my life. So I was saved before, but the life change hadn't really happened until I feel like that moment of like, okay, I have purpose. I feel the Lord's presence. Like it's going to be okay. There's going to be a difference. I don't know. And, and y'all, y'all, y'all are high school sweethearts, which is so 1990s of you guys. Um, tell us about how y'all met and how you guys got married. I mean, obviously y'all got married, but like, tell us your journey, you know, how y'all got married. Yeah, we kind of have different stories. We kind of have like different approaches to how we met. Um, so I would say Kendall and I went to the same church and, uh, one of my first memories of Kendall was on the bus at camp. I'm just saying this is one of my first memories. Like I'd seen Kendall around. I thought she was really cute. Okay. Let me tell the real version. That's why I looked at you to start. So, okay. So soon after 15, at like 16, we switched churches. And so this, I started to get involved. I started going to Sunday, sorry. Oh, sure. I don't want it to leak on her, you know, emotional support water bottle. Yeah. So we started getting plugged into this church and I had better Christian friends. And so they did Wednesday night groups. And so I was in a friend group that included Brian, but I, we didn't really like know each other. Um, but he led a group with another guy and a girl. And at that time we both liked certain people. So I actually liked the guy that led with him. And so I went to his Wednesday night group because of that guy. But then Brian was there. And so that's right. So we were friends and like through time we started to not like those other people anymore. And we really had a friendship at first for like probably six months before camp. So, yeah, that's pretty true. Now. Okay. Well, let me tell you that guy that she liked and he was, he homeschooled. Yeah. I think he went, okay. He went somewhere. But anyway, uh, he invited me on his fam vacation. We were not close at all, but I went and that's when he started talking to Kendall and Snapchat had just come out and I didn't have Snapchat. That's making us old. I'm going to, I'm going to tell him, but I was like, Hey, would you like, let me, let me snap her. And he's like, no way. And so I stole his phone and sent Kendall my number. And then that's how we started talking and it worked out. We're here. So, so next week we're starting a dating series led by you. Love talking about dating, all things dating. Anyway, we were on the bus at camp and Kendall came up to me as we're all getting to camp and she's like, Hey, will you be my bus buddy? And I was like, listen, no, no, no. Because I showed up late and I have bad social anxiety. And I was like, I have no one to sit with. And then he came even later than me. So I was like, well, he definitely doesn't have anyone to sit with. So I'm like, Brian, be my bus buddy. But really I was just so scared of sitting alone. She shared with me all her snacks and I fell in love. That is so sweet. All right. So how long did y'all date? Seven years. Good. Biblical time. Yeah. And ungodly time. Y'all did long distance for season two because y'all were not at the same university, right? Yeah. So I went to Samford. Yeah. Yeah. So we started dating our senior year of high school. We led that Wednesday night group together. So I became a leader. There's home groups I talked about. I ended up getting home. Okay. And then we led it together. Yeah. So we started dating in November of our senior year, not knowing where we were going to college or what God had in store for us. But I went to Auburn and he went to Samford. So we did long distance all of college. And then I stayed to instruct for two years and then it was COVID and that was our wedding was COVID. Okay. We did six months of long distance.

marriage for her to keep instructing at Auburn, which was awful. Yeah, that sounds miserable. Thank you very much for sharing, that's great. Okay, hey, so y'all been married how long now? Six years. Six years, you said that earlier. Test me again. Six years, that was a test? Yeah, great job, you passed, all right. Six years, what is it like being married to Brian, okay? Close yours, Brian, let me talk to you. Honestly, he is my best friend. I feel like we laugh. This sounds like really cheesy and like I've rehearsed this or something, but I promise you, truly, I think because we've been together for so long, it's like we've kind of morphed into very similar people and so we have so many inside jokes and his parents say we have our own secret language because when we're together, we just know what we're thinking and talking about and it's the best, it's so fun. That's cool, give me 10 bucks after this. Yeah, all right, so Brian, you were at Dawson Memorial and you did six years there as well, seven? We were there for 12 years with the internship and then I was in rec ministry and then student ministry for six years. Student ministry for six years, okay, so you did rec for a little bit, you did student ministry for six years and then I called you up. And then you somehow tricked me to come to Memphis. I was like, hey, have you ever thought about doing college age ministry? And you had been mentioned that the Lord had just then, that week that I called, you had felt the Lord had just now, y'all been praying about it for a long season, and that week was the week the Lord had confirmed our time is ending at Dawson and you didn't know what was next. And so we were kind of the first phone call in the middle of that. We had not talked in almost a year probably, maybe at least eight months, at least. And so tell us about y'all's journey. Y'all been on, the Lord led y'all to even decide to pack up your bags and move because your family's in Orlando? Hilton Head now. Hilton Head now, but yeah. Mine's still like an hour south of Orlando. So it's a big deal that y'all moved not just from Dawson, but also even further to come to Memphis. So tell us what the Lord's doing there to lead y'all to be a part of this. And Kendall's sister had just moved to Birmingham like a couple months before we decided to move. So it was a bittersweet thing. So I'd been at Dawson since I was in college. Does she want to move to Memphis? Does she want to move to Memphis? No, I don't think so, I don't think so. So I'd been at Dawson since I was in college. I interned there throughout college in the student ministry that I then led and then came on in the rec ministry. And so then when I came on as a student pastor in 2020, it was just really sweet because I already knew all the families and they'd been in a really rough season where their student ministry just kind of had dwindled down and they couldn't really keep a student pastor. And so coming on was just like such a sweet like homecoming for me. And so we love that church and we love those people and those students just like have the deepest place in my heart. And you won't say it, but that ministry grew big time. I mean, I think you'd mentioned like there was very few people coming and y'all really were invested in the campuses and with families and y'all really had a network of a lot of people that were coming to your student ministry. I know you don't care about any number stuff, but you were saying like, we're talking and just how the health of your ministry grow and you talk through it all and it was really cool to see how the Lord blessed all that y'all put your hands to there. And so. It was all Jesus, it was all Jesus. And we were really, really honored to have a front row seat to all of that. But there did come a time where Kendall and I actually had just gone with Corey and I met at a youth pastor metro in Destin and we had just gone this past year. And after that, we were like, we need to start praying because we just feel this unsettledness at Dawson. And we didn't know what it was and it wasn't a bad thing. We just knew that God was doing something. And so we prayed for months and months and months. And it was the same night we came together and sat down at dinner and we're like, the Lord's given us peace, it's time. And we didn't know what that meant. And Corey called the next day, which was just bonkers. And he asked me to do college ministry. I was like, I've never done that. That's ridiculous. Yeah, and now I'm here. So now I'm here. What are you excited about working with adults and not students? What is it about going to Chick-fil-A? No parents, guys. I don't have to deal with parents. It's so fun. I'll deal with some of your parents if they're cool. So no, but I would say, so part of my story and Kendall's story, and honestly, my favorite thing I did in youth ministry was when I sat down with like a senior guy and he was just like deconstructing his face and faith, maybe his face, I don't know. Maybe he's just getting puberty late, I don't know. Faith, and he was just having a hard time like believing how there could be a good God and the world is so evil and so bad. I love wrestling with doubt. I love asking the hard questions. I love figuring out how God can be who he says he is. And I feel like that's a season that a lot of college and young adults are in right now. And you're trying to find yourself. You're going through and you're going to school or you're going to trade school and you're starting your careers and your identity is just being settled in. And so I love walking alongside people who are wrestling, trying to figure out and coming to know and trust that the Lord is who he is. Amen. That's cool. Thanks for sharing. That's strong. Kendall, you're a pilot, okay? Yes. That's so cool. I have so many questions, okay? You're a pilot for Delta? Yes. Captain, is that right? No. Oh, thank goodness. She was a captain. I was a captain at a regional airline and I just started at Delta. You just flew to how many cities in the last three days, four days? Maybe five. Five cities? I don't know, yeah. One of them was Cancun. Because it was long flights. So yeah, I went to New Orleans, Boston, Cancun, back to Boston, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, and Atlanta. So that's more than five, probably. And then you flew in for this because you cared so much to be here on our first kickoff. But you fly out again tomorrow, is that right? I do, yeah. So Kendall's a pilot. She's a pilot for Delta. And she holds, she will not tell you this, but she holds a record. I just want you to know. What is it again? What's the record? Tell me what it is. She won an air race, guys. Do you know they race airplanes? Hey. Not Delta, not Delta. Small plane. Yeah, not Delta. They actually, they don't tell y'all, but you were all racing in the air. Every flight, we're racing. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah, you hold the record, which is so cool. Her name was on the side of a plane. No, it wasn't. For real? A small plane. Yeah, yo, keep saying. At Auburn, at Auburn. Yeah. That's really neat. You're a pilot. Give us an insight of what it's like, because a lot of people are not gonna be landing in a role where they're doing church work all the time. They're doing a lot of the jobs like you're doing, like just the everyday around unbelievers or working with teams, all the things. Tell us what it's like being a believer in that field and how you try to navigate that well. That's a good question. Well, I think I have a little bit of an upper hand because initial conversation usually with pilots is like, okay, where are you from? You married? What does your wife, husband do? And right off the bat, it's like, oh, my husband's in ministry. So immediately bringing in the Lord to our conversation. So marry someone in ministry. Yeah, and that'll give you an upper hand. Or you also do some ministry stuff, volunteering. It's like, oh, what do you do for fun? Oh, I volunteer at my church. So just getting that initial conversation is great in corporate America. It's a lot of companies don't want you to talk about politics, religion, those types of things. But when it's a part of your life and your identity, it should just come up naturally. So I think when I was younger, I was afraid of those gospel conversations of like, oh, they're gonna think I'm a Jesus freak. But truly, I mean, when it's just a part of your life, it's just as natural as saying like, oh, yeah, I have a dog. It's like, yeah, I love Jesus. So I would say make God common in your life and talk about him as much as you can because it becomes natural as you do it. And you'll actually find that there's a lot more believers than you realize that might be a little bit more shy about their faith. And so that's an encouragement to them. And yeah, you just gain confidence the more and more you talk about Jesus. That's cool. How would you give us an insight on what it's like being a pastor's wife as well in the middle of having a pretty high profile role in your work? And you're traveling a bunch for really the first, probably what, six months at least, maybe first year? Yeah, luckily, I'm starting with a little bit of seniority. So pilot is all seniority based. So the longer you're at a company, the better your schedule gets, which is great. But unfortunately, when you're new, you have like the worst schedule. So that's probably similar to other corporate jobs. But yeah, so I wasn't home last Sunday. I won't be home this Sunday. So it's like initially weekends, I'm probably working weekends and it'll get better. But I would say the good thing about my job is that when I'm gone, I'm fully gone. But when I'm here, I'm fully here. So I really try to lean into that, like being fully present when I'm home. I'll like tonight, right? I had one day off and here I am. So I try to make it work. But at the same time, my job, we change our schedule every month. And so when there is an event or like an overnight thing, well, I don't know if college just overnight stuff. We will totally make a retreat one day. Yeah. It's super fun. A retreat's coming. I'm putting it on his radar. I can request it off and try to be there. So there's more flexibility, I would say, with being a pilot. That's great. That's so cool. All right, what questions do y'all have for the room? What do y'all have? Any question you wanna throw to them? I wrote some down, guys. I'm gonna pull it up. Oh, did you really? Okay. Yeah, okay. We just wanna get to know you guys. We have met your like, I've learned your names, maybe like a couple of them, and I'm probably gonna forget them. So I need to like keep going over them. But I wanna learn, okay, so just raise your hand if this is true. So how many of you are like currently in college right now? Okay, that's great. Big group, okay. University of Memphis? Okay, big crew. Do we have any union people? No? Okay, well, the new campus just opened up, if you're looking. Right, it's open now. Yeah, I think it is. I don't know, maybe. Is it? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, yeah. Is Rhodes around here? Rhodes? Okay. Okay, all right. Other, I know there's other colleges. If you go to another college, raise your hand. Okay, very cool. I'm gonna learn them all, I promise. I think he promised. Give us some shout outs. What other colleges do you go to? Christian Brothers. Christian Brothers? Christian Brothers. Northwest. Northwest. Northwest, Southwest. Cool. Yeah. UT is a school. UT, okay, yeah, yeah. Nice, okay. Yeah, okay, cool. I'm gonna learn them all, I promise. There's more, and there's a lot of them.

There are folks that are also in the trade school. Who's in trade school? Yeah, a lot of folks. Or working towards trade. Who's working on trade school coming up soon? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Couple folks. That's awesome. Yeah. Okay, any international students? Anyone not born in the US? Hey, yo. There we go. Where were you born? Super cool. Awesome. I love that. Okay. If it was Swahili, you spoke there, his dad would like talk to you later. He would love to. Yeah. Do you have dual citizenship? Yeah. Do you have dual citizenship? Like citizenship? You do? That's cool. That's cool. I think I lost mine. I don't know. Okay, how many of y'all grew up in Memphis? Wow, that's awesome. Okay, and you're all here. You must love Memphis. Everyone here loves Memphis. And we're gonna start loving Memphis. Well, yeah. I love Memphis. You made us move here. I love Memphis. No, that's awesome. Any Bellevue babies? Anyone grew up here at church? Awesome. That's a lot of y'all. Okay, very cool. Is this anyone's like first month of The View? Like first couple of weeks? Hey, okay, awesome. Awesome, awesome. Mine too, guys. And I can't wait to meet you. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, I want to hear, y'all already talked about coffee shops, so I'll mark that off. Okay, best restaurant. We're big foodies. I want to hear. Deli. Y'all gotta do Deli. Yes, me and my wife went there on our first date. Yeah, it's great. Yeah. Yeah. That was very sweet. All of y'all, thank y'all. Clock it, guys. You got one. Yes. What is it? Hard Times Deli. Love it. All right, after this, we're gonna set a date, all right? Love it. Okay, we're making it happen. Got some more restaurants? Yeah. Do you like wings at all? Love wings, love wings. So, I'll be honest, I don't even remember the name. Oh, man. Well, that's not very helpful. Yeah. I'm not gonna lie. But I know like the area. He's gonna drop a pin. Okay, we'll go there together. You drive me there. He's gonna drop a pin, and you just meet him there, okay? That's perfect, I'll be there. Okay, great. So, you know the mall, right? The mall, which one? You know like the Lowe's and Walmart side? I know where Lowe's is. We just moved here. I know we've been going to Lowe's a lot. I know where A Lowe's is. I don't know if it's the one you're talking about. I was like Buffalo, Wild Wings, except like, I would think slightly cheaper. East Coast Wings, is that it? East Coast Wings. Yeah. Awesome. I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm gonna be honest with you. Even there? Let's talk afterwards about that one, all right? Yeah. The mac and cheese though? Fire. Mac and cheese. Another restaurant? Huey's. Huey's. We've never been, but there's so many here. Okay. Awesome. Rick, right here. Cafe Eclectic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we went there last week. It's good. Yeah. One more. Someone gets one more good one. You pick, Brian. Someone scream. Just whoever wants it. Okay. I love how everyone. Okay, everybody. Okay, I love it. That's good. I want all of them. Okay, well, I wanna hear all of them afterwards too, so come talk to me about food. Any hidden gems in Memphis that we need to go do? Because we've never been to Memphis. Central Barbecue. We went. We went to Central Barbecue. Okay. That's awesome. Yeah. One and only barbecue. Another barbecue, one and only. I think experiences. What are some experiences in Memphis? You got something? It's not really hidden, but Crosstown Concourse. Oh, it is. It's a good vibe. It's a good vibe. Awesome, cool. It's fun. Very cool. It's like a giant Sears warehouse that they completely renovated, so it's got a whole bunch of stuff there. There's like, they turn it into the upper floors, like apartments. There's a school inside of it, the shopping centers. It's a good time. It's pretty cool. Yeah. Hey, you know what? One thing is weird about Memphis that we did not have in Birmingham. On y'all's speed limit signs, there's like horse speed limits of like 10. Do people ride horses around? Then why are they? That's in Germantown. Yeah, that's where we are. That's in Germantown. Okay. Yeah. People ride horses. I know you haven't seen one yet, but there are horse speed limits, so we didn't know if that was a thing. All right, hey, listen, we are, I wanna, I don't wanna belabor our Q&A tonight, but I've really enjoyed this. It's been so good, all right? Y'all give a hand and thank them for all they've done for us. It's a good time. Hey, before we wrap up, though, I would love for you to share just one thing the Lord's been teaching you over the last couple months. I mean, y'all are in the journey of stepping out with a big leap of faith, coming to Memphis. Tell us what the Lord's been teaching you, snapshotting your Devo, whatever you wanna give us from what God's been teaching you. Yeah, I, you know, every couple times a year, I try to read through some of the pastoral epistles just to remind myself of my calling and what God has asked of me in my life, and so when I started on Tuesday, I started in 1 Timothy again. Just, I thought it was a good beginning, and one of the things, this is actually one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible, and for those who aren't really familiar with, I guess most of you grew up at Bellevue, so you probably know the Bible pretty well, but this is Paul writing to his Timothy, which is his, like, prodigy, and Timothy is now a pastor, and he's trying to encourage him, and how Paul starts out encouraging him to be a good pastor is he reminds him of how far Paul himself had fallen, and he says this in chapter one, verse, let's say 15. He says, this saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost, but I receive mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who are there to believe in him for eternal life, and guys, there is, like, very few verses I relate to more than that verse right there, and the fact that, like, Jesus saved me, like, of all people, of all sinners who had fallen so far, he saved me to get on stage and, like, read the Bible and be a mouthpiece of God himself, like, that idea is just, like, mind-boggling to me. The fact that, like, he woke me up, that, like, I'm worthy to put breath into, like, those are things that each and every one of us can just, like, take heart. Like, if Jesus saved me, guys, like, all of us have hope in this room. All of us have hope, and what I wanna encourage you, one thing I want you to know about me is that I might be the new view pastor, but I'm definitely not the great physician. I'm not a doctor. I'm a fellow patient in the Hospital for Sinners. I'm walking alongside you guys. I'm learning how to be faithful day by day, just like y'all, and we're gonna link arms and do it together, and I'm excited to do that. Amen. Hey, y'all give a hand one time for thanks to Brian. Thank you. All right, before we wrap, I wanna do two things. I wanna invite, is Mark Spiller still in the room? Is he around? Mark, come on up, man, come on. And then I also wanna invite Tanya Franks to come on up real quick as well. I want y'all to know, some of our life group leaders and some of our other view leaders, they have brought a gift for y'all, okay? And there's a little goodie bag. I'm gonna be honest with you. You go ahead, give it to them, Tanya, that's perfect. We don't really know all that's inside, but it's a lot of good things. It is. Even from them, they don't even know what's all inside, but they say we're so glad you're here. Yeah, thanks, Tanya. A lot of them put a lot of stuff and brought it up to the church, and we packed it all in the bag together. But there's a lot of cool stuff in there that they all individually brought. So just a thank you to y'all and welcome to Memphis. And I thought that, can I borrow this microphone, actually? I'm gonna ask, yeah, thank you, I appreciate that. I'm gonna ask if Mark, if you would just come over here, put a hand on these two and pray over the genesis of our view ministry as these two are lunching with us. And I'm asking if, I know it may be a little bit different than something you've done before, but we like to pray over people. So I'm just asking if you'll take your hand and just point this direction. We're gonna pray over Brian and Kendall as they launch this new chapter with us. Thank you, everybody, for joining us as we pray. Father, we're so thankful that we've been praying for quite some time and now you've brought us Brian and Kendall. Lord, we thank you for the work they've shared with us tonight, what you've been doing in their life. So cool, Lord, how you told us that you'd been stirring their heart and the lesson that we can learn there. People here tonight whose hearts are being stirred too, and they can learn already from Brian and Kendall how you stir hearts and you call people to follow you and obey you. We ask you, Lord, for your good grace, your generous favor to be poured out over them as they start this journey. We pray, God, that you would help them in building relationships, that you would speak through them and take the talents and gifts that you've built into their life to make a significant impact here in the students in Memphis and the surrounding area. We praise you, God. Thank you for answering our prayer to bringing us our new college pastor and his sweet wife, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. All right, hey, one more time, give a hand to thank Brian and Kendall. Hey, they're gonna be around all night long, hanging out, y'all be sure to introduce yourself, get to know them, all the things. We've got food, do we have any more Chick-fil-A? Aha, well, we got, we do? We got more Chick-fil-A, all right, there you go, how about that? And we got some more snacks, fruit roll-ups, all the things, praise God, I heard a praise God. Can we get the band to come back up, I'm just kidding. Praise God, all right, we're gonna be hanging out tonight. If you wanna buy a shirt or a hat, you can step over to the merch spot over there. Our boy Connor Cody's gonna be over there selling those if you want some of those tonight. And then also, Chase, Hunter, and Brian, we got a FIFA game to match up for this week as well. Y'all have a good night, you just missed, all right, see ya.