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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!
Welcome to another episode of Tell Me More. Today, doctor Wiles and I are joined by Casey Fagan, and we talk about family getaway midweek, catching up with doctor Wiles after his twenty fifth anniversary celebration, and the kickoff of our series Gone Fishing and our emphasis on evangelism. It's gonna be a good episode. We hope you enjoy it. Alright.
Speaker 1:Well, it's Tuesday, not Monday, because yesterday was Labor Day, but we have doctor Wiles, myself, and Casey
Speaker 2:Fagan. Casey.
Speaker 3:Hey. Hey.
Speaker 1:Here on the podcast today. And what a wonderful couple of weeks it's been at First Baptist.
Speaker 2:Goodness. It has been. And, Casey, our preschool minister, but right now our interim children's minister, so she's I don't know how we got her in here. She's all she does is work.
Speaker 1:I asked very nicely in advance.
Speaker 3:It's an honor. It's an honor. I'm glad to be joining y'all today.
Speaker 2:Yeah. We are so glad you're here.
Speaker 1:Yeah. We are really glad to have you. You've had a busy weekend.
Speaker 3:We Yeah. We rolled back in from family getaway on Sunday and then, yeah, yesterday being Labor Day had a recovery day. But, yeah, one of my favorite weekends of the year for sure.
Speaker 1:So if I had never heard of Family Getaway before, tell me, what what is it?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So some people think of it as like a little mini camp. Family camp might be what some people call it. But you know Riverbend. A special sacred place.
Speaker 2:It is.
Speaker 3:And the opportunity to get to take families and it's called Family Get Away for a reason. We get away and hopefully put away some of the technology and the distractions and time to get to be together. One of my favorite reasons that we go to Riverbend is those younger families, those younger children get to experience Riverbend before they go for connect camp. And it gives them a sense of confidence of, like, hey, I know this place.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And it gives moms and dads a sense of confidence that their kid's gonna know the lay of the land. And so it's a really cool opportunity just from that perspective. But to get to worship together, it's a bonding time. Man, I saw moms and dads running the bases with their kids and just playing together. Don't get to do that.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. And so it's just really, really sweet.
Speaker 1:What are some special moments that stand out to you from this family getaway?
Speaker 3:Okay. This may have just been me and just from my perspective but, we have families that lead worship and what a sweet gift that is. I don't know that we always will have the right mix of people that are confident to step in and do that, but we are abundantly blessed Mhmm. With families that I mean, they fill that stage, y'all. From the keyboard to the music, to the guitars, the vocalists, and they involve their children.
Speaker 3:And so it just feels right. The families are up there, and so there was this moment, and Corey Lehman will probably not like me calling him out, but he's sitting on his box drum and he's got Eli sitting right next to him. And he's trying he's showing him. They're leading worship, but he's getting him on beat together. Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And it was just this moment of like, this is discipleship y'all. Mhmm. It's a dad showing his son, let's do this together
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:So that someday he can go do it on his own. I love that. I mean, I get chills thinking about it to be honest with you. The next day, Jordan Nolan, who was also up there leading with his family, said to my husband, you know, I hope next year that we can do a whole set with just the kids leading worship.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 3:That's That would be a so picture of they're raising them up and they're giving them opportunities and you just can't fabricate that, you can't, it just happens organically and those are some of the things that, you know, I'll take away and cherish and I think, I hope the kids will too.
Speaker 1:I love
Speaker 3:But the freedom that you get, like I said, we we did a family game out on the rec field, and it was just so sweet to see moms and dads sweating. It was warm.
Speaker 1:It's been hot.
Speaker 3:And we did it at 09:30 in the morning, and we were still sweating on the rec field. But just having fun and encouraging one another, and you're making memories. Mhmm. You're literally in real time making memories. I know families the Lacriettes came with us for the first time, and they had flashbacks to going to camp twenty years ago Aw.
Speaker 3:And walking their kids around telling them things they remembered. Mhmm. So it it's just a special, special time of making new memories, looking back, worshiping together, opening God's word, and having fun.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's so good.
Speaker 2:Y'all played a lot. I know my granddaughter was there, Ada, and she had a great time. She just talked about how much fun it was. Just the freedom of it wasn't it was structured enough, but not as structured as camp Right. Necessarily.
Speaker 2:And so and that's Ada's main experience there is, you know, children's camp, connect camp. But, she just loved it. And, so I've heard from numerous families that went just how meaningful it was, refreshing, restful. They were tired, but a good good tired. Tired.
Speaker 2:You know? It's hard to replicate that here because, you know, you just plus, we've got years of investment at Riverbend. So some of those moms and dads went to camp when they were kids. And, yeah, and some of them are brand new, getting introduced to what Riverbend is to us. It really is a special place.
Speaker 3:Getaway's been going on a long time. There someone posted that they had been 10 for ten years, and I I bet it's been going maybe twenty years, something like that.
Speaker 1:That's incredible.
Speaker 3:It's a a special special thing. And if I can, I'd love to give a shout out to the people who we had an amazing team of volunteers.
Speaker 1:I was gonna ask. Yeah. Because you have some great people.
Speaker 3:Yeah. This can't be a one man show, and so, volunteers, our staff, Tiffany Ward was able to come, Steven Tieples was up at 06:30 making eggs and sausage and
Speaker 1:Good job, Steven Tieples.
Speaker 3:And then I had the unique privilege this year of bringing my two nephews. They are students at DBU and, really just love serving. And they gave up their Labor Day weekend to come serve our families. And they were up in the morning schlepping ice and flipping pancakes, and just a really sweet joy and privilege to have them along. Derek Parks, so many, so many that just love to come be with our families, to serve the Lord, and to build those relationships
Speaker 1:and make it possible.
Speaker 2:But you had like a 100 and
Speaker 3:25.
Speaker 2:So you had to stay all over.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We were
Speaker 2:a little more spread out. That, you know, to have that many.
Speaker 3:Yeah. We we wanna take over the whole camp, you know, as
Speaker 1:many as we can take, we're gonna
Speaker 3:fill it up.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Next year. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah. It's
Speaker 2:coming. Screw Oh, man. Well, I'm glad y'all got to go. Me too.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Well, and you've had a busy couple of weeks. We didn't have you on the podcast last week.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:Where were you last week? What were you doing?
Speaker 2:You know, I drove every day to Baylor, to Truett's Seminary. Sickle. Every day, I taught this doctoral seminar with Rebecca Pohayes, who's a Hebrew scholar at, at Baylor, at Truett Seminary. And, we started a new the the way the D MEND program works there now.
Speaker 1:And that's a doctorate of ministry. We're not talking about a program studying demons.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's right. Sorry. D men, doctrine of minist doctor doctor of ministry, which you're doing at Northern Seminary. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's structured a little bit differently than the one at Truitt. But, but one of my seminary friends, Prebin Vong, he and I did our PhDs together years ago, before y'all were born. And, he now is at Truett, and he leads that doctoral program. Yeah. And he was PhD in theology.
Speaker 2:I was church history.
Speaker 1:Is just an aside, but I did my internship in seminary at the church that Preben Vong's dad pastored. Okay. First Baptist Copenhagen.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Christus Kirken.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Which is the I think it's the old maybe the
Speaker 1:old the first free church in all of Scandinavia.
Speaker 2:I think that's right. And, and Prebin pastored it as well. He did. And, so but anyway, so he and I are longtime friends. And so it's kinda fun to be with him, to watch him and his element, and then Todd Still was there with us.
Speaker 2:And, so yep. But the the way it works, you you join a cohort, it's called, and then you're in class. You come to to Truett Seminary, like, three or four times. And then one of the class settings is in New York City and Manhattan. But it's the same group of students.
Speaker 2:They stay together through the entire program, and then they work on their projects so they can graduate. So this and the the class that we teach is your very first one. Okay. So it's the first time you have taken And a for some of our students, it was their first time to actually be on the campus at Baylor. Oh.
Speaker 2:It was all brand new to them. And and it's it was kinda funny. The first day was Friday a week ago. We started on a Friday, ended on the next Friday. But, several of them had just come straight from the parking garage to our room.
Speaker 2:And so when we were trying to explain, well, you know, at some point, we're gonna be preaching because the the class is proclaiming the kingdom through the book of Isaiah. We're gonna we'll be going to the Preaching Lab. Well, only one of them knew where the Preaching Lab was. They They said, said, we have no idea where that is. And then we said, well, we're going to have lunch in the Great Hall.
Speaker 2:None of them knew where the Great Hall was. Which is true.
Speaker 1:This is all in one building.
Speaker 2:It's in one building. And they had all they
Speaker 1:did was one walk building. They went upstairs.
Speaker 2:Went to their class.
Speaker 3:This was not your first time to do this.
Speaker 2:No. I did this last year. Okay. So, so anyway But you
Speaker 1:and doctor Pohayes are quite the dynamic We we
Speaker 2:love each other. She is awesome. She is a brilliant Hebrew scholar. Oh my goodness. And, her her her first love, if I I mean, it's Jesus.
Speaker 2:But scripturally, she's a Psalms expert. She's just published a new book on, addressing trauma through the Psalms. Oh, wow. And it's it's, it's just now coming out. And, but it was just interesting to to be with a group of folks.
Speaker 2:Let me think. There was one there was one lady who's a Baptist, one guy who was somewhat familiar with Baptists. None of the rest of them were. There were three global Methodist pastors, nondenominational, and one girl, I say girl, young lady who's an American Baptist. Her daddy was a pastor, American Baptist pastor.
Speaker 2:So when Prebin stuck his head in the door that first day to just say a word of welcome, he said, Now here, this week, we're going to do this, we're going to do that. The BGCT is going to provide lunch. You're like, What's that? That's exactly right. One of them said, I'm sorry, the what is is it is doing the lunch?
Speaker 2:They thought it was a restaurant. We were like, no.
Speaker 3:A real education here.
Speaker 2:So it kinda helped Rebecca and I though the first day to realize, okay, none of these people in this room know our world. You know, it's very fascinating Interesting. To to actually introduce because that they would ask questions all week long about, now why now where where does Texas Baptist where where are they in this issue? Or what? How did Baylor get to you know, so it actually was very refreshing to me and Rebecca because her dad, was a minister in Kentucky.
Speaker 2:Her mom's a minister in Kentucky, very connected to Southern Seminary. And so Rebecca is a Baptist girl. Her whole life has been lived in that world, and my whole life's been lived in it. And we were in a room with aliens. You know?
Speaker 2:It was so funny. And, but it was very refreshing to us to to be able to recast everything, you know? But it was really it was really good. Was lot of They work really hard in this cohort. They do all of their work before they get there.
Speaker 2:So everything is done. The papers are all done. Everything's turned in. And then they they have to do book reviews and presentations in class. And, but it was very, very encouraging, enriching to me.
Speaker 2:It allows me to kinda scratch that academic itch in me without having to live it. Yeah. Makes total sense. Know? I can kinda dip in then dip back out.
Speaker 2:And, it's a lot of fun. And, but I'm also serving on the provost search committee for Baylor. And so I've been in several Baylor meetings as well since I've been with you all, as we're searching for a new provost. And then this weekend, Cindy and I and our son Josiah and Gideon, we went to Atlanta to the Auburn Baylor football game.
Speaker 3:It's a little, little game.
Speaker 2:Just a small game. No big deal. And we got to be with a number of Baylor there, saw some Baylor regent friends of ours.
Speaker 1:And ask which colors you wore, but I know the
Speaker 2:answer to I was all Auburn for sure. And and
Speaker 1:You're sitting with two Baylor grads.
Speaker 2:I know that. And I but you know, I mean, I love Baylor. Y'all know that. I do. I love them.
Speaker 2:And, but we had a great time and a lot of fun. Late flight home Saturday night, I guess. And our flight left at 10:40 out of Atlanta. But I was telling y'all during the time before we went on air that we ran into the Baylor cheerleading squad at the airport and got a chance to visit with them. We had some parents of football players at Baylor, got to visit with them.
Speaker 2:And and and, you know, we were all Auburns. It was just me and Cindy. Josiah and Gideon stayed for another day or so, but we it was just Cindy and I. But but it was a sweet time for us to talk about the Baylor experience because we explained to them. You know, Cindy was on the board of advocates for the School of Social Work.
Speaker 2:And then I was on the board there, obviously, and done all the teaching there through the years. And it was just sweet to hear their testimonies from these cheerleaders in particular who talked about what Baylor meant to them. I love that. Know faculty members, you know, at a very large I mean, somewhat large institution.
Speaker 1:But pretty good size.
Speaker 2:But they felt like they knew their teachers, you know? And what was funny was some of them were on their computers doing their homework.
Speaker 3:I love it.
Speaker 2:You know? And it just reminded us, you know, these kids are in college living a very full life. And here they are at 10:00 on Saturday night after being a whole weekend football extravaganza for them. They're I'm good sitting here doing homework. Was just so proud of them.
Speaker 1:That's fun.
Speaker 2:It was great. We had a great time.
Speaker 3:And then you're back in the pulpit on Sunday?
Speaker 2:Back in the pulpit Sunday morning, finally. I mean, I had I didn't even get to preach last weekend because Todd still was here.
Speaker 1:You've been with us
Speaker 2:Don't you know?
Speaker 1:Since your twenty fifth anniversary extravaganza. Blue.
Speaker 2:Come on. That weekend.
Speaker 1:Got anything you wanna say about that?
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness. Just it's just etched in our memory. We're still hungover from it.
Speaker 3:Just all
Speaker 2:the what do you say? Just expressions of love and just care. We we're we're about probably about halfway through the notes. We sit at the table sometimes in the evening and we just start reading the notes one by one. Problem is
Speaker 1:It's going take a hot minute.
Speaker 2:Yes. I kind
Speaker 3:of wondered how you would get But through all of
Speaker 2:we know these people, so we stop and talk about them. We've prayed for some of them because we know some of them are going through really challenging times, they're sitting there writing us this sweet note. And, one guy, he's one of my favorite people here. He's just he's hilarious. His wife wrote the sweetest note.
Speaker 2:Just two pages. You know? Just, we've done that. They they were here when we got here, so we've known them for twenty five years, raised our kids together, whatever, do whatever. Get to the back page, and he wrote a note.
Speaker 2:He said, you're off to a pretty good start. It's
Speaker 1:That
Speaker 2:was perfect. Just perfect. Personality. But so many sweet notes and just phone calls and other things. People have come by and brought gifts.
Speaker 2:But the Sunday that weekend was Saturday night, we had dinner at Piccolo Mondo, which is where we interviewed with the search Oh, fun. And it's kind of a funny story because there was a very famous, somewhat fancier restaurant in town back in those days called Casharell's. It had a five star rating and chef and all that. And we'd never been to it. And so we'd been here not not quite a year.
Speaker 2:And there was a family that was visiting the church. And so one of the guys in the church said, look, I want to take you all to dinner with this family, and I'm gonna take you to Cashorelles. Have you been to Cashorelles? We said, no. We've heard of it.
Speaker 2:We've never been to it. So he took us, and this couple came. Well, anyway, the next Sunday, they were at church, you know, the couple that we'd visited with. And so there were some search committee members standing there and on the welcome center in the Charlie Hamill welcome center before we built the new I said the new welcome center, in quotes. Anyway, and I just said, y'all, we went to dinner last night at Castro Rios finally after all this time.
Speaker 2:One of the search committee's member's wives said, we went to Cashorell's? You've already been to Cashorell's. And I said, no, we've never been. And she said, we took y'all. We went with y'all with the pastor's search committee.
Speaker 2:And her husband went, Honey, stop it. That was another candidate. That wasn't Dennis So and good. I said, We just went to Piccolo Mondo. We shared that They already
Speaker 3:burned the budget. Yes.
Speaker 2:So that family, they were at the so so Saturday night, the search committee all got together, the spouses. So we retold that story. Her face got just as red as it did that day in the welcome center.
Speaker 1:You know? Oh my goodness. And if you're listening now, I'm sure your face is red again, and I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:It's perfect. But, but we had but it was perfect for us because Piccolo Mondos where we met with the original search committee, just me and Cindy. And so, but Hannah and and Josiah and Adrian came and our grandson Josh, and, it was a very sweet, just perfect night. Kurt Grice kind of hosted it for all of us, and he and he read Kurt had, asked my brother. I told my brothers not to come to this because I I knew I was gonna be gone all week.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I said, we'll get together later. Well, what I didn't know was they contacted my brothers and they wrote us letters. And Kurt read us those letters at
Speaker 3:the Get out the cleaning.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness. That's exactly what it was. We were not prepared. Because my brothers, we don't how would I say this? We don't talk to each other that way.
Speaker 2:We love each other. You know?
Speaker 1:We have an older brother. I understand.
Speaker 2:We talk all the time, but we dog each other. That's what we do. You know? And to let my brothers to hear their oh my goodness. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It was it was were Sweet. All then Josiah got up and gave a testimony. It was very, very sweet for us. And we kind of retold the story of Arlington Baptist Church and all that. And then Erica and Cindy got together and made these really sweet cards, really nice cards.
Speaker 2:And the cover is a photo of that Arlington Baptist Church in England. And then inside is a passage from Hebrews that I love. And it's our thank you cards that we're sending to folks that were there that night. It was just very special. So then sun I was not prepared for Sunday.
Speaker 2:I had no idea. I didn't know Linda Livingstone was coming, you know, the president of Baylor. I knew Todd was preaching. Obviously, Todd was there Saturday night with Todd and Carolyn, who are longtime friends. And I did not know when when all that Katie told me was that they were and Erica both said, well, we're going to we're gonna have a fellowship in the fellowship hall.
Speaker 3:Just a little reception.
Speaker 2:Yeah. A reception in the fellowship hall. I really had no idea. And they said, you get here early? And I was like, well, we have you know, I guess.
Speaker 2:And and they said, could you get there, you know, 07:30, 07:45? And I was like, well, why would we wanna be there that early? Nobody's gonna be coming at 07:30 on Sunday morning.
Speaker 1:People are actually here every week at 07:30.
Speaker 3:So that early. It was your normal call time.
Speaker 2:Right? So I I don't know. I just thought it was I'm fine with being here that early, but I just thought it's interesting. I had no idea. We walked in that fellowship hall, we were like, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:I mean, they'd put my life on display in I the fellowship had no idea. And then I look up, here's Linda stone and Brad and and Prebin Bong and his wife, Lisa Lotte. I didn't know they were coming. And so it was yeah. And then pastor Thompson from Mount Olive, I didn't know he was coming, he and his wife.
Speaker 2:So we were pretty surprised by all plus just our people, you know, just one And by one by a group of, middle school boys were in the line, and they just didn't wanna they wanna go eat. And they kept going, doctor Walls, doctor Walls, come here. Doctor Walls. And, you know, you got all these people, and I'm looking over there at them, finally, I said, can y'all hold on one second? So I go over there.
Speaker 2:Well, they got their phone out, they're taking selfies. And they said, we wanna go eat. We don't wanna be in this line, but they wanted to somehow document. So I got my photo with them and they headed on. And then the youth were playing the Doctor.
Speaker 2:Wilde's bingo game. There was stuff hidden all over for them to find. Well, one of them, Which if you're
Speaker 1:not listening, our youth sometimes bring bingo sheets to worship with Doctor. Wiles' catchphrases. Yes. And they're playing bingo in the pews. Yes.
Speaker 3:To stay engaged.
Speaker 2:It is. And they have prizes. So, well, Dawson Carpenter comes up to me and says, Doctor. Wiles, you know I love this bingo game. I said, He's one of our youth.
Speaker 2:I said, I know. And he said, I have found everything. And he showed me. He has a complete card. He said, I just can't get inaugurated eschatology.
Speaker 2:But Erica said, They tell me it's here somewhere. He said, But I can't find it. I said, Here, let me just give it to you. He said, Can you just tell me it? He gets his phone out and I said, Hey, Dawson.
Speaker 2:Inaugurated eschatology. He was like, Thank you so much. I saw him Sunday. He came up to me and he said, I won a whole Lego gift card because I won the Man, I
Speaker 1:want those prizes.
Speaker 3:There you There you go. And I love the stickers. Those were really The stickers. Was
Speaker 1:so fun.
Speaker 3:How long people have been here, the lives you touched through baptism and marriages and so many
Speaker 2:cool So many things. Yes. And people came and got photos with all those stickers. And some of the little kids, they didn't have the right number of years, so they would take them and put them all. Some kids had like five stickers on, adding up the number of years they'd been here.
Speaker 2:And so and then the worship that day y'all. Beautiful. I mean, come on.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. Was Great week.
Speaker 2:Powerful for us and, man.
Speaker 1:But as you've said, you're looking ahead at what's
Speaker 2:Absolutely. With
Speaker 1:anticipation and this week we're anticipating the Yeah. Start of
Speaker 3:We've wrapped up summer and here comes midweek. It's September guys. Yeah. You know, we roll. We roll.
Speaker 3:Yes. Fall season is upon us. And, tomorrow, since today is Tuesday
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 3:Tomorrow is Wednesday. I'm gonna to remind my
Speaker 1:And our care groups and our youth ministry have been rolling. And we've talked a good amount about the table in here, which is our prayer and worship time for our adults in the fellowship hall. But we haven't had a ton of conversation about everything that our kids and preschoolers are doing which is a lot. Sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So yeah, Tell tomorrow night is us. The first official full blow midweek which the table will launch as well. But for preschoolers and children, I'll start at the bottom and go up. And so, for our youngest ones, threes and under, we provide care and it's meaningful with loving teachers that also do lessons and activities.
Speaker 3:And those children, invite them to come while their parents are on campus, and so you can drop off for that. But then once you get into pre k and k, we are bringing back Bible Heroes. And super excited. Had a blast last year coming up with scripts and bringing in some of our own church members and staff members. I believe
Speaker 2:I was Solomon.
Speaker 1:I was Peter.
Speaker 3:There we go.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna be Peter again.
Speaker 3:Yes. Yes. And so we're going for round two. Good. But it was just such a sweet time of engagement for church members who don't always get to come and see what we're doing down in preschool.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. And they talked in first person and taught the children about, we were trying to give them a full view of the life of Moses and make sure to connect the dots that the baby in the basket was the same guy that crossed the Red Sea. And that for our little preschoolers, that doesn't always come together, and so we tell the full story
Speaker 2:I
Speaker 1:love it.
Speaker 3:On those Wednesday nights. And then they after they hear from the Bible Hero, they go unpack it through activities and lessons. And so super looking forward to that, round two on Bible Heroes. And then upstairs, we're still calling it Deep Dive.
Speaker 2:That's
Speaker 3:the name that first through fourth grade was given last year, but it is gonna take a little bit different of a programming shape, and we are super excited to actually be partnering with engagement ministry. Mhmm. Specifically, Sarah Persley will
Speaker 1:be Sarah Persley on.
Speaker 3:Man, moment for Sarah Persley. Love her heart. She's all in. It is her true passion to pour into the next generation. Yep.
Speaker 3:That's right. I've seen her do it at Kinder Bible School. I've seen her do it at Wow Camp. She was with us at Getaway this past weekend.
Speaker 1:She led twelfth graders and eleventh graders in in Southeast Asia. Yep. She can do it all. Well,
Speaker 3:this semester in midweek, she will be leading one of our kind of rotations for first through fourth grade. And we'll split them up into first and second and third and fourth, and they will each get twenty five to thirty minutes minutes with Sarah Persley. Kind of on the global kids, she's gonna use some of those lessons that she had been putting together for the Sunday morning Mhmm. Handout that she had put together, and just helping children know how do we share the love of Jesus all around the world, and what does it look like in different parts of the world, and how can they be a part of it. So super excited, just for an opportunity to provide that content
Speaker 1:It's gonna be good.
Speaker 3:For our first through fourth graders. And then the other, thirty minutes that they'll rotation that they'll have, it will look a little bit more traditional, what we call teen kids curriculum, but Steven Tieples will be leading that. He brings super fun energy.
Speaker 1:Shout out number two for Steven Tieples too,
Speaker 3:Yes. I And let me just tell you, children on Wednesday Wednesday night are different than children on Sunday morning. They've had a full school day of sitting and thinking and attentiveness and they don't want to come to church and sit and think and have attentiveness and so we keep them pretty active on a Wednesday night, and so a lot of active games up and moving, and he'll be offering a good portion of that for the time that he sees them. So first and second, third and fourth will kind of flip flop, through that rotation. We'll have an opening time where we do some bible games, maybe a couple of Forrest Frank worship songs, get them moving, and just super engaging.
Speaker 1:So I love it.
Speaker 3:We've got, I think, right at a 100 children registered to start coming tomorrow night, and we expect more. I assume that there are some that haven't signed up yet.
Speaker 2:We we haven't registered yet.
Speaker 3:There you go. Well, on. We will be ready. They can walk in.
Speaker 1:Okay. Alright.
Speaker 3:And we will sign
Speaker 1:them Registrations just to give you an idea of how many kids are
Speaker 3:coming, Absolutely. Yeah. But we'll take them in real time. Anyone, bring your neighbor, bring your friend, bring someone from the soccer team. We'd love to have them here on a Wednesday night.
Speaker 3:And then fifth and sixth grade will continue the programming ministry that they've had with the Bridge led by Ryan Williams. And they do an awesome job.
Speaker 1:They do. They really do.
Speaker 3:Really looking at some hard, looking at other religions and belief systems and why do we believe what we believe when other people believe something else and how do we bridge that gap, and preparing them. It's the bridge because we're bridging them, as they look forward to moving into the youth group not too far from fifth and sixth grade. Wild. Great opportunity there as well.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be good. Yeah. Wednesday nights.
Speaker 3:Full full full.
Speaker 2:You think about it. While that's all going on, you've got all the the classic worship team is here with the choir and orchestra. And, I mean, there's a ton of those folks just engaging in preparation to get us ready for Sunday. And and then now we'll have the table.
Speaker 1:The table will be going
Speaker 2:and so and care groups that are already going. It's a Lot of life on Wednesday night. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Get here early, get your parking spot or head to the parking garage. Yeah. It's a good option. Yes. Yes.
Speaker 3:We filled this place up.
Speaker 1:And youth ministry. And youth ministry. Still going strong.
Speaker 2:Fully engaged.
Speaker 1:They never really stopped.
Speaker 2:No. That's true. They haven't
Speaker 1:Which is good.
Speaker 3:I think they get like two Wednesday nights off a year. Yeah. They do. They go strong.
Speaker 2:They just keep going. It's good. Our older granddaughter is there and she loves it.
Speaker 3:Wouldn't miss it. Which is hard to believe.
Speaker 2:I know. I know. It's crazy. But she loves it and it's so good. And then the table, you know?
Speaker 2:So we'll be in the Feltzer Hall. We
Speaker 3:will. I can't wait to hear about that.
Speaker 2:I'm the leadoff hitter. Okay. I'm the lead off hitter.
Speaker 1:You heard it here first, folks.
Speaker 3:He'll be there tomorrow night.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I'll be gone tomorrow morning. Brad is driving me to Brownwood, Texas. I've never been there. To Howard Payne.
Speaker 2:I've never been
Speaker 3:That's crazy.
Speaker 2:In fact, I looked it up on the map this morning for the first time.
Speaker 3:What, an hour and a half?
Speaker 2:It's about two from my house, it's about a little over two hours.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:But I'm going to meet Brad. You know, Brad lives south, he and Aaron. So I'm driving down to meet Brad, and then he's driving me. That's where he went. He did his, bachelor's and master's in, education there.
Speaker 3:The
Speaker 2:The They're the Yellow Jackets. Have no idea.
Speaker 3:Yellow Jackets.
Speaker 2:My high school were the Yellow Jackets. I'm gonna be right at home. Okay. But I ran into the president, Corey, at a BGC team meeting. I just heard so much about what they're doing and the good job they're doing.
Speaker 2:I just told him, I said, Man, I'm proud of you. Said, I've never actually been there. He said, You've never been to Howard Payne. I said, I've never been to Howard Payne. He said, Well, you are coming next fall.
Speaker 3:It's sure big draw for those interested in ministry. They really produce and they're equipping people interested in full time Christian ministry.
Speaker 2:So good. So I'm heading down there. Pastor's bible study starts back Wednesday without the pastor. But Katie is going to do a of a summary of the gospel of John, and then I'll be back the next week. Though I'm preaching in chapel the next week, but I'm in DBU, but I'll be here for
Speaker 1:I think Katie can handle that.
Speaker 3:You had a tour of the colleges.
Speaker 2:I have ETBU, Baylor,
Speaker 1:Howard Payne, DBU.
Speaker 2:It's all coming. Man, it's kind of And
Speaker 1:you preached on Sunday.
Speaker 2:Man, Sunday.
Speaker 1:What'd you preach about? Tell us And
Speaker 2:gone fishing was Sunday morning, you know?
Speaker 3:You bring a fishing pole. Yeah.
Speaker 1:A fishing net.
Speaker 2:And I'm not a I'm not I'm not a great fisherman. But
Speaker 1:Casey, are you good at fishing?
Speaker 3:No. I don't have the patience for it. It requires a lot of patience, don't you think?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well, but I'll tell you what, Mike Steiger, he and Kay have a home in Colorado, in Bayfield, Colorado. And behind their home in their backyard, they own the property on both sides of the Pine River. And so you can fish this large section of the Pine River. You don't have to get a fishing license.
Speaker 2:It's actually Mike's backyard, and he has, taught me to fly fish.
Speaker 3:I was gonna say that's what they do, they're
Speaker 2:That's fly very different than what I grew up doing. Because what I grew up doing was terrible.
Speaker 1:Yeah. You found some pond in hot Alabama
Speaker 2:Exactly. Popey catfish. Sit there on a bucket and can't talk because you're gonna scare the fish. And whereas with stiger, you're out in the water. You know, it's up to your way sometimes, and you're casting and
Speaker 3:You wear the waders.
Speaker 2:I used to, but now we just
Speaker 3:Oh, you're acclimated to the cold?
Speaker 2:Yeah. And and now they make these really fancy fishing pants. You know what I mean? That kinda repel water and it's kinda interesting. But, yeah, it's so much fun.
Speaker 2:It's beautiful. And trout are so hard to catch. You've got to know. You have to study them and kind of their patterns and the time of year and what
Speaker 3:they're tracking to.
Speaker 2:There is going to be one there. And and and you need to be trained because you you you can't go out there and just you're not going to go out there and catch trout. Mhmm. It's not like fishing for catfish. That's just not how it works.
Speaker 2:They're they're really smart, and, it's really fascinating. And they're fun because when you catch them a lot of time, man, they'll, like, jump out of the water and, you know, hit us. So, yeah. So anyway, we we that's kind of in the background. But for me, as I've been thinking about this series, but Sunday was the day to just launch the conversation.
Speaker 2:You know?
Speaker 1:Where are we going?
Speaker 2:You know?
Speaker 1:We don't have a ton of time left in the podcast, so kind of give us a a taste. Where are we going for
Speaker 2:the rest of series? The Sunday was set the stage. Yeah. And these next few weeks are going to be much more practical, where we're going to look at a little bit of theology, you know, fact that God loves all of us. That's the underlying thing Pretty important.
Speaker 2:Which is at really at the heart to me of appropriate evangelism
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Is it's motivated by love, and it should be motivated by love in us too. Mhmm. You know? Not just to catch the fish, but but we love them no matter what they choose to do, you know. Yep.
Speaker 2:And so that's the heart of what we wanna communicate. But I'm going to be gone some during this season. I'm going to be in Canada. I'm going to be in Italy. But we also have invited Rafael Anzenberger to come.
Speaker 2:We've we've invited three, what would you call them? Practitioners, I guess, or or
Speaker 1:That's good word.
Speaker 2:Or, evangelism. Yeah. Three very different types, in my opinion, of evangelists. Excuse me. So, I will be here on September 27, but I'm not preaching that day.
Speaker 2:We've invited Rafael Unzenberger.
Speaker 1:The general secretary of the French Baptist Union in Canada.
Speaker 2:In Canada. And a colleague of yours. You've gotten to know Rafael better than I. But I've heard Rafael preach. The first time I heard him was at an ascent meeting two or three years ago, and he was just on fire.
Speaker 2:And and and he's French. And so at first, it was a little hard to you you had to kind of pay attention because of his accent. He doesn't
Speaker 1:speak with an American accent.
Speaker 2:No. But once you catch it, you can stay with him. But he was just so good that day. Then I heard him again at our Ascent Summit, and that's when I shared with y'all, we we have to bring him here. He he has to come speak at First Baptist on he's been to our church to meet with our great commission council, to meet with y'all.
Speaker 2:He's done some training. Yeah. Come to staff meeting. Yeah. But he hasn't been in the pulpit.
Speaker 1:Which our church supports the French Baptist Union. Yes. The funds we've given have actually gone to help plant a church in Montreal. Yeah. And so we have
Speaker 2:a a growing partnership. That's right. And he is, what would you say, down the road a little bit in terms of the culture that he's addressing than the one we're addressing. But there are there's so there's so much overlap. And so he's going to come.
Speaker 2:And then the next Sunday, I will be in Canada. I will be with Rafael in Montreal. And we've invited Oza Jones to preach that Sunday. Oza is no stranger to First Baptist. He did our youth camp for two or three years.
Speaker 1:Yeah. He's the director of evasion for He's director of Texas evasion
Speaker 2:Texas Baptist. And he helped train our people and train churches for the World Cup evangelistic outreach events. And he's just a wonderful evangelist himself. So he's preaching, that Sunday. Then I will be back the next Sunday on the eleventh.
Speaker 2:And we have I think we've got first grade
Speaker 3:First grade bibles that week.
Speaker 2:That's right. Then the next week, I will be at Assisi Italy, and Gary Stidham is going to preach for us. And Gary has, for years, led our Baptist campus ministry in, at UTA, but he is a personal evangelist. I mean, is an expert at training people in personal evangelism. He came and trained our staff.
Speaker 2:And so he So these three practitioners have, to me, three kind of different areas of expertise. And so our church is going to get a pretty good opportunity of being trained in evangelism in ways that hopefully are indigenous to you. Love it. Not everybody's gonna be a Gary Sittum. Not everybody's gonna be a Rafael, not everybody's gonna be an Oza.
Speaker 3:All the different perspectives.
Speaker 2:But, hopefully there's going to be something there for you. So to me, what's coming is in this series, it's going to lean heavily toward being practical.
Speaker 1:Love that.
Speaker 2:And then on Wednesday nights, we'll go even deeper at the table on reflecting on those sermons and how they can be impacted how we can let them impact us even more deeply. So, yeah, I'm really excited about the fall. I really And then the engagement month after that is on more of a grand scale of our role as a
Speaker 1:church And in the whole
Speaker 2:I'm really excited about about the engagement month. And then Advent, you know, we get there and we're using John's gospel to kind of end the year, and focus on the prologue of John's gospel, which to me just kind of summarizes this whole thing.
Speaker 1:Just a theological lightweight Absolutely. Text.
Speaker 2:So so, yeah. I'm, you know, I'm grateful for twenty five years. It's been awesome. I love it. My goodness.
Speaker 2:We are we're blessed beyond measure. We're blessed beyond anything we would have ever imagined. But I would tell you, we're we're more excited about the future and, where God's leading our church.
Speaker 3:Good days ahead.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Yes. So, yeah. So there you go. Alright.
Speaker 1:Well, I think that's enough for today.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's a lot.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening, everyone, and we'll some of us will be back next week.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me. Oh, so glad.
Speaker 4: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.