Welcome to Speak The Truth, a podcast devoted to giving biblical truth for educating, equipping, and encouraging the individual and local church in counseling and discipleship. Hello. Hello. Hello. I am excited as we continue to do these track episodes for the twenty twenty six Called to Counsel Conference in April 23 through the twenty fifth in Fort Worth, Texas at Doxology Bible Church.

I am excited about this particular episode as I get to talk with Robert Cheong. Robert, how are doing, brother?

Good. It's great to be with you, Michael.

Yes. It is. Unfortunately, it's virtual. But for the sake of our listeners, here we are. Here we are.

At any rate, Robert, we wanted to bring you on, obviously, as we've been meeting with track leaders and just wanting to have these conversations around, not just introducing the track leader, but the people on the track, getting to know a little bit about the track versus just going to our page and reading some font and seeing a couple pictures that are on the website. And so we wanted to plus it a little bit. So thank you for your time and thank you for this opportunity. And so before we jump into the track content, just share a little bit about your ministry, Robert, and then a little bit of the context coming from the church as we get into the actual track itself. And then I'll let you introduce the track and then the people on the track.

Absolutely. My name is Robert Cheong, and I live in Louisville, Kentucky. Currently serve as the executive director of Gospel Care Ministries, where we have a passion for equipping the church and being confident in Jesus as we live in a broken world. But before we went full time with this ministry, I served over sixteen years as the pastor of care at Sodom Church Midtown in Louisville, and I would attend all the counseling conferences every year. And even though I was paid full time as the care pastor to read all the books, I couldn't keep up.

And I was overwhelmed. I felt like I could not deal with all the different issues because I felt the need to attend all the conferences, but also read all the books. And one of the inspirations for this track was as a pastor and talking with other pastors as well, I came to the conclusion that as a pastor in a local church, we can be overwhelmed by all the specific details that are covered in each of the very helpful tracts that are offered at the ABC conference. But I know that a common sentiment that we could have as pastors is that my shepherding or my counseling is second rate to those who do this all the time, especially those who are certified. But also, as all the attention is given to counseling, I found that as a pastor, I could walk away a little bit confused, but certainly overwhelmed by the singular focus on counseling.

And I was struggling to understand how it fits in with other aspects of ministry, like discipleship, missions, worship, community, etcetera. But, also, the last thing is that as a pastor, I wanted to go to a conference that really spoke to my daily pressures and challenges as a local pastor grinding away in ministry. And even though I love ABC and I have been attending their conferences for years now, I wanted to offer something more to pastors who may not be seeking a certification or who may be coming with a team of people who are in the certification program, but yet they feel out of place. And so that was the background inspiration of this track.

No. That's really good. And the track we are speaking of is Pastors and Church Leadership. And, Robert, thank you for just providing that additional context of your own journey and pastoral ministry and the need for biblical counseling, but then also just the personal ministry of the word. And so just share a little bit with us now.

Just who's on the track? What's your track team look like?

Oh, we got an outstanding track team. In fact, all of us have anywhere from twenty five to thirty years of ministry experience, and I love this combination that we have. We let me start with Garrett Higbee. Most people know Garrett Higbee. He has over thirty years of pastoral care discipleship in the local church.

I first met Garrett at Twelve Stones Church while I was a local pastor, and we would take people to this ministry of his. He has since moved on and now is leading soul care consultants. But Garrett is a great practitioner and a great communicator. Then we have Duane Bond. Duane's been serving in ministry for over thirty five years and almost twenty years as a lead pastor.

And so I love Duane's addition because we need the perspective of a lead pastor. And not only is he still pastoring his church in Charlotte, North Carolina, but he serves as the executive director of Proximinist Group, which is a biblical counseling group. And so he's well rounded and has plenty of depth. And then from a leadership standpoint, we have Joe Keller. Joe's been serving at Grace Baptist Church in Santa Clarita for twenty five years.

And Joe just has this vision, but also this articulation of being able to look at organizational and leadership issues from a macro and micro level. And I find that our four team members, we blend so well. This this past year was our first year doing the track. And after we finished, we all were very thankful to the Lord that we complemented each other, and we actually got along with each other as we served together. So outstanding track.

And regardless if you are coming from a small church or a large church, with the combination of experience from this team, we can speak to almost everything that you might have a question about.

No. That's really good. And so to that point, what's the objective of the track, obviously, given its title with pastors and church leadership? But could you just speak a little bit on the objective?

Yeah. The objective is actually to help pastors and church leaders to rediscover a deep confidence in the gospel. Every pastor and church leader has confidence in the gospel to save, but they can lack confidence in applying and living out the gospel, in the brokenness of marriage. But the bottom line is that I hope that everybody who comes to this track will discover how Jesus makes a difference in the brokenness of life, and that they can become more dependent in, on, and confident in Jesus, knowing that they don't have to have a specialized counseling degree or certification to actually have effective, fruitful ministry in the church. But what's exciting about this track is every year, we're gonna focus on three main areas.

First is the personal life of the pastor and church leader because we know that what impacts the soul of a person impacts their ministry and their leadership. And so we're gonna be addressing the personal life of the leaders. Second, we're gonna address shepherding and ministry issues. And, again, this combination is quite unheard of, actually, at especially at a counseling conference, at any conference where you can get this breadth and depth of exposure and discussion. And the third area that we'll have every year woven in would be leadership issues and challenges.

And then at the end of each at the end of each session, we're gonna have at least fifteen minutes of q and a, but reserve the eighth session for a panel discussion on anything and everything that you might want to ask about.

No. That's really good. And what I appreciate about this particular track, obviously, being a former pastor myself and just the need for it, but just the depth in which you guys are gonna be going and obviously beginning with the pastors and ministry leaders themselves and just the care of our own souls. And then getting into just the personal ministry of the word. So moving beyond the pulpit, what does ministry look like in your church?

And then navigating conflict and all the things that you guys are gonna be talking about. And then also understanding, I think one of the things that I drew from last year's track is, to your point a moment ago, is just the diversity of experience and context in which people are ministering, these pastors and church leaders, and realizing there's a universality in the gospel call and shepherding people, but how that happens in the local church context is different. And like you mentioned, there's this micro level and macro level, and there's just a lot of nuance in that contextually. And I just appreciate how you guys really navigated those conversations. And I know our own pastor was in there as well.

And I I know he asked some questions. And so, yeah, he really walked away. He was really encouraged by the track. And so with that then, just in in closing here, Robert, who would you obviously, we could say that this is for everybody. But who do you think this would really speak to maybe from a seasonal perspective, maybe church structure?

Just if you were to consider some of those dynamics, who who do you think this would really speak to the most?

Yeah. First of all, let me just say, Michael, that it's the heart of all four of us that anybody who comes for our track, we just wanna encourage you. Equipping, yes, we wanna equip you, but the bottom line, we know that ministry is hard, full of anxieties and pressures, and we want to let you know that you're not alone. In fact, we were super excited that this past year, 47 churches were represented and four to five parachurch organizations. And so we had a wide variety of churches from megachurches to small churches to even some church planters.

And if you're coming to the ABC conference, like I said earlier, and you're not you don't identify specifically as a counselor, man, come to our track. We did get some feedback that, hey. I thought this track was supposed to help me be a better counselor. In one way, it does, but not directly. But let let me just start with there's three groups of people that I thought about who would benefit from this track.

First of all, as a pastor or church leader, if you want to learn how the gospel applies to every aspect of life, in the brokenness of life, regarding your personal life, in your shepherding and ministry, but also in your leadership, man, we're gonna cover each session is gonna cover these things where you're gonna have a really detailed understanding of how the gospel applies to these three areas of ministry. Second group of people who would benefit is that, hey, if you just wanna be in an environment where you can learn with and from other church leaders, you know, and because we have eight sessions together, and there's a lot of dialogue. And so if you wanna be encouraged, if you're in a weary season or if you're fresh and you're ready to keep pounding ministry, we we know that you're gonna be encouraged by this. So this is for people who who want to collaborate with others in order to grow as a ministry leader. But then third, and this would describe the kind of person that I was coming to counseling conferences.

If you like what ABC is doing, but you don't particularly feel that you want to spend all your time in one specific focus of struggles and not be overwhelmed by all the great detailed and in-depth discussions that you'll receive in those specialized tracks. Hey. Come to this track, and you'll see a broader, more general application that goes just as deep, more deep probably than you imagine. And so we just want to to encourage you because we know that ministry doesn't come at you in tracks, but it comes at you all at once. And so we want you to see that the breadth and the depth of the gospel is comprehensive for the ministry that you face day in and day out.

Yeah. It's multidimensional, multitrack, and multidirectional multidirectional ministry. It's coming at all sides. Robert, thank you for sharing that. Again, for those of you who are listening to what Robert is saying, we would definitely encourage you to register now.

You can register at calledtocouncil.com. All this information will be there for you. And hopefully, was an encouragement for you to decide and make that determination and go ahead and register. Thank you guys for listening, and we hope to see you at the conference. Remember, Doxology Bible Church, Fort Worth, Texas.

Hope to see you there.