Today on the Evangelist Podcast, we're speaking to Gavin Tight, a beatboxing pastor.
SPEAKER_00The Evangelists podcast from Revival. Find out what's new in telling people the good news about God, the world, and you. With Andy Brinkley and Glenn Scrivener.
SPEAKER_01Welcome back to the Evangelist Podcast. We've got an exciting podcast today. Glenn. We're um got Gavin Tight. Yeah. Uh tell us a bit about Gavin Tite.
SPEAKER_07Gavin Tight is uh he describes himself as a self-supporting pastor to the beatboxing community. He's an ordained Anglican minister, and uh you might have seen him back in uh twenty eleven. He won IT V's Nativity Factor um with a brilliant little three-minute video just going through Luke chapter two, beatboxing it. And uh we've got uh we've got a little uh clip of him doing that. Okay. This might jump in memory.
SPEAKER_01Quite an interesting uh way of uh presenting it there.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, both Andy and I like to think we're beatboxers, but then then we listen to somebody who can actually do it.
SPEAKER_03Oh no, I can't beatbox though.
SPEAKER_07We just sound like a burbling toddler when we when we try it. But yeah, no, looking forward to talking to Gavin about um not only his beatbox Bible stuff, uh which is a great online resource, but also more generally about how we can be better witnesses uh on the internet.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_07We're in a little mini-series on uh evangelism online and what kind of online presence we can be, and uh so I sent the feelers out on Twitter and Facebook and and uh see try to see who would be interested in talking about that. And uh you were one of the people who very kindly got back, and uh I was very glad that you did, because I saw uh your beatbox nativity back in twenty eleven and uh shared it just like uh everyone else seemed to be sharing it on on Facebook and that kind of thing. Um did that did that sort of propel you into the limelight in a in a surprising way?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean I've been doing online uh I guess I've been doing online apologetics and evangelism and doing web stuff for a very long time. I got into web stuff probably in the early 1990s, and uh so for me it was a natural progression to kind of combine the beatboxing with uh with the Bible, uh with the internet. Uh but yeah, it was it was a shock as to how popular it became so quickly. It was the two two weeks of the craziest two weeks of my life, I think.
SPEAKER_07Wow. What was the impact? What kind of happened?
SPEAKER_03Uh well it was it was in every national newspaper, and that's all the all all the online editions, and they embedded it on all their uh front pages. It was on nearly every national uh radio station, it was on heaps of local radio stations. Wow. Uh it was featured on Chris Evans on The Breakfast Show on Radio 2 Radio 2 over and over again, and then uh and uh then I was mystery guest on Radio 2 as well, just before Christmas, uh talking about it. And and got to rap the Annunciation of Mary, the whole thing, live there. Without being interrupted. It's about three minutes long or something. That must have been the I'm sure they're all kind of twitching in their seats thinking, when's it gonna shut up? But it just kept going. So uh so I managed to get the whole wrap out, which is probably the longest bit of Bible reading on Radio 2 ever, I should.
SPEAKER_07Brilliant. The next stop will be King's College, Cambridge. It'll be the nine lessons and carols and then you know box luke. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Do you know what? Yeah, the day they do that or slammed military style, that'd be amazing.
SPEAKER_01What sort of uh response did people give? Did you get sort of personal response from people saying what it was like for them?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I I got a range of responses. And what was what was really encouraging was it was nearly all positive. I'm so used to doing media stuff where you get a mixed bag of responses, and you get some people who are like, this is great, and other people are like, this is the worst thing ever. But but but what was so encouraging that all the feedback, all the newspaper articles, even the Huffington Post, they all they all loved it, they were just that wrote really nice things. I thought, oh good on them. Maybe it's maybe it's all that Christmas cheer at the same time. I don't know. But it was it was great to have that kind of response.
SPEAKER_07I saw that you switched off comments on YouTube, that might have had something to do with it.
SPEAKER_03Actually, I switched off comments on YouTube uh primarily because of getting so many comments that I can't and I couldn't moderate, I couldn't read I didn't have time, I've got so many videos, time to read them all. And the way that um and for whatever reason, there was a there is a problem with YouTube that they weren't uh notifying me when comments were going up. There's some problem with that notification system. I don't know why. So I'd have to keep tracking every week all the videos to see what comments have been posted and responding to them. So it just it just got a bit it just got laborious in the end. And actually the conversations weren't gonna happen through YouTube comments. Does that make sense? No, absolutely much more through social media and uh and face-to-face.
SPEAKER_07I think Stephen Fryer called the comment section of blogs the scuttling underbelly of the of the internet, but I think if if that's the scuttling underbelly, I think the YouTube comments can be you can get it.
SPEAKER_03They are yeah, they're probably somewhere else, aren't they? They are behind they are the back of the cooker. That's it. That's it.
SPEAKER_07Very good. So what's your what's your Christian story, Gavin? Did you grow up knowing Jesus? What kind of journey have you been on spiritually?
SPEAKER_03Oh, I've had a yeah, how long have you got? Well, it all started a long time ago. Uh my my uh my early Christian experience was was uh of of a very, very cold Anglican church uh that in a place that will remain nameless where all the all the old ladies wore furry hats. I don't know why they wore furry hats, so it was obviously because it was freezing cold, I think, that the building was freezing cold. And uh and a and a and a vicar that kind of dressed up and kind of glared out of a pulpit at me. I don't know why he was always staring at me, but he wasn't. And uh and and and uh and Sunday school, I just drew pictures of Moses every single week. And I reckon it was I reckon I reckon I'm from few. It's a whole collection of mosai in different colour combinations across my world.
SPEAKER_07The plural of Moses mosai, yeah.
SPEAKER_03I had a whole collection of mosai in different, yeah, all different colourways. Uh and and eventually, actually, I got kicked out of Sunday school for making silly noises. Exactly. There's redemption for you. Yeah, that's right. Um, so my my very first church experience was pretty appalling, if I'm honest. And but but I still believed in God. I had I I believed in God. And it wasn't until I was about 16, 17 that uh my mum said, Gavin, why didn't you get confirmed? And I was like, What's that? And she says, Well, that's where you can get to drink the bread and drink the bread and eat the bread and drink the wine at Christmas and Easter when we go to church. And I was like, Oh, okay then. And so I went to my teacher, my my RE teacher at school and said, uh, my mum reckons I should get confirmed, what she reckoned. He said, Well, why don't you come along to my church? And I said, Okay. And I rocked up to his church in this town, and uh, it was just incredible. They had it was like, wow, there's young people here, and they have drums at the front, and and and what's more, these people are talking to God, but God seems to be talking back to them. Hang on. I thought this was just a one-way thing, and and and I I was introduced into a charismatic evangelical church of England church, and and and so started my journey. But then it was about two years later that I actually gave my life to Jesus, and I said, Okay, God, I'm gonna choose to follow you. Uh I'm gonna give you a couple of weeks to kind of just kind of confirm that in my heart to make sure this is the right thing. Uh, we'll give it a go together, but I'll give it a mile and we'll see how it goes. And I and I haven't looked back since.
SPEAKER_01So, Gavin, uh, you're an Anglican minister. Um what was going through your mind in wanting to be an Anglican minister?
SPEAKER_03Stony silence this end of the mic, I think.
SPEAKER_07I'm I'm also an Anglican vicar, so uh Andy's outnumbered in this conversation.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's right. I'll be careful what I say. Um the only thing it can possibly be is God asking me to do this thing. It was isn't I I don't I don't I don't know, maybe people do set out, but I never set out to be an Anglican vicar. I don't I don't remember sitting now and they go, Do you know what I'd really like to be more than anything because all the world is an Anglican vicar. Um so I but my heart really is for evangelism, and that's that's where that's what I what drives me. Mission, evangelism, connecting people to Jesus wherever they are. And and I really love and and my heart is really not not really for the people in the church. I mean they're lovely, they're nice, I love Christians, they're they're cool, but really it's for people outside the church. They're the ones, they're the ones I anchor for, they're the ones I've got a heart for. They're the ones that I feel more comfortable standing in front of 515-year-olds in a secondary school uh talking about Jesus than I do in front of you know the same number in a church setting. So uh maybe so that kind of that just shows that that's what I'm about. But why don't I become a vicar? I don't know. God's calling, God said, you know what, I want I want you in uh in this thing. And that and so it's been a journey. It's been a real journey the last sort of 10 years of doing that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So so what came first? The beatboxing or or the ministry?
SPEAKER_03Well, the beatboxing definitely. Uh I was doing I was making crazy sounds and doing impersonation, Scooby-Doo Dalek's.
SPEAKER_07What's your Dalek impression?
unknownExterminate!
SPEAKER_07Ah very good. We won't we won't treat you like an Okay, that's very good. Exploit!
SPEAKER_03Um Dalek in the room with me.
SPEAKER_04You'll be exterminated!
SPEAKER_07Very good.
SPEAKER_03See, I was just doing lots of impersonations uh and doing drum sounds, and my dad bought this real-to-reel tape machine when I uh in about 1975. So I grew up with this thing, and you could record yourself and play yourself back. And uh got a recording of me in 1979, I think. Uh doing beatboxing before I'd even heard of beatboxing. That's uh it hadn't been invented, had it? Beatboxing? Well, I think I think I think humans have always made drum sounds. I think we always have. I uh you know you can go right back into Indian music, uh Celtic music, where people have always made kind of percussion sounds with their mouths. Uh but it wasn't called beatboxing, of course, until beatboxes were invented, which are drum machines.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And and then you got human beatboxes, which are kind of rather than just doing drum sounds, we started to emulate the electronic drums, the beatboxes, the drum machines. And so human beatboxing was invented, yeah.
SPEAKER_07Wow. And you are now a self-supporting pastor to the beatboxing community. What is the beatboxing community?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so well, about 1999, I uh I mean I mean beatboxing, but no one had really heard of beatboxing. It died a death. It was really big in the 80s, I don't know if you remember. Uh but in the 1990s, it kind of died a bit of a death. And in about 1999, uh some some of my students said, uh, have you heard this thing called beatboxing? I was teaching at the time. I said, Yeah, yeah, but what do you mean like going boom boom boom? Like that. And then we're like, What? They were like, no way! Can you teach us? And so I started doing lessons the next day. Wow now because we've done loads of online stuff and internet-based stuff, uh, I thought, well, let's see who else is out there. And remember, this is before there was there wasn't even MySpace, there was certainly no uh YouTube or any of that stuff. Yeah, there's no Facebook, no social media at all. But it was just websites. And so we looked out there and there was nothing. There was no beatboxes. And I noticed that beatboxing.co.uk, the domain, was free. And I thought, hey, I'll register it, and maybe we can see if there's any other beatboxes out there. So uh so I thought, well, tomorrow I will register that domain name. And so the next day I went into work and I went to register it, and somebody else had registered it today. And I thought, no way, someone else has registered the domain name, beatboxing.co.uk. And a guy called Alex Chu, uh aka A plus, actually he's A plus, aka Alex Chu. Uh he uh he put a forum up, uh a web-based forum, I think a v bulletin version one or something, uh, forum up on this website. And I was like, no way, and I was member number three. There was Alex's mate, Bernardo, a great DJ, and there was me.
SPEAKER_07Wow.
SPEAKER_03And we were like, hi, I love beatboxing. He was like, me too. And we grew that website. We grew that website over six years to over 60,000 people. And uh it just grew and grew and grew and grew. We and we just and we just shaped the whole beatboxing scene. We held the world's first beatboxing convention. I produced the world's first video tutorials, audio tutorials first, because there was no bandwidth, you couldn't do video then. And then video tutorials on beatboxing.
SPEAKER_01My brother, he's uh a church worker in Tamworth, he's seen all your videos, and he says, No way, you're having gaming tie on the podcast. Yeah, yeah, he's a great fan of yours.
SPEAKER_03It's been a great thing. I mean, I I and of course the opportunity to chat to people were just enormous. And I and I found myself uh Alex ran the website for three years, it was his website, and I helped him for three first three years, and after three years I took it on for the next three years of his life, and I was just spending so much time talking to people uh about beatboxing, of course, but also about God. How do you how do you go from the one to the other? Uh because because naturally people they know they well, they know they knew that I was a Christian, they knew that what I did, and I became a priest, I guess, or ordained, uh, went off to Victor Factory in about 2002, uh, it's what three years into the website, something like that. And and because I was running, I was kind of leader of this community, people knew what I was doing, and and so people all over the world would still want to chat to me and they'd want to share their problems, their issues, uh, they'd want to talk about God, and and and and it just became full on. I was doing it 24-7, uh, responding to private messages, having conversations, email conversations, doing a lot of a lot of apologetics as well. On the open forum, uh, with people chatting about God and asking all sorts of things. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Tell me some more about that online apologetic kind of ministry that you've had.
SPEAKER_03Well, it's a real way of cutting your teeth in apologetics because you know, someone, I mean, people would post a question about God, or they would post something, you know, saying, Oh, you know, you know, religion is loaded of rubbish, isn't it? And and then you then you just start to unpack it. And or there's all sorts of presumptions. You name everything. I mean, the the real biggies, of course, are things like creation, uh, lots of arguments about that. And and I'm really trying to explain uh what the reality of things. I mean, assumptions, things like that scripture had changed uh uh over over the last two thousand years. It's been changed and changed and changed, so it's nothing like what it was when it was written and things like that. Uh but assumptions that are wrong that need correcting. And and so you did a lot, a lot of long conversational apologetics. And you learn and you learn how to interact with people in a polite, uh gentle, uh and kind of honest and open way. And because they respected me because of the beatbox, they respected you can have those conversations in in a in a yeah, in a very real and open way. Um without getting kind of blasted or kind of lambasted. Yeah, does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01So this is all within this boot beatboxing forum, is it?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, this is all human beatbox uh beatboxing.co.uk in human beatbox.com.
SPEAKER_07Okay. Using it for evangelism. Yeah, see, using it for evangelism, it's just uh enjoying it for what it is, but also it's an opportunity.
SPEAKER_03So it's it was it was it never set out to be an opportunity, and I think that's the key is is about being authentic. I am a beatboxer who happens to be a Christian, and that's what I do, and that's who I am, and so there's no there's no kind of right, what a great opportunity to kind of reach people for Jesus. Let's use this as a tool. It was never like that. It was that these are genuine conversations, having with genuine friends and people in the beatboxing community. It yeah it's not separated out. There's no spiritual bit and kind of secular bit, or no kind of beatboxy bit and then the kind of Christian bit. It's just is a big change of gears, yeah. Yeah, it is what we do, it's what we are. And it's and that authenticity is key.
SPEAKER_07Because we're we're talking to people about online witness. And you know, I mean, one of the objections to being a Christian presence online is that it's it's not a face-to-face thing, it's not an incarnated kind of a thing. It's it you know, you're not sharing a meal with somebody in in in sort of tangible space and facing each other. It's sort of a an online thing. But but you're saying that it it can be a very genuine, very authentic, very personal kind of meetings of hearts and minds.
SPEAKER_03Would you say I uh absolutely uh when you form an online community, when you get to know people online, you you form a very deep bond with them. You people share very deeply, and as time goes on, they share more and more, and then and then eventually you end up meeting. Uh maybe it's a gig somewhere or you have a convention, you get together. Face-to-face contact is important, and it's almost like when you as soon as you have that face-to-face contact, all those years of chatting to somebody online can't really count. They really count. It's not like you're kind of meeting somebody the first time. You're like, oh man, it's so good to see you. You know, you're like, and you're like family, it's just weird. And I've got friends I made in the beatboxing community, some of I've only met a couple of times, but you know what? If I was ever stuck, they would be there for me, and I'd be there for them. And I mean, I had a guy uh the other day come and do some beatboxing on the video. You know, we've known each other online for years, and and we met for the first time, didn't it? Came, stayed in my house, had a meal with us, you know, and it's just we just got that kind of because we know each other. And and and people say you can't have those kind of relationships online. Rubbish, you can. You really, really can. And uh and I don't know, it's strange. The bonds are very, very strong and and and very deep.
SPEAKER_07So tell me about so beatbox uh nativity came out. With di did uh beatbox bible sort of follow that?
SPEAKER_03Um, it was the other way around. Was it? Yeah, so I was uh so I've been in the beatboxing hip-hop scene for a long time, uh Christian too, and I was doing some work for Bible Society where Chip K was doing a reading and they wanted someone to produce some music behind it, and he was reading the Bible. I think it was uh Luke's no, it was Mark's Gospel. And so I produced kind of backing tracks for that because I I write and produce music, so I was doing uh it was kind of kind of sort of thematic electronic dance music, I suppose, because it had to try and fit. And and and as I was doing it, I was like, oh this is this is okay. This is okay, but but would it be possible to actually put Luke's gospel into rap? I mean and be authentic to the Bible, like and I don't mean uh like uh a paraphrased version, but a proper uh verse-by-verse translation.
SPEAKER_01Actually, Gavin, uh we've got some here to play. So just so everyone can hear uh a little bit of this, we've got some uh of Luke's gospel, and this is your bit on love your enemies.
SPEAKER_02Okay Yes, it's time to get it down with the message I'm bringing. Turn your ears to hear the death of breath, but I'm spending love your enemy to give them the best to the haters to good, and let your career for the cruise everyone take another until we can big deal, no that's no price back. Let me get them too. Love the enemy the other side. Then I'm gonna depending on a gift and kind. Then your father's a child of God. That's the wicked and the fool, be compassionate, mess a fool, merciful, compassionate. Just like your father is smashing it, don't ration it. And do not judge and you won't be judged. Don't nudge your budget, hold a lifelong grudge. Don't offend reprehand with the word or pen. You can depend, my friend, and you won't be condemned. Just live and you'll be able to do it. Don't nudge your budget, hold a lifelong grudge. And to you, yeah.
SPEAKER_03So what you're hearing there is uh one of the things I'm publishing the scripts, and then I'm recording audio examples, and they're all in different slightly different styles to show the flow of the words. So, in a way, what you're hearing there isn't a uh like a record that I've produced to kind of put out there. It's it's a it's a style guide to show the flow of the words. Because if I was actually performing it, I'd probably do it more slam poetry style and put a lot more expression into it and stuff. That's just kind of some so somebody reading the script can go, okay, this is this is where the the emphasis is, or where the you know, so where the beats lie in a bar, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So how is the beatbox Bible being used by people, Gavin?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so uh what is at the moment I'm trying to I'm gonna my aim is to write the whole of Luke's gospel in Ryan and uh in goodwine too, you know, well written and uh and publishing the scripts so that churches, youth groups, ministers, people can take the scripts and then use them in their own contexts. So rather than it uh and my hope is that other people will produce audio and videos of the scripts and perform them live. So for instance, I mean we've had I've had school. Schools using it, so they would take a bit and they'd they'd use it in their school assembly. So they perform it, they perform with you know get the kids rapping in beatboxing and performing a script. Uh other ministers used it where they take it and they used it as the base of telling a Bible story. So they wouldn't wrap the whole thing, but what they would do is they'd take the script and then they'd you know, maybe they'd read out bits of it while uh children are acting it out in a church setting or a worship setting. So it can be used in a multitude of ways. And of course you could just read it or just listen to it if you can.
SPEAKER_07Are you aware that um UCCF and and uh the the universities and uh colleges Christian Fellowship is is using uh Luke's Gospel uh as as their big sort of gospel giveaway uh currently. They're doing lots of stuff with with Luke's gospel. I wonder if there's uh there might be there might be a tie-in.
SPEAKER_03I mean, what I'm trying to do is produce a resource that can be used by other other people. Uh that's that's what I'd like to do. And it's great, and even the conversations, I mean, even even in the beatboxing community, beatboxes are listening to it, and uh I went to the UK channels this year and I and somebody said, I don't know, I've been checking out your beatbox Bible, Gav. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I said, Yeah, interesting. And I said, Yeah, yeah, and uh, and uh I've never I've never I've never read the Bible before, I've ever heard it before. Any of any of it. And uh it's really good. And I'd like to I'd like to read I'd like to read more of it and uh yeah, and I'd like to chat to you some more about it sometime. Uh okay. It's just it's it's not that you're going out there going. Do you know? I'm gonna really evangelize the beatboxing community and and it's the conversation start out of that authentic kind of yeah, does that make sense? That just so yeah.
SPEAKER_07For the last couple of weeks we've been talking to Graham Miller from uh London City Mission, and he was sort of talking about, you know, Christians can get so hung up with, well, should I on the one hand preach the gospel or on the other hand be a nice person? And he was sort of saying, Well, you know, actually the you know our call is just to be a hundred percent Christian, just just be just be who you are uh amidst others.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's like it's it's partly why I haven't got a blog. Um because I'd be it's very tempting because I did a lot of writing and I do a lot of blogging, I suppose. But uh but rather than having it on a blog, I would rather just put it out on Facebook and and I don't because I don't want to separate my Christianity or out from the rest of my life. And as soon as you do that, it it I I think it somehow gets watered down or gets compartmentalized, and and that's what people expect in some ways. Yes, keep your spiritual reality out of it. But that doesn't mean and but on the on the flip side, you don't go on Facebook and just start kind of telling everybody that they're sinners and need to repent. And because I've got I know guys that do that, and boy, do they put people off? Uh and it and it pains me, it pains me when people do that. So, but it's having that authentic Christianity in you know, so that it is part of your life and it's part of your expression of who you are, and it's great, and the conversations flow.
SPEAKER_01Gavin, who do you think uh Christians could be generally better at witnessing online?
SPEAKER_03How could Christians be better at witnessing online? Again, being open and honest about their faith in a real way, uh not compartmentalizing, not trivializing, uh not super spiritualizing either, and and and being honest, uh and about their failures too, about things they struggle with. And I think on on a on any social media or any online forum or wherever it is, it's it's so important to see that their life is is imbued with Christ throughout their life. So not not be afraid to say it, you know. I was praying this morning and uh about this situation that that that's going on, or um, you know, uh I really felt God telling me that that this is this is the direction I should go in this year, or or whatever it is in in in yeah, so rather than just posting out pictures of fairy cats playing with each other or whatever it is they do on Facebook. But not try, but don't try and don't don't try too hardy, then don't try and evangelize. I'm sorry, that sounds really awful, doesn't it? But I'm gonna get those letters now, people say, what do you mean don't try and evangelist?
SPEAKER_07This is the evangelist podcast.
SPEAKER_03I don't know the evangelist podcast, don't try and evangelist, don't evangelize. You heard it first. What I mean by that is don't don't try to evangelicate because people smell a rat. People know when you're not being authentic. And and and if you try if you if you if you try and use your relationships to reach people for God, if you try and use that as a tool, uh and and you make that your focus, then then people get turned off. They get turned off, they run away and they go, Do you know Gab's just trying to hit me with the head with the Bible again? What I want them to do is see that actually my life is Christ is there in my life every day. Jesus is the most important thing to me above my wife, above my children, above my job, above myself. I've put God first, and that, and so hopefully that that and and the the conversations will happen. People say, Do you know, Gev, that yeah, I really respect that. I mean, I don't believe maybe, uh, but I respect that. Why do you do that? And why and so that's the longest conversations with people about Jesus, about God, all the time. And I don't have to try at all. I don't I don't I don't think I've ever tried to witness to anybody. And it just yeah, but it happens, yeah. That makes sense.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I I often do in in uh often when I'm when I'm teaching about evangelism, I I I often say like the worst thing you can try and do is try to gain converts, like a as though you know God's this gigantic cosmic hoover trying to suck people up, and you've got to suck them out of the things that they love and up into heaven. But you know, what we you know do we do what we love and we take Jesus with us and we offer Christ and the direction of travel is very much outwardly. Um just just be who you are, take Jesus with you rather than try and suck people into the the the Christian thing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03This is all about presence and not proclamation, or this is about proclamation and not presence. It it's it's it's the proclamation happens. If Jesus is really number one in your life, and he's at the centre of everything, then when you speak, it's gonna be infused with God and references to God and references to Jesus and reverence references to your Lord because it's who you are and what you do.
SPEAKER_07Does that mean if that doesn't come out authentically, then it's not really gonna convince anyone anyway. Um if it's not bubbling up out of the heart, then you know. So, Gavin, how can how can people learn more about uh about your ministry and uh and and beatbox bible and and the rest of it?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, well the easiest thing to go is to do is go to beatboxbible.com, uh www.beatboxbible.com. Uh go check out the scripts on there, you can have a listen to audio, there's some more videos coming soon, which is very exciting uh with with featuring some quite well-known beatboxes in the UK. Uh and and and yeah, and play with the script, have a re have a listen, have a read. Uh I do some I do various performances around the place. You could uh if I do if I've got any upcoming performances, you can check about on the on the website if you want me to come and speak or perform or do some readings or some beatboxing at an event, let me know. Very happy to come and uh and speak and perform and and share the good good news. Yeah, Jesus through the words.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. Brilliant, brilliant. I'll definitely keep that up my sleeve. Um thinking about yeah, getting getting you down to Eastbourne. Would you come to Eastbourne?
SPEAKER_03Eastbourne, yeah, yeah, I know that place. Lots of old people there, aren't they?
SPEAKER_07Yeah. That's that's what we're known for. Yeah. All the shopping. What do you mean? How dare you? Andy lives in Polgate, where I think I think the largest shop in Polgate is a uh scooter mobility centre, I think. So it's it's that kind of place. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Lots of people into hip hop down there.
SPEAKER_07They're into getting hips anyway. Um enough silly puns. Well, thank you so much, Gavin, for spending some time with us. That's been uh been really illuminating.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, very, very welcome. Yeah, it's been my pleasure.
SPEAKER_07Great. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Thank you very much, Gavin.
SPEAKER_07Bye. Andy's been bristling about that pole gate gag.
SPEAKER_01It's a great place, it's a great place.
SPEAKER_07It is. It is. I didn't get to use my my um my funny Eastbourne gag, like Eastbourne, where all the shop windows are bifocal. You know, it's a good job, really. Yeah, good okay, we can edit that. That's fine.
SPEAKER_01Oh no, that was that was really fun uh with with Gavin. He's obviously a very likable character.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. And I think peop and people respect him, and you can see why they respect him. And I think off the back of people just seeing his genuineness and his authenticity, they just they see he's the full package and and he, you know, is into beatbox and he's into God, and you know, he'll talk the hind legs off a donkey to t tell you about beatboxing, and he'll do the same about God, and off he goes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it seemed a very sort of natural thing for him, didn't it? Sort of um, you know, beatboxing and Christianity, and you know, there wasn't any sort of uh difficult uh ground in between. No. It was just a natural progression.
SPEAKER_07And I used that that horrible phrase at one point, some so you're just using beatbox.co.uk for evangelism, which is not what I kind of meant, but um thankfully he sort of pulled it around and said, No, absolutely, yeah. I am a beatboxer and love that stuff. It's really got me thinking, him him saying I don't have separate apologetics websites, I don't have a separate blog. I could have a blog, and it could be a Christian thing where I spout Christian stuff, but why not put it on Facebook? Why not put it on the forums of the various you know things that I love doing? Yeah. Why do we compartmentalize things so much? So that's that's got me thinking big time.
SPEAKER_01And a bit of a challenge to you know be real in in the Facebook and and Twitter world uh and not sort of present different faces to different people.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, so like be open, be honest, and don't super spiritualize. But if it is part of who you are, then it'll it'll come out. And you know, I think this this could be um our new motto at the Evangelist Podcast. Don't try to evangelize. But you know, like like the point that you know if you use relationships in order to reach people for God, well you don't you don't want to use you don't want to manipulate people like that. People will r will run a mile.
SPEAKER_01I guess it's the natural, isn't it? It's kind of changing you becoming a natural evangelist. Yeah. Rather than uh sort of a highly trained ninja going into foreign lands and Yes.
SPEAKER_07And I think all of this kind of flows from a vision of who is Jesus, like Jesus is this outgoing one who humanizes us and sends us out as humans, you know, to engage with other humans in a very human fleshly kind of a kind of a way. I think none of what Gavin says sort of makes sense if you've got an introspective God who is interested in holy stuff. Um because then how can how can you be a pastor and a beatboxer? You'd you'd have to split your time fifty-fifty, you know. Half the time I'm being holy, half the time I'm beatboxing. Um but no, what if what if God is this outgoing God? What if Jesus is already going outside the camp? You know, Hebrews 13 13. What does it mean to go to him outside the camp into the world that God loves? You know, a world of beatboxing, a world of a a thousand different pursuits. Um it but it all flows from this sort of outgoing God. And yeah, and meeting meeting a God who humanizes you and sends you out into the world to be you and to take Jesus with you.
SPEAKER_01It was interesting that he really felt called. It was it's something for him which is i is something that he felt called to. Yeah. But it didn't necessarily mean that he stopped doing beatboxing. Exactly.
SPEAKER_07And now he's calling he he's a self-supporting pastor to the beatboxing community. God's call is still on his life. And yeah, yeah, you know, this God is thrusting him out and has his hand on him in the stuff that he's doing. Um and I guess we all need to feel that, don't we? That that yeah, God has me where he has me for a reason. Um and that reason is is to be me, in all the openness and authenticity and reality of of of me being me, but with Jesus as number one, then the words will follow.
SPEAKER_01Excellent. And if you want to find out more about uh Gavin Tite and his work, you can go to beatboxbible.com.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, you can learn how to beatbox, and uh he's got really great tutorials on how to how to do it. I'm I'm gonna do it. This will be my new thing. Okay, my tent making. Oh no. Don't say that. Yes! I'm Andy Brinkley, I'll be here to say. So yeah, go to beatboxbible.com and figure out how to do it properly. Not like us.
SPEAKER_01You could maybe do a reading a day or something.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, all the way through Luke's Gospel. It's fantastic.
SPEAKER_01So the web address for this episode where you can comment on this specific show along with the links to the videos that Gavin produced. Uh just simply go to revivalmedia.org slash TEP33. If you like listening each week, we'd really appreciate a rating and review. It helps us get seen by more people. Just go to revivalmedia.org slash iTunes or RevivalMedia.org slash Stitcher if you use Stitcher. That should take you directly to the podcast page where you can leave us a rating and review. We'd be uh very grateful if you would do that for us. Also, just a reminder that if you want to sign up to the podcast via email, some people have found that helpful. You can also go to that webpage to sign up for a notification each time. So next week we're having a look at more intentional online evangelism uh with Matt Rich from Groundwire.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, so uh Groundwire is a an opportunity for people to uh be able to uh get into chats online with people, and uh yeah they they see lots of people. Uh they see hundreds, uh even thousands of conversations uh a month had with people online, and they've got uh evangelists who are at the ready, ready to speak to people. Uh so it'd be great to talk to Matt uh from Groundwire about about uh his experience of online evangelism.
SPEAKER_01Just before we finish, I want to tell you about our daily prayer bulletin. It's a small 24-page booklet that tells 31 stories of what God is doing around the world. Did you know that Christians are saving children from the sex trade in Nepal? Or that churches are growing in Sri Lanka, or that the church in Hawaii are uniting for the gospel? Well, you can hear more about it in our prayer bulletin, which you can get free of charge simply by going to revivalmedia.org slash bulletin. Again, the web address for this episode is revivalmedia.org slash tep thirty three