Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast, where we're all about providing sound doctrine for everyday people. My name is Kosti Hinn, and today I have my good friend Johnny Artavanis on the podcast. Johnny, welcome back, brother. Thanks, Costi. Thanks for having me back on. Well, we have a huge announcement today, and then I've got a couple of loaded questions for you to run with. First, the huge announcement, but I need like a minute and a half of runway to give some background to this. You good with that? I'm golden with that. Go ahead. All right. So for the gospel background. In 2020, we got some plans rolling for this ministry. In 2021, we had our first official years in actual resource ministry, and the Lord blessed it greatly. He was very kind in our very in our small and measly effort and did some great things. The FTG crew have always been from day one very passionate about theology, the creative space, because our generation responds very well to that. We love that kind of stuff. And then excellence as well. So you have great resources that are loaded with sound doctrine, and then they look and sound good and have high quality production so that this generation doesn't swipe off, which is what we're notorious for. If it doesn't look good, we're kind of like, well, nobody put effort into that, so I probably won't waste time with it. Not saying that's right, but that's where a lot of this next generation is at. And we also, more than anything, love the truth. We love God's word. We love the Lord. He is the one we live for, the one that we worship, and why we serve in ministry to make his name known, to bring him glory. And then we also love people a lot. We want to see souls won, and we want to see people growing in God's word. And like so many of you, we watched as social media was saturated and still is with less than edifying content and certainly a lot of false teaching that's out there. And we don't just want to be a ministry or even individuals who sit on the sideline and are very reactive towards everything, just criticizing and throwing stones. We want to get in the game and we want to be proactive. We certainly don't just want to win arguments, we want to win people. The goal is to see people come to know the truth. And part of the goal of this ministry from day one was to do that with a team who shares the same passion for reaching our generation with sound doctrine. And that's where today's huge announcement comes in. You've seen us, if you followed our ministry, expand our video content this year. We've got over 300 plus videos already in the works. We have a Truth in Love series that's out now as we ask some tough questions and take on different false religions to help you evangelize people. We kicked off our first conference last fall. We've added some incredible contributors like Desmond Outlaw, Grant Castleberry, his wife doing women's resources, Grace Anna Castleberry, and then we recently launched Date Night with the Woods to offer more content on marriage and dating and family. And now, the big announcement, the Lord has opened a door for Dial In to become a part of the Further Gospel family, and specifically for Johnny, my good buddy, to join our executive leadership team. His character, his humility, his giftedness, the chemistry that we share as friends, uh it makes it such a joy to be a co-laborer with him in gospel work. We have a unified passion to put out sound doctrine without sacrificing an ounce of creative quality. And this makes him a perfect fit to join our team. Johnny will continue to create teaching series after teaching series. He's so gifted as a preacher and a teacher. He is incredible to listen to. He's always edifying. We have some workbooks in the in the pipeline for small groups, more video interviews from him. That's all just the tip of the iceberg. But, you know, Johnny, it's not welcome to the Further Gospel podcast anymore, brother. It's welcome to the Further Gospel leadership team. And this is how I feel right now. You're gonna know this if you know this. So all right. The last is there it is, there it is. Uh, you know, first share your heart about why you love creating resources for people, what you're excited about, and then I've got a follow-up question for you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, Cassi, thanks so much. I'm excited to be a part of the For the Gospel team. You know, my heart for creative resources, I think initially stemmed when I was working up at Hume Lake. And for those of you who are unfamiliar, Hume Lake is a big student ministers camp in Central California. And during my time there, I was around thousands and thousands of high school students, young adults, and pastors. And I think after watching them receive and hear the truth throughout the week, it became a burden for me to know that some of them went to churches that they were going back down the hill that didn't necessarily teach uh the truth, or even some of them had been invited to camp and were disassociated and divorced from us all local church. And that became a burden at that point. And I think what became the greatest burden for me is that a lot of students or young adults or even people that go away to college, they um typically will type in their questions about God, the Bible, or the gospel on YouTube or Google. And the answers that they would see were algorithmically prominent rather than biblically accurate. And this became a big burden for me. I think specifically it started, Casty, I guess, around the subject of anxiety because I know that so many of the students, a huge percentage of them, would come, they take different meds for their anxiety, and then they would type in on YouTube, what does the Bible say about anxiety? And the number one YouTube video at that point was a video by a celebrity preacher that we know. And the response on that YouTube clip was whatever your tragedy is right now that makes you anxious, in a year from now, by the authority of God's word, I can promise you it'll be your triumph. And a student sent me that YouTube video and said that what was anxious and what had caused him to be anxious in his life was that his mom was dying of breast cancer. And someone had promised him on YouTube that whatever his tragedy is right now would be his triumph in a year from now. And then his mom died of breast cancer. And it just made God out to be a liar. And it was like what it was just someone, one of those things where I went, man, even though I'm reading the book, I think it's the juvenilization of the American church that a parent or a pastor is sadly the fourth resource that someone would go to if they had questions about the about God or the gospel or the Bible. And so many questions that students were asking, but really I think just the average person now is just going to YouTube or Google before they go anywhere else. And that became a burden. I remember listening to the reading this letter from a student at the time, going, man, there's just such a huge need for biblical resources. And I think people would initially go, man, there's so much content out there. Why do we need anything more? I think part of it is like, man, I I would always encourage if anybody has the burden or the conviction to make biblical content, to do it. Because as much as you feel like everyone's making stuff, I there's so many people that don't know how to associate, and this is the burden for me, associate trusted references with the questions that they're asking. Meaning, if I wanted to learn about the work of the Holy Spirit on YouTube or Google, I would type in uh how does the Holy Spirit function? Spacebart, John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, or Alistair Big. But when you leave that question divorced from any of the resources that you know or grow up hearing, the answer that you get is just algorithmical prominence rather than biblical accuracy. And this became a burden for me. And then we said it at the beginning, I think also just a love for the truth, because as I podcast through things, there's just a love for the study. And the podcast is the overflow of my time getting the study, God's word. And so it's a joy for me to work on and a burden. And I think the confluence of both the joy of study and the burden to see people have resources that are true to scripture uh brings just immeasurable joy for me and something that I feel burdened by by God. So good.
SPEAKER_01I love that and would echo it all with a hearty amen. Follow-up question to you. You're 31. You are married to the amazing Katie J you're when are you 31?
SPEAKER_00When are you turning 31? I turned 30 in like uh six weeks. So a couple so I'm not even I'm not even 30. What? Who I thought you were 31. Well, if you're counting COVID years as Narnia years, then I'm probably like 40, you know. Twenty so you're 29. 29, yeah. But keep going.
SPEAKER_01The best is yet to come. There's a promise for you. Uh you're married to the amazing Katie Jean. You are daddy to the adorable Lily Bean. And I feel like because everything rhymes now, I need to say you're you're staying very lean. You you like to work out trying. It's hard. It's hard when you start having babies. You're one of seven kids born to the legendary Scott and Patty Artabanis, and you're currently serving as the dean of student life at the Masters University. You've been the director up at Hume Lake the last several summers. What is the story for you over these last years that has really shaped the way you think and the way you look at the world and the way you view ministry? Kind of take us into your testimony, share as long as you want. I want people to get to know you. And you know, I have a a buddy of mine who always says experience drives behavior. You know, what we've been through does shape where we're we're heading to. And so, you know, for you, what's been the shaping influences on your life through your testimony?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, it's a good question, Cossi. Thanks for asking. And I think probably in order to onion the shaping experiences behind my life today, you'd have to go back to my childhood. I grew up in a Christian family. My dad, Scott, has been a pastor since the day I was born. And so I've known nothing other than my dad being a pastor, uh teaching in the local church. But I think also just the way that we grew up is that love for the Lord and a love for scripture. I think my mom's evident love for missions has been shoot super shaping on my life. I think I was probably, I don't know, seven years old when I I started doing like the Read the Bible in a year program with my dad. And we did that together. And I think a love for scripture was something that he ingrained in us, but also that he exampled to us, meaning it wasn't just something that he would do with us to try to get us to love scripture. It was me waking up in the middle of the night, uh, you know, go to the restroom, and my dad would be at our kitchen table studying. And I think that was always something that I saw. Um, I grew up at, as I said, in a pastor's home. And I think that since I was young, I was exposed to even some of the unique challenges of ministry. I remember asking my dad when I was maybe nine years old. I remember people always telling my dad, yeah, ministry's tough, ministry's tough. And sometimes I think people in ministry wear ministerial fatigue or busyness as a badge of honor. And my dad never exhibited that. My dad always came home, walked in the door, and would just start wrestling the kids. And uh, I'm the third of seven. It was always something that we felt like, man, this guy loves what he does. But I asked my dad, hey, everyone always says ministry is difficult. Why do people say that? I never, I never got that vibe from you. And I was, I think, nine. And he just said, Well, I can start sharing with you. And I think it was every, every month at that point, from when I was nine all the way through college, I would wait up after the elders' meeting and my dad would bring me like a dunk and donuts, and he would just start sharing with me the different things that were going on at the church. And obviously, with increased maturity, he would tell me more. He would start pretty general. I think it was the first Monday of a month. I would look forward to, I would stay up till 11:30, and my dad would come home and we would sit at the kitchen table. And that was pretty shaping on my life because I was just exposed to, you know, the unique elements of how ministry, obviously, the Lord uses it, and it's a wonderful privilege to be a part of. And there was just unique things. And I saw that with my dad as he kind of went to two different spots. This is now his third church, and he's been at the the previous two for 10 years, and I think he's now been at this third for 10 years. Um, my idea growing up was that I I wanted to be kind of the bulldog for the senior pastor. And so I wanted to go into business because the guys that I typically had seen kind of being used in that context and that were different than my dad because I had learned so much from him. The guys I grew up really respecting and kind of gluing to were the business guys in the church that were also elders. And so in high school, I thought, man, I wanted to go and be a business guy and I'll kind of protect the senior pastor. Because I think every church needs that guy. No one's had a successful ministerial run without a guy next to them. And um, that was my idea. And so I studied finance and accounting in college. And if you had asked me what I wanted to do in college, um I would have told you mergers and acquisitions, and then ultimately I wanted to get into real estate investing. And the idea was maybe down the road I didn't have more time and flexibility to get more extensively involved in ministry and missions. Um, and so I worked after college for a couple of years in Nashville with like a capital fund. And uh it was during that time that I started getting involved in juvenile hall ministry and started teaching in Juvie Hall. Uh, someone I had known had gone to Juvie Hall and kind of just was burdened. So I started going in there to play basketball. And then that kind of turned into like, hey, I'll start a Bible study and just started seeing people's hunger and need for the truth. And it's almost like I don't know necessarily. I think sometimes the word calling gets diluted with ambiguity and obscurity. I think sometimes calling is revealed through need. If I don't, who else will? And I know sometimes we're so quick to say God doesn't need us, but I think sometimes people do. And so I think that that was the way that um God uses calling. And so I just started doing that. And it was at that point I got a kind of a fairly random call from Hume Lake Christian camps in Central California. I was living in Tennessee. I had been there once as or twice as a counselor because I had started a college by or like a Bible study when I was in college with high school students in the area, kind of disassociated from a church. I started something called the mob, which stood for men of the book. And we had, I don't know, 60 or so guys coming over just to go through the Bible. And someone paid for our senior guys to go to Hume Lake. And that was really my initial exposure there at that Christian camp. And um people, uh, yeah, so it was a couple of years later. They asked me if I would be interested in coming and running the high school camp there. And at that point I felt like the Lord had me in business still. And it came back around full circle a year later. And I think the Lord just kind of uses different things on your own heart and convictions, and uh just felt like the Lord was leading me to do that. And so I went there. Um, I was at Hume Lake for five years and loved being a part of uh just sharing Christ with those who didn't know him. And you know, I had grown up in an environment where I thought everyone who was on a theologically different page than me had compromised to get there. Um, like, man, what have you done with the truth? And then when I was at Hume Lake, I realized, man, there's a lot of people who are maybe shallow in their understanding of Christian doctrine or maybe different in their theological convictions than I am. And it's not because they compromise to get there, it's because they just don't know the truth. They haven't been a part of a solid teaching environment. They just that and that became a huge burden to me. And that was very eye-opening for me. And so, even with the conversation about resources, so much of it stemmed from going, man, we I realized I grew up in a very rare environment of evangelical Christianity where we taught the Bible, we loved the Bible, we dove deeply into scripture. I grew up in a family where people, every single night, as long as I can remember back, we read the Bible, and then my mom would read us a missionary biography. And that was so, that's such a rare dynamic. And I'm I'm talking with youth pastors and pastors at times, and some of them are asking me pretty fundamental questions about the gospel. And I went, man, these people have a sincere love for the Lord, but maybe I've never been in an environment where they've been able to expand and enlarge their view of God, their understanding of scripture, their conviction because of it. And even in at that point, I was more deeply impressed with in youth ministry, but most of the people I was interacting with were the young adults and the pastors that led those ministries. And so that became a huge burden. And then it was just a couple of years ago that uh at the beginning of COVID, I started talking with Pastor John MacArthur and he was down south and Harry Wallace at the Masters University. That's where I had gone to college and uh I graduated there from in 2013 and had really not been super connected with them since I had graduated. But in conversations with them, they asked me what it would look like for me to come back to the university that I had attended. And I told them the main things that were on my heart, which was, I thought, you know, chapel and missions and being a part of student leadership. And they were super kind to do that. And then I think a big component was to extend the freedom to be able to continue to travel and preach, which I had been doing when I was at Hume Lake. I was running about 26 weeks of camp there a year. And then I think probably 22 to 24 weeks, I was on the road just teaching. And I be that was uh became a joy for me. I had never really been in a teaching rhythm before that. And so I'd asked for that freedom. And it was actually J Mac, who was a big component of that because he had uh during the summers when he first became a pastor at Grace Community, he had taken the time to go up and do camping ministry in the summers, and he just said it was a calibrator for him to realize that people need the Lord. And even if you listen to his old sermons, he would say that a church should always be an incubator for people that are just coming to Christ. And he goes, You're at when you're at camp, you're reminded that the local church isn't just the maturation of the saints, it is the the proclamation of the gospel to people that need it. And so he was a big component. So during the last couple summers, when I've been at Masters, I was up back up at Hume all of last summer, and this, you know, we're concluding our summer here. But I've been on the road almost every week, and that he's been a huge proponent of that, and which has been kind. But yeah, obviously, my we got I met my wife up at Hume Lake. We have one baby now, and uh I think we're both just burdened for people to know the truth and to love the truth, and just come from a recognition that everything we are in regards to um scripture is a blessing and gift from God. And so I think even obviously we can look at our sinful condition at times and go, um, you know, the Pharisee and tax collector, God, I thank you. I don't act like them. But I think sometimes Christians can go, God, I thank you. I'm not a part of that church, or I'm I'm thankful I haven't been caught up in that. And it's just any sort of increase in your love for scripture is a gift from God. And I grew up not really knowing that, and I honestly wouldn't even be able to tell you when I was saved because I knew the truth at such a young age, but I think it wasn't when I was in college that I went. I truly thought everyone else had compromised. I thought everyone, you know, God, it made sense that he would have mercy on me. And I think that the fundamental distinction of a believer is God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. And I think even growing in sanctification is a gift from God and has to be received with great humility. And so long story uh long, I guess that's not a short story or short response, but that's what the Lord has done in my life, and I think why I'm burdened for the truth and thankful for friendships and partnerships with people like you that are motivated together for the advancement of the gospel, but also just growing together in Christ.
SPEAKER_01Man, absolutely. I am so thankful the the time we got to go up to Hume Lake, and I was very, very privileged and honored to get to preach alongside you there to that group, and that was such a sobering reminder. I think here in Arizona, we've got a pretty robust college young adult ministry at the church where I get to be a part of the pastoral team, and so I'm I'm aware of the of everything you're describing. We see it every single week, and yet going up to Hume was a very, very stark contrast to even even a local church setting where people still know, and and young people, the next generation, they know how to stay quiet, they know how to nod and smile, they know how to put on a front. There was something about Hume that particular trip that brought out this raw honesty. And I think when you you get the old phrase, I I really always like this, it change in place equals change in pace, or change in place, change in pace plus change in place equals change in perspective. And what Hume did, I remember that weekend, it's a change of place. You're out of the different environments you're usually in. You're it's a change in pace, it's just a constant communal saturation of friendship and truth. It equals a change in perspective. I think not only for the people who come there, but the people who serve there. And man, I'm so thankful that God has given you that heart. I would echo it and all the more encourage those who are listening to keep that statement that Johnny made in mind, the the one from J Max, that a church is to be an incubator. It's not just a place for the maturation of saints, but it's a place where we proclaim the gospel. I've heard it described this way before. A church is a family gathering expecting guests. You know, how do you think and treat people? Who are coming to your Thanksgiving soiree. You know, the family, we've got the inside language, the inside jokes, everybody knows where the bathroom is, everybody knows the system, where to sit. And then you get people that come, they're invited, and it's really important that they get the lay of the land and that they're brought along and that there's connections made for them and they see something different. And I think what you bring up, Johnny, is so helpful, man, in the local church. We got to do both really well. Well, brother, I am so excited to put out some episodes here in the coming weeks. We're gonna be talking about a few really important topics. But one more question: what can people look forward to next from you from the the dial-in angle?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. So if you're unfamiliar, I have a podcast called Dial In with Johnny Artavanis. And I would say the predominant emphasis there has been series. Um so in the last year or so, I talked through the attributes of God, I think over nine or so episodes. I did the book of Ecclesiastes, I just finished Jonah, and there's a couple of one-offs here and there or short series. I'm about to start a series on living for Christ in a hostile culture. But the main emphasis will be on books or series. Uh, I'm going to start Ruth in the fall here, and I think then would probably do either Daniel or Hosea. And the point is to give uh a reasonable amount of depth as we survey these important books. And I've been teaching through them in my Bible study in Southern California. And then what I do is hopefully kind of take those and put those into format where more people would be able to study those books together. And that's been a great joy for me. And then in addition to those series, I'll continue to do the interviews that I've done. So if you've ever seen those, I try to interview people along the lines of their core competency in regards to biblical sexuality, uh church history, or whatever that might be. And so I've done that in the past and we'll continue to do that under the For the Gospel umbrella. Awesome, man.
SPEAKER_01Well, so thankful for you. Okay, here's the next step. For you who are our listeners and who regularly subscribe and follow and listen to my podcast here. I want you to go to forthegospel.org, click on our team. If you don't know who Johnny is, get a visual on him. He's there. If you click on our team, he'll be right there in the leadership section. Then click on listen. It's underneath the media tab. Real simple. You go to listen, you click on dial in, and you can subscribe to his podcast on your favorite platform from there. As for social media, go to Instagram, follow Dial In, and then follow Johnny Artavanis. Those are separate accounts. Johnny's got his own Instagram page. Dial in is there. Great Instagram page. Johnny, are you you're not on are you on TikTok or Facebook as well?
SPEAKER_00Not for podcasting, just for my dance moves.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So Johnny.
SPEAKER_00No, I'm not on Tic Tac. Just Instagram. Yeah, it's not Tic Tac. It's TikTok. Come on. That doesn't even know how much I got a handle there.
SPEAKER_01All right. Tic Tic tic tac. We're even at 29 and 37, we're old. We're old for this generation. Narnia years. There you go. So go to Twitter, which is a dumpster fire, honestly, but Dial In is putting out some redeeming content there for the gospel as well. Instagram, though, honestly the best place, I think, to follow Dial In and make sure you're subscribed there. There's going to be lots put out on YouTube. We'll feature the Dial In channel on our YouTube channel at For the Gospel. So everything's there. The last thing is if your uh ears have been perked up since Johnny mentioned anxiety. This was one of our most popular downloads this past year on the For the Gospel podcast. Just go to our search bar on forthegospel.org and type in Johnny Artivanus, and every resource he's done will come up. The podcast on anxiety, I actually got an email. I don't know if I've ever told you this, but uh got a message. It was a text actually, and it was from a local school. They had asked uh their students to do a research project on anxiety, and that podcast was passed around as one of the audio resources for them to listen to. So very impactful, and we're thankful for you, man. Johnny, let's go. Thankful for you, bro.
SPEAKER_00Thanks, Cassi. Excited to get rolling here and thankful for your friendship and partnership in the ministry, man. I love you, dude. Love you too.
SPEAKER_01Well, thank you all for being with us today on the For the Gospel podcast for free resources. Again, go to furthegospel.org for videos, go to YouTube or connect with us on social media. We are on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and not Tic Tac, TikTok. We'll be back next Monday. We'll be back next Monday with another episode. For now, keep on living for the gospel.