Unsexy Church
Unsexy Church
Season 2 Episode 47: On The Best of 2024
In this episode, we reflect on the memorable experiences that defined 2024, from personal stories to church milestones. One of our biggest takeaways from 2024 is the importance of having and rely on our church community. Tune in to this week's episode with Pastor Bob and Pastor Trent!
Welcome to 2025. I mean, it's already like January. When are they going to listen to this? The 10th, 12th, 13th something like that.
Speaker 2:It's the 8th.
Speaker 1:Well, the 8th is today.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:But I don't know when they're going to listen to it.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, true.
Speaker 3:But welcome to 2025. They're a solid weekend, but happy new year. You're here.
Speaker 1:We made it. You know, Did you guys stay up late to watch the ball drop?
Speaker 2:No, I did not.
Speaker 1:Bob asked that question in the sermon on Sunday. I did actually so. My family's never made a big deal of it. I do remember in the year 2000,. Believe it or not, I know I'm not that old, but I do remember it. My mom made what are the. The kids play with those. They're like a metal thing you can bend around and they're shiny and they got pipe cleaners Kind of pipe cleaners the kid pipe cleaners though you know what I'm talking about right?
Speaker 2:No, we have no idea what you're talking about. Colorful pipe cleaners, you can make bracelets from them Kids do.
Speaker 1:Okay, so she made she made 2020 glasses out of pipe cleaners when I was, what seven years old then, okay, and uh, you know that was y2k and all that, but we, we, I remember celebrating it that year. Uh, since then, we didn't really celebrate that much growing up. Now jesse's family did. They would all kind of like they'd have the welch's sparkling grape juice and they would talk about their you know the goals they accomplished in 2024, the year before and then what they had desired for 2025. And so we did that because Jesse's father was in town, we had the Welch's sparkling grape juice and at 12.01, I was in bed. So I don't like to stay up late. If I'm up past 11, it's not a good night. Yeah, what about you guys? You?
Speaker 3:stayed up. I stayed up, darlene didn't? She crashed, but I stayed up. This year, did you watch the ball drop?
Speaker 1:Not so much. They have all these artists and I feel like today I don't know them anymore. No, so what did you do?
Speaker 2:I went to bed.
Speaker 1:At 1130 almost, I think it was 1130 or 1145. You make it that far. You might as well I should have, but I was so tired, I know.
Speaker 1:I get it. What were we watching? We were watching something until it got close. Was there some? I don't know if there was a game on or something, I don't know. We were watching something until it got closer. Our kids went to bed by 10, I think, and I think Cadence went to bed by 9. So Judah will stay up as late as he can until he's told to go to bed. Cadence will literally say I want to go to bed, I'm tired, bedtime, bedtime. So, speaking of New Year's Eve and the celebrations included, it's a big deal to celebrate New Year's Eve on Times Square, not for me.
Speaker 3:Thank you, million plus bucket list.
Speaker 1:Million plus people gather there. Did you also know this? This is not the fact of the day. We're about to get to the fact of the day, but the confetti that's thrown out on Times Square for New Year's Eve is thrown by hand. Do you know that?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:And always has been so. Back in the early 90s, I think, they hired a guy this is a part of a small documentary thing that was on YouTube. They hired a guy to basically just get confetti out, and of course he could have used a fan to help. No, no, he hired a bunch of young people and they just sit on the top of buildings all around Times Square and they just throw it off. He's like that's the magic Did all around Times Square and they just throw it off. He's like that's the magic Did you say all the way back in the 1990s? Not all the way back, but it's been the same guy since the 90s, way back in the 90s.
Speaker 1:You think about that?
Speaker 3:That's the same guy. They've been celebrating at Times Square for a lot longer than the 90s.
Speaker 1:No, but the same guy has done it. He's been doing it and hand throwing it for 30 years, more than 30 years.
Speaker 3:What a talent.
Speaker 1:So yeah, way back in the 90s he got the job and he's kept the job for 30 years. He's been the same guy's son every year.
Speaker 3:See, the guy that impresses me is the guy that has to clean it up.
Speaker 1:That's the guy that impresses me. A lot of guys, a lot of guys, yeah, yeah. Well, here's the fact diapers on Times Square. There would have to be. Yeah, so Newsweek wrote. In 2024, times Square famously does not have a porta potty, or any porta potties, and with an estimated 1 million people expected to watch the ball drop on December 31st, hotels and restaurants will likely turn revelers away. Continues without ready access to public bathrooms. For hours, some attendees are forced to resort to wearing diapers and other forms of transportable bathrooms while celebrating new year's Eve. And time, wait, wait, wait, timeout. Other forms of transportable bathroom. I'm reading the article. I have no idea what it means. I don't know if it's a funnel in a bag. You asked, so I had to say it. Yeah, okay, yep.
Speaker 3:You.
Speaker 1:Okay, yep, you know I don't know All right. Well, more than that, I learned something else, so I knew that you know. Sure, it's intuitive, but New York Times posted in 2024. They wrote the streets come to a standstill as one million people pack to a bath, almost area. Here's what they say. But if you have cash to burn and a taste for double crunch, boneless wings or unlimited breadsticks, there are some venues around Times Square that offer a respite during the mayhem. The catch you must be the sort of person willing to spend $850 for a table at Applebee's, so they charge for just the table, so you can use bathrooms and you can, you know. And if you go to Olive Garden, you can have unlimited breadsticks. Kind of interesting, honestly 11 hours of standing in the cold, $850. If you're already going to make the trip to Times Square, it's insane, but also warm and you don't have to hold the potty for 11 hours.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I stopped listening at other forms of portable.
Speaker 1:I'm still trying to figure that out. I don't even like to stay up in my house. I don't want to go stand for 11 hours to watch this ball drop, not interested.
Speaker 3:No, not at all. No, I hate crowds. To begin with, a little less.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:What about?
Speaker 1:you Kara, Kara, would you do it? Free trip offered to you Free. Yeah, what about you, kara? Kara, would you do it? Free trip offered to you, free trip, so you get to go and be in the best spot to watch that ball drop and maybe watch a few artists, whoever they are. But the potty is an issue, do you do it?
Speaker 2:I don't think I would. I feel like there's someone else who would appreciate it much more than I would.
Speaker 1:I don't think you could pay me.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm sure there's some amount of money you could pay me to do it, but that does not sound fun, you would have to pay me $850 for a table at Allgard.
Speaker 1:Olivia loves to go to Disney, right, and for me, Disney is like the DMV. You're standing all the time, there's crowds all around you. Right? You're just in a queue to ride a minute-long ride. Right? The ball's dropping for a minute.
Speaker 3:Oh boring now I have been to time square like four days after new year's was it a mess? No, no, it was immaculate. It was amazing that it was so clean. Is it ever immaculate? It's still, I mean for time, square. Um, it still had, like, all the barriers, but they had been pushed off to the side and stacked up, but all that, there was no confetti, it was all clean. Yeah, yeah, it was interesting. That was, oh gosh, 10 years ago maybe.
Speaker 1:I've never been in New York, never, never even flown through when we flew yeah, I don't think we went to New York, we flew straight from Orlando to Europe. So I've never been to New York, all right, well, hey, this is a fun episode. Today, everybody urban New.
Speaker 3:York, all right, well, hey, this is a fun episode today.
Speaker 1:Everybody's excited. They're all fun episodes. So we're going to talk about our favorites of 2024, but we're also going to talk about the best of 2024 and the life of first Baptist Tampa. It was a good year.
Speaker 3:It was fun. It's a great year.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So so here we go.
Speaker 1:I have written down some different favorite questions for you, so you're welcome to participate. Of course you have a mic.
Speaker 3:You're in, by the way. It's good for the three of us to be back together.
Speaker 1:It's been a while.
Speaker 3:It's been a long time since we've all three been here to do this.
Speaker 1:We're in the room hanging out. Let's go Like a bunch of friends. 2025 is going to be good. Hey, what was one of the? Oh, I didn't write this one down. This is the only one I didn't write down. Uh-oh, what was one of the favorite your most favorite restaurant you ate at in 2024 that you can remember?
Speaker 2:You have to go first. I have to go first. No, because none of us.
Speaker 3:You're asking a question none of us have an answer for. The only one that comes to mind is Darlene and I were on a trip in Rio and we went to a restaurant with this pastor couple that was hosting us, that sat overlooking the ocean, but then the jungle was on the other side and it was an outdoor deck and the food was really good. So it was yeah, that was the one that was. Probably the most memorable was the one in Rio.
Speaker 1:That's cool. Can you remember any really nice meals you had? Food at your wedding was good, it was. That's memorable. Yeah, that is very memorable.
Speaker 2:Jude and I also, on our honeymoon, went to this really good barbecue place.
Speaker 1:I'm a barbecue fan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was pretty good, Maybe there. I forget what it's called. It was called something exciting, though.
Speaker 1:We went to a Go ahead.
Speaker 2:I just said how about you?
Speaker 1:We went to a steak place in Indianapolis that I thought was pretty good. It wasn't the best steak I've ever had, but I rarely order really nice steaks.
Speaker 2:I ordered a nice steak, and it was great, the only other place I thought of.
Speaker 1:now I've lost it, I forgot. That's not annoying. Well, sorry, we'll go with the steak place. Yeah, filet.
Speaker 3:Mignon, the best cut of steak. Okay, so I'm going to guess most of our listeners are local. Not all, but most of the folks that tune in to the Unsexy Church podcast probably live in the Tampa Bay area. Yeah, and none of us listed restaurants. You didn't mention where yours was, Kara.
Speaker 1:We do have great restaurants here we do have. So what's one of your favorites? What's one maybe you ate at in 2024?
Speaker 3:I say that and I don't really have a go-to here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just recently we walked down to. I like eating outside of the history center where the Columbia is. Um, I like that version of the Columbia. It's not as packed, so we ate there. While Jesse's family was in town. That's really good. You, lately is great, um it's expensive. You lately are at the Columbia, you lately is Columbia is not that bad. I mean, you can order things that are definitely expensive, but you can also order picadillo which is 14 bucks or something which is cheaper than Olive Garden these days.
Speaker 3:It's not fancy, but I like La Terrasita Just authentic food.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just good Very good. Yeah, there's a Russian place called Babushka's.
Speaker 1:Babushka. I love that place. I've never been to Babushka's.
Speaker 2:You should. You should get their dumplings.
Speaker 1:Okay, you know, I don't think I've found a Chinese restaurant here in Tampa that I like other than like Pei Wei, which is a chain have you been to Yummy House?
Speaker 1:I have. It's okay, it's okay. It's okay, it's not bad, it's just okay, but Asian's not like. Top of my list of favorite Mexican restaurant is, is, and honestly there's. There's. Some of my favorite mexican dishes aren't here. The cuban dishes, of course, are, and I had never had cuban before I moved here but, um, we're lacking for some mexican restaurants here. I think what you got favorite movie or series in 2024?
Speaker 3:I struggled with this, but I remembered some favorite movie or series so does it have to be one we saw in the theater, because, no, I've been in the theater once this year and it was in the last two weeks we saw Mufasa.
Speaker 1:We saw actually went to the movie theater twice, once with my parents to take the kids and once with Jesse's parents to take the kids. We saw Sonic 3. It was the worst movie I think I've ever seen. It was so bad, so boring to take the kids and once with Jesse's parents to take the kids. We saw Sonic 3. It was the worst movie I think I've ever seen. It was so bad, so boring. I fell asleep in it twice, which is pretty common for me in anything animated. And then we watched Mufasa. Actually the good movie that was good. Okay, so you favorite movie of 2024, series of 2024. I don't know that.
Speaker 3:I have any favorites. Okay, I mean darling and I watch um, it's gonna sound crazy. We watch a show on netflix, the great british baking show. A lot of people love that show. We like it. It's it's. I mean, it gets redundant, it gets boring, but it's really interesting. It's fun.
Speaker 1:So we enjoy it, the great british baking. So what about you?
Speaker 2:so it's just a show or a movie that you watched. It doesn't have to be one that's been released, that you liked. Okay, I enjoyed.
Speaker 1:I tried a new release, but I did write one for myself. That was, I think, 2023.
Speaker 2:Okay, I have a movie that I watched for the first time, that I really enjoyed, but I probably shouldn't mention it. And then there's another one. Okay, that was released Because you don't want to give away the secret of how good it was.
Speaker 1:Exactly, I figured so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then what was Matt Walsh's? Am I Racist movie?
Speaker 1:Not bringing anything on the podcast that could be.
Speaker 2:I enjoyed that. Yeah, I'll leave it there.
Speaker 1:Okay, so Inside Out 2 came out. Inside Out 2. You can tell you have small children. I have small children.
Speaker 2:I usually tune out any animated movie.
Speaker 1:That was a good one. The first one was great. The second one was also great. Jesse and I watched a few movies together. I feel like we haven't watched hardly anything together this past year. We didn't, but the fall guy was pretty good. That was Ryan Gosling. And then the one who's married to John Krasinski, emily Blunt, and he is a stuntman. It was pretty good. Still, there's some cheese in it.
Speaker 3:It's cheesy but it was pretty good, based on the TV series from the fall the fall guy the 80s was I born around the 80s just I'm asking. It sounds similar, I don't know I don't know yeah it
Speaker 1:was okay. I'm sure it probably was again. It wouldn't be top 50 on my list, but maybe 51. It was good. Uh, now I am gonna. I am gonna share. No, well, there's two here. Gladiator 2. I haven't seen Gladiator 2 yet. I love the first one. I haven't seen it. Looking forward to the second one. I've heard it's pretty good. The TV show Severance on Apple TV+. I was a big fan of the first season. The second season is coming up out in eight days, so I'm kind of excited about that. Because of the writer's strike, it was supposed to come out like two years ago and it's finally going to come out in eight days. Written by Ben Stiller, really Interesting. Alright, favorite trip or vacation in 2024? I think I know yours because you're married and you had a honeymoon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exciting times, yeah Fun. You went walking out in the forest and lost where you were.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for eight hours.
Speaker 3:Got lost in the forest on your honeymoon.
Speaker 2:We didn't get lost. We were never lost With your military husband.
Speaker 3:Did you know where you were at? We were never lost.
Speaker 2:We knew where we were at the entire time.
Speaker 3:It just wasn't where you thought you were going to be.
Speaker 2:It was where we thought we were going to be. The whole thing just was longer than we anticipated.
Speaker 1:So it's just a longer walk. Oh, it just took longer yeah.
Speaker 2:We estimated for maybe three hours, and it ended up being eight.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:Which you know, you have to calculate there and back, you have to calculate in your head a lot of things.
Speaker 3:But it was great there were a lot of variables there, yeah.
Speaker 2:It was so much fun. Good, yes, good.
Speaker 1:Your favorite trip Indianapolis with me and Darren. That had been your favorite. It's on my list.
Speaker 3:It's not at the top, but it's on my list.
Speaker 1:Sitting and listening to a convention meeting was not you know it was.
Speaker 3:It was a fun trip. We had a good time. I had a better time. I already mentioned our trip to Brazil that Darlene went with me to do that mission trip to. Brazil.
Speaker 3:And that was a really good trip, yeah, we love that, just to encourage pastors and then just get to see a part of Brazil I had not seen before, so that was cool. Then we did a trip to Texas when Ryan was out there coaching out in Texas and I got to see my son Ryan coach against my former college and that was really cool. Sit at Baylor and watch him coach against them. That was a cool trip. Did you say? Baylor, you stink.
Speaker 1:I did.
Speaker 3:I cheered for the other team that night. Very good. It didn't work as you should. It didn't work, but I did cheer for the other team that night.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we went to Legoland. We had never gone Judah loves Legos our oldest and we tried to think through okay, what are some things we could do? We're not interested in Disney really. We've been to Universal a number of times because of youth stuff and so we went to Legoland, took Judah back in June for his birthday. We went and did like the resort thing.
Speaker 1:So we stayed two nights at the hotel and the hotel was the best part. So when you go in, there's characters everywhere. It's like Disney used to be, where there's characters just walking around. So they had like shows as you walk around, they're getting kids to do fun things. They had a pajama party one night. They had like a big climb through thing when you get inside. The food was great. At the resort. The room had like a. We stayed in the pirate hotel and so you had a treasure map to find the treasure and the treasure had Legos in it. They could play with Lego stations by their bed. It was a lot of fun. Who had more fun? You were the kids. Honestly, like it was just a really good experience. It was great. Um, yeah, it was memorable.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm thankful for that time was this the trip that you promised judah on his birthday, and he got like six months later yes, okay, yeah, exactly what happened.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we went at a time we all could do it, sure, of course. Yeah, yeah, it was. Yeah, it was great, it's so much fun. So so, yeah, good stuff. Yes, uh, favorite book, uh, something you read and have to be out. It didn't have to come out in 2024, but just something you read. It was really good, aside from the Lord's book, the Bible man.
Speaker 3:I know I didn't, honestly, I didn't read any books this year that I went oh, that was life changing, that was ministry altering, that was. But I read some good stuff were you re-reading the Adoniram Judson?
Speaker 1:I did, I did read and you liked that one.
Speaker 3:To the Golden Shore, the biography of Adoniram Judson. Read it before years and years ago, so I re-read it. Enjoyed that. Yeah, thanks for that reminder. I hadn't remembered I'd done that again this year.
Speaker 1:And I've never read it.
Speaker 3:It's good. It's long but it's a good read. You got to commit when you get into it. I read two ministry books that I do remember reading One really small book on how to memorize scripture for life which was encouraging.
Speaker 1:That's just. I mean, it's a tiny little book For Life. Was it Alistair Begg? No, it was not. Andrew Davis, I believe, is the author of that one, but it's just how to internalize scripture. Andy Davis. He wrote the Psalms commentary that we did for Psalms on Sunday mornings for core groups and he is well known for memorizing scripture. He's got large swaths of scripture memorized.
Speaker 3:And that's the point of the book is not only just memorizing individual verses, but how you can memorize chapters, how you can memorize entire books of the Bible. So it was challenging. I enjoyed it. Read a book by two guys that I know, scott Pace and Jim Shaddock's Expositional Leadership which I thought was well written and Jim's going through some difficult times with cancer, so that was good to read that. Southeastern guys right yeah, both Southeastern guys.
Speaker 1:I don't know who Scott Pace is, could not pick him out of a lineup, but I always when he said Scott Pace, I'm like R Scott Pace because I know, he's gotR on those books.
Speaker 3:For some reason I R on those books. For some reason I left off the R.
Speaker 1:No, no no, no, you're a trustee, you're on a first-name basis.
Speaker 2:You can call him Scotty if you want. No.
Speaker 1:None of it. All right, so I'll go and you go. So a book by Kevin Young came out called Daily Doctrine, and so it's about five paragraphs, 500 words, something like that, devoted to some form of systematic theology, but it's super readable. It's for the person just to have kind of a morning devotion but learn doctrine at the same time. I just think he's a great writer, he's a fun writer, he's easy to read and so I've been reading that. It's great.
Speaker 1:It just came out and then at the end of November, around Thanksgiving, I had a number of books on my bookshelf that I've just never touched. I I have a number of books on my bookshelf that I've just never touched. I've seen there, never looked into them. So I grabbed the Imitation of Christ by Thomas Akempis. So a Catholic before Protestantism, before the Reformation, in the early 1400s or so, was a part of the modern devotion movement of the Catholic Church, recognizing now that adult indulgences in the 1300s- came about just some concerns he had, and so the book is just devoting himself to piety and to purity and it's a really good read.
Speaker 2:Simple read, real short book, so not finished with it, but close um, so I don't know how well I read this past year um, but I would say one of my favorite books that I always kept with me was my like devotional book. Um, that leads you through scripture, but it also has a bunch of fun liturgy and whatnot in there, um, and it brings you through like, like the call to worship and whatever in your daily walk with the Lord, and it has prayers in there from Puritans and whatnot in the past, and so I really like that. It's called Be Thou my Vision, so that was really cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oswald Chambers.
Speaker 2:I'm not really sure he does Be Thou my Vision.
Speaker 1:No Be Thou my Vision. It's not Oswald. Oswald Chambers is my utmost friend's highest Be Th Oswald chambers is my, my, my vision is is the collection of different periods and prayers and stuff Right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I've seen it Never read it All right. Uh, I do have a couple more quick ones. We've we've spent a lot of time here, but I've got a couple more quick ones. I didn't write down, oh favorite Christmas present of 2024. Any kind of cool gift you got.
Speaker 3:I got one gift, and it was for Darlene and I to go away for a couple days.
Speaker 1:That was a great gift.
Speaker 3:It was a good gift.
Speaker 2:In my stocking, my aunt got me this book by Preston Perry that I'm excited to read this year. I've already read some of it and it's called how to Tell the Truth, and I've read like 50 pages.
Speaker 1:It's so good. It says do it yeah, do it, yeah, always, don't lie.
Speaker 2:It's about evangelism and how to like tell share the gospel in truth and loving them. So he's an evangelist. That's kind of his thing.
Speaker 1:So I got Bass Pro gift cards from just different members of the family and I was surprised how cheap 22 revolvers were, and so I bought a 22 revolver. I was pretty excited about it. So it's it's like an old revolvers, little 22 bullets. It's kind of fun, yeah. So I bought that. Had to wait five days because I don't have my concealed carry.
Speaker 1:I didn't realize you don't have to, you have to wait you have to wait five days if you don't have a concealed you don't have to, you don't have to have it, but you oh to actually get the gun, to actually get the gun. So I was able to buy it, but then I had to wait to pick it up for five days.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's dunk, but um, okay, uh. Last thing uh favorite new hobby or new, uh, something you tried to pick up in 2024 more of. Maybe is it a diet you try to do, or maybe you wanted to get outside more something like that, something you just picked up in 2024 you're thankful for.
Speaker 3:About 15 pounds. Does that count? Sure, that's pretty much what I got.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, you Marriage life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you picked up a husband.
Speaker 3:There we go. That would be a new life event. And you have a new life event. Oh, that's true. How can I forget that?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you had a little granddaughter.
Speaker 3:Yes, Annie came along. So yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1:Literally she just came along.
Speaker 3:She was almost on the podcast. I was holding her just a minute ago.
Speaker 2:That's not really a hobby though. No, it's really not. That's why it's not a hobby.
Speaker 3:Life event, but first time grandfather Annie's awesome hobby um, I don't know, I'm not quite sure being married is her new hobby yeah, yeah just staring at him because he's awesome yeah great, just because you know he can do no wrong.
Speaker 1:Exactly just looking at his eyes ah right, uh, sitting outside.
Speaker 2:More is for me um just being outside no, no, no, just sitting outside taking the shoes off. Well, it's cooler. It's cooler now. So you're not just like sweating. The minute I was sitting outside Taking the shoes off, well it's cooler.
Speaker 1:It's cooler now, so you're not just like sweating the minute you walk outside. Sitting outside has been nice and then I am on a quote unquote diet right now. What?
Speaker 2:I am so hungry, carnivore diet.
Speaker 1:I am day four or five in the carnivore diet.
Speaker 2:Are you actually I am, I just way you are, I am, that's so cool, so here's the carnivore diet.
Speaker 1:It's meats, uh, vegetables, fruits, uh, and a little bit of dairy.
Speaker 3:That's it so basically no that's what can't you eat.
Speaker 1:You can't eat any processed foods whatsoever. Okay, so any kind of processed food. So you think about it. It's that sounds like everything. It's not, so. You can't eat breads, cereals, any sort of you know treat like chocolate that has anything you can't do any of that.
Speaker 2:How long are you doing this?
Speaker 1:for We'll see so far I'm good.
Speaker 2:I did it for three days.
Speaker 1:I have no carbs except for fruit none. And so my stomach feels empty the last four days pretty much all the time Can you have milk? You can have milk, right, I even bought a special kind of milk, but you can have milk, Yep.
Speaker 2:I remember when I did it for three days only three days, but I remember. I don't remember having been hungry. I'm hungry, you should probably eat, I'm very hungry.
Speaker 1:The only thing I've drank is fresh squeezed like orange juice, like you get Publix when it's like a there orange juice, milk and water, no coffee.
Speaker 3:Oh coffee, sorry coffee. I'm like you have not gone four days without coffee.
Speaker 1:No, that should have been on the list. There's no shot.
Speaker 3:You'd be in the field position in the corner if you didn't have coffee.
Speaker 1:The only kind of specialty coffee I have is just like just steamed milk in it, which is what I drink.
Speaker 2:Wait. So why haven't you eaten today A meal? I have eaten today Freshly squeezed orange juice. No, I ate a meal.
Speaker 1:Okay, I made ground beef grass-fed ground beef this morning with eggs, and I had some frozen fruit that I put on yogurt this morning there you go. Okay, there you go, All right. Well, hey, let's talk about our church and not about what I'm eating. So you wouldn't believe it, but I have gained weight this past year. So, yeah, I'm on a diet. Um, uh, maybe you would believe it.
Speaker 3:You're like we've been meaning to talk to you.
Speaker 1:Maybe, maybe, so I don't know, you just looked at me funny when I said it. I'm like, uh, truthfully, I've, I've. Yeah, all right, so best we have the same list. You have the same list as well. There's a list.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've given you the list. We talked about the list, let's just list them off, maybe make a couple comments here and there so our people can be reminded, just to celebrate what God has done. Yeah, there's been a lot of good stuff and it always revolves around the people and what they're doing and what God's doing through them. So we've had 50 new folks join this last year, which was really cool as they come through the process and connect with the church. So 50 new members a part of FBC.
Speaker 1:Tampa.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we've had more folks come to participate, but 50 actually have committed to be a part of the church.
Speaker 1:Talking about our membership, six couples got married in our church.
Speaker 3:Yes, and you have to be members of our church to get married here. So that was a really cool year that we had six, six weddings, If my math is correct 12 members got married this year.
Speaker 1:Six couples, yeah, wow, that's how we do those.
Speaker 3:Yes, that's right, we baptized 20 this year, which is a good number. We always want it to be more, and we always want to reach more. But twenties, you know, it's great. We praise God for those souls. And so, out of the 50 that joined, 20 did so by, by baptism 20 people added to the kingdom of God. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Uh, we married six and buried nine.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we had nine homegoings, some longtime members here as I was kind of looking at that list earlier today just reminiscing about the impact that some of those folks have had at this church for decades yeah, so some really good folks that we're going to miss. As in the Psalms, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we hired two new ministerial staff members Olivia Dodson for children's ministry, as we said goodbye to Claudia long servant here at the church. And then we hired a new next gen pastor, your son, Ben Block.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it was a year transition in ministries. Ben came on what? In January of last year, so he's been well a year now, and Olivia came around April or May, if I'm remembering right, and so, yeah, time of transition. But it's gone. Well, they're both killing it, they're both here, as we knew they would, and it's been a sweet time.
Speaker 1:One thing I don't like about them here I'm no longer one of the younger ones, I'm like in the middle. Now We've added so many young people on our staff Like I can make the old jokes just to be funny, but I'm I'm not one of the younger ones anymore, yeah, and there's more people to to pick on you around that's right. So that's right, which does happen. Yeah, uh, super glad to have them. Uh, a new space was constructed to gather on the fourth floor.
Speaker 3:Really beautiful space, the loft yeah that was actually an old space that we were remodeling and intending to put back into smaller classrooms, and when we opened it up, we just it was amazing how it looked, and so we redesigned it, and so it's now a big open space that we can use, and we have used consistently for meetings and wedding showers and baby showers and all kinds of things, and so it's a great space.
Speaker 1:So committees have met there regularly. We've had baby showers, we've had wedding kind of reception or even engagement reception. What else?
Speaker 3:Christmas parties- that were just there. Christmas parties core group Christmas parties.
Speaker 1:Our staff meetings up there.
Speaker 3:Staff meetings up there. It's a multi-purpose but just such a beautiful room.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can see the Riverwalk. It's a unique space. You can see the Riverwalk outside those windows.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's what 14 windows to the outside. It's just a really amazing space. 13-foot high vaulted ceilings. It's just a cool space.
Speaker 1:Great to fellowship. There we had the largest Thrive Camp we have ever had, so it was the fifth annual Thrive Camp either from Missouri, texas, florida or Arkansas. Nine churches were involved and that was the largest one we had. Yet Pretty cool.
Speaker 3:That's really good. It's only going to get bigger this next year, right? That's exciting.
Speaker 1:That's the plan Twelve, for sure that we know of, and hopefully definitely over 400, hopefully between like the 420, 440 range.
Speaker 3:That would be great. We'll see It'd be really good.
Speaker 1:We got to see and fellowship with six of our missionaries, six of the seven at Go Conference.
Speaker 3:Yeah, plus our local ministry partners as well at Go Conference. We got to focus on them a little bit in the Sunday morning worship time, introducing all of our local partners, but it's always good to have our international partners and our national partners come in and just love on them and encourage them and let them encourage us. So it's always a good time.
Speaker 1:I think it was really good this year I don't know if we've done it the last few years, but it was really good this year, I think to highlight, to point out, to invite those local ministry partners Because I think for some people who are newer to the church or are just beginning to kind of commit more, they get to hear oh, I could serve in that area. This really interests me and there's a face they can go talk to at the ministry fair after the service and meet them and learn how to serve.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think most people are surprised when they see how many ministry partners we have locally and internationally. And you're right, it is an opportunity for them to hear what that ministry is about and say, oh, that's something that God's kind of put on my heart.
Speaker 1:I want to go be a part of that and I can go talk to that person, so it's really good. Uh, we, uh, oh. This is uh in my realm Now. We secured a building for Redeemer city a mile away from the campus of the university of Tennessee a really cool building to a dance hall and you have danced there.
Speaker 3:I have, mr Baptist, you have danced there. I have In the dance hall yes, with your wife, of course, With my wife, of course.
Speaker 1:Just slow dancing.
Speaker 3:It was still dancing.
Speaker 1:I had to turn away. You guys were looking at each other, smiling at each other, winking at each other. We turned on the plethora of random lights they have inside that building.
Speaker 3:That's right, you guys danced it was like a middle school dance all over it definitely looked like a middle school dance.
Speaker 1:Not your dancing skills, just the environment itself. Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 3:No, that's awesome, though, because that building that you guys have secured is a mile off of campus, less than a mile off of UT's campus, not many churches around it, nope, it's a great location, good place for you guys to start A lot of just great potential right there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're looking forward to it.
Speaker 3:We finalized our number for Redeemer City as of today, including a couple new families, are you? Counting the baby that was born yesterday. I am now counting the baby. You need to adjust your number. You need to adjust your number.
Speaker 1:I went and adjusted it in that room so the number is 35. That's 20 adults and 15 kids. One of those adults is joining us. Two of those adults are joining us later because of college things, but they're committed and let's see a couple of those adults. Four of those adults are already in Knoxville, so one family's in Knoxville and then another couple that, then another couple that they're dating.
Speaker 3:They're up there. Yeah, that's a great group and God's just putting together the team that he wants to go to launch Redeemer City. It's going to be a great work of God there 20 adults, 15 kids make up the 35.
Speaker 1:There's one family of five just kind of considering right now. So yeah, pretty exciting, really exciting. Last thing we went to the Southern Baptist Convention and it still exists. It does for another year.
Speaker 3:I have hope so it exists.
Speaker 1:When the churches get together, it is a convention, and we gather this year, last year. We'll hope to gather again this year, yeah, and then we'll hope to gather again the next year. It will.
Speaker 3:It Last year, we'll hope together again this year, yeah, and then we'll hope together again the next year. It will, it will, for sure. There's another thing that struck me this last year, and it wasn't necessarily a good time. We went through a rough season late September, late August September, with the storms that came through, two hurricanes that hit directly into the area of Tampa and south area of Tampa and South. And I bring that up because it showed it demonstrated the love in our church and the commitment of our church people to care for each other, because we would get calls about hey, do you guys know about this situation? Or this home was flooded.
Speaker 3:And we'd call to check on them and they say our deacon's already been here, Our core group has already been here to help us clean out, and so it was just an encouragement to me to just watch our people. Not only love our people, but they would go out in the community. We went to homes of people we didn't even know, to just help out and so just putting the love of Christ in action, hands and feet, and seeing our people do that was a highlight for me this year, even in a difficult time.
Speaker 2:When we had an opportunity to serve it never lacked people, right Difficult time when we had an opportunity to serve, it never lacked people.
Speaker 1:Right, that was really cool. Yeah, yeah, anything else you can think of Kara that was our list.
Speaker 2:It was a great year. It was an amazing year. Yeah it was a good year.
Speaker 3:God was good All the time.
Speaker 1:All right, all the time God is good. Hey, thanks for listening in. Hopefully you'll hear.
