Unsexy Church

Season 3 Episode 11: D-NOW | Undivided Faith

• First Baptist Tampa • Season 1 • Episode 11

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The Unsexy Church Podcast

New episodes drop every Wednesday Morning

ABOUT THE PODCAST

The Unsexy Church is a weekly podcast exploring the real, everyday life within our church family. Each week, join Pastor Bob (Senior Pastor) and Darren (Worship & Discipleship Pastor) as they sit down to discuss a wide variety of subjects—from deep theological questions to the practical, often "unsexy" work of following Jesus and building a healthy local church.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO THRIVE?

We want to help every person make a genuine commitment to follow Jesus and then follow through with that commitment in Connecting People to a Thriving Life in Christ. These Thriving disciples should Dig In to the Bible, Grow Up in Christ, and Branch Outinto the community.

Our Mission: To Connect People to a Thriving Life in Christ. What is a thriving life in Christ? Scripture says that Jesus Christ came “that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Our mission in the city of Tampa is to make disciples who follow the pattern of the believer in Psalm 1 and desire God’s glory above all things.

NEXT STEPS

Are you looking to get connected or learn more about First Baptist Tampa? We would love to help you find your place in our community.

STAY CONNECTED

Wherever you are in life, you have a purpose. First Baptist Tampa wants to help you find your next step.

Our Student & Young Adult Ministries:

Warm Welcome And Mystery Guest

SPEAKER_01

Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Unsexy Church Podcast. Podcast ministry of FBC, that's First Baptist Church, Tampa, where our mission is to help you connect to a thriving life in Christ. Good morning, everybody. It's morning. And when I say everybody, we have a room full today. We have silenced Jordan. So he's waving. Hey, Darren. Good to see you this morning, man. Yes, sir. And we have a special guest, which we'll we'll introduce here in just a second. Ooh, mystery. Mystery guest, right? But as always, uh, we need to start out today with a fun fact. Hey, Jordan's not wearing a hat today. No hat today. What? You just got tired of us making fun of your hats. I'm surprised you're not wearing a stocking cap, actually. He still has the hoodies.

SPEAKER_03

He still has the hoodie and the hoodie and the sherpa. The sherpa. It's 85 degrees outside. The sweater.

SPEAKER_00

The sweater. It is like 80 outside.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, it's you sweat walking from the car to the door. He does not. Yeah. No, we'll go ahead and introduce our guest. Just when you thought the podcast could not get any unsexier. Wow. We've brought in our next generation pastor, uh Ben Block. Actually, almost pastor. I mean, he is.

SPEAKER_00

But yeah, we just have not officially designated as such.

On This Day: The Last WWII Surrender

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Here in a few weeks, maybe we'll talk about that on a podcast. An ordination? Yeah. An ordination. What does that mean? What does that even mean? Right? Ordinance, ordination, different than the military term. Ordinance, right? Yeah, we hope it doesn't bomb. Speaking of the military, on this day. Oh that was good. He did that on purpose. That was pretty sexy. Oh, we may have to bleep that out. That's a little too sexy for this podcast. Um, on this day in 1974, almost 30 years after World War II had ended, the last Japanese soldier surrendered. True story. True story. He's hiding. All right. I'm gonna see if I can get this guy. No, this is true. He did not know the war was over. Yeah, and the very like the first time I could have any recollection of this is do you you guys, Jordan and Ben won't know this. Hopefully, some of our listeners will remember the show Gilligan's Island. And they had an episode of it. Gilligan's Island, the castaways are on a desert island somewhere, right? And Gilligan runs across a Japanese soldier who still thinks the war is go is going on, right? Right? That's that's the first time any recollection of this. But this is a true story. I'm gonna see if I can pronounce this guy's name correctly. Hiru or Hiru Onata surrendered on this day. He and three other soldiers were holed up together on the Philippine Islands, and they continued to fight guerrilla warfare for those 30 years. 30 years. Yeah. Now uh one was arrested, I think, and two of the others died in firefights. Like they got into gunfights still. What? Yeah. With who? Yeah, with the local authorities, I guess, the local army there, but they would not believe. They got letters from their family. They they dropped flyers down. They would not believe that the war was over.

SPEAKER_00

It was all propaganda. Yeah, it was all propagated.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. The only thing that got him to surrender was they found his uh commanding officer, brought him, you know, from back in the day of World War II. So 30 years later almost, brought him to the island and had him relieve this guy of duty. It's crazy, man. That's insane. Can you imagine? Like, what like what did he think about? I've just spent the last 30 years of my life fighting for something that the world we already lost. Yeah, man. That's that's fighting a battle that's already been won. What does that sound like? Man, I'm telling you. That's pretty wild, man. That was good. That's uh it's just just crazy to me. Like they they lived on just they would steal rice, they would, you know, and then they would forage out in the jungle. They they lived out in the jungle with you know, just in hidden for 30 years.

SPEAKER_00

You you could get it for you know a few months or whatever, but 30 years.

SPEAKER_01

How does no one just like go in there and catch these guys? You know what I mean? Yeah, but it was only four of them. How did an entire yeah, I don't know. Uh but they I mean they were apparently very good at what they did. He was an intelligence officer. Well allegedly. They just didn't want to go back home. That was the issue. Man, I don't know. It's pretty, pretty crazy. But uh man, just it just it's sad. I kind of think of it sad. He wrote an autobiography and like I think later moved to Brazil and became a cattle rancher. But when, but when he when they he when he got home originally, like he was celebrating like a hero. Like they had parades and stuff, like, yeah, that's who we are, you know. I mean, take that.

SPEAKER_03

I feel like after like a year maybe of no one contacting me for like more details or more information.

SPEAKER_01

Well, he didn't believe it, but his family wrote him letters. People were contacting him.

SPEAKER_03

No, but I'm saying like military personnel saying, okay, we're gonna do this, this is the next like for all I mean, think about the Japanese culture that of that time, right?

SPEAKER_01

There's there was there was no surrender. That that that was shame, right? That was shameful, right? They they were not gonna surrender, they were gonna kill themselves before they surrender or or die fighting.

SPEAKER_00

And they were often used to being on those islands isolated from contact. They were given a task to hold the island, and you we'll let you know when you're done.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, it's almost like okay, it's almost like social media today. Like you see stuff that comes out, it's like, I don't think that's true. I don't think that, I don't think that you so he probably got these what he thought were propaganda leaflets. He's like, Nah, you're not fooling me. You're just trying to get me to come out of hiding, man. No way. Yeah.

Turning The Story Toward Faith

SPEAKER_00

You find them the coolest little nuggets of on this date in history.

FBC Tampa As A Multigenerational Church

SPEAKER_01

I'm telling you, it's pretty wild, man. I just I just thought that was fascinating, man. We just had though, uh, speaking of fascinating, just a fascinating, fantastic weekend. You're on the segues today. Fascinating function. That's what worship leaders do, man. Seamless. Seamless, right? Sometimes it's a little too seamless, maybe. But no, man, we had a great weekend here at FBC Tampa. Uh, many of you know um that at FBC Tampa, we we consider ourselves and we strive to be, and we think this is who we are and who God's called us to be, is a multi-generational church. Um, if you come to our services on a Sunday morning, you're gonna see people all the way from in the womb to one step away from the tomb.

SPEAKER_00

I I I felt the rhyme coming. I was wondering how you were gonna do that one.

What D Now Means And Why It Matters

SPEAKER_01

So uh, you know, I mean, just you're gonna see those people in in all kinds of positions it as far as like lead leadership and in ministry roles. And it's just really, really cool. Um, and so Ben is our next generation pastor, so he's in uh he's responsible for the discipleship of students. So like that's what sixth grade, six, sixth grade through twelfth grade. And then also our young adult ministry, which would be 18 plus post-high school to 26. Yeah, just kind of whenever you get out of school kind of thing. Yeah. So I mean that's a that's a broad range of that's a couple generations right there, even. So um, but we we just take seriously what scripture says about the the the church and and who it is, like Psalm uh 145-4 says, one generation will declare your works to another, and they will tell of the greatness of God. And we just we want to do that in our church. We want we take that seriously. And so um one of the things uh so we have a I think a very thriving student ministry here at FBC Tampa. And if you've been around student ministry for any time at all, you've probably heard the term D now. D now.

SPEAKER_00

The letter D, the word now, yep, D now.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. Okay. So I have people ask me all the time, Pastor Ben, what what does the Did they ask you, Pastor Ben? No, I'm asking you, Pastor Ben. Okay. Um what does the D and D now stand for? What does that mean?

SPEAKER_03

If I'm not mistaken, which I often am. Let's hope you're not because this is live. Yes, it's it stands for discipleship now. So it's it's a weekend where students get to gather together um most of the time at their their churches or if churches uh partner together for D now. They they meet at a church and they just I like to call it it's a little camp. It's like a little summer camp. Mini camp. Yeah, they get to get to see a look into what summer camp is like. They we have a few sessions and and it's just a really good time, a good weekend for students just to gather together, take away outside distractions, and just focus on the Lord again.

SPEAKER_00

Cool. It's kind of a discipleship intensive kind of weekend, right? Just kind of pack everything in tight in a weekend.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. So I mean you kind of have answered this a little bit. So I was that my next question was gonna be um, you know, what what is it? And like what's so why why why do we want to do this? Right? If we do Thrive Camp, why do we need to do mini camp or uh discipleship intensive weekend? What's the what's the purpose in that?

How The Weekend Is Structured

SPEAKER_03

Well, I mean, so each each and every Wednesday, each and every Sunday, we're in God's Word together. We're we're pushing each other for a closer relationship with Christ, but it's an hour or two twice a week. Like it's not it's not that intense like camp. I just did air quotes and since you're not watching. Uh camp. One of these days we'll be on YouTube. Uh it's not that intense like camp feel where you're you're constantly in God's word, you're talking about it, you're listening to it, you're you're hearing it uh sung to you all the time. And uh D now kind of accomplishes that uh in a in a short amount of time where we we gather together, we have a main session where we dive into God's word together based around the theme. Uh then afterwards we break off and then we talk about what we just heard. Uh one of the I mean, at least for me personally growing up, one of the best times in youth ministry was when I was able to hear something and then get deeper into it and talk about it where maybe something I didn't understand someone else understood, and you could you could really get the full grasp of what was said and what scripture is saying by those discussion groups. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So that kind of you talk about D now's of your past. Yeah, like I'm just gonna ask Pastor Bob, were D was was D now a thing when because we're the same age. Right.

SPEAKER_00

Well, we established that last week and I'm older than you, but slightly. But not by much. Right. We are the of the same generation. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01

Was D now a thing when you were coming up?

SPEAKER_00

It was not a thing when I was coming up, nor was it a thing when I was a youth pastor. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

It's it's kind of in the last couple decades or so that it's really become a I think the first time I remember hearing about it was I was probably in my mid-20s, almost 30. And our student pastor wanted to do D now. Sure. What is that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

We've uh there's always been stuff like it. You know, we've always we always did camps or we did you know weekends away, but we they weren't called D now's um and not everybody calls them D now now because it's exactly student weekend retreat, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Retreat or something.

SPEAKER_01

But the the purpose is kind of like so Ben, you've probably had more experience at D now's than Bob and I. Yeah. You know, you grew up in the in a time of D D now's. Do you have like a favorite D now from your past, either that you helped lead or even like as you that you were part of?

Host Homes And Intergenerational Impact

SPEAKER_03

Not not specifically. I've got I've got a good memory when I want to have a good memory, and not a good memory when it's when it's called upon on the spot most of the time. Um but I growing up I do remember the there there were certain teachings that like I I don't know if I remember or like I don't remember many of the themes unless I see the shirts again or something like that. But just the the specific time where I can be with my church friends uh in our church homes or host homes with which are church members who open up their homes for their students and just kind of living life with each other but more intensely in the whole weekend, like it it grew us closer to one another as we were growing closer to Christ. So, as far as a specific memory that I can share on on the uh the good old podcast. Yeah, because remember, this is the unsession. Right, right, right, right. Um, I would say one of this is there was a a a family of mine who was one of my best friends, the the Heath family. They always open up their home for we'll block that out later. Whatever uh middle school group we were in or high school group, whatever their the age of their son was in, and we would just take over their house. What whatever house it was in, we we would be there, we'd be all over the floor. But I just remember the the like all the breakfasts that they would cook us and all the the snacks that they have out for us, and just the the freedom that we would have in it, but also like uh the love that they showed towards us. So just this impact of the host homes really was what stood out to me.

SPEAKER_01

So that that's interesting. The impact of the host homes. So the impact of another generation on another. Yeah. And so um just the the community and the fellowship that that that that brings. So what's a host home? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Let's not assume that our audience knows exactly what these things are. Great question.

Theme Reveal: Undivided

SPEAKER_03

So yeah. Part of a D now weekend is uh the students get to stay overnight somewhere. Uh some do it like a retreat where they go to like a campground and they have cabins and things like that. Normally a D now is the students come to the church. Like I said, they have all the sessions, the discussions, they play games, whatever it may be. And then at night, host homes, which is church members of the church, open up their homes for them to stay uh for the weekend. So that's Friday and Saturday night. In groups, these are in groups.

SPEAKER_01

So it's these are like the green beret of Christians opening up their houses. These are the bravest of the brave. They are.

SPEAKER_03

So this year we had five host homes. We had one for our middle school boys, one for our middle school girls, we had one for our high school boys, and then two for our high school girls. And uh I heard a lot of positive things about it, which was really, really nice. Uh, but from both sides, both the students and the host homes, which is more hearing positive things from the host homes is very encouraging to hear. Yeah, yeah. So it's it's it's a really cool opportunity for church members that maybe can't serve week in, week out with the students to really kind of just get a full blast of what it's like and get to see the students interact with one another, and vice versa, the students get to see another faithful church member uh who really is just willing to serve. Yeah, yeah. It's one of my favorite parts of D now.

Teaching Through Ephesians

SPEAKER_01

But I think another thing that's interesting about D D now is one memory I can remember, and one memory I can remember. I was gonna let it go. You you you stopped it. One thing that I remember, uh I think my first D now that I was ever a part of, and I was as an like an adult leader or a young adult leader, I was probably 30 or close to 30. Um the theme was Dash, right? And so uh that was kind of my my my initial uh introduction to D now was this theme of Dash, which was the and I think we've all heard this kind of story, but the the you look at gravestones and you'll see a beginning date and an end date and what you do uh in the in the middle of that is what's important. And so don't don't waste that. That's kind of what Don't waste the dash. Don't waste the dash, right? And so that was the theme of that D now. And so I know you had a theme for this D now. Well, what was the theme?

SPEAKER_03

Uh the theme was titled Undivided. So undivided means to not be divided. Wow, thank you for that. I was I was confused. Jordan probably was a little confused. Jordan's helpful, yes. I wanted to make sure that was clear. Um He is French. Yeah. Explain it. Uh I think the generation and the world that our students are living in today makes it really hard to be undivided towards anything. Uh take spiritual things out of it, like take oh, the this new iPhone's coming out. Oh, this other devices here. I like I'm all in for this, but then this is gonna happen and I'm fully in Venus.

SPEAKER_01

Just think about it. You've got division between Android and Apple folks, right? Yeah, yeah. It's Jordan can't make up his mind. We keep bringing him in, he can't defend himself, he doesn't have a microphone. I know, I love it, man.

SPEAKER_03

But it it's hard to find someone who's fully undivided towards just about anything. Right. You go to your favorite restaurant and it takes an hour longer than normal. Oh, that's not my favorite restaurant anymore. And it's it's a lost art to be fully devoted to something. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

What are what are you challenging? What were you challenging the students to be undivided toward?

SPEAKER_03

I mean, the main the main challenge of the weekend was to be undivided towards Christ, undivided towards their relationship with Christ, fully devoted with their their soul, mind, heart, and strength uh to just be all in for Christ.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. And usually or not every time, but but most of the time, you'll bring in a a a guest speaker. Yes. Right? So who did who did you bring in this this weekend?

Games, Beach, And Shared Memories

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so we we were able to bring in the the USF BCM director. Uh his name is USFBCM.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, a lot of people are in the military.

SPEAKER_03

Acronyms going on. Uh University of South Florida's Baptist Collegiate Ministry Director. All right. Uh he he recently just moved down here from Tennessee, uh, which shout out Trent. You just gotta get that out there. Yeah. No, we don't do that on this podcast. Um but he recently just moved down to start uh start as the director of the BCM last August. Uh and he's kind of just jumped in and really uh done a lot of great things so far and has great plans for the future and uh just got to know him a little bit over the past few months and found out that he's just really on fire for the Lord. And uh yeah, he did he did a great job.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, he did do it. He did a he did a good job. It was it was great. I'd never met him before. So I I really enjoyed meeting him, talking with him a little bit.

SPEAKER_00

The students I talked to really enjoyed him. Yeah, thought he did a good job breaking down the text.

SPEAKER_03

Definitely definitely a different style than mine, and I I think the students really glean well from that because they hear me all the time.

SPEAKER_00

And yeah, did he have a particular text that you guys were working through over the Yeah?

SPEAKER_03

So he he walked through three different passages in the book of Ephesians. Uh the first night he walked through Ephesians 2, 1 through 10, uh just kind of reminding the students of what we're kind of being undivided towards. Like we we're saved by grace through faith, and uh just kind of again reminding the students about that to kind of set off the weekend correctly.

SPEAKER_01

Giving them a reason to be undivided, right? Yeah, reminding them of the reason.

SPEAKER_03

Right. Yeah, we were we were dead and now we're made alive through Christ. Uh and then Saturday morning he went through Ephesians 2, 11 through 22, uh just kind of showing the students the unity that we have now that we are no longer dead in our our sins, but we're alive in Christ together. And then he ended in the end of the week with uh Ephesians 4, 1 through 16. Uh, once again, just kind of pushing home the fact that we are united in Christ to be undivided towards that relationship with Christ and undivided towards the the walk that we were called to as Christians.

Feedback, Fruit, And Challenges

SPEAKER_01

Very cool, very cool. You get uh a bunch of teenagers together and uh you got any uh good stories, man. There's gotta be some funny stories that something happened over the weekend.

SPEAKER_00

So not only do you do these these um Bible study sessions, these worship sessions, right? Which are really good, they're intense, but you also have some fun times in there, right? Which I don't think we've talked about. So yes, you interspersed some other activities in the midst of it. So it's not like 48 hours of being in this chapel, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So maybe let's back up and say, just walk us through the weekend.

Goals For Students And Community

One Nine And The Collective

SPEAKER_03

Okay, yeah, yeah. So I've mentioned the word sessions and things in doodads a lot, but Friday night we get we do dads. Doodads is a good word. That sounds like an old person's word. Uh we get there Friday night, we have dinner together. Catered Mo's this time for Friday night, which was pretty good. Yelled that a couple times. Okay. Uh, and then we have a main session, which is a worship session with with music, with time of prayer, with uh the sermon and And then we quickly after that, we go to our discussion groups, which we bring in some young adults from our church, um, some away at college, some that are still home with us, uh, to lead those discussions for our students. Just again, that deep dive back into what we just heard and kind of trying to break down and understand it together as a group. Uh, and then each night, so Friday night and Saturday night, we did a little fun game together. Uh Friday night was trivia. I did Bible trivia between the boys and the girls, and the winner, which was first to 25 correct answers, uh got pizza Saturday night. Uh that that's where my funny story comes in. So we can I can Are you gonna use names? No, I'm not I'm I'm gonna redact the names. Protect the if any of them listen to it, they they know the name. Um, which is it's fine. He he'd think it's funny. But there we have one high school boy, he's a freshman, he is he is a bundle of joy. He's he's a lot of fun to be around, uh, super confident, and sometimes he shouldn't be. And he he knows that. But we during the Bible trivia, I had one boy and one girl come up at a time, and I asked the question, they hit a table, they get a chance to answer. I asked the question, how many days uh did they walk around the wall of Jericho before it fell? And he he hit the table very confidently, kind of stood there, thought a little bit. Like I you can see his his brain engines going, and he just stood there and yelled, 40 years. And everyone erupted. It was it was really funny. Uh it that wasn't uh the only missed question that was that was funny, but it it was it was good. It it it gave some healthy competition uh for the night. It was the right answer to the wrong question. It was a biblical response. Yeah, it was just like a random amount. Circumstances confused and timing. It's fine. Uh it was all good fun. Uh then after that we we go to our host homes, which is just again the time for them to hang out, relax, eventually go to sleep at some point. Uh and then we wake up, have another session on Saturday morning. Did they really go to sleep? Some of them did. Some of them did. Most of them, yeah, I think. Uh but then Saturday morning we have a second session, which is uh the same thing as Friday night, just music, time of prayer, sermon, music, and then we go into our discussion groups again. Uh then after that we had lunch, ordered Cubans. That was really good. West Tampa Sandwich Shop shout out. The real deal. Yeah. It was really good.

SPEAKER_01

Um when I go there, I never get a Cuban. You should. I'm just I always get their breakfast. It is so good, man. You get breakfast everywhere you go. Oh my gosh. Their breakfast is so good, and they have the best cafe con leche, man. I mean the unsexy church, now sponsored by West Tampa Sandra. Yeah, we shouldn't be saying that.

SPEAKER_03

You can thank us later. Redacted. Uh then after that, we hop in all our church vans and we drive out to Madeira Beach. We go play putt-putt. Uh, that's one of the fun activ the big fun activity that we do. And then we hang out at the beach for an hour or two. Um lot of fun for some people. I'm not one of those people, but it's fun watching all the students have fun. Uh wasn't too terribly hot once we got to the beach. Um then we come back sand and all on the way home. We always stop for slushies, just a fun little cheap treat for them to get after being out on the hot beach. Then we come back, have dinner. We had beat ups, Buffalo Wild Wings this time, which was really good. It was good. Sounds like the food was uh epic this year. Food food was I was proud of my choices. Nice. I was happy. What there's a little sneak peek in how I decipher food for youth. If I'm if I like it, I'm gonna get it. There will never be something that I don't like that I that I get for a youth. Sorry. I make the decisions now. So I get it.

SPEAKER_00

There are very few perks. That's that's one of them.

Weekend Recap And Closing CTA

SPEAKER_03

Uh and then we have our last final big session uh after dinner, where again it's worship sermon, uh, then D groups afterwards. Yeah. And then Saturday night we did a nice little photo scavenger hunt. So if you're any of your chairs in your your core group classes on Sunday morning were a little caddy wompous, a child might have ran into one of them. But it's it's all it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01

Praise God, man. It sounds sounds like a blast. And they they always are fun. Yeah. Um and you mentioned, you know, you've got you've got adults helping you, you've got young adults helping you. Um again, another uh aspect of our I think of generations telling generations. Right. Um, what have you heard any? And I know it like we're right after, right? I guess it's just now over. Um, so I don't know if if you got any great or good feedback, God stories or testimonies from the students, like something that man, that that really stood out to me or that that really helped me or encouraged me in my in my walk, kind of thing.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Uh not yet. I I plan on asking around this this week and kind of getting more stories, but just this morning, our the middle school girls discussing group leader gave me some really encouraging just words about how much once she loved the middle school girls, how they they really kind of were were contemplating what was said and like how they they really desire to know more and they they were eager to to jump into conversation and and things like that with it, which is really cool because I mean, at least when I was in middle school, I don't know if I fully cared to jump into much conversation. So uh it's it was really encouraging to hear. So I I know that there's more than that out there, but I look forward to learning about it.

SPEAKER_01

Definitely. Yeah. What um I mean, again, teenagers, God bless you. And uh it's not for the faint of heart. What's the what's like the most challenging aspect of of pulling together a weekend like this?

SPEAKER_03

Cool. Uh I would say first making sure that the the theme and the the the scope of the weekend is the is where the Lord wants it to be. Um it's really easy to find something that makes sense and plug it in and keep going, but really trying to make sure that that's what our our students need to hear.

SPEAKER_01

And there's not a really a right or wrong answer to to that, but like how do you determine how do you how do you get there?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I don't know, I'm not I just kind of I mean uh quite honestly searching through different D now ideas and that other churches have used or maybe websites suggest or something like that and kind of and then understanding this the the scope of our students and their needs and who your students are right, which which the whole that goes into I I think our students are really undivided towards a lot of things, and not just our specific group of students, but just everyone their ages. Um so just a good reminder of all of the things that they need to be fully devoted towards.

SPEAKER_00

Right on, man. Yeah, yeah. It's interesting in our church. Some of our our most undivided folks are some of our younger generation folks. You know, not not we've got folks at all generations that are, but um, and they that generation, all generations, but our younger generations need to be challenged um that they can and walk with the Lord, and they're not the future of the church, they're the church now, right? Exactly. These weekends go a long way to encouraging that.

SPEAKER_01

I think something too that was encouraging just to me, and this is it's kind of a side note, but after I met Gabriel and was talking to him, he just just couldn't say enough good things about the character of the students that come from FBC Tampa. Um, and so shout out to you to you all for for doing what what you're doing and and uh keeping that going, man. That's that's that's cool to hear. Um he likes it when FBC Tampa students come come to to BCM.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, because we've got a lot of USF BCM people that attend on Sundays or come on Tuesdays or serve during the week. So it's it's a cool relationship to have.

SPEAKER_00

So I've got one last question, but I don't know if do you have anything else that that you want to uh the only the only thing we didn't mention was it was cool to celebrate this yesterday in worship, yeah, right? We didn't do a big celebration, but we celebrated it. It was good to see all the kids and their sponsors and the folks in the t-shirts, and so that I think it was a good visual for our folks. Uh the video Jordan put together, you know, aces is always really good, really good to see. So uh just love celebrating it as a church as well. Definitely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So maybe um like to maybe boil it down just a little bit, what uh what do you want the Spirit of God, what's what's your hope and your prayer that the Spirit of God would accomplish in your students through a weekend like this? Like what are the two or three things that you want them to walk away with after this weekend and be talking about and and be resonating in their mind?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. I think first and foremost they that they grew in their relationship with Christ, that they they heard maybe even just one small comment from a from a leader or some another student that said something that kind of sparked more interest in their relationship with Christ, to to go from this weekend where they're fully dove into where they fully dive into scripture and continue that through a normal week, through a normal weekend. Uh yeah. So mainly just deepening the relationship with Christ and their knowledge of Christ. And then also just deepening the relationship with one another. Uh some of most of my best friends growing up were my church friends. Uh we were able to grow together, we were able to have fun together. And a lot of that is because of all the trips that we'd go on, camp and D now and retreats and service projects and other church things that we all just kind of were there for. And uh so yeah, those two things deeper relationship with Christ and a deeper relationship with one another.

SPEAKER_01

Very cool, very cool. Well, you have a theme or you have a name for the student ministry here at FBC Tampa. You want to talk about that a little bit?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So I mean our our name at of the student ministry here at FBC Tampa is one nine. Uh it's based off of Matthew 28, 19, uh, how we are all called as Christians to be disciples of Christ, who go make disciples of Christ, who then also go and make disciples of Christ. Uh and I I think one that's obviously our call on as Christians everywhere, but as a student ministry, how how cool of an idea of it to be known as we're FEC's Tampa students, one nine, we go and bring other people to Christ, and they are so on fire for the Lord themselves that they also go and bring others to Christ. Contagious. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah. And then tell us about the collective a little bit.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So the collective is our young adult ministry. Uh it's uh, like I said, 18 to 26, and it's it's a really, really good group of uh students of young adults who just are on fire for the Lord. Uh we meet Tuesday nights at seven in our chapel, uh really just kind of again diving deep into to scripture, and then we break off into the discussion groups and kind of I've been saying this a lot, but get more of a full scope of what was said or what scripture is saying. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Really, really good. So if you're a young adult or a student out there, or you know a young adult or a student out there, make sure you get in touch with Pastor Ben and he can tell you more about 1 9 and more about the collective. It's been great having you. Glad you were here today, Ben. Anything else, Bob? You good? It was awesome. All right, yeah. So don't forget, give us a five-star rating. Write us a review, share it, helps get the podcast out there. Send us your questions or topics that you need an unsexy take on. This is the place for them. You can DM us on DM us on Instagram. And as always, stay unsexy.

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Bob Block

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Darren Selvidge

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