Your Mission Field is Local: How to Start | Adam Peacocke

Episode Summary:

For most of us, the greatest mission field God’s calling us to isn't across the world... but right outside your front door?

Why do so many churches struggle to make a positive impact on the communities they're planted in? In this conversation, Adam Peacocke shares a biblical vision for local discipleship, community transformation, and the Church's role in bringing God's Kingdom to every neighborhood. Discover why repentance must come before strategy, why consistent presence matters more than big events, and how each Christian can begin renewing their cities one faithful step at a time.

If you've ever wondered how your church can move beyond Sunday services and become a catalyst for lasting communal change, this episode will equip you to be the change.

Who is the Disciple Nations Alliance (DNA)? Since 1997, DNA’s mission has been to equip followers of Jesus around the globe with a biblical worldview, empowering them to build flourishing families, communities, and nations. 👉 https://disciplenations.org/

🎙️Featured Guest: 

Adam Peacocke is the founder of FeatherVine, a ministry designed to cultivate expressions of faith and faithfulness in the united church of Sonoma County. That effort has been built upon the sustained work of prayer and relationship among pastors and churches in Sonoma County for over 25 years. Adam enjoyed eight years on staff at GoStrategic followed by fifteen years as the pastor of a local church. In 2017, Adam transitioned into his current ministry and helped lead the response to the historic wildfires that destroyed over 5,000 homes in the community. The united outreach efforts have now expanded beyond disaster relief to include significant advances into local schools, the Foster Care system, and reaching the homeless. Adam’s passion for the proclamation of the Gospel, the unity of the Body of Christ, and the call to community transformation has opened doors for him to minister in communities around the world, but his passion to see transformation in Sonoma County has kept him firmly rooted in seeking God’s glory in the place he calls home. Adam and his wife, Jo, reside in Santa Rosa, where they are raising four children. 

📌 Recommended Resources:  

     👉 FeatherVine School Partnership Video

     👉 GoStrategic 

     👉 Our Strategy - Disciple Nations Alliance 

💻 Follow Us:

     📸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/disciplenations

     📽️YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/c/DiscipleNationsAlliance/

     📲Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/disciplenations

📩 Ask us anything: info@disciplenations.org 

Episode Webpage

Transcript

A Wake Up Call For Hope

Adam Peacocke 0:02

I actually think most of us are not in touch with just how desperate our communities are for God, just how prevalent and deep the pain is. Guys, we have no hope except Jesus Christ. We have no hope except the gospel. It starts with repentance, and I'm convinced that it starts inside out, that a biblical Christian worldview starts with conviction, not convincing, and that the transformation of our world starts with the local and moves towards the extra-local and international and not the other way around. I'm deeply grieved that most Christians can tell you way more about who governs our nation than who governs their community. We're still captured by Empire. We still don't think leaven, we still don't think seed, we still don't see inside out and bottom-up. And we did things on these cleanup days that literally not only, you know, erased 90% of the graffiti in the city in a single day, but the testimony from the city and county government was the city and county weren't good at working together. And they said, because the churches came together in unity, you're beginning to see unity in other institutions. You know, I think one of the least appreciated names of Jesus is Jesus of Nazareth. Born into a geographical place. You know, place is somehow the context of it is important to God, and it's important for us. If we're going to understand how to live faithfully, we have to understand that place is part of the gospel story, and the redemption of our relationship to place is part of that as well.

Luke Allen 1:48

Hi friends, welcome or welcome back to another episode of Ideas Have Consequences. This is the podcast of the Disciple Nations Alliance. The goal of this show is to show the power of truth to transform nations. And to do that, each week we examine how our mission as Christians is to not only spread the gospel around the world to all the nations, even though that is critical, but our mission also includes being the hands and feet of God to transform the nations, to increasingly reflect the truth, the goodness, and the beauty of God's kingdom. Tragically, the church has largely neglected this second part of her mission. And today most Christians have little influence on their surrounding cultures. Join us on this podcast as we rediscover what it means for each of us to disciple the nations and to create Christ-honoring cultures that reflect the character of the living God. I'm excited for today's episode, guys, because today we really drill into that, that practical hands-on how do we disciple the nations and influence our cultures surrounding us. My name is Luke Allen. I am the producer of this show, and I'm joined today by my dad and our host, Scott Allen. Hey Dad, how you doing? Great, Luke. Great to be back. Yeah, great to great to be here. I'm excited for today's episode. We have a we have a guest on um who's really doing the hands and feet aspect of transforming his local community. Um his name's Adam Peacock. Uh he is the brother of Catherine Gallagher, a very frequent guest on the show, and son of Dennis Peacock, uh, who has also been on the show a few times. Uh, we'll introduce him more in a little bit, but today's discussion was super practical, super again, boots on the ground, hands-on, discipling your nation. What does this look like from uh you know the community level, from the city level, uh, and then working out from there. Dad, just coming away from this discussion, uh, what were some of your highlights and takeaways?

Scott Allen 3:33

Yeah, just that, Luke, I thought being able to talk with someone like Adam, who his ministry is really focused on how do we bring about Christ-honoring change at the very local level. In his case, it's um the Sonoma County, you know, the Bay Area of California. Um and so he's, you know, he's he's that's what he's focused on. I thought he had really helpful kind of basic principles for how Christians should think and engage with their community, with schools, city government, things like that. A little bit surprising. Wasn't really what I expected him to say, but I thought what he said was really powerful, very helpful. And again, I I love the idea of working from principles because they principles can be applied in a variety of contexts. And so I really appreciated that. I thought it was, again, very practical, is what you said, Arloop.

Luke Allen 4:26

Yeah, yeah. These these guys, um, Go Strategic is the ministry that his dad founded. So it's also a biblical worldview training ministry, kind of a partner organization of the DNA. So yeah, they're coming from a biblical worldview mindset when approaching things like community engagement, school engagement, the public school engagement, homelessness, foster care, uh, the foster system, all of these things that the church should definitely have its hands in, but we don't see that happen very often. So he does a great job of just applying these principles of biblical worldview into those issues that we see all around us. Uh for me, I just think so often as Christians, and I get caught in this all the time, is we want to do big things for God. We want to change the world, we want to change the nations, right? Disciple the nations. But we forget that that that really starts, needs to start right around us in our areas of influence with our friends. Obviously, in our families, I think Christians, we know that we need to be discipling our families. But but it also includes our workspaces, our towns, our cities, the schools around us, our zip code. All of those things are our areas of influence and uh areas that we're called to be Christ's ambassadors to. So that's where we really hit the discussion today. A couple of things that he said that I think will probably stick out to you guys as well is he said how to start being an agent of influence in your uh local area is through the process of repentance um and through the process of just seeing the world around you the way God does, seeing God's heart for your city, and just starting there, starting in a place of prayer and asking God what what breaks your heart in the community around me, what's beautiful in the community around me, let me see it the way you do, and then letting that change your heart. Um, and from that place of starting to recognize the world that you live in, you can start to make a difference in practical ways. So a very thoughtful place to start. Yeah, so without further ado, Dad, I'll just hand it over to you to introduce our guest.

Adam Peacock And Feathervine Origin

Scott Allen 6:17

Well, great to be back on another episode of Ideas Have Consequences. Uh, I am thrilled today to be uh with uh Luke and with our guest, special guest, Adam Peacock. Um Adam is um somebody that we've we've never met, but we know his family. We uh are um close with Catherine Gallagher, she's been on the podcast several times, and of course Dennis Peacock, the um dear brother in Christ and founder of Go Strategic, uh, such an important ministry. And uh so Adam is um is part of the family. And uh, Adam, it's just wonderful to have you with us today. Thanks for taking time.

Adam Peacocke 6:56

Thank you, Scott. I'm thrilled to have an opportunity to talk with you and so grateful for the ministry. And I'm a firm believer that ideas have consequences.

Scott Allen 7:07

Okay, great. Well, let me introduce you a little bit, Adam, and then we're gonna hand it over to you to kind of fill in that a little bit more. But uh, Adam is the founder of a ministry called Feather Vine. It's a ministry dedicated to cultivating um uh expressions of faith and faithfulness within the United Church of Sonoma County, which is uh where Adam lives, and uh Go Strategic is headquartered, Santa Rosa. Basically, for those of you who aren't uh familiar with California, this is the San Francisco Bay Area, a little bit north. It's kind of famous for uh being in a wine country there, and you can explain more of that, Adam. But uh Adam uh formerly worked with Go Strategic. He was on staff there, and then after that, he pastored a local church for 15 years before starting Feathervine. Uh it's again a ministry that's helping the church in the community meet some of the most pressing needs in the community. These include in the areas of education, foster care, mental health, drug addiction, and other areas. Um Adam's a native of Sonoma County, um, and he lives there with his wife, Joe, and their four children. He has a passion for proclaiming the gospel, for unifying the body of Christ, and for catalyzing transformation in his local community. Um those are all things that we share in common, Adam, as well. Um I uh as we get into this, I'll just put some cards on the table for you. I Luke and I live in Oregon, uh, Central Oregon. We formerly lived in Arizona for many years. Um, our ministry is international, and most of the constituents that we work with are from outside the United States. But of late, um we've felt a conviction from God and from many of our ministry partners that we need to be doing more in our home country because of the brokenness in our home country that is affecting churches actually around the world. And then, of course, moving up here to Oregon. We live in a state now that's uh like California. In fact, Oregon is kind of the, I always kind of view view it as uh the baby brother, you know, to California. Uh and so uh very secular, very progressive, um, and quite broken in so many ways. Um, it's one of the states that people are leaving for a variety of reasons. Um and uh so, anyways, Adam, could you just tell us a little bit more of your story, um, kind of your journey uh uh from Ghost Strategic to pastoring to found founding Feathervine and explain a little bit about the ministry and the name, if you could too. That'd be great.

Adam Peacocke 9:41

Yeah, absolutely. So thank you so much again. I'm so grateful to be here. Um as you mentioned in the introduction, uh, I was born and raised in Sonoma County. Um my parents really felt like God called them uh to this area. They were saved in the Jesus movement, and so um they were kind of coming forward in that very dynamic time. At the same time, um, you know, they they were well educated and had been raised in families that really um helped them understand foundationally that ideas do have consequences, and so uh as my dad can say more eloquently than me, you know, he he went into the study of the scriptures um with the sense that it applied to all of life. And um, and so it was a wonderful, godly Christian home to grow up in. And um, and I was raised in that framework of understanding that um, you know, God, God's word, his truth uh applies to every area of our lives. And and then along with that, also I think just by God's grace, there's really um a desire in my parents um to see um the body of Christ less siloed, um less divided. And so, you know, as I was coming of age and becoming more aware of my dad's work, um, you know, he was doing things like Jesus 79, which was a Bay Area Stadium event that was bringing a broader picture of the body of Christ, uh, mainline denominations with um some of the emerging groups out of the Jesus movement uh together to exalt Jesus and to um express kind of this many-membered um picture of those who proclaim Jesus as Lord and were looking to follow him faithfully. And so that was a beautiful household to grow up in. And uh I saw people not only from different congregations but different traditions coming through my home and hearing them uh reflect on their love of Jesus and and through their traditions, some of the things that that they were in pursuit of and understanding what it meant to follow him faithfully, and and I think that really laid a framework of understanding for me to be able to see beyond just my maybe own tradition or congregation. Um also uh as I was growing up, you know, my dad, out of his experience being a student at Berkeley, was he was really convinced of the bankruptcy of a lot of our kind of modern academic framework. And so you may have heard him say this privately, but he made a vow to himself that should God gift him uh with children, that he was not going to just send us into the education system uh untrained, but that he was going to really engage with our education. And so um Go Strategic now has a beautiful Christian worldview course called Go Life. And um that actually started in our home and our family. My dad would wake me up before school and I would get my school before school as he was teaching me how to think presuppositionally and and and kind of help me understand uh how to think so that as the world was trying to tell me what to think, I would be able and be equipped to kind of discern the consequences of the ideas that were being shared with me. So uh when I finished my schooling, I had the opportunity to work with my dad with that ministry coming out of college, um, and actually the privilege of specifically helping found what is now become Go Life and to be responsible for the development of that um course. And you know, there's a couple things I'll just say around that. One is that uh at the time uh Christian worldview was was not talked about as much as it is now, and as much growth as we still need in that area, as much uh maturation, I think, as the body of Christ still needs in a biblical Christian worldview, it was even less developed at the time. And so um, you know, there was a lot to learn, and uh I certainly would say that I still have a lot more to learn, but it was it was really wonderful to be part of the emergence of how um the body of Christ was coming to understand the importance of a more holistic biblical Christian worldview. Uh I um met the woman who would become my wife uh in that work. Uh her family helped uh host us often when we'd come and lead trainings in New Zealand. And then when we did get married in 2001, uh this role of traveling all over the world uh doing Christian Worldview trainings became a little less appealing, and that began to kind of work in my heart uh around being able to kind of set a better foundation for the start of our family. At the same time, the congregation that I was part of was looking for a new pastor. And um, just to make a long story short, we ended up pastoring a church in Santa Rosa. And, you know, Scott, Go Strategic uh has really um a profound international footprint, but similar to kind of what you described, even though our theology was very localized, and and my dad had done a lot of work around uh what we call community action councils and bringing forward this understanding of elders and the gates and what that looks like from the biblical lens translated forward, we we were we were not as kind of engaged locally. And so I found as I started pastoring a local church that I began to see my community that I'd grown up in through a different lens. I came to know it differently, I came to love it differently. We'll talk about this a little bit more, I think maybe later in the conversation, but there was actually some repentance that was needed. There was some some metanoia that was needed in my life that that new role of pastoring kind of helped bring forward. And then kind of to skip ahead, um, I pastored really through the lens of the worldview that had been developed. And so that was interesting because what I found is that a lot of the traditional ways that churches are oriented, there's some gaps probably from a biblical worldview framework. And so I was confronted with those, had to figure out um how to live faithfully and in this role of pastoring a local church, and um, and so a lot of formation, a lot of discipleship in my own heart and life, and and hopefully in our community, that culminated um in a uh transition from pastoring to the work that I'm doing now. And all I would say is that that was um that was a journey in prayer. It was a journey of um God leading us in that transition and then walking it out with our community. This happened in 20, end of 2016, beginning of 2017, right before uh we had devastating wildfires hit our community. And um, so Feathervine was really um birthed out of some steps of obedience where it felt like God was calling us into a work that was not abundantly clear until it was clear, as we um we were no longer responsible for an individual congregation, and so God actually put me in a place with a lot of the trust that had been built out of the work in building unity among the churches in our community and in meeting needs as a pastor. Now the trust that had been built and the bridges that had built in the community kind of allowed me to step into this role where I not only was able to kind of facilitate a united church's response in a very dark moment in our community because of disaster, so we could shine brightly, so the community could see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. Um, but also um I actually uh was kind of chosen in a very unique way, a way that could have not been predicted, to lead our broader community's response to help our most vulnerable fire survivors get home. Feather vine is um is obviously a sort of a whimsical name, but at the core um it uh it's leaning into this prayer that Jesus gave us, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so it really speaks to this uh grounding of um God's kingdom principles, his kingdom truth. I love it in your your prayer before we got started, Luke, of of of truth and goodness and beauty coming together to reveal the heart and life of God. And so it's a sort of Sonoma County way of leaning into that prayer and saying, uh, in Sonoma County as it is in heaven.

Scott Allen 19:11

Well, thank you for that, Adam. That's um, yeah, that what a journey you've been on. And um, am I correct in hearing that part of part of that journey was just a desire on your part, uh obviously you're walking in prayer and obedience to God, but a desire in your heart to take some of the principles uh that you learned in Go Strategic and really see if they could be applied in a very real way in a very local context, right there at home.

Adam Peacocke 19:36

Yeah, Scott, um thank you. You you're you are correct. That that's absolutely right. And um the the things that that were placed into me uh as a a young man and then as a a pastor, all of those things, you know, it's this progressive integration of the life of Christ into our life. It's this progressive transformation, the the renewing of our minds is not only changing the way that we think, but it's hopefully inviting us deeper into what it means to be in Christ and to have Christ in us. And and this is a key thing. I I think, like I said, we we may touch it on different elements, but that um Christian worldview is um it is discipleship, and discipleship is growing in our worldview, um, but that should transcend just reason, right? That we're not going to become who God desires us to be and designed us to be in Christ uh only through a rational lens. There really is this relational element of obedience. And so that was a a huge part of my story was this sense of discerning what God was saying in prayer and responding that way. Um, and then being able to take the the work that he'd done in helping renew my mind and make application. And we're still making those applications, we're still seeing the fruitfulness of um looking through a lens that that hopefully is uh reflective of what God was saying when he said, Go into all the earth and make disciples of all nations.

Scott Allen 21:19

Yeah. Well, I'd like to get your thoughts on something, Adam.

Why Evangelicals Lack Cultural Influence

Scott Allen 21:23

Uh recently I re I was just on uh X and I saw a post from Chris Rufo, who's uh um he's an activist that's very involved in um, you know, uh kind of pushing back on the the woke neo-Marxist worldview in very practical ways. And anyways, he was musing about the fact that evangelicals in the United States, I think he's a Catholic, um, you know, comprise the largest, probably single group, if you will, uh, in the country, and yet they have relatively little influence or impact on shaping the broader culture. I mean, that I'm paraphrasing what he Saying, I think he he put it put it a little bit differently, but he posted that as a question and just kind of why is that? You know, why do you know why do we have this quite large group that it's has seemingly has very little impact? I wonder if you agree with him, and if if um if that's the case, why do you think that is? What what what's your what would how would you respond to him in terms of why it seems that um Christians, evangelicals kind of view engaging beyond personal holiness and personal salvation and and the life of the local church, you know, but when you start talking beyond that into the community or even the nation, um people struggle. Uh any thoughts or reactions to what I just uh put there?

Adam Peacocke 22:43

I have a lot of thoughts and reactions. Um I I hope that uh you know what I'll offer back would be helpful. I I do think that there's um, you know, I I I don't know him and his framework. I would agree with so much of what he's saying. Um, although I would I would have some questions. I you know, I I would honestly say, Scott, that I'm um I I think we're in such a dynamic time right now, um, politically, socially, societally, certainly within the church as well. And so I just think there's so much mixture of motivation, there's so much mixture, even in our critique. And often um, you know, we can identify things that are wrong and even agree on things that are wrong, but we can have mixture in terms of our understanding of what the solution is or what direction that they're to go. And and so um, you know, in all of these elements, uh, you know, my my heart and hope is that that um that we can call people to faithfulness to God's covenant purposes. Um and uh and that journey often looks a little different uh than some of the agendas of our culture. So uh I know that you know it's a a huge contextualization I just got there, but I think one of the reasons why I would agree with what he's saying is that uh in general, I think the church uh for some time now has um really kind of been trying to operate in a framework based upon the lowest common denominator of getting someone to heaven. What's the lowest threshold that God requires in order to, you know, uh invite someone into eternity with him? And and when we start um when we start kind of asking those types of questions, we start straying from design and desire and purpose and ultimate intent into the this this element where we're not really trying to live in accordance with God's ways or his truth or his heart. We're trying to solve the problem of um of a future that we don't want. And and so the implications, right, of asking the wrong question, the implications of aligning ourselves and what's the least that I have to do in order to get what I want, right? This this the the ripple effects, we don't even have time, and I don't have I don't have the insight or the eloquence probably to unpack it um the way that we need to. But um we're living in that. I'm I'm convinced, Scott, that we're living in a framework that because we've we've changed um who the gospel is supposed to help, we change who the story's about, we've made the gospel about us rather than Christ. We've we've um you know, we've done our own version of what Thomas Jefferson did when he eliminated the the things from from the Bible that he didn't want to have to deal with. You know, we just have have cut and paste and in in and we approach the word, studying it through the lenses that make it work for us rather than letting it read us and um and you know draw us deeper into God's truth.

Scott Allen 26:03

Yeah, Adam, elaborate on that. What are what are you know that imagery from Thomas Jefferson? He's a f famous for being uh a bit of a deist, although he was certainly sympathetic to to Christianity, but there's a Bible that you can see in the Smithsonian that he owned, and he would cut out um sections that dealt with the miraculous because it didn't fit into his uh scientific kind of naturalistic m framework. Um so he just cut them out. What what are what are things that you think the church is cutting out from the scripture today in this kind of pared down theology that you're describing? Like just unpack that a little bit.

Adam Peacocke 26:39

Yeah, you know, I I think there's there's a number of I mean that that's big, but uh let me just grab one thing and and specifically I think in maybe even a little provocative with with our audience, you know, there's there's um ideas do have consequences, and I think that um that we're still um unpacking, especially in the in the church, I think, we're still unpacking uh some of the consequences of leaning into rationalism, um not understanding the gift of of reason under the truth of God, under the word of God. And and so, you know, in my opinion, um one of the the um the things that reveal uh rationalism as an idol is this sense that that we can fix everything, that we can um take everything and make it useful or functional for us. Um and it it the promise of rationalism is um is independence, actually. It's this element that we can figure things out, know their design, and and and cause them to work together in a way that that allows us to fashion the world in a way that works for us and our desire in meeting our needs and our comfort. And when that's coupled um with kind of uh a sense of being good, um, you know, using the label Christian, but I don't mean in a truly biblical way, I think what's happened with a lot of the the church is we've seen the power of truth, we've seen the power of God's truth, and we've seen what can happen when we um step into discovering his design of stuff, but when we when we create this mixture with rationalism, then what happens is our our prosperity, the benefits of truth, the benefits of function um lead us to this vision, this hope for um benevolent individualism, that I can get enough resources, enough money, enough things working for me, that I can be independent, and then I can also have enough left over to also be good and meet other people's needs. Um, this is not actually God's design for us. We were not created for independence. We were created for union, union with God and right relationship with God's people, and then ultimately living in a type of relationship modeled out of that as the body of Christ that can bring other people into that relationship. Right, relationship with God's world. John 3.16, for God so loved the world, the cosmos, right? We'll get into some of these elements. So, you know, when when I look at some of the challenges of American evangelicalism, I I see the consumerism, the materialism, the the um the John Wayne individualism type of elements. Those values are still in us, and and often even in how we go after uh a biblical worldview, we're trying to be right more than being in right relationship in certain ways. That creates a lot of acrimony that that's that is is more protecting our sense of individualism. I've I've maybe got us ways sideways, but Scott, what I'm what I'm trying to say is that um not only are we we missing the gospel in terms of God's heart and love, but I think there's a a sort of a hope that we think that you know, if we can do the bare minimum in terms of our acknowledgement of our need for Jesus, and then we can take the truth of the gospel and reform it in a way that matches what's going to give us the best lifestyle possible, the most wealth possible, the sense of being good people because we have enough for us and a little left over to help others. This is a this is a kingdom shaped after the American dream, not not the kingdom that Jesus described. And and it it minimizes the the reality of agape love, it it minimizes the reality of the the type of uh Philippians 2, 1 to 5 journey that Jesus took, um that leads us through the cross in order to come to this resurrection life that's that's about union is as much as triumph or triumphalism, it is the great triumph, it's the ultimate triumph. But the the victory is coming through a much different approach. And so again, sorry, I just I appreciate that.

Scott Allen 31:46

You're you're bringing to mind something that uh you know, Francis Schaefer, who so influenced our ministry, you know, um he used to speak of one of the real problems with the church. Um, and this was back, you know, 20, 30 years ago. He said it's this idea of personal peace and prosperity, and that's kind of I'm hearing echoes of that in in

Repentance Before Strategy

Scott Allen 32:07

what you're saying. You know, it's individual focused, it's focused on my own personal peace and prosperity. And um, so um I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I'm hearing echoes of that in what you're saying. Absolutely. Yeah, I agree. Let me ask you, this is a question I'm kind of dying to ask you because I am uh up here in Oregon, and actually in October I'll be meeting with some um some Christians and some activists who really have a heart for the state, and um they're just not content at all with you know these issues of brokenness in our state, um, and they really want to do something about it. They want to come together as churches to be begin to start making differences that the church isn't making, you know, in in our communities uh up here uh north of you right now. What advice would you give us? How do you start that um process of Christians coming together collectively to say, hey, we really want to make a profound, you know, difference for good, for for the gospel, for the kingdom in our community that addresses some of the areas of real brokenness. How do you begin that? What thoughts or advice? Because uh this is what you're doing, it seems to me.

Adam Peacocke 33:22

Yes, yeah, that's right. Scott, thank you for that question. And I honestly, I am so grateful to have the opportunity to speak into this and and will say that it's exactly how I'm trying to live. I I don't know that I would see myself as an expert, but I'm I'm passionately trying to live into these elements. You know, I I think, Scott, that um whether we're looking at our relationship with Jesus and coming into a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ or you know, any other element, it starts with repentance. It really starts with repentance. And um, you know, in my story, if I could just, you know, share in an interesting way of just how this kind of journeyed, um, I had been traveling around the world, uh, you know, um, engaging around issues of Christian worldview, and I'd been raised in the church and um had opportunity to evangelize in all sorts of different frameworks and different ways. And I'm sitting in a meeting with a bunch of pastors, uh, and we were being briefed by a local police officer because our community had been in the news for gang violence. And um, and the officer said, you know, uh this is a community-wide problem that needs a community-wide response, and our biggest problem is indifference in this community. Um, this is a major issue that's that's um not only impacting public safety, it's impacting the next generation um in really heartbreaking ways. And we just can't get most of our community to care. And something in what was said and and just the grace of God, the Holy Spirit really convicted my heart that I was part of that indifferent group of people. Um, I actually had close friends that I grew up with who um were wrapped up in the gangs, and um and I was convicted about how indifferent I was to their plight and the fact that they were in bondage, in absolute bondage of anger and despair to all of these things, and and I just repented. I just repented, and by God's grace, it was a gift, and I just made a commitment that I was gonna pray into it and I was gonna start paying attention for me. Um producing fruit in repentance, and I'm not saying for everyone, but for me, it was that I was gonna look at the newspaper and I was beginning to to be informed in my repentance, to pay attention to the issue, and it was the craziest thing because as I just prayed and God began to work in my heart, he began to change the way I saw place, began to change the way I saw community, and I began to, as I pay attention, understand the issue a little bit more, pray into it, and and again, I don't know that we can put me forward as a model, but I'll just tell you what happened is God he began to work as I repented, he began to work and he began to direct my steps. And what happened is he directed my steps in this issue, and I got informed is I showed up at a meeting for a whole different community issue with a nonprofit that was trying to do Christian Worldview education around Christian sexuality, and our vice mayor shows up, and in a side conversation, we start talking about gangs, and by the end of the night, I'm invited on the mayor's gang task force representing the church into the gang issue. And all I can say is God directed my steps, and it started with repentance. And repentance began to uh renew my mind, and the renewing of my mind began to prepare me to be placed to represent the body of Christ into this issue. I am still on that task force. I'm the I think maybe the longest standing member on that task force in our community, and that began a journey that I'm still walking through. And so, Scott, I'll say this: it starts with repentance, and I'm convinced that it starts inside out, that a biblical Christian worldview starts with conviction, not convincing, and that the transformation of our world starts with the local and moves towards the extra-local and international and not the other way around. I'm con I'm I'm deeply grieved that most Christians can tell you way more about who governs our nation than who governs their community. Even though they have the greatest influence, as much as our vote matters, their greatest influence to actually be try bring transformation into the world is where they live, not where they, you know, not where they vote. It's not in Washington, D.C. It's in these communities in Oregon. And so we're we're still captured by empire. We're still captured by the way, there's another way of thinking that is more in the kingdoms of our world than in the kingdom of God. We still don't think leaven, we still don't think seed, we still don't see inside out and bottom-up. And and I want to honor my dad and and Darl Miller and and others who who have informed my thinking to understand, you know, the way that the kingdom works. And so, Scott, first and foremost, we we have got to, it's not that we disengage, I'm I'm not anti um, you know, caring about world issues and and voting and advocating, but I do think we need to understand our greatest leverage is is local, and as we build models locally, God will open doors to the next level.

Scott Allen 39:19

Yeah, no, I completely agree with that. I think you know, just integrity kind of demands that if you're going to Yeah, and so and I'm challenged by the same thing. I think what you're saying is very powerful to me, Adam. Um the idea of starting with repentance. Uh you you said um start with conviction, not with convincing. That's quite powerful. So the change really has to begin in the church and in our own hearts. Um and uh yeah, I've got personal experiences that that kind of resonate with that myself. Um but let me just pick that up. And Luke, I want to bring you in too, because I know you've got questions here. But uh so God directed your steps on that particular issue of gang violence in your community. Now you found yourself uh, you know, in a a group uh with this other city leaders uh dealing

Unity That Opens Civic Doors

Scott Allen 40:10

with that issue. I mean just pick up the story from there. What what happened then? You know, what what did you bring as a Christian that wasn't there, you know, what and I maybe even beyond you, Adam, just because I know you're trying to work collectively with churches too. Um what happened? You know, what what what what did you learn about Christian engaging in community on this particular, you know, and just using this as one particular issue is helpful?

Adam Peacocke 40:35

Yeah, so Scott, let me uh I'm gonna just bring up three things and you guys can kind of chase it. And this is it's very practical. Um, the first thing is is in that gang task force framework, and and this is huge, what we're seeing going on right now in Santa Rosa and Sonoma County, I just I can't believe some of the doors that have opened to us based on the fact that I grew up in this community. What's going on now, I would have had a hard time imagining in certain ways, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago. And um one thing that I want to say is that, you know, we are, like you said, we're we're godless in so many ways. We're secularized in so many ways. There, there's a lot of aversion to the church in our community. And um, and so there's a there's a lot of, you know, to to maybe not pick the best example, but take a biblical phrase, there's a lot of giants in the land, there's a lot of walled cities, right? That that that um that we're trying to faithfully address. Um, that being said, I remember the the mayor told me, she said, Adam, you know, um, she became mayor at the time. She she said, it's it's difficult for our community to partner with a church, even if they're doing good and wanting to solve an issue, it's difficult to partner with one church, but it's surprisingly easy to partner with ten. This this was a powerful and profound thing. And and so one of the things that happened in this journey, and because of, you know, just the world and the influence that I'd grown up in with my dad, is I I had a particular desire and gifting to engage in a more united expression with the church. And I became that person who could bring 10 churches together. And this is what I want to say, and and uh, you know, in the brokenness of our society, um, that that's part of why there's maybe an openness in different places to the church as we unravel more and more. But I'll I'll just say this there is a power and unity in the body of Christ. And as we began out of our repentance to find out how we could meet needs, Gangraffiti became a framework that was an opportunity, a simple opportunity for us to address. And that led to like neighborhood cleanup days and laborhood neighborhood service days. And the most amazing thing happened is that when we began to get 40, 50, 60 churches operating and working together to clean up our community, simple things that made a practical difference. Um, I could not believe the doors that began to open. We literally had our city, you know, to just take longer stories short, we literally had our city and county change their work schedule for their staff so that we could get 2,000 volunteers on a Saturday and they could bring their staff in on overtime to help facilitate it. And and we did things on these cleanup days that literally not only you know erased 90% of the graffiti in the city in a single day, but the testimony from the city and county government was the city and county weren't good at working together. And they said, Because the churches came together in unity, you're beginning to see. Unity in other institutions. You're beginning to see because the churches are coming together, other groups are getting past their walls and coming together. It was incredibly powerful. So, you know, first of all, our unity matters, our ability to come together, and I'm not just talking about um, you know, uh in in some sort of a niceness way. I mean, when the body of Christ obeys to the design of God, there is a sort of a grace that comes with it. That's what I'm saying. So that that that's that's really key. Um, secondly, the second thing that I want to say is that I learned that we don't know how to be present in the community, Scott. We've got a lot to learn about being present in the in the community. And some of the things I learned the hard way is that we're prone to to shock and awe. This part of our broken worldview is what's the biggest thing we can do to justify ourselves. And um, and so what we learned is that um being truly present in the community is about a consistent, sustainable presence more than a than a big event. And that meant a whole new way of thinking. That's more of the leaven, that's more of the seed. And so, like with reaching out to the youth out of the gang task force, it began engaging with our local schools. And what we learned was that throwing $10,000 to build a community garden and then not showing up for a year didn't really bring change. But when when we began to like say, what can we sustainably do if we can only bring donuts twice a month? And that costs $15 and 15 minutes, but we began to build relationships, build presence. What we saw out of being a consistent presence is we saw that we became at the table, we became part of that community where when needs that just showed up in the moment because a family became homeless and didn't know where to go for help, or a family had a loved one die and didn't know how to put together a funeral service, our consistent presence gave us a greater opportunity for witnessing, a greater opportunity for speaking into that community school than some big shock and awe event ever did. So our repentance process, the changing of our values, didn't just come through studying scriptures, it also came through trying to live faithfully. And what we found was the answers were in sustainable relationship, not just problem solving.

Scott Allen 46:46

That's really powerful. Yeah. So what I'm hearing here on sustainable presence is like you're saying, not just going in and doing a particular project, a kind of a one-off, um, and then

Sustainable Presence Over Big Events

Scott Allen 46:58

checking it off our list, so to speak, and say, well, we've we've done that, we've engaged the community, but um really building relationships um and being there over the long haul, with the end being we really want to see a change uh on the particular issue that we're focused on, gang violence or whatever it is. In other words, we're we're not content just to do a little one-off and check it off our list, but we really want to see over time, by God's grace, you know, a real reduction in gangs and gang violence in the city. And I, if that's what I'm hearing, I really agree with that because I've noticed a trend, especially in Western churches, where I see this a lot in short-term missions where people they kind of almost go for the experience, um, as opposed to saying, hey, we're working with a group of people that don't know the Lord, they're struggling with poverty, corruption. What can we really do? What's something that we're really going to do be able to do that's gonna help them? Um that's a you know, if if you're going kind of for almost selfish reasons, you don't really even ask that question. You know, you you want to feel I kind of feel like, you know, I just want to feel good about myself, you know. But uh I'm hearing you say something kind of different. This isn't about you or feeling good about yourself, but this is about really being the body of Christ in in you know, in relationship with people in the community in a ways that make pot real sustainable change in a particular area of brokenness.

Speaker 48:20

Thank you. You are you articulated it so well, and I I just I want to bring one element that's so interesting as we've learned this is that as we're looking at how do we build that relationship, how are we present in a way that that allows us to build that relationship? It's not that we don't want to serve, don't want to meet needs, but but it's just opened up a whole other framework. You know, I I I grew up, you know, he who serves leads was a framework that it's in some of our Go strategic material, and it's beautiful. Servant leadership is something that we talk about a lot, and it's beautiful. And I want to say that um that can tweak us if we only see it through this power dynamic where, okay, the servant, the problem solver is gonna be the person in charge, and because it often puts us in this framework of we have to have the resources, we have to have the answers, we have to have the be the fixers. And by God's grace and because of how truth works, it's often that way. Because of how love works, it's often that way, but not only that way. And so I want to say this, Scott. The other element is that we've discovered that sometimes being able to be in need actually opens the door as well. We've discovered that that there's something about as we're engaging our communities locally, that if if we're thinking about being present in the community, we can also bring our need into that relationship to open doors for the gospel, not just our answers. This is this is the the the picture of Jesus with the woman at the well who engages that conversation by first saying, Can I have a drink of water? He actually approached this woman who who lived a life where she was not dignified, and he gave her dignity by coming in that place of need. This is Jesus who could walk on water, first coming to Peter and saying, Can I borrow your boat? And so what we've seen is sometimes our ability to engage at a place of need also opened doors, Scott. So I think as we begin to unpack and say, oh, maybe just the shock and awe, maybe the us feeling good by what we accomplished, as we begin to peel the vineyard back on that, God begins to just pull back other assumptions and begins to reframe stuff. And again, the the point is not being clever, the point is growing in Christ's likeness. And suddenly, as you guys know, you begin to come into the scripture and you see things you never saw before, and you see, wow, Jesus sometimes he he entered into a situation and it was need that he used to open hearts, to build bridges of relationship. He didn't always have to be the one who fixed things.

Luke Allen 51:17

I I have so many thoughts. I'm loving this conversation, Adam. I really appreciate uh all these practical tips and insights for each one of us. And I wish I had uh brought up my question sooner because now I have this long list of questions in my mind throughout the last whatever 48 minutes of our discussion, because this has been so rich and we've we've already jumped around a couple places. Um, but uh what I'm hearing, uh one thing that I just am reflecting on as you're talking is just basic relationship dynamics are sometimes so simple, and yet we don't use those when it comes to one of the most important relationships we have as Christians, which is the relationship between our church and our local commu communities. And uh that relationship is critical to the church's mission, central to the church's mission. It's not it's not uh secondary, or uh when we have the time or the opportunity or the resources. No, it's it's something we're called to do as Christians in our local churches, is engaged in our local communities and to serve our local communities. So how do we do that? I mean, a lot of times in just your basic relationships, like my relationship with my wife, is we all know that you can't have a quality relationship if you don't put in the quantity time, right? There's that the the the love languages of quality time versus quantity time. It's uh it's kind of a misnomer. It's no, you have to have the quantity, or you're never gonna have the quality. You can't just do this big romantic date once a year and expect your relationship with your wife to be great, you know. Uh so that to me, that kind of that that steady presence in your community, the 15 minutes with the $15 donuts, that's a ministry we can all do. And it and it just start there. You know, we always think big things for Jesus. I want to do big things for Jesus. It's like, well, yeah, you can. That's great. But you can also do the $15 donuts. I love that. That's super practical for me.

Speaker 53:01

Um but for most and for for so many of our small churches, right? Understaffed, under-resourced, suddenly that creates a bridge that that allows them to participate in super powerful ways.

Luke Allen 53:13

Yeah. And uh yeah, but but just getting back to if I I know we're kind of going backtracking here, but you said this all starts with um repentance, and it all starts with uh your heart for your community changing around you. I really want to have my heart change for my community around me. I think I I like to s stay on the the comfortable side of life, you know, that kind of personal peace and piety is something I struggle with. Um try to stay away from the darkness around me and just focus on, you know, the individualism, I guess. The lie of individualism and my family and just my comfortable places, right? But I want to love my community better, so I want to see them the way that God sees them. When you when you were talking about how you went through that process of repentance, you said um it changed the way you saw a place and you saw community. Just what did that mean specifically for you? Like what actually changed in your mindset? What did you start seeing differently and thinking about differently in your place and your community?

Speaker 54:08

Thank you for that question, Luke.

Serving With Humility And Need

Speaker 54:10

And yeah, so well said. Um I I think a few things. I think that I, you know, similar to what what we were talking about with the individualism, often, you know, I looked at my community through the things that I liked and disliked. Uh, I looked at it through the lens of what I wanted to do for it, uh in terms of the the gospel or the things that I would want to to change. Um but but I didn't know it. You know, I I think that um yeah, I mean this is a a little bit hopefully it's pithy, but maybe a little bit overbroken down, but it's um it's hard to transform a community you don't love, and it's hard to love a community you don't know, and it's hard to know a community you've not really engaged with and listened to. And so I just recognize that there was so much uh indifference, there was so much indifference in my heart, and and this is especially huge for the body of Christ. Jesus talked about, I think it's Matthew 12, maybe 24. Um, you guys have to help me here. But um uh in you know, in the last days, because of lawlessness, the hearts of many will grow cold. And it it speaks to this indifference, and there's so much brokenness, so much godlessness in certain ways. It was easy just to see the sin, and easy for my heart to begin to grow cold to the place where I was living, which kept me from really being able to care about learning it, knowing it. That impacted my sense to appreciate and love, you know, the the the stuff that was still there from the God who made it and loves it. And then that really made me so transactional in the way that that I was trying to minister to it and speak to it. So, so Luke, for me practically, it was a journey of beginning to listen and learn. Something softened in my heart when I repented, and that softness created a framework to appreciate things I couldn't appreciate before, to listen for things I couldn't listen to before. And as I began to know more, I began to appreciate more, I began to love more, suddenly I think was able then to see more clearly how to serve, how to speak, how to be present. And so repentance, the the softening, the changing of my heart, um, it just created a domino effect. And um, in some of the changing of worldview, just last thing I'll say around place, um it, you know, I'm taking years and years of things and condensing it down, but it began also to help me see place differently in the scripture. Uh, you know, I think one of the least appreciated names of Jesus is Jesus of Nazareth. And it's an eternal name. He was fully human, born into, of course, fully God, but born into a geographical place. And there's not a covenant in the Bible that doesn't have place associated with it. Like as we think about this, this is so powerful. And even Jesus and his disciples, I go to prepare a place for you. There's something in creation and I believe new creation that honors place. God forms a space or a place and he fills it with life, right? Whether it's the skies and the birds, or the sea and the fish, or the land and the land creatures, or the garden and Adam and Eve. You know, place is somehow, the context of it is important to God. And it's important for us. If we're going to understand how to live faithfully, we have to understand that place is part of the gospel story, and the redemption of our relationship to place is part of the gospel story, and somehow that's woven into how Jesus lived and even how He how He commissioned us to be faithful in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth. I think we we see it sequentially, but we don't appreciate maybe that place is part of that as well. And so we look at it as concentric circles through a very rationalistic lens, but I think we don't see it necessarily through a kingdom lens that that doesn't just see it sequentially, but actually honors a place called Jerusalem, in a place called Judea, in a place called Samaria, all the way to all the places, so that God's promise, we're told in Hebrews, he swears by himself because he can't swear by anything greater. And one of the places he swore by himself was Numbers 14, 21. As surely as I live, all the earth, every place that I created will be filled with the glory of the Lord.

Luke Allen 59:15

That's I that is really there's a lot there. I've heard you speak on this before, and I'm glad that you were able to share it here because I think that's something that yeah, I have hardly ever thought about. So that was kind of paradigm shifting when you first uh when I first heard you share about that. And I think just as church or as Christians, we should be asking ourselves about this, about why God did you place me here? Why now? Why here? In this specific place. Because we're we're called to be kingdom ambassadors, right? But we we don't usually apply that to every area of our life. Um, and for me, one area is uh where why have you placed me specifically here? Um so I'm excited to think about that more.

Speaker 59:54

Luke, uh I I've I know I've talked a lot, just one practical thing around this, and man, you because you've you've captured my heart. I see the sincerity of what you're saying. Um I probably can't connect all the dots because I don't understand all of them well enough yet, but but I'll say this is that there is something powerful in prayer walking. We actually see it in the scripture a lot, in in all sorts of expressions. Um, that's its own deal. But uh one of the things God has helped use uh in my heart is just um to walk in my community. We're in a driving culture, which you know, uh you just don't connect in the same way. And

Place Matters In The Gospel

Speaker 1:00:35

so just to walk, um I'm not even talking about intercessory prayer walking, although that that's something we do also. But just to walk, to look, there's something about, you know, God walking with Adam, even the garden. That was the place he placed them, and he walked with them in that place. And so I just want to encourage those who are hearing, who maybe their heart gets stirred beyond practice and say, I want to connect more to my place, or something that, you know, um, take some time to walk and pray, to look and pay attention. Beauty, we mentioned find beauty in the place where God's placed you and allow him to use that to work in your heart. Um, I just I just wanted to take a little segment as a practical thing. That is that is a very practical thing you can do that will open a door for God to to direct your steps, literally.

Luke Allen 1:01:24

Yeah, that's I love walking. There we go. That's a great place for me to start.

Scott Allen 1:01:28

Yeah, go ahead, Ed. Well, we need to wrap up. I just had one question I'm kind of really liking to probe a little bit too, just because our contexts are in some ways similar between California and Oregon, in the sense that um a lot of the the people that have their levers, their hands on the levers of power in terms of the city government, the state government, the different agencies and institutions, they don't share our worldview and very often quite hostile to our worldview. And that comes up in you know all sorts of ways. For example, you know, a big area of difference is just on the whole area of public education. What is the curriculum? What gets taught? And um, you know, that that there's real victims to these things, you know, when you're teaching a really aggressive LGBTQ gender ideology to your kids. And you know, so what how do what what advice do you have in terms of the where you're you're running up against a worldview that's dramatically different. You're engaging in the community, maybe in the area of education or whatever it might be, homelessness. Um, you're running up against a worldview that's dramatically different, it's causing problems, damage, real damage, you know. Uh John Stone Street, I love what he says. He says, ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have victims, you know, and so there we've got victims here for these bad ideas. What do you do? What's your advice in those kind of contexts? Because I hear that a lot here in the in the town I'm living out in Central Oregon Bend. You know, I I know a guy recently who's on the city council, and he just said, I just can't speak about my convictions as a Christian. I would be fired, you know, we're where he's running up against a real, you know, real sharp worldview difference and and hostility behind it. Yeah, thoughts on that?

Speaker 1:03:13

Uh Scott, thank you. Um you know, I'll try and be succinct, and this is just such a powerful so what a powerful quote. Yeah, uh bad ideas do have victims. And I I actually think most of us are not in touch with just how desperate our communities are for God, just how prevalent and deep the pain is. Guys, we have no hope except Jesus Christ. We have no hope except the gospel coming to work in our lives. Um coming back to repentance, that just the renewing of our mind. I'm seeing as as much time as I've leaned into Christian worldview, just how much my worldview needs to continue to change. So Scott, I'll say this that one, we we celebrate and lean in to homeschooling in our communities. We've got some amazingly vibrant like uh church and multi-congregation uh homeschool co-op elements, Christian schools we're trying to support. So uh, and our our school system is um violently anti-Christian uh in different ways. And so I have a sense of resonance with what you described. Um, we're trying to think strategic. And I'll just say that um one of the things, you know, as we were talking about our approach to service, one of the ways I described it, I should have said this earlier, is the the difference from seeing the church as a need meter to being a neighbor, loving your neighbor. Um, this has brought forward the place thing we talked about, understanding proximity a little bit. And so we came to identify our public school system and our elementary schools in particular as a wonderful way to love our neighbor. And and that put us in a crisis of recognizing wow, there is a school system that we struggle with so much because we we just see the damage. And if we look at an elementary school, it is like a community project of the families who live in the neighborhoods around that. It is where the highest concentration of the kids in our community gather on a daily basis. It's a place where you have high parent-kid involvement through the PTO, and so we had to understand that there's a nuance where we've got we we are um in conflict with the system, and we actually need to engage the school as a place of reaching our community. At an elementary school, the kids are there for seven years. This is if you want a regular

Loving Public Schools Amid Hostility

Speaker 1:06:05

place to reach a family in your community that's maybe not coming to church on Sunday yet, that is one of your best opportunities to reach them. You know, it's longer than a sports season, and it's year upon year upon year. So, so all that to say, Scott, we're we're we're reaching out to the schools with eyes wide open, but God had to give us another way of seeing it. He had to give us a way of seeing beyond the school system into the framework of what was actually going on and saying, let's be a neighbor. This is where we're gonna bump into them in our neighborhood. Now, the challenging thing is a lot of our, you know, a lot of the school families live in the neighborhood, but not the church families. They commute to church in that way, right? So this also is a thing that we're wrestling through is how do we, how do we, um, how are we faithful where God's called us um and recognize these dynamics. But yeah, um ministering into systems, serving in communities where you also have the ideological warfare. Um, I'll just say that when when God works in our hearts, repentance in our hearts actually makes us more likely to open doors for repentance in other hearts. It's what we said at the beginning. It starts with conviction, not convincing. And something about a person who repentance is active in their lives, I think they're more likely to share Christ in a way that brings conviction in another person's heart. I believe that someone who's well equipped in a biblical Christian worldview is someone who's better at bringing conviction than someone who's got all the answers and can try and convince something. Something you can convince someone into is something the enemy and the world and sin will convince them out of. And um, sorry, but this is this is huge. So, you know, as we're confronting these things, the service with schools, it's it's seeing strategically, seeing differently, and it it's it's living out of a life that's responding to the conviction of God.

Scott Allen 1:08:23

What are your thoughts on we do need to wrap up? I'm sorry, Adam. I just you're it's such a uh it's a practical conversation for me again, because um uh I'm kind of moving in this direction just personally myself. And so maybe maybe in fact we just need to leave it there, and I'll just bug you, Adam, on a private basis. I would welcome it. I would welcome it, yeah. So yeah. Um, Luke, any final questions from you?

Luke Allen 1:08:48

Um Yeah, yeah, we do need a thoughts. I have so many thoughts. Maybe we'll make a part two sometime. This has been a lot of fun. Um yeah, I just uh if you could give us one story as a as a takeaway of uh of a way that you've seen the local churches there uh in Sonoma County work together um to make it make a real difference. I know you've already given a couple examples, but just one more story. I know those are really helpful for people to grasp on to.

Speaker 1:09:12

I don't I don't know how long it will be um for you guys till you uh show this. I I actually could tell quite a few. We've got a a group that's doing a video on our school's outreach, um, and that video is gonna come out I think somewhere in October.

Donuts Basketball And Lasting Trust

Speaker 1:09:30

Um and so it's something you guys could link to in the show notes if you wanted that's super practical. So just uh I'll give you an example. We can use an example from the schools. So, just as an example to school's outreach um and this consistent presence, we actually had a local church pastor who um did the donut thing, right? It was just one of many elements. I it's you know, I don't want to put too much weight on donuts, but he was doing the donut thing. And and often when I talk to a pastor, you know, in this element of doing something big and the relationship, he's like, When do I call the principal and what do I say? And I'm like, don't call the principal. Just bring donuts, you know, every other week for three months in a row and then come back to me. And I haven't had a school yet where the principal doesn't call the pastor within the first three months. And when the when the footing of the relationship is based on a thank you from the principal calling the pastor, it's just amazing. And so the principal calls the pastor, and he's so excited because he's got so many ways that he thinks they can help. And the and so he's, you know, it's good, and we got some other ideas, and the principal just just stops him and says, Can I share an idea that's on my heart first? And she says, Um, I've got 600 students on my campus, about 300 are um are young, you know, boys, and I'm learning, you know, I've got only women faculty or mostly women faculty, and I'm I'm learning many of them don't have great male role models. And she said, I just want to increase interaction with healthy men, with good male role models. Would you consider, as a pastor, once a week coming on campus at lunchtime and just playing basketball with the kids, just hang out. This is a public school elementary principal inviting a pastor on campus to interact with the students. And so for the last six years, that's what's happened. Now, there are many expressions of service, many stories that I could tell. But I just want to just say no pastor would have the audacity to say, you've got a bunch of boys who needs help, let me on your campus. Like that conversation wouldn't go well. But but something about inviting trust, he never would have thought to ask that. And yet, that was how God was at work. That principal is not a Christian, but what I'll say this is that the story that's so cool is that principal got bumped up to be in the administration. She now oversees all of the elementary schools in the school district. And her testimony to the elementary schools has been, as a principal, that partnership with a local church made all the difference for us. And she said, I think every elementary school in our district should have a partnership like that, a church that's willing to nurture relationships, willing to invest and be present in our community. And there was a principal that reached out and said, I'm concerned about separation of church and state. I'm concerned about proselytizing. And she just said, guys, everywhere they've been, they've been a blessing. And then she said something incredible. She said, I'm not a Christian, but I just want to tell you, if some of the students of our schools decide they want to be Christians, that's a good thing. We're not gonna, we're not gonna let fear dictate this relationship. This is good for our community, and I encourage you to lean in. Now, I hope I'm not getting people in trouble, but I just want to say that's a powerful testimony. That's what being a faithful neighborhood, those are the doors that can open up.

Scott Allen 1:13:04

That's really what an encouraging story, Adam. Thanks for sharing that. And I, you know, I'm thinking of Christians that I know and respect, and they they see issues like um the indoctrination of children in let's just say gender ideology, which is part of our curriculum now. It's it's what's taught. That's right. Absolutely. And so they go into school board meetings and they're um they're they want to challenge that, you know, they want to say this is wrong, this is a lie, you know. Um and I uh a lot of me respects that because I do think we have to give testimony to the truth, and we have to, you know, we have to be we have to care enough to do something like that. But what I'm hearing you say is there's maybe things that need to happen first before that conversation.

Speaker 1:13:47

Just well said, Scott, I I do. I I think that there are, and I I think that um again, you know, this is a bigger thing, but I I really believe in this inside out bottom-up, right? And when we have to start trying to win the culture back from the top down, we've already lost in certain ways. I mean, I I I don't mean that in hear me, you know, I don't want to the wrong things to be taken from that, but I really believe if we're gonna live faithfully, we've got to re-engage locally in ways that build these models. And the this process of being faithful in this way, it it disciples us, it helps us grow in our Christian worldview. There's something about being practically grounded from the inside out and the bottom up that helps us. So I don't have a fully formed Christian worldview. God in his grace is renewing my mind, and he's often doing it not through what I'm reading from a political commentary. Even amazing, brilliant biblical thinkers, it is them, and it's what's happening as we reach out to our local elementary school, as we address gangs here locally. Um, yeah, so thank you.

Scott Allen 1:15:04

I've just no substitute for personal learning that comes through personal action and and uh engagement, you know. So Adam, what I love about what you're sharing is um you're talking at the level of principles, and that's so helpful because those principles like inside out or you know, I mean, you've you've mentioned somebody beginning with repentance, um those can be applied in a variety of contexts. And so I'm gonna, you know, I've jotted those down, I'm gonna go back and reflect on those, and I I just really appreciate that that level of kind of of wisdom that you're sharing with us today. So um, well listen, Adam, I'm uh we we'd love to have you back on. This is a conversation I personally love to keep going on, but uh just want to thank you for your heart, for your work, for your love for the Lord, and just the insights that you shared with us that uh help us uh to not just have uh theology for engaging in our community, but some practical principles and and uh examples and models as well. It's been super helpful. So thanks for that.

Speaker 1:16:01

I uh it's been an absolute honor. Thank you.

Scott Allen 1:16:03

Keep up the good work and uh exciting to see what God's got in store for you.