Plays On Word Radio
An in-depth look at the Word of God, the Plays On Word community, and the Plays - with original music - we perform, that are based on the Word of God. New episodes drop Fridays at 7AM EST! To find out how Plays On Word Theater can perform 'LIVE on YOUR STAGE' and to support this missionary & podcast visit: https://playsonword.org/
Plays On Word Radio
Ep 145: GraceWay, Genesis, And A Wake-Up Call (Part 1)
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"What happens when a pastor bets on a story—and a storyteller—he’s never seen? That simple 'yes' shaped a rich conversation about risk, trust, and how creative ministry can reignite a love for Scripture."
We trace Pastor Don Schwing’s journey from ritual to relationship, the power of storytelling to wake up a church, and the surprising ways God guides a congregation’s future. Humor, honesty, and a 7‑Eleven-sized miracle reveal how surrender fuels real ministry.
• why embodied storytelling makes Scripture feel urgent again
• how a single sentence shattered self‑justification
• moving from willpower to surrender and abiding
• using humor to reset attention without losing reverence
• resisting broad‑brush labels to see people first
• leadership under pressure and the habit of peace
• Graceway’s staffing model and shared mission
• the vision for an outreach center next door
• practical providence in property, timing, and price
To find out more, check out our website at playsonword.org
Pastor Don Schwing, Executive Pastor - GraceWay Bible Church
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Welcome And Tour Updates
SPEAKER_00Lord, you know you're now listening to play is the best.
SPEAKER_02I was involved with stuff I shouldn't be involved in, and I was convincing myself it was okay. And I said, listen, when I go to meet God, I'm gonna tell him it's okay because I don't know if it was the same sermon or it was shortly thereafter, Joe was like, Listen, no matter how hard you try, you will never be able to convince God that you are right and he is wrong. And that was the eye-opener that I needed. And I'm telling you, I asked my office, I found the church that was open, and I just went and I kneeled and I prayed for the Lord to forgive me.
SPEAKER_01Hello, and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we discuss, analyze work, and play on the word of God. Thank you for joining us on the 6 Thursday today. Let's join Pastor Teddy, also known as Fred David Kenny Jr., the founder of Plays on Word Theater, as he does a deep dive into the Word of God.
SPEAKER_03Amen. Amen. Well, welcome to all of you listening to Plays on Word Radio. My name is Fred David Kenny Jr. Many of you know me, some of you might not, but it's all good. Thank you very much, Katie Kenny and Josh Taylor, for that excellent introduction. We are back at Southern Command for Plays on Word. And uh yeah, we are we got a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff happening. We're prepping for our Christmas Joe tour coming up. Uh there's a lot of things in the works. Please pray for my wife. She's working hard. And um I'm hardly working. No, I'm working. I'm working. Um, yeah, we're gonna have Christmas Joe coming up in December. Northeast tour, and we're gonna be doing some down south uh Christmas Joes. And we're working on the Dan play also, and a couple other things are in the works, also. Um recently on our Northeast tour for Genesis Joe, we had the privilege of stopping by Graceway Bible Church. You guys heard our our dear brother Mark Crabtree, he's an assistant pastor there, and he oversees the young adults and the families. And uh we have not had a chance to interview Dr. Scott Taransky, the teaching pastor, but we hopefully that we will do that soon enough. Um today we're gonna talk to the executive pastor, Don Schwing. And uh, yeah, he's really interested. I just met this guy, uh, but yeah, he's a brother in Christ, so we go way back. Check it out. I want to say welcome to plays on word radio, first of all. Yeah, uh, we want to welcome Don Schwing from uh Graceway Bible Church over in Hamilton area, Hamilton, New Jersey.
Why Churches Take Risks On Art
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and we uh we recently did our Genesis Joe play for you. Any thoughts on that? Um you know, I I man, you really took a leap of faith. Just just taking Mark Crabtree's word for it. I know that's a uh props to you, man. Uh I I bravo to you for that because uh there are a lot of pastors that um you know when somebody comes up to them and says, Hey, you gotta see this play, they have a preconceived notion already, oh yeah, play, whatever, yeah, okay. Uh and you know, they don't really go with a lot of we've had a lot of people that go to their leadership or pastors, and the pastor's like, Yeah, thanks, but no thanks. Whatever, we're just gonna continue what we're doing, and that's fine. But I want to give you bravo for taking a chance and saying, Um, you know what, I'm gonna just trust the Lord here.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know, well, we hired Mark. I mean, I I trusted him enough to hire him here at the church. I mean, I I shouldn't be willing to trust his judgment. Uh so you know, he had you ministering there. I think you did a Christmas, uh, one of your Christmas performances at the talk.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02Uh, and then I I reached out and Mark helped coordinate that between uh between us and your lovely wife uh to be able to get you here. Um our church has always been open to alternative, um, unique ways, I don't want to say alternative, but unique ways to worship the Lord. Uh, we've had uh other um God has given each one of us gifts, and we each use those gifts uh for our own personal growth, our own connection with the Lord, and we use certainly use them to minister to others. And who am I to say that because you minister to people through acting to say, well, that's not good enough. Uh so God has given you a gift, and we were so happy to be able to have you here to minister to us uh through your Genesis, Joe.
SPEAKER_03Amen. Uh as far as the you know what you saw, you have any thoughts? Did anything stick out? Were you you seemed like you were blessed, and I was blessed about that, you know. Was it uh definitely.
SPEAKER_02I mean, for for me as as um
Bringing Joseph To Life
SPEAKER_02I want to look at I can look at it two ways, one as a pastor, one as a person. So as a pastor, uh just seeing the congregation respond to you and what you were uh presenting through the life of Joseph, uh, and um responding to how you tied it into the gospel. Now, I think everyone who was there was probably a believer, uh, but how they responded to what you were doing. Um, a lot of times we can look at the Bible and we've read the story of Joseph a hundred times, and we just it just becomes a story and routine to us. But seeing it be brought to life with such passion and energy, um, and there was a lot, you know, there's more that goes on in a person's life in Joseph's life, other than what we read on the words. It was his relationship with his father, and what it is, what was his father actually feeling about his uh his son now being being found being um he thought he was dead and then now being found. Um, just how you were able to bring that to life with really brought the Bible uh to life. And I think that that is hugely, hugely important. And then as a person, just I think we talked a little bit how you're able to turn off and turn on and be able to go from one emotion to the other. Um, my background has always been in logistics, you know how things move from point A to point B and back again or move on in the most efficient way possible, and how you're able to go from crying on stage to now playing the piano and then doing this, and you go to a different character, it just just amazed me.
SPEAKER_03Amen. Yeah, that was that was that's always a little bit of a challenge, but yeah, God's been He's He's uh given me the ability to do that. And we have there's wide swings of emotion. You're like one minute you're you're like you got tears coming out your eyes, and then the next minute you're kind of laughing, still still processing the the tears and everything, but you're laughing like wait, what did he just say? You know, we have uh we have a couple a couple contemporary type of uh I want to say I don't like to call them jokes, but they are contemporary bits of humor that are mixed in, where uh, for example, one of them is where Joseph is talking about his storehouses and he compares them to the Amazon warehouses, you know, that Amazon's building. It's like it's funny.
SPEAKER_02I was I was preaching uh last week and I was thinking about how you did that, and I I was um I was preaching on uh David and we're going through the life of David and David and Saul, and how when um Saul heard that David went to the town uh to a Himelex uh town and how nobody said anything, and he's like, Well, who's gonna do this for me and who's gonna do that? You guys didn't do this, and you guys didn't do that, and I'm like, he's like whining, and I'm like, there was a book in the 90s called How to Win Friends and Influence People, Win Friends and Influence People, and I guarantee you, Saul never read this book. So I'm like, all right, I can take something contemporary that we know, apply it there, create a little bit of humor with it. But it you know, that that humor, because when we're when you're you're you're a pastor, you know, you're giving a you're giving a sermon and you're you're spending 10 minutes talking, and people can start like, all right, and I'm ready for a little bit of break, or you start shifting your seats. We gotta throw something in there that creates a little bit of a you know, a little bit of humor or a little bit of a visual uh that kind of helps them get them refocused for the for the next 10 minutes.
SPEAKER_03I just see Jesus doing the same thing. I I mean throughout the scripture, I've there are things that are that are funny or um ironic and and funny. I mean, I even laugh. I think it's kind of funny to a certain extent, even though it's tragic, the the whole thing about Haman in the book of Esther, when uh when he when he's falling all over the couch all over Esther after she basically exposes him to the king, she says, it's this it's this vile Haman here who's who's done this. He's trying to wipe my people out, and he's like falling all over the couch. And one of the funniest lines in that whole section to me is where the the servants, the servants say to the king, well, Haman actually has a gallows built, it's about 90 feet tall or whatever, or 70 feet tall, and uh he had it built for Mordecai. And and the king's like, hang him on it. I mean, that to me, I man, it's it's tragic for them, but it's just the type of turnaround
Humor That Refocuses Hearts
SPEAKER_03and type of twist that Hollywood wishes that they had in their stories today.
SPEAKER_02And when I was uh on Sunday, I was we were talking about uh 1 Samuel 24 uh and how uh David was on one side of the mountain and Saul was on the other. And these aren't mountains like the Rockies, these are just like kind of like you know, um hills with rocks on them, and they're hiding, you know, he's hiding, and Saul's chasing. We're kind of going back and forth, building attention. It said Hollywood wishes they could have a script like this, you know, and just the tension that's there, and how and there in that case, God uh you used the uh the attack of the Philistines uh to distract Saul. Saul then left, so David uh David.
SPEAKER_03I tell you that that scene is so man, that section of David's life, that is it's so suspenseful because and I've often said I said, I wish I wish uh the the the whoever wrote it, Samuel or what I I wish they had a drone flying over that mountain, a drone shot of that scene would have really set because you got David and his and his band of guys, 400 or 600 guys, whatever it is, and and then you got on the other side, you have the whole army moving toward, and they're they're like moving around to and it's just so suspenseful to me.
SPEAKER_02I yeah, yeah. I was I was looking for a visual to put with the sermon where I could have like a map with like you know the arrows going a Zur attack, and you're like you walk like watch like a historical um uh recreation of a battle from the revolution, you know, how Saul's army was all around and then David's here.
SPEAKER_03I just I you know I just couldn't I'll see if I can find one for you. I because uh yeah, I've often thought about that, especially that section, man. It's and it's amazing that Saul has breaks off uh you know, because of God's providence there and setting and protecting David. Uh, I tell you, I wish there was a drone shot. The only thing something that it reminds me of, and it wouldn't relate to everybody, but I'm a I'm like a uh a sci-fi geek too. I like Star Trek and Star Wars. Okay, so in The Wrath of Khan, the original. In the Wrath of Khan, Khan's in the Reliant, and Kirk is in the Enterprise, and and they're they're going around this the nebula right there, and it that's what it reminds me of, man. It's like the Reliant outguns the the the Enterprise and every Enterprise is all beat up anyway, and it's that's what it reminds me of, but not everybody could relate. But I I I just uh Yeah, so that's well okay. So let's let's just quickly trans into transition into this section. Like, tell me how did how did Pastor Dodd how did you how did you come to meet Jesus, man? How did this happen?
SPEAKER_02So I I was raised Catholic, uh in a Catholic home, went uh I wasn't a twice a year Catholic or a senior Catholic, so we went we went every Sunday. Um and as soon as I I did my sacraments, you know, come uh communion, confirmation, all those, all those things. Uh and then as soon as I was old, as soon as I was driving myself to church and I was outside of my parents' control, I was like, Yeah, I'm not going to church. Uh and I was I was pretty bad with it. I would say I was going to church and I'd
Scripture’s Suspense And Storycraft
SPEAKER_02actually go someplace else that I shouldn't be going and then come home when church was about to be was about to be done. And I got caught one time lying, and um, but anyway, that's that's a whole other thing. It just did the things that you know you do when you're deceiving and how it just leads to one lie and leads to another lie. I got, you know, I I got married in the Catholic Church, um, but I was nominally Christian. Let's say I mean I knew about Jesus, I didn't know what it meant to have a relationship with Jesus. And uh I was working um I was working in Philly at the time, and a guy I worked with was a Christian attending Calvary Chapel, Philadelphia Joe Volch's church. Joe Volch. Uh and then um somehow he might have mentioned to me something about listening to his radio program. So I was working uh his radio program, I forget what it was called, but it was like seven o'clock in the morning, uh, hour commute to uh to Philly, and I would listen to it. And I was struggling in my marriage at the time. Uh I was thinking my wife wasn't the woman that I wanted her to be. Um but then I get there. I eventually realized that that was actually the completely wrong thinking because it's not about who I want her to be, it's about who God wants her to be. Uh I was listening to this message from Joe, uh Pastor Joe, and he had said, you know, people would come to his office and would say, Listen, Pastor Joe, is it okay if I and he says, if you ask him that question, you already know the answer is no.
SPEAKER_03You know, yeah, straight from the heart, man. I that that pro that program, I used to listen on the commute too. Yeah, and he he's he's I think I I know the program you're talking about because I he would say that more than once.
SPEAKER_02And then he and I I've used I've used that on Sunday morning to tell impactful it was. And it was um uh you know, I was involved with stuff I shouldn't be involved in, and I was convincing myself it was okay. And I said, listen, when I go to meet God, I'm gonna tell him it's okay because. And I thought it was the same sermon or it was shortly thereafter, Joe was like, Listen, no matter how hard you try, you will never be able to convince God that you are right and he is wrong. And that was the eye-opener that I needed. And I'm telling you, I passed my office, uh, I found a church that was open. It happened to be a Catholic church because the doors were open for Catholic morning mass. And I just went and I kneeled and I just prayed for the Lord to forgive me. And it was one of those tear-filled moments. Uh, I don't remember the date. Some people have their their uh second birthday uh in memory, but I remember it as clearly as can be. Uh and then within like I don't know, three weeks, my wife was like, you know, there's something different about you. Amen. You know, she's in one of those things like you're very attractive to me right now, and and not in the not in the physical sense. I mean, I knew I knew what she meant. And that was it. And then we um we hadn't been going to church. I suck my wife away from church because I didn't want to go. Uh, we found a method, well, we had two, our kids were little at the time, maybe um, maybe seven and three. Uh I went to a Methodist church for a year. That wasn't doing it. We were the uh youngest people there in our late 30s. Then a friend of mine who I was doing karate with uh had said, Hey, I have this church over here. Why don't you think about coming to business? I came to visit Graceway, that was in 2009, and we just uh I fell in love with it. Uh the teacher at the time was um uh Rich uh Dr. Richard Emmons. He was a professor at PBU, uh now Carrie University, and it was great. I mean, lively worship. I came out of the Catholic Church where it was hymns and dirges, it wasn't you know lively worship, and it was fantastic. And my wife started to come and we we found our place. Um we eventually started serving in Iwana, and that's how we got integrated in with the church.
SPEAKER_03Amen. Wow, that that's absolutely fantastic, man. I love it. That's I mean, the fact that the Lord the Lord got a hold of you, and in in the Catholic Church, see a lot of people on the uh uh Protestant side, uh they'll they just paint with a broad brush, man, and be like, listen, and the Lord can use anybody, the Lord used a donkey to talk to somebody. I don't like to paint because when I got married, Katie's family, they were all they're all Catholic. And I actually had conversations with God. I said, Lord, why do you have me like
Don’s Conversion And Conviction
SPEAKER_03marrying why'd you connect me with a family of Catholics, man? I mean, really? They're praying to Mary, they're they're you know, they're uh they they believe in the the that the body and the blood, you know, the in the communion, the whole thing is is you dying again, and and like I had all these, I was abrasive, and the Lord used them to show me that they are people behind that name. You know, they're they are people there are people behind the name that we broad brush with a broad brush, oh, those Catholics or whatever. And it really straightened me out. He straightened me out in a lot of ways. So I have an appreciation for uh for what you just said. He just going into it.
SPEAKER_02I think it's a path of least resistance for people, is just to play everything with a broad brush. It's like all those people over there are bad, so whatever label you want to want to put on them, because it's easier to do it that way than to see them as a person because there takes there's serious spiritual effort to engage with people. So, you know, I think it's easy when we paint with a broad brush, or we're not even gonna deal with them over there because they're Catholic. Whoa, whoa, whoa. They're they're people just like everybody else, and they some of them may be believers, and some of them a large portion of them probably aren't, and they they need they need to be ministered to, and we can't just dismiss them because they're in a they're in a separate branch that you feel, you know, ah, they're believers, they're they're they're all doomed. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I mean, you can say that about non-believers, and you'll go after you know non-believers who don't profess a different type of Christian faith. Why do you go after them and not them? I said, isn't it all the same?
SPEAKER_03Good point. That's an excellent point, man. I love it. I also love the fact that you're listening to you were listening to uh straight from the heart with Joe Foch and um because I know I used to commute down either 295 or the turnpike, commuting to Philly from Hamilton, believe it or not. I was in Hamilton for a while, and uh yeah, I just uh 560 FIL, I believe, was the AM station, and that's what the Lord used to actually He really got a hold of my heart. I mean, as a kid I believed, and I I I gave my life to the Lord as a kid, uh, but I was so compromised in my walk, and I just had no power, man, in my life, and uh, and it wasn't it really until I was commuting to Philly and hearing daily. I I was hearing Greg Laurie, uh Charles Stanley, Rao Reese, Joe Foach, and some others. Um, but I just was listening to those, you know, those guys, and FIL played a big role in that. Just popping that on, and I just remember it was it was Greg Lurie, really. I was on a turnpike uh north of exit four, right there at a Philly exit. If you're gonna go take the Ben Franklin Bridge or whatever, and um I remember pulling over on the turnpike because Greg Lurie, he didn't just give an opportunity for uh somebody who's a non-believer to come to Christ. He said, and you who you you maybe you walked with, you've been walking with the Lord as a you know, but you you just you have no no power in your life, and you just you want to be closer to the Lord and you believe, but you just have you know, you need your unbelief helped or whatever. I forget how he put it, but that was me, man. And I was like, yo, I pulled over. I was like, Lord, if we're gonna do this, I don't want to be a rubber band going back and forth and bat I I let's if we're gonna do it, let's do it. If you know, I need I need you to I think I my line was I need you to do it because I've proven that uh me trying to be the guy that you that I think you want me to be is a recipe for failure over and over. I have a track record of failing at that. So if you're God and I believe you are, I need you to be God for me, and I need you to do it through me. How about that? I'm here, and that made a that made a gigantic difference, man. Big difference, man. We can't do it on our own. There's no way. No, you just can't. And it's I mean, and then you like the guilt of failing and letting God down and just being like, oh my goodness, here I am again. And and it's because we're doing things in our own strength is just a recipe for failure, frustration, and I need one more F. Let's see. Uh oh, it'll come to me later. Trying to I'm trying to do my my rapping thing, but I'm too it's too too early in the morning to come up with it. But um, yeah, it I just I think that even the plays, the plays that I'm doing, people are like, oh my goodness, how did you how did you do that for so long? And how do you remember all that? Listen, man, when I say it's not me, I mean that it's not me. Because I wouldn't be able to do anything without him. And I don't want to put it to I don't want to do anything unless he's gonna go before him do it. Man, it's so unworth doing anything in your own strength because you you end up invariably, you end up tired, exhausted, beat up, unfulfilled, unsatisfied because you didn't meet the mark when it's in your own strength. So the only thing you have to show for it is being wiped out, dead tired, frustrated, and you steal that guy down. So hey, it's a win-win when you say, All right, you know what? I'm here for you. I'll do whatever you need me to do. You help me do it. They one of the they call me past the buck. Pastor, Pastor Buck or Past the Buck. Because that's what I do. I pass the buck with uh the buck's not doesn't stop at my desk. It goes, it goes to the Lord's desk. The buck didn't that's that famous Bill Clinton line. The buck never got to my desk.
SPEAKER_02Well it's it's it's amazing how you you look at your life before the Lord and the things you struggled with, and yeah, your life in the Lord and the things you're able to accomplish. Um, one of the things I uh my hobby or is uh I'm a soccer referee and I've been doing it for 10 years, and I've uh I've been able to advance
Wrestling With Broad-Brush Judgments
SPEAKER_02up the soccer refereeing hierarchy. And it's not my own doing, it's only on the Lord. And and I think about how I used to handle conflict and challenges before I used to just assert myself and say it's my way or the highway. Uh, but that's you know, when you're in a when you're in a conflict, it doesn't always uh it doesn't always work that way. And you have to always be able to apply the right approach to the right situation. And I can definitely say for sure I would not be able to be successful in that area of my life, uh handling the conflict that constantly that comes with officiating a high-level mesh, whether it's baseball, football, basketball, whatever sport, you have to have that center of peace. And really, I just my reliance on the Lord each and every time I go out there to officiate really helps me to manage that sort of conflict. Uh, fortunately, here at the church, there's there's not much conflict. We're we're a pretty um God is definitely blessing us each and every minute. Um, and there's times people don't always get along, uh, but everyone here seems to be solely focused on the Lord. Uh, there's not there's next to nobody focused on personal gain, and we're gonna divide the church because you want to change the uh curtain colors from white to right light blue or something like that. Um, you just have a unified focus um on God. And I think that's why God has continued uh to bless Graceway over these last uh these last three years.
SPEAKER_03Amen. Yeah, tell us tell us a little bit more about Graceway. I want when I when I got there, I was like, wow man, these this is cool, nice sanctuary. Um, and then Mark told me you guys you guys got that the old 7-Eleven building in the back that and that's like tell us about some of the ministries because I was a I was blown away with Mark was telling me about some of what's going on.
SPEAKER_02So I want to back can I back up a little bit about 2009 and then we'll kind of go go forward. Um so I I came to the church in 2009. I think it's a cool story, and I want to be able to encourage uh your listeners. Um, I my family started to come to Graceway in 2009. Uh, I was the president of a manufacturing company in Philadelphia, and um I it was pretty successful in my career. God certainly blessed me. I believed he placed me in that job in Philly to be able to help people, and I was able to lead some people to the Lord uh while I was there, and that was fantastic. Actually, one of uh the guys that was there drew me a wonderful uh pencil drawing that I keep here because he's the first person that I that I see that I was able to lead to the Lord, and it just holds um uh just um he has a phenomenal gift in how the Lord was using his gifting. Um, so anyhow, so about uh 2016, I was asked to uh be part of a mission trip here at the church. And when someone asked me to go or if I would be interested in leading the trip, because my my background is in administration and leadership, forgive me with my nose. I just have this itchy. It's all it's all good. Um it's all good. We're not recording video anyway. Okay, so that's oh great, thank you. So excuse me. Uh do your thing, it's all good. Uh they asked me to lead this trip. My first response was man, I don't want to use one of my weeks of vacation for that. And then I was like, wait a minute, God give you four weeks of vacation. You can use one for him. It took about a second for me to get my mind or in it right. So, anyway, I went on this trip. It was to a um uh to an area uh to a place called Commission on Compassion in Los Angeles. We'd supported missionaries who were there, uh, and this group ministered to people who were both deaf and blind, so they can't see and they can't hear and they can't speak. And I'm like, yes, it's fan, it's interesting. Uh some of them can speak because they went deaf later in life. There's some vocalizations, as you would see, like some deaf people on TV or something like that. Uh, but very difficult to communicate with them. But anyhow, when I was there, it had this
Surrender, Power, And Calling
SPEAKER_02the Holy Spirit got a hold of me and said, You need to be involved in ministry, you need to be doing something like this with your life. And it was sort of like the sort of like the salvation experience, fall on your knees, Holy Spirit a hold of you, tears coming out, and God ordained me to be roomed with our assistant pastor at the time. I was explaining to him what was going on. He says, Why don't you take some seminary classes? So I never went to Bible school, Bible college. He says, You don't have to, you can go into seminary utilizing your professional experience, and you just have to get caught up a little bit, which I did. I enrolled in seminary, and a year later, a spot opened up here on staff for um someone with some administrative uh background. Uh, I was hired here at the church. Uh, took um took prayer, but it was pretty easy decision for us to make the leap from one job to the other. Uh, and we believe that you know God had certainly prepared us. I mean, you can imagine there is um there's an income difference between the job that I had and the job that I have now that I had um that I had. And um, but God prepared us for that. We never we always lived, my wife and I always lived as a one-income family because um, heaven forbid, something happened to one of the kids and one of us needed to stay home or something like that. So this is part of the thinking that God gave us to prepare us for this moment.
SPEAKER_03You have a much better life insurance policy. Yes, with the Lord, it's an eternal, it's eternal life. That's the name of it, eternal life insurance. And uh the no deductive. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 100%.
SPEAKER_02And um uh this the youth pastor left a short time later, so I started working with the youth because I knew them because I had started in Iwana, so I knew those kids. So it was a really sort of smooth transition uh as an assistant pastor. And then the senior pastor at the time asked me, hey, um, considering creating this position of executive pastor to handle all the executive functions at the church. Would you be interested in doing it? Again, I just see God's hand in all of that in the preparation of all the administrative experience and executive experience I had prior, was able to now apply that to the church. Uh, and then I finish my master's in divinity. I go to the process of starting my ordination, and then he says, uh, I'm quitting in 30 days. I'm like, uh, all right, what do we what what what do we do here? So I'm like, all right, the idea was that he was going to train me for about two years, mentor me for about two years, and then if the church called me, I would then be the senior pastor of the church. But now that two years didn't happen, and I'm like, all right, I mean, I'm here, I think I'm I think I can do it. Uh but the the elders had other ideas, and uh, you know, I was hurt. Uh but you can't you can't argue with experience. You can be one thing if they don't agree with your personality, or you have maybe a little bit of a different view over here, you view a little left, they view a little right, or whatever it is. But they're like, listen, we want somebody with five to ten years of preaching experience, and you just don't have it. I'm like, I can't argue with that, still hurt, but yeah, but yeah, but it's what it was. Uh so we spent about a year looking for a teaching pastor, and the the board was great. They're like, listen, we want to honor you, me, in in the role that God has called you to be. So we're not gonna hire a senior pastor, we're gonna hire someone who teaches uh in a spark time, and you continue to grow and pastor the church, which is how the last uh since 2022, and it's gone. We've uh Pastor Scott Taransky uh came here as our teaching pastor, another Calvary pastor. He was uh meeting at one of the middle schools in the town next door, but with COVID, they got kicked out. Then they were meeting in a barn down the street from my house. No heat, no electric, no bathrooms, no classroom space, no floor, no chairs. So they they would bring in bag chairs on mulch floors and start up the generator, start up the space heaters and stuff, and that was that was his church. And we're like, Well, listen, you know, we need someone to teach your people at your church need a building. He's a good teacher. See what God does with these. God brought Pastor Scott here in 2022. Well, look at how he's weaving that we've weaved that whole thing together. I mean, no nobody could have thought of this. I mean, there's only got Could have done that. So a short time later, uh, we become aware that the 7 Eleven building behind uh beside us, behind us in that area, um, was moving out, moving across the street. Now we've been trying to buy this building for 15 years. Uh the previous pastor wanted to tear it down, wanted to expand parking and stuff like that. That wasn't the vision that I had for
Conflict, Peace, And Leadership
SPEAKER_02that space. My vision was to create an outreach center for the community uh where we can help them physically and spiritually because some people are hesitant to walk into a church. Yes, right. You're right, you know, ancillary to the church. Um so the opportunity became um we realized that this property was available. We couldn't find the owner anywhere. We did all the tax records, all the stuff that we were that you could you could do without being a realtor. Uh so we made an announcement at the church hey, this um uh this this is an opportunity for us. We just we cannot find out who the owner is. Somebody from the church calls me on Monday, says, I know somebody who knows somebody. I'll give you a call in about 10 minutes. Calls me back, bound, you know, one, two, three company. I'm like, I think that's the owner. So I called our realtors, like, yep, that's the owner. And we're like, are you kidding me? So we had our realtor, if we were gonna go to the market, he estimated at about a million dollars uh for the building and and the property. They came in with 600,000 and change. That's what they offered to. Thank God. Wow, that's amazing.
SPEAKER_03Uh it's it just that means God wanted it. It gets better. Amen. Amen. Well, check it out. We are gonna continue this next week, uh, God willing, if the creek doesn't rise and if the Lord tarries, okay? Um, so but until then, the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
SPEAKER_01This program was made possible by the Playson Word family of supporters. To find out more, check out our website at plazonword.org.
