#21 Solomon Abuda

In this conversation, Solomon Abuda and I explore the creative side of Christian content, discussing the importance of prophecy, the fear of the Lord, and personal testimonies of faith. We delve into the realities of serving as a creative in ministry, the inspiration behind content creation, and the significance of building community within the church. Our discussion emphasizes the need for urgency in evangelism and the role of creativity in inspiring others to take action. In this conversation, Solomon discusses the dynamics of collaboration within creative teams in ministry, the importance of creative standards, and the various equipment used in content creation. He emphasizes the significance of having a dedicated creative team to effectively communicate the church's message, while also addressing the challenges of burnout and comparison faced by Christian content creators. Solomon shares insights on finding fulfillment in creative work through serving God and the community, and he offers encouragement to fellow creatives to focus on their unique calling and the impact of their work.

Solomon's YouTube, IG and TikTok: @solomonabuda 

Podcast Instagram and TikTok: @pespinoza.cyc

Podcast X: @pespinoza_cyc

Podcast YouTube: @CarryYourCrossStudios

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro and Name Spelling Mishap
• 5:00 Discussion on Recent Sermon and Prophecy
• 8:38 Understanding the Fear of the Lord
• 11:38 The Balance of Reverence and Casual Christianity
• 18:48 Solomon's Journey to Faith and Testimony
• 35:44 Finding Purpose Through Creativity
• 43:50 The Reality of Being a Creative
• 50:04 Navigating Creative Freedom and Standards
• 1:01:26 The Importance of a Creative Team
• 1:06:52 The Power of Testimonies
• 1:09:24 Burnout vs. Overflow: A Spiritual Perspective
• 1:10:47 The Ups and Downs of Content Creation
• 1:14:54 The Importance of God's Presence
• 1:20:43 Serving with Purpose and Joy
• 1:20:50 Comparison and Its Challenges
• 1:26:52 The Most Rewarding Aspects of Being a Creative
• 1:34:04 Pride and Submission in Ministry
• 1:38:09 Encouragement for Content Creators

Transcript

Solomon Abuda (00:00)
Yo yo yo! ⁓

Pedro Espinoza (00:02)
My bad, dude, I spelt your name wrong.

Solomon Abuda (00:05)
He spelled my name wrong. I'm honored to be here. That is hilarious. That's funny. no, it was it was actually Pete's when I went out to Pete's over on Lone Tree. They spelled my name as such a weird name. I took a photo of it. It was the most hilarious thing. I was like, how could you get this off?

Pedro Espinoza (00:09)
I pulled another Starbucks.

Or was it Pete's?

Solomon Abuda (00:29)
It was hilarious.

Pedro Espinoza (00:32)
How did that happen? How did that come about?

Solomon Abuda (00:34)
So I don't know, I literally just said like, I wanted to get ⁓ like a matcha or something like that, some sort of like iced matcha. And then afterwards, ⁓ I get my cup and it just said like, swallow someone or something like that. There's like an S in the middle or something like that. I was like, what the heck? It was the most random thing, but it ⁓ was very weird. Like I was just kind of like caught off guard.

Pedro Espinoza (01:01)
I think Starbucks is known for doing stuff like that because, so my wife's name is spelt is, well, her name's Adeline, but her name is spelt A-D-I-L-E-N-E. But for whatever reason, they always butcher her name, right? So the more, the most common spelling for her name when she goes to Starbucks is add a line, like you're literally adding a line. So they spell it A-D-A and then

Solomon Abuda (01:19)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Pedro Espinoza (01:31)
L-I-N-E.

Solomon Abuda (01:33)
I wanna see if, I wanna see if I, cause I took a photo of it. I wanna see if I could show you.

sick. Oh here it is, I found it. And I don't know, beat me a better photo, but looks like that was the name. It was like solo someone. Oh, I'm gonna get right, there you go. Someone's like what? Oh, and that's my boy. My boy Sergio, anywho.

Pedro Espinoza (01:50)
Yeah. Nice. I love someone.

Well, that's funny, man. Thank you for doing this, by the way.

Solomon Abuda (01:58)
Yeah, of course. Thank you for having me. think this is my first actually, it's not my first podcast. There's a lot of podcasts that are recorded, but it never saw the light of day. So

Pedro Espinoza (02:08)
This is great. I love your setup.

Solomon Abuda (02:11)
thank you. This is actually my bedroom. I have my laptop here and then I have my FX3 as my web camera. And then this is the mic that I've always used. I actually have a podcast mic, I need like a certain cloud lifter, but I actually have these mics already. These are the SN7Bs. So I have like three of them, but you need to have a certain cloud lifter. That's what they call it.

Pedro Espinoza (02:33)
Yeah.

Solomon Abuda (02:39)
or a clean boost, that's what they call it. So that because it doesn't have like a gain boost on the mic itself, the newer ones do. It's like the 7S and 7DB or something like that. And it's like inside the mic. But I would like to use those, but I need to have ⁓ something for it, but I appreciate it. And then I've got my guitars, accent lighting, so.

Pedro Espinoza (02:57)
Yeah, the...

Those SM7Bs are super good. They're like the highest quality, like the industry standard.

Solomon Abuda (03:03)
You can actually get them used too.

yeah, I love them. And we use it over at the church too. It's definitely a very solid mic and I would highly recommend anyone to get if they're getting in a podcast and you don't have to spend too much. I've seen other podcasters where they have, I forgot the name of the brand, but they're like almost like a thousand dollars. I think it might be a little bit overkill for, or at least if you're trying to get started, but the S and seven B's will get you long way before you need to like upgrade to like thousand dollar mics, but it is a good investment though.

Pedro Espinoza (03:39)
This is USB mic, so ⁓ it's just plugged into my laptop, it's like, even in post-production, it's super clear and just, it sounds very close to what like a professional mic would sound like. So I'm pretty good with this one.

Solomon Abuda (03:44)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

As long as you have a mic, if you're getting started, that's good enough. then you just kind of upgrade as you go. But man, I'm super excited for this. Do I sound okay? I don't sound too loud, do I?

Pedro Espinoza (04:10)
No, mm-mm, you're fine, you're fine. I think this is gonna be a perfect segue into today's topics because obviously it's gonna be about the creative side of Christian content. It's gonna be about the ⁓ creativity behind the church and what all that entails. But I kinda wanted your thoughts about something first.

Solomon Abuda (04:11)
Okay, perfect. Sweet.

Sweet.

Yeah,

sure.

Pedro Espinoza (04:39)
dude, yesterday's sermon was awesome. It was finding peace in prophecy. did you get a chance to listen?

Solomon Abuda (04:44)
Right.

Uh, oh man, I, I'm going to feel so bad. No, I didn't. I was just really busy on getting just all the content out for that Sunday. But, um, I think I got a gist of it where it was talking about like how we should, like how prophecy should be, shouldn't be having us running away from the Lord, but running towards the Lord in these times. And sometimes we tend to do that. We tend to like when, when fear.

Pedro Espinoza (05:12)
Yeah.

Solomon Abuda (05:14)
starts to rise and we're unsettled and we're kind of anxious of what the future would hold, but we're starting to see the prophecies happening. since we know what you know, what revolution says about the Lord's second coming, can, it'd be alarming, you know what I mean? But it should be, but when we truly understand who we are in Christ and then the promises that he has for us within these prophecies, then it should ought to propel us to...

be to have peace, you know what mean? Instead of running away. so, and this, but I do appreciate though too that there should be a level of urgency in the church now of especially what's happening around the world. And we're starting to see the prophecies unfold. There was a line that one of our pastors said long time ago and it stuck to me to this day because it definitely kind of like ignited, reignited like the great commission for me.

But it's, urgency is lost when heaven and hell is forgotten. And so when we lose, when we forget that there is a heaven and a hell, and it's reality for us that people are going to those real places, and we forget that, then we lose that urgency. We lose that urgency to reach out to the lost. We lose that urgency to evangelize and to build the church. So,

Pedro Espinoza (06:17)
Wow.

Solomon Abuda (06:36)
So that's always that line kind of just kind of, it's just kind of like that one line to remind myself like of why I do what I do. It's not to get my name out there. It's so that way. ⁓ the glory of God is being proclaimed here on this earth. And then two, that more people are ⁓ coming to Christ. ⁓

Pedro Espinoza (06:58)
One thing that I took out of yesterday's sermon was that when prophecy happens, panic isn't the response, preparation is.

Solomon Abuda (07:06)
Woo, that's good. Yep. We need to start preparing. Yeah.

Pedro Espinoza (07:09)
And

just to what you were saying right now, ⁓ I think oftentimes, especially during these perilous times, we're starting to panic, right? And I think that's just the natural reaction of all the chaos happening. And even when you're realizing prophecy is literally being played out, you're like, holy smokes. If I don't have my walk straight with God now, I better start right now.

Solomon Abuda (07:31)
Mm-hmm.

Right now, yeah.

Pedro Espinoza (07:38)
Yesterday's sermon really stuck out to me because I have been finding myself a little bit sort of freaking out because this stuff is so true. And I've always known this, but the fact that we're living through it, it's a whole different experience. So it is true that God is preparing us. He's not a God of fear, he's a God of love and preparation.

Solomon Abuda (07:53)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah,

for sure.

Pedro Espinoza (08:06)
⁓

He didn't give us the spirit of fear. So that was sort of my takeaway and I think that mind shift is really going to help me during these times.

Solomon Abuda (08:08)
Right

Yeah,

mean, even then, just to add on top of that, too, I think that the Lord, ⁓ the Bible talks about how there's the fear of the Lord, right? It talks about like, is the beginning of wisdom. And from there, I'm actually on this small group curriculum right now, called Kingdom Men by Tony Evans. Kind of sad of, you know, of him stepping down, but

⁓ His curriculum is still great. Like it's still like on point of like what a kingdom man should ought to be and and what a biblical man what his role is but one of the topics that's on there is ⁓ understanding what the fear of the Lord is and what it's what it should ought to do to a to a Christian man and What was crazy but from what I've learned was that? ⁓ When we have that fear of the Lord there is this little settle of unsettledness. I think that there should be

But it's a healthy fear. And the way that we talked about it in the small group was almost like kind of like that fear that we have with the police officer for speeding. You know what mean? Like I remember the time when I was on Highway 4 the other day and then I was speeding. And then afterwards, it was like, I don't know, I late and I was with my brother. I don't know if I should be sharing this or not, but you know, we're in it. I can't stop now. Yeah, I got you. I'm very likely on this.

Pedro Espinoza (09:19)
Right. It's pretty good.

Tread lightly.

Solomon Abuda (09:38)
But we're on highway four, it was very late. And then afterwards my brother was telling me like, you know, someone slow down and I was going pretty fast. I'm not going to lie. It was late and I know what was going on in my mind. I think I was just so ticked off. I don't know. I was just really mad for something. I can't remember. But he was my brother was telling me slow down, but it did plant like, you know, like an unsolidist. No, I shouldn't be going this fast. And then all of a sudden you just hear you see like a car following me. And then after that, like seconds later, you just hear the and you're like.

You know what I mean? And so, obviously, got to take it for speeding, all that kind of stuff, had to pay it. It was terrible. But one of the things that I've learned was kind of that healthy fear. Like it was it was unsettled, but it wasn't because like it was trying to strip me from fun, but it was trying to keep me safe overall. I shouldn't be going that fast, because if I kept going that fast and I'm going to hurt someone, I think sometimes when we have the fear of the Lord, it's almost like the it's not that God places that fear so that way we could be anxious.

Pedro Espinoza (10:10)
Yeah. Yeah.

Solomon Abuda (10:39)
But it's so that way, one, we can prepare, but two, it also keeps us safe within His will. If we truly believe that the Holy Spirit, that the Lord is with us 24-7, we truly believe that. Our actions ought to change, because it's almost like you're making every decision and then you have your friend right next to you. And then after that, when you're about to do something for the Lord, like doing something well, you'll praise. But then if we're about to sin, it should convict us, like, ugh, like, dang it.

you know, like I shouldn't have done that, but not from a place where it's ⁓ from a place of trembling, but it's from a place of reverence and respect. And so I think when we look at revelations, like we should come with that. Yes, like the Lord is coming and we should take this very seriously. Like, and that's, and that's what we've learned at the end of the, of the small group was that the fear of the Lord is just taking the Lord very seriously. Don't, don't allow him to be just casual in our life. Don't allow him just be,

like a check mark on something that I checkbox and say I'm a Christian, know, like, take him like the lifestyle should, our lifestyle should ought to be changing because of this fear of the Lord. And there's blessings that come from that. There's blessings that we get from having this healthy fear, you know, and then my dad would do the comparison between, you know, there's healthy fear and then there's like the unhealthy fear, right? There's the...

the fear of like, you know, like, my gosh, like if I don't do this, then I'm going to get killed. Like the boogeyman, you know, like that kind of fear. The fear that we see like in, in like the movies, but then you also have the healthy fear that helps us keep us safe. And I think that because the prophecies are unfolding, I think this is the time where we, I think it's okay to have that healthy fear, to have that urgency. That's so that way we would be paralysis, but so that way, like Pastor Sean said, so that way we can prepare.

So that way we can really see an upcoming, so that way we can have, so that way we're just not stagnant, but we're now trying to reach out to God's lost people, because the Lord is coming. That's the reality of it. But if we're able to have that level of urgency, it should ⁓ prompt us to move in a healthy way. So not in a way where, like, again, we're stagnant, but in a place that we're moving. we're, yeah.

Pedro Espinoza (12:58)
Yeah,

it's having that respect ⁓ and reverence. you're not frightened. That's not what fear of the Lord means. It means to have that reverence and respect. And you're not trembling. I think a lot of people kind of mess up that distinction.

Solomon Abuda (13:06)
Right.

Reference, yeah.

Right.

For sure. And I think with, if there's no like teaching on it, and I can understand that, you know, one of the things that I've always appreciated about the churches in like the Catholic church and the Orthodox church in particular, like sure, we've had, like we had to learn, unlearn a lot of things because of the religiosity of it. But I think one thing that they definitely nailed down was just that oddness that

Pedro Espinoza (13:25)
Yeah.

Solomon Abuda (13:46)
When you walk into like an Orthodox church like in Europe, they believe in the big God. Like they were just trying to find ways to express how big God was in their own creative expression during those times. that's one thing I truly appreciate it. think that when the Western church, when we kind of branched out and when you see the Western church,

I'm grateful that we kind of swung away from the religiosity, but I feel like we may have swung in a little bit too far to the other side, where we made God a little bit too casual now. You know, that God is your buddy buddy. You know what I mean? Like, you you could just say, hey, what's going on, God, big gun upstairs. You know what I mean? Like that's, we're starting to, we can, if we're not careful, we could start to lose the fear of the Lord. And then after that, we're now questioning, like, I'm a Christian. Why is there no blessing in my life?

Well, because you're not taking him seriously. just kind of taking him. man, I'm getting fiery. Shoot. I didn't even know I was going to get here. But I'm very passionate about it because there's a lot of men in particular, because I am going through Kingdom Man. So that's kind of like what's in my mind right now. But there's just a lot of men who want the blessing from the Lord. But then one of the basic things is having the fear of the Lord. And if it's not there, then...

Pedro Espinoza (14:49)
Cook.

Solomon Abuda (15:09)
they're going to be questioning like, isn't the Lord blessing me? Well, are you are you living under authority? You know what I mean? Are you did you make him as Lord? And so ⁓ so, yeah, I don't think that the Lord intended us to just have like casual Christianity. I think he really intended us to really devote and give our life to the Lord and expressing it as seriously as possible ⁓ in a way that is loving, obviously, like not in a way where it's like condemning, but just in a way where God intended us to live.

to live with love, but then also ensuring that we're taking him seriously when he has certain commands. but that's just, that's just my take on it. But some may, some other people may have a different ⁓ position on it, but.

Pedro Espinoza (15:51)
Absolutely. When it comes to the Catholic and the Orthodox Church, there's this term that they love to use. It's called the apostolic succession. And ⁓ they truly the one and true church resides with the Catholic Church. And think Orthodox also believe that, hence the apostolic succession. But the reason I'm saying that is because when you do walk into their churches, you really do feel that reverence that we were talking about.

Solomon Abuda (16:08)
Yeah.

Bye.

Pedro Espinoza (16:20)
It's on the walls, it's on the stained glass windows, ⁓ even the way the members are dressed ⁓ from the priests to the nuns to the clergymen. You really do feel that respect ⁓ that you don't necessarily feel or see in a modern day Protestant church. So I think there is something to be said about this Catholic and

Solomon Abuda (16:25)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Pedro Espinoza (16:47)
Orthodox sect of Christianity ⁓ and I think there needs to be that healthy balance. It can't just be one way or the other.

Solomon Abuda (16:56)
Definitely, yeah. Definitely

for sure. Yeah, I think when you start to, I don't know, and you'll see it by the way that people live their life. And I don't know, maybe the way that they talk, you'll just kind of tell like that God is always with them. I don't know. There's just like this, the way that they carry themselves, you could tell that, man, this guy has been with the Lord. You know I mean? Like it's, seeing him rightly, you know I mean? Seeing him the right way, the way that the Bible, ⁓

Pedro Espinoza (17:14)
I

Solomon Abuda (17:26)
shares of how God is, you know what mean? And so there's a certain way that they would carry themselves and sure they'll probably wear like casual clothes and stuff like that but the Lord looks at the heart. You could just tell like when someone was in the presence of God, you're just like, oh, yeah, he's been with him for a bit.

Pedro Espinoza (17:44)
I know, like their demeanor, the words they speak.

Solomon Abuda (17:46)
their demeanor.

Yeah, you know, and it doesn't necessarily mean that they have to speak like in like, I don't know, in a holier thou, like Christianese type of thing, but you could just tell their desire. I think that's probably it. Their desire to know more of the Lord, but then also the just knowing and just seeing him rightly. And because of that, changes the way that they live.

Pedro Espinoza (17:55)
holier than thou.

I anointing of the spirit is what you're trying to get at. Like they're walking in that anointing. Cool, man. So let's just get into these So walk us through your journey to faith and what's your testimony pretty much?

Solomon Abuda (18:23)
Yeah, definitely.

Well, let's see, a little bit about Solomon the Buddha. up as a Christian, so I wouldn't be able to say that I had like this testimony of Christ, but I do have a few testimonies where God has delivered me from hard seasons to the point where I had to really trust in the Lord in certain areas. But I'll share a little bit of...

of my walk. I grew up as a Christian. My parents are, they grew up as, my dad was a Baptist when he was growing up and my mom was a Pentecostal. So you can kind of tell, you know, there's definitely some, ⁓ some theological differences. Yeah. no, you're good. You're good.

Pedro Espinoza (19:15)
I can kind of relate to that. I don't mean to cut you off, but both my parents...

So, well, my dad grew up Catholic, ironically, and my mom grew up in the Pentecostal Church. So, similar. Right.

Solomon Abuda (19:23)
Gotcha.

Gotcha. you could, so there's definitely like, confliction between like the,

the theology, right? And so I kind of got the best of both worlds. So like, as I was growing up, eventually like, but what's funny though is that when I was growing up, I never heard those terms. Like I've always just heard Christian. And so I think my parents were, I think at that time, whether they, whether it was on, on purpose or not, I think they were just trying to ensure that I was staying like, you know,

not within a denomination, but knowing that I'm a Christ follower. think that was one they wanted me to imprint in that. I grew up as a Christian. And then eventually, as I started to get a little bit older, I gone to college and my parents allowed me to be a little bit more independent, allow me to make my own decisions. And then ⁓ eventually I started to ⁓ started to, you know, move towards the world a little bit. And again, no parent, not no fault to my parents at all was on me.

⁓ But it was I was in college and I was just surrounded with the wrong people and then eventually just kind of influenced my decisions and so in college I started to do you know, living the life of I wouldn't say debauchery per se but I definitely experimented with like with smoking with drinking all that kinds of stuff and eventually it me down to my very first I guess my first low point of my life, which is when when a relationship ended around that time

And you know, obviously heartbreaks are always going to be probably one of the most sharpest pains you're ever going to feel in life. And from there, I just didn't, I didn't really know how to handle it. And so I kind of went deeper into it just so that way I could just get my mind off of it. And I was living in that lifestyle for me about a couple of years, not long. I mean, I wouldn't say I was like this very party kid, but I did party here and there just so that way can just take my mind off of it.

Pedro Espinoza (20:55)
on it later.

Solomon Abuda (21:16)
But then eventually, my parents found Fellowship Church via a small group. they went to a freedom small group. It was called Life at that time, but it's freedom of how we call it now at Fellowship. And then from there, they said, someone, you got to come to this church. And so from there, I was like, OK. again, just kind of like, I don't know. I was at that point now where I wasn't with my

my previous friends. And then also I wasn't with like a church community either. I was just kind of like just with my family at that point. And I was still trying to figure school out at that time. Like it was like my whole school schedule was just totally jacked up of like trying to get a four year degree within four years. You know what I mean? So like everything was just kind of off. But then I went to fellowship church and then Pastor Sean, he, he preached on a sermon series and this is around the Super Bowl at that time. I think it was May 2014, 2015 around that time.

And he shared, ⁓ the series was called the Comeback Series. It was football themed. the main message that I got from that was that God was the God of the comeback. If you're at one point, then you can have your comeback season today. And it really touched me, it really did, because I was really needing a comeback at that time, because I was just full of ⁓ these very negative emotions.

And so was just full of anxiousness, anxiety, depression, and I just didn't know how to handle it at that time. I mean, but all right, but I did desire a relationship with the Lord and desired community. So ⁓ I rededicated my life to the Lord around that time. And then I told, ⁓ and then I ⁓ told the associate pastor at that time and I said, Hey, I know the internship is already going, but is there any way for me to sign up for the internship?

And then I was called in and said, hey, come to the church office. We had a church office at that time because we were mobile. Come to the church office and we'll see what we can do. Come to the church office. And then I just see a chair and then all the interns around it and Pastor Sean and Pastor Diana. And they said, Solomon, you're here. We want to pray for you. And I was like, you want to pray for me? Like, I literally just got here. And then after that, they prayed over me as if I was about to join the internship. I'm like,

Should there be like a conversation about this? You know what mean? And then eventually they prayed over me, ⁓ anointed me with oil, and then afterwards they, ⁓ I got an application. And that's kind of like where my journey went with fellowship. That was, it was kind of from uphill from there. I joined the internship. I started serving at the church. I started to learn more about how to be a leader, how to be a servant leader, how to lead other people. And ⁓ from there, the church started to grow.

And then this will then lead into like the second portion of how the Lord delivered me, which was around 2019 ish. So ⁓ long story short, one of my mentors was planning on transitioning out of staff on the creative team. And I got hired in as a creative to kind of take over his spot along with other creatives as well. And then from there,

From 2017 to 2019-ish, I got accepted to SFSU, SF State. And from there, I noticed that the season definitely changed because I was now full-time school and part-time ministry. Part-time ministry. And then from there, right. Well, it was definitely tough because I was also a creative. So was making videos now at that time as a video producer.

Pedro Espinoza (24:57)
seven days a week.

Solomon Abuda (25:06)
And then from there, I to notice a shift in my spirit, but I didn't know exactly what was going on. But I just, all of a sudden, I just started to have like this lone wolf mentality because I was always alone. ⁓ Because from Sunday evening all the way down to Monday, sorry, from Sunday evening all the way down to Thursday morning, I was at SF State. So I would go to the bar and we would take bar and then take a shuttle. And it was, I would do that.

there and then I would take Lyft and Uber out to my aunt's house and I would do that almost every single day. So I was taking public transportation almost every single day, which means there's a lot of time of being alone, you know what mean? And I didn't really spend too much time ⁓ with my classmates, maybe until like the last year of college. But there was just something going on, there was something stirring. I was just, I remember I was just like always irritable. I was very like...

just trying to like, if you're not gonna help me get out of my way type of mentality. And I think at that time, that's when like the hustle culture was really being glorified. And so I think I just kind of stuck myself in there too. But then afterwards, something was happening to me. And then around 2019, I went into another relationship and then long story short, it ended up not working out. And again, nothing on her, it was all me. And I started to notice that I was just getting very toxic into the relationship.

because of just all the things, all the stress that was going on in my life. And there was also other things too that were happening to me personally that maybe I'll share in a, maybe in a, in another podcast and maybe in another video, but ⁓ there, long story short, was once the, once the relationship ended and along with that, my grandmother, she was also sick. She, eventually she passed away.

⁓ before she passed away, I remember even doing like CPR on her. And, ⁓ obviously this is not something that, you know, your mom would want to see, you know what I mean? That your, that your child is performing CPR on your, on your, on your dying grandmother. So it was doing a lot of, a lot of things were happening around 2020 and this was during COVID now, like we're now entering the COVID. And then from there, ⁓ from there, ⁓ losing my, ⁓

losing my previous relationship at that time, losing my grandmother. I then got hospitalized three times as well, just for psychological stuff and even for heart stuff too. three times for psychological things and just one time just for my heart. It was not feeling right. Everything was tight. It was literally the worst season of my life. I thought 2014, 2013 was pretty bad. This was probably the worst.

Because all these things were happening. And then what was crazy was that all those times during the hospital visits, because it was during COVID, not many people visited me or even knew that I was going through my thing. And ⁓ only my parents. And I love my family. I love my parents because they kind of stuck with me through that time.

But then the people from church, we tried to reach out to me for some odd reason. Like I just couldn't feel anything. And it was because I had that lone wolf mentality. It's not that they never loved me. It was because I was pushing them away from 2017 to now. And so I never developed that relationship, that rapport, that deepness with the people at the church at the time. And so again, nothing on the church, was all me. And from there I've learned that like, my gosh, I really, I haven't really developed like.

deep meaningful relationships around the season. wasn't prepared for this. And so from there, like all this was happening. And then I was, I was absent from, from work a lot. And I was like thinking, man, I'm going to lose my job. You know what I mean? I'm going to have to start looking for another. And that's what was going on in my mind. And then surprisingly enough though, like once I got back from the hospital and just started to try and get back into the rhythm of things.

⁓ I thought I was at the time where I thought I lost my I was going to lose my job, at least in my mind. ⁓ One of the one of the associate well, he didn't consider himself an associate. I considered him as a pastor because I'll explain why. But ⁓ Brian Gilbreth, he kind of took me under his wing for a little bit. And from there, he he mentor me. He took all of my mess. Like he was just like.

You know, there's times where in our one-on-ones, I'll just, I'll give him so much attitude. I would just give him so much snarky, you know, I'll be cold around him. And he was just loving. He was just always, he was just trying to make sure I was okay. And then there was a, there was a time in our one-on-one and I feel like this was the shift where I was like, Lord, I, I'm getting tired of sick and tired. And it was, was when he said this and it was just like, I needed to hear that. And he said this to me. he asked me,

He asked me a question. He asked Solomon. Do you know what I want for you? And in my mind, I'm not thinking is it another video? You know what I mean? you know what mean? Like He said this I was like, I don't know. What do you what do you want? And he said the only thing that I want for me is that I want you to win that's all he said I want you to win and in my mind I was like Ryan do not say that to me unless you actually mean it because

Pedro Espinoza (30:30)
and

Solomon Abuda (30:51)
I've been living a life where I felt like I was losing. Now, like on paper, I looked like I was winning, but then I literally lost everything at that time. So I told him, do not, like in my mind, I never said this, but in my mind, I was like, don't tell that to me unless you mean it, because I want to start winning. And so from there, ⁓ we had a lot more one-on-ones, still worked at the church and then started healing. And then eventually, ⁓

I wish I could say that the healing was like immediate, like how some people's healings are immediate. This was kind of more of a process for me. It was, was kind of like I had to take it day by day. And then I started to see the Lord work in my life little by little. And from there, now in 2025, if I were to look back, I'm like, God has done so much in my life. And he's delivered me from a place where a darkness where I thought I was never going to get out of.

And so I praise the Lord for him. I praise the Lord every single day. I always remember those moments. I always try to remember those moments that when I'm serving the Lord and I'm using my gifts to create content and I start to kind of, not burn out, but I start to get irritable here and there. Like, oh man, I have to be here all night again. I just look back to that moment of what the Lord did to deliver me from that darkness.

And there's other people who are walking in that same darkness that I'm going through. Maybe not the exact scenario, but a similar darkness. amazing about creativity is that like you're able to, you're able to use your gift and share a message in a creative way to where it's not just information, but inspiration. And they're able to feel that tug to be able to make a next step for themselves. Like,

It's not like we manipulated them. It was just from themselves. Like, I'm going to make this next step for myself. And so, so yeah, man, like, as of right now, like I'm in a, you know, in a healthy season now. I'm in a place where I'm serving, I'm leading. ⁓ If I were to show, like, if I were to share people who I was back then, I was a little bit more...

I don't know if militant is the right word, but I was a lot more just like tunnel vision. But now a lot of people see the joy in me. And there's times where that tunnel vision comes in here and there and I get checked on that. But for the most part, a lot of people see me as a totally like, you know, joyful person for the most part. Introverted, but joyful nonetheless. Like my soul is at ease. It's at peace. Which is, I couldn't give that up for the world. So that's kind of like my story on it.

Pedro Espinoza (33:36)
Yeah.

Solomon Abuda (33:41)
And ⁓ there's a little bit of details that I'm not sure about, that's kind like my story.

Pedro Espinoza (33:46)
Yeah, so it seems like you were going through a tough time and then you met fellowship or they met you. It was a perfect timing, God's timing, right? So you started with fellowship and you began to serve and work. And even during that time, though, it kind of seems like you went through other difficult seasons. But then God brought you back.

Solomon Abuda (34:11)
Mm-hmm.

Pedro Espinoza (34:14)
even though you strayed away for a little bit, God brought you back and He revealed that you have a gift. And it's true. seen your gifts with my own eyes. I've seen the that you have, the amount of thought you put into your ⁓ creative products, whether it's video shoots, photos, ⁓ interviews, podcasts, right? I think that

Solomon Abuda (34:17)
Yes.

Pedro Espinoza (34:43)
It's the perfect marriage for you because not only is it your God-given gift, but you're also truly passionate about this. ⁓ Which leads me to my next question. What inspired you to do content creation? what inspired your passion for it?

Solomon Abuda (35:01)
Yeah, for sure. Well, it started off in sixth grade. I think it was six or maybe around middle school. I wouldn't be able to say sixth grade, like middle school for sure. YouTube was just kind of like coming out. And I remember seeing a lot of back at back in my day, we we would do I would see a lot of like Seawalk videos like like baptism videos. Or did I say baptism? Excuse me. Sorry. Let me scratch. Let me do all that again. So it all.

Pedro Espinoza (35:27)
think he said sea walk or something.

Solomon Abuda (35:29)
Yeah, so it all started with YouTube just coming out and I saw a bunch of Seawalk videos. So I wanted to make dance videos when I first started. And me and my brother, we would record ourselves with our point and shoot camera and then we would just do Seawalk videos. It was a thing at the time, like it was pretty big. And it just kind of started coming back around again. But...

I was surrounded with a lot of dancers at that time around middle school and high school. So we loved making dance videos. And then eventually it became like, not vlogs, but like, I guess you can call them vlogs. Yeah. They were like, recording fun moments and funny moments when we're like doing something simple like cooking an omelet in the kitchen or something like that. we were just to record all of the fun memories and the funny memories and then just kind of

have it somewhere and then call it a YouTube video, you know, so I'm not gonna lie when I was younger, I wanted to become a YouTuber. I'm not gonna lie. Like I think I've always desired to be but then I've I think so. Yeah, I was I was young. I was in high school and I was like, oh man, I want to make like I want to make YouTube videos and I just didn't have like the right the right equipment and I was very young to afford any of these pieces of equipment at that time. And so because we're talking about like

Pedro Espinoza (36:36)
I think we all did at one point.

Solomon Abuda (36:54)
you know, a hundred, like thousand dollar cameras. that's what's going on. Yeah. My computers as well to edit on. I remember like trying to edit on Windows Movie Maker on a very on a on a basic computer and it would always crash. And it just kind of like sucked out the life of that dream real quickly. So just because like it just kept crashing. Like I didn't I couldn't find a solution for me to edit videos. So so I kind of put that dream like.

Pedro Espinoza (36:57)
$400 mics.

Solomon Abuda (37:23)
on the side and then I just kind of continue on with high school, college. And then obviously I went through my ⁓ first serious trial in my life. then eventually I started to get into gaming, but then that came along with a very powerful computer as well. So I'm like, hey, know what, let me bring back video editing again, see if I can do something.

And I was able to do more stuff now with it. And so I started to do a lot more simple video edits, a lot of videos for like me playing the piano. So just very simple stuff. And then eventually I shared a couple of my work with one of my mentors over at Fellowship at that time. And eventually he like maybe about a year later, he encouraged me to give it a shot to apply for a position over at Fellowship as a creative.

And then I was like, yeah, but these are very simple stuff. This is like me playing with my lightsaber when it was an umbrella. I mean, it was just like very cheesy stuff. But long story short, I was surprised. After applying, it was a pretty long process of onboarding. But after around six to seven months, I got a call from Yaz, and she said that, you know, that

Pedro Espinoza (38:28)
Yeah, I get it.

Solomon Abuda (38:48)
she offered me the position. was like, yo, let's go, let's do it. So from there, once I got the position at fellowship, that's kind of like everything in terms of my creative gifts and my creative skills. That's when it really started to skyrocket. Because now that I was getting paid for it, I had to like know this stuff. I had to know like every piece of videography, graphic design, video editing, all that kind of stuff, photography.

because not only was I responsible for creating the content at that time, but the creative team at that time were also responsible of caring for the dream team at that time, which was very small at that time, because we didn't really have a creative team part of the dream team just yet when we moved into the building, but we were responsible for developing a team. And so from there, we developed a dream team. We developed, I think, after the span of

I we had like maybe over, I don't know, maybe 50 to 60 creatives total, I think. And so that's kind of like, you know, that was just kind of how much we've grown from that point in the span of like four years or so or something like that, roughly around there. So it was, it took a while to develop the creative team, but we were able to get a good amount of creatives. And then we had the second campus as well at that time.

And so we were able to kind of diversify our teams out that way. But that was kind of like the inspiration. It started with trying to capture memories, trying to capture fun moments, and then just sharing, just like fun moments. But then now I feel like if I were to share, if I'm still doing that now, I'm still doing those things now, but it's kind of being done in a different way.

You know what mean? So I'm able to share and retain memories. We use that for recap videos. This is what God has done, you know? And those memories are saved forever. You know, we have fun moments here and there. So we have like entertainment moments as well that we record on social media. Just like fun videos just to share a laugh and just share a smile. But yeah, like it's still kind of crazy that the Lord will take your...

He will take that desire that you have, then he would use it for his purpose, if that makes sense. You know what mean? Like, kind of like how, uh, how Jesus, you know, he said to the disciples, uh, I'm going to make you fishers of men. You know, you were once fishers of fish, but now I'm going to use that same skill, but use it for a different purpose. Right. And so I felt, felt like the, the spirit of the, in the sense, the spirit of the disciples of, of that moment, it kind of like revealed to myself here, like, Oh, I'm still doing those things, but it's just in a

Pedro Espinoza (41:11)
Totally. ⁓

Yes. ⁓

Solomon Abuda (41:36)
in a different way.

Pedro Espinoza (41:38)
Yeah,

yeah, amen. Amen. So during that time, the team was roughly 40 to 60 people deep. ⁓ What is it like now? How many people is it now?

Solomon Abuda (41:46)
Mm-hmm. Yep. Pretty deep.

I think we're at the same number now. think we have around, if we include all of the sub brands and the Sunday team, the Sunday team is the biggest team. But with the sub brands, there's, ⁓ I would say there's roughly around the same amount with FC youth and ⁓ FCC, FC kids and so, but there are some OrchCharts stuff that we're still trying to solidify. But for the most part, we're roughly around the same number now. So it's great.

Pedro Espinoza (42:18)
Yeah. Yeah.

Solomon Abuda (42:19)
Maybe on the lower side, I would say maybe around 40.

Pedro Espinoza (42:24)
40 of God's strongest creative leaders. Yeah. Well, what did you think it was going to be like to serve as a creative versus what it's really like?

Solomon Abuda (42:28)
Love it.

Man, Yeah.

Pedro Espinoza (42:42)
Because there's always that like perception that you

have and in any occupation generally there's always that perception or notion or idea that you have before going into something and then you actually get into this thing and then it's either the same or completely different than how you envisioned it. So what was that like?

Solomon Abuda (42:49)
For sure.

Mm-hmm.

⁓ I would say that, ⁓ at first I thought that when I, when I got the position, I was able to kind of just like make whatever I want, you know, I mean, without bounce until I, I learned and I realized that I'm under an organization with missions and values. So like from there, I, ⁓ it was a lot of, so there are parts where, like it's where.

When I went in, it was as I expected. I'm making content, I'm making videos, I'm doing what I love. But some of the things that I had to learn throughout the process of working at FC was that we're strategic on what content to make. So it's not just like, hey, let's just make another lightsaber video. like a modern warfare, all that kind of stuff. It was just kind of like...

No, there's a mission here. We gotta create content that is going to reach out and evangelize. And in my mind, I was still kind of in the fun mindset. But then I think there was a point in time, I couldn't tell you when, but there was a point in time where I became, I did become, and I owned the mission of Fellowship Church, that we want people to find hope and healing. Hope for tomorrow, healing from yesterday, which can all be found in Jesus Christ.

And we do that by helping people know God, find freedom, discover their purpose and make a difference. And so that's kind of like I've owned that. I don't know when, but that's when I started to own that, then I started to understand that we're a lot more clear on what we're supposed to be doing, what we're supposed to be creating. I was able to take feedback a lot more easy or easier now because ⁓ we're all aligned on the same mission. So I would say that ⁓ that shifted me.

That was a little bit of a shift that I had to learn, a lesson that I needed to learn. What else was, what else was, it's also not as glamorous as many people may think it is. ⁓ And what I mean by that is that it's, we're not, like our lifestyle, we don't just clock in whenever we want to clock in. I mean, there is a level of that, but at the same time, like it's, we have to be responsible. You know I mean? Like we can't just be, it's a grind. Yeah. And

Pedro Espinoza (45:09)
Yeah.

It's also a grind.

Solomon Abuda (45:24)
We also have late nights that we have to take in. like, you know, when after an event, people are like, all right, let's, you know, we're headed home, we're going to In-N-Out or something like that. Like a creative, the most likely, like maybe 75 % of the time, they're going to be staying in a little bit later. They're the first one in and the last one out. And if that's not like your cup of tea, being a content creator may not be for you. But maybe if it's for the right organization, you might do that for them. So.

Pedro Espinoza (45:43)
Yep, yep.

Solomon Abuda (45:52)
It really all depends upon what kind of content creator you're to be for whatever organization or corporation that you're planning on doing. you do have to believe in the mission, the vision of whatever organization you're a part of. And there's going to be times where you're to have late nights, early mornings, things breaking on you and you don't know why. You know what I mean? Or like bugs, crashes.

But then I started to learn to become a problem solver. And I think that if you had desired to be a problem solver, then a content creator is definitely for you because you're going to run through all kinds of problems and you have to kind of figure it out. You know what mean? You would have to either go on Google or chat GPT nowadays, but in chat GPT has made it a lot easier to find solutions. But one of the things that.

Pastor Sean shared with us and he shared only just one creative meaning before ⁓ before we got hired and he said that He said this that he doesn't expect us to know all the answers when he hired us but he does expect us to know where to find the answers and So that empowered us to ensure that well, it gave us comfort knowing that okay. It wasn't because we knew everything but we were expected to try to find out where the answer was and that taught me a very amazing skill of

trying to figure things out or not, or just not being waited to just waiting for the answer to come. It taught me to like be very like diligent on trying to find the answer rather than just waiting around. And that's a, and that's a skill. think that's something you have to develop over time and you have to do it over and over again, because our default is that when we don't know an answer to something or we run it or we come across an obstacle, we kind of just stay there. You know what I mean? And so it taught me to really

dig for the answers and that kind of goes into one of our values at our church, which is to find a way to win. And so it taught me how like, you know, being in ministry taught me how to find the way to win, find the way to win. if there's, if there's, if we're running into a roadblock, find a way to win. You know what mean? And, and it's, it's an amazing value and amazing skill that I'm so grateful to learn in ministry.

because this is something that you could be able to take through your everyday life. again, it was hard though. Like it wasn't something that was something that was that came naturally to me. I had to ⁓ continue to dig for the answers. And that's something that you're going to come across when you are trying to learn content creation and ⁓ being in just being in ministry and driving. I think that you have to find answers that you don't know the answers to.

in any industry or any ministry.

Pedro Espinoza (48:47)
talking about something that I wanted to ask you next. And this wasn't part of my original set of questions, but I'm just curious myself. So you, I know that you guys obviously have to abide by a certain framework. So there's a goal that you want to reach at the end and there's guidelines that you sort of have to follow, right? being a creative is so much

Solomon Abuda (48:49)
Mm-hmm.

Pedro Espinoza (49:12)
of that unique perspective, how much freedom do you guys have to sort of apply your skills and your creativity?

Solomon Abuda (49:23)
That's a great question. We're always encouraged to collaborate. So our pastor is very involved in the creative process and the collaboration aspects of things. And so there's definitely a level of collaboration that we always want to have. Now, when it comes to certain standards, what I've noticed in terms of what the standards are is that as long as it's not distracting to the user and it's not

When I say they use the people who are watching it, as long as it's not distracting and then the main message is able to come in across, that's kind of like the direction that we're trying to move towards. But again, there's always going to be a funky tension of what's standard and then what's preference, right? And so.

Pedro Espinoza (50:15)
Yeah.

Solomon Abuda (50:15)
At

the end of the day, it's just learning how to intake everyone's feedback and then making sure that there's justification of why I did this font over this font or this color over this color or having this shot over another shot.

Collaboration is always invited, but there is definitely a tension that we have to navigate through case by case, depending upon what it is. And again, in terms of standards, it used to be where it's like, got to have a certain camera ⁓ at a certain camera setting, but what happened is that it restricted our creativity. So it was just like, okay, so we can't use VHS cameras or we can't use film cameras.

The kid used 360 cameras because they didn't have this sensor or didn't have this, what do call it? So then ⁓ it challenged me in a good way where I was like, you're right. It doesn't have to be coming from a DSLR or mirrorless. The message is the most important thing. The content is the most important thing. What message are we trying to get across? know that when ⁓ we switched creative directors, it was a lot more loose.

Maybe Lucy's not the right word. was a lot. was, we can say, let me say it was more reformed. I'll say it as I say, we reformed it to where now it's where we're kind of, we're able to now shoot with whatever cameras we have just as long as it grabs people's attention. Cause that's where the algorithm is now in terms of social media. Now, when it comes to like being shown like on a Sunday or something that we want to have our best foot forward that represents fellowship church, then there's a standard on that making sure that

you know that it's not too bright or too dark or it's not or if you know it's not distracting you know what I mean because there's this particular mission or particular objective with a particular video and when I'm talking and what I'm talking about is like recap videos or testimonials or recaps of the whole entire day they have typically have a buttoned up standard to where it's not like

very loose unless it tells a good story because I remember using VHS footage for one of our recap videos and it was dope but it but it was within the context of that piece of content so it just needs to be when it comes to like the bigger videos it just needs to make it just needs to be buttoned up like the basics are taken care of like the visuals are able to be seen the audio is clear and ⁓ and yeah so that's kind of like it's it's a very funky dance with

with ⁓ preference and standards, we kind of wiggle around those moves depending upon the piece of content.

Pedro Espinoza (53:12)
That's a really good. No, no. Well, yeah, I was just curious, right? And that's actually a really good point you bring up because different equipment is used for a different purpose or objective or outcome, right? Can you kind of just give a quick list of different creative equipment you use? And so when and why do you use these items?

Solomon Abuda (53:12)
That's a good question.

for sure. my main cameras that I use is the Sony FX3 and then the Sony ZV-E1. So I'm using the FX3 right now as my webcam. My Sony ZV-E1 is a ⁓ it's kind of like a content creator camera. So it's full frame, but then it also has the sensor of an FX3 and a Sony A7S3.

I know that was a bunch of numbers there, but those are just camera models, which is known for just good video. ⁓ Let's see what else. My favorite camera, I'll say this, is the DJI Osmo Pocket 3. ⁓ I actually have it right here.

This little guy is amazing. This little camera here. And you might see other content creators have it, but it's literally like the best like vlogging camera. Like you could use it for like traveling, but you can also mount it in like different areas and different locations. Like you can put it on the top. I have an attachment where you can like put it on magnetic surfaces. And then it also has like the little like two holes here that is meant for like GoPro. So now you can have

like have it as a pseudo GoPro. But the reason why it's so good is not only how small it is, but also the quality that comes out of it right off the camera. So ⁓ it's definitely like a great camera. ⁓ I love this. I love this camera, bro. it's...

Pedro Espinoza (54:53)
I'm just kind of geeking out right now. Don't mind me. All of this terminology

sounds so military. It's kind of cool.

Solomon Abuda (55:03)
I like that. I never thought about it that way. But what else do I have? I also have a VHS camera that I love to use. The zoom actually broke, so I think I might need to buy another one. But I love using different cameras like VHS cameras, 360 cameras. I like my 360 camera. It's the Insta360 X3. I know they have an X5 now, so I would probably, if you're looking for a 360 camera, get that instead. The X3 is just a little bit outdated.

Pedro Espinoza (55:06)
Yeah.

Solomon Abuda (55:32)
And then I have my light here. I have this ⁓ it's called the Ziyu X100 probably one of the best lights if you're looking for a very small miniature setup and I wish I could be able to show it to you, but it's it's right up there, but you can have like a small mini softbox on it and then You know it'll does it change color. No, no, no, it doesn't change color. It's just a it's just a by temperature and then what else

Pedro Espinoza (55:35)
you

Solomon Abuda (56:02)
What other equipment do I like? ⁓

Pedro Espinoza (56:07)
I actually remember that there was a moment, because for the audience, I actually served on the creative team for a period of time. And there was a time when we were shooting, I think it was a promo video. And I think that I was using this tool where it's like a circular, a big circular tool. And

Solomon Abuda (56:12)
That's right. Yes, you did.

Pedro Espinoza (56:34)
I had to hold it on each side and it's pretty big. It's it's nay big, right? I had to hold it on each side and then in the middle there's the camera, but it has like this balancing feature. Yeah, perfect. Yeah. Do you guys still have that?

Solomon Abuda (56:41)
It's

Oh, I remember that. Yeah, that's the stabilizer. That's the...

We have the... We don't have the circle one anymore. It actually became obsolete. We use... Yeah, it was definitely heavy. But we use the one where... I'm sure you may have seen other videographers who have it in weddings, but it's those ones where it's like... It's actually a bigger version of this, where it's like a bigger... It looks like a stick, and then after that, there's a camera on top of it.

Pedro Espinoza (56:59)
Gotcha. It was heavy.

Solomon Abuda (57:18)
And those are the DJI, is Ronin S or Ronin, I forgot what number it is. But surprisingly though, like even though I have a stabilizer, because I have it for specific shoots, that's probably not my most favorite. I'm a handheld guy and a tripod guy. And so, but I do love, the reason why I don't like is because it's just the setup of it.

Because once you put it on, it's kind of like a hassle of taking it off if you need to go handheld. And so usually the way that I fix that is I just have one camera on the Ronin and then I have my handheld with me. And so that way I don't have to take off the camera from the Ronin and then put it back on and then rebalance it. Because you have to rebalance that Ronin. so it's a great tool to have to capture recap videos or cinematic. ⁓

tracking or just anything that you need stabilized. But I've noticed that in like in a church setting, like

Maybe other people have different opinions on it. But ever since I've gotten this, I've been using my stabilizer less and less. The only time I've been using the Ronin is that if I need the quality to be up notch, we did an album recording. With that, I'm going to make sure that I have the best camera on.

on that, but if it's like for social media where everything's going to be compressed and people are only going to watch it for like five seconds, you know, it's not the best return on my investment to set up this camera for like five to 10 minutes. And then after that, if I need to go handheld, I got to take it off again. And then I need to go put it back on, then put it back on again. This has been good enough already. And you don't need, it's very small setup and the quality of it is great. I only use the Ronin now for like, like big projects that

like album recordings or if I'm doing like a wedding, do it for a wedding. yeah, man, like it's ⁓ I feel like this has replaced a lot of the social media stuff if you need something stabilized. And plus you could prop this onto a selfie stick, a very long one. I've used it and you can get some very like killer crowd shots, almost like a pseudo drone shot. So that way you don't have to fly a drone in the building because that can get dangerous too. So not that I have.

Pedro Espinoza (59:38)
This conversation right here really reminds me of that scripture that says the body is made up of many parts. Right? And we're talking about all the equipment that a creative team uses, right? I mean, this ranges from microphones to cameras drones. And even on a deeper level, there's the creative team.

Solomon Abuda (59:48)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Pedro Espinoza (1:00:02)
the worship team. Right, right.

Solomon Abuda (1:00:03)
There's the worship team, production team, ⁓

marketing team. I mean, but there's also some greeters, there's ⁓ kids, ministry, FC youth. ⁓ Yeah, we're all a bunch of teams working together to fulfill one mission.

Pedro Espinoza (1:00:21)
Exactly. And there's so much that goes on and there's so much teamwork that the different parts of the church have to come together to serve one ultimate goal, right? And so that kind of brings me to my next question is, tell us about the importance of having a creative team at a church.

Solomon Abuda (1:00:43)
for sure. Well, the creative team is, the way that I see the creative team is almost like the communication aspects of the church. So anything regarding like photos, videos, graphics, we have the opportunity to be able to communicate our message with those creative mediums out and abroad using social media, especially now with social media. know, had long time ago,

we would have traditional marketing, is like ads on a television or magazines. But now that we have social media, we have digital marketing. Now we're able to communicate our message to not only just to our neighbors or to our community, but now to the whole entire world. And so we're we're the communication aspects of the church. So it's super important on

Pedro Espinoza (1:01:30)
you

Solomon Abuda (1:01:32)
developing a team that is specific on communicating the heart behind our church or if anyone's watching is behind their church. So like having a graphic designer, photographer, videographer, I would probably say those are like the basics or the basis of the creative team. At least when it comes to online communication, you do have live production and you have worship. I'm just speaking in the context of communication. But

It's yeah, but it's super important. I can't imagine. Well, I don't know. I think that if there isn't any creators, I feel like the Lord would raise one up. And you see it all over scripture where creativity has been used in some sort of way just to communicate the on this and the glory of God. I mean, if you look at if you look at the building of the tabernacle that were built by creators.

⁓ if you were to look at even in history, if you look at the Orthodox church and the Catholic church back in, you know, back in the day, they were made by builders, they were made by craftsman, they're creative. So I think there's, there will always be, there will always be like a remnant of creatives where they're, want to be able to express their creativity. You know, you also have David, you also have David as well. He was a creative, he was a musician and these are just, and just creativity. They're just.

Pedro Espinoza (1:02:51)
Yep.

Solomon Abuda (1:02:55)
It's just us trying to express how much we love the Lord. And so, and it's a communication piece. So I think.

Pedro Espinoza (1:03:04)
There was also the

arc of the covenant ⁓ where God was telling them how to build it, why to build it that way.

Solomon Abuda (1:03:07)
Yes, definitely.

Right.

And so like it's super important to have creatives in ⁓ churches, organizations, and having some sort of representation. Because then if you don't have creatives, then you're relying on the communication of just the leader themselves, which is not bad, you know, but like you can definitely amplify the message if you have creatives to not only just share the message,

But because also are, creators are known to be in tuned with their feelings, we can also do it in an inspirational way. And so it's, so yeah, like it's, they're definitely important for sure in all aspects of creativity, whether it be for marketing or digital marketing or for live production and worship and just worship.

Pedro Espinoza (1:04:06)
Yeah, and ⁓ to your point, so creative members, they use the creative side of their brain, so that the left side and the right side's for more logical, more mathematical ⁓ type of operations. But ⁓ you are right in saying that it is really the creative side, the left side of the brain.

Solomon Abuda (1:04:12)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

No, for sure.

Yeah. And it's something creative director and Pastor Sean always try. There's something that he said that our content needs to do two things. That it needs to either inform people or inspire and inspire. Sorry, not or. It needs to inform people, give people information, and it needs to inspire, give people inspiration. It needs to do both. It can't just be one or the other. Because if you have just information, right?

I mean, we've seen people who have given presentations where it's a bunch of statistics and a whole kinds of descriptions of a certain, ⁓ but then it's just like, okay, that's it. Right. Yeah. I mean, like, you know, it's, it's just, it's just very hard to digest if it was just all information. ⁓ but you also go to swing to the other side. If it's all just inspiration, it's like, my gosh. Yes. Like, you know, you tug on the right heartstrings, but if there's no information.

What do do next? You know what mean? I have all this, like I'm inspired to do something. I'm motivated to do something. What now? You know what I mean? So it's a dance between the two. You gotta have both. Not even a dance. You just gotta have both. You need to have content that both to information and inspiration. do, a lot of creators lean towards the inspiration aspect. And I think it's when we have like logical leaders ⁓ and creative directors who are kind of like, who kind of know, who understand the

the importance between both. And oftentimes it's like trying to have the right information in there.

Pedro Espinoza (1:05:56)
So to inform and inspire. And actually actually drew me in to certain aspects of fellowship, especially the testimonial videos. ⁓ It's the lighting in the shot. It's the camera angle. ⁓ It's the line of questioning to elicit the best responses from that person. But those testimonial videos are really

something that drew me in even closer. arguably they can even be the bedrock of this entire operation because testimonials bring people closer.

Solomon Abuda (1:06:35)
For sure.

⁓ 100%. I haven't heard someone say, ⁓ the reason why I'm staying at fellowship is because of how many testimonies we've done or how many small groups we have. The reason why I made people stay is because they've heard someone's story and they were able to relate to it. I was able to find myself within that story. so now the information, the numbers, they may give us credibility.

But it does it, but it will, but ultimately everyone's gonna make a decision because they made the decision because they were able to see story within that story. And because of that, I wanna be able to get what they got, you know, in a testimony. so yeah, testimonies are powerful. And it's, when you hear someone who's been totally rocked and been totally transformed by the love of God, then ⁓ we gotta share it.

There's a Bible verse too, that there's power in the words of our testimony, right? So, I forgot the full verse, but maybe there could be a reference somewhere, but.

Pedro Espinoza (1:07:38)
think it's that

life and death are in the power of the tongue.

Solomon Abuda (1:07:42)
I so. Yeah, but yeah, that's why we share testimonies. That's why ⁓ we tell other people what God has done in our life because then people could say like, man, I've been through something like that. And I need that. I needed that. Like when I was going through my season, I needed someone to I just need someone ⁓ who went through what I've went through or something similar just so that we can have a little bit of hope. You know what mean?

Pedro Espinoza (1:07:43)
similar. Yeah.

Solomon Abuda (1:08:11)
Just so that way there's, ⁓ sometimes like when you don't have faith, sometimes like someone has to have faith for you. If that makes sense, like they just got to be able to say, no, you got this bro. Like there's still more for you. And I think that when those, when God places those people in your life, like it's totally transformative. Like it's just like, there is hope. And even in the midst of your pain, even through the midst of your darkness, there is still hope. You know, don't believe the lie that there isn't any.

I did Four Seasons and it just led me to chaos. when Ryan was able to encourage me and to remind me that there is always going to be hope, then from there I was able to find peace even in the midst of my darkness. But then it allowed me to grow. It allowed me to, okay, well then let's get to work. Let's start with one thing at a time. And then to the point where now, like the way that I built my life, I'm such in a healthier spot now.

I'm taking a lot more risks now. I understand that I can't just dodge pain, know, pain is going to come in the midst of risks. And so, but then it's just now trusting in the Lord. Having those moments where you're like, trying to take a step out of faith, those are just, when you're fearful, those are opportunities to the stretch your faith. When you feel fear, those are opportunities to, to stretch your faith to really practice what you've learned.

You know what mean? that's, but that's just the, I think we into a small tangent there, but yeah.

Pedro Espinoza (1:09:44)
no, I think it's the book of James, right? When your faith is tested, it produces perseverance. And may perseverance do its work in you.

Solomon Abuda (1:09:51)
Yeah. And then

it develops into carrots. And then becomes character.

Pedro Espinoza (1:09:55)
Boom, perfect. Yeah.

So talk about the ups and downs of being a Christian content creator.

Solomon Abuda (1:10:05)
Ups and downs. Well, of the five infinity stones of becoming viral. No, I'm just kidding. But know, just got content creation, a blogger is one, know, like, jokes aside, I would say that some of the ups and downs of being a content creator

Pedro Espinoza (1:10:15)
Right? The palm of your hands.

Solomon Abuda (1:10:29)
I would say definitely the ups is being able to see someone take their next step, I think. But not because like you did something. Well, you did something, but it wasn't because you were trying to evoke like a... Well, it's not because like you were trying to manipulate them. It was because they decided. You know what I mean? They decided for themselves that they wanted to take their next step. And seeing that is so awesome, especially when people give their life to Jesus.

So that's one up of being a content creator. Another up is I love seeing new content creators, another generation of content creators coming up. And then they were like at one point, but then after that are now in a, now they know a lot more. So just seeing growth, seeing growth in content creators is very special to me because ⁓ I personally went through that growth too. remember coming in with like minimal knowledge, but now I'm...

Not to boast myself up, but now I know a lot more. There's still a lot of things I gotta learn. But I was, able to make enough. I have, know enough to be able to make, to make something. So, ⁓ so now, but then seeing other creatives have that journey, it's really cool to be able to just see and witness. ⁓ What else? ⁓ I would probably say some of the downs. What are some of the downs? I would probably say that

One of the things that content creators really run into is burnout, this idea of burnout. if we look at scripture, and one of our pastors taught this at another church, but he talked about how the idea of burning out isn't biblical because it's not the way that God wants us to live our life.

Pedro Espinoza (1:11:59)
you

Solomon Abuda (1:12:21)
He wants us to live from a place of overflow. wants us a place to live from. And I'm not saying that, you know, that we don't go through hardships and times, but it's just not the way that God wants us to live our life. He doesn't want us to live from a place where we're burnt out. We should be living from a place of overflow. We should be serving from a place of overflow. And I think ⁓ one of the things that I've learned was that, you know, that scripture verse where it talked about how

Pedro Espinoza (1:12:23)
you

Solomon Abuda (1:12:48)
What was that verse? He who refreshes others, then themselves be refreshed, right? That Bible verse. Now, sometimes when you work a lot, sometimes it feels like that's it's not true. But what I've learned from that scripture verse is that it is true, but it does come with a prerequisite. And I think a lot of us who are content creators and when we see that verse and we're like, OK, well, if I want to be refreshed, I just got to work more, more, more, more, work. But then we start to realize there's a prerequisite to that verse.

Pedro Espinoza (1:12:52)
Yes. Yes.

Solomon Abuda (1:13:17)
that prerequisite is the being in the presence of God. If you're not in God's presence, then it's not going to fall through. It's almost going to be a similar instance where Mary and Martha was in the presence of Jesus. Mary was worshipping Jesus, but then Martha was working. And then Martha got jealous because she was all the work that she was doing. This was after a miracle. This was after when Nicodemus was... not Nicodemus, I'm sorry, ⁓ Lazarus.

raised from the dead. You know what mean? But then Martha was working. And then Martha went to Jesus and said, you know, shouldn't you tell Mary to, you know, like, what's Mary doing? And then Jesus says that Mary was doing the better thing. Right. Didn't knock what Martha was doing, but he clarified that Mary being in the presence of Jesus, being in his presence was a lot better. And so sometimes I feel like

reason why we burnt out, it's because we stopped being in the presence of God. We were kind of, we had like the Martha spirit where I'm just work, work, work, work, but you forgot to be in God's presence. And so if you want yourself to be refreshed too, you got to be in the Lord's presence because he's the one that's going to refresh you. And then from that overflow, you're going to be able to bless others. ⁓ Again, that's just my take on it. ⁓ I think that

If we had more creatives being in the Lord's presence, not necessarily being in church, but just being in your secret place. I think that's what I mean. Being in their secret place where like no one's looking. It's just you and God. Just being in His presence, praying, worshiping, and meditating on His scriptures. I think that when we just have those moments, I think those will be the moments that help sustain us. So that way we can be able to serve

with purpose, but also serve with a place of joy, because we know we remind ourselves of who we're doing this for. So, but again, that's just my thing. I know that people experience burnout and it's real for people, but ⁓ maybe it could be something to check. Maybe it's a spiritual ⁓ heart check. Why am I really working so hard? Because God doesn't want us to be in a place of burnout. He wants us to be in a place of

in the place of he wants us to serve but from a place of overflow. So that's just my take on it. It was something that I have personally learned. And then it also reminds me of the ⁓ it also reminds me in Revelations two where it talked about how I think it was the Church of Ephesus. You can fact check me, but it was when Jesus was talking to the Church of Ephesus and he was talking about doing all these great and amazing things.

Pedro Espinoza (1:15:47)
Yes. ⁓

Solomon Abuda (1:16:11)
If you were to look at the Church of Ephesus at that time, they were doing really well. You're doing great jobs, you're catching false prophets, all of that. But the one thing that he called them out for, but in spite of all these things, I have one thing against you, Jesus said, and he says this, that you have forgotten your first love. When was the last time you had to remind yourself that you had to, or what was the last time that you reminded yourself that God loved you? You know what I mean? Am I doing this out of just emotion?

Pedro Espinoza (1:16:38)
It's been a long time.

Solomon Abuda (1:16:41)
Or am I doing this from a place of devotion? Right? So I think that when we go back to that place, that moment where, you know, where we first love the Lord, just the, there's a maturity that grows because maybe the zeal may not necessarily come back. It might, it might. But when you just, when you run back to that first love and just remember the time when the Lord has

has delivered you from something and has given you salvation. ⁓ Whether the zeal comes back or not, there's a maturity in that love now of going back to it. That there's a devotion now like, wait, that's right. I'm doing this for my Lord. And so I think that ⁓ when we can go back into the Lord's presence, then we could be able to save ourselves from burnout. And only just that too, but.

If we want to look into practical things, if we were to look at to prevent burnout, there's also, ⁓ I think a lot of, ⁓ I think a lot of not just creators, I just people in general, think they are Christians in general. They don't practice the Sabbath, oddly enough. ⁓ It's in the scriptures. It's in the top 10. It's in the 10 commandments, you know, to remember the Sabbath, but not many Christians are practicing it.

That day of rent is so crucial. think in the context of creatives, definitely, we definitely need to rest our, not only just our bodies, but our minds, because our minds is working when it comes to content creating. Whether you're thinking of new ideas or actually executing it, our minds are working. But what was the last time that we practiced our Sabbath to where we could be in the presence of God? You know what I mean? What was the last time? And what was the last time that you spent time with your family?

utilizing that Sabbath to just rest and to be in God's presence and to rest in Jesus. Reading your Bible without a time limit, know, or being God's presence without a time limit. are those are the my Sabbaths are, you know, I remember when I first practiced my Sabbath, I thought it was just idleness, you know, just rest, you know what I mean? But I had days off where I literally did absolutely nothing. And at the end of the day, I was 10 times tired. I was like,

How the heck am I feeling this way? You know what mean? Like I literally did absolutely nothing. And so I've learned now that there's actually this thing called active rest where you can do things that refresh you. know, again, so it's not necessary, rest isn't just idleness, but it's like doing something that actually refreshes you. an active workout. Yeah. Like I remember like after a workout actually feels refreshed after doing it, but I did a lot of work. You know what I mean? Like I've worked out.

Pedro Espinoza (1:19:13)
second active workout.

Solomon Abuda (1:19:25)
So, mean, I'm not gonna do like a full on lesson of what the Sabbath is, but like, I do wanna challenge anyone who is out there to really look into it take next steps on not only just practicing your Sabbath, but protecting it too. Because if you're not going to do your Sabbath, then something else is going to take over that day. So you gotta protect that day militantly. And so, yeah, that's kinda like.

Pedro Espinoza (1:19:46)
Yeah.

Solomon Abuda (1:19:53)
What are some of the downs of being a creative? Is this that topic of burnout? But I have so much to say about it. But what are some other downs? Man, I would also say comparison as well.

Pedro Espinoza (1:20:09)
man. Yeah.

Solomon Abuda (1:20:10)
I don't

know. Well, I think that like when I compare my work with other creatives, kind of demoralizes me, it gets me down, especially when I'm looking at other creators that are really killing it in like the YouTube on Instagram and they have these big, huge humongous platforms and influence. guess, yeah, I guess I can go a little bit on comparison, but you know, sometimes that, is, it really is because like when I get into that

Pedro Espinoza (1:20:32)
comparison is the thief of joy.

Solomon Abuda (1:20:38)
I didn't, but sometimes I do, I'm flawed. But when my mind goes down that rabbit hole, when I see these amazing content creators like, I don't know, like Ruslan or Joe Rogan, or just like these guys who are making humongous impacts, you know what mean? Humongous impacts in their industry. You're just kind of like Ryan Panetta, like all these guys, and like Omar, they're just so, they're talented, they're gifted.

Pedro Espinoza (1:20:56)
Yeah.

Solomon Abuda (1:21:07)
they're doing it the right way, they're serving people and they're making an impact in people's lives. And sometimes you just kind of compare yourself like, God, do I have a similar calling or is this all that, am I just meant to be an editor? And it's something that I've definitely, it's definitely challenged me. it was something ⁓ creative director, Aaron, he definitely challenged me on that too, where it's like,

Pedro Espinoza (1:21:18)
Right. Right.

Solomon Abuda (1:21:32)
stop thinking that you know what I mean? God has a plan for you. And sometimes it's just when you start comparing other people's gifts and other people's mantles and callings, and then you're just looking at what you got, it's going to put yourself into a very dark hole. And so, ⁓ so how do I get out of it? It's you kind of just have to, you have to be in God's presence, knowing what your call to do, and what your what your call to do and what God's and what God has gifted you in.

and focusing in on that. And also understanding and learning too that not everyone, God doesn't give everyone a big platform. That's just how it is. He has designated certain people who will have, who God has anointed to do that. But God has anointed you for something or His purpose. You know what mean? He's given you a specific gift mix. He's given you a specific calling of purpose to do with that. But you just got to walk in it.

And so that's one of the things that I've learned. I've had to learn that like, okay, Lord, have to be, who do want me to serve? And now in this season, he has given me the creative team at fellowship. So I have to own that, you know, like they're my, you know, I love my team. have to care for them, serve with them, ⁓ whether I have a mic or not, you know I mean? ⁓ Or a YouTube channel, whether in that matter, you know, the Lord has also given me the opportunity to serve

FC Run Club, that's my spawn group ⁓ that I lead. ⁓ I love them with all my heart, know, telling them that we're trying to grow not only spiritually, but physically too. You know, it's important for us to take care of our body. it's, what has God given you, right in front of you, that he's telling you to own? Because he's not going to give you more until you're faithful with what you got in front of you.

Pedro Espinoza (1:23:05)
Nice.

Yep. Absolutely.

Solomon Abuda (1:23:29)
And you have to codify that. You have to understand what has God given you. If it's a small group, then you take care of that small group like crazy. If it's a dream team, you take care of them. If it's your family, you take care of them. You serve them as much as you can. And that's what I've learned. And from there, I've gotten peace about it. I'm not trying to build this platform. I used to. I'm not going to live. But it led down to a whole different...

a whole different rabbit hole where it's like, okay, now I'm trying to look for likes and affirmation. And it's just like, what am I doing? You know what I mean? Like, this is so self-serving. It's not serving anyone except my ego. And even then, like, that just tells me that there's something going on in my spiritual life and my relationship with God. Like, I did something, I ran off of that. You I ran out and I need to realign myself back. So I would say that

God places in front of you, like serve them like crazy and use your gifts while you're at it. And the Lord is going to reward you at the end. You know, and I think that's what I look forward to in eternity. I look forward to the rewards that the Lord will have for me in eternity. You know what I mean? God sees my heart. He sees what I'm doing, when the camera's on or not. He sees the people that I'm serving.

And that's all that really matters. And if God decides to elevate my platform, it'll be on His timing. But as of right now, I'm not going to try to force it. Our immediate goal and our immediate objective right now in this moment, in our current, is just who has God placed and how can you serve them? And then from there,

no need to compare because you're doing what you're supposed to do. You know what mean? And so that's just my thing on that. And you'll get a lot of joy from doing it too.

Pedro Espinoza (1:25:28)
Yeah.

Yeah, I just think it's a wonderful reminder to come from a place of overflow rather than a place of burnout and to always protect your Sabbath, right? You wanna put in the work but also dwell in the presence of God. And that's key. Can't forget to do that. ⁓ So thank you for that reminder, man. And what would you say is

Solomon Abuda (1:26:01)
course.

Pedro Espinoza (1:26:04)
the most rewarding aspect of being a Christian creative.

Solomon Abuda (1:26:10)
I would just say seeing God's name being proclaimed, I think. It's just seeing his name being proclaimed. seeing him, it's being that, well, it's crazy to see that content creators now throughout the whole world, we're starting to see this resurgence of content creators now who are really taking their faith seriously. And now,

it used to be the likes, I think. It used to be the likes and the comments. And I think it was all driven by ambition. So I'm not saying that's right. But at first it used to be that until I realized that it wasn't going to fulfill me. But then when I started to have a different outlook on why I'm creating, the reward has shifted to where now it's just seeing people,

people's lives being transformed and then seeing Jesus' name being proclaimed. And just seeing the life transformation from the piece of content that I've created. And so I would say that is the most rewarding thing. careful on where you do get your reward systems from because it could indicator of your heart condition.

Because if you're trying to get it from likes, comments, shares, and the numbers per se, I'm not saying that they're not important because they are good statistics of a baseline of how your content is doing. But if that's where you're getting your validation, if that's where you're getting your then it reveals something in your spirit that's

Pedro Espinoza (1:27:49)
right, yep.

Solomon Abuda (1:27:50)
you're

getting a reward from something that's finite and there's actually a deeper wound that's actually there. But when you have a place when my reward now is not necessarily, I mean, yes, there are rewards that are going to be that I'm going to experience here on earth. But when you also have an eternity mindset when it comes to the rewards that the Lord's going to have for you in the future, whether someone sees it or not, then your heart comes into a place of like a hearts of service. How many people can I serve? And knowing that

You know, every time I create pieces of content, I do get like pats in the back. video. video. Solomon. those are great. They're they're nice. I I appreciate it. And I think I'm thankful and grateful for it because I you know, I worked hard for it. You know, but at the end of the day, I do ask the Lord Lord, but were you pleased with this? Did you like this? now I'm I'm not

creating, although I make content for thousands of people, I work, when I'm like actually in the editing room and putting up a tripod and setting up a camera, I'm serving a person of one, which is the Lord. And I always ask the Lord, Lord, were you okay with this? And he's always like, yeah, you you've you've done it for my for for my name. You know what I mean? I did the best I could with the best of what I got. You know what I mean?

Pedro Espinoza (1:29:11)
Amen.

Solomon Abuda (1:29:11)
And I think that when I get my reward system from Him, I get a lot more joy because it's not predicated based upon people's affirmation or feelings or emotions. It's predicated on a God that's consistent. Now sometimes He'll challenge me like, Solomon, did you really do your best? And I'm like, no, I didn't. And that's where God's grace comes in. All right, come on, let's do it again. You know what I mean?

So that's, and that's why I love the Lord. Cause even when there's times where I fall short and when I, or what I really haven't done my best, that's where God's grace does come in. Hey, come on, Solomon, let's do it again. It's not like this condemning these. He's like, come on, Solomon. And then from there, because I'm serving from to an audience of one, it's lessening other people. So ⁓ that's where my world comes from. comes from the Lord.

Pedro Espinoza (1:29:41)
you ⁓

Yeah.

Solomon Abuda (1:30:08)
and even from the eternal rewards that I'll get in heaven, but I realized I get a lot more joy and peace when I'm just doing it for the Lord rather than doing it for an audience.

I answered that question correctly.

Pedro Espinoza (1:30:24)
I think your, huh,

yes, yes, thank you. I think your and treasure is the perfect mix between your passion and your purpose. And I say that to say, I think you were handpicked and chosen by to walk out your purpose, which is.

your creativity and the creative gifts that you've been given. So I think everything you've said in this episode is so valuable to the listener and it is truly inspiring to anybody else who wants to step into that role as a creative. And I mean, I can even see you going into mentorship. I'm sure you even do that now, but I think you've

Solomon Abuda (1:31:11)
even see you.

Pedro Espinoza (1:31:17)
You have clearly summarized what it's like to lead people to Christ through a creative lens. And like I said, body is made up of many members and you are part of that creative membership. And I think you're doing great, man. I think you're just knocking it out of the park. So keep up the great work.

Solomon Abuda (1:31:19)
release the design to what it's like to lead cheap new surprise through a creative

Please.

of that creative.

Thanks, man. And there's still a lot of things I need to learn too. Like, this is just kind of like where my headspace is now, a lot of things that I still need to learn as a creative wait to see what the Lord is going to do through my life. You know, I truly believe that the Lord has so much more. with that, and to encourage anyone who's out there as well too.

God has so much more in store for you. He does. If you feel like you are ⁓ in a dip or if you feel like you're in a rut, God has so much more in store for you. And when you believe that, then God will reveal next steps. He will show little by little. At least from my experience, He showed me that there's hope and He's just given me baby steps to walk into that. ⁓

So yeah, but I'm still learning. I'm still like, I'm still growing in my faith. I'm still growing in over at the church and I'm surrounded with great leaders. So, you know, they, they always keep me in check. So always make sure you have accountability, you guys make sure you have a mentor or someone from the church who can be able to pour into your life. So that way, so how are you not doing stuff by yourself? You know what mean?

Pedro Espinoza (1:32:51)
you

and I think that's beautiful. Do you have any last words any words of encouragement?

Solomon Abuda (1:33:07)
I got a couple. Maybe just one piece of advice if you're specifically a content creator in ministry.

Pride is going to destroy you in ministry. Pride. the thing is that the enemy is going to find many ways to ⁓ seep pride into your heart.

I would say that if you're either like easily irritable or maybe not able to receive feedback well, if you're a content creator in ministry,

and you start to see those symptoms happen, ⁓ pride is going to really destroy not only just yourself, but then also the unity that's in the church. praying that any content creator who may have like this artistic, like it's either my way or the highway type of mentality, it's...

You're not going to like ministry and if anything, it's going to, it's going to, if it keeps up for a long period of time, it could potentially destroy it. And I pray for any content creator to really look into, really check their heart to see like, I really struggling with pride or offense? I throw offense in there as well. Cause ministry is messy. We're trying to build the church of Jesus Christ with the imperfect people.

Pedro Espinoza (1:34:39)
Yep.

Solomon Abuda (1:34:39)
And so

there's going to be points in time where there are going to be, there's going to be moments where offenses will rise. How do you handle those fences ⁓ as a content creator? You know, as a content creator, it could be a piece of feedback like, Ooh, we might need to do this again. Or, we may not use that. just fell flat. You got to know when to, ⁓ learn to forgive and then also learn to, Ooh, this main.

this may be a hot take, I'm not sure if I'll have enough time to go into it, you'll, I'll just kind of share it and maybe we can talk about it in another podcast, it would be, it will, you got to, when you're in ministry, you have to learn to submit. That's not a word that many people like, but you have to learn how to, when I say submit, you have to learn down to lay down your preference for the sake of the mission. And so when you

Pedro Espinoza (1:35:17)
Let it rip.

Solomon Abuda (1:35:36)
And not only just for the sake of the mission, also to find unity once the action goes. And sometimes you have to trust, there's gonna be times where you're not gonna agree with certain decisions that are made. That's where you have to really trust in the character of your leadership and trust into the things that, that's where really, that's when the

test of loyalty really comes in. It's actually when you disagree with the, but then are you still able to submit to for the sake of the mission? So that way we could be able to move where we need to go. And do you trust your leadership? So I would say that whoever's a content creator in the ministry, ⁓ check your heart first, check your heart. I prideful in certain areas? And two, are there any places where I need to forgive someone in leadership?

at the end of the day, we have to understand that the Lord Jesus is coming. Heaven and hell is a reality. we have very little time to, ⁓ to be prideful. We shouldn't be prideful in ministry, but we don't have, we don't have time to be able to, see whether I got a pat in the back or not. Or if I, you know, we.

There's people's lives are at stake here. I mean, again, that just kind of came from the top of my head. I don't have it flushed out or anything or notes or anything like that. But if I could just challenge some content creators who are in ministry, who wants to go into ministry, ⁓ really, those were the two biggest things that I had to personally learn in ministry. ⁓ So that way we could be able to be in unity in the church.

⁓ Now in terms of encouragement, I want to encourage any content creator who may be feeling that they are maybe not seen, just know that God sees you. I know that sounds so cliche. I know that's such a churchy thing to say, but it's so true. Like your affirmation should only be coming from him and only him.

Pedro Espinoza (1:37:42)
Yeah.

Solomon Abuda (1:37:47)
It shouldn't be coming from other people or else your feelings is going to be predicated on what they say about you. Like, follow those comments, all these things. like it's at the end of the day, like it's all about Jesus. And so I encourage you that the Lord does see the work that you're doing. Keep going. It's an endurance. Fight the good fights. And ⁓ if you need to hear this,

Pedro Espinoza (1:37:54)
likes, follows, subscriptions.

Solomon Abuda (1:38:15)
any content creator who may be listening to this, are doing a great job. If you're doing it for King Jesus, you are doing a great job. I'm proud of you for all the creators who are out there, whether you're in ministry or if you're a YouTuber or an influencer, continue with the, I don't want to say grind, but continue to do what God's called you to do. And he sees you and the Lord is going to have rewards for you in heaven. And not only that, you are impacting people's

lives, whether you're seeing it or not, or whether you feel like it's only, whether it's a million people or whether it's two views, those people have been impacted. They have seen it. Just continue to hone your craft, to be in God's presence and God's Word. And then the Lord will reveal that better for you, whatever that better is, or continue to give you more. So just be good stewards of what you currently have.

Pedro Espinoza (1:38:52)
Yeah. Yeah.

Solomon Abuda (1:39:08)
and continue to serve and just watch and see what God's gonna do. yeah, just continue to do it, bro. And you guys are going to do great and marvelous things. Well, the Lord's gonna do great and marvelous things.

Pedro Espinoza (1:39:25)
Yes and amen. Well, before we finish up, I want to give you an opportunity to share your social media handle and maybe talk about some services you provide creatively.

Solomon Abuda (1:39:36)
Yeah, for sure. so you

⁓ guys could follow me on Instagram and TikTok. It's, ⁓ it's just my name, Solomon Abuda, all O's. And ⁓ the content that I create, it's really just my personal channel. like, it's just a lot of my personal life. So ⁓ nothing too service-based there, but I do do a lot of videography on the side.

So there'll be a link on my Instagram if you guys want to connect and if you guys want to do any type of video collaborations. And you guys can also follow my TikTok. That's kind of been more of my, that's been a little bit more of my dumpster fire of content. So if there's just anything, it could be everything and anything in TikTok. It's kind of, again, it's just a dumpster fire of content. But if you guys want to follow me there, again, it's just my name's Solomon Abuda. All one word, all Os.

Pedro Espinoza (1:40:31)
Are you on YouTube?

Solomon Abuda (1:40:33)
And I'm not on YouTube. Well, yes, I am, but I haven't made any content on YouTube. But if you guys want to follow me in the beginning genesis of my YouTube channel, it will be my it will still be my full name, Solomon, Abuda, all one word. And ⁓ I'm still flipping back and forth of what content I want to make there. But at this point, I just need to start making content. I probably have actually have maybe three vlogs there so far, but I don't have anything that is. ⁓

Pedro Espinoza (1:40:38)
Gotcha.

Solomon Abuda (1:41:02)
that is extraordinary in there just yet. There isn't a niche part yet, but if you want to follow me in the beginning genesis of that channel, go for it. It's just my name, all one word.

Pedro Espinoza (1:41:17)
The links will be in the description. So if you are interested in following Solomon, I will have those links in the description. again, bro, thank you so much for what you're doing for not only the community, but more importantly for the kingdom. And if you're going through a hard time, like what you said, come from a place of overflow, not burnout. So

I'll be praying for you and fight the good fight, man.

Solomon Abuda (1:41:46)
Thank you for having me. It's such an honor to be on your podcast and looking forward to see what the Lord does in this ministry.

Pedro Espinoza (1:41:57)
Alright bro, love you, take care.

Solomon Abuda (1:41:59)
All right, take care, brother.