The Hardest Truth a Man Can Face w/ Leonard Tanks

The Men of Iron Podcast, a Christian podcast for men, welcomes Pastor Leonard “Tanks” Tanks of Reach City Church in Cleveland, Ohio, for a powerful conversation on redemption, discipleship, men’s ministry, and fitness.

Leonard shares his story of growing up in Cleveland, facing serious charges, encountering God while in jail, and eventually surrendering his life to Jesus. From there, he explains how God used community, prayer, discipleship, and faithful men to transform his life and call him into ministry.

This episode also dives into how Reach City Church is building a disciple-making culture, why men’s ministry has to be more than a quarterly breakfast, and how fitness can become a tool for faithfulness instead of an idol. If you are a pastor, church leader, men’s ministry leader, mentor, or a man looking to grow in your faith, family, fitness, and purpose, this conversation will challenge and encourage you.

Men of Iron exists to change a culture one man at a time by equipping men to know God, know their purpose, and thrive in the Core5: faith, family, friends, fitness, and finances.

Timestamps

00:00 — Leonard Tanks hears the voice of God
 00:31 — Growing up in Cleveland and Leonard’s early story
 00:56 — Jail, felonies, and the beginning of redemption
 03:59 — Score your Core5 and set a goal
 04:50 — Reading Scripture in jail and realizing his life needed to change
 06:30 — Praying a desperate prayer and making a deal with God
 08:15 — Getting released from jail and hearing God speak
 09:45 — The power of a praying community
 10:37 — Why it’s never too late for God to use a man
 11:54 — Reach City Church and planting during COVID
 13:30 — Making disciples instead of chasing Sunday attendance
 15:05 — Building a disciple-making culture in Cleveland
 18:00 — Why discipleship is a culture, not a program
 21:25 — Men’s ministry that goes beyond pancakes and events
 22:24 — How Monday night discipleship became men’s Bible study
 24:20 — Prayer walks, evangelism, and getting men outside the church walls
 27:59 — Fitness, faith, and stewarding the body
 29:45 — Why physical health matters for pastors, fathers, and leaders
 34:00 — How to pursue fitness without making it an idol
 37:37 — Advice for men looking for discipleship
 38:51 — How church leaders can begin building a discipleship culture
 41:39 — The courage to ask another man to walk with you
 43:15 — How to connect with Men of Iron

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It was literally at that time I I heard the voice of God for the first time in my life personally say, Hey, um, I thought you told me if I got you out, you was giving this up. Hey, thanks for having me. It's always uh good to be on pods and talk about good stuff like faith. And um, yeah, ever since I seen you guys here uh uh interviewing nobles, uh it's been I've been excited about y'all ministry, excited for the things that you do and the way that you guys are equipping me. And so I'm glad to be here.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Love it. So, first off, I just want to start off. I know you're from Cleveland, Ohio. You're a little bit, a little bit away. Tell us about yourself, like who you are. Tell us your like, we would always say like men of iron story, but tell us your story a little bit because I know it's a story of redemption. I know it's a story of God working, and now you're leading this church in an amazing way. And it's it's really a blessing to me to watch. So for you, just tell us a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Yeah, so uh, you know, they call me Tanks. Um, that's actually my last name. So uh my real name, my whole name is Leonard Tanks. Um, born and raised in Cleveland my whole life. Uh 41 years old, married, um, about to be 14 years in uh two weeks. Um uh five kids and a grandson. Uh so definitely a family man. But uh yeah, been been walking with the Lord here now. Um it's 2026. So I've been walking with the Lord for 16 years. Um, got saved in uh February of 2010, um, miraculously, honestly. Um, you know, I'm my whole I I didn't really have a church background growing up. I did, I mean, I I went to Catholic school and I can remember going to like some Catholic masters and things like that, but um not no real like faith where it was being in like taught to me and ingrained in me. It was kind of like a maybe go on a Sunday type situation. But um, yeah, man, just had a, you know, all my life been in and out of jail a lot. Um, three felonies before I was 16. Um then obviously growing up, becoming an adult, continuing that kind of path, in and out of jail, a lot of violent crimes, um, different things like that. And yeah, eventually, um speeding past a lot of that, but uh eventually um I was uh in jail. I was facing um facing five years for uh kidnapping and assault and I think domestic violence might have been the other charge. Um and uh I remember we were kind of waiting for trial, so I was kind of in jail for 42 days, just waiting to go to trial. And they had video evidence of certain stuff, and so, you know, the prosecutor was just like, man, we just we're not making no more deals with this guy. Uh we we just going for the whole five years. Um, so that's why we were sitting, just waiting to go to trial, because it was like, well, might as well get my time started in a point of bailing out. And so uh while I was in there, um, this guy named Tom Walsh had uh gave me a Bible, and uh I started reading it. And um as I was reading the Bible, I I specifically remember now, obviously, back in hindsight, reading um in uh uh Timothy four, where it talks about um gullible men going in John As these men's John As and John Berez going in the house of gullible women and taking advantage of them. And I remember I read that, and that was literally the verse that God used to pierce my heart and open my eyes, because amongst selling drugs and doing this drug organization, um, I also prostituted women. And so when I read that, I was like, wait, that okay, I I think I probably take advantage of vulnerable women. Um but I remember going, you know, to Catholic school, I I did remember the Ten Commandments. And I was like, I don't remember that one being one of them. Like it's so I was like, oh, wait a minute, this is wrong? And that literally made me begin to say, well, what else is wrong that I'm doing?

SPEAKER_03 3:59

Hey guys, I hope you're enjoying listening to this episode of the Men of Iron Podcast. I just want you to take a moment to think about what is your goal? Seriously, what is it? And think about each area of your life. Once you finish this episode, I want you to go down to the description actually, and I want you to click the link that says score your core five. That's where you'll rank your faith, your family, your friends, your fitness, and your finances and talk about honestly how you're doing in each area of your life. And at the bottom of that sheet, you're gonna come across where it says, all right, what's your goal to move the needle in any of these areas of your life? And you're gonna put it down and say, All right, this is how I'm doing. And then I want you to leave a comment about what your goal is so that way you can see, all right, these are the other guys that are setting a goal. And then we're gonna ask you two weeks after that to hold you accountable. This is how we change a culture one man at a time. Enjoy the rest of this episode.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Um, and and it's crazy when people hear my story, they're like, you know, tanks, you you didn't think you was a bad guy, you know, from everything from stabbings to shootings to drug dealing to a lot of bad, dark stuff. And it's like you you thought you wasn't a bad guy. And I'm like, well, if I just judge by the Ten Commandments, I didn't believe I was breaking outside of like, not even, I just didn't think I was breaking Ten Commandments. Like I never slept with a married woman, so I wasn't committing adultery, I wasn't a thief, um, you know, I wasn't killing people. So I was looking at that stuff and I was like, and I'm loyal, so I wasn't bearing false witness against people. So I'm like, yeah, I ain't breaking none of that stuff. And so um, when I started to read the scriptures after that verse, I just really began, God began to pierce my heart and show me like, man, everything about your life is wicked. And the path that you've been traveling is is wrong and has abused people, has mistreated people, and that if I was to die, um, I did not have a relationship with the Lord. And I remember that didn't really draw me to want one with him. It just kind of opened my eyes to the fact that I wasn't a good person. But I'm still in jail. And it really wasn't until my daughter, so at that time I had a five-year-old daughter and a nine nine-month-year-old daughter. And they came and visited me. And I remember looking at my daughters as a man who my mom left. I was raised by my dad. So my dad was serving five years in jail for cocaine and other felonious assaults when I was born. So we got out when I was five. During that time he was in jail. My mom ended up turning gay, and they were married, but she ended up becoming gay and getting on drugs, and she left us. And so we was with our grandma, and my dad got out of jail and he came and got his kids. So I was raised by a man. And so one of the things that I've always known that my dad always taught me was men take care of their family. And so I'm looking at my daughters and I'm like, man, I'm about to leave these little girls for five years. And I was like, man, what is about to happen to them if they don't had a dad? And so it was that that actually caused me that night to go into my cell and I said, okay, guy, whoever you are, if you get me out of jail, I'll serve you the rest of my life. Um, I woke up the next day still in jail. Um, and so I was like, well, that prayer didn't work. And so, you know, not thinking nothing of it, you know. I just kept reading, drawing, doing different things that I was doing. And um we went to trial about two weeks later. And as we sitting there to go to trial, my lawyer is in the chambers with the judge, and he ends up coming out and he looks at me, he says, Hey, you got an opportunity to go home today. And I was like, How? He was like, Well, the video evidence got damaged in police custody. So um all they have is audio, so they can they can charge you still with um unlawfully restraint because they can audibly hear you telling people they can't go anywhere. But that's a misdemeanor three, 30 days in jail, you've been sitting here 42, you plead out to that, we go home today. And I was like, sounds like a deal to me. And so um we did that, and um I went home and doing my normal stuff, man. Um started, you know, they had a party drinking and and marijuana and people over. And I was on my front porch smoking, and I started to get sick. And as I'm getting sick, I'm like, you know, I'm looking at my guys, I'm like, yo, what changed the strand at our weed? Like, what's going on? Like, this is Bob, it ain't been long enough that I should be getting sick from weed. And they was like, no, everything's still the same. And so it was literally at that time, I heard the voice of God for the first time in my life personally say, Hey, um, I thought you told me if I got you out, you was giving this up. And I remember sitting on my front porch that night, and my dudes is looking at me like, what's wrong? And I was like, nothing. They're like, You sure? I'm like, nah, I'm cool. But I'm really just sitting there thinking, like, oh shoot, I did make this deal. Like, all right, loyalty and integrity mean something to me. So that means I gotta at least give this thing an shot and just see what happens. Um, and yeah, and so I called my homegirl, um, one of my best friends, um, Toya. We we grew up next door to each other in diapers together. So, you know, her dad was a deacon in the church. She was still around us, but she was still going to church. She wasn't doing as much crazy stuff as we was, but she was around. We've been friends our whole life. So I just called her and I was like, hey, I think I gotta start going to church. And she's like, All right, I'm gonna take you to church. And yeah, she took me to her church. And yeah, I mean, long story short, that was kind of the beginning and the end of it. And for me, um, and I'll say this before I kind of conclude that part, but the whole, my whole time, I was kept thinking that God answered my prayer. Like he heard my prayer and for some reason he believed my deal, right? And here's the here's the interesting thing while I talk about the power of a praying community. What I learned later on was I ended up becoming a part of the young adult group that was at the church. Um, and when I met these, this group, they let me know, like, hey man, when you was in jail, we would have, we always would have Sunday prayers, and we were praying that God would reach you while you were in jail. And this whole time I thought he heard my deal and got me out, but really it was the prayers of the righteous that availeth much. And he was responding to their intercession on behalf of me. Um, and and God is just so amazing. Like I end up being a part of that young adult ministry, I end up like leading that young adult ministry. So the same people that prayed for my salvation, I end up being their leader eventually. And oh, it was cool, man. But yeah, so that's kind of like my introduction into like Christianity and church.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Man, man, man, man. That story is just like redemption, redemption, redemption, redemption. And then to see your life now, I can tell you I would never guessed any pieces of that. I mean, I knew a little bit when we had a little chat in your office when I was out there, but it we didn't get into that detail. And it's amazing to watch how God works, right? I think so many times we put like, well, God can't use me because of XYZ. Men put that in their head. I'm not qualified. I don't, I don't have it figured out. None of us have it figured out. It doesn't matter if you're in men of iron pastor at a church leading a group, like, we only got it figured out. We're still trying to figure it out. I think for the most part. And it's just so cool to hear that story because it's it's never too late. It's never too late to hit the ground running and run with God because God wants you to be a part of it so much. He is drawing you, but every time you're like, I don't have what it takes. I can't be that guy. No, you can be. Let's start with your family. Go be that husband you're supposed to be, go be that father you're supposed to be. Tell me a little bit about, because I've been watching, so I want to know a little bit what's Reach Church up to. Um, I watch it, I watch some of your services, I see the Instagram posts, and I see what you're preaching and doing. What's Reach Church you up in Cleveland and how's it making an impact there?

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Yeah, man. Reach City Church, man, church planting. Uh man, it's a different beast all of his own. Um, we actually celebrate six years of ministry um and uh started, you know, started the church plant um in 2020, um, a month before COVID. Um, so that's an interesting journey. Um, but one of the things that I um COVID did, you know, in general, COVID was not a good thing. Let me say that. Um But one of the things that COVID did for us as a ministry was our plan and our strategy to plan a ministry was always to, we always believe that you, you, you, you, you make disciples and then God builds his church. Right. And we see that model right in Acts, right? They were preaching um the gospel, evangelizing, people were coming, and then it says, and the Lord added to their numbers those which were being saved each day. They made disciples, they preached the gospel, the Lord added people to his church. And so that was always our model. However, as a church planter, man, you're supposed to do these church planning tours, you're supposed to go around and talk to all of these churches. And the one thing that gets pushed over and over in your head is make Sunday great, and your launch service has to be big. And I had so much anxiety around that because I'm like, I just want to make disciples. Um, and like I'm not, and and so, yeah, man, I remember having so much anxiety around like the launch day. Like, man, it's supposed to be big, and you're supposed to set out all these chairs and all these people supposed to come. But I'm like, I don't think they're gonna come though. Like, is that we're gonna have a bunch of empty chairs? We're gonna set out uh, you know, 150, 200 chairs. There's gonna be like 10 people here, and I'm gonna feel stupid. And so I had so much anxiety, and and sure enough, um, COVID came. Um, so we we were set to plant a month before COVID, but our launch date was supposed to be um the week after COVID actually came, before obviously before we knew it came. And so we had to launch online like everybody else. And it was like whether it was six people or a hundred people watching, all the pressure went away. And that actually allowed us as a ministry to make sure that we didn't get caught up into the fluff things to build the church because you couldn't do any of it. All you could do was discipleship, meeting with people, on Zoom, walking with people, and and so we got to establish our ministry the way that we felt God wanted us to, without the pressure of doing all of the other things, things that we currently feel pressure now to do, right? But um, and so disciple making was always our our primary strategy. And so um, as a ministry, that's been the way that we launched, that's been the direction that we've been going. Um, really believing that if we build um quality disciples, um, then God will add to his church and and and and in his own pace and own timing, we will see him continue to to build the church and grow the church um as he so fits and chooses. And so that's what Reek City Church has been doing and what we're about. Um, our vision statement is the holistic transformation of people and communities. Um, our core values are belonging, transformation, multiplication, and giving, giving of yourself and surrender to the Lord. And, you know, the engine that runs everything that we do is discipleship. Um it is our culture, it is what we preach, we hammer down, we push down, we teach a lot about, talk a lot about. Um and yeah, and so that's kind of what reach is about. And in the city, I think that, man, we're we make impact in our direct community, obviously. Um, continuing to try to build in our community, reach our community, be a resource in our community. And then even from like a discipleship context, um, you know, we we try to do um boot camps and teach people around our city and churches and members of churches to give equipping, equip people to know what it means to make a disciple and know some basic things on how to make disciples and different things like that. So that's kind of our big like city impact thing that we that we want to do. We said in 2020, me and my wife said, man, we want to we want to build a discipling-making culture in our city, not just our local church, but we want to see our city and we want to launch a movement of discipleship in our city and and not to get people into city church, but in their own churches right where they're at, can we launch a movement that moves throughout the city and you see people engaging in discipleship? And so that's our that's our big vision for our city. Um, and we keep asking God if He'll use this little church here um on St. Clair uh to be a launching pad to ignite that. And we've seen him doing that as many churches are coming around us um and and even asking us, hey, can you come and teach us these things and equip our people like this? So um yeah, so uh that's a that's a short story long.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

No, it's good though, because I think I I'm in churches all day long and we see like we don't know how to make disciples. And God calls us to do it. And to have a church like Reach City out there, like, no, this is what this is this is our DNA. Like this is what we're about is making disciples. And it I don't care, and I love I love the thought that you said like I don't care, even care if you come to Reach City. Like that's like I just want to change the community here in Cleveland. We want to change the community wherever Men of Iron, like wherever it is, like that's the impact. We want the multiplication to happen because honestly, we only can do so much. Let's be real. Like, there's only so much how far our reach gets or as far. But to have men like you in these areas, come on. Like, I I can't say enough of just thank you because we believe in it so much here at Menoviron, and I know and having a church believe that of making an impact. What would you say is the biggest change you've seen by having discipleship be as big as that is in your church? Because it's a game changer. It is a game changer, not only in the church, but outside the four walls. What's the biggest piece of that that's changed your culture, maybe changed your, you know, the members that are there? What is it?

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Yeah, I think man, if I had to put a metric on it, I think the thing that has been the biggest impact is that our our community um be is actually beginning to look like that acts two, that axe four community. Because when we talk about discipleship in the c in the way that we talk about it as a culture, where and what I mean by that is like if you come and you say to me, Hey, what's your discipleship program? I always say we don't we don't have a discipleship program. Um you don't sign up and and you don't opt in and opt out of discipleship at Reach. Like it's it is their culture. Like if you are at Reach and somebody's going to say, Hey, have you ever been disciple? And if you say no, they're gonna be like, Hey, you want to walk with me, right? You can say no to that too as well, right? And that's fine, but you'll either get real uncomfortable quick because it's the culture, right? Or over time we've seen people be like, wait a minute, I actually am into this discipleship stuff. Um, and so, but but what that does is because it's not a program that there's a couple leaders that are leading these programs and you opt into it, because it's really a culture, what happens is the priesthood of all believers is taking place at the ministry, where the ministry belongs to the people of God. Um, it doesn't belong to me, it doesn't belong to clergy, it doesn't belong to a few good leaders. The ministry of God belongs to the people of God. And because of discipleship being a culture here, people are engaging in the ministry, not serving as a hospitality team only and all the service gifts that we identify in the church, but they're serving the ministry by either being walked with so that they can walk with others or by walking with some um to help them walk with others as well. And so I've seen that, and because of that, the community is strengthened as a whole because it's not because now all of the one-anothers have to exist with each other, meaning um we got to confess to one another. Why? Because you're in discipleship with people and you're in discipleship groups, at least three people, right? And so there's confession that takes place. There is transparency and vulnerability and love and burden bearing and all of the 77 different one-anothers that's mentioned throughout the New Testament. We see that community beginning to take place. And listen, it's not perfect, right? Um, trust me. We got we, but but in that imperfection, we still are discipleship is dealing with that because we harp on, hey, we handle conflict the way that the scriptures cause us to as well. And so that's what I think has been the biggest thing is not that we've seen an explosion of people loving discipleship, and so they're flocking into Reed City Church to, you know what I'm saying? But what we see is a com an a health a community that is healthy being developed here. Um, and we see quality um of people, the quality of people beginning to change from when they walk through the doors, and those who embrace the culture and don't fight the culture, and some people do fight the culture, but and and it could take a while for them to want to enter into that culture, right? But those who engage in the culture and allow themselves to meet that rub, we see quality begin quality spiritual health begin to take place in their life.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

So that's good. Part of that, I've been as I said, I've been watching from afar, and I've been watching this men's ministry that you're having at Reach City. And I I believe me, I've seen a lot of men's ministry happen at churches, and it's usually that pancake breakfast once a quarter. It's usually we get together to play cornhole or shoot hoops, right? And and I understand everyone's at a different spot, but your men's ministry looks a little different. And I what I mean by that is that discipleship piece. I've seen your guys go on prayer walks around the community. Tell me about what your men's ministry. Ministry is doing and the pieces that are a part of it and why it is so important to have those pieces. Because I think sometimes we get, well, we only got time for the pancake breakfast once a quarter. You're not investing in your guys. It's not making that pancake ain't changing that man's life. Yeah. Right? It ain't. The slice of bacon ain't doing it. So how can we build a men's ministry that has that intentionality behind it? Because you're doing it there in Cleveland.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, really, man, you know, we had, you know, we do the the you know, the the the what do we call them, prep references or something, once a quarter, things like that. But really, man, the men's ministry got birthed out of um my personal discipleship. So um I don't know how to say no. Um, and I believe that when men are hungry for the word of God, I don't care how busy I am, I'm gonna be like, yeah, come on, I got you, I got you. And so what ended up happening was I had 18 guys I was discipling. And I was like, hey, listen, there's too many of y'all. So we're gonna do this Monday, this Monday thing. Um, and so as we would meet on Mondays, um, people kept being like, Can I come? Can I come? Can I come? And I'm like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, come on, come on, come on. And so Mondays end up turning from my discipleship group to just men's Bible study. Um, and but we never, but I never changed the content. Now, now I do my discipleship groups don't happen on Monday, they happen on different days, but that Monday group still functions like it would have functioned if it was a discipleship group where, yeah, you know, right now we've been in Matthew for the last two years, but man, we really just try to lean into the scriptures together. Um, and it's a discussion style Bible study. So I don't even, I don't have like a note in front of me. I know my thoughts from a text, and we we open up a text, I talk about what the text is, and we begin to to build with each other and and grow with each other and challenge each other and and ask hard questions of what am I seeing in the text? What am I learning about myself? What needs to change to look like God of this text and what I'm gonna do about it. Those are four questions we ask in every setting that we have. And yeah, and I've just seen it, I've seen it be a blessing, man. I've seen it, whether it's hot outside, whether it's summertime, you know, um, you're gonna get 25 to 30 guys showing up to that faithfully and and loving it. And and not even just from our church, they come from other churches and other places. One comes from Akron, actually, um, because he just likes to be a be a part of it. And and then because I believe that anytime you just do things inside a church building, you're not completing the cycle of discipleship because you talk about what we need to be doing in the world. But I believe that part of any level of discipleship requires that if you if you let's it let's take six weeks. If you got six weeks to teach something, uh you can teach it for five weeks, but that last week, you need to go out and actually live it and show them, give them the example. And so that's where the prayer walks came into place. I was like, hey, y'all, we need to be sharing the gospel. We need to get comfortable talking to people. And so once it gets uh nice outside, we switch it up from every first Monday we do a Bible study, and then every third Monday we go out into the community and we do prayer walk and evangelism. Um, and that's been a blessing too, because you watch guys um start last year where they they're just standing. They're they ain't comfortable, they don't want to go, but they going because they don't want to be like, dad, we don't want to go. Um, and you see them uncomfortable, standing in the back, really just watching me till by the end of that that summer, man, you know, we send one group one direction, one group another direction, and then those groups are breaking off, and you see people moving on their own and just people being like, yo, this wasn't as bad as we thought it was. Like it's actually not that intimidating to just walk up to somebody. Um, and so uh so we see our prayer walks and evangelism um taking place, and then we also use that Monday as an opportunity because discipleship is both an invitation of of um uh a discipleer, inviting somebody into a walk with them, but then also a desire of a disciplee to walk with. And so we also use that Monday as a time to for individuals to actually just learn about other people. And some people from that begin to be like, hey, I was listening to you, man. Have you ever been disciple? And so that's also a picking ground for people to be able to identify, hey, I don't know if anybody ever walked with that person, and and you see the mature people who are ready for that, um, use that space as also an opportunity to connect with people and become a disciple maker of somebody else. So um, yeah, that's a little bit about you know what we got going on, but uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

What I love is the intentionality behind it, right? Even in all those different pieces doing this, Mondays doing that, and it's just like there's such intentionality behind it. So many times you see the men's men, it's just like, oh, we're just doing it to do it. No, no, no, no, no. We're doing it for a reason. We're we're doing it for this, you know, to study the word on this Monday. The other Monday, we're gonna practice what we preach here. We're gonna get out on the, we're gonna walk the streets, we're gonna pray, we're gonna knock knock on doors, whatever it is, witness or just spend time together in ministry, I think is so important. One of the things that I've been seeing from you, and one of the reasons it got me hyped up to get you on here, I was like, my man is a boxer. I saw I saw this post and I was like, I don't know how many pastors out there are boxers, but I've been watching this guy, and we're talking about fitness throughout this and talking about how it's important, like how that we should steward our bodies. Like that's a big piece, and I think that's one area, and we talk about a men of iron and their core five is like fitness is a is a pillar for us. And some guys I think let that one go to the furthest back burner in their lives, and they're like, I'll get to it when I get to it. Can you talk to me a little bit? I mean, you can talk about boxing a little bit because we could chop it up all day on that, but talk to me about like why fitness needs to be important in men's lives, why they should take it seriously, being stewards of our body, all those different pieces that are wrapped up in there and that what you're seeing at your church.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

Yeah. Yeah. So what a lot of people don't know is um before I planted a church, I actually me and my wife actually owned a gym. Um, so we were gym owners. Um, and we tried to do it. So in our church, like right now, if I was, you can't, I'm in the building, but in our we have a gym in our church. Like we build a gym, we built a gym in our church that our members can use um to work out and things because that's a big part of just um our our culture and our life as individuals. Um and obviously I went through a season where I let ministry take me away from that, and I got unhealthy myself, right? And and I just remember, man, uh about a year and a half ago, God really convicted me and was like, hey man, like it you you can't if you give all yourself to the ministry, but you don't take care of your health, you won't be able to give all yourself to the ministry, right? And so uh so I started to pri I started to reprioritize my health again, um, where every day, man, from um eight o'clock to ten o'clock, like my phone's on Do Not Disturb. I am at it at the gym. Um it is part of my, it is part of my spiritual formation. Um, and one of the things that I I've seen with that that I really appreciate and love is even just yesterday, right? Because a lot of times guys will come before Bible study to start working out. Um, and I was in there with one of our guys who was working out when I got here. And one of the things that he was talking about was his health. And he was like, Man, being around you and other guys here at the church really inspired him to want to care about his fitness and say, Hey, I need to take care of my body. And that's what Timothy says, right? Right? Physical fitness counts for some. Now, more important is our our spiritual, but he says it counts for some. And when you read the scriptures and you read stories about an 80-plus-year-old man leading people through the wilderness, um, uh, he wasn't, he wasn't old and crippled and brittle bones, right? Like they're like, this man with health was together. And and I think that as men caring about our bodies is another way that we disciple people. We disciple people to recognize, not so you can be on Instagram and doing, you know, and being on with your shirt off and setting thirst traps. But to be an example that says, hey, man, the temple that God gave us is not everything, but it is a tool in which God uses for us to do the things that He does. How can I do prayer walks if I can't take more than 10 steps without getting exhausted, right? How can I do, um, like I go to a men's Bible study on every other Monday that I'm not having ours, I go to a pickleball Bible study where they get in the word and then they do pickleball afterward. Well, how can I do all of that, right? If my if my health is not, and then even to your point, like being able to box um and do those different things. Before that, I was in powerlifting, right? And being in all of those spaces, it's amazing because the men that I meet there are always surprised to be like, you're a pastor, right? You're a pastor and you're boxing, you're a pastor and you're doing powerlifting. And they and they all, I promise you, they all, they all have said, like, it gives me a different outlook on a pastor. Um, and they see me put the intentionality into my physical fitness. And some have be have come to the church because of that and be like, man, I've seen, if he put that much into that, man, I I wonder how much he put into the spiritual part, right? And so for me, um, it's another form of discipleship. It's another way of teaching fathers how to be um available for their children by caring for them. I got boys, man, that's in soccer and they want to play basketball all the time. And it's like, I gotta be able to run around with these kids. I don't want to be able to be like, no, not today. Daddy, dad, daddy can't, you know, you know daddy can't run. You know, you know. Like, no, I want to be able to play as long as they want to play. I want to be able to play with them. Um, and I want to be able to be, I want to be around for my my daughters, right? I want to be around for my wife. Um, and I just want to be an example. And to your point, as a leader, and then I'll stop talking, but as a leader, um, one of the things that happens often with shepherds is, man, we just see, and listen, I don't know how how this might be a hot take, and some people might not like it for me, but I'm like, I'm tired of seeing overweight, unhealthy shepherds and elders of churches. Um, it's a bad example because that means that there is a part of our life that we have not surrendered to the Lord. And I'm not saying you got to be six packs and all of that, but I'm saying, are you when you go to the doctor, are you, do they tell you that you that you got high blood pressure? Do they tell you, you know, do they give you all of these health warnings because you're unhealthy? Because you can be skinny and unhealthy too, by the way, right? So I'm not talking about how you look physically. I'm talking about how you are, right? And and I was just like, man, I don't, I don't like that. And I was, and that was one of the things that I was like, man, then I'm gonna take care of myself the best that I can. And obviously I'm getting older, I'm 41. So, you know, staying in shape is a lot harder than it was when I was 20. But I can discipline, right? I can discipline myself no different than I have to discipline myself and my spiritual disciplines. I can apply that same discipline to my body, and because of that, I can see consistency and change take place, just like I can see change take place through consistency of walking in my spiritual formation. So anyway, I don't know. I kind of was all over the place with that, but that's my answer. No, I love it, man.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

I I think even when you said that was a hot take, I said, hey, I believe it. I'm right there with you. Because then as a man, if I'm sitting in that audience or sitting in your church and I'm looking at that guy on stage and he's telling me that I need to be a steward of my body, and I'm looking at him thinking, wait a minute, you're telling me to do that? How can I how can I use that as an example, as my pastor, to be like, well, he's not doing it. That's not something I need to worry about, right? So to have that complete balance across what you're saying, it my faith, my fitness, making sure I'm dialed in there, making sure I'm God's giving me this as a gift and using it properly is huge. Two more questions I got for you, and I want to hit you with this. And I think this is one that guys, and you touched on it briefly, but how can a man steward his body without making fitness an idol? I think sometimes we can get in that trap a little bit of like the six-pack, this, like I want to look a certain way, but it's a it's a balance.

SPEAKER_00 34:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

How do you how do you would you tell a guy to do that?

SPEAKER_00 34:20

Yeah. So one of the ways that I I I don't make it an idol, and it was a moment, it was a time in my life when I was making it an idol. And I remember God specifically spoke to me in two things. One, I had a friend of mine who spoke to me, his name was Pastor Bryan, when, and he called me one day and he said, Hey man, I know that you you make money doing fitness. He said, But let me ask you a question. He said, Is your clientele more important than your than your responsibility as a shepherd? You know, I see you online with your shirt off and you're posting your workouts with your shirt off. He was like, Man, you you think you think that is is helping or hurting, you know, the offers? And I was like, oh man, right? And so one, I had a friend that was like, hey man, like, ask yourself why you really doing that, right? And then the other one was God spoke, and he was like, Man, you spend so much time focusing on your fitness. This was probably about maybe six years ago, and he was like, but you'll neglect your time with me sometimes because of it. And so what I ended up doing was I put a rule in place that was like, if I don't spend my, because I wake up around 4 a.m. every day. So it's like, if I don't spend time with God first, then I don't get to go to the gym. The gym is my, the gym can't happen if I did, if I didn't make time for the Lord, then I don't get to go to the gym. And so that put my priorities straight, right? And so that's kind of how I kept it from being an idol. But then at the end of the day, the biggest thing is to just continue to ask yourself or at least remind yourself that I'm not doing this so that people can acknowledge my physique, right? Whatever that may be. I'm not doing it so that I can boast in the fact that I'm the strongest person, or if that's who you are, right? That used to be my tagline. I'm the strongest pastor in Cleveland. Um but but I'm doing it because I believe that health is a part of the tool that God has given me to be an effective witness and to be on mission with him for the long haul. And so as long as you keep reminding yourself that the reason you're doing this is for the sake of ministry and to honor God and your body, then I think it can at least keep you from going off the rails of making it an idol. And now it's just about, man, I just, man, you know, I looked and I just realized, you know, my arm was shrinking a little bit, man, I gotta go hard on arms now because I gotta be able to, my shirt gotta look a certain way. Um, yeah, at that point you can make it an idol, you need to check your heart with that and go to the Lord with it. And but I think if you keep the focus and the purpose, why that at least that can potentially help you not make it an idol.

SPEAKER_01 36:57

That's good. What would be one thing, and then in closing out this thought for us, what is one piece of advice or challenge or however you want to say it to a leader, a man out there that's looking at fitness, looking at discipleship? Maybe they're leading their church and they're like, Man, I need I need what Pastor Tanks is doing. Like, I need I want that culture of discipleship to be in my church. What would or a guy that's looking for a discipleship, where he should start, like, what would you give that guy that's listening to the podcast right now and saying, I love what he's doing, I'm a leader at my church and I want to do that at mine. What would you tell him to encourage him to keep to keep going?

SPEAKER_00 37:36

Yeah, um, two things, man. Uh first I would say if you are a person that are just saying, like, man, I want that, I want discipleship, I've been seeking that. Um, the first thing I would say, man, is humility is going to be required. And as men, you need to humble yourself to know that it's okay to approach another man and say, hey, would you walk with me? Um, we don't, men struggle with being led by other men at times. Um, and so you will have to humble yourself and say, hey, I want you to teach me and guide me on this walk and recognize that as great as your pastor is, your pastor alone from on Sunday morning cannot disciple you. He can just give you information. But information alone is not discipleship. Information needs to be implemented to see transformation. And the the principle that Scripture has given us is that he wants us to take information by way of uh imitation, right? Somebody imitating this information to us so that we can implement it. And so I would say, humble yourself to ask. Don't say, I don't know if there's anybody to this, because I get that a lot. They'd be like, well, I don't know who a disciple me. And I was like, have you asked anybody at your church? And it's like, no. I was like, well, start there before you ask me at another church to disciple you, right? Um, and so I would say that. I would say, just go ask somebody and say, hey, I desire to grow on my walk and I've been watching your walk, and I think that you may help me there. Um, so I would say that to that person. Now to the leader who's just saying, man, I really want to see that disciple-making culture in our church, man. The one thing I would say again is depending on who you are at your church, culture, shaping culture is hard. And if it's not already the culture, it can be a process. So I would say begin the process by going to whoever the lead is. If you are the if you aren't the lead and saying, hey, I know we have great things going here, but I think that we can strengthen our ability to make disciples. And I would love to be used to help build that culture here. Is that something that you're interested in? Um, and then I would just begin to say, uh, it's a journey. Um, for us, I don't know really the real that, you know, you can reach out to me or reach out to men of men of iron, but um, for us, we I train. Um, so I went through Canterpole and Mike Baring's book on culture making discipleship. So I went through a year of training to be a trainer to train churches on how to build disciple-making cultures in their church. So we do that every year with a certain group of churches, right? So it is a process to help people learn how to build that. And so maybe uh reach out to me on that and see how you can get locked into that or really just begin reading on discipleship. Mike Barin's book is a great book. I got it up there. It's called Building a Disciple Making Culture. Great book on just, hey, how does you how do you develop a culture? How do you develop practices and narratives and artifacts and vehicles that get you there? Um, but just recognize that it it culture changing is hard and you have to it has okay, I I know we gotta go. Let me say this. Let me let me say it. Let me let me make make this make sense. It has to be a burden of yours, because if it's not a burden and it's just the wave, because you know, discipleship now is the language of the cult, it's the wave now, right? But if it's not a burden, you won't stick through it when it's hard. And it's hard. People will fight the culture, right? But you have to put your feet down and say, this is the culture, and I might lose a member to build the culture, but I won't forsake the culture building for numbers. Because over time you'll get the numbers back, but it'll be a quality of numbers. So I don't know if I really answered the question, but I am saying it starts with either going to that leader and saying we want this at our church, and then doing the work to begin to read about culture building and different things like that, connecting with people like me, people like you all that men of iron iron, um, reading books, but like Mike Barrine, Cantapol, different things like that, and beginning to say, hey, can you come in and help us learn how to shape this culture?

SPEAKER_01 41:39

Come on. Preaching it from over in Cleveland. I love it. I love it. It's a reality, right? It's just stepping up and making the ask, bringing it to if it's yourself, asking another guy. The number out there actually is almost over 80% of guys are gonna say yes. That's the number, that's the statistics. So you're scared to go ask someone on 80%, 80%? I'll I'll risk that any day of the week on those numbers. It's not a 50-50 shot. You have 80% of some guys saying, Yeah, I would love to walk with you in this. And from that leadership side, what you said, like we need to build that culture within church. We can't just be a Sunday thing. I'm tired of church as being a Sunday thing. I would love it to get outside like what you guys are doing, reaching the community. Let's get out of our four walls and make an impact in our community. Let's change this community, let's change this county, let's state, nation, whatever it is. But that happens with guys taking it seriously and stepping up to the plate. So I just want to say thank you so much for coming on the pod. I know it's been it's been it's been a I've been wanting to do this for so long. And when you said yes, I was like, praise the Lord. I want this guy because you're doing it. I just want to encourage you in what you're doing because I'm watching from afar. Guys are watching from afar, and they're watching your life, and you are living it out the way God calls us to. And I appreciate what you're doing in Cleveland and keep it up, man.

SPEAKER_00 42:58

Keep it up. Thank you. I appreciate it. You too. You guys keep it up. Keep doing what you do, keep keep highlighting discipleship, highlighting men growing. Um, we need platforms like what you guys are doing. Um, and so it was an honor to be on this platform. And so I encourage you to keep going and keep saying keep it keep it up, keep it up.

SPEAKER_01 43:15

Come on, thank you. Well, thanks so much for joining the Men of Iron Podcast this month. Thank you so much for Pastor Tanks being with us. If you want to get connected with us, please look at the links down below and you can get connected there. Thanks so much for joining the Men of Iron Podcast.

SPEAKER_02 43:28

Thanks for listening to the Men of Iron Podcast. Be sure to like, subscribe, and share. At Men of Iron, we exist to change a culture one man at a time, and we'd love to have you partner with us. So go to men of iron.org to see how you can get involved or donate at menoviron.org forward slash donate.