Interview with Haley Filbert & Grace Mangold

On this week's episode, Joe interviews staff members Haley Filbert and Grace Mangold. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to this week's episode of Fields Notes, where we take a deeper dive into sermon text, discuss matters of life and faith, and enjoy conversations around the table with fellow friends from the Fields.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Fields Notes, listeners, hello and welcome back to Fields Notes. Today we are continuing on our what we're calling our summer Fields Notes series of a staff spotlight, a staff interview, an opportunity for us to know the inner workings of the people who work for us. I just made that up. I don't know. I'm here today with Grace and Haley. Grace and Haley, say hey.

SPEAKER_03 0:47

Hello.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Oh hey. Uh, and we're gonna get to know something about Grace and Haley. I have very similar questions to ask Grace and Haley that I asked Callie and Holly, that I believe would have gotten posted a week before this. So maybe if you're listening to them on repeat, there'll be similar questions, but they're just, you know, they're just the questions you ask to get to know people in some ways. So Grace Haley, let's start with Grace. Okay. Grace, some things about you that will be helpful for everyone to know. Where are you from? What school or schools did you go to? Who are you married to? Do you have kids? Something interesting about you that maybe people in our church wouldn't know. Who who is Grace Mangold? Do I say Mangled right too? Kelly's like, you already say it wrong. Mangold. Mangold. I think I say mangled, like you got like hit in a car accident. You're old man. I'm gonna stop talking. Grace, uh, tell us about yourself.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Uh well, Grace Mangold. Uh, born and raised in Crawford as well. Uh, I went to Anderson University and studied music business there. I am married to Dylan Mangold. Uh, and we have a little girl named Eliza Grace, and it seems boring, but something that maybe the church wouldn't know about me is that I love to garden.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Love to garden. Yes. We have walked by your house and seen the gardening beds that I believe your husband made.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

He did.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Very fun.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

What do you like to grow in your garden?

SPEAKER_02 2:04

We're growing a lot of vegetables right now, but then also flowers. So yeah, all the things.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

It's great. Thanks, Grace. Haley, some things about you, where you're from, and all the same questions for you.

SPEAKER_03 2:15

Fabulous. Well, I am Haley Filbert, and I'm from Carmel, Indiana. So I first couple years of my life, I was born in Vincennes, Indiana, and then lived in Evansville for a couple years. I did not know that. Yes. Sure did. Um, yes, and so then moved to Carmel. Um, went to school at Indiana University. Go Hoosiers. Yes, go Hoosiers. Very big year for us. Big Hoosiers year. So fun. We flew our uh national champions flag out in our yard for far too long this winter. Um, but yes, so married to Steven, who I met at IU. And we have two girls. Um, Caroline is 11 and Emerson is 10, and they are so much fun. And something that is interesting about me that actually some people probably do know this because I probably talk about it far too much with people at the fields. Um, my dream job probably is to be driven to the director at the fields. Well, no, Joe. Uh, it is to drive a bus for dogs to get them to a doggy daycare that I would own.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Wow. No, I did not know that. Oddly specific. Wow. I did not know Haley Filbert at all.

SPEAKER_03 3:38

Well, this is helpful. Now you know.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

It's a good thing we're doing the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 3:40

Now you know.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Uh, so fun. Uh, Grace Haley, tell us a little bit about how you became a Christian. Maybe in in short, how the Lord saved you. Maybe Grace first.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

Yeah. I uh grew up in a Christian home, but I didn't receive Christ until I was in middle school when I went to a summer camp called Twin Lakes, and um actually kind of went kicking and screaming, but my friends encouraged me to stay. Um, and so I did, and at the end of the week, they gave uh a gospel presentation, and that's when the Lord opened my heart to receiving him. And I kind of lived a life of um being on fire for Christ for a few weeks after that, and then kind of went back into the lifestyle of living like a worldly life throughout the week and then a holy life on Sundays until um the summer of my senior year, where the Lord placed a couple of really um influential people in my life who poured into me musically and spiritually, and they had this beautiful light about them, and I was like, what is that? And then it sounds cheesy, but it was the light of the Lord, and I realized that uh I wanted that as well, and so I rededicated my life to Christ that summer, and now here we are.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

It's amazing. Praise the Lord. Thanks for sharing and uh praise the Lord for that camp and those people in your life, and yeah, awesome. Thank you, Grace. Haley, a little bit for you?

SPEAKER_03 5:03

Yeah, so um, so I grew up uh going to church. Um, I grew up in the Catholic faith, and my parents were super faithful and um yeah, just giving us a good foundation to try to follow the Lord. And um, yeah, we went to church very regularly and enjoyed it very much as a family. Um, but I really did not understand the gospel and who Christ was until um Stephen, my husband, uh he asked to do a Bible study with me in college after we had met. So we went through the book of Romans together. And it was through that that I understood that it wasn't about me and what I do, um, that it was about Jesus and what he had actually done for me. And um I wrote down the verse that really like captured my heart was uh Romans 10, 9, which is if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And so I realized I I had not made that confession to the Lord. And so um He God had been stirring in my heart belief, but I confessed um then I was actually I didn't do do that with Stephen. I was embarrassed because I thought, oh, I I've actually like I thought I had been a Christian. Um, but I went back to my, I was in a sorority at school and went back to my room there and yeah, prayed to the Lord. I think that was probably the time that God saved me. Um but yeah, same as kind of Grace said, like I I became a believer, um, but it took kind of a while for me to really kind of shift gears and really follow the Lord um fully. And of course it's uh up and down all the time, right? But um God used Bible study fellowship as a way to really show me what his word said, like very in-depth. And so I think that was um, I don't know, six, seven years ago, maybe. And uh that's when I think God really was able to start stirring a desire to follow him in my heart, and so yeah, just very, very thankful.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

Thanks for sharing, Haley. And just so encourage thank you guys both for sharing. I know it's a it's a vulnerable thing to to share. And then just this is I mean, our church is gonna listen to this, so uh it's an encouragement to me to hear other people's testimonies. That's what I love when when people get baptized at our church and we hear how the Lord has saved them.

SPEAKER_03 7:38

Me too.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Because it reminds everyone's testimonies are different and they're kind of the same in a sense, and uh it it is so humbling because we we confess, oh wait, no, I I'm actually not good. I'm I I need Jesus. And that like everyone comes to that realization when they become a Christian. And so it's humbling, but it's so encouraging to hear. So thank you guys for sharing. I know it's a vulnerable thing to do in front of these microphones, too.

SPEAKER_03 7:58

So that's great. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Thank you guys. Uh let's tell us a little bit about what what I think we would know generally some things that our church would be like, okay, I know Grace, she's the she's the girl with a guitar. Haley does some stuff with kids. Tell us a little bit about uh what so in some ways the general things you'd know. So your title for our church, what things you do for our church, but maybe some specifically, what things do you do that people might not see that you do in your in your job that you do to serve our church? So we've been starting with Grace. Let's start with Haley. I just know you just talked, Haley. Oh, yeah, yeah. Haley, what's your title? What do you do? What is the what are the things that Haley Filbert does for the Fields Church in a staff sense?

SPEAKER_03 8:33

Okay. Um, well, I am the kids director at the Fields, have the pleasure of doing that. And um I think the biggest thing that I do probably is uh utilize our uh gospel project curriculum to lesson plan. Um, they give us a lot of options on what we can use for Sunday morning, but I will kind of go through and pick out what I feel like might be the best options for our kids as far as activities and things like that goes for the lesson in hopes that it'll make our volunteers' job a little bit easier. Um, so I will lesson plan for Sunday mornings and then gather all of the materials throughout the week that our volunteer teachers will need in order to um, yeah, share the gospel and teach the Bible lesson to kids on Sundays. Um I enjoy volunteer scheduling with Steph Strickland. I'm very thankful, I'm very thankful for all of our volunteers.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

We have a plug for volunteering in kids.

SPEAKER_03 9:37

We are we are always looking for additional volunteers.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Um even kid, we do I we do it. I I serve kids, I enjoy serving kids. I hope not to make it like it's a bad thing. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 9:48

It is. And and honestly, it's it's one of my favorite things to do at church. It is so fun to hang out with those kids, and it's actually really fun to volunteer alongside other people, especially when you get in a situation where it's kind of chaotic back there, and you kind of are they're doing it together, and you look around and you're like, oh my gosh, what are we doing? But it's fun. It's great. We're in this together. Yeah, it's great. Um, all of our kids' milestones that our pastors provide them a milestone are different, um, I guess sort of events. I don't know another way to say a milestone, because that's really what it is. Something just bad question for me.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Sorry.

SPEAKER_03 10:31

That's great. Uh I should have thought about that a little bit. Um, but it is, yeah, an event that sort of um provides significance to certain times in our kids' lives and where we are able to support the not just the kids, but the parents as they walk alongside their kids um at different points in their life. So we have um the commission is coming up, and that is our all of our parents of our little babies.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

It probably will have already happened by the time this aired. Oh, for those of you record these a little bit ahead of time.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

It has just happened. Uh, and so yeah, we will commission our parents to disciple and um parent their children, and that we will yeah, gladly do it alongside them. But all the stuff for those milestones, um, kind of in the background, if we provide resources to families or I don't know, um different gifts and things like that, that I will help support our pastors because they are the ones that are providing it, but I'll support them with that. And then of course, VBS is something that is very exciting that I enjoy um, yeah, just planning and uh getting everybody rallied together to do, and it's such a fun and exciting time. So that'll be that will be coming, right, Joe?

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Yes, it will be coming. Well, I mean, who knows? But I think that'll be in the future. So fun. Haley, thanks for all your work. I know we I uh I benefit a lot from your work when Kylie and I serve in the K through three. All of the the lessons you have is organized so well. The games are actually fun for the little kids to play. Um, thank you for all your work in that. I know it is a lot of work in that, Haley. I heard somebody uh on on a I thought there was a helpful note, someone said one time of like the most like uh, you know, it takes statistics for what they are, but like what what people are like most likely gonna come to faith in Christ on a Sunday morning. Uh it's gonna be our kids, actually. That there is such a uh a need in uh uh and uh an importance to sharing the gospel with kids, teaching them how the Bible points to Christ, um, that you organize and facilitate so well, Haley, that for that for that ministry to happen. So thank you for your work in that, Haley.

SPEAKER_03 12:42

That's great. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Grace, some about you. What what is it that you do, Grace, other than well, no, you just talk.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

Um, so I am the worship director, and so part of what I do is I help manage our music and tech team. So scheduling in both of those areas to serve monthly, and um I alongside the rest of our stuff help shape and craft our morning gatherings by selecting songs that fit well with the sermon text, and then uh after that creating arrangements for those songs and then running rehearsals and leading the band. Um, but I will say I definitely could not do the majority of the text stuff without my wonderful husband.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Dylan, shout out Dylan.

SPEAKER_02 13:28

Yes, he's definitely the brains um and the muscle behind all that.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Jeff has mentioned before of like a lot of people in our church are replaceable, but but the mangled's where would we be without Dylan and Grace?

SPEAKER_02 13:40

You guys would be just fine.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

We must have them.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Very cool. And I'm all right on uh on a normal Sunday, the the band, the the the worship team uh uh rehearses during the week, right? Yep. Every single day during the week, all the every day is one day a week every day.

SPEAKER_02 13:57

No, uh just one night a week when we get together.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Very cool. Yeah, um, and then with the like do you I don't even know. Do you have to transpose uh songs? Is there a software that does that? I know nothing.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

I know some things, but yes, so I'm I yes, transposing is involved. I do make all of the charts just to fit the arrangements that we want to do on Sunday mornings, and so and choosing the keys goes along with that as well. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Very cool. Well, thanks for all you do. I do think people, you know, I'm just gonna I'm just talking. I'm feeling I feel free to talk in this here. I think people come to our church like, whoa, something that stands out of our church, I think different, unique than some other churches, not every church, is the way that we sing on a Sunday morning. And I do think, Grace, you lead us so well in facilitating a team that then encourages people to sing. And it's a wink, it's uh I can't I'm I'm not the best at explaining this. It's unique balance that our worship team has that you guys are so talented, especially you Grace. Really all our people are so talented. Um and yet the you it doesn't feel like we're showing up to a performance. It feels like the I'm singing alongside with Grace and with our team there, and you encourage us to do that uh in a way it's so well. I know you all are so humble too, which I think is so it's so unique to have people who are so gifted and yet so humble. So thank you for serving us in that in so many ways. It's a joy. Um, all right, some other questions here too. What's your favorite part about working for the fields? First for Grace. We're gonna go kind of back and forth.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

This was so hard to think through, but I didn't know.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Because it's not very fun to work for the fields, it's no fun.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

No, I think my favorite part is uh just the people I get to work with, uh, you guys, the staff. Because I think for me, there's just a lot of history. Like growing up, uh Steph, Jeff's wife, grew up right across the street from me.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Well, I did not know that.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

Really? She jokes a lot that she uh changed my diapers. Um so she was best friends with my older sister, so that's sweet. And then a few years later, we moved down the road. And who were our neighbors? Holly. Holly was our neighbor, and so she was best friends with my sister, and I was great friends with her younger brother. So there's just a lot of just family friends amongst um my our staff. And um yeah, I just think we're just a sweet little family. So just very grateful for for you guys get to serve the Lord with you.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

So cool. Haley, how about you?

SPEAKER_03 16:14

That would be um probably the one that I was gonna say is our staff team, just because it is, it's so fun. Um, we laugh a lot, but everybody do we get any work done around here?

SPEAKER_01 16:26

It seems like we're just laughing the whole time.

SPEAKER_03 16:27

That is that is something. It's it's wild. I don't know that I've ever been a part of a team that when someone says they're going to do something, they always do it. Um, and you can always count on that. And just a genuine care for one another and wanting to pick up um burdens for one another whenever you know someone needs extra help or something. There's a genuine care, and it's really a joy to be a part of the team in that way.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

So praise the Lord. Well done, staff. I think that flows out of, I think our whole church does that so well. I think it flows into our staff and then maybe flows back out. I don't know the how the way the flows work of things, but um, well, very cool. Um, here's just a general question for both of you guys. Do you guys think that I don't know if it was the year 2026, uh, I don't know, when you were in high school or middle school or college, did you think, man, I'm gonna be working for a church someday? Did you guys perhaps think that? Maybe first for you, Haley. You're shaking your head.

SPEAKER_03 17:21

No, I I never thought I would work for a church. Um what were you studying at IU? So I was a business major management.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Okay, and probably the Kelly School of Business.

SPEAKER_03 17:31

It was not. So there is a not as well-known school called the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, SPIA for those that have attended IU. Wow. Um, so that's Stephen and I were both SPIA majors or SPIA management majors, and so yeah, we took a little bit of a different path. I think it's easier. So I do, but it was but it was great. So, but I always thought I would work in the business world, and I sure did after college. I worked in um sort of like a marketing department for a plastic products company. Fun fact. And yeah, it was actually really wonderful, but I never thought that I would end up working for a church, but it's really fun how the Lord got me here, and I'm thankful to be able to do it.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

We're thankful that you are Haley. Yeah. How about you, Grace?

SPEAKER_02 18:23

I did not. I uh when I first started getting into music, which was eighth grade, that's when like Taylor Swift was on the rise. And honestly, it's kind of embarrassing to say, but I wanted to be Taylor Swift. And so that's why I went to embarrassing.

SPEAKER_03 18:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Um, but that's why I studied music in college and uh then started an internship one summer, uh, my sophomore year of college at a church, and kind of just stuck around and now here we are. But I'm very I'm not mad about it. I'm very thankful to be um on staff at a church.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

So we're so thankful you use the the way the Lord has gifted you to serve us, serve our church. So thanks, Grace, for that. Uh I have a series of fun questions. These questions are a little different than the ones I I asked Callie and Holly, just to mix things up a little bit. They'll be maybe kind of fast. I'm not that fast at asking questions, so uh just questions for us. First question for both you guys favorite book? Grace.

SPEAKER_02 19:20

Last year, um Kathy King and I we read a book called Transformed that um goes through the life of Eve, uh Sarah, and Mary. Oh and it was so good, just so encouraging. So that's Transformed.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

By who? Do you know who's by?

SPEAKER_02 19:34

No. That's okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

I I often forget uh uh authors too. Transformed.

SPEAKER_02 19:39

Yeah, very good.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

We'll have to ask Kathy for that. Yeah, she might know.

SPEAKER_03 19:42

She'll know.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Very cool. Haley, how about you? Favorite book? Is this a book about the Lord? Uh it it just says favorite book.

SPEAKER_03 19:47

Because I do have one of those, but I also have a favorite, I have a favorite fiction book as well.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

If you want to pick a secular book, I guess you can, Haley.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

I'm gonna share both. That's great. That's okay. Um, so my favorite book about the Lord is um When People Are Big and God is Small by Ed Welch. It really changed my life. Um, yeah, with me being just a people pleaser and um yeah, desiring to fear the Lord and want to honor what the Lord has for me versus people and thinking, which ends up making me think of myself. So would definitely recommend that book. Um, my favorite fiction book is The Hunger Games.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Oh, yeah, Suzanne Collins.

SPEAKER_03 20:30

Yes, yes. So I just wanted to share that. It's very exciting.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

Very cool. Great book recommendations. How about a favorite coffee shop for both of you guys? Could be local, could be somewhere else. Maybe first for Haley.

SPEAKER_03 20:43

My favorite is um Andy Coffee Roasters. Andy Coffee Carmel.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

The the one by Carmel High School.

SPEAKER_03 20:49

So I that is probably my favorite one. However, it's hard to get a seat there.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

So one kind of off of 31 there. It's yeah, that one's great. I've gone to the wrong, I've met people at the wrong, I'm like, oh, I'm going to let's go to the one on the north side of Indy, and it's it's not the one. It's so hard. It's tricky. But Grace's favorite coffee shop?

SPEAKER_02 21:07

I love Cafe Jardin in Noblesville.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

I'm not familiar. Is it in downtown Noblesville there?

SPEAKER_02 21:12

No, uh I think it's off of 37.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

One of those 30s. There's 38.

SPEAKER_02 21:19

Oh, it might be 38. I don't know. I don't know. But it's very good. Okay. Uh delicious coffee. They have some food items as well, but then they have a really beautiful storefront, like a home decor storefront. Oh, fuck. They they're so, yeah, they're amazing.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

It does sound fun.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

We should go. Everybody go.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

All right. What is it again?

SPEAKER_02 21:39

Cafe Jardin.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Okay, Cafe Jardin. Cool. Next question we have favorite time of year? First for Grace. Spring. Springtime.

SPEAKER_02 21:47

I love spring. Everything's in bloom. Weather's getting warmer, sun rises earlier, or starting to at least, and sets later. Springtime. Love it.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Very fun. Haley.

SPEAKER_03 21:58

I love summer. The summer so much. Love the warm weather and sunshine, time with family, and it's so much fun.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

Very fun. Fun, fun. Uh maybe what this would be a question you kind of somewhat alluded to earlier on. But both of you guys, if you didn't work for the fields, let's say you couldn't work for a church, you had to do a different kind of job. What job do you think you would do?

SPEAKER_02 22:18

I would probably uh be a nurse. A nurse? Yep. Following my dad's footsteps.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

Very cool. Doc Stewart there.

SPEAKER_03 22:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 22:26

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Very cool, great.

SPEAKER_03 22:28

So great. Um honestly, my alternative would probably be uh just being a stay-at-home mom with my kids. Um, but I'm gonna go back to that dog bus driver.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

The dog bus driver. There's probably a market for that. I don't know. Two more questions for us. Biggest fear, if you have a fear. Haley.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

Yes. Um, so uh we were chatting about this question before we started. I think I I was challenged. My biggest fear, I think, is my kids falling off of a cliff. We went to the Grand Canyon last year. Maybe a pretty good one. And that was that was just my I that's what I just kept picturing. So I think which, you know, it's very safe there if you take proper precautions, but that was my fear, my irrational fear.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

That'd be tough. It's a good that's a good thing to have a healthy fear of. Grace, how about you?

SPEAKER_02 23:20

Uh spiders, sharks, mosquitoes. You know. Mosquitoes are a fear. Yeah. Malaria, perhaps? Yeah. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

Could be.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

Yep. Uh, but I also really don't like the dark.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Ah, the dark.

SPEAKER_02 23:35

Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

Those are good fears. Maybe they're not. Uh you don't need to be afraid of sharks, probably in Indiana. We're probably okay. But in the ocean. Uh last snack, a go-to snack. Grace.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

Popcorn.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

Popcorn. Movie theater popcorn. Sure. Microwave popcorn. All the popcorn.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

Uh maybe not microwaves.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:56

But like good stovetop popcorn. Okay. So good.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

Hayley, go-to snack.

SPEAKER_03 24:03

Gosh. Um, I'm not a huge snacker. But I will say those perfect bars. Have you ever had those? Okay, they're they're in the refrigerated section.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 24:16

And they're like, I think mostly peanut butter-based.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 24:20

But I do like those because they are a good protein and like actually kind of taste like can't candy, sort of, like good. I like the ones that are the cookie dough with chocolate chips.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

That sounds like my kind of uh perfect bar.

SPEAKER_03 24:37

It's a perfect bar. Pretty good. That's true.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

Well, Grace, Haley, thank you guys so much for this conversation. I knew it took time out of our days to do that. So thank you guys. Uh, if you're listening um and you don't know Grace and Haley, and you're at our church, you should you should get to know Grace and Haley. They do so much. So I just want to thank you guys on behalf of our church for all you do to serve, to organize, facilitate, lead, all sorts of things going on. Um, so thank you guys. Thanks for your time.

SPEAKER_03 24:59

Thank you. Thanks.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

Yep, and listeners for signing off for Fields Notes.