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Scott Coghill: Being Godly in and Ungodly World
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Host Tim DeCresie discusses living out your faith in a crazy world with Pastor Scott Coghill of New Life Church in New Bern, NC. Scott was the guest preacher at Unity's Men's Conference, "Sharper Iron," in February of 2026.
Hello and welcome to the Unity Community Podcast. This is a place where our church family can hear real stories of life change and discover how God is working through our ministries and missionaries, both here and around the world. From conversations with our staff and leaders to testimonies from our people, we're pulling back the curtain on what God is doing in and through Unity Church. Thanks for listening. Let's grow closer to the Lord as we grow closer one to another.
SPEAKER_02Welcome. I'm your host, Tim DeCreasey. Thank you for taking a moment to listen. Today we're spending time with Scott Coghill, pastor of New Life Church in Newburn, North Carolina. Scott recently joined us at Unity as the keynote speaker for our Sharper Irons Men's Breakfast. As someone who was in the room that morning, I can honestly say it was time well spent. The men were challenged, encouraged, and reminded of what it means to live faithfully as men in today's world. Alright, so Scott, thanks for being with us today. We're grateful for your time and we're excited for the conversation. So we just want to jump right into it. Okay, so as we're talking about godly living, what has shaped your understanding? Maybe how did you get to the point? I know you're a pastor in Newburn, you know, so what maybe led you? Let's just back up to your youth and maybe what led you into even Christian service.
SPEAKER_00Sure. So I was born and raised in a Christian home, which I'm so thankful for. Through my youth pastors, through my pastors, uh through all through those years, and then later on through other mentors that God's brought into my life. So I feel like that God gave me a blessing of the Christian home, which not everybody has, that I certainly needed to steward and I wanted to pass down, you know, to another generation. But God, God uses people and God used people all along, parents, grandparents, family, pastors, youth pastors. It does take a Christian community, I think, to surround ourselves with. And it helps. It's not the only thing, but it to me, I think it's almost impossible to live that life without it.
SPEAKER_02So how long have you been a pastor?
SPEAKER_00So I've been at New Life for 23 and a half years in New Bern. And uh I was in Mississippi for two and a half years before then as a youth pastor. Um I got again, as I said, I I was born and raised in church, but I didn't get saved until I was 18 years old. So I had a I had a ton of head knowledge, but it it never had fully connected to my heart. And but when it connected to my heart on April 13th, 1997, my life radically changed.
SPEAKER_02That 12 inches makes a difference. That 12 inches, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that twelve makes a big difference, an eternal difference, and it did. Um because before then, even though you have it in your head, you strive. I was not right, I did not lack being right with God before then because of a lack of striving. But it was a lack of the connection with that gospel truth to my heart. And when that happened, it was 2 Corinthians 5.17. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away, all things are become new. And it was that was that moment, and then it's this sanctification's been a process where God just grows me every day now. So, but that's when it it happened for me.
SPEAKER_02What is it like, uh, or in your opinion, when we talk about being godly in today's world, what does that mean to you?
SPEAKER_00So godly can be so broadly used. Um so when I think about godly, I think what does it take for a person to live a life that aligns with scripture? Um because if we don't bring scripture into it, it then everybody becomes an expert and it's their own opinion. So uh so what does it take for me to live in this world which is ungodly, this world which strays from Scripture, this world that is anti-Christ, what does it take for me to align myself with Scripture? Uh first and foremost, it takes the presence of the Holy Spirit, which for somebody to try to align themselves biblically and to live godly, as we're talking about, without the Holy Spirit living in their life, it's impossible. Um so it takes the Holy Spirit uh living in our lives, um, and that comes through salvation. That comes when we accept Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, when we accept his gift of grace by faith. So the the Holy Spirit is the essential part. Jesus said, It's good that I go away. If I don't go away, the comforter cannot come, the one who will lead us into truth, the paraclete. So uh the Holy Spirit is absolutely a necessity. And then we have Scripture, which in order to align myself with Scripture, you have to be in Scripture. Uh and so that that's a from a personal standpoint, a daily standpoint, I think that's why local church is so important to surround yourself with people who are also striving to live that life, to sit under someone who God has called to lead a flock biblically so that we know where to align ourselves. Ephesians 4, God has given us pastors and teachers so that we will no longer be children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine. So it's it's one thing for somebody to talk about wanting to be godly, to talk about wanting to live a godly life. It's another thing for them to understand how vital the Holy Spirit's presence through salvation and sanctification, and then the word of God plays into that. So um so to me, I feel like that's what it takes to live godly, and then to answer the question, what is godly living? I think it's a life that aligns itself with scripture.
SPEAKER_02So you have your um conference that you do every year. Yes. Um what what kind of challenged you to get that that started?
SPEAKER_00So the Cliff Notes version of the History of God's Man is I looked around, we were there was a very successful ladies' uh conference in our movement, uh the East Coast Ladies Retreat, and they would have 800 to 1,000 ladies. And then you would hear of some church having uh uh an event for men, and they'd have like 20 guys show up. So, and there was nothing as I was looking for something for our guys. Our church was growing at the time, a lot of exciting things, people were getting saved. I wanted something for our men. So we were just going to do a conference for our guys, and then I made a few phone calls to see if these other pastors would be interested in just coming on a Friday night and a Saturday just to be a part of it. Uh I didn't have a name for it at that point until there was a handful of churches that said, hey, we'll come. So I I gave it a name, we printed some t-shirts, I had some pens, we gave away little pocket knives. I mean, it was it was I had no idea how many would come. 220 guys show up that first year. And then because of the excitement and just the momentum from that one conference, just went to the next year and then to the next year, and then and then after 10 years of of the conference being in New Bern, um God began to ex kind of broaden our coast a little bit, and which was again never the plan. This was all I've just as God's opened the door and I discerned it was the Lord, we just kind of have walked through it, and it's been it's been pretty awesome to be a part of.
SPEAKER_02So when is the next God bands conference?
SPEAKER_00This year we will have our first conference in Arkansas. This year we'll be in Tennessee, Virginia, uh obviously in New Bern, and then in Oklahoma and in Indiana. Uh so this year we're only doing seven. Last year we did nine. We were in Ohio and in Michigan last year and in Arizona last year as well. So all of them are a little bit different because every region's a little bit different, all of them vary in size, but the heart of it is trying to do what we're talking about, trying to come around the God called leader of the home, the man, and to instruct them, to challenge them, to encourage them uh to align themselves with scripture, to be the man of God that calls God called you to be.
SPEAKER_02So when is the one in Newburn?
SPEAKER_00July 31st, August 1st, and that's our 20th anniversary this year.
SPEAKER_02Hopefully the men from unity are invited.
SPEAKER_00Oh, absolutely. The men from unity are certainly invited. In fact, the last couple of years, the men from Unity Church has brought the biggest groups from outside of New Life, which uh I'm I'm very appreciative, thankful for for you know Brother Jeff and his support of it. And of course, uh Brother Jeff also has traveled with me. He's preached at the one in Newbrant a number of times. This year he'll go to Indiana with me. Um he has preached in Tennessee uh with me. Uh at some point I'll be taking him, if he can, fit in the schedule to go to Oklahoma with me. Um so and uh he's so he's been he's been a blessing. He's been to Virginia with me as well. So he's preached at a lot of them, he gets the burden, he understands the need. If if men, and God, everybody in in the body of Christ is valuable, but if men would get it, if men would get it and leave their homes and love their wives and disciple their children, uh, we still could see a culture turnaround. And I do believe that God is is is is is calling and I know God's longing, but God is calling for men to just stand up, to just be that Joshua for their generation. And and and I know we have those men in our churches. I just do.
SPEAKER_02So as you have, you know, I guess traveled the country doing these conferences, what are some of the biggest pressures or challenges men are facing, or even just Christians in general are facing today to live faithfully?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, men and women um facing the battle of staying pure. Uh we live in a pornographic world and the the pool of sexual sin is all around us, and so the the the the battle to stay pure, um the battle to live for the audience of one, because right now everyone is about being influenced or being an influencer, everyone is about um their likes on social media or their perception in the office or whatever it is, and yet if we could just turn down the volume of needing to be accepted by everyone, knowing that we're if we could only get focused on pleasing the Lord. And if we could if we could get laser focused on that, the other things, God will give us a good name that will be is greater to be chosen than great riches, but um but God will give us influence. Acts 2 talks about the early church, and when they made a it was a radical change in the early church, and yet Acts 2 tells us that they had favor or influence with all people, that God will give us that influence that we so desire if we'll just please him. Um not with the wrong motive. Please him just to please him and let God take care of the rest. So living pure, living for the audience of one, and and then seizing the moment. Anybody who is studying the word, anybody who's been saved at any length of time, you have to believe that the Lord's return is soon. Now, when no man knows, the day or the hour. But we have we better live as if it's today. And if we will live with that sense of urgency, which we're so consumed with apathy in our Christian culture, that the the devil has put us in some kind of a cultural glider and he's kind of rocked us to sleep. And I just think there's so many places in scripture where the Bible says, awake thou that sleep, arise from the dead. Uh be sober, be vigilant. Like God is God's trying to shake the church and wake us up so that we can't seize the moment because his return is imminent.
SPEAKER_02You know, when I was in youth ministry, you know, teaching the youth here at Unity, one of the things that stuck out to me, you know, the kids would always say, and I was like this as a teenager, so it's you know, no plug on up, no, you know, nothing negative on teenagers today, but you know, what can we get away with? What is the gray area that what movie can we go see? What music can we listen to? Those kind of things, and God gave me such a clear image of that that I just continued to share as I moved forward, teaching youth and you know, try to teach my own children. We had this dog that was blind, and so you know, had the backyard fenced in, and this dog could run around the backyard, had all the freedoms it needed, but for whatever reason it kept trying to dig its way out of that fence. And one day the dog was gone. I have no idea where that dog went. And I would, you know, I started asking the and I was just watching it one day trying to dig out, and eventually it got out, but I started asking teenagers, well, what's wrong with the front yard? And you know, they would say, Well, it's close to the street. Well, yeah. Isn't that what Satan wants? To get you from the backyard, fenced in from God's protection, into the front yard because it's closer to the street, yeah, and then ultimately get you into the street where you get run over. Right. That's what Satan wants. And so it's not what you can get away with, because if you're trying to figure out what you can get away with as a Christian, it gets you closer to the front yard, which gets you into the street. Right. So God puts that hedge of protection around you in the backyard with all sorts of liberties. Right. And we should just take advantage of those and not worry what's on the other side of the mess.
SPEAKER_00Well, Proverbs 5, that I spoke on with the men, um Proverbs 5 is not written from the perspective of a father who is angry. Proverbs 5 is written from a loving father trying to protect someone he cares about deeply. And sometimes we miss that. Sometimes we think, well, God, which is the lie of the devil. And by the way, that was a lie in Genesis 3, where Satan said to Eve, God's trying to keep something from you. God knows that at the moment you eat this, you're going to be a God. And that that's that is the fleshly pull in the manipulation of the enemy that says a bad God who's trying to keep good things from us. And it's the opposite. It's a good God who's trying to keep bad things from us so that we can stay in his presence and live in his peace. Um, so absolutely.
SPEAKER_02So during your um sharper men's conference, you've made the you've made the comment, sin always sells pleasure uh but then always hides the cost. Could you elaborate on that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so another statement I made is the devil always promotes the party but never advertises the funeral. And that is again back to the garden. That's exactly what Satan did. Satan is a powerful adversary who is wise beyond any of us, and he has been at this for a long time. And yet, he's never changed his tactics. Never. Every time you see, in either in Scripture or even in our lives or even personally with us, anytime we have fallen into sin, it is because we we took a bite off of a temporary piece of bait that in our li in our moment of indiscretion we forgot there was a hook in it. And once we are hooked by sin, it drags us wherever the enemy sees fit to take us, which is and we can't do anything to get off that hook. So you say, well, man, well I guess I'm stuck. Well, no, the answer is that there is a God in heaven who certainly can cut that line when I'm when I'm tired of chewing on the hook. So so yes, Satan is always going to he's always going to maximize the benefits and minimize the consequences. And if we can stay sober and vigilant, because our adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. If we can stay sober and and stay conscious of this truth of how Satan works, it will keep us away from the false bait. And it'll keep us mindful of whose presence we need to live in.
SPEAKER_02And you, you know, earlier took us back to the garden. One of the things that stuck out to me early this year in my scripture reading as I'm going through Genesis, and I hadn't, I know the story, I just had not picked up on this one little phrase where Cain and Abel, we know Cain slews Abel, but God goes to Cain before that ever happens and says, Be careful, sin is crouching at your door. Like, wow, he gives Cain this warning, and then Cain just says, Oh, well, I'm killing Abel.
SPEAKER_00Well, that that story is a story of mercy, because like you said, God comes to Cain and tries to help Cain open his eyes to where his heart was. Well, then Cain goes to Abel, kills Abel, and God comes back to Cain and asks a question, where's Abel? To me, it was a question of mercy to say, Cain, just come clean. And yet, because Cain didn't come clean, in fact, he got he got ugly with God. I mean, he had just an attitude. You could see you could sense the sarcasm and the hatred that not only Cain had for Abel, but that Cain had for God. And because of that, that God ushered out his consequences and cast him out. Yet, even in God casting him out, when he when Cain said, My sin, my consequence is greater than I can bear, and somebody's gonna kill me, God protected Cain. Right. Which again goes to the very heart of God that we're gonna mess up, then we're gonna mess up. But at the end of the day, there's a merciful God who doesn't look, he doesn't look past our sin as if he just doesn't pay any attention to them. But there's a God who is so eager to forgive our sin and to draw us back to himself. And that's hard for me to even wrap my mind around.
SPEAKER_02It's it's powerful.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So what does faithfulness look like, you know, for Christians in everyday, ordinary life?
SPEAKER_00Um so again, the root word of faithfulness is faith, and so this is a a this is your faith being lived out in a consistent way. All right, so it so what is faithfulness? It is a steadfast faith. Um, it's consistency. And at home, at work, uh at church, uh, in public, in private, um, God calls us to faithfulness. But faithfulness is not something that any of us are naturally, which is why when we look in Galatians, and Paul reminds us that the fruit of the Spirit, and one of them is faithfulness, that for me to be faithful, I have to relinquish control of my life and allow the Holy Spirit to live. If I want faithful thoughts, I have to relinquish control of my thoughts to the Holy Spirit because he will produce faithful thoughts, not me. If I want to be faithful to my wife, I have to relinquish control of my marriage to the Holy Spirit because God will make me faithful to my wife and to my children and to my church and so on and so forth. So faithfulness is absolutely a fruit, it's a manifestation of the Holy Spirit living in our life. So when I am not, when I am not faithful, because I think sometimes we at the church we are guilty of attacking the symptoms instead of getting to the problem. You go to the doctor and and you have a virus that's producing a cough, and all the doctor does is give you cough medicine. All they did was treat the symptom, and for the for a generation the church has done nothing but treat symptoms, and we've not gotten to the root of the problem. So when somebody's not faithful, whether it's to church, or faithful whether it's to the their marriage or whatever it is, we go and give them cough syrup. We go and try to make them faithful people when the truth is a lack of faithfulness is a sign that an area of their life is not being the Holy Spirit doesn't have control of. Thus, the Holy Spirit's not being made manifest in that. Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00So I think the church has got to make a shift where we we've got to continue. And by the way, I see it happening in so many areas of the church. We are making a shift where we have to make a shift where it's not about the outside, it's about the heart. It's not about the cough, it's about the virus. And then that's when we see God at work in people's lives. But too, we also want to make sure that we're not w we steer away from this, just be faithful on the outside. And I think we kind of mentioned it, but God is looking on the heart, so it's a faithfulness of the heart because even the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they were at the temple every every Lord every uh Sabbath. Uh they were going through the motions. There are people that seem to have a little bit more of a faithful gene, but it doesn't mean that it's being manifested with the Holy Spirit. And so uh so so it helps us with that hypocrisy. Where's it coming from? Because the heart wants it to be when you give your heart to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, he starts cleaning those areas of our lives out, music, contraband, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_02You know, God wants us to be light in a dark world. And so I feel like when we say you shouldn't do XYZ, you know, at this day and age, through media, you know, it's now hate speech. Right. So we're definitely have turned that corner to, man, as a Christian, we're gonna be persecuted for trying to live a godly life. And I think in America, we have where it's not gonna be popular to have a Christian belief and a mindset. So what would be your words of encouragement to Christians? How should we approach being a light in the world without turning you know people off to what God's trying to draw them into?
SPEAKER_00Right. So years ago I read a quote that said, uh, preach the gospel everywhere and use words if necessary. Um so it certainly comes to a lifestyle, but uh even God has always, from creation, has always used the spoken word. So it's it's we have to live it first, but we have to take a stand as well. So it's and and I and the Bible calls us to stand against things. Now, we have to make sure that we do it with the right spirit. I think just because sometimes we hold the right position, we feel like it justifies us to be a jerk. And that's that's not pointing people to Christ. But make no mistake about it, Jesus, the first words recorded before the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 4, of his preaching ministry was in, or Matthew 5 was in Matthew 4 when he said, Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. But he had a life to back it up. So it's not that we have to be perfect because none of us are, but we have to, we have to have that life of faithfulness, that life that does support the message that God has called all of us to preach. We are heralds, we are ambassadors, and we have a message that we should be pretty excited about. And it's not just a message of negative things, but there are times when we need to say that this is light and that is darkness. Um we need to pray for one another. God will give us courage and confidence that God would give us boldness with wisdom, you know, to know when to say something, to know how to say some things. Uh but telling people that there is a God, telling people that there is an eternity where believers go to heaven and non-believers go to hell, there is uh a judge that we will that we will stay accountable to and will be accountable to. Like that's never going to be popular to those that don't want to hear it. But with a consistent life and the right tone, which is a doesn't mean it has to be soft, but it has to be sincere. I just I believe God will use it, and then those that reject it, that is on them. But we still have a calling. And if we if we're not gonna live that calling out, then why are we here? If if our calling wasn't to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, then why are we here? Why didn't God just take us to heaven when we got saved? And the answer is because he has a calling for our lives. There is still a purpose for us being here, and that is to go to the highways and hedges and compel them to come to Jesus. And um and we have to do that with our lifestyle, and we have to do that uh with our message, for sure.
SPEAKER_02I totally agree with that. So, you know, that's why kindness and love always wins you know when you're dealing with anybody.
SPEAKER_00Sure.
SPEAKER_02Um, you know, I would, you know, as a former teacher, you know, the word, you know, the phrase we would always use is nobody cares what you know until they know that you care.
SPEAKER_00For sure.
SPEAKER_02And so, you know, you try to live that out in your life. So with that said, if you could leave us with one word of encouragement, um, you know, what would you want what would you want that to be for our listeners?
SPEAKER_00What I would tell the church, what I would tell my children, I have five kids, and just for the record, I have two grandbabies on the way. Um, what I would tell my wife, what I would tell my mom and dad who are still living, and everybody who is close to me, and then everybody in the Church of Jesus Christ that I know and I don't know. There's too much at stake for us to idly sit by and let things happen as they will. That I think God in this moment has called us to live every moment of our lives, not just our church life, don't segment your life, but every moment of our life, every part of our life with such an urgency. Knowing that there is a day coming, and knowing that I'm going to be responsible for every second that God has given me here to serve Him. So just live as if the Lord were to come back today. Live with urgency, take advantage of every opportunity, redeem the time. That would that would have to be at the top of the list because this is our moment and we need to take advantage of it. That's good stuff.
SPEAKER_02I appreciate your time and thanks for your wisdom and sharing with us today and giving us a few moments, you know, just to uh give us that insight and uh share with us how to live more victorious, more faithful. Uh but before you go, I just want to say a prayer for you and then the people that are listening. So God will and continue to empower us all to be that that faithful uh servant that He wants us to be.
SPEAKER_00Thank you.
SPEAKER_02So, dear Heavenly Father, I just thank you so much for Scott and his time today to share with us what it is to live godly in an ungodly world and uh the things that we can take with us, which is to remain faithful to you and to trust that you will always go before us, that you will always protect us, and you will always try to steer us in a more perfect way towards you. And so I just ask that you continue to bless his ministry, both at his church and uh his conference, and continue to work in the hearts and minds of uh his people, the people here at Unity, and all the other Christians around the world and strengthen us in this ungodly world to be faithful towards you. In thy name I pray. Amen. Amen. And as always, thank you, listeners, for being with us today. And with the story God has writing in your life, go and tell.
SPEAKER_01Thanks so much for listening to the Unity Community Podcast. If today's conversation encouraged you, we'd love for you to take one or more next steps. Join us this Sunday morning for worship at 9 or 10 30. Get connected to a life group andor find a place to serve. You can learn more about Unity and how to get plugged in by visiting the links in the show notes. So until next time, let's grow closer to the Lord as we grow closer one to another.