M3 - Merge Ministry Mostly
A behind-the-scenes look at camp and ministry leadership, told with humor and heart. This podcast offers honest conversations about Christian leadership in student and children’s ministry—sharing real wins, mistakes, growth moments, and the everyday joys and challenges of serving. With plenty of laughs and genuine passion, it’s where Christian leadership meets youth camp chaos—real, relatable, and rooted in purpose.
M3 - Merge Ministry Mostly
Unpopular Opinions
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This week’s episode is all about the hot takes!
We’re sharing some of our most random opinions—from “ketchup belongs on everything” to “travel ball isn’t the devil.” Some of these might make you laugh, some might make you question us… and some might just start an argument.
Either way, you’re guaranteed to laugh with us—and probably at us too.
If you agree, disagree, or just want to say “hi,” shoot us an email at mergeministries12@gmail.com
Today's episode might ruffle a few feathers, maybe. Cause we're diving into unpopular opinions. We're talking about those takes that people stop and say, There's no way you actually believe that. And we probably have more of those than you realize. The kind of opinions you usually keep to yourself unless you enjoyed awkward silence or getting kicked out of the group chat. Some of these are harmless, some are questionable, and a few might be shared today just to start an argument. So whether you're here to agree, argue, or judge us just a little bit, get ready because we're about to give you an inside look into our minds and our slightly strange way of seeing things. Let's get into it. Welcome back to M3 Podcast. If this is your first time listening, I'm Daniel. And I'm Luke. I'm a youth pastor, and Luke's a children's pastor, and we are two small pieces of what is merge ministry. Today's episode will be interesting because you're we are going to share some unpopular opinions that we have. To best prepare you, uh I'm no comedian and neither is Luke, either though Luke laughs at all my jokes.
SPEAKER_01Uh I laugh at everybody's jokes, so it doesn't, that's not really fair argument.
SPEAKER_00Well, it makes me feel good about myself. But I will say, I do like to stir the pot. So there are some things that I may say today that are just to make Luke mad and just to start an argument. I will try to preface those afterwards. You may not understand it in the middle of it. I'd never understand it in the middle of it. I will try to say, hey, I just did that just to make you mad. But if you have something to say, we I think you can comment. I haven't nobody's commented on Spotify up to this point. I don't know if there's any other way, but we do have an email that probably is the best way to if you want to give input, if you if we inspire you, probably not. If you want to argue with us, if we say something you don't agree with, we'll even take those at this point. That's the number one two at gmail.com. So mergeministries12 at gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you. And if you send us some fan mail, we will read it on the podcast. So here we go with some unpopular opinions. The way we're gonna do this, I will read we so we have a script just so y'all know. Kind of, kind of. I'm going to read one of your unpopular opinions, okay, and you have to defend it, and then I will rebuttal if I need to rebuttal, and then you'll read one of mine, and then we'll go from there. So the first of Luke's unpopular opinion, you're going to see a trend here. Just go ahead and put it out there. And I will disclaimer if you hear uh some coughing or blowing nose or heavy breathing, that is all Luke.
SPEAKER_01It's all me. I apologize. I am what I am, man. We were talking before we got started, and he's saying, uh, don't breathe into the mic. I'm like, I can't help it, man. I got asthma and allergies and pollens everywhere. Just is what it is.
SPEAKER_00And if you ever go to camp and you stay in a room with Luke, he has a breathing program that he does every morning. Why are you at like that is horrendous?
SPEAKER_01I gotta blow my nose, I gotta take my nose spray, I gotta do my little daily inhaler thing.
SPEAKER_00All at five o'clock in the morning. It's fantastic. So you chose to get up that early.
SPEAKER_01It ain't on all on me.
SPEAKER_00First unpopular opinion from Luke camp food is good.
SPEAKER_01One of the things that drives me bananas is it's we've we've it's hot outside. Like we've been we've been working, we did the morning service, color games, we done did wreck, and and now it's time to eat. And as soon as we get up in the line, people start complaining about the food. Now, I typically agree mass-produced food, you know, is is not always the best, it's sometimes a little more bland. Uh, but Shaco's food is good, man. And people act like it's just terrible and like, oh, we're gonna eat, you know, what do we got today? Camp food is good, it's good, it tastes good. Shaco does a wonderful job with their food, and I like it. And so I don't like when people crap on the food. It's good. When you see it, even if there's one thing that you're like, oh, this doesn't look good, I don't want to eat this. They got all kinds of other options. They got a taco bar, a salad bar, you can make you a sandwich. The food is good, man.
SPEAKER_00Dude, you sound like Forrest Gump and got fried shrimp, bowled shrimp, they got all kinds of shrimp, shrimp food. When you say camp food is good, so you're just referring to Chaco, or are you saying all camp food? Because this year we're going to a new place which we've never had their food. We might always been at Laguna before. Matt Laguna's good too. So all food is good.
SPEAKER_01Most food, yeah, man. Unless they just you know put a whole bunch of mayonnaise on it, like food's good, bro. Oh, there they're like even so you now I'm I'm gonna have flashbacks of Laguna. I think there was one time we ate at Laguna that I was like, man, this wasn't delicious. But for the most part, man, I this is good.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, camp food is not bad. I do agree. Shaco does have good food for a camp. The options that they have, they do a good job with the food. So in that regard, at Shaco, so you're saying only you agree with me only at Shaco. Laguna was a little iffy. Yeah, they had some kind of iffy things, and I'm not sure. I don't like spaghetti. And one night all they had was your choice was I think it was either spaghetti or maybe one night they did lasagna. Um lasagna. And I don't like lasagna either. So maybe that's why Shaco does a good job. We'll see what the other camp does.
SPEAKER_01So we'll we'll we can go into this a little bit. He said you're gonna see a trend. I got several food things on here.
SPEAKER_00Several.
SPEAKER_01I think all of them are food things, but but one just big guy uh response here or opinion here. You put a little ranch in your spaghetti or your lasagna, it cuts down the acid on that red sauce, and man, it's delicious. It it'll it'll transform your spaghetti or lasagna, as you say it. Put a little just put a little bit in there, give it a shot, see see how it works. It's delicious. Yeah, that ain't happening. Uh Daniel's first one is rom-coms are terrible.
SPEAKER_00They are terrible. I have not, I don't want to say I have not, cannot think of on the spot one romantic comedy that I was like, that is a good movie. They are all super predictable. They're gonna like fall in love, they're gonna fall out of love, and then they're gonna get together at the end and happily ever after. They're they're just not worth watching to look and go, oh, I wonder what's gonna happen in this movie. Because at the end they're always gonna get together. Do you like movies? Are there movies that you do like? I do like movies. More like war, superhero, comedy, but not romantic comedies.
SPEAKER_01But not romantic comedies.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I don't I don't think there's any out there that I mean, what's a romantic comedy you like?
SPEAKER_01I ain't gonna lie, man. There's see, I don't I don't necessarily know the the names of them, but man, there's some good romantic comedies out there.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I don't remember the names of them, but they there's some good ones. That man, they must have left last left an impression on you. For sure. Uh I agree that they can be frustrating because every single romantic comedy you've ever seen, everyone, and if I'm wrong, name one that that I missed it. The whole movie could have ended in like four minutes. Oh, 100%. Because one conversation that got overheard out of context, that if they just had a conversation about it and they would communicated better, you know, it never would have happened the way that it did. So I can agree with you on that, but you you gotta quit being so analytical while you're watching these movies and just watch it and enjoy it. It ain't your life, you're not being affected by it. It's not, it's not, it's just not I say reality, yes, people fall in love with super superhero movies that we watch, these portal opens up and all these guys come from outer space to to defend New York City, fair, and now they you know that's what we're watching. You saying it's gotta be realistic?
SPEAKER_00So you watch a movie because you know it's they're not trying to be realistic, like it's a superhero flying across the sky. You watch that and go, oh, that's kind of entertaining. They're not trying to make it look like real life. Rom-coms try to make this look like real life and so romantic and funny, and it's just you know how it's gonna end, like you know, which that gets to another one, which we'll get to next after uh Luke does another one of his. But rom coms, I'm sorry for I mean, myself, maybe to my wife. She really likes these. That's I I have a hard time, and I tell her we can watch it, but she's like, No, you don't like it. So we're not gonna watch it. I'm like, Well, I don't know what to tell you because I mean I'll sit here and suffer through. See, if you want to present it that way, pull out my fingernails with a pair of things.
SPEAKER_01Well, maybe but pretend to enjoy it, man, for your wife, bruh. Anyway, yeah. I don't I don't I don't hate I don't hate the romantic comedy, of course. They frustrate me uh the same way that you do, but I just you just you just gotta prepare yourself on the front end and just get get over it.
SPEAKER_00You shouldn't have to do that for a movie. Why do you gotta prepare yourself to be disappointed or frustrated?
SPEAKER_01Like that's the point of a movie is entering yourself, the preparing yourself is not letting yourself get frustrated with it.
SPEAKER_00No, I just don't want to so back to Luke unpopular opinions. Yes, there's there's a couple of these, and I guess this is kind of I don't know. We'll uh these all we'll hit all these together because it's more food stuff. Couple of unpopular opinions. He wrote pineapple belongs on pizza for sure, ketchup belongs on everything, and then we'll talk about some weird food combos. Let's see if there's any of that. So pineapple belongs on pizza. I agree with that.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, it's delicious.
SPEAKER_00So we now get pineapple, I think bacon or ham and jalapenos.
SPEAKER_01Bro, we literally got that when we was at the beach. I think I think we got not at the beach when we went just went on vacation with my family. I think we actually got pineapple chicken.
SPEAKER_00No, you don't mean we, you mean you. You said we got that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we not me and you, we and me and my family.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I thought we I thought we disconnected there, but no, we didn't.
SPEAKER_01We had I think it was pineapple chicken and jalapenos, and it was it was delicious.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we used to eat pepperoni and jalapenos, and that's not a bad, bad mix. I wasn't a big pineapple on pizza fan until not too long ago.
SPEAKER_01Well, I'm glad it worked.
SPEAKER_00I I agree with you, I can't I can't argue that. Now the next thing, ketchup belongs on ketchup everything delicious.
SPEAKER_01When when I first started dating my wife, um we would I'd go to her house on Mondays and her mom would cook and we'd eat. And there was several times they were like, You don't like it? Because I'm like asking, where's ketchup or where's rent? Like, I like sauce, you know what I'm saying? So like I'm not saying your food's bad because I put ketchup on it, but that was the way they saw it. If it's not good, then you gotta put something on it to make it better. And no, ketchup just makes everything better.
SPEAKER_00I d I disagree. The other day, me and Abby went to Waffle House, and it you're gonna go, I know what you're gonna say, but I'm just gonna say it anyway. She put ketchup on hash browns for sure, terrible. No, one thousand percent terrible. You're gonna say it's a potato, it's a breakfast food. Brother, I put ketchup in my mashed potatoes.
SPEAKER_01I don't, but I would that's disgusting ketchup.
SPEAKER_00Ketchup don't belong on the breakfast table. Beans and beans. There you go. I'm about their opinion. I'll put that stuff on my eggs. Ketchup does not belong. No, it does not belong on eggs. Put some hot sauce on it, put some cheese on it. Ketchup and hot sauce.
SPEAKER_01My boy, and cheese. Yes, all uh, give it to me. Give it to me. Yes, ketchup belongs on your hash sauce. She had some hash browns left over eating. I was like, Yes, you can. You can't eat. You go to I go to McDonald's, I put hash brown uh ketchup on my hash brown.
SPEAKER_00Now, something what about Chick-fil-A? Yes. Now try grape jelly or try grape jelly.
SPEAKER_01Strawberry jelly. Grape jelly. Strawberry jelly. All right, now here's my question though. From like with ketchup, where do you keep your ketchup?
SPEAKER_00I don't know. I would say if I asked you this question, you probably have a bottle in your book bag.
SPEAKER_01Um but our ketchup lives in our refrigerator once it's opened. That's where most people keep it. But mine stays in in the pantry, in the cabinet. It's not it's not going in the refrigerator.
SPEAKER_00Who wants cold ketchup? Well, when you put it on your cereal, I can understand why you don't want cold ketchup. Weird food combos. Um you like fruit scoops and peanut butter? Frito scoops?
SPEAKER_01Oh, Fritos, I can't even. Fritos, fruit scoops, Frito scoops. Peanut butter. Frito scoops and peanut butter. I don't know. I don't know what's weird about that. That sounds pretty good.
SPEAKER_00Who eats? I mean, nobody's a good idea.
SPEAKER_01Oh, weird as in who thinks to take who thinks to do that. Bro, you take a beef jerky stick and and dip some dip some ketchup. I mean not ketchup, but that does sound gross to me. Oh no, ketchup on everything. It's uh dip some peanut butter out of there with the with the beef jerky stick. Yeah, man, that's delicious too.
SPEAKER_00One day I was uh we had some Oreos at our house, and I took the Oreos and dipped the Oreo in peanut butter. Also, peanut butter on everything too, my boy. Maybe that's the nice hot take. Peanut butter belongs on everything. You can put it on a hamburger. I had those in college place, they called it the peanut butter bet.
SPEAKER_01See, that doesn't sound you were we when we went to Conclave, you were telling me and Johnny about that as if like they had one, yeah. But you were saying it like we were gonna like balk at that. Brother, and we both were like, Yeah, that sounds good, bro. You and Johnny are not balking at anything with food while we were there also. Uh Daniel's acting like we're psychotic for you know, waiting eight hours and then wanting to eat. Like, what we we had breakfast, sure, and now it's lunchtime, and that's what you do at lunchtime. You eat food. And Daniel's like, we already ate for the day.
SPEAKER_00Like, no, we're gonna eat. We ate breakfast at like nine o'clock, and then it hit 11:30, and they were like, It's time for lunch.
SPEAKER_01We were walking around and working, so we worked off at breakfast to stay on the food deal. You have on here black licorice is good.
SPEAKER_00Fantastic, especially around Easter, you can get the black jelly beans, black jelly beans, the best, and here's the good thing about them nobody else wants to eat them, so I get to eat them all to myself.
SPEAKER_01And I think this is one of those things that you know Daniel mentioned in the beginning that he has uh all like different opinions sometimes just to argue with people. I don't think he actually likes it because who does? Like that's not a real thing. I think he says he likes it, and he I've seen him eat it and pretends as if he likes it, but I think it's fake. I don't think it's real.
SPEAKER_00Me and my mother, I think, are the only two people I know who enjoy black jelly beans.
SPEAKER_01Well, I ain't gonna hate on your mama because that's not a good thing to do. However, I don't believe you actually like it.
SPEAKER_00Now I don't just go to the store and be like, oh, we're stopping at a gas station and I hunt down uh black licorice. I don't do that, but around Easter time, which I didn't have any this Easter, come to think of it. I don't even know if I saw any uh black licorice.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because nobody likes it. They quit including it.
SPEAKER_00No, that's why it's called an unpopular opinion, and people should get on board with me so I can have more black jelly beans, more of a popular opinion. All right, so more food for Luke. Imagine that. I guess uh it could be classified as food. Thanksgiving is overrated.
SPEAKER_01So let me first clarify Wow, scripture tells us we should have a thankful heart, right? That we should, you know, practice Thanksgiving. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is we sh people like hate on me for for decorating my house and and being excited about Christmas too early. Thanksgiving is overrated in that regard. Like, Thanksgiving is not the premier holiday, it's Christmas, and so that's why I say Thanksgiving is overrated. Like, I'm not bucking at the opportunity to get together with the fam and eat some food. Like, that's that's out of there. However, Christmas, it's okay for me to start Christmas early. Like, as soon as Halloween's over, it's it's Christmas time, baby.
SPEAKER_00I agree with that, but how's Thanksgiving overrated?
SPEAKER_01Because it's Christmas, baby.
SPEAKER_00Well, it is, so you just skip over Thanksgiving because it's it don't matter, yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's overrated. Like, why why are we anybody? Why are we being thankful? Well, we can we can still be thankful with Christmas. Lump them babies together, you know what I'm saying? We can be thankful for what Jesus did for us by him coming and and being born uh as a of a virgin, like like that's why we're celebrating at Christmas. Sure, it gets commercialized and blah blah blah blah blah. But with that being said, Thanksgiving is is the inferior holiday.
SPEAKER_00We used to con my house, Abby would not like for us to decorate before Thanksgiving. Um, that's out the window.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, it's gone, baby.
SPEAKER_00As soon as Halloween ends, we do. But here's my thing with that. You decorate and spend so much time putting all this stuff out. Who wants to just do that for a month? Like it should be now when Christmas ends, the stuff don't stay up. Gas to go. Yeah, it's got to go by the time it hits, which usually we go on a ski trip after Christmas, so then we get back from the ski trip.
SPEAKER_01That makes taking the stuff down a little bit more difficult, right?
SPEAKER_00Thanksgiving's overrated, according to Luke.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'll take it. Um, uh going back to the whole movie. Oh, this is great. Uh Daniel says that happy endings are wrong.
SPEAKER_00They are kind of goes back to the whole rom com. If you know how everything is going to end, what's the point? Like, who wants to be happy? So sometimes you can throw in a little uh catastrophe or um death.
SPEAKER_01Right. The point, the point of the movie, like those things happen. There is catastrophe, there is death, but you gotta end on a good, happy, you know, joyful note.
SPEAKER_00Imagine if you're watching Armageddon, which I don't know if you watched Armageddon, um, but imagine watching Armageddon and the meteorite asteroid, whatever that big thing was called, is hurling however many miles an hour to the earth and they don't split it or they don't do whatever they did, and it crashes into the earth and then roll credits. Yes, yes, that's it. And it's done. Kind of reminds me of it's like crap, we lost. See, one one movie did this, City of Angels. If you have never seen City of Angels, you may want to turn this off because I'm gonna tell you how it ends. So the whole concept of the City of Angels. Yeah, there's an angel who falls in love with a human, and he gives up his angel ship to come to Earth. What are you watching? So he wanted to become a human.
SPEAKER_01So he's a fallen angel, is what you're saying.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so he could uh fall in love and be with uh this lady. I can't even remember who it was. So he does that, and they have I think it's one date, one night, and everything is just fantastic. Like he's glad he gave up his angel ship, she's glad he's there, and she goes out for a bike ride in the morning, like right after all this happens, and she's riding her bike on a windy road, and not just any truck, but a logging truck comes around the corner and smacks her. And I was like, Yes, horrible, yes, yes, the best ending to a movie ever. Fantastic. That's terrible.
SPEAKER_01So you you loved how Lost ended.
SPEAKER_00So I started watching Lost, but I have a hard time watching TV shows for an extended period of time, so I don't even know how Lost ended. So it was horrible. It was horrible.
SPEAKER_01Was it all like a dream? And it was yeah, and none of none of it ever happened. It was basically I mean, it was all kinds of twists and turns with it, but it's like basically the gist of it was like you that none of this stuff ever even happened.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, see that that's not terrible. That's uh you string people along for how. However, many seasons and episodes and all that stuff. And then it's like, oh, we're just kidding. This didn't really go.
SPEAKER_01Movies are not. Movies are a little different. Like most TV shows have a hard, like it's it's difficult difficult for them to land the plane and make everybody happy. Like, I understand that. People are gonna be upset with how shows end. Lost was terrible, but you would have you would have loved it. You'd have been like, Yes, none of this ever even happened. That's great. We've wasted all of our time and we want this to, you know, settle and come to a close where we're all thankful and happy and everything ended up great and it didn't.
SPEAKER_00See, that's a little different because that's like people just spend a whole lot of money and time and then they go, Oh, just kidding, somebody was dreaming. But no, I want like destruction and things not to work out in the end. Because every movie, if every movie ends the same way, and that's why Abby's like, it's supposed to be entertainment, you're supposed to get lost in it. You're supposed to no, like sometimes things don't work out, and that's real life. Things don't work out.
SPEAKER_01So, with that being said, let me ask you this question: you're analytical, you're watching the shows, and you're mad because there's the the problem could have been solved with one simple conversation. Do you like pick up on like if you're watching a mystery or something like that? Like, do you pick up on oh, this is the killer, and you know this is the person that did the thing. Are you in intuitive in that way?
SPEAKER_00Like, do you a lot of times, yes? But uh my problem when I watch movies is from scene to scene when like the time on the clock is different, or somebody had their shirt unbuttoned and then it was button in the next scene and it shouldn't be. Like, I pick up on those things and I'm like, hey, that was there, that's not supposed to be there. They can't do that because whatever reason. So that's my more of a problem. But most of the time watching movies, I kind of go, Oh, that's gonna happen and they're gonna get together and it's gonna be over.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, I think exactly what the writers want you to think. I'm like, I never see it coming. I'm like, oh my goodness, he's it. And Joe's like, yeah, duh. Like, you didn't see this coming? Like, no, I had no idea. I'm the dummy they're writing them for. Like, I whatever they want you to think is exactly what I think.
SPEAKER_00No, because I think I get too bored in a movie. So instead of just like getting lost in it and being like, Oh, this like it's fantastic. I start looking for other stuff because I get bored. We went and saw uh Project Hail Mary.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Speaking of a movie that could end in like 10 minutes, lasted two and a half hours, and it could have ended in about 15 minutes.
SPEAKER_01I haven't seen that.
SPEAKER_00Don't oh, I say don't. You probably will like it and cry and everything else. But anyway, so along with uh movies, your unpopular opinion, the movie is better than the book.
SPEAKER_01So this is one of those things that I've heard my whole life. Like people they read the book and then they watch the movie and they're like, Oh, the book is better, the book is better. And I'm like, How? How in the world was the book better? I remember this guy was telling me he read all the Lord of the Rings, and then he watches it and he's like, Man, I just didn't I didn't picture it the way that they showed it. Like what I had envisioned in my mind was was so much better than than what they were actually able to to portray. And I'm like, How? Like you're reading it, like there's no no possible way that the book is better. That what you're watching it unfold before your eyes, you're not having to read it, the movie's always better.
SPEAKER_00Let me ask you that this is a question we asked at the house or Abby asked everybody. Interesting how it turned out. When you read a book, let's say you read Lord of the Rings or any kind of book, when you're reading the words, are you picturing in your head what is happening? Like if it was a war book and you're reading it like you're picturing the actual video movie playing in your head, or do you just read the words? Hmm.
SPEAKER_01Most of my reading is not like they're not books like that. Okay, so it's I'm not visualizing what it is. But when I've read like there's this book called A Man Called Ove, that's about this man. Like I'm called OV. It's this management, this man's story is what I'm saying. Yes, I'm picturing what is happening.
SPEAKER_00So when you read the Bible and you're reading the story of whatever, oh yeah, like you're picturing picturing what's taking place. See, I don't. I don't, I just read the words.
SPEAKER_01That does not that does not shock me at all.
SPEAKER_00So the non-readers in the house are like, no, I just read the words on the page, that's what it is. Yeah, the readers are like, Yes, I picture it and I can see this happening. So we went and saw a movie Weathering Heights, I think it was. Yeah, and Abby's the book is so much better because this happened and this. And I'm like, no, the movie's better because it only you didn't have to read it, it only took two hours of my life and not four months of my life.
SPEAKER_01Only the only argument I listen to is like they there's so much in the book that they can't put into the movie, or it'd be a seven-hour-long movie. Okay, so there's scenes that they skipped from the book to add into the movie. Like, okay, I'll give you that. Right. But you're telling me your imagination is better. What what's going taking place in your head is better than what you're seeing on the screen? No shot.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because nothing is happening in my head for you. Yeah, nothing. The movie's way better.
SPEAKER_01Nothing's happening at all, and it's a lot faster. So we're we're I will say though, too, when I'm reading that way, like if I am picturing what's taking place and what's happening, I always gotta go back and reread some stuff because I get lost in my own mind. What's happening? I'm like, uh, wait, where are we? Is that really in there?
SPEAKER_00So we're coming to the end of the episode, and there's one unpopular opinion that I I have two that probably would be more controversial than the other ones, but we're gonna do one of these just to see.
SPEAKER_01Travel ball is not the devil. People as working in the church, that is something that gets blamed a lot. Yeah, Daniel says that travel ball is not the devil.
SPEAKER_00Travel ball is not the devil. I had a friend send a video to a group of us and it talked about how bad travel ball was, and it divides the family, and it sets different standards and shows that church is not the most important, and like just bash travel ball. Travel ball is what you make it. Yeah, like I can make the case against travel ball that it's watered down, that it's a moneymaker, I can make that, but also like being a pastor, youth pastor, and children's pastor, and I believe all of my kids at some point have done travel ball, yeah. It's what you make it, yeah. Like, yes, if your family is split all the time and you have a spouse, your spouse, a husband or wife is going out every weekend with without you, and depending on what the travel ball parents do, if they're sitting around getting wasted in the lobby and they're going out and all of that, yes, you're setting yourself up for failure, for a disaster. But even in that, with your kids, like somebody's gonna say, Oh, well, they miss church a lot. Well, well, they do miss church a lot, but at what point does the church look and go, travel ball's a thing? How can we minister through travel ball? Yeah, we took it and there would be many of days we didn't do it all the time, but on the way to or home from travel ball, I would listen to a a service or a podcast or something, and the kids are in there with me. If we're intentional about it, we can have conversations there and back of what God is doing in their life. Yes, they miss church something. And I'm I mean, if you can be in church, be in church. But if, and I'll say uh we'll just say it, if your child does not love Jesus because they miss church once a month or twice a month, what are you doing as a parent?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like that's the thing, like as a as a pastor, I I didn't grow up in this being being a pastor. My dad was. My dad was not well at the time, he's not a pastor, he's preaching somewhere every every Sunday. When I was in sixth grade is when my dad got saved. I think it was eighth grade is when he starts, he's preaching all over the place. And uh my 11th grade year is when he became the pastor at the way church where he is now. Well, all during this time, my sister's playing golf. And you know, uh up until you know junior golf, it's I mean, uh during junior golf, you're you're playing on the weekends, okay. It's then you get in school ball, uh, school golf, and nobody's looking at central high school outside of the the traveling, you know what I mean? Like if you're not playing in the SJGT or the AGA or some of those bigger, you know, tournaments, you're not getting looked at in the same way as someone who just plays high school golf. And it was a a a point where you know some of the people in the church that we're attending are going, you know, this is a problem, you know, you can't be gone, blah, blah, blah. And it was it was worth it to my family for Haley to be playing in these in these tournaments. And I would say it worked out well for her. I mean, she got a full ride to Auburn to play golf. That's not a super common thing. She got a full ride to play golf at Auburn, and she won three SEC championships in the four years that she was there. I think it I think it worked out well. She's now the head women's golf coach at AUM. I think missing some of those Sundays was was worth it in in her career and even in her life. And you know, there was I remember a moment where she's saying to my dad, like, we've we've missed a lot of church, but I recognize I need to be here, like I need to do this in order to pursue this, this, like to pursue golf. Uh, she's like, I want to do something. He was like, Well, do something. So this is simple and this is little, this is not no crazy thing that she, you know, set out to do. But before she played, she would ask the girls that she's playing with, hey, do y'all mind if if we pray together? Some of them thought she was crazy and she she did that. And I was like, that's not a church service. That's that's not being together with the body, but it was something that she felt called to do, challenged to do, and she did it. And yeah, we missed a couple Sundays. Sometimes it was just her and my mom, you know, the the rest of the family was at that church, but it wasn't, you know, like you said, it's the the important thing here is you know, people view church as all right, I'm gonna drop my kid off and y'all need to disciple him. Discipleship don't happen at the church, discipleship happens at home, and the church is partnering with the parents to disciple their kids, not the other way around. And so it, you know, I I've seen in your your life, your daughter, like, yeah, she's playing soccer all over the place and is good at it, got a scholarship. Like, what all this I would say that this this worked, it was successful, yeah, being gone and some of those things, but more importantly than anything else, she's a woman who loves Jesus and she's devoted to to Christ. And so, like, yeah, some of those things we we get caught up in uh even as the on the church side of things, there are families that are gone all the time that they miss and they miss and they miss, and and missing for a tournament ends up being we miss next week because I'm tired.
SPEAKER_00And if that's what you're gonna come Wednesday because we got too much going on, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And if you allow that to take place, then it's easy to make travel ball the devil, right? It's easy to make travel ball evil, you know.
SPEAKER_00It's easy to blame it on travel ball instead of the families, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But the reality is, you know, there's some people who do that successfully as well. You know, I got a kid that comes in late every single Wednesday night because he has he has travel ball, travel soccer practice. I'm not bashing him because he comes in late. He's here. I'm glad he's here, I'm glad he's showing up. It would be better. Um, but we want to say it would be better if he would be there the whole time. But at least he's at least he's there. At least he's being poured into. At least, you know, his parents recognize both of these things are important. And, you know, we're not gonna allow you just got out of practice and we're tired to to miss Wednesday night service.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, when we were in the the midst, excuse me, my kids are older now. The way we were in it, we were gone a good bit, or Abby was gone more because I had to be at church. Me and a buddy of mine talked uh of how to use travel ball as a ministry opportunity. We talked about create like we have worships, like have a you gotta drive at least 30 minutes, play two songs, do some kind of stupid game in the car, and then read a Bible story and have questions about it. Like if you want it to be a tool, then why is the church not? And I'm speaking for myself, I have the idea and the thought, but never went through with it that instead of bashing travel ball, now it any any extreme can be bad. We'll just go ahead and throw that out there. But if we really care about these kids and these families and we realize this is the way things are, how can we leverage travel ball to help families disciple their kids while they're on the road? Because a lot of times that's one thing that parents probably don't do a lot is talk to their kids. Yeah. Well, they're stuck in a car with you on the way there and on the way back. Are you intentional and having those conversations of, hey, we missed church today, but let's talk about this or let's do this? And then when your kids aren't doing ball, are they in church? Like you said, or you were using excuses of retired or we got a lot going on. Like, what's your priority? Is your priority, oh, we're gonna be travel ball and we're gonna play 52 weeks out of the year because that's what we do, and then we're just gonna let church be something separate, or are you gonna be intentional through travel ball, through the conversations, through practices and the travel to teach your kids about Jesus?
SPEAKER_01So I heard David Pollock on a podcast one time talking about, you know, his kids are in travel ball and they've made the stand, like, well, we're gonna be there, we'll show up and we'll play, but we're going to church first. So let's say they're out of town, uh, they're gonna find a church, they're gonna go to the church, and then if the the first game is at nine o'clock, and so we're gonna miss the first game. Like, I I also don't have a problem with you taking that stand too. Like, if that's if that's what you and your family want to do, and that's how you you're gonna choose to to pursue Jesus in that way, and we're gonna make us take a stand and show you know the people that are around us that this this is our priority in our life. I ain't got no problem with that either. You know, go go and show up. Like if you're if you're playing in Lagrange, you know, yeah, go to go to church that morning, get there a little late. And if that means your kid is punished by the coaches by not being able to play that one game, look, that's it is what it is, you know. Uh some some sports ain't quite like that. Softball and baseball might can work that way. You're gonna play a couple games in a day. You know, golf ain't that way, right? I don't know how soccer is, but you know, what you gotta do what works for you and your family, you know. If you're gonna say we're gonna take this to the the stance or or whatever and say we're not playing any on Sunday, like we ain't doing that with anything else in our life. Right. We're not gonna we're not gonna not meet on Sunday because it's the Lord's day and we gotta rest and all of those things. Like the we do stuff today, it's it's different than uh maybe how it was in the old testament, you know. But with that being said, like you gotta find what works for you and your family, and we can't just make excuses of I'm tired or it's difficult or it's hard or whatever. You gotta do what's right for you. Yeah, you what churches is important. Don't don't hear me saying church ain't important, right? You know, the fellowship and and the breaking bread together, the the worship service and and being poured into and all of those things, man. Yes, they are are definitely important 100%. However, you know, travel ball is not the devil.
SPEAKER_00Travel ball is not the devil.
SPEAKER_01That's not the problem. If if that's what's causing people to not be at church, it's they have a another issue. Right. It's not just the travel ball.
SPEAKER_00So that's all the time we have for this episode. Um, if you enjoyed this episode, next week we're going to look at the idea, the topic of things that are overrated and underrated. So that should be interesting as well. As I said at the beginning, if you have things that you would like to comment on, uh give us ideas or things you would like to hear us talk about, to hear our more opinions after this after this week if you want to. Uh merge Ministries 12, that's the number 12 at gmail.com. We also have a website, merge-ministries.com. You can find out information about the camps that are coming up, but also there is a donate button on the website as well. That'll take you to our giving platform called GiveButter. You can give and support the ministry as we get ready for camps in the couple of months, actually. There are things that we need to close. Yes, need to buy, uh, things you can help us with. So check out our website, merge-ministries.com. Shoot us an email, mergeministries 12 at gmail.com, and we will look forward to seeing your comments, your emails, and hopefully you don't complain about us too much. That's all we got for today. Have a good week. We'll be back next week. See ya bye.