Hotdogs, Serving, and Sports

Everyone’s got opinions—but we’re putting ours on the mic. This episode dives into some of the most random yet oddly serious debates out there. From food classifications to church expectations to the age-old cheerleading question, nothing is off-limits. Come for the laughs, stay for the surprisingly real conversations.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to another week of M3 Merge Ministry Mostly. I am Daniel. I'm Luke. And we are back for another episode. You did say that weird. This week we are looking at random topics. You know, we just want to talk about things. Uh, nothing really. There is one that has to do with the church that is a point of tension sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Sometimes, sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

But the other ones, they really don't. So we will say if you agree or disagree with us, don't take it personal. We're right. You're not. Some of these things, if we get to all of them.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

We're just saying you're you're wrong.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Right. You're wrong. We will give our opinion. Some of these are lighthearted, not a big deal. Some of them you may get uh have a strong opinion about. If you do, send us email. Merge ministry most nope.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

We should get that. We should get that.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

We should have that. Merge Ministry12 at gmail.com. Uh you can send us your thoughts.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

And see, we haven't hit the point where we're getting so much feedback from the podcast that we've needed that yet. So merge ministry 12 is is still fine. It's still fine. Hopefully, you know, we've we've had our first one now that we thought about last week. But uh maybe we'll get some more and we'll have to go to merge ministry mostly at Gmail Not Gmail.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Yeah, that would be that's not a bad idea. I was about to say something, then I cut you off. And then I completely just forgot. Oh, yeah. I was listening to a podcast, told you about this. Listen to a podcast yesterday, and the whole podcast is people send in their questions or their situations, and they get these people to to give their opinions and thoughts. So if you're in the ministry world and you have questions about ministry, uh I as you have heard, I've been in children's ministry and now youth ministry. Luke was in youth ministry and now children's ministry. We obviously do the merge camps. So if you have ministry questions, things going on at your church, you would like to hear our thoughts and opinions, we will actually probably make light of it to some extent. If it is something to make light of, if it's not, then we will not. But we'll also give our opinion on how we would handle it, ideas, thoughts through ministry years, or if it's personal, or if it's family related, or if it's none work related, you know, you just want to hear our our thoughts or ideas. We're here to help. I mean, we are such nice guys.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Uh and and like we we mentioned about our our own experiences, say with with merge, you know, a while back. We I mentioned that Miss Jan wasn't able to come one one year. Uh I had to kind of step up and do some of the the building thing of things, and I left all the tools. What was I thinking? And uh we make fun of that, like it's part of it. So it's not that we think you're stupid again, it's not we think that your your problem or the thing that you're asking is is dumb. It's just that that's how we work, it's how we operate, we bring it uh in into humor, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:22

And we are here to help. We do have some experience, some knowledge, and like we said, we're right.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

So if you want the right opinion, even when we disagree, which we may each other, which we may hear in just a second. We disagree, we're still right.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Random thoughts, random questions. We'll start off with uh an easy one. Uh, is a hot dog a sandwich?

SPEAKER_01 3:46

No, it's a hot dog.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

You can't you can't just say no. It's a hot dog. That's like in Sunday school. You ask somebody a question, they give you one answer and they just stare at you. Why why is it not a hot dog?

SPEAKER_01 3:58

I hate that, don't you?

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

All right. A hot dog is not a sandwich because it's a hot dog. It's it's not bread and lunch meat and all that with another piece of bread on top. It's uh it's it's an open face, not sandwich, because it's not a sandwich. You don't go to Subway and get a hot dog. So you go to Subway and get a sandwich.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

What makes a subject sandwich a sandwich? Who cares? No, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

There's a difference in a sandwich and a hot dog, and you just know it. It's just a fact of life.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Or you just accepted that to be true when you haven't really thought about it. Because a sub-sandwich, okay, you take a piece of bread, yeah, cut it down the middle, lay it open, put stuff in it, close it back. Typically, it does not come disconnected. Right. And then you have bread, meat and stuff, bread, hot dog. You have a hot dog bun cut down the middle, stuff in between it, don't come disconnected. Same thing. How do you have a subway sandwich, then a hot dog? I got a hot dog because it's called hot dog. Because it's a hot dog. No, it it's still considered a sandwich.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

It's not a sandwich.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

There's no possible way other than you saying it's just a hot dog. It's the same thing. Subway sandwich and a hot dog, two pieces of bread connected together, meat in the middle, whatever else you you can even put like jalapenos or pickles or mustard, you can put everything that you put on a Subway sandwich on the hot dog. Same thing. They're both a sandwich.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

It's not a sandwich. It's a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

It's definitely the way it's made.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

So a hamburger is also a sandwich.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

No, it's not, it's a hamburger.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

No, it's a totally different food. If you make a ham sandwich, you take two pieces of bread, laid open, put your meat, put mayonnaise, ketchup, whatever, close it together. That's a ham sandwich.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Right. But if you take that same piece of ham and turn it into beef and call it a hamburger, it's no longer a sandwich. It is a sandwich. Now it's a hamburger.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

It's a sandwich. No, it's a minivan a vehicle.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

That's totally different. It's not. It's a vehicle.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

It's a truck a vehicle. It's a car vehicle. They have similar, they have things that they both have served the same function. It's a vehicle. One's a minivan, one's a car, one's a truck. They're vehicles.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

That is very hard to argue against. I just still disagree. So until subway or firehouse has hot dogs at like you can order a hot dog in the in subway or firehouse or any of those sandwich places. It's not a sandwich.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Okay. What about meatballs?

SPEAKER_01 6:55

They're meatballs.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Is it a sandwich?

SPEAKER_01 6:57

No, no, it's called a meatball sub. Subway. Just sub. Just sub in there.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

It's just a meatball sub.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

That's all it is.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

All right.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Well, okay. So let us know. I don't even know what sub stands for. Submarine. Duh. Next up. This one is being in children's ministry. You get this a lot. We'll take it more so outside of just children's ministry. If you have, we'll start with children's ministry. If you have a kid in children's ministry in a church, should parents be required to serve in that ministry?

SPEAKER_01 7:36

That would be a a huge help for the church. I would like to say. Absolutely yes. So in some in some way, in some form. It may not, everybody's not a teacher. Right. Right. So it may not be them, you know, teaching the Sunday school class or teaching on a Wednesday night or you know, kids' church and Sunday morning. But serve in some capacity, absolutely yes. One of the hardest things to do in kids' ministry is get volunteers to serve uh as that that that help. You know what I mean? So yeah, I I think that should definitely be a requirement.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Because why do you think why do you think it's not? Because everybody that works in a church, I would think feels the same way. Feels the same way. But it's one of those things like we tell people, hey, if you have a kid, you should. Why has the church not moved to a model of hey, this is how it is, this is how it's gonna be? Because they're volunteers and you can't make them show up.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

I think that's part of it, but I think there's another part of it that's like there there are people that may not necessarily be as qualified. And so we've just used it as an excuse to say, well, we're not gonna make it universal because there's you know, we may not there may be some people that we need to not be in the kids' ministry. So I think that's why we've not made it a requirement. However, that is a very small statistic.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Very small, but even in that, if a a parent has some reason, and when I say reason, I mean like legal reason they can't be with a kid, they still could serve somewhere, kind of the same thing of hey, this is our expectation. Yeah, if legally you can't be in here, we can put you somewhere else.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

I guess I think maybe as as the church and a lot of other areas and and aspects, it is easy to get volunteers for certain things that you don't you don't have to force it, right? You know, we go and serve at LaDonia's lunchroom, and do people tell us no? Yeah, but we ask people and we get seven or eight people every almost every time we go. The only time we've only had three people was when it snuck up on us and we forgot to invite people to come serve with us. So uh I don't see I don't think I mean I th I think in in every other aspect it's easy so easy to get volunteers that it's not a it's not a thing on the forefront of our mind that we're like we we're gonna enforce this, but at the same time, may not be a bad idea.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

May not be a bad idea.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

So it's sometimes because the other thing when sometimes you get parents will be frustrated about how how things went at in in in their in the kids' ministry. And there's a lack of understanding of what goes on in kids' ministry, right? You know, Wednesday night, this past Wednesday night was was a rough one. The lady that typically helps me was not there, and so I was by myself, and there was 19 kids in the room. It was it was great, fantastic, but it was off the chain. So, like having you know fate testing of that, I guess to blame having another person in there like to fill in for my for the lady that's always there, she never misses. Like, this is not a a negative thing on her. If there was somebody else that was a part of that volunteer crew, you know, that they can step in and fill in, that all they gotta do is sit down next to the kid who's talking in the middle of me trying to teach. It it just shuts it down, you know. Miss Carmen is great at at not causing a scene and settling down whatever's going on. Like when we're doing worship and I'm running the computer, making sure it sounds good and all that stuff. The sound is right, is what I mean. Not anyways, we're doing worship, and you got 95% of the kids doing the motions and worshiping, and then I got two in in the very back. One is on all fours, like about there, they're about to do leapfrog, and the other girl jumps over. You know, it's like we got this going on in the back that I I gotta stop the all of worship or distract everybody else to to to correct this, or I just let it ride because ain't nobody else there. But when somebody else is there, they just walk over and it's easy, it's over, you know.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

Well, one of the things that I've I heard a lot, or even you still hear, is parents don't want to miss the worship service. Because with children's ministry, neither does anybody else, right? But and at what point do parents look and go, uh, hey, I can miss once a month worship service because the kids are right, the kids are important and they need that.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

So we we also mentioned a couple weeks ago, you know, having kids in whether in the service or in in your church, having kids in there is is the future of your church, right? You know, in 50 years, there's gonna be some people that are they ain't here no more, right? And they're gonna be the ones that are that are the church, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:53

And so do you feel gotta be worth it. Do you feel the same way when it comes to teenagers? If you have a teenager in the church, in the student ministry, you should serve in the student ministry.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Yes, in some way or form. Okay, right. So absolutely, yes. I still feel like that that right of applies. Youth is very different in its functionality and how it operates. Most student pastors have leaders that are in there every week. So there's a less of a need, you know, e each and every week or whatever to serve in the same function of facilitating while you're in there. Uh, but it it shouldn't be pulling teeth to go to camp, to go to events, to have a host home for D now, and those kinds of things like that that's an easy way for people to be able to serve. And I I definitely think, yes, there should still be that that buy-in, uh, even in youth ministry.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

So youth ministry structure-wise is done different. Kids are older, you don't need as many volunteers, but a parent still should be involved, yeah, some shape or form. So let me let me ask you, I thought about this um last night. I couldn't couldn't go to sleep. Um so you hear first I'll I'll say this. How do you feel when a parent you ask a parent or a conversation comes up about serving in the children's ministry, and a parent tells you, I can't do it because I don't like kids?

unknown 14:27

Me?

SPEAKER_02 14:29

No, I was just kidding. I'm just kidding, I was just kidding.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Uh you know, there's a lot of things in our life that we may not necessarily enjoy that we gotta do anyway.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Well, here's my thing. You have you have kids. You don't like your own your own kids? Like, we're not asking you to like raise them and take them home. We're asking you to be in a room with them for an hour. Like, how do you have kids and you say, Well, I don't like kids, right? I I can't serve.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

See, that's a that's a difficult one, bro.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

I mean, you can you can't use that as an excuse.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

So there's a lot of things in our life that we don't want to do, we gotta do anyway.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

This sets up the next the next question.

unknown 15:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

As we get older, our parents are getting older, and I've my parents are older than your parents. If you have parents in the senior adult ministry, should you have to serve in the senior adult ministry? No doubt.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

Absolutely in your parents, absolutely or in the senior adult ministers. The role's reverse, brother. I mean, that's exactly how it works.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

So when the senior adults are having a function, who should be serving that food? It's the it's you, it's the kids.

SPEAKER_02 15:33

That you absolutely, yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

So, can I say I don't like senior adults?

SPEAKER_02 15:38

I'm not serving in the senior adult.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

You can, it won't, it don't mean anything, but you can say it.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

I mean, if people can say it about kids, why can't I look at the senior adults and say, No, I don't like y'all.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

I don't like senior adults. Look, one of my favorite groups in the whole church is them senior adults, if I'll be honest with you. Them jokers are funny.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

They are. Well, I think about that. That is hilarious. Like, where does it end? Like, at what point do you go? Well, you got these people in this ministry, so you should be serving in this ministry.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

But if the only the only problem with that rationale is, I mean, full of fence to senior adults, they they got what they doing, and they they're gonna do it their way, so you would just be in the way if you came, you showed up to help, you know what I'm saying? You came to serve, it would be like, Yeah, we don't need you here.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

They'd be telling you, I don't like you. You're doing that wrong. I don't like you. But if if that was the mentality of the church, is hey, we see that, and there are times you need to go to church and be in church, but majority of the church you should be serving in some capacity, and if we served, especially in the place that we're connected to, like ministry-wise, think how healthy the church really could be, and we wouldn't have to stand up and hey, we need nursery volunteers, or hey, this is happening, or or whatever that may be.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

It would be well, and think about how easy it is for the church to have the the kids' ministry, the youth ministry, that whatever that middle-aged adult is, and then senior adults, like how easy it is to function and operate separate, right? Like, we need that joint and that inclusion together so that the church can be healthy and the church can grow and whatever. You you need all of those people to come together. So if if the the parents that have kids, let's just be for real, if they're serving in the senior adults, they're building those connections that now these kids have a a second set of grandparents, right? Or third set of grandparents, or whatever, you know what I mean? Uh extra, should I say what whatever that looks like. I mean, and that's the church being being the church.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

That's true. All right, so now we'll get on some.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

I didn't realize how much I move now that I see myself on video.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Yes, you do.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

Like I be twitching and moving all over the place. Don't do that.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

Don't do that. You don't like that? No, no, no. If you're listening on the podcast, go watch the video at whatever time this is, and you will never watch another recorded video.

SPEAKER_03 18:16

Or maybe they'll come back.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Or they may come back. So we'll get on some uh lighthearted ones. Do you wash your feet and back? Like when we say what when I the question, like, do you take time to actually wash your feet and your back?

SPEAKER_01 18:33

All right, so let's let's be honest. All right, your boy ain't reflexible. There's no shot I can wash my back. Ain't happening. Uh, when I wash my hair, the soap runs down my back, and that's my back getting washed. Now, my feet, on the other hand, I do wash my feet, but I have smelly feet, so I'll be washing my feet.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Interesting. Yeah. Well, I wash neither. I just I mean, I just see here's the thing soap gets down on your feet, you wash it, you're standing in it, my back. I I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

I remember being in high school and having this conversation, and then this conversation has been four or five times in my lifetime, even from in high school to being an adult. I'll be 33 this year, you're still old. Um, fair. But I I don't understand why people think it's so gross. Like, if you don't want to wash your feet, don't wash your feet. You don't wash your back, don't wash your back. Like, who cares? If you're a smelly human, I'll be like, hey man, let's let's fix this up. Like, let's change this, like let's do something different, right? But you know, you're not.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Yeah, well, I've I figure that I run so fast, all the dirt and everything it's on the front of me and not on the back of me. Oh, so that's so so then you know I have to wash the back because that man isn't athletic. Because I'm surprisingly athletic.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Surprisingly.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

But yes, I do not wash my feet or my back. Um I just hold on to that.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

This one gets people too. Do you use a wash rag or you just use your hand?

SPEAKER_00 20:11

I use a wash rag. Now if so I d I use I don't know what like pump soap.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

So if I have a bar of soap, which I will have a bar of soap every now and then, like using a bar of soap without a rag, I I could do that. I don't necessarily do that. Um, but I just think using the pump soap and putting it in your hand and then trying to wash without something, like that's difficult.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Okay, but not because it's it's gross to use your hand.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Oh no, no, no, no. Once again, bar soap going straight on your skin. Bar soap, if it's my bar soap, I'm not using somebody else's bar soap straight on my skin. That's a different conversation. That is a different conversation. But if it's my bar soap, yes. But then again, kind of like you said, if you're a smelly individual and you need, I don't think you can wash as well just with your hand. But if you are a smelly individual and you need a deeper clean, then you need to use a rag or loofah.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

So this is a gross conversation, but I'm gonna share this with you anyway. When I was in college, um, one of those years, I had three roommates. All right, and so two of these roommates were over 300 pounds, okay. Then some big defensive linemen. And Big Greg, as he was known, uh was was asked in my presence, bro, how you this big and smell so good? That that was the question. And I was like, you know, I ain't never thought about that, but what's the answer? You know what I'm saying? He was like, Oh, bro, you gotta you gotta get up in there. Yeah, you gotta lift up in there, you gotta get up in there. And uh he always did use the Rag. Well, that was a conversation. He he said, I'm not gonna get clean if I don't use a rag.

SPEAKER_02 22:05

And I was like, fair enough, baby. It works.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

So how often, speaking of showering, bathing, how often do you get a new towel? Not near as often as I should.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

I'll be honest with you. I've always thought like, why am I why am I getting a new towel every day? This is dumb, because when I get out of the when I get out of the shower, I'm clean. So I'm wash drying a clean body. So why what would I need a new towel for? This is not too long ago. And again, gross. Uh I grabbed my my towel off the little rack thing, and uh, it was a little stiff. And I was like, maybe I should get a new towel. Because what I wasn't thinking about is that towel is wet. You hang it up to dry, but you know, it ain't perfectly, you know, it ain't like you're hanging on the clothes.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

Brother, it was a month long time.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

It I it might have been longer than a month, to be honest with you. And I was like, this might be a little too far, you know what I'm saying? So now, since my my crunchy towel uh incidents, um now I get one about every every week. So I use one for about a week.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

Okay. I would say week, I probably use one about every week because typically Friday when I'm off, I do laundry and we I typically wash towels. I do, I I try, which is uh coming up. Actually, we're recording this on a Friday. Um, but so you're going home to going home to wash clothes, yes. Uh so I'd say mine's probably once a week. The same thing. I probably take most days, one shower. I take a shower in the morning every day, unless I'm doing something else. So I'm clean, yeah, I dry off, hang it up, and then so that was gonna be my next question.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Are you a night shower guy or morning shower guy?

SPEAKER_00 23:58

Definitely morning. Uh, because if y'all can see my hair, um, I have to fix my hair in the mornings, and my hair is very oily and can get nappy. Uh, so I I haven't figured out how to wake up in the take a shower at night, wake up in the morning and be able to do something with my hair.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

You just gotta wet it.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

No, it don't work.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

Don't it looks like you got funky hair.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

Yeah, I got funky hair. It looks like a wet cat. If I try to raise so I take a shower every morning.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

So at camp, we typically take about three showers, right? Because as as late as it is that we get to the bed, I mean, we're typically rather sweaty, right? So it's very rare that we're like, I'm just gonna go to bed and take one in the morning. So I take one at night, go to bed, and then I don't take a shower when I wake up, right? But you be taking three showers. You get one in the morning, you get one before service, and then you get one before we go to bed. I do.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

I should I do take three showers at camp.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

That is gonna lie, this is also kind of gross, but there's been times where I've been so tired it's three o'clock in the morning. I was like, I'll just get one in the morning. I'm so sweaty and dirty. It's like I should have brought an extra pair of sheets.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

This is gross.

SPEAKER_02 25:10

I'm gonna get back into this nasty bed tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

So speaking of bed, do you make your bed every day? Never, I never make my bed. I never make the bed. Abby will try, which typically she leaves before me. So I just get up and just throw the covers.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

And we we have little dogs, so sometimes like they'll want to get up on a bed. And so if the grass has just been cut, or if in the winter time, you know, the dead grass is just laying there, they're always tracking grass in. We'll like at least cover the sheets up, but it ain't like full made up, you know what I mean, with all 28 pillows.

SPEAKER_00 25:42

And so do you make your kids make their bed up? No, okay. I was gonna say that that wouldn't be.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

I'm a hypocrite in a lot of things, but not that one. I don't I don't know that I don't know if my kids even have ever made up their bed. Well, good for them. Like we'll we'll make it up, like we put new sheets on it's which Macon just has like a little Alabama blanket. He don't have like a comforter or nothing, right? Graham has a comforter, but it's folded up at the end of his bed because he uses a regular blanket too. I don't juju typically sleeps in like a sleeping bag on top of her bed, so nice.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

So we don't move we've I don't think we may have uh in the earlier years. Kobe will get up and make up her bed.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

Really?

SPEAKER_00 26:25

Nobody else does. We never like told them hey, you need to make your bed every morning. We don't make our bed. Abby, like I said, will pull the sheets up and try to make it look like it from time to time, but Colby will. She'll get up and make her bed up. I'm like, that's weird.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

My sister-in-law does that. It's you ain't you ain't going to her house and see her bed not made up. Like, they get up in the morning, she makes her bed, and then she gets ready and all that stuff. Like, that's the first thing that she's got to do in the morning. I ain't never been like that.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

I would say good for them, but all you're gonna do is get back in it at night and you're gonna mess it back up.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

So her her reasoning behind it is for her, there's nothing like getting into a freshly made bed. So I do it every morning so that when I get into the bed, it's like it's freshly made and it feels so much better. I I don't experience that.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

I'm gonna say it's not like food, like a freshly right now. Like I don't, it don't matter if the I mean what I wonder what's like like I was saying, it's not food like a freshly made meal that's hot and all that. A bed, you'd sleep in it every night before then, putting the covers over it, don't freshen it up unless they have some kind of machine and like something that steams the sheets. It wouldn't surprise me, it would not surprise me either. But anyway, uh so one of she does have a towel warmer, and that does seem like it would be pretty nice.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

I call we has one of those.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

I might confiscate it because she's getting ready to go to college, and I don't think you can have something like that at college. Nice, so we may end up with a towel warmer. What a topic that will cause a stir. Uh oh.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

More than a sandwich. Oh, yes. Is cheerleading a sport? No one that I've ever had this conversation with ever likes my answer. And I just don't care.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

It's not a sport, it's not a sport.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Is golf my sister was one of those national champions. You see that?

SPEAKER_00 28:30

Oh, national champions. If you're listening on podcast, he did the little finger thing, the air quotes, air quotes, yeah. National champion. We're getting deep.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

Get personal those three people, three teams. Three that was what I say, three teams. Three teams. It's like if you suck, you come in third.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

So that okay, in that competition, but why is cheerleading not a sport?

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Does it require athleticism? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

To do the flips.

SPEAKER_00 29:06

So cheerleaders are athletes.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

Like no, no, no, there's a difference in being an athlete and being athletic.

SPEAKER_00 29:12

Please do share.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

Uh I don't know how to explain it. Uh why you do this, Daniel. Uh there are people who are athletic, okay, that you know, kick a soccer ball. But athlete, I'm just playing. I'm just playing. No, no, shot fired. No, I'm just joking. But my my with the facial expressions and the you know, the hand motions and all that stuff, like are you telling me that's that's a sport? We're doing we're like, this is a sport, nah, bro.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

So why is it not a sport? I just explained because they do hand motions, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

Because all that uh unnecessary stuff.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

Have you been to a college baseball game? No, they yell and row a boat on and like see that's what's wrong with the world. Yeah, they they do some clapping and baseball, bro. Some chanting and stuff and all that.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Baseball players in college are no longer athletes and no longer so is golf a sport.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

Mind you, your sister who takes your side because she sends in emails, has been a fairly good golfer in her life and now coaches golf. Is golf a sport?

SPEAKER_01 30:33

It's very different than true leading. Oh, please do tell. You know how like you know how difficult golf is. Yeah, golf's a sport. Why? Why not? Now, now I have said hot dogs are hot dogs. I have said from the beginning, what would make the sport of golf so much? All right, let me let me say this competitive golf is a sport. If you're going out there on at Lakewood and you just going to play for fun, nah, bro, that ain't no sport.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

Your sister was a national champion. Competitive cheerleading is not a sport, but competitive golf is a sport.

SPEAKER_01 31:10

Yeah, Haley won three SEC championships at Auburn.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

Is horse riding a sport?

SPEAKER_01 31:17

I mean, if you just ride in the backyard, no, you can win an SEC championship and yeah, Auburn does that a lot too.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

Nobody talks about it, but they do.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

See, you're getting into things, you're asking me to why. Like, just let me give my opinion and it'd be over. Like, I don't know why. You just look at it and you can tell. Clearly, it ain't a sport.

SPEAKER_00 31:37

Is running track a sport? Like just sprinting. Just that's that's the only thing you do. Is you uh that's a sport. Yeah, because you can run.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

What do you think, Daniel? What you got? Oh, is it a sport? Is track a sport? Just running in a straight line.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

I'm just wondering the mechanics and all that that is that goes into it that makes you a good, like a good sprinter, whether it's long distance or short distance. Yeah, man, that's a sport.

SPEAKER_02 32:09

Okay. See, the more I no, no, no. Answer yes or no. No, we ain't getting into it. Nah, yes or no is cheerleading a sport.

SPEAKER_01 32:21

No, all right, thank you. It's not all right. Now you tell me why. Stupid.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

It ain't that easy, is it? Well, I'm trying to not offend every cheerleader out there because they're gonna say, well, you can't do it, but uh I don't think doing a flip is necessarily an athletic ability.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

Okay, let me ask you this. Now that we're getting on to this, now I'm flipping the scripts on you. Is gymnastics a sport? They be doing some serious flips. See, I would almost say no. See, and I so I'm I'm like I feel the way the trend is going. If they call it a competition, it's hard to say this is a sport. You know what I mean? I agree. I know like it's are you competing? Sure. Is it is it worthwhile? Like, is it worth you doing? Yeah, I mean, do it if that's what makes you happy and you enjoy that and that's the thing that you like, yeah, go for it. Right. Yeah, so like so. What are the sports? Baseball, football, the main ones is people's gonna be the edge. Uh let's see what he says about this one. Wrestling?

SPEAKER_00 33:30

No, wrestling's not a sport, it is the ultimate sport. Wrestling versus you roll around on the ground with and like rapple. That's not a sport versus you. Anybody now to the level you can't blame nobody else.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

To the level, you can't say that the defensive tackle missed his assignment, so therefore I was in the wrong.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

So chess, chess is a sport. It's me physical, baby.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Physical, you can't blame it on anybody else.

SPEAKER_00 33:59

Physical chess is a sport.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

That's mental, brother. That ain't a mind sport, like curling.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

It's curling a sport. Nah, why?

SPEAKER_02 34:08

Because they're sweeping the damn ice.

SPEAKER_00 34:11

Like we're calling that a sport. So you it it's it's difficult because there's different and category different things. Like, if anybody can do it, I have a hard time saying that. And the people are gonna say, well, you can't do a flip. If I and somebody's gonna call me on it, if I wanted to learn how to do a backflip, I feel like I could go to someone and they teach me how to do a backflip.

SPEAKER_01 34:39

Yeah, I they would say step number one is brother, you should probably lose some weight. We back on that again. No, I'm talking about me. I'm talking about me. I'm talking about me, not you, me. I'm talking about me. They say lose some weight, but brother, I got some some powerful legs. I bet I could do a backflip. They can teach me how to the mechanics of of doing this. I can do it. I don't think actually when I was younger, I could.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

Yeah, I don't think you could teach anyone how to hit a 94 mile an hour fastball.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

No, see, that's not even the thing for me. It's anybody can hit a baseball off a T. Right. I say that, but there's struggle with it. But not just the 94 mile an hour fastball, but knowing whether it's a strike or not, or when that slider looks like it's coming in as a fastball and then it breaks off the table. Like, yeah, that there's there is some some serious skill that goes into those those kinds of sports.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

Okay, so let me ask you this along with the sports thing. Is everyone that plays a sport an athlete? Nah, I don't think so either.

SPEAKER_01 35:46

Nah, bro. So what makes some what would you say makes somebody see the first thing that came in my mind was I said golf was a sport, and I love this dude. I don't know him, know him. Like, this is but not uh John Daly ain't no athlete, you know what I'm saying? Like he ain't no athlete, he's a good golfer, you know. But it certainly wouldn't put him in a category of of athlete. Now forget what you think about this guy, but back in the day and the things that he would do and show in his training, you you could call Tiger Woods an athlete from from what he was what he was doing in his training. But both of them together, I would say, nah, you ain't gotta be athletic to be a golfer, you know what I'm saying? You can play the golf ball. So, what was the question I done got off on this tangent? I forgot what we was talking about.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

So, what makes someone an athlete?

SPEAKER_01 36:38

Lateral movement, not just running in a straight line. I know I said track was a sport, but how how controlled the control you have of your body? That's all. I mean, like that it's more that goes into it, but like I've always said that one of the surest signs of me to me is I can I can judge whether you're an athlete or not by how you shoot a basketball. Whether whether you got a funky shot or not, but if you have control of your movements and you can do the same thing four or five times in a row, athlete. If you can move laterally, if you're in control of your body, yeah, because the control of your body is a lot of times what says you're you're an athlete.

SPEAKER_00 37:17

Interesting. So I would say I've always thought in my wonderful brain to be an athlete, you need to be able to do multiple things well. So what I just said would fit with that. Like you can't like you said, a golfer, like a golfer who can hit a golf ball. Well, can you shoot a basketball? Can you catch a football? Can you throw a ball? Like if you can do multiple sports well, then I think you are an athlete. If you just do like one thing and you can't kick a soccer ball, but you can throw a baseball and you look like a doof trying to kick a ball, like I don't think you're at you're good at what that one thing you do, but I don't think that transfers to you're an athlete.

SPEAKER_01 38:03

So when I was in high school, um we were at one of our coaches' houses in the summer, the defense gets together, and we're swimming, and pool baseball breaks out. And a lot of those guys who are in incredibly athletic can do the backflips just standing there, can dunk, can shoot, can make tackles, can move laterally, like I'm talking about, very much in control of their body, can't hit a baseball and can't throw a baseball for nothing. So you would say those guys aren't athletes?

SPEAKER_00 38:38

No, I don't I I think if I mean if you're a 300-based, well, I just said they're basket good at basketball and good at football, is right.

SPEAKER_01 38:44

Maybe not this one sport.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

It may not be able to hit a golf ball, but yeah, like if you can do, I mean, you know, not everything. Yeah, not everything, but if you can do multiple things well athletically, then you're athlete. If you just do if you just do one thing that you can do and you can't do anything else athletic, then I don't think you're an athlete. I think you're just good at at what you do.

SPEAKER_01 39:10

We're wrong. An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving strength, uh physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. So don't say you're good at it, it just says you do it. Compete competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. No, no, that's that's what Wikipedia says.

SPEAKER_00 39:33

No, you can't just because you compete, that's what you went to Wikipedia. That was the first one.

SPEAKER_01 39:41

You went to Merriam Webster. Merriam Webster says a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports or games requiring physical strength, agility, and stamina. So stamina. Did I say that right? Yeah, stamina.

SPEAKER_00 39:59

I can't believe you went to Wikipedia first.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

It was just the first one I saw. Or it's an animal such as a horse or dog that competes in races or other sporting events. What's number two, brother? It says it right here. I know you can't see that, but wow, an animal.

SPEAKER_00 40:16

Oh an animal is an athlete. Can be if they race. Dang. Uh no. I don't want to see him shoot a ball. Airbud did. I want to see him shoot a ball and throw a ball. Airbud did. Airbud did. All right. So there you go. There's some just some questions, some things like like we said, if you disagree with those, it's perfectly fine for you to be wrong.

SPEAKER_01 40:43

One of my sisters definitely disagreed with me on this, and the other one uh agrees with me on this as well.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

On the sport thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

Uh Haley would agree that golf is a sport, and Carly Ray would disagree that truly is not a sport.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

Well, if you have an opinion, a strong opinion, or just an opinion you would like to share to be heard, you can email us mergeministries12 at gmail.com. If you have things you would like to hear our our thoughts on, the church thing is a big one. Yes, we kind of joked about it a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

If you have kids and you're not serving in kids ministry, go ask your children's pastor how can I serve?

SPEAKER_00 41:23

That's right. Be involved. Like, and I'm I'm preaching in I think two weeks, it is May 3rd. And that's kind of the part of Romans 12, like using your gifts. Like, you are needed, the church needs you. And if anybody sees the importance of pouring into the next generation, like it's the adults who love Jesus realize the benefit of learning that at an early age. So get out of the sanctuary, quit making it all about yourself, go serve the kids. Once a month is the way I did it, is all we asked. Once a month, it's not too much to ask. But then that also is the thing. If you can't miss, maybe you're not there, maybe you're not there spiritually, and there's things going on, that's okay. But as a healthy Christian, if you can't miss one Sunday morning service to go serve in the children's ministry, there's something wrong with that.

SPEAKER_01 42:17

I agree. And I know that's not we're trying to wrap it up, and I'm bringing more to this, but if your relationship with Jesus hinges on being in service on Sunday morning, I'm not gonna look at you, I'm gonna look at the camera. If your relationship with Jesus hinges on you being in service on Sunday morning and hearing the pastor preach, then you you're missing the boat. Like your relationship with Jesus uh should be should hinge on your intimacy with Jesus throughout the week. It should be us studying God's word on our own. And then as we come into Sunday morning and we hear the pastor uh preach and we receive the word that God has for us that day, this should be supplemental, right? It shouldn't be our substance or our sustenance, right? Sorry, I didn't mean to get preachy there, but that's how it should work.

SPEAKER_00 43:07

That's how it should work, and if how healthy the church would be if that were the case across the board. So, anyway, well, that's our takeaway for the day. Like I said, mergeministry12gmail.com. Let us know what you think. Also, webpage merged ministries.com. We'll give you some uh information about who we are.

SPEAKER_01 43:28

I don't think I told you this, uh, but I got a text message yesterday. Um, one of the young ladies that serves with us uh on staff and goes to my church, she texts me and said, I've been listening to the podcast, and I need to know what the theme is for camp this year and what the theme verse is because I want to design a shirt that I would want to wear all year, like what we asked, praise. So I sent her the stuff and she was like, Thank you. I was like, No, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

But also, we have had some haters, and we are trying to wrap up who don't like our intro music to the podcast. No doubt. Well, if you ain't figured it out yet, we're not musical.

SPEAKER_02 44:10

We are not musical.

SPEAKER_00 44:12

So if you want to create an intro, a jingle, or something, feel free. We would love to have some help with this.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

Because the stock stuff we got going on right now apparently is not it.

SPEAKER_00 44:24

I mean, the first video, this is the first video we have done. If you look at the video, it's like, what are the flowers and the pictures in the back? We're working on it. We're working on it, man. We're getting there, but this is all a process.

SPEAKER_01 44:35

Shout out to the Way Church for letting us use their uh this old Sunday school room as a podcast studio for us and for my dad. That is true.

SPEAKER_00 44:43

So thank you, The Way, for that. Um, but the way the podcast started was we went, hey, we're gonna do this, and we were sitting in my office, not knowing if it was gonna work or not. So now we're progressing. So if you can help, you have expertise. As we said before, these bird dog cameras. I don't really we're we're working on it.

SPEAKER_01 45:00

We're figuring it out. We're figuring it out. We haven't dropped out any.

SPEAKER_00 45:02

We have not. We'll see if it works here in a little bit. But anyway, we gotta end this. This is a very long podcast.

SPEAKER_01 45:08

So we've been we're like one of the pastors just keep saying, I'm gonna close.

SPEAKER_00 45:13

I'm gonna close with this. Well, you have a great week. We will be back next week. So see you bye. See you bye.