Knocking on Doors With Burgers and Prayer

Brandon Andres Green, host of Good Neighbor Podcast Tulsa, sits down with Levi Bradley of Shoulder2Shoulder Ministry to talk about street worship, neighborhood outreach, and bringing the love of Jesus into everyday life.

Levi shares how Shoulder2Shoulder Ministry grew from a heart for worship into a hands-on outreach serving people across Sapulpa, Tulsa, and surrounding communities. From grocery bags and clothing closets to street worship, apartment outreaches, park gatherings, and business blessings, the mission is simple: meet people where life is actually happening.

This conversation gets into the creative side of ministry too. Levi talks about grill walks, where they take food door to door, hand out hamburgers, pray with people, and turn ordinary neighborhoods into places of connection. It is part cookout, part outreach, part reminder that loving your neighbor does not have to be complicated.

You’ll also hear Levi challenge one of the biggest fears people have about outreach: “I’m not bold enough.” His answer is clear and practical. You do not have to be a professional preacher to care for people, pray for someone, or take one small step toward your neighbor.

If you care about local ministry, outreach, evangelism, worship, or practical ways to serve your community, this episode gives you a model that is direct, human, and full of heart.

Sometimes ministry starts with a grill, a grocery bag, and someone willing to knock.

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Intro

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Brandon Andris Green.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast Live. Are you looking for a ministry that meets people right where life is happening? One may be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Levi Bradley with shoulder to shoulder ministries. Levi, how's it going?

SPEAKER_02 0:31

It's going good. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Oh man, it's my delight. We're excited to learn all about you, shoulder to shoulder ministries, and the mission to bring the love of Jesus into everyday life. Can you tell us a little bit about shoulder-to-shoulder ministries and kind of some of the ways that you serve people through food, groceries, clothing, worship, and any other creative outreach?

Why Shoulder To Shoulder

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Absolutely. So the name itself came out of Zephaniah 3:9, and he says, And I will purify their lips and they will worship me shoulder to shoulder. Some saying accord. But this was meant, we know that the word says that um out of the heart the mouth speaks. It was that we would come to the Lord with that pure, authentic worship, and being met by his love would be the catalyst that compels us to go out and love others. And so, in that vein, in that purity of the holiness of the Lord, is where we always want to stay. We don't want to get off and veer. So in the name itself, it holds this um this purity for the Lord and the gospel above everything else. But in that, you can't help but sit with the Lord and have his heart imparted to you where you love God and begin to love others. And as a person that hated people in my past, um, God has just completely given me that new heart that is broken for the people of any walk of life, rich or poor. And so we just began to go out to the streets to encounter them right where they were, wherever that would be in everyday life. Um, and we do that through several creative ways, but a lot of those ways always are under the umbrella of worship. We love to come out with hearts of pure worship when we can, when the when the outreach allows for it, and shifting the atmosphere first, um, pushing back darkness and allowing those who come into that space to be able to um for a moment have clarity, a clear mind, to be able to receive the word and the seed of the gospel. And so that is kind of the heartbeat of how we do all the things that we do.

Street Worship And Practical Outreach

SPEAKER_02 2:48

And so um several of the ways that we do that is through street worship. We set up, we have a bus, we uh fade it up with Jesus and sound system. We'll go out and just worship in the streets, the street corner, parking lot, parks. Um, and we love to just saturate the city in the presence of God, pray for the city. Um, but in that came this, we started to close closets as we saw a need. We have uh we partner with other ministries in town and we give out groceries. Um, and we also have a massive grill that we will cook hamburgers, hot dogs, so it can turn into a whole block party. We do that in apartment complexes, we'll go in um with the live worship and the groceries, the the food, the clothes, and just invite the whole community there into the center um where we will love on them, but we will give the gospel of Jesus that they would encounter his love above all else. And so whether it's that, whether it's door to door, we do a thing called grill walks. We take the grill, we go mobile, and we just knock on doors and we give out hamburgers like the ice cream truck coming through the neighborhood. But we're able to pray with folks um and ministers to them right there at their doorstep. We do business blessings, we go into businesses, we'll come in and uh sing the blessing over them, pray with them in the marketplace there, and just try to bring Jesus in every capacity

Weekly Rhythm And Church Partnerships

SPEAKER_02 4:20

in every walk of life. So, yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

And how often are you doing this?

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Um, our schedule is very spontaneous, uh, in the sense of it's not like um we do have a couple things that are set, like Tuesday afternoons. We're hitting uh different apartments where we go in, we do a real quick pull up, open the box truck, play some music. People line up, we give out grocery bags, we pray and share the gospel for everybody that comes through. That is routine every Tuesday through the summer. Um, we have a Thursday night right now in the summer that we're doing a park outreach in Sepulpa. Um, but the other events are more scheduled out and planned. We like to partner with local churches um to help get them out there and engage them with the community. Um, we like having a place to be able to send people um where they can be discipled. So we love that partnership with the local church. Um, so we probably go out um three or four times a week doing these things, but they're all just kind of scheduled in um sporadically with as we have partnerships with churches and we schedule

Sepulpa Tulsa And Neighborhood Strategy

SPEAKER_02 5:32

them.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

And where are you guys mostly visiting?

SPEAKER_02 5:36

Um, so we are hubbed out of Sepulpa, Oklahoma. Um, and so we do a lot in Sepulpa, but we do a lot in Tulsa, surrounding cities. We hit a lot of um just because of the need, we do go into some of the lower-income housing um places around Tulsa. We'll hit those. Uh, but we like I said, we love to hit the everyday neighborhood as well and knock on doors and just do a grill walk um through there where they don't necessarily have a need for food. Um, you know, they're not needing their pantry filled, but they have a spiritual need, and through the gift of a hamburger, we're able to meet that. So we do those all over Tulsa, um, whether it's a middle-class neighborhood or whether that's you know the lower um lower neighborhoods that we see a lot of vulnerable um things happening in. So the richer neighborhoods, it's a little harder to get into. They're gated communities, or we would be in there blasting those neighborhoods as well. But yeah.

Outreach Fears And Activation

SPEAKER_01 6:44

So, what's a common misconception people kind of have about outreach or even about what it means to meet people outside the four walls of the church?

SPEAKER_02 6:56

I I think a lot of people think I'm not that bold, I'm not that courageous. That's for people like you, I'm not an evangelist, and I'm I'm here with all the conviction and love and tenderness in my heart to say you're looking at a guy that could not talk to anyone he didn't know. I didn't like talking to the people I did know, and the Lord did a work in my heart, and so if you have Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit living inside of you, you have everything you need to talk to your neighbor, to talk to your coworker, classmate, family, friend, whatever it may be. We just choose to stay comfortable. We think that we won't have the words, and Jesus has already given the command to go and love people, and you will see the word come to life. I call it activation. A lot of people have been hearing the word for all their life, but they've never really went and done it and made it alive and active in their life, and something changes, something ignites in you when you begin to truly live the word of God.

A Burden For The Lost

SPEAKER_01 8:06

So, would you say uh you're mostly called to the lost or even the church, or are you just trying to meet uh the broader community at large?

SPEAKER_02 8:18

Um, I would say that the it's my if I had a spearhead point refinement to what the Lord has asked of me, um, I spent I spent a lot of nights weeping and praying for the lost. And it was just through a radical revelation that he had given me. I was preaching in the church and I loved the people. I was so you know, there was a compassion for the people, but just the revelation that what about all the people that will never step into the doorway of a church building, Lord? What do we do about them? And so just a burden to begin to pray. And and then one day I'm like, Lord, what are you gonna do about these people? And you know, you kind of feel like Elijah, like I'm the only one, and uh, and I know that's not true, but he said, We're go get them, go to the people, and so it is absolutely uh go after the law, but in that these other days and play um that um are just kind of part of ministry, and so whether that be leadership, you know, for whether that be an apostolic side, whether that be, you know, uh, you know, pantries and closed closets and stuff, these are all things that have made needs, but it's all to the means that the lost would be saved.

Trust Built Through Fatherly Love

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Do you find it hard to instantly build trust with uh these people, whether rich or poor, when you're just meeting them right in the middle of everyday life?

SPEAKER_02 9:58

Um, I don't think so. I I know how weak our flesh is, how frail my own flesh is, and I can't make very wise decisions apart from the Holy Spirit, and so I'm not looking at people um in any kind of lens other than the love of the Father, and so you know whether we feel like they've used us for things or whatever it may be in partnerships, people we meet as we're going out. Um I see a soul, I see a soul that Jesus hung on that cross for, and I'm not gonna hold their mistakes or you know their shortcomings against them because the father's not holding mine against me. I just want them to feel that overwhelming love that that sets the captives free. And so we know we go out with I feel a pure lens of love for the

Recording Stories And Remembering Your Why

SPEAKER_02 10:56

people.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Well, you have an amazing heart, uh, and a really strong, burning message. Have you ever thought about doing your own podcast?

SPEAKER_02 11:07

I have, I have thought about it. Um, a lot of people over the years have told me the stories need to be recorded because there's just story after testimony after testimony, and uh, you know, I pushed all that off for a lot of years, and then I'd say in recent years, I feel like I'm kind of like I'm not giving God the all the glory um because a lot of these stories aren't heard and and remembered, and so it's been a thought. It's been a thought.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Yeah, I think you do a great job. Olivia, what's one thing you want our listeners to remember about the love of Christ and the work of shoulder-to-shoulder ministries?

SPEAKER_02 11:51

I want people to remember why, I want them to remember their why. Um, why do they get up in the morning? Why do they go to work? You know, why are we because it will set us free from so many things? Because you'll realize your why in some things is not very important, and you'll start to lay those things down. But when it comes to ministry and loving people and being a good neighbor and showing the love of Christ, it's like, why do we do these things? and we begin to remember once again who Christ is, who our heavenly father is, and who he says we are in him, and it just stirs that faith back up. So I would say that they would remember their why.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Good word.

Ways To Plug In

SPEAKER_01 12:36

So, brother, how can listeners learn more, get involved, or do you generally support shoulder to shoulder ministries?

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Yeah, um, our website is a really good starting point. It's shoulder to shoulder ministries.org um with the number two in there, and there's a way to contact us. Um, we we like to uh obviously partner up with churches or just groups or single people. We want to um help equip them in how to go share their faith and how to go share the love of God. So we offer a lot of evangelism training, if you will. Um, but there's a lot of ways they can plug in. Um, you know, we love the financial givers, um, so they can do that through the website, all that's on there. Um, also, you know, social media, Facebook, um, Instagram, they can follow us there. Um, we they can always reach out. We love to have more volunteers at events that we're doing. They can come be a part and join in. Um, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

Excellent. Well, Eva, I really appreciate you being on the show, and we wish you and shoulder-to-shoulder ministries the best moving forward.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

Thank you so much for having me.

Closing And Nomination CTA

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gmptolsta.com. That's gmptosta.com or call 918. 32015.