Sacred Sitdowns
Sharing one’s personal story is sometimes hard, but it is holy. Sacred Sitdowns seeks to allow a safe space for faith-filled conversations with members and friends of Geist Christian Church. Hosts Kyle Brown and Danny Gulden hope that all those who hear will be enlightened and inspired. Listen with us. You’ll be glad you did.
Sacred Sitdowns
Rev. Deb Strock-Kuss and Rev. Randy Kuss
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Today we sit down with Deb Strock-Kuss and Randy Kuss as they conclude their work at Geist Christian Church and enter retirement. Both have served the Church faithfully and in a variety of roles throughout their call. We wanted to see what wisdom they have found along the way and how the Church has adapted and changed during their time as ministers. It’s also a chance for Danny and me to thank them for their partnership in ministry at Geist Christian Church.
Let us tell you a story.
SPEAKER_02A story that will transform, enlighten, challenge, and change how we see the world. My name is Kyle Brown.
SPEAKER_03And I'm Danny Goulden. And we'd like to welcome you to Sacred Sit Downs.
SPEAKER_02A conversational podcast that explores how the Spirit of God moves within this world through the power of story.
SPEAKER_03In today's episode, we will sit down with a member or friend of Guy's Christian Church as they share their dynamic, faith-filled story.
SPEAKER_02We hope you will be enlightened and inspired by the word shared today. This is Sacred Sit Downs. Well, hello, everyone. Happy Monday. Welcome to Sacred Sit Downs. Hello, Kyle. How are you doing?
SPEAKER_03Danny, I'm doing great. How are you?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm doing wonderful. I'm doing wonderful. Today we have a Sacred Sit Downs first. We have not one but two guests that are members or friends of Geist Christian Church. In fact, recently retired. Uh Deb Strottkus and Randy Cuss are our guests today. Deb and Randy, welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Good to be here. Good to have you here. We had to find a way to get you back right after you retired. So this is what we decided.
SPEAKER_01It was a dirty trick.
SPEAKER_02It was a dirty trick.
SPEAKER_03Hey, we're glad to have you. Thanks for being here.
SPEAKER_02Deb has just wound a long career in ministry by serving as our associate pastor at Geist Christian Church, serving out of the Promise Road campus. And Randy Koss is retiring for about the fourth time, at least from this job. Yeah. He um he came on initially as the interim uh campus pastor at Promise Road. Uh we determined what, about four years ago? Yeah. And just stayed and did a variety of things and got us up and going on media and ran our media. So um Welcome. It is so good to have both of you here. And um I thought we would start today, Kyle, if this is okay with you. I think it's great, wherever you're going. Let's do it. Just having recently retired from min from professional ordained ministry, um, I want to invite you a little bit, both of you, to reflect on uh your call to ministry, and whoever wants to answer first can. Um but what how did you kind of come to understand and discern your call to ministry as a life vocation?
SPEAKER_00Go, Randy.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I guess it's me. Deb is called on Randy.
SPEAKER_03I like how Randy pointed, and Deb said, Why don't you go, Randy? Which means now you have to go because nobody can see or hear the point that you gave. That was really good, Deb.
SPEAKER_01That was great. I was going nonverbal, she was going verbal. Absolutely. She's called Japan. She's got this radio thing going. But okay. So um well, I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, uh, fourth or fifth generation disciple. My grandfather was my pastor growing up, uh uh T.O. Slaughter uh in Memphis and uh at the Decatur Street Christian Church, which is later Decatur Trinity, but now it's closed. But um I so you know I grew up with a whole lot of of oh, wouldn't it be great if one of the grandkids, you know, would follow? And and so it was kind of like uh no, heck no way, forget that, you know, not doing that. Um but and I started on the engineering track when I went to uh uh started college that started at Memphis State uh University, now the University of Memphis. And um but part way through there, um a lot of that it just wasn't uh doing okay, I guess, but in school, but uh it wasn't really connected with me, exciting me. Uh and I wound up going to help at the summer camp at Bethany Hills, our our disciples camp in Tennessee, uh just west of Nashville, Tennessee, um, to do their their prep for the summer, cleaning up the grounds and all that preparation stuff. And while I was there, um I had also just lost a job by summer job, started the job, then didn't have a job. And um the camp director, I believe, at my mother's conniving um uh uh kind of kind of working things around, Vern asked me if I might like to stay for the week and help around at the camp since I didn't have anything else to do. Like, oh sure, love camp, grew up going to camp there all the time. So that'd be great.
SPEAKER_02You know, you conveniently knew you'd be free for the week. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yep. And so mothers. Yeah, I know. Went back home, packed for a week, came back up to camp. And while I was there, um something did connect. Something really did connect. Um and um later on through the week there was just something really there that felt like this this something going on. And I um uh one of the counselors there, Nelson Irving, who at the time was uh associate minister at Lindenwood Christian Church in Memphis, um, and uh well beloved by all the kids. Uh and um I I I grabbed Nelson's attention at one point. Um and um Nelson was kind of an amazing sort of a person, one of those people that that when they're when they're talking with you, they are totally talking with you. I mean, they are there with you, the rest of the world doesn't exist. We're just just us right now.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01And so I had a chat with Nelson about some of the things I was feeling, and I couldn't articulate now exactly what those were, but but about that, and he suggested to me, uh helped me get on the path of deciding to uh, you know, kind of take the next year to get more involved in church things, um, and kind of see see where that went. Um and that was not a definitive flash of light, but but a start on a start on the path. Uh that I would say that was the moment of my call was just the starting on the path to see. And so far I'm still, you know, trying to see if this ministry thing's gonna work out. Maybe it will, maybe it won't.
SPEAKER_03But well, I mean, you you have retired like four or five times. So we're we're hoping it at a certain point. I and I've got a question for Deb later. Where you have failed at retirement, my hope and prayer is that Deb succeeds, that that she retires and enjoys that uh time to do something, and we'll talk a little bit about what that something is.
SPEAKER_01The cultural assumption is you retire and now you don't work. And I think no, retirement now means that, at least if it's financially impossible, retirement means that now you can decide to work at the things you'd like to, and everything else you can say, mm-hmm, nah, not gonna do that.
SPEAKER_03I I think that's a good point. Yeah. That's a fair point. If I want to work, I work. I don't want to, I don't have to. So it means you've enjoyed working here. It's been more of a labor of love, right? Is that what you're saying? All right. So, Deb, what about you? What what is your um what is your story of call?
SPEAKER_00I I want to first say that that was a really awesome telling of a story, Randy. I'm not sure I have ever heard that story.
SPEAKER_02Wow. You heard it you heard it here first. You heard it here first on Sacred Sit Downs.
SPEAKER_00Reflecting that on that truth.
SPEAKER_01Got it.
SPEAKER_00Um my I'm my call was much more circuitous. In fact, I'm still wondering what I want to do when I grow up and how I'm going to embrace um the sacred inside me. But um I can safely say that I have worked in a church um for more than forty years, one way or another, and um went to seminary straight out of uh college. My father too was um a Presbyterian minister, but I grew up in the church. I grew up a PK, preacher's kid, and um um he retired uh from a big steeple gothic edifice and uh a very tall pulpit where you walked up lots of steps and all of that. And um that was somewhat intimidating to me. But I did In Memphis, right? In Memphis, at Otawild Presbyterian Church.
SPEAKER_03It is a beau I I have been there. It is a beautiful church. It is it is but you are right, big steeple, a lot of steps.
SPEAKER_00Uh I mean it's it's and he there's a room named for my dad in that building. Um uh he was beloved and we went on to do a whole bunch of interims, talk about retiring a thousand times. That certainly dad did that. But um I went to Louisville Presbyterian Seminary and was on uh track for ordination, for getting a master of divinity, and backed out. And um in the end, the story finishes with a master of religious a master of arts and religious education from the Eilef School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. And I worked as a Christian educator for a whole lot of years. Randy and I met in Colorado, um, coincidentally with family in Memphis, very coincidentally. But um to move on with that story, then I was in uh in Christian education for a lot of years, worked as a director of Christian education in the Presbyterian Church, and then um married into the disciples' church, that's as I say, because Randy was disciple.
SPEAKER_02Did you guys ever have to have a conversation about are we gonna be Presbyterian or disciple?
SPEAKER_00Um there was not a really long conversation about that, Danny. It was pretty clear which way we were going with that.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Or either we or I'm gonna do this and you're gonna do that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's right. Which we know because I was gonna do this, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and because Randy's gonna do this. And um anyway, um uh I was um worked part-time for a long time and Christian education work, and finally when our kids were old enough to um that we felt were old enough that I felt comfortable doing so, I went into full-time ministry. And along the way there, we've um had some bumps in the road and it uh with the church at large. And um in one of those bumps, I said, you know, this really it pushed me, pushed me over the edge into thinking about ordination. And um so I was well into my ministry. I was well into my ministry when I was uh ordained. And so my call has shifted um through the years, my um focus has shifted through the years. Um and um but I have to say that each step of the way, hard or not hard, fun or not fun, um has been a piece of the faith journey that has been valuable.
SPEAKER_02So what um so Randy, both of what's unique, I think, about both of your ministries is you all have spent both have spent a very good amount of time in Christian education. Um and so Randy's obviously been uh Randy's been very involved in the youth ministry of the life of the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ. Uh Randy, so in your time, what what have you seen changed with that ministry? I mean, I think now as we talk about people's time engaged with the church community in general has gone down. People are more stressed for time, and it really seems like a lot of the Christian ed pieces have gotten or the ones that have gotten pushed out of the calendar, right? We push worship and we push whatever. But um so what have what have what have been some of the changes you both have seen? Um I'll ask Randy first in your career in terms of Christian education and the life of the church.
SPEAKER_01Well, uh obviously simply the the to start with, it's just the the assumption that people might e even go to church, period. I mean in in the much less Sunday school. Right, right. Much less Sunday school and educational kind of uh activities, um and and programs and ministries. But um but yeah, that that would be the biggest uh uh thing, I think, is just simply uh we were grew up in uh in our in our childhood and teen years of that uh it was fairly an assumption that you were um most of us were part of a church of some fashion. Uh and um uh but that's that's simply a change, that's been one of the huge changes uh and obvious ones. I think along with that, uh especially uh especially in the last decade, I believe, uh it's it's gotten increasingly difficult to um uh to get volunteers in programs. People simply are not uh no longer willing to give long long-term commitment anyway to be part of the leadership of of a ministry. And so um one has to look for uh well well several things. Either either work on um uh short periods of of commitment, shorter periods of commitment, I mean clear about those with people um so that they know what they're getting into, um, and also be very discerning of of those few that are the the deeper dive kind of people in terms of what they want to do and what they want to commit to. Um that's been a big big piece of it. Um the needs, the basic needs of kids, they're the same. I mean uh that that's the same. That's the same. Some of the challenges around it uh I think are different, particularly again uh challenges uh with time. Um Right.
SPEAKER_00That that's what I was gonna say. It has to do with uh the the kids are the are the same, but they are um they are busier and the commitment level of families, of parental people that get them to and from and uh is different as well.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um and um so so uh kids are in um not only is it hard to get the the adult volunteers, but you also don't have the kids sitting in the in in the in the chairs or come into youth group or whatever, it's just harder to because of their time commitments and that is a family time commitment. Right. That's just different. And so how do you talk church? How do you teach church? How do you teach teach the faith? How do you teach the faith when life is that busy? And um and and commitments are elsewhere. And I think that's everywhere. I don't think that's just a church problem. I think that's a just a general issue in terms of the the amount of stuff that is happening.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, right.
SPEAKER_00And the choices and and you think about going to church camp in the summer, well, church camp has to vie for attention with a n at least here in the Midwest, in in central Indiana, um it's a it's a little bit shorter summer, and you're vying for with all your um sports camps and um um sports camp, band camp, family vacation, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Mission trips, which are equally important.
SPEAKER_01But still, that's another exact work a mission trip in or not. And yeah.
SPEAKER_00And and so it there's a there's just an awful lot that competes.
SPEAKER_03So one of the things that I noticed in in your your call story is um family being in the ministry. Um to me was there pressure? Um I mean, I I as as you talked, I heard a little in in the the verbiage used, but I'm like how how was that and how did you overcome that? How how did you address that? Because I I would assume that may have not been easy to to follow in the footsteps of uh a grandparent or a parent. I mean what how how did how did that play out in your ministry for for eat for both or either of you?
SPEAKER_01Um good question. And I think I think people were in my case were were delighted that I was, you know, when I just uh chose to go into the ministry, especially in my most immediate family, my my mother, um I think especially was, uh, and she was very involved in church. Um and um yeah, that that meant uh meant a whole lot to her. Um my grandfather, um he uh had a heart attack and died uh actually the summer the summer I was transferring uh from Memphis State to uh at the Phillips University to kind of say, okay, yeah, I'm gonna go pursue this ministry thing and um uh and see where this goes. But and one of my great regrets is that I never had a chance to talk to my grandfather, the pastor, about ministry. Um but uh I never felt pressure from him. Um I remember more just a lot of support, a lot of good times uh sitting in the boat fishing and things that times like that. But um I don't know how much pressure I felt. It may well have been there though from from uh my mother. Um but certainly she also was very pleased and extending uh supportive always. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, and you you walked one path with the same mother that your brothers walked a different path. Right, right. Yeah and so there is there is that that every everybody in a family is different.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And in my family there was not any pressure ever for even to go to church as children. There was not pressure with that. If I think all the I am one of four children, and I think all of us were given the opportunity to stay home on Sunday morning if we wanted to, but you couldn't do anything. You couldn't watch TV, you couldn't read a book, you couldn't go outside. And so all of us did that, you know, from two one, maybe two weeks, and then you know it's a whole lot more fun to go and be bored at church than it is to sit at home.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02That's a great strategy to get your kids to church. I like that a lot.
SPEAKER_00I mean, you know, with there we didn't we didn't have again, didn't have as much to distract us, but um but and might as well be bored in a different place. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And I uh I unlike Randy, I was um I I was still am intimidated by by by my father's ministry. Um and some of that I think is a gender-related thing. Maybe um and of course um uh let's just leave it there. I think it's probably mostly a gender-related thing and the fact that that the the whole idea that um I could never be as good as. The fact that I might be different from, right, is uh um I've I've it took a long time to figure that one out.
SPEAKER_03So uh we talked to Carolyn a couple of weeks ago and and she was talking about her call story and um or really kind of figuring things out and looking up and not seeing someone like her in a a position of leadership. Um who was that first person for you, or did you was that difficult for you to be in a church and and to maybe feel this call even though it was That's a great question.
SPEAKER_00Um my father at Idawile Presbyterian Church was the first uh uh senior minister to lead the call to for a woman associate. Um gosh, in the uh in the mid-south. Uh what year was this? Oh, good question there too. 1970 I'm gonna make this up 76 or so. And Louise was uh was graduating from Princeton Seminary and um she was the best fit for the for the job. And dad made I remember I remember his being so excited about that. And so she was my first role model um for such a thing.
SPEAKER_02That's awesome. Yeah, it is awesome.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, it was it was awesome.
SPEAKER_02So do you so what is uh what is the one thing you would say um to to parents, to kids, to teens? You know, we talked about everything else you can do um instead of church, and in your opinions, what is the one thing the church can offer them that no other activity or organization can offer them?
SPEAKER_00I know my answer to that. I don't I don't know about whether someone else can offer it or not. But if you have good people um in leadership, good people who are at the uh in leadership at the church, you can come to a church event, a church function, and be yourself. We're gonna love you and we're gonna listen and we're gonna be right there, as Randy said. Be yourself. And that takes time, takes the right people, and it takes time and it takes going. on a retreat once in a while to get out of the I'm thinking teenagers here. But children children need the base. They need the base of the stories if nothing else. And whether that's it told to them in church or at home, they need the stories. They need the stories so that they know that they can go back to the stories and understand them as as big people.
unknownMm-hmm. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's a great answer. Is because we can't we cannot compete on the entertainment level. I think many church churches try to, um, but no, you we cannot compete on that level. We can do fun things, but we can't truly compete. There are there are so many other things that that could be that kids could go do, families can go do. Kinda Dean, one of the great strong leaders in in youth ministry in the past couple decades, uh she's at Princeton, in one of her books she says that that um when young people come to church and there's plenty of other places they could be, but when when young people dare to come into the church, they are looking for something to turn their lives upside down and inside out. And what the church has most often done is give them pizza. We got to do more, you know, and and part of that more that that is something you can't find other places is exactly what Deb was saying. The example that I think of is is an example from church camp in Colorado. There was there was a young man uh Gerald that he at the at the talent show night at church camp every year Gerald stood up at this his moment in the talent show and told this really goofy joke.
SPEAKER_00Same joke?
SPEAKER_01Same joke really stupid one of those jokes is just so stupid you have to laugh at it. So it's a dad joke is what you're calling it joke he was he was thank you for changing my name of the story. So um but but but it but as soon as Gerald finished the joke the entire group wild applause you know and you know that side that just appreciation for who you are in a in a total sense that is something you cannot get almost any place else I think as much as you can get in a healthy healthy youth group program and and a healthy church and with with good adult leadership and and peers. It's love and developing that community that that is that way. That that's what they're living out.
SPEAKER_03Trevor Burrus You know you tell that story and I think of maybe the fear of telling a different joke may not get the same reaction. Why do a different joke when I do that every year and I get and it works because that may be one of the few places that he is seen and and felt good. Yeah. Right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah right I will from time to time ask former youth if if I see them or talking with them, hey what do you you know what did you appreciate most about youth group, right? And it was never some um great Bible study I did. It was always um some experience or some moment when they could really be themselves where they could not, you know, where we whatever it may be. And um I I think that's so critical because I think you do have to there are very few places in the world you can even as adults you can be yourself. And I think that would even probably carry over to adults here is safe space and you can you can you can tell the same joke five straight years it's okay. We love that about you.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Interestingly you you all would be interested to know as well that both of our children we have two kids two adult children Blaine in Georgia who went to church camp from the time they were in second grade through high school and beyond actually but anyway we as their parents after the first year that they went to camp were not allowed to go to camp with them ever as their parental people. It was the one week of the year that they really looked forward to that we were not allowed to be have anything to do with that says something too I'm not sure what but it does say something.
SPEAKER_03Well I think we we all need our space we all need our space I I mean I I think it's why when I when I've done mission trips I've been very uh cautious of who I invite as adults and I always ask the kid if it's okay because I want them to be their self and and the one thing I like about mission camp the same way um is you're shaking the kids up out of their routine that they are so comfortable in. And when you shake them all up at the same time they all don't know what to do. It's not there's there's no solid ground to stand on. Everyone is is kind of in the same boat of uncertainty and there's growth in that uncertainty together which creates a bond that I I think in some cases lasts a lifetime.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely whether they go to school with each other or not and that's where it's that's when the magic happens that's when the magic happens so for both of you um how has how has the way you look at God changed for you during your faith journey how is how has your relationship with God um evolved and changed I've got so many questions I've got so many questions that derive primarily from um not just from the beautiful places in this world that I have been and seen and there are many and experiences the beautiful experiences that that I have had in relationship with other people but the pain the painful times and the painful experiences and the hell that I have that's a strong word the pain the hurtful things that have happened as well.
SPEAKER_00I've got a lot of questions that have challenged my that that that have that have really brought my faith up short.
SPEAKER_02Well I think it points that churches have an enormous capacity to heal and churches also have an enormous capacity to hurt as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah yes because some of what I'm talking about in terms of pain uh were brought on by church. Some were not um the the uh I was practicing this question on my way here this afternoon um because because one of the questions I do one of the one of the cr not crisis of faith but one of the one of the things I wrestle with is um if uh what is God responsible for and what is God not responsible for. And if I'm gonna say God is responsible for everything I can say thank you God for rainbows and puppies but then do I also say God is responsible for cancer and and and and horrific weather patterns and pain in my family members I you know and so that I mean that gets really really deep I know but but that's a God question. That's a that's a faith it's a kind of a faith a cutting edge faith piece for me right now.
SPEAKER_03So well and I think I think those are r really two great questions. Why do good things happen why do bad things happen and what control of God and where where is God in the midst in the midst of of either one of those. And I have begun to question the good things based on the difficult things. Exactly um and and how do I understand that that's that's something that that is a constant wrestle the the the bumper sticker that says stuff happens.
SPEAKER_00Yeah right yeah it just does and so and and this is where I am right now God's there. Whatever the stuff is God's there but God has not created has not made caused any of it to happen. Now is that is that right I you know I I you could talk all day long about that and and not resolve it.
SPEAKER_03What is is the word in Ecclesiastes uh heavel saying heavy it's all vanity or meaningless it's it's it's life and it happens and it unfolds and some of it's beautiful and some of it's ugly. And God is journeys with us through through it all. Because I always question what happens on the plane of life, right? The mountaintop and the valley are things that we oftentimes gravitate toward the divine but what happens in the ordinariness of life in the God in the ordinary in the ordinary God and I are going to have to have a cup of coffee and just talk about all that well I think a lot of people have these questions.
SPEAKER_02I mean I think that's what makes you an effective pastor is that um you have the same questions that the people you're in you've been in ministry have. You know and I think I think for all of us around this uh table currently I think that's something that I would say is a a strength for each of us in ministry is that uh we we have the same questions that people are coming to ask. Yeah. They might be disappointed when they find out we don't have the answers. We just have the same questions but we're honest about that.
SPEAKER_03Trevor Burrus That's what I always told youth who graduated you know wherever you go to worship if you ever ask a pastor or a pastor claims to have all the answers run very fast. It's not going to end well it isn't it's just not going to end well. Unfortunately it doesn't always end well when you say I don't know the answer and I have that same question too but at least you have somebody to sit with in that question.
SPEAKER_01To explore it together.
SPEAKER_03It's very disciple.
SPEAKER_01Yeah yeah see if we can figure it out together. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So Randy what about you? What is what has changed um how has that grown I think um I think as t as time has gone on I've um have become more focused on uh attention to that presence in in the things that are going on.
SPEAKER_01Um and um I I practice about oh six or seven years ago I guess um I I started a daily gratitude practice um that helps it that helps me a lot to continue to work on this and and uh it came out of a um a a poem of Carrie Newcomers uh Three Gratitudes and she talks about then that poem about her um that one of the simple a simple practice that she does that the end of each day when she's going to bed she she lies there under the sheets she um simply takes a moment to reflect and to name um three things that she's grateful for that day and uh and she begins to go on the rest of the poem with a list of mostly very very little mundane things for the day that that and and she says and after three I often just get on a roll and just keep going and and and I I adapt adopted that as as my own practice and so for six or seven years I don't say them out loud because I go to bed after Deb and I'd wake her up but but I I write down um I've been writing down for uh for six or seven years almost every day uh before I finish my day at least three things and that is that has helped made me uh to be because I see in the the things that I'm grateful for I see I see the presence of God is there. God is present in those things we're not but sometimes what I'm present grateful for is is that presence in a hard thing that happened that day. But that that for me I think is just more attention to presence that that for me is has become more of a part of my my life my faith journey than than it was years ago.
SPEAKER_03Was it Anne Lamont that said you know the two biggest prayers that we can say is thank you, thank you thank you and help me help me help me.
SPEAKER_02I mean and then wow there's three there are three three thanks wow yeah yeah I think it's an important distinction though in the presence because I used to um pray you know when you would pray to open a meeting or something or invite God's presence and over time I I've recognized I've changed my language to help us recognize be aware of your presence that's already here. Trevor Burrus Right because to me it it the light went on that well it's kind of weird for me to pray to give God I mean God doesn't need my invite it's for the presumption right it's not probably the problems are my end and not God's end so why do we you know why don't I kind of change that a little bit um so what um for for both of you what what is I'm gonna put you on the spot a little bit here what is something that you have appreciated most about serving at Geist I think so the people I've worked with yeah yeah in various capacities and and uh much most much of it on my end and back with the with the tech pieces but but yeah I I think simply the the people I've worked with and and and the resources that are available that are come from a generous congregation that has uh made that possible to help be able to do things.
SPEAKER_01That's the things that immediately come to mind for me.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah it's um um uh I'm I'm trying to find the words that um that I want to go out into posterity forever and ever. This will be in the National Archives one day so I yeah um uh it is the people that I work with the staff that is a part of Guy's Christian Church then the resources that they have that that have been so um refreshing and exciting and positive but it's also for me that the the relationships even in the time that I have been here that I have built with congregation members who are um who are thinkers and who um are are givers um and I don't just mean m monetary givers I'm I'm talking just um and and do and are really interesting people who do who do very interesting things and and I think that I uh can honestly say that um I have gained far more than I have given um in the time that I have been on staff at Guy's Christian Church.
SPEAKER_03And there's a there's a you know I want to be smart smart Alec and tease about about the two other gentlemen that are sitting in this room and I mean I'm her favorite I just want you to I I I do you know how hard it's been because I this is a really heartfelt moment and you know me feelings so creepy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah and so that's what I was going to say was that you're working with Kyle particularly on outreach stuff has been you know that's been a stretch but it's been alright.
SPEAKER_03Not so not so I I am curious because I you know I still have a few more years before um I get to retire and and do something different. I've I've got a few more um but I think of what I want my legacy or what do I want to be part of my story in in the years that I served in in the ministry that that you are um transitioning a little bit. It's still going to be ministry you're still going to be doing things what do you hope some of that legacy some of that story has been in your in your years of serving this denomination extremely faithful on top of a Presbyterian denomination that you have served extremely faithful I've seen we've both seen it already a lot in um because we spent our most of our careers working with children and with youth and now they're adults right and so you can see the work that you the foundation that you laid.
SPEAKER_00I I have been privileged to do um not just the funerals of people that I have gotten to know and and love but the weddings of uh people that were twelve thirteen fourteen eighteen year olds while I was working uh while I was a pastor in their church and um I'm doing that one coming up in March I I am officiating a wedding in March of one of my former youth and congratulations. Oh you're officiating okay thanks thanks Danny yeah whatever um but but we're gonna finally get married that is um that's that's that's just huge it's just huge yeah and and um and and they want to bring their baby by and show you their the the the this whole new chapter in the world you know that's just that's pretty neat.
SPEAKER_03That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00It is pretty neat.
SPEAKER_01That's great yeah yeah yeah yeah I'd I'd say it's pretty much the same uh yeah because my the the core whatever else has been around my title um the core of most of my ministry has been uh working with youth um for over fifty years uh and uh I haven't been doing that here at Geist I've been doing other pieces of things here but I still for the denomination have have can still been working with youth and with young adults and outdoor ministries pieces of things and um the just over all those years there's um there's uh there's a there's a lot of leaders of the church that I'm not the reason they're a leader but I was on the path at some point in their journey and um the uh um and that's that's something I feel grateful for.
SPEAKER_03That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01That that uh to have been on uh some little piece of their journey anyway uh as they got to where where they've got uh got to be and and the things they're doing that uh are uh you know greater things than I'll ever do but but uh it's it's it's a good feeling of of a legacy to have been part of the journey.
SPEAKER_03Well and both of them highlighted the importance of relationship. Right. I mean being being in community. Absolutely. Yep.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely well and the the stats, all the research bears out if you can if you're a a a teenager and you have a a meaningful relationship with another adult who's not your parents chances of you living a full and good life go up exponentially. And I think that goes back sort of to what the church can offer is this is a place where those relationships can be created and made. Right. That's exactly Kyle's got to take his pills.
SPEAKER_03Yeah it's by alarm I don't know why I have one set for five but I do time to wake up so uh make the donuts you know Deb I gotta ask what is that one thing you are excited to live more fully in uh now that uh you have retired this may this may be um pie in the sky and um silly to even think I can accomplish I want to learn how to sit on my rear end and do nothing.
SPEAKER_00Oh I can show you that's good I can show you that's not Randy can show me how to do that um but I I in in all seriousness I want to be able to sit quietly and listen and hear not just listen and then get up and go do something but listen and and be aware and and hear and then go act on what I hear.
SPEAKER_02Well that is our wow that's a profound that's impressive.
SPEAKER_00It's a big goal it's a big goal. But I just feel I'm I'm I'm ready to be done with what's on the calendar that has to be done and that the the things that you know all that I'm I've it may take me in a whole new direction and I hope I have the courage to take that path.
SPEAKER_03Aaron Ross Powell we still have biweekly coffee though. I mean you I wanted to get it on record that you know where to find at that time. Uh yeah at Brickhouse down on 79th in Fall Creek. Yeah I'm with you at least twice maybe every week I don't know we'll see see how much time you got for me.
SPEAKER_02So you guys may have a better answer to this question here about a a year from now but uh what's the last book you've read a television series you've watched or podcast you've listened to that you've really enjoyed that you would like to share uh share with our listeners I mean aside from Sacred Sit down aside from we had just Assume that's on everyone's favorites list. We don't like to brag. And y'all know we do not Kyle and I neither watch really highbrow television. So any answer is okay here.
SPEAKER_00I'm trying to remember the last really good book I've read, and I can't Randy can go there. I probably can't mention answer that. And I am, um, for the most part, I am a public television watcher of masterpiece theater things and masterpiece mysteries and things like that. Um and so that's not real heavy or highbrow or I don't know, it has masterpiece in it.
SPEAKER_03That's I don't even know what that is.
SPEAKER_02I want to say I realized very early on working with Deb, I would not be able to have conversation with her about trashy television.
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_00I've learned a lot about trashy television from you, Debbie. You have, yes. I've tried to impart wisdom, yes. Yes, yes. You uh you've taught me quite a lot. I've watched some of that trashy television. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_02So I've positively influenced you in that way.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we can be proud. Talk about a legacy that you've leaving. There we go.
SPEAKER_03Trashy television. Our work here is done. Well done, Danny.
SPEAKER_02Randy?
SPEAKER_01I don't know. You know, we keep up with so many it's it's it's there are so dang many streaming services. It's like, God, what was I watching and what service was that on so I can get back to watch the next episode. Um let's see.
SPEAKER_02Um I trust you watch something other than the uh Promise Road and Mud Creek live channels on YouTube. True. Okay.
SPEAKER_03And you know the whole thing is to binge it. So you you watch all the episodes in one sitting. You know, you don't come back to it. So I uh we need to talk about how you're doing things.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I know. Um I actually can't think right now of a really profound show. I've seen things I've enjoyed. We're watching the the whole Yellowstone and the prequels, and you know, right now. That's a solid show. It is good. Yeah, yeah. Solid show.
SPEAKER_02It's a little violent, but it is a little violent, just a little.
SPEAKER_01A lot of people get killed in those shows.
SPEAKER_00That's what Randy said last night. You know, a lot of people get shot on the trades.
SPEAKER_02People are like, that makes me want to move to Montana. I'm like, I don't. That place is dangerous. Right.
unknownExactly.
SPEAKER_02I don't want to go there. Exactly.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Luckily there's not too many disciples' churches in Montana.
SPEAKER_02No, it's very true. Finding work would be difficult. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But why even just watching the scenery, you know, I could turn the volume down and watch the scenery on some of those things. And I don't know whether they're literally filmed in the United States or if they're up in Canada when they film some of these things. But I also appreciate that as much as the storyline. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, you'll have more time now while you're sitting there thinking about just Danny and I can give you a list of shows. There you go.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we'll be glad to. Absolutely. So many wonderful shows out there.
SPEAKER_02Well, we miss you both already. Um it's a little quieter around the office. I do want to say, Deb, what's what's it like to work in a church, Randy? We'll close with this. I think m most people aren't aware that working in a church, it's a strange place to work at times. And you guys have worked at churches most of your life. What is what is it like?
SPEAKER_00The plu it's a it's it's got strong pluses and strong minuses. By the minuses I mean you never have a full week. Rarely, if you're doing it right, do you have a full weekend that's not work. Right? Your weekend is Friday, Saturday, or it's broken up by by you might have part of Saturday and a little bit of Monday and you know like that. But it's it's rarely um if you have a family, it's hard. It's hard because you don't have the weekends. And um but the other side of that is that if you have a sick child, you can go. I mean if you're a family person or if you have a if you have a a critical need, y you you do enough evening meetings and enough um uh um visitation on your days off of h in hospitals and et cetera, et cetera, that you don't it's okay that if you have a need, you can you can Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Those are two really good ones. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And and the challenge of working with other people come to church to be in relationship with all of these people um uh on a faith level, right? And and God is the God is what you talk about and Jesus and those things, you know that that that your commonality begins with your faith because that's why you're at church. And if you are working in that church, you uh uh have responsibility to those people that's at a in a different way. I don't know if a different level is the right way to say that, but the relationship comes from a different perspective and a different angle and has to be respected in a different way. And um so at working in a church and being a clergy person in a church, you need to be spiritually fed either very carefully in the church where you work or go somewhere else to be spiritually fed. And that, you know, I think I think that in in many in in the places where I have worked, uh the leaders the the lay leadership, the volunteer leadership has understood that at least to some extent and has always respected that. Geist does a wonderful job of that, actually.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00It's a good answer.
SPEAKER_02I apologize. That was our first false finish. We were getting ready to wrap up and I just ask another question. No, it was my fault. I asked another question. It was good. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Well, hey, we just want to wish you all well. Uh we hope that you live fully into this next chapter. Uh, that it is an easy transition and that uh you both are able to find what you need in this season. Uh my prayer for you, Deb, will be that you will sit well uh and enjoy that space. Thank you. And my guess is Randy will enjoy some time in his wood shop creating and building and probably finding other ways to spend his time.
SPEAKER_01Sitting at the uh at my father's uh drawing table that we finally, as we're transitioning here, pulled out of the attic and work in the process of changing my tiny office to a studio/slash office. I think that sounds awesome. So that's looking forward to that.
SPEAKER_02Wonderful.
SPEAKER_03Well, blessings to you both.
SPEAKER_01Thanks and you. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_03Thanks all. This has been another episode of Sacred Sit Downs. We hope you will join us next time as we explore the power of story. We can be found on all major platforms, so be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening. Until next time, this is Sacred Sit Downs.