322 | Steamers and Sodas

Covid-19 changed how churches engage in ministry and youth ministries is no different. Find out what Pacific Southwest International Mission Center has done to keep their youth engaged on this episode of Steamers and Sodas.

To learn more about what they're doing, check out their website.

Host: Carla Long
Guest: Bryan Tidwell

Thanks for listening to Project Zion Podcast!
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Intro and Outro music used with permission:

“For Everyone Born,” Community of Christ Sings #285. Music © 2006 Brian Mann, admin. General Board of Global Ministries t/a GBGMusik, 458 Ponce de Leon Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30308. copyright@umcmission.org

All music for this episode was performed by Dr. Jan Kraybill, and produced by Chad Godfrey.

NOTE: The series that make up the Project Zion Podcast explore the unique spiritual and theological gifts Community of Christ offers for today's world. Although Project Zion Podcast is a Ministry of Community of Christ. The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those speaking and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Community of Christ.

322 | Steamers and Sodas | Brian Tidwell

Project Zion Podcast

Josh Mangelson 00:17

Welcome to the Project Zion Podcast. This podcast explores the unique spiritual and theological gifts Community of Christ offers for today's world.

Carla Long 00:34

Hello, and welcome to the Project Zion Podcast. I'm your host, Carla Long. And I'm here with Bryan Tidwell. And while Bryan and I actually haven't met in person all that many times, I've just been sitting here chatting with him for like the last five minutes, and I already want to be his friend. So Bryan, welcome to the podcast. I'm super excited to talk to you tonight.

Bryan Tidwell 00:54

Yeah, I'm excited to be here, Carla. And thank you for the invitation to just chat with you tonight. And so like she said, my name is Bryan said, Well, I was born and raised in Casper, Wyoming. So Wyoming's pretty, you know, not populated, so most of you probably haven't heard of it. That's okay. I'm used to that joke as well. But then, you know, found my way over to California through Happy Valley, and then eventually was hired into my new role as youth minister. I've been at it for almost three years now. And so yeah, that's what brought me to California and I now live in Southern California,

Carla Long 01:36

Which is exactly like Casper, Wyoming. I mean, I bet there's hardly any differences at all.

Bryan Tidwell 01:40

Yes. You know, the day that we had 115 degree weather, they got 10 inches of snow. So yeah, as far as comparisons, they're pretty close to the same thing.

Carla Long 01:53

You know, I lived although I'm from Kansas, originally, I lived all over the world. I lived in Australia, I lived in the Philippines, I worked in Europe, right. And but I think that my move to California was one of the biggest culture shocks of my life. Like I couldn't believe it. When I saw all the traffic and all the people and all I was shocked. This Kansas girl's eyes were like BOING! It was a big move. A big move.

Bryan Tidwell 02:15

Yeah, the interstate was by far kind of the most shocking place of culture that I experienced within, you know, 10 minutes of crossing the border into California. And I found that my patience level has now quickly dropped from when I go back home and the speed limits 30. And here it's almost 40 on all roads. So I get behind them. And I'm just like, you have to move fast.

Carla Long 02:41

Oh my gosh, have you become a honker, I became a hunger.

Bryan Tidwell 02:45

I'm not a honker, I'm kind of the glarer though. Like if if someone's in the fast lane, that's that's where that's where the glare comes out. If they're going in the fast lane, not going fast. I do the big head tilt and just kind of look at them.

Carla Long 03:00

Like that meme of Kermit the Frog, when you know like he's like drinking or like he like looks over like this?

Bryan Tidwell 03:06

Yeah, yeah, that's that's you.

Carla Long 03:10

So I can honk and you can glare. Probably never be in the car together then. Okay, so Bryan, you're the youth minister. And So Cal, um, what does youth ministry in So Cal look like in a normal time? Not covid time and normal time?

Bryan Tidwell 03:25

Yeah. So in a normal time, our summers are filled, right? So we have eight weeks of camps, we're kind of always on the move. And it's week to week it changes based off of what population of age group you're working with. And also number of kids. So that's kind of the big frame of summer, it's, we do our senior high camp, which is combined with Arizona as well. So we switch campgrounds for our senior high going to Whispering Pines and Buckhorn, Buckhorn rotating your yearly and then for junior high, that's been kind of popped around to the congregation up to buck horns. So we have that based off of numbers. And then our junior camp, which is just a three day camp, but then we have reunion, Spectacular, and we finish the summer up kind of in our September time of doing a camp out. So it's a weekend camp out. And that's kind of it for campus ministries from summer. Then we get into the year planning of fundraisers, weekend activities that we can provide. Preaching, we do a lot of that still yet throughout the church and you know, just having fun Sundays with the youth. And so that's kind of the way that it works. It's it's the cyclical nature of what camps are. So it feels like all year we're preparing for those camps in some way. Whether it's messaging So for us, we usually follow the spectacular theme So that's something that in the campout, we start. And so they sit with that all year until SPEC, which is kind of the last camp for our senior high members, so.

Carla Long 05:11

That is super smart. That's really, because, you know, like I, the more that you hear something, the more you internalize something. And so like, if you hear it for a week, it's awesome. That week is super, super cool. But it's easily forgotten as time moves on as you go through the school year. But if you are living with that for eight weeks in the summer, like living with this notion that hey, I have worth. HJey, God loves me, Hey, I should be kind of compassionate, it might just stick so really smart.

05:39

It also works really well with the Spectacular messaging because it bounces off really well. They do a lot of things that I didn't think about. And then vice versa, I do a lot of things that they think about as far as uniting it. And so the messaging becomes this kind of all encompassing, right, it is. Okay, so we know what we're going to talk about, but what is what's Bryan gonna do, as far as you know, what's the new lesson? And so that's always kind of a fun part of of the year and seeing, you know, which kids take it and which kids and I have to repeat the lessons too.

Carla Long 06:17

Oh, I used to be a high school math teacher. There's a lot of repeating.

Bryan Tidwell 06:21

Yeah, yes there is.

Carla Long 06:23

I love them. Oh, my gosh, man. So that's a normal year, what is it been like, since COVID started. So right now, listeners were about six months into this pandemic. And so what's it look like for the last six months? We've already missed an entire summer? Wasn't this the weirdest summer ever?

Bryan Tidwell 06:44

Yes. I mean, so six months started in March, right? March is the moment in and we had camps already on the docket. We've discussed camps from February up into this point, getting directors you know, and finding staff for certain camps planning for Spectacular where we takes 42 of my youth to spec and so that's not even encompassing all of Calizonia yet. That's just kind of our area, going to spec and navigating fundraisers. So we're really amped up. And now all of a sudden, right, this this thing, COVID season hits, right, it's now, so we're kind of sitting there that first month of what do we do? And of course, we get the message, we're not receiving money for camps right now. So, you know, we're just at a standstill. It's the summer that never happened, right? It's so that's kind of it was just empty, especially for youth minister, who that is, that was the summers that I've known. And that's been the summers that I've known almost all my life, participating in the camping programs of Community of Christ, at least in some aspect. I mean, at least one week of my summer was spent in this community that, you know, provides so many lessons. And not just biblical or scripture lessons, but life lessons. And so that was really tough to not be able to ride those examples this year. That said, you know, we're all kind of in this place of discovery, it's something new that no one could have prepared for. I mean, if I would have thought, two weeks even before COVID happened, that this was going to be the reality, I probably would have been thanked as a genius. You know, I mean, but the reality happened. And so we're all scrambling to do something new or something in a way that provides ministry to you. So the call quickly happened, what are we going to do? How do I get the youth together? We had a retreat plan to the week before we shut everything down. So kids were looking really forward to that. But then we had to say, Nope, I'm sorry. We can't do it. So how do we flip youth ministries in a way that brings connection into community now in a way where we're not instrumental in person? And so how do we work with that? And that was kind of the big question that I sat with. But of course, the answer is super simple. You know, and as much time as I thought about it, it's they just want to be together. That's that was the solution to any of the youth ministries that I've done, whether it's from children's ministry to saying, Hey, I really miss my Sunday school teacher, right. So flipping that script of saying, well, we just need to get them together, and then we can start the conversation of Okay, well, what's important to talk about what's affecting your lives? And the answer a lot of the times was, well, I don't know what's affecting my life because I've been stuck at home. And so the answer for me was, let's get them together. That's that's what we need right now. And it so happened that Zoom was the platform to do it on, right? I mean, it made it super simple as just a church employee, it was something that I've used already quite frequently. So super simple to get it set up and start doing Monday night chats. So our COVID response has been, you know, not every day, it's not going to take over their lives, it's not going to be overwhelming, because they're already spending so much time on their computer. And for me, I also hate spending time on my computer. I, I mean, I'd much rather be out in nature, like most of my summers would have been, but now I'm stuck Zoom calling people. And it's like, this is though worse. It's Saturday morning at 10, I want my coffee finished. And now I'm sitting here staring at these people. That said it was every day, right. And it was every day for the youth as well. So it was how do I not exhaust them by being on their screens? And I don't know if we've answered that yet. But I have you still show up to the chats, they showed up to the summer response to camps. So we did do an online zoom camp, which turned out really well for what it was worth. And so we navigated the summer in a way that was Zoom presence, because that's what we had.

Carla Long 11:24

So, yeah, I mean that that question of what do we do except for Zoom? I don't know if anybody has the answer to that. I wish that there was another answer to that. I mean, do we all stand in a huge circle and yell at each other from six feet away?

Bryan Tidwell 11:43

I think the you know, that's probably not appropriate? I don't know.

Carla Long 11:48

I don't think so either. So I really don't I I'm with you, I have yet to come up with a better option, which at least you get to interact with someone. Yeah. It's, it's just not enough. Is that, so this might be a weird question after what you just said, but has there been any, like, Good, that's come for youth ministries out of the pandemic, like, have you been able to connect with kids who weren't able to before? Or do kids feel more or less shy about coming if it's on the computer? You know, like, has anything been good since?

Bryan Tidwell 12:20

You know, I mean, so I think upholding that connection, right? Especially being new, I've only been in this role for three years. So there are some kids that I don't know, you know, the best. That said, there are kids that I know really well. And so it's been interesting to see which kids do log on, because it was a it was a good mix of both sides of that coin. And so, you know, whether they were friends or, you know, people just saying, "What are you doing?" And so, you know, the fun of just getting together, and I have a pretty solid group that always shows up, which is really nice. And, and so they kind of keep up with, you know, what's the monthly theme that we've been talking about, or what goofy assignment that I assigned for the week, you know, for them to take photos of outside. So there's been some really good connection through Zoom. I mean, it made planning things a whole lot easier. I only planned for, you know, hours instead of weeks, which, you know, in some ways is really nice. It was nice to step out of stressful weeks of constantly going to saying, Okay, this is a time for self care for all of us, and what's appropriate, how do we facilitate still meaningful conversations, and they happened? And that's because the youth are still, I mean, youth just offer so much more grace, while dealing with issues like this. I think us adults get caught up in the money and the superficial things that are really important. I mean, we do live in a place of, Okay, well, how do I pay rent next month. And that might be even more true in So-Cal, you know, but the reality for our youth is that they're just happy to be with each other. And so the amount of grace that is just applicable to them is always so present. So it doesn't really matter to them that I might have said something and then forgot about it, because they know that, hey, this is the time that it is and you know, whereas adults would have been like, well, you promised to send this scripture two days ago, and it's like, yeah, I'm so sorry. No. And so it's nice to see that level of grace really played out in a time that is just difficult for everyone. So there's there's there has been good, which has been really nice to see.

Carla Long 14:51

Well, that's beautiful. I love hearing that. I I love hearing that. And especially since you know that's not usually the message you get from teenagers and youth in general? But I think you're absolutely right, that they offer a lot of compassion and grace, in a lot of different circumstances. Not always, but they can. And I love hearing that message, because we just don't hear that from Gen Z is this Gen Z?

Bryan Tidwell 15:21

It is a generation! I'm not up on the categories as far as, but it is true, you know, there are things that are just so much different about their realities in than my own. I mean, growing up in Wyoming versus Southern California, that is that is in itself, a reality that I do not understand their daily lives. And so as much as we think they're, you know, disconnected from us socially, they're the ones that are also standing up for certain things that, you know, also really shocked our adults. You know, they're the ones leading conversations about injustice and climate change. Those were very big, important conversations through outers and calls, because they've both really impacted California, in a lot of, you know, negative ways, the fires that we're seeing now, it was something that we talked about this summer, even before it happens because of last year. But we're seeing that kind of repeat. And then, you know, they're they're asking questions that led me to also further seek out knowledge. And so, you know, one of the questions that I had one evening was, so what's going on with race? And I sat there kind of stunned, because I was like, well, there's a lot going on, and where do we even start this conversation? And so it caused me to be like, yeah, let me start reading some books. And let me see who I can talk to you to begin these conversations of, well, how do I even start it? So there's been, there's just been positive outlets. And it's always from the youth kind of asking these questions. So as much as we think that they're disconnected, they're also observing the world so much faster than I ever did, which could be bad in some ways. But it's also really good because they're keeping up to date and they're keeping informed in a way that I just, I'm not used to. That said, I think that's also why they're so easily distracted. Because that is the difficulty of Zoom right? I could be talking to them, and then all of a sudden, they get a ding on their phone, and I see the phone go up and their mute button go on. And then they're talking to a friend, you know, and it's like, oh, my gosh, you're facetiming someone while we're having this conversation? And it's all because it's so easy to disconnect from that moment, because it's over the computer. So that's been some of those difficult parts as well.

Carla Long 17:50

Yeah, that was actually my next question. So what has been really not so great for youth ministry during the pandemic? And definitely, yeah, I don't know if you've, this is the wrong term, but lost youth, you know, because they look so forward to the in person thing that, you know, like, they're like, this computer thing is not for me, I need that. There's no point, right? So I'm assuming that might have happened. It's easy to disconnect. Yeah, like you're just talking about so what else has been not so great about the pandemic for you?

Bryan Tidwell 18:20

Yes. So you mentioned numbers, that is obviously kind of the first thing that we see really drop as far as a negative. You know, I saw it for events that people registered to. So even sending, you know, specific links to specific people to an event that they said they wanted to go to, we'd still see about, you know, five really not want to be there, because that's just not the camp that they thought, which is, which is an appropriate response. Because I probably would have been the same way. I do not find necessarily online connection super meaningful, I really have to dig for it a lot of the times. So we did see that huge number hit. And so that was disappointing. But that said, I have done the the weekly chats, which was something I didn't do before. Um, and so in a way, it's something that I want to continue afterwards, just as a little plug in there, because it still brings us together weekly. And I didn't have that before because I do oversee about 22 congregations. So obviously, I can't make it to all of those throughout the week, or do I want to I mean, really, and so, you know, the youth ministry is was really present within the camping programs and the weekend activities, but not that weekly, Sunday or weekly Wednesday activity. So now that's something that's been really good about this. The distractions are also huge, I mean, it is so easy and not even for them, but for myself, you know, I, someone sends me a cool video and then all of a sudden I'm sucked in while someone's saying their name. And I'm just like, Oh, yeah, that's really great. Thank you. And then I call them again, I'm just like, Oh, I fell prey to it. Because the reality is we're not present with each other. I mean, we are, but we're not in the same room, we're not holding each other's attention. But that is definitely true on Zoom. And you do see it happen all the time. Just the other night, I had, you know, three girls in my youth chat. And they're all three facetiming each other. And so when I asked one question, they had to figure out which one to mute. And so it's just like, yeah, this is the daily life of Zoom is just that quick distraction of you know, what happens in person, I have two cats, they love to fight each other when I'm on Zoom. And so it's always rowdy, and I just start looking at them. And I'm super distracted. They unplug my WiFi. So there's there's things about, you know, these simple distractions that really do take us away from the moments. I've had to try three different plugins as far as just so my cat would unplug my WiFi. And that includes moving at once. So it's just like, I don't know. But these these small things happen. And they completely disconnect us from the moments, whether it's a text from a friend, or my new cat that likes to unplug the WiFi.

Carla Long 21:20

Oh the cats! I will tell you, when I started this question, I had zero idea that we end up talking about cats. You're surprising, Bryan, you're very surprising.

Bryan Tidwell 21:30

I don't know if my youth would be surprised whatsoever. You know, even some of my warm up games are about cats. And it's not because like I love cats, so much more than I love dogs. I really like both sides of that grouping. It's just that I live in a tiny apartment. And I really want a big dog. And I don't want a little dog. And I think if anyone has a little dog, you should just get a cat. So you know, that's just the reality of my life. I didn't want a small dog, so I got cats. And then this new cat was kind of a surprise. I knew I kind of wanted one and someone's like, hey, do you want this cat? And I'm like, Yes, I do.

Carla Long 22:13

Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Bryan Tidwell 22:14

I was just saying my youth would not be surprised. And I don't think anyone that really knows me would be surprised either.

Carla Long 22:21

Well, I've heard animal shelters are like running out of animals because they're during COVID. Because like, everybody's like, I need someone to talk to or something to talk to.

Bryan Tidwell 22:29

And they're probably my go to things to talk to whether it's to vent about, you know, anything that happens in the world right now. Like, climate change, let's talk about it Sabre. And she just kind of stares at me. So it's, it's nice to have that sounding board.

Carla Long 22:48

Absolutely it is. I'm just so sorry they unplug your WiFi. That's crazy. So next question. Um, when is there something like so people are providing a lot of youth ministry online now like Sunday schools and camps and chats, and so on, and so forth. And there are other things to keep in mind. Like, I don't know, from a child protection, way of looking at it, or from a different way of looking at it. Other things to keep in mind when you're interacting with youth online that you should remember and keep at the forefront of your brain?

Bryan Tidwell 23:19

Yeah, so as far as just Community of Christ handbook stuff, right, our youth are one of the most important aspects of our community. And so keeping them safe is always kind of a top priority of what we do. So the world church has given us guidelines, right, and we follow those still like we would any time we're anywhere else. So, you know, to adults within the conversation so that, you know, we're being protected, and we're protecting ourselves. And so that, you know, passwords are super important. I like having passwords. And for us, we have a specific youth email platform that they need to sign up for, to even be a part of kind of the messaging. And so there's just aspects of, you're not going to find this if you're not necessarily involved with the program, so that we're kind of avoiding some of those, hey, I don't know what this is, I'm going to click on it randomly. And so we don't get any of the random people that could show up. And then there's some security things. So host has control, I make sure that I know everyone that's coming in. And if I don't, I get the opportunity to send you a little message of saying, Please confirm who you are. Because if you don't, you're not going to get let in. So there are things that you know, we always kind of keep in mind, especially for the protection of our youth. And so we follow those guidelines pretty much to the T. And it does keep just the zoom operating. You know, it takes a few more steps to ensure that but it is just so important to everything that we do because has a safe space, whether it's online or you know, not online and in person is one of the most important things that we can provide. And so we continue to do so. Obviously, there was some quick thinking on world church of like, Okay, how do we switch this up? And how do we show our community that we're actually taking steps to now realize this is not just going to be a short term journey, it's going to be something that we sit with for just some time. So here's how we protect everyone that is present in a youth styled Zoom meeting.

Carla Long 25:31

That is so good to hear. Um, I'm not actually sure a lot of people know that the world world church has sent out those guidelines. So that thank you for letting people know that I think that's super important for people to know, hopefully, by now they do. But maybe they're not involved with youth ministry, maybe they didn't. So I I mean, protecting our youth. I don't know if you know this, but Community of Christ is actually like a trailblazer in that 30 years ago, when we got to start with that. Hardly any other churches were doing it. So we try hard with that, which I'm really is a source of pride for me. When I have people come into the Salt Lake congregation and they say, you know, what do you do for youth? And I'm like, Well, actually, everyone who works with youth has been trained. They, we do background check, and all this stuff. They're pretty impressed.

Bryan Tidwell 26:17

Yeah. It's always interesting to train like CIT, so youth that are now trying to be counselors for camps, to go through that training, because then they start picking up on things that like I do, suggest, as, you know, something that I do, I don't necessarily initiate hugs with my youth. It's something that I just am not, I'm not a big hugger, which is strange for the Community of Christ. I feel like if you're in the Community of Christ, you're pretty good at hugging. It's not that I'm a bad hugger, I just don't go around hugging people. And so we get to this part of the training, and we talk about, you know, initiating hugs and how they can be perceived. And we talked about this, and I said, Have you guys ever noticed that I either go for a fist pump, or a high five, until you go for a hug. And as soon as I said it, they thought back to when they just walked into the room. And they're like, yeah, only one of us hugged him. I was like, yep, I went for the high fives, or the fist pumps, just it, and so is that click for them that was like, Oh, this is this is really cool, because it does show how we can protect ourselves as well as protect our youth. And so those those little click moments are always fun, especially while doing this training, which is just, you know, one of the most important trainings that we can do, hands down, so.

Carla Long 27:42

You just reminded me, I haven't thought about this forever. But when I was I also used to train the CIT when I was up at Happy Valley. It's here Pacific, and we actually would practice like side hugs, a frame hugs, and just to not make anyone uncomfortable. And they're like, these are weird hugs. I'm like, get used to them!

Bryan Tidwell 28:00

Yeah, be the weird hugs versus the regular hugs do feel a little bit more awkward. And I think it's, you know, the societal purpose of it. We just don't hug that way. That said, it's just, you know, safer.

Carla Long 28:14

Yes. And once you say that to them, they're like, you're right. It's like a light bulb. They're like, Oh, okay, cuz. And then once you talk about the open door policy and all these things that they need to kind of just keep in mind. Now they do there they go back to they're like, oh, wow, that's right. I've never been in a closed door room with Carla ever in my whole life. No, you have not! No you have not. Yeah. Okay. Um, Bryan, thank you so much for talking about that. That's important stuff. So last question. You've done a great job. Thanks for being on here. So last question. What is your hope for youth ministries? Coming out of COVID? You know, like, this is gonna end at some point, please God, let this end at some point. So what is your hope?

Bryan Tidwell 29:02

Well, so you named it first. Right, this is going to end which is hopeful. I mean, we are going to come up with something to turn the tide on COVID. And especially with youth ministries, I mean, it's one of the scarier things that, you know, we could do by bringing youth from different areas, and so cow to a campground. And so, the hope is, yes, we are going to be able to do that again, right. And I'm really excited for those moments. Like I said, I'm hopeful for the youth ministries that now can happen through zoom. And we've proven it and throughout all of this time, which has been really cool. So that is something that I'm really hopeful for youth ministries to continue, not just for myself, but you know, for those connections to your youth leaders and to the youth teachers. I've heard other missions say that they're going to continue an online service. So they can continue to check in with those that can't make it to a Sunday service, which is just super awesome. So that provides a new community at least in a new way. And so that's really exciting. Specifically for youth, I, I'm excited for that moment to see them connect with their friends again, that moment that says, hey, we made it through this, we're back at camp together, let's talk about what has changed. And now almost two years, you know, with not having our last camps to the next year, they're, you know, they've missed their friends in the summer might have been that opportunity. That said, they're going to be so thankful for the time that they do see each other. And I'm really excited to be there in those moments of, you know, it was painful, it's a painful six months already, and we know it's going to be longer. A, I don't know if you can say, well, was it worth it? We're not going to ever know that answer. But for them to just be with their friends again, I'm sure they're gonna find just that, you know, that shimmering moments of, "Ys, we made it, here we are." And so that's a big hope. The other thing that I think is probably the most encompassing to youth ministries, is those that showed they're willing to be present in this time of COVID. It takes a community to do what we did in so fast, right, six months to now saying, we're doing things online, they're having activities, we did camps online, it took a community to do that. And it's gonna take a community to even get close to what we were, before this happened, it's going to take more money, because families lost jobs, it's going to take just more work to be present with each other. And my hope is that we're all willing to do that, right, those next steps. And it's not just our youth, it's our volunteers. It's our, our youth leaders. It's our priesthood. I mean, all of our leaders within our church, we have so much work to do. And yes, it's going to be hard. But there's still work to do, which is, which is the hopeful thing, right? And my dad, there's a saying, and I think a few people that might listen to this podcast have heard it, he had the saying of you, you work hard now, or you work harder later, we were kind of in the mix of both of those messaging, right? We have so much work to do. And we know we're gonna have to work hard to do some reasonings, we might have to work a little bit harder because of what the current situation is, but because there's work to do, I'm still hopeful for the future of youth ministries.

Carla Long 32:50

I love that saying by your dad, that's a good one. It's a good one. And it's definitely true. Well, thank you so much for sharing those hopes with us. And I too like, have this moment in my brain where, you know, like, we all get to come back to church together. And what will that first service be like, and I have a feeling that we won't get anything done, but hugging and singing? Because that's what we've missed the most.

Bryan Tidwell 33:15

Those are the things that we obviously can't do right now, right? And so they are the things that we are going to celebrate for when we can and yes, I'm so excited for those moments. And, you know, for the little ones that we have in their church to see those, you know, those teachers that we also loved, right. I know, my Sunday school teacher is probably still teaching Sunday School, which may not be the best idea. But you know, those those human beings that affected us in a way that really did change our lives, and they're still changing lives? It's just in a different way. So yeah,

Carla Long 33:53

Yeah, absolutely. Well, Bryan, thanks so much for talking to me. Um, was there anything that I didn't ask that you wanted to talk about? Did I miss anything?

Bryan Tidwell 34:02

No, I didn't. I didn't think any more really about what we discussed.

Carla Long 34:06

You have zero thoughts?

Bryan Tidwell 34:08

It's just like, Nope, I thought about this checklist. The scene in Parks and Rec where this the senator just stares at his wall the whole time. That's what's gonna happen after this call, Carla.

Carla Long 34:21

I love Parks and Rec so much. Thank you so much for bringing that up.

Bryan Tidwell 34:28

You're welcome. References to movies, and I mean, they're in sermons of mine all the time. So

Carla Long 34:34

Yeah. So you're a little bit of a movie TV watcher.

Bryan Tidwell 34:38

Yes. But you know what, I can't name actors or actresses to save my life. Like I know some big ones. Those, you know, that really have the distinguished but you make like a side character in a show. Ooh, unless it's like the seasons that I've watched eight or nine times over. And which you know, Parks and Rec is included into that bunch, so Do you know how to make references from those types of shows.

Carla Long 35:04

Bryan, you crack me up. Well, thank you again for being on the podcast. I really appreciate it. Thanks for taking the time.

Bryan Tidwell 35:10

Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Carla.

Carla Long 35:12

Bye, Bryan.

Josh Mangelson 35:21

Thanks for listening to Project Zion Podcast, subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or whatever podcast streaming service you use. And while you're there, give us a five star rating. Project Zion Podcast is sponsored by Latter-day Seeker Ministries of Community of Christ. The views and opinions expressed in this episode are of those speaking and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Latter-day Seeker Ministries, or Community of Christ. Music has been graciously provided by Dave Heinze.

Project Zion Podcast

322 | Steamers and Sodas | Bryan Tidwell

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