Building Community Through Faith, Growth, and Vision

Join Cyle, Matt, Ryan, and Mark as they discuss the heart behind Heart of the Lakes Church—from their United Brethren roots to exciting growth initiatives. This conversation explores discipleship, the Three 30 campaign, and what it means to create a church community grounded in Scripture while staying authentic and fun. Whether you're curious about church growth, spiritual disciplines, or just want to hear some behind-the-scenes stories, this episode offers warmth, wisdom, and a few laughs along the way.

Transcript

 Hello and welcome to the HOTLCast. I'm Cyle. 

I'm Matt. 

I'm Ryan. 

And I'm Mark. 

And you can't see him, but over there's Nick. So, uh, yeah, he's over there. Hi 

Nick. 

Hi, Nick. He's, 

he's 

waving. He doesn't have a mic. Yeah. Uh, he's filming. So, uh, we're excited to, we, we've, we've got Mark back. So officially he kinda came back shortly last week, and now he's, 

yeah.

Been back for a week from honeymoon. 

Yeah. And I was at the youth retreat all weekend too. You 

were at the youth retreat. You've been gone a lot, but you're here. But you've been gone. 

Yeah. Doing different 

things. Doing different things. So good to see you. Um. Yeah. Mark, like what do you think about this week's message?

Uh, you talking about the UB disciplines? Yeah. Listen, I did watch it. It was, I, I played it at 1.5 Speed though we 

should, we should have confession because I, do you even know that I confessed something at the beginning of the service? 

I do know you confessed that you're, you, you said something about your kids not knowing Greek because you were trying to make a joke about a inside joke that your family has.

I think the 

joke was funny. It just, it just 

because they didn't learn about the Greeks 

time and place. 

Patty skipped over the Greeks and went right to the Romans. 

Yes, it's an internal joke. 

And you apologized to your kids who were at camp? 

Yes. They weren't here to hear it, but I told him I apologized 

so he at least watched like the first little bit of it.

And then 

so, so I mentioned that my daughter's like. Well, they didn't get the context, so they just think I'm dumb. So I told her, I, I confessed it. I apologized, and she's like, well, you doubled down. And now they think I'm, we're even more dumb and like horrible. Like, I'm like, oh, I can't even right now. So I was like, I was like, listen, I love you.

I was just trying to make it right. It's. So, 

uh, 

see, the funny thing is you're the same guy who on your dad venture account had gotten your son's age wrong as well, whenever you introduced him for board games. 

Oh, he's right, wrong. Recently. Yeah. Yeah. He was, call him 12. He's 13. 

Yeah. 

And he is about to be 14.

Yeah. Uh, but no, I mean, yeah. So yeah, that was the confession. You, so you got that right. So good. But. What was the, what was the thing about you? There was a thing about you. 

I didn't remember that part. 

So I, like, I complimented Mark in a sermon and uh, he's telling me, listen to the sermon. I said, did you hear the part about you?

And he is like, uh, so I was like, it was like a big thing where I was complimenting Mark and his work with our middle school boys. And how much, 

I know you talked about how many students I've been having at youth group. I remember hearing that part. 

Yeah. That was that section. Yeah. 

Oh, okay. Oh, then I did hear it.

I just, I, I was Okay. 

Yeah. 

You also gave a shout out to Jackson about the stuff we were doing up there too. 

Yeah. Overall, yeah. Gave a shout out to a shout out to a lot of people. Yeah. That's good. So good. Shout out to Chance and his dancing skills. I did have yet to see the video. Oh, 

I saw that video. 

Did you see that video?

I haven't seen He was working 

it. He 

was working it. Yeah. So. But no, we had a great retreat. We had some 40 some kids go on a youth retreat with Cody and Mark and a bunch of our leaders and they, I was there a lot just hanging out and that was great. So it was awesome. Ben 

Bauman had a comedy reel. That is absolutely hilarious.

Yes. That these guys are, these guys are funny. We are fortunate to have some really funny. Middle school boys for sure, but it, uh, God's good in our, our, I think in the midst of all the fun that they're having, they're growing in their faith and in their relationship with the Lord. And I think that's the exciting thing.

And so that kind of goes back to like, you know, what we do and why we do what we do. And it really comes back to God's word. 

Mm-hmm. 

Which ultimately goes back to like the confession of faith of who we are as followers of Jesus Christ. And so Sunday I went through the. Seven points of the confession of faith.

The United Brother Church, which is really, I mean, we've been, we're kind of spiritual mutts. We've been in different denominations. It's an evangelical conservative Christian Church. It's just one that really believes in the Bible. Most of them have very, very similar confessions of faith because it's based on God's word.

So. Most of 'em will have the same seven-ish points because it's all about, some of 'em will break one of the points up into two or three, but ultimately it's about who God is, who Jesus is, who the Holy Spirit is, who the church is, who the body is, what salvation means, and really what does life everlasting look like, and what is our job to do as followers of Jesus.

That's really what the confession of faith is about. And so as we talk about that, um, kinda what, what impact I think, Matt, for you has, you know, a confession of faith or just knowing. The depths of faith or just growing a discipleship made on your imp on your own life? 

Well, I mean, the biggest thing for me is, and I love how you said the word spiritual mutts, because we've been a little bit of everywhere I grew up, grace Brethren.

I've worked at a Baptist church. I've worked at a couple of different non-denominational churches, and the one constant that I find in all of it is that whenever you have a group of people that are beholden to the Bible instead of beholden to their denomination. It's a church that's on the right trajectory, and if you end up having a group that says the denomination matters more than fill in the blank, whatever that blank might be, it becomes absolutely toxic.

But that's been my favorite thing about the UB so far is of all the churches that I've worked at or been a part of, this is the first one where I've been like. I want to go through the ordination process here just because I so solidly agree with the trajectory of what the denomination is doing and the way that they apply things, and I think that that is great to be able to look at your church and the collective of churches that are United Brethren and being able to see.

The Bible is the basis for how they do things. There's not a lot of personal opinion or personal desires or personal preferences. It is strictly, this is what scripture says and this is what we're doing as a result of it. 

Yeah, it's good. Ryan, what about you? As you think through, like you've just been doing discipleship with Rob and a bunch of the guys on Sunday nights, you just finished that.

How has kind of going deeper in some of those key basics and really for us, the start discipleship class you're going through is essentially just a breakdown of the confession of faith, right? It's taken that seven things and broken up. We've really broken up into 12 is the core of what it is. Each one of those was kind of a different session.

Um, so how has that been kind of impactful for you, especially as now you're on the kind of other side teaching that. 

Yeah, I mean, it, it's amazing. It's super cool to, to be part of that. I mean, it, it's a sense that that idea that you don't really get it till you give it away. Kind of where, where I get to hang out with, with people that have been been, you know, reading the bible much longer than I have and, and we're able to like, pull out these concepts and go, okay, yes, we get this on a surface surface type level, but how do we dig into this?

And, and to really, really kind of. You know, have so many of those aha moments throughout this group is, is just, uh, um, it's, it's pretty fantastic. And, and, and just to kind of, kind of double on that, like I got, I got the opportunity, Matt was with this too, to, um, to take that UB history course that, uh, Huntington offers and.

And really, I, I learned, like that's when I learned the discipline, I learned about the denomination. And that is, you know, not to go too off on a tangent, but that's something that I love so much about our church and the way we operate as a, as a family. Um. And we were actually talking about this at, at a bible study.

We were talking about this and, and we got on a, on a whole conversation about the discipline and about the confession of faith and about the core values and, and how, how, when we read, when I read those core values for the UB man, um, it is, it is beautiful and, and, and, and so intentional and, and so systematic.

How, how, um. Hard Lakes has went and, and, and lived that out. I mean, each one of those core values it like, I, you know, I can feel that kind of goosebumps in the back of my neck thinking about it because it is, it is profoundly beautiful. 

That's good. 

Yeah. 

Awesome. I love that. United Brethren denomination is first in flight.

That's my favorite thing about it. You know, I love to say that. I'm not sure everybody enjoys it as much as I do. Yeah. But, uh, so 

that's a, that's the thing on bumper, on license plates in 

Ohio, right? In Ohio it says Ohio first in flight. Yeah. It's a big thing, especially to the Dayton area where there Right.

Paris and Air Force Base is, you know. Because the Wright brothers were United brethren. Their, their father was United Brother Minister Bishop Milton Wright. So we were first in flights. I think that's pretty great. So no matter what happens. You know, they're not a brother that made it happen. So it's 

North Carolina argues with Ohio a good bit on that because listen, 

you know those guys pray, they prayed that those stakes flew and they didn't crash and die.

So like 

yes, the Lord 

was with 

them. 

Yeah. So 

they wanted to be closer to God, so they built an airplane. 

But no, it's fun to think about like the history. We don't talk a lot about United Brother Church 'cause we're not here to push denomination. We're here to. Share about Christ. 

Yeah. 

What a denomination does is just a group, group of churches that hold each other accountable to a standard of beliefs that are set and, and really unchanging.

So there's a, there's not only accountability, but we, we are a living for a common cause, which is Christ and the Bible, and there's, you know, some authority behind it to help you make sure that you protect. People from, from, you know, straying from the cause of Christ. And so in the different ways that culture pulls us in, and culture has a way of doing that.

So I love what I love about the United Brothers, that the confession of faith hasn't changed since 1841. It's really. Pretty much exactly the same thing that came out in like 1785 with some minor changes. So they've done a really good job of not drifting with history or with culture, but they've really stayed true to who, who they are in God's word.

And so I, I want people to know that as they, we are growing, that we really do care about God's word. We really do care about faith. We really do care about, um, what is established in God's word. And we that is. Evidenced hopefully through all the things that we do, and we say, even though we do it in a very corny way, right?

Right. We have our own unique way. Like this Sunday, I cannot wait to announce our new church mascot. So I'm very excited about it. I, I'm probably way more excited about than anyone else. So, um, and probably Sunday I'll realize that. So like everybody be like. What, so, but we've been talking about church mascots.

We've been talking about maybe we'd be the heart of the Lake Lakers. Um, but there, there are Lakers, but that's an easy one. We thought maybe we could be like beavers because, you know, there we're like hundred lakes around here, 52 lakes around here. We could be any kind of thing, but we've got a great mascot.

I'm very excited about it. So. 

It was because of a one off joke in the midst of a staff meeting. Yeah, yeah. That it actually happened. 

It how a lot of our things happen. 

Somebody's like, oh, haha. And we're like, wait, 

no, 

no, we're doing that. 

That's definitely, 

yeah. 

It's genius moments. 

I know David at the Jackson campus laugh at that because he, he, I think he's the one that said hotdog.

We're like. Yeah. Yeah, we're doing. He's like, no, I was joking. We're like, too bad it's happening. 

Jalapenos. Yeah. 

I remember one of the times I came up here to visit, I was sitting in Cody's basement and you, Cody and I were watching football. I forget what it even was, but I had looked at you guys and I'm like, you know, I think you guys missed one.

And you're like, what do you mean? What did we miss? I'm like, why is there not somewhere in the Brooklyn campus a wall that recognizes the volunteers? That is the volunteer Hall of Fame? And you looked at Cody, and Cody looked at you and you looked back at Cody, and it's like, how did we miss that one? 

Yeah.

Yeah, we gotta get that one done. So, yeah. I mean, so anytime we can put the word hoddle in something 

Exactly, 

we will, 

we will. And I, I'm, I'm amazed that we keep coming up with new ones. 

Me too. I thought we would've run out by now. 

Yeah. So, Ryan, that's, you have to come up with one, that's the thing. So you come around here a lot.

You gotta, you've gotta come up with a new one we've never heard before that. That's your challenge. You gotta pay your dues, 

dude. 

Well, I'm looking for it now. So it's like, you know, pregnant lady at the mall, right? 

Everywhere you look at 

No, it's like 

six, seven everywhere you look at. Yeah. Yep. Everywhere you look at, so, 

no, no.

Okay. I'll, you have to 

find, 

I'll look for it. It'll, it'll pop up. I'll, I just won't think about it. 

Yeah. It just, it'll, it'll happen. And so as we kind of go through this month, we've been talking about. Kinda why we exist, the purpose of kind of our church, our vision. We've really been talking about three 30.

We talked about the campaign and that we are doing really well with the fundraising so far already kicking off the campaign. We're excited about that and even today I got messages about some of the projects I mentioned. I mentioned that we can start moving forward. So I think that. Some of those things people won't see because they have 'em behind the scenes.

Like we're gonna work on the AC project. Most people will never see that 'cause it'll be something that just gets exchanged without you ever realizing it until summer. Um, but then we'll start really quickly working on our lobby. We're gonna move some office space. We're gonna work on the huddle house next door.

Which will be exciting to move some of our staff offices and our youth spaces over there. And so I think God is moving in the midst of all of this stuff that we're doing and seeing growth even in the midst of this cold snap that we've had. And by the way, I just found out why we're sitting here. We have water at my house now 'cause we woke up with no water and now we have water.

Thanks to my wife going to Menards and getting a heater this morning. So congratulations. Yay. Yeah, we can take a shower. So, yeah. So. 

I actually have a question for you. 

Yeah. 

Of all of the different things that are part of the three 30 campaign, we've, we've discussed this a little bit before, what is the thing that you're the most excited about that's on the docket?

Ooh. What is the thing that I'm most excited about? The three 30 campaign? Um, I mean, the things in the campaign that, that are, I mean, I, to me, three, I like three services. It's a lot. Um, I would love to add 60 more seats, but I'm worried that. Once we add 60 seats, we really can't go back to two services. Um, so although, although that one is exciting for one reason, it's not so much in the other that we may, it may be one of those things like people are like, why'd you do this?

Because you're not going back to two services. And I, I kind of think we may be past two services, so at this point, um, so it would've probably been that one originally. And I think just more opportunities for ways to connect with the community. Is what most excites me and, and it's indirectly in our. In our campaign, as we have a bigger parking lot, we can offer more events for that community.

And that's probably the, the thing that would excite me the most is, is the parking. Although that's probably the thing would excite people the least, I think of it all, just the parking lot outside is not very exciting, but like. When you look at our, you know, Ryan's been counting our, our parking the last few weeks we we're just outta parking.

We have 108 spots. We've had horrible weather, so that knocks our tenants down, you know, 30, 35%. We're still filling up our parking lot, second service, and we, you know, when we don't, when we have good weather, it's overflowing. 

Yeah. 

And I think the parking lot's gonna allow us to continue to have people come to church and be able to, to come together.

But also things like hol Halloween and Hot Wood. We just don't have a great space in the property to really get people in and get 'em parked and have more of that kinda stuff. And I, I think where we go after that is that begins the impetus for more events like that, more community focus, getting the community to come here for more things, um, because we'll have a better parking scenario situation.

And so to me that, that. Finding ways to intentionally connect with the community and getting them here, not because we're trying to get them here to church, but just because we're trying to create a safe, family friendly space where we can, they can know that they're loved and when they need. Somebody to reach out to in life.

This could be the place that says, Hey, we're here for you. I think that that excites me the most, and I'm still part of the big dream would be once we have the Huddle House, to eventually have counseling here regularly where people could get counseling in this community and not have to drive all over to Adrian and Jackson and beyond.

But there could be real help here in the community, and so I think that's what I'm looking forward to, the things that come easily because we're doing these projects. The next step that comes, I think those are the things that most excite me. What are you guys excited about? 

Brian, you wanna go next? 

Um, sure, why not?

Um, you know, I, I think, I think for me, when it's just exciting that we're, we're growing, right? And, and even just in the, in the time that I've been here to, to see that, that the. I mean, it's at least doubled since, since I've been, been hanging out and been blessed to be part of this. So, uh, it, for me, it's just cool to, to know that we're, we're constantly working on creating a space.

I mean, it's more of a concept and less of a specific one thing I guess. I mean, the. The beauty part that, that we have all these working pieces that, that we just trust God with and go, oh no, God, we're, we're, we're working at it and, and we're making a space for everybody. And, and we all know and trust that that God's got us and it's gonna, it's gonna work out to be amazing.

I, I think it's. Of course, you know me, I'm very much into like my relationships and, and I, and that's where I find my value and I'm not, I'm not a solid, big picture kind of guy, so I, I really just see all the little moments that offer so much connection and so much community. Within the plan, just working on the plan and, and thinking about it.

So I'm not even sure if that even answers your question. Well, 

it's a, 

it's an 

answer. 

It's, it's what my, it's what, what's happening in my, I love it. In the, in the squirrel brain. That is my yeah. Head. I love it. So. 

For me, I gotta say for the Brooklyn end of things, I love the idea of the Huddle House, being a ministry house and how we're gonna use that.

And as much as I think the idea of the office space and everything like that is cool. I think the idea of the things we can use for life groups and for youth hangouts and stuff like that over there are so much cooler and it. It frees up a little bit more space like you had said on Sunday for Cody, because you know, they're a growing family over there and they're gonna need that extra space.

I mean, yes, they just got Mark moved out, but that doesn't mean that they don't still need other space for other things. And I think that end of stuff on the Brooklyn side. Is really cool for me on the Jackson side. I love the fact that we are working our way through reclaiming parts of the building that we haven't been using because we've got different plans in place for how we have cleaned up the bathrooms in the basement.

We've been working through cleaning out the other rooms in the basement down there, starting to make those spaces usable again. All of those things are exciting because we're not just reclaiming that because. Hey, we want to kind of get this stuff cleaned up. We're doing it because of necessity, because of the way the campus has been growing, and that's been really cool too.

Yeah. And, and that's been neat. 'cause I know when I first got there all this, like, you're not, you, you're not trained on building maintenance when it comes to ministry. So like I, when I was showing up and doing that, I was like, I have. No idea what all this means. Yeah. You learned about 

boilers and all kinds 

of stuff.

I learned, I learned about boilers, AC units, all, all that stuff. And it, it is cool to be like, Hey, we're using it again. Hey, this is getting put back together in a way where we can start to use it, start to make it awesome and amazing and have all that space do what it needs to. Mm-hmm. I love David repainted the bathrooms downstairs.

We told him he couldn't repaint it scarlet and gray, 

so he went just gray. 

So he went just gray, but he made the outlet covers red for the light switches. Like, he's like, I couldn't paint the walls red and gray, so, so Right. Of course our 

things we realized. Yeah. Yeah. 

So if you go to one, if you go to the bathrooms downstairs at Jackson, you can walk in and you get to see that.

So 

never we'll go there. Never, never. Yeah. 

But it's all cool. It's, it's really exciting seeing the growth in the life change that's been happening out there. 

Yeah. 

Um, that's been awesome. And honestly, I'm excited about the sanctuary expansion here at Brooklyn too. Like for me, each time we have modified the building to adjust what we need, it's kind of been a cool insight into the growth we've had.

Like when we initially expanded this, the lobby in over here in Brooklyn when it was the two offices and we're like, there's not room for us to gather after service. We need more room. Like anytime we've had these pieces where it's been, oh, we need more, oh, we need this different I, I think it's so neat.

It's cool to look back and see what it was, and it's so much more exciting to look forward and see how we need to accommodate the future. 

Well, and just thinking the history, I mean, I've, I've only been here just about 10 years now, but looking at the history of this place, so where the gym is, was the parsonage and the garage.

Mm-hmm. 

The garage is now off to the side of the property. You know, we, the property we own next door, we have five acres. The garage is over there. The parsonage is now across the. Um, you know, and so where that is now that there's a gym, but that wasn't the original bay. The original building is the intersection between the sanctuary and the gym was the original building they built to meet in that little small area, um, was the, was the church, and then they built on the sanctuary.

And then that was the next phase, and then they built the gym as the third phase. So as the church has grown over the last 50 plus years, it's just kind of mo modified and shape with the congregation. And now that we're outgrowing those spaces, it's gotta grow again. And so mm-hmm. Yeah. You wish you could just tear it all down and build a big structure, but it's not the way it works financially, right?

Yeah. 

Um, we, we, we do what we can afford to do when we can afford to do it. And so our goal is just we're gonna handle what we can handle, when we can handle it. And you know, as we will look at those big future things further into the future. Right now we're just trying to deal with giving people space to meet.

Yeah. 

In the now. 

That's why it's cool for me is 'cause with all those imperfections of being like, okay, we have to. Figure out how to use what we have. You kind of get a, you almost get to see the development of the thing that has happened. 

Mm-hmm. 

Like that's, that's like a kind of dorky, nerdy thing level that I love with stuff like this.

But it's, it's the reality of it where you're like, oh, that isn't perfect. Oh, because they had to figure it out on the spot because cool things were happening. 

Right. 

So 

I think people, people obviously are excited about the bathrooms, so we got a lot of volunteers. That usually means it's time, it's been time, it's been time to take, update those bathrooms since I got here 10 years ago.

Mm-hmm. So we, we need to take some time to, to look at our spaces from a visitor's perspective and say, you know, this is a great space or not. And so when we have the. That bathroom door open in the men's room, every time that you go to the bathroom and just swing open while you're gonna the bathroom, it's, it's a problem.

I didn't use that 

stall anymore because 

of that. Yeah, no, 

I, I, I actually used that for the first time the other day. I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the one kept hitting me in the back, hit me in the back. I'm like, oh, okay. Yeah. 

If you get to, so if you, if you get toilet paper and the door opens.

Instantly, because if you touch the wall at all, 

yeah, 

it loosens the door up enough. That's how barely connected the door is. So it just that, that stall door just flaps open on you. And so it's always fun when somebody's walking in at that moment 

when you're here, you're family. 

So yeah, it's, hi. Yeah.

Welcome to the heart of the lakes. I'm the pastor here.

Not gonna shake your hand right now. No, but I mean, it, it's good to, it's good to see what's, what's going on. And so as part of this series, I mean this series, we kind of are ending as we move into Title Khan and next week and talk about where we're going this year. And that's the goal of this, this coming Sunday.

We're gonna talk about the year ahead. What does it look like? Where are we going? Hopefully you get people excited about like, oh, I know this, when this series comes along, I need to be ready for it, but I need to bring friends. I need to bring my family. I need to try to get people here to hear who are struggling with that thing.

So that's kind of why we try to get people heads up, uh, at at least a little bit. And we've done a pretty good job. We don't always hit exactly. Uh, planning a year ahead is always hard. Yeah. Like we always, we sometimes we miss a series or have to push a series into the next year 'cause like life will change and life will happen, but we're usually pretty good by 80, 90% of what we say we're gonna be able to accomplish in the year.

Sermon wise, we get to and through and uh, I expect to be very similar to this week, Cody's actually messaging right now 'cause he wasn't here Sunday and he is like, what's vs. 'cause I mentioned I'm gonna do a series on the word vs because it was in the confession of faith and it's just. It's just basic.

Basically it means there's gonna be a list that follows when you say Vs. So, and uh, I'm gonna do a series about a list of things and so that'll be fun. So. Just because of that one statement, and that's how it rolls here. So I will find it amusing and I'll find it funny. And if you listen to this podcast, you'll remember when, when Vase comes around, oh yeah.

He says Is gonna, no one else is gonna remember, but I will enjoy every bit. Every bit of it. So, 

so you're gonna try and fit that into like VS of us now. So it's a list of US rules or, 

oh man, that's good. 

He's writing 

it down because that's like, this is us, 

he's writing 

it down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. 

Andy, we go back to how things happen here just on this spur of moment.

You're 

curious how it happens. This is how it happens. Hey, this is funny. Oh, I'm taking it seriously now. 

Yeah. That's why we have a mascot coming up. Yeah. I'm very excited about Sunday. You said you won't wanna miss Sunday. There's gonna be some fun things happen. We've got a, we've got a guest coming. We've got some fun things coming, coming.

Best, best for music. It's just gonna be a. It's gonna be a huddle con. It's gonna be gonna be good. I hope you're looking forward to it. Lots coming up. Pizza with the pastors will be here soon. Cup of community again next month. Just kind of, we get it back into the swing of things. It's gonna be cold, cold, cold this weekend, and I think for this foreseeable future.

And so I think my prayer is just that we can continue to love people and engage with them even when it's hard for them to get to church or hard for them to attend. And that we can just really get excited about Jesus this winter. So we, we just start this spring and in such a great way, ready to get back into kinda life, but also get into each other's lives as we love each other and disciple each other.

So that's kind of what's going on around hard lakes. Any last thoughts you guys have? 

I just think it's exciting, you know, being able to see, like Bo we've been talking kind of all around about the life change and the way things are working out, but anytime you can see spiritual growth in a group of people, it's always exciting.

And you've been on the, the leading edge of that in some areas with your discipleship group and it's, it's a lot of fun. Ministry is fun. There's a lot of times where it's hard and it's work, but whenever you get to see kind of people making those decisions and making those changes, whether it's, you know.

Elementary, middle school, high school, or adults. It's just, it's a really cool opportunity. It's great. Yeah, 

yeah, yeah. No, I'm, I'm, I couldn't, I couldn't agree with you more, man. I mean, it's, it, me and me and Rob, uh, Rob Freeman, our chairman of the board, we usually, him and I have lunch once, a lunch or breakfast once a week, and, and he, he's my mentor, so we're always like talking and I'm kind of running things by him, but then.

You know, and we, we talk a lot about discipleship and, and it's just, it's such a, it's such a cool thing to see this growth and like seeing how, how it's, God has worked through him, through me, but then like Nick on our camera, like me and me and Nick, uh, we did discipleship together, right. And to see him and see how he's like growing and, and there are people in our discipleship group who are looking up to him and, and asking him things and, and, and, you know, trying to figure out why his life works so well.

You know, and, and it's, it's, it's just a, it's a cool. It's a cool thing in, in just such a drop in, in the notion of what we have going on here at Heart Lake. So, 

yeah. 

Yeah. The coolest thing is seeing when people give everything to God and seeing the life change that comes across and along with that. Like that's something that is a, an encouragement and a reminder to me, especially with our students right now that are on fire as I'm trying to do my best to guide them with the excitement they have.

Like, I think I told you, Cyle, that your, your son and Caleb and Ben Bauman, they're like, why don't we buy five more churches the way could of youth group every day of the week? And I'm like, 

because he would kill Mark. 

But like that's how thrilled they are. And to be able to be on the end of trying to facilitate that, it's a big responsibility, but it's also super cool.

Or like just with anybody at our church that's been growing, that's been learning, that's been trying to do better at following God and letting him take control and seeing the, I don't know, the light that comes through with those people. Mm-hmm. Like the way that God changes and works through them and it's.

It's the thing I run to when I need to remember like, this is awesome and I'm thankful for this and God is moving and it is so beautiful. 

Yeah, 

like all those thoughts and are reminders, all those people are reminders for me. 

That's good. So we're excited about this year. We're excited about 2026 and beyond with our three 30 campaign and our vision for the future from this guy, a stocking cap to that guy wearing an electric outlet on his hat.

We will see ya next week.