Side Quests, Main Quests, and Following the Light of God

In this episode of the HOTLCast, hosts Cyle, Ryan, Carver, and Mark celebrate some exciting church milestones — new leadership roles, a booming youth ministry, and a bold hair-dye dare — before diving deep into their series Side Quest Life. Drawing from gaming culture and Scripture, the crew unpacks how to tell the difference between life's distractions and what God is truly calling you to, and why intentionality is the key to staying on the path. If you've ever felt pulled in a dozen directions, this one's for you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:01

Hello and welcome to the Autocast. I'm Kyle back here today with Carver and Ryan and Mark and Mark.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

I'm here too. Sorry, Mark. And Mark.

SPEAKER_03 0:11

Please, please include me space. Be in the podcast. Yeah, it's like Dobby, Dobby wants to be in the podcast. If you don't know who Dobby is, I'm sorry. Um But uh yeah, we're back. So I missed last week, but it's exciting. Uh I got lots of things to share today. Uh Cody said I was supposed to share something. I forget totally what that was. You guys have to remind me. But oh camp, yeah, we'll talk about that. Uh but big news, these two guys with me, Ryan and Carver, have recently have had big life changes at the church. So, Ryan, um, this is this is big news. This is exclusive for the podcast listeners because we're not actually announcing this for like three weeks since you won't be around at church. But Ryan is now Pastor Ryan Kral, and so he's a lay pastor, Ryan. Uh, we've licensed him as our church after a year of just kind of research and growth and reading, and so um, we're very excited about that, Ryan.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

So me too.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

Yay. Right. And so um, well, it's been just I think a culmination of what we've seen God doing in your life, leading you to kind of this moment. And you've got some other big stuff coming. That was to be future, future podcast stuff. But we're we're really excited. So, what does that mean for Ryan at church? It means like he's gonna probably be doing the same things he's doing. Um Ryan's really just a volunteer at church who just serves and and does biblical counseling, and that'll be a real real good place that I think we see Ryan fitting and offering counseling and advice and helping and supporting us as we continue to grow, being able to help people walk through difficult situations. So I'm excited about that.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Yeah, yeah, it's kind of kind of a neat adventure, especially with having the Hoddle House here. It offers like a sweet venue for us to to meet, and you know, we we have a counseling room we're working on for for all of us to use for counseling, but it'll you know, a dedicated kind of private space. So yeah, it's it's a it's an exciting new thing.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

Yeah, so if you need if you need to talk, Brian would be your guy. So like I'm excited about that. And then Carver, you have recently had a change here. I mean, not a big change, but um Carver is now officially uh in the same kind of meeting we made you lay pastor. We we made Carver also our middle school director for our middle school student ministries, which means kind of now you're overseeing that uh working alongside of Cody. So that's kind of the growth that you've done. You've done a stellar job in our middle school program, our middle school program's start flourishing, and so that's been exciting, especially since you know I have a middle school kid, you Ryan has a middle school kid, so we we understand the importance of that, and so um thank you for all you've been doing. But you're now you're now running the reins. You got to, you know, not running the reins, but you're driving the reins of that program, so it's exciting. So oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, you guys are just super thrilled right now uh to be talking about this. But I mean that's we haven't really said anything publicly about that yet either. But I think the families in our youth ministry will be excited to hear that change coming up because I think they all recognize how much you've been doing in youth ministry, and Cody's Cody's been very excited to to make that change. And uh what does that mean for Cody? Cody's uh still running high school working with Carver. He uh it just allows us to do more uh as that program grows. I don't know if people probably don't know this, but we have actually a pretty large youth group for our church our size. We have about 55, 65 kids coming weekly um to our youth program here in Brooklyn, but we also have Mark's running our youth program over in Jackson. Yeah. How many do we have in Jackson each week?

SPEAKER_01 3:33

I'm gonna have a big change. I get about 15 students a week at Jackson campus, roughly. But my big change, I gave them a challenge to have uh 10 new kids come to youth group. And yesterday they got the 10th, 11th, and 12th kid. Wow. So my challenge was I was gonna dye my hair pink if they got that number. So about half of them want to get their higher hair dyed pink too. So we're gonna do like a whole schools out celebration event where we're gonna meet at the church and dye our hair pink. So that's been fun.

SPEAKER_03 4:01

That's great, that's exciting. So the pink squad.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:05

As you're holding a pink mic right now, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

So that's right. My color is pink.

SPEAKER_03 4:09

Foreshadowing there. Foreshadowing. This is this is thank you, Barbie. So um, so those are some big changes in in the world of Harley Lake. So that's been it's been awesome to see how as we continue to grow, God continues to put the pieces in place. And so we're still have more that we're looking to do as we move forward and to continue with our campaign. And as you're listening to this, we're in a we're in a really important, huge week for our church. We're about to go to our zoning board meeting for our park a lot. We hope that goes well. It's the our partner organization, Irish Health Sports and Rec. It's their big fundraiser, the Rising Star Gala this week. So just a big week for us at church. So if you're listening to this uh live, well you're not live, not live or the week of, then be praying for us, be praying for our church. But um, we're also in a series called Side Quest Life. And oh, I forgot, Cody wanted to talk about camp. If you have kids that want to go to camp, we as a church we support sending kids away to camp. The great thing about camp, and Carver, you can speak to this, you get to spend a year's worth of time with a high school kid during one week of camp, right?

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Yes. Because I mean you get even more because they that that's if the kid comes to every Sunday. If they come to every program, yeah. But and most kids don't do that. So getting one week with them is getting like more than you get in a whole year with a student.

SPEAKER_03 5:30

Right. So it is it is like a booster shot of kind of community, of faith, of growth. And so if you have a child, if you have a middle school student, if you have a high school student, like send them to camp. Like it's worth the investment. Yeah, there's a cost to it. We do get a special discount for being uh part of Summersoat Beach Camp with the community, and so we try to make it as affordable as we can for you to send your kids to camp. But I know I'll be there a lot this summer. Carver, you'll be there most of the summer working with our kids because you work in children's and middle school and high school ministry. Cody will be there, Mark, you'll be around. We're gonna be pouring into our kids and going to a doing it in a way that will hopefully lead to spiritual transformation in their lives when they come home, and you'll see change uh and that change will be changed that like God is moving in their heart and their mind. He's grabbing hold of their soul, and it's motivating them from the inside out. You're not they're not being forced to change, they're choosing to change because they're having a deep connection with Jesus Christ. And I think that's the exciting thing about what camp can do for children, for youth, and and really for adults as well.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

Yeah, I love camp just seeing kids that will come in the first day and they'll be a little shy, a little skittish. But like just seeing their, you know, camp just kind of breaks down people's walls and allows them to open up and like they're not the same by the end of the week just because they've they've got more friends, they've got more community, and they've been poured into and they've just they're kind of making, you know, life-changing commitments and changes, and camp's just a great, great time.

SPEAKER_03 6:54

Great, awesome. Ryan, now let's talk about side quest life. That's our new series that we are let's do it, we are in. And um, this is just kind of birth from my nerdy mind um that we're talking about the side quest of life versus the main quest of life. We talked about um the map, and everybody's got there's a map that you know, there's all these distractions that you all these things you can be involved in that keep you away from the main quest. And this last this week we talked about how in some games there's a line, a light that leads you to the main objective. And we said kind of like, wouldn't it be great if life had that line? And people are like, yeah, yeah, yeah, it'd be great. But it does. Like the Bible says in Psalm 119, 15, um, the word is a lamp to my feet and light to my path. It's very clear that on my phone, right here, I'm holding it up, is is my Bible, and that is that is my that's the guide, that's the arrow, that's the light, that's the line, and we just to follow it. And I think life's a lot easier when we do. Uh the problem is there is so many distractions. So, Ryan, as like you've you heard that message, you've heard the series. Like, how do you equate that in your own life? And what how does that speak to you, knowing like how important it is that there is a line to follow?

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Yeah, well, well, I I mean I said it before. I mean, I I know God knows that like parts of me are incompetent, so he's constantly like setting these things in in in motion. I I see it as, you know, like when I when I think of that line, I think of discernment, right? Like, how do I figure out what is the side quest and and um you know, and and what's the main quest. And and that's why I think God gives me all these different tools. I have all these, I have all these bumpers in my life, I have all these safe, godly people in my life that I can lean on, that I can run things through. I have these things like the culture of honor that allow me to to filter how I how I manage my relationships, right? I mean, I have all these different even just something, a simple one that I always ask myself, like, does it need to be said? Does it need to be said by me? Does it need to be said right now? And and I I run that through that. Yeah, like every time I'll be able to do it.

SPEAKER_03 8:54

Does it need to be said? Does it need to be said by me? And does it need to be said right now? Man, that would change so many relationships.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

And and if the answer is no to any of them, then the answer is no, just be quiet. Like it's it's not time to talk. And and and when all three of those are good.

SPEAKER_03 9:07

Does it also apply when you're just trying to make a really funny joke at the wrong time?

SPEAKER_00 9:11

All the time. Yeah, I was actually doing that that last night with Tara. Like I kind of giggled to myself like three times. She's like, What's going on? I'm like, no, it's yeah, just yeah. No, I have to.

SPEAKER_03 9:23

Patty made a comment last night. She was talking to the kids, and I just laughed. And like, she's she's all mad at me, and I'm like, there was nothing behind the laugh. I just thought what you said was funny. She's like, but like, like, like mean funny. No, it was just I thought it was funny. Like, but I was like, obviously, I shouldn't have laughed. She's like, I think that funny was you were trying to be mischievous. Or like, nah, I was just, I thought what you said, it was just it was I thought it was humorous. I was like, man, I can't even laugh. But like, um, I could see her perspective though. What what she said, me laughing probably would have felt like a dig, but it I just it was just I was walking to the room at the right exact time, and it just struck me as humorous, just the conversation. But I was like, there was really nothing behind that. But again, I if I asked myself those questions, I probably would have held the laugh. It's like, does this need to be said right now by me? You know, that's a good one, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

I I think with you know, and even just like really like kind of focusing on that side quest. I I I kind of feel like at least how I have it, if I'm if I'm doing it right, if I'm doing life right, I I should it should be hard to tell what my side quests are and what my main quests are, right? Like if I'm doing it right. Like, you know, all the things we have happening in our life right now between you know save a warrior and and and you know being a new pastor and and figuring out what that looks like and possibly buying a house, you know, close down from church and stuff. It's like there there a lot of that me and terror have actually been we had a side quest. Like, is this a side quest? Or is this a is this part of the main quest? Is it you know, does it enrich it, you know, all these different things, you know, help help glorify God. I mean they help build the kingdom. We're loving God, we're loving people. So, you know, it it's sometimes it is hard to discern those those side quests from the main quest, though.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

I do, I do think the side quest should enrich the main quest. I think that's the that's the thing. And it should steer us, it should enrich it and steer us back to the main quest. And it'd be part, it should be part of it. Like the side quest that I'm involved in, they're part of the main quest. I mean, like that's that's the goal. If they're not, I need to drop them. I need I need to drop them and do something else. And um there are times that we get side quests that become the main quest, and that's that becomes a major problem. So Carvers, you think through this and you work with students when we talk about like the side quest life, students are really great about finding side quests from video games to sports to activities to entertainment. Um how do you navigate this?

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Um that's a great question. Um, I think some things we can get stuck on and they can get stuck on is realizing that the side quests can kind of sometimes just be distractions from the main quest, and we can use them to keep us busy and keep us doing things that you know keep us away from completing that main that main quest. Because sometimes the main task is is difficult. It's not something you want to tackle, it's not something you want to think through or do. So you go on all these side quests that are less rewarding, less like achieving, and kind of just keep you distracted and keep you away from the main quest, whether that's just coming to youth group, opening your Bible, you know, sometimes it's the sports that take you away from youth group because they're like, oh, I want to play all these sports with my friends, but it's like all those sports have stuff on Sunday nights and they're not coming to youth group, or they're all busy all the time, so they have excuses for not reading their Bible, not praying. It's just all these side quests can sometimes distract them from the main quest. So it's kind of finding that that balance of yeah, the sports are fun, but you also have to make a commitment that like maybe you can't go to practice on Sunday nights, you have to come to youth group, or you can't do all these things because you have to make time for other priorities and actually conquer that main quest instead of just avoiding it.

SPEAKER_03 12:45

Right. The main quest requires sacrifice. I mean, side quests don't normally require sacrifice. And if they do, you're normally sacrificing the main quest for the side quest. I think that's the problem. And so um I think you can always turn a side quest back towards the main quest if you're intentional, that's the thing. So um even like you know, we all go play, go play cards together. Uh we go play in Jackson, but we've been able to utilize that to like to bring people to church. I mean, that's that's the reality of it. And like that is the main quest. Like, I want the people that I that I spend life with to know, love, and follow Jesus. I want to know Christ in my own life and make him known in the world. You can do that through sports and entertainment and media and arts. You can do that through all the things that we and get involved in, but you have to be intentional about it.

SPEAKER_02 13:31

And that can just as easily, you know, take people away from that. Because if we go to these, if we go and play cards, like you said, we that's bringing people to the church. But if we went and played cards and we didn't have good attitudes, we weren't good sports, we were just mean the whole time, and then they found out we were Christians, you guys were pastors, that would just as easily take them away from like coming to church and be like, oh, these guys, these guys are Christians, they go to church. I don't want any part of that. Whereas when we go, you know, we're positive, we know we lose, but we still have a good time with it and we have our fun.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Yeah, you would have failed that quest.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

Yeah, we would have failed that side quest.

SPEAKER_03 13:58

Failed that side quest, yeah. I usually lead with them a pastor, so then that has to I have to live up to that behavior. So like that's that's like, hey, I'm a pastor, yeah, I go pastor too. Now I have to like if I lose, have smile and have a good attitude. It's like because if not, they're gonna be like, well, this guy's a bad pastor. So uh I mean I think that's that's the intentionality. Now you're not all pastors, so it that doesn't work the same way, but you can lead like I'm a Christian, hey, you know, I I'm a Christian, I follow Jesus, I'm here because I love the Lord and just want to live life with people, and then you've got to live up to that Christian standard as well. The problem is we all know Christians who are hypocrites and don't follow a Christian standard of living, and that makes it really hard. But like we if you really believe it and the main quest is the main quest and I follow Christ, then it should change everything that you do in the main quest journey, in the side quest journey, and it should always be about Christ. And that's that's you can still enjoy life, you can still have favorite teams and favorite hobbies and favorite things that you do, but it should always enrich the main quest journey and keep you focused on that. And so as we get through this series, we are gonna talk more about the main quest. That's gonna be a last sermon, like the main quest. What is the main quest look like?

SPEAKER_01 15:03

The Christ quest.

SPEAKER_03 15:04

Yeah, the main quest, the Christ quest. The Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. How what what does the main quest life look like? And that's that's gonna be the thing I'm most excited about is to get to get to that point. We got one more week, and then we're gonna get there and talk about like how should your life look if you're living the main quest. And I think that's hard for people, and I think it's it's tough because I think I think for some people they're not gonna like that sermon. So because like, uh oh, that means I'm gonna have to give up time, talent, treasure for the Lord. And that's not something I really want to do. I I like I like the life that I have built for myself, and but I think that if you really want to live for Jesus, you need to like the life lived for Jesus more. I think that's the thing. I agree. Yeah, right. It's like nope, I agree. Anything you want to add, Mark.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Um I just want people to know it is easy for the side quest to distract you when you're walking through life and there's all these all these options and things you want to do and decisions you want to make. But I think it's important to assess and figure out and ask, is this gonna because normally it either grows you in Christ or pulls you away from Christ. There's yeah, there's not lukewarm. Lukewarm does no good. And so we got to assess what those what those quests look like. Is it gonna help us do what God wants us to do, or is it gonna pull us away from it? And if we're like, well, it it's it's kinda neither, I wrestle with that. Pray through that. Ask God, is this really n not neither? Because most likely it's not.

SPEAKER_03 16:36

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

So that's the thing I've tried to be cautious about and intentional about thinking through.

SPEAKER_03 16:42

Yeah. No, I think that's the more intentional you can be, the you know, I I said this on Sunday and I I love this phrase. If what you know, if you're not intentional, you're haphazard at best. And I think the problem is a lot of people who are not intentional about following Jesus are haphazard at following Jesus. And they just sometimes you know, we we read about we read about a Bible verse from Proverbs talking about how we swerve right and we swerve left. We don't follow the line. The goal is you follow the line of Jesus. But some of us are so haphazard in our faith, we just we cross the line every once in a while as we're swerving to and fro, living for ourselves. That is not a Christian walk. The Christian walk is to stay on the line and follow Jesus. And so I encourage you if you're if you're struggling to just stick with it. Um, God, God's way is not always easy, but it is always good. And there's always joy at the end of it, and there's always love and faith and trust and hope and all those good things as part of it. So if you need help, that's what the church is for. Uh we believe in following the main quest, making that the main thing in your life, but also finding ways to use those side quest things to enrich that journey and to help you keep pointing people back to Christ. So thanks for listening. We'll catch you on the next episode of the Hoddlecast.

unknown 18:08

Do another one, do another one.

SPEAKER_03 18:09

Can we do another one? You got