A God Sized Problem - Micheal Byrd

00:01 - Speaker 1 When I was in a small church, like I would ask bigger churches hey, could we use your curriculum? Like, what are you using? Yeah, we're using this, just pay $2,500 a year and then you can use it too. And I'm like $2,500 a year. You might as well say, you know, give us a million dollars, because Church of 40 cannot afford that. And so I always had this desire to give away curriculum. I tried writing my own curriculum and it just takes it's a ridiculous amount of time and then to write it at the quality and have videos at the quality that we needed it. How are we going to do this? It's like a God-sized problem. Hi, my name is Michael Byrd and I am a follower of Christ volunteering full-time for church apps and love doing all kinds of things, including RVing, hanging out in the wilderness as much as I possibly can, hiking and fishing. This is my Faithly Story. 00:48 - Speaker 2 Welcome to Faithly Stories, the podcast that brings you inspiring tales from conversations with church leaders as they navigate the peaks and valleys of their faith journeys through their ministry work and everyday life. Join us as we delve into their challenges, moments of encouragement and answered prayers. The Faithly Stories podcast is brought to you by Faithly, an online community committed to empowering church leaders, pastors, staff and volunteers. Learn more at faithlyco. Get ready to be uplifted and inspired as we unveil the heart of faith through stories from the front lines of ministry. On the Faithly Stories podcast. 01:29 - Speaker 3 Could you share how your faith journey started? 01:32 - Speaker 1 Sure. So my faith journey started probably when I was born, because my parents were both heavily involved in the church Always. My dad has been a minister all my life, but I really didn't take Christianity seriously Probably until I was about 11, 12,. Our church always had this passion play where basically it was just like Jesus's resurrection and his death and his resurrection, and they did really really well. It's something they put a lot of time into and one night during that I was watching and it just dawned on me Jesus died for me, not for my parents, not for anybody else, but personally for me and for the sins that I did, so that I could live with him forever. And that was it. 02:21 I was sold, and so I told my dad and then, like a good dad, he said well, all right, let's keep thinking about it. And I brought it up several different times. I was persistent and he knew that it was time and so I was baptized. And I won't say that I've been living perfectly ever since then, but I've been doing the very best that I can and sometimes, probably during college, I realized, or about when I was 19, 18, 19, I really got a calling to to go full-time ministry. I've been fighting it. I didn't want to do it, I knew that I should, and then, you know, god just spoke to me and was like hey, quit messing around. And uh, and so I did. I went full-time ministry and follow him as close as I can ever since. 03:05 - Speaker 3 So what were some of the things after, I guess, your conversion at 12 that made you think about ministry. 03:13 - Speaker 1 Yeah, so really the biggest things that happened for me is I love traveling. Anytime I can go anywhere, I'm all about it. And in the Christian world that means mission trips, right, and so I went on several Mexico mission trips and just absolutely loved it. But during those missions trips I really just find myself serving others and growing closer to God. And so the school that I was at there was a Westland mission trip that was offered to go to Russia. 03:44 And so when I I was 16 for the first time, I went to russia and what we did was there's like a three-week camp that was in russia. Um, that was really supposed to be like a communist camp, I mean, that's what it was, but they really liked the fact of western influence so americans could come in. And so we got to come in and basically have an american camp which we had chapel at every night. I'm never calling it Christian camp or anything but what it was is just hanging out with like 700 Russian kids all the way from like fourth grade to 18 years old. And here I am, 16, three weeks in Russia. 04:21 Vladimir Russia is where I was, and I mean three weeks in Russia. Vladimir Russia is where I was, and I mean, man, it was awesome, it was really cool to be able to talk in Russia. They they want to actually understand. Like they have tea all the time, and so we'd sit down and have tea, and then they'd ask me about Christ and like, why are you following him? And I really had to dig into my faith right there, and that's, that is what really transformed, I think, a lot of my faith journey. And then the next year I did it again and just absolutely loved it. So that was a big, a big part of of just growing in my faith. 04:58 - Speaker 3 What are some of the things that you learned during these mission trips? And the reason why I ask is because, like, a lot of people kind of look down on mission trips, especially short-term ministry, especially with teenagers, because it's kind of like you know you go for fun, but there's just so many times I hear stories about like how transformational it was, and so for you, like what were the benefits that you gained out of those trips and how did that shape like who you are as a pastor? 05:22 - Speaker 1 Yeah, absolutely so. And this specific, like who you are as a pastor, yeah, absolutely so. In this specific and I don't know if it's like this for everybody, but for me I really had to rely on God. We're on the middle of nowhere, russia it gets really lonely and after you know, two weeks of being there, like all you want to do is just go home and so, and that's not an option, and so you have to dig into your faith and you know, know we can grow up like I, I could I don't know, maybe you too, like in america, and really hardship is not a thing. Like you just don't face hardship, like you don't face being hungry. 05:55 In russia I faced being hungry, like some of the meals there were I could not eat, and so I was hungry. And so that hardship really made me realize like I've got, I can't rely on myself, I've got to rely on God. And so I would say that's the biggest thing that I learned, and that goes for even the Mexico trips. Man, I mean, after a year I remember we dug a trench for the septic tank, me and all my friends. I mean you dig that thing all day long, and the Mexican son like man, and that's a real hardship. And you're doing it with each other. And then at night you're like, hey, we're going to go have a worship service. And then all of a sudden you're like I feel energized, like I feel ready to go, and so I would say that answers the question, like hardship made me understand that I had to rely on God. So, just to rely on God, yeah. 06:45 - Speaker 3 No stewardship bringing made me understand that I had to rely on god. So just to reliance on god, yeah, no, that's great thanks. So, like what happened in college, that you're just like begrudging and indecisive, and then it kind of pushed forward so really, it's probably my high school year, you know, and it was that, just this. 06:57 - Speaker 1 I knew I'd already been on the trips, I knew what I really needed to do, but I I really wanted to go somewhere where I could make a lot of money and I was close enough to the ministry to know, if I jump into ministry, that is not going to be my life. I mean, that was just as simple as that. That that's what was holding me back. So I had the choice basically to just continue working right out of high school or go to Ozark. Christian College is where I went, and that was kind of the path to get into ministry from my perspective back then. And I only stayed at Ozark for one year. I really hated school too, like I never, never got along with studying and I just I don't like school, and so that was pulling me. But it was in Mexico where I literally felt I got down on my knees behind a cabin there and I know that God told me like hey, you're going to Ozark, so quit, quit messing around. So I did, and that was their one year, and there was a church in South Haven, mississippi, that needed a youth minister intern. So I'm like, awesome, I'll jump and go. It's around Memphis. And so I went to Memphis and was there for the summer and they said, hey, what we really want is you to just stay on. You're doing a great job, could you stay on? And they go to Mid-South Christian College, which is like a small college, and work at FedEx at nights. That way you can pay for it all. So I'm like, yeah, I only need four hours of sleep a night, so I'm good there, and so you know how you are when you're 19. So that's what I did. I did that for two years and just absolutely loved it. 08:32 It was it's one of those things where, like I didn't really feel like God. I knew that he wanted me on the path to Ozark and I liked Ozark, it's a great college. I got A's and B's there my first year, which is a tough college, but I didn't feel like that's really where I needed to be. When I was serving in ministry, that's where I felt like, oh man, this is right, where God wants me and you just have a piece about it. So that's kind of where I started from there and how I. It wasn't really that much of a big deal. I mean when God speaks to you listen. That's what I've been told all my life and and I that experience I haven't. I don't have it all the time, and it's not like I hear God's voice all the time or feel like I see him, like physically, all the time. But in that instance I did, and it it scared me enough to say, yeah, this is what I need to do so. 09:21 - Speaker 3 Is Ozark any relation to the Netflix show Ozark, like in the Great Lakes? No, okay, where's Ozark? 09:27 - Speaker 1 Very, very far apart. So Joplin, missouri is Ozark Christian College. So, like a lot of people probably know, by their next level content, if you're on RightNow Media then they serve all the next level content, which is professors talking about pretty much every book of the Bible. 09:45 - Speaker 3 So what were you doing in? What was the church? 09:46 - Speaker 1 called the Christ View Christian Church in South Haven Mississippi. 09:50 - Speaker 3 Yeah, you were working with children or youth, or yes? 09:53 - Speaker 1 So I was the children slash, youth slash, anything that needed to be done in the church. Yeah, so there's a senior guy and me, and so I mean what I was doing, I don't know. Like this is my first ministry. I'm like, hey, we got to have a draw for kids and so youth ministry obviously I was like it's going to be awesome, let's make a sand volleyball court. And so I spent some time like finding out there's a guy working down the road and I had him come dig a hole and then I brought sand in. We had a sand volleyball court. We get kids there on Saturday nights and I'll be like, hey, come back on Sundays. They never did. Had a lot, a lot of fun. We got into the word some, probably more fun than getting into the word children's ministry. I was literally like hey, let's read a Bible story and then go outside and play, you know. So sorry, Christview, it wasn't my best when it comes to ministry, but they allowed me to learn, which was really, really cool, and so I was part-time there doing it. 10:51 - Speaker 3 No, I think that's so important. Like, especially people like you're 19. Like, what do we know at 19? And they kind of just throw you in the fire. I mean it's a miracle that like nothing bad happened and you, like you said, you gave them a wonderful experience of church and I think that's the best and you learned a lot too. So where did you transition after that? 11:12 - Speaker 1 Yeah, so Christview is actually where I met my wife, carrie, and so we got married shortly after I met her. In fact, it was like nine months after we met we were married and we were there at Christview for a little bit, married together. But it was getting hard because, like I has beautiful wife that I just married and love spending all kinds of time with her. But I only had four hours to sleep because I was still working FedEx part-time at going to college and doing the ministry. And so then she got pregnant and we're like, okay, we've got to find a bigger as something that's going to sustain our family. So we actually started looking and we ended up in Lexington, tennessee. Actually, they called us and this was more so Christ, for you was probably about 70 people, lexington Tennessee. 12:00 Lexington Christian Church at the time was like 150 and growing. I think they peaked when I was there like 200, somewhere around there. But they wanted me to do the same thing youth and children and I learned a little bit. You know I'm only like 21 at this point. So it was nice to have a fresh start and to be able to say, okay, like here's what we're going to do and move forward from there. So I moved from Christview to Lexington and no longer working FedEx, I'm working full time at the church, which was awesome. It's exactly what I knew God wanted me to do. 12:33 - Speaker 3 So how did you meet your wife? 12:36 - Speaker 1 That's an interesting story. So her dad actually, he came to the church and did a revival and then at the end of the revival he liked that I was working so hard and doing my best. I'm sure he didn't see like, oh wow, he's an amazing youth minister. Like you said, I didn't really know what I was doing, but he liked my work ethic and he also saw that. You know, here I am a boy from Kansas, I'm a long ways from home just doing ministry. He said, hey, I've got two daughters, one's 21, one's 17. You know, would you like to talk to them? Like there's somebody to talk to? And I'm like, yeah, let me have the number of the 17 year old. And then, uh, yeah, nine months later we were married. Three months later we were engaged and so, um, that's how I met Carrie and, uh, he, it turned out all right for him. I guess he, he about that. 13:25 - Speaker 3 He conned you into a partner in the ministry. He really did Wait. So what about her that like connect with you? 13:32 - Speaker 1 Well, what about her? That connected with me? Yeah, the first time I talked to her, like just the sweetest voice on the phone and just kind of curious about what I was doing, and she was so interested in the ministry, like you know well, in children's ministry. Really, what are you doing, like, how are you helping me out there? Like, from day one just wanted to be a partner in what I was doing. I knew if I was going to have a wife that was going to go long-term with me, then they're going to have to love the ministry. And like her heart for the ministry was just right there. And then just the fact that she was willing to kind of wait on because she lived an hour and a half away and so you know, and I was really busy but she was still willing to kind of wait around and then actually the first date that we went on she's so sweet and I knew that I was going to marry her, and so I actually called my mom on the way home and said, hey, I found the girl I'm going to marry and that was it. It's another one of those things, god, sometimes it just clicks Like, yeah, this is, this is a girl for me what was your first date? So I went to Charleston's and I've got a steak. 14:43 At this point, you know, I felt like I'm working part-time at FedEx. I didn't have very many bills, I had four roommates and a one bedroom apartment so I kept my cost way down. You know, guys sleeping in bunk beds in the living room, that's how we rolled. And so I'm like, yeah, we're going Charleston's get a steak. She got a chicken salad and I'm like, come on and I I got a steak. And then we went to, uh, the movies and watched. Oh gosh, it's like the I can't remember the name of the movie, but she remembers that night like I was very shy. I didn't have very many like girlfriends that would date around that type of thing. So I put my hand like in the small of her back when we walked out the door and she said that was when I was like, oh wow, I really like this guy. So I don't know, got a little too romantic here for that. 15:29 - Speaker 3 You put me, danny the hand in the back works all the time. I see that on like instagram too we're really going out there. All right, so you're newly married about? Oh, you had a kid and you're in um. Was it tennessee or kentucky? Uh, no, lexington, tennessee, since in tennessee. 15:45 - Speaker 1 Yeah, so Lexington, tennessee, you know, the senior guy left which happened to be Carrie's dad. So I ended up working with him and he left. And then about two years later, you know, sometimes when a church hire somebody, they don't really do a background check and that's bad. And this is where I learned that lesson. And so we hired a guy that was really in a lot of debt and he just wasn't like he. He was renting the secretary's house and just never, never paid any rent. He actually bought my car but never paid me anything for it. So it's a bad situation. And he also didn't have his beliefs, didn't line up with the way that that I believed from what I could see in the Bible and what the church had traditionally believed. So I went to him and just said, you know, I've got some problems and he did not respond to those. And so, like the Bible says, I went to other brothers, I brought it up in an elders meeting and he ended up leaving. And I learned a lesson there. You know, like as soon as he left, like it was a good thing, I thought it was a good move for the church. 16:53 It was a hard time. It's a hard way to lead through ministry, especially as the youth minister. But then after that happened, kind of the church wanted me to take over senior ministry and I did not want to do that. So that was, that was rough. And then we didn't have a ministry anymore and some people were mad and so I ended up just saying, you know what, I don't think this is a good place for me to be right now. And I took a little break. So we had already had John Michael and we got pregnant again with Joel. So Joel was in the oven, as they say, and it was just a horrible time to say, hey, you know what, I think we're going to have to find another job. And so I kind of left that elders meeting and said, hey guys, I'm done. I didn't know what I was going to do. I started working at a factory and just really praying. And you know what's interesting is I can say without a doubt that is that time in my life is when I got closer to God than I've ever been. I was right back in Russia, lonely, nothing I had to rely on God, didn't have any money, didn't know what I was like. This is a dumb idea. I'm working at a factory. I remember going out and just like the lunches I would just pray God, please help. You know, whatever I'm supposed to do, just show me what I'm supposed to do. 18:09 We looked at several churches. Churches wanted us to come in Kentucky. Just it wasn't right. And so, and we're like, who are we to? You know, beg, Like we don't have, we don't. Beggars can't be choosers, right. But I knew at this point I want a ministry that is going to help my family and also that I'll be able to pour into. And so one ministry wouldn't work. A couple others we looked at. 18:33 And then we got a call from Glenn Liston in Katy Texas, at a church of like 750 and growing. And they're like, okay, here's what we need is a children's minister. And I'm like I'm out, I'm a youth minister, I'm like 24 at this point. And Glenn's like, no, here's the deal, I want you to come down and check out the church. We're going to fly you up, we'll pay for everything, you just come in and check it out. And so we went to this church in Katy Texas and really Glenn picked us up at the airport, the senior guy there. I was just like, wow, this is, I can work here and we actually talked before we even went. We talked to the youth minister's wife, which is Julie Peterson, and she's to this day, julie and Jeremy are best friends. And when we got on the phone she was from Oklahoma, which we were. I grew up in Tyro, kansas, which is right across the border, so we grew up in the same area. It just clicked and so we went and checked it out, loved it. Glenn said don't worry, you're going to be the children's minister only one year and then we're going to hire a junior high minister and that can be you. And then you know, I'm like okay. 19:44 So moved to, moved to Katy, texas, as soon as Joel was born, like a week after he was born, and then, which was like in July, august, it was so hot, it was ridiculous hot. So we got there and, man, I fell in love with children's ministry. And it was probably because his leadership made me understand that what children's ministry was and how it really fit my gifts. And so first thing he said was like hey, find the best children's ministry in the United States and I want you to go to that church and learn how to do that. I'm like okay. 20:20 So I started doing research. I ran into Willow Creek at the time. That was the biggest. The best children's ministry was Sue Miller. There I said, glenn, I think this is where I need to go. He's like all right, dude, book the tickets. I'd never been in a church where there's money to book plane tickets. What is this? And so I booked tickets. I went to Chicago. I hung out with their team. 20:43 In fact, I just got back from a conference and realized David Roche, that is now Go Curriculum, he was there at the time and so I just loved the way that they did small group, large group and like this whole philosophy around like children have to have fun in church or they're not going to learn the word of God, like it's got to be fun. And I'm like I love this. And so from there, man, I was all children's ministry. That junior high position like thing came up and Glenn mentioned something about it. I'm like, no way, I'm in this, I'm loving it. 21:14 And so I had a great ministry in Katie for about five years four years I think and it was incredible. God really showed me a lot of different things. And then now, looking back at my life, it's like, wow, I went from a church of. I mean when I say 70, barely 70, like 45 is, you know, all the way to a church of 700. And there's a lot of differences, but there's a lot of similarities. And one thing that's similar is kids are kids and they need Jesus. And so, yeah, that was the next step in hot Houston, texas. That's where we ended up. 21:51 - Speaker 3 I'm Lexington, I think your father-in-law picked a good one for his daughter, because I admire your willingness not to sacrifice your family's well-being for the sake of the call, because I see a lot of that happening of like oh, if we just struggle here and there. But I think what you're experiencing with that church in Houston is it's a good thing. Like you need this mutual benefit of each other. Otherwise pastors can use and like abused and like squeezed out. So I'm glad you got that experience. Yeah. 22:21 - Speaker 1 Yeah, and that was. I mean. I probably learned a lot of that, which was working with your father-in-law as a senior guy. You know it could be like a nightmare to some people, but I learned a ton of good things from him and that was probably more his influence. And slow down, you know, I know that you're 24, 25, but slow down and really think like if my family was here, how could we? What does it look like? 22:47 - Speaker 3 And so, yeah, I want to backtrack a little bit. I mean, you don't have to get into too much, too many specifics, but what was like some of the things you? 22:58 - Speaker 1 disagree with that you wanted to bring up with that previous pastor. Yeah, so the biggest thing was basically over baptism. And you know, in the non-denominational faith we believe in Acts 2.38, where it talks about you know, what must we do to be saved, repent, be baptized, and that's. You know that that's it for us. And so when we would have people that would come forward, he would say, yeah, well, it's, it's not that big of a deal. Maybe we get baptized in a couple of weeks or whatever. And you know, I mean that's. 23:27 I'm not going to get into a debate with people whether that's right or wrong, but I can tell you that if you're going to teach something, look at the Bible, see what it says, follow as close as you can. We know that it does talk about baptism in the Bible. It's there. We can't deny it. Now there are some cases where you could say, well, these people didn't get baptized, okay. But if your way is right, like Jim, if we don't baptize people and we're wrong because we're not very smart, we're just humans after all then we're really wrong. But if I'm wrong and you know people don't need to be baptized and that's what the Bible is saying, but we still baptize them, we're okay. And so when it comes to teaching man, I really feel like you need to teach that baptism is a part of salvation and that's what the church believed too. 24:14 And and he, just he didn't. And it was in in the elders meeting. I actually pointed out three or four things and then I brought that up and said you know, this is it. And actually the elders at the church said well, you know, michael, we need to give Jim another chance, like he's need to give Jim another chance. Like he's, he needs to have another chance. And he stood up and said no, michael's absolutely right, and I'm going to resign because we should not have been living the life that we were living. And so it was tough. Man, standing up for your faith and what you really believe can sometimes put you in a path where you feel like you're all alone. And you know, I'm not the judge. I don't know, I can't tell you for sure, but I know what I believe and I got to stick to that. That that was the major thing. 25:02 - Speaker 3 Yeah, you did what you thought was right and for the count of the church. But you know you got to leave the outcome to God. But just to clarify, he kind of like denied baptism or he just minimized it. 25:14 - Speaker 1 We probably just more minimized it, and that was kind of the spiritual thing that was wrong. The bigger things that were wrong was he was misusing money loan sharks for calling the church Like it was. It was it was ridiculous, like there's no way that he could have continued on. 25:29 - Speaker 3 Yeah, I didn't want to get into all that thing. That's just another, because church and money, and you know that's just in your way, oh man. 25:35 - Speaker 1 Yeah, okay. 25:36 - Speaker 3 So let's kind of fast forward a little bit. How did you get connected with church apps? 25:41 - Speaker 1 Yeah. So, um, after Katie and Houston, I actually got a. There's a new guy that came in and there's a lot of things that we just weren't really seeing eye to eye on the way that the ministry should go, and nothing real big, but it was like I think it's time for us to move again and thank goodness that I have a awesome wife and family, because she was like all right, if God's calling us to move, then we need to move. And so we kind of put it out there that we were looking and Cedar Ridge Christian Church, which is now called Ridge Christian and Broken Arrow, oklahoma, called us and said hey, we need a children's minister and we think that you're the right guy for the job. We're kind of a unique campus because we have 700 at the main campus, but then we have a multi-site situation where we have a campus in Sepulveda, oklahoma, and then next year we're going to have a campus in Coweta and and we're hoping to go to, like you know, seven, eight campuses. I'm like that's what, that's a challenge, like, that's what I need. And so I I was on board there, we moved to cedar ridge and just did ministry there. 26:44 I really learned a lot about multi-site and how to get in children's ministry. So multi-site is one thing and then multi-site children's ministry a lot of times can just be kind of left behind, like oh, it doesn't matter, but there's a lot of stuff that has to happen behind the scenes. For children's ministry Mainly, I had classrooms that were spread out over 300 miles and I had to have the content on the TVs for the teachers every Sunday morning and so that turns into kind of a job and so I learned how to do that as efficiently as I can using dropbox, pro, presenter stuff like that during this time. I also because, like in ministry, there's not enough money. As my kids got older, like I realized I'm gonna have to, I'm gonna have to find some more money somewhere. Not to mention every time that I've talked about moving, we've lost ten $10,000 on the house. Just that's the way it goes in the world. And so I basically started a couple of small businesses and learning kind of the entrepreneurial side of me and so doing that, learning how to do multi-site. 27:49 There was two girls in our children's ministry, carrie and I I call it ours because we did ministry 100% together and they were those parents, like the kids of the parents that just every time you'd send something home, they would like, you know, fill out the paper. Whatever we need to do, you know they're just on it and they're awesome. And so we do like memory verses on Wednesday nights and they'd be the first ones to go through all the book and memorize them. Get all the bugs, Like they were. Just they were on top, just amazing. 28:19 I, katrina and Allie, and so, yeah, uh, I, unbeknownst to me, their dad was a coder and he kind of had been watching what I was doing with those businesses and with a couple other things and like how I got technology into the classrooms and and dealt with the multi-site watching. Digital signage is what I was into, and so at the same time he was watching me I had no idea, but kind of backing up a little bit when I left Haiti, there was a guy there that basically he loved Jeremy, which I mentioned Jeremy Peterson and me like doing ministry together, and then we were in a place where we weren't doing ministry together. He's like, hey, why don't, why don't you guys come back and start a church in Bel Air? And we're like you know, what the church really needs is they need this, something that puts us together, but something to help with technology. These small churches have no idea how to even get a website up, but they go into, you know, whatever it's going to cost them tons of money. And at this point it's like, oh gosh, was it 2019 or something like that? There's just well well, no, it was about 2009. There's just tons of people going on jumping on this, like churches need websites, and then you could pay and you get a monthly fee and we're like, dude, it doesn't cost that much. Uh, so let's start something to do. That he agreed. So he funded a non-profit called live church solutions and that we kind of made websites. We gave like 40 churches. We're just giving them websites. We even bought their domain names, you know, just to try to help out churches. And we would go to churches and like help them with their tech, which is like one by one, and so fast forward. 30:00 Now I'm in Cedar Ridge. This guy that's been there had his daughters in children's ministry. He comes to me and he's like hey, I've kind of got this. Like I know about your digital signage, I think I can help you scale it. And I'm like what is scale, which is, you know, I'm a children's minister running a tech company, and so he did know how to scale it. I went from using Raspberry Pis to have an Amazon Firestick app to be able to sell what we had all over the world. And then behind that he's like, well, really, what I want to do is, you know, I've got this idea for like a nonprofit that would help churches with technology. I'm just not sure which direction to go. I'm like, well, I've got this nonprofit over here. We started looking at it, and then Church Apps was born, because Live Church Solutions is a horrible name, and so we got rid. Because Live Church Solutions is a horrible name, and so we got rid of Live Church Solutions. 30:48 The guy that was doing that turned out to be a coder, and he is incredible, and so he started coding a church management software. Because I said you know, churches need a church management software. That is not something that you have to spin up a NET server with and not something that you're going to have to pay monthly for, because small churches need this. I didn't really think about it. I explained to him what we did with Planning Center, what would be cool, the structure of it. A year and a half later he came back and said I coded a church management software. Why don't you check it out? That's where church apps started. That's how I got connected. God put all the pieces together because if you look at it in hindsight it's like well, if I wouldn't have left Lexington, if I wouldn't have gone here, it wouldn't have been started if I wouldn't have known God had a plan. It's very easy to see in hindsight. 31:37 - Speaker 3 So what are some of the products that you guys currently offer? 31:40 - Speaker 1 Yeah, so obviously a church management software. What's it called? It's called Chums. So if you go to churchappsorg you can find all of them listed there. But the church management software is very comfortable to, I'd say like a breeze at this point, almost like a planning center. It'll do everything that planning center will do in there. And then we have lessonschurch. 32:00 So that was the next one. I'm all children's ministry. So I'm like, hey, here's what we really need. And I noticed this when I was in a small church. I would ask bigger churches hey, could we use your curriculum? What are you using? Yeah, we're using this. Just pay $2,500 a year and then you can use it too. And I'm like $2,500 a year. You might as well say give us a million dollars, because church at 40 cannot afford that. 32:28 And so I always had this desire to give away curriculum. I tried writing my own curriculum and it just takes it's ridiculous amount of time and then to write a quality and have videos at the quality that we needed it. You know, it was just like this how are we going to do? It's like a god-sized problem. And so I basically said, you know, prayed about it and started reaching out to people. We got connected with a publisher through side presenter that I was working with, I was like, hey, is there a curriculum that that somebody would sell us so that we could just give to churches? He's like you know, there's this. There's this church in Conroe, texas it's called the Art, and they've been working for like 10 years on this curriculum and it's pretty good. I think you should go talk to them. So we did. Turns out they'd spent a million million plus dollars on making a curriculum that was for their church, but also with the idea that they would be able to share it with other churches. And we said well, what if we build a platform that would allow people to schedule out like a year's worth of curriculum and then it automatically shows up on their TVs, on their iPhone apps? We can spread it around the world. If we did that, would you give us all the curriculum for free? And they're like absolutely, that's our heart, that's what we want to do. So that's where lessonschurch started and that's one of our products, and then from there we've got all kinds of. It's a great platform. So ozark christian college, which I mentioned before, next level resources, I mean you can pay for right now or you can get them all free on lessonschurch. And then we have, uh, several others that, and it really is just a hub for people to be able to schedule their curriculum out. So that's that's the second product. 34:04 And then b1. So b1 goes back to the original idea of giving people websites, but now, in 2024, it actually looks like Wix, and so you can make your own website. It's all a hundred percent free. We hosted a hundred percent free. You tie your domain to it through a C name, and so if you're comparing it to something, I would compare it to like a subsplash. And so we have the app. It's the B1 app, and you can schedule, you can put whatever you want to on there. It also works with chums and lessonschurch, and so that kind of ties everything together. And then it brings in sermons too. So B1.church is another one, and then lessonschurch B1, is another one, and then lessonschurchb1. 34:51 Sorry, we have a couple free show, and so a free show is another god story. We started doing this I guess we really started with church house about four years ago, going hard, and then a couple years ago we ran into free show and we're like what is this? And if you haven't checked out free show. Free show is basically pro presenter, but a hundred percent free. And, um, there was. 35:10 We figured out who was writing the code for it and they had the same heart that we did at Christopher. And so we called him and said, hey, he's 23 in Bible college. Like, what do you want to do with your life? You're going to be a preacher. Is that why you're about? He's like no man. If I could just code all day long and then give it all to the church, that's what I'd want to do with my entire life. And we're like we got to hire this guy and so we did. And so he came onto the team and he is in Norway. He codes every day and as part of that, basically FreeShow became part of the church apps family and so we've taken it and helped him develop that even more. And so, yeah, I think those are all the apps. 35:52 - Speaker 3 So what is your hope for? Let's just say you get super famous and successful, like what is the dream, yeah, not to be super famous and successful. 36:01 - Speaker 1 We want to make God and Jesus super famous and successful, and the way that we feel like we can do that is through open source software. So to date, there is some open source software that's for the church. I'm thinking of RockRSim, I think is what it's called. It's probably the biggest one. It's a church management software, but you have to spin up a NET server. It's great guys, a great team working behind that, but the average church of 40 can't do it, and so we really feel like Acts 4, it talks about all the churches. When they had all their needs, they came together, and we feel like we can do that in the digital space, and so that's our hope. 36:42 Is not that you know that we'll be famous for this. We are putting this out for the church. In fact, if you go to GitHub, you can download and use 100% of our code. It is truly open source, and so our hope is that within by 2030, we're saving the church over $4 million every year so that that money can go back into ministry. This year so far, we've saved the church around $180,000 since two years ago, $287,000, something like that. We're trying to double that every year to get us to that goal, and then beyond there. 37:22 So, I mean, just think of all the ministry that could be done and could be done more efficiently if the church of 40 has the same tools as a church of 10,000. And that's right now. It's completely possible. In fact, I would say that Lessons Church will hold up to anything that any big church anywhere has, like it is. It's the top, and so if you're a church of 40, then you're able to use the best of the best, and so not that we want to continue doing all this, and it's happening. That's what's really cool about this is we started it, but now we talk to people all over the world, all over the globe, that are contributing to our code. I mean, it's open source, that's how open source works, and, um, we just feel like that's what God would want, and so that's what we're trying to do. I like your shirt. Ministry is hard. 38:12 - Speaker 3 We make it easier. And also for the audience. Michael does a weekly demo on Faithly yeah To show the product. So let me ask you the last two questions. What are you hoping for at Faithly? What am I hoping for at? 38:27 - Speaker 1 Faithly. So Faithly is really cool because it connects all the church leaders together, so I hope that Faithly grows to get every church leader there. That's the spot where they go, because from there we can help network out and show people that these are the products we have. So we feel like church apps and faithfully work really good together and so our hopes and faithfully is that people will see what we're doing, understand it, be able to jump on. Right now we're offering tutorials through lessonschurch. We haven't had a lot of people doing them, but we want more and so hopefully more people will do those and then we're going to open it up to chums to free show all of our apps. So that faithfully is kind of like a learning hub for everybody that wants to learn more about this open source software and utilize it in their churches and save money in their churches. 39:19 - Speaker 3 And how can we be praying for you? 39:25 - Speaker 1 Yeah, so pray as we grow. It needs more and more and more and more, which is great, and so we get feedback all the time. Hey, if I had a video for this, if I had this, and we're trying to do that. So we need more volunteers, we need more prayer warriors, we need more money that's always a thing, and so I pray that God provides that, so that we're able to continue to grow and make this a reality. 39:51 - Speaker 3 Thanks Michael, this was fun. Yeah, thank you All. Right, that's it for the podcast. Bye, guys. 39:56 - Speaker 2 Thank you for tuning in to the Faithly Stories podcast. We pray this episode gave you the encouragement you needed to continue on your journey. The Faithly Stories podcast is brought to you by Faithly, an online community committed to empowering church leaders, pastors, staff and volunteers. The Faithly digital platform offers innovative and practical tools and resources to enhance connection, foster collaboration and promote growth within the church and ministry space. Remember to subscribe, rate and review our podcast to help reach more listeners like you. Stay tuned for more uplifting tales from the front lines of ministry on the Faithly Podcast. Stay bold, stay faithful and never underestimate the power of your own story.