Playing the Long Game - Pastor Justin Buzzard | Faithly Podcast

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And we need men paying attention to their desires and sorting them out with Lord and with community.

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But so long as they are good desires, chase those desires.

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Love God with all your heart and go after those.

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This is the Faithly Podcast.

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Welcome to the Faithly Podcast.

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My guest today is Pastor Justin Buzzard.

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He is the lead pastor of Garden City Church in Silicon Valley.

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He is also an author, and he's written books such as Date Your Wife and The Big Story.

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I had the pleasure of hearing Justin preach this summer at a church in Long Island, and within minutes, I found myself thinking, I need to have Pastor Justin on the podcast.

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So today, we're going to hear his story from planting his church in Silicon Valley to his decision to play college football at age 47.

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I have so many questions and lots of other stuff, too.

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Pastor Justin, it's great to have you.

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Thanks for having me, and thanks for walking up to me a couple weeks ago in a church service.

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Yes, absolutely, and thank you for being open to it.

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So, you were guest preaching, and the lead pastor of the church, when he introduced you, he said he had never met you in person before.

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He said that you guys exchanged emails for 15 years, and then one day you said yes.

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You came to Long Island.

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You even brought two out of your three sons.

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And I thought those must have been some pretty great emails.

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Yeah, I was 15 or so years ago, Mark Middlecoff, Pastor of Grace, Presbyterian Church in Hamptons.

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Somehow we got connected.

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I have no memory how, other than like he's a church planter that planted a few years ahead of me.

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Somehow we got connected and he wrote me a memorable email that I've saved.

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And it was a real long email, but it was really good.

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And it was basically about trusting God and how big and how good he is as you pioneer new territory and plant church.

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And so I've saved that.

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And like every couple of years, I've gone back and reread that as like in a reference folder.

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And yeah, so we've never met, but the last couple years, he's invited me to come preach at his church when I take part of July and vacation with my wife's family out in Boston.

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He said, hey, come drive down and preach.

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It hasn't worked out the last few years, but it did, you know, just this last month to do so.

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And he said, hey, come stay at our house and preach.

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And I said yes, and I brought two of my sons with me, and I was driving down with them, telling them, boys, this is either going to go great or terrible.

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I've never met this guy.

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I don't know what he's really like in real life.

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I've not met his wife.

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I've not met his kids.

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I don't know what his...

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vibe is like at his house so uh no matter what it's going to be an adventure but we're either going to really enjoy this guy and his family or we're going to say that was super weird but we'll have stories and it was great i i really like mark really enjoy his family we had a blast we had a four hour long dinner around the table uh just telling stories and laughing super hard we had a lot of fun so it was a great adventure

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Now, what I love about what you shared is that your friendship, it wasn't transactional, right?

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Like there was no agenda.

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There was no immediate opportunity, just 15 years of staying in touch.

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And that seems really rare to me.

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It seems like you and Pastor Mark are guys who understand the long game of relationships, especially in ministry.

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Can you talk a little bit about that?

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Well, I mean, I guess I would start just by saying life is impossible without friends, without friendship.

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We're created in the image of a relational God.

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We're created to enjoy friendship and we thrive with friendship.

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And unfortunately, some of the people who are the weakest in friendship are men as they get older and pastors.

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So many pastors do not have strong friendships and a variety of reasons to that.

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They spend all their time caring for people in their church, thinking that they just need to be the caregiver, the pastor, the shepherd, not realizing that they also need friends where you're just kind of on equal level, enjoying each other and where people are moving towards you.

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and initiating with you, caring for you, checking in on you.

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And so, yeah, I mean, Mark, I hadn't met him in person yet, but it's been a great email, you know, friendship, but even more so just here locally in Silicon Valley with where I live and so many of the pastors that I work with and some of the men that I work with, friendship is a topic that I am seeking to live out and talk about.

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all the time.

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I mean, there is definitely a loneliness epidemic and a friendship crisis, particularly with pastoral leaders.

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So people need friends.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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And I want to come back to this when we talk about your men's ministry later.

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But let's go back to the beginning.

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Can you tell me more about your faith journey and your call into ministry?

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Yeah, God got a hold of my life at a really young age.

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Praise to Him for that.

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I grew up with a Christian mom and a non-Christian dad, but a dad who now is walking with the Lord.

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And my mom just had a passion.

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She grew up in a really dysfunctional family.

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And as God got a hold of her heart, which was shortly before she got married, she got married at a young age,

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God just put it on her heart, man, I want my kids to know the Lord.

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So as she got pregnant, her faith really began to take off.

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And God just used her.

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She discipled me.

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I went and saw the movie Star Wars with her when I was, I can't remember if I was four or five, four or five.

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And in the movie, I saw people die.

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And I think that's the first time as a young kid I kind of thought about that.

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And what I remember super clearly was driving home from the movie theater with my mom and asking her mom what happens to people when they die.

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And what was so clear was she just pulled over on the side of the road.

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And I'm like, oh, this is a serious moment.

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And she proceeded to answer that question and share the gospel with me.

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Good news of who Jesus is and what he's done for me.

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I thought, that's amazing.

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Yeah, I want abundant life now and forever and eternally.

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And yeah, I've been able.

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I think God got a hold of my heart at that young age.

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I placed my faith in Jesus.

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And I think from a young age, I've had a heart for God.

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And then obviously through the years as I got older, college, who God is and His grace and His power came more alive to me.

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And I went into college loving Jesus, but not loving the church.

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I grew up going to church and it was just, I went to a service for an hour and that's kind of all church was for me.

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But in college in Santa Barbara, I saw what the local church could be, and the local church came alive for me.

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I heard really great preaching, biblical expository preaching for the first time, and God's Word came alive.

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I saw that the church is a community of people all week long living for God's glory and living on mission.

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I was discipled by my pastor there, Reed Jolly.

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I was serving in the church and I just thought, I think I want to give my life to this.

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I think actually this might be the best use of my heart, my gifts, my talents is to be a pastor and give my life to the local church.

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And yeah, I just fell in love with the church.

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And that's been my career.

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I graduated college, worked as a waiter in a restaurant for a year and a half, and then got an opportunity at a church to be a youth pastor where they also paid for my seminary.

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And that's what brought me up to Silicon Valley, brought me up to the Bay Area back in 2002.

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And I have been here forever.

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Ever since, and it's my career, and I love what I do.

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It's really hard sometimes and really challenging sometimes, but I wouldn't want to be doing anything else with my life.

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It's also incredibly rewarding, and it's the calling God's put on my life.

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Wow.

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And now you're seventh generation California, right?

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Yeah, I am.

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California is home.

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Seventh generation.

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This is, I lived in the state of Washington for a year and a half, my first year and a half of college.

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And I could not handle that.

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It is so cold up there, cold and dark.

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And I just, I missed the sun so much.

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So I'll never, this is home.

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I'll never leave this place.

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I love it here.

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Don't come back to the East Coast in the winter then.

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You won't make it.

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No.

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No, thank you.

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I mean, I could take short visits to places like that, but I need to- Short visits in July.

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That's the time to do it.

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You know, a week.

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I love you.

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This is home.

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Yeah, I can see that.

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And you planted your church, Garden City Church, in the heart of Silicon Valley.

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Why Silicon Valley?

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Yeah, well, that's so I'm from Sacramento, which is two hours away from the Bay Area here.

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So, so Northern California, particularly is home.

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And after college and after working down down Southland Santa Barbara, I came up here for that job as a youth pastor.

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I just fell in love with this place.

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I fell in love with the.

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entrepreneurial spirit with how much is going on with how this is a place that is influencing the rest of the world and as i i just it's it's it's home i fit here and it's beautiful and there's so much to do and there's so much going on

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And as I continue to seek out God's, you know, call on my life and, you know, and I met my wife and her roots are here as well.

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I just thought, man, this is a good fit.

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This is a really good fit for who I am.

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And I would like to give my life to influencing and impacting a place that is impacting the rest of the world.

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That seems like good stewardship.

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to me.

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And so, yeah, I'm, I'm here and I get to, uh, pastor people in a place that is incredibly diverse and incredibly influential.

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Um, lots of challenges cause it's super expensive and this place will just, it'll, it'll exhaust you if you're not careful because people move here for work.

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They don't move here to rest and chill out.

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They move here to work and build a name and build a

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for themselves.

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And so as a pastor, as a church, we're always wanting to point people to the one true God that we can rest in and relax in and trust how he'll work through us, not making the night a lot of our work.

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So that's home and the weather is, we pay for the weather here.

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That's

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All of that resonates with me living and ministering in New York City, a place that influences the world.

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Silicon Valley influences the world.

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It's known for innovation and ambition and achievement.

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Do you think that that influences how you're pastoring and discipling people?

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Would you be pastoring and discipling differently if you were in Washington, for example?

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A hundred percent.

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Yeah.

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I mean, like in, in my, one of the main theme, a theme that I hit a lot in discipling people and preaching is rest, for example.

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Cause people here are not good at rest.

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The culture is just work, work, work, work, work all the time.

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You're always on.

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And so that's something I have to emphasize here is rest and Sabbath and take a,

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break and I try to model that with my life.

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But if I was pastoring in Las Vegas or something, I'd probably say get to work a whole lot more, quit just gambling and going to the shows all the time.

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So yeah, your context deeply shapes how you need to lead and pastor people.

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So yeah, it shapes things a lot being here.

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That's good.

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That's good.

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So I think I read on your website that you planted Garden City in 2011 with three people and $3,000 in your bank account.

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Now, 15 years later, the church has grown.

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You've even planted another church, Quicksilver Church.

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And I know we have lots of church planters who are listening, church planters who are just starting out.

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For those who might be wondering if their small beginnings might amount to anything, um...

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What have the last 15 years taught you about how God grows a church?

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Well, God's big.

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And so we can trust him with what he's called us to do.

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And even if resources are small, I would not advise any church planter to plant the way we did with so little money.

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I

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pretty long story that we won't get into, you know, all of that of how we started with, with, with so little, there was another opportunity that was in front of me that we thought God was calling us to was actually to plant a church out of the state and a whole crazy thing.

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And at the last minute, God shut that down.

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I praise him that he did that.

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And so that left us, I'd already left my job at a great church up North, closer to San Francisco, Central Peninsula Church,

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believing God had called me to go plant there.

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And so that left my wife and I in this spot of, okay, what are we going to do?

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Okay, we think we want to go back to our original vision of planting here in Silicon Valley, 30 minutes south where we were currently living.

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And she was about to give birth to our third son.

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So our boys were four or two and about to have another son.

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And we had like nothing.

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And so I had three people.

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I started going back to this idea.

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I had three people that started getting excited about this idea of Garden City Church.

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I had 3,000 bucks that I raised from like aunts and uncles and like my parents.

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And we stepped out in the faith and did this.

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And God just blessed it.

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God just blessed us and grew us.

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And people started coming to faith and getting baptized, getting discipled, getting developed into leadership.

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And, I mean, what have I learned in 15 years?

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I've learned a ton.

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But if I, I mean, some of the main things are God is big.

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He's bigger than any problem that we face, any obstacle.

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God cares about his glory and his gospel and making disciples far more than I ever could.

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And so I can relax in that.

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Church planning is really hard.

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Only do it if God's really called you to it and other people in your life have assessed you and been hard on you and really think you've got the calling and the makeup to do it.

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Because it's a tough job.

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You've got to be...

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You've got to be skilled in a lot of sort of different domains.

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And you've got to have humility to grow and take feedback.

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You've got to be tough.

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You've got to just deal with the ups and downs.

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We've had awesome years of just flourishing and growth.

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And we've had brutal years.

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I mean, like COVID.

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I mean, we...

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We had over 250 people from our church move out of the area, leave the church, leave the area, go to cheaper states.

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The shutdown here in Santa Clara County was more intense than just about anywhere in the nation at that same time as when we planted.

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Our first church sent out my associate pastor and 50 people to plant a new church in the South Bay.

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So we were just people moving, sending people out, believing that's what God called us to do and trusting that he wanted us to have that multiplying influence.

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But for me and for people in our church, man, that was hard.

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This hurts.

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So there have been years like that.

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And then there have been recent years like a church that was in decline that approached us and gave us their property, gave us their building, an incredible community.

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$7-8 million property here in Silicon Valley with incredible elders at that church that was dwindling.

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They were humble and they wanted their campus to remain a church and not get developed.

219
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And that's happening all over the place, probably in New York too, but in Silicon Valley.

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Churches are dying and they sell off their property to developers and condos and stuff get built.

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These guys wanted to see a church gathering and meeting there.

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And so that's happened for us in the last two years.

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And that's been transformative to finally have a place of our own and to be given that.

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And God's just blessed that.

225
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So I guess maybe part of that is part of what I want to say is play the long game as a church pastor.

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I've seen a lot of church planters come and go since I planted 15 years ago.

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And there have been times where it's not that quitting has ever been tempting, but I've seen it and I'm like, oh, it'd be maybe easier to not keep doing this.

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But it's been so great to just watch God bless us and use us over a longer period of time.

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time and I'm still looking out over a longer period of time when I planted our church what I would always tell people is I plan to do this for 30 or 40 years that's my sense of God's call in my life I think that it's important for influence and impact and faithfulness to stay in the same place for a long time as we live in a culture that is so transient and that's just and again with this being home um

230
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And that's still my sense.

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I mean, we'll see what God does, but that's still my sense is just, I want to give my life to the church that I planted and that I love the most.

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And that I've got a, you know, a wild relationship with, because I love our church, but sometimes the church, it hurts and you get scars.

233
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But the joy just increases year by year as well, a depth of relationship.

234
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Yeah.

235
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Yeah.

236
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I love what you said.

237
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That's so beautiful.

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If I could quickly summarize it's,

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It's the long game, lots of ups, lots of downs.

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And so be really sure that you're called to this and have it be confirmed.

241
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I also loved what you said about sometimes thinking like there are easier ways to go about your life.

242
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You could do easier things.

243
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Would you consider playing college football at age 47 one of those easier things?

244
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No, this is, yeah, it's ridiculous.

245
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I still can't believe I'm doing this and I'm laughing about it all the time.

246
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And I'm so sore.

247
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And yeah, what, what happened was, um, months, months ago, um,

248
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I saw this reel on Instagram of a guy in his sixties playing college football somewhere on the East coast.

249
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And I sent it to my sons just to inspire them as they should, they're all athletes as they chase their athletic dreams.

250
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And my oldest son who was in college, he wrote back from college and said, dad, you should do this.

251
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And I thought, that's ridiculous.

252
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But it started something in me.

253
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I'm like, really?

254
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Me?

255
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Doing that?

256
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Well, maybe I could, but no, that's crazy.

257
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That's ridiculous.

258
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I'm 47.

259
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There's no way.

260
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And that same day, I mean, within like maybe 10 minutes or something, I then forwarded that on to the defensive coordinator at San Jose City College, junior college football program right here.

261
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Uh, a guy I barely knew, but I had met him six months earlier.

262
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I forwarded it to him and said, Hey, like maybe I could play or something.

263
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It was 80% just a joke for me, but 20%, a little bit of seriousness.

264
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Like I thought he would just write back with like a smiling emoji and that would be it.

265
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But he wrote back and said, like, let's talk.

266
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Maybe we could have a spot for you.

267
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And so two days later, this was back a couple months ago, two days later.

268
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Then I met with him, toured me around the college, uh,

269
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Saw the facilities and we talked about this and he said, if you're serious and you really want to put in the work, you know, let's do it.

270
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And so I took two weeks to think and pray about this because this is just a crazy idea and ended up deciding to go for it, ended up deciding to do it.

271
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And so, yeah, I've been I've made the team, which is crazy.

272
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I've been practicing with them for a long, a good while now.

273
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I don't know what it is now, a month, six weeks or something.

274
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Our first game is in about two weeks.

275
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And it is so much fun.

276
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I love the game of football.

277
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That's why I'm doing it.

278
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My two younger sons are in their high school football season right now.

279
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It is so fun.

280
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It's an incredible physical challenge.

281
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And I'm learning a lot.

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I'm able to build all these relationships with the teammates, with my teammates, with the coaches.

283
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I'm having a blast.

284
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And I'm so sore.

285
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It's really hard.

286
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It pushes me to the limit.

287
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I'm covered in bruises.

288
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And I just wake up going, I'm really sore.

289
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So, well, what a story.

290
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Do you have to did you have to enroll in the college?

291
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Do you have to take classes or were you able to work out something with the team?

292
00:20:49.735 --> 00:20:52.217
Yeah, so on classes, yeah, you have to take a full load.

293
00:20:52.417 --> 00:20:57.660
So I have enrolled in the school and I'm taking a full load of classes.

294
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The classes don't start for two weeks, but you have to to be eligible to play sports.

295
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I'm not doing it for the school because I'm going to have to get my degree, a master's degree and all that.

296
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So I have, just to be honest, have chosen the easiest possible, what I think are the easiest possible classes because I've got a full-time job and my family and football, which takes a lot of time.

297
00:21:17.944 --> 00:21:18.864
Wow, amazing.

298
00:21:19.205 --> 00:21:20.725
Well, okay, so back to the football.

299
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Most people our age are trying to avoid getting tackled and try to avoid getting hurt.

300
00:21:27.608 --> 00:21:34.311
But in preparation for our conversation, I'm on your Instagram account, and I'm seeing the bruises and seeing the injuries.

301
00:21:35.451 --> 00:21:43.355
So what has all of that taught you about discipline, courage, or humility, or even your faith?

302
00:21:43.968 --> 00:21:44.288
Yeah.

303
00:21:44.868 --> 00:21:50.751
Well, the, one of the biggest factors in praying about whether to do this is obviously injuries.

304
00:21:51.412 --> 00:21:54.533
And so I'm, you know, there, there's high risk in what I'm doing.

305
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I'm also praying big and specific and I'm saying, God, would you, I sense that he wants me doing this and I'm praying, God, would you please protect me from any significant injury?

306
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And I want to go the distance to the whole course of the season.

307
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So I've had some minor things so, so far, all like, you know, fixable, uh,

308
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and all that.

309
00:22:12.863 --> 00:22:16.725
But yeah, it is just exhausting and hard.

310
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And I think it's God's created us to do hard things.

311
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And this is shaping me.

312
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It's shaping my overall heart and leadership just to keep going with something because there are some days where I'm like, oh, it would be a lot easier to not go to practice today.

313
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My life would have, I'd have some, I'd have more free time and the ability to do some other things.

314
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My body wouldn't hurt so much if I was not, you know, doing this.

315
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But, but desire, like I want to do it.

316
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I think we got to get after desire.

317
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I ultimately want to do this.

318
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And yeah, there are moments in practice where, man, it's hot.

319
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I'm in my helmet.

320
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I'm in all my gear.

321
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Sweat is pouring down.

322
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My body, like my fingers have been hurting so bad lately and I'm bruising and everything.

323
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Like, this is not, this is not easy, but I'm going to, I'm going to keep going.

324
00:23:05.211 --> 00:23:07.753
And that just transfers, I think, to other areas of life and to leadership.

325
00:23:08.413 --> 00:23:09.753
At times, marriage is like that.

326
00:23:09.773 --> 00:23:11.154
At times, certain friendships are like that.

327
00:23:11.174 --> 00:23:24.157
At times, different goals that you set, church planting, pastoring, anything that's in front of us that is really worth doing is going to involve challenge, difficulty, adversity, and setbacks.

328
00:23:25.098 --> 00:23:30.519
And to trust God in those difficult times and just to keep going and put one foot in front of the other.

329
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I think that's how our character really grows.

330
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I think that's how we mature.

331
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I think that's how we're sanctified.

332
00:23:36.662 --> 00:23:39.543
I think that's how influence grows, too.

333
00:23:40.984 --> 00:23:45.687
So, yeah, it's early into football, but I'm already learning a lot.

334
00:23:47.248 --> 00:23:54.033
I have a feeling that some of those lessons are going to find their way into your new book, which is called Be a Man.

335
00:23:55.173 --> 00:24:00.537
I'd love to know what led you to write this book and why you think this conversation matters so much right now.

336
00:24:01.013 --> 00:24:01.453
Yeah.

337
00:24:01.514 --> 00:24:05.437
So that's my next book, Be a Man, The 21 Marks of Biblical Masculinity.

338
00:24:05.557 --> 00:24:06.478
I've already written it.

339
00:24:06.638 --> 00:24:08.540
I finished writing it like two months ago.

340
00:24:08.640 --> 00:24:11.763
So some of what I'm learning now isn't going to make it into it.

341
00:24:12.384 --> 00:24:14.966
And the book will come out in a year, October 2027.

342
00:24:15.006 --> 00:24:18.069
I wish it could come out now, but these things take a while.

343
00:24:18.710 --> 00:24:22.153
I wrote the book because I have a huge heart for men.

344
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I am a man, obviously.

345
00:24:24.555 --> 00:24:26.576
God gave me three sons.

346
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Had a kind of challenging relationship at times growing up with my dad, which shaped some of that.

347
00:24:32.780 --> 00:24:35.702
And I just find myself with a lot of men.

348
00:24:37.122 --> 00:24:41.005
I just think God's given me like a help men calling.

349
00:24:41.765 --> 00:24:44.727
And so I wanted to write something fascinating.

350
00:24:44.807 --> 00:24:51.210
fresh and different and unique and practical and urgent for men.

351
00:24:51.230 --> 00:24:58.593
I think a lot of Christian books out there for, I'm writing very much for Christian men, but also for all men.

352
00:24:58.633 --> 00:25:01.915
This is a book that a man who doesn't know a thing,

353
00:25:02.775 --> 00:25:09.359
about God, about the Bible, about who Jesus is, we'll benefit from and we'll enjoy, we'll be engaged with.

354
00:25:10.400 --> 00:25:18.125
I found that a lot of the content that is out, there's some great stuff out there, but a lot of the content that's out there for men, Christian men, it's like pretty typical.

355
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It's like servant leadership.

356
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be humble.

357
00:25:22.708 --> 00:25:29.094
And those things, those are great things, but it misses so much of what God wants for men.

358
00:25:29.134 --> 00:25:39.823
I wanted to capture other categories and themes that I think most men don't hear a lot of wisdom on and don't see that are deeply connected to the Bible, to God, and all of life.

359
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Like,

360
00:25:43.966 --> 00:26:05.567
there's a whole chapter on your on story and the power of story and how your story and now you're not stuck in your story there's new directions and places you could take your story there's a whole chapter on desire most men are not hearing the import about the importance of desire they just think desire is bad desire is sinful i'm going to be careful of my desires when in fact god's after your desires god's

361
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after your heart.

362
00:26:07.707 --> 00:26:11.008
The desires that are there really, really matter to God.

363
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And we need men paying attention to their desire and sorting them out with Lord and with community.

364
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But so long as they are good desires, chase those desires.

365
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Love God with all your heart and go after those desires.

366
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That's part of why I'm playing football right now.

367
00:26:27.151 --> 00:26:29.292
There's a desire for that.

368
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And I just

369
00:26:35.173 --> 00:26:42.539
Each of the 21 chapters walks through a different, what I call mark of masculinity and what it means to be a man.

370
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So yeah, I'm excited about how God can use this book with men all over the world.

371
00:26:48.684 --> 00:26:49.765
That's very exciting.

372
00:26:51.106 --> 00:26:54.008
I'm wondering, you know, you've talked about your three sons.

373
00:26:55.049 --> 00:26:59.953
Have they taught you anything as you've raised them that has found its way into the book?

374
00:27:00.715 --> 00:27:01.556
Yeah, absolutely.

375
00:27:01.596 --> 00:27:04.541
So I have three sons, 19, 17, 15.

376
00:27:05.202 --> 00:27:09.728
My oldest, he's about to finish up summer and head back to year two of college.

377
00:27:09.808 --> 00:27:13.514
As I wrote this book, I sent every chapter to him.

378
00:27:13.674 --> 00:27:14.195
He was off at

379
00:27:15.717 --> 00:27:17.618
it's chapter and I sent it to him for feedback.

380
00:27:17.638 --> 00:27:19.079
Uh, his name's crew.

381
00:27:19.359 --> 00:27:19.880
It's a crew.

382
00:27:19.900 --> 00:27:20.660
What do you, what do you think?

383
00:27:20.680 --> 00:27:21.321
Give me your thoughts.

384
00:27:21.341 --> 00:27:28.345
And that's been super helpful, uh, to just get his critique and encouragement and thoughts on the book along the way.

385
00:27:28.365 --> 00:27:28.465
Yeah.

386
00:27:28.525 --> 00:27:30.646
I'm learning a lot from, from my three sons.

387
00:27:30.686 --> 00:27:31.247
Just, um,

388
00:27:32.047 --> 00:27:36.489
I have the kind of relationship with them that I really desire to have.

389
00:27:36.589 --> 00:27:47.795
My desire is to have a close lifelong relationship with my three boys, to pour into them, lead them, disciple them, rebuke them, correct them, and enjoy them right now.

390
00:27:47.835 --> 00:27:52.937
And then to enjoy them, you know, forever, because we've built a close relationship during these years that they're in our home.

391
00:27:54.218 --> 00:27:58.460
So on the book in particular, yeah, having the feedback of my oldest son has been really helpful.

392
00:27:58.500 --> 00:27:59.601
And then just watching...

393
00:28:00.341 --> 00:28:09.427
the things that my three sons are facing, um, and the public school with their friends, just in the culture and the stuff that's coming at them.

394
00:28:09.467 --> 00:28:16.511
And as they, they're all believers are all walking with Jesus, just such a gift, um, watching what they're wrestling with.

395
00:28:16.531 --> 00:28:26.197
Cause they, when we talk around the dinner table a lot about, um, the values that are just in, you know, we, we wouldn't want to live in the world, but not of the world here in Silicon Valley.

396
00:28:26.878 --> 00:28:26.998
Uh,

397
00:28:27.218 --> 00:28:33.862
And so we've intentionally had our kids very involved in just life here, public school, all of that, not sequestered away.

398
00:28:34.963 --> 00:28:37.385
But they face a lot of huge challenges.

399
00:28:37.905 --> 00:28:47.832
The sexuality stuff that is out there, the music that's out there, the values that are taught, they're like so different from scripture.

400
00:28:47.952 --> 00:28:52.995
And so stuff that they're wrestling with has made it has been a big influence in how I've written this book.

401
00:28:54.353 --> 00:28:59.418
Yeah, what I'm hearing from you is that you believe it's a really pivotal moment for men right now.

402
00:29:01.160 --> 00:29:06.826
If a young man were to approach you right now and just ask you, what does it actually mean to be a godly man today?

403
00:29:07.386 --> 00:29:08.227
How would you answer him?

404
00:29:09.168 --> 00:29:10.089
It's a great question.

405
00:29:11.390 --> 00:29:13.432
I would tailor that depending on the guy.

406
00:29:13.452 --> 00:29:23.221
I'd first want to know a little bit about that man and about his story and what he, what's hard for him, where he's come from, what he's wrestling with, what he's currently facing.

407
00:29:25.323 --> 00:29:31.349
I would say that it involves all of you, that God wants all of your heart.

408
00:29:32.308 --> 00:29:34.590
all of your story, all of who you are.

409
00:29:35.111 --> 00:29:42.358
And he wants you to play big with all of who you are in the spheres of influence that he's given you.

410
00:29:42.378 --> 00:29:51.066
I think many men, whether they learn this from the church, whether they learn this from just culture at large, their families,

411
00:29:53.087 --> 00:29:53.828
I wouldn't say many men.

412
00:29:53.848 --> 00:29:57.469
I'd say most men are playing small with their lives.

413
00:29:58.089 --> 00:30:01.811
I'd say that most, and many men think that that's godly or good.

414
00:30:02.631 --> 00:30:13.156
Many men are holding back because they've seen men go do these things with their lives that are harmful, that are hurtful, that are toxic masculinity kinds of things, abuses.

415
00:30:14.096 --> 00:30:15.977
And so they think, I need to hold back.

416
00:30:16.397 --> 00:30:18.178
I need to kind of play small with my life.

417
00:30:18.918 --> 00:30:37.291
And so that's what I would talk to a man about is what does it look like for you, unique you to play big with the life that God has given you, your heart, your story, your desires, your passions, your gifts, your weaknesses, and to offer that all up to God and say, God, use me.

418
00:30:38.372 --> 00:30:42.395
I want my life to be used for your glory with all that I've got.

419
00:30:42.615 --> 00:30:44.617
I would talk about that, explore that with a man.

420
00:30:45.535 --> 00:30:46.216
That's so good.

421
00:30:47.237 --> 00:30:52.341
Well, maybe let's leave it with this one last question before we all read your book next year.

422
00:30:52.361 --> 00:31:04.233
As you look ahead, Pastor Justin, to your church, to your writing, to your family, and maybe even to more football, what are you praying that God will do in the next chapter of your life?

423
00:31:05.338 --> 00:31:12.282
Well, we just last Sunday, every year as a church, we lay out a theme for the year as elders.

424
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What's the theme we want to kind of focus our energy on in the church?

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And we laid it out.

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The theme is just called Area of Influence.

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And that comes out of 2 Corinthians where Paul and Timothy are writing to the church.

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chapter 10, they talk about their area of influence and how they want to see their area of influence enlarged for the glory of God.

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And so that's what I just preached on this last Sunday to our church, Gurdon.

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And so I'm preaching this, I'm preaching to myself, I'm preaching to my wife, I'm preaching to my three kids, I'm preaching to my buddies and my friends and this whole church that I love is what does it look like for you to better know and grow your area or areas of influence?

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And yeah, I think we're in a cultural moment where I want to help my church, my family, better steward the areas of influence God's entrusted to us, know them, grow them.

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And that's not a one size fits all thing.

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Everyone's got a different perspective.

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A different heart, a different makeup, a different calling.

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And that's what's beautiful about the church because we belong to the church all week long.

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We don't just go to church on Sundays.

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And what does it look for my church, Garden City Church, to each of these wonderful people to steward their areas of influence all week long.

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So I want to just help our church come alive to that and enjoy it.

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And there's going to be adversity in that process, but come alive to that and enjoy that

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that God's made them to have a particular influence here in Silicon Valley.

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I love that.

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Know and grow.

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Well, thank you so much, Pastor Justin.

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This has been such a wonderful conversation.

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I'm so grateful that you said yes when I approached you.

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I'm so glad to have the opportunity to get to know your story a little bit better.

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And I will be looking out for your book when it comes next year.

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Yeah, look for it.

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It comes out a year and men and women, more men go there than women, but men and women go to justinbuzzer.net website and get on the mailing list to get updates about a lot of stuff I put out.

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Perfect.

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I was going to ask you that.

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We'll make sure we include it in the show notes so our viewers and our listeners can tap into all that you're doing.

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Thank you again, Pastor Justin.

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You're welcome.

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Thanks for having me.