Our Thoughts on the NRB 2023 Convention #95

Franklin Graham pulled the fire alarm in the opening session of the 2023 National Religious Broadcasters Convention recently held in Orlando, Florida.  He warned that, “every demon from hell has been turned loose on our nation.”  He then urged broadcasters to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus more boldly than ever!

Our Finish Strong team is “fired up” after three days of sessions and workshops that focused on Christianity being under fire in America.  Our freedom of speech and many other rights are under attack from far-left forces that seemed determined to destroy our country.

The good news is that Christians and other conservatives are fighting back and this podcast is part of it!  Brian, Terry and Dan share their takeaways and vision for the future as they encourage you to be bold and Finish Strong!

Transcript

Dan Wheeler: 0:02

The National Religious Broadcasters convention was recently held in Orlando, Florida and finished strong was there on location. I am Dan Wheeler, I'm joined by Brian Rowland and Terry Steen. And guys, it was a great three days for us. Would you agree?

Terry Steen: 0:18

It was a blast? And yeah,

Brian Roland: 0:20

I thought it was very beneficial this year?

Dan Wheeler: 0:22

Well, I don't know about you. But I came away more determined than ever to get the gospel out. In fact, that first night, Franklin Graham really pulled the fire alarm when he said that every demon from hell has been turned loose on our our nation. There was kind of a sense of urgency at the convention Once you agree.

Brian Roland: 0:42

Yeah, I think so I more than ever, because everybody was talking about how things are coming down or coming down quickly, we have to be prepared, had to be ready to share. And it wasn't just one or two people saying it, you were hearing it a lot. And so I think that the Lord was telling us very plain that we gotta get our ducks in a row to make sure that we stay on the air that people can hear the word.

Terry Steen: 1:05

And the interesting thing to me was we we rarely can get in that type of setting where there's so many people doing some of the same things, we are having the same vision, the same goal to reach the kingdom, and all fighting our culture. So it really for me, I think I mentioned it one other time. It's like we are one piece of a puzzle. That's all being put together. And it's a it's a teamwork effort for all these multiple ministries, to rally around each other, strengthen each other, encourage each other, to keep going strong and to fulfill this vision of getting the message out. And so it is a challenge for all of us.

Dan Wheeler: 1:48

The Bible talks about Christian suffering persecution, in the end times and we're seeing it we never thought we'd see it in our country. Yeah, it is coming quickly.

Terry Steen: 1:59

That may have been the the overarching theme. I know there were a lot of pieces. But that may have been the overarching theme of the whole thing is the urgency of where things are going, don't you think?

Brian Roland: 2:13

Yeah. No, I agree. I, I got that feeling completely. And in what you were saying then to about ministries that are coming together, we're all like a puzzle, you know, one of our guest that we did a podcast from there, Dr. Dave Clark had said that too. He says that God's working behind the scenes and plugging all these together in all these ministries. And, and we're one of them, I really, truly believe that.

Dan Wheeler: 2:35

Well, I've never seen things so out of whack in our country. It's like you wake up and all of a sudden, drag queens telling children, you know, elementary age, children's stories is suddenly considered okay.

Terry Steen: 2:51

Yeah, yeah, the whole transgenderism. And the men in women's sports and a, you know, we could go forever, but it's still, you just continue to shake your head, because you talk about out of whack. It's just, it's nonsense. Like we've said, up is down and down is up.

Dan Wheeler: 3:13

And through it all. We have to continue to love as Christ would love. He loves these people. He loves people who don't agree with us. And it's hard when you feel like you see your country being torn apart. But we still have to do things out of, you know, a sense of love. Love is still what God is love. And he's the greatest force in the universe.

Terry Steen: 3:37

Yeah, and these things are no different than any other thing that God doesn't find favorable. I mean, wrong is wrong. Evil is evil. sin is sin. I mean, you can go down to jealousy, and worry, and anger, all those things are things God tells us not to do. So we can't sit and try to categorize sin.

Brian Roland: 4:03

And it's what you're saying to Danza. We have to show love. And even if we disagree, because that's the only thing that can win, win them over. And they got to see Christ's love in us. And that's the only way and it's it's a shame because we were being looked at it also, we're the punching bag instead, you know, but you can't come back at that you can't come back the same way. Because like I heard one person say if you're not part of the of the solution, you're part of the problem and become part of the problem. All

Dan Wheeler: 4:33

right. Well, we were at one workshop, I guess. It wasn't really a workshop, but it was a session on freedom of speech and Christianity under fire. And it was pretty fascinating. You know, the moderator start started out by saying that Frank Frederick Douglass said the first thing they're going to come after is the right to free speech. And that's how you start tearing a country apart.

Terry Steen: 5:03

Yeah. That may have been a highlight session of our whole time there, wouldn't you say?

Brian Roland: 5:09

Yeah, I think so. Yeah, we heard

Dan Wheeler: 5:11

from Jack Phillips, you know, the cake maker is the owner of masterpiece cake shop in Colorado. He received a lot of attention over the years, because he stood by his principles of not wanting to bake a cake for a gay marriage. And then, and he won that lawsuit. And then he had another one. Transgender want him to do a cake for they're coming out. And he said, You know what, cuz I think somebody asked him, How did you hang in there and keep going through all these lawsuits? And he said, Because I realized that just wasn't about Jack Phillips. It was about freedom of speech. Right? Yeah.

Brian Roland: 5:50

Right. Yeah. That's what everything so everybody's up against right now. It's going freedom of speech against trans transgenderism against the gay community. It's all it's all coming out to free speech. So it's all coming down to the First Amendment again? And what does it mean? And And who was it? There was the one the one girl that? I don't know if that was Laurie, maybe that said, she was looking at it, you can have somebody else that's through doing the same thing I'm doing, and they're a part of another group. Why don't you go to them? Because they just say no to any Christian coming to you, too, right? Why can't you just go to one of them? Yeah. They're just trying to ruffle ruffle the feathers and stir up the pot.

Terry Steen: 6:33

And an interesting thing to me is I just recently read this statistic that the total amount of marriages of gay couples or gay couples living together is less than 1% in our country. That's how minimal this group of people are. But look, how it's made our country go crazy. And the Supreme Court is having to deal with all this. That's just an example of how the enemy finds that little crack until it wedges his way in and begins to slowly try to open it up, isn't it?

Brian Roland: 7:17

Yeah. Who's getting the most attention when making the most noise? Yeah,

Dan Wheeler: 7:21

Lori's Laurie Smith is a graphic artist, owner of 303. Creative. And she creates websites for weddings. And when she refused to do a, an LGBTQ plus wedding website, it started coming out in the news. And her neighbor actually posted her address. And I think maybe her email, she was getting all this hateful email and threads threads. She was scared for her life. That that's not that's done. That's

Terry Steen: 7:54

cool. And then the third person was Emily carpenter. She was from New York. And she was a wedding photographer. So it was kind of interesting that all three of these that were being attacked, having to defend themselves, were all centered around this wedding scenario, whether it was websites, whether it was cakes, or whether it was photography, they have found that niche to attack,

Brian Roland: 8:23

Terry, because that's, that's where the whole fight started wasn't over in a civil union, or is it a marriage? And that's where it all started. So no, nope, they got the marriage partner going a little deeper, a little deeper.

Dan Wheeler: 8:34

Yeah, well, that was just one of the great sessions we were in and very informative. And then there's some great workshops, we learned a lot about digital media, and how to kind of stay ahead of the game. And be ready because the ground is shifting underneath our feets. And we've talked about that a lot. We want a lot more people to come to our podcast and our website, which is at www dot F. Faith, that org, because that website has all of our videos, all of our podcasts, you'll always be able to stay in touch with us there. And if you can go there and connect with us and send us your email to which would be important. That way we can stay in touch with you directly. Because, you know if we lose some of our social media platforms that could really be devastating.

Terry Steen: 9:25

Yeah. Dan, you mentioned that that's great. At backing up a little back to the freedom of speech, I had sent you guys an article that a lady had sent me regarding it was from the People's Voice. And it was headline that the that the Facebook was going to ban Christian content, and it labeled Jesus if Jesus was in there, it was labeled as fake news. And there was one gentleman who had just posted something on Facebook, about Christ. Just being alive, or something to that effect, and they pulled it off, and they wouldn't let him post it,

Brian Roland: 10:08

I think it was Jesus died. So you don't have to, is that it, Jesus died.

Terry Steen: 10:12

So you don't have to. And so that kind of put our antennas up and said, This could be real. And we have such a presence on our, our Facebook platform, that it's so important that we begin making that shift to get emails to get our website presence stronger, and look at other platforms. So those kind of blend in together as far as expanding our platform.

Dan Wheeler: 10:41

Now, we're kind of looking at that for a podcast, too, we want to take this podcast further have a greater reach for their audience, and the platform's very important. So we realized that we're going to have to spend some money to do that. And we might have to, at some point, come to some of our viewers to just say, Hey, if you haven't contributed, we could share help you and people have been so generous, we got a very nice check today in the mail from an old friend, and it's just so nice to see people supporting what we do. Speaking of podcasting, and expanding our, our outreach, Brian, we recently purchased some equipment, which was fantastic. Tell us about that.

Brian Roland: 11:21

Well, we purchased, what I would say is a mobile podcast recording unit. And it's really neat, it's set up with a microphones for know for four people. So as three and a guest, comes with the headsets, everything's included in it. So I like to do as and thank you, thank you, Johnny set it up for me. So I just hit record, if John is not there, I could just hit record. And we recording our podcast, audio. And then we have a lineup that goes no camera, we can have video, which we just did at the NRB. We did a couple podcasts this way. So you'll be seeing those coming up. But it's, it's so great to have this right. In one case, we put in a suitcase as you can roll, and we take it with us and you've got to go on an airplane, you can just put it all over overhead if you need to have to check it so it's going to be safe. And we got a great deal on it. But we couldn't have done it without you. And yes, this is what we're trying to show to you'll see it when we do the episodes, what we're trying to show you how we're being wise with what you're sending us and spread the word. And we want to make our programs that much better, that much more professional. So right it's not so people will say things guys are for real.

Dan Wheeler: 12:30

Yeah. And we wouldn't be able to do this podcast period without our producer. How about a little love? Mata Rasul? John Matarazzo is an amazing talent. And he's using his talents to help so many people in the podcasting platform through charisma podcasting network, and he's, he produces our podcast does a great job. And he introduced us some to some people. The guy was like a rock star down at NRP. Every everybody knew him. Yeah. So podcasting is great. And John, I hope you have your headsets on so you're hearing

Brian Roland: 13:07

what I'm gonna say to you know,

Terry Steen: 13:08

you know, Dan, one thing that also hit me in talking about our podcast and talking about trying to expand and get on additional platform and expand our reach. It's not for our own glory. It's not for just to get fearless face name out there. But it just really, it kind of hit me at this conference that there were a number of ministries out there that had pretty far reach. And it made me you know, we've stayed kind of in our own little lane, but it made me realize that we have some content that God's given us through the Holy Spirit. That's some quality content that can compete with many other ministries. And it's time for us to step up our game. I just, it was something that kind of hit me that if God wants to step up our game, he can provide the people to bring the funds in, he can provide all the path that we need to continue to fulfill our vision by expanding our reach and touching more people with our message I just believe as so strongly

Brian Roland: 14:18

to you. And you're you're just saying a talking about expanding and growing. We have a bird in a bush outside here that just had to get babies, and we go out there. And it's just walking right over us. But they know that the mom knows we're not going to hurt the babies. We can look in the bushes and say Oh, and one got out last night and was walking along the fence line and trying to fly is Rylander you know, and just try and try and and try and and true flying today. But we're looking at that and I thought of that same thing that you just said. I said that's just like us. We are right here now. And now we're going to start the flying trying to fly. So just just expand. Yeah.

Dan Wheeler: 14:55

Well, I'm more excited than ever, and more determined than ever to speak the truth. With you know, in John, I think it's a 12 you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. And that's the only thing that's going to set people free today people are hurting people are going through so much and through these podcasts we just this week is airing. Well, not when this airs but recently did a podcast on Jamie Black was living a life of really she was tortured she was living in a prison in her own home. And And finally, through a miracle and through God's help she escaped gave her life back to the Lord and actually led the person who was holding her in captivity her boyfriend she led him to the Lord to so God crazy thing. Yeah, but we do you know, I did recently a morning cup of inspiration down by the harbor here, the Marina talking about, you know, people don't just go to their boats in the dock and sit in there there on the dock and enjoy it. No, they leave the dock through the harbor and into the lake. And sometimes there's some rough waves and everything. But if you want to sail, you got to do that. We're ready to do that. We're ready to sail. Let's talk about some of the podcasts we did down there. Yeah, Benny does Shara who not only was a great podcast, this guy became a great friend there. Yeah, there you go. Easy. Wasn't he fun to hang around? Guys.

Brian Roland: 16:20

He was great. He was great. And the music's good. And this really goes

Terry Steen: 16:24

high energy. It almost with the three of us adding him, it was almost enough to get us kicked out of the NRB. Can.

Dan Wheeler: 16:33

We did we did have a little of a ruckus going down going on down there. But what a comeback story to know the guy had a traumatic brain injury could have easily died could have easily ended his career. Through that he heard an audible voice. And the Lord said, I'm going to heal you. I'm going to get you through this. But you need to share with people what I've done for you. And you need to tell them and boy, he's bold, isn't he?

Terry Steen: 17:00

Yeah. And he also realized through that experience, we are not promised tomorrow, right we have today we have to live for today is what if we all live for today as if it's our last day, you know, that gave him a whole different look at life when he wakes up in the morning. And with him sharing that that hopefully allows us to kind of get some of that same spirit in us without having to go through what he did. To have that mindset.

Dan Wheeler: 17:35

Yeah, I

Brian Roland: 17:36

don't want to go through what he did. Folks got to hear the story. I just got to stay tuned for that one.

Dan Wheeler: 17:43

Yeah, when you go through the deep waters, boy, it's so great when God pulls you out of it and I have been there. And I know a little bit about what that's like. But then Dave Clark, Dr. David Clark, this guy has done so much in media in secular media, in news as a college professor as a president of a Christian college, helping CBN get launched. I mean, the guy's 82 years old. He's like the Energizer Bunny. He's still going strong. He flew into NRB from Europe. He was doing a concert with the men singing group me Imani 8268, just listening to

Terry Steen: 18:24

the epitome of finish strong, isn't it? So we had to have him. Come on, we caught him in the hallway and talked him into joining us and he was more than happy to do it. That's the kind of spirit you need to have is when not opens a door, walk through the door because you have something to share. And that's been our message for years now.

Brian Roland: 18:46

And that's the message is that we want to relate to everybody else to in the finish strong. You don't like I said don't retire that a golf course you've got opens the door and go through it. He's going to use you and the knowledge you have now. Let's say that you build up on him. It's gonna use you.

Dan Wheeler: 19:01

Yeah, so we really got our batteries charged being in an RV, as you said earlier, Terry, seeing people of like mind, people, different ministries, we all have just different audiences. Some are big, some are small, some army, but we're all preaching and proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord. He is the hope. He is the salvation for the world. And then it was fun for us to all reconnect with old friends that we've worked with in the past that different ministries and see these old friends and what they're doing today. That was a lot of fun, too. Yeah.

Terry Steen: 19:36

You never knew who might be coming around the corner and whose face would just pop and you'd recognize him, huh?

Dan Wheeler: 19:45

Yeah. And Brian, you got to talk a little bit with Jack Hibbs, who I know you listen to a lot.

Brian Roland: 19:51

And I listen to Jack Hibbs a lot. And yet if he's the first person we saw walking down the hall there so I went right over to him and he was nice as could be. And we're trying to get him We'll see what happens. He's very busy man. They just watch real life networks. And so he's very busy with that too. But that then Jonathan Cohn, who returned to the gardens, a goddess, she's just a really popular we

Dan Wheeler: 20:13

also read the first one I read by him was the Harbinger. And that was a great way to Yeah. And that for me, that was kind of a highlight because he was really nice to us. You want to know what we're doing what we're up to tell us about? Tell me about your ministry. Yeah, really engaging as he was signing his books to us. So that was fun. Yeah. And love fun. Terry, you ran into a few old friends that I know Brian has words, a lot of people, you know, and different ministries. So it was we got

Terry Steen: 20:40

to, we got to go out one night with two of your former colleagues or co workers that you both of you guys knew, and I got a chance to meet them. Yeah. And we went out and had a great dinner that night, too. I

Dan Wheeler: 20:54

spoke to Kevin today, by the way. Oh, did you hear about van and we're, we're lining up a phone call and and he said to me at Terry was a great guy. What's his last name? So apparently you weren't memorable, but you were a nice?

Brian Roland: 21:11

You remember the car ride? Yeah. Florida.

Terry Steen: 21:15

This was hilarious. It was funny. They we ran into them. They were wanting to go out to eat. We were wanting to go out to eat. So hey, let's go eat together. And all the restaurants in the hotel were full. So I took the bull by the horns. And I went on, I had a car I was going to drive. I got on Google Maps, and I found an Italian restaurant that was pretty close. It was only three miles away. I said I'll get the car. I'll be around pick. Yep. So I put in the address. And we start taking off. And the next thing you know, we're coming into the entrance of Disney World. We go and I go No way. Are we going to so we drive in? I keep driving. I go oh no. Oh, no, we get to the parking lot where you have to literally pay to go into Disney World. And we go up to the lady and I said, we're in laws. Can you tell me where this Mamma Mia of pizza places or whatever? And she said, Sir, that's in the park.

Dan Wheeler: 22:25

And by the way, parking will be one like 25 As much as a meal, little

Terry Steen: 22:31

restaurants I could choose I pick the restaurant in Disney World. So

Dan Wheeler: 22:36

I find me have chains that say hey, guys, here's a great restaurant. We go there. It's takeout only

Brian Roland: 22:43

100 miles away. Yeah,

Dan Wheeler: 22:45

Brian, you can't trust technology.

Terry Steen: 22:48

So it took three tries. But we finally made it to a restaurant. But it was a crazy night.

Brian Roland: 22:54

That restaurant was only about three miles from the hotel.

Dan Wheeler: 23:00

Guys, I just want to say, you know, through it all. We've been doing this for seven years now. And I've had so much fun working with you. And it's been such a meaningful experience to watch fearless faith grow to watch our audience mature. In the Lord. We seem to be in maturing, but they're maturing. Yeah.

Terry Steen: 23:20

Just can't have everything. Yeah.

Unknown: 23:22

Second childhood.

Dan Wheeler: 23:23

But you know, when we started out, we had no idea, the journey that we would go on, we thought it would be something completely different.

Terry Steen: 23:31

Yeah, yeah, God has a way, doesn't he? And as long as you're a willing vessel, as long as you're open, God will use you, God will direct you. And we're seeing it happen. We're seeing it happen. Can you believe we're in our third year of this podcast?

Dan Wheeler: 23:46

I can't believe it. Our 100th episode is coming up and it's going to be big bets. So you won't want to miss that. Well, that's really speaking. Yeah, let's wrap it up. Brian, would you close us in prayer and pray for those people who maybe are listening, go, oh, man, I don't know what they're talking about relationship with the Lord and walk in with Jesus and just pray for those people. Right?

Brian Roland: 24:08

Heavenly Father, we just come before you in the name of Jesus, we thank You, Lord, that you've given us this opportunity to be on this podcast in the share the love that you give us all, and that to tell people how you died for us for our sins, you paid the price for us already. You paid the price on the cross, you should that Jesus said his blood for us. So we don't have to suffer. We don't have to go through that. And we know that we can have eternity with them by just accepting them in our heart just by saying, Father, forgive me, I'm a sinner. And I want you to live in my heart and want to live in my life and I want your Holy Spirit to fill me do that. And he'll come into your life and you'll spend eternity with them. It's such a simple message but yet it's something that is every day, we get closer and closer to that point where we have to make that decision because one day is going to be too late and you're not going to have be able to save by going right or am I going left? So think about that. Because you see what's going on in the world today. And you know what's happening all around us, we have to be serious about our walk, we have to be serious about our choice. We have to be serious about who we're following, and who we want in our lives to direct us. So Father, I pray that anybody watching this right now, if they're not certain that they would say, I want to take a shot at this, I really want to accept the Lord, I want to change my life. I want to repent, I don't want to go this way. I want to go the other way. I want to go towards Christ. I don't want to go away from any longer. So just pray that You would just say that prayer, just Jesus come into my heart, forgive my sins, I will say, I love you, Lord. Thank You, Jesus name. And Father, we just thank you for for Terry and Danny and John, mourn this, thank you for this ministry that you've just you've opened up for us. And like Terry was saying, Lord, we were just open vessels to you. We didn't know where this ministry was going to go. But we open ourselves up to you. And we're just taking us right where you want us learn. And we just feel comfortable in the lanes that you've put us in because you're not going to make it hard for us. You're going to you're just going to put us where you want us and we're going to be able to go with it. And that's exactly what we're doing. And we just thank you for this opportunity, father. Now I just pray that up with everyone watching this, everyone listening to it, and everyone that's going to see this in the future in Jesus name. Amen.

Dan Wheeler: 26:21

Amen. Thank you, Brian. Well, it's not only the title of our show, it is a life philosophy. Finish strong. don't retire to the golf course. don't retire to a life of luxury. Let's go hard for the kingdom of Jesus. And we'll see you next time on our next episode.

John Matarazzo: 26:35

Thank you for listening to finish strong. For more information about finished strong and fearless faith. Check out their website eth faith.org. Make sure that you rate and review this podcast to help more people accomplish their God given purpose so that together we can finish strong