Coach & the Connect
Just two guys having a casual conversation about various topics like they were sitting on the front porch. We aim to shine a light in a world that seems to be growing darker by the day, so that people can see what life can truly be. We don't claim to be experts; we're just some simple guys that understand that we only have one life, and that life should be valuable and precious to us and to others. We hope you will come hang out with us on our virtual front porch and take a minute to relax.
Coach & the Connect
Faith on the High Wire: Balancing Christian Values with Modern Culture
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Navigating life's complexities while keeping faith at the forefront can feel like a high-wire act without a net. Join Coach and the Connect as we engage in a heartfelt and insightful discussion about living a Christian life amid modern cultural challenges. From the delicate art of balancing personal values with societal engagement, to the power of genuine connections in faith and fellowship, this episode is a treasure trove of reflections for those seeking to walk a path of authenticity.
With society's pulse quickening every day, we dissect the role of social media in how we represent our faith, urging caution against the backdrop of performative posting. We're not here to preach to the choir, but to have those hard conversations on a range of topics that extend from the creative arts to the nuances of warfare theories. In doing so, we strive to foster a deeper understanding and open doors for sharing the gospel. This conversation with Coach and the Connect is more than just talk – it's about laying the foundation for real encounters that resonate and inspire.
As we wrap up with personal experiences that have shaped our perspectives, from business failures to a shared passion for the culinary arts, we illuminate the rich tapestry of life that intertwines with our commitment to community engagement. Whether it's drawing life lessons from Raymond Reddington of "The Blacklist" or advocating for local businesses through our culinary passions, this episode serves as a reminder of the joy and unity that honest interactions can bring into our lives. Tune in and find sustenance for the soul and tips for threading your faith through every stitch of life's complex fabric.
Engaging the Culture
Speaker 1The views expressed by the hosts on this podcast are their opinions on various matters. The views expressed by guests who appear on the podcast do not imply endorsement of the guest or any entity they represent.
Speaker 2Coach and the Connect is up next, so before we get into this episode, I want to tell you guys about this restaurant that Coach and the Connect recommends. It's called the Lobster Guys. They got three places to serve you if you're in the greater Los Angeles area. They got a spot on Ventura Boulevard, woodland Hills. They got a spot on artesia and Redondo Beach and they got a spot on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. These guys specialize in all things lobster. They have signature rolls that you can eat. They got soups, they got fries, they got wings.
Speaker 2Man, if you guys want to check out a good spot to eat at, go over to the Lobster Guys. You can check out their menu at LobsterGuyscom and they've even offered a special code. And they've even offered a special code. If you show up to one of those three locations I told you about, you get $5 off any lobster roll. When you pay up front, just give them the special code HONCHO. That's H-O-N-C-H-O Special code HONCHO. They'll give you $5 off any lobster roll. So get out there to the lobster guys and support them.
Speaker 1Now we're going to get into the episode you're listening to coach and the connect Two guys sitting on the virtual front porch talking about all things life, let's get into it.
Speaker 2What up, what up, what up? We out here on the front porch y'all the virtual front porch it's episode three of Coach and the Connect Coming to you live from AZ and CA. I got my boy, the coach, deron Gladden. I am the connect, christopher Williams. It's always a pleasure. We're trying to keep this ball rolling here because we're enjoying what we're doing. We thank you guys for all the feedback, all the good responses, all of the downloads. We're looking forward to having many more episodes come out for you and try to keep this thing going as long as possible.
Speaker 2We got another reset to talk about today, so we're going to jump right into the first subject. We try to do something serious at first and then we go off to other things because we like the comments saying you know, you guys appreciate the fact that we can talk about anything. So that was pretty good. We appreciate that. So we're going to talk about a few things here today and hope you benefit from it. Maybe get a few laughs out of it. You know, know, we like to cut up, so we're gonna see how I go.
Speaker 2But first we want to talk about, uh, engaging the culture. Uh, as a, as a christian, you know, um, so there's a lot of stuff out there and you know we live in a in a sinful world, and so it's it's tough and difficult at times for a Christian to navigate through all of that. So we have our ideas about what we should do, because you have, you have some on the one hand where they're like extreme with it, it's like stay away from everything you know, and then, on the other hand, you have people it's just like almost antinomian. Antinomian means just lawless, basically, and it's just like just do it, we'll do whatever you want. So we're gonna give you our viewpoint on it and hope you guys understand where we're coming from. Hope.
Speaker 2If you have any feedback, of course, or or even if you disagree with it, you know, feel free to send us an email. The email will be at the end of the podcast anyway, so you guys can shoot us an email and if you have questions or comments about it, you know we might even pull up one next week and like a mailbag type of thing or something and comment on that. But, um, so, coach, um, you know, the phrase that we always hear is that we're supposed to live in the world, but not, we're not supposed to be of the world, um, but that, as we, as we have seen ourselves, that means it mean anything. So so, biblically speaking, from your, your understanding of your engagement with the scriptures, what, what does that phrase actually mean?
Speaker 3Yeah, that's a great question, Connect. So, yeah, I mean when, when you live in the world, what? So, yeah, I mean when you live in the world, and essentially the quote itself comes from Jesus himself. But when you live in the world he is referring to the term is and you know, he doesn't in every case, and I would say in the rare cases that he does the opposite of what I'm going to say.
Speaker 3He doesn't just save people and then take them out, you know, or like save them and then now they die and they go on to the glory, right, he saves them and then there's a period of time in which a Christian has to make their life and do their life's work or do their living in this world, in the world system. So the world system, so to speak, is governed biblically by the prince of the power of the air, satan, governed biblically by the prince of the power of the air Satan. However, the world at large is under the sovereign scope of Jesus himself, and that is to say that Jesus is the king of kings, he's the ruler For those who are in him, for those who are saved by the blood of his cross, by grace, through faith in him. They have their identity in him, he lives in them, he dwells in them. But you still have to live and dwell in this world's system, the world's configuration, and so when you talk about living in the world, it's essentially the question that we want to answer is how do you do that and how do you do that? Well, so, from the standpoint of a Christian making their existence in the world, jesus refers to a seasoning aspect of that, and what he refers to is salt. So you know, I connect you and I. Man, we do this, we do this cooking thing. I mean, you teach me stuff. We do this cooking thing. We do this seasoning thing. We do this cooking thing. We do this seasoning thing.
Speaker 3When you think about how seasonings work, like salt as a particular ingredient, there's most dishes you can't function without salt, and if you're trying to function without salt, then it won't be seasoned properly, and so it's going to be bland. It's going to be bland, and so even in a sense, now, if you think about that, the Lord's not calling Christians to be bland, but he is calling them to be Dynamic in the sense of how they Go through this life, how they go through the world before them. They're supposed to add something To that, and that doesn't mean in the areas of Evil and sin and wickedness, but their existence in this world adds a certain savoriness to the things that they are walking through in their lives. And so Jesus called for people to be salt, called for his people to be salt in a world that is already dull, in a world that is already bland, in a world that is already without to carry the analogy flavor. And yet he also says to be light. So the world is already dark and you know, as soon as you cut on them lights, it's going to permeate everything, like when you turn on the light. Even you have to adjust your eyes and you can feel sometimes light or heat coming from light. You can feel sometimes light or heat coming from light. So the world is already, at large, absent of those two qualities. And so what the Lord says is I want you to be salt and all the dynamic effects of what salt does as it permeates food.
Speaker 3They would have understood that in the time in which they live, in the New Testament time, that it not only permeates everything, it strengthens, it brings out other elements.
Speaker 3And yet light does the same thing. Light shines in areas that are otherwise not seen. Light also provides a certain refreshment. Light allows us to be able to direct our path from one step to the next, point A to point B. You can now see where you're supposed to go and where you're headed.
Speaker 3And so, as we make our way through this world, we're not called to retreat in fear, we're not called to come through and act like the world does to provide darkness and blandness, but we're actually called to have a dynamic approach upon this world in the areas of salt and light. And I believe that that's done through the word, I believe that's done through many would say the gospel. I believe all those things, but I also believe it's in the daily things that we engage, even within the scope of conversation with people and the scope of questions being asked and cultural things, as we're going to talk about engaging the culture. How not only do that, but to do that well, in a way where you're adding that savoriness, that dynamicness, but also you're shining bright and light in areas that otherwise would not have features of brightness and lightness, that they would be dark.
Speaker 2So yeah, I've noticed. It's interesting to see that dynamic of how you're explaining it, because I know that one of the things that has happened throughout the decades is that we have this idea that Christians are supposed to take the culture and then, like, make it Christian somehow.
Speaker 2So so you have so. So now you have the Christian music and you have Christian movies, Christian TV shows, Christian books, and some people have even gone so far as a Christian restaurant yeah, Christian store and I only go to Christian dentists and I only go to Christian doctors. So what actually? Well, first question, before we get into that and let me say I'm just going to be straight up A lot of our attempts at trying to Christianize the culture have turned out to be very cheesy, that's true.
Speaker 2And unattractive. So what's the best way? This is the first question. What's the best way for us to engage the culture? Like you and I, uh, we, we watch tv. You know, don't, don't gasp people. We, you know, we watch tv, we watch movies, we listen to music right, okay, we read books, you know, like you're reading that, uh, the titan, yeah, yeah, that's a rock, what's that? Rockefeller, yeah, yeah, is completely different and I think it would be helpful for people to understand the angle that we take and the approach that we take when we watch a TV show or we watch a movie or we read a book or we listen to music, things like that. So what is the best? Because obviously, christianizing stuff is not the best way. So what would be the best way for us to engage the culture that we live in and yet still stand out as being a Christian?
Speaker 3Yeah, I think. So. I think I'm going to speak to that point from first philosophically and then I'll speak to that point practically. And that's a great question, connect, because I think a lot of people are thinking about that philosophically. Connect, because I think a lot of people are thinking about that Philosophically.
Speaker 3I think sometimes people have a tendency to misunderstand their purpose in both arenas of the church and also the world at large, right? So you know, I'm looking at passages of scripture such as 1 Corinthians 5, particularly verses 9 and 10. I'm not going to read it in its entirety, but just for our audience, just to have that in mind. We are unapologetically Christian as well as unapologetically trying to engage the world before us, but when you look at that, there's a call to uphold the purity of the church, right? So I think that's the first approach, because what you brought to light, connect, is that so many try to purify the world and they don't really care how the church looks, or they pretend to care how the church looks, but they invest all the time where they bring the world into.
Speaker 3They bring the world into the church.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 3They spend all their time trying to purify the world and they, they really are very secretive and they're a little scared to address some things in the church when, really, when, paul wrote what he did in that particular I'll repeat it again for y'all who are listening 1 Corinthians 5, the whole chapter, really, but 9 and 10, what he's referring to is he's calling for the morality and the holiness of the church, right, he's not calling for the morality and holiness of the world. The world can't do that until they come to know Christ. And so I think that's the first philosophical point. You have to land there, so that you're not trying to reform the world, but the church is okay. There's no perfect church, but I do want to make the world perfect because I believe that's how many people approach their existence in this life as they confess to be on some level Christian. So I think, philosophically, that's the first issue.
Speaker 3The second issue is before you again, you do have to uphold a certain purity of the church. Purity of the church, right, and how you conduct yourself in the church. There is a guarding against the infiltration of things that are unrighteous or things that are unholy, and our dictates and commands come to us from Jesus Christ, specifically Like what do I have to uphold related to the church versus what do I tolerate? What am I intolerant of within the aspects of the church? So I think that is a fair approach to this.
Speaker 3But also in the world, you, the individual, have to make those determinations about how you engage the world. So what am I tolerant of? What would not be righteous or holy or beautiful or lovely, or what can I not think on that will bring virtue, uh, and things such as that. However, I also believe that if, if, many people are honest, because I see it like. I see, the social media is the grand theater of everybody saying exactly what they feel at the exact time that they feel what they feel, and sometimes, you know, you can be disingenuous on that medium as well but that's like the big one.
Speaker 3Yeah, subliminal, but that's the big one. That's the big one in our generation, that everybody's there. It would be like what we would do when we were younger we'd all go somewhere to a central point and hang out Right. So that's the hangout point for many people. I bring that up because a lot of folks, if they're honest, they're asking themselves this question. They're sitting on their couches at home watching a TV show that may not be distinctly Christian, it may be secular in nature. They're going out to restaurants that are not distinctly Christian, they're secular. Those restaurants, I'm sorry, operate within the world system, so they're trying to bring revenue, they're trying to market to people, they're trying to entice you through photography no-transcript friends having a good time. So it's this guilt complex that I think Christians should be able to rid themselves of. But I think, as we talk about this issue, they should be able to rid themselves of that approach.
Speaker 3I say that because when you're in the world, you're not of the world, so you're not trying to operate according to the world system, but there is a system to which your allegiance is ascribed, namely the kingdom of God. But even within that, that doesn't mean that you don't get to enjoy the things that are good, inherently good, that have been left over as inherently good from a good creation. Often perverted, often tainted, good things are, and all the good things have been, such as the arts, such as entertainment. I do think you have to be mindful and watchful of what you take in and what you ascribe to, and how you take it in and how you ascribe to it. But I truly believe, connect, that the Christian worldview is so strong you don't have to hide and you don't have to be disingenuous, you don't have to pretend before people. I know of people who just pretend they don't watch one TV show. They pretend they're not reading books that may not be all Christian. They pretend they're not reading books that may not be all Christian. They pretend they're not going to go play golf, basketball, do some things that are leisurely because they have to put on for the people around them, that have created a value system that says I need to see you doing these things in order for me to validate you, as opposed to ecclesiastical wisdom tells you that this life you have on this earth is extremely brief in light of eternity, and so there is a certain enjoyment, not sinful enjoyment, but a certain enjoyment that you can have with the things that God has created and you can enjoy those things responsibly. You can enjoy those things with discipline. You can enjoy those things moderately and yet not be given over to excess and yet not be charged with sinning, not be charged with actually doing things. That would disagree, I think, in terms of engaging the culture.
Speaker 3The first thing I think about is actually dealing with people. The first thing you have to think about is actually dealing with people. I think that's the most important aspect of the thing that you asked originally with respect to how do we deal with this, like, how do we understand all this, before you have to deal with people. I don't believe the primary theater of dealing with people is simply through digital means. I think that is one aspect and one necessary aspect, but I think it's only one aspect. So you'll see an imbalance where people spend their entire lives just speaking into the internet, void right, and they never are having conversations with people to stress themselves, to challenge themselves, to actually have bold witness before people. I'm not talking about camera witness, where you're preaching the gospel and you're trying to tag me to let me know that you're doing that. Good for you, happy for y'all that you're out there doing that. But to me, what it really amounts to is how am I living my life on a day-to-day basis as I engage with people and we all have to do that, and all of us can do more people and we all have to do that and all of us can do more. But I really think this engagement of the culture is not to try your best to look like, but it is to do the best to be whom God has created you to be. I'm talking your own personality, your own convictions that should belong to a corpus of convictions that are related to the body of Christ. But you're being yourself, man. You're welcoming conversations with people. If you have to confront things, you're welcoming confrontation with not a way to destroy, your opponent. But, as we talked about before, I'm trying to win you, I'm trying to persuade you.
Speaker 3I think you can use platforms like podcasts and like social media, like all those things, and you can talk about issues that people want to hear about and bring the Christian worldview to bear on those issues. So I don't think you always have to be talking about certain theological points and then you can't talk about anything else. I believe you can talk about everything when you have a biblical worldview and you don't have to anything else. I believe you can talk about everything when you have a biblical worldview and you don't have to shy away from anything. You can discuss the beauty of the arts, the beauty of entertainment, and my point is it sounds so simple, but I know people want to do this and they have been kind of handcuffed to either a persona or they've been handcuffed to kind of, you know, be validated and legitimized by a niche that they themselves have erected for themselves.
Speaker 3I know people on social media, y'all out there buying demographics, and now people got to you know they want you to be quoting a couple verses a day and all that I mean. You know you built that for yourself. But really, if you're authentic because that's what the Lord calls us to be authentic for him I think you can really have conversations with people. This podcast is one aspect of that right Like we're having conversations with people. However, this podcast is also an overflow of personal conversations that we have with individuals to inform this podcast, and so that's every day. That's not just sitting on social media just trying to build a niche like, and that's not just engaging the culture in a way where I swing to the excess of them and do everything the world does to win the world Like that's wrong too. The world does to win the world like that's Wrong too.
Speaker 2I mean honestly. I think that social media has made Christians Lazy, to be honest.
Speaker 3That's a fair point.
Speaker 2It's easier to sit on your phone and post a scripture. It's easier to sit on your phone and, you know, post this Sermon. Or you know, post your theological diatribe or your rant and then post it. But the question is, are you really posting it to help people or are you so warlike that you're actually, you know, not bringing any benefit to the body of Christ by doing it? But actually you're just, you know, puffing yourself up and, honestly, what is more self-righteous than it is actually truly biblically righteous, to be honest? But I think social media has. It's so easy to just type something on a keyboard or type something on your phone and then just walk away from it.
Speaker 2Yeah, but the the reason why you mentioned our podcast and we've been having a lot of conversations with people due to the podcast. We've only done two episodes. We're already having conversations with people. Yeah, absolutely, the door has been opened for us to use our worldview to help these people understand, also to win them to Christ, absolutely. I mean, we're not always going to win them to Christ, necessarily, but when they know that, okay, these, these real cats right here, okay, I can, I can go talk to these guys about anything like anything If I'm struggling with something I could talk to them about that. I could talk to them about the TV show I watched and ask them what they thought about. That I could talk to them about. You know, like you said, you were talking to one of your, one of your, one of the faculty, about Von Clausewitz, you know you mentioned Von.
Speaker 2Clausewitz and they were like what you know about that?
Speaker 3Yeah, his theory on war.
Speaker 2Yeah, and this is what we mean. When you completely avoid the culture altogether, you serve no purpose. To be honest, absolutely Except I mean, yes, you can browbeat people with the Bible all day, you can throw your doctrines at them all day. I'll be people with the Bible all day, you can throw your doctrines at them all day, but when you can connect on a level where they're at, it really opens the door to conversations and you know, of course, eventually the gospel Right, yeah, and that's, and that's the thing.
Speaker 3Like we, you know, I think, on previous podcast outlets and even in our personal conversations and even my conversations with people, natural conversations, like actually sitting in front of people I've come to the conclusion that you know what the modern evangelical mindset, what it has accomplished and I don't mean that necessarily in the most positive way. It's accomplished really sanitizing how the people of old say, 200 years ago, how they actually conducted themselves on a day to day basis. You know they want you to believe that people rode around on like this halo chariot and just from their mouths, just just gold bars were just flowing. You know, just just like verses of scripture, every second of the day, and even when, when they wake up in the morning and they make themselves something to eat or they go farm for what they're eating and cultivate the land, like they're just quoting scripture and it really does yeah, it does a disservice.
Speaker 3I mean, you read, you read the Puritans and you read like go and read the everyday functions of the so-called reformers, go and read the functions of the Puritans. Like these people actually had to figure out. How do I have a conversation with people who are in the world? I'm going to preach the gospel, like I'm going to preach to them.
Speaker 3I'm going to give you the word, right, that's a given the gospel, like I'm gonna preach to them, I'm gonna give you the word. Right, that's a given. But after that has settled and you and I are having a conversation about things like how do I deal with that encounter? How do I, when I walk into a place of drink or a place to eat and they're called different things throughout the last 500 years, that's why I didn't identify them but when I walk into that place, how do I look out in front of me and have conversations with people about the things that they want to have conversations about? Not necessarily that they want to to distract me away from the goal of my life on this earth to win people to Christ, but that through my winning people to Christ, people have real things that they're dealing with, real things that they want to talk about.
Speaker 3And so you know I'm not saying that you particularly have to earn that, but if you want people to really listen to what you're saying and I think everyone can agree like when you're speaking or even when you're typing, you want people on some level to hear. Well, if you want people to hear you, you can't talk over them like you can't talk over their heads. You can't talk like. I want the people here to hear me, but I really could care less what their response is. Like you have to welcome every ounce of sharpening, uh to dealing with everyday people.
Speaker 3And I do agree with you, brother, I think people have become lazy on the kind of like. I don't want to make it seem like one can't use social media for good, because I don't want to alienate people who are. But I'm saying, in the absence of natural conversational things that happen in people's lives, you can begin to use those platforms to substitute for fear of man, to substitute actual conversations with people and I believe, all the things that happen that people want to happen. If you're not interested in building brands, right Because. If you're interested in building brands, right because if you're in stem building brands, the last thing you want to do is have conversations with people. You got, you hire secretaries, you hire pr people. You, you know, you get the little 1499 blue check mark for your social media account, so you don't have to really deal with people, ghost writers yeah, ghost writers people writing books for you so I mean
Speaker 3all that, all that becomes your strategy. But when you really want to win people to Christ, you have to sit down with people and have real conversations with people and those conversations sometimes may not always lean into the area of a biblical book that needs to be discussed a biblical book that needs to be discussed but you're hoping you arrive there. But through that conversation it might be like lost my job, man, my family's struggling, I have no money, I have no way to support. I'm not saying it's true of me, right, but I'm saying, like people are going through this stuff, like I lost my job, I have no money, like how can I support my family? And if you tell me like, oh, cause you're a sinner and you're going to hell, okay, okay, uh, but I still don't have a job and I still can't support my family, Right, what's that got to do with my lights about to get cut off?
Speaker 3Yeah, like, be that as it may, if I don't believe in Christ, let's arrive to that point. But as we're arriving to that point, but as we're arriving to that point, there's some things that we need to establish and there's a certain compassion that needs to happen when you engage the culture.
Speaker 2Yeah, that actually brings another question to mind. Have you failed if you don't get to talk about the Word, or Christ, or the gospel or God? Have you failed if you have a conversation with somebody and you didn't get to proclaim the gospel to them or you didn't say anything about Christ?
Speaker 3I think the only failure would be ashamedness when it's apparent. I don't think one has failed because not every conversation leads there. I think people would try to say that they're trying to lead it there, but I mean, remember what the word says. Paul planted, apollos watered, but God gave the increase right. And what Paul is saying there is I came along in the part of a process of someone being one who was harvested from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of of god and wherever I came in. That process is not always pronounced to me like I don't. I'm not always clear as to when that took place, so I don't. I wouldn't look at it as a paradigm of failure. If one is you know one is is not ashamed, because not every conversation leads there, naturally Like it's not like if somebody tells you to do your job or you're having a conversation in your theater of work I know some, probably some of our listeners are at work and they're Christians trying to figure out. You may not be in a situation where that lends itself to a conversation related to the gospel. Related to the gospel. I think you only feel like a failure when people begin to use the gospel as a. And how many times it's been invoked as a status symbol. Like like yo, like I, yo, I preached the gospel to like four people today, and I was, you know, when I was walking to the, to the bathroom at work, man, I had to, I had to, I had to preach the gospel. I think when people start doing that, that's not for God, that's for them. I really, I really think when you're, when you're compassionate and sincere, sometimes you're going to find yourself weeping with people who are weeping and rejoicing with people who are rejoicing, and the hope and prayer is that you always have an opportunity to proclaim the good news. The ability to do so may not always be available to you, but you pray that someone else has that opportunity. If you think Christianity starts and ends with you, then you are going to treat people as though they're simply target practice for you to have some opportunity to say something so you can brag to me that you did it and I'm just you know.
Speaker 3I think that is where much of confessing so-called Christianity lands today. Like the deeds they're doing it's not really to do it so they can win somebody's to do it, so they can tell you they did it, because everybody wants to be seen as a warrior of the faith Right, and so I mean, there's a. There's a. There's a commercial benefit to that these days, whereas, instead of like, you might have five conversations with some people and it'll lead to hey, you mentioned something like what do you believe about this? You may share the gospel of Jesus Christ with somebody thinking that they agree with it and they may be hostile to it, thinking that they agree with it and they may be hostile to it, and you'll only seek to pray for a time that maybe, maybe I'll revisit our time, you know, or I'll revisit that person with this, or pray that someone else will, because they might reject you for what you say. And so I just I think those things happen not. And again to your point Connect. I think that's why so many are using other mediums the way they are, so that they can say that they've been successful, as opposed to saying that they've been genuine in their efforts before the Lord.
Engaging the Culture With Genuineness
Speaker 3The Lord is looking at genuineness. He's not looking at how many people did you send that scripture to people did you send that scripture to? He's looking at how many conversations did you have and how many times did you proclaim Christ in a way that was unashamed, in a way that certainly brought to bear his standard on people's lives. But also, you didn't do it for show, because that already cancels out the act. Once you do it so that somebody else can commend you for doing it, it cancels out the act itself. The act itself. It becomes a self-serving thing, even if it's a thing that would be deemed otherwise righteous.
Speaker 3So you know, I think that is something to really consider. You haven't failed. You certainly want to arrive at that point. So I know people will try to come on here and twist my words, because that's just the world we live in. See, he's not about preaching the gospel anymore. No, I'm about preaching the gospel. I'm saying a natural conversation. Time may not avail itself to that. I don't think you should walk away from that encounter as one in which you feel like you failed, unless there are some people that you've tied yourself to that make you feel like your success is based on the story you're going to tell. Because of this encounter, I've been there too.
Speaker 2Yeah, mainly that is based. It's geared in you're being fueled by somebody else's self-righteousness, which has caused you to now become self-righteous yourself, whether you you to now become self-righteous yourself. Whether you realize it or not, you're actually operating in self-righteousness. You know you're concerned about statistics and you're treating people as statistics.
Speaker 3Yeah, demographics yeah, people do that, they do that yeah, and then you go and go into prayer.
Speaker 2Lord, I repent because I only preached the gospel to two people today. It's like seriously.
Speaker 3Like you said, he's looking at genuineness, yeah, that's a great point, Connect.
Speaker 3I'm sorry to interrupt you there, man. That's a great point. Like much of what people are claiming that they're doing in terms of, like preaching the gospel, they're really just arguing with people Like they're not, it's not genuine. Not genuine, it's really just. You're trying to argue with people because you can draw a crowd like you remember the schoolyard man you get into a fight, crowd's gonna show up. They don't care who's fighting, they don't care what y'all fighting about. They don't. They don't want the backstory, they don't want the little hollywood preclude or prelude the opening credits. They just know there's, know we're fighting and I want to be gathered around, right? So I think people most of the time in those arenas they're claiming that they're ministering, but they're really taking a biblical thing and making it some cause of controversy to fight about it so people can gather around it. That's not for him, that's for them. What we do, we typically do in secret and then God rewards us openly.
Speaker 3You may be engaged in a situation where you're witnessing. You don't tell anybody about it. I'm not texting people. I can tell you not to be guilty of the thing I said. I can tell you that this has happened in my life. I'm not going to say how much. But this has happened in my life where you'll have those encounters and you don't run to your phone and text people. Yo, I with y'all. I just got done witnessing a runner run to facebook, facebook man, y'all something else on there but but run on there and say, hey, I witnessed this. Let me rehash in the script format me, I said this and they said I hate Jesus. And then me, I said you know, like All that is for show, what I have encountered is things that have happened that nobody knows about, and then you'll have another Encounter or you'll hear or you'll see somebody again and they'll be like I have a question for you.
Speaker 3Last time we spoke, I disagree with you. In fact, I argued with you and you Said this and I didn't agree With that. But you, last time we spoke, I disagreed with you. In fact, I argued with you and you said this and I didn't agree with that. But I want to hear more. You mentioned this Jesus and this salvation in his name and in his name alone. I know last time I got upset with you, but I want to hear more about that. So I think people want to make that appear like that's happening and you can do that in a scripted way. I would rather it actually be happening. And when it happens, sometimes you get there through normal conversation. I'm not saying you, you seek to avoid the gospel through normal conversation. But sometimes somebody will look at you at work and be like, oh like, why are you so happy today, man?
Speaker 3Right From there we, we're off, we're on, you know. And it might not be like yo, like, why are you so happy today, man? Right from there, we, we're off, we're on, you know. And it might not be like, yeah, it might not be an orderly, like gospel presentation to people, but we're, we're on, and I'm not discounting those who have the gift of evangelism and go out and evangelize the people. That has its place. But when people begin to arrange circumstances to make them appear like that, they are just so faithful in this thing. Uh, that's not for, that's not for the person on the other side of it, and it certainly isn't for the kingdom, it's for them. And all the arguing certainly ain't for christ, that's certainly for them.
Speaker 2So engaging the culture doesn't look like that. Yeah, we're saying all these things, but some of you might be listening to this and like, oh, you guys are on your high horse. No, we've actually done all this.
Speaker 3So we were the ones yeah, no, go ahead, go ahead, Connect, go ahead.
Speaker 2We were the ones that did the me such and such and such and such.
Speaker 2Oh, yeah, that person such and such and such, and we have posted scriptures I was guilty of that we have posted rants and we've picked fights and we've done all that.
Speaker 2But at some point in the wisdom of God you have to realize is this really beneficial to anybody? Right, have to realize is this really beneficial to anybody? Is it beneficial to me, or is it even beneficial to the people that I'm trying to reach out to? And then the question you have to ask yourself is am I really trying to reach out to people in all actuality, or am I just trying to stick my chest out and show them that I'm a tough, hard, militant Christian and I will not stand for anything that is ungodly or worldly or sinful. And you know you will not send any of that my way. I will come at you and make you know that you're a sinner and you're bound for hell and you're a heretic. Because you know, heretic was a word we threw around all the time We've been there. But now we understand, through the wisdom of God, that God has blessed us.
Speaker 3If we understand it, that's not the way. Yeah, and that's the thing. What I don't want to communicate is that there's never a place to conduct yourself that way. What I am saying is that there's never a place to conduct yourself that way to the detriment, to the detriment, of true witness. And so even in that, like I'm trying to win people, I'm not trying to win, I'm not trying to win a persona or an award for having a certain persona.
Speaker 3And when you talk about engaging the culture, like people before you, I really think people may dislike you, they may count you as an enemy, but not only are they going to know where you stand, they'll know that if they come to you, and even if they disagree, that they're going to get a reasoned, biblical approach to why you believe, what you believe and why they should believe either otherwise or they should believe more strongly. And again, that looks so different from when you're hiding behind a keyboard to when you're actually talking to people. Like it looks. It looks different. It really does, cause people are able to stop you and say hold on, wait, you said this, I disagree with this. And you're able to say, well, no, well, here's actually what what it does, says like I've watched people do that. But then on social media man, y'all just trying to, y'all just trying to shoot each other man and see, see who comes out the most destroyed, you know, and it's not just fire toward the enemy, it's friendly fire too.
Speaker 3Exactly. Oh, it really is. It really is. Yeah, and that's the thing I think, if you're going to do this well, like if you're really going to engage even as I look at our podcast format like if we're going to engage, all these myriad of issues and myriad of interests that we have, it's not just issues, it's interest.
Engaging Culture and Authentic Living
Speaker 3Some people turn us off and, you know, talk about us behind our backs, maybe say you know we, you know we've drifted, we become heretics and all this other stuff. I mean, people always say that. But if you're going to do this stuff well, you can't be captive to people's goofy perceptions about you. Like, you have to really look at yourself through the lens of scripture, through the eyes of God. What would God have me do as I live? I was born in the 80s, right, and I don't know my expiration date on this earth. The Lord knows. From that time I was born to now, and then, from the time I was saved wasn't saved at birth, but from the time I was saved to now, how am I going to live on this earth with the people who are entrusted in my care? That's the question you have to ask. And so you know. I just think those arenas where people want to act like they're doing it for God. I just don't see where the engagement of the culture is really happening for God, because it is always about them.
Speaker 3I've gone through Christian profiles and Christian so-called dialogue in certain arenas and there is no mention of Christ, but everybody's saying we're doing this for him. I'm talking about the argument, I'm talking about I'm for the glory of Christ, and they and and there's they, they never, they, never talk about him. It's always about somebody or something else. That is a purview thing. Uh, you know, and I'm and I'm talking about purview, like it has nothing to do with the actual thing that's being discussed. It's always some, something that happened to me or something that happened to you, and it's just, uh, you know, we never get to the business of actually engaging the culture with the beauty that truly is Christ.
Speaker 3And I do believe people have to be labeled as sinners. I do believe people have to be told that there's a place of eternal torment. But I believe that at arriving at that point, you're dealing with real things that people face to help them see that their eternity matters. It's not just we're skipping to that point. All right, check. I said that to you. You got angry. Okay, since you got angry at me, I'm being persecuted. Okay, great, I'm going to block you because you persecuted me, by the way, and I've reached you and that's great. I mean, like the foolishness of that mindset, man, like it's comical because people are like we're reaching people for christ and they're blocking people and it's like right, like, how, like how are you reaching people that you can never talk to again?
Speaker 3you know, like, and you get to determine that which yes you're being wise as serpent, innocent as a dove, but man, I'm talking about the absence of personal interactions and conversations. The absence of that will make you extremely imbalanced in your approach to be the effective tool that God really wants you to be for him, and miserable.
Speaker 2And miserable and misery loves you. Oh well, don't ring my doorbell because I ain't answering it. That's all I'm going to say about that't. Don't ring my doorbell because I ain't answering it. That's all I'm going to say about that. Don't ring my doorbell. I'm 50 years old. I'm trying to enjoy, you know, the rest of whatever. However much time God has given me, I'm trying to enjoy it. I'm trying to engage people where they are, help them to know who Christ is, you know at some point, at some point in time, you know, when those opportunities do present themselves.
Speaker 2But I'm not going to force myself or impose myself on people being there done that.
Speaker 3Well, and here's the thing. I know, I know we're trying to rap, but here's the thing, man, you know what? Craig, you're good.
Speaker 3If you really think about this, people have really handcuffed themselves to each other's perception of themselves. I've seen it over the years and you see that in the interactions that they have with other people, because I've seen those same individuals and I'm not just talking about individuals, I'm talking about just throughout the course of my own life like watching people come and watching people go Right and and watching people stay. I see, like you know, you'll walk up on them. You'll pull up on them on a Wednesday, right, you just you just walk up in there, in there in their home, or on a Monday, right in their home, or on a Monday, right, and they look so different than how they present themselves in some expected religious context or expected social media context, right, like they're actually having a good time. They're actually watching something that is something they enjoy, or relax, going on vacation Lord forbid Christians go on vacation. They're actually doing things that God has provided for them, you know, through their labors, and they're enjoying it.
Speaker 3And what I say, the fear factor is they're not allowed to say that, they're not allowed to say that. Oh hey, you know what I enjoy going to watch a baseball game and yet their evangelical heroes are doing this because I see them at the same games I'm going to sometimes. So I'm like they got y'all thinking y'all can't, y'all can't do nothing except be on social media fighting for their brand. And I go, I pull up on a game and then the the person you're fighting for is at the game for the same length of time I'm there Got an ice cold beer in their hand.
Speaker 3Yes, Got y'all fooled man. They got some of y'all fooled out here, man, and some of y'all fooling yourselves.
Speaker 3So I don't want you to fool yourselves. I want you to ecclesiastically enjoy the life that you have in modesty and moderation. Also, be faithful to those who cross your path. But it happens in a theater of real conversations with people. Um, you know, not even teaching for people to know you're teaching. Uh, you know, we talked about that in the life seminary episode, right, right, we're all teachers. So I, you know, I teach and and, uh, teach, and what I do is teach. And so you know, like it's really, it's never for like anybody else, it's always for you. You know, it's always something, it's hey, and y'all out there.
Speaker 3Paul told y'all first corinthians man, stop comparing yourselves with one another. Right, like you have to stop doing that. That's an important thing that I think will help you engage the culture. Well, if you're just doing it for christ and you're doing it in the way he gave you to do it and you're doing it according to the standard the Bible that he gave you to do it with, if you're doing it for that really doesn't matter how others perceive it per se, because people will, you know, people are going to praise you in public and criticize you in private. Like none of that should matter in how you do this well, and so we're trying to do that for y'all out here. Man, we appreciate y'all being a part of that, not only discussion, but conversation and listening to us, cause you know we're trying to, we're trying to do it well for y'all.
Speaker 2Right, yeah, well, I hope you guys get something out of that, you know. You know, like I said, we're just sitting on the porch, me and me and the coach sitting on the porch porch just having a conversation about. You know what we think about things. Again, feel free to disagree or agree or whichever way you want to go with that, but you know this is how we live our lives and basically take it or leave it, but anyway, we're going to get off of that and head on to our next subject. So and this actually kind of ties into what we were just talking about so I finally finished the Blacklist. Oh, yeah, I finally finished the Blacklist and a lot of people were upset about the ending. Also another show that we'll probably talk about eventually on another episode, but a lot of people were upset at the ending. If you haven't seen it, just like stop the podcast now and don't, yeah, but the blacklist, if you don't know what the spoiler alert.
Speaker 3I'm gonna interrupt you there. Definitely spoiler alert. You've never seen the black. You should. It's a good show. You know, some of y'all may be squeamish. There might be some fast forward parts, I'm you know, but but it's, it's a great show it is.
Speaker 2It's it's a very well done show. The character development on it is amazing. You actually you actually immerse yourself. If you and this goes back to what we're talking about we don't like the coach and I, we don't just watch shows, we don't just listen to music, we actually immerse ourselves in the. It's an experience for us. I appreciate the arts man.
Speaker 2Yeah, we, we are appreciative of the talents, although they are not always used for good, but we are appreciative of the talents that God has given people to create these kinds of things and so, and so we don't just watch it. You know a lot of people watch it and then they, like I said, they complain about the ending because they wanted the ending to be this way or that way or the other way. But when you're actually engaging it, when you're actually engaging it and you're truly watching it and you're understanding the character development and things like that, when you see endings, you could truly have a a really good, well thought out opinion about it. And I thought the ending was very fitting. For for reddington, like I told you in a text, I'm like people were like, oh, he should have went down in a blaze of bullets.
Speaker 2I'm like, for what he's already been, he's already been shot, right, you know? Uh, then somebody else said, else said he's a crime lord, he has all this money, why would he just let himself? But they didn't catch the fact that he was just tired of the game and he was just ready. And that's why Dembe's speech at the end, when Dembe was talking to Cooper, yeah, I remember that one and he broke down in tears about.
Speaker 2You know he wanted. He mentioned about raging against the dying of the light.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2Which he interpreted. He was like all this time Reddington has been trying to get us to enjoy life and when you think about that, when you go back and think about it from season one, what was he always talking about?
Speaker 2He was always talking about some book he read or he was talking about some trip he went on or some conversation he had, or some art, something that fueled his adrenaline right yes, he was a criminal, but he knew how to appreciate life itself and that is why he wasn't scared of death in the first place, because he appreciated life so much that, you know, if death comes around, he was ready for it. Trying to get that burlap sack to that ranch where the Is it Manoletto, I think that's what the bullfighter's name was. It's been a while for me watching that he had mentioned about the bullfight and how the guy had started doing the bullfighting for people because they just wanted to be like you need to come back and do more bullfighting, yeah, right. And so he ended up dying because he was already done with it. And he ended up dying because he got gored. Well, reddington had the actual skull of the bull that killed him. He wanted to give it to the ranch.
Speaker 2Of course, we know it never got there, or maybe it did, I don't know, but in the episode it was still when Ressler came in to where he was staying at the bag, was still sitting in a chair, and as he was walking up that hill that the lady told him to go up, and then you hear that snort, yeah, and then he turns around and he sees the bull and then he comes to the realization like, okay, well, this is, this is my time. Yeah, you know, and he accepts. He, it was at this point that he accepted death. Right, you know, right, you remember. There was one episode where the lady was the doctor I can't remember the doctor's name, the black lady who was a doctor, a crazy doctor, yeah, she was.
Speaker 3She was draining him right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes yeah, yeah.
Character Development in the Blacklist
Speaker 2So this is one of his former I think one of his former enemies right associated with it, one of his former enemies, yeah yeah, and and so you know he, he had a whole bunch of near-death experiences, yeah, during during this, these 10 seasons and so, but it was always, you know him, just not scared to die, and then he kept living. But at this point he was like, well, this is it, you know, and I think it was a very fitting, a very fitting ending for him to die in such, in such a way. But a lot of people didn't like it yeah, I've had man.
Speaker 3I've had some great discussions about character development so, which is why I'm so fascinated with that character, even, um, in my, in my theater of work, talking to shout out to my peoples over there, man and performing and visual arts man, y'all are, y'all are excellent. But I've sat down with some of them and have had some discussions about like character development and how. What am I looking for when I'm looking at a movie or a show, right, kind of the things you and I appreciate and you know. One thing they've given me is even the audience's perspective. I think with this character reddington, many, many times in the audience when you're watching him over that 10 seasons, you're like he's gonna make it out because there's an episode next week so he'll be fine, like whatever happens and that's how I felt, like I was like this character is invincible because whatever happens he's gonna be written into whatever the next episode is.
Speaker 3And then you're unsure at times when they let you know elizabeth king go, but I was like, you know, red's gonna make it, like he'll make it, you know, red being a nickname for reddington, uh. But then this time, even though the title told you it wouldn't, his ending was very fitting when he realizes which is great character development when he realizes he's not going to make it because he has so often had the network, the resources, uh, the right circumstances, uh, in order for him to escape, or the right conglomerate of mistakes by his enemy for him to mistake. And this time I mean the bull had him dead to center man, he had him right in his sights and it was nothing he could do. Uh, you know, I think to that point this character was so, uh, refreshing. And it's funny, even to the network, because I remember network tv was dying when that show came, you remember, like about 10 years ago. Yeah, it was like nothing. It was about a six, seven year gap of the last great nbc series, which which, oddly enough, I think, was the office but, but, but when?
Speaker 3When this show came along, you had, like you said, the character art, character development. It seems like they always quote unquote, killed off a character, not because they didn't like the character but because that was the end. I mean, that was where it was supposed to go and then they would rewrite that character into the series at a later point. I think reddington was the glue that kind of tied all that together. I think philosophically there was a even though he was a criminal overlord. I'm not endorsing his life and behavior, the character himself, of course, but there was, there were certain things about him philosophically that were, you know, very intriguing and very interesting.
Speaker 3And, uh, you know it was when it ended. I was kind of sad to see it go because it had run for so long and I was a devoted, uh, fan of the show. So it was. But I also understood the ending. I wasn't, you know, I did read. That's why, when I text you and you were like, hey, I'm on the last episode, I said, hey, tell me what you think, because I knew there was some controversy when it originally aired live and um, you know, and some of that, the show had lost some steam, but I think it was not only a fitting end. I think it was also something that now, if you were to go back and watch that series, you would appreciate some of the things you may have taken for granted and missed that were done or said that that contributed to the end of that series right, yeah, like I told you, man, I learned from I learned from reddington how to enjoy life.
Speaker 2When, when I first started watching the show, you know I was like miserable.
Speaker 2You know back, you know doing what we just talked about yeah like Like arguing with people on Facebook and trying to hold up the banner for Crush and all this other stuff. And then I'm watching this guy, you know, and he's just like oh, this art piece. He's like looking at the art piece and he's like this is really moving, and so on and so on. And then he's like oh, I had the most delicious such and such. And I'm like yeah, yeah what am I missing here?
Speaker 3you know I'm gonna, I'm gonna protect, I'm gonna protect you from the people who want to, who want to try to misquote you too. Um, that essentially what you learn from this character is like an appreciation is what you're saying, right? So you know it's not to the detriment of anything else, but you do learn like it's okay to go to a restaurant and appreciate the ingredients that are in this meal I'm having, right? Or go on a trip and really get a sense of wow, the sunset, the sunrise. Now, you and I, with a biblical, we can look at that and really understand the grandeur of God himself, right? But I really, I really think that I think that show also to your point, was it invoked a way and I don't want to give too much away but it invoked a certain strategy on how to deal with many, many, many issues that one will face.
Speaker 3Right, a good writer lays out a philosophical blueprint to certain issues, and I would have my writer friends they can disagree with me and I will correct myself on a subsequent podcast, but I have a feeling they would agree. I've watched, I've observed. I have a feeling they would agree, I've watched, I've observed. A good writer will help bring you into certain connectors that are applicable, you know, to either something you may be thinking or want to do. And again, I'm not saying that's your ultimate source, but I'm saying you know that's the arts. Like the art informs something that you or invoke something that you should be feeling or thinking.
Speaker 3So, I think that that show and that character did a phenomenal job and there's there's only a couple others like the Blacklist that that will invoke that many shows are purely entertainment. So you find yourself laughing, can't really connect to the characters, but it's funny. So you find yourself laughing, can't really connect to the characters, but it's funny. But this was this, was I mean. So well done that you're really thinking like, wow, like I would have never. And then he has I know why.
Speaker 3You have an affinity for me as a Navy background, the main character. So he's got that Navy background that some of y'all don't know to connect. As a Navy man, praise God for his service, yeah, yep and so. But his travels were military. He had an intelligence gathering mindset. He had certain things that I see people trying to do and I watch them try to figure out strategically how to do it in a way where they're successful and they keep failing and getting frustrated, failing and getting frustrated. You watch that show man. It's like watching any kind of thing that will be informative, it'll, it'll at least show you on some level. You know, oh wait, when I'm facing a massive organism that is extremely hostile in nature, how do I, how do I navigate that, and so I think that show does a good job of teaching that as well, it goes back to what you said in the first section about finding the inherent good in things you know.
Speaker 2To sit here and pretend like you can only learn things from your fellow Christians is utterly ridiculous. Well, it looks to be deceiving. Right, right. That is true, but that's where. That's where the being wise was.
Speaker 3Was it was it was a serpent harmless, harmless yeah.
Speaker 2That's where that comes in. You know, god gives, god gives us the wisdom to discern the truth from the error. But but to say that there's like absolutely nothing beneficial the error, but just but to say that there's like absolutely nothing beneficial. We just showed you that, you know, from watching the blacklist, there was some inherent good in there, some benefit that we learned from it that actually face it.
Speaker 3hey, connect, but let's face it. People, people who say stuff like that they typically are trying to build a, a nefarious network of some sort, Like they don't want you to watch something that's going to give you a strategy on how to deal with them and deal with their little network. Man, Like people, normally they will literally be immersed in evil and tell you you know what? You probably shouldn't watch, that because they just dropped this and that and they said this word and I'm looking at them and I'm like your whole life just you might not.
Speaker 3It might not have any profanity laced in it, but it stinks and reeks of rottenness and wickedness. Are you telling me not to watch something to figure out how to stop you?
Speaker 2They just don't know, man.
Speaker 3Yeah, man, but no, yeah, you're right. You're right, man, I agree with you, man.
Speaker 2I mean people can take. People are as you said. I'm fine with it. So hear me when I say that podcast listeners, I'm fine with it. Y'all can take what we say, twist it, turn it, shine it up, rephrase it we're still going to be who we are, I mean 100%. If you have to do that, then it shows how weak you are. But I expect people to do that, I know, I know you said you're trying to protect me and stuff, but I mean even even if you say that jokingly somewhat, I know.
Speaker 2I know, I know, but even with that, they're still going to find some way to say well, see, see, see, they're promoting and they're pushing this and they're pushing, nah man check this out, man.
Speaker 3I'm going to say this, I'm going to say this to everyone listening, particularly the Christians who listen to this podcast You're not going to find anything like what's out there first of all, but but I'll say this that you're.
Speaker 2There should be a measure of appreciation in your life, whether it's art appreciation, cultural appreciation not appropriation, which is a different term, I'll have y'all look that up but appreciation, like you should be able to go to a nice play's. It called shen shen yun, the, the chinese history, where it's like really vibrant and colorful and yes, they do all these different kind of movements and dances. I want to go see that, but I just I ain't got the money for it yeah, yeah, I know what you're talking about it's.
Speaker 3It's a action performance.
Speaker 2Right. I have to see that before, before that, that final day of my life, I have to see that.
Speaker 3Man, there's a, there's a beauty, I think, as we, as we kind of tie the bow on, so to speak, on just how, how do you engage and I'm not saying we're ending, but how do you engage in culture, man? It really is just seeing beauty for what it is, even temporal beauty. You know, there's moments in this life where you're going to see complete ugliness and in the ugliness of people's sin and their emotions and their jealousy, self-ambition, but then there's times where you'll be like whoa, like, like that's, that's nice, like that's amazing.
Speaker 2You latch on to that.
Speaker 3Yeah, man, you have to appreciate that and you have to really thank God that that was placed before your eyes, because a lot of people don't have those opportunities to see those things. I think with the arts and with entertainment, you know, I think that there are some things, some good lessons to learn. I think from this character that we're referring to, one thing, as you said, connect, that I agree with. I really appreciate his ability to look at something and esteem it as valuable in the rarest things, like he liked the rarest products. It wasn't just about luxury, it was about beauty, and it was such a contrast to himself because he saw in himself darkness. He wasn't very hypocritical about that, he was.
Speaker 3He often said throughout the series I'm, I'm extreme, I'm an extremely evil individual for the, for the things I have to do, uh, but he also said, outside of myself, there are some beautiful things to look at in this evil path that I'm walking, and so I think that contrast that the writer set up in him a big shout out to them because they did such a great job in that yeah, and helping us, the viewer, see those beautiful things and go oh man, I want to go swim off the coast of Guam and I want to go in a museum museum. I know this episode is about stolen art. I don't want to steal art, but I want to go to a museum in Europe and and and look at some of these pieces that are beautiful and you know, and so the show really exposed, exposed you to certain aspects of the world at large that hold that beauty from God's hand.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's not like hey, man Duran. Hey, I watched this episode, man. It taught me how to rob a bank man. You in. Yeah yeah, it's not like that.
Speaker 3Come on, man, yeah, because some of y'all stealing out here. Y'all don't watch TV. Y'all know who y'all are. Let me stop, man, hey, let me stop Some of y'all stealing from God's people. Y'all don't have no streaming services or cable network. Y'all going to tell me not to watch the show so I don't learn how to steal from people. Maybe y'all should watch the show. Oh man, oh boy, y'all know I had something for y'all man.
Speaker 3Not all of y'all are guilty of that man had something for y'all man. Not all of y'all are guilty of that man. Some of y'all watch those.
Speaker 2Some, some, not all, all right. Well, one more thing, and this is also tied to what we talked about at the beginning, but you started Coach's Eats.
Speaker 3Coach's Eats on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 2Feel like tiktok is still alive, but I'm mainly on on the instagram platform man yeah, somebody, somebody made the gen x angry and they're all over tiktok now. So oh, okay, okay somebody made a statement that gen x is the worst generation and gen x is powerful.
Speaker 3man, Gen X is powerful. Leave us alone. Leave us alone.
Speaker 2Leave us alone. We ain't bothering y'all. Leave us alone. You don't want to smoke man? Leave us alone.
Speaker 3Coaches eat, man, coaches eat.
Speaker 2What gave you the idea to? I know it's because you love to eat, because I love to.
Speaker 3Yeah, man yeah.
Speaker 2What, what, what made you decide to like start visiting restaurants and promoting them? And I got how did? How did that come about?
Speaker 3Yeah, I got two reasons for you Connect it. One of it was from failure, man and learn to fail. I at one time I had a business I'm not going to say what it is but and I failed. I failed miserably, I fell flat, didn't do market research, didn't do what I was supposed to do, big dreamer. A lot of people had to deal with the consequences of my failure in that context. So, you know, I learned from myself.
Speaker 3I'm not in the culinary world, I'm not a businessman, and that's a. That's a. That's a humbling thing to learn about yourself, because that was a season of my life where I was experiencing success in other arenas and so I was like I'm a launch a business and then I failed miserably. But then from that failure I said you know, I think there are good business owners who might fail if not for exposure, good business owners who might fail if not for exposure. So that was one piece of it. So I was like I'm going to go out. Yes, I love to eat. Let me not pretend that that's not a part of this. But I was like man, I want to support these business, which is why I've talked to business owners, chefs just in striking up very good relationships with people through that industry and have told them why I do what I do. And one of them was, like I rarely talk to accounts. He and I we're still. He's a very successful franchise business owner. I rarely even speak to accounts below 10,000 followers. He was like but there's something he said this about me. I didn't say this about myself. There's something about your account that's genuine. And so I told him why I do it. I was like man, I failed, man, I lost, I lost, I lost money, I lost everything. But but from that I was like I'm a, I'm a shout out people, I'm a celebrate people and there's something enjoyable about celebrating the achievement of others. Paul said consider the wealth of others above yourself. There's something uh enjoyable about that for me. And so what that turned into was man, let's go and see. And then, uh, mrs Coaches Eats loves photography. I'm gonna shout her out she loves photography. So we just married the two worlds together. She loves videography and photography and we just started that.
Speaker 3But the, the, I didn't know about foodie stuff and all the rest I had. So how it began, that was my philosophy behind it. How it really began is I was about a few years ago I had some students shout out to them and, while I was drumming up the idea of, people were often telling me to do podcasts, do social media accounts Myself and some students talking about engaging the culture right myself and some students talking about engaging the culture right. It was a time we had a pause in our work. They had gotten in a little bit of a hot water in my class or something they were doing. They were sitting in front of me and man, these, these young men at the time, junior high, we started talking about food and they said coach, you need to start a page. Man, like like, like to hear you talk about food. And I was.
Speaker 3I didn't know what that looked like, so I was like oh well, do tell me. Like what is? How do I do that? Like, how do I? I'm not, you know, I wasn't savvy to that. And they were like man, just you know, bon, they showed me a couple of things food I prepare, or restaurants I visit.
Speaker 3And sometimes, you know, miss Coaches, eats will make something. I'll be like this is great. Or you know some of its lifestyle. I might go somewhere and see something and be like man. I wish everybody else could see what I'm seeing right now. But they gave me kind of the the hey, hey, like the idea, like you can do this. You're saying you want to do it and you eat anyway, like go do it.
Speaker 3So I started doing it, man, from that, and you know I've tried to grow organically. I've never purchased any followers. I know you can do that. I've tried to just get out, talk to businesses. Sometimes I'll pay for my meal, sometimes I'll pay for my meal, sometimes they'll pay for my meal, uh. But in that we're always talking. We're talking about the beauty of the way that they uh have established what they have in the culinary world and you know, I have some great relationships with some of them and hopefully, man, we could pull some of them onto this cast man. But that's the plan. But it has taken. It has taken, like this beautiful I don't have many followers, but it's taken a beautiful life of its own because I believe it's very genuine, like it's not so you know.
Speaker 2So, before you go further, yeah so you know, there's somebody else out there that does what you do, right, absolutely, mr keith lee. Right, you have you ever seen keith lee on tiktok?
Speaker 3uh, I think I have. I think I have he's got a lot. He's got a lot of followers, right, yeah, but yeah, he's got, he's got a lot of money too I like his work, so he's got a lot of money too.
Speaker 2So he'll, he'll go to these restaurants and he'll actually like say, tip me $3,000.
Speaker 3Yeah, I'm like what.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, but what would you say? My question is because I wanted to see if you were familiar with it first. But my question to you is what sets you apart from him? Like people would say well, you're just trying to be like Keith Lee. What would you say to people like that?
Celebrating Food and Community Engagement
Speaker 3The first thing I would say is I really um, the, the, the accounts that I have consulted to try to arrive to where I did. They're never really accounts that I would say. And I and that account I don't believe he's superficial, but I mean like I haven't. I haven't approached superficial accounts to achieve some successful result. I look at accounts, man, I wish I could shout them out on here and maybe there'll be a time to do that, with their permission, of course. But there's about five or six accounts that I looked at and I started like not only commenting on but having appropriate conversations, and there was always this enjoyment we talked about it in our last segment this enjoyment they had for what they were doing. So for me it was that. But also I don't know if I'm trying to necessarily set myself apart intentionally, but that competitive gene in me wants that and I would say the part of me that does that would lean back on. I sincerely and genuinely want the businesses that I'm highlighting and featuring and visiting. I want them to succeed. Uh, I think the game that I'm in in that foodie world and that foodie platform, a lot of people want themselves to succeed and an instrument to their success is the business they're highlighting, and so that philosophy is probably the more prevalent one, Whereas with me it's like man, when I go somewhere and eat, I want that business to thrive, and because I know what it's like to fail in that world and I also want to take what is done and I want to try to prepare it for myself. So I'm developing a love for the culinary arts. It's also out of necessity. We live in a time where people are going through hard things businesses and the individuals who make up those businesses. I also try to just help people, from a basic level, connect. I want people to feel like oh, I could go to that place and eat. Oh, I can make that. Oh, you know what? I'm coming in from work at five o'clock and I've been working hard and I want to prepare a meal for my family. Like I could prepare that meal. You know, like, like.
Speaker 3So my mindset and it was a shift for me early on, like I went from because in phase one you're just trying to build a following phase to your ass and really all the marketing genius would say you need to do the second phase first. But it never happens that way. The second phase for me was why am I doing this? Like, why take the time to go somewhere and do what I'm doing? And so I had to visit with that in phase two and I came up with that as a motivation man.
Speaker 3You know also, I'm a believer, I'm a Christian man. Whatever you do, whether eating or drinking, do unto the glory of God, and so, for me, I'm trying to do things to glory and to glory in his name and honor him, and in just the everyday mundane of eating and drinking. I also want people who may be going through things right now like you might be trying to figure out how to pay your bills and you might be saving up to do something or celebrate a special occasion I want you to, in that moment, really appreciate when you can go and enjoy a meal, when you can go out or the ingredients that you had to save up your hard earned dollars for to cook. Not everything's cheap that you could cook. And so you know, it really is my love for culinary, really speaking to the experience of people who have to eat and have to, you know, use food and come around food. I also believe we talk about engaging the culture.
Speaker 3I believe the Lord has used food to really provoke some beautiful things, you know, whether it be conversations, disagreements, you know whether it be coming together. You and I, man, we know, we know, shout out to the legend your moms, man. We know about the Sunday dinner. We know about the Sunday dinner, just the mystique of gathering together around a meal, man. So I think all those things kind of drove me into what I do, which is why what I do is so eclectic, like it's.
Speaker 3I have a hard time just promoting me and I think that's the next step of success. But I want to know, in that business model, like, how to do that well, with coaches eats, and I'm a coach man, I'm an educator, I love to eat and and I love to bring people that have influenced me in my life into the conversation. So my page is like a conglomeration of all these things about myself. Man, there's times when I couldn't eat the way I'm eating now, and you know, and, and and I mean there's you appreciate things, man. There's times, you know, when I was living in New York about 20 years ago and I had to get, you know, some dollar chicken wings to survive on and Vienna sausage and scramble one egg, you know, and I had to live that way, you know, I mean, so I appreciate food, man, yeah.
Speaker 2I had the butter and sugar sandwiches.
Speaker 3Woo, you won't find those on the Coach's East, though, man, we're not really high like that. I'm not ashamed of y'all.
Speaker 2You couldn't even afford a packet of Kool-Aid. You was drinking the sugar water, bro.
Speaker 3The sugar water man. Sugar water, yeah, my family, especially my folks, man, they, they grew up hard. They could tell those stories we always had. I know you and I come from different, different, um, economic, uh background, so to speak, but we share so many common experiences. But I think, even as you and I talk about things and talk about that account, like it's always, it comes back to food.
Speaker 3Man, like we, you and I, we'd be laughing about stuff we ate and our lot in life might have been different, like I might have not had a empty stomach and you might have had an empty stomach, but we shared. I remember when I came to visit your family, man, I was eating stuff that I hadn't tasted in years. Man, oh, shout, oh, shout out A. I'm not going to put your whole last name out there, man, but shout out to your mom man, she, man, the soul food Mate. I'm trying to capture that with Coach's Eats. Man, I think that's what sets me apart. That's the long story, man. I'm trying to capture how you saw me enjoying that meal in your living room.
Speaker 2I was like you look like that was your first meal after about 15 years of prison.
Speaker 3Bro, that's what man I was. I was humming amazing grace in acapella my mom was just staring at you like what is wrong with him y'all were laughing, I was humming because a part of me I was crying, like I was like jesus, like I hadn't, I hadn't had that so long man. You know that was before I had the page, but but it's funny to keep that alive man. I'm trying to make that food showcase that on my page as well, so you know it's a lot.
Speaker 2Shout out to mama's chicken.
Speaker 3Shout out to mama's chicken shout out to mama's chicken man right there, y'all, y'all, y'all, don't, don't, nobody do it like y'all fourth and slosson. Fourth and slosson when the connect is back in his neighborhood. I'm gonna come and see y'all. Man, shout out to y'all that's where we go.
Speaker 2yeah, oh, you know what, man, honestly, if, if, if, some of these restaurants that you're connected to, if they want to write a little blurb or something, I would love that. We could read the promo. Or if they have a radio spot already and they want us to just add it to our, I'll be more than happy to help them. I would love to have those conversations we got to showcase.
Speaker 3It's some good businesses. It's some good listen. It's I. I would like to get into this space. Man shout out to my people on the gram man, who, who are in the games, oh yeah, there's a lot of good. There's some good accounts, man, that I would love to get more exposure to. That I learned from and I haven't learned at all, so I'm gonna have some conversations out here, man, and you know I want y'all to be able to be a part of this platform.
Speaker 3Man, again, we not you know we're trying to grow organically like there's. You know it's a business model to this. But I want people to feel like yo on that platform, like they're for, like they're putting my product out there and they care how it looks and how it sounds Right.
Speaker 2All right. Well, I think we have killed the horse. The horse is dead, there's no need to beat it any further. So we're going to go ahead on and close this episode out. Now we're getting into the summer episodes, where we have a lot of guests lined up. We appreciate. I mean, even after the first episode, people were like put me on man, put me on man. I want to get on there and talk with you guys, man.
Speaker 3You can't wait to have y'all on.
Speaker 2It seemed like y'all have fun on there. Put us on, put us on. So we got some special guests throughout the summer that we're going to bring on and just talk about whatever next. Next time our first episode we're going to talk about growing up in the 70s, the 80s, the 90s that'll be fun it's going to be. It's going to be fun, so I'm looking forward to that episode.
Speaker 3But we appreciate you connect, man, and you hosting this thing, man. We thank you to our listeners as well.
Speaker 2Yeah, Thank you listeners. If, if, if you, if you are benefiting or if you're enjoying our podcast, man, please send people the link, tell them to get on and listen with. Listen to us. Let's build up this Coaching to Connect podcast listener base.
Speaker 3Hey, connect real fast before we get off the air. Can you tell our listeners what platforms are we on?
Speaker 2out there. Oh man, we're on just about every platform except for Apple Music. Okay, I still got to do some things to get on there, but we're on Spotify, we're on iHeartRadio, we're on TuneIn, we're on just about any Stitcher, any app that you use for podcasts. Just type in Coaching to Connect. It'd probably be a little bit difficult to find us right now, because we've got to move up in the ranks, of course, but that's why it's important for you guys to get the word out about our podcast, so that way we can be more readily accessible when you search. But once you find us, man, save it so you don't lose it, because we're going to be pretty consistent with our episodes and we're going to get these episodes out as quickly as possible. But again, I'm looking forward to these summer episodes. It's going to be a blast.
Speaker 3It will be Well.
Speaker 2Thank you guys for listening. We appreciate all of you who listen, all of the conversations and questions that we've had. Keep them coming and until next time, remember be outside.
Speaker 1Thank you for listening to Coach and the Connect. For comments, questions or inquiries about being a guest on the podcast, email us at coach and the connect at protonmailcom. You can find us on most streaming apps and remember we outside.