Transcript
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Hello, I'm Stephen Strang and welcome to the special edition of the Strang Report podcast.
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But today, my guest is David Lindell of Springfield, Missouri, and we're going to talk about
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the condition of men in our country and how important it is that men are godly men, stronger
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men if you please.
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And last year, I had the privilege of attending a conference.
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If you can call it that, it was really much more than just a men's conference as we'll
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discuss.
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And I think you're going to find this very interesting.
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We have some interesting things to show you.
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And my motivation is to get as many of you as can excited about this to either go in
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person or I presume it's a streamed live if you can't be there, but the place was full
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last year and I was so excited about it.
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I actually did a podcast and as it was rolling around this year, it's called the Stronger
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Men's Conferences April 12th and 13th.
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And I don't push a lot of conferences because when podcasts go online, they're there long
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after the event is over and it kind of dates them.
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But I felt this was important enough and it gave me a reason, an excuse if you like,
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to discuss this very important thing about what the Bible says about men, what our culture
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is doing to men and really some of the problems we have.
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So let me start by introducing my guest, David.
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You are the one that made it possible for me to go last year.
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I happened to be in Springfield around that time and when I found out about the conference,
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I actually arranged, I had other business travel and as I was telling you before we went on
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camera, I was blown away and I have been to more men's events than I can count on one
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hand and I've actually sponsored a few back in the day, but they were nothing like yours.
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So tell us first of all, in case people don't watch all the way to the end and we'll tell
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you this at the end of the program and we want you to stay tuned.
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Tell us about the stronger men's conference is April 12th and 13th at the Great Southern
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Bank Arena.
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That's right.
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That's right.
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And first and foremost, Steve, I want to say thank you for having me on the podcast and
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I appreciate you tackling such an important topic.
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You know, a lot of people don't want to talk about the state of manhood in America and I
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don't know how that got controversial, but it is.
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And not only controversial, but people get canceled over this sort of thing.
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And so you thank you for your courageous stance and your willingness to have a conversation
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about something that is desperately important for the future of America.
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And so the men's conference and you said, you know, in case people don't watch till
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the end, I just want to say to everybody who's watching this, watch till the end.
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Like this is going to be a great conversation.
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It is.
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And you need to watch every one of Steve's podcasts till the end.
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Oh, thank you.
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You say that just like I told you.
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He actually didn't tell me to say that you just need to a lot of great information.
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But like Steve said, we are at the great Southern Bank arena in Springfield, Missouri.
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And what's cool about that is we're on a secular university campus, Missouri State University,
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one of the biggest universities in the Midwest, certainly one of the biggest in the state of
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Missouri.
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So you've got tens of thousands of college students, undergrad students walking the campus
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while we're hosting one of the largest.
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It is actually the largest men's conference in America currently.
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And so I just think it's cool.
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God has decided to embed this conference in the middle of a state school campus.
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And so, you know, I'm pretty pumped about it.
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I loved having you there last year and loved our conversation after the fact.
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You got to see a tank crush cars.
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You got to see things blow up and then here's some incredible preaching as well.
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So from Pastor Craig Groschelle and Levi Lascaux and man, what a great time we had.
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And Senator Josh Holly, Josh Holly, who I had never met before.
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And then I later did a podcast with him.
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Yeah.
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About his book on manhood.
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Man, powerful book.
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Yes, wonderful, wonderful.
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And he did a great session on manhood at the event and we were so thankful for that.
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So just, you know, what we're about honestly, in terms of the stronger men's conference
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is seeing men step into their God given calling and assignment as men.
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So whatever age they're at, whatever demographic they find themselves in, it really doesn't
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matter at the end of the day in this sense that God created them on purpose for a purpose.
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And it's unique.
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And I know that, you know, there's a lot of talk about gender and, you know, and human
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sexuality, but the fact is that God made men as men and there is a specific assignment
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on them on the earth, this side of eternity, that if men don't do the aside, don't step
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into the calling, don't step into the assignment that God has given them, it not only is problematic
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for them.
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It actually hurts culture.
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It degrades society and it's a key ingredient into a healthy society, healthy culture and
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a thriving nation.
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And we see, you know, you're no stranger to the stats on this, but, you know, they now
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say upwards of 70% of Gen Zers are growing up in single parent homes and most of those
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are with single moms.
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So we have, we're raising a generation without dads and it's because nobody's taught them
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to be a dad.
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Our culture devalues the role of the father, the role of the husband and even the idea
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of manhood.
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So it's a real problem.
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And for us as leaders and you're, you're a leader in Christendom and we have to be more
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bold.
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We have to be more targeted in what we say about the state of the nation, the state of
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the world and the importance of raising up godly, bold, courageous men, stronger men
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who will stand for truth and will push back darkness.
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And so the stronger men's conference is all about equipping men to do that, but we have
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a lot of fun along the way as you experienced.
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We have a lot of fun.
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Well, I'm glad that you mentioned that about the fatherlessness, which I believe is one
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of the most serious problems in our country.
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It's not barely talked about, a lot of people just hand think that it's just the normal thing.
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But for thousands of years, men have been the protectors, the breadwinners.
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Men as a group are stronger than women and not every man is bigger than every woman.
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But the smallest man is bigger than the smallest woman.
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The biggest woman is smaller than the biggest man.
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You know what I'm saying?
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And in an earlier era, the men went out and worked, the women worked as hard too, taking
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care of the kid and doing everything else.
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It wasn't a matter about working or not working.
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In more recent times, a lot of our jobs, especially with office jobs, I mean, I'm in a profession,
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journalism, where a woman can do as good a job as a man.
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There's really no advantage to be a male.
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And then there's been the rise of the women's movement and there have been abuses.
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A lot of men have been irresponsible.
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They drink.
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Absolutely.
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They make, I know families for the woman, the wife is really the breadwinner and has
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to do everything else.
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And the husband has some almost like part-time job, if a job at all.
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A lot of these marriages end in divorce or they never, you know, they cohabit and never
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get married to start with.
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And this has become almost a cultural norm.
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So when you teach the word of God about biblical manhood, there are a lot of people that just
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rejected it.
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Some of it is because their own father was so bad.
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They used their children and everything else.
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Of course, this is an antithema to what the Bible teaches and what we, in the body of
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Christ, try to teach.
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And so there's a lot of good teaching, but it's hard to get men to do what they want
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to.
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And being in the media, I mean, it's mostly the women who buy the books and the magazines
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and the different things.
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And so you almost have to, it's like fishing.
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You were talking about fishing earlier.
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There was, you have to do something to get the men to come and some, and also to say
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it's okay to have testosterone is okay to get excited.
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We don't, you know, and I think part of it is the school, you know, little boys, if you
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ever had a little boy or got three of them.
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Or bend little boys, you know, that, you know, when you're seven, eight, nine, 10 years
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old, all you do is wiggle and the teachers are always, and your mother's always saying,
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sit down, you know, and that's where the dad comes in.
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This is no, it's okay to go out and climb trees and play catch or whatever.
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Anyway, we're all popping.
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We're talking about cultural things.
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And I admire what you guys are doing there.
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It's sponsored by James River Church, which is one of the biggest churches in the country.
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And your dad, John Lindell, is a friend of mine and he's, you know, you're blessed as
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I was to have a godly dad.
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And a lot of people didn't have that.
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So when they come to an event like this, even younger men, there can be bonds and they can
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get excited and they can feel accepted in a way that they may not in their day to day
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life.
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What do you think?
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That's true and you're talking also part of what you're referencing is the pain that people
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carry out of that relationship with a dad who was derelict in his duty as a father.
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You know, he didn't set a good example.
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He was either lazy or he was distracted or he was unkind and he mistreated his wife,
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you know, and his kids and or he was just absentee.
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And so, you know, unfortunately, the fact of the matter is dads are so influential in
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the lives of their sons and in the lives of their daughters.
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But when we're talking about men, a lot of men are carrying into adulthood father wounds.
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And what has happened is the view of their dad, the view their dad fostered through his
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attitude, through his perspective, through his harshness, through his abuse, through
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his absenteeism, what he did.
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And he didn't perhaps even realize he was doing it.
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I hope he didn't.
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But what he was doing is he was wounding his son and he was creating a filter through
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which that boy was going to walk into manhood and he was going to see life through the lens
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of the wound that his dad left him.
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And so for a lot of pastors and leaders, a big part of our job is helping that wound
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heal, bringing wholeness, bringing healing and helping guys understand that the problem
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isn't masculinity.
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That's not the problem.
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The problem isn't strong men, you know, because I think this is, you know, we get a lot of
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pushback just on the title of the conference because, oh, yeah, that's not what we do.
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We don't need strong men.
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We've had we've had enough of, you know, strong men.
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Well, abuse isn't strength.
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Abuse is weakness.
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Predatory behavior isn't strength.
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That's weakness.
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And so our culture has it all upside down, all backwards.
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We desperately need strong men.
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We need them now more than ever before.
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Yet we live in a day, but we're every, you know, evil is considered good and good is considered
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evil and morality has taken a backseat to what is expedient in the moment.
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And so we have, sadly, society has flipped the script on what actually is valuable and
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creates a future that our children can inhabit that is filled with healthy relationships and
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flourishing and all that God desires and design them to experience with men in crisis.
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They're inhabiting a world where there's an absence of godly leadership because that's
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part of the mantle of men, scripturally, they're meant to be spiritual leaders.
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They're meant to be leaders in every realm of society.
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And yet you find that men are less willing to step into areas of responsibility.
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More men are choosing not to marry and simply to cohabitate.
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So they're wanting to have sex with a woman who's not their wife and have kids that they
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don't really care for, provide for and create legacy for.
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And therefore it creates a lot of problems.
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So every federal, listen to this, Steve, every federal indicator shows that Gen Z is more
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depressed and more anxious than any generation ever studied.
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Like, wow.
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So we are raising a generation that has depression and anxiety and epidemic levels.
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And that's not, I don't, you know, we're not surprised by that.
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You and I are not surprised by that because we understand what they're walking through
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and what they're dealing with.
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Gen Z abuses drugs and alcohol at a greater rate than any other generation alive.
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So you know, it's just the drug abuse is unreal.
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It's off the charts.
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So it's just in their dealing, you know, here's what they're also dealing with, the issue
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of suicide.
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You know, so if you study suicide trends, Gen Z is just plagued by suicide.
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And all of these things go back, honestly, to some very simple things that our culture
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has rejected.
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And one of those is the place of the father, the place of the husband, and the idea of
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manhood.
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So I wouldn't want anybody to hear this podcast and go, oh, you know what, they're just, they're
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pushing a toxic masculinity.
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Toxic masculinity does exist.
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But the way that the media has defined it is not accurate.
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Innocent masculinity is not a dad who goes out and works hard and loves his wife and
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kids and leads them to Jesus and is a spiritual leader in his home and pays the bills and
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takes responsibility.
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I don't think there's anything toxic about that.
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We could use a lot more of that.
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And the men's conference is all about helping guys, equipping guys.
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There are some guys they've walked with Jesus for decades.
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There are some, and they're just trying to figure this thing out.
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And maybe they're like, they're not even a dad yet.
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They're like, they're a college student.
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You know, the great news about the conference is it's multi-generational.
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You saw that.
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So you've got dads with their sons.
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Like my seven-year-old son will be there and he looks forward to it all year.
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But then I have guys who, you know, we have guys who are registering for it in their 80s
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and they're coming and they're investing.
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These are great grandpas.
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You know, so my great grandpa will be at the men's conference.
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He's 86, or not my great-grandpa, my grandpa, but my kid's great-grandpa, you know, 86
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years old.
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And so you've got four generations in the room.
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It's just cool because all of them are benefiting from it.
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And it's real talk.
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You heard Levi Laska's talk last year.
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It was on sex.
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And he didn't pull any punches.
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He walked guys through the biblical view of sexuality and how to view sex, how to steward
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that in a relationship.
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But then Josh Hawley, you know, walking guys through the truth about manhood and his incredible
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book and then, you know, Craig Rochelle getting up and talking about, you know, responsibility
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and what God wants to do through your life.
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And it was just, the whole thing was just powerful.
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And so we're trying to get guys in a room where they recognize, I'm not alone.
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There's nothing like standing in an arena with over 9,000 guys.
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Plus, we've got guys who are joining in.
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Right now for this year, we already have guys registered from 24 countries across the world.
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You know, men are registered from
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36 states.
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So I mean, this is a, it's a, it's a people from all over the nation are coming, people
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from around the world are coming.
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And I just can't encourage whatever, like for the pastors who are watching this or men's
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leaders or, you know, maybe you, you're a business owner and get the guys in your world
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in a room where they can go, Hey, it's, it is manly to serve Jesus, love Jesus and walk
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in God's calling and purpose on your life.
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There's nothing more manly than that.
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So it's just powerful.
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So well said.
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And you know, they say a picture is worth a thousand words.
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So let's show people what to expect.
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Oh, when I went last year, I didn't know that.
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And I went last year, I didn't really know what to expect.
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I guess I expected it to be more like promise keepers, which was a, which were great events.
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But they were kind of revival meetings in a football stadium.
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Yours was had elements of that, but it was a lot more.
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So I'm guessing that that's probably the biggest venue in Springfield.
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It's a very nice venue.
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I believe you'd call it a basketball court.
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And I'm not sure what it seats, but probably 15,000 more or less, and it was filled to
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the rafters and I walked in and here was an army tank.
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And here were some old cars sitting on the floor and I'm going, what in the world?
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Well I found out before long, you kind of cleared it away because people were around
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it and that army tank crushed those cars while everybody just went crazy.
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Yeah.
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And then you had acrobats doing stuff that was frightening to me.
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Yeah.
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No, it was.
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If I tried it, I would have, yeah, you're right.
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I would have died.
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And people yelling and cheering and you know, there are a lot of men that are walking with
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the Lord and they've really blown it in their lives.
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They have a lot of guilt and shame.
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And in an environment like that, there is a feeling, yes, I can make it.
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There are other men who are going through the same thing I can.
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Jesus is the answer.
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The Bible does have the answer.
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And I think that events like that encourage people and life is more than going to great
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conferences.
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Yeah.
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But I think it's a very important part of life and I encourage people to come and you
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mentioned other groups around the country.
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I presume that they're going to live stream it.
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Tell us about that.
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Yeah, we have some places that are going to be extension sites for the conference.
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You can also purchase an individual live stream link.
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Although I would encourage you, if you're watching this, you want to do this with other
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dudes.
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So you don't want to do this.
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Like I just don't think it's a great thing to buy the live stream link and watch this
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by yourself.
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One, it's a lot less fun.
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So you need it.
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You need, you know, so we have churches who are extension sites, but we have a lot of
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churches who bring like large groups of guys.
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We have a church in Kansas City.
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They're bringing 200 guys.
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So they're written buses and they're bringing them all down.
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We've got a church locally.
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They're bringing 60 guys.
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So we have groups of 250, 60, 70 guys and they're coming.
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So a lot of pastors are using this to kind of bolster their ministry to men.
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So they're already doing men's groups.
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They do things for men throughout the year, but this is kind of an anchor event for them.
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And so, you know, it's not a, it's not James River Church men's conference.
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It's the stronger men's conference put on by James River Church, but we want it to be
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a resource to churches around the country because we recognize men's conferences are
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hard to put on their heart.
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It's difficult and expensive.
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I mean, you, it's not cheap bringing in an army tank.
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No, it requires a lot, but here's the thing.
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I think sometimes things are difficult because Satan hates them so much.
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And I really think that especially with conferences where people are coming into a space where
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tens of thousands of worshipers are filling the room with praise to Jesus.
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And then the Bible's being clearly taught and men are being called to accountability
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and men are being called to put their faith in Jesus.
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You know, we'll see hundreds of guys come to faith in Christ, which is so exciting.
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You got to believe hell hates that Satan hates that.
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And so there's going to be opposition.
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We're never surprised by the opposition, Steve.
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Like last year we had articles written about like, how come you got to have a tank at a
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men's conference?
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Well, one, because we wanted to, you know, like, would Jesus have a tank at a men's conference?
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I don't know, but I think he might have.
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Like, you know, it's, it's fun.
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Like God invented, I think some people have forgotten that God invented fun.
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So we have a lot of fun.
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We do things that guys are going to love, you know, like Harrison Butcher from the Kansas
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City Chiefs, like he basically carried that team.
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I love Patrick Mahomes.
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I love Travis Kelsey, but man without Harrison Butcher kicking some of those field goals.
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I mean, he had, he now holds the Super Bowl record for the longest field goal in a Super
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Bowl.
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So like he's going to be there.
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He loves Jesus, but he's going to be on that stage talking about his faith.
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Josh Hawley is going to be back at the event.
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Little, that's a surprise.
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Don't tell anybody that guys.
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But we love him.
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And tell us about some of the others like Mark Driscoll and some of the other speakers.
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I mean, Pastor Mark Driscoll, if you've, if you've not followed him, like the guy pulls
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no punches.
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So I know he's published several books with charisma.
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The guy's a dynamic communicator.
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He's written a book called New Days, Old Demons.
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And he's just talking about how what we're dealing with in culture is really nothing
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new.
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If you look at the text of scripture, it really reminds you of the book of judges.
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There's a, there's a, everybody was doing what was right in their own eyes.
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You know, they were defunding the police, you know, the borders were breaking down.
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You know, Israel was in a real state of crisis.
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And so Mark is going to be speaking to the, to the parallels we see in our culture and
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then what we see in the book of judges and Old Testament Israel and what they're dealing.
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So that's going to be powerful.
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But then you're going to have Tim Timberlake.
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Tim Timberlake is a powerhouse communicator.
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He's got to be one of the best preachers on the planet.
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And he's coming in.
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That's going to be amazing.
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He'll actually be staying for conference Sunday, which is always an amazing end to the weekend.
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And then Jay Ben Chavez pastors in one of the darkest cities in America, Las Vegas, and
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God is blowing up his church.
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I mean, they're in the middle of a building project.
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They're growing like crazy.
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Why?
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Because in darkness, light shines really bright.
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And so in the middle of Las Vegas, he's driven a stake in the ground.
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He's preaching Jesus.
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And I can't wait to see what God does through his ministry, but the whole thing is going
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to be really spectacular.
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And as you can tell, I'm just a little bit excited about it.
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And you should be.
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And you've been doing this now for a number of years and it's continued to grow.
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And that's an impressive statistic, largest in the country.
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And tell us a little bit more about your background and James River in the couple of minutes we
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have left.
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Sure.
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Yeah.
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James River is a multi-site church.
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We're affiliated with the symbolists of God in Springfield, Missouri, but really we are
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a community church in this sense.
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I mean, and you've been in the room, Steve, we have a lot of people from different church
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backgrounds, but mainly from no church background.
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So, you know, Tim, I can't remember who I think it was Flannery O'Connor called the
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South Christ haunted area of our country.
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And so there's all these people who have kind of lingering.
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They grew up around the things of God.
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They grew up in a Christian environment.
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Maybe they identified as a Christian, but they've never known the Savior.
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And so James River has been, you know, we're committed, God raised James River up to reach
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the lost.
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That's what we're about.
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We love seeing people come to know Jesus.
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And so by the grace of God, we've seen tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands
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of people at this point, and come to know Christ in the church, through the church.
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And so what we're passionate about is seeing people come to know Jesus.
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And so this year, we've seen hundreds of people come to faith in Christ already.
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And you know, we're in the middle of a leadership transition right now.
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My dad was the first full-time pastor of the church.
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It was started by four families in the very early 90s.
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And he came along.
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They had a retired guy who was preaching for them.
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And he came nine months after the church was started with four families and has pastored,
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you know, for three decades, over three decades here.
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And now my brother Brandon and I are taking the baton of leadership.
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And so we're in a leadership transition right now where he's passing the baton to us to
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be co-lead pastors.
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And we're so excited about this season because God is really accelerating so many of the
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things that he's doing, not just through one location.
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We've got multiple locations and then, you know, a big online church family as part of
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James Shriver.
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So we're just excited about what God's doing.
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But we've got, you know, we do a couple of conferences through the year because we are
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passionate not only about raising up men, but also women.
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So we've got a women's conference that's actually back-to-back weekends because the arena can't
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even accommodate it.
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It's just too big.
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And that happens in the fall.
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But, you know, God is just, he's accelerating things in the life of the church.
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The wind of the spirit is blowing.
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We're seeing a lot of miracles happen right now.
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And, you know, in the last three years, we've seen over 4,000 people healed.
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And I'm talking physical healing.
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So, you know, cancer healed, tumors dissolving, metal plates dissolving.
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We had a lady whose toes grew back.
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They had been amputated.
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They grew back, like, in a service in front of one of our team members.
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So it's just been, God is doing really extraordinary things in the life of the church.
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And so we're just, honestly, we're just hanging onto the Holy Spirit and saying, guide us,
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lead us, direct us.
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We only want what God wants.
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But honestly, we're just so committed to following His lead, more committed than ever before,
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to just saying, only the Lord knows where we're going.
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And so we've got to stick close to Him.
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So, boy, that's exciting.
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And it sounds like we need to do an article in Charisma online about these miracles or
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have a separate podcast about that because it's just so incredible and we're always looking
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for things that can be documented.
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Yes.
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And so as we close, as a final word, I want you to tell people again how they can register.
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Well.
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Of course, you can always Google stronger men's conference and find it that way.
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But tell people the cost, the deadline for registering, all that good stuff.
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Yeah.
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Well, we would love it.
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We'd love for you to come.
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April 12th and 13th, it starts on a Friday afternoon.
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We've got some pre-conference entertainment that guys love.
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It's just we've got like swap raids and golf simulators and all this stuff down by the
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arena.
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And then the conference kicks off officially at 7 p.m. on Friday night.
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It is a power packed.
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00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:43,680
We're going to have professional boxing, Steve.
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00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:45,840
Literally we're going to have a title fight on site.
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00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:49,680
So somebody's going to like walk away with it's a sanctioned professional boxing title
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00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:50,680
fight.
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00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:51,920
Like it's going to be crazy.
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00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:53,560
Because of these guys are undefeated.
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00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:56,160
So somebody's walking away with their first loss.
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00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:57,160
They are professional.
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00:28:57,160 --> 00:28:58,960
Like they bring in their whole crew.
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00:28:58,960 --> 00:28:59,960
It's crazy.
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00:28:59,960 --> 00:29:02,520
It'll be in the middle of the, the place will be electric.
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00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:05,360
So that's, you know, once again, all the fun.
479
00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:08,080
And then on Saturday, it'll be great.
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00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:10,400
We're done by about noon.
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00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:13,280
So it starts in the morning at eight and it goes till noon.
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00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:17,160
That way guys who have, who have traveled in can get back and, you know, if you still
483
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:19,480
want some of your Saturday, you can have it.
484
00:29:19,480 --> 00:29:20,760
But it's an incredible time.
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00:29:20,760 --> 00:29:26,760
The onsite rate is $199, but right now you can get it for $169.
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00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:28,840
So $30 off the onsite rate.
487
00:29:28,840 --> 00:29:30,920
And if you're bringing a group, there's group discounts.
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00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:34,480
So strongermen.org is where you go.
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00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:37,000
And we would love to connect with you.
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00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:40,840
And if you've got questions, you can always call us, you know, here at the church, just
491
00:29:40,840 --> 00:29:42,720
Google Steve's right.
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00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:45,440
Use Google, Google James River Church.
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00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:48,080
You can talk to our real person if you have any questions.
494
00:29:48,080 --> 00:29:49,320
But here's the thing.
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00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:54,400
We are passionate about investing in men and seeing them step into their God given calling
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00:29:54,400 --> 00:29:55,400
and assignment.
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00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:59,800
And I'm so thankful for Steve because Steve is passionate about this or I wouldn't even
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00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:01,440
be on this podcast.
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00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:04,480
So Steve, thank you for making space to talk about this.
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00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:05,480
And thank you.
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00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:12,040
And congratulations on this new position that you're moving into you and your brother.
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00:30:12,040 --> 00:30:13,040
We're excited.
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00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:14,040
So God bless you both.
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00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:16,040
And thank you to my viewers and listeners.
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00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:20,240
If you haven't subscribed to the strength report, be sure to do so and hit the little
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00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:26,440
bell so you know when we're live every Tuesday and Thursday, 4pm Eastern time and share this
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00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:31,880
with others, especially those who you believe would be interested in the stronger men's
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00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:32,880
conference.
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00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:33,880
Thank you for watching.
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00:30:33,880 --> 00:30:50,920
God bless you.