Caleb Podcast
Welcome to Caleb Podcast, where we dive deep into the stories and perspectives that challenge conventional religious thought. Join me, Caleb Parker, your host and fellow seeker, as we embark on a journey to explore spirituality, faith, and humanity from a refreshingly open-minded perspective.
In each episode, I sit down with guests from diverse backgrounds and walks of life. From artists to activists, scientists to philosophers, we engage in candid conversations that transcend the boundaries of traditional Christian discourse. Together, we unravel the complexities of belief, doubt, and the human experience in the context of modern society.
Whether you identify as a devout believer, a skeptic, or something in between, Unhinged Christian offers a space for exploration and discovery. No topic is off-limits as we challenge assumptions, confront taboos, and embrace the richness of our shared humanity.
Join us as we navigate the intersections of faith, doubt, and everything in between. Tune in to Unhinged Christian and open your mind to a new dimension of spiritual inquiry.
Caleb Podcast
040: The Road To Discipleship. With Connor Bucy
What if everything we've been told about Gen Z's relationship with faith is wrong? This eye-opening conversation with a passionate young missionary flips the script on conventional wisdom, suggesting that rather than being "post-Christian," today's youth might actually be "pre-revival."
The journey begins with raw stories from the mission field – sleeping in barns, ministering in America's largest homeless population in San Francisco's Tenderloin district, and confronting entitlement and pride when exhaustion and sickness set in. These "entitlement killers" form the crucible where genuine ministry is forged.
Most fascinating is the counterintuitive discovery that sometimes the most receptive audiences aren't where you'd expect. While church-filled communities occasionally proved resistant, party scenes in cities like San Diego often yielded profound spiritual conversations. Why? As the missionary explains, those searching for fulfillment in temporal pleasures often recognize their emptiness faster than those surrounded by religious structures without relationship.
Behind this ministry lies innovative approaches worth noting. Pop-up vintage clothing stores serve dual purposes – funding the mission while creating natural spaces for spiritual conversations with unlikely audiences. Meanwhile, QR code systems at events connect new believers directly to local churches, addressing the critical gap between momentary decisions and long-term discipleship. Last summer alone, approximately 1,500-1,600 people not just made faith commitments but actually connected with local churches.
Whether you're considering missions work, curious about Gen Z's spiritual landscape, or simply interested in innovative outreach approaches, this conversation offers a refreshing perspective on how authentic faith is spreading in unexpected ways across America.
Have you noticed signs of spiritual hunger in today's youth? Join the conversation and share your thoughts on this potential pre-revival generation.
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here, I think it was just before you went on tour went on tour, were you in the, the, the program that you were doing? Yeah, okay, so you had already started that yep so let's start off from there when you go on tour. Yeah, what's that like?
Speaker 2:dude it was. It was wild tour is crazy tour. Every heart Tour is a really good experience. I would highly recommend it to any college student that wants to give their summer to being a missionary serving local churches, local bodies. It was super growing, super stretching. You know there's a lot of I think of. We stayed at YWAM San Francisco.
Speaker 1:Stayed at where YWAM San.
Speaker 2:Francisco, um, and it's, uh, in the heart of what's called the tenderloin in San Francisco, which is the biggest homeless population in all of the United States, and so we talk about entitlement killers. It's midnight, we're in the biggest homeless population. There's people lining the streets like sleeping in front of the doors and like crazy stuff gunshots, like it was wild, and I'm sick as a dog. I'm so sick at this point and we get there and we're like From what Just from?
Speaker 2:Just traveling, traveling catching something shaking people's hands and praying for people and not being smart with them, washing my hands and sanitizing my hands and rubbing my eyes or my face, whatever it was. Yeah, um, and so sorry, I touched the mic, it's fine. Um, and so a lot of like things that like entitlement, pride thing, ego, all these things, they, they start to show up on tour and you have to, you have to be the one that's like all right, lord, you can, you can kill this, like, this is like, I'm here for you and nothing more. Um, and so, dude, it's, every heart tour is wild man, and I'm going on my second tour this summer, so I'm leaving in like two weeks for another tour. I'm leading a team this year to the northeast part of america, so we're going to west virginia, virginia, boston, new york city, new jersey, maine and then toronto, and so skipping over new hampshire.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that breaks my heart but the rest of this the rest of the states are going to be cool dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's going to be so fun. I'm super excited.
Speaker 2:We went as a leadership team in january, uh, which was such a blast and love to all of these eastern side okay yeah, because so the northeast for us has been really like hard, a lot of hard soil over there that for us to kind of like break into. And so we went with the goal of like just doubling our connections. And so that means the cities where we have one connection, we want just one more. Cities where we have three, we want three more. And just so we can help unify the bodies within these cities. And so we went and I mean we saw there were some days we just went, we looked up churches. We were like Lord, are you on this, should we go here? And if we felt a yes, we'd just show up and we'd knock on the church door and we'd get a meeting with the pastor and he's like I love it, let's do it.
Speaker 2:And there's others that are like what are you doing, get out of here, you know, um and so. But it's so fun and the Lord's really moving over in the Northeast and we're super excited and super expectant, um, for what he's going to do this summer. Um, but I mean, last summer, dude, the Lord did so so much. We we started implementing this thing where at our gatherings we would put up ar code for people to scan, uh, and fill out like hey, was this your first time giving your life to the lord, or was this your first time like having a, like a significant encounter with jesus or whatever it is? Uh, and then ask, we'd also have the question of do you want your information to get passed to a local body?
Speaker 1:okay, because so there there can be follow-up. Yeah, should they say.
Speaker 2:Because in the past we've been like all right, we have a rare opportunity to go out and travel during the summer and see these people get saved and have significant encounters with the Lord, but then we leave, yeah, and we're like we can't just let these people have this encounter and not do something about it.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And so that's why we started doing a lot more like pre-tours is what we call them. In January, we go and partner with a lot more local churches that are kind of similar with what we believe in, because we're like, hey, we, we want to know that we have safe connections that we can send these people to all over the city.
Speaker 2:And so we, we've, I all over the city and so we've, I think, this last summer let me check my notes this last summer alone, we saw, I think, 1,500 people, around 1,500 to 1,600 people, commit their life to the Lord for the first time, but also get plugged into a church.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's important. People commit their life to the Lord for the first time, but also get plugged into a church. Yeah, and so give like, which is important, yeah and so because.
Speaker 2:I mean they need to be discipled, Obviously, jesus is the greatest discipler and he can do it. But we also believe like, hey, you should be in the body. And so the Lord moved in crazy ways. So many people got saved, people got healed, people got delivered. It grew me. There are some things I was like I didn't know god could do that you know, I saw this woman get up out of a wheelchair after a car accident.
Speaker 2:Doctor told she never walk again and now she's walking and it's like all right, god, I that's crazy you know what I? Mean so, but it's like nothing that I could do or our team could do, or every heart does, like it's just Jesus.
Speaker 1:Right, it's who he is, you know.
Speaker 2:And so tour was wild man and grew me and stretched me a lot. But I'm super excited for this upcoming tour and yeah.
Speaker 1:So where all did you go this past summer? Because January and then this year you're going to the Northeast and you were in LA right for the summer. Was it just California?
Speaker 2:We went through Fort Collins, Colorado, Colorado Springs, Salt Lake City, Utah, Boise, Idaho, Phoenix, Arizona, Fresno, San Diego, San Francisco.
Speaker 1:So in Utah did you have any trouble with Mormons Dude, Because I've had both Josh and Alec on here and when they were down there it was like if they tried to set up a church it'd be really hard for them because the Mormons would want to shut them down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it'd be. Really it'd be hard for them because the Mormons would want to shut them down. Yeah, yeah, they know. Yeah it was. It wasn't super difficult. Obviously, you know we'd run into Mormon missionaries or just Mormon families who didn't really agree with everything that we believe in, but they're also super kind. Mormons are super nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they are, they're very nice people, and so they're not the ones that are going to try and start the debates with us, and we're not wanting to start debates with them. But what we realized is a lot of religion versus rebellion in Utah, lot of religion versus rebellion in Utah. And so we've encountered, we encountered a lot of people that were they loved God, they loved Jesus, but they knew Mormonism wasn't who he really is.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And walk away from the faith, but they don't know what the what faith is, because Mormonism was all what they knew, and so we had a really good opportunity to go in there and share actual truth and have a lot of local bodies that believe what we believe in that we could be like, hey, like this is truth you know, I mean, this is like this is who jesus really is.
Speaker 2:um, there were obviously some of the, the guys you know we would run into and they just weren't. They were very kind about it, but they were like that's not true, that's not truth. This is truth and it's like dude, I'm sorry but no, it's not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it gets hard when you're trying to be loving and kind and then there's disagreements or like what you're saying like truth, and then they're just not hearing it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's. You know, there's only so much we can do. I mean, we're not the ones that save, only Jesus can, and so best thing that we can do is tell them truth and encourage them. There was a pastor that we partnered with and he was like encourage them to read the Bible. He's like, nine times out of when a Mormon reads the Bible, they convert because they don't read the Bible. They read the book of Mormon. And he was like tell them to read the gospel of John and watch their life get transformed, you know. And so anytime I'd encounter a person that, like, practices Mormonism, I'd ask him, like have you ever read the book of John? I'd encounter a person that practices Mormonism, I'd ask them have you read the book of John? They're like you know here and there, I know it, but it's like I'd look into it man, you're going to read this and you're going to feel truth running through your body.
Speaker 2:This book is alive. Yours isn't Joseph Smith's dead. Jesus isn't. There's something significant about that, that's dead Jesus isn't. There's something significant about that. And so your prophets are all dead when they all look to Jesus. Jesus looks to himself Probably means that it's Jesus, and so it's a wild thing out there, but it's super fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and was it any? Was there any culture shock Like last time you were on here? We were talking about how we both grew up in West Michigan, with it being very reformed and Christian, and so when we get out of this bubble, we realize that not all of America is actually saved. So what was the culture shock like that for you?
Speaker 2:So what was?
Speaker 1:the culture shock like that for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I honestly think on tour this last year out west, when we went out west it wasn't a big culture shock, as much as it was on pre-tour for me when we went to Maine. Maine's one of the most unreached states in all of America and mainly because Maine is the state where people will go when they retire and they're like I don't need Jesus, you know, I live my life, I got my money, I got whatever, I'm going to retire, I'm going to have a good time and and so what? I encountered a lot. There was a lot of like you'd go up to someone, hey man, like can I pray for? And they're like dude, buzz off, dude, kick rocks, get out, get away from me.
Speaker 2:And it was really hard it was really hard soil, but the way the Lord's moving in the body over there is super exciting. We're partnering with, I think, three church plants that are starting around this time In.
Speaker 1:Maine.
Speaker 2:In Maine and so, and the Lord has like just been all over it and you know, and so there's, there's a lot of, there's a lot of hard soil out in Maine and that was really like those the week to two weeks, that. No, how long were we there in pre-tour? Just about a week and a few days. It was really hard. I'd try to go out and I love evangelism, I love evangelizing, I feel the Lord all over it in my life and you know I'd go out and they'd just be like dang, this is hard, this is hard soil, but what the Lord's doing out there is exciting, man. But I think last tour as well, this was also really weird. It was so odd. But we were in Fort Collins, colorado, and I remember we went out to evangelize that entire week and I think we saw like which I mean praise God, like this was awesome. But I think we saw like which I mean praise God, like this was awesome.
Speaker 2:I think we saw like two people get saved that entire week and it's like amen, like praise God, you know we're there we're there for the one, Um, but it was not like any other week that we had where we'd see like however many, and it was just really odd because like it was really hard, but there's churches, there's churches like everywhere. And so I was kind of under the assumption like yeah, okay, this place seems pretty churched and whatever, and we would go and out evangelize. And I remember that was like the one time where I was like it sucks, I keep getting rejected. People keep yelling at me this, this, this, this, this, this, this, which I'm fine with, but I was like this is so weird.
Speaker 1:But there's also the reality of getting that rejection.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and it's like this is just so weird, like I was not expecting this with this city, but I was like this is what I'm expecting like San Diego.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like where people go there to party at the beaches.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But I go to San Diego and people are like, dude, let's chat, and like you're having like an hour long conversation with that one dude, you know who's really open, and so it was. That was the sense of like I had presumptions of different cities that just were like flip-flopped and I was like what the heck is going on. But yeah, man.
Speaker 1:I wonder if it's because in San Diego generally there is a little bit more depravity and so like they may be searching for something that all these other things are just haven't worked. They thought it would bring happiness, and it still hasn't. So they try something new, and it doesn't bring happiness. And then you mentioned something, or I should say someone who can bring that, and so they're probably more interested.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's also too. San Diego is a lot of young people, especially in the summertime.
Speaker 1:Really, there's a lot of young people. Okay, that's new.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that. Yeah, I mean I ran into so many so, and I say young, but I mean like 26 and under, you know, and it's just like there's these people that are like like I mean I remember saying this last time on the podcast but like I really believe like the Lord's hand is all over Gen Z in this generation.
Speaker 1:You know what?
Speaker 2:I mean, and people say that it's becoming the first post-Christian generation, but I think it's the first pre-revival.
Speaker 1:So you're a little more optimistic about it.
Speaker 2:Oh, I think this generation is hungry for the Lord about it. Oh, I think this generation is hungry for the lord, you know, um. And so when we go and you're exactly correct there's people, especially in san diego, that are there searching for something yeah searching for fulfillment partying on the beaches, partying the bars, surfing, whatever it is, fishing, finding fulfillment, things that ultimately doesn't satisfy.
Speaker 2:They go home at night and there's still that hole in their heart. And when we go and we're like, hey, man, there's someone who loves you. Can I tell you about him? And watching these people like, oh my gosh, this is real, this isn't just something that Sunday school, you know what I mean. Jesus is real, he's alive, he loves me, you know. And so seeing seeing those same people like, especially the young people that are just like finding fulfillment in Jesus and not in these things, you know, has been super exciting.
Speaker 2:We had a dude from San Diego on our team. His name was Bodie. We had a dude from San Diego on our team, his name was Bodie, and Bodie, like surfer skater, had that California accent, like amazing dude, amazing dude and he loves the Lord. And I mean we were in San Diego and I mean I just was watching him and I was honestly getting really inspired. But watching him just like be in his element with his people, that he used to be a part, like that crowd, of trying to find fulfillment and things, so he used to be part of that same crowd, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean he loved Jesus. But there were things like I mean, like any of us, that we go to to try to fill this void.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And he was able just to relate so easily like, hey, I was there, man, it doesn't satisfy, it doesn't get easier, it doesn't get better. But once you allow jesus to be the lord of everything, when you let him love you like you're like that's what does it. And so I mean san diego was wild man and I mean gen z is, I'm super excited man, the, the Lord's doing something in this generation. And I mean you can look anywhere and you can see people saying post-church and this, this, this, this, this, that, that, whatever. And it's like dude, no, like, look a little deeper, you'll see that Bible sales are almost at the highest that they've ever been.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:Yeah that churches are blowing up Like dude. We're on the brink of revival, man, we're on the brink of it. I hope so, dude, I know so.
Speaker 1:I would say I'm like, not pessimistic, but I'm also not optimistic about it. Yeah, but I do believe that if you're watching mainstream media then, yeah, you wouldn't believe, because they're showing you the worst of the worst, but that's just one, one person, and so if you're paying attention to that, you're starting to think that that's everybody. When, in reality, you go around and talk to people, it's a different story.
Speaker 2:So that's kind of where I'm at. Yeah, dude, the church is. Man, I should have wrote all these these things down, we things down. We've been talking about them as like within our movement, like these things that we're seeing of man.
Speaker 2:I got to find these statistics. I'll text them to you. I'll text them to you when I get them. But, like dude, Bible sales are like skyrocketing. Churches are expanding like crazy. Christian churches are expanding like crazy and it's a fluctuation of people 25 and under that are coming in, that are buying these Bibles, that are downloading the Bible app, that are doing all these things because they know deep down in their soul that they've longed for a relationship with him and he's moving.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. And so, dude, I'm super full of faith that this generation, that very soon we're going to something crazy happening and hopefully I believe in there. I believe it, dude. I'm super, I'm super excited for it and it's gonna be great.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be great so when you're not on tour, what does your? Because you're officially a missionary, now right, that's that's what you do. Yeah, what does your, because you're officially a missionary, now right yeah, that's what you do, yeah what does the normal day look like for you?
Speaker 2:dude it's, it's kind of spread out. Um, and so I. This last year I was, uh, part of what we had called kingdom clothing and so that was a way that we would make money for the movement, raise money for the movement and raise money for the movement, and so we would sell vintage clothing, and so we would, but the unique thing about that, we didn't have a brick and mortar. We would go to what's called vintage pop-ups and so we'd travel all across the US Midwest region and do these pop-ups and, honestly, these places that we would go to they're kind of like circuses, I guess. I don't know. It's really weird.
Speaker 2:So we go to this, it is, we go to this place called totally rad vintage fest and they literally just travel like all the time and there's like usually the same people that travel with them and it's really like just like we'd show up every once in a while and it's like, oh, dude, you're still here. Like amen, praise God. You know, but We'd show up every once in a while and it's like, oh, dude, you're still here. Amen, praise God. But we would go and we'd set up and two of us would stay and check people out and we'd rotate. We had a team of four, five, six that would go and we'd just evangelize. And it was so fun.
Speaker 1:While selling the clothing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it was a good opportunity to go into places where people would probably never step foot in a church, honestly, are trying to fulfill again a void in their heart with making money, clothing, whatever it is, uh, and go and share truth. And you know, we saw people get saved. We saw people get super mad at us that we're even there. And you know, sorry, dude, we love you man, but there's a bigger mission here, and so we we'd still go and and within Kingdom Clothing. It looked like a lot of. We would get the clothes, we'd wash them, we'd photo them, measure, upload and then we'd have drops on our website as well, I think like twice a month. And so we were kind of grinding with that and we felt the Lord, which was really wild. We were at like Kingdom Clothing was doing the best that it was doing, we were seeing people get saved, we're making money for the movement and we felt the Lord say close it. So we closed it as of like two days ago. So we're done for good now with Kingdom Clothing, which is really, really sad, really like bittersweet.
Speaker 2:Me and my friends me and my close friends were the ones that were working in it and we just were like all right, lord, we feel you moving on other areas and so, but also within Kingdom, what I was doing with Kingdom Clothing was also in our worship ministry as well, and so we have about four man wait one, two, we four, four to five worship sets a week, and so I would play Cajon and serve at our college campuses, our Met by Love campuses on Monday nights, tuesday morning we'd have prayer sets that I would usually run audio. At, thursday nights, we'd have another prayer set do drums at, and then Sunday nights, I would either play drums or do audio, and then at the end of the month, every Monday, we would have our unity gatherings, which are our big worship gatherings that we invite all the college campuses to and we just do a giant worship event. It starts at 9, ends at like 12. It's awesome 12 am 12 at midnight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dang, it's late, yeah, we go late. It's fun, though it's fun and we see people get saved, baptized, healed, delivered, encountered in the presence, and I mean that's all. Our main goal with our worship ministry. Our worship movement is just to build him a resting place, somewhere he can come and rest and dwell, because inevitably that's what he longs for is a place to rest, a place to dwell.
Speaker 2:We see it in the garden. He created the garden to rest with his people. He sent Jesus, when we allowed sin into the world, and Jesus lived the perfect life that we're supposed to live, died on the cross, rose again and then now the Holy Spirit dwells within us to rest Right, and so our main goal is, like God, we want to build you a resting place. We want people in our DTS to come and learn our culture. We want people on our staff to learn our culture.
Speaker 1:DTS being Disciple Training School? Yep, Discipleship Training School Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we want people to come in and learn our culture and if they want to join staff and you're on it, amen and if you want them to go home and show that culture that we have of building him a resting place above anything else, great. Our Every Heart Tours our main goal with our worship gatherings building him a resting place. We go out and evangelize, then we worship. We build him a resting place. We want him to rest, he wants to rest, he desires to rest, and so our worship movement it's awesome. Mbl worship. Every Heart Prayer Rooms it's awesome. The Lord's been on it. We have a few things that we're thinking about here and so super exciting. And then I also do a lot of operations stuff as well within the movement. So a lot of behind the scenes things. I'm on our call team and so call people that want prayer, that are interested in our school, interested in our tours or starting campuses.
Speaker 1:So you go through all the cards or whatever they fill out and you contact them.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, how's that? Do you like doing that?
Speaker 2:It's fun. When I first, when I first found out I was doing, it was like I'm not a communicator, I can't, I'm not good at being on the phone and you know what I mean. Like, if I have a phone call, like I try to keep it like two minutes max unless it's like a meeting you know what?
Speaker 2:I mean or it's like just text me, and so it was like it was definitely like a little killer where I just had to sit and I was like, all right, lord, like there's someone on the other side of this phone that needs to encounter you, and really like catching fear of the Lord over it, of like, wow, like I could talk to this person and they could get encountered by the Lord, they could do a DTS and their life could be changed, or they could go on tour and they can encounter Jesus in a new way, because I took the time to hop on a call and so caught a lot of fear of the Lord over that.
Speaker 2:But I also just helped with a lot of little things helped build the stage at the new building, transporting vans to get fixed, just little things. And so now going into, I just agreed to another two and a half years with the movement and so my only really responsibility now is worship. Uh, so maybe doing a little bit of operations here and there, but really getting to hone in on my craft as a drummer, becoming I want to become a professional on my instrument um, yeah, dude I'm super excited about that, but also just have a lot of opportunity in my time now in my days to schedule out times, to start planning exploits of things.
Speaker 2:I'm feeling the Lord on Evangelizing here in Grand Rapids. I'm going to start getting mentored by some professionals at drums and some guys that are just like older brothers in the faith that I can finally have a lot of time to like go and meet with them or hop on a zoom call and like learn from them and then also doing a lot of music theory classes. Um, I start learning more about music theory. Um, and then, yeah, just learning my craft and and growing in that and then having our prayer sets and, yeah, super excited, music theory will be fun, dude. I prayer sets and yeah, super excited.
Speaker 1:Music theory will be fun.
Speaker 2:Dude, I'm excited for it. I'm super excited. I've grown a little bit in it and learning the number system and a lot of things.
Speaker 1:Oh, so you're going to be learning not just the rhythm theory, you're going to be learning the notes and scales and stuff. Yeah, are you going to play something other than drums then?
Speaker 2:so I play. I play acoustic guitar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I play acoustic okay I love acoustic.
Speaker 2:I love I've been leading every once in a while you sing too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh yeah, that's new, you didn't mention that. Yeah, about a half hour, and I just found out that you sing, yeah I've been, I've been stepping out more.
Speaker 2:I feel the lord I love and I love playing acoustic.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I feel really called to that and even before I was singing and doing all that, I'd get words about like I see you leading worship and it's like I don't sing, man. And then I started in my secret time with the Lord playing my guitar and singing and just falling in love with it and the Lord is still growing me a lot in it and I told him there's a lot of things personally in my life that I want to die before I step foot on a stage and lead publicly at a service or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because it's like, for example, like Lord, I want the want to be seen, the want in my heart to be seen, that needs to die before I ever step foot on a stage. Yeah, because if I step foot on a stage with that, I'm leading people to myself and not him and that's a disservice to everybody and so little like things like that, where it's just like and so I love, I love singing, I love, I love writing, I, I love playing acoustic, I'm learning bass. Nice, yeah, super excited, um and um, the dude that's actually teaching me the number system is our main bass player, um, and so super excited to grow with him and yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 1:So did you take singing lessons or did you just start playing your acoustic and singing and kind of picking it up?
Speaker 2:I did lessons with Tiffy.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:You and I were doing it at the same time I did lessons for like four weeks and I was like I had a hard time singing in front of her Like and just singing in front of people in general.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I was like no, I'm good. And I was like, teach me the techniques, teach me how to breathe, and I'll be good. And so she taught me techniques, and then I would go home and I'd just sing to God.
Speaker 2:And then in my secret time and I'd practice techniques every once in a while but I would just sing and I've honestly trained myself in a not good way. Like what's like on tour when I, if I would lead with, like at a team time, like a pre-tour, it's like, oh, I'm having a hard time hitting that high note, all right, just yell, you know, and like we'll get up there and like things like that and like that's just become like I'm a loud singer but it's, it's fun and you know, so you're going to have to be stepping away from the mic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sometimes, sometimes, and other times happens.
Speaker 2:Other times it's like yeah, I don't know, man, I don't know it's wild, but it's, it's fun. You know, it's so fun. And yeah, I don't, I don't, I'm not bad at it, like I'm not the greatest at it, but I don't suck, and so it's also nice, like when I'm like and like, just like singing, like learning a song on guitar and I'm singing to it so I can like play along and it's like all right, I'm not like, I'm not like tone deaf, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like I can hold it, you know, and so that's also been really like a blessing. It's like all right, Lord. Thank you that I don't suck at singing because that'd stink, but yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, who wants to stink at singing?
Speaker 2:Nobody, nobody, but no, it's wild, I love it. I love singing.
Speaker 1:Well, good. Thanks, I'm glad to see that you're doing the music theory. That stuff is important and helpful, yeah, and it's cool to see that you're singing too.
Speaker 2:Amen, Amen bro.
Speaker 1:So I guess that brings us to the last section.
Speaker 2:Hit me.
Speaker 1:Of the pod. Then you're going to be leaving on tour again. So you said you're leaving in two weeks. Yeah, is there any preparation you have to do in these two weeks, or is it just the same kind of thing and then you're just off?
Speaker 2:yeah, so we're, we're. We're on break right now as a staff. We just finished our lecture phase of our DTS. This we just did our second DTS, and so the last semester has been really wild, and so we're taking like a week and a half break just to rest, get along with the Lord. But then we're we're taking like a week and a half break, um, just to rest, get along with the lord um, but then we're also, uh, gonna have like a little like leadership training, um, and so our leaders are gonna our senior leaders so brennan, jonah and bryce, um, and then peyton, are gonna, um, just like walk us through what it looks like to be on every heart tour leading every heart tour. There's people that we have called point leaders on every team who have been around for a while. So, like Kyle Mervine, kyle Mervine's my point leader.
Speaker 1:I haven't heard that name in forever. That's cool. He's with you. Yeah, he's on staff with us yeah.
Speaker 2:And so him, his wife, his baby, me, and then three others. So him, his wife, his baby, me and then three others, our other leadership team for the Northeast team, and so we're going to do like a three to four day leadership training and then our team will arrive, and then we'll have an entire week called training week, where we go more in depth with the team of what things would look like, and then we have our Jesus rally here in Grand Rapids at Rosa Parks on the 30th, and then we leave the next day. So Wow, yeah.
Speaker 2:We leave for West Virginia, so yeah, Wow. Super exciting. Our team that we have this year is wild. We have a full band, which is wild, so I'll be playing drums. We have a bass player who's in our DTS he's awesome. We have an electric guitarist who's from Canada. He's nuts, he's crazy, he's from Canada yeah. He's wild on the electric though. He has this YouTube channel that he just hit like 10k subscribers and he does like playthroughs of how to play songs on electric. He's like crazy good what's his youtube name?
Speaker 2:oh, what is his name?
Speaker 1:it's sam something and do you know what part of canada he's from?
Speaker 2:he told me, but I forgot. I'm sorry, sam. I'm sorry, sam, I'm sorry. Let me see Sam, it is called Also shout out Riders. You want some good Christian hip hop, indie styles music. He's awesome. He's from Circuit Riders in California.
Speaker 1:The same guy.
Speaker 2:No that's just a different dude. I just saw that I was listening to his stuff.
Speaker 1:Oh, gotcha Okay.
Speaker 2:Sam Gibson. His YouTube is Electric Praise Okay. Okay sweet, so shout out Sam, Love you bro. And then Kyle is going to be our lead vocalist.
Speaker 1:Cool to see he's still singing.
Speaker 2:Dude, his range is crazy.
Speaker 1:I can imagine he was good back then. His range isn't? I'm sure he'd just be getting better. Yeah, dude his range is nuts.
Speaker 2:I remember I heard him sing for the first time. I was like, how did you get up that high dude? That's crazy. Like that's a girl range dude. And he hit it perfectly. I was like, amen, all right, praise God, and so I have a full band. We're going to be doing Jesus rallies every week. The full band was going to be nice. We're going to do a rally in New York City. Last year we did it in Times Square, and so we're hopefully going to try and do that again.
Speaker 1:Nice yeah.
Speaker 2:It's super fun.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Where do you stay? We stay with host homes so we reach out to the church. Hey, this is when we're coming. Do you know of any people that would be opening their homes for us for the week? And so we usually split up guys and girls, and girls would be in one house or two houses, guys would be in one house or two. I mean, last year our guys, we stayed in a barn, we slept on air mattresses for the week, which was really lit. It was a furnished barn lit.
Speaker 2:It was a fur like furnished farm, uh, barn, but it was still like still kind of cool, still kind of sick you know, and the girls are in in the houses and the beds and we're on the air mattress and wake up on the floor with it like folded around us and it was awesome, you know. And so we rug it, we, we yeah a little bit, and so, um, we stay with host homes um. A lot of times we'll stay with ywam bases if we can. So, like boston, we'll probably stay with ywam boston um the um. Where are we staying? We have a partnership with maps global. I think they're in richmond, virginia, and so we'll stay with maps global um, um, but then other places. It's like New York city. We partnered with the church that has connections um all over. Sometimes we'll stay in the church basement. Sometimes the people will open up their homes to us and, um, yeah, that's usually the goal. The goal is to be able to stay with host homes um, but sometimes we get thrown left field and they're like hit the barn.
Speaker 2:I'm like all right, cool hey, it's a place it's a place, it is, it's a roof, it's a roof, it's a roof.
Speaker 1:So all right, well, I don't have anything else. I don't know if you have anything else I don't think so, man okay, so I know you post on social media about where people can give.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So you can say that on here and then I can also put it in the link. Dude, that's a blessing On the description.
Speaker 2:Yes, there's two ways you can partner with me. One of them prayer. Please pray for me and my team. That's the most important thing. Prayer changes things. If you want to give important thing, prayer changes things. If you want to give, there's a. Uh, I have a 501c3 link through equip net which is a tax deductible link. Then also have venmo, so appreciate it. If you guys want to partner, have a going on tour this summer, going on tour with umBL Worship this fall, planning some exploits here and there, and so all of it goes to missions. So, love you guys, appreciate it, appreciate you man. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Yep, thanks for coming on.
Speaker 2:I have to publicly repent. I have to publicly repent. Caleb texted me about this like four months ago and I was like, dude, I'm in. And then I never texted him back. And then I got reminded of it and I went to text him like, wait, why didn't this happen? And I saw I never texted him back and I felt really bad. And so, Caleb, I'm sorry but I'm happy I'm here. I'm happy I'm here.
Speaker 1:It is okay, thanks for coming on.
Speaker 2:Yes, bro.
Speaker 1:And thank.