[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to another episode of the parish circuit for truth, goodness and beauty for Acadiana and all of Louisiana. I'm Pastor Stuart Amidon from Christchurch Opelousis, and I have two of my dear friends with me here today.
We're going to be talking about some fun things that went down in the good old central Louisiana region.
I never know whether to call it Pineville or Alexandria or. I just. I get nervous every time. So I'm just going to say central Louisiana. That sounds like a safe place. So Pastor Jeff Mercer from Christ Fellowship Sin law is with us. Jeff, say hello.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Hello.
[00:00:38] Speaker A: And then back, back again in the studio, old dear friend Brian Rhodes from Grace Presbyterian. Hey, Brian, I'm glad you're here, man.
[00:00:45] Speaker C: I'm glad I'm here, too.
[00:00:46] Speaker A: Oh, okay. So let's pull back the curtain. All right, so this is. This has been like a fun. A couple of weeks for you, Pastor Jeff. You've. You have gone through some fun, some fun moments. So I want to start off today by just telling the story of what happened over the last 14 days, and then we're going to provide some commentary on it. So let's go back. So recently, some Buddhist monks came to Alexandria. Alexandria or Pineville?
[00:01:20] Speaker C: Yes, yes.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: Both.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: Yeah, they passed through.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: They passed through.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: They came from south. I don't remember. I guess they didn't come through here. Where did they come from?
[00:01:30] Speaker A: I didn't see them.
[00:01:32] Speaker C: They started in Texas.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: Start in Texas.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: But I remember they came through south somewhere, but obviously wasn't here.
[00:01:42] Speaker C: Their destination was Washington, D.C. yep.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:45] Speaker C: Coming down here would be the wrong direction.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: Yeah, they're walking. That's correct. So they're walking From Texas to D.C. they're swinging through Pineville.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: And in the moment that all this is going on, you were like, hey, somebody needs to talk about this.
[00:02:01] Speaker B: I was just at first minding my business as usual. And.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: So I saw some post circulating and then I saw more, and I saw that there was going to be like kind of an official event about it.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: Official event doing what?
[00:02:19] Speaker B: Put on by the town of Pineville.
[00:02:22] Speaker A: City of Pineville, celebrating these guys coming through town. So I guess maybe we should ask.
[00:02:27] Speaker C: What are they doing?
[00:02:28] Speaker A: What were they doing?
[00:02:29] Speaker B: So it's called a walk for peace.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: And they're just walking from, like Brian said, from Texas to D.C. to.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: Not just for cardio. Right.
To spread their Buddhist message of peace for America.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: Okay. And they're like, I'm.
You'll have to forgive me, I'm not very familiar with Buddhism. I'm Assuming it's like a.
[00:02:55] Speaker B: It's nothing.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: Christians have like a prayer walk.
[00:02:57] Speaker B: That was a joke.
It ends in nothing.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: It ends in something.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: Yeah. It's supposed to end in nothing. Yeah, it does end with something.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: Yeah. So Christians, Christians do like, I don't know, prayer walks, I think.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Things like that. You know, I know some divisions of Christianity that will participate in stations of the cross and they'll walk around and do things like that. So these Buddhist guys are walking for peace to Washington D.C. they're swinging through Pineville, spreading their message of Buddhist peace.
And something happened that made you feel like, I need to respond to this.
[00:03:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I would say I think the first.
I'm more emotionally respond. I did not have it, you know, all worked out in my head. But I think the first thing I noticed looking back is it was almost like this Trojan horse coming through town. Okay. And all the Christians were like, yay, A gift of peace and mindfulness.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: And the Christians that you could see in your feet.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: They're like celebrating it.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And like I said, I could see him setting up for this big kind of laudation of it in Pineville.
And so I decided to make a post and it. The first one was just a picture of the upcoming thing in Pineville. And I just said that the walk for peace already happened 2,000 years ago.
[00:04:32] Speaker B: The road to Calvary, etc.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: Oh, that's good. That was good.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: Just.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: I didn't even see that one.
[00:04:39] Speaker C: Just getting warmed up.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: It was because then, you know, the next day on the drive in to work, I thought, well, maybe I should give a comment on why I'm against it.
And that is what did it. So. So that's the okay, original just one minute unfancy driving, which is really terrible because I forgot we have a law now in Louisiana.
You can't be holding your phone while driving.
[00:05:11] Speaker C: Well, you.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: You had it mounted on the gears.
[00:05:14] Speaker B: It looked like. It looked like it.
[00:05:16] Speaker C: And you were doing that just by holding it with your hand.
You have very steady.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: Don't answer that question.
I apologize.
[00:05:24] Speaker C: Immediately retreat.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: So hypothetically, it's mounted. It was bolted.
[00:05:29] Speaker C: Of course it was. Hypothetically, if you had been holding it, I was going to say it was amazingly steady. Obviously you weren't holding it because of how.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: Because of how steady it was. Yeah. So you. So you are like, what was the gist of your.
[00:05:42] Speaker B: I also didn't have a seatbelt on. And so I can say that because dump, dump, my breaker, my rebel, my criticizers noticed it, they went after you.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: Because you didn't have a seatbelt.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: They were tagging the state police. Can somebody go pick this guy up?
[00:06:02] Speaker A: Yeah, because they're not wearing a seatbelt.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: That's how that works. Yeah. Wow. So I forgot my seatbelt, but they forgot the creator of the universe.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: Clearly you're the one who needs to be picked up by the police, Jeff. So, so talk to me about.
What did you say in this video that was so. Because you got a huge response out of this. Like, it went all over the Internet in Sinla central, Louisiana. Like, folks are fighting. People got angry. They're trying to get you arrested. What did you say?
[00:06:31] Speaker B: More hate than I've ever gotten my whole life for sure.
[00:06:34] Speaker A: What? What'd you say? What'd you do?
[00:06:36] Speaker B: The most vanilla ice cream Christian thing. Like I said in the he's not wrong response video, the, the kind of thing you could expect your grandma or Billy Graham or Linus on Charlie Brown to say.
[00:06:53] Speaker B: That there's just one way to heaven and it's through Christ and.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: And it's not through Buddhism.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: Yeah, there's just one way. I mean, that. That was it.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: And you.
How dare you.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: Someone did say that.
[00:07:09] Speaker A: Really? Oh, yeah, now I'm quoting.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: You are?
[00:07:12] Speaker A: That's amazing. You are, that's so you're, you're out here, you're just saying, hey, guys, the Buddhists, that's a different religion.
They're, they're not actually.
It's not about peace. They're, they're promoting a false peace. It's not real peace. Jesus gave us actual, real peace with God.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: Yeah, let's pray.
[00:07:32] Speaker A: Like, that's. Yeah. So nothing, in fact, I think John Calvin would have been like, man, you really could have gone harder.
[00:07:38] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure I could have gone harder. I, I, we were all thinking like, wow, if this did it. Like, what if they knew the rest of the things we believe?
[00:07:50] Speaker A: You have your own federal agent that's now surveying your sermon archives.
[00:07:55] Speaker C: The manager, Jeff's federal agent. Thanks for joining us.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: Just to put how a fine point on how flammable it was the manager in the coffee shop. This is by no means a conservative coffee shop, but the manager in a coffee shop was like, pulled back the current. She was like, hey, Jeffrey, are we gonna have to hide you in the back somewhere?
[00:08:22] Speaker B: Was that kind of a rush on.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: Social media.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: You'Re seeing people in public and they're recognizing you from the video.
[00:08:30] Speaker B: The next day I walk in the coffee shop. I work there, so at least in the mornings I walk in and this lady pulls me aside, Hey, I saw your video.
She was kind of positive about it. Then I walk around and go order, and there's like three of them talking about me. Not positively.
And they kind of were having a. Do we keep talking?
[00:08:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:56] Speaker A: So you say Buddhists aren't Christians, and the Internet in central Louisiana cracks wide open.
[00:09:04] Speaker B: Yes.
Yeah.
[00:09:05] Speaker A: How dare you. How dare you suggest such a thing? So, like, I have. I have questions.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: How many of these people that were mad at you are Christians?
[00:09:19] Speaker B: I mean, I know for certain some of them are not.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: So it's, it's not just. Here's the thing I'm getting at. It's not just the secular that are telling you to stop it. It's also people who would claim the name of Jesus.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: Yeah. So there, there was tons of, you know, Jesus wouldn't have done this. He would have washed their feet.
He would have maybe walked with them. Why did this have to become an issue? They're just.
They're just raising awareness for peace, that kind of thing.
[00:09:44] Speaker A: And nobody. And none of those people had the category of what real peace actually is. No, they just, they're saying peace according to whatever this definition of it that the monks are proposing, which is. Do we even know what that is, by the way? Like, what is Buddhist peace?
Should ask ChatGPT.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: Well, the.
You could just use the sermon, The. The short sermon, the talk that one of the monks gave at Keys Park.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: What did he say?
[00:10:14] Speaker B: He said.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: We cannot expect this government.
[00:10:21] Speaker B: To give us peace. We will create peace within ourselves, and then we will be at peace with one another and the country will experience peace.
[00:10:33] Speaker A: So it's. It's an inner peace kind of thing.
[00:10:35] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. By the mental. I call it the new works. Like the old works, you know, in Protestantism is works of righteousness. And Brian made a helpful kind of Eastern post assessment on what's going on.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: I call it the new works. It's like we work mentally to create peace. It's like this prerequisite, like, do this and then you'll get inner peace. Rather than the gospel saying, no, no, you don't have to get your thoughts together first. You can just come to me.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: Right? So that. Okay, so this is helpful. So the inner peace thing that they're advocating for, I know that Buddhism associates itself with, like, this inner peace that you achieve through, like, meditation, isolation, Zen practices, and the removal.
[00:11:28] Speaker C: Or maybe the better word would be diminution of desire.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: The. The. Okay, the, like, the subjugation of desire.
[00:11:35] Speaker B: It's kind of hard to do with in the south with people who desire Boudin.
[00:11:42] Speaker A: That's why they're from Texas. That's why Buddhism has never taken off here.
We're very passionate, desire driven people down.
We don't have time for this.
So they're saying, okay, help me understand this. The Christians are like, these guys are just after peace. You shouldn't have said anything. And they don't have any category in their mind that this is an anti gospel. Like they don't realize it. And now you're the bad guy because you said, hey, this is anti gospel.
[00:12:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
We had been preaching through Colossians and so kind of blame it on Paul too a little bit. But I just had Colossians on my mind, you know, a set of.
And that sort of thing.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
So then they're kicking, they're. They're fighting against you. They're kicking against you on the Internet while this all goes down, breaks, you go, you go viral outside the side. Like at any point are you like, are we safe?
Like, is that question entering your mind? Does it get to that point or is it more just.
[00:12:45] Speaker B: I did have, you know, there, there were some incendiary post on.
In the comments on my post. There was another one. So the liberal community there, there was sort of like ahead of it. And he made his own post. He shared it in. In he captioned, this is why I live to piss people like this off.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:13:12] Speaker B: And all of them really dog pile me on his post. So yeah, if you go look at that one.
Some of my people were seeing that one and they were like, yeah, maybe you don't need to go to the coffee shop for a few days.
[00:13:24] Speaker C: Would you say that he is mostly responsible for it going viral.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: At least in that community? Probably.
I think a lot of them.
[00:13:36] Speaker C: We would like to express our thanks to this individual, whoever he is, if he's listening.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: Thank you. Yes, thank you for spreading the word.
[00:13:42] Speaker A: And the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ unto the masses. You preach for the wrong reasons, but we'll still take it.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: It's a good point, Brian. I do think he probably spread it to the Rainbow crew the most.
[00:13:52] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: And they got to hear the gospel. I watched your video, Jeff. I thought it was very well done. You're here. I thought that you clearly articulated what the truth of the gospel was as opposed to the lies that this false gospel of Buddhism presents to the world a lack of peace. The real peace is made between us and God through Christ and his death on the cross. I thought that was wonderful. And as a result, boom, it went out before central Louisiana. Yeah. But the story's not over.
No, no, the story's not.
[00:14:23] Speaker C: We haven't even gotten to the good part yet. No.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: Okay, so then. So you are now the devil.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: And homeless.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: And homeless. Now let's talk about that part. So you. You. You share this video out and it ends not great, necessarily, for your church. What winds up going on there?
[00:14:41] Speaker B: No, I. I was.
So the next day. I think it was the next day, the third Wednesday. Yeah. I was in a counseling scenario and started getting a phone call from Mother Elder Justin.
He's like, hey, call me asap.
And, you know, we got evicted. We got kicked out.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: Got kicked out of what?
[00:15:05] Speaker B: Of our meeting place.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: For your church.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: For our church. Yeah. So we've been meeting.
Just kind of funny.
We've been meeting at a place called the Wesley center, and we're Calvinist.
[00:15:19] Speaker C: Make the joke yourself.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: That got observed a couple years back because we had the Calvinism Conference.
[00:15:30] Speaker C: The Calvinism Conference at the Wesley Center.
[00:15:32] Speaker B: At the Wesley Center. Someone on the Internet was like, is this a joke or is this real?
A real conference.
[00:15:41] Speaker B: So we've been meeting there for nine years?
[00:15:46] Speaker B: For about the first seven. We had no problems.
There was a changing of the guards, like a new general director.
[00:15:55] Speaker C: So they were under new management.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: Under new management.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: Well, how recent was that?
[00:15:59] Speaker B: About two years ago.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Okay.
[00:16:03] Speaker B: So yes, someone on his team saw the post.
Think that's how it happened? Had to confirm that, but I'm. I think that's how it happened.
[00:16:14] Speaker A: So wait, so someone on the team at the Wesley Center.
[00:16:16] Speaker B: The Wesley center saw the post is.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: Connected to the hyperlips of central Louisiana.
[00:16:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: Okay. Just gonna leave that out there. Let's move on. Okay, got it.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: And. And.
[00:16:28] Speaker B: So he reaches out to our head, Deacon Ryan Brunson, and in by way of phone, and it's like, hey, y' all are done here. Come get all your things.
And Ron's like, well, I'm at work.
I can come tomorrow. He's like, no, you come now.
[00:16:46] Speaker C: What?
[00:16:46] Speaker B: Yeah, you come now. Or we're putting all your stuff outside.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: So that's. That's serious. That actually happened?
[00:16:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: Didn't you have a lease?
[00:16:55] Speaker B: Well, we were actually doing a one a month to month lease at this point.
[00:17:00] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:17:01] Speaker B: So this was like December 1st, I guess he was like, hey, we're just not doing December.
So they go out there.
He sent him a text message too. So we have it in writing.
He says, the Wesley center will not Tolerate or be associated with groups that express those opinions that you expressed on the post.
[00:17:30] Speaker A: What opinions? There you go.
That Jesus is the only way to heaven. Christ is Lord. That peace is only attainable through Christ.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:17:40] Speaker A: So just hold on. I want to spend some time on this one. So the. The Wesley, the Wesley John. I know, Charles Wesley.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: They're. They're crying or laughing or both in their graves. I don't know which one.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: And. And they said.
[00:17:57] Speaker A: You may not rent from us. You may not have churches.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: They said, take our address off your website, off your Facebook.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: You can't be here because you said a Christian thing.
So this is kind of like the.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: Way I like to the most vanilla ice cream Christian.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Jesus is the way to heaven. Nobody else.
This is my favorite way to describe this current situation that you find yourself in as a Christian pastor. Said some plain Christian truths.
It ticked off a whole lot of Christians.
And then some other Christians kicked him out of their church venue.
[00:18:36] Speaker B: That's objectively true.
[00:18:39] Speaker A: This is crazy, right? Like, this is crazy.
So, I mean, so they just say, you're done here. Has anybody reached out to their boss? Has anybody talked to the people who run the Wesley? Has anybody run this up the flagpole with like.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: I did have a lady reach out and she apparently is connected. Some people. She's trying to make some calls, so.
[00:19:01] Speaker A: We'Ll see what happens to get you back in to that facility.
[00:19:04] Speaker B: She was more like, maybe we have access to some other buildings or something, but on the same campus in the area.
Not. Not the same campus.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: So meanwhile, let's also just take a snapshot of the United Methodist Church as a whole.
[00:19:19] Speaker B: Right.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: That is failing.
Their churches are closing and shrinking constantly. The denomination continues to split. It is not united in the simplest form of terms. In fact, it's just most recently split. I think at this year's annual meeting that they held their global meeting or whatever. Now it's divided into multiple denominations again, is no longer united, and they have continued to drift more and more progressively to the left and in Louisiana, Okay. The belt buckle of the Bible Belt, you said, Jesus is the way, not Buddhism. And the Christians specifically with the Wesley, specifically with United Methodism, said, how dare you?
That's crazy, man.
[00:20:01] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: And I can't figure out, you know, what doctrine I stepped on either one of these or both.
[00:20:08] Speaker B: That.
So I didn't just say, gee, I don't think if I just made a video and said, hey, guys, Jesus. Only way anything would happen.
But I included the negative, you know, like Buddhism. Yeah, yeah. So in Galatians, Paul doesn't just say, hey, you're justified through Christ, he says, and not by circumcision.
[00:20:31] Speaker B: And he calls that the scandal of the cross.
So I don't think it's just about preaching the cross. It's the. All the promises of God are yes and amen in him, and they are no in everything else.
And I think that's the offense.
[00:20:47] Speaker C: Well, and that's consistent throughout the Scripture.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:50] Speaker C: Idols have names and they get. They get called out. Sins have names.
They get called out with specificity.
[00:20:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:58] Speaker A: So you.
[00:20:58] Speaker C: You can.
[00:21:01] Speaker C: It's certainly good to make the positive case. If you want to say that you're being biblical about it. There is probably a positive and a negative case to make.
[00:21:11] Speaker C: And what do you.
[00:21:11] Speaker A: I'm.
[00:21:11] Speaker C: I'm curious what either of you guys. What do you think is at the root here? Because you. And maybe you have more to say. I didn't mean to step on you. You started by saying, here's what I think I stepped on.
[00:21:22] Speaker B: Yeah, it's either. I'm. I'm curious what you think, too. I mean, it crossed my mind. It's either that or a combination of that with kind of a marketplace scenario, because I thought of that verse too. Paul notices the idolatry in the marketplace, and so he speaks out. And I think of Facebook as a marketplace.
[00:21:45] Speaker A: Public square.
[00:21:46] Speaker C: Sure.
[00:21:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: Rooftops.
[00:21:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: So maybe the Christians in our area, mine and Brian's area, but we're. We're in the same area.
[00:21:58] Speaker B: Are not used to public square speaking.
Maybe it was that, too.
[00:22:05] Speaker C: Yeah, like, it's that.
And I don't know exactly how to. How to quantify this or even define it, so maybe you guys can help me here.
But there's an impulse.
[00:22:17] Speaker C: That has been alive and well since the 90s where we. It's. It's too simplistic to say we really want people to like us. That's what that's was at the root of it. But it's. It's more than that. It's that I think.
[00:22:32] Speaker C: As best I can tell, fundamentalism really messed us up. And by us, I mean evangelicals. It's given us this complex that we're. When it comes to sort of the mission and why we're here in the world, we will do just about anything to accomplish the goal of not being seen as fundamentalists.
[00:22:52] Speaker C: Leftist, gays. I think. I think that's what you messed with.
What your. Your approach could appear like a fundy. There's nothing worse than appearing like A Fundy. We've worked really, really hard for the last 30 years to make sure everybody knows we're not Fundy.
[00:23:09] Speaker A: We're not that.
[00:23:10] Speaker C: And you are like. You're messing with that vibe.
[00:23:13] Speaker B: I'm just. Yeah, Yeah, I messed that up.
[00:23:18] Speaker A: Well, I think I agree.
[00:23:21] Speaker C: And if by Fundy, we mean, like, like independent fundamentalist, KJV only type stuff, like, we are not they. That's not what we're about. Yeah, that's not. That's also not the point. Yeah. Yeah, I.
What I'm trying to say is I actually. I think what you stepped on is the reality is that there are things that are far worse in terms of unfaithfulness in your moment than being mistaken for a fundamentalist.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: Right.
[00:23:47] Speaker A: Yeah, I think.
I think Brian's onto something. I think.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: You became the firebrand that they all hate.
Okay.
[00:23:58] Speaker B: Yeah. There's definitely no going back now, but.
[00:24:02] Speaker A: You became the most cool to the touch firebrand in the history of firebrands. You know, like, your video was just you chilling in a car, being like, hey, guys, you know, it's not Buddhism. That's not the way to peace. It's Jesus.
Super vanilla, super chill.
But even the. I think Brian's onto something. Even the hint that you might be close to that preacher that they heard shouting hellfire and brimstone whenever they were seven, that they elicited a response, you.
[00:24:36] Speaker B: Know, you just reminded me of. So the one fellow. I won't say his name, but one of the interlocutors of the negative was on there.
[00:24:50] Speaker A: Hold on, I gotta Google that.
[00:24:51] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, he's using big words.
[00:24:53] Speaker B: So I had one of my lady church members on there going back and forth with him, and he tells her he's very up to speed. He tells her that this guy referring to me is influenced by Doug Wilson.
[00:25:13] Speaker A: And I really appreciate the gasp.
[00:25:19] Speaker B: That was good.
[00:25:24] Speaker A: Not Doug, anyone, but. Sorry. Okay, sorry.
[00:25:28] Speaker B: Go ahead. Yeah, so that came up.
[00:25:31] Speaker B: The Ogden boys, he. He brought. So he's in the know.
And so this particular sister, she's like, into Doug, you know, so it was funny. He said, hey, Google him and look him up and you'll see what I'm talking about.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: Yeah. So you've been corrupted.
You are no longer holy and blameless before the Lord.
You have fallen aside into the paths of internationalism.
[00:26:02] Speaker B: Brian had talked about when he met with me to check on me.
He was. He was the only pastor, and there. There have since been some others who've reached out, so that's been encouraging.
But he was the first. He was the first for a while. First and only for a while.
And he. He mentioned starting the appropriate fires from Doug. And I wish I could say I did that on purpose.
[00:26:32] Speaker C: I remember.
[00:26:33] Speaker A: So the three of us exist in a group thread that is a channel of energy for my whole life. It's amazing. But I remember you just putting.
You put into our little group that you were like, I think I want to make a video about this.
[00:26:47] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:26:47] Speaker A: I remember seeing that. You did.
[00:26:49] Speaker C: Yeah, I remember that as well.
[00:26:50] Speaker A: I remember seeing that pop up.
[00:26:51] Speaker C: And I was like, okay, that's exactly what I thought.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: I went on to the next thing.
[00:26:57] Speaker C: Okay, Jeff, you go ahead and do that. Like, I didn't. I didn't think anything of it. I was like, yeah, have fun with that.
[00:27:01] Speaker A: Brian and I are both like, well, we've got, you know, the. Things are busy today, but way to go, you know, good job, Jeff. We'll. We'll see. And then later that day, you're like, I. I'm getting death threats, guys.
I was like, wait, let's roll this back. What happened? How did this go down? So it's just such a fascinating. I think. I think that Brian is on the train.
We are.
It's a reaction to the fundamentalism of the day, because you guys are in central Louisiana. Like, it is. It's fundy capital of Louisiana. You know, the headquarters of the SBC is located right there for the state of Louisiana. Like, all those. All those things exist.
[00:27:42] Speaker A: But I think, also, I think it.
[00:27:44] Speaker C: Just triggered a lot of Baptists.
We're not fundies. We're not fundies.
[00:27:47] Speaker A: We're not fundies. We're not fundies. We've been working really hard to distance ourselves from that.
[00:27:52] Speaker A: I know. And maybe if you feel that way because I said that, never mind. Anyway, so I think really what's going on is we also have the sin of not being nice or the perceived sin of not being nice.
Were you guys a part of, like, the Christian movement? Whenever the idea of, hey, we're gonna love these people into the kingdom was.
[00:28:18] Speaker B: Big, it's still alive and well, it's a lot of the criticism.
[00:28:22] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's. And it is a. We may never say what they're doing is wrong. We're only going to be next to them and with our arms around them, walking through whatever it is that they're going through, we will. We will nice them into the kingdom of God. And I think you threaten that. Yeah, I think now. And full disclosure, Stuart Amadon used to Be one of those people who thought that way. I remember going to a church that had a more fundamentalist preacher at the time and hearing him talk and he would just trigger me every week. I was like, that's not the gospel. You know, like, because I was such a theological expert and, and now I look back at that time and I'm like, wow, I wasn't a raging idiot. Actually, I should have just sat down and said, yes, sir, and thank you to everything that that old man said to me because that would have been way more beneficial to my life.
But now I think that that's what we're really dealing with. There is this belief in the Christian church today that we have to be nice in order to earn the right to speak into other people's lives.
[00:29:26] Speaker B: Right.
[00:29:27] Speaker A: And if we come off as not nice, then we lose. And I do, I think I agree with some of the presuppositions that go with that mindset.
[00:29:40] Speaker B: It's a half truth.
[00:29:41] Speaker A: Yeah. I agree that if you just come off half cocked like a raging lunatic. Right.
[00:29:47] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:29:47] Speaker A: We're not going to win that person.
[00:29:49] Speaker C: Proverbs covers that.
[00:29:50] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. Right.
But there's also John the Baptist who's like, hey, brood of vipers. Like, that's not a compliment when he says that. That's very much an insult. There's also Paul who says, I wish you guys would just cut your junk off. Just finish the job. There's also Jesus who fashions whips and throws furniture.
Like there's, there's lots of illustration for Christians in this Bible. Both Old Covenant and New Covenant. Old Testament and New Testament. Right. To help us understand that we need proper categories if we're going to bring the whole counsel of God to bear on a situation like this.
[00:30:29] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:30:30] Speaker A: And, and you didn't even really say half the fire branded stuff that you could have said. Like, I, I didn't.
[00:30:37] Speaker C: Correct me if you're really not lying when you said it was vanilla ice cream.
[00:30:40] Speaker A: It was, it was super chill, man. Like, I don't correct. I'm wrong. But you could have said, and these Buddhists will burn in hell unless they repent and believe in Jesus.
[00:30:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:49] Speaker A: And you would have been fine to.
[00:30:50] Speaker B: Say it because it was the green tree. This was the green tree.
[00:30:54] Speaker C: I think, I think the tripwire, if I may, I think the tripwire in your video was three words. When you said, I'm against it, you said, this is why I'm against it. Right. And so you didn't. I think Stuart's Right.
[00:31:08] Speaker A: If.
[00:31:09] Speaker C: If you hadn't positioned yourself for clarity, which is all I think you did.
If you hadn't positioned yourself for clarity on like, here's what I'm saying. I am saying I am against this thing. And I saw somebody in the comments that was like, well, what about religious freedom is like. I think we all know that's not what he means by against, for heaven's sakes.
But I think that's where things. And Stuart, your connections here about.
[00:31:37] Speaker C: I mean some of this is cultural, but I think a lot of it is. What we've placed is like a first order importance. The 11th, right.
[00:31:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:45] Speaker C: You shall be nice. I did a Wednesday night lesson at our church about the distinctions between kindness, niceness and politeness.
So kindness is biblical. Niceness is perspectival. Politeness is sociocultural.
[00:31:57] Speaker A: Right.
[00:31:58] Speaker C: And so trying to make those distinctions and there's times to exercise all three depending upon who you're dealing with first. One, kindness is a biblical command.
[00:32:07] Speaker A: Right.
[00:32:08] Speaker C: Our problem is that often we have conflated kindness with niceness, which is perspectival.
It's about tone, it's about how it feels when it hits you and it's about your reaction to it when it hits you. That's what niceness is about. Politeness is most flexible of all. It's socio cultural.
And it would be wise in a cultural context to observe some aspects of politeness unless they collide with biblical kindness.
Connected to biblical kindness has to be honesty and clarity. Those are gifts to people.
[00:32:40] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:32:40] Speaker C: When preachers speak with honesty and clarity.
[00:32:43] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:32:43] Speaker C: Now you can, you can be honest, clear and dumb at the same time.
[00:32:47] Speaker A: Right.
[00:32:48] Speaker C: That's what you were talking about, about going off, going off half cocked.
[00:32:51] Speaker B: Right.
[00:32:52] Speaker C: And just in a rage and throwing rage bait out there. Yes, you can do that.
[00:32:56] Speaker A: And it does happen.
[00:32:57] Speaker C: Right.
[00:32:58] Speaker A: Which does happen. Like let's also say that that is happening in the Christian.
There are plenty of guys who just go out and rage, bait and then feed the monster. Like that's true. That exists. That's definitely not what was happening in your touch.
[00:33:12] Speaker C: And that's dumb. And you shouldn't do that.
[00:33:14] Speaker A: Yeah, agree.
[00:33:16] Speaker C: And so, I mean, nobody needs to hear us say that. That's as obvious as the nose in your face.
But the reality is that we've got a responsibility, not just as Christians, but particularly as pastors, to speak clearly in the moments when, when clarity is called for and, and clarity is a gift.
And I think, I think part of the. I'm throwing in another bit here that's going to confuse things even more.
I can tell you that seminaries is where we get trained. How to talk unclearly sometimes.
Right. It's. It's where we get told how to.
How to speak in such a way that. That lowers the offense as much as possible.
Even. Even at the cost of clarity.
[00:34:02] Speaker B: I was told in a class, never tell someone that God calls this to happen. And Romans 8:28 was cited.
[00:34:11] Speaker C: What? Right?
[00:34:12] Speaker B: Like if something bad happens to someone.
[00:34:14] Speaker C: Well, that's.
[00:34:15] Speaker A: Why don't say that God caused it.
[00:34:17] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:34:18] Speaker C: So there's this phenomenon.
[00:34:19] Speaker A: How do you have any.
[00:34:20] Speaker B: I was trying to square that circle as well.
[00:34:23] Speaker A: Peace and hope in life. If God is not the sovereign author of all things.
[00:34:27] Speaker C: You don't.
[00:34:28] Speaker A: 100%. You don't.
Sorry, Brian.
[00:34:31] Speaker C: No, no, it's. But this is. It's created this phenomenon in Presbyterianism especially. I can speak to this. In my.
[00:34:38] Speaker B: In my.
[00:34:38] Speaker C: In my culture, my people, your ruling elders are often more conservative than their pastor because they haven't been through seminary and. And a lot of seminaries, not all, but a lot of them have this ability to kind of sand off your rough edges.
And your ruling elders haven't been put through that.
So a lot of times your ruling elders are to the right of their pastor, which is just. That's not. We're here to talk about. But just a little interesting tidbit. Yeah.
[00:35:06] Speaker A: Well, I think, just as an aside, I am kind of more and more of an advocate of churches training their own pastoral leadership rather than outsourcing those projects.
Amen.
But, you know, maybe the Lord will give our children that good gift, because right now we're still just trying to find our butts in the dark. So one day we'll figure it. So, Jeff, you look. You're contemplating. You're contemplating. What?
[00:35:34] Speaker B: What?
Well, when you said that just made me think of all there is left to reform and everything.
Yeah. It seems like the circle just gets wider and wider. His ears go on.
[00:35:46] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:35:48] Speaker B: The thing about the marketplace to circle, you know, to tie the niceness back. Like.
[00:35:55] Speaker B: It. The. The gentleman that I was referring to, he said after he cited. I'm influenced by Doug and Ogden, and I am not going to allow him to push those ideas in our community.
[00:36:11] Speaker A: He said that he's going to save the world from Jeff Mercer.
[00:36:15] Speaker B: Right.
[00:36:16] Speaker A: And by Jeff Mercer, I mean Doug Wilson.
[00:36:19] Speaker B: Yeah. It sounded very neutral. It sounded very neutral.
[00:36:22] Speaker A: I will not. I will stand here and fight.
Here I stand so I can do no other.
[00:36:29] Speaker B: What I've experienced is that there's yes.
[00:36:33] Speaker A: Sorry. Yes.
[00:36:38] Speaker B: There's like a. I've crossed a Rubicon of sorts without knowing I was going to because now there's these people that know.
[00:36:48] Speaker B: He's like, it's the Tampon Grind preacher. I didn't know that. Tamping Grind is a coffee shop.
[00:36:53] Speaker C: That's awesome.
[00:36:54] Speaker A: That's the coffee shop you work at.
[00:36:55] Speaker C: I love that.
[00:36:57] Speaker A: That's your LinkedIn subheading.
[00:37:00] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:37:00] Speaker B: Yeah. It was very interesting.
And he thought it was a rebuke. He said he studies all day.
[00:37:11] Speaker B: And his church pays for it.
[00:37:14] Speaker A: Brother. What you think they were appoint pointing deacons for back in the New Testament? What you thought that was about?
[00:37:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And he only drinks coffee.
It was.
[00:37:25] Speaker A: I'm here to attest to the gallon sized mason jar water sitting in front of you that there's additional beverages involved in this life. Okay.
[00:37:33] Speaker B: So.
Well, I bring that up to say it seems like we stepped. I mean, that was a very territorial statement.
[00:37:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:41] Speaker B: You know, hey, you stepped in our territory.
[00:37:44] Speaker C: Okay. That's exactly what that is.
[00:37:45] Speaker A: Let him fight. But here's. Here's what the truth is.
There is a sea of specifically young men that are starving for what is real and what is true.
[00:37:58] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:37:58] Speaker A: And they're looking around and saying the crap that we've been fed from the Disney Channel and Netflix and everything else for the last 18 years of our life has turned the world upside down. We need more. There's got to be truth somewhere. Because I'm seeing again. I literally had a phone call today with a young man who ate his crow with me on the phone and said, hey, all that stuff that you were telling me was right.
[00:38:28] Speaker C: Oh, God be praised.
[00:38:30] Speaker A: Can I start coming to your church? And I was like, let's go. Send me a transfer letter.
[00:38:37] Speaker A: Let's go to work. Talk to your old pastor, get me a transfer letter. Get his. Okay. And let's see what happens. There is this starving sense of specifically the young men, but not just the young men, also the young women. But I'm seeing it more personally in the categories of young men. And I think, let the guy try to gatekeep. That's fine.
He will not win.
The Lord is moving and doing something specifically in the nation as a whole, but also in south Louisiana. It's interesting to me because often.
[00:39:12] Speaker A: In Louisiana, we're like five to 10 years behind what's going on in the world. That's right. We are not right now.
[00:39:17] Speaker B: I don't think it is.
[00:39:18] Speaker A: It is running. It is running at the same clip.
[00:39:21] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:39:21] Speaker A: Something's happening. Yeah. And I think it's revival. And I think it's going to start specifically with the people who have been ostracized by the nation and the church for the last 30 years. And it's. It's young men.
It's young men. The church services have become feminine, the ministries have become feminine.
All of it's been lost. And so I think that our future hope really is right there. I think the Lord is moving them of these young men, and I think there's fruit to come. And I think they need to see more like you, Jeff. I think they need to see more men like you who are willing to say, that's not true. This is what's true.
[00:40:01] Speaker C: Amen.
[00:40:02] Speaker A: In a public sphere.
[00:40:04] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:40:04] Speaker A: Right. Like in a. In a public setting to be able to say, that's not true. This is true. That's not what we're doing. This is what we're doing.
[00:40:12] Speaker C: Yeah. And because isn't that. That's a really good observation. Is because. Isn't it funny to know? To know. I mean, like, I'm not a prophet, but I know with total confidence. If you had said that.
[00:40:24] Speaker C: Sunday morning in a sermon and it was recorded and put on the Internet, nobody would have cared.
[00:40:30] Speaker A: No.
[00:40:31] Speaker B: Right? No one.
[00:40:32] Speaker A: Not a single one.
But because you put it in the public square and it was packaged in such a way, this is also the important piece of what you did. It was packaged in such a way that it was digestible and understandable. You were clear and concise. It was not buried in a 45 minute sermon. As one illustration, I was tempted to.
[00:40:51] Speaker B: Do that.
[00:40:53] Speaker A: But it was clear and concise, precise, and it communicated effectively. People saw it. And then what happened on the other side? You got kicked out of your church by the Christians. Okay. And that just means the Lord has something better for you. I firmly believe that every time we have undergone hardship in our church, it has ended in blessing every time, without fail.
And you even already experienced that. Didn't you have more people at church on Sunday?
[00:41:16] Speaker B: We did.
[00:41:17] Speaker A: Look at that.
You had visitors show up.
[00:41:21] Speaker B: We did.
[00:41:22] Speaker A: Because they saw what went down. Right.
[00:41:25] Speaker C: It is because people follow courage, not titles.
[00:41:29] Speaker B: I'm actually with a lady that came about her salvation this Friday.
[00:41:37] Speaker A: Amen.
That's it.
So what the. We. We. I'm now identifying myself as part of someone who did this. You. Sorry? You put this message out.
The gospel was effectively proclaimed to a bunch of people who hate it.
They heard it.
Seeds were planted. Like it or not, seeds were planted.
[00:41:59] Speaker C: Right.
[00:42:00] Speaker A: Who knows what's going to happen with them. Maybe they'll shrivel up on the road. Maybe they'll be in good ground with good water and they'll grow. We don't know yet. But you've already seen fruit return about it. I think that's grace already. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's grace. That's good grace.
[00:42:12] Speaker B: I saw something about the courage thing, too, with regard to Brian. Like, the men in my church, like, we have a group message as well, and they were expressing appreciation.
[00:42:23] Speaker A: They were.
[00:42:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:24] Speaker C: You steal them up.
[00:42:25] Speaker B: That's right. They were expressing appreciation for you, Brian, because they.
[00:42:30] Speaker A: You.
[00:42:30] Speaker B: You made a post and just basically said, hey, I'm with those guys.
And they. The publicity of that. Yeah, I think that's the manliness factor there.
[00:42:41] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:42:42] Speaker C: That's funny, because the way I thought of my post was, if I can be honest with you, brother, I can be vulnerable for a second.
[00:42:47] Speaker B: Vulnerable with you guys.
[00:42:50] Speaker C: I saw Jeff's post and I was like, man, I wish I would have posted that.
[00:42:55] Speaker C: So, like, what's. What's the next.
[00:42:56] Speaker A: There's a little coveting, right?
[00:42:57] Speaker C: The next step is. Oh, absolutely. The next step is like, all right, I'm going to jump into the foxhole with him. Then what's the next best thing?
[00:43:04] Speaker A: I can't. I can't go back in time. But I'm in the trenches, baby.
[00:43:07] Speaker C: That's right. I'm coming in.
[00:43:08] Speaker B: We're going to war, and I needed you. I mean, the. The. The later post would be the Christmas tree in the background and all the aesthetics, and I could have never.
I can just do the one without the seat belt in the truck.
[00:43:22] Speaker A: Might get the state police called on you.
[00:43:24] Speaker C: Well, thank you guys for letting me be vulnerable.
[00:43:31] Speaker A: Oh, man. Okay, so, Jeff, what's trajectory right now?
Like, where. So you guys, you're still homeless, right?
[00:43:39] Speaker B: Technically, we are, yeah.
[00:43:41] Speaker A: Do you have a place to meet this Sunday?
[00:43:47] Speaker B: Yes. The Lord just hasn't told us yet.
[00:43:53] Speaker C: He has, though.
[00:43:55] Speaker B: He has. The secret things belong to the Lord.
[00:44:00] Speaker A: Amen. Amen. So you. So there's. But there's options. It sounds like there's options.
[00:44:06] Speaker B: There. There is a list.
That poor Justin, he's trying to sell insurance and find a place for y' all to live. He forbid me to make another video until.
[00:44:18] Speaker B: You know, maybe once every 15 years.
[00:44:21] Speaker A: Like, don't make another one.
[00:44:23] Speaker C: Go ahead and submit to your fellow elder.
[00:44:25] Speaker A: There's wisdom.
[00:44:26] Speaker B: I know I'm having to learn to do that.
[00:44:29] Speaker A: I can't function like this. That's wonderful.
All Right. So. And you're still looking forward. So, Jeff, let me ask you this. If you could do it all again.
[00:44:38] Speaker A: If you could do it all again, would you still.
[00:44:43] Speaker B: I like the way it happened, you.
[00:44:45] Speaker A: Know, even all the discomfort, even all the drama, even all the name Colin, even people coming after you, even after the cost. Yeah.
[00:44:53] Speaker B: I just have to go with my conscience, you know, I felt, with the praise of it and it being out in the marketplace, it was a historic moment. Nice. 19 actual monks coming through town.
[00:45:09] Speaker B: I just felt like if I don't make a public statement about this, I'm not even a pastor. Yeah.
[00:45:15] Speaker A: So then let me ask you this qualifying question. If you could go back.
[00:45:20] Speaker A: And change something, if you could rethink your strategy.
[00:45:26] Speaker A: Is there any way you would tweak it? Because here's the deal. We're going to have people listening to this episode that are saying, I want to be like Jeff Mercer. I want to be faithful. Right. Like, I want to. I want to see opportunities like this. I want to move in that direction. Like, yeah, both Brian and I are among those people. So I would say. What. What would you say? Like, how. Is there a way you would adjust your strategy? Is there a way that you would adjust your. Your. Your mechanism, your methodology?
Or are you like. I think that was just exactly what we needed for that particular time.
[00:45:59] Speaker B: I would have put on my seatbelt.
[00:46:07] Speaker A: Nice, nice. Perfect.
Perfect.
You know, you gotta submit to the civil magistrate sometimes.
[00:46:14] Speaker B: I don't know. You know, it was very strange. It really is not my way to be that brief. It is not. I don't think I've ever spoken about anything in one minute.
[00:46:25] Speaker A: That was the Lord.
[00:46:27] Speaker B: So, you know, maybe I could have explained, you know, what I mean by against.
[00:46:36] Speaker B: But I'm biblically informed enough to know that if somebody really became antagonistic about that video, because the seat belt is not really about the seatbelt.
[00:46:49] Speaker C: And I think what came through to me in that video and the reaction to it.
I mean, what. What came through to me loud and clear was, wow, we need to speak in the public square. More like, this is not. This is not happening.
[00:47:03] Speaker A: The Overton window has not been moved in central.
[00:47:05] Speaker C: Exactly. Exactly. And so, I mean, it's, as has been said before, if.
If. Chris, If Christians are not meant to speak clearly in the public square, and if the public square and Christianity are not meant to mix, the authorities should have thought of that before they crucify j. Jesus in public.
[00:47:25] Speaker A: Dang.
[00:47:25] Speaker C: Right?
[00:47:26] Speaker A: Yes. Amen.
Amen.
Yeah.
[00:47:32] Speaker A: Amen. So I. I would say to the people who are listening to this, be emboldened.
Let's. Let's be emboldened. Let's. Let's continue to advance. I would call this a tactical move and an advancement. That's what I would call this. There we have. Ground has been gained in this situation. Like, there are more people coming to your church now. You have much more public exposure.
[00:47:56] Speaker A: Let the.
[00:47:59] Speaker A: Angry people who hate you now just keep festering.
But they'll still know who you are.
Tamping Grind preacher. They'll still know who you are.
And one day, I found that'll mean something.
One day. Every now and then you get these random messages, these random conversations. Hey, can I ask you something?
[00:48:23] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. There were several people coming to me like Nicodemus at night, saying, hey, I agree with you.
[00:48:30] Speaker A: Yeah, right.
[00:48:31] Speaker C: I can't say anything in public.
[00:48:32] Speaker A: I can't do what you're doing. I can't. Glad you're doing it.
[00:48:35] Speaker C: I can't repost it.
[00:48:36] Speaker B: The baristas. Yeah, probably 90% of them.
I don't think the others know that, but, yeah, they did.
[00:48:46] Speaker C: You just caused so much drama at Tampon Grind.
[00:48:49] Speaker B: I mean, they.
[00:48:52] Speaker B: They see me every day.
[00:48:53] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:48:54] Speaker B: And so, you know, they, like, they didn't really want to see me get beat up. You know, they like me. Oh, and this poor. There's a lesson about mom.
There's this woman, she's definitely looking liberal. And she jumped into that guy's post and was like, hey, I know Jeff. And I don't think he was malicious. I disagree with him, but he's kind in the mob. Was like, no, he was malicious. He was evil. He. They chewed her up too.
[00:49:24] Speaker A: Because you were malicious. You were evil because you said, buddhists don't go to heaven day.
Amazing.
[00:49:33] Speaker B: I. I would say this. It's Chris Kyle came to my mind, that analogy of he had like one bullet to take that guy out. It's like a over a mile, that shot.
But something must have clicked through his mind. Like, I can hit him.
I can hit him, and it's gonna create problems for the rest of us.
But taking this guy out is worth. Worth it.
[00:50:01] Speaker C: What is the application of that analogy? Because I'm not quite following you.
[00:50:04] Speaker B: I think one of the struggles. And I felt it, it's like, well, now all my people are without. Like, we don't have a building, like, made.
Like, when Moses tried to deliver Israel, it's like he made their life harder.
[00:50:27] Speaker B: So I would say.
[00:50:30] Speaker B: What I've lived through real time right here. Look for the opportunities that are, like, just clear. Like, like, this is not about Calvinism or I'd be happy to suffer for that too, but.
[00:50:46] Speaker C: But nobody cares.
[00:50:47] Speaker B: I'm so thankful this was about something that I had, like, old people from, like, just general SBC people, even texting and messaging and supporting. And that's great, you know, because it.
[00:51:04] Speaker A: Was just so clearly about Jesus.
[00:51:06] Speaker B: Yeah. It's like, this wasn't an intramural debate amongst Christendom. Like, these guys are outside of Christendom altogether.
[00:51:17] Speaker B: So if we can't notice this, then.
[00:51:21] Speaker C: Yeah, but this whole thing you're in was not about.
[00:51:26] Speaker C: The clarity of the gospel or the exclusivity of Christianity, both of which are a little too clear. Right. This was about what I like to call vibes. And tribes.
[00:51:39] Speaker C: Didn'T give off the approved vibe and signaled that you were not part of the approved tribe.
[00:51:44] Speaker A: You need to be quiet.
[00:51:45] Speaker C: Right.
[00:51:46] Speaker A: You will be silenced. You may not say that here. That's the same thing the guy said to you, wasn't it? You're not exactly say that here.
[00:51:54] Speaker B: We will not let you push that out here.
[00:51:57] Speaker A: We will not let you proclaim Jesus.
[00:51:59] Speaker C: And for those of you listening at home.
Vanilla ice cream. Yeah.
[00:52:05] Speaker A: You know, we'll look at. We'll link it in the podcast description.
[00:52:08] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:52:09] Speaker A: You can go watch the video. It is so, so chill.
[00:52:13] Speaker A: Painfully chill.
[00:52:14] Speaker C: Everybody set their hair on fire over this.
[00:52:18] Speaker A: Right? Right.
[00:52:19] Speaker B: So maybe that'll, you know, people that listen to this. Like, maybe that's the lesson. Like. And I. I think people are sort of trying to. Because it was so vanilla ice cream. Put it that way. People are scratching their head. Like, what?
[00:52:32] Speaker C: That's what people in. I can tell you, that's what people in my church are saying.
I watched it and I didn't get it. Like, what's the. Where's the fire?
[00:52:41] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a. It is.
You are trying. People are trying to shame you into silence. That's what's happening.
[00:52:48] Speaker B: Well, it's like Brian said, had I preached it, nobody would care. Yeah.
[00:52:51] Speaker A: But it's in the public square.
[00:52:52] Speaker B: Set it in the public square.
[00:52:54] Speaker A: You may not. Right.
[00:52:55] Speaker B: So hopefully, maybe in the Lord's providence eventually, as all the Christians in the area are scratching their head, they think, oh, maybe they're eventually led to that worldview. All of Christ for all of life.
[00:53:07] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, somebody has to lead them, and you're doing it. So somebody has to move the Overton window and you're doing it. Somebody has to kick it the other direction. And it takes just to Be straightforward with you. It takes years.
It takes years. I remember sitting down with our men in our church at one of our men's Bible studies and just saying to all of them, hey, guys, I think we've been doing this wrong for the last five years and it's about to change.
And we're about to learn how to fight in public and it's gonna be really messy. And whenever you learn how to fight, sometimes that means you kick yourself in the nose and your buddy in the nose a few times. But we're gonna at least try.
And I think that has been nothing but galvanizing for our people and your people. I can see it.
And it's going to continue to move. It takes time, but it's going to be okay. People will come along. It just takes time. So. Amen. I'm glad you're already seeing fruit. I think there's going to be more fruit to come.
[00:54:13] Speaker C: Amen.
[00:54:14] Speaker A: Jeff, where do people go to find your church?
I don't mean the physical location because obviously that's a question mark right now.
Cfsinlaw.com C, F, C, E, N, L A.
[00:54:27] Speaker C: They're a great church if you can find them.
[00:54:31] Speaker B: That has been an issue.
One. That one brother. You know Kevin Sasser?
[00:54:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I know Kevin.
[00:54:39] Speaker A: I love Kevin.
[00:54:39] Speaker B: He. He found it. We had Phil Johnson come. Did y' all know we had Phil Johnson come speak one time?
[00:54:46] Speaker A: Like Phil Johnson? Like the Doug Commander Phil Johnson?
[00:54:49] Speaker B: No, no, no, no, no.
[00:54:50] Speaker C: The John Arthur's right hand man.
[00:54:52] Speaker A: Oh, dang. Oh, okay. Wow.
[00:54:54] Speaker B: Yeah. It didn't do anything.
[00:54:56] Speaker A: Nobody.
[00:54:56] Speaker B: Nobody came.
[00:54:59] Speaker B: It was like the best unattended conference we were in.
[00:55:07] Speaker B: Why did I bring him up?
[00:55:09] Speaker A: Because he couldn't find the place.
[00:55:11] Speaker B: Yes. So.
[00:55:13] Speaker B: That was the one.
[00:55:14] Speaker A: Fruit.
[00:55:15] Speaker B: So Kevin Sasser saw the. The post for that conference and he was trying to contact us and we were not answering our messages.
[00:55:26] Speaker C: Beginning to see the problem.
[00:55:27] Speaker B: Yeah, he had to keep knocking and seeking and asking and I don't remember how he finally got through, but we're like, hey, we need to update our contact.
[00:55:40] Speaker A: Well, good. So C F C-E-N-L-A dot com.
[00:55:45] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:55:46] Speaker A: Dot com. That's where you can go find out more information about Jeff's church. If you're in the Alexandria area, I would gladly commend Jeff and his ministry and his people to you. I've got to hang out with you guys in the past, and it was always delightful.
[00:56:00] Speaker B: And Brian and Brian and Brian and Brian.
[00:56:03] Speaker A: That's right. Brian the man Rose.
[00:56:07] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:56:08] Speaker A: That's your DJ handle. That's your DJ handle. Absolutely.
Anyway, guys, thank you all so much for listening to another episode of the Parish Circuit. You can find more information about the Parish Circuit and past
[email protected] we would appreciate your like. Share. Subscribe I don't know. Whatever the heck the YouTube people say we're supposed to do for things like this and continue to help us build Christendom in the Deep South. We are about truth and goodness and beauty for all of Louisiana, and we want you to help us build that together. So thank you so much for listening. Appreciate you guys coming and being on the pod. Jeff, Brian, really appreciate you guys and we will see you all next time.
