All the Kings Men
Being a man of character with Christian values is a challenge in world that has lost its way. All the Kings Men is a podcast for men who want to leave a Godly legacy. Weekly guests share their stories of how God made them victorious over life's struggles. All the Kings Men is a ministry podcast of Restoration Place. Join our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090682981273!
All the Kings Men
From Troubles to Triumph: A Journey of Faith and Transformation
Get ready to join us for an intimate, soul-stirring conversation with our guest, Nic. A remarkable figure who evolved from a troubled childhood to a beacon of faith, Nic takes us on his transformative journey, sharing the thorny path he navigated and the profound impact of his neighbor's kindness. You will be captivated as Nic shares the intricate details of his journey, how he discovered Christianity, and the role the Holy Spirit played in his spiritual development.
We bring a twist to this episode by comparing Nic's experiences with that of our co-host, Pastor Tony. You'll be fascinated by how their contrasting upbringings have shaped their understanding of faith. While Nic's views were shaped by his personal experiences, Pastor Tolny was brought up under a strong Christian influence. As we navigate through this intriguing discourse, you’ll uncover the potent influence of unconditional love, and the solace found in the church.
Pastor Tony also takes us on an enlightening journey through the societal and cultural shifts he observed in the church from his youth. You'll get a glimpse of his transition from a strict Baptist ministry to becoming a Methodist pastor, and now serving at Restoration Place. His story is a testament to the power of faith and resilience, filled with powerful anecdotes and reflections. From discussing the importance of spiritual growth to the power of forgiveness and renewing one's mind, this episode is sure to leave you inspired and contemplating.
You can reach Pastor Tony at akm@myrpt.org.
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If you are local to Tallahassee, FL and would like to join our Men's Group, sign up here.
Welcome to All the King's Men, a ministry podcast of the Men's Ministry of Restoration Place, tallahassee. Warning listeners to this podcast will hear authentic, life-changing stories from men who know Jesus and have experienced His work in their life. He prepared to be impacted by their stories and relationship with Jesus. Here is your host, pastor Tony Tolson.
Speaker 2:Good afternoon, good day. Thank you for joining us for All the King's Men, and we're glad that you've chosen to take some time with us today. Today I have with us Nick. Nick is going to be our guest co-host for a while and he's trying it out. He's trying to shoes on to see what it's all about. Nick, why don't you give us a very quick, high level, 45 second elevator introduction about you and then we'll get a little deeper?
Speaker 3:Nick, I do hardware flooring. I've been a Christian right at 30 years now. I got saved as a teenager, kind of a troubled youth in a sort of a way. So I like to work with the youth now to minister them and let them know hey, there's hope. If Jesus could change my life around, he can change yours. Single guy go to church and just live in my life and just trying to figure out what to do nowadays.
Speaker 2:Alright, we're just going to use Nick's famous name, what he's known for in the community, Nick the Nez. So how'd you get that name?
Speaker 3:I had a guy. He would just call me the Nez. Hey, it's Nez. What's up? Nez, it's the Nez. So I just kind of stuck with it, Kind of stuck with you on the big name.
Speaker 2:So you talked about you had a little bit of a troubled youth. Talk about your family growing up. Did you have a kind of a nuclear family or did you have your family kind of split up? What was it that made kind of that foundation for you when you were younger?
Speaker 3:It was a really weird family dynamic, not I guess other people may feel like this, but it was not a lot of love shown in our family. I mean, nobody expressed their feelings towards each other except for when it was resentment or something. You know I had three uncles I grew up with and my mom who raised me. The last time I had seen my dad was six years old up until 21, and I went back to North Carolina and I remet him, me and my mom went up there and she went to go see her friend and I went to go visit my dad and grandfather and you know met him and wasn't really doing much with itself.
Speaker 3:But you know, my mom she did what she could with what she knew. She was a kid when she had me. She was just turned 17 when she had me a month later and she raised me the best she could. But you know she was partying and stuff and you know she was a responsible working woman but she didn't know how to raise a kid. You know she did take care of her brothers growing up and stuff. She was the oldest and her family her parents just went drinking a lot as well.
Speaker 2:And that's a viable lifestyle right.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's, you know, not everyone who struggles I say struggles who chooses a lifestyle where alcohol and partying is involved, has deficiencies in parenting. But it can bring about deficiencies in parenting for sure. Just because there's distractions, right yeah. But so you weren't raised necessarily as a believer.
Speaker 3:Definitely not. No, I mean the only Christian in my family. I had some cousins that were going to church for a while, but I don't think they do. Most of my family doesn't really even believe in God, so Well, tell me how you came to know Christ, then I had a neighbor.
Speaker 3:Well, I don't know why, but all through my life, wherever we moved to. When I was in South Carolina at four years old, I would go to church. Nobody else in my family was going with me. Back then they allowed a school bus to come by and get the whole entire neighborhood.
Speaker 3:I'd just go to church and I'm wondering these days. I just started thinking about that the other day. Did I get saved then? Because I've always had a tugging when it came to God. I always felt like, don't do that, because that's wrong, and nobody was telling me this. So I'm always wondering was that the Holy Spirit speaking to me? Because I do know that when I did officially accept the Lord at about 14 years old, I knew, because I didn't really come to church right then.
Speaker 3:It was my neighbor that led me to the Lord. I would go on and off to church, all my youth and all that but it was a neighbor that kept bothering me. She was a great lady. Her and her husband were really good Christians and they had two kids that were a little younger to me and they just kept asking me. And one day they finally caught me on winter break when I couldn't say I had homework because I used to lie all the time and say, oh, I got homework. So they finally caught me to come and I had a good time and I came the next week and it was good and I just kept on coming and I skipped ahead a year before I got saved, or maybe earlier that year I had got saved, but I didn't come back to church, I just got saved.
Speaker 3:I didn't really know what was I saved from? What do you save me from? Save from what? I just recited the words and she was trying her best to do the right thing and lead me to the Lord. But I swear that whole time, after really accepting him, I was hearing voices and it was really the Holy Spirit speaking to me, because I was in a. I've dealt with depression but I was never diagnosed as depressed. So I would always hear your answers at church and I would just keep hearing it. Where?
Speaker 1:is this coming from?
Speaker 3:I'm not talking to nobody that goes to church or anybody like that. Where is this voice? What is telling me that I need to go to church, stuff like that? And as I did finally go to church and learn to become a Christian, I realized it was the Holy Spirit speaking to me and stuff, and it was just always like a calling to like he'd been talking to me my whole life and I've always been a kind of a helpful person, because I hate to see people struggle, I hate to see people go through what I've gone through and if I can help somebody come out of that then I'd try my best.
Speaker 3:I mean, if you're not willing to listen, then I'm not going to waste my breath. Done that plenty of times and as I got older I was like you know what, if you're not asking for my help, I'm not. I'll volunteer a little bit, but I'm not going into detail about everything until you really come to me.
Speaker 2:So that's interesting. So you know, there's a lot of similarities. I think kind of drew your name and your, your personality to me in a way. That kind of knitted my heart with yours a little bit, with when you weren't even paying attention, and similarities that we have is, you know, my, my father abandoned me when I was about five, six. My parents divorced at somewhere around four.
Speaker 2:I remember as a young man my father taking me to his girlfriend's house. I was three or four years old and the reason it stuck sticks out in my mind is she came to the door and a little night gown and this little feathery thing around her neck, so she might have been being paid by the hour, I don't know, but I remember they put me in front of the television, disappeared for a while and then they came out and we left and I remember telling my mother about that and then there was an argument after. I don't remember much about my parents being together, but I remember just telling my mom, my mom, about this feather thing, tickle my face, you know I thought it was funny. Apparently it wasn't funny for them, and that wasn't the only time he was. He was a, you know, a bit of a playboy and why they ever got married. I'll never know. I was not a believer as far as I know, and mom was raised in the church. Maybe he was a bit of a bad boy and she liked that until she got, you know, partial ownership of that. But bad boys are always good. Do you try to nail them down? But you know, I think there's some similarities in our, in our past.
Speaker 2:I think the other thing that stands out to me is that becoming a man of God meant we had to depend on the model of Christ and not the model of some other Christian man image that we had from our father, our grandfather or some other person. We had to look to God to be our father, and I think those of us that grew up in our faith, recognizing God as the ultimate father and we don't have a lot of other comparisons, you know, I remember when my, when Renee and I first got married, she had an amazing father who died when she was 12, followed by an amazing brother who was as awesome as her father. So she would say, well, wayne, doesn't do it this way, well, wayne doesn't do it that way. And I was being compared to this amazing man who could do anything and everything. And I wasn't him, you know, and so I would go about it by going, you know, walking left and then straight. He would go right and straight and never I was doing it wrong to in her mind. So she has a very strong sense of what it means to be a strong Christian man because she was raised by them.
Speaker 2:I was only raised with the idea that God was my father and so all of my. I had to depend on him for all good and all good and perfect things. That was the only one. And, like you, I also had early understanding of where I could be at peace and safest was in the shadow of the steeple at the church. That's where people loved me unconditionally. That's where I found acceptance.
Speaker 3:That's what drew me. There was a going to a church where they showed all this love and, you know, saying I love you. I had never heard I love you in my life up until you know, 14 or 15, going to church. Nobody's ever told me that and it was just amazing. I was like you love what the heck, what are y'all talking about, love?
Speaker 3:me. I don't even know you, you know, but they were just all about expressing that love and they just always smiling and hugging me and stuff. And I was like I like this affection. My mom's never hugged me, you know. Yeah, Not, you know, and I'm painting a bad picture on my mom. It's not like she was a mean person or anything.
Speaker 3:She was no hugger, she didn't know how to express love or the shoulder or anything like that, I mean. But she did take care of me by herself and I didn't realize that until a man, you know, I used to resent my mom. You know I'm like, you know.
Speaker 2:You know we don't ever do anything together and stuff you know, but she did not have a manual for you when you were born and she didn't have the training before.
Speaker 2:No, and you know that's what happens with kids, right. Sometimes we find ourselves at least some people do in a situation where they've got a kid and now they got to figure out how to grow up and get this kid raised. So you know, I would say she didn't do a horrible job because you're a decent human being. But some of that is also the interaction you have with the Holy Spirit and the Lord right, where you came to know what ultimate truth was and ultimate love, unconditional love, and acceptance, and what it meant to belong to something that mattered. So I think that's that's cool. I think what's really interesting for our listeners is they're going to be able to kind of hear two perspectives right. Where we differ is I was raised in I wouldn't say it was totally a Christian home.
Speaker 2:I would say it was a religious home. My parents never really shared a lot of faith matters with me. They never talked to me about matters of faith. I did that all on my own. I had my own relationship with the Lord and with the church, separate and apart from them. We would go to a church for a bit and they would get mad about something. We would leave, and it was probably justified? I don't know, I'm not judging that but were they big?
Speaker 3:on faith or they read their Bible and stuff like that. Not that I'm just churchgoers.
Speaker 2:They would go Sunday morning, sunday morning only, and I would go Sunday morning, sunday night, wednesday night, and the pastor was cleaning the windows. On Thursday evening I'd be in the pew watching. You know that was how I did it. I would find a way to get there. If I had to ride my bike, if somebody from the church picked me up, it mattered to me to be there. But I also was involved, you know. So I stayed close to that and I tried to live as right as I could. Now I was also involved in the independent fundamental Baptist movement as a child.
Speaker 2:So there was a very strong sense of what right look like and what wrong look like. Basically, anything that happened outside the church was probably wrong. So it was in my best interest in that community to be as close to the church as I could and to the people of the church and not close to anyone outside of the church or activities outside of the church. And I'm not saying I didn't do anything. I did stuff in high school and stuff like that. But you know, and I wasn't perfect, you know I had my own fair share of teenage sin, like all of us.
Speaker 2:But I will say that for me I wanted to do right and I didn't really ever get in trouble. You, on the other hand, you knew the Lord and you had a balanced understanding of God, in the sense that I was almost and I hate to use the word cult-like, but much more cult-like how I was raised. But you somehow still managed to get in trouble and still came back to the Lord. So, no matter how our church was at the beginning right, we diverged a little bit, but we're both back right here.
Speaker 2:So I think the perspective you're going to be able to give, nick, is what you know, what it's like to be outside of the sphere of the church and the not necessarily the movement of God, because I would have said, well, if you weren't in church and totally living right, well then you're out of the sphere of God. But that's not true because he says he's with us, always, right. So those who love him, those who seek righteousness, he said he'll be there. So not that we always seek righteousness, but I believe that, as the Holy Spirit you know it filled you, he was drawing you to himself, and that's what you've told me.
Speaker 3:It took some years to learn all that all my high school years because I got, I started coming back to the church. I started fully going to church the middle of eighth grade, so I went into high school as a Christian. By that point I was pretty much a Christian and, yeah, my church was a. My past is it was a non-denominational church, which I love, because all the churches I went to as a kid were Baptist and I didn't like all the rules and stuff, but they were. My pastors were raised Baptist and so they still had their Baptist ways and stuff. So, yeah, they were. They are real big on. Oh, don't go to the theaters and stuff like that, cause you know you're garbage in, garbage out. Everything you're watching is going to go into your spirit and stuff like that and it's just going to come out.
Speaker 2:So what year did you graduate high school?
Speaker 3:97.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you're a few years behind me, but still young enough to remember those 80, 90s pastors. And they were raised up in the 60s and 70s, right, and that was a. That was a movement. There was a movement of foot in the 60s and 70s. Jesus, the Jesus movement was in the 60s and 70s. We had all of this change going on in culture, the. You know the stuff that happened with Vietnam. Of course, technology was beginning to open up, more TV became more central right, all this. I mean the world's changed. I mean you and I both would say it's not the same place for a kid today that it was when we were kids.
Speaker 3:Like, definitely totally different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know, the church was scared.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so pastors were trying whatever they could to keep people connected and out of that stuff that was worldly. I just I remember Nick I mean I forget what year it was, but man Jesus was coming back. It was on this particular day and, dog, I sat on my on my front step waiting looking around and about nine o'clock that night I said Rek, he's not coming, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna go on in every church you went to, everybody was always preaching.
Speaker 3:rapture is coming Be ready any day now. You know, it's 30 years later and it still hasn't happened. But you know more than ever, I believe it's on our toes back then.
Speaker 2:Yes, they did, yes, they did, but more than ever, I believe he's coming back. I mean, look, the things that we see now are things that we we heard would be happening at the end times, like people being shot and being left dead in the streets, you remember, and all this stuff, and it's happening and all the signs of the time, the weather changing and stuff.
Speaker 3:It's all right. We thought the weather was changing back then.
Speaker 2:but now the weather is really changing, man, it's crazy.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, the world is nuts.
Speaker 2:But I'll tell you, what I think is exciting is we're going to be able to bring guests in that maybe a little bit more like you, a little bit more like me and not like either one of us at all and we're going to be able to ask questions from our own point of view, which is kind of cool. Because, you know, unfortunately, pastor Tony's point of view is really limited, right? Because I, in the sense that I've been in the church my whole life, and the only view of life that I have is really from the seat that I've been in, and that I don't mean from pastor, I mean from my seat, from Tony's seat. What I've experienced and it was only that I experienced true liberty in my faith after I was in my mid 30s, like before that I was, I was bound up by legalism, and so you know, now I can go to a movie and not feel guilty that I'm in a movie that oh my gosh, they had a dirty word in it, you know because I would be scared to death, man.
Speaker 2:I mean, you could get hit by lightning Right there. I believe that that God could judge me in the moment. Now he could, but he doesn't, because we're under grace. Now I'm not advocating that we should go to movies that are nasty and horrible language, but the liberty that God gives us. He wants us to choose him, and that's where you get the joy in your relationship with him. You know, it's kind of like being married to a demanding spouse, who you're. They're only happy with you. You do everything that you that they tell you to do. Are you really happy or are you just avoiding the pain? You know, and, and I was kind of like that, that spouse that was stuck in a very manipulated relationship with God because I didn't know what it like was like to have the freedom I thought if I could just do what God said, then I'd be okay and then I'll just be happy with that. I guess I was happy, but I never. I never found, I never asked the question am I happy?
Speaker 3:During high school I had a youth pastor and he was a very good youth pastor and I owe a lot to him Because, you know, I had my spiritual parents taking me to church and stuff. But I was also a rebellious type of kid in a certain way, you know, because I had a mom that didn't want me going to church, you know, and didn't spend it all my time there and stuff like that. I'm not going to say she told me flat out like that, but it was just like oh, what are you doing now? You know stuff like that. And my youth pastor I used to always come to him with questions and stuff. I would never go to my spiritual parents. Really I'd go to him because you know my spiritual parents are being like real parents to me and you know I'm a teenager. So I'm still going through my rebellious. You know I don't have to listen to you. You know, even though you're giving me rides to church all the time and other places, that I'll never get out because I lived far out in the country.
Speaker 3:So I used to love Saturday Night Live and as a teenager we just all used to watch it and stuff all the time and I kept asking him. I was like, hey, you know, is it wrong that I'm watching this? He's like, well, I mean, how do you feel? Do you feel like you've seen watching it? Is it uplifting God? I'm like, well, it's definitely not uplifting God. And he's like, well, I mean it's kind of on you, but if it's not uplifting God and you're not happy, then stop watching it, you know? And so I stopped and stuff. And you know I had to stop a lot of stuff. I used to be in the comic books and stuff and I was training myself to be a Marvel comic artist. To this day I can still draw everything with all the muscles and stuff, but I still draw. Now. I mean it's not like I quit drawing back then, but I got out of comic books because they were not uplifting God.
Speaker 3:But what I learned was later, because I came back into comic books. I mean I don't collect them anymore, but I learned when you get saved, you basically need to put a hold on all the stuff that you hold a high esteem for. Mine was comic books and stuff and video games and all that. Not that I stopped playing video games, but I put to the side of the comics for a few years and I put the side of secular music and stuff. I was in the hip hop and stuff like that and I had to put all that to the side to focus on him and to get into his word and to get to know him and stuff and find out for myself who I am and who God is in my life and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:So I stopped doing all that and I feel like it's kind of something we all should do, or, you know, when we're ministering to somebody that hasn't been saved yet or that is just being saved, I was like, look, if you're into doing these things that you may not need to be doing, then just put them to the side. It doesn't mean you'll have to stop forever. I didn't have to stop watching stuff I wanted to watch on TV forever. I didn't have to stop listening to secular music forever. Today I listen to it. It doesn't affect me Now.
Speaker 3:I was a teenager with an impressionable mind, but I hear stuff nowadays and it doesn't affect me like it did then. I mean, yeah, music, a lot of feelings can come through music. You know there are songs that can move you. So you do have to.
Speaker 3:You just have to look at stuff with a guard now, but as a teenager or as somebody new to Christ, I feel like you have to learn how to guard your mind. So first you need to get a strong foundation with God. So I put all that to the side and I focused on God and his word and stuff and started reading my Bible and memorizing scriptures and stuff. Things I needed to work on, like forgiveness and stuff, would be scriptures I had to quote daily, and that was a big thing in my life is learning to forgive people, because I used to hold a lot of, you know, unforgiveness in my heart. So it's something that I just feel like people need to know. That, hey, just you know, when you want to get to know God, put the stuff that's in your way of getting to know Him to the side.
Speaker 2:Which won't look like other people's stuff. That's what I had to learn.
Speaker 3:Nobody has their own thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had to learn that the legalism that I was taught years ago, and legalism basically means a set of rules that applies to everybody. That's not necessarily in scripture, you know, generally it's not. There might be some hints to it or where you could take a scripture or two and add them together and make a rule, but it's not necessarily in context. So when I just wanted to define that but I mean for someone who deals with depression, they have to probably be more careful with certain types of music that would make them have emotions that would feel more negative, when I could listen to a sad song or a negative song and go, well, that's really sad and move on. Somebody who's in a state of depression might cry for half an hour, and so you have to guard your mind, and I had to learn that scripture over over again, what it meant to have the renewing of your mind and how to guard your mind. I had to learn that over that. It wasn't about oh gosh, I can't listen to any secular music, which I did what you did I, from like 12 to 13 to 23, 10 years, I didn't listen to any secular music 10 years of my life. That's why I'm saying the seat that I'm in is very unique. I mean, for 10 years I was in Christian ministry. I, my world, was surrounded. I also, for like six or seven years of that, was in an isolated Christian community that I managed. I was a director of a children's home, a Christian group children's home, and so I had, you know, like 30, 30, some odd staff members and we had kids there, but we isolated them from the world and I therefore was isolated from the world. I didn't go to a movie for years and years and years. I didn't listen to secular music. You know, you're seeing the path right. I mean, I didn't even know what had happened outside the 44 acres of that property because my life was revolving around it. So you know, when you talk about me being in the independent fundamental Baptist world, I was in, I was part of the fabric of the independent fundamental Baptist world. So breaking out of that was a big deal Like.
Speaker 2:My first transition out was to a Southern Baptist church and my independent Baptist friends thought I had lost my faith. So then, when I was at the Southern Baptist church, I was working in our city and I had all inner city youth who was in Tampa and I got a job offer at the Methodist church, full time with housing. Well, you can't turn that down. I couldn't turn it down and I was. I had told God, I'm like and I had. I said God, I just really want a job with a briefcase and a secretary. That's what I really want. I just want to do that and I'll just serve you at night on the weekends. The church doesn't even need to pay me, I'll just go to a church somewhere and serve. It'll be awesome, God Like. So he was giving me opportunities for great interviews and I was in the middle of counteroffers with.
Speaker 2:One of them was a school for creative and performing arts as the director and another one was a park, a cemetery park system in the state of Florida. So very different, right, both of them would come with a briefcase and an assistant. I mean it was like awesome, like I was good, this was my dream. So I said, god, if you give me an opportunity, ministry, of course I'll take it. And he said okay. So I did what any good believer would do I looked in the newspaper for ministry opportunities, because they're always in the newspaper.
Speaker 3:Right, I'm still laughing that you. Your dream was to have an assistant.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's it. I just wanted an assistant and it's in a briefcase.
Speaker 3:What does the deal with the assistant?
Speaker 2:It. Just it was my idea. That was a bit that was a successful businessman, I still want an assistant.
Speaker 2:Today I still don't have one. But so I I found in the newspaper this Methodist church that was hiring a worship pastor. They needed somebody, thursday night for two hours and Sunday morning for three hours, five hours a week. And I forget what the pay was. It was like a thousand or $2,000. It was enough.
Speaker 2:I was like, okay, I can do music, I'm good, I'll just go do see God, I'll, I'll interview. So I interviewed and I literally took my Baptist points of of doctrine and I went down all 13 points and I'm like I literally said this interview. I just want you to know I'm not Methodist, I'm Baptist and I was born Baptist, raised Baptist and I'll my funeral will be officiated by a Baptist minister. I just want you to be aware of that before we go any further. And they said we love that, we love the fact that you know what you believe, that's what we need. And so I left. I thought, well, I believe that it's fine. So I said, all right, well, let me know if you have any other questions.
Speaker 2:So they called me and it was a female pastor too, and I never. That was weird. So I was like, okay, female pastor, I was, you know, baptist female pastors and Southern Baptist still struggling with that. Right, they just they, they just got rid of Rick Warren's church, one of the biggest Southern Baptist churches in the world. They, they just expelled them because they had a female teaching pastor. So they're still struggling with that. So he's so. Anyway, the pastor calls me and says we really enjoyed your interview. And I said, well, I enjoyed meeting with you. And they said and again, this was just a part time thing, nothing other than a part time, like I got worked there five hours a week just leading a choir and worship.
Speaker 3:It was a thousand a month or.
Speaker 2:I think it was a thousand a month or so. I mean it was like not, I mean it's like 250, I could have paid my rent. I'd be paying my rent and then I'd have this other thing on the side and I'd be carrying a briefcase and telling them, my assistant, what to do. I mean listen, I mean see, I had it all in a bag. And so she said, and I just, you know, I'm the pastor.
Speaker 2:I said, oh, yes, I remember meeting you here. Well, we met and we really would like to extend an offer, but we've changed the structure of the offer and the job and I just want to tell you about it. After we met with you, we've decided we would like to hire you full time and we would like to offer you housing and all these benefits. And I'm like Do I get a secretary? Okay, and I said it wasn't even a question because I told God, if you call me back to full-time ministry, then I'll go. Like there's no discussion here, like, and there's no options, like, okay.
Speaker 2:And she said I just want to be sure that you know, I know you're Baptist, I want to make sure you don't have any trouble with you know the fact that I'm a woman and I said, well, I won't hold it against you or a woman If you want it against me. I'm a Baptist and we'll probably get along just fine then. And from that I ended up there. And then I ended up pastoring two Methodist churches thereafter and that's how I actually got here to tell Hassee they transferred me up here.
Speaker 3:Original pastors. The husband was raised Baptist and she was raised Methodist and they both preached. She would preach on Sunday night, he would preach in the morning, and that's how they did their thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and I'll tell you the pastor that I served under she was one of the best teachers and one of the best pastors I've ever seen with pastoral care. She didn't miss a phone call, she didn't miss a hospital visit. She didn't miss a sick visit at home. She was on it all and then, by 730 at night, her husband her and her husband were at home enjoying themselves together because they were older and closer to retirement.
Speaker 3:I will say something about you. I texted you, I went to the hospital about a month ago, going through a panic attack and having pains in my arms and stuff, and so I'm thinking I'm having a heart attack, which caused a panic attack, because I'm like, hey, I'm way too young to be having a heart attack and I work out every day. So am I having a heart attack? But my pain, but my pain, my arm was really hurting. And I text you. I was like, look, I'm going to the hospital, I just want you to know that. So please pray for me.
Speaker 3:And you actually text it back and was like, hey, I'm on my way, you know, I'm like I'm okay, I'm okay, you know, I don't you know, and I was just I really want to thank you. I've never had that kind of attention from anybody showing up to the hospital. You know, yeah, that was kind of a scary thing and if I would have actually went through a heart attack, I would have been glad to see you and welcome you and it just it amazed me that you actually I don't know if you were even on my side of town, because you obviously lived the opposite side of town than where the church is.
Speaker 1:And that's where I live.
Speaker 3:And you know, it was just amazing that you've you cared enough to actually try to show up. He's like hey, do you want me to come up to you and anything? And then, and actually I did need you to give me a ride because I had to catch a ride with a neighbor, because I was going to drive myself. But I got behind the wheel and I was just shaking, I was like yeah, not a good idea.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I'm going to make it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I learned later it was, I guess it was kind of tennis elbow. Was these, these muscles in my joints or whatever that were?
Speaker 1:hurting.
Speaker 3:And I think it was like a magnesium deficiency or something going on with me. So I've been taking magnesium pills and everything is fine, but it was just crazy. I thought I was in for an early heart attack. You know, I didn't think it was going to be an actual full blown heart attack, but I was like something's going on and it's not right, cause I know that heart attacks they say it's your arm that's hurting, not your chest Right, and that scared me and I think that's what caused the panic attack and I was having trouble breathing and I was like I went to my neighbor's house like, hey, I need a ride, you know, to the hospital.
Speaker 2:So well, I'll tell you what God's been working with me on is, you know, we raised seven kids. I worked full time in the church pastoring and then I ended up back in like business and pastoring part time and then went to sabbatical, took a break from from staff ministry for about a year and then went back part-time and it been part-time ever since. But God's really been working on me to slow down enough to be a brother to my brothers and sisters. Like just slow down, like it's okay, whatever you think you have to get done, it's not as important as your relationships and you know that, fortunately, renee is very supportive of that. But God's really been working on me with that because I know what it feels like to need somebody and nobody's there and and a reason I say that is as a pastor, you feel that a lot.
Speaker 3:I know that feeling very well myself. So yeah yeah, when people say they need me and it's, it's real I'm there, because I don't like to see, I don't, I don't like being stranded by myself. So if people need a ride or whatever, or need some kind of help, I'm there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think in ministry I may have gotten a little jaded over the years because people will take advantage of you, but I think restoration has a. Our church has a very unique environment where people really are brothers and sisters. I'm not saying everybody is at that place, but I think people want to be there and I think there's more of a sense of we do need to be there for each other, like we do need to know each other. So I'm trying to do that, not because I'm pastor Tony at the church, but because I'm Tony, a brother in Christ, I want to be faithful to my brothers and sisters, but I'm focusing on the men because that's, that's just more, it's just better. You know, I mean obviously I don't need to be, I don't need to be going to a single woman's house working or something.
Speaker 3:but I'm very thankful for the once a month men's fellowship and stuff. I'm starting to meet guys and stuff and meet other people because right now my friend circle everybody just moved out of town. All my, my entire circle is gone now and it's like, wow, I have hardly any friends now. So I'm kind of in the middle of starting over and the men's fellowship really helps out with that dynamic.
Speaker 2:And the fact that it's just dinner.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like you so you can just talk to people and sit wherever and get to know some people and stuff.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I think that's really. That's really awesome, and I'm glad you're enjoying that. We want to encourage any men that are listening to this and you're in Tallahassee. If you need a place to belong, you know, get in touch with me. You can email me or call me. It's all in the show notes, but I would say that you know getting in connection with another man, and so I think we need to probably wrap up where it's close to time, but I'm glad that we've had a time just to kind of talk, and I we've got some guests coming up and we will certainly be engaging them in some ways. I think, as as believers, though, we should definitely highlight tonight that we've talked about the fact that we got to renew our minds, as the scripture says, and that we got to seek first the kingdom of God, and so both of these are very scriptural, foundational texts that we've all we all know that is my favorite scripture right there Matthew 6, 33.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:Because so many times in life you tend to lose focus, but that scripture always helps you to remain focused. If you recite that every morning, it really helps out in trying to stay focused on him, seeking him first, not all these other things, not your problems, not your job, not your spouse or anybody, but seeking him first really is affecting my life in a big time. That's great, great way.
Speaker 2:That's wonderful, and so we're going to keep sharing our faith through this podcast. We're going to share with other men and how God's intersected their lives and be and really change them and transform them. So I'm excited about the partnership. Yeah, you know, nick is also interested in doing some other podcasts work, so this is a little bit of a podcaster in training too.
Speaker 2:So that'll be good and you know, most importantly, make sure you give us some feedback and let us know what you, what you think and maybe topics and things that you would like to hear. But we really appreciate you today for being part of our time today and if you have anything at all, please do contact us. Look in the show notes and we will see you next time.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us today on All the Kingsman. Please share, subscribe and like the podcast anytime you can. To contact Pastor Tony, email Tony at myRptorg. He would love to connect with you On behalf of Pastor Tony and all of us at Restoration Place. Have a great week and we will see you next time.
