BraveMen S4E137: JESUS and Identity with Anthony Fleming

Anthony Fleming is a remarkable servant leader of men, just something about Anthony and you'll meet him in a moment here on Brave Men today, but he's a man who's strong in his faith, strong in his beliefs, and then does something about it. A lot of people talk about stuff. Anthony does it. He's the pastor of Church of Life in New Jersey, and they are a remarkable church. He came over to the United States on an athletic scholarship to Liberty University, met his wife there, and then a few years ago, just tipped into, just absolutely came on fire with. We're going to change this nation. I've got to reach men. And man, I mean, it began to change things. He's written some books now. He's done men's meetings, just did a men's conference that was just over the top. So today, you're going to be blessed. You know, blessed is kind of a throwaway word. Today, you're going to be impacted deeply by not only the words, but the life of Anthony Fleming, meet a man who's, he's got a bachelor's degree in psychology. He's got all this stuff he's done. But the key thing in starting this church and doing what he's doing now with men and the movement and the things he's doing is he got a passion for Jesus. So Chris had this idea of putting a series together about Jesus and getting different friends to speak into their faith in Christ. How Jesus changed their lives. What happens when as they're following Christ and maybe some things that we haven't thought of before. I hope this time with Anthony is stretching for you, because when we stretch, we increase our capacity. So lean into this and let Anthony speak into our lives, because I believe he is we did this interview. He speaks by the prophetic power of the Holy Spirit and speaks life into our lives. So a man I'm telling you, he and Miriam have built a great church there in New Jersey church live if you're anywhere there. Well, if you're anywhere on the east coast, just head there. They've got conferences and things, but yeah, remarkable church. Hey, if you need tools for discipling men, you can find those at Christmas Network. This program, Brave Man is sponsored by Christmas Network. The partners and friends of this ministry around the world and over 100 nations who make this possible. Go to cmn.men. You'll see the tools, materials, resources. You'll see click on events. See if we've got something coming up in your area every year. Every year, the first weekend of November, we meet in Dallas for the line's roar. And that is an influencer's meeting. You're going to really be impacted if you come to that. It's about a three day thing. We started Thursday at noon. We in Saturday at noon. And it is life changing. You can go to cmn.men, see all those materials, get the audio books, all sorts of resources that are there. Today, Anthony Fleming speaking about Jesus church alive. Why did you call it church alive? Because Jesus is alive. Remember, hope is alive. Hope has a name. Hope's name is Jesus today. Anthony Fleming on Brave Man. It's Brave Man with Paul Lewis Cole, wisdom and courage for the journey. Man, there's all this negativity on the media at the same time. You know, as Christians as followers of Christ, we have to speak hope into this thing. Yeah. But it can't be, it can't be superfluous. Hope, right? Right. It has to be a hope that says, okay, here's how to deal with real stuff. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And how do you, how do you do that? You've got, you've got a really strong ministry to men. Yeah. Well, how do you speak into men's lives when things are just shaking like this, Anthony? You know, I heard something recently that that really talked about being proactive with what you can control and not reactive to what you can't control. So we can't control a big picture of politics. We can't control economies. We're talking to even someone real close to me recently and he was talking about the economy and how it's terrible and there was this and it was that. And I had to encourage him on what about his own personal economy, right? Because otherwise what I end up doing is I take these big picture things that I can't do anything about. It's dead off. Talk about what I can do about. I can't do anything about what every church is doing in America around the world, right? What I can do personally is I can lead my church in the God given way that God has called me to with a vision for the future, for a vision for growth, for a vision for health. Same with, same with marriage, like sometimes Paul, I think sometimes some of our statistics on marriage, though that marriage is struggling in certain areas, you hear 50% divorce rate, it's probably more 30% first time is I think it's 50 to 60 second time is then even 60% third time is which is obviously kind of bleak with the same time like why would I allow someone else's vision of marriage to cover and and decimate my own vision of marriage. And so personal vision and personal responsibility is really a strong message of mine because it's it's one of those things that I've had to battle, you know, over the years and and God gave me a scripture many years ago that I think I read out of a men's book. Years and years ago my mother just had a couple of men's ministry books actually one was was your dad's real maximize manhood I think I was 18 or 19 I I read that one I read another one called tender warrior. I can't remember the title of who wrote that but I think it was out of that one that he talked about Psalm 128 Psalm 128 says blessed as the man who fears the law that walks in his ways says you shall eat the fruit of the world. Your laborers says it you shall it shall be well with you says your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the heart of your home says your sons and daughters shall be like olive shoots all all around your table years later I heard that there's a Hebrew blessing at weddings and they pray and sing that some over the Hebrew weddings. So for some reason that scripture stayed with me I think out of a dysfunctional kind of home that could have been far far better I got a passion on the inside that that wasn't going to be me that I was going to have a blessed home that I was going to have a marriage. And so I memorized that passage of scripture many many years ago and then I began to pray it over my home pray it over my home pray it over my home for years I was praying it over my home and then I felt like eight years in I kind of at this moment that I went oh we are this we are blessed. And and you would know this the Hebrew word for blessed is is the amplified Bible tells us this it's happy it's prosperous successful it is to be envied and so I just pray that over my home and then I declared over my home and here's the thing just be real and raw sometimes after an argument or a I like to call them a theological. What happened in a pastor's house does it it happens it happens so even even in those moments I pray that over my home but what it would do for me is protect the picture of my home. Wow because it gives you a picture and the picture is vision we often talk about picture but that's a picture or a vision and without vision we know we perish so having a God given picture and a thing that you pray about regularly over your home that then protects the image of your home. Come on yeah and we make decisions based on definitions and image and you know it's amazing you talk about divorce rate you know the birth rate in the United States has plummeted everybody thought including myself all the experts said man is the birth rate with everybody being quarantined locked in the birth rates is going to skyrocket all these covid babies and in fact it's gone quite the opposite and it's plummeted. And I think problem is is the is the intimacy actually didn't breed intimacy there was there was disconnections that that being close didn't heal because there wasn't an intimacy yeah. Yeah and and many of us as men did not have an image of what we desired in our marriage for our wise we have more of an image of what we desire for us yeah right how many times if you heard it while I didn't get my needs met yeah talking with pastor Anthony Fleming at church alive and basically you're in a greater new work New Jersey area yeah we're 20 minutes really from city in New York city. And then we're actually 20 25 minutes from Newark as well so far from the Hudson and in a kind of nice suburban town to be honest in when her I live in in I live in Rutherford in the churches now in the first but yeah we're kind of 20 minutes from a lot of different places yeah and you you have kind of a what what would that be called kind of a southern New Jersey accent what is that yeah I am an Aussie I am guilty one guy said you from Alabama one day I was like no. So it starts with an A and keep going south I'm not sure where you got his education from but yeah I'm actually born in Adelaide Australia and there's a lot of my life in Wollongong Australia now south of Sydney but yeah you know you grew it so you were born in the first free city in Australia Adelaide yeah this is true right to to that and a church of city of mini churches yeah and and some great people. There the the Evans's right yeah this there is some really kind of influential ministries out of Adelaide and out of Australia actually echoed through the world and then Wollongong home to Liam Mathesius is that right yeah this is correct and and pass the yoga themselves yeah yeah that's right yeah it's it's it's thank God spreads people around the world and then you came over to the U.S. to to you were on scholarship right sports athletics yeah I played tennis for Liberty University yeah and met my wife there I kind of had this you know from the age of 16 I read this book by Patrick McEnroe it was really a bit of a life story at the time but it was he started mentioning college tennis and it was like this dream I couldn't shake in my heart wow hit me regarding coming to a minute America playing college tennis even though you know we weren't super affluent and tennis is a pretty affluent sport I just couldn't shake this whole idea of me coming to America and started praying about it and believing God with it and it was really one of the great lessons that I felt like God gave me around faith and believing him and trusting him was actually was going to trust him about his journey or was going to trust myself and literally barely even you there was a Christian university in America which just showed me how much I didn't know about America right and the only university I applied to the only university I got connected to was a Christian university and that really became a tool you know very thankful for that environment obviously introduced me to great great friends lifelong friends well lifelong friends like your wife Miriam yeah and then my lovely life so met her there and and had a great a great time for you let me ask you this past Anthony let me ask you this so so you get this dream in this vision you're 16 years old yeah you said you came out of somewhat of dysfunctional family life yeah where does this thing tip over in a in a man this young yeah you begin to say you know what God's got something on my life where did that happen how did that happen so interesting enough right around high school at the end of high school I really have no vision no direction in my life and so wasn't living for the Lord was just going to hang out with friends and so forth and go on parties and whatever but I would go to bed at night and I would have this kind of empty feeling on like man God I have no no no direction or no sense of where I should go and I just prayed this very simple prayer God if you have something for me would you show me really very simple nothing deep nothing spiritual I just go to bed at night and go God if you have something for me would you show me yeah and I think I prayed that for months and then within the next three to six months God changed a circle of friends he changed the church I went to and before you know it God really got a hold of my world wow that's remarkable and so you come to Liberty University which is a fantastic school I was there many years ago when it was very very small and but Jerry fall well senior had a had a dream in a vision that question it's been carried out it's remarkable I know Jonathan pastor Jonathan yeah and they have a great work there are no many of the people who have been instructors there and great school great people and so now and then you marry pastor's daughter yeah so she has a Portuguese background she grew up in New Jersey it's really kind of a miracle her her parents let her go to Liberty partially because her mom was you know very strict and grew up pretty old school and but just felt like it was on her heart that her daughter should go to Liberty wow and then I meet her we date for a couple of years obviously and then I went back to Australia kind of my green card have run out and then that caused some relational turmoil and and we ended up breaking up for a bit and I couldn't get her out of my heart so long story short I end up surprising her I literally show up on her doorstep so to speak in rather for New Jersey that day like didn't call her didn't anything and showed up with two suitcases and I call her and then she's like where in the world are you she had this weird weird sense that morning that I was going to be there even though there was no evidence I was going to be there and and and then she gets me on the phone she's like where in the world are you and I'm like I'm in Rutherford and then she was actually with a girlfriend so we're heading into New York City for some concert or something they turn around and and then as they say the rest is history you guys got married you ended up in Hillsong College yeah so Miriam actually then about a month later went to Hillsong College she did that for a year I was coaching tennis at the time working full-time plus doing just evening Bible College and then Miriam's father once we got married said hey there's kind of an opportunity here for you to start something I've got six people you know almost I can give you it on a Bible study but I'd love to see a English church come out of our church wow we prayed about it and thought about it and and just seemed like there was some doors opening there and then kind of began in a in an uneducated way to some extent I'd never really talk to a church plant so I I'd we just kind of jumped in and and he said to me you can preach said to Miriam you can sing and we just started it and you can preach you can sing let's go six people yeah yeah and you did and you have carved out a remarkable church and and thank God you guys are now meeting in person yeah there's a big deal up in your part of the world not quite the same here in Texas where I live yeah praise godfather yeah thank God for Texas and Florida but but the fact is that it's been a difficult time and in the middle of this I've watched you because you and I met through I think Pastor Michael Murphy yeah who I just talked to yesterday he he last night he uh his just had the service for his father yeah and uh so he lives a great legacy and you know uh so in meeting and watching what you do you've got this really dynamic powerful ministry to men yeah so now you're in a midst of COVID lockdown you're in a middle of all this you start a 5am thing yeah yeah 5 a.m. men yeah like dude uh 6 a.m. men I might have been in but 5 a.m. men you were really going after it how have you encouraged tell me the words like this Easter season we're talking about Jesus life yeah uh you've got a powerful ministry to men a new book coming out yeah yeah in September actually you got pushed back a tiny bit we were going to do it in around Father's Day but September will work better but yeah I'm excited for the book too long let's talk a little bit transform helping men get unstuck in the full big areas of life all right so tell me so that comes from practical applications so now you come back to plant the church hard work you're a hard worker um you've got an athletic background which means you know how to work hard train yeah keep yourself healthy how have you helped men move into a place of health yeah you know during this season in this Easter season I know you've you've really been a if you will a stalwart man yeah well thank you and and by the white pole it's an honor to hang out with you for a little bit and and talk to you and then obviously talk to your audience too um goodness a number of things I felt like the Lord put on my heart of this last season was it's easy to get distracted it's easy to get pulled away and it different issues inside issues and different things and so and some of these were moments with the Holy Spirit myself some of them are probably coaching moments and common sense moments and wisdom moments from my wife who is often our best voice and and often the person who can gay hey you're you're getting a little off here so a little yeah exactly look the two things I can do is lead my family well keep my relationship with God fresh yeah and I can lead my church and then I can lead my men really when it comes to my calling I feel like I'm called to lead our church I feel like I'm called to lead men so that is my bread and butter that's what I feel like I'm called to do and um so one of the things actually and and I would say actually within the last year I was most encouraged by our men's transformed groups on a Wednesday night even in kind of COVID when people were nervous and and you know some of the guys were on Zoom and different things we kept saying no we need to get together in person to be honest because men need to get around other men they need a handshake high five hug someone like it they need to have fun they need to compete they need to get stressed out they need to do all those kinds of things and um so what what I have what I feel like God has given us is so let me backtrack just a couple of years a couple of years and I would say four years ago I would say our men's group were kind of stuck to be honest they were okay they were a three out of ten a four out of ten and I'm probably giving them a prop up um yeah and then there's been a couple of moments but one significant moment I wasn't praying I wasn't doing anything spiritual I literally was raking my leaves in my backyard and I felt like the Holy Spirit give me insight and speak to me a word it felt like a calling you said help men win in life and that simple statement kind of seemed to be the the cork on which everything else seemed to begin to pour out I felt like I then saw the culture we needed the things we needed to create and obviously that's been a long standing or a lifelong learning process from different preachers that pour into me from your own experience from your own pain and so forth and um but I I felt like the Lord's give me this direction help men win in life and when he said that I kind of went dear of course yeah wow so there's a man in the synagogue famous in scripture for a shriveled hand and he's in the house of God I want to notice this boy is in the house of God so he's in the right place he's got faith but he's shriveled and he's stuck and the essence is that Jesus comes along and he heals the hand and doesn't talk anything really about anything else yet but the Pharisees obviously don't care that to me is a side issue but what you see is that a heart and heart doesn't care that men flourish but a soft heart and the revealing of the father's heart actually help men flourish so so what we've done and I feel like what it's a bit unique and I know there's some guys out there who are doing it but I what I feel like what we have to do more is define where men are stuck then get them healed so one of the big lessons I have talked about what Jesus did right there is he said this is a man with a shriveled hand and he said put out your hand in words he asked the man to become vulnerable yeah in front of everybody he said hey put your hand out like dude no you don't understand I'm hurting right here this hurts this stuff hurts yeah and and this is what the Lord gave you to minister and to men's hearts yeah so if we ask men where are they stuck they're stuck in one of four areas okay like all these the big four areas of life physical spiritual relational financial Luke 252 is this foundational scripture on this in Jesus grew in wisdom and stature in favor with God in favor with man right so think of the the leaders you've known over years Paul that have you once followed but you stopped following every single one of them they didn't fall down because they couldn't communicate they were in a strategist they weren't smart they fell down because of the four areas of life they neglected one of those wow so in the neglecting of one of those four areas that's where we actually lose our fire that's where we get stuck in life that's and the danger of stuck falls this and and anyone watching on on Facebook the danger of stuck is this the longer you stuck the more chance not just your hand becomes shriveled but your heart becomes shriveled yeah and men I believe this that men are many times stuck in life physically but it's a reflection of what's happening in the heart and so if we'll define where this stuck and then create an environment that's fun that's a growth environment that's a personal challenge environment that's not a perfect environment it's an environment of vulnerability and accountability if we'll create that then then the man can get unstuck that's fantastic you know uh pastoring and the thing is I've watched that you know while I follow your social media I'm talking with Pastor Anthony Fleming church alive in Limhurst New Jersey which is Newark greater Newark area I guess greater Manhattan New York I think we just I call you the pastor of New Jersey we'll just do that there's some guys would have to talk to about that this is true but coming through this Easter season yeah you know and and now we're moving into a Pentecost Sunday when we're actually doing this vlog on Facebook and some people are listening to it on our brave men podcast yeah and in that in this Easter season you know it's uh what I tell you this whole thing you're talking about about being distracted yeah and I think distraction can lead to uh when you talk about shriveled and you're sure it's it speaks to me of inertia yeah the greatest amount of energy in physics is moving something from inertia which means it's it's actually stopped yeah in the movement yeah such a greatest amount of energy so once a man stops and that thing starts just if you will is still because we've been distracted we've been if you will the negativity of this world yeah so easy gets on us yeah Paul said that he said the the cares of this world easily happened Jesus talked about this the parable of the sower yeah and the beauty of the parable of the sower is that he was so generous with the seed he was telling this in a culture in which seed was so valuable they would actually place it on the ground and then turn the dirt over the seed yeah it wouldn't just throw it out there and Jesus in the parable of the sower was we would just throw it but he said some people get caught up yeah the cares of this world yeah how have you helped us as men how have you helped your church and others in this Easter season we'll talk about resurrection life hold a new life how have you helped men move on or get started go from inertia if you will yeah get it moving um you know the invitation of Christ this is actually was the title of our talk when it came to when it came to Easter was greater right that the invitation of Jesus is always to a greater journey than you are currently experiencing right now right so Paul is fishing for fish but now he's got to fish for people obviously it's a far more significant task so the invitation of Christ is always into his greatness it's into his greater mission it's into his the greater character of Jesus and and look none of us do this perfectly we all fail it this sometimes but at the end of the day yeah getting distracted from the mission is one of the most dangerous things right because of our phones social media with all that kind of stuff it can both the bombarding and I find this and I'm sure you do too you want to know what's going on but the same time like if you don't actually set a tie a side time in his word concentrating on the right things focusing on the right stuff the day that absolutely will take you down and so near my I found this in the book of near my he's on that great wall you wrote a book about this called the bartender but what happens is the voices come and they're like everyone's going to come and attack you and then he's got sand ball at the horanite and so forth and all of them are saying come down and have a meeting with us all they're doing is extracting the guy so once once a man gets vision about his life then he's going to protect the vision and you see this Christ right Jesus is preaching in one town everyone wants his attention and he says no I must go to the other town yeah and and they're like wait but you're popular here he says no I need to leave get fresh revelation fresh inside on my assignment from heaven I need to lean into the father's voice and and once I have clarity on that again this isn't always easy but it's it's that's why I do the 5am club yeah because it's fighting that that complacent spirit 515 we work out for 45 minutes 6am we pray for 45 minutes I don't do it because I want to do it I do it because I felt like the Lord kept putting it on my heart no you need this in your church and so I go then there's never a night on Monday night but I'm like I can't wait until the 5am club I'm normally like shoot I get to get up it's that commitment to get up that shakes off the dust and the dirt and distractions it's the discipline it discipline is never about death it's all about life in fact in the kingdom of heaven death is always about life totally so it's and so discipline you don't discipline yourself because you hate yourself you discipline yourself because as you said you want to win yeah and so the discipline of that and what have you seen happen in men's lives that's right I think it really has been significant and and I'll say this that no program obviously is perfect and no thing we do is perfect you still have men drop the ball you still have men fall off however what's interesting is once I raised the standard on what actually meant to be part of our transform groups wow the attendance actually rose it didn't shrink and then less men dropped out because you know in the early days of your church you just happy people show up you're happy they show up to your meeting you're happy they show up to your your bible study if they're 30 minutes late like oh don't worry about yeah and then when they say hey we'll be back you think they mean next week they mean next Christmas yeah yeah the longer I live the more I realize the discipline is my friend wow my discipline is my friend you know I heard this recently probably from Joyce Meyer and she talked about the bookends but I kind of preached on it recently about a sandwich so in the sandwiches your bread and your bread and then everything good is sitting in the middle right but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience goes on and on but the bookends or the bread is love and self-control wow so all the other fruits of the spirit that need to sit in the middle they're only good there if you have self-control and you have love because I was talking to someone recently and they really lost sight on their health they gained an incredible amount of weight and and the person told me I have no peace the interesting thing was the person lost their peace but first they lost their self-control yeah so what I'm seeing in my men what I'm seeing in the men in our church is once they get clear man I am a two out of ten in this area I am a five out of ten in this area I'm a seven out of ten in this area because you and I both know men pull and everyone knows people that for instance maybe they're amazing spiritually but the rest of their life they cease to get this lack of order to it all you know someone is a rock star financially and then even physically but for some reason their relational part of their world seems to be unstuck and the spiritual they don't quite get it what I have seen over time is as I put value on all four of those areas the guy is doing well physically or well financially goes okay good you value these but now you're showing me how to get unstuck here and then the guy who is spiritual and values relationships I'm also saying to him no you need to get your act together and work harder so those simple principles around it really is fatherhood though yeah or you know my son my sons are gifted but it's it's real practical so what my book is done you know transform and and it's really been a journey out of what we've done in church is marry theology and practicality with one another is that is that a word I guess it is it is now it's a Aussie American word it might be you know I people make up words all the time now I'm making that makes sense yeah so theology he has the big thing that I've noticed Paul with my own life my own leadership and what has changed there is a night and day difference between preaching to men and leading men wow I promise you this there is a complete night and day difference between preaching to them and leading them preaching to them in essence brings them to Christ preaching is important preaching teaches them preaching those sometimes shows them what they're meant to be but if you don't give them a path of how to become what they're meant to be they will honestly be be beat up by shame and doubt and all kinds of mess and and sometimes the guy has been sitting in church the longest he's the most stuck because he knows what he's meant to be but he's he doesn't have a path there and so what I what I feel like we've kind of tapped into is okay what does it look like this week that's the essence of our question what are you doing spiritually this week and we tell them what they're doing what are you doing physically this week and we challenge them give them a couple of options what are we doing relationally you're gonna date your wife you're gonna hang out with your kids your if you're not married how has your dating life like what does it look like yeah to move forward in my relational world this week yeah building building community in your life yeah and because isolation is where men get killed it it truly is and we isolate easily yeah and that's that's why so we do this thing on a Wednesday night with our men so there's about 10 to 15 minutes of just fun and competition every single Wednesday night and the reason we do it is because men have relationship where they have fun yeah right when we're competing together with you've I've heard you say this that men bond shoulder to shoulder right so when they're competing and we do this every Wednesday night where they where they are competing together now they have memories together now they have laughed together now they have fun together so when then when they shot to church Sunday now they've got some guys around that they've laughed together had fun together now they're camaraderie and their fellowship and their actual genuine friendship is completely different yeah and and I noticed this happened and here's the funny thing so I talk about the four years of life spiritual physical relational financial that's kind of my MO Jesus grows in this 18 years right but it actually is the brotherhood thing that I it was part of the vision of what we called accomplish we say transform is a brotherhood that equips men to win in the four big areas of life but it is the brotherhood thing that actually is most surprised me that I constantly hear men talk about it that they needed they didn't know they needed and they wanted so our transform leaders I don't lead a personal group myself our leaders do that but they text the guys they encourage the guys they hang out hang out with the guys outside of church and they do that kind of stuff and the guys talk a lot about the brotherhood that someone cared enough someone followed up with them someone touched them had fun with them and you know what they also talk about which is surprising to me they talk a lot about when I got my finances to honor God right because when obviously start to that's a stretch for them they want to provide there's a natural fear with that Jesus said you can't serve both God and Maman right that's the spirit behind it so when they start to actually honor God they notice that their heart follows yeah so their heart changes as they obviously discover who they are in God their heart changes as they give but their life changes as they got friends and fun and brotherhood and so that's been one of the beautiful things I feel like I've seen yeah it's where where you invest and the Bible says where you're where your treasure is there your heart will be it doesn't say where your heart is you put your treasure no no where you invest whether it's in people or finances or time or effort where you invest coaching little league investing time in your family that's where your heart will go and and we we forget that we invest our time if you will the whole part of the distraction is not just being you know ADD or something yeah some of that distraction actually can be hey I'm doing a hobby it makes me feel better but that distraction because you've invested there your hearts going there your hearts not with your family your hearts not with your children you're not discipling your children you're not training them you're just bringing some money you know you basically you're the guy who brings some food into them yeah so there's no relationship there in that sense talking with pastor Anthony Fleming church alive in New Jersey and the website to listen to your stuff is church alive dot tv dot tv that's correct sounds like life church dot tv but before life church dot tv made it famous yeah dot tv that's right church alive dot tv pastor Anthony and Miriam Fleming I want to thank you for hanging out with me man and sharing these truths because this is great stuff looking forward to the book coming out in September and not sure when the podcast will drop but everybody watching on Facebook live you'll you'll pick this up and be able to go there and man we pray blessing on you you and Miriam and three children and uh it's fun to watch your guys grow on uh you know the upside you're gonna talk about distraction to social media the upside is to be able to follow friends yeah that's true what's happening and like right now my my kids are all texting my son Brandon and his wife Meredith and we're on kind of got a family text because today's their 15th anniversary uh awesome yeah yeah pretty amazing yeah that's for c3 church and for worth but you know uh we just pray for you guys you and Miriam and the church there church alive and the campuses that you're still dreaming about and praying over and different cities that your lives will impact and we pray every place you put your feet will be holy ground yeah and everything your hands touch will will prosper and the God will keep you deep within the grip of his grace and favor yeah awesome time and we can probably talk for hours and stuff thanks for taking the time pass ranting oh it's an honor my friend and great to see you and hope to see you sometime soon in person yeah amen bro yeah that that'd be great well hopefully you can be with us at our global summit again as you've been before November 4 5 and 6th of this year hearing Dallas we're good in person love you bro blessings to you yeah thank you sir you just experienced brave man with Paul Lewis Cole Paul is president of the Christian men's network connect with Paul at cmn.man or write to him at Paul at cmn.man