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Jimmy Smuda's Reflections on Devotion, Adversity, and Growth
Jimmy Smuda's Reflections on Devotion, Adversity, and Growth
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Jimmy Smuda's Reflections on Devotion, Adversity, and Growth
April 24, 2024

Jimmy Smuda's Reflections on Devotion, Adversity, and Growth

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When the roads of life take unexpected turns, it’s the stories of resilience and transformation that often resonate the deepest. That's precisely what we uncover with Pastor Jimmy Schmuda, my spiritual compass from Trinity Assembly Guard in Westchester. Our shared Long Island roots serve as the backdrop to an engaging discussion that traverses from the basketball courts, crowning Michael Jordan as the GOAT, to the gritty streets of Chicago. Pastor Schmuda offers a candid look into his formative years marked by adversity, the profound impact of his grandmother's faith, and the pivotal moment in Florida that anchored his life in unwavering devotion to God.

Navigating the responsibilities of a church leader and addressing the challenges posed by celebrity pastors, this episode peels back the layers on what it truly means to shepherd a community. Pastor Schmuda and I explore the delicate balance between nurturing personal connections within the congregation and the potential pitfalls that megachurches face. We then shift gears to discuss the interplay of sports, faith, and family, contemplating the hard choices that arise when competitive schedules clash with spiritual commitments. Listen as we share insights on guiding our children through crises, emphasizing the nuanced approach required to honor diverse perspectives within our church family. Join us for a heartfelt exploration into the resilience of faith amid life's myriad challenges.

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Chapters

00:15 - Pastor Jimmy Schmuda's Journey to Faith

13:41 - Shepherding People With a Pastor

24:58 - Parenting Through Sports and Crisis

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:01.120 --> 00:00:06.932
Hello everyone, thank you again for joining me on another episode of the Dorsey Rush Show.

00:00:06.932 --> 00:00:09.964
Today we have a special guest with us.

00:00:09.964 --> 00:00:13.611
He is now my pastor, who I am.

00:00:13.611 --> 00:00:15.675
I'm living in PA.

00:00:15.675 --> 00:00:19.425
He is now my pastor and he's Pastor Jimmy Schmuda.

00:00:19.425 --> 00:00:42.670
He pastors Trinity Assembly Guard here in Westchester, pa, and he is originally from Chicago, illinois he will give a little bit more background on that and he was also pastoring in New York, on Long Island, where I am from, at the same time as I was living there.

00:00:42.670 --> 00:01:01.951
But I didn't realize that he and I didn't even know each other until we moved to Westchester and we started talking and we were like, oh yeah, I know this past and I know this past and we just never connected while we were on Long Island.

00:01:01.951 --> 00:01:03.345
But here we are now.

00:01:03.345 --> 00:01:06.388
We've known each other for almost three years now.

00:01:06.388 --> 00:01:11.111
Pastor Jimmy Schmuda, thank you so much for coming on the show today.

00:01:11.700 --> 00:01:13.566
No, thank you, Dorsey, for having me.

00:01:13.566 --> 00:01:22.433
I'm so glad We've been talking about doing this forever and finally, on Easter week, we're able to squeeze it into both of our busy schedules, which is awesome.

00:01:22.433 --> 00:01:24.527
So, no, thank you, buddy, I appreciate it.

00:01:24.947 --> 00:01:29.811
Absolutely Well, you know, as I said, you're from Chicago Illinois.

00:01:29.811 --> 00:01:32.528
You're a big sports fan.

00:01:34.381 --> 00:01:36.608
Yep, I get ragged on it all the time.

00:01:36.608 --> 00:01:37.230
For it here.

00:01:40.519 --> 00:01:48.635
So, since you're a big sports fan, who would you say is the GOAT of basketball, and why?

00:01:50.240 --> 00:01:58.551
Dorsey, only you, the legend, could lead with such an important question and the question to settle every single debate.

00:01:58.551 --> 00:02:07.010
Everybody who knows Jesus knows that Michael Jordan is the GOAT hands down, and so there's really no, no comparison to it.

00:02:07.010 --> 00:02:12.004
So I'm really glad that you got the important stuff out of the way right off the top of the show.

00:02:12.004 --> 00:02:12.989
My man you are.

00:02:12.989 --> 00:02:15.307
You are a master at your craft.

00:02:21.461 --> 00:02:30.933
When, with growing up in Chicago, did that affect what who you became and what you, how you became a pastor?

00:02:32.120 --> 00:02:41.631
Yeah, so, so, yeah, I grew up in the city of Chicago for for the beginning of my life I had kind of the story of my grandmother raised me.

00:02:41.631 --> 00:02:48.044
My mother struggled with addiction my whole life and my grandmother was.

00:02:48.044 --> 00:02:49.868
She was a staunch Catholic.

00:02:49.868 --> 00:03:22.639
When I was a little boy we were very committed to the Catholic Church and then she had gotten radically, radically saved, honestly, at a charismatic Catholic seminar she went to, she went to a conference and basically, long story short, there was this rogue priest in our church who, I guess, kind of went, got baptized in the Holy Spirit, came back as a priest, like speaking in tongues and prophesying and all these things.

00:03:22.639 --> 00:03:39.054
And my grandmother got invited to like a prayer meeting that she went to, just kind of really, really got filled with the Holy Spirit, came back, and so we would start doing these things where she would start taking me to these prayer meetings.

00:03:39.054 --> 00:03:41.449
And you know, as a Catholic, you really had prayer meetings.

00:03:41.449 --> 00:03:44.288
You just kind of went to mass and I was the altar boy and all these things.

00:03:44.288 --> 00:03:45.289
Like you really had prayer meetings.

00:03:45.289 --> 00:03:47.271
You just kind of went to mass and I was the altar boy and all these things.

00:03:47.271 --> 00:04:00.062
But it was kind of funny because she would take us like she would take me on a Friday night after she'd get off of work and we would travel into like seven layers deep into the church, into the basement, and it wasn't until years later.

00:04:00.062 --> 00:04:11.750
I really think that this was like a rogue priest who was like holding these charismatic prayer meetings and wasn't supposed to, and just like in the secret next to the boiler room.

00:04:12.881 --> 00:04:18.233
So you know, growing up in Chicago, it was, it was, it wasn't the roughest of neighborhood.

00:04:18.233 --> 00:04:23.879
I moved around a lot, you know, because my mom was in and out of rehab and stuff.

00:04:23.879 --> 00:04:26.505
I'd stay with this family member and that family member here and there.

00:04:26.505 --> 00:04:31.773
So I actually went to 12 different schools from first to high school.

00:04:31.773 --> 00:04:37.567
Um, I think the longest school I stayed in was three years because it was constantly placing me different places.

00:04:38.060 --> 00:04:59.420
So I had kind of grown up in that formula of time with a grandmother who was super spiritual and who was super committed to the Lord, and then yet I had the struggle of a mother who struggled with addiction and through, like my life I had gone through like physical and sexual and mental, and all types of abuses, every abuse that you can have.

00:04:59.420 --> 00:05:01.384
So it was always like this.

00:05:01.384 --> 00:05:10.355
And then of I had, you know, growing up in the city, I had the streets kind of calling me, you know, to a thing, and then I had sports.

00:05:10.355 --> 00:05:15.939
So I kind of grew up as a kid in my Chicago years being torn in so many different directions.

00:05:15.939 --> 00:05:21.333
You know, I was torn where I was curious about this thing called church and Jesus and stuff.

00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:24.709
I was curious about what the world had for me.

00:05:24.709 --> 00:05:29.348
I was looking for my identity because I was bouncing around so much.

00:05:29.348 --> 00:05:30.514
I was looking for stability.

00:05:30.514 --> 00:05:39.634
I grew up with, technically, like no men in my life whatsoever, four women who all loved me, you know, in their own right.

00:05:39.634 --> 00:05:54.706
And so it was my early years in a tough city like Chicago, being raised by all women, not having male influences, being torn by the church and the world, made for a real interesting upbringing, to say the least.

00:05:58.468 --> 00:06:17.057
I know you said you went to church, but when did you eventually say look, I'm going to forget about the world and forget about what's happening out there, but I'm going to serve God and I'm going to accept Him as my Lord and Savior.

00:06:17.737 --> 00:06:17.937
Yeah.

00:06:17.937 --> 00:06:21.098
So my grandmother, when she eventually retired, she moved to Florida.

00:06:21.098 --> 00:06:25.761
So I kind of like to say I have dual citizenship.

00:06:25.761 --> 00:06:28.182
If I'm talking to people from the city, I say I'm from Chicago.

00:06:28.182 --> 00:06:39.226
If I'm talking from friends from the south, I'm like I'm a southerner, because I kind of have a Midwestern, southern or southern upbringing.

00:06:39.726 --> 00:06:42.887
A couple of years later my mom finally succumbed to her addiction.

00:06:42.887 --> 00:06:44.569
She passed away when I was like 15.

00:06:44.569 --> 00:06:50.151
She moved to an area that had it was basically like a three-tier thing.

00:06:50.151 --> 00:06:57.675
It was a local church, it was a huge conference center as well, like on 250 acres, and a retirement community.

00:06:57.675 --> 00:07:02.237
So ultimately, after my mom passed away, she just said you know what?

00:07:02.237 --> 00:07:05.197
I'm tired of you bouncing around from place to place.

00:07:05.197 --> 00:07:15.052
I don't want you raised in the city and I'm going to take you and I'm going to finish out your high school and we're going to do this.

00:07:15.074 --> 00:07:26.372
So I was engulfed in kind of this like community of church, which was really unique to me, because then at that point it was like you're, you know, I learned things like youth group and I was like what the heck's a youth group and stuff.

00:07:26.372 --> 00:07:38.000
And I think my whole life I've always had leadership abilities and so I had a church that was very much like if you're here, you're a leader, you're working, you're serving.

00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:50.089
So, even before, like I had given my heart to the Lord, my church was using me in these situations and stuff and I was like I kind of was there.

00:07:50.089 --> 00:07:59.389
I wasn't really committed, but I tell people this all the time Before I fell in love with Jesus, I fell in love with the church.

00:07:59.389 --> 00:08:03.749
I loved the love that they were giving me.

00:08:03.749 --> 00:08:05.886
It was natural People cared about me.

00:08:05.886 --> 00:08:07.504
I felt like people were.

00:08:07.504 --> 00:08:13.839
And then there was it was kind of like the first real men that wanted to guide me and and and all of these things.

00:08:13.839 --> 00:08:15.627
And so my local church was amazing.

00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:22.286
Um, and then, at the same point, I had all of these wounds and I was a skeptical person.

00:08:22.286 --> 00:08:34.236
Um, once I jumped into kind of, and my church was kind of the it was definitely the charismatic bounce off the walls, flags, just wild.

00:08:34.236 --> 00:08:43.595
And so you come from the Catholic church to like, hey, three and a half hour church services and people are grabbing flags and all of these things.

00:08:43.595 --> 00:08:49.846
And then I kind of started being skeptical of manipulation.

00:08:49.846 --> 00:08:53.263
You know, there was, there was, there was things where I was like people are manipulating.

00:08:53.263 --> 00:08:55.047
This moment and a lot of it was.

00:08:55.047 --> 00:08:56.049
My heart was hardened.

00:08:56.049 --> 00:09:03.725
So I would look and I'd be like, okay, this person is going to come up and cry and then that person's going to grab a flag and the tambourines are going to come, and here come the dancers.

00:09:03.725 --> 00:09:05.808
And I started being really skeptical.

00:09:05.808 --> 00:09:10.524
Honestly, I started feeling like people were trying to manipulate people through emotions.

00:09:11.325 --> 00:09:28.184
Um, and the key point was this was there was a youth camp we had and the speaker who was the main speaker of this youth camp about 200 and some odd kids that are there Um, he had found out right before the service that his brother had committed suicide.

00:09:28.184 --> 00:09:38.673
And my youth pastor comes up to me and he's like, listen, you need to pray for him because, basically, like, his family member had committed suicide.

00:09:38.673 --> 00:09:40.844
And I looked and this guy was a mess.

00:09:40.844 --> 00:09:50.533
Right, he literally just found out and this is how cynical my heart was, dorsey I first of all was like why is my youth pastor asking me to pray?

00:09:50.533 --> 00:09:53.062
Like, I don't do that, I'm not that guy.

00:09:53.744 --> 00:09:58.339
And secondly, my cynicism came in and I said he's going to use this tonight.

00:09:58.339 --> 00:10:00.288
He's going to use this to manipulate people.

00:10:00.288 --> 00:10:02.480
He's going to be like my family member just committed suicide.

00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:14.246
But I'm here and I'm such a holy Christian and look at me and stuff, and he comes out high energy first of all, and I was like wow, that's kind of impressive.

00:10:14.246 --> 00:10:25.743
It started grabbing me and he starts making all of these young people laugh, at first, like he has this keyboard and he's making fart noises right, because we're young people and that always makes you laugh and puke noises.

00:10:25.743 --> 00:10:30.721
And he's doing all of these and during the whole service I'm saying to myself when's he going to drop the bomb, right?

00:10:30.721 --> 00:10:31.985
Like, when's he going to really be like?

00:10:31.985 --> 00:10:40.535
Guess what?

00:10:40.535 --> 00:10:47.783
I just heard right before service this dude went through the entire service and never mentioned it one time, didn't bring it up, didn't talk about it, didn't use it as manipulation and stuff and my youth pastor had told me.

00:10:47.822 --> 00:10:49.309
He said you know he cause.

00:10:49.309 --> 00:10:50.816
I thought, oh, he's not going to speak.

00:10:50.816 --> 00:10:53.421
And he said, um, no, he's going to.

00:10:53.421 --> 00:10:57.288
He feels that this message is important for someone and God wants to use it.

00:10:57.794 --> 00:11:15.176
And when he gave the altar call and I realized he is not going to talk about this, something clicked in me and I said only God can give a man that kind of strength, after having lost my mom and going through it, to sit here and make a bunch of young people laugh and stuff.

00:11:15.176 --> 00:11:21.395
And that was my, that was my God moment of like no, there's a power out there that's bigger than me.

00:11:21.395 --> 00:11:24.585
And so he, he had a, uh, his sermon I'll never forget.

00:11:24.585 --> 00:11:29.667
He said if you're going to be the one that was his title of the sermon he said I'm going to count to three.

00:11:29.667 --> 00:11:42.081
I don't want you to stand up and I want you to scream at the top of your lungs I will be the one.

00:11:42.101 --> 00:11:53.630
And he was like one and I jumped up and I was the first one in the whole thing and I ran to the altar man and I literally laid at the altar from probably about nine 30 at night to two o'clock in the morning, um, weeping, receiving, you know, giving my life to the Lord, um that night.

00:11:53.630 --> 00:11:56.599
Not only that, I always say I got the perfect trifecta.

00:11:56.599 --> 00:12:03.981
Um, I gave my heart to the Lord, I got baptized in the Holy spirit and I got my prayer language and I got my call into ministry.

00:12:03.981 --> 00:12:05.586
Like all in what my God was like.

00:12:05.586 --> 00:12:15.248
We might as well just get it all over with so long story, for that's kind of my journey, when I decided, you know, to stop living off my grandmother's faith and make it my own.

00:12:15.248 --> 00:12:17.616
And I've been serving him since.

00:12:18.902 --> 00:12:19.263
Amen.

00:12:19.263 --> 00:12:35.687
So what are some of the misconceptions that you think that people have being a pastor, that people have of pastors?

00:12:36.936 --> 00:12:42.638
Oh well, the first thing is that I think, um, misconception.

00:12:42.638 --> 00:12:47.922
Well, there's the obvious one, right, we work one day a week leading up through Easter.

00:12:47.922 --> 00:12:52.057
Right now, me and the staff, we're all like we can not wait till the like.

00:12:52.057 --> 00:12:59.914
You're excited about Easter, there's so many people coming and at the same point we are exhausted, like everybody's walking around, like so tired.

00:12:59.914 --> 00:13:05.226
I got people filling eggs and decorating and, uh, you know we're updating websites.

00:13:05.226 --> 00:13:07.500
Just everybody's running around like crazy people.

00:13:08.181 --> 00:13:17.207
Um, so I think one of the misconceptions on that front end is hey, we just show up, give it little speech and then go back to our houses and show back up and sit around and pray.

00:13:17.207 --> 00:13:22.605
I think that's one of the generalized, every pastor would say is a misconception.

00:13:22.605 --> 00:13:25.099
But you know, I do think to speak to that.

00:13:25.099 --> 00:13:26.982
You know.

00:13:26.982 --> 00:13:54.981
I think that sometimes we've esteemed a lot of people in this celebrity status that have not done a good job showing the shepherd's heart, demonstrating that, and so I understand people's misconceptions right, because I think we, with the celebrity status that has kind of become this monster, you know, we maybe have not done this great job of showing.

00:13:55.121 --> 00:13:57.337
You know, my heart is to show my church.

00:13:57.337 --> 00:13:59.001
I care about them.

00:13:59.001 --> 00:14:00.365
I'm here to shepherd them.

00:14:00.365 --> 00:14:01.847
I want to be there for them.

00:14:01.847 --> 00:14:05.344
I want to be at the hospital calls, I want to counsel people.

00:14:05.344 --> 00:14:06.547
I want to do all of those things.

00:14:06.547 --> 00:14:15.981
You know, that's what I want to do for my people, that God's entrusted me with and I don't know that we've done a good job showing that to people.

00:14:16.062 --> 00:14:30.596
So I do understand where the misconceptions can come, where it's like oh, this guy, you know, if you have a pastor who's unapproachable, who you can't talk to, you can't see, you can't connect with, I mean, you see, right before we started the podcast, people walk into the door.

00:14:30.596 --> 00:14:44.830
You know there's an open door policy I have and you want to be available for your team, for people, and my prayers is my church has come to understand, after 11 years, like I can walk into his office anytime, you know, and speak to him and stuff.

00:14:44.830 --> 00:14:50.244
So being you know, the misconception I think is people don't understand.

00:14:50.244 --> 00:14:52.489
That's the reality of the job.

00:14:52.489 --> 00:14:56.825
You know, the dropping things at the last minute, being flexible, are very important.

00:14:57.246 --> 00:15:20.388
Yeah, yeah, you don't mention names, but you do try to steer people away from those pastures and from those pastors and those people that try to dissuade and try to, you know, misrepresent the Bible.

00:15:21.071 --> 00:15:21.312
Yeah.

00:15:22.557 --> 00:15:29.123
Is that because of what you've seen in your past and that's part of your heart?

00:15:29.123 --> 00:15:34.527
Is that something that you know that you need to make people aware of?

00:15:36.697 --> 00:15:39.466
Yeah, you just want to get me in all sorts of trouble here today.

00:15:39.466 --> 00:15:42.976
No, I do mention it Again.

00:15:42.976 --> 00:15:46.265
I'm called to pastor my people.

00:15:46.265 --> 00:15:53.928
I'll go on record of saying I don't think the megachurch was Jesus' plan for the local church.

00:15:53.928 --> 00:15:55.321
It's local for a reason.

00:15:55.321 --> 00:15:57.619
Now I think we're at fault.

00:15:57.619 --> 00:16:02.558
You know, we've bought the books, we've gone to the conferences, we've done all of these things.

00:16:03.159 --> 00:16:04.682
There's a gospel that I preach.

00:16:04.682 --> 00:16:06.285
That for me it's.

00:16:06.285 --> 00:16:12.105
I want to be true to the whole word of gospel, the entire counsel of the gospel.

00:16:12.105 --> 00:16:21.722
It breaks my heart sometimes, you know, through social media, when I see my people and again I'm talking about my people and they'll repost certain things where you go.

00:16:21.722 --> 00:16:23.748
That's not biblical, right?

00:16:23.748 --> 00:16:28.005
Now what happens is I have other shepherds feeding my flock.

00:16:28.005 --> 00:16:29.754
Now that I have to fight against, right?

00:16:29.754 --> 00:16:37.744
So here I'm talking about let's say I'm talking about a subject that talks about.

00:16:37.844 --> 00:16:48.205
If you were to pick a tough one by saying we have to wrestle with the mysteries of God, excuse me, we have to wrestle with the mysteries of God, there is the unknown.

00:16:48.205 --> 00:16:56.509
Or say, for instance, you were to take healing where it's like my stance is our job is God does heal, he can heal.

00:16:56.509 --> 00:17:02.366
We should pray for healing, but there are certain points where it's not in his will to heal that person.

00:17:02.366 --> 00:17:04.559
So I'm going to preach this.

00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:06.425
You know you and I are AG guys.

00:17:06.425 --> 00:17:18.416
I'm going to preach this balance thing of like yes and yes when I read scripture right and yes when I read scripture right.

00:17:18.416 --> 00:17:29.675
Then I'm going to have to battle against some of my members who are buying into the nonsense that says, well, it's not only God's will to constantly heal it, but it's our right to claim that healing Like we deserve this, when really the Bible says we deserve death.

00:17:29.675 --> 00:17:38.040
Right, just the fact of is, if our faith is finished by salvation alone, we've gotten more than we ever deserve as people.

00:17:38.040 --> 00:17:52.885
But now I've got these guys out there because they have a bigger platform, because all these things and listen, I am not saying this out of jealousy or out of anything because, to be honest with you, I'm not equipped to pastor a mega church.

00:17:52.885 --> 00:17:54.068
I am not gifted.

00:17:54.068 --> 00:17:57.897
I'm not equipped to pastor a mega church.

00:17:57.897 --> 00:17:58.259
I am not gifted.

00:17:58.259 --> 00:17:59.083
I have zero desire to have a mega church.

00:17:59.083 --> 00:18:00.207
There is nothing inside of me that would ever want to.

00:18:00.207 --> 00:18:05.406
I've worked at big churches and I think in the last 10 years, I've realized that I don't know.

00:18:05.406 --> 00:18:09.278
I don't know that we do it justice if we're keeping people in mind.

00:18:09.278 --> 00:18:10.500
Right, if you're.

00:18:10.921 --> 00:18:16.289
If, for me, I love the fact that we're talking about this in the men's group a couple weeks ago.

00:18:16.289 --> 00:18:24.914
I love the fact that anybody in my church can shoot me off a text, a funny meme, a real, something like it's approachable.

00:18:24.914 --> 00:18:34.365
I know when their kids are sick, I know when they're in the hospital, and to me, you know, obviously there's a number in my head that I say I can do this much.

00:18:34.365 --> 00:18:47.346
And then we would have to launch, you know, we would have to open up another church, we would have to encourage people, because I think if we're not shepherding people accordingly, you know we're leading them astray.

00:18:47.346 --> 00:18:54.410
And so for me it's very important to talk about, to talk against self-help methods.

00:18:54.410 --> 00:18:55.491
Your best life now.

00:18:55.491 --> 00:18:57.056
All of these different nonsense.

00:18:57.056 --> 00:19:05.801
I am God, these little God theologies, the NAR movement, all of these different things, because I'm not with these people 24 hours a day.

00:19:05.801 --> 00:19:13.263
Now other shepherds are coming into my flock and they're feeding my sheep with things that I don't feel I want them to eat.

00:19:13.825 --> 00:19:23.848
So, yeah, you probably hear on a Sunday morning, because you're very astute, the subtle, but you know very important things.

00:19:23.848 --> 00:19:27.785
You know to remember and one-on-one I will tell people stay away from this person.

00:19:27.785 --> 00:19:30.038
We've had people leave our church because we go.

00:19:30.038 --> 00:19:36.930
No, we're not going to teach that, and I think that's a stance where a good pastor has to take.

00:19:36.930 --> 00:20:02.881
You know, if you're only going to preach a part of a gospel, if you're only going to preach things that don't, you know, make people feel good, easter has become super discouraging to me looking at a lot of things that people are doing out there in terms of drawing people in and it's just sad Like the gospel is strong enough, the word of God is strong enough.

00:20:02.881 --> 00:20:10.388
We should bring it in its fullness and tell the full story and not be ashamed of that and not try to water it down.

00:20:10.388 --> 00:20:13.461
And honestly I always say this we don't have to get cute with the gospel.

00:20:13.461 --> 00:20:15.678
It does its work, you know alone.

00:20:15.698 --> 00:20:20.465
Right.

00:20:20.465 --> 00:20:23.955
What makes you passionate about what you do?

00:20:25.519 --> 00:20:26.060
Oh, it's easy.

00:20:26.060 --> 00:20:28.807
People Even.

00:20:28.807 --> 00:20:43.090
You know, even going through the difficult things I went through in my life, I've always loved people, whether it's been friends, whether it's been pastors, whether it's been coaches playing.

00:20:43.090 --> 00:20:47.142
You know, I have always had a love for people.

00:20:47.142 --> 00:20:53.666
In our mission statement, you know, our three key phrases are honoring God, serving people and living the gospel.

00:20:54.655 --> 00:21:14.066
I love serving people, you know, and I think, growing up in somewhat dysfunction not having a dad, not really having a mom around there was always that draw to have family around and you know, I always had this desire to want to create that family environment.

00:21:14.066 --> 00:21:19.723
You know, we try to say here that we are a great church that feels like a large family.

00:21:19.723 --> 00:21:21.067
That's kind of like my goal.

00:21:21.067 --> 00:21:26.988
And when we get, when people come to our church and we get the how was your first experience?

00:21:26.988 --> 00:21:31.183
Nothing brings me more joy than when people write on there.

00:21:31.183 --> 00:21:33.277
It's like it's just so warm and welcoming.

00:21:33.337 --> 00:21:34.522
I felt like it was family.

00:21:34.522 --> 00:21:36.020
You know, we just did our business meeting.

00:21:36.020 --> 00:21:41.266
You were there on Sunday and I had so many people who've been part of our church for 10, 15, 20 years.

00:21:41.266 --> 00:21:46.403
They came and they said we used to dread these meetings, like we used to just dread them.

00:21:46.403 --> 00:21:57.145
But they said you know, this feels like a family reunion, like we're all just coming catching up on everything we've done all year and stuff like that, and so that's my motivation.

00:21:57.145 --> 00:22:04.380
People are always going to be my motivation, you know, for ministry, outside of being obedient to the Lord.

00:22:04.862 --> 00:22:08.761
Yeah, and I, you know, even I met several people.

00:22:08.761 --> 00:22:19.506
You know in my three years, now that I've been there, that I feel, you know, like my family or my extended family, testing everything yourself.

00:22:19.506 --> 00:22:23.795
I mean, you're my pastor, but I consider you my friend as well.

00:22:24.637 --> 00:22:25.742
Yeah, you're my buddy man.

00:22:26.537 --> 00:22:29.806
You're my big six-foot-five brother that I never had.

00:22:30.134 --> 00:22:31.320
Well, it was easy.

00:22:31.320 --> 00:22:35.718
First of all, you are easy to love, dorsey, and you give the best hugs in the church.

00:22:35.817 --> 00:23:06.155
I'll say it, I don't care People can be mad at me, but you give the best hugs and that always wins me, man, thank you started to realize how you know similar, but also how different you are to my home pastor as well, and I think that's what connected me to trinity as well yeah, you know the similarities that you guys had.

00:23:06.195 --> 00:23:22.483
Now, the biggest difference is that you speak, you know, maybe 45 minutes an hour and a half, maybe an hour and a half service, whereas my other pastor would speak two and a half hours service.

00:23:23.317 --> 00:23:28.724
Oh hallelujah, he probably has a lot more better things to say than I do.

00:23:28.724 --> 00:23:34.640
I'm sure he's a lot more smarter and probably has a lot more content with me.

00:23:34.640 --> 00:23:36.295
I'm sure he's a lot more smarter and probably has a lot more content with me.

00:23:36.295 --> 00:23:47.191
I'm a humble man and I'm a simple man, I should say, where I probably have a good 35, 40 minutes before I'm running out of good things to say, maybe.

00:23:50.635 --> 00:23:57.969
Now, one last thing I want to talk about is your family being, you know, very sports-oriented family.

00:23:57.969 --> 00:24:10.026
And you guys, you know, you see, the balance that you have with going to your kids' basketball games and your kids' practices and everything.

00:24:10.026 --> 00:24:16.731
How do you balance the two, between going to the games but also being there?

00:24:16.731 --> 00:24:24.048
You know, being there for the church and being there when you need to be at the church, if that makes sense.

00:24:24.914 --> 00:24:33.603
Yeah, no good question for parents out there who are struggling with their kids doing sports, because you know, I know there's a big push right now.

00:24:33.603 --> 00:24:34.084
Where it's.

00:24:34.084 --> 00:24:43.231
You know, a lot of things I've been seeing on the clips have drawn me to God to kind of check and what I'm doing as a dad.

00:24:43.231 --> 00:24:54.726
There's a lot of famous speakers out there who are saying like your kids will never make it in sports and they'll stand before the Lord one day and they kind of heap that on you know really big.

00:24:54.726 --> 00:24:58.661
And it's good because I think it's a I'm not saying that to rag on them.

00:24:58.661 --> 00:25:05.058
I think it's a hard check and, to be honest, when my first I have two daughters and a son.

00:25:06.121 --> 00:25:23.164
Both of my daughters play college basketball and when my oldest started playing, I had a problem seeing how much church that she would miss and my wife and I actually were more resolved, especially with the amount that she would miss with practices.

00:25:23.164 --> 00:25:27.221
There was a season where I'd be like, okay, she won't be at youth group and she won't be at church.

00:25:27.221 --> 00:25:39.097
I don't like this at all and it still makes me uncomfortable, if I'm being honest, but it is the system that's there and I was talking to my spiritual dad and I just said she's got a chance to really go big.

00:25:39.097 --> 00:25:41.913
They say she's getting recruited for this national team.

00:25:41.913 --> 00:25:49.878
I said but she's going to miss so much church that I just think we're just going to trust the Lord and say she'll get where she needs to get.

00:25:49.878 --> 00:26:02.019
That's what I was on and my spiritual father he had said you know, jimmy, what I think honestly you're doing is is, I think that you have a very shallow view of her calling.

00:26:02.019 --> 00:26:04.612
And I remember saying what does that mean?

00:26:04.612 --> 00:26:06.137
He said you know, you've raised her.

00:26:06.137 --> 00:26:14.742
You've raised her to love Jesus, you've told her to be a light into the world and now you want to hide her in the walls of the church.

00:26:14.762 --> 00:26:19.453
And I remember saying like huh, you know that challenged me because I was really staunch of like no, I'm not doing it.

00:26:19.453 --> 00:26:22.919
You know I'm going to raise the typical PK and all of these things.

00:26:22.919 --> 00:26:34.263
And just as I began to pray about it, I started saying you know what's going to happen is this is going to make more work for me, but this is the most important work I'll do.

00:26:34.263 --> 00:26:36.355
So I have to disciple my kids now.

00:26:36.355 --> 00:26:46.520
When they're missing church, I have to find creative ways for them to stay connected to the church, I have to, you know, make sure I'm doing my job at home and things like that.

00:26:46.520 --> 00:26:55.575
So it's a struggle, you know, because as a pastor I'm here every Sunday, right, and so my wife God bless her carries a lot of the load of the travel.

00:26:56.737 --> 00:26:58.662
You know, both the girls played on a national team.

00:26:58.662 --> 00:27:00.492
My son's about to start on a national team.

00:27:00.492 --> 00:27:07.634
It stretches, but basically the work has to then become what every pastor says it starts at home.

00:27:07.634 --> 00:27:11.375
Right, it doesn't start on Sunday, you know, it starts at home.

00:27:11.375 --> 00:27:16.359
And you know, for both of them, both of my girls, they are thriving.

00:27:16.359 --> 00:27:19.276
You know, save me a lot of money for college too.

00:27:20.371 --> 00:27:22.699
My son's going to be a beast in the sport.

00:27:22.699 --> 00:27:29.953
But for all of them, you know, we we had told them all of this is nothing if you don't glorify God with it.

00:27:29.953 --> 00:27:39.099
Like you know and I'm proud of them because you know, all of them use this sport to really glorify the Lord.

00:27:39.099 --> 00:27:43.717
But you know, sports are great, man, because they also teach you teamwork.

00:27:43.717 --> 00:27:51.858
They teach you, you know, honestly, my kids have had some really terrible good coaches, but terrible people Like you're, just like I.

00:27:51.858 --> 00:27:58.480
Just they're just not nice and it's easy for a parent to go yeah, let's pull you off this team.

00:27:58.480 --> 00:28:04.761
Or you look at them and you go build a bridge and get over it, like, like you're going to have people like this in your life.

00:28:04.761 --> 00:28:19.365
Nothing's greater than this opportunity for you to learn, because if you could withstand this clown, then you know when you have a boss or whatever an employee who is just the worst, or people, if you're in ministry, whatever it is, you're going to learn.

00:28:19.605 --> 00:28:21.454
I can deal with this, I can deal with this and stuff.

00:28:21.454 --> 00:28:25.650
So there is the practical side of parenting where you're like this is good stuff.

00:28:25.650 --> 00:28:27.173
So there is the practical side of parenting where you're like this is good.

00:28:27.173 --> 00:28:34.519
There's the spiritual side where you know you have to say to yourself, like I've got to do a lot of work here at home, do I regret the decision we made?

00:28:34.519 --> 00:28:36.803
No, I mean, I'm sad that they missed.

00:28:36.803 --> 00:28:47.821
I'm sad that they missed some of the you know, and we would send them conferences and things like that all the time, and then when there wasn't basketball, they were here, you know.

00:28:47.821 --> 00:28:50.056
So it's like a three month season roughly.

00:28:50.056 --> 00:28:53.234
That's there that you have to be super, super diligent about.

00:28:53.234 --> 00:28:54.479
You know.

00:28:54.479 --> 00:28:58.912
So some of the things you just it's part of sacrifice too, as well, you know.

00:28:58.912 --> 00:29:03.200
You just you, you make it work and you believe that the Lord's in it.

00:29:03.661 --> 00:29:06.648
Yeah, believe that the Lord's in it.

00:29:06.648 --> 00:29:15.798
Yeah, as we get ready to end here, if there is another, god forbid, you know, we hope it doesn't come again.

00:29:15.798 --> 00:29:32.720
But if there is another pandemic or some type of global thing and the government comes and says, hey, we're going to shut down the circus, we're going to shut everything down, would you shut down the circus?

00:29:32.720 --> 00:29:35.096
Would you go back to live streaming?

00:29:35.096 --> 00:29:38.836
Or would you just say, hey, anybody wants to come, they can come.

00:29:38.836 --> 00:29:41.317
If they don't, that's fine as well.

00:29:42.770 --> 00:29:44.858
Yeah, that's quite a transition.

00:29:44.858 --> 00:29:50.259
Yeah, that's quite a transition.

00:29:50.259 --> 00:29:52.563
Go for my kids playing sports to covid.

00:29:52.563 --> 00:29:55.086
Part two um, I don't know that.

00:29:55.867 --> 00:30:06.036
I don't know that I can answer that question like um about pre yeah I think during covid you know, dorsey, my, my heart was to kind of stand right in the middle.

00:30:06.036 --> 00:30:07.981
It's's kind of like with politics too as well.

00:30:07.981 --> 00:30:17.230
Look, I have Democrats and Republicans in my church I had people who were like, listen, we'll probably never see you again.

00:30:17.230 --> 00:30:25.022
And then we had people who were like we should be in church all kissing each other on the head and you are just, you're exhausted because you have people and our church is unique because it's probably split right down the head.

00:30:25.022 --> 00:30:30.486
Like, and you are just, you're exhausted because you have people and our church is unique because it's probably split right down the middle.

00:30:30.486 --> 00:30:38.314
You know, even in leadership conversations that we had, you know, um, uh, for our elders, there were those who were like we should not be meeting.

00:30:38.314 --> 00:30:40.921
And then there were some of them who were like we have no faith.

00:30:40.921 --> 00:30:50.855
Um, not not that extreme, right, but there was that sentiment because my guys are awesome and we wrestled through that, you know, and we wanted to be.

00:30:51.876 --> 00:31:09.470
My heart was to steer my church again, my flock, by saying we want to use wisdom and we don't want to live in fear, right, like we want to have wisdom and we don't want to live in fear and Like we want to have wisdom and we don't want to live in fear.

00:31:09.470 --> 00:31:13.913
And also my heart was to say to make sure that there was no division.

00:31:13.913 --> 00:31:16.499
My heart was to lead people in a way that said how about we all just respect our decisions?

00:31:16.499 --> 00:31:25.903
So the ones who think we shouldn't meet, once we started meeting, I'd have to tell them like why don't you just respect those of us who do want to meet?

00:31:25.903 --> 00:31:26.565
Right?

00:31:26.565 --> 00:31:28.936
And then, please, we have everything set up.

00:31:28.936 --> 00:31:33.819
Stay at home, watch on livestream, tell me, as your pastor, how I can keep you connected.

00:31:34.712 --> 00:31:39.710
I mean, we were doing drive-by visits, standing 50 feet away from doors, praying over people.

00:31:39.710 --> 00:31:49.034
We were constantly on the phone and we would tell those people who wanted to come and all just high five and drink out of the same water cups.

00:31:49.034 --> 00:31:54.536
We would tell them respect those people who still want to wear masks and who still want to stay home.

00:31:54.536 --> 00:31:56.621
Like, respect them and my job.

00:31:56.621 --> 00:32:04.371
And this was not not taking a stance, this was saying I think we have to use wisdom, logic, but we also can't live in fear.

00:32:04.371 --> 00:32:08.578
So, on the flip side, when it was like, it was like, okay, enough of this, we're starting to meet.

00:32:09.180 --> 00:32:15.930
You'd have to address those people who were like I can't believe you would put us in this situation and it's like nobody's putting you in a situation.

00:32:15.930 --> 00:32:19.782
Stay home, like just, you know, we're not called, we don't have to check our brains at the door.

00:32:19.782 --> 00:32:22.174
Stay home, like stay home and come back when you're comfortable.

00:32:22.174 --> 00:32:32.715
And then for those who are like you know we should be meeting all the time, it's like okay, no, there's stuff that's spreading, like this is real, people are getting sick, like people are dying.

00:32:33.136 --> 00:32:40.569
So I think those kinds of questions, if something were to happen again, I don't know that we can answer it beforehand Like here's our master plan we're doing.

00:32:40.569 --> 00:32:50.037
I think we have to read the data, trust the Lord, more importantly, and kind of go, you know, day by day, and we've had to shut down between then.

00:32:50.037 --> 00:33:02.458
You know, we've had even, like, I think a year after COVID was kind of over, we had an outbreak in our academy and we'd look and we'd go, ok, there's wisdom in here, let's shut it down for a week, let's kind of get back, and you know, kind of like that.

00:33:02.458 --> 00:33:05.161
So I think faith and logic are not enemies.

00:33:08.005 --> 00:33:10.434
One last question what is it?

00:33:12.990 --> 00:33:14.096
This better be an easy one.

00:33:14.096 --> 00:33:14.895
Well, I?

00:33:15.320 --> 00:33:25.065
don't know about easy, but what inspirational message would you send to my listeners?

00:33:27.535 --> 00:33:31.190
What inspirational message would you send to my listeners?

00:33:31.190 --> 00:33:42.031
Inspirational message to your listeners, I think it's a good one, you know.

00:33:42.031 --> 00:33:50.395
I think, going back to what I just said here is faith and logic are not enemies.

00:33:50.395 --> 00:33:58.799
God's given us a brain to use, but there's also the time where you know we have to trust him completely.

00:33:58.799 --> 00:34:02.781
You know, and trust him alone, right, like it's all about our trust in the Lord.

00:34:02.781 --> 00:34:27.650
You know, that's there, and so I think, in that sense, if I can encourage your listeners, it's stay biblical, especially going into a political season, especially when you see, like we talked about a little bit, you see so much extra biblical teachings that are out there.

00:34:28.469 --> 00:34:30.693
You know, measure your influences against the Bible, not your feelings.

00:34:30.693 --> 00:34:37.132
You know, say to yourself if somebody is preaching something, where do I find that within scripture?

00:34:37.132 --> 00:34:40.280
It's very easy to get lulled into a wonderful analogy.

00:34:40.280 --> 00:34:47.262
But you know they say and I've come to learn that this is true at times the gospel plus waters down the gospel.

00:34:47.262 --> 00:34:54.083
All of a sudden we start forgetting about the gospel and we remember this wonderful quote or saying or thing.

00:34:54.083 --> 00:35:02.902
But it's got to be about the Bible, right, it's got to be God's heart, it's got to be, you know those things because we're leaning into some pretty perilous times here.

00:35:03.429 --> 00:35:05.956
I think things are going to get sticky.

00:35:05.956 --> 00:35:15.137
Possibly there's the chance, like you brought up that, whether it's who knows another pandemic, another political upheaval, all of those things.

00:35:15.137 --> 00:35:30.617
But we have to remember, as Christians, the thing that I think that made me saddest the most is through the political nonsense that happened four years ago between COVID, between the race riots, between all of these things.

00:35:30.617 --> 00:35:37.739
Christianity had the opportunity and it didn't shine right, like the world didn't go.

00:35:37.739 --> 00:35:41.110
You remember 9-11, you right, being a New Yorker and stuff.

00:35:41.190 --> 00:35:58.500
9-11 happens and the churches were packed every night, like I heard in New York and even not New York, all over the place, people, people look to the church for answers and then, 20 years later, we have a pandemic, we have political upheaval and nobody cares what the church thinks.

00:35:58.500 --> 00:36:02.942
If anything, they're shaking our fists and we've not done a good job.

00:36:02.942 --> 00:36:10.500
And I think, as leaders and pastors, you know we talked about leadership, leadership, leadership, leadership, and when it came time to lead, nobody cared what we had to say.

00:36:10.500 --> 00:36:35.539
And so my prayer is that the church will rise up to a place where it can be effective in difficult circumstances, focusing on God, trusting the Lord, staying biblical, being mature, not giving into their emotions, you know, or their preferences, but you know, really really being logical in a lot of things.

00:36:35.539 --> 00:36:40.282
So if that encourages someone, Amen.

00:36:40.949 --> 00:36:49.344
Well, pastor Kimmy, thank you again so much for coming on the show again today, of course, yeah, man, thank you, it was an honor.

00:36:49.344 --> 00:36:59.740
And guys and ladies, if you're in the Westchester area, what's your address for the church and what times are your services?

00:37:00.141 --> 00:37:01.563
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Trinity AG.

00:37:01.563 --> 00:37:06.644
This week for Holy Week we have a Good Friday service at 6.30.

00:37:06.644 --> 00:37:09.512
We have our regular Sunday service at 10 am.

00:37:09.512 --> 00:37:19.034
Our address is 1022 Pottstown Pike in Westchester, PA, and we normally have 10 am Sunday services.

00:37:19.034 --> 00:37:27.742
But we also have Wednesday night discipleship groups at 6.30, where we have a free meal, free dinner, community dinner, create that family atmosphere at 5.30.

00:37:27.742 --> 00:37:31.802
And at 6.30, we start our breakout classes for our discipleship process.

00:37:31.802 --> 00:37:38.762
So if you're around here we'd love to have you for sure, and Dorsey said he'll take you out to dinner after every time you come.

00:37:43.331 --> 00:37:47.309
Well, guys and girls, thank you again so much for tuning in and for listening.

00:37:47.309 --> 00:37:51.425
We greatly appreciate Having you tuning.

00:37:51.425 --> 00:38:01.597
Hope you enjoyed this Episode of the Dorsey Road Show and hope you're encouraged and inspired by what Pastor Jimmy had to say.

00:38:01.597 --> 00:38:04.534
And until next time, god bless.

00:38:04.534 --> 00:38:05.280
Bye, bye.