What Does Discipleship Look Life? - Reagan Banasky

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Concerning him. An Emmaus podcast is a ministry of Emmaus Bible College. Concerning Him seeks to enrich Christians around the globe by educating and equipping them through various media. For more information about Emmaus, please visit Emmaus.edu. Hello and welcome to another episode of The Concerning Hymn podcast. Today I'm excited to be joined by Reagan Benaski. Mr. Reagan Benaski? [00:00:31] Speaker B: Yes. Hello. [00:00:32] Speaker A: Thank you. [00:00:33] Speaker B: Glad to be here. [00:00:34] Speaker A: Thank you for coming on. Excited. I've wanted to have you view on the podcast for a long time. I've been talking to you about it. [00:00:39] Speaker B: For a long time. Yeah. I've been trying to hold off as long as possible, but I finally got you on. [00:00:43] Speaker A: So thank you for coming on. And just to start like we do for all of our guests for the first time, they're on Is. I think we'd love to start just by hearing about you and kind of all the steps in your life so far to how the Lord has guided you to be teaching here at Emmaus Bible College. Because I should say you are professor in what's your official title? [00:01:05] Speaker B: That's a good question. I think my simple one is educational. Ministries. Faculty. [00:01:09] Speaker A: Okay. [00:01:10] Speaker B: Educational Ministries program yeah. [00:01:13] Speaker A: I'm never sure. Is it youth Ministry is educational ministries. [00:01:16] Speaker B: It's a part of yeah, we just go right in. So in our Educational Ministries program, which is a part of our Bible Ministry department right. You got to break us all down. We have youth ministry, camp ministry, children's ministry, and ministry leadership as different tracks that students can take for our program. [00:01:34] Speaker A: Okay, well, that's helpful. [00:01:36] Speaker B: Perfect. [00:01:37] Speaker A: Well, with that in mind as where you are now, how has the Lord guided you kind of what's gone on in your life to bring you to teaching here, to Bible College? [00:01:47] Speaker B: Yeah. So maybe life story, not being too long. Try to condense it a little bit. So I'm originally from Dallas, Texas area, north of Dallas. I was born in hospital in Dallas, and then we lived in Melissa for most of my life. So it's about an hour north of Dallas. Raised in a Christian home, grew up in the Plymouth Brethren assemblies or an assembly, and eventually God led me to come to Emmaus as a student. I was here 2004, 2008. It's actually fun being here because I have some classmates that I'm working with that we were here all four years together. So who are some of that's real fun? Lori Kratzer. Shout out Lori and Jeremy Mao. Trying to think if there's anyone else be shame if I forgot someone. I think it's just the two. And then there's others that I went to school with that are here as well. If I blank, maybe later we can insert a picture of the people I forgot. I didn't plan this, but up to senior year of high school, I got saved. I came to know the Lord when I was eight, but kind of was in that window of walking in the then, you know, during summers when you're away from school, kind of reorienting my life, and it was through a friendship of a good friend of mine, Cade Paulette. He's actually a missionary in Mexico. We would just read the Bible and pray together, and God began to show me that my dreams, lifelong dream of wanting to be an actor in movies was maybe not what I really wanted. And as we read the word and we'd pray, god began to show me. It's like you have this trail that you're going down which encompass acting and all that lifestyle, or you're reading the Bible with cave and you're praying to me and not that wasn't doing things at home, but there's something significant to having somebody outside of your parents that is a spiritual influence in your life. So really, through cave, God said, do you like what you see? Do you want to pursue me or do you want to pursue this other thing in your life, go this other direction? And it was so satisfying that I was like, you know, I'm going to drop that dream. And then I didn't know what to do. And eventually Emmaus kind of came up through some missionaries in my church, and I just came I left Texas, the unknown and came here to Iowa, and I had a great four years, and really kind of my life has been that God's kind of led me every step of the way. So I graduated with a degree in Bible in theology, and then I moved to Louisiana Lafayette, Louisiana, some dear brothers and sisters down there at the church in Louisiana. And I was there for five years and got a lot of opportunity to serve in a number of places. It was a smaller assembly and they really just welcomed me and made me a part of the church and the family, and then went to pursue seminary in South Carolina, went to Columbia International University for three years, so moved to South Carolina for three years. And then it was while I was there, the ensemble, Mayas ensemble, came through and got to see them. Some people working at Emmaus found out that I was in seminary and one thing led to another. I got a Jeff Riley who's actually I teach with him in the program. He sent me a Facebook message asking if I'd be interested in pursuing a job. And I went through the interview process, and here I am today. I'm on my 8th year here at Emaus. We moved here 2016, my family. So, yeah, that's a little bit about kind of my journey to this point where God's led me along the way. It's been cool, it's been awesome. I finished seminary in 2017, so my first year here, I was kind of getting a feel for the class and whatnot. And then the next summer I finished my degree. [00:05:54] Speaker A: And teaching education ministries. So youth ministry, camp ministry type related things. What's your involvement been like personally in those areas at Emmaus? And since you graduated, you talked about your time in Lafayette, right? [00:06:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:09] Speaker A: What was that like? [00:06:10] Speaker B: Yeah. And you got to say Lafayette. We got to get straight. Yeah. No, it's a good question. I didn't grow up going to camp. A lot of Christians, it seems like you grow up, you go to camp. My kids are going to camp now. I did baseball camp a couple summers, but not Christian camp. But it was really emmaus gave me an opportunity when I was a student, travel around to different camps and serve and at the same time be an ambassador for Emmaus. So that's kind of how I got into the Christian camping. And I've been connected ever since. There's a few camps I have better relationships with just because I've been there kind of more over the years, but connected to a lot. So since 2007 is really kind of since I began my journey connecting with camp youth ministry. When I moved to Louisiana, that was essentially the draw for me there. They were looking for a guy to be there, someone to be there full time to work with the youth. And so I stepped into that role and started serving. And then it kind of morphed and changed into we had younger kids, some middle schoolers, and then a lot of university students, especially international university students. I also did some youth group work in South Carolina. We worked with the youth group for really a semester while we were there at the church in Anderson, south Carolina is where I lived, but would go to commute to school in Columbia. Yeah. I still speak at camps. I travel around. So I did three weeks this summer going to different camps and kind of maintain that. And that's probably, for me, one of the primary ways that I still work with youth middle school and high school is usually what, the weeks that I serve for various camps. [00:07:52] Speaker A: Okay. And so one of your passions I know we were talking yesterday at lunch, and one of your passions is church planting. Right. And a part of church planting. What we're going to specifically talk about today is Discipleship, which is interestingly. More than just interesting. Obviously, these are your passions, so this is what you're doing. It's also a crucial aspect of youth ministry and camp ministry. And actually, when I've worked with some camps, questions people have about camps, actually, is maybe a lack of discipleship after a one week of camp. But anyways, that might be a whole nother conversation. [00:08:27] Speaker B: Maybe there's some camps that seem to do really well with that issue. Sure. [00:08:32] Speaker A: Yeah. And so I basically I want to start out with what is Discipleship? I think a lot of people's minds would probably jump to Matthew 28 and the Great Commission. Right. But what is discipleship? And then today I really want to dive into with you. What does that look like practically within the Christian life? [00:08:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Well with a topic like this I probably can't answer all the questions. We're all still learning and growing in our understanding of what discipleship is. But I do go back to the Matthew 28 as one of the foundational verses in the Bible for understanding what discipleship is. I mean Jesus had just ascended, ascended, excuse me, not just risen again and he's before his disciples, right? And he's telling them he has all power and authority that have been given to him, heaven and earth. And then he makes the statement for them to go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you and behold I'm with you always to the end of the age. And one of the aspects that have been foundational or transformative for my life the last several years have been focusing in on the concept of obedience. So I think I'm quoting ESV when I say observe. Other translations will say obey. Teaching them to obey all that I've commanded you. A lot of my life has been storing up knowledge and that's not the sum of what discipleship is, right? Just to know the things of the Bible or to know about God, but for that to translate into your life where you're different as a result of that. Right, so we think about discipleship and I just take that section from Matthew 28 and I think where am I at? Or I might think looking at someone else and making disciples of Christ. Where is this person at in their life with him, whether they know him or they don't know him. We make this such a distinction to say here's evangelism and then discipleship is Christian is with the Christian solely. I don't think that's the focus isn't that narrow where it's only with Christians for one reason. I think there's this problem where we think discipleship but we never have people who don't know Jesus come in. So we focus on just Christians and raising them up. But God is really he's a missionary God and he's reaching out to people from day one and we need to do the same. So if they don't know Him, how can they obey him and what he's commanded? Right? All need to come in to repent, to trust in Jesus for salvation. So if a person doesn't know the Lord is not a believer, want to engage with them in that way and say okay, I want to find where they are in their next step and help them kind of along the way. And same with believers like where's maybe disconnects in the life of a believer and kind of help them. So if you think about practically it's my walk with Jesus and I've had other people along the way kind of teaching, leading and guiding me. Cabe has been a significant one. There's been lots of people. Several of the professors at Emmaus when I was a student have influenced me. I mean, I still act like some of them, which is really funny. Like in conversations it'll come up someone who knows one of the professors I had, they'll say, oh, that's so and so. Or my wife will say, oh that's so and just. They've influenced me so and for good. They're following Jesus. And I get to see that and follow that. And I want other people to kind of follow that as well because it's about Jesus and being followers of Jesus more than just following another person, right? He's the one that leads and guides and directs us. Maybe you can bring in the conversation a little bit. I think I might be getting a little too out there in my concepts. But discipleship is very practical in how we do it. It is pretty simple, I think, as well. It can be very deep, but I think a lot of us may be doing a lot of things that are discipleship practices. We just don't recognize it or we've never been told this is discipleship. And so I would like box and categorize that in my own life and say, well, that's not discipleship. Like, I need to go do this thing over here. [00:13:05] Speaker A: Can you give some examples what you're talking about? [00:13:07] Speaker B: Let me give some examples. So eating at a restaurant, okay, and being a regular person at a restaurant I think is a great example. And let's set the bar low because I don't have a lot of money. But going to McDonald's, this is one thing I love doing with my students is I have one class that I like taking out in the community we go to if we can, the McDonald's downtown. And it's using the spring semesters when I go. Just getting out in the community and seeing people and being a regular and getting to know them is a part of making disciples, right? You've got to make that initial contact. You've got to be out in the community connected to people for them to know you, for you to know them, right? So like an example, we went out this past spring to McDonald's downtown, and there's a lady working there that I know. And I'm praying for her and her walk with the she's, she's taking these steps. Don't see that new life yet. Like she's come to know the Lord but praying for her. And she's sweet. We love her. And I'm in there with my students and she's like, you all going to do Bible study? And it's just like very matter of fact, I was do. We're going to do some Bible study. We're going to be here try to come the next several weeks. And I hadn't seen her in a little while. And then what happened as a result of that? Well, she's texting my wife. My wife Rachel knows her pretty well. Actually loves her to death. Every time she's with her, she's just like just beams. There's just something in her personality that resonates with my wife. And we love her and pray for her a lot. So it could be that simple where you go and you find someplace that you go into the community in terms of thinking discipleship in regard to evangelism and connecting with those who don't know Jesus. This is an area that I think is an issue within the church. Not everybody. Some churches do really well, but have students who come. And in my own life, the temptation is to just be with Christians and never be out in the world and have that exposure. I want to push against that. I had a class a few years ago that I kind of surveyed all my students and was like, hey, you need to have a few people that you know that you can talk to about their life and hear from them who don't know Jesus. And the majority of the class came back and said, I don't have anyone like that in my life. Well, maybe they didn't legitimately, maybe they had some that they just didn't think of in the moment. But that seems to be an issue that keeps coming back up every year is that quite often Christians, we're surrounded with Christians. We really have no place that we're involved in the world on a regular where we have friends, where we have connections, so we can a sense cross pollinate and we can make disciples of all the nations, right, and teach them about Jesus. So it could be that easy. Another thing, it could be as easy as doing thinking you take Christians, non Christians, but we'll think in the vein of Christian of taking other believers along with you is just doing what you would normally do groceries, invite them to come over. One thing I do a lot is I go out riding my bike or go on a run or go on a hike. Not everybody wants to run with you, right? I don't know, maybe we'll go running soon, but like a hike, a lot of people will go and take a hike with you. And that can be an easy time just to walk and catch up and pray with the other person. They can pray for you and see where they are at with the Lord and how things are going in their life. Right? And for us as Christians, that's really important to know what's going on someone else's life and for them to know what's going on our life as well and just to kind of make those connections. So having that regular pattern in your life where you're bringing other believers along, I don't know if I always thought about that. As discipleship, we're not doing Bible study per se. We didn't have a church sanctioned event. But believer and believer and we rub shoulders or we kind of sharpen one another, we check in on one another. And to make that kind of a part of normal life, I think very much is discipleship. Maybe an extreme example of that would be having people live in your house. I had my brother live in my house once, and if he sees this podcast, I love you. It was one of the most difficult things my wife and I have ever done and one of the most rewarding things at the same time. He was in our house, and he had just come out of a rehab. He was in drugs and in that lifestyle, in and out of jail. And then God opened his eyes up to the issues, and he knew he needed help, so he went to Haven of Rest in Akron, Ohio, and got out of there, and we offered for him to come live with us when I was in South Carolina. And it was difficult initially, and there were times, as probably family does more than other people, where the tensions rise and you're like, I'm just fed up. And as with brother with brother, we would just kind of vent and tell each other how we're feeling. But to see where he's at today, it's so encouraging. And I know we got to be a little part of that in his life, but when he was living with us for I think, maybe seven, eight months initially and then actually came to Emmaus for a year and then went back and lived with us for a little over a year, we got to see him change. We also got to see us change a lot as a result of that, him being in our house. Right. I know people have done that with people who aren't our siblings or their family. And that's another thing. I haven't had that experience yet, but I've seen the impact and the value in that, although it was pretty difficult, especially the first time around as he just kind of came out and it was a little more rough around the edges. [00:19:24] Speaker A: Correct me if I'm wrong. One of the things that I'm almost kind of hearing you say is there are some normal aspects of life, even like maybe it might not be normal for everybody, but even like, hey, my brother's struggling. I'm going to have him come live with us. Right? But going to McDonald's or going on a hike with somebody or something like these and what I'm hearing you describe is almost doing these things with more intentionality for Discipleship, is that I I would think it might be my know, if I went for a hike with a friend, might just talk about sports the whole time. I mean, that would be maybe my default of NA, how's life going? Whatever, but not actually really getting into it and talking about our walk with the Lord and those types of things. Is that a correct kind of observation of what you're saying is, like, this stuff can happen just in your regular life. It's being intentional and discipleship. Does that make sense? [00:20:20] Speaker B: Yeah, intentionality is a big part of it. I don't want to go so far. This is just how I think and say it's bad to just talk about sports or shoot the breeze or talk about live things that you enjoy that you're racing. We both did a race a few weekends ago. We didn't do the same race, but we're at the same race, right. [00:20:45] Speaker A: You ran off in our thin. [00:20:46] Speaker B: I ran further than you did. But that was fun seeing you there and several other people. Right. Um, you know, getting together and just talking about how the race went and things like that. It's like, oh, that was fun. Oh, man, I ran, you know, here was my pace, and I felt this way throughout each mile. I think all that stuff's fine, and that's good. I don't know if there's a difference between men and women. I know there's a difference between men and women, but in this regard, like, guys, we need to just be able to talk about those things. We need to be able to talk about sports and have a place and talk about things we enjoy. But so often that becomes the focus where we never get around to having intentionality and talking about the Lord. We need to be intentional, and we need to talk about the Lord. Let's talk about those things as well. Let's talk about the things we enjoy in life, the experiences we're having. But I need to check up on you and see where you're at. If we go on a hike or we're going to bike ride and how your walk is with the Lord, right? Or vice versa, you can do that with me because that's important. That has more bearing on our life than just football, fantasy football or something like that. How'd you win your bracket this week, or I don't even know how you use that language. I've only played a few times. I'm playing this year, so we'll see how I do. But want to talk about how are you doing with the Lord? What are you struggling with? And be there for you and definitely for men supporting one another in this way, having deep, meaningful friendships. The older we get, the less likely that's to be there. It's a gap. I mean, the world recognizes this. There's a great SNL video on, manpark. I don't know if you've seen it. If anyone watches this, you're going to look it up. And all my friends that I show it to resonate. And we almost all cry. It's like we really do have this issue, right? And I don't just need someone to hang with and talk and just have fun with. I need someone who I can share my life with. Right. And who can challenge and encourage me and vice versa. Right. And you think about men who don't know the Lord. They're struggling with having meaningful friendships. But what's more important is knowing Jesus, right? Having Jesus as your friend and your savior. So it can be more intentionality doing things that you would normally do in life at a professor in seminary, say, what about laundry? Let's disciple people. Let's do laundry together. I think you can kind of tell where someone is, maybe you and them, whether you do laundry together or not. I'll invite you in, you come to my house, and you can fold my undies. It's kind of weird, right? But we've got to do the laundry. Yeah. Right. And you coming to my house and doing it. It's like the relationship is different now. We haven't done this yet, so maybe this is the next step. But you have people over at your home when it looks bad, when it looks really well, I go to people's houses and it looks so nice, right? And then I'm like, my house. It's not as clean. It's like, I don't know if I'm gonna have them over. You know, those people are close when they come over, and it doesn't matter to them. It doesn't matter to you. Right. There's this deeper level. I think that's probably in part why Jesus is so keen on eating with people. He's in their house. He's with them. He's having this table fellowship, and it's this real interaction with life. And I think it's probably worth saying we can be so busy as Christians that we think, okay, to make disciples of Christ, to fulfill this command, I have to do something else. I have to have another program. I have to have more time. I have to be busier in my life where we don't need to talk about the priorities that we may have that's maybe another conversation and organizing ordering our life excuse me, around that as a primary focus. But just think about what you're already doing and invite people into that. Right. Have them come along with you. If I can just maybe keep going off with this. These are just maybe kind of coming all at it from different angles. But you think about the command to make disciples, right? And I'm saying we need to be thinking about non Christians, and we need to think about Christians in regard to that. There's a lot of opportunity to take non Christians and invite them into our circle as Christians. Right. Number of years ago, a few years ago I think this is before COVID we had our life group that we were at at church. We invited them over, and then we invited our neighbors over. Just a few of our neighbors came. But it was this awesome connection cross pollination. It wasn't just us talking with our neighbors and trying to tell them who we were, but our neighbors came and they saw our church, part of the few of the members of our church. And we had fun. There was a lot of laughter. We ate a meal together. Of course we prayed. And then they began to wonder, who are you guys? Oh, you guys are at a church. Okay. And it's this different perspective, right? And there are plenty of people, I think, who are out there doing that, but for us, that was kind of a new thing. It was like, this is really cool, right? We're going to eat, we're going to get together with the church already. What about incorporating non Christians into that normal part of our lives that we already have? Instead of saying, I need to go do all these extra things and spend more time and then you feel guilty, you're like, God, I need to do this, I need to do that. That's been a fun thing to do and to learn to do that, I want to continue to have that crossing of Christians and non Christians because once you're in a place we've been here in Dubuque going on eight years coming, this is our 8th year, you begin to build connections with people in the community. You begin to know more people. Like the other day I was running on the trail and I passed this kid that hadn't seen in a few years and basically I stopped seeing him with COVID and we had a great conversation. I got his number and we're texting afterward and he's like, I missed talking with you. And I was like, Dude, I totally missed talking with you. He was in 8th grade last time I saw him, pre COVID, and he's 19 now and it's like, oh, that's a huge jump. Oh my goodness. Yeah, and I wasn't really looking because I'm running, right? Yeah. I mean, I'm not like insanely fast. This is just a chill pace, but passing by him, I just saw him in the corner of my and I was wait a know and stopped and talked with him. It's like, well, how could I connect him with people that I know at Emmaus or at my church, right? Instead of just trying to be the only influence in his life? I don't know yet. I just saw him. But I do want him to follow Jesus and praying for that, right? And we'll work to that end and I think there's a lot of potential when we come together and we work together to that end to do that, to fill this commission that we have. Right. [00:28:02] Speaker A: There's two more things I want to talk to you about and I think they're kind of related. So I'm going to ask you both at the same time and let you kind of figure out how you want to answer. But on one hand, one of the things I've heard you say a couple of times now is making disciples of Christ. And I think we often hear people, they're discipling me or I am their disciple or they are my disciple. Right? I don't know if it's been intentional or not. You're kind of saying disciples of Christ. Do you see a difference between those two mindsets? And then also I feel like a lot of times within Christian culture, we have certain relationships that we are defining by. This is a discipling relationship, right? This person's more mature than me spiritually, and so they're discipling me. And I've got this other person who's less mature than me spiritually and I'm discipling them. And these are my discipleship relationships. And then I just have my friends or my family and these other people. And to me, what you're describing does not necessarily sound like that. What you're describing seems to sound like a discipleship relationship with everybody in your life in a way. And so I'm wondering if you could kind of tackle those two sense. [00:29:17] Speaker B: Yeah, good question. Let's see if I can remember all that. I do think as we look at the Word, we're making disciples of Christ. We have an influence on people, but what's the focus? Like Jesus says, and this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you've sent. It's about knowing God and that relationship. That's the primary. We need to know him if we were to have eternal life. And then knowing him changes us, right? John writes in his Epistle has not yet appeared what we shall be like. But we know that when he appears, we will be like him, for we will see Him as he is. Paul writes in Two Corinthians about beholding the face of Christ. God transforms us. There's this transformation that takes place, right? I mean, through faith in him. We go from dead to alive by faith, right? There's this transformation that takes place. The spirit comes and indwells the believer. God is the initiator. I'm just going we can talk about who he is. That relationship needs to be fostered and we all are. To be like him, to be like Jesus. When you look at the embodiment of who God is, I mean, literally, Jesus is the Word that became flesh. Everything he did, everything he said, that's our standard. Love one another as I have loved you. So want that relationship to be fostered and to grow. And we all need to wrestle with what God has for us in this life. That has to be our primary focus. That relationship that's there right now, we all know God uses people in our life. And so Paul says, imitate me as I imitate Christ. The full extent of what that looks like is it just certain aspects of Paul's life that we look at and you say, well, we imitate those well clearly in scripture, or is it the full life? We could take Paul and we can say, well, let's look at all scripture and we're going to follow that, right. Because he's pursuing Jesus. And now we have this written in the word and we're to follow that, right, exactly how that translates. Like if I think about your life and if I'm following you as you follow Christ, is that every aspect of your life do I want to be you? I think where my thinking is in regard to that now is I want to discern when you're not following Jesus and I don't want to follow that. Right. But as I see you following like, I want to follow you. And so that could be this long term relationship where you say, I want to be in a discipling, quote unquote relationship with someone who's more mature. I need that. And you ask somebody or they ask you. Kay asked me. Hey, I've been thinking about you praying about this. Would you like to get together, read the Bible and pray? Of course. We had pizza and wings and Coke. I'm from Texas. So everything's coke, right? Just now? What kind of, you know, for a high schooler, this is awesome. Well, then we began to read a book by Bill Thrasher. Hudson Taylor's spiritual secrets. We did more but the impact of God's word and praying together and him saying, I'll do what you want to do and I'll feed you food that you like. Of course he was a seminary student at the time at DTS and he was eating this kind of food too. It helped me begin to follow Christ more because I saw Christ in him and then very clearly in the Scriptures. And as I prayed, it's like I was just drawing close to the Lord and that's what I wanted. Right. But it can be as simple as an interaction with somebody. I saw this guy the other day on the trail and I was like, you know, you never know who you're going to see on the trail. But God does. That's not significant statement by any means, right. But he knows that I believe in God. And I'm just referencing that we were at the at a playground a number of years ago with my kids, and I was pushing my kids and this other little girl jumps on the it was like those disc swings. I don't know what those are called, but this other girl jumped on and sometime I said, God, in the conversation I want to speak like I am who I am. I want to be who I am, wherever I am. And she just laughed and was giggly. And she's like, you guys must go to church because you said God. I was just like, yeah, we do. But it stood out to her, right? So we want people to see and to hear a difference in us. And hopefully that as we put that the forefront of our relationships, there could be more meaningful conversation or they might come back to us. And say, hey, God's done this thing, or they might not say, God's done this thing, but there's this thing happening in their life and they want to talk to us because they know we believe in God, right. And it can open the door for something else, hopefully for them to come to know the Lord. So I think we sharpen each other and various levels of exposure and as God leads us, can open the doors. I mean, one time I told this guy I was working in Louisiana and helping out a church with the youth group, and then the next day he's at my door, like, confessing his sin and distance from the Lord. You just never know what God's going to use, right. And it's God the one. God is the one who's orchestrating all of these things. But we shouldn't have a narrow view. We're like, now's discipleship time. And that's the only place, really, wherever we go, whatever we do, people can look at us and say, that's Jesus, and I need to follow that. They can also say that's not Jesus. I don't need to follow that. Right. Because I do fail. We all you know, that's a good reminder for me as a parent. I have four kids, a boy and three son and three daughters. And they get to see everything and it's like, Lord, only in your grace will they follow after you. We're doing the best we can, but we're by no means perfect. And they see and they know that, right. [00:35:45] Speaker A: No, I think that's really helpful. I think that really tackled both of those questions. There's a million more things we could talk about. [00:35:51] Speaker B: Sure. [00:35:52] Speaker A: And I'm sure we will in the future. And I want to have you back on and talk about church planning stuff, and I want to talk about something you mentioned yesterday in our conversation. It's been on my mind ever since is this idea of gospel fluency and where we fail to apply the gospel or to see the gospel and to understand it in our lives. So there's many more great conversations that we can have. So I'm sure we'll have you back on. But thank you very much for coming. [00:36:17] Speaker B: On today, and thanks for having me. [00:36:18] Speaker A: This is awesome. [00:36:19] Speaker B: Yeah, it's fun to be here. My first time. [00:36:22] Speaker A: All right. Well, thanks, Reagan. [00:36:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Thank you. [00:36:26] Speaker A: Thank you for listening to concerning him an Emma's podcast. Ministries like Concerning Him are possible because of the generous contributions from our partners around the world. For more information about partnering with us, please visit emeas.edu partner.