It's What We Do - Student Ministry Podcast
Join host Zac Priest and special guests as they share stories, give encouragement, and make connections from people living the life of ministry.
It's What We Do - Student Ministry Podcast
Episode 5 - The power of faith and COOPERATION in ministry w/ Guest Brad Eason
When Brad Eason, a Multi-Area Director for FCA, and I sat down to record this episode, we discovered a shared passion – the transformative power of faith and cooperation in Christian ministry. We unpacked the synergy between the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and local churches, diving into how this alliance is pivotal in strengthening individuals' relationships with Christ. Brad opened up about his journey, sharing his victory over addiction and how golf became an unexpected spiritual practice for him, illustrating that our personal interests often weave seamlessly into our ministry work.
The episode is filled with heartfelt stories that navigate through the rugged terrain of life's highs and lows – a testimony to the undeniable strength that faith and community can provide. We revisit one man's tumultuous path, from his roots in Murray County to a life of revelry, and how an emotional encounter with a pastor redirected him towards a life of purpose and ministry. It's a narrative that reverberates with the essence of redemption, reminding us that no journey is too wayward when it comes to finding one’s way back to faith.
Beyond personal tales, this podcast celebrates the significant influence of coaches in the spiritual and personal development of young athletes. We recognize the tireless efforts of those in the FCA, where the love of sport meets the love of Christ, creating a nurturing ground for youth to grow in character and faith. From coaching conversations that shape lives to FCA camps that build skills and spirit, join us to explore the profound impact of these communal efforts and the power of effective communication in weaving a stronger, more faithful collective.
Hello and welcome to it's what we Do the Student Ministry podcast. Join your host, Zac Priest, along with special guests, as they share stories, give encouragement and make connections from people living the life of ministry. Now let's dive into today's episode.
Zac Priest:Alright. Well, welcome guys, and welcome back to the It's What We Do Student Ministry Podcast. I'm really excited, as has been the theme of each one of my shows. For some reason, I say excited a whole lot, but I really am excited to have you guys tuning in once again. I'm here today with a friend of mine not just somebody that I'm interviewing, not just necessarily a, I guess, a coworker, because, like all the other guys I've interviewed so far have been other student pastors, and so now I'm interviewing a close personal friend of mine is named Brad Eason.
Zac Priest:And his favorite volunteer and his favorite volunteer.
Zac Priest:So if any of our other volunteers are listening which they probably aren't, because they get enough of me, and probably of you too, at all of our stuff. But we're going to be talking today a little bit about cooperation in ministry because Brad is a multi regional director for FCA and so we're going to talk a little bit about FCA and then FCA programming and then how the church can work alongside of not just FCA. We kind of talked about that. You know work with other churches, work with churches inside of our communities and our associations. But you know find other, you know Christian ministry, you know resources that we can plug into because we're all trying to grow that same direction. We're all trying to get people to know Christ and to grow in the relationship with him. So we want to do that. But so that's kind of what we're talking about today and here with Brad. Again, brad, thank you for.
Brad Eason:Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me on.
Zac Priest:Oh, I'm excited about having you on because, like I said it's I think I said it in my first or second show One of the reasons I'm doing this podcast altogether is because of you. We can talk about it, you know, a little bit later I'll give you a chance to plug a show, but Brad has a podcast that he does with FCA for coaches and that type of stuff, and so I love the format of it, where you go and you got to talk to people and kind of hear their stories and their coaching philosophy and how they interweave their faith with that.
Zac Priest:And so I love that aspect of it and so that's part of the pattern of our show. And so we're a rip off of Called to Coaching.
Brad Eason:It's working together. Hey, there we go. We're cooperating, we're cooperating. How does it were.
Zac Priest:And so, but tell us a little bit about yourself, Brad, you're married.
Brad Eason:Yep married.
Zac Priest:So you found you tricked somebody into marrying him.
Brad Eason:Yes, I tricked her. She knew me from high school and she she's a good judge of character, so she didn't have to do anything to do with me in high school. But as we got older I was living in Nashville and I think she thought I was going to be famous, so she started. She was like maybe I'll give him a chance.
Zac Priest:Yeah, and then after that Hitch the wagon to that gold pony.
Brad Eason:It was too late, Zac, you gave me one chance. No, so yeah, we've been married just about 20 years now and got two little girls. Yeah, fantastic. So yeah, living, we live here in Sulphur.
Zac Priest:And let's say so. And you've lived a couple of different places. You're from the area, you know the well this is one of the areas that you're from, so you grew up in the city.
Brad Eason:Yeah, grew up, grew up in Oklahoma City. Yeah, me and my mom, we lived on this on the same street. Once I told it, I said we lived on the street with Granny, and all the ladies that I was speaking to thought we were homeless with my grandmother. We were not homeless, we had homes. We were not homeless.
Brad Eason:They were on the same street. There you go. So I lived on the same street as my granny with my mom and we lived in Oklahoma City and went to some Oklahoma City public schools so learning experience for a little kid that just come from Velma Alma. And then my mom got remarried and we moved back down to we moved to Davis and that's where I graduated high school.
Zac Priest:and so just just down the road cause we're, we're actually here inside. I didn't have to travel anywhere, and so that was you know selfishly, maybe one of the other reasons we chose to do this week.
Brad Eason:So I just wanted to give everyone in Murray County a reason to not like me you know the Sulphur people are like he's from Davis, graduated from Davis, and then the and then the Davis people are like he lives in Sulphur and married a Sulphur girl.
Zac Priest:So well, that's good. Well, you know, Paul told us all things to all people. The hope is to reach some. I think sometimes for us it might be to bug as many people as possible. But yes, well, and so tell us a little bit about, I mean, you. You are, from what I hear, you like to golf just a little bit.
Brad Eason:Yeah, I love to golf. I have been. I have been sober for almost seven years, coming up in June to be seven years and you know addicts are going to addict and I played golf sober for the first time in somewhere in that last seven years and I was like this is fun, this is awesome.
Brad Eason:This is amazing, and we're. I'm getting older and so pickup basketball used to be my thing. I'm too old for that now. It hurts when I jump. All the things hurt. So golf, you know, hey, if it hurts, just swing a little less. You know, club up.
Zac Priest:Yeah.
Brad Eason:You can still compete and I'm Uber competitive to a fault. Probably a lot of times You've seen me play pickleball on vacation. So I'm Uber competitive to a fault sometimes. So golf it's only my fault. I can't get mad at anyone else. It's just me and it's. It's a lot of fun. And now my girls are doing it, so that makes it even better.
Zac Priest:Yeah, that's the awesome part. They both are in and doing really well. Yeah, they're doing good, yeah, so.
Brad Eason:I can't beat Paisley anymore most of the time. Yeah, I know, but after this year she's coming for old dad. So she's, going to be back there on them back teas with me and Paisley next summer.
Zac Priest:No more, no more.
Brad Eason:No more moving up A little further up there to try to get a little bit of an advantage. Nope.
Zac Priest:Nope, one of the things, too, we always kind of ask. You know, claim to fame. Some of those types of things I love. What you put in and so I put a claim to fame is on the little profile sheet that's in. I have a Bob Ross chia pet and a stuffed Bob Ross. That's right, I'm a Bob Ross fan.
Brad Eason:I love me some Bob Ross. Hey, I can remember coming home. I went to Stonegate Elementary in Hoover Middle School, which everybody knows what that is, Yikes, yeah. So I come home from Stonegate and my granny would have OETA on. Bob Ross would be on there and he's just like you know, paint some happy trees in these clouds and be like shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, hey, and I'd be eating my grilled cheese and my granny cheese or whatever, and I'd be ow, See it's ASMR before ASMR was a thing.
Brad Eason:We didn't even know what that was.
Zac Priest:Yeah, bob Ross was the original ASMR guru, so they're paid. And I love the happy treats, you know, because that's what it always was.
Brad Eason:The way he says thalo blue. Mix it with some thalo blue and I'm just like instant out, it's my favorite. And so now Bob Ross has become popular again, Like he's like some kind of cult following or something. And so there's, I got Bob Ross mints, I got a little Bob Ross bobblehead and hit the button and it's like I'm going to have a good day today. I'm like that's right, bob, we're going to have a great day today. And I do have a Bob Ross chia pet and his fro was spectacular, it was immaculate.
Zac Priest:It's dead now, but I'm ready to reseed the chia pet for the summertime, recede the chia for the new year and let it grow and so we were at Silver Dollar City and I will not say how much the Bob Ross stuff doll cost.
Brad Eason:I shouldn't have bought it, that's what I should say. But it's sitting on my dresser right now. Watch as I'm asleep.
Zac Priest:I'm a grown man now. I got my own money, I could do what I want, and so, but that's the thing. It's those types of things, though, that take you back, I remember, and so like a whole different day, you know, back in the eighties and stuff. My mom was a teacher in Lawton and I remember being in kindergarten and kindergarten was a half day yeah.
Zac Priest:I went in the morning, but my mom was a teacher, so she was there all day. Well, me and about four other kids went to a babysitter in the afternoon and she came and picked us up afterwards and her name was Miss Sappington. Well, miss Sappington lived probably about four or five blocks away from the school, and I remember when, when that half day came, me and my little boys would gather up all our stuff and our little lunchboxes and walk that four or five blocks Kindergarteners, that's kindergarteners.
Zac Priest:Four or five blocks to her house, but we would walk in and she would have lunch ready for us, and I remember going, and so, still to this day, every time I sit down for for what should not be a grown man's you know, lunch it's SpaghettiOs with meatballs she would set us down with. Spaghettios and meatballs and peanut butter crackers. And we would set at her little breakfast bar and eat that while she's watching Young and the Restless.
Announcer:Oh yeah, Back behind us.
Zac Priest:That's what I can. I can still hear the theme song to Young and the Restless and start thinking man, I really need some spaghetti.
Brad Eason:Oh 100%, dave. My mom recorded. So my mom worked all the time and she recorded days of our lives Like Sands through the Hourglass. These are the days of our lives. I can hear that and I'm back in that house and I'm going to the city just chilling.
Zac Priest:Yes, oh, it's good, it's awesome Good stuff, yeah, okay, one of the things that, like I said, I love to do is just kind of hear you know the story of somebody's call. Like I said, I kind of stole that from from your show of you know I just I personally I love to hear how people came to know the Lord, how people came to this decision to to go into some type of ministry. I love to hear about you know people and their stories and so that's one of the things that was so captivating about, about your show in particular. But in this I've tried to do that so we can kind of get to know. You know some, some different guys and stuff. So tell us a little bit about your story, I know it's kind of a longer story you know ups and downs but, we've all got one.
Brad Eason:It was a man like every good Murray County kid. You know I got saved at Foss Creek and my mom played piano at church and we kind of went to church, you know sporadically, but we didn't really. We weren't really in a church, we weren't really part of a church family. And when we were in Davis, for whatever reason, you know we we do this kind of a wildlife and and we really weren't doing church stuff and I was at Foss Creek and went with the they're on my first Baptist church to Foss Creek and that Thursday night, you know I mean that's like they build you up, you ready to go, yeah, and I got my life to Christ, come home, got baptized that Sunday and then was back to doing heathen things. You know, within a few weeks Just went back home and it really wasn't a focus point. You know I try to tell kids all the time about the Foss Creek fire and you know when we leave FCA camp we don't want to let that burn out. But so fast forward through the life of just living. For me you know a lot. I moved to Nashville and gave that music stuff a shot for a little while and then got got married and decided she came out there with me and we decided we need to come home and she didn't really want to, but I was tired of like she. She provided for us out there. So you know, I was ready to come home and get a real job, right? So I think my mom or dad told me you can be be a musician or you can grow up, but you can't be both. Yeah, so I decided to grow up. So it came home and got married and started having babies and we had Pais and Landry and started a little band called Shady 580 and we toured all over and played a ton, a ton, a ton and worked in the old field and it was all that. Life is just chicken or feathers. You know all my old field friends, you know you've been there. You know life is good when old is good. Life is not so great when old is not good. And so we we went through one of those spells where there was oh, it was bad, we got our throat cut by a company and so we weren't we're, I wasn't working a whole lot and we just built a new house, because our house burned down and a lot of things kind of led into it and now it's just a God thing. But you know, at the time it was like, oh man, and I think the whole time it was God trying to get my attention, but he knows how bullheaded I am. And so we bought the insurance agency over here and it was a bad thing, that thing for me.
Brad Eason:Moving back to Murray County and Davis, you know, and just I liked man, I'm just one of those guys I've always liked to be the. I wanted to. I didn't want to miss a single party, you know, and I want to be the guy that showed up with the beer and be the guy at the party that was the party guy. I mean, I don't know, that's just kind of what I wanted to do. I don't know why. I just liked the attention, you know, and, man, if there was a question on there soon, you know what could you tell your younger self? I'd say put the beer down. You know like you can still have a good time without it.
Brad Eason:Yeah, I didn't know. I mean, I just started young and one night I decided it was time to give all that up. I really didn't know how, and I felt like I was losing my family and just because of the drinking all the time and I called Bill, who is my pastor now I called I guess I called him my pastor, then him or Randy Sutherland, you know. No, that's because they both did my wedding. That was when I called them my pastors, because that was about all we ever went to church, but because we would leave on Thursday nights, get home Sunday and Alson she'd take the girls and go to church and I'd sleep, you know, and then when they get home I'd play with them. But I called Bill and went into that big church it looks like a Cabello's here in Sulfur and I didn't know a whole lot about it. You know, I knew I liked the music guy and because we'd come over and go with Mike and Lynn's main laws to church, and I knew I liked the music guy, so I called Bill and he slide some tissues across that desk or that table in his office.
Brad Eason:You know I'd never been in a preacher's office like that. I'd been in a lot of principal's offices. You know Every one of my principals I'd been in their office. Nothing for ever, really anything really bad. But you know, just not talking, like not stopping talking or you know, always ragging on people and we was always trying to, I would do whatever I could to make somebody laugh, you know. And so I'd been in a lot of principal's offices and all my bosses' offices and I'd been in some judges chambers and the police office and sheriff's office and but I'd never been in a pastor's office and I figured it was gonna be like all those other offices you know, a great big old desk and he's gonna be in a big old high back chair and you ain't been going to church. It's just wrong with you. And he probably would have been okay to say that it probably would have been wrong.
Brad Eason:But he didn't. He sat down this old table he's got in there still there. I mean it's not like some big. I'm thinking it was like gonna be a big table like at Sons of Anarchy, like this big. You know you're going to see?
Brad Eason:Yeah, exactly you know he's gonna slide, you know, and there's gonna be. But we sat down that old table looked like it'd come out of a trailer house or something and he slid them tissues across the desk and he said well, what's going on? You know what's he giving these tissues for? I got this, you know. My grandpa told me when I was little we got broad shoulders, you can handle it.
Brad Eason:And, man, I just just a word vomit, you know, just like everything. And I said I don't know what to do. And Bill, just like Bill does, you know, he's kind of nodding, you know, and he's giving me a little scripture here and there through my story and he's not saying a whole lot. And he said, brad, as far as I can tell, you're gonna have to fix this relationship. And, for those who are listening, he just kind of did an up and down motion and he said before, any of these will fix their self. And he did a cross motion, like across the, you know, and there's a sign of a cross. He said you gotta fix this relationship with God before you can fix any relationship with any person out here. And, man, it hit me like a ton of breaks and changed my life. It really did. I mean, it absolutely changed my life.
Brad Eason:And right then, in that office, I quit drinking, I quit, you know, partying, I quit playing music out all the time. I mean, that was it, I lost. I prayed to God. I said man, I've been gone and I want to come back. You know, and whatever it is you want me to do, I'm gonna do it. I don't care what it is, whatever it is, I'll go do it. Now everybody was like when I started telling people I want to do ministry, they're like well, you could lead worship somewhere. And I was like that, ain't it.
Announcer:I didn't know why I was that.
Brad Eason:I was just like I don't want to do that. That guitar case took me all over the place and it wasn't ever home, right. But I remember the first time I met Mark Williams we were. They had a food truck out there in the parking lot. You know the church and we're in line, he said, and people would ask me to sing at church for years and I'd always say, oh no, you know what I mean. I don't want your church to fall in on my account you know, and that's something like that.
Zac Priest:I'm gonna show up that place is gonna burn. You know Exactly, probably not best.
Brad Eason:Probably not. You don't want me up there. Cause. On Sunday mornings you just smell like beer and cigarettes you know, but he asked me right there in that food truck line Mark, you just gotta know, mark, he's phenomenal. And he asked me right there in that food truck line you wanna sing at church? And against everything inside me, I went sure. And my whole everything was saying no. And it just sure came out, you know, and I was like holy smokes. What did I just do?
Brad Eason:And then I get up there to sing at church and everybody's sober and it's lights are on and everybody's looking at me and not talking. I was like I'm not used to this. Okay, it's a little different. I need you to.
Announcer:Then the lights give me a level of smoke in here.
Brad Eason:And then I can go to sing it. But after that that day and that next few weeks of being in church as much as I could, and I listened to Life Church like crazy because it was accessible and it was like you know, they've got all the things, they've got the podcast and the videos and man, I was just like I just tried to fully immerse myself and I wanted to do ministry. But I really did not feel qualified to do ministry. I didn't really feel worthy. I didn't feel. I just thought nobody'd listen to me. Why I would you know, why, yeah, why would you know? No way, I don't want that like I want to, but I think I probably just had to be the most religious, the most Christian insurance salesman like that could be, because we'd bought our, my wife, my father-in-law's insurance agency over in.
Brad Eason:Salford and I thought that's just what I was gonna have to do. It was gonna be a great volunteer at the church and help you guys. We were helping in the children's department at that time.
Zac Priest:Yeah, then I stole you yeah exactly.
Brad Eason:Sorry, barry, but Mark and I was helping Mark sing and Barry do the children's ministry, you know and I was like, well, that's gonna be good enough, I'm just gonna do that. Yeah, and I remember very clearly I was on my lawn mower in my front yard over there at the house we had at Davis and I'm listening to my podcast as I mow. You know, I love to mow. I should have put that as my other home. Yeah, that's the claim to fame and you've mowed on a bad boy in some pretty horrible weather.
Brad Eason:Just to prove that you're good, I'm mowing. I got lights on it. Now I do have lights on. Yeah, I know that's the and so I'm riding my mower. You know, and I'm listening to just a random life church podcast and Craig Groeschel and I'm gonna screw this up because I'll try to say it, but I'll say it right eventually but he said you know what? He said God doesn't always What'd you say, zach? God doesn't always call the qualified, but he always qualifies the cold. I'm right, in that lawnmower I run it back. He doesn't always call the qualified, but he always qualifies the cold. I'm like I don't know why. I've just been a confident person my whole life. I'm just like yep.
Announcer:I can do ministry.
Brad Eason:That's it. So I told my wife first I was like I think I wanna do ministry. What do you wanna do? I go, I don't know.
Zac Priest:I don't know something.
Brad Eason:Yeah. So then I told Barry. Second, I said, barry, I don't know, but we're on a golf course. You know, I'm like I don't know, but I feel like I wanna do ministry in some capacity, I don't know. So he said why we gotta pray about it. You know, cause if you're feeling called to do ministry, you won't feel satisfied doing anything else. It's like there's no way. So, man, we started praying about it, me and Allison was on our knees beside the bed every night praying about it. I would pray with Barry about it. We prayed about it.
Brad Eason:I'm at a golf tournament. It was the FCA golf tournament. It was Drew Beards FCA golf tournament. And he says I'm taking another job. It's FCA but it's gonna be regional and you know we need to find somebody for this spot. I go, I'm sitting next to my brother-in-law and I'm like I know a guy that would be perfect for this FCA job, cause when I was at Davis, jody Weber did the FCA and he was just like the FCA. You know, contacted our school. I remember we had a FCA and it was like oh you football guys, high school cheerleaders and free pizza.
Announcer:And I was like check, check and check Right.
Brad Eason:So I was at and I always knew what FCA was and I didn't really know how they operated, but I always knew how, what it was, and I knew Kent Bowles was an FCA guy and I knew Drew was an FCA guy. I didn't really know how it operated and I really didn't care, honestly, cause I wasn't in that circle at that time Not my realm, yeah.
Brad Eason:Yeah you know. But I knew that they got to influence the influencers and Joe Weber was my high school football coach and, no matter what was going on in my life, the calmest place that I've ever been was my high school football locker room. I loved it. I loved it. I loved going into that football locker room. I just loved it. I mean, it was like it was just perfect. I just went in there and it was old and it stunk and we had wood lockers. It was terrible. It wasn't nice. We had a really good football program, but it wasn't like- yeah, not the Taj Mahal in there.
Brad Eason:No, you know, I wasn't Alan Texas type nice, it was just old school, southern Oklahoma just. But it was awesome and I knew that they had FCA. So I go, I wanna do that. So I told my brother-in-law I was like I know a guy, he goes me too. And then he said somebody else, it'll be terrible. And I was like I can't believe. I was like I knew I hated this guy Even more than just because he married my sister. You know what a jerk I love you, Blake, I know. But I always say that because it gives him hard time. But I was like, yeah, blake probably knows I shouldn't do this. It's probably not for me as well. As my thought process first was like Blake probably knows I'm not good enough to do this. At the time Blake probably didn't even know I wanted to do ministry. Blake just knew I'd been saved and my life was changed.
Brad Eason:But my wife's dad was related to John O'Dell, their cousins. I'd only met John once, maybe at Faze. His dad was an amazing man, I mean amazing Faye O'Dell and I'd met him once. I'd met John once, I think at Faze, for you know, and they might've come to my wedding, but I don't remember. But I know I went to that funeral and he's a cool dude man. He was such a cool guy. So I was like I'll call John O'Dell. You know he doesn't know me from Adam, but I call him John knows your cousin. You know I want this job and he goes. Hey, we'll pray about it. You know, and I'd seen that John Chris thing, like the 77 ways Christians say no, number one is we'll pray about it.
Brad Eason:We'll pray about it. So I don't know if John O did he probably did, but I know I did and I just happened to be going up to Edmund for some reason. I mean, I was going up there, I forgot a putter cover at a golf course up there and I called John. I said, hey, I'm gonna be up there in Edmund. Can we go to lunch? Yeah, he said we go to lunch and he hired me 30 minutes into that lunch at Johnny's Charcoal Brewery, the Ardmore Area FCA Rep, and so that's just kind of how it all got.
Brad Eason:It was a long road and took 37 years or something, but yeah, that's how I got there and it's just for me it was one of those things that was just a God thing. You know, there was other opportunities that I tried to force myself into and it just didn't work, you know, and that just kind of fit like a glove and I got to come in and Drew was still in town there in Ardmore, so I got to come in with him and I got to be introduced to amazing people, you know, like Scott and Gina Dillon and Brad Sullivan and those type of people, tim Shields, and those type of people that just took me in and made it possible to do it when I didn't really know it. I asked Drew okay, so now I got the job. What do we do?
Zac Priest:Now what? What do we do now?
Brad Eason:Yeah, and it needs to just show up. And even there's so much of that that carries across so much ministry, even yours. It's like I noticed before I ever worked at FCA. I would notice that you were at all the kids' events. I would see you at softball, I would see you at football, I would see you at basketball, I'd see you at track meets, I would see you at random places, that I don't see a lot of other youth pastors Because I'm such a runner. Well, I mean, I'm just saying I wouldn't. You know, I don't wanna assume anything, yeah yeah, yeah.
Brad Eason:But I'm like just show up, that makes sense, you know, and so I'm not always good at knowing exactly what to do, but I will be there, you know, and so that's kinda how I got called to FCA.
Zac Priest:Well, that's an important aspect of ministry and, again, you know it's the reason I came up with the title of my podcast. That is because I don't know how many times I've said that to people and it's like you know, going to games, going to school plays or band concerts, going to the hospital early mornings and seeing people and so many people that say, well, you didn't have to cut and it's you know it's what we do, you know.
Zac Priest:And so in ministry we just we do those things to be present, you know, because we wanna show that they're people, they're not numbers. You know that we're trying to again, we're not trying to get you know better. In that way we wanna help make a difference.
Zac Priest:And so and that's kind of what this is talking about, in kind of our topic for today anyway, and it kind of matches along with that Cause. Not only did you do that, and that's a great story, and, like I said, you know, that's a condensed version you know still of the whole story.
Zac Priest:And so, like we've always said, man, if you're listening and you know part of that spoke to you. You wanna, you know, know more about that story. I know Brad would love to be able to talk with you about it and you can reach out and send an email or something and we'll make sure to connect you guys.
Zac Priest:But inside of that, you know from that time cause that was when I first I've only known you for about six years after you know that kind of process Because, again, I knew Blake, your brother-in-law you know Blake was. I think he spent more time at my house while I was in college than I did. You know, he and my brother were real good friends, and then when, I started in the ministry and he started in the ministry.
Zac Priest:We became real close and worked together on a lot of stuff and so he was a youth pastor, you know. Then I remember him calling me one day and he was like, hey, I've got a guy that you need to meet. He said he's my brother-in-law. You know, do you have time, like after church? We're gonna meet with them. I think it was at Chili's and Ardmore.
Zac Priest:And he was like you got kids that are kind of close to your kids age and you know, maybe y'all can meet and connect, cause he's really trying to get in and plugged in. And so that's when I found out you know how talented you were and that kind of stuff, and so I was like I need to steal that guy from whatever he's planning on doing. And so that's what you were in children's ministry and I said, hey, come to youth, you know. And so we do cooler stuff, you can be sarcastic with kids and they don't cry.
Brad Eason:It was great, it was great.
Zac Priest:Inside of that, though, you've continued to. You know partner with and do things in our trade. You sing on Sunday mornings. You've led worship for us. You know on Wednesday nights you're gonna buy. You know volunteers for the things we do. You got camp with us and all that kind of stuff that's my favorite. Oh, camp is amazing you know, and so I've got an episodes coming up.
Brad Eason:We're gonna talk about how to use camps inside of our ministries and stuff Like when I go to FCA camps, I have to work.
Zac Priest:Yeah, when I go to your camp.
Brad Eason:It's just like this is a blast.
Zac Priest:Yeah, this is it.
Brad Eason:I'm not in charge of that, so that seems like a problem you might need to fix that I just look at the itinerary because Zach is so good at making it itineraries, if you don't know. But I look at his itineraries and I go, yeah, let's go.
Zac Priest:But so inside of that, you know, you find ways and that's what we're talking about cooperation in ministry and the importance of ministries kind of working together. And so when I thought well, I could talk to another guy, because there's lots of stuff that our churches do. We try to work with other churches here inside of Sulfur. We've worked with churches in Davis and other areas. We've tried to help in different churches throughout the state and stuff. We do missions and those types of things in order to help and cooperate in ministry. Our church is a part of the Arbuckle Baptist Association and so there's multiple events that we do kind of together. See, at the poll we do a deal it's called Fusions, coming up in April, you know where and you've gone and seen that and kind of a part of those things.
Zac Priest:But I thought, well, I can talk to a guy that's inside of a ministry, that's outside of what is, you know, traditional small town church ministry or a home church type of a thing. And so inside of a lot of those things are still very similar as far as the way that we do ministry and the way that you guys do ministry. But I know that in talking about it. One of the things that you said you kind of you know, said it just a second ago you influenced the influencers. That's kind of you know your role. You've kind of explained that before. Your role, with where you're at, is to help. You know these coaches, you know as they're reaching out and doing those things, yeah, and so how do you see your role as far as you know, helping to build those up and building cooperation with those coaches as they're trying to reach their kids that they're coaching every day?
Brad Eason:Yeah, you know, as a, when I started out as the FCA, just the area rep, right, and the area reps we just go in, we love our kids, we love those kids. But we're really a coaches ministry, right, because the coach is gonna have so much more impact on a kid than we will by coming by once a week or something. I've built amazing relationships with kids but, like it's those coaches relationships with those kids, right, and those coaches have your kids every day and they might see them more than you do. You know what I mean, cause if they've got them all day at a track meet, well, they see these kids all day, every day, and it's just when we get to go in and talk to those coaches and help influence those coaches. Man, coaching is a tough profession.
Brad Eason:I mean you know they. Oh, you're a high school coach. Yeah, it's lonely, yeah, cause it's a tough job, but they are just. We get those doors open because we don't want anything.
Zac Priest:Right.
Brad Eason:I don't want anything when I go to coach's office. I don't want a free hat, I don't want a T-shirt. I don't want my kid to get more playing time. I don't want him to be my friend because it's cool to be coach, the coach's friend. We don't want anything. We just want to love them and let them know God loves them and to be there for them when things get tough. And if we show them God's love, we think that the more we do, the more they'll show that to the kiddos, you know, because it's a good thing to have a coach that's got stability and knows where he's going when this thing's all wrapped up, you know, and we try to help them see the bigger picture. It's not to an FCA coach, it's not about wins and losses I mean, those matter, of course, like your job prefers matters but it's not about wins and losses. It's about raising good kids and getting good kids to come out of your program. That love people, love Jesus, you know. And so we just try to influence those coaches.
Brad Eason:We don't really, as a rep, we encourage them to do huddles because, like I, was an unchurched kid, I wasn't ever part of a youth group, you know. But I went to FCA. I want kids to go to FCA so they can get tied to a church, because that's the thing I mean. Maybe you hear something here and we say it all the time at our FCA huddles. If you hear something or like an event not huddles, but we hear it at an event or camp. If you hear something here that interests you or you gave your life to Christ, we want to talk to you because we want to get you tied into a local church, because that's gonna make the biggest difference in your life is continuing that. That Falls Creek fire won't last, the church fire won't, the camp fire won't last without a continuing growing relationship with Jesus Christ and his church. And that's our mission is to lead every coach and athlete into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and his church. And so we catch some stuff.
Brad Eason:I never knew there was not cooperation amongst churches and organizations until I got into it. You know, I just thought everybody was working for the same guys. So we probably always pull in the same rope. You know, a lot of times we get caught up in pulling ropes different directions and I gotta have them here and I gotta, and it's not a fun part of what we do, but like we all want the same thing. We all want kids to learn about Jesus and we all want kids to love God and get to know Him and have that you know, and have that relationship, because that's the real thing is to have that relationship with Him. And so really all we do is like we encourage those coaches to start a huddle, because a lot of times they can't. I mean, we're in the Bible, about to have Oklahoma, it's not impossible.
Zac Priest:A little more freedom.
Brad Eason:Yeah, yeah, but a lot of times we can't read the Bible on campus. We can't do things like that. You know we don't wanna ruffle any, we don't get bad in trouble. But we wanna encourage them to be a part of FCA because we want kids to see that is what their idols do. Remember the first time you saw like a teacher or a coach at the grocery store?
Zac Priest:It's weird. It's like they buy stuff. What do they do in? Here they had toilet paper inside of their cart.
Brad Eason:I didn't think that they'd use the bathroom. You know, it's like, what do they do? They like Fruity Pebbles too, yes, and so like, if I think about that, if, like, I'm sitting there and I saw Coach Weber at my church, or he goes, I go to church over here and I go to church, this is Coach Weber and he's worshiping her. You know, whatever it was, that's just who it was in my life that would make such a huge difference, you know. And so, as the FCA ministry, we're a coaches ministry, love our kids, but we're there for the coaches, and so when we come up with them, and it's just, it's an amazing thing to see a coach take over, like a coach, grow up, play a viewer a coach lost in here in Sulfur and they buy in.
Zac Priest:I mean, I got so many coaches and I'm gonna leave so many off Coach Newby and Coach Price, and I got so many I'm gonna have to try to name every one, all of the coaches that you serve, if I've ever met you as a coach and you've done something for FCA.
Brad Eason:I love you and I'm recognizing you right now. But you know, like Coach Cole, you know, just, corey, to say, hey, man, just come up here, you know, come speak like the first day and then just be around those things to see that happening and to see the way the kids react to it. It's just, it's a God thing and you know we have that stat or whatever it is about how the kids wants to get out of high school or not going back to church. Well, let's get them. Now I got people in schools that are doing middle school FCA, you know, and at schools they do it at all different times and towns, you know, do it different places. You're so great about, you know, we do ours here after church, you know, and as I go, stand up on stage and you know tell them, hey, FCA's. You know, over at the gym, you know, and it's just really cool to see that.
Zac Priest:Well, and that's one of those things you know too that I think is important to remember. Like you said, I mean, and so you know, I know, and so I'll say this from our side, you know some of the things that you know that happens like well, you know, if it's just a student that's leading, then it might not be as biblically you know, grounded, or if you know it's just a coach or something's coming in, they're not gonna get the same thing that they're getting at the church than what they did, and so and that's maybe not a false statement at the same time, though, they're hearing something about Jesus, and I think it's important to and we'll talk about this in a second but I mean all our kids especially. I can talk about our culture, because you know we're here in the middle of sulfur. Our kids know that you, you know, come to our church and that you're invested inside of our program.
Zac Priest:They see you sing on stage, they see you volunteer and go to all these things and so they see your involvement here. And so not only do you pull, you know the FCA whenever you go and you have an FCA hat, we're providing this and we're doing this and helped, you know, coach Lawson, get FCA kicked off again real big here over the last couple of years. But you know, they see, you know Brad from church, you know they're too, and so they see us cooperate. For me I've always kind of said you know, I remember you know growing up, but we had volleyball at our church and we're central Baptist in the middle of nowhere, metropolis, the metropolis, the greater metropolitan area of central high. We had a little church and it had a parsonage and had a tennis court next to it.
Announcer:I don't know why we didn't have tennis at the.
Zac Priest:I guess, apparently when they built it, tennis was a huge thing. Yeah, it was big, but you know, we had a volleyball met over, I remember when our we had a pastor that moved there and came in and he put in a sand volleyball. You know court for us.
Zac Priest:And so I remember, you know, going and going. Okay, church was about going and playing volleyball and having some pizza and you know, we listed like a five minute devotion or something. They're probably longer than that, but that's all I paid attention to. But it's like you know that. And I remember, you know cause he was my pastor when I first started into ministry and one of the things that he said I still carry through this day. He said you know what we did, that kind of stuff? He said cause fun stuff draws kids, come on, but we're going to give them Jesus when they come. And so that's been my concept since I started. You know, I don't really care what brings them, I care what they take away. That's right, and so I think that's one of the things that if they can get involved in in you know, fca, because that's what we had FCA just this last week. We're recording this. You know, on a Friday we just had, you know, church. You got a huge group at.
Announcer:Sulfur's FCA on that night.
Zac Priest:We did. We had a special, you know speaker come and that kind of stuff and it was great. But it's like I saw a picture of that and I saw tons of kids that kind of come to our stuff. They weren't there, you know, that night and if they had come we would have had like 80 high schoolers you know that come.
Zac Priest:Well, we only had about 50. It was like you know, I can look at that and you can go, man, you know why weren't those kids at my thing and I can have some sour grapes or I'm go that night. I know that those 30 kids that weren't with us, they got to hear about Jesus, they got to be involved and so I think that's one of the important things and so kind of talk to me with that, with your idea. We talk about cooperation and, like what you were just saying, the importance of having them, you know, be able to plug into a church. How important is that to, let's say, to you personally you know, I think it's FCA as a whole but with you personally about, you know, working with the local church and trying to connect with them with ministry.
Brad Eason:Yeah, it's so important, zach. I mean and it's personally personally if I were to left Falls Creek and got tied in with a church, if I were to left Falls Creek and come over here and went to Oasis or whatever they had I know they had Oasis, but I was a middle school kid- yeah, I think it was still Oasis because it was here for a million years.
Zac Priest:Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Brad Eason:If I were left there and got tied in here, it would have changed the whole trajectory of my life. I truly believe that I didn't, you know. And so working with our area of churches is so important, because we're not a church, we don't wanna be a church, we get called that some and I hate that. And we've probably done some things that make us sound like we're trying to be the church, you know, but we're just. We're humans too. But it's so important to me because you have that moment with God, I, you know. Right after that, you know who's coming. I mean, there's no. After that Falls Creek fire moment, man, you know who's coming. Every time you do something and you think, man, I'm so close to God right now, something comes up.
Brad Eason:Yeah, the enemy wants to do it. The enemy wants to come in there. Hey, Zach, the enemy wasn't attacking me when I was not going to church because he knew he already had me on his side. So I think it's so important to cooperate with our local churches and co-op with them, because our events man. I want you guys to come to every event we have. We have fields of faith, obviously here in sulfur, you guys are a huge part of it. Like the connection was there.
Zac Priest:Free will was there Free will was there.
Brad Eason:They did worship there. We want everybody to be a part of that because I think it's just a great place. I want you to come to all my FCA's because I want you to see the kids First, kids that are making decisions, and I want them and when we leave I call you and like, hey, this person did this. Because that is so key. A church family is so key to a great Christian walk. You've got to have that church family. I don't care if your church is a thousand people or if it's 10 people. It's so important to me to have that church family to maintain that Christian walk, and I think that's why it's so important for us to work together. We're short changing our kids, if or not, in my opinion, right.
Zac Priest:And, like you said, if we're all supposed to be pulling that same rope, together in the same direction, you get more of these entities that are involved, that are going in that same direction. Because, again, there are some of those times where one of the things that I love about it and having you involved not only in our program but also in FCA and our relationship Because there's times that, okay, you think of even this week we've got baseball games and softball games and golf. We've got track going on. There was powerlifting. Well, if I'm plugged in doing something here, then I can't be at something else and I know that there's a godly influence that's there and can help.
Zac Priest:We don't have anybody that's playing in state basketball right now, but FCA has a hospitality room for officials and coaches and stuff there, and so again, we're trying to hit as many different people as we can so that way we can win as many as we can, and so with that we do have to work in that cooperation. So I'm going to ask, and not necessarily think outside, because you've done stuff with other organizations too. You've put on some golf tournaments, you've done stuff with our church and those. You've seen, like I said, some of the complications of people working together for whatever reason, and so I'll be the guy it's my show I get. Sometimes it's a selfish thing. I want to look better, I want to have bigger numbers than you, I want my event to be better than that was, and so our pride kind of gets in the way of something that I know I have to fight a lot.
Zac Priest:But, in dealing with those, some of those difficulties one I'd kind of like to get a mindset of how you approach dealing with, maybe if there's some strife between working with a local church, but also maybe some steps and some practical tips about. Okay, here's how I approach it, but this is what I've done in order to try to help bridge that gap. And so tell us a little bit about just about some of that concept and then some practical application.
Brad Eason:First thing I do is seek out wise counsel. So I call you, I call Bill, I call all my people because I don't want to do anything on my own. I pray about it. I call you guys because I listen. I screw stuff up daily. I really do, and so I like to. When something's like that, I'll call you guys because I know how long you've worked in ministry. I call Blake, I call Drew, bill, everybody, and I like to make sure it's not me in the way, because it has been, it's been me going. I got this, I'm doing this, we're doing this by gosh.
Brad Eason:I don't care, and sometimes it has been. I've got great people in my life that are going. Might be you.
Brad Eason:You're kind of being a jerk, yeah. So then I had to go. Hey, man, my bad, but really the whole communication thing is. The biggest piece of it to me, Zach, is just communicate with who we're. If I can communicate to you and I'm learning this, I didn't know it first, but I communicate to you about a field of faith. I try to get it to you as fast as I can. Now, sometimes I'm not doing the fields of faith. Somebody else is doing it and they're calling it FCA Fields of Faith, and it's like I mean, I work for FCA, but that's not even in my area, or maybe that's just some kids that want to do it and I'm not ever going to tell them. Now I will go suggest hey, can we do?
Announcer:it.
Brad Eason:I'll go talk to them. Hey, is there any way? We got wiggle room here, and sometimes it's fixed before it's ever a problem. And then sometimes people are just like no, no, we hear you, but we're doing it.
Brad Eason:We're still going to do it, we're going to do it right now we're going to do it this time and I go, okay, but man, the communication is the biggest key because I know, if I get a hold to you and I just go, zach, you know where my heart is, we know each other, you know where my heart is. I'm never going to do anything to try to take away from what you're doing and I know that you'll never do anything to take away from what I'm doing. And that open door and that communication is, we'll work wonders.
Brad Eason:And sometimes people are just going to have a wall up and that's okay. You know, that's not, that's not on me, that's. You know, that's just a God thing. And I just give it to him and I go, hey, god, you know I'm going to, I'm going to do the best I can in this area and I'm going to keep trying to make that a better relationship, keep those doors open, because I don't want anybody to ever think we're in competition with each other. You know, and that's just. I think it's just.
Brad Eason:The biggest piece of it to me, in my opinion, is communication, you know cause it's like, even with free will and us, you know, and we'll get together and do stuff together. And it's like if we're just communicate, man, things will run so smooth. Right, we're all pulling the same rope and we really are. We're working for the same guy, you know. We're working for an amazing God that can make anything happen, even even with us getting in the way all the time. You know, cause I feel like I do that a lot of the time. I get in the way instead of help out. But God can handle it.
Brad Eason:Man, and I really just seek the counsel of everybody that I know, that I trust, and really just try to communicate those things. And if I can go help, like here at our church, if I can help, man, let me help. If I can help at another church, you know, I go to other places and I know some great youth pastors and, man, if I could, they'll, they'll. Usually only thing youth pastors usually want for me as a athlete, to speak. Or, you know, can you get? Can you get Dylan Gabriel to come to my?
Zac Priest:no, I've got a Tuesday afternoon Bible study. Do you think he can come talk to me in minutes?
Brad Eason:I go, I don't know him I. I, I work down here, I'll call JT, but JT gets a thousand of those calls a day.
Brad Eason:You know. So that's usually all they want from me. But I mean, if I can ever help, I want to be there to help, right. And I think that's because, at the end of the day and the life church says this and I kind of like it, but it's we're doing things shorter sin to reach those that aren't being reached. And I think about that with FCA, because there's so many kids that show up to camp on the advice of a coach, right, and there's so many stories I've heard when I show up somewhere and they go, you work at FCA. Hey, I got saved at FCA event. You know I was in. I was in Maryland in a in a golf this I got to go with a friend and it's one of these Uber exclusive places you get. Nobody comes to you and I'm in there walking around looking at the stuff I can't afford in the pro shop, like that'd be nice to have.
Zac Priest:This would be really cool. I'm going to take a picture with it, yeah exactly.
Brad Eason:I'll put it on right now Take a picture.
Zac Priest:It's kind of like I own it Put it back on the cause.
Brad Eason:I want to be married when I get back and if I bought all these things.
Brad Eason:It's over, it's over. So I'm looking at all this cool stuff and this guy walks up and he's like FCA everybody know about FCA. I'll work at FCA in Oklahoma. He says I got saved in FCA event, tennessee. We're in Maryland talking about his salvation story in a Uber exclusive golf pro shop.
Brad Eason:Like I don't want to do anything that takes those moments away and if and if me just swallow my pride and my arrogance, cause I'm both prideful, I'm arrogant. If it's me getting rid of the boastfulness and just getting rid of all the stuff that comes along with me, if I can get rid of that and just get down to the core of like we're trying to introduce kids to God, yeah, and we're trying to every avenue we can to do it. I think it starts with all of us just realizing that's what we're trying to do. Yeah, no matter where we work, we want kids to get saved. We want kids to find a relationship with God. Because I heard this weekend at FCA and I think it was Tony Evans, I don't remember Someone's someone spoke this this weekend and they said they said Satan's okay with religion as long as there's no relationship.
Announcer:Right.
Brad Eason:I'm like man, we can count all the hands that go up and oh, we got a thousand people saved this weekend. Well, if a thousand people get saved and then they go on and do nothing else for the kingdom, like what have we done? So that's where I feel like we got to get as FCA and churches we got to get so better at getting together to those thousand people. Yeah, then they become disciples and make disciples. Right, you know they intercept, they inter discipleship somewhere that turns into them making disciples and turns into them leading the thing in themselves.
Zac Priest:So well, I think that that's an important thing. You know, even inside the church, again, I think we can, you know, view it as as competition is like well, they've got more for this or what, and, like I said, you know, early, it's kind of it's that pride thing. If we can get out of the way, God wants to do amazing things. We need to get out of the way you know, on that sometimes.
Zac Priest:And so no, I agree. So do you have any, you know, kind of final thoughts for coming kind of close to our time here? Anything that was left unsaid do you think needs to be said, man we could do this for two hours.
Brad Eason:I think honestly, but no, I just I'm thank you for having me on no thank you for being such a good youth pastor for my kids.
Zac Priest:Well, I appreciate that. You know, I'll pay you for that. But, but no, and that's I'm like you, that's what it just it made such an impact on my life, you know, growing up, and so I want to be a part of it. You know my, my daughter is is, you know, in college.
Brad Eason:My oldest now is in college and she all stayed her, by the way, yeah.
Zac Priest:Yeah, so, and she's, she's super, you know, involved in her is taking ownership of her faith. My youngest one is, and she's on the middle school.
Announcer:FCA leadership. You know group so.
Zac Priest:I love how they're, they're taking ownership and and the more stuff that I can have them involved, the more stuff that we can expose them to, to, to take ownership in their faith, and so, whether it's my church or they've gone to the church with other people, they've gone to different camps, they've been involved in other ministries and those types of things, Just the the more that we can, you know, pile on, because the world's going to pile on so much stuff. That's right.
Zac Priest:If we can work yeah, if we can work together to do things, and and again, that's you know, us, us and other churches, that's it's us and churches in our own cities and in our areas, but then, especially with, with other ministries, to to be able to do that. Like I said, we, we do, and I love that analogy pulling on the same rope. I think Bill, you know, is continuing to say it's like we're all getting on the same bus. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Zac Priest:We might have just different destinations at the end, but we're on the same bus and the same direction, you know. And so let's, let's go, and so I really like that. So thank you for being with us today and thank you for what you do with the, with FCA and all that kind of stuff, and so that I would like you to kind of plug your podcast again, that's kind of one of the reasons, this one started in the first place.
Brad Eason:But yeah it's, it's called the coaching. It's on all the stuff. You know all the podcast places. But I just go find coaches that I think are awesome people and and ask them why they're coaching.
Zac Priest:Yeah.
Brad Eason:It started with a conversation with Jim Dixon and I never had a great relationship with Coach Dixon until I asked him a question about somebody else. Yeah, and you know he wouldn't talk about himself, but he asked him about Jim Daniels, right, yeah, is that the name on the restroom? Am I missing that? Coach Daniels, I know that. And anyway, coach Dixon talked for an hour and a half, turned to him telling me his story, yeah, and then, and then we lost Coach Dixon and I thought I'm going to do a podcast where everybody gets to hear those stories. So that's where it started, before we lose them.
Brad Eason:Before we lose you know, I mean, we never know.
Zac Priest:Yeah, before they move on to go to a different place or do something, I mean before we lose them. We've got to know what's going on.
Brad Eason:Yeah, so we started that it's. It's a blast.
Zac Priest:I love it, I love it, and so, and then also you got just some plugs for different things. Y'all got coming up, of course. So you know, if we've got listeners, man, it's a. I'll say from the youth pastor side. You know, find a way to get plugged in with the local FCA program. Yes, thank you. We have one of our churches or one of our church members as a teacher and a coach at the school, cody Lawson. So, coach Lawson, thank you for what you do, not only at school but also through FCA. Man, they, they started it in their home.
Brad Eason:Yeah, they did, and so it's okay. Let's come to my house and we'll do it there. I mean, I liked it. I liked it. Jamie was stressed. That gives me joy.
Zac Priest:Yes, it was, it was great to see, but but they both I mean just pour into it and so you know she's there with all the stuff and she's an admin, you know, down at Medeal. So it's back and forth and so it's like hey, you know, you have a kind of a a little bit of a free night now that you're home. Hey, let's have, you know 80 kids.
Brad Eason:You know, come to our house. There's a parliament on your couch. It'll be awesome.
Zac Priest:But they did that there and then started the FCA for the, the middle school backup. You know they had one when, when I first came here, but then it kind of had had, you know, gone to the, to the wayside and he started back up and so we tried to encourage our kids to go. But I would say, find find a way to, to plug in and help minister with that and, like you said, build, you know, communication you know with them to to help.
Brad Eason:They had a, they had a sand. When I was in Nashville they always said it all begins with a song and with FCA it all begins with a coach. So with the programs, getting started. It all begins with a coach.
Zac Priest:Yeah, and that's great and so great way to get plugged in, and then you all have stuff that's coming up. You all got a couple of camps and we do, we got we got extreme camp, which is a high school camp it's.
Brad Eason:it's competitive, it's. They coaches if you're listening, we work their butts off. Yeah, they run there. It's not a. It's not a float around on the tube. You know, camp it's, we're getting after it. That is what is that? June 9th, 13th.
Zac Priest:Yeah, june 9th through the 13th.
Brad Eason:Yeah, they'll get there Sunday afternoon and and we'll welcome in, we'll welcome in. We got, we got college kids that are the hundred leaders, and then of course, we're all staff there and they get to getting huddles with kids across from across the state. It's so cool to be at a state tournament and see two kids that that we're in the same huddle.
Zac Priest:Right.
Brad Eason:And you know, at Kingston and Crossway, at Crosspoint camp playing against each other in the state games. So cool yeah. And then we've got competitors camp. That's on East Central's campus there in Aida. And that's June, what? 23rd through 26th? Yeah, june 23rd through 26th. So, and that's our middle school kids, yeah.
Zac Priest:My kid went to that last year and that's. She had a. She had a great time.
Zac Priest:And like I said, she so you know being involved in middle school athletics and that kind of stuff. She's a cheerleader. She played, you know, basketball and softball. Yeah, she, she went to these places and saw it because I love it. She, you know, goes to church camp with this and, you know, was involved in in a leadership camp. We do super summer and so she has, you know, kids. But like I thought it was really cool that some of these places we went to she saw these kids are like oh, I was with them at S&E camp this summer.
Zac Priest:So, like I said just, more people just built in more people to plug in, and so that's awesome.
Brad Eason:Yeah, and it's so cool to see the, the college kids get to love on all those, those high school kids and those middle school kids. I mean you got, you got OU, osu, Tulsa, southeastern I mean you named the school in Oklahoma and there's a college kid at these camps that's been influenced by this camp or been affected by this camp, and they're there again giving back to those kids and showing those kids like look, you can be a college athlete and you don't have to do the things a world says you have to do.
Brad Eason:You can have a blast, yeah, and we just have a lot of fun. So, yeah, it's good, good stuff. Those are really cool, great program.
Zac Priest:Oh no, that's a weird because, like I said, we've got kids in our own ministry.
Announcer:Mine's one of them, you know, and so had a great time and learned some great things, and was able to apply that and so, but thank you again for being with us.
Zac Priest:Thank you, our next episode will air on the 26th. That time we're going to be interviewing somebody else again. That's she. She plugged into a church and that's. Our name is Tiff Jones. She is a was a former coach.
Zac Priest:Now she is a high school principal, assistant principal at Broken Arrow in Tulsa and so she has been a long time volunteer inside of her church multiple camps, that kind of stuff and has a love and a desire to serve God as a volunteer. And so I'm going to talk to her about utilizing volunteers inside of our ministries and so I'm going to ask her hey Tiff, what are we doing wrong? How?
Announcer:can we?
Zac Priest:do it better to utilize you guys, train you guys and that, and so I'm very excited about being able to sit down with Tiff, and so, again, thank you guys for listening. Thanks for tuning in. I hope that you heard something that might be challenging to you and helpful. If you do have any questions or anything, you can, of course, email us. It's what we do. I w w d at gmailcom. You can, you know, connect with us on Facebook, instagram, x, and we should have this video up on YouTube. At the same time, everything else drops, and so I appreciate you guys listening and we hope that you are blessed and have a good rest of your day. So we'll talk to you guys later, thanks.
Announcer:Thanks for listening to this episode of it's what we Do. If you like what you heard, make sure to hit the like button and subscribe for questions or topic ideas for future shows. Connect through social media or email Until next time.
