You're listening to Clear View Today with Dr. Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. Welcome to another week of the Clearview Today Show.
Welcome to our studio. Welcome to our space. This is where we come to hang out, we come to talk, we come to just share the wisdom of our host, Dr. Abadan Shah, who's a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show, Dr. Shah.
We got a great week on our rising, my friend. I gotta say, now, hold on. Who is this? You said Dr. Shaw, but I'm not sure.
I said Dr. Shaw, but I looked over to my left now. I'm not present today. How does Dr. Questions keep getting here?
Let me take that again. Ladies and gentlemen, we are here today with our host, Dr. Questions, who is also a PhD professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the apparent host of today's show. Dr. Questions, welcome to Dr.
Questions. Thank you, thank you. I always look forward to. The lightning rounds because these are sometimes questions that people have asked us directly, or sometimes they text us, email us, and so we're so grateful. Thank you.
And hopefully, we can answer probably most of them today. Amen. These ones are super fun. These are ones that I've saved over the years. But before we do that, we do have a check-in.
Now, someone wrote in asking Dr. Shah a question, but Dr. Questions, maybe you could give it a crack as well, Ryan. You want to read the check-in for today? Absolutely.
Absolutely. This was anonymous. Dr. Shaw, what do you think of churches who do the communion every week? Is there any pros or cons to doing it that way?
Does it take any of the specialness out of it if it becomes common? And how often do you guys observe communion?
So at Clearview, we used to observe communion like a typical Southern Baptist church, which is once every quarter, which means either once every three months. Or once every four months. But we have try to change that ever since we kind of came into our newer building. This is the new new building, and then there was a newer one prior to this one. And we try to make it more regular.
So we would try to do it almost every other month.
Now we are Down to doing it every six weeks. Or we try to. And I like that. I wish we could do it more frequently. I wish it was once every month.
But we have so many things that go on, we don't want it to um Again, just be something, oh, we got to get it over with. Just let's get it out of the way.
So we felt like six weeks is a good time for our church.
Some others may find it different. I think. I would definitely say doing it every week is not a problem. It just doesn't fit our culture. Our culture.
I agree. I feel like six weeks is a good time for us. Again, I don't like to tack it on. At the end of a sermon, like I'm talking here on, say. Let's see, parenthood.
And then we're going to celebrate the communion today. Or we're going to take part of the Lord's Supper today. It doesn't, not much connection. I can try to make a connection, but it doesn't make. that well of a connection.
So Every time there's a Lord's Supper or Communion, I preach a message specifically on that topic. There's a book that that I had to read just like a week or so ago for school that basically it was it was called um it was called You Are What You Love. And it was talking about how you you Um You develop love for things by doing them out of habit. And one of the things he that he recommended, it was James Smith that wrote this book. And one of the things he recommended was doing the communion every week.
And that was kind of made me think of that. And I was going to bring it up when we did our communion episode last week, but I was like, ah, it doesn't really fit with what we're talking about.
So when this message came in, I was like, oh, wow, maybe that's the Lord saying we should comment on this. I love the fact that you do a message on communion or it lines up where you are in a series. Like it'll make sense of where it is in a narrative passage and we'll drop communion in there, you know, according to the church calendar. I think it makes it special and it helps people understand the significance of it rather than, oh, yeah, this is just another element in service. Yeah.
I agree. And we also like to pair it with other special things. Like another thing that we do, this is something that I really like about your style of leading the church, Dr. Shah is we try to find where we can put these special elements in, like congregational prayer. At the top of every single month, we will have the congregation come down and they'll pray at the altar as like the music is playing and you're leading them in prayer.
And a lot Of times that can coincide with the communion so that they can come and take the communion and then engage in congregation. And we usually have that at the end of the sermon, which will be on the communion and it sort of has a lot more meaning and purpose. And, you know, I hate to use that word intentionality. Yeah, no, you're right. Yeah.
It engages the congregation and it keeps them engaged so that every service does not become predictable. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, it is. Oh, go ahead.
What were you going to say? Do you want to do the verse of the day? You want me to do the verse? Oh, you do the verse of the day. I was about to play the theme music for a lightning round question.
Well, let's get the verse of the day first. Lightning will strike. I don't want to blow past the word of God or lightning will strike. The verse of the day today is coming from 1 Timothy chapter 6, verses 7 through 8. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. I don't need nothing else except for food and clothing. Dr. Shaw, if I was a lazy Christian, this would be the verse that I would go to. But I'm sure Paul is not saying, hey, guys, don't work hard.
Don't worry about any of that stuff. Don't look to To gain anything. Just be content with what you got.
Well, that was definitely not Paul's personality. He was a go-getter. That's right. He was always driving towards taking the gospel to another region. I mean, his goal in the end was to go to Rome.
He says that. He said, I want to come to Rome. And we don't know for sure if he was able to. Really minister to the churches in Rome. We do know he got to Rome and there he was martyred.
So Paul was. A visionary. Paul was a doer. At the same time, and I think. what is being referred to here is more about being content.
Content is not the opposite of ambition. Right. Content. It's like I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Means no matter what's happening in my life, I am satisfied in Christ.
But That does not negate the fact that I am too Be ambitious for the kingdom of God. I am to be a visionary for the kingdom of God. I am to drive hard to make sure that things happen. Nothing is against that. That's right.
If God calls me home, or if what I'm trying to do does not line up with God's will and He changes that, if what I'm trying to do Is um doesn't really pan out. It's fine as long as God is glorified. That's right. Amen. Well, guys, we are back with one of our most popular segments ever.
This is our lightning round questions. We used to do these on Fridays, then we started putting them in the week. But this is where, basically, just like Dr. Shah said, a lot of you guys have texted in questions.
Some of these have actually come from Ryan and myself, but we're just gonna go through them lightning, lightning. Lightning fact. Doctor, questions, if you had an audience face-to-face with Jesus for one hour, What would you talk about? And where would you take him to eat? Oh my goodness.
So Jesus comes in. He's like, he's got the keys. He says, Dr. Shah, Dr. Questions, I'm ready to go.
Yeah. One hour. Where we? Jesus. Jesus, yes.
I will tell him for the next hour. I'm going to keep my mouth shut. Please talk to me. Would you take him somewhere nice? Like, drive time.
You've got him in the restaurant for an hour. Not not like the drive there.
So you can drive more than an hour away. But but I have to take him to a restaurant. No, you don't have to. You can take him to your house and cook for him. Yeah, I would probably do that.
Yeah. Okay. I would probably do that. I would probably invite him somewhere where I would not be disturbed. Yeah.
Or he would not be disturbed. 'Cause I mean, people if they know who he is, they're gonna mob him. Yeah, true. And then it will take away from that interaction that I could have with him. True.
So I would probably. Choose to um To just yeah. Relax somewhere at the house or at the fellowship hall or the cafe just by ourselves or Go on a drive as um David just suggested. Maybe go on a drive. Go on a long drive.
But even there, I have to worry about driving. Yeah, I would rather not have to do anything. You'd rather, yeah, yeah. And like the drive, I would say the drive doesn't count. Like on the drive home, you could you could uh just you know chat talk with him, chat with him, but.
But you're you're just you're saying just let him talk. I'm not sure. I would even say, you know. I have nothing in the house to eat. Will you go grocery shopping with me?
No, I'm not going to say grocery shopping. Can you just. Make things up here. Oh, I got five Ritz crackers and a can of sardines. Like, what can we do?
What do you mean we do either? That's pretty good, right? That's pretty good. Here we go. It's a feast.
That's awesome.
Next question. What's one thing you'd change about how people today perceive the church? Yeah. Wow, these are great questions. What is one thing that I would change regarding what people perceive as the church?
People the one thing that I've noticed coming from the East, and right now the East is going downhill as well. Like where I grew up, The churches now, the church that my dad was a pastor of has sort of become more like the church is here now. But when I was growing up, church was a center, the focus. of our community.
Now, we grew up in a non-Christian world, so Not everybody looked at the church as the center of the community, but Christians did.
So things were happening at the church. We were raising our families in the church.
Well, I was. A child or a teenager, but things were happening there. It was a center of life, and it was wonderful. It it really helped. us have direction, purpose in life.
I would like for that to come back here because that's how it used to be in the West. Rather than the church being an auxiliary source of support or whatever. Yeah, that we sort of tag. You know, tack along in the end. We go to many of the big cities, you see those churches.
They were drive a walking distance from people's homes. And Once you got past A 10-minute walk, then you will go to the other church because that's closer to you. But then, of course, denominations came along and all that stuff, and then people. began to drive because cities got bigger and and further apart. Uh so Things have changed, but I still think churches should be the center of people's lives.
That's right. Amen. What leadership lesson did you have to learn the hard way? Whew. These are hard questions.
These are good. These are good ones. What leadership lesson? One lesson that I have. Really, I have come to appreciate more and more is that.
lot of things that you have Evision 4. do not happen As soon as you think they should happen. And partly is because the overarching vision is good, but what you're thinking in the moment that this should happen or that should happen. is usually Usually, not as good as you think because you haven't developed yet, you haven't grown yet, you haven't experienced life yet.
So you're thinking, this is good, this is good. And then you live life, and you go, no, the vision was fine, the overarching vision was fine. but what I was thinking was so small and so trivial.
Now I see And realize That's big.
So you're saying that our dreams a lot of times are too small. Like we, like, we dream what we're what we're dreaming. for the future is not The f the the Ingredients of the dream are not always As good in the moment. Gotcha, gotcha. The overarching vision is good.
For example, in our church, I wanted to. See clear view becoming um Growing, having more people there. And I thought, what we can do here is we can section off this room here for this class, and we can section off that. And we did those things at the old, old building, which was on College and Peace Tree Streets in Henderson, North Carolina. And Yes, my thoughts were in the right direction.
My vision was in the right direction. I was trying to see the church grow and become active and see more people come and lives being transformed. But how I was going about doing it in that building Was so such a small scale. Really? Yeah.
Wow. And then when we went to The next building, which was on a different part of town. I thought, okay, this is the place. This is the place where it's going to happen. Wow, it's nicer, newer.
I mean, it was built in the 80s. Or 70s to me was like brand new because you're coming from a building built in the 40s and then repaired in the 70s. I was thinking, no. This building, wow, we can do this here. We can expand it.
We can put a trailer in the back. We can put a mobile home in the back, and there we can have our Sunday school class. And man, it's going to work perfectly. The location is perfect. And then there are certain people who came along.
Who said, No, you don't need a mobile home. What what we need is a new location, another place. But putting a mobile home in the back of the church was not a good idea. Was that tough for you to hear at the time that they didn't think that was the way to be going when you heard that? It was not because I learned very quickly.
Gotcha. That this is what I wanted. I wanted leaders to come who could. Think big. They could take the vision I had.
But make it bigger. And fill in the brick and mortar, so to speak. Help. it become a reality, and the way I was going about I I never had a total peace about it. that the mobile home is the way to go.
or a trailer in the back of the church was the way to go. But I felt like This is Probably how it's going to work.
So, I remained very flexible. I was already a principal of a school at the time, and so I had learned over the years. how to keep the vision the main thing, the main thing, but then allow other people to come and help shape it. I don't want to spend all our time on this one question, but do you think a lot of other pastors or even secular leaders have trouble being flexible enough to where it's like, There are people who are coming underneath me, but they're thinking bigger than me.
So I'm going to go with them on that. Do you think others have trouble with that? Yeah. I mean, they do at times because they feel like you're challenging me, or you don't think I know enough, or you don't think I am smart enough, or you don't think I'm a leader of this organization. That's not what it means to be a leader.
Leader means you're telling people that's the way to go, and we're all going to benefit from it. But the leader does not immediately Start changing things or forcing things to happen Because that may not be the way to get there, but there are other people who can come on board. Who can help you get there? And I knew. went to stay up front, And I knew when to get out of the way.
And there's a difference there. Amen. And then there are times you need to get in the front. And then there are times you need to pull back. And that is.
By the grace of God? That is and if you're not saved, I mean, that is an art you need to learn. That's right. And so Anyways, that's I feel like that's a topic for a show right there. When to be in front and when to step out of the way as a leader, that's a difficult concept and a difficult line to walk.
And I feel like that's something that you've done well over the years, Dr. Shaw. And I think other leaders could benefit from learning that balance of humility, but also bold leadership. Absolutely. I wouldn't even call that humility.
I would call that wisdom. And I'm not saying I'm wise. All I'm saying is. have that sense of discernment to know when to pull out. Or step to the side, really, not pull out, step to the side and let other people.
Who are more knowledgeable on that subject, as long as they're keeping the main thing, the main thing. And sometimes they will challenge that main thing, and that's okay, as long as they're challenging it to make it bigger rather than challenging it to do away with it. That's right. That's the difference there. Good point.
Good point. Next question, what's harder, turning the other cheek from friends or loving your enemies?
So a friend offends you and you gotta turn the other cheek. Or love my enemy, someone who is already in opposition to me. Turning the other cheek towards the friend would be the more difficult. I think I agree. And I think it's because you expect a friend to be loyal.
You expect a friend to be their enemy is enemy. And of course, yeah, I got to love them. I got to forgive them. But I can love them over there, though. Or even love them closer if I have to.
Mm-hmm. But and friend doing that. I think that That is very difficult. Yeah, I think you're right. If the disciples had if the dis who wrote this, if the disciples had LinkedIn profiles, who would have the best resume?
I was a Judas Iscariot. Really? Yeah. Oh, I thought you would have said.
Well, he was. He was. Was he? He was in charge of the money. He was in charge of the money.
Oh. He was in charge of money. He was always making statements about Jesus' spending habits or letting other people waste money. He was also connected in some ways with the chief priest, whether he knew them or not, but he tried to sort of sneak his way in or slither his way in. Was he educated?
Was Judas educated? We don't know that for sure. Gotcha. But he was like that. He had connections.
And yeah, I would say Judas Iscariot would probably have the best resume. Gotcha. I think. Wow. Do you think Adam and Eve had belly buttons?
Oh my goodness.
David, you didn't write these, did you, man? Yeah. Probably not, right? I would say This is my opinion. I would say yes.
I would say yes. And my reasoning for that is that um Adam and Eve were full grown human beings. They were full grown human beings. They were created created to be full grown.
So to expect them to have this development Um Or lack of it would be very odd. True.
So I would say God made them. As a As a template? As a 30-year-old male template. There you go. And a 30-year-old female template.
That's a good point. What's one thing young leaders often get wrong? Whew, yeah, these are tough questions. What is your one? You're young, you're thrown into leadership, you're headstrong, or maybe you're scared.
What do you think is one thing they get wrong? I can only talk about myself. Uh I would say how naive I was. How naive I was. I had seen my dad in leadership.
I had seen Nicole's dad in leadership, and usually God would place people in my life who were. who were leaders. Whether it's in My college or seminary, or I even knew one of my. Friend's dad, who was a college president, who was sort of a sort of a mentor to me, not constant mentor, but at times, you know, we talked, he definitely made an impact on my life. Uh So I I thought I knew.
I thought I knew, and I didn't. And I realized. Early on, wow, I need to learn.
So I spent time. Reading I spent spent time in the early days listening to tapes. Of leadership. I mean, John Maxwell. I mean, John Maxwell was known in the mid-90s.
Yeah. Not as big as he is today. Enjoy ministries. That's what his ministry was called. Enjoy.
And I would, yeah. I enjoy or enjoy, like, ENCO. I enjoy.
Okay. And I would listen to his tapes, and I got some from Nicole's dad. After he passed away, I would listen to them. Just to educate myself. And I knew, like, wow, I don't get it.
I don't get it. What am I missing? Why is it I keep Failing here? Or why is it? I keep like there are areas where I'm smart, I'm sharp, but then there's places like.
Oh. What happened there? And that was a little frustrating. Yeah. It's a naivety.
I would say naivety. Gotcha. For me. Yeah. And it came through life's experiences.
some humbling experiences and then you go, Okay. All right, I'm getting it. Yeah, slowly. I'm learning. Yeah.
What's your go-to Bible verse when life gets crazy? Mm The go-to Bible verse. There are so many there. I would again go back to Galatians 2:20. Yeah.
I'm crucified with Christ, I no longer live. But Christ lives in me. That's one of my favorite verses. There are other verses as well from Colossians talking about who I am in Christ and all that. But again,.
Every verse that reminds me that it's not in me, it's in Christ, that I need to give it to him. And let him handle it. My go-to verses, I would say. What is the one from John? You used to have it on your computer.
It was if I'm lifted up. I will draw all people to myself. Is that John? Is that like 32 or something like that? No, no, no.
John, I can't remember the exact verse. But yeah, Christ says, if I. The Son of Man I'm lifted up. Um Over the earth, I will draw all peoples to myself. John 1232.
Yes. The reason I was asking is because we recently took a trip to New Mexico and we did some mountain climbing that was not planned. That was impromptu mountain climbing. And we all carved verses into the mountain. And we kind of went a little higher.
Dr. Shaw was like, I'm not going to go very much higher. But when we made it to the top, we carved. John. John 12, 32.
I mean, that has been you know how the story behind that verse is one day one Sunday morning, I used to teach Sunday school and nobody showed up for my Sunday school class. Keep in mind, the church had maybe 20 people. Wow. And so I'm upstairs. uh sitting in that classroom, nobody's there.
And um So I read a sermon by Charles Spurgeon. I've been reading that sermon for a while, but I kind of pulled it back up. And not on my phone or anything. I had a hard copy of it. And.
Is it And Spurgeon talks about that. That, you know, don't try to worry or stress or or Become anxious about growing a ministry, a church, or whatever, lift Christ up. Amen. And once I realized that, I said, okay, that is going to be my goal from here on. And here we are, making Christ visible years later.
And that actually was Nicole's dad's motto for the church he planted. And it was not making Christ visible, it was making the invisible Christ visible. Amen. I love it. I took out the invisible, making Christ visible.
It works. It works. It's memorable and it keeps the main thing, the main thing. That's right. And it's been keeping us strong for years and years at this point.
What is one thing Christians need to stop doing? Full stop. What do they need to stop? In America right now, I think Christians need to become more faith-filled, more hopeful, because a lot of wonderful things are happening in America under President Trump. I mean, a lot of good things are happening.
And so don't feel like the other shoe is going to drop. Don't feel like, you know, it's for a while, but I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know. Because I think the American public has been so battered over those four or five years of four years to be exact, this whole pandemic and then all the The negativity we, or even prior to that, I was saying like 2018 on, it was just getting rough. that we feel like I don't wanna I don't I don't wanna Do anything because I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.
We need to start walking with faith and hope and confidence. That God is in control and good days are ahead. and I want us to have the same spirit here at Clear View. And as leaders, we all should have the same spirit as well. That's right.
That's right. What's more dangerous, pride or fear? Mm. In my life, I would say Fear Is very dangerous. Pride is bad too.
Pride got. The devil in trouble.
So if you have pride in your life, um, If you start thinking too highly of yourself, that's a bad place to be. But on the same level, I am more prone to fear than to pride. I think I agree. Like for myself, not for you. Yeah, of course.
There are times that I can be prideful and sort of feel like, hey, I did it. I know what I'm doing. And God has a way of humbling me. But fear is like Let's hunker down. Let's hold it together.
Let's not expand. Let's do the familiar. And we can do that. It just. We're no longer going to grow.
Amen. And if that's what your default is, I tell our team all the time: hey, stick together. We can together inspire each other to not only serve God, but build our families and give our children a good life. We can do that. That's right.
And the reason we can do that is because we. Through God's grace. Inspire one another. We inspire each other to step outside the box. We inspire each other to try things like traveling.
That many of you would otherwise not do it. That's true. Leading a church or growing a ministry may seem like, oh, that's easy. As long as I'm in a good place, we can know we inspire each other. to cross Um unfamiliar territory.
Yeah, fear is a big one. Pride is too. But they're not Both of them are right. That's true. Both killers.
We got time for one more, and I think I know what your answer is going to be, Dr. Shah, but I want to ask it to you: what is the most overused Christian leadership buzzword? Intentionality. Intentionality. I feel you, man.
Everybody's intentional. It's just gotta be really intentional about it. Just whatever you do. I've said it myself. Like when we're editing videos, I always love to put those black cinematic bars, and I've caught myself saying that.
Just, I want it to look like we did this on purpose. We did it intentionally. I'm like, oh. I got it. You're doing it again.
Yeah, don't if you're if you're a Christian leader, man, don't say do stuff intentionally. That's so overdone. Do do stuff with intentionality, but just don't. Don't give that as advice because it makes you it does that's the sad like stuff gets overused where it's like it's actually good advice, but you just can't say it no more. Dr.
Questions, thank you for being on the show. Thank you so much, appreciate you coming by and being with us here. Absolutely, absolutely. Guys, make sure you join us tomorrow, same time, same station. We're going to be diving into another great topic here on the Clearview Today show.
Thanks again to all of our sponsors for making today's episode possible. And don't forget that you can support us by subscribing to the show on iTunes, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast from. And you can also support us financially at Abadanshah.com forward slash give. John, what are we closing with today? This Friday, Friday, Friday, Friday, we are going live, August the 15th from 7 to 9 p.m.
That's part of our 24-hour prayer vigil. If you're in the area, make sure you come and take part in the prayer vigil. But if you're joining us online, make sure you log in. We're going to be on Facebook, YouTube, ClearviewBC.org. I think there's a couple other platforms.
We're going to put it on Pray after the fact. But we want you guys to call in. We're going to have a phone number for you on the screen. You can call and you can, we'll pray with you on the air. It's a great time.
We do three of them every single year. This is the third one for 2025. Can you believe it? No, sir. We have three this year already.
Also, make sure you go and subscribe to Dr. Shah's new show, The Lighthouse, with Dr. Shaw. Dr. Abadan Shah, their weekly devotionals, new episodes every single Saturday.
You can find them on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pray.com, YouTube, even, they're everywhere. That's right. Make sure you guys join us tomorrow. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear Vee Today.
