Vision Week - Part C

It's Vision Week on Connect with Skip Heitzig, and on this broadcast, we will hear a conversation with Skip's son, Nate Heitzig, about the vision developed for media and ministry. People are at a quest for truth. And let me tell you something, if the Church changes its tune on these things, the world's going to say, you said this 10 years ago, now you said this five years ago, now you're saying this today.

So if what you're saying is your bedrock for truth is constantly changing, then how can I find any hope in that because it's a changing spectrum? Now, let's join Nate Heitzig in the studio for this conversation with Chip Lusko. Hello, and welcome to Connect with Skip Heitzig.

This is Chip Lusko. We're in the middle of Vision Week and our guest today, Nate Heitzig. So glad to be here.

We're sitting in the media building of Calvary Connection Communications, where the goal here is to simply amplify what happens in the sanctuary where the Word of God is proclaimed, to take it outside these walls and do as many opportunities to the world as possible. And that's been happening in a large way. Last year, it was really amazing what happened here. We've seen tremendous growth in YouTube, for example.

What's your response to that, Nate? Yeah, I think it's exciting. You know, I think so much of the growth happened because we were ready. I think there's a principle in the Bible of being ready in season and out of season.

Of course, that primarily speaks to pastors being ready to teach whenever they're called upon. But I really think that we were ready for such a time as this. You know, we had been, you know, Chip, really through your leadership, my dad's leadership for years, been prepping our teams to have great online content readily available. So when COVID hit, we weren't trying to pivot and figure out how to get stuff online.

We were ready to take that job. Now, we amped it up to the next level and really started an online campus and tried to really meet with people where they were and give them a true church at home experience. But we saw, during that time, YouTube just explode. You know, our YouTube went from, I think, at the beginning of COVID, having, you know, around 20,000 to 30,000 subscribers to now we're at 200,000 subscribers on our YouTube channel, frequently seeing in our weekend services 50,000 to 60,000 views, which equates to us, you know, by our metric as far as people watching. You know, we're seeing around 100,000 to 150,000 people a week watch our services.

And then we're seeing our weekend, you know, archives, archive on YouTube and see frequently, you know, it's not uncommon to see 200,000 to 300,000 views on a YouTube video. And so I think it shows that people are hungry. People are hungry for truth.

There is so much misinformation, fake news, junk out there in social media. We can't really know what is true. And the Bible is true. Every bit of it is true. Every bit of it is relevant and applicable to our lives. I don't care what, you know, woke mob culture wants to tell you that it's not applicable to your life, that it's irrelevant and it's old and it's all these old books by old people for old times.

It's not true. It's applicable to our lives and people want truth. And that's what we're seeing. I think what's the most incredible thing to me, Chip, is our YouTube is we're seeing not only the views that we're seeing, we're seeing an average of about 32 to 35 minutes is how long someone's watching one of our YouTube channels and one of our YouTube videos, which the average metric for most YouTube channels is somewhere between 10 to 15 minutes. But we're putting out in-depth Bible teaching and people are listening to it from start to finish. They're not just, you know, watching it and watching in five minutes and tuning out. They are getting the word.

They are studying the word. And that's so encouraging to see. We really are in a new media world, aren't we? That's right. And we actually have a worldwide campus, correct? We have a worldwide campus. We're launching satellites all over the world. We're launching satellites in England and Scotland, in Cape Town, South Africa, all over the country. And that's really part of our large focus plan going forward is that instead of launching these large terrestrial campuses that we're having to pay a ton of money to rent and outfit and renovate and hire a campus pastor to focus more on launching satellite campuses all around the world and using people who have a heart and a passion to reach their communities to be a campus coordinator. And it's just crazy how YouTube has been helping form those decisions because we're able to now with YouTube look at not only the large scope of how people are watching, we're able to see exactly where our big pockets are watching from. So we can identify certain cities around the world that we say, hey, we've got several thousand people watching in this city.

Well, let's start a satellite there and try to get those people to come join us in person and start building community and relationships. You mentioned the hunger, that we're filling the need for people recognizing their hunger for truth. Skip's been doing a year-long series in prophecy, and it's really hit a nerve, hasn't it? It sure has because I don't think you have to be a Christian to look at the world and realize, crap, is the world going to end? Like, what's happening? Is Armageddon here?

My uncle, who for the longest time was my someone, and for our listening audience who doesn't know what that is, he was the one person in my life that I never thought would respond to the gospel, but I always prayed would. He was that last person, like, man, Lord, reach him. And it was because of what's happening in the world that he started looking at it. He started asking questions like, man, is this Armageddon stuff real? Is this Revelation stuff?

Is this Bible stuff actually true? Because it looks like the world is going to end. And again, you don't have to be a Christian person. You just have to be a sane person to look at the world right now, look at all the insanity, all this transgender, LGBTQ+, all of this misinformation being spread, the politics, and you don't have to be a Christian to look at it and say, this is crazy.

Something's wrong here. And so we did this series, The End is Near, question mark, to kind of ask this question, is the end near? Are we in the end times? You kind of have the two opposite spectrums. You have these doomsday prophets that for the past 200 years have always been saying the end is near.

And then you have those who kind of just live their lives, you know, with disregard and with blinders on to what's happening. And so we've been asking that question, looking at an in-depth theology of what our eschatology is. You know, one of the most important philosophies here at The Connection has always been, by whatever means, get the gospel out. And the means are growing in this new media world.

You're really starting a video podcast as part of that, aren't you? We oftentimes get people who ask us, will you do a sermon on whatever this topic is? And usually it's with whatever is currently in the news. One of the joys, though, that we have as a church, my dad's always said, is we get away without having to do a lot of that stuff, because we just teach the Bible verse by verse. So if we're in an end time series, we're not going to talk about whatever the current news thing is, because that's not what we're in. And so we've always said we'll hit it when we get to it. When we get to it in Scripture, we'll talk about it.

But otherwise, we're not going to harp on whatever society wants us to harp on. But a lot of people do want to know my dad's perspective and views on certain topics. They want to know, Skip, what do you think about Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light?

And what do you think about Target? And what do you think about aliens now that Congress has admitted aliens exist? And they want to know what he thinks about these topics, but it's not something we're going to talk about on a weekend message. So my dad and I are going to start a podcast.

I don't think I want to reveal the name yet, just in case it gets taken by somebody else who's wanting to swoop in there. But we're going to be talking about, honestly, the things that we talk about at a dinner table, the things that we talk about in a closed room that no one gets to hear, and our take and our response to different things. And this is exciting for us because as we've seen the online audience grow, we want to give our online audience and our audience around the world supplemental content, apart from just the teaching ministry of Skip Heitzig and Calvary Church. And so this is a great way to give the world, I think, some really fun, engaging content. You're going to hear my dad and I talk in a way with some candor that you might not hear us talk in the pulpit in the same way.

So you're going to get to see a different side, I think, of my dad and a different side of us, and I'm really excited about that. Nate, you played a huge role in casting vision for the church and the media ministry. Why is it important to have an annual vision statement?

Yeah, I mean, I think there's a very biblical precedence. You know, the Bible tells us that without vision, the people perish. And I think that when you have a clearly stated vision, not only does it help your team know where to go, but it also makes most decisions—the decisions make themselves.

Most decisions become, you know, you don't have to think about it a lot. They just become second nature because you have a clearly stated vision. So we've really articulated that. We have a purpose statement. Our purpose is creating life change. So that becomes a lens that we look through everything. We say, hey, is this whatever we're going to do, this new radio ministry, this new podcast, this new church ministry, does it have an opportunity to create life change in some form or fashion? That doesn't have to be spiritual. That can be physical life change.

That can be making you a better husband, a better mother, a better wife, a better kid. But that becomes a very clear lens we can look through. So people often ask why we're doing this ministry or why we're doing that event. And when it fits into vision, it's understandable.

When it fits into the vision of who we are, something like freedom celebration that costs a lot of money to do, people are like, oh, of course they're doing that because their purpose is to create life change. So I think it's really important to clarify that. And also I think part of our job as pastors and as church leadership is to exercise the gift of prophecy, is to look ahead to what is going to happen in society and preemptively prepare the people for coming seasons. We see this all throughout the Old Testament is God speaks to prophets and to leaders in a way so that they can prepare the people for the coming storms.

So I think part of the job of my dad, the job of myself, the job of our team is to look at where we've been, look at where we're going and what we see possible storms are on the horizon and prepare the people for those seasons. You know, we like to equate it to setting the spies in the land of Canaan before you just go ahead and march in. Nate, we've seen an interesting phenomenon raise its head called deconstruction and now de-churching. I'd like your take on this.

And there's a lot of chest beating, it seems to me, especially in the youth ranks of, oh, well, what have we done wrong? Why are they leaving us? You know, people depart us from Jesus left and right. What's your thought on that, Nate?

Yeah. You know, I think it really boils down to something we're told in 1 John is that the darkness hates the light. The darkness does not comprehend it.

The light is, it's a thorn in their flesh. You know, it jabs them, it hurts them because it's their conscience. It's the Holy Spirit bearing witness against them in their sin, not Christians bearing against them in their sin.

It's the Holy Spirit and He convicts them. He brings that condemnation upon them, not us. And so, you know, for those who start deconstructing, I'm like, hey, take it up with God. Your issues with God, you can deconstruct and try to say, oh, well, the church was abusive, or they tried to get us to remain pure. They tried to, you know, the big one I hear now is a lot of people talking about that we glorify violence because we glorify the death of Jesus Christ.

And that, how could a loving Father do that to His Son that the Bible teaches abuse because the Father abused the Son by sending Him to death? And just such skewed, skewed views of the Bible. And my issue is they just have a problem with truth.

That's really what it comes down to. They have a problem with truth. And any debate about this has to come down to where do you get truth from? Because either truth is absolute, and if truth is absolute, where does that absolute come from? And for us as Christians, the absolute comes from the Bible. So you cannot like certain parts about it, but that doesn't make it less true.

I cannot like the fact that the Son is going to burn me, but it doesn't make it less true that if I go out into the sun without sunblock on, I'm going to get burned. I cannot like that, but it's still true. So there's a lot of things that we cannot like, but it doesn't negate the veracity of the truth behind it. And so I think that's really people's issue with the Bible is they want to have their own form of truth, but where does that end? If everyone has their own form of truth, if everyone has their own version of right and wrong, then that's pandemonium, that's chaos. And also that really breeds violence, that really breeds discord, that breeds disunity, because all of a sudden my truth can be that I can harm you, and your truth can be that you can harm me.

And it really doesn't lead to a peaceful society. If we have no absolutes for truth, it leads to chaos. Hey, that's really good, because the question is, where are they going? Let's go back to that moment when everybody left Jesus, except his most inner circle. And Jesus said to Peter, will you leave me also? And Peter didn't have maybe the best answer, but he did say, where would we go? And that's the question. I don't see them, people leaving the church, going to a better alternative. Do you?

No. Well, they're really becoming animals, is really what they're doing. And a lot of times they'll try to use the animal kingdoms.

Let's just use the LGBTQ plus agenda for a second. I've heard people say, well, you know, why is it wrong if it's natural? Some animals will actually have sex, males with males and females with females. My response is, well, a lot of animals eat their young too. So should we start eating our young? You know, a lot of animals do a lot of bad things that we wouldn't condone or recommend. Lions frequently will go into a pride of lions and destroy all the lions, the males, the females, everybody, so they can rule the roost.

Should we do that as well? So trying to equate and say, oh, well, it's right because animals do it. Last I checked, if someone calls you an animal, that's not a compliment.

That's a diss. And so I think that, you know, it's not a positive thing, but we see society descending more and more into being animals and trying to excuse it. But we're not animals. We're called to a higher standard and we have a moral absolute set by God and set by the Scripture. So you lay out the vision. It's given to the leadership and then to the church at large.

What encouragement would you give to somebody who's been a spectator but now wants more involvement, but they're a little bit queasy about what that might mean to them? Yeah, so our vision church-wide, and this also extends into Connect with Skip, our radio, television ministries as well, is that people would have a home for their heart. And that, for us, means three things.

This place, these people, my privilege. Now, when we say home, that can mean what we equate to as three different things. Home can be literally your dwelling place, your family, your husband, your wife, your kids, your grandkids, your relatives. That can refer to home. Home can also mean your church, your church home. And then finally, home can mean your city, the place to which you're called, the place that you're currently dwelling. And I think the thing that each one of us can do, no matter where we live, is everyone has a next step to take more ownership in one of those areas.

With your family, taking the next step and having some ownership and viewing your family as this place, these people, my privilege. Maybe that means doing a date night on a weekly basis with your wife and growing in intimacy. Maybe that means doing a game night instead of coming home stressed out of work and just sitting down and watching TV or watching sports, maybe spending some intentional time with your family. Maybe you can take that next step in one of those areas. Maybe for your church, that can mean serving and volunteering and serving in a different ministry. Maybe that means tithing.

Maybe that means joining a small group or a connect group. I think this applies to all of us. I find, not just our city, our country, I find Christians are so prone to just complain about things we don't like. The amount of complaining I've seen from Christians just, you know, it kind of feels like the sky is falling, the sky is falling. Just constantly complaining about how bad our country is, how far it's fallen, how wicked our politicians are, how wicked what we're seeing in schools is.

And all of these things are true. But if we spend all of our time just harping on what we don't like instead of saying, you know what, that's not good. I'm going to be a part of changing it. I'm going to view my country, I'm going to view my city as my place, my people.

And therefore, it's my privilege because I have an ownership mentality to make it better. So I think if each person just found that next step—because you have one, every one of us has a next step—what is your next step for your family? What is your next step for your church?

What is your next step for your city and for your country to stop complaining but start taking ownership and start doing something? I know you're an eternal optimist for sure, but you can't deny you know we're surrounded by a growing moral insanity in our country today. Would you address the principle that where sin abounds is not a period but a comma, grace abounds the more? Well, I think my first thought is that the more lost people there are, the more opportunity there is to reach those lost people. If I recognize that, you know, maybe 50 years ago I could walk around the street and most people would agree with me if I said, Jesus Christ is Lord. Well, it's harder to find people that you need to preach the gospel to then. But if I go on the street now and I talk to 100 people and say, Jesus Christ is Lord, what, maybe 10 percent, 20 percent of those are going to agree with me?

That shows me that there's a lot more opportunity for me to find people that need to hear the gospel. And yet I find the opposite happens. So often when the culture stops agreeing with us, we start hiding more than we do speaking. We start hiding in our bubbles and we don't want to voice it because we're scared of what the world's going to do. We're scared of how they're going to respond.

We think they're going to get mad at us and throw stones at us or call us bigots or whatever that is. And so we hide rather than recognizing man. If there's a lot of sin abounding right now, that means the opportunity for grace to be preached and truth to be preached is at an all-time high. So let's stop hiding and let's start evangelizing. And I think this heart of loving people is so key to this, that if we truly love people the way that Jesus loved people, then that love is going to translate into our heart to share the gospel with them and see them restored to the Father. And not in a way that a lot of churches do now where we excuse their sin and say, oh, well, you know, actually the Bible doesn't say anything about homosexuality.

It's okay to live that lifestyle and be a Christian. Not in that way, not watering down the truth. Again, we started this out talking about people are at a quest for truth.

And let me tell you something. If the church changes its tune on these things, the world's going to say, if the church changes its tune, the world's going to say, you said this 10 years ago. Now you said this five years ago. Now you're saying this today. So if what you're saying is your bedrock for truth is constantly changing, then how can I find any hope in that?

Because it's a changing spectrum. But truth is truth. What's right is always right. What's wrong is always wrong.

What's right is never wrong, and what's wrong is never right. And if we hold to the standards the Bible sets, that is attractive to people because they're looking for something, anything that isn't changing. You know, now kids in school can be cats and they have litter boxes in classrooms for these cats to use the restroom.

I mean, this is insanity. And the world is looking at this and they're wondering, is there anything that's stable for me to set my feet upon? And if we show them the Bible with grace, with love, if we love them, but then preach the truth to them, their lives are going to change. Do you agree, Nate, that in this post-COVID environment, there's a renewed sense of energy, passion, and zeal in the church? We're seeing a growth in men's, women's, and youth ministry, aren't we?

Yeah, I think there is. We're seeing it in this church, but we're seeing it around the country. I believe there are signs and there are hints of another revival to break out in our country. I think people, I mean, I don't want to be cliche and I hate even saying this, but people are sick and tired of being sick and tired. People are just tired of the news cycle. People are tired of the division, the hatred in our country. People are tired of the violence that we're seeing on our streets. People are tired of the poverty ravaging our country.

It's just left and right. I mean, you can't watch the news for five minutes and not just watch a tirade of what is happening to our country, not just our country, our world. And so people are looking for something. And the gospel has the answers that they're looking for.

And I think that we're seeing people come and ask these questions. We're seeing people come on our campus who have been disillusioned by sin, who have been disillusioned by what society has told them is going to be the key to happiness, and it hasn't worked for them. They got the college degree and they're in debt. They got a job that's not paying enough because the economy's in the toilet.

We've had people who have come and have transitioned because they were told that they could be a man or a woman when they weren't. And they're disillusioned by it because they're left doing all these things that society says is going to make them happy, and they're still desperately sad. They're still alone. They don't have hope.

And they're coming and they're realizing that Jesus has the hope that they've been craving. And I really believe the answer to fixing our country is not politics. You know, I know we've got an election coming up next year. It doesn't matter who's in office. Our power as Christians has never been in politics. Our power has never been with who's in office. Our power has always been in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel spread so quickly in a society in ancient Rome that was about as anti-Christian as you could get, and it spread like wildfire because our power isn't in politics. Our power isn't in presidential offices.

Our power is in Jesus Christ. Nate, you're in a unique position. Your fingerprints are all over this vision statement magazine we're offering, and yet you are meaningfully collaborating with your dad in his prime.

What's that like for you? Yeah, I think sometimes it comes in different ways. My dad's given me a very large amount of latitude, so sometimes it will come from me observing things in society and kind of creating vision or creating ideas and then coming to him and running it by him and saying, hey, what do you think about this?

And usually he gives a thumbs up and it's good to go. Other times it will sit, it will come from sitting down with my dad or other pastors and church leaders talking through things that we're seeing, things that we're noticing in society, frustration points, tension points. Other times it will come from observing things in the church or in society that we think can be better, and I'm always looking at things and asking this or that. How could this be better?

How could this change? What are we missing? What does our church need? And this year's vision came out of that, came out of what we believe we lost as a church during COVID, what we lost as a society during COVID. We had a lot of Bible teaching. We had a lot of content.

As a matter of fact, I think more people during COVID were watching content online than ever before, because that's all you could do. So we had more Bible teaching, more content, but we had very little connection to one another. There were so many negative ideas, so many negative ideas, so many negative habits that seeped into our individual lives and into the church. And you see this in families, you know, disagreeing with the politics and not having Thanksgiving or Christmas together anymore and not wanting to communicate with each other anymore.

Neighbors who have known each other for 20 years, finding out that the other person voted for a different candidate than they voted for and cutting them off and canceling them. And this whole cancel culture that came out of these past years, I think a lot of what we're seeing in our vision for this year, this place, these people, my privilege, is trying to break down those barriers and say, hey, well, I might not agree with you. I can still love you. I can still respect you as a human being. I can still talk to you and converse with you.

And I think it's hopefully trying to break down some of those walls. That's great, Nate. Hey, this is Connect with Skip Heitzig, Chip in studio today. In fact, all week we've been doing Vision Week with Skip and Lendia and today, Nate, I hope you've enjoyed it on Connect with Skip Heitzig.

Next time, we will present a special preview of an upcoming prophecy series from Skip Heitzig. Now, here's information on our Vision Week resource offer. What is the purpose that God created man for? Listen to this from Skip Heitzig about God's ultimate purpose. God's creation of man was so that his reflection would be in man, but the ultimate purpose is that God might interact with man and woman.

Fellowship, fellowship, intimacy to be conversant with, at ease with, to interact with. Fulfilling purpose requires clarity of vision. You'll want to order our vision resource package for this month, which also includes a full color magazine about the vision that drives Skip's ministry. You'll also receive an audio copy of Skip clearly outlining his philosophy of ministry in the past, present, and future. Receive your vision package when you make a donation of $50 or more to Connect with Skip. Give your gift by calling 1-800-922-1888 or online at connectwithskip.com. That's 1-800-922-1888 or online at connectwithskip.com. You've been listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Join us next time with more of our special programs during Vision Week. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.