A Man of Many Talents

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Now the devil's nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. Today, in studio with me, what a joy, what a privilege, what a pleasure to have this man of God here, Bill Coleman. Welcome to the Man Up Show. Oh, thank you, Nikita.

It's good to be here.

Well, it's great to have you here, Bill, and excited to have you. I mean, author, pastor, man of God. You wear a professor, you wear a lot of different hats. A lot of hats. You know, for our listeners out there, of course, because you wear a lot of hats, but tell us, you know, a little bit about Bill Coleman.

Tell us about your story. Oh, man. I mean, my mother was three months pregnant when my father passed away from heart disease, basically. And She she chose to keep me, despite Uh a doctor Telling her that he knew she didn't plan to be a single mom, and there was still time. They were in that window, and she saved my physical life and raised me as a single mom until I was five years old.

At five years old, two life-changing events happened in my life. First, I gave my life to the Lord. As much as a five-year-old can understand the theology of salvation, I can say the first time it really all clicked for me. I responded to it, put my faith in Christ. I'm not saying every five-year-old do that, but it was, for me, it was real.

I still remember it. And then, also at five years old, my mom fell in love with a man who became her husband and adopted me. into his uh his family. My the name I have Is his name. Coleman.

And yes, sir, he adopted me. And so my mom. Saved my physical life. My dad saved my social, relational. cultural life And my Lord saved my life.

So by age five, I'd had a lot of saving going on. Wow. Just to interject right there, that in itself uh is is a f Just a full story, and you know, it's interesting about that. But so, we're going back many years not to AIDS you, but we're going back many years ago that a doctor was, in a sense, in encouraging your mom to have an abortion, yeah. I, you know, and whether he was pushing her or not, I don't know, but I know that he was saying.

Here are your options. You got options. Right, right. To this grieving widow. And, um, Yeah, I mean, she was hesitant to get pregnant anyway.

My biological father wanted. a child, but she knew he was sick. Yeah. And she told me later, it's actually not too long ago, that she actually had prayed, you know.

Okay, Lord, we won't use any protection, but Like How about you protecting? Because he's just sick. It wasn't that she didn't want a child, but she knew his life was uncertain. And so, but. She's a woman of faith and a submissive to his will.

And so, whatever happened, so when she got pregnant, she was loving the Lord and living for the Lord all the way back then. Absolutely. And so, and I thought about this recently, you know, and whatever the number currently is, you know, hear the different numbers thrown around, whether it's 65 million abortions, you know, over the course of 50 plus years or however many years, right? And that's just like, I think in America, if you incorporate the world into that, millions and millions and millions and millions, right? And I was listening to a sermon recently, and of course, I have preached out of Psalm 139, talking about, you know, about how, you know, the Lord kind of has our life story kind of written out, and then we get to pursue that, right?

And hopefully fulfill that life story. And then I'm reminded of the prophet who he said, I knew you before you were even in your mother's womb. And if you pause for a moment, just pause on that and think about. That's okay. Wait a minute.

The creator of the universe knew me, knew you, the listener out there, before you were ever in your mother's womb. And then you enter into your mother's womb. And Bill, I was just thinking recently about all those who've been aborted. God knew every single one of them before they were ever in their mother's womb, had a plan and a purpose for them, and in a sense, were I just want to say this way kind of cheated out of that opportunity, so to speak. For whatever reason, for a varieties of reasons why why why women decide to do that, right?

Or the world was cheated out of the opportunity to have them Do whatever they were gonna do. Do and pursue. Be here to do, right? Whether it's like yourself, authoring books or teaching others now and pastoring at church and or whatever else you do in this life that you've been given, that your mom made a choice to give you life. And here you are, the impact you're making now.

So, brothers and sisters growing up or only child? Only child.

Okay. My dad, when they married when I was five. Of course, my mom was like, you know, we can have a child and, you know, you're. And he told her, um, I missed out on the first five years of Bill's life. I just I just want to invest in him.

Wow, and um, so yeah, I'm an only child. Only child, and uh, so so uh, I know recently, uh, was it recently that you celebrated an anniversary? We fast forward, uh, your marriage, yeah. Let's talk about your plans coming up this month. Oh, it'll be 29 years.

29 years, and you have a family of your own. Yep, yep, gotta tell us about that. Yeah, my uh, my wife and I met in college and were best friends and uh and fell in love. And uh, then we now have a 26-year-old son who's pursuing a degree in Christian counseling, uh, a master's, and we have a daughter who is 23 and she is working in the fashion industry. Fashion industry.

And congratulations on 29 years. Yeah, and but most importantly, they are both still engaged in church. And so as kids growing up, as pastors, kids, that is one of the things I'm most grateful for. Yeah, you have, in fact, you were very, I'll use this word, very intentional with that, right? Because, of course, you know, a lot of people.

There's lots of stories out there about, you know, the pastor, the PKs, as we call the pastor's kids who waver off, you know, down, down, find themselves in a ditch or rebel, right? A lot of rebellion. I mean, we all experience that at some point in our life. At least I'll speak for myself. I have.

But I say all that to say you were very intentional with your children. Take a minute and talk about how intentional you were for them not to go down the path of rebellion. Yeah, I mean, we did things intentionally.

So I knew the history of, you know, a lot of pastor's kids. And, you know, the ministry requires a whole lot of time. I mean, it just, there's a lot of expectations.

So you have to really be guarded and you can't go. 100% family, you can't go 100% ministry. I mean, there's a balance there. And so, um, But it does require time. And we wanted to, one, make sure that when I was home, that I was home, that they got investment.

In two, we wanted to make sure that as a church, that they were treated the same as any other kid, which means a kid messes up and needs to be called on it, they get called on it. But never, I made it clear to my congregation, like from the pulpit, you. You're not going to discipline my kid by saying, no, you're the preacher's kid. Right. You're just not going to do that.

And we kind of built that wall up around that. And then just try to treat them like normal kids and give them the time and not letting them feel like they were second. None of those were guarantees, but they were stuff that we could do on our part. For my daughter, you know, I could never guarantee that she would not. you know, give give herself up to guys and stuff like that.

But what I could guarantee was that she wouldn't do that. Out of not getting affection from me.

So, as parents, we, and I've seen parents who have done. Seemingly all the right things, and their kids still rebel.

So, I mean, your kid still has choices to make, and they're still accountable for those choices. But we're accountable for the parameters we set up and how we structure and what we prioritize. Right, as a parent, right, absolutely. And yeah, and I'm reminded just quickly, I'm reminded of the show that our family was a part of back, you know, seven, eight, nine years ago called Preachers Daughters. And my youngest daughter, Colby, the whole family was on there.

I think they saw him kind of as the Christian Kardashians, actually.

Somebody said what they did. Your girls look like the Christian Kardashians, right? Anyway, but the point of the original intent of the show was to show how pastors' kids were just. Regular kids and how unfairly the church does put them under a microscope or put them in a glass house, right? And I know Kobe had voiced many times, you know, look, I'm just as human as you are.

You know, why do you crucifying me? Because I made a mistake, right? To your point.

So, well, and so, so, okay, so, so you, you have an understanding of salvation at the age of five, and of course, you've got a godly mom raising you, a loving dad that comes in your life and dodes and loves you. What, what an amazing story that is to say, no, I just want to focus on raising Bill. And so, at what point, Bill, did you feel or know in some circles they say that you were going to be called into ministry or led down the path of getting involved and engaged in ministry? Yeah, I was at a youth camp when I was 15 years old. And through that, God just.

Okay. really impressed upon my heart that he was calling me into ministry. At that time, I thought it was music ministry, probably because I just love music and love to sing and all that. And so I surrendered at fifteen.

Well, at sixteen, At a camp the next year, summer camp, I just got kind of knocked down by the Spirit and It became crystal clear to me that the Lord was impressing upon my heart. I did not call you to surrender to music ministry, I called you to surrender to me. And to lay your yes on the table, to say, whatever it is, God. whatever that ministry looks like. I just belong to the Lord and I'm called.

I don't know exactly what that looks like, but I just surrender. You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Okay. If you would like to support Koloff for Christ Ministries, for a gift of $25, Nikita will send you his two CDs, Adoration and Declaration. For a gift of $50, Nikita will include his book, Wrestling with Success.

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And uh I did it at 16, you know.

Okay. And um and then at 18, freshman year of college, I was on a revival team and uh they had revival teams that went out and did youth revivals at different smaller churches. And um and we were doing that and they they were giving us the service and the leader of that team said, Do you want to preach this week? I was like, Sure. And I preached, and it probably was horrible, but it made a tremendous impact on me.

Philippians 2:5 through 11. And when I did that, Uh Whatever ministry God's calling me to is going to include preaching. And he just sealed that up at 18. Wow. And so that's led you down this way.

You've authored a book. We're going to talk about that: The Eternity Lens, Living in the Real World with an Eternal Perspective. We'll talk about that and perhaps another book that's really impacted you. You've pastored a church. You're currently co-laboring at He's Alive Church in Kannapolis, North Carolina.

Right? I did over 20 years of lead pastor and church planting. I did some, I went from a hundred-year-old church into a brand new church, you know, to church planting. And so I've kind of done it. I've done it all, you know.

I mean, as far as the minute pastoring, and then about six years ago, my best friend from college had started, he's a live church, and was asking me to come. Be with him. I was in church planting, and things were finally going well after a lot of roller coaster ups and downs, you know. And I was like, Yeah, I can't leave now. And he goes, That's fine, just pray about it.

I was like, Well, I'm required to pray about it, you know? Right. And so I did, and I could not, I just could not get away from it. Shake it. And so God led me here.

I'm one of the elders there, but also on staff. I'm associate pastor. We tag team the preaching because, again, that's just got to be. part of What I do. And then I'm over all the missions.

I do some administration. I do quite a bit of the counseling. It's a. As you say, a lot of hats. Again, a lot of hats.

And what's amazing is sometimes everyone, anyone ever wanted to visit He's Alive in Kannapolis, North Carolina. You not only, when you say tag team, no pun intended there. Right. Well, you like that word. Were you a wrestling fan growing up?

Oh, yeah, buddy. Oh, yeah. You were. I might have to get one story out of you about wrestling. But it is what's unique too is not only do you guys kind of because you know, some churches might alternate, you know, I'll pastor this week, I'll minister this week, you minister next week, but sometimes you've actually been on stage together and in one sermon have tagged teams.

It's very much like a tag team. We've done that quite a bit, actually. And it's not something that I would automatically recommend to just anybody, but we have a chemistry. It works. And it's like as one person's finishing, I mean, we do sermon prep.

We know who's got what, but we don't prepare. Practice The back and forth. It just flows. It just works. It works.

He's live.

So you wear all these different hats there with he's alive. And of course, you have a heart for overseas ministry. You've been to how many countries so far? How many mission trips have you been on? I have led 30 international mission trips.

And this month I go to Nicaragua and next month back to Vietnam. That'll be my fourth time in Vietnam. Wow. Incredible. And I'm sure there's many, many, many stories.

There's so much we could talk to you about. Many stories there. There's a lot in the book as well. A lot of missions throughout that book. Yes.

Yeah, absolutely. And we're going to get to that. And then, in addition to all of that, you teach an online courses. You teach an online courses. Yeah, I'm an assistant professor for pastoral ministry at Luther Rice College and Seminary.

And uh I've been I've been doing that for several years and um I love it. I teach Uh, teach preaching. I teach their practicum, their internships. Um Some on the bachelor's level uh teach administration, teach uh Pastoral ministry, and bachelor's level, master's level, and doctoral level. That's that in itself is, again, we could do, I think we could do 10 shows with you, Bill.

I guess we're just going to have to have you back sometime.

Okay, so with all that said, and that, boy, that's a lot of people right now are like, whoo, I'm going to, they're pausing and taking a catching their breath right now.

So, with all that, I do want to just speak for a minute or two to this. You're wearing a Man Camp t-shirt in today. And because with all of that, you were invited to the Man Camp. Of course, listeners have heard a lot about Man Camp over the years in listening to the show, QA with Koloff here at the Man Up Show. Why did you choose to come to Man Camp with all you have going on?

Why did you choose to come to Man Camp? Yeah, I'll. Don't you hate it when people say, Well, let me be honest. Because you're like, Do you have to tell me that you're going to be honest? Shouldn't you always be honest?

That means you're lying to me. Yeah, when did you lie to me? But I probably, even though it always intrigued me, and I, for a couple of years, since you came and did a Man Up Day conference at our, at He's Alive, you know, I was like, man, that sounds cool. But fitting something else into my schedule is just very difficult. And so I had two guys in my life group who, when you came and spoke on Sunday, and you you spoke about man camp.

They said We're going. Yeah. Well If they're gonna go. I need to go, you know? Yeah.

And so, and even the week of, Prior to I called you. Right. And basically, I was like, I don't know if I can go, man. There's just too much going on. And you, you talked me off the ledge.

And I went, and it was incredible. It was so needed. I can't imagine not going to take that week to disconnect. I needed it. I needed it.

And I'll never forget that first night when you said, Uh you said You're going to find out when you go back. That life went on without you and that people are still living. And still okay, even without needing Bill. And that's just impactful. But time alone with the Lord, the teaching was good.

The fellowship was great. The mercy seat and all that stuff was phenomenal. But What stood out above all was just Quiet. Peace, solitude with the Lord With no other responsibilities. Yeah, I remember you said to me, Bill, you said for those listening out there, obviously, as you're hearing Bill's story and all that he's involved and engaged in, that in fact, that first, I think that first That first time we, after breakfast, we sent you out for a quiet time, what we call quiet time, an hour and a half of just quiet time.

You said it had been, if I correct me if I'm wrong, it had been a long time since you'd had, let's just say, an hour and a half undistracted, quiet time like that, anyway, with the Lord. Is that for sure? And then I know you said the. The day in the wilderness, we won't reveal too much because of the camp, but the day in the wilderness, again, you said just having that time alone out there, spending that day with the Lord. again, was very um Impactful for you, right?

Majorly.

So awesome.

Well, before we run out of time, I do want to talk about, let's just talk about just briefly the eternity lens and why you wrote the book. I know you said a lot of it comes from experiences overseas and missionary trips, but give us just a synopsis of yeah, the seeds of it were really planted back when I was 17 years old and God did a work in my heart and life. I was standing at the point of having to make a decision after my junior year of high school and trying to figure out some stuff. And I was very stressed. And as I was reading the word, I came across this passage of scripture.

Take heart. 2 Corinthians 4, 16 through 18. Take heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us a glory that far outweighs it all.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, what is unseen is eternal. And God through that scripture just directed my heart and gave me peace. And one thing that I've seen over the years is that we talk about spiritual gifts, and I think one of the spiritual gifts that God has given me is faith. Um And I see that in a lot of the counseling I do.

I mean, just trust in the Lord through the temporary circumstances. with an eye on This all is enveloped by eternity. And uh, I help a lot of people in that direction because they have trouble seeing the unseen, yeah, and so uh. With that, because I've helped a lot of people in that, my heart for the book was just to spread that more, to try to help more folks, just to see. And so the book takes the Word of God and it takes my experiences and kind of.

Molds them together, but the goal is not for people to learn more about me. It's for them to begin to see their own experiences in the real world. We don't deny the stuff going on in the real world or the difficulties or the struggles or the great joys. But seeing those through an eternal perspective.

Well, and I've read the book. I've got it in my hand, and I'm just thumbing through it, looking at all the different things I've highlighted, underlined, and how it's impacted me. Just to one, one, I'm just your story's not about you, it's about God. Never, never forget that life principle. Your story is that you're hearing about Bill's story today, but every one of our stories, you know, our story really isn't about it.

It's really about God, right? And never forget that life principle. There's another book that impacted you. We only got a couple minutes left, but what's the title of that book, and why did that book impact you so much? Yeah, I actually had a guy give me a book, and a lot of times, man, with everything I got going on, I need to read more.

Okay, right, right, right. But it was called Positively Irritating. And I created a doctoral class at Luther Rice called Innovative Pastoral Ministry. And so this guy gave me this book, and I was looking at it, and it looked like. It kind of fits, so I want to make sure I want to see.

Actually, required as a textbook now, but it's called Positively Irritating. And it's really about embracing a postmodern culture for purposes of the gospel. That's my own paraphrase of the subtitle, but it's by John Rittner. And as I read through, I required in that class now.

Now, with any book we recommend, we may not agree with every single thing in there, but. It comes out of the analogy of a grain of sand, a grain of sand in a person's eye. Is very irritating, actually can cause damage. But a grain of sand and an oyster will actually develop a pearl. And there's a lot of things that are irritating to us as believers in our culture.

And there's certainly things we need to take a stand for, especially those things with which the Bible speaks of. But when we take a stand, we still do so with grace, gentleness, and respect, love, yeah. And so, uh, but. How can we use the things of culture as bridges to the gospel? And ultimately, that's what that book talks about, you know, and how we, in one area, he calls going from a restaurant mentality to a food truck mentality.

Meaning, restaurant mentality is we're set in one place. Y'all are welcome to come. If you like the flavors we offer here, then come on to our church. Food truck goes where the people are. And yeah, there are different flavors.

There's different types of ministry, but they're actually going into the neighborhoods. They're going into the parks. They're going to where the people are. And we are in a different scenario in our culture of it's not as much come and see, it's go and tell. Dr.

BillColeman.com. How can people find out more about He's Alive? You go to He'salivechurch.org is our website. Bill, thanks for being on the Man Up Show today. It was great.

Thanks for having me. Great to have you here. And thank you for tuning in once again to the Man Up Show. Have a God bless you. Blessed Godfield Day.

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