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Don't contest is set for one fall. Introducing first from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, the Russian nightmare, the kita kola.
Now the devil's nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. I'm ready. With me in studio today, always a privilege, always a pleasure to have someone in studio because it's fun because I can just look them eye to eye and be able to have this conversation for all of you wonderful people out there listening. But here on the Man Up Show today, Bob Ritter, Bob, welcome to the Man Up Show.
Thank you. Good to be here. And it's time to man up, right? That's right. And so, so it's great to have you here.
We met just recently, not that long ago, and actually, our past didn't cross here in America. They crossed overseas, right? That's right. Israel. Israel.
We were in the great state of Israel and we were on what was, I guess, considered by many a historical event there in Israel. Where we had the the opportunity to spend about a week there and be able to uh To experience some unique things. Had you been to Israel prior to that? Yes, this was my, I think, sixth or seventh trip. Oh, wow.
Yeah.
Okay. Quite a few times.
Now, prior to that, my guess is those would have been more tour-type of events. That's right. Did you take like groups or were you part of groups? Part of groups. Went with, back in the day, Jonathan Falwell out of Liberty.
Yeah.
Went on a tour with him and a friend of my church, and then went back a couple times, went with a radio station.
Okay. Billy Graham's radio station, 106.9 of Light. Went with them once. And so, you've been there several times. I forget the other trips, but yes, pastor-type trips.
Yeah, so it's just more, you know, sailing the Sea of Galilee. Right. Normal biblical tour. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This was different than that.
Yeah, where this was different than that. And I have done, for those of you listening, done a couple other shows that talked more in detail regarding that. Just out of curiosity, Dr. Dwayne Carson, who Was on our but we shared a bus together so dating the word, right? Yeah, dating the word, and he's a liberty guy, yes, he is.
That's right, I forgot about that. Yeah, so I figured the minute you just mentioned Liberty, I'm like, I wonder if you and Dr. Carson connected with each other. My son's about to go there, my son's senior this year, and heading Liberty.
So I just visited their campus for the first time. I'd never been. Oh, wow. And very impressive.
So that it is. That it is. And I'll just say this: and we'll move. I actually had a phone call today on the way here from one of my man camp alumni. We were talking, discussing.
I just preached at his church. I did a men's breakfast the past Saturday, preached at his church on Sunday. He and his wife, we went out to lunch after, had an extended, long. Lunch conversation was incredible. But he asked me, he goes, Hey, I forgot to ask you, you know, are you planning any trips back to Israel or whatever?
I go, well, as a matter of fact, one of the things that trip prompted, got kind of put in my heart, was to put together, I had my first tour group established back in 2020. I think we all know what happened then. I did too. I had a trip going. Did you really?
Yeah, yeah.
So that kind of got shut down for obvious reasons. And I hadn't thought about. Rescheduling that or planning that, but while in Israel this last time, I'm like, okay, I just felt the Lord put on my heart, just put. Put a group together here in the future. I had the same thought, and my kind of take was: you know, we've learned now.
Years can tick off, and you can't take that trip. Yes.
So it's not just a finance thing.
Sometimes it's not open and it's not safe. And so while it is, I think a lot of us ought to try to put this together. And that's what I'm doing. I'm going to try to make a trip to you. Good for you.
Well, let's back up for just a moment, Bob. You're born and raised in Kentucky, in the bluegrass state. That's right. Louisville, Kentucky. The bluegrass state of Kentucky.
I guess they call it because it literally has bluegrass. I mean, it looks blue.
Well, it's because it's because of the music. Oh, the bluegrass music. That's the thing. But I grew up thinking that too, very confused. Why is there no bluegrass in the bluegrass state?
Right. But it is a darker shade of grass, to your point.
Okay. But no, it's for the music bluegrass. It is the home of bluegrass. And a dirty little secret, I'm admitting on your show. I hate bluegrass.
No finger on the bottom. Let's go, you bluegrass lovers out there. No, it's allowed for the. I don't like Taylor Swift either, so there's that. I'll just offend everybody.
But. Hey, everybody has their favorites. That's right. Those they like and those they dislike. My wife and daughter are very offended about the Tyler Swift part.
They agree with me on bluegrass.
Well, and I've learned over the years, like, I would say this about music. I'm a fan. There's certain genres of music I'm more a fan of than others. But at that at that said, I try not to... I try not to say I just absolutely loathe that or whatever.
Like, I've tried to, and part of that is. I should learn from that. I'm a little offensive.
Well, I'm just saying, but part of that is, like, over the years, like, even with, even with raising my children, I raised four girls, and I tried to, I wanted them to experience the arts, for example. Yeah.
So I would take them to Broadway plays. Absolutely. I would take them to ballets. You know, all these, I would take them to a classical. Concert, right?
You know, like the symphony kind of thing. Absolutely. Some things they enjoyed more than others. Absolutely. Dad, I didn't like that concert.
Okay, well, I get it. It's Doc Taylor Swift. I get it. That's right. That's right.
It was violins and cellos. I understand.
So, anyway. All right.
So, Bluegrass State of Kentucky and Take a minute and tell us about your family.
So, yeah, we actually, my mom and dad, when I was really young, my dad left on Christmas morning and the family was kind of ruptured over the relationship he had in Louisville. And we were in Evansville, Indiana, about two and a half hours away. And so, in an effort to repair the marriage, my mom and myself and my older sister, I only have one sibling, we moved to Louisville for the marriage to work at it. And then we ended up at a church there. My mom became a Christian school teacher.
And so I was at that church from around the age of four all the way through 18. Grew up in the church, actually lived on the church property, which is. A strange bit of info. Yeah, well that's yeah. Not unusual, right?
Unusual.
So you were around four when when the family got fractured? That's correct. That's correct. Okay. Yep.
You you and I have something somewhat in common there. My my my dad left when I was around three.
Okay. Yeah.
Left my mom and I was the youngest of four actually. And so I was raised by a single mom.
So we've got some assemblers.
Okay, so you. Very involved in church there. Figured out that I loved hanging out with the youth pastor there. He was a surrogate father to me, and just he had five sons, all younger than me. Oh, wow.
So, you became a prophet? Yeah, they became my family. And in fact, one of his sons, his oldest son, is the school administrator of our ministry. You met David on that trip. David was the guy traveling with me on that trip.
All these years later. Yep, that's my youth pastor's son. That I now have, we've worked together for the last 17 years.
Okay. So, anyway, fell in love with ministry, knew I wanted to be a youth pastor, went through some kind of tough situation there in Louisville with just a situation that wasn't sustainable for me to stay at that ministry anymore. And so, we went to Hot Springs, Arkansas, of all places. I knew a guy there that needed a youth pastor. I think I've been there.
Have you? I think I've wrestled there. Oh, I'm sure you have. But I have. I'm sure you have.
So, went to Hot Springs for 10 years. I was a youth pastor there, grew a youth group from about 20 kids to about 250. 7th through 12th graders. And man, some of the most amazing times of my life there. In fact, cool fact, I ended up then meeting a guy that.
Jumped his motorcycle for churches kind of during the X game, real big. Todd Bennock, he raced motocross and would come and jump at youth events and attract crowds and preach the gospel. I went to the Philippines with him and did some things over there. It's really a cool way to meet. Anyway, he lived in Nebo, North Carolina, which is right outside of Marion.
Okay. And so about 10 years into the youth pastorate, I was going through some things with my spouse. We were just really struggling. I was a workaholic. We had some unresolved issues.
And so I figured out the pastor wanted to be co-pastor.
So I said, look, I need to take a sabbatical or something here and work on, make sure I'm going to have a wife moving forward because I've been a terrible husband. How long have you been married at that point? Roughly, let's see, 15 years, probably. At that point. Yeah.
Okay. All right.
Something like that. Would you say, let me just interject real quick. Would you say, because I've often said sometimes ministers. becomes a mistress for some. Absolutely.
And it ends up damaging the marriage and in some cases absolutely destroys the marriage, right? Absolutely. The wife kind of gets jealous. Like at our man camps, I can't tell you how many guys I've heard say, you know, they're a PK, their dad was a pastor, but he spent more time, gave more time and attention to the congregation than he did to him as his son. I say it this way.
It's a good boy's drug of choice. It's still unresolved issues from childhood. It's still chasing. It's idolic. It's not the way God intended it.
And you fall in love with success and numbers. It becomes an idol in a situation. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right.
So you're going to take a sabbatical, take some time off to work on the marriage. Yep. And so my friend said, look, why don't you, he owns a successful excavation company here in North Carolina. He said, look, how are you going to make money for this year you're taking off? I said, I hadn't thought about it.
I guess I'll deliver pizzas or something, but I'll figure out something. You'll make a way. He said, why don't you come here? I've got a house that you can stay in for rent-free, and I'll let you help me with. He knew I was pretty smart with business, and so he said, Why don't you help me in my business?
And so I worked for a year there.
Well, that was 08. It was the recession, all the mess that had been 08.
So the excavation work was drying up. The church I was at was a large church in Arkansas. At that day, it had grown to become a large church.
So they were laying off employees. It was a really tough time.
So it realized there's nothing to go back to, there's no opportunity to go back. Um, so uh, started attending a church in Nebo called Eastside Baptist Church, Nebo, North Carolina, Nebo, North Carolina. I didn't know there was such a thing, it's beautiful Lake James, it's the great kid and seek of Western Carolina for sure. That's right. Now I've let it out on your podcast.
Yep, no longer a secret, it's not a secret event. That's right, but but uh, we we uh ended up uh attending this church, and through the process of just God moving, I'm now the pastor at that church. It was a little church of about 80 people, wow, and um, it has just grown, and we're having the time of our lives. We've got a Christian school there, a daycare, and just good things happening started with about 80. That's right, 17 years ago.
I know we told you 17 years ago, so you've been there 17 years, and I think you told me it's kind of a I'm not great at math, but it's kind of like you've had kind of a times 10 growth from 80 to roughly 800, something like that. 800 people for little Nebo, North Carolina, Bob. That's pretty impressive. Like, well, there's churches in Charlotte that North Carolina that don't have 800 people in them, but I tell people, right? I tell people all the time, look, the pastor sucks, but it's a pretty good church.
Oh, that's right. I joke sometimes, like, you know, as an evangelist, I'm in certain churches or whatever. And I'll, one of the things I say to them is, now, look, I'm an interactive kind of minister, so the more you interact with me, the shorter I preach. Yeah.
You know, kind of thing. Ha, ha, ha. Did you keep that promise? Because the more they interact with me, the longer I tend to go. I enjoy it.
Really? No, I try to. Yeah, if they remain rather silent, then I might go a tad longer. And or the other thing is I'll sometimes jokingly say, to your point, like we're off the day, yeah, yeah, service went a little longer, you know, that long-winded preacher or whatever, of course, meaning me. Right, of course.
You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. 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. And for a gift of $100 or more, Nikita will include a signed copy of his newly updated life story, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption. Go to www.koloff.net and donate today.
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You can give monthly, annually, or one time. God bless you for making a difference around the world. Yeah.
You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Okay, so. All right, so you've been there 17 years. You have an incredible, it's been an incredible. Growth for you over those years.
Absolutely. And I'm going to, they say you should never assume, but I'm going to assume you worked on the marriage, worked things out. Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay. Well, I mean, come on, you're married, so it's a work in progress. I wouldn't say always works out, but I'm still manning up there, to borrow a phrase.
Okay. But you kids, we're absolutely. My wife is the kind of. COO, if you will. She is administrative operations of our church.
We now have over 70 employees, and she kind of runs the ship. That's why I can go to Israel for a week and things don't fall apart. You know, she's the glue to hold it together. Absolutely. Right?
And we have three children.
Okay. A 25-year-old. My 17-year-old's the one that's heading off to Liberty. And then a 14-year-old. I have a girl, boy, girl.
Girl, boy, girl. All right.
You got two girls. I raised four, and so just double the fun there. That's right. That's right. It's interesting.
I grew up with all ladies. My dad left, and I didn't have any siblings except a sister. And so I was in a house with two ladies, and so it feels normal. I kind of know that too, because, again, some relatability.
So I was the youngest, as I mentioned. My mom was almost 40 when she had me. My sister is five years older than me, eight years, 12 years.
So my brothers have grown and gone.
So for a while, it was just my mom, my sister, and I. And then my sister was gone, and then it was just my mom and I, right?
So I kind of relate to that. And your lovely bride's name? Tammy. Tammy. Tammy.
Tammy. That's awesome. She's awesome.
Well that's that's pretty amazing.
So 17 years. there at at the church. What are some of the things you do out of curiosity as a church to reach out to your community? What would you attribute the times 10 growth from 80 to 800? What would you attribute that to?
Other than the pastor not being really good. Yeah, it's come watch him self-destruct is what. No, that's not how it works. I would say so. I kind of I grew up, like I said, I lived on the church property growing up.
And so I just have this mentality of. The greatest memories of my life happened at church. And so, how do you create great memories? wonderful core memories. And so we were all about you know, the greatest time in America, I would argue, was when the church was the little white thing in the center of town where everything took place.
It's where everything's centered around. Yeah, everything did. And so We're in a rural setting. Marion's not a huge town, less than 50,000 people there. Um and so it's just a The idea is what does the community need?
I think a lot of churches Kind of back into that. Like I look at what we can do in the community.
So we're very active in the community. I'm the chaplain for the police department. In the years gone by, we've supported the football team. We've fed the foot, you know, just bring them in, feed them dinner.
So we do weird things. Like, we're, here's a weird thing. Out of the box. Out of the box. But we're putting, we're building a restaurant right now in our church.
We have a massive building, 116,000 square feet. We're putting in a restaurant called the Table. Love it. And my whole idea is: Jesus did more ministry around a table than He did the pulpit when I read the Bible. And out in public, really, right?
Yeah, so he broke bread and met people where they were and loved on them as they were. And so that's, I would say that's where our kind of niche is. And in our community, there was a need for a Christian school.
Okay. And so I didn't want a Christian school, but my wife kept praying. And so we got an amazing Christian school there, about 320 students. K-12. K-12.
Awesome. Everything. Things just firing on all cylinders there. Exciting. That's amazing.
Let me shift gears slightly and get your perspective without going into specific details, but I'd just like to get your take as a pastor, pastor of 17 years, youth pastor of 10 years.
So you've been pastoring for more than a quarter of a century. I've been saying, and we're witnessing in our modern day, you know, attack on Christianity around the world. Absolutely. And certainly it seems like the heat is ramping up the persecution here in America. There's been pastors who've been thrown into jail or arrested because they're preaching certain things out of the Bible here in America, let alone north of the border and other places.
Pastors were fined hundreds of thousands of dollars. I know in Canada and even here in America, you know, during those COVID years, you know, for keeping their doors open. You know, protesters are now storming churches. What's your perspective just on how the church can either protect itself or prepare for something like that? Like maybe there's a pastor out there listening or a parishioner.
What would you say? I think the biggest thing is a mindset, and that is God told us this was going to happen. Right. They hated him. They're going to hate the message of him.
And then he also said it's going to wax worse and worse. And a lot of us believe we're in the last days. And if that's true, it's going to be this way.
So I think it's always good when the church isn't shocked. I think I say this to our church all the time: you know, I'm never going to be shocked when the world acts like they're lost. Because they are. They're lost. Yeah.
And so. Losing the offense, I think, is a great first step. Although it is offensive, it bothers me what happened. I think you're referring to Minneapolis where they went into the church. You know, it bothers me that that's the way it went.
But that's. That's the The world's been doing that since Genghis Khan. The culture and climate in which we live. And I think, yeah, obviously, because of internet, social media. Which prior to that, these things weren't as exposed.
You didn't know what was going on. Definitely wouldn't have had cameras in their faces. Right, exactly. Not everybody's holding their phone and filming everything, right? But so this, nothing new under the sun, right?
So this stuff's been going on for a long, long time. And so, as a believer, we can. Prepare our hearts by A, just being aware of this is going to happen right now. I think so. I think being aware and then being ready.
And I'm a big guy in the mentality of prepared answers.
So if I'm not shocked by what they're doing, how would I handle that situation? How would I, as a Christian, you know, what do you do in that situation? And I saw some beautiful things. I saw people praying. I saw people saying, hey, no, this is the, we understand what you're doing, but this isn't the time or place.
This isn't the place for you. Yeah.
And so I appreciated those answers instead of just. Combating a punch with a punch, so to speak, and coming back. I think Christians sometimes adopt the tone of the world and they lose the ability for the message. Yeah, I say it this way sometimes because I've stopped counting at 1500.
So over the course of. Cola for Christ Ministries, I've preached in over 1,500 churches now. Wow, that's amazing. 28, 29 different denominations that the Lord has opened doors. Um Audiences have won, and the largest audience to date was over 73,000 in Jamaica at an outdoor crusade, right?
So I've seen and experienced a lot of things.
So so in that in that preparedness that's In fact, I just ministered challenged at the men's breakfast recently with putting on the full armor of God and just being prepared for anything and everything that potentially can and will happen, right?
So, knowing what the Bible says. Yeah, I would definitely. That's kind of so I have a. I don't think it's a unique view of ministry, but I think it's been a good view for us. And that is, if they're persecuting us, if they're walking into our church with a negative tone, if they're tweeting about us or whatever the case might be, it didn't surprise God.
He knew that was going to happen. And so, how are we prepared to return the volley with love, with kindness, and not, it doesn't mean we're passive. I don't think that's the idea. It's not. We'll still stand up and man up and still be bold.
Absolutely. Bold, but in love. Courage. How did Jesus stand up? The greatest man that ever lived.
Right. Good model. You know, and it wasn't about thumping somebody, although he did flip some tables every once in a while. He did. He made a whip.
He did do that. But he just appreciated them, I think, of how he handled so many. And it was just, hey, you know, Nicodemus. I'm coming to your house. Let's talk.
It was a beautiful moment, you know, and he was prepared for. For that conversation. Just being prepared. No, that's good. That's good.
Well, I appreciate that. I appreciate that. And maybe that helps somebody out there in listening land know how to better prepare when something unexpected happens, whether it be in their church or in the workplace or anywhere else. Let me shift gears here for our last couple minutes together. In Israel, you introduced our bus to something that I've embraced.
You're also known as brand ambassador for your change. Yes, yes. I'm super excited about that. Yeah, and I'm excited about the concept. Take a minute or two in time that's left here for our audience: what is your change?
And then we'll let them know how they can listen to the fast version.
So, a gentleman in our church moved up here from Florida, self-made. he's already set and retired. He's my age and he's done he's done well. God's blessed him. He is big on generosity and he met a a guy that had an idea for this app.
And the idea is, what if you could Round up all your expenses to the kingdom ministry of your choice. And so that's what your change is. It's really super easy to use. You did it. You go on to the app store, whether it's download the app, download the app, you register your 501c3 nonprofit.
It goes through an approval process. Got to vet it. You link it to your bank. And then anyone that supports. Coloff for Christ, anyone that that supports your ministry.
Or would like to. Or would like to. And I highly recommend this. Go download the app and then they can just say, I want to send my Roundups to You and this ministry.
So, so if they go and they find the Your Change app, it is because I'm already registered, so is my name in along with a list of others, so they can scroll through and look for find Coloff for Christ Ministry. How did you put it in? Are you Coloff for Christmas? Cola for Christ Ministries.
So they would say, Hey, I'm I want to support. And I encourage every listener to do this right now. You can download on the App Store, go to Koloff for Christ Ministries, and you can say, I want to make my roundups. And what happens is when you go make any expense, whether you're buying a cup of coffee or gas at the gas station, it rounds up that change. A lot of places ask you if you want to do this with roundup.
McDonald's asks, I think, if you want to round up, they do for other charities, that sort of thing. And so now my answer is, I already round up, but thank you. And it has been huge. And I'll tell you, the spiritual application of it's insane because God said, if you sow sparingly, we reap sparingly, we sow bountifully.
So now I'm sowing into ministry every time that I make any expenditure. And what's amazing too, to me, is like, you know, I've had. People over the years that say, Hey, I want to be a monthly supporter or an annual supporter or a one-time donation to you. And then some who have, you know, kind of fallen off because for whatever reason, financial difficulties or struggles, say, hey, I'm going to have to stop my monthly giving. But what a simple, easy way for somebody to not make some kind of major commitment, you know, $25, $50, $100, $200, $500 a month or whatever, to say, hey, I spent $13.77.
And so it'll round up. $23. See, you're better at math than I am. No, I started doing the math when you said 77. I better get started early.
Yeah, that 23 cents rounds up. 23 cents goes automatically into co-author Christ Ministries. That's right. And it's kind of painless for the user. It's the old change jar on your dresser.
Yeah.
No one has change anymore because we don't use cash. I know, yeah. But it's no more pennies. There's no more pennies available. That's right.
They stopped making them. And here's good news too.
Somebody may not. Need this, but I was blessed to see this. One, and it's tax deductible. Absolutely. And they get that all through the app.
So they don't wait for your company to send a letter, your nonprofit. They can download it when they're doing their own. They have to download their own at the end of the year for their tax deductible. Any nonprofit out there that hears this should sign up their nonprofit and let their donors get through this. It is uncollected funds sitting everywhere that just we don't have that simple process.
And so, and you know, I could go on and on about it, but you don't have to get into specific detail, but you do this at your church, and it's been just an incredible blessing to the church. We were one general, right? Yeah, absolutely.
So, we were one of the first launches as a church. And so, in the last year, we have raised a little over $30,000. It's not even been a year yet. We only have about 150 participants.
Okay. So, and we did a banquet and asked them, hey, how's it going? About six months after we launched it, we asked the first ones that signed up. And the number one thing they said is we forgot we did.
So, this $30,000 or $40,000 that is coming up on now, I need to look at it again, but it's been painless. It's not somebody stroked a check for $10,000. It was just being intentional on every expense to say, I want to be generous every time I see it. And just a blessing to the ministry.
So, if you're interested in that and helping support Cola for Christ Ministries, Man Camp, and other things we're doing, go to your app store, look for the Your Change app. Your change, one word, one word, Your Change, and find it. I did it myself, so it's a very simple couple-minute process to register. You'll give you an option as a giver or as an organization, and you just go in, put in your information, and boom, and it's set up and done. And there you go.
That's beautiful.
So, go on there and support Nikita for sure. Bob Ritter, Bob, real quick before we go, how can people, if they're passing through Nebo, North Carolina, how can they find more about your church or watch you online? Nebo Christian. Crossing. We have an app as well that has all of our sermons on it.
We have a wonderful coffee shop open five days a week to the public.
So stop on in, have a cup of coffee. We're right off I-40, right there in May. Nebo Crossing. Is there a website? Yeah, Nebocrossing.com.
Nebocrossing.com. Bob Ritter, thanks for being on the show today. Thank you, my friend. And to all you out there, my challenge to you: go out today and have a God-filled and live a God-blessed day. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support, and generous gifts.
May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to kolof.net and donate. Good day. If you are enjoying the Man Up Show, would you help us spread the word? Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe, and leave a comment.
Hi, Nikita Koloff. Be sure to check out the Man Up Show now available on television, broadcast, and podcast. Go to MorningstarTV.com or the Truth Radio Network. Check out your local listings, or better yet. Download the Truth Network app today.
Nikita Koloff here. If you're needing to buy a car and have marginal credit and considering using buy here, pay here, that's worse than taking the Russian sickle. Winston-Salem motor cars will put you behind the wheel of a car you can rely on while helping rebuild, repair, or establish your credit score. Conveniently located on Silas Creek Parkway in Winston-Salem, be sure to check them out today at WSMCthenumberone.com because you are number one. This is the Truth Network.
Yeah.
