Man Up...At Man Camp! - Part 4

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Your chosen Truth Radio Broadcast will be starting in just a few seconds. Thank you. Nikita Kolov, I am back at ManCamp, and I'm here with a dear, dear friend of mine, Joshua Gillum. And, Josh, we go back way, way, we go way back.

We go back for a while. Yeah. I mean, I'll tell you, I guess we've probably walked together in Christ since at least 2007. Wow. And I can remember as a young child seeing you at the Golden Corral, and then my brother was like, that's Nikita Kolov. And I was like, he's bigger than the buffet.

Oh my gosh, that's crazy. Here we are 15 plus years later. Yeah. And we're here at ManCamp together. And I know you yourself experienced, you came to camp. In fact, you came with your son very unique experience, father-son camp. It was.

And it was one of those kinds of Holy Spirit ambushes, I guess I would say. I mean, we came together and really came with no expectations. I can remember the ride into ManCamp. We were both looking at each other and we were like, oh, are we really going to do this for a week? And he was like, I don't want to go. And I was like, oh, I know. I said, but we're going to go.

We were going to do it. And from the moment that the battle kind of to get to ManCamp, I think that we've heard about those experiences before, but from the moment we stepped into that environment, it was just so evident that just the way that the Spirit was moving, God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Ghost, just pressing in on our hearts. And truly that experience with my son, I don't think that there'd be any way for me to replicate that, to recreate that. It was really one of those moments of just God's divine hand reaching in and brought so much stability to our life, so much perspective and really imparting manhood, not just to him, but even to me, as I know, even though I was his dad. And I think that one of the staffers at that time had said to me, he said, you know, he's getting older and you're getting older. The relationship's changing.

And although you'll never stop being his father, you now have to learn how to interact with him as a Christian man. And that's the kind of stuff that imparts for ManCamp that's never planned. That's just very spontaneous.

It just comes alive in the Spirit that if you don't, if one is so challenged by God to come to it and they don't come, they will miss out on those opportunities for the Lord to take them light speed ahead. Yeah. It's almost like an organic growth there in a sense, right, that happens at the camp. And I know one of, I believe one of the things you told me is it really drew you and your son even closer together as father and son.

Oh, absolutely. And we work together every day, day in and day out. And so, you know, so there's this relationship of impartation just in the nature of the work that we do together and walking with him every single day. But ManCamp has caused us to have to walk with each other as Christian men, not just as father, son, not just as partners in our family business, not just as, you know, I think that one way of explaining is like, if I'm, for instance, you know, I can tell my son, pick that feed bucket up and hold it while I do this, or I can say, I'm going to show you how to do the task I'm doing. And ManCamp taught me to impart that same, well, the nature of impartation in our Christian walk, instead of me just saying, you stand beside me and do it now, he has learned through ManCamp and through just the way God works in our life and ManCamp being a major catalyst in that, he has learned how to, to just, to walk as a man of God and watching him walk as a man of God and his integrity imparted more integrity into me.

And ManCamp was one of the major catalysts in our lives together for that. So, so for the listeners out there, you bring a great example, Josh. It's almost like I'm reminded of the saying, you know, do as I say, don't do as I do, but you're saying do as I do. So in other words, you're modeling for him, things for him that he can imparting into him. So it's not just words, it's through your actions, even you're imparting into him what it looks like to be a Christian man.

Yeah. And the, and the big, even, even above and beyond that is, um, as ManCamp imparted to me, I have imparted to him, but at the same time, the ManCamp staff was imparting to him and he was imparting to me. And it's a dynamic that just, uh, I'm not saying it doesn't exist in our churches, but five days away, chasing the heart of God is something that, uh, that very few do this day and age. And for those that choose to do that, they're called into it and they, and they choose to do that.

I believe God encounters them in a very special way in a way that, that I have only encountered him on this mountain top. That's powerful for the listeners out there. You know, if you're a father and you love to bring your son, just know, as long as he's 18 years old, uh, at this point, he's, you're welcome to bring your son and, and, and you, you experience that together with him or vice versa.

If you're, you're a son and you love to do this with your dad, you know, just, just a sedative to, to, uh, ManCamp.info or even easier, colop.net, click on the ManCamp link. Quick question, Josh, uh, we kind of wrap up our, our interview here. So, so you were impacted and now you're back, uh, volunteering on staff and you're part of the ministry team. You have a history of ministry, very, very gifted and anointed for ministry, pastor, your own church. And let me just ask, just what, why did you make the decision to come back and, and volunteer your time at staff?

Well, first and foremost, um, you know, I have received and I want to give back. I received from, from this process, um, the, that impartation that I spoke about, the spiritual, I didn't really speak about the spiritual growth, but the spiritual growth that I experienced, learning how to center myself in quietness and in prayer, how to interact with other men, all of that that I experienced on my ManCamp, I wanted to be able to impart back to, uh, men coming on the ManCamp, um, retreat. And also, um, watching as a pastor, watching, um, people do ministry in the ManCamp setting. I just knew that I needed more of that impartation and coming along under the authority of the ManCamp staff and working alongside, uh, of the leadership in ManCamp was going to impart even more to me. And even this week for my, my first time staffing ManCamp after, after attending ManCamp, the impartation has just been like drinking from the fire hose. It's, it's just been really rich time for me. So, you know, I guess the question is, is how, how deep do I want to dig my well? So I dug it to a certain depth on ManCamp and, you know, I came back to dig it out even deeper alongside of the staff and with the, with the new camp. Well, that's a great point because for those interested in staffing, they first have to, you first have to come to ManCamp and experience ManCamp, and then you'll have the opportunity to come back and staff. And I just want to encourage you by, by saying you have, you are such a valuable asset to the ministry and now what you are seriously, what I witnessed you imparting, you know, in some of our settings and in fact, some of the outdoor activities, I'll just, I'll just go and tell you now on air, some of the guys came back and said, your staff, I mean, they were referring to you and Jeff and what you were teaching, uh, at the outdoor activities. They go, wow.

It was just, I mean, they didn't really even have words. So I just want to thank, thanks for coming on the show today. Thank you, Joshua Gillum, my man. I love you, Mike. Thank you, sir, for coming on the show. Nikita Koloff here.

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That's koloff.net, koloff.net, and make your contribution today. Nikita Koloff, I am back here at Man Camp and I have a brother, I have a friend in the in the Lord that we go, we're trying to figure out, we go way back to, I'm thinking, well, retired pastor, retired pastor, Pastor Gary with me today, but we're trying to figure out how far does our relationship go back, Pastor Gary? Well, it goes all the way back to the Brownsville revival. Back to the mid-90s? Yes.

Okay. Yeah, we met there and basically in a line at that church and I turned around and introduced myself and it's ironic in that I had watched wrestling when I was young, but it was not one of my greatest passions, but it was and there was very few people that I had ever really remembered and one of them happened to be Nikita Koloff and Ivan Koloff of all people and I turned around introduced myself and we shook our each other's hand and I told him my name, he told me his name and I said, you're kidding, that's how he met. You didn't believe because I had actually grown, I had sporting a bullet, for those who want to know, I had grown my hair out, long hair, past the shoulders, you got, you're like, no way, you're, yeah, not really, not at Brownsville, not at Brownsville, at a revival, not Nikita Koloff.

The commie rush at a revival, how's that work? So, yeah, I'd actually just got saved, give my life to the Lord, just briefly, shortly before, prior to that, and but little did we know that that encounter that day in that line, all these years later, would lead to such an amazing friendship. 20 something years. 20 something years and Gary, you came down, you came and attended man camp and I guess I'm just curious as to maybe how that camp, I know one thing that happened at that camp between you and your lovely bride Brenda, but is there something that impacted your life while you attended camp? Well, let me just say for the record too, over 50 years in the ministry, you're in your 70s, still hungry for God and still willing to come to camp and run after the heart of God. Was there something that tremendously impacted you at camp? Well, you know, life is a long life process of trying to conform to the image of Jesus and there were still issues in my life that I needed to deal with and one thing that the band camp did was clarify those.

One thing I really appreciated, among many other things about band camp, is that you and the staff don't deal in hyperbole or duplicity. You face sin and issues as they really are. I'll just give an example. You know, men have a problem with sexual fantasizing. Well, that's a fancy word. Instead of using that, it is adultery is what it is and that camp clarified a lot of issues where we have ways of trying to hide things that really shouldn't be in our life. Cover up or even sugar coat things.

They make it a little bit more palatable, you know. It's a problem. It's not really a sin. He just has a problem.

No, he's sinning. Yeah, that's true and that was one of the things that band camp does. It really does clarify issues where society has tried to make them more palatable, more acceptable and it's kind of like an article that was written many years ago, whatever happened to sin, you know, in our society today and even, unfortunately, I don't want to be negative, but even within the church, sin really in some ways is not really addressed as it really should be. Plus, I think band camp meant so much to me because we're living such a strategic day, a strategic time and some of the problems really are centered at the source, at the absence of men in their homes, the absence of male leadership, society trying to feminize men and masculize women and trying to take away the God-given roles that God created us to fulfill and band camp also clarifies those, you know, in a definitive way. Two things, too, I think that are important about band camp is it gives you a face-to-face confrontation with God and then secondly it gives you a face-to-face confrontation of who you are really, not who you thought you were when you came, not what other people thought you were when you came, but in reality who you are and it helped me face some issues that I needed to be dealt with and even after 50 years of ministry and being a Christian that I dealt with and I've noticed this week and that's one of the reasons that I came back as a staff member because it had such an impact on me that in some small way maybe my participation as a staff member could have an impact on some of the men and make a difference in their life that was coming and since I've been here I really see how society is so negatively impacting the nuclear family and particularly what's happening in the homes and how it's affecting men in such a negative way.

Right, right. Well, I appreciate that. In fact, for our listeners, you know, we've had fathers and sons and this time around you have your grandson here who is on the band camp, you're staffing, he's on band camp and I know without going into great detail, just short on time, without going into great detail, I know you got to witness how his life has been impacted this week while on man camp and even some of the things that he was, you know, transparent in sharing. I know you said, gosh, I didn't know about 99% of those things but he was bold enough to open up his heart and allow God to come in and cleanse his heart and instill in him more characteristics of Christ and so that when he departs from here he can learn to walk. And that's one thing we do too, right, Gary, is our goal, you know, Lex and I, Lex Luger and I, who facilitates this with me, is to equip men, send them back home to do what the very thing you just said, to walk out their God-given role and being a Godly man, a Godly husband, and a Godly father. Well, one of the practical things that you alluded to that happened after I left and I'm not sure exactly any particular thing at man camp that happened but the fact that I was changed and transformed is that when I went back I started reading the Bible with my wife and praying with my wife.

We read our Bibles and we prayed but after almost 50 years of marriage we hadn't prayed together but we started doing that and it's a transforming experience. I know we don't have much time but I asked my grandson before I came here not knowing that I was going to be on the podcast, I said, how's it going this week? Oh, he said, it's been great. And then his next statement was he started naming young men that he wished would have come with him.

I think he had attempted to get them to come. How much, you know, it impacted and one of the other things I think that one of the most significant things about man camp is that it is a safe environment. Men can open their hearts, they can reveal their pain, share their sins, share their tendencies, openly reveal their addictions without condemnation, without judgment, without any stone throwing and also the fact that they know it is a safe environment that what they share here will stay here under the blood of Jesus Christ.

That's good, Gary. That's the most, to me, that was the one of the most powerful things because you don't find that in most instances. Right, in or out of the church.

No. Yeah, well I appreciate that observation and that is something Lex and I work hard on is developing a culture of honor and the ability for men just to be able to do that, to be able to receive, be healed, set free. And I know you were healed and set free of some things as well. Well, you know, too, man camp takes a holistic approach.

It's not just one-sided, it's just not, it is soul, body and spirit. It's a holistic approach and that means a lot. Well, Mr. Gary, Pastor Gary Carruthers, I can't thank you enough for coming in and giving us a few minutes of your time. I love you, my friend. I appreciate it.

I love you. All right. I'm excited and I'm excited for Dylan, for your grandson when he goes home.

Yeah, that's one of the great experiences, memorable experiences of my 73 years. Awesome. Well, thanks for being on the show. Bless you, my friend. God bless you. Man, I don't even know how to describe this guy.

We got a long history going way back, but he's so near and dear to my heart. Him and his lovely bride, Donna, just fall in love with his family. They're part of the Kolah for Christ ministry prayer team.

I mean, I'll just say, they're financial supporters to what we do. Jeff, it is great. Jeff James, double J, another double J in the house. Double J, great to have you on the show.

Oh, man, it's so good. Glad to be here. Well, it's just great to have you here. Of course, we're here live at man camp and just talking to some of the staff.

And before we get to that, Jeff, and we do go way back, which is serious about that. And it has been just an amazing journey with you and your family. So you made a decision where you're given an invitation to come to man camp to really just experience it for yourself. And so what I'm curious to hear today is really how, in what way, if you could kind of narrow it down to distill it down, how man camp maybe impacted you, or maybe there was a nugget or a takeaway or just how it impacted you and just explain or share with our listeners what happened. Well, it wasn't a hard decision to come because I knew you and I knew your heart for men and ministry. And when I came, I kind of had an idea of maybe what it was going to be like. But when I got there, I was really just taken back by all the information, the book, the study, the other men. And so my takeaway probably was, I considered myself a good husband. But after man camp, I felt like it took me to the next level of how even my wife saw me from that point. And so my marriage was impacted greatly. And then everything else was just an extra as far as the spiritual side was amazing. The information on how to take care of your body was great. But for me personally, I didn't think my marriage could get better, but it did. So, and Lex does, in fact, today he did a great teaching on the body, the physical body and the mandate that God has for us to take care of that physical body. And Lex does such a great job with that. And so just the overall, as you're referring to curriculum and the teaching and just some of the things you learned, some of the takeaways there, what I'm hearing is just really enhanced your marriage with Donna. Absolutely.

I've always heard the term drinking from a fire hose or trying to drink from a fire hose. I experienced that on man camp. I mean, I couldn't write fast enough. And then when I got back home, I was trying to remember all the information. It was just, it was overwhelming, but the things that really stuck were just about my marriage. And then from a spiritual aspect, just how I how I positioned myself to interact with other people.

And I mean, like, being able to kind of see someone in the light of, hey, that person is acting this way because maybe something's going on versus they're just acting a certain way because they're just not a good person. I don't know if that made sense, but yeah. Yeah. So it's equipped you, so Man Cap helped equip you even to relate to others better. Absolutely.

Engage in relationship with others. Yes. Okay. Well, I mean, the marriage in itself is just, I don't even know how to describe it. Yeah. I don't even know how to put it in words because you described it. I didn't think I could love my wife better, but I do after Man Camp. Wow.

Well, and we do, I will say this, you referred to drinking through a fire hose. There is a lot, you might think five days. Well, that's a lot of time, but there's a lot of information in that really condense it down into a short period of time. If you look at the overall scope of life in five days, but to your point, our goal is to equip men, send them home to be better husbands, to be better fathers, to be better, you know, more guys, to be better fathers, to be better, you know, more godly men. And it is a lot of information, but we encourage the men, you know, whatever the Holy Spirit reveals to you or speaks to you, even post-camp, right? Because you can continue to meditate on, dwell on what you've learned and even enhance your walk post-camp as well. Yeah. Speaking about post-camp, and I don't want to make, I don't want to not mention it, but created some great relationships, some great friendships with other men that I still have, you know, two years later.

That's awesome. And that's part of our goal, too, is to build relationships while we're here at camp and hopefully long, like you say, long-lasting relationships. Let's transition in our last couple minutes here. So, you're impacted, you made a decision to come back and volunteer on staff, which by the way, for those who might one day experience camp and perhaps you might be here facilitating this part of it. Jeff is our, he's the spin doctor, he sets the tone for the atmosphere because he does all of our worship and is gifted and anointed to do that. So, you're part of the ministry team, but you're also here leading the worship, leading us into the presence of God.

And you've been back several times, not just one time, you've been back numerous times staffing. Tell our listeners why you would do that. Well, I told the guys when we first got here that I just got addicted. I got addicted to seeing men's lives changed.

And in my life right now, this is one of the best vehicles to do that. And so, I want to be a part of it. Well, and I know you, like myself, like Lex and some others have a real heart for men.

And as some others have said on interviews, there seems to be a lack of genuine manhood in our society today. And so, as God's given Lex and I this vision to empower men, to be men, to be Godly men. It's great to have you a part of it, Jeff. And just so love you and your lovely bride Donna.

I love you too. Thanks for being a part of the camp and thanks for being on the show today. Thank you. Men, I would like to challenge each of you to consider spending five days with Lex Luger and I at Man Camp, pursuing the heart of God. Ladies, if you're listening, we'll send your men home better equipped to be men of God, Godly husbands and Godly fathers. That appeals to you. Give them your blessing and encourage them to sign up today at mancamp.info. Pastors, if you would like to bring Koloff for Christ Ministries and Man Up Conference to your community, go to koloff.org and email me.

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