800 s Tribute Show

Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast, where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's Word. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. The heart of every man craves a great adventure, but life doesn't usually feel that way. Jesus speaks of narrow gates and wide roads, but the masculine journey is filled with many twists and turns.

So, how do we keep from losing heart while trying to find the good way when life feels more like a losing battle than something worth dying for? Grab your gear and come on a quest with your band of brothers who will serve as the guides in what we call the masculine journey. The masculine journey starts here now.

Welcome to Masculine Journey. We are glad that you're with us today, and we're extra glad that you're with us today, because we're excited about this show, probably more so than a show we've been excited for in a while. We're excited about all of them, but this is just at a different excitement level, so to speak. And so, Andy, you want to tell us why we're excited about this show?

Sure. So, the other day I was looking at past clips for one of the shows reference. I can't remember exactly why, but I was looking in iTunes, and it, you know, keeps account of all your podcasts. And we were at 796, and I'm like, hey, this is pretty cool. Let the guys know. And so, we're like, we should do a show 800 and kind of celebrate the, you know, how this show has evolved and just all the people that have participated in it and honor those who, you know, went before us and started things out, but just also just the impact of, we feel like God's given us an opportunity to have and just celebrate that, so. That's great.

Yeah, you reached out, and you're like, hey, you know, we're at 796, and none of us had any clue that we were that far along. And to be fair, that is everything that Masculine Journey touches, right? So, that's the Masculine Journey show, the After Hours, and the Joyride, which is a key part of that. And Keith, you know, our producer in the other room and a key member of the team, you know, produces the Joyride and stars in the Joyride. Also known as the Great Catheny.

Yeah, the Great Catheny. Yeah, I can't ever get that quite right, but, you know, I'm working on it. I thought I'd helped you out.

And, but no, he's been a part of that. So, we'll hear from Keith a little bit later. We're trying to work out a few little phone issues we got going on right now. We got a couple past people that were on the show to share some of their stories.

So, hopefully, we'll get a chance to get with them, and we're really looking forward to it. I guess to start out, you know, how did the show come about, right? And so, in 2009, we set out to do some boot camps.

Darren, me, Jim, Mark Varner, Jim Graham, because we're going to talk to two Jims today. And so, you know, we all were going to be working on doing these boot camps, and Darren had the idea. He felt God laid on his heart that we needed to advertise on the radio. So, we came in and met with somebody named Robby Dilmore. And, you know, I was talking to him, and he was in charge of sales and a bunch of stuff here at the station. And so, we met with him, and, you know, he was very excited, like he always is on stuff, and supportive, and said, yep, we can do that.

And so, we did some little spots for the show, for the boot camp. And then, you know, Robby came to his first boot camp reluctantly, which you'll have to hear that story at some point. He's talked about it, but he came just kind of out of obligation, and actually enjoyed it, and loved what he heard there. And he'll talk more about that probably a little bit later. But then, I don't know, fast forward two years.

You know, it's two more years, late 2010, year and a half. He gets a hold of Darren and I, and says, hey, you know, I'm getting ready to go out of town. I've got an idea for a show. I want you to come in and cover my show.

It was Robby's Hobbies back in those days. I want you to cover that show, and do it like you're doing a boot camp. You know, do little movie clip segments, and then talk about it, kind of like you're doing there. And so, we're all excited. And so, we came in, and we do this show, and we get a hold of Robby the next week when he gets back. You're like, so, we did it.

What'd you think? And he's like, yeah, that was terrible. And so, Darren and I talked about like, well, that was our one shot.

We tried it. Not a big deal. You know, and he came back to us.

He's like, oh, this is probably three months later. I'm going out of town again. There we go. Still having phone problems. So, we'll hopefully be able to get that sorted out. We're under attack.

We are under attack. You know, we're having a hard time getting this show going. But anyway, he came back, said I'm getting ready to go out of town again. We'd love for you to take another shot at this show. And so, we did a second one. And he was going, yeah, that was better.

Yeah, that was better. And we thought, okay, we did too. I guess probably three, four months later, he calls us and says, hey, there's an opening on the station, and they'd like for you to do the show. And that's where we started doing the show. And when we started, it was an hour-long show. And we did that for a few years, about three years. And then, we switched to a half-hour format. And so, we've been doing that ever since. And Robby, what did I mess up on the story?

Was that close? Robby Barbaro You know, I guess I should have kept a show journal, because I don't, I didn't remember the bad shows. I really don't. I just always remember that the idea that it just seems so entertaining. Now, Big Stu, who recently went to be with Lorde, told me when I first got into radio, he said, you know, one of the secrets is, you know, the people, they'll listen to Christian radio, but it still has to have an entertainment factor that, you know, you're competing against all these other mediums. And if you're going to get people to listen, you got to have something that, yeah, it's got a spiritual value to it, but it's got to be entertaining. And so, the idea of using the movie clips as illustration of what God does, it just seemed like genius to me.

And so, trying to find a way to work. And the other part that was unique about it, from my standpoint, pretty, very unique, Jim, was that Todd Clark, who's with us, he had met with me several times about how he felt like God had put it on his heart to do radio, right? And so, it seemed like, as I was praying through it, that this just seemed like a natural thing, that all these guys sound like radio people. And then we have this, the movie clips, it just adds all sorts of vitality.

And then the fruit of the bootcamps itself was going on in my life. I knew the content was, you know, extremely fruitful and helpful in your walk with Christ. So, you know, that was my take on it.

Very cool. But I have a clip. You do have a clip. You have the first clip of the show. So, after two years of doing the show, we wanted to syndicate the show nationally.

And so, I talked to Darren and Sam into going to the National Religious Broadcasters Convention, which was a very memorable experience because Darren went sideways with the lady that was trying to keep people off the floor of the NRB. Anyway, we had a great time and we created this promo, which are essentially highlights from the first two years of Masculine Journey that we were using to try to get different radio stations to carry the show in an attempt to syndicate it. So, you can hear this and it kind of gives you an overview or listen of what the show sounded like originally. Yeah, and it had the original intro, a little bit of it.

So, you hear a little bit different background music and stuff. So, we'll go ahead and listen to it and come back and talk about it. The heart of every man craves a great adventure. Grab your gear and come on a quest with your band of brothers, Darren Coon, Todd Clark, and Sam Main.

The Masculine Journey starts here now. When Paul talks all about this armor that we're supposed to be wearing and these flaming arrows that are coming at our heart, well, that would be a very stupid thing for him to talk about if that weren't the reality of our lives. So, your dad's dad hit him. He hit you and you never really hit us. I couldn't.

I don't know. I was always weaker than him. Maybe you didn't want to be like him. I didn't.

The girls will buy that. Oh yeah. You know, we develop a lot of bad theology about God if we don't interpret the events of our life that he is trying to father us into something. Why do you think he left me? Because.

Because they were stupid. How could they not see how extraordinary you are? How big your heart is? I know the situations that come up within me that I feel less than what I need to be to handle it and that's when that poser wants to come in. Come on over here, Ron. Let me show you what I'm doing. Taking advantage of some of the time off to add a whole new wing on here and we rip these walls out and, of course, rewire it. Yeah, you're gonna make it all 220?

Yeah, 220, 221, whatever it takes. I think a lot of men go passive in their lives because they're used to being defeated and they're used to listening to the enemy and so they're tired of hearing that and so they go passive and they think, if I don't try again, then there's no defeat. But really, that's the beginning of despair. There's something inside that they can't get to that they can't touch.

It's yours. I'm talking about hope. Hope. Let me tell you something, my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Would you lock arms with us in a very real battle for freedom? We believe that men who are truly set free to walk in Christ and with other great warriors are God's secret weapon against our enemy and for the church.

The masculine journey starts here. Wow, that was a long time ago. That was a long time ago. Now, the original lineup you had in the intro there, right? It was supposed to be Darren, Todd, and myself.

And we did do the show and then when one of us couldn't make it, Robby, you were the fill in. Right. Right. And so that was how we went for the first few years.

Probably about the first three. Right. And then we had some shift changes on some stuff and went to the half hour format and we've had a lot of people along the way that's really, man, just blessed us. I mean, none of this would have happened without any of the people here in this room or the people that we're talking about.

And some of the people it's already kind of left to be with God, like Vinny, which we'll talk more about later. But we had, of course, Darren and Todd that were instrumental and were a big part of those first shows doing that. And then when we had Al kind of come along, Al Henley come in and kind of did it with us and Dennis. You know, we did the season with Dennis, Al, me and you and Vinny. Right. And then, you know, you guys all kind of came in at different times.

And so it's just been a great little journey along the way to see what God's decided to do. I think one of the things that makes the radio program successful, and it wouldn't be on TV, is because we have faces for radio. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, definitely. We wouldn't want to put this on YouTube or anything. We've talked about it, then we've looked in the mirror.

That's probably not the best idea. But, Jim, you know, we're going to go to, Jim Barecki, we're going to go to break here in a few minutes. But before we do that, tell us a little bit about your time on the show. And we've missed having you, man. We're glad to have you here. Well, thank you.

It's been very busy as of late. Probably what I enjoyed most about being on the show was the ability to be with a band of brothers, right? We talked about various subjects and, you know, we could share our hearts and there was no judgment in that, right?

It was more of an iron sharpens iron, as the Bible tells us. And so for me, yes, I've missed it. As we talked about before I got in here, my life just is so busy at this point. You know, I've had to give up certain things. And unfortunately, this was one of those things. Yeah, understand, you know, there's times that are busier than others, and you have to make choices, you know, and so I understand that. There was some judgment there, though, Jim, I'm sure I'm sure Jim, there was a reason they threw us out of all the good cabins and set us off to our own cabin because they thought they snored.

I never heard you. Well, yeah, yeah, uh-huh. Yeah, you guys definitely snored. But yeah, anyway, we're going to come back after break. We got a lot more clips. We got a lot more stories to share. Hopefully, we'll be able to get our friends back on the phone.

We're hoping to get that worked out. But join us after the break and go to maskonjourney.org, register for boot camp. What we have at our boot camp is something that makes you stronger and gives you the strength to go on your regular walk with God.

It's something that will make you be bigger than you were when you got there. Well, what kind of inspired you to come up this weekend? Oh, my goodness, just my faith in general. You know, my father, you know, has passed down that heritage of just that Christian life, that Christian faith and just godly morals and principles, and he's instilled that in my life. And, you know, I have children as well, and I want to instill that in their life.

I want to instill that in their life. So when I get an opportunity to do something like this, I jump on it. I just want to be here, and I'm glad to be here.

It's a great opportunity. We're definitely glad to have you here as well. Any talk that stuck out to you this weekend that's really just kind of made your heart come alive, put that fire back in you?

Probably one thing that just stands out to me is John 15. It's just not being alone. Know that I have Christ on my side.

I can't do anything without him, and I need him in my life. I'm a very private person. I like to do things on my own. I don't like to ask for help. So that's hard for me to know I've got to ask Jesus for something, and then also just to rely on a band of brothers that I can look to and turn to and say, hey guys, I need help.

I can't do this alone. Register today at masculinejourney.org. Chris Welcome back to Masculine Journey. We are talking about our 800th episode. This is actually 799. John You want to talk about the bump you submitted there, Sam? Sam I will. I will, but thank you.

Yeah, this is actually, thank you, I would have forgot. This is actually 799, so if you really want to hear the 800th episode, you're going to have to go to your favorite podcast location. Don't care where it is. Or go to our website, masculinejourney.org.

If you haven't heard us say that, that's what it is. And you can, while you're there, you know, looking at the 800th podcast and listening to it, you could look up the boot camp and go ahead and register. So you could do that while you're there. But you can go to any podcast location. We're there, just look up Masculine Journey Radio.

That's us, Masculine Journey Radio, and you can find it. And so we are talking about the 800th episode. The reason I chose that bump, right, it's the Holley's, he ain't heavy, he's my brother. And the part that I chose from the chorus was, you know, being strong enough, strong enough to carry him. I'm strong enough, I'm strong enough to carry him because yes, God carries all of us, but at times he chooses to let us help and carry one another. You know, we've all done that from time to time, you know, literally from that to carrying loved ones as pallbearers, to attending funerals, to doing life together, right? Attending weddings and things, you know, I mean, we've just done life together and that's what you do. And as brothers, that's what you do. Jim, you talked about it a few seconds ago, that that is the whole thing that binds us together other than God. God is the number one thing, obviously, but he sees fit to bring a lot of people that, honestly, we might not even know each other outside of this ministry, if it wasn't for this ministry that God orchestrated and put together, you know, we probably wouldn't know each other, right? And definitely wouldn't be walking together as a band of brothers. Well, and that's true.

I mean, we all come from different walks of life and that's what kind of makes us stronger. You know, Andy and I are kind of in IT and, of course, you're building homes and I'm not sure what Jim is doing at this point. Cruising, cruising, absolutely. Well, speaking of Jim, we do have a clip for Jim. And Jim, this is just a clip just for you. Andy put it together for you. It's one of our personal favorite highlights of the show.

And so we'll go ahead and listen to Jim about talking about something important. Never been out of the Carolinas. She was a South Carolina girl. I was a North Carolina girl.

And when we got married, she said, we are not going more than 200. No, it's been revealed. I actually heard it that time. So if you missed anything, you missed Jim talking about being a North Carolina girl, you know, which came to us as shock to all of us.

You know, we were sitting around the room, not really sure about that, but it's still, it's kind of fun. Jim, you got anything to defend yourself on that? I've been pretty much neuter for 20 years now.

So DMI, DMI, definitely DMI. Well, thank you. Keith, do we have Todd on the line?

Do you know? All right. So Todd, I'm going to play a clip here and come back. And I'm going to ask you the question, you know, just really either to talk about the clip or really talk about your time on the radio.

And man, you were so important. The things that you brought to this show, just who you are as a person, first and foremost, obviously, but your experiences coming through, oh, I have Al on the other line. So I'll talk about Todd in a minute. Al, we got you. Talk about you, Al, and then I'll come back and get a clip.

Robby, will you talk for a second while I get a clip set up? Oh, well, it is really cool that we've had these different, you know, I guess, personalities and influences through the different seasons of the show. And certainly there was the Todd Clark, but there was the Allie or Al and Dennis. And, you know, it was an amazing group because, you know, that was kind of the three that held it together for a period of time, was Vinnie, Al and Dennis.

And what a dynamic trio they were. Yeah, they were about as different as can be. You know, I mean, we were all uniquely different, as Jim would say, very unique.

Yeah, we wouldn't. Yeah. But I do have a story about Al, very short one. He's one of the few people in my life I've seen glowing.

Okay. So Al's a glowing example of what we should be. Al, can you hear us all right?

Al, tell us a little bit about your time on the show and just your experiences. Hey, can you guys hear me better now? Yes.

Yes, we can hear you fine. Awesome. There's so much about the show and the boot camps together because, you know, the first part of this was Robby reached out to me when I was at a boot camp and went after me fishing, and that meant the world. That somebody actually, you know, connected like that. And then I think about, you know, Todd and his talk on being fathered by God completely changed my completely changed my understanding of who God was to me. And then, you know, the show as a whole, you learn so much as you're prepping and as you're going through it. And so, you know, as well as life transformation, times where it just took control. But when you talk about, you know, that transition where it was Dennis and Vinnie and I were together, I can't tell you how much, you know, each person was so different. And they made such an impact on my life.

I had this probably getting way too mushy gushy. But I learned more than anything what a whack job was. Careful, this is Christian radio. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's. Yeah. Vinnie had a unique way of explaining to people, and he had a label for everybody, and that was Dennis's, yeah?

Yeah, he called it as he saw it, for sure. There were a lot of whack jobs. I mean, and people would take on that role, that mantle. Robby, there were times when you were the whack job, I was the whack job. No doubt, yeah. You know, and there was, I had a kind of a Vinnie moment, not too long ago. I was working in the yard, and when Vinnie died, I was in the yard, and I was in the garden. When Vinnie died, COVID was going on, and I made a garden, and it has come out to be a really beautiful garden. And I was working in it, pulling out some weeds, and I just heard Vinnie's voice, and it said, freaking garden? That's how you want to be?

Why don't you take my mess game, freaking garden? And it ended with whack job. That sounds exactly like what Vinnie would have said to you. I have those moments all the time. And I have to say this, because one thing, you know, we all went through a lot of ups and downs in the show.

Personal highs, personal lows. Sometimes it was like a spiritual attack, and we were all at a low. But there was never a time when there wasn't somebody there that could touch you and reach out and make a difference. In doing that show, there were so many moments where the show would change you, just from preparing, just from doing it. Yeah, and I can't tell you how many times I've come in to the show in a really not good place, just emotionally or spiritually or just grumpy. And doing the show with you guys changes that. I left in a different place, and I came in, and it was all due to the group that I was with, whether it be the current group, the group that had you and Dennis in it, or the original group with Todd and Darren. And it's been great along the way just to have these friends that can really lift you up when you need it.

Absolutely. And one thing about it is, we all had different times in our lives where this changed us. I feel like God brought us there for that time to prepare us for something else, because there's so many things that I gleaned from the Magician's Journey radio and doing the show and the Friends that I've been able to apply in other ministries and other events with other men. Well, Al, hold on for a second, because we're going to get a clip in here that has Vinny in it. So, Danny, why don't you tell us a little bit about it, and then we'll go ahead and play it.

Yeah, well, you all brought up this topic. I was looking through old shows, which I wasn't a part of, and so it went way back, not as far as you did apparently, but anyway. And I found this clip, Vinny, and the show is called Hope in a Broken World, and Vinny's actually talking about this guy that he knew in prison who hung himself, and the note said, there is no hope for me, but as he closes, he is what you'll hear, and his wisdom is, and I've never met Vinny, but I felt like I was sitting next to him listening to this and the wisdom, and hey, we can play the clip and I'll talk about it. He left a note. There is no more hope for me, you know, but I, you know, the way I see things, there's always hope.

The thing of it is, is that you've got to grab it and hang on to it, and it's given to you, and if you don't use it, you'll be elusive because you don't have hope. Yeah. Al, could you hear that okay? No, I didn't hear it at all. Oh, okay.

Well, you have to listen to the show. That's our little hook. It was, Vinny was talking about hope, you know, and it was such a good thing. Man, it's so hard to hear Vinny's voice.

You know, I just miss him dearly. It's been a few years now, but man, I just miss having him around, and my favorite times about Vinny is, we'd all be sitting in after the show, you know, in the room complaining about life stuff, and he'd just be so quiet, you know, because Vinny was going blind at this point, and he never really knew how much Vinny could see, because, you know, he didn't think he could see, then all of a sudden he'd call you by name when you walked in, and you're like, hold on for a minute, I didn't think you could see, but, you know, he'd go, all right, you guys, quit complaining. Let me tell you how it really is, you know, and he would just go off on, you know, something, you know, and he would share it with us, but he always had, he always had feedback for us, that's for sure. You know, Vinny could be, he could come off so bland, you know, like uninvolved and not really paying attention, and then all of a sudden he'd just knock it home, and that was the thing, you never knew, you just had to wait for those moments. Yeah, you did, and the thing about Vinny, another thing about Vinny, it was always so fun, we actually prepare for the show, believe it or not, we set in and we talk about the show, and back when Vinny was on the show, we would really talk about, okay, Vinny, you're going to say this, right, if I ask you this question, this is how you're going to respond, yes, that's what I'm going to do, and you come in here and you'd ask him, it's like you ask him for the first time, he had no clue what you were saying, that he would respond completely different, totally different direction, and it's like, wow, never knew what we're going to get with Vinny.

Sort of like God, he often came out of left field. Absolutely, absolutely. Well, it's playing the music, you know, we're getting ready to end up the first show, anything else you'd like to share with us before we end this show out? I'm just grateful to be involved in the eight times we showed, congratulations to everybody, and I look forward to seeing you guys again soon. Yeah, we miss you, Al, thank you for everything you did and everything you did for this ministry, you're a critical part of it, so thank you for doing that. Well, that is the end of the first show, that just came and went so quick, we haven't even had a chance to talk to Todd, we'll talk to him in the after hours, but please go to maskonjourney.org to register for the upcoming boot camp the weekend before Thanksgiving in November, that's when it is every year in November, maskonjourney.org. This is the Truth Network.