Lifting Up Our Pastors

Welcome to Truth Talk Live. All right, let's talk the truth news. I can't hide it. A daily program powered by the Truth Network. This is kind of a great thing, and I'll tell you what.

Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together. Seek your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. Good afternoon, everyone. It's Andy Bauer Sox here today from Energize Ministries.

I want to give a shout out yesterday to Dr. Dwayne Carson. He was your host yesterday afternoon. And if you had a chance to listen, you know he focused his entire show on Pastor Appreciation Month, Pastor Appreciation Day coming up.

So thank you, Dr. Carson, for that. And I was actually so inspired by listening to that that I just want to continue where he left off. He started his show reading the scripture from 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. It's actually the theme verse for our ministry.

A lot of you guys know I lead Energized Ministries, which provides preventive care and prayer support for pastors and their families. We focus on encouragement, refreshment, and recreational retreats. But the foundational verse of why we do what we do is the exact verse that Dr. Carson read yesterday. It's from 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 12 and 13.

It says, Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord's work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance. Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work, and live peacefully with each other. It's been fifteen years since I have been leading Energize Ministries. And this is one of the very first scriptures that God gave us.

So, today we are going to continue the theme, as well as I have a great friend of mine in here, which I'm going to introduce in just a second. But we're going to start out by continuing the theme of encouraging your pastors. If you'd like to brag on your pastor, the number to call in is 866-3666-6666. 348-7884. 866-348-7884.

We want to hear from you. We want to hear why you love your pastor. A little word of encouragement for them. Just call in and give us a little snippet of it.

So 866-348-7884. Again, it's Andy with Energize Ministries. I also have in the studio a great friend of mine, Mr. Mike Dillon, who a few years ago God has given a calling, a vision to reach other men. And we're going to talk about that back and forth throughout the show.

But Mike, what's the name of your organization? Give us a little refresher, and what do you got coming up? Uh it's a hometown men's fellowship. That we have a big men's event coming up at Richard Childers Racing out in Welcome. North Carolina on October the 21st is free.

You can go on Hometown Men's Fellowship. and look it up, I believe on YouTube and Facebook. Urban Some of that stuff. I don't know a whole lot about all that. Mitch Glass, who's awesome, takes care of that.

And register. We like to have people register just so we have an understanding of how many might be showing up. But my son's going to speak, Ty Dillon, and we've got a special guest, Edward Graham, is coming to speak.

So uh going to be a big year for the hometown men's family. It's going to be a big big big night. Yeah, we're excited about it. And again, it's free and we just we'd love for you to come out and uh just tell you about what we should be doing as men and leading our household.

Well, that's a little teaser about the Hometown Men's Fellowship event coming up. We will come back to that. But we already have a caller on the line here. We have Russ from Kernersville. Russ, did you call in to brag on your pastor?

I certainly did, Andy. You ready to hear my bragging? Let's hear all about it.

Okay, we go to Fountain of Life Lutheran Church in Kernersville. Our pastor's name is Elliot Lutz. And uh Suzanne and I, we've been a member of many different churches, different denominations and had a lot of good pastors, but none any better than this guy. Is he a young man? Oh yeah, he's uh Forty-ish Okay.

Let's say between thirty-five and forty.

Okay. And uh but uh has the wisdom of an older man.

So It doesn't matter whether you're new to the faith or whether you've been in the faith a long, long time His messages are succinct, biblical, to the point. And best of all for me, Is you get up every Sunday morning when it's over, and you've got something to go out to do to improve your standing. and to be a little bit more disciplined toward glorifying the Lord. You know, you know, Russ, one of the things that we talk about in our ministry is just going above and beyond. When the service is over on Sunday, pastors are so used to hearing somebody come up and say, Hey, Pastor, that was a great sermon.

Great job. You know, just a real quick one-liner. And we often encourage people, go beyond that, and why don't you give an example of how it impacted your life this past week, what he had to say. You know, pastors don't get to see a lot of what happens after 12 o'clock. When people are out, they don't get it.

So I very much appreciate what you had to say there. And I'm glad you called in and just give a little word for Elliot right there, too.

Okay. Well, let me see if I could get one that really resonated. Oh, I was I wasn't trying to put you on the spot there. I was already thanking you for for what you got. No, no, let him do it.

So so basically, I think The latest message I heard from Pastor Lutz. Is that Knowledge is worth a lot. Intentions are worth a lot. But at the end of the day, Uh To worship, to love. And to be any kind of a disciple for the Lord means you got to get up and do something.

You know, Mike's in here grinning, saying actions. Action. Yeah. Yeah. good intentions are a stimulant to get up and do something.

But if you just leave it with What's in your head? Or even what's in your heart, if you don't put it into action and you don't reach out and you don't. You don't do something to pull anybody else closer to the Lord, either in your demeanor, your words, or Your gifts. Then, you know, you could just read a good fiction novel and You get the same result. Yeah.

That's right.

Well, listen, Russ, we have another caller. I appreciate you calling in. I appreciate your heart for your pastor. And we will pass the good word on along as well.

Okay. And and and while I'm bragging, I can brag about the two of you sitting there, too, because you make sacrifices most of us don't, and we appreciate it.

Well, thank you so much for your call. Thank you so much. Yeah. I want to honor. I want to add a little bit to that.

Yeah, let's hear it. This week in our Bible study at the shop, at the Race shop, and by the way, we have a Bible study every Tuesday night at the museum, RCR Museum in Welcome, that's free to come in at 6:30, and it's over by 8, and it's awesome. We have about 60 to 80 men showing up every Tuesday night so you can come out. But we were talking about what he just said. About, you know, we can go to church on Sunday, we can do all the things the right way, what we think's right, and check all the boxes.

Or the actions, you know, faith without action is not a whole lot, right? It's like what he just said. You might as well, you could read you a good fiction book, right? That's a pretty cool way to say it. We were talking, I had a friend, we were talking about why do we.

Why do we walk by someone that we seem is in need of just a how are you doing or are you okay or a friend even? Just let them know that you love them. And I told him and it just came to me, it was like, 'Cause we don't want to get dirty. You know, we don't want to, we, you know, I'm going along pretty good here. What what what uh I'm afraid they might have something that they need of me.

Right, that time, and you don't want to be interrupted. That's right, no, yeah, and it's that time that it takes, and that little bit of time just asking, How are you doing? Letting them know that you love 'em. Yeah. All right.

Well, good word, Mike. We have Dr. Joy on the line here, also. And I know something about Dr. Joy.

I know she's going to say something about pastor encouragement.

So, Joy, are you with us? Hey Eve. Hey, Mike. Hey, Joy. I'm enjoying your show, and I think it's so important.

what you're sharing with your listeners about our role to love on our pastors, to encourage our pastors, but I I was hoping to bring a little something extra to the discussion. I'd like to also remember the importance of the pastor's wife. Because I don't about that enough. She is you in the background. Please Usually the one that It's not on the platform.

Sometimes she just prefers to be behind the scenes. But she is so critical. to the happiness, the joy. the sustainability of the pastor. And I thought maybe we could talk about that a little bit more.

Let's come back to that right after the break. It the joyster there? Truth, talk, lie. You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live.

It's Andy Bower Sox here, your host for this afternoon in the studio with my good friend Mike Dylan. We have been talking, among other things, about Pastor Appreciation Month. And when we left off, well, I'll tell you what, before we get back to Dr. Joy, if you want to call in and brag on your pastor, the number today is 866-348-7884, 866-348-7884. We are taking calls.

If you had a chance to brag on your pastor for Pastor Appreciation Month, but when we left off, we were talking with Dr. Joy about the pastor's spouse. And Joy does women's ministry, so she's specifically talking about the pastor's wife.

So, how did we leave that conversation, Joy? Where did we pick up again?

Well, I wanted us to just make sure we remember that a big part of the strength that comes from our pastors comes also from His wife. that we don't want to forget about her. As we honor him, we honor her. And to be cognizant of the fact that she carries a lot of the ministry also. that she is his sounding board when he comes home from a really rough day or if things are happening, That as we're bragging about our pastors, we could also brag about our pastors' wives too, right?

Our pastors' spouses. And so I know that for me personally, my cousin is a pastor And we're really close. His wife Is one of my dearest friends. Her name's Candace. And I want to brag on her.

today because she is such A strength to him, and because I love my cousin so much, he's the pastor. I see what she brings to him and how she's always there. helping him in ministry. uplifting his spirits, helping him emotionally, helping him walk through. a lot of things that none of us even would see because it's things behind the scenes.

And I think it's just important for us not to forget about The fact that Pastors have families, and they have spouses, and we also want to uplift them. remember to encourage them. What a great word.

So we had Russ call in and brag on his pastor, Ellie. We have had Joy call in and brag on her cousin's pastor's wife. I think I got that right. That's right.

Candace. Yeah. But anyway, yeah, so we want to hear from you. Joy, thanks so much for calling. We want to hear from you at 866-348-7884.

If you've got a way to brag on your pastor, tell us something why they're so special to you. I want to take a minute and mention also, now that it is Pastor Appreciation Month, our ministry, Energize Ministries, has available pastor appreciation kits. We're calling them pastor packs. Pastor Appreciation Kit. I think that's right.

P-A-K. Pastor Appreciation Kit. So we have a pack available for you that includes a whole assortment of pastor appreciation goodies. You can purchase those. I think they're $35, includes free shipping, but they're on our website at energizeministries.com.

If you don't have something already for your pastor or your pastor spouse, now's a great time. Check it out at Energize Ministry. Ministries.com. Mike, you want to come back and give us a little tidbit? You were starting to tell me during the break about something happening during your Bible study.

The Bible study that's a result of your hometown men's fellowship.

So, you want to take another plug for that right now? Yeah, well again, we have a a Bible study there in Welcome. It's on Tuesday nights. It starts at 6.30. It's over at 8 and it's free to all men that want to want to come in.

And it's awesome. It's such a blessing for me just to be there, to be a part of it. We had a um a friend of mine who who uh um I was his name's Brody. I won't give the rest of it. But he was telling me about he went in a grocery store and was in a grocery store and he went down an aisle.

And uh going back to what uh what Russ said about actions, he's going down an aisle and a and a lady was standing there crying. And he kinda went on by and it was like, Oh, man, I better go on and he went around the corner and then he said all of a sudden he got a knot in his stomach like, Hey, you need to go pray for her And he kind of went kept going. You know, I know I do it all the time when I see somebody and I'm like, man, I don't wanna, you know, like, what should I do, right?

Well, he went around the corner, the next aisle, he runs right into her. And he stops and he knows right away what to do and he says, hey, something's telling me I need to pray for you.

So he does, and I won't go into that part, but but and it was awesome uh just to sit and listen. We were riding down the road, uh I was riding down the road and it was telling me about it, but then I said he said, well, the problem is, is why didn't I stop the first time? Why you know, and I I had the nudge, but why didn't I stop? And I'm telling you, the Holy Spirit put it on me right there, just like that. It was like, because you didn't want to get dirty.

That's what I was saying earlier. You didn't want to get dirty. You didn't want to have to take on. She might have needed something. Or might have needed something from you.

You know, and it's like Well, the point is, your friend Brody responded to the Holy Spirit. And I want to tell you, I think I'm looking at our calling screen here, and I think this is actually a great segue to our next caller. Jim, are you on the line here with us? I'm on the line, Andy. I don't know if you heard that story about Mike's friend responding to the Holy Spirit, but I know you, and I know that you know what our ministry does, and I know you have a similar story about a pastor responding when you responded to the Holy Spirit.

Do you remember what I'm talking about? Oh my gosh, you don't want me to tell that story. I don't know. I sort of do, actually.

So I'm going to set the stage. I'll make it real easy for you. You know, you guys that are listening to, you know, I host a ministry that provides care, refreshment, encouragement for pastors. And a few years ago, we were actually hosting a cruise for pastors, it was a big deal. And this caller that's on the line down in Huntersville, North Carolina.

He's been a longtime friend of mine. That morning, I think it was just a few days before the cruise was taken off, we had a cancellation and an opening. And so I called this friend of mine, Jim, and I said, Jim, you know any pastors that could do this? I didn't get a word back until about an hour later, I got a crazy text with a number on it.

Now, Mike, you just told us a story about the Holy Spirit nudging you.

So Jim, make it rather short, but tell us what happened, what was that, five, six, seven years ago maybe, when the Holy Spirit nudged you for something. Yeah, I was um in Gastonia. I had a G and I had had some parts put on and I came out of there and made a wrong turn, and I passed another guy in a jeep that looked very similar. And I thought, you know, I should stop and talk to him. And I rant kept going on down the road and about a mile down the road I saw I'm supposed to turn around and go talk to him.

Long story short, we had about a 30-minute conversation.

Sorry, guys, I'm on a run.

So, if y'all hear me breathing heavy.

So, anyway, so I'm on a run. I'm on a. I'm having a conversation with a pastor. His name was Troy. He was a pastor of a small church, one hundred members, And all of a sudden he started crying.

And I said, Troy, what's going on? And he said If you hadn't have stopped. I was going to commit suicide today. And we kept talking for another handful of minutes. And I said, listen, I'm not equipped.

to help you other than to be a friend to you. But I know who he is. Let me get you to Energize Ministry and Andy Bauer Sox. And the rest of the story is what Andy just said. And And only God could do that, right?

It was amazing. I think this whole thing is awesome. Like, literally, you didn't know Mike was going to be telling this story. Mike's telling a story about being nudged by the Holy Spirit. I look over, I see your name here, and I'm like, you can't make this stuff up.

And if you're listening right now and you're in one of those moments or you have a moment coming up that you don't even know about that you're about to be nudged by the Holy Spirit, this is a perfect example of how God can use you in an extraordinary way beyond, way beyond what you can even imagine. Yes, yeah, that's that's right. Andy, I have one. I have one comment or one challenge, and I'll get off the line and do your work here. I want to know and I want to challenge Other members in other churches Why don't they care for their pastors more?

And the reality is we think they're perfect, we think they're okay. We have all the problems and they're Okay. And the truth is, They're just normal human beings. Why Andy. Don't churches.

all across America band together and care for their pastors. With that, I'm good. Andy, I love you. Mike, God bless you. An honor to meet you, brother.

Thanks for calling in, Jim. And we are absolutely going to address that. I mean, that couldn't have been a better call for us, really, Mike. You know, I say all the time: we expect, just like Jim said, our pastors to be perfect, to be above reproach, to have perfect kids. That's not the way it works.

When we come back from this break, we are going to delve right into that. And then we're going to get right into the Hometown Men's Fellowship, the big event coming up October 21st. Be back in a bit. Truth Talk Live You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Good afternoon, it's Andy Bauersox here on Truth Talk Live with my good friend Mike Dylan.

We have been talking about Pastor Appreciation Month, among other things. And during the break, I see a note here. We've got Mike from Ohio that called in with a shout out for his pastor. Mike, are you with us? Yes, I'm yeah, hi, thank you for taking my call.

Um My pastor has been in serving for our congregation for over six years. years. His name is Fred Wilson. He uh he uh pastors a um Church in in Kettering, Ohio, uh Life Point Light point uh Sanctuary. Um An awesome man.

His wife is also an awesome person. Yeah. Just loving and caring for every every individual in the church. and they've been doing it. And now his son is taking over Jeff, oh my.

He he he has Uh is done so much in in the in the last past years for our church and has been w really really uh awesome for our our congregation. And I also want to give a ki a shout out to uh Robbie Gilmore. He's been a friend over the phone with me. And I listen to him on the radio, and he's been like a pastor to me as well. Um He got my heart right with God about five or six years ago.

He said something on the radio, it just stuck with me and I'll never forget it. That's awesome. And and Dwayne Carson. Love his website. Yeah.

Love is uh I tell people, I ask them what their birthday is. We look it up, and it is an awesome. awesome way to talk to people about Christ. Mike, you're you're in an encouraging mood here. You're going you're going down through the basin.

I'm going beyond. And I I don't know you, but I I'm so glad you're out there trying to encourage pastors because that's where it's at. I mean, seriously, that's where it's at. We need to lift up our pastors. We need to take care of them.

We need to pray for them. We need love on them. We really do. We need to love on them. And uh that's why I gave a shout out to all those people that are in my lives.

Well, for them, I wouldn't be close to God. Yeah, you mentioned some really good ones there, and I will echo the same shout-out to everyone you just mentioned. I don't know your pastor, but I know he's impacted your life, which has caused you to pray for him and to lift him up.

So, we're grateful for that. And, Mike, love to stay in touch with you. Before the break, we were talking about Jim from Huntersville, North Carolina, gave us a challenge. About why we are not doing a better job caring for our pastors? Why are we expecting perfection?

And I just want to address what he said a little bit. You know, growing up, I grew up in the church. Mike, you grew up in the church, and it was just sort of a standard idea, right? Like, hey, our pastors, they're the ones preaching and teaching the Bible. They just have it all together.

And we expect that, right? We expect them to have great marriages. We expect them to have great kids. Listen, I spend my whole life now encouraging pastors, and I will admit to you that confess, I sort of had that expectation when I was growing up, too.

Now that I'm in full-time ministry, now that I see the other side of it, what we should be expecting is trouble. And here's why, because we fight. The devil is after the leadership. It's just like in a war. We fight an enemy that is an absolute master at custom designing failure packages for anybody that's moving the needle or advancing, either introducing people to Christ, helping them walk closer with the Lord.

So really what we should be expecting is if we see people coming to know the Lord in our churches, if we see new ministries being born, things like hometown men's fellowship, you know, Bible studies, women's Bible studies, as Joy was talking about, when you see those things happening, you absolutely should be expecting that your leaders, your pastors and their families are under an attack, and attacks are messy. They need our prayer. Just Mike, you called it just a minute ago. They need our prayer support. They need our encouragement.

I heard a psychologist one time say it takes seven compliments to overcome the effects of one criticism. Yep. I don't know about you guys, but I don't know that I give seven compliments. I heard that from Ron Pegram, who was a big who's a pastor, who's a big influence in my life. And yeah, it was you know, one negative, one negative stroke, it takes 10 to overcome it, you know, with words or anything.

So it's a but these pastors are being attacked spiritually every day, and they're also having to take on everybody's burden. And the burdens are not light. Is that Mike trying to say? Yep, go ahead. Mike in Ohio, did you want to comment about that?

Yeah, I do. We have a tendency to be negative as a human being. But that but when we we read the word and we get into Christ and we become a good a good Christian, We learn to be positive to people. We need to be loving, kind. The spirit, the the uh aspects of the Holy Spirit.

If we're not, then we're negative. Hey, he took too long. We didn't get to the restaurant fast enough. I can't believe he just kept going on and on and on about the same thing. I mean, it's so easy to be negative.

but it's really hard to renew our mind and be positive. And be even positive, we need to study the word. We need to learn, we need to live. Lived a Christian life. And that's what all these other pastors have done to me: they've changed my life from being negative to positive.

Well, I think you've given a great word. You've given a great word, Mike. And I believe Paul talks about, you know, disciplining, being hard on yourself, beating your body into submission to follow the Lord. That that's exactly what you're talking about. And it is hard.

But it's what's right. And I work with somebody that always reminds me the easy way is not usually the right way.

So thank you so much for your call on there, Mike. You're welcome, certain.

So I'm going to go back to Mike Dillon right here. Exactly what he's talking about.

Well, you're talking about studying the word, studying to show yourself approved. That's what you guys do on Tuesday nights. And what's coming up? You got a big event coming up to get introduced to all this. Hometown Men's Fellowship, and it's uh it's uh You know, it's just a we got, like I said, we have Edward Gray, Edward Graham going to be our speaker, and my son, Ty Dillon.

And they're gonna share uh Their love for God. And then, you know, our thing is, everybody that comes, will receive a First Hour for Men book, which is what got me on the track to get on my knees and pray every morning and read my Bible. It's just a tool, is all it is. It's not something, but it is an awesome tool to get you in the Bible and you start understanding what people say when it's a living word. You understand, and then it just slowly but surely will change your heart.

A lot like Mike said there, you know. Has changed his life. I was saying that for a long time, but what happens is your heart changes, and then you're then after that, your life falls behind, and you're like, you look at things different, you view things different, troubles are different, you know, you're like. You just, you know, you got somebody taking care of you. You got a more stable foundation.

Amen. Yeah. So, what Mike's talking about is October 21st in Welcome, North Carolina. This is a free event. Yep.

Pretty good size. Even give a bottle of water. We will give you a bottle of water. You got a book and a bottle of water. You got a book and a bottle of water for free.

But really, what you get is fellowship. And I think it's super cool, Mike, that God's called you to reach the hometown man. This is not a Chicago event. This is not a New York City event. This is a hometown men's deal, right?

Real raw, I would even say. But so if you're a guy listening out there and you're like, I need some of that stability they're talking about. I need that peace in my life. I need the change. Come down and just check it out.

October 21st. Is there a website or how do they register for this thing? You can go on Facebook, Hometown Men's Fellowship. It's on there. And I believe you can go on.

YouTube. I think you can. I might be wrong. I can text old Mitch here. I think sometime before we wrap up tonight, we better get a website or a link where they can register.

Three years, you might think I would know. You might, but that's all right. There's people for that, right?

So, so Hometown Men's Fellowship, if you just do some Googling, you will find that. But this is an annual event. This is the third year, right? Third year. What you can expect is some great worship music.

You'll be in a room at the Richard Childress Racing Headquarters. Super cool experience and a venue if you're a guy. Lots of motors and cars and all kinds of stuff around there. But upstairs in that room, you'll experience a night of just hearing some testimonies from some guys that were not always close with the Lord. And they discovered it.

They discovered the peace, the stability, like we were talking about earlier.

So, October 21st, Hometown Men's Fellowship. Mike is going to get to, sometime in the next five minutes, he's going to give us an actual website or link where you can sign up. But spread the word. You can bring your pastor to this event. There's a lot of pastors that show up at this Bible study.

And if you're local to welcome Winston-Salem area, Greensboro, High Point, even down towards Salisbury, Charlotte, you're welcome to this event. You're welcome to them anywhere you're from. Just come on. Anywhere. Just come on to it.

So, anyway, back to, we need another caller to come in and tell us why they love their pastor. I want to talk about my mentor and pastor.

Well, you just go right ahead. We got a few minutes. Go right ahead and do it. My man. Preacher.

Preacher. I call him preacher. He's my guy. I tell people that's my guy. He's my mentor.

And this guy's been with RCR for 25 plus years. And uh as steady as they come. With the Lord. And and uh that's a good word. Yeah, and he he has stayed with it, and um I just can't tell you how much I love him and what he's done in my life and what he does around RCR for others.

And I just, you know, you uh You know, and that's one of the. I'm going to give my shout out to my guy. To Richard Payne.

Well, there you have it, Richard. If you're listening, Mike's over here bragging on you and really just being grateful and thankful for the work that God's done through you in His life. Which, really, Mike, I'm sitting here thinking there's a lot of guys that have small, really small churches, even home churches. And so, if you're thinking you only need to brag about your pastor from a big church, we want to hear from you. You've got a friend that's discipled you, that's been a mentor, a pastor to you.

Now's your chance to give a little shout-out for him: it's 866-3666-6666. 348-7884-866-348-7884. We would love to hear. We love encouragement, right? Our ministry, that's all we do is go around trying to encourage.

In fact, I want to tell a quick story. Just a few minutes ago, we were talking about how much easier it is to be negative, right? We're easy to point something out that's not right. I already told you, I spend all my life trying to be an encouragement to pastors and get other people to do the same. And a few years ago, I was driving into church, and you know, a lot of churches have the parking attendance now, and they're always waving those batons one way or another.

And I was just frustrated with this guy that's waving the baton. I'm thinking, like, I can park where I want to, I don't have to be told where to park. I didn't like the way he was doing it, and so I. I, in my humanness, I walked into the foyer, I saw the pastor in there, and I'm like, Pastor, we got to get some better dudes out on this parking situation because this is out of control. He says, well, when do you want to pick up the baton?

And I'm telling you, I ate like it was like a knife right through the gut. It's easy for me to complain about it, but I sure didn't want to be the one to stand out there and do it.

So I try to remember that every time I got something negative to say, I gotta do better. We can all do better. Call in, tell us about your pastor, 866-348-7884. and we will be back in just a bit. Truth Talk Live You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com.

Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. It's Andy Bauer Sox here with Energized Ministries and Mike Dylan from Hometown Men's Fellowship. We have been talking about two different things today. First of all, Pastor Appreciation Month. Which, by the way, the actual day October has long been Pastor Appreciation Month, but October 12th, this coming Sunday, is Pastor Appreciation Day.

So. If you have not done something for your pastor, you don't have a gift yet, guess what? We can help you. Energize Ministries.com, we have pastor appreciation kits for sale. They are $35, includes free shipping.

You should check it out today, and you can get one before Sunday even for Pastor Appreciation Day. Anyway, that's what we're talking about. We also are going back to right before the break, Mike was diligently looking up the link, the website, how to get registered for the hometown men's thing. Did we find it? I did.

What you got? Hometownmensfellowship.org. Hometownmensfellowship.org. And there's an iTicket on there. You can go and get up, go ahead and get a ticket.

And what it does enable you to do, too, every hundred Uh r uh I guess um Ticket. purchased wins a uh Grizzly Cooler. that you'll pick up at the event.

So that's pretty cool. We've already given away four. Four coolers? Four coolers.

So, and we're getting ready to we gave the tenth. We gave the 10th person who registered one because of Ty's car numbers number 10. And then every 100th, when we hit 100, that was, they got one, two, three, and now we're real close to four.

So somebody's going to get another one. And we're, we're, you know, we'll.

So today's the day to register. That's what you're saying.

Well, yeah, keep on because you might get five. You know, we're going to get, we got, we're going to give, we're hoping to give away 10, so we'll see what happens.

Okay. Hometownmen's Fellowship.org.org.

So if you were listening earlier, if you weren't listening, this is your chance. If you're a guy and, you know, I say you're within 50, 100 miles of welcome, Winston-Salem area, North Carolina. Come register for the Hometown Men's Fellowship event. Mike says it doesn't matter where you got. I got a group coming from Florida.

I know they're coming. They've already okay.

So they come from all over. And I, you know, Mike, we should probably mention, you know, for the listeners that don't know you, you grew up in the racing business, NASCAR racing business, and your two boys that are full-time race car drivers now. Yeah. Austin and Ty. Ty is also going to be there to give his testimony.

You mentioned that, but there may be somebody that doesn't know as much about NASCAR.

So pretty cool. I had a chance to hear Ty's testimony, and he did an extraordinary job. I mean, you've got kids that are walking with the Lord. Ty is very outspoken about it. He's an awesome kid.

So, this is your chance to hear directly from him. And you mentioned Edward Ram's going to be there from Samaritan's Purse.

So, there's going to be some great testimony. You're going to hear more about Mike's testimony. Mike's going to give you a book, a bottle of water.

So, October 21st, hometownmansfellowship.org. Yeah. Now's your chance to get signed up.

Somebody's listening out there. Go look, pull it up and see if you can figure it out and call in and let us know. Yeah, there you go. You can call back. Also, you got just a few more minutes.

If there's anyone else that wants to call in and brag on their pastor, it's 866-3487-884. I should mention, I did mention about the pastor care kits, the appreciation kits that we have for sale.

However, if you are relatively local, also near Welcome, Lexington area, North Carolina, next week. We have something super cool happening. Fishing tournament. Fishing tournament. You called it the Bass Pastors Challenge.

Is that next week? Thursday the 16th.

Okay, the 16th.

Okay, yeah.

Next Thursday, the 16th. If you like to fish, if your pastor likes to fish, if your son or your grandfather likes to fish, we would love to have you come be our guest at this thing. It's called the Bass Pastors Challenge. You know, there's a big fishing tournament out there called the Bass Masters Classic. Right.

And when we started thinking about this, we started to go to the future. You're planning to outgrow that, right?

Well, I don't know if we'll get quite that big, but our thought was this Bass Masters Club, this is a national competition. A lot of millions of people involved in it.

So we thought, wouldn't it be cool if we could do a Bass Pastors Classic? Yeah. Not the Bass Masters Classic, the Bass Pastors Classic. And then we sort of backpedaled and thought, well, we don't want to get in trouble with infringement on this thing, so we'll call it the Bass Pastors Challenge. But next Thursday, we have room for a few more boats and a few fishermen.

Can they sign up when they get there the day of? They got to sign up before. Wa they can't sign up the day of? It starts at 5.45 in the morning. They can't sound like early at 4.45?

Well, maybe they can. I'm a little bit with you. I don't know the exact details on that. I know we're doing it. For sure there's a show.

Yeah, it's a chance to win $1,000. You can bring your pastor, bring your friend. But you can sign up for that at EnerjesMinistries.com. We would love to have you. This is the first time we've done a fishing tournament.

You know, we recently had a golf tournament for our ministry this past week. Went great. We're looking forward to a great day at High Rock Lake. You can sign up at Energy's Ministries.com to join us for the Bass Pastors Challenge. But back to pastor appreciation.

Mike. What were you telling me a little while ago about pastors carrying the burden? They never get away from it.

Well, I'm just, you know, you just think of. I can just just uh The environment that Preacher, who I call Preacher Richard Payne, has at RCR. We have 400 men there, men and women there, that he takes care of.

Somebody's in the hospital, they're constantly going, and you carry that burden. Whatever that person's struggling with, you're carrying that. You get it, you receive it, it gets inside of you. You know, and then they have to carry that all around.

So so it's kinda like uh I believe it was was it Russell early first caught us one of them or Mike. Mike maybe. You know, it it is why whoever it was that challenged it was Jim. That challenged everybody, right? Yes.

About taking care of your pastor. That is kind of crazy that we think that they've got it on. I mean, honestly, the devil's going after them harder than any one of us because they're the ones that are on the front line. In our ministry, we use the analogy of a water pitcher. Right.

You cannot constantly be pouring out with somebody pouring back into you. Right. And, you know, John Maxwell has said for years that everything in our world. rises and falls on leadership. Right?

That's just the way it is. And leadership comes with criticism. You can't get away from it. We tell people or try to explain to people: if you are leading, like leadership brings criticism, that's just how it goes. But if you're leading in the spiritual realm, if you're introducing people to Christ, if you're helping them walk closer with the Lord, it doesn't just bring out the criticism, it brings out an all-out attack.

And like we talked earlier, sometimes those attacks are messy, and your pastors, their families, their marriages, their kids, they need your prayers. They don't need the rumors. They don't need the criticism. They don't need to know that if your pastor's daughter had a skirt that was a little too short, or you know, they don't need you talking to Susie Q about that. And, you know, maybe Susie Q needs to be the one to say, you know what?

Our pastors have to pick and choose their battles just like the rest of us. They're not going to be perfect. They're going to mess up. And so it is, as a ministry, where Energize exists is to really fight for. For the lives of our pastors, for their families, and help people understand to give a little grace.

Allow them to speak freely, to be transparent, and say, guys. You know what? My daughter is making some poor choices, and we really need your prayers as a family. Right now, The culture overwhelmingly does not allow that. We don't want our pastors to be able to be vulnerable, to share their struggles, because So we want.

We want them to be above all of it. Right. We have five or six pastors on Tuesday night at the museum for our Bible study that come regular. just to be a part of the B a part of it. That you know, and now it's a such a blessing to have them there because you can lean on them for their experience and their knowledge, you know, of the Word.

But They're coming to listen to somebody like me, you know, read the Bible and ask, you know, questions that everybody may want to ask, and we're studying the Bible together, but they're not having to do it. They're not having to always be outperforming and it's almost, you know, to make sure that am I doing a good job for for these people at my church? You know, I I can't imagine what that would be like just to uh to have that all the time. And it's like so uh it's a You know, it's something we should listen to and look into more because, like what you just said, you can't possibly imagine what they take in every day. Yeah, and I think what you have on Tuesday nights there, it is really special.

I've had a chance to experience that several times, and it's exciting for me to see pastors that will come because they're. They're just a regular dude in the room there, right? You got plumbers, you got electricians, you got doctors, you got whoever, accountants in there. Kids in high school? Yeah, it's across the map.

And so it's pretty special.

So, again, I just want to give a plug for Hometown Men's Fellowship. If you're in the area. Let's just go with even there on Tuesday nights because that's a regular thing. You probably can't come from Florida every Tuesday night to come up there. But if you're around, listen, guys, it's worth checking out.

It's an opportunity to be real, to be raw. I mean, listen, not everybody, I'm going to say not everyone there is even a believer. They're just in there trying to figure it out and understand.

So maybe you know somebody like that. Maybe you're listening and you've got a buddy that won't feel comfortable, you know, gracing the altar on Sunday morning, but he might come to the racing museum there and sit in there, a bunch of hot rod guys, and listening and just being able to be free, right? I mean, I think it's really special what you've done there, Mike. And for the pastors, I know it's encouraging to them, too.

So, all right, guys, it's Pastor Appreciation Month. We want to hear from you. You've got just a few minutes left to call in and brag on your pastor, 866-348-7-884. Or, as Joy reminded us, do you want to brag on your pastor's spouse or his wife? We want to hear that too.

I mentioned earlier, you know, we do have pastor appreciation kits available, Energize Ministries.com. We've got this fishing tournament coming up. It's the sixteenth.

So actually there's two events here, Mike.

Next week, Thursday is the Energize Ministries, the Bass Pastors Challenge at High Rock Lake. The week after that, is it Tuesday or Thursday your big event? It's Tuesday. It's Tuesday. We do everything on Tuesday so we don't mess up anybody's church time.

Don't want to mess it up on Wednesday. I started. I was wanting Wednesday. And they said, well, people go to church on Wednesday. I'm like, Okay, so so we don't now we do everything on Tuesday.

And we're actually going to do another Bible study up at North Wilkesboro Speedway after our deal. And sometime in November we're going to start it. Then there'll be another one up in that area. All right, well, you heard it right there from the man himself, Mike Dillon, Hometown Men's Fellowship. Love your pastor this Sunday, October 12th.

It's coming up. Love on your pastor, love on his family. If you're a man, come join us at Hometown Men's Fellowship and tune in tomorrow at 4 p.m. for Truth Talk Live again. Thank you so much.