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Have You Walked Away from the Church? Raised to Stay (Rewind)

Words of Life / Salvation Army
The Truth Network Radio
January 13, 2025 5:00 am

Have You Walked Away from the Church? Raised to Stay (Rewind)

Words of Life / Salvation Army

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January 13, 2025 5:00 am

Today we are relaunching one of our favorite series in recent years. This was the first series we did with author, pastor, worship leader Natalie Runion.

She joins Bernie Dake for this 6-week series and in this episode, we start by learning more about Natalie and her background.

Throughout this series Natalie and Bernie will be discussing Church hurt- and encouraging those who have been there not to give up on the bride of Christ.

https://natalierunion.com/

https://salvationarmysoundcast.org/wordsoflife

 

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Hi, from the Salvation Army, you're listening to Words of Life. I'm like Dora the Explorer. You could put a snorkel on me and I'll be like, I'm a scuba diver.

I don't know. I could do a bunch of different things. My dad just taught us to love the people before we loved our positions. That's still who he is. My first Instagram account post that day, and the entire point of that was just to keep me from quitting. Welcome back to Words of Life. I'm Bernie Dake, and I have the extreme privilege to introduce you or reintroduce you to Natalie Runyon. Welcome, Natalie.

Hello, Bernie. Thank you so much for having me. It's such an honor to be with you guys today.

Oh man, the pleasure is ours. Now, some of you may have heard from Natalie if you've been listening faithfully because our friend Emmanuel did an interview with her not too long ago, but I get to do the full episodes and talk about you as a person, as a Christian and the ministry that you've started, and I'm excited to introduce Natalie Runyon and Raised to Stay. Natalie, tell us about yourself. Where are you from?

What do you do? I am a pastor's kid from Cincinnati, Ohio, and we live currently in Colorado Springs, but we're actually making another move here soon. So lots of movement for our family, but I am married to Tony. We've been married for 16 years. We have two daughters who are 10 and 14, and so we're right in the thick of parenting. So please don't ask me to do any parenting advice because I'm not good at it yet right now.

So we're just winging it. But we moved to Colorado six years ago to be on staff with New Life Church, and it's been an incredible six years. But from that, I've just kind of at 43 discovered my purpose in the global and local church, which is to tell people we can't quit. So my family and I, we are all church kids.

My parents live with us. My dad was a pastor for most of my life. And we're just, I think now, gosh, like, I mean, I was a pastor's kid for 25 years and then went into full time ministry immediately out of college. And I've been a worship leader and I've been a songwriter and I've done a little bit of everything in the church. And I think we're just now coming to a place as a family where we understand like why God has allowed some things to happen in our lives. So it's been a wild past couple of years of just saying yes to Jesus and holding on through disappointment and all the things that we feel as Christ followers. Yeah.

Okay, so let's, let's peel back the onion just a smidge. For our listeners who are in 65 different countries right now, Cincinnati is part of the great state of Ohio, which does get some cold weather. So you're a four season person. Yes.

And then you moved to Colorado, which definitely gets four seasons. Yes. And it was interesting because I thought Colorado was nothing but snow. Yeah. You actually live on the sun with no oxygen.

Wow. It's really what Colorado Springs is. I mean, you'll get the snow, but it's gone like the next day because of how bright and sunny it is. So that is one thing I have loved about being out in Colorado is waking up and just seeing the mountains like right in my backyard, making our kids to experience nature in new ways. I wasn't a runner, certainly did not become a runner in Colorado with the lack of oxygen that is up there.

I get winded walking into Walmart. It's really not flattering, but it is. It's a beautiful place. If you've never been to Colorado Springs, it's, it's stunning.

Yeah, absolutely. You can be in snow in a matter of minutes on a drive or be in the middle of summer at the base. That's amazing. But growing up in Cincinnati, that's also a famous place for chili.

It is. How do you appreciate your chili? I do three ways from Skyline. I do not like Goldstar.

Goldstar is not my thing. Skyline a hundred percent. I'm a foodie. I think Cincinnati made me a foodie. Grater's ice cream. And it's really become a hub now.

It has. There's so much to do there. And I can say this because this podcast will be aired, but we're actually moving back there. Wow.

So I was mildly obese in Colorado Springs. I'm going to be with my people back in Ohio. I'll be like, look like all the rest of them. I love it. I love it.

I'm sure they will be glad to have you back. And this is, you know, some free advertising for them. Skyline Chili. That's right. Skyline Chili. Go get it.

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Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. Growing up in Cincinnati, you said you were a preacher's kid. I'm a preacher's kid. I was raised in the Salvation Army. So we're born out of the Methodist tradition. How did you come up?

Where are you from? My dad was actually not a believer early in his twenties and he got saved in over the Rhine, Cincinnati. His mom, my grandma was this praying Baptist woman prayed my dad through. He was a drug addict and alcoholic, and he actually got saved and went into evangelism explosion, which at the time was when people were handing out those tracks that had like a butterfly on them that said, you're going to hell at the bottom.

Like it was as if that was going to buffer the butterfly and going to hell. And so my dad actually took my family. We'd go down and give out blankets and did homeless shelters and we ministered to the people he used to do drugs with. When it came time for him to really pursue ministry, we went through the Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee, and he did their internship program. And that's where we spent most of my childhood was in the Church of God. But my dad was the kind of man that if he saw a church that was struggling, no matter what the denomination, he would step in. And so we called his church as the Island of Misfit Toys because he would go to the churches nobody wanted. So we were United Church of Christ. We were Church of God, Anderson. We kind of did all of it because my dad, wherever he went, had a soup kitchen in his buildings.

He would have openings for anybody to come in and sleep if they needed to. And a lot of churches didn't like that. So I was raised picking up hitchhikers and meeting people where they were. We spent every Sunday after church in nursing homes, giving communion. I went into prisons as a kid and would play the piano for guys that were homeless before they could eat. They had to go to church. And so I'd be up there at eight years old with 300 homeless guys screaming victory and Jesus at me from their pews. And my dad just taught us to love the people before we loved our positions. And that's still who he is. Amen.

That's beautiful. I think the sad part is your dad just missed out on the Salvation Army because it sounds like we're kindred spirits. Hey, he's only 68. He can come in.

He's got time. I love it. Then we learn as we peel back the onion that you're a piano player. Is that how you write your songs?

It is. I tried to take piano lessons and they realized about four years in that I was playing by ear, not by notes. I think that's just the Pentecostal in me. I grew up with some of the best musicians and multi-ethnic.

I mean, just so diverse and the music and very gospel. So I would sit on the front pew. That was my spot.

And I would sit behind the piano player and watch their hands. My favorite story though, my dad pastored this United Church of Christ in small town, Ohio in Cincinnati. And it was this old church building with like the graveyard and everything, the bell. It had a bell.

It was built in like 1872. And there was an organ player named Lucille and she was in her 80s and I would watch her play the organ. And one day her foot was hurt and she couldn't push the pedals. So she had me crawl underneath and she was yelling chords and I was playing the bass pedals for her.

And that's how I learned to do chords is I would crawl under the pedals and play bass on the organ for Lucille. That is so cool. Man. Okay.

Then you mentioned two kids, two daughters, 10 and 14. God bless you. You are putting in the time, I'm sure. And your husband, Tony. Now that sounds Italian. Is he a good cook? Name like Tony, you gotta be a good cook. He's a better cook than I am. He does the cooking in the family.

I love it. And now full-time ministry. You come out of the church. Did you go to a school in somewhere in Ohio, perhaps? I went to Miami of Ohio. Miami of Ohio.

They have a decent football program. Listen, it was the best thing that I could have done as a pastor's kid. Nice.

Yeah. Campus Crusade for Christ was there. And so I became a worship leader there. That's where I found my passion for leading worship. It was during the passion movement, you know, in the late nineties, early two thousands where worship was still pure hearted in the sense that there weren't cameras and social media to record it. And that was my gateway, I think, into ministry, trying to run from ministry was worship.

Very cool. So Keith Green, a piano player, Rich Mullins. They were all like massive influences. If a worship leader leads worship and nobody's there to record it, did the worship actually happen?

You know, we didn't have to worry about that then. You know, you would sit around bonfires and pianos and churches and just, you know, this authentic sound would come out. I miss that sometimes. You have a full-time ministry now with Raised to Stay. Tell us about how that came about. I think around 40 years old, I hit this wall and, you know, maybe it's a ministry midlife crisis. I don't know what it is, but when you've been in ministry your whole life, well, at least the life you remember, it becomes this identity. I'm a pastor's kid.

Okay. Well, I graduate, I'm out of the home. My dad's still a pastor, but now I need to have a job and we chase these identities in ministry and for 40 years that had been my identity and I come up against a season of pain again, another season of loss and potentially we could say church abuse, spiritual abuse. And I remember just walking the dog one day and being like, you know, if this is the church and this is what is going to be my next 40 years, no thank you.

And I was having a really honest conversation with the Lord. Like, I don't want to do this anymore. Let me just be a Starbucks barista. Like if I could just go work at Starbucks, I have a degree in kinesiology. I could go be a personal trainer. I could go teach phys ed again. I was a gym teacher for 10 years.

I had so many things. I'm like Dora the Explorer. Like you could put like a snorkel on me. I'll be like, I'm a scuba diver. I don't know.

I just, I could do a bunch of different things. Why am I still doing this? And that walk, and we'll talk about it, I'm sure in the later episodes, that walk is where the Lord really dropped that phrase, raised to stay into my spirit.

To the point where I start weeping because I know that it's not my words. And I ran home and I Googled and there was nothing called raised to stay. And I thought, well, I guess this is my purpose. And I wrote my first Instagram account post that day.

And the entire point of that was just to keep me from quitting. Talk to us about some links. How do we find you? Where do people catch you on Instagram and all the socials? On Instagram, we have a thriving community that I call my stayers. You can go to Instagram and just at Raised to Stay. You can find us there.

On Facebook, it's under Natalie Runyon, which is spelled R-U-N-I-O-N. And we also have a private Raised to Stay group where people can just converse with each other and dialogue. So those online communities are basically run by the stayers. They come in and they encourage each other. They fight like brothers and sisters.

They reconcile like brothers and sisters. It's a beautiful space. When I started listening to the podcast, I appreciate your vulnerability. One of the things you say that's important for people to hear, there was a time when you were daily trying to quit. You were daily trying to leave this ministry or platform life to get, as you say, maybe go do barista work for Starbucks.

No offense to anybody that's a barista that of course has its own challenges. But I just hope that anybody that's listening or watching this feels a sense of community or an appreciation that you are not alone. And I cannot wait to hear what you have to share with us in the episodes to come because there is so much more to what you're doing. So bless you, Natalie. Thank you for joining us.

Thank you. The Salvation Army's mission, Doing the Most Good, means helping people with material and spiritual needs. You become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army. Visit salvationarmyusa.org to offer your support. You can subscribe to Words of Life on your favorite podcast store or visit salvationarmysoundcast.org. Join us next time for The Salvation Army's Words of Life. Thanks so much for listening to Words of Life. We want to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the show. Visit lifeaudio.com where you'll find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network.

They have shows about prayer, Bible studying, parenting, and more. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time. God kept calling my heart. Like, I just knew He was my safe place. I hope people don't walk away going, wow, you're really awesome, more than like, wow, Jesus is really interesting and He's really awesome. Everybody on this planet is dealing with some sort of what if. How does that one courageous decision affect the whole world?

A ship in harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for. If you were encouraged by what you just heard, please search Trevor Talks on your favorite podcast platform or lifeaudio.com. The Historical Jesus Podcast is the sweeping saga of the life and times of Galilean Jesus of Nazareth, as well as the faith, religion, and church founded to honor and disseminate His acts and teachings. Join me, Mark Vinette, on this fascinating journey through time exploring the many great works of Christian theology, literature, architecture, music, and art inspired by the words and deeds of Jesus Christ.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-12 06:06:22 / 2025-01-12 06:12:58 / 7

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