Keeping Hope Alive In Southern California – Tommy Cota

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Cultivate Church Planting Podcast. I'm your host here with Tommy Cota and once again, thanks for being back Nick, our co-hosts I am so close part of the Cultivate team and excited to be planting churches.

[00:00:14] Sided to be part of Calvary Chapel, Calvary Global Network and looking forward to what God is going to do in our midst. You mad? He's gonna do something. He's gonna do something. That's for sure.

[00:00:26] Alright, Tommy is a good friend of mine and of Nick's and he is here. He's gonna share a little bit about his story, a little bit about his testimony.

[00:00:36] But what we want to know most of all is how do you, how do we pastor? How do we plant churches? The people want to know, I mean they want to get all of your wisdom and experience in the next few minutes to share. Okay, yeah.

[00:00:49] So that's what we know what to do. We'll get all my wisdom won't do that. You just don't want to start by using this as long as you're doing it. That's messed up. That's funny.

[00:01:03] Alright, well, why don't we start by you introducing yourself and just talking about where you're pastoring, where you're ministering, kind of your little bit of background for ministry there. Yeah, so, man, I got saved in June 11th of 2000.

[00:01:18] And so coming up on 24 years, so this June will be 24 years and prior just prior to that man I was living a life, you know, just on drugs in and out of prison.

[00:01:34] In the state of California for a long time and my wife was praying for me and man when I got saved, I had no clue that, you know, the God would ever call me to be a pastor or anything like that.

[00:01:48] You know, but went to Calvary Chapel and started hearing the word of God and started just really developing a thirst for the word and treasuring God's word, you know,

[00:02:03] and about a year after I got saved, there was an announcement at Calvary Chapel, close to Maysa for a school of ministry. And now I remember hearing during that announcement was that it was going to be some Bible studies throughout the day in the morning times.

[00:02:18] I'll go to that manning. It was like, more Bible studies. I'll do that guy some free time during the day. And, but I didn't know that it was a more of a class that was like preparing men that sense to call for, you know, to be a pastor.

[00:02:35] And so it was like specifically designed for men who were going to go into the ministry as far as people are in the industry. Yeah, he didn't know it at first.

[00:02:42] I didn't know that first and the crazy thing too man, it was just, again, I was just a year saved, and I was always present. And you know, this new life with Jesus was exactly that it was all new.

[00:02:54] And I remember even the very first day, one of that class, and we were presented with the syllabus and I didn't know what a syllabus was. I just pretended I did. You guys said, okay, I'm really salivated. I'm really salivated. Of course, what else? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:03:13] You know, and started looking at it and started getting these books and getting, you know, assignment dates and went things were due. And I was confused because I had just paid like, you know, over two almost $300 for this class.

[00:03:28] And so at the end, I went, you know, it was Carl Westerlin, I said, hey, Pastor Carl, I go, why do I have to do all this? Where I paid already. Why don't you gotta do all this work, you know, and start a life thing.

[00:03:40] You know, I was like, if I paid, what are I gonna do? Yeah, I just needed to pay you. Yeah, I needed to pay. And I just want the Bible study, you know, and so he laughed, of course, you know,

[00:03:51] and then he kind of broke it down to me a little bit. And I went home and told my wife, man, I, you know, this is not for me. But she encouraged me. My wife encouraged me to, hey, you're already there, just finish it.

[00:04:01] You know, so I committed to one semester and then I finished that whole school year and, you know, at any ways, at the end of those two years, you know, I just really began. That's when I began to sense like, man, maybe there is something here,

[00:04:15] you know, that God is wanting me to do as far as, like, you know, serve and whatever capacity. And so shortly after that, I started serving like volunteering a lot there at Cover Chapel, Costa Mesa and eventually got on staff there and started doing it.

[00:04:29] What years were those? This was in 2004, 2005. Okay. 2004 is when I graduated the school of ministry. So yeah, I was only at four years into my walk with Jesus. And so I really felt, as I look back now, this was like a fast track, you know,

[00:04:49] and I'm sure it's, you know, normal for some but maybe not normal for others that, you know, so quickly. Yeah, so I just started serving and God or Dane is a pastor there.

[00:05:00] I shared this story just the other day with someone as like, how did you get or Dane? I was like, well, I was serving at Cover Chapel Costa Mesa and I started going into the back into the Jails, you know, as a chaplain.

[00:05:15] But I, because I didn't have any ordination certificate, I needed a kind of like a letter, a written letter, you know, a signed written letter.

[00:05:23] And so I would write out a letter, short letter and I would ask Pastor Chuck, I go, hey, can you sign this for me? And you know, what's this for? You know, and I break it down to him.

[00:05:31] So he signed it, but I had to do that every month. And so after like the third time he asked me, because why do I gotta keep signing this as well? It's because I don't have any, you know, I'm not an ordained minister.

[00:05:43] And so this allows me to go and I wasn't an asshole or Dane. Me, let's just, I'm answering the question and so he signed it after he, he knew it was for and two days later, I got this little little card or nation card in my, you know,

[00:05:59] little box. And I was like, I thought it was a joke. At first I came one of the guys played a joke with me. He's like, what is this all about? You know, and, and, oh, yeah, you know, forgot to tell you, you know, congratulations.

[00:06:09] You know, this was Pastor Chuck Secretary said, you know, congratulations, you're Dane, you know, I was like, wow. That's how it works. I don't know. So that's the kind of the fast story of, we know how I became a pastor and I served at

[00:06:23] Carverchapel Costa Mesa for as a pastor for about 10 years. And I didn't know that actually. Yeah, yeah. And you plant, so you planted Hope alive church in, say then. Yeah, yeah. And, and 2014. And so I was serving there at Carverchapel Costa Mesa in 2004.

[00:06:42] And when I got ordained was it around 2005. And yeah, so in 2014 is when we planted the church and how that started. I was, so serving there at Carverchapel Costa Mesa, I was, I guess you, it wasn't really a title, but I was like an outreach pastor

[00:07:03] like taking church outside the walls of the church. And this was something that we did, you know, every single day, Monday through Friday. We had a lot of programs and that's connecting with the local school district and this in the city of Santa Ana specifically.

[00:07:18] And doing outreach is in the community all throughout the week. And, you know, just doing a whole bunch of different things. And one day I'd asked Pastor Brian, he'd asked, hey, so how's it going? As a man, he's going really good, you know, pray for this.

[00:07:30] We have an opportunity to do something, you know, and in the city. So we had this meeting with the city officials. So he prayed and anyways, the meeting went very well, very positive.

[00:07:42] And I gave a praise report to Brian after that and I was like, yeah, you know, yeah, the Lord opened us some doors and everything. So I was really excited and you know, I was in his office and he's just kind of looking at me

[00:07:52] He's like, you know, you should plant a church in Santa Ana. And I was like, I know how, you know, and then he just, yeah, so just find a place to, you know, do plant a church in there in Santa Ana on Sundays and, you know,

[00:08:07] And I was like, all right, I walked out of his office and like literally I got to like maybe 20 yards outside his office and I was like, wait a minute. I don't remember does this before. What does that look like? So I went back into his office.

[00:08:20] The cultivator's planning program is, yeah, I go plant a church. Go plant a church. Go plant a church. What? What's the big deal? It's a big deal. It was a hard look. Yeah, yeah, that's what it turned. That's what Sunday does me.

[00:08:35] That's why this is a lot of stuff you do. And so he's, um, so I went back and kind of just got some more details of, okay, What is this going to look like? And you know, Pastor Brian spent some time with me sharing with me and, and,

[00:08:47] Yeah, so we started planning and actually to kind of go back, that conversation wasn't in 2014. And the conversation was at the beginning of 2013, around there. And so it took some time for us to plan a little bit. And that was, so that's what we did.

[00:09:06] So in February of 2014 was to start the launch date for the, for the church and, And we did that. And you know, it was, it was amazing. It was really, you know, just our very first service. Where do you meet up? Where do you place you find?

[00:09:19] We actually, uh, at his local school. And so there's, um, friends, friends of mine that I've, Throughout the years, became friends with a couple of principles. And, and so I met with this one principal is, you know,

[00:09:32] Loves a Lord and, and he's like, I was telling him, hey, man, Pray, we got this opportunity to plan a church. And I go, I don't know where though. And he's like, dude, use art. Use my school.

[00:09:41] You know, we're, I'm a principal at and so we went to go look at it And the layout of the school was perfect. You know, the parking was there. It was just, it was honestly like, this is a perfect church building. You know, where the classrooms were, everything.

[00:09:54] Anyways, that's where we met for the first, um, Maybe what six, six years, six and a half years. And, um, so that's kind of where we met. You know, and so with the first service that we had, man,

[00:10:09] It was, uh, I didn't know what to expect, you know, And there's about maybe five, maybe more. I say 500, but everyone else like, no, it was closer to 800 people showed up, you know? I know. Do they announce it at the Calvary Chapel Customacy? They did. Yes. Yes.

[00:10:25] How far were you from Calvary Chapel Customacy? You're the winning church. We were probably, I say, where we started that church It was about maybe three to four miles. North or the close. Yeah, Roe, yeah, super close. That was a different kind of part of town. Yeah.

[00:10:40] Because I know what contains dramatically. Oh, yeah, this is a through completely different part of town. And that's the one thing, you know, Calvary Chapel Customacy where it's at. It's actually within the city limits of Santa Ana. Mm-hmm.

[00:10:53] And so, um, but where it was on the outskirts and so more central And north into Santa Ana, you know, it is a different, you know, Different vibe, you know, different community and just the population's different. So it wasn't too far.

[00:11:09] And yeah, so it just, the Lord blew me, just, wow, I didn't know what to expect, you know, and everything. Obviously there was a lot of excitement. So there was after about maybe six months, say everything kind of settled in,

[00:11:20] You know, wasn't that, you know, five to six hundred people there. But, um, you know, all that to say, man is that I remember a lot of people at that time were also coming to me like, hey, how did you do this?

[00:11:32] You know, what's the secret to you? I'd be trying to church. Yeah, because you planted the church and, you know, because of the numbers of people That were showing up. How did you get it? Yeah, they're asking how did you get it?

[00:11:42] So Nick, I don't know if you've heard of this. I mean, in your church planning experience and talking to people and this and that. But I've kind of heard that story a lot where, and back then, I think it was more, um, not planned that way.

[00:11:58] But nowadays there's just kind of the idea of starting off slow with a Bible study. You know, you get a few people and then you kind of build it up slowly, slow growth. We did a podcast episode with Joel Turner and Canada.

[00:12:12] And that's what he was describing is kind of very slow, long growth. And now it's really starting to pick up. But then there's also the idea of let's get all this planned, get everything in place,

[00:12:23] do a bunch of promotion, publicity, get a bunch of people to come out, information meetings, and all that. Yeah, what's your, what's your take on that? You're watching big. I think yeah, it can be a good idea.

[00:12:35] It takes a lot of work and it often takes a lot of money to launch big. I know that that was actually a trend. I would say, um, in the last like 20 years where it was a more of a trend to say,

[00:12:47] instead of trying to start small and do kind of the grassroots thing, what if we start big? And so we had some church plans that I knew about, they weren't coverage, Apple church plans that took that approach.

[00:13:00] And I generally saw that, you know, that can be a good way to do it. If you do that, I think what you're talking about is common, where you would have big launch and then everything kind of settles into a normal.

[00:13:14] But I think given somebody some momentum can be, can be really good. So the difficulty is that, you know, when you grow from small to big, that you, um, you get to create a culture over time, that's good. A lot of times when you start big,

[00:13:30] then you have to deal with a lot of expectations, baggage people saying, oh, you know, once you get into it, oh, I didn't know that this was going to be like this. Whereas when you start small, everybody's kind of on the same page.

[00:13:42] I think a difficulty with starting small is that sometimes you stay small. Yeah. You know, and that you never actually learn how to break through growth barriers that are structural, as opposed to spiritual. Yeah.

[00:13:57] Whereas when you start big, you're already dealing with a lot of those things that other people, you know, don't learn until later on or sometimes don't learn and it inhibits the growth their church. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:14:09] And for us too, when we planted this church, there was really no pre-prepiration in the sense of, like church planting, you know, like hey, less investigate church planting, less read some books, you know, as far as like on church planting or anything.

[00:14:25] And the reason why for us, I really feel it was so different was because the team that was with me, like this intimate team. We've been serving, you know, there at Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, you know,

[00:14:39] and under the ministry that I was getting to lead, you know, for a good six, seven years, like this core team, right? And which was probably about maybe up to 10 of us.

[00:14:49] And we were just like treating it as almost like an outreach that we had been doing, you know, through Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa into the city. So we had this, you know, we were very familiar with one another. And you had the backing of a bigger church.

[00:15:02] You had already been doing that as great as you had it. Yeah. Exactly. And so we had this support, you know, there and we had the people that had this experience of okay doing another outreach.

[00:15:13] So initially we kind of started the church on Sundays, like almost in a way of an outreach, but not, I don't know if that makes any sense. And you know, so what I communicate to people like when the, because they started asking,

[00:15:24] how did, how did you do this? What was your system? What was your plan and I was like, you know, I didn't know how to answer it because I didn't think of it.

[00:15:32] But as I thought of it, I was like, you know, what we've been doing as a ministry of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa and myself leading this group into Santa Ana, like we've been faithfully in on the Gustri, here in Santa Ana for 10 years.

[00:15:49] Like going and on, you know, Monday through Friday doing Bible studies and little, going to apartment complexes and sharing the gospel. You've been in the community. You've already been in the neighborhood. I've been in the neighborhood. It's not like you just went into a new place. Yeah.

[00:16:04] It's power suited in. It all was a 800 people. Exactly. Yeah. We've been there for 10 years, plowing this ground, plowing this ground and connecting and making building relationships and all that stuff. And so, you know, took like almost about eight months of like, hey, you know,

[00:16:18] going to these apartment complexes where we're doing the Bible studies, hey, you guys on Sunday, we're going to, on this day, we're going to be here. So, oh, wow, you know, finally you're going to start a church, you know,

[00:16:28] because a lot of these folks in this city was like, hey, are you going to have a church here? Or they thought I had a church and which I said, you know, we didn't anyways. So, that's how that kind of really worked and, and there we go.

[00:16:42] I got a question that I'm just thinking of. A lot of those people say, oh, I finally started a church, I'm thinking, well, you got a church three, you know, three miles away, coverage up across the mesa, which we think of,

[00:16:53] especially when Chuck was there, we're like, man, if I live 30 miles away, I'd be there. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of thing. But this is good for people to hear. I think in way in on this too, Nick is, um,

[00:17:05] a lot of times we get scared to plant a church in an area that already has a church, or has churches. Maybe even similar to our church or our same to the nomination or network.

[00:17:13] But what we don't realize with what I'm seeing here is there's a lot of people that aren't connecting with the church, which is out in the area. You need maybe someone needs to hear this out there.

[00:17:23] You need to plant that church at your scared of planting because you might be too close or whatever to some other church. Yeah. I mean, I guess we're also like, you know, interesting story. Now we're here.

[00:17:33] We're recording this in Colorado is that one of the very first people who went to a cultivate program is a guy who planted just a few miles away from here and the way that came about is that I had heard

[00:17:44] another church down further away was wanting a plant to church in this community. But I was like, do that's literally like the street that you drive on to come to our church? That's the city line between the two cities.

[00:17:57] I'm like, dude, it's literally, I could throw a rock into that town. Yeah. And I was like, oh, I don't want to, I don't know if that won't that because like a lot of

[00:18:08] our people who come to this church live in that community which is it's, you know, several walks away. But then somebody told me this, they said, that church is going to be so different than your church. They're going to reach different people and the people you're already reaching.

[00:18:25] They're probably not going to want to go there because they don't have any connection to and they are connected to you. So don't worry about it. And it's going to be a good for the kingdom and good for the community. Have two Bible teaching churches.

[00:18:38] Yeah, I said it one. How many people live in Santa Ana? The population there in Santa Ana. I haven't seen it like in the last recent but the last I know was 330,000, the as far as the people. The population there.

[00:18:52] And we know in Orange County there, it's kind of all blends together. Oh yeah, it's, yeah, millions. Yeah, that's another thing people don't realize. Like even in like what's long one. Long ones, 100,000 but the region within 20 miles in any direction. We've got 300,000.

[00:19:07] And that's a thing like you talk about a church, even a church that was large. Covered up because to make sense, you're not ministering to all those people and even down even next door. And you're not, and that's, and to answer your question too is like,

[00:19:20] while there's a church right here and, and what we would do during that time of ministry through out of coverage, up across the Mesa we would. My wife and I, we would go and we had a little bus, you know, and we would advance in everything.

[00:19:34] We would pick people up and take them, you know, to the church, you know, and it's just culturally wasn't viving with the residents of Santa Ana. You know, and it's just, it just wasn't. And so how he said it wasn't reaching certain population.

[00:19:50] And, you know, they enjoyed it. I think the people that we would take enjoyed it because we were, we would take them with us and they would hang out there and everything. And so, and that even those conversations, I would have a Brian, you know,

[00:20:04] Pastor Brian Voter said as well. And it's like, yeah, you know, hey, those people that you brought, you know, as, yeah, you know, it's just kind of what they weren't driving with that, you know, and this is the culture at coverage.

[00:20:14] I think that the were like suits and ties and stuff. Yeah, you know, yeah, you know, you know, you know, you know, bring us, you know, you know, what's going on here. You know, maybe not used to the, you know,

[00:20:24] and to be honest with you, it really is, it seemed like it was more of an upper, uh, seem to be like more of an upper middle class, you know, that was attending coverage Apple Coast amazing at that time, you know?

[00:20:36] And so yeah, there was a little hesitancy. Something happened to me the other day. My wife has been reaching out to this lady, she got in contact with, you know, she got a little bit of a rough background and stuff.

[00:20:48] And so she brought her church a couple times, and then the lady actually started attending another church here in town. So she got saved through her relationship with my wife and then attended a different church. And my wife, you know, when I were both kind of like,

[00:21:02] hey, what the, what the, how are we going to come? We invested all this time into your life. Yeah. You know, had you at our house and stuff and why do you go, so then lady finally said it. She said, uh, when I go to your church,

[00:21:15] I feel like everybody there has it all together. Mm-hmm. And she's like, I just feel like I don't fit in. So she went to a church where she felt like she fit in. Now, all that to say now,

[00:21:27] it's like a year later now she actually is attending a church. So you got it together. She pulled it together. Yeah. She's alive together. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and so I think true though,

[00:21:39] it is, and you know, and just to talk about a little bit about the dynamics of, you know, of the city of Santa Ana itself. It's largely an immigrant city, you know, huge, you know, at the, the population is more than 90% Hispanic, you know,

[00:21:56] and so when I said the population's 330,000, that's not including, you know, the, the immigrant population, which would, you know, which is more than 100,000, you know, the immigrant that are in that city. That's what Santa Ana is really. Really?

[00:22:11] Spanish Spanish, at 9 a.m. and then we also do an English at 11. And the heart also too, I'm glad you asked that too because this, this is very important for, because in planting the church, you know, okay, what's the heart behind like white?

[00:22:28] Well, one of the, one of the thoughts that I had was in ministering in the city of Santa Ana, primarily to young people, you know, like high school and young adult age, you know, I would ask them like, hey, do you know what it,

[00:22:41] sometimes they say, yeah, I go to church. Oh, was your church? They would never refer to like their church. Like, oh, my church is over here. This is my, my mom's church or my grandma's church. I go to my grandma's church.

[00:22:52] Yeah, and it was always a Spanish speaking. And they would let me know, like man, you know, I wish there was another church around here. Like, and so that's why when I say, when we planted the church, like, oh, finally, you know,

[00:23:03] and one of the thoughts behind it was like, I wanted to plant a church that was primarily English speaking and like to reach that second and third generation, you know, that really has the biggest, there's big in English with their friends. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:23:20] Spanish is the language they were speaking about. Outside the house, you know, it's all English. And so that was kind of like the idea behind us, planning Hopelife Church as well, you know, and yeah, and so that's, you know, the Lord has been blessing.

[00:23:35] And you know, I had to relearn a lot, however, to ever since COVID, you know, because we didn't have a building. And so the school district was like, Oh, you know, I happened to have been building and with the JJ when we, because I just,

[00:23:51] we did an episode of the same thing. Yeah, and same thing. Yeah. And what do you mean? Yeah, so now it was, you would think that when we, you know, there was a little bit more stability. Maybe you would say, you know, before COVID that we would,

[00:24:06] would have at least at least a building. Mm-hmm. But it was during COVID when Nolan was coming to church, you know, and we were just doing streaming as when we made a decision, well, let's just lease a building. And, you know, so that's what we did.

[00:24:21] And got opened up some doors. We were able to lease a building. Yeah. And then in 2022, June of 2022 is when we were able to have our first service in our own building. You know, so it took a, it took some time for us to do all that process.

[00:24:38] But you know, it was also re-learning too because, you know, it wasn't like how it was when we first started the church, you know, as far as numbers wise and everything. And I know we always say, oh, it's not about the numbers. And it really is.

[00:24:51] And that's one of the things that the Lord showed me was like, hey, you know, just being faithful to whom the Lord is bringing here. You know, and guys have been so gracious and providing for all of our needs and everything. But it made me kind of rethink

[00:25:03] like almost like a reset or a relaunch of a church, you know, like a re-planned. A lot of people did it after COVID. Yeah. But something else that's really great about your story and your ministry is you've been so long in the community.

[00:25:15] You've been able to develop relationships with the governing officials. Yeah. I'm able to have influence. Why don't you talk about that for a second? Yeah. So yeah, that's a whole another interesting story, knowing like the kind of life that I come from

[00:25:28] and everything is like, man, the chief of police. Why is it like a friend? You're like, I see. You did the music. Now he's a cop. Yeah. You did the music. Yeah. Exactly, man. You know, that's such a trip, man.

[00:25:42] You know, seriously, it's like, I remember their very first time I just becoming friends with the chief of police. You know, I was friends with them before I became chief. And he said, so we were not to lunch.

[00:25:52] And I remember just sitting there and looking at his like, man, I go in my mind, I'm thinking this is crazy. You know? But you know, again, it's just been amazing because how the Lord has opened up these doors, you know,

[00:26:04] not just with the chief, but also city officials and school board members and everything. And that was really open up doors for me to actually the Lord to use me in these places to where, like, for instance, probation department and the school officials,

[00:26:23] you know, ask me if I can come alongside and just kind of assist, you know, with some of the challenges that they're faced with in regards to youth and everything. So I get to be contracted by the Orange County Department of Education

[00:26:37] to do like intervention classes and prevention for drugs and alcohol and drugs. And you have more respect in that area because you've been through it, you're not just some city officials that are in.

[00:26:51] Yeah, I know I was doing this one class at one of the local high schools and the principal walked in and there was at a room probably about maybe 15 gang members, you know, and just, you know, known, documented gang members, you know, and, you know, they see violence.

[00:27:08] They do violence, you know, you know, and they're crazy, you know? But the principal poked his head in and all these young men, and they're just engaged in their listening and we're actually having a dialogue, you know? And afterwards the principal called me and he's like,

[00:27:23] how did you, how do you do that? He goes, all those kids that are in your class. They are all being kicked out of the class because they're so disruptive and disrespectful to all the other teachers and everything.

[00:27:34] And, you know, honestly, it was a question right down the spot. I just said, you know, I don't know, I go, I just, I let them know that they're loved, you know? And I think, and to ask to see what you

[00:27:44] pointed out was like, they know where my life was as well. You know, and so when I share, like what my life was like and everything and, you know, and show them little videos of, you know, the neighborhood film and all that stuff.

[00:27:57] And I'm like, oh, yeah, it kind of validates for them that hey, they can trust me. And like I've been there done that live that kind of life. Is it neighborhood on YouTube? Can you go on YouTube? The neighborhood on YouTube?

[00:28:11] It's not on YouTube, but it is available in iTunes. Okay. Yeah. The neighborhood film, the neighborhood film. It's a documentary about these hardcore gang bangers. One of them, which Tom Pastor, did you? Yes, they're telling me. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:28:27] You were pretty hard, but there was some other harder ones that were on there. Yeah, yeah, much more. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's a great story. You came up to that's kind of when we first started hanging out when you came up to building him. Yeah.

[00:28:41] And we did a premier, what do you call it? A premier. A premier of the movie. Yeah. Watch the people come out and that's right. I don't get a lot of Hispanic gang bangers up in the Pacific. Yeah, yeah. I had kind of noticed that.

[00:28:55] I was like, okay. But still, you know, pretty fully administered to somebody. It was always good. Remember, it was really good. Yeah. Yeah. I think when I show clips of that film and stuff like that, and answer to some of these questions to these youngsters,

[00:29:09] it does kind of for them. It gives them some validation to where, you know, the listen and everything. And so it's just been amazing, man, because now being in a part of the public school and doing these things in specifically in the city of Santa Ana,

[00:29:23] because that's, you know, what I've been doing for almost two decades now, you know, and these students now that at one point they were like 13, 14 years old, going through their own challenges and stuff, and they're coming.

[00:29:36] They're walking into the church now still, you know, like in their 20s and, you know, maybe you'd newly married with a little baby, and I don't even recognize them, but they, you know, once they say, do you remember me?

[00:29:47] I said, oh, you gotta be one of the students, you know. Really? Yeah. That's such a good testimony to them, man. Just a really good thing. Really good thing. Awesome. Yeah. You know, so that's what the Lord has been doing,

[00:29:59] you know, there in Santa Ana and so yeah, you know, it's got his challenges, you know? But I think every church does. Every church planter does, you know? It's a good thing. So do you feel like tell me that you are no longer a church plan,

[00:30:16] like when did, when did you have that feeling? Like we're no longer a church plan, like we're just a church. I would say, feeling, I'm still kind of feeling that kind of a church plan to be. But you did that a little bit of a replay. Exactly.

[00:30:33] This is a good question too because I ask this all the time and it's just, I'm curious. I'm wondering if I'm a real church yet. I know. We've been three years in. Yeah. Yeah. I talked to you. You're a real church. Thanks, man. Well, you are.

[00:30:48] But I remember talking to a guy and he's like, hey, you should be calling yourself a real church from like, from day one as long as you are like, not a church plan ever. Right. Well, he's like your church plan,

[00:30:58] but you need to like, as quickly as possible, shift that thinking. So kind of more like an internal mindset. Yeah. And like communicate to people. We're not, we're not a church plan. Like we are real church as long as you're doing like a couple things.

[00:31:11] Yeah. Like three things. But I'm not sure I agree. I think that, I think, yeah, that I think it's like a gradual thing where you realize that. Okay. We're we're established now. We're not just trying to get our feet under us. Yeah.

[00:31:26] Like we're just moving forward as a church. For some people, they want to be a part of a church plant because something that's not going to be too established. Yeah. Big complaint people get in and go into churches is there's already a bunch of clicks formed.

[00:31:39] There's already groups that are together. I didn't feel like I was welcomed or I fit in or whatever, but church plan is great because everybody's new to everybody. It's fresh. It's kind of fresh. Yeah. You can get this a lot of opportunities to serve.

[00:31:50] And I think I think I have met those people who are like, I want to be part of a church plan. And when that one's established, I'm going to find another church plan. Yeah. And I experienced that actually and someone had told me, you know,

[00:32:01] they said, hey, when you do this, you're just no, you're going to have a group of people that you're going to have your six month group the one year and then the three year. And I'm like, what are you talking about?

[00:32:10] Well, these are those that come alongside for those church plants to do all these things. You know, and so. And we did experience that. But as your question as far as like do I feel like a legitimate church plant?

[00:32:22] I would say, I think the community in which we live, the city of Santa Ana and the collaboration that I've been having with other churches, other pastors in this city and the school district and the city, you know, itself like the city council.

[00:32:39] They would see hope alive church as an established church. Right. That's a good point is the outside kind of look. Yeah. And so these entities, these other, you know, the pastors and every. I understand that and I accept that, you know, and everything.

[00:32:54] And that we are, but I would say for myself personally, I think just going through some some shifting, some changes. And now, you know, having a building, you know, still relatively fresh. It's still trying to figure that out with, you know, a new set of bills.

[00:33:12] You know, and everything, you know, that and also, you know, just these past, you know, three years for us, just saying a whole lot of new faces as well. You know, walk through the doors of Hope Life Church and begin now to call Hope Life Church their home.

[00:33:31] For them it is so new and there's some new ways that that our church leadership is approaching. Leading God's people, you know, I think we learned a lot those first six years of us,

[00:33:46] you know, as a church plant and then learned a whole lot during the time of COVID. And now okay, what did we learn in having those conversations? And so now we're kind of internally treating it as okay, let's just redo some things. Reset restart if you will.

[00:34:01] So I think personally for me, it's kind of like, all right, we're in the midst of a kind of reset restart, you know, kind of a thing. Great Tommy, so awesome having you on the show, brother. And I'm glad I get to be here.

[00:34:14] Yeah, I'm glad you're saved. You know, I'm so my family. If for those of you who are watching on video, our brother Pastor Tommy Koda is wearing a LA Dodgers hat. So we got to represent in the, yeah, the Dodgers.

[00:34:32] The Dodgers have been in, in and from and lived in San Diego with the address. I'm sorry, a little bit. The party, well they're cute, team bro. Yeah, the big row is the Padres and the Rockies for who's in going to be in last place this year.

[00:34:47] Yeah, it was just me and last place this year. No, not as it was all right, we did a friend. Oh, that's crazy. Yeah, the Rockies were. But you mean, it started on the Chargers and the Raiders. Oh, yes, we have a common unity. Yes, the purple.

[00:35:04] It's first of all, but then the purple and the purple and the purple and the purple and the purple and the blue and the purple and the purple. I'm not but never been in. Well, see, when this is release will all will be known.

[00:35:29] Yeah, we're living in the past, leaving him general. Yes. All right, thanks for being on the show Nick has always. Yeah, for being with him and blessings, on hopeful live church and the and keep up to good work. Thanks, bro. All right.

[00:35:41] Thanks for listening. The cultivate church planning podcast is part of CGM Media, a podcast network that points to Christ. Check out CGM Media.org for more great shows and ways to support the ministry.