Missions, Ministry, and Resilient Fatherhood: Getting to Know Mike Neglia

[00:00:00] Welcome to the CGN Mission and Methods Podcast, Season 4. My name is Nick Katie. I'm the pastor of Whitefield's Community Church in Longmont, Colorado, and I will be your host this season.

[00:00:11] The goal and vision of this podcast is that it would be a forum for communication about Calvary Global Network.

[00:00:20] We want to share with you some of the stories about what God is doing. We want to talk about some of the initiatives we're involved in spearheading, and we want to answer the questions you might have about who we are as a network.

[00:00:31] On the episodes in this season, I'm joined by Pastor Brian Broderson, the founder and president of CGN and the pastor of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California.

[00:00:41] For season 4 of the podcast, Brian and I will be interviewing the members of the CGN Executive team so you can get to know their stories, hear about their ministries, and the roles they play in CGN, and find out what they're excited about for the future.

[00:00:54] In this episode, Pastor Brian and I speak with Mike Neglia. Mike is the pastor of Calvary Corque in Corque, Ireland. Mike also leads the Expositors Collective Training Initiative, which he quips people to study and proclaim God's Word, and he is the host of the Expositors Collective Podcast.

[00:01:12] In this discussion, Mike talks about how God led him to Ireland where he came as a missionary 20 years ago, and he talks about being the father of a child with disabilities, and how that has shaped him as a person, and as a pastor. Here's the episode.

[00:01:26] Welcome to Mission Methods Podcast. This is Nick Katie and I'm joined today by Pastor Brian Broderson and Pastor Mike Neglia. Hi guys. Hey Nick. Hi Nick. Yeah, so we are currently in Florida, recording this at a CGN leadership gathering that we're doing down here.

[00:01:44] Brian Kelly and West Church are hosting us. It's been a good time. So it's been also a great opportunity for us to sit down with some friends from the Executive team. On this season, that's what we're doing. We're interviewing members of the Executive team.

[00:01:58] I want you to introduce you to them what they're passionate about, a little bit about who they are, and how God has led them.

[00:02:04] Mike, please share with us a little bit about yourself who you are, where you serve and how God has led you to the place where you're out today.

[00:02:11] Sure thing. So my name is Michael Anthony Neglia. I was born and raised in a town called Fallbrook in San Diego County in California, in the United States. I've lived there and currently I live in a city called Cork in the Republic of Ireland.

[00:02:30] So I'm coming up. I have to check the calendar, but I think I'm coming up on 20 years in Cork. So half my life has been spent in Ireland and the other half is spent in the U.S.

[00:02:43] And I'm so glad to be here in person. This is much better than a Zoom interview. I'm glad to be here warm and nice with you in California. Florida.

[00:02:51] Yeah, I'm jet lagged. I'm jet lagged. It was a horrible time to be doing the interview because I am tired. Okay. Yeah, Mike is perpetually jet lag. Yeah, everywhere I go with him when he's in the States, he's dozing off.

[00:03:08] Last night we had great, great story time and Mike was snoring to the whole thing. So he missed it. It was really fun. Yeah, my last.

[00:03:16] But I think it's important. I really enjoy the opportunity to be able to travel from time to time to be present at events like this. It's really something really special to be with other leaders within the movement who I really respect.

[00:03:31] I love being with and if only I could stay up to listen to all of the half to say. Mike, you're a prolific podcaster and I'm sure that you'll do just fine even on jet lag and not knowing exactly which state or even which coast to your own.

[00:03:45] Sure. Yeah. So again, like tell us a little bit about that story. Like how did you get to be in Ireland from Fulbrough? Yeah. Well, Fulbrough is right next to my area, which is the former site of the Cabri Chapel Bible College.

[00:03:58] After I barely graduated high school, I decided to just enroll in the Bible College and I was there for three semesters. It's a four semester program. The fourth semester I went to Zigan Germany. David Gusik was opening up a new extension campus there.

[00:04:16] And they were actually having a hard time populating it with students. Enrollment was really low for it. And they reduced the price and they reduced the price again.

[00:04:26] And they reduced the price again to where it was the same cost to fly to Germany and enroll there as it would be to stay in California and do it. So I thought, oh yeah, might as well.

[00:04:37] And I was, yeah, excited for kind of a change of pace. My life had gotten very hectic. I was working two jobs. I was in a band. I was in this kind of off again on again relationship with this beautiful girl who I ended up marrying.

[00:04:52] But I was just like my time, my energy, my Bible College experience was totally spread thin. And I thought, what if I went somewhere where I didn't know anybody where I, you know, couldn't have a job,

[00:05:02] where I was leaving my band in the scene and just was there. So that brought me over to Germany. I was actually, I was experiencing horrible jet lag for like the first month. And I had, yeah, no friends was on this weird sleep schedule.

[00:05:17] I was waking up at like three or four a.m. every morning for like a month. And I couldn't fix it actually jet lag's been a pretty prominent story in my life.

[00:05:26] Actually, I wasn't made for this. You know, nobody's been jet lagged in history of the world until the past. Like 40 years. Yeah. Like 40 years. It's just like the ability to travel faster than a time zone is so new. My body isn't just made for it,

[00:05:40] but because of that, because of me waking up at like 4 a.m., I developed a devotional life the first time in my whole Christian experience. You know, I became a Christian. Let's say like 16, 17 years old.

[00:05:53] And this is only a few years later on, but I never had the habit of like quietly reading the Bible before the day starts. And I thought, I was going to experiment with this and that totally changed my life. And I got encountered the Bible storyline.

[00:06:07] I would like be enriched by God himself every morning before everyone else woke up. I loved it. And because of that, I really felt as if like I love God. I want to serve him for all of my days.

[00:06:19] And I wonder how I'm going to get a chance to do that. So because of that, I was in, sorry, that's kind of a tangent. But I was in Germany, finished up my fourth semester.

[00:06:28] And then I at the end of it, I bought a flight to London and then I just hit chikets around the UK. Just told that myself, no cell phone back then, just a backpack with all my possessions I had. I had a MacArthur study Bible and a notebook.

[00:06:44] And that was it. And like a few changes of clothes and just kind of hit checked around. And went over to Ireland, went all the way down to Quark. And I've lived there ever since. Wait, what year was that? 2,000 and 3. 2,03. Wow.

[00:07:01] Was it hard getting picked up by people? It was. Yeah, actually. Yeah. I think hitchhiking, hitchhiking had its heyday before I tried. There's been like 30 years before it was big. Yeah. Yeah. It was big in the 70s.

[00:07:19] And everybody who ever picks me up, one of the first things they would say is, you know, when I was your age, I used to hitchhike. And I knew that no one's going to pick you up. So I'm picking you up.

[00:07:29] So over and over again, that was the story. And yeah, I didn't get murdered. And I made it. I had some really strange encounters with a lot of people. One of the guys picked me up in England.

[00:07:39] And then I got in and he had like a dog in the back. And he was like, one of the earliest things he said was like, you know, I used to hitchhike when I was your age. And the second thing is you'll have to speak up sunny.

[00:07:47] A horse kicked off my year many years ago. And so your facing me was just kind of like this, like, clumpy scar. And he could hear out of the other one. So whenever I talked to him, he would then he would have to turn his head around.

[00:08:01] So that his goodier was facing me while he was driving. I was very happy. I was facing away. So yeah. Wow. What did it venture? Did you hitchhike on a boat like how did you, you know?

[00:08:13] I was outside of London and I was passing like this, this like, methydrists church. And I walked past it and then I felt, I felt like prompted by the Lord to go there and just knock and just introduce myself. And so I did.

[00:08:29] And the minister thought it was so strange that I was there. And he said, but you know what? Like we have these weeds that need to be picked. If you could pick these weeds, we'd love to make a contribution for your ministry.

[00:08:40] And so I picked these weeds. He gave me money and then he said that, you know, so when so can actually put you up for the night. So I stayed at some strangers house and got fed breakfast and then with that envelope of money.

[00:08:53] That was exactly as much as it costs to get a ferry from Liverpool to Belfast. And so just kind of all these strange little journeys just getting from one place to the next. I loved that. Yeah. I mean, this is a bit of a St. Patrick story.

[00:09:07] You know? Yeah. Come without the kidnapping. Yeah, yeah. He also was brought there on a boat. That's a funny. He was taken unwillingly. So all these strange things. I mean, this was, you know, 20 years ago. The world was different. I was younger.

[00:09:21] I was a lot more adventurous back then. But you know, sleeping in fields, sleeping in car parks just getting by and I just wanted to see what it was like to live by faith. I wanted to see what it's like to have this adventure.

[00:09:32] I had kind of a job lined up for California at the end of the summer. I was going to start working with a like a painting slash construction job with my friend Carlos. And I just kind of wanted to do something exciting before that happened.

[00:09:44] And yeah, eventually like I said ended up in in cork where I live now. There's an existing coffee chapel there and your supplier was the pastor there. You know him. Yep. And kind of knocked on the door and I was like, hey, God sent me to you.

[00:09:57] I'm here. You know, if you want me to do anything to help, I kind of figured maybe you would be like, hey, pick these leaves. These leaves, pick these weeds. It's like the last place.

[00:10:04] But there was a like an an outreach team from Arizona that was coming later that I think later that month.

[00:10:10] He said if you want to stick around until then maybe you can kind of help out with those people and stuck around the evangelistic outreach was like really fruitful. There was a lot of teenagers that made professions of faith.

[00:10:21] And I was like asked to stick around for a little bit longer to help mentor and disciple these new new converts.

[00:10:28] And then somebody randomly had some leftover money from the outreach and said, you know like if you stay here, you can have this money and they can pay for an apartment for a couple months. And I said, okay.

[00:10:40] And then took the money and then the rest of the history, the rest of the history. Then after about a year and a half or so, then Andrew and Spire Andrew and his wife, Grissey,

[00:10:50] felt led to move elsewhere and said if you want to take over the church, you can have a go. And so that's what happened. How big was the church?

[00:10:59] It was in a period of decline where it was down to maybe half a dozen, seven, eight people on a Sunday. So it really was kind of a well whilst technically not a replant because it had this this history and lineage.

[00:11:13] It was starting over from a very small small and then it got smaller when obviously when beloved Andrew left and then young dirty punk rock mic was taking over what? So it kind of from six to kind of, you know, have again and then starting over from that.

[00:11:31] And now 20 years later, it's been doing well. Yeah, yeah, we're like we're definitely more than six people. Yes, these days. No, it's really great where even like even recently to have kind of our, our leadership or planning out the kind of our leadership appreciation dinner.

[00:11:47] And I've been phoning around different, you know, local restaurants like we have to book out, you know, we're looking to fill, you know, like at least like 30 35 seats. You know, because we want to have all of our leaders have some kind of appreciation thing.

[00:12:00] So it's a really wonderful thing to kind of have that glimpse of how it started and then not that we have like 35 attendees but 35 like leaders or leaders of leaders. It's a really exciting progress. Definitely not overnight success.

[00:12:13] Definitely took two decades of my life and I really feel like I've aged a whole lot during that time, but that's where it's at now.

[00:12:21] You know, in the States, and particularly in California, I think the idea was you know, you could start up a church, hang up the dove and, you know, within a year maybe have a couple hundred people.

[00:12:38] And if, you know, if you really were doing a good job, you could even probably have more yes did that. Did that haunt you at all throughout your time? Did you ever feel like, you know, would this as supposed to be going along a lot faster?

[00:12:55] What's the matter with me, you know, maybe am I doing a wrong or, or was that maybe a bit of a myth that we were living according to in the US? Specifically in California. What a great question.

[00:13:10] No, I didn't think that I was doing something wrong. Why should I have? No, you shouldn't have. Have you been wondering that? Yeah, well there were a few times I wonder. Yeah, certainly it was a long slow, slow gradual.

[00:13:24] So I suppose because I spent that semester in Germany. So I was, you know, and then attending a college apple Z again when I was there, which is at the time probably still think it's the largest

[00:13:34] Cabbage apple and all of Europe I think, but in Germany for sure. In Germany, okay, but that definitely I learned there that this was kind of an outlier and that's you know, and a secular as Europe. This is not how things go.

[00:13:49] And of course I lived in London before you went to court. And so I had had that exact same experience. Did you in in London? Yeah. Well, yeah, I think it is kind of remarkable.

[00:14:00] I mean, yeah, you say it's not an overnight success, but I mean, it is a story of faithfulness, planting, watering and continuing to care for these people and watching the church grow and blossom into what it is today.

[00:14:13] I think that's fabulous and really a great testimony and to have a church in Europe of several hundred is a really big deal, especially nowadays when you hear about decline and small churches and things like that, especially in Europe. That's amazing. And you know, my things have changed.

[00:14:33] I go back to the UK, you know, fairly frequently and occasionally to Ireland. And I noticed how much things have changed since I was there.

[00:14:43] So I left London in 2000 and I have spent a lot of time, you know, going back and forth since then, but it's amazing to me what a different world it is today in, in the UK, Northern Ireland as well. And I know Ireland itself is the same, right?

[00:15:03] It's not the place you landed in 20 years ago. Yeah, I can't speak to the UK. However, landing there, I was saying earlier, like I'm going to see in the very end of Christendom in Ireland,

[00:15:15] whereas, you know, our church and churches like our church were looked at as kind of, we're bad because we were a cult.

[00:15:22] You know, we were bad because we were outside of the two established churches, you know, the Catholic church and then the Anglican or the, you know, Protestant church. And then we were some in between group and so we reviewed as suspicion with that.

[00:15:37] And we were certain people who have played their faith in the Lord in the very early early days and like their grandmother would have kind of campaigned against her coming. And they would have organized specific, they started new family traditions that like on Sundays at 11 o'clock.

[00:15:53] We have this meal together and the whole thing was designed to like make or choose between her family and then this small little cultic group, you know. And so in the beginning we were looked at with suspicion because we weren't the right kind of religion.

[00:16:06] And now we're looked at with suspicion because we're too much like traditional religion.

[00:16:10] We're too much like those main big big churches. So there's been this like, you know, self-congratulatory rush towards secularism that Ireland has this very deep religious history that has caused a lot of damage and harm because of it.

[00:16:25] And so now people want to rush away from that and become, you know, secular northern Europeans and look back with such like embarrassment at how they used to be religious.

[00:16:36] And so, you know, Calvary Court and churches like us we've been kind of marginalized at the beginning because he weren't historic churches. And then now we're kind of marginalized now because we're like a historic church.

[00:16:48] Now how practically do you do you actually feel the effects of that or is that just that's kind of in the air. But it doesn't necessarily touch down to where you guys are at.

[00:17:00] Or do you experience that sort of rejection, maybe not actual, you know, aggressive hostility or anything but do you. How like, experientially how how has it changed from being out because you weren't part of the religious thing to now being out because you're not part of the secular.

[00:17:22] Yeah, great question. Personally I have an experienced a lot of that you know, I don't have this like this family structure that's there, you know.

[00:17:30] But I can also just, you know, think of other anecdotes of let's say even younger people or newer, newer believers that now in the past couple of years I've been getting flagged from their parents or their extended circles for being part of something so backwards and antiquated.

[00:17:45] And I think that's a Christian church, you know. And again, whereas previously it's like what do you mean you don't pray to Mary? How could you not do that? And then now it's like what do you mean you don't affirm every possible lifestyle? How could you do that?

[00:17:59] And so it's people that are, is this so different than the US, I don't think so.

[00:18:04] But it's just interesting how in living memory, in recent memory, it was, you know, you're out because you deny the infelibility of the Pope to now you're out because you denied the infelibility of the Pope.

[00:18:13] Because you didn't know the infelibility of like the evening talk shows and all of their talking points. So we're never going to fit in. Wow. Well, Mike, just more about you so this, you were there in Ireland. What happened with the girlfriend that you married?

[00:18:29] Yeah. Well, I'm, I'm eritor. Yeah. So we had a very on again, off again relationship and I sort of have left her out of the story.

[00:18:37] Well, if you're listening to this, I do. I love you. I'm sorry for, for neglecting your part of this story. So I went to Germany in parts.

[00:18:45] We kind of left about it now. Kind of for me to get away from her. So that I could just focus on the Lord and not have, you know, my heart be like devoted towards this girl.

[00:18:53] We'd, again, we'd kept on breaking up again and getting back together. And so so dramatic. Just like typical, I don't know. I don't know, typical. But like really hyper spiritualized Christian romance. Do you guys remember that? Do you do that same thing? Well, no.

[00:19:10] No. But we did. We did. Every, you know, they'd play a song at youth group about surrendering all to Jesus and then we'd look at each other sadly and be like, I guess this means we have to break up again.

[00:19:22] So, while I was in Germany, you know, we just kind of said, you know, this is silly. You know, like let's let's just get back together forever and now, you know.

[00:19:31] And so we got engaged. Some were we got married in December. I came back to get married in December. So I came back in December. We got married in January and then together we moved there in February.

[00:19:42] So I was there on my own at the beginning for like six, six, seven months and then we were like newly wed in a new country from 2004 onwards 2003 onwards.

[00:19:53] And so yeah, she's been part of this. My wonderful wife Rachel. We have three kids Owen who's 17, Rosie who's eight and then Finn who's five. All of them have been born in an island. This is all their home.

[00:20:05] And yeah, it's the only home that they've known and they, you know, they all have American accents and I would love if they had like just pick up a little bit of the local accents. But I guess you're your family of origin does play a big role in that.

[00:20:19] Yeah, unless you're intentional. I mean some, you know, some kids are intentional. And I think to if they're, you know, deeply connected to other kids in the community they pick up, you know.

[00:20:31] Yeah, I'd like to think to that pretty connected but they, they, they still sound just like mom and dad.

[00:20:38] Yeah, but yeah, so especially like my oldest son Owen. So he has autism and some other other challenges and what's what's really strange and unique is in his and his school, which is a, you know, a school for kids with autism spectrum disorder.

[00:20:52] They all have American accents there. Interesting. It is so strange, but kids, autism tends to have American accents because it's so bland. It's so monotone and like the influence of let's say Disney films or you know, where sometimes they kind of connect more with.

[00:21:10] Sadly, they kind of connect more with like these fictional characters than the people around. So they're learning phrases within American accent.

[00:21:16] And so when we, you know, would collect them from the school to hear all these other kids Irish boys and girls talking with American accents as very strange. That is. Is it interpsychle repeating?

[00:21:29] Yeah, I mean it's called Eccolalia. So it's going to repeat in certain sounds and so that would be mimicry is kind of a way of like navigating the world's and repeating phrases and then intonations.

[00:21:40] So my cow has that, you know, obviously when you, he's your son, you deeply love him. You and Rachel, of course, have, you know, been on this journey with him. How is that impacted you personally?

[00:21:55] How is it impacted you, Mara, to Lee? How has it impacted your ministry? Yeah, I think it impacted our marriage because like it was a very traumatic birth, you know.

[00:22:06] I'm supposed to be like a natural hippie home birth but then had to have like intervention and rush to the hospital and emergency c-section

[00:22:13] And he'd like ingested a lot of meconium and he was unconscious and he was, you know, had, you know, essentially lack of oxygen to the brain for a long period of time.

[00:22:22] So so I say autism, but it's also autism plus brain damage and plus other things as well. And as a Christian, you know, I'm praying, oh God, you know, let him live and let him be fine from this.

[00:22:35] And then he, he seemed to kind of just progress, you know, sort of naturally as like as a baby. He was a little late on on most of his milestones, but like, you know, you read all the paperwork and it's like, well, you know, he's a little late, but it's not that late.

[00:22:48] And then the next one, he's a little bit more late, but that's fine. I suppose early on in that first year or two years, you know, I was like, hey, listen, sweetheart, we prayed, got out to the prayers, he's fine.

[00:22:59] And then she's like, yeah, we prayed and, but like, I think the he is delayed on these things and these are kind of concerning to me.

[00:23:05] And sometimes I would look at that almost as like a lack of faith, a lack of trusting that God heard our prayers and kind of rescued our son from this.

[00:23:14] And then I was just wrong, you know, I was a Christian trying to do the right thing, trying to believe God, but I was wrong. And so that was kind of a challenging thing where my wife, you know, certainly was more dialed into those sort of things.

[00:23:26] And I looked at this really with a lot of regret because I'm like, how could Rachel trust God so little that she would think that these things are wrong when in reality they're fine, but then they weren't fine.

[00:23:37] So that's kind of a glimpse and I would just say, hey, Dad, listen, listen to your wife. Listen to mom, maybe she's noticed some things that you haven't and that it's not a matter.

[00:23:46] Like God isn't honored when we disagree with reality. God is he's the true God and so we don't have to like close our eyes and force ourselves to believe that he's done something that he hasn't done.

[00:23:58] So that's I guess in early challenge, you act out of that as impacted us as people that was a parental moment. And then also this is on the one hand it's all I've ever known as well too. So he's been my son for 17 years.

[00:24:13] I think we've officially known that he's had these challenges for 15, 14 and a half years. And you know, I've been told that like I'm a very patient man and that I have a lot of patients. A lot of like ability to empathize with people.

[00:24:29] I'm sure that this comes from that. I'm sure that like living with somebody in my house who just is incredibly limited. Like of course these good at certain things but there's a long list of things that use not good at.

[00:24:43] And so it tried to really be a patient's dad and then I'm told that impacts the way that I lead and the way that I interact with people is with patients and with empathy.

[00:24:51] And then I would think when I when I preach which is you know, a way of communicating to a lot of different people.

[00:24:57] I know that it comes quite naturally to me and some people have to work hard at this but like using like inclusive language or trying to imagine the variety of different kinds of suffering that are presence in a congregation.

[00:25:10] And I had conversation kind of coach people in this sort of like, hey think about the fact that not everyone's family is like your family and not everyone is always happy all the time for me that comes quite naturally.

[00:25:20] So I think being able to address people that are in pain or people that are dealing with kind of loss or disappointment.

[00:25:26] I got has met me in that and so I want to be sure and nearly every sermon to kind of address some sort of the you know what some people call the fallen condition focus or the the fragileness of life or the the frailty or the disappointments that are in life.

[00:25:42] So I think it was burgeon who originally said that if you preach the broken hearted you'll never lack a congregation because there's a broken heart and every few. And so that comes naturally to me.

[00:25:53] Yeah, well, thanks for sharing that Mike and you bring up preaching so please tell us about your leading the exposures collective initiative to tell us about. Exposures collective the origins of it and where it's at now maybe some places that's going from here.

[00:26:08] Well well Nick you and I as you know we've been involved in exposures collective from you know from the very early days it's a training initiative.

[00:26:16] And I hope you can help a young and new Bible teachers to get better in the personal study and public block nation of God's word.

[00:26:22] We have yeah done a lot of training events across the US sadly we've only done one in Europe and I open with me changing that in 2024.

[00:26:31] We have these two day events where we basically walk people through the journey of sermon preparation from observing the texts interpreting the text outline in the idea and then presenting it well over the course of of two days there's been incredible feedback.

[00:26:48] Not to not to I don't want to to my own heart it's not to do my own heart but people have just said this is incredibly a life changing incident changing the way they understand the Bible and the way that they communicate it.

[00:26:58] I believe it's going to be one of the more I think I'm going to stand before God one day and he's going to like talk about my life and I think that exposures collective is going to be something that he says.

[00:27:07] I think you did a really good thing in that and I really believe it's worth investing into.

[00:27:12] So we're coming to Indianapolis in Indiana on October 27th and 28th and we want to help people we want to encourage people we want to make people more competent and confident in communicating the Bible.

[00:27:26] I just talked to somebody last night here at this gathering he came and he was telling me about the church that he planted in Oregon and how he he handed over this church to a new pastor.

[00:27:38] And that that new pastor came to exposures collective and he was not sure first of all about his skills as a preacher but secondly he also wasn't sure about his calling as a pastor.

[00:27:48] And so he began telling me as and of course I remember this guy because I met him he came to our boy Z event his name is Tanner Tanner for listening hey buddy. And yes. Hey, I don't know that.

[00:27:59] Yeah, and so Tanner just posted online that you know is his first Easter as the senior pastor of his church.

[00:28:07] And so I met the guy who was a senior pastor before him who handed over and he told me that for Tanner that was the pivotal moment for him in both his calling and his skill set. Wow. And that was just really affirming of like, that's cool.

[00:28:23] The God is using this in really great ways. So that that's the in person side of it but there's other parts of exposures collective. Yeah, there's a podcast that I've been doing for nearly five years when we did our first thousand nooks event.

[00:28:36] You know we recorded the main sessions Brian yours was one of them. Yeah, you did two sessions then you did one on spirit empowered spirit empowered preaching and then I think I did one on finding your own voice kind of a thing.

[00:28:51] You want to like Martin Lloyd Jones as well. Yeah, well that was a that was spirit yeah. Yeah, so Brian was at that one.

[00:28:56] So yeah, we recorded those audio and then just decided instead of just like uploading it all at once like maybe doing our ss feed maybe every Tuesday release them. And then when we finish that, we'll just wrap it up.

[00:29:08] But I just I've always loved I've always loved interviewing people guys. I'm so nervous about being interviewed. I don't like being interviewed very much. It's it's weird. I do want to ask us some questions Mike with that make you feel more comfortable.

[00:29:20] Thousand percent but it's it's too late. It's too late. I just I when I was younger, you know, and kind of the punk rock scene like you know I had a band or two,

[00:29:28] but I also I did these they're called Zines where I would like out interview bands. I just I love extracting interesting stuff from people and letting other people share it. And so I did a few interviews with some preachers about preaching.

[00:29:44] And then those interviews, I got really good feedback from them and thought maybe I can continue to do this. So for the past two hundred and seventy two weeks every Tuesday there's been an audio that's come out on the podcast.

[00:29:57] Either an interview with a preacher about preaching or one of our recordings from from one of our training events. You've never missed the Tuesday. No once it came out on a Wednesday instead of a Tuesday and that was just a logistical error. Yeah.

[00:30:12] And honestly I listen to a fair number podcast and I'm pretty selective, but there are you know I don't know. I don't know a handful at least that I'm regularly to some two.

[00:30:23] And expositors is one of them and I've told you this many times Mike, I tell me again. I think I really do, I think you do an extraordinary job. I'm I marvel at the guys that you find to interview you know it's such great content.

[00:30:40] I'm always sort of pushing it to people you know, of course I reposted on my Twitter feed but I'll tell people hey you got to listen to this. Or sometimes I'll send it to my ministry team.

[00:30:53] I'll just you know put it in our our little threads and say hey you guys you know listen to this conversation it's going to help you. Well thanks. So yeah, I look at it as a way of serving you know let's say Calvary Global Network.

[00:31:03] Yeah, you know I know that people listen to it outside of our of our tribe you know. But I think that it's it's such a good way to get content that can encourage the tanners you know or or just other people within the Calvary World.

[00:31:17] I think that Calvary we have a lot of great resources from within we certainly do absolutely I think we've we've inherited a really great ministry model and there's a lot of like good and godly mentors within our network.

[00:31:30] But also to pull in you know people from the Anglican world or the panic hostile world because they have something to offer and to help us and so I want us to be really well around the group.

[00:31:41] And you've done a great job too. I think with balancing things out with with pastoral guys, but then with academics too with the you know professors and authors.

[00:31:51] Yeah, there's a really good diversity we were talking to see other day about a recent podcast that you did on reading reading books and the guy you interviewed who was on the survivor show. Yeah, Dr. Austin Cardi.

[00:32:07] Yeah, and I just really really enjoyed that conversation with fantastic. It didn't really motivate me to read fiction, but it didn't motivate me to read more. Yeah, my favorite subject which is history.

[00:32:20] Mike, would you say are there any that come to mind like two or three of your favorite interview saved on on there? Well, I mentioned Pentecostals and Anglicans so of course I'm going to mention my favorite Anglican.

[00:32:32] Wow, I have two for me. Actually, I thought just in all comes interview is I think must listen those fantastic. Yeah, he's somebody who I've benefited from a lot. He's a really educated man who also has a real heart towards sufferers survivors of sexual abuse and assault.

[00:32:49] And he's a bishop here in Florida. Yeah, that's right. And he has a background in Calvary Chapel in this region. Yes, sir, soda.

[00:32:56] I forgot until this very moment. Yeah, yeah, so I thought that the Justin Taylor, sorry, Justin Holcomb interview was just fantastic and then also a Pentecostal by the name of John Tyson has an Australian currently living in New York City.

[00:33:10] That he had some great things to bring the conversation. Also speaking about how for him it's like kind of the power of God.

[00:33:17] And then the first time that he ever encountered expository preaching and he was like, I was sitting in the front row and I was like, fell out on my seat because I realized like the power of the people who are in the front row.

[00:33:23] I felt out of my seats because I realized like the power is in God's word and when it's open and explained there's power and that.

[00:33:30] Yeah, I remember your interview with Brian Chapel and Christcena preaching, you know, it's his classic book and I had read the book in school.

[00:33:38] And the book was fine, you know, I wrote a report on it or whatever but listening to him and just his humanity and his humility. I loved that episode. I just thought it was fantastic and Dr. Pennington as well.

[00:33:52] I was super impressed with these guys so yeah, thanks for rounding up this great group of brilliant people to help us be better preachers. Yeah, well I want to I mean the same way you know how you would like you'd loan a book to somebody, you know?

[00:34:08] And that's a good thing we should we should loan books to people. But you know, I look at this as a way of serving my friends who I know and then people that I don't know yet to be like, hey listen.

[00:34:17] Yeah Jonathan Pennington has great things to say about the Sermon on the Mounts. Let him help you because for so many of us as Bible teachers we want to improve so that we could help again. The centers and sufferers who are in our church.

[00:34:31] We want them to, you know, be encouraged with, you know, the power.

[00:34:34] Again, there's there's probably you know dads in your church who've just, you know learn that their kid has a diagnosis and they're just struggling through that and you want to encourage them with the power of God's word. So I think that's something to that.

[00:34:48] Yeah and only other thing I would add is that because you guys occasionally have done episodes together and when you team up you're really good too. So yeah, I hear that it's just really hard to overlap our schedule. Yes, that's true.

[00:34:59] Yeah, we have the my friend and colleague Nick Katie. Oh my god, I love doing stuff with you. So let me just finish with this question. What are you excited about for the future of C. G.

[00:35:09] Man, okay, first off, let me just say I have a CGN tattoo guys. I am I am all in. I am all in. I got it from it was the 2019 conference I think it was so good.

[00:35:21] I was just like, I love this. I can't believe I get to part of something that is like as wonderful as this and so on the last day the conference I went out and got a CGN tattoo.

[00:35:31] So the answer is everything but in particular, I love the Karen Cochin initiative. I have, yeah, I guess I'm a patient person. I'm also a stubborn person.

[00:35:42] So I've stubbornly pushed through kind of on my own a lot a lot through a lot of hard things and I've you know found resources through books or through podcasts to kind of encourage me.

[00:35:53] And I've, I've been lucky enough in the past couple of years to have some really great wise mentors that have come along. I just love the Karen Cochin initiative that's making that not a rarity but it's making it something that's easily accessible to have older,

[00:36:09] wise or experienced mentors give help to those that are like let's say on the cusp of burning out or going through a very challenging situation.

[00:36:16] I love the Karen Cochin initiative and then also I love just the, just the, the variety of relationships that CGN has within Ukraine and the ability that CGN has through what you know,

[00:36:30] the coverage Apple has been in Ukraine for three decades. Is that it? Yes, and it's a 22 churches I think or something I'm not sure the details but the capacity for us to financially and then also relationally to invest in that place that is you know really going through it.

[00:36:45] So those are things that I love people that are need of help getting help that makes me happy to hear and through Karen Cochin and through our partnership with brothers and sisters in Ukraine.

[00:36:54] Cool. Thanks Mike and if anyone out there is listening and you are a person who is in need of help or resources get in touch with us we'd love to put you in touch with whatever you need whether it's relationally people in your area if it's things regarding expositors collective or maybe yeah you have a child who is received diagnosis and you need someone to talk to.

[00:37:14] We'd love to connect with you so contact us at cgnaccalvachapel.com. Thanks again Mike.