New Co-Host and Spiritual Formation

[00:00:01] Well, alright welcome to the Stoke It Up podcast everybody. I'm Alan Stoddard

[00:00:06] I'm your host and I'm here with Kenneth Priest who's been on the podcast probably more than any other person and

[00:00:13] We are cranking up a fresh got some good news for you

[00:00:18] I reached out to Kenneth recently and said dude, would you be willing to co-host this thing with me for a while?

[00:00:23] I'm wanting to create some momentum for the podcast and also

[00:00:29] redefine the purpose of the podcast and so Kenneth is exciting to have you of course back on but to have you hosting man

[00:00:39] Yeah, man glad to be a part of this and looking forward to how this conversation progresses through the year

[00:00:47] Yeah, I wanted to I started thinking what how do we zero in this podcast?

[00:00:52] The Stoke It Up idea is from Paul where he says to Timothy kindle afresh the gift of God

[00:00:59] or

[00:01:00] rekindle the gift of God that is in you or kindle afresh or

[00:01:04] Fan into flame another version will say and the picture there is of a fire that's gone out

[00:01:11] And it gets fanned back up into

[00:01:14] effectiveness for heat and light and so

[00:01:19] We want to encourage people

[00:01:21] But I started thinking what is it to encourage people on their journey with God because that's been the tagline of the

[00:01:28] podcast for the last year and a half and I thought spiritual formation

[00:01:34] Spiritual formation is is is how people grow into Christ likeness

[00:01:41] So Paul says it in second Corinthians chapter 3 verse 17

[00:01:46] He says now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom

[00:01:53] And we all with unveiled face

[00:01:57] Beholding the glory of the Lord are being

[00:02:01] transformed into the same image from one degree of glory

[00:02:06] To another for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit

[00:02:12] So we are going to address certain topics together and then we're gonna

[00:02:17] Look and see who is out there within the Academy of Bible College and seminary

[00:02:23] And then who is out there within the local church community that we can interview and say

[00:02:28] What are you seeing with spiritual?

[00:02:32] Formation and how people are growing in the Lord. We want to be transformed

[00:02:38] So let me ask you this Kenneth

[00:02:41] What give give the listeners a front row seat into your spiritual formation of

[00:02:48] starting with how you came to know the Lord and

[00:02:52] And this your journey with God. What did that look like because we've done a lot of podcast, but we haven't told that story

[00:03:00] Absolutely, yeah, so you know for me, you know growing up in a Christian home in the South

[00:03:07] Church was a part of our life, right?

[00:03:11] We're at church on Sunday morning Sunday night Wednesday night

[00:03:15] Participated in outreach activities, you know going out on back then it was the big thing was Tuesday night

[00:03:23] Visitation and somewhere in history got changed to Monday night visitation

[00:03:27] but you know just doing all the

[00:03:30] activities of the church and

[00:03:33] Oftentimes when we look back historically we go that was spiritual formation and I believe there was there's absolutely

[00:03:39] spiritual formation taking place in that, you know, I

[00:03:44] Grew up Southern Baptist

[00:03:45] So I came out of training Union which later became discipleship training and and there was a definite

[00:03:52] most would refer to it as a a

[00:03:55] University model of being discipled

[00:03:59] Which was this this whole idea of you know kind of 101 to a 1-3-1

[00:04:04] You had your your beginner level classes and then you had your more advanced level classes that you would go through and so

[00:04:12] As a young person I participated in those things. I participated in missions

[00:04:19] organizations and we call them Royal Ambassadors back then and

[00:04:24] All of that, but you know the whole true

[00:04:28] Transformation takes place, you know it was for began with me at Vacation Bible School in

[00:04:35] 1978 when I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior I came to a point. I'm sitting there around fourth grade

[00:04:41] I come to a point of realizing that you know my parents

[00:04:46] Salvation is not what's going to get me into heaven. I need to have my own

[00:04:51] Salvation experience and so during Vacation Bible School

[00:04:54] I end up praying to receive Christ that was baptized later that year and as I grew I

[00:05:03] really was

[00:05:05] Wanting to be faithful to God

[00:05:07] In my growth and understanding and so you know just continued to stay active in the church

[00:05:13] And active in all of those activities that I mentioned as a part of forming who I was as an individual

[00:05:21] And and I remember in I was a freshman in high school

[00:05:25] I actually led a good friend of mine to Christ during a camp

[00:05:30] And I don't remember much about it. I just remember when we came back and we're doing our testimony

[00:05:36] time

[00:05:37] that he

[00:05:39] Credited that it was a conversation

[00:05:41] I had with him that led him to Christ and so I remember Pat standing up and say well

[00:05:45] Accepted Christ as cause Kenneth Priest was you know the guy that talked to me about Jesus and and you know as I reflect back on it

[00:05:53] In my life later. I was like wow that was the beginning of my calling into ministry

[00:05:59] Now as an as a ninth grader, I did not understand that

[00:06:03] And so during that time I rededicated my life

[00:06:06] I thought that that you know what I was going through was a rededication

[00:06:10] I didn't realize it was actually God beginning to work on my heart

[00:06:14] To call me the ministry a year later

[00:06:16] I realized God had called me into vocational ministry and so as a sophomore in high school

[00:06:23] I kind of stood before the church and let them know that you know

[00:06:26] God's calling me into vocational ministry and I didn't really know what that was going to look like it didn't know where I was going to go and

[00:06:34] Unfortunately when I was called in the ministry. I got a lot of

[00:06:39] You say unfortunately you got a lot of pats on the back, but I didn't get any help

[00:06:45] Understanding what it meant to be called in the ministry

[00:06:48] People were just kind of you know, hey, we're proud for you

[00:06:51] The pastor said well I'm proud for you, you know, but didn't say hey, let me mentor you

[00:06:56] Let me coach you. Let me walk you through your calling and so it was several years

[00:07:00] For me struggling and not knowing what to do. I struggled with education

[00:07:05] I

[00:07:07] Didn't do well. I never took a school seriously

[00:07:11] Therefore I didn't study

[00:07:13] Therefore didn't do well. So when I went off to college, I only went for two quarters

[00:07:17] We were on the quarter system back then

[00:07:19] and so

[00:07:22] Went to two quarters and I was like man colleges not for me

[00:07:25] So I dropped out and I went to work full-time and during that season of me working

[00:07:31] I drifted away from church as far as

[00:07:35] Activities I wasn't there on Sunday morning Sunday night. I was working a lot of Sundays

[00:07:39] And so when you're working on Sundays that impacts your spiritual formation

[00:07:45] and so I began to drift and so

[00:07:49] It took several years of drifting

[00:07:52] Before I actually met my wife and she had some high standards about people

[00:07:56] She would date and one of those you had to be active in church and so I started going back to church

[00:08:02] so that she would date me and

[00:08:05] Really within just a matter of a couple of weeks of being back in church

[00:08:10] God really dealt with me and he's like, you know

[00:08:13] Hey, I called you to do something a few years ago and you've done nothing to prepare yourself for that

[00:08:19] And so I shared with her about the calling I had on my life and that I didn't know what to do with at that point and

[00:08:28] Started seeking out advice and counsel and I

[00:08:32] Was working at Six Flags over Georgia at the time and

[00:08:36] worked in the corporate sales office and

[00:08:39] We ran all the special events and so Baptist youth day Catholic youth day

[00:08:45] Nazarene youth to all these different Christian events and during Baptist youth days

[00:08:49] We always had this speaker come out by the name of Ike Reichard back then Ike was the senior pastor of New Hope Baptist Church

[00:08:56] And Fayetteville, Georgia

[00:08:57] Was a great communicator of God's word and

[00:09:01] He would always call up whenever he needed tickets to get in the park

[00:09:04] And I would help him get his tickets so that he could get in at other times when we weren't doing the special events and

[00:09:11] I asked him one day said Ike man. I'm really dealing with this

[00:09:14] God's called me in the ministry, but you know, I don't even have a college degree. I'm about to turn 25

[00:09:22] What am I supposed to do? I was newly married and

[00:09:26] He recommended Southwestern Seminary

[00:09:29] Their diploma program which was an in-house undergraduate program that you went through as well

[00:09:34] That's how Alan and I first met and

[00:09:36] So he said look man, you go there you get a graduate diploma in theology

[00:09:42] Then you get your master's degree

[00:09:44] And you go into ministry and when I got to seminary

[00:09:49] And started through that that diploma program

[00:09:53] That's when I really shot

[00:09:55] When I realized then is I probably should have gone to a Bible college all along

[00:10:00] And not tried to just go get a business degree or something that you know had nothing to do

[00:10:06] With me now look, I encourage people today

[00:10:09] Pastors need to have a background other than just ministry

[00:10:12] You need to be able to do some other things and so if at all possible

[00:10:16] Get some other type of training

[00:10:18] But for me, I just I needed to get into that environment of studying the Bible and

[00:10:26] Studying things about the Bible

[00:10:28] And that's where I excelled. That's where I really shined

[00:10:33] And so I was able to do my my

[00:10:36] undergraduate in theology my master's in Christian ed and then started serving on staff at churches

[00:10:41] Well as a part of seminary

[00:10:44] Also had some people started investing in me

[00:10:47] You were one, you know, we started as prayer partners together back in

[00:10:52] late 96

[00:10:54] We began praying together so you could go do spring evangelism practicum

[00:11:00] And start preaching revivals and so I would be praying for you on those things

[00:11:05] And then you were a part of a prayer group

[00:11:08] That Daryl Eldridge who was the dean of the the school I was in the school of educational ministry was leading and

[00:11:15] You told me about it said man, you need to come join us

[00:11:18] And so I joined it and Daryl is really the one that began to invest in both of us

[00:11:25] For this idea and understanding of what is spiritual formation in reality

[00:11:33] And how does it transform your life up until that point?

[00:11:37] I'd existed like many people do under a

[00:11:41] Discipleship strategy that's very knowledge based and knowledge again knowledge is important

[00:11:46] I have nothing wrong nothing bad to say about a university model of

[00:11:53] Disciple-making because you need knowledge of scripture

[00:11:57] But there's more than just knowledge you got to move to life

[00:12:01] Transformation and I believe that's the difference of spiritual formation

[00:12:05] It's going beyond to just biblical knowledge to biblical transformation that whole Romans

[00:12:13] 12 to that we read about do not be conformed to this world

[00:12:17] But be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God what is good?

[00:12:24] Acceptable what is perfect?

[00:12:26] And so for me, that's really where my journey

[00:12:31] Started to really focus on spiritual formation

[00:12:34] It came out of the seminary life and Daryl Eldridge investing in our group and

[00:12:39] Helping us understand what spiritual formation was and then from there

[00:12:44] I was able to take all of the biblical knowledge

[00:12:47] I'd gained through the years and begin to

[00:12:51] synthesize that and

[00:12:53] Bring it around the idea of how to allow that to transform your life

[00:12:58] To live and to be more Christ-like and what you're doing and you know realize that you know

[00:13:04] We're on a journey now, and I'm on a journey that I will not receive

[00:13:09] Or achieve perfection

[00:13:12] In this lifetime, but I am going to strive to be more Christ-like in all that I do

[00:13:21] Where would you say you were most influenced

[00:13:26] The

[00:13:27] But with four spiritual transformation was it in the church before

[00:13:33] You went to seminary was that when you went to seminary is it church experiences or is it your post?

[00:13:40] Seminary where would you say or people?

[00:13:44] Influenced you to most you mentioned Daryl. I'm just I'm just camping here for a moment to say where was Kenneth priests most

[00:13:52] spiritually formed

[00:13:55] Yeah, I really I really attribute most of my spiritual formation

[00:14:03] for that

[00:14:05] experience

[00:14:07] while we were in seminary and

[00:14:11] Getting out of seminary because our group was together for years

[00:14:14] I stayed on staff in Fort Worth at a church

[00:14:17] Was there an additional five years and our group just continued to meet

[00:14:21] It was really in that group with Daryl

[00:14:24] Where we had seven years if you if you go back and yes

[00:14:29] exactly exactly

[00:14:31] If you go back and you know, I'm not Catholic, but if you look at the Catholic model

[00:14:37] Where you go to a monastery which we did you know one of our prayer meetings was at a monastery one time up in Ada, Missouri

[00:14:45] We went and the the monasteries they have a spiritual director

[00:14:50] Or a spiritual guide one of the monks

[00:14:53] Who really guides the path for all the monks that are there in what they're doing their spiritual journey?

[00:14:59] Well for us our spiritual director was Daryl Eldridge. He started us on that journey of understanding

[00:15:07] Spiritual formation and he helped guide us through the path and the beauty of spiritual formation

[00:15:12] And this was really the beauty of Daryl

[00:15:15] To champion what we did

[00:15:17] Was he also believed in reverse mentoring so it wasn't just

[00:15:24] Daryl speaking into us. It was having us

[00:15:29] Speak into him and to one another

[00:15:32] And so it wasn't a one-way street

[00:15:35] There were there were a number of us some guys were in and out

[00:15:40] but our core group of

[00:15:42] Seven or eight that you know kind of hung together for many of those years

[00:15:49] We we all spoke into one another's lives

[00:15:52] And so it was a true community of faith and that's really where I would attribute

[00:15:58] most of my true spiritual formation occurring

[00:16:03] Was during that journey look I was saved before

[00:16:07] I had biblical knowledge before and

[00:16:11] Yes, there was some formation that occurred before

[00:16:16] And it was systematic because it was university modeled

[00:16:21] However, it was not

[00:16:23] Holistic spiritual formation and I believe that's where you get into the difference between a

[00:16:28] discipleship strategy that comes out of that university system and a disciple making

[00:16:33] Strategy that comes out of a spiritual formation system

[00:16:37] All right, so I don't know if I've told you this story before but I when I got out here to Texas from New Mexico

[00:16:44] I saw Anthony Swata and his book on

[00:16:49] I can't remember what it's called, but it's it's new believer follow-up somehow. It's just one of those

[00:16:54] It's a navigator style

[00:16:57] Daily devotional work this topic. Oh, I remember

[00:17:02] Miss Marcy was in Stevenville using it and he had he had Swata has an effective downline from that

[00:17:08] Let me throw that in but I was talking to him. I just wanted to pick his brain

[00:17:12] I had no agenda other than he was one other guy that I knew of there was actually paying attention to the topic

[00:17:18] Most people do not do anything with new believers

[00:17:22] That will be a topic soon. Well, I

[00:17:27] As I talked to him he he said oh what you're doing is

[00:17:32] spiritual formation and

[00:17:34] I actually got a little bit bowed up about it. I was like, what are you talking about? That's not he said that's not disciple making that's

[00:17:42] That's spiritual formation and I was like, how is it not disciple making but I

[00:17:48] We had a great conversation. It was awesome. I love Swata. He's the man well I

[00:17:54] Went and told John Burton this and John said he's right

[00:17:59] He said what we do with new believers is we

[00:18:03] Spiritually form them before we get them going down into these either books or

[00:18:11] You know 20 doctrines you need to know approach to the spiritual life

[00:18:16] Yeah, he said we we shrink the amount of content and we spend more time with the person on less content

[00:18:23] To make sure that they're getting it inside. I'm still exploring

[00:18:28] That statement right there. I don't have it all figured out

[00:18:32] Question for you. How would you make how would you say the difference is between disciple making?

[00:18:39] And spiritual formation and we will come back to this Kenneth. I know I'm putting you on the spot. Yeah

[00:18:46] You are but it is an absolutely wonderful question Alan and I think the way I would answer it is

[00:18:52] The the reality of spiritual formation

[00:18:57] Is an ability to synthesize

[00:19:01] All of the disciple making material that you have received. All right, so let me unpack that for just a little bit

[00:19:09] If you and so, you know go with your story, right? So you're you're a you're a chucklehead in the army

[00:19:18] You you know you get radically saved for Jesus

[00:19:22] Uh, you don't have the the years of discipleship knowledge

[00:19:30] under your belt

[00:19:32] That I had coming into this

[00:19:35] And so you come at it at a different life stage and different point in your journey

[00:19:41] than I did

[00:19:43] And so that whole spiritual formation process begins to look different

[00:19:49] Based on a person's background and experience

[00:19:55] I talk about this a lot in my disciple making journey. I talk about

[00:20:01] And this will be a random illustration, but if you've ever gone to a true rail yard

[00:20:08] And look at a giant rail yard, you have all these different tracks, right?

[00:20:13] And all these different train cars are lined up on these different tracks

[00:20:17] And what's happening is they're putting trains together, but if you go out to where that rail yard starts

[00:20:23] What you'll see is there's

[00:20:25] Two sets of tracks an inbound and an outbound

[00:20:31] The inbound track are trains that are coming in from across the nation

[00:20:35] Wherever this route goes to these trains are coming in and they're unloading those cars

[00:20:41] And they're building trains to send out on the outbound track to go to another destination

[00:20:48] Well, I've often said that the church is that train yard

[00:20:52] We've got we've got people coming from all different types of backgrounds

[00:20:58] And it's your job as a pastor

[00:21:01] To try and understand where they are on their spiritual journey

[00:21:06] But yet unite this entire church on one track to move forward

[00:21:16] Right

[00:21:17] And this is where spiritual formation is a mess

[00:21:22] Because I come at it from a different place than you come at it

[00:21:26] But yet you and I have got to get on board with being the same place by the time we leave

[00:21:32] The actual rail yard

[00:21:34] Now to do that

[00:21:36] We have all these individual tracks here where we can move people around

[00:21:42] And so I've got to take somebody like me that has all of this biblical knowledge

[00:21:47] But I may have never gone through spiritual formation

[00:21:51] Right had I not met Darrell Eldridge had you and I not met prayer partnered up

[00:21:57] And you said hey dude, you need to come into this prayer group with me

[00:22:01] Then I don't know that I would have ever experienced what I did especially at that stage, right?

[00:22:07] And so

[00:22:08] That allowed me to be at one place in my journey now you and I engage in that group and we're both on a pathway of spiritual formation

[00:22:17] I'm bringing this knowledge that I've got

[00:22:20] You're bringing the knowledge that you got and we both started at different places

[00:22:25] But we end up together in this group

[00:22:27] And you and I end up brothers in ministry

[00:22:30] lifelong best friends and accountability partners and so we are equally yoked on our journey together today

[00:22:38] But way back then

[00:22:40] We were way different places

[00:22:43] So I say all that say when we go back and we look at spiritual formation

[00:22:49] It is an understanding of we have to take people

[00:22:53] where they are

[00:22:55] And then address spiritual formation to where they need to be

[00:23:00] And so it's almost an unfair question to say

[00:23:04] You know

[00:23:05] Hey you with yours, where did this impact you because everything that I learned

[00:23:12] From the time that I was born until the time I entered that seminary spiritual formation group

[00:23:19] Had an impact on how I address spiritual formation from that day forward

[00:23:26] Whereas someone that did not know all of this

[00:23:30] They still have to be transformed spiritually, but also go learn all this

[00:23:35] So not being critical of anthony. I love anthony and his book as well, you know wonderful brother

[00:23:41] But that's where I would disagree. I would say no i'm not going to limit

[00:23:46] And focus more on the spiritual formation. I'm going to figure out a pathway for you

[00:23:53] That gives you the biblical knowledge that I believe you need which is

[00:23:58] You need to know all these doctrines and that's you know, we have that for a conversation for another day

[00:24:03] But I think part of the problem in the church today is people do not know enough about the doctrines and the theology that they should

[00:24:10] Believe

[00:24:11] In order to help them live out their life as a believer down the road

[00:24:16] So I've got to develop a spiritual formation pathway that still gives people the biblical knowledge that they need

[00:24:22] While they are also

[00:24:24] Being transformed the image of christ by spending the necessary time that we need to do to flesh this out

[00:24:32] Right. So my approach is going to be different and it's going to be

[00:24:36] Customized for every person now. This is where church work gets difficult

[00:24:41] We got pastors sitting there going man, you're talking about me trying to individually disciple every single member

[00:24:46] I've got a hundred members even though it's a small church. I'm bavocational

[00:24:51] I can't disciple a hundred people and you're right. You can't

[00:24:54] And that's why you have to figure out what is the pathways of disciple making this is the whole point of the simple church model, right?

[00:25:03] People got confused with simple church and started thinking they needed to stop doing events

[00:25:08] Change their church calendars simple church is not really about that

[00:25:11] It's about do do people know and understand how to become a disciple of christ

[00:25:17] by what we do as a church

[00:25:20] If doing these things help people become more christlike

[00:25:22] There's nothing wrong with doing these things

[00:25:24] But they have to have a purpose and a plan

[00:25:27] And it's up to the pastor to be the one that is the spiritual guide of the church

[00:25:32] The late harry pylon said that the pastor is supposed to be

[00:25:36] The theologian of the church and as the theologian that makes you the spiritual guide

[00:25:42] And so what is it that you're doing through your preaching and your teaching?

[00:25:48] That establishes this spiritual formation framework in order to move forward

[00:25:54] Man you said that perfect i'm gonna write all that down. Ha, that's great. Love it

[00:26:02] Again in second Corinthians 3 verse 18. It's an amazing verse

[00:26:07] Paul says we all with unbuilt faith be holding the glory of the lord are being

[00:26:13] Transformed that's a crucial tense. That's the esv

[00:26:17] It's a crucial we are all being transformed

[00:26:20] We are transformed in the moment we come to christ, but then that really just starts a lifelong

[00:26:27] Journey with god. I know that that phrase is it can be overplayed the idea of it

[00:26:33] But what I hear you saying and what I am sitting there thinking is that

[00:26:37] We need to find a balance between having a pathway

[00:26:42] But also realizing that some of this is just showing up at the table every week and not worrying about

[00:26:51] The exactness of the pathway. I took a picture of that table. We used to meet at I've got it in my favorites

[00:27:00] And I everyone while I will text it to derro elders just to say thank you

[00:27:04] All these years later. I think man if it wasn't for us gathering week by week

[00:27:12] Relating authentically to one another and and discipling one another and being challenged you guys challenge me

[00:27:22] I didn't like you guys someday

[00:27:25] You know, if it wasn't for that group

[00:27:28] I would be like

[00:27:30] I tell people that was the best class I ever took at southwestern seminary

[00:27:37] By far absolutely seven years of meeting around the faculty lounge table with derro and the other brother

[00:27:44] It formed me more spiritually

[00:27:47] Than anything else at seminary

[00:27:51] Absolutely, I agree 100 and and the beauty of of that whole process

[00:27:58] Alan was life on life transformation

[00:28:02] Uh and when when when guys try to put a time limit on spiritual formation

[00:28:08] They're missing the point of spiritual formation. This is not a three month or a six month or a one year class

[00:28:14] I mean, we were in that group for seven years, but even after that we actually stayed connected

[00:28:21] We challenge one another we stay in touch with one another

[00:28:24] Uh and so it is a life long journey

[00:28:30] Well, we want to encourage people in their journey with god and if you're uh wondering where you are with christ

[00:28:38] Of course, if you've never received christ, we would encourage you to place your faith in the death barrel and resurrection of christ for

[00:28:45] The forgiveness of your sins and for the power

[00:28:49] To have a new life in christ, but then it says being transformed. So start the journey

[00:28:55] We encourage you to start the journey and then for those of you who know the lord already and you're walking with god

[00:29:02] We encourage you to just take a journey with us to say let me think about the things that influence me spiritually

[00:29:08] And some things you may need to shift up. There are seasons where you need to not do this or that and you may need to put in

[00:29:16] Uh, maybe a tuesday morning group or maybe not tuesday morning, but you need something that's ongoing

[00:29:23] We're going to talk more about that. We we don't have time to keep going on that today

[00:29:27] But the role of we've said enough as far as small group community

[00:29:31] And bringing transformation within a person's life. That's crucial to the christian faith

[00:29:38] Well, can it let's put a pin in it right here. We've gone long enough

[00:29:42] For this fresh season and i appreciate you making time. We'll get together again soon

[00:29:48] And we'll see the rest of you guys soon

[00:29:52] We'll see you next tuesday. We'll be releasing a podcast every

[00:29:56] Tuesday morning and we are a part of the calvary global network media team if you need more about

[00:30:03] Need more podcasts in your life go to check that out at cgn media on instagram

[00:30:09] We appreciate you guys. We got so much more to come, but i'm going to let us go. Kenneth. Love you man

[00:30:15] See you soon. Love you too. God bless. Have a great week