#012 Jimmy Steele - Planting and Revitalizing in San Diego

Speaker A: You are listening to GC Talk with Bo Ellis. This show is produced by Great Commission partnerships in Tampa, Florida to bring you inspiration and conversation with pastors, church planters and missions leaders who are making disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ locally, nationally and around the world.

Speaker B: Hello friends, and welcome to GCTalk. I'm, um, Bo Ellis and today we're talking the Great Commission with a Georgia native who moved to seminary in his late 20s, but not because he thought he'd ever be a pastor. Well, God had a different idea. And today, like 12 years later, Dr. Jimmy Steele is a three time graduate of that seminary. He's a pastor, church planter and church planting leader among Southern Baptists in San Diego and and nationally as part of the Pillar Network based in Raleigh, North Carolina. And he didn't just plant a new church, he planted that new church with a core team that moved their whole families and their lives to California to be part of a revitalization of an older declining church. And by God's grace, they lived to tell about it here. He's married to Julie. They have four kids and a thriving church family called the Hill Church in the hills of greater San Diego. So let's welcome in our friend Jimmy Steele, all the way from San Diego. Actually it's La Mesa. Jimmy, had you ever heard of La Mesa before you, uh, ended up moving over there?

Speaker A: Never heard of it. Didn't want to know about it, honestly, where I moved here.

Speaker B: Right, you're from McDonough, Georgia. So help our listeners kind of connect to the backstory. How does a guy at 28, I guess, move from McDonough to Southeastern Seminary? That's not every guy. How was that you?

Speaker A: Yeah, it started through, uh, the Lord getting a hold of my life. First and foremost came to faith in Christ. Um, not too long after that, I was challenged by a brother who was discipling me in the church to consider going on a two week mission trip to, uh, Beirut, Lebanon and working with a church on the border of Syria. I kind of tucked that in the back of my mind and said what most people do when they, you don't want to consider something is I'll pray about it. And I told him that and he said, okay, let's do it now. So he literally grabbed my hand. We started praying for it right there on church at our, uh, Sunday school class. And that led to a lot of conversations that ended up me going on a two week mission trip to spend a week in Beirut and a week on the border of Syria engaging people with the gospel yeah.

Speaker B: Uh, then you came back. And short term missions will get you. It's like a virus. Not only does it infect you, but it infects others. So how did that look when you returned home from Lebanon?

Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, the last night I was in Lebanon, we had. We had seen the Lord do some. I mean, for me, I seen myself as, you know, kind of a. I mean, obviously I was a sinner, I was a rebel, but had some particular wild expressions of sin and saw myself as a backseat rider. Whatever the Lord was going to be doing in the gospel ministry, I was just glad to be on the back of the bus and saw, uh, the Lord kind of use me in a particular way. Sharing the gospel, interacting with people in Beirut. So the last night we were there, um, I just offered a very simple prayer to the Lord. Lord, uh, whatever you want to do with my life, whatever you're asking me to do, I don't even know what that is. I'll say yes to it. And that began a season of coming back home to McDonough and, uh, working through the current job I was in, which was a great company. Praying, uh, with my pastor, praying with my employer, which eventually led me to considering, uh, picking up and moving to Southeastern Seminary in North Carolina to consider. First of all, we thought we're just going to consider like a. They had a short term. They had a. It was a certificate program. I didn't really plan on getting a bachelor's degree or anything. I just plan on doing a certificate program and going overseas. And that totally got turned upside down when I landed in North Carolina.

Speaker B: Yeah, well, I. I told you before you came on, this show is about the Great Commission, obviously, and, and wrestling with calling. And man, it sounds like you got a pretty good dose. And that wrestling was, um, I guess not unlike Jacob and getting his hip zapped. And I'm wondering, like, you just kept saying yes, and there's a theme or a thread in what you're saying is that prayer was really involved in those decisions. So, hey, walk us through that prayer that you and Julie and what was it? Just. Just Nate and Peyton. And Nate at the time or did.

Speaker A: Yeah, Nathan and Peyton. Yep.

Speaker B: And then you had Addie when you were at the seminary.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And then Titus came along in San Diego, but we're going to have to get there later. Four kids later, but, man, Landon in North Carolina, pretty soft landing. That's a great place to land a launching pad. Missionaries all over the place, going in, coming out. It's an amazing place. And you Happen to live right next door to some guy. Man, tell me what that was like.

Speaker A: Yeah. So landed in uh, Southeastern. Honestly, what drew me to Southeastern, my heart on those short term mission trips coming back, the Lord was wrestling. We were praying. I read Let the Nations Be Glad by John Piper. Had no categories of even what John Piper was saying there other than the Gospel was much broader and deeper and more expansive than I had thought. Is beyond vacation Bible schools and all those things which it includes, but it includes God's name going to the nations. And then I started poking around, looking at Southeastern and uh, listening to chapel messages. And I was struck by a few different people. Greg Heisler preached a message and Jim Shadducks preached a message which took the basics of a text, explained them exegetically, but then took, uh, the theme of that and rose it to the glory of God amongst the nations. And I was just captured by it. Ended up moving to Southeastern, had no idea what I was doing and landed next to a guy named Bo Ellis. I thought that I was just going to be taking classes, uh, playing around with what the calling might look like in the far future. And uh, Bo asked me, you asked me would I be willing to go on some of these church planting trips in the north, in North America and help you do some of what you're even doing now, capture Guy's story. And I sat in front of a camera with you and listened to, I don't know, you could probably say it better. Meet 35, 40 different guys over a couple years sharing their testimony. And God started connecting dots in my life from a heart for the nations, um, a diverse city, uh, where they had planted their lives and been used for the Gospel. So the Lord started sort of birthing that calling in me to church planning. I didn't even know what that was. At the same time I was at a really healthy church. That for me helped give me a clear ecclesiology with the sort of missional thrust that I had. I, I came to Southeastern kind of believing missiology and ecclesiology were kind of two totally different things. But I was at Open Door. I was really able to understand Open Door Baptist Church that, uh, what is it? What is Paul, what is Timothy, what is Titus doing in the New Testament, uh, what is the church and the plan of God's mission? And that was really began to kind of birth in me this understanding of the role of a pastor. And just through a lot of prayer and a lot of discipleship and intentionality with pastors in my life, that kind of led us to thinking through church planning or at least saying yes to it. We had no idea really what that meant or where we were going. At least we were able to pray through and give the Lord our yes in that.

Speaker B: Yeah, I love it. And it's. We, we talk so much about guys that are, uh, that want to be equipped, that they're, they're sensing that the, the answer is yes. But how am I going to be equipped, uh, you know, locally. And what happened for me and what happened for you is locally changed and Southeast Southeastern became that kind of. That launching pad for us. So going off to seminary for you was the right decision for other guys, maybe they need to stay where they are. And that's why it's so important for local churches to be good at equipping men and families and men and husbands and wives to go. But for you, it was just critical that the men that were speaking into your life, uh, were the ones who would be influential. And you mentioned Dr. Heisler. Funny. He came to Tampa and did our annual preaching conference just like two weeks ago. Yeah, I had a chance to talk with him and um, he just did a one day, you know, spirit led preaching kind of seminar. And it was just. Wow. It was.

Speaker A: There's a sermon on Mary and Martha and that he preached in chapel. That really just rocked me when I was there, man.

Speaker B: So cool how God uses certain men and certain intersections in your, your journey that um, are kind of like, uh, what's that term they use in um, in climbing or I guess waypoints was the word I was thinking of. Uh, one of those guys is Dr. Dwayne Milioni though, the Italian Stallions. Tell us more about that relationship with him as you started considering San Diego.

Speaker A: Yeah, I think, um, being at Open Door, where Pastor Dwayne is the leading pastor, he's. I mean, uh, he has. He's saying this like it would be probably unfaithful for him not to be equipping guys because his church is right next to the seminary. But he has equipped a lot of guys, do an internship program and send out a lot of church plants. So I was blessed to be able to enter that internship, which forged me to not just take the ideas I was learning in the classroom, but then put them into seminary and kind of be. I had guys on both sides of me which are really helpful. I had guys who were five years out, who had been where I was, were planting, uh, which was really helpful for me to be able to interact with them. And then guys behind Me, who were just coming in. And I was able to both glean and help on both sides of that. Duane was really helpful in me thinking through what is the local church and what is the role of a pastor and what does it mean to be a church planter. So he was really helpful in giving me theological categories, but kind of pushing me down the road of what is my calling, who am I? And I, for me, Beau, like, um, you know, I had a very clear sense of calling in terms of a inner aspiration and desire that was affirmed by my pastor back in Eagles Landing in Georgia, to go and do ministry that was not defined, but it was very clear. I did not have a clear sense of calling to be a pastor, honestly, actually had reservations about it. Um, some of those were out of fear. But what was really helpful is in the local church, the understanding of what I was being called to was set in front of me. And the realization of pastoring and church planning and leading a family and, uh, planting your life somewhere was set in front of me. And I was challenged to consider why I would not do that, which was really helpful to me. And, uh, it was really good to have that external call from a man in a church who had sent out many other guys to kind of be vetting me, challenging me, but also, I think, giving me the. Yes, the allowance to step out in what I definitely felt was an internal aspiration that was growing in the church life.

Speaker B: Well, and through that internship, he showed you the roadmap, uh, for leading and for even preparation. I mean, you helped him with, uh, sermon prep and research. And I'm sure you looked at, you know, from counseling and shepherding. I remember Dr. Mileone. We'll call him Pastor Dwayne. He said something. I'll have to paraphrase it, but I'll never forget what he said. He said, don't tell me you're called to preach. If you did, I'd show you a street corner. He says, you're called to shepherd, and you better know how to preach. But shepherding is the calling of the pastor. And, you know, he had us reading books and things along those lines. And, you know, you didn't mention it, but I remembered you telling me during your undergrad at Southeastern that their history of ideas was rigorous. Like, I mean, you said you had to read like City of God. And, um, at the time, it was tough because I just see you on your porch with your nose buried in these big books. But looking back, how transformational was that, that Southeastern's undergrad really Helped you get grounded and then help us understand, um, how the conveyor belt started going faster now as you start ramping up towards moving to San Diego.

Speaker A: Yeah, I want to back up two clicks. I'll go to History of Ideas. But I just told this story, just graduated, uh, again, I don't know, a couple weeks ago.

Speaker B: Congrats on your doctorate. Way to go.

Speaker A: I appreciate it. Since I have three degrees at Southeastern, they, I guess I've spent, uh, enough money. They, they asked me to do a Spotlight. But anyway, they asked me to tell me one particular story that was influential at the Southeastern. And it plays into the history of Abia's thoughts. But I was in Dr. Travers English 101 class as a 26 year old with a bunch of 17, 18 year olds. And I was in the middle of. Just started the class thinking, what am I doing in here? Um, I should have never quit my job, moved my career to come out here. I'm doing English 101. He has us write a reflection paper. I turned it in the first day, I come back, it's loaded in, ready. I got like a 35 on it. He had IC everywhere. Incomplete. I mean, is incomplete Sentence incomplete. Sentence everywhere. And he said, jimmy, stay after. And I was thinking, okay, I just got, I got to figure out how to get out of this. I've made a mistake to, uh, enter into education. I'm not, I'm no thinker. And he said this to me. He said, jimmy, you cannot write. It's pretty bad. But he said, you can think. And he said, thinking is a gift that God gives people. Writing is a skill that you can acquire. He said, if you're willing to put in the work to learn how to write, you'll be able, uh, that'll allow you to use the gift that God has given you to think. And that stuck with me. And that ended up going into the History of Ideas class where I was able to start connecting dots in terms of worldview and uh, differing just uh, philosophies and worldview to think through, how to break down ideas, challenge worldviews and share the gospel and preach the gospel. So that, that motivation of me seeing myself as I'm not someone who thinks, uh, and writes. That professor giving me that thrust allowed me to then enter into the studies at Southeastern, which was pretty rigorous as a college student, uh, to I think get a very good foundation upon which I was able then to build at my seminary degree, uh, to really think about the practical things of preaching and missions and counseling. And we Were there for seven years at Southeastern. And then began with you. Uh, after the trips that I went on, the interview church plans in New York and Toronto and Boston, it seemed very evident to me that we would end up planting in Toronto, New York or Boston. So we started visiting those areas. Uh, open doors started sending me and my wife out. We had a team of people who were thinking about that with us. We were praying through each one of those cities. I really wanted to be in Brooklyn and uh, the Lord, uh, the Holy Spirit and my wife decided, uh, that that's not where we were going to be. And it was a person. I was working at the center for Great Commission at Southeastern, and I was picking up chapel speakers and I picked up one of the missions, uh, directors for North American Mission Board from the western region. And he's always trying to sell the western region. So he encouraged us to consider, uh, Southeastern. I mean, take a consider California. And I had zero thought in California, the West Coast. I don't serve. I don't have any money. Why would I go to California? I thought that's all it was. And particularly San Diego. But we ended up visiting San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose. And through a series of relationships, which I think is really important to the topic of calling. Uh, relationships have really been the door for me where I've seen the Lord's calling play out. Kind of one baton of the next of relationships is what led us to end up planting in San Diego, moving with a team of people, but also then replanting an existing church that had been here since 1957 when we got here in 2017. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: And that's obviously a big distinction there. The replant. Um, yours was um, really kind of classic. And I've used your example here as I'm ministering in Tampa. Um, we. We have a church planter who was in a similar position, but yours is, um. And I'll. I'll give the. The flyover. Um, you came to San Diego with a team once you landed on. On. On. That's the move. Um, you began serve ministering in a local church, I should say meeting as a church plant, um, at the invitation of that old, older congregation. Um, but it was really no strings attached. You were kind of like a tenant, if you will. I don't even know if they charged you rent. But for you it was a matter of the pastor emeritus, really, who was still the lead pastor there. Sam. He had to kind of win people over. And that older congregation had to see your new congregation as, um, as faithful, you know, as a group of young people who had no ulterior motives. And um, eventually it led to them dying and gifting everything to the new church plant. So that's a classic, like by definition, um, revitalization. And we've seen a few, a few of those here in our local Baptist association here over the last probably five years. But, but yours was really kind of textbook. But I remember your phone calls and, and hearing some of the snakes in the grass, if you will. Some of the hard, some of the really hard things, um, help us walk through kind of the, the tall grass. And um, how did that revitalization end up becoming. To, to completion? Would it take a year?

Speaker A: Yeah, the one thing I. Yeah, about a year. Yeah. The, the. I shouldn't say one thing, but a thing that I've learned that's been really important in my ministry thus far, um, particularly as it relates to calling and pastoring, is that God is efficient with whatever he does in our lives. Whether we don't understand what he's doing at the time. He often, or uh, to always uses what we go through to prepare us for what's ahead of us. And he doesn't waste anything. And coming out to move to California, I was in, I was in North Carolina. We had put together a pretty large church. Playing team particularly were two were three guys who were going to lead with me to move across the country. And in that process, for all good reasons, as we had said, yes, as the date was getting closer, those three of those key guys who are going to lead, who will potentially be elders with me for good reasons, all end up not coming. That all happened within like a week. I found this out. So I was really struggling with, okay, Lord, this idea of calling. Did I presume upon something? Did I step out in pride? It was really helpful that when I had come out months, um, earlier, I had really been wrestling through, uh, the book of numbers and thinking through, spying out the land. It was kind of the theme that I was kind of praying through and just thinking about the land. Thinking about is very clear. The Lord. I thought the Lord was telling us, hey, Jimmy, this is the land that I want you to enter into and plan, um, a church here. So when these three guys leave, I'm really struggling with this. So for two days I'm really just struggling, like what I'm going to do. The Lord takes me to the book of Joshua, which is the second retelling of this story. After the people refused to go into the land, extend out 40 years in the wilderness, they come back in. Joshua, uh, chapter 14. And the Lord in the beginning of the chapter there, uh, this great conversation that Joshua and Moses are having. And I'm paraphrasing, but Joshua, I mean, Caleb literally says, okay, I was 40 back then. I'm 85 today. But the promise of God has not changed. I'll go in. Still I believe the Lord and he's. And it's. It was a, it was a way of me. The Lord was pressing upon my spirit. That. Jimmy, who's going to be on your left and your right in this church, planning, calling might change, but the call upon your life is not. And it was if the Lord had just kind of picked me up. And I knew at that point, okay, this is what I am supposed to be doing for sure. So that really paved the way. God was efficient using that in my life. And when we got here, yeah, we, we landed. We didn't. I, I was not called to kind of do a full revitalization. What I mean by that was a slow changing of the guard in this church. That's a very, um, good and honoring way to bring change in a church. That was just not my call. And I was very clear with them that I had fundraised, I had built, uh, a team to plant a church. We had, ah, very clear when we had a name for our church. We had constitution, uh, and bylaws. We had all these things that we were about to set out. So I was clear that we were here to plant the church. So we met with the church for about six months, deliberated, basically told them, this is what we're going to do. We understand we're not going to do it all in one day. We're not going to honor what's been here before, but here's what we're doing. And we invited them in to kind of be a large church planning team with us, with our current group of people. That's what we did. So we, we changed the name. We did all of that and kind of replanted and we slowly implemented the changes to kind of honor them because we had to win the trust for them. But we spent, uh, six months functioning as a church plant in our home, doing evangelism, growing our group from seven people to about 25, and then worshiping at this church on Sunday morning before we became the Hill, which was really, uh, a unique season, but the Lord used that. So we changed the name, bylaws, constitution, and became the hill Church in 2018. Everything went well until things started changing. Um, Everybody wants change and still change until things start changing. And then we had some opposition that came from a few people in the church. But again, I said that first story because it would have been easy to say, okay, we did the wrong thing. What are we doing here? But the Lord had affirmed that this was the right path for us. So it was easy for us. I should say easier. Nothing was easy. But it was easier for us to know that we're not just stepping out on ideas and hopes and dreams. It's actually a calling that God has brought us to this place and it was able for us to endure what was in front of us. One of the, One of the brothers who pastored with me, Bob Urich, who's from Open Door, in that season of a couple of people causing some division and setting some lies out, we prayed through some things and Pastor Bob was very helpful to help me think through and say, hey, our conscience is clear on this. We know where we're at on this. Let's keep pressing forward. And we just faithfully moved forward and those people, God removed to other parts of our city. So it was a sweet season to see the Lord work in that.

Speaker B: It took a year. And it's funny that. Well, and what's funny is you don't have a playbook for this stuff. I mean, you more than most, had heard a lot of church planter stories. You had gone through an internship with other planter. I mean, you had a lot to draw from, but there's still no playbook apart from, you know, Holy Spirit and the Word of God. And maybe, maybe you and Pastor Dwayne had this like bat phone where you could call, you know, your sending church and maybe talk through some of these challenges. But, you know, you mentioned Pastor Bob and you know, we, for the longest time at the Tampa Bay Baptist association, we had a logo. It was, uh, Moses. And, uh, the brothers were holding his arms up, you know, as long as his arms were up, you know, they were winning. And I think about Bob, you know, holding your arms up through a lot of that. And you guys, um. How many years later are we now, Jimmy? Where are we?

Speaker A: This is the start. This is year eight.

Speaker B: Wow.

Speaker A: Yeah. Year eight. Yeah. New York's Bob and his wife and there is, uh, he's got one, his, uh, youngest boy graduated yesterday from high school across the street, where my two boys have graduated and where Addie will start next year. And so Bob has one more daughter, uh, at, ah, Helix High School, where we're at now.

Speaker B: Right. So the Hill Church like sits on a hill literally in La Mesa overlooking the high school, which for you is amazing because, you know, Peyton literally went through high school as you guys are planting this church and, um, you know, tell us some of those natural inroads that you found that, you know, A guy from McDonough, Georgia, you know, how do you fit in in a new context like that? And um, you know, basketball and all these other ways that that church planting for you was just, um, you know, C ball, hit ball.

Speaker A: Yeah, I think, um, I mean, there's still inroads that we're trying to make that we still have, you know, swung and miss at. But I think we came into a pretty connected, ah, community. The church wasn't a part of that. So there's three schools. You can see three schools from our property. There was a boys and girls club that's built right next to our property. There's a very tight knit community here. The church has been outside of that for a while. So we recognize that we didn't need to create new lanes. We just need to faithfully figure out how to get into those lanes. That's what we did. We started knocking on doors and asking the principals and people in school, hey, is it, you know, is there anything we can do as a church to serve you? And that started a lot of different things from. We got multiple people that volunteer. One does art. Actually Ibi, who's been a part of our church from the beginning, she's just been contracted by two of the three schools, I think the third one soon to start, uh, creating murals on their wall in their, in their schools. So just volunteering in that way. We have people that volunteer on the, and coach on the volleyball teams. Uh, we got teachers in multiple schools now just trying to have a slow presence. We were able to start a, a Bible study called the Gospel Club. We wanted to be very explicit with it. That's been going now for three years at Helix during lunchtime. Been doing that for a while. So just showing up and trying to figure out how we can serve was, uh, I think in the same way you said the church had to win our trust. The senior membership here, which we understood that the community had to win our trust because this church is the first thing. This church was the, the first building in this community. Everything else has been built around it. And they've seen this church. But it's been a while now since the church, uh, it had been probably 20 years since this church had really had any connection to the community. So we recognized that we had to patiently build trust. We're still doing that in a lot of ways but just getting involved and, and being connected was really important in that. Well, I was like both good.

Speaker B: Well yeah, and raising kids and being a part of the community. And the congregation that you found when you arrived was um, was mostly older people and you know, certainly empty nesters. How many of those are still part of the new church eight years later? And um, how has the um, the children's ministry maybe evolved into middle school and high school? What does that look like as a along a time you guys?

Speaker A: Yeah, so we uh, almost there was out of the 36 that covenant with us and became members the first Sunday. Thirty of those stayed with us. Uh, I've buried. I think I was just doing this because I, I taught us thing on funerals and weddings. I think I'm buried 12 um, of those over the last couple years, last eight years. So a lot of entered into glory. So I feel like I, my pastoral duty with them was done. They transitioned to glory. Um, our kids ministry now we have uh, we have a ton of babies. We have four. Last week we had three women uh, come back to church who just gave birth. Over the last couple weeks we got a ton of babies, ton of kids. San Diego is uh, I don't say unique but the, the family that's 40 with three kids is a, ah, is a rare thing in San Diego because of how expensive it is. So it's hard to get a lot of. For us it has been a lot of high school, middle schoolers to sit here in our church, um, at least for us. But tons of babies, tons of uh, toddlers and elementary age kids we have here at the school. So our, our high uh, school youth ministry is a few years out. We see it coming in about five years but I mean we have a decent amount of high school and youth that we interact with but we've seen a ton of, of babies and a lot of young families with babies.

Speaker B: Well praise God. It's um, that, that's really the measure. Um, the church, the church that, that I most recently uh, came to serve, um, had arrived at that place where Pastor Sam's church was and they, they were down to 36, you know, 40, no kids. And we talked with them about um, focusing, prioritizing, you know, restarting children's ministry to, to try to restore you know, families, uh, to the church and to try to change the neighborhood. Right. And from that we want to, want to become ascending church. So for you, you know, you weren't the um, you know, the apostolic planter, you know, drop in, raise up leaders and go do it again. God kind of called you to be the founding pastor of the Hill Church there. And what does it look like for you, eight years in at thinking about multiplying and how has the, the DNA from Open Door kind of rubbed off on you? I know you're part of Pillar Network and maybe you want to share a little bit about that.

Speaker A: Yeah, I think I've learned you know, some of the swing and miss or I ain't going to say miss. That sounds bad but the way the Lord uses, he's efficient. Um, you have to learn of course, you know, entering into another context like California, the culture is different but you learn that on multiple layers. As you keep moving, things move slower. Roots uh, are put down slower here in California. So we started after year one we started doing a one year internship which was modeled after open doors, two year internship which was very, you know, a lot smaller. Not for the sake of particularly starting with um, church planters. Right away we wouldn't be opposed to that. But our DNA and philosophy of meaningful membership and expositional preaching and elder led churches, uh, that was pretty foreign and it still is pretty foreign here in San Diego. So we began, we wanted to kind of give a baseline of thought to every man in our church who was a member. So we, I think we put 30 guys through that in the last five years. We just started partnering, I uh, just started partnering with five other churches and we do that with five other like minded churches. So taking slow amount of time to get five other like minded churches in our area. And we just went through one year and finished our last year. We had 42 guys in that one class with five other churches going through. We have a young man who came to our church, uh, uh, was discipled here and we helped him go to seminary at Bethlehem in Minneapolis. He actually just moved back uh, last week and he comes on staff as a pastoral resident in September. So our hope will be what we've pitched him as a two year residency at the other end of that where he will plant or revitalize. We think revitalization is probably what he'll end up doing in our city. There's a lot of churches that need revitalization, um, and that's our hope with him. So as I said we've learned some things. We had a few guys come in to want to potentially plant and those things haven't, haven't uh, came uh, figured out they ended up getting called by Other churches, which is great, take ministry positions here in San Diego and different places, which is a kingdom win.

Speaker B: Amen.

Speaker A: But Alan will be our first guy that we sent out and funded, and he's coming back, uh, to come on staff starting September for two years. So our goal will be to send him out in two years.

Speaker B: Well, that's. That there's a sense of taking things as God gives it to you versus pushing for those things and really finding the balance in all of that. I think prayerfully, um, you start knocking on doors and asking God, hey, are you going to open it? But you can't just bust through it. So, I mean, we say that Jimmy, me and you, on the heels of traveling up to Toronto and, you know, two guys from the south kind of scratching our heads after one service. That was, um, a totally, like, topical message that, you know, kind of just sprinkle in some, some text. Um, I remember asking the pastor, oh, so what you going to preach? And he said, oh, communication in marriage. So that, that's a good topic. What text are you using? And I didn't know at the time that, that I was. I was maybe digging a hole for myself there because I didn't have much couth because I was just really naive. But it's so cool that as you leave a, uh, really healthy, uh, church that preaches expositionally and landing in San Diego, how did that model, you know, work? Or how has it changed or how. How is your approach different now, having, you know, spent eight years with those folks and share with us a little bit about, you know, worldview. The worldview that you found when you landed there.

Speaker A: Yeah, I, um. That's a, That's a good thought. So a couple things in. Particularly in preaching, I mean, it's related to every aspect of ministry. As I said here, um, San Diego is not like any. I mean, it's not unlike any other big city. But people tend to be spiritual and even claim the name of Christ here or claim to be a Christian here without, um, actually understanding the gospel or understanding the truth of what Christianity is actually about. So for one, I had to. My worldview analysis into my preaching is often trying to, uh, take apart what I often hear and then put back together with the gospel almost in every sermon. I have a young man who, Navy guy, who accepted Christ three weeks ago in our church. And when I met him a month and a half ago after he'd been coming, I asked him, what is the gospel? And he said, well, I would have said. I said, I don't know. What the gospel is. He said, I'll say that. But he said, I would have thought Christianity was, you know, trying harder and the golden rule and doing the best you can and at end of your life God will kind of weigh your good and your bad and hopefully I'll make it. But he said, as you say, the last two Sundays, that is not Christianity. So I guess that's not it. So here's what I think it is. So that's what I do in almost every one of my sermons. At some point I will say, you probably think Christianity is X, and I'll lay that out. And then I'll say, well, it's not X, it's Y. Because there's so many in any big city, in anywhere, there's misconceptions on what Christianity. But here there is this spiritualizing of my own personal beliefs and worldviews that therefore I get to determine I'm a Christian and no one gets to tell me I'm not. So that sort of trying to sink everything in the objective reality of the truth and why the text is so essential. And it's not me saying this, it's God saying this and confronting them with their beliefs, but then also trying to lead them to the truth of something that I do. Second thing is I've. My exposition has moved away from preaching through like a book of the Bible for two years at a time, a year at a time. The city is very transient, our congregation is very young. So like I'm preaching through the Book of Romans. I've been in the Book of Romans on and off for three years and we'll finish it next month. But I'll typically do a couple chapters at a time and jump out to different parts of the Bible so that our people, uh, under can get different parts of the Bible and be discipled from Old and New Testament. So my exposition is less lengthy expositions and more kind of short dives through books because of the transient nature of San Diego. We have military here, we have young families who are trying to make it, always trying to figure out housing, school, moving in and out of the city, all over. So a couple ways that has changed. My pulpit ministry at least, and then just the understanding of, uh, meaningful membership. That's the hardest thing for us here, uh, uh, in San Diego, I believe, is membership. There's some cultural reasons for that, there's some religious background reasons for that, church reasons, and historically for that. But the understanding of meaningful membership is, uh, not accepted here in San Diego very well. So it tends to go A lot slower in that process.

Speaker B: Well, we saw the same thing in Boston. Um, you know, the Church Universal, right? I'm part of the church. What do I need, uh, to sign a membership card with you guys for? And that was very common up in New England, you know, where the worldview up there was, you know, grandma's God. You know, my grandma's Catholic, so, you know, two generations later, I must be Catholic. You know, I'm good. Or in Brazil, you know, we're in Brazil twice a year and partnering year round with four different church plants there in the city of Rio. Well, in Rio de Janeiro, Jesus is the statue on the mountain, but they don't know much more about him. And it's funny because right there in La Mesa, if it's not in the city of La Mesa, it's nearby. Your church is a big old, uh, cross on top of a hill. So folks are familiar, you know, with God or Jesus or Christianity, but that. But very few have or very seldom have they really heard the gospel and what Jesus has done for them. And that's really.

Speaker A: Which is why we call the Bible Club at Helix. The Gospel Club.

Speaker B: The Gospel Club.

Speaker A: That's why. Yeah, that's why.

Speaker B: I remember being in Boston with, um, Bland Mason, and he said, the real problem in New England and Boston is that so few New Englanders have just not met a real Christian. And that stuck with me because I had to ask myself, what's a real Christian? And I go home and look in the mirror and I say, God, I want to be a, uh, real Christian now. You know, how do I live it out? Like, we're preaching through Colossians, and we just come off a short series in Ephesians, and Paul's just hammering this idea of walk, you know, walk in, you know, clothed in Christ last Sunday. So, you know, that's what church planting is literally living the gospel out in front of people. And certainly not just, you know, hiding in your office and doing sermon prep. So I'm sure you figured that out pretty quick. Um, we're up against time, and I hope you'll come on this show again, my friend. It's fun to get insights, and we hope that others who are considering planting and sending and internships and residencies and all of this stuff that we've covered kind of in a flyover would think about connecting with you. How would they reach out to you there? What's the website?

Speaker A: Uh, the hillsd.org the hillsd.org hey, brother.

Speaker B: Close our time with a, ah, short prayer and we'll be done.

Speaker A: Glad, um, to do it. Father. Thank you, uh, for the gift, first and foremost, as we ended here with the gospel. Thank, uh, you Lord, that you saw fit to open our eyes to, uh, the beauty of your person, uh, to the nature and the seriousness of our sin and our need for Christ. And we thank you that your solution to our sin is a real one, a permanent one, a, uh, powerful one, enough to save us to the uttermost, as Paul, as we hear in the New Testament, so God, I'm thankful for this opportunity, thankful for Bo and his labor in putting these, uh, podcasts together and pray they could be beneficial to think about the nature of calling, the beauty of the church, and the wonderful gift of pastoral ministry. I pray for anyone who listens that they would be encouraged. Whatever season they're in difficulty, uh, challenging, they will be encouraged to press on, to persevere because we serve a Savior who pressed on on our behalf. So God grant us grace, uh, to be faithful, to walk as even as our brother Bo said, to walk in a manner worthy of you. We love you, Lord, and we're grateful for our time. In Jesus name, Amen.

Speaker B: Amen. Thanks, brother. Talk to you real soon.

Speaker A: All right, later. Thank you for listening to this episode of Great Commission Partnerships, GC Talk with Bo Ellis. Uh, find us wherever you get your podcasts and on the web at GC Partnerships, where our mission is connecting Christians to missions and supporting church planters and missionaries locally, nationally and around the world.