Confessions of 2025 - Recap!

Welcome to Confessions of a Pastor. This is the last podcast of 2025, everyone. So, Carol, I've got a question for you. What do you want to do on this last podcast of 2025? Whatever you want. I think I'd like to take a nap. Oh, come on, somebody. Not going to lie. Y'all watch Pastor Kara nap for this episode. That's not a bad idea. Here's a fun fact about Kara. Okay. Oh, boy. What's coming? Within five minutes of any movie, she's asleep. Oh, that's true. That is true. Even if she fights for it, even if she commits to stay awake, even if it's the best movie on the planet, this this woman will sleep through everything. It's true. I mean, I don't know how you sleeping. No, it's it's amazing. I mean, we did it last night. We We watched The Christmas Story. Oh, nope. You guys did.

Well, my I fell asleep. Elelliana and I watched the Christmas story. So, was it good? Yeah. I mean, he did not shoot his eye out. So, yeah. I mean, the last actually the last scene I remember was the kid with the tongue stuck to the pole and knuckles. No joke. Well, it was good for the teenth time I watched it. So, Okay. Okay. Yeah. I mean, just a classic. Just getting real Christmas classic, everybody. So, no, don't fall asleep. I'm going to nudge you if you fall asleep because we have so much good stuff we can talk about to finish this episode. And I don't even know where to start, but I would just say this is as I look back on 2025, here's one theme for me, for our church, for our family, and I'd say this this is a reality going forward is you got to fight for your faith.

Oh, that's a good word. You know, like like the more God does in your life, the more you got to increase the warfare of your life as well. I think it's it's almost equal parts um opposition to traction, you know. Yeah, I guess that's what I mean is yeah, it it never like settles down unless you settle down and you want to just compromise and get lukewarm. But this has been just it's been a wild year. I can hardly remember January, February, March. But here's like one memory I have just in my soul is I remember thinking to myself, this is my favorite year of ministry. Like starting off like it was just like the team that we have, the unity, what God started the year off with. And I'm thinking like what could go wrong this year? It was just so good on so many fronts. And then

I was I shared with you like somewhere in like I think it was June this year. Yeah. Just the weirdest gossip slander came out about us that I was like it felt like a t-bone like you know I had the right to cross you know the street but somebody came and ran a red light and t-boned us and it was dumb. I mean, it didn't last long, but I just remember like being really hurt, like just the dumbest slander people. I mean, what was said about us was that we were um what's that called when you steal money? Embezzling money from the church. Like, when I even tried to unpeel the layers, like, okay, what are we being accused of stealing money for? And it was like, oh, for your car payments. And I was like, what? Our cars are paid for. Like, what are you what are you talking about? Like, you know,

it's like just the dumbest rumors. But the fact that the enemy tries to divide the church, Yeah. which is what I preached on yesterday. Unity is the secret weapon of the church. It really is. And it's the anointing of the church. Yeah. I mean, maybe talk about that for a second. You know, Psalm 133 has been a psalm that's just like keeps coming back over and over ever since 2022. Um, and it's just it's it's just coming to life for us right now. Yeah. That anointing comes with unity. Yes. If there's division, how can you have anointing? Which just to clarify, anointing, it's the power of the presence of God. Yeah. Upon your life. And so, if we want anointing on the church, that is the power of the Holy Spirit's presence. We've got to be united. Yeah. It it it can't come with it. So, Psalm 133, how good and pleasant is when brothers dwell together in unity. And it's like the anointing of of oil dripping down A's beard down his robe.

And it's just this beautiful picture of what God desires for his people. Not just the Old Testament promise, but it's our promise as well. Yeah. And and then that the third verse in that in that psalm is that it commands a blessing. Come on. So there's a blessing that that God pours out with unity and then forever more. Yeah. Yeah. So if we either take God at his word or not, like do we want the anointing that's found in unity? Cuz that says forever more. Like that's where God's promises are true for all of us in Christ. Yeah. And I mean really just speaking from um experience, we've had to fight for unity. Yes. Unity doesn't happen um naturally. I I would say not just in the church, in family, in um in any sphere. It doesn't just happen like you have to fight for it. You have to pray. You have to war.

You have to be willing to do hard things and allow the Lord allow the father to prune things that he needs to prune in order to grow new fruit. That has unity in it. And we've seen that. Yes, Kara. I that's true in every sphere of life for your relationship individually with the Lord, for marriage, for those who are in a marriage covenant and for for church. Yeah. It really is a fight. I mean, when Paul I mean, the the older you get, the more mature you get in your faith, his words just ring true. I fought the good fight. It's like, I want that to be said that that I didn't give up. And and it is a fight. Like I I think there's so many myths out there about being a Christian, about being married, even about being involved in a church. It requires a fight. Yeah.

And sometimes it's a dog of a fight. And even this year, I mean, we have gone deeper as a staff team with culture. And probably the last few years, I even had to hire a consultant in 2024 cuz I knew there wasn't unity on our team. I'm like, I don't know what to do. We brought in a consultant. She was amazing. She brought in these conflict norms. And I don't think it revolutionized our staff overnight, but at least it was like, hey, let let's work towards this. And then just the right staff at the right time. It's like we are working towards creating a culture of let's say hard things now to get to a healthier place later because if we don't do that eventually you harbor uh an offense. Yep. Which and we've talked about this on this podcast before but that is the bait of Satan as John Bevere wrote an entire book about holding on to an offense will

eventually it it it's I told you this last night it's stage one cancer. Yeah. It's just saying bad things about anybody. Mh. It's It's stage one cancer. It doesn't sound that bad at first. You don't even think it's that bad, but eventually you just released just a foothold for Satan to get into your heart. You don't even know it and eventually grows into something more. Yeah. And what I love about this year particularly is actually Pastor Connor has brought in a feedback, a culture of feedback. Culture feedback which is it's it's actually the framework to help you and to help us um move towards health in the area that we're talking about. Right. So, so essentially it's if if something happens, if if you have an interaction with somebody that feels offensive, not to sit on it, but to actually call, you know, a feedback meeting and and explain it and and get it out and work through it so that we don't harbor the

bitterness that is just so natural to do. It's it's it's one of the ways that we we're fighting for unity right now. And it's it's even I've had a couple of those conversations. They're really hard, but they're really fruitful. It doesn't allow Satan to get a foothold here. So I we're fighting for health. It's definitely a year that we've been fighting for unity and health. Amen. And it's it's not just on our staff team culture. So it's not just in a work environment. This culture feedback. I think we've worked on it in our marriage, too. Yeah. I mean cuz cuz we like to fight. I shouldn't say we like to fight. We don't like to. We just have very two strong personalities. And uh when when we go up against each other, we've had some wars in our marriage. And this year is no exception. But I would say we just keep growing and learning. We don't leave it at a fight.

We we work towards reconciliation. We try to understand one another and what causes the conflict. And I would say that that culture has come into our home as well of hey, can can I understand what you're saying right now? Cuz I want to take an offense. I want to fight, but let let's let's try let's go there and work towards what what are you trying to say? What am I hearing? You know, what does that look like? And I I actually love um yesterday in your message when you gave the example, you took the flip side of it is of of the first uh Psalm 133:1 how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity. And then you flipped it. H how not good and pleasant it is. Terrible. It's awful. It's not good and pleasant when when you're not in unity. You're not in unity. When your family is not in unity. When your marriage isn't in unity. When this nation isn't in unity. We've seen that over the last five, six, seven years.

Yeah. Six, seven. Oh, it took I missed it. Anyway, I think this generation so quickly is getting over that. No, I told you because of those over 40 who are Anyway, I I just think that the um looking flipping at it and looking at it from the opposite, it actually gives you perspective. Oh, yeah. It's not good and pleasant to live in disunityity, in division, in in in um cultures of gossip and slander and yuck. It's not it's not healthy. It's one thing that we all have in common. Even those who have yet to believe in Jesus, you can go to the scriptures there with that theme and say it's true. You know, it's not good. I mean, the phone calls we get from typically like a husband about marriage counseling is usually when it's like the end. We are divided. We're about to get divorced. Can we get some Christian counseling? Yeah.

And it's like, well, that's because it's not good when we're divided, right? And I would say that's it's so true in the church. It's true in every sphere in a workplace with a team, you know, like I'm not a sports fan at all, but the only football team I've ever liked is the Raiders. And we suck. And I would say there's probably a common theme. No matter what coach they hire, no matter what great, they'll get the best quarterbacks. And it's like for some reason that team's not united enough to win. It's a losing season every year. Well, okay, you think about a team like I I've played on team sports my entire life through college. And if a team is not working together, you will not win. Like there might be exceptions where there's one standout athlete that can score all the points, you know, like there might be an exception, but generally speaking, if the team isn't

working together as as one unit, you're not going to win. Yes. I mean, in our heyday when it was Michael Jordan, there was it was the dream team. I mean, they they had a whole team around him to to make that work. It wasn't just the offense. It was everyone. We needed each other. Yeah. What was that dude's name that had the colored hair, the tattoos, and the piercings? Oh my gosh, I can see his face. Robinson. No. Uh, he would dress like a girl. Dennis uh Dennis Rodman. Rodman. Dennis Rodman. Let's go. Somebody Dennis Rodman. He'd dress up like a woman. And he's total man. But I mean, it it was it was a whole collaborative team that made them who who they were at that time. Yeah. It's true with any team. Yes. I mean with team sports, you know, and if you look at the church, like it's not a sport, but it's definitely a team. Like

we are, the Bible is so clear about like we are one body with many members and we all have different gifts and skills, but together we make up the church and it's beautiful. Amen. And it's it's it it's um so many different gifts and and people coming together under under Jesus. Um it's beautiful. So going into this year, I felt like as a team, hey, we're undefeated. This is this like January, February, March, I felt like the year was like just it was awesome until there was some losses. Yeah. And losses, you know, mentally I think if if we get real, if we were to get relentlessly real, they can make you want to quit and give up. Oh, yeah. You know, it's like, okay, are we messed up here? Are we uh is this not going to work? Should I run from this? Or I mean,

it the reality is a loss makes you stronger, but it hurts. Yeah. Yeah. And we've had some losses this year. I mean, there's been ups, downs, and all rounds. And uh ending this year was no exception. I mean, literally, we lost some loved ones within the church this year, you know, and it's like, oh man, it's just a reminder that a part of winning is losing. And and that's why I just say you got to fight for it because you got to muster up the courage to say this isn't the end of the story. you know, preach back to yourself because it can I mean, a loss can either take you out or it can it can make you stronger. Like it's it's probably one or the other. Yeah, it's it's true. And and if you get stuck in the mire and don't go to the Psalms and understand that he lifts you up out of the miry clay, if you get stuck there, Yeah.

you go down this dark hole quickly. Well, it's it's what I just just love about scripture is just it's alive and active and like feeds the soul and like just the the scripture out of Isaiah that's just held us for so many years. 4318. Yeah. Which is like I'm behold I'm doing a new thing. Like God like the best is always dwell in the past. Don't dwell in the past. Like remember not the former things. Yes. Come on. Behold, I'm doing a new thing. Like do you not perceive it? It requires some revelation. Yeah. But we can always hold fast to God's promises. It's like you always say like we're either going to take him at his word or we're not. Yeah. And that's our choice. I I want to just testify for a moment of just some miracles and what God's doing because here's the reality probably it was just two weeks ago I was like I was in that my recy clay you know we with the only debt we have as a church is just it's a chunk of debt and

it's a big payment every month and it's $4.6 million and I went down and preached at a church is probably almost a month ago now. Yeah. Well, let's hold on for any for people that don't know, the debt is on 38 acres that the church purchased in 2021ish. Yeah. Um to eventually build a campus on which we are in the process of annexing. We are going to build a great church. We're in the process of annexing it into the city, subdividing it so that we can sell off part of it and then start to build a campus. Yeah. That is way too big for my dreams, but not for my God. Amen. It's going to be amazing. It's I mean, it's going to be incredible. bigger than I It's going to be great. Yeah. So, about a month ago, I go to preach at another church. Yeah. Who's going through a financial uh campaign, if you will, to pay off their debt to position themselves to buy another church. Yep.

Uh a church that's actually going to develop a campus, but this church is way larger than they are. And their dream is to pay off their debt, which was 2.5 million, which is huge for them. So, they asked me to come down, share our story. uh just you know the strip club to sanctuary that that kind of thing. And so I did and it was encouraging. I mean this church is definitely a church of faith. They're spiritfilled. I mean just believing a lot of things. So in this story I just I heard this a few weeks ago. Uh the pastor met someone who came back to the church after 20 years. She introduced herself the weekend I was preaching. She introduced herself to the pastor and said, "Hey, I'm back. Our family's back. uh you baptized me 20 years ago and do you remember me? He at the time did not remember her. I ended up preaching that weekend and sharing Journey's story and I shared when we

bought our building the largest gift we'd ever received in history was from someone who sat had a meeting with me and shared the story that before they gave the gift to me. They said, "Hey, we're retired. We invest in raceh horses. The way it works is you buy a portion of the horse. In this case, they owned a portion 25% of a racehorse that happened to win a race. And so they wanted to tithe on their portion of the winnings of the horse. And so they owned 25%. So they were going to tithe on the 25% of the winnings. I'm like, okay. Like I didn't know how much that would be with a raceh horse. Well, it was a pretty big race. I believe it was the Belmont. And so they they handed me the check. Here's our tithe. It was for $387,000. Mhm. And that ended up being enough to to help move us forward. It was the seed money we needed.

It was the seed money we needed to get the down payment for this building. I I thought we wouldn't be able to do it, but we needed $500,000 in three months. It seemed impossible. So, I told that story at the church. Well, the next weekend was their pledge weekend, which was now I think two or three weeks ago. Three weeks ago. Yeah. It was their pledge weekend. And this same lady came back the next week and came to the pastor uh to the pastors, their co-pastors, Pastor Tammy and Pastor Jerry, and said, "Hey, folded up piece of paper. I'd like to give my pledge." And their debt was 2.5 million. And they opened it up. She he said it was folded up as many times as you could fold it up piece of paper. And she pledged to to essentially pay off the entire debt with one one payment, $2.5 million gift. And so therefore, all the gifts thereafter would be

building up in addition to prepare for what was next. So he called me on a Wednesday and I'll just be brutally honest of where my soul was. That that Sunday we had just moved to three services. We had done a celebration of life on Saturday. We had done a huge party for all of our superheroes. That's our volunteers. On Friday, I was fried emotionally, spiritually, physically. Sunday was such a whirlwind. I felt like my giving talk on money was just terrible. I'm just like, "Hey, we need a miracle this December, you know, like we've spent more than we've taken in, you know, like come on church," you know, like unmotivational. Like I just it was just I'm like, "Am I even the right guy for this job, you know?" Like pity party. Woe is me everybody. Maybe I

should just run and live in Mexico. And stupid. I mean, little pity parties. It just tells you how weak our flesh is sometimes. He calls me on Tuesday and tells me that story and my faith was just like mustered up like what am I doing? You know, having a pity party. Nobody wants to come to that. It's the power of testimony. Like yes, we the book of Revelation says we overcome by the blood of the lamb. That's Jesus. And the word of our testimony like testimony builds the faith in other people. So just the fact that he shared that was, you know, tremendously impactful to you on that day that you needed boosted my faith. I shared it with our elders that Thursday and it really helped me. I went in Sunday and I did not tell that story Sunday, but I did say, "Hey, one person could pay off this debt." And the reality is that might not be a lot

to one person. They just have to be obedient to the Lord. And what we have to do is give unto the Lord. So it actually helped me just pause and do more of a biblical Yeah. testimony going into Sunday into where we are as a church. So, I'm believing God's best. I'm believing one moment can change everything. I don't need to have have any little pity parties. What I do need to do is trust that God can do it. Amen. He will do it. Believe God's best. Pray God's best. Preach God's best, you know, and and go to God's promises like you said. Yeah. And often he doesn't work the way we think he's going to work. Like that to me is just tried and true in our own lives. Like we think it's going to happen one way and then he totally surprises us with something that comes out of the blue. Totally. And you know, even going down to preach at that

church, I I'm getting to know that pastor. We're becoming friends. He didn't know me. I didn't know him. And yet, you know, I'm Well, tell us how we connected with you. Well, we've shared our story through the Father's House Network a few times. The Father's House Network is through the Father's House Church in Vakavville. They're really our covering. You know, Pastor Dave and Pastor Donna have come alongside us and just been a lifegiving resource, almost like spiritual parents, if you will. um they they're ahead of us. They planted a church that's a a church planting church. And so we just love them. We learn from them. We take our staff team down to their conference every year. And there have been occasions where they've asked for testimonies. And we have them. Yeah. We have so many testimonies. So I've shared our story a few times of just what God has done.

And that has edified and built up other churches. And Pastor Jerry's also a potter of this Father's House Network. He's heard that. He was encouraged by it. He didn't know me. Yeah. So, it was a cold and you last minute. He's like, I just remember being encouraged by your story. Would you come share it? And you and I looked and said, "I don't think we can." Yeah. This doesn't fit in our box. It doesn't fit in our agenda. But yeah, I called Pastor Brandon on the phone, said, "Hey, here's what I'm thinking." And I mean, full disclosure, I mean, I asked him to preach. And then the text was like, he's like, "I'm not sure I can preach this, but you know what? The kingdom's not convenient. you should go. Yeah. And then I asked Pastor Noah to preach it and it come to find out he's preached that text before. It was encouraging to him. It was on the Holy Spirit. It was

just like God works things together. And so that's how it worked out. Sometimes you have to do the ask. Like Pastor Jerry asked me, "Sometimes you have to say yes." Yeah. Which is interesting because I have a coach right now that's trying to get me to say no more often. He's like, "You need to stop saying yes to everything. You need to say no to the things you normally would say yes to." So, have you done that yet? I did. I did. One is to Hannah, who's in the room, uh, she asked me, "Hey, should we spend some money on some marketing things for some signs?" Oh, my knee-jerk would be 100% yes. Yeah. It, you know, but do we need to do that? Do we need to spend money on marketing? So, I literally heard the coach say to me, "Say no to the things you would say yes to." Yeah. Ah, so I bit down on like that

piece of wood like in the movies where you got to take out the bullet, you know, uh because you're running from someone. And I just I bit down. I said, "No, Hannah, we will not spend money on marketing." Even though everything in me was like, "Yes, I like to spend money. I know you don't. Um but I like to spend money." And but I feel like the Lord is teaching us. So what the coach has been teaching me is you're still running this church like a church plant. Yeah. So, uh, don't be a tornado, be a hurricane. So, that's that's my What's the difference between a tornado and a hurricane? Well, let's talk through this. What do you think is I don't know. I actually don't know. One one happens quickly. Okay. And it's unexpected. That's the tornado. It's quick. It's a tornado. And a hurricane is predictable.

A hurricane is Yeah. It's It's the same force, but it's slower. It's It's broader. It's bigger. It's a bigger effect, you know, and it's longerlasting. So, it's just thinking differently. It's okay. It's the way God wired me to be a tornado, but uh unfortunately, you come in and the destruction is quick and it's it's often misunderstood, you know, where as you said, uh hurricanes are predictable. Look, here it comes. Let's plan for this. Tornadoes, you don't plan for. It's like, get in your basement now. You know, whereas hurricanes is, hey, it hurricanes, you know, like in Florida, you see them like, you know, putting wood up on the windows and it's like beautiful blue sky and, you know, looks good, but they know in

two or three days this thing's coming. A tornado, you don't you don't got time to do that. You know, it just rips the roof off and you know, you're takes the cows and the cars away and Yeah. I So that that's what my coach is trying to teach me. Yeah. God made you this way and that's okay. He doesn't make mistakes, right? But we've got to stop being a tornado. Yes. Stop or be just take the same force and be more methodical. Yeah. Be be more intentional. Yeah. With your energy, your time. And so I'm I'm trying. It's a a little bit of a um a learning curve. But even as I get hard on myself, I've had just some people more mature than me the past few weeks tell me, "Man, don't be so hard on yourself. what God's doing. The journey is amazing.

Let's tell some stories. I totally agree. Yeah, I Where do we start? So, one of them was that financial miracle at another church. Yeah. That I just am believing here that God's going to do miracle. You guys haven't counted the offering yet. So, uh we might in the new year say, "By the way, remember that podcast? Do you remember that God did it?" So, I'm going to believe God did it. Uh I I would say yesterday was to me uh yesterday was Sunday. Today's Monday. It's holy hangover day. It's why you want to take a nap. you did your women's event on Friday night, which that's why it's like we're just running out of pace right now. It's crazy. But yesterday we did our second Sunday of three services. And uh I would say for me it's it's always the miracle of salvation. We always have someone getting saved.

And our third service, like I would say our rhythm yesterday was better than the first Sunday doing that. So I I do think we're going to get better and better. And going into the third service, you know, it's the smallest attended of the three, but I had more energy than I did the previous week. More clarity. Yeah. And I wasn't expecting so many people to get saved at the third service. At the third service. And so my Pretty cool. My heart was so encouraged because the previous service, I think, was our largest service of the day. And there was only two people that got saved and and I was sharing that story with the Murphy's who led growth track all three services. And I I I'd made that comment like only two people got saved and Linda is like two people got saved at that service like don't that's something to celebrate.

Yeah. Don't ever let that be little, you know, like that that's so just because more people got saved at one service doesn't mean that that's insignificant, you know. And just to think back at the story of Billy Graham and the evangelist that saved him here, Billy Graham is a teenager that showed up at a tent crusade and I I'm totally blanking. And someone can Google the story if you would like to see it. Whoever it was that that was the evangelist, he wrote down in his journal, "The crusade was a failure today. Only one soul got saved and it was Billy Graham. It was a teenager named Billy Graham." That's so cool. And it's just like they reminded me of that, you know, yesterday is like, "Who cares who it is?" Because if it's the right person at the right time and they got rescued from hell, like just the stories of what God's done this year has just been so

stinking cool. And so one of the stories I shared at two of the three services yesterday, Kara, was a woman that came and introduced herself at the first at the first service 8:30 a.m. She came and introduced herself and she's she said, "My name is Marcella. And I I I want to introduce myself. My husband's an inmate at Deeridge, and I wanted to give a gift to you that he tried to give to the church. Um, but he couldn't give it because I was at the prison a few weeks ago. this prisoner, his name's Chris. He tried to give me a gift, but they you're not allowed to take out gifts from the prison. So, I was so disappointed because the officer wouldn't let me. The prison wouldn't let me. I wanted to steal it. Um, but uh our outreach pastor Noah is like, "No, Keith, we can't do this." You know, I'm like, "That's the no." You I'm like, "We can do this." Like I was

like, "We we can do this. It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission." This is what your coach is teaching you. Yeah. And he's like, "No, I'm really trying hard to build this relationship where and I'm like, "All right." So everything in me I was like, so we left it there. And so she's like, "My husband," and I knew exactly who he was. And so he does art and he is a great artist. And he accidentally stumbled upon this this method of art where he was almost done. He was like completing this art and he had coffee and it spilled on the art and he was so mad. And so he took a Q-tip and he tried to clean up that art and it created this really cool um style on this piece of art. So since then he just makes tons of art. And so actually I have it with me here.

She brought me this art because she was able to get it out and bring it to us. And so let me just show you. I got to grab it. So this is the art piece she delivered to us. And this is completely made 100% from coffee and cream and creamer. No paint, no pencil, no pens, just coffee creamer. Yeah. And coffee. It's amazing. I mean, I smell it. It's Colombian coffee. And in fact, when you put your fingers on it yesterday holding it, it melted in my fingertips. And so, this was his gift to Journey Church. And it wasn't just a gift for a gift's sake. is because his life has been changed. Yeah. Right. From disciplehip. Yeah.

In Deer Ridge Correctional Institute in this prison. We brought Rooted into the prison. Yeah. We've and he went through Rooted and his wife shared with me that he had tried some of the traditional Bible studies from other pastors, chaplain's churches, and it was just like the the legalism. It's like it's a real turnoff to some of those prisoners. You know, it's like it's a it's a good idea in heart. But some churches and pastors go into this and they don't realize these guys need grace. Yeah. They need to understand that God's not done with their story, you know, like they might be broken, but God can use that brokenness for good. And so, he went through Rooted. His life was changed. And I mean, he just shared all these guys that went into the prisons, uh, Joe, uh, uh, Mike and just some of

the others just weekly coming in doing Rooted, and he just shared his his life was changed. And now out of this multiple Bible studies, multiple Bible studies are happening throughout the week and Journey's going in and we do a service on Sunday. So anyways, I just just to show what God's doing through Journey Church in the prisons. She delivered this. She came all the way from Vancouver, Washington. Wow. To come to church to deliver this to us. And I was just so so blessed by this how the impact it's this ripple effect. one guy goes in or multiple guys go in and just they impact one person. She was just telling me the impact that's making on their marriage and their family. She's like, "We're counting down. He gets out in seven months." She's like, "That's nothing compared to how long his tenure is going into this." And just

thinking like we have made an impact. And I I told her like, "We're praying for you." And I I was pleading the blood of Jesus over her life and her marriage and the hope that she has, the spark in her eyes, like just awesome. It's been our dream to go into prisons and God keeps doing more. He continues to do more. And it's cool because I I was actually um at the prison that night when he gave that to us uh as a church and uh believing Yeah. God's best moving forward. So, uh just really cool stories. Cool. Uh share a story of the women's event. you uh you told me a woman that came to the women's event got saved at it. Oh yeah. No, she got saved on Sunday.

Okay. She came up and talked to you. Okay. She came with a friend, someone from the church invited her and had a good time and came back on Sunday and then she was sat in the front row and raised her hand and then she came and you prayed for her, right? She got saved. Yes. Yeah. She got saved. So her first time at Journey Church was at an event. Yeah. I mean that that was her introduction to the to the church was not uh not through a normal means. It was on a Friday night. I love that about our church. It's like we're willing to reach people Jesus would reach. This is not your orthodox, you know, church. Yeah. Uh it's a messy, beautiful, wonderful uh it's it's it's awesome. It's why we got to fight for this. Yeah. And it was so cool. She she got saved and she was actually it was the second service. One of two people. Yeah. I saw her front row.

Yeah. One guy in the back. It was a young man. Yeah. And then she raised her hand. One of two people. And she her life was changed. She was ready to dive in. I mean, she was she was she was ready to go all in. And I was like, "Oh, let's settle down. Like, let's this is so good. I'm so glad I started and I prayed with her and then said, "Well, just take one step at a time. You know, let's go to baptism. Let's get you discipled. Let's let's take one step. Let's figure out what this whole thing is." Like, this is not the end. You've just started the journey. Amen. And you know what my uh coach also told me? Tell me if you agree with this. He said, "There there's a a myth to life that it's a marathon." He's like, "I don't agree that it's a marathon. Life is a sprint. So, it's filled with

sprints. You sprint, then you gota you got to rest. You just can't keep sprinting. He's like, so don't think it's a marathon. Yeah. You know, it's not just this like unlimited race that just doesn't stop. You know, it's like it's a sprint, take a rest. It's a rhythm of sprint and then take a rest. Well, that's kind of the rhythm of God, isn't it? Like he calls us to Sabbath. Like that's a good word. I mean, I Yeah. So, I would totally agree like God's God's ways and his rhythms are perfect. Yes. And he he set for us a a a rhythm of working six days and you know and sabbathing or resting on the seventh day and he will provide for us. You look at the what he did um you know with with the Israelites and like like commanding rest and like if

you if you try and collect the mana Yeah. for the next day Yeah. for the next day it's going to rot. It's a good word car. Um but uh but I will provide for you on the Sabbath day. And um and it won't rot that day. We've been learning a lot about that the last few years. Yeah. I learned it through the school of hard knock. Yes. And Yeah. And we we took a an extended Sabbath, a sabbatical that changed our lives. But it was through that rhythm that we really started understanding our Jewish roots more. We're not biologically Jewish, but through our faith, the Judeo principles of the Old Testament scriptures that they're true. They hold fast still. They they they hold to every generation that God desires for us. And I'd say we're still rewiring decades and decades of really poor, you know.

Yeah. Because we both, you know, we're just kind of hustlers, right? So, we work and we work and we work until we um until really got taken out and realized that um that maybe God is who he says he is and and his word is true and perfect and good. Yeah. I think the devil's intention is to destroy everyone. Yeah. And he he'll even do it through subtle means. He'll do it if you're if you love the Lord, he'll do it through burnout of serving the Lord. Yeah. If you don't love the Lord, just naivity and ignorance will drive you to the ground and not even realize God loves you. He's got a good plan for you. Yeah. It's it's sweet. Uh couple days ago, I I took a a young man uh not even a young man yet. He's a tween. He's a 12-year-old. Uh I I took him out uh for the afternoon. I just it was spontaneous. I actually came into town to run some errands. I told you G, I got

to go do some shopping and I came to actually get some shopping for me and I hate shopping. So I thought to myself, you know, I've had this you this this boy on my heart for a while. He's the sweetest kid. I mean, a salt of the earth boy whenever we have it's Sunday at prayer time, 7:30 a.m. He's at church, right? And I open the mic up for the church to pray and he's right up there praying. Do you remember what he prayed at all? like he was praying just but I remember his prayer. It was sweet. It was like if I remember I'm going to say it cuz it was just he's he's a prayer warrior. Yeah. We've had him pray on the platform on Sundays. I mean he's just engaged and involved. I mean he served in our kids even though he's 12. I mean I mean he is he's a great kid. Yeah. And I feel like he's one of those kids that could often be overlooked. So, I texted his mom and said, "Hey, uh, is is he available for me to pick

up?" And she's like, "Of course." And I said, "Okay, I'm going to take him out." So, I took him out and we had been given a gift card for um Nike for from someone. And uh so I went and I took him to the Nike store and I said, "Hey, whatever shoes you want to buy, they're yours." He looked at me like he was scared to death. Like, okay. you know, we went in and I mean, I could tell he was nervous, you know, he's like, you know, I was like, just try on any pairs you want. Like, any pair you want is your don't look even think about the price, you know, they're they're yours, you know, and uh so he picks a pair out and he wore them to church yesterday. I know they were super sweet. He wore them to church and his mom and dad both have text me. He's just like, "Thank He won't stop talking

about his time with you. But then uh afterwards uh he's like, "Can we go to lunch?" And I was like, "Of course. Where do you want to go to lunch?" And he's like, "Sushi?" I'm like, "You hate sushi?" Yeah. I was like, "All right, we can go to sushi." I was like, "I don't like sushi, but my family likes sushi." So, and he's like, "Well, we don't have to do sushi." I was like, "No, there's always something for me at sushi. I'll get teriyak something or whatever." So, I took him to the place right by the Nike place. It's kind of a hole in the wall. It's super expensive sushi place. Um, but I took him there. Um, and and that was a long leadup to the reason why is this little boy, he's he's got a wise soul. You know, he's only 12, but he asked me, he's like, do you celebrate Jewish feasts and festivals? I was like, what 12-year-old ask?

Well, I think his family does, of course. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he has he has Messianic roots with on his uh father's side his his his paternal grandparents celebrate all of them. In fact, they've given us a Jewish Bible before. And so he was asking me, I said, you know, not really. Um I said, I appreciate them. I love them. I said, I'm learning them. It's not to say I won't do them more. And you know, Hanukkah started last night. And I said, I was aware of it. And I said, "Man, we've been down to the old mill when the Jewish um you know, synagogues celebrate it here locally in Bend." But I said, "So, I'm learning more." I didn't even know what Hanukkah was 5 years ago. Didn't even know about it. Yet, historically, it's beautiful. God's provision and uh with with the Mcabes and um restoring back a temple when pagan

uh emperors sought to desecrate, you know, the the holiest place. And so I said, "I'm learning and growing." Um, so I I only bring that back to say I do think uh tragically over the years the Christian church has lost some of the great rhythms that God's Yeah. Right. Absolutely. created Absolutely. I totally agree. Instilled. You know, even like reading through the book of Esther and Purum, you know, I think Christians just we read it, it becomes knowledge, but it doesn't sink into like wait a second. Yeah. You know, Satan has tried to annihilate the Jews. Yes. Every generation. Yes. He wants He's doing it now. Yeah. You know, just this weekend, you know, it was horrific. There was uh an attack in Sydney, Australia, uh just this weekend where Did you watch

Oh, wow. So for the celebration of Hanukkah, uh there was a hundreds of Jews on the beach and a terrorist uh shot into all these Jews and I think 12 people died. More than 20 I think were shot. And you know what's crazy about this story is a 43-year-old Muslim man is the one that interrupted the whole thing. He went and uh tackled the the shooter. Wow. And stole the gun from him. I mean, there's actually there's, if you watch the footage of this, it's all nuts because he took the gun from him and the gunman didn't know what to do. He didn't really run. It was really weird. So, a Muslim guy stopped the shooting from Yeah. this mass murder of the Jews. Wow.

And we've seen it over and over with with Jouri supporting Israel unlike anything we've done before. Really, the last 2, three years, we've been more public and vocal. We love Israel. We support Israel. We love the Jewish people. This isn't political. This is biblical. This is God's plan for history. This He made a promise and a covenant with Abraham. I will bless those who bless you. I'll curse those who curse you. This is just the promise for that land and for the people. And you see Satan hate it. Yeah. We saw it the last few weeks with the intimidation of a pagan group in Central Oregon that tried to come against me, tried to come against Journey. Oh, they love Israel. They're even going to go to Israel next year. That was what was promoted on social media. Yeah. It's just it's nuts. Like what's your problem? Well, the problem is that Satan hates the Jews.

He hates Israel because of God's people. Yes. And I would just say I think the enemy would have loved if we stayed in naivity and ignorance of God's plan and purposes. But he's bringing to our awakening as lead pastors, as a church, as believers in Jesus, Yeshua Hamashiach, that is the Messiah for all people. First to the Jew and also to the Gentile. That's to all of us. And so it's just it's it is powerful to get into his word. And uh this this year's been good. I mean, going to Israel myself awakened my life to the Holy Land. I always knew I wanted to go. Yeah. But now I I'm bringing it to the church. We're going in 2026. It's going to be absolutely incredible. It's going to be life-changing for our church. I can see it becoming almost like an annual, you know, uh uh what's

that called? Not journey. Um uh trip. No, I was going to think much more spiritual word. Um, uh, yeah, if I think of it, I'm gonna tradition. Nope. It's way more holy and like, uh, pilgrimage. Thank you. Pilgrimage. Uh, thank you, Hannah. Pilgrimage. So, uh, we're going to make this an annual pilgrimage to to the Holy Land. I can't wait to go until Christ returns because he is returning to Zion. He's returning to Jerusalem, right? That is right in the heart of Jerusalem. And when you go and you see, oh, he was crucified here. He was buried here. And he promised to return right here. Yeah. And to go to the place where he prayed and to see trees that are 2,000 years old. Crazy. Olive trees. Yeah. It is. It's crazy. It's like, wait, wait, wait.

This is real. Yeah. This Don't just read. It's not just stories. It's not just historical stories. Oh, this happened. No, no, no. This is real. It happened and it's going to happen again. Yep. Amen. I'm going through Revelation coming to the conclusion of my annual uh Bible in a year and and I think Revelation 10 or 11 where uh John writes about the two prophets in the streets of Jerusalem and they will prophesy and fire is going to come out of their mouth. Yeah. Don't know what that means, but they will eventually be killed on the streets of Jerusalem and it says the whole world will watch. Well, we're at a time now where that could happen. It could be streamed with a high death where the whole world watches and they actually make it a holiday where they actually exchange presents. It says in the scriptures, then God resurrects them. And I I say resurrects. I don't I I'm a little torn.

Did Did he resuscitate them or resurrect them? Because he then calls them into heaven. They don't die again. You know, uh like Elijah, they get taken up into heaven. And so just to see this is real. This is going to happen. Yeah. And you know then to go onto the streets of Jerusalem be like is this going to happen somewhere here? You know this is kind of a trip to see you know to be a part of um even that tragic massacre that it sounds like you didn't hear about that happened yesterday. Um a lot of it like I mean there's even a picture of someone who was shot who took an image of himself and put it on social media right away just in case he died. This is what happened. You know like tell our story. Yeah, you know, the enemy did it with, you know, the Jews in Holocaust. He's still trying to do it again and uh over and over and over again. Um just just wild. So, uh looking back, we

got 2025. Kara, just tell me what was the highlight this year for you. Oh gosh. Uh we we look back, we got wins, we got losses, we got highs, we got lows. Um it's been a whirlwind of a year. Yeah. But it's been incredible. We highest attendance. We it's just been really fun. We've added to our team. You and I have talked about the first thing we'll do if we pay off our debt is add more to our team. Totally. We're running hard right now. Creative programming side, operations facility side. I mean, uh, Callie who's in the room, she's doing like six jobs right now. Um, I keep promising Hannah more people with her. I mean, we're just we're crushing it right now, but we're burning on both ends. Um, so let just give it to me. I think for me um maybe just the um the

testimonies and the uh how God has moved and worked. I would say specifically at pursuit nights this year. Praise God. Um I mean I things been in the presence of things. I've I've felt the presence of the Lord more probably this year than ever. Um Amen. And the our pursuit nights have been powerful and like yeah I like I really I've said it quite a few times and I it probably came from you I don't know but like as the prayer meeting goes so goes the church and like that's that's the that's the prophetic vision that I see. Yeah. Moving forward from here is that we're not going that's not going to stop. That's actually just going to increase and and like like this church is a house of prayer. It is that's what God calls his church to be.

And um and with a house of prayer comes house of comes a house of miracle. Let's go um comes salvations which is the ultimate miracle of all. So um I I'm very thankful for what God's done specifically through pursuit nights and I'm looking forward towards 2026 and what uh the increase that's going to continue to happen there. Yeah. I want to just prophesy that with you moving forward that God has begun a really good work and where we can't let go of what God's done in 2025. We went from January where we're we're seeing lesbians get on their knees in their house, repent, run to God, get baptized, then start serving at a church. We we we see this radical transformation happening. And how can we settle down when we've called forth revival? Central Oregon shall be saved.

And you quoted from Charles Spurgeon, who's known as the prince of preachers in history. Oh, is that where that quote comes from? Yes. And Okay. And he he preached at a time when they didn't have live streaming. They didn't have uh haze machines and LED walls, but people were drawn to the preaching of God's word. And he was on to something. He was willing to stand forth. And other churches, the spirit of religion in his day, because demons don't change, but times do. And they're the same spirit of religion exists today that wants to to criticize, condemn, uh try to say all these type of things, which that still happens today in the church. We we see it in our region that spirit of religion is alive. Oh yeah. But I'll tell you revival breaks through past you know contentious uh criticism.

And that prayer meeting has increased has dramatically uh increased and and we have seen cancer disappear. Uh I we had the guy that told me just two weeks ago that his tumor disappeared. His mom had a medical emergency at church, you know, and yeah, yesterday. And I I just I look at just like just the parallel of the physical realm and the spiritual realm. And it's like as signs and wonders increases uh so does the the natural uh negative things. Yep. Cuz you know Charles Spurgeon, he went through his own hell. I mean, people came against him and they one time people came into a a packed meeting, 3,000 people and and yelled fire when there was no fire and there was a stampede and I don't remember how many people died but there was a number of people that died and that weighed on his soul. I I I

remember he went through depression where deep depression of his own soul like did I cause this? Is this because of me? And that that's what I meant by starting this podcast off. It is a fight. And so I just want to stand with you and say I love what's happening at Pursuits. It's like no matter what week happens, I go into it so tired and say, "I'm not sure I want to do this." And then by the end of it driving home like, "God, these are the best." Yeah. It's like this prayer meeting on Sunday mornings. It's just the best. Yeah. Um there's just nothing quite like being in the presence of God. And there it's just there's healing that happens that doesn't happen anywhere else. Yeah. Um, and we saw kids like on their knees and faces at pursuit nights. I mean, I will capture some of those memories. It's like we are getting we are tasting revival. Yeah.

And God's not done. This is this is our, as we've said on this podcast, our Jesus revolution. Yeah. Massive amounts of people getting saved. I mean, we've been able to this year support so many church plants financially. You know, we've supported one in Colorado. We've supported one in Santa Barbara, California, a lifegiving church that's just starting to do these worship nights that are filling up to over capacity. Uh we've supported our local churches financially. I mean, we just come alongside and I I believe what we're seeing is when we get our eyes off ourselves, we we are united as a church, God's going to rock it. And revival is here. I'm speaking that forth in 2026 that yeah, whoever would watch this in history, if it's if we get to taste and see.

Yeah. In our lifetime, we will get to say we believed it. We saw it and and the best is yet to come. Yes. And he's giving it. He asks and you shall receive. Where we saw a thousand salvations in 2025, we will see thousands in 2026. Amen. Where we saw hundreds of baptisms, we will see thousands of baptisms. Amen. and we will believe God's best. Yeah, I will tell you, I'm looking forward to 2026. We got some fun uh worship uh leaders coming. Uh we we got some songwriting coming. I believe our music is going to hit Spotify and Apple. I'm believing that a sound is going to come out of this revival. Amen. And it's not going to be a contemporary sound for uh entertainment sake.

It's going to be a sound that comes out of revival. And uh I'm going to lay a stake in that and say here it comes. Yeah. Amen. I'm believing our debt's going to be paid off. Uh I'm believing we're going to start a campaign out of faith that is too big. That's way bigger than us. Way bigger. But why would we not ask, right? And believe that God could do more than we ask. He could do more. Yeah. So let's believe it. Let's believe it. I agree. What's What's been a highlight of your 2025? I would agree with you on what you said about pursuit. and uh just reaching the capacity of our church and seeing just where our numbers are. I've just been humbled. Yeah. You know, we've crossed a threshold where if you look at a weekly attendance, you know, it's like the threshold of what they call mega church.

And I didn't know if we would ever get there, but I knew like once we went to third service, we'd crush that. And I think going into 2026, it's like I I've never desired to be megaurch. I've never desired to have a platform or a name. And nor are we in the nation. It's not like people are like, "Oh, I want to follow Pastor Keith at Journey Church in Bend, Oregon." That's not the case. But I do think we're making such a kingdom impact that in my soul, I've been so satisfied this year. Like, we've talked about this on the podcast. Like, I I don't know if Bend is the place I would want to live, desiring like weather and all those kind of things, but we're called here. I feel like I'm a missionary here. God sent us here. I can't leave from it because my anointing and calling is here. So until God calls me out of it, but my prayer has always been then Lord, if you're going to have me in a place that I don't want to be, it's not that I don't want to be in bend, but like weatherwise and things like that, I want to do something bigger than me. I don't want to do something ordinary.

And I feel like this year we've been doing that. And the opposition that's come against us, I mean, it's been bigger this year than ever before. And yet my courage going into it, my sobriety going into it, the spiritual war going into it, I I it's been awesome. Like I'm really So my highlight has just been witnessing what God's doing. We've we've said yes. Yeah. God's shown up and he's given us his best. And I agree. I even think about like this is just um like logistical physical things because I I was a part of it. But even just building out Journey Kids Church, come on. We did it in a space that we've been renting for I don't even know how many years. Three years. Yeah. That just sat there really as storage, an old warehouse. and and we finally got that thing built out this year and um got filled to capacity.

Yeah. Immediately. And it's just it's just such a cool picture of it's it's t you talk about things that we see in the physical that are um happening in the spiritual too, but it's a physical picture of what's God's doing in the spiritual realm here. It's there's expansion happening. Let's go. Uh the the kingdom is expanding in the end. And that's just a a visual of that. And then more recently, we got to build out um we got to actually undo the kids min the old kids ministry. We knocked down walls we had put up and Yeah. And so now we have a a big huge youth room that we're chapel that um we started a middle school service that like and it's it's going well and we're going to have youth group there and like Yeah, we've we've had two services and it's already grown in two weeks. So yeah. So just what like just being able to even open up that space and just expand middle school church. Yeah. the the footprint of this church to me is a

physical picture of what God is doing in the spiritual realm here. Yeah. And I I still think he's just getting started. Like there's this is just the beginning. I I and I want to just add to what you're saying. That's what I meant like by my faith being encouraged by the San Diego church. Yeah. Is because it it can be discouraging to do things that are bigger than you until you recount what God keeps doing. Yeah. And and when when we get to a ceiling of growth and we knock down a wall and it's like I don't know how we're going to pay for this. God shows up every time. It has every time. Every time. And and that's this year has been a living testimony that it has. And he's even tested us financially. Yeah. Where it hasn't been an abundance or an overflow. No. It's like, oh, but it's just enough. Just enough. We've got just enough.

Has been that mana, you know, where it's like God has provided. Our shoes have not been worn and it's been good. But that space is opening, kids. Yeah. And we paid that off. We didn't go into debt. And I remember there was a few times like, should we take a loan for this? But it's like, no, God provided. It's been good with the right team at the right time. He keeps providing the right people. So good. So good. So good. Well, it's going to be amazing. Uh we are going to take a break until the new year with Confessions of a Pastor, but I know God's going to work in the meantime, and we will have some stories because we're going to have New Year's worship. We've never done that before. where Journey's going to worship to leave the year going into the new year. Uh we've got Christmas Eve coming up. You think we need more services? I think we're fine. So, we're going to Well, I mean, we're going to testify. We'll see. We'll see what God does. We We'll see.

I think our parking is going to be an issue. Yeah, it always is an issue. Uh but we got some really good things coming up and I'm looking forward to it. I'm believing for a $4.6 million miracle before the end of the year. Don't know where it's going to come from. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But I want to just step out in faith and say, "Lord, would you give it to us?" That's the amount of our debt that gets paid for. Now we go go forward. Yeah. Debtree into a campaign to raise tens of millions. When do you see starting the campaign? 2026. Yeah. Here it goes. Kingdom come, everybody. We are going to be praying God's kingdom come. This this theme and vision for 2026 is going to radically shape our church. Amen. Radically. Not some people, but if you're part of Journey Church, the impact like like a stamp going on a piece of paper is going to make an impact on every heart in this church.

Kingdom come. If not, they're going to have to find a new church cuz God's about to rock our church. So, it's going to be good. Uh, love like Jesus, I think, rocked us in a spiritual maturity unlike anything before. I've I've really enjoyed that theme. I think it's it was a year of even just like um just getting back to like the heart of Jesus and like um the heart of God and what it looks like to actually be disciple and and a believer and if we don't have love we can do we can do as much good as we think we're doing but if it doesn't have love it's worthless you know so that's the truth and I it goes back to being a mega church like I don't want to be a mega church I want to be a church that loves like Jesus and that means we care for the lost absolutely you know we make disciples We we go do what Jesus would do.

Yes. We're going to be in more prisons. We're going to see and experience more. Yeah. Love it. It's going to be amazing. So good. So good. Well, uh it's been a good time talking to you and uh it's been a great time doing this podcast. I want to thank all those who have helped make this video podcast possible to Callie and Hannah and just the crew um that's starting to put this together. This is just the beginning of greater things testifying to the goodness of God. And it it is good, but sometimes there's bad things. Sometimes there's ugly. And at the end of the day, we want to give God all the glory. He does. Amen. We take him at his word. Romans 8:28. He does work all things together. He does. Uh for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. And we're just called for such a time as this. This is our Esther moment to uh radically save a generation. Yeah.

To call them up and say, "Satan does not get the final say. We've got victory in Jesus Christ." So, hey, we are grateful for those of you who are watching. Uh I I want to just throw out there, Kara, if there's a subject matter you want to hear Kara and I talk about. If there's something you're wondering what in the world Yeah. in marriage, family, church, this is our chance to be vulnerable, real, raw, only to our listeners. I mean, this is reality. We're going to say things in this podcast we may not say on the platform on a Sunday, but we will say it in this podcast. So, if you have a subject matter in 2026 on the next season of Confessions of Pastor, would you email us, DM us, text message us, get the word out to us? What subjects do you want to hear? Yeah. Is it on marriage? Is it in family, finances? Uh, what do you want to hear from us? And, uh, whatever we hear the most of, we'll talk about.

That's what we'll talk about. We'll even open up your questions and say it. And I know a few of you have done that before. We've done that in previous podcasts, but it was before the video. man, now that we have video, a different it's a whole different thing and we're on video and audio and all those good things, but I would just say that would be fun going in the next year. And uh Amen, too. So, here we go. So, thank you. Uh let's pray. Yeah. Heavenly Father, we love you. We bless you. We thank you so much for what you've done at Journey Church, not only in 2025, but our history. And as we step into our 16th year, we just say in the name of Jesus, would you do more more not just uh in our lives, we say for every listener, for every person that takes you serious, we are praying for a great awakening, a revival that God, your Holy Spirit would move mightily, a fire would sweep our land, not just in

America, but to all the nations of the world. We declaring in Jesus name, it's going to happen in our lifetime in the churches that we're a part of that we get to see you work greatly. We love you. Thank you for these testimonies today, God. And thank you for our listeners. Empower them. Anoint them with your Holy Spirit that God, they would be equipped to do your good work in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Well, God bless you all. Until next time, peace.