Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston Proper. You are live from the Path.

And you're listening to live from the path on livefromthepath.org. How's everybody doing? How's everybody doing tonight? I'm doing fantastic. I'm doing good. Pretty good myself. I like I like the enthusiasm of this crowd tonight. I feel like everybody's everybody's uptown. Everybody's hanging. Everybody's happy. I feel like he's over the top. Okay. Dance Dance, he says too much. He can't take much more than that. It's

too much enthusiasm. I feel like I need some coffee. Yeah. Okay. I don't drink coffee. Okay, Dan. Thanks. You're listening to Life From The Path on life from thepath.org. We got I like to call it it a a sling blade of a show for you. I'm not even gonna expound on that. You just you just take that for what it's worth. But here's what we're gonna talk about. There was an article put out. I haven't done much of the research about it. I've just read the article and thought I'd give you our opinions on it cause that's the way the show operates. So but it's basically an article called why you should stop going to church. It's time to time to bail. What is it? Ouch. And

well, so we're gonna Who who put this I mean, is it coming from a Christian perspective, a non Christian perspective? It's coming from a a Christian perspective. Okay. Gotcha. So we're gonna talk about that. Well, Buva's also got some post style advice. He he's he's hinting that it might be a bit heavy. Indeed. It should be interesting. I'm I try and stray away from the the heavy ones a little bit. I'm trying to the whole positive. Happy go lucky ones, but this one's gonna be a little less happy go lucky and a little more weighing on your heart. Ouch. I will be the counterpoint with the positive up turning spin. And it's gonna feel weird for all of us. I will have a box of Kleenex ready. We also have some dear life from the past ready, and we're also joined in studio by a special guest, Tessa Lugo. Tessa, how are you doing this evening? I'm good. How about yourself, Mike? I'm here's what I'm looking forward to. I'm looking I'm looking forward to a a female perspective on some of this Dear Life of the Path advice.

Yeah. We kinda we we we we are not strong always on the feminine perspective. Sometimes we're like guys in a locker room going, kink them. Thanks, Dan. Got it.

So thank you very much for joining us. We're looking forward to spending the evening with you. And we're gonna we're gonna go ahead and get fired right up here. And so here's the article. The article's I originally found it on First Love Ministries. It was sent to me by somebody. And it's it's kinda long. So I'm gonna try to truncate this down a little bit. So I'm gonna go ahead and fire up. It's called Why You Should Stop Going to Church. You shouldn't be going to church. Surprised? Well, mean it. Our culture has completely misunderstood what it means to be a follower of Jesus because of this common practice. It is hurtful, it is unfruitful, and it's just plain unbiblical.

What I mean is this, when our culture talks about church, they're talking about a place or an obligation. It's part of our vocabulary. People say, what church do you go to? And we reply, oh, the big brick one on fourth you know, with the cross on top. We've come to measure our devotion to God by how often we step into a building we call church. We go to church. And there are all sorts of wrongs that flow from that practice. Here are just a few. One, if you go to church, you'll think that that place is a Christian's purpose. You'll measure yours and others devotion to God by how often they show up to a building. If someone stops showing up, you'll assume they've fallen away. If your life gets busy and you miss a couple Sundays, you'll feel like you failed as a Christian. If bad things happen in your life, your theology will tell you, maybe if I would, I would have been going to church, this wouldn't have happened. And then you'll promise to make up for it by going back. Two, if you go to church, you'll get into the habit of checking God off your to do list. You'll start having a I did my time attitude toward God. You'll think that as long as you show up and the preacher seems happy that you're there, then you did your God time. This caused you to be completely okay with not spending an ounce of time with him in your actual life. Your Bible can collect dust and you can go all week without praying, but you did your time on Sunday, so it's okay. Did you know that God loves you and wants a relationship with you? That that when you draw close to him, he reveals more and more about your heart and you become yourself? It's so beautiful and we're missing it because we did our time on Sunday. Three, if you go to church, you'll rarely serve the elderly, visit the sick, or comfort a widow because that's the leadership's responsibility.

Whoo. I like this. It's their job. Right? That's what they get paid for even if they are volunteers. They volunteer to do this stuff. You look at the visits, youth, children, mission reports, and instantly blame the leadership if these things are not being done enough, all while being content with your simple Sunday attendance. Did you know that you don't pay church staff to do ministry? I mean, they do ministry, but that's not what you pay them for. You pay church staff to organize ministries, offer opportunities for ministries, and through the worship services and messages, inspire the people in the church to do the ministries. You pay them to do specific counseling and services like weddings and funerals, or use their talents in music. So when the Bible talks about the church, it is talking about a community of believers. It's not talking about a house or a building. It really, really never is. The Greek word for church is ekklesia,

which means congregation, assembly, a group of people gathered together. In the New Testament, the word church is never, I repeat, never a building or a place. It's always a group of people. It's used to describe a body of believers in a certain area, like the church in Corinth, a group that meets in a home in China, whatever. The universal church, it talks about everybody. So let's get this straight really quickly. I do not want you to go to church. I want you to be the church.

Your thoughts, fellas. I agree 100%. I also agree. I think that this is completely hitting hitting the nail on the head when it comes to the common church and the the churches we talked about it today.

I agree entirely when it comes to the fact that the church can become a checkbox. Church is looked at as an hour on Sunday, and then god is checked off. I believe that it is completely on the follower, to avoid this entirely. This is something that needs to be be checked at a personal level

and, and dealt with. Is it is it a problem that it has made its way through tradition, through past, you know, through through experiences that have

led people to not take responsibility for faith? How do we even get here? I think I think it's laziness. I think we have not made disciples. I think this is what it boils down to. It's really this thing that we've been really kind of digesting recently just on I don't know. Some on on the show, but just a lot on on the side too, a lot of conversations is we've not made disciples. We've made people that we entertain. And so we've taught them you come to church and then you leave and you do whatever you want as opposed to you are the church. You are part of the body. You are part of the community. That means you do meet together in gatherings mornings whenever the church meets. But that's not you're not going to church. You are being the church together. That means you are

devoted to the apostles teaching and to prayer and to to the breaking of bread. I mean, all the things that are in acts two that we talk about so so often. And we have have disconnected that somehow, and and we we make a convert. Hey. Now you're saved, and then you do what you want. You can jump through these hoops rather than saying, no. This is how you are a disciple. You do all these things. And and somehow, we've disconnected it from from the process of of being a believer, what a believer is. Do you feel like the like the setup that most of us are striving for, and actually, we're in the kind of the midst of this now, like, of obtaining a church building and and setting up a certain amounts of opportunity for ministry. Like, you're inherently causing some of these problems? You're inherently setting a standard that that is is

counterintuitive, counteractive to the going forth of the gospel? We're giving too much fluff and not enough punch? I think the church as a whole is doing that, for

sure. Be having a building and having a place to come and and, you know, put your butt in a seat and then leave is possibly facilitating some of that. But at the same time, it's on the congregation itself and and not necessarily necessarily just the leaders, but the the hands and feet of the church

to avoid that, to eliminate that. We have hands and feet of the church, and that exactly points to the fact that it's not just a place that you go and sit down. You can't have hands and feet of the church and the body of Christ, which is the church, and be there just to sit. You've that's where the ministries come from. That's where the fruits of the labor comes from, where we as believers are to take, you know, the congregation, the one hour every Sunday that we meet, and then we have it on ourselves to you know, we have our community groups. We have our small groups. We have our individual fellowship with the families we meet with. Mhmm. We have the outreach that we have with ministries working with kids, working with the communities, working with all different kinds of people. Yeah. That building should be a launching pad Right. Not not a resting pad. And and that's kind of where we have allowed ourselves to reverse that a little bit. Yep. Yeah. The whole yeah. It's cliche family. We go to church on Sunday Yeah. And then there's nothing else throughout the week. You know? And if it's a special week, we have a potluck dinner at church building. Yeah. Yeah. We have a gathering on Wednesday Yeah. And that's it. And and, you know, I spend more time at work than I do with God and with my fellowship and with my with my church family and my the congregation itself.

I'm I'm spending more time or less time, you know, doing the hour long church thing to make the checkbox. I'm a believer for the week. I went to church. Now is the so I guess I would submit, like, most of the stories that you hear from third world countries or even even countries where Christianity is not even allowed, you know, you hear very exciting missionary tales that, you know, of of how the gospel is spreading through basic grassroots, no frills,

just talking about the gospel. Are we inherently setting up our own roadblock most of the time? Dan? You you mean through the process of having like a church building and and a place where a service, a church service type thing? Well, yeah. I I guess may maybe have we set have we set an a bar that that we're only meeting because that's what we're used to meeting. Yeah. Not not necessarily that the building is inherently wrong. The chat has has has made made a couple of good points of that. The the building is supposed to be the, you know, the launching pad from where we start. But have we have we taken the idea of what a building is and what a church are are are you feeding are you feeding the hungry for their own ideas? You know, if they they they

want a building and they want a a place of established worship with some history and some culture and and some fortitude to it, and and it's really none of that is what they need. Have we helped create that? Yeah. It seems like we program around the idea of, well, we don't wanna expect too much out of you. But it's it's not our expectation. It has nothing to do with us. Who who who do we think we are? You know, well, we're Pathway Church. We define Christianity. No. We don't. You know, Jesus said, no. I want all of you, every every ounce of you. I want every breath, every step, every moment. You get a community with my body, and that's like not not physical body, the body of Jesus Christ, the church that we're talking about, the the the the community. And it it it should be something that consumes you. It's it's part of how do you separate yourself from it? It's it's we're we're family. You know? And and we have allowed it to not be. We've allowed it to be, like you say, a

service. Yeah. A worship. The church has turned into the building itself. Right. To continue talking about the building itself, we we have been programmed as, you know, a church society. We'll call it that, not necessarily just a secular society. But as a church society, we've been programmed to think the bigger the church, the better the church. The bigger the church building, the better the church. Oh, we see those megachurches and and, you know, not to pinpoint any one of them, but the huge churches that have got, like, you know, thousands upon thousands of square feet and acres. And, you know, they have this facility and this facility, and they must be, you know, really doing God's work. Mhmm. And they must really be doing God's thing because they've got a huge building, and that's not what it's about. Yeah. You know, there were countless sermons that that Jesus did himself that weren't in a building. Yeah. He he found crazy places like a mountain. Yeah. Exactly. A a boat. On the mount, hanging out in in a town square next to a well. Yeah. You know, doing all these different things. He didn't, it talked about, obviously, him going to the synagogues and and doing his thing, but that wasn't the the basis of his ministry. He's walking down the road. Hey. Consider the lilies of the field. I mean, you there they are. They're like, yeah. Let's talk about me. I was gonna say, let's talk about Jesus. It was him. Right.

So yeah. Exactly. You know, we we we've programmed ourselves, I would agree entirely, that the church building, that's the concept. Which is probably laziness, don't you think? Yeah. Oh, absolutely. The generation prior to us maybe I don't know why I didn't study it that closely, church history, this part of church history. But somewhere along the line, it became acceptable to to build a a little building and put us all in in these wood little wood hard things that we sit on and watch the show for an hour Right. Watch the orator, you know, tell us their wisdom rather than I I've always imagined, like, in the first century church, them then huddled in homes and and

corners and wherever they were And just whoever was there is like, hey. This is what I got from god today and and talking talking Jesus. And, there's something organic and pretty exciting about that to me. Yeah. It was a community. It wasn't just, one person standing in front of everybody at the entire time at all times preaching. It was a community of believers who firmly believed in the love of Jesus Christ and the and the blessing we have through him and then went out, you know, calling in the great convention to go make disciples of all nations, baptizing all the in name of the father, the son, the holy spirit. They took that to heart. Whereas now, a lot of Christians forget the whole die daily to yourself and take up your cross daily. You know, we skip that that thought where we're just like, you know, I went to church on Sunday, so I'm all set. I've given my all. Yeah. Exactly. Even you know, I tithed and I went to church. Awesome. You know, I'm never gonna tell you that's a terrible thing. But what else did you do? Yeah. Yeah. What did you on Monday? Where were you Tuesday? How did you live through wait. How did Christ live through you on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, the whole week? We we have allowed an inauthentic

fake Christianity to to exist, and we've taught it. We've created massive We've created it. I'm I'm part the people who did that. I'm a preacher. You know? Now there is a place for preaching, that being said. Right. And and for public preaching and proclamation, you know, and we're not saying that doesn't happen. We're just saying that's that's just the tip of the iceberg Yeah. It's one piece of it. Of what a week looks like for a a Christ follower. Yeah. So I I I guess my main question is is is, how does how does the change get made? Like,

there's there's something obviously, you know, that that that needs to be done. And I'm not saying the building needs to get the boot. You know, maybe the tennis court can get the boot. Oh, but we need that. We have to have the basketball court. It's a ministry outreach. People who swim won't be able to love Jesus if if we can't have this pool here. What about our horse track? We need to have 4,000 parking spaces or Jesus can't work And here's the thing. There's nothing there's there's nothing wrong with building a building that glorifies God. Like, God built his own temple like it Sure. Sure. Was a nice temple. Yeah. It's up pretty alright. It was pretty big. And so there's nothing there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not picking on period architecture. I'm not picking on old Catholic buildings. I'm not picking on whatever building your church currently meets in. Right. Right. I guess I guess the the the main poise of what I'm getting at is is like if we're really trying to push the idea of of to be the church and not go to a church and and and stop attending a church but to be part of the church, you know, can we purvey that idea better besides instituting another program of called class one zero seven, how not to attend church. You know what I'm saying? Like like like, how do you how do you home grow that? How do you how do you get forth that message without creating another pamphlet? I agree with with Dan's original point. It's discipleship. It is not being okay,

on an individual basis of your walk with Christ being the hour on Sunday. We cannot give into that norm. We cannot give into that. As a church body, and I mean not just a church at this place or this place, I'm talking about the body of Christ in general, We need to push past the traditions that we've created of laziness. We do need to become honest disciples,

of the love of Christ. And then from that, we won't have people that are coming just on Sunday. Yeah. You can't have heart on fire for Christ and show up for an hour on Sunday, and that is it. I challenge you to have a heart that is truly on fire for your god and just come on Sunday mornings, and that's it. Don't do any serving. Don't do anything. You come for a donut or a biscuit, whatever. You get your glass of OJ and sit down for an hour. I challenge you to be on fire for god and be able to do that. I can't imagine. It's pretty hard. That's why we have created a generation that that, probably the last twenty years, really, that that they just shift from church to to church and whatever is is providing the best entertainment at that time is is what they're about. And I should say what we're about because I you know, don't wanna make it like you, not me. And every church out there is out there going to conferences to learn how to have a cooler band and a speak cooler or, you know, whatever, more relevant.

And, you know, if I just have a tattoo, that'll be you know, what I mean, it's just Actually, I was thinking about getting a tattoo just so you could be cool for god because I'd like to be more relevant. I I need some cool print T shirts that I can wear on on Sunday mornings. Everybody go, oh, that guy is really cool. He gets it. And, you know, that that's one of the big jokes. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's like, come on. It's we we have neglected it being a life and a a a total transformation

of self, a new creation. We're just, hey. We just want an hour of your week. How long do you wait before you hit them with that? Before they convert. Before they I this is the problem. We've been going for conversions. We've been we've been making sales. Hey. Now you're saved. Now come to church. It's like, no. Here's the deal. You wanna be part of this community. It's a community. Make your do you decide it it means we're not stressing numbers. We're not trying to be the biggest church in town. We're trying to be obedient to Jesus and say, whoever wants to come on this ride, it's hard.

It'll hurt. It's the most challenging thing of your life. If you have the guts, come on. If not, there's a church down the road that'll entertain you. I I it's exactly what I think too. You know, we

not necessarily pointing at one specific church once again, but we have But the Lutherans. It's those guys. Those guys. No. I think that that there there are so many people that are are one of the extremes. You're either 100 lovey dovey, god loves you, and it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be great. You know, you're not gonna have any tour turmoil once you turn to God. That's that's what we preach. Or you're a sinner. You're going to hell. Come to God.

Both of those are true. God gives us joy. God gives us the comfort that he can give us. He doesn't promise us an easy time, but he promises us joy. That's one of the fruits of the spirit. And at the same time, we are promised eternal damnation for our sins, but it's not one or the other. It's gotta be a combination of the two. We need people to realize wholeheartedly that when you come to God, you are going to have to sacrifice things. And when they turn and not convert, but when they actually turn to God and and get a heart for God, it's not a surprise when, oh, wait a minute. This isn't easy.

Right. And then they leave. When they find out that it's not an easy thing. The chat the chat offers up the so the questions that were that were asked on the chat were basically the same that we're asking And and, you know, how does the how does the change happen? And and the chat put forth that it takes repentance and change. Yeah. Repentance and faith, which I I mean, that was John the baptizer's message. That was Jesus' message. That was Paul's message. Who who else do you need to hear it from? That that's a message I have had to to confront myself with in the past year and a half or so. Really looking at I have spent I've been doing this for hold a minute. Twenty nine years. Okay? I've been doing church. And my entire ministry has been an attractional ministry. If you just have the coolest donuts we started out with Krispy Kremes at Pathway, you know, and and we put this so we could put that on the advertising on the mail card that we sent out. Yeah. You know? And we hired in musicians to come in and be cool, a cool band. And we did everything to be cool.

But since I'm not that cool, it didn't turn out all that cool. I was gonna say, Dan, you were the cool one, Britney? There was a problem in that plan. But but what I'm saying is everything was about what will be attractive, you know. And it's like, I've been really confronted lately, but I don't remember Jesus ever doing that. Yeah. It was pretty hard.

I mean He really attracted him when he called out all the pharisees. Right? Yeah. Exactly. You brood of vipers. I mean, he he attracted them by by being god for one thing, but but his authentic and true and no holds barred message of of, hey, you pick up your cross and follow me, you can come. Some of you can't handle it. Why don't you go ahead and leave? And they did. You know? I mean I guess That's been tough for me because I'm, like, I'm still processing that. Well, I mean, I think it's actually kind of a it's it's not like it's a it was a false idea to try to find people who didn't know Jesus and get them to church. Right? But like Right. Like it it almost felt It's lazy.

It it it it is lazy. It's like because I used to do the same thing. I'm like, I I never invited people to a relationship with Jesus Christ. I always invited them to church. Yeah. And and I just thought, I don't know what to do with them, but but the the preacher will handle it from here or one of the old ladies will smile at them and then they'll make friends and and whatever. Like, I there's nothing else I can do. If I just get them in the building, building, God will be happy with me. Right? I've done my job. That's terrible theology, one. That's putting God's love in a real small box. That's taking the responsibility right off me and throwing it on Ethel, who's probably been working on 10 casseroles this week and doing her part of the ministry, you know, and I and I bring another dude in and throw him on Ethel and say, hey, minister to this man. I got him off the street somewhere. Like, that's terrible. That's not that's not personal discipleship and that's that's barely showing love for that guy. Yeah. Right? If I cared enough, it's just like it's just like with your kids. You know, if let's say that that especially, I mean, Dan knows this. You know, you get let's say you're raising a little girl. You could really care less about playing Barbies. You're not interested. But you learn because you love your daughter. Right? The same thing is true when you go talk to a guy about Jesus Christ. You learn about Jesus Christ, not only for your own personal relationship with him, but if you want to tell somebody about him, you better know. You don't just take him to somebody else and go, here, now he's somebody else's problem. You invest in him just like Jesus invested in you and that you've invested in your other relationships and say, here's here's here's where I'm concerned at. Here's where I love you. Here's where Jesus loves you, and here's where we need to we need to do some talking. And I love you too much just to pawn you off on somebody else. Why don't you and I do this? And we can do it now. We can do it later. We can do it over coffee. I don't care. Right? But I love you enough to do this. And it intimidates us because we have not been discipled ourselves so we don't know how to disciple someone else. So so what do you do? You get into the word of God

and start learning. Find someone who's a little further down the in the road than you are and say, hey. Will you teach me what you know? And they'll say, I don't know. You know more than I knew. That's all I know. You know? And you find someone who knows a little more than you do and and start moving forward. By the way, Mike, I talked to Ethel, and she's really sick of you dumping people on her. She just wanted me to tell you that. Yeah. That's a that's a that's I'm working on it. She told me she was going Baptist. She couldn't handle the pressure. She told me specifically, I'm really sick of that Mike Foose bringing people in and then just saying, hey, I brought this guy off the street. Can you take care of can't keep up with the fine. She's got a lot of casseroles to me. Some of the quick suggestions from from the same article said, here's what happens when Christians stop being going to church and be part of a church. One, if you are the church, you'll recognize that following Jesus means doing the things he did. Pick up the cross and follow me. That is not an easy task. That is a big statement. John fourteen twelve will will will give you basically the the entire breadth of what's going on there but it it does mean that. Right? If we if we look at Christ and use him as our example of someone who lived and did not sin, yeah, that's what we're going for. Right? It's inherent in the design. We're gonna fail that, but that's still what we're going for. And so if that's not what you're after and that's not what you're attaining to, if you're just trying to surfboard your way into heaven, you're missing it. You're missing it. You're attend you're going to church. You're not part of the church. It's not what Christ asked us to do.

Two, if you are the church, you'll know the things Jesus did because you will seek him and read about him and talk to him often because you love him. You will meet with him often. You won't just do this on Sunday. Frankly, I do most of my talking with God not on Sunday. Right? Because I've known Christ long enough that I serve on Sunday. That's what I do. And so it's not that I I don't listen to the message. I do. It's not like I don't participate in worship. I do. But, like, you know, I can have a lot of fun with my wife at a Van Halen concert. I have a lot more fun with my life by ourselves when I'm talking to her in our living room because I have a relationship with her, and we're it's it's close. It's intimate. Right? And and the same thing does not happen at Van Halen because one Van Halen is you can't be trusted. You know what I'm saying? Who knows what kind of show they're gonna put out this year when they finally get the lead singer from Heart? Who knows what they got going? But what I'm saying is, like, corporate worship has its place because we all love and adore a a god that has has provided us with with with blessings that we can't count. But frankly, it can't be replaced by a personal relationship.

And and it's it's a good first step if you understand that's your first step, not your last step. Right. Most people make that, you know, that's their they I finally have arrived, and now it's my last that's all I need to do. I've been coming to church for eighty years. I'm okay. Yeah. I like because you move into a community or something and you're like, well, you start getting to know people, like, you know, maybe going to the church service and you start connecting and get serving and doing things. And so yeah. I mean, like you say, it's a it's a central part. It's a good first step,

but you move on. You're listening to life from the path on life fromthepath.org. We got a couple more points we're gonna we're gonna list real quick here. Number one or the number four, what you obviously do is if you are the church, instead of going to church, you will pray for your leaders or participate in the ministries they organize. Here's the deal. This irritated me when I started going to, churches other places. And and and frankly, it happened here a little bit. But, like, people come up with grand schemes. Like, like, we're gonna go feed the homeless. And then they'll call

the pastor or whoever leads their small group and be like, hey. I wanna go lead the homeless. Can you get us some money? Or can you cook some meals for us and then we'll take them down there? And like, you know, I feel like you're missing the point. I got to the range. You can take it down there for us at 06:00. Yeah. Just That's your Why don't you just go do it? Why don't you take another guy that is not the pastor and say, hey, Steve. We're gonna go down there and feed the homeless. You wanna go? Yeah. Should we tell Dan? No? What does it matter? Why do we gotta tell Dan? I don't know. What if can we get a sign that says Pathway Church is doing this? No? Can we just be God's people out helping people? You know what I'm saying? We're not a we're not an advertising agency, and we're we don't need a pitch. We don't need a slogan. We don't need, like, $50 to pats on the back because God's church is doing great things. Here's the deal. We serve an awesome God. So we should be expected to be doing great things. And so if if in fact, if they they walk by and see us not doing great things, I feel like the outgoing public should rebuke us and say, why are you doing great things? You claim to know such a great God. And so, like, I used to do this, but I, you know, I that that really kinda irritates me a little bit when people are like, we should get the church to blah. That's like basically saying, I should blah. You know what I'm saying? You've just taken your own name out of it and sacked it on 10 other guys. Because here's the the the movers and the shakers, the guys that are that'll get get things done, they're already busy doing something else. And so when you come up with 15 ideas and throw them at five guys who are already burdened with everyone else's 30 ideas,

I wouldn't expect a whole lot to get done. And that's what happens. The church gets bogged down. VBS stinks because you didn't wanna take over any part of the ministry. We can't go out and feed the homeless. We can't seem to have traveling missionaries in because no one wants to house them. All these things because no one would raise their hand and say, I am the church. You're right. I'm I'm on this thing, you know. We could use a little more gumption in that area. Let's see. The last thing I think that that if you want if you wanna make this part of your life and it's not just something you wanna let past, here's here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna pray. You're gonna pray for your leaders. You're gonna pray for your church, and you're pray that that that your vision starts to change to the point where you're you're not so much an attender at a church. There's really no such thing as Pathway Church. It's just a way to identify where the mail goes here. That is basically it. So I need I need I need to cancel my I love my church t shirts. Yeah. That needs to go. Yeah. That needs to go. Doesn't every ministry ministry have have to to have have a a fancy fancy t t shirt? Shirt? Man. The chat makes a small point that says perhaps the barrier is the building at the center of the ecosystem instead of Jesus at the center.

It's not intentionally, but it's it's truth. Right? And maybe that's just something for you for for for leaders to keep in mind. Right? That people people are drawn to that. It's not like this decision just happened five years ago. Right? This is this is the way the church you if you read the book of Acts, how the church started, had nothing to do with buildings. So circa here we are two thousand years later and we are very building centric. Right? And it's actually a very careful place that that Pathway Church as attenders here, we're kinda walking into. We've never had a building and it's doing as exciting and and, you know, I think everybody goes into it with it's gonna give us excellent places for it to jump off ministries for Jesus. We can invite people in. We can do all this stuff. But like, if Jesus leaves the center of that, then we end up like everybody we've just railed against for the last half hour. Do you know what I love best about our new building? Oh. It is a beat up, torn up, piece of junk, old, used warehouse that nobody else wanted. And they've been trying to get rid of forever. And they're like, nobody else wants it. Will you take it? I'm like, oh, I guess we'll look at it. And it is a piece of junk. The I mean, there was nothing we we we're gonna be putting lipstick on a pig, and and and we're gonna where and it's something I can't see. How can we possibly fall in love with that building? It's gonna be a launching pad for ministry. Now, Dan, not everyone shares the same idea.

Here's the deal. They just destroyed the building towards me. Because I know this is a barrier for people. Right? I know this is a barrier for people because I've talked to people that attend our church that like, you know, I feel like we could really get moving in the right direction if we had the building. Wrong. And it'll be a great tool. It will. It's a great if we It's keep a great mindset. It's tool. It's a great tool. It's not the whole box. Right. You know what saying? It's not the cabinet where all the tools go. It's launching pad. One of the tools. Right? And so I I I guess and it's not like I'm against the building. Okay? I'm not against the building. Yeah. But, like, it it really has to be just the tool and not the entire cabinet because that's not what it is. And then and sometimes, I I I fear that that and and not a lot of churches I mean, there's churches that go through this, but this is just more relevant for us because we're heading that direction. Most people go to a church that already has a building. But

that's some of the issue too. Look at all the struggles that they don't go through that we that we appreciate when a building shows up. Right? And so, like, they wanna do a fun event. They always know where it's gonna be. It's crapshoot. Is this book? Is this book? Where are we gonna do this? We're going Ranch. We have no idea. Can we go to this place? No one has any idea. Nobody wants us. Anyway, just make sure that your that your church that your church building or your church in general is not where you're attending, but it's something that you're part of. And and and the people say, where do you go to church? And you say, I meet with I I meet with all my friends to talk about God. Here. This is where we go. You know, but it it's not a building. It is not it's in service twenty four seven because the people are always living and breathing. And that's basically the gist of it. You're listening to Life From The Path on lifefromthepath.org. Listen, if you're catching us on KTIA 993, you know, we're glad to have you involved. Just a heads up, some of our sponsors that are keeping us on the air out there is Bob Eisenhower with the Bob with the Eisenhower real estate team. I I actually talked to Bob a little earlier this week. He's gonna be on the show in the next couple weeks along with his brother. His brother just got his real estate license, and so

you here's the deal. I used the Eisenhower's when I when I sold my house and bought my bought the house that I that I lived in afterwards. And it was it was really simple. I heard a bunch of, you know, nightmares on how the thing was gonna go and it was gonna be long drawn out. It was gonna be terrible. And I I just didn't have any of those problems. It went really smooth. Bob was always super cool. He was nice. He was honest. And if you're in the market to buy or sell a house, please get a hold of Bob Eisenhower with the Eisenhower team. He always he did right by me. He's been on the show. He's a great guy to talk to, and and so I I recommend that you go check that I also recommend that you check out Westfield Veterinary Hospital here in Johnston. I I believe it's westfieldvet.com.

But they they take care of all your all your dog, cat, goat. I I don't know. I have goats. I don't know how many of you guys have goats. I have goats. I do not. I do not have goats either. You don't make me extol the virtues of goats, but I'll tell you one thing. They're that I I have not used the weed eater all year. All year. Because the goats just take they take care of it. Of course, they'll also eat you if you don't watch them. In fact, the the the the our biggest goat, I call her the mama goat, she bites my hand when she wants pitted because she knows that I'll do it. Like, to shoo her away, I have to almost pet her and so she considers that affection and will bite you. Anyway, take your take your goat biter to the Westfield vet. They they know everything there is to know about goats, dogs, cats, spiders, bunnies. I don't care. They do a great job. I I've actually used them personally for the last five, six years. They're great guys. They're honest. They'll take care of you. And so go check out westfieldvet.com. Popping up next on the show, we're looking at big money.

Sorry. I forgot about that. We got we're moving into the pope style advice. The the arena of pope's pope's style advice is someone there's groups I mean, large amounts, amounts, 10,000 people have mistaken you for the pope. I'm not really sure how it happened. There'd been a there'd been a newsletter, a commercial, or something. Something has really gone foul where they think that wherever you are, that's the location of where the pope is, and they've showed up on your lawn. And they're gonna need some advice, very much like the pontiff gives out with his with his friendly parade wave, and he's gotta tell you something that is gonna that is gonna extol virtues onto your life. Except for, it's not the pope. It happens to be John Buva. And so John Buva's got some pope style advice that is hopefully gonna appease the masses and move these people off their off off his lawn. John Bubba. To be fair to the people that have shown up on my lawn, I was wearing a very, very decorative robe when I went out to get the paper this morning, so I can see where they're coming from. And a hat. Yeah. And a hat. It was a cool hat. I'm not gonna comment on the hat any more than that.

So my like I said earlier on the show, my post style advice today is gonna be a little bit different than my normal style. I normally try and I I just normally I'm not good at at the whole rebuking thing and talking talking straight to people. I'm normally the happy guy. Me neither. Mike is normally the happy guy as well, so I'm gonna have to take over for that. But

so through conversations that I've had this week and some disturbing conversations and some disturbing things that I've seen, not commenting on anyone specifically in society or anyone specifically in my personal life, but just

some stuff that I've seen this week has kinda kinda ticked me off. I gotta be honest. Kinda ticked me off, and I and I don't I don't think it's bit difficult at all, and I don't think it's from God. And I think just messed up people doing this. Not my advice, but that people are doing this. But Okay. Good. I'm gonna have to start drawing lines. This is messed up, but here you go. Here's the deal. You do not decide

who deserves the love of God or not. It is not on you to decide what person that you've seen in society, what person that you've seen in your life, what dude or or gal that you see on the road. You do not have the authority to determine if they deserve the love of God or not.

And therefore, you do not have the right to say, I'm the one who's just gonna say, no. I'm not gonna talk to that person about God. Because if we had the whole who deserves the love of God or not, none of us do. Absolutely none of us deserve it. We get it through the grace of God and through the sacrifice that Jesus did, but you do not have the right to determine who does it. And I I say this because I see people that have been just wholeheartedly judging people

and determining whether or not they're gonna talk to them about god and and have honestly said, you know, I'm not gonna talk to them about god because I heard they did this. And I'm not gonna go and talk to them because, you know, I saw this. Who the heck are you? Who do you think you are

that you have the right to say that? Because you don't. You need to look at yourself and realize that someone loved on you, god loves on you on an everyday basis, every second, knowing exactly what you have done, what you are going to do, and what you're doing right now and still loves you unconditionally, yet you think you have the gall to say

that they don't deserve the love of god. Seriously, who do you think you are? You are a man or a woman. You are a son or a daughter of Christ. And in that alone,

every single person deserves to be talked to. Every single person deserves the love of God and deserves to hear that Jesus loves them more than they could ever even fathom. They think they know about love that they don't. We will never understand the kind of love that God has for us, and they deserve to know that regardless of what they've done, who they are, who they mean to what they mean to you, who they are to you, what they've done to you, what they haven't done to you. They deserve it.

And that's my pope style advice. Okay. What was your pope style advice then? My pope style advice is you don't have the right to determine who who gets the love of god or not. You need to tell everybody. Yeah. You need to tell everybody it is not your decision. Oh, man. I mean, I feel like I failed at that. I raided, like, 50 people today.

Then you failed at that. Yeah. Dang. But on that premise alone, so did I. And this advice is also to myself. So Yeah. But, I mean, man, I feel kinda burdened now when you're saying, like, who do I think I am? I should I should have said something to somebody. I mean That guy doesn't deserve it. That yeah. When you stop yourself and you even have the the conscious thought of, you know, I heard that they're doing this, or I heard that they've done this. So someone you, like, know I'm not like a stranger on the street, but someone you know and and they're living a lifestyle that you don't agree with Yeah. That you would say, I'm I'm I'm going to just go ahead and block God from them. Right. That's insane. Yes.

I agree entirely. That's where this is coming from. That's like Jesus on the cross and and saying, you know, yeah. I was gonna offer you to I'd see you in paradise today, but no way. I heard you're a thief. You're not coming up me. Street is you're a thief. Yeah. It it's sad that that is even crossing someone's mind. That they have the pompous view that they would be able to say, you know, I don't think I'm gonna talk to them about that. I've heard they're doing this. That is that is pathetic. That is unloving. That is so wicked. Yeah. I can't imagine someone consciously thinking that, let alone saying it. I don't maybe I don't but I don't think that. Sometimes I think it's just not the right time. Yeah. You gotta be discerned and trying meet it. Yeah. Is a big deal. Obviously

Yeah. But you're like, who do you think you are? And then you made me feel bad, and, like, maybe I'm Mike, I think you're I think you're on the right track. If you're not consciously saying they don't deserve god, I'm not gonna talk to them. Thanks, Pooh. I think you're on the right track if you're going through the discernment of, you know, am I the one that god's gonna put in front of that person? Feel like a real schmuck there for a minute. You know, if you're consciously saying to yourself, you know, if I'm the one that that God wants there, I'm gonna be there. But if God wants somebody else, I'm staying out of it. Here's the thing that and and maybe the other people take different texts than this, but like, the more obvious of a sinful lifestyle you have, the more excited I am to tell you about Jesus. Because I feel like, you know, he can redeem a lot. And so Yeah. That like, if you're if you're like, man, I I've had a previous blah blah blah. I'm like, great. He can redeem just that much plus more. I have always thought it'd be the coolest thing ever to to go down in an area where there's prostitutes and hire a prostitute and say, here's the deal. I don't know how much money what how much money does it take an hour of your time? I'm not gonna touch you. K? I just wanna talk to you and and tell them the gospel. But the thing is they don't look at me like I'm the biggest nerd in the world. They're like, yeah. You don't even know how to talk to a prostitute. Yeah. You're right. I'm not into that, dude. I'm not into the whole talking thing. But also, I figured I'd be the guy who that's like the police undercover police.

Really. I was gonna tell you about Jesus, bro. I have a bible in my cover. Yeah. Exactly. Feel like the newspaper. So that's why I have it done this. And or or to go to the drug dealer and say, hey, man. I I I got some stuff, but I wanna get some stuff. Whatever. And somehow, introduce see? I don't know how to talk to And do not go to any drug dealers and say I'm not shut shoot me. They're like I will shoot me. But I would love to explain to them that god loves them and that they could find a better way. I know the apostles were beaten for Christ, but I think you're Not because they were dwarfs. Crap beat out of you and then just a back alley downtown Yeah. Because you walked up to somebody and said, I got the stuff. There's there's portions that there's people that want to do an outreach ministry, and there's people that you just need to lead somewhere else. Maybe you should be on the internal ministry.

I'll do the VBS. Yeah. I'm not the guy who should I'm not the guy who should go to the night clubs and try and try and get people for God. I'm just not him. What? Shaking home skillet. You know you know my Jesus? How are you, local teenager? It's not gonna work. Okay. You're listening to life on the path on lifefromthebath.org.

If you're interested in some heavy intellectual business, go ahead and head over to the chat on lifefromthepath.org. Stuff above my head is happening. Go check that out and throw your throw your 2¢ worth in. Stuff above your head. The funny part is is that Ben Ben is is is remotely watching the show and also commenting under the handle, live from the path. And so it appears that I am arguing with him on some occasion. But if you are not aware that there's two of us, it appears that I'm arguing with myself. And so Awesome. That is just something to keep in mind. Make sure you check out the podcast at www.lifefromthepath.org. You can subscribe to the podcast. You can check out past shows. Here's the deal. I happened to resurrect the Life From The Path Christmas Extravaganza

earlier today. And I tell you what, Jeff Arendelle did a fantastic job. Yes, he did. We had like Absolutely. Maybe 15 people at this concert. That was a big blizzard. It was a huge blizzard. I mean, it was like 12 feet. It literally took me three hours to drive home and I live half hour away. It took forever and it was a terrible mess. But the music I've admitted this before. But sometimes, if music is really good, I weep. And there's there's a couple songs on this Christmas Extravaganza where I weep. And I had to actually circle the roads at my house to not appear as if I'd been weeping in my own vehicle. And so The mascara was running Otherwise, the wife gets concerned. The kids are upset.

What is wrong with dad? They say. And so, here's the deal. It's it's it's really excellent. Ben's gonna Ben's gonna take care of some stuff. We're gonna see if we can get some stuff out to you. We're gonna try to boost this stuff, get some radio airplay somewhere. Arindale, Randy, from Sanctify did a a lot of the lead singing work, and the man is just amazing and they all do it with a heart for Jesus Christ. And like the the my favorite song on that entire Christmas extravaganza

was they did Gloria or Ages We Have Heard On High. And it is just it was just an amazing tune. And if even if you're not much of a hands in the air worshiper, at least you can sit in your car and cry. And so that's what I do. And so if if I'd recommend that that, you know, we're gonna try to get it pumped out so you can either get it commercially or we can get it out to you somehow. But it was it was just an excellent time. We're gonna do it again this year. The plans aren't really concrete yet. But be looking forward to Life on the Path is gonna put on a Christmas extravaganza. I'm pretty sure we got Arendelle concreted back in to do the the house band work, but it really was an amazing time. It was. And the I know I know the people would would that were there were just blown away by it and and, you know, it was just an awesome time to worship and and and be with the, you know, people around you. So it was excellent. Dear life from the path. My mother is in her mid fifties. She's a wonderful woman, but she makes a slate for everything. My husband and children, my siblings and I often attend family functions and other events as a group. When we go to pick up mom, she announces she has just a few chores she wants to do first, and they take forever.

We are not a few minutes late. We're significantly late and sometimes miss events altogether. These have included weddings and funerals, and we have wasted hundreds of dollars on tickets to missed events. She'll often make a show of apologizing, but her behavior never changes. We have stopped inviting mom to some events, but she makes us feel guilty if we don't take her to a family event. We asked her friends about this behavior. They say she never pulls these stunts when they pick her up for things. When we talk to mom about it, she insists she needs to get things done ahead of time. Her house isn't messy nor is it known for being overly tidy. She's in good mental and physical health. We're fresh out of ideas how to deal with this. Help. Okay, boys. Late mama. Mama makes everything late. Can't seem to get anywhere on time.

Simple solution. Get there earlier. Hourly. Missed entire events. Yeah. And hours upon hours of time has been missed because of this lady. How far is your loyalty to your mother go? You know I'm saying?

Alright. Tickets to the Chiefs game. Mom, you got five minutes in there. Yeah. I was gonna say Relieve. You show up. Mom says, I've got a few chores to do. You set a definitive time period. Mom, you have ten minutes to get this done. Or I'm sorry you brought this on us. We are all going to look rude if we keep showing up late. You have ten minutes, and we leave you. Oh, I don't wanna look rude. Oh. I don't I don't care, mom. You you got ten minutes, and we're leaving you. Yeah. She's acting like a child, so treat her like a child. If my child was doing that, I would give her at a specific time. We're leaving at x time, and then leave.

I'm done. I will be there at 11:05. We will be on the road at 11:15. You have ten minutes to get your chores done If you're coming and we're leaving you. Yep. I did not raise you to talk to me like this, Daniel, especially in front of your friends. These aren't to my friends. This is this

is your daughter-in-law and your grandkids. I would encourage her to find a taxi. This is when we're leaving. She can find another ride. But, you know, I'm not gonna let miss uncle Herbert's funeral Right. Exactly. Or little Susie's wedding. Yeah. You've got a few Because we a tour. Because of this. I can't imagine trying to explain that to the family Yeah. Who invited you to the funeral. Yeah. Mom had some chores to do. Yeah. We showed up on time. She had some hair in her brush and she had to get that all cleaned up. I was too much of a pansy to tell her, clean your sink when we get home. Just a quick sidebar. Do you guys ever take the hair out of the hairbrush and make a mustache out of it? That's the creepiest thing I've ever heard in my entire I may have done that before. You don't wreck your ass. I can honestly say I haven't. Because you know that's good times.

My kids Making a mustache out of the air. My kids absolutely love it. Get a little tape and you stick it all on there. Yep. Oh, that is the grossest thing. And you could twirl it. Oh, it's awesome. Snidely whiplash your mustache. It helps if there's a lady living at your house. If it's dude hair, it's it's not very long and it's not very fun. But if you can get the like, I do it with my wife's hair, the kids just think it's the best. I think you should grow a mustache, Mike. Just that's my advice for you if you are riding into dear life from the path. Yeah. Why should I stop putting a hairbrush hair as a mustache on my face? I'm sorry. I'm not following what you're saying. The final advice was here's what second advice was. It is interesting that your mother doesn't behave this way with her friends. That tells me her behavior is controlling.

I think she probably does this with her friends. Her friends are probably old and they just forget about it. Although it's hard to understand what perverse pleasure she gets out of it. Also, I I here's the deal. Some people are wired just to be not very respectful of time constraints. Yeah. I am one of those people. I I wish I wasn't that way. I'm I just am. And I could wake up forty five minutes late for work, and I would walk at the exact same pace as if I was two hours early. I just I there I don't have any giddy up in my in my go. I just don't it's just the pace I move, I'm not that worried about it. I was figuring we'll just deal with it when we get there. There's nothing else we can do now. It's a cut and shuffle kind of attitude. I feel like mom might be that same way. I'm already late. There's not much else I can do. I have some family members who just are terrible at time. They just don't they have no concept of how to budget their time. It's gonna take me half an hour to get there. I have an hour. I'm gonna plan forty five minutes worth of activities and and tours. And they don't think of the fact that that will make me late. Mhmm. And so I've been known to just leave. Just just to make sure I'm on the same page as you, Mike, did you say that

you think her friends just don't remember that she spent that much time doing chores? Because they're elderly? Because they're elderly. They just forgot about the two hours that they were sitting there waiting to go to the concert. Just checking. Tessa Lugo's in she's she's on on board with this. Making sure we're on the same page. Okay. I had to deal with this personally with my mom. My mom was the same way every time I you know, I if I was honestly going to pick her up when I had moved out or if we were in the same household,

my mom knew exactly when we were leaving. We had given her five hours, but, you know, we wake up at six. Mom, we're leaving at eleven to get to grandma's at noon. At 10:45, she starts getting ready. I just I don't get it. I I'm not saying I'm the most poignant person on the planet, but I've never been consistently twenty minutes late to angry family members. Poignant

correctly. I'm sorry. Continue. Whatever. So it's just I I just that drives me I I can see where this family's coming from, but I I stick to my guns with give mom a time frame. The chat recommends that you just call her friends since she seems to be on time with them and have them pick them up and meet you there. I like that. Friends to all family funerals and weddings and everything. Apparently, mom is cool with being on time with you, so let's go. Yeah. Here's here's $20, Earl. Go pick up mama and get her to the You're not gonna remember this anyway. So That's right. In fact I'm gonna promise you a $100 because in two hours, you're not gonna remember the 100 And I don't owe you anything.

Exactly. Remember that Metamucil you forgot to give? Okay. Earl goes back, you owe me a $100. Earl, you don't know what you're talking about. I never said that. You don't know that, Earl. You're old.

Dear Life from the Path. I'm eight years old and in second grade. I'm writing because I'm being bullied at school. I'm really smart and at my school, that's a really bad thing. I try hard to be nice, but here that's worse than being smart. The teachers didn't help me with the bullies, so I stopped telling them. My mom told everyone she could she could about the bullies, but nobody helps. It keeps getting worse over time. Every day someone picks on me, pushes me, or makes fun of me. Please help me. That's a that's a tough situation to be in, first off.

We all know that bullying is is becoming a more and more serious, serious issue, and it's being neglected to be taken care of by

supposedly being neglected to be taken care of by officials in the school. In a perfect world, a kid can talk to their teachers, and the teachers just fix it. And the teachers bring in the parents. I honestly since your teachers aren't doing anything, I would recommend talking to your parents and seeing if they can actually go to the school. And I know that that may have mom take a day off of work or anything like that. She may not be able to do that. But if she can go into the school and honestly talk to your teachers and

sit down, have a meeting with them, saying that you are getting honest complaints about the fact that you're being bullied by the kids in your school, then then mom needs to step up. Mom or dad need to step up and help you out more than they have so far. Named?

Send your letters to Mike Foust. Here's the deal. Bullying is no worse than it's ever been. Back in the day, bullying was beating the crap out of someone. K? And I would say it doesn't happen once in a while. But I think today, we are so sissified

that someone, like, calls me a name or or threatens me. They we get all whiny, and you're like, and we we cannot handle our society. This young generation cannot handle guess what? Life is some people don't like you. That's just life. Guess what? Grow up. Okay? Here's what now if you're eight years old, here's the deal. You're smarter than these kids. So outsmart them. Use what you have. Use the tools you have. And I don't know what that means. I don't know the setting. If he's taking the bus, find it I don't know. You you he this guy is gonna grow up, he's gonna be all of their bosses. Alright? He'll be their boss. So you're you're gonna be fine, kid. Be be strong. Be brave.

Find a way to outsmart these kids, whatever that means. But there there is legitimate bullying going on. Don't get me wrong. And there's some stuff that needs to stop. But, you know, I I really struggle with this current bullying thing. It is I think it's become this politically correct thing that that people are throwing around. And,

you know, he needs to hire some older kids to come and beat those kids up. I I think we have two very different ways of dealing with bullying. And Mubah didn't say anything like that. I I would That's what I'm saying. So send your letters to Foust. He he was feeding me this information. Okay. So I I I agree with you that I think that that society is putting a spotlight on bullying right now. I wouldn't disagree with that. I I would agree that that bullying is the same concept as it was twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty years ago, whatever. You know? When public school started, bullying was the same thing. However, I think if this kid is to the point where

he's obviously he or she is obviously in a hole and feels terrible about what he or she is having to go through, I don't think buck up and just take care of it is gonna fix because he he's been told to feel terrible about it. That's what all of culture is saying. Oh, it's so awful. Everybody needs to help you. It's like, you know what? Figure out a way to get through this. I mean, I had people who who who were mean to me. I didn't I'd not whine home went home whining and thinking of the police. I just thought I avoided them. I I went to different places. I did different things. Sometimes you couldn't help it, and it happened, and they they, you know, punched me and did all that stuff. It's like, whatever. They they I seem to have turned out okay. You're

listening to live from the path on live fromthepath.org. Thank you very much for listening. If you're on the KTI broadcast, we gotta let you go like a sparrow leaving its mama's nest. Time for you to go. If you wanna check out exclusive content, check out the podcast. We're gonna keep on rolling. We got a little bit of show left. This boring conversation isn't done. I haven't put my pompous spin on it, and so we're gonna talk about that. We got a couple more bits of advice left. But, if you're listening on the KTIAIA

audience, we gotta we gotta cut you loose. So thank you. You guys have a good week. We'll talk to you next week. Alright. Right on. Okay. Alright. Here's so I I didn't really catch the rest of what Dan was saying. I was doing the slow fade. Yeah. Yeah. And I kinda had I was paying attention to my fading techniques. There's there's a guy right now

in in a in a local school that acts completely different than everybody else on purpose. Now, you know, hey, so what? He's different. Whatever. I don't care. But then he he he throws it in their faces, and if anyone comes after him and says something, he runs immediately about how the bullies are after him. He he needs some bullies in his life. This guy does.

And and that's what I think a lot of culture has done is people wanna be just bizarre and have everybody not only accept them, but praise them for being just plain weird. And I think it's okay. I think in some extreme circumstances where someone is just trying to be bizarre just for the for for the sake of attention. Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't agree that they need bullies.

But That might be a little extreme. I I think I understand partially where you're coming from, but there are honest people who are just being bullied for absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. And I I I'm not saying that that there's something really we can do to launch this whole, you know, anti bullying program where we fix it entirely, but I think that there are kids that maybe

it's society that's that's bringing them to this, but this is it seems to be a serious problem that's taking its toll. Whether it's justified or not that it's taking a toll is not the situation at all. The fact of the matter is it is taking a a toll on these kids. How can we fix that? Need to be punched in the face. If they're being if they're bullying someone, somebody's just you just have to face them. I did that. Mhmm. And I wish I could take back every time I hit a bully. I wish I could've taken pictures. I I put people in lockers. I I put people in Well, you were a bully. Someone needed to punch you. No. I

I was being bullied so people would mess with me, would would make fun of me, would fit in Who bullies a man your size? That's foolish. It it honestly believe it or not, it it really did happen. I'm not lying about this. I got bullied in school. I got told by by friends and and by different peers and and different influences in my life to retaliate. And because I was so big, I was perfectly able to do so. I've broken kids' feet. I've I've put people They deserved it. Did they have shoes on? Yeah. How'd you do that? One kid called me a big fat ogre, and I stomped on his foot and broke it.

That is awesome. He was laying on the ground doing He deserved it. Doing his stretches in gym, and I broke his foot. He wasn't able to play football football that year before. Well, he shouldn't have. And If he kept his big fat mouth shut, he wouldn't have had that problem. Agree that he there was a problem that he was saying anything to me. I agree that that the bullies need to be retaliated against, but if we're encouraging, hey. Bully them back. It's just gonna create more and more bullying, and all that's gonna happen is more and more kids are gonna get hit in the face.

And that's not gonna fix And then they'll learn eventually. How is that gonna help the eight year old that's writing into us right now, though? Well What what would you say to the the kid that's saying, hey. I'm a little bit smarter than everybody. I'm nice to people, and that's looked down on. Do I punch everyone that's that's mean to me in the face? I wanna know how do people know smarter than them. Does he go around Probably raising his hand in class and and Yeah. That's enough. I mean, some some of us people just look at us naked and can tell we're smart. I get that. Yes. Everybody looks at at Dan Hunt and knows that he's the smart one that was in class.

Same with me. But, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if it's literally just answering more than than everyone else questions in class. And because of that, he's being picked on when he leaves class. Yeah. Because that kind of stuff hap not necessarily that specific situation, but that kind of stuff happened to me. And it was It happens to everybody at some level. So And I understand. It's all different. Everybody's one of us has something you could pick on. I mean, you know, I'm incredibly good looking. And sometimes

that that that just drew attention. For all of It was uncomfortable. Yeah. And so people tried to scar me, and and and they just wouldn't work. Dan, I feel like you're the you're the opposite of most kids where you got made fun of for your your really great traits, and I'm glad that happened to you. Dan's too pretty. We need to make fun of him. Dan's way too smart. We need to make fun of him. I mean, I was just a big dork. I had a big nose. It was crooked. You know? I mean, I I had all kinds of stuff. Everybody has stuff. You know? But but you know what? You just I agree, but the problem the the I don't think the fix is turn your back on it, and I don't think the fix the fix is, you know, man up. I don't think that's the fix. It's a combination of the two. Two. Turn your back, and then when they come closer, punch him in the face. And make sure you have the brass knuckles. When they keep coming on coming at you, hit him in the face. Mhmm. Make him think you gave up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Here's here's the deal. It's a Christmas story. Some of this some of this is a is a legitimate bullying problem. Yeah. There's bullies. This kid isn't a really experiencing one. An eight year old that has a perspective that they're smarter than everybody else is being fed this by their parents. You really should not do that. There's nothing wrong with encouraging your children and telling them that they are smart or that they're doing well or you're proud of them. But when you start saying, you're smarter than everyone else. An eight year old does not do an independent study of his classmates and says, am I smarter than you? Okay. Great. I'll mark you down as being dumb. Thank you. And then go through every person in the class, figure that out. The the parents told him that. Right? The same everything that he says, look, I'm smart and I'm nice. I'm nicer than everybody. I'm smarter than everybody. That's information that's gathered from someone else apart from you, and the people that you're talking about don't offer up that kind of information.

That's right. He's also very humblest. He was a very humble man. His smarts are only outweighed by his humility. So here's here's the problem. He's eight years old. This is not his deal. This is hard to deal with. Right? Like, I don't care who you are. I don't care what brand of self esteem that you're currently subscribing to. It's hard to go somewhere and have everyone hate you. That stinks. It's hard to deal with. You could do it with a smile on your face, but it doesn't make it hurt any less. It makes it hard. And so the kid's in a bad place, true. Any type of words or any type of, you know, making fun of them or picking on them, that's not cause for a fight.

It's just not. Sticks and stones. Chat's right. Sticks and stones. Yeah. It's words. I'm with you there. Drop it. Yeah. You're gonna have to get thicker skin than that. It's not gonna change when you're 30. It's not gonna change when you're 80. People are gonna call you old until you you forget things like what time you're supposed to be somewhere. It's just gonna keep happening to you. Learn to deal with that. Right? And frankly, I I mean, I'm not talking like old man toughen you up, you know, where your old man sits down and wraps you on the ears for ten minutes to kinda make you a man. I'm just talking about you need to you just Those were the days. You need thicker skin. You and and, you know, if parents need to teach their kids how to have thicker skin, do that. Right? It's it's and and some of the problem that we have, not only within the church but in basically society in general is people have a terrible time with authority. People have a terrible time taking direction because they've been told they were great. Yeah. Why would I submit to anybody, any type of authority, be it police, spiritual authority, my parents, their parents, grandparents, teachers, whatever, because I've I've been told I'm awesome. And I have no room for improvement. And so there'd be no reason for me to humble myself to anybody, especially a God because as far as I could tell, me and him are the same being

because of just because of the of the self esteem massage that you grow up kids with. I'm not saying to be mean to your kids. I'm saying be honest with them. Right? Be honest with your kids. If they're socially awkward, help them, but tell them where their proclivities are. Right? If they're like, when you show up and wanna play with a group of kids and you don't wanna play what they're playing and you insist on playing only what you're playing, I wouldn't wanna play with you either. Let's start there. Yeah. Let's start there. Maybe maybe we can learn how to get along with people. Now here's the thing. If the kid starts showing up with marks on him, if he starts getting punched in the face, if he starts getting harassed, it to the principal. If the principal doesn't listen, take it to the superintendent. Superintendent doesn't listen, take it to the sheriff. Keep taking it places. Eventually, kid's probably gonna maybe not when he's eight. But by the time that he's 12, he's gonna he might have to throw a punch. He might have to. You know what saying? A line happens. I'm generally under the under the

rule of thumb is a man throws a punch when the reputation of his wife or his kids or their safety is in danger. Personal pride does not get a punch. That's my stance on it. I I don't know. You could fall either way about that. I'm not real big on machismo and dude pride, and I'm you're not gonna talk to me that way. Give it up. You're you're a humble servant of Jesus Christ. You're really not anything fancy to be sticking up for your own self esteem. Okay? If you're gonna hurt my wife or you're gonna hurt my if we gotta solve this thing with a couple knuckles, then that's gonna be the deal. But if someone has to make fun of you or likes to shove you and and make you look silly, you know that's not the truth. Be a grown man and walk away from it. K? If it starts to be an effect of someone else's personal safety, get in there like a man and throw a punch if you got to. But as far as the eight year old kid goes, he could really use some better advice besides the one that he's getting.

If if it's just name calling, he's gonna have to suck that up. He's just gonna have to suck that up. Right? If it gets worse when he gets older, he's gonna have to knee some guy in the business. I don't care what he does, but it's gotta have to end somewhere. So that's my that's my advice. I I don't know that I would I I don't know that I'd go to school and start an anti bullying campaign. You frankly, you can't even accidentally bump a guy into a locker anymore without getting kicked out of school. There's perfectly innocent kids that are just a on the physical side that's been booted out of school for, you know, ridiculous overreactions. People that protect their kids too much that don't allow them to be in a conflict so they never figure out how to solve it. It's just not it's not helpful.

We got time for one more here. Dear life from the past. What did Secular say? Oh, right. I'm sorry. Secular says, because you haven't told your teachers that the bullying hasn't stopped, they may think that it's no longer going on.

I don't think that's true. Tell them again what you are experiencing. Be sure your mother knows. She should discuss this with your teacher. If things don't get better, she needs to talk to the principal and, if necessary, the school board. Many schools offer programs that discourage bullying, I hope so, and train students who can help. At last resort, your mother should consult a lawyer. You have the right to an education that's free from this kind of pressure. Lawsuits have been filed and won because school districts didn't give the attention they should have. Be sure to show this to your mother and tell her you wrote it. I think the parents really need to work with this child and teach him cope some coping skills. Basically, like you said, you just gotta suck it up. You gotta have some thick skin and but he's gotta learn how and I didn't understand that. He hasn't been talking about I mean, he's eight. He if he was 25, we'd be having a different conversation. Right? He's eight. He's a product of his environment. At this point, you know, there's he's there's some parrot there's a lot of parrot that needs to be going on here. I mean, guess what? People are mean. Guess what? We live in a fallen world. People who don't know God do things that are godless.

Dear life from the path. Last one. My wife and I disagree about when and where it is acceptable to yawn. I believe a public yawn during dinner or conversation is not appropriate. She sees no reason why a natural human trait such as yawning should be stifled. Again, my assertion is that yawning denotes boredom or lack of interest in what people are conversing about or doing. What are your thoughts? Tessa Lugo, your thoughts. I really don't see the problem with yawning. Yawn at any time. Well, I mean, I guess if someone's, like, in a deep conversation and you're staring at them, it's probably kind of rude to yawn. Right.

But, I mean, in a situation like this, I don't I don't see a problem. A professional radio studio? Not in the microphones. You know, you know,

Buba. I'm having trouble taking this one seriously. I I really am. Because right as you're reading that, I started yawning. Right. And I would offended. I I would expect all of you to start yawning as I'm talking as you normally do. But It just keeps going on.

Keeps on going. I I think the fact that you and your wife are actually having a conversation about this is actually kinda ridiculous. I don't see a problem with yawning. I I don't. I I think that if you'd accidentally yawn in front of someone who's having a conversation with you that's deep and in thought, you can explain it away as, hey. That wasn't just me being bored with your conversation. If I were bored with your conversation, I would've tried to get out of this conversation about fifteen minutes ago.

I don't see a problem with yawning anywhere. I think the dude is like, again, my assertion is that yawning denotes boredom. Again, I'm right. I just want you to I don't want you to miss how right I am. Did you notice that I'm right Hold on. On. Yeah. Here's the deal. If you gotta yawn, go ahead and do that. There's might be times when you want to ignore it. Like, if you're getting some kinda some kinda chewing at work because you screwed something up or cost them big money, and they're like, you cost us big money and blah blah blah. You're like

There's a line between, hey, I really gotta yawn and that's foolish. Right? That's the You can you can kinda Suppress it? Suppress it. Here's the thing. There's other bodily functions that fall under the same category. Perfectly natural for the human body to go through, maybe not the best time. You know I'm saying?

You should be astonished that that happened. It's just there's a lot of things that this falls under. So I just here's the deal. Look I mean, will you just be a full human being and look what's going on around you? You know? Maybe it's time, maybe it ain't. Put two thoughts together and come up with a good time to do it. I always tried to not yawn, like, in class. You know, would sit I would hide it. I'd like it was like like giving some boring math class. The kids in the back are like, here's the yawner. Look at everybody. He's a yawner. But I I don't wanna I don't wanna take the teacher down any any further. They're already, you know, pretty dry and and and they're distracting, but everybody's bored, then they even get worse. So I have just to try to pretend like I was paying attention. One of my jobs is to teach classes. I I'm a corporate trainer. That's what I do. If anyone yawns at my class, I'm not offended. Really? If you fall asleep in my class, we'll be having a conversation. And I do sly little things. Like, I drop a pen next to them and then use their chair to help myself up and wiggle the chair as I'm getting up. Hey. People hate that, man. No. It's people actually hate being called out in front of in front of their peers. Yeah. Why don't you just leave me asleep for a bit? No. You need to learn what I'm teaching you. Yeah. That's the is that the most arrogant thing I've ever heard? You need my words are gold. If I were saying it from a standpoint of this is the word of my mouth, yes, that would be pompous. But if I'm saying it from, I am teaching from a guy that is going to get you to do your job correctly,

no. It is not pompous to say you need to learn this. Hey. Maybe they don't want your $12 an hour. Why don't you lose the attitude? Fine. Then they are in the wrong training class and they need to leave. Let's get the they're gonna get the advice real quick here. This bores me. I can't. I'm really bored of this Secular says, my thoughts are similar to an observation made by English writer, g k Chesterton, who said, a yawn is a silent shout. I've never seen anyone who is intensely interested in something yawn.

And to do it in the presence of others implies implies What can I do? In the presence of others, blah blah blah, implies that the honor is tired, bored, or otherwise not fully engaged. Basically, he's saying, look, if you're yawning, it makes it look like you're not paying attention. It really is true. I don't think I've ever yawned when I was, like, intently engaged in whatever. I did it at my wedding. I've been This boring woman's in your wedding. I'm wholeheartedly exhausted and been paying as much attention as I possibly can to something and yawned before. And it was nothing against the person I was talking to. It wasn't that I was not paying attention to them. It was I didn't get sleep last night. I'm sorry. Sometimes I yawn just to be silly.

Just to be do a silly thing. Just to see how how far it spreads. Yeah. They're like, hey, Mike. You wanna go to lunch? And they don't say anything. You just kinda let it sit there for a while. People are just sitting there like, is that a that a no? Beep. Yeah. Be bold.

Break a bold. Break a rough control. Break a rough. Exactly. You were yawned. You're listening to life from the path on lifefromthepath.org. Check out the podcast. Check out the past performances. Check out the Christmas extravaganza. Check out the show, for heaven's sakes, from from beginning to end. Just check out.

Thanks for checking out. We'll check we'll catch you next week. Tired. You take my burdens off of my shoulder. You break the lies that hold me back.