As a church, we want to be more known for what we're

for than what we're against.

So I want to speak up in the most positive way I

can, affirming what scripture affirms.

But that also means at times making clear what

scripture disaffirms.

Allowing ambiguity is really doing a disservice

to our people and our culture.

And so I just feel like it's been a time that

calls for greater speaking up.

There are times I have something I'm going to

preach, and I actually tell myself,

"Okay, how could I preach this like even stronger?"

And what's interesting is those hard truths, the

stronger I preach them,

the greater the response is, both from those who

follow Jesus and those who don't yet.

This is the Made to Advance Podcast. I'm your

host, Brian Aulick.

We're here to inspire and equip you for your best

future.

Well, hey, everybody, welcome to Made to Advance.

So good to be with you today.

And before we get started in our conversation, I

want to encourage you to subscribe.

I want to encourage you to rate and review our

show.

It really does help us get the word out to more

people,

and it helps us bring on more great guests like

the one we have today.

So you actually know this guest. His name is Mike

Lipke. He's a personal training coach.

He is the 20-year veteran owner of Vallejo

Training here in Holland, Michigan.

And I had Mike on a number of months ago, and we

talked about a really challenging

visibility, eye vision situation that he deals

with and how he prevails in the midst of that

challenge. So I encourage you, we'll put in the

show notes, make sure you go back and listen.

But Mike texts me a few weeks ago, and he's like,

"Hey, I got an idea. What if I interview you,

Brian?" And I was like, I don't know how I

replied. I think I like put a laughing emoji

or something back. And I'm like, "What are you

even talking about?" And he's like,

"No, really." So I finally realized Mike was

serious, 'cause maybe you'll pick up in this

conversation, Mike likes joking around a little

bit. And so I finally, when I realized it's

serious,

said, "All right, let's do it." So Mike, welcome.

I'm glad you're here, man.

And I'm glad to be here. And that is all that

accurate except for one detail, Brian.

What's that?

You are today's guest on your own podcast.

All right.

That is what they'll be. Yes, prompted by so many

similarities in our background.

Yeah.

Grew up in the great state of Indiana from a

traditional denominational background.

Both of us went to fantastic universities in

Indiana, except you.

[laughter]

I knew it.

And we have been here in West Michigan doing Lord's

work adjacently for almost 20 years now.

It has been a joy to serve with you and be led by

you. And I thought, we're listening to so many

fantastic stories of what God's doing amongst His

people, but I think I'm uniquely qualified

to tease out of you a great story of God's as

well. So if you could bless us all with a little

bit of your background, how you came up, what you

did, where the prompting came to get into

ministry,

what brings you to West Michigan, just lay it out,

brother.

Yeah. Well, I appreciate your kind words. And it's

fun to look back and think how long we've

been doing ministry and leadership together in

West Michigan. And so I appreciate you,

and I value you, and I love your family. And so

even that you came up with this idea,

it's a huge honor. Appreciate it. I'll give you

the nutshell, and then you can press in

where you wanna press in.

And I will.

'Cause we got a lot of years to cover. I'm not...

Neither of us have been getting any younger over

these last 20 years.

That's how it works. That's how it works.

Yeah, I grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and grew

up in a tough situation in many regards. I had

two parents, I'm blessed for that, but we had a

lot of acrimony in our home, I would say. And so

that was a key part of my background. I gave my

life to Jesus in middle school, and then in high

school, I would say I really got serious about

faith. I went through some things that caused me

to really say, "Okay, am I following Jesus or am

I not? Am I gonna have idols of popularity and

friends and these different things, or am I gonna

be all in for Jesus?" And I chose being all in

for

Jesus. So that was a key moment in high school,

and it really set my spiritual trajectory. I had

always wanted to go into business my whole life.

I'm a nerd, man. Starting in middle school, I was

reading books on marketing and sales and

management, leadership, all these things.

And so I went to Indiana University, home of, yes,

the Big Ten Conference title this year,

the Heisman Trophy Award winner. So just a few

things going on, but anyway...

A few things going on. We'd like to make a note

for the record, very little talk of IU basketball.

We'll bring that up later. Bring that up later.

That is true. That is true. So went to IU to get

a business degree and fully expected to go into

the marketplace. I was doing ministry at the

college level that whole time through. And then

right before all these companies are supposed to

come in and interview... In fact, I had a week's

worth of interviews lined up. First week, it was

time to find a real job. And Christina and I,

we were engaged at that point, and we were at a

concert, an outdoor concert. She was with her

friends, I was with mine. And this musician was

talking, not about ministry, but I just sensed

the clearest, clearest leading from the Holy

Spirit that I was supposed to cancel all my

interviews, and I was supposed to head into

ministry and go to seminary first. So that's

what I did. And I actually asked Christina, I'm

like, "You're not gonna believe this." And I said,

"Here's what I was sensing," and she said, "I do

believe it, 'cause I feel like the Lord said the

same thing to me at that time." Crazy, huh? That

is crazy.

So yeah, so made that move. I got a master's

degree in a seminary in Chicago called Trinity

Evangelical Divinity School. And then from there,

ended up, after three years, moving to Holland

because my very first ministry opportunity was at

a church called Central Wesleyan. I was their

young adults pastor, so college and 20s. And I

was there for five years, and just incredible

time of

life change. You come out, and I don't know what

people think of when you think of, oh, you're

called to be a pastor, but it's like anything

else. You're like, "I feel like the Lord's saying

to do this, but I don't know if I can do it." And

so for five years, we had some good fruit.

We saw people come to the Lord, and I was able to

preach. And man, so many times I get done

preaching,

Christina remembers this as well as I do, and I'd

sit down next to her, and I'd be like, "That was

the worst thing I've ever done. I want to quit."

And she'd be like, "Hang in there. It's okay."

And so there were a few of those for sure in the

early years. But about year four is when I sensed

God was saying something new was coming. I didn't

know what it was, and I started just really

praying

and seeking His face. And it had nothing to do

with the church I was at. God was doing great

things. I was fulfilled, all the things. They

were great and supportive of our ministry.

But during that time, the senior pastor said, "Would

you consider church planting here in West

Michigan?" And I was thinking, "Man, I thought

God is going to take us back to Chicago or to New

York

or Indianapolis or something like that." - Always

with those big dreams.

- That was it. And we loved the big city,

partially because there are just so many people

who are far from God there. So that was like our

thing. And through a discernment journey,

God made very clear, again, I won't belabor the

story, but in an incredibly supernatural way,

made it super clear we were supposed to start

what would become a Getty Church.

So that was 20 years ago. And so we said yes to

the Lord on that and got started and just had a

real vision to say, "We want to be an outward-focused

church. We want to make as much difference as we

can on the greatest spiritual needs and physical

needs as we can in our community and around the

world." And that's what we set out to do. And

here we are 20 years later.

- And I think the record speaks for itself. Now,

Jessica, my wife, has been part of the Vine,

which was that ministry, that outgrowth of

Central at Central West End. She was there

at the beginning. I did not join her until after

the marina. And then went and Getty was meeting

at the West Ottawa Cafetorium, multi-purpose

theater, gymnasium, cafeteria space. And here

we are now at absolutely incredible, explosive

growth. Tell us, we were there. Where are we at

now? Some of those KPIs, those kingdom

productivity indexes. What's in Getty at with

current

membership, number of decisions for Christ? What

kind of practical impact is in Getty making now,

20 years later? - Yeah, totally. I'll come back

to that. I'll just say this. It's interesting,

because I would just say at the beginning of Getty,

we never, ever talked about being a big

church. We never talked about, "Oh, when we get

all these resources," or anything like that. In

fact, it was just the opposite. Christina and I

had very real conversations of, "Hey, if this

doesn't work, the worst case scenario is we can

move in with our parents and start over again."

And we were prepared to do that. It was not like,

"Ha ha, we can always move in with the parents."

It was like, "Hey, we don't know." And because

the way we were choosing to do church was

different.

Right from the jump, we said a quarter of our

budgeted income was gonna be directed towards

missions and local global church planting. - And

still today, that's true.

- Still today. And in fact, our hope is to go

beyond that in coming years. It might happen

this year, actually. But I say that to say that

we didn't go in saying, "Oh, we're just trying.

We

just said we just wanna help people meet Jesus,

and we wanna make a difference in the world."

And it turns out that when you have that kind of

relentless focus on being about advancing the

kingdom of God, and you just keep lasered in on

those things, one, it makes a difference for the

kingdom of God, and two, it attracts other people

who wanna be part of something like that.

And so, yeah, so over the years, right now, we

probably have about 23, 2400 people who gather

on Sundays. We have another about 1200 that would

join online on any given week.

- Globally, across the world. - Yeah, across the

world, that's right.

And it is crazy when you look at the map of where

people watch from. It truly is

all across the world. It's super interesting to

think about.

- Where do you see the most growth online? In

what region, internationally?

- Yeah, internationally, it's primarily from

countries we have relationships with. You see

it all... I mean, there's countries... Just the

long list of people who stream, but a number from

Turkey, which is powerful to think that it's very

hard to be a Christian in Turkey, and there are

people in Turkey who are watching and getting

services every week. We see it in Africa, where

we've done work in the past. We see streaming

from Mexico, where we have a lot of relationships.

We

see streaming from Guatemala. So those places are

some of the bigs when it comes to streaming.

- Fantastic, very interesting. - Yeah, so last

year, I know you were

asking about metrics, and it's funny 'cause I was

gonna do the last 12-month run, and we're in the

process, actually, of pulling together those

numbers. I couldn't get you those, but in the

last ministry year, which we... Our ministry year

starts in June, and then it would end in May,

June through May. We saw 714 people make

decisions for Jesus over that time period, 215

people were

baptized. And then it's crazy, we had 215 people

baptized all last ministry year. That ministry

year ends last May. The first baptism in the new

ministry year, which was August baptism, we had

145 people get baptized. It was like nothing I've

ever seen. So it's already this year, just like

people coming to know Christ, it's really, really

exciting to see that happening.

- There is no slowing down to this heavenly

freight train.

- Right. - Brian, isn't Getty a megachurch?

- Yeah, by the definition of what people say, I

mean, kind of in the church world,

a megachurch is any church that gathers 2,000 or

more people on weekends. So by that definition,

yeah, we would be considered a megachurch. - Admittedly,

that does turn some off,

and if someone sees a Google church or something

that is highly polished, corporate,

executing on that kind of a level, on a global

level, on an excellence level, on a scale and

scope, and I hope I'm not misspeaking when I have

said to those who might push on that issue,

I've said that our leader Brian was always going

to be the captain of a multi-million dollar

organization. He is just choosing to use those

gifts and talents for the kingdom. What would

you say to someone who says, "Man, Getty's too

large. Getty's out of focus."

- Yeah, that's a great question. First, thanks

for your belief in me, because again, I was...

- Well, to the listeners... - I started this

thing out with the

basement... - I have prayed with this...

- We're moving to my parents' basement plan, but

I appreciate that.

- I have prayed with you. If anyone has concerns,

our leader, our pastor is a man of prayers,

a man of the word. I testify. Wrong hand, I

testify to that.

- Yeah, I mean, it's interesting, I think, to

really walk with any person through what a hangup

might be in a larger church. You almost have to

press in deeper. So I say that because there are

few things I can say in response to your question,

but where that comes from in someone can vary.

And

so part of me wants to say, "Hey, in the book of

Acts, after Peter preaches, shortly thereafter,

3,000 people come to know Christ." They had a

mega church right in the first century in the

first

church. So anytime somebody's like, "Oh, I just...

I'm not into mega churches. I wanna be like,

I hope you would've been okay with the early

church 'cause they got pretty big pretty fast."

I think that sometimes people get turned off from

mega churches because of a perception that

things are all about... It's impersonal, it's

just about the numbers, these sorts of things.

It's interesting, there was a book written a

number of years ago called, and I'm gonna maybe

butcher this, but it's pretty close, enough to

Google and figure out the right title,

something to the effect, "Beyond Mega Church Myths."

And it basically went through 10 common

myths that people have about mega churches and

really debunked them with research and data.

I'll give you one example. So one of them is, "Oh,

nobody knows you at a mega church,

and it's just about crowds and stuff like that."

And what I found in the first church I worked at

was a mega church. What I found is a big part of

why large churches grow bigger is because they

are ruthlessly intentional about details and

about caring for the one. I always talk about the

one,

like reaching the one and caring for the one. So

an example of that, we would have people,

the very first church I worked at, that would be

in the hospital or have some kind of care need.

And I would visit them as this young 20-something

pastor, and they would say, "I came from a church

of 200. Now I'm in this mega church, and I have

gotten more intentional care and follow-up as

part of this church than I ever did in my smaller

church." Now, that's not to say anything negative

about smaller churches at all, but the reason why

they had that care is because there was an

intentional process in place for how are we gonna

care for each person, how are we gonna walk with

them? And that's why they're... And same,

churches, for them to grow, they have to be

committed to

discipleship. We have to be committed to getting

people into smaller communities and groups.

So I just think that a lot of the things that we

have to do to grow, we have to be intentional

about the right things. And I think that a lot of...

There are just some misconceptions when

it comes to, "Oh, it's all about size." Now, I

would say for some, bigger crowds is a tougher

thing for them just by the nature of their wiring.

That's okay. And different strokes for different

folks. So it's not like... I don't believe big

churches are good and small churches are bad,

or small churches are bad and big churches... I

celebrate any church and recognize that folks

with different needs are gonna find their... Yeah.

I think it's a blessing in Scripture that

there is no instruction on how to do church. It

just says, "Do not give up the habit of meeting

others." And that's about it, because culturally

and historically, the church has needed to

operate differently and will operate differently

maybe in this culture one day. But it's hard to

argue that Ngedi is not very effective right now.

And we're always trying to grow. I mean,

always, always, always with our staff, it's one

of our key values. We're always saying,

what... we analyze ourselves every year and say,

"What are the areas that God's calling us to get

better?" And never, never stop that growth

journey. Speaking of growth, I have observed, and

others

have too, Brian, Alec, from the stage, make more

recently some very definitive statements on the

authority of Scripture, a human's identity in the

one who made us, the sanctity of marriage.

Tell me, what is it like to make what can be

sometimes controversial cultural statements?

Have you received some backlash from standing the

gap, and what's prompted that boldness?

Well, I think that on the one hand, most of what

I've said more frequently and more forcefully

recently, I have said at other times and places

even across the history of Ngedi. That being said,

there are a few topics that I just feel like are

so big in culture right now that they really

require me and us as pastoral leaders and other

kinds of leaders as well to be a little bit more

intentional about speaking about. And I think

that as a church, we want to be more known for

what we're for than what we're against, so I want

to speak up in the most positive way I can,

affirming what Scripture affirms, but that also

means at times making clear what Scripture

disaffirms. And I think that some of these issues

are so consequential to human flourishing,

individual flourishing, and cultural flourishing,

that allowing ambiguity is really doing a

disservice to our people and our culture, and so

I just feel like it's been a time that calls for

greater speaking up. And I think it's interesting

where our culture's at right now, because

I think there's been enough dissatisfaction with

some of the answers our culture is providing

that there is this, "Listen, just give it to me

straight." Like, I would argue there never has

been before in our generation where it's like, "Man,

just..." There are times I have something

I'm going to preach, and I actually tell myself,

"Okay, how could I preach this even stronger?"

And what's interesting is those hard truths, the

stronger I preach them, the greater the response

is, both from those who follow Jesus and those

who don't yet. So it's... Isn't that interesting?

Yeah, so that's the time we live in. That is the

time. It is not difficult to,

in our day and age, find controversy or injustice.

It would be not difficult to find this war,

this genocide, this political movement, this unrighteousness

to speak about. Yet,

and Getty seems to stay focused. Obviously, we

can't care about... We can't give maximum care

to everything or everyone. Through what lens do

you discern and leadership discern, "Hey,

we're gonna support this cause." Black Box, for

example. I was particularly... Just not

particularly

moved by that. Or the state of the church in

Turkey. How is a Getty leadership choosing

what injustices to meet? Yeah, that's a great

question.

And you're right, it's really important for all

of us to realize, I think most people do,

there are so many great causes and important

needs in the world that we literally just can't

help

with all of them, we can't speak to all of them,

we can't pray for all of them. So you really do

have to discern what are the key ones that God is

calling this church to. And it's interesting over

our 20-year span because at the beginning, I

think we really were asking, "What are some of

the greatest humanitarian pains in the world?"

For example, we had a lot of focus on HIV/AIDS

work at the beginning of our church. And then as

our journey progressed, I think one of the things

that really took hold in my heart and our

leadership team's heart is the state of the

unreached in our world. And specifically, there

are a lot of injustices in our world, and I think

when we think of that term or even hear that term,

we think of practical or physical injustices,

of which there are many, and they're important,

and they're heartbreaking. But what we miss is

what I think is probably the greatest spiritual

injustice, which is lack of access to the gospel.

And that took hold of our heart a number of years

ago where we realized temporal or physical

injustices are obviously super important and

matter to the heart of God, but eternal injustices

that

deal with whether a person has access to the

gospel of Jesus, which can save them for all

eternity, have an even greater weight. And so we

started shifting our resources, to be quite

honest,

we started shifting our resources. We said, "Okay,

42% of the world doesn't even have access to the

gospel." Not 42% of the world aren't followers of

Jesus, don't even have access to Jesus. So we

said,

"What we're gonna do is leverage most of our

attention and most of our resources on those

places of need, and then when it comes to

physical needs and injustices that exist,

we will come alongside those kinds of needs and

injustices within the communities that we're

addressing urgent spiritual needs, if that makes

sense." So if it's Turkey, we're there because of

the spiritual need, but then there have been

other needs relative to refugees and other things

that

we step in and say, "Hey, how can we make a

difference?" So that's kind of our criteria.

- I love it, I love it. And have you seen fruit

from that?

- Yeah, I think it's really, really cool to just...

I mean, even I think of the work in Turkey,

now there are multiple churches that have been

planted. We were able to help build a physical

church in... - Church was born there.

- Yeah, yeah. We were able to build a physical

church in Turkey that is now just absolutely

flourishing. We're hearing stories of people

coming to Christ virtually every month. I mean,

we've just helped... Our church is helping

support a podcasting ministry in Turkey that is

getting

the gospel out to thousands and thousands of

Muslims. And so that's really cool. But then,

to your point about Black Box, a ministry that we

support that's based in a country of...

Unnamed country, they're helping train people to

go into their own countries of origin,

where oftentimes it's illegal to share Jesus, and

you might even be persecuted or

arrested, et cetera. And they are training person

after person who is going back to their home

country and sharing Jesus and seeing many come to

Christ. So we're seeing tons of fruit in that,

and it's encouraging. - Like spiritual Navy SEALs.

- Exactly. - That's fantastic.

- That's the idea. - When I was on your podcast

last,

we talked... I'm not talking about my personal

situation, and I'm not wired in such a way to

care about my personal situation, but I don't

feel like I got a chance to say that,

boy oh boy, there is pain, there is suffering,

and a justified hurt, a discrimination, an

illness,

a sick child, that is real pain. And also that it's

those justified hurts that can be the most

dangerous, in that probably only Jesus is capable

of righteous anger, and although we might be

righteously angry, only for a moment turns to

vengeance. And that anger held onto can embitter

us toward God, toward His people, and that can be

the ruin of a lot of people. Leadership can be

painful like this, right? The message or the

messenger dismissed, the vision not seen, the

authority trampled. If you unpack a little bit

maybe of the difficulty or pain of leadership,

especially in ministry, of a large team and a

large group of people.

Yeah, it's a great question, and I do think it's

really important that aspiring leaders realize,

hey, there is pain that comes with leadership,

and those who are on the teams of leaders realize,

sometimes we can see a leader, whether it's a

church leader or a leader of a company or

something

like that, and think, oh man, must be nice to be

in their seat for X, Y, or Z reasons, and you

just

don't realize what's going on behind the scenes.

One of the books I read years ago, and I think

I'll get this title right, is Leadership Pain,

and the author basically argues that the lid to

your leadership is how much pain you can endure

as a leader. It's somewhat of a depressing idea...

Indeed it is.

But incredibly true, I think. And so as you

alluded to, there are all kinds of

pains that come with leadership. I think one of

the great pains for me early on was realizing

that despite my very best intentions and heart,

people have to make their own choice to grow

and to take steps that will lead with Jesus and

through Jesus to freedom. And man, it's just an

ache when you see people have, in a sense, all

the tools and resources at their fingertips to

make

the changes that they or their family desperately

need them to make, and they don't do it, and it

weighs on you. So those are pains, and then there

are pains, like you said, where a friend of mine

was a pastor friend who's just got the greatest

heart and is more of an also kind of an

entrepreneurial

creative leader, and so we get along well, but he's

like, "Even after all these years,

it's like you have an idea to help advance the

kingdom, and still there are some people that

are gonna interpret it through a cynical lens, 'Oh,

they're just trying to do this, oh, they just

that,'" and he goes, "You know, I just wish we

could lead and not have all the peanut gallery

folks having their comments and chat about

whatever." But ultimately, I think this is why

it's so important that we sense that God called

us truly to leadership, and particularly to

ministry

leadership. Charles Spurgeon used to tell

potential pastors, those who are interested in

ministry, "Do anything that you possibly can

professionally other than ministry unless God

is utterly calling you to ministry," because he

knew that this calling comes with some challenges,

and yet God's grace is sufficient when He has

called you to do the thing you're called to do.

People will come to me all the time and think, "I

could never be a pastor, I could never do your

job, I could never," and it's like, "Well, yeah,

you couldn't because you're not called to it."

You're not called to it.

But I am called to it, and so some of the things

that might really wreck one person,

God gives me the grace, and that doesn't mean it's

not painful still, but He gives me the grace to

keep going, and when you're weak, you're strong,

and I think that's really true. So I don't know,

does that answer your question or not really?

It does, and I think it... Well, it begins to

answer the question that that story is gonna

be unique for each leader, and he or she will

have to navigate that in his or her own way. I

think

support around a leader is really important,

which is an opportune time to bring up Christina.

[laughter]

It's maybe not fair to say that the two of you

run in Getty together, but you lead together,

work is here and work is home. What has Christina

meant to the vocation of Brian Aulick, and how do

you guys manage that dynamic in your marriage of

leading such a large team and organization?

Yeah, that's a great question. My marriage to

Christina outside of my relationship with Jesus

is the single biggest blessing in my life, hands

down. And she would be the first one to say

that she believes and feels called to her First

Ministry is not her staff role at church,

it is to our family and specifically to me as her

husband. And that's utterly crucial, because

even before she worked on staff, and she's worked

on staff maybe a little more than 10 years,

and of course we've been around 20, so she's...

And for the listener's sake, what is her role at

Getty?

Yeah, she's the pastor over global missions.

Pastor global missions.

Yeah, so she... On the days where ministry was

particularly hard,

Christina always created this environment, and

this is still true to this day, where you just

couldn't wait, I couldn't wait to come home. I

still can't wait to come home. I literally just

told her that this week. I told her, I said, "Christina,

this is the best part of my day,

is being home with you," even though the day was

filled with good things. So that's still the case

here, 28 years into marriage and 20 years into

Getty. And so I think that we've been able to

celebrate the good times together. Last spring,

we had a baptism, and I think it was right after

Easter, and I think it was like 80-some people

got baptized. And we're just sitting there, we're

crying, and we're up in the front row, and we're

like, "Can you believe what God is doing?" And

it's so fun to sit there with your spouse and to

be able to celebrate those great things God

has done and rejoice and be thankful. And then in

the hard times, to know that's your safest place,

you can talk about everything. And so she's just

been a tremendous source of life and joy,

and that continues literally to this day. I think

on the leadership side of things,

so the way we set it up, and churches do this

differently when there's a spouse involved,

she is not a direct report to me. So we do talk

about all things in Getty together,

but she doesn't direct report to me, she reports

to our executive pastor. And we all have, I mean,

he coaches her well, he encourages her on areas

that she needs to grow, gives her encouragement.

I do too, but I mean, that really is the coaching

dynamic. And so it's nice because

I still weigh in on things global, and she gets

my opinion at different times and stuff like that.

And that's really fun, but the real operational

stuff, I enjoy staying out of.

[laughs]

Leave that to Josh, our executive pastor.

Yes, and I get to hear those stories too from

Josh. Brian is creating another mess,

and Josh has to figure out how to clean it up.

Oh, I love it. Yeah. Well, it's so funny 'cause

sometimes Christina will have these big

issues she's trying to figure out, and I'll say,

"Josh, thank you for being the sounding board

for all of that," 'cause that meant I didn't have

to do it at home. She knows that too.

She's heard me say it, so I appreciate that

though. Our marriage is just like the absolute,

absolute rock. I mean, it's really fun to lead

out of a place of a healthy marriage.

I will echo that. The most important decision you

can make is what to do with the person and work

of Jesus Christ, and the second most important

decision, who you marry.

Do you find that you and Jess are... I guess, has

your marriage, when it comes to your

leadership, has that been a kind of a important

place of refuge or...

It's been an important place of refuge. It has

been difficult. It's been both.

You guys lead closer than we do.

This is the thing. We have a small organization

at the gym, and we have another company with

seven, so very horizontal leadership. And so work

is kind of all the time, but we have the...

We just have one rule, and it's respect the know.

Whether it's a tickle fight or I don't wanna talk

about business, someone says, "Now's not the time,"

it's respect the know.

Yeah, that's a good word. That's good practice.

We have the same where it's sometimes we're in

the mood to like, "Oh, let's talk church." Other

times it's like, "Hey, how about we talk about

anything but church right now?" Which is a good

thing.

But Jess and I operate very similarly to maybe

you and the Josh relationship, the executive

pastor, where she has a much higher function and

a gifting for vision, but has no desire

to carry that out. And I'm the integrator. I will

help you execute your plan, or if I'm not

being a helpful spouse, I will tell you why it

won't work.

Uh-huh, that's good.

Sometimes. Sometimes, right?

Hey, one thing I was gonna mention earlier, I

know that you had...

'Cause right before we got going here, you

bounced over some questions that you might be

asking. I

was thinking about the megachurch thing, and you

had had a question on there about how do we

prevent

the church from being a cult of personality?

I was just gonna get to that.

Were you really? Okay, gotcha.

Well, I thought if it was valuable, I thought I

didn't wanna...

'Cause that could be a good follow-up on the wife

talk. That's a misinterpretation of the

original Hebrew. It's "whoa, man, whoa."

Whoa.

Yeah, I was thinking about that. So maybe you

wanna ask the question on how you were gonna ask

it

about that issue.

So I... And this is the question. And Getty is on

an explosive trajectory. The word is being

preached clearly, exegetically, in an exciting

way. There is momentum here. Clearly,

in 20 years, there's something impressive going

on. I've been in the room with you.

Jokingly, I was on the elder board 14 years ago

as a 29-year-old child.

[chuckle]

Well, that's 'cause the church is... The oldest

person was probably like 34.

Right. And you were clearly the strongest voice

in the room, capable of,

we'll not say coercion, but convincing. It is a gifting.

Brian is excited about something,

he casts a vision, and other people come along

with him. That is a gifting, if it's used for

the kingdom, right? And so the obvious question

is, how do we prevent what checks and balances,

what spiritual practices? And I talked even in

most recent podcast about the spiritual practices.

It's the diet and exercise of this Christian life,

but what is uniquely in place to keep

this organization from becoming a cult

personality?

Yeah, it's a great question. And I think a few

things, but I'll tell you, it's interesting,

'cause I was thinking about that question, and I

guess the first thing I would say is sometimes

in culture, and I don't think this is where you're

coming from, but sometimes in culture,

people almost want to take shots when there is a

visible or known leader, as if that visibility

in and of itself is a bad thing. And I always

want to push back on that, because really,

starting from the early Church, we see key named

figures in the Bible who had a disproportionate

influence on the advancement of the kingdom of

God. Peter was a player. I mean, he got things

moving. And we see Peter's faults, but we also

see God use him in some powerful ways, and we

notice

in Scripture, it's not like, it doesn't refer to

all these people as, "And then someone, and then

someone," it's, "We know who they are. We know

who Martin Luther is, who John Calvin is, who

John

Wesley is." And that is because God used them in

disproportionate ways. So what we want to do is

be careful to say that just because someone maybe

is known or has greater exposure doesn't mean

that

that in itself is a bad thing. Now, to your point,

you want to be careful that an organization

or a Church is not just a personality-driven

celebrity thing kind of a culture. And so,

what do we do about that? By the way, the same

thing's true at a gym, right? We can't build

anything scalable around our personality. To a

point, it can be, you know, it can be too,

but if the story becomes about the Gospel, about

God's Church, that can be scalable. But I

interject. Yeah, no, I think that's a great point.

Yeah, so you want to, on the one hand,

celebrate when there's a person or a figure that

can help advance things, whether it be a business

or a Church, in a significant way, but you also

don't want the whole thing to turn on, "Oh man,

Howard Schultz left Starbucks and now it crashed,"

is kind of a thing. I think for us, a few things

came to my mind when I was thinking about this.

Number one is that we want to have, I mean,

just on the accountability side, we want to have

a board that oversees me that is filled with

strong, experienced, capable leaders. Every year,

we try to increase the quality of our board. We

have extremely accomplished, Jesus-loving, smart,

have-their-own-minds kind of people on our board,

and I think our board has gotten stronger with

each subsequent year, and that's the goal. I love

being in the room with people who push and who

ask good questions, not for the sake of just

being,

like they take perverse joy in being devil's

advocate all the time, but they really strive

for what's best and they ask intelligent

questions to help us get there. True people who

are great

leaders, that actually is a source of joy for

them, not like intimidation. To me, I come alive

when people are smart, driving people, want to

ask, "How do we do this best?" And even recently

with our Grand Rapids campus, I was bringing some

ideas to the table about it, we were processing

it

and our board weighed in, and some of our plans

and execution of that whole project changed

because

of the board in some very critical ways. And I

joke with one of them in particular, I say,

"This part of the building, we should name it in

your honor." But that was because we had smart,

experienced, spiritually mature people who are

able to speak in, and that's something we

literally

ask every prospective board member, "How do you

feel about challenging or confronting Brian?"

They have to be asked that question. Other things

we do here at Agede, I think having a plurality

of teachers from the stage, I'm only up maybe 55

to 60% of Sundays, I think is really good.

Whenever I am using personal illustrations, my

general practice is I want to talk about

my weaknesses and other people's strengths. So

like sermon illustrations, I don't want to come

off like the guy who's just got it, I'm rocking

it on all levels. I wanna come off as the guy

who, "Man, I really struggled here, I blew here."

And even when I do talk about a win,

I talk about it, or at least try to, from the

perspective of, "I was really struggling,

and then look what God did, and here's where I'm

at." So it's like, "Listen, I'm not above the

same

struggle, but I have made some progress." I don't

want them feeling like their pastor's just stuck

in the muck all the time, like God's doing

something. So talk about weaknesses and other

people's wins and strengths, and then preach

about idolatry of people, to be quite honest.

We just did this, 1 Corinthians opening chapters,

and we said, "What is Apollos? What is Peter?

What is Paul?" And I said, "Listen, I don't care

who your favorite preachers are, none of them

matter, there's one name that matters, and it's

Jesus." And so try to talk about that too. And

at the end of the day, I pray and hope that our

culture is one that is not idolizing people. I

can't control, obviously, what goes on in a

person's heart, but I can do everything we can

to set an environment where it doesn't make it

easy to idolize a person, and that's what we're

trying to do. - Your discernment is noted, and it's

appreciated in this next question. God has

been faithful to this point with the Getty, no

question. Worship is on a rocket ship, youth

programs are astounding, my kids personally have

been absolutely blessed. Ministries are popping

up, community needs being met. What is the state

of the Church in West Michigan and in our greater

global area, within Getty's reach, and what do

you see the Holy Spirit doing in the next 20

years?

- Well, I'll take a stab at that, I'd love to

hear your take as well, 'cause you have a whole...

For any of us, we have our little slice of the

world that we're exposed to and experience,

and so you'll have maybe a nuance on this. Let's

start with the local side.

When I think of just kind of what God is doing in

West Michigan, a couple of themes come to my mind.

One is, people who are from around here recognize

that this area has a fairly strong

historical spiritual rootedness in Christ, and I

think that that legacy, you definitely still feel,

it still presents. I don't think it's as strong

as it once was, but I do think we're not living

in secular Seattle, so to speak. You still feel

the legacy of faith in this area, and I really,

I'm grateful for that. I think that increasingly,

at En Getty, I talk to people, and I would say on

that point of the legacy of faith, that is great

from the standpoint of people having some

presuppositions that come out of a Christian

worldview. That is tough in the sense of we still

deal with a fair amount of Christian hypocrisy

and... Cultural evangelicalism?

Yeah, entirely. Cultural kind of pseudo-Christianity,

where it's like, I do the

church thing, but I'm not living it out in any

way. Christian by virtue of the way that I vote?

Exactly. Or being angry at young people.

Yeah, so that's a real challenge still. I

increasingly see people come out of very

unchurched backgrounds, though. All of the time

here at En Getty, I talk to people who say,

"I've never been to church. I've been to church

once or twice. I am an adult who has not been

to church since I was like seven years old." I

hear that story more than I ever have.

But then on the flip side, sounding like I'm

talking out of both sides of my mouth,

there is a passion right now for the gospel, and

a passion particularly amongst young people

to pursue Jesus that I also haven't seen maybe

since I've lived in West Michigan.

It's really, really cool, and including even, I

would say, and led by guys. Guys who are saying,

"We want to get after it when it comes to

following Jesus." So that part's really

encouraging. I think there's a whole move

nationwide even with young people saying,

"We want to follow Jesus." What's your take on

the local side?

I don't disagree. I think the ground, West

Michigan, America more broadly, is ripe for

a revival. I think it is going to require, as you'd

stated earlier, those who preach the word

to do so boldly and definitively. This culture is

not into wish-wash.

Totally.

But we are... I always say as a Christian, I'm a

short-term pessimist and a long-term optimist.

That's good. I like that.

If you're in a tournament, a basketball

tournament, we know we've already won the

tournament,

and for the short time that we're in this game,

we might be playing from behind. In this

particular

time, in this particular place, it feels like the

church is playing from behind a little bit,

but maybe the momentum is on the gospel side,

maybe, maybe. And we'll see when the bench gets

out, where the starters get back in, whatever the

metaphor might be, if the next generation can

continue that, I don't know. I don't know.

Well, it'll be interesting. I think on the

national level, anytime somebody wants to say

with confidence, "Here's what I think is going to

happen 20 years from now," I'd say, "You are

a fool." Because anybody who's trying to come out

with a clear statement, even from five years from

now, that being said, if one was to guess, I feel

like it's going to be really interesting.

On the one hand, I could see even more

polarization, because I think that we're

really seeing a cultural divide right now between

those who are rooted in even cultural

Christianity,

but definitely if they're solid Christians, and

the secular culture, which is just

going in some really bizarre directions, frankly.

So on the one hand, that sets up for greater

polarization. That being said, I think that to

your point about there being the ground is right

for revival, it's interesting. After Easter, I'm

on a text thread, I was talking with a

pastor who's a pastor of a very large church, and

he's on a thread with a ton of other pastors who

are part of large churches. So I've got my own

thread with a bunch of large churches, and then

this guy in particular has got his own thread as

well, and they don't overlap. And it was

interesting,

because as we were talking about how Easter went,

basically everybody was saying, "We have never

seen this many people in church. We've never seen

this many people give their life to Jesus." And

this is all around the country, that this is

coming in. So I'm hearing those stories literally

from coast to coast, and I think you only know if

revival is happening when it's in the

rearview mirror, and you can look back and see

what the fruits were, but I do think something

is happening, and I would love to believe for a

future that...I don't think that there'll ever be

a lack of cultural tension between people of

faith and the broader culture, but I do think

perhaps there will be a greater move towards God

and an appreciation of the Christian worldview,

even by those who don't necessarily share it.

Right, like a Sam Harris.

Sam Harris, yeah. I like Christmas carols.

Elon, it seems like he's saying some positive

things, but Tom Holland, who's a...I

believe he's a historian by trade, but he's wrote

a book called Dominion, and he basically started

out as...you've read it? Yes. He started out

skeptical and realizes, "My gosh, a lot of the

values that we have in our culture for justice

and plurality and all these different things,

they come out of a Christian worldview." They are

Judeo-Christian worldview.

And you can't really build the culture...I mean,

these values that we love and cherish,

they don't stand on anything if you take the Judeo-Christian

heritage out. So you've got

people that aren't even explicitly followers of

Christ who are going, "The whole Judeo-Christian

worldview thing is kind of a big deal, and we

like it even if we're not to the point we're

giving our lives to Christ." So we'll see what

that means for the future.

You have been very, very vocal about victories,

about praises, about God showing up in fantastic,

small, big ways when it comes to obedience, tithing,

marriage, addiction, just a solid prayer

and scripture reading life. Are there any stories

that are left untold? Is there something that,

"Man, this is...the people have just got to hear

about this."

Well, I think that the stories that come to my

mind that we sort of haven't told

are ones that when we get them--and it's

particularly baptism stories, I would say,

that's a big category of where people will give

us a story of how they came to know Jesus and

what they came from, and they will say, "I don't

feel comfortable with this being shared publicly

yet." And I understand that. There are people in

our church who are convicted murderers and have

served time, and they don't want to get up in

front of the church and necessarily name that.

There are people who have done other dark kinds

of things in their past, in many cases their

distant past, and Christ has healed and restored

them, and now they are flourishing in Jesus,

and it's really, really cool to see. I wish I

could share all of those, but I understand where

people say, "Hey, not yet," because I think for

most of us, if you said, "Hey, could you think

about your worst possible sin or failure and then

tell 2,000 people that..." I think many of us are

going to go, "Gulp, let me think about that." But

those are the stories people have come out of at

times. Incredible addiction, they've been abusers,

they've been abused, and to hear them encounter

Jesus and receive healing is just...it melts me.

I was so encouraged that Desiree, just a few

weeks

ago, who had some experience as a young girl in

the adult film industry, she was willing to say

in front of our whole church that's where she'd

been and this is what Jesus has rescued her out

of,

and I was so proud of her for giving testimony to

that, but I would say that not everyone

is willing to be that candid, and I really was

proud of her for sharing that.

God's praised it all.

Totally.

Yeah, for the unnamed thing. All right, very good.

Well, Brian, in the time that we have left,

I was hoping that we could have a little fun.

Maybe some rapid fire questions, maybe

a little bit silly, a little bit fun. We could do...

Got some questions here for you.

Okay, you got notes.

I got notes.

Oh my gosh, watch out.

We will do... We'll throw you a softball.

Yeah.

Right? This first one's multiple guess.

Okay.

All right. The most intelligent person in your

marriage is A, Christina, or B, not you?

Definitely, I mean, boy, I can't lose with that

answer. If Christina here, she would say A or B

for sure.

A or B? That is correct. You see, and it's just

that simple. We're already winning.

This is fantastic. What would Christina say is

your worst habit?

Boy, that's a great question. I mean, she'd have

to... She'd really think about that, and

she'd have a list of different things, nothing

serious. I think if I were to guess, Christina

would say, "I can make jokes that she doesn't

enjoy hearing, and I will continue to make them."

That's the best. That's the fantastic thing about

marriage, captive audience.

Exactly. Unfortunately, her lack of enjoyment of

my jokes is all the more incentive to keep

saying it.

Perfect. I'm married to that person. This is

great. This is good. Audience of one.

Finish this sentence, "God's love is..."

Sacrificial.

Yeah. Good. If someone listens to you preach for

very long, they're gonna know two things,

the tomb is empty, and a guy likes some shoes.

What's on the old grape stompers today?

Right now, I've got some Air Force style boots.

Yep, show the people.

Black boots. There it is.

There it is.

Yeah.

That is... Our pastor is styling.

I get some pushback on these at times. I have

some people that... Literally, I just wore these

into a meeting the other day, and after I was out

of the meeting, somebody goes, "Why does he have

those boots on? What is he doing?" And then there's

another group of 20-somethings that every time I

wear them when I preach, I found out from my

daughter that there's a group that love to make

fun of these massive boots.

This is also good for not becoming a cult of

personality.

Yeah, that's right.

That's good. What book is on the nightstand

currently?

What book is on the night... Okay, I've got my

iPad here, and I love that question,

and I am a huge fan of books. So rather than go

off memory, I am gonna pull up my nightstand.

That's good. Accuracy is important.

Right. Okay, I'm gonna give you two books that I'm

reading right now.

Okay. Get your pens and pencils out.

And you know what? It's funny because I love

reading deep things, but part of my calling,

and I think gifting, is to be able to translate

on the stage at a very popular, accessible level.

Yeah.

But in my heart, I love to nerd out. So anyway,

the first book, and this would be one that

anybody

would really benefit from, is a book called Tim

Keller on the Christian Life,

subtitled The Transforming Power of the Gospel.

And this book was written by, let's see if I can

get his name, Matt... Oh, it just disappeared.

Matt... Looks like Smethurst. And basically,

what he does is he writes a book about the major

themes of Tim Keller's life, teaching, and

ministry, and each chapter is a theme, and then

he takes the best out of Keller's work. And in

some

ways, it's almost easier to read than Keller

himself because he's distilling it at a really

accessible level. So that's book number one.

Okay, book number one.

Commend that to everybody who's listening, and

that book has won a number of best Christian

Book of the Year awards, okay?

Fantastic.

So you need to get it, Mike.

I'm gonna get it. I'm gonna get it on audiobook.

Then, separate book that I'm reading right now is

called The Beechers,

America's Most Influential Family. So Harriet Beecher

Stowe, well, her father, Lyman Beecher,

was the father of, I think, 10 kids, maybe 11, I

can't remember, and what you find...

Many.

They... All right. They can't... What you find

out when you look at history is all of his kids

were

incredibly influential in their own right. And so

I'm just interested in what kind of family

culture

he was creating and cultivating that led his kids

to be so influential, so marked by a desire to

impact the world for the positive for Christ.

Although some of them went a little skewed

theologically, but by and large, these kids did

well. Yeah, exactly. So those are two of my books.

All right, those are the two books. Write that

down. Write that down, listeners. All right,

Missouri Synod, Wisconsin Synod, or ELCA?

[laughter]

This is a...

That was a little esoteric.

That's a Lutheran nerd question, man.

That's a Lutheran nerd question.

Well, I don't have exactly a Lutheran... Well, it's

funny. I don't have a Lutheran background

proper, but my grand... Do you know this? My

grandfather was a Missouri Synod pastor. You

knew that? Okay. So I'm gonna go Missouri Synod.

That's correct. That's correct, yeah. So moving

on.

But I don't know any... I don't really know

anything else, so...

All right, this one for the theologians. "If God

is all-powerful, can He make a rock,"

I want you to settle this once and for all, "so

large that He Himself cannot lift it?"

[laughter]

Oh, that's a funny question.

True or false, someone has threatened to leave in

Getty because you

talk about IU too much from the stage. That is

true, it was me. That is true.

I was gonna say, not to my knowledge, but I

wouldn't be surprised.

That's good. It's definitely me.

I did... I have heard stories, and it's funny

because you asked earlier about pushback that

maybe has come with talking about controversial

things and whatnot, and I have not gotten a whole

lot directly. Mostly what I get is from people

who really appreciate biblical stands, but I did

just

hear a couple of stories of different people who

have walked out during church. And it's funny,

the church is big enough and there are enough

people out in front of me that I don't know,

"Are you going to go in the bathroom? Are you

going to get coffee? Do you have an emergency

meeting?" Yeah, I don't know what's going on. So

that was the first time I'd heard, "Oh, like they

said, I'm done with this." So it wasn't because I

was talking about IU, it was 'cause of other,

let's say, more biblical issues.

You know, you can't win 'em all.

Even though IU's team has had a greatness of

biblical proportions right now.

Indeed they have. The people would like to hear

more about IU basketball,

but it's conspicuously absent from those sermons

is the IU basketball. But moving on...

I hope to shift, we'll see.

Let's see. What is the worst dad joke that you

have told from the stage? We want to hear the

cringiest joke that you have let go.

I would really have to process that to come up

with one, and I say that because...

There's too many.

I don't... There's too many. I don't plan. The

dad humor in particular is generally not planned.

You are genuinely earnest. It just happens.

It just flows, yeah. So it's not like, "Oh, I've

got this joke in my pocket." I will say the most

cringy for my kids is anytime dads probably talk

about sex.

That's without a doubt. Without a doubt.

Somebody just told me they were listening to the...

They were traveling and they were

watching the message with their daughters, and

their daughter's like, "Do we have to listen to

Pastor Brian talk about his sex life?" [laughs]

That's how you know you're doing it right. That's

how you know you're doing it right.

Take their medicine.

Don't you hate it when people one-up you, Brian?

I don't love the spirit of one-upness, but I love

excellence in others.

Well, I love it. I love it.

You just one-upped me and you're loving?

This guy has planned for this stuff. Our producer,

Chuck, he can really keep it together here.

I have notes. Let's see.

Speaking of dad jokes.

A good way to grow at a large church is... finish

the sentence.

Yes, get connected, get connected, get connected.

That could be a serving opportunity, could be a

group, but ultimately growth is gonna come as you

get into community.

Is there really a dangerous prayer to pray?

Trick question.

Like the one for patience.

Trick question. Yeah. My belief is that on the

one hand, the more you're willing to open up

yourself to say, "God," whatever you want,

wherever you want, you could argue, "Oh, that's a

dangerous

prayer to pray," because God can take you

anywhere, but yet I believe the best place you

can be is in

the center of God's will. So that's even back to

the whole calling into ministry and somebody else

is gonna be called into something else that's

more difficult and dangerous than what I'm in,

and I say if you're in obedience to Christ, no

matter where that plays out, you're in the best

possible place you can be. I don't know if that

was supposed to be a funny question, but you got

a serious answer.

Well said. And we love it. We're having a good

time.

Yeah.

A powerful prayer life is... finish the sentence.

I'd say a powerful prayer life... I'm gonna have

to use multiple... there's gonna be commas in

this one. A powerful prayer life is consistent,

it's humble/dependent, it is expectant for God to

show up in big ways, it is faith-filled, that God

can and will do what His Word promises He will do,

and lastly I would say it's marked by a... and

this is related to dependence, but a spirit of

desperation that says, "I need God." These are

not just words I am mouthing, they come out of a

heart

that says, "Apart from His supernatural power and

presence, this will not happen the way that God

wants it to happen."

That is fantastic, and a good note to go out on.

But before we do, I have one small exercise to do.

When I was here last, I didn't feel like I got to

say everything I wanted to say, and I left

thinking, "Man, if I had just gotten a chance to

say that, I'd give this much money." And this,

Brian, is that much money, right?

Oh my gosh. Hold on, I gotta see it, I gotta see

what you're showing.

This is that much money.

Oh my gosh.

Do you know how the Gospel is a free gift from

God by grace and not by works, and all we need to

do

is to receive that gift? This is not like that.

You're gonna have to dance a little bit.

[laughter]

You willing to dance for God's people?

We'll see what that means.

I have in my bag a couple of nice, crisp, flying

pea hats.

Oh my gosh.

It's gonna be great, Brian. Now, it's important,

and we're gonna do this together.

Okay.

I got two, I got matchy hats.

All right.

Matchy hats. We're gonna do this together. This

is gonna be fantastic.

My brother-in-law is gonna love this.

This is gonna be great. He just needs to listen

to the last five minutes of this.

I'm gonna tighten this thing up.

That's fine. You're not gonna keep it anyway. I

got something for you. No, it's fine.

You don't have to keep it. This is important.

Everyone knows this is not a tie. This is to

kingdom builders, right? So God's gonna get His,

but it's up to Brian on whether kingdom builders

gets there or not. We're just gonna need...

People wanna hear a little boiler up for kingdom

builders.

Can I get a boiler up for kingdom builders, Brian?

So, okay, this is ignorance, but when you're

saying "boiler up," you just go "boiler up?"

Boiler up.

Boiler up.

Boiler up for kingdom builders.

Boiler up for kingdom builders.

One more time, Brian. The people can't hear you.

Boiler up for kingdom builders.

That is fantastic, Brian. You've been great.

That includes you too, Alan. I know you're a

boiler fan. You're listening to this right now.

Brian has earned himself a nice... We'll exchange

that. That is a nice... We'll take that one.

Hold on, hold on. Let's look at this. And this is

a nice hat.

It's a nice hat.

Indiana football, no doubt.

Indiana football, which I think is fair. Brian

has worked for it, everybody, and I think that's

fair. It even fits better, honestly. You can tell

these are made for Hoosier heads, and that must

be

made for a pretty...

It must be the smaller brain. This comes size 86

for larger brains, I guess. This is fantastic.

Well, I'm glad we did boiler up because these

resources will be used for kingdom builders.

It's well worth it.

And thank you guys. You guys have been a big part

of kingdom builders this year,

and it's awesome to see that. And God has just

done remarkable things through

the generosity of our church. So thank you for

being part of that.

Yeah, amen.

No, and thank you for being the vision caster for

that. I hope that people got a chance to

know you and know the ministry a little bit

better. And with that said, please make sure

you like and subscribe, rate and review, because

it helps us tell the story about what God's doing

in his kingdom. Thanks for coming in, Brian.

There we go. Thanks for having me at my own

podcast. And Mike, man, I love you. I love your

ride. You guys are an amazing team and couple,

and you're leaders in our community, and not just

leaders in your business. You're leaders for

health in our community. You're leaders for just

what it means to follow Jesus in our community.

And you are the true test of great parents is

how their kids are doing. And you guys are

raising some great, great kids. So...

It's been a pleasure.

Well done.

Thank you. God be praised.

Awesome.

Amen.