I was focused on music for a long time, so I wanted to, my dream was to be like the next Chris Brown.

Okay.

For a while, and I was recording songs, I was doing like little shows around Chicago.

Yeah.

It did okay, but it didn't really scratch the itch. There was always something missing.

And I remember one day, my mom had worked her shift.

She usually wakes up in the afternoons after her night shifts, and she woke up and she was like,

she said the Holy Spirit told her that we need to go see the Lion King.

Went to the box office, and the lady was like, "Oh, it's pretty much sold out, but we actually have two seats available."

here in the front. And that's when my life changed. I saw the Lion King and

something went off and I'm in my mind I was like man I don't know what's gonna

happen but I want to be Simba in the Lion King. I didn't care about being an

actor. I didn't want to be on Broadway. I didn't want an Oscar. I was like man I want to play

that role right there.

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.

Hey everyone, welcome to Made to Advance.

It is so good to have you here today

and we've got a great conversation coming up.

But before we get to it, I wanna ask you a favor.

If you could like our podcast, comment on it,

subscribe to it, all that stuff helps us

get the pot out to more people

and helps us bring on more great guests.

And so today I have Aaron Nelson with me.

Aaron is currently touring in Disney's "The Lion King"

while he works on his master's in theological studies

at Liberty University.

In addition to "The Lion King,"

Aaron has been on TV shows like "FBI,"

"Most Wanted," and "Chicago Fire."

And he's also been part of stage productions

like "Rent" and "Dreamgirls."

Aaron and I first met when he visited

in Getty Church a few weeks ago,

and I thought it'd be so cool to hear more

of his story on the pod.

And so without further ado, Aaron, welcome to the show.

- Thank you, man, glad to be here, glad to be here, man.

- Did I get all the details of your career correct?

- You did, man, you reminded me of some stuff

that made me smile, man.

- Wow. - Dreamgirls, that was fun.

- Yeah. - Well, I know,

I heard you laughing a little bit when I said that.

- Yeah, yeah.

- So here's, just before we started shooting,

you started actually doing some scar right there,

and I'm like, and I have not,

now we're actually seeing if there's any way

we can make it work to see the show,

but I have not seen you actually go into character.

I've just seen like pictures

and I've seen video in your costume.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- So I'm wondering, this would be a way

we have never started a pod this way.

I'm wondering if you could start

with like one of your favorite lines

or whatever that you do in the show.

- Okay, yeah, I'll do Scar then.

He grabs his mouse at the top of the show.

Life's not fair, is it?

You see, I shall never be king

you shall never see another day.

I do.

(laughing)

- Thank you, Dean Connally, thank you, Connie.

Love it, love it, love it.

Well, everybody I've talked to that's been to the show

has not just said that the show is great,

but they've come back saying,

man, Aaron slays it in the show.

So I'm sure you hear good things all the time,

but needless to say,

everybody I've talked to here from church

that's seen you has just been like, man, it's, he's like,

I'm like, "So how was he?"

And he's like, "No."

They're like, "Oh man, he is good."

And I'm like, "Yeah, but tell me more."

And they're like, "No, he's really good."

(laughing)

- Oh man, that's a blessing.

- So that's good to hear.

Hey, tell me about your background.

Let's start there.

- Yes.

- Yeah, where'd you grow up?

What was kind of your family background?

And then maybe a little bit of your spiritual background too.

- Yeah, of course, of course.

So I'm born and raised in Chicago,

the South side of Chicago.

- All right.

- I actually, I wanted to play football for the longest.

I was a football guy, I was a sports guy.

So all the way up until eighth grade year,

I was focused on trying to find my way

to pay for the Chicago Bears.

- Okay.

- Go Bears.

But life had a shift for me.

When I was in eighth grade,

in an effort to try to prove myself and be cool,

which is what a lot of adolescents do at that time,

I end up getting into a fight with a guy from another school

and I got arrested actually.

- No kidding.

- Yeah, and this is how it worked out, right?

I fight the guy, he takes off his jacket

to kind of square up with me.

My friend comes and takes his jacket and runs off.

Soon as he runs, we all run, that's what we do.

Somebody runs, we all run.

About 15 minutes later, we're feeling good,

we got this guy's jacket, we're walking down the block,

and a couple girls from the school come up

and they're like, "Man, Aaron,

the police are looking for you."

And we're like, "What?"

We keep walking and all of a sudden,

about five or six squad cars pull up.

Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop.

They get us, you're under arrest.

got taken down to the station and I was charged at 13

with strong arm robbery.

- No kidding.

- The charge, so the strong arming was the fight,

the robbery was the coat put together, that was the charge.

Got kicked out of school, I was actually going

to a Catholic school, private school in Chicago,

got kicked out of school and my mom started to homeschool me

and thus began the arts journey.

- Okay. - Yeah.

- Man, so she's homeschooling you back then

And was your dad in the picture or a single mom?

- A single mom.

- So she's homeschooling you,

and I'm working jobs and doing stuff too.

- Yeah, she worked overnights, man.

She worked 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

- Bro.

- So she would come in in the morning,

all right, this is what you gotta do today,

I'm gonna get some rest.

- Wow.

- And it was up to me to do my work.

- Wow.

- By the time she got up, yeah, man.

- Yeah, so shout out to your mom right now.

- Shout out to mom, shout out to mom.

- So is she, she's still in Chicago now?

- Oh, no, she moved to her, my daddy,

I call my stepdad, but it's all love.

That's not my stepdad, that's my dad.

They live in Appleton, Wisconsin right now.

He runs their radio program for a university up there.

And she's a respiratory therapist.

- Okay, gotcha.

Cool, all right, so that's how it started.

And then tell me about just faith background.

Were you guys churchgoers or not really?

Or what was that like? - Yeah, we were churchgoers.

The home church I was raised in was Trinity United Church

of Christ in Chicago.

baptized there by Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright. So I've always had a pretty

strong background when it came to Christ. Now me being completely committed to it

is a whole different conversation that we might get into, but I've always had

had the influence of God in my life.

- Okay. So that ended the football, the whole football aspirations.

You were hanging up the Bears hat. You got a Blackhawks hat on today.

- Yeah, I'm gonna tell you, everything Chicago I'm a fan of.

Which by the way, we lived in Chicago for three years,

or Chicago land, I should say, for three years.

And we went to a couple of Bulls games,

I went to a couple of Bears games,

and I went to one Blackhawks-Red Wings game.

By far the craziest game I've ever been to.

That's the only professional hockey game I've ever been to.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- It's insane.

Those fans are crazy.

Have you been to games before?

- Absolutely.

- Or Blackhawks, I mean, yeah.

- Absolutely.

- Is that how it normally is?

- Yeah, yeah, I actually went to their season opener,

The home opener last season and it was bananas.

It was bananas.

And we had really great, really great seats.

It was insane.

- Yeah, it made it more fun, honestly.

There was one Red Wings fan who had this like

huge banner flag thing.

And he'd like hold it on his back like a cape.

And then anything good happened, he'd stand up,

you know, and he's like this.

And he was down low so everybody could see him.

And it was obnoxious and he was loving being obnoxious.

And at one point, a guy from Chicago just grabs that thing,

rips it off his back and throws it up in the stands.

And then it ends up getting thrown all over the stand.

They're just pitching all over.

Finally security came in, it was a whole thing.

But you know, as long as I'm not involved,

I'm like, let's go, I love it.

- I was gonna say, now being, I guess, in Michigan,

I don't know if you're from--

- I'm from Indiana.

- Indiana, oh, that explains the Hoosiers.

- Yeah.

- Okay, my daddy, he went to IU, so.

- Shut up!

- He was very, very happy about the win.

- No kidding.

- You're saying birth dad,

when you say daddy or stepdad?

- My stepdad.

- Stepdad went to IU, what was his major?

- I think he was a communications major.

I don't quote me on that,

but he went into radio in Indianapolis

and did very well there.

So it's no way that he was that good in radio

and didn't study it.

So I'm just gonna go with communication and radio.

- I like it.

Well, just a note to then all listeners again,

another Hoosier connection.

So thank you for that.

I mean, I'm looking for,

trust me, I don't get many of them.

So anytime we can bring it up.

So what led you into theater?

So football, that was kind of hung up,

you're doing homeschooling and all that stuff.

How did the theater thing even come to play?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I was focused on music for a long time,

so I wanted to, my dream was to be the next Chris Brown

for a while, and I was recording songs,

I was doing little shows around Chicago.

And it did okay, but it didn't really scratch the itch.

There was always something missing.

And I remember one day, my mom had worked her shift.

She usually wakes up in the afternoons

after her night shifts, and she woke up

and she was like, "Okay, we're gonna go down to the theater,"

'cause Lion King was in town, I was about 15 years old.

Lion King was in town and she said,

"Okay, we're gonna go down and see if we can get tickets."

Guess the, she said the Holy Spirit told her

that we need to go see the Lion King.

- Come on. - Yeah, so we just went down

like maybe about an hour or so before the show started.

Went to the box office and the lady was like,

"Oh, it's pretty much sold out,

"but we actually have two seats available

"right here in the front."

I guess they were like rush tickets back then, right?

So we were able to get seats

when my life changed, I saw "The Lion King"

and something went off and in my mind I was like,

man, I don't know what's gonna happen,

but I wanna be Simba in "The Lion King."

I didn't care about being an actor,

I didn't wanna be on Broadway, I didn't want an Oscar,

I was like, man, I wanna play that role right there.

- Wow.

- And that's how the journey got started

into acting in theater, man.

- And you're how old again at that point?

- I was 15.

- 15. - 15, yeah.

- So what do you do next?

What's the, you're 15,

so you got some high school years left.

- Yeah.

finish school, but how's the path play out then?

- Yeah, so I ended up starting, I walked around

and in my neighborhood, we were in the South Loop

of Chicago at that time, so I went and walked

into some dance classes, which was all the Holy Spirit

because I was not interested in dance.

But the reason I went in, I'll be honest,

I went into the dance class because I looked in the mirror

and I saw all the pretty young ladies that were there

and I was like, let me try that class.

But I go into the class and the instructor's like,

you know, you actually got something,

why don't you come back and take it?

Why don't you try ballet?

Why don't you try tap?

So I was like, all right, cool.

The girls are there, I'm there.

Let's do it.

But it actually started to,

it was like a fish to water, man.

I jumped in, so I'm already recording music,

now I'm dancing, you know what I mean?

- The package is coming together.

- Yeah, so it's all coming together.

And I do that all through high school,

and then I get accepted into Columbia College in Chicago.

Still doing music, still dancing, still singing.

Wasn't acting yet.

That happened when I got into the Disney College program.

- Okay, which is part of Columbia,

or is that a separate thing?

- No, it's a whole separate thing.

So they came in, they do their little spills,

they come up and do a little pop-up.

It's like, hey, come join the service.

That type of thing.

So I end up doing that audition for it.

My buddy Chris was like,

hey, let's go down and audition for this thing.

So they had this whole dancer movement call.

They had to learn this whole combination.

And I'm not thinking about it, I'm loose about it.

So I'm acting a fool in there, and they were like,

huh, you should come down and work for us,

and actually, you might be a good Power Ranger.

I was like, "What? I get to be a Power Ranger?

"That'd be crazy, I love being a Power Ranger."

- Such a funny world that that's actually a conversation.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess at that time,

the Power Rangers were a Disney property.

So I'm like, "Yeah, come down, all right, cool."

So I audition, I get accepted into the college program,

and I wasn't a Power Ranger right away, right?

You have to go through character training.

So they teach you how to become the character,

how to move like the character,

how to sign autographs,

and how to interact with these guests.

I remember my first assignment was to be friends with Tigger, not Tigger.

Friends with Tigger.

But man, there was something about being a character.

Like I remember getting on my laptop and watching old videos of Winnie the Pooh and like, "Okay,

how does Tigger move?

Like how does he do this?

Oh, this is the angle, right?"

And what I didn't know was that was God's way of preparing me to become characters and

play characters.

Yeah.

All while I was down there, it was about a nine-month program.

I was friends with everyone from Tigger, Captain Hook, Baloo,

Power Ranger, all these amazing characters.

But in each one of these characters,

I had a chance to really embody these people.

And it helped me out physically, because when

you're friends with these characters,

these characters don't talk.

That character is under a mask.

You don't speak.

So that really prepared me for performing,

but there was always this, "I wanna say a word.

"I wanna say something."

- By the way, I just wanna point out,

and this is something I've mentioned before

in conversations like this,

but it's so interesting to see how God puts these seeds

in us at such an early age.

And even when you're young,

I mean, even the first time you see "The Lion King,"

you see something's going on inside you.

but even that enjoyment of just taking on characters

and figuring out movements and that you like enjoy it,

you come alive to that.

It's just interesting how these signs of how God made us

and what he made us for are present at such an early age.

So you do that program and you're at Disney World

or Disneyland?

- Disney World.

- Disney World for that for nine months, you said?

- Yeah, nine months.

- And then what happens afterwards?

- They offer me a full-time contract to stay down there

and I turned it down and people were like,

"What? This is amazing, you should do this."

And I was like, "No, I need to go back.

I need to finish school."

At that point, I had about two years left of school.

So I came back up to Chicago and I was like,

"Okay, so now I'm dancing, I'm singing,

and now I got this acting bug."

I'm like, "So how do I get into this?"

So I auditioned for some local plays in Chicago,

auditioned for an agent and get an agent.

And that's how the professional career

got started in acting.

- Yeah. - Okay, wow.

How much longer than before you ended up,

I know there's probably a variety of different things

you did and experiences you had.

How long before The Lion King,

joining the show, became a thing?

- Yeah, so I left there in 2010.

I joined Lion King on Broadway in 2013.

So about three years later.

But the funny thing is, funny thing is,

I auditioned, there's a show down at Disney World

called The Festival of The Lion King,

which is not The Lion King,

it's not a spinoff or anything like that,

but it's a celebration of the music.

It's like a theme park show, right?

I auditioned for that show and I didn't get picked.

(laughing)

- That's great.

- Yeah, the guy was like, yeah, I think he needs

to work on his voice and all that type of stuff.

And I was like, hmm, okay, yeah,

I don't need to work on my voice, I'm gonna do that.

So when I left Disney, that's one of the things I did too.

I left the program, came back up to Chicago,

started getting more professional training.

And a couple of years later,

I ended up being Simba on Broadway.

You know what I mean?

Being turned down by a theme park

to being the lead on Broadway in the same show, crazy.

- That's so great.

So you would say, I mean, in some ways,

you don't look back, you look back on that guy

who turned you down and you go,

he probably had a point at that point in your journey.

- Absolutely. - And you grew from it.

You didn't sit there and go home and cry and say,

"Okay, I guess I'm done," and da, da, da, da, da.

You said, "Hey, I'm gonna use this feedback.

"I'm gonna grow from it.

"I'm gonna do the hard work,

"and I'm gonna let it make me better," which is cool.

And one little clarification thing,

I don't exactly understand.

So there's Broadway, Broadway, like New York City Broadway.

- Yes.

- And then there's the touring company,

which is doing like,

are you saying you started on Broadway proper in New York City?

- Mm-hmm. - Okay.

--So, when I first joined Lion King, I was Simba on Broadway.

--On Broadway. Man, that would be a crazy place to start a career.

--Dude. --Oh my gosh.

--And I was 22 years, I was 22 year old guy. Yeah, yeah I was 22. And let's just be

hot. Let's get into it. I was 22. I had I was married at the time. We were only

married for about a week or so. We got married, we like kind of shotgunned it.

And got married like two weeks before I went to Broadway. Had a one-year-old

kids, so I'm like this by the time I get to Broadway. It was it was insane.

--Yeah. --It was insane.

--You're at this point, I mean, you're kind of literally living the

dream for any, I would think, when when people have aspirations for theater, for

acting, I mean it's got to be a very small percentage of people that end

up being on Broadway. So, are you just like, Oh my goodness, this is really

happening right now? What's your what's your reaction when you're like you're

invited to be on Broadway?

- Oh man, I remember I just broke down and cried, man.

I remember when I first got the initial audition,

and first of all, I auditioned,

now when it comes to "Lion King,"

I auditioned for that when I was in college.

So I auditioned for about five years, on and off,

trying to get into "Lion King" before I actually got it.

- And you're persevering.

- Yeah, yeah.

I had my first "Lion King" audition

when I was around 18 or 19.

Flew down to Orlando, actually.

I flew down to Orlando before I started doing

this college program to audition.

Didn't get it, did the college program,

got some more training, went to school,

auditioned on and off for a few more years

until I finally got the role.

- Okay. - Yeah, five years.

- Jeez, and what was it like, your transitioning?

So not only, I mean, there's so much transition

'cause you're, you know, there's family transition,

there's we're moving to a big city,

you're used to Chicago, but New York City

is next level on that. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

you've got all of what comes with being on Broadway

and all, I mean, are you able to stay humble

and keep it all in perspective?

Or I could see where it'd be easy

to go the opposite direction, like, you know,

and just get a big head and be like,

man, I'm the guy right now.

- It was that one.

- Yeah. - Yeah, I got big headed.

I thought I was the guy.

Yeah, yeah, I went in the opposite direction

and it was so funny and this is something

that I still lament now is that when I was getting ready

for my Lion King audition, I was making all these promises

I was like, "Lord, if you give me this opportunity,

"I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna be faithful with my ties,

"I'm gonna do this and this and this."

And he gave it to me and I got it.

And I don't know if it was the big city

or just not being grounded as I needed to be,

my youth, I was 22.

I got taken away by it, man.

The big lights, started drinking and stuff like that.

It got crazy, man, it got really crazy.

I really lost my anchoring in my center.

- What's the culture like of,

I don't know if it's that particular production,

I don't know how the culture is set.

Is it an actor in general culture in New York City?

Is it a production-based culture?

What's just the vibe?

I mean, are some people kind of,

oh, I'm just like coming in as a parent,

do my thing and I go back home

and then other people are like out partying?

Or is it no, everybody is just kind of like getting crazy?

- Yeah, I think everyone has their own thing.

You have people who come in and do the gig who've been there for a long time, extremely

professional.

You have people who kind of party, and then you have the diehard single people like, "I'm

in the biggest show in the world.

Let's buy all the designer stuff.

Let's go party.

Let's do all that."

And that's what attracted me at the time.

I'm like, "Oh, those guys look cool.

These other guys, this family guy, that's kind of boring.

Let me do that."

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, you obviously look back now and have some, like you were saying, you lament some of those

were there any particular big either things that you go,

this was like a victory of that season,

something you really celebrate,

and then any other things that were like

more in the learning category of this is what I took away

besides some of those decisions you just mentioned?

- Yeah, man, it's so funny.

I had, when we talk about material things,

when I was on Broadway, the apartment that I had,

and it ended up being on CNN,

my apartment complex went up into,

I think it's like a five alarm fire.

It was like, yeah, it was the Avalon Edgewater fire.

entire complex went up a couple of weeks after Christmas. So I had all the

material things I had on my clothes, my kid had a bunch of toys, and

all the things that I had treasured and valued as my keepsakes from being on

Broadway, you know, gone. Homeless. You know, all my clothes, everything. I

had nothing. Nothing. Nothing. But God, man, God provided, because at that time I

became friends with the guy who played Scar. And it just so happened

that he was out of town for two weeks, and he lived down the street. He was like,

"Yeah, you can come stay at my place. There's a key in a secret location." So

God provided even in that time. - Was that a wake-up call to you in any regard, or

was it just like, "Oh, this is really cool. This is working out for me to stay at

this place." - It was a big-time wake-up call. You know, you're attached to

all these things, and God was like, "It can be gone just like that." You know

--Right yeah. So what led them to the shift from Broadway to the touring?

--Mm-hmm. --The Lion King company or whatever?

--Yeah, so the creative team was like, Hey, you know, we want to we want to shift

things for you. And you know I'm not gonna make this story pretty. My voice

started kind of going when I was on Broadway. I wasn't as grounded as I was

when I came in. I think my artistry kind of definitely took a hit. So I think

they're like, Hey, we don't want to let you go completely. Let's see how you'll

be in a different environment. So let's send you on tour and just see what

And plus it was a beautiful thing because the tour at that point was gonna

go to Chicago, so I'll get a chance to play the role in Chicago, which was a

blessing. --Did you did you hear that news and think I see what you're doing here

and I get it? Or were you like mad? How did you take it? Were you mad?

--I was mad, man. I was mad. I'm like it felt at that moment it felt like a demote. I was getting

demoted. You know I mean? I felt like I was getting demoted.

--Which, I mean, you were, right?

--Yeah, in a way. --Would it be looked that way? I mean because

Broadway feels like it's the pinnacle.

- Yeah, yeah, I mean 'cause as an actor,

you wanna make it to Broadway.

Everyone's dream isn't to make it to tour,

and there's nothing wrong with tour,

it's still a beautiful opportunity.

But when you think about it, my goal is Broadway.

You know what I mean?

So when I got told that, okay,

we're gonna send you to the tour,

my initial thing was like, (sighs)

you know, I felt like I was getting bumped

from like Varsity to JV,

but that was the biggest blessing

because if you know anything about the tour,

once you join a tour, our company,

some of the most talented people in the world. And anybody who sees Lion King on

Broadway versus the tour, you are not getting the the bootleg version. You are

getting people who can do the show at the same level and to a different degree

because they can travel their skill sets. And we are extremely focused. It's

extremely focused artistry out here. Yeah, yeah. It was a it was a big reality

check. And it was humbling. I'm like all these guys out here, they don't play. This is

- It's amazing, and I pretty much cut my teeth

and learned how to be an artist on tour.

- Is that right, wow.

So that was, what year did you start then

being part of the touring Lion King?

- 2015.

- 2015, okay, and it's been 13 years.

- Yeah, so I--

- On the touring part or not?

- Just, in general, Lion King, this'll be year 13.

- Okay.

- Been on tour for 10 years.

- 10 years?

- No, it'll be 11 years this year, yeah.

It'll be 11 years.

- 10 years on the road.

And it blew my mind when you were first telling me

about just kind of the schedule.

six days on, one day off, which is Monday,

eight shows a week, and you got two on Friday,

or excuse me, two on Saturday, two on Sunday,

and then Monday's your day to kind of recover a little bit,

and then it's back at it.

Just, it's such a, I mean,

most people listening to this right now,

they are never gonna have an experience

of this kind of life,

and you're on the road 11 out of 12 months a year, too.

- It's nonstop.

- Yeah, it's just a wild,

and usually, how long are you in a given city?

- Two weeks, three weeks?

- We have pretty good sit-downs,

so we average about a month in the city.

- Okay, gotcha.

So what's life like on the tour?

I mean, is that a, yeah, I mean, the shows are at night,

so is everybody just chilling all day?

I mean, can you go to sleep after a show?

What is literally, how do you do this and just function?

- Yeah, no, yeah, so sometimes there's rehearsals,

'cause we try to keep everything in shape.

Our creatives make sure the show stays in tip-top shape

so you're not getting a lazy version of the show.

But you do the show at night.

Some people can't sleep, some people can.

Some people get together and party,

some people become foodies.

There's a lot of things.

Again, just like it was on Broadway,

it's choose your own adventure.

You can be very responsible with it,

or you can go down the road of like,

oh man, it's like being a rock star in every city.

I used to go to clubs and stuff,

"Yeah, I'm with the Lion King.

"Oh yeah, bottles, VIP, let's do all that."

That's again, a cycle.

I went to Broadway, fell into the cycle of the lights.

Came to tour, fell into the cycle of the rock and roll.

You know what I mean?

'Cause it was my first time being by myself.

You know what I mean?

'Cause my wife at the time didn't come

and my son didn't come, so I was on the road by myself.

It was my first time being away

and I was exposed to so much stuff.

- I feel like that would be spiritually just dangerous.

Because you can just kind of do what you wanna do,

no accountability.

If anything, there might be some

that are gonna actually affirm, encourage,

and participate in with you in whatever the things are

that maybe aren't God's best choice for you.

So man, it feels like, was it tougher being solo

as far as, I don't know, some of the same things

you're wrestling with on Broadway,

was it tougher on the road, would you say?

Or was it just the same?

- It was much, much harder.

- Okay.

- It was much harder, because then you have no attachment

to any type of family union.

You know, your nuclear family isn't there,

your family is somewhere else.

And it was the isolation of it.

And man, when it's quiet like that, man,

the devil can really play with you, man.

And then you make sound like ego,

"Yeah, I'm the star of the show."

It's so funny, man, you get put in those positions

and anything that you wanna do bad,

you don't have to work hard to accomplish it.

You know what I mean?

Like, if you wanna do something that you know isn't right,

it's fairly easy to do all the things

that you're not supposed to do.

You know what I mean?

And I fell into a lot of stuff, like the parties,

the women, all that stuff,

it all ended up manifesting itself in me.

Tough time, tough time.

what's the relationship like between cast members?

Is this like a, hey, we're all professionals,

we're here to do a job kind of a thing?

Or is this like a, man, no, we're family.

I mean, it's just, or is it, yeah, some combination?

- It's a combination of it, right?

You have people who are there who,

you're my cast, you're my co-worker,

we're gonna do this, we're gonna do this.

It's really by the book.

You have people who become like family.

You know, there's relationships who have started.

You know, people have met on the tour

and gotten married and had kids.

You know what I mean?

It's a kaleidoscope, you know what I mean?

It depends on what your focus is

and how you're anchored and how you approach this thing.

- Okay. - Yeah.

- And you said that earlier that, side conversation,

like some people will fly from city to city,

some will drive if they want that kind of thing.

- Yeah, yeah.

- But what really surprised me is just learning,

like there are definitely people with their kids

on the road, the company will have childcare provided

and stuff like that.

And then you've got actors who are kids

in the show proper.

How many just kids are, there's about,

you said I think 120 in the total cast and crew.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- How many of those would be like,

I'll say under the age of 18.

- Oh man.

- Or if you had to guess, I don't know.

- Okay, we have four young cubs,

so that's four right there, they're under 18.

Two, three, four.

I would say at least maybe about,

but eight to 10 at least.

- Okay, and that's people that are part

of the production proper, or that's including just like,

yeah, people's kids and stuff like that.

- All of that, yeah.

- Okay, gotcha, yeah, that's fun.

That's a wild thing to think about going,

I mean, that's for a kid, like growing up

and figuring it out, but it's cool,

- They can be with their parents too, that's really good.

So how do you stay, you're doing the same show

day after day, how do you stay fresh?

How do you stay engaged?

And even, I don't wanna fast forward to last year yet,

but I guess just even when you're saying

the loneliness of being on the road,

how do you keep yourself in a good place

and centered and yeah.

- You know what's funny?

This is gonna go into last year,

but just an overall thing.

I think when I re-anchored myself in church and in God,

it changed everything.

- Really?

- It changed everything for me.

- Expand on that.

And if you need to, to just skip to the last year,

then let's just go for it.

But yeah, tell me about that.

- It's so funny, man.

I feel like a kind of like a Dorothy Wizard of Oz moment.

I think before I got re-anchored with God,

I feel like I was just spending in this tour life,

these airplanes, these houses,

it's going and going and going and going.

Time's just going, time's just going.

And last year when God got my attention

by taking my voice away,

that's when things settled and I got redefined purpose.

Not even redefined, I found purpose in that moment.

And ever since then, there's not a dull day.

I don't have to worry about trying to make the show fresh.

I don't have to worry about my lifestyle or choices.

When I anchor, when I became anchored in God,

in my relationship with him,

he changed every aspect about how I see my life

and those around me.

- Give me an example of how he changed your life

or how you interacted with people.

- Yeah, no, one thing that the Holy Spirit told me to do

was to become sober.

So I stopped drinking and any like weed

and stuff like that.

I had to leave all that stuff alone.

It was done, it was done.

And also in my singleness that I'm walking in now,

he told me, "Okay, you need to be holding your singleness,

celibacy."

So that's changed a lot of the things I do

and how I view people.

With women, it used to be a very lustful thing, right?

That was my thing.

I had a lot of Samson in me, right?

A lot of David.

But when I answered that call

and I'm still walking through that

and still celebrating being celibate today,

it's changed how I view the women around me.

And even strangers, like at the gym,

I used to be like, oh man, look at that.

But now it's, I don't stare, I avert my gaze.

You know what I mean?

You just see people different.

That's just one example.

- Yeah, that's really good.

What are you doing, do you feel like,

these days, to just kind of cultivate,

just, I don't know, just your relationship with Jesus?

What's that look like,

whether it be day to day or on the weekends?

I mean, we obviously met,

'cause you're connecting with churches,

so I know that's one thing.

but what do you do to just stay close to God?

- Yeah, devotion every single morning.

And I've read this beautiful book

called "Good Morning Holy Spirit" by Benny Hinn.

And one of the things I do,

the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning

is say good morning Holy Spirit.

I welcome you into my day, be with me.

Before I even get out of bed,

before I put my feet on the ground,

I welcome the Holy Spirit in.

I have my devotion time.

I'll watch sermons sometimes,

but the Holy Spirit has a certain topic or a thing

that he wants to talk to me about,

how I'll get into the word and really dive in.

And also being in school kind of helps

'cause there are certain things that I'm learning about

that I just really try to dig into

like the hermeneutics of things and all that.

- Yeah, that's cool, that's really cool.

When you started making that shift for yourself personally,

well, first let's talk about losing your voice, okay?

I mean, that's a big deal.

Literally, that is your job.

So is this a gradual thing

where you're feeling like something's happening

and then you also know I just gotta rest it

and then things will be good,

or is it like, oh my goodness, my career could be over?

What's going on with the voice?

- Man, I thought my career was over, man.

And the funny thing is, man, it happened

with something that I thought was a blessing

that I created, right?

So what happened was last year I had booked

an episode of Chicago PD.

So I flew to Chicago, shot it,

we did some action scenes outside

and I didn't have on a jacket.

But it was a lot of screaming, yelling, being outside.

By the time I finished, I got back to where we were on tour,

and my voice started going away.

And I talk about the blessing part that I thought I did,

because during that time, I was in the world.

You know, I was doing everything that I wanted to do,

all the things that I stopped doing,

you know, between drinking and like, all the things, right?

All the whole things, right?

And I remember talking to somebody, I was like,

and you know, I'll be honest with you about this,

and you know, open to judgment, but I was like,

"See, I'm doing all this, and I still booked Chicago PD.

God don't care like they don't all that none of that stuff matters. I'm good. I'm good. That stuff don't matter

But God allowed me to allow me to be put in that place because I sure enough went down there and got sick

I has to go to a doctor and I think they said I had pneumonia

Hmm, you know what? I mean? So what I thought was oh my blessing I think was guys

I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna sit you here cuz I'm about to take this away. I'm gonna set you up Wow for me to intervene

So I did a show

Saying felt pretty good. But my throat like when it used to hurt to swallow, you know, I'm saying like I sang

I came home, my voice started going, and I went to go see an ENT, an ear, nose, and throat doctor.

And they said, "Okay, something's wrong. We need you not -- you can't even whisper.

We're going to give you, like, at least a week. You need at least a week of no talking, no whispering, nothing."

-Wow. -Yeah. That's the first time that's ever happened.

And they said, "'Cause if this progresses, you may need surgery, and you might not be able to sing again."

-Whew! -Yeah.

So you can imagine the the shock that I have. I mean, this is this is how I make my living

I don't know what to do. If I can't I can't act I can't sing. What am I gonna do without a voice? Right?

so I um

Shut up and

And it's so funny man in that time man

When you can't speak it's so funny how other things are just heightened

I can just hear the people around me and the most important thing. I heard I started hearing God speak to me

- Yeah, he was saying, "You gotta change."

He said, "I need you to get sober.

"I need you to stop sleeping around.

"I need you to be single.

"I don't need you floating around

"with women in relationships.

"I need to have all of you.

"I need all of you."

And I said, "Yes."

- Was there any, I don't know, God,

or kind of debating or equivocation,

or were you like, no, he's got my attention now

and this is it, like this is a line in the sand

and I know what I need to do next

and that's gonna be the what I do.

- Yeah, it's so funny, man, 'cause I have,

I've been through fires, my place burning down.

I've watched people, you know, I was in a,

it's very sensitive, but I was in a situation

where I witnessed a former castmate of mine die.

We were on a boat trip.

Let me not say that, he didn't pass away in that moment,

I saw him fall into the water in Miami,

and I never saw him alive again.

I've been through police situations, all that stuff,

and none of that got my attention.

Not the fires, not the deaths, none of that stuff.

But what got me, he's like,

"Okay, I'm gonna take your voice away."

And that's what did it.

And I was like, "Okay, I don't need anything else.

"You don't have to keep doing stuff, God.

"Okay, I'm here.

"I'm here."

of... This is a weird chapter to say, I really love it, but it's Hebrews 12, where it talks

about God's discipline and that God disciplines those He loves. And then it's the famous verse,

"No discipline seems pleasant at the time." But the whole point is that God would redeem us and

set us on a path that is for our good and ultimately will bring Him glory. And man, it's

way, and it is for our good, but we've got to respond. And you know the verse says, "Those who

are willing to be trained by it." That's the specific phrase, "Those who are willing to be

trained by it." And that really is the question, because God can be trying to get our attention,

again, for our good. It's not gonna feel good, it's not gonna be pleasant, and even for somebody

who's listening right now, God might be trying to get their attention. But there's that question of,

"Are you gonna be open to being trained by it?" And you can still, different biblical reference

with Jacob and Esau, but you can still kick against the goads, as the Bible says, and say,

"I'm not gonna learn from it, I'm not gonna learn from it," and keep going back into a cycle of

discipline, or you can do what you did in that moment, and you had some opportunities before you

passed by, it sounds like, but this particular time, God got your attention, and you said, "Okay,

I'm gonna be trained by this in a good way." So you make these different changes, God speaks to

you about, "Hey, I want your whole life, your whole heart, we got some lifestyle changes to make,"

and that kind of thing.

How long was it before you were able

to get back part of the tour again?

- I was down for about a week.

I was down for about a week.

- So it really wasn't long.

I was imagining this extended time

of voice rehab and all this.

- Before an actor and a singer to be not to say nothing.

Like I couldn't even talk on the phone

with my parents, my family, like nothing.

It felt like forever.

- And no guarantee that after a week,

poof, everything's good.

I mean, so you're, one, it's a week of no talking

when that's literally what you do for a living.

And then secondly, at the end of that week,

you're like, okay, are we good?

And how long before you had full,

I mean, was it like after a week,

you were like, oh, I'm back?

Was there any sense of, am I back back?

Or is this gonna be a week?

- No, it took a while.

A lot of my upper register singing,

it wasn't quite there.

So even after I started singing back after a week,

it took time to get back to full strength.

It took a while.

So I feel like I was kinda like, "Ah, ah, ah.

"Don't get too proud.

"You're not out the woods yet," you know what I mean?

Which is a blessing, you know what I mean?

- So you get back, you're with the crew again,

you've got your voices back.

Are they noticing, obviously there was the external part

which dealt with your voice,

but there's also something at this point now

that's happened internally.

Do people notice something's different

or is it not like they would notice it

because it has to do more with what you're doing

on your own time and so they wouldn't even notice

anything was different?

- That's a great question, man.

I don't know what people saw immediately.

I know I got very quiet and I did notice,

I think people were asking, "Are you okay?

"You're not talking as much."

Or there were certain jokes that I would be a part of

or I would be the ringleader of certain things

and I wasn't doing it anymore.

I guess that's the first shift is that I got really quiet.

- Okay. - Yeah.

And I got really mindful about the things that I,

the conversations I took part of,

I got really mindful about the things that I said,

that was the biggest shift.

- Did it shift any relationships,

any of the relationships you had with folks that,

I don't know, I guess I think of in general,

maybe you didn't party with people

who were part of the cast or crew,

but it just feels like sometimes that happens

where we make a change because God's saying,

"All right, it's time to repent

"and get on a different track."

And all of a sudden we got friends going,

"Yo, where you been?"

You know, like, did any of that shift kinda happen too?

- Yeah, absolutely, 'cause I was a party guy, man.

I was the party man.

I think one of my, a moment I felt proud about in a moment,

but now I look back, I'm like,

"Man, dawg, why'd you do that?"

I had set up a club night for the cast.

We were in Canada.

And it was funny enough, I was proud of it.

It was at this club called Church.

I was like, "Yeah, we in Church, man.

"We going to Church today, you know what I mean?

"We got bottles, we got tequila-free bottles

"and all that stuff, we got all this stuff, man."

- It was a great experience.

It was a, no, it was a,

it was an experience for other people.

So also I'm not gonna bash the club or anything like that.

It was actually a wonderful guy who ran it.

They do what they do.

That's cool.

That's just not my walk anymore.

So let me not slam anybody.

- No.

- But yeah, but that's what I was known for.

So when I started pulling back from that,

I wasn't organizing the club out.

And so I wasn't like going out anymore.

You know what I mean?

Like that was the biggest, that was the first shift.

Like, "Hey man, you ain't coming out?

Like you ain't going to do this?

You ain't doing this?"

- Yeah, so definitely noticing that

for anybody that used to party with you.

So obviously, it's interesting hearing you say

that you were kind of an influencer at that level.

- Yeah, man.

- Because you've really continued to say

what does it mean to be an influencer amongst the crew,

and cast and crew, but in a different kind of way.

How do you see today, like when you think of,

based on what God's done in your life,

how he's got your attention,

how are you approaching influence now

with the crew you're traveling with?

- Man, that's a great question.

I see everything I do now as a reflection of God,

and I think it's my responsibility to be an ambassador

for God everywhere that I go.

I think I'm not here as an accident,

so I think everything that I'm learning,

everything that I'm experiencing is not to be wasted.

So now, you know, I'm not inviting people out to clubs.

- To church.

- To church, you know what I'm saying, to church.

I'm inviting them to church.

- Church, church, church, you know what I mean?

And developing a small group that I started.

We'll see where that goes,

but it's starting to pick up,

different people are coming to church.

And now that certain people,

when I go to certain cities,

they'll go to different cities and like,

hey man, Aaron, where are you?

Did you find a church here yet?

What you gonna do?

You gonna do this?

Like, yeah, this is the church I found.

And people pull up and we're cultivating a Christ culture

that it's been there,

but I think it's becoming more centralized in a way.

and I'm not gonna take credit for that, that's all God,

but there's definitely, I feel,

a shift and a revival within the cast

that hopefully continues to spread.

- Yeah, it's really cool.

You know, when I read stories all the time right now

of what's happening in sports, both college and professional,

but I'll say specifically college in this case.

There are so many stories of where just one or two,

three guys or ladies, depending on the team,

really got serious about faith,

they said, "We wanna follow Jesus 100%.

"We're not gonna be rude and obnoxious about faith,

"but we're also not gonna just keep it all quiet

"and silent and never say anything about it."

And there are so many teams across the country right now

that have just like night and day changed

because of the spiritual influence

that started with a few people saying,

"Let's get serious about this.

let's pray for our team, let's invite people in

to what we're doing, and then that grows and it grows

and the fire starts to grow.

And I mean, it's like now there are stories

of entire team culture shifting,

but it all started with a few.

I just, man, I really believe for you

and for those who are part of that group,

you just have no idea how God can use.

It might not be that many people right now even,

but you have just no idea how God can start shifting culture

and have like a ripple effect over time

is just keep investing in faith.

I love that.

- Absolutely, absolutely.

- What's been, I don't know if there is anything

that would be an answer to this question,

but of those that you've been trying to invest in

and bring out and kind of connecting with

on a faith or spiritual level on the cast and crew,

has there been anything that's particularly encouraging

or you go, man, this is what I've,

you know, this is something happened I appreciate

or this is something I really just think that we're doing

that is building life?

- Man, actually this past Sunday here in Getty, man,

know I was singing worship with you guys and I'm grateful for you guys.

What a blessed man. But I found out after, after service, because I

invited the people from the company out and the Cubs came, the kids who

play young Simba and young Nala, they came with their families. And when you

had your call for people who wanted to give their life to Christ, one of our

young Nalas raised her hand to give her life to Christ. And she got her

Bible from the story that she got her Bible and was just like holding it like

this precious thing, you know what I mean?

And I was like, man, if there's anything,

if I don't do anything else, Lord,

the fact that you used me and they came to church

and your child came, came home to you,

that makes everything worth it right there, man.

And I wasn't expecting that.

I wasn't expecting that at all.

- Yeah, that's amazing.

That's amazing.

And that's the, you know, we regularly,

when we're doing different things around church,

different things that are going on,

you step back 'cause everything we do,

it's just like when you guys do a show.

I mean, it takes a lot of investment, a lot of time,

a lot of prep, a lot of all that.

Sometimes a lot of financial resources.

And then you sacrifice in that way

or you put yourself out in whatever way

and you see somebody's life impacted

and you're like, oh my goodness, that was so worth it.

Man, I'm proud of you for taking that risk though

and for inviting people.

And I don't know if you, do you feel much,

does it feel like much of a risk at this point

or not really?

Or is it, you know?

- Man, that's a great question.

It did feel like a risk at first,

'cause I'm inviting people to church

who saw me in my past season.

Him?

No, I'm not, Aaron?

He was just drunk.

I'm drunk like shit, I got invited.

Who's at the club, him?

He was, no.

And it felt like that for a while,

but at least in my spirit,

I feel that people are kind of like, oh.

Oh, oh, it's for real.

Like, I think the more consistent I am in my obedience,

I think people are starting to see,

oh, okay, wow, shoot, man, if Aaron can change,

man, I guess he can.

I guess God is something.

I heard somebody say, man,

even walk different now, man.

I can see something's different with you.

You're different, your voice has changed,

how you sing has changed.

You're completely different now.

I said, man, it's God, it's the power of the Holy Spirit.

- Yeah, yeah, and that's real.

It really, I mean, it's crazy.

When I meet people before they came to know Jesus

and afterwards, literally just looking in their eyes.

Sometimes you can see just something shifted.

Or the way they, just in a normal conversation,

you're like, it's like talking to a different person.

It's such a remarkable thing, like the idea

that you can have a spiritual change

where one moment I'm not living for Jesus,

the next moment I am, and then it can just be

so immediately evident in how I'm thinking of one person,

It's like their face brightened up.

There was just an energy and conversation

that wasn't there.

There was a passion for life.

And you're like, you know, it's just funny

'cause all it shifted is, you know what, I'm done.

And it was similar kind of thing, different context,

but just I'm done just dating the world basically

all the time, sleeping with the world.

I'm gonna start to commit my life to Jesus here

and it can shift everything.

So it's amazing to hear your influence.

I just, I'm proud of you for that, man.

- I appreciate that, thank you.

So you're going to seminary right now.

Yeah.

And you're on the, it's just such a great,

the idea, I don't know what people think of,

but what I think of, like,

dude who's on "The Lion King" on the off hours,

working on a master's, it's in theological studies.

So you're working on this master's,

while you're then going night,

then getting all made up for the show.

It's just a crazy combination of two things.

What made you first start thinking about doing this program?

- Man, dude, we were in Spokane, Washington,

and I was at church, and I remember the pastor there,

he had, it was this exercise he had,

he had broke down the gospels in like four parts,

creation, creation, the fall, Jesus, and the resurrection.

And he was like, "Okay, we want you to take 30 seconds

"to talk to the person next to you about God."

So I remember there's this big guy

that was right next to me, man,

I think his name is Greg.

He starts talking to me about it and I'm nervous.

I'm like, "Man, can I share the gospel?

"All right, let me try this."

So I started talking to him and it was really comfortable.

I'm like, "Okay, I like this, man."

So after church, he was like, "Man, what do you do?"

I said, "Man, I'm in town with Lion King

"and I travel and all that stuff.

"I tour for a living."

He was like, "Oh yeah, I used to do the same thing."

He said, "I used to be a professional wrestler."

And I was like, "What?"

(laughing)

I was like, "What?"

He said, "Yes, I know all about touring, man.

"So yeah, so how's it going for you?"

And I

He was like, "Yeah, man, I'm actually starting to create content for myself on TikTok about praying live."

And I was like, "Man, you know what? I was thinking about going public with my faith too, but I don't know."

And this guy, he said something to me. He said,

"Share your testimony with people.

No matter where you've been, I know you've done some things,

but he said share your testimony because there's one person in the middle of nowhere who needs to hear what you have to say."

- Hmm.

- And that just set off a fire in me, man.

I think I went home and like made a video about, you know,

being used by God and then the Holy Spirit just started to speak. It's like it opened up and then all of a sudden I

started having--

hearing the Holy Spirit talk about being studied and going to school, and I'm like, "Man, let me

see what He wants," and He just told me to study and go to seminary.

Yeah. Yeah.

Has your experience--how long you've been doing classes, first off?

I'm still in my first semester, so it's only been about a--

I'm in week five, five of eight of this first semester, yeah.

- Yeah, and what's it been like?

Has it been like, oh, this is nice to know,

or what's been the impact or the takeaway so far?

Man, no pressure to have some big answer.

It could be like, oh, I was just reading some books.

That's it.

- Yeah, no, it gotta work with you,

'cause at first, this is the thing.

God still has to work that thing out of you, right?

At first, it was like, yeah, I'm in seminary.

Look, I'm doing this, right?

Yeah, look what I'm doing.

And I took on this big course load,

'cause I'm like, oh man, I love God.

I'm finna learn everything right now.

This is gonna be easy.

I'm gonna take how many credits?

Ah, 12.

Easy, I got that

Dude, the way I was crashing and burning

like my first week, I'm like, oh, there's real,

oh, there's a lot that I don't know.

All this history, like, oh, the Council of Nicaea, what?

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, five page paper here, 10 page,

I'm like, no, I can't do, I can't handle all this.

And I remember after my second week,

I had went in the bathroom and I had cried in the shower

and the Holy Spirit was like, stop,

that you're doing the right thing,

but stop doing it for sure.

I was like, don't be a Pharisee about it.

Don't be a Pharisee about it.

Just learn, I didn't tell you to learn fast.

- Mm-hmm.

- Learn.

So I had to, I withdrew from some classes,

kinda restructured myself, and ever since then,

it's like, okay, let me actually learn.

Let me stop trying to hurry up and just say,

I got the, I got the masters.

Look, look, look, look, look.

It's like, no, actually learn.

I don't care how many years it takes.

Actually learn.

Stop, stop bragging about it.

It's not like a bad, you know what I mean?

I started, it got to my head a bit,

and I learned that a lot in the book I talked to you about,

dangerous calling, the Paul trip.

- Yeah, Paul trip.

- Yeah, man, got me right together, man.

'Cause it can really, really go to your head,

you know what I mean?

And the self-righteousness of it.

- Oh, totally, yeah.

And it's good, I mean, just for those who are listening,

you know, it is such a good thing.

I think sometimes we'll look at our lives and say,

oh, if we're in a place where we're,

somebody might be saying, well,

I'm not doing all that bad stuff.

I'm not da, da, da, da, da.

But it's amazing, you can be doing all the right things

for the wrong reasons.

And if you're doing the right things for the wrong reasons,

you're still messed up.

You know, I had a similar, earlier this year,

I'm in the process of right now landing a book deal

and it's supposed to be any day now,

I'm supposed to get this contract

for what would be my first published book.

Well, that feels like such a like,

oh man, God, you're so good and all that.

But earlier this year, I could tell just in my heart,

you know, outwardly, and I believe this,

I'd say, God did this, I really believe that.

But inwardly, I could tell,

I'm just feeling a little bit better about myself

because yeah, I got a book deal coming now.

Mind you, it was the only company that would,

the only yes I got, which is all you need,

but it wasn't like, oh man,

I've just got all these opportunities.

So I should have been humble from the first place,

but I could tell it was kind of hit my identity a little bit

and I just had to say, God, I'm sorry.

I'm taking what you did and I'm applying it to my own heart

and making myself feel puffed up about it

and then you gotta repent in those moments.

So it's gonna be a fun journey ahead for you on that.

I mean, you're gonna learn a ton.

When I started seminary, I got there,

so I got my business degree from Indiana.

Then I go straight into grad school, okay?

I'm glad I did that, 'cause I always think

if I would've gotten used to a career

and all the finances that come with jobs out there,

I don't know if I would've started ministry.

And so I went right into grad school.

They make you take an Old Testament content exam

and a New Testament content exam to see where you're at.

I failed both of them, like, I mean, total failure.

So then I had to take review classes,

my master's was 91 credits by itself.

I had to take review classes for Old Testament

and New Testament, like survey classes.

Man, well, that was terrible

because they crush all of the content,

like the whole Testament was one semester,

and then they had a weird thing with professors

that made it even more condensed.

So I got my lowest grade I've ever gotten in school

on my first Old Testament class.

And then I thought, now this is to your point

of let me just crush it.

They expect you to come in with like Greek,

at least I think one year of Greek,

which I didn't have, so I had to take those credits.

I thought I'm gonna do, they do Crash Creek in the summer.

I'm gonna do Crash Greek.

I crashed.

(laughing)

I crashed.

So I mean, I started out and it was just like

humble after humble pie. I just blew it. But thankfully, God is faithful. And part of it's

just like you learn, you go, "Okay, I'm just into a new reality, and I'm not gonna give up."

That's the thing, when you know God's called you to do something. That's why whenever anybody's

talking about, "Am I called to this kind of job to start a company, to go into ministry,

to become a missionary, to whatever it is?" I'm like, "Just make sure you're heard from God,

particularly if it's difficult. Because then when it does get difficult, when it is hard,

you come back to, "But I heard from him," and that keeps you rooted during the difficult things. So

I remembered a question I came up with earlier, like we were talking about visiting churches,

and I don't wanna forget this one. So you've got a unique vantage point. You're going around all

these different cities in our country. You're finding churches that you can connect with.

I've gotta hear what's your perspective on just church, where are churches doing it right?

Where is it like, "Man, here's where I think y'all could be strengthening your game here a little

bit." So give me your perspective on church. And it could be about in Getty or just what I really

mean is in general, like where you see strengths and weaknesses of churches.

- Man, I love the churches I find myself drawn to

are definitely multi-ethnic, multi-generational churches.

I love churches that embrace the full body of Christ.

'Cause I used to be a traditional,

like I'm just going to a Baptist church

or a church with a black folks look like me.

This feels comfortable 'cause I've been to a few churches

on the road way back in the day

that didn't feel as welcoming.

But I think that's been a big shift.

I think the churches that I've been a part of and had the blessing of visiting have been

very warm.

I think focusing on teaching the Bible needs to remain the focus.

I think there are some churches that get into their ideas of like, you know, certain churches

are starting to get into like behavioral therapy, you know I mean like they're

starting to get into other lanes, which I appreciate the stretch, but I'm like

okay, but now we're not teaching fundamental truth. Now we're kind of

giving ideas about something that we're not studied on, you know what I mean. I

think I would encourage every church to continue to, I was just reading

about how the Jesuits, Jesuits? Jesuits, yeah. Yeah, how they came under some

fire but what they were known for in their mission trips was adapting the

words so it can be understood like they were talking about the Jesuits who went

to a certain part of and they were dealing with like Native Americans how

they were able to shift some stories but okay Jesus is in the bark of the trees

and this and made it applicable so they can understand it. I think that

churches who do that while staying true to the Bible not cutting and pasting but

being true to the Bible but being open enough to play okay this is how you

you'll understand it. Churches that make the effort to be like, "Okay, this is my

community, this is how it's gonna speak to my community," you know what I mean?

I think that focus is gonna be great, and that's what I love about the church

right now. I love the music that's happening right now, you know, you guys...

You came on a good day, man! I came on a good day, I came on a good time, man. You guys got it going on with the music, man.

Yeah, shout out, shout out Ngeti Music. Shout out new album, War, and you got to

We did war that day, actually.

We did war, yeah.

Complete with the lace up your boots tag on the end.

So man, and you brought it.

You brought it, man.

That was so fun seeing you up there,

but the whole team just, I mean,

we're just, we're blessed.

Man, we're blessed in Getty.

We got a great team, but these songs,

and it's cool, that album is getting right now

more traction hands down than any other project

we've released to date.

So it's fun to see God just, you know, God saying, "All right, I'm gonna do some things."

Man, as you say that, this is kind of pivoting back to what you just said.

I think the one thing I do find myself grieving a little bit, and this has nothing to do—it's

not you—I haven't seen this here, but when on social media we find pastors bashing other

pastors, I think that's a bad look for the entire church, right?

We don't need another schism right now, you know what I mean?

I can't--I think if we're getting people, if we're preaching the truth, if we're

getting people to Jesus, whether this pastor is wearing this type of outfit,

doesn't matter. If this pastor is wearing a chain, it shouldn't matter.

"Oh man, that is not traditional church music, man, they turned that into a rap

song." That should not matter. If we're preaching the gospel truth, how it's

presented, it's been that way for thousands of years, it's always been

presented different. If the--we wouldn't be here as a church if the word hadn't

and adapt it to different cultures.

It would not have spread the way it needs to spread.

It would have stayed Mediterranean and in Europe.

You know what I mean?

So I think we just have to embrace that

as church is gonna look different in different areas.

You know what I mean?

That's a good word.

And you know, and it's one thing,

and even then I don't know if we honestly

need to call out other pastors.

If somebody is teaching something that's heresy

or something, and even then I don't know

if I actually name the person necessarily.

I might just talk about, hey, you may have heard this said,

here's what the Bible says." But what you're talking about isn't even something that's that

significant as if somebody's teaching something that's just straight out false or misleading.

You're talking about contextualization of the gospel. I saw somebody posting something the

other day about a pastor's sweater, and it's got the picture up there and all about how this sweater

and what the cost of it could be. And I'm just like, "Man, I don't know. Somebody's got too

too much time on their hands, of course, spending our time like, you know...

Itemizing.

Yeah, I don't know if we need to be getting all into sweaters and all those things.

That's a good word.

Anything that you've been at a church, 'cause you're just bouncing in as a new guy, and

you're like, "Oh man, this is cringey right now.

This is cringey."

Ooh.

Mm.

Mm.

Or maybe you're just picking good churches and you don't have a chance to...

You know what?

I'm picking pretty good.

I've been pretty good.

I think the Holy Spirit guides me to some really, really cool churches that are really

thorough and Bible-based. Yeah, I think the... what is the cringiest thing I've

experienced? It's gonna be so... I haven't experienced it in person, but

just like watching online, I was trying to worship, I was into

worship with this one church, but they had one singer who was so flat, who was

singing so flat I could not focus on the worship. I'm like, "Okay, we need to focus

on placing excellence." Let's focus on being excellence and presenting God's

word and our worship in the spirit of excellence. So let's put effort into

making sure that our, we need some inner ears maybe applied or like make sure we

maybe need to filter through our singers, make sure that we're putting the right

folks up there. You know, everybody, you know, everybody shouldn't be doing

everything. I mean, we appreciate your heart but yeah, maybe we should be more, a

more mindful of what we're putting on the stage.

You know what I mean?

- Yeah, that's good.

Yeah, that's a thing.

We don't need everybody to be perfect,

but there is a certain standard where you don't wanna be,

I mean, we always put it like,

we don't wanna be distracting to worship.

- Yes, that's it, yeah.

- We just want, like, I wanna be focused

and thinking about Jesus, not about how you're singing,

and I've had that same thing too,

where you're just like, oh, you know, that's...

- Ooh, yeah, yeah.

- That's literally the definition of cringy,

'cause you cringe, you're like, "Ah!"

- Yeah, you can't, in Sonic, we can't lie with music, man.

'Cause if you're singing,

♪ It's a, it's a ♪

It's gonna catch your ear, it's gonna be distracting.

I can't, then I'm doing this.

- Right on. - Yeah.

- Anything else you wanna share, Aaron,

before we wrap it up?

- Oh man, I'm just extremely grateful

for what I feel is a budding relationship here,

friendship here, man.

Thank you so much for having me, man.

And I just see how God is moving.

I think even being able to sing with you guys last week.

'Cause I was trying to sing this week,

and they're like, "Oh man, we're maxed out on vocalists,

"'cause we do it like three months out."

So the fact that the Holy Spirit asked me to ask,

told me to ask, and it just so happened

to be something last week, it's all God.

It's all God, 'cause you guys are good.

I told you this, I said, "You guys don't need anything.

"You guys are set."

So the fact that there was a need,

and I was able to help,

I'm tremendously blessed and honored, man.

- I'm so glad we could have you in,

and that you could be part of it.

And I know we talked about this already,

but you're obviously getting to use your gifts

in a very cool way in a public space,

but it is a different thing using them

to help lead the people of God into worship.

And it was cool to see you doing that.

And then to see your character when you follow up on text

and said, "Hey, it may not be worship.

"If it's not, I'd love to serve in any way."

And then right before we started today,

Stephanie, who leads all of our guest experience team

came in, she said, "Oh, guess what?

"Aaron's gonna be serving on the coffee team this weekend."

And man, that's just cool, you know what?

And it's cool having that heart of like,

man, I'm here to serve the house, I'm here to bless people.

And if it's using my particular gifts, cool.

And if it's not, that's all right too,

'cause I'm here to serve.

It says a lot about your heart, which is awesome.

You're gonna enjoy it.

What's fun about coffee is you get to see all these people

and hang and talk and stuff like that.

So on the stage, you're in a certain space

in a certain mode, so it'll be a whole different thing

on Sunday, which is great.

- Absolutely, man.

If people wanna follow you or find out more about you,

what do they do, where do they go?

- I am on Instagram.

You can look me up, Aaron Joseph Nelson.

The tag is TheACTLIT, so T-H-E-A-C-T-L-E-T-E,

TheACTLIT. - Which is clever.

I'm guessing you can't coin that yourself, TheACTLIT.

- Yes, TheACTLIT. - Instead of TheATHLIT,

TheACTLIT. - Yes, I should've made

TheChristLIT now, but you know, that's taken already.

(laughing)

- Yeah, well, that's good.

And yeah, so we can follow you on social,

And obviously, man, if the Lion King comes to somebody's city

who's listening to this, you're gonna be there.

I mean, you are, there's not like six different, right?

There's just one, you said, right?

- Yeah, there's one Lion King tour that's going around.

So if it's the Lion King tour coming to you,

it's our company.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

- And you get to meet,

maybe somebody gets to meet you in person.

Although I learned, they gotta come,

do you come out after the, not in between shows,

'cause the makeup is so intense.

- Yeah, it depends on what I'm doing that day.

Sometimes I can come out, but if I'm doing certain characters,

I'm not allowed to go outside with, I guess,

being uncompletely done.

- OK.

- Yeah.

- Gotcha.

Well, man, it's been great hanging out today.

And I know this conversation is going

to encourage everybody who hears it.

Thanks for being so transparent.

And I'm just going to continue.

I mean, I look forward to just messaging back and forth

while you're on the road.

- Yeah, man.

- This sounds like so--

I mean, we kind of talked about this a little bit.

You were saying it from your perspective.

I'm gonna miss you being around.

And it's been like this three weeks is all,

we're going into week three,

but I'm gonna miss you being around.

So I look forward to staying in touch on text

and then maybe when you're back in.

So on your month off, will you go back to Chicago then?

Is that typically or what?

- We'll see.

Well, the thing is we don't get a month off.

We keep going, we don't stop.

- Oh, so when you say I get one month,

is that just vacation time?

- Yeah, you get vacation time.

Like you get a couple of weeks vacation.

Yeah, you get two weeks vacation, yeah.

- All right, so let's hope you're back

back in this part of the country at some point.

- Absolutely, man, I would love to come back.

Yes, sir.

- Cool, thanks for coming on today.

- Absolutely, thank you for having me.

- I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Aaron

and really appreciate his transparency.

And just wanna say, if you are in a season right now

where maybe you feel like you're going through

some difficult things, and it could be

that God's trying to get your attention on something,

not everything difficult is God's discipline,

but sometimes, Hebrews chapter 12,

God does use these difficult times and moments

to try to get our attention.

And I pray that if that's you,

or if that's you in the future,

you use that opportunity to receive that training

in God's grace, because ultimately,

his purposes for you are not to harm you,

not to set you back, but to make you stronger

that you would walk closer with Jesus

and live towards God's plan for your life,

which is always good and is always for his glory.

So if this has been a good conversation for you,

if it's been encouraging,

please do rate and review Made to Advance.

This has been a production of In Getty Church.

we've got more great conversations on the way.

And so until next time, just know God made you to advance.