Behind the Scenes of Be Strong | with Rob, Spencer, and Brody

In this episode, Rob Conti, Spencer Davis, and Brody Holloway recap the Be Strong Men’s Conference from this past weekend, sharing funny stories and impactful moments. They dive into highlights like Rob’s new workshop and meaningful conversations with attendees about faith, struggles, and growth. Spencer and Rob reflect on the connections they made with some men, while Brody discusses the weekend’s theme — staying in the light and finishing strong.

Tune in for a blend of humor, honesty, and inspiration!

• Be Strong Men’s Conference
• Marriage Conference
• Respond Women’s Retreat
• Unpacking What it Looks Like to Abide in God’s Word

Transcript – Behind The Scenes Of Be Strong

Brody

Okay, so in this episode, I got Spencer and Rob on here today and you all, I’m going to go ahead apologize for where this conversation might go. We’re going to have a follow up to Be Strong. We’re going to talk about Be Strong just welcome to No Sanity Required.

Welcome to No Sanity Required from the Ministry of snow, bird wilderness Outfitters, a podcast about the bible culture and stories from around the globe.

Brody

All right, so we’re going to start off with a couple funny stories and the reason I want to do this is just to get things going, because I don’t really know where to start. We don’t have a notes or an outline. We just came out of our Be Strong weekend and on Friday night, I told a story that created so much conversation around, so I think we should probably tell that story now with you all input, because you were both there when that happened. I told a story about pooping my pants and I told it to 600 men on Friday night and it dawned on me and it was in a sermon illustration and it dawned on me that, men we are not much different than middle school boys and that pooping your pants is always funny, but then it also dawned on me, there are men here that have never been here 25% of the people, of people that have never been here. I wonder what they were thinking, but it turns out afterwards, I was at one of the campfires around camp and for 20 minutes, guys were telling poop their pants stories.

Rob

You’re not alone. I was up, in the main, in the room with everybody and it was very well received, there’s always going to be

Brody

Some prudes

Rob

Guys, yeah, that just waiting to be offended, but the vast majority, it was like, yeah, you’re amongst friends.

Brody

Well, I was talking to one guy afterwards, because the whole point I was trying to make is when you’re laying there, when you’re in your own filth and you’re like, how did I get here? I just need, need some cleansing because I was talking about, okay, so here’s the story. We’re in a meeting, the three of us. I don’t remember. Okay, where were you sitting, in relation to my…

Rob

Across, the room.

Brody

You were across the room for me, but you were beside me.

Rob

I was in the danger zone. Yeah.

Brody

And to set this, what, meeting was this?

Spencer

So this is our, L 10 meeting. So, it’s basically, it’s the executive team. It’s all the directors and we meet together periodically to, discuss camp business, finances, vision for the future, marketing, all that sort of stuff.

Brody

Pretty, pretty important.

Spencer

Serious meeting.

Brody

Yeah, serious meetings

Spencer

At times.

Brody

At times, but what happened was I had expelled gas and it was loud and so, the three of us giggled, because that’s funny, every time somebody does it, it’s funny.

Rob

And what is somebody else in the meeting was trying; just didn’t break try to stay the course, which just makes it funnier.

Brody

Makes it funnier, if everybody would have laughed, it’d probably been over.

Rob

Yeah, yeah.

Brody

But, then that was, so then I thought, well, I just farted, everybody laughed. I bet if I fart again, everybody will laugh again and then, I was, you, are at the end of yourself, so you’re straining,

Rob

Yeah, reaching deep.

Brody

Yeah and so, I get up. I’m sitting on my haunches. Is that what you call that when you’re squatting and I’m up in the chair, I’m almost a 50 year old man when this happens, I’m probably 46 and I’m squishing, squeezing, straining and next thing you know there is literally from the back of the knees to the shoulder blades. Was explosive

Rob

Oh yeah, from across the room, all we heard was, oh,

Brody

Yep and I believe Rob ran for you couldn’t run for the door.

Rob

No, you’re between me and the door and it, yeah, I, I started hurtling benches.

Spencer

The fastest I’ve seen you move.

Brody

I think at one point you were up, there was a stack of chairs, because there’s a high window in that room and there’s a stack of chairs. You’re, up, like, you’re going to go out that window which there’s nowhere to go, even if you could have gotten out. Kind of like people jumping out of burning buildings. Like, there’s a better option than to stay here.

Spencer

If I’m going to go, I choose this way.

Brody

So then the story is funny because of a number of reasons, there’s layers to the humor, but one of them was, Little and Tucker were, tucker was probably 16 at the time, 16, yeah, I’d say and he’s downstairs, let’s see, yeah. Well, you know what Tucker was a, I think a freshman, because Kilby, that’s what, they were downstairs

Rob

They’re working on the float.

Brody

They’re working on the float for the homecoming thing. So, she’s downstairs and they’re down there tucking Little working on the float because we’re in the upstairs of the barn at camp and they hear the commotion, because to hear Little tell it, it’s like so loud, because you’ve got roaring laughter, screaming, people, screaming. You all, I cannot be clear enough that I had made a mess like a baby makes when they have one of those blow up diapers.

Rob

Yeah, it wasn’t just that you did it and I ran away from like, knowing that it was inside your pants. You dropped your pants. Show us what had happened, that’s when I… Yeah, survival instincts took over.

Brody

Yes, okay, so understandably so. So, then Little comes up to the door and by this point, I’ve stripped down, but I’m like, literally covered in poop and Little comes to the door and picks her head and says, What are you doing and I went, I said, I pooped my pants and Little and tuck seemed like, oh, unmoved and just turn, that makes sense. I just turn around left, like completely un-amused, but also unsurprised.

Spencer

As if we were laughing at you sending an email. I sent an email.

Brody

Oh, no wonder everybody’s laughing. So, the point was then I had nowhere to go, no clothes, no clean clothes. So and I there was this moment where I realized I can’t clean myself, this is between my shoulder blades, right below my shoulder blades. So, the so, I have to go lay in the creek and scrub my back on the gravel and grit and rocks and so, then I drive home and get do the best I can. So, anyway, tell that story. We’re talking about cleansing and how you can’t clean yourself, there’s, areas of your life you can’t reach, you know. So, you realize sometimes illustrations over illustrate and it’s hard to rein it back in, but then, but I seriously had dudes come up to me and say, oh no, I’ll never forget that. Yeah, its 1st John 1:9 that he’s faithful just to cleanse us was the point I was making. So anyway,

Spencer

Several guys mention it in the surveys, just like how much that illustration stuck in their minds.

Brody

Crazy so, this summary here for Be Strong is grown men at any age are not so different from 14 year old Mungus boys. What was the funny thing we were telling that I brought up that Spencer Did?

Rob

The bathroom thing.

Spencer

Yeah.

Brody

Yes. So, okay, so the reason we’re, we’re starting this by talking about this is, before we started recording, we’re sitting around talking Spencer has one of the funniest stories. It, I would say it’s in this genre of story that I’ve ever heard. We can. Keep names anonymous, other than Spencer Davis.

Spencer

Okay, so we’re in the if you ever been to camp, we’re in the metal building the camp and there’s only one men’s bathroom, one women’s bathroom and in the men’s bathroom, there’s only one stall and so, I was talking to Rob outside the bathroom and I had to go in there and use the bathroom stall and so, I walked in, we’re just, talking and he’s walking in behind me and I open up the bathroom stall and somebody had absolutely destroyed it, just, it was a mess. It was terrible… You couldn’t go to the bathroom in there. It was just, it’s so bad and so, I was so mad, because I knew exactly who it was that had done it and I was like, dead gum and I’m, just venting to Rob about this person who’d just blown up the bathroom stall. So, I was like, dead gum it was after work, so there’s not, there’s nobody in the metal building at all and so, I’m like, so we’re continuing our conversation. I was like I’m just going to go in the girl’s bathroom. Come on and so, we turned the corner and I just, there’s nobody in the in the room, there’s no girls in there, whatever. I just open the girl’s bathroom door slightly and say, there any girls in here, any girls in here? I’m coming in. No response, no response at all and so, I didn’t know. So, I walk into the middle stall. So there’s, three stalls. I walk into the middle stall, shut the door. Well, I didn’t know, in that girl’s bathroom, like, the walls don’t come all the way down to the floor, they’re very high, like waist high, they’re unusually high, way higher than the men’s bathroom, I’ve never been in that women’s bathroom, whatever and so, I walk in and I’m still, mad at the other guy. I’m like, come I can’t believe you, that bathroom like that and so, I’ve already done the girl check like no girls in here and I look over and there’s shoes next to me and in the stall next to me and I thought, How in the world did Rob get in here? So fast he was behind me and I leaned underneath and said, Rob, is that you and the kitchen lady said, no and I went, oh, my-gosh. Well, by that time, I’m committed, I’m already [overlapping]

Brody

Taking a tandem dump…

Spencer

So I saw her that night and I was like, real sorry about her earlier, she’s like, it’s all right. I got sons and I did yell, though. I did say, are there any girls in there.

Brody

Oh, to this day, I’ll occasionally see that person and I just start giggling. Oh man. It is funny. How when you get a group of guys together around the fire, remember, somebody recently, there was a group of men at camp. Group leaders were sitting around a fire and one guy said, is all you all talk about, is poop. I think you talk to both of you all about this separately, but it is common that’s where the conversation turns. Including, when I had Scott Bryson on here, my cousin, who was secret service, I went straight to getting him to tell a couple funny poop stories from when he was in the service, when Gar Bozeman’s got some hilarious in combat poop stories. One where he’s outside of us a Bradley or a Humvee or something and he’s squatted down by the wheel well, pooping and he realizes bullets are whizzing and the guys are like, I think they’re shooting at you, he’s drop trial, he’s out there on the side of the hill in Afghanistan and they’re cracking off rounds, so the Be Strong event, I wanted to just highlight it and get you all thoughts, just, feedback, just within this group and then, let everyone else, listen into that conversation. I thought it was, if I’m not mistaken, it ended up being the biggest one we’ve ever done.

Rob

Yeah, biggest one yet it’s crazy

Brody

I think between, that’s between. So, it’s the most registrations. I also think it was the most walk INS, from our church, local guys. I think that the like, how full the room was reminded me of summer camp, or fuller, went all the way to the back. We tried something new this year. We did, so the format for Be Strong and I know a lot of our listeners were in attendance, but for folks that weren’t, or if you’ve been to a Be Strong in the past, or if you’ve never been to one, Be Strong is what we call our men’s conferences. We do two of them a year and we always do a series of breakout sessions. Breakout sessions are different from main session, sermons, worship services, they’re optional. We run those throughout the afternoon, guys can go attend them and they typically have to do with family stuff, marriage stuff, just manhood stuff, spiritual disciplines, we’ve done breakouts on everything from having an effective quiet time to how you lead manage your household. We’ve done breakouts on blended families discipline, like not spiritual disciplines, but how do you handle discipline of your children and we tried something new this year, which was running parallel to the breakout sessions in the afternoon. Rob did a work. We call it a workshop. I’d like maybe talk a little bit about that, just what your feedback? The feedback I got was great. I talked to two guys that sat through it. I didn’t make it over there. I had planned on going and then, I got interviewed by the French Foreign Legion, there’s a guy that showed up at camp. We can get into that too, there’s a guy that showed up at camp that writes for a Paris based publication that’s something like the New York Times. We didn’t know why he was here, but he came as an attendee and he interviewed me on our view of masculinity.

Rob

Oh very interesting guy.

Brody 

Super interesting guy, he’s African, he’s from Cameroon, but grew up in Paris, moved to New York, he’s based out of Manhattan, but it’s a Paris publication, so he had been, I think he’d been on the West Coast, interviewing some folks out there and the LA culture. So, I don’t know. We’ll see.

Rob

We’ll see. Yeah, I need to follow up an email make sure he sends us the article that he writes. Yeah, he said he’s going to write an article just on us, like it’s part of a series, but

Brody

I told Rob, nothing, there’s nothing to hide, nothing we don’t say on this platform or, but my concern would be more if he ends up trying to twist things, takes it out of context, or, yeah,

Rob

Yeah. I tried to dig into that little bit and he was a little evasive. It felt like but he also, after I realized what he was doing, where he was sitting and he seemed to be nodding his head in agreement, especially during. Zach’s breakout on masculinity, which is very clear, very well done and he seemed to really enjoy that, but yeah so, the workshop, that was, born out of, had done a breakout, so, supposed to be about a 30 minute max session for the college retreat on bible study, attempting to maybe go a couple steps further than what we’ve done in the past with how to study the bible breakout, which Spencer has done a few different versions of, is always my favorite breakout. It’s very clear, very practical and helpful. So, just trying to think, okay, maybe going a little bit more into interpretation of the text and so, anyway, I ended up not getting very far in that breakout, spent more time on the beginning, but it was good and it got good feedback and then, we did a an episode talking about it and your idea was and maybe for the adult retreats, you’d have time to where it wouldn’t just be a session, but be more like a classroom where there could be discussion. So, yeah, that’s what we shot for. We had about I think it was between 15 and 20 guys came total. Couple of them came in a little bit later, with there’s rec going on and other breakouts and but, yeah, I really enjoyed it because the way that I formatted it was, I did like an intro to it was about 25, 30 minutes long and then, I just picked a passage. I took Philippians 2 that we’re going to read and then, discuss and based on the principles that I introduced to them and so, we had that first time of study and I asked a question coming out of that. No one was really saying anything and then, one person did and then, it just opened the floodgates and there was so much discussion. So, we did that for about a half hour and then, I did another half hour of, a little bit, some more principles, introducing those of really trying to get the meaning of the text and so, we had another round and that went really well, the discussion was great, yeah and I had a number of guys that night and the next day come up to me and really appreciated it. I think it was a little bit mixed. I think there were some guys that felt overwhelmed and drinking from a fire hydrant, feeling. So, it’s, good feedback, if we do it again, maybe adjust, but overall, I thought it was really well received. I was super encouraged; there were guys in there that based on their answers. I thought one guy might be a pastor, but then he came up and talked to me that night and he’s a believer, loves the Lord, not in ministry, but just was articulating that he’s been wanting something like this, that knew that his study could go deeper, but just didn’t really know the steps to take and so, he was saying that and I was like, I thought you might be, somebody who preaches for a living. So, that was just super encouraging hearing from those guys.

Brody

I talked to one guy at supper. I sat with him and he was very encouraged by it and I had asked him how many people were there and he said it wasn’t a real big crowd. I said, we weren’t expecting, nor did we want a real big crowd, the format of it. It’s almost better if it’s because it’s like a lab, we were hoping to be 20 ish or less and he said, I think there was close to 20, probably, but we didn’t record that. Did we?

Rob

I think we just recorded we did your audio, your audio,

Brody

I don’t know if we’ll put that on the SWO podcast, the other podcast that SWO produces the teaching podcast, but this is a lot of the content you and I talked about in a two part episode here at NSR a couple months back. So, right after a college retreat,

Spencer

I’ll tell you one thing that I, talking about dumb stories like we had, opening up. One of the things that really attracted me to camp in general, was that when I came here, these were guys that were serious about the Lord and could laugh at normal things,

Brody

Like Reggie and

Spencer

Yes, yes, 100% like Reggie. So, yes, we all right, here’s another story. So, we had a at the time camp. Had a goat named Reggie when I first came to camp, it was ‘01. It might have been spring at 2000

Brody

Yeah, I think it was either fall at 2000 or spring of ‘01

Spencer

Spring ‘01 I think it was.

Brody

 Building the wreck shed

Spencer

And so, when I came up to camp for the first time I was really drawn to it. I was a pretty new Christian and so, what I saw was guys that were really serious about their walk with the Lord, like guys that actually studied the bible in the mornings, guys that actually tried to fight against sin and I was so attracted to that. Well, then this goat comes by and it’s a black goat named Reggie that they kept pinned up at the metal building and there was a bulldog on campus named Leroy and when I looked up, so we’re just hanging out in the gravel outside the middle building and when I looked up that dog, Leroy was trying to breed that goat, Reggie and Reggie was kicking it right in the chest and I started dying laughing and then, I was like, Whoa, oh, this might not be that, crowd, like and I pulled it back, because I was like, oh, maybe I shouldn’t be laughing at that and I looked over and everybody exploded laughing at it and I was like, okay, okay. Like, these, these guys are serious about the Lord and can laugh at normal stuff, stuff that’s, that’s funny, obviously you can take that way too far. You can take it over the line, but I heard a lot of guys this weekend just being like, I didn’t realize how much I needed that, just the, not only the emphasis on the word, but just hanging out and fellowship and laughing with guys. I probably heard three or four guys say, I signed up for this, but I didn’t realize how much I needed it. Needed to unwind, unpack the word, but then just laugh with other guys that was cool.

Rob

And, you know, I’m the first race my hand that, I get convicted over where I let my sense of humor go, but I think what you’re talking about and hopefully what people feel they get here, is there’s not a facade and I remember, the Lord saved me when I was 18, went to a mega church in the area and felt very out of place, but I was so drawn to the preaching and I knew I wanted to be around Christians, but it was, definitely not the neighborhood I was living in, like the most people that went about church and I remember feeling a place like I went out because all I had was jeans and T shirts. Surprising, I’ve gone back to that.

Brody

Yep, it’s a good system.

Rob

But I remember going out and buying, like I bought a sweater vest. Yes, sir.

Spencer

Oh, where’s that been?

Rob

It’s probably still my mom’s closet, but, but I had, yeah, I was just, I felt still out of place felt, like I came in looking scruffy and just trying to everything is brand new. So, I’m trying to fit into this world and never really felt like I fit in there, socially at all and then, I went to college at Liberty, which I’m very thankful for, but that was, as well that was during the dress code days. You had to wear a shirt and tie, but I and I was constantly asking at both places, asking people if they would disciple me, because I knew that was something and just some guy, most people just turned me down, or they gave me a book to read and I just remember I was seeing like the way that people would act in worship services and then, how they would act outside of that and there was such a divide and I remember, I’d come out of a worship service and I just want to talk about the sermon I was, everything’s new to me and I just love the Lord and wanted to, talk about it and people like, I remember like, feeling how uncomfortable people were and it wasn’t till, like the following year, I ended up on a dorm with Zach and Spencer and like they really I remember when it dawned on me that they had been discipling me, because it was just so natural and it was just good relationships and friendships and we joke around. You could joke around and talk about the Lord and it would just flow back and forth and then, I came that first summer, 2001 to work at camp and it was the same thing. It was like, I just remember thinking, yeah, this is real, because all I’d seen to that point was people who would preach and then, disappear and like, you couldn’t interact with I remember I set up a meeting with some of the campus pastors and I walked away feeling, the whole time I talked to him, the vibe I was getting is this kid’s wasting my time and it was stuff to me that was important and I came to Camp and it was like, that’s real and the initially maybe a little like, okay, recalibrating, because I was trying to suppress, sense of humor and what was appropriate, that we perfected that, but I enjoy it very much. Yeah and like, I think guys feel that when they come that it’s not like, there’s not a separation of our…. Ship with the Lord from the rest of our lives and I think that is, that’s free rushing.

Brody

Yeah, yes, it’s, I think guys, a lot of guys, they do, they get here and they go, I always, here’s an illustration to what you’re saying, Rob. I grew up playing basketball, loved basketball, loved football. It’s the two sports. I played baseball when I was a little boy, but love those two sports and there was a point where you realize I cannot play in the NBA, that’s never going to happen. It’s not attainable and even one of my best friends in college teammates was a guy named Jody Chapman and we call him chap I talked to him, he texted me every morning. I got a text from him this morning. I haven’t seen him. I see him once a year, maybe at church, when I’m speaking at his church, but he texts about every morning, praying for you today, pretty cool, but he’s 6.8, 6.9, played small forward, could shoot the three, phenomenal basketball player and he had a tag, he had a personalized tag, the license plate where you get your own it said, one day NBA and I was always like, I don’t want to ride around with this. I remember driving his car a couple times like, but he really believed it, he and he did not make it to the NBA, but he did have, I think he could have, potentially, he definitely had an opportunity to play in Europe, but by the end, he was getting married, he wanted to settle, he’s like, I won’t be done with that, the point being, when Steph Curry came along and people, you don’t have to be a basketball fan to get where I’m going with this so, it’s cool if you don’t understand basketball, Steph Curry is an NBA star who is the all-time three point leader in the NBA, so he has hit more three pointers than anybody else in history and is continuing to build on that record. I doubt it’ll get broken anytime soon. So, he comes along and plays college ball at a little school called Davidson takes them to the Final Four he’s not a big guy by NBA standards, he’s 6.3, 6.4, which, by NBA standards, is really small and when he really storms onto the scene in the NBA, he gives high school players something that they can strive towards because, to that point, it was LeBron, James or Michael Jordan and you’re like, I can’t do that.

Rob

Yeah, I can’t be 6.8 275

Brody

And with a 40 inch vertical I can’t do that. I can be 6.3. Work on my fundamental skills, master Ball handling and master shooting the ball. Anybody can do that and so, then all of a sudden, the game of basketball changes to where our kids are playing in a basketball world that’s not like the one we played in, everybody shoots the three, everybody has patterned their game after Steph Curry. It’s the first NBA All Star that’s come along that people are going, oh, I can do what he does. Now, people can’t do as good as him, but it gives you something to strive towards and I think there’s a disconnect with most ”Professional pastors and ministry leaders,” where people are like yeah, but that’s I said on Friday night to kick it off. I said there’s two mistakes I think people make when they there’s two likes that people put pastors in. One is, yep, you’re a professional Christian. I’ll never be able to do what you do, read what you read, study what you study, understand know what you know or they put you in a different category of you’re probably a hypocrite, because they’ve seen pastors that were in charge of big ministries become, come out in the media or the news that they were having an affair they had stolen money. So, people have these two weird categories, either unattainable, like I love John MacArthur, but I can’t imagine sitting down and hanging out with him and cutting up and telling jokes and doing what we do, he feels unattainable, but then there’s a guy like Robert Morris.

The pastor in Texas, that just got arrested because he was messed with the 12 year old or whatever and you like these weird and so, I think when people come to Be Strong, men come to Be Strong. Men come to Be Strong and the people that listen to this podcast and that interact with us, they realize these are just dudes, they’re just normal dudes. Live normal lives, have normal struggles. We just before we turn this on, we were having conversation about we’re toying with the idea of getting dumb phones, because we get distracted by the internet. I get distracted by hunting videos, gun videos, fitness videos, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah political video, I need to remove some distractions and start carrying a book around so that when I’ve got an extra 10 minutes, I’ll open up a paperback, even if it’s a fiction, we struggle with same thing everybody else struggles with and I, think that comes through it Be Strong and that’s what, goes along with what you all go saying. I’d like to have maybe talk, let’s each share anonymously a couple of one or two interactions you had with men that I think I’d like to, share some examples of interactions we had, just where guys are at, where guys were struggling, coming in this weekend, at some Is there a conversation or a situation that stood out to either one of you all of with somebody you interact with, maybe somebody you already knew, maybe it’s somebody you never met?

Rob

Yeah, the ones that are fresh on my mind, well, one you directed somebody to come talk to me, he was sharing and he’s granddad, I believe, yeah, he’s granddad, started sharing stuff that happened to him, when he’s a kid that I could relate to, some abuse from his past and older man had taken advantage of him and super painful and raw still and just getting to listen to his story and the things that I had share with him that have been really helpful for me, just in my relationship with the Lord the healing and where, for me it, it’s only when I have opportunity to minister to somebody in a similar situation that I really think about it and a lot of times I tell people, for me now, it’s I’ll get emotional talking about it, but only insomuch as, when I’m fresh remember God’s grace over that situation, more than like any pain or hurt from that, I often, let’s say it’s more like I’m watching a movie when I’m remembering, it’s like, something that I remember, but I’m so disconnected from it and as far as, how it has affected me and so, just getting to share that with him and hear his story and that’s what most of it was, is just, he just needed somebody to talk to that he would know, there’s no judgment here, there’s no like, I’m going to start looking at you differently so, that’s always, an honor to be in a conversation like that, that somebody would trust you and so that was one that.

Brody

I believe he said when he came to talk to me. What triggered that was the episode, the podcast episode from a couple weeks ago where we talked about a guy who was a predator and he, when he came to me, he had texted me and said, when I’m there, Be Strong could I talk to you for a few minutes about that episode of NSR and we started talking, he said, the only other person that knows this is my wife, which, praise the Lord and I told him, I’m glad you shared this with your wife, at some point. So, that’s a big, you’re talking about a guy that has been carrying something for over 40 years and he’s now brought it into the light with a brother.

Rob

Yeah and I’m sure he’ll listen to this one and I think, if any, it has changed the way I looked at him, but only for the positive, you respect that a lot and even just hearing how God’s grace in his life, is awesome.

Brody

Yeah and I would just say, because he will listen to this and he knows who he is and just know we as brothers are praying for you and we’re thankful for you and we’re proud of you for taking that step to, Satan wants to keep stuff in the dark, he wants to keep it in the dark and when you bring it into the light, light and darkness have no fellowship, that’s part of the text I spoke Friday night. So, anyway, we’re proud of you and thankful for you and thankful that you would let us share in that part of your journey. Any that stood out for you Spencer?

Spencer

Yeah, I had one conversation with a guy that I love a lot, he’s been coming around for a long time, he’s a brother and he’s been faithful and really seeking the Lord for a long time and I’ve got a lot of appreciation for him and he’ll listen to this too and when he came he’d, fallen into the same ruts he’d been in for a long time and to be honest, he’s been struggling with the same stuff for about six years or so and we’ve had similar conversations the last six times he’s come up and he knows this. I was aggressive with him, I was as aggressive with him as I’ve been with any other guy and one of the issues that he’s struggling with is, is looking at porn on his phone and I had some solutions,  like, have you tried ABCDE and he, came back with, well, here are some hurdles, here’s why I can’t walk in victory to that, I need my phone for work, I got the apps on it to connect to, jobs I’ve got to get done and things like that and that’s where, I, got aggressive with him. I was like, oh, great, then you shouldn’t come back like this thing is owning you and your every solution I bring you’re bringing hurdles to it, if you want out of this, the Lord’s mercies are new every morning and your life can be 100% different by nightfall, tonight, like if you’re not happy with your job, the place you live, the habits you have, change them like you have power to change what’s in your pocket that’s dominating and yeah, he knows if he’s listening to this, I was hard on you and he’s a brother. We’ve built that equity over years of relationship and to his credit, he comes back the next day and it’s like, you’re right.

I called my boss on a Saturday, he’s like, I called my boss and said, I’m not going to have my phone anymore, so whatever we need to do and his boss was like, Cool and so, to me, first off, credit to the Lord for doing that work in this guy’s heart, to where he was open enough to share that struggle again, because it’d be easy to come year six and be like, oh, we’re good, some struggles, but just keep it real vague, but like, praise the Lord that he caused this guy to be open again, because that’s where a lot of us are, All right, I’ve confessed this in the past, you know. I’ll just say generally I’m doing all right, but the Lord caused him to be open and then, for him not to push back strength against strength, because that did come at him pretty hard, but he went back and humbled himself and like prayed through it and took action and actually got over a lot of those hurdles that he’d been putting in his own way for a long time and told his boss, I’m not and maybe to the risk of his job, I’m not carrying a phone. I’m not going to do it because of my relationship with the Lord and I’m like, yeah, that guy is a guy who is struggling to try to be like Jesus and to me, like that was a big success story and you know who you are, if you’re listening to this, I love you. I’m proud of you for that, for sure, because that really was job on the line, potential things, but in that moment saying faithfulness is more important than my job, I’m like, heck, yeah.

Brody

That’s encouraging. Yes, I had a guy. I had multiple conversations this weekend with guys that are struggling in their marriage. I can think of three or four. I think four. I can think of four, one on one. Conversations I had with guys that are struggling in their marriage and one of the guys I already knew, two of the guys I had never met and one of them I had met a few years ago, he came to Be Strong just realizing in a crowd that big there’s a whole lot of unhealthy marriages represented in the room and I think for those brothers, hopefully they had some good accountability interaction, one of the things I counseled with each of those guys was, you can only control what you can control. Your wife may be so frustrated with you now, or you all may be so at odds that’s just where you’re at, but you need to embrace the responsibility that God’s called a man to embrace. So, that was just some cool conversations like that, but I had one conversation that stood out to me. A guy walks up to me. I’m talking to Laylee my 19 year old daughter had swung by, this was right before supper on Saturday evening and I’m out in front of the coupe and she’d swung by camp. She’d come in from school and I didn’t know she was coming in, so I was really excited. I saw her get out of the car and went over there was talking to her and I realize a guy’s waiting to talk to me. I turn around to walk away from Laylee and this guy is standing there and I said, you never know. Am I supposed to know this person?

A lot of times I feel like I should know this person, but maybe I don’t, maybe I should, maybe I shouldn’t. I don’t know and you don’t want people to feel like if you should know them. You don’t want to. It’s just hard, but we’ve learned you don’t bluff, don’t act like you know somebody if you don’t. So, I just said, do I know you, have we met before and he said, yeah, he said you were speaking and I won’t say the place, but it was for a denominational event. It was, I think, about a dozen or so churches, maybe 18 churches, at a conference center several years ago in another state, doing a session on  it was an event like Be Strong,  on biblical masculinity and what it was, one of the churches has come to Be Strong several times and so, they brought us into their denominational regional gathering or whatever, so like a Friday night and a Saturday event and he said, my wife made me go to that and we, she had grown up coming to SWO and said, I think if you’ll go to this, I saw where this guy from slow is from Snowbird’s going to be speaking. I think you’ll connect with him. You can listen to this guy. You’ll enjoy it. It’s not going to be weird. It’s not going to be awkward. It’ll be very easy for you to listen to, this guy works in construction, in the construction field, non-college educated, but sharp dude, very professional,  makes a good living in the construction world, working with general contractors so, a dude,

I think a lot of men are scared. A lot of dudes are scared to come to Be Strong, because they’re like, is this going to be like, we got to hug each other and it’s going to be super emotional and it’s just, it’s none of those things it’s just facts. So he said I came to this thing just because my wife wanted me to and he said it changed my life, changed my marriage, changed my view of work, parenting, being a dad. So, he’s a dad to some small kids, he’s got young kids and he said that was, I think it was like three years ago or four, three or four years ago and he said it literally changed my life. So, he’s been back to Be Strong a couple times, he’s been to two or 3b Strong’s, him and his wife have been in the marriage retreat, but he just briefly shared and I said, I’d like to hear more. Are you ready to go in and eat supper? So we just went in and sat down and ate, which is another thing that I think is cool about SWO is everybody here is accessible to everybody. So, I got to sit down and have a meal with the guy that and hear just what God’s done in his life, there’s no real struggles, the struggles that we all have, but he wasn’t like, his marriage is in crisis, his kids turning away, he’s got kids like six, four and two or something like that Him and his wife are doing pretty well and works good.

He’s praying about, does the Lord want me to go and to be more involved in ministry and we talked about lay leading, as a layman in the church, was so encouraging, but this guy said, yeah, I didn’t care about the things of God. I was just, like going to church. I come to this men’s event. It changed my life and I said who’d you go there with? He said nobody I didn’t know a single person I went to appease my wife sat through those sessions and it changed my life. So, that was very encouraging, the guy’s named Sean, shout out, Sean. I know you listen to NSR, appreciate you blessed me a lot. I don’t know if you realize you were the blessing in that conversation. I was the one that received the blessing, so thanks for sharing that. Yeah, but a lot of good conversations, a lot of hard conversations, a lot of cool networking, there’s a guy named Brian. Brian and his wife came to marriage retreat, marriage conference back in October. I met them there. I sat, me and Little set across from them at supper and Brian and his wife Whitney, are from Mount Airy, north Carolina and I’d made an Andy Griffith reference marriage treat and they said, we’re from Mayberry, it’s where Andy Griffith.

That’s where he was from and we started talking. So, I ended up and they just come to Snowbird on a recommendation of a friend, they wanted to get away go do something marriage related, they’ve been married 20 some years, let’s go somewhere close by. We don’t have to go too far from home, they came, they didn’t they never been to Snowbird, didn’t know anything about us. Lord, really used that weekend, I ended up on the phone with Brian the next week, he was serving as he has served as a children’s pastor and then, had been in another role at his at their home church, but really felt, had felt called to pastor and so, we ended up on the phone the next week for about an hour one night and he’s looking at church planting. So, I introduced him by text to Mike Talley, one of our board members, who’s a church planter in Denver, Colorado and John G Tate, John G is in Virginia and has planted multiple churches out of the original plant, Bedrock Church and so, networking guys. Well, then I’ve kept up with him through the last six months and he’s, they’re in the process with NAM North American Mission Board to plant with, send NC to plant within the state North Carolina.

He wants to hometown plant in Surrey County, North Carolina. Well, Timmy Burnett is a friend of ours, a pastor brother who felt really called to, he’s a bi vocational pastor who planted in his hometown, which is just north of Asheville on the Buncombe Madison County line, to plant in the mountains among mountain people, Asheville, church planting has been huge in Asheville in the last 25 years, but it’s all been sort of targeting the young, perfect the REI crowd and Timmy was like, I want to plant among mountain people, there’s still small town and small community feel in these mountain communities around Asheville. So, he planted close to home. So, Brian comes up to me. I said there’s a guy here. You got to meet and I see Timmy back there. Do you see Timmy had a blaze orange hat on he had sewed a Snowbird patch on it. It was awesome. I was like; we need some of those hats. So, Timmy and Brian connect and now they’re connected both North Carolina church planters Timmy will be able to, mentor and help Brian. So, there’s a cool networking story that came out of Be Strong that’s

Spencer

Yeah that’s cool. It was cool seeing guys like Timmy, who are bi-vocational or full time pastors that were here at Be Strong up until late Saturday night and then, a lot of these guys were like, I got to preach. I I’m out of here. I got to preach on Sunday morning, but they came and they’re with their guys and then, took off late Saturday or early Sunday to go preach in their churches, that was a cool little

Brody

Jeff Martin did that. Jeff Martin did it was in Johnson City and I saw him Saturday afternoon, late, he said, I hate it. I got to get out here tonight. I got to preach both services tomorrow. Love pastors like that. It was, cool we had a lot of guys here with their sons. Had a lot of guys here that served in years past, on SWO staff guys served 15, 20, years ago, that are here tend to Be Strong. We got Sovereign Hope Churches here and that lead pastor, Adam Benson, is a close friend of all of ours, a guy we have a lot of respect for, he planted and that church is growing and a lot of their men were here and lot of new faces, lot of new churches, new faces, new people.

Rob

I was really surprised when we asked them to raise their hand if this was their first time there was a ton of guys. It felt like just from looking out on the stage, it felt like over half the crowd, but at cool, it feels like the opposite, but just because there’s so many guys that have been coming for years that just become good friends and then, they just keep bringing folks.

Brody

The theme, the teaching focus and I would just again, encourage you all to go listen to all the sessions. We’ll have them on the Snowbird Outfitters podcast, our other podcast, which covers all of our teaching content, the theme was life of the apostles, or just the apostles, the theme was the apostles and Friday night, I opened up with 1st John 1:5 – 10, which is that contrast of light and darkness can’t have fellowship. So, as believers, we’ve got to work and fight to stay in the light and the way we do that is through confession, but if we’ll live as men of confession, both in confessing our sins and confession of the Lordship of Christ and that through that, there’s a constant cleansing and we looked at sanctification, felt like that was a need for men like the guy you’re talking about Spence, that feel like, I keep going back to the same thing. It’s the Romans 7 struggle. I keep going back to the same thing and it’s like, well, just keep confessing and just keep receiving the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus and then, Saturday morning looked at those last words of Paul in 2nd Timothy 4 where he’s writing that last letter, we’ve chopped that up 100 different ways over the years at Be Strong, because it’s that kind of, passage, there’s so many angles you can take on it, there’s so many, like you can focus in on one of the names in the passage or one of the phrases in the passage and I looked back as I was preparing that message. I looked back and I had preached three different sermons, all different on that text, but one of the things I really wanted to highlight was that moment where he asks for John Mark, because he’s useful for ministry and that was a big redemptive moment, because that was a guy that abandoned Paul and then, Paul wouldn’t allow him to serve alongside of him for a long season and then, Saturday night, Spence, you brought a message on Paul’s last interaction with the leaders of the church at Ephesus, that’s each,

Spencer

Yeah, that’s right. Yeah and that one, that affected me a lot personally, because it was, that centering around is Acts 20:24 he says something like, I don’t consider my life of any value, if only I can finish the course and to me, it was just, it was so impactful all week thinking about, I don’t count my life, my comfort money of any value, the only value is sharpened down to finishing the course is proclaiming the Gospel and it was super challenging for me, personally and then, just to think, one of the sub points of the sermon was talking about how much Paul had accomplished, in such a short time and it was like, okay, he wrote Romans in this three month span and then, he basically evangelized all of Asia within this two year span and it made me just sit and think, okay, three months ago….

Brody

What am I doing?

Spencer

It was New Year’s What about Paul wrote Romans in this time span, what have I done in three months and even two years ago, I think in March of ‘23 Paul had evangelized, a continent…

Brody

A continent and it was four, there was technology.

Spencer

Yeah, it was just so challenging to me to think about, obviously, he’s driven by the Holy Spirit as an apostle, but to think about what a life that’s so sharpened down to such a point of Faithfulness. Faithfulness finished the course the Gospel. Yeah, it was really challenging to me, personally,

Brody

Good. I loved it. Sunday morning, John Rouleau spoke. He took us through the text. Also, another one that we’ve done a lot through the years it’s, a go to SWO text, he’s even taught on that text before, but it was from a different angle, where after Jesus has resurrected and the disciples are by themselves and they go fishing and Jesus appears to them and I had several guys come up to me and say, that sermon this morning was exactly for me, just neat how many guys would say they would resonate with a breakout or a conversation or one sermon or one point in one sermon, happens so much and then, yeah, but John did a phenomenal job with that. I liked, I loved his first point, the first point was, don’t look back, just quit looking back and I think that for a lot of dudes, they need a lot of guys look back, either at the glory days or as with a defeatist mindset, I just keep doing this. Don’t look back. Look forward. Keep your eyes on Jesus. I love that first point and then, breakouts. We had Hank Zach and Sean all teach breakouts. Yeah, Zach’s was phenomenal and Zach’s just FYI. Zach’s breakout was exactly what any of us would teach. It was more of a Snowbird, this is where Snowbird stands. Is what we teach, is what we align with, scriptural masculinity.

We’ve all taught every point in that breakout before and I love that there’s like a cohesion to our mindset when it comes to what is biblical masculinity, even when I was talking to that reporter and he said he starts off by the first question, we sit down at the metal building, the first question is, what do you say is masculinity and I was like, all I can think of is that one thing where he got that one video where that African news reporter goes, Are you gay, why are you gay? You all know, have you seen it, have you seen it, why are you gay, why do you say I’m gay, who says I am gay? You are gay. It’s one of the best videos on all, of the internet, but like, we sit down and the guy goes, what is masculinity and I was like, did you I said, now, did you listen to Zach’s breakout? He said, yeah, I did and I said that’s literally our ministry, that’s what we’ve taught. I said, hours of content on NSR, hours of teaching content. We’ve all taught that same basic outline, obviously a little different when each guy teaches it, but it’s the same. It’s 80% 80, 90% same content. I was like, That’s it, that’s our so I would encourage you to go back through that breakout and listen to it again when it post next week and then, he said, What is the difference? No, but what is how would you define taking dominion, not being toxic masculinity and I said, Well, Zach, explained that.

He differentiated between being domineering and taking dominion and I said, but what I said to him was, I don’t entertain the phrase toxic masculinity, that is a phrase that was coined by a certain sociopolitical faction of our culture and I’m not going to use their terminology. What we believe is that God designed masculinity. God designed marriage. God designed sexuality, there are various varying perversions of that and so, if we’re going to take masculinity one perversion of it would be an abuser. Another perversion would be someone who abdicates responsibility, there’s different perversions I’m not going to give credence to the phrase toxic masculinity and so, just unpacking that with him was good because and he was, you know there’s a language barrier there, English isn’t  his first language and it was cool seeing him go, okay, I get it. I’m tracking with that. It was a good conversation. It was good dialog and it was good to be able to just reference back to that.

Rob

That’s cool. I didn’t realize I had the same conversation and he used that term. I was like, I don’t like to use that, yeah, because it, really, where it got steam was people using it, but really attacking biblical…

Brody

Biblical masculinity.

Rob

But, it was there. So, he, after Zach’s breakout, which he was nodding at a lot of it, but he said, How is Joe Rogan an example of biblical masculinity and I was like, well, I would say he’s not, but Zach had referenced him, but he had referenced him in that how many guys, whatever, 18 to probably 30 something resonate with Joe Rogan, but just because he’s definitively masculine. So he’s using that as example, but same, but it’s not biblical masculine, yeah, but so that I was glad he asked that so it could put in the article that we looked at Joe Rogan….

Brody

As example of biblical masculinity, yeah, I think Zach had a list. It was like Rogan Jocko. David Goggins a group of guys and he said, why are these guys blowing up on the why is this who everybody listens to and it’s because young men that resonates with them, but we have the blueprint for it. God’s the one that designed it. Anything else you all can think of Andy

Rob

And he crushed it again.

Brody

The food was phenomenal.

Spencer

Yes,

Brody

Cowboy butter.

Rob

Cowboy butter

Brody

On steak, was impressive,

Rob

Not for you.

Spencer

 I didn’t get it. I didn’t see the cowboy butter. What’s in it?

Rob

So what he did, I went back. I was like, where’s the cowboy butter and he had already,

Brody

Glazed it.

Rob

Glazed it and he gave me a big scoop of it, but, yeah, it’s just butter with, like basically everything in your pantry

Brody

That’s spiced up, butter, melted and drizzled over your meat.

Spencer

Yeah, it was, it was gone or put up by the time I got through, because I came through late, but that steak was so good, oh my gosh, he does such a great job.

Brody

I’ll tell you, vanity of vanities. I didn’t get any steaks Friday night because I was preaching, yeah and I was I had finished. I told Rob I didn’t come to the four o’clock meeting because I was literally in the at 3.30 I was like, I got to stop now or power through and I power through till about 4.30 and I had Friday night stuff ready, but at that point I was about 60 or 70% done for Saturday morning. I was like I need to at least work on Saturday morning’s talk I was like; I’m not going to, if because, if you go eat, it’s a two hour commitment because you can’t not talk to folks. It’s like, I need to get through my teaching stuff and so I the next, the next, rest of meals from, from lunch, Saturday, supper, Saturday, but I heard the steak was awesome.

Spencer

It was same thing. I didn’t eat the second night because getting ready to speak, but the steak was memorable.

Brody

I think the thing with the steak that’s so impressive, too, is it wasn’t a rib eye. It’s like; I don’t know what cut it was, but it,

Spencer

He called it something fancy.

Brody

Yeah, it’s like a shoulder cut, I heard, everybody raved about it. When you get that many guys bragging on meat, because guys are critical, guys are meat critics, so we’ll wrap that up and thank you all for listening and hope that if you’re not already thinking about it, you’ll be thinking about coming to Be Strong next September, that’s our next one and then, also, husbands and wives. We do still offer a marriage conference in October and for you ladies that listen to NSR, if you not already signed up, our women’s conference is in April, so be sure and come to that our wives will be leading that and super involved in that she had just a few spots left and they will go, it’ll be full. So, hope you can make it and we’ll see you next week.