Interview Set Up

Justin 0:12

Hey , you're listening to Armchair Authentic with Rhett and Justin , a podcast designed to help you fulfill your God assignments by having real conversations about real life with real people . I'm excited today because I have the privilege to interview my best friend and our very own co-host , rhett Barton . This is an amazing story of God taking pain and turning it into purpose . It's a story of making beauty out of ashes . We're going to jump right in Our interview with my best friend , rhett Barton . For me , when I'm listening to someone in their interview and their story , really just that brief overview of what has been your life , because I really want to dig in and take it back to what got you started and to what you're doing now . Let the audience go ahead and get to know you and who you are and what got you into ministry .

Overview of Rhett's Life Now

Rhett 1:13

Yeah , if I could just start off by saying , first of all , this is not a comfortable thing for me . I love getting to know other people , hearing their stories and supporting that , so it's not natural for me to be on the other end talking about my journey in my story Although I do get to communicate for a living and I'm grateful for that . I do add stories from time to time , never in this format of this authentic sticking with the name of the podcast to kind of open up and shed some light on some other areas of my life in a way that's more living room , authentic , a little bit more vulnerable , opening up a little bit more . Not very easy . So let me just first say this If you're looking for a perfect person , I'm not that person .

Rhett 2:06

Very grateful for what I get to do , but I try to make it very clear to people that I'm on this journey I think you mentioned in one of the podcasts is we're going from glory to glory and so that's that's . My hope is that I'm getting better . But up into this point of this recording I've been very grateful that I've been serving God faithfully for 30 years , married , happily married , to the most beautiful , strong , courageous , brave woman Her name is Alinda been married for 17 years . Together we have a 15 year old son . His name is Max , and I love that by the time this recording airs , he'll be 16 .

Justin 2:46

So he'll be driving Lord .

Rhett 2:48

Jesus help us so . But I've been a part of planting this is this is crazy from volunteer or dream teamer to small group leader to associate in just every facet you could imagine been a part of planting six churches . Wow , in the 30 years that I've been serving Lord , so six year out of those six churches , two of those were offsite campuses where I was a part of . You know whether I was helping leadership or whether I was the actual campus pastor . One of those was with the church of the highlands and one of those was with a local arch church plant in Mobile , alabama . But most recently , I've become the founding pastor of a church that we planted my wife and son and I planted in 2018 . We were the lead pastors called one life church . It's a Nampa , idaho , just a little bit west of Boise . So most recently , that's what we've done , so I'm the founding pastor of that church . There are wonderful pastors there who are now continuing to lead the vision and it's so exciting . That's just so cool . But because of that , I now have the opportunity to offer coaching and consulting to pastors , their staffs , their teams , and my hope really , justin , is to help pastors and leaders to develop and really deliver systems and processes that truly help fulfill the vision and mission of their church is just really come alongside , partner with them and help them any way I can to move the ball down the field . So I'm getting to do that . But in addition to that , right now I'm currently an executive pastor of Believer's Church in Twin Falls , idaho , which are led by lead pastors and they founded the church as well pastors Clay and Heather Ramirez , really dear friends of mine , and I'm serving them in this capacity right now .

Rhett 4:38

But what's interesting is I get to do this from Birmingham , which is really out of the box , and you know , 2020 , when it hit it , kind of changed the change , the whole perspective of how we can do ministry and life and business . And and so I live in Birmingham , the area which is my hometown , born and raised . So I live here with my family and my wife she works at Highlands College , my son goes to an incredible school and we're getting to live life here . But once a month I do spend a week in Twin Falls , idaho , so I'm I'm there on site . When I'm there and working with their teams , I'm offering any kind of relief I can to the lead pastor , and so it's neat we can talk more about that later . So that's really kind of cool of what I get to do right now .

Launching A New Ministry: Relief Pastors

Rhett 5:23

I'm currently also developing and launching a 501c3 nonprofit called Relief Pastors where I have the opportunity to offer relief to pastors across the country , which is so cool and I can't wait to tell you guys more about that as we develop that . But really the heart behind that is to offer relief in the form of preaching , teaching , worship leader relationships to pastors , specifically church planters , because that was my world for so long and I think one of the biggest needs that I realized that I needed was a chance to have a Sunday off every once in a while to where I could be with my family and focus really first on what my biggest ministry was . And a lot of these young pastors couples who go out and plant church big dreams . A lot of them are bivocational , they're growing a church you know they could be 30 , 60 , 100 .

Rhett 6:15

And they're doing well but unfortunately they're just not over the hump financially where they can really offer an opportunity for them to get away from a Sunday .

Rhett 6:23

Their hands are in everything and so my hope is , through Relief Pastors , is to be able to come alongside them and to do it honestly , provided as a mission . So our goal is really not for them to have to have any financial burden , to have a Sunday off or whatever the need might be , and to come in for free , based off the mission support that we have from organizations , and be able to really support them , love them , serve them and in this past year we did about four and where we just come in , love them , give them a Sunday off and just be able to love their church and their congregation and honor them and just really help the ball , move the ball down the field . And so more of that in the future , more in some of it , really really excited about that , and really our agenda with that is just to see a healthy pastor , healthy pastor , healthy family , healthy church that goes on for generations , and so that's kind of what we're doing right now , but you know it wasn't always the case .

Justin 7:20

Well , yeah , you know , when you talk about that , it's this beautiful expression

Beauty From Ashes

Justin 7:24

, and you've heard the phrase beauty from ashes , and so this beautiful expression came from some ashes and the thought of saying I know it hadn't always been this way . What are these ashes ?

Rhett 7:38

Yeah , and I think that's the part , that is the some of the hard parts open up on . But I do this and really hopes to help people understand that God doesn't call the qualified Right , he qualifies the called and he just loves being able to make beauty from ashes . And I should have been a statistic based off of the things that I've gone through and I know you as well , we could relate on that . And so , yeah , I wasn't always the case of me being able to do these . What sounds grandiose , so right I did .

Rhett 8:16

I come from a broken family , as I mentioned , born and raised in Birmingham , alabama , and broken family in that's . My parents got a divorce , they separated , got a divorce when I was two or three years old . Unfortunately , I was sexually abused by a teenage neighbor when I was probably four or five years old and not many people know that and that's hard for me to even open up and say . But I realize I've held onto that for so long that it's time that I help people and get beyond that . My mom she died by suicide when I was seven years old , march 13th 1985 . I love my dad . He's an amazing , amazing father . He did everything he possibly could to provide , and in that season I was just naturally a latchkey kid . Now , I didn't know that I was a latchkey kid until recently , like they put a term to it , and I had to look that up . So if you don't know what that is , a latchkey kid is simply a child who returns to an empty home after school or any other activity , or it's a child who is often left at home with no supervision because their parents are away at work , and so it wasn't like my dad was trying to be a bad father . He was just doing everything he could to provide and we didn't have the money for daycare , so that was just naturally the part . Now , because of that , we're now beginning to see and understand that there are repercussions or consequences that happen in those environments and that will happen to me .

Rhett 9:41

And what I've come to realize is that a lot of what I experienced was low self-esteem , and because of low self-esteem , I was looking for love in all the wrong places . In affection , I battled a porn addiction , and this was back before there was the internet . Again , looking for love in all the wrong places and because of that , even not even serving the Lord at even such a young age , I was dealt with . Shame dealt with , guilt .

Rhett 10:08

As I began to grow older , I began to realize that I was looking for supernatural things , I was just looking in the wrong places . And so , like , I grew up on horror movies , believe it or not , because as a latchkey kid , you watch what you want , right ? And so who watched horror movies ? And because of that , I began to dabble in witchcraft and in that of like a Ouija boards and just baby stepping into , trying to talk to dead people and trying to just get this sense of connecting to something that was bigger than myself . And so the good news is , thank God ,

A Surrendered Life To Christ

Rhett 10:43

at 16 years old , my best friend , who is over here interviewing me at this moment , we were doing life with each other and we've I think we've covered some of those topics of how we met . But this brother goes off to a beach trip for a girl , comes back with Jesus and in field , with the third person of the Trinity , the Holy Spirit , and I see a dynamic change .

Rhett 11:05

And it was at that moment where I saw a change in my best friend . And because I saw a change in you , and it was real , it wouldn't fake , it wouldn't religion , it was just something powerful . I was like I , that's the supernatural thing I've been looking for . I didn't realize it , and so I went to a church service and I experienced the love of God , the power of God , in a true , authentic way , and my life was transformed . I gave my heart to Jesus , surrendered my life at 16 years old and then just try to be faithful in not in a religious way at first , but just a man . I love this . I love this is life , this is joy , this is peace , this is family , this is community All the things I knew I needed , but I didn't know that I needed at such a young age . But I , all of a sudden , I'm experiencing these things and it was at that point where I fell in love with God and fell in love with the church and and just became a part of a family . And I've been serving the local church and the Lord for 30 years since I hadn't been a perfect journey In fact , it wasn't always .

Rhett 12:01

Butterflies and rainbows is what I tell people . Yeah , you know , a lot of people think you give your heart to Jesus and all of a sudden , like the light bulb goes off and and you don't , you're not tempted anymore and you know whether it , whatever your , whatever your vice might be . You know everybody talks about the big ones . You know sex , drugs , rock and roll , kind of cussing and all that right , but for me it was . It was this born addiction from the trauma that I experienced as a kid and looking for love

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Rhett 12:26

. And so here I am , serving the Lord and yet still struggling with the thoughts in my mind because I haven't really come to the understanding of how to win the war in the mind or the battle of the mind that the enemy works on . And so , and all that came from the trauma that I experienced as a kid , but even then as working into an adult life , even as somebody who loved God as a young adult in my 20s and 30s , still trying to just figure out how to overcome this .

Rhett 12:50

I had a head on collision on October 13th in 1998 in my vehicle . I was 21 years old . I should have died but I walked away with a small scratch of my year . Any ambulance like the structure . They had the jaws of life to open up the vehicle . It was on the newspaper . It was a six mile back up on the interstate and should have died .

Rhett 13:11

But by the grace of the Lord in my life at that time . Now I'm serving God , I'm in the local church , I'm right . But the grace of the Lord and the sovereignty , for some reason it wasn't my time and I'm grateful . So I sit here today . It's a miracle by God that I did that . But a couple of months later my spiritual father and mother passed away , rod and jelly Solomon , and lost them and one step forward , two steps back , got married at a young age , at 23 , and moved to Dallas , fort Worth , with a dream in my heart to pursue ministry , but unfortunately went through a horrible divorce . The girl I was married to at the time ended up cheating on me . I forgave her .

Justin 13:45

I forgave her and I forgave her .

Rhett 13:47

And it one day just come home and to an empty house and ended up in $250,000 in debt , which took me 17 years to get out of . Praise the Lord , I'm debt free today , but went through a horrible divorce . And I was thinking here I am a young man , a loving God , I want to serve God . And what's going on , man ? This is crazy , like I didn't ask for this . One step forward , two steps back , but God continued to move forward . Serve some toxic leaders in churches . Listen , man , god chooses broken people and there are no villains in my story .

Rhett 14:23

Okay , but I have served some toxic leaders . I've been hurt , I've been wounded , I've been spiritually manipulated , I've been abused by church leaders up into the point where one time and I'm not going to mention names or organizations , but I had a severe panic attack that I thought was a stroke , ended up going to the doctor , having MRI and everything , and praise God it wasn't a stroke , but it was the stress level that I was under due to some toxicity and that led to depression and been an extreme burnout . And anyway , out of all these different moments that I've experienced , what I really hope that people understand and see is that God was , god is and God will always remain faithful . He has been faithful to me . He's never left me , he's never forsaken me , he's been right with me through every aspect of every moment . And what I realized was that , with the enemy meant for

Pain Turned Into Purpose

Rhett 15:14

harm , god somehow , miraculously , some way turned it around for good . He took my pain and turned it into purpose , but I had to allow him to do it and I had to choose to have the perspective in and through every situation to see it that way that I know who my father is and I know what his word says and I also know who the enemy is . And I was thinking , wow , I really have a great calling in my life and God's going to use me , so something powerful if I'm having this much attack in my life .

Rhett 15:43

So I speak not from a place of perfection , but as one whose experience hurts , wounds , pain , but one who has chosen and I hope to continue to choose this to persevere in the face of some of life's most critical moments and difficult moments . And , if you don't mind , I want to share this verse James 1-2-4, . Consider it pure joy , my brothers and sisters , whenever you face trials of many kinds , because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance , so let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete , not lacking anything . And so I recognize that God did not cause the pain that I've gone through . He allowed it .

Rhett 16:35

Listen , pain is the result of humanity . Pain is the result of the sin of a broken world , and we live in a broken world . I like to say it this way broken people like to break people , just like hurt people . What do they do ? They hurt people , and so I've just chosen to accept this verse as truth , and that's James 1-12 .

Rhett 16:58

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because , having stood the test , that person . Here's the promise . That person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him . And so my life verse , justin , if you would ask me anytime , from the pain that I've gone through when I found this verse , I held on to this verse and it has gotten me through so many things . And that comes out of Proverbs 3-3-6 . Let love and faithfulness never leave you , like , whatever you do . Keep that close to you , bind them around your neck , write them on the tablet of your heart . Why ? Because then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man . So he says in verse 5 ,

Trust In The Lord And He Will Direct Your Paths

Rhett 17:44

trust in the Lord , just trust . Trust in the Lord with all your heart and don't lean on your own understanding . So good .

Rhett 17:54

When things are going wrong , when things are upset , when things are , people are walking out on you . People are listening . Don't lean on what you see , what you hear and what you're experiencing , not on your own understanding , but in all your ways . That's in everything Good , bad , ugly , highs , lows , valleys , deserts , mountains , whatever . And everything that you do is just submit to him and he will make your path straight . And so I am a living testimony of that verse that , no matter what has ever come my way , I'm not a perfect person . I have sin issues and things that I'm you know , vices and different things that I'm still working through and overcoming , and all of that even as a pastor . But I've chosen that , despite what I'm going through , that I will trust in my God with everything that I have , and I'm not going to look to the situation , I'm not going to look to the circumstance , I'm not going to look to the person that's in my life that might be causing the pain . I'm going to lean on anything that is my own physical , earthly understanding , but I'm going to submit my life to God . I'm going to trust him because his word says that he will make my past right , and that's what he's done , and so I know our pastor will say you know you can get to .

Rhett 19:12

You know we live in Birmingham , alabama . Atlanta is about two hours east of us , nashville is about three hours north of us , and I think he said it this past Sunday , you know , or whenever he said you can get to Atlanta by going through Nashville , but it's better just to get to Atlanta . You can get there a whole lot quicker , right ? And so I feel like my life has been a series of trying to get to Atlanta through Nashville , through Chattanooga , through Knoxville , let's go up to Pennsylvania and down the east coast to Atlanta . But that's just kind of the story of my life .

Rhett 19:43

But I've seen God straighten out the path . You know . Okay , again , no villains . I've made my own decisions in certain areas and I've experienced certain pains in my life due to the choices that I've made . And it's nobody's fault , I mean , you know what I mean , so nobody's to blame . But what I can say is that you know God will make your past straight . He has done that , he continues to do that and my hope is , lord willing , that I'll continue to live with this being my life , first trusting him . I'm looking to him , submitting to him and seeing my path straight until I see him face to face , and not from my glory but for the glory of an honor of God and his son Jesus .

Justin 20:26

Well ,

Maintaining Humility

Justin 20:27

this can go in so many directions right now .

Rhett 20:29

Yeah .

Justin 20:30

But what I want to really breathe in right now is the authenticity . This is armchair authentic .

Rhett 20:36

Yeah .

Justin 20:37

The interview went down a certain course of identity , a surrender , if you will . Your course right now and as the interviewer . What I want to say first is you're being so authentic through this process , but I'm on the other side through all these years and one of my deepest respects for you when you've gone through what would be this hell , I've seen this innocence maintained on you , where you really have reflected this person , as I am so dependent on God that you haven't let it . You haven't become jaded in the Lord and , yes , maybe people , all this stuff can happen , you got a hill from that , but you haven't been jaded with Jesus ever . You've fallen deeper and deeper in love with him .

Justin 21:34

And what I would also say is the way that you have handled a lot of these situations . It reminds me of the story with King David or it was David then and King Saul . You're not going to toot your own horn , but I've seen how you've handled this process and you've been able to maintain this humility and wonder .

The Texas Years

Justin 21:55

You know , I want to even take it back a little bit . You're in Texas and you went there for really pursue ministry with schooling , but also full time job and marriage , as you said . That could you take us through some of that experience of you said you've been a part of six church plants .

Rhett 22:17

Yeah , and so , to back up , I am from Birmingham born and raised , and so when I got married a young age , in my early twenties that I mentioned , I did have a dream to pursue ministry , and at that time there was an open door to go to Christ for the nations in .

Rhett 22:32

Dallas , fort Worth , texas , which is a missions college really more than anything , and so . But as I pursued that , there was an open door that came from relationship from me and to take on a full time worship leading position . Because , as I mentioned in the past episodes , worship was always the door that opened another door , and so worship was what I thought I was going to be doing for my entire life . And if I could just time out and say that worship is not just three songs on a Sunday , but so when I say worship , I mean worship when I wake up and I'm talking to God , that's worship . When I pray , that's worship .

Rhett 23:13

And but at that time in that season of my life , I thought like leading an organization or the ministry of a church with choirs and band that's the date me , choirs and bands and frontline teams and vocalists , all of that as worship leading for Sunday experiences . So I was a part of a church called New Life Christian Fellowship and was a beautiful church , and the pastor there met him , came on staff . When I went through the divorce , I was on staff at that church . So because of needing to take a step back and roll , I pulled back and started working , a 10 hour job at that point , doing anything on everything I possibly could because of the infidelity that was happening in my marriage that , you know , due to decisions that were beyond my control , in that unfaithfulness that happened and so all of that went down . And when all that happened you know I was looking for , you know , really honestly , I didn't think I was going to be serving the Lord anymore in ministry .

Justin 24:08

Yeah .

Rhett 24:09

And so there was a church in Frisco , Texas , and it was a church plant and God bless them . They were just desperate .

Rhett 24:18

And I can say that because I told them . I said here's the situation I'm walking through , here's just what I went through I'm broken , I'm hurting , I'm wounded . I love God and I'll be glad to serve you . But I just want to be very transparent . This is the stuff I'm walking through . And they're like listen , like we are so sorry you're going through that , but like we need you and we want you , and so I was like okay , so , and it was truly just an opportunity for me to try to make a little bit more money . So I resigned that other position at the other church , went through some time and some healing , and then this church opportunity presents itself , served there three years . In that process the Lord , you know , restored unto me . I remarried my wife now of 17 years , so that first marriage did not end in restoration .

Justin 25:03

Yeah .

Rhett 25:03

All right , let me say it this way the first marriage did not end in reconciliation , is what I should say , but it did end in restoration and meaning that I wasn't reconciled to that that person because of their choices Okay .

Restoration and Redirection

Rhett 25:17

But God restored to me what the enemy tried to take from me in Linda , who I've been married to 17 years , going on 18 . And my life now is beautiful because of it . So I married . Then we're going to this church , we get married . It's about three years in that I'm serving that church and at the end of that three years , getting married to my new bride .

Rhett 25:37

At that time it was like God just began to speak and said hey , you've served this church faithfully for three years and it has grown , but I'm calling you onto something that's next , with your wife and everything . It's like a new chapter , new season for us . And so we finished our time there really well at that church . And then that's when we found out that blame Bartel , who was a part of church on the move which everybody would know , willie George , willie George ministries their youth ministry grew and exploded and it was called 180 and their youth pastor . They used to have a TV show that came on at night . It's kind of like a Saturday night .

Rhett 26:13

Yeah , it was like a Saturday night live type thing that they did , that they produced , and so blame Bartel was a big part of that cutting edge . Yeah , it was so cutting edge at the time and and he , along with oh , what's the other guy's name , they did big conferences and stuff around the big glow . I can't remember his name Anyway . So I've found out that they're , you know , blaine and his family are coming down and my wife grew up on their ministry and I grew up a little bit with their ministry and we were in a season of transition and they were planting the church from scratch at the Frisco event center , conference center , there , you know , in downtown Frisco . And so , yeah , we , we just went to the launch meeting and started serving as a volunteer and I'm working a full time job and my wife's cutting hair full time and we dive very , very deep into serving on worship , mainly because that was , again , my main thing , and so I'm worshiping . I mean , I'm not worshiping but I'm , I'm , I'm serving pastor Blaine and this vision and I'm serving the music pastor , because that a pastor of over music and I'm serving them and just as a volunteer .

Rhett 27:13

And you know what's crazy is , at the time I wasn't living in Frisco , I mean because we had to relocate due to some financial things that I was going through and we were late . I think we were . I think it was 87 miles . One way we drove to church , and not only drove to church on the Sunday 87 miles but Thursday night band rehearsal . So I would leave work from downtown Dallas , drive up the Dallas North Tollway , get the , take me about 45 minutes an hour , get there , spend on , you know , do all the worship , rehearsals and I'm just a volunteer , I'm not getting paid or anything .

Rhett 27:47

And then we , we finished rehearsal around nine o'clock and then I drive 87 miles south and what I would say , the first church that I served , the new life church in , not to be confused with any other new life , but it was a new life church in Dallas . What I learned in that specific season was , as a , you know , early twenties , was that , if I look back and unpack the layers , I made a decision to take that and and and . You know you don't know what you don't know , but I feel like , looking back , I made the decision to be a part of that church , based off of money more than I did ministry or or really hearing the voice of the Lord

Desiring Impact More Than Accumulation

Rhett 28:27

Cause I what I did hear the voice of the Lord's . Call us to Christ for the nations .

Justin 28:30

Yeah .

Rhett 28:31

I didn't necessarily hear the voice of the Lord to take this job full time and to make that my full time thing and and then to to kind of shelf cracks for the nations . But that's what happened because they were paying me a lot of money at that time . But what I realized three months in , six months in , I was miserable at that first church Because I was getting paid well and I loved what I got to do on Sunday . I just know , listen , nobody's a villain . They're wonderful people and it's not them . It was more me , but I did not connect with the vision of that church . I did not connect with anything in that church , with the leadership of that church . There was no really relational connection outside of they're paying me really well and I was not , because I was not attached to that vision . I did not see that church going in a in in any direction outside of what it was already doing , which is not to say it was great or bad , it just was what it was . But I felt like God was calling me to something that was going to be a little bit more impactful down the road and it wasn't going to happen here . And what I realized through that is that I don't want to take a job just because they're paying me well to do what I get to love .

Rhett 29:36

I would rather work a full-time job , secularly if you will , making $10 an hour or whatever I didn't care at that time and being a place where the pastor has vision and be a part of a community where we're we're a part of something that the part that we play is so much .

Rhett 29:53

You know , I don't know how to say this correctly and I'm going to having said it forever , but it's like feeling like I'm a part of something bigger than that's , than myself really , and I was like I'll be . I just want to be where God wants me and I don't care what I get . I don't even have to be full-time and that it was that that I learned from that first , and because I learned that and I was like I don't want to be miserable making a ton of money , I would rather be happy working in the world and serving the local church and getting to be a part of something has a lot of big vision , it's doing something that's making a difference and I feel like I'm a part of that . All right , so that . So that's the layer , that's the foundation and because of that layer , because of that foundation , when we went to be a part of you know , at that time it was North Star with Pastor Blaine , you know , I felt like I went where we're a part of this .

Rhett 30:41

This is where we're going to be Right . Three years in , I'm noticing that the church is growing . They're starting to hire staff and people and in something in my spirit is like man , I would love to be on staff . I would , just really would . And I shared that with Pastor Blaine . He's like , oh man , you're like , you're our next hire . Like those were his words You're our next hire . And I was like man , this is great , it's where I want to be , it's here in Texas . I'd love to all of that and there was no , there was just not .

Rhett 31:11

I don't know how to explain it , but looking back , it's been a while . Man , I'm opening up some doors in my brain that haven't been open in a while . Looking back , it was like you , you think you want to be a part of this . But at the end of the day , I just began to feel a stirring that was going a different direction and I couldn't put my finger on it and I was honestly at that point . You and I were connecting and it was around . When was church of the Highlands planted ? 2001 ?

Justin 31:38

2001 February .

Rhett 31:40

Yeah , and what year would this be ? 2007 , 6 , 6 , 7 , somewhere in there ? Yeah , so this is 2006 . So Highlands is five , six years old at this point . Right , and I'm living kind of vicariously through your journey with what we kind of dialed into in one of the last episodes and I'm obviously I'm like , well , this is in my hometown , this is amazing what God's doing , how cool to be to be a part of something like that . I never thought we would be on staff . I never thought like it would happen . I just felt like Texas is where it was , but we were getting stirred . We were feeling stirred in this whole season with our family and three years in to serve in this church that , honestly , is growing . It grew to 600 people by the time I left and and it's great , but I just could .

Rhett 32:25

I couldn't put my finger on it , but I was like you know , I would rather be when God's calling me to be , then then be full-time on staff , and I think it was that to where I was like there was a stirring for Birmingham . There's a stirring for Birmingham for Church of the Highlands , and it wasn't . You know , let me just be honest , it's not about an or it's about a people and it wasn't about a person . You know , what even might have a name of an organization is about a people , a community , and in the

Moving Back To Alabama

Rhett 32:55

Just the snowball and the momentum that was rolling to make a huge difference in my hometown , I think that was a huge part of it . And so so yeah , cuz I honestly I was like I'm never moving back to Alabama , bro , like it ain't that he happened and , by the way , I don't care how old you are .

Rhett 33:09

Never say never , cuz God has a sense of humor . I've moved back twice , okay , we'll see how long this one sticks , yeah . But so with that I began to share that dream with my pastor that I was serving faithfully for three years . In my gut I was like what , regardless of job or no job , I'm called to Birmingham and I'm called to be there . And I told my wife , and I told you , I felt like , if for anything I'll get it . I was working transportation at that moment . I'll continue to work my transportation job Just to get me there , so I can learn .

Rhett 33:43

I again , the foundation was I don't want to go out and get paid full time to be in ministry , because I could do that anywhere . But I didn't want to be anywhere , I want to be where God wanted me right . And so I felt God was calling me there . You know , told my wife Linda , I said I feel like we're called and so I'm gonna get a job and we're gonna move Just to go to church with islands and so , and that's what happened , I just had a heart to serve the local church . I didn't really care if I was full-time or not . I just wanted to be obedient and to be where God called me and to be faithful , and that's what we did . So , yeah , so I end up in Birmingham and and then next thing I know , like the very next Sunday , I'm leading worship at Grants Mill on the platform , playing keys next to my best friend , and then fast forward .

Justin 34:25

I end up on staff , the encouragement to people who were listening is God was going before you and you still made a faith step . Yeah and you moved your family 11 hours back to . Birmingham , and so your story takes you from Birmingham to Texas . You're involved in those different cities in Texas with these church plants . You then come back to Birmingham , alabama . You begin serving the local church of Church of the Highlands . You come on staff .

Rhett 34:57

So let's set up that moment .

Justin 34:58

What was that like this next phase of your life ?

Rhett 35:01

Let me make it very clear Church of the Highlands is our church home . You know , I do serve believers church in Twin Falls and so that's home for me . But when I'm here , my family were involved at Church of the Highlands and so , yeah , I

On Staff At Church Of The Highlands

Rhett 35:14

mean I was so thankful for the opportunity I had to be able to serve Church of the Highlands and to serve it faithfully . What I would say is a part of my journey , in my process with Highlands and being on Staff and serving and helping plant the Montgomery campus along with the campus pastor and I was worship pastor or worship leader at that time Is that God was stirring in me and developing in me . Remember , going back , I felt like I would . I had a five year . I don't know there was something about this five year . I felt like I would be a part of Highlands for at least five years and we were really close to it in that five-year mark and there was just some stuff in me .

Rhett 35:44

I realized that there was more in me than worship leading , yeah , and I was growing and I was in my 30s at this point and I felt like , you know , there I was seeing through the lens of other gifts and gift sets that God has put in my life outside of just Singing and playing a keyboard and raising up a guitarist and all that there's I'm not saying there's anything greater than that that's amazing , those things are awesome and but for me and my story and my age and my season of life , through other things God was leaving me towards , he was developing those and with that at that time in the season , the way the organization was is changed now , but the way it was then was there really wasn't anything beyond . For me at that point it was either just you gonna be a worship leader and that's it , you know , and and that's fine . But for me there was more and I knew it and so leadership and I met , we talked through

Shift To Pastoral Role At A Church In Mobile

Rhett 36:33

that . We ended up , based off the relationship you have with some other church planners , met Art , church planner mobile , and ended up coming on staff . There's a worship pastor which eventually kind of learned it leaned into a lot of associate pastor deals , which then leaned into planting a campus .

Rhett 36:49

Because of all the things that I learned from church of the Highlands , yeah , so the church there and this is not good . Trust me , this has nothing to do with the red period . God is sovereign and would have done it without me . I just happened to be there , but we were a part of implementing systems right that delivered the vision for the church and mobile . They were around 400 people .

Rhett 37:10

They were at four years old at that point by the time we left . I think we were , I feel like and I could be wrong , so don't quote me the numbers but we were over 2,000 people at our last Easter before we left the church and mobile to go plant the church , and so again , I'm not taking kudos for that . There are a lot of leadership things that happen , but I do know the things that we implemented with the infused development process with the musicians . I do know the things we implemented with the dream team and the small groups and how I Oversold these pastoral care type things , that kind of created a net , if you will , to To assimilate people , just to , not just to come to church but to be the church .

Justin 37:48

What was cool in that season was how you start it . You felt the sense of shifting , not just worship Pastoring , but also stepping into the broader sense of the church . Yeah , you started doing that , really becoming an associate pastor To that local congregation , and then they're ready to step into their first , yeah , campus Plant yeah , video launch campus .

Rhett 38:10

That they've never done before and I oversaw all of that .

Justin 38:12

Yeah so there's no staff to do this , there's really no team you but you become . You become a student whenever it's time to do something . Yeah , even with our podcast right now , you've become a student to understand . In the same way , you became a student of what it takes to successfully plant high level of A church plant . Yeah so go through that . What was that like ? That learning process , and what , what , what were you tasked to do ? Literally everything .

Rhett 38:36

Yeah , I was tasked to do everything . I Just learned , I think . Here's the thing like I don't know all things , but I know people that do yeah . I think one of the greatest leadership principles you can learn is that you don't have to be an expert at everything , but you need to know the people that are yeah and then you need to build a relationship with them and then tap into that , yeah , and allow them to be the experts .

Rhett 38:56

And so all I did was call a lot of people . Now , granted , I you know the two churches in in Texas , actually three . There was the new life , then there was the Frisco community fellowship , before Norstar . All three of those church plants , completely different type of plants . One was elementary school , one was a convention center , one was a warehouse building type thing , right , and so , like I've seen what not to do and I've seen what to do , and then church of the Highlands , I'm here and then I'm a part of like doing church in a little chapel that was called River Chasing , that grew to a building , and then helping the Montgomery campus , and doing that in a Massive auditorium that was portable setup and as far separated you could possibly do , and honestly , doing it really wrong even in some of those scenarios and learning through it .

Rhett 39:43

And so while I had those experiences , I learned from those and was like we're not doing it this way , we're gonna make this as easy as possible for everybody , but at the same time I'm calling people and I'm learning and and I would even say that I learned a lot from that of when we went to plant the church in one life I was able to do it for a lot less because of the things that I learned .

Rhett 40:03

All that to say yeah it , all the things that go into that there's we don't have enough time for the podcast , but you can imagine from all the portable things that you would need , from AVL to kids to trailer , to the center itself , to Making sure we've got the all the pipe and tray , all the things you know church in a box , if you will , to pull up in a trailer and the teams and raising up the team and developing the team and walking the teams through all of what the expectations are in the vision and what my vision like . I'm here to serve the pastor's vision right . So I'm still worship pastor , I'm still associate pastor , I'm still over small groups , I'm still helping with the dream team coordinator at that time and I help raise up and overseeing the kind of helping oversee those things , on top of planting this campus , that is a satellite video campus and and I am now the campus pastor and I'm leaving worship there too , yeah , so Jack of all just and I'm not saying is if that's something that's healthy and you should do .

Rhett 41:01

But it's something you did but I'm saying it is something I did do and everything that I've gone through has been a school to Leave me to the next , and I never would have dreamed it would be planning my own church , because I had no desire to ever do that .

Justin 41:11

I want to go there with this next step of ministry . You end up planning a church .

Staff Pastor to Church Planter Stirring

Rhett 41:18

Yes .

Justin 41:18

Let's talk about the lead up to this . Your campus pastor , mm-hmm , all the things that you just named , that you're involved with , really . Yeah you are , you know , I mean really associate pastor , kind of you're serving the pastor , you're helping their dreams come true . Yes which is wonderful , by the way . You've always been really , really good at that and I would say that's the foundation of our ministry . We do live to see our leaders , dreams and assignments come true , beautiful .

Rhett 41:44

I think that's right . There's a promise to it .

Justin 41:47

There is a promise to reap what you sow , man that's right , and so , in that season though , you're doing this yeah and there begins to be a stirring . Let's talk about that , because that was an overtime for years as friends . That's why I want to set this up .

Rhett 42:02

Mm-hmm .

Justin 42:02

It's friends as a confidant . There are things we're gonna talk about that no one's gonna know about on both ends , right . Yeah we reciprocate that . So I always knew from you , rhett , that for years you had mentioned I just feel this during that at some point in life we're gonna plan a church . But you were so faithful to where you were you really never let your mind fully go there and you had always said that if the Lord ever really seemed to tee up that moment for you , you would at least let the desire be known , but still submit it .

Justin 42:35

Yeah talk about that season .

Rhett 42:37

Yeah , so when we went to Mobile to serve the church , I had no desire to ever really to plant that one thing . I was just I'm only worship , only worship on creating credible . And then , of course , all the things we just mentioned that I that we did for for the church it was 2015 went to an art conference in Jacksonville , florida . I'm sitting and somewhat in the back , kind of halfway up if you think they're , the floor is kind of like slightly level , like an old movie theater would be . I'm dating myself here , that's kind of like sloped . But then they have stadium seating and I'm in like the back far stadium sitting and I'm not sitting where the cool kids sit , all that to say . And so I got this little pamphlet in my lap here and I'm not opening it and it's just a little like kind of Conferencing type thing , couple pages in it and I'm seeing all these young guys . Man , like it felt like they were in their Early to mid 20s and early , you know , like early 30s . And here I am , you know , late 30s , almost 40 years old , like 39 , 40 , whatever it was at the time , and I think it was 38 . Anyway , I'm sitting there going , you know , I'm looking and I'm hearing all these great stories of all this impact and what they're doing . And of course , I've been a part of planning churches and you know , and , and , and I begin to think , man , you know , I think if God were to ever call me to plant a church , I've done , missed it , because obviously you got to be young , you got to be spry , you got to be like , you got to have all this energy and don't get me wrong , that's how to tell me of energy at the time but like I , just I was looking at age and in literally , I was having the thought God , I've done , I've missed them . If that's what you're gonna call me to one day , I've done . Missed it because obviously you're raising up this generation and they're crushing it and you're not calling old people anymore to plant churches . And and I mentioned that for a reason , because it was after that thought and it was like near the end of a session Nothing's happened and people are moving around .

Rhett 44:29

I'm looking at my lap to sit in my chair and I'm still got this little article and I open it up and there's an article for Ross Parsley in his church I think it was one chapel in Austin , texas , and it was a story and their journey . He and his wife and I read through it and it comes down to it . I should . I wish I had it in front of me right now . I have it in my office area but it says if you think you're too old to plant a church , maybe , just maybe I'm paraphrasing Maybe , just maybe , maybe God's calling you To take all what , what you've learned all these years , to pour into the next generation of leaders and church planters In . In essence , it was like if you're sitting there thinking you're too old to plant a church because he was 45 , yeah , and here I am , 38 at the time thinking man , pushing forward , and I'm thinking through all those things and I just begin to we and I'm crying and I'm like , get get yourself together man , you know what I ?

Rhett 45:24

mean , and I'm , no , I'm . I know that I can like cry and I'm okay , like I'll watch on the guy that watches movies and like I'll have a tear come out of I watch an Andy Griffith this ridiculous Just over op and Andy , you know , but like I am like kind of weeping , not uncontrollably , but just enough to go please don't draw any attention to yourself , because I don't think you know somebody . I just don't want any attention on me . And so I'll leave that conference and I share that story with my wife and I'm like what do you think ? Well , you know , and I kid with her and she's like , yeah , we ain't doing that and that's not happening . No , because of all the stuff we've gone through and been through and forest churches and stuff , and we just know how hard it is right . And so I kind of hide it and then go to another . You know , another year goes by and I just can't . I can't shake it and I'm thinking because I've learned , listen , if it's a good decision now to be a good decision later , and I'm not gonna make emotional decisions , I'm just gonna allow it to set to simmer and allow the Holy Spirit to let my emotions go through the roller coaster that they will .

Rhett 46:21

And a year later , I'm still kind of sensing like I think there's something to it . So we go to a guess what is another art conference ? This time it's in Birmingham , and and and if this is the way I share the story , my wife might share it a little bit differently , but this is how I remember it . She basically , after that conference , said what are you thinking ? How you feeling ? I'm still feeling this when it comes down to this and and she's like , yeah , I Think you know , not , I think I know we're supposed to do this , like it's evident that we're supposed to do it . It's like , okay , you know .

Rhett 46:51

And then I'm thinking well , how in the world do you transition that ? You know , here we are just launched the church and campus . You know I'm a campus pastor and you know all of those the different things in in mobile . And here I am getting the stirring . How does that work ? Well , you know , I'm very grateful for organization , or a part of arc is a beautiful network of community . And they they actually had a session Like hey , if you're on staff at church and hey , if you're a lead pastor . Hey , lead pastors . This is how you used to respond . Hey , those on staff . This is how you should do it . And so one day I'm sitting down and on the new year of

Do I Share This Stirring With My Pastor?

Rhett 47:26

2017 , and I'm sitting down with a meeting with my pastor at that time and he says hey , man , how are you doing ? I said I'm doing good . He's like I don't believe that for a second . Like you know , kind of like , how are you doing ?

Rhett 47:36

Yeah and I had already met with Linda and said , hey , when this moment comes , if it comes , I Could lose my job the moment . I share this . I Just recognize , I just know I could like , because I I don't think pastors are trained in how to really respond to these things and not everybody has this security gland . A lot of them have insecurities , regardless of how well they look and sound and carry themselves , and it's hard , probably not to take it personal , yeah , and so I just didn't know .

Rhett 48:04

But I so I told Linda , I said , if we are both in agreement , that we know that this is something we're called to , we don't have a city , we don't have a state , we don't have nothing . We just know that one day five years down the road , six years , three years Like we're not thinking about , but like we just know that one day that we're called to do this . And so , and I told her , I said , if the opportunity presents itself , are you okay with me sharing it ? Because if you are , chances are I might not be on staff very much longer . And she's like I'm in , I'm in agreement , it's okay , you can share it Like I'm okay if you lose your job over sharing what we know God's calling us to sometime in the future , right , and if this organization doesn't understand it , somebody will , and that's okay , that's good .

Rhett 48:45

That's where we were , and so so that opportunity came . He said how are you doing it's ? I'm doing good . He said I don't really feel like in and then at that moment I was like I've just felt a little gentle nudge . Go ahead and open up .

Rhett 48:57

And so I began to just say I don't know how to share this . I Love this church , I love you , I love your family , I love everything that God is doing . I'm so honored that I've gotten to be a part of this . But God has been stirring something to me , you know , and I don't know how to share it . And I do recognize I'm getting very vulnerable in this moment and I was crying , I was weeping , not in a , not in a , like a Not I'm scared to death , but like it's just emotional of just the stuff that caused birthing in you and you're sharing that being very vulnerable with somebody .

Rhett 49:27

So I shared , I said I feel like God is calling us to plan a church . I don't have a city , I don't have a state , I don't have anything . I just know it could be two years , three years , five years down the road . We're called here in this season . I'm not thinking about anything else , but you're asking me and I want to be honest and I want to honor you and I'm telling you that someday , somehow , some way , we're called to plan a church , and I have no idea what it looks like , and more Likely it's not Alabama , because I just didn't feel it . And so I'm like , alright , here comes the door right , and gracefully I did . I wasn't let go that day right and that's a lot to process , and so it began a journey .

Justin 50:05

So what ? What was that like in that moment ? What ? Was what was the pastor's reaction ?

Rhett 50:10

In that moment the response was thank you for sharing that with me . And then everything was kind of like hey , you know , we'll process this and all of those kind of things . And at the end he kind of joked . It was like you know , I could have fired you today , right , and I was like , okay , yeah , and I and he's probably completely kidding , but I was like at the same time , that's kind of that little like yeah , I'm like , yeah , I know , and I and and I it , whatever your decision is like it's okay . Yeah , right , I'm here to . Because I was like I want you to be an elder , I want you to be a part of this , I want like I didn't know how else to open up myself .

Rhett 50:46

Yeah and so then it was a journey a few weeks in and in needless to say , I wasn't on staff very much longer

The Journey To Plant A Church Is Expedited

Rhett 50:54

and our , our journey kind of got fast forward a little bit faster than Then . I then I would like to have seen but you know , every leader makes their decisions that they feel are best for their team , their organization , their church , and and I have to respect that and honor that and and what I've liked to have seen that last kind of that transition be a little bit better , absolutely . But I feel like , looking back , they felt like they made the best decision that they knew how to make and and I know 100% that we honored , honored every bit of their decisions .

Justin 51:27

So what was a future church plant ? One day learn from yep . Him as much as you can turned into . All of a sudden , we're playing the church . Yeah , well , yeah , tell me about that .

Rhett 51:39

Yeah . So , and you know , again , I'm trying to do the best that I can to see both sides to it and hope you hear the heart behind that . It was hard in the sense of going Okay , I was not ready for this . Yeah , because I wasn't looking to plan a church in the next year , right , what I would have liked to seen happen was us be able to work together and do this in a partnership in Really transition . Well like , well , well , like . In my mind , well would have been like let's continue to move this ball down the field in a Year and all that .

Rhett 52:10

But looking back , I'm it's part of like I'm grateful that we didn't too as well , it's like I'm glad we didn't postpone it , but I felt like we still could have transitioned a little bit quicker , not as abruptly as we did , but when we were , when we were at the point of , okay , well , here's what's interesting . You know , when you have a house and you have a mortgage and you have to have so much money to pay for that and all that , and all of a sudden , now you don't have a severant , you know none of that stuff . Really , you know . What's funny is God sold our house and we didn't even put it on the market . Somebody came to us and said we want to buy your house and and at that point I was assigned to the Lord , and I mean to Linda and I , and like God's in this .

Rhett 52:52

Yeah he foresaw that we were gonna be let go Before and when . When our last day was , you know , he was like I'm like I know you need to go and sell your house and I was like no , our house is already sold . He's like what ? I was like yeah , I said I didn't even put on the market . I said somebody came up to us and said we want to buy your house , and and that was just a little like God Nudge to go , I'm taking care of him .

Rhett 53:16

Yeah you know , and I'm taking care of this family . We had a church family in Wittumka , alabama , which , by the way , I'm still good friends with and dear friends with trip Healy and Rebecca Healy . They're the pastors of Ridge Church in Wittumka , which is in the Montgomery area . So when I was serving Montgomery , I was building relationships with their churches and so when I , when I transitioned I think this is important to say Before I took the job in Mobile and I was no longer on staff at Highlands I was serving the very next Sunday or the very two Sundays later at Ridge Church . Yeah , just loving them , serving them on state like and I'm just knit , I'm a local church guy man and because of that relationship , when I was in transition From Mobile and didn't see it come in , they were like come up here , we'll got a place for you , we'll put you in this little rental house , you don't have to worry about anything . Our worship leaders actually in transition , come up here , be our worship guy , we'll support you , we'll send you service through the end of the year .

Justin 54:14

We'll we'll financially take up an offering and and that's what we did so I remember you telling me I said so where you head next and you said we're either heading to Wittumka or Birmingham . Yeah we don't really have it set yet and literally is your moving truck .

Justin 54:32

Yeah , it's packing you've packed your truck . You were about to head out , thinking you're probably heading to Birmingham , and you get the call , yeah , that a house had just opened up and there is this opportunity . And you went to Wittumka instead and I remember finding that out . Yeah , thinking , man , I thought you're gonna be in Birmingham .

Rhett 54:49

Yeah , I mean , we knew we just need to be around family and we were just gonna , you know , park the truck somewhere , unload it in storage and figure it out , move in with family in Birmingham . But we didn't realize we'd be moving in with spiritual family Halfway in between . And it was beautiful and it was stressful and it was hard and it was like what are we doing ? Because , yeah , granted , I got this dream to plan a church . They have no money . That dream and that vision lived in my heart , bro in my head . It was nonexistent Other than there .

Rhett 55:19

People asked me you know , you planted the church and it launched on september , the 16th of 2018 . I'm like , no , it's lived in my heart since 2015 . It just didn't have a name , you know , it didn't have the finances or resources . It just took time . So it was all comes back to honor , how you honor , going in , honor , going out , love , um , and just trust the lord with all your heart and not on your own understanding . God , you called me to plan a church . But what in the world is all this ? Like I'm homeless now and , yeah , but just trust me , I'll make it straight . And he did .

Contact Us: Info@ArmchairAuthentic.com

Justin 55:52

Well , all right , that was part one of a part two interview with red . Hey , we just want to say thank you for taking the time to rate and review our podcast . It means so much and we also want to continue engaging with you . You can reach out to us on facebook and instagram at armchair authentic on x , at armchair off Pod and , of course , you can email us info at armchair authenticcom .