Water and Starbucks in Florida

Rhett 0:00

We are in Tampa , florida , as we record this episode , right here , trinity Florida , if you want to be very specific . And we got candy decked out . We got hot tamales , lindor chocolates , trail mix , jelly beans , fuji water .

Justin 0:15

I don't think it's Fuji water , I think it's Fiji water . Oh , did I say Fuji water ?

Rhett 0:18

You did man . That is so funny . Yeah , that's in .

Justin 0:20

Japan , this is Fiji .

Rhett 0:26

You know me .

Rhett 0:27

I'm so up on this water game . It's ridiculous . Hey everybody , Welcome back to another episode of Armchair Authentic , a podcast with Rhett and Justin . It is truly our desire to steward our conversations and our story in a way that serves your story and helping you take next steps on the journey of life in fulfilling the God assignments that God has for you . Now , if you're new to the podcast , welcome . We are so glad that you are along for the journey . If you haven't followed us already on social media , you can find us on Instagram at Armchair Authentic . You can find us on Facebook or you can also follow us on X at Armchair Off Pod . That's Armchair Off Pod . A-u-t-h-p-o-d . All right , now on to the conversation . You ready , here we go . Well , Justin , here we are doing something we've always kind of talked about over the last few years . We are in Tampa , Florida , as we record this episode right here .

Justin 1:41

Actually , Trinity , Florida , if you want to be very specific , it's fun that we found ourselves in the same part of town in Florida and we just decided , man , we got to bring the equipment with us . You never know , we might get a chance to record off-site . And we made it happen and here we are .

Rhett 1:56

Hot Somalis and everything .

Justin 1:58

Man , we got candy decked out .

Rhett 2:02

Dude , we got Hot Somalis , Lindor chocolates , trail mix , jelly beans something that's supposed to be good for you . Fuji water and a bottle of Tums Did you say we got a whole thing of Tums , and rightfully so . I don't think it's .

Justin 2:19

Fuji water . I think it's Fiji water . Oh , did I say Fuji water ?

Rhett 2:22

You did man . That is so funny . Yeah , that's in .

Justin 2:24

Japan , fuji . This is Fiji .

Rhett 2:28

All over the level . You know me , I'm so up on this water game . It's ridiculous .

Justin 2:32

My youngest . Recently he got into this deal where the water wasn't tasting right . I really wanted him to drink his water . So you know , I told him about triple filtered water . It's , you know , starbucks , chick-fil-a . They just they have great reputation for having great water . His granddad , pop Pop , took him to the store and bought him Fiji water and for some reason it hit him on that day that it's the best tasting water . And so now he's got this reoccurring thing where Pop Pop gets him Fiji water and we've had to have , we've had to have a talk with with Pop Pop and say you got to stop getting them Fiji water . Like we're not going to raise our boy Like Fiji's . The only way to go . This is like we want him to drink water out of our refrigerator . This is special to actually have in the hotel room , fiji water . So this is , this is bougie for us .

Rhett 3:18

It's bougie and if you've ever visited the beautiful state of Florida , the one thing they leave out is the water is nasty . And I love Florida , but let's be real .

Justin 3:31

You don't want to drink from the tap .

Rhett 3:32

here I mean you can . If you grew up here and you just kind of get used to it , maybe that's normal because coming from Birmingham , alabama .

Justin 3:40

We got pretty good water and when you come to the beach , we'd we'd grew up going to Panama city , destin , and the water is awful and so , yeah , we and I don't know what it is there's obviously something here that makes it different ?

Rhett 3:54

Uh , yeah , I would be . I would be shocked if there was anybody that would actually stand behind the water here and be like oh man , water , here and be like oh man , the water is amazing here . I'll be like ah , you're lying . Oh my goodness .

Justin 4:09

So you have to have the fiji water . You're gonna get that name right ? No , I did that on purpose anyway , right , right , so anyway in an episode wouldn't be right without our starbucks coffee so no , we , we , we , uh left the hotel today to go get that . That was funny . I was willing to drink the hotel coffee , right , and I didn't . I saw a bougie side of you I've never seen before . You're usually like pretty good on whatever you drink and you're pretty adamant about .

Rhett 4:34

Let's go across the street and get starbucks no , no , the way I remember it , you're like we can just get coffee down here and I was like there's a starbucks across the street . And then you were like , yeah , but I , but I mean we can get the coffee , I mean we can just go down and grab some . I was like , yeah , but there's a Starbucks across the street . You were like , okay , I guess we'll go to the Starbucks across the street .

Rhett 4:53

I was like man there's nothing wrong with hotel coffee , but if there's a Starbucks , across the street .

Justin 5:00

That was fun though we did . We sat , we sat down and enjoyed some conversation and coffee and then came back to get ready to record . And it's been fun because what I'm coming off of is the past week the church that I'm on staff with , the Church of the Highlands , we just finished Grow Conference , which is all about some principles of helping your church grow in a healthy way . But then right is one of my favorite things we do all year just getting to hang with pastors from around the country and really the world , and so after that , the student conference called Motion and we call the week Grotion , because you finish one , you go straight into the other .

Rhett 5:36

Yeah , because a lot of the same teams are kind of pulling off both events .

Justin 5:40

Oh , it's wild .

Rhett 5:41

So it's kind of grow and motion Grotion .

Justin 5:43

Oh man , yeah , you jump from one to the other and of course both of ours were going and so literally , that finishes

Observations and Learning in Florida

Justin 5:49

. Now I am in Florida getting to hang out and I do some consulting with different churches throughout the year and with what you're doing with Relief Pastors and just some of the connections you've made where you consult with different pastors as well . We found ourself that we're going to be in a same area of town that you've been planning on going to to connect with some of your pastors , and I already had something on the schedule and we were able to work it out that at least in the same city we're going to make sure we touch base and get to hang out together .

Rhett 6:20

Yeah , and the beautiful thing is that the I love the body of Christ . It's it's so relational and I haven't had the opportunity to meet some of the guys here at the church that you were meeting with , and so through our relationship you also connected me relationally and it's been so good just to get to see just the different diversity in the different areas of the country and God's doing something really special in the Tampa area and it's it's so cool , it's so cool to get to see , get to experience , get to be here to love and encourage pastors and get to do what ?

Rhett 6:51

we get to do it's really cool how it all kind of worked out .

Justin 6:54

It is , and my voice feels a little tapped out right now . I came and led worship where we literally came in on a . Saturday night led woke up . We did three the next morning and then did some meetings . Yeah , went to go check out a youth camp , got back to the hotel late and I got a few more days of meeting with some of the different staff . This has been a blast .

Rhett 7:17

One of the opportunities or the things that we experienced this weekend with you leading worship is that this specific church , actually in the month of July , they actually give you know correct me if I'm wrong , but this is how I understood it was pretty much the entire worship and production team off . In other words , they really try to give them an opportunity from how faithful they are to serve it all year , to maximize the opportunity in July to give them a chance just to , you know , be with their family , do all the you know , normal Florida things , travel , vacation , all those things . And so they do a stripped down version which is goes along to kind of what we were talking about a few episodes ago , and so you know it was , it was , it was so good on the receiving end , being in the congregation with you leading worship , with a team , it was just refreshing because it was a kit a piano , one guitar and a vocal .

Justin 8:09

It was so cool .

Rhett 8:11

And then it was neat , you did a special element with a choir which was kind of cool , this internship choir , which I was like , oh , let's bring back the choir baby .

Justin 8:18

Let's go . It was awesome because they have like an internship . They offer it during the summer and you can do it four years , where you're learning ministry tools , but you're learning marketplace too , where you're actually doing like presentations for like the show Shark Tank .

Justin 8:32

Like you've got to come up with some of these presentations and get up in front of people and it's really cool because they'll have business leaders from the community come in and so , as a celebration to bring recognition to them , on this particular weekend when I was coming in , they had the internship come up to be a choir , so you probably had 40 people who came to represent . I think they have probably 80 people in their internship , but it was just a cool moment of worshiping together and letting them have that moment . That probably impacted them . I think back to when we were first on a stage like that being acknowledged for putting work in . I mean , that's ingrained , embedded in my brain .

Rhett 9:18

And I bet it did the same for them too . Those youth sing took me back to thinking man , what a moment these guys have to get to be a part of this worship service , to stand in front of a couple of thousand people , you know , and get to lead people in worship , and I was like so cool .

Justin 9:34

That was awesome .

Rhett 9:35

But also took me back that stripped down version . You know , if you're , if you're a planter or a pastor , um , you know , listening to this podcast , you might be thinking , well , you can do a stripped-down version , get away with that a little bit more in a smaller church which is true you can't . But I just experienced it at a very large church with thousands of people worshiping and there was nothing missing . It was special . You could hear people singing and it was just great . So , not to rehash another conversation we've had , but it was an experience , I walked away from going yes , see , see , this works on all levels , it's called sabbatical .

Justin 10:11

They give it like sabbatical month , okay , three to four weeks worth where the team really has off . So you do have the staff focusing in on those weeks . Some of them are coming back . So even though this was a sabbatical week , it's like the last one , so coming back . It was fun to see the teams who haven't seen each other in a while . Like , even though they weren't participating on stage , I was watching them like embrace each other like man , how was your summer ? So that was really cool to me to just to see the relational component of the team .

Justin 10:39

There's just something about the community side , like I had my rest but my goodness , I'm back and you could just see it in their eyes . They're ready Just like we come from , with our church and hopefully a lot of spaces out there . You're getting ready for your year right now . I always consider that the year starts in August . It's not even January .

Justin 10:57

To me , the year starts in August . That's where it feels like it revs up . Maybe because I have four boys and we're in that strong academic year . It's like it revs up . Maybe because I have four boys and we're in that strong academic year . It's like it's getting revved up and you can feel the energy and I felt that at the conference , at Grow Conference last week , I felt that you know when you're talking with the students at Motion , people are revving up right now for school year , for the fresh dreams , the entrepreneurs who are getting ready to kick back into this new fiscal year . It was awesome . So this has been a fun experience and it continues on . At this point I look forward to sitting down with some teams kind of separated now and have some good one on ones and enjoy some good food . Man .

Rhett 11:37

You know that experience this past weekend . I've always tried to learn how to constantly be in a state of learning , like to enjoy , to receive , but also to have an the ability to observe and to have go into a situation with a perception of going . Okay , what can I learn ? Yeah , cause there's always something to learn . How can we get better , how can we grow like , within any and every environment ? So if you're a leader today , you know when you go somewhere , go somewhere with a heart of receiving , but also with a heart of going . How can I , how can I ask the right questions to learn things , to get better ?

Rhett 12:14

And and I was just a pres observer so I'm literally watching everything , I'm observing everything , I'm noticing every little detail , every little moment where music comes in , where music fades out , and so I walked away with a you know a few things of like . Okay , I learned some things on how you can apply like music . For instance , it was so cool like stripped down band , right , so they actually had music tracked in that went along with slides I don't know if that's the word people use , but I think that in general , people understand like your pro presenter ?

Rhett 12:45

yeah , I understand presenter , is a program and on that program are these slides , and these slides are what you see , you know , uh , on the screen and so , getting to a certain point in the message , you know , with the stripped down team they actually had music playing behind the pastor and nobody cared that it was coming from audio and there wasn't a musician on the platform because they were engaged with the music .

Rhett 13:08

But what was really cool that I enjoyed was that when it went to a certain slide , which is kind of presenting that last point that you kind of want to drive home , the music changed and there was a chord progression that actually supported , like , what a real person would actually be doing . Yeah , but it supported the moment and began to rise and it just , you know , they paired well together to create this moment of inspiration and encouragement and decision and , and I think it's a , it was just a beautiful way to use the resources that you have . Even if you don't have the full band or somebody up playing keys , like you can actually utilize that kind of technology and I was like that's that was really cool . That was one thing . I walked away I've there's a couple other things I can talk about too .

Justin 13:51

I've heard it said don't try to go be the expert in the room , but on this trip they're wanting me to be the expert in certain areas , but to be able to have that heart . You know , I've learned that a lot from Pastor Chris and even though I'm there to help , it's really neat what you can take away .

Empowering Youth in Marketplace Ministry

Justin 14:07

I mean , I was talking with someone I have to reference it again Starbucks . Last night we went to go see this youth camp and we had a little extra time and we stopped at a Starbucks and as we're sitting there , you know I'm doing . What I'm doing is in pouring into this person and all of a sudden it was like reversal . He starts talking about something and I'm intrigued , so I'm now asking him questions . Next thing , you know , he's got me going through questions like a personality profile and he's saying now how do you feel on the scale of this , this and this ?

Justin 14:38

And I'm like oh my gosh now I'm being the one interviewed over here . It's great , and I went through all these questions and we're sitting at a table and at the end he was like well , according to this particular assessment , here are your initials for your personality and here's what this means and what was so refreshing about it , even though I was there to be the one to actually start saying things , when you have that heart to actually never be the expert , never be the all-knowing person , but you're trying to always learn . I sat there and learned so much through this particular assessment about myself that this person that I'm supposed to be speaking into took about 30 minutes speaking into me and it was . I mean , it's one of those . I woke up this morning thinking about these traits , and so it's powerful when you walk into the space , even if you're coming in to help , if you always look around and try to be observant and say what can I take away from this moment ?

Rhett 15:32

Well , leaders are always wanting to make things better , but leaders are always learners too . There's always something to learn , there's always something to grow in . Another thing I walked away from was you mentioned it , you said this internship . I wish I had time to spend more time to have spent with a person that oversees this department , and I might in the future to ask some questions .

Rhett 15:51

But the whole idea of this shark tank , you know , idea of teaching the young people how to present vision and implementation of vision , and whether it's an idea or business , you know a lot of people think that full-time ministry is you quit whatever your nine to five is and go into , you know , whatever we do as a church , and that can be ministry . But ministry is also in the marketplace Big time , and I love the fact that they're empowering the youth to be able to teach them , walk them down a road of being able to go hey , let's teach you how to share vision in a way that's impactful , that catches people's attention and development of hey , here's how we're going to implement this vision and here's how you can support this and be a part of it . And I just think that's some incredible tools that I wish I would have had poured into me at a young age that I've had to learn through the years , but I wish I would have learned it 20 something years ago .

Justin 16:49

Yeah , it would have been a game changer .

Rhett 16:51

Whether or not you're creating a business or an entrepreneur or not , it doesn't matter , but to have the skill set to be able to communicate vision in 30 seconds a minute and be able to help people understand the why and here's how you can be a part of it , and this is what we're doing to accomplish it .

Rhett 17:05

I think that's big and again , I'd like to dive in more , to hear a little bit more of the micro details of what they actually do in that . But I think the overall vision of being able to have an internship program that just doesn't , you know , help facilitate a Sunday and the needs on a Sunday but actually takes time to disciple them and empowering them on how to think like an entrepreneur , think like a business owner , think in a leadership way that will allow them to really set them up for success in the marketplace Because honestly , if we're being very truthful , there's just as much ministry , if not more , in the marketplace . There is , honestly , and we need marketplace ministers , marketplace pastors , marketplace men and women of God being able to step up in the marketplace and lead well and then gain influence . And then , through their influence , people are like , hey , the way you lead is just completely different , what's going on and then you can like well , it's Jesus , you know .

Rhett 18:03

I think of true at Kathy and Chick-fil-A is just kind of a model , so I love that they're pouring into the youth that way , that's just so intentional . And it it just inspires me .

Justin 18:12

Me too .

Justin 18:12

It just inspires me , me too , and I'll say shameless plug here , because Highlands College we are deeply invested in that and it has the same values as well Highlands College is . You know , I'm not getting ahead of myself , I'll let them promote how they promote , but there is a lot of focus right now in the marketplace . It's like stay tuned . But people who think in an entrepreneurial way because ministry like you're saying , rhett , ministry is your life , whether you're in full-time church ministry , which is a beautiful calling you and I both have experienced that .

Justin 18:46

But I also spent a lot of years in the marketplace before I was ever just like you . We were both heavy marketplace ministers before we ever stepped into the church and the days what I learned in those days actually it set me up for success in the local church , and so what I love about Highlands College is they're also developing where they see ministry is powerful in the marketplace , and so one of the points that I'm making from that is several of these students that I was actually talking to they're fired up because they've been in this internship for four years , because you basically do it every summer , but there's several of them that are finishing now and they're fired up because you know where their next step is . Where's that ? Highlands College ? Let's go .

Rhett 19:27

They're actually . They've been accepted to Highlands College or they're wanting to apply for it .

Justin 19:32

And of course , I'm advocate . I'm like , hey , you know , I'm like wink wink , hey , maybe I can help you out . I'm curious to see local churches who invest in their people . I want to see if we got you know , if you ever read the scriptures about Daniel how it says he distinguished himself from others who were still other high level people . But Daniel had this . He had his value system that he lived with , but he was still a hard worker . He got things done . He honored the king , if you will . He honored the authority and he found a way to exist in this and God gave him success in whatever he did in favor . And so I'm ready to see how some of these students around the country who've come to Highlands College , if they've had an internship like this , I have just this thought they're going to do well in the college setting because they've already had the opportunity of what you said . They just presented a Shark Tank presentation . They've had to go learn classes .

Rhett 20:31

Yeah , not just in front of church people , but in front of businessmen and women who do this on a high level , exactly , and they're getting time with these type of people that are a part of their church , obviously , but they're also there not to candy coat anything if you will sugar coat anything but to actually create that tension , create that a little bit of stress , anxiety , if you will , because that's what real life is like

Establishing Life Rhythms and Internship Intentions

Rhett 20:54

.

Justin 20:54

It's rhythms too , like we were talking about how the school year begins and it ends , and I think we've got to have rhythms in our life altogether . Like this is kind of a you know , you hit a quick rest moment as you're ramping up . So two weeks ago I was very much resting myself , spending time with Summer and the boys , because I knew , man , this is going to be the week of growth , it's going to be the week of motion , and this is going to be several days where I'm out of state consulting with the church , and then I'm coming back and then we're stepping into a season of prayer for 21 days and a launching of a brand new semester .

Justin 21:29

And so you got to establish rhythms . But even from the sense of summertime , we do seem to chill out so much , and there's rhythms even in your rest where you don't want to check out so much , because then you become almost so out of practice and out of your groove . So these internships the reason why people might not do it is you've got a mentality , which I understand it's summertime and it's time to play , and so you've got three months of play . I think play always needs to exist , but some of these internships that exist in so many places that I've been a part of , there's something about that accountability , about enjoying a couple of weeks down but then having something that we come back to .

Justin 22:07

There's something about that accountability about enjoying a couple of weeks down but then having something that we come back to , one of my favorite things that for years we did when I was helping with our worship staff . We were so used to having Highlands College worship students in , and when they got out for the summer , it was always sad like , oh man , god , I miss them and you see them come back . And we created an intensive . We called it . I miss him and you see him come back , and we created an intensive . We called it . It was basically a glorified internship where we would invest new material that they didn't get during the school year , and what happened is they also were still in town and they were still a part of playing services , and it was just so cool because we had these times where we're ramping up but then , hey , have a couple of weeks off , come back , we get this in , go , take some time off , so we establish rhythms in it .

Justin 22:52

But there's something about when the new school year kicked in . They weren't as out of practice , but they were rested . You can overdo it too , and never stop .

Justin 23:01

And then you're going to burn yourself out . So there's something about rhythms and different times of seasons .

Rhett 23:05

Yeah . So Highlands College obviously it's a college and their whole intentionality is everything . What impressed me was that I'm actually seeing that in the local church Exactly , and I'm not seeing that intentionality with interns outside of . Oh man , we need interns so we can run our nursery . We need interns so we can have somebody run ProPresenter or the know media or whatever it might be to facilitate that . You know , all those things are important .

Rhett 23:32

They have high value , of course but , like to see them to see that at the local church level , with marketplace ministry and that kind of intentionality , and they were doing more than just the shark tank stuff but just that mindset of really trying to prepare them for the real world , you know , and to set them up for success and to get them as far ahead as they possibly can . It was huge because , yeah , we , obviously we expect that at high end university and college and institutions of leadership and learning like Highlands College , but it's like to see that I'm like come on , you know , and that's where I'm walking away , going . All right , I want to learn more about that to see how we can figure out how we can implement that in different churches that I helped kind of encourage , because you know I've most churches I think I could speak for .

Rhett 24:17

Most they look through the lens of let's create an internship program to facilitate a Sunday through the summer and that's not bad , that's good and that is things that kids need to learn Accountability , stewardship time , all that stuff serving it's huge . But to take it another level , to really set them up not just to facilitate a Sunday but to facilitate their life in leadership in business , that just kind of blew me away a little bit .

Justin 24:42

I was like let's go , or it goes in the other way . You have an internship just to have it , but you get there and it's just people playing foosball and pool and sitting around and nothing's going on . You're not actually taking advantage of the time you have with your people to do what you just said to invest in them and to teach them life skills time management .

Rhett 25:02

It doesn't surprise me either , though , because of the church and the leadership and the culture that exists within the pastors and their backgrounds and marketplace .

Rhett 25:11

So it's interesting to me how God will always utilize and you'll always find that the culture of a church is always going to come back to who the pastors are and their natural inclinations and what they're good at . And so it makes sense when you understand that concept of the leaders who are leading the organization and go oh well , that makes sense , but you don't have to have that type of background in order to lead that type of internship program or whatever it might be that you're implementing . You can find people and go hey , I've got this desire , I've got this vision , I'd love to see this , and you're a business person in the community . Can you help us figure out a way that we can take what you've learned all these years and empower it into others ? So , just because that might not be your strength as a leader or as a pastor , you know you can find people and empower them and give them that vision and allow them to run with it and just and just see it fly , man .

Justin 26:01

Rhythms

Building Meaningful Connections in Ministry

Justin 26:02

. Another thing is connections . You know one of the things that bring us together on this trip . Once again , we didn't plan it , but it's cool how we turned out in the same city and we made it where we're getting to hang out . So we're getting to connect .

Justin 26:15

But what brought you here is connections , because you partner with some of these pastors in the neighboring communities around here , Part of your ministry . You're actually going to be going and hanging out with some of them and I love that , because it's just the fact that you're going to have a cup of coffee , you're going to share a meal and you're making some kind of a connection with them . How deep of a meaningful impact that's going to have with that individual who might be on some sort of an island right now , but they just had their buddy Rhett come into town . Deep meaningful friendships that I have with my guys . I am who I am because of the connections I have in my life . Even this consulting trip , there's friends that are here that I've gotten to know over years . So we're connecting on a level too , which makes it special , and so your connectivity with these pastors , connections what's brought us together in all this ?

Rhett 27:06

And one thing that came to my mind . I know in the world they use like networking , networking . I think networking has a negative side to it . Networking in my mind usually here's my mindset is I have an agenda . I need to go meet these people so that I can accomplish my agenda in and through these people or they can connect me to other people that I can get my agenda in front of .

Rhett 27:26

I don't look at what I do that way at all . Mine is strictly . I just want to build relationship and I want to add value to people , whether or not they add value back to me or what I'm doing . Like , if we want to talk about what I'm doing , great , we can do that . But I really , like I just have on my heart , I want to meet as many people as I can to have these relationships where I can add value and steward that and if God does something with it , great , if not great , but at least I just want to do my part in just stewarding the gifts and the things that God has put in me and you and bless and serve other people . And I know that I already know the byproduct . You reap what you sow . Right .

Rhett 28:04

When you encourage somebody , you're going to be encouraged , and so , if you're a leader listening , understand that the most valuable thing you can do isn't networking . It's building deep , meaningful relationships and coming at it from the perspective of not what's in it for you , but what's in it for them . How can you bless them ? How can you serve them ? You might not be able to do everything , but you might be able to do something for them . How can you connect them with another person ? How can you connect them ? However it might be , and I promise you , if you'll take that mindset and lay your agenda down and walk in humility and service of other people , it's amazing how God will elevate you and bless you for it We've talked about it before .

Justin 28:44

Just like your craft . We talked about planting a tree it's the same thing with relationships . You're investing now and you're going to see the reward . It might not be right now , but we serve a crockpot God . We serve a crockpot God .

Rhett 28:57

Let's go . Hey , thanks guys for listening . We'll catch up with you next episode .

Reach Out To Us: Info@ArmchairAuthentic.com

Justin 29:02

Thank you for listening to Armchair Authentic with Rhett and Justin . We had a great time with you today in Tampa , florida , but , hey , we'd love to hear from you to keep the conversations going . You can reach us at info at armchairauthenticcom and , if you would , would you take the time and rate and review our podcast ? It'll help those who have not yet heard be able to tune in to join us for this journey . Hey , we look forward to seeing you again really , really soon . Have a fantastic week .