As we know that it's not information that leads to transformation it's application that really drives that transformation, not only in our lives and the lives of others.

Welcome to the podcasts where we're applying Jesus style disciple-making to everyday life. This episode is powered by navigators church ministry, where they're focused on helping churches, make disciples who make disciples for more information, check out their website, navigators, church ministries.org.

So welcome to the inaugural episode of the practitioners podcast. Justin, how you feeling about episodes? I'm excited. Well, nervous. Yeah. I think that's fair. Especially after we just recorded this entire episode and then I deleted the whole thing. It's okay. Yeah. As you said, uh, God is still good and God is sovereign, so we're going to take it and run with it.

Right. Let's do it. So, um, as we begin today, why don't you tell everybody a little bit about where you are now? So we met six years ago as you were appointed to restoration church to be the lead pastor and my home church where I grew up. And, um, so we mad, just moved back, um, from being a missionary overseas.

And we met at Smashburger, I think for the first time was Smashburger. And that would begin a relationship that would lead us to meet every other week. I guess we've been meeting every other week for about six years. Right. How would you describe our relations? Now, or then yes, definitely. Yeah. So big difference.

Right? I mean, um, now you're one of my closest friends and, you know, I just enjoy the relationship that we have and the things that we hold in common, not only, um, as friends, but also just. As practitioners in disciple-making and we're committed to the same things. Um, it wasn't always that way. That's right.

As a matter of fact, I remember, uh, we, we oftentimes meet at a local Panera and I remember going to that Panera one day on the drive there, thinking to myself. No matter what happens. I'm breaking up with Justin Gravitt today. I'm not going to do it anymore. I can't do it. It's too, right? Yeah. It was hard.

It was really hard because we were on coming at something from very different perspectives and just communication was hard. And I remember going to those same meetings and, and just wondering as I'm driving. Well, this could be the last one. Cause you know, it was clearly wasn't working well. Um, from my end and I figured you felt the same way, but, but I think like you, I didn't feel the freedom to just say, well, you know, that's it, that's the end.

Yeah. It's the weirdest thing, because God never released me from the relationship. Even though there were countless times I asked him to, and I think, um, one of the beautiful parts about our relationship now in hindsight is the differences. How would you describe our different approaches? Maybe to life, but Ted disciple-making and to, to ministry in general.

Yeah. I think, you know, God has wired us up really differently. Um, so I'm an introvert, uh, proud of it and you're an extrovert proud of it. Um, I'm very intentional. You're very relational. And so just those things, they know that there's lots of other things we talk about, but just even in those things, It causes us to view life and to engage not only in life, but also disciple-making.

Yeah. Very different ways. Yeah. And, uh, if you've ever studied the Enneagram before Justin and I are both eights on the Enneagram, which means that we love to challenge the status quo. We love to be intentional conversation. If there's a little guy, we're probably gonna fight for him. So in a lot of ways, um, it was our similarities that bumped up against each other.

Our approach seemed so, uh, different or even polarizing at times like it was pushing each other and we knew we were right in this age, we were fully convinced we are. Right. And so that meant you were not right. And I was not right on the other end, so yeah. Uh, yeah, but I think my God's grace, um, that really helped us see a whole different aspect of disciple-making and that's really what we need.

To bring in this podcast is a holistic view of Jesus style. Disciple-making and we're going to talk about that in just a minute, but as we jump into kind of this podcast and this platform, would you tell everybody a little bit about who Justin Gravitt is and kind of your background? Yeah, absolutely. Uh, so I've been, um, a disciple for about 22 years.

Uh, disciple makers shortly after that, I was fortunate enough to have someone alongside me early on, um, in. I wouldn't say necessarily my faith life. I mean, as I said, I grew up in, in restoration church, which was, went by a different name at that time. But my relationship with God was not something that was terribly important to me.

Um, unless it was convenient to be honest, and that's not the lifestyle of a disciple and it wasn't until I got to college and somebody began to invest in me and discipled me that it, it totally changed me, uh, from the inside out. And so since that time spent about 20 years that I've been focused on making disciples and I've been doing it with the navigators, uh, in different contexts.

So college campus with international students, and also as a missionary with my family overseas, uh, in Southeast Asia, We moved back to Dayton, uh, just about six years ago, not long before you and I met. And at that time, um, the calling that was before me was to engage pastors and church leaders to help them become disciple makers, because I had seen the power it had had in my life and in helping others get on that disciple-making page.

And really when we were overseas, one of the prostrations that we had is we tracked. Find somebody. And we tap the navigator networks and church networks, all sorts of networks to find people to come over, to, to serve with us for a year. Um, in, in our context overseas and, and we would cast these huge nets and we would get like one applicant and, you know, we, we had some people come over, but, but they were woefully under prepared in a lot of ways.

And as I prayed about that, and it's, God was calling us back to the states. What I realized was that, that man, if we're going to reach to the nation, Then part of the answer for that is that churches in America get healthy in a disciple making sense that they are not only engaging people well on a Sunday morning, but they're sending them out in intentional and equipped ways to reach their neighbors and their coworkers and that they can be effective in that.

So that churches are spinning people out as fast as they're pulling them in. And so that's what we've been doing. Uh, for the past six years and it's been a blast, I should also mention my family cause they're, um, near and dear to my heart. Right. And I'm married to my wife, Kristen, for almost 14 years.

We've had five kids, four them are with us now. Uh, they range in age from 10 to four. And so like it's really full right now. That's a lot. That's a lot. It's a lot of fun too. So that that's me. How about you? Uh, well, I grew up in the Catholic church in, I love the liturgy of the Catholic church. I had the opportunity to be influenced by some, some key mentors over the years who took time to really pour into me and develop my faith, uh, coming out of high school, I enlisted in the army reserves.

As a chaplain's assistant and really had a unique opportunity to do ministry all over the world. Some exotic places, Kuwait, Iraq, Germany, El Salvador, even, even Minnesota. It might be one of the most exotic places. Yeah, it's cold. And, and what I learned is, is, um, everything that is valuable in my life is tied to a relationship and that as my faith began developing.

That really was the impetus to, to develop a deep, personal, intimate relationship with Jesus, which eventually led me to, uh, the United Methodist church and in the United Methodist church, I had the opportunity to work for this amazing church in north Dayton and, and started really diving into what is discipleship?

What is disciple-making, what's the difference in the language? What does that mean? How do we do it? Small groups, life groups, cell groups, all the groups, all the names for the groups. And, and how to we build, how do we build the kingdom of God together? What does that look like? And then six years ago in our tradition, uh, the Bishop calls us to places.

And so the Bishop, uh, called me to Centerville and, uh, this kind of relationship with Justin was born. And I was very fortunate that I have an incredible wife, my high school, sweetheart. Her name is Karen. This February it'll be 18 years of marriage. We've got three great kids and all five of us moved to Centerville where we've planted roots.

And we, we love this community. We love being part of this community and, uh, look forward to seeing what God is going to do here. So, I mean, that's a little bit about us. Um, if you were going to say Justin, if somebody were to ask you, why do this podcast, wait, it's Tony, we forgot something. That's right.

This is we've. We both forgot really. I'm sitting here thinking like, man, I should've said that and I was hoping you would, but uh, we should mention what we're a part of together right now. Yeah. The date and disciple makers network. Tell us a little about that. We, uh, collectively along with two other local pastors decided that we wanted to pull together and trust God for disciple-making beyond what we could do on our own.

So we can't. Um, and what that is, I should say first as a movement of disciple-making would sweep through Dayton and impact the nations. And none of us can do it on our own, not as individuals, not even as individual congregations or cultures of disciple-making that we're each trying to build a, but that we, we need to come together and we're going to need lots of others.

Uh, to join us in this, if, if God's going to do it, um, through disciple-making. And so I think we, we got to mention that right. Well, and honestly that group has been so, uh life-giving to me, especially in this season of COVID and coronavirus, as we're making decisions about open, closed mask, no mask, social distancing, outside worship, inside worship, those pastors in that network and those other leaders.

Because they're not all pastors, right? Yep. Um, any disciple makers welcome. Yeah, just those leaders, those people who have a heart for disciple-making, uh, have a heart for investing in local communities. They've been crucial and, uh, as a part of my support system, and I think your support system too. So th that's an important point.

And if, if you want to get connected with them, obviously reach out to us and we would love to help you get connected if you're in the Dayton area. Um, and that's part of the reason why we're doing this podcast is to reach out and connect with people. So if, if somebody were to ask you why this podcast, uh, what are you.

My point to you and say, it's all your fault. I mean, this isn't the first time that Tony has mentioned, Hey, Justin, how about a podcast? And in the past, I think it's been huge trying to prompt me to do one on my own. And I think you would do a great podcast. That shit doesn't fit with the picture of, I have a myself.

Um, but what's what was different. I think this time around is, is you asked. And so what if we did it together and that was appealing to me, but also as I prayed about it, I just sense that God kind of prompting me, you know, now's, now's the time, you know, it's another way to, to influence and to help people get more of a handle on disciple-making and it's also gonna help me grow, I believe, too, just in, not only in communicating, but just in thinking about and communicating in new and different ways around things that I hold really dear.

And so, yeah. That's why, you know, I finally said, okay, This. All right now. Yes, we'll. We'll we'll give it a go after it beat you into submission. That's uh, well, one of the things I know it's true is that if you want to become better at something intentionally, teach it and, and learn more about it, presenting it to others.

So part of this for me is about figuring out ways to be a better disciple man. And the other part is that I really believe that the next revival in the church will be a disciple-making revival full of the holy spirit, uh, unleashing people to go out into their communities and make disciples, not because the church told them to, but because they own the mission given to them by Christ and through Christ actions.

And I love that mindset. Uh, I love to define disciple-making. When we walk alongside someone in their journey of faith, it is rooted in scripture and it must be multiplied. And man, I get fired up about the idea of living in a community where everybody who identifies as a Christian is out there owning the mission of making things cycles, not just going to church because the church has done such a good job at teaching people how to go to church.

But if we're honest, The church, hasn't done a great job at teaching people how to follow Jesus in practice and in relationship and intentionality and in all the things that are required to make disciples. I, I totally agree with that. And I think it brings me back to. What life was like for me before I was a disciple, my image of what church was, and really my experience of what church was, was it was a set of rules and regulations and, you know, men, I couldn't sleep in on Sundays.

And, and yet when I stepped outside the church, I didn't didn't think about it anymore because it wasn't a part of who I was or I couldn't connect what happened in there. To my life out there. And I think as much as anything that's, what disciple-making has changed in me is, well, now I understand that disciple-making is as much as anything it's about surrendering to the reign of Jesus in the world.

And so if he is king, then I am not. And so I have to. You know, if I'm going to say I'm following him and I'm a disciple of his, then I can't just do it on Sundays in the church or on Wednesdays in the church. You know, what, what Jesus is asking me to do is to engage the world and engage life the way that he did.

Yeah. One of the things that we often hear is that people don't feel like they're called to be a disciple maker. Right. And that's a common response that we hear all the time. Justin, when you hear that response, how do you respond? Yeah, I. It depends on the person out or is fine. That's a hard question, but, but what I think immediately is, boy, there's so much you're missing.

Yeah. Because if we engage the world the way that Jesus has designed us to engage it, uh, and we engage it in the way that he is asking us to. So what I fully believe and have experienced in my life and I've helped other people to connect to, is that. If we engage life, the way that Jesus called us to it fulfills the needs that he has put in us.

And so it's almost like he's left these little breadcrumbs inside of us, the feelings of unworthiness, lack of purpose, et cetera, et cetera, relational disconnect, all these things that if we are going to move purposefully and fully into disciple-making, those deep needs that we have get fulfilled in ways that nothing else.

We'll fulfill them. Yeah. I love that because it reminds me and I think it reminds all of us that every single one of us are called to be a disciple maker. There's no way. There's no gift. There's no gift. Right. There's nowhere in scripture where it says disciple-making. At least not that I've found, I don't think it's in there.

Right. And so what we know is that if everyone's called to be a disciple maker, if, if Matthew 28, when Jesus says go therefore and make disciples, if he's talking to Lottie, Dottie, everybody, then we've got to figure out ways to do it better. And that's, that's actually what we really do. To get to with this podcast.

So why don't you kind of paint a picture for our listener right now about the format of the podcast and what that's going to look like? Yeah. So we want to, we want to. Disciple-making conversations that are about 20 minutes long that are engaging practical and leave you with something to apply, or at least to think about applying.

Because as we know that it's not information that leads to transformation it's application that really drives that transformation, not only in our lives, but in the lives of others. And so we want to make it very practical for people. And so we're going to do that right about 20 minute conversations.

How many of these do we have and how long are we going on this? Well, I, uh, current plan is for us to go seasonal, right? So we're going to do about 30 episodes a season, and normally that'll kind of run in a, in kind of inflow with the school year. This first season will be a little bit less because we're starting a little bit later and because hashtag 2020 is a dumpster fire.

But, uh, the goal here is to create. Consumable seasons that help you gain skills and application for being a Jesus style disciple maker. And we're going to talk about what Jesus style disciple-making is in the next episode, right. And to make sure that you don't miss it, go ahead and hit that subscribe button right now, wherever you're listening to podcasts and be sure that you don't miss any of the episodes that are coming out week after week, every week.

They're going to hear from. So, if they want to follow you on the interwebs, Justin, where is the best place for them to connect with you? So the best place would be my website, Justin gravitt.com. I'm also on the normal socials, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, um, even on Instagram, not super active there, but yeah, any of those would be great.

Yeah. Yeah. If you want to connect with me, uh, I have a website TW milt.com, but I'm probably most active on Instagram. At TW Milt, M I L T at TWM ILT. You can also follow, uh, I do another podcast, which is a little longer format interview style on reclaiming good practices for faith in life called the reclamation podcasts.

So you can subscribe to that as well. Um, Hey, if you're listening to this and you made it through our first episode, thank you. Thank you so much for today. Taking the time to listen today, to, to walk with us on this journey. It is our hope and our prayer. That, um, you'll be moved to application and in the process be transformed by what it means to be a Jesus style disciple maker.

Um, we know, and it's, it's changed our lives and we believe it'll change your life as well.