October 24, 2023 • 43 mins
Sex drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll was a way of life for Pastor Corey Trimble, until God intervened and reshaped his destiny.
In this heart-to-heart conversation with Pastor Corey, he shared his raw and unfiltered account of his tumultuous journey marked by moments of despair, suicide attempts, and drug abuse that led to the pivotal moment he found God that forever altered the trajectory of his life.
If you've ever grappled with thoughts like:
"I'm too far gone to ever change."
"I'm too broken to be loved."
"All the bad things I've done — God MUST be mad at me."
"Is this what rock bottom feels like?"
...then please, please, please go hear Corey's story.
It serves as a testament to the miraculous power of faith and forgiveness, and directly illustrates the unlimited potential for redemption and healing on the path from brokenness to wholeness -- even in the darkest of days.
I'm honored to share Corey's testimony and this powerful reminder of the unwavering love of God that made it all possible.
HOST: @LeanneEllington
GUEST: Corey Trimble, Lead Pastor Experience Community Church
To learn more about ECC: https://experiencecc.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ExperienceMurfreesboro/
@theexperiencecommunitychurchtn
To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.
Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
If you want to go on a journey. If you're skeptical,
don't worry. Now here to preach, gonn to keep it
clean and talk to me and recause where faith means
all nature, and get in touch with your creator with
a baking love and jun She even speaks Hebrew.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
What's that? What's that?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
As well? Send that passion? You should talking transformation? What's done?
Speaker 3 (00:42):
So?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well? Hello, there we are back with what's God got
to do with it?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
And I'm so honored to be sitting here with the
Corey Trembull, which if you have not met him, you
are about to.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
So. First of all, Hello, Hi, Hi, so glad to
have you here.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Welcome to my office.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yes, it's a great office. There's a dradel here. There's
a dreid yep nscadal ha yasham. That's what it stands for.
But that's another episode in itself.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
I've had that dreidl for probably ten years, and I
just now learned that.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yes, there you go, if you want to know how
to use it.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
I'll come back in November December wherever the lunar calendar strikes.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
And tells us when Hanukah is. That's great awesome. Well,
I'm I'm grateful to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
So for those of you who don't know who Corey is,
I moved to Nashville about seven years ago, and you've
heard from Kevin Queen.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
My first rabbi as I call him.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
In about two years ago, I moved to Murphisborough, where
I just feel so blessed and gifted that my fiance
was already attending the experienced church and had so much
to say about.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Corey that I had to come check it out for myself.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
So, needless to say, we came and attended services. But
there's also something called a next Class where Corey really
introduces people to the church, gives a tour.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Welcomes everybody, and shares his raw and real testimony.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
And when I heard that, I can't even tell you
how much closer to God it made me feel, but
also made me realize, like, Wow, this is not just
a pastor. He's a person, and I think sometimes we
forget that about our spiritual leaders and spiritual guides.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So we're going to dive into all of that.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
But first, if I could get you, Corey to just
kind of share a little but high level overview of
your journey what brought you to be who you are,
where you started, and then we'll dive in a little
bit further.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Originally from the Saint Louis area, my father is from
southern California and met my mother in Saint Louis. They
got married, had my sister, who's five years older than me.
We moved from Saint Louis to Dallas to Tennessee. My
father worked for American Airlines to did pretty well for himself,
and we grew up in a I don't know if
(02:45):
i'd call it a Christian home. We went to church somewhat.
My grandfather was a pastor, but we I wouldn't say
we were a church going Christian family. My parents, like
many people's parents, got divorced, and they got divorced when
I was about twelve, and it was after that that
there was a complete absence of any conversation of God
(03:06):
in my life whatsoever. And without being disparaging of anyone
in my family, we not only all physically went our
separate ways, my family quite literally dispersed. My mother went
to Saint Louis, my sister went to Indianapolis, and my
father and I stayed in the Nashville area. But we
all went down roads for the most part sin and
(03:30):
took a bad turn, and all of that kind of
manifested in different ways in all four of us. But
we were a very very broken family. And so because
I kind of lived in two different homes, I lived
partially in Saint Louis partially in Tennessee. As a kid,
as I got older, had no really rules in my life,
(03:51):
and because of that, I kind of fell into the
trappings of everything one would do as a fourteen year old.
I remember I got my motorcycle license at fourteen, which
is weird. I have a fourteen year old now, and
it just seems bizarre that you can do that. But
I remember my father would travel a lot for work.
It was just my dad and I in this big
house outside of Nashville, and you would leave me money.
(04:13):
I had transportation because my motorcycle license. And starting at
a very early age, I just started indulging and engaging
in a lot of drugs. Lost my virginity at fourteen,
started getting into two really really bad stuff and for
the sake of just length of time, you know, it
started off like he does with most people who get
(04:35):
addicted to drugs, started off with with low level stuff
like smoking weed and we would huff, you know, different
inhalance to wear eventually cocaine, crack speed and doing some
time in a twelve twelve step program and things like that.
Struggled really bad with depression, anxiety. Those are still things
that if if I gravitate away from God or good counsel,
(04:57):
those things can still nip at my heels. But had
a couple of suicide attempts and just a really broken life.
And it wasn't until I was actually in my early twenties.
I was twenty two after a lot of pretty traumatic
things happened that I literally stumbled into a church on
a Wednesday morning, half drunk that eventually gave my life
(05:18):
to Christ. It was about six months after that my
now wife did the same thing. She wasn't drunk, but
came to a church with me and got saved in
that same church. So the first twenty two years of
my life just a lot of brokenness, a lot of anger,
a lot of depression, a lot of I have a
very addictive personality even today, and it was just channeled
in a very destructive way. So that's I guess a
(05:40):
very thirty thousand foot view of the first twenty two
years of my life.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Yeah, yeah, So do you remember where you were emotionally? Like,
did you feel all alone in this world? Was God
something that you thought about but kind of dismissed.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
That's a good question. You and I were talking before
we started recording. I had this sense of God is
I didn't really know what God wants. I thought God
was kind of a universal force, you know that if
we were just nice to people and you know, didn't
murder anyone, that we were okay. And I wasn't even
sure what okay meant. But yeah, I had a very
(06:14):
very agnostic, kind of spiritual, maybe kind of a hippie
perspective when it came to God after life you asked it.
I feel alone to this day. I only have a
relationship really with my mom.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, she lives in.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Saint Louis, still outside of Saint Louis a little bit,
but and she's a good woman. I have a good
relationship with her. My father hasn't talked to me in
a long time. My sister we talk occasionally, but not
as much as we should, and our relationship is not
very good. I haven't seen her physically, and I don't know,
six seven years. And so that was my whole, my
whole upbringing until I was in college, and really until
(06:53):
I met my wife. I met my wife when we
were juniors in high school. And a very weird part
of my story that I tell people is because I
didn't really know who God was. When I met Alicia
and my wife, she became.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
God and I in a codependent kind of way, oh
very much so.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
And I genuinely loved her and cared for her. But
she was such a example of what I wanted to be,
even though she wasn't a believer either, she didn't believe
in God, but her family, her parents were still married,
you know, she had two younger siblings. She was a
straight A student. You know, she's gorgeous like that became
an idol in my life. So I felt alone until
(07:31):
I met her. But even her being as great as
she is, that ended up not being enough either.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
So kind of you know, zooming out of teenage young
adult Corey and speaking as you are today, when you
said I didn't know who I was in God's eyes,
I didn't know who I was. You weren't rooted and
so you were looking for it in other things, other substances,
and eventually in your wife. What would you say about
that now, Like, what didn't you know that you were
(07:59):
looking for? Like what do you what was the hole
that you were trying to film?
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Well, I mean we talk a lot in society nowadays.
Its a bad identity and it's a word that's been
thrown out so much that it's kind of lost any
sense of definition. And I think that really is the lynchpin.
I think until we become Christians, we have everyone right
now in society is striving for that word identity. We're
all trying to find our identity. And that's not a
(08:23):
bad pursuit. The problem is is that we pursue, we
pursue the wrong things to find it. Initially the identity,
My identity was in sects, it was in drugs, it
was in it sounds so cliche. I played music for
a living. It was sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
That was my identity. I was the life of the party.
And that thing you meet, this beautiful, wonderful, wonderful girl,
(08:45):
that became the identity. But that still was not fulfilling,
not because there was anything wrong with her. It was
again trying to put a square peg in a round hole.
I still didn't understand my value and my worth because
I didn't know who God was. And it's not until
one discovers Christ that we understand our value. That the
God of the universe would give his only son to
(09:07):
die for us, that speaks to our value. And we
don't live in our true identity because we don't know
who our true creator is until we know who Christ is.
And it's only until you find that that you learn
to truly have peace and walk in some kind of
real confidence. And I don't mean confidence in myself, but
confidence and who I am in God.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
So when did you first kind of discover there was
this gaping hole in who you were? You said, you
kind of accidentally stumbled into a church drunk when you
were what twenty two?
Speaker 4 (09:36):
I was twenty two, about to be twenty three.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
So what was that little whisper that made you? You know,
what do you think got you there?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
So when did you first kind of discover there was
this gaping hole in who you were? You said, you
kind of accidentally stumbled into a church drunk when you
were what twenty two?
Speaker 4 (10:01):
I was twenty two, about to be twenty three.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
So what was that little whisper that made you? You know?
What do you think got you there?
Speaker 4 (10:08):
It was more of a shout. So my wife and
I had been dating for five years, neither one of
us believers I had gone and really acted like a fool.
She had just graduated college. I was very far from
graduating college. And I went on kind of a bender
with some guys and acted like a fool and did
some foolish things, and so much so that I lost her.
(10:33):
I had lost my job, I had lost my ability
to play music. And then the final kind of tipping
point was she left, and she had every reason to leave.
I treated her like garbage. And it was ironic that
I treated her like garbage, because she was really the
only stability in my life. And she left, and my
(10:53):
third suicide attempt came right after she left in two
thousand and two. And when I say, I stumbled into
a church drunk on a Wednesday on Monday, the first
week of August two thousand and two, what little money
I had to my name, I went and bought case
of vodka, and I decided I was going to drink
myself to death in the front room of my little
(11:14):
house and So I did that for two and a
half days, and on the third day, which was a Wednesday.
At the time, I didn't know it was God, but
it was God, I can see now. I drove to
a little church I knew the pastor and stumbled into
his office and laid on his floor and cried my
eyes out and felt the Holy Spirit. I didn't really
(11:35):
understand exactly what that was, but it felt like someone
hit me with a taser. And I remember kind of
being shocked into my senses and my pastor sitting me
down and going backwards and starting at the gospel and
just telling me who Jesus was, and for the first
time realizing, oh, this is the answer.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Was it that immediate, Like did you realize it in
that moment? Did it take some time?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Did you have to do your toes in or was
it not just like it.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Was a revelation. Yeah, it was pretty immediate. And of
course I say pretty immediate because I felt something. If
I can just be really open on your podcast, I
laid on a floor and I spoke in tongues. You know,
the Bible says that's a gift for the non believer,
and we can interpret that in several different ways, but
this kind of physical thing had happened to me, and
(12:23):
so I had to come to this conclusion in my mind.
So I've either lost my mind or God has just
miraculously done something to me, and so I had to
I left that place going, I don't think I'm crazy,
So there has to be this benevolent, loving God that
sees me even in this mess that I'm in and
(12:43):
wants to save me. And so, yeah, it clicked. It
was like turning on an engine. Now, there was still
years of refinement that had to come after that. You know,
we're justified and then sanctified, that sanctification that growing. I
feel like I'm still doing that, but I feel like
we should always be doing that, you know. I mean,
(13:05):
like I still smoked, you know, two packs of cigarettes
a day for the next six months after I got saved,
you know, and like I was still addicted to that.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
You know.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
There are so many things that I just out of ignorance.
But God is so good. I think it's being on
that road. I was telling someone the other day. They
asked me when I got saved, and I said, well,
you know, I guess I got saved that day. But
I've never viewed Salvation as a gas station. I kind
of use Salvation as a highway. You stop at gas stations.
You don't stop on highways, you keep going. And I felt,
(13:36):
I feel like God's always saving me still. Yeah, I
don't know if that sounds weird.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah, absolutely at all.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
I feel like I'm still getting bailed out all the
time by the love of Christ.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Well, I think we need leaders who think like that.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
You know, if somebody, anytime, somebody you know, comes from
a lack of a better way of saying it a
high mountain where they know it all like, that's not
who I want, you know, mentoring me, or I think.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
There's danger in saying that we've arrived.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Absolutely, yeah, that scares.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Me a little bit. So, yeah, that's that's kind of
how it started. And I remember calling my now wife.
I'd call her all the time, and she hated me,
and rightfully so, and I joke around she would hate
this if she heard this, but you know, she'd cuss
me out on the phone or hang up on me.
And but for six months I prayed for and I
kept inviting her to church and eventually got her there,
(14:21):
and she had virtually the same experience I did. My
wife's a very logical, intelligent woman, and she had a
very similar experience that I did. For her, it was well,
you know, me, either crazy or God did this, and
she instantly jumped in wow.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I mean we were just talking about this before we
started recording.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
You know.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
I was also too logical and smart for God, you know,
And I think I really think he likes to come
after us.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Logic and reason think are the most you know.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
But coming back to this idea of a refinement process,
I love putting it through that lens because I think
it gives us permission to always be in process and
always refining and redefining and aligning towards who we want
to be, and looking at it as this lifelong mastery
co rather than oh I need to get somewhere and
arrive somewhere right now kind of conversation.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
So what did cause?
Speaker 3 (15:06):
I'm trying to think of the you know, in my
perspective or people that might be listening of Okay, I'm
in the same shoes where maybe I'm really turning over
a new leaf and my heart.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Is opening up to this possibility.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
That I'm not crazy and I want to I want
to have a relationship with God, and I want to
renew my mind and become this new version of myself.
But my past feels so heavy. My environment is trapping me.
So there was a refinement process that obviously happened for you.
Who you were hanging out with, how you were spending
your time, what you were feeding your mind, your heart,
your brain, your soul. So can you share a little
(15:40):
bit about what life looked like after you got saved,
and how the refinement process looked then, and what maybe
it looks like now.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
You know. I've used the analogy when I preach sometimes
if we're moving towards God, we are naturally moving away
from evil. I mean, that's very simple. If I'm walking
towards one wall, I'm obviously walking away from another. So
I think you really hit the nail on the head
that I don't think God expects for us to have
it figured out immediately. But if we were really walking
(16:09):
in a relationship with Jesus, I think there will be
the conviction of the Holy Spirit in our heart, and
there will also be the blatant instruction of the Word,
and we should be ingesting the Word that what we
feed our minds does start to change. Where we put
ourselves physically starts to change, and sometimes who we hang
(16:30):
out with starts to change. Now, I believe when we
reach a stage of maturity with Christ, we should have
non believing friends. I mean, who else are we're going
to witness to and pour into. But there were some
relationships I had to at a distance myself from. I
remember right after I got saved, I went and worked
for a buddy of mine that owned a coffee shop
here in town. And it's kind of a funny story now,
(16:52):
but it was kind of the hub of people on
the fringe. This coffee shop is called the Red Rose.
You know, it's where the gay community hung out. It's
where all the punk, rock and metal kids hung out.
That's you know, that's what I was. It's they did suspensions,
which is you know, they'd hang people by meat hooks
in the back of this It was a bizarre place.
You could get a cup of coffee by a record
(17:12):
and have a guy hanging by meat hooks in the back.
Very fascinating. But that's where I worked as a as
a new believer. Again, that that that kind of post
salvation experience. I think there is going back to that
road analogy. You're not going to reach the the the
end of that road, I believe, until you know Christ
comes back or we drop dead. But I think the
(17:35):
question is less how far along on the road am I?
And just am I moving on this road? Am I
constantly being refined and constantly being sharpened by the Holy Spirit?
And and so I think everyone's road looks a little
bit different mine. You know, within about six months. I
finally quit smoking cigarettes in two thousand and three at
the turn of the year. And you know, I still
(17:57):
had a foul mouth on me sometimes, but over over
the years, God cleans up the tongue, He cleans up
how we speak. You start feeling convicted about certain music
or certain movies, and you just this, it's this gravitation
again towards Christ and away from things that are anti Christ.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
What do you think it was that flipped for you
that made you?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
You know, obviously you had this special time with God
and you were refining your relationship. And then now you
are a leader and you are a pastor and you
have really you know, you started this church from nothing,
which I'd love for you to share that story too,
because it's super cool. But what was that turning point
that made you realize I want to pour into others.
I want to help people see what their own spiritual
(18:37):
eyes and lead people to God.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
I think the desire to want to do that was
almost immediate, and we make jokes about it now, my
wife and I and other people who knew me back then,
so I was I was still smoking like a train.
I was working at this coffee shop. I wasn't allowed
to talk about Jesus while I was working. I mean,
you know, because it was a secular coffee shop. So
I remember I would go on my smoke break back
(19:00):
in the remember the days you could actually smoke inside
of places. Yeah, So I'd sit in the middle of
the coffee shop on my smoke break, I'd light up
a cigarette. I'd open up this big King James version
Bible because that's what they used in the church. I
got saved, and I would just let these people who
used to come to my shows when I played music,
and people who knew me for my crazy days. It
was like this magnet and they would walk up and say, Corey,
(19:21):
why do you have a Bible? And so it was
almost day one that I had this desire to share
what I just experienced with the people that were around me.
Of course, with Alicia, I shared it with the friends
around me. I shared it with and I think that
that hunger was there immediately, the actual call to, I guess,
be a leader. I remember being in a car with
(19:44):
my wife. She started coming to church with me, and
we were there for a couple of years. And I
was teaching English at Smyrna High School. And I remember
being in my in my car and not an audible voice,
but clear as crystal, God said, you know you're supposed
to You're supposed to do this for a living.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Because you were teaching I was, but you were just
teaching other subject matter English.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Yeah, I was teaching English, and and I didn't even
know what it meant to work for a church. I
didn't really understand what that meant or what that looked like.
But I remember saying that to my wife and Alicia going.
I already knew that she had kind of seen it.
It's typical with the women and men. Women I think
see it a lot quicker all things than men. But
she saw it before I did. And then I went
(20:29):
to my pastor and I just expressed that I feel
like God is calling me to be an official minister.
But I remember expressing that to my pastor and that
didn't come to Fruition for like two years. And that
time of waiting was extremely difficulty.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
You know, what was it that like pushed you over
the edge?
Speaker 3 (20:48):
What was that the thing that really got the wheels turning?
And then I know that this congregation started out, you know,
very small in a coffee shop, right, and then now
you have you know what five thousand members, which is I.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Know they range we've got there's about eight thousand that
come on the weekends. That's between four campuses, you know.
But I went to go work for this, this church
that my wife and I got saved in. It was
a smaller church, you know, three p fifty something like that,
and I went there. I was discipled well by my
former pastor. This was the thing that kind of pushed
(21:21):
me to do what we're doing today, is I worked
in a church and this is nothing against them, but
it wasn't the kind of environment where I could invite
the kind of people that I used to be. Yeah,
and that really saddened me because my heart and my
heart is still for this, My heart is for the
you know, the punk rock kid that's an atheist. My
(21:42):
heart is for the you know, the queer and the
transgender that I may not agree with their lifestyle, but
they're looking for the same thing that I was looking for.
They just haven't found it yet. But I wasn't in
an environment to where those people could come explore safely.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Because it was judged, they were shamed, they weren't welcome
to be exploring. They were you know, a lot of people,
whether it's a lifestyle thing or for other reasons, and
feel that kind of that resistance to show up in
an environment where they don't feel welcome.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
And so you know, the church typically, not this church
I'm talking about. The church in America has gone to
two extremes. We've either not even let the door be open,
or we have accepted things that are sinful in these
two extremes. And I wanted to start a church by
God's provision that was not turning a blind eye to sin,
(22:38):
but the door was open and the environment was safe
for anyone who wanted to explore the question of what
is truth? And I wasn't in an environment where that
could happen. And so my wife and I prayed about
it a lot. We sacrificed a really kind of cush
church position and kind of at all on the line.
(23:02):
But I was never afraid of that. And I don't
mean that arrogantly. I just mean if if one is
confident that God is said to do something, there's no
fear in doing that because it'll be successful. And that's
what we did two thousand and nine. It was me
and my wife and one other guy that started the church.
And we didn't even ask the other guy. I just
couldn't get rid of him.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
So amazing.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
So for anybody like for that, the people that you
have the heart for, you know, and not that you
don't have the heart for everyone, but like that atheist
that doesn't know how love they truly are, or somebody
who their lifestyle choices might keep them from even asking
for support and help or feeling alone in this world?
What's the big message that you want them all to have.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
It goes back to that identity thing. Is it is
the mantra in the idol of Western thought of the
Western world right now is identity that is that is
the magical word. And I believe we have an identity,
but people are pursuing it down down every avenue. I
(24:01):
always say, we are trying to find our identity and
virtually everything except for the one thing that we are
made in the image of. And until we discover our
identity in God, we will always have high depression. We
will always have high anxiety, we will always have high
suicide rates, we will always have domestic violence, we will
always have high numbers of these these kind of ramifications
(24:23):
of brokenness because we're searching for something on the wrong road.
And so I have tremendous amount of love and grace
and empathy for people who are on a journey. I
just I hope that in some way, you know, God
can use me to take some of them and put
them on the right direction in that journey. And I
(24:46):
don't know if that was too philosophical, No.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
It's perfect because one of the things that stuck out
to me when we first started talking is you mentioned like, hey,
I even have the propensity nowadays to go down the
roads of feeling sad or depressed if I'm too far
away from God.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
And I think, you know, people get this.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Idea that if they're feeling all of the feels, or
they're they're human ing, that they're air quotes doing it wrong.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Or that they're you know, being a bad Christian or whatever.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
And I love that you're showing this picture of like, No,
that's when God wants us to come to him.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
So can you just speak to that a little bit.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
I want to speak to the word human Ingerson.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Oh, yeah, we make up words all the time, or
at least I I can.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Say, I like that word. I think it's the first
time I've ever heard of that.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yeah, feel free to steal it, borrow it. There's no,
there's no here's that this weekend?
Speaker 4 (25:26):
No, I think it's it's it is understanding are our
true humanity. I think it is understanding that true humanity
is insufficient without a creator. I think it is understanding
that we must be utterly dependent on something greater than us.
Of course, we believe that you and I to be
to be God, to be Christ. I think it is
(25:47):
living in that humanity that that causes us to gravitate
towards Christ. It's when we think we're superhuman, or or
when we have an unrealistic view of our cells. Which
is a problem with the Western world America is we
have this kind of hyperinflated view of self and multiple
(26:09):
times in the Bible, we get this narrative of it
needs to be John said, less of us, more of him.
When you know Christ said, if you want to find
your life, you have to choose to lose your life.
It is in this understanding that we are finite broken
dependent that we find salvation, we find hope, we find
we find God. So until we can be honest with
(26:31):
ourselves and say that without God, we're totally screwed. Until
we recognize that we're lost, there's no way to be found.
So I see no other way but to be honest
about my humanity.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Yeah, I think people think that they're they're doing it wrong,
or they're weak, or that, you know, feeling broken is
the ultimate rock bottom. But it's like, no, that's where
you start. That's where you can say, Hey, I can't
do this on my own. I don't want to do
it on my own. I need a savior.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
We don't walk in the brokenness forever. We don't walk
in the anxiety forever or the depression forever. We don't
hang out in that. But I have to understand my struggles.
I have to understand where the chinks in my armor are,
and so I have to understand that if I am
distant from God, I know the things that will get me. Yeah,
I have an addictive personality that'll get me if I'm
(27:21):
not close to God. I can gravitate towards depression that
will get me if I'm not close to God, and
I don't have to live in depression, but I understand
my only escape from being dominated from that is I
have to walk closely with the Lord.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
And even things like feeling broken, feeling depressed, if that
becomes our identity, that's also a trap, you know, because
it makes us feel like we end of sentence period,
this is who we are, where we are.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
And I think so many people fail to have that
relationship with Jesus because subconsciously they refuse to give up
the identity of depression, anxiety, shame, guilt, whatever, Because I think,
to some people, subconsciously, some identity is better than no idea.
Some level of control, even if it's a depression, is
(28:08):
still better than having to submit or relent my control
to God.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Absolutely, because what we know, it feels safe, even if
it's so uncomfortable and so unsafe, it's what we know,
and we gravitate towards it. How do you get close
to God? When you said, like, when you're too far
away from God? Like, this is where this stuff comes
(28:33):
up for you. So what's your process like? And obviously
it's so individualized, but how do you get close to God?
How do you go home to Him when you feel
like you're far away? What's that look like for you?
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Whenever we do premarital counseling or wherever I do premarital
counseling with someone, the word communication comes up all the time.
There's no way to have a healthy relationship without talking.
I think it simply is making conversation with God a
priority daily. When when the New Testament says that we're
to pray without ceasing, I don't think that means that
we're constantly in prayer. But I mean I think that
(29:06):
it means that our mind is constantly, that the conversation
of God, or that the thought of God is always
somewhere in the mix and everything we do every day.
And so I think for me, the way to not
let stress or anxiety or fear, you know, running a
big organization and having you know, one hundred and forty
(29:27):
employees and all that fear can easily creep in I
think to keep those things at bay. Quite frankly, I
have to pray every day, and I'm not just saying,
you know, for five minutes in my car that there
needs to be a set aside, calculative, intentional time of
prayer that has to be there. I think everyone needs that.
I think we need to casually talk to God, and
(29:48):
I think we need to formally talk to God. I
say it all the time, but I think people need
to be in the Word. The Word holds wisdom, it
holds knowledge, it holds promises. And then I think the
other important thing is if you don't have good people
around you, making sure you know, I mean, the Bible
says we're not meant to do this alone. It's not
good that man be alone. If we do not have good,
positive people in our life, it's we're just not engineered
(30:11):
to walk alone. So you have to have some people
in your life who will call your bull crap out.
And I have people that know me so well Kyle
that works here on staff, Josh. They know if I'm
slipping into depression or anxiety, and they'll come in my
door and say, hey, man, like, what do we need
to do snap out of it. Let's go for a drive,
let's go do something, let's pray together, let's talk. I mean,
(30:34):
I know that sounds oversimplified, but talking to God, knowing
the promises and the truth of God through the Word,
and having decent people in your life.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yeah, I think oversimplifying is so much better than complexifying something,
you know, because it gets so big and massive in
our heads and we think there's so many steps that
we have to do to create a faith life, and
it can be the simplest thing, you know, as setting aside,
just really this sacred time to be however you pray,
whether that's you know, reading the word, whether it's you know, writing,
(31:02):
whether it's worship, whether it's while while you're walking, you know,
meet yourself where you are. It doesn't have to look
how somebody else's prayer life.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
Like are you're a writer, you write.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
I'm a bit of both. I'm a writer.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
I you know, a lot of my praying happens while
I'm moving with worship music in the background. So but
I do write, for sure.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
I never was into that until I guess I wrote
my first book and it was a result of journals, yep,
and I just felt the need that sounds so silly.
I felt the need. Maybe it doesn't. I felt the
need to document everything hard in my life, my prayers.
And then later on I went back and you see
that God would touch all those spots.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
And it was almost like in the Old Testament when
they would build monuments and I would go back at
my journals and I'm like, my Lord, you answered all
those things.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Absolutely, Yeah, a gift from God. For sure.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Was the like that year that I was kind of skeptically,
cynically looking for Jesus, and really the year after I
got saved, I was journaling every day and asking God
things like God, show me who I am, or please
take this shame for me, or give me a new belief.
I was doing a lot of overhauling of my beliefs.
But kind of you know, full circle of you shared
where you came from your personal journey, your your journey
(32:13):
into you know, being a leader in the spiritual world.
So talk to us a little bit about obviously there
was there was a rapper or a reframe that you
put around your story and now you use it for good.
And now there's obviously not this you know, shame blanket
around you where a lot of people that may have
experienced things similar.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
They're carrying around so much toxic shame.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
So if you could, you know, just invite people into
a reframe about their own story.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
And it's interesting. So I was telling someone, it's odd
that we're doing this podcast this week. We did our
next class Monday. Yesterday I was at a nonprofit in
Tullahoma where I told my story, and then we're doing
this today. I think over time I told these ladies.
I was at an addiction recovery place for women yesterday.
It was a really really great place called bloom On
(33:00):
Our amazing place, and I was telling these women that
there comes a time in God's grace and wisdom to
where we have these wounds, and I think God heals them.
But there's a scar, and there's a scar for a reason.
I think it is it doesn't hurt to touch a scar,
but we see the scar, we know it's there. The
(33:20):
things in my past, I do not feel the hurt
of them anymore. I think God has delivered me of
that pain. But I know that they're there, and I
don't ever want to forget that they're there. I don't
want to forget how awful it was to live a
life apart from God. I don't want to forget that.
And I tell my testimony at least once a month
(33:41):
to you know, we usually have about one hundred and
seventy five two hundred people at next class every month,
and I tell things that are very uncomfortable about how
I ruined my relationship with my wife for a while
and some of the evil things I've done. And I
still get choked up when I say those things. It
still bothers me to hear that I hurt people and
(34:01):
did things like that. But again, I think God still
keeps some of that intact for a purpose, because it
helps me not go back to Egypt.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
You never forget your pain so that you can meet
other people in their own pain when they're there, because
if you're desensitized to it, how are you to be
able to empathize and have compassion and feel what they're
feeling if you're so disconnected from it.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
But it's no longer. It no longer owns you.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
You said that so perfectly, and I was going to
say it, but not as well as you just said it.
It does not dominate your mind or your thoughts, and
it is a very conscious thing that I think now
that when the Bible says you're a new creation, you
don't fully appreciate that till you're you know what am
I now man twenty years removed from that. I'm forty
(34:47):
four now. I was twenty about to be twenty three
when I got saved. And I still remember it. I
still remember that it sucked going, you know that life
before Christ. I still remember that. But you truly appreciate
that that was not me, that was someone else.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Yeah, absolutely, And you see that distance now like that
was who you are, you know. And you didn't throw
away the baby with the bathwater like that. You know,
you took the good parts of you, But you are
a whole new creation. Your identity has been renewed, restored, redefined,
and it's still being refined.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
As we talked about, and one of my favorite non
biblical quotes is where you are is not who.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
You are, you know, And where you were was not
who you are, you know, And you were just doing
the best you could with what you got and with
what you had. And selfishly, one of the reasons I
wanted to bring you on this podcast is because I
truly believe that as we step into our own stories
and we relinquish our own shame. We can invite others
to relinquish theirs and see that it's just part of
It's just the data of what happened, and it doesn't
(35:44):
have to have any other meaning or story or shame
associated with it. That's but oftentimes we need people to
go before us and share there. They're dirty, they're ugly,
but to see that it's not so ugly, it's not
so dirty.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
It just was what we chose and if we could
do it over again, you know. And I'm one of
those people.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
It's it's not like I regret things, but like, would
I make those decisions as the woman I am today? No,
But I don't regret even my deepest, darkest stuff because
it forced me to become who I am today. That's right,
and honestly, I believe led me to God.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
You know.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
So if anybody listening thinks that they are too far
gone or too broken or too messed up, I really
hope that that Corey story shows you there is so
much good and redemption and beauty that can come from
what feels like madness at the time.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
I appreciate that it's Uh. You know, I have a guy,
Savut who's on staff, who came from a Buddhist family,
And we have a young lady, Carly, that works up
at the front. I won't tell her whole story, but
there are stories in this building right now that make
mine look, you know, light. And so whenever whenever someone
says I feel like I've done too much, it's it's
(36:48):
it's almost become a laughable statement, and not in a
condescending or mean way. It's you have no idea how
deep the grace and love of God.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Is, yeah, and how much he wants to meet you there.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
Absolutely in the parts of you that you feel so
ashamed that you tuck in a deep corner, he wants
to meet you there.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
You know, it is painful to pull those things out
to the light, but it is only by pulling them
out into the light that they can be resolved and
taken care of and forgiven and washed away. So it's
it's getting past that initial I don't want to say fear,
but that initial kind of reluctancy or whatever. People have
to just come clean. But it feels good to be clean.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
All right, Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
And before we wrap up, I just want to ask
you a couple of questions going to totally put you
on the spot. So our first one is it's either
you get to choose either a spiritual soundtrack or a
spiritual bookshelf. So spiritual soundtrack would be a song or
a piece of music that has you know, significance or
meeting in your life, maybe how it's related to your
faith journey. Or you could pick a spiritual bookshelf, so
(37:51):
you know, recommending a book or a scripture or some
sort of text.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
That's had a profound impact. So which do you want
to choose? Spiritual soundtrack or spiritual bookshelf?
Speaker 4 (38:00):
Okay, I'm going to do spiritual soundtrack, Okay, but I'm
going to throw one.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Book recoction a little double doozy over here.
Speaker 4 (38:06):
Yeah, can I do that please?
Speaker 2 (38:07):
There's no roof? Okay, okay, So what would your spiritual
soundtrack be?
Speaker 4 (38:11):
Okay, if anyone's listening to this or maybe not going
to think it's that spiritual. But my favorite band of
all time is The Cure. I remember right after my
wife and I got married, we saw them. That was
our second time, just like Heaven by the Cure, we
had that in our wedding. I remember our pastor thought
that was really strange that we walked out to a
cure song but a very secular band. But that song
(38:33):
always reminded me of my wife. It was always very
uplifting song. It's my favorite song ever written, and to
this day it just reminds me of that that kind
of transition from when her and I got saved and
then married, and it was in our wedding, and so
just like Heaven is just that's that's a song that
does something to me.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
I love it because you heard your almost it reminds
you of hearing it through spiritual eyes, even though it's
a secular song.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
I love it, Okay, And you said you also had
something from your spirit Mere Christianity.
Speaker 4 (39:02):
Okay, if someone if someone just has a lot of apologetics, yes,
and I think lewis yes, and he's a trophy. And
if someone just wants to read something deep and challenging mere.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Christianity, yeah, okay. I think it's good for the skeptic,
cynic non believer somebody.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
It's amazing for the skeptics, yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
Good pick all right, And then this one is a
little bit you know, deeper. So it's called failures redeemed.
So basically anything maybe when your faith was tested, or
when you found yourself in a situation that maybe felt
like a failure or a setback or a regression, but
now you look back at it and you see that
God redeemed it or used it for good.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
So failures redeemed.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
So I remember when we first started the church. We
were running real quickly, probably running seventy five eighty people
right off the bat. I was teaching through the Book
of Matthew and we had a young couple come up
and they offered to teach a small group at their
house going through the Old Testament. I said yes, because
we had no friends, and you know, we just wanted
people to help. And so they started doing a small
group at their house. Come to find out, not only
(40:03):
were they teaching a very complicated book of the Old
Testament Ezekiel, they were all getting together at this couple's
house and smoking weed. So there was like half of
our church, there's like thirty five people were going over
this and literally baking out in a garage and you know,
quote unquote studying the Bible. So I addressed this guy
and said, hey, you know, you got to stop. You know,
(40:25):
maybe I didn't make myself clear, you know, or whatever,
and he said, no, this is what we're going to do.
And I remember about two months into start in the church,
half the church left because I said, we're not going
to condone smoking weed. And I remember at that point,
you know, my wife and I were broke. We were
personally funding everything. I was working third shift as a janitor.
(40:47):
We gave up everything, and then half the church left
almost immediately. And at that point, I remember, like, God,
what are we doing? But you're talking about the redeeming part.
Right after that, that kind of split basically happen, I
think because I stuck to my guns and did what
I what I what I knew was right, even though
it was difficult. I remember the church essentially exploded after
(41:10):
that and just started to grow rapidly. And I think
that was kind of one of those like those those
like fork in the road where it's like, you know,
are you going to bend for people or you're gonna
you know, you're just gonna do the right thing. And
so we did the right thing.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Yeah, and so are you going to be liked or
are you going to take a stand for what you
believe in. I think that's a bridge that people cross every.
Speaker 4 (41:27):
Day, and I think churches crossed it every day. And unfortunately,
not to go down a rabbit hole, but I think,
you know, a lot of churches in the United States
are probably failing that test right now. But ended on
a negative note.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
I'm society. Sure, No, I think it was all positive. Yeah,
it was. It's all real. It's just real. We're keeping
it real, you know. So well, thank you so much
for being on here.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
Just so appreciate your transparent truth and your beautiful conviction.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Where can people find follow you? Check you out, google
stock you all the things?
Speaker 4 (41:54):
Google stock me. I mean, you just google my name.
I guess experience CC dot com is the church.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Of course.
Speaker 4 (42:00):
We have Facebook and Instagram and all those things. I
have a Facebook, but I'm really boring, so I'm not
a good social media person. Okay, but yeah, our churches
is pretty readily available online. We have four campuses and
four counties. So if you're in Cannon County, Coffee County,
Bedford County, or Rutherford, we have a church.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
It's amazing. Definitely come check it out. Awesome. Well, thank
you so much. For being here, and we will catch
you next time on What's God Got to Do With It?
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Bye.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
We'll be back with more What's God Got to Do
with It?
Speaker 3 (42:32):
But in the meantime, I would love to hear from you,
so tell me about where you are in your story
and what questions you have. You know, where do you
feel you need clarity or wisdom in your own journey.
I definitely want to hear from you, So head on
over to What's God Got to Do with It? Dot
com and scroll down to the forum to share your thoughts, questions,
or feedback instantly.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
That's What's God Got to Do with It? Dot com?
Speaker 5 (42:55):
And if you like this podcast and want to hear more,
follow like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts to
get your weekly dose.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
Of What's God Got to Do with It?
Speaker 3 (43:05):
New episodes drop every single Tuesday, and while you're there,
be sure to rate and review to show your support.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
It really means so much. What's God Got to Do
With It?
Speaker 5 (43:16):
Is an iHeartRadio podcast on the Amy Brown Podcast Network.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
It's written and hosted by me Leanne Ellington, Executive
Speaker 5 (43:23):
Produced by Elizabeth Fozzio, post production and editing by Houston
Tilley and original music written by Cheryl Stark and produced
by Adam Stark.
If you want to go on a journey. If you're skeptical,
don't worry. Now here to preach, gonn to keep it
clean and talk to me and recause where faith means
all nature, and get in touch with your creator with
a baking love and jun She even speaks Hebrew.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
What's that? What's that?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
As well? Send that passion? You should talking transformation? What's done?
Speaker 3 (00:42):
So?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well? Hello, there we are back with what's God got
to do with it?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
And I'm so honored to be sitting here with the
Corey Trembull, which if you have not met him, you
are about to.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
So. First of all, Hello, Hi, Hi, so glad to
have you here.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Welcome to my office.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yes, it's a great office. There's a dradel here. There's
a dreid yep nscadal ha yasham. That's what it stands for.
But that's another episode in itself.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
I've had that dreidl for probably ten years, and I
just now learned that.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yes, there you go, if you want to know how
to use it.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
I'll come back in November December wherever the lunar calendar strikes.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
And tells us when Hanukah is. That's great awesome. Well,
I'm I'm grateful to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
So for those of you who don't know who Corey is,
I moved to Nashville about seven years ago, and you've
heard from Kevin Queen.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
My first rabbi as I call him.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
In about two years ago, I moved to Murphisborough, where
I just feel so blessed and gifted that my fiance
was already attending the experienced church and had so much
to say about.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Corey that I had to come check it out for myself.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
So, needless to say, we came and attended services. But
there's also something called a next Class where Corey really
introduces people to the church, gives a tour.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Welcomes everybody, and shares his raw and real testimony.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
And when I heard that, I can't even tell you
how much closer to God it made me feel, but
also made me realize, like, Wow, this is not just
a pastor. He's a person, and I think sometimes we
forget that about our spiritual leaders and spiritual guides.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So we're going to dive into all of that.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
But first, if I could get you, Corey to just
kind of share a little but high level overview of
your journey what brought you to be who you are,
where you started, and then we'll dive in a little
bit further.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Originally from the Saint Louis area, my father is from
southern California and met my mother in Saint Louis. They
got married, had my sister, who's five years older than me.
We moved from Saint Louis to Dallas to Tennessee. My
father worked for American Airlines to did pretty well for himself,
and we grew up in a I don't know if
(02:45):
i'd call it a Christian home. We went to church somewhat.
My grandfather was a pastor, but we I wouldn't say
we were a church going Christian family. My parents, like
many people's parents, got divorced, and they got divorced when
I was about twelve, and it was after that that
there was a complete absence of any conversation of God
(03:06):
in my life whatsoever. And without being disparaging of anyone
in my family, we not only all physically went our
separate ways, my family quite literally dispersed. My mother went
to Saint Louis, my sister went to Indianapolis, and my
father and I stayed in the Nashville area. But we
all went down roads for the most part sin and
(03:30):
took a bad turn, and all of that kind of
manifested in different ways in all four of us. But
we were a very very broken family. And so because
I kind of lived in two different homes, I lived
partially in Saint Louis partially in Tennessee. As a kid,
as I got older, had no really rules in my life,
(03:51):
and because of that, I kind of fell into the
trappings of everything one would do as a fourteen year old.
I remember I got my motorcycle license at fourteen, which
is weird. I have a fourteen year old now, and
it just seems bizarre that you can do that. But
I remember my father would travel a lot for work.
It was just my dad and I in this big
house outside of Nashville, and you would leave me money.
(04:13):
I had transportation because my motorcycle license. And starting at
a very early age, I just started indulging and engaging
in a lot of drugs. Lost my virginity at fourteen,
started getting into two really really bad stuff and for
the sake of just length of time, you know, it
started off like he does with most people who get
(04:35):
addicted to drugs, started off with with low level stuff
like smoking weed and we would huff, you know, different
inhalance to wear eventually cocaine, crack speed and doing some
time in a twelve twelve step program and things like that.
Struggled really bad with depression, anxiety. Those are still things
that if if I gravitate away from God or good counsel,
(04:57):
those things can still nip at my heels. But had
a couple of suicide attempts and just a really broken life.
And it wasn't until I was actually in my early twenties.
I was twenty two after a lot of pretty traumatic
things happened that I literally stumbled into a church on
a Wednesday morning, half drunk that eventually gave my life
(05:18):
to Christ. It was about six months after that my
now wife did the same thing. She wasn't drunk, but
came to a church with me and got saved in
that same church. So the first twenty two years of
my life just a lot of brokenness, a lot of anger,
a lot of depression, a lot of I have a
very addictive personality even today, and it was just channeled
in a very destructive way. So that's I guess a
(05:40):
very thirty thousand foot view of the first twenty two
years of my life.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Yeah, yeah, So do you remember where you were emotionally? Like,
did you feel all alone in this world? Was God
something that you thought about but kind of dismissed.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
That's a good question. You and I were talking before
we started recording. I had this sense of God is
I didn't really know what God wants. I thought God
was kind of a universal force, you know that if
we were just nice to people and you know, didn't
murder anyone, that we were okay. And I wasn't even
sure what okay meant. But yeah, I had a very
(06:14):
very agnostic, kind of spiritual, maybe kind of a hippie
perspective when it came to God after life you asked it.
I feel alone to this day. I only have a
relationship really with my mom.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, she lives in.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Saint Louis, still outside of Saint Louis a little bit,
but and she's a good woman. I have a good
relationship with her. My father hasn't talked to me in
a long time. My sister we talk occasionally, but not
as much as we should, and our relationship is not
very good. I haven't seen her physically, and I don't know,
six seven years. And so that was my whole, my
whole upbringing until I was in college, and really until
(06:53):
I met my wife. I met my wife when we
were juniors in high school. And a very weird part
of my story that I tell people is because I
didn't really know who God was. When I met Alicia
and my wife, she became.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
God and I in a codependent kind of way, oh
very much so.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
And I genuinely loved her and cared for her. But
she was such a example of what I wanted to be,
even though she wasn't a believer either, she didn't believe
in God, but her family, her parents were still married,
you know, she had two younger siblings. She was a
straight A student. You know, she's gorgeous like that became
an idol in my life. So I felt alone until
(07:31):
I met her. But even her being as great as
she is, that ended up not being enough either.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
So kind of you know, zooming out of teenage young
adult Corey and speaking as you are today, when you
said I didn't know who I was in God's eyes,
I didn't know who I was. You weren't rooted and
so you were looking for it in other things, other substances,
and eventually in your wife. What would you say about
that now, Like, what didn't you know that you were
(07:59):
looking for? Like what do you what was the hole
that you were trying to film?
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Well, I mean we talk a lot in society nowadays.
Its a bad identity and it's a word that's been
thrown out so much that it's kind of lost any
sense of definition. And I think that really is the lynchpin.
I think until we become Christians, we have everyone right
now in society is striving for that word identity. We're
all trying to find our identity. And that's not a
(08:23):
bad pursuit. The problem is is that we pursue, we
pursue the wrong things to find it. Initially the identity,
My identity was in sects, it was in drugs, it
was in it sounds so cliche. I played music for
a living. It was sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
That was my identity. I was the life of the party.
And that thing you meet, this beautiful, wonderful, wonderful girl,
(08:45):
that became the identity. But that still was not fulfilling,
not because there was anything wrong with her. It was
again trying to put a square peg in a round hole.
I still didn't understand my value and my worth because
I didn't know who God was. And it's not until
one discovers Christ that we understand our value. That the
God of the universe would give his only son to
(09:07):
die for us, that speaks to our value. And we
don't live in our true identity because we don't know
who our true creator is until we know who Christ is.
And it's only until you find that that you learn
to truly have peace and walk in some kind of
real confidence. And I don't mean confidence in myself, but
confidence and who I am in God.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
So when did you first kind of discover there was
this gaping hole in who you were? You said, you
kind of accidentally stumbled into a church drunk when you
were what twenty two?
Speaker 4 (09:36):
I was twenty two, about to be twenty three.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
So what was that little whisper that made you? You know,
what do you think got you there?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
So when did you first kind of discover there was
this gaping hole in who you were? You said, you
kind of accidentally stumbled into a church drunk when you
were what twenty two?
Speaker 4 (10:01):
I was twenty two, about to be twenty three.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
So what was that little whisper that made you? You know?
What do you think got you there?
Speaker 4 (10:08):
It was more of a shout. So my wife and
I had been dating for five years, neither one of
us believers I had gone and really acted like a fool.
She had just graduated college. I was very far from
graduating college. And I went on kind of a bender
with some guys and acted like a fool and did
some foolish things, and so much so that I lost her.
(10:33):
I had lost my job, I had lost my ability
to play music. And then the final kind of tipping
point was she left, and she had every reason to leave.
I treated her like garbage. And it was ironic that
I treated her like garbage, because she was really the
only stability in my life. And she left, and my
(10:53):
third suicide attempt came right after she left in two
thousand and two. And when I say, I stumbled into
a church drunk on a Wednesday on Monday, the first
week of August two thousand and two, what little money
I had to my name, I went and bought case
of vodka, and I decided I was going to drink
myself to death in the front room of my little
(11:14):
house and So I did that for two and a
half days, and on the third day, which was a Wednesday.
At the time, I didn't know it was God, but
it was God, I can see now. I drove to
a little church I knew the pastor and stumbled into
his office and laid on his floor and cried my
eyes out and felt the Holy Spirit. I didn't really
(11:35):
understand exactly what that was, but it felt like someone
hit me with a taser. And I remember kind of
being shocked into my senses and my pastor sitting me
down and going backwards and starting at the gospel and
just telling me who Jesus was, and for the first
time realizing, oh, this is the answer.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Was it that immediate, Like did you realize it in
that moment? Did it take some time?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Did you have to do your toes in or was
it not just like it.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Was a revelation. Yeah, it was pretty immediate. And of
course I say pretty immediate because I felt something. If
I can just be really open on your podcast, I
laid on a floor and I spoke in tongues. You know,
the Bible says that's a gift for the non believer,
and we can interpret that in several different ways, but
this kind of physical thing had happened to me, and
(12:23):
so I had to come to this conclusion in my mind.
So I've either lost my mind or God has just
miraculously done something to me, and so I had to
I left that place going, I don't think I'm crazy,
So there has to be this benevolent, loving God that
sees me even in this mess that I'm in and
(12:43):
wants to save me. And so, yeah, it clicked. It
was like turning on an engine. Now, there was still
years of refinement that had to come after that. You know,
we're justified and then sanctified, that sanctification that growing. I
feel like I'm still doing that, but I feel like
we should always be doing that, you know. I mean,
(13:05):
like I still smoked, you know, two packs of cigarettes
a day for the next six months after I got saved,
you know, and like I was still addicted to that.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
You know.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
There are so many things that I just out of ignorance.
But God is so good. I think it's being on
that road. I was telling someone the other day. They
asked me when I got saved, and I said, well,
you know, I guess I got saved that day. But
I've never viewed Salvation as a gas station. I kind
of use Salvation as a highway. You stop at gas stations.
You don't stop on highways, you keep going. And I felt,
(13:36):
I feel like God's always saving me still. Yeah, I
don't know if that sounds weird.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah, absolutely at all.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
I feel like I'm still getting bailed out all the
time by the love of Christ.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Well, I think we need leaders who think like that.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
You know, if somebody, anytime, somebody you know, comes from
a lack of a better way of saying it a
high mountain where they know it all like, that's not
who I want, you know, mentoring me, or I think.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
There's danger in saying that we've arrived.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Absolutely, yeah, that scares.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Me a little bit. So, yeah, that's that's kind of
how it started. And I remember calling my now wife.
I'd call her all the time, and she hated me,
and rightfully so, and I joke around she would hate
this if she heard this, but you know, she'd cuss
me out on the phone or hang up on me.
And but for six months I prayed for and I
kept inviting her to church and eventually got her there,
(14:21):
and she had virtually the same experience I did. My
wife's a very logical, intelligent woman, and she had a
very similar experience that I did. For her, it was well,
you know, me, either crazy or God did this, and
she instantly jumped in wow.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I mean we were just talking about this before we
started recording.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
You know.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
I was also too logical and smart for God, you know,
And I think I really think he likes to come
after us.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Logic and reason think are the most you know.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
But coming back to this idea of a refinement process,
I love putting it through that lens because I think
it gives us permission to always be in process and
always refining and redefining and aligning towards who we want
to be, and looking at it as this lifelong mastery
co rather than oh I need to get somewhere and
arrive somewhere right now kind of conversation.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
So what did cause?
Speaker 3 (15:06):
I'm trying to think of the you know, in my
perspective or people that might be listening of Okay, I'm
in the same shoes where maybe I'm really turning over
a new leaf and my heart.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Is opening up to this possibility.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
That I'm not crazy and I want to I want
to have a relationship with God, and I want to
renew my mind and become this new version of myself.
But my past feels so heavy. My environment is trapping me.
So there was a refinement process that obviously happened for you.
Who you were hanging out with, how you were spending
your time, what you were feeding your mind, your heart,
your brain, your soul. So can you share a little
(15:40):
bit about what life looked like after you got saved,
and how the refinement process looked then, and what maybe
it looks like now.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
You know. I've used the analogy when I preach sometimes
if we're moving towards God, we are naturally moving away
from evil. I mean, that's very simple. If I'm walking
towards one wall, I'm obviously walking away from another. So
I think you really hit the nail on the head
that I don't think God expects for us to have
it figured out immediately. But if we were really walking
(16:09):
in a relationship with Jesus, I think there will be
the conviction of the Holy Spirit in our heart, and
there will also be the blatant instruction of the Word,
and we should be ingesting the Word that what we
feed our minds does start to change. Where we put
ourselves physically starts to change, and sometimes who we hang
(16:30):
out with starts to change. Now, I believe when we
reach a stage of maturity with Christ, we should have
non believing friends. I mean, who else are we're going
to witness to and pour into. But there were some
relationships I had to at a distance myself from. I
remember right after I got saved, I went and worked
for a buddy of mine that owned a coffee shop
here in town. And it's kind of a funny story now,
(16:52):
but it was kind of the hub of people on
the fringe. This coffee shop is called the Red Rose.
You know, it's where the gay community hung out. It's
where all the punk, rock and metal kids hung out.
That's you know, that's what I was. It's they did suspensions,
which is you know, they'd hang people by meat hooks
in the back of this It was a bizarre place.
You could get a cup of coffee by a record
(17:12):
and have a guy hanging by meat hooks in the back.
Very fascinating. But that's where I worked as a as
a new believer. Again, that that that kind of post
salvation experience. I think there is going back to that
road analogy. You're not going to reach the the the
end of that road, I believe, until you know Christ
comes back or we drop dead. But I think the
(17:35):
question is less how far along on the road am I?
And just am I moving on this road? Am I
constantly being refined and constantly being sharpened by the Holy Spirit?
And and so I think everyone's road looks a little
bit different mine. You know, within about six months. I
finally quit smoking cigarettes in two thousand and three at
the turn of the year. And you know, I still
(17:57):
had a foul mouth on me sometimes, but over over
the years, God cleans up the tongue, He cleans up
how we speak. You start feeling convicted about certain music
or certain movies, and you just this, it's this gravitation
again towards Christ and away from things that are anti Christ.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
What do you think it was that flipped for you
that made you?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
You know, obviously you had this special time with God
and you were refining your relationship. And then now you
are a leader and you are a pastor and you
have really you know, you started this church from nothing,
which I'd love for you to share that story too,
because it's super cool. But what was that turning point
that made you realize I want to pour into others.
I want to help people see what their own spiritual
(18:37):
eyes and lead people to God.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
I think the desire to want to do that was
almost immediate, and we make jokes about it now, my
wife and I and other people who knew me back then,
so I was I was still smoking like a train.
I was working at this coffee shop. I wasn't allowed
to talk about Jesus while I was working. I mean,
you know, because it was a secular coffee shop. So
I remember I would go on my smoke break back
(19:00):
in the remember the days you could actually smoke inside
of places. Yeah, So I'd sit in the middle of
the coffee shop on my smoke break, I'd light up
a cigarette. I'd open up this big King James version
Bible because that's what they used in the church. I
got saved, and I would just let these people who
used to come to my shows when I played music,
and people who knew me for my crazy days. It
was like this magnet and they would walk up and say, Corey,
(19:21):
why do you have a Bible? And so it was
almost day one that I had this desire to share
what I just experienced with the people that were around me.
Of course, with Alicia, I shared it with the friends
around me. I shared it with and I think that
that hunger was there immediately, the actual call to, I guess,
be a leader. I remember being in a car with
(19:44):
my wife. She started coming to church with me, and
we were there for a couple of years. And I
was teaching English at Smyrna High School. And I remember
being in my in my car and not an audible voice,
but clear as crystal, God said, you know you're supposed
to You're supposed to do this for a living.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Because you were teaching I was, but you were just
teaching other subject matter English.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Yeah, I was teaching English, and and I didn't even
know what it meant to work for a church. I
didn't really understand what that meant or what that looked like.
But I remember saying that to my wife and Alicia going.
I already knew that she had kind of seen it.
It's typical with the women and men. Women I think
see it a lot quicker all things than men. But
she saw it before I did. And then I went
(20:29):
to my pastor and I just expressed that I feel
like God is calling me to be an official minister.
But I remember expressing that to my pastor and that
didn't come to Fruition for like two years. And that
time of waiting was extremely difficulty.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
You know, what was it that like pushed you over
the edge?
Speaker 3 (20:48):
What was that the thing that really got the wheels turning?
And then I know that this congregation started out, you know,
very small in a coffee shop, right, and then now
you have you know what five thousand members, which is I.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Know they range we've got there's about eight thousand that
come on the weekends. That's between four campuses, you know.
But I went to go work for this, this church
that my wife and I got saved in. It was
a smaller church, you know, three p fifty something like that,
and I went there. I was discipled well by my
former pastor. This was the thing that kind of pushed
(21:21):
me to do what we're doing today, is I worked
in a church and this is nothing against them, but
it wasn't the kind of environment where I could invite
the kind of people that I used to be. Yeah,
and that really saddened me because my heart and my
heart is still for this, My heart is for the
you know, the punk rock kid that's an atheist. My
(21:42):
heart is for the you know, the queer and the
transgender that I may not agree with their lifestyle, but
they're looking for the same thing that I was looking for.
They just haven't found it yet. But I wasn't in
an environment to where those people could come explore safely.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Because it was judged, they were shamed, they weren't welcome
to be exploring. They were you know, a lot of people,
whether it's a lifestyle thing or for other reasons, and
feel that kind of that resistance to show up in
an environment where they don't feel welcome.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
And so you know, the church typically, not this church
I'm talking about. The church in America has gone to
two extremes. We've either not even let the door be open,
or we have accepted things that are sinful in these
two extremes. And I wanted to start a church by
God's provision that was not turning a blind eye to sin,
(22:38):
but the door was open and the environment was safe
for anyone who wanted to explore the question of what
is truth? And I wasn't in an environment where that
could happen. And so my wife and I prayed about
it a lot. We sacrificed a really kind of cush
church position and kind of at all on the line.
(23:02):
But I was never afraid of that. And I don't
mean that arrogantly. I just mean if if one is
confident that God is said to do something, there's no
fear in doing that because it'll be successful. And that's
what we did two thousand and nine. It was me
and my wife and one other guy that started the church.
And we didn't even ask the other guy. I just
couldn't get rid of him.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
So amazing.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
So for anybody like for that, the people that you
have the heart for, you know, and not that you
don't have the heart for everyone, but like that atheist
that doesn't know how love they truly are, or somebody
who their lifestyle choices might keep them from even asking
for support and help or feeling alone in this world?
What's the big message that you want them all to have.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
It goes back to that identity thing. Is it is
the mantra in the idol of Western thought of the
Western world right now is identity that is that is
the magical word. And I believe we have an identity,
but people are pursuing it down down every avenue. I
(24:01):
always say, we are trying to find our identity and
virtually everything except for the one thing that we are
made in the image of. And until we discover our
identity in God, we will always have high depression. We
will always have high anxiety, we will always have high
suicide rates, we will always have domestic violence, we will
always have high numbers of these these kind of ramifications
(24:23):
of brokenness because we're searching for something on the wrong road.
And so I have tremendous amount of love and grace
and empathy for people who are on a journey. I
just I hope that in some way, you know, God
can use me to take some of them and put
them on the right direction in that journey. And I
(24:46):
don't know if that was too philosophical, No.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
It's perfect because one of the things that stuck out
to me when we first started talking is you mentioned like, hey,
I even have the propensity nowadays to go down the
roads of feeling sad or depressed if I'm too far
away from God.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
And I think, you know, people get this.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Idea that if they're feeling all of the feels, or
they're they're human ing, that they're air quotes doing it wrong.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Or that they're you know, being a bad Christian or whatever.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
And I love that you're showing this picture of like, No,
that's when God wants us to come to him.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
So can you just speak to that a little bit.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
I want to speak to the word human Ingerson.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Oh, yeah, we make up words all the time, or
at least I I can.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Say, I like that word. I think it's the first
time I've ever heard of that.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yeah, feel free to steal it, borrow it. There's no,
there's no here's that this weekend?
Speaker 4 (25:26):
No, I think it's it's it is understanding are our
true humanity. I think it is understanding that true humanity
is insufficient without a creator. I think it is understanding
that we must be utterly dependent on something greater than us.
Of course, we believe that you and I to be
to be God, to be Christ. I think it is
(25:47):
living in that humanity that that causes us to gravitate
towards Christ. It's when we think we're superhuman, or or
when we have an unrealistic view of our cells. Which
is a problem with the Western world America is we
have this kind of hyperinflated view of self and multiple
(26:09):
times in the Bible, we get this narrative of it
needs to be John said, less of us, more of him.
When you know Christ said, if you want to find
your life, you have to choose to lose your life.
It is in this understanding that we are finite broken
dependent that we find salvation, we find hope, we find
we find God. So until we can be honest with
(26:31):
ourselves and say that without God, we're totally screwed. Until
we recognize that we're lost, there's no way to be found.
So I see no other way but to be honest
about my humanity.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Yeah, I think people think that they're they're doing it wrong,
or they're weak, or that, you know, feeling broken is
the ultimate rock bottom. But it's like, no, that's where
you start. That's where you can say, Hey, I can't
do this on my own. I don't want to do
it on my own. I need a savior.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
We don't walk in the brokenness forever. We don't walk
in the anxiety forever or the depression forever. We don't
hang out in that. But I have to understand my struggles.
I have to understand where the chinks in my armor are,
and so I have to understand that if I am
distant from God, I know the things that will get me. Yeah,
I have an addictive personality that'll get me if I'm
(27:21):
not close to God. I can gravitate towards depression that
will get me if I'm not close to God, and
I don't have to live in depression, but I understand
my only escape from being dominated from that is I
have to walk closely with the Lord.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
And even things like feeling broken, feeling depressed, if that
becomes our identity, that's also a trap, you know, because
it makes us feel like we end of sentence period,
this is who we are, where we are.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
And I think so many people fail to have that
relationship with Jesus because subconsciously they refuse to give up
the identity of depression, anxiety, shame, guilt, whatever, Because I think,
to some people, subconsciously, some identity is better than no idea.
Some level of control, even if it's a depression, is
(28:08):
still better than having to submit or relent my control
to God.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Absolutely, because what we know, it feels safe, even if
it's so uncomfortable and so unsafe, it's what we know,
and we gravitate towards it. How do you get close
to God? When you said, like, when you're too far
away from God? Like, this is where this stuff comes
(28:33):
up for you. So what's your process like? And obviously
it's so individualized, but how do you get close to God?
How do you go home to Him when you feel
like you're far away? What's that look like for you?
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Whenever we do premarital counseling or wherever I do premarital
counseling with someone, the word communication comes up all the time.
There's no way to have a healthy relationship without talking.
I think it simply is making conversation with God a
priority daily. When when the New Testament says that we're
to pray without ceasing, I don't think that means that
we're constantly in prayer. But I mean I think that
(29:06):
it means that our mind is constantly, that the conversation
of God, or that the thought of God is always
somewhere in the mix and everything we do every day.
And so I think for me, the way to not
let stress or anxiety or fear, you know, running a
big organization and having you know, one hundred and forty
(29:27):
employees and all that fear can easily creep in I
think to keep those things at bay. Quite frankly, I
have to pray every day, and I'm not just saying,
you know, for five minutes in my car that there
needs to be a set aside, calculative, intentional time of
prayer that has to be there. I think everyone needs that.
I think we need to casually talk to God, and
(29:48):
I think we need to formally talk to God. I
say it all the time, but I think people need
to be in the Word. The Word holds wisdom, it
holds knowledge, it holds promises. And then I think the
other important thing is if you don't have good people
around you, making sure you know, I mean, the Bible
says we're not meant to do this alone. It's not
good that man be alone. If we do not have good,
positive people in our life, it's we're just not engineered
(30:11):
to walk alone. So you have to have some people
in your life who will call your bull crap out.
And I have people that know me so well Kyle
that works here on staff, Josh. They know if I'm
slipping into depression or anxiety, and they'll come in my
door and say, hey, man, like, what do we need
to do snap out of it. Let's go for a drive,
let's go do something, let's pray together, let's talk. I mean,
(30:34):
I know that sounds oversimplified, but talking to God, knowing
the promises and the truth of God through the Word,
and having decent people in your life.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yeah, I think oversimplifying is so much better than complexifying something,
you know, because it gets so big and massive in
our heads and we think there's so many steps that
we have to do to create a faith life, and
it can be the simplest thing, you know, as setting aside,
just really this sacred time to be however you pray,
whether that's you know, reading the word, whether it's you know, writing,
(31:02):
whether it's worship, whether it's while while you're walking, you know,
meet yourself where you are. It doesn't have to look
how somebody else's prayer life.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
Like are you're a writer, you write.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
I'm a bit of both. I'm a writer.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
I you know, a lot of my praying happens while
I'm moving with worship music in the background. So but
I do write, for sure.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
I never was into that until I guess I wrote
my first book and it was a result of journals, yep,
and I just felt the need that sounds so silly.
I felt the need. Maybe it doesn't. I felt the
need to document everything hard in my life, my prayers.
And then later on I went back and you see
that God would touch all those spots.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
And it was almost like in the Old Testament when
they would build monuments and I would go back at
my journals and I'm like, my Lord, you answered all
those things.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Absolutely, Yeah, a gift from God. For sure.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Was the like that year that I was kind of skeptically,
cynically looking for Jesus, and really the year after I
got saved, I was journaling every day and asking God
things like God, show me who I am, or please
take this shame for me, or give me a new belief.
I was doing a lot of overhauling of my beliefs.
But kind of you know, full circle of you shared
where you came from your personal journey, your your journey
(32:13):
into you know, being a leader in the spiritual world.
So talk to us a little bit about obviously there
was there was a rapper or a reframe that you
put around your story and now you use it for good.
And now there's obviously not this you know, shame blanket
around you where a lot of people that may have
experienced things similar.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
They're carrying around so much toxic shame.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
So if you could, you know, just invite people into
a reframe about their own story.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
And it's interesting. So I was telling someone, it's odd
that we're doing this podcast this week. We did our
next class Monday. Yesterday I was at a nonprofit in
Tullahoma where I told my story, and then we're doing
this today. I think over time I told these ladies.
I was at an addiction recovery place for women yesterday.
It was a really really great place called bloom On
(33:00):
Our amazing place, and I was telling these women that
there comes a time in God's grace and wisdom to
where we have these wounds, and I think God heals them.
But there's a scar, and there's a scar for a reason.
I think it is it doesn't hurt to touch a scar,
but we see the scar, we know it's there. The
(33:20):
things in my past, I do not feel the hurt
of them anymore. I think God has delivered me of
that pain. But I know that they're there, and I
don't ever want to forget that they're there. I don't
want to forget how awful it was to live a
life apart from God. I don't want to forget that.
And I tell my testimony at least once a month
(33:41):
to you know, we usually have about one hundred and
seventy five two hundred people at next class every month,
and I tell things that are very uncomfortable about how
I ruined my relationship with my wife for a while
and some of the evil things I've done. And I
still get choked up when I say those things. It
still bothers me to hear that I hurt people and
(34:01):
did things like that. But again, I think God still
keeps some of that intact for a purpose, because it
helps me not go back to Egypt.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
You never forget your pain so that you can meet
other people in their own pain when they're there, because
if you're desensitized to it, how are you to be
able to empathize and have compassion and feel what they're
feeling if you're so disconnected from it.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
But it's no longer. It no longer owns you.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
You said that so perfectly, and I was going to
say it, but not as well as you just said it.
It does not dominate your mind or your thoughts, and
it is a very conscious thing that I think now
that when the Bible says you're a new creation, you
don't fully appreciate that till you're you know what am
I now man twenty years removed from that. I'm forty
(34:47):
four now. I was twenty about to be twenty three
when I got saved. And I still remember it. I
still remember that it sucked going, you know that life
before Christ. I still remember that. But you truly appreciate
that that was not me, that was someone else.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Yeah, absolutely, And you see that distance now like that
was who you are, you know. And you didn't throw
away the baby with the bathwater like that. You know,
you took the good parts of you, But you are
a whole new creation. Your identity has been renewed, restored, redefined,
and it's still being refined.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
As we talked about, and one of my favorite non
biblical quotes is where you are is not who.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
You are, you know, And where you were was not
who you are, you know, And you were just doing
the best you could with what you got and with
what you had. And selfishly, one of the reasons I
wanted to bring you on this podcast is because I
truly believe that as we step into our own stories
and we relinquish our own shame. We can invite others
to relinquish theirs and see that it's just part of
It's just the data of what happened, and it doesn't
(35:44):
have to have any other meaning or story or shame
associated with it. That's but oftentimes we need people to
go before us and share there. They're dirty, they're ugly,
but to see that it's not so ugly, it's not
so dirty.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
It just was what we chose and if we could
do it over again, you know. And I'm one of
those people.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
It's it's not like I regret things, but like, would
I make those decisions as the woman I am today? No,
But I don't regret even my deepest, darkest stuff because
it forced me to become who I am today. That's right,
and honestly, I believe led me to God.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
You know.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
So if anybody listening thinks that they are too far
gone or too broken or too messed up, I really
hope that that Corey story shows you there is so
much good and redemption and beauty that can come from
what feels like madness at the time.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
I appreciate that it's Uh. You know, I have a guy,
Savut who's on staff, who came from a Buddhist family,
And we have a young lady, Carly, that works up
at the front. I won't tell her whole story, but
there are stories in this building right now that make
mine look, you know, light. And so whenever whenever someone
says I feel like I've done too much, it's it's
(36:48):
it's almost become a laughable statement, and not in a
condescending or mean way. It's you have no idea how
deep the grace and love of God.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Is, yeah, and how much he wants to meet you there.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
Absolutely in the parts of you that you feel so
ashamed that you tuck in a deep corner, he wants
to meet you there.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
You know, it is painful to pull those things out
to the light, but it is only by pulling them
out into the light that they can be resolved and
taken care of and forgiven and washed away. So it's
it's getting past that initial I don't want to say fear,
but that initial kind of reluctancy or whatever. People have
to just come clean. But it feels good to be clean.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
All right, Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
And before we wrap up, I just want to ask
you a couple of questions going to totally put you
on the spot. So our first one is it's either
you get to choose either a spiritual soundtrack or a
spiritual bookshelf. So spiritual soundtrack would be a song or
a piece of music that has you know, significance or
meeting in your life, maybe how it's related to your
faith journey. Or you could pick a spiritual bookshelf, so
(37:51):
you know, recommending a book or a scripture or some
sort of text.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
That's had a profound impact. So which do you want
to choose? Spiritual soundtrack or spiritual bookshelf?
Speaker 4 (38:00):
Okay, I'm going to do spiritual soundtrack, Okay, but I'm
going to throw one.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Book recoction a little double doozy over here.
Speaker 4 (38:06):
Yeah, can I do that please?
Speaker 2 (38:07):
There's no roof? Okay, okay, So what would your spiritual
soundtrack be?
Speaker 4 (38:11):
Okay, if anyone's listening to this or maybe not going
to think it's that spiritual. But my favorite band of
all time is The Cure. I remember right after my
wife and I got married, we saw them. That was
our second time, just like Heaven by the Cure, we
had that in our wedding. I remember our pastor thought
that was really strange that we walked out to a
cure song but a very secular band. But that song
(38:33):
always reminded me of my wife. It was always very
uplifting song. It's my favorite song ever written, and to
this day it just reminds me of that that kind
of transition from when her and I got saved and
then married, and it was in our wedding, and so
just like Heaven is just that's that's a song that
does something to me.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
I love it because you heard your almost it reminds
you of hearing it through spiritual eyes, even though it's
a secular song.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
I love it, Okay, And you said you also had
something from your spirit Mere Christianity.
Speaker 4 (39:02):
Okay, if someone if someone just has a lot of apologetics, yes,
and I think lewis yes, and he's a trophy. And
if someone just wants to read something deep and challenging mere.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Christianity, yeah, okay. I think it's good for the skeptic,
cynic non believer somebody.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
It's amazing for the skeptics, yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
Good pick all right, And then this one is a
little bit you know, deeper. So it's called failures redeemed.
So basically anything maybe when your faith was tested, or
when you found yourself in a situation that maybe felt
like a failure or a setback or a regression, but
now you look back at it and you see that
God redeemed it or used it for good.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
So failures redeemed.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
So I remember when we first started the church. We
were running real quickly, probably running seventy five eighty people
right off the bat. I was teaching through the Book
of Matthew and we had a young couple come up
and they offered to teach a small group at their
house going through the Old Testament. I said yes, because
we had no friends, and you know, we just wanted
people to help. And so they started doing a small
group at their house. Come to find out, not only
(40:03):
were they teaching a very complicated book of the Old
Testament Ezekiel, they were all getting together at this couple's
house and smoking weed. So there was like half of
our church, there's like thirty five people were going over
this and literally baking out in a garage and you know,
quote unquote studying the Bible. So I addressed this guy
and said, hey, you know, you got to stop. You know,
(40:25):
maybe I didn't make myself clear, you know, or whatever,
and he said, no, this is what we're going to do.
And I remember about two months into start in the church,
half the church left because I said, we're not going
to condone smoking weed. And I remember at that point,
you know, my wife and I were broke. We were
personally funding everything. I was working third shift as a janitor.
(40:47):
We gave up everything, and then half the church left
almost immediately. And at that point, I remember, like, God,
what are we doing? But you're talking about the redeeming part.
Right after that, that kind of split basically happen, I
think because I stuck to my guns and did what
I what I what I knew was right, even though
it was difficult. I remember the church essentially exploded after
(41:10):
that and just started to grow rapidly. And I think
that was kind of one of those like those those
like fork in the road where it's like, you know,
are you going to bend for people or you're gonna
you know, you're just gonna do the right thing. And
so we did the right thing.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Yeah, and so are you going to be liked or
are you going to take a stand for what you
believe in. I think that's a bridge that people cross every.
Speaker 4 (41:27):
Day, and I think churches crossed it every day. And unfortunately,
not to go down a rabbit hole, but I think,
you know, a lot of churches in the United States
are probably failing that test right now. But ended on
a negative note.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
I'm society. Sure, No, I think it was all positive. Yeah,
it was. It's all real. It's just real. We're keeping
it real, you know. So well, thank you so much
for being on here.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
Just so appreciate your transparent truth and your beautiful conviction.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Where can people find follow you? Check you out, google
stock you all the things?
Speaker 4 (41:54):
Google stock me. I mean, you just google my name.
I guess experience CC dot com is the church.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Of course.
Speaker 4 (42:00):
We have Facebook and Instagram and all those things. I
have a Facebook, but I'm really boring, so I'm not
a good social media person. Okay, but yeah, our churches
is pretty readily available online. We have four campuses and
four counties. So if you're in Cannon County, Coffee County,
Bedford County, or Rutherford, we have a church.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
It's amazing. Definitely come check it out. Awesome. Well, thank
you so much. For being here, and we will catch
you next time on What's God Got to Do With It?
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Bye.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
We'll be back with more What's God Got to Do
with It?
Speaker 3 (42:32):
But in the meantime, I would love to hear from you,
so tell me about where you are in your story
and what questions you have. You know, where do you
feel you need clarity or wisdom in your own journey.
I definitely want to hear from you, So head on
over to What's God Got to Do with It? Dot
com and scroll down to the forum to share your thoughts, questions,
or feedback instantly.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
That's What's God Got to Do with It? Dot com?
Speaker 5 (42:55):
And if you like this podcast and want to hear more,
follow like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts to
get your weekly dose.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
Of What's God Got to Do with It?
Speaker 3 (43:05):
New episodes drop every single Tuesday, and while you're there,
be sure to rate and review to show your support.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
It really means so much. What's God Got to Do
With It?
Speaker 5 (43:16):
Is an iHeartRadio podcast on the Amy Brown Podcast Network.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
It's written and hosted by me Leanne Ellington, Executive
Speaker 5 (43:23):
Produced by Elizabeth Fozzio, post production and editing by Houston
Tilley and original music written by Cheryl Stark and produced
by Adam Stark.
Host
Leanne Ellington
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